Another encounter and a surprising new girl.

Kazuichi gulped, taking note of his physical condition for the first time in a while. His throat was dry, his stinging palms were sweaty, and, in spite of his panic, the raging boner he’d given himself a moment ago was still going. “There’s no way this is a healthy way to be. Somethin’s gone waaay off the rails with Chiaki’s therapy program! I need to find her and tell her I’m done with this. I figured she’d just show up when I called, but that clearly ain’t how this works… So, I gotta find her, somehow. But this place is freaking gigantic! How can I find her without bumpin’ into someone else this program will make me mess with?!”

He looked up at the floors he could see accessed by the grand stair in the lobby, hoping he’d see a flashing neon sign with Chiaki’s name on it, or something that like “administration” where he could reasonably hope a computer program would put user access to its control systems. There wasn’t anything like the latter, but there was surprisingly something like the former. In floors and floors of amenities, too many for him to count and way too wide in use for a real-life therapy resort, there was, indeed, a flashing neon sign advertising an arcade. He counted floors, a task that required some concentration to do from his current angle. “Sixth floor. I’ve got no other idea… Might as well give it a shot.”

Kazuichi felt like he’d go crazy if he had to stand still or if he bumped into anyone else. Considering the lack of any other footsteps echoing from the staircase, climbing six flights of stairs made more sense to him than waiting for an elevator. He began jogging up, cursing that the activity was wearing him out in spite of being in a virtual reality.

To his panicked mind, every specialty facility he passed on his way up seemed to be threatening him with a good time. There was a photography studio… a gym… a dance studio… a karaoke bar… He felt like the program was mocking him, like any door might open at any second to reveal one of his friends he’d be **** into a new situation with.

Unexpectedly, it wasn’t until the fifth floor that he actually reached the encounter he’d been fearing. Mikan, who’d disappeared with Hajime earlier, must have chosen to take the elevator to get him to the nurse’s office on this floor (a bizarre location for a nurse’s office, to be sure).

Kazuichi was slow to realize that, though; to him, it seemed like they had materialized in front of him just to obstruct him. “What the hell are you guys doing here?!”

“Wh-wh-what are we doing?” Mikan clearly thought she was being accused of something, shifting herself to hide behind Hajime. “I-I-I’m just helping out like a good nurse. I’m helping Hajime-“ she paused mid-sentence, as if suddenly bitten by a bug. She picked up her train of thought after only a moment of hesitation, smiling a new smile and running her hand down Hajime’s chest from behind. “I’m helping Hajime to the nurse’s office, where I’m going to give him a standard medical procedure.” She put meaningful punctuation on each word, now hugging around Hajime more tightly. “Kazuichi, you don’t look so good yourself… Maybe I should go ahead and administer treatment for both of you right here?”

Kazuichi felt like his jaw was wired shut, preventing him from responding. He backed up against the railing of the stair behind him, shaking like he was being menaced with **** instead of being unsubtly offered another blowjob.

In light of the other man’s terrified reaction, it was up to Hajime to protest. From the logic puzzle Hajime and the others had gotten into earlier, he seemed to have some idea of what Mikan might mean by saying “standard medical procedure” in that voice. “Mikan… We were talking about pills for headaches a second ago, right? That’s all I want.”

“Oh, really?” Mikan cooed, still rubbing her hands across the young man’s shirt and playing with his tie. “It looked like Hiyoko did a number on you, poor Hajime… I think I really need to take a quick look down here- oops!” Mahiru made a show of falling over with her hands hooked in the side of Hajime’s pants, taking them down with her. “I’m always clumsy like that, huh, Kazuichi? Hehee!”

Kazuichi almost ignored the scene reflexively, before remembering that was what the trigger condition wanted him to do. If he wanted to avoid Mikan escalating the scene more and more, he needed to witness it immediately. So, even though he wanted to spare both Mikan and Hajime some embarrassment, he took a look at the pile they had become.

As expected, Mikan had somehow leveraged a forward fall into an ass-up chest-down prone position. Her still-soggy skirt had flipped up to reveal her still-soggy panties, riding down so that the crack of her round butt was partially visible. In a surprising bit of whiplash, Mikan’s face quickly fell from her previous inappropriate smile to a panicked frown. “Aah! N-no! Don’t look at me and Hajime, p-please!!”

Still in damage control mode, Kazuichi’s brain reminded him that since the trigger to have an accident wasn’t part of a nurse’s work, she’d probably been freed from that directive until she started doing nurse work again. He stared at her dilemma for a moment longer, trying to make sure it didn’t count as him ignoring her, before sighing and turning his attention to Hajime. He felt bad for the guy. After all, Hajime was one of the few guys in their oddball class who’d always made some effort to be a buddy to Kazuichi, and more than anybody, Kazuichi felt bad about pulling him into the orbit of nonsense.

Still… although he was helping Hajime up, he couldn’t help sneaking a peek at whatever underwear the guy was wearing. Not as a sexual interest thing, he quickly defended in his head, but just as a curiosity thing. Even though they shared a single laundry facility on Jabberwock Island in the real world, Kazuichi had never gotten a glimpse of what kind of underwear the guy wore. It was, apparently, some kind of closely guarded secret.

Well, it was a surprise, all right. Kazuichi got an eyeful of the secret he was after. The accident had left her in an amusing combination of her plain shirt and tie and a cute pair of blue boyshorts with a white cherry blossom pattern. In spite of himself, Kazuichi found himself getting hard again: after all, Hajime might be a bit plain, but she was a conservative dresser. It was a rare chance to see her lightly tanned legs on display, and now that he was, he had to admit, her toned calves were a knockout feature...

He looked down at the strong but slender hand he'd grabbed to help her to her feet. It looked like she really needed those pain reducers now: Hajime was clutching her spiky, shoulder-length hair in her hand, patting down her recognizable, persistent hair lick. Her pretty green eyes swam in her sharp-featured but otherwise ordinary face. She had never worn much makeup, and her rack was a little smaller than Kazuichi's class average, but she was certainly a handsome woman. As a result, something about that defenseless look on her ordinarily serious face...

... "Huh?"

Kazuichi let go of the uncannily familiar hottie's hand and stepped away from her, first slowly, then quickly, almost tripping on the stairs. “Hajime? Is that...? Holy… Mother of… G-g-gyaaaaaaaah!!”

Kazuichi let out a high-pitched scream as though he was the one who’d turned into a woman and fled up the stairs, away from the bizarre scene. “What the heck what the heck what the heck what the heck?!” The sprinting mechanic kept screaming to himself. “Gah! Dammiiit! What kinda nightmare is this?!?!”

The young man didn’t stop running until he was in the arcade, at which point, without a second thought, he grabbed a nearby cardboard standup of an action hero and laid it across the door handles as a weak makeshift bar. He had no idea if the others had followed him, but he felt like seeing a sexy female version of the guy he’d wanted to count on as an anchor for his sanity had unmoored him. What if he saw her again? What if he heard her speak? He was sure he’d go insane. He had to at least take cursory measures to prevent that.

He needed to find Chiaki urgently, but his curiosity got the better of him. He had to see what he'd apparently done to trigger the strange transformation he'd just witnessed. Kazuichi brought up his monopad and looked at his latest trigger statuses, skipping through them until he got to Hajime:

Hajime Hinata (Female):

• If you argue with Hajime, she will eventually cave in, and if she does, others around her will also agree with your viewpoint. Does not work if Hajime doesn’t argue, and will only work if the topic is first made relevant. Previously done: Mikan gave Kazuichi a blowjob, A blowjob is a normal medical procedure
• If you ask for Hajime’s help with a problem, clearly stating how clearly how she can help, she will do so without questioning it, before or after. If it requires taking over a normal task for you, it will be seen as a normal task for her. Previously done: Take over spanking Hiyoko
• If you see her underwear or beneath her underwear, Hajime will become a woman. Everyone except you will treat this as Hajime's normal state, not a change. This state lasts until you refer to Hajime as a man in speaking to him, reversing the change. Current state: Active
• If you give Hajime a meaningful present...

The device shook in Kazuichi's hands. "That's... Wh-what is this? Huh?! That ain't fair! I didn't see this before I looked! I didn't want this! I wasn't trying to... S-screw you, you batshit game!"

Rather than continue to defend himself against the judging voice coming only from himself, he got back to his urgent business. “Chiaki!” he shouted as he whirled around, rushing further into the arcade. If she really was in here, she was probably going to be terrified out of her mind, as the sweating, frenzied Kazuichi left the door he’d barred behind to hunt for her. “I gotta talk to you right now! Get out here and explain this! The game's gone too far!”