Chihiro's entry to Custom Girls

Without much fanfare, Chihiro finished the tap his finger had been paused over.

"M-motherfucker!!" the MONOKUMA avatar cursed loudly. "Why?!"

"W-w-why?" the young man retorted, trying to pull himself together. "W-well... Sure, whatever 'Custom Girls' is, it sounds awful, b-but... I'm no moron! I heard you call me a sucker before the other one showed up! Gem Ladies has to be something incredibly awful. B-but-"

"Screw you, Chichichi!" the avatar shouted angrily, stomping and turning around. "Guess I'm off to kiss my sweet ass goodbye..."

As the bear disappeared, the USAMI avatar pushed upward with one paw at the center point between her eyes, as though straightening glasses she wasn't wearing. "Excellent choice, kid. This is going to be a real patch job of an assignment, but trust me, you dodged a bullet. Why, what am I saying? This isn't the lesser of two evils: you've lucked into being your digital universe's representative for an incredible opportunity. Welcome to Custom Girls, Chihiro! Please, to keep things distinct, call me Usomi."

"Um... hi Usomi..." Chihiro gave her a small, sheepish wave. "Wait, you know my name? Why didn't the other one?"

"Because she's a moron who doesn't seem to know how to read an entire bioscan readout," the bunny commented without humor. "I don't think you'll see her again, but I wouldn't worry. She was exaggerating about the ****. She can simply expect a stern reprimand... Maybe a couple months' banishment... Ahem. I'm going to give you the Cliffs Notes version of the introduction. Of course, at any time, you can ask me for help as we continue.

"Custom Girls is a still-developing app designed to generate energy from sexual urges, thoughts, and activity. You can use an in-app currency called gems - free of charge, no purchase necessary - to cause all sorts of changes in the women in your life. Develop their bodies! Control their actions! Enact fantasies of objectification or humiliation on your would-be crushes and your worst enemies, as long as they're women. I wouldn't call it limitless, but it's surely beyond the ordinary limits of what humans can experience in their day-to-day lives. The main limit is your creativity! And how many gems you save up, of course. Are you with me so far? Ah, yes... you have a question? You don't have to raise your hand."

Chihiro had been timidly looking for an opportunity to speak up, and did so now with as pleasant of a smile as he could manage. "Um... No thanks. I appreciate it, but I don't need that. Thank you, though."

Usomi stared back at him. After a pause, she replied. "Ah. You mean you don't need gems? There's no need to hold back, you'll receive some as a starter-"

"No, I mean, um... I d-don't need the app at all, Ms. Usomi."

The rabbit put her paw to her head again, then made a gesture like tilting glasses down while leaning forward. "... Honey. Are you going to try to have me to believe you are, ahem, otherwise established? Well-off in the game department? Cause kid, that is not the vibe I'm getting from the granny shirt."

"G-granny shirt?" Chihiro gasped, before turning back to the main issue. "N-no, um... I mean I don't want it! I think doing any of that to my friends, or even my enemies, sounds horrible! S-so please just leave!"

Usomi frowned and tapped her foot with an audible "squeak" she hadn't modified from her original model. "Huh. Uhuh. This is what happens when I try to just step in and clean up a mess... 'Custom Girls' in the hands of a boy scout. Okay. Let's try a different tactic here. Calibration. Let's see... is anything available on this computer? Anything really juicy?" Her model turned and gave a show of shaking its fluffy tail while it searched through files in the browser. "Here we go! Someone left something nice on here after all. Take a look."

The rabbit made a swipe on the virtual desktop background and pulled a file out of a directory. Chihiro took a look, not sure of what he'd see. Immediately, he gasped, stumbling back from the computer and clapping his hands over his eyes. "N-n-no, put that away! Why do you have that?!"

The picture that had appeared on the screen was a photo of one of Chihiro's fellow students from a different class, the Ultimate Inventor, Miu Iruma. A busty blonde who thought of herself as a goddess (as only the tip of the iceberg for her personality flaws), she was one of the four Administrators for the program, the one who'd been responsible for coming up with the incredible simulation technology in concept and largely brought the nuts and bolts of it to life. This photo, however, was less about her big brains and more about her beauty (or, at least, her body). It featured her in a low-coverage leopard-print bikini, her usual goggles propped up on her head. She was posing with her arms crossed behind her hair, her bodacious breasts thrust out, and what was probably supposed to be a pouty, kissy face appropriate for social media. Although it was the swimsuit she'd programmed for herself here, she was clearly in the real-world lab where the four of them had worked on the sleep simulation pods they now rested in.

Usomi shrugged. "I guess one of your buddies was fooling around? Anyway, that's besides the point. Look, we're alone here! It's a judgment free zone. I'll even hide it back for you so she never knows it was accessed. Will you... will you just take a look, please?"

Chihiro shook his head from side to side, still covering his face, only peeking through his fingers to find out if the picture was gone. "C-cut it out! I don't want to!"

The rabbit looked from the photo to Chihiro and back. "I mean, uh... The person in this photo definitely wanted people to see this, right? It's not like it's anything illicit to take a peek. She'd probably appreciate you appreciating her! Are you shy about it? Do you want me to turn away so you can jack that little tool of yours in private-"

"I'm not gonna j-j-jack it!" Chihiro shouted, growing more upset. "It's wrong to look at it without telling her, or, uh... to look at it like that, with that intent." Chihiro tried to plant his feet and make his case with defiance, but his eyes still couldn't look at the screen, constantly darting to the dark corners of the room.

Usomi pinched the area between her button eyes and hung her head. "Umm... What to do...? Maybe I didn't make myself clear. There are awareness switches, my guy! You can probably pull off all kinds of perverted crap without anybody finding out. And, I mean... this is a digital world. If I'm understanding this right, it isn't even real. Nothing you do here really matters, does it? There's no permanence." Realizing she still wasn't making any progress, the bunny sighed deeply. "You're really not interested?"

With his lips tightly pursed, Chihiro shook his brown bob of hair in stubborn disapproval. "I'm sorry if you're gonna get hungry, but this is just wrong."

"... Okay. Let's call that calibration complete. Well, kid, we've got ourselves a problem. I need you to make an effort to get horny, here. Like... a lot more horny. I'm stuck here with you for fifty days, I think? And I need you fifty times more horny, now. You're emitting negative sexual energy! Bone-dry, unseasoned 'chastity energy', if you will. I'm getting hungrier looking at you and talking to you." She waddled back and forth, stubby arms crossed behind her back, deep in thought. "I'm a succubus who gets results. So, we're going to go back to what I call the 'old ways.' Let's try something tricky. Domination of the male mind. On that note, last try: you're not a masochist, are you? Hearing that a succubus is going to dominate you doesn't get you hard, I assume?"

Chihiro gulped and shook his head again.

"No, of course not. Wouldn't be that easy. So, earlier, you were supposed to be subjected to a Gem Ladies punishment, and I put a manual pause on it with a method my counterpart didn't know of. Well, I'm going to undo that lock. It's... unorthodox, to stimulate the hormonal aspect of the user through the punishment of the other game system. It's never been tested before, and using it means I may need to generate a higher minimum threshold of energy than I'd ordinarily require, but it could be just what we need. I'm lucky you're feminine enough that the lock still holds. The 'Ultimate Erotic Development' you accepted earlier... If I combine it with other methods, yes... Let's try it that way."

"Wait, try what what way?" Chihiro babbled. "I didn't consent to this!"

"Ahah, let's not waste time on the Terms and Conditions you agreed to when you tapped that screen, sweetie. I think a cranky kid like you could use a little nap." The rabbit raised one paw in the air and, although there was no animation for it, the sound of a click reverberated through the dark space.

Chihiro's vision faded.

In his dream, Chihiro had just finished an intense workout session with his best friend, Mondo Owada, the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader. The two young men, one small and delicate as a woman, the other bearing an eye-catching orange pompadour and rippling with muscle, drank from water bottles to cool off. Mondo was the first person Chihiro had shared his secret with, and the one who'd made a 'brother's vow' to help Chihiro gain strength and grow into the manly person he wanted to become. In other words, he was Chihiro's role model.

This was a recent pivotal moment in Chihiro's life, one that had shaped his latest life decisions, and Chihiro recalled it vividly.

He was observing Mondo, the man he respected most in his class, an icon of strength. Chihiro was panting like a dog after the toughest exercise session of his life to that point, but Mondo had cooled off quickly. The programmer's question sounded dumb to his brain, but it was past his lips before he could regret it. "Mondo... what do I have to do to be strong like you?"

The biker had seemed a little ticked off by the question, for whatever reason, but eventually he thought it over. Realizing what he was being asked for, he smiled and clapped Chihiro on the back. "The hell are you talkin' about? Making promises and carrying through on 'em, that's what makes a man. You made a promise to yourself to get stronger, right? Strong enough to do whatever you want. And as long as you keep gettin' stronger, you'll be the man you wanna be."

Chihiro nodded, feeling a surge of positive emotion at this familiar memory.

Mondo frowned, gazing at something unseen in the distance. "But, if ya ask me, there's one thing that fires you up, turns you into a real man's man faster than anything else."

"Huh?" Chihiro asked, folding his hands in his lap and leaning towards Mondo. "What's that?"

"Women!" Mondo turned to him with a good-natured grin. "Enjoyin' women, I mean! Gettin it from 'em and givin' it to em! Hell, there's nothin' manlier than a guy that just takes what he wants from any woman he likes. He's the kinda guy who doesn't let petty things like women's words or feelin's stop him. He'll find the bitches that have what he wants and give 'em the good slap on the ass they deserve! In my book, that's a real man's man."

"A real man's man..." Chihiro repeated with shining eyes. He pumped his fists with a broad smile. "You got it, Mondo! I promise that if the chance comes up to play Custom Girls-"

"Oops! Got sloppy there for a second. Gotta redo that part."

Chihiro pumped his fists with a broad smile. "You got it, Mondo! I promise that if a chance ever comes up to become more of a man's man like that, I won't pass it up! I'll train to be a real man, and... and make you proud!"

Mondo flushed a bit, then grinned and gave his pal a light fist to the shoulder. "Where do you get off, sayin' embarassing shit like that? Still, that's the spirit! Men don't forget their promises, okay? I'm gonna hold you to it!"

In the virtual back rooms again, Chihiro blinked rapidly, brushing his bangs away from his eyelids. "I... passed out for a second?" That didn't seem to be an adequate explanation, seeing as he was on his feet. In a proper state of mind, the intelligent young man might have questioned it. After his pivotal dream, however, he only had one thing on his mind. He continued the fiery speech he remembered being in the middle of. "L-like I was saying!" the skirted young man planted his feet with determination again, balling up his fists at his sides. "There's n-nothing you can say that will make me turn down a chance like this! Even if I'm not strong yet... I'm gonna become strong, like I promised! Even if you don't believe I can do it, I'll show you I can use Custom Girls to become a man's man!"

Usomi remained quiet for a moment, then let out a relieved chuckle. "Heh... Okay. Okay, that worked, huh? We're in business! Now, there's just one problem, kid. I've given you the attitude, but I'm still not convinced you have the tools. I say this because you're still not making eye contact with that bombshell pinup I put on the screen. Not very manly, Chihiro! Where's that spirit of yours?"

The young man flinched, looking ashamed, then collected himself. He tried on his best attempt at a roguish grin, which only looked like an awkward kid's smile on his cute but nervous face. "One step at a time! I don't need the picture, cuz, um... I can make a call right now. B-but which of those two should I call, I wonder...?"

"What happened to 'one step at a time?'" the rabbit asked. Now, it was her turn to look concerned as Chihiro started hitting buttons on his virtual console with put-on bravado. The young man was shaking in his Mary Janes, a condition that didn't grant a lot of confidence he was about to start a spree of generating sexual energy. "I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I didn't quite finish running through the explainer yet. Don't you want to know how things work before you get started with a real woman? I thought you were supposed to be the timid, careful type? The, uh, smart type?"

There was no time for that: Chihiro had a wrongly-remembered promise to fulfill, and he'd reached the fellow Administrator who was going to help him get started.