Visible feelings

Reimi’s countenance showed that she was conflicted with his confession. He may be a bit slow on the uptake with women, but she was pretty obvious with her feelings. The Gamer still wasn’t sure how to feel about the technomancer. The time they spent together the previous evening was one of pure pleasure. A bit of a crush was forming toward the pink haired virgin. Images of them gaming together flashed in his imagination. ‘We never tried any Abyssal video games. Not that I’m complaining, last night was a blast.’ He did hope to experiment more with the submissive woman, but he still barely knew her. The time they’d spent together could be counted by hours easily.

There was also the unmistakable elephant that was Meadow. His interactions with the sisters made it clear that monogamy was not exactly common in the Abyss. However, he still hadn’t given up on his muse. He wasn’t sure how his childhood friend would feel about an open relationship. Reimi was fun, but she couldn’t replace the girl he yearned for ever since he realized his attraction to her.

His mother also might be a hard sell. She joked about a man needing to have multiple partners, but his father was committed to his mother. Though with how she looked and acted, how could his father bother to have multiple women. As much as he hated to admit it, she was the model used in a few of his stories. Her traipsing around the house in skimpy clothing to entice his father into sweeping her away to their bedroom didn’t help with the embarrassing thoughts involving his mother. John was also aware she wouldn’t be happy about him and Meadow not ending up together. She kept pushing him to confess again, no matter how many times he said the first time almost ruined their friendship.

‘I really shouldn’t even be thinking about this right now. Finding Meadow should be my main focus. We are so close. I can worry about my dating life later.’

John was so focused on his thoughts, that he hadn’t realized his muted surroundings after his confession. Finally, after a bit of time, the silence was broken by the technomancer. “I found a warehouse area that matches the one you showed us. This is definitely the place from your vision. Unfortunately, there isn’t any security equipment directly in the area. However, the kidnapper does show up on nearby surveillance from the other day. Sadly, I can’t find any of the other people we suspect to be involved.”

The Gamer was pulled from his thoughts when the technomancer revealed she found the place from his vision. “Reimi, you're the best. Let's go save Meadow right away.” He excitedly gave the woman a hug, causing her to blush.

He was raring to go when Jasmine put a damper on his mood. “John, I know we have a target, but we need to take this slow.”

Before she could continue, he interrupted her, “Jasmine, I hope you’re not about to tell me to wait. I can’t just sit and wait now that we know where she is, or at the very least has been. This is the third day since her disappearance. What happens if they fail the experiment? Maybe they already moved her, maybe they are planning to move. The whole reason I’m working with you is to save her, I can’t wait.”

“John, calm down. Stop losing your brain cells every time we talk about her.” She sighed before taking a long inhale of a caramel-scented pipe. “We aren’t just going to rush in. Doing that is dangerous for us and even more dangerous for her and all the other potential survivors. I will work on getting together a group to infiltrate the barrier. I really would prefer you don’t tag along, but I doubt you’ll agree to that, am I right?”

“I’m sorry, I know it’s selfish, but if you can, I would prefer you take me along. If not, you’ll need to lock me up or something. I’ll try getting there on my own.” The thought of going scared him, but the thought of not going made him feel horrible, so he decided to be honest with Jasmine.

“Yeah, I figured. It’s fine, we are planning for a rescue anyway, so looking out for you won’t add much pressure. First, we’ll send our sister to infiltrate the barrier and provide us with information. Mirage, come out and introduce yourself, before heading out,” Jasmine called out toward the empty corner of the room.

A moment later a beauty with long flowing green hair appeared out of thin air without a stitch of clothing on. John stared slack-jawed as the woman sauntered over in a bubbly demeanor. “Hey, master,” she said playfully, nudging the Gamer while giving him a playful wink.

“Really, you watched us last night, Mirage,” Reimi whined, her face beet red in embarrassment.

“I’ve been watching the nerd and all his antics since he met up with Sis yesterday morning. I knew she would be herself and have some fun, so I tagged along. Though, I was not expecting you to participate so easily. I figured you were content with your perverted streaming sessions,” teased the nude woman. Even though she was bullying her sister, her eyes were glued to the Gamer.

It was odd being the uncomfortable one while staring at a naked woman. It wasn’t just her apparently having seen his sexual acts for the past day, it was also the way she confidently stood there completely nude. She was gorgeous, her eyes were a shade of green that nearly matched her hair, and her round face was adorable. Combine all that with her gravity-defying breasts, wide hips, and neatly trimmed pubic bush. She was making things hard in John’s pants. “What do you mean by perverted streaming sessions?” he asked after hearing the term, which put a fun image in his head.

“Not right now please?” whimpered Reimi, with a cute pout on her face.

Mirage had a devilish grin on her face. “It’s not that big of a deal. She just uses a streaming service that has a lot more freedom than its mundane counterparts. That’s why this room smells like a sex den. Her subscribers have access to whatever toys she allows for the session. She says it’s for the money, but everyone knows the naughty girl enjoys it.”

“So what if I enjoy it, at least I’m not the pervert that strolls around here naked and jill’s off to her sibling's dalliances. You’re such a brat,” grumbled the technomancer.

“Stop bullying her, Mirage. I only called you out so that John would understand who you are and what you can do.” Jasmine had to intervene, which somewhat surprised the Gamer given how playful she tended to be. “As you can see, our younger sister can make herself invisible and she is very good at it. Like she said she has been with you since you entered my car yesterday. It was mostly to indulge her perversions, but she was also wary of you and did it for our safety. She will infiltrate that barrier first. Even without her skill at invisibility, she is proficient at infiltration.”

John stared at the nude woman, still processing everything he was told. It was hard to imagine that this girl, who looked to be his age, had been shadowing him without him knowing for a day. Even more so if she was having her own fun on the side as Reimi suggested. “Please watch over Meadow until we save her,” he said to the voyeur.

“No worries, that is what I’m best at. I'll be on my way then.” The nude girl turned around, teasingly wiggling her butt in his face before vanishing.

The Gamer was left speechless with the way she left. “I guess I should contact the Goldies. With mundanes involved they are more likely to step in. I just hope they have a strike team available. If not for so many potential hostages, I would prefer not to involve them,” Jasmine stated shaking her head as she headed out the room.

“Who are the Goldies?” the Gamer asked the reporter.

She didn’t answer, leaving Reimi to respond, “The Goldies are a massive organization known as the Order of the Golden Rose. They are a knight order that takes it upon themselves to protect those in mundane society from Abyssal affairs. They are headed by three Wardens who supposedly gained unique bloodline powers from Gaia herself. When we do meet them, you should avoid mentioning that Gaia is directly related to your powers. They will either think you are insulting them or take you seriously and attempt to forcefully recruit you into their zealous group.” The tecnomancer’s words seemed to have a tinge of disdain in them.

John was a bit confused, they sounded like a noble group. “Why does it seem like you’re not very fond of them? Aren’t they the good guys protecting people like my mom from people like that scum?” he asked, gesturing over to the man on the table.

“They aren’t bad necessarily; it’s sort of the fault of other Abyssals in the past. They are kind of forceful with their ideals. They **** unaffiliated mages to sign pretty strict contracts in areas they control. Apparently they used to be a lot more lenient on the contracts, but people who lived under their umbrella abused that protection, so they became more tyrannical over time. They won’t imprison you for turning down their contract, but if you aren’t contracted to them, you’ll be under strict surveillance. Also, they aren’t the nicest to non-human intelligent beings. Any of them contracted to the Goldies are stuck in an even more strict contract. Apparently they even need to request permission if they intend to breed.”

John stared at her wide-eyed, shocked to hear about these supposed knights led by people chosen by Gaia. “If they are so bad, why are we involving them at all? There has to be another group we can ask for help.”

Reimi shook her head at his question. “By Abyssal standards they are quite good. We don’t exactly have our own police ****, not that the police are all good. If we asked another group for help, they would want something in exchange. Money or our guild’s resources, neither of which we can spare easily. As long as it involves mundanes, the Goldies are the best bet.”

“Alright, whatever. I don't want to think about them anymore for now. What should we do while we wait on Jasmine and Mirage?”

[Author's note: I will be trying to release every other week while I get back into the swing of things.]