Crashing into a new friend

I bolted down the stairs, faster than I honestly should have, and I heard my two classmates call after me from the open door to the roof. I was too far gone by now. My head was spinning and there was a pit in my stomach. Special superpowers weren’t a thing, they just weren’t. If they were, I would have heard about them by now. The public would be talking about people who had them constantly, and there would be much more compelling evidence for them.

I was running through the hallways now, without any real care for how fast I was going or even where my destination was. I just needed to run, I was afraid, and I was having an existential crisis so my adrenaline was out of control.

I was moving so fast that I didn’t have enough time to react as someone rounded a corner from a connecting hallway and stepped directly in my path. I ran into them full ****, knocking them down and my momentum carried me forward and top of them.

“Oof!”

“Kya!”

With a thud we both crashed onto the linoleum floor, notebooks and papers scattering around us. My face was immediately pressed into something remarkably soft, and it took me a second to realize the exclamation of the unfortunate victim of my recklessness was distinctly female-sounding.

I quickly lifted myself up, the adrenaline in my veins forcing me to ignore the pain of doing so, and found myself staring directly into the breasts that my head had been resting a second before. I swiftly lifted myself off and fell backward, the pain finally catching up with me.

“Fuck!” I exclaimed half in pain but half in disappointment for my carelessness. “I’m so sorry!”

The girl propped herself up on one elbow and rubbed the back of her head. She was a rather ordinary-looking, albeit cute, girl with dark brown hair done into a ponytail and brown eyes. Her breasts were large as well. Smaller than Ikarugas but only barely, maybe only a cup size difference at most. The aspect of her that stood out the most was a bright red scarf tied around her neck with two tails fanning out behind her.

“It’s okay, are you all right?” She asked. I was once again ashamed that the one who got crashed into was asking me, the one who ran into her, if I was hurt.

“I’m…” I was about to say I was fine, but my confusion and panic was returning, “I’m not fine. I feel like I’m losing my mind. I’m afraid, I’m stressed, and I don’t know what to do about it.” My voice was shaking, and I was beginning to shake as well. My eyes were closed, and I was running my hands through my hair like a madman.

Suddenly I felt two very soft hands plant themselves on my shoulders. I opened my eyes to see the girl smiling at me warmly and looking me in the eyes.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but don’t worry about it. I’m sure everything will turn out all right!” There was a determined look in her eyes as she said this, and she confidently put one of her hands into a fist for emphasis.

I had to admit, something about her somewhat naïve positivity was infectious, and it was certainly cute. I supposed to some degree I may have been overreacting. At worst this discovery meant there was far more mystery to the world than I thought.

“I’m Asuka, by the way, it’s nice to meet you. And don’t worry, I’m just fine.” Her smile somehow grew even warmer.

“Satoshi. Thank you, I needed that more than I thought.” I replied and returned the smile. I wished in that moment that I could just snap a photo of her warm smile, it was very picturesque.

After standing up I helped her to her feet as well, though she didn’t seem to need it. She was quite spry. Her hand was incredibly soft, I noted as I gripped it to help her up. After helping her pick up her notebooks and papers that had scattered everywhere I bid her farewell, apologized again, and thanked her again.

I spent the rest of the day lost in thought, largely ignoring my lessons in favor of trying to get to the bottom of everything that had happened. The rest of my interactions with Ikaruga and Katsuragi that day were back to the way they were before, like lunch had never happened. I noted, with interest, that while Ikaruga didn’t remember kissing me or calling me her boyfriend, she did remember eating lunch with me and enjoying the experience.

I still had a lot to think about and spent the rest of the day doing just that.

I was walking home when my phone rang, breaking me out of my introspective daze.

“Hello?”

“Hey kiddo!” The sound of my father’s voice came through. Oddly enough, he was just the man I wanted to talk to. “How are you doing?”

“Good.” I replied, mostly on instinct. “I’m walking home right now.” I was burying the lead primarily because I wanted confirmation that my father knew what the necklace could do. I didn’t want to accuse him of anything if I wasn’t sure.

“Glad to hear. So, um, did anything interesting happen at school today?”

It didn’t take him long to show his hand, it seemed. That question alone was enough confirmation for me.

“Got something you’d like to tell me, dad?” I asked with just a hint of venom in my tone. I was honestly pretty peeved that he wouldn’t tell me about what the necklace could do.

“Ah, so I suppose that’s a yes, and clearly you’ve nailed down the source as well.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this necklace would literally give me superpowers?”

I heard a heavy sigh from the other line. “Kiddo, be honest, would you have believed me if I did?”

He had me there. I didn’t even believe it was lucky much less supernatural before today. “You’re right, I suppose. Still, it freaked me out. So, tell me, what exactly does this thing do?”

“Well it has a number of uses. Which ones have you found out about so far?”

I blushed a little, remembering the kiss. “Um, the finger-snapping thing.”

“Gotcha. There are a few particulars about that power that you might not have noticed but are important to know. During the time that the effect is active, the girl you snapped your fingers at will be completely willing to do anything you want them to, barring anything that would actually put them in obvious physical danger. In addition, they will treat you as though they are in a relationship with you. But not only them, everyone you interact with during this time will do the same, and act like it’s always been that way.”

“I did actually notice that part, I was interrupted.”

“Well there’s no risk to being caught, and there’s no risk to anything you do while that effect is in place, because everyone who was involved will forget everything that happens, instead they will remember vague aspects of the encounter, but never anything that would concern them while the effect was inactive. Make sense?”

“Yeah and I noticed that bit too.”

“Okay, then the last thing about that power that I can guarantee you didn’t notice is that anything you did with them during the time while the effect was active will become something that they genuinely enjoy even when the time runs out. The more you do it, the more fetishized it will become for them.”

That was pretty interesting. So that meant Ikaruga enjoyed kissing a little more now.

“Now another thing that the necklace does for you is that it makes absolutely anyone you are attracted to start to develop feelings for you very gradually. It will take a long time to build up and it will only build when they are around you, but they will also actively try to find excuses to hang out with you more often.”

“That sounds like it could get out of hand very fast.” I pointed out.

“Luckily, the necklace has a way of dealing with that. At any point you can tell someone that you don’t want your relationship to progress any further, or even shut it down entirely. For instance, if someone comes to you and confesses, you can tell them that you just want to be friends and they will stay that way with no hurt feelings. Alternatively, you can tell them you aren’t interested at all and they will simply treat you like a friendly acquaintance, once again, without consequence.”

“That’s good, I suppose. Anything else I really need to know about?”

“Yes, concerning the bit we just talked about. It is possible to reverse it, all you need to do is snap your fingers at them and it will begin again. There are a few more things that the necklace does but it’s a little, uh, uncomfortable to talk about with my son. Besides, I’m sure you’ll figure it out pretty quick anyway. I promise it won’t be anything that will freak you out as much as maybe the snapping thing did.

“There is just one last thing, taking off the necklace doesn’t reverse anything you’ve done, all it does is prevent you from snapping and stops the supernatural gradual relationship growth across the board. So, you don’t need to worry about your moms and I getting a divorce anytime soon.”

“Okay then.” I said, feeling a bit better knowing more about this strange thing.

“So now that you know what it does, I expect there to be a full-fledged Satoshi-devoted harem waiting for us when we get back!” With that he let out bellowing laughter.

I sighed and pressed my thumb and forefinger against the bridge of my nose before hanging up the phone.

So that was it, this necklace truly was the reason my father managed to land three wives. And now that I had it, I could follow in his footsteps if I felt so inclined. At the moment I wasn’t so sure about the idea of having a harem, but at the very least this necklace could actually help me get a girlfriend who would be into anything I could possibly want to do.

My thoughts trailed to my internet search history.

Okay, maybe not anything... maybe...

The morality of having such a necklace didn’t bother me too much. The way I saw it, the relationship still developed in a natural way, it was just artificially helped along. And besides, my perverted nature and desire was overpowering my morals right now.

My walk home was a much less introspective and much more positive one. I wondered idly if I was going to see that Asuka girl again, she really helped me out today.