Chronica Chronicle (Part 1)

“…I wanna play a tabletop RPG.”

Such were the words that suddenly left Haruto’s mouth one night at Itsuki’s place as he sat at the kotatsu drinking beer and reading a volume in the Clan Crest Replay series.

“An RPG?” Itsuki asked from his work desk.

“Have you ever played one, Itsuki?”

“I know about them, but no, not really.”

The concept was familiar enough. Tabletop RPGs involved people talking to each other, throwing dice, and checking for this and that statistic as they proceeded through a story, no game system required. Players took the roles of adventurers, knights, kings, detectives, police officers, and more as they attempted to reach the end of a story scenario alive. The main flow was devised in advance by a person deemed the “gamemaster,” but depending on the players’ decisions, the story could proceed in unpredictable directions. Players literally crafted the story as they went (though it depended somewhat on the discretion of the gamemaster), so each RPG offered massive freedom and a true you-are-there feeling to the story.

“I was part of an RPG club in college, you know,” Haruto said, eyes fixed on some faraway point.

“Really? I wouldn’t have guessed.”

Based on his prejudices, Itsuki would have guessed Haruto was in the tennis club or something.

“…I got into reading for fun back when I read replay books in middle school, so I always wanted to play one for myself. That was why I joined up the moment I was admitted.”

The “replay books” he mentioned were transcripts of RPG gameplay sessions put into book form for the entertainment of readers. These are a common sight in Japanese bookstores, often featuring anime-style illustrations similar to the ones in light novels. All the best ones feature three elements—talented gamemasters, talented players, and totally unpredictable dice rolls. The stories woven by the chemical reactions of all these uncertain elements often create drama that outclasses the most intricately devised of novels, so many readers enjoy reading replays as much as light novels, even if they’ve never played an RPG in their life.

Haruto was currently in the middle of Clan Crest Replay: Fantasia Factory, a replay book that featured eight popular writers and illustrators playing in a single game. Given the creativity each one brought to their characters, the resulting story was remarkably exciting.

“So you went from gamemastering to writing, too, huh?” Itsuki asked. A gamemaster needed a lot of talents at their disposal—the technical skill to craft an interesting scenario, the ability to guide players in the desired direction smoothly and naturally, and the improvisational chops to handle unexpected developments. It was said that many authors currently working professionally in the field honed their storytelling skills as RPG gamemasters, and Itsuki figured Haruto must’ve been one of them.

“Nah…I left before the year was out, so…”

“…Is this gonna be a long story?”

Haruto’s wry grin and snicker drove Itsuki to strongly suggest that he wasn’t interested in hearing it.

“It’s not, okay? Just hear me out. So I joined the club, and things were okay for about half a year. We’d have a session almost every week, and I GM’d a bunch of times. I even ignored my classes to build scenarios and original rules and stuff. It was incredibly fun. There were around ten people in the club, and I was the only freshman, but everyone else was really friendly to me. So there was one woman in the club, too. Really pretty and big breasted, too.”

“I have to hear all of this?”

“All of it… So a lot of dudes in the club liked her, or I guess you could say nearly all the dudes in the club, but she never dated any of them. They all knew they were going after the same girl, and there was kind of this unwritten rule that nobody would just come out and say ‘I love you—let’s start dating’ to her. ’Cause otherwise it’d make the club all awkward, you know? But then one day, not long after summer break ended—”

“You can stop. I know how this ends.”

“—she told me she had feelings for me.”

“See? I knew it!”

“…I turned her down. RPGs were more fun to me than messing around with girls, and I didn’t want our relationship to ruin the thing we had going in the club. But when I told her no, she started asking out pretty much everybody else there, one after the other. Like, she’d date two or three of them at once, and it completely screwed things up between us. You could just feel the tension during our game sessions, and whoever she dumped would leave the club. By the time she finally quit, too, it was only me and the club president, but neither of us wanted to keep the thing going. I still remember him telling me ‘That was all your fault’ the last time me met. It sucked.”

He refilled his glass and emptied it in a single gulp. Itsuki rewarded the story with a sleepy-eyed glare.

“…Okay, so now that you’ve told me the tale of yet another college club crashing and burning, what do you want from me now? You want me to call you Kodaka from Haganai from now on?”

“That’s too lofty an honor for the likes of me. At least Kodaka kept the Neighbors’ Club together through it all, unlike me. I just got reminded of all that, reading my first RPG replay in a while, so I kinda wanted to talk about it.”

“Talk about it, huh?”

Itsuki’s cheeks began to convulse as he pointed squarely at Haruto.

“Haruto, you’ve pissed me off for no good reason at all. For that, I hereby sentence you to being the GM for our game!”

“Huh?”

“I’ve been wanting to try one for a while now, too. If you’ve GM’d before, that’s all we need. Make this fun for me, okay?”

“Um, I’m kind of busy. They’re putting anime work on me, too!”

“I don’t care. If you got the time to drink in my workplace and tell stupid stories from your past, it can’t be that bad.”

“…Ughh… You got me there, I guess.” Haruto sighed and let out a short laugh. “Well, guess I’m doing it! Who’re you gonna invite?”

“How many people do we need for a session?”

“It’s easiest with four players, I suppose.”

“Okay. I know Kanikou’ll show up…and no way we’ll make contact with Setsuna, so… Can I invite some nonwriters?”

“Sure.”

“All right, I’ll try reaching out to Miyako and my brother.”

“Great. Have they ever played an RPG before?”

“I’ve never asked, but I’m sure they’re both beginners.”

“Fair enough. I’m sure Nayu is, too… Well, I think I’ll head home and come up with a scenario, then. I am so busy these days.”

Haruto sighed as he got up, the smile on his face more pure and childlike than the breezy grin he usually had on.

Later, on a Sunday in early March, Itsuki Hashima, Haruto Fuwa, Nayuta Kani, Miyako Shirakawa, and Chihiro Hashima were all gathered at Itsuki’s place. Haruto, as gamemaster, was seated windowside at the kotatsu, Chihiro faced him from the kitchen side, Miyako was to Chihiro’s right, and on his left were Itsuki and Nayuta.

“…Are you sure I’m okay to play this, Bro?” Chihiro asked in a tiny voice.

Nayuta smiled. “Oh, there’s no reason to be so nervous about it! I’ve always wanted to play a game with my future brother-in-law anyway.”

“…Ah. I look forward to it,” Chihiro bluntly replied.

“And not to jump the gun too much, but you can feel free to call me your sister right now, if you like.”

“…I’ll reserve that right for later, thanks.”

“Hey, something got you down? Did you slap the salami this morning?”

“Slap the…? We don’t have any salami in the house…”

“I mean, did you masturbate this morning?”

“Ma…?! N-no, of course not!”

Itsuki stared at the now cherry-red Chihiro.

“Could you stop sexually harassing my brother, please?”

“Oh, what’s the big deal? He’ll be my brother soon, too.”

“No he won’t!”

“No I won’t!”

Chihiro and Itsuki had played games together in the past, but this was the first time Itsuki had brought some of his own friends into the fray. Chihiro had come to know Nayuta, Miyako, and Haruto through their encounters at his brother’s apartment, but he usually left quickly afterward, so they never had any deep conversations. Miyako and Haruto, meanwhile, had never met before, but Itsuki didn’t see that as a problem—the two of them and Chihiro had enough communication skills that they were bound to get along fine.

After they all exchanged a few more pleasantries, Haruto decided it was time to formally kick things off.

“Well,” he began, “thank you all for coming today. We’re going to be playing a game that I created using another game as a reference. Since you’re all beginners, I tried to keep the gameplay system relatively simple, but I’ll do my best to let you guys do whatever you feel like as it goes on, so don’t be afraid to make any suggestions that come to mind.”

“’Kay.”

“All righty!”

“Gotcha.”

“Understood.”

The party of four all nodded and gave their consent.

“…The game will be set in your basic sword-and-sorcery kind of fantasy world. This world is composed of several continents, and in this game, we’ll be focusing on one of them—the land of Chronica. The nations that call Chronica home have not engaged in any major wars with each other for the past several decades, and we’ll begin this story on the western edge of the continent, in the kingdom of Gagagia.”

“Gagaga?”

“The kingdom of Gagagia,” Haruto said, correcting Itsuki. “…The territory comprising this kingdom contains a great deal of ruins and caverns. Many are the intrepid adventurers who venture into these forbidden zones. Perhaps they explore the ruins in search of treasure or plumb the depths of caves for monster teeth and claws to craft into weapons. Such are the kind of people who flock to the land of Gagaga—um, Gagagia, and your party of four is just one of many working in this realm. So let’s start by creating your characters.”

“We make our own?” Miyako asked.

“Well, I’ve already worked out all the numerical stats and parameters for your characters, but I’d like you to use that as a base and customize them any way you want. The first character is a knight. Knights have very high offense and defense skills, and his job is to stand at the forefront and attack enemies or defend the party against them. The second is a thief; they’re fast, nimble, and they use bows and knives in battle. They can also detect traps and unlock treasure chests and doors. Third is the monk, who’s got magical healing and offensive skills; they’re also second only to the knight in offense and defense, so they can fight up front, too. Lastly is the wizard, with powerful magical spells, some of which can strike multiple enemies at once.”

“Pretty well-balanced party,” Nayuta observed. “I like doing stuff like finishing the game with a party of four monks or four gadabouts.”

“Sure, yeah, it’s fun to play with an off-kilter party like that, but let’s try to keep it more standard this time around. Plus, with a video game, you can experiment with your party all you want if you build your EXP enough, but with a tabletop RPG, you only get one chance. Playing recklessly can get pretty risky.”

“So could we die while playing, maybe?” Miyako asked.

“Oh, if you’re unlucky enough, sure,” Haruto replied with a grin. “And if you die… Well, I’ll figure something out if it comes to it.”

“Hmm… I’ll be the knight, then,” Itsuki interjected. “That’s probably the least likely to die.”

“That’s the only reason…?” Chihiro said, grinning.

“I think I’ll take the wizard,” added Miyako.

“Which one do you want, Chihiro?” Nayuta asked. “I’ll let my brother decide.”

“…I’m not your brother, so you go first.”

“All right. Your future big sister picks the monk.”

“…”

With everyone’s job settled, Haruto handed each player a character sheet.

These sheets contained a profile of your in-game persona, along with all the relevant stats. For this game, the skills and items each character already had in their possession were filled in. Things like name, age, gender, personal history, hobbies, likes, and dislikes were left blank.

“Okay, you guys can fill in the blanks to create your own character now.”

“We can choose our gender, too…?” Chihiro wondered.

“Sure. You could make your character close to yourself in real life, or you can play as someone completely different. Or you could pretend you’re just playing yourself, flung into this world by some freak occurrence.”

“…”

Chihiro peered intently at his character sheet, then gave Itsuki a quick glance. Itsuki was too busy jotting away at his sheet to notice.

“…What kind of character are you going with?”

“Her name’s Tsukiko, she’s seventeen years old, and she’s a beautiful swordswoman with long, flowing black hair.”

“You’re gender swapping?” Nayuta said, clearly excited.

“It’s not gender swapping! If a game lets me pick my sex, I always go with female.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, when you’re playing a game, you’re looking at your own character most of the time, so… I just think it’s more fun if you’re looking at a pretty girl instead of some dude.”

“Yeah,” Haruto said. “The equipment for women in Monster Hunter and Toukiden is a lot cuter, too.”

“I see… So you’re a female knight… I bet some tentacles or orc hordes would look great on top of you…,” Nayuta commented with a glance at Haruto.

“…Well, this is a fantasy world anyway, so I’m sure you’ll see monsters like that,” he offered.

“I look forward to it,” she replied with an evil grin.

“…If my brother’s playing a girl, maybe I should, too… Could I be Tsukiko’s little sister, maybe?”

“Little sister?!”

Itsuki always overreacted to that term. He gave Chihiro’s face a long, hard look. “You playing my sister… Well, um, fine by me, I guess.”

Nayuta’s face soured at this ambivalence. “In that case, I’m gonna be his little sister, too! I’m ten years old! My hobby is having sex with my older sister! My main like is sex!”

“““You can’t have a ten-year-old do that!””” all three other players shouted in unison.

“…I can’t?”

“…I mean, it’s not that you can’t, but… All right. Do whatever you want.” Haruto rolled his eyes and threw in the towel.

“Hmm… If the other three party members are all sisters, I guess it’d be more natural if I joined the family, too.” Miyako thought for a bit. “How about I be the oldest of them? I’ll make her twenty, like my real age.”

“Myaa the big sister, huh? Hee-hee-hee…” Nayuta giggled bashfully.

“Wait, so…if Miyako’s the oldest one, does that mean…I’m your…little sister?!”

“Guess so.”

“Wow… I’m a little sister…”

“Sounds like the perfect role for you, Itsuki.”

“Well, hang on. I like little sisters, but that doesn’t mean I necessarily want to be one.”

“…I could lower my age a little, then,” Miyako said. “I—I mean, I’d be happy to be your little sister, if you want…”

“Hmm………… Hmmm………… Hmmmmmmm…………”

The other players wondered whether Itsuki had ever thought harder about anything else in his life.

“…Well, let’s just go with this.”

“So it is possible… You can be a little sister, too…”

“Yep. I’m countin’ on ya, Big Sis.”

“You better not start bossing us around, Itsuki! You aren’t the oldest, even…”

And so the party consisted of four sisters.

“Great. Now we’ll distribute your bonus points. You can each put five extra points into any parameter you like.”

“What are these ‘2d’ and ‘3d’ numbers next to the stats for strength and stuff?” Chihiro asked.

“The d stands for dice, and the number before it is how many dice you need to roll. So if it’s 2d, that means you roll two dice.”

“What difference does the number of dice make?”

“Well, for example, let’s say you’re attacked by someone. If the number for your enemy’s accuracy is lower than the number for your evasion skill, you’ll be able to dodge the attack, but you have to roll the dice first to see what number you get.”

“So the more dice you get to roll, the better?”

“Pretty much, yeah. So basically you work with individual dice. Every time your base stat passes a multiple of six, you get one more die to roll. If your strength is six, you’ll get to roll two dice; if it’s twelve, you’ll get to roll three.”

“All right… So my Dexterity is eleven; does that mean I can roll three dice if I add one more point to it?”

“Right, right. You’ll be rolling dice to do all sorts of things, like gathering information, opening chests, and lots of other stuff besides battles, so your dice rolls are super important. If you can hit a multiple of six with one or two more points, it’s worth trying to raise that stat.”

Haruto gave them some time to ponder where to assign their bonus points before he continued. “Okay,” he then said, “finally, I’m gonna have each of you create a unique skill for yourself.”

“A unique skill?” Itsuki asked.

“Sure. It can be anything. You can give yourself a really powerful attack or the ability to transform into something or walk through walls or whatever. Just tell me what you’re picturing, and I’ll work it into the gameplay system. But if it’s too strong or helpful, I’ll attach some penalties to it or restrict when you’re allowed to use it, just to keep things balanced.”

“A powerful attack?” Miyako said. “I’ll go with a rail gun, then.”

Haruto scowled. “A rail gun?”

“Oh, haven’t you heard of that? It’s this skill from the novel A Certain Magical Index that’s used by Mikoto Misaka. It lets her fire off coins at high speed with electrical currents and stuff, and I like her a lot, so…”

“…Oh, I know it. Any light novel writer would.”

“Okay, I’ll go with that, then!” Miyako answered contentedly.

“Um, all right…,” Haruto nervously replied.

“…You sure?” Itsuki protested.

“…Ah, it oughta be all right. It’s not like we’re going to publish the transcript of this as a replay or anything.”

“Hey, that’s actually a good idea,” Chihiro suddenly said. Haruto turned toward him, expecting the worst.

“I wanna have the Imagine Breaker!”

“Whoa! Shameless!”

“It’s a skill the hero from A Certain Magical Index has. It lets him cancel out any supernatural skills with the touch of his right hand.”

“…Again, any light novel writer would know that.”

“That’s what I’ll go with, then,” he chirped.

“…Okay.” Haruto began to look visibly nervous.

“Ooh, the Imagine Breaker’s a nice idea,” Miyako said, oblivious to this.

“Yeah, I thought it’d be nice if I’m playing a thief with a lot of Agility.”

“And you’re actually thinking strategically about it, too…!” Haruto said, his voice a mix of admiration and deep misgivings.

Suddenly, Nayuta raised her hand. “I got it! I want an ability where I can boost Itsuki’s stats when I have sex with his character!”

“Sure, all right.”

“…I didn’t think you’d just agree to it like that.”

“Well, compared to risking a copyright-infringement lawsuit like these two guys, a little X-rated action is nothing…,” the resigned Haruto told the surprised Nayuta.

“Haruto,” Itsuki interjected, “I think I wanna get a little risky with mine, too.”

“…You’re the boss.”

“Great!” he said, a childlike twinkle in his eyes. “I call it Unlimited Blade Works!”

“You ‘call’ it?” Haruto said, hand to his head. “You dumbass.”

Once Haruto figured out how to work these unique skills into the game, he gave one final check of each completed character. For the sake of keeping things at least somewhat original, he made them change their custom skills’ names to something else.

With the player characters complete, Haruto, as gamemaster, played a piece of music (the opening theme from a certain well-known RPG) on his smartphone as he read out the prologue. Thus the tale of this adventuring sister quartet began.

Gamemaster (GM): Gagagia is a small kingdom located on the western edge of the land of Chronica. The four of you have just arrived at the town of Aegis, a three-day walk from Gagagia’s royal capital. Your party consists of four women, all sisters, and all born to powerful nobility in a foreign nation. You have fled your own family, disgusted by the brazen power struggles of your family and their vassals, and now you’ve taken up new work as adventurers… Right, so let’s start by having all of you introduce your characters.

Tsukiko (Itsuki): I am Tsukiko, second oldest of the four Midfield sisters, a beautiful fighter with long black hair. I stole this impressive sword and silver armor and shield from my family when I left them, and I have one blue eye and one red one. I’m protected in the chest, shoulder, and hip area by my armor, but otherwise my equipment is light. My pale skin is exposed in the stomach area, as well as in the upper arms and the thighs. My main hobby is doing web searches under my own name. My likes are little sisters, my fans, Belgian beer, shrimp, whale sharks, owls, deep-sea fish, grilled salmon, and spring rolls. My dislikes are stupid pricks who think Amazon reviews give them total freedom of speech; the Itsuki Hashima thread on 2ch; aggregate sites and all the people they feed off of; assholes who start bitching about “light novels these days” and the idiots who believe them; light novels with full nude scenes that aren’t illustrated; unclear rankings that change the weight they give to websites, test readers, and contributors every time and never announce how they weigh the votes (along with the ignorant general public who take these rankings like they’re the word of God and the brazen publishers who use them in their advertising). There’s more to my backstory, but I ran out of writing space.

GM: Pretty long, dude! Also, your hobbies, likes, and dislikes are all pretty much your own, aren’t they?

Tsukiko: Something wrong with that?

GM: No, but… I mean, it’s important that you’re comfortable with the role you’re playing, I guess… Anyway, Miyako, you go next.

Miyako (Miyako): …I didn’t go into quite as much detail as Itsuki, but… Well, I’m the oldest sister, and I’m going by Miyako with this character, too. I guess I can cast offensive spells and stuff. I look pretty much like Mikoto from A Certain Magical Index.

Deathmask (Nayuta): Your character’s aged twenty, right, Myaa? Because I’m pretty sure Mikoto’s supposed to be in middle school…

Miyako: Oh, um, I mean, it’s just the inspiration for her, okay? No big deal.

Sen (Chihiro): Okay, I’ll go next… My name’s Sen, and I’m the third oldest. My job is a thief, and I look…I dunno, like a cute girl. Like, with a ribbon in my hair and everything. That’s all.

Deathmask: And I am Deathmask, a monk and the youngest one of all. I’ve got silver hair and kind of a Lolita look, although my boobs are pretty big, too… Is it just us four sisters, by the way? We don’t have any brothers or anything?

GM: You can decide on that for yourselves if you like. Pretty freaky name, by the way.

Miyako: Given that they named their last kid “Deathmask,” I guess our parents might not have much affection for us.

Tsukiko: Maybe we had some more brothers, and the family only treated us girls as fodder for strategic weddings or something.

Miyako: Yeah, the…Midfield family, right? Good thing we ran away from ’em.

GM: Okay, with that settled, let’s move on. Lemme switch the music to a town theme real quick… There. So the four of you made good your escape from your noble family, but it’s been a long journey that brought you here, and you’ve already gone through all your traveling funds. In other words, you’re broke. Not even enough money to stay at an inn for the night, much less continue your adventure. So what’ll you guys do?

Deathmask: There’s only one solution… We need something to take our minds off our plight. How about a quick lay to make us feel better, Itsu—I mean, Tsukiko?

Tsukiko: Shut up… Hey, stop clinging to my arm like that!

Sen: You sure live for the moment, huh, Deathmask? …So what time is it now?

GM: Around the early afternoon.

Sen: Okay, so we’ve got time to make enough money to get a place for the night.

Deathmask: Ooh, smart thinking, Sen. Just what I’d expect from my big sis and future brother.

Miyako: How’ll we find work?

GM: You’ll find work notices inside the taverns and such. As adventurers, you’ve got the ability to find treasure in ruins and trade in things you find on defeated monsters for cash.

Sen: We’d probably have better luck taking a job from somebody for now.

Deathmask: I dunno. I’m the type of girl who just goes out there and keeps slashing away until we’re all dead or we accomplish something.

GM: Well, doing that in an RPG like this could lead to permadeath, remember… Uh, but as you’re all discussing plans with each other, you’re approached by a group of four men who, judging by their looks, seem to be adventurers as well. It appears they’ve been drinking, and their gait is noticeably unsteady. “Geh-heh-heh! Hey, you girls are pretty cute. Wanna share a drink or two?”

Tsukiko: Hmm. I’m definitely a day drinker myself, so…

GM: “Geh-heh-heh! Glad to see we’re cut from the same cloth. How ’bout it? Just a quick one at the tavern over there.”

Tsukiko: We’re kind of broke…but if this is kind of a medieval European setting, I bet they’ve got some local ale in the taverns. That’d be nice to try…

GM: “You’re right! The ale around here is second to none, lady! You’re gonna regret it if you don’t get a snootful while you’re here. And it’s our treat, too, so don’t you worry your pretty heads about that.”

Tsukiko: Whoa, really?!

GM: “For you, babe, anything, geh-heh-heh…”

Tsukiko: Well, if we can drink on their dime, I don’t see any reason to turn them down. Let’s do it.

GM: “Hee-hee! Yeah, go ahead and drink all ya want!” Then another guy pipes up: “We’re gonna give you the darkest ale we can find!”

Tsukiko: Ooh… Let’s do it.

Sen: Whoa, wait a sec, Bro—I mean, Sis!

Miyako: You can’t just follow them right in! They’ve obviously got some ulterior motive!

Tsukiko: Wh-what? Really?!

GM: I think it’s fair to say these men have ideas of their own, yes. You really didn’t notice…? Man, what an easy target…

Deathmask: Good thing Itsuki isn’t really a girl. You almost got tricked into drinking Prince Manwhore’s baby gravy! Which…wouldn’t be so bad, actually…

Tsukiko: How dare you trick me with your nefarious words! It’s time to punish you!

GM: I’m amazed how much you sound like a female warrior from a porn game… Um, the men flash vulgar smiles as they taunt you, saying things like “Ooh, you wanna go, little girl?”

Miyako: Of course we will! I wanna whip their asses!

Sen: I’m not sure we should be fighting needlessly right now…but I bet they’d have some money if we defeated them. They had to if they were gonna buy us drinks.

GM: Pretty hard-boiled thief there, sizing people up based on the valuables they’re carrying. So, all right, shall we fight this band of drunken adventurers?

With all players nodding their agreement, Haruto switched his smartphone to a battle theme and took a sheet of paper and a set of person-shaped miniatures from his bag. Each figure was a fantasy character, wearing armor or robes and wielding swords and staffs, and Haruto positioned them atop the ten-by-ten grid printed on the paper.

“This is Tsukiko,” he said, pointing at the armored knight (a brawny man). “This is Sen”—he placed a lightly armored young woman (with oddly heavyset looks) wielding a bowgun on the grid. “This is Miyako”—a magical-looking woman figure (with a chiseled face). “And this is Deathmask”—a rugged-looking man in a priest’s robe, mace held high in the air.

“Um, that’s a guy, isn’t it?”

“This priest is supposed to be a young girl…? He looks like Mozgus from Berserk.”

Haruto gave the complaining players a wry smile. “Hey, cut me a break. These are from a non-Japanese RPG series… So here are your enemies.”

Four miniatures, men holding swords and bows, were placed face-to-face with the party.

“We’ll be fighting on this ten-by-ten grid. Starting with the characters that have the highest Agility, each person will conduct a movement phase and an action phase. We’ll keep cycling through them all until one side wins. The action phase is where you use the actions written on your character sheets to attack or use items to heal yourselves, and the movement phase is where you move your character around to get in and out of range of the enemy. You can move as many squares as the number in your Movement stat, and you’re free to perform your action first before moving, like maybe punching someone and then running away from him.”

“Kind of like a strategy game,” Nayuta observed, “like Fire Emblem or Tactics Ogre or something.”

Haruto nodded. “Pretty much, yeah.”

GM: All right, so… The men begin to give you vulgar smiles as they ready their weapons. “Heh-heh-heh! It’s time to give you girls a dose of reality!” It sounds like they’re ready for combat, too. Man A and Man C here are wielding swords, B has a knife, and D has a bow in his hands.

Tsukiko: You’re going down, you dirty bastards!

GM: So the turn order begins with the guy who has the most Agility. That means we’ll start with Sen. Then it’ll go Tsukiko, Man B, Deathmask, Man A, Man C, Man D, and Miyako.

Sen: Oh? Okay, I’ll move a little bit and attack Man B with an Arrow, since he’s the most agile of them.

GM: The accuracy of your Arrow is determined by your Dexterity. Roll three dice for me.

Sen: Okay…   Fourteen.

GM: Then we apply the modifier for that skill. For Arrow, that’s plus five for a total of nineteen. Let’s see if Man B can evade that.

Haruto then propped up a piece of cardboard in front of him that was shaped like a rectangle but folded in at both edges. Like this:  

“What’s that?” Miyako asked.

“This is called a gamemaster’s screen,” Haruto explained as he began rolling dice behind it. “I use this so I can hide the dice rolls I make for enemies from you, along with the other gamemaster data I have.”

GM: ’Kay, Man B can’t evade that, so that’s a hit for Sen’s Arrow… They’re all drunk, by the way, so they got negative modifiers for their evasion and accuracy.

Deathmask: Wow, they’re like sitting ducks.

GM: Now we’ll calculate the Arrow’s damage.

Sen: I roll one die for that, right? …  Plus five, for nine.

GM: “Gah!” The man lets out a painful scream, but he’s still on his feet and ready for action.

Deathmask: Do we know how much HP he has left?

GM: You can tell by looking at him how much the attack affected him or whether he’s weakened or not, but the exact numbers are a secret.

Tsukiko: Oh, okay… I’m up next. I go up to Man B and attack with Flowing Slash. For accuracy, I roll… Plus eight for twenty-one. Die, bastard!

GM: Oof, twenty-one… Yeah, that’s a hit. Roll for damage.

Tsukiko: … Plus five for fourteen. Is he dead?!

GM: Sadly, not quite yet.

Deathmask: But that was such a perfect hit, too!

GM: Now it’s Man B’s turn. He slashes at Tsukiko, who’s right in front of him. I’ll roll for his accuracy, so…Tsukiko, you’ll roll the dice to try to evade him.

Tsukiko: …Aw, c’mon!

GM: The man strikes Tsukiko, and he deals… Ooh, nice roll. But Tsukiko’s got cutting resistance, so I multiply the damage by 0.7… Seven damage, total. Take seven off your HP on your character sheet for me.

Tsukiko: Ugh! I can’t let this faze me…!

GM: After attacking, Man B flees in the opposite direction. That ends his turn, so Deathmask is up next.

Deathmask: Mmh, now I can’t attack that guy. In that case, I’ll plunge my hot Heal rays deep into my beloved Tsukiko from behind. Hee-hee… Just relax, Big Sis. I’ll be gentle on you.

Tsukiko: You make it sound so pervy!

Deathmask: Just lie down, count the stains on the ceiling, and it’ll be over before you know it. Here goes… Oof! Fap, fap, fap…! …Umm, that’s a plus five for nine points of healing.

Tsukiko: Ergh. I’ve healed up to max, but I feel like I’ve lost something along the way…

GM: Okay, now A, C, and D have their turns. Think you can hold out against them?

All three of them decided to attack Tsukiko.

“Gah! What are you lowlifes doing?!”

Tsukiko managed to dodge Man A’s slash but was unfortunate enough to fall victim to Man C’s sword and Man D’s arrow. Her resistances to cutting and piercing blunted the damage to some extent, but at the end of it, Itsuki had only half of his HP left.

GM: “Geh-heh-heh! If you wanna surrender, you better do it fast, lady!”

Tsukiko: Pfft! I’m not out of this yet! I can’t go down in a place like this…

Deathmask: …Ooh, this is usually when the noncon happens in porn games. Can’t wait to see how this works out!

Miyako: So it’s finally my turn. I wonder what spell I should use…

GM: The enemies are all gathered around Tsukiko, so you could damage all of them with a Fireball.

Miyako: All right, let’s do that!

Ka-blam!

The Fireball Miyako unleashed exploded right where the three men stood, roasting them for major damage.

“Woo-hoo!”

“Well done, Big Sister!” Deathmask called.

“You’re pretty good in a pinch,” Tsukiko marveled. But the attack brought all the men to attention. Now they realized this wasn’t a quartet of sisters they could take lightly.

“Oww… Now you’ve done it!”

“We’re playin’ for keeps now!”

GM: And now it’s Sen’s turn again. That round of attacking sobered up all the men, so there are no negative modifiers on them any longer.

Sen: I go up to my sister and use a Potion to heal her.

Tsukiko: I’ll need it.

Sen: The potion heals 2d+6 damage, so…

GM: But the moment you put your hand on the potion bottle, it shatters into a million pieces.

Sen: Huh?!

GM: Your Imagine—um, I mean, your “Jaldabaoth” skill cancels any magic that you touch, and a Potion is a magical elixir, so…there you go.

Sen: Just touching the bottle does that?

GM: …Let’s just say these bottles need to have a magical treatment applied to them to keep the elixirs inside fresh.

Deathmask: Pretty cruel, Prince Manwhore…

GM: Well, that’s a really powerful skill, so it’s gotta have some disadvantage. You’re done moving and taking action, Sen, so we move on to Tsukiko’s turn.

Sen: Sorry, Sis…

Tsukiko: No worries. We’ll just wipe ’em out before they can do us in!

Tsukiko used Shield Bash to send Man A reeling backward—a damaging blow, but still not a lethal one. Man B behind her attempted to sidle up and slash her, but Tsukiko managed to block the attack with her shield.

“Well done, Sis!” Deathmask shouted as she cast another Heal spell, refilling most of Tsukiko’s HP.

Then Men A, C, and D advanced once more. Man A attempted to take out his frustrations on Tsukiko, only to have his strike deflected by her sword.

“Damn you! In that case, I’ll aim for the girl next to you with the lighter armor!”

Man C swung his sword at Sen, who was now standing next to Tsukiko—a heavy strike but a slow one. The agile Sen should’ve easily dodged it.

But…

GM: …Ooh. I rolled a critical.

Sen: A critical?

GM: If I roll a natural with at least two of my accuracy dice, that counts as a critical hit. That means it always hits, regardless of what you roll for evasion.

Sen: Whaa—?!

GM: At least it wasn’t a damage roll. If you get a crit on that, you earn a damage bonus based on your level.

Sen: …

GM: So Man C lands a hit on Sen, for… Well, not to be the bearer of bad news, but that was for eleven damage. I’m rolling pretty good today… Sorry.

Sen: E-eleven…? My HP is seventeen, so…that leaves me with six…

Miyako: Another hit like that and you’re gonna die, I bet…

GM: And following that… Showing the weakened Sen no mercy, Man D readies his bowgun. Roll for evasion with your Agility stat.

Sen: … for eight…! Hope that works…

GM: Ahh, sorry, but that’s a hit.

Sen: No way…

GM: Now, Tsukiko.

Tsukiko: Hmm?

GM: You’ve got the Protect action, remember, which lets you take damage applied to someone on an adjacent square. What will you do?

Tsukiko: …! I’m gonna Protect her, of course! I’ve got my little sister’s back!

GM: Right. So Tsukiko covers Sen and takes four damage.

Tsukiko: Good. Nothing worth losing sleep over. You okay, Sen?

Sen: Um, thanks, Bro…

Tsukiko: Hey, it’s any brother’s job to protect his little sister… Oh, right, I’m a sister, too.

Miyako: Okay, my turn. I’ll use a Potion to heal Chihiro.

Using the Potion fully healed Sen’s HP.

On the next turn, Sen wheeled behind Itsuki and fired an Arrow at Man A.

“Graahhh!”

With a final roar, the man thudded to the ground.

“There’s one, finally,” Itsuki said as he healed himself with a Potion—only to have Man B damage him again in the next turn.

Deathmask: Hmm… We’re just gonna get whittled down like this. I think our only option is to use some more-powerful magic to kill them all at once.

Miyako: Can we do that? I know I can attack multiple foes, but I don’t know if I can kill them in one go.

Deathmask: Not with normal spells. But if we power them up, we can.

Miyako: Power them up?

Deathmask: My unique skill, Lilim’s Kiss, could make you a lot stronger.

Miyako: Well, hang on! You aren’t gonna power me up by doing something…gross, are you?

Deathmask: C’mon, Sis, it’s the only way…!

Miyako: You can act as serious as you want, but you won’t fool me! There’s got to be something else we can do!

Deathmask: There’s not. We have to screw to survive, Myaa.

Miyako: You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?!

Deathmask: Well, I made this unique skill and all. It’d be a shame if I didn’t try it out.

Miyako: All right, I’m gonna use my rail gun! I’m bound to kill one of ’em with it, at least!

GM: Sadly, your rail gun—I mean, your Thor’s Bullet skill—requires one mithril piece per shot.

Miyako: Mithril?

GM: Yes. These are coins made of mithril. They’re extremely valuable, and you guys don’t have any.

Miyako: Aw, man…

Deathmask: Sex is the only answer! Please, you need to accept the truth!

Miyako: N-no! I’m saving myself for my true love…!

Deathmask: Oh, don’t give me that innocent act. What happened to the real Myaa, preying on the opposite sex left and right?

Miyako: Stop spreading lies about me! I thought you loved Itsuki anyway! You think he’s okay with that?!

Deathmask: I’m not the purehearted maiden I usually am, who blushes at the sensation of a single finger upon my skin. I’m the red-hot licentious Loli Deathmask, who does it with anyone, hetero or not!

GM: …Let me add that Lilim’s Kiss works via mucus contact, so a kiss is just fine, really.

Deathmask: It… It is…?! Since when did that get written in…?!

GM: We’ve got children under eighteen in the room. I have to.

Deathmask: Ugh… Like you ever cared about that before, Prince Manwhore… Well, all right, Miyako. Pucker up.

Miyako: …Well, a…a kiss ought to be all right…and I’m in the game world anyway, so we’re not really doing it…

Deathmask: Good. So I go up to Myaa and cast Lilim’s Kiss. She’s agreed to it, so it automatically succeeds. Here we go! Smooch.

Miyako: Whoa! I said we didn’t have to really do it!

Deathmask: Just kidding… The ten-year-old girl’s waifish tongue penetrates the soft, pert lips of the twenty-year-old grown woman. Their tongues intertwine in the most obscene of ways, their spit freely exchanged with each other. Mfff… The others can hear loud smacking sounds, along with Miyako losing all control and panting out of the corners of her mouth. “Nnh… Ah, ahhh…  !”

Miyako: H-hey, don’t cook up my reactions for me!

Deathmask: I say, “Hee-hee, you’re so cute, Big Sis… ” as I indulge myself with Miyako’s tongue. Soon, I nimbly remove the tassel keeping her robe together. It silently slips off her and falls to the ground, exposing her young and supple skin to the world. She removes her lips from mine, a single string of spit connecting us. “Agh! No! Oh, I’m so embarrassed,” she exclaims as her cheeks begin to redden. “We can’t let ourselves do this,” she says, attempting to push my small body away from her. But she’s only putting a bare minimum of force into it. I snicker at her. “That’s what your mouth might be saying,” I say as I flash a devilish grin at her, “but you’re anticipating this as much as I am, aren’t you, Sister?” I extend a hand to Miyako’s undergarments, nimbly using it to remove both her bra and her shorts. She is now stark naked, her shame and anticipation making her visibly shake. I give her a satisfied look as I remove my own garments, applying my lips to one of her nipples and playing with the edge of it with my tongue. “Ahhh!” Miyako gasps. “Hee-hee-hee! Are you feeling it?” I say, applying more force. “What a dirty big sister you are!” My fingers trace complex paths across Miyako’s body in assorted places, making her wince and groan with each stop they make. In another moment, they reach inside the most sensitive place on her entire body. “You’re melting in my hands, Sis,” I say. “How blissfully deviant.” Miyako is panting, in a state of pure ecstasy, slack-jawed as she begs me to go on. “Ooh, I can’t take any more…  ”

Miyako: I can’t take any more of this!

Smack!

Miyako, face red as a tomato, gave Nayuta a slap to the head.

“…That hurt, Myaa,” Nayuta blithely reported, her cheek a bit flushed.

“Nngh… I told you I only wanted a kiss…” Miyako moaned, tears in her eyes.

Nayuta gave an impish smile. “Well, it’s your fault for having such a dirty mind… I wish someone could’ve stopped me. I’m terrible at figuring out how those sorts of things should end.”

Chihiro had his head pointed at the floor, just as tomato-like as Miyako. Itsuki and Haruto were flushed as well, paying rapt attention to the proceedings.

“I’m amazed you can just whip out an erotic story like that from nothing, too…”

“Oh, any writer can do that,” Nayuta deadpanned. “I didn’t exactly make an effort on the prose, either.”

“…Really?” Miyako asked, looking at Itsuki and Haruto.

“…If you’re asking whether I can do that or not,” Itsuki replied, “then yeah, I can.”

Haruto snickered. “I wouldn’t read it out loud to somebody else, though.”

“…You writers are so weird,” Miyako said with a sigh, her frustration and awe both evident in it.

*   *   *

GM: Umm… So Deathmask’s Lilim’s Kiss is now in effect. Her MP’s set to zero, and she can’t move in the next turn. Miyako’s resistances and stats got a major boost, but there’s no need to calculate them.

Miyako: Oh?

GM: That’s because after that salacious little scene between you and Deathmask, the men stopped fighting and started staring right at you. Now you hear the sharp sound of a whistle as a group of around ten men—they look like soldiers to you—make their way through the crowd of onlookers toward you. “We’re the military police! Stop fighting at once—” Then they notice the stark-naked Miyako and Deathmask in each other’s arms. It stuns them into silence for a moment, then one of them clears his throat. “…Ahem! I hereby place you two under arrest for public indecency!”

Miyako: What? No way!

Deathmask: Hang on. All I was doing was having a hot, steamy make-out session in the middle of the street with my sister.

GM: “We call that public indecency around here, little girl.”

Deathmask: Yeah, I guess so, huh?

Miyako: I didn’t do anything!

GM: The men you were fighting leave the scene in a hurry, shouting “Well, we’re off” as they do. You’re the only ones left.

Sen: Great… Should we run, too?

GM: The military police have already surrounded you. I wouldn’t like your chances.

Tsukiko: So we’ll have to fight our way out!

Sen: Um, do you think that’s okay?

GM: You might be able to defeat the police in combat, but then you’ll all be wanted by the kingdom, probably. What’ll you do?

Tsukiko: Hmm…

Deathmask: I think we’ll just have to let ’em take us away. We can explain ourselves later.

Miyako: What are you being so calm about? This is all your fault!

Deathmask: You should probably get your clothes back on first, Sis. I already have mine on.

Miyako: Huh?! That’s not fair!

GM: “Just pipe down and come with us, girls…”

Tsukiko: Pfft! Whatever!

Deathmask: Come on, officers! We were just faking it anyway!

Tsukiko: …?

GM: …The MPs are too devoted to their duty to notice as they take you away to a dungeon on the outskirts of town. Now all four of you are in a cell, stripped of your weapons. “You sex-starved animals can cool down here for the night,” the guard says.

Miyako: I’m not a sex-starved animal! Aww… I never imagined I’d get arrested for public indecency sometime in my life…

GM: Well, you did cause quite a ruckus in the middle of town. That’s what they arrested you for.

Miyako: There’s a big difference between causing a ruckus and having sex in public!

Tsukiko: …So now what, though? Are we gonna break out of here?

Deathmask: Myaa’s been powered up by our sex, remember. I bet she could destroy the jail door with her magic, no problem!

Miyako: …Could I? ’Cause otherwise, I’m totally a victim here…

Sen: They’re gonna let us out tomorrow, it sounds like. Maybe we could just spend the night here?

GM: As the four of you talk over matters in the dungeon, you hear a voice say “Hello?” from outside your cell.

Tsukiko: Oh?

GM: The voice belongs to a blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl. She’s in a dress that looks completely out of place in this jail.

Deathmask: Ah… Is she the chief warden, maybe? Like, a total sadist who looks all sweet and innocent but secretly likes to torture her prisoners?

Tsukiko: Gah! I refuse to submit to torture!

GM: “…I’m not the head warden, and I’d never do something as horrible as torture you. My name is Sylvia, and I am the Aegis town lord’s daughter. I was hoping I could make a request of you all.”

Tsukiko: …Wait. Why are you asking a favor of a bunch of perverted women arrested for indecent exposure?

Miyako: I’m not perverted!

Deathmask: Not that I have room to talk, but is Sylvia blind or something?

GM: “I just… I like the look in your eyes, is all. You four women, traveling alone… You must be very gifted indeed.”

Tsukiko: You’re just seeing what you want to see, twisting things to suit you better. And you have no idea how ugly it makes you look, either… I hate people like you.

GM: “That’s not a very nice thing to say to someone you’ve just met, now is it…? Could you at least tell me what brought you here?”

Sen: We might as well hear her out.

GM: “…Thank you. I suppose you’re the easiest one here to deal with. So it’s like this—”

Vrrrrm!

Just as Haruto was about to regale the party with Sylvia’s story, the smartphone playing his RPG background music began to vibrate and play a ringtone.

“Oops! Sorry, that’s from my editor. One sec.”

Haruto leaped away from the table, walked into the kitchen, and pressed the “Accept” button. “Hi, this is Fuwa,” he said softly.

“Hello. This is Kawabe from Editorial. Do you have a moment to talk?”

“I’m out at the moment, so…is it an emergency?”

“Oh, not really. I just wanted to confirm something with you. We asked you to submit an afterword for the first manga volume by yesterday, but have you sent that in yet? We haven’t received it, so I thought maybe you were having some e-mail issues.”

“Uh…! I—I’m sorry, I forgot all about it! I’ll send it to you today!”

“Ah, all right. That ought to be fine, but…it’s pretty uncommon for you to forget about work like that, Fuwa. Did something happen?”

“No, I, um… I was just focused on something else, so…”

“Oh?”

“But I’m gonna make this my top priority! I’m super sorry about this!”

Haruto trudged back to the kotatsu after the call ended. “…Sorry, guys, but there’s this rush assignment I gotta do, so I’m gonna have to end the session.”

“Aw, really? We were just getting into the meat of the story, too!”

“…I’m really sorry.” Haruto lowered his head at the sight of the pouting Itsuki.

“…Well, all right. We’ll pick this up later on.”

“Sure,” Miyako said.

“I look forward to it,” Chihiro added.

“…You want to keep playing?” Haruto hesitantly asked. The four players instantly gave him a matching set of “what a stupid question” faces.

“I’m not exactly thrilled with the way Nayu treated me,” Miyako observed, “but this game’s pretty fun.”

Chihiro, for his part, flashed a soft smile. “I didn’t know there was a game like this before now. Thanks a lot, gamemaster!”

“I swear I’m gonna get intimate with Tsukiko next time.”

“Like hell you are. I don’t need your trashy magic spells.”

“Hopefully you’ll have the right sort of sexy situation cooked up for Itsuki next session, Prince Manwhore. Maybe something with orcs or tentacles or slimes.”

Haruto laughed, although it sounded more than a bit like sobbing. Itsuki took the opportunity to whisper something to him, unnoticed.

“…Did that help wipe away some of that goofy trauma?”

“…I think so. Thanks, Itsuki.”

That night, at the Hashima residence, a twenty-minute bus ride from Itsuki’s apartment, Chihiro Hashima soaked in the bathtub and reflected on the day’s RPG session. Man, that was a lot of fun, he thought. I never thought I’d get to play a game with all my brother’s friends. Pretty interesting people, too, although I’m not really into that “future brother” stuff.

Plus…

“I’ve got my little sister’s back!”

“Hee-hee…”

Whenever he replayed Itsuki’s in-game declaration in his mind, it always managed to both make him smile and send a pang of something or other racing across his chest.

Little sister, huh…?

He looked down at his own naked body. And while it was a little (okay, a lot) smaller than the average for people of this gender, the curvature to Chihiro’s chest area was clearly feminine in nature.

Chihiro Hashima was a girl. And Itsuki, her brother, still didn’t know.

A sister was all he needed—but he had none. How would the story change, though, the moment the truth turned Itsuki Hashima’s world upside down?

It was impossible for anyone to say yet.

(The End)