24

023 - Sex-ed and binding rituals

I'm feeling pretty satisfied with myself as I walk back to the Temple. Lancer being affected by [Mr. Steal Your Girl] sucks, because he's normally the less dickish male antagonist in the series. Practically a bro. But I guess all that good chemistry between him and Rin means our bromance could've never been.

What really matters though, is that this allowed me to display myself as a potential ally for Rin and set a precedent. Even if she's already rejected an outright alliance, she knows I can be relied on when the chips fall down. As long as we have a common enemy, collaboration is still possible.

I've also verified that, understandable distrust and hostility aside, Jackie and I can work together when it comes to a fight. Things are definitely looking up.

As I'm reaching the stairs, I feel a spiritual body slip ahead of me into the Temple proper. That gives me pause, because I recognize the presence and I'm a bit surprised at crossing paths with it here.

"Nii-san?" Haku's voice calls my attention from the other side of the street. "Fancy meeting you here."

Well, I guess that explains what Ecchan was doing away from her bookcase. What it doesn't explain is everything else. I watch bemusedly as my sister walks up to me. She looks slightly flushed, but to my finely-tuned big brother senses, that's the blush of 'I have been caught doing something I shouldn't', totally different from the blush of 'I want you to ram my pussy until I can't walk straight anymore'.

"Haku." I greet once she reaches me. "What brings you out of base in this dark, cold and dangerous night?"

"Ehehe~" She scratches the back of her head with a sheepish smile. "I wanted to stretch out my legs?"

"Alone?" A sneaking suspicion makes me refrain from mentioning that I noticed Ecchan's presence trying to sneak inside ahead of me. "While Shinji is homeless and missing school and probably deranged on top of his usual rape-y tendencies?"

"Come on, Nii-san!" She pouts, it's a fairly convincing pout, I might've been deceived if I wasn't paying attention. "I still have all my Command Seals! I can fend for myself long enough to summon Ecchan, at least."

I say nothing, the fact she didn't simply admit she brought her Servant with her says all I need to know. She was doing something that required a Servant and she doesn't want me to reach that realization. Was Ecchan ever really full of cake or was she just playing it up to have an excuse not to accompany me today? What am I saying, of course she wasn't full, the Artoria series is immune to the 'sated' debuff.

With a sigh, I let the matter go. I'm… fairly sure this is about Mitsuzuri and I can hardly complain about her behaviour when my own actions on the issue consist in hoping I butterflied her away from danger. Mitsuruzi is Haku's Archery Captain more than she's a woman in my life anyway, it makes sense for Haku to take charge of her situation.

"Let's just go up." I say instead, gesturing to her to follow as I turn to start climbing the stairs. "It's getting a bit chilly and I'm pretty sure Sensei would classify the usage of magecraft to conserve body heat as a 'frivolous waste of resources'."

"Ah, how were things with Tohsaka-san?" Happy with the change of subject, Haku falls into stride with a smile.

"Fairly good, I think." I smile fondly, thinking about the highlights of the event. "Archer turned Lancer's spear into a rainbow dildo and I dumped all the cleaning up on Sensei."

With that, I start explaining everything in detail and the tension vanishes for good in idle chatter. I'm still a bit hurt that she'd slink around in the darkness instead of outright coming to me with the plan, though.

I put it out of my mind as soon as we reach our temporary living quarters. Medea is reading a picture book with Jackie sitting on her lap, Ecchan is in her corner, stealing glances at the two of them from time to time while reading 'How NOT to summon a demon lord' and there's the homely aroma of miso being prepared coming from the kitchen. It seems that Sakura has decided to take advantage of our absence to get a leg-up on dinner.

I take a deep breath, letting myself relax in the welcoming atmosphere. This… this is what I want my harem to feel like everyday. This is what I fight for.

Without Taiga around to stir trouble up, the rest of the evening goes by peacefully, Medea and Sakura disappear into the bedroom after dinner, no doubt finalizing the details for our next step in the war while Haku… Has somehow managed to get her head on Ecchan's lap, she's going to be useless until something forces her to move.

Like every time she can't remain close to Medea for cuddles, Jackie has taken to stalking me like a distrustful cat. Remaining on the prowl around the room, right outside my reach, bright yellow eyes always watching, studying, judging. I have to admit that it's a slightly unnerving experience.

Everytime I start feeling anxious at the attention though, I remember her confused but pleased face everytime I pat her head. That's enough to remind me that, under all the blood and gore and mental pollution and justified distrust and killing intent, lies a child starved for affection. A whole bunch of them, actually.

I'm just reviewing some old formalcraft projets I never got around finishing, trying to lure Jackie into a false sense of security to pat her head again, when Sakura and Medea come back into the living room

Sakura looks mortified and eager, rubbing her arms nervously and looking anywhere but at me, but incapable of keeping a small smile from her blushing cheeks. Medea looks smug and satisfied as she takes a seat on the sofa.

"Master." Of course, Jakie jumps at the chance to curl up in her lap, a victorious expression on her face as my Servant distractedly pampers her. If she starts purring one of these days, I won't even blink. "The binding ritual is ready."

"Already?" I blurt out without thinking, earning a look. Which is fair, but for some reason I had expected the preparations for a ritual that will reroute the prana cost of all our Servants through Sakura to take a bit longer. Suddenly I can't help but feel a bit nervous about the whole thing "And we are sure Sakura can take it?"

"She is a pseudo-grail, Master." Medea answers with a voice I'm pretty sure is trying not to be condescending, and only failing a little. More importantly, Sakura restlessly shifts in place where she's standing behind Medea's couch. "If required, she could maintain fifteen Servants by her lonesome. Our little faction won't even be a strain on her."

"And once the War ends?"

"She'd still be a pseudo-grail once the War ends." She doesn't quite roll her eyes, it's just that… you know, her entire body language seems to be yelling 'An eye roll goes here'. Behind her, Sakura looks away and crosses her arms under her breasts. "It just means her massive prana recovery rate will be used to keep our connection instead of uselessly bloating her already ridiculous reserves."

"But what if–"

"Master, we've gone through all this already." She interrupts me, still looking more amused than annoyed. "More than once, actually. The ritual is safe, nothing bad will come to Sakura-chan and everyone will be better off once we're done with this"

"But still…" I eye Sakura, standing behind the couch and practically jumping in place. "What if Sakura isn't ready for–"

"My body is ready, Senpai!"

It's Sakura who interrupts me this time, grabbing the back of the couch with both hands to lean closer to me. A pregnant silence falls on the room while everybody processes what Sakura just said. Even Ecchan is looking up from her (trash) light novel. Slowly, as realization makes Sakura's face turn into a grimace of mortification, what can only be called a shit-eating grin forms in my lips.

"Oh, my." I speak out slowly, savoring the effect of my every word as Sakura tries to sink into the ground. "I had no idea you felt so neglected, Sakura."

"Uh… I mean… I… "

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan!" Haku chimes in, roused by maybe the only thing that could get her to give up Ecchan's thighs and throws her arms around Sakura in an enthusiastic hug. "I can't wait to do unspeakable things to you either!"

A keening, piteous noise escapes Sakura's throat as she tries to cover her face with both hands and get the earth to swallow her.

She's still hiding her face while Haku drags the two of us all the way back to the bedroom.

The ritual in question is, maybe inevitably, tantric in nature. I'll be having sex with Sakura first, to estabilish the opening conection, then with every other Master to connect them with Sakura through me. Lastly, I'll be having sex with her again to close up the connection, because leaving these sort of things open is just asking for trouble.

Things would've been easier if I was the one with the near inexhaustible source of prana, but such is life.

If you ask Medea, she'll tell you how other methods exist, but are needlessly complicated. Then she'll rave about the primal raw act of copulation weakening the barriers between souls and simplifying any process that involves a change in the flows of prana.

I'm fairly sure that it's a simple case of her not willing to look further when she has a perfectly valid excuse to get frisky with me and two young girls right in front of her. Fortunately it only involves the Masters, because I don't think Ecchan is quite at the point where she'd gladly take the excuse, and Jackie… yeah.

The bedroom itself has been… redecorated for the occasion, purple velvet with golden spell circles embroidered covers every surface of the room, with a particularly large and complex one in the middle of the floor, right under the table. The scent of strange balms and incense fill the air and make me feel a bit light-headed.

It honestly looks more like a luxury brothel room than a ritual chamber to me, but what do I know about ritual chambers anyway? It could be that brothels were inspired by ancient tantric traditions, after all. In fact, I wouldn't be shocked in the slightest if that turned out to be the truth.

In any case, it's clear that Sakura and Medea have worked hard to get the room ready for tonight. Unfortunately, we've encountered a problem even before we managed to close the door behind us.

"No." Arms crossed and jaw set, Jackie refuses to leave.

"But sweetie..."

"No!" Jackie stomps the floor with all the furious vehemence a nine years old body can muster. "We don't want Mommy to be hurt!"

We really should've had that talk before it got to this.

"No." Arms crossed and jaw set, I refuse the deal.

"But Master..."

"No!" I stomp with considerably more vehemence than a nine years old body could ever muster. "I consider myself very permissive with what counts as a proper age for sex, but I'm drawing the line here."

"We are not leaving." Unfortunately, Jackie seems unimpressed by my otherwise overwhelming display of authority.

"For Heaven's sake, we just gave you the talk!" And between Medea's own ideas of what counts as vanilla sex and Haku running comentary, I ended up being the restrained, reasonable guy in the room. I'm also pretty sure Jackie hasn't understood half of our explanations. "Why aren't you trying to run away in mortification? I want to run away in mortification!"

Sakura did run away in mortification, which is a problem because we kind of need her around for the ritual.

"We have to be here to gut Daddy if he's mean to Mommy!" If nothing else, I have to respect her goal-oriented mentality. Once she grabs an idea, she just doesn't let go. "We're not a kid, we are a Servant!"

"Look Jackie, your mind is that of a child, your body is that of a child, and your soul can be called a lot of things, but 'adult' isn't one of them. I'm not going to have sex in front of you and that's final."

Jackie opens her mouth to protest again, but suddenly deflates, eyes unfocused as she tilts her head to the side for an instant before turning around and leaving in a huff. I eye Medea, who is doing her best to look innocent and let out a tired sigh. I have no idea what she's telepathically told Jackie, but as long as I can deceive myself into thinking she's left for good, I'll take it as a victory.

"Alright, now that we've solved that…" I let myself fall backwards into the bed, trying very hard not to think about the invisible, undetectable, immaterial and overprotective child who gave up far too easily and what all those facts put together could mean. "Someone please go find Sakura while I try to revive my poor libido."

Medea disappears with a nod, Haku… Haku smiles, slowly stepping closer to me.

"Reviving your poor libido, Nii-san?" She purrs, hands trailing down the front of her hodie and slowly pulling down the zipper on the way down. "Maybe I can help out with that."

Haku isn't wearing anything particularly sexy tonight, but sexy lingerie gets old real fast if you see it everyday and even a front-zip hoodie over a sweater dress and tights can get me properly hot and bothered when the person wearing it knows how to move.

Hips swaying hypnotically, Haku's hands raise again to push the hoodie off her shoulders with a shrug, letting it fall down her body to expose the white dress underneath while somehow hugging all her curves in the way down because fuck gravity and how many steps can she actually take to reach me in a room this small!?

Her hands trail on the neck of her dress for a bit, pulling it down a bit to expose just a hint of the skin underneath as she bites her lower lip playfully. I feel my pants grow uncomfortably stiff at the show. I've seen her in much more revealing clothes before, but right now the teasing way in which she's hinting at what lies hidden is enough to make me want to stand up and tear her dress off myself!

In the end, her hands give up the neck. Trailing down her body again, they trace the contour of her breasts before crossing over her navel to grab the sides of her dress once she reaches the hem. Right as she's finally walked up to me.

My breath hitches as she starts pulling up, white fabric bunching up as the black-clad form of her shapely thighs is revealed underneath. Then she freezes, causing my eyes to go all the way up to her face again, where she's sporting an impish expression that gives way to a playful wink once it gets my attention.

She turns around, bending forward and arching her back, planting her ass right in front of my face and resuming the task of pulling her dress up. Soon, it crests the slope of her buttocks, reaching the waistband of her tights soon after. My mouth goes dry and the soft skin underneath comes to view, the dress getting slowly, oh so very slowly, higher and higher.

It feels like hours until the band of her bra comes to view, her hips still swaying left and right in front of my face and, by the time her neck peeks out, I've long since become incapable of thinking of anything but the woman swaggering in front of me.

She might've planned to continue teasing me after finally getting the dress off and throwing it into a corner of the room, but I'll never know because it's at that point that I lose control, reaching for the hips dancing tauntingly right in front of me and pull down to make her to sit on my leg. Not that she puts up much of a fight… or any.

With a growl, slip my hands under her bra to cup her breasts directly, pulling her towards me at the same time to kiss the side of her neck.

"Hnn~! Nii-san?" She calls, or tries to, while I do my best to draw moans out of her. "Is Hnn~! Is your libido feeling any Hnn~! better?"

"I believe we can safely consider it revived."

"As great as the view is…" Medea's amused voice cut through the haze of my lust, reminding me there is a goal tonight beyond filling Haku's pussy with cock. "There is a certain order that needs to be maintained tonight."

"Oh… yeah." I recover swiftly and elegantly. "Does… Does Sakura need… uh…"

"Oh, I don't think you need to worry about that." Medea purrs, dragging into my field of view a flustered looking Sakura, breathing heavily and already missing her skirt. Medea's hands holding her shirt over her hips to give me a full view of long shapely legs and purple panties with a tiny red ribbon. "What do you say, girl? Do I tell them where I found you or will you explain it yourself?"

"I was… in the bathroom." Sakura confesses with a thin voice, blushing even harder and half-heartedly trying to escape Medea's hands as they start working on the shirt's buttons. "Masturbating."

"Sakura-chan here didn't flee out of the room because she was embarrassed." Medea continues when Sakura falls silent, deft fingers swiftly undoing the shirt to expose a matching bra. "But because talking about making babies got her… All~ Hot~ And~ Bothered~!"

Sakura's blush reaches all the way to her breasts, but she doesn't resist when Medea puts a hand on her chin to force her to look at me, giving me a timid nod when I arch a questioning eyebrow. In the meanwhile, Medea's other hand has managed to remove the shirt, letting it fall on the floor to cup one of Sakura's bra-clad breasts.

"Oh? Do you want that, Sakura?" Sakura seems transfixed by my gaze, incapable of looking away and whimpering piteously as Medea's other hand reaches for her still clothed mound, softly teasing it over the steadily moistening panties. "For me to pour my thick, hot seed deep inside you and get you pregnant? Do you want to carry my baby?"