Rushing through the concrete jungle that was modern Tokyo, his heart hammering in his chest, he chanced a glance at the sidewalk behind him. Besides some more disturbed glances from the locals, there seemed to be no sign of them.

For a moment, hope bloomed in Blake’s heart and he slowed down to a crawl, ignoring the muttering passerby who took a width berth around him. And, with smog filling his nostrils, Blake’s heartbeat started to return to something approximating normal, the rivulets of sweat slowing, but then, spread thin within the dense crowds, he saw them. Stern faced, most of them wearing sunglasses and expensive looking black suits, which jarred harshly with the tattoos visible on their exposed flesh.

All of them walking towards him.

“Shit!”

Blake, whose heartbeat has only just calmed, felt his heart kick to high gear again and started running once more.

“Sure gramps, ‘you’ll find love in the east’,” he said, mimicking an old woman’s voice. “Fat load of bollocks, that was. What I’m about to find has little to do with love! Worst five bucks I’ve ever spent,” he said in a snarky tone, panting, while his green eyes roved left and right. Searching for anything with which he might save himself.

But there was nothing. Nothing which would help clear the misunderstanding between him and the psychos trailing after him.

And hell, with all the ruckus he was causing, what with disturbing the peace by shoving quite a few passerbys to the side in his mad dash? It was bound to attract police attention at any moment⁠—

The shrill sound of a whistle accompanied by a quick shout in Japanese made him wince and glance to his left, a stern faced policeman on the other side of the street raised his arm, causing the cars to slow and also started marching towards him, and seeing as Blake did not reply was quick enough to switch to English.

“You there, stop!”

“Oh, for fucks sake!” he hissed and pivoted to the right, knocking a few more bystanders down in his mad dash.

“Stop!”

Just his luck, that he’d land on the one copper in this place that also spoke English! No way he could play the clueless foreigner now.

His lungs burned. He kept running. The sun overhead kept shining, making him feel like slowly cooking chicken.

With gasping, panting breaths and a thoroughly soaked white shirt, Blake continued running, or rather, more like stumbling along. His energy was all but spent now, and pretty soon he’d collapse. But he couldn’t, wouldn’t stop!

“Please God… oh shit,” he panted. “That’s not what they call them here, is it?” he said as he stopped for but a second, eyes barely able to focus but a few meters in front of him as he put a hand to a nearby building wall for support. The hordes of people around him seeming like an indistinct blur to his senses. “Kami… Kami-sama, that’s right,” he slurred. “Please, save me, and I’ll do anything!” he said, his soul shining with the honesty only despair could bring.

The sun above seemed to shine brighter for but a moment, as if his plea was heard. But, beyond, causing a few more droplets of sweat to trail down his back and front, courtesy of the heat. Nothing seemed to happen.

Footsteps echoed behind him, and through the throes of people all around him, Blake somehow just knew what they meant and whom they belonged to.

He tensed and pushed off the wall, about to start running once more.

But then, out of the corner of his eye, some distance in front of him and somewhat to the right, he noticed one of the land’s traditional Temples. Or was it Church… Not important right now! He shook his head and, with his feet pumping with desperate energy, made towards it.

He was more exhausted than he thought if he could miss such a big, and distinct, building right in front of him, after all.

And unless the local mob was even crueler than he thought, than they should respect such areas of worship enough that they wouldn’t just barge in or try violence within them.

Passing through the old wooden arch, serving as the Temple’s gate, Blake broke in a full body shudder.

It might be just the exhaustion speaking, but the air felt different. Cleaner and heavier at the same time, more potent.

Still, he didn’t dare stop, climbing the white pristine staircase two steps at a time, his eyes fixed to the building’s ornate main gate ahead. He could stop and ponder about the mob, life and everything as much as he liked once he was safe and could think his next move!

Almost crushing into the door, Blake grasped the wooden handle and, hoping beyond hope, yanked it to the side. A relieved breath leaving him when the wooden panel engraved with scenes out of myth and mischievous foxes easily slid to the side, revealing the Temple’s interior.

Without waiting for an invitation, he barged in and closed the door behind him and collapsed with his back against the stronger than it looked door.

Eyes closed, Blake spent a few moments catching his breath and waiting for the inevitable.

After a few minutes, when no thug seemed to barge in, he wearily cracked open an eyelid.

“Holy shit… did it… did it actually work?” he mused in wonder and jumped to his feet, making to dust off his black pants before pausing. A feeling of sudden guilt welling up within him. The wooden floor, which he’d presumed dirty, was what could only be described as spotless. Hell, he could even almost see his reflection on the wooden beams. In fact, his cargo pants, in all honesty, dirtied up the wood below him and not the reverse.

“Sorry…” he muttered, speaking to thin air for some reason and with a series of soft kicks removed his shoes, letting his nigh bare feet touch the polished wood below.

He might be an uncultured ruffian, but he at least knew this much about the country’s customs at least.

“Still, while I wait for the idiots outside to disperse… let’s take a look shall we?” Blake said, an excited smile on his face as he rubbed his palms together and walked towards to one of the doors to his left leading deeper into the gigantic Temple and away from the entrance lounge.

Thoroughly lost but in no way annoyed about it, Blake hummed a tune as he slid open yet another door. “Excuse me, coming through.” And entered a, yet again, empty room.

Well. Empty of people that is, for like all of the rooms he’d seen so far, it was richly decorated, with expensive artwork and jewelry, which if his experienced…collector’s eyes were any judge… the stuff here was of great historic value, even putting aside the obvious monetary one.

Glancing at the shrine in the center of the room, the shrine which seemed to be made out of solid gold, Blake’s knees grew weak at the sight and with a gulp and trembling arms, he grasped to his left for support.

The noise from his left coupled with his hand closing in around something velvety soft, caused him to blink and look, and the man’s mouth fell open.

For atop the cloth rack he was using as support were…were! What could only be described as priceless priestesses outfits. Each of them enough to buy a small apartment if his guess was right!

Blake’s head spun and he let go of the rack, taking stumbling steps towards the center of the room and the shrine within it. The shrine upon whose offering slab, a bowl decorated with precious gemstones and filled with water, rested.

Glancing at the surrounding opulence, Blake couldn’t help but whine.

This wasn’t fair! He really should have brought his backpack with him today! And did those jerks have to make such a big fuss over such a tiny misunderstanding? In fact…

His hand dived within one of his pants’ pockets, fishing out a piece of jewelry that previously seemed oh so important, but now…

The black-haired man glanced around him once more and the jewelry dropped through nerveless fingers. He run a hand through his short-cropped hair and licked parched lips before freezing.

His eyes fell on the offering bowl gleaming innocently beside him, and he chewed his lip.

T-this was fine, r-right? They were big on hospitality here after all, and he was a weary guest and all that rot. Or was he confusing countries and customs again.

“Oh, screw it! It’s not like there’s anyone around to complain!” Blake cried and his hand shot out, grasping the bowl and bringing it to his dry lips and swallowing.

To his parched, thirsty mouth, the first few drops felt absolutely divine as they traveled down his tongue and into his gullet.

After almost a day spent non-stop running, the sheer euphoria was enough to almost make him moan.

In fact… with the first few desperate gulps out of the way, his mind was able to function once more and Blake noticed that this? It did not taste quite as water should.

“The hell?” he asked, brows furrowed as he lowered the innocent bowl for a moment, glancing at the pale swirling liquid within, which he only now realized was not even as clear as water should be.

Giving it another shake and swirl revealed no secrets and despite the contact having lasted for but a few seconds, a desperate need, nay, almost longing, really burned in his lips and mouth for more.

Suspicious, but seeing no reason not to, he wasn’t dead yet after all, and he remained quite thirsty... Blake raised his impromptu chalice once more and begun chugging.

This time, able to appreciate the thin, imperceptibly bitter and tangy taste, a moan did leave him. One entirely of his own volition.

A dusting of red on his cheeks, he lowered the now empty bowl back in its rightful place.

“Ahh, that hit the spot,” he said, rubbing his belly and, for some reason, having to fight the urge to rub his thighs together.

Oi, brain, berries and twig in between! Remember that.

“It gladdens me to hear it is so,” a soft, sensual, feminine voice said from somewhere behind him and Blake froze. He turned around with a panicked smile on his face.

“Ahh, I can explain!”

“There’s no need.”

“You see— eh?”

The tall, well-endowed woman garbed in the traditional outfit of the country’s priestesses, namely what looked like someone stitched half of a white kimono, or what Blake privately called an expensive bathrobe, and a long red skirt together shook her head from side to side.

Sending her long, straight pink-locks swaying from side to side and, as a consequence, also causing her magnificent bust to jiggle, and causing Blake to fight the urge to giggle. For the woman’s actions made it clear she wore no bra.

“You are but a weary traveler and it is our duty to help those in need,” the woman said with a nod as she folded her delicate pale arms within the sleeves of her robe, propping up her already magnificent breasts as she did and flashing a brilliant smile towards Blake.

At the sight of her magnificent blue eyes, his breath hitched and his brain froze for but a moment. But moment enough for him to catch only the faintest of outlines, more of a thick long shadow swaying behind the beauty.

And with a blink, whatever it was, disappeared, if it had even been there in the first place.

“Ahh! Yes…” Blake said, his mind slamming back to the present and, remembering some of his lessons, gave a deep bow in the mysterious woman’s direction. “It is as you say, oh beautiful priestess!” he said, and the woman gave an ethereal giggle, hiding her mouth behind a sleeve. “I humbly request your aid.”

At that, the woman’s playful air seemed to disappear and an almost regal air seemed to surround her for but an instant, causing Blake to gulp with a sudden sense of nervousness.

“Then let it be so,” the woman intoned. “Once again, be welcome into our abode and be safe and healthy while within its walls, Malivus Blake.”

“Right thanks—” his eyes threatened to fall out of his skull. “W-wait! How did you know my name? We just met!”

“Oh my me!” the woman said with a small gasp, hand rising to cup her cheek in wonder. “Is that so?” she asked and seeing the worry in his eyes giggled, the sound causing the hair in the back of his neck to stand on edge and pointed with her other arm at Blake, or rather at a spot by his feet.

He looked down and⁠—

“But it was right there~” the woman said with a teasing tilt and another giggle and Blake, despite himself, let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and laughed along.

For on the floor, right next to his foot, his passport lay, open and face up, showing both his photo and name.

Right, all the running and stuff must have jolted it loose or something, he rationalized to himself with a nod, chancing a glance at the tall, taller than him at any rate, beauty. Still…

“Good eyesight there, er, Miss…”

“Oh my me! I did not introduce myself, did I?” the woman said with another gasp, her hand cupping her soft cheek once more. “I’m… Mikoto no Ohirume,” the woman said with a small curtsy. “Or, Ohi-chan for sort!” she said, the demure air around her but an instant ago vanishing as one of her arms flew up in a victory sign, accompanied by a cute wink, complete with her tongue peeking between pink lips.

“Err… that’s great, pleasure to meet you, Ohi-chan,” Blake said, trying, and mostly succeeding in hiding his wince, averting his eyes to the side and missing the almost inhuman smile stretching across the woman’s lips.

“That’s unnecessary, really!” he said with a smile while at the same time fighting the urge to slap the pair of wandering arms away.

“Ohh~ But you are my dear guest, and I can hardly call myself a proper host if I don’t take care of your every need. Both stated and otherwise… teehee~!”

About to retort, Blake paused just as Ohirume’s words truly hit and his brows scrunched up together.

“Why did you have to put it⁠—”

But his brief moment of confusion was just what the woman was hoping for to begin with, and with an evil gleam in her blue eyes and a mischievous smile that reminded the man of foxes, the shrine maiden’s hands at long last managed to land unopposed on his body… and in a series of quick movements remove his dirty white shirt.

“Ohh!”

This was not how he expected this day to go, if he was being honest.

On the one hand, it was good that he’d managed to escape a fate best not pondered at the hands of those…disagreeable people.

An overreaction! They make so much money! And all I appropriated was a small trinket, really!

But on the other, why did this over excited woman insist on a change of clothes after barely getting to know one another…

“I see that you have excellent grooming standards, that is good!” the excited pink-haired beauty said, kneeling as she was across from of him, her legs folded underneath her in the traditional seiza pose, with Blake doing the same, while her eyes drunk the sight of his bare, hairless torso and on her hands his shirt lay clutched.

“Err… thanks, my mom taught me?” he said, and a weak chuckle escaped his lips while he fought the urge to rub the back of his neck and thus, give away the lie.

After all, how did you explain to a virtual stranger that the reason you were practically hairless from the scalp down, brows aside, was that due to your slim build and delicate features it helped make certain ‘re-appropriation’ jobs way easier than they ought to be. Cause way fewer people suspected women for bad stuff in general, than they did men. And thus, when time came to lay blame for the disappearance of an art piece, expensive jewelry or what have you? Blake was already long gone.

So, and considering that he’d just escaped a potentially very unpleasant close and personal meeting with the local mob? Yeah, partial lie it was. He’d prefer not to get kicked outside just yet when they were probably still looking for him after all.

Sides, he wasn’t done scouting this place and its many, many treasures quite yet.

His eyes landed on the dressed woman’s thick tracts of land, whom, even behind her robe still stood to prominence and demanded attention.

Yes, many treasures indeed.

A giggle drew his eyes upwards and caused his mouth to hang low in shock.

Was… was Ohi-chan drooling?

“Mmh, your mother was a wise woman then, Blake-chan,” the priestess said with a nod, followed by throwing his shirt to the side, causing it to crumble against the wall. “And it would seem it is as I feared. Both you and your clothes are in need of a good wash.” The woman nodded, face serious as she once again crossed her arms underneath her majestic tits.

A fact which was enough to cause Blake to mentally stumble, if for but a moment but then the woman’s words hit him.

“N-now w-wait!” he said, arms raising and shaking them in tandem with his head in a warding motion. “T-there’s no need for that! I have a clean change of clothes back in my hotel and I can certainly wait until I get back to take a bath!” the woman raised a pale sculpted eyebrow. “There’s no need to go that far on my behalf! After all⁠—”

“Oh dear,” the woman hummed. “You really believe that the Yakuza won’t still be on the lookout for you when the night comes?” the woman asked with a small smile. “Or… is it perhaps that you believe you’ll be able to outrun them or trick them into not paying you any attention, mmh?”

At her words, Blake’s breath hitched, a whimper of tremor escaping his lips, and, upon seeing the woman make no threatening gestures, he calmed down…only for a healthy flush to creep up and down his neck and bare chest, and he averted his eyes.

The miko let out a demure chuckle before reaching over and giving him a gentle pat on his cheek.

“So, there is, in fact, a need that I, as a proper hostess, prepare a proper bath and a change of clothes for you, my dear.” Her eyes fixed on him and he could swear they contained a hidden tension. “After all, you are my guest, are you not?”

“Err, ah, yeah?” he answered in a ‘duh’ tone. Hadn’t they been over that already?

“Fufufu~” but the woman merely let out an elated laugh, the tension in the air vanishing, before with one last pat on his cheek, she rose to her feet in one long elegant movement, which drew the eye to her curves before turning and making her way to the sliding door.

“Please wait here and I’ll be with you shortly, my dear guest.”

Blake, for his part, merely let out a dumb, “yeah…” watching as her thicc, curvy butt was barely constrained by her red skirt, bouncing freely within its confines and tracing an outline of each cheek.

Watching the door close with a sad sigh, he set about waiting.

Dammit! He thought. She’s right! As if those crazy goons would give up so easily! With a sigh, and gracious for the fact that the room, the whole Temple really, if what he’d seen so far was an indication, had a pleasant ambient temperature. Not too hot, not too cold. He dropped out of his own seiza pose. His knees screaming at him and kicked back, laying on the smooth wooden floor behind him with his hands acting as an impromptu pillow.

And apparently someone had been watching as he made his mash dash towards the Temple. Enough to catch sight of both him and the goons after him.

Shit.

So, whether or not they had seen him enter the Temple or not, it mattered little. For if they had, they apparently held a great deal of respect for this place and if they hadn’t, well…

At any rate, though, Ohirume was right. He’d have to impose on the woman, and any other as of yet unseen, residents of this place, for a while longer. Despite how much his conscience burned at him for said fact.

Great going, you doofus. He snarled to himself. What was teacher’s first lesson? Oh yeah, ‘never pull innocent bystanders into your messes, kid’. And you went and blew it, just… great. he sighed and cracked open an eyelid, running his hand through his hair as he did before he noticed something.

“Wait, when did she pick up my shirt? I could swear she⁠—”

“I’m back~!”

With an excited shout, the woman slid open the door, making nary a sound, and entered, blinking when she noticed his sprawled out state, which was followed by a giggle.

“I…err…” once again, blushing to the roots of his hair, Blake all but sprang up to his feet. “I was just⁠—”

“No need to explain, dear,” Ohirume said with a shake, stepping closer. “I don’t mind, and it is only natural to seek rest after your trials.” Her warm tone set his heart at ease, and he nodded. “But,” the motion of her arm drew his gaze and caused him to notice the small, red cup, within which a familiar liquid rested. “I suspected, and judging by your desire to relax seems I was right, that you might also by thirsty~” The cup, held by soft fingers and pink nails, rose enticingly close to his lips, and the water that wasn’t exactly water sparked a craving, a need within him. Setting his heart ablaze and his tummy fluttering for reasons he could not understand.

“I…”

“Of course, it’s entirely possible I was wrong.” Blake only now noticed that a certain, almost imperceptible smell was wafting off the cup. His nose twitched. It was hard to place, but… not unpleasant. “And if that’s the case, I’ll leave this here for later and⁠—”

“No!”

His pupils dilated, and before he really knew what he was doing, his arms shot up, wrapping around the woman’s fingers, holding them in place. As any attempt to wretch the cup could lead to a spilling of its precious content. And he was so thirsty.

He leaned in and tasted ambrosia.

If before, it had felt…nice. Now there was no comparison, feeling the clear flowing and yet somehow, thick, liquid slowly make its way into his mouth and into the back of his throat, coating every inch of his mouth. An explosion of taste, sound, and even stars seemed to go off.

He moaned.

The flavor, was once again simply Divine, even if he couldn’t yet quite place what it was. All Blake knew, and cared for in that moment? Was that he wanted more.

And so he continued gulping.

And gulping.

Until the sound of slurping on air and the feeling of wet wood in his mouth caused him to come back to his senses.

“—irl,”

“Mmh?” he blinked, and detached his lips from the mug, only now noticing that a soft, warm, and very gentle hand was patting his head. A hand which seemed to hesitate for an instant before giving him one last pat.

“Good boy~”

Wait, had Ohirume been patting his head while he’d been sating his thirst?

Oh.

Oh!

Well, if the earth could open up and swallow him right about now, that would be nice!

Chuckling, and lowering the cup and her hands away, the woman just chuckled.

“Someone was thirsty after all, it would seem.”

“Ahh, yeah…”

She shook her head, sending her long-locks flying. “No need to feel ashamed, it is a perfectly normal reaction,” the woman said with a smile, before with a wink, turning and making to open the door. “Now come, my dear guest. Your bath is ready.”

Not trusting himself to speak, he merely nodded and followed after her.

Letting out a breath which carried with it tension he didn’t know he’d been holding, Blake, sitting as he was on the wooden stool, raised up an arm and stretched to the side. Working out some of the kinks in his muscles and enjoying the warm, humid air surrounding him and suffusing the room with a thin layer of fog.

“Ahh, that hits the spot,” he said, as with a soft ‘pop’ a particularly tight knot on his back loosened up. “Still, why can’t people here enjoy a normal bath as god intended?” he murmured, lips curling downwards in distaste as he took stock of his surroundings, weird square bathtub in one corner and all. “But in Rome, do as the Romans do and all that,” he murmured and scanned his surroundings, looking for the tools he needed to wash himself.

“And it seems I might have misjudged Ohirume after all,” he said with a soft chuckle. “She was being friendly, is all.”

But, just as he was reaching for a nearby water-filled bucket…

“Excuse me, I’m coming in~”

A soft, purring voice coupled with the sound of the bath’s door sliding open caused him to freeze in place.

“Ah! Err… Ohirume⁠—”

“I told you! Ohi-chan!”

He gulped but still refused to turn around, gazing at the wall straight ahead.

“Ohi-chan, then.”

“Yes, Blake-chan?”

He twitched.

“What are you doing?”

“Mmh?” the tantalizing purr was now close! Way too close to his ear! Causing his mind to run wild with imagination while behind him the scraping of a wooden stool against the floor could be heard, as the alluring and, most assuredly naked beauty dragged and placed her seat mere inches behind him. “Oh, merely performing my duty,” the woman said before a pair of pale, soft arms came into view, wrapping themselves around Blake’s midsection, making him gasp at their warmth, the soft fingers tracing lines up and down while Ohirume pulled herself flush against him.

Making his breath hitch as a pair of sinfully soft globes, radiating a gentle heat, squished themselves against his back. Confirming beyond a doubt that yes, she was as naked as the day she was born, and allowing him to feel every inch of the woman’s magnificent breasts as well as her taut, perky nipples. Her breasts really are as soft as they looked!

“I..we shouldn’t!” he managed to squeak at last.

“Mmh?” Ohirume purred in his ear, tone devilishly innocent, making him squirm as her hot breath tickled his ear. “Whatever do you mean?” she asked, and her pale limbs continued their rhythmic caress all over his body. “I am merely ensuring that all your needs are taken care off,” she said, while one of her hands traveled low, tracing the inner outline of his thigh and causing his breath to quicken while its partner reached his left breast, cupping up the flesh, her dainty fingers flicking against his nipple.

Blake gasped, an indecent moan escaping his lips as his back arched and tingles of pleasure kept emanating from the point of contact. The nipple growing almost painfully stiff while the woman, seemingly oblivious, begun to hum and her hands continued their dance all over his naked form alongside her mountains of flesh, traveling up and down his back and spine, making him shiver once more.

With effort and a furrowed brow, Blake marshaled his will and gazed down, ignoring Ohirume’s…everything. For a moment.

Where but a few months prior a perfectly flat and smooth chest would have met his eyes, twin, soft and tiny, almost imperceptibly budding, mounds met his eyes. Crowned by twin cherry buds standing firm and proud, tingling with pleasure still, after the left one tasted the woman’s accidental caress.

So, what they say about soy is true, it would seem…

Well, that sucked, but it was merely a routine surgery these days⁠—

Another moan left his mouth as the priestess’ hand glanced against one of his balls, his back arching once again, pushing firmly against Ohirume’s breasts. The twin mounds eagerly accepting him, cushioning his movement and almost seeming to hug him.

“Oh my me!” the woman gasped. “What’s this?” she asked, her fingers sliding across his sack until they chanced upon his painfully erect member, wrapping around his throbbing prick and giving it an experimental stroke.

“Please!” he cried, as his head landed on her shoulder.

“Mmh?” she asked, tone innocent, while he turned his head to the side to look at her. “Please what, my dear~?”

She gave another tug, causing his hips to reflexively buckle.

“I…please…no more, this… this isn’t right…” he panted at last, even though, as he laid his head upon her soft shoulder, feeling her magnificent breasts cushioning him and coupled with her alluring, almost intoxicating scent mixing in with the heat of the bath…

It was making it hard to think.

“Oh my me!” the woman said with a gasp, and somehow even through the haze cloying his thoughts, Blake was sure, that were her arms not busy caressing his body one of them would have found its way in front of her mouth.

“But this simply won’t do!” she said with a shake of her head, sending her long hair swaying momentarily, obscuring his view and filling his nose with the soft sweet scent of lavender. “After all, as a proper hostess, I must take care of your every need. And if what I know of boys is accurate.” Her fingers tightened around his rod and she started stroking him in truth. “Then if we leave this unattended, it could hurt you, no?”