"Excuse me-" someone said, in heavily-accented English. "Are you American?"
I turned around to see a Japanese man, roughly college age, standing in front of the supermarket's "American Food" section, which was full of the most ridiculous things I'd ever seen.
"I am, yes," I said in unaccented Japanese. "If you will forgive my presumption, I think you were about to ask me about these foods, were you not?"
"Yes, I was," he said, nodding, and switching back to Japanese as well. "Which of these would you recommend?"
"None of them, honestly," I said. "Most of what Americans actually eat is either very similar or outright identical to what you'll find on the other shelves. What you see here are novelties that wouldn't sell in America." I frowned. "For example, hamburger-flavored pocky. That is... nobody wants that, not even Americans."
"I see," he said, a little crestfallen.
"Although..." I paused. "Oh. No, I misread that label. No, that looks bad, too." I turned to regard the young man. "My sincerest apologies. But, Americans are not weird in the ways you may have imagined. I hope I was able to help you, friend."
He nodded, and I turned around to continue down the aisle with Akitsu.
"Alright, what's next on the list?" I asked her.
"White rice," she said. "There." She pointed at a shelf laden with huge bags of rice, and I nodded.
"Got it. Let's go."
---
"So, Uzume," I said, after returning from the grocery store. "What do you do for a living?" Since Uzume wasn't winged by me, hanging out with her wasn't a minefield of ethical problems. Aside from that, though... she was funny, I liked her, and besides- anyone who's seen my tits is a friend.
"I'm a tailor," Uzume said, playing some Armored Core. "I mostly get hired for cosplay stuff, because that's what I started advertising myself with- all the design parts were already done for me- but every now and then I get someone wanting a nice dress, or maybe they bought a suit and need to get it fitted."
"Pretty intermittent work, huh?" I asked.
"Eyup," Uzume said, laying on the floor of her bedroom, playing video games, at 11:30 AM on a Wednesday. "I do roommate discounts, too, if there's something you want." She blew up the final enemy mech, completing the mission, then turned to me and grinned. "And, y'know. I think we've got some tastes in common, so... if I like the idea enough, then I'll do it for free, as long as someone wears it where I can see it."
"So really," I said, "you're asking me for permission to put my girlfriends in slutty maid costumes, but pitching it like you're doing me a favor."
"Not just them, no," Uzume said. "Also, girlfriends, huh? Glad to see things are moving that quickly."
"Eh," I said. "It's just the word I grabbed first. Probably not the right one; none of us have really done anything all that romantic." I sighed. "Relationships are complicated enough when it's just humans, you know? When you throw in Sekirei and winging... it doesn't actually make anything easier, you know?"
"No," Uzume admitted, quietly. "No, it doesn't."
We shared a deep sigh.
"Anyhow," I continued. "I have... a very small amount of skill, and a less-small amount of interest, in sewing, and making clothes, and even in cosplay stuff. If I were to... say... provide the materials, and maybe even help you out with other work... would you be willing to teach me?"
"Hrm..." Uzume hummed, considering this carefully as she navigated the shop. "...That's... tricky. It's..." Uzume sighed. "You already know I'm a Sekirei. That cat is out of the bag, now."
"I do, yes."
"Well," Uzume continued. "My Sekirei power is control over cloth. It's a huge help with tailoring, letting me experiment a lot, very quickly, without wasting materials. In fact, it is such a huge help that I don't even know how to use a sewing machine. Never had to learn."
I blinked.
"...Okay," I said, nodding. "That tracks."
"Yeah, sorry."
"I'll live, don't sweat it," I said, waving her off. "Hey, for the cosplay side of things- do you have any use whatsoever for a 3D printer? Or, really, just a good source of 3D printed parts?"
"Yeah, a lot, actually," Uzume said. "I actually have a few Ender 3s in the basement, where we don't have to listen to them."
"...Oh," I said. "Hrm. Okay, so what I was about to offer is in fact pretty extraneous, then."
"If it was a 3D printer, yes," Uzume said. "Unless you were going to offer me a CoreXY machine, like a Voron or a RatRig, in which case I'll rent us a room in a love hotel."
"Tempting," I said, without lying- Uzume was, after all, shaped like a hentai character, and... well. I wasn't immune to that. "But I'll take a rain check on that for now. Anyhow. You've gotten sucked down the 3D printing rabbit hole, haven't you?"
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"Even Matsu calls me a nerd," Uzume complained. "It's not fair! I just wanted a tool that'd help me do my job better, but now I have opinions about bedslingers and Bowden drives and volcano nozzles and speed benchies."
"Tell you what," I said. "I've got a kinda support staff in my pocket world. You wanna come in there with me, I can hook you up with not just the printer, but the equivalent of a college degree in every aspect of using it."
"You are," Uzume said, "the best roommate in the world."
"We're not really busy, so..." I stood up, stretching. "Wanna go right now?"
"Hell yes!" Uzume shouted. "Let's do this!"
---
"Alright, so," I told Matsu, after Uzume and I returned from the Warehouse. Well, really, after Uzume set up her new printer in the basement, and told me to leave her be while she worked on tuning it. "Credentials hacking. That's... a thing you can do, right?"
"Mhm!" Matsu said, starting to click-clack at her keyboard with impressive speed. I noticed that, rather than the typical plank-shaped typing rectangle, Matsu's keyboard had clearly come off of one of Uzume's printers, being as it was a strange, ergonomic-looking pair of bowls studded on the inside with keys and connected by a coiled aux cable with a fancy, colored fabric sleeve. "We should probably start with getting you all the paperwork for living and working in Japan. Whiiiiich... hrm. They were expecting me. But... they want me to do this?"
"Who are they?" I asked.
"MBI," Matsu said. "They've got a lot of influence on the government, and Minaka's set up his own MBI-based shortcuts for bringing Americans to Japan to work on projects."
"I see," I said. "And Minaka wants you hacking into this system of his because..."
"Because he wants me to get you authorized to live and work here," Matsu said. "He wants you to stay here and fight. If you're too busy worrying about getting evicted and deported, then you won't have time to do anything 'interesting.'" She sneered. "Hrmph." She blinked. "Oh, and now there's a fresh job offer for an English-speaking web programmer."
"Oh, he knows what my degree is in," I said. "Well, unfortunately for him, I've been developing my skills further with the help of my teachers in the Warehouse. Am I authorized to work in Japan now, Matsu?"
"Mhm," Matsu said.
"Good. Next, I want you to hack into the servers of the University of Texas, and get me a Master's in Computer Science, and..." I hummed quietly. "You know what, throw in whatever certification they give for their project management course. I'll knock that out next time I'm in the Warehouse."
Matsu grinned, and started typing away furiously, causing her monitor to throw a fit for a few moments before it caught up to what the hell she was doing- and then, a few moments later, she was already done.
"Anything else?" Matsu asked.
"Let's see if there are any rival corporations in town who need someone with my skills," I said.
"Petty," Matsu said. "Matsu likes."
---
"Shabbat shalom, friends," I said as I sat down at the dinner table.
"...Was that Spanish, or..." Homura trailed off.
"Hebrew," I said. "Miya, this is directly relevant to you- being as I am Jewish, I try to observe Jewish law where I can, and that means, from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday, I observe Shabbat, the day of rest, and am not allowed to do any sort of work whatsoever unless it's to save a life."
"Really, now," Miya said. "I suppose that means I'll have to adjust the chore schedule; I assign most of those on Saturday, so that nobody has a big load of chores to do the day before they go back to work for another week."
"Does anyone who lives here actually work a typical Monday-to-Friday schedule?" I asked.
"I pretty much only work on the weekends," Homura said.
"It's the principle of the thing," Miya said simply.
"I see," I said.
"So, what are you going to do all day tomorrow?" Uzume asked.
"We'll see," I said with a shrug.
---
As skeezy as it sometimes felt, this whole Sekirei winging thing, and how nobody involved was truly free to tell me 'no'... well, right now?
Right now, I was content to ignore that, and just lay there, doing sweet, sweet fuck-all, with three soft and warm women all cuddled up to me.
I'd expected to get bored and have to get up and do something else after, like, the first hour or so, but nope. It really did seem like all four of us were perfectly content to just kick back and do nothing but cuddle, literally all day.
"So," Matsu said, at around... eh, probably midday, judging by the sun. "Glad you took a chance on us?"
"Being an Ashikabi does have its perks," I admitted, twining a bit of Akitsu's hair around my fingers as I rested my head on Musubi's fat, pillowy tits. "Now... granted, I'm beginning to understand my folly in saying that we'd adhere to Miya's rules even in the Warehouse, but..."
"I have been rubbing my body against yours since 9 PM last night," Matsu all but hissed. "Rose. Please. Take us into the Warehouse, even if it's only for ten minutes."
"But," I continued, grinning at Matsu. "I've discovered just how funny it is to get you all horned up and then deny you."
"...You are mean," Matsu said, breathing heavily.
"And you like it."
"Well..."
I chuckled, then reached down with my free hand to pat Matsu's head- she'd laid claim to my legs, for this round of adjusted positions, and had managed to come to rest in a position that let her rub both her boobs and her face on my crotch at the same time.
I sighed happily. It turned out, when you weren't a teenage virgin who was horny as shit but also afraid of sex, you ended up being pretty happy with a girlfriend who was willing to be openly horny about and to you.
"Anyhow," I said. "Give it a month, at the least. I think we still need some time to... acclimate, to all this."
Matsu groaned.
"...By the way, is Musubi still asleep?" I asked.
"She is," Matsu said, nodding.
"Damn," I muttered. "Remind me to thank her for being such a good pillow when she wakes up."
"Will do."