Ryouta and Serra sat together on the couch in their living room while waiting for Cassandra and Alice to finish getting ready. Serra might have defied the stereotype of women taking a considerable amount of time to prepare their makeup, but Cassandra and Alice were living examples of it. Furthermore, because of how early it was, Serra could hardly keep her eyes open and instead kept on nodding her head while struggling to watch the subtitles on the TV.
“Go ahead and sleep until they’re ready,” Ryouta said to her. Though, since she couldn’t exactly hear his words, he expressed his message in actions by pulling her closer and letting his shoulder become her pillow.
Serra was quick to take him up on the offer.
Meanwhile, the television showed cleberation preparations from all around the country. After all, it was the most important holiday to most Americans now. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Independence Day – all of the former top holidays were borderline trivial when compared to this newer holiday.
Ryouta’s phone vibrated. Upon checking it, he saw that Eva finally replied to his message on Fiscord. Inside of the message was a picture of her with the caption that she was heading out now. Since she was an hour ahead of him, her family was already fully prepared to go out. As for the picture, it was of her. Ryouta sent her a picture of him once he was ready, not that he was dressed up in any special way, and now it was his turn to receive a picture of her.
He questioned her choices. As cute as she might have looked with a hoodie, he had no idea how she could deal with wearing something so heavy during the middle of yet another heat wave. Aside from that, he couldn’t see much other than her glasses and shaggy bangs. Her face was just a tiny bit rounder than it was in-game but, other than that, she looked almost the same as she did in-game.
All of his girlfriends looking like they did in-game was a great thing, but this did confuse him a bit. Ryouta always thought that one of the best things about MMOs and video games in general was being able to become somebody else. Who didn’t want an avatar that was basically their ideal of awesome and/or beauty?
Maybe his girlfriends simply all already considered themselves to be ideal in reality, so there was no point in being somebody else in-game. Were they all super confident in their bodies without him realizing it?
Well, either way, they were beautiful both in-game and out of it. That was more than Ryouta could ever ask for.
Though, there was one thing that could have made all of his girlfriends even more attractive.
More sweaters.
Alas, given just how hot it was, there was no way that he would actually ask any of them to wear sweaters. Even just seeing Eva in her hoodie made him want to take it off of her for her own good despite how cute she looked in it.
But she was leaving, so all he could do was send her a message and hope that she had a fun time.
Then he did the same for Azalabulia, though she wasn’t up yet. He knew that she was going out with her family as well, though, so he told her to have fun for when she did wake up. He also checked the weather for Alaska before sending another message warning her to not dress too warmly.
Just as Ryouta thought that he wouldn’t be getting any more pictures… another picture showed up in his messages.
From Spencer.
And Spencer was making a kissy face with a caption telling Ryouta to have a fun time.
Ryouta sighed and smiled, complimented Spencer on his eyeliner, and then sent back a picture of himself making a dramatic kissy face with the same caption.
The tradition of sending each other stupid faces on this morning every year would never die.
After all of that, Cassandra and Alice still weren’t done getting ready, so Ryouta finally paid attention to the TV since there wasn’t anything better to do.
The scene was of a woman standing in front of statue with a busy crowd around her. The statue itself showed one of the most important figures in modern history – a man whose social advances were even more important than Jenson Clarks’ technological advancements.
“That’s right,” the woman said into the camera in response to what the news anchor at the studio said. “Today marks the beginning of Robert Shaw’s revolution that changed our country and inspired the world to follow. Of course, we must also give credit to our French friends who inspired Shaw to act. Were it not for the successful protests in France, Shaw claimed that he never would have believed that change was possible. He had no idea that he would be the driver of the largest change our country has seen since the Revolutionary War!”
Robert Shaw was a man that everybody knew of in the same way that everybody knew of Jenson Clark. It didn’t matter where in the world somebody lived. If somebody lived at all during the past fifteen years, they knew these names without a doubt.
Robert Shaw in particular was taught to every kid in school these days.
The everyday firefighter who began a revolution.
“And could we really ask for better weather?” the reporter asked, causing Ryouta to groan since, yes, better weather could definitely be asked for. “Shaw’s goal was to ‘put out the fires’ of our former government and to tackle the primary cause behind the global fires such as the ones that scorched Australia, our western coast, and many other parts of the world. Were it not for him, even more of the world would be inhospitable right now. But just as firefighters are trained to do, he extinguished the flames and saved as many lives as he could.”
The camera focused on the statue. Standing tall and proud, the statue of Robert Shaw showed the man himself with his axe on the ground and the hands of children held by his own. Around his axe were broken bricks and metal rods meant to symbolize the tearing down of the southern border wall, and the children were there to represent the millions of lives saved from the ghettos that were created just south of the border.
And that was generally considered a relatively minor accomplishment when compared to some of his other achievements.
The reporter continued. “Today, when the sirens sound off, there will be a moment of silence for all of the lives lost during the revolution and all of the lives that could have been spared had it happened earlier. It may sound harsh to say that more lives could have been spared if the revolution happened sooner despite how tremendously successful it was, but that was something Shaw wanted us to never forget. Had he acted earlier, he could have saved more lives, and the same goes for each and every one of us. Today is not only a day to celebrate the revolution, but it is a day to remind us all to never idly stand by while injustices plague the world. We should strive to fix problems the moment that we become aware of them; we should never stand by doing nothing. As Shaw said, allowing our situation to become as bad as it became was his greatest failure as a firefighter.”
The channel switched to show the legend himself standing in front of the damaged White House. Millions of average people stood in the crowd in front of him waving various flags, and many of them had the community-favored logo of a firefighter holding a hose with regular people putting out an on-fire Earth. “It was my duty as a firefighter to extinguish flames the moment they began, not to wait until they were too big to ignore. No matter what I may have accomplished, I will always mourn those who I failed to save by not demanding change sooner. Starvation, disease, corruption – these fires were allowed to spread out of control for too long. We must never allow such fires to spread again. We must never allow such atrocities to happen again. It is only together – with every single one of us no matter your skin color, no matter what country you were born in, no matter what differences we may have, that we may build the foundations for a better future. The rich and the corrupt may be hiding in their bunkers, but we don’t need them. They wanted us to believe that we needed them, but nothing could have been farther from the truth. We only need each other! Every single one of you are more valuable than any CEO or politician! That is why it is so important to never allow something like this to happen ever again – we must fight injustice the moment that it shows itself. We humans might be strong on our own, but that individual strength is nothing compared to the strength of the community, and what is human civilization if not a community? On our own, we are strong, but there is nothing stronger than when we stand together!”
Despite coughing blood almost immediately after the final word left his mouth, the crowd cheered and waved their flags. They all knew of his health issues and knew that it was what he wanted no matter how sickly he may have become.
The world’s greatest revolutionary would succumb to his health just a couple of months after that speech.
“My hero! Is something wrong?” Alice asked, wheeling herself into the room.
Ryouta wiped at his eyes and shook his head. “I’m fine. It’s just – they showed one of Shaw’s speeches, and he’s always been one of my biggest heroes, so I get a bit emotional when I hear them. I wish I could have been to one of his speeches in person.”
“Ah, that man. We would have been around seven or eight when he died, yes?”
“Around there, yeah.”
“The French may have inspired him, but he inspired the rest of the world. I may not agree with many of his tactics during the revolution, but I may also be biased because of those in my home country who tried to copy him but with far graver consequences. Not every revolution is successful, sadly.”
“Well, your country came around eventually.”
“Not until far too many lives were lost, and then there was such an extreme pushback against us that the royal family was in constant danger. One of the only reasons our branch of the family survived was because of how distant we were from the main branch. Only the most extreme came after us, but there were not enough of them to reach us. Still, they were enough of a threat that we did not leave our manor for years. For the rest of the family… they are either dead, hiding in a bunker still, or imprisoned.”
“Sorry, I was insensitive when I said that.”
“You are fine, my hero. I simply wish that we could have achieved these results without so much bloodshed, but peaceful change was made impossible. Our only options as a species were violent revolution or suffering to extinction. Countless horrible events may have happened during all of the revolutions across the world, but we are still here, and now we may build a better future so that such violence may be avoided, yes?”
“Right. Do what we must, acknowledge the bad, celebrate the good, and create a better future for everybody. That’s all we can really do. By the way, you look great.”
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Alice lit up with a smile as soon as she received his compliment. “Thank you, my hero! Though,” she paused to tug down on her blouse, revealing a thick and plain bra, “this may not look very exciting… but it should be useful for today’s events!”
“You plan on playing in the games with all the kids?”
“Absolutely! I shall be like a tank with my chair!”
“Except the part of you that matters isn’t actually covered by any armor. Also… aren’t you going to regret putting on makeup if you’re going to play?”
“It is waterproof makeup!”
“Will that really work?”
“Even if it does not, it is of no concern. The worst, and best, case scenario is that I end up looking how I picture myself in my fantasies! Running makeup, my body covered in fluids, surrounded by those far more powerful than me – ah, today shall be a wonderful day.”
“Please don’t pervert the games. Kids are involved.”
“Hmm… true. I picture myself being surrounded by you, Serra, and Cassandra, but I suppose that the children are likely going to target us as well rather than only one another.”
“Do you expect the rest of us to play?”
“Of course! Cassandra is the one who gave me the idea for participating, and do you doubt that Serra would join? And if the three of us play, it is only natural that you will join as well!”
“Well, you’re not wrong. But, wait – Cass talked you into this?”
“Damn right,” Cassandra said, standing behind the cutely dressed Alice with an entirely different look.
Ripped jeans.
A black and red tank top.
A headband with the revolutionary logo on it.
War paint.
“I can’t believe I forgot this day was coming up,” Cassandra said with a suspicious black case held in her hand. It was long like a guitar case, but not in a guitar shape. It made Ryouta think of a gun case.
“You – you really take today seriously, don’t you? I didn’t even know you had those clothes… and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that case before, either,” Ryouta said.
“It’s my favorite day of the year. It’s also my dad’s most hated day of the year. Him and all his friends hate today.”
“Makes sense. Anyways, I like this look. It’s hot.”
As fearsome as Cassandra might have looked, she still blushed when complimented. “Th-thanks.”
“Though, now I kind of feel plain when looking at you two. Alice is as cute and elegant as ever, and you’re dressed like a badass revolutionary. At least Serra is wearing normal clothes with me.”
“My hero, have you tried lifting her shirt up?” Alice asked.
“She’s sleeping, so no,” Ryouta answered.
“Try it. It’s fine,” Cassandra said.
“I’d feel like a horrible boyfriend lifting my girlfriend’s shirt up while she’s asleep. No, I’m pretty sure that’d make me a horrible person in general.”
“It’s fine, I promise.”
If it weren’t for his other two girlfriends being so adamant about it, Ryouta never would have done what he was about to do. But, if they believed it would be fine, then there had to be a reason for it. So, he slowly lifted Serra’s shirt up just a bit.
And it was then that he instantly understood.
“Everybody – you’re all prepared for this. Am I the only one dressed normally?” Ryouta asked.
“It’s not too late to put on some swim trunks or something,” Cassandra said.
“Ah, those and an open vest would look wonderful on you!” Alice said.
“I don’t think I really have the sort of looks to pull that off,” Ryouta sighed. “But I guess I’ll go change real quick.”
“I can put some spare clothes for you in this case. I’ve already got spares for the rest of us in here,” Cassandra said.
“Good idea.” With that, Ryouta moved Serra so that she wouldn’t fall as soon as he stood up, got up, and got to work on removing his pants.
Cassandra was quick to grow red as Alice smiled and watched with the eyes of a predator. “He-hey, you’re just going to – you’re going to strip in front of us?”
“I mean… we’ve been dating for a while now, shower and take baths together, do lewd things to each other – we’re naked around each other at least once every other day. I’ll save time if I strip here,” Ryouta explained.
“But – we’re in the living room!”
“Do you think that any room in this house can be sacred for as long as Serra lives here?” Without any difficulty, Ryouta pulled off his pants and tossed them toward Cassandra. Then he did the same with his shirt.
All that were left were the boxer briefs he had on.
Cassandra gulped, Alice’s smile grew wider, and Serra snored.
“Fi-fine! Get it over with already!” Cassandra shouted.
“What? I did already,” Ryouta said.
“You – you’re not—”
“What, you think I’m going to get completely naked in the middle of the living room? Have some class, Cass.”
Ryouta walked off to get changed, leaving a blushing and frustrated Cassandra to groan and grumble as she stoved his clothes into her case.
“Drat,” Alice said with a sigh. “I was hoping that he would go all the way. Perhaps I will ask him for a strip show for my birthday.”
Cassandra may have been angry but, as soon as she imagined Ryouta dancing like a stripper giving Alice a strip tease in her wheelchair… she lost it.
Meanwhile, Serra continued snoring and scratched her belly.
The group arrived at the location of the local festival an hour later. Rather than wear what he was earlier, Ryouta had on a pair of black swim trunks and a baggy, black shirt to go with them. He looked even more out of place when compared to his girlfriends than he already did, but at least he was prepared now.
But none of them were as prepared as Cassandra still.
At the entrance to the festival grounds were a pair of firefighters outfitted in full gear with a nearby firetruck on standby.
“Thanks for your service,” Ryouta said as he walked by the firefighters, prompting his girlfriends—save for Serra—to also say it.
“Thanks for your support,” one of the firefighters replied, “and have a good time at the festival.”
The other firefighter, while silent, offered a fist to Cassandra. She instantly recognized what to do and bumped fists with him.
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“Look at you, fistbumping the firefighters,” Ryouta teased Cassandra.
“Somebody is rather popular!” Alice joined in.
“I’m not popular, I’m just showing my respect,” Cassandra explained before sighing. “Why couldn’t my dad have been a firefighter instead…”
“Don’t worry about him today,” Ryouta said. “We’re here to have fun and carry on Shaw’s dream.”
“Yeah, you’re right. So, since none of us had breakfast… we’re going to a food stall first, right?”
“Something about this is extremely familiar.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Ah, I see! Yes, this reminds me of Cassandra’s endless appetite during our trip to the amusement park!” Alice said, shooting an arrow into Cassandra’s back with enough force to stagger her.
Meanwhile, Serra covered up her mouth and yawned, barely even aware of what was going on and where they were.
“Just got a message from Aza. She says to have fun,” Ryouta said. “Guess she woke up finally.”
“Well, she is a few hours behind us,” Cassandra said. “Does she have any plans?”
“Yeah, they’ve got a festival she’s going to with her mom. They go every year.”
“With how close her and her mom sound… we might have to move her mom with her.”
“For some reason, I’m not going to be surprised if that’s what happens. I’d feel bad leaving her mom alone up in Alaska, taking her daughter away from her. Your dad has your mom, Alice’s dad has assistants and other family members, and Serra’s parents have a bunch of partners, so none of your parents are being left behind and alone. But Aza’s mom…”
“We’re not adding her mom to our relationship.”
“I – I wasn’t even thinking that! I’m genuinely being concerned for her, and not in a MILF hunting way!”
“Please never say that word again.”
“MILF?”
“Yeah. I hate that word.”
“Same, but it got the point across. So, you going to use your nose to sniff out some good food for us?”
Cassandra narrowed her eyes at Ryouta and said, “You think that I’m some food-hunting hound or something that can find where all the food is just by sniffing the ai—”
She sniffed the air. Ryouta immediately imagined a pair of twitching dog ears on the top of her head with a wagging tail behind her.
“I smell deep-fried food,” Cassandra said.
“I think it is a bit too early for that,” Alice said. “We may save the heavier food such as that for later!”
“Then what about burritos?”
“You – you can specifically smell burritos?” Ryouta asked.
“Do you want burritos or not?”
Ryouta shrugged and looked to Alice for a response. She had no problem with burritos, so he looked at Serra.
Serra was too sleepy to have a response.
Burritos it was.
It was while eating burritos that he learned Cassandra and Alice have horrible sides to them. Serra, in her sleepy state, barely even aware of the fact that she was holding a burrito and eating it like a tiny hamster would… was having her picture taken by Cassandra and Alice.
Ryouta would never take pictures of his half-asleep girlfriends doing things that they were barely even aware that they were doing, and he wouldn’t want the same done to him!
However… Serra did look incredibly cute while eating her burrito.
Ryouta shook the temptation to join in on the picture-taking out of his mind and said, “I forgot how diverse the choices are at these festivals. I haven’t been to one in… since I was a kid, probably.”
“What’d you expect?” Cassandra asked. “Part of the revolution was about bringing everybody together and embracing cultural diversity and all that. Asian food, South American, Indian – you can find everything at these festivals. It gives everybody a chance to come and share their culture while celebrating an important day.”
“You’re even more into this holiday than I am. I thought I loved this holiday, but you really take it to a whole new level.”
“Well, it’s an important day. Plus the more I love it, the more I piss off my dad. He’s probably sitting at home seething right now knowing that I’m having fun today.”
“But you haven’t even talked in a while.”
“Trust me, he’s still going to be angry.”
“Fair enough.”
With his burrito finished, Ryouta opened up the pamphlet that he picked up near the entrance to look at where everything was and at what times special events would be. They were currently at the food hub. The closest attraction was the Ferris wheel. There was also a paddleboat attraction at the river and one other attraction that caught Ryouta’s attention.
“So… who wants to go on the slingshot with me?” Ryouta asked.
“No,” Cassandra answered.
“I – I may have to second Cassandra’s answer,” Alice said.
Ryouta looked at Serra.
Serra shook her head. He was pretty sure that she didn’t even read his lips to know the question, yet she still refused.
“I see how it is,” Ryouta said. “In that case, you leave me no choice. Whoever goes on the slingshot with me… gets ten redeemable tickets that they can use to make me do whatever they want whenever they wan—”
Serra stood up and started walking toward the slingshot ride, leaving her half-eaten burrito behind on the table.
“Good luck with that,” Cassandra said. “Both with the ride and being Serra’s slave.”
Maybe offering ten opportunities of turning Ryouta into a personal servant was too much, but it was too late.
“We’ll be back,” Ryouta said. “Unless the ride breaks and we die or something.”
“D-don’t say that,” Cassandra pouted. “That could seriously happen…”
“We’ll be fine. I promise.”
“Hmph. You better be.”
Ryouta got up and placed a kiss on Cassandra’s head before going to catch up with Serra.
“I will not judge you,” Alice said, knowing exactly what Cassandra was thinking about. “After all, it would be worse to let food go to waste.”
Cassandra hesitantly took what was left of Serra’s burrito. She then not-so-hesitantly ate it.
By the time that Ryouta and Serra finally made it to the front of the line, Cassandra and Alice had finished up at their table and decided to watch as Ryouta and Serra got onto the deathtrap.
“Alright, looking good!” the ride operator said as he double-checked the safety harnesses and belts. “You two ready?”
Serra gave a sleepy thumbs-up while Ryouta gulped. Suddenly, he wasn’t so confident about this anymore. “Yeah, I think I’m ready,” Ryouta answered.
“Make sure to hold on tight! We wouldn’t want you flying off into space on us or anything. We’d probably be in lots of legal trouble if that happened, you know?”
Ryouta simply had to hope that the operator’s fear of getting into legal trouble would be enough to guarantee his safety.
Though, Cassandra clearly looked even more nervous than Ryouta now did.
The operator returned to the controls and began to count down. “Alright! Five… four… three… two—”
A large, loose screw fell out of the ride. It looked like a very important screw given just how large and sturdy it was, and Ryouta didn’t see this happen for any of the previous riders.
A large drop of sweat formed on Ryouta’s forehead as he looked down at the screw.
“Shit!” The operator shouted. “If you launch now then—”
Needless to say, the slingshot launched.
Ryouta could have sworn he heard the dramatic screaming of a certain Cassandra coming from below, but he couldn’t think too hard about that.
He was about to be flung into space.
His life flashed before his eyes.
There were bad times in his life but, recently, his life had been nothing but good. Ever since he met his girlfriends, he had been having the best time of his life. He was truly, genuinely happy. While dying now would be regrettable, especially in such a stupid way, at least he was happ—
Serra’s noises caused him to open his eyes and look at what was happening.
One, they were not flying into space. They were being bounced up and down in the air like normal. Two, Serra was moaning. Erotically. She was suddenly much, much more awake than before, and Ryouta’s subconscious intention for why he always wanted to ride one of these with his girlfriends became clear.
He remembered all of the videos that he saw of men taking their girlfriends and wives onto similar rides and the women feeling good and even potentially orgasming from them.
Mission accomplished.