ATF Saga 5: Steel Angel Kurumi – Angel
Giggles
With an eyebrow twitch of exasperation and amazement, Jaynin set his coffee mug down on his desk. Strange things often happened around here – indeed, that was the rule at the ATF, or at least it frequently seemed to be. As if to prove his point, at that moment there was a muted explosion – Jaynin had invested in soundproofing for his office to keep the noise down – and outside the charred figures of Andy and Lucifer flew into the sky and reached the twinkle point. However, as always, the ATF building regenerated itself within a matter of seconds, and all was well again. Jaynin had trained himself to ignore or at least not pay heed to the random explosions that were a fact of daily life at the ATF. Instead, he returned his focus to what was turning out to be a very strange interview indeed and swept his gaze slowly over the five rather eccentric beings seated in a semicircle in front of his desk. “I… see,” he said carefully, gathering his thoughts. “So it seems that you have quite a bit of work experience in this field.”
“Mmmhmm,” replied one of the group, a catgirl with white-and-black splotched fur, sitting with respectful attention, yet managing enough fluid grace so that her pose was not one of stiff formality. “Our previous employer, as fate would have it, was caught in an internal power struggle and was… dismissed… from his organization. We were told that our skills had no further use by our new supervisor, so we decided to seek employment elsewhere.”
“Ahh… yes, I can imagine that it could be difficult to find employment, given your… skills, shall we say?” The catgirl nodded and Jaynin continued. “I think that I may be able to offer you positions that you will find quite satisfactory. However, I am curious. How is it that you came to this place in particular? Was it during a job hunt, or…”
“Well, y’know, we were just sorta hoppin’ around looking for stuff, and then I found the website for this place,” another one of the five interviewees put in, leaning forward in her chair and giving her unruly and long blonde hair a shake as a grin split her cheerful face. She certainly did not seem dressed for an interview, wearing a black tank top with red shoulders and cutoff jean shorts, feet clad in knee-high black boots. Nevertheless, she didn’t seem bothered by her attire, nor very conscious of her situation. “So I gave everyone a call and we agreed that it’d probably be a good idea to stop by and check the place out. Seemed like our best chance of gettin’ a job, y’know?”
“Ah yes… well then.” Jaynin shuffled the rather large stack of paper, which was an odd résumé of sorts. Instead of a dry listing of work experience, it was actually a bunch of stories detailing events that had occurred while they had been working for their former employer. That, supplemented with the comments and details provided by each of the five, had made for an interesting read and interview. “All right. I want the five of you to head on down to the cafeteria on the ground floor. When I’m done with my work today, I’ll take you to where you’ll be working. It’s my house, actually… not a house literally, it’s a castle, but that’s where I’ll fill you in on the details of your position. Sound good?”
Felin, Jelex, Syia, Megan and Michelle broke into huge grins. “Thank you so very much,” Syia cooed softly as she leaned forward, putting her hands on Jaynin’s desk and causing her generous chest to give a little bounce as she fluttered her eyelashes behind large glasses. “I promise that we won’t disappoint you, and we look forward to entering your service.” With a blown kiss and a wink she disappeared out the door, following her friends down to the lobby.
Shaking his head, Jaynin looked back down at the other, smaller stack of paper on his desk, pushing idle thoughts of sending the five of them down to the Artwork floor to let the artists have a crack at them aside. He really did have better things to do than let his eyeballs roll down the shirt of a girl who was obviously used to employing fanservice to persuade numerous male otaku into giving her favors.
I heard that… For a second, Jaynin’s head came up and he searched the room. He could have sworn he’d heard that girl’s voice again… or was he just imagining things? That thought was followed by a giggle, and Jaynin’s brows furrowed in suspicion. “All right, Chibi, enough of the crap,” he said, flinging open the drawers where he usually hid. “Chibi? Come out, I know you’re in here somewhere!” Going through all of the usual hiding places, Jaynin came up empty and scratched his head. “Huh, I wonder where… ah ha!” he exclaimed, pulling his chair over to the air vent in the ceiling and opening it. “I’ve got… you…?”
Chibi was indeed up in the air ducts. However, he was all the way over down a different duct, doing something over there, and there was no indication he’d just hurried over from Jaynin’s airduct. In fact, it looked like he was perched over FF7’s… Quietly closing the grate, Jaynin left his office and went across the hall to FF7’s, knocking on the door. “Enter,” replied a voice quietly, and Jaynin opened the door. “Hey, FF7, you know that Chibi’s in the air duct right… now… oh, nevermind.”
Calmly, not moving a muscle or even twitching, FF7 sat half-buried in a pile of fortune cookies. “So I guess you know already then…” he said, eyes indicating the fortune cookies that still bounced down from the air duct and rolled off of the pile covering him. The next one hit FF7 between the eyes and rolled down the pile to land at Jaynin’s feet. “They all say the same thing more or less…” he said, giving a small shrug. “You can have that one, your more deserving of it anyway…” Hesitating for just a moment, Jaynin bent over and picked up the fortune cookie, cracking it open.
“’Your storys are awesome n_n’” Jaynin read aloud. FF7 sweatdropped. “Ahh… yet another one of Chibi’s attempts to make you accept compliments. Well, you have to give him credit, he’s persistent…” A few more fortune cookies dribbled out of the air vent, and then stopped suddenly. “At least he stopped…”
In the ventilation shaft, voices were audible, echoing off the walls down into FF7’s office. “Oh dear… Chibi, please, your grammar… use proper plurals next time. And don’t confuse ‘your’ and ‘you’re’. Aside from that, good job, and keep writing stor – er, making new fortune cookies…” There was a moment of silence.
“Don’t tell me Gloob went all the way into the ventilation shaft to correct Chibi’s grammar…” Jaynin sighed. “Even I’m… not that… bad…” Out in the hallway, HDS yelped in surprise and there was the familiar sound of a banner falling from the ceiling, to the usual muttered annoyance. “Okay, fine, maybe I AM that bad. Cut me a break already.” The Typo Hitler banner retracted back into the ceiling. FF7 raised an eyebrow and suddenly the fortune cookies surrounding him were burned into ash.
“Don’t you have a story to be writing…?” FF7 asked calmly, as if the fortune cookies had never happened. In the ventilation shaft, Chibi and Gloob were audible arguing as they crawled over to a vent not near anyone’s office.
“Actually I just finished it… I’m about to go and engage the Plot Generator now.” With that, Jaynin ducked back into his own office, grabbed the smaller pile of paper and headed down the hall. When he opened the door, however, the lights were out. “Stupid… who forgot to turn the lights on?” he grumbled, flipping the light switch near the door, and hearing a muted *bzzzzap!* right before a yell and a thud. “Who’s there?” Jaynin asked, clutching the pile of paper to his chest.
“Owww… I was still up there!” Carrotsama complained, crawling from a maintenance shaft, crisped and blackened, with smoke rising from him. “Geez…”
“What were you doing? I don’t remember there being a problem with the Plot Generator. Did something happen?” Jaynin scratched his head, looking around for something that might indicated what had gone on.
“No, it’s just that when you told me to rewire the trap board, I had to change enough around that I needed to rewire the whole floor… and that meant I had to rewire the other floors a bit. So…” Carrotsama shrugged and wiped his face with a rag. “Anyway, I had just finished with the lights, so this is done.” He walked out, still trying to clean himself, although it technically wouldn’t matter since once he had left the viewing area he’d automatically be restored.
Jaynin shrugged and was about to finish generating the story when he heard voices coming down the hall.
“REPUBLICANS SUCK!”
“LIBERALS SUCK!”
“REPUBLICANS SUCK!”
“LIBERALS SUCK!”
With a sigh, Jaynin placed his story into the Generator and set the parameters…
“Dr. Walski, please… give us another chance, and we can defeat Kurumi and bring the Mark II Angel Heart back to you. I swear that we will succeed this time.” Kaga knelt, along with Tsunami and Kaori, before Dr. Walski at the Academy’s control center. “We have studied her battle patterns and this time we will take into account the powers of the Mark II heart – “
“Enough, Kaga,” Walski cut her off. “You do know that you cannot defeat Kurumi in standard combat as is. Furthermore, kidnapping Nakahito was a tactical error on your part. You assumed that it would allow you to dictate Kurumi’s actions, yet it only caused her to show you the full power of the Mark II heart. I will give you another chance on one condition.”
“Yes,” the three Steel Angels replied in unison. “What condition would you require of us, Dr. Walski?” Kaga continued, looking up from where she knelt before him.
“Devise a strategy to defeat Kurumi that does not involve combat or angering her. Based on the data we collected from the last battle, these two factors seem to be involved in unlocking Kurumi’s full power. Avoid these two factors, and the three of you should be able to deactivate Kurumi and safely remove the Mark II heart.”
“As you command, Dr. Walski,” Kaga replied, standing swiftly and saluting in unison with her subordinates. “Tsunami! Kaori! Let’s return and devise a new strategy to defeat Kurumi…”
“Yeah, but what can we do?” Kaori asked as they walked down the halls of the Academy. “Defeat her without making her mad or fighting her? What’s Walski thinking anyway?”
“We will come up with a strategy based on the parameters we were given,” Kaga replied coolly. “We are going to examine all of our data on Kurumi and find whatever may be a potential weakness in her design.”
“If you’re looking for a design flaw, that’s easy,” Tsunami sneered. “She’s a klutz, overly emotional, dimwitted…”
“Personality traits are not design flaws,” Kaga countered. “We saw that she can act perfectly serious if there is need. We are going to examine hard data and not opinions.”
“Well, speaking of data…” Kaori mused, “I did run a comprehensive scan on her system structure and internal construction… somewhat. The scan was terminated prematurely, before I could scan lower than the abdominal area.”
“It is a good place to start,” Kaga agreed. “We’ll find that data and correlate with the battle data we have from the fight. Remember, we are looking for creative solutions to our problem. Propose no strategies that do not take both of Dr. Walski’s parameters into effect.”
“Right.” Both of the other Steel Angels saluted.
We’ll get you yet, Kurumi… Kaga’s eyes narrowed. “Let’s get to work.”
* * *
Nakahito was sitting outside on the porch, watching the sunrise and trying not to put too much pressure on his injured leg. “Oh, Kurumi… I’m so sorry. I wasn’t any help, and if anything, I got in the way…” Nakahito sighed. I thought Kamihito said that I have the power. If I have the power, then where is it? Why couldn’t I do anything?
“Good morning, Master!” Kurumi exclaimed cheerfully, kicking the sliding door open and carrying a tray of breakfast things along with replacement bandages. “How’s the leg this morning, Master? You’d better eat and get your strength up! I’ll take a look at your leg and change those bandages for you!”
“Thank you, Kurumi,” Nakahito said, once again accepting the fact that in his current state he was in no position to refuse any of Kurumi’s generosity, nor resist should she decide to force it on him as she was prone to do. Kurumi tenderly lifted his leg from its resting place on a cushion and began to change the dressing around Nakahito’s knee. “Kurumi, I’m really all right, you don’t need to sit around here all day and fuss over me. Why don’t you and Saki do something? I’m sure the two of you must be bored stiff.”
“Oh no, I couldn’t do that,” Kurumi replied cheerfully. “I’m never bored when I’m with you, Master, and besides, we have to watch over you in case something happens, so we’re staying right here. There!” Kurumi giggled and clapped her hands as she finished changing the bandages. “All done! Oh, aren’t you just so cute, Master,” Kurumi said. “Even your legs are soft, and mmm it feels good!” Kurumi started to rub Nakahito’s leg and foot against her cheek.
“H-hey, Kurumi! Knock it off, that’s embarrassing!” Nakahito cried out, blushing. “What if someone sees us? Kurumi! Stop it! Kurumi, that tickles!” Nakahito put down his bowl of rice so he wouldn’t drop it. “Kurumi! Seriously, stop that! H-heeeheeey!”
“But Master, I think it’s cute that you’re ticklish!” Kurumi smiled as she put Nakahito’s leg back on its cushion and poked his sole one last time.
“Well, that may be, but you shouldn’t tickle someone while they’re trying to eat, otherwise they’ll end up breaking something!” Nakahito replied, still a little bit red in the face but otherwise in good humor. Kurumi sat by him as he resumed his breakfast, hand under chin in thought. “What’s on your mind, Kurumi?”
“You said not to tickle someone while they’re trying to eat. How come? Is tickling someone a bad thing? Or is it just not for meals? Hmmm…” Little question marks began to float around Kurumi’s head.
“Oh Kurumi, it’s not that complicated,” Nakahito replied, a sweatdrop running down his face. “It’s just that when you tickle someone, they usually start laughing and try to get away, and sometimes they thrash and flail around and things get broken.”
“Really? Hmmm… Mmmm… I know what tickling is, Master, but I was only given knowledge about it concerning humans. I wonder if I’m ticklish too.” Nakahito did a facefault, knowing what was about to come next. “Master, will you find out if I’m ticklish?”
“Kurumi, can’t it wait until breakfast is over?” Nakahito sighed.
“NO! I want to find out right now!” Kurumi said, tossing her shoes aside and kneeling right next to Nakahito. “Master, pleeeeeease?”
“Why don’t you get… Saki to do it…? Kurumi, don’t stick your feet in my face while I’m eating…” Nakahito sighed, looking around and praying that he could foist this off on Saki and give him a chance to eat breakfast in peace.
Her attention caught by the mention of her name, Saki slid the door aside and walked out onto the porch. “Did you ask for me, Kurumi, Nakahito? I thought I heard my name…”
“Ooh! Saki! You’re my dear little sister, won’t you do a favor for me?”
“Anything for you, Kurumi,” Saki said, blushing slightly. “Wh-what is it that you want?”
“Help me find out if I’m ticklish or not!” Kurumi said, placing her stocking feet in Saki’s lap and waiting with crossed arms. “Master is too busy eating breakfast so you’ll have to help me.”
“Sure…” Saki giggled, thoughts racing through her head. If Kurumi really is ticklish… maybe she’ll ask me to try elsewhere… maybe… I’ll get to be alone with Kurumi, getting to touch her beautiful skin! Saki’s daydream was interrupted as Kurumi’s foot was planted in her face.
“Come on, hurry up! What’s the matter, why won’t either of you two – EEEEEEK!!!! Sakiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii that tickles!” Kurumi tumbled backwards as she pulled back suddenly, rolling and bouncing along the porch while giggling her head off. Saki blinked and blushed in confusion, her extended finger still where Kurumi’s soles had been.
“See, I told you, Kurumi,” Nakahito said, hurriedly lifting his breakfast tray to save it from the flying limbs and thrashing body. “You’re ticklish. In fact, from the looks of it, you’re very ticklish.” Nakahito smiled as Kurumi calmed down, panting in the center of the room.
“OK! Ok I just wasn’t expecting that one!” Kurumi said with determination, sitting down and plopping her feet back into Saki’s lap. “Do it again! I’ll be ready this time. I promise! Go on, Saki, try again!”
“Umm… sure.” With a giggle, Saki stroked her index finger over Kurumi’s sole once again. Kurumi’s face twisted comically, giggling and snorting with repressed laughter as Saki tickled both feet at once with her fingers. Kurumi began to let out muffled giggling as she pounded on the floor and wrapped her arms around her face, twisting and squirming energetically with her upper body.
“Nee hee hee hee hee… waahahahahhahaa…. Hehehehe… ahhhaha!! Saki, Saki that tickles, that tiiiiiiiiiickles!” Kurumi’s voice broke into a high screech as she burst out laughing again, clobbering Saki in the nose as she kicked wildly, causing Nakahito to save his breakfast tray once again.
“I’m sorry, Kurumi,” Saki giggled, rubbing her nose as she sat up again. “You’re just so ticklish, you can barely hold still.”
“Well then, I need help holding still! Get some rope, or some chains, or something! I need to feel what it’s like to be tickled!” Kurumi said, looking intently at the two of them.
“Uhh, Kurumi… even if we did… tie you up…” Nakahito blushed and ran through the words quickly, “you’d be able to break free easily.”
“Besides,” Saki put in, “you WERE being tickled. You just didn’t feel it for very long.”
“Well, how about you do something like this?” Kurumi leapt and landed on Saki with a flying tackle, ending up straddling her waist as Saki hit the floor. “See? Now I bet you can’t get up, can you?” Kurumi grinned in triumph, sitting astride Saki’s waist. “Hmm, I wonder if you’re ticklish too, Saki?”
“I would assume so, if you are,” Saki replied, blushing even more at Kurumi sitting atop her as she was. “But I can’t sit on you like this, Kurumi, you’re stronger than me…”
“Oh. Oh yeah. Well, I guess there goes that plan.” Kurumi put a finger beneath her chin and closed her eyes in thought. “Hmmm….”
“Umm, Kurumi, I think you should get off of Saki now.” Nakahito finally finished shoveling his breakfast down and was contenting himself with tea, drinking that at a more sedate pace, even cracking a smile at the two Steel Angels’ antics.
“Oh? But why, Master? If Saki can’t tickle me like this, then… I guess I’ll have to try tickling her!” Kurumi’s hands darted for Saki’s sides and began to wriggle and poke. “Tell me what it feels like, Saki! You’ll be the one who feels tickling and then tell me all about how it feels!”
“I CA HAHAHAAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAH I CAN’T!!” Saki screeched, her arms dropping to try and push Kurumi’s hands away. “KURUHUHUUHUHUHUHUHUUUUMI, STAHHAHAHAHAHP!!” Saki’s legs kicked and her body twisted but she wasn’t able to squirm out from under her older sister.
“Speak up, Saki! I can’t hear what you’re saying!” Kurumi cocked an ear. “It’s because of your hands, you’re not feeling the tickling properly!” Kurumi took both of Saki’s wrists in her hand and pushed them down to the floor over her head, then proceeded to tickle under her arms rather relentlessly. “I’ll tickle you more so you can feel it better! All you have to do is tell me how it feels!”
“STAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHHA AHAHHAHA AHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAP KURUMI I CAHAHHAAHN’T SPEHEHEHEHHEHEAK!” Saki tried to buck Kurumi from her with all her might, arching her back upwards with a thrust.
“Whoaaaa!” Kurumi squeaked, flying off to the side and coming down with stars circling her head. “Saki… you throw too hard…”
Saki was still giggling, rubbing under her arms. “Kurumi, I can’t tell you how it feels to be tickled when you won’t stop tickling! I’m laughing too much.” Saki sat up and smiled. “Anyway, I think I have some chores to do. I’ll have to help you later, Kurumi.”
“Now, let me just clear that up for you, Master, and… whoops!” Kurumi tripped as she tried to clear away the breakfast utensils, sending them flying off the porch.
“Oh, Kurumi…” Nakahito managed a rueful smile.
*
* *
“All right. Try it now,” Kaga said.
“You’re… sure about this, right?” Tsunami asked, looking at her rather queerly. “I mean, this whole strap you to an exam table thing. It doesn’t bother you?”
“Whether or not it bothers me is not the issue,” Kaga replied, nonetheless squirming a tiny bit. “We need to gather more data, and until Kaori comes back, this is what we should be doing.”
“All right. Well, here goes.” Tsunami checked the readout on the console, which had a cable fed to Kaga’s nervous system. “The routine is finished downloading and installed.” She coiled the cable and stacked it in its proper place, before turning back to Kaga, restrained to a table with her arms at her sides, locked in shackles.
“Do it.” Kaga’s voice was calm, collected.
Tsunami shrugged and took a moment to consult her own data. The data they’d both just downloaded consisted of two separate programs: Tsunami downloaded a program dealing with tickling, ticklishness, tickling technique, and all the other errata associated with the topic. Kaori’s scan data had revealed that Kurumi was unusually ticklish, and her body began to behave erratically when tickled, or so the data suggested. Kaori was going to locate and gather some more information on Kurumi, in an attempt to reinforce the data they had, while Kaga and Tsunami had decided to see if the possible disabling effects of tickling could be corroborated.
The difference in the program that Kaga had downloaded was that it also included a routine for the nervous circuits to enable ticklishness. This was immediately proven true as Tsunami’s fingers poked into Kaga’s sides. The normally quiet, direct Steel Angel let out a rather uncharacteristic giggle as her mouth struggled to maintain its accustomed neutral look.
“The involuntary reaction is confirmed,” Tsunami said, trying to maintain a dispassionate mien but finding this to be rather fun. “We’ll continue to see if it impairs your physical capabilities.”
Kaga only nodded, not daring to open her mouth lest a very unprofessional squeal of laughter escape. She couldn’t, however, control her body like she was accustomed to. Instead, it seemed as if it had taken on a life of its own, her midriff quivering and wriggling side to side, trying unsuccessfully to escape Tsunami’s fingers. “D-don’t enjoy yourself so much,” Kaga snapped, her careful control coming dangerously close to breaking.
“I’m not enjoying myself,” Tsunami said, trying to hide her smile. “I’m testing the hypothesis. You’ll need to be tickled for an extended period of time and with a good degree of intensity…”
“Tsunami, dohohohohoooooon’t!” Kaga’s face slipped into a grin as Tsunami’s fingers came down on her sides, tickling harder than before. “Stahhahahahaahahap it I said stop! Tsunami I comahahahahahhahahahahahahaaa command you to stop this instant!!!”
“Oh, fine then,” Tsunami said, giving the wriggling Kaga a quick break and swiftly taking her ankle in hand. A sudden and inexplicable jolt ran through Kaga’s body, the feeling of something ominous…
“Tsu-tsunami… d-don’t you dare…” Kaga panted.
“Don’t I dare what?” Tsunami no longer bothered to hide her grin as she smoothly slid Kaga’s boot from her foot, fingers wiggling, getting closer, closer… Kaga shut her eyes and tried not to think about it.
“I’m baaaaack!”
Kaori shouted, slamming open the door to the room and sending Tsunami
flying
into the wall. “Oh, Kaga? Was I interrupting something?”
“Not at all,” Kaga said quickly, before Tsunami could respond. “Our data corroborates the conclusions we theorized. Would you let me out?”
“Why is your shoe off…? Oh, never mind, here.” Kaori unlocked Kaga’s wrists and Kaga sat up, putting her boot on and trying to appear as if she wasn’t in a hurry to do so. “Anyway, I scouted the place where they’re staying and I actually got lucky.” Kaori grinned. “I actually saw the second Steel Angel, Saki, tickling Kurumi. Kurumi loses almost all control of her body when she’s so much as tickled slightly.”
“Excellent!” Tsunami cried, popping out of the wall and leaving an angel-shaped crater behind. “Now Kurumi is helpless before us, and there is no chance of her Mark II heart activating. Let’s go!”
“Wait,” Kaga said, her cool and collected air about her once more. “What about the Saki? And Nakahito? How can we detain them if they come to rescue her?”
“Even better news.” Kaori grinned. “Both of those two are also ticklish and share much the same responses, though not nearly to the same degree as Kurumi does. We can just immobilize the three of them all at once.”
“Then let’s move out. We can plan on the way.”
* * *
Saki was outside, humming softly to herself as she hung white sheets on the clothesline to dry. Before letting her go do chores, Kurumi had made her promise that she’d help with letting Kurumi feel what it was like to be tickled. The opportunity had Saki in a good mood and she was going about the chores of the house in a lively manner. As she turned away to pick the next sheet out of the clothesbasket, she cocked her head. “Hmm? I thought I heard something… who’s there?” she cried, spinning and tossing a rock she had picked up from the ground. “Nothing… was I just imagining things? …! U-ugh! Hey! Let me go! Kurumi!”
Kaga grinned as she and Kaori tore the sheet from the clothesline, wrapping and tangling about Saki’s upper body, effectively blinding her and disorienting her so that she fell to the ground. As she fell the three Steel Angels picked her up and hurried her off to a small shed used for garden tools, Tsunami closing and barring the door behind them.
“Kurumi! Nakahito! Is that you? Come on, stop fooling around!” Saki cried, trying to untangle herself as she felt cords being wrapped around her ankles, her boots whisked off and stacked near the door. “What are you – NO! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH OHHH KURUMI STAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAP OH PLEHEHEHEHEHZE THAT TICKLES!!” Saki dissolved into laughter as Tsunami’s nails gave a quick sweep over her blue nylon-clad feet.
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll be quiet,” Kaga said coolly. “Resist, and you’ll be tickled more. Cooperate, and you can get off fairly easy.”
“That voice…! You’re the ones who kidnapped Nakahito!” Saki’s struggles ceased, but as the white sheet was removed from over her head she glared at the three of them, but Tsunami’s wiggling nails were incentive enough to let Kaori tie her wrists behind her back.
“Comfortable? Good,” Kaga went on. “You see, Saki, the last thing we want to do is hurt you in any way. So rest assured that you won’t be harmed. It would be most logical for you not to struggle.”
“What do you want?” Saki shot back. “Kurumi! What have you done with her?”
“Nothing, yet,” Tsunami giggled. “You’ll get to see everything. In fact, you’ll have a front-row seat!”
“Kurumi, will you get the door?” Nakahito asked, reading from his position on the floor, now inside the living room, injured leg still propped and immobilized.
“Hmm? Oh, sure, Master.” Kurumi bounced off the floor and skipped over to the front door. “Hello? Anyone there?” Kurumi took a few steps outside. “Saki, are you playing tricks again? Come on, I know it’s gotta be you…”
“Uh, Kurumi…” Nakahito broke in, as Kurumi began to search through the front yard, calling Saki’s name. “Kurumi…? Kurumi!”
“Just a second, Master, I’m gonna find Saki!”
“…And we lost to her, right?” Kaori asked, as the three of them stood in a rough circle around Nakahito, Saki bound and set on a futon off to the side.
“Should we wait for her to notice?” Tsunami said with a shrug, kneeling and getting into position. Kaga nodded to Kaori and she knelt by Saki.
“Kurumi!” Kaga called out. “Kurumi, you will surrender to us and let us have the Mark II heart.”
“Master – uh? Oh, it’s you people. Whaddya want now? Hey! You’d better not hurt my master!” Kurumi said, coming in from outside and standing in the doorway.
“On the contrary,” Kaga said with a small chuckle, “hurting your master is the last thing we intend to do. But unless you do as we command…” She nodded to Tsunami, who grinned and began to skitter her nails on Nakahito’s foot.
“Kurumihihihihihiii!!!” Nakahito cried out, falling backwards on his cushion with laughter. “Kurumihihihii make them stop!!! It tickles!! Haahahaahahhaahahahaahahahah!!”
“Ohh Master! You’re just so CUTE when you laugh!” Kurumi said, with her eyes sparkling as Nakahito rolled around and giggled, Tsunami’s nails tracing gentle patterns on his foot. “Go on, keep going! Master’s got such a cute little giggle, I could listen to it all day!”
“Umm…” Kaori whispered to Kaga. “I thought she was supposed to be coerced by that.” Kaga said nothing, but blushed slightly and sweatdropped.
“Kurumi PLEHEHEHEHHEEZE make her stop! I-I can’t taahahahaahhahake it!” Nakahito’s fists pounded the floor helplessly.
“Well… ummm…” Kurumi stalled, thinking hard and concentrating quite a bit on Nakahito’s laughter. “It does sound so cute! Ohh, but Master said he’s ticklish, he doesn’t want it to keep going… Why not, Master?” Kurumi demanded, bouncing a bit on the balls of her feet. “Why does everyone but me get to be tickled?” Kurumi ignored completely Nakahito’s ticklish begging and continued with her complaint. “It’s not fair! I’m the one who wants to get tickled…” Kurumi sniffled. “And both Master and Saki are the ones who get it!”
Nakahito in the meantime had turned a light shade of pink, so Tsunami stopped tickling him and instead raised her eyebrow in Kurumi’s direction. “You WANT to get tickled?”
Saki giggled to herself. If they wanted to use tickling as a weapon against Kurumi, well, good luck to them! Aloud, she said, “But Kurumi! You’re so ticklish, I don’t know if you could – eeep!”
Kurumi turned around and held her arms above her head. “Tie me up! Like Saki! I want to see what it’s like to get tickled once and for all! Well? C’mon, do it! Hurry up, I wanna find out quickly! Stop stalling!”
Saki, Nakahito, Kaori, Tsunami and Kaga all stared at her in silence. Then Kaori turned to Kaga. “We don’t have any more cords, do we?”
“No. But I have a plan…” Kaga said.
* * *
“Yay! Whee! Isn’t this going to be fun, Saki?” Kurumi asked a short time later, seated next to Saki on the futon. Saki only gulped and tried not to think too much. Her right foot was tied to Kurumi’s left, her right wrist to Kurumi’s left, feet extended outward and arms overhead.
“Now… remember, the point is to tickle Kurumi until she is powerless to resist us when we try to remove the Mark II heart. Kaori, make sure to tickle Saki enough so she cannot interfere when we try to do so. And Tsunami, you keep Nakahito occupied while we do so. Is that clear?”
“Right,” the other Steel Angels chorused. Tsunami, mindful of her obligation, decided to tickle Nakahito very lightly.
“Hahahahahaha… no please, not more! Heeheheehehehe!” Nakahito cried out on reflex, although he realized instantly that this tickling was far more bearable than the last. But still, it prevented him from getting himself together enough to help Kurumi and Saki… “Ahaahahhahaah Kurumi! Saki! Hehehehehe!”
“Oh, don’t worry, Master, this will be FUHUHUHUHUUUUUN!” Kurumi let out a sudden shriek of laughter, as Kaori’s fingertips rubbed against her white nylons. “AHHAHAHAHAHAAH AHAHAHHAHA YES! THAT TICKLES HEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH!!! I CAN’T STAHAHHAHAAP LAUGHING!!! WHEEEEHEHEHEE!!!”
“’Whee’? Kaga muttered to herself, taking up position behind the two of them and using her fingers to tickle under their arms. While Kurumi was going ballistic from being tickled on her foot, Saki reacted much more strongly to the underarm tickle, even through her uniform.
“OHHHHAAHAHAHAH PLEHEHEHEHEHEHHEHEEH PLEASE NOT THERHEHEHHER! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA AHAHHAHA KURUMI HEHEHEHEHEHELP!! SHAHAHAHAHHAHA STOP IT!!!” Saki couldn’t bring her arm down to cover herself because Kurumi didn’t. Her free left arm flailed all about, unable to reach Kaga or the ropes that bound her, and instead it ended up pounding the floor in ticklish helplessness.
“AAHHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHA HAEHEHEHEHE WHEE!!! ISN’T THIS
Kaori couldn’t help but giggle at the silly antics, but she knew that Kurumi’s wriggling and laughing were draining her energy, so she continued, pulling from her pocket a raven’s feather that she had found on the ground outside and sweeping it first over Saki’s foot then Kurumi’s, back and forth. Kaori looked over to Tsunami, who seemed to be having way too much fun teasing Nakahito. “Hey, Tsunami, remember our mission!”
“Yeah, yeah… gootchie goo! Tsunami’s got your foot and she’s gonna tickle you! Tickle tickle!” Tsunami teased, smirking at Nakahito’s blush to the childish teasing, although her tickling was no harder than before. “Laugh for me you cute little thing! Kitchy koo!”
Kaga resisted the urge to join and instead kept her face impassionate, the movements of her fingers flowing naturally as a result of the program she had downloaded before. Knowing how it felt to be ticklish, she felt a small pang of empathy for the two hysterical angels, but not much. With a shake of her head she returned to her mission, and determined that Saki’s underarm was a weakness that could be exploited. Stopping her tickle assault for a single moment, she unbuttoned the shoulder portion of Saki’s uniform so that her bare underarm was exposed. Saki’s eyes flew open as she felt Kaga’s hand trace on her bare underarm, and even more so as she felt the other hand snake onto her stomach and begin tickling there, too. With Kaga’s hands underneath her outer layer of clothing, Saki was helpless to stop her.
“NAHHAHAH HAHAHAH AHAHAHA STHAHAHAHAHP OH PLEHEHEHEHEHZE STAHHAAHHAHAHAP NAHAHAHAH NO NO MOREH AHHAHAHAHA AHAHHAHAA PLEHEHEHEHEHHEZE KURUMI HEHEHEHEHELP HAHAHAHAH I CAN’T TAHAHAHHAAKE ANYMORE HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHHEAHAHAHHAHAAH!!!” Saki’s laughter became much louder, dominating the room.
“YEAHAHAHAHAHAH ISN’T IT THE GREATEST?” Kurumi squealed, her own laughter kicking up a few decibels as Kaori rearranged the cord to tie Kurumi’s ankles together and free Saki’s, so that Kaori now tickled Kurumi’s feet with a black raven feather and her own fingernails. “WHAHAHAHHAHAHA WOW THAT TICKLES AHAHAHAHHAH EVEN MORE!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAH EHEHEHEH OH GHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAD IT’S SO WEIRD! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA AHHAAH I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEEE!!!”
Tsunami had moved from tickling Nakahito into teasing him, so she was currently engaged in a routine which the tickling program indicated was a good and commonly-known teasing game, called “piggies”. Indeed, to Tsunami’s eyes Nakahito was laughing harder over being teased than from being tickled. Wiggling each of his toes around and speaking in an almost childish voice, Tsunami watched as the others tormented Saki and Kurumi with more intense tickling.
Finally Kaga ceased her tickling of Saki, as it was evident that the shy Steel Angel had reached the point where interference was no longer an issue. Saki caught her breath, using her free hand to rub away the tingling she still felt on her stomach and underarm but lacking the energy to do anything more. “This one’s had enough. What do you think, Kaori?”
“Well, let’s see.” Kaori stopped tickling Kurumi’s feet and grinned. “How about it? You gonna surrender to us now?”
“Heehehee…! Oh! That was pretty cool. Kurumi giggled and stretched her body, arching her back and flexing her limbs, surprising Kaga and Kaori by popping the cords right off. “But I think I’ve had enough of being tickled for now. I wanna tickle you guys now.” Kurumi giggled. Kaori didn’t say anything, but Kaga gave a visible twitch. “Ohh! I guess I’ll start with you, that pretty little tummy of yours is juuuuuuuust asking for it!” Kurumi advanced on the shocked Kaga, wiggling her fingers.
“H-hey! Kaori! Tsunami! Stop her!” Kaga said, backing up a step. When neither of the other two moved, she repeated, a little more desperately, “We have to continue! We haven’t tickled her sufficiently to… to…” Kaga backed up against the wall, her stolid demeanor beginning to crumble.
“I gotcha!”
Kurumi cried, giggling as she tackled the fleeing Kaga facedown on the
floor
and started tickling her sides. “Kitchy koo! Ohh wow, you
“Maybe I should…” Kaori said, musing.
“Hello, everybody, I’ve… come back with groceries…” Dr. Reiko Amagi slid the front door open, grinding all of the proceedings to a halt as Kaori, the worn-out Saki, a still-giggling Nakahito, a surprised and blushing Tsunami, and a cheerful Kurumi astride Kaga all went silent. “What’s going on here? What are these three…? What are you doing…? What is…?”
“Oh crap, it’s the doctor! We forgot all about her!” Kaori and Tsunami held a whispered conference.
“Is she ticklish?”
“I dunno… if she’s not, then we’ll blow the mission!”
“I think the mission is already blown…”
“What about Kaga?”
“We’ll come back for her after things settle down. Let’s scram!” Kaori and Tsunami kicked open the porch door and leapt off into the hills surrounding the residence.
“
“Don’t worry we’ll be back for you!” Tsunami called back.
Kaga looked backwards, and all traces of her calmness shattered as she saw Saki and Kurumi grin evilly.
* * *
A few days later…
Kurumi, Saki, Nakahito and Dr. Amagi continued their journey after Nakahito’s leg healed. On the whole everyone seemed to be in better spirits, although Dr. Amagi remained confused. Kaga had escaped from the tool shed they had stuck her in for the night, but Kurumi expressed confidence that they could defeat her again should the need arise. Saki wasn’t quite so sure about that.
Kaga managed to make it back to the Academy, having to report her failure to Dr. Walski yet again to retrieve the Mark II angel heart. Walski’s response was to assign another Steel Angel to the job… but in the meantime…
“Gone?!” Kaga stared at the terminal in disbelief. “Is it moved? Encrypted? Hidden? No, it’s… gone!” She looked around the cramped, hidden terminal room with a bit of panic. “Where… who… what happened to the routine to uninstall the ticklishness program?”
Tsunami
giggled.