It was impossible to take Maki too seriously, her request was absurd and so was she, having wiped the streak of cum off her face just to play with it between her fingers. The image of the reserved, bookish woman studying my sticky semen with reverent solemnity was at once so hot and so surreal that I felt like I was high out of my mind. Existential incredulity, I'd call it; I simply couldn't believe this was happening. What had my life become? How did I come to this moment?
"I know you're ignorant of the more mystical aspects of the world, so I will explain this as plainly as I can. Behold, your seed," said Maki, holding her fingers up to me. "For obvious reasons, I have never pursued the use of male vitality as a source of power. I know that it can be done in many ways, though all the ones I've heard of require rituals, items, or in the case of an aunt, a tsukumogami. Now, with that in mind, watch."
The thimbleful of cum on Maki's fingers began to glow blue slowly, resembling a fuzzy cloud covering the meeting point of her thumb, fore, and middle finger. Then, a shimmering, small blue moth appeared, took two flaps of its wings, and disappeared, though Maki's eyes continued tracking its erratic flight for a while longer.
"Cool," I said sincerely. "Never going to get tired of seeing real magic."
"Thank you. It was a messenger to the Divine World, to let the Shrine know that Ken has been avenged and that I'm safe. Normally that would have taken me twenty minutes of meditation or a prepared talisman, but with your semen, I could do it on a whim while naked. Do you realize what this means?"
I pumped my fist. "Hell yeah, my cum is a force multiplier for your spellcasting. That's sick."
She nodded slowly with a look of withering condescension. "For me and for everyone else."
"You're right, I should recruit more witches."
Maki groaned, slapping her forehead with my cock in apparent frustration. Again, I wondered if I hadn't maybe lost my mind; she had treated it as no different from slamming your head against the wall out of frustration without any apparent irony, a Stooges-esque moment of unintentional comedy from the profoundly weird woman.
"No, that is the opposite of what I'm saying. James, I am a priestess with a vested interest in the public good, and so perhaps you think that because I am a well-adjusted woman, other practitioners are the same, but this is far from the case."
That statement struck me as so odd that it nearly knocked me unconscious. "Maki," I said, ears practically ringing, "you're the strangest person I've ever met."
"As if you are in any position to judge, James Li. And anyway, good, that's even more to my point. Magic has a way of perverting its users with time. It's a slow process, but the oldest and most powerful practitioners are as fickle and particular as any spirit or fairy tale legend. James, I'm telling you, these women measure their plots in decades. One tryst in a nightclub bathroom and you'll end up hunted by a coven for years, is that what you want?"
Her concern was touching but tiresome. I was already basically a sex god, of course I would have to seduce my way out of problems in the future, it was a given. "Look, woman, I'm altogether incapable of being reasonable about this topic, so you'll just have to resolve yourself to having to rescue me."
"When that inevitably happens?" she asked incredulously.
"Yes."
"You're admitting that it will happen?!"
"Mhm." I nodded. "Kidnapping? Got to happen eventually, I figure."
She squinted at me for a beat, before sighing. "At least I won't have to worry about keeping busy. You're lucky you're so pretty." Maki stroked my cock with perfect pressure, her own palms matching me for sensitivity. The touch made her shiver, and the calm repetitions helped her relax. "I suppose if I'm being generous, asking you to avoid using your sexuality in the field is like asking me to no longer prepare talismans. Do use your head though, the bigger one."
I brushed some of her hair behind her ear. "I promise not to be a total dipshit with my magic cum. Unless, of course, I'm doing it as some sort of elaborate gambit."
"Fairly regularly then?"
"Probably. But speaking of magic cum, we've got more pressing business than future hypotheticals."
"It's true, I apologize for getting distracted. By the way, should I be timing my climaxes to yours? I know very little about lust magic, but that was my assumption."
"Huh? Oh, don't worry about it, just enjoy yourself. No, I was actually referring to a great idea I just had. We should do tests! See if you can still use my cum if I've already enchanted it, and what happens when you swallow a spell that's meant to be spread on your skin or vice versa, and that sort of thing. You've probably got more ideas than I do!"
Maki's face was a play of emotions. She quirked her head, furrowed her brow, and stared off into the middle distance for a good while before giving me a look of pleasant surprise. "That's…an extremely sensible suggestion, James. Apart from the shameless depravity of it all, I can't think of any reason not to at least try. It would be irresponsible to leave your abilities uncatalogued."
I tapped my temple. "As the city's greatest lover, I knew that you would find sexual science to be both intellectually and physically stimulating."
She smiled, but her voice was hesitant, overwrought with repressed curiosity. "Yes, very astute. I do probably have more ideas than you do. Are you sure it won't interfere with your healing?"
"As much as I hate to admit it, I'm actually insanely good at magic. It'll still have to be a simple blessing, but I should be fine. Those little spells are thoughtless, like muscle memory."
A switch flipped inside the woman, and a coil of intense interest seemed to unwind into her body language. The idea had been given permission to enter her mind, and I could see it bouncing around her pretty head. Her genius intellect was beginning to whir on in front of me.
"Then I'd be thrilled to research your bodily fluids and sex magic! It's honestly an opportunity of a lifetime. You have no idea what you're offering, you can't, you're a martial artist. You're always bubbling with Qi. But your seed inside my belly, I can feel it hot with potential. It's unlike anything I've ever experienced, the ability to throw my power around without calling on another or preparing it ahead of time. Beyond that, there's also a clean stimulant effect that I quite enjoy."
Maki's unnerving stare made me feel like I was a mysterious icon of ancient power recently unearthed by a slightly insane professor. She was studying, I remembered, anthropology with a focus on East Asian archeology. That made her prime for a future role as either a swashbuckling Indiana Jones-type adventurer or your archetypical Lovecraft protagonist.
The thought made me queasy and uncomfortable, so I stopped thinking it and observed instead that underneath the slightly manic eyes was an expression of honest joy. The woman was genuinely thrilled at the prospect of studying my cum and delving deeper into its magical properties. I wondered if she'd had the opportunity to really dig into any non-vengeance-related topic since Ken's death. That thought was wholesome enough to absolve her of any eccentricities as far as I was concerned.
Her eyes moved from my face to my dick, growing no less intense as they did. "I was reticent to agree at first since I'd long considered ritualized eroticism to be too dangerous to pursue in my own studies – compromising your ethics is easier if it's pleasurable after all. But somehow with you involved, the risks feel more like challenges than dangers. And it will undoubtedly be mutually beneficial to your long-term survival."
My heart skipped a beat at the implication. "Sorry, are you saying you'll continue to keep helping me research…"
"Oh! Did you just want to play around for tonight?" She asked, doing a poor job hiding her dismay.
"No! I'd be honored. I just didn't want to assume."
"Well, it would naturally take a great deal of time to explore your abilities alone, let alone how they can interplay with mine." She bit her lip worriedly. "It might be years realistically, or ideally I should say. If you enter a relationship with someone and no longer feel comfortable, then I will obviously understand, but…"
I laughed. "Maki, read my face. You're offering to do a PhD thesis on my cock – I'm beyond ecstatic."
"Great!" She beamed.
[Ally Quest Complete (Ishida Maki)]
Establish a long-term sexual relationship with Maki.
Reward: 50 XP, +1 Sensuality, Maki gains +2 Endurance
Bonus, Used no Skill or Attribute checks: Upgrade Special Feat Infused.
Congratulations on upgrading your first Special Feat! Continue to find creative and interesting uses for the others to upgrade them as well!
[Special Feat] Infused (Upgraded 1): While the Mountain of Heaven still stretches on before you, the mortal realm looks small from this distance. The wellspring of Qi in your core has begun to make the metaphysical physical. This greatly enhances previous benefits and grants new ones, esoteric and not, most notable of which are: your aging is slowed, your natural lifespan is multiplied fivefold, and your base Health and Willpower tracks are increased by 3. The raw crystallized essence in your every cell is of such potency that long-term exposure has positive transmutive effects on your environment and companions. Your soul glows only slightly brighter than before, but the 'light' it casts now shines like the grandest of diamonds.
The Producers were trolling me. Were they upset that I'd done it without rolling any Dice? After Maki's dire warning, I couldn't really savor the Reward, and I was never beating the 'You're a god' allegations after this.