Volume 6 - Northern Exchange, Chapter 36 - Pillow Wars, Episode 1

"Yamato, Misaki! Welcome, and thank you for coming," Yuisu cheered as she opened the front door.

Yamato bowed respectfully, his short brown hair as disheveled as ever. "No, thank you for inviting us. We heard you have some new guests staying over and Misaki is very excited to meet more liminals."

Yuisu gestured into the house. "Yep, Froze and Kehp should be in the living room if you want to go say hi, Misaki."

Before Yuisu could finish her sentence, Misaki had darted inside. The little harpy called back in her raspy voice, "Thanks, Yuisu!"

Yamato walked inside calmly like a normal person. It was a little surprising how little normalcy was left in Yuisu's life these days. Except while she was at work at the convenience store, liminals were a huge part of nearly every conversation she had.

"So, Yamato, how's work been?" Yuisu asked as they sat at the kitchen table.

He smiled. It seemed he appreciated the mundane topic as well. "Oh, it's been going well. I got promoted up to full time at the grocery store. Working more hours means less time with Misaki, but my shifts are at more reasonable times at least."

"Oh, congrats!" Yuisu said with a smile. "I couldn't possibly work full time with so much to take care of around here. We're up to six liminals, at least for the next couple weeks." She frowned as she realized that their normal conversation had already diverted right back into liminal territory.

Yamato misinterpreted her frown. "That must be a nightmare. Misaki's a handful on her own. I can't imagine dealing with six homestays."

Yuisu chuckled. "It isn't that bad. They're all a bit older and, uh, more self-sufficient than Misaki. The sheer number of people living here is the bigger issue." Yuisu held her head in both hands and said, "Trying to manage food and laundry for seven women can get pretty crazy. Thank god we can all bathe at the same time. I can't imagine trying to schedule individual bath times too."

She looked back to Yamato, but he was staring intently at the table and his face was bright red. He must've imagined all of us in the bath together. Sadly, it isn't all that sexy in reality. Usually…

Yuisu continued, "Speaking of bathing, did you and Misaki bring your swimsuits? We could all take a dip in the hot spring later." Yuisu smiled and thought, I could tell him that we usually don't wear swimsuits in the hot spring but the thought might break his brain.

Yamato nodded. "Yeah, we did. Misaki's really eager to show hers off." He blushed and added, "She looks really cute in it." Feeling suddenly awkward with the current topic, he changed it. "Shouldn't we start cooking soon? We've got nine mouths to feed, after all."

Yuisu jumped up from the table. "Oh crap, you're right. Can you bring those platters of food out to the porch? I'll go fire up the barbeque." She grabbed some utensils from a rack and made for the back porch.

A bit over an hour later, everyone gorged themselves on grilled kebabs of both meat and vegetarian varieties, as well as corn on the cob and several side dishes. After dinner, all nine of them gathered in the living room. They took up all the chairs and the entire L-shaped couch with Tsuen happily kneeling on the floor where her centaur body was out of the way.

"Ahem," Mara cleared her throat and stepped into the center of the group. She presented a big black box in the air over her head like some holy artifact. "Prepare yourselves for… Cards Against Liminals! This game is a riot and I'm sure you'll all love it, as long as you let your minds get good and dirty," she said with a toothy grin.

As the game progressed, Yuisu was very glad she didn't have any neighbors, because this group was being loud. She smiled and thought, At least they're all having fun together.

After the latest chorus of laughter died down and all the cards were gathered up, it was Tsuen's turn to read everyone else's submissions and pick her favorite. It was very clear that she was having the hardest time out of everyone with the often crude and perverted tone of the game. Even Kehp had rolled with the punches and made a few dirty jokes of her own.

"Um, 'A romantic, candlelit dinner would be incomplete without…'" Tsuen read, then she blushed bright red as she saw the first white card. She soldiered on and read out, "Minotaur Manhood".

Mara clapped and whooped with laughter. "Ahaha, that's amazing!"

Tsuen hid her face with her hands and whispered, "Oh, dear…"

Haru turned to Froze with a mischievous grin. "Hey, Froze. You're the foreign meat expert. How would you rate minotaur manhood?"

Yuisu chuckled from her cozy spot snuggled up in Haru's wings.

Froze sneered back. "That depends, Haru. Would you like to eat it, or eat it?" She grabbed a pillow from the couch and threw it at Haru. The unsuspecting harpy took the pillow straight to the face and let out a surprised squawk.

Haru returned fire with the pillow but it missed and hit Kehp, who fell sideways into Quess's gelatinous body. Tsuen never got to finish reading her cards because the room descended into chaos when people started tossing the other throw pillows at each other. Mara scuttled off to her room next door and came back with an armful of stuffed animals and Haru did the same for her room, bringing the majority of her pillow-nest.

With new ammunition in hand and wing, they launched into an all out assault on anyone and everyone. Pillows and stuffed animals flew and collided with every liminal, human, and inanimate object in the room.

Suddenly, Quess stood up in the center of the room and yelled, "Halt!" in her most commanding tone.

Everyone froze in place, their pillows still primed to be thrown, and they waited for Quess's next royal decree.

She surveyed the crowd around her, then declaimed, "Surely you have all seen enough films to know that pillow fights require everyone to be in their underwear?!"

Tsuen, who had been cowering on the floor, looked up at her with a baffled expression. "What kind of movies have you been watching?"

Mara giggled and muttered, "The good kind, obviously." Then she stopped and said, "Wait a minute. How could you participate then, Quess? You don't even wear real clothes!"

Quess squinted in effort and her normal dress disappeared into her body. An instant later, new details appeared along her surface. They coalesced into the appearance of very skimpy, very sexy dark pink lingerie, complete with little frills on the bra and panties. The bra barely covered, let alone supported, her massive breasts.

Mara's mouth fell open in awe and she nodded appreciatively. "Alright then. Let's do this!"

Quess rose up taller and made a final decree, "Go, change into your best underthings! Choose underwear worth wearing into battle, and gather all the pillows you can muster! I will clean up this card game and secure all the breakable objects. Reconvene here in three minutes for battle." She narrowed her eyes and added, "And there shall be no bystanders!"

Either through her queen-tier persuasion skills, a dosing of pheromones, or both, Quess's speech got everyone onboard and they all ran off to get changed. Yamato and Misaki didn't have a bedroom of their own so they went to the laundry room.

Misaki was grinning from ear to ear. "This is so fun! It's like those sleepovers I heard about on TV."

Yamato was more nervous. He was about to go into pillow combat against a bunch of beautiful and scantily clad women, only one of which was his girlfriend. It was simultaneously a dream and a nightmare.

He tugged the side of Misaki's kimono. "Do you have secure underwear on? If not, you could change into your swimsuit."

Misaki shed her kimono with scary speed, revealing red boyshort panties and a matching tube top. "Yep! I'm ready!"

Yamato removed his shirt and jeans, then realized a major issue. His blue plaid boxers had a flap at the front that didn't button closed. Given the nature of the warfare to come, he could be sure his Private Johnson wasn't going to stay under cover for long. "That flap won't stay closed. I may have to get my swimsuit…" he muttered.

"Hey, it won't be fair if you're the only one not in undies!" Misaki whined, but then her eye caught something on the other side of the laundry room. She ran over and picked up a small object. "Here you go! Use this." She presented a sturdy looking safety pin to Yamato.

He smiled and took it. "Wow, this should work great. Thanks, Misaki," he said, and patted her on the head. "I can always rely on you to find shiny stuff." He ran the pin through his boxers' flap, making sure that the if the pin did pop, it would point away from his delicates. He stood up and started towards the door, looking and feeling pretty scrawny. I need to hit the gym more if my life is going to be filled with insane situations like this...

Misaki and Yamato ran out to the living room expecting to be the last ones back, but Tsuen and Mara weren't there yet.

Mara came in shortly after, wearing a sky blue bra, blue polka-dot panties, and blue striped knee-socks on her pedipalps. Her other eight legs were bare and she was already putting the improved grip to use by dragging Tsuen along. "Sorry everyone. Tsuen couldn't decide between running shorts or special lingerie, since that's all she has. So I decided for her!" She tugged on Tsuen's hand and pulled her forward into view.

On her upper half, Tsuen wore a simple orange bra, which was a change from her normal sports bras. Below, she wore her typical orange centaur-cut running shorts. She was showing about as much skin as she did when running in public but still she looked as embarrassed as if she was stark naked.

Mara grinned at all the other girls. "Ha, you probably thought I'd put her in the lingerie." She patted Tsuen's side with a hand. "That's for me and her only," she said, and stuck her tongue out with a BLEH! sound.

Quess stretched up tall and announced, "Now that the combatants have all gathered, I will declare the rules of the engagement! The battlefield is restricted to the living room and hallways. If you are pinned under fire by an assailant and cannot escape, or if you get hurt and need to retreat, you may bow out by crying 'I yield!', which must be respected. The last remaining rule is: The only allowed physical contact is via plush or pillow!" She raised her arms high in the air, then dropped them like a race-starting girl and shouted, "Go!"

Immediately, pillows and plushies were flying in every direction and people were diving for cover. Despite there being no formal penalty for taking a hit, getting bopped in the face was worth avoiding. Fortified spots like the couch were quickly claimed and soon any cover at all was at a premium.

"Sorry!" Kehp called as she lobbed a pillow aimlessly across the room. She was wearing a frilly pink brassiere and pink ruffled panties and looking very '1950's pin up', especially with her classically curvy body. Sadly, no one could really see it, because she was usually cowering in the corner behind Froze.

The blue wolf held a pillow in each hand, shielding herself and her flock of a single sheep. Froze was wearing shimmery black silk panties and a matching bra that managed to show less skin than her normal harness did. She was also still wearing her leather collar, which made the ensemble kind of erotic. She brandished her pillows threateningly, and occasionally lobbed a solid shot at Haru. Their friendly rivalry meant that the area between them was a death alley of plush projectiles.

On the other end of that kill box, Haru was chain-throwing pillows with little regard for accuracy. Yuisu tried to keep Haru's stockpile full of ammunition, at least when she wasn't gazing at Haru's butt. Haru was wearing the purple and black lingerie set again, and Yuisu was very distracted by it. The cheeky cut of the panties accentuated Haru's perky tush and Yuisu's crouching position kept her face right up close to it.

Distracting Yuisu was actually according to Haru's plan. She felt a little hypocritical, but despite her mating-season instincts to seek out multiple mates, Haru found herself feeling awfully jealous whenever Yuisu's eyes wandered. Given the amount of liminal skin on display in this pillow fight, Haru had to bring out the big guns by wearing her sexiest lingerie. It was a calculated risk, however, since the strapless nature of her bra put her in danger of a wardrobe malfunction of epic proportions.

Yuisu felt under-prepared in comparison. She was just wearing the same underwear she'd put on that morning: a mismatched set of pink string panties and a plain white bra. At least I have the stereotypical 'co-ed pillow fight' look on lock.

Yuisu and Haru were so focused on their war against Froze that they left their flank wide open. Mara and Misaki tore in, flinging dozens of tiny plush hamsters every which way. Those two petite girls may not have had busty and bouncy figures like their opponents, but their impressive enthusiasm had its own kind of charm.

"Hahaha! Flee before your soft, fuzzy masters!" Mara cackled as she launched another plush hamster plushie at Haru's cleavage. It landed securely between Haru's breasts, prompting Mara to yell out, "Direct hit!"

Yuisu fell back behind a chair to avoid the onslaught, only to find she'd been separated from Haru, who was nowhere to be seen. In a crouch, she backed up slowly, watching for incoming missiles, then bumped into someone from behind.

She turned around, expecting a pillow to the face, but it was just Yamato, who flinched away, anticipating an attack too.

"Oh, it's just you, Yamato. I see you lost your air support as well?"

"Air support? Oh, my harpy, I get it," he said with a nod. "She's too agile and high energy for me, so I was just holding her back." He blushed and adjusted the cloth of his boxers. "And, uh, I'm having a hard time dealing with all the pretty girls."

Yuisu glanced down at Yamato's underwear and saw a bit of a bulge. Poor guy. I've got the same issue of getting distracted by all the T&A on display, but at least my body doesn't announce it to the world. She punched him lightly in shoulder and said, "Alright, kid. Us humans gotta stick together against the forces of sexy." Yuisu held her hand out to him. In very accented English, she said, "Come with me if you want to live."