Thunderclaps 3: Afterword

Welcome to the Offbeat Universe!

“My current fav is Fever-chan from DC Comics’s new Doom Patrol series. She’s a new hero and it’s cute how she can’t control her powers well and ends up boiling the people she’s trying to save. I want my next heroine to be like that.”

When I (Hazawa) showed up to the meeting about my next novel and said that, my editor Okada-san glared at me.

“You’ve gone soft lately. I need to knock some character back into you, so come with me.”

Before I could say a word more, Okada-san was driving me to the basement of a certain building in Ginza. A violent-looking young man standing in front of a black door with no sign spoke with the frightening voice of a checkpoint guard.

Thunderclaps 3: Epilogue - World’s Finest Girls

A large audience and the press were gathered in front of a stage constructed on Peace TV’s grounds.

That was inevitable with Captain Sky and Mister Shadow on stage together for the first time in 30-odd years. That was why so much of the audience was middle-aged or older. Old men had their eyes sparkling like small children.

Those two were not alone. Comet Hawk and several other retired Justice Circus members were in attendance. The current members were there too, of course. The Thunderclaps had also been invited as special guests. Several politicians and business leaders had also shown up to try and leech off of the heroes’ reputation.

The veteran announcer Kayagi Nami was leading the event and she made sure to introduce all of the famous attendees.

In the log cabin being used as a dressing room behind the stage, Ozora Miki paced back and forth the central aisle, reading through the event script over and over. Nanjou Shino watched in silence until she couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Argh, must you pace!? Calm down, Ozora.”

Novel Introduction: Thunderclaps 3

 Thunderclaps 3 – Chaos Arena (サンダークラップス3 カオスアリーナ)

Author: Hazawa Kouichi (羽沢向一)

Illustrator: Senbata Rou(せんばた楼)

Label: 2D Dream Novels (二次元ドリームノベルズ)

Release Date: 11/20/2001

The conclusion of Vol. 2's Dark Arena story, this time actually featuring the Thunderclaps. This was the last of the original Thunderclaps books and the sequel series Thunderclaps Reborn didn't start until 2017, more than 15 years later.

Content warning: This novel contains sexual assault. Ch. 4 is particularly unpleasant.

Thunderclaps 3: Chapter 5 - Our Souls at War

“The Worst is a threat to the human race and all life on earth. We summon all the world’s superheroes here in the name of the United Nations.”

(1986, statement by the UN Secretary General)

At this time, the Offbeat known as The Worst had absorbed the energy from the Soviet Union’s Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and reduced 1/3 of Siberia to scorched earth.

 

Blue lightning struck before Flare’s eyes.

The light was absorbed into Snow Wing and Cemetery’s backs. The light was also flowing into the other heroes’ bodies.

“This isn’t right. The energy flow has reversed. Someone switch on the lights! Hurry!”
The bowtie men or the maids must have obeyed Milk Crown’s command because the many lights on the ceiling and walls came back on, flooding the Neo Arena with light.

The rapid change in brightness briefly blinded them all. When the white light dazzled Flare, she heard a daring voice.

“Hi there, Storyteller. Long time no see.”

“What? Who are you?”

The loathsome Kotodama master’s voice was followed by an earsplitting scream.

“Gyahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

Thunderclaps 3: Chapter 4 - Ero Hour

“I protected him from a bullet once in this city and a second time in London, but I failed to stop the third one.”

(1980, Green Hood during his speech at a memorial service in Liverpool)

 

Maids in miniskirts so short they did nothing to cover their underwear went around the stands serving alcohol and meat while Milk Crown’s voice rang loud.

“Flare has freshened up and returned to the stage for us!”

Large men in bowties dragged Flare from a tunnel located in a gap in the stands and out onto the stage. The maids had washed off all her milk and given her a new exhibitionist costume to wear. The only difference was the lack of the three golden balls on the thread digging into her labia and butt crack.

“For our second round tonight, we have the long-awaited matchup of Flare vs. Silver Bullet!”

A man removed the bonds and ball gag from Silver Bullet. She was lined up alongside Flare with her hands behind her back.

Thunderclaps 3: Chapter 3 - Maximum Sexuality

“My power and all Offbeat powers are a gift from god. Please use them to bring about peace.”

(1978, speech at the papal inauguration)

Polish archbishop and superhero Blue Cross became the first Offbeat pope

 

“You…”

A gloomy voice slipped into Flare’s still unconscious mind.

“…cannot resist…”

The voice spoke clearly in her mind, but it was indeed terribly gloomy and depressing.

“…the Dark Arena.”

She awoke with the words seeming to permeate her body.

She was still in her costume and seated on a black leather sofa in the center of a small, cramped room. The sofa was surrounded by five white-aproned maids who looked like they had stepped out of a European aristocrat’s home.

But her attention was fully focused on the strange man standing directly in front of her. He was skinny and his entire body was tattooed with a writing system she didn’t recognize. His writing-covered lips, teeth, and tongue moved to produce the voice that had permeated her body as she awoke.

“Welcome to the Dark Arena, Flare of the Thunderclaps. You are the last to wake.”

“Who are you?”

“Call me Storyteller. My role is to tell the stories of the superheroes trapped in the Dark Arena. I am currently telling your story.”

Thunderclaps 3: Chapter 2 - Infinity Battle

“We cannot change the decisions made by our countries’ governments or stop the will of our peoples. But we refuse to use our god-given powers to assist this conflict.”

(1973, joint announcement made by Israeli and Egyptian superheroes during the Fourth Arab–Israeli War)

 

“Huh? Where did she go?”

After losing sight of Flare, Snow Wing’s gaze wandered around the 19^th floor. Flare had vanished just as Snow Wing had her cornered.

“This will not end well if I can’t find her.”

The announcer’s head moved nervously side to side until the ceiling shattered above her.

She looked up in surprise to find a fist flying toward her. She immediately used her wings.

“Too slow!”

Flare’s right fist caught Snow Wing on the neck.

“Agh!”

The single blow knocked Snow Wing unconscious. Her wings went limp, her body lost its lift, and Flare caught her in her arms.

“I’m not about to lose to a rookie. It wasn’t my Offbeat powers that won this; it was my combat instincts.”

Flare descended to the 16^th floor with the unconscious announcer in her arms and laid Snow Wing down in the living room sofa there. She viewed the woman’s peacefully sleeping face and sighed.

“With a pretty face like that, I can see how she got a job as a TV announcer. So is she being mind-controlled?”

Thunderclaps 3: Chapter 1 - Heroic Life in the Big City

 

“I will show you fools just how meaningless the goals of progress and harmony are.”

(1970, from fliers distributed by Sun Thief after occupying the site of the Expo ’70)

Sun Thief fused with the Tower of the Sun to become a colossus that stomped through the city of Osaka.

 

One of the room’s walls acted as a giant monitor.

The single monitor was split into dozens of smaller screens, each displaying different footage.

Suddenly, the division vanished and it displayed a single large image. The blue sky filled the wall, a beautiful view that would put anyone in a good mood.

Smiles appeared on the faces of the three people focused on that electronically-reproduced sky, but one of them was far from healthy.

“Look, everyone. Here they come.”

Novel Introduction: Harem Fighter

 Harem Fighter (ハーレムファイター)

Author: Takeuchi Ken (竹内けん)

Illustrator: Asanuma Katsuaki (浅沼克明)

Label: 2D Dream Bunko (二次元ドリーム文庫)

Release Date: 4/25/2008

Timeline: 1035 HTC (Click for more information)

A girlish boy is rescued by mercenaries when bandits attack his village. He chooses to join the mercenaries, only to find it's a women-only group and they all think he's a girl. Worse, he learns the leader of the group will likely kill him if she finds out teh truth. Now what is he supposed to do!?

One of the few Harem books with no royalty anywhere to be found and probably the worst art in the entire series.

Harem Fighter: Chapter 6 - Thunder Gauntlet

(Why!? Why was Reese captured!?)

Meeting Maddock here was a surprise he had somewhat anticipated, but meeting Reese here was entirely unexpected.

The chained girl glanced over at dazed Cloche for just a moment, but then she turned to Maddock like she hadn’t even recognized him.

“Ooh, I hit the jackpot finding you♪”

Not even chaining her up dampened that girl’s spirit.

“Give up now, Maddock. There’s no escape now that I’ve found you. Try not to piss yourself in terror♪”

That didn’t seem like something a captured girl should be saying to her captor, but Cloche felt much the same.

(That’s right. I don’t know how she ended up captured here, but we’ve finally found him. We know where he hides, so he can’t escape.)

Harem Fighter: Chapter 5 - Electric Mage Warrior

“So how is work at the Bright Blossom?”

Cloche was in the office’s study room one afternoon.

Captain Elienne had found some free time to give him a one-on-one lesson on magic theory.

They sat across a desk from each other while he read aloud the textbook. Elienne crossed her arms and legs as she listened.

She surprised him with a question unrelated to the lesson, so he answered in some puzzlement.

“I’ve gotten used to waiting tables. I’ve gotten to know Theresa well enough that we sometimes eat together while on break. Unfortunately, I have nothing else to report. I haven’t noticed any sign of Maddock.”

It pained him that he had no results to show for his mission.

Harem Fighter: Chapter 4 - Dense Girl

“Um…am I imagining things or is Theresa, that songstress from the Bright Blossom, going out with Maddock?”

Cloche hesitantly made the suggestion at the Thunder Gauntlets’ customary dinner.

“…”

The mercenary woman looked shocked at first, but they soon started laughing.

“That’s quite a bold accusation.” Elienne stopped eating and turned a serious expression toward the new trainee mercenary. “The Bright Blossom isn’t an inn on the outskirts of the city. It’s one of the nicest brothels in Aria. A songstress who works there will cost a lot of money. She wouldn’t give a bandit boss the time of day.”

She would be the lover of a man with a lot more money and power. It was absurd to think she would be going out with a wanted criminal.

“But, well, she’s a perfect match for the kind of woman Maddock says he likes.”

Harem Fighter: Chapter 3 - The Lieutenant’s Job

“Hm, what should I do with this?”

When they fought off the bandits that attacked Luca the other day, Elienne captured a few of them and handed them over to the knights.

For a kingdom, the loss of a village in their territory was humiliating.

They could only speculate about what the knights had done, but the captured bandits had given three hideout locations and the mercenary groups based in Aria were hired to hunt down the bandits there.

Due to their crucial role in the previous battle, the Thunder Gauntlets had been given one of the hideout locations all to themselves.

Elienne led the attack and Cloche joined them for his first ever battle.

Cloche and Reese’s job was to disguise themselves as fishermen’s daughters and seduce the two lookouts standing in front of the cave. They took the lookouts into the bushes where the others were hiding.

Seducing a man was an awkward thing for a boy, but he completed his role without a hitch.

Captain Elienne even complimented him.

Harem Fighter: Chapter 2 - Life as a Mercenary

“…………………………………………”

One morning, Cloche awoke to find a girl’s face right in front of his own.

He was sleeping on his left side, but a girl was sleeping on her right side directly in front of him.

She had a healthily tanned face, small eyebrows, and a small nose. Her mouth was hanging half open with drool dripping from it while she breathed peacefully in her sleep.

(Wh-why is Reese here? Her bed is over there.)

As the newest member of the mercenaries, Cloche was sharing Reese’s room. It was not a large room, but it did have two separate beds.

Yet now she was sleeping in the same bed as him. And she was close enough for their breaths to reach each other.

She was more than just close. They lay in the same small bed, below the same blanket, and with him practically holding her in his arms. Their chests were nearly touching and their legs were tangled together.

Cloche tensed in surprise. He did not dare move and simply stared wide-eyed at her sleeping face.

(Did she get up in the night to use the bathroom and got in the wrong bed afterwards?)

Harem Fighter: Chapter 1 - Crystal Temple Mercenaries

 

“Shit! Shit! Shit!”

The village was ablaze. It was a small village of only 20 houses and a population of less than 100.

It was not known for any specific product and they lived a meager life of tilling the barren land to just barely get by.

But for the people living there, it was home. Cloche, for one, had been born and raised there. His family was there, his friends were there – it was his entire world.

Harvest had been unusually good this year, so they had actually had some excess to sell at the nearby city of Aria, giving the entire village a little money to work with.

Cloche’s parents had had more money to spend and they had just asked their children what they wanted for a birthday present when tragedy struck.

“Hey, hey. Girls shouldn’t use such filthy language.”

Cloche wielded a machete used for chopping firewood and around 10 strange men surrounded him. They all held brutal weapons dripping with blood.

He knew all too well whose blood that was.

His face was pale with terror and he converted his anger into courage as he shouted back at them.

“I’m a boy!”

Altair Guardians: Epilogue

This school has a secret. Everyone in the city knows about it, but they pretend not to until night falls. Then they visit the school’s pool.

 

Late at night, with the moon hidden behind the clouds, two men casually climbed over the school’s gate and made their way to the pool. They all held black tickets. A familiar purple mist covered the pool’s entrance. That was a Hypnos spell that prevented entry. The men held up their tickets and the fog enveloped them.

“Heh heh. God, I love this sight.”

One man expressed his joy at what he saw once the fog cleared away. A warm, sexual atmosphere hung over the place.

They were in a public bathroom, but it had no stalls and the toilets sat out in the open. There were also urinals. But that wasn’t all. This was a demon space created by the Hypnos, so it contained sexual monsters as well as all sorts of sex toys. It was all used to torment the heroines who still stubbornly refused to hand over the key.

Altair Guardians: Chapter 8 - Hypnosis Removed

“Good. You wore them like we asked. You sluts.”

When Mizuno Rena and Karin were stripped of their uniforms, the boys in their class pulled out their dicks in blatant arousal and pushed the sisters onto the desks.

The unused classroom was locked from the inside. The pleasant air from the air conditioner filled the room while the two of them were gangbanged by every boy in their class.

This had been going on for a week now.

They had a new daily schedule: fuck the boys at school, fight the Hypnos whenever they appeared, and go out into the city at night for an orgy with random men.

“Ahn! Wh-why dressed like this? Ahn, I-I’m cumming…I’m cumming!” moaned Karin.

“P-please, no more. Ahh, why would you have us wear these? Ahh, I-I’m cumming tooooo!” cried Rena.

Altair Guardians: Chapter 7 - A School Gone Mad

“Ah, ahhhh…ahhhhn! Please, I-I can’t take any more of this! Ahh!!”

At dawn, the Mizuno sisters’ sexual moans echoed through their house.

Altair Rose wore her red costume while she shook in bed. Altair Marine had her pinned down and pressed a loudly vibrating massager against her crotch.

A week had passed since their humiliating defeat to a group of ordinary people. After a night out having sex with random men, the heroine sisters would return home and have sex with each other until it was time to go to school. But their relationship had changed after that day a week before.

“Wait, Marine! Ahh! I-I’m going to cum!”

Rose squirmed in her costume that still reeked of cum. She raised her arms, exposing her armpits, clutched the sheets, and clenched her teeth. She repeatedly kicked at the sheets with the toes of her boots and sometimes kicked vainly at the air.

Altair Guardians: Chapter 6 - Altair Guardians, Milkers of the City

“Ahhh…”

Such a sensual sigh had no business being heard on such a sunny morning. The girl who already gathered the most attention out of all the students walking to school had breathed it while leaning against the wall.

“O-Onee-chan, don’t push yourself too hard.”

She was accompanied by a short girl with cute twintails. However, her chest and butt had already grown into juicy female fruits.

“I-I’m fine. This isn’t enough to defeat- ah! K-Karin, don’t touch me!”

Rena, the girl leaning against the wall, let out a tense cry while trying to keep the other students from noticing.

Karin had only gently touched her sister’s shoulder. It couldn’t have been more than a feather’s touch.

“D-don’t touch me- ah, ahhhhhhh!”

But even that was enough to send a tremor through Rena while her fingers slid down the wall.

Altair Guardians: Chapter 5 - Masochist Rose

Rose soared through the city, still transformed and enshrouded in red light. Her mature high-heel boots kicked off the empty air to keep her flying. She was on her way to the outskirts where she had sensed the other Hypnos presence.

(Please be all right, Marine!)

She bit her lip. She hadn’t found Velka or a monster at the park, so they were both probably at the spot Marine had chosen. She had known that as soon as she arrived, but she had still needed to defeat the grunts. She had tried sending several telepathic messages, but it wasn’t working right for some reason.

<Onee-chan, h-help me!>

Marine’s voice still echoed in the back of her mind.

Rose had realized it was a trap as soon as she finished her own battle. She had struggled to defeat the grunts who kept dancing out of the way of her attacks, but they had chosen to retreat before she began fighting “seriously”. By the time she realized they had been keeping her there and buying time, it had been too late. Marine’s staticky voice had sounded so weak by then.

She had given up on telepathy and took off running, leaving her out of breath.

Altair Guardians: Chapter 4 - Cumdumpster Heroines

Velka could not stop laughing back at the Hypnos hideout.

“Ah ha ha! You are pathetic, Altair Rose!! One day! Just one day!! It took so long to take with Marine, so what is this!? Hee hee…ah ha ha ha! I have your sister do it and you’re hooked right away!!”

The dark general was in a good mood. All of the frustrations built up over her many defeats exploded within her and burned at her sadist body. Her hard nipples made clear bumps in her revealing suit and love juices dripped from her crotch.

The hypnotic suggestions Karin had placed in Rena were the same as the ones placed on Karin herself: “Altair Rose cannot fight at her full power without removing her panties” and “the duty of an Altair is to pleasure the Hypnos, either by milking their cock of semen or making them squirt love juices from their pussy, but if they pleasure you, you lose your power to fight and become a fucktoy heroine”.

Naïve Rena probably didn’t understand what exactly all the sexual stuff meant, but Velka was certain the stoic girl would put in the research and then indulge in sex acts in the name of training.

Novel Introduction: Altair Guardians

Oops. I've fallen behind on updating things here, so I'll be posting a few things this week.

First up, a one shot:

Holy Princess Altair Guardians: Sisters in the Grasp of Hypnotic Humiliation (守護聖姫アルテアガーディアンズ 催眠恥辱に堕ちる姉妹)

Author: Homura Ryu (火村龍)

Illustrator: Kuroiwa Shinji (くろいわしんじ)

Label: 2D Dream Novels (二次元ドリームノベルズ)

Release Date: 11/22/2014

Magical girl sisters are hypnotized by one of their enemies into thinking they fight by having sex.

Content warning: This novel contains sexual assault by hypnotism.

Altair Guardians: Chapter 3 - Hypnosis

After returning to her hideout, Velka appeared before the grunts still in her Shinjou form. Footage of Marine pleasuring the grunts appeared in the air. The men were wildly aroused, breathing heavily while their crotches grew hard.

“We are making good progress,” said Velka.

“Superb progress even,” replied the grunts.

“It looks like not even Mizuno Rena suspects kind and obedient Shinjou Saya could be me, especially after rescuing her from Hypnos. Well, she was suspicious at first, but fooling her magic detection was simple enough. Heh heh. But she doesn’t even try that anymore. The naïve heroine isn’t as coldhearted as she likes to pretend. So what do you think? Cute, aren’t I?”

Still disguised as Shinjou, she lifted her skirt to flash her thighs. She laughed as she transformed into her usual warrior form in the toxic costume.

“The hypnosis is finally taking effect. She was a tough nut to crack, but I suppose that’s what you get with an Altair. This just leaves Rose.”

Velka sighed at this success.

Altair Guardians: Chapter 2 - Implanted Duty

The day after Rena saved Karin, the two of them saw the crowd of people gathered around the school newspaper posted on the bulletin board after school, so they approached while trying to remain inconspicuous.

Their school was deep in a verdant residential district that had easy access to the city center. Trees surrounded a campus that was much larger than any of those in the city. All the boys and girls who attended there were the best of the best.

But those elite students were little different from the kids at other schools. Some of the boys left their uniform unbuttoned, set their hair with gel, and bragged about their girlfriend and most of the girls had shortened their skirts to halfway up their thighs. Rena and Karin were about the only ones following the school rule about skirt length. Their friends often said they should shorten their skirts since they were so cute, but they always blushed and refused, saying it was too embarrassing.

“Rena, Karin.”

A girl noticed them approaching and called out to them. Before Rena could say anything, the girl excitedly told them the Altair Guardians had made an appearance.

Rena knew it was indecent, but she jumped a few times to get a look at the article past the crowd. Karin was so short that even jumping would not let her see it.

Altair Guardians: Chapter 1 - Holy Princesses

After swimming in the school pool one midsummer afternoon, Mizuno Rena realized she could not find her younger sister Karin. Nor could she find Shinjou Saya, the school counselor.

(Karin must be talking with Shinjou-sensei again.)

Rena placed her arms up on the poolside and enjoyed the chill of the water while puffing out her cheeks. The counselor’s office was near the pool, so the girl was probably relaxing in there while drinking the delicious tea Shinjou made.

Rena and Karin were both on the swim team, but practice was over for the day and everyone was either swimming around for fun or chatting on the poolside.

Rena climbed out of the pool, sat on the edge, and removed her cap. Her long, wet hair was released, water dripping from it.

Altair Guardians: Prologue - Fantastical Light Altair

 

“I wish for you to fight,” said the light calling itself Luria. It spoke with a girl’s voice, probably around the same age as the two girls to which it spoke. Rena held Karin’s trembling body tight.

“Velka will pursue you wherever you go,” continued Luria.

Rena and Karin were surrounded by a warm light that danced as if to encourage them. This was the exact opposite of the hellish scene they had witnessed a few minutes earlier. Luria had rescued Rena and Karin, sisters one year apart, from their pursuers and protected them behind (what seemed to Rena to be) a magical barrier.

However, the previous scene was burned into their minds and refused to go away.

Girls being raped, men vanishing without a trace, the city destroyed, roadside trees toppled.

It was hard to believe all that was the work of Velka, a girl dressed in black, and the evil men who obeyed her. Something they had always assumed only existed in stories had actually happened before their eyes. It had been a confrontation between light and darkness – a clash between good and evil.