"Are you sure you want to come in?" Naoto asked, looking in surprise at the eager, smiling Chie at her side. "Detective work isn't as interesting as it seems. And it's not like what the investigation team does at all; you might find it a little boring, actually." Not being entirely honest-at least on a personal level-the junior detective sought to shake her friend from accompanying her mostly out of confusion as to what she wanted to join her for.

"Of course I'm sure," Chie said, trying to hold in her excitement, and while not doing as good a job as she would have liked, at least kept from rolling back and forth on the balls of her heels. "We don't need to interrupt our plans just because work came up. Besides, I'd like to see you in action when there aren't monsters involved. And hey, if it's nothing, we can still do something together after all."

The two had been planning on hanging out for the day, but Naoto got called in to investigate some odd reports about a new massage parlor on the outskirts of town. One that serviced only women, and which reports of being rife with illegal activity had cast a suspicious eye on. Naoto had initially asked Chie if they could reschedule for another day, but much to the detective's surprise, Chie wanted to come along. She was quite insistent on coming along, actually, and Naoto had been unable to shake her, leaving her resigned to letting her come with her and maybe at least learn how she worked. Although Chie was right; in the event that there turned out to be nothing to the rumours, then at least Chie would be right there and they could figure out something to do together.

"If you say so," Naoto said, shrugging it off as she moved toward the door before them. She moved in rather low-key, not wanting to stir any suspicion as she quietly sat down in one of the waiting chairs, Chie following after her and taking a place beside her. She'd even dressed down for the occasion, wearing casual clothes that wouldn't have tipped anyone off to her job; generally, looking like a cop ensured people were on their best behavior, and a minor recon assignment like this meant she'd have to go in plainclothes. She looked around, feigning the role of the curious customer soaking in the sights around her; the place seemed well taken care of, clean, and there were no shady characters moving packages into back rooms or Yakuza wandering around.

Just a lot of women coming and going, some wearing uniforms with the parlor's logo sewn on, others clearly customers leaving with satisfied looks on their faces, like a a great amount of pressure had been lifted off of their shoulders. Oftentimes literally, although she had never known a massage to leave someone with the look of elation that she saw on the middle aged woman walking out, who moved with an almost clumsy cadence, not quite stumbling but certainly not steady-footed. Unsatisfied with her findings, Naoto tried to take it up a notch, and really took a careful look at what was happening around her.

A more careful scan around the room showed her a little more. The receptionist's behavior was fitful, but born out of impatience not for the arrival of a shipment of drugs or money, but just of the end of her shift; she looked at the clock too much, but never to the door, even when somebody walked in, which meant she wasn't expecting anything. She only addressed people when they walked up the counter, and otherwise spent her time penciling through Sudoku puzzles. Whenever doors opened and staff walked through, it was to bring refills of massage oils or a cart of cleaning supplies through. She ended up finding more evidence of illicit behavior in the quick periphery scan of Chie than she did in her surroundings; the girl had eaten far too much left over steak for lunch and was feeling a little guilty about burning through the entire remainder of last night's dinner so quickly. She wore both those facts on her face quite clearly, and the former on her breath.

With a resigned sigh, Naoto closed her eyes, leaning back in her seat. "It looks okay to me," she said. Anything deeper would require getting official about things, but she saw no probable cause around her that would justify that. "But I still can't shake the feeling that something suspicious is going on here." She looked to Chie for support, although not entirely sure why.

"Maybe you're overworked," the other tomboy suggested with a shrug. "Or you want to see something that isn't there so you have a reason to work. Either way, it seems pretty bad to me; you need to take more breaks, Naoto. Maybe if it looks like nothing illegal is happening, then nothing illegal is happening."

Naoto wasn't necessarily looking for advice, but what she received was fairly sound and reasonable. She looked away from a second and thought on it before sighing. "You're probably right. Unless we hear an actual report of something happening, maybe I should relax on worrying about this place. Let's go do something Chie, I need a day to relax."

"Then why go anywhere?" she asked, smiling as she turned toward the inattentive receptionist and back to Naoto. "We're in a massage parlor, aren't we? There's no better place to relax than right here, and we can see about dinner after we're both feeling better. The price chart up there has the deluxe package for two and it's surprisingly affordable; we could go in half on it and still have money left over to go out for food."

The very fact that Naoto's first instinct was to say was no was precisely why she said yes. She knew that being distrustful of the massage parlor for no explicable reason was precisely the sort of behavior Chie was talking about, and that made her realize just how right the brunette was. She was in dire need of a break, and she supposed a massage might be the relaxing experience that a day with Chie may not have otherwise been; the other girl's interests were certainly more intense than a day relaxing would have been. "Alright, let's do it."

After paying up front for their massage, the two girls were led into a room with two soft massage tables set up, at the front of each of them a large circle with a hole in the middle for their faces to go, and it looked so comfortable that Naoto could almost feel her knees weakening in anticipation. The room smelled so serene, the faintest of floral scents coming from the burning incense off to the side, and the lighting was dim enough that she could tell exactly how she would feel all of her tensions come undone on the table. Chie was right.

"The girls will be with you shortly," the receptionist said, handing each girl a blindfold and a monogrammed towel. "Take off all of your clothes, put these on, and lie face-down on the table with the towel over your lower back and all the way to your thighs."

Naoto looked in confusion at the blindfold, and immediately tensed back up in worry. Something felt off about it, but as she looked up at the receptionist already leaning toward the doorway pending the absence of any questions, she realized that she was yet again getting too worked up over what was likely nothing. So instead, she thanked her, and they moved toward the tables.

Chie didn't care too much about Naoto watching as she began to undress right in front of her. Naoto had already seen her naked after all, there was nothing really worth trying to hide, and the fact she had talked her into the massage was a big enough victory that she was feeling bold. "Don't worry about the blindfold," she said, unclasping her bra and letting it drop as Naoto blushed and turned away from her out of respect. Respect that Chie did not return as she watched Naoto's own bra come undone; the detective hid it well, but she had the largest breasts out of all the investigation team girls, and it would have been remiss of her not to admire them even a little. "I know you're probably worried about it, but it's fine. It's for when you turn around and they massage the fronts of your legs; they still want you to keep calm and not see anything so that you can focus on relaxing."

It was a fairly reasonable explanation that did put Naoto at ease just a little bit, even if she could feel the admiring gaze upon her and knew that Chie was not reassuring her because she could see the uncertainty in her face. But, she was intent on relaxing, and after slipping out of her underwear, sat down on the massage table and slipped the blindfold on. It was a little bit awkward to lie on her stomach and lay the towel down over herself, but the openness she had with a close friend was not one she wanted to share with two strangers who were coming to massage them. Then, finally, she put her head into the hole, took some deep breaths, and steadied herself for what she hoped would be the relaxation she needed.

Less than a minute after both Naoto and Chie were fully rested, Yukiko and Rise stepped into the room, pushing in a cart containing several bottles of massage oils and wearing nothing but half-closed robes. They couldn't help but smile as they advanced upon their friends; Chie's role in the plan had worked out almost too well. Yukiko had opened up to her girlfriend about the part-time job she got at the new massage parlor, which was in fact far less innocent than things appeared on the surface, but not in the typical ways of drug fronts or gang activity that Naoto had been looking for. She'd hooked Rise up as well, and had goaded Chie into bringing Naoto along so that they could spring a little surprise on the detective, something straddling the line between a prank and a sensual experience.

Both had to struggle to remain silent, wanting to laugh so much in excitement as the plan worked out. Yukiko stood by Chie's table, while Rise admired the bare back of Naoto and the way her plump breasts squished against the soft surface they rested on. Sharing one last smile between one another, they both shed their robes, exposing their naked bodies as they opened up the massage oil bodies and got to work. Naoto had no idea what she was about to be in for, but it would be so much more than she could have ever expected.