Punishment Game

[Chronosynclastic]

Hi, everyone. My first fic, A Lesson On Sneezing, seemed like it was wall received, so I've decided to write another. Please comment below and let me know what you think.

Title: Punishment Game

Author: Chronosynclastic

Fandom: Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. I have made no profit from the creation or distribution of this story.

Summary: Rena (F) and Mion (F); induced with feathers and pepper; some messiness

It was a hot summer afternoon in the village of Hinamizawa. School had just ended, and the classroom was now occupied by the game club. The club, led by Mion Sonozaki, convened each day in the classroom after school to play a variety of games. The games varied from session to session, but one rule always remained the same: the winner got to inflict a punishment game of their choice on the losers.

The president of the club was Mion Sonozaki, a brash girl who loved winning and never went easy on anyone. Since she was the owner of most of the games the club played, she often held an unfair advantage. The club's second member, Rena Ryuugu, was disarmingly cute, but possessed a keen awareness and razor-sharp intellect. And the club's two younger members, Satoko Houjo and Rika Furude, may have seemed like they'd be the weak links, but Satoko was a devious strategist who loved traps and Rika was almost inhumanly insightful.

Such a fierce field of competitors left the club's final member, Keiichi Maebara, in tight straights indeed. He had only recently joined the club, and had so far been on a massive losing streak. However, today all that was going to change. Rule number one of the game club was, you must do anything in your power to win. In other words, if you weren't cheating, you weren't trying hard enough. And Keiichi had finally figured out a strategy that would take him to victory. Before the game started, he had spoken to Satoko and Rika in private.

"I want to get back at Mion and Rena for that last punishment game they put me through." he had explained. "So, if you help me win this one, I'll exclude you from the punishment."

"You'll have to do a lot better than that!" Satoko had boasted. "After all, we can also avoid the punishment by winning, right?"

"I know, I know, so here's the deal." Keiichi said. "My family's going on a business trip to Ibaraki later this week, right? So, if you let me win, promise I'll bring you back some awesome souvenirs!"

He could see the interest sparked in their eyes. To the best of his knowledge, neither of them got chances to leave Hinamizawa very often, so the prospect of souvenirs from the big city had to be a tempting one.

"Oh-ho-ho!" Satoko laughed. "Deal! But you better bring back something really fantastic, Keiichi-kun. Otherwise, I'll tell Mion how you won. Just imagine what kind of punishment game she'd come up with in revenge!"

"It'll be something great, I promise!" Keiichi quickly said. "What about you, Rika? Are you in?"

"I'd like a bottle of wine." Rika said seriously. "Bernkastel vintage, if they have it."

"What? No!" Keiichi said. "Underage kids shouldn't drink!"

"Just kidding!" Rika said. "I'd like a bag of the finest sweets from the best bakery in the city. Nipah~!"

"Done deal." Keiichi said.

And with that, their pact had been sealed. Now, the secret alliance sat at a table with Mion and Rena as Mion announced what the game and punishment would be.

"I've got something really good for tonight's punishment game." Mion announced.

She began pulling items out of a bag and placing them on the table. A varied assortment of flowers, their stamen heavy with pollen. A set of brightly colored feathers, the perfect size to slide into one's nose. A pepper shaker, full to the brim with finely ground black pepper.

"The winner of the game gets to make the losers sneeze!" Mion said with an evil grin. "You'd better prepare yourself, Kei-chan, because I'm not going to show any mercy."

Keiichi grinned, as he always did. Showing weakness only encouraged Mion. But while his brave faces were usually false bravado, this time he really did have an ace up his sleeve. He winked at Satoko and Rika, his partners in crime, and they winked back, as he'd expected. The girls had won a fair number of games by making use of rule number one themselves, and they were willing to support Keiichi in doing the same. Provided he remembered to bring back the bribes, of course...

The club was playing a card game this time; and to Mion and Rena's surprise, Keiichi began winning hand after hand. Rika and Satoko played right into whatever he was holding, piling up one victory after another on the scorecard. The girls weren't stupid; once they saw he was on a winning streak, the figured things out pretty quickly. Rena noticed that Satoko and Rika were acting as his allies and informed Mion, who took the girls aside — probably to offer them an ever better bribe if they'd switch sides — but it was much too late for that. The game had already gone on long enough for Keiichi to achieve an insurmountable lead for first place. Keiichi noticed that Satoko was grinning widely as she returned to her seat; she'd figured out that she could accept Mion's bribe, do her and best and fail, and still have a legitimate claim to Keiichi's bribe as well since she'd help put him in this winning position to begin with. She was one of the most cunning girls Keiichi had ever met, despite her youth; and he was more glad than ever that he'd come up with this plan.

Mion and Rena played their fiercest, trying to catch with Keiichi's massive lead. Buying Rika and Satoko over to their side gave them a lot of momentum, and they were able to greatly narrow the gap that Keiichi had built up. But in the end, it was too little, too late. When the last card had been played, Keiichi's point total still had him in first place.

"Looks like it's time for the punishment game." Keiichi grinned. "What was it you said, Mion? No mercy? Well, that's exactly what you're going to get! But first, though... I'll start with Rena, just so you can get a good idea of what you're in for. And I won't be holding anything back, clear?"

"Keiichi..." Rena said, lowering her head and blushing. "Be gentle with me, okay, okay?

"Sure." Keiichi said, leaning towards her. "For a sensitive girl like you, I'd better start with the feather."

Keiichi started by running the feather under Rena's petite nose, coaxing a gentle sniffle from her. He teased her a bit with just the tip of the feather, until the end of her nose turned red. Then he began working the feather deeper into one of her narrow nostrils. Rena's lip quivered as the feather's frilly edges caressed the sensitive interior of her nose. Rena's eyes watered and her nostrils flared slightly.

"Ah... Keiichi... It tickles..." Rena said.

But Keiichi didn't relent. He continued wiggling the feather back and forth, probing the tender depth's of Rena's nostril. Her breath became uneven as the tickle increased to the point of unbearability.

"Eh... eh... ehhhhh..."

Rena's small nostrils began flaring rhythmically as the sneeze built in the depths of her nose. It was clear that she wouldn't be able to hold it in much longer.

"Ehhhhhhhhhhhh...."

Rena inhaled deeply. Her head tilted back, her eyes squinted shut, and her nostrils flared wide. It was unmistakably the beginning of a sneeze. Keiichi pulled out the feather and prepared for the explosive finale.

"Etchuu!"

Rena's sneeze was a lot smaller and daintier than Keiichi was expecting, given the long build-up. However, as Rena sniffled and rubbed her red nose, he realized that her sinuses were still trembling in irritation. The first sneeze hadn't been enough to quell the tickle he had induced in her; the tender depths of her slender nose were still tormented by a powerful itch. A second sneeze was building within her, one more powerful than the first. Rena's nostrils flared several times in quick succession as she tried to hold it in, but she was helpless in the face of the overwhelming tickle Keiichi had produced in her nose, and it finally overcame her.

"Eh... ehh... Etchuu!!"

Such small, delicate sneezes simply wouldn't do. He'd have to find a way to coax out a more powerful one. Keiichi looked over the other items Mion had brought, and his eyes settled on one of the flowers. Picking it up, he carefully held it up to Rena's face and puffed on it. His breath sent a cloud of yellow particles of pollen swirling into the air. Rena's next inhalation sucked the cloud of irritants directly into her flared nostrils. As the pollen floated deep into the back of her nose, the tremors running through her body intensified. Then the pollen landed, coming to rest on the already fiercely-irritated membranes in Rena's nose. The unbearable itchiness of the pollen pushed Rena past her limit. The wet membranes within her nose quaked violently as she inhaled deeply and reflexively; then a series of her most powerful sneezes yet blew through her naval cavities and exploded out of her nostrils.

"Etchuu! Etchuu! Etchuu! Eh-eh-eh-eh.... ETCHUU!!"

The strength of this final sneeze made Rena's entire body tremble, and a thin stream of snot was blown out of one of her nostrils. Rena sighed and leaned back in her seat, the itchiness in her nose finally subsiding. Satisfied, Keiichi turned to Mion.

"Your turn now, Mion." Keiichi said with an evil grin.

"Gah!" Mion put on a tough face. "Nothing girly like flowers or feathers for me. Give me the pepper! I'll take my punishment like a man!"

"Alright... you asked for it..." Keiichi said.

He held the pepper shaker over Mion's head and shook it vigorously. A thick black cloud of pepper fell out, and was sucked by Mion's inhalations into her strong, broad nostrils. The rims of her nostrils flared as the first pangs of irritation began deep in her nose. Mion sniffled, and a pained expression came over her face; her eyes narrowed and her lip trembled. However, she did her best to hold back the sneeze.

"Ahhh..."

The itch only grew in strength with each passing moment. Her sinuses reacted to the continuing torment of the pepper by flooding with mucous. It filled the depths of her nose, but nothing could stop the terrible itch of the countless particles of pepper coating the sensitive membranes deep in her nose. Even as the mucous pooled in her nostrils, her need to sneeze built in intensity.

"Ahhh.... ahhhhhh... ahhh..."

It was clear that Mion wouldn't be able to hold the sneeze in for much longer. Rivulets of snot dripped from her nostrils, which quaked violently with each new breath. Even so, she tried to resist the unbearable tickling of her irritated sinuses, not wanting to concede victory to Keiichi.

"AhhhHH... ahhh... AHHH..."

Finally, despite all her efforts, the pressure in her nose had become to great to be contained any longer. A violent spasm rippled through her body as the immense sneeze blasted its way out of her.

"ACHOOOOOO!"

After having been delayed so long, the sneeze had built up spectacular force. Wet and messy, it erupted from her nostrils with gale force, blowing out the mucous that had filled Mion's nose as twin geysers of snot.

"It's my victory, Mion." Keiichi said.

"You'll regret this, Kei-chan." Mion said, after blowing her nose into a tissue. "Mark my words. The next punishment game I come up with will be ten times as bad!"

"Then I guess I'll just have to win that one too, huh?" Keiichi said.

"Better start thinking of some more bribes, then." Satoko said. "Mion's offered to give me anything I want from her uncle's game store."

"I figured you'd sell me out." Keiichi said. "But with Rika on my side, I'll still have a good chance of winning."

"Actually, Mion's promised to get me some wine." Rika added. "Since her family has political connections with the yakuza, they aren't as uptight about underage drinking. Mi~!"

"Rika!" Mion whispered. "I told you not to tell anybody that!"

"Sorry!" Rika said. "I mean... just kidding! Nipah!"

"What!?" Keiichi said. "You're both abandoning me!?"

"Depends on what you've got to offer." Satoko said. "You better be bringing some real good gifts back from Ibaraki, or I think you'll find yourself receiving some pretty serious comeuppance from Mion in our next game."

"Gah! I didn't think that far ahead! Once I've bought the bribes I already promised, I won't that much more money left for the next game..."

The varied sounds of panic, laughter, begging, pleading, wheedling, double-crossing, accusations of cheating, recitations of rule number one, and general assorted fun continued until night fell and the club went their separate ways — each looking forward to the next meeting, which seemed guaranteed to be even more entertaining than the last.

Such was life for the school game club in Hinamizawa during the Eternal June of 1983.

[mysterysneeze]

I had to look up this anime, but you chose two really pretty anime characters for this story! Both have unique characteristics and looks too, but you did this story in a way that is priceless! Love the title you chose, and the way you put the build-up and the sneeze itself into words is great!! :D The sneezes matched the characters too I think.

Thanks for making another story, and I definitely would like to see more from you if you choose to do so ^^.

[sauce]

And this was then followed by murder. MUAHAHAHAHA

Higurashi needs more fics. It's got great characters in it, and you actually write them quite well!

[Chronosynclastic]

Thank you for the compliments.

I hope to continue to write enjoyable sneeze fics.

[count tiszula]

Terrific! I love the little sneezes and the enormous one from the would-be boyish lady. And I'm sure more of the same could be engineered by a naughty games player....

[thesneeze123]

This story is awesome! Keep it up! I love the plot of this story

[megacycle]

Keep up the good work, would love to see more.