Rapturous Rhapsody

Stories

### Chapter 1: Volume 1 Confinement 1

I am writing this author's note after finishing the first volume and midway through volume 2. There will only be 3 volumes, so the story is halfway done.

This is a fic written using the Waifu catalogue as a baseline. It is much more common on a few forums than on sites like Royal Road.

For those unaware of what that is, you can find it here:

To enjoy this fic, you do not need to know about the challenge or the worlds (Soulsborne/Superhero comics/Worm).

I am writing this to get better at characterization and to tell a story I would like to read at the end of this. Using the W.C., which is used for porn more often than not, is a nice challenge.

There will be blood. Violence. Death. Sex. And yes, a harem.

Though I like to think I write better than most two-dimensional harem writers, that is for you to judge if you decide to read through this work.

Honestly, I put off posting on this site for the longest time, and I wonder if this is a good fit for Royal Road. In the end, some pestering from friends got me to put this here.

I will upload one chapter daily until caught up to other sites, then one chapter every Friday. I pride myself on never missing a weak, barring a hiatus between volumes 1 and 2, so you can expect updates to remain consistent after catching up.

I will leave the original author's notes at the end of the chapters as it provides some context for those interested.

I hope you enjoy Rhaptourous Rhapsody.

********

I felt an angel near today, though one I could not see

I felt an angel oh so close, sent to comfort me

********

Wakefulness did not come quickly to Nico Robin.

It was slow, rough, and entirely disorienting, like crawling through mud.

That she was waking up at all was certainly a surprise.

In her life, she had learned surprises were ever so rarely good.

Employing one of the techniques that had saved her life on many occasions, she lay there with her eyes closed, not moving an inch. Using her Haki to ensure nobody was nearby, she reached out with her Devil Fruit powers.

She instantly conjured an eye on one of the walls to get a lay of the room before dissipating it and reconjuring it in the ceiling corner.

In her experience, people very rarely looked up.

Robin got a good look around where she lay with her hidden eye.

The room was luxurious, probably the best she had ever slept in, which was saying something. The bed was large, and the sheets were silken smooth. Robin only realized now that she was entirely naked under the covers, which was distressing.

The rest of the room was well furnished; a few cushioned chairs sat in the corner beside a small table. A lounge sofa lay near the foot of the bed. In front of which was a thick carpet, and against the wall was a fireplace made of brick. The fire was lit but burned softly, with only a few logs on the grate. Curiously, there were no ashes under the burning wood.

The flames were the only illumination source in the room though she noted a few lamps on the bedside tables and a chandelier high up in the tall ceiling. A few windows along the wall were covered in heavy, purple drapes. The walls were covered in bookshelves with only space for the fireplace and three doors. One was a sliding door beyond which Robin imagined lay a closet.

Everything was made out of dark wood, black velvet, and inlay with subtle touches of ivory.

Whoever had taken her, rescued her, was wealthy.

Very wealthy.

So what were their plans for her, and where were the rest of her crew?

It was not paranoia if people really were out to get you.

She wasn't wearing seastone, at least for the moment, so they either remained ignorant of who she was or didn't intend her harm.

For the moment.

Dissipating her eye on the ceiling, Robin slowly and carefully exited from under the covers. The room was warm due to the fire, so her intimacy was not uncomfortable, but she would prefer to find clothes sooner than later. Keeping a wary eye on either of the doors, Robin made her way toward what she suspected to be the closet.

Sliding it open, Robin realized she was both right and wrong with her guess.

To call it a closet was to call a battleship a skiff.

From hangers that stretched on for yards were clothes of all styles and colours, and racks of shoes and boots covered one side of the wall. Accessories such as hats, belts, and other paraphernalia filled a shelf on the side beside a massive floor-length mirror.

Most disconcerting was that all of it, from the hats, boots, and garments, were in the pirate's preferred style and made out of high-quality material.

Whoever this room belonged to had gone out of their way to ensure it was to her taste.

Some frightening implications came to mind. How long had Robin been unconscious? How long must they have been following her?

To remain safe, Robin dressed in clothes that were easy to move in and could function in any weather. She took a hat and sunglasses in case she needed to make a stealthy getaway.

As she dressed, Robin heard voices from behind one of the doors. Though she could not hear their exact words through the solid wood door, the voices sounded feminine and hurried.

Proceeding slowly, Robin went to the opposite door, cracked it a bit to peek inside, and saw a luxurious bathroom. Closing the door, she made her way to the other entrance and fully opened it.

What lay beyond wasn't in the same style as the room Robin had woken up in. While the floors were still made of wood, they were of a lighter colour, the walls were covered in art rather than bookshelves, and it was lit by bulbs on the wall rather than firelight. The images on the walls depicted various things, though natural landscapes and religious figures were the most common.

Other doors dotted the walls, though all were in different styles. Some looked personalized, while others remained blank. The pirate counted three doors on each wall, including the one Robin had just stepped out of.

The hall looked to only have one main exit near her own entrance, the other ending in a window overlooking a cliff and the sea. Judging by the light filtering in through it, it was early morning. She decided the windows in her room or this hall would be a good exit in an emergency. Better than risk delving deeper into the house.

With the speed of a woman on the run her entire life, Robin took it all in with a quick glance.

After that quick moment, Robin turned her attention to the other hall occupants.

Like the hall, she quickly categorized the women she could see, assessing them as possible threats. Of course, she didn't fail to maintain a demure smile as she did so. Reducing her perceived threat level would only aid her in her escape.

They were three women in the hall.

Opposite her was a dark-skinned woman in an orange shirt and tight black pants. Long purple hair in a ponytail and yellow eyes. She was tiny compared to Robin's tall frame, easily a foot shorter. She leaned against the door opposite the pirate but judging by her tense muscles and wary eyes, she was ready to act at any moment.

The other two women were further down near the end and talking by the window.

The first was covered entirely in a dark cloak; her entire body was hidden, and her proportions unknown. The only way Robin was sure the figure was female was the occasional fluttering pressed the cloth against some generous curves.

Nonetheless, the Straw Hat remained wary since the cloaked woman was hovering in the air.

While not super rare, any Devil Fruit that allowed its user to fly was dangerous.

Her companion wasn't hidden in the least, however. She was only a few inches shorter than Robin, with tan skin, black hair and blue eyes. She was also wearing an armoured corset that left the top of her generous breasts exposed, greaves, wrist guards and a crown. Her impressive musculature and the weapons on her hip put her as another possible threat.

Robin concluded that all three women could be dangerous in different ways.

All eyes flickered to Robin as she stepped into the hall. There was a brief pause as everyone sized each other up. The moment was broken when another one of the doorways opened up, and someone else joined the gathering group.

"What exactly is going on here?" The new arrival was an auburn-haired woman in some sort of leotard. Her eyes were deep crimson, and her long hair was covered in a bejewelled veil. Her eyes flickered over the other women in the same manner as Robin's before they settled on the armoured brunette.

"That," the armoured brunette answered. "Is an excellent question. Is anyone here aware of where we might be located? Raven nor I are familiar with this building. We also do not remember arriving here," she asked, gesturing to her cloaked companion and surveying the growing group of women.

"If I had known, I would not have asked," the spandex-clad woman said, mouth dipping into a scowl.

"The others might know," the cloaked woman, Raven, spoke up in a monotone voice. As her armoured companion looked at her companion in question, she continued. "There are five more women down that way." She pointed a gray-skinned finger down past Robin.

Robin subtly opened and closed hidden eyes along the ceiling in rapid succession, doing her best to ensure they remained hidden. She followed the path down the long hall, which opened into a grand foyer. It seemed like they were in the left corridor of a large mansion. Robin assumed they were on the second floor based on the double stairs going down and up and the great glass wall and doors below. Aside from the two sets of stairs, double doors were in the center between both halls.

All this she observed and noted in a few blinks of an eye.

As Robin opened an eye on the ceiling of the opposite corridor, she observed that, like Raven said, there were five more women in this side hall. Four blondes and another cloaked figure.

She couldn't make out too much of their profiles from her position, but they all appeared to be more than blessed in the looks department, with some of the largest busts she had ever seen. She took what information she could gleam in a moment.

Light purple cloak, pointed ears, withdrawn in the corner.

Blonde shoulder-length hair, silver corset and thigh highs.

Blonde hair in a bun, white and black blouse, small cape, whip. Talking with 'Corset Blonde.'

Blonde hair in pigtails, green shirt, massive breasts. Holding her head in apparent pain.

Blonde hair in a bun with bangs, silver armour, white-furred cloak. Luminescent green eyes staring right at Robin!

Robin tensed and dismissed the eye on reflex.

That woman had been sharp. Even the most proficient Haki users hadn't been able to notice her spying. She braced herself to use her Devil Fruit if the need came.

Nothing.

There was no cry or sudden burst of movement from the other hall.

Shaking her head, Robin changed her train of thought.

Of more importance was getting as much information as possible. The rest of the women in the hall were no more well-informed than Robin, so they would be useless.

This situation did not paint a pretty picture.

A group of beautiful women?

All displaced with no idea what was going on?

Who appeared in an area that clearly belonged to wealthy individuals?

This was setting off alarms in the pirate's head in the worst way.

The lack of a collar around their necks and the fact that they had placed no seastone on her stopped the worst of the panic from rising to the surface.

She still had options.

"I shall ask," the armoured brunette said to her companion. She started walking toward the second-floor landing and the other hall. "I am Diana of Themyscira, and this is Raven."

The pair walked past Robin and her shorter opposite. The veiled woman followed the pair, staying behind by a few feet. The pirate pretended to do the same but started down the stairs rather than continue to the other corridor.

She would not find answers there, with more clueless women.

"Scathach," she heard the veiled woman introduce herself as she stepped past.

Beyond the hall was a terrace connecting to a curving staircase leading to a big entrance like Robin had seen. Everything remained in the same style as the hall, there were no gaudy displays, and most of the wealth seemed to be implied rather than overt.

That actually went a long way to soothing Robin's fears.

In her experience, those with wealth and power tended to flaunt it. Those who maintained subtle expressions of power tended to be the more competent, for better or worse. They also tended to be less prone to casual cruelty.

As she started to descend the stairs, Robin felt a weight settle onto her shoulder. She saw a black cat staring up at her with its golden eyes from its perch.

"Hello there," it said in a deep voice. It sounded male, but judging from the fact that it came from the hallway behind her, it was probably female.

Another Devil Fruit user, then.

By process of elimination, she was the shorter woman in orange from the room opposite her own.

"Hello," Robin answered as she proceeded down the stairs.

"You got a name?" The cat asked casually, tail flicking idly as it stared her down.

Interesting.

While Robin was in no way vain, the Straw Hat Pirates were rather well renowned, and she was one of the more infamous ones of the group.

For a Devil Fruit user to not know her name suggested isolation or willful ignorance. Nonetheless, while Robin was undoubtedly paranoid, she was not rude.

"Sunday. And you are?" The cat snorted in amusement at her words.

Robin didn't know cats could snort.

Cute.

"I know a fake name when I hear one, and that is as fake as they come. But I guess you can keep your secrets. Name's Yoruichi. Ya' got any idea about what's going on?"

"I am as ignorant as you on the subject," Robin shrugged. "What is the last thing you remember?" She asked, fishing for information.

The way Yoruichi eyed her made her realize the cat knew what she was doing and didn't care.

"Having my heart ripped out, how about you?" The cat deadpanned.

"That lines up with my experience, yes."

Yoruichi squinted up at her before nodding silently. Both agreed not to press that subject for the moment.

"So, some sort of extra afterlife? Separate from Soul Society and Hueco Mundo?" Robin was unfamiliar with those two places, but it was easy to guess from context. Nevertheless, she was not one to advertise her ignorance.

"Possibly," Robin answered as she reached the foyer entrance and pushed open the large double doors. "Though I'm expecting something a little more strange."

Beyond the doors lay paradise.

That was the only way to put it.

The building was set atop a small mountain that overlooked an island. A path of well-paying stones ran from the doors, about a 15-minute walk if Robin was the judge, down to a large field. On either side of the path were orchards of fruit-bearing trees.

Looking to the right and left, she noticed that the orchard eventually ended, and forests covered the other parts of the island. The island was massive. She couldn't see its end, with snow-capped mountains towering in the distance blocking further viewing.

The weather was warm without being too hot. The sea sparkled with blues and greens under the early morning sunrise. From what Robin could tell, the building wrapped around the hill like a crown, made of oaks and other woods. She could see large windows and terraces, giving it an open-air feel.

It was on a towering cliff that faced southwards, below which lay a sandy beach. All in all, it looked like a summer island paradise if it were not for the fact that a few kilometres from shore, the sea disappeared into a yawning black void.

"Right," the cat drawled, staring out into the void. "Something strange."

The following hour was spent exploring the building where the various women found themselves. It was a sprawling mansion, with everything a group would need to survive independently of the world and some more on top of it.