AN: I definitely intended to get this out on Sunday at the latest... but I straight up couldn't find more than five minutes at a time since I woke up on Sunday to make all the necessary formatting edits between the SB and SV version, and the QQ and FF version. Minor changes all around, but Google doc formatting gets trashed a lot of the time, and It takes a decent chunk of time finding workarounds that aren't entirely illegible. Anyway, here it is two days late.
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Koneko
(Monday, April 23rd)
I knew from the moment I appeared in the ORC room Friday night, that things were going to be odd for the foreseeable future. I just didn't expect how annoying, and potentially complicated, the situation in town was getting. On top of that, since my week-long break was over, I couldn't even spend most afternoon's training with Naruto-sensei anymore.
When classes were said and done and I'd arrived at the club room, I promptly sat down and pulled out my phone, mostly ignoring the world around me to scroll through my text string with Uzumaki-kun.
↑
Saturday 10:19 AM
9SageNaruto: yeah, definitely. At your mansion, or the school woods?
Koneko1123: mansion so we can play games after
9SageNaruto: got it, see ya then.
Saturday 11:07 PM
9SageNaruto: i forgot to ask earlier, but do you or anyone in your peerage know of any blacksmiths who'd be willing to take custom orders from me?
9SageNaruto: none of the places i can find in town or online want to make what I want. Something about it being illegal or whatever.
Koneko1123: ill ask Kiba, hes the only 1 who might
Saturday 11:20 PM
Koneko1123: he knows one thru his sensei
9SageNaruto: sweet, thanks
9SageNaruto: on my way now, ill bring the sketches i made
Koneko1123: kk c u
Yesterday 9:49 AM
9SageNaruto: <
link>
9SageNaruto: did that work?
↓
Over the weekend, I had indirectly introduced him to the classic internet time sink of cute animal videos by accident. It was after he'd mentioned he was taking care of a stray for a couple days while we were training, and I'd shown him some tutorials on cat-care during our breaks. He quickly fell into the rabbit hole, and admitted later that he spent almost two hours scrolling through animal videos, sending me a couple of the best ones he saw.
When I pulled my attention away from my phone again, I took note of my surroundings. Buchou and Akeno were both present already, the miko in her usual place brewing tea, while I heard Rias shuffling around in the next room over. We also had two guests in the form of Yoru and Akatsuki, a pair of Tengu youkai twins who happened to be Senjutsu experts.
He'd probably be interested in meeting our visitors, and they'd probably feel the same about him.
Since we could expect to have more people in the room on average for the next few weeks or months, we rearranged the furniture to make room for a second couch, which the brother and sister pair were now seated on in meditation.
Increases in Stray Devil sightings, Fallen Angels operating in Devil controlled territory, and now the Youkai sent those two weirdos to deal with the energy phenomenon?
They'd shapeshifted into their human forms while at the school at Buchou's request, exchanging their feathered crow heads for smooth pale skin, silky-straight black hair, and red eyes which were currently closed. The sister had very long hair done in a sophisticated looking hime-style cut, wearing a miko outfit with navy hakama instead of the standard red color. Meanwhile, the brother had his not-quite-as-long hair done in a high ponytail with bangs framing his face– like some sort of young master from a xianxia novel, complete with pristine colorful robes and flowing sleeves– with both of the siblings having naturally narrowed eyes in a reversal of their normally-beady bird eyes.
Their features and relative power for their given young age might have been a bit intimidating, but only until you first hear them speak.
That's when you realize they're totally socially inept.
When I finally got to go home after meeting the two tengu sages Friday night, I was exhausted. Less than a full minute in, and it was obvious that they had next to zero common sense or sense of boundaries, commenting on how my…
growth… was apparently stunted by my disuse of Senjutsu. While the brother did end up giving me
some useful advice and offered to give me some pointers during their stay, outside of their sensory abilities, they were apparently idiot-savants and absolutely incapable regarding anything that didn't involve either own internal usage, or the "natural energy" aspect of Senjutsu, so they couldn't really help me make progress in Naruto-sensei's Ninshu.
I probably would have felt more upset that I wasn't able to assist them in the investigation, if I didn't already have an idea of what might be causing it. Talking more about them during my training with Uzumaki-kun over the weekend, along with my continued scanning of his body, led to me making a connection between the Bijuu and the potent pulses of energy within him. He seemed to be certain that he'd severed his connection to the Kyuubi– Kurama– and ejected the fox from his body permanently, but I wasn't so sure.
I kept my thoughts to myself, because I was completely new to this stuff and didn't want to get his hopes up if I was wrong, but it sort of fit both what I've observed of his condition, and what I now knew about how Bijuu reform and the natural energy situation in Kuoh.
Soon enough, Kiba arrived with Hyoudou in tow, who seemed to be surprisingly good at hiding his nervousness beneath a bored exterior. He'd honestly have much better luck in picking up women if he did the same with his normal perverseness, and didn't act like a creep every five minutes. It wasn't like he was bad looking when his face wasn't twisted lecherously, after all.
"Oh, man! Akeno-senpai even looks super sexy while pouring tea!" The brown-haired teen immediately lost his composure and started perving upon fully taking in the room. "As expected of one of the Two Great Ladies!"
'More like "As expected of one of the Pervert Trio," ' I thought to myself. Actually, I don't care if he knows what I thought about him.
'I'd prefer if he does, now that I think about it.'
"Please pour lemon juice in your eyes, pervert."
His head swiveled my way as he blinked at me.
"Wow, that… was actually surprisingly hurtful to hear, coming from the School Mascot Koneko-chan," he muttered, grimacing slightly. "But, somehow, I feel slightly happy that a girl as cute as her acknowledged my presence?" He nodded to himself and spoke up louder. "Say, Koneko-chan. Since we're going to be club members soon, feel free to call me Senpai, or even Issei-kun if you like!" He struck a confident pose and gave me a thumbs up.
My face twisted slightly and I involuntarily shivered. "Gross."
"Guh!" He looked like he'd been punched.
Kiba spoke up. "I could refer to you as Issei-kun, if you'd like?" He said with a genuine smile. He probably felt like this was his chance to make a male friend other than Uzumaki-kun, who was still an acquaintance at best. Unfortunately for Kiba, though…
Hyoudou recovered swiftly, dismissing him without a second thought. "Not a chance. That's gross as hell."
Akeno smiled in amusement at the turnaround.
"Oh, uh, who are those two?" Hyoudou asked, suddenly a tiny bit more bashful when he noticed the two young adults in the room. "Are they, you know, part of 'the group'? They don't look like students." Apparently not bashful enough to not stare at Akatsuki's chest though.
Neither of the siblings reacted, apparently deep in meditation still.
"They're not Devils," Buchou said as she walked into the room, drawing his attention. "Though they are a part of the supernatural side of the world, if that's what you're asking. They're youkai who are staying here as part of a diplomatic visit, to be more specific," She answered. "But enough about that for now; now it's time to get you familiar with the others, and what to expect your duties to be like."
Hyoudou seemed to have an internal struggle, deciding whether to keep his gaze at eye level while Rias spoke to him, or to stare at her tits.
Naturally, it wasn't much of a struggle at all and the pervert chose the latter, because Rias had zero shame and walked in while still buttoning her shirt up, after drying off from her shower.
Because of course she did, even while we have guests. The only reason she wasn't even more undressed when she entered the room was because said guests weren't directly aligned with the Gremory family.
"As I explained to you yesterday morning, the Occult Research Club is mostly just a front for my Peerage." Rias said for the benefit of our newly reincarnated member. "All of your soon-to-be club members are also Devils, just like you are now."
I stood as she said that, before Kiba, Akeno, and I all released our wings in display as we'd been instructed to earlier in the day, much to Hyoudou's awe and enthusiasm. He was surprisingly up-beat after being killed by his supposed girlfriend, though that probably had a lot to do with the whole "waking up next to a naked Rias" thing yesterday, when she decided to sleep in his bed after repairing the hole in his chest from Saturday. A person like him would probably consider that a worthy trade for almost dying.
Buchou sat in her chair behind her desk. "Let's begin with contracts…"
She explained to him how Devil contracts worked, each of us giving examples of the wide array of services we provided for our clients in exchange for things of equivalent value; money, objects and trinkets such as paintings or jewelry, or even small amounts of lifeforce that would convert into Demonic Power when absorbed through the contract process. Technically, someone could also trade ownership of their life away for a big enough request, but that was exceedingly rare in modern times, and even back then only tended to occur with the exceedingly powerful Devils.
Whether that was personal power or influential power was usually determined by the nature of the request. Regardless; he was neither, so she skimmed over it.
"So, since you don't have either any clients of your own, or a familiar to do this job for you yet, you'll have to start from the very beginning and hand out pamphlets yourself," Buchou finished, holding up a flyer with the Gremory magic circle on it, and patting the stack of other said handouts with her other hand.
"Huh," the new [Pawn] muttered. "Why does it feel like I should recognize that…?"
I looked up from my phone in slight confusion.
"Oh yeah!" He exclaimed, smacking a fist into his palm. "Now I remember, a girl in cosplay handed me one of those early last week, and I stuffed it in my pocket instead of throwing it away because she was cute."
"... How did you summon Buchou, if you didn't know you had her summon circle?" I questioned the teen, somehow not surprised in the slightest at his reason for keeping it in his pocket for nearly a week.
"Is that what happened?" He asked in surprise. "I kinda just assumed she came across me randomly and decided to save me, since we go to the same school." He scratched the side of his head. "Or something like that… I haven't really thought too hard about it, to be honest."
Buchou smiled in amusement, resting her cheek on her hand. "He wished to be given a lap-pillow by a beautiful girl in his last moments, and his desire activated the magic to summon me," she said with her head propped up over her desk by her elbow. "I answered the summons, granted his wish, and accepted payment in the form of adding him to my family."
"Eh?" Hyoudou blinked at her, before his face twisted as he realized something. "Wait a minute, isn't that super unfair?!"
Huh? He was just fine with being a Devil in her peerage a moment ago, so what was the problem now?
"You accepted payment, but I don't even remember the service! I'd already passed out before you got to me!" He raged. "Dammit, I can't believe I missed out on such a paradise!"
I deadpanned.
'I really shouldn't be surprised.'
Buchou laughed, while Akeno and Kiba chuckled quietly.
A few minutes later, and both the [Queen] and [Knight] had said their goodbyes and teleported out to begin with their contracts, while Rias went over Hyoudou's schedule with him in more detail. I didn't have a client for another fifteen minutes or so, so I put my attention back to my phone, texting Uzumaki-kun.
↑
Today 3:34 PM
Koneko1123: your order arrived btw
9SageNaruto: that quick?? Its only been like, a day.
Koneko1123: devils
9SageNaruto: …
9SageNaruto: that still doesnt explain it.
9SageNaruto: what about backlogs or whatever?
Koneko1123: fine
Koneko1123: devils + gremory is a noble family so we get priority
9SageNaruto: …
9SageNaruto: im torn between being happy it got done so quick, and complaining about you damn rich people, haha
"Heh." I suppressed a smirk.
Today 3:37 PM
Koneko1123: ill stop by my place 2 get them later so i might answer a few minutes late
9SageNaruto: thanks for the heads up
9SageNaruto: u might want to bring some more comfortable clothes to change into after
Koneko1123: kay
I looked up as Hyoudou ran out the door to get started on his flyer distribution, the closing of the door
joined by the sound of the tengu sister beginning to stir. After a moment, Akatsuki's breathing changed and she rose from her seat, stretching her arms above her head with a sigh of relief.
"So, did you figure out what's going on?" Buchou asked the woman, walking over to sit next to me on the couch across from the siblings.
"... Eh?" It was simply incredible how a being with such refined and cold-looking features could give off such a completely clueless air with just a single sound and a blink. "Figure out about what?"
With all the patience of someone who grew up around Sirzechs, and Serafall to a degree, Buchou smiled at the youkai as she elaborated. "You know, the natural energy thing going on in town. That's why you two were meditating, right?"
"Oh yeah, that." The woman made a noise of understanding. Buchou leaned forward ever so slightly in interest. "Nope. We were just napping."
Rias didn't react at all for a moment, staring straight ahead into the narrow red eyes of the sage. She was probably too flabbergasted at the response and in the middle of rebooting.
Wait for it.
"...What?" She asked incredulously.
I picked up the conversation for her.
"So you don't know what happened to the town's chakra that was making the other youkai leave?" I asked
"Huh? That's not what I said though?" Akatsuki looked as confused as we felt trying to understand her thought process. "We figured
that out almost the moment we got here." My eyes widened slightly in surprise. "We were just trying to understand what's happening to it
now."
What? Now I was even more confused.
"What do you mean?" Buchou prodded. "Are you saying the town's chakra is still here somewhere?"
She shrugged, waving a hand around flippantly. "Maybe not
all of it– we don't know how much the area usually makes– but at least a big chunk of the stuff is still floating around nearby, but
super condensed." She blinked, before an incongruous smile appeared on her aristocratic face. "Think of it like a jelly filled donut!"
I blinked and shared a glance with Rias, both of us nearing a maximum threshold of sheer confusion.
"If the town's chakra is normally like a full sized donut but with more donut in the middle instead of an empty space, then now it's like a jelly donut but without any of the donut part, you see? All that's left is the small pocket of denser and richer jelly!" The tengu explained proudly.
I… could
sort of see the metaphor.
It sucked, it was a very convoluted and stupid way of explaining it, but it–
sort of– worked.
I hated it.
I hated that I could perfectly picture it in my head.
I stood up.
"I'm going to my client." I turned to Buchou. She looked at me. "... Good luck on your own."
"Wait, what?" Her eyes widened, before falling in resigned despair. "Ugh… Have fun…"
A teleport circle appeared under me, and I had just enough time to see the brother startle awake before I disappeared from the room.
It was only half way through my contract that I realized she never explained the "what's happening to it
now" thing.
Drat.
My first contract of the afternoon ended up finishing early, so I actually had a little bit of time to relax before my next summon when I arrived in my room at the Gremory peerage estate. I debated changing out of the Nagato Yuki cosplay for more casual clothes, but decided against it for now. I did gather what I would have worn into a bag for later though, just in case.
With that and my other packages settled on the floor, I jumped onto my fluffy bed and turned on my TV to navigate to DeviTube. I only ended up making it halfway through a food review video before I felt the familiar tugging sensation of a summoning request.
Turning off the TV, I stood by my carry-ons and initiated a multitarget teleport, appearing in my client's living room. There was a TV on a cabinet that sat against one wall, and a weathered couch that was pushed to the side to make room for my summoning.
"Huh. Interesting looking outfit," I heard his voice from behind me. "Is that one of those 'cosplay' things I've heard about?"
I turned around to face the blond and nodded, briefly taking note of the setting sun through the open window. "My previous client usually hires me to model their works for photo shoots," I told him. "Sometimes she lets me keep them for free."
"That's nice of them." Uzumaki-kun gave an approving hum, a hand rubbing his chin as he gave my clothing a once-over. He himself was wearing an oversized orange t-shirt and black basketball shorts. "It's very cute," he finally said, with his usual close-eyed grin while giving a thumbs up. "I like it, it suits you!"
I idly wondered if he had a heater turned on somewhere in the room as I glanced around, feeling a bit warm.
Since I no longer had as much time to hang out during the weeks due to my resuming duties in the peerage, Uzumaki-kun had suggested a workaround after I explained the intricacies of Devil Contracts.
One of the primary purposes of the contracts was to act as a point system for class-promotions. Once a Low-class Devil acquired enough points through contracts and Stray hunts, they earned the right to take part in the Mid-class exams, and the same went for Mid-class to High-class. A part of the lax rules around what defined a service and a payment was so that more unusual, rare, or high-value experiences and payments could be rated higher than the more mundane contracts, which meant that Devils with more unique abilities, a wider-breadth of experiences, and stronger connections and ambitions tended to promote much faster than the average ones just going through the motions.
All this is to say, when my friend summoned me to hang out and do some training– both things that we would have done regardless– all that the paperwork would say, is that in exchange for spending my time with the client to keep them company, I had accepted Senjutsu and martial arts lessons from them as payment.
We couldn't do this every day for multiple reasons, not the least of which being that I still needed to keep up with my other long-term contracts, but "keeping the company of a sage", one who was capable of teaching both martial arts and Senjutsu to a [Rook] Nekoshou, was bound to rate more highly than usual services from the potential societal connection alone, even if we excluded the actual value of the "payment".
Was it gaming the system? Absolutely. Was it actually fraudulent? I wouldn't say so, since I was actually learning a lot under Naruto-sensei's tutelage.
The Class-administration board probably would though, if they learned he was a human teen who lost his powers.
"We'll start with your, heh, 'payment' first, since that's what we usually do anyway," Uzumaki-kun said, breaking me out of my thoughts. I noticed I didn't feel particularly warm anymore. "Did you bring a change of clothes with you?"
"Mm." I nodded, gesturing at the bag at my feet. "The packages are your orders." One was a long and rectangular carrying case, while the other was a more regularly sized and shaped square box about the size of my head, both being black with briefcase-like carry-handles.
"Sweet! I can't wait to check them out!" He grinned like a loon. The grin dropped for a slightly sheepish expression. "Or, well, I guess I
will wait to check them out, at least until after your training session, heheh."
"Is this enough space?" I asked as I glanced around the room, curious what he would have me practicing in the tiny area. It wasn't even like his condo was small, in actuality being bigger than my apartment from what I could tell of it, as well as emptier, but compared to our clearing at school or the peerage home's backyard, it was cramped.
"Pfft-" He suppressed a laugh but either couldn't, or just didn't bother preventing the amused, knowing grin from appearing. "Oh, you won't be training in
here, come on and I'll show you what you'll be doing." He turned towards his stairs as he said this, waving his hand in a 'follow me' gesture.
I made to follow, something about the smug way he said it giving me a bad feeling
"Oh, by the way, you might want to bring your change of clothes with you too."
I was suddenly having second thoughts.
"What."
"That, my friend, would be something known as a
'bathtub'." The worst part was how proud of himself he sounded, the ass.
When I followed him to the next floor up, the
last room I expected him to take me to was the bathroom.
"Yes, but why?"
"Well, you see, that's because it is a
tub… that people
bathe in."
I stepped towards him menacingly.
"Water-walking lessons."
He immediately conceded the issue, and I felt dumb for forgetting his people could walk on water without cheating with something like flight.
I wouldn't have hit him either way– I already messed up once doing that– but a good old 'incredibly-uncomfortable-armbar between friends' never hurt anyone, right?
"Anyways, chop-chop! Put your foot on the surface and do the tree-climbing exercise, except do it watery-er."
I deadpanned.
'Maybe I should give Naruto-sensei a "free lesson" in grappling techniques,' I grumbled internally as I stepped towards the tub to the sound of his snickering.
He was practically begging for an armbar, in my totally expert opinion.
Naruto-sensei only laughed the first couple times I fell before deciding to give me actual advice, so his punishment would be light when I got my revenge. Maybe.
After around an hour and a half or so of splashing warm water all over the bathroom floor and re-topping off the tub when too much escaped, we had managed to get my progress to a point where I could semi-consistently push against the water like a solid surface. But only for a moment at best. I couldn't stand on it or otherwise support my full weight on my hands or feet for more than a moment, but I could probably treat it like a temporary platform to kick off of, if I really needed to.
Naruto-sensei had ended the lesson a couple minutes ago, excusing himself to go "prepare something" after showing me where the clean towels were and setting my bag of backup clothes on the counter.
It was only when he left the room and I looked in the mirror, no longer so focused on making progress, that I noticed the reason he'd sometimes looked away randomly when I rose from the tub after a fall; white shirts and lots of water don't preserve modesty well.
Sometimes I questioned the series of absurd events my life had taken to end up wherever I was at the time. Like right now; I was soaking wet and toweling off, in the home of a teenage boy who likes me without adult supervision, and I just so happened to accidentally show him more than was really appropriate for a whole hour.
Of course, whenever these moments of reflection happened, I generally remembered moments later that these sort of "outlandish" events are
actually the norm for supernatural beings, that I am a supernatural being twice-over and then the feeling went away. If anything, watching anime and living in the human world these past couple years was slowly corrupting me into thinking these things were unusual, and not the other way around as it might be for a human teen.
Even so.
'... I still feel weird.'
For some reason, it wasn't going away this time.
I tried to put it out of my mind as I finished drying my ears and began putting on my clothes.
Knock, knock.
I jumped, reflexively clutching my arm across my chest in panic as I just barely stopped myself from slipping on the wet tile in my surprise.
"Hey, just a heads up, I'm gonna check on the stray in the guest room; see if she left through the window, or if she's still here and I need to feed her," Uzumaki-kun's voice came through the door. "I'll clean up the bathroom real quick when you're finished changing, so feel free to go turn on the TV and relax when you're done. I remembered you mentioned enjoying it, so I left a thermos with hot milk on the side table by the window for you."
"M-Mm." My voice hitched when I responded. I felt warm inside from his thoughtfulness, and I hadn't even realized I'd been holding my breath until the feeling became tinged with breathlessness. I strained my ears to listen for any motion through the sound of my heart pumping in my ears.
A couple seconds later, I heard the sound of a door knob turning down the hall, and only then did I finally fully release the breath I was holding with a sigh.
When he'd knocked, for a split second I'd had an intrusive thought involving the anime cliché of characters walking in on each other.
While one of the first things I felt when it didn't come to pass was relief… it wasn't exactly the
first thing I felt.
I sighed as I finished putting on my undergarments and started on my outer layer.
'Is this
what it's like for everyone else?'
"Nnng." I groaned in dismay.
It seemed like the siblings were right.
While it was probably a sign that I was doing
something good for my body now that I was practicing with my chakra, a small part of me couldn't help but hope that I could leave behind the more personally humiliating aspects of puberty. I just knew that I wasn't that lucky though.
Better late than never, I guess.
It turned out that the stray had decided to leave at some point, meaning it was quick work for Uzumaki-kun to clean up the bathroom. Within just a few minutes, he was downstairs with me and setting up his DVD player, while I sat with my legs up on his small couch and the warm thermos in my hands. I had changed into a pair of black sweatpants with a hole cut out for my tail, and a soft pink sweater from the same brand as my hair pins, with a similar black cat face printed on the front.
'I guess I won't punish him for laughing at me after all,' I thought as I brought my drink to my lips. The milk sent a pleasant warmth through my body with every sip, leaving me extra-relaxed after my mentally taxing training.
I was staring out the window at the warmly-lit courtyard, and the night skyline beyond it while we waited for a pizza delivery. The view wasn't bad, probably, but it didn't compare to looking out from any of the Gremory mansion balconies, either here or in the Underworld.
Or the view from the air while flying, honestly. I wasn't much of an "appreciate the landscape" type of person, I much preferred enclosed spaces and walking through cities, but when I did choose to fly, I could admit that the view was pretty up there (pun not intended), although it got kinda stale when you could go up and take a look whenever you wanted with just a tiny bit of effort.
Still, pleasant company in a cozy environment made up for it in atmosphere alone, and I kept taking in the sight.
Whumpf
Until Uzumaki-kun suddenly plopped himself down on the couch, right in the way of my view, his blue eyes looking at me while displaying the remote he held.
I couldn't force myself to feel annoyed, my mind already forgetting the details from outside in favor of looking into his eyes.
"Ready to start?" He asked with a small but excited smile.
I nodded quietly.
We were going to watch an anime tonight, one that I'd already seen but owned the physical copies of, and figured it would be fun to watch again with a friend who was fairly new to anime. It was one of my favorites; an action-comedy– primarily comedy– that parodied generic Isekai tropes and went out of its way to make every character unlikeable, but in an endearing and organic way.
With a click of the remote, the opening sequence began.
Two hours and just over halfway through the first season later, and we decided to pause for a bathroom break. It was getting a bit late, but we had decided that we could keep watching for the remaining hour and a half to finish the season without impacting our sleep schedules for school tomorrow. When I finished doing my business and came back downstairs, it was to a sight that made me deadpan.
The room was dark, only dimly lit by the TV screen paused in the middle of the previous episode's ending, and there were empty pizza boxes neatly piled to the side of the room to be disposed of later. That was expected. What was new was Uzumaki-kun laying spread across the entirety of the couch on his back, watching more cat videos on his phone based on what I could hear.
I walked around to the front of it with a deadpan.
"You're hogging all the space," I informed him. "Move."
He was short for his age, but his couch was small; more of a love-seat really, so his legs still hung over one armrest while his head rested against the other.
"Make me, pipsqueek."
He stuck his tongue out and made a rude noise, not glancing away from his phone to look at me for even a microsecond.
My eyes narrowed. If I made him move, either through force or diplomacy, that would be his victory. To play his game was to admit defeat. So instead, I flipped the script on him.
He made his bed, now he would lie in it until he learned his lesson. Literally, even.
Punishment time.
I turned my back to the couch, glanced back at it to check my landing zone, and…
"Oof!!"
… plopped myself down on the couch.
More specifically, directly on top of his stomach.
"K-K-Koneko-chan?! T-The hell are you doing?!" Uzumaki-kun sputtered, frantically attempting to escape by pushing me off. "Get off of me!"
Unmoved, I turned my head and stared down at him blankly, long enough for him to take notice and slowly stop struggling. When I determined that he was ready to listen, I answered.
"Make me, pipsqueek."
His struggle began anew, fueled by his need to not be one upped like that.
He would fail in the end though, because I was sticking myself to both him and the couch with my chakra, preventing him from getting leverage to either push me away or slide out from under me.
I ignored his squirming and complaints, grabbing the remote and pressing play to start the next episode. It took getting through the opening and the short recap scene starting for him to finally realize it was futile.
"I give up," he said with a pout, turning his head to watch the show from where he lay beneath me. "You win."
I smirked.
'Heated seat, acquired.'
We sat in relative silence watching the screen for a couple beats, before he sighed, the motion shifting my balance a tiny bit. "It was clever, using the tree-walking exercise that way," he admitted. "I can't even feel annoyed, since you're such a good student."
It was such a little thing; just an offhand comment made to express his grudging acceptance of his defeat, but it made me feel warm with pride anyway– that, and a little bit of embarrassment I couldn't pinpoint the reason for. Regardless, I silently released my hold on the chakra-sticking technique, deeming it unlikely that my seat would rebel any further.
Given my now-constant idle use of my chakra, and the habit I'd developed of scanning Uzumaki-kun's system whenever I had the opportunity to, that just meant I let my chakra relax and seep into him instead of acting as a glue in between us. I'd gotten familiar enough with how his body (barely) worked that my chakra no longer got bullied by the potent energy pulses. I'd learned to anticipate the pulses like a wave-pool at a waterpark, letting my chakra be carried back by the wave even as I waded through it, then flowing past to fill the emptiness left behind in its wake.
This level of interaction with the energy also meant I could see the remains of his chakra pathways clear as day, as if they were a physical structure and, more importantly, without taking and consuming any of the energy keeping him alive for myself.
Sitting on his stomach gave me a rare chance for direct access to where his 'core' and the majority of his network's intersections should be, according to his diagrams. That being said, all I really felt were a couple of structures that seemed more 'solid', rather than the more ethereal tube-like pathways. I shortly realized they were probably his "Inner Gates", which were basically sealed-off sub-cores that normally only served to refuel the main core.
There were two things that stood out to me right away.
The first, was that the pulses seemed to originate from one of those Gates, expanding outwardly from it like a ripple on a lake, except in three dimensions. The Gate itself didn't open, the energy just seemed to emerge from it as if it wasn't an obstacle.
The second was that the sections of his network in extreme close proximity to that gate were in a noticeably better condition, with less obvious ruptures, larger complete segments compared to the tiny fragments in his extremities, and actually able to direct a small portion of the energy through them before it escaped through the gaps. It was through observing the Yang energy filter through some of these more complete sections multiple times in a row, that I got an idea.
If the energy itself had healing properties, but his network was too damaged to properly channel that energy and make efficient use of it, then couldn't I try reconnecting some of the disconnected pathways? Or at least re-align them, so they could direct the energy to path them up automatically, sort of like resetting a broken bone…
I
very carefully prodded one of the more intact pieces with my chakra, gradually pushing it back into place so that it pressed end-to-end against the closest working section, sort of like pressing Lego pieces together.
Within seconds, I got a tentative confirmation of my idea working, when the next pulse came and the line of ethereal tubing directed a portion of it to flow through both parts, all without knocking it back out of place. It wouldn't exactly heal him just by doing this with the rest of his body, so I still needed to continue my lessons with Rias in the late nights to early mornings, but…
'... It's a start,' I thought with satisfaction.
I continued from there, determined to do the same with all the pieces I could find the obvious correct places for. I would need the diagrams on hand for the more messy areas, and to double check that my work matched as close to what his system was supposed to look like as possible, but my priority for tonight was just re-setting the areas that were the simplest since I was splitting my focus.
As my work and the episode went on, Uzumaki-kun kept glancing up at me periodically, before looking away. It was kind of distracting.
I shifted back in my seat again, as I'd had to multiple times already to not slip off.
"Stop fidgeting, please." I asked/told my chair, pausing the anime. "It's distracting."
This time, he stared up in a red-cheeked deadpan and didn't look away.
"Oh,
I'm distracting
you?" He asked incredulously. "You're the one who keeps shifting around every other minute, and your tail keeps sliding against my arms!
Stop fidgeting, please.
It's distracting." The sarcasm dripped from his tongue.
I rolled my eyes. "I wouldn't have to adjust my posture so much if my
chair just kept still and focused on the show with me."
"Do you know how hard it is for this
chair to ignore a cute girl
moving around on my stomach whenever I breathe too deeply?!" He jabbed the side of my thigh with an index finger as he said this, before crossing his arms and looking away with a pout. "The answer is it's
really difficult! I'm still going through puberty, I can't help it…"
There was silence between us as it dawned on us what he'd said out loud. I didn't need to sneak the glance at him that I did to already know that his face would be as red as I assumed mine was. I… hadn't actually considered what the consequences of sitting on him would be. I wasn't used to thinking of myself as someone boys might desire in that way, so it hadn't really occurred to me how he might feel in that regard.
"... I've been using the contact to study your network core more closely," I admitted after a couple awkward seconds. "I can get off if you want."
I'd prefer not to waste this opportunity though, even with the embarrassment now that I'd been made aware of the situation. Dealing with a little awkwardness in exchange for trying to improve the health of my friend was a surprisingly difficult decision, but it was still the choice I would make.
"... It's fine," he muttered while scratching his cheek, refusing to meet my eyes. "It's not like I can honestly say that I, uh,
dislike it, or anything…" He trailed off, cringing at the admission.
It was silent for another few seconds before I pressed play, my face burning as I started up my scanning again.
For the rest of the night, he didn't bring it up when I shifted around on top of him, and I didn't bring it up when he absentmindedly caught my wandering tail and began stroking it.
When it was time to get up and go home, saying goodbye was a little awkward and embarrassing, but I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the time spent together.
ᓚᘏᗢ
