A New Leaf on Life (Naruto/DxD Crossover)
- Thread starter Foxxin
- Start date
- Crossover
With Shirone being a Nekoshou, which are specifically stated to be naturally talented in Senjutsu, she could perhaps learn how to replicate justsu by feeling so long as she has an example. Therefore; we may see a future where Naruto has healed enough to be able to show her how to use his techniques.
It's been really nice reading about their bond developing like this.
Texting eachother troughout the day, losing all sense of time when they hang out together. They'll soon reach the point where they can't even pretend the teasing isn't justified lol
Naruto slowly being healed is also cool. I'm excited for Koneko to find out how exactly the guy applies Chakra
'Damn, this technique is difficult to learn!' -> [Apply Shadow Clone]
'Oops, i have a test tomorrow. Maybe i should stu-' -> [Apply Shadow Clone]
'This enemy is strong, bu-' -> [Apply Shadow Clone]
(Personally i respect it. He can actually proudly claim to be the best user of the technique that has ever existed, above some absolute monsters)
Texting eachother troughout the day, losing all sense of time when they hang out together. They'll soon reach the point where they can't even pretend the teasing isn't justified lol
Naruto slowly being healed is also cool. I'm excited for Koneko to find out how exactly the guy applies Chakra
'Damn, this technique is difficult to learn!' -> [Apply Shadow Clone]
'Oops, i have a test tomorrow. Maybe i should stu-' -> [Apply Shadow Clone]
'This enemy is strong, bu-' -> [Apply Shadow Clone]
(Personally i respect it. He can actually proudly claim to be the best user of the technique that has ever existed, above some absolute monsters)
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So pure chakra control stuff(chakra scalpel, the Jyuuken techniques, chakra flow, Rasengan/Bijuudama) is massively easier for them, nature transformation would be considerably focused on their natural affinities(Koneko would probably find Fire, Yin and Yang tranformations to be trivial given the general Bakeneko skillset, but doing anything else is going to be way harder than a Narutoverse human doing it without an affinity).
Genjutsu being the weird exception where its sort of warped Ninshu communication except you use it to lie to them about what they see.
Fayhem
Definitely not an escaped SCP
- Location
- At large
- Pronouns
- He/Him
*afternoons
I do like it when characters are smart enough to put together the same puzzle pieces the audience can.
Lmfaooooooooo I love these idiots so much
The jelly donut "explanation" was great too, especially with Koneko being so mad that it actually kinda works.
Chat she doesn't know...
Update: chat she figured it out (at least kinda)
...Is this Konosuba lmao?
That's actually really cool. Anime introducing really cool female characters and then refusing to actually cook with them is one of my least favorite iconic duos, so it makes me happy any time I see a work that's pushing back on the negative half of that.
Unless the catte really likes you, touching the tail like that is a good way to get your face clawed off!
Ehh...Who knows? Naruto is also kind off an Idiot Savant too...And he IS a bad ninja...Now if it was Kakashi there? Oh then I would be 100% sure, but with Naruto you never know...
Tasoli
Life is for Living
- Location
- Behind the Keyboard.
There was that one fanfiction that had it so Naruto being so emphatic made him a bad ninja but great sage.
I always liked that.
2.4 - Aphelion
New
Managed to get it out before the end of the weekend, whoo!
Naruto
(Tuesday, April 24th)
I strolled down the street on my way home from school with an extra pep in my step, whistling along to the beat of my new cane tapping the ground, my latest interaction with the Student Council filling me with amusement. I had now interacted with them three times in just as many school days; The first time on Friday, the second time yesterday when I went to pick up my school bag before classes, and once more today.
Apparently they had some sort of issue with the kid who "fell" from a second-story window "needing" to use a cane to walk for the foreseeable future. What a bunch of insensitive jerks.
It's not like they'd caught me walking around just fine, twirling my walking stalk around in my hand or anything, no way. That would be ridiculous.
I snickered to myself at my genius while admiring the craftsmanship of the walking stick and the weight of my wrists.
It was fairly unassuming on the outside, looking like a normal dark brown polished-wood cane, with a rectangular profile and a sharply angled hook-grip that was neatly wrapped with black cording. Aside from the durable hardened-leather that capped the end of it and the handle's joints, it seemed to be carved and shaped from one singular piece of wood.
This was literally all wrong though, aside from the leather cap and the outer layer of polish. In reality, my cane(sword) was made almost entirely out of a lightweight but durable blend of metals that I didn't understand the first thing about, other than the fact that it allowed me to use the sheath as a bludgeoning weapon alongside the sword. While the seam was invisible to the naked eye, if I gripped the "wooden" cane by the middle and pulled it away from the handle with a relatively decent amount of force, the powerful magnets holding the two pieces together at the end of the grip would fail, and reveal a chokuto style straight blade.
The wooden look was actually just a decorative veneer coating the metal, so when I inevitably got into a fight with it at my side, no one would expect it to hit as hard as it does, or be durable enough to take some hits.
I'd just have to be sure not to hit anyone in the head or neck if I don't want them dead and aren't sure if they can take it. At least, that is until I've trained with it enough to get used to the weight of each swing.
With that thought in mind I continued home, stepping foot through the gate that separated the old man's property from the rest of the residential buildings around the area.
I looked around, not seeing any of the usual stay-at-home moms in the courtyard as I walked down the path towards my apartment. When I arrived at my front door, I hooked my cane on my elbow and reached into my pocket for my keys, taking note of the aluminum soda can tab on the ground in front of me while turning the knob with my other hand.
I stepped into my home and shut the door behind me, twisting the little latch to engage the lock while I hung my keys on a wall hook. Walking to my kitchen without taking my shoes or jacket off, I set my school bag on my couch as I passed behind it, and went straight to my sink to get a glass of water, setting my cane against the kitchen table as I passed that as well.
As I filled the cup, I made an idle humming sound.
"What is this, amateur hour?" I mused to my uninvited guest, while staring at the water slowly nearing the top. "It's not that hard to re-lock a door after breaking into someone's house, ya'know, and that's just step one. You made it way too obvious. I'd give you a D+ at best."
I whipped around and flung all of the water at the intruder's face in a spray while keeping a tight grip on the glass, holding it out in front of my chest at the end of the motion, intercepting and directing the tip of a glowing blade past my chest with it. In the split second it took the glass cup to split apart in my hand from the blade I'd subjected it to, I caught a glimpse of the barrel of a gun moving in the direction of my head as my assailant blinked the water out of his eyes, and I jerked my head to the side while letting my kunai drop from my sleeves into my palms.
My motion saved me from certain death just in the nick of time, a bright light whizzing past my head with a much quieter sound than I expected, slicing the side of my right ear and piercing one of the overhead cupboards behind me with a muffled sound of shattered glass, the dropped halves of my cup bursting to pieces on the floor half a beat later.
"Keheh, looks like Dohnaseek wasn't lying, the midget kid isn't helpless after all!" The white haired young man had a disturbingly euphoric expression on his dripping face, having stepped just back out of easy range with both his weapons at the ready. "I would've been fine with killing some retarded school-brat anyway, but this just got way more exciting! Lucky me, lucky me!"
I wasn't exactly fluent in English, so I didn't recognize every word he said, but I was proficient enough for medical research purposes so I got the basic gist of it. Particularly, my eyes narrowed as he mentioned killing school kids, and the name he mentioned tugged at my memory.
'The Fallen Angel guy?'
The crazy guy was wearing a weird looking robe that went all the way down to his shins, leaving it open to show his formal black shirt and pants, as well as the silver cross thing hanging from his neck.
'Is this one of those church guys Koneko told me about?' I thought. 'An exerciser or whatever?'
"Man, I can't even sense energy, but even I can tell the amount of bloodlust you're giving off seems unhealthy," I deadpanned as I settled into a more reactive stance. "You ever tried getting therapy for that?" The gun posed more of a threat both the closer and further I got from it, depending on how I looked at it. It would be easier to dodge or divert his aim up close, but on the flip side, it would be harder to keep track of it in the midst of close quarters combat with that bright-ass sword.
'I'll have to keep a careful balance between attack and defense, then.'
"Kehaha! The shitty Devil-lover has jokes too!" The murderous priest cackled, this time speaking in Japanese. He settled down and leveled his sword my way with a demented grin. "My name is Freed Sellzen, an exorcist belonging to a certain organization that hunts down filthy Devils and the heathens like you, to cleanse the world of their evil through the time-honored tradition of bloodletting." His grin widened. "Don't bother introducing yourself to me, because I've already forgotten your name, and don't want it taking up space in my mind after I kill you. Please do your best to entertain me until you die; I want us to savor the moment you stop breathing, together."
Yep.
'Fucking crazy.'
Warm blood slowly dripped down my ear and onto my jaw. I couldn't see any distortions in the air around his Light sword, and really didn't feel anything when I redirected his initial thrusting stab.
I idly wiped some of the blood off of my neck with an extended index finger as he gave me a moment to dwell on what he said. That, or he was just reveling in the buildup to violence. He seemed the type.
Light-based weapons didn't seem to give off any heat by default, only higher than normal sharpness. Probably weighed less, too. 'Can't rely on any wounds I take being cauterized then, to keep blood loss low. Guess I'll have to be more proactive then.'
"Fine then," I began. "Let's-" I didn't complete my sentence– not that I was planning on it in the first place– rapidly swinging one leg back as I ducked to kick off of my stove, launching myself into his personal space with my kunai up as a flash of light shot through the space my head had occupied. He danced back away from the swipe I sent towards his gun hand even as I deflected his retaliatory sword swing over my head with my right hand, the supernaturally sharp Light blade biting slightly into the metal of my kunai before it was fully diverted.
The red-eyed would-be murderer turned his deflected swipe into a downward slash that I back stepped out of range from, his sword's passing revealing the barrel of his gun aimed at my center mass. With a slight tilt of my left knife that I'd already pulled back from my initial slash, the expected flash of light ricocheted off to the side, My wrist jerked by the impact.
Freed had continued to step back until he was in the living room. "You got jokes, but let's see if you can dance!" He said with a twisted grin, holding up his pistol.
With our current distance, another seven flashes came in rapid succession.
By tracking the barrel and his trigger finger, I was able to dodge or deflect five of them entirely, but one of them only partially. The fourth shot nicked the side of my chest, just missing my rib when I couldn't shift my body's momentum as fast as he could adjust his aim, and the last one pierced straight through the left side of my hip bone.
I couldn't have dodged it in time, but I could have deflected it if I attempted to. The issue was that his pistol didn't have a visible magazine, and fired energy projectiles, so it was entirely possible that he could just keep shooting indefinitely. Either I would eventually make more mistakes, or he would get bored and change things up despite being in a winning position.
I couldn't let the former happen, so I'd chosen to throw both of my pitted kunai at him, taking a hit that wouldn't cripple my movement in exchange.
One of them was easily deflected by a swipe of the Light sword, but the other needed him to take his eyes off of me for a moment to track the trajectory and dodge.
My hands flew to my pockets Immediately after they were free and I rushed towards my table.
"What kind of retard throws away his wea–Fuck!"
My left hand had whipped out of my pocket and threw a third kunai at him, slicing the skin on the top of his gun hand.
Credit where it's due, I was aiming at his wrist, but even while making a game of the fight and having his focus split, he was able to somewhat notice and react.
"You shitty—! The fu- Kuh!?"
What he got caught by was looking back my way, only to see my school jacket blocking his vision as it flew towards him, followed shortly by my unsheathed cane sword piercing through the fabric to stab him in the gut.
I didn't stab him very deeply, pulling back near instantly to raise my blade and block a series of retaliatory slashes that caused my tattered jacket to fall to the floor. His gun shifted at his hip, but I batted it out of his hand with my sheath before it could be pointed my way, sending it bouncing across my floor.
I tried jabbing him in the solar plexus with the sheath while we continued trading slashes, stabs, and blocks in my living room, but instead of him getting hit or dodging, his now free hand moved in front of the strike, stopping it dead with his palm and wrapping his fingers around it in an iron grip before I could pull back.
Freed grinned a vicious grin, and despite my hip injury, the two other cuts I'd received, and the situation being a life or death battle in my own home, it occurred to me that I was grinning as well, if in a much less bloodthirsty way.
He used our shared anchor point to pull himself forward, pivoting his body faster as he swung his Light sword to give it more power, bringing it down in an overhead strike that I brought my own sword up to block horizontally. I I struggled to hold the block up with just one hand, my own blade being pushed down enough that it almost bounced off the top of my head. Unlike previous times, he held the pressure up on this clash, so we were locked in a contest of strength and leverage.
Either of us could shift our swords slightly to one side or the other and change that in a moment, but I currently preferred the stalemate we were in to risking taking those options and coming out worse for it, and I could only guess Freed felt the same. So we stood there, locked in two different struggles; a tug-of-war for my sheath, and a blade lock.
"Heh, heheheh! Not bad, not bad!" Freed cackled "Almost fucking got me with that tricky ninja shit, you shitty heathen!"
"You're pretty good yourself," I admitted. "If you weren't a complete and utter psychopath who should be locked up in prison with the key thrown away, I'd say I wouldn't mind fighting you again." He put more pressure down, and I tensed my arm, locking my wrist to prevent from buckling under the weight.
'Definitely some enhanced strength, though not to the extent of Kiba, let alone Koneko-chan.'
Freed's eyes crinkled and his smile twisted in glee.
"No way, hahah! You'd have to live through this fight first, and that ain't happening!" The albino declared. "Time to die, midget!"
He yanked on my sheath with force I wasn't prepared for, and while I kept my sword up, I still stumbled forward.
It didn't matter that I kept my block up though. My eyes widened in shock mid stumble as the glow of his blade disappeared in an instant, along with the weight on my sword, throwing me further off balance. I thought I saw a flicker of black behind him, but I had much more pressing things to focus on and ignored it. In almost slow motion, I watched as Freed's hand came down, the bladeless hilt tilting to point at my head.
My right arm was out of position, but my left had already left my sheath on its way up to try and save myself.
When my hand hadn't even made it halfway while I was staring straight down the metaphorical barrel, I knew that I was dead.
And then said barrel disappeared from view, along with Freed's white hair. It was replaced by different white hair lower down, and an extended fist.
I distantly noted a loud crash over the sound of my blood pumping in my ears. My arms fell to my sides, with my sword barely being held above the floor. My hip began feeling like it was burning and freezing at the same time, and I was jittery from the second adrenaline spike that came with my near death experience. It had been quite a while since I'd last had such a close call, or at least one that I hadn't voluntarily thrown myself into. Shaking my head and clenching my hands a couple times, I forced myself to calm down as Koneko-chan turned to face me with a worried look in her eyes, glancing at the patch of red staining my hip.
Her brows were heavily furrowed and she was frowning, her eyes darting from my hip to my chest to my ear, and back again.
'Oh wow,' I thought, 'she must be seriously concerned if she's actually expressing that much.'
Would it be weird to admit that made me really happy?
"Heh, thanks for the save Koneko-chan," I said with a tiny chuckle instead. "I'd say 'what kinda psycho turns off their sword in a fight', but really, I'm just annoyed that I of all people didn't think of the possibility."
"You're hurt." She stepped closer to me, ignoring my attempt to lighten the mood and reaching out to put her palm over my gunshot wound.
I let her.
"By the way, I might need a new summoning paper at some point," I spoke idly, suppressing a wince as she put pressure on it. "The one I keep in my pocket is probably stained with blood."
"Mm," she hummed distractedly. I wasn't sure exactly what she was doing, but with the way the area started numbing, I figured she was trying to stop the bleeding.
She grunted a moment later.
"Not good enough yet…" she muttered in annoyance, pulling away to instead reach up to my chest. "I'm going to ask Rias-buchou to come heal you," she stated with her hand pressed warmly against my ribs. I nodded in consent, though it sounded more like she was telling me and not asking for my opinion.
I felt something I hadn't felt since I was back home, the small gash in my skin sealing up at a rate that put a human's natural healing to shame. Even my current self's much faster than normal healing had nothing on what it used to be. For a second or two, I could focus on the familiar sensation, almost pretend that nothing had changed and I was back to normal.
It was looking down into Koneko's focused golden eyes, her nose scrunched up cutely in concentration, that brought me back to the present.
Even if I would prefer to be back to my normal self… I smiled contentedly.
'I'm fine right where I am.'
Koneko glanced up when she finished, now reaching to heal my sliced ear, the bleeding having already stopped. When she caught sight of my expression, she averted her eyes with a tiny tint of red on her cheeks and slightly pursed lips.
I almost got distracted watching her face again while she sealed that cut, but her eyes widened and narrowed a moment later in the direction she'd sent Freed flying. Tensing my sword arm, I snapped my own gaze to the side just to see a hole in the wall slightly larger than a human, leaving an opening to the outside with the exorcist nowhere in sight.
"Looks like he survived, and got away while we were distracted…" I sighed and let my guard back down. I caught sight of my sheath sitting just next to the rubble, and his gun a couple meters further away on my floor. An odd thought came to mind as I glanced down to inspect my sword for damages, and it came back clean to my partially-trained eye.
"Not a single scratch or chip…" I muttered. "Would it be weird for me to thank God for Devil blacksmithing?"
Koneko rolled her eyes. "Idiot…" She muttered as she turned away from me and pulled out her phone, but I caught the tiny twitch of her lips and grinned, counting that as my win.
Within the next few minutes, we'd gotten a couple of towels and washcloths. One set was to clean the area around my wound and lay on my couch so I didn't drip blood all over it while we waited, and the other was for cleaning my weapons so I could re-sheath my cane.
Koneko sat next to me, twisting at the hip to face me so she could keep both her hands pressed against my entry and exit wound, doing her best to stabilize the bleeding. I'd only just slid the two pieces together with a satisfying clack of the magnets connecting, when there was a dim glow in between us and the TV in front of us, my center table moved to the side of the room again.
'Maybe I should just keep it there from now on, if this sort of thing is going to become normal,' I idly thought as I watched the new figure flash into existence.
My expression soured when I saw the ever-smiling witch whose thoughts were as dark as her black hair.
"Who the hell invited you into my apartment?" I groaned.
"Buchou was engaged in an important meeting with foreign dignitaries, and so I volunteered in her stead," Himejima said with a pleasant smile to hide her true intentions.
"She was watching anime with a pair of youkai who like to goof off on the job." Koneko translated flatly at my side.
I sent an accusing look at the purple-eyed girl who was still standing there demurely.
Just a hint of her real personality peaked through, her smile widening in glee at my discomfort.
"As I said. Very Important."
I turned to the small girl next to me, deadpan.
"Can we return it? I want a refund."
Himejima ignored my semi-joking comment, smile shifting into a more neutral look as she addressed Koneko. "Rias explained the basics of what you told her, but I'm sensing the remnants of a discrete Fallen-based barrier around the area. It's likely that our missing exorcist wasn't working alone," She stated seriously.
"Huh. That would actually explain how he got away, since he definitely wasn't durable enough to not get his lights knocked out by a hit like that," I admitted. "During the fight, he mentioned the name of a Fallen I had a confrontation with on Friday night, so that makes a lot of sense."
Both girls turned to me in surprise.
"You fought a Fallen after I left?" Koneko asked with a tense tone of voice. "Why didn't you tell me?"
I shook my head. "'Fought' is a strong word. He was stalking me, I confronted him about it, and he almost attacked me, but I ended up spooking him off in the end." I shrugged. "It was actually the main reason I ended up asking you about my commissions. I wanted to have access to my usual disposable weapons, and a sturdy backup just in case he and I had another run-in" I paused. "Thanks again for covering that by the way, having them today probably saved my life."
Koneko shook her head. "Nn, there was no charge. It was a gift from the old man, said that if you're satisfied with his product, you'll keep going back to him as a 'proper customer' when you need more work done."
I'd certainly need more kunai if things continued in the direction it seemed they might. The first two I threw were already in rough condition, as expected of basic multi-purpose knives when clashing against actual supernatural weaponry.
Akeno spoke up.
"In any case, given recent events," she started while looking at Koneko, "it would be for the best if you go check on the safety of the other residents, and hypnotize them into ignoring the damage for now." She nodded her head in the direction of the broken wall.
Koneko-chan shared a glance with me, and I gave her a small nod. The mention of my civilian neighbors' potentially compromised health was enough to get me to take this seriously, swallowing my distaste for our upperclassman's personality.
"Mm." Koneko nodded reluctantly in response, and stood up as Akeno stepped close to take over healing me.
I definitely wasn't pouting as she took Koneko's place on the couch, the cat girl stepping out through my wall.
"Ufufu, it looks like you and I are alone now~"
I was probably pouting.
"Take off your shirt," came a whisper directly in my ear.
I whipped around to stare at her in alarm and scooted away from her into the armrest. "The hell!?" The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and I ignored the burning pain in my side from the sudden motion.
"What's wrong?" She questioned with exaggerated concern, leaning closer to me as she did so. "Didn't you know? Devil healing magic works better without clothes. I need access to your skin to be the most effective."
I grimaced at that reminder, internally grumbling at the way she kept messing with me.
I ended up just lifting the hem of my shirt with a hand while she placed a palm on my bare skin above my waistband, that being close enough to the affected area for someone of her skill to heal. Unlike with Koneko's attempt, I could outright feel the hole closing on the front and back of my hip. The skin and outermost layer of muscle were sealed up the fastest, leaving me waiting in relative quiet for minutes at a time as Himejima worked on repairing the bone and other connective tissue.
"Sooo…" I started, the silence finally getting to me. "What's up with the whole 'elegant and refined' act you put on?" I asked bluntly, after failing to think up a more polite topic to talk about. "Is it just because it makes it easier to mess with people like me, who see through the bullcrap?"
"Ara?" She blinked in 'confusion'. "I'm not sure I know what you mean by that." Her eyes shone with mirth as her 'gentle' smile stayed the same as always. "I only ever act in a way that comes naturally to me."
I rolled that one around in my head for a moment. "... So it's a privacy thing, then? You don't want people seeing the real you behind the mask?" I snorted as I thought about it. "I see it, that makes sense. With how rotten your mind is, no way anyone would see you as an 'upstanding young woman' if they knew."
Her lips curled into a pout. "Rude. You sure claim to know all about how my mind works, for someone who's never had a full conversation with me until now." Her eyes glared playfully at me. "Who knows what kind of wrong idea people will get about an innocent young lady like me, with you saying things like that."
"Innocent, right." I rolled my eyes. "From the North to the South, the East to the West, even among the Heavens he is the enemy of all women," I recited from an old memory, slight changes made on the fly to actually fit the reality of the man's personality. "The Super Pervert Jiraiya, who even children cringe away from in embarrassment, that man was my shinobi master." Himejima looked genuinely amused and confused in equal measure, not sure where I was going with this. "If someone were to ask me what two things I value most, out of everything he taught me during our three-year long training trip, neither of them would be related to fighting; that wouldn't even be in the top five."
I wistfully thought back to the quiet times, editing his manuscripts and reading the story of my namesake.
"The first would be an appreciation for books, and reading for the sake of enjoyment. Jiraiya was also an author, and I was a dumbass who thought reading was for nerds, so he sometimes forced me to help edit his books before they were published, in order to expand my horizons. Most of it was smut because that sold well, but his older and more unknown works really left their marks on me."
The smile had slowly slipped from Himejima's face, but her expression looked a lot more natural to me now, being one of someone who was simply listening attentively. I just barely succeeded in hiding the smirk that wanted to grow on my face, instead smiling softly.
"The second thing I cherish most, would probably have to be…" I paused to build dramatic tension. "The ability to point out perverts and dangerous women," I said flatly, completely breaking her expectations. Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment as she was caught off guard. "Don't look so surprised, I literally told you and Koneko-chan last week," I deadpanned. "I could tell from the moment I met you, you triggered the warning bells for both categories. I don't have to know anything about you personally, it's like a sixth sense I have."
Closing her eyes and chuckling lightly, she regathered her usual bearing. When she opened her purple eyes again, this time it was with an amused smirk.
"You don't know me, but you know my type, is that what you're saying?"
I shrugged. "Something like that. Like you said, we haven't really talked at length before, So I'm just working off of instinct, more or less." I considered the past minute or two of our current interaction as I said it, and noted that I didn't feel quite as wary of her, now that she wasn't even pretending to deny my judgement of her character. "The ones who try to hide it are way more noticeable to me. Talking to you like this right now is downright pleasant, at least in comparison to seeing how you act on school grounds. I can almost pretend you aren't some sort of shark, looking for its next meal."
Then she went and slid her hand up my bare skin, feeling up my abs and chest underneath my shirt.
I yelped and jumped away, scrambling to my feet with burning cheeks. "W-w-what the hell was that for, you perv?!?!"
"Ara, I was just checking you for any remaining injuries, of course," she said with a close-eyed expression, poorly hiding her smile behind the offending hand. "Aside from some slightly excessive muscle tearing that I fixed, it seems I wasn't able to find anything out of shape ufufu, so you should be free to move around without pain. I give you a clean bill of health."
I blinked and experimentally lifted my leg to test flexibility, ending with a mimed karate kick.
"Huh, convenient…" I muttered as I settled back onto both feet, not having felt any strain at all.
With that said, she stood up herself and stepped towards the middle of the room.
"If you'll excuse me now, I have to go prepare for a client of mine," Himejima announced. "I'll text you the contact information of a discrete contractor we use for similar 'incidents'," she nodded at the broken wall as she said this. "Just let them know the Gremory family is paying for the costs, and it should be done within twenty four hours."
"That's awfully generous of you." I responded with my eyes narrowed suspiciously in her direction, my guard still up for any more of her shenanigans even as a magic circle spun into existence at her feet.
"No," she shook her head in denial, "It's simply us taking our commitments seriously. As the de facto protectors of Kuoh, it is our duty to do our best to protect its citizens from supernatural threats." Her purple eyes flickered to Freed's gun which still laid where it landed on the floor. "That goes especially so when it is our own enemies that threaten those under our purview. This much is the least we can do. I'll return later tonight to set up a temporary warning barrier over this compound, just in case they return."
I nodded once, satisfied with the explanation. It wasn't a serious concern of mine that I might be getting maneuvered into some sort of entrapment, but having two major (to me) expenses in such a short time, covered entirely by a group of Devils I hadn't officially formed a concrete alliance with, was at least a little bit eyebrow raising.
My eyes widened when her magic circle began shining much more brightly as something much more concerning occurred to me, and I shivered in dread.
"Wait!" I called out to delay her exit, and she looked at me curiously. "... When the hell did you get my phone number!? I don't consent to that!!"
"Pff!" She stifled a snort with a hand. A split second later, her mask fell completely as she was overcome by giggles, just shy of full blown laughter.
I may have pouted, I'll admit it. I was being serious, and here she was laughing at me!
She got herself under control a couple seconds later, folding her arms underneath her bust as she straightened her posture.
"By the way," the young woman addressed me with a light smile. "You had it backwards a couple minutes ago; It's not that I want to hide the real me from others, I don't really mind one way or the other if they know what I'm like. It's because I only want to show myself to my family, and people who interest me."
"And you, Uzumaki-kun…" Her half-lidded purple eyes stared into my own with a lick of her lips. "... Are becoming interesting to me."
I tried to tear my gaze away from her eyes, only for it to drop down to–
My eyes snapped back up to hers as I felt the blood rushing to my cheeks.
'... Holy shit. That's completely unfair.'
I suppressed a shudder. Whoever designed the female Kuoh uniforms was a pervert.
The other guys at school might be onto something. Himejima Akeno was way too attractive.
Starting with a moment of genuine school-girl laughter, then going directly to the succubus routine, should be illegal.
I opened my mouth to say something– what that something might be, I hadn't figured out yet– but Himejima turned to face the hole in my wall with her usual innocent smile before I could.
"Ufufu, you're back quickly, Koneko-chan." She brought a hand up to cup her cheek as her teleport circle stopped glowing. "Did you need something from me before I leave?"
I turned as well and saw the… smaller… girl step into the room, staring suspiciously between us with narrowed eyes and nekoshou features exposed. Her tail was twitching agitatedly.
"Quit messing around with him, sexual harasser." Koneko called out the older girl.
"Ara ara, what do you mean Koneko-chan?" Himejima giggled. "Uzumaki-kun and I were just finishing a completely normal conversation. Isn't that right?"
They both looked at me.
"Eh? Ah, uh, y-yeah." I agreed after being put on the spot. No way was I getting between them when Koneko-chan looked that annoyed at the minx.
"There you have it," Himejima said matter-of-factly. She sent the younger teen a smug smirk, her teleport circle starting back up again. "Koneko-chan had a head start, so I was just testing the waters, seeing if it would be possible to catch up." Head start? Catch up? What the hell was she talking about? "I've decided to have some fun and join the race." Her smirk widened when Koneko's annoyed frown deepened. "If you're not quick enough, I just might beat you to the finish line, Koneko-chan~. Who knows, maybe we'll reach it together, ufufu."
She disappeared with a flash of light immediately after the devious laugh left her mouth.
I warily turned to observe Koneko's reaction, cautious of her still visibly agitated cat-parts.
I licked my lips, my mouth suddenly dry. "Uhh…"
Her frowning gaze flickered over to me. I almost debated just dropping the question I wanted to ask and changing the subject, but, well, I was off-balance enough from everything else that happened in the last half an hour that I was completely lost here.
"What race was she talking about?"
"... Forget about it, the cow was just trying to mess with me."
Koneko never did end up explaining further, seeming like she was distracted with her thoughts from that point on. She excused herself and teleported home after an awkwardly quiet half hour of clean up, helping me clear the shattered glass and other debris off the floor.
As I watched the glow die down with my friend's departure, I sighed with a feeling of restlessness and flopped onto my couch spread eagle, not sure what to do with the rest of my day while waiting for Himejima to come through with that contractor's information.
I sat there staring at the ceiling for a couple minutes, feeling oddly exhausted for a moment despite the urge to move around and do something. I eyed the TV remote next to the screen and debated wasting the day watching something mindless. I didn't really want to, but I wasn't really feeling all that good right now.
"Meow."
I lifted my head, craning it around to look in the direction of the sound.
"Heya girl," I spoke to the black cat that was slinking its way down my staircase, coughing to clear my throat when it came out with a rasp. "I didn't realize you came back." I made to stand up, intending to go to the kitchen and get a can of food for her, and some water for my dry throat.
"Wha-?" I couldn't find the strength to push myself up. My sight swam and my limbs felt weak, to the point of feeling like jelly.
I belatedly noticed my whole body aching dully everywhere except for the middle of my stomach. I didn't even realize that I'd toppled over until my cheek collided with the couch cushion.
A large, black blur appeared in my darkening vision, looming over me.
'So cold… but it burns…'
It was like all the heat was leaving me, and the warmer air stung my cooling body.
It was getting harder to focus, my sense of balance twisting dizzyingly despite not moving an inch.
A soft sensation pressed persistently into my chest as a weight draped itself around me, and a warm feeling spread throughout my body, washing away all the aching with a pleasant feeling of relief almost instantly. While the world slowly stopped spinning beneath my eyelids, and the pain was gone, I still couldn't bring myself to open my eyes back up
With just a bone-deep exhaustion remaining, I yawned and smacked my lips a couple of times, closing my eyes.
"G'nite…" I mumbled, wrapping an arm around the source of comfort and hugging it close.
Then I was out like a light.
When I awoke over half a day later feeling better than I had in nearly a year, it was to the loud meows of a hungry cat in the process of squishing its paws against my cheek, just in time to get me up for the school day.
AN: As usual, let me know what you think, what you like, what you dislike, etc. I'm kinda expecting a mixed reception for the chapter regardless of how much I tell myself I like the way I wrote it, so please let me know if that's just me psyching myself out or not. As an avid reader myself, I'm well aware that it's a tightrope walk when ending chapters with something that seems a bit out of the blue the way I did with this one.
~,,––,,^^-
Naruto
(Tuesday, April 24th)
I strolled down the street on my way home from school with an extra pep in my step, whistling along to the beat of my new cane tapping the ground, my latest interaction with the Student Council filling me with amusement. I had now interacted with them three times in just as many school days; The first time on Friday, the second time yesterday when I went to pick up my school bag before classes, and once more today.
Apparently they had some sort of issue with the kid who "fell" from a second-story window "needing" to use a cane to walk for the foreseeable future. What a bunch of insensitive jerks.
It's not like they'd caught me walking around just fine, twirling my walking stalk around in my hand or anything, no way. That would be ridiculous.
I snickered to myself at my genius while admiring the craftsmanship of the walking stick and the weight of my wrists.
It was fairly unassuming on the outside, looking like a normal dark brown polished-wood cane, with a rectangular profile and a sharply angled hook-grip that was neatly wrapped with black cording. Aside from the durable hardened-leather that capped the end of it and the handle's joints, it seemed to be carved and shaped from one singular piece of wood.
This was literally all wrong though, aside from the leather cap and the outer layer of polish. In reality, my cane(sword) was made almost entirely out of a lightweight but durable blend of metals that I didn't understand the first thing about, other than the fact that it allowed me to use the sheath as a bludgeoning weapon alongside the sword. While the seam was invisible to the naked eye, if I gripped the "wooden" cane by the middle and pulled it away from the handle with a relatively decent amount of force, the powerful magnets holding the two pieces together at the end of the grip would fail, and reveal a chokuto style straight blade.
The wooden look was actually just a decorative veneer coating the metal, so when I inevitably got into a fight with it at my side, no one would expect it to hit as hard as it does, or be durable enough to take some hits.
I'd just have to be sure not to hit anyone in the head or neck if I don't want them dead and aren't sure if they can take it. At least, that is until I've trained with it enough to get used to the weight of each swing.
With that thought in mind I continued home, stepping foot through the gate that separated the old man's property from the rest of the residential buildings around the area.
I looked around, not seeing any of the usual stay-at-home moms in the courtyard as I walked down the path towards my apartment. When I arrived at my front door, I hooked my cane on my elbow and reached into my pocket for my keys, taking note of the aluminum soda can tab on the ground in front of me while turning the knob with my other hand.
I stepped into my home and shut the door behind me, twisting the little latch to engage the lock while I hung my keys on a wall hook. Walking to my kitchen without taking my shoes or jacket off, I set my school bag on my couch as I passed behind it, and went straight to my sink to get a glass of water, setting my cane against the kitchen table as I passed that as well.
As I filled the cup, I made an idle humming sound.
"What is this, amateur hour?" I mused to my uninvited guest, while staring at the water slowly nearing the top. "It's not that hard to re-lock a door after breaking into someone's house, ya'know, and that's just step one. You made it way too obvious. I'd give you a D+ at best."
I whipped around and flung all of the water at the intruder's face in a spray while keeping a tight grip on the glass, holding it out in front of my chest at the end of the motion, intercepting and directing the tip of a glowing blade past my chest with it. In the split second it took the glass cup to split apart in my hand from the blade I'd subjected it to, I caught a glimpse of the barrel of a gun moving in the direction of my head as my assailant blinked the water out of his eyes, and I jerked my head to the side while letting my kunai drop from my sleeves into my palms.
My motion saved me from certain death just in the nick of time, a bright light whizzing past my head with a much quieter sound than I expected, slicing the side of my right ear and piercing one of the overhead cupboards behind me with a muffled sound of shattered glass, the dropped halves of my cup bursting to pieces on the floor half a beat later.
"Keheh, looks like Dohnaseek wasn't lying, the midget kid isn't helpless after all!" The white haired young man had a disturbingly euphoric expression on his dripping face, having stepped just back out of easy range with both his weapons at the ready. "I would've been fine with killing some retarded school-brat anyway, but this just got way more exciting! Lucky me, lucky me!"
I wasn't exactly fluent in English, so I didn't recognize every word he said, but I was proficient enough for medical research purposes so I got the basic gist of it. Particularly, my eyes narrowed as he mentioned killing school kids, and the name he mentioned tugged at my memory.
'The Fallen Angel guy?'
The crazy guy was wearing a weird looking robe that went all the way down to his shins, leaving it open to show his formal black shirt and pants, as well as the silver cross thing hanging from his neck.
'Is this one of those church guys Koneko told me about?' I thought. 'An exerciser or whatever?'
"Man, I can't even sense energy, but even I can tell the amount of bloodlust you're giving off seems unhealthy," I deadpanned as I settled into a more reactive stance. "You ever tried getting therapy for that?" The gun posed more of a threat both the closer and further I got from it, depending on how I looked at it. It would be easier to dodge or divert his aim up close, but on the flip side, it would be harder to keep track of it in the midst of close quarters combat with that bright-ass sword.
'I'll have to keep a careful balance between attack and defense, then.'
"Kehaha! The shitty Devil-lover has jokes too!" The murderous priest cackled, this time speaking in Japanese. He settled down and leveled his sword my way with a demented grin. "My name is Freed Sellzen, an exorcist belonging to a certain organization that hunts down filthy Devils and the heathens like you, to cleanse the world of their evil through the time-honored tradition of bloodletting." His grin widened. "Don't bother introducing yourself to me, because I've already forgotten your name, and don't want it taking up space in my mind after I kill you. Please do your best to entertain me until you die; I want us to savor the moment you stop breathing, together."
Yep.
'Fucking crazy.'
Warm blood slowly dripped down my ear and onto my jaw. I couldn't see any distortions in the air around his Light sword, and really didn't feel anything when I redirected his initial thrusting stab.
I idly wiped some of the blood off of my neck with an extended index finger as he gave me a moment to dwell on what he said. That, or he was just reveling in the buildup to violence. He seemed the type.
Light-based weapons didn't seem to give off any heat by default, only higher than normal sharpness. Probably weighed less, too. 'Can't rely on any wounds I take being cauterized then, to keep blood loss low. Guess I'll have to be more proactive then.'
"Fine then," I began. "Let's-" I didn't complete my sentence– not that I was planning on it in the first place– rapidly swinging one leg back as I ducked to kick off of my stove, launching myself into his personal space with my kunai up as a flash of light shot through the space my head had occupied. He danced back away from the swipe I sent towards his gun hand even as I deflected his retaliatory sword swing over my head with my right hand, the supernaturally sharp Light blade biting slightly into the metal of my kunai before it was fully diverted.
The red-eyed would-be murderer turned his deflected swipe into a downward slash that I back stepped out of range from, his sword's passing revealing the barrel of his gun aimed at my center mass. With a slight tilt of my left knife that I'd already pulled back from my initial slash, the expected flash of light ricocheted off to the side, My wrist jerked by the impact.
Freed had continued to step back until he was in the living room. "You got jokes, but let's see if you can dance!" He said with a twisted grin, holding up his pistol.
With our current distance, another seven flashes came in rapid succession.
By tracking the barrel and his trigger finger, I was able to dodge or deflect five of them entirely, but one of them only partially. The fourth shot nicked the side of my chest, just missing my rib when I couldn't shift my body's momentum as fast as he could adjust his aim, and the last one pierced straight through the left side of my hip bone.
I couldn't have dodged it in time, but I could have deflected it if I attempted to. The issue was that his pistol didn't have a visible magazine, and fired energy projectiles, so it was entirely possible that he could just keep shooting indefinitely. Either I would eventually make more mistakes, or he would get bored and change things up despite being in a winning position.
I couldn't let the former happen, so I'd chosen to throw both of my pitted kunai at him, taking a hit that wouldn't cripple my movement in exchange.
One of them was easily deflected by a swipe of the Light sword, but the other needed him to take his eyes off of me for a moment to track the trajectory and dodge.
My hands flew to my pockets Immediately after they were free and I rushed towards my table.
"What kind of retard throws away his wea–Fuck!"
My left hand had whipped out of my pocket and threw a third kunai at him, slicing the skin on the top of his gun hand.
Credit where it's due, I was aiming at his wrist, but even while making a game of the fight and having his focus split, he was able to somewhat notice and react.
"You shitty—! The fu- Kuh!?"
What he got caught by was looking back my way, only to see my school jacket blocking his vision as it flew towards him, followed shortly by my unsheathed cane sword piercing through the fabric to stab him in the gut.
I didn't stab him very deeply, pulling back near instantly to raise my blade and block a series of retaliatory slashes that caused my tattered jacket to fall to the floor. His gun shifted at his hip, but I batted it out of his hand with my sheath before it could be pointed my way, sending it bouncing across my floor.
I tried jabbing him in the solar plexus with the sheath while we continued trading slashes, stabs, and blocks in my living room, but instead of him getting hit or dodging, his now free hand moved in front of the strike, stopping it dead with his palm and wrapping his fingers around it in an iron grip before I could pull back.
Freed grinned a vicious grin, and despite my hip injury, the two other cuts I'd received, and the situation being a life or death battle in my own home, it occurred to me that I was grinning as well, if in a much less bloodthirsty way.
He used our shared anchor point to pull himself forward, pivoting his body faster as he swung his Light sword to give it more power, bringing it down in an overhead strike that I brought my own sword up to block horizontally. I I struggled to hold the block up with just one hand, my own blade being pushed down enough that it almost bounced off the top of my head. Unlike previous times, he held the pressure up on this clash, so we were locked in a contest of strength and leverage.
Either of us could shift our swords slightly to one side or the other and change that in a moment, but I currently preferred the stalemate we were in to risking taking those options and coming out worse for it, and I could only guess Freed felt the same. So we stood there, locked in two different struggles; a tug-of-war for my sheath, and a blade lock.
"Heh, heheheh! Not bad, not bad!" Freed cackled "Almost fucking got me with that tricky ninja shit, you shitty heathen!"
"You're pretty good yourself," I admitted. "If you weren't a complete and utter psychopath who should be locked up in prison with the key thrown away, I'd say I wouldn't mind fighting you again." He put more pressure down, and I tensed my arm, locking my wrist to prevent from buckling under the weight.
'Definitely some enhanced strength, though not to the extent of Kiba, let alone Koneko-chan.'
Freed's eyes crinkled and his smile twisted in glee.
"No way, hahah! You'd have to live through this fight first, and that ain't happening!" The albino declared. "Time to die, midget!"
He yanked on my sheath with force I wasn't prepared for, and while I kept my sword up, I still stumbled forward.
It didn't matter that I kept my block up though. My eyes widened in shock mid stumble as the glow of his blade disappeared in an instant, along with the weight on my sword, throwing me further off balance. I thought I saw a flicker of black behind him, but I had much more pressing things to focus on and ignored it. In almost slow motion, I watched as Freed's hand came down, the bladeless hilt tilting to point at my head.
My right arm was out of position, but my left had already left my sheath on its way up to try and save myself.
When my hand hadn't even made it halfway while I was staring straight down the metaphorical barrel, I knew that I was dead.
And then said barrel disappeared from view, along with Freed's white hair. It was replaced by different white hair lower down, and an extended fist.
I distantly noted a loud crash over the sound of my blood pumping in my ears. My arms fell to my sides, with my sword barely being held above the floor. My hip began feeling like it was burning and freezing at the same time, and I was jittery from the second adrenaline spike that came with my near death experience. It had been quite a while since I'd last had such a close call, or at least one that I hadn't voluntarily thrown myself into. Shaking my head and clenching my hands a couple times, I forced myself to calm down as Koneko-chan turned to face me with a worried look in her eyes, glancing at the patch of red staining my hip.
Her brows were heavily furrowed and she was frowning, her eyes darting from my hip to my chest to my ear, and back again.
'Oh wow,' I thought, 'she must be seriously concerned if she's actually expressing that much.'
Would it be weird to admit that made me really happy?
"Heh, thanks for the save Koneko-chan," I said with a tiny chuckle instead. "I'd say 'what kinda psycho turns off their sword in a fight', but really, I'm just annoyed that I of all people didn't think of the possibility."
"You're hurt." She stepped closer to me, ignoring my attempt to lighten the mood and reaching out to put her palm over my gunshot wound.
I let her.
"By the way, I might need a new summoning paper at some point," I spoke idly, suppressing a wince as she put pressure on it. "The one I keep in my pocket is probably stained with blood."
"Mm," she hummed distractedly. I wasn't sure exactly what she was doing, but with the way the area started numbing, I figured she was trying to stop the bleeding.
She grunted a moment later.
"Not good enough yet…" she muttered in annoyance, pulling away to instead reach up to my chest. "I'm going to ask Rias-buchou to come heal you," she stated with her hand pressed warmly against my ribs. I nodded in consent, though it sounded more like she was telling me and not asking for my opinion.
I felt something I hadn't felt since I was back home, the small gash in my skin sealing up at a rate that put a human's natural healing to shame. Even my current self's much faster than normal healing had nothing on what it used to be. For a second or two, I could focus on the familiar sensation, almost pretend that nothing had changed and I was back to normal.
It was looking down into Koneko's focused golden eyes, her nose scrunched up cutely in concentration, that brought me back to the present.
Even if I would prefer to be back to my normal self… I smiled contentedly.
'I'm fine right where I am.'
Koneko glanced up when she finished, now reaching to heal my sliced ear, the bleeding having already stopped. When she caught sight of my expression, she averted her eyes with a tiny tint of red on her cheeks and slightly pursed lips.
I almost got distracted watching her face again while she sealed that cut, but her eyes widened and narrowed a moment later in the direction she'd sent Freed flying. Tensing my sword arm, I snapped my own gaze to the side just to see a hole in the wall slightly larger than a human, leaving an opening to the outside with the exorcist nowhere in sight.
"Looks like he survived, and got away while we were distracted…" I sighed and let my guard back down. I caught sight of my sheath sitting just next to the rubble, and his gun a couple meters further away on my floor. An odd thought came to mind as I glanced down to inspect my sword for damages, and it came back clean to my partially-trained eye.
"Not a single scratch or chip…" I muttered. "Would it be weird for me to thank God for Devil blacksmithing?"
Koneko rolled her eyes. "Idiot…" She muttered as she turned away from me and pulled out her phone, but I caught the tiny twitch of her lips and grinned, counting that as my win.
Within the next few minutes, we'd gotten a couple of towels and washcloths. One set was to clean the area around my wound and lay on my couch so I didn't drip blood all over it while we waited, and the other was for cleaning my weapons so I could re-sheath my cane.
Koneko sat next to me, twisting at the hip to face me so she could keep both her hands pressed against my entry and exit wound, doing her best to stabilize the bleeding. I'd only just slid the two pieces together with a satisfying clack of the magnets connecting, when there was a dim glow in between us and the TV in front of us, my center table moved to the side of the room again.
'Maybe I should just keep it there from now on, if this sort of thing is going to become normal,' I idly thought as I watched the new figure flash into existence.
My expression soured when I saw the ever-smiling witch whose thoughts were as dark as her black hair.
"Who the hell invited you into my apartment?" I groaned.
"Buchou was engaged in an important meeting with foreign dignitaries, and so I volunteered in her stead," Himejima said with a pleasant smile to hide her true intentions.
"She was watching anime with a pair of youkai who like to goof off on the job." Koneko translated flatly at my side.
I sent an accusing look at the purple-eyed girl who was still standing there demurely.
Just a hint of her real personality peaked through, her smile widening in glee at my discomfort.
"As I said. Very Important."
I turned to the small girl next to me, deadpan.
"Can we return it? I want a refund."
Himejima ignored my semi-joking comment, smile shifting into a more neutral look as she addressed Koneko. "Rias explained the basics of what you told her, but I'm sensing the remnants of a discrete Fallen-based barrier around the area. It's likely that our missing exorcist wasn't working alone," She stated seriously.
"Huh. That would actually explain how he got away, since he definitely wasn't durable enough to not get his lights knocked out by a hit like that," I admitted. "During the fight, he mentioned the name of a Fallen I had a confrontation with on Friday night, so that makes a lot of sense."
Both girls turned to me in surprise.
"You fought a Fallen after I left?" Koneko asked with a tense tone of voice. "Why didn't you tell me?"
I shook my head. "'Fought' is a strong word. He was stalking me, I confronted him about it, and he almost attacked me, but I ended up spooking him off in the end." I shrugged. "It was actually the main reason I ended up asking you about my commissions. I wanted to have access to my usual disposable weapons, and a sturdy backup just in case he and I had another run-in" I paused. "Thanks again for covering that by the way, having them today probably saved my life."
Koneko shook her head. "Nn, there was no charge. It was a gift from the old man, said that if you're satisfied with his product, you'll keep going back to him as a 'proper customer' when you need more work done."
I'd certainly need more kunai if things continued in the direction it seemed they might. The first two I threw were already in rough condition, as expected of basic multi-purpose knives when clashing against actual supernatural weaponry.
Akeno spoke up.
"In any case, given recent events," she started while looking at Koneko, "it would be for the best if you go check on the safety of the other residents, and hypnotize them into ignoring the damage for now." She nodded her head in the direction of the broken wall.
Koneko-chan shared a glance with me, and I gave her a small nod. The mention of my civilian neighbors' potentially compromised health was enough to get me to take this seriously, swallowing my distaste for our upperclassman's personality.
"Mm." Koneko nodded reluctantly in response, and stood up as Akeno stepped close to take over healing me.
I definitely wasn't pouting as she took Koneko's place on the couch, the cat girl stepping out through my wall.
"Ufufu, it looks like you and I are alone now~"
I was probably pouting.
"Take off your shirt," came a whisper directly in my ear.
I whipped around to stare at her in alarm and scooted away from her into the armrest. "The hell!?" The hair on the back of my neck stood on end, and I ignored the burning pain in my side from the sudden motion.
"What's wrong?" She questioned with exaggerated concern, leaning closer to me as she did so. "Didn't you know? Devil healing magic works better without clothes. I need access to your skin to be the most effective."
I grimaced at that reminder, internally grumbling at the way she kept messing with me.
I ended up just lifting the hem of my shirt with a hand while she placed a palm on my bare skin above my waistband, that being close enough to the affected area for someone of her skill to heal. Unlike with Koneko's attempt, I could outright feel the hole closing on the front and back of my hip. The skin and outermost layer of muscle were sealed up the fastest, leaving me waiting in relative quiet for minutes at a time as Himejima worked on repairing the bone and other connective tissue.
"Sooo…" I started, the silence finally getting to me. "What's up with the whole 'elegant and refined' act you put on?" I asked bluntly, after failing to think up a more polite topic to talk about. "Is it just because it makes it easier to mess with people like me, who see through the bullcrap?"
"Ara?" She blinked in 'confusion'. "I'm not sure I know what you mean by that." Her eyes shone with mirth as her 'gentle' smile stayed the same as always. "I only ever act in a way that comes naturally to me."
I rolled that one around in my head for a moment. "... So it's a privacy thing, then? You don't want people seeing the real you behind the mask?" I snorted as I thought about it. "I see it, that makes sense. With how rotten your mind is, no way anyone would see you as an 'upstanding young woman' if they knew."
Her lips curled into a pout. "Rude. You sure claim to know all about how my mind works, for someone who's never had a full conversation with me until now." Her eyes glared playfully at me. "Who knows what kind of wrong idea people will get about an innocent young lady like me, with you saying things like that."
"Innocent, right." I rolled my eyes. "From the North to the South, the East to the West, even among the Heavens he is the enemy of all women," I recited from an old memory, slight changes made on the fly to actually fit the reality of the man's personality. "The Super Pervert Jiraiya, who even children cringe away from in embarrassment, that man was my shinobi master." Himejima looked genuinely amused and confused in equal measure, not sure where I was going with this. "If someone were to ask me what two things I value most, out of everything he taught me during our three-year long training trip, neither of them would be related to fighting; that wouldn't even be in the top five."
I wistfully thought back to the quiet times, editing his manuscripts and reading the story of my namesake.
"The first would be an appreciation for books, and reading for the sake of enjoyment. Jiraiya was also an author, and I was a dumbass who thought reading was for nerds, so he sometimes forced me to help edit his books before they were published, in order to expand my horizons. Most of it was smut because that sold well, but his older and more unknown works really left their marks on me."
The smile had slowly slipped from Himejima's face, but her expression looked a lot more natural to me now, being one of someone who was simply listening attentively. I just barely succeeded in hiding the smirk that wanted to grow on my face, instead smiling softly.
"The second thing I cherish most, would probably have to be…" I paused to build dramatic tension. "The ability to point out perverts and dangerous women," I said flatly, completely breaking her expectations. Her eyebrows furrowed for a moment as she was caught off guard. "Don't look so surprised, I literally told you and Koneko-chan last week," I deadpanned. "I could tell from the moment I met you, you triggered the warning bells for both categories. I don't have to know anything about you personally, it's like a sixth sense I have."
Closing her eyes and chuckling lightly, she regathered her usual bearing. When she opened her purple eyes again, this time it was with an amused smirk.
"You don't know me, but you know my type, is that what you're saying?"
I shrugged. "Something like that. Like you said, we haven't really talked at length before, So I'm just working off of instinct, more or less." I considered the past minute or two of our current interaction as I said it, and noted that I didn't feel quite as wary of her, now that she wasn't even pretending to deny my judgement of her character. "The ones who try to hide it are way more noticeable to me. Talking to you like this right now is downright pleasant, at least in comparison to seeing how you act on school grounds. I can almost pretend you aren't some sort of shark, looking for its next meal."
Then she went and slid her hand up my bare skin, feeling up my abs and chest underneath my shirt.
I yelped and jumped away, scrambling to my feet with burning cheeks. "W-w-what the hell was that for, you perv?!?!"
"Ara, I was just checking you for any remaining injuries, of course," she said with a close-eyed expression, poorly hiding her smile behind the offending hand. "Aside from some slightly excessive muscle tearing that I fixed, it seems I wasn't able to find anything out of shape ufufu, so you should be free to move around without pain. I give you a clean bill of health."
I blinked and experimentally lifted my leg to test flexibility, ending with a mimed karate kick.
"Huh, convenient…" I muttered as I settled back onto both feet, not having felt any strain at all.
With that said, she stood up herself and stepped towards the middle of the room.
"If you'll excuse me now, I have to go prepare for a client of mine," Himejima announced. "I'll text you the contact information of a discrete contractor we use for similar 'incidents'," she nodded at the broken wall as she said this. "Just let them know the Gremory family is paying for the costs, and it should be done within twenty four hours."
"That's awfully generous of you." I responded with my eyes narrowed suspiciously in her direction, my guard still up for any more of her shenanigans even as a magic circle spun into existence at her feet.
"No," she shook her head in denial, "It's simply us taking our commitments seriously. As the de facto protectors of Kuoh, it is our duty to do our best to protect its citizens from supernatural threats." Her purple eyes flickered to Freed's gun which still laid where it landed on the floor. "That goes especially so when it is our own enemies that threaten those under our purview. This much is the least we can do. I'll return later tonight to set up a temporary warning barrier over this compound, just in case they return."
I nodded once, satisfied with the explanation. It wasn't a serious concern of mine that I might be getting maneuvered into some sort of entrapment, but having two major (to me) expenses in such a short time, covered entirely by a group of Devils I hadn't officially formed a concrete alliance with, was at least a little bit eyebrow raising.
My eyes widened when her magic circle began shining much more brightly as something much more concerning occurred to me, and I shivered in dread.
"Wait!" I called out to delay her exit, and she looked at me curiously. "... When the hell did you get my phone number!? I don't consent to that!!"
"Pff!" She stifled a snort with a hand. A split second later, her mask fell completely as she was overcome by giggles, just shy of full blown laughter.
I may have pouted, I'll admit it. I was being serious, and here she was laughing at me!
She got herself under control a couple seconds later, folding her arms underneath her bust as she straightened her posture.
"By the way," the young woman addressed me with a light smile. "You had it backwards a couple minutes ago; It's not that I want to hide the real me from others, I don't really mind one way or the other if they know what I'm like. It's because I only want to show myself to my family, and people who interest me."
"And you, Uzumaki-kun…" Her half-lidded purple eyes stared into my own with a lick of her lips. "... Are becoming interesting to me."
I tried to tear my gaze away from her eyes, only for it to drop down to–
My eyes snapped back up to hers as I felt the blood rushing to my cheeks.
'... Holy shit. That's completely unfair.'
I suppressed a shudder. Whoever designed the female Kuoh uniforms was a pervert.
The other guys at school might be onto something. Himejima Akeno was way too attractive.
Starting with a moment of genuine school-girl laughter, then going directly to the succubus routine, should be illegal.
I opened my mouth to say something– what that something might be, I hadn't figured out yet– but Himejima turned to face the hole in my wall with her usual innocent smile before I could.
"Ufufu, you're back quickly, Koneko-chan." She brought a hand up to cup her cheek as her teleport circle stopped glowing. "Did you need something from me before I leave?"
I turned as well and saw the… smaller… girl step into the room, staring suspiciously between us with narrowed eyes and nekoshou features exposed. Her tail was twitching agitatedly.
"Quit messing around with him, sexual harasser." Koneko called out the older girl.
"Ara ara, what do you mean Koneko-chan?" Himejima giggled. "Uzumaki-kun and I were just finishing a completely normal conversation. Isn't that right?"
They both looked at me.
"Eh? Ah, uh, y-yeah." I agreed after being put on the spot. No way was I getting between them when Koneko-chan looked that annoyed at the minx.
"There you have it," Himejima said matter-of-factly. She sent the younger teen a smug smirk, her teleport circle starting back up again. "Koneko-chan had a head start, so I was just testing the waters, seeing if it would be possible to catch up." Head start? Catch up? What the hell was she talking about? "I've decided to have some fun and join the race." Her smirk widened when Koneko's annoyed frown deepened. "If you're not quick enough, I just might beat you to the finish line, Koneko-chan~. Who knows, maybe we'll reach it together, ufufu."
She disappeared with a flash of light immediately after the devious laugh left her mouth.
I warily turned to observe Koneko's reaction, cautious of her still visibly agitated cat-parts.
I licked my lips, my mouth suddenly dry. "Uhh…"
Her frowning gaze flickered over to me. I almost debated just dropping the question I wanted to ask and changing the subject, but, well, I was off-balance enough from everything else that happened in the last half an hour that I was completely lost here.
"What race was she talking about?"
"... Forget about it, the cow was just trying to mess with me."
Koneko never did end up explaining further, seeming like she was distracted with her thoughts from that point on. She excused herself and teleported home after an awkwardly quiet half hour of clean up, helping me clear the shattered glass and other debris off the floor.
As I watched the glow die down with my friend's departure, I sighed with a feeling of restlessness and flopped onto my couch spread eagle, not sure what to do with the rest of my day while waiting for Himejima to come through with that contractor's information.
I sat there staring at the ceiling for a couple minutes, feeling oddly exhausted for a moment despite the urge to move around and do something. I eyed the TV remote next to the screen and debated wasting the day watching something mindless. I didn't really want to, but I wasn't really feeling all that good right now.
"Meow."
I lifted my head, craning it around to look in the direction of the sound.
"Heya girl," I spoke to the black cat that was slinking its way down my staircase, coughing to clear my throat when it came out with a rasp. "I didn't realize you came back." I made to stand up, intending to go to the kitchen and get a can of food for her, and some water for my dry throat.
"Wha-?" I couldn't find the strength to push myself up. My sight swam and my limbs felt weak, to the point of feeling like jelly.
I belatedly noticed my whole body aching dully everywhere except for the middle of my stomach. I didn't even realize that I'd toppled over until my cheek collided with the couch cushion.
A large, black blur appeared in my darkening vision, looming over me.
'So cold… but it burns…'
It was like all the heat was leaving me, and the warmer air stung my cooling body.
It was getting harder to focus, my sense of balance twisting dizzyingly despite not moving an inch.
A soft sensation pressed persistently into my chest as a weight draped itself around me, and a warm feeling spread throughout my body, washing away all the aching with a pleasant feeling of relief almost instantly. While the world slowly stopped spinning beneath my eyelids, and the pain was gone, I still couldn't bring myself to open my eyes back up
With just a bone-deep exhaustion remaining, I yawned and smacked my lips a couple of times, closing my eyes.
"G'nite…" I mumbled, wrapping an arm around the source of comfort and hugging it close.
Then I was out like a light.
When I awoke over half a day later feeling better than I had in nearly a year, it was to the loud meows of a hungry cat in the process of squishing its paws against my cheek, just in time to get me up for the school day.
~,,––,,^^-
AN: As usual, let me know what you think, what you like, what you dislike, etc. I'm kinda expecting a mixed reception for the chapter regardless of how much I tell myself I like the way I wrote it, so please let me know if that's just me psyching myself out or not. As an avid reader myself, I'm well aware that it's a tightrope walk when ending chapters with something that seems a bit out of the blue the way I did with this one.
Freed fighting like some force user assassin, complete with turning the sword on and off at the end was neat, I always forget the lightsaber ripoffs are even a thing in DxD since I never see anyone actually writing fight scenes using that.
It's easy to forget that Freed is actually a super-soldier, and Naruto being a complete baseline human.
And yet, the fight was pretty cool ngl,
Now I wanna see Naruto using talk-no-jutsu on Akeno and her daddy problems, she will fall so hard it's not gonna even be funny. Also, Koneko/Shirone should have 2 tails since she's a nekshou no?
If I'm not wrong Nekshous start with 2 tails or something, they can also increase the number of tails they have. There's a nekshou sho serves Nuharion who has 7 tails.
And yet, the fight was pretty cool ngl,
Now I wanna see Naruto using talk-no-jutsu on Akeno and her daddy problems, she will fall so hard it's not gonna even be funny. Also, Koneko/Shirone should have 2 tails since she's a nekshou no?
If I'm not wrong Nekshous start with 2 tails or something, they can also increase the number of tails they have. There's a nekshou sho serves Nuharion who has 7 tails.
Nnhg... fight was coll-n-all but maybe you should watch some video about parrying IRL and another blade vs blade staff. Swing doesn't really make the cut any stronger. The kick just a little bit, but it just broadcasts your move to the opponent. It's almost like a fist fight.
Anyway, the rest of the part was great as usual.
Anyway, the rest of the part was great as usual.
- Location
- US
Oh damn, was that the after affect of pushing himself so hard?
I'm glad "Bobby" was there to help 😂🤣
I'm glad "Bobby" was there to help 😂🤣
Bakeneko in general start with 1 tail. They get the second tail at 100 years old, or at particular power level.
Magari is a weird freak case, maybe she's a hybrid. Both Nekomata and Kitsune are well known to be randy in their myth after all.
Coz those light swords are Low Class weapons that can punch up to Mid Class at best if theres a type advantage.
Most DxD fics go speedrun to High Class and renders them obsolete.
For some reason, I feel like there's a chapter missing between this chapter and the last. I definitely would have liked seeing Naruto's interaction with Sona and her crew. I'm sad we didn't get to see that. 
Also, I hope Freed stays alive for awhile. Not because I Iike his character, no, it's because I want to see Naruto kick his ass when he finally heals enough to get some of his strength back.
Also, I hope Freed stays alive for awhile. Not because I Iike his character, no, it's because I want to see Naruto kick his ass when he finally heals enough to get some of his strength back.
- Location
- Australia
Bluh I hope there's not too much harem/love triangle bs. I know it's DxD so I should probably expect it, but I'm always much happier when it's not there. I really enjoyed the fight though, really felt that while a little overwhelmed, Naruto always felt in control of the fight, until he got blindsided right at the end
While that's true, in the end a blade is a blade, and getting stabbed is getting stabbed. You don't need every weapon to shoot lasers or absorb energy to be a useful weapon, even in the higher tier battles. The only time those sortf of OP weapon hax are needed is against shit like Dragons with impervious scales or regenerators that heal faster than you cut them.
His body being healed much faster than what was natural for him drained what little life energy his body had in reserve, so a certain kitty topped him off before his body could shut down.
It'll come in the next arc as omakes. Dragging out the main story even further for more inconsequential school shenanigans in the middle of the arc just wasn't something I wanted to do.For some reason, I feel like there's a chapter missing between this chapter and the last. I definitely would have liked seeing Naruto's interaction with Sona and her crew. I'm sad we didn't get to see that.
Currently it seems like opinions are split down the middle on Akeno across the four sites I'm posting this, and I'm not decided one way or the other either. Someone on FF.net mentioned that they don't want Akeno involved because she didn't have any real on-screen interaction with Naruto until now, and I'm just sitting here like 'well the characters have to start getting screentime somewhere'. Like I said though, I'm undecided right now. I will say that if I do end up actively involving Akeno, it will be much later, after she's gotten enough screen time to get the doubters to warm up to her/make her inclusion believable.
Regardless of how I decide in the end though, I do plan on Naruto being a kick in the ass behind her getting over her daddy issues.
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Naruto going all you think you have daddy issues, think again! Then explaining that his dad sealed a kaiju in him after it wrecked his home town and proceeded to keel over.
Yeah, it's way too early to make big statements on Akeno currently. I think she's only something i can reflect on much later, and it'll heavily depend on her characterization and role in the narrative
I think the hesitance (at least for me) may be because her intro seems 'tropey'
I don't mind tropes in fictions. If done well i enjoy them most of the time. Even for me though, there are tropes i just don't like. Sitting right next to 'Amnesia' is probably the 'Love rival/triangle' trope (not saying this will actually be Akeno's role of course!)
I've come to dislike the whole love triangle shebang because it usually comes paired with shallow characters. Specifically those that have no ability to reflect on their own emotions or situation.
What it also does sadly is force the relationships to become completely static. Relationships in real life are constantly developing. As two people grow they continiously have the adapt in order to support eachother. There is certainly joy, but constant conflict as well.
I can enjoy the 'will they won't they' stuff, but in the end that phase of things is still very much playing in the shallow water of what a real romantic relationship is. Common romance tropes often anchor characters to these shallow waters... permanently
That being said, is it fair to project all of this onto this short scene?
No.
I actually think her character was done very well here and i enjoyed her talks with both Naruto and Koneko. Her 'comeback' about how she only wants to show herself to certain people was a really nice moment. (Really, i enjoyed the chapter as a whole)
Personally i'm looking forward to seeing her more. I'm open to seeing her being developed towards being romantically involved somehow, but even if that doesn't happen, i could still see her being 'intimate' with both of them without it being romantic (if that makes sense?)
Naruto and Koneko have a relationship so far in which they're able to be really open and accepting with eachother. From the hints i've gleaned so far, Akeno could really benefit from interacting with them
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- Location
- United States
My take on Akeno as that she's good as a plot device to convince a hesitant party to actually try seriously pursuing someone so that Akeno doesn't steal them. If she then steps out and then becomes sincerely just a friend wingwomaning, she's a fun character, but if a story seriously adds her in and makes the relationship a real harem with harem hijinks and sharing included, her usual "I'm into breaking people up" vibes make her kind of unlikable, even before getting into the disinterest some people have for harem nonsense in general. Harems are for cowards who want to sell merch and pander to lonely men to keep a series serialized with a status quo, and only rarely let a creator actually develop and respect their characters. Sometimes people just want to read about two idiots in love, really.
And yes, I am aware I'm reading a DxD fic.
We've already been expanding on the characterization of certain characters, so i'm not sure what character we'll actually end up with in Akeno. I imagine she will deviate in some areas as well.
I do agree that if we're getting what you're describing, it'd be quite tedious...
As for the harem stuff. Highly doubt this story will go for the usually lazy harem dynamics. If someone else joins in romantically, we might actually see a story dive into the difficulties of a polyamorous relationship for once
I do feel what you're saying about just wanting to see two idiots in love (why i clicked on this story to begin with)
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2.5 - Aphelion
New
A/N: Once again, I am late to post due to time constraints. The past couple of weeks have kept me fairly busy during my usual writing times, along with a bit extra difficulty figuring out how I wanted scenes to go now that I have to contend with actual plot guiding things. At this rate, Monday is going to end up being my normal posting day lol. I keep having to squeeze in extra time on the weekends to getting the majority of the chapters written and ironed out to a basic degree. I'm not really complaining though, more just annoyed that I couldn't keep to my original schedule as strictly as I wanted to.
Koneko
(Wednesday, April 25th)
"I'm telling you, I feel fine! Way better than before, to be honest."
"Nn, don't care. I'm still making sure."
"No, seriously, I can lift just under twice as much as I could yesterday. I can even move faster than Kiba went against me when we sparred! There's no way anything's worse than it was," Uzumaki-kun argued.
The pouting blonde with probably-not-tattooed whisker marks might actually be an idiot.
We were sitting cross legged, back to back at the center of the school's rooftop in the warm sunlight, so that we could maintain physical contact for me to scan his body for any issues while leaving our hands free to eat lunch. When he first told me about what happened after I left yesterday, I honestly panicked a little and immediately did a brief check of his system to make sure he wasn't immediately going to die or something.
And it would have been my fault, for being too preoccupied with thinking about why Akeno's behavior had gotten under my skin so easily.
I'd felt like kicking myself for not considering beforehand that maybe forcing his body to heal unnaturally fast might not have been the best idea, with his body being as starved for energy as it was. While he insisted that he doesn't remember seeing anyone other than the stray he's begun taking care of, I had other suspicions. Just because I hadn't told the two sage twins about him, didn't mean that they hadn't followed me out of curiosity one day without me noticing, and took notice of him and his condition in the process.
I didn't think it was likely, but I also didn't think it was unlikely.
I tilted my head so that it rested against the back of his shoulder blades.
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
'His heartbeat is stronger, too.' I noted, much more relaxed than in the beginning.
Regardless of who it was though, I was certain that someone or something had potentially saved his life yesterday, because his body's cells were totally sated with an oddly familiar feeling energy, to the point of overflowing. I was pretty certain I'd never actually sensed it before, considering I'd only recently learned how to do so, but it fulfilled its role in providing his body with the necessary life force, so I considered it a mystery I'd leave unsolved for now while I focused on more important things.
Things like playing the equivalent of connect-the-dots with his chakra network, now that what I was pretty sure were pulses of Kurama's chakra had no pressing need to focus on keeping his cells on life-support. The small sections I'd already worked on the past couple of days whenever I got the chance seemed like they were healing back together ever so slightly, but that was more likely to be a natural result of Kurama's presence or Uzumaki-kuns own accelerated healing, rather than someone else's interference.
It was basically pure luck on my part that I figured out a way to perceive his chakra network, and I knew exactly what I was looking for in the first place.
"... I'm going to have Akeno-senpai put an alarm barrier around your apartment complex," I said at last. "They might try again."
"Not gonna argue there, heh," he chuckled. "Neither of those crazy dudes seemed like the types to let things lie."
The door of the stairwell opened up and Mitsuri stepped out into the sun, signaling the end of that topic of conversation. Her more shy friend's head poked out from around the doorway.
"I figured we'd find you two up here. You guys sure you're not dating?" The tomboy teased with a smirk.
I rolled my eyes at the girl and ignored her while listening to Uzumaki-kun's heart beat a tiny bit faster.
While we ended up shifting positions so that we could both face the two other girls when that joined us, I made sure that our knees were still touching so I could continue making progress as we ate with friends.
Even though we kept denying it, the Norika girl who rarely joined us seemed to be convinced otherwise, with the way her eyes shined with delight whenever she caught sight of our contact. Even Mitsuri seemed to only half-heartedly take us at our word, glancing at me with an annoying smirk periodically.
The day I learned to do this stuff without needing physical contact couldn't come fast enough.
A small mochi treat was held in front of my mouth with two fingers and I snagged it with my teeth, chewing slowly to savor the vanilla flavoring. It was only when I heard the newest member of our lunch group giggle that it occurred to me; I didn't pack any mochi with my lunch.
I turned my head and looked at the lap of my male companion, and sure enough, there was a small stack of the rice-based snacks in Uzumaki-kun's bento. A quick glance upwards showed his whiskered face grinning down at me, and I gave in to the sudden urge to look away.
I pointedly ignored Mitsuri for the rest of the lunch period, refusing to give her the satisfaction of acknowledging her amused smirk.
(Late afternoon, ORC mansion)
"Hot damn, this place is sweet as hell!" Hyoudou exclaimed in appreciation when we finished giving him the tour of the building, this last room we'd ended up standing around in being the living room nearest to the front door. His reaction was understandable for an economically middle-class human, but frankly, all devils with close ties to a Pillar Family had at least this much available to them.
He'd get used to it sooner or later.
Kiba chuckled at the brown haired teen's enthusiasm, and Rias smiled from her seat on one of the couches, hands folded elegantly on top of her skirt.
"I'm glad you like it. Feel free to claim one of the unused rooms for yourself like the others, but I understand if you'd prefer to continue living with your family for the most part," she informed him. "Out of the group, I'm currently the only one to have moved in permanently so far."
"For real?" He asked, still in disbelief. Rias nodded in amusement. "Awesome…"
"As for why we're here tonight instead of at the club room," she gestured my way. "It's mostly for convenience's sake. A particularly… important client of Koneko's will be meeting her here very shortly."
I tried to ignore the twinkle in her eyes and Akeno's sly smile. Those two were one and the same when it came to gaining satisfaction from teasing me, even if they each preferred taking different avenues to get it.
"Because of this," Buchou continued, "once everyone is finished, we'll reconvene here to pick her up, before going to do one last activity for the night as a group. Is that understood by everyone?"
"Hai!" Hyoudou answered energetically, in contrast to Kiba and Akeno's more reserved responses and my own nod.
"You three are free to go, Akeno, Yuuto-kun, Koneko-chan. As for you, Issei-kun," Buchou turned to address him directly as they left the room. I moved to sit in one of the reclining chairs, summoning an ice cream-mochi to snack on.
"Since recent events have shown us that there are still those in town who are willing to attack those of us they consider easy targets, and you're still new to being a Devil, you'll stay here with me to work on getting used to activating your [Twice Critical] quickly, instead of going out alone to hand out flyers. Any questions?"
He seemed to deflate slightly as he was effectively told he needed to be babysat.
"Not really? At least not anything related to the schedule." The [Pawn] shrugged. "I'm kinda curious what's the big-deal about this client that's coming, though. What's the point in having a summoning contract if you're just gonna come to us on your own?"
"You misunderstand," Buchou laughed lightly. "The client himself isn't particularly important in the grand scheme of things-"
If I were the type, I might have snorted.
I hadn't told her about my suspicions regarding Kurama yet because I still wasn't 100% sure, but from the bits and pieces Uzumaki-kun had revealed about himself, he was most likely on the upper end of power for devils in his prime. He might even have been Ultimate-class, if he was in a partnership with Kurama.
As a Sage with that much power, even ignoring the current events, he'd definitely be worth keeping in mind by any groups looking to get involved in an area he was active in. The only thing keeping his people's unique abilities from being well regarded, was just how successfully they isolated themselves from the rest of the supernatural world, with neither side being aware of each other.
"-but he's been Koneko-chan's sensei for the past week and a half, after she convinced him to teach her his martial arts and ninja techniques, meaning he's important to her." The knowing tone in her voice went completely over the boy's head, being too focused on the words themselves.
"For real?!" He looked my way with boyish excitement, for once not in a perverted way. "Koneko-cha-" I glared at him. "-san is being taught by a real ninja?!" He seamlessly switched to a less familiar honorific.
I held up my half eaten mochi and my free hand, and with a quick bit of sleight of hand held both of my palms up for him to see, empty handed.
"Nin-nin." I added simply.
"Oooh," he clapped politely while Buchou giggled, her seat giving her a clear view of the cold treat stuck to the back of my hand with chakra.
"What's he like?" Hyoudou asked. "Does he wear a mask around everywhere? Does he have a secret base somewhere to hold all his ninja gear, or is he one of those old hermit types, constantly moving around? Oooh!! Wait! Does he work with the government to spy on the Yakuza?!" He belted out, getting more and more hyped as he went.
Before I could answer and crush his imagination, I felt my phone vibrate once in my uniform's waist-coat pocket, signaling that I got a text. A second later, the doorbell rang over the room's hidden speaker.
I got up wordlessly and headed in the direction of the front entrance, bringing the back of my hand up to my mouth to finish my snack in one bite.
"That's most likely him. Why don't you ask him yourself when you meet him?" Buchou said with amusement as she too got up.
I opened the front door and saw my friend's fox-like face grinning back at me, leaning casually on his hidden sword. Buchou was standing next to me, while Hyoudou was standing back a few paces, poking his head around to look past my shoulder despite being tall enough to look straight overhead.
"Yo, Koneko-chan!" He greeted me, which I returned with a nod of my head, before he turned to nod at Buchou. "Red."
"Hello, it's nice to have you again."
"And…" He squinted at Hyoudou. "... pervert dude? Sorry, I keep forgetting your name." Uzumaki-kun looked back at me. "New member of the club?" He asked.
I nodded again.
"What's with the tattooed kid?" Hyoudou muttered, before he shifted in realization. "Wait, aren't you that supposed underclassman delinquent that Matsuda and Motohama have been complaining about?" He questioned out loud.
"Huh?" Uzumaki-kun made an expression I'd come to recognize as his "thinking" face.
"Oh yeah!" He said, snapping his fingers. "Those two jackasses kept trying to block my path in the hallway, and refused to get out of my way while saying a bunch of nonsense. So I made them." He shrugged. "I still don't know what the hell a 'loli' is though."
I suddenly felt really annoyed for no reason in particular, but I had a hunch based on the people in question.
"They weren't just making shit up to save face?!" Hyoudou exclaimed, before making a confused sound and muttering to himself. "Wait, weren't we waiting for someone? Shouldn't we tell the kid to scram…?"
I almost rolled my eyes in amusement.
Buchou decided now was the time to speak up with a smile, stepping to the side to clear the doorway. I also stepped back and to the side.
"Come on in." She turned as he accepted the invite and stepped inside, addressing the older boy. "Issei-kun, meet Uzumaki Naruto, a classmate and friend of Koneko's, as well as her instructor. Uzumaki-kun, this is Hyoudou Issei, a new member of the Occult Research club and my peerage."
"Ah, nice to meetcha!" The blond grinned and held his fist out in greeting.
"Oh, uh, nice to meet you," the [Pawn] reciprocated reflexively, tapping their knuckles together in a fist bump. "Eh?"
It seemed it just hit him what Buchou said when introducing the two.
"Naruto-sensei," I added fuel to the fire that was his realization, "What are we doing today?"
"EEHHHH?!"
Naruto
I stood across from Koneko-chan in the backyard, in almost identical positions as me and Kiba had when we had our little competition. This time however, I was the one holding a weapon, and my opponent was the one stretching her limbs. Well, my student. I was only going to be fighting to test her, while she was going to be fighting to get experience with the style I'd been teaching her, as well as her idea to use the leaf-sticking trick to enhance her grapples. She was an aggressive, ultra-close-range fighter, so I would stick to counter-attacking and keeping her off of me by creating favorable distance.
She'd come a long way with the exercise with the help of her Youkai features, now was the time to put that progress into practice without them as a crutch. While technically it would be more accurate to call this a handicap, since having her features out was her natural form, she spent more time both publicly and in private with them hidden, so my point stood. To keep things moving and allow her to actually learn, I wouldn't follow through with any finisher moves, only exploiting any initial openings she gave while lecturing her to point out where she could do better or be faster.
After we were done with this, we would move to the side of the yard to continue working on her form and kata in a slower and more methodical way, leaving the majority of the space for Red to work on her new member's foundation. For now, those two sat on the patio to watch.
We'd both changed into our workout clothes, and as much as a part of me was annoyed at him, I couldn't even blame Issei for staring at Koneko while she stretched. I was doing the same, I couldn't help it.
With as mentally focused as she was on preparing herself for this, she didn't even realize that doing a standing-split in her school gym bloomers would do things to hormonal teenage boys, even ignoring the fact that Issei was a massive perv, and I was crushing on her.
I shook my head and patted my cheeks.
"Enough staring idiot, time to focus!" I muttered to myself.
Koneko glanced at me as she finished her previous stretch, her cheeks darkening with slightly narrowed eyebrows.
Oops, I think she heard me.
I ignored my own embarrassment from outing myself, hefted up my cane to hold like a sword, and called out.
"Whenever you're ready, come at me with whatever speed you feel comfortable with."
She nodded, settling into her stance. A second later, a twitch and a push from her legs had her launching at me, only a tiny bit faster than Kiba had gone by the end of our match. I refrained from pouting as I dashed backwards slightly slower than her.
'Guess I'll just have to show her I meant it when I said I'm stronger than a week ago,' I mentally sighed in exasperation.
Even if her top speed with chakra enhancement wasn't as physically fast as Kiba's [Knight] speed according to her, her reaction speed would definitely be faster, considering her species and the fact that chakra boosted perception far more than it did physical ability by default. So even with her holding herself back, I couldn't approach fighting her with any "last-second dodge" shenanigans. She'd just notice and adjust accordingly as if she had all the time in the world.
I'd have to rely entirely on outmaneuvering her to the point that her body couldn't keep up with her perception at the level she was holding herself to. Given that was basically the goal of this exercise in the first place, pointing out how she could position herself better, it made little difference to me.
When she touched back down and pushed off again to continue her pursuit, I planted my back foot and pushed off, reversing my momentum to dash around her faster than she was moving. She reacted accordingly with only a slight widening of her eyes to show her surprise, planting her own front foot and stopping suddenly enough that it was obvious she was using chakra adhesion to stick to the ground.
As I approached the space at her side, my cane swung towards her chest in an almost clothesline-like arc, the shaft of it wrapped in tacky gauze to prevent the sheath from sliding off mid-combat. Even though we were treating it as if it was a live blade for the sake of practice, it was still just practice.
In order to keep pressuring me while responding to the threat, when Koneko planted her foot, she then half turned to the side I was headed while placing her forward hand palm-up by her stomach, slightly crouched with her rear hand cocked by her waist. The moment my sword and body were in range, she swung her palm up and lunged at me, striking the 'flat' of the 'blade' from below and clinging to it without visibly gripping it, while her fist speared towards my gut as I faced her, my own momentum suddenly halted by her grip on my weapon.
She almost didn't notice in time the trailing kick I sent her way with my back leg, aimed towards her open side where her arm was still raised keeping my sword away from her body. 'Almost' doesn't mean she didn't though, and instead of aborting her punch to twist across her body and block like she might have done last week, she instead lowered her other arm and brought up her own leg, stopping and trapping my shin between her elbow and knee.
At the same time, I brought my own free hand up to block her punch with a palm, closing my fingers around her smaller fist as the force of it rattled my arm up to my shoulder.
'She's doing great so far.' I internally smiled with pride at her, tugging on my cane and leg as both refused to budge from the surfaces of her limbs.
We were both standing on only a single foot each, our other limbs locked in struggles for dominance, and my sword and leg stuck to her body with chakra.
I smirked outwardly. "Mistake." I saw her eyes widen
Then I twisted on my hip and swung my three other limbs, pivoting on my grounded foot to lift and bodily throw the girl who weighed as much as a wet pillow. She easily broke out of my grip, and chose to release her own hold on my extremities in order to better direct her fall to land on her feet.
Immediately after I'd begun throwing her though, I'd jumped off of my remaining foot with a spin in order to plant my heel in her stomach. The impact felt a little off, but she still went skidding across the grass.
"Holy shit!" I heard Issei exclaim.
She only rolled once in her slide, her momentum flipping her backwards in a way that brought her back onto her feet in a crouch, hands never even touching the ground.
"Ah! Koneko-san!" The other guy present called out in a worried tone, but I ignored him and kept my eyes on my student.
"So far you've done excellently at putting what you've learned into practice," I praised her, relaxing my stance to give her time to reset. "The biggest thing that stood out from that exchange is that you need to put more thought into leverage, and how your grappling ability doesn't mean much if all you're doing is giving your opponent the opportunity to throw you."
She nodded, standing up. "I'm already aware. It's a common issue for [Rook]s." Her head tilted in thought. "I'm usually more careful than that."
"It's because, now that you can stick to things with relatively little effort-" I tapped my foot on the ground twice to draw her attention, "-you're working under the assumption that you'll always be able to keep your footing at a moment's notice. It's not a bad idea in the long run to get used to fighting like that, since eventually it will be true, but, uh," I chuckled awkwardly. "...You simply aren't that good at chakra adhesion yet." I pointed out the flaw in her performance. "As your teacher, I'm well aware that you still struggle with handling it precisely and powerfully at speed while multitasking, so I knew that you weren't using it on the ground at that last moment." I punctuated this with a deliberate shifting of my cane in my grip.
"... Cheater." Koneko-chan pouted at me. Well, it was more of a tiny downturn of her lips, but I saw through it and grinned, causing her to pout harder.
I became serious a moment later though, and she focused on me as my face changed.
"Real battle isn't fair," I admonished lightly. "Outside of a competitive martial arts league with agreed upon rules, hell, even in those environments, you will never witness or fight a battle where all combatants have perfectly equal strength, experience, numbers, and information on their opponents. No matter how long you've been fighting, there will always be others with more experience or preparation who will be able to pick apart your weakness with a glance, or some early research, leaving you on the backfoot," I told her with brutal honesty. "You can't expect to be able to prepare for every possible situation like some super-genius, but the ones that you can, you should. I've gotten into way too many random battles with every disadvantage against me to suggest otherwise. Let me be clear; the only way to truly overcome someone knowing your weakness, is to make sure that even that weakness is too strong to be worth their focus."
"I understand, Sensei." I suppressed an amused smirk at that. It never got old, hearing her call me that.
I scratched my head as I closed off the lecture. "Now, that's a long ways away, and until you're at that level, the next best thing you can do is keep on practicing, and build up your other strengths to pick up the slack." I grinned again. "Now, are you ready to continue?"
She nodded and brushed her hands off against each other, before settling into an open palmed stance. Tiny smears of brown were visible on her skin, on the palms that never touched the ground.
My eyebrow rose at the sight, noticing that the front of her white t-shirt over her stomach was perfectly clean.
'So she managed to block the second kick too, huh?'
I hid another smile, holding out a hand and curling my fingers in the "come" gesture.
"Begin."
(Later)
I leaned back and relaxed on a sofa in one of the living rooms, having successfully hidden from Himejima's perception when she appeared in the building to join the group before they left. I began scrolling on my phone through a paper recently published by a researcher out of Harvard. Within minutes I found my eyes glazing over as I dismissed it as a waste of my time.
A little research of my own revealed that the author was apparently a recent graduate who, in a bid to try and sucker wealthy people into sponsoring him with a research grant, published multiple papers with bunch of half-baked findings surrounded by flowery language, claiming to be "close to a breakthrough" on a "regenerative anti-aging" drug.
This latest nothing-paper just happened to go viral online before the rest of the medical community got the chance to denounce the dumbass as a fraud.
I wasn't entirely sure if I even wanted to continue digging through the world's mundane medical fields any more. As far as I was aware, Koneko-chan was dedicating a lot of effort into fixing me herself, and actually seemed to have some sort of idea how to go about it. Continuing my own research into a field I didn't even particularly enjoy in the first place? At this point I was just doing it out of habit, and all my effort into learning was getting diminishing returns as the gaps in my knowledge got smaller and smaller, and it got harder and harder to find new and useful info.
I wasn't putting all this effort in so I could become a career doctor, dammit! I was just trying to heal myself!
Maybe Mitsuri had the right of it. Joining the Anatomy Club or the Neuroscience Club sounded more and more like a drag the longer I procrastinated on picking something. I did plan on joining some club at some point, preferably one that didn't hog too much time or have a strict and mandatory schedule, but I'd at least picked up an appreciation for trying and learning new things in my time here, and didn't want to totally miss out on the school club experience.
I sighed in boredom as I switched to watching cat videos while I waited for Koneko and her group to get back from their Stray hunting mission. I was told that it was fine to hang around, and that they'd be done and back within a half an hour, so I still had around twenty minutes left to wait, give or take.
Given that it was, according to Red, supposed to be a sort of crash-course demonstration of the power Devils could wield to show Issei what to strive for in his own training, it shouldn't exactly take all that long. Even when participants were evenly matched, small-scale battles usually only took a couple minutes at most. The most time consuming aspect of a "hunt" would likely be the cleanup.
"Heheheh," I snickered while an orange cat flipped the hell out when a plastic bag got stuck over his head.
The faint sound of movement in one of the other rooms reached my ears, but given how early it was since the Occult Research club left, I assumed that must have been one of the cleaning staff. It got louder and louder over the next minute, before whoever it was walked into the room, making absolutely zero attempt to hide themselves and walking at a totally casual pace.
They stopped a few feet behind me, and I tensed in preparation to move as I heard their weight shift, seeing a shadow slip over my shoulder and arm.
"Oh hey, I like watching cat videos too! My favorites are the ones when they get into the catnip."
I relaxed as the person over my shoulder spoke up. He seemed to be on the younger side of adulthood, voice sounding perfectly friendly, but in an actually friendly way and not the creepy friendly way that Sai talks.
I turned with a smile to introduce myself to the guy–
Bird
Only to jerk my head back, completely shocked and stunned silent by the beady black eyes and beak and feathers and 'What the hell why is there a giant bird dude behind me?!?!' I screamed internally. He(?) blinked at me twice.
"Eh? What's wrong?" Seeing and hearing the words come out of his beak was both creepy, and kind of hilarious at the same time. In the first place, he didn't have lips! How did he manage to pronounce everything completely normally!?
"... Sorry about that. I, uh, just wasn't expecting to turn around and see a… crow's head?" I apologized for my reaction. "You're some sort of crow or raven youkai, right? I'm not really familiar with the different youkai species yet." I admitted.
"A Karasu-Tengu, yeah," he confirmed.
I waited a few seconds, not sure if he was going to continue and introduce himself or not. We just stared at each other blankly until it got too awkward for me, and I took the lead.
"Well, feel free to take a seat somewhere, I guess." I gestured at the other couch and multiple chairs in the room. "My name's Uzumaki Naruto. And you?" I asked as he moved to take a seat across from me.
"I'm Yoru," he answered plainly as he sat. His head tilted to the side. "Miss Gremory-dono didn't mention there being a second one we haven't met yet... Did you recently join her peerage too, like that brown haired guy?"
"Nope," I shook my head. "I'm human, a friend of Koneko's from school. I'm just waiting for them to get back from a Stray hunt so we can hang out." I explained. "Why are you here?" I asked curiously.
"Oh, that's simple. I'm investigating the giant jelly donut for Gremory-dono."
…
'Huh?'
We continued talking about cute animals for a bit after that.
As confusing as the statement was, I had no desire to ask for clarification and risk getting sucked into crazy-talk by the wacko bird-man, so I chose to brush past it. Clearly he was doing something for Rias, and clearly it was outside of my expertise.
If he'd said the giant ramen bowl, then I'd be so absolutely down for it, because that sounds awesome.
'Mmmm, ramen…I should get a couple bowls on my way home tonight.'
"No way. Cats can be adorable, but when they're mean they're awful. Foxes are so much better."
"Haahhh? That's true with any animal! The biggest grumpy bastard of an asshole I've ever interacted with is a fox. Cats can at least be friendly to strangers, unlike those wild animals!
We'd begun arguing about which type of cute animal video was better, before it became about the animals themselves.
"Wild animals?! How dare you talk about Kunou-sama like that! Take it back!" Yoru squawked, jumping to his feet.
"Hell no! It took becoming a sage for those little thieving bastards to stop trying to steal my food!" I raged, standing up to match him and ignoring my phone dinging in my pocket as I got a text.
We both looked at each other, blinking as we realized what the other said.
He pointed at me in confused confirmation, and I waved my arm at him in bafflement.
"You're a sage too?"
"Kunou '-sama'? For a fox?!"
The next room over lit up, the doorway bathed in a bright glowing red from what was probably the presence of a magical circle appearing. Sure enough, a second later came the voice of Rias, formally dismissing her peerage for the night.
"Koneko-chan and I are planning to hang out with Uzumaki-kun for a while, so feel free to stick around and join in, everyone," Red's voice added at the end, as the short nekoshou walked through the doorway and stopped, glancing between Yoru and I.
"... Do I even want to know?"
I felt a victorious smug smile spread across my face.
"Koneko-chan, which is the cutest animal?" I put forward the debate to a third party opinion, as Yoru and I turned to face her. "Foxes, or cats?"
She deadpanned at me, probably feeling like it was an obvious question to ask her, and I felt sweet victory just within reach. She herself was a cat person, both literally and figuratively! She even made her actual cat into her familiar, to be able to spend more time with Shiro. I side-eyed Yoru with a smirk, and could see the twitches in his beak as his beady eyes glared at me in resigned defeat.
"Cats are mostly cute as kittens, and become more elegant and independent as they age," Koneko said as she walked further into the room. "Foxes are more energetic and expressive at all ages, and are always happy to play with someone they've imprinted on." She glanced at my face before quickly looking away, seeming to avoid eye contact. "Cat's make much better pets since foxes are much higher maintenance, but foxes are more social and overall cuter in general."
Yoru and I blinked, breaking our stare down.
'Eh?'
"Cawhahahaha!" Yoru let out a cawing laugh from his beak. "In your face, loser! That's what you get for disrespecting Yasaka-sama and Kunou-sama!"
I grit my teeth, staring at Koneko in despair as victory slipped away.
"B-but, you–" I sputtered. "You have a cat!" I tried to appeal to her sense of loyalty to her pet.
"Like I said;" she deadpanned my way again, staring into my soul. "Cats are easier to take care of."
For some reason, I felt attacked.
I deflated.
Two perverts walked in, the one who couldn't teleport without his gauntlet doubling his power, and the one who likes to harass me.
"Yo, the hell happened to the golden midget?"
"Ufufu~, that's a delicious expression you're making Uzumaki-kun."
And now the peanut gallery was joining in as Red and Kiba walked in behind them with amused smiles.
It was a crushing, lonely defeat.
"There, there. No need to pout, Sensei." Koneko reached up to awkwardly pat my head.
I twisted to bite her hand, but she pulled away in time.
At the very least, I'd get my revenge on the Hyoudou jackass later. Not Himejima though.
She scared me.
(Nighttime)
I was walking back home later that night, with a bag full of ramen from the best stand I'd found in Kuoh Town (they had nothing on Ichiraku) and another filled with cat treats, when my phone rang in my pocket.
I pulled it out after hooking my sword on my elbow, answering when I saw the caller ID list my contact name for Koneko-chan.
I had it set to "Kitten lol" in English.
The Devil's ability to speak and understand languages didn't extend to reading or writing, so if I ever let Koneko get into my phone again and she sees it, I'd probably be safe from her wrath.
Unless, of course, she actually paid attention in English class, in order to shore up that obvious weakness in the ability.
Then I'd be in trouble.
"Yo, what's up midget?" I said with a smirk.
"I will hurt you."
"No way," I grinned at her deadpan delivery. "You like me too much to actually hurt me. You even held back more than necessary during our training spar, don't think I didn't notice." She was clearly just keeping up her usual aloof act.
"Alright. Next time I see you, you're getting an armbar."
My smile stiffened. Surely she was joking… right?
"A-anyways, what did you call me for? Uh, not that you need a reason to call me or anything!" I hurried to correct my poor choice of words. "I like talking to you regardless, so–"
"Calm down, Uzumaki-kun. It was a joke."
"Phew! Don't scare me like that."
"... Probably."
I shook my head and let out a chuckle.
"Alright, I'm good now. Seriously, what's up?"
"Hyoudou got attacked on his way home." I frowned. The guy was a perv, but he was basically harmless and didn't deserve to get thrown in the deep end like that. "Buchou asked Kiba to keep an eye on him with his familiar, so he was mostly fine once Kiba got there. But it was the same guy from your place."
"The Exorcist? Freed Seltzer or whatever?" I asked, the psycho's face coming to mind easily.
"Mm. Kiba said he was moving around perfectly fine. Good perception and reflexes."
"So whatever group he's with probably has a healer, if he can shake off the hit you gave him that quickly…" I guessed, tucking my phone between my ear and shoulder to free my hand, so I could scratch my head with a sigh. "Well, that can't be good. A guy like that with that kind of a resource is gonna be a pain to deal with if he's any good at slipping away."
"Mm. He is, escaped Kiba-senpai easily. Wanted to warn you to be careful."
"Consider me warned," I chuckled.
The call was silent for a few seconds as I walked down the sidewalk, the last of the local businesses gradually closing down to let their workers trickle out to join me on their ways home. I wasn't sure if she was waiting for me to say more, or if she was hesitating for some reason, since all I had to go off of was her voice.
"Do you want to stay in a guest room at the mansion for a while?" She asked at last. "It'd probably be safer for you."
"Thanks for the offer, but I'll be fine," I declined. "I have a few groceries and I'm already closer to my place anyway. Going back to your place would just take longer, and Himejima put up that barrier and my wall is already fixed, so it should be fine."
Her reply came quietly a moment later.
"... Right."
"Seriously, thanks a lot Koneko-chan." I smiled even as my guard was up, paying much closer attention to my surroundings than I was when the call started, as per her advice. "I really appreciate your help, all of it. Besides," I chuckled, "someone needs to feed that freeloading cat."
"Just give her a name at this point," she deadpanned. "You can't just keep calling her 'that cat'."
"Yeah? Maybe I should take a page out of your book, name her 'Kuro'." I snorted at the thought. I wasn't good at naming things, I'll admit it, but even I knew that was stu–
"Perfect." What? "From now on, your adopted stray is Kuro. If I hear you call her anything else, I'll put you in a headlock for being a bad pet owner."
I sighed with a grin. "I guess I can't argue with that then. Anyway, see you tomorrow?"
"Mm. 'Night."
"Goodnight."
ᓚᘏᗢ
Koneko
(Wednesday, April 25th)
"I'm telling you, I feel fine! Way better than before, to be honest."
"Nn, don't care. I'm still making sure."
"No, seriously, I can lift just under twice as much as I could yesterday. I can even move faster than Kiba went against me when we sparred! There's no way anything's worse than it was," Uzumaki-kun argued.
The pouting blonde with probably-not-tattooed whisker marks might actually be an idiot.
We were sitting cross legged, back to back at the center of the school's rooftop in the warm sunlight, so that we could maintain physical contact for me to scan his body for any issues while leaving our hands free to eat lunch. When he first told me about what happened after I left yesterday, I honestly panicked a little and immediately did a brief check of his system to make sure he wasn't immediately going to die or something.
And it would have been my fault, for being too preoccupied with thinking about why Akeno's behavior had gotten under my skin so easily.
I'd felt like kicking myself for not considering beforehand that maybe forcing his body to heal unnaturally fast might not have been the best idea, with his body being as starved for energy as it was. While he insisted that he doesn't remember seeing anyone other than the stray he's begun taking care of, I had other suspicions. Just because I hadn't told the two sage twins about him, didn't mean that they hadn't followed me out of curiosity one day without me noticing, and took notice of him and his condition in the process.
I didn't think it was likely, but I also didn't think it was unlikely.
I tilted my head so that it rested against the back of his shoulder blades.
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
'His heartbeat is stronger, too.' I noted, much more relaxed than in the beginning.
Regardless of who it was though, I was certain that someone or something had potentially saved his life yesterday, because his body's cells were totally sated with an oddly familiar feeling energy, to the point of overflowing. I was pretty certain I'd never actually sensed it before, considering I'd only recently learned how to do so, but it fulfilled its role in providing his body with the necessary life force, so I considered it a mystery I'd leave unsolved for now while I focused on more important things.
Things like playing the equivalent of connect-the-dots with his chakra network, now that what I was pretty sure were pulses of Kurama's chakra had no pressing need to focus on keeping his cells on life-support. The small sections I'd already worked on the past couple of days whenever I got the chance seemed like they were healing back together ever so slightly, but that was more likely to be a natural result of Kurama's presence or Uzumaki-kuns own accelerated healing, rather than someone else's interference.
It was basically pure luck on my part that I figured out a way to perceive his chakra network, and I knew exactly what I was looking for in the first place.
"... I'm going to have Akeno-senpai put an alarm barrier around your apartment complex," I said at last. "They might try again."
"Not gonna argue there, heh," he chuckled. "Neither of those crazy dudes seemed like the types to let things lie."
The door of the stairwell opened up and Mitsuri stepped out into the sun, signaling the end of that topic of conversation. Her more shy friend's head poked out from around the doorway.
"I figured we'd find you two up here. You guys sure you're not dating?" The tomboy teased with a smirk.
I rolled my eyes at the girl and ignored her while listening to Uzumaki-kun's heart beat a tiny bit faster.
While we ended up shifting positions so that we could both face the two other girls when that joined us, I made sure that our knees were still touching so I could continue making progress as we ate with friends.
Even though we kept denying it, the Norika girl who rarely joined us seemed to be convinced otherwise, with the way her eyes shined with delight whenever she caught sight of our contact. Even Mitsuri seemed to only half-heartedly take us at our word, glancing at me with an annoying smirk periodically.
The day I learned to do this stuff without needing physical contact couldn't come fast enough.
A small mochi treat was held in front of my mouth with two fingers and I snagged it with my teeth, chewing slowly to savor the vanilla flavoring. It was only when I heard the newest member of our lunch group giggle that it occurred to me; I didn't pack any mochi with my lunch.
I turned my head and looked at the lap of my male companion, and sure enough, there was a small stack of the rice-based snacks in Uzumaki-kun's bento. A quick glance upwards showed his whiskered face grinning down at me, and I gave in to the sudden urge to look away.
I pointedly ignored Mitsuri for the rest of the lunch period, refusing to give her the satisfaction of acknowledging her amused smirk.
(Late afternoon, ORC mansion)
"Hot damn, this place is sweet as hell!" Hyoudou exclaimed in appreciation when we finished giving him the tour of the building, this last room we'd ended up standing around in being the living room nearest to the front door. His reaction was understandable for an economically middle-class human, but frankly, all devils with close ties to a Pillar Family had at least this much available to them.
He'd get used to it sooner or later.
Kiba chuckled at the brown haired teen's enthusiasm, and Rias smiled from her seat on one of the couches, hands folded elegantly on top of her skirt.
"I'm glad you like it. Feel free to claim one of the unused rooms for yourself like the others, but I understand if you'd prefer to continue living with your family for the most part," she informed him. "Out of the group, I'm currently the only one to have moved in permanently so far."
"For real?" He asked, still in disbelief. Rias nodded in amusement. "Awesome…"
"As for why we're here tonight instead of at the club room," she gestured my way. "It's mostly for convenience's sake. A particularly… important client of Koneko's will be meeting her here very shortly."
I tried to ignore the twinkle in her eyes and Akeno's sly smile. Those two were one and the same when it came to gaining satisfaction from teasing me, even if they each preferred taking different avenues to get it.
"Because of this," Buchou continued, "once everyone is finished, we'll reconvene here to pick her up, before going to do one last activity for the night as a group. Is that understood by everyone?"
"Hai!" Hyoudou answered energetically, in contrast to Kiba and Akeno's more reserved responses and my own nod.
"You three are free to go, Akeno, Yuuto-kun, Koneko-chan. As for you, Issei-kun," Buchou turned to address him directly as they left the room. I moved to sit in one of the reclining chairs, summoning an ice cream-mochi to snack on.
"Since recent events have shown us that there are still those in town who are willing to attack those of us they consider easy targets, and you're still new to being a Devil, you'll stay here with me to work on getting used to activating your [Twice Critical] quickly, instead of going out alone to hand out flyers. Any questions?"
He seemed to deflate slightly as he was effectively told he needed to be babysat.
"Not really? At least not anything related to the schedule." The [Pawn] shrugged. "I'm kinda curious what's the big-deal about this client that's coming, though. What's the point in having a summoning contract if you're just gonna come to us on your own?"
"You misunderstand," Buchou laughed lightly. "The client himself isn't particularly important in the grand scheme of things-"
If I were the type, I might have snorted.
I hadn't told her about my suspicions regarding Kurama yet because I still wasn't 100% sure, but from the bits and pieces Uzumaki-kun had revealed about himself, he was most likely on the upper end of power for devils in his prime. He might even have been Ultimate-class, if he was in a partnership with Kurama.
As a Sage with that much power, even ignoring the current events, he'd definitely be worth keeping in mind by any groups looking to get involved in an area he was active in. The only thing keeping his people's unique abilities from being well regarded, was just how successfully they isolated themselves from the rest of the supernatural world, with neither side being aware of each other.
"-but he's been Koneko-chan's sensei for the past week and a half, after she convinced him to teach her his martial arts and ninja techniques, meaning he's important to her." The knowing tone in her voice went completely over the boy's head, being too focused on the words themselves.
"For real?!" He looked my way with boyish excitement, for once not in a perverted way. "Koneko-cha-" I glared at him. "-san is being taught by a real ninja?!" He seamlessly switched to a less familiar honorific.
I held up my half eaten mochi and my free hand, and with a quick bit of sleight of hand held both of my palms up for him to see, empty handed.
"Nin-nin." I added simply.
"Oooh," he clapped politely while Buchou giggled, her seat giving her a clear view of the cold treat stuck to the back of my hand with chakra.
"What's he like?" Hyoudou asked. "Does he wear a mask around everywhere? Does he have a secret base somewhere to hold all his ninja gear, or is he one of those old hermit types, constantly moving around? Oooh!! Wait! Does he work with the government to spy on the Yakuza?!" He belted out, getting more and more hyped as he went.
Before I could answer and crush his imagination, I felt my phone vibrate once in my uniform's waist-coat pocket, signaling that I got a text. A second later, the doorbell rang over the room's hidden speaker.
I got up wordlessly and headed in the direction of the front entrance, bringing the back of my hand up to my mouth to finish my snack in one bite.
"That's most likely him. Why don't you ask him yourself when you meet him?" Buchou said with amusement as she too got up.
I opened the front door and saw my friend's fox-like face grinning back at me, leaning casually on his hidden sword. Buchou was standing next to me, while Hyoudou was standing back a few paces, poking his head around to look past my shoulder despite being tall enough to look straight overhead.
"Yo, Koneko-chan!" He greeted me, which I returned with a nod of my head, before he turned to nod at Buchou. "Red."
"Hello, it's nice to have you again."
"And…" He squinted at Hyoudou. "... pervert dude? Sorry, I keep forgetting your name." Uzumaki-kun looked back at me. "New member of the club?" He asked.
I nodded again.
"What's with the tattooed kid?" Hyoudou muttered, before he shifted in realization. "Wait, aren't you that supposed underclassman delinquent that Matsuda and Motohama have been complaining about?" He questioned out loud.
"Huh?" Uzumaki-kun made an expression I'd come to recognize as his "thinking" face.
"Oh yeah!" He said, snapping his fingers. "Those two jackasses kept trying to block my path in the hallway, and refused to get out of my way while saying a bunch of nonsense. So I made them." He shrugged. "I still don't know what the hell a 'loli' is though."
I suddenly felt really annoyed for no reason in particular, but I had a hunch based on the people in question.
"They weren't just making shit up to save face?!" Hyoudou exclaimed, before making a confused sound and muttering to himself. "Wait, weren't we waiting for someone? Shouldn't we tell the kid to scram…?"
I almost rolled my eyes in amusement.
Buchou decided now was the time to speak up with a smile, stepping to the side to clear the doorway. I also stepped back and to the side.
"Come on in." She turned as he accepted the invite and stepped inside, addressing the older boy. "Issei-kun, meet Uzumaki Naruto, a classmate and friend of Koneko's, as well as her instructor. Uzumaki-kun, this is Hyoudou Issei, a new member of the Occult Research club and my peerage."
"Ah, nice to meetcha!" The blond grinned and held his fist out in greeting.
"Oh, uh, nice to meet you," the [Pawn] reciprocated reflexively, tapping their knuckles together in a fist bump. "Eh?"
It seemed it just hit him what Buchou said when introducing the two.
"Naruto-sensei," I added fuel to the fire that was his realization, "What are we doing today?"
"EEHHHH?!"
Naruto
I stood across from Koneko-chan in the backyard, in almost identical positions as me and Kiba had when we had our little competition. This time however, I was the one holding a weapon, and my opponent was the one stretching her limbs. Well, my student. I was only going to be fighting to test her, while she was going to be fighting to get experience with the style I'd been teaching her, as well as her idea to use the leaf-sticking trick to enhance her grapples. She was an aggressive, ultra-close-range fighter, so I would stick to counter-attacking and keeping her off of me by creating favorable distance.
She'd come a long way with the exercise with the help of her Youkai features, now was the time to put that progress into practice without them as a crutch. While technically it would be more accurate to call this a handicap, since having her features out was her natural form, she spent more time both publicly and in private with them hidden, so my point stood. To keep things moving and allow her to actually learn, I wouldn't follow through with any finisher moves, only exploiting any initial openings she gave while lecturing her to point out where she could do better or be faster.
After we were done with this, we would move to the side of the yard to continue working on her form and kata in a slower and more methodical way, leaving the majority of the space for Red to work on her new member's foundation. For now, those two sat on the patio to watch.
We'd both changed into our workout clothes, and as much as a part of me was annoyed at him, I couldn't even blame Issei for staring at Koneko while she stretched. I was doing the same, I couldn't help it.
With as mentally focused as she was on preparing herself for this, she didn't even realize that doing a standing-split in her school gym bloomers would do things to hormonal teenage boys, even ignoring the fact that Issei was a massive perv, and I was crushing on her.
I shook my head and patted my cheeks.
"Enough staring idiot, time to focus!" I muttered to myself.
Koneko glanced at me as she finished her previous stretch, her cheeks darkening with slightly narrowed eyebrows.
Oops, I think she heard me.
I ignored my own embarrassment from outing myself, hefted up my cane to hold like a sword, and called out.
"Whenever you're ready, come at me with whatever speed you feel comfortable with."
She nodded, settling into her stance. A second later, a twitch and a push from her legs had her launching at me, only a tiny bit faster than Kiba had gone by the end of our match. I refrained from pouting as I dashed backwards slightly slower than her.
'Guess I'll just have to show her I meant it when I said I'm stronger than a week ago,' I mentally sighed in exasperation.
Even if her top speed with chakra enhancement wasn't as physically fast as Kiba's [Knight] speed according to her, her reaction speed would definitely be faster, considering her species and the fact that chakra boosted perception far more than it did physical ability by default. So even with her holding herself back, I couldn't approach fighting her with any "last-second dodge" shenanigans. She'd just notice and adjust accordingly as if she had all the time in the world.
I'd have to rely entirely on outmaneuvering her to the point that her body couldn't keep up with her perception at the level she was holding herself to. Given that was basically the goal of this exercise in the first place, pointing out how she could position herself better, it made little difference to me.
When she touched back down and pushed off again to continue her pursuit, I planted my back foot and pushed off, reversing my momentum to dash around her faster than she was moving. She reacted accordingly with only a slight widening of her eyes to show her surprise, planting her own front foot and stopping suddenly enough that it was obvious she was using chakra adhesion to stick to the ground.
As I approached the space at her side, my cane swung towards her chest in an almost clothesline-like arc, the shaft of it wrapped in tacky gauze to prevent the sheath from sliding off mid-combat. Even though we were treating it as if it was a live blade for the sake of practice, it was still just practice.
In order to keep pressuring me while responding to the threat, when Koneko planted her foot, she then half turned to the side I was headed while placing her forward hand palm-up by her stomach, slightly crouched with her rear hand cocked by her waist. The moment my sword and body were in range, she swung her palm up and lunged at me, striking the 'flat' of the 'blade' from below and clinging to it without visibly gripping it, while her fist speared towards my gut as I faced her, my own momentum suddenly halted by her grip on my weapon.
She almost didn't notice in time the trailing kick I sent her way with my back leg, aimed towards her open side where her arm was still raised keeping my sword away from her body. 'Almost' doesn't mean she didn't though, and instead of aborting her punch to twist across her body and block like she might have done last week, she instead lowered her other arm and brought up her own leg, stopping and trapping my shin between her elbow and knee.
At the same time, I brought my own free hand up to block her punch with a palm, closing my fingers around her smaller fist as the force of it rattled my arm up to my shoulder.
'She's doing great so far.' I internally smiled with pride at her, tugging on my cane and leg as both refused to budge from the surfaces of her limbs.
We were both standing on only a single foot each, our other limbs locked in struggles for dominance, and my sword and leg stuck to her body with chakra.
I smirked outwardly. "Mistake." I saw her eyes widen
Then I twisted on my hip and swung my three other limbs, pivoting on my grounded foot to lift and bodily throw the girl who weighed as much as a wet pillow. She easily broke out of my grip, and chose to release her own hold on my extremities in order to better direct her fall to land on her feet.
Immediately after I'd begun throwing her though, I'd jumped off of my remaining foot with a spin in order to plant my heel in her stomach. The impact felt a little off, but she still went skidding across the grass.
"Holy shit!" I heard Issei exclaim.
She only rolled once in her slide, her momentum flipping her backwards in a way that brought her back onto her feet in a crouch, hands never even touching the ground.
"Ah! Koneko-san!" The other guy present called out in a worried tone, but I ignored him and kept my eyes on my student.
"So far you've done excellently at putting what you've learned into practice," I praised her, relaxing my stance to give her time to reset. "The biggest thing that stood out from that exchange is that you need to put more thought into leverage, and how your grappling ability doesn't mean much if all you're doing is giving your opponent the opportunity to throw you."
She nodded, standing up. "I'm already aware. It's a common issue for [Rook]s." Her head tilted in thought. "I'm usually more careful than that."
"It's because, now that you can stick to things with relatively little effort-" I tapped my foot on the ground twice to draw her attention, "-you're working under the assumption that you'll always be able to keep your footing at a moment's notice. It's not a bad idea in the long run to get used to fighting like that, since eventually it will be true, but, uh," I chuckled awkwardly. "...You simply aren't that good at chakra adhesion yet." I pointed out the flaw in her performance. "As your teacher, I'm well aware that you still struggle with handling it precisely and powerfully at speed while multitasking, so I knew that you weren't using it on the ground at that last moment." I punctuated this with a deliberate shifting of my cane in my grip.
"... Cheater." Koneko-chan pouted at me. Well, it was more of a tiny downturn of her lips, but I saw through it and grinned, causing her to pout harder.
I became serious a moment later though, and she focused on me as my face changed.
"Real battle isn't fair," I admonished lightly. "Outside of a competitive martial arts league with agreed upon rules, hell, even in those environments, you will never witness or fight a battle where all combatants have perfectly equal strength, experience, numbers, and information on their opponents. No matter how long you've been fighting, there will always be others with more experience or preparation who will be able to pick apart your weakness with a glance, or some early research, leaving you on the backfoot," I told her with brutal honesty. "You can't expect to be able to prepare for every possible situation like some super-genius, but the ones that you can, you should. I've gotten into way too many random battles with every disadvantage against me to suggest otherwise. Let me be clear; the only way to truly overcome someone knowing your weakness, is to make sure that even that weakness is too strong to be worth their focus."
"I understand, Sensei." I suppressed an amused smirk at that. It never got old, hearing her call me that.
I scratched my head as I closed off the lecture. "Now, that's a long ways away, and until you're at that level, the next best thing you can do is keep on practicing, and build up your other strengths to pick up the slack." I grinned again. "Now, are you ready to continue?"
She nodded and brushed her hands off against each other, before settling into an open palmed stance. Tiny smears of brown were visible on her skin, on the palms that never touched the ground.
My eyebrow rose at the sight, noticing that the front of her white t-shirt over her stomach was perfectly clean.
'So she managed to block the second kick too, huh?'
I hid another smile, holding out a hand and curling my fingers in the "come" gesture.
"Begin."
(Later)
I leaned back and relaxed on a sofa in one of the living rooms, having successfully hidden from Himejima's perception when she appeared in the building to join the group before they left. I began scrolling on my phone through a paper recently published by a researcher out of Harvard. Within minutes I found my eyes glazing over as I dismissed it as a waste of my time.
A little research of my own revealed that the author was apparently a recent graduate who, in a bid to try and sucker wealthy people into sponsoring him with a research grant, published multiple papers with bunch of half-baked findings surrounded by flowery language, claiming to be "close to a breakthrough" on a "regenerative anti-aging" drug.
This latest nothing-paper just happened to go viral online before the rest of the medical community got the chance to denounce the dumbass as a fraud.
I wasn't entirely sure if I even wanted to continue digging through the world's mundane medical fields any more. As far as I was aware, Koneko-chan was dedicating a lot of effort into fixing me herself, and actually seemed to have some sort of idea how to go about it. Continuing my own research into a field I didn't even particularly enjoy in the first place? At this point I was just doing it out of habit, and all my effort into learning was getting diminishing returns as the gaps in my knowledge got smaller and smaller, and it got harder and harder to find new and useful info.
I wasn't putting all this effort in so I could become a career doctor, dammit! I was just trying to heal myself!
Maybe Mitsuri had the right of it. Joining the Anatomy Club or the Neuroscience Club sounded more and more like a drag the longer I procrastinated on picking something. I did plan on joining some club at some point, preferably one that didn't hog too much time or have a strict and mandatory schedule, but I'd at least picked up an appreciation for trying and learning new things in my time here, and didn't want to totally miss out on the school club experience.
I sighed in boredom as I switched to watching cat videos while I waited for Koneko and her group to get back from their Stray hunting mission. I was told that it was fine to hang around, and that they'd be done and back within a half an hour, so I still had around twenty minutes left to wait, give or take.
Given that it was, according to Red, supposed to be a sort of crash-course demonstration of the power Devils could wield to show Issei what to strive for in his own training, it shouldn't exactly take all that long. Even when participants were evenly matched, small-scale battles usually only took a couple minutes at most. The most time consuming aspect of a "hunt" would likely be the cleanup.
"Heheheh," I snickered while an orange cat flipped the hell out when a plastic bag got stuck over his head.
The faint sound of movement in one of the other rooms reached my ears, but given how early it was since the Occult Research club left, I assumed that must have been one of the cleaning staff. It got louder and louder over the next minute, before whoever it was walked into the room, making absolutely zero attempt to hide themselves and walking at a totally casual pace.
They stopped a few feet behind me, and I tensed in preparation to move as I heard their weight shift, seeing a shadow slip over my shoulder and arm.
"Oh hey, I like watching cat videos too! My favorites are the ones when they get into the catnip."
I relaxed as the person over my shoulder spoke up. He seemed to be on the younger side of adulthood, voice sounding perfectly friendly, but in an actually friendly way and not the creepy friendly way that Sai talks.
I turned with a smile to introduce myself to the guy–
Bird
Only to jerk my head back, completely shocked and stunned silent by the beady black eyes and beak and feathers and 'What the hell why is there a giant bird dude behind me?!?!' I screamed internally. He(?) blinked at me twice.
"Eh? What's wrong?" Seeing and hearing the words come out of his beak was both creepy, and kind of hilarious at the same time. In the first place, he didn't have lips! How did he manage to pronounce everything completely normally!?
"... Sorry about that. I, uh, just wasn't expecting to turn around and see a… crow's head?" I apologized for my reaction. "You're some sort of crow or raven youkai, right? I'm not really familiar with the different youkai species yet." I admitted.
"A Karasu-Tengu, yeah," he confirmed.
I waited a few seconds, not sure if he was going to continue and introduce himself or not. We just stared at each other blankly until it got too awkward for me, and I took the lead.
"Well, feel free to take a seat somewhere, I guess." I gestured at the other couch and multiple chairs in the room. "My name's Uzumaki Naruto. And you?" I asked as he moved to take a seat across from me.
"I'm Yoru," he answered plainly as he sat. His head tilted to the side. "Miss Gremory-dono didn't mention there being a second one we haven't met yet... Did you recently join her peerage too, like that brown haired guy?"
"Nope," I shook my head. "I'm human, a friend of Koneko's from school. I'm just waiting for them to get back from a Stray hunt so we can hang out." I explained. "Why are you here?" I asked curiously.
"Oh, that's simple. I'm investigating the giant jelly donut for Gremory-dono."
…
'Huh?'
We continued talking about cute animals for a bit after that.
As confusing as the statement was, I had no desire to ask for clarification and risk getting sucked into crazy-talk by the wacko bird-man, so I chose to brush past it. Clearly he was doing something for Rias, and clearly it was outside of my expertise.
If he'd said the giant ramen bowl, then I'd be so absolutely down for it, because that sounds awesome.
'Mmmm, ramen…I should get a couple bowls on my way home tonight.'
"No way. Cats can be adorable, but when they're mean they're awful. Foxes are so much better."
"Haahhh? That's true with any animal! The biggest grumpy bastard of an asshole I've ever interacted with is a fox. Cats can at least be friendly to strangers, unlike those wild animals!
We'd begun arguing about which type of cute animal video was better, before it became about the animals themselves.
"Wild animals?! How dare you talk about Kunou-sama like that! Take it back!" Yoru squawked, jumping to his feet.
"Hell no! It took becoming a sage for those little thieving bastards to stop trying to steal my food!" I raged, standing up to match him and ignoring my phone dinging in my pocket as I got a text.
We both looked at each other, blinking as we realized what the other said.
He pointed at me in confused confirmation, and I waved my arm at him in bafflement.
"You're a sage too?"
"Kunou '-sama'? For a fox?!"
The next room over lit up, the doorway bathed in a bright glowing red from what was probably the presence of a magical circle appearing. Sure enough, a second later came the voice of Rias, formally dismissing her peerage for the night.
"Koneko-chan and I are planning to hang out with Uzumaki-kun for a while, so feel free to stick around and join in, everyone," Red's voice added at the end, as the short nekoshou walked through the doorway and stopped, glancing between Yoru and I.
"... Do I even want to know?"
I felt a victorious smug smile spread across my face.
"Koneko-chan, which is the cutest animal?" I put forward the debate to a third party opinion, as Yoru and I turned to face her. "Foxes, or cats?"
She deadpanned at me, probably feeling like it was an obvious question to ask her, and I felt sweet victory just within reach. She herself was a cat person, both literally and figuratively! She even made her actual cat into her familiar, to be able to spend more time with Shiro. I side-eyed Yoru with a smirk, and could see the twitches in his beak as his beady eyes glared at me in resigned defeat.
"Cats are mostly cute as kittens, and become more elegant and independent as they age," Koneko said as she walked further into the room. "Foxes are more energetic and expressive at all ages, and are always happy to play with someone they've imprinted on." She glanced at my face before quickly looking away, seeming to avoid eye contact. "Cat's make much better pets since foxes are much higher maintenance, but foxes are more social and overall cuter in general."
Yoru and I blinked, breaking our stare down.
'Eh?'
"Cawhahahaha!" Yoru let out a cawing laugh from his beak. "In your face, loser! That's what you get for disrespecting Yasaka-sama and Kunou-sama!"
I grit my teeth, staring at Koneko in despair as victory slipped away.
"B-but, you–" I sputtered. "You have a cat!" I tried to appeal to her sense of loyalty to her pet.
"Like I said;" she deadpanned my way again, staring into my soul. "Cats are easier to take care of."
For some reason, I felt attacked.
I deflated.
Two perverts walked in, the one who couldn't teleport without his gauntlet doubling his power, and the one who likes to harass me.
"Yo, the hell happened to the golden midget?"
"Ufufu~, that's a delicious expression you're making Uzumaki-kun."
And now the peanut gallery was joining in as Red and Kiba walked in behind them with amused smiles.
It was a crushing, lonely defeat.
"There, there. No need to pout, Sensei." Koneko reached up to awkwardly pat my head.
I twisted to bite her hand, but she pulled away in time.
At the very least, I'd get my revenge on the Hyoudou jackass later. Not Himejima though.
She scared me.
(Nighttime)
I was walking back home later that night, with a bag full of ramen from the best stand I'd found in Kuoh Town (they had nothing on Ichiraku) and another filled with cat treats, when my phone rang in my pocket.
I pulled it out after hooking my sword on my elbow, answering when I saw the caller ID list my contact name for Koneko-chan.
I had it set to "Kitten lol" in English.
The Devil's ability to speak and understand languages didn't extend to reading or writing, so if I ever let Koneko get into my phone again and she sees it, I'd probably be safe from her wrath.
Unless, of course, she actually paid attention in English class, in order to shore up that obvious weakness in the ability.
Then I'd be in trouble.
"Yo, what's up midget?" I said with a smirk.
"I will hurt you."
"No way," I grinned at her deadpan delivery. "You like me too much to actually hurt me. You even held back more than necessary during our training spar, don't think I didn't notice." She was clearly just keeping up her usual aloof act.
"Alright. Next time I see you, you're getting an armbar."
My smile stiffened. Surely she was joking… right?
"A-anyways, what did you call me for? Uh, not that you need a reason to call me or anything!" I hurried to correct my poor choice of words. "I like talking to you regardless, so–"
"Calm down, Uzumaki-kun. It was a joke."
"Phew! Don't scare me like that."
"... Probably."
I shook my head and let out a chuckle.
"Alright, I'm good now. Seriously, what's up?"
"Hyoudou got attacked on his way home." I frowned. The guy was a perv, but he was basically harmless and didn't deserve to get thrown in the deep end like that. "Buchou asked Kiba to keep an eye on him with his familiar, so he was mostly fine once Kiba got there. But it was the same guy from your place."
"The Exorcist? Freed Seltzer or whatever?" I asked, the psycho's face coming to mind easily.
"Mm. Kiba said he was moving around perfectly fine. Good perception and reflexes."
"So whatever group he's with probably has a healer, if he can shake off the hit you gave him that quickly…" I guessed, tucking my phone between my ear and shoulder to free my hand, so I could scratch my head with a sigh. "Well, that can't be good. A guy like that with that kind of a resource is gonna be a pain to deal with if he's any good at slipping away."
"Mm. He is, escaped Kiba-senpai easily. Wanted to warn you to be careful."
"Consider me warned," I chuckled.
The call was silent for a few seconds as I walked down the sidewalk, the last of the local businesses gradually closing down to let their workers trickle out to join me on their ways home. I wasn't sure if she was waiting for me to say more, or if she was hesitating for some reason, since all I had to go off of was her voice.
"Do you want to stay in a guest room at the mansion for a while?" She asked at last. "It'd probably be safer for you."
"Thanks for the offer, but I'll be fine," I declined. "I have a few groceries and I'm already closer to my place anyway. Going back to your place would just take longer, and Himejima put up that barrier and my wall is already fixed, so it should be fine."
Her reply came quietly a moment later.
"... Right."
"Seriously, thanks a lot Koneko-chan." I smiled even as my guard was up, paying much closer attention to my surroundings than I was when the call started, as per her advice. "I really appreciate your help, all of it. Besides," I chuckled, "someone needs to feed that freeloading cat."
"Just give her a name at this point," she deadpanned. "You can't just keep calling her 'that cat'."
"Yeah? Maybe I should take a page out of your book, name her 'Kuro'." I snorted at the thought. I wasn't good at naming things, I'll admit it, but even I knew that was stu–
"Perfect." What? "From now on, your adopted stray is Kuro. If I hear you call her anything else, I'll put you in a headlock for being a bad pet owner."
I sighed with a grin. "I guess I can't argue with that then. Anyway, see you tomorrow?"
"Mm. 'Night."
"Goodnight."
~,,––,,^^-