Kuoh Abandoned Church
(Friday, April 27th, midday)
Pale, slender fingers brushed along the back of a wooden pew as a woman stood in the middle of the sanctuary, her neatly manicured nails painted a glossy black. Her face was turned, tilted back just a tiny bit as her melancholic ruby eyes gazed up into one of the many stained glass windows, rays of light streaming through the depicted scene of a shepherd and his lambs. The beams of light shone off of her pale cheeks, contrasting with the dark eyeshadow and even darker lipstick artfully painted on her features.
The pitch-black burial gown she wore swayed lightly in an unseen breeze as she felt the residual presence of one of her distant brethren lingering in the hollow building. For all that the streaming light highlighted her face in the abandoned house of God, feathered wings of pure midnight hung to either side of her just out of its path, remaining to be touched by His light nevermore.
Click- tssskch
Click- tssskch, click- tssskch
"That was perfect, absolutely beautiful Miss Akatsuki!" A deep voice rumble-growled from a corner somewhere behind her. "I took a couple from slightly different angles, just in case."
The Tengu turned fully, pulling her wings back into her body for easier maneuverability, a satisfied grin on her lips as she broke character and dropped the carefully crafted pose she'd been holding.
"Thanks a lot for the help, Mister Kumakuma!" Akatsuki happily thanked the Onikuma youkai in appreciation as she walked over to him. "It wasn't too hard for you to handle without any opposable thumbs, was it?" She asked, accepting her phone back when he held it out to her, eager to look at the pictures he'd taken.
"Keh! As if!" The bipedal demon-bear shook its head, teeth bared in a facsimile of a grin of its own. "I'm a bear, what in the world would I need thumbs for, haha! No, any difficulty I might have had is nothing compared to getting to meet you in person randomly while walking the trail. Me'n the boys love watching your stunt-flying videos when we break into the public libraries at night."
"The pleasure's all mine," Akatsuki grinned, unbothered by the admission of a crime. He was a bear, after all. "It's always nice to meet fans of my hobby account. It's way more fun to make content for too, since all I have to do is film myself doing stuff I was probably gonna do anyways!"
"Kahahah! I like your spirit!" The bear rumbled, before turning. "Anyway, thanks for letting me be involved, but I probably need to get going about now. My girls can be total bitches if I ain't in my usual neck of the woods when they finally decide to get off their asses after each winter."
"Have fun!" She waved at the retreating form of the bear youkai as he re-entered the tree line, muttering about 'bragging to the guys'.
When she was sure he was gone, Akatsuki let her wide grin drop into the cold expression that felt more natural to her human form, crimson eyes narrowing and black-painted lips down turning into a line.
She and her brother had created these forms together a few years back, after he'd stumbled onto the "cultivation" genre of fantasy novels. While Akatsuki preferred her homeland's style of clothing– particularly her normal shrine maiden outfits– and it was a bit of a hassle holding certain facial expressions with this form's default features, picking a new face was definitely not an option she could bring herself to consider after all this time.
For all intents and purposes, this human form was hers and she liked the aesthetic, even if her resting-bitch-face was the bitchiest of them all.
She kept her senses observing the areas surrounding the old church even as she scrolled through the various photos her fan had taken for her. She'd been scouting the town for the past couple days while taking breaks from her mission, looking for interesting places to take pictures for her social media, and found the church early this morning during her post-breakfast exercise flight.
The thing that had caught her attention the most once she'd landed though, were the recent traces of another youkai in the area, not even a day old. Not just any other youkai either, but the young girl that was part of one of the local Devils' peerages. Akatsuki thought it was strange though, because while the white-haired girl was a total noob at Senjutsu, there were traces of her chakra leftover in the church, as well as signs that the surrounding area had a slightly lower concentration of natural energy than the rest of the forest.
The interesting thing about all this, was that the town's energy flow had shifted noticeably from its normal patterns for an hour or so the previous night. It was subtle enough and short enough of a shift that Akatsuki and her brother couldn't pinpoint the change by the time they noticed it through their passive senses, but the timing seemed to match up.
"Interesting…" She muttered.
What were the chances that the only other youkai with decent Senjutsu potential left in the town came to this church, seemingly at the same time that whatever is causing the energy disruptions in the region made a sudden and temporary shift, and the energy around the church shows recent signs of having been drawn on?
She spread her senses thin across the town to look for one presence in particular, and found him practically on the opposite side near the academy their host's attended. He seemed to be hovering near the very girl Akatsuki had been thinking of, observing her. With a flex of her aura, she focused and directed it towards her brother, doing the Senjutsu equivalent of poking him in the cheek to get his attention.
Within a moment, Yoru's aura reciprocated the gesture, and she felt the familiar sensation of his own energy intertwining with hers on a deeper level so they could convey their intents directly to each other.
They "spoke" as one, both unintentionally echoing the other's thoughts.
Found a lead.
…
…
… Bet I found mine first.
Nuh uh!
Kuoh Academy
(Student Council room, late evening)
Rias groaned into her arms as she slumped on the table across from her long-time best friend, papers spread around her limbs.
Sona's eye twitched at the redhead's procrastinating. "Rias, you have no one to blame for this but yourself for not being more strict with your peerage. Finish your incident report and get out of my office already," the slim girl chided.
"Mou~" Rias pouted. "There's no way I could be any more strict than I already am with them, absolutely not." She shook her head. "I already punished the boys enough, any more would just be cruelty."
Sona looked up from her own paperwork with a half-lidded stare at her companion. "All you did was spank them," she deadpanned. "If what I know of him is correct, it's entirely possible that Hyoudou-san saw it as more of a reward than a punishment."
Rias averted her eyes sheepishly, scratching her cheek with a finger as she flushed slightly.
"Well, maybe just a tiny bit at first…" She shook her head in order to dislodge the memory of her pawn bent over her lap and instead focus on her rebuttal. She wasn't like Akeno, not one bit! "E-either way! I gave them a thousand smacks each, so by the end of it, both of them were begging me to stop! You can't say I didn't punish them enough after that much, even if Issei-kun's tendencies meant it took a bit more time to get to that point."
Sona was unmoved though. "Punishment alone isn't enough to deter bad behavior, Rias. You already know this, and we've already had this argument before, so I'll stop lecturing you for now." She shifted her head a bit, addressing something else she'd caught. "By the way, I can't help but notice you didn't mention punishing Koneko," the purple eyed girl pointed out with a raised eyebrow. "I was under the impression she was just as involved in this stunt as the other two."
"I thought about it, but I decided against it since the boys were the ones who roped her into it," Rias admitted. "She even asked Kiba if I'd okayed it at the very least, even if she ended up going along with it afterwards since Uzumaki-kun was already involved by then. It didn't really feel fair to punish her directly at that point, so I asked Uzumaki-kun to do it by proxy during their training the next couple of days, however he sees fit."
Sona's hummed curiously. "Uzumaki-san trains with her? I wasn't aware he was capable enough to keep up with one of ours to that degree. Did Yuuto-kun not handily defeat him while holding back significantly, just a week or so ago?" She had already read the reports of the previous night's events Rias had forwarded to her, but there was a league of difference between the strength of a trained [Knight] with [Sword Birth] and the no-name Fallen Angels the human blond had fought.
"Oh, right." Rias blinked. "I guess I haven't mentioned it to you yet, I forgot your side doesn't really interact with him much so you guys wouldn't know. Uzumaki-kun is from a secret ninja village where they learn to use chakra, and he used to be a Sage." Rias explained. "He's not training withKoneko-chan, he's her teacher. She asked him to train her and he accepted."
That seemed to surprise the prim and proper girl, an eyebrow lifting. "A ninja of all things, I can understand; the boy has a habit of seemingly disappearing any time I've tried sending my peerage to request his presence for me. A sage, though? At not even sixteen, and with his personality?" She questioned with some doubt.
"Former sage," Rias stressed, "And yes. He was apparently gravely injured about a year ago and lost the ability to use chakra. I've looked into his records, and while everything prior to it is flawlessly faked, I can confirm that he was checked into Kuoh's hospital on May 17th a year ago in critical condition, and was released in perfect condition just a few days later," Rias informed her. "I know you've used the Sight on him. With the progress Koneko-chan's made under his tutelage– in less than two weeks, mind you– she's confirmed that he has a sort of spiritual circulatory system that's been all but destroyed, and 'it's a miracle he survived it'– her words. On top of that, she went from neglecting her youkai abilities entirely, to successfully transplanting a Sacred Gear within two weeks! Even if there were extenuating circumstances, I didn't even know that was possible!" The redhead gushed excitedly. "The evidence all lines up, there's no way he could be lying!"
"Or it could be that you just want it all to be true, and much of that could simply be explained as Koneko-chan having immense talent even for a Nekoshou, but I see your point." Sona conceded with a sigh, not having any actual argument against it other than a healthy level of skepticism. She rolled her eyes behind her glasses. "I swear, if you put even half as much of your attention to your work as you do your Japanophile tendencies, you would have been done by now."
Rias's excitement dimmed a little at the reminder. "Honestly, I'm half-tempted to just hand it off to your sister, since she's the one in charge of external relations and this whole thing could still potentially go up in flames. On the other hand… Serafall."
The two girls shivered as one at the thought of how the sis-con Maou might have reacted to a rival faction sending what was essentially a sanctioned hit-squad to her "Beloved So-tan's" home territory.
"It's a good thing Uzumaki-san took down Mittelt non-lethally," Sona commented. "Without her testimony, we might have been left entirely in the dark as to whether or not this was a sanctioned Grigori operation, and one aimed at causing us trouble."
While Raynare had cooperated with Koneko at the time at Naruto's urging, it had clearly been to save her own skin. Unfortunately, that was as far as her compliance went, and when questioned about her activities, she refused to give anything away that would "betray Azazel-sama", with Kalawarner following in her leader's footsteps, the only difference being her loyalty was aimed at Raynare herself instead.
Which was annoying, because their careless monologuing and taunting had already revealed that her killing of Issei had been part of her orders, but not why.
Fortunately, unlike the other two, the blonde lolita had readily and gladly given up any and all information she had that they wanted to know, throwing her teammates and faction as a whole under the bus with the smallest prompting. She even gave them things they didn't want to know, such as the details of what she did in her free time when Raynare gave her breaks.
Apparently, the small Fallen knew exactly the kind of adult men her young appearance drew the eyes of. Attention that she reveled in, if her shameless, matter-of-fact claims were to be believed.
Rias grimaced a little thinking about it.
She shook it off a moment later. "In a way, it was an anti-Devil operation, and that's what makes it tricky. By killing Issei-kun, they would have removed the potential for the Devil faction to recruit the wielder of [Boosted Gear]. The fact that they came into our territory unannounced, without permission, and under our noses to kill a citizen under our watch, it's an overtly blatant attack on our interests and everyone will know it," Rias grouched. "But that won't matter, because they'll just claim innocence, that they did it 'as a matter of standard policy', and 'to ensure the safety of the humans in the town', all while pointing at random edge cases where Longinus users went mad with power! How did they even figure out he had a Longinus in the first place?! All we knew was that it was a Dragon-Type after weeks of observation!"
Rias slumped over again after her little rant. "Mouuu, isn't this too much? expecting us to navigate inter-factional politics at this age? I didn't sign up for this…"
Sona adjusted her glasses with one hand, causing the light to flicker off of them as she continued signing a document with the other. "Actually, you did sign up for this," she mercilessly corrected without a care. "You quite literally signed up to deal with inter-factional politics when you chose to manage Kuoh, as did I."
Rias glared half-heartedly at her friend from her place on the table, to no result as she went completely ignored.
"On a related note, how is Argento-san adjusting so far?" Sona smoothly switched topics. "I heard from Akeno that she accepted your offer after just a short talk with Hyoudou-san, but it can't have been easy for such a devout woman of faith to make that decision."
"It wasn't like it was that easy for her. She also spoke to Koneko-chan and Kiba-kun before deciding, and even then, it was a close decision," Rias corrected. "Other than that, she seems happy enough living with Issei-kun for the moment, but it's only been a day. It's still a bit too early to really tell." Rias sighed, rubbing a hand to her forehead. "That girl is much too earnest, and keeps trying to pray to God despite the headaches it's causing her. Half the reason she even accepted was because to her, her faith doesn't hinge on keeping her humanity."
Sona nodded. "I see." She said simply. And she did. Even when reincarnating her own peerage members fixed their problems, it still took some of them months to finally break down from the weight of their built up stress, once the immediate relief had waned and they'd settled into a new routine. The best that she could really do to help in those cases was just keeping an eye on them and letting them know she was there to help.
"You recently got a new member of your own too, right? Saji Genshiro if I'm not mistaken?" Rias questioned leadingly.
Sona nodded. "Recently compared to the rest of my peerage, yes, but he is still senior to Hyoudou. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, no reason in particular." Rias waved the question off innocently, before seemingly changing the topic. "The full moon is supposed to be particularly beautiful this coming Monday night… I can't wait to see it from the Familiar Forest with my peerage."
Sona's pen stopped moving.
Rias smirked at her friend and rival challengingly.
"..."
"..."
Sona glared.
"You already knew I'd been planning to go. Why in the world would I accept you going instead?" Sona questioned in annoyance.
"Because I have more members without familiars than you?" Rias replied as if it should have been obvious.
"Yes," Sona agreed, "and both of them are newer to being Devils than my Genshiro. He has had to wait longer than both of yours combined for this opportunity," she argued.
Rias flapped her hand dismissively. "Looks like we both have valid reasons to want priority. In that case, let's settle this through a competition!" Rias decided.
"Not a chance." Sona denied flatly. "It's already my reservation."
"What, are you scared that your peerage will lose to mine?" Rias asked with a haughty smirk. "It's only natural I guess, since my Issei has [Boosted Gear," she said tauntingly, revealing her true plan.
"..."
Sona weighed her options, and threw out her least desirable ones.
Losing fair and square would be painful, but her pride would be hurt far worse letting Rias's comment slide.
"... You're on."
Neighborly Heights Community
(Naruto's apartment, same evening)
'Kuro' the Totally-Normal-Housecat relaxed on the couch of her unofficial landlord, TV on and a mug of warm milk on the table in front of her while she sprawled lazily. Being a Totally-Normal-Housecat with no strangeness involved, she obviously wasn't wearing any clothes either.
That would have been weird.
After all, what kind of cat wears clothes when rubbing up against objects they're marking as their territory?
Especially after some nosy outsider is brought along as a guest of her sister's, and starts intruding on Kuro's turf?
A slender, pale arm reached out to wrap its perfectly manicured fingers around the warm mug, bringing it to the lips of the arm's owner to take a long, slow sip. After setting the mug back down, 'Kuro' shifted onto her hands and knees and stretched with a groan, her arms splayed out in front of her, spine curving and backside rising as her large chest pressed into the old and worn fake leather. With a few pops and a sigh of contentment, she released the pose and swung her legs over the edge of the couch to sit upright momentarily.
'I love you Shirone, I really do,' Kuroka began in her head, 'but your familiar is a spoiled punk with no guest manners,' she thought to herself in amused exasperation.
She had been minding her own business, snooping– Ah, exploring– in Naruto's room again the previous night, trying to see if she could find his porn mags in any new hidden compartments (he had a habit of randomly moving his various stashes of things around every once in a while), when she'd felt the familiar presences of Naruto and Shirone approaching from the sky.
They'd left in a real hurry earlier after the blonde had gathered his weapons, and it took only a moment during their return for Kuroka to notice that the boy's internal light had dimmed a decent bit again. He hadn't burned through even half of what she'd given him on Tuesday, but it was still a lot compared to what his body was naturally producing if she disregarded those strange pulses; none at all, that is. His body produced zero life force on its own.
The two teens had hung around downstairs for a few minutes, before her Shirone-chan ended up teleporting away. A cursory scan of the town showed that she'd gone to her apartment, presumably to go get ready for bed since it was nearing midnight and she had school the next morning.
Under that assumption, 'Kuro' had made her way downstairs and jumped onto the couch to curl up in her landlord's lap, intent on topping his reserves off again while getting some pampering in return for her efforts.
That was the plan at least, until a teleportation circle lit up again, revealing Shirone and that smug little shit Shiro sitting on her head.
It was admirably diligent of her sister to want to keep an eye on her friend, to make sure nothing like the previous incident happened while he was on his own, but it put Kuroka in a really awkward position. She'd had to simultaneously be on her 'best behavior' in order to not get caught acting suspiciously, while also watching as that annoying white kitten went around rubbing itself on everything like it owned the place!
On top of that, she'd felt her baby sister doing that strange thing with her chakra again while the two teens sat shoulder to shoulder watching anime together, but she couldn't actually study exactly what the younger girl was doing without using her own chakra and giving the game away.
In the end, she'd decided to take the easy way out and take a nap under Naruto's soothing ministrations, refueling her caretaker's lifeforce in the morning after Shirone-chan left.
Now that it was the next day, she devoted some time removing that interloper's scent from the home and replacing it with her own little touches.
Kuroka snorted at her own nonsense.
Really, it was just an excuse for her to laze around and do stuff while naked. Roleplaying as a normal cat was fun and all, but not that fun.
She got up and made her way upstairs to grab one of her kimonos from the guest bedroom's closet and get dressed, all the while sending her senses outwards to monitor the goings on of the town.
'As expected,' she thought with a small smile. 'The boy's been good for her.'
Just as she'd thought would be the case when he hadn't arrived home from school at his usual time, Naruto was hanging out at the arcade with Shirone. The two were in very close proximity, familiar lights that stood out in the epicenter of a glacially slow-moving vortex of energy. Before she'd stepped in to 'charge him up' so-to-speak, he hadn't appeared like much at all to her senses, practically invisible until he moved and even then appearing more like a moving corpse.
It was made all the stranger by the fact that she'd finally confirmed through proximity; Natural energy was being sucked into his body like he was a black hole, seemingly disappearing without a trace.
'If that's not tied to those weird pulses of energy that appear in his body out of nowhere, I'll take off my panties and eat them,' she thought, chuckling lightly at her little joke. She rarely wore underwear in the first place, so it's not like she'd actually have to follow through either way.
'Still though, I was almost certain it was one of those "bijuu" reforming, based on what Nyaruto-kun said back then…'
Kuroka thought back to the day she'd arrived in Kuoh just two weeks ago, when she'd spied on her sister receiving a lesson in chakra from someone she'd initially perceived as a nobody. Even without prior context, the little folk story and descriptions he'd given about his people's abilities had piqued her interest. Even if he'd shown no signs of capability himself at the time, she could tell that most of what he said was the truth as far as he understood it– a little fib about most other humans lacking the ability to use chakra notwithstanding.
Aside from being her little sister's friend and apparent mentor, that was half the reason she'd even decided to follow him around in the first place. For a supposed weakling, he carried himself in a way that made her want to figure out what made him tick.
'He certainly feels human, and believes he is as well, so it's unlikely that he's secretly some sort of bijuu himself.'Kuroka continued contemplating the matter even as she shifted the focus of her senses away from her Shirone's not-a-date, jumping onto the open windowsill in her cat form. Those uptight Shinto mystics were poking around the edge of town again, annoyingly enough. It seemed they'd decided to move on to the north side this time.
They'd been following a consistent pattern for as long as she'd been in Kuoh, semi-regularly showing up on the eastern outskirts during the night to make whatever preparations they believed needed to be made. Without any Senjutsu practitioners under the Five Clans employment to get a better sense of things, they were probably still grasping at straws with their roundabout and archaic methods, thinking the anomaly could be something crazy dangerous.
Well, that could technically still be the case, but Kuroka didn't think so. What was more concerning was the group having moved to the direct cardinal north of the town's center, after having been to the east. She'd been content to let them do their thing uninterrupted before, since she already knew from the old monster that they were doing their own investigations of the town. But if they were being that precise with the location they were doing it, there were only a couple realistic possibilities, especially if they moved to the west and south later on as well.
Large-scale rituals, and barriers.
Depending on what their purposes were, it could be entirely fine, little more than something to safely monitor the whole town accurately.
Needless to say, it could also be very not-fine.
She jumped from the windowsill and began making her way in that direction to investigate, sprinting through town as fast as her four short legs could naturally take her. Without enhancing herself in any way, her cat form was more or less the same as any normal housecat, so she'd seem to be nothing more than a particularly spooked stray to any onlookers, and still be fast enough to get to her destination in about ten minutes while enjoying the freedom of movement.
'Hmm, I wonder…' Kuroka turned her thoughts back to her Shirone. She remembered the way her sister's aura had stuttered when the boy had explained how a bijuu reforms, showing that she'd probably had a similar idea at first, but the tailed-beasts hadn't been brought up in any of the other few sessions Kuroka had spied on after that. Shirone seemed completely at ease with the situation just a few days later too, almost as if she knew more about it than she let on, around the same time she started doing that thing with her chakra that involved the boy.
Shirone would pour her chakra into the blond for a while, before pulling it all back having done seemingly nothing and leaving no lingering effects; at least none that Kuroka could perceive when she did her own checks on the teen, whenever he fell asleep later those nights.
'There has to be something I'm missing… some trick she figured out that I don't know, maybe?' The thought made her smile happily. Her baby sister was so talented!
That she'd gotten so good with her chakra so quickly, despite the years of neglecting it and the, frankly, very simple advice and training exercises the Uzumaki had given her. Not to knock on his knowledge and insights, but without being able to sense her mistakes or provide demonstrations, he filled the role of a mentor or supervisor more than an actual teacher.
He provided a set of goals, or the framework for Shirone to set a goal of her own, and then she did the rest of the work reaching them, only occasionally getting advice or clarification from the young ninja. He described what was possible and how his people went about it, and then Shirone would attempt to recreate it as best she could, and failing that, try to devise her own method of getting the same result.
It didn't take long, maybe five more minutes of dashing through the forest than she originally estimated, to reach the newly-made clearing that the various members of the Clans were bustling about. There was plenty of chatter going on as individuals wearing one style of robes called out orders to newly arrived people wearing a different style, and vise-versa happening further to the north, where she could make out members of the second group pulling equipment out of trucks to carry through the trees into the clearing.
There were many pallets of surprisingly modern-looking supplies sat haphazardly around the site. Things like fold out tables and chairs, backup generators, and even small-scale construction equipment of all things, such as shovels, rebar, and bags of concrete.
From Kuroka's perch in the branches of a tree a few layers deep in the tree line, she spotted what looked like the leader, or at least the project manager, sitting off to the side at one of the prepared tables with stacks of paper and a pen, two men of differing robes standing at attention and giving what sounded like a progress report on the unloading of equipment.
Given that everyone she'd seen so far was wearing clothing that followed three or four color and style patterns, Kuroka felt the odds were good that her hunch about these being members of the Five Great Clans was right.
She wasn't really read up on the minor details of that little faction, but despite all of them working together, there was a clear division of labor between the different families. Given that she counted four at maximum, chances were that the fifth family was either filling an off-site administrative and planning role for whatever this operation was… or they were being kept in the dark by the other four.
Once again, depending on what exactly this operation was, that could be fine… or have very not-fine implications.
It wouldn't be worth the risk revealing herself just to interrogate one of them, so Kuroka settled in to get comfortable with an irritated sigh, knowing that she'd likely have to keep coming back each night to get any useful info in the coming weeks.
People didn't just conveniently talk about their plans unprompted after all.
'And that idiot Bikou still hasn't come back!'
?
In a place that existed within time but beneath space, there was contained a great ocean without beginning or end, one that slowly grew ever more as each moment passed. Within this ocean, there was contained a great beast which slumbered, one that dreamt of awakening once more, unleashing the ever growing tide of the ocean it contained within its grasp upon the world.
But it could not, not yet. To do so would destroy all in its path, including its very home beyond the ocean.
Its home that, even now, was little more than ruined fragments of a previous time. Continuously falling ever further apart in the beast's presence, even as it did what little it could to preserve it.
Stuck by disaster as it was, it was all the beast had left and it would not see its own carelessness washing it all away in the flood.
And so the beast slumbered.
Until one day, a young child entered the beast's domain. Unaware of the water's surface on which she tread, and even less so of the beast's presence even further removed from space itself, the child began exploring the edge of the ruins of its home.
Watching from a place the young one couldn't have fathomed, a titanic eye opened for the first time since its long slumber began, back when its home had been vast and welcoming and the waters ran freely, unconstrained by the floodgate of the beast's making.
The child would not stay for long, and so the great beast's eye closed once more.
But then the young one returned, once more simply observing another area of devastation, before leaving after doing nothing of note.
She would return many times after, each time coming closer and closer to the great work which held back the ocean, until finally, with understanding, and not a hint of desire or greed for what may lay behind it, she discovered the floodgate.
All under the watchful gaze of the titanic being beneath the surface.
Instead, the child surprised her spectator.
She began picking up the pieces closest to the hidden ocean, attempting to fit them together like a puzzle.
It was slow work, it was clumsy work, but day by day, piece by piece, the hints of the previous structures closest to the gate could be recognized. It was not enough on its own to rebuild, but it was a start.
The great beast came to understand and accept the child and her pure motivations. The girl would align the old and shattered frames, and it would provide the binding force, its iron grip holding the structures in place until they mended back together.
As the child left after the most recent visit, the great beast closed its eye once more, considering how much more progress would need to be made before it could finally enter the waking world in its entirety.
'Not just yet…' His mind grumbled.
Until it was time, Kurama would continue dreaming of his own greatness and freely flowing oceans of chakra, waiting for the moment he could greet his partner in full once more.
…
… And maybe berate the reckless dumbass a little.
…
… Okay, he would berate the idiot a lot.
Chapter 25: Accretion 1
Naruto
(Monday, April 30th)
I picked up my phone from where I had set it next to the ventilation system earlier and stopped the timer, sweating lightly and carefully controlling my breathing as I checked the stopwatch in the light of the dawning sun. I then glanced over to watch said sunrise as I lazily compared my current time to my best from two previous days in my head.
'That's, what… twenty two, twenty three percent better than Thursday morning? Something like that?' I did some rough math while looking at the view. This high up, it was pretty enough that I sorta just stopped and stared, my mind pausing in its thoughts to take in the sight.
I was standing on the tallest part of the rooftop of my apartment complex, some five stories up, having just completed my morning workout. This last exercise consisted of a sort-of obstacle course time trial without any of my makeshift training weights. The goal was to make it from my spot on the roof to the nearby kids park and back, while trying not to be seen by any early morning joggers, commuters, or cameras. The idea was originally just to keep my stealth and climbing skills sharp while maintaining my endurance and speed at the end of a workout, but after my first encounter with Freed when my body began feeling stronger than it had in a long time, I started timing myself as a way of keeping track of my general improvement.
'So I am still getting stronger after all, huh?' I thought with interest. 'It's still happening faster than normal for sure, but not as crazy fast as when my strength doubled overnight last week...'
According to Koneko the day after the encounter with the mad exorcist, my body suddenly had a bunch of extra life force that I hadn't had before, life force that had to have come from somewhere or someone. Something that any serious Senjutsu practitioner in this world could do.
I was on my own in my home the whole time though, so someone would have to have been keeping tabs on me the whole time to even get there in time to save me…
"Eh, whatever."
I shrugged to myself.
It was still the same situation as last Wednesday. Not knowing who it was or why they helped wasn't going to change anything, especially since whatever was going on was helping me get back some of my strength again.
I'm still physically weaker than my twelve year old self was, but it's a work in progress.
I pocketed my phone and walked towards the edge of the building, glancing down at the grassy communal courtyard five stories down. Without a moment's hesitation, I leaned forward, tilting casually over the edge.
'Besides, the current me would still wipe the floor with twelve-year-old-me either way.'
Before I picked up too much momentum and fully fell over the edge, I flexed my ankles and lightly pushed away from the building, angling my trajectory horizontally towards one of the tall lamp posts lighting the area. With a partial flip and twist as the ground rushed closer, I managed to right myself in the air while hooking my arm around the pole, a kick of my legs sending my weight swinging around the structure to bleed some of my momentum during the descent. I let go at the last moment, a couple feet above the ground.
During the couple seconds between my feet leaving the roof and my landing in a roll that brought me back to my feet, a random thought popped up that made me reconsider my mental stance.
The current me would wipe the floor with the pre-Kage Bunshin twelve-year-old-me.
'Even as experienced as I am now compared to back then, a thousand clones is still a thousand clones,' I thought with a wry grin.
Either way, I headed back to my own apartment block. I needed a shower, and then to do the prep-work for the week's meals.
A couple hours later, I began making my way to school.
(After classes)
Koneko-chan sat on my desk, her feet kicking lightly while Mitsuri leaned against the edge of another one with her arms crossed. The soft-spoken girl black-haired girl, Norika, stood next to the tomboy, her hands wrapped neatly around her school briefcase's carry handle in front of her.
"So," I spoke from my chair below Koneko, pointedly trying not to stare at the mostly-bare thighs sitting right next to me. The girl uniform's skirts were unreasonably short, not that any of the male students would ever complain. "You mentioned over the weekend that Red challenged Shitori to a club contest. Any idea what the competition will be?" I asked while packing away my school supplies.
The kicking stopped.
"Nn, not sure," Koneko replied with a blank face. She followed up after a moment of thought. "It's a small team sports contest, so probably basketball or tennis."
Her feet started swinging again.
"'Red'?" Mitsuri asked in a confused tone.
"Huh?" I glanced up at her, and my eyes were drawn to her own similarly red, if shorter, hair. "Oh, right. I guess you haven't met her yet. Rias Gremory, the pipsqueak's club president."
Koneko's hand reached over, and I let it happen when she flicked the side of my head with a small thunk. My head tilted slightly from the force.
"Ow." I deadpanned, getting a giggle out of Norika. "When I met her, the first thing I noticed was how red her hair was, but I had other things on my mind and forgot her name for a while, so I decided to just call her that instead," I finished explaining. Mitsuri rolled her eyes with an amused huff.
"Um, what's the contest for, Koneko-chan?" Norika asked the other girl curiously. "Ah, If you don't mind me asking of course!" She hurriedly tacked on at the end. She was still a little nervous to speak up when part of the group, and frequently found herself second-guessing her contributions.
"Nn, I don't mind," Koneko shook her head. "Our club and the student council both want to go on a trip taking a tour of a private nature reserve, but there's only enough spots available for one group."
The other girl made an excited noise with a dreamy smile. "That sounds like a wonderful time, I hope whoever wins enjoys it! I used to love going on walks through nature with my family."
I glanced between her and Mitsuri, before turning to Koneko. "You think Red will mind a couple of tagalongs sticking around to watch?"
She glanced at me in a way that gave me the feeling she wanted to roll her eyes. "No. She would like the attention, if anything."
I turn back to the other girls.
"How about it?" I asked, "Do either of you want to come watch too?"
Norika and Mitsuri shared a look.
"Ah, umm, t-that–"
"Yeah, sure."
"Ahwah?!" The shorter girl turned on the tomboy, making a weird sound in surprise. "Bu-but, what about the club?!"
"It'll be fine," Mitsuri waved her off casually. "It's just for one day, and it's not like club attendance is super strict anyway. Uzumaki will be skipping his own club too, see? Besides, it's good to get out of your comfort zone and live a little sometimes."
Norika didn't immediately voice a refusal, but she was clearly still uncertain. I decided to be a little shit and poke fun at the tomboy.
"Mitsuri's got the right of it, y'know?" I said to Norika with a grin, getting her attention. "If a delinquent ogre like her can skip out on the arcade to enjoy some girly tea-party thing, I'm sure you can– hrk!"
"WHO'RE YA CALLIN' AN OGRE, BASTARD!" I was cut off by the ogress herself, two-handing me by the collar and lifting me out of my seat, shaking me back and forth with an enraged blush on her cheeks.
"Aaaaahh! Save me Koneko-chan!" I wailed dramatically. She took one glance up from her phone at what was going on, before looking back down.
"Nope."
"Traitor!"
"I'm not the one who picked a fight with an ogre while empty-handed."
"Wha– K-Koneko, you?!" Mitsuri paused in her assault on my person to look at Koneko with an expression of pure betrayal.
"Pffft–" Norika began to giggle at the byplay, but quickly smothered the sound with a hand when Mitsuri's head whipped around to her as well.
Her fists clenched tighter around my collar, and her head hung to shadow her eyes. "I'm being attacked," she said defeatedly in an empty voice. "My friends are attacking me from all sides."
"No way, I'm innocent here! You're the one attacking me," I argued with a grin. "You're just lucky I don't have my secret ninja sword in hand to defend myself with."
Koneko glanced at me, but I ignored her. It wasn't like I was going to reveal the Devils or anything.
"'Secret ninja sword'? Is that what your martial arts thing has been for this whole time, why you still have that stupid cane?" Mitsuri snorted, letting go of me and stepping back. I slipped my wandering left hand into my pocket sneakily. "Don't think I still haven't noticed that you walk without making footsteps after all this time. That's a ton of effort just to pretend to be a ninja. Just how chuunibyou can you get?"
"I don't really get it, but even I can tell you just made fun of me," I deadpanned, before shrugging. "Whatever, believe what you want. Just don't be surprised when something of yours mysteriously disappears under your nose, heheheh," I chuckled with a maliciously wide grin.
Her hazel eyes narrowed into slits of green as she glared suspiciously at me.
Before Mitsuri could figure it out, Koneko put her phone away in her waistcoat pocket, and hopped down off my desk.
"It's tennis," she confirmed, looking at us. "They're about to get ready to head to the courts in a couple minutes. If you're coming, it's time to go," she said, tilting her head towards one of the exits.
"Sweet, let's get going." I grabbed my bag from the floor to sling over my shoulder and snatched my walking stick up, making my way to the rear exit right on Koneko's trail. "We can cut through the assembly hall on the way and grab some drinks from the vending machine." I slipped my left hand into my pocket and pulled out a wallet that was definitely not mine, holding it up between two fingers like a shuriken. "Mitsuri's treat!"
"Huh? What do you– HEY! Give that back!"
Mitsuri was quick to chase, and I made a game out of keeping her wallet from her while laughing, the more timid Norika trying unsuccessfully all the while to get us to calm down.
"I told you, I was just joking…" I said awkwardly as I stepped out of the building behind Koneko and Norika, holding an unopened can of cherry soda. The two girls were having a conversation about the best tea and pastry combinations, Koneko-chan's sheer gluttony having prepared her surprisingly well to comment on different aspects of tea ceremony. She was probably as experienced in the practice as any member of that club, just by virtue of being a wealthy foodie in her day-to-day life.
"You didn't actually need to get us drinks, ya'know?" I continued. "I could have gotten them for us myself."
Mitsuri tilted her own drink back, taking gulps of some sort of energy drink I hadn't seen before.
"Hahhhh!" She let out a big sigh of satisfaction when she stopped her chugging to step out next to me. "Shut the hell up and drink your soda already, Uzumaki. I already told you, it's not a big deal." She glanced at me for a second, before looking towards the other two walking ahead of us. "Keep acting like I can't spot my friends a little cash at a vending machine, and I'll hit you for calling me stingy," she drawled airily.
I held up my hands in surrender. With a quick stop at our lockers, we'd all put our school stuff away, so aside from my drink in one hand and the cane hooked around my elbow, I had full freedom of motion.
"Alright, alright, you've made your point," I said with a nervous chuckle, backing away from her. "No need to get violent. I was just joking when I called you an ogre, ya'know? Don't go taking it as a challenge." I laughed.
Her eye twitched.
"Oi."
I cracked open my soda and loudly sipped at it, pointedly looking away from her burning stare.
Coincidentally, the direction I turned my head in faced the female locker room, and I saw a quartet of familiar girls stepping out dressed in white tops with colorful trims and skirts.
"Looks like we are just in time," I said, nodding in the girls' direction. "We'll reach the court at the same time as Red and the others."
Mitsuri glanced over, annoyance forgotten.
"... Okay, I see why you call her Red."
While the two had similarly colored hair, Mitsuri's was much shorter and a bit darker, more of a blood-red.
Rias, Himejima, Shinra, and Shitori walked across the field, getting the attention of plenty of other students who were hanging around that saw the way they were dressed.
Rias's crimson-red hair stood out like a fire truck compared to the three other girls' black hair and immediately drew the eye, nearly outlining her form from all angles due to how full and long it was, especially with the way it curled slightly at the ends. Ignoring color though, there was only one girl who looked out of place compared to the other three, the one I had designated as my true nemesis and the antithesis of everything I stood for!
While the other three girls had long, flowing hair, hers was cut above her shoulders. Where they had full, curvy figures and honestly massive chests, she had a more lithe build with not much more than a modest handful up top. On top of that, she was also the shortest of the four, the strictest, and the one person with the most authority in the school even among the teachers.
Himejima might be annoying and go out of her way to mess with me, but I could at least admit in the deepest recesses of my mind that I maybe, possibly, sort-of enjoyed the attention. Any normal boy going through puberty would. There was a reason I called her a dangerous woman, and half of that reason was because of the genuine temptation to play along to her whims.
I stared hard at the student council president.
As if sensing my eyes on her, Shitori Souna turned her head and stared right back at me from across the field with a stern gaze, before facing forward once more.
That woman was all of the "danger" and none of the "tease" that Himejima had going for her, all business and no play.
I shuddered internally.
I refused to be caught in a room with her without an escape plan. I feared for my ears and sanity if that ever happened, I'd probably be lectured to death in that case. It was one thing to take my education seriously, and it was another thing entirely to become a stick in the mud again. I was lucky enough that Koneko-chan pulled me out of that state the first time, so willingly engaging more than necessary with someone like that again?
'No thank you.'
It didn't help things that even she was taller than me, too.
We caught up to the other two girls quickly, walking a few paces behind them on our way to the courts.
"By the way, why do you still carry that cane around?" Mitsuri asked with casual curiosity. "I don't think I've actually seen you use it to walk a single time since you got it."
"Because it's freaking cool, that's why." I stopped twirling it in my hand for a moment, gripping it by the shaft. I held it to the side, placing the hooked grip in front of the redhead. "Here, grab the handle in a strong grip, and don't let go."
She did as I requested after a moment of confusion. I lightly tugged to test her grip, and when she firmed it up a moment later, I gave a short but sharp pull, revealing a few inches of the polished blade within with a quiet shing sound.
Koneko glanced over her shoulder, causing Norika to look back at us as well a moment later.
"What the fuck, Uzumaki?" Mitsuri asked incredulously, looking at me like I was crazy while she held the grip of my sword. "Why the hell is your cane a sword?!"
"Gee, I wonder," I drawled sarcastically with a smug grin, "It's almost as if I'm a ninja who literally pickpocketed your wallet just a few minutes ago, or something. But nah, there's no way that could be the case, right Mitsuri?"
Mitsuri looked between me and the other two girls intensely. "...Why am I the only one reacting with surprise to this?! This is crazy, right?"
"I, ah, um…" Norika shifted around and adjusted her glasses with a nervous little chuckle. "... I'm used to ignoring the weird things I see, I guess?" Her eyes flicked to Koneko.
The cat youkai shrugged. "Already knew about it," Koneko stated blandly.
I snorted at the understatement.
"I'm teaching her martial arts, and her clubmate is a practicing swordsman," I explained in more detail. "Koneko-chan's the one who got me into contact with Kiba's usual blacksmith in order to get this made in the first place."
Mitsuri pushed the handle towards me, the magnets engaging with the sheath to snap the two segments back together seamlessly with a clack, and brought her newly free hand up to her face to pinch the bridge of her nose.
"There, there." I reached up and put a comforting hand on her shoulder, cane back in the crook of my elbow. "The more time you spend around me, the less stuff like this will throw you off. Once you accept the fact that I'm a ninja, you won't even bat an eye at the stuff you see, hahahah!" I patted her back heartily a couple times as I laughed at her distress.
"I refuse."
I took my hand off her back to hold in front of us, and with a flick of my wrist and a twist of my forearm, I was holding one of my kunai by the ring, letting it dangle from my extended index finger. Giving it a quick spin, another flick of the wrist sent it back into hiding within my sleeve.
Mitsuri glared at me with dull eyes.
"I've made up my mind. I think I hate you."
I shook my head with a grin, and we continued walking as a group.
"Koneko-chan, is this what people online mean when they say 'Tsundere'?"
The redhead attacked me, trying and failing to smack me in the shoulder.
'What was that other thing people sometimes say online?' I wracked my brain as I easily fended off the girl a whole head taller than me.
Koneko beat me to it in a flat voice, as if she was reading my mind.
"Not beating the allegations."
With all our little delays, the four girls got ahead and reached the courts before us. Considering that they were apparently some of the most popular students in the entire school, there was even a small crowd following behind them to watch, a dull roar of conversation following the students.
Koneko took the lead of our own group, bringing us over to watch alongside the other members of the Occult Research Club.
"Oi, Kiba!" I called out and waved as we approached, getting a few heads turning my way. Two of those heads in particular were familiar blonds, Asia turning as well when the boy in question reacted. They were standing at the far end of the chain-link fence surrounding the court's perimeter, away from the crowd that had gathered to watch on the side closer to the sports field. A quick glance around the area showed me Issei a short distance away with his two pervy friends, all three of them practically pressing their faces to the fence to get a closer look at the competitors.
"Naruto-kun, Koneko-chan." Kiba nodded in greeting as we got closer.
"You made it on time, Koneko-chan!" The former nun addressed the small girl with a happy smile, getting a nod in return. She turned to me. "Ah, hello to you as well, Uzumaki-san. Thank you very much for your assistance the other day!"
"E-eheheh," I chuckled awkwardly in response to the suddenly bowing girl. "Don't mention it. Seriously, I was glad to help." I tried my best to ignore Mitsuri's stare burning a hole in the side of my head.
Thankfully, Kiba took notice and stepped forward to save me.
"I see the two of you have brought some friends along," he smoothly changed the topic, turning to our normal classmates with a princely smile. "You may have already heard of me through conversation, but please allow me to introduce us. I'm Yuuto Kiba, and this is my cousin who recently arrived from Italy, Asia Argento, both from class 2-B and members of the Occult Research Club." He gave a light bow.
"It's a pleasure to meet you two," Norika replied politely with a quick bow of her own. "I'm Amatsu Norika from class 1-B, member of the Tea Ceremony club.
"Yo. Ueda Mitsuri, 1-B," the tall redhead said with a bored tone, giving the swordsman a slow once-over. "... Tch. I still don't see it."
Kiba blinked. "Excuse me?"
"Why you're so popular with-" Mitsuri gestured vaguely towards the crowd of students, the majority of which were girls, "-them. I mean, you're attractive enough I guess, but in a kinda generic pretty-boy sort of way. I don't really get the appeal."
Koneko snorted, while Norika buried her face in her hands in mortification.
Kiba looked surprised at her statement for a moment, before he laughed. Not one of his polite chuckles, but a more genuine actual laugh.
Unlike Mitsuri and I, who deliberately chose to ignore certain Japanese social customs, Asia simply wasn't aware of the emphasis on keeping your thoughts to yourself and maintaining politeness at all times, and so she watched in confusion as the others reacted to Mitsuri's blunt nature.
"Would you believe me if I told you I agree?" Kiba said with a small conspiratorial grin a moment later. "The attention I tend to get can be a bit difficult to deal with at times."
Mitsuri snorted. "So tell them to cut it out, plain and simple." She turned to me. "How did you let a softy like this guy beat your ass?"
I shrugged in a 'what-can-you-do?' manner.
"He's pretty strong, ya'know?" I said simply. "Speaking of-" I turned to Kiba with a grin, "-we need to spar again soon! Last time was fun."
Kiba's eyes narrowed and his own grin widened, mouth opening to reply.
Before he could get a word out though, Koneko cut him off, looking towards the court.
"Looks like they're starting," she pointed out, turning fully towards the fence.
I looked and true enough, saw the players getting into their positions; Red held the rear, while Himejima and Tsubaki stood across from each other in the forward zones. Rackets were readied and Shitori was preparing to serve the ball, while the crowd pressed up against the fence excitedly. Glancing back at Kiba as the others joined Koneko, I shrugged again.
"Let's trade phone numbers later, yeah?" I suggested.
"Definitely," he agreed with a sheepish smile, hand rubbing the back of his head. "... We probably should have done that last time anyway."
We joined the girls just in time for the first serve to begin the game.
"Ready yourself, Rias!" Shitori called out. "We won't hold back!"
The Student Council president tossed up the ball, swinging her racket to perfectly smack it out of its apex and send it across the court. Rias reacted calmly, taking two quick steps towards the court's edge to return it with similar grace and a forehanded swing. Certain parts of her figure swayed with the motion, her hair and edges of her skirt lifting with the momentum when she planted her foot to stop.
Predictably, a bunch of the dudes spectating made all kinds of appreciative sounds.
"Was that all you've got?" Red taunted back competitively as Tsubaki intercepted the ball and sent it Himejima's way.
"Ara ara~, you'll have to do better than that if you want to beat us!" Himejima made a sudden lunge look completely relaxed as she reacted, returning the ball with a flourishing backswing while sounding perfectly unstrained.
The ball went back and forth a few more times with the players throwing taunts to go with it, before a spike from the taller Tsubaki got past Himejima's guard.
While team ORC easily tied the score up shortly after, the initial expression of sheer annoyance on the witch's face the moment she gave up that first point was something I would cherish in my memory.
After all the shit talk from both sides, the fact that it was her to fail first was absolutely hysterical to me.
I wasn't sure what I really expected when I first heard from Koneko about the contest other than adrenaline-fueled competitive spirit, and after hearing it was just tennis my expectations were lowered a bit, but seeing the four girls going at it in person…
Well, it started off normally enough, with the crowd of students cheering for their favorite to win with each team scoring a point. It's just, maybe they had a little bit too much competitive spirit, because I could swear the Occult Research girls began cheating with magic pretty damn quickly! I almost thought it was just my eyes playing tricks on me, like maybe I was just getting distracted by the swishing skirts, the bare thighs and arms, the bouncing–
I shook my head to rid myself of the intrusive thoughts.
I glanced at my more 'normal' friends watching the match, as Himejima gave a serve that had the tennis ball sparking with electricity, and I blinked as Mitsuri and Norika seemed to be watching as if nothing was out of the ordinary; Mitsuri's eyes were focused on tracking the upperclassmen players' movements, while the glasses-wearing girl's head was turning back and forth to follow the ball at a rapid enough pace I thought she might get dizzy soon.
Kiba must have noticed my confusion, because he leaned down next to me
"Sona-kaichou's [Bishop]s put up a perception barrier that hides their use of magic," he muttered just loud enough for only my ears to hear, answering my unasked question. "As much as she'd like to deny it, she's just as bad as Rias at keeping her powers secret when distracted, so stuff like this is pretty common for our peerages to handle." He chuckled quietly.
"Oh, that makes sense." I thought for a moment. "Just like the mansion, right?"
"Exactly," he nodded. "Except that one is a permanent feature that only needs to be recharged once in a while."
'Sounds almost like Fuinjutsu, like with Konoha's barrier seal,' I thought curiously. 'I wonder how they do that sort of thing– hold up.'
He said something really suspicious a moment ago that I completely glossed over.
'"Sona-kaichou's [Bishop]"? Her powers? "Peerages", plural?! Eh!?'
"... Did you just tell me Shitori is a Devil too?" I asked, staring with dull eyes as the bossy girl in question returned the ball. Now that I was actually paying attention to the student council's team, it was obvious they were cheating just as hard, just slightly more subtly. Moments where the ball redirected away from the ORC girls off of a bounce that I'd previously just thought was due to spin or something, turned out to be because of seriously small magic circles appearing on the council team's rackets and the ground for a split second.
Now that he all but told me Shitori was also cheating, it was like I couldn't not notice the flashes of light and weird ball movement. Just like with the mansion's barrier, being aware that something was fishy let me ignore its effects.
"Huh." Neat.
Kiba turned his head in surprise. "You mean Koneko hasn't told you yet?"
I deadpanned at the back of the girl's head as she pretended she wasn't listening in.
"... Must have slipped her mind or something. I'm sure she would have told me at some point that the students stalking and harassing her teacher for the past week were Devil friends of hers, right?" I said dully as her body remained perfectly still without the slightest hint of movement in reaction.
While she continued feigning ignorance, Kiba chuckled awkwardly.
"... Ah."
My student disappeared in a hurry when the match finally ended in a draw, giving a quick goodbye to the other girls with us before leaving without a word to me. I let her go without giving chase.
Letting her dig her hole a little deeper before our next training session was fine by me.
o(Later that night)
After the tennis match was abandoned due to the increasingly magic-fueled stalemate and the growing crowd of regular people watching, the both parties decided to switch the competition to a bigger team game of dodgeball, and ditch the spectators. By that point, I'd already had my fill and decided to head home to work on some things.
The fight against the Fallen hadn't really taught me anything I didn't already know, but it definitely drove home the point that my decision to equip myself for the future was the right call, a call made just in time. I decided to continue in that direction, and put my rusty crafting skills back to use, remaking whatever utility gear I could to replace the old stuff I lost before arriving in this world.
I sat working over my desk for a few hours. A pair of old thrift store boots broken down for their leather, my sewing skills putting in work to turn the raw material into a rough thigh pouch. A metal saw and a rivet gun on loan from one of my neighbors, and my childhood of engineering elaborate traps for my pranking sprees turned a pile of scrap metal and the extra leather strips into a pair of forearm braces to hold and release the kunai I hide in my sleeves.
I made them as slim as possible to not stand out against my clothes, so they weren't super complicated at all, but anything was better than my previous method of just hanging the knives by the ring on little hooks I'd sewn into the sleeves.
I had to be careful not to knock them loose with a stray swing of my arms before.
Now? Not so much.
I leaned back in my chair with a stretch and a groan as I finished tweaking the thigh pouch's latch, stretching my arms above my head and popping my tense fingers in the process. I made note of the bracer's tightness on my arms and the rough friction of the old leather as I did so.
'Not my best work, but not a bad first attempt,' I thought to myself. If I had better materials on hand I could have probably done better. Either way though, it was a good way to knock the rust off, and everything I'd made today would be serviceable enough until I had the time and spare cash to get fresh material.
I may be friends with a bunch of rich people, and the sword was awesome, but it would feel awful to mooch off of them for stuff that was within my ability to get done. Even the sword itself was only really acceptable to me once I treated it as both a gift, and as payment for my tutelage.
I looked at the clock on my bedside table.
11:39 PM
'Damn, I seriously lost track of time.'
I got up with a yawn, deciding to go get some dinner to sate my suddenly rumbling stomach. Before I went downstairs, I poked into the guest room down the hall, getting the attention of a pair of yellow eyes in the darkness as I refilled Kuro's water bowl for the night.
That done, I made my way down to my kitchen, passing by the pale flicking light of my living room as did so.
The dinner I made was a basic, but hearty meal consisting of a chicken and cheese omelet, a couple of large, pre-made vegetable-puree-filled onigiri, and a package of mochi snacks for dessert.
Food made and plated, I went into my living room and plopped onto the couch to watch whatever anime was playing quietly while I ate. I scarfed down my meal in less than five minutes, feeling hungrier than I originally thought.
"What show even is this?" I asked as I reached into the opened box for a mochi. "It's pretty boring."
"Mhm."
I pulled out a chocolate mochi, then paused as I brought it to my mouth.
I never opened the package.
I never turned on the TV.
I turned with a dull look in my eyes.
"Koneko-chan?"
"Mm?"
She was in the middle of chewing, wearing the same black sweatpants and pink sweater with the cat icon she'd worn that night after the bathtub training, sitting with her knees tucked up to her chest and a half eaten strawberry mochi held up to her mouth.
"... Why are you watching TV in my house?"
Her furred ears twitched, the end of her tail lifting up a little just to drop back down to the couch with a soft thump.
"... No reason," she muttered.
Her cheeks were slightly red as she said it, practically pouting as she glanced away.
I rolled my eyes at the obvious deflection and planted my palm on the top of her head with another thump. She made a halfhearted attempt to tilt her head away, but I had a greater reach than the distance she had to escape.
"Well, if you're going to watch anime in my apartment without telling me, at least put on something good for us to actually enjoy." I ruffled her hair messily, taking care not to bend her ears uncomfortably. "This one sucks."
We sat for a moment in the relative quiet.
"... 'Kay." She picked up the remote from the cushion next to her, and began the search for something interesting in the sea of bland. "I did text you though. Not my fault you didn't answer."
I paused in my ruffling to think for a moment. Given I'd been working on something with pretty much all of my focus, it was possible I didn't notice.
"... Like that makes it any better." I snorted.
I let my hand fall from her head to lean back and spread my arms across the couch cushions.
If she was too embarrassed to tell me why she was here this late, without even getting actual permission to come over, I wouldn't push it. I was definitely gonna push her even harder than I was already planning in training the next day, but that was doubly her fault and sounded like a 'her problem' to me.
I chose to ignore the way her head unconsciously tried to follow my hand when I released her.
It was a lot harder to ignore when her shifting in her seat brought her closer and her tail settled across my lap, but I sharpened my will by mentally repeating a mantra in my head, one that I made up on the spot.
'Hormones are temporary; resistance training is forever!'
Mind successfully fortified against the close contact, a perfectly innocent smile slid onto my lips and I posed my question.
"So, just when were you planning on telling me the student council, who I've been trying to avoid, were also devils?"
The tail in my lap tensed, as if sensing a predator nearby. I could practically feel her regular desire to cause me trouble clashing with her desire to avoid the consequences of her own actions.
Too bad for her, I let my arm drape down across her back to clamp my hand onto her thin shoulder, trapping her in my grasp. She could easily overpower me to escape, but it was a psychological thing, her own sense of being boxed in keeping her from fleeing as she nervously sat stock-still.
"Why don't we have a tiny lesson about friends helping out friends with their troubles?" I looked down at Koneko with a small squinty-eyed smile, her eyes staring widely back up at me. "What do you say, friend?"
Ah, so this was the joy of a sensei putting the fear of punishment into the student…
'I understand it now, Kakashi-sensei!' I cackled within the safety of my mind.