Chapter 32: Solo Interlude - Akeno
Gremory Villa, Human World
Saturday night, May 5th (Day 4 of 13)
Akeno quietly walked through the shadowed halls, her bare feet padding almost silently across the carpet as she explored the infrequently-used manor, once again kept up by a niggling feeling in the air.
As the peerage member most naturally suited to manipulating energy in its many forms– aside from Koneko's specialization with chakra and Senjutsu– Akeno had the most developed senses for and understanding of the various energies that permeated the world. Despite her hatred of the clan she was born to, she was still a Himejima and had the talent to match.
Her natural abilities may come from her disgusting blood, but it was through her loving mother's teachings, the lesson materials that had been left behind in their shrine, and Akeno's own studies as an elemental magician, that she began to fully understand some of what she could sense for herself, without having to seek aid from the various spirits she could communicate with. Progress was slow going and came in fits and spurts, as random bits of knowledge she's accumulated happened to fit into places where previously she'd been in the dark, but it was progress all the same.
Which was why, some hours after they arrived at the manor on that first day, she felt that something was off.
Like an itch that could be ignored until you had nothing else to focus on, she was able to ignore it right up until bedtime came, and there was nothing left to do for the day but go to sleep, and then it was suddenly a curiosity that wouldn't leave her mind. She'd spent the past couple nights making sweeps of the darkened property after everyone had broken off to do their own things, driven by the practically routine desire to continue improving her understanding of her magical senses.
'Is it because the ambient energies here feel richer than Kuoh's?' Akeno thought to herself as she moved on autopilot, more focused on trying to parse her extra-sensory perception than on where she was going. 'Unlike Kuoh urban environment, bound to be influenced by the modern world, this property is miles away from the nearest hint of civilization.' It sounded possible in her head.
On the other side of that same coin, she felt it was also entirely possible that it had nothing to do with the nature of the environment itself, but rather the fact that she was using Kuoh, the town that had all of its ambient chakra sucked away somewhere, as a comparison point.
There were many different types of ambient energies that were natural to the world, and the energy that youkai referred to as "natural energy" was really just one of many natural energies, plural. One that she still hadn't quite figured out how to differentiate from the mix of others in the background just yet.
'Maybe I should join them sometime, try to learn-'
Akeno blinked, the brief thought slipping away as she found herself standing in the familiar doorway of the home theater room, the shifting glow of a TV illuminating her face and night robe.
The spiky hair and pair of cat ears were silhouetted next to each other against the flatscreen's light as it played through the scene of a Ghibli movie she remembered watching with Rias years ago.
A sly smirk crept up onto Akeno's lips and she took another quiet step forwards with building anticipation, several fun ideas going through her mind.
Then she paid closer attention to the details.
Despite the fact that the couch they sat on was wide enough to seat upwards of six people, her kouhai were sitting close together. Naruto had his arms splayed out along the backrest, while Koneko had squeezed herself in between him and the armrest instead of taking one of the many other available spots. Her head was tilted towards him as it laid against his arm, her ears forward and the end of her tail dangling limply over the edge.
Akeno's anticipation silently died.
Koneko looked completely relaxed and at ease.
Her smirk slipped away, eyes softening as she took in the rare scene. She remembered the months and months of time and effort it originally took to get the small girl to come out of her shell, even just the slightest bit.
'... Next time, then.'
Akeno took a step back, and then another, turning silently to make her back down the way she came. As she walked away, her mind replayed happy moments spent together in their younger years. Something she'd understood for a while now was that healing mental scars took time. Something that recent events had made clearer though was that you couldn't just wait around and hope things worked out, you also had to put in the effort to heal.
Not once had Koneko been truly comfortable showing her youkai features, outside of bath time.
It took a new face coming into her life and igniting that spark for the youkai girl to want to get better.
It didn't make Akeno jealous though. No, she was genuinely happy for the younger girl, proud that the person she practically helped raise was moving on from her past. It just highlighted the obvious, a fact that she had always been perfectly aware of from the beginning, and was just reminded of by the situation.
She and Koneko were different.
When she made it back to her bedroom, Akeno turned out the lights and slipped under the covers of her bed, her nightly routine already finished before she'd even taken her stroll.
Even though she laid comfortably on her side, breathing slowly with her eyes relaxed and closed, it wouldn't be another hour before the burning embers of hate in her chest calmed enough for her to sleep.
Monday morning, May 7th (Day 6 of 13)
Her two cute little kouhai stood side by side in front of her, the three of them standing across from Kiba and Issei on the field. Rias and Asia were off towards the building, waiting on standby from the sidelines in case someone got too hurt.
"Is everyone ready?" The ninja asked. "I'm going to count down and snap my fingers. When you hear me snap, that means we've started," he reminded everyone as the combatants got into their stances, the now-familiar red gauntlet of [Boosted Gear] appearing on the [Pawn]'s arm.
Akeno smiled her usual smile, leashing her desires behind a mask that everyone present other than the innocent Asia could already see beneath. Normally, she limited herself to more harmless pranks and verbal remarks when it came to her friends, but since it was a spar, she let the leash loosen just the tiniest bit.
This group spar was meant to simulate the two most physically vulnerable fighters in their peerage being attacked by a numerically superior and diverse force. Uzumaki-kun represented the skill and swiftness of a [Knight, Koneko-chan was the obvious [Rook, and she herself would take the place of a [Bishop, lowering her usual power output to a level similar to what Riser's own [Bishop]s should be at.
The fact that one of his [Bishop]s is his very own sister meant that she didn't have to hold back too much to make things realistic, but that was beside the point.
"Five." Uzumaki-kun held his hand up, fingers poised to snap. "Four."
Really, Akeno knew he claimed to be a ninja and had shown more than enough evidence to prove it, but the "great plan" he'd told his current team was so unexpectedly simple that it wrapped around into being devious. He didn't even have to lie to the two boys across from them to make them fall into his trap. They were in their stances, but their expectations had already been set. He continued counting down-
"Three."
-and then snapped.
The ninja and [Rook] rocketed forwards the moment the sound rang out, and Akeno held back a giggle at the delightful expression of shock on the brown-haired boy's face as he stumbled back, the Koneko's fist rapidly approaching the boy's face within a second. Just before the punch could connect, she aborted the motion, stopping on a dime and stepping back right as a sword swung through her previous path.
While Kiba had been visibly surprised for a split second, the [Knight] apparently had enough experience with the whiskered boy's trickery to shake it off almost instantly and react, planting his hands on the ground and using his Sacred Gear to sprout a jagged field of blades in the path of the sole human to buy time. With the moment he bought them, Kiba had created another weapon in his palm to force Koneko to halt her initial attack.
"Promotion: [Rook]- Gah!"
The amusingly perverted boy managed to use the moment given to him to promote, barely raising his gauntlet just in time to use his new defense to block a strike from the Uzumaki's sword with a metallic clang. He made to take a retaliatory swing at the pretend-[Knight, but he was already gone.
The younger teen was strange, Akeno noted absently. Just a week and a half ago he hadn't even had the strength or speed of a newly-born Devil, only keeping up with beings like those Fallen through sheer skill and experience. According to Kiba, he'd been even weaker than that before Issei joined the peerage. Despite that, and without even doing his own training aside from these spars with the others, the self-proclaimed ninja's speed and strength were rapidly approaching that of a low-class [Knight].
It was a mystery that made her interest in the boy rise up another notch. The fact that he could see right through her from the very first meeting was surprisingly delightful, and meant he wasn't just a cute friend of Koneko's who was fun to tease, but someone willing to fire back at her at a level her friends didn't bother with in their verbal spars. His open willingness to attack her dignity and reputation scratched an itch she usually kept completely hidden, and now he was proving to have even more interesting secrets, secrets which she was almost certain Koneko-chan was already involved in, given how close the two had gotten.
Akeno was almost jealous at how far Koneko had pulled ahead in their little "race" in such a short time, when she thought about what she'd intruded on the other night. Of course, she crushed the feeling ruthlessly.
If anyone in the peerage deserved a chance at companionship, the young nekoshou was definitely a top contender. She certainly deserved it more than–
Akeno shook off her momentary musing before it could ruin her mood, judged that the second or two since the fight began had been enough time for a spellcaster lesser than her to finish their opening chant, and she cast her first spell of the match.
"[Creeping Kindling," she announced calmly, holding her palm forward towards Kiba as his swipes and slashes pressured the [Rook].
While her personal affinity leaned towards lightning magic, the Himejima bloodline was intrinsically tied to fire, and her connection to it was nearly strong as her preferred specialization. Unfortunately, while this meant that the others would get good practice against fire magic for the rating game, it also meant that her second strongest specialization would be next to useless in the match itself. Her fire had nothing on a Phenex.
A red magic circle appeared on the ground below Kiba right as he took another step forward in his counter-assault, and he jumped away just before vine-like tendrils of flames that emerged could wrap around him, the [Knight] choosing to disengage over getting bound and burned.
She held her extended index and middle fingers out while the others curled, and swung them to the side with a flick of her wrist, sending the tendrils shooting after the boy in pursuit. He was ready for something like that though, and swung his sword, dismissing and replacing it mid-motion with [Flame Delete].
As the ice-sword made contact, Koneko wasn't standing idle, and dashed along the shadow the now-frozen fire tendrils in chase of the swordsman.
Akeno caught Kiba's eyes flick over to his teammate, who was very quickly accumulating a lot of little cuts and scrapes, and saw the moment he decided to switch opponents again as he dashed towards the other two boys.
'Nope~!' Akeno thought with a sadistic smile, tracing a wide circle in the air with her still extended fingers. 'Your opponent is Koneko-chan!'
A magical circle, twenty feet wide, appeared on the ground below Kiba, made entirely of burning reddish-orange light. She swung her palm up, clenching it into a fist. "[Pyroclastic Mountain Prison]!"
A thick wall of earth rose up from the ground in a ring around the teen, passing through the edges of the fiery circle and catching aflame itself, the wall curving inward as it grew until it slammed shut in the form of a burning dome
Koneko didn't pause in her approach whatsoever, understanding instantly that she was being given a limited-space arena to use against the speedster, and launched herself crashing straight through the near-molten barrier before Kiba could try to escape with one of his swords. The [Rook] covered her face with her arms, but relied mostly on her innate durability and her prototype heat-management technique to get through unhurt.
The hole the small girl made sealed up within a second, and Akeno turned her full focus to the lower-powered half of the team battle.
[Boost!]
'It's been ten seconds already, then?' Akeno thought as she watched the Promoted [Rook] double in speed, allowing him to spin around in time to backhand the sword slicing down towards his back with his gauntlet. His blond opponent's guard was blown open for a split second, but Issei wasn't nearly fast enough to meaningfully take advantage of the opening, instead using the momentum of his spin to throw a cross hook with his other hand. Naruto shifted at the waist after being parried, choosing to meet Issei directly with a straight jab from his right hand instead of trying to disengage like he had been doing before the Boost.
Just before their knuckles would have cracked together, Naruto's hand opened and met the incoming fist with his palm. He let the Boosted [Rook] strength throw his body back with a spin, his sword scoring a thin line across the [Pawn]'s shirt that he barely backpedaled away from. Naruto landed a dozen feet away as Issei regained his balance.
Akeno pouted in annoyance. Before she could even make use of the opportunity given by their distance, Naruto had darted back into extreme close-quarters with a kunai in his off hand, making it difficult for her to cast a reasonable level of spell without catching her teammate in the splash zone.
'Hmm…' She considered her options. 'Maybe a water spell?' She watched the way Naruto moved with complete precision and confidence, and compared it to the powerful but uncertain movements of the brown haired Devil, still learning how to use his new powers. Issei would be less physically hindered, but might spend a moment sputtering in surprise while Naruto would be barely affected.
Naruto chained stabs and slashes with both his weapons against the other boy, forcing Issei to keep his gauntlet held up in a reactionary guard, before the blond made a feint and ducked around the devil to slash at his side. Between the power difference, the [Rook] defense, and the Boost multiplying everything, the wound didn't look like it went very deep, but was still enough to draw more blood.
Akeno smiled and lifted her arm, her course of action decided. "[Summer Falls]."
A blue magic circle appeared many meters above the two boys locked in combat. Akeno dropped her hand, and a veritable waterfall began to pour out of the circle. The spell was extremely basic and didn't even have a particular name of its own to call out. All it did was generate normal water, without any special properties or motion vectors. Gravity was the only thing acting on the liquid.
Neither of the boys happened to look up as a few thousand gallons of water fell towards their heads, though the ninja did seem to notice something, disengaging just before the impact and dropping to a knee to brace himself.
Akeno calmly brought up her hands to cover her ears. One thing most people don't really internalize until they experience it for themselves, is that falling water can be loud.
Just a moment after the waterfall came crashing into the ground, Koneko burst out from the dome back-first in a shower of flaming rubble, and leapt back the moment her foot touched the ground. Not a moment too soon either, because a wave of demonic swords burst through the ground she'd kicked off of a split second later, leaving a trail of the blades leading back to the dome.
Water rushed in every direction to make room for the liquid above it, including towards the earth dome as a soot-covered Kiba ducked out through the hole Koneko made, the boy's eyes darting around to take in the battlefield as he stepped into the flowing water.
Akeno lowered her hands as Koneko landed beside her and the roar of crashing water died down. Unlike Kiba, she looked to be spotless, not a hint of dirt staining her white hair.
Issei had apparently lost his balance and was on his hands and knees, coughing out water and trying to wipe his eyes dry, while Naruto spat out a mouthful of the stuff and shook his hair out, before standing. He barely spared a glance at his downed opponent before locking eyes with Kiba, similar grins appearing on the two blond's faces as they raised their weapons at each other.
"Ufufu~" Akeno clapped once while giggling under the wary gaze of her female teammate, relishing in the anticipation as everyone's attention was drawn to her. "I hope you boys didn't think I'd be done with just a little bit of water, did you?"
"'Just a little bit'?! There's still like two inches of the stuff!" Issei called out incredulously as he pushed himself up with a small splash.
Naruto was the first to look up, blinking at what he saw, then he glanced back down and lifted a foot out of the water as if to confirm its depth for himself.
"Oh." His eyes were blank for a moment and he looked up at her. Kiba took a moment to look up for himself, expression shifting into one of panic before he booked it towards dry land. Akeno licked her lips.
Naruto's eyes widened, realizing what was about to happen. "Oh shit!"
He tried to follow his fellow blond, but neither of them escaped the water before a pillar of lightning struck down on the shallow man-made pond.
The water creation spell didn't have a name, but her two-tiered combo version did.
Ignoring the dull stare from the girl at her side, Akeno wiggled in delight as the boys painfully convulsed with the intentionally-weakened current flowing through them. Their joints locked up as their nerves fried, causing the blonds to topple over mid run.
[Boost!]
Only Issei was spared being knocked down outright, the just-in-time four-times multiplier on his Promotion allowing him to grit his teeth and push through it to stay standing. He staggered forwards a couple steps and held out a twitching hand, the telltale glow of magic seeping from his palm as he tried to continue the fight.
Koneko stiffened.
"[D-dress… Bre–]"
Slam!
Whatever he was going to say was cut off when a muddy rock crashed into his forehead, knocking him out instantly and disrupting whatever spell he was attempting. The [Boosted Gear] disappeared from his arm before his back even splashed onto the ground, Koneko's arm still extended from the throw.
Akeno let out a sigh of satisfaction after the brief bout of violence, before raising an amused eyebrow towards her shorter companion's excessive use of force, well beyond that of a normal [Rook] to be able to get through a twice-Boosted [Rook]'s defense.
"... He was definitely gonna try something dangerous." Koneko avoided meeting her eyes. "Had a bad feeling."
'Something perverted, you mean?' Akeno giggled instead of calling the girl out. "He must have been practicing a lot on his own at night, to get that close to actualizing a spell of his own without help," she mused. 'To think even the one with the lowest natural potential in the peerage is making this much progress…'
The nekoshou tilted her head and glanced tellingly towards Rias on the sidelines.
'Oh?' Akeno caught the meaning. 'With his breast obsession and her nudist tendencies, it certainly makes sense he'd be receptive to late night lessons at the cost of some sleep.'
The redhead seemed to be analyzing the short battle in her head, while Asia was looking completely beside herself with worry.
"We win." Koneko announced.
"The match is over now," I nodded towards Asia. "You can come heal them, Asia-chan."
She rushed over, pausing in hesitation for a second when trying to decide who needed healing first. I directed her towards Issei, given the fact that my toned-down lightning didn't do much actual damage, mostly just pain. The two blond boys would be fine in around an hour even if they didn't get any healing.
"While that's certainly true…" Rias agreed with Koneko distractedly, "... you both definitely went overboard for the intended purpose of this session. That's not even mentioning that it was Akeno's own friendly-fire that took out your teammate." She gestured towards the still smoldering earth dome, the slowly draining field of water, and the downed ninja. "Minus points."
Akeno saw Naruto weakly raise his hand from his prone position as he groaned a vague agreement, getting Koneko to look up at her with an accusatory deadpan expression.
Akeno tilted her head with an 'innocent' smile, lightly bonking herself on the head in response.
"Oops, teehee~!"
She hid an amused smirk when her favorite feline just rolled her eyes at the obvious act.
The group got back to it the moment everyone was healed, trying out a variety of tactics and battlefield control techniques across three more fights. Because of how effective Asia's healing was, they were able to go multiple rounds back to back to back, and only be a little worse for wear by the end of it.
Given that Asia's healing didn't recover stamina and the fact that real fights tended to be over extremely quickly after starting, it was determined that mornings would be the dedicated sparring time with the regular training regimes taking place after, so that everyone would be getting fighting experience while at their freshest.
After lunch, Akeno watched from the sidelines as Naruto continued trying to find a way to train up Asia's mobility.
'And that,' Akeno mused with an imperceptible frown, 'is becoming an issue.'
He seemed to agree with her thought as he stood near her, since he muttered under his breath when the former nun completed the newest obstacle course with a slower time than a fairly athletic human teen would have. It was better than her previous times, but nowhere near good enough to participate in the morning spars yet.
"This isn't working… what am I not getting?"
It was just more proof of his kind nature that he defaulted to believing his teaching was to blame. Akeno didn't think he was entirely wrong, per se– he clearly excelled in certain areas of his expertise, and knew what type of exercises worked well for particular results– but Akeno wasn't a nice enough person to miss the obvious; Asia was the weak link here, and not just literally.
After almost a week of observing the two, watching the ninja switch from that first obstacle trial to agility drills to various timed obstacle course layouts, there was only one common factor, and it was the fact that the innocent and naive nun just wasn't mentally suited for the kind of intensity that came with physical training.
That wouldn't usually be a bad thing for most [Bishop]s since they had time to learn ranged magic to support themselves and others, but Asia didn't have that time, and had to practically be on or near the front line to heal her teammates as they got injured.
She was certainly determined to learn and wanted to be of use to her new friends, but she seemed lost, metaphorically speaking. Like she was just letting herself be led around, because she didn't know where she needed to be.
"It's her mindset," Akeno stated just low enough for him to hear without Asia's enhanced senses picking it up, getting him to twitch reflexively. "Not your teaching."
"Huh?" He looked over at where she sat on her picnic blanket.
She suppressed a smirk. It seemed he'd forgotten that alldevils have enhanced senses, even if they weren't as absurd as Koneko's.
"Asia-san doesn't have a real goal." She didn't turn her eyes away from the nun as she spoke quietly. "She wants to be more useful and knows these exercises will help her in that regard, but she's just going through the motions because that's what she was told to do, she doesn't really get it," she elaborated. "She needs either a bigger or more immediate reason to want to improve as fast as possible; something that doesn't motivate her because she wants to improve, but because she has to improve."
She glanced up at him, and saw that he was watching Asia prepare to try again at the course. It was currently laid out similarly to a show from overseas that Rias had shown her before, "American Ninja Warrior", with a variety of obstacles that didn't just require athleticism to complete, but also technique.
"Hmmm…" He stared intently with squinting eyes while his hand rubbed at his chin.
After a few moments, he groaned and slapped his hand to his face. "How the hell did I not notice that?" He stood there for a second before sighing with a half-smile as he released his head. "No, this one really is my fault. So much of my own training time was aimed at chasing after goals and preparing for disasters, that it slipped my mind what it's like doing it without that sort of mindset."
He shook his head, the smile falling away for a more serious look. "Anyway, I think I know the exact sort of thing to get her head in the right space for serious motivation."
It was curious, she noted internally, that he gave a brief grimace before he walked towards the course. Whatever it was he'd decided on, it seemed like he felt it was going to be unpleasant.
"Asia-chan, wait up for a moment!" He called out.
"Fwah?" The girl perked up to look his way with a sound of confusion. "What is it, Uzumaki-sensei?" She shifted uncertainly on her feet, rubbing her hands together in front of her. "D-did I mess up again?"
"Nope, you didn't do anything wrong," Naruto shook his head. "I missed something that should have been obvious and haven't been doing good enough as a teacher to push you to your limits, so your slow progress is my fault."
He held up a hand to stop her when her face scrunched up and she opened her mouth, the nun most likely wanting to take the blame for her lack of ability.
"Some people need something more visible and direct to give them the most motivation, and it should have been obvious to me that you're one of those people, just like I used to be," Naruto said with a noticeable hint of nostalgia in his voice. He shook it off, before continuing. "You can't help but want to help the people in front of you, so I'll give you something to aim for."
Naruto's hand moved in a swift but violent motion.
Asia stumbled a step back with a shocked yelp, before gasping in horror and holding out her hands towards him. "Sensei!"
He stepped back from her a few paces, keeping out of her glowing green reach and letting out a controlled but tense exhale, holding up a palm bloody with the recent addition of a kunai blade piercing straight through it.
"Nuh-uh, nope! From now on, I'll be someone who needs your help." He said it with a slightly pained, apologetic smile. "From now on, forget trying to beat your times. I'm going to run the course with you, but with a head start. If you can catch up to me and make physical contact, I'll let you heal me then and there. If I don't feel like you're making enough improvements, I'll stab myself somewhere else and we'll do it all over again. Understand?"
"A-auu…"Asia made a strangled whimpering sound, but nodded rapidly.
"If you do well enough, then I won't keep hurting myself, and I'll let you heal me after the session ends even if you couldn't catch me. If you haven't reached a certain level by the end of the day, then I'll just have to let my own natural healing deal with it until tomorrow." Naruto scratched at his whiskers with his good hand, a contemplative frown on his face. "It would make typing out my homework a bit of a pain, but… eh, it should be fine."
Akeno released the breath she hadn't realized she'd begun holding and forced herself to relax, the younger teen's sudden act of self-harm having shocked her.
As the nun attempted to chase down the boy with an almost manic intensity, and Akeno distractedly flipped through her own spell theory notes, her eyes kept getting drawn towards the knife still impaling the boy's hand and coated in blood. Even with just one hand available, he was staying well ahead of her on the course with ease.
She knew that he was able to shrug off notable injuries from when she'd witnessed the aftermaths of his battles, but to go that far just to motivate a girl he barely knew?
Even her sadistic side couldn't find any pleasure in the sight. The injury went much too far for anything she'd want to do to a friendly face, and the nonchalant ease with which it was inflicted and endured was almost chilling.
'It's like he operates on a whole other level than us...'
Uzumaki Naruto was completely different from everyone around him.
"That idiot."
Akeno stilled, suppressing the urge to jump a little, not having expected Koneko's voice to appear right behind her.
Despite the small girl's nature as a cat youkai and skill at being stealthy, she'd almost always preferred to do things the loud and blunt way– the [Rook] way– so her beginning to take after her ninja teacher recently was a bit of a change Akeno was still adjusting to.
Akeno turned her body to face her favorite kitten, raising an eyebrow at the genuinely worried frown on her face.
'It's so cute when her composure breaks~' she cooed internally. It was a shame that it was for something that might actually be serious. It wasn't often that Akeno got to see under her usual blank expressions, but once the mask broke, the girl could be incredibly expressive until she pulled herself back together. Her golden eyes were especially easy to read during these times
"Koneko-chan, what are you doing over here?" She asked curiously. "I thought you and Yuuto-kun were teaching Hyoudou-kun about footwork in the woods?" The new devil had the most drive to improve she'd ever seen in her life, and he had quickly reached a level of fitness that had Naruto deciding a week of the more foundational technical lessons would be more useful to him than training purely for stats all day.
"I smelled his blood. Way more than there should have been." The white-haired girl paused and shook her head. "Nn, he shouldn't have been bleeding at all during Argento's training block in the first place." Her tail flicked in agitation behind her.
Akeno tilted her head with a hum, acknowledging the point. It only surprised her a little that the girl was already familiar with the scent of his blood in particular. "He may be a cutie with the common sense of a country bumpkin, but what makes you say he's an idiot this time?" Akeno questioned curiously. She'd heard Koneko insult the boy affectionately plenty of times before, but this one seemed a bit more real than those other times. "At the rate she's improving, Asia-san will heal him by the end of this session, and he doesn't seem all that worried regardless."
Koneko broke the furrowed stare she was sending towards the boy to glance down at her, and Akeno felt like there was some sort of conflicted internal debate going on behind those eyes.
"...He almost died after you healed him," the short girl admitted. "His body needed more life force than it could produce to support the supernatural cell growth, but we're pretty sure he's only alive because some mysterious Senjutsu user showed up after we left and saved him while he was falling unconscious. He's an idiot, because we shouldn't rely on that happening again." Koneko's fists clenched and her frown deepened. "I can heal him for good, I know I can. I'm making progress. He just needs to not be an idiot that gets himself killed until I finish."
Akeno didn't really know what she could say to that, if anything, that would help ease her worry.
So instead, she stood up, stepped closer to the side of the girl she sort-of helped raise, and quietly pulled her into a hug. She felt Koneko's tail rise up to curl around her waist shortly after she began stroking the base of her ears. For a moment, she caught a glimpse of Naruto glancing their way, before he turned his focus back staying ahead of Asia.
Eventually the small nekoshou had had enough of the close contact and slowly pulled away from her arms, leaving to go back to her own devices with a small wave over her shoulder and a quiet "see you later".
Yet another night of that constant, strange feeling plaguing her senses, and another night of restlessly walking the halls as if that would somehow let her discover what exactly it was.
Just like before, she found herself standing in the doorway to the home theater room, and just like before, her gaze was drawn to the spiky hair and pair of cat ears sitting next to each other. Unlike before, they hadn't actually started anything yet, and were still scrolling through the options on the streaming service.
Akeno stood there in the darkness for a few moments, leaning against the door frame and lost in thought as she listened to the two argue whether an action film or a drama was better for a late night watch.
The scene from just a few hours earlier rose to mind, just how quick Koneko was to show up because of something as simple as the smell of blood during a training session. The worry and care she'd shown towards the boy she was currently arguing about movies with, and how she'd all but glued herself to his side the moment the day's training was finished.
Akeno sighed quietly and pushed off of the doorway.
It was clear to everyone who bothered to look, Uzumaki Naruto had become one of Koneko's most important people within less than a month of them meeting for the first time. Akeno thought he was cute and interesting, and wanted to see for herself what it was that had been drawing the two so close so quickly, but it was already becoming difficult for her to find any openings to insert herself. Or at least, any openings she felt comfortable taking advantage of for her own selfishness.
Anything that might break or interfere too heavily with that bond was out of the question. The nekoshou had too few of those as it was, so if Akeno wanted to involve herself, it had to happen naturally.
She began to turn to head back to her room, another night accomplishing none of what she set out to do.
"Akeno-senpai."
She paused, feeling a small flash of dread and embarrassment at being caught snooping, before glancing back into the room.
One of Koneko's cat-like eyes met hers, glowing slightly from the dim TV light being reflected. Her head was turned just enough to stare back at her from over the couch.
"Are you going to join, or just stand there all night?"
"Huh?" Naruto twisted around in his seat and looked towards the doorway. "Himejima is here?" He squinted after a moment. "Oh, I see now. Quit hiding in the dark like a witch, ya weirdo. Get over here, we were just about to watch Yobimjo."
"Yojimbo," Koneko corrected him blandly.
He waved a hand dismissively. "Yeah, I know. I just said that."
"Pfft-" Akeno covered her mouth with a hand, stifling the relieved giggle that wanted to escape at the situation. "I wouldn't mind joining you two," she said instead, feeling the corners of her lips wanting to tug upwards. "If you'll have me, of course."
"Duh. Hurry up." Koneko turned back towards the TV. "... Don't make me say it again."
Akeno let the smile take hold and walked into the room, stepping around the couch to take the spot right on Koneko's other side, squishing the smaller girl between her two friends.
As she settled in and the movie began to play, Akeno snuggled into the cute [Rook]'s side.
She leaned her head slightly closer and whispered something under her breath, so quietly that she couldn't even hear herself over the movie's intro.
It was obvious now to Akeno that the nekoshou had noticed her dim mood. That the girl had known she was there from the start, and might have even known the other night, too. With how quickly Koneko's senses were growing, Akeno would need to start putting much more effort into her stealth skills to get past the girl's notice in the future.
Koneko didn't respond, but the quick glance and shifting of a snow-colored furry ear was all the proof she needed to know her message was heard, so she smiled down at the cat girl who'd freely given her an opening.
Sunday night, May 13th (Day 12 of 13)
Walking the grounds at this time of night was actually pretty relaxing, with the cool breeze gently rustling through the surrounding forest. It reminded her of the monthly spiritual cleansing rituals she did for the property around her mother's shrine, though she usually did those under the new moon instead of a half-moon like tonight.
While she was out here by her lonesome, the two subjects of her healthy interest were hanging out together, about to start an anime if they hadn't begun already. While she had joined them a couple more times over the week, tonight wasn't one of those times.
It wasn't because of something she or they had done. It wasn't even like she had any particularly important task to complete or real reason to avoid them.
It was just a feeling in her chest that'd been tightening more and more over the course of the training camp, one that caused her to decline the offer of company, and instead use the time to try clearing her head.
She wasn't jealous of everyone's progress, and was proud that they were all moving forward and pushing their limits. She was just upset at herself for her lack of that same progress.
It was expected and something she'd been aware would happen, of course. Akeno was a dedicated spellcaster, someone whose primary training was much less about brute power, and much more about learning theory and practicing control. Her major gains wouldn't come from exhausting her Demonic Power every day, they would come from figuring out new ways to weave spells and apply them in new situations over the course of weeks and months, if not years.
'Of course we're not getting stronger,' a traitorous part of her mind whispered poisonously. 'Demonic Power grows with desire and pushing past limits, but we are too busy suppressing our own out of fear.'
It would be all too easy to let her nature rise to the surface. It took a lot of effort to make herself more valuable than her tainted blood, and while it had been very effective early on, her growth had gradually slowed down. It wasn't even all that recently that she'd hit a plateau. Years of effort could be made almost pointless by the simple fact of her birth, and her own mental weakness.
It was a vicious cycle. A single moment of doubt slowing her down just that little bit created the now ever-present fear that her efforts alone wouldn't be able to protect Rias when the time came; that she would have to give in and use everything, which slowed her even further in a spiraling feedback loop.
And she hated herself a little for it.
"Hey."
She didn't react other than stopping and turning her head, having known he was coming.
The boy didn't automatically hide his presence as he approached for once, going out of his way to make his steps rustle the grass he walked on. Even with her Devil night-vision, she almost didn't see his little follower, the pitch black feline practically melding with the darkness of his moonlit shadow. It was only the twin pinpricks of reflected light that drew her attention in the first place.
She almost pursed her lips at the sight.
There was something suspicious about that cat, the way it moved and acted, where and when it wandered the grounds. It almost reminded her of some of the more mischievous spirits she's dealt with in the past, the ones that liked to pretend to be harmless animals in order to trick people into giving them free stuff, all the while looking down on the 'stupid humans'. They never quite got the right balance of intellect and instinct to truly get their disguises past well informed and experienced eyes.
That, and they tended to get disruptive when bored.
"Hello." She returned his greeting with a pleasant smile and nod instead. "What are you doing out here? I thought you and Koneko-chan were going to watch something together."
She let it go with just a quick warning glance meeting its too-intelligent gaze. As long as Naruto didn't mind taking care of it and it didn't cause any trouble, it wasn't her business. If it hadn't acted out yet after this long, nor ran when in the presence of a Devil peerage, then it likely wouldn't at this point. When, if, it left his side in the future, it would likely do so silently in the night, maybe leaving a gift or a harmless prank behind in return for the care it received.
"We still are," Naruto rubbed the back of his neck with a small grin, "but you'd know better than I already do how bottomless her stomach is. She wanted to make a plate of fresh cookies first, so I figured I had a few minutes to kill. Apparently, she got up early this morning to make the dough ahead of time, heh."
Her smile shifted in amusement, remembering crossing Koneko's path that morning on her way to make breakfast for everyone.
His grin faded though, and he stared at her seriously. "So, what's gotten you all mopey lately?"
She furrowed her brows. "What do you mean?"
He studied her face for a moment, squinting a little to see better in the dim light of the moon. A moment later, scratched at his hair
"So it's one of 'those' things, huh?" He sighed. "What was it you said the other week? 'You don't wear a mask because you want to hide yourself, you drop your mask because you want to show yourself', or something like that?"
She stayed silent.
He shook his head. "Fine. I'm not going to tell you that you have to open yourself up to me. It's clear to some of us that you're in a bad headspace right now, but if you won't talk about it with the others, you wouldn't talk about it with me either. So, let me tell you a little about myself instead."
"What?" Akeno's brow furrowed in genuine confusion this time. "Why would-"
"On the day I was born," he cut her off, tilting his head back to stare up at the moon. "A nine-tailed fox attacked my village and killed hundreds. My parents died, a lot of people lost their loved ones, and the village leader died in order to seal it away. The only way he could contain its power was by using a living host for the seal, a newborn who would be able to adapt and grow with the strain of hosting it." He glanced down to look her in the eye.
Akeno found herself being drawn into the story, and realized with a sort of morbid curiosity where it was going when he paused where he did.
"You…" she muttered.
"Yeah, me." Naruto chuckled. "I was hated and ignored for a long time. I struggled. I wanted to prove I was more than the fox and make everyone acknowledge me for me. I hated the thing. A part of me hated the villagers too." He smiled nostalgically. "But y'know what? In order to deal with a bunch of messed up stuff happening, I had to accept myself and my lot in life, and after it all, I came out better than ever, and even befriended the stubborn furball!" He laughed like he told a funny joke.
She stared at him incredulously.
"I guess what I'm trying to say," he continued after he calmed down, "is that being dealt a bad hand doesn't mean you can't turn things around and make the best of things." He turned and began walking away. The cat jumped at his back and climbed up his shirt to drape itself over his shoulder. "You should talk about things with Rias or Koneko later. They notice when stuff's up with their friends too, ya'know? See ya." He tossed a lazy wave over his other shoulder while reaching up to run a hand through its fur.
As the whiskered boy headed back to the mansion, leaving her to stare up at the sky on her own while pondering his words, Akeno thought back to that first night she'd walked in on the two teens, and the reminder it had given her.
While Koneko wanted to move past her own trauma and heal, she was the opposite. Even as the pain dulled with the passage of time, even as she filled her emptiness with new, happy memories, she refused to let go of her hatred. It could weaken, she could push it to the side and focus on better things, but she would never let that scar fully disappear. It was a reminder of its own.
She couldn't allow herself to be like anyone involved in her mother's death.
But… maybe it wouldn't be the worst idea to share her fears with Rias, even if it would pain Akeno to burden her that much more.
When she woke up at sunrise on the last day and went through her usual routine in front of the mirror, a face and figure almost identical to her mother's stared back at her, as it did every morning. Aside from the color of her eyes, everything else was the same. The gentle tilt of her eyes, the black color and silky texture of her hair, her pale skin and hourglass figure. Even her preferred hairstyle was the same, though that was for obvious reasons.
Same as every other morning that she hadn't fully gathered herself after waking, she felt a flicker of happiness that some part of the woman would continue to live on with her.
Same as every morning she felt that way, a much uglier feeling smothered that bright spot. Himejima Shuri was dead, taken from her by those–
Akeno looked away before the expression in her amethyst eyes could taint her memory of the woman. Such a kind person should never make such a face. She smoothed her features, finished her routine, and went downstairs to begin cooking what would be the last breakfast of the training camp.
Rias showed up not too long after while the rest of the peerage was still in the process of waking up, her [King] stepping up behind her and poking her head over Akeno's shoulder to peek at the stove.
"Something smells good, wha-" Rias trailed off into a yawn, before leaning forward to drape most of her weight onto her [Queen] for support, arms lightly wrapping around the miko's waist in a hug. "What's for breakfast today?" The redhead asked with a tired smile, her chin propped up on her friend's shoulder.
"Ooh, someone's handsy this morning~" Akeno teased with a suggestive smile while leaning back into the busty girl's squishy chest, receiving an amused smile and a warning pinch on the belly in return. She turned her attention back to the large pan to stir, before answering while her best friend began nuzzling her. "Nothing all that special today, I'm afraid. Just some egg-fried rice with scallions and the rest of the bacon thrown in."
"Snns ghhh…" Rias mumbled into her neck. Sounds good.
"Looks like someone's more tired than usual," Akeno gently pointed out. "Late night?"
"Mmm." The heiress lifted her head to nod in confirmation. "The nerves were starting to get to me, making it hard to sleep, so I stayed up for another few hours to go over the variables to our plan again." She took in a deep breath and squeezed tighter, before withdrawing from the hug with a satisfied sigh. A part of Akeno missed the contact already. "Don't worry though, I got it out of my system. I'll definitely get a good night's sleep tonight, because regardless of what tomorrow's outcome is, I'm thankful for all the hard work everyone's been doing for my sake."
Akeno paused in her stirring for a second.
The redhead did not miss that fact, and looked at the back of her [Queen]'s head with a hint of concern. "Akeno?"
Akeno took a deep, calming breath of her own to try soothing the tightening in her chest, and released it. "Rias. After breakfast… I'd like to speak with you about something. Privately, before we begin the day's tasks."
She didn't turn, but she didn't need to when her closest friend did it for her, tugging her around to face her.
"Of course, I'll always make time for you," Rias said gently, her bright blue eyes looking into Akeno's violets while her hands rested on her shoulders. "In fact, I wish you'd come to me with your worries more often. You may think your position as [Queen] means you always need to support me, but you're still my best friend. I want to support you too, you know?"
"I've heard something like that mentioned before, yes," Akeno smiled self-deprecatingly, feeling equal parts relief and guilt. "Now that that's out of the way, please move unless you want breakfast to burn."
Rias lifted her arms out with a grin.
"Not until you give me a hug. I gave you one, now it's your turn."
Breakfast was, in fact, just a little burned.