The second thing I noticed was the natural energy itself. It was like someone took normal natural energy, made it even angrier, and then covered it in gunk that spread that anger.
I could distinctly tell which parts were the natural energy, and which parts were the curse, but I needed to purify it all in the end so the distinction did not really matter.
While I was preparing myself I let out a chuckle.
This felt just like when I first stepped onto the Path of Nature, all over again.
Cautiously bringing a wisp towards myself, it was time to find out what I was working with.
Absorbing the wisp, I began the process of purifying it as normally, and instantly felt the difference.
The cursed natural energy was heavier. More potent?
I would have to be careful, if I treated it like normal natural energy I could over-purify and seriously hurt myself.
It was odd to watch. I first had to remove the curse from the natural energy, and then purify the remaining natural energy as usual.
The interesting part was the curse, once removed, almost instantly unraveled into more natural energy to purify. That explains why it felt so energy dense.
Does that mean land curses are just natural energy prions?
That is a concerning thought.
Shaking my head, I focused back on the purification.
I slowly ramped up my purification speed to just under half my usual speed, and I could tell it was my limit.
The extra negativity from the curse combined with the doubled natural energy was seriously straining me, mentally and physically.
Thankfully Sage had been putting in serious work since I got it, both flatly increasing the amount of natural energy I could deal with and also figuring new ways to purify that natural energy, making the whole process more efficient.
I sat in mediation for almost an hour, poking and prodding different ways to purify the cursed natural energy before I felt myself reaching my limits.
Taking a moment to stretch, I sank back into meditation to review my gains.
Internally, these cursed lands are much better tonic than normal natural energy purification. It's still a small sliver of my overall Ki reserves, but it's still larger than if I tapped myself out on normal natural energy.
Maybe resisting the extra negativity had more benefits than I first thought? Something to look into later.
Externally, there were mixed results.
My immediate area was almost pure natural energy, but I could sense the edges already begin to diffuse into the cursed natural energy.
Thankfully I don't have to worry about the curse spreading and undoing my work, as land curses like this work on a timescale of years.
Even inside the formation barrier, not all of the natural energy was cursed, and from what I can see the purified natural energy doesn't seem too keen on mixing.
It will still all mix together over time, but I think the purified natural energy will be more resistant to turning back into its cursed form.
Making my way back to the entrance, I saw Shisachi still waiting and looking anxious. He lit up when he saw me unharmed.
"Hey lad! I was getting worried, you were taking so long." He called out as I stepped out of the barrier.
"Thanks for waiting, but I am ok. I was even partially successful!" I beamed out, and he just looked confused for a moment, before turning to focus on where I had just come from.
His brow slowly furrowed as he turned back to me.
"How come it ain't feel as cursed now?" He whispered, mostly to himself. His eyes grew wide as he looked at me, connecting the dots.
"You- you ain't really a Sage, are you boy?" He asked, half in reverence for Sages and half in horror for how causally he's been treating me.
"Or something." I replied cheekily. That caused him to instantly snap to full attention.
"I'm sorry for not recognizing you sooner, Elder. Do you need anything from me?" He asked.
Yasaka wasn't kidding about how the yokai feel about Sages.
"Nah, don't worry about it. If you could though, could you keep this on the down low for now? It's my first time purifying something like this and it would be embarrassing to have performance issues in front of a crowd." I joked, but I was serious about not wanting a big crowd watching me work.
That seems like it would be a pain, but from what I've been told it's going to happen whether I like it or not. All I can do is hopefully slow it down.
Shisachi chuckled before realizing what he was doing and snapping back to attention.
"Of course. Will you be coming back, Elder?" He asked in excitement.
"Yeah, now that I have a feel for what I'm doing I think it will take me about a week to clear this place out?" I asked, mostly to myself.
Most of today was experimentation, but if I focused on purifying as much as I can I think a week sounds about right.
"Of course, Elder. I'll be waiting right here so nobody disturbs you while you work." He said cheerfully.
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow, bye." I said as I walked away.
The next week was a cycle of waking up, spending time with Hana, wandering over to the location and purifying a bit more, and going back to Yasaka's estate.
Shisachi kept his word and didn't tell anyone, but the Shiki Estate wasn't exactly hidden away and people noticed it becoming less cursed by the day.
People were curious as to what was happening and by the final day I had a small crowd watching the entrance as I finished scrubbing the curse from the area.
I took some time to triple check it was completely gone, even sensing down into the earth, but the area was clean.
I walked out to see the crowd standing further back than usual, with Yasaka and Kunou waiting for me.
"So?" Yasaka asked. The crowd went silent, bated breath for my answer.
I just gave them my biggest smile.
"It is 100 percent curse free in there."
The crowd exploded into cheers, only holding back from rushing by their respect for Yasaka.
Yasaka came over and we chatted for a bit, but the area was turning into an impromptu festival so we shelved our conversation so I could go spend time with Hana.
We walked around for a bit, Hana enjoying the atmosphere until she was tuckered out, while I spent most of my time receiving thanks for my efforts. Having Yasaka and Kunou there kept the most extreme reactions to a minimum, but they wouldn't always be with me.
By the time we all went home, every yokai knew there was a new Sage, one that was young and allied with the yokai.
Yasaka and I were in her office the next day, discussing our plans moving forward now that I was publicly known as a Sage.
Hana and Kunou were out spending time together again.
I gave her my verbal report about my experience with cleaning the land curse, which she factored into her plans to deal with some of the nastier curses.
The ones that were made on purpose, or some of the leftovers from when Tamamo was running around slinging pure negativity everywhere in her madness.
We were mid sentence when I felt something odd roll over my senses, which caused Yasaka to tense up in a way I hadn't seen before.
"What was that?" I asked, tensing up to follow her wherever she went.
"We are under attack. That was a barrier. A spatial one I think, it's covering the garden and it's not one of ours." She grit out, already running to the doors.
Shit.
I made a pulse to check where Hana's amulet was, and all I got back was a scattered feeling from towards the barrier.
This was already a worst case scenario.
A/N I hate the Hero Faction, you hate the Hero Faction, but this is the best way to Kunou lewds so let the ass kicking begin.
Shorter chapter than those 3k monsters I was writing, but this was meant to be an in-between, and a setup for the Hero Faction mini-arc.
Everyone knows Nathan is a Sage now, and once he publicly defends the yokai from invaders? Yasaka will have seemed downright prudish.
GxG 21
(Kunou POV)
"I don't get it. Why is this so hard?" Complained Hana.
We were currently in the garden near my house, trying to teach her illusions.
For all of her being a Sage, she was still young. She didn't have the experience or power that usually comes with the title yet, and it was slowing her down.
"What do you think your problem is?" I gently asked her. I didn't have high hopes to start this, she doesn't have any illusion based racial traits like I did when I started learning, and she's too young to have the discipline to force it.
"It's just- I don't know! Growing flowers is easier." She grumbled, demonstrating by waving her hand and having a beautiful lotus flower with rainbow petals grow in the pond in front of us.
"Cheeky girl, what you did was super impressive, you know?" I couldn't even grow a flower that fast or easily.
"Yeah, but it's easy. I want the pretty lights." she pouted.
"Have you tried making an illusion that's also a flower?" Blending ideas like that can have unexpected results. I know I used my foxfire to learn more regular fire.
Hana's face scrunched up as she squinted at me. Cute.
"How would that make sense? A flower is a flower, and an illusion is an illusion." She asked skeptically. Pretty solid line of reasoning all things considered.
"Just try it. Pretend it works, and do it." I waved off her skepticisms. Senjutsu wasn't like Magic where everything had to be perfect, there was a lot of wiggle room.
Hana's response was to squat down, stick her tongue out and concentrate.
At first, nothing happened.
Then, some of the patterns that adorned her arms began to gently glow as a misshapen flower began to fizzle into existence.
It honestly looked more like a sparkler firework than a flower, but I didn't have the heart to say that when Hana's face lit up.
She jumped at me and I caught her in my arms as she squealed in joy.
"Did you see? Did you see it?" She stared at me with those big hopeful eyes.
"Yeah, it was a very pretty illusion. You'll be a master in no time." I replied warmly, letting her out of my arms back onto the ground.
It was at that moment that I felt something pass over us.
I tensed up, trying to figure out what just happened, and instinctually pulled Hana close to me.
She must have noticed my body language as she went silent and didn't fuss.
I heard footsteps and turned to see a group of armored people step out.
"Who are you? You shouldn't be here." I accused as I put myself between Hana and them.
The one in the lead, a man holding an obviously magical spear, ran his eyes over us and sneered.
"We heard that the yokai were getting friendly with a new human Sage? Can't have the lessers get any big ideas." He said like it made any sense.
So they were here for Nathan? Do we have a leak or is this something else?
"What do you want?" I growled at them. There were too many of them, and they didn't feel weak. My only choice would be to run.
"What we want, Miss Kitsune, is you. Damn animals have been getting uppity since that training method spread a decade ago." He seemed to be really into what he was saying.
"What does that have to do with you?" I asked back, trying to distract him while I figured out what to do. My emergency communications are cut off, probably that wave I felt earlier.
"It has everything to do with me! Everything I do is for humanity. If I have to raze every subhuman filth down to the last child to uplift humanity, then that is just the mission God has chosen me for." He ranted as he lifted his spear.
Great, I'm dealing with a fanatic. That sounds more like a manifesto than actual reasoning.
He must have noticed my thoughts somehow, because his expression quickly calmed and he started barking out orders.
"Heracles, Jeanne, you're up. Try and take them both alive, but accidents happen." He smirked at the end. It was slimy.
"On it, boss." Replied the blonde girl of the group, while a larger man just stepped towards me while knocking his fists.
Realizing the time for talk was over, I got ready for battle.
My current win conditions are to keep Hana safe, survive until reinforcements come, and not get caught, in that order.
Nathan should know something is wrong and go straight to Hana. He wouldn't do anything else.
Hana had long realized something was wrong, as she had latched onto my leg, barely peeking at the aggressors.
I shifted her into my arms while eyeing the two humans approaching me. I also had to keep an eye on the spectators in case they tried something.
"Hey, Jeanne. Wanna see who can take down the fox bitch first?" The man - Heracles - said to his companion.
"Nah, you can have her. I have some contacts who would pay good money for a spirit. Dead or alive." Jeanne replied while leering at Hana.
Her communication empathy must have picked up what she meant, as Hana started shaking in my arms.
"Over my dead body." I declared as I started to prime some illusions for when I moved.
"Yeah, that's the idea. Unless we can ransom you to cause even more damage to those damn animals playing at civilization." Heracles sneered.
"Ready to start? Try not to ruin the parts too badly." Called out Jeanne, boredom in her tone.
"Variant Detonation" "Blade Blacksmith" They each called out, a glow forming around Heracles and a sword forming in Jeanne's hand.
Shit, they both have sacred gears.
The fight started with Heracles kicking off ground and shooting towards me.
I barely got out of the way, but as he hit the ground I got caught in the edge of an explosion.
I guess that's what his sacred gear does. That's really bad for me.
It negates my advantage of using illusions to be mobile if he can just detonate the entire area.
I barely regained my footing when I had to duck to avoid a sword from behind.
"Tsk, I was hoping this would be easy." Grumbled Jeanne, as if trying to murder me was nothing more than a slightly annoying job.
"Get bent, bitch." I growled at her, already moving to dodge another one of Heracles' attacks.
This cycle went on for a few rounds, Heracles and Jeanne taking turns attacking, trying to box me in and make me make a mistake.
I wasn't able to retaliate as the second I tried to strike one, the other would attack and I would have to switch focus.
Eventually this macabre dance reached an interlude, and I smiled at them.
"What are you smiling for, bitch? You're breathing harder than us. It's only a matter of time before you lose." Jeanne chirped cheerily, in contrast to her actual words.
"No reason." I beamed at them, before fading from view.
I had spent all of our exchanges weaving an illusion around us, and now I could finally have some room to breathe.
Unfortunately, not everything goes to plan and Heracles explosions were harder to deal with than I thought.
"Heracles, I can't see her anymore. Just blast the whole area, flush her out." Jeanne drawled, and Heracles laughed.
"It's more fun when they run and fight back, but I do love a good carpet bombing." He said with a slightly deranged smile before he started throwing out explosions randomly.
This was working better than their earlier tactic, and I had to take a few hits so Hana didn't get hurt.
Hana at this point was sobbing in my arms, but otherwise totally still.
While dodging some more of Heracles blind attacks I turned my attention to Jeanne. She seemed to be the cruel one, but she was also distracted waiting for him to finish.
That was an opportunity. Kitsune aren't known for just illusions.
Dodging another near miss, I caught a moment where Jeanne was looking the wrong way.
A chance!
Gathering most of my reserves, leaving only enough for my escape, I launched a foxfire fireball at her.
It directly connected with her face, and she let out an unholy scream.
"Shit! Jeanne!" I heard from the watching group, who clearly weren't expecting me to be able to fight back.
"Alright. That is enough fun. It seems this animal has some bite after all." The leading man with a spear began, before lifting his spear towards me.
"True Longinus Balance Breaker: Polar Night Longinus Chakravartin - Itthiratana" He declared in a heavy tone of voice.
The spear glowed before creating a single orb.
Shit. The True Longinus? This just got even worse.
I barely had time to observe Jeanne or whatever the spear guy was doing, as I was sprinting towards the garden gate under my illusion.
The entire time I was fighting Heracles and Jeanne I was moving towards the gate. Fighting back was never an option, but I couldn't let them know that.
That was until I felt my illusions vanish as if they were never there.
"The bitch is making a run for it! Get her!" He called out, but seemed content to sit back and watch still.
Better for me.
As I neared the gate, I could tell my pursuers were gaining on me. Whatever that balance breaker had done had locked me out of most of my powers.
All I had was my enhanced strength and fox senses.
I ducked with Hana in my arms when I felt something behind me, and saw one of Heracles explosions sail over my head.
That attack caused my heart to drop.
It had flown right through the gate, but was stopped by a barrier.
A barrier I know doesn't exist right there. Is that what that wave was earlier?
I skidded to a stop just before I crashed into the barrier, debating whether to run left or right.
That moment of hesitation cost me.
By the time I noticed Heracles' next attack nearing me, it was already too late for me to dodge with Hana slowing me down.
Making a snap decision, I hurled Hana as far as I could to the side.
I didn't even have time to scream before I blacked out for a moment from the blast.
I came to moments later with Heracles standing over me, and Jeanne about to strike down Hana with a sword.
No, not Hana.
The barrier around her.
Her amulet was glowing brightly around her neck, projecting a barrier around her.
It was not looking good though, as cracks were already starting to form. It was probably meant to be a life-saving method to stop single strikes, not sustained attacks like Jeanne was doing.
"Stop hurting Miss Kunou! I want my Daddy!" Hana at this point was bawling, emotions running high.
Jeanne was not looking too good either. My attack had burnt a good half of her face, totally ruining one eye and most of her hair.
Serves her right, foxfire is some nasty stuff.
She noticed me waking up, as she grew a dark smile across her face.
"You are going to pay for that one, bitch. This thing seems important to you? I wonder how you are going to feel when I run her through with my swords." She said with a manic look in her eyes.
All she cared about was hurting me back, totally ignoring that she caused this by attacking in the first place.
"NO! Why are you doing this? I don't even know who you are!" I cried out.
Jeanne and Hercules just laughed.
"Didn't Cao Cao already tell you? You're not human, so you have to go. Try being the correct race in the next life." She giggled at that.
"How does that even make sense? I haven't done anything to you." I despaired as she brought her sword down on Hana's barrier, cracking it more.
"The supernatural have been preying on humanity for centuries. Yokai feed, devils slave, everyone murders. You are a blight upon the world, one we are correcting." She was nearly screaming at the end.
She brought her sword down one more time.
The barrier shattered.
I still couldn't move.
One moment I was on the ground, seeing my worst nightmare.
The next? I was floating in a sea of stars.
"Child." Came a feminine to my side.
"Huh?" What was going on?
"Child." Came a firmer, masculine voice from the same direction.
Finally turning my head, my jaw would have dropped in any other situation.
"Amaterasu! Tsukuyomi! It's nice to finally meet you, but I have to get back!" I pleaded with them, as they are obviously to blame for my current starry situation.
"Do not fret, Child. The flow of time here has been... altered to suit our needs." Said Tsukuyomi.
"Oh, thank you? Does this mean you are going to help us?" I asked in growing excitement.
A little divine smiting goes a long way in today's economy!
"I know what you are hoping for, Child, but we cannot intervene directly. Indra's mark is upon those interlopers, and to act against them personally is to cause a war we cannot handle." Amaterasu shattered my fragile optimism.
"Oh... then what is all this for?" I asked glumly. Mama always says to not put all your hope into the gods, but this just seems cruel.
"Just because we cannot act, does not mean all options are severed." Said Tsukuyomi.
Taking a moment to really look at the two gods, they seem to be almost in a rush.
Like they wanted to follow the correct decorum, but as fast as possible.
"Just because we cannot act personally, doesn't mean we cannot bless one of our subjects. A little something to shed off that filthy spear's ability?" Amaterasu added with a wink.
"Oh? OH! Yes! Uh- Yes please, I would love your blessing to get through these trying times." I tried to say in a formal tone, but the current situation did not really allow for that.
Both of the gods smiled. Amaterasu tapped my forehead, followed by Tsukuyomi. Both their fingers glowed.
"Your bloodline already carries my blessing as my Chief Shrine Maidens, but I'll add a personal touch." Amaterasu stated as the glow faded.
"And I'll have to match that to not seem stingy. Do us proud, young yokai." Tsukuyomi added as his finger stopped glowing.
"Thank you, I'll be sure to use your blessing well." I stated, doing a formal bow to them.
Both of the gods just smiled and waved as all three of us began fading from view.
I didn't notice one tail turning moon silver and another tail turning sun gold.
"Do you think that was enough?"
"It has to be. If something happens to the Princess, that's OUR asses on the line, brother."
"Fucking Indra."
"Fucking Indra is right. I do hope that Sage likes our gift to his little wife."
"They aren't married yet, sister."
"Bah, I've been watching kitsune since I first created them. The only question is if he's going to take the mother, too"
"If you say so, sister."
Opening my eyes, I barely noticed the power surging through my body, nor how different that power felt.
All I could see was Hana crying, and Jeanne winding up the final blow.
I didn't think.
Couldn't, the pain from that last hit hadn't just vanished.
I just moved, the new power flowing to assist me.
"Hey! Stop!" Heracles called out, surprised by my sudden movement.
As I neared them, I leaned into some of my new instincts, lashing out with a tail.
A distinctly metallic tail.
It cleanly severed Jeanne's arm that was holding her sword, causing her to totally miss Hana, letting me scoop her up as I ran by.
Jeanne screamed even worse than before, but I couldn't bring myself to care.
Hana gripped me tightly, sobbing so hard she couldn't get out a single word.
She felt different now though. A resonance? That's new.
No. Two different resonances. Something to look into later, after we get out of this.
"MAMA! You're ok!" Hana cried into my arms as I almost tripped.
This resonance might be more important than I thought.
We are still trapped in this barrier, but I'm faster than all of them now that I'm not crippled by that weird balance breaker and newly blessed.
That doesn't help me against their numbers, and I can also feel my blessing fading over time. Some kind of freshly blessed boost wearing off.
I evaded them for a few minutes, taking pot shots with my foxfire when I could. It was gold and silver now too, and much more powerful.
Sadly, they had learned their lessons from before, and eventually boxed me against the barrier again.
Cornered, beat up, and exhausted. I had no fight left in me, and I had to carry Hana with one arm as I had taken a bad hit.
Cao Cao approached, a deep scowl on his face.
"Did you enjoy causing so many problems bitch? You have nowhere else to run now. Any last words?" He asked, confident in his victory.
Panting, hair in one eye, I looked up and met his eyes.
"Yeah, just one thing. My win condition was time."
I smiled, all bloody teeth.
"Huh?" He was confused, but never got to finish his question.
There was a loud thump.
The barrier cracked.
And then the sky fell.
(Nathan POV)
I would say I'm a pretty happy guy. Some jokes here, a laugh there.
But right now? Having broken through the barrier?
Seeing Kunou so beaten and injured that she was barely awake, and Hana covered in scratches and bawling her eyes out?
I was furious, releasing the full might of my ultimate class touki.
"Oh? A human? You wouldn't happen to be that Sage we were looking for?" A man with a spear asked, but he looked wary from the power I was giving off.
"Daddy! You have to help Mama! She's hurt!" Came Hana's voice. I almost chuckled, it seems a lot has happened between them.
"Daddy? You're this thing's father?" Spear guy scoffed, as if the idea was personally offensive to him.
I didn't even respond to him. I just flash stepped to Kunou and quickly stabilized the worst of her injuries.
The spear guy took that as a personal offence, as he attacked me from behind.
Slow.
I didn't even have to look to slap away his spear with one hand.
I couldn't see his reaction, but I heard his panicked orders.
"Guys, we need to retreat. NOW, Georg."
Seems he was at least smart enough to know when he was beat.
Wouldn't help him.
Finally happy with Kunou's condition, she passed out with Hana clutching her.
I gently patted her head, brushing some of the dust out of her rainbow hair.
"You're safe now, Little Flower. Just give me a moment to clean these guys up."
Hana gave a massive sniffle before nodding with her whole body.
Flashing one last smile to her, I turned around, scanning the retreating forms of the assailants.
I could see them converging on one nerdy looking guy. That must be Georg, their escape somehow.
Can't have that.
I flash stepped to him, aiming to cripple him with one strike.
Sadly, one of his teammates was watching me and struck out, causing me to slightly miss and clip his arm instead.
He screamed, but faded from view, leaving me with the spear guy and some other cronies that didn't leave while I was treating Kunou.
"Shit, Georg is down. I'll go balance breaker and try to fight him off while you guys run." He ordered the remaining assailants before turning back to me.
"True Longinus Balance Breaker: Polar Night Longinus Chakravartin" Was all he said, 7 orbs forming around him and causing his power level to reach mine.
It doesn't matter. Borrowed power is always worse.
We began to fight. I was stronger, but sometimes my instincts would flare up on certain attacks.
That spear was a pain. I had to do something about it.
"Why are you doing this? We could lead humanity into the future!" He cried out at me, fending off my attacks.
"You hurt my daughter. I haven't killed before, but you make me want to try." I stated monotone back at him.
"You betray your roots, gallivanting with these sub-humans." He nearly frothed out.
This conversation was over. He was a moron.
Throughout the fight I had been observing him, and I found the thread for me to pull.
He was connected to that spear with some sort of soul-tether.
I might not be good at soul surgery yet, but a messy cut? Easy.
Putting my plan into motion, I feinted an attack and then left an opening which caused him to strike me right where I wanted him to.
In the blink of an eye, I grabbed the spear before he could react.
Pulling him towards me, he was too surprised to let go.
With my other hand I landed a palm strike center mass.
We were only connected for a moment, but that is all I needed.
A surge of senjutsu aimed right for the tether sliced through it.
His eyes widened before he let out an inhuman shriek, letting go of the spear and falling backwards.
Before I could react, a portal opened behind him and I could see Georg with a mangled arm catch him before closing the portal.
The spear, now bereft of its previous connection, tried to connect to me.
I promptly rebuffed it, spending a moment to put some simple formations on it using my blood to seal it.
Turning to the few people left, I spoke.
"Your leader is defeated, and your group has left you. Surrender."
They all dropped to their knees.
The fight was over.
A/N - My first time writing such a large fight, I think it turned out well enough. It's not like its the main theme of the story
Also the last of the chapter spam, I got more assignments to do.
Interlude 2
"Honey, Nathan finally called! He's asking for you." I heard from my wife from the kitchen. I was currently spending my weekend morning relaxing on the couch, so I made my way over.
It was surprising he was calling so soon, I thought it would take longer.
Nathan had always been an odd child. Extremely independent, but not to the level of pushing me or his mother away.
He just always knew what he wanted, and how to do it. Add in his frightening intelligence and how he was always learning, and you got a recipe for a person who is always moving forwards.
Thinking of Nathan, I was reminded of the power humming beneath my skin.
He called it Ki, the power of life.
Even just having it unlocked was such a massive shift in perspective.
I felt healthier, stronger, more alert. I could focus longer and do things I had never imagined.
From what he described, he unlocked this power when he was barely three years old, and has only grown exponentially stronger as he aged.
If he has felt like this since he was a toddler, I think it is a miracle that he turned out as well adjusted as he did.
His mother and I did fret for a long time about his lack of social connections, but the addition of Hana and the reveal of magic did a lot to assuage our worries.
I wouldn't want to talk to other kids if they were stupid and weak too. It is a miracle he didn't grow any disdain for normal people, as strong as my boy is.
I've seen people act worse while wielding political power in an office job, say less about a child with the power to simply snap anyone who displeases them.
Finally making it into the kitchen, I took the phone from my wife. She looked really good since Nathan helped her unlock her Ki, even if she started from touki.
One of the endless blessings our boy has brought us.
"Here, he only said hello and then asked for you." She pouted.
"I'll see what he wants, then you can talk later." I offered.
Nathan and I had an understanding, especially about some of the darker parts of the moonlit world. I had my experience in the military when I was younger, and Nathan is in the thick of it personally.
There are things that his mother just wouldn't understand.
Oh, she knows about things like Kunou's attack a decade ago and the devil that Nathan is treating in his base, but she doesn't understand.
Not truly.
That is ok.
"What's up, champ?" I asked while putting the phone up to my ear.
"Hey dad, sorry for calling so early in the morning, but this couldn't wait." Nathan sounded subdued. That was not a good sign.
"What happened?" Amy noticed my change, but I put my hand up before she could say anything. She looked a little peeved for being shushed, but relented.
"There was an attack." Nathan simply said. He didn't sound too upset, so the worst didn't happen.
"Is Hana ok?" I questioned, which caused Amy's face to contort, but I kept my hand up and she held her tongue.
"Yeah, Hana is not hurt. It was a close thing though, and it took me all day to calm her down. She finally fell asleep and then I called you." He explained, sounding exhausted.
"How did that happen? You have only been gone for a week!" I asked, thoughts racing.
He said the supernatural was dangerous, but this is insane. I need to find out more.
"We are still questioning the attackers we captured, but it seems like they were planning this for a long time. At best this was an unlucky coincidence, at worst my presence as a Sage was leaked and forced them to move." Nathan tried to sound calm, but I could tell he was tense.
Tense and furious.
I don't think I have ever seen Nathan upset over anything. If I had to guess, his inborn power and intelligence gave him such confidence that he never needed to be upset over anything. An attack on his daughter is what it took to bring out those emotions.
I would almost be proud if it wasn't such a terrible situation.
"You think they moved because you were a Sage?" Nathan had explained what a Sage was while teaching us some basic Ki knowledge. He explained it as being a 'nature god without divinity'. He said that explanation left out a lot of nuance, but got the point across well enough.
At this point Amy had figured out what happened from our conversation, and had sat down at the table while looking extremely worried.
"Yeah. All I've done that was Sage related was clearing out a small curse, but it was enough for information to travel. It didn't help that there were bad actors on Yasaka's end too." He explained, sounding frustrated at the end.
His host had troubles on the home front, huh.
"Bad actors? What do you mean exactly." I asked, trying to build a mental image of this whole situation. Supernatural politics sounded like downright medieval most of the time, so I didn't have high hopes.
"It was a two pronged attack. Some traitors from her faction tried to poison the leyline which would have crippled or outright killed her if they succeeded, as well as effectively magically irradiating a decent chunk of Japan for anything not darkness aligned." He laid out.
Traitors are the worst, but he didn't sound too upset about them. That meant they were dealt with, and didn't do anything too egregious to him either.
"The other attack?" I gently prodded, and even over the phone I could hear my son's voice tighten.
"The traitors coordinated with a group of human supremacists. They were attempting a decapitation strike on Kunou, either capture or kill. Problem is, one of them clocked Hana as a spirit on sight and started talking about how she would sell for a lot, heavily implied as parts." Nathan ground out in barely contained rage.
I couldn't help but agree.
"What the hell is wrong with people?" I nearly shouted, startling Amy, who now looked extremely scared as well as worried.
I took a deep breath to calm myself, and tried to placate her again.
Selling Hana for parts?
That small, beautiful, lovable girl? The same Hana who was dropped into our lives and brightened them immensely?
"When are you coming home?" I asked in a no nonsense tone. Maybe we let him go explore too early, especially dragging Hana around. It clearly was not safe out there.
Nathan hesitated for a moment, before finally replying. "We can't right now. It's safer here at the moment."
"What do you mean safer? You were just attacked!" I whisper-shouted, frustration creeping into my tone.
"During the attack I injured the human faction's leader and their transport mage, but they both ended up getting away due to my utter unfamiliarity with magic. Ironically, the safest place for us right now is right here. Safety in numbers and all that." He calmly explained back, but I can tell he was not happy about letting them get away.
"How good did you get them?" I asked in grim satisfaction.
"Transport guy lost an arm. I managed to steal this super cool soul spear from the leader, but I don't know what to do with it yet." He replied with a similar tone.
"You don't want his weapon? It must be good if it is soul related." I inquired. Soul related anything is usually top tier for a reason. Even I knew that.
"It is apparently some sort of ultra important Abrahamic relic, which would put me squarely in their sights. I would rather not have that for now. Plus, I don't really want to go around putting random things in my soul. I don't know where that thing has been." He lightly joked at the end, but I got what he meant.
The mundane church has always been intense, and apparently the supernatural side is downright fanatical. Or so we have been told. We took those books with a grain of salt, but honestly it makes sense.
"So what is your plan then?" I asked, seeing as he wasn't coming back anytime soon.
"Probably hang around here for a few months, learning as much healing as I can while splitting the rest of my time between Hana and clearing the curses out of this place. I am being paid quite well for my services." He said, but I could have sworn I heard a woman's voice laugh when he said that.
"Alright, make sure to call more often then. I know you only called now because it was urgent." I ribbed my son a little.
"Hey! I am not that bad." I could just imagine his offended face.
"You had a secret base in the forest for years, and only told us because you got a flower pregnant." I deadpanned back. I could hear him sputtering trying to respond.
Eventually he found his words.
"Alright, I have to go now. I am an important person now, so that means meetings." He said with dread. I felt for him, meetings are so boring.
"Ok, talk to you soon then. Your mother misses Hana something fierce." I said, getting a small glare from the side.
"Bye dad."
"Bye son."
The line went dead, and I prepared to face the herculean task of calming down my wife who had grown more anxious that entire call.
A/N This chapter really fought me, I re-wrote it a few times from different perspectives. Honestly, I just want this part to be over, I'm sick of the drama. I wanna get back to senjutsu and flirting with Kunou. Lewds incoming soon, be prepared to be amazed how bad they are. It will be great fun.
"How is she?" Asked a concerned Yasaka, with a bandaged Kunou beside her mirroring her emotion.
"I finally got her asleep, and just got off the phone with my dad. That empathy ability combined with whatever filth they spewed really shook her up." I replied with a similar worry in my voice. I was not happy at all, but I was a little better now that Hana was unharmed and asleep.
We were currently in the small on-site hospital in Yasaka's main residence, with Yasaka going over Kunou's injuries and checking over her new blessings. I had done an okay-ish job of patching her up when I broke through the barrier, and some of the actual yokai doctors did a much better job after the battle, but she is still in for a few weeks of recovery.
I was already here to learn more about healing souls, but I bet nobody will stop me from learning more general medicine too. I was quickly learning that more knowledge is never bad.
I always knew that, but there is a difference between knowing something and experiencing it. There is a difference between 'I know a little bit of magical first aid' and 'I am so thankful I was able to stabilize Kunou'. They had totally different weights.
Shaking out of my short reflection, I took some time to look over Kunou. After a few rounds of healing she was looking much better. No particularly egregious wounds, but she did look like a mummy with all those bandages.
I also took note of her newly metallic tails. She was already a very bright blonde so the golden tail blended in, but the silver tail was a very strong contrast.
"So what is the deal with those tails? I heard something about blessings but I don't know the specifics." I asked the duo, changing the subject to something less depressing.
Kunou perked up, excited to brag. "Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi gave me a little something to survive that fight." She gloated while waving those two tails around to show them off to us.
"Why not just smite them directly? This seemed like a pretty direct attack." I asked back, bringing up what had been bothering me. If they knew it was a problem, but just watched while Hana was hurt I might have to fight some gods later.
"Some of those humans had Indra's blessing, which meant Indra's claim. Blessing her to their level was as much as the Shinto could do without turning a mortal skirmish into a divine war." chimed in Yasaka from the side.
It makes sense that she would know more about that considering her position as Amaterasu's priestess, she has to have at least a surface level knowledge of divine politics if she is going to represent them.
"Alright, that's fair. War sucks. I can only imagine divine war is worse. What did the blessings do though? Other than turning her tails shiny." I replied back, once again looking at Kunou who was still happily showing off her new additions.
"My blessing from Amaterasu is just below the one she gave Mama, and I can feel it does a lot. I'm stronger in the sunlight, I have a stronger affinity with anything related to the sun, and I get this beautiful tail!" Kunou shared excitedly, but something about how she explained it felt off.
"She only cares about the gold thing, huh?" I said to Yasaka.
"Oh yeah, totally. She's obsessed." Yasaka replied, holding back a giggle.
Kunou, who was watching this little skit, just pouted at us.
"And Tsukuyomi?" I prodded, but I had a feeling I knew the answer.
"Same thing as Amaterasu but with the moon. The silver is nice, I guess." She sulked slightly. It was really fun to watch her emotions ping-pong around like this.
I leaned over to Yasaka, "She hates it, right?"
"I have never seen a more despised blessing before." Yasaka nodded sagely.
"Hey! Don't put words in my mouth. The power boost is nice, and I probably would not be alive without it. It's just..." She trailed off, trying to find the words.
"Just?" I egged her on.
"Silver is not my color!" She blurted out. "I like gold so much better. It blends in with my blonde so much more naturally, and the silver contrasts so poorly!"
There was a beat of silence after her outburst. Then we all burst out laughing. It took a few moments for us to calm down and be able to talk properly after that.
"Man, that must really suck. Doesn't it, Mama." I said in a heavy teasing tone which caused Kunou to light up in a blush and Yasaka to perk up.
"Oh? What's this?" Yasaka questioned a little too excitedly. Was Yasaka a gossip, or was she just interested in teasing Kunou with me.
Kunou was struggling to respond in a coherent manner so I talked for her.
"When I broke the barrier the first thing Hana said to me was to 'help Mama'." I teased the kitsune who was somehow blushing even more. Yasaka looked like it was the most interesting thing she had ever heard.
"It's not like that." Kunou denied, but you could tell she wasn't actually upset.
"Do explain, daughter."
"After I got those blessings, I could feel a..." Kunou searched for the word that fit best. "Resonance. There was a resonance. I thought Hana was a lotus spirit, why does she have sun and moon parts?" Kunou questioned me, squinting her eyes like it was my fault this all happened.
"I couldn't tell you. The Rainbow Lotus: Sun and Moon series that she was born from has some small sun and moon portions. It's in the name. I know nothing about how spirits are made, and even less about divine blessings, so I couldn't tell you why that happened." I responded with a shrug. It seemed like a lot of things just happened.
"Anyways, I was panicked, Hana was panicked, and the feeling of 'same-ness' just caused it to slip out. She's young, and we've spent a lot of the last week together, don't blame her." Kunou tried to explain, but Yasaka's growing amusement slowly silenced her.
"Heh." Yasaka did a small laugh at Kunou.
"Mamaaaaa." Kunou wined back. There was definitely some sort of wordless communication happening between them, but it flew over my head.
We lapsed into silence again while Yasaka and Kunou were making faces at each other, somehow clearly having a fast paced conversation.
Yasaka was the one to speak first, "Since Kunou is not in any danger and we couldn't find anything wrong with her blessings earlier, It's time for us to head to that meeting and go over the after action reports."
"Me? I'm pretty sure this is all you." I replied confused. This was explicitly her internal politics now, I had no place there.
Yasaka's growing grin did not fill me with confidence.
"You're going to be joining us, half as an aggrieved party, and half as my hired muscle." She explained, but I wasn't entirely convinced.
"Aggrieved party I can understand, but hired muscle?"
"It's not quite what you think. Between you clearing that land curse and that moron screaming about you being a Sage after you shattered the barrier, everyone knows there is a Sage around." She said, wincing a bit while saying that the info is more widespread than either of us wanted.
"That sucks that it leaked, but how does that factor into the upcoming meeting?" I asked back. Politics were the worst, but at least I had the advantage of being a big fist.
"By showing up, you're effectively moral support. I had to clear some traitors who launched a separate attack, so all the clans are on edge. Having you there would make things so much easier." Yasaka nearly pleaded at the end. Grown women should not look so pitiful.
"Fine, I'll go." I said while sighing. I knew she was faking it, but she cheered up way too fast.
"Wonderful!"
I spent the next week with Hana glued to my side as she refused to let me out of her sight. That meant that we spent lots of time in the library together, as well as short walks outside when she felt up to it.
My Little Flower was learning to read extremely quickly too. For both English and Japanese she was reading at an elementary school level, which was insane for her age.
Sure, she wasn't human, and her language empathy ability was carrying her, but it was still very impressive. I loved the way she lit up whenever I praised her too, which caused her to try even harder.
It was very cute watching her sound out words, and once Kunou was cleared to walk around she spent most of her time with us.
Kunou and Hana were much closer than they were before. Not quite 'surrogate mother' level like her panicked words during the battle, but they were steadily bonding.
When I wasn't going over children's books with Hana I was diving into all the senjutsu knowledge I could find.
All my Magic motes were still working, but it had not been long and they hadn't made much progress.
I was starting with the basics, and comparing them to how I did them from self study. Usually I did things better, but sometimes I found nuggets I could use. The general knowledge of combining Ki and Touki with fighting was way beyond anything I had puzzled out though.
Who knew that millennia of fighting caused fighting methods to be refined.
From small tricks on how to maximize Ki during a fight, to novel methods of circulating to achieve interesting effects. This library was a treasure trove I was determined to take for all its worth.
It was a very peaceful week all things considered, but time marched forwards. The repairs around the dimension were completed and the shock from the attack had worn off.
Life was feeling back to normal and Hana wasn't panicking the moment she could not see me anymore, so it was decided that I would restart my Sage work on the cursed lands.
I started slowly, to make sure Hana didn't relapse if I spent too long away, but eventually I was back to purifying the land to my limit.
Sage and Lifeforce Manipulation were both getting a workout from my constant usage. I could feel them both thriving under the strain I was putting myself under to clear the land curses, and I was all the stronger for it.
The biggest change from the first curse I purified and now was the public.
I was now known as a Sage, and one who was purifying the curses that had haunted their dimension for decades. The curses nobody else was able or willing to deal with.
This made me very popular with the local population. I had vendors giving me free food, people just walking up and thanking me, and I even had one mother ask me to bless her baby. That was awkward, but I did a short senjutsu scan and noticed a small issue which I quickly healed on reflex.
The mother was of course watching me do this, and nearly broke into tears, thanking me for blessing her child with good fortune. All I did was a small healing technique some of the medical yokai showed me during my studies.
The worst one though was last night.
It's been a few months since the attack, and I had purified quite a few locations. I was getting faster and faster at clearing the curses before I reached my limit, which left me a good amount of free time.
I spent most of it with Hana, but I had been on quite a few dates with Kunou too. Things were progressing well with her, and I found out she is a very messy kisser. I'm pretty sure she's holding herself back from straight up licking me half the time, so I haven't brought it up. No need to ruin a good thing.
We were walking back from dinner hand in hand. The onlookers had figured out what was going on, with all the local aunties teasing Kunou constantly and the uncles giving me nods, but they mostly left us alone.
Last night though, one nekomata was feeling bold and walked up to us. I thought she was going to give me the usual "Thanks for clearing the curses, I love Sages" thing that most yokai have going on, but I was dead wrong.
Instead what happened was she walked up to us and held out her hand to give me something. She didn't feel dangerous, so I obliged, thinking it would be a small gift.
What was dumped in my hand were her panties, her address, and the times she would be home. The panties were still warm.
I was shocked. Kunou was murderous. I'm pretty sure I saved her life by rejecting her on the spot.
After that Kunou was acting weird, and kept sending me glances the rest of the night. When she wasn't brooding, she was looking very thoughtful, so I left her alone as we walked back to her house.
Coming out of meditation, I wondered what Kunou wanted this room for. She had been acting weird since last night's panty disaster, so I didn't think much of her request earlier in the day.
She wanted me to absolutely saturate a room with purified natural energy, though she wouldn't say what it was for.
It was an easy enough request. Just cover the room in energy formations to concentrate the natural energy, and then use my Sage abilities to turn it all into pure natural energy.
I wondered what she wanted all this energy for, as even I was slightly light headed sitting in the room waiting for her. I don't think she could hurt herself, and I'll be here for whatever she wants to do, so it's probably some ancient method they have.
Just as I was going to leave to look for Kunou, she dashed into the room and locked the door behind her.
Odd.
I didn't even get a word in before Kunou was on me, shoving her tongue down my throat. Not an unwelcome development. She tasted like cherries.
After a minute of frantic kissing Kunou finally leaned back, the spit trail adding to her glowing cheeks and glassy eyes.
"Not that I mind, but what's the occasion?" I asked breathlessly. Months of living with these two vixens had keyed me up something fierce. While making out with Kunou was great, it just made me that much hornier too.
Kunou looked at me for a moment, before backing off towards the open area of the room.
"Sit on the bed and don't move. You're getting a show." She said while making eye contact.
I sat my ass on that bed.
It started slowly. Kunou was doing a slow dance to music only she could hear. I was mesmerized. Some twirls and bends that really showed off her assets, tugging at her yukata in ways that maximized her sexual appeal but didn't show anything.
This went on for a few minutes, my eyes never leaving Kunou's body. The way her tails swayed shouldn't be allowed. Slowly, she began to talk during her dance.
"You know, I was so scared during that attack. I really thought I was going to die." She started narrating.
"Hey-" I started but was cut off.
"No, let me speak." I promptly shut my mouth. When a pretty lady bends over for you, you listen.
"I thought I was going to die, and you saved me. I haven't thanked you enough." She said as she walked near me, brushing her tails against me lightly.
"I think you were my first friend too. Sure I played with other kids back then, but there was a gulf none of them crossed. I have made real friends since then, but you were the first."
"My first friend, and then you saved my life like that. Not even because you wanted to, just because you could. Hana was in danger, so you saved us. You haven't even asked for anything either. It's enough to make a lady feel special, you know." She stated as she moved, but something was off.
"Are you ok, you're looking extra red and breathing heavy." I asked in worry. She wasn't moving enough to be this out of breath.
Kunou gave a sultry smile. "Then it's working."
"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked bewildered, but it seemed she had a plan.
"After that hussy last night gave you her panties I talked to Mama and some of the local aunties, and they told me something interesting. See, Wukong won't help with the curses but he does still visit sometimes." She began, and I just listened.
"He has this trick where he purifies a lot of energy, and all the aunties love it. They always come back the next day looking extremely satisfied." She continued, and I could see where this was going. My breathing sped up a little, and her smile grew.
"Concentrated purified natural energy has an interesting effect on yokai. Until properly acclimated, it's like a drug. Just a mystical sugar rush basically. Nothing strong, but if a lonely aunty or a pent up kitsune were to lean into their instincts..." She trailed off with a smirk.
"What happens?" I asked, but I knew where this was going.
Kunou didn't respond. In one swift motion she dropped her whole yukata on the floor, revealing the lingerie underneath.
It was pure black, and had slits that left her nipples and pussy open to the air.
Now, this wasn't the first time I had seen a naked woman. Yasaka had made sure of that. Between her flashing campaign ramping up over the months and her 'accidently' crossing paths at the end of a bath, I was not unfamiliar with the female form.
With Kunou it was different. The air was charged with intent. She was stunning.
She stood there and basked in my vision, my eyes staring at her delicious tits. Not nearly as big as her mother's, but they were perfect for their size.
Shape, size, those slightly puffy nipples that grabbed my attention, the tasteful lingerie that accented them both. I was in heaven.
Eventually my gaze trailed down her toned body to her bottoms which hid basically nothing.
I could see she had shaved, but left a small tuft of blonde on top. It looked good.
Kunou saw me staring and ran her hand down her body until it reached her pussy. She leaned back slightly and used two fingers to spread it wide, showing me her glistening insides.
Once she had decided I had seen enough, or maybe she was just getting impatient, she started walking towards me.
"Here's how this is going to go. You are going to get naked, and then you are going to fuck me." She said with authority, but I could see her barely holding it together. I didn't call her out.
"I like that plan." I agreed as I started to strip as fast as I could. I was naked before she even got to me. I might have ripped some of my clothes, but I was fast. That is what mattered.
Once I was done I saw Kunou pause for a moment before her eyes dilated. I wouldn't say I was huge or anything but Body had clearly done wonderful things to me. It wouldn't be wrong to say I was the perfect size.
Kunou regained her wits quickly, looking extremely pleased as she ran her eyes over my naked form.
"I don't want to be able to walk tomorrow." She purred in my ear as she walked past me and climbed on the bed.
My eyes traced her wandering tails down to their base, staring at her exposed ass as she got into position.
Looking down at Kunou, on her back and spreading her pussy for me is the hardest I think I have ever been.
I got into position, my cock brushing against her slit. Instead of starting instantly though, I took my time.
I surprised Kunou by leaning down for another kiss, this one even sloppier than before. We were a mess of tongues and limbs, with Kunou running her hands along my muscles and I was giving special attention to her tits.
The way she bucked and mewled as I tweaked her nipples was so hot.
"You're beautiful." I whispered as I broke the kiss.
Kunou looked vulnerable for a moment before her expression shifted into something more predatory. "You know kitsune are basically seduction spirits? Of course I'm beautiful." She tried to deflect, but she was still visibly preening.
"Less talking loverboy, more making a mess out of me." She demanded, and I could feel her lifting her hips to rub against me.
I spent a moment getting my tip slightly inside her but stopped. Kunou looked confused as I interlocked both my hands with hers.
Her eyes widened in unblinking eye contact as I sunk into her.
I took a split second to set that Sex mote to make sure nobody gets hurt. I can practice on Kunou all I want to get better at the fun parts.
""Holy shit"" We both said, before we chuckled slightly. I was bottomed out and Kunou was totally full. There was even a small bulge on her lower stomach which she was staring at.
"It's so warm." Kunou whispered in wonder. "Mama never mentioned that part." Odd that she would bring up her mother right now, but it reminded me of Yasaka's teasing for the last few months and my dick twitched.
Which Kunou felt.
"You know, I know about what Mama has been doing. Honestly, if you didn't have Hana we would have both been walking around naked all the time." Kunou said out of the blue. I knew she knew, but it was an odd time to bring it up.
Kunou noticed my odd look as she continued talking.
"It's ok, you know? Harems are normal, and Mama works so hard. She deserves something nice. Not right now though, it's my turn. You can start moving now." She said as she made eye contact. I ignored that harem comment for now.
Watching her face flutter as I pulled back was one of the hottest things I have ever seen.
Then I pushed forwards. Then back again. Then forwards.
Kunou was letting out a symphony of moans, mewls and squeaks during this slow hand holding, eye contact missionary.
"Faster." She breathlessly demanded. Who was I to deny her.
I sped up my strokes, which made her breasts start to bounce even more. Letting go of one of her hands, I used my free hand to start to play with them.
The firmness was divine, and feeling her pussy clench when I tweaked them just right was a reward on its own.
"Kiss me, I'm close." She rasped out and I dove to her lips while not slowing down.
"I'm close too." I gasped back in between kisses.
"Do it inside." She begged, a wild look in her eyes. I was too far gone to even think about denying.
"Don't stop. Don't stop." She was moaning, and I felt her start to tighten up. It was coming.
Just as I felt her really tighten up, she broke the kiss and bit my shoulder. It wasn't hard, and she could never hurt me, but damn was it hot.
As Kunou totally locked up in pleasure I bottomed out and released a full load into her desperate womb.
This is the moment I miscalculated.
I was a Sage. Normally this fact doesn't really affect my daily life, but it means my Ki, my lifeforce is extremely potent.
Having sex is probably the most Life aligned act there is.
What this meant is that Kunou just got a load of ultra dense lifeforce dumped deep inside her.
I watched the moment she went from 'amazing orgasm' to 'mind melting fireworks'.
Everything I knew about Ki said this wouldn't hurt her though, so I just kissed and comforted her as she rode the orgasm.
Eventually her eyes regained clarity and she started kissing me back.
"That was amazing." Kunou said in a wonderous tone. "I can feel everything you let out inside. It's so warm and potent."
"Are you ok?" I checked. She seemed fine, but it also felt like good aftercare to ask after that minor mind whammy.
"Never been better. I think I even got a little stronger." She let out a small gasp when she realized that, before making a devious face. "You let out so much, so deep inside. I might get pregnant, you know? Or is that what you wanted."
I froze still, but of course she felt my cock twitch again. Damn thing keeps ratting me out.
"I-" I started, but Kunou put a finger over my lips to shush me.
"I'm joking. Watching you with Hana makes me melt, but I'm too young for a child. I took precautions before I came here. Don't be too disappointed." She added with a small wink.
I let out a sign before flopping onto her, making her laugh.
We laid there for a while, just enjoying the feeling of each other.
"Wanna go again?" I asked, face still in her tits.
"Of course, Daddy." She replied coyly.
She felt my cock twitch again and started laughing.
I shut her up real quick.
Breakfast was an awkward affair. All of my motes and training have not prepared me to deal with this kind of tension.
"So... did you have fun last night?" Yasaka nonchalantly asked. The way she asked it like she was asking about the weather was masterful.
"You had fun without me?" Hana cut in scandalized. She was not impressed I was not in my room in the morning when she woke up, but Yasaka was a saint and distracted her long enough for me and Kunou to get ready in the morning.
Or she was just enabling us. Probably the latter. Vixen finally got what she wanted, if indirectly.
"You wouldn't like it. It was adult fun." I replied a little too quickly. I hope she wouldn't notice.
I couldn't use anything fancy like allspeak, but as a Sage I was very good at using different intents. Ever since I learned about Hana's little language ability I have been practicing in case I need to use her skill to communicate directly using it.
In this case though, I needed to make sure she didn't catch any hidden meanings while I diverted her.
My Little Flower just stared at me skeptically for a minute before shrugging.
"Kay." She then forgot about me and promptly smashed through the elephant in the room. "Miss Kunou looks so pretty this morning!"
Wasn't that the truth.
I don't know if it was her nature as a kitsune, her blessings, the multiple lifeforce transfers she got last night, or some combination of those, but Kunou was positively glowing this morning.
Figuratively and literally. Kunou herself was cheerful, energetic, and looked like she just had the best spa retreat ever.
She was also emitting a soft golden glow. Nothing major, and at first glance you would think it was just a trick of the light.
Kunou was totally lost in her own little world right now. Unfocused eyes, a dopey smile, the occasional giggle at a joke nobody could hear.
It was so bad that Yasaka reached over with a tail and flicked her in the back of the head.
"What? I'm here." She yelped before remembering she was at breakfast. "What's going on?" She asked, tilting her head and flopping an ear to the side.
"I said Miss Kunou looks so pretty today." Pouted Hana for having to repeat herself. It was instantly lethal to Kunou who reached over and swept her into a hug.
"Aw, thanks. Hana is pretty every day too." Cooed Kunou while Hana was flailing in the surprise abduction hug. Eventually Hana wiggled free and went back to her food, glaring at Kunou.
Yasaka watched this little event happen, mirth heavy in her eyes. I was enjoying breakfast, the eggs were amazing.
It was a peaceful morning.
I have unleashed a monster.
Kunou is insatiable. Any moment she can drag me off to ride my cock she does.
As an Ultimate-Class Sage, my stamina is irrelevant, and Kunou devours enough energy from my release to keep up with me.
It's been weeks and she has only gotten more adventurous.
I thought that maybe after I got with Kunou that Yasaka would slow down her seduction attempts, but I had severely underestimated this mother-daughter pair.
"C'mon Mama, this is what you wanted right? Always showing off those fat tits, trying to seduce my man." Said a naked Kunou. She had grown much more confident in our activities since our first time.
Case and point?
Yasaka could not answer as my cock was in her throat, and she was loving it. Kunou was pressing her head to make sure she was as deep as she could go.
This was all happening so fast. One moment Yasaka was doing her normal seduction attempts. Both of us barely register the nudity at this point, it's just part of the game between us.
The next moment Kunou is storming in talking about punishments. Next thing I know we are all naked and Yasaka is gagging on my cock.
"I'm getting close." I managed to say, and Kunou got a calculating look in her eyes before she leaned to her mother's ear.
"Don't waste a drop, Mama. This is a Sage's cum you're about to drink. Worship it." Yasaka's eyes dilated as a shiver ran down her whole body. She really liked that I was a Sage.
"Coming!" I grabbed Yasaka's head and pushed it down as I released. I held her there for a few seconds as I felt her use her throat to milk every drop before I released her.
"Thanks for the meal." Yasaka said calmly, which contrasted her current naked and messy state.
Both the mother and daughter looked very pleased. I think Kunou might be a bit of an S with other women.
"You're welcome. You felt very good." I replied. I still don't know how to handle this whole situation. My instincts were saying that multiple women was wrong, but Kunou and Yasaka seemed extremely happy.
"How has your little project been going?" Yasaka questioned. It took me a moment to figure out which one she meant, as I had many things I was working on.
The land curses, soul stuff, healing knowledge, but looking at her bare tits made it click as I perked up.
"It's going better than I thought it would. I honestly don't know how nobody noticed this before, especially as every supernatural group seems to love sex."
Kunou giggled, making her breasts do wonderful things. "Lot's of very thorough testing too."
See, after Kunou mentioned that my load was making her a tiny bit stronger, or at least more energized, I decided to look into it.
I dove into the library for everything related to Ki transfer, but the closest I could find was the Bedroom Method.
A way to slowly heal somebody by sharing Ki via laying in bed with them. It was the Ki equivalent of heating somebody up with body heat, and much too slow for what I needed it for.
But it was a start.
My deep self study of Ki, random knowledge gathered by my motes, and a millennia of curated books and scrolls all came together to create something entirely new.
Dual Cultivation.
My first mote where I have created something, not just treading worn trails. The mote was slightly different too. With every mote before that, I could always feel 'what it could do right now'.
I would know what the mote was doing, and the different ways I could adjust it to get more specific results.
Dual Cultivation had a third feeling. 'What it could be'.
Even though this was an entirely new thing that I had just invented, I knew a lot about it.
Dual Cultivation wasn't just about having sex and becoming stronger. It was the idea of mixing two different things and then separating to become stronger than before the mix.
Ki, Mana, Soul, Divinity. It applied to all of them.
Theoretically.
Right now I could only use it for Ki, and barely at that. As romantic as it sounds to combine souls, I am nowhere near adept enough to even think about that.
Back to the reason it was invented in the first place though. Kunou being overwhelmed by creampies.
As a Sage, there was nothing I was more familiar with than lifeforce. Everything with lifeforce has a pattern, a flavor to their lifeforce.
Different patterns conflict with each other. It's why you can't just drain someone's Ki to boost your own without severe consequence, and why you need to be a Sage to consume natural energy.
The fact that natural energy's pattern is violence and rage doesn't help either, but I digress.
This seems like a very obvious thing, but the more I looked into it the more fascinated I got. The more questions I started asking.
Look at something basic, like plants. One of the first things I ever did with senjutsu was making enhanced fruits and vegetables. The way they were enhanced is that I boosted their lifeforces.
But how does boosting something else's lifeforce make it healthier, if it is just making its pattern more pronounced. Wouldn't that make it harder to consume?
The answer to that question was something small that Kunou mentioned to me years ago that I had filed away but never used.
Plants (normally) don't have souls.
It turns out that souls are a large part of how a lifeforce pattern forms. It wouldn't be wrong to say a person's Ki is an echo of their soul. You won't be able to learn everything about a person by examining their Ki, but if someone's Ki feels nasty, they probably are too.
What this means is that a soulless plant's pattern is based almost entirely on their physical and metaphysical condition. Normal growth, senjutsu boosts, even grafting two plants together. The pattern just accepts it all as it was never firm in the first place.
This means that something as simple as cooking a vegetable alters its lifeforce pattern. Eating is even simpler, as plant lifeforce is happy to go from 'I'm a plant' to 'I'm part of a person now', allowing the consumption of all that energy.
A similar concept applies to eating meat. The animal is long dead, and the soul is no longer there to influence the meat's lifeforce pattern.
As a side note, this is also part of why cannibalism is so bad. Something about eating the same species causes the lifeforce patterns to react in a very negative way. It's not soul consumption, but it's halfway there and not a good thing.
Things with souls are entirely different. The soul is the main base of a person's lifeforce pattern. This means that physical changes are completely unable to alter the pattern without exotic effects.
Burn a tomato? That is now 'burnt tomato' lifeforce.
Burn a person? Their Ki pattern is untouched, they just now have a burn.
What this all means is that every person has a unique lifeforce pattern. The default intent of a person's Ki.
Back to Kunou, the only reason she can absorb anything from me is also intent.
Giving her a hot messy creampie is the act of giving her a hot messy creampie.
I'm giving it to her. It's hers now, and the intent of all that lifeforce is slightly altered to reflect that. Not nearly enough for a full absorption, but she gets more than nothing.
That concept was the base of my idea for Dual Cultivation, even before I made the mote. Finding out a way to get a better absorption rate.
I explained my idea to her, and she was very interested. So we started testing.
Lots and lots of testing. Testing in the bed, testing in the shower, even testing outside. It's very important for science to be thorough.
We quickly figured out that the best way forwards would be manual intent manipulation. I was very good at that, being a Sage and all, but I was surprised to learn that Kunou also knew how to do it too. It was considered a higher level senjutsu technique, not a Sage technique.
We tried many different ideas. The one we were most hopeful for was no intent. The idea was that Kunou could easily absorb it if there was no intent to fight at all. Due to my extremely high level of Meditation that had been grinding for years, attaining a state of emptiness and moving Ki with no intent was easy.
It was not as easy to do while balls deep in an adorable kitsune, so we had to scrap that idea.
After a few (very enjoyable) failures we went back to the drawing board. Tried to stay really basic about it, and I noticed something I had missed.
Lifeforce patterns, while unique to a person, also followed a general model. You could tell if a sample of Ki was from a guy, or a human, or someone old.
Instead of forcing an entirely new intent, we tried to lean into what we had.
It was at this point my old friends Yin and Yang showed up. In
Kunou's Ki is feminine, Yin aligned.
My Ki is masculine, Yang aligned.
Yin and Yang were all about the concepts of opposition, complimenting and balance.
After lots of testing we had both gotten very good at mid sex Ki manipulation. It was a very difficult training exercise all things considered.
It was a normal test, I was getting close to release. I said as much, and Kunou started to gather as much of her Ki as she could in her womb while forcing it to be as Yin aligned as she could.
I did the same, preparing my release to be as Yang aligned as possible.
And then it happened. I bottomed out and released into Kunou, and then we both watched with fascination as something wonderful happened.
Kunou's Yin Ki and my Yang Ki started to mix instantly in her womb. We didn't even have to manually do anything. It was like this is what Ki wanted to do in the first place.
Where they joined? Life Ki was made.
It was potent stuff.
We both used our powerful Ki sense's to observe the Ki moving inside Kunou. We were both surprised to see the Life Ki split into two streams without our input.
Most of it flowed into Kunou, but a little bit flowed back into me. A quick mental check revealed that the ratio was the inverse of the inputs. I gave more Yang Ki, so I got less Life Ki.
I marveled at how potent Life Ki was. Somehow the intent of the Ki had made it much stronger than either of the two inputs, and also very easy to absorb back into myself. I grew a not insignificant amount. A fraction of a fraction sure, but Kunou was much weaker than me too.
Absorbing that Life Ki is what got me Dual Cultivation.
Meanwhile, Kunou was going through a religious experience. If the first time was an orgasm frying pan to the head, this was both more intense and kept her lucid through it.
Once we both calmed down, we knew what we had to do.
Try it out a few more times.
But after that, we went to Yasaka to share our findings. She was very interested in the method that involves getting railed by a Sage and getting stronger at the same time, so she pulled Kunou off some of her duties again and told us to focus on it as much as we could.
It's been some time since then, and we have focused on improving it as much as we could. What specific intents work best, what is the best way to mix the Ki's, anything we could think to improve.
We also codified it, writing the method down in a book for some trusted couples to try out. Nobody knew it was us though, just a 'mysterious method' that Yasaka had acquired and needed testing.
Back to the present, I was giving a report on our recent progress. Yasaka listened patiently, nodding and adding some comments before she looked satisfied.
"Sounds like you have everything under control." Yasaka said while standing up and stretching. It did wonderful things for her nude body.
"I'm going to go get cleaned, I have a meeting soon." She said, walking towards the bath. "You just keep putting me deeper into debt, is that what you wanted?" She teased, but there was a note of seriousness. This new method was worth a lot.
"It's fine. I care about Kunou and I'm having plenty of fun creating it." I replied. Yasaka doesn't really owe me anything, I'm just doing whatever I want at this point. It just happens to benefit her most of the time.
"It's only proper to pay you back. I'll leave you two to have your fun now." Yasaka said she glanced at Kunou, who was currently a few fingers deep in herself.
I guess she got bored while I was talking to Yasaka.
"Bye Mama, let's do this again sometime." Called Kunou, which caused both of them to titter. Some sort of communication between them again, I'm sure.
As Yasaka finally left, Kunou locked eyes with me. "Nathan, let's test some more." She said suggestively while spreading her legs.
I am a man of science, testing must be done.
A/N I had too much fun writing smut last time, and writing porn magic meant I couldn't stop.
Yasaka gets a proper lewd then it's time to skedaddle.
Kunou and Yasaka know that Nathan has 0 idea how to handle a harem, so they went the ambush route.