Chapter 19

I was running the entire way to the Twilight Manor, and then into the manor, and then through the manor. While I was fairly confident in Julia and Erza's ability to survive a fight with Goro, I was still a bit worried about Cass, and hadn't managed to grab her, so I was running around shouting for Loki - or Tione, or Finn, or Riveria, or Gareth, or Bete, or Tiona, or Ais. I wasn't quiet about it, either.

The one that wound up answering my call first was Finn, the petite blonde, boyish figure seeming to just appear in my field of vision. "What is it?" He asked - he wasn't annoyed, or even rushed, just trying to get to the heart of the matter quick.

"Goro Iwakari, Level 5 member of the Hephaistos familia, attacked me in the streets," I explained. "I got away with Noriko, had to leave Erza, Cass, and Julia behind, I don't know if they're alive."

He bit his thumb for a moment. "Mmm. Follow me, but not out of the Manor," he said, as he started to move towards the exits. "The glow is from one of your Skills?" He asked.

"Yeah." More accurately, all of them, since it was triggered when I exerted myself enough, but I understood the question. "I think he's after me, but I'm not sure he won't hurt them," I told Finn, who just nodded.

"That's what I figured," he said. "Tione!" He called out - almost immediately, Tione appeared at his side, and I tried not to blink. "Tione, come with me," he said. "There's a problem with a Level Five from the Hephaistos familia."

"Yes, General!" Tione declared with gusto, going so far as to give an exaggerated salute.

"Where did this happen?" Finn asked, and I quickly gave him a description of the site in question. "Got it," he said, about as we arrived at the door. "Do not leave the building." He gave me a sharp look as I nodded in acceptance, as if trying to see if I was lying to him - then decided I wasn't, and set off with Tione in tow, the pair quickly vanishing from my sight as the door closed behind them.

I let out a sigh. That was about the best I could hope for, realistically - Finn was a Level 6, and Tione was a Level 5. I had run as fast as I could, yelled my lungs out, and if they couldn't handle it... Finn was in charge of the familia, and from what Julia had said, he was a pretty good strategist. He had to have called Tione out because she was who was available. It wasn't like Gareth or Riveria were responding to my shouts.

Still, I had a plentiful quantity of restless energy from worrying about what might happen to Cass and Julia and Erza, and I decided to spend it by tracking down Loki. It didn't take too long - she was lying on her bed, looking to have passed out drunk. I could tell by her rosy complexion and the emptied bottle of Soma wine at her bedside. Noriko was still at my side, quietly clinging to my arm, and I just stepped up to the bed and grabbed Loki's shoulder, shaking her on the bed.

"Mmwhat," Loki mumbled, her eyes looking up at me with a look that could only be described as a deep lack of being impressed. "I'm sleeping. Give me boobs to grope or go away," she said, before slumping back into her bed and closing her eyes.

"Loki, there's a problem with the Hephaistos familia," I told her. She closed her eyes that extra little bit, a sort of annoyed squeeze. "Goro Iwakari. Heard of him?"

"He'sh a Level Five, but Norrriko said that her dad isn't an a'venturer, so ish jush a common name in the East."

"Yes, well, Noriko appears to have been mistaken."

"How can you be mishtaken about if your dad's an a'venturer," Loki mumbled into her pillow. She paused suddenly, squinting up at me. "You're saying that the flat extra is ackshually a member of the Hephaistos familia?"

"No, she's a member of the Loki familia. Also she's right here." I jerked my head at Noriko, prompting another squint from Loki, and she finally started to pull herself off the bed, moving to sit on the edge of it.

A moment later, she started rubbing her forehead. "You're a supporter, right, Noriko?" Loki asked. "Go support me by getting me some water."

"No," Noriko replied, her body coming that little bit closer to me, squeezing my hand extra tight.

"I don't think she wants to be alone right now," I told Loki. "Her dad beat her."

"Everybody'd lose to a level five, don't worry about it," Loki said.

"No, as in, he repeatedly struck her, causing bruising," I clarified. It wasn't really brought up too much in the original work, since the protagonist only met him once before his wealth and power served as a protective bubble to keep Noriko and her mother safe; but I didn't really have much of either of those, and this Goro presumably had plenty of both. "I can go get you water with Noriko, if you need it," I suggested.

"No, no, it's fine," Loki said, though she was shielding her eyes from the light spilling in from the hall as she spoke. "Close the door, would ya?" I closed the door, and the room would have been completely dark if it wasn't for the persistent sapphire glow that enveloped me and gently lit up the room. Loki's eyes squinted as her brain slowly processed the fact that I was glowing. On my brow, presumably, was the symbol of the Chosen of Serenity: ♀. The female symbol, colloquially, though I wasn't sure if it was the same in Danmachi. "Why do you have the female symbol on your forehead?"

Apparently it was. "I spent a lot of Essence getting away from Goro, since he's a Level Five and I'm a Level Two. This is what happens when I do so."

She squinted again. "Better'n a headache, I guess," she said. "Right." She paused, massaging her forehead. "So, Noriko's dad is one of the most powerful people in the city, and a member of the Hephaistos familia, who we rely on for making lots of our shit. And you got me to snipe her. How old're you?"

"Twenty," Noriko replied. Loki let out a sigh.

"How'd they not give you a falna... Hephaistos's too nice, now I'm the one holdin' the bag! If she'd given you a damn falna, I'd never have let you in! You gotta respect, you know, the rules. Principles. A child joins their parents' familia, unless... well, unless they don't want you. I don't suppose that's the case?"

"Given that her father tried to tear off my head, I doubt that he's neutral about Noriko's new familia."

Loki squinted at me. "How're you alive if a Level Five tried to rip off your head?"

"Duck Fate," I reminded her, and she let out a sharp noise.

"Right. That's a good Skill." She paused for a moment, fingers steepling as she thought about it. Her lips pursed. "Don't suppose you'd be willing to just let Noriko go back to Daddy-"

"No, I'm not abandoning Noriko," I said. Noriko meanwhile, stepped deeper into me, her petite body sharply contrasted by my own height and muscle. "I love her."

"You got three other girls to love," Loki said. My hand gently ran through Noriko's hair to soothingly reassure her, and to keep me from balling it into a fist. I just stared at Loki. "Alright, alright, I get it, no easy solutions for old Loki. You really, really don't want to join the Hephaistos familia, right, Noriko?"

"Yes, that is correct. I can think of very few things I would less like to do, than join the Hephaistos familia, given that my father is a member, and I do not want to be anywhere near my father."

"Great. More work for old Loki." She massaged her brow. "How did you forget that your dad is an adventurer?"

"I did not forget."

"You can't lie to a God!"

"I did not lie to you."

"How did you say he wasn't an adventurer when he was!"

"I did not know that he was an adventurer."

"How could you not know?!" Loki demanded. Noriko just shrugged silently. "You! You know everything about your wives, how come she didn't know?"

The answer was, 'because she's from an alternate universe and this version of her father is only produced to provide an explanation of where she came from,' but that was way too much to drop when Loki was already annoyed with me. I took a second to respond, carefully considering my answer, then spoke: "I think the most logical explanation would be that, when her father was beating her, she suffered brain damage causing her to lose some autobiographical memory from before the injury." That was the most logical explanation - it just wasn't the true one.

Loki hummed at that, bouncing from foot to foot for a moment. "Gah!" She slapped her face a few times, closing her eyes. "This is so you can grope Erza's boobs. This is so you can grope Xulia's boobs. This is so Drake can show you that new Skill of his," she said, each sentence coming out like a meditative mantra. "Right," she said, snapping to attention. "We'll need to talk to Hephaistos, probably Goro will come, so we'll want a mediator..." she said, starting to rattle off plans.

* * *

My glow was just dying, and Loki was just finishing sorting out her ideas, when Finn opened the door to her bedroom. Loki let out an exaggerated howl of agony, covering her face from the sudden light, and Finn looked unimpressed. "Your wives are back; they seem to be fine."

"No thanks to you," Tione noted, with some scorn in her voice.

"I was Goro's target," I said. I only vaguely cared about Tione's opinion of me (in that she was attractive, seemed like a nice enough person, and I would get a large quantity of supernatural power if she confessed her love for me), and Finn didn't seem to be thinking of kicking me out of the familia for cowardice or anything, so there wasn't much heat to my words.

"He tried to tear the dark girl's throat out, according to Bete," Finn said. "He thought she was dying when he arrived on scene." I had half-expected something like that - but I also knew that if somebody didn't know about Julia's Skills, their odds of actually killing her were pretty much nil, and despite her act, she wasn't stupid. Finn just hummed at my response, or lack thereof. "I need to talk to Loki about this situation - I'll come ask you any questions I still have when that's done. Don't leave the Manor," he repeated.

"I wasn't planning to," I said. Tione gave me the stink eye as I left.

Noriko remained firmly attached to my arm as we walked back towards our bedroom, but I didn't mind - she definitely needed reassurance at the moment, and I used my spare hand to softly run my fingers through her hair. When I arrived back in the bedroom, both of us were pretty much instantly grabbed in a tight, superhumanly strong hug by Erza. Despite her being shorter than me, she was much, much stronger, so she trivially hefted us both up off the ground as if we weighed nothing. "It is good to see you are well!" Erza declared, with great energy. "I am glad you both returned home safely! The Prettiest Princess was injured, but her wounds were purely superficial."

"Goshujinsama..." Julia whined from the bed, naked, with blood having dripped and stained her throat and shoulders and chin and upper breasts. It was gross to look at. "I'm so wet for you, I need your cock in me."

"Go take a shower," I told her. "I'm not fucking you while you're covered in blood."

Julia whined. "I had my throat ripped out because you ran away and abandoned me, goshujinsama."

"Did you also intentionally antagonize Goro?" I asked, knowing Julia pretty well. She looked away in an exaggerated fashion, knowing she'd been caught and only playing at dishonesty. "I'll fuck your ass until you come your brains out if you go take a shower first."

Julia sighed loudly. "Fine, goshujinsama..." she let out, hopping off the bed. I stopped her from streaking across the Manor, despite her obvious intentions; when her shower was done, I fucked her hard on the bed while Noriko clambered onto my back and held onto me tightly, using me as one big security blanket. (She got horny enough from watching me fuck another woman that I had Julia clean off my dick with her mouth before having sex with Noriko.)

* * *

As far as Freya cared, her familia could be the greatest or the least - so long as she had her darling children, she wasn't attached to any of it. As such, ordinarily, the matters of inter-familia politics were something boring and unwanted, dealt with with a dismissive hand to handle what had to be handled to keep what she had safe. In her hands, though, was a piece of paper containing a quite interesting proposition from the Loki familia: for her to act as a neutral mediator in a conflict between the Loki and Hephaistos familias.

Loki was much more thoughtful about familia politics than Freya, so she was mildly surprised by it. That surprise only grew as she read further, seeing the source of the conflict: a member of the Loki familia was the child of two members of the Hephaistos familia, and had not been given leave to join the Loki familia. It spoke to Hephaistos's soft heart, perhaps, that she had allowed one of her children to arrive at the age of twenty without a falna. Or perhaps there was some other oddity that could explain it...

The girl in contention was Noriko, one of Cassandra's co-wives. She had only come to the Hostess alongside the filthy maggot-soul, so Freya had not had the chance to properly meet her. Her soul, from what little Freya had seen, was a cool, angular thing, like a crystalline block of ice. In some ways it reminded her of her beloved Ryu's soul. Freya hummed as she saw the notes for what Loki would like for the meeting: the presence of Drake, perfectly understandable given his relations, her own Captain, Finn, again, entirely logical given his status as the familia's Captain... and then, her beloved Cassandra Cain. A strange addition, particularly given none of Drake's other women were listed out. Presumably it was related to the Skill that let her see through deception. Freya's brow creased as she considered the obvious conclusion: this Skill was stronger than a god's ability to discern truth from lies among mortals. She had suspected as much, by the way Cassandra's soul swirled in their interactions, but this was hard confirmation.

She could reject the offer to act as mediator... it would be safer. Cassandra would not be able to see in her whatever she saw, to perhaps recognize between Syr and Freya the same thing.

But at the same time - perhaps it was the deception itself, which produced the distance between them that seemed to be an uncrossable chasm? Perhaps this small offering of vulnerability, of honesty, would suffice to help bridge that gap? She could only know if she took that step.

"Is Horn still ill?" She asked Ottar, as she quietly folded up the paper.

"Yes, my goddess," her titan of a child said. She hummed. Heith had said that Horn would recover, but it was hard to say when.

Who dares, wins. "Tell Loki that her terms are acceptable, and see who it is that Hephaistos wishes to bring to the meeting; tell her Loki is bringing four parties: Noriko, her husband, one of her co-wives, and Finn. Permit them four people, if they have four they wish to bring." The most obvious ones to bring would be the father and mother of the child. Goro's name had been presented at Denatus four times; she could not recall his bride appearing even once. "And that we all hope for a peaceful resolution, given that Goro attacked Noriko's husband and one of her co-wives in the street." She wished that the filthy maggot-soul had died, but apparently she was tougher than she looked. She left the name unmentioned, and not merely because she didn't know it. Leaving it in Hephaistos's mind that, perhaps, the co-wife who would attend was the same as the one who was almost killed would put her in a more defensive stance, helping to ensure that there wouldn't be a war between the two familias.

Freya didn't care too much about that possibility, save for the problem that Cassandra was part of the Loki familia, and might perish in such a conflict. "It should be done quickly," she noted.

"As you wish," Ottar said, bowing and leaving her for the moment. She gazed out over Orario.

* * *

Cass looked across the table at the members of the Hephaistos familia. There was Goro, who had ripped out the nameless girl's throat, and seemed to carry a scarcely-contained rage. Cass swallowed as she looked at him, and a moment later averted her gaze - looking at him reminded her of what he had done to the nameless girl, ripping her throat out, and that, in turn, reminded Cass of the woman she had killed... ever since Eris had died in front of her, those memories had been closer to the surface, and he dredged them up.

She turned her focus instead to the other three - there was Tsubaki, who was a dark-skinned girl with an eyepatch, wearing only a sarashi on her top, who was more confused about the entire situation than anything else. There was Hephaistos, who also wore an eyepatch (on the opposite eye) and had vivid red hair and a similarly vivid red eye, and who seemed to want to quickly handle the conflict, assuming it would be an easy thing. Cass hoped it would.

Last of them, though, was Noriko's mother, Setsuko. She was voluptuous in figure, but quiet in demeanor, head bowed forward, a clear awkwardness in her movements as she sat in her position, fingers quietly playing with the edge of her shirt. She was also obviously doing her best to hide the size of her breasts, both by her clothing choices and by the way she carried herself physically; they were even bigger than the substantial size they displayed, contained beneath uncomfortable bindings. She was afraid of her husband, and his hand on her shoulder was something that simultaneously reassured her - her husband was there, he was touching her, he would protect her, show affection to her - and which made her afraid. It kept her quiet, despite the urge she felt to say something, presumably to Noriko.

Goro, on the other hand, was trying to avoid looking at his wife. Not out of politeness or focus, but out of disgust at the size of her breasts. He looked at Drake with an expression that radiated hate and self-assurance, as if he was confident that the end of this meeting would be Noriko coming home and Drake losing several teeth or his... manhood. By Tsubaki and Hephaistos's expressions, they weren't planning any vengeance of that type...

Freya and Ottar entered the room in short order. Freya was moderately tall, with a revealing dress that just cut straight down the stomach, with silver hair and eyes as she looked across the gathered party. There was a certain stiffness to her, a control that became more stifling as her gaze briefly met Cass's, before moving on. Ottar was extremely tall and muscular, with tan skin, short brown hair and pointed, piglike ears, but he didn't seem to express any particular threat, more a boredom, as if he was there just for Freya's sake.

"Goro," Finn began. "Did you know that it was the Black Agony who you attacked?"

"All I knew is that some scumbag was running around with my daughter," Goro replied. Finn pointedly glanced over to Freya. Goro sighed. "I did not realize that the individuals in question were members of the Loki familia." Freya simply nodded in agreement. "I attacked because I did not know if they would manage to escape or elude me."

"I see. In that case, given the circumstances of the attack, and the survival of the victim, the Loki familia is willing to overlook the assault on the Black Agony. So long as the Hephaistos familia avoids any repetition of this violence," Finn said. His words produced a sense of gratitude in Tsubaki and Hephaistos, which was the point. To make them... act better? Cass wasn't quite as good with that side of things.

Goro tapped Setsuko gently on the shoulder, keeping his hand there as his large fingers rose and fell. Setsuko swallowed and spoke up. "I'm happy to see you again, sweetie. I was worried." There was a tinge of fear to her words, but not directed towards Noriko, or the situation - more towards Goro, that he might hurt her if she said the wrong thing. "I'm happy you... aren't dead," she said, with a nervous smile. She wanted to say something else, but Cass couldn't tell quite what.

"Yes. We're all happy for that," Hephaistos said. "Our adorable Noriko. Why did you join the Loki familia, instead of mine?" Her voice was gentle, and her intentions generally good.

"Drake was joining the Loki familia," Noriko explained. "I love him, and therefore, chose to follow him in joining a familia." Noriko had an easy time playing word games like this, but she didn't like to be dishonest. Cass could barely notice that, though, with how subdued and strange her body language was.

Freya did seem to notice, her attention shifting to Noriko with some idle curiosity.

"Ah," Setsuko began, "well, if you-" she fell silent as Goro raised one hand to cut her off. There was definitely fear there.

"Why wasn't I told about this?" Goro asked, his voice sharp. "Why wasn't Hephaistos told about this? If you love him so much, why not tell us?"

"I did not remember to," Noriko explained. Freya's attention was piqued at that point, though she restrained her body language. "I was distracted by having lots of lovey-dovey sex with my new husband, Drake, who had sex with me first, proving that I am the one he likes best." There was genuine pride as she said those words, and Drake gave her head a casual pat, making her tilt her head into it to encourage him to pet her. Noriko was the one he liked second best, after Cass... but she didn't want to hurt the other girl's feelings.

Goro definitely didn't like hearing that, his body language shifting for a moment, coiling for a fight. Finn and Ottar's own body languages shifted, adjusting their posture, readying themselves for battle - and he promptly let the tension leave his body. "And how long, exactly, did you know Drake for?"

Noriko stared quietly forward, tilting her head to one side. "I do not remember exactly. How long have you known me for, Drake?"

Drake sighed, thinking about it. "Let's see, I think... about three or four years?"

Goro's expression darkened at that. "So you've been creeping on my daughter since she was twelve? How old are you, you cradle-robbing bastard?"

"Whoa, Noriko's twenty," Loki said. "Twenty minus four is sixteen, that's a perfectly normal age to start courting a girl."

"Noriko is sixteen," Hephaistos said, her expression becoming more curious now.

"No. I am twenty," Noriko said. "I am over..." she paused, taking out her fingers and mentally performing math, "seven thousand, five hundred and four days old. Dividing this by three hundred and sixty five point two five, the length of a year on Gekai, produces a result of over twenty years old, which is my age. I am the oldest girl in Drake's harem, additionally."

"I was there when you were born, Noriko," Hephaistos said. "You aren't twenty. You're sixteen."

Noriko's lips frowned slightly. "No. I am twenty. You are a goddess, so you can tell when someone is lying, and therefore, can tell that I am twenty, as that is what I am saying, which is not a lie."

"That's- it can be confused if you believe something to be true when it isn't," Hephaistos explained. "Setsuko?"

"You're sixteen, sweetie," Setsuko said.

"That's right," Goro agreed. He leaned forward, his eyes sharply focused on Drake. "You used some type of magic on her and scrambled her brains," he said. "That explains it. Why she ran off with you, after you stalked her since she was twelve, you creep." He didn't really care if it was true or not - only that, if it were true, it would make it easier for him to take back Noriko.

Drake responded carefully, following the same literalistic angle that Noriko had: "I haven't altered Noriko's memory in any way."

"Then how the hell is she saying this crap?!" Goro demanded. His hand slammed down against the table, making both Noriko and Setsuko jerk back in a way that suggested long familiarity, in distinction to how Drake, Loki, and Hephaistos flinched at the loud noise. Hephaistos put a hand on his shoulder, and while it didn't actually calm him down, he did still himself.

"Drake suggested that the most logical explanation is that you caused traumatic brain injury to me by beating me repeatedly."

"I have never hit you," Goro said, immediately, and Freya's eyebrow quirked with interest at the latest new development in the byplay between the pair, her gaze flicking back and forth across the table.

"Ah. That is strange, as you are an angry, abusive, piece of shit who I hate," she said, borrowing Drake's earlier turn of phrase, though the who I hate part was her own.

Loki let out a whistle. "From the mouths of babes with brain damage, eh? What a way to hear that your kid hates you." Goro was barely restraining himself from lunging across the table at Noriko. Cass strongly suspected that if Ottar and Finn had not been there, he would have done so, to make it clear to her that she should be afraid of him. However, with them there, he controlled himself, if barely.

"Goro?" Hephaistos asked, turning to the man in question with a sharp expression. "No - Setsuko. Has Goro hit Noriko?"

"N-not as far as I know," Setsuko replied quickly, shaking her head rapidly and desperately. She was worried that if she didn't answer well enough, Goro might do something, but she was also telling the truth.

Hephaistos's expression darkened in confusion for a moment, then she looked up at Freya. "I don't suppose that you would care to share with us what, precisely, is the cause of this confusion?"

Freya hummed noncommittally at the statement. Her gaze flicked over to Cass for a moment, as if looking to her for an answer. Cass's brow furrowed at that. Why was she the one that Freya was looking at to make her decision? Freya tried to turn her gaze over the other parties, but it was obviously just a way to buy time. "I suppose..." Freya began, and it was obvious to Cass that she had realized that it was their side of things where something was strange, "that it really must be that Noriko doesn't remember things correctly. If Goro never hit her, perhaps she simply hit her head? Mortals' brains are quite vulnerable, that's why we give even the young ones a falna." There was a slim note of reproach to Freya's voice, but the real purpose was to make Hephaistos feel guilty.

It worked. Hephaistos swallowed and looked at Noriko. "Are you happy, Noriko?" She asked.

"I am very happy. Drake has sex with me at least twice per day, despite being married to four women, and I orgasm very frequently during sex." Setsuko blushed a vivid red, and Drake squirmed faintly at the words, while Loki just started to laugh.

"I don't see what's so funny," Goro said. "You're telling me Noriko fell, hit her head, and this scumbag ran off with her? Convinced her he loved her? How do we know he's not the one that hit her?"

"I would never hit Noriko," Drake said, immediately, sharply, fiercely.

"That's not denying you hit her," Goro pointed out.

"I have never hit Noriko."

"Arranged for somebody else to do it, then?"

"No," Drake said. "I am not aware of her ever being hit in the head by anyone but you."

Freya's head subtly tilted again, her eyes narrowing with curiosity, her lips pursing. "If I may..." she started, then stopped, then hummed. Her hand reached for her chin and she idly stroked it, eyes gleaming as she considered the scene before her, everyone there waiting for what she would say. "Do you believe that the man before you hit his daughter, despite his protestations to the contrary, said before no less than three goddesses?"

Drake hesitated. "I don't know," he decided.

Freya's expression became even more curious, her eyes turning to Goro, then to Noriko, then to Cass. "Where is your family, Cassandra Cain?" Everyone's attention was suddenly on her.

"My father is... in prison... and I never met... my mother..." she explained.

Freya just hummed, then shrugged. "Quite strange! Inexplicable, really. But, I don't think that Drake is responsible for this whole strange situation-" that was a lie, or close enough to one, but the gods couldn't tell if one another were lying, "-so let us simply take it as it is. Noriko is utterly convinced her father beat her; her father and mother are utterly convinced he did not. In such a situation, surely, it would be cruel to force her to return to them?"

"It would be cruel to take my daughter from me, have her sleep with some stranger while being confused about her age, her history, and what damn familia she's from!" Again, Goro slammed his fist against the table, and again, both Noriko and Setsuko flinched more strongly than anyone else.

Freya's expression crinkled in disgust. "You know..." her finger twirled in the air for a moment, and she then broke into a smile. "Every time you hit the table, Noriko and Setsuko both become particularly afraid of you. Perhaps, even if you've never actually struck her, you struck so much fear into her that her mind was quick to latch onto the idea? Setsuko?" Freya asked, turning to the woman in question. "Are you afraid of your husband?"

Setsuko began to gently shake with fear - Goro's hand was still on her shoulder, for just a moment, before Ottar swooped in towards him, grabbing his forearm and pulling it up forcibly. "I-I, he, he's just Level Five, he doesn't, he's just, he's never hit me," Setsuko said, doing her best to defend her husband without saying anything.

"That doesn't answer my question, Setsuko. Are you afraid of your husband?"

Setsuko swallowed. Her gaze flicked to Hephaistos, to Goro, and then she mutely nodded. A moment later, she stammered out, "Y-yes..."

"Well, now, that is so very interesting, isn't it?" Freya asked. "Setsuko is afraid of Goro. Noriko is afraid of Goro. Hmm, perhaps the exchange should be another way?" Goro was glaring at Setsuko, but Ottar kept a calm expression as he held his arm. The two men were of similar heights and bulks, as they stared one another down.

"I would like it if Setsuko joined the Loki familia, and also had sex with Drake," Noriko offered. There were a variety of different responses - Finn casually took in the information, Drake strangled a noise of surprise, Setsuko flushed scarlet, Goro looked absolutely enraged, Hephaistos and Tsubaki seemed vaguely concerned, and Loki burst out laughing.

"Ah, ah, that's how you get a damn harem, I get it, I get it," she said, slapping her knee. "You find the craziest girls you can! The ones that ask you to fuck their moms! Hey, you going after Mari? Did Cass help you find them? Does she want you to find her mom for her so you can also have sex with her?" She was laughing the whole while as she spoke.

Although most people were paying attention to Noriko, Drake, or Loki, Cass found her attention flicking up to Freya. The goddess of beauty's emotional state was particularly strange. She was angry at Loki. Not for taking the situation lightly... not for insulting Drake... but because she was making fun of Cass...

"Freya," Cass said, making the goddess's eyes turn to hers, and Cass knew, instantly. Freya was in love with her. Cass averted her gaze a moment later. "I think... we have to..." she trailed off, trying to make some excuse for why she'd spoken up.

Finn was the one who did complete her thought. "The purpose of this meeting is to decide the disposition of Noriko. Whatever strange personality traits Noriko has, they are clearly not Drake's fault. I would suggest that she remain a member of the Loki familia, and the Hephaistos familia make arrangements for her to meet whoever they wish for social occasions, excepting Goro until and unless she becomes comfortable with that. Is there anyone else you're concerned about, Noriko?"

"No," Noriko said.

"Then we can adjourn, if that is acceptable to her Lady Hephaistos," he said to the goddess in question.

"It isn't fucking acceptable! That's my daughter! You can't take her away from me!" Finn gave him only a sparing glance before returning his attention to Hephaistos.

"I... believe your suggestion is acceptable to me, Braver," Hephaistos said. She looked to Tsubaki.

"If Lady Hephaistos is fine with it, I am too."

"You fucking..." Goro snarled at Tsubaki, scarcely controlling himself from just cursing her out. If Ottar hadn't been holding his arm still, he probably would have attacked her. His eyes narrowed at Drake, killing intent in them, then he quieted his body language and straightened up. "I'm sorry. I was upset. I hope that you feel better in the future, Noriko," he said. The words were completely cold, without any real empathy in them. "Come on, Setsuko," he said, as Ottar finally released his arm.

Hephaistos's lips thinned as she saw Goro wrap one arm around Setsuko, thinking about what exactly to do with her new knowledge. "Setsuko?" She asked, making the woman turn to her. Goro scarcely kept his anger at being questioned off his face. "Would you... prefer to be separated from Goro?"

"No," Setsuko said, softly, and Goro half-dragged her out of the room.

"Ha... meeting coulda gone better, coulda gone worse," Tsubaki said. "Come on, Lady Hephaistos. Guess we got what we're gonna get. Plus, I want to make sure Setsy's okay."

Once Tsubaki and Hephaistos had left, Freya straightened herself up, pretending to not particularly care about anything that had just happened. Cass could tell that she did care, quite strongly, since she was in love with her. "Come, Ottar," she said, the giant loping after her. As she reached the doorway, she paused, pretending to have just realized something, and turned her head around to look at the group. "Goro is going to try to kill Drake at the first opportunity he gets. Do with that information what you will."

Finn smiled at that, a sort of melancholic thing. "You don't need to see souls to guess that one. Thank you, nevertheless, Lady Freya."

Freya didn't say anything else before leaving.