DxD: Weaving Threads 05

"No one has been in the room since we discovered he was missing," the nervous servant explained to the two men following him through the hallways of the Astaroth estate. "We didn't want to contaminate it by having other people enter it. We called you immediately after we were certain something was amiss and he wasn't just out for a walk."

"Normally you would call for an investigator," Ajuka Beelzebub replied, face blank and unreadable. "Not a Satan."

The servant tensed. "Ah, well, his father-"

"Insisted you ask me first, yes," Ajuka cut him off. "I do owe my cousin a favor after all, and he's right in that I have the best chance of finding him and my investigation will go smoother if I'm the first one to examine the scene. I understand. Though I'm wondering why you have decided to join us, Sirzechs."

"The disappearance of the heir of a Pillar Clan is something I'm responsible for looking into," Sirzechs Lucifer, walking behind Ajuka, replied.

"And?" Ajuka asked.

Sirzechs sighed. "And Grayfia was nagging again so I wanted to get out of the house."

Ajuka shook his head. "I'm no expert when it comes to relationships, but you know running away will just draw out the issue, right?"

"I know, but there's not much else to be done," he replied.

The servant leading them stopped in front of a door, pulling out a key. "This is it," the servant explained. He unlocked the door, and Ajuka took note of the magical defenses that were also disarmed, his mind already working on putting the pieces together. The defenses were standard for a room where a High-Class Devil stored sensitive information.

"Bring me one of Diodora's peerage members," Ajuka ordered the servant as he stepped into the room, magic already scanning the room.

"Yes Great Satan," the servant answered with a bow before retreating. Sirzechs stepped into the room behind Ajuka, carefully keeping his power suppressed to not interfere with Ajuka's analysis of the room.

"Anything yet?" Sirzechs asked as he casually looked around.

"Surprisingly little," Ajuka admitted, surprising Sirzechs. Ajuka's ability to collect and process even the tiniest details was unrivaled.

"Do you think he's still alive?" Sirzechs asked, eyes scanning the desk.

"Uncertain," came the answer. "There's a trace of something I believe to be a paralytic in the air. But not enough to imply it was used, only brought into the room."

"So either they killed him, or Diodora went with them willingly," Sirzechs concluded.

"Or the paralytic was a backup plan that ultimately wasn't needed," Ajuka pointed out. "Or one of a dozen other things, but those three are the most likely." Ajuka looked around more. "No signs of struggle, no forced entry of the physical or magical variety, no blood, no signs of another person."

"Ajuka," Sirzechs interrupts, causing the green-haired Satan to look at him. Sirzechs gaze was locked on the letter still laying on the desk, reading it.

Ajuka had noticed the letter but hadn't read it yet. Reading it now, he found it was far more enlightening than he expected.

"So little Diodora has been working with the Khaos Brigade," Ajuka contemplated. The contents of the letter made that clear. No specifics were mentioned, but past traded favors and deals were implied.

"Unless it's a fake, planted to draw suspicion elsewhere," Sirzechs pointed out.

"Possible, but it has quite a large number of his fingerprints on it," Ajuka notes as he studies it closer. "There are traces of it being scrubbed clean with magic. Both the parchment and the ink are of the kind that can be found anywhere. No way to tell for certain where it came from. But Diodora handled it, and he was the only one to do so."

Sirzechs frowned. "While not damning, that's not a good look for him. Though I'm surprised they'd work with someone with so many reincarnated Devils."

"Considering how he selects them and how he treats them, they may have been willing to overlook that," Ajuka said.

There was a knock at the door, still open. The two Satans looked up to find the servant from earlier in the doorway, a young woman next to him. "One of Lord Diodora's Peerage Members. His Queen."

Ajuka studied the girl. She was pretty and dressed up in religious robes. Diodora's love of corrupting nuns was well known, and many were amused by it. A Devil making a peerage of mind broken nuns was seen as appropriate.

Ajuka didn't care one way or the other. Diodora hadn't made trouble with the Church, at least not in any appreciable way. Relations between the two factions were already poor and skirmishes were frequent. Diodora poaching some nuns was a non-issue.

Her expression was blank, her eyes empty. He ignored that. He knew what Diodora did to his Peerage members and her mental state had nothing to do with why he had asked for her to be brought here. Ajuka looked closer, peering deeper into the girl. And what he found there made him frown.

"That is one question answered at least," he commented. "Diodora Astaroth is dead. The connection between him and his Queen has been dissolved. The only situation where that occurs is the death of the King. Even if he had been taken beyond the range of what the pieces can reach, which shouldn't be possible, the connection would merely be severed and would be easily and automatically repaired. But in the case of death, the connection is completely dissolved."

"I-I see," the servant said. "What does this mean for his newer Peerage members? The newest has only been a Devil for six months."

"So long as they do not cast much magic or leave the Underworld, nothing of note should happen," Ajuka assures the man. "I will check up on them all after I finish investigating this room. Please collect them into one room."

"Understood," the servant replied. He turned and led the girl away, and she followed obediently.

"Considering the lack of evidence, I wasn't expecting him to actually be dead," Sirzechs commented.

"That was precisely what made me think he was dead," Ajuka countered. "He was sitting in the chair when it happened, and there are no signs of him getting up."

Sirzechs wasn't sure exactly how Ajuka knew this, but he had long ago stopped trying to understand it. Ajuka could see the smallest details and piece them together to form a coherent whole. It's why he was a Satan. It's why smart Devils feared Ajuka the most out of all the Satans.

"I have to admit, I'm stumped," Sirzechs says. "Are you done analyzing things?" Ajuka nodded, so Sirzechs picked up the letter. "I'll investigate this, it falls under my responsibilities."

"Right," Ajuka agreed. He then paused, his face changing so minutely most people would have missed it. But Sirzechs didn't.

"What have you figured out?" Sirzechs asks.

"Nothing, not yet," Ajuka clarifies. "Just...a suspicion. I'll follow up on it and report back to you if I find anything."

Sirzechs knew he wouldn't get anything if he pushed, and he trusted Ajuka's judgment. "Very well. I'll go ahead and start looking around while you check on the girls. Let me know if you need anything from me."

Ajuka nodded in response, still deep in thought as Sirzechs left. There was a theory forming in his head, but it wasn't based on evidence, only the lack of evidence, and he wasn't satisfied with it. Too many other possibilities, even if they were less likely.

A small smile played on his lips. In truth, he cared little for the death of his cousin's son, heir to a Pillar family or not. He only came out because he owed the man a favor. And if Diodora truly was working with the Khaos Brigade, then his death could potentially even be a boon.

But in his death was a mystery that Ajuka couldn't solve immediately. And that? That was interesting.

-x-

After school on Monday, I decide to hang out with the Occult Research Club. Today it's just me, Atsuko, Rias, and Gasper. Akeno and Kiba are busy with clients and Aika and Koneko are handing out fliers with summoning circles printed on them.

Well, I say Gasper is here, but he's sitting in a box in the corner of the room, watching our conversation with wide eyes. The box is open and he's clearly visible, so he's not completely hiding. But he's on the edge of the room and he's figuratively on edge, ready to hide in an instant.

Though he's been acting weird today. Weirder than usual that is. Whenever he thinks I'm not looking, he keeps looking at me and Atsuko. I have no idea why, and [Empathy] isn't very helpful, there's too much going on and the only dominant ones are embarrassment and arousal. Did he jack off thinking about us or something?

These mysteries surrounding how Gasper reacts to me are starting to get annoying. Is this my relative lack of metaknowledge coming to bite me in the ass? I suppress a scowl. I don't like not having all of the information, but it's something I need to get used to as I run out of metaknowledge.

It's not like I mind him being attracted to me. I can fix the issue of his gender after all. I just don't know why, and it's throwing me off. But I ignore it for now.

"How have things been going with your clients?" I ask Atsuko.

"Fine I guess," she replies with a shrug. "Got another weirdo last night. He's the biggest, most muscly guy I've ever seen, but he dresses up as a magical girl and wanted me to turn him into one. Obviously, I can't do that, so we just watched some of the magical girl anime he was obsessed with. It was fine. Kinda retro, but decent."

Ah, yes I remember him. Her description of him is accurate. For a human uninvolved with the supernatural, he's freakishly strong. Hell, compared to a lot of the people in the supernatural world he's a beast.

But Atsuko describing him, or more specifically his wish, and my thoughts from earlier, a rough plan forms in my mind.

"Didn't I tell you I was willing to help?" I teasingly chide Atsuko.

Rias interrupts. "While it is beyond her ability to help, I feel asking you to train one of her clients who are a mundane human is a bit much to ask."

"I agree," I say with a nod.

"Good," she says, satisfied. "So since you wouldn't train him, and since you can't turn him into a girl-"

"I can," I interrupt, causing the room to go quiet.

"What?" Rias asks, confused.

"I've got a potion for it," I reply with a grin. "Complete flip from male to female gender. No idea how it works for anyone caught in between, biologically speaking. But it'll turn someone who's biologically a guy into a girl, and vice versa."

+10 Affection with Gasper Vladi

For opening his eyes to an option he hadn't thought existed

Huh. Not gay, just wanted to be a girl. That's extremely convenient, as that's what I wanted from him as well, and part of the reason I brought it up.

The others just seem surprised. I don't know why, you'd think they'd be used to this by now. I take one of my Genderbend Potions out of my inventory and swirl it around. It's one of my stranger-looking potions, pink and blue fluid intermingling but never mixing. It wasn't caused by a difference in density either, as neither rose to the top. They just didn't mix.

I hold it out towards Atsuko. "Here, give it to him. Technically, I haven't tested these out yet. I'm one hundred percent confident they'll work, but since it's untested, I'll consider this a trial run. Just make sure to tell him it's untested."

"Are there any risks?" she asks, the surprise wearing off quickly. I think the idea of actually completing a contract, albeit partially, is something she's looking forward to.

"There shouldn't be," I answer easily. I know it'll work anyways, but I decide to come up with something to put her at ease. "I've never had a potion negatively fail on me, the production process doesn't allow for it. If it doesn't work right, it just does nothing."

"Awesome!" she replies, getting to her feet. "I'll go give this to him now!" Before either of us can say a word she runs off and out of the clubhouse.

"...did she just forget about the teleportation circle?" I ask.

"You can't use it like that unless you're currently being summoned," Rias says. "Technically you can, but it's not allowed." Rias sighs. "She did run off quickly though. I hope it works. She doesn't show it, but I can tell she gets frustrated whenever she can't complete a contract."

"I'm confident it will," I reply easily. "And she is helping me out. I don't plan on mass producing these, the ingredients don't really allow for that, but I do plan on selling some, so being able to say they've been tested will help."

Rias raises an eyebrow. "Should you have gone with her then? Seen the results for yourself?"

"Nah it's fine," I reply casually. "I trust her to report back. I just need confirmation that it works."

"If you say so," Rias says as she takes a sip of her tea. I'm about to turn my attention towards Gasper and ask him how he feels about this when the teleportation circle lights up and Kiba arrives.

"How did things go?" Rias asks Kiba.

"Fine, as usual," he replies a little gruffly. Both Rias and I frown. That is not how he normally talks. His eyes settle on me, and I feel his anger spike. Wait, what? What the fuck is this? "Axton, can we talk? Privately?"

Gasper, picking up on the strange atmosphere, has completely hidden in his box, the top pulled down. Rias looks uncertain but she doesn't say anything. I guess that leaves it up to me to handle whatever this is. "Sure thing, got a place in mind?" I ask as my mind churns.

"Yeah, follow me," he replies as he heads deeper into the building, heading for the stairs up. As he does, it clicks in my mind, and I nearly groan out loud. Fuck, I forgot about his irrational hate boner for Excalibur Fragments, and now I have two guests wielding them in my home. I should be happy he didn't fucking storm the place I guess.

The room he brings me to is up a flight of stairs and on the other side of the building. The room itself is a weird mashup of Japanese and European. The floor is made of tatami mats, some of the decorations are distinctly oriental, and there are several of those bamboo things that people cut with swords. But the furniture is distinctly European and so are the weapons. Though the swords I recognize as being made by Kiba. I guess this is where he trains?

"So what's up?" I ask him casually. He's tense, I can feel it.

"Do you know about my past?" Kiba starts with his back to me. I'm surprised he isn't immediately yelling about Excalibur Fragments.

"Can't say that I do," I reply. "I presume you were human before Rias reincarnated you. And despite your name, I don't think you're Japanese. Or at least your parents aren't."

"You're right, on both counts," Kiba says. None of his anger is apparent in his voice right now. "Yuuto Kiba is a name I picked out after Rias reincarnated me. It's a name fitting for a Knight, and a way to both leave my old life behind me and show her appreciation for my new life."

I wait for him to explain what his name means, but he doesn't. Shit, it's probably something really obvious. The downside of auto-translation is that it doesn't work on stuff like that. I have no idea what anyone's name means. Whatever, I'll look it up online later.

"So by your past, I assume you mean before that," I ask. He nods. "No, I don't know anything about it. I haven't snooped, I saw no need. But if you want to tell me, I'm all ears." If only so I don't have to pretend not to know.

So Kiba talked. He described how he, as an orphan, was used in a test subject. There were other orphans as well, he wasn't alone. The experiments they were put under were, truthfully speaking, comically cruel. Supposedly it was all to find out why some people could wield Holy Swords and why some couldn't, with the intention of being able to give anyone they wanted the ability to use an Excalibur Fragment, which are apparently very picky about their users.

But from the experiments Kiba described, his voice even and his emotions muted, I find myself wondering if Valper Galilei, the lead researcher, didn't just get his rocks off on torturing kids.

In the end, when the orphans were no longer useful to him, he gassed them. Working together, they managed to secure an escape for only a single member of their group. Kiba. Only for him to succumb to his wounds later, at which point Rias found him and resurrected him with an Evil Piece.

"What happened to Valper?" I ask.

"Exiled," Kiba replies. "He disappeared after that."

I know that he currently works for the Fallen. Specifically, he works for Kokabiel. But I don't say any of that. Instead, I decide to move this conversation along so I can go ahead and start fixing this.

"While I appreciate you telling me all this, is there a reason why you chose now?" I ask him.

"Isn't it obvious?" Kiba asks, turning around. There's cold anger on his face. "Two of those damned swords are currently in your home!"

"They are," I confirm neutrally. "So?"

"So help me destroy them!" he seethes. "Those things are the cause of my suffering. The world is better off without them."

Dammit, I really meant to prepare for this. I'll have to do it tonight. But for now, I'll buy time.

I sigh. "Look, there are reasons I can't do that right now," I say vaguely. I don't want to tell him no, that'll just make him angrier and make him potentially act on his own, and that'd be a shit show. "But!" I continue before he can interrupt. "Give me 24 hours to look into some things and make some preparations, alright? Before 24 hours are up we'll talk again."

His fists clench, and I can tell he's not happy about it, but he's still rational enough to accept a small delay. "Fine," he agrees. "24 hours. Then I'm taking them out, with or without you."

I sigh again. "I'll get it done quickly. Tonight then. Look for me if you don't hear from me by the end of the school day." He nods and turns back around, making a heavy sword, which he starts swinging through the air, anger clear in every strike. I guess that means I'm dismissed.

As I walk back to the main club room I grumble to myself in annoyance. Kiba is usually a pretty nice dude who keeps his cool. But he's the exact opposite when it comes to holy swords. And yes, the swords themselves, not the users, not the people who experimented on him, and not even holy sword users. It's dumb.

Thankfully I have a plan for how to deal with this in a way that won't start a war. I planned on taking care of it before it became an issue, but with everything going on, I forgot just having Excalibur wielders in my home would trigger him. Thankfully I've managed to buy enough time to put that plan into action. I'll take care of it after I meet with Serafall tonight.

Rias looks at me in concern as I arrive back at the room. "Is Kiba okay?" she asks, concerned.

"He's just a little angry about my guests from the Church," I tell her as I sit back down.

"Ah," she says, understanding dawning on her face. She grimaces. "I was hoping it wouldn't be an issue."

"Don't worry, I've calmed him down for now and I'll make sure he doesn't do anything dumb," I reply.

She nods, grateful. "Thank you, Axton, I'll do what I can as well."

My phone vibrates, indicating I have a new message. I pull it out and see that it's a text from Atsuko, with a picture attached.

Atsuko: it worked...i think?

The picture is of the most muscular woman I've ever seen. I can see why Atsuko isn't sure if it worked, but those are definitely boobs on her chest, not pecs.

Honestly, the picture reminds me of the true form of Biscuit Krueger from Hunter x Hunter, but with black hair instead of blonde.

"Looks like it worked," I say, turning the phone to show Rias the picture.

Rias looks at the picture, a complicated expression on her face. "It appears so. I swear, that girl attracts the strangest customers."

I laugh in response to Rias's words, but my attention is on Gasper, still in the box in the corner. "Wanna see the picture, Gasper?" I call out, asking him.

I can feel his nervousness and curiosity war with each other before he finally nods, scooting his box towards us. I hold out my phone towards him so he can peer at it.

"Do you have a before picture?" he asks as he looks.

"No, I don't think Atsuko took one, but you can ask her when she gets back," I answer. He's definitely interested though. Good. It was worth the use of the potion just to let him know I have it.

"Now that I have confirmation that it works, I can sell them without worry," I continue. "Though I think I'll keep it restricted to just friends and VIPs. I can make them easily enough, but scaling up to a global market amount would be impossible." At least until I find a better combination of ingredients.

"Are they expensive?" Gasper asks.

"Not really," I lie. "Not to divulge any secrets, but the current recipe is just a little annoying to work with in bulk." That's my excuse at least. "It's easy to make a handful, but not so easy to make a hundred." I want him to ask for one after all. And he won't do that if he thinks they're too valuable.

It's a risk but…I look at him with a grin. "You interested?" I ask him. "I don't mind giving another freebie out to one of Rias's Peerage members."

He instantly blushes and retreats back into his box. "N-n-n-no thank you!" he stammers out.

"Aww, that's a shame," I pout in a joking manner. "You'd be pretty cute as a girl."

He doesn't reply, merely shuffling his box away and back into the corner. Rias simply smiles at our antics and goes back to drinking her tea.

It won't be long now until he accepts the offer, or better yet, asks for it on his own.

-x-

Serafall doesn't keep me waiting for long, arriving shortly after I eat dinner with everyone. I'm meditating on my soul and practicing manipulating it when I detect her teleporting in. I have Mittelt waiting on standby to bring her to me, so I don't bother getting up.

A couple of minutes later there's a knock on the door as Mittelt arrives with Serafall.

"Thank you Mittelt, that'll be all," I tell her as Serafall skips in the room. I can feel her arousal already.

Mittelt hesitates for a moment before curtsying and closing the door. She starts moving down the hall, but then she stops and tiptoes back to the door.

"So, Axton, let's talk-" Serafall starts but I hold up a finger, indicating for her to stop. She tilts her head and I just sigh.

I silently get up and make my way to the door. [Void Detect] tells me Mittelt is back at the door, her ear against it.

I fling open the door, causing Mittelt to freeze in place, head awkwardly turned now that there isn't a door there.

"This umm...isn't what it looks like?" Mittelt tries, her voice nervous and her eyes darting all over the place. I just raise an eyebrow at her. "I know it looks suspicious but I was just-"

"Panties," I cut her off, holding my hand out.

"W-what?" she asks, thrown off balance.

"For punishment, give me your panties," I reply. "Then go tell Sakuya I want you to clean something that requires a ladder."

A mix of emotions shoots through her, mostly shame and arousal. Blushing, but her mouth shut tight, she complies. She knows not to argue, and she's getting off on this. She's also getting off lightly, considering she was trying to eavesdrop on us.

She drops her panties, which are dry this time, and gives them to me. "That'll be all, and I'll be checking with Sakuya to make sure you do as you're told," I say. She nods, curtsies again, and then leaves, walking carefully so her skirt doesn't bounce too much.

I pocket the panties, close the door, and turn back to Serafall. "Sorry about that," I say.

She's grinning ear to ear. "Oh no, not at all. That was super entertaining," Serafall replies. "Do you treat all of your staff like that?"

"Just her," I reply as I sit back down. "She gets off on it, so I have a bit of fun with her."

"Doesn't that mean you just rewarded her for trying to eavesdrop?" Serafall asks with a raised eyebrow.

I grin. "Which will encourage her to keep trying things like that, but with the intention of being caught and 'punished'. This way I can play with her more."

Serafall laughs. "I like the way you think." Her gaze turns more lustful. "Speaking of playing around, I've been dying to taste some more of Sona."

With a thought, I stash my clothes away, leaving me naked and my erection free from constraints. "You're free to extract it any way you want," I tell her.

She stands up and takes off her top. She's wearing her magical girl outfit today, and apparently, the top for it comes off easily, and there's no bra underneath it. Unlike Sona, Serafall's boobs are decently big. Not nearly on the same level as Rias. Probably around Momo's size.

Which means that when she kneels in front of me, she has more than enough mass to wrap them around my dick. Before she does I use both [Touch of Pleasure] and [Increase Sensitivity] to make the experience pleasurable for her as well.

"This way we can talk while we work," Serafall says as she starts moving her breasts up and down my length. Her tits are warm and soft, and her nipples pink and hard. "I managed to get my work done early today, but Sirzechs has something he wants me to help him look into later, so I don't have all night."

"Smart thinking," I reply. "So, business, or Sona first?"

"Sona," Serafall replies immediately. "That'll make this more enjoyable for me."

I nod and take a moment to enjoy the sensation of her soft tits stroking me before I start speaking. "As you saw, I've made Sona fall for me completely. And while I'm not sure you care, I do want to make it clear that I do genuinely care for her. She's great."

"You're smart and have good taste, it's why I picked you," she replies. "If you didn't care for her I wouldn't have picked you in the first place. And if you stop caring about her, I'll just have to make you regret it." She grins, but it's all teeth.

"No worries on that front," I laugh a little nervously. Serafall is still a little out of my league, even if my stats are approaching hers. If she wanted to punish me all I could do is run.

"Anyway, on to my rough plan," I say. "Between our experiments last night and my own observation of her, I have a pretty good idea of what Sona likes, even if she isn't fully aware of it all herself."

"Oh?" Serafall asks, eyebrow raised. It's a strange sight when she's bouncing her tits on my cock. "So what does she like?"

"She likes being on top and in control, obviously," I say, and Serafall nods in agreement. We'd both seen it, and considering her personality, it's not a surprise. "She also liked sitting on my face way more than she liked any other position that didn't involve my dick in her pussy. And even then, face sitting is a close second. I'm also pretty sure she's open to group stuff and she's bisexual."

"What makes you think that?" Serafall asks, very interested.

"For the former, call it a gut feeling," I reply. "I'm good at guessing that sort of thing. For the latter, I just looked at her peerage."

"Ah," Serafall admits. She starts moving her boobs up and down out of sync, sending waves of tingles through me. "They're all beautiful girls."

"If I'm right, both of those are good things," I continue. "Or rather, they're necessary for us to have a threesome. Even if it's not incest or a specific attraction to you, once I get her to open up a little more, I think I can get her to gladly join us."

"Just tell me when," Serafall says, moving faster now. She's actually really good at this, it won't be long now before I cum. "I'll drop everything to be there."

"Give me a week, maybe a bit less," I say. "Once I get her a little more perverted, I'll call both of you here, you first. She'll walk in while we're having some fun, with you tied down or something else that'll set off her domination fetish, and I'll invite her to join."

Serafall frowns. "Seems a little risky. What if she says no?"

"That's what the week of preparation is for," I reply, tensing slightly. My cock twitches between her pillowy breasts.

"Hmm, alright, I'll trust your judgment," she says. "One rule though. When we're doing our thing when she walks in, there won't be any penetration. There's no way you can penetrate me before my precious Sona does~" She giggles. "Oh, and the mouth doesn't count, or else how would I get her taste?"

"So long as I get you afterwards, that's fine," I reply. "And speaking of taste, I'm about to cum." I quickly cast [Alter Flavor].

This time instead of letting me spray it all over her face, she lowers her head and wraps her luscious lips around the tip of my cock. As soon as I feel her tongue press against the sensitive underside of the head of my penis, my climax releases. My hips buck slightly as I feel Serafall's mouth.

She doesn't unlatch herself from my cock until it stops twitching. When it does, she carefully removes her lips in a way that doesn't spill any cum. I can see her hand under her skirt where her fingers are plunged deep into her pussy. Her cheeks bulge with the Sona flavored cum she's savoring in her mouth.

I sit back in my chair and enjoy the view as she brings herself to orgasm with nothing but her fingers and a mouthful of my jizz. Only after her climax does she finally swallow.

"Shhoooo gooood~" she coos, almost sounding drunk. "I want more~"

"Well our Sona talk is done unless you have more questions," I say. She shakes her head. "In that case, if you don't mind talking about serious business while getting me off, I don't see a reason for us to stop."

She grins and climbs to my lap while wrapping her fingers around my shaft. "Well then, talk away."

-x-

Serafall leaves with traces of cum on her clothes and skin and a hell of a lot more work on her plate, but she's in high spirits. Our talk went well, and she's fully behind what I have planned. Not a surprise considering it was half her idea, but she liked the idea I had for implementing it.

Though I'm sure a lot of her good mood came from the taste of my cum and the plan we made for Sona.

I'm about to leave to make preparations for my talk with Kiba when I notice a familiar presence enter my home. Interesting, it seems like Kuroka has come for another visit. I throw my clothes back on and stand up. Last time I let her come to me, but maybe I should shake things up this time?

As she creeps through the halls, unseen by most, I [Void Travel] behind her, grab her shoulder, and pull us back to the room I was just in.

Of course, this causes her to immediately swing her claws at me and magical circles appear around her. I dodge her swipe with an amused grin and she realizes what happened, and more importantly who did it to her, before she releases her magic.

She glares at me as her spells fizzle out and she relaxes her stance. "That stopped being funny a long time ago," she grumbles.

"Maybe for you," I grin. "So what's up? Come for a social visit? I've got some business to take care of tonight, but you can come with me if you want." I frown. Wait, is that nervousness I feel from her?

"How time-sensitive is that business?" she asks. She's not even trying to hide it, she's definitely nervous.

"Nothing that can't wait a few more hours, why?" I say, tone a bit more serious.

"Two things," she says. "The first one is shorter, but a little more pressing. Kinda." She shakes her head. "Anyways, you know I'm part of the Khaos Brigade right?"

"Sure," I reply. I haven't actually looked into them yet, but I know a bit about them from my metaknowledge. "Has a few factions within it. The Old Satans are considered one, and so is the Hero Faction. And they're led by Ophis, the Infinite Dragon God."

"Right, yes," she confirms. "There are other factions and independents but that's not important. What's important is the leader, Ophis. Because she's looking for you."

I blink. Ah. "Well, it was going to happen sooner or later," I muse. Honestly, I'm surprised it hasn't happened already. Hell, a Void entity from another reality found me pretty quick, but not the one in this one. Though maybe it was because she isn't in the Dimensional Gap? The Man in the Wall said he found me through feeling me use my power, which drew on his Void. Without being in the Void, it might have been a lot harder to find me.

"So you know," Kuroka says, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Hmm?" I ask, confused. "Know what?"

"You know how much you feel like her," Kuroka clarifies.

Hmm, how to handle this? "I had an educated guess," I say. "You're not the first one to draw a connection between the two of us. I've never met her, and from what I know there's no direct connection between us, but from what I've heard, our powers might come from similar places." I shake my head. "Though if she's half as strong as people keep implying, I have no doubt she'd crush me."

"Unless you're a lot stronger than you let on, you might not even rate as a nuisance," Kuroka confirms.

"Well, either way, I look forward to meeting her," I say casually.

Kuroka gapes at me. "Axton, I don't think you understand-"

"What does she want from me, and is there anything I can do to avoid her attention?" I ask, cutting her off. "Short of abandoning my current life, which isn't an option. I've made too much attention recently to hide, and my potions business is days away from its grand opening. I even figured out a name."

"I don't know why, she hasn't told anyone," Kuroka answers. "But no, leaving here and going to ground is your only option."

"Then I'll just hope she's friendly or I can talk my way into an advantageous position," I reply. Though in truth I'm banking on more than that. I have plans in place for her. It was half the reason I picked up the [Cooking] skill. I'll have to store up some sweets soon.

"I won't say that's impossible to do, but only because of how unpredictable she is," Kuroka advises. "She does what she feels like. Convincing her of anything is doable, but tricky. Her mind just doesn't work like ours."

"I'm sure I can handle it," I dismiss. "I appreciate the heads up though. What's the second thing?"

She looks at me, and I can feel how she is both confused and frustrated with how not seriously I'm taking this. But she eventually sighs and moves on. "The second thing is a bit more personal. You said you'd be willing to arrange a meeting between me and Shirone, right?"

"You want to do that now?" I ask. "I can call her and ask her to come over."

"Please," Kuroka confirms with a nod. "I can't put this off any longer. She deserves the truth."

"Alright," I say with a nod. Good. Maybe this will clear the final barrier and allow me to reach 100 Affection with Koneko. And maybe unlock something with Kuroka. Her Affection is high, I'm surprised she isn't actually more affectionate with me considering what I know of her. But hopefully, with this, that'll change.

I call Koneko's number on my phone and wait for her to answer. "...hello?" comes her voice, a little confused sounding. Is it because it's my first time calling her? Well, whatever.

"Hey Koneko," I say. "Sorry for calling so late, but there's something important I wanted to talk to you about. Kind of a last-minute sort of thing. Can you come over to my place so we can talk?"

There's a long pause, and for a moment I worry the call was disconnected. "...sure," she replies. Hmm. I don't think I like talking to Koneko on the phone. I miss out on the subtle body language that helps me read her. And also [Empathy] doesn't work over the phone.

"Great!" I reply. "I'll meet you in the lobby, and explain everything once you get here."

"Ok," she says. "Bye, see you soon." She hangs up, and I turn to Kuroka.

"You stay here, I'll bring her here after I prepare her so she doesn't bolt or do something rash," I say. Kuroka nods and I travel down to the teleportation room with [Void Travel]. A quick use of [Clean Body] gets rid of the scent of Kuroka that might be clinging to me and I waited. That was something I discovered after my race change and I started being able to pick up those smells.

A few minutes later Koneko appears.

"Thanks for coming over so quickly," I greet her and pull her into a hug. "Especially when I was so vague."

She shakes her head. "It's fine." She returns the hug before stepping back and looking at me. "But what is it?"

I sigh. "Before I explain, I want to preface a couple of things. First, I want to ask that you trust me and trust that you are important to me and I only want what's best for you." She nods, but I can feel her pulse and anxiety skyrocket. Ah, yeah that sounds pretty bad. This isn't helping much. "Second," I continue. "Keep an open mind, what you think you know is actually more complicated. Third, I'm sorry I've been hiding this from you, but it was a delicate situation."

"Axton," she starts, voice wavering slightly. "What's going on?" Yep, all that did was make her extremely anxious.

I sigh again. Might as well just rip off the bandaid. "Kuroka is here and she wants to see you."

Koneko stills, but her emotions don't. "Why?" she asks on the verge of panic. Her hands are shaking.

"Because there's more to what happened than you know, and Kuroka wants a chance to explain it to you," I answer quickly.

"...so you know?" Koneko asks. To my surprise, she's actually calming down again. Only slightly, but it's better than the rapid increase of before.

"She explained it, and I looked into it and verified what I could. This was after you had told me about it. She appeared not long after that, she was watching you as you trained. I detected her and questioned her and managed to get the information out of her. I didn't say anything because I wanted you to be able to focus on the Rating Game, and I believed she didn't have bad intentions."

Her face darkens. "Did she have a good excuse?"

I sigh. "I'll leave that for you to decide. In my opinion, she could have done better, but there was nothing good about the situation. She wants to explain it though, and I'll let her. I just wanted to make sure you had some warning and didn't go into flight-or-fight mode as soon as you saw her."

Koneko is quiet for a moment, her brow furrowed as she thinks. Curiosity, anger, frustration, fear, hope, and more are all swirling around inside of her in a storm of emotions. Her face is stony and cold though.

"You'll be there?" she asks me, and I nearly sigh a breath of relief.

"I'll be there supporting you," I tell her. "I've giving Kuroka the chance to explain herself, but it's your wellbeing I care about most."

She thinks for a moment more before slowly nodding. "Okay," she says. "I'll listen."

I hold my hand out. "I'll take you right to the room she's in then, okay?" She nods and takes my hand, and a [Void Travel] brings us both to where Kuroka is. I can feel Koneko tense when she sees and smells Kuroka.

"Sister," Koneko greets her, voice flat. I sit down on the couch across from Kuroka and Koneko settles into my lap.

"Shirone, I'm glad to see you're doing well. And I'm glad you agreed to hear me out," Kuroka says. Her emotions are a mess as well.

"I trust Axton," she says, leaving it at that.

"I can see that," she says, looking at the two of us. "I'm glad you do. We all need someone like that."

Big words for someone who definitely doesn't have someone like that. Though that mostly just means she's acutely aware of what it means to have someone like that.

"He said you wanted to explain," Koneko says. "So explain. I'll listen."

Kuroka nods and she does just that, telling the tale I've already heard.

Koneko asks a few questions for clarification here and there but is otherwise quiet. By the end of it, her emotions are actually fairly calm. I'm not getting much of a reading on her at all actually. And I can't tell if that's a good or bad thing.

"And that's it," Kuroka finishes. "I check up on you every now and then to make sure you're doing okay, but otherwise I've been on the run."

"I wasn't," Koneko says. "Okay. I wasn't okay. Not at first."

Kuroka flinches. "I- I know," she admits. "But after what I had done, I couldn't take you with me. I...I wasn't confident I could escape. Better they only punish me while you remain blameless."

"They blamed me anyway," Koneko counters. I'm starting to think her lack of emotions is a bad sign.

"They shouldn't have!" Kuroka protests. "It was my choice, my actions." Kuroka shakes her head and slumps back. "No, I'm sorry. They did, you're right. And all I can do is say I'm sorry and hope that you forgive me."

Koneko doesn't respond at first. Ah, definitely not a good sign. But I can't interfere here. I've thrown the dice and weighted them as best I could, but they're out of my hands now, and all I can do is see how they fall.

After a stretched-out and anxious moment of silence, Koneko finally shakes her head. "I don't know," she replies. "I- get it. But I don't. I want to, but I can't. I don't know how to feel. I don't know what to do."

Her emotions are back, but all that's there is anxiety that's quickly rising. I put a hand on her head and pat her. "That's okay Koneko, there's no need to figure it all out right now. You know the truth now, and you can think about it."

Her anxiety stops climbing, slowing down as I pat her until it starts decreasing instead. She nods. "Okay."

I keep patting her and make eye contact with Kuroka. I can tell Kuroka isn't happy with this outcome, but she's not upset by it either.

After an awkward moment, Koneko suddenly gets out of my lap. "I want to be alone for a little while."

I would prefer if she depended on me a little more, but I suppose I'm too close to Kuroka. "All right," I say. "Though you should talk about it too. With me, or with anyone. Aika's a good listener, she might be able to help."

Koneko hesitates, but she nods. "I'll think about it." She looks at Kuroka and bites her lip, thinking. "I'm sorry," she says. "Goodbye, sister."

With those words, she leaves the room. I keep an eye on her as she heads towards the lobby, needing to take a moment to get herself oriented. She doesn't start crying or running. I contemplate going after her, but from what I know of her, a bit of time alone is probably exactly what she needs.

I turn my attention back to Kuroka. "Well, it's not perfect, but it's progress at least."

+10 Affection with Kuroka

For doing what you can to reconnect her with her sister

"It's roughly what I expected," Kuroka says with a sigh. "I knew she wouldn't be able to forgive me. After seeing what she went through those days after I killed him? I can't forgive myself."

I'd reassure her that what she did wasn't unforgivable, but she wouldn't listen. The only opinion that mattered on that subject was Koneko's, and we just heard that. So instead, I change the subject.

"You wanna do something fun to take your mind off of it?" I ask.

Just like that, her normal mask rises back up. "Oh? Are you coming on to me?"

"Maybe later," I say with a grin. "But no, I was thinking something more along the lines of some good old-fashioned cat burglary." My tail swishes, accentuating the pun.

"So you are trying to seduce me then," she replies teasingly. "Sneaking in somewhere to take some stuff is a pretty good way to get me hot and bothered. The more challenging the better."

"In that case, I'd prepare another pair of panties if I were you," I reply. "Because I need to steal some confidential information from the Vatican. You interested in coming along?" I could use another pair of hands and eyes to help me look for the information I want.

"Mmm, you don't play around," Kuroka purrs. "I like that. And for your information, I don't wear panties."

"I'll keep that in mind," I say with a smile. I stand up and hold my hand out to her. "So is that a yes?"

She stands up and grabs my hand with her own, but she doesn't stop there. She presses herself against me. "Oh, that's a yes for sure. I'd love to have some fun with you."

I grin wider and whisk us away with [Void Travel]. Next stop, the Vatican.

-x-

The next day during lunch I intercept Kiba on his way from his classroom as he heads towards the Occult Research Club room. "Kiba," I call out to him, causing him to stop and look at me. "Let's talk."

The other students in the hallway give us odd looks and one group of girls starts excitedly chattering, but we both ignore them. Kiba nods and we head out of the school together. As soon as we're out of sight I put a hand on his shoulder and teleport the two of us to the room he brought me to yesterday, his training room.

"What was it you needed to look into?" Kiba asks as he turns to face me, not reacting to the sudden teleport at all.

"This," I say as I pull out a folder from my inventory and slap it down onto a table. It hits the wooden surface with a loud smack, heavy with all the papers it contains.

Kiba frowns and reaches down towards it. "What is all this?"

"Every single detail I could find about the Holy Sword project," I answer. "With a focus on the people involved at any level. The people who signed off on it, the people who funded it, the people in charge of the research, the people who cleaned the building, the investigators who looked into things afterward, and the people who made the decision to excommunicate Valper Galilei. If they were tangentially involved and I could find information on them, I grabbed it."

Kiba is stunned enough that some of his anger and bad mood have receded. "How did you even get all of this?" he asks as he flips through it. Most of the documents on top are just dossiers on people, including pictures.

"The Vatican keeps surprisingly thorough records, and their security is easy to get around," I say truthfully. Kuroka by herself would have been able to get in. With my Void skills? I bypassed everything with ease.

I'm glad I took Kuroka with me though. The Church had a lot of paperwork on even their more confidential projects. Without her help, I would have been there literally all night instead of just most of the night. Even as it was, I had to text Asia to let her know to go to bed without me since I was busy with work.

"Is there information in here that will help us destroy the Excalibur Fragments?" he asks as he idly flips through the papers.

I don't bother holding back a sigh. "No, it won't, because we won't be doing that."

Kiba stills. "What do you mean we won't be doing that?" he asks. "What was the point of you collecting all of this information then?"

"I collected it to show you how much of a fucking dumbass you're being," I shoot back at him, no longer hiding my own frustration. "You have every right to be angry and to seek revenge, but what the fuck are you doing? What are you actually doing to get that revenge?"

Kiba's anger spikes in reaction to my own anger. "I've been training and growing my power so I'm strong enough to destroy those swords!"

"And there are three examples of you being an idiot right there!" I point out heatedly. I make sure we can't be heard from the other rooms, there are a few other ORC members in the room downstairs, eating lunch.

"First, your revenge apparently means so little that you're being passive about it. You don't even train that hard, and I don't think I've seen a single attempt at a Holy Sword destroyer using your Sacred Gear. Second, you admit that you're not strong enough to destroy them yet, but here you are, wanting to destroy them when they get near you."

"Rias wants me to live a normal life!" Kiba shouts back. "And I try. But with those swords here I can't ignore them. I need to destroy them."

"And there's the third thing," I continue. "Kiba, listen carefully to me. They're fucking swords. You're aiming your revenge at the dumbest possible target."

"Those swords are the entire reason they did those things!" Kiba argues. "If they didn't exist, all of my friends would still be alive!"

"That's like saying if money didn't exist, no one would get robbed," I fire back. I slam my hand down on the papers. "Instead of blaming the unthinking inanimate swords that the Church lusts over, direct your anger here. These are the people who have names, faces, hands, and their own will that are directly responsible for what happened to you. These people actively chose to cruelly experiment on a group of orphans."

To his credit, Kiba deflates a bit, my ranting finally starting to get through his skull. "But the swords-"

"Are nothing," I cut him off. "They have no will, no desire, they take no action that isn't done by someone else's hands. They are tools that the Church desired to use more of." I raise an empty hand up into the air and I decide to take a gamble. I pull Excalibur Ruler out of my inventory and then slam it down, point first, into the floor. The holy blade easily slides a few inches into the ground before it stops.

Kiba's eyes widen as he sees it, and as he feels the Holy aura from it. Shit, they probably feel that downstairs huh? I quickly use [Sound Domain] to speak to Rias, who is already standing up. "Hashing something out with Kiba, getting him over his obsession. Don't interfere, it'll complicate things."

Her expression tells me how little she likes that, but she nods. "Fine, just don't hurt him. You have ten minutes."

I shouldn't need that long, but whatever. I turn my attention back to Kiba, whose fists are clenched and his anger rising again. "Why do you have that?"

"This is Excalibur Ruler," I say. "The Excalibur Fragment that's been missing for ages. I found it in a dragon's hoard in southern France. And it's nothing but a fancy fucking sword."

He stares at the sword as it does absolutely nothing because neither of us are holding it. There's a heavy amount of doubt mixed in with his anger. After a moment of him not saying anything, I continue. "This is the Holy Sword that you hate. But you shouldn't." I indicate the stack again. "This is where your revenge should be targeted."

I flip to the first paper. "Valper Galilei, the lead researcher in charge of the whole project. He came up with the theory himself, pitched it to the higher-ups, and managed to get funding and approval with little to no oversight. When pitching his plan, he had to submit a plan detailing the experiments he would do. All of them were lies. He's the main one responsible for what happened to you, including the death of your friends."

I flip through the next few. "And these are the five researchers who worked under him. They, like him, knew fully what they were doing and happily followed Valper's lead. It was one of them that gassed all of you at the end, following Valper's orders."

A few more papers. "These three are the ones that approved Valper's proposal and allowed it to happen with very little oversight. They were misled, but it wouldn't have happened if they had said no."

A larger chunk of papers. "These are every person even tangentially related to the running of the facility. Cleaning crews, suppliers, maintenance, security, and more. Outside of the security team, none of them should have had any idea what was going on, and even the security team was kept in the dark and mostly responsible for external security rather than internal security. But blaming any of them makes more sense than blaming the inanimate fucking swords."

I tap the rest of the papers. "And the rest is proof and documents detailing exactly how much each person was involved. If it was even slightly related to the project, I copied it." I sigh. "Look Kiba, I'm not here to talk you out of revenge. Hell, I'll help you in a heartbeat. But it's the people you should be angry with, not the swords."

His fists clench and unclench as he struggles to work through what he's feeling. His emotions reach a pitch and he yells, a black sword appearing in his hands. He raises it above his head and I step to the side as she swings it down hard on Excalibur Ruler. The black blade shatters on impact, not even scratching the holy blade.

Kiba slumps to his knees, the fight gone out of him. "So you do have an anti-holy sword after all," I muse. That's right, he'd had one in canon, didn't he? It just wasn't very good.

"Came up with it last night," he said, tone flat. "It absorbs Light to make itself stronger."

I shake my head. "You should go the other way, have it corrupt and poison Holy swords. You can't make a sword that can handle a prolonged fight with an Excalibur Fragment. But a hundred corrupting swords, slowly chipping away at it? That could work."

He laughs. "You're right," he admits. "Of course you're right. You're right about this and you're right about that." He shakes his head, and I spot tears running down his face as he silently cries. "I've been such a damned fool, haven't I?"

I let out a breath of relief and then grin before offering him a hand. "Just a bit, but that's what you have friends and family for. To call you out and set you on the right track."

+21 Affection with Yuuto Kiba

For forcing his eyes open when he was so stubborn

Ah, good old shounen tropes. You can always count on a good fight to increase Affection, whether fists are thrown or we just yell at each other. He nods and takes my hand, accepting the help in getting back to his feet. He uses his sleeve to wipe the tears from his face, a little embarrassed.

"I'm sorry I pushed to destroy the swords of your guests," he says. "Those two girls haven't done anything wrong, and the amount of trouble it would get you in wouldn't be worth it."

I shake my head. "No worries man, I wouldn't have let you do anything dumb."

He nods and then looks at Excalibur Ruler with a frown. "You just...found that? After it's been missing all this time?"

I shrug. "I found a piece of intel that led me to the hoard of a long-dead dragon. I tracked it down just for the treasure. Considering the size of the tunnels and the hoard, I think it was a pretty minor dragon, but I couldn't find a name. To my surprise, it was just in there, the centerpiece of the hoard. My best guess is that the dragon managed to pilfer it from the aftermath of a fight and stash it away in his horde. But no one knew, so after the dragon was killed, no one knew where to look for it." At least, that's the only thing that makes sense to me besides Game bullshit.

"Ah," he replies. "That makes sense. What do you plan on doing with it?"

I reach for the handle, ignoring it rejecting my ability to wield it and stash it back in my inventory. "I can't use it, so I'm going to give it to Asia once she's strong enough. She's been continuing to work on her sword skills with Wilhelm in her spare time." Whenever she's not gardening anyway. "You're free to come over whenever you want and ask Wilhelm for some lessons as well too. He's already agreed to it."

Kiba nods. "I'd be glad to do so and to help Asia as well."

"Great!" I say, throwing an arm around his shoulders. "Now, let's go apologize to Rias. You for how grumpy you've been lately, and me for pulling out a holy sword and putting a hole in the floor with it."

Kiba chuckles. "I'm sure she'll forgive you. But you're right, we should apologize."

"Don't tell anyone I have Ruler by the way," I say. "It's a secret, for now. Gonna reveal it at the right time."

"Not sure what you mean, but sure, I can do that," he replies.

The two of us leave the room and make our way downstairs. Another problem solved before it becomes one. The efforts I go through for peace and quiet are annoying, but it's better than the alternative.

-x-

Sona and I are in my training room later that day after school. We're both dressed in simple exercise gear and are stretching. I think [Gamer's Body] means I don't really need to stretch, I'm always ready to do whatever, but I join her.

Over the next several weeks I'll be having one on one training sessions with her and her Peerage members after school. And of course, we're starting with Sona.

"What kind of enemies do you struggle with the most?" I ask her. "You personally, not you as the leader of a Peerage. My own specialty is speed and precision blows, but I can emulate a few different things."

She thinks about it for a moment. "Speedsters and power types," she replies. "I can control a large degree of water with my magic, enough to at least push around even the most defense-focused enemies. But if I can't hit them with my water, or if they can obliterate it, I can't do much against them."

I nod. "I can work with that. So here's how it's going to go. I'm going to try to get close to you and lay my hands on you. Your goal is to force me away from you. Let's say you want to keep me 100 feet away from you. At the start, I'll go easy on you, but each time you push me past that 100 feet mark, I'll up the difficulty a little bit. Sound good?"

"Am I restricted to just my water magic?" she asks.

I shake my head. "Nope, you start out using your full abilities. I'll slowly raise to match you. Your goal is just to get me away from you. Feel free to move as much as you want, we have plenty of room down here, and there are drains in place for all the water."

She nods. "Understood. I'm ready when you are."

I step back and teleport to the other side of the room a couple hundred feet away from her. "Don't worry," I call out. "Teleporting into your range is the last difficulty level."

I see her nod, and without further ado, I charge at her. No skills are active besides my passive ones, this is just pure stats. Still, I enter her range in an instant.

Only for a semi-truck-sized tunnel of water to slam into me, tossing me back like a rag doll and leaving me soaked. Well, I guess that's level one cleared. But she was meant to clear it quickly. I roll to my feet and charge her again, this time I brace myself right before the water hits me, using [Spider Climb] to cling tighter against the floor, but it only lets me stay there a second before I'm once again swept away.

When I get back on my feet I see Sona standing, a smirk on her face. "Did you feel like you needed a bath?"

"Just wanted to make sure your boasts of being able to knock down anyone with your water weren't empty," I reply easily. "I'm going to start destroying or dodging them now." I don't wait for her reply, instead once again rushing in. This time, when the water approaches me I dodge it, diving to the side.

Of course, since I told her what I was going to do, she was ready with another one. The amount of water she can throw around is impressive. But not enough. I don't have time to dodge this one, not without using another skill, but I have another plan in mind.

I throw my hands up and use [Conjure Solar-Light]. Light and heat explode from my hands, vaporizing the water in front of me and turning it into steam that expands to fill a large amount of the room.

I dash through it. It's still extremely hot, but not to the level that it can injure me. As I approach where Sona was standing I can see her starting to move, but she's too late. I catch her and my hands find the exposed skin of her stomach, [Touch of Pleasure] active on full power.

She moans sweetly as I touch her, but I pull my hand away quickly, and she's left with a confused look on her face. "What was that?" she asks.

"Your punishment for getting caught," I tell her. "Each time I'll hit you with a spike of pleasure." I wiggle my fingers at her. "I have a spell that can induce it on touch, and it's better than tasing you or actually hurting you."

She sighs. "Of course you do. Fine. I won't let it happen again."

"We'll see about th-" I'm cut off by her washing me away again with a tunnel of water. When I get to my feet, I'm about 150 feet away from her, and she has the perimeter around her covered by a massive serpent made of water.

I grin and rush back in, another skill on hand.

We keep this up for over an hour. Sona manages to pull out a decent number of skills from me, though part of that is me wanting to experiment with some of my own skills. This is decent training for me as well.

Sona's magic is impressive though. Her giant water dragon remains her core tool during our session, but it changes and grows as we continue. She can shoot projectiles from it and can launch any number of attacks from its body. She even had two of the things out at one point, but it took too much of her concentration and it was simple to slip between them and tag her.

And she gets tagged a lot. Enough so that not all of the wetness of her shorts is due to the water she's throwing around and her concentration starts slipping.

Training comes to an end when, after me reaching her for the fifth time in less than a minute, she drops all magic and pounces on me, her hungry lips on mine as she wraps her legs around me.

Well, I knew it would come to this. It's why I used this method of training after all. So I gladly go with the flow and strip us both, ready for a few rounds of fun.

-x-

I find out that evening that Koneko took my advice from last night and talked to Aika about things. Aika was able to help stabilize her mood a lot better than I could have and afterward she proposed that the two of them visit me and make some cookies.

Which I was glad to do since I needed to make some anyway for whenever Ophis arrives. So we take over the kitchen for a couple of hours and whip up a bunch of cookies, and Koneko's mood definitely improves some more. And now the three of us are sitting together, enjoying the fresh cookies we just made with Koneko in my lap and Aika pressed against my side, my arm around her shoulder.

Suddenly, Koneko asks me a question. "Do you talk to my sister a lot?"

"Not really," I answer. "A couple of times during the training camp, and she's dropped by here a few times since then."

Koneko seems curious. "What do you talk about?"

"You, mostly," I reply. "Sometimes her, sometimes me, but usually it's talking about you, how you've progressed, how you're doing, stuff like that. She watched the Rating Game you know? Or she got her hands on the footage shortly after. She's really proud of how you did."

"Hmm," Koneko replies, slowly eating another cookie. "I can't forgive her. Not completely. But...I'll give her a chance."

"And I'm sure she'll be ecstatic at just that much," Aika confirms. "From what you've told me she does care about you a lot."

Koneko nods slowly. "I think she does. Maybe. Unless it's an act."

"For what it's worth, I'm convinced it's genuine," I say. "And if I wasn't sure of that, I never would have arranged a meeting between the two of you."

Koneko relaxes at that. "Thank you," she says. I smile and raise a cookie to her mouth, which she gladly accepts, eating it out of my hand. She leans back against my chest, and the motion causes her butt to slide slightly, which draws her attention to the stiff tent in my pants that she's currently sitting on. Her face doesn't change, but I can feel her arousal and amusement as she makes small movements to tease me more.

Aika obviously notices her shifting around and is smart enough to put two and two together. She grins in a way I recognize as meaning that she's about to hatch a scheme. "You know Koneko, Axton has a really cool trick he can do," she says.

Koneko stops shifting on my lap and glances at Aika. "What?" she asks, curious. I'm curious too, I can do a lot of cool stuff so I have no idea what specifically she's talking about.

"If you make a guy feel good enough, they cum and shoot out semen," Aika says casually.

"I- I know that," Koneko protests. "Rias taught us Sex Ed. She was...thorough."

"Well did you also know that semen tastes kinda gross?" Aika continues. "Or most think so. I don't mind it though. It's kinda salty and leaves an aftertaste." Ah, that's where she's going. Smart.

Koneko's ears, the human ones, are red now. "So what?" she asks, trying to hide her curiosity.

"So Axton has this trick where he can make his semen taste like anything," Aika says with a grin. "Chocolate, pizza, strawberries, it all works."

"Really?" Koneko looks at me, her tail twitching.

"Yep," I reply. "It's not restricted to just food either. But I normally stick to things that taste good."

"So Koneko," Aika says, that grin from earlier still on her face. "You wanna try it out? See if Axton can make it taste like these cookies?"

I worry for a moment that Aika is pushing too far too fast, but after a moment of consideration, Koneko gives a small and nervous nod. Aika, ecstatic and her own arousal spiking, gently guides Koneko off of my lap and spreads my legs before the two of them kneel between them, facing me.

She looks at me. "Pants off please," she says. I roll my eyes but do as she asks, stashing all of my clothes into my inventory.

Koneko jumps in surprise as my erection springs up, her eyes going wide. They go even wider when Aika strips off her own top.

"We need to get Axton to cum," Aika explains, putting her shirt and bra on the couch next to me. "And giving him a good show helps that." She shakes her chest side to side, making her boobs sway in a mesmerizing fashion. "And every guy loves seeing boobs."

Koneko looks at me for confirmation, so I nod. "Small boobs, big boobs, and every size in between, I love them all. I love how they look, and I love how they feel. And I'd love to see your boobs again, Koneko." I saw them during the training camp after all, during our massages. But there was an excuse then. This would be purely for perverted reasons.

She blushes and looks down, but she does slowly take her shirt off, revealing her lack of bra and her adorable breasts.

I take a moment to appreciate the sight in front of me. On the left, a white-haired cat girl with a blush on her face and cute little tits. On the right, a busty brunette in glasses with a smug and lewd grin on her face. My dick twitches and Aika's grin only grows wider.

"If you want to taste his cum, the best way to please him is with a blowjob," Aika explains as she brings her face closer to my dick. "You can use your hand if you have lube, but I prefer having his dick in my mouth anyway."

I note that she doesn't mention a tit job, which would work just as well and isn't quite as dependent on lube. Probably because Koneko is a little too small for a boob job and she doesn't want to draw attention to it.

Koneko nods and scoots closer alongside Aika, and in their new position, I can feel their breath on my cock. I go ahead and cast [Alter Flavor] now so I won't have to worry about it later. It does wear off eventually, but the timeframe is measured in hours, not minutes.

"Blowjobs are easy," Aika explains as she gets even closer to me until the hot skin of my dick presses against her cheek. "All you have to do is use your mouth to make him feel good." She opens her mouth and extends her tongue. She slowly licks my shaft, leaving behind a glistening trail of saliva and sending tingles of pleasure through me.

Koneko watches with wide eyes and keen interest as Aika lovingly licks my cock, covering every inch of it with her saliva. Once she's explored the entire thing, she pulls back and turns to Koneko. "Come on, you too," she encourages the small girl.

Koneko swallows nervously, but nods. When Aika moves her mouth back to my dick, Koneko does as well, her tongue tentatively lapping at my dick. But as Aika starts to kiss my shaft, wrapping her plump lips around my erection, Koneko grows bolder, and I can feel her arousal increasing. She takes in a deep breath and I feel her arousal spike. Is the smell doing it for her? She lets out the breath she took in a soft meowing noise, and her tail flicks side to side.

While Koneko focuses on my shaft, Aika moves to wrap her lips around the head of my penis, her tongue swirling over it. I place my hands on their heads, pushing my fingers into their hair and gently scratching them like I'm petting an animal. Koneko responds to it by speeding up her movements, and Aika takes a bit more of my shaft in her mouth.

After a few minutes of this Aika removes her lips. "Koneko, why don't you try this part? I know he's a little big, but as long as you focus on the tip, it'll be fine. He'll cum soon, and you'll want your lips around that part so you can taste all of it."

Koneko nods, nervousness long replaced with arousal and desire, and she does as Aika did earlier and takes the head of my cock into her mouth. I can feel her tongue exploring and poking around as she looks up at me, trying to figure out what makes me feel the best.

While she does that Aika moves down to my balls, gently sucking on my ballsack. I see someone's been studying up on new things. I've never had a girl do this to me before, but the feeling of her lips gently encompassing my testicle is surprisingly nice.

Koneko slowly grows more confident in her actions, her head bobbing up and down slowly on my cock as she starts taking more and more of it into her mouth, one millimeter at a time.

Aika timed things well though, and it's not long before I feel my climax approaching. "I'm going to cum soon," I tell them. Aika nods and backs up, moving behind Koneko.

"Any second now he's going to spray some cookie flavored cream," Aika whispers into the cat girl's ear, her boobs pressed against Koneko's bare back. "Don't be shocked. Pull back a little when it starts, try to get as much of it on your tongue as possible."

Koneko makes a noise of agreement and it causes her mouth to vibrate slightly around my shaft. That little bit is enough to finish me off and my dick twitches. "Cumming!" I call out.

Koneko does as Aika instructed her and pulls back. She opens her mouth and sticks her tongue out, resting the head of my dick on the very tip of her tongue. My hips tense as I cum, spurts of semen shooting out. Most of it lands in her mouth, covering her pink tongue and painting it white, but some of it also lands on her mouth and cheek.

Koneko's eyes widen and her breathing grows heavy as I finish cumming into her mouth, the taste and smell of it driving her arousal so it's max. Her fingers reach down to play with herself as she closes her mouth and eyes, savoring the taste.

Her eyes only open again when Aika turns her head and starts licking the cum from her face, tongue trailing sensually along her cheeks and lips. Koneko doesn't protest though, and my dick throbs in arousal at seeing the two of them. With so many bisexuals in my harem, you'd think I'd be desensitized towards girl-on-girl action, but that definitely isn't the case.

Koneko finally swallows after Aika pulls back, all traces of cum gone from her face. "It tasted like cookies," Koneko confirmed before she shook her head. "No, it tasted better."

Oh? That's interesting. That's the first time I've heard of it tasting better than what I chose as the flavor. Is that an effect of the skill leveling up? Or is that just a Koneko thing?

"Well, you can have as much as you like," I tell her, nodding at my still erect cock. Koneko's eyes twinkle and she doesn't hesitate to wrap her lips around me again.

Aike removes herself from Koneko's back and climbs back onto the couch with me. She leans against me, lips against my ear as she pulls my hand to her crotch. "Seeing her suck your dick like that has me so fucking horny right now."

Sure enough, Aika's panties are soaked under her skirt. I grin and slip my hand inside them before I shove two fingers into her snatch, giving her exactly what she wants. She moans into my ear, low and drawn out, and I feel myself twitch in Koneko's mouth.

I turn my head to kiss Aika, and our lips wrap together as I finger her and Koneko blows me. My perception of the world is narrowed down to just the feeling of Aika's lips and body, her hot and tight walls clenching around my thrusting fingers, my hand on Koneko's head, and Koneko's lips and tongue on my dick.

I can't say how much time passes in that moment, but it's all too soon when I feel the pressure inside of me start to increase. I redouble my efforts in fingering Aika, and her lips part from mine as she cries out and orgasms, her pussy spasming around my fingers.

"Koneko!" is all I have time to call out before my own climax comes, and my balls churn as I shoot my load into her mouth. She keeps her lips wrapped fully around my head this time as I cum, capturing every drop.

Once I'm done she pulls her lips off of my cock and leans back. She swishes it around in her mouth for a bit as Aika and I watch. Eventually, she swallows it, a shiver of ecstasy going through her as she does.

Koneko immediately starts eyeing my dick like she's about to start trying for another load when Aika's phone rings. Aika's eyes widen. "Uh oh," she says.

"What?" I ask as she scrambles for her phone.

"We were totally supposed to meet up with Rias for a thing tonight," Aika says. She gets her hands on her phone and answers it. "Hey, Rias. Yeah, she's with me. No, we're at Axton's, we were making cookies and lost track of time. Yeah I know, I'm sorry. We'll be right there, sorry."

Koneko, pouting slightly, stands up and starts getting dressed as Aika hangs up. Aika turns to me. "Sorry, tonight is the only night we can go searching for familiars or something."

I blink. Oh, I guess that canon event is happening now, the visit to the forest of magical creatures that devils could try to find familiars in. Didn't Sona and Rias compete over who would get the appointment? I don't remember that happening here though. Maybe I butterflied things so it worked out differently this time.

"A shame, but if it's limited time then you should go," I say. "A familiar is useful." Speaking of which, don't I have a standing invite from Kiyome to grab a magical creature from her as a familiar? I should track her down tomorrow, I have another Familiar Stone. I also need to start thinking about maybe finding one for Asia.

Aika finishes throwing her clothes on. "Yeah, I know." She turns to Koneko. "Come on, we can get some more of Axton's 'cookie cream' later." Koneko blushes but nods eagerly. I foresee a lot of blowjobs in my future.

I drop the two of them off at the ORC building before I teleport back, heading straight to my alchemy room. It's a bit more conspicuous now since I have the automated potion assembly line set up on one table, a small keg on another table, and the humming crystalarium, that is no longer humming, in one corner.

I have a lot to do, but first things first. I lay out a bunch of ingredients and the enchanted equipment starts working on turning them into potions. I feed the infuser gem with some more mana before turning my attention to other things.

The small keg still needs at least a week more to ferment. Sakuya shot down my request to speed it up using her magic. So instead I turn to the crystalarium which has a green light on the front. I take it that means it's done?

The door opens when I pull on it and I turn my attention to the "Out" section. There's a crystal there that wasn't there before. I pull it out and use [Observe] on it.

Magic Gem

A type of gem made of mana made solid. Has a high compatibility with magic.

Huh. So...not a Cloth Cutter Gem? It just copied the gem, not the magic in it? I sigh. Maybe I should have expected that. I take the Cloth Cutter gem out and replace it with the Magic Gem before closing the door. The crystalarium starts humming again, working hard on making a new gem.

The gem sounds pretty good anyway, so I might as well keep making it. Two days for a high-tier crafting gem isn't bad at all, though I'll have to wait until the next one is done before I can do proper testing.

Alright, potions are brewing, booze is fermenting, and crystals are growing. Now to try experimenting with something I've been meaning to do for a good long while. I move to the center of the room and pull the Nyx Prime Warframe out of my inventory.

It crumbles bonelessly to the ground. I sigh and pick it up. Nothing happens when I touch it, confirming that I need more than a touch to activate it. Or it's broken. Still, I arrange it so it's kneeling, hands on its knees. A standard position for a Warframe or Tenno.

I tense and look around, half expecting The Man in the Wall to choose now to make an appearance. But there's no sign of him. Maybe once I actually manage to connect to the Warframe. Or he won't show up at all just because I'm expecting him. I sigh and turn my attention back to the Warframe in front of me.

Normally Tenno connect to the Warframes using a process called Transference. The details of how they do it aren't very clear, but to do it ranged, they need to sit in the Transference Chamber, the black throne surrounded by white vines in the Orbiter that I found the dead Tenno in. I'll try using that later, but for now, I'll experiment without it.

Because there's another way to do it, and that's direct contact with the Warframe. But from my touching earlier, I've already verified there's more to it than that.

There's also the fact that ranged control without the chair might be possible...but it's impossible to say. It's shown once, but there were so many other factors and possible explanations that it's uncertain. Something to look into later, but not right now.

I spend a moment examining the Warframe. It's a Nyx Prime, the more ostentatious and powerful form of the Nyx model of Warframe. Nyx specializes in mental combat by causing mass hallucinations and dealing psychic damage. She also can produce a damage-absorbing barrier that explodes outward, dealing all the damage it absorbed. Though it can be overloaded quickly.

The Warframe is feminine in form, with curves that leave no doubt to that. But it's still very clearly a robot, it's skin made of a material that seems like it could be organic or synthetic. It's humanoid, but clearly no longer human. And it shouldn't need to be said, but it lacks anything that could be considered an orifice or anything even vaguely sexual outside of its curves.

The most surprising thing about the Warframe are the colors, and that's because they're the default colors. Maybe actual Tenno are nothing like the players, but leaving your Warframe uncustomized is weird. Maybe it's a Warframe the Tenno didn't use much? Not impossible, there are a lot of Warframes that you would use first in most situations, though I have a fondness for Nyx myself.

There's nothing else unusual about it, and it seems in good shape. Most likely the Tenno was killed before the Nyx could enter combat. I kneel behind the Warframe, mirroring its position, and I lay a hand on its back.

As expected nothing happened. So instead I reach out with my soul, trying to make a connection with the automaton.

There's a pulse of Void as I gasp, new sensations flooding into me. My mind reels for a moment as I try to process what I'm feeling. A Warframe doesn't sense the world the same as a human. Not surprising considering their universal lack of eyes and ears. But even lacking those organs, they see and process so much more.

I close my own eyes and use [Sound Domain] to shut off all noise around my head. Maybe this is another reason Tenno use the Transference Chamber. Trying to process both sets of senses is taxing. But now that I've eliminated sound and sight, I can start grasping what the Warframe senses.

The most in my face sense is sight. A Warframe has a full 360 degrees of vision centered on their head, like every part of their head could see. I can see the door in front of me, the ceiling above us, and me, kneeling behind the Warframe, face scrunched tight, all without making a single movement.

What I see is different too. I don't see more or less, but certain things are more vibrant and others are duller. Movement especially is eye-catching and vibrant, and so is my own body. But the tables and walls are dull in color and they barely register unless I focus on them.

As for the rest of my senses...they all kind of blend together. Like the entirety of the Warframe's skin is an organ that could taste, touch, smell, and hear. But, for the most part, they feel dull and analytical. I can 'taste' the floor I'm kneeling on, but it's not the same as actually tasting it. It's more like the senses are blended together. Like what I'm feeling is nothing but the physical matter broken down and analyzed.

I take a deep breath in my real body to prepare myself before I start moving. I have the Warframe sit up straight and raise its hands to its face. The first thing that strikes me is the feeling of movement. Humans have something called kinesthesia where our minds are aware of the position of our body and how it moves without needing to look at it.

The Warframe has that but more. For a human, it's a background thing, but for a Warframe, it's very much in the foreground. Every movement is crystal clear in my mind and I'm constantly aware of the precise angle of everything. It's a little distracting, but I suspect that the feeling will improve my handling of any weapons and acrobatic stunts.

I return the Warframe to its previous position and pull my hand off of its back. Instantly the second set of senses cuts out, and once again I reel as I open my eyes and drop the bubble of silence around my head. Removing those sensations is just as jarring as adding them is.

I shake my head to clear my thoughts. The potential of the Warframe is promising, but using the Transference Chamber might be the best bet.

I stop myself. No, there's no point in using it remotely. Not purely. What I need to do is master this, find a way to operate it at range, and then use it as a second body in a fight. Will that be easy? Fuck no. It'll be like learning to pilot a fighter jet while juggling chainsaws and being shot at.

But it'll be worth it. Working in tandem with a Warframe like Nyx Prime will be a massive boost to my direct combat ability. Because I'm a good assassin, but even with my recent training I'm not confident I could win a direct fight against someone with stats similar to mine.

A strange sensation behind me pulls me out of my thoughts. "I've found you," I hear and I twirl around, not recognizing the voice.

There's a girl standing behind me with long black hair and wearing a strange dress that leaves her chest completely exposed with only black tape to cover the nipples on her small breasts.

My eyes widen as I recognize her and tense. Kuroka had said Ophis was looking for me, and now she's found me.

I push down the panic and smile at her, standing up. "You're Ophis, right? The Infinite Dragon God?"

First Impressions Perk Activated

+25 Affection with Ophis

Thank the gods, a high roll. I immediately crush a Super Heart Crystal behind my back for another 20 Affection. Efficiency be damned, I want the all-powerful Void loli to like me as fast as possible.

"I am," she replies. "Are you the one who is like me but also not like me? And who is like the Watcher but also not like the Watcher?"

I blink. "I- maybe?" I say. "Who is the Watcher?"

She frowned. "The one in the walls, gazing out from them."

Ah. That explains a lot about why Ophis was looking for me, good old 'Wally' sent her after me. Why he did that I can't possibly guess, but that'll have to be a mystery for later.

"I know who you're talking about," I say. "In that case, yes, I'm the one that is like both of you, but not like either of you. I think." I'm not sure what she means by that, but if we're just talking about each of our connections to the Void, we're similar in that we each are connected, but we're connected in very different ways.

The Man in the Wall is essentially the personification of his Void, I think. Ophis is just a native to hers but she's tied to its very nature. And I'm...just weird. Changed by a Void different from either of theirs, but I draw from both, and other Voids as well.

"Good," she says. I note that her expression hasn't changed once during our conversation, nor have I picked up anything from her with [Empathy]. And now that I'm looking, she shows up weird with [Void Detect]. She's more...solid, for lack of a better word. Though considering the skill works by feeling Void and where it's not, maybe that makes sense.

Curious, I use [Observe] on her.

Ophis

Race: Dragon God

Level: ∞

HP: ???

MP: ???

SP: ???

CON: ???

STR: ???

DEX: ???

INT: ???

WIS: ???

CHA: ???

My eye twitches. What the fuck is that stat block? Or lack of one? Is it question marks because she's too far above my level? Considering I've seen levels above 4,000, I don't believe that's it. Especially since I can see her level, it's just bullshit.

I know Ophis isn't all-powerful. She draws on the power of Infinity, but she's not actually infinitely strong. She wouldn't have been able to be weakened if that were the case.

So it has to be something to do with her nature. The Dimensional Gap is just the Void of this world, and the Void obfuscates and hides. I guess someone like me can't see past that.

Or I'm wrong and she really is that strong. Either one.

"To introduce myself properly, I'm Axton," I say.

"Axton," she repeats, nodding. "Axton, you will help me reclaim my home. The Watcher said you could."

I suppress a surge of anger. "He did, did he?" Reclaiming her home means killing or evicting the other Dragon God currently in there. I sigh. "I can help with that, yes. It'll take time, I'm nowhere near strong enough to do that yet. But if you give me some time, and some help, sure. I'll do it. I'll clear Great Red out of the Dimensional Gap." I'll do more than that for her, but there's no reason to overpromise right now.

She nods. "Acceptable. You will join me and the others then."

Ah. I can't have that. Her group is the Khaos Brigade. "Actually, I'm working on building my own group," I say. "Wouldn't it be better to split forces anyway? There's a saying humans have to not place all of your eggs in one basket. Because if something happens to the basket, you lose all the eggs. But if you split the eggs between two baskets, and something happens to one, you only lose half of them. So if I join the Khaos Brigade, but something happens to them, there go all of your best chances at getting your home back. But if I remain separate, and something happens to one of us, you'll still have a group to rely on."

She falls quiet for a moment. Her expression and emotions don't change, so I can only assume she's thinking about it. After a moment, she nods. "That makes sense," she agrees. She looks at the Warframe behind me. "What were you doing?"

"This?" I ask, placing a hand on the Warframe. "This is a remotely operated machine, I can control it with my soul." I reach out with my soul again and connect to the Warframe. It's disorienting, but I push past it and make the Warframe wave at her before I let it go lifeless again.

Ticket Scratcher Perk Activated!

A lucky event has occurred!

Reputation Bonus added

+18 Affection with Ophis

Perk rewarded for 50 Affection with Ophis

[Divine Delight] - Increases Affection gain with divinities by 20%

Wait, what? I blink in confusion and when my eyes open again Ophis is right in front of me. Only a few inches separate us as she looks up at me. For the first time, I see an expression on her face, one of curiosity.

"I remember you," she says cryptically.

"Have we met before?" I ask, trying not to panic.

"Yes," she answers. "I forgot. A long time ago, before I left my home. I saw you there, drifting through. You were there, but silent. You appeared for a little bit then disappeared somewhere I couldn't follow or see. You did this a few times. You were quiet and interesting. Company that I didn't mind, unlike the others who crash through, heading from one world to another."

I open my mouth, but no words come out. My mind is racing, putting together the pieces she's hinting at. "Do you mean you knew me as a soul?" I ask.

She nods. "I recognized it when you connected to that machine," she says. She tilts her head at me. "Is this where you went?"

Holy shit. She found me before Kyu did when I was just a soul drifting through the Void with no senses and no way to communicate with anything or anyone. From the sound of it, I drifted quite a bit. Was it really for that long though? I'm not sure of the exact timeframe, but I'm pretty sure she's been trying to get rid of Great Red for somewhere between hundreds and thousands of years. And I don't remember the time I spent in the Void all that well, but surely it wasn't that long...right?

I shake my head. No, there are other answers, like time being wonky. I disappeared from the Dimensional Gap. Most likely I drifted through multiple different Voids. It's impossible to guess how time interacted between them.

"No," I finally answer her. "I don't remember back then very well, and I wasn't aware of much, but I'm pretty sure I went to places that are like your home but aren't your home. I only found myself here recently."

"I see," she replies. "Can you visit those other not-homes?"

I grimace. "Maybe? I can go to the one the Watcher is from."

"No, not that one," she denies immediately. "He's loud."

Right, her whole thing is wanting her home back because it was 'quiet'. And my gut told me she isn't worried about the sound levels, because soundproofing is too easy a goal to achieve.

"Right now I don't know the way to any of the others, but I might soon," I say. "I have the ability, but no map. I'd get lost if I tried it."

"Okay," she replies. "Tell me if you find the map. I want to see these places."

Unleashing Ophis on other Voids sounds like an idea that could potentially backfire, but I'm not going to tell her no. "Sure," I agree. "How should I contact you though?"

She pauses. "I will visit. Tell me when I do."

And that will definitely backfire, but I don't have a better idea. "In that case, we have a deal." Oh right, I have something for this. I pull out a plate of cookies from my earlier baking session. "Here, would you like some cookies? I made them myself."

She tilts her head and grabs one, nibbling on it in a way that reminds me of Koneko. "It's good, thank you," she says.

"Take the entire plate, I can make more," I say. She nods and grabs the entire plate with one hand while she uses her other to slowly eat more cookies.

"I'll go back now," she says before pausing and looking at me. "You will help me, right?"

"I'll promise you two things," I say. "First, that I'll be of far greater assistance than the group you've put together. Second, one way or another, I'll give you your silence back."

She studies my face for a moment before smiling slightly. "Good."

With that, she vanishes, space rippling slightly in a way I recognize as being similar to my own [Void Travel]. Interesting.

And now that she's gone, I slump down, relaxing my tense muscles. For all my big talk with Kuroka, Ophis was terrifying.

But there's also a part of me that feels for her, and I find myself even liking her. I guess we Void beings need to look out for each other.

Except Wally, or The Man in the Wall, or the Watcher, whatever you want to call him. Fuck that guy.

-x-

-Bonus Scene-

Despite it being a Monday afternoon, Hibiki was in her room with all of her curtains drawn and lights turned off. The only sources of light were the feeble rays that penetrated her curtains and the light coming from her computer screen.

Hibiki sat in her chair, legs pulled up. She dragged the pen in her hand across her tablet, rapidly creating strokes on the computer screen in front of her, working on her next piece. And it was yet another exhibitionism piece, just like the last five were.

Over the weekend she had nearly gone crazy. Every time she so much as glanced out the window she would see the mansion there and fall into a spiral of confusion. There was a mystery there, but everything she had found led to just more dead ends.

After one time it happened on Sunday, Hibiki decided enough was enough. She may not like leaving her room, but for the first time, she felt the urge to leave. So she did, fleeing her apartment and deciding to go for a walk in the park, because that's what normal people did to calm down, right?

Of course, the situation only worsened. Her luck must be terrible because as she was walking through the park she heard a familiar noise that drew her attention. And when she did, she locked eyes with the source of her frustration as he creampied a naked girl she vaguely recognized.

She fled the scene when he winked at her. Did he know? Did he recognize her? Or would he have winked at anyone who spotted his exhibitionism? More questions to throw on the pile.

Still, the scene was seared in her mind. How the trees framed them, the expression of ecstasy on the girl's face as she cried out, the glistening sweat of their bodies. She fingered herself to orgasm twice thinking about it until she finally gave in and drew the scene.

After which another scene appeared in her mind, one she didn't see in person but was just as clear in her mind. So she published the first one and started working on that one. And since then, she's spent all of her free time drawing more scenes of the couple fucking in public places and masturbating.

In fact, she was masturbating right now, the hand not holding the pen slowly rubbing herself through her panties. She'd given up a long time ago trying to stop herself. Seeing him instead of just hearing him lit a fire in her that could not be quenched.

She was trying though. She pulled her hand from her panties and grabbed the open can of beer on her desk, taking another pull of it. The buzz helped, she thought. It was hard to tell. She wasn't the biggest fan of beer. Mostly because buying it was always a pain in the ass. She knew she was short and looked a little young for her age, but being constantly called a middle schooler even after showing them her ID was really annoying.

The cashier did accept it in the end though, after comparing her ID to his and not being able to find any reasons to suspect it was a fake. And thankfully no one tried to stop her as she carried the case of beer home, though she did get a few odd looks.

Her eyes snapped to the still open chat window with Gaspi who hasn't said much since she sent him the first picture. He had given his feedback on it, she could always count on that. But his tone was weird and he hadn't said much else.

She grimaced. He was probably busy masturbating to them or something. As someone who made porn, she knew and accepted that people were going to use it to masturbate. That was natural. But it still wasn't something she liked to think about.

It helped that she had no idea what Gaspi looked like, so she couldn't picture the act itself.

She shook her head, took another swig of beer, and returned her attention back to the drawing. This time Axt- Akisu-tan and the girl were quietly having sex on a crowded train. A bit of a cliche, but it was an extremely erotic one. And at least she wasn't thinking about the mysteries surrounding him.

As she drew she heard the sound of paper sliding near her front door. She froze for a moment before carefully, and quietly, putting her tablet down, and crept towards the door.

She spotted Aria, her kitten, stretching in the one sunbeam allowed into the apartment through the small kitchen window. The noise seems to have drawn her attention too, and she meowed squeakily at Hibiki.

Hibiki raised a finger to her lips, shushing the kitten, before creeping towards the door again. There she saw a piece of paper that had been pushed between the door and the frame and was sticking out. She ignored it, first looking through the peephole to see if they were still there, but she didn't see anyone. So she pushed her ear against the door and listened. Two pairs of light footsteps, already almost back to the stairs.

Confident that she was in the clear she pulled the paper all the way through the door and looked it over, only to freeze in place.

Do you have a Wish?

Do you have something you desire?

The Gremory Devils are here for you!

Hold on to this flyer and wish for us to appear in your heart

We'll grant your wish for a low price!

Below the words was a complicated magic circle. A few weeks ago she would have dismissed it as nonsense or some strange marketing. But now she knew better. She knew that the supernatural did exist.

Maybe this was how she could finally get a lead on Axton? He was clearly something supernatural, so maybe a supernatural being would be able to tell her more about him.

She shook her head and quickly placed the flyer down, not wanting to accidentally use it. It was too risky. She didn't know what kind of price a Devil would ask for, and for all she knew Axton was a Devil himself. So she set it aside and retreated back to her room, determined to put it out of her mind.

She didn't throw the flyer away though.