Chapter 6: Nekomimi, Chaos, and Surprise

After having her fill of sweet revenge on my acheing body, she lets me down so that I can stand on my own two wobbly feet.

I slowly catch my breath while throwing a resentful glare towards the now peppy nekoshou cradling her sister in her arms.

"I will properly pay you back in kind later."

She looks at me with an amused smirk while humming a bit to herself, slowly thinking over my words.

Kuroka: "Hmmmmmm, is that so nya?"

This damn cat, if I wasn't already exhausted I would give her a good beating. I swear once I'm stronger I'm going to teach her a thorough lesson in humility. For now, I must bear with it.

"Mmm"

I just nod at her for now so as to not provoke her further. My body just hurts more after she kicking and punching me around for the last few minutes. I will thoroughly remember this.

Slowly but surely, feeling comes back to my body, and I straighten up, unfurling my wings.

"We need to move, after causing this much noise, someone is going to come over. For the time being we head east, Gremory territory is peaceful and is a good hiding place for the time being. We can lay low for a while there."

She looks a little hesitantly at me and to the young girl cradled in her arms, before her eyes flash with a glint of determination and nods in agreement.

She unfurls her 4 pairs of wings and slowly rises into the air, following my lead. With as much strength as I can gather, I go full speed ahead towards the east, Kuroka steadily keeping up.

——————————————————————————

After 2 hours of flying we land to take a quick break near a small waterfall. Both Kuroka and I are a little tired and hungry after the chaos earlier so we need to get something to eat.

I contemplate bringing her and Shirone into the Reality Marble for some actually good food, not that I can cook, just some instant ramen.

Problem is, I don't know if I can trust her right now to pull some shit when we get in.

I'm still a little weakened and I'm not stupid enough to expose a giant secret like this to someone I just met, potential waifu or not.

Though remembering my grudge, I immidieately discard the idea.

As I contemplate my options, I catch a whiff of the most delicious smelling meat I've ever experienced in my life and a bit of drool escapes me despite my best efforts to contain it.

Turning over to where Kuroka is, she has a whole makeshift grilling station set up with tongs and everything and a half torn apart bull looking demon beast at her side.

Wait where the fuck did she get the tongs from? And when did she hunt the bull? We landed not 20 seconds ago.

She looks over at me and flashes an amused smirk at my dumbfounded appearance and tauntingly waves a piece of well done meat on the tongs, tempting me to rush over and take it.

I gulp down the accumalated saliva in my mouth and shake my head to clear the thoughts of the meat before me, though the tantalizing smell and her fanning the smell in my direction is not helping.

* GROOOOOOWL*

Stomache, NO!! WHY!! WHY MUST YOU BETRAY ME!!

I look over to the thoroughly amused kitty with the meat on her tongs having a good laugh at my predicament until an unknown enemy sweeps in for an ambush.

* CHOMP *

A white haired nekomimi having lolita is hanging off the delectable piece of meat held between the tongs. At least, what's left of it.

Kuroka: "NYAAAAA!! SHIRONE, WHY NYA!!? THAT WAS THE PERFECT CUT NYA!!"

I freeze for a second before I drop on the floor in a fit of roaring laughter, taking joy in the black haired nekoshou's misery.

"HAHAHAHABAHABAHABAJAJA!!!"

I have the best laugh of my life as the black haired nekoshou cries tears of sorrow at her lost slice of perfectly well done meat looking as if she has lost her meaning in life, all while the white haired lolita sits off to the side stuffing her adorable cheeks and enjoying said meat, undisturbed by the chaos she has created.

The kuudere is strong with this one.

After a few minutes of tear inducing laughter, I finally calm down enough to breathe properly.

Standing up, I finally get a good look at the lolita, silky short white hair, adorable large eyes colored golden with cat-like pupils, adorable little nose and peach colored lips, and on top of her head, tiny and adorable fluffy white cat ears. Similar to her sister, she wears a kid's yukata but in white with a dark blue obi with golden paw prints on it and white and blue sandals.

If I rememeber correctly, she is only a year younger than Issei who is the same age as me, despite that she is still tiny; barely coming up to my chest. But, she is the epitome of adorableness, of that I have no doubt, so it's fine.

I head over to the adorable lolita and I take a knee and slowly match gazes with her, with a smile and in the gentlest tone I could make, I speak to her.

"How are you feeling neko-chan? My name's Zell. How should I call you?"

The adorable lolita stares at me blankly for a few seconds before finally opening her mouth and saying in a soft voice.

???: "Shirone"

My smile widens just a bit and I slowly reach over my hand.

Shirone flinches slightly and closes her eyes and lowers her head, bracing herself for the inevitable.

Seeing her like this made a bit of rage bubble up inside me at how conditioned she is for a simple movement of raising my hand but I swallow it down and slowly and gently move my hand closer to her before I perform the legendary headpat.

Now if I can boast about one thing from my past life, it was my petting ability; cats, dogs and other pets alike have always surrendered to the might of my pats.

And now, I pour every last bit of my heart and soul into the first headpat of my new life, patting, running my hand through her soft hair, and softly scratching at her adorable nekomimi and sure enough the neko lolita slowly calms down and begins to purr at my patting just a tiny bit.

Seeing this cute appearance of hers once more enranges me for the simple fact that someone had the gall to condition her to possible beatings.

I take a deep breath to calm myself and look at her with the most serious but gentle gaze I can produce.

"Yosh, yosh, you're safe now Shirone, no one will ever be able to harm you again, I promise.

ANYONE, whether they be devil, fallen, youkai, or even the gods themselves, whoever dares to try will get the biggest butt kicking of their lives from me and your sister, we'll make sure they thoroughly regret ever attempting to lay a hand on you."

Shirone slowly opens her eyes a tiny bit and lets out a few silent tears and small sobs, subtly nodding her head against my hand.

Shirone: "Mm."

Kuroka watches all this happen in silence off to the side, conflicted on whether to be happy that Shirone slightly came out of her shell and showed some emotion or mad that it's not her patting her and comforting her.

Either way she heads over to the two and slowly embraces Shirone from behind, softly rubbing her head against Shirone's.

Kuroka: "Everything is fine now Shirone, we're out of that place now, we're free nya."

A few more tears and soft sobs escape the lolita before she slowly lifts her head and looks at me. Her soft voice exiting her lips once more.

Shirone: "Thank you, for saving us"

My smile is as wide as it is genuine, I gently carress her hair making her feel as confortable and safe as I can.

Although I can't trust Kuroka yet, Shirone is different; the lolita needs protection and I have the means to provide it.

I slowly stand up staring at Kuroka with a complex gaze, I don't know if I'll regret this later, but for the sake of the happiness of the lolita before me, I harden my heart.

It's fine, we'll be in the pearl and I can control everything at will so even if she attacks me within, I'll survive and burry her there. I'll take care of Shirone myself if I need to.

Looking back at the distraught lolita, I gently ask her.

"Shirone, do you want to see something amazing?"

Shirone who has calmed down and stopped sobbing earlier now looks at me with a bit of confusion and slowly and hesitantly nods her head.

Seeing her nod, I smile and gemtly take hold of her small hand before looking at Kuroka and offering my other hand.

Kuroka stares at me skeptically and hesitantly takes me hand.

"Close your eyes and don't resist."

Seeing them both slowly nod and do so, I close my eyes as well and will the pearl to take us inside.

I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass. But this is for the loli, so fuck the consequences.