Loki’s Hardships

"Bullshit! How is all of that sensical!?" hollered Loki.

Kisuke became quiet for a moment, closed his eyes, and thought of ways to convince her, 'Should I just take a gamble?' He opened his eyes and looked straight into Loki's eyes, 'If I'm going to do that, I should be able to gauge her affiliation... and it would be interesting to see her reaction.'

Loki was mad, but when she saw a grin on Kisuke's face, she became a bit concerned, "W-what? Ya plannin' something else?"

But instead of answering her, Kisuke turned back and suddenly yelled, "Ophis-chan~! Come here for a minute."

Ophis looked towards him for a few seconds before standing up and leaving behind the sandcastle she had been working on. Loki didn't say anything hereafter and just waited for the child that has been giving her a strange feeling to slowly walk over.

Ophis reached Kisuke's side and looked up to him, "...What is it?"

"Could you perhaps hide us?" asked Kisuke.

Loki became confused at his question but Ophis immediately understood what he meant, "...Only for a few seconds, or else, he'll notice."

Kisuke nodded, "That's more than enough."

While Loki was looking confused, Ophis suddenly lifted her right arm over to her head and the surrounding scenery suddenly became distorted until it was instantly dyed in black. While Loki's eyes opened widely in shock, she was more surprised with the aura that the little girl was emitting instead of the sudden change in scenery, "W-What are you!?"

But instead of addressing her concerns, Kisuke explained, "I'm doing this because of the existence known as 'Chaos'."

Loki became frozen at his words, and two seconds later, the darkness engulfing them receded, returning the scenery to normal, as if nothing had happened.

Immediately after, Loki tried her best to return her expression to normal and hide her agitation. But just from this, Kisuke was able to gauge where she was standing and thought that revealing a few things to her was worth it.

As Loki became quiet, Kisuke could see minute changes in her expression and could tell that she was under a lot of stress.

And indeed, Loki was very stressed after what just happened. There were two main points, but Loki couldn't ask for clarification to either of those, 'Because of that black space, we were temporarily separated from 'reality'. Although 'that guy' shouldn't have seen anything, a fluctuation within the laws of the world would surely get his attention and he would investigate it. Although he might not have been looking just now, he should still be eyeing this part of the Lower World right now!'

'Thanks to that, I can't ask what the identity of that little girl is nor how he knew of 'that guy'! Fuck! I want to know, but I can't unless I want to get 'his' attention now!' Hence, the source of her stress.

Meanwhile, Kisuke just waited for her to gather and sort out her thoughts quietly. Ophis, on the other hand, immediately returned to her playtime after fulfilling Kisuke's request.

After a few minutes, Loki sighed heavily and glared at Kisuke, "Teach them and make sure that they'll survive whatever's coming down, then at least I won't be your enemy." She then walked away from Kisuke, not waiting for her reply. She won't take a no for an answer. She'd do anything to keep her beloved children safe from unreasonable forces.

'Everyone thought that the most that could happen in this era would be the subjugation of the Black Dragon. Moreover, I'm sure that no Deity would expect that there are individuals that could potentially unveil the secret of the Dungeon,' Loki then stopped walking for a moment and looked up to the sky, 'If 'it' rises up again, who's side is going to prevail this time? All logic and reasoning goes to 'that guy's' side, but what is this feeling? For the first time ever, instead of just looking forward to the future and the stories of my children, I'm very conflicted.'

Resuming her steps towards her children again, Loki kept asking herself, 'At that time, where should I stand?'

The first one to approach her was Riveria as she asked, "What's wrong?"

Loki shook her head and sighed, "Nothing. He'll teach you that 'trick' now so be sure to study it carefully. It should be useful in the future."

Her uncharacteristic response weirded out Riveria but she could also tell that she didn't want to talk about this further so Riveria instead asked, "What about his 'price'?"

"We've talked it out so you shouldn't worry about it. Though I want it to be between us for now, so I'm sorry, but I can't tell you."

Riveria became even more hesitant after hearing that but Loki reassured her, "Don't think about it. What he wants is on me and he wouldn't ask anything else from you lot. Be at ease."

Only then could Riveria sigh in relief.

'Looks like dealing with Kisuke's 'prices' gave her a bit of trauma,' Loki snickered inwardly.

In the meantime, Yoruichi approached Kisuke, "What happened?"

From her point of view, nothing out of the ordinary happened except for the sudden slight fluctuation of Mana, Ki and Spirit Particles in the surroundings. However, she had been listening to their conversation and felt baffled when their topic shifted into an entirely different direction. Her guess is that Kisuke asked Ophis to do something that she wasn't able to perceive.

But instead of answering her, Kisuke just held her hand. At first, Yoruichi was confused with what he's trying to do, but her expression stiffened slightly when she received a coded message from Kisuke using his Reiatsu. This secret code which meant 'later' was one of the many communication codes that were used within the Onmitsukido or the Stealth Force back in the Seireitei. She was surprised at the extent of Kisuke wanting to keep this a secret.

Figuring out that someone might be watching, it'll look weird if she just stood there saying nothing so she changed the topic, "You're teaching them how to manipulate Ki?"

Kisuke nodded and said, "Yeah. I can't have them as helpless as they are right now in the future. If chaos were to happen in the future, I don't want them retiring to the sidelines. As you know, since we're just a small group, the more chaotic things are, the better."

"I see... And I agree. We can't be the only ones that go to the deeper parts of the Dungeon," Yoruichi knew that Kisuke is referring to something else, but for the sake of saying something back and not drawing suspicion, she replied as such.

Kisuke grinned and said, "Correct~."

Within the void, the eyes that are looking down at the Lower World lost their interest and went back to inactivity, waiting for the 'Tiger' to fulfill his end of the deal and pull 'that being' out from the depths of the Dungeon.