Chapter 28

"Ah~! Quite the sight, isn't it my cute little kouhai?" Noriaki mused behind her, his voice sweet and tender, "Although it would be much better at night, I bet."

"Probably." Koneko ground out through gritted teeth, "Now can you put me down, senpai."

He makes at least a show of considering it, humming for a second before huffing out a, "Nope~!"

And then proceeding to cuddle her against his chest, like some God damn teddy bear.

Koneko grits her teeth, the fists clenching so hard her knuckles turned somehow even paler than her complexion already was.

It contrasted hideously, she imagined, with the burning red drowning out her face as people around them awed and cooed at them for their 'couple antics'.

The mundane humans are the only reason her dear, beloved, senpai hasn't lost his fucking jaw yet.

Now, being held and pampered like a bloody stuffed animal, literally being held aloft on the Kyoto Tower Observation Deck so she could see better, Koneko tried to figure out where everything went wrong.

Technically speaking, it all started back when her stupid bastard of a senpai summoned her.

Being very technical, it all began when her equally stupid fat-chested sister ran into him, told her about their family, and he decided to try and fix their shit.

In the end, everything was her sister's fault, huh?

Putting that line of thought to rest, and getting more specific, shit went wrong lately around the time she saw Noriaki on his phone, looking up date locations in Kyoto while they ate yakitori.

She should have known that her senpai putting effort into something spelled trouble.

And it did. The moment they left, he was like…this.

All sweet, lovey-dovey, holding her hand, calling her cute, and all sorts of other nicknames in public.

He acts like he's trying to be quiet about it, but he's barely loud enough that everyone can hear me.

She doesn't think she's stopped blushing at all since they left.

Never once before has she thought that being able to tell whether someone is lying or not by reading their ki would change the way certain things feel when said, but now she knows better.

Him calling her cute, now that she knows with 100% certainty that he means it, makes her feel…things.

If he tries pushing her any further, she'll grab his nips and twist.

Something she's been saving for her sister in case she gets too many ideas.

In the end, though, she can say somewhat surprisingly that all of this? This torture is much better than the hell that's going on back home.

That thought almost made her frown, but then he put his chin on top of her head.

Fucking, tall, back-hugging, bastard!

He's making it very hard to brood over her black-haired perverted bimbo of a Queen and her daddy issues making her fairly uppity at the moment.

Oh, wait, did she say a moment? No no, she means the past few weeks.

Truly, Koneko had already set her sights on dragging him out eventually for dumping that literal problem Angel on their doorstep.

The 10-winged Fallen, former cadre Baraqiel, wasn't tight-lipped about what happened, and how he ended up there.

She would begrudgingly admit that it took everything in her power not to die laughing at some of the things her senpai said to the Fallen.

She did choke on a cookie when the bimbo, with such a sickeningly sweet and fake smile on her face that it looked like it hurt to wear, 'confirmed' pretty much everything and told him to promptly fuck off.

Despite her and Noriaki never even talking to each other once, she thinks.

Ah. Household drama.

Since then, President Bimbo has been stubbornly training to get the two to make up, and she hasn't been backing down at all shockingly enough.

Even told off that annoying chicken for trying to muck it all up.

So, now Queen Bimbo's daddy works at Kuoh, and kind of works with the remaining Fallen in the Underworld working with the Devils, while President Bimbo slowly pushes the two to interact.

To say the resulting tension throughout the school is so thick you could cut it with a knife would be wrong.

She could eat the tension as a main course and still not leave a dent in it, that's how bad it is.

Senpai hasn't even been to school, not even his clone things have shown up for a good long while now.

She can't wait to see his reaction once he finally shows up again.

But compared to all that?

Well.

Maybe she finds herself snuggling back up against her senpai, just a little bit.

Thankful that, at the very least, he can't get a clear view of her face as she smiles slightly

"Hmm, let's see, it's near midday, so where to next?" He mumbles above her, "The Kyotomangekyo Museum, the Aquarium? Plenty of gardens too."

After a moment, Koneko replied softly, "...the Aquarium sounds nice."

"Should I expect we'll be taking a trip to Nishiki afterward?" He muses aloud, "I hear they have octopus there!"

He grunted faintly as she elbowed his ribs.

Before promptly adding a little, "Yes."

To which he simply chuckled down at her, "Right."

This idiot! Acting like this in front of other people to stop her from responding properly.

She'll punch him later, when they're alone, for sure.

But, for now?

It's not bad being treated like a princess, she supposes, even if he is trying to embarrass her.

As long as she's not being treated like that one perverted fox princess her sister told her about.

Anything except for that.

~ A New Sun ~

The rest of the day flew by.

She'd never out loud add unfortunately to the end of thought, but here she is, definitely thinking it at least.

Mostly.

Kind of.

"Like the kimono we ended up picking out for you?" The entirely too smug, entirely too handsome in that fucking kimono of his, bastard of a senpai asked lightly.

Sadly, she did.

A mostly white kimono, with a blue petal or leaf-like pattern spread across it, draped down across her petite form.

She could do without the giant red sash around the stomach, but that's par for the course with these outfits.

Staring straight ahead as they walk, she ignores the blush spreading across her face as she thinks back for a moment to the process of getting the damn kimono, all the ones she had to try on.

His, 'suggestions.'

Oh, would you look at that, they're in an alleyway, holding hands, with no one around.

So she increased the grip on his hand.

She knows she won't get any delicious popping from it, but she'll settle for the wince.

Finally answering him, she goes with a simple, "Eat shit and die."

He cackles at that, before trying to raise his denial, "Oh come on, the other options weren't so bad you!"

"One of them you suggested was pink." She huffed out, a scowl on her face at the thought of wearing that color again, "And the others weren't even kimono, they were yukata." She rebukes soundly.

"Oi. You look cute in pink." He huffed, before continuing, she could feel him raise an eyebrow at her, "And so? Yukata are comfortable, I'd know."

Her glare intensified, and her blush positively burned red, "They barely went halfway down my thighs."

After a few moments of what she hoped was careful contemplation, he merely says, "I see that as an absolute win."

It was not, in fact, careful contemplation.

She whirled her head in his direction, glaring bloody murder at him.

Only for her heat to be walled by his cool gaze and small smirk, "What? You've got nice thighs and a very good a–"

"Complete that sentence and I will rip your balls off…!" She interrupted, more panicked than embarrassed at this point.

His smirk grew, as he leaned down slightly, his eyes boring into her own, "You have, a really fucking great ass."

He stated, mirth clear in his eyes as he watched her face morph into abject horror.

Senjutsu, of course, told her it was true.

shut down.

For a split second, until she slammed her forehead into his jaw as hard as she could.

Pulling back, the bastard didn't even have the decency to look phased.

"F-Fuck you, perverted idiot senpai…" she stammered and grumbled, averting her eyes from his gaze, "who just…says something like that to someone…"

He chuckled a little, before musing, "Well, I figured you could use the compliment. I know you compare yourself to the other girls in certain aspects, and that you sell yourself short because of it."

"I do not." She denied it with a huff.

Then she blinked.

"Senpai. Did you just make a joke about my height?"

"You call any big-chested girl a bimbo in your head, don't you?" He asks, completely ignoring her, "Or cow, maybe. Something along those lines."

She furrows her brow.

Cow is a new one, why didn't she ever think of that before?

Hey! Wait a minute!

"Heh. Called it."

Then she turns and rams her fist straight into his liver.

Prompting the longest drawn-out groan she'd ever heard from him, but still not one in pain, merely discomfort.

Tch. One of these days, one of these days…

"Damm kitty…" he grunted, as she pulled her fist back, "Look, the point I'm trying to make is, you are attractive in your own way as well, and not to let the looks of others bring you down." He squeezes her hand back gently, "I saw the way you looked at yourself in the mirror back there when trying stuff on. Like you were disappointed in yourself?

"Don't be. You are attractive, physically and sexually, whether you believe it or not."

Well, he certainly believes it.

"How did you even…" she mumbles out weakly, "did you peep, pervert?"

Is it strange she wouldn't even mind if it was him?

He snorts at that, "Like you? No." She flinched at that and didn't dare turn to see him otherwise she might very well be the one to explode, "You've got a lot of it, and it's all packed in two nice peach shapes. The fabric of the kimono, meanwhile, is pretty soft and thin, so when you bend over."

He clicks his tongue to emulate a popping sound, "Bam! Snapshot."

Oh.

Looking down, she pursed her lips together.

"C-Can…we not talk about this anymore, please?" She damn near pleads, "I'm not good with…l-lewd stuff."

As painful as that is to admit, stuttering embarrassedly all the while.

Turns out, actively trying to be the opposite of her sister led to her not being very…versed, that way.

She couldn't flirt to save her life, and hell, she couldn't even tell the difference between flirting and coming on to someone.

They're more or less the same to her.

Mission accomplished, she guessed.

Still never going to take her sister's offer to teach her how to be lewd.

On that, she stubbornly refuses at least.

"Hmm, you know?" He hums in contemplation, "Only one real way to learn, ya know~...?" He trailed off suggestively.

See! Like that! What the hell does that mean exactly!?

Halting her racing thoughts, he sighs, reaches over, and pats her on the head, "But alright, if it makes you that uncomfortable, I'll stop, okay?"

She lets out a small sigh of relief, already feeling the burning across her face retracting, "Thank you, senpai."

"No problem, my cute little kouhai." He starts full-on petting her head.

She resists the urge to purr and lean into him, though it's mighty tempting.

She must stay strong, he will be punished somehow by the end of this night!

"So," he continued, filling the silence, "figure out which play you thought looked the best?"

Oh shit, that.

Currently, they're walking down the Ponto-chō, a district of Kyoto that is pretty much a long narrow alleyway.

It would be exclusively that if it also wasn't host to traditional Japanese architecture and entertainment.

Tea houses, geisha houses, bars, restaurants, brothels, the works.

But what they were here for, the reason why he even rented a kimono for her, was for the theater here, the traditional plays and dances.

It's a tad early into the evening, so there aren't many options available, the alleyway lights up beautifully in the dead of night supposedly.

A shame, she would have loved to stay out longer, but during the nighttime proper she's got Devil work to do.

Fucking yakitori bitch and her schedules.

She wishes her bimbo of a President would put her foot down there too, but instead, she found a workaround for herself and proceeded to fuck off with it.

Although, maybe she could similarly use him?

Thoughts for later, she needs to make a choice now.

"What were the options again, senpai?"

"Hmm, let me pull out the pamphlet again and che-" As he moves to grab the pamphlet in the inside pocket of his kimono, he suddenly stops, jerking her to a sudden stop as well.

"Son of a bitch." He hissed out.

She tilted her head, befuddled, "Senpai, wha–" she froze as she suddenly felt it.

The cold, dark dread of Demonic Power, the type of Demonic Power backed by malicious and violent intent.

Heavy footsteps echoed down the alley, coming from behind them.

"Thayure yore! Ahv been lookin' fahwar yawl…"

Wait.

Huh?

Senpai sighed, a loud, pained, anguished thing, as he let go of her hand and turned around.

She did as well, shortly thereafter, and beheld a monster walking towards them.

A monster of fashion that is.

Koneko couldn't help herself.

She deadpanned, before asking, "Who put the fat gargoyle with a mullet in a biker jacket and said it was a good idea?"

The gargoyle stopped and looked at her extremely offended.

Noriaki gaped at her for a second, before a wide, proud smile slowly etched itself across his face.

It took her everything she had to not preen at his look.

"Thuh hell yawl thank yawl thank yore tawkin' bout yawl dawgone midget!" It started ranting, at her, she thinks? "Yawl wouldn't know fashion hifit fucked yawl in thuh ass!"

Yeah, she has no damn clue what this guy is saying.

Well, the only thing she got was 'midget' out of that.

Because of course, this trash went that way, the unoriginal hack.

She turns her head, looking at Noriaki with a raised eyebrow.

To which he dreadfully sighed, again, before beginning to explain.

"This guy is a Stray Devil, clearly…but judging by his accent, he was an Oni."

"Wuz? Wuz!?" The creature cried out in anger at his explanation, "Ah still am! Ahm better evun! Now ahm...more." He shivered as he almost moaned the last word out.

Both of them somehow managed to hold back gagging on the spot.

"Ugh," Noriaki grimaced, "okay. That's disgusting."

"Iz not!" It tried to interject.

"Is." Noriaki shot out a quick denial, "Anyhow, the fuck did you do ugly?"

"Not ugly! Smart!" The stray rebuked viscously, "Say, cheater, few could git help frum other Yokai an thuh Clans, then Ah thought Ah could git help as wayul!

"So, Ah went tuh thuh Devils, tricked wun with mah big brain tuh reincarnate muh, then ran awf! Ah became...better." It did the thing, again, his wings popping out behind his back and shaking as they do.

This time, Koneko did gag, and her senpai patted her on the back as she did.

The monster wasn't bothered though, and continued unabated, "Enough tuh crush yawl, avenge Lord Ibaraki, then, Ahl go take ovur thuh Oni mahsef! An lead us tuh uh new golden age!" It finished with a jubilant cry.

"Okay, okay." Noriaki nodded along, "I didn't get half of that."

She holds up a finger, "I didn't get any of that."

"Bha! Don't matter few git it or not!" It stomped the ground, cracking and splintering it as its massive flabby foot sunk into the concrete, "It'll end thuh same anyways!"

"Right, right." Noriaki nodded, mockingly, "So, uh, quick question…but was it only you who did this, or…?"

It laughs boisterously at the suggestion, "Yawl thank no others is smart enough tuh thank uh thus? Naw, monly ROKUBI!" It roars its name like a beast, creating actual shockwaves.

It ruffles their kimonos a little bit.

"Okay." She and Senpai say in unison, in the most deadpan drawl they can manage, as they stand there unaffected.

"Now, who should Ah start with?" He muses aloud, acting like the two of them aren't just staring at it like the trash it is.

This guy has no sense or survival instinct left, does he?

Eventually, its eyes settle on her, "Ah! Bout thuh tiny liddel pedo bait? Yeah, sshaylooks aansmayuls llahkuh good snack!"

Wait. Hold on.

Back up a second.

What did this guy say?

What did this dead fucking meat just say about her!?

Her senpai huffed, "Give me a second, I think I got some extra soybeans around here somewhere." He started searching his pockets, only to stop when she took a step forward.

A very heavy step forward.

One that cracked the ground, lacing the alley down with small spider web fractures.

Noriaki, promptly, took a step back.

"Alright, have at it then. Just don't get blood on the rental, alright?"

"No promises." She huffed out.

"Oh, well…shit." He stated despondently.

The Oni turned stray looked upon her with shock, "Wow...Ah didn't know yawl wuz thet heavy! Yawl must bay rilly fat under thet small frame!"

Her eyebrow twitched.

Heavy? Fat?

In the next moment, her tails and ears sparked into existence as her ki violently burst from her body.

"Ah! Hare it com–" Its battle shout was cut off as its lower jaw, suddenly met and fused with the upper part of its jaw.

A sickening pop cracked the air, as one moment, the stray was fine, then in the next her fist came from below, smashing into the bottom of its jaw.

Its neck stretched and snapped, becoming several inches longer before bending and hitting itself in the back.

Slowly, the monster's body fell back, crushing its head under its weight with a wet crunch.

She, meanwhile, simply stared up at her fist in disbelief.

At the last second, she pulled back her ki to not pop his head like a balloon, she didn't want to get blood on her after all, or the kimono for that matter.

Yet, that felt far too easy, right?

Oni are supposed to have enhanced physical power and durability compared to other Yokai, kind of like a Rook.

Then after being reincarnated, and gaining a Devil boost on top of it, along with turning stray and getting a bigger and fatter form, it should be way tougher, right?

Or is she simply that strong now?

Huh, training with Senpai and her sister has been paying off pretty well then, hasn't it?

She just hasn't gotten a chance to see how much stronger she's gotten in a real fight.

Not like this idiot could put up a real fight.

It's a shame too, she was hoping to make it take back everything it said about her.

With a discontent sigh, her ears and tails vanish as she looks at the body sprawled out before her.

Now, how to get rid of this thing?

She's fairly certain there isn't a dumpster big enough in the city to dump this thing in, so that's out.

As she's contemplating simply throwing the body really damn far away, Noriaki walks past her, standing to the side of the corpse.

Oh, duh.

Walking incinerator, right here.

He puts his hand on its stomach, and as soon as he does, she preemptively takes a step back.

Shortly thereafter, something did happen, but it wasn't fire like she expected.

Instead, a wave of pure white light ripples across the figure or the corpse, outlining it with light.

As seconds ticked up, the light grew, Noriaki narrowed his eyes in focus while she started closing hers.

Until eventually, she was forced to snap them shut as a bright flash erupted from the body before her.

Wearily opening them back up, blinking several times to regain her sight, she finds her senpai staring down in confusion at the ground.

Where the body is completely gone, not even ash remaining. The only trace, proof of existence left seems to be a small pool of blood.

And an Evil Piece. A Pawn Piece to be precise.

Except there's something strange about it.

Standard pieces look like normal chess pieces when not in use, but when used, glow the color of the user's aura.

So then…why does this piece look bleached out? A complete marble or crystalline white, carved to vaguely resemble a pawn piece.

Tentatively, he reaches down and picks it up, eyeing it strangely before looking at her, "Is it…supposed to look like this?" He holds it closer to her so she can see.

Her eyes narrow as she focuses on it, finding nothing else besides her initial observations, "It's not like any piece I've seen or heard about, that's for sure."

"Huh." He brings it back, holding it before him, "I think…I did this."

She stared at him, half-lidded and unamused, "You mean beyond the sudden flashback?"

He winced, "Yeah, besides that, my bad…didn't know what would happen when I tried that, to be honest."

The last time he said something like that, he went into that form.

Fortunately, a few bright lights aren't anywhere near the level of that, so she deigns to bring up his propensity to try new shit out on the field later.

Instead, she asks the most obvious with a sigh, "So what exactly did you do then, idiot senpai?"

"Pumped every crevice, pipe, and fiber of its being with my light-based powers."

She blinks at him.

"So you purified and exorcized him out of existence then?" She lays it out in simpler terms.

Prompting him to blink back at her.

"Huh…Yeah. I guess I did." He rubs the back of his head with a silly smile, and a chuckle, "Oh!" He suddenly perks up, holding up the piece, "Mind if I keep this for…stuff?"

Her eyes slowly narrow at him.

Kings can summon their unused pieces at any time. If a stray is killed, that piece becomes unused, so they can summon it back right after.

So even if he kept the thing it'd vanish eventually.

On the other hand, there's something up with that piece. Albeit, she can't quite put her finger on it.

Well, either way.

She shrugs, uncaring, "Not my problem what you do with it."

Really, it isn't.

The Peerage doesn't get paid nearly enough in her opinion to track down and stomp a bunch of tantrum-throwing edge lords and reclaim their lost pieces for them.

Seriously, it's absurd how many of her clothes end up getting torn or burned off fighting all the bastards.

Everyone seems to have claws, or acid, or something that specifically fuck with everyone else's wardrobe nowadays.

She's sick of that shit.

"Sweet. Yoink." He stuffs it in his pocket, "Thanks Murphy, love ya!"

Huh? Who the hell is Murphy?

As soon as she's about to ask that aloud, he's suddenly upon her, scooping her right up in his arms.

"Now then, my cute little kouhai, look how strong you've gotten~!"

Oh no. Not this shit again.

"And you did it without getting a spec on your kimono, look at that! I'm so proud of you~!"

That sweet, tender-sounding voice…!

"S-Stop that, senpai!" She hissed, feeling her face starting to heat up on instinct at this point.

"Hahaha!" He giggles, "Make me kitten~!"

Also instinctual was her suddenly going on the attack, batting the hell out of his face for what he called her.

She should have let that gargoyle try and eat her, no wait, she should have thrown Noriaki at him!

Yeah, his stupidly hard head would have splattered the fat fuck across the pavement in an instant!

Grabbing his cheeks, and pulling as hard as she can while he laughs maniacally like some overdramatic supervision, she makes a decision.

But first, she needs to talk with her sister about it…

~ A New Sun ~

I stare at the scene that awaited me back home with a half-lidded expression.

All around the garden, my clones ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, as several oversized plants flailed about with ludicrously large roots, petals, and vines.

Almost as soon as I walked in, all the clones, damn near half a dozen, turned to me at once.

"Boss!"

"Prime Guy!"

"Thank fuck!"

They all cried in relief before jumping and dogpiling around me.

I simply give a deep, long sigh, before catching a vine before it hits me in the face casually.

"I have two words," I start, unamusement clear in my tone as I looked over the clones, "the fuck."

What followed was my voice, several times over, panickedly explaining what happened.

It all boiled down to this: they got bored and decided to forego an IV drip of light, instead, they pumped as much as they could as fast as they could into several different plants all at once.

Except, unlike when I did it, the plants didn't end up like the stray.

Instead, they became oversized versions of their normal versions.

We had to end the night early because of the damage done to the Ponto-chō, neither of us had the magic spells to fix it, so this is what I have to deal with when I get back?

With a huff, I dispel all my clones.

Then groan, as the fuckers running around all panicked like that one SpongeBob scene was revealed to me to be an intentional clone plot.

Payback, apparently, for leaving them there while I go out and enjoy the day with a cute cat girl.

Well, fuck me too!

Wait. You? You me?

Ugh. Clones.

Regardless, they left this shit for me to deal with when they got back because they're petty asshats.

So now I'm going to make extra sure to ring the clones out the next time we do swordsmanship training.

Little shits.

I walk over to one of the plants, a sunflower, that's flailing around every which way, and grab it by the step, making it stop moving as it faces me.

It becomes almost eerily still, its center desk facing me, the flower head being much bigger than my head in size.

Truthfully, it's kind of unsettling, seeing the oversized disk florets so close.

It's like staring into a maw without teeth.

Huh. I consider an oversized sunflower that can't hurt me to be scarier than some of the legitimate monsters I've fought before.

That's kind of…sad.

Shaking that thought out of my head, I pulled the flower from the ground, immolating it in my hand at the same time.

I will be forever thankful the thing didn't start screaming. Somehow.

Seems like whatever the clones did to the flowers didn't make them more alive or sentient than they already were.

Following that, I did the same to the rest of the sized plants, scattering the resulting ash amongst the gardens, to much the same results.

Sitting down in the garden, bathed in darkness with the taint of ash in the air, I pull the Evil Piece from my pocket and stare down at it.

I never considered it before, the 'Power of Purification' that the exorcists in Japan used.

Mostly because it's so easy to forget people even have it, despite one of the main characters, Akeno, possessing the ability to use it, I can't recall a time where she explained and showed it off, always preferring to blast someone with lightning.

Typical of her, but still, such a power would have been useful against Riser in the Rating Game, and it wasn't her Holy Lightning, so…?

Ugh. Canon inconsistencies. Whatever, there's no point trying to dissect it now.

Logically, if Shinto priests and normal exorcists around these parts can use it, why wouldn't I?

And, especially considering my mother, and what she and her attributes stand for, shouldn't my purification be particularly strong?

Well, the purifying powers within my light, that is.

But where to begin?

The closest thing I can think of that the power of purification would be related to would be Harae, the ritual purification used at Shinto Shrines.

It's often known as a type of exorcism, after all.

Harae is used in the purification of sins and uncleanness, although the English translation doesn't cover everything.

Sins are accumulating in the Shinto term by causing evil deeds, and disasters, and spreading uncleanness.

Uncleanness, or defilement in some cases, is a state caused by forms of death, disease, menstruation, childbirth, and acts such as rape.

These things, sins, and uncleanness, are ultimately remedied by Harae.

If the power of purification is truly based on Harae, and I see no reason it can't, then that's an avenue to explore.

Especially since it might be the key to doing this again, without destroying the body around it.

I hold up the Evil Piece.

The marble white Evil Piece, that I sense nothing from.

Even as I poke, prod, and push my Holy Spirit Power into the thing.

Nothing.

It's almost like it's inert, a completely blank, and empty crystal.

I think I may have, in the process of annihilating that 'poor' stray, completely purified out the Evil Piece as well, turning it back into the unnamed attribute crystal it's made of.

Of course, this could just be a one-off case.

But that's what repeat experiments are for, no?

And I don't doubt for one second that other Devils took advantage of the supernatural chaos to reincarnate people, possibly other Oni, or others, and that they strayed as well.

At the very least though, that was the fest reincarnated Oni I've seen, surprisingly enough.

Not the first Oni since the fight with Ibaraki though. It's all been low-level idiots who keep trying to 'take revenge' on me and shit.

The stronger, saner, guys get that it would be useless, but these guys mentally can't.

In any case, I think it's about time I return to an old pastime of mine.

Mob farming.

After I spank Kuroka for sending Koneko after me!