I give you, a Familiar Feeling
"A familiar?" Kurai asked after hearing Rias's announcement.
A day had passed since Rias challenged the Devil known as Raiser to a Rating Game; the latter decided to give her ten days to properly train everyone in preparation. After school, the entire club met for a meeting that discussed about having their new recruits obtain their own familiars.
"That's correct," Rias answered while sticking out her hand. Suddenly, a small little bat appeared in a poof. Kurai found the action slightly surprising while Asia looked in amazement.
"This is my familiar, this is not all she can do," On command, the bat took the form on a young woman with wild brown hair wearing a frilly dress. Although she didn't speak, she waved to the two who were amazed at her transformation back into a bat. "Her job is to hand out flyers." With that, the bat disappeared in a poof.
Akeno pointed her fingers to the floor. "This here is my familiar."
From the floor, a magic circle green in color appeared, and a small imp like demon popped out from it.
"It looks like a goblin," Kurai said. Before he knew it, something jumped onto shoulder and turned his head to see a small white cat wearing a bell staring back at him.
"That's my familiar, Shiro," Koneko introduced as her familiar nuzzled and rubbed its head on Kurai's cheek.
"Koneko-chan, your cat is adorable," Asia said as Shiro jumped from Kurai's shoulder and onto her head, purring in content.
"My familiar is incredibly badass," From Kiba's shoulder a small canary with a triangular head that had wings that flapped as fast as a hummingbird popped up and zipped around the room. "He can move faster than a bullet."
"I see you two have something in common," Kurai said referring to their insane speed.
"I wish I could have my own familiar," Asia pouted, only to be patted on the shoulder by Rias.
"A familiar is what makes a Devil, they make good friends as well as partners. That's actually what this meeting is about. Every full moon, a Devil goes into a special forest that's crawling with familiars."
"The student council was supposed to go this month," Akeno explained. "But because of the upcoming event, Sona was kind to take it next month."
"Sona?" Kurai said trying to remember that name. An image of the girl with a bobcut and glasses came to mind, the girl who made that brute as well as Sho run in fear. "Isn't she the council's president?"
"And Kurai-san and I get our own, like we can keep them?" Asia asked to be sure.
"Like going to adopt your own pet," Koneko added.
"How do we know which one to get?" Kurai asked.
"Trust me, you'll know," Kiba told him.
Rias held out her hand, and a magic circle appeared. "We'll be taking this magic circle to the forest. It'll be the only way to get there."
"Wait, we're going now?" Kurai was met with a shove from Koneko, who gestured him to the magic circle. Everyone followed suit and stepped on.
"We did say it was only during the full moon," Akeno pointed to the window, and Lord behold it was the full moon.
The group was transported into a forest, which gave off an ominous aura that practically said: You're going to die in this place.
"Whoa, this is the place?" Kurai said in both surprise and slight fear.
"I think I want to go home," Asia said hugging Kurai's arm for safety.
"It's okay," Akeno assured her. "We all got our familiars here."
"It's not so bad," Kiba added trying to cheer her up.
Kurai looked around and was disappointed to see it was empty. Where are all the familiars?"
"Who wants me!?" They all looked and noticed a man wearing hiking clothes calling up from a high branch of a tree. ""My name is Satooji of Madara Town! I'm a devil in training, aiming to become the Familiar Master!"!" He introduced. "If your goal's to find familiars, you've come at the right time, that's for sure!"
[Barely a minute and I already hate this guy]
Kurai sweat dropped. "I asked for a familiar, not a poet."
"He's the guide who helps Devils find their familiars," Akeno explained looking up at the man.
"You don't say," Kurai responded.
"Satooji-san, I brought the ones I spoke of," Rias called out to him. "My recent additions."
Satooji jumped from the tree and landed right in front of Kurai and Asia. The moment he landed, he examined them from up close for a minute.
"Hee. A blonde emo and a blonde beauty huh? OK! Leave it to me! I'll find them a familiar to call their partner."
"I'm not emo!" Kurai yelled in frustration.
Rias sighed and moved on. "Kurai, Asia, He is a professional in terms of familiars. Today we will catch familiars in this forest while receiving advice from him. Okay?"
"Okay," The both of them said in sync.
"Now, what type of familiar do you desire? Strong one? Fast one? Or one with poison?"
"Aside from the poison, what do you recommend?" Kurai asked.
Satooji thought for a second and raised a finger realizing something. "TIAMAT!"
"Tiamat?" Asia asked.
"One of the Dragon-Kings. The Chaos Karma Dragon, Tiamat! It's a legendary dragon! It's also the only female among the Dragon-Kings! Even until now, there hasn't been a devil who has caught her yet! That would be obvious! Since it's said to be as strong as a Devil King."
"Kurai-kun is the holder of the Black Dragon," Kiba reminded. "Maybe a dragon would be appropriate."
Satooji showed Kurai a picture of Tiamat from his pocket and the instant Kurai saw her, he felt his arm tense up.
"Torafusa, what the hell's wrong with you?"
[Trust me when I tell you, she is not someone you want to encounter. She'll kill you without hesitation]
Kurai gulped and looked back at the picture. "I think I'll pass."
"Ara ara, I think that Dragon is too advanced for Kurai-kun," Akeno smiled.
"I'm disappointed," Rias said folding her arms.
"Pathetic," Koneko said
"Then how about a hydra?" He showed a picture of an eight headed serpent with intense eyes and sharp fangs. The body and wings were literally covered in skulls, both animal and human. " A familiar that's powerful, deadly, and could kill even his own master."
[Now that one I like]
"Out of the question," Kurai immediately said. "Don't you have anything strong, but won't tear me limb from limb?"
Satooji shook his head in disapproval. "This is why I hate rookies. You have to catch powerful familiars. And each one has different abilities. If you are trying to become a Familiar-Master then you have to catch the same one several times, and then pick the strongest male and female among them. You have the two breed and make them give birth to their baby with strong abilities. And also-"
"I'd like a cute one," Asia nervously interrupted. "That's really friendly too."
"Okay," Satooji told her with a smile.
"Thank you so much," Asia told him.
"I really want to hit this guy," Kurai muttered to himself as he was ready to continue walking, only to be stopped by Akeno. "There's something in those bushes."
Everyone tensed as something rustled in the nearby bushes. Satooji gave it a skeptical look. "I wonder what it could be."
As if on cue, something sprang out and presented itself in front of everyone. It was a arachnid creature with pitch a black body and eight eyes. It was incredibly big, where it was as big as a grown dog, and its most notable feature were the two bat like wings sticking from the middle of its body.
"That is one big spider," Kurai said out of slight fear, taking a look at its chef knife sized fangs.
"Ah yes, the infamous Devil Arachnid," Satooji told them rubbing his chin. "It has over three different tyoes of venom. One that kills, paralyzes, and also a truth serum."
"Nobody make any sudden movements," Rias ordered as the spider proceeded to scurrie and weave around everyone, raising its head to where it was eye level with everyone. Making eye contect, it hissed andclicked its fangs at everyone.
"Fun fact about this spider, it loves the taste of Devils," Satooji told everyone quietly as if it was nothing.
Kurai was at its limit was this guy. "How is that a fun fact!" He yelled unintentionally alarming the giant spider. "Oh..." Before he knew it, he was wrapped in the creature's web and taken away as it flew off. "SHIT!"
"Kurai-san!" Asia yelled seeing her friend disappear from view
"Ara ara, it looks Kurai-kun is on the menu tonight," Akeno commented waving them off.
"I just hope that wasn't a mother," Satooji warned them.
"What happens if it was?" Rias asked concerned for her pawn.
"The mother doesn't eat what she captures, rather, she feeds it to her multiple kids," Satooji revealed.
"Oh boy," Kiba said.
"I hate this forest," Kurai muttered as he was laid spread eagled on the giant web. The sticky substance kept him from moving, and what was worse were the multiple spiders the size of rats coming down at him, each with a hungry look in their multiple eyes.
"Listen, you don't want to eat me," Kurai said in an attempt to persuade his predators. "I don't taste to well, I'll give you all indigestion."
Kurai looked to his right arm. "Oh yeah," He summoned his sacred gear and saw the blue gem glow on his shoulder. "Satan, if you can hear me. Destroy these motherfuckers!"
Satan seemed to have responded and Kurai was enveloped in the same dark red aura that was his Grimoire's Legacy. The aura caused the spider web to disintegrate and unintentionally kill some of the baby spiders coming to kill him.
"Thank god, I'm free," Kurai said to himself as he was about to continue. Unfortunately, the only thing blocking his path was the mother spider, clicking her teeth at him. The look in her eyes said that she wasn't too happy that he sent most of her babies to oblivion.
"I take it this is a bad time to ask if you want to be my familiar," Kurai joked backing away.
[Dude]
The spider urched its body and lunged ready to bite his head off. But before it could, something erupted from the ground and swallowed the spider whole. Kurai, who was on the ground from the tremor that followed looked in awe of what saved him. It was a plant, more like a venus flytrap, or a carnivorous plant.
"I'm going to die in the mouth of a devil plant," Kurai said. If that's how it was, he would've prefered to be killed by the spider babies.
Instead of attacking him, the plant creature burrowed and sank back into the ground.
Kurai stood up and looked around, wondering if the plant was going to grab him from below. After a few seconds, nothing happened at all.
"Thanks," Kurai said hoping that the plant could hear him. "Alright, now I got to find the others," Kurai looked around the dense dark forest and remembered that the spider flew him miles away from the others.
"Right," He said to himself wondering how he was going to find the others.
He suddenly felt something nuzzle against his cheek after landing on his shoulder. "What the," He turned seeing a familiar white cat. "Hold on, you're Koneko-chan's pet."
"Nyan," Kurai didn't speak cat, so he took that as a yes.
Shiro led Kurai across the forest until eventually, he stumbled across the others.
"You're alive?" Satooji asked as if he expected him to be dead. He quickly caught on and tried to save it. "I mean, you're alive."
At the sight of him, Asia immediately ran up and embraced him in a hug. "Kurai-san," She hugged him tight as if he'd disappeared if she had let go. "I thought you were a goner."
"We all did," Rias told him, relieved that he was alright. "How did you survive?"
"I killed some of the babies," Kurai painfully admitted. "After which, some giant meat eating plant sprang up and ate it whole."
"A giant plant?" Kiba asked Satooji, who pulled out a small notebook. After flipping from page to page, he shook his head. "Nope, there are no giant plant familiars in this forest. Maybe a new species I haven't documented?"
Kurai turned to Rias with a tired look in his eyes. "Are we done yet?"
"You don't want your own familiar?" Rias said disappointed.
"Every animal in this forest is trying to kill me. I'm done with this place," Kurai responded.
"Kurai-san, are you sure?" Asia asked him to be sure whether he was serious or not. "I still haven't got my familiar. Maybe you can find yours on the way."
Kurai cringed for a bit. He hadn't been in this forest for even a full hour, and he was sick of this place. But what conflicted him was Asia's unintentional begging face. Her lips quivered and her eyes got bigger. It was hard not to cave in. "Fine, I'll at least try."
Satooji placed a hand over his forehead as if he was scouting the area and pointed in one direction. "Then let's go!"
"This place is going to be the death of me," Kurai sulked.
During the exploration of the forest, Kurai and Asia ran into several different types of creatures. There was a small monkey creature with a hand for a tail, an ant like creature that was an extremely fast digger, and even a small creature that looked like a floating key ring.
"There are so many, I don't know which to choose," Asia mumbled in disappointment.
Kiba looked up and pointed to a nearby tree branch. "What about that one?" They all looked up and saw a small blue dragon with a diamond shaped head.
"Aww, it's so cute!" Asia said with sparkles in her eyes.
"Don't be fooled by its cueness. When they get angry, they have the power to shoot a lightning that's blue." Satooji explained glaring at the little creature.
"That's a Sprite Dragon, right? Those are supposed to be really rare." Rias said in astonishment.
"You want that as your familiar, Asia?" Kurai asked. Before she could answer, something wet and solid plopped and landed on his shoulder. He prayed some familiar didn't take a shit on his shoulder. He picked up a finger full and saw that it was green, like…
"Slime?"
Before they knew it, it started raining slime, landing and splashing on everyone. Kiba pulled out a sword and Kurai summoned his gauntlet. Unfortunately the slime landed on both of their eyes.
"Where's all this slime coming from?" Kurai grunted as he attempted to pull it off. It was extremely elastic and ended up covering his entire face. "I can't get it off."
"I can't see anything," Kiba said as he used his sword as a walking cane.
Even though they couldn't see, the both of them could still hear. Only to hear the girls screaming in discomfort.
"What is this stuff?" Rias yelled. "It's all slimy."
"It's burning my clothes off," Akeno suddenly said. Both Kurai and Kiba managed to pry the gunk from their eyes, only to see all the girls missing a majority of their clothes. By the looks of it, it had been burned off by acid.
Kurai covered his nose feeling a small trickle of blood. "What is this?"
Asia's skirt completely disappeared and she ended up having to cover her panties. "My skirt is gone."
Koneko could only stand as her clothes were fading away, seeing as the slimes were restraining. "This is the grossest thing I've ever encountered.
"It must be the slime," Kiba told him as he saw the others close slowly disintegrating.
"Please don't look!" Rias told the two in embarrassment.
As if on cue, more slime landed on both of their faces, completely blinding them.
"Seriously," Kurai said trying to pry it off.
"This isn't funny," Kiba added.
Satooji, who too had slime covering his eyes explained: "This slime has a completely random power. It eats clothes. Pretty annoying after a while."
"Why do you even keep pests like this?" Kurai said trying to rip it off.
"Ara ara, It hurts so good!" Akeno yelled in what sounded like pleasure.
"I can't take this," Asia screamed.
"I'll just harden it," Kurai said holding out his gauntlet and walking away from the others. "As soon as I can find someone."
Suddenly, he felt something blast him in the face and saw his vision return to normal. He looked to Rias, whose hands were riddled with her power of destruction. "Did you just hit me with that?" Kurai asked slightly pissed that she almost killed him, yet relieved he could see again. Although he wish he was still blind, for the slime did its job and completely burned away their clothes, leaving them all naked. The moment his eyes opened, Kurai had an intense nosebleed. "This is the weirdest place I've ever seen."
Akeno managed to free herself and used her lightning to completely disintegrate the rest of the slime littering and crawling on the ground. "There go the pests."
"Whoa that was intense," Kurai said to himself. He then turned as Asia still was covered in slime and was missing only her skirt and a majority of her shirt. Running to her, he stood behind her and held out his gauntlet. "Asia, hold still so I can get rid of it."
Asia's face was tinted red and she accidentally backed up, unintentionally having it where his hand was stuck onto the slime that was on her shoulder. "I said not to squirm,"
"Look away!" Asia told him trying to move forward, only for the slime to bring her back and turn her around. That was then when Kurai realized his hand was "stuck" to where her breast was. The slime kept him from moving his hand back. The both of them were red in the face.
"Should we give these two privacy," Satooji asked with a sly smile.
"Help us out old man!" Kurai yelled.
"Looks ecchi," Koneko dryly told them.
"This was beyond my control," He responded and attempted to harden it with his gauntlet, but it wouldn't shift. "It's immune to the Matter Shifter?"
"It's no use," Rias said reeling her arm back immerse in demonic energy. "We have to burn it."
"You're going to take my hand if you do that," Kurai said. Before he knew it, something coursed through his body and he ended up lying on the ground with electricity running through his body.
"Akeno-sama, why did you do that?" Kurai groaned as he felt his insides fry.
"Ufufufu, that wasn't me," She pointed in the air and everyone looked to see the blue dragon that was on the tree flying in a circle.
Kurai stood up rather painfully and noticed that Kiba was too fried. Despite the smile, Kurai could sense bad intentions radiating off of him.
"The Sprite dragon only attacks those it sees as its enemies, and it considers all men his enemies," Satooji said with his arms folded. He was the only other male that wasn't electrocuted.
"Then why aren't you fried?" Kurai turned and noticed that Asia was completely unharmed. The slime was gone, only to be replaced by a bigger pain. "Asia, careful, that thing is dangerous." What he meant was that it was more dangerous for him, rather than it was her. There was also a bit of jealousy as the dragon nuzzled her cheek.
"He's perfect," Asia said with a smile. By the looks of it, the dragon had calmed down and gave what looked like a smile. Suddenly, the ground trembled a little bit and something sprang out from the ground. Whatever it was snatched the dragon out of Asia's hand and ate it whole.
"No way," Kurai recognized it as the plant creature that saved him from the momma spider. "That's the plant creature I was talking about."
Asia was in a state of shock seeing the botanical beast take her friend away. As the girls were distracted with the plant, Kurai and Kiba were doing a small dance behind their backs, cherishing the death of the little bastard that shocked them.
Satooji walked up to the plant creature and examined it as drool dripped from its maw onto his head. "I've never seen this species before. There's nothing like this in the forest."
"Ara ara, maybe it has something to do with what's on your head," Akeno giggled pointing at Kurai.
"What?" Kurai had ceased dancing and looked up in confusion.
Rias, who was covering her chest with her hand, took a closer look and picked something off of his head. "She's right; there was something on your head."
She opened the palm of her hand revealing a small, humanoid plant like creature only two inches tall with stubby arms and legs and green in color. It had two small flowers where its eyes were. On its head was a leaf that was shaped like a hat.
"Would you look at that, it looks like a Greenie," Satooji said squinting to get a better look. "It can control any and all plant life. That explains it."
"It's tiny," Koneko said.
Kurai looked down and made eye contact with it. "Were you the one that saved my life?"
"Ha," It said jumping off Rias's hand and dangling on Kurai's hair like it was a vine.
"I think it wants to be Kurai's familiar," Kiba said.
"Alright, I'll take him," Kurai said with a slight smirk.
"Him?" Rias asked.
"Yeah, judging by the flowers, I'm guessing he's a boy," Kurai deduced. Asia walked up to him with teary eyes. "I'm glad you got your familiar, Kurai-san."
"Asia, I'm really sorry about what happened to your dragon,"
[Liar]
Kurai ignored him and continued. "I still wish he was here with us," He said.
[No you don't]
"Shut the hell up!"
The Greenie heard Kurai's words and nodded. It raised its arms and the giant plant cocked its head back and shot a blue slimy projectile. The action shocked and surprised everyone. Asia ran up to the baby dragon and used her healing as it shook the saliva off its body.
"I didn't say to spit it out," Kurai whispered to his familiar, who shrugged its shoulders in response.
"Ah Rakai, you're okay," Asia squealed hugging him.
"Rakai?" Kurai asked walking towards her.
"I just like the name, I think it's perfect," Asia said in embarrassment.
Kurai scratched the back of his head and sighed, knowing he had lost. "Well then, nice to meet you, Rakai."
Before he knew it, he ended up getting electrocuted by the little lizard. "What was that for?" Kurai groaned twitching. He was pretty sure it had something to do about him getting eaten earlier.
"Another thing you should know is that these things hate other males," Satooji explained.
"Alright, I now officially hate this place," Kurai said. His momentary lapse of anger was diffused seeing his familiar swing on his hair.
In the end, Kurai named his familiar Yuki. Mainly because he had no idea whether it was a boy or girl.
By the time the two made it home, Asia had her familiar sent home and went to bed. Kurai on the other hand, stayed up to make a late snack.
He walked out with a cup of ramen and stepped out onto his apartment porch. Where he saw Yuki enjoying his favorite food, which happened to be organic soil. Picking him up, he placed him on his shoulder. "I got a better idea," He clenched the ramen cup with his teeth and grabbed the bag of soil with his feet. "He then climbed onto the edge of the railing and scaled to the roof, something he had learned to do a while back. Setting them down, he watched as Yuki dived into the soil and ate to his heart's content.
"That's your dinner for the next week, be mindful," Kurai said as he looked out the view and saw the entire city from where he was. "It's peaceful," His mind drifted and he remembered the upcoming battle with the Phoenix. "Why do I have to think about that now?"
As Yuki continued eating, Kurai scowled. "Ten days to get stronger. That's going to be a stretch."
[If you want to become stronger, I suggest you turn around]
Kurai did as told with a confused look and turned, only to drop his ramen cup with his mouth open wide. Standing in front of him was a spiny black creature the size of an elephant. It had menacing red eyes, several rows of teeth the size of daggers, and black scales all over his body, claws, and the set of wings it possessed.
"It…can't be," Kurai stuttered. Yuki popped out from the soil and turned to the creature. Next thing he knew, he was cowering behind Kurai's neck.
"I'm glad we get to finally meet face to face," His voice was deep and hollow. But nonetheless, Kurai recognized it.
"Torafusa," Kurai said to the being that lived within his Sacred Gear.
I kind of half assed this chapter. That's all I'm going to say.
So Kurai gains his familiar, a plant creature named Yuki, courtesy of Guest.
I have recently posted a new Fairy Tail story called the Demon's Royale.
Read, Review, Like, and Follow
I'm now juggling four stories, so I'm going on hiatus with this story for a bit. So for now, I leave you with this cliffhanger.
