Side Chapter: What a Childhood (Part 2)
Previosuly:
"Inuko? What….?"
"Who are you?"
All the people in the room could only stare at shook. Inuko, in her child form, was all looking at them with narrowed cold eyes. She was analyzing them, backing away with each step, but she needed to know.
"Who are you?" She repeated her question.
"Inuko…."
BADUMP
Inuko didn't know why, but her heart skipped a beat at being called her name by this crimson-haired girl. While distracted for just a moment, Rias had tried to walk to her. Big mistake when she past the line.
"?!" Inuko's instinct kicked in, and she charged at Rias, bringing her down. Everyone could only stare as her bladed arm went to her throat but…
'STOP?!' A voice in Inuko's head stopped the blade, a mere millimeter from the lovely throat.
"Inuko…." Rias was looking at her frightened. Inuko didn't understand why, but she didn't want the girl to have such a face. The voice that stopped her was unfamiliar, but Inuko obeyed it since it causes quite a headache. Jumping back again, her back was behind the glass door leading to the yard.
"I do not know who you all are. But it seems you know me. For today, I will spare you, but the next time we meet, I will kill you."
CRASH
She breaks the glass and runs to the yard. Xenovia and Yuuto try to run and catch her, but she was already by the fence and jumped off into the night. During all this Seika and Nina only looked with worry.
"Nina-sama, please call Mizuki-sama to inform her of this development." Seika walked to her room.
"What about you, Seika-neechan?"
"It's my duty as your maid to ensure all your safety." Seika removed her headpiece and her glasses. "As such, I will be retrieving Inuko-sama." And she walks to her room to prepare. Nina getting to a phone to call. The rest of the people were still in shock.
Running through these streets was familiar, yet Inuko has never been here before.
'Where am I?' She runs up a roof and scans her surroundings. 'Was I abducted? But I would've still been able to fight.' Inuko hears a scream and with her eyes sees a woman is about to get robbed and possibly raped. '…..Not my concern.' She was about to avert her eyes when she couldn't. For some reason, she was compelled to save that woman. '….. Fine.' She jumps to the location, which was about 15 kilometers.
"Hehehehe….." The man with the knife was slowly approaching the frightened woman, leering at her legs and breast. He was leering so much, he didn't notice Inuko landing behind him, and quickly cutting his neck. The slice was done so fast. The head didn't even come off, and that man still kept his face. But he stopped moving and blood poured from the wound. The woman couldn't take it anymore and screamed, fainting. Inuko caught her and jumped up, leaving her on one of the roofs. Inuko's gaze stared at the woman's body, her fangs emerge. 'She's too delicious…' Before she could sink her fangs….
'Inuko.'
"?!" She stopped herself. A woman visage had appeared before her for a moment. 'An illusion?' She stared back at the girl. 'No matter. I lost interest.' But not before calling someone from the woman's cell phone. 'GPS….they'll find her in no time. Now….information.' Then her stomach growled. '….and proper sustenance.' And she made her way to the convience store she saw previously.
"Hey kid, are you gonna stay there all night or what?" As soon as she had made her way in, Inuko was caught in her own reflection by the makeup section of the convience store.
'My face….' She touched the right side of her face, trying to find something. Suddenly two paper ofudas that made a cross on her face was shown, falling off her face. And the illusion was broken. 'What a relief.' Inuko sighs as she touched it. The large cross scar she had that ran through her forehead and past her right eye. 'It wasn't a dream.'
"Hey, kid, you okay there?" The cashier saw the scar worried and thinking whether he should call the police, but Inuko was one step ahead.
"I'll take this." Inuko dumped a lot of rice balls on top of the counter. When he went to touch one, she grabbed him and used her eyes, which changed to snake eyes, to hypnotize him. "You don't need to call the police. Just ring me out and it's on you." The cashier nodded dumbly and she left with the goods.
"T-Thanks for your patronage."
"I see…." Mizuki was contemplating on her chair. "Rias-chan and Asia-chan are back to normal, which is a shame really, and Inuko is the one now in the child's body with no memories. Did I get it all right?" Miuzki looks to Azazel. "Silkie?" The said governor general of the fallen angels had more chains on him now. And Miltelt and Kalawanar had light spears on him, never mind Yuuma had conjured two light swords and was waiting for the order to kill him.
"C-Come on, Mizuki! I already said I'm sorry!"
"Ah….I thought you would learned your lesson to not mess with my family."
"I seriously didn't mean it!"
"Girls." She snaps her fingers. And rather than use the pointy light weapons, they processed to beat him with harisens. He was downed. "It such a shame I made a promise to my lovely Penemue. Otherwise, I would have killed you for such an error."
"…"
"And as for you two." Rias and Asia straightened up at Mizuki's gaze. The yellow glow not fading one bit. "While I can understand the desires to see my Inu-chan in childlike form, I appreciate it if you actually consulted with me first before proceeding. That child has complicated mechanisms in her body that actually repel directed attacks on her. Even magic that would make one young."
""….H-Hai….""
"I'll deal with your punishments later. Inu-chan comes first."
"If I may ask, Mizuki-san." Akeno raises her hand. "Inuko-kun seemed to have a bladed weapon in that body of hers. What was that?"
"Oh, she's reverted that much, eh? That's bad."
"What do you mean?"
"You girls are aware she's not my direct sister, right?" all nodded. "It just means that she's reverted back to before she met me, a Tsurugi so to speak. "
After eating her fill, which was about all the rice balls in the store and a whole vending machine of juice that she cut open. Inuko was ready to move.
'Based on the maps I peeked.' Inuko makes another large jump to a building's rooftop. 'I'm quite a distance from home. How I got here I'll figure it out later. Getting home is a priority. I shouldn't let at least Onee-chan worry. She IS the only one who would worry…' Before she could make a move, she felt a sharp pain to her head. 'What the-? It hurts!' She clutches her head in pain.
"Though I say that, she is a Kusanagi, so she is suspectible to miasma."
'Where? Where is it that is causing my head pain?!' Inuko looked below her, finally settling on a direction. 'There! The source of my pain.' Her legs started to get more muscle as she made a powerful leap to that direction.
"It is unfortunate that she regained her chimeric abilities, though."
"Her chimeric abilities?"
"It was one of the experiments done to her in the past. She was able to manipulate her bone and muscle structure to suit her needs. For example, for running great distances, she merely applied more muscle to her legs to give her that advantage."
"Then….?!"
"No doubt, what you saw was that ability. An ability I rid from her myself."
At that location was Sona and her peerage. Tonight they had to deal with a stray devil in their area. So far, it didn't look to good.
"Dammit." Saji activated his gear. "No way am I losing to you. I'm gonna show kaichou that I can be just as good as Kusanagi." Sona's other pawn, Ruruko Nimura, cheers for him.
"Ganbare, Saji-chi. Even if that is an impossible dream."
"Stop calling me that, Nimura!"
"That's right, Ruruko. I think Gen-chan is a better nickname." Momo Hanakai, one of Sona's bishops, comments.
"I don't want a nickname!"
"Hehehe…You better stop talking amoungst yourselves. Or I'll eat you!" The stray devil was similar to the appearance of a lamia. The only difference, it was much larger, and the head was a snake's instead of a woman's, but for some reason her body was still a woman's with a huge rack.
"I think….Inuko would cry at this."
"I agree, Kaichou. But I think this isn't the time to be thinking that." Tsubaki coutners as she deflects the tail that was about to hit Sona.
"You! How dare try to harm Kaichou?!" Saji forms the line to absorb power.
"How troublesome!"
"Eh?" The massive tail comes crashing down on Saji.
"Saji!" Everyone could only watch, but-
CRASH
The sheer force on whatever impacted the ground stopped the actions of the stray devil. Saji took the opportunity to run as the eyes of his enemy were fixed on the lone figure that was standing when the smoke cleared.
"Are you the one causing my pain?" The group was shocked that a child was the one who made the damage. "Answer ME!" The aura emitting from the child was forming to a wolf shape. The aura itself seemed alive and ready to kill, baring its fangs at the prey.
'Wolf aura?' Sona could only look as the stray devil cowered in fear at the aura. But in desperation it charged.
"Who the hell are you?" The kid just flashed past. Her arms were transformed to clawed, bladed arms. The stray could only look back as she snaped her fingers.
SLICE SLICE SLICE SLICE
And every slice the kid made on made showed up. In reality, she was dead, the pieces of her just went down the ground.
""….."" Sona and her peerage could only stare in silence as the kid just waved her arms to get rid of the gore that stuck before the arms revert back to normal. Then, she clutched her head again.
"It still hurts."
'Her head is hurting? Can it be?' Sona takes a good look at the kid. Other than the cross scar on her face, she was VERY familiar. 'It can't be….' She tested the waters. "Inuko?"
CLANG
Upon hearing her name, Inuko instinctively went to attack Sona, but her bladed leg was parried by Tsubaki's naginata.
"….you're good." Inuko comments as she jumps back. Tsubaki takes a stance. "But not good enough." Inuko snaps her fingers again, and the blade on the naginata shatters.
"Stand back, Kaichou. I feel something is off."
"Kusanagi! What the heck?! Why're you attacking Kaichou?!" Saji and the other memebers take a stance. But Inuko wasn't fazed a bit. Rather she was still clutching her head, trying her best not to show a pained face.
"Kusanagi? Are you referring to me?" Inuko steel gaze goes to Saji, who starts to sweat. The gaze goes back to Sona. "Who are you? I've never been refered to as Kusanagi, but you seem to know me."
"What?"
"It doesn't matter. I'm running out of time. I can't deal with you right now." Using the same technique to put muscle on her legs, Inuko jumps off, leaving the group in silence as she disappeared. Sona was in shock but Tsubaki managed to wake her from it.
"Kaichou." Sona looks to her fuku kaichou. "I don't know what's going on either. But I think we should call Mizuki-sama and inform her of this."
"You're right, Tsubaki. She must be home by now." Sona takes out her cellphone and makes the call.
RING RING RING
"Hello. Kusanagi residence." Nina answers. "Sona-neechan….Okay." She hands the cordless phone to Mizuki. "Sona-neechan wants to talk to you."
"Hello, So-tan, I trust you've met Inuko, right?" The other line was a little surprised but gave details to what had happened. "I see. Try to get your peerage members to follow her, even if it is impossible. The important this is that whatever you do, make sure she doesn't leave town. She will attempt that." The other line confirmed and said something addition. "A wolf aura, eh? That is Inuko without a doubt. It must be remnants of her former life. Ddraig must be forced into sleep, that's why she's not showing a dragon aura. Don't worry, just do what I asked and make sure she doesn't leave. Oh and if anyone looks like they want to take her, kill them. I'll take care of cleanup." And she closed the phone and looks at Nina. "Nina, it's best you get to using those snow knights of yours to sweep the perimeter. Akeno will help with magic support." Akeno nods, really not wanting to argue with the head of the family in her state.
"Hai." Nina grabs onto Akeno's hand and they make their way to another room.
"Ojou-sama." A voice calls to Mizuki.
"Seika, are you ready?"
"Yes." The group was surprised to say the least at the complete transformation Seika had gone through. No longer wearing the maid uniform, Seika was sporting a black long overcoat with matching black leotard, the metal boot and gauntlets shone quite brightly. Her hair no longer in a braid, was now tied to a high ponytail. What's more, her hair was not white, it was black.
"….My hair is originally black. I merely use spray dye to turn it white." She gives an explanation to the shell shocked group.
"Here you go." Mizuki hands seika a bright red candy, which she takes. In mere moments, she turned about their ages. "This is what I was taking about when you want to consult me, Rias-chan, Asia-chan." The two just nod as Seika makes final adjustments to her clothes.
"….This feels slightly off, ojou-sama."
"You'll have to fix your speech a bit, Seika."
"Of course." She makes her way to the door. "I'll see you later." And she was off. Mizuki stares out the glass door to her yard.
"Yuuto, you may want to follow her."
"Hai?" The blonde looks confused. Mizuki clarifies.
"Inuko's in that state. That means a person you're familiar with is going to pursue her."
"?! You mean…."
"You better help out."
"I understand." Yuuto goes out the door.
"I'll help too." Koneko makes her way to the door.
"Mizuki-san." Mizuki looks to Rias. "What about me? What I can I do?"
"It's simple really." Mizuki smiles. "Call her."
"Huh?"
"Don't you remember? Didn't she make you a promise?" Mizuki explains. Rias's eyes widen in realization.
"….All you have to do is call my name." Inuko lightly kisses her forehead. "And I promise I will come."
"Will it….really work?" Rias asks, doubtful.
"No matter who she was then, she has never broken a promise now." Mizuki assures. "Call her. She will come." Assured by the head herself, Rias makes her way out to the yard. The moonlight shone as she takes a deep breath, uttering the name she has truly grown fond of.
"Inuko."
BADUMP
"?!" Inuko stops, and looks back. "Someone is calling me?" Impossible. There was no one in sight for miles. And she was so close to the docks. She could stow away on a boat and get home, but that voice, that voice of a woman was compelling her to go to there, where the source of the voice is. "I must….go."
"Where do you think you're going, Inuko-chan?" Inuko looks to the direction of this voice, narrowing her eyes.
"Mira onee-chan." The young child was surprised at seeing one of her older sister, not the one she wanted to see though. Mira, for her part, actually looks younger compared to the time of the Excalibur incident. She was wearing a short kimono with gun holsters straped around her.
"Come on, father is expecting you."
"….." Inuko takes a stance. Mira shows a look of surprise.
"Inuko-chan, do you intend to fight me?"
"….You lied. You are not Mira-oneechan."
"Hoh, what makes you say that?" Mira taunts.
"Your movements are too mechanical. And I hear it." Inuko's ears turn pointy like a bat's. "The sound of machinery where your heart should be."
"Hmmm. Is that so?" Mira smirks while pulling out twin pistols. "It doesn't matter. I'm taking you with me!"
BANG BANG BANG
SLICE SLICE SLICE
The bullet nets that shot out were sliced. By a double wielding katana girl. Inuko's eye shone for a moment.
"Onee-chan."
"Inuko. I thought I taught you better not to ever falter with any enemy."
"Sorry." Seika, the younger form, smiles as she raises her katanas to the air.
"Go, Inuko."
"Go?"
"Do I need to repeat myself? Someone is calling you."
"But?"
"Don't worry, you will understand. Trust me."
"….." Inuko stands still and bows to her eldest sister. "I will do as you say, Onee-chan." And she leaps to the direction of the voice. With Inuko out of sight, Seika eyes glowed purple.
"To think you would use such a disguise, but chose not to come in person. How low you have fallen."
"Oh, don't say that, nee-chan. After all, what's with that appearance? I'm shocked you can still pull it off." The young Mira mocks the young Seika. All this did was make the glow in Seika's eyes intensify.
"Inuko is coming home, but not with you."
"I thought you would say that." Several more robots that look like her came out of hiding from the metal boxes. "But did you really think I didn't think about this?!" The robot Mira look-alikes charged.
SLICE SLICE BOOM
"Yes, and I was right." Seika smirks as Yuuto, Tsubaki and Koneko make their entrance. "You're not the only one who thinks ahead. Although, I think I'm several steps ahead of you." Mira growled in anger. The other hers responded at charging with all forms of weapons. Kiba deflected some of the bullets with his swords. Same with Tsubaki. Koneko had a harder time, but managed with steel plates she ripped from the one the metal cargo boxes.
"Your numbers are still small compared to my numbers. You cannot beat me, nee-chan!"
"Who said these were my only numbers?"
KACHAK KACHAK
Two light spears dived from the sky and impaled two robots that from behind Seika. Kalawanar and Miltelt appeared from the spears, armed and ready. The waters at the docks reacted to form giant pillars that washed a few more, short circuiting them. Sona, high atop a stack of cargo boxes, had her hand raised to form the magic. The rest of her peerage jumped down to help. While the others fought the androids, the first Mira android and Seika faced each other.
"You should have realized by now, Mira." Seika walks with the katanas raised high. "Inuko is not yours to have." Mira yells and charges with her hidden daggers.
"Inuko." Rias called again. She's been doing that for the past five minutes, but it feels so much in vain. Asia, Gasper, and Xenovia were on standby. Akeno sat by Mizuki, tending to Nina who was on her lap, exhausted from using her snow knights at such long distances to relay messages.
"One more time, Rias-chan." Mizuki coaxes.
'Please….'"Inuko."
PLOP
"?!" the child Inuko suddenly appears to in front of her on top of the fence, looking at her with narrowed eyes.
"You again." Rias's heart jumped for joy, but then she looked horrified at seeing the scar on Inuko's face.
"Inu-"
"Stop calling my name." Inuko charges at her with her arms, already the bones have structured to form a clawed, bladed arms, ready to strike the crimson devil.
"?!" Xenovia ran past Rias to stop Inuko. But Inuko merely grabs onto the oncoming Durandal and toss it and her to the side. Inuko continues her charge but jumps back as thunder almost went down on her. Her eyes narrow to Akeno, who arms was extended while looking sad at her. Putting some muscle and bone armor to her legs, Inuko jumped to Akeno. Before the latter could counter with another lightning, Inuko's fingers became needle-like and touched several parts of her body. Akeno was downed.
"You won't be able to do that for a while. I blocked the flow of your chi." Gasper gulped before he charged off. Inuko turns to him, but Gasper stops her time.
"G-Got her."
"Not really."
"?!" Gasper turns to see Inuko behind her, and flys to another direction after dealing a kick to his stomach. The Inuko that stopped faded away, it was an afterimage. Inuko turned to Asia, who was silent and scared. She deemed her not to be a threat, and turned back to the original target. Everyone could only look shocked, except Mizuki and Nina. And Rias only look to her, not flinching as the sharp claws went for her face. As it went down-
'Stop!'
"?!" Inuko's arm stopped a mere millimeter from the face. Her eyes held a look of surprise at herself. The others tried to move forward, but Rias held a hand up to stop them. "…" Her arms and legs revert back to normal as she stands down, moving a few feet away. "Who are you?" She looked at Rias, the look was pained. "Tell me, why is it when you call for me, my heart skips a beat and I answer? Why is it that even if you call my name, I cannot compel myself to hurt you?"
"….." Rias could offer no response as she walked a step. Inuko made no move other than talk.
"Why is it when I look at you, I am urged to embrace you when you look in pain?" Another step. "Why is it that just being near you brings me this unmistakable feeling of joy? Tell me." Rias embraces her and Inuko says one last thing in whisper. "Who are you….. to me?"
SLICE SLICE
"You've lost, Mira." Seika sheaths her katanas as the mechanical arms fall. "Inuko has returned home."
"So it seems. But no matter." Mira's chest compartment came off, revealing a timer. "Tomorrow IS another day." The eyes black out, but the timer still went. Now that Seika sees it, all the robots stopped their actions. She sighs.
"Predictable, you put bombs on every one of them." She snaps her fingers. Multiple shots from the distance blew all the dolls away to the sky, exploding at a distance. "Then again, so am I." She gives a thumbs up. At the distant where the shots came from, Uni, Nepgear, Ram, and Rom returned the gestures as the other goddesses were also on standby.
After calming down, Inuko was made by Rias to drink a potion made by Azazel, who went around the world to get another set of ingredients with Yuuma. The child frowns at the concoction.
"What is this?"
"Please drink it. I promise it's not poison." Rias pleads.
"…." Inuko gulps it down. "Bitter." She comments as she hadns the cup back. "Now what?"
"Please keep standing on this circle."
"….Alright." As the magic starts glowing, Inuko faces Mizuki. "You're the Kusanagi, right? Why was it that someone else called me by that name?" Mizuki smiles at her.
"Whether you believe it or not, you were made to be my sister."
"….." Inuko turns back. "….Onee-chan told me to go here, where the voice called to me. She said I would understand. So I will believe in those words."
"That's right, because-"
"A Kusanagi never lies to one of its own." Inuko finishes it as Mizuki beems. "? Why did I know that?"
"Don't worry, the spell will make you understand." And Rias activates the spell.
FLASH
"Inuko?" As the light disappears, they could see it. Inuko was back. The returned version of Inuko though was asleep. Before Rias could get to her, Seika appeared, back to normal as well. The effects of the candy wore off.
"I believe Inuko-sama is allowing me to sleep with her tonight." Seika's tone returned to normal as well as she picked Inuko up bridal style and walked into the house with her. Mizuki just gets up and carries Nina to bed as well.
"You'll be able to talk to her in the morning."
That night.
"…." Inuko opened her eyes. She was in bed with Seika, who was also awake, staring at her as they both lay in bed.
"Good evening, Inuko-sama."
"Seika." Inuko looks at her step-sister. "I remember everything."
"I see…."
"I think I goofed."
"Telling someone your feelings isn't goofing up, Inu-chan." Inuko and Seika sat up to see Mizuki had entered the room. The moonlight illuminated her face. Inuko's head dropped.
"I…. didn't want to tell her yet."
"My dear little sister, a girl doesn't like waiting, you know."
"I know. But…"
"But?"
"I still think she deserves better than me." Mizuki smiles encouragingly at her sister, walking up to rub her head.
"Better than a Kusanagi? That would be next to impossible, Inu-chan."
"But-"
"Inu-chan. You have my support. Don't worry, they won't break your heart."
"I'm worried about breaking thiers, nee-chan."
"Worry about that when it comes and not before."
The next day.
"Inuko, sorry to keep you waiting."
"I didn't long." Inuko say as she gets off the pole she was leaning on, smiling to Rias. In the morning, Inuko had acted like normal in breakfast, chomping away at the food. When inquired if she remembered anything from last night, all they got was a confused look and an explanation that all she remembered was that she got all the ingredients and that they were turning Rias and Asia back to normal after that. It seemed that they got the impression that Inuko clearly could not remember what happened after that, but the Kusanagi siblings knew better. Even Sona was a little skeptical, but shrugs it off. Then everyone was surprised when Inuko asked Rias out on a date. Sona was about to argue again, but Inuko explained she promised a date to Rias and Yuuma for saving her from marrying Kiyome. Now Rias and Inuko were at the shopping distinct. "That looks good on you." She compliments Rias' dress.
"Thank you." Rias lightly touches Inuko's face, where the scar was. "You hid it well."
"I don't really like explaining to random strangers how I got this scar." Inuko did tell them that Seika had informed her what had happened that night and she was bombarded with a lot of questions particularly the scar on her head. "It was something I was born with." She explained. She had been hiding it with illusion ofudas, even moreso at home because of everyone. Rias had adamantly told her not to do that again in the house, only in public. That she would prefer seeing Inuko's real face than an illusion, to which everyone agreed. Inuko complied, a little smile on her face when she heard that. The wolf aura Sona had seen was an aura she had back in her life as a Tsurugi, because she was closely related to the Kusanagi as a Murakumo, the branch family. The wolf changed to a dragon aura when she became Kusanagi. As for her chimeric abilities, Inuko explained it was after 70 surgeries or so, she was able to manipulate her bady structure to different animal parts, giving her advantages over normal individuals. Mizuki long since removed that ability from her body. Reason being; it made Inuko seem more of an animal than a person and she wouldn't have that. After all, now that she's a Kusanagi, she doesn't even need to manipulate her body to get greater strength or speed or such. She already has that. What remains of the chimeric ability was the elongating of her canines when in anger, the majority of her bones made of a mixture of diamond and dwarf planet material, the coversion of her muscle to pink muscle, and her sharp animalistic instincts. By far, she is considerably the strongest Kusanagi in history, second only to the head herself. Even Micheal, Azazel, and Sirzechs would have a tough time fighting her, even together. Explainations done left the whole crowd speechless, even Sona and Tsubaki even though they knew part of the story. And she left ehm gaping to prepare for her date. "Shall we get going?" Before they walked off, Rias grabbed onto Inuko's arms.
"Inuko." Rias' grip tightened. "You really never forgot, didn't you?" Rias hoped, she hoped that the words told to her by little Inuko were true. Inuko pauses for a bit.
"….." 'Nee-chan, please let me believe." Then she just smiles and leans to Rias' ear. The latter was so shocked at the words she heard she let go, letting Inuko walk off. Rias snaps out of it and smiles, running to her and clinging to her arm. The words echoing in her head.
"All I said that night was true. Just being near you brings unmistable joy in me heart. I can say honestly, I can't live without you. So please bear with me a little longer, and I promise I will say those words to you one day."
Author's Note: That's done. Took a while. Still, I intend to make 2 more short stories before getting to book 5. The next one will be a Seika and fallen angels centered story. After that is my take to "300 Ise." Actually I might combine the 2 stories to one, let's see. If any questions, please feel free to ask. Comments would be appreciated.
