Chapter 82

For ease of location, space, and facilities, the new Hyoudou home was chosen for the 'after action'. It might have been the huge mana expenditure putting me close enough to mind down to feel depressed, but I was more worried about it being a school night, than everything else that was going on.

After basically throwing myself into the shower, stripping off my equipment once the water colour was almost clear, then showering some more, it finally started to sink in. Not only had I just killed a literal legend, I'd also painted a target the size of Babel on my back. With all the other problems looming over us, this was just going to add to the messy situation. I could also guess what they were going to ask me too...

"Kodori-dono."

The kind professional voice of Grayfia broke me out of my automatic motions of scrubbing blood off. "Suppose that means Lord Sirzechs is here too."

"Indeed. I was asked to check on you, since you were taking a while." She replied.

"I was half again my weight in giant wolf blood before I got in." I replied, sticking my arm out of the shower stall, and holding out my coat, "Could you please hang this someplace sturdy? Like on a door or something?"

She took the coat, and I went about making sure I'd gotten all the blood off my tails, "Certainly."

"I'm guessing we're going to wrap up the evening with a lovely war council, about yet another wrench in the plan to try and make the world a better place?" I very carefully sprinkled water in my ears, then shook my head to clear them again, then turned the shower off.

"Just so." She replied, not even reacting as I stepped out of the shower, "I've set aside some clothing for you as well." She handed me a super fluffy white towel that felt fresh from the dryer.

"Anything to warn me about first?" I flopped the towel over my head, "And thank you."

"The White Dragon Emperor, and his team are still here." She replied, giving me a small bow, "Lady Sona has arrived as well, with Mr Saji."

"I'm guessing Vali and his team are behaving?" I was taking my time in drying my tails, sighing quietly when I saw the towel still come away a little red.

"He's expressed a desire to join forces to fight Loki." She replied.

"Right, of course." I shook my head and started getting dressed, thankful that someone remembered my aversion to panties.

"Are you unwell?" She asked after a moment.

"Loki has one of the dungeon parts I'm looking for. So like it or not, I'm involved."

"After your service in bringing down Loki's biggest asset, I doubt anyone would mind if you simply stepped back. You may disappoint a few people, but blame you? No."

I considered it, and instantly felt ashamed for doing so. This was not how Hestia Familia dealt with problems. "No, I'll help." I put the towel into the laundry basket, "Did someone go to my place for clothes?"

"Akeno-san said she fetched them from the shrine." She led the way, and I followed.

"Best Miko I never knew I wanted."

As Grayfia had said, we had the Gremory peerage, Sirzechs, Azazel, Baraqiel, Irina, Sona and Saji. Odin and Rossweisse were in another room, calling home as it were. Vali, Bikou Arthur and Kuroka were also here, though with the way everyone in the 'meeting lounge' the atmosphere looked very awkward.

I found a place to sit in the rough circle of comfortable chairs and couches, and plunked my rear down.

Already I was getting the looks... sideways glances... No whispers, but this was too close to how I was treated after I'd killed that insane Amazon Phryne back home.

So, I summoned Delly.

Or at least I tried to. That weird sort of 'bubble' in my mana was... not gone. But disconnected. Similar to how it felt when my tails had been sealed by Kurin.

"Delly?" I mumbled.

Her voice was small and distant an echo of an echo, "later. please."

"Sensei?" Rias asked.

"It's fine." I looked around the room, then to Azazel, "Lord Odin going to skip this one?"

"He's trying to muster someone from home to help." He replied, "Meanwhile, we seem to have gotten some new volunteers for this as well." He looked to Vali.

"Even if Fenrir is dead, Loki is certainly a challenge." He shrugged, sounding almost disappointed.

"He had some of the monsters from your book too, Sensei." Rias added, "Do you think he has more?"

"Wouldn't doubt it." I sighed, "The numbers he sent would be a moderately sized swarm. If he has more than one dungeon piece, from a different floor, we might have other things to deal with too."

"Any guesses, Sensei?" Sirzechs asked.

"It might be more flying types. That might include bats, fire birds, more flying swords, mosquitoes, light quartz, harpy, iguazu... I'd put fire bird and harpy low on the list, since they would be difficult to spawn from a small segment of dungeon like that." I explained, "Hopefully its not light quartz or ignazu..."

"Doesn't sound too bad." Saji commented.

"The mosquitoes have the same weakness as the flying swords. Highly flammable. But ignazu are basically suicide bombers." I made a 'this big' motion with my hands, not much longer than a butter knife, "They are swarm fighters who act like ants mixed with piranha with a dash of lemming. Super fast too. The Light quartz are like little quartz formations that fly without wings, and shoot lasers. Not the hardest hitting, but I'd consider them dangerous to anything not a rook. They can't cut through metal armour, but can eventually melt it."

"Do you think your shield crystals will stop it?" Kiba asked.

"No idea. Sona? Does the science lab at the school have any lasers?" I looked to Sona.

"We have two. An argon laser, and a very low power CO2 laser."

"Some time after school hours then." I nodded.

"Using science for magic... I'm sure that wasn't in His plan." Irina giggled quietly.

"Says the entire room full of people who fly with about one quarter of the wingspan needed to fly under the usual laws of physics?" I countered.

"Sensei has wing envy." Xenovia said.

"Getting back on topic." Sirzechs started, "With much of our effort holding down key locations against the Chaos Brigade, what we have in this room now is basically all we have against Loki."

"Do you think we can take him on with just us?" Issei asked, "I mean... Would Vali's power work?"

"Not as well as normal, no. But the both of us together might stand a chance, with support." Vali looked at the rest of the room, "If what the Fox says is true, we're going to get bogged down in small fry as well."

"Hopefully it's just small fry." I added, "With all the wide area magic on hand, it's really not so bad so long as you aren't surprised. There are other things too."

"Oh, you mean like this one?" Bikou, who had the copy of the mini encyclopedia open in front of him, turned the book around, "Purple moss? Emits lung eating spores that can paralyze or kill with long exposure."

"We need to make ready for everything." Rias nodded.

"Is there a way to beat Loki? Nothing we did seemed to even bother him." Issei asked.

"I have an idea on that." Vali said, "Though, I'll need a little help."

We all looked to him.

"I was planning on asking one of the other dragon kings. Midgardsormr. " Vali said.

"Isn't that another name for the world serpent?" I asked.

"Yes." Vali shrugged, "It's also called the Dreaming Dragon. And another of Loki's children."

"Ara... Isn't waking up the world serpent one of the signs of Ragnarok?" Akeno asked.

"With a little effort from the three dragons here, Tannin, and Fafnir, we can open a way to talk in his dreams."

"Oh, I suppose I do have a bit of a dragon here." Saji mumbled, scratching his arm.

"Will he even cooperate?" Azazel asked.

"Hard to say." Vali shrugged, "But, it's an idea at least."

"Fair enough. I'll get in touch with Shemhazai, and let you know when I've arranged everything. Baraqiel, lets go."

With a nod, they left the room. This of course left us with Vali and his team, and the tension of having a former enemy, or temporary ally in the room.

"I might have missed it." I started, "But why are you working with us, Vali?"

"I want to win." He replied, "And it would be better to win with me helping you, instead of waiting for you to fail and picking up where you left off."

"So work as a party instead of kill stealing?" Issei asked, looking at his left hand, then back to Vali, "I suppose it would work out better that way, with the two of us."

"Sensei." Rias got my attention, "What are you planning to do with Fenrir's corpse?"

"What I always do. Take it apart and make it into something useful for the next encounter." A few of them went a little green at the flat statement, "Shinkage's coating was once a part of a minotaur horn. My new armour will have what I learned from Vali's armour as a big part of it. Many of you already have Cerberus wool in the armour I've made." I looked to Sona, "Will I be able to start tomorrow?"

"Yes." She said simply, "Though I am curious how you are going to dispose of what you don't use. I am not as familiar as you with alchemy, but I do know that beings such as Fenrir have many arcane and alchemical uses."

"I find fire works well." I replied, "Unless Rias gives permission, the more dangerous bits are not leaving my care."

"Teeth that can slay a god?" Kiba asked.

"That sort of thing, yes." I nodded, "That said, I'm going to need help, or I'll be at it forever."

No one raised their hands for this one.

"If I may offer some of the Gremory house soldiers?" Grayfia asked.

"So long as you trust them, and they understand what they will be doing. Maybe the two from last time?"

She smiled slightly, "And the one who volunteered for potion testing."

"Perfect."

The conversation involving me dried up, the others started to very tentatively mingle. First to break the ice was Irina, who, now that the serious topics were done, went over to Arthur and fangirled over the last Excalibur. This seemed to get everyone else in the room to relax a little, and from there people started to chat.

Except me. Like Akeno, who was still in a sort of quiet brooding mood, probably about having her father around now, I had turned my thoughts inward.

"Delly?" I mumbled quietly, closing my eyes and trying to find her mana within my body.

"boss... you have no idea what you nearly did to yourself, do you?" Her voice sounded almost like she was in pain, or pulling something heavy behind her.

"It's what I usually do... isn't it?"

"it is, but it's what you did it to that is the problem." I got the mental image of her floating in mid air and sighing at me, "If I wasn't here, the mana you pulled from that demi-god might have destroyed you. Or corrupted you. Or maybe broken your spell. You pulled power from Fenrir, but didn't put it anywhere!"

"There was no where to put it? I was in its mouth."

"I know, I was there too." Oh yeah, very grumpy fairy.

"I suppose releasing it out into the world might be bad?"

"It's... Maybe? Fenrir wasn't really evil, which is really good for me, since I like being a fairy and not a boglin. But if you just let out that power all at once, you might make some kind of terrible ghost or something. It would be wild magic of the highest order."

"So... I wait?"

"Yeah, basically."

"Could I put it into a jar or something?"

"Maybe?"

"Will having this tangle of mana be a problem, aside from you needing to handle it?"

"I wouldn't trust your usual magic much."

"Very well. Thank you Delly." I said, smiling, "Let's see if I can be lucky a second time."

While everyone had politely ignored me while I had a quiet conversation with myself, the rest of the room was quite thoroughly mingled now. Bikou was chatting with Rias, Issei was standing between Kuroka and Koneko. Irina, Xenovia, Asia and Arthur were chatting quietly... The only ones sitting out were Akeno and Vali. Even Gasper was chatting with Kiba Saji and Sona.

So I stood up, walked about half way across the room, took a half breath...

And stopped behind Kuroka, my Number One Dad shirt ruffling slightly as I came out of the Shunpo step.

"I'm not gonna take her away, silly bo-nyaa?"

The room went silent and looked my way, as I held the end of one of Kuroka's tails between my thumb and forefinger.

I then closed my other hand over her tail, just enough to feel the smooth fur against my palm, and ran my hand backwards down its length. I had to flatten my ears against my skull as she wailed her discomfort at the improper handling of one of her tails, her spine going ramrod straight, her hair frazzling, and her other tail sticking out like a lightning bolt.

Task done, I let her tail go, and she did her own flash step, ending up crouched behind Koneko, hiding behind her and glaring daggers at me over her shoulder. "Sorry to interrupt, but if I could borrow Issei for a moment?"

Bikou and Vali started laughing, while everyone else looked puzzled. "Um, sure Sensei." Issei said after a moment, "Will you be okay, Koneko-chan?"

"What about me?! My poor tail..." Kuroka growled, holding her abused tail protectivly.

"There there." Koneko gave her sister a headpat, "I'll be okay, Issei-san." She replied.

Issei and I stepped away from the others, "What is it, Sensei? And why did you do that?"

"I said I would." I replied, "I mean, I'm was a little upset she nearly melted me, but I'm over it now." I nodded, "I need a couple of small favours from you and Ddraig."

"Sure." A pause and a glance down at his left hand, "What did you need?"

"Tomorrow after school or something, I'm gonna need you in the shop."

"Is that all? I don't see a problem with that." He scratched the back of his head.

September 21

Early morning greeted me with a few surprises. First, was that I had breakfast waiting for me as soon as I opened my eyes. The only clue as to why, was a small note next to my plate that said 'Please make more ice cream'.

For perfect bacon and eggs? Certainly.

Next, was that the three phoenix(?) eggs I was sleeping with were whole still. The other two 'room temperature' eggs had vaporized, so I was guessing they needed some kind of mana around them to keep them from exploding. I hoped they would stay that way while I was away for the day.

I had three somewhat sleepy devils waiting out side of my apartment door, dressed not in that angular brass coloured armour, but proper work clothes.

They liked cookies.

Getting to the workshop, letting them in, and reading another small note left on the workbench nearest the door, 'It's in the basement, Sona'.

My other eggs, the two hot and two cold ones, were also still whole. The final two, those I'd set in the 'special' boxes were also intact, but for the moment, that only meant they hadn't exploded. I'd probably have to wait a week or so, maybe more, and shine a light behind them to see if anything was actually growing in them.

The last surprise, was that there was yet another room under the ORC. This one not only held the entire body and severed head of Fenrir, but was properly cold. I suppose Sona was a master at water manipulation, and that making an ice box wouldn't be that difficult, but for something the size of a small building to be exactly -4 degrees Celsius, was nothing short of magic.

"You three know what we're doing?" I asked.

"We've been instructed to help in any manner you ask." The one I'd healed said.

"Well, at this temperature, it won't smell so bad." I looked down at Shinkage, "You'll be in charge of thawing and disposal."

"Yay."

"Before we start, I'm going to make a call. In the mean time, safety gear on, make sure your knives and hooks are sharp, and that you'll be okay in the cold."

"Yes Ma'am." They said in unison.

I started a slow walk around the corpse. Laying on its side, it was... enormous. Ten metres at the shoulder, it was roughly twice that long before the tail. This wasn't going to be a small project. I took out a bit of paper, "Ajuka. I request your attention. I, Kodori Haruhime ask audience."

The response was fairly quick, the head and shoulders of the somewhat sloppy looking Satan looked like he was just about to have a nap. Or just woke up from one. "Lady Kodori... what time is it?"

"For me? About 8:30 or so. In the morning, mind you."

"Is it still September?"

"Yes."

"Oh good. Didn't sleep through it." He squinted at me, "What is that behind you?"

"The corpse of Fenrir." I replied, "As a fellow scientist and magical aficionado, I was wondering if you wanted anything from it."

He seemed stunned. Not quite to the point of slack jawed, but close. "W...H... Okay..." He pinched himself, then smiled, "I will be there presently. What is your price?"

"Give me ideas on how to work with it, and don't take too much of it. Rias has final say on what leaves this room."

"Understandable." He nodded, "Place the circle down someplace with a bit of space."

"It's a cold room, in case you aren't dressed for it."

After getting a 'yes he may' from Rias, Ajuka, myself, the three assistant butchers and Shinkage started to break down the massive wolf body. Some of the early problems we encountered were just how tough it was, and the weight of the parts being moved around. The fur was almost like steel fibre. The hide reminded me of how tough the Black Goliath was, and the bones... I needed my special chisels, the ones made to work adamant while it was cold.

This, as well as moving many tons of stuff around that we didn't want to keep, like the guts (though we kept the heart and liver) the meat (while I could have -probably- cooked it safely, Ajuka told me it might be risky to try), and a few other things, like what ever it ate last (some bits of wagon were in its stomach, along with some other... stuff.)

By the end of it all though, we had lots of stuff from it. Ajuka kept the eyes, brain, lots of blood, claws, a few square metres of hide, and since he was taking the eyes and brain, the skull itself. He declined most of the teeth though, but took the four canine teeth, since I told him a skull looked silly without teeth.

This left me with what amounted to a massive museum skeleton, minus the skull. As well as lots of the blood, a huge amount of hide, teeth, tendons (which I planned to get creative with) a heart (high powered alchemy ingredient for sure), liver (ditto), three tired guards, one sardonic metal cat, and an appetite, since we had worked through lunch. There was still a fair bit of 'scrubbing' to do, but thankfully, I now had a cold room and there would be no risk of rotting if I didn't get it it right away. Ajuka even made a few trips back and forth from his lab, to bring suitable containers for some of the things.

"Thank you for your service." I said to the three guards, "While I'm sure you were volun-told to be here..." I offered them each a small shard of bone, fragments from one of the legs when I first tried to brake it, but ended up shattering it. It took my best files to smooth the edges, but they were now roughly the size of a finger, and flat enough on one side to be engraved, "It's not much, but it's proof you three worked on taking apart the remains of the great wolf Fenrir."

"Thank you ma'am." They said together, "Though, if we never have to help you do that again, we'd be extra thankful." One said, "I thought it smelt bad on the outside."

"No promises." I smiled, "Showers are down the hall, down the steps, and to the right in the room marked 'Training hall'."

"I'll guide them." Shinkage said.

"Sensei." Issei greeted as he showed up after school, "You wanted to see me?"

I hit the 'checkout' button on my phone, and put my phone away, "Excellent. Yes. I need your help with something, and since you've done it before, I'm hoping you can do it again."

"Sure." He smiled, "You look like you're in a better mood."

"I suppose. New materials, new challenges." I motioned towards my workbench, "Working with bone isn't exactly new for me, but this stuff is crazy." I opened my furnace door, (the normal one, not the hellfire one) and took out a crucible bowl, "In here, is molten glass. What I need from you, is to zap it with your dragon shot."

He blinked at me, "Um, wouldn't that be... a little much?"

"Don't blast it. Zap it. I want to make another crystal, like the one Shinkage is in. But instead of you blasting a mountain side, and me looking for a bit of magic obsidian..." I motioned with the still red hot crucible, "You're going to show off your skill of magic control, and infuse your power into this bit of glass as it cools."

"Oh! Well... I'll try I guess?"

I opened the furnace, and showed him the half dozen other little crucibles, "We have a little room for error. Take your time."

It took him three tries, and two crucible pots. On the third try, he had succeeded, and instead of two broken crucible pots and a bunch of glass bits, we didn't break the pot, and we got a dome shaped bit of black glass that I could feel was almost exactly like the one holding Shinkage's 'brain'.

Left with four more cups of molten glass, I showed Issei how to blow glass, and in the end he had a couple of weird looking Christmas ornaments.

"So what was the other thing?" He asked, washing his hands, then carefully wrapping up the two little glass bulbs.

"I want to see your new wings."

"You're not going to pull them off are you?"

"No, I'm going to look at how they are braced on your back, so I can imitate the design." I replied, giving him a Karate Chop of Justice, "Silly dragon."

The problem with this new material, that being bone from a demi-god, was that I had all kinds of experimenting to do with it. If I were really ambitious, (though it was arguable that I could be at times) I could have simply set aside my entire armour project, and started over with this new material. The bone itself, especially from 'load bearing' places like the legs, was insanely dense. Being bone, it was much lighter than the hybrid steel I was making. But, it was still bone, and once it was chipped, even a little bit, it would be much easier to break. Even if my new armour would be 'infinitely repairable' with its nature as a (fake) sacred gear... There was no guarantee I'd have time to replace it in combat.

I could use bone powder to fill the runes I'd etched into metal plates. Living material tended to conduct certain magic much better than metal. And while yes, it would be dusty work, the end result would be just that much more potent.

I could hybridize the armour in places. I was already going to revamp my new gauntlets somewhat. If those teeth were able to 'slay a god' then making knuckle caps of the bone should have a similar effect. Smooth striking points, like the knuckles, elbows, knees and instep. Those would be good...

Then there was the other project...

"Delly?" I had the 'dragon glass' in front of me now, my notes from Ajuka on how to work with the bone set aside for now.

"hi... this is really tiring."

"I have a possible solution." I said, putting a finger to the dragon glass and brushing my mana over it, "Can you feel that?"

"oh... it feels like Shinkage, except... empty." She mumbled, "maybe?"

"If it works, you can thank Issei for helping make it." I said, "How do we do this?"

"Very carefully. Maybe under a ward? Have some potions near by? Safety glasses? I have no idea boss... I was just... WE were just lucky I was here to stop what might have been the worst case happening."

"I could name you my Fairy Godmother, if you wanted motivation?"

"I have that title by default. I'm almost looking forward to being a chew toy for your children." She took what sounded like a deep breath, a weird thought, since she wasn't 'physical', "Okay, I'll try and keep as much of 'you' out of this as I can, and push this out. Put the glass into your hand, but do not crush it."

I did as instructed, holding the glass in my open palm, relaxed my body, and let my mana, with the gift of Haruhime's tail letting me push it past my skin, flow out of my palm.

The pain was indescribable.

When I'd gained the 'fire resistant' trait from all the times I'd been horribly burned, I'd suffered a few very painful, non-harmful, incidents. The first, was when I'd put my hand into the furnace, to pull red hot iron from the forge.

That was maybe a three out of ten.

Then there was that one time I used my magic, the same magic that chewed Fenrir's head off from the inside. That time however I was on the outside of a fire drake, and before it could hose me with its flaming breath, I'd kicked its chin into the air and had my ghostly foxes chew through its throat, bathing my entire body in fire and flaming vomit.

Maybe a five? Six?

Then there was that one time I had been beaten, cut up, tortured, and shattered, only to be healed so they could do it again for the better part of a day.

Certainly a ten.

This was a twelve.

Like something jagged being drawn across every nerve from my toenails upwards. My blood turning to acid. Every internal organ working in reverse. The fluid in my eyes boiling. Ears bursting. Nose and lungs breathing in caustic vapour. Skin being peeled from my muscles. Muscles pulling themselves from the bone. Bones turning to gravel.

I felt warmth creeping through my body, starting from the fingertips of my right hand, and flowing up my arm towards my heart. From there, it seemed to beat in time with the tireless muscle, and spread throughout my body.

I tried opening my eyes, and found myself looking at the dully gleaming face of Shinkage.

"You are an idiot." He said firmly.

"Shinkage-san... Don't be mean." Asia's voice came from just out of sight on my right side.

"But welcome back all the same." His feet clicked away, leaving me looking up at the ceiling.

"What..." I started, but it sounded more like 'Waa'

"Shinkage-san said you started screaming." Asia said, her warm hands holding my wrist, "He ran all the way to Issei-san's home to get me."

"I can't work a phone." I heard from across the room, "I wonder if anyone will call about a giant cat on the loose."

"I got here, Akeno-san too." Asia continued, "And you were on the floor..."

"Dead. Or at least, with no heartbeat, no breathing."

"Akeno-san... She started your heart, and I healed you..."

"Where?" This sounded like a proper word at least.

"She went to your room to get clothes." A pause, "You're kind of..."

I tried to move, and felt that yes, I was a mess. With that realization, I sat up suddenly, "Delly!?" The sudden motion made me dizzy, and Asia managed to lower me back to the floor without my head hitting the floor, "Delly...?"

"still in here..."

"The table..." I looked to Asia, "Is it there?"

"Hm? Um... There's a glowing bit of glass there... and your hand."

"My... what?"

"It looked like you had squeezed your own hand off at the wrist." Shinkage explained.

I thought about that... "Maybe... Delly said not to break the glass? Yeah..."

"You crushed your wrist to stop yourself. After the transfer was done, you passed out." Delly's voice said, "I was starting to fade too, but then Akeno got your heart started again."

I raised my hands up and wiggled my fingers, "Thank you Asia." I said.

"My twilight healing can heal anything but death..." She mumbled.

To say Akeno was upset was... putting it lightly. Once she had returned with clothing, she shoo'ed Asia out of the workshop, and dragged me to the shower room. It was the only thing left of the 'apartment' that the workshop had been converted from, and was useful for the occasional accident where you might need to wash chemicals off yourself in a hurry.

I still felt weak, and honestly a bit in shock, so I was at her mercy as she stripped me, (gently) tossed me into the shower, and turned the water on. Only after she had hosed off the worst of the mess I'd made, did she turn on the hot water, and joined me.

I wasn't sure what to expect when she hugged me tightly until she started to cry. So, I did my best to push aside my near death and tried to comfort her. She stopped me from speaking, so I simply let her wash me, dry me off, and get me back to my room.

"Akeno..."

"Call home." She said before I could say another word, "Right now." She grabbed my shoulders and shook me, "So you can tell them how stupid you just were!"

"See this? This, right here? Bad Miko Karma." Delly's voice mumbled between my ears.

I was going to call tomorrow, maybe in the morning, but Akeno was right, so was Delly. I'd taken a stupid risk, dealing with something I had only the faintest clue on how to deal with, and hoping I'd make it through because 'it worked for someone else last time'. If Shinkage wasn't there, I'd be dead. If I'd had an actual assistant, you know, someone with thumbs so they could at least call someone if something bad had happened...

So I did the only thing that made sense, when a trusted Friend had told me to do something.

"Would you like to join in? You too Delly?" I asked, "If you want to tell her..."

"She already knows, Ko-san." Akeno replied, "She's know since that night, just not when."

"I'll have to thank her twice then." I nodded, getting the Tarot cards for my wife and Goddess from their protective leather sleeve. "Delly?"

"I'll have to pass just this once..."

I was never good at apologizing. I mean, I could say sorry and do my best never to do it again, but that was easy for the little things. Sorry I bumped into you. Sorry I'm late. Sorry I forgot. See? Easy.

'Sorry I made a stupid mistake and nearly died'. That's a hard one. Especially when one of the people you were apologizing to was prone to 'sad/angry' 'cry/yelling'. Like Hestia. Haruhime wasn't any easier to apologize to either. She wasn't prone to flying off the handle, or breaking down and crying. No...

She just stopped smiling. She became... disappointed.

It was never past the point of making her disappointment clear. No yelling. No 'remembering it months later'. No. Now, this might be because I never repeated the mistake. The second time was shame, and being the light of my life, I made very sure to never make the same mistake twice.

After getting a very calm session of 'being disappointed with', Haruhime smiled. Not at me, but at Akeno.

"Please, No-chan, continue to take care of my wife while she's away."

"I will, Ha-san." Akeno replied.

Then Haruhime smiled at me, ending the 'call'. Though, not before Hestia shot another "Remember! You are GROUNDED when you get home!"

Akeno left me to my shame (Read: shock at being disappointed with), and brushed my tails until I recovered. She actually continued to brush my tails after I'd gotten up and started on my evening routine. This involved the usual, make dinner, drain milk, store/use milk, poke at alchemy set, etc.

"Delly? Ice cream is about ready."

"... okay... just don't be too surprised."

With the usual metaphysical 'sliding' of my mana against hers, she appeared next to me with the usual poof of smoke. But... She had changed. Instead of her blond hair, edged with black. It was now silver. "Well... not as bad as I thought it would be." She mumbled, hovering in front of me for a moment before landing on the counter top. "Be more careful next time?" She asked. She even had cute little fangs. Not enough to be scary, just noticable.

I lowered myself down and put my chin on the counter top in front of her, "I'm sorry Delly. I want you to come home with me just as much as I want to return to my family. Please forgive me?"

She applied the smallest Karate Chop of Justice to ever be given, "I know." She hugged my forehead, "Wouldn't say no to ice cream and a week of sleep though."

Akeno stopped brushing my tails, set the brush down, and gave Delly's ears a pat, "So... Ko-san?"

"Hm?" I offered, and she accepted a bowl of ice cream.

"Why do you have three giant eggs on your bed?"

NOTES!

Okay, I'm feeling like I'm starting to ramble on here. I don't want too many disappointed looks. x.x

Almost time for the holidays. Yay? I also started working... x.x Everything hurts.

Now to start on the next bit of story. See you in five days!