Whatever had been about to happen has been completely stalled by the lump of purring tears in my lap. Kiba's brain appears to have completely shut down, his mouth hanging open, and any sense of readiness absent from his body as he stares. Rias has frozen mid-word, a hand raised to stop Kiba from doing... whatever he had been about to do. Now she just stares at the tiny girl in my lap.
My arms have wrapped around the girl almost by reflex, and all I can do for several moments is stare. Finally, I drag my eyes up to the other two devils, "Does anybody have any explanation for this?" The girl in my lap whimpers at the sound of my voice, clinging to me harder, which prompts me to hold her tighter as well.
"I..." Rias swallows, then simply shakes her head. Kiba falls back into his seat with a thump.
I sigh, and begin to stroke the cat Yokai's back, which leads to her loosening her grip a little, and snuggling into me a little harder, "Put the pieces away Rias." Those things still make me uncomfortable, "and if you have another reason for being here tell me. Because I'm never going to become a devil and discussing it further is just a waste of time."
The red headed devil sighs, and put away the knight and bishop pieces in the box they came out of. Putting the box away she gazes at me for a moment before speaking, "If you're unwilling to join my peerage," Just the sheer confusion in that statement shows that while Rias has given up for the moment, she doesn't really understand my refusal, so we'll likely be having this conversation again, "Would you be interested in a teaching position?"
I just stare at her, "I hardly have the education, or the qualifications, to teach at a high school. And frankly I'm way too happy to have escaped my own high school experience to ever willingly go back."
"No, I'm hoping you're willing to help Kiba-kun and Koneko/kitten-chan with their fighting. From what Kiba told me you're more than qualified for that." The eagerness that had been in Rias' voice when she'd been trying to talk me into her peerage, but had faded as that conversation began to crash and burn, starts to come back. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.
Well, Kiba, at least, needs the help.
Koneko, and I really need to find out what her name was before Rias decided to change it, because I am not calling her that, needs help as well. Though whether that help would be of the combat variety, or just help with whatever caused her current position, I don't know yet.
Still... "I have nothing against the idea. What are you offering as payment?" I charged Lucifer after all, no way I'm not going to charge his little sister.
I find it more than a little amusing that both Rias and Lucifer have pretty much the same surprised expression.
"I..." Rias collects herself faster than her brother did though, "How much? Money is no object."
Really Rias? You're a devil, you should know better than to make statements like that. Luckily for her, "I don't want money." I tell her with a sigh.
It's true, somehow money is something I've never had to worry about really. I've never had trouble acquiring it, even when I don't need it.
Which in this case is a problem. Because...
"Then what do you want."
"...I don't know."
All the devils except for the one in my lap stare at me. The one in my lap has stopped crying, and her purring has become softer, less determined. My thought is to ask for something to help me with a way to analyze traits without having to acquire them first. Which is trickier than it sounds, since often the first time I see a trait is likely to also be my only chance to grab it.
The problem? I just don't know what that help would look like.
"You don't..." Rias begins, and I interrupt her.
"No I don't. I didn't exactly expect this conversation or this opportunity. So I don't have a prepared list of negotiation points." I look down at the cat Yokai in my lap, "I don't think I can exactly refuse either at this point." I look back up at the other two and sigh, "So let's just agree that you'll owe me a favor of similar value, that won't put you or yours at risk, to be cashed in when I know what I want. Which I'll try to figure out as quickly as possible. In the meantime, when are we going to do this?"
The negotiation on when I'll meet the two younger devils to help them goes pretty quickly. They have busy schedules in general, so I agree to meet with both of them at the same time on Saturdays. Once that's settled Rias has the good sense, and manners, to realize that it's time for her to leave.
The most difficult part is getting the little girl off my lap. Rias gently wakes her up and, with some effort, coaxes her to her feet. The thing that disturbs me is that for the entire procedure, I only hear Rias calling the girl 'kitten', never 'Koneko'.
She sticks close to me on the way to my front door, clinging to my pants leg with one hand, which Rias doesn't seem to appreciate, only letting go when I open the door to let them out. She gives me one last hug, and I pat her between her ears, and off they go.
I turn around to head back inside when Kiba of all people calls my attention back to the group, "Ericka sensei." I stop in the doorway, and very reluctantly turn around to look at him. He shifts, looking slightly uncomfortable, but soldiers on, "I practice every day, is there something you would recommend I do during these practices? To prepare for the weekend?"
I rub the bridge of my nose, my eyes closed, "Yeah. Go through your practice set one move at a time. Think about every movement you make, and identify its purpose. If you're not attacking your enemy, defending yourself, or moving to do one of those, stop doing it." I open my eyes and pin him with my stare, "If it's not necessary, it has no place in a fight. Now if you'll excuse me, I've had a very long day." And it's not over yet.
Back inside I find Mia in her serious mode going over everywhere a devil had even seen with a fine tooth comb.
"Where were you hiding?" I ask her mildly surprised. Even with her ability to disappear, she did a thorough enough job while the devils were here that I had half convinced myself that she'd ducked out to avoid them.
She glances up at me as I come in from seeing the devils out, and then goes back to work, "I was standing right behind Leviathan." She waves a hand, drawing my attention to a knife she's holding. The blade of which is covered with some oily substance the smell of which burns my nose.
"What the hell is that coated in?"
Mia looks back over her shoulder, and grins evilly, "A spiritual poison mixed with holy water. It might not have killed one of them, but it sure as hell would have slowed them down. I'll make sure nobody left anything behind that they shouldn't have. I don't think they did, but no sense in taking chances. Are you going to check yourself out?"
I nod, trying to process that I actually had backup during that whole mess, "Yeah. I'll run a quick analysis on myself, and I'm going to go out of town to visit an expert I know tomorrow." I start down the hall to my workroom in a bit of daze to do just that. Also to find a mirror, what the hell had Leviathan done to my hair?
"Does this mean that I'll finally get to see this weird teleportation method of yours?" Mia asks, sounding muffled. I glance back to find that she's squeezed herself more than half under the couch.
I just shake my head, and leave to run a Script on myself so that I can finally go to bed.
At least Mia has been successfully distracted from the tea ceremony idea.
###
I head back to Hawaii the day after the devil invasion. Partially to get Pua to check me out, and partially because I realize, as the Script drops me in the room in Pua's house especially set aside for teleportation arrivals, that at some point when I wasn't paying attention the Ke'Kua'Okolani village had become home.
My first home was my parents house, that ended when my father threw me out. My second was Cait's book shop, and even though that was home, and I'll always love Cait for taking me in when I needed it, the book shop always felt temporary. The village though... Something about the taste of the humid air, and the sound of the house gecko chorus relaxes me in a way I haven't felt anywhere else.
In the village I feel safe.
I let myself out of the receiving room, and I'm met by a very happy Thea. The french brunette woman, even after I've improved my own appearance, is still unfairly attractive. And way too nice for her own good. She gives me a beaming smile, and moves forward to give me a hug, only to pause and frown when I hold up a hand to stop her.
"Ericka?" She asks slightly concerned.
I grimace, "I am here for a visit, but before that I should probably be checked over by Pua. I had some visitors last night and they could have done any number of things that I may or may not have noticed them doing."
She nods once then waves me after her, "I'll put you in her workshop and call her, then you can tell us all about what visitors you had that make you so cautious."
Twenty minutes later Pua is swearing in an impressive number of languages, as Ku and I look on, both amused and worried. She's got the results of my checkup in one hand but doesn't seem to really be thinking much about them, "The good news is that they didn't do anything to you. Though the signs of physical, mental, and metaphysical stress are all there. I have half a mind to summon one, or both, of them up and give them a piece of my mind. What the hell did they want to talk to you about that couldn't have been done with a phone call? Or at least giving you a warning. Arrogant, self entitled..." I'd be more confused about her vitriol if I didn't know how she feels about the biblical factions. Hawaii hasn't had a great time with Christianity in general, really.
The story, as I understand it, is that when missionaries first started getting to the islands there was a lot of contention about whether or not the new religion should be adopted. The population was pretty divided, until a Hawaiian princes decided to take a risk and settle the debate. She decided to head up to the altar at the edge of the Kilauea caldera where offerings to Pele were left. The princess decided she would take food from the altar, and if Pele, who is known to have a spectacularly short temper and a tendency to over-reaction even by the standards set by gods, struck her down then they wouldn't accept the new religion. If she lived then they'd convert to Christianity because clearly what they were doing already wasn't necessary.
So she climbed up to the altar, and took the offerings to Pele.
Kilauea erupted, the old caldera blew its top, anywhere lava could come from it did, and has been since. The native Hawaiians and the Christian immigrants have been at each others' throats ever since. Given their positions, Ku and Pua have apparently been involved in kicking more than a few devils and angels, fallen or otherwise, out of the islands. I don't think the Islands could contend with any of the biblical factions, but there also isn't anything on the islands worth the effort it would take to subdue them.
Which is why I'm more than a little concerned that Pua might actually go through with her stated intentions to summon Lucifer, and do something unfortunate to him. Or try to.
"Pua, please don't do anything that would start a fight that would start a war, and probably get you killed? Please?" I finally break into Pua's rant.
She just stares at me for a moment then laughs, and goes back to swearing. I look over at Ku to plea for an explanation of Pua's insane behavior, only to find him looking slightly embarrassed, "What?" I demand from him.
He shrugs, and stuffs his hands into the pockets of his board shorts, "Normally, with any other faction really, I'd be right there with you." He glances at me then back to her, "But about a decade ago we found the Book of Solomon in the hands of a cult in Egypt, while we were there so I could try and recreate the old Egyptian military arts."
"The Book of Solomon?" I know who he is, I'm pretty sure. A Hebrew king, the one who proposed cutting a baby in half to see which of the two women claiming the kid actually cared about it. What this has to do with anything I have no idea.
"Don't worry about it." Ku waves my question off as Pua starts pulling various ritual components out of the drawers and shelves where she keeps them, "We should probably stop her before she does something that everybody's going to regret, though."
I nod hurriedly, I've seen what Pua can do with a ritual, I really don't want to see what would happen if she decides to do something aggressive with one, "Come on Pua, I want to see if I can kick Ku's ass with my new acquisitions, and I need your advice."
Like the good Kahuna she is, the idea that somebody needing her snapps her out of her doom planning, "What?" Pua looks a little confused as her brother takes her by the shoulder, and steers her out of the room, "Who needs what?"
"Ericka needs therapy because she's suffering from the delusion she can beat me in a spar." Ku tells her as we leave her house.
"That's not what I said at all!" I chase after them, chuckling to myself at Pua's confusion, and Ku's efforts to keep her that way for as long as possible.
He doesn't manage it for long, but I do manage to get Pua focused on my second set of visitors last night. Ku is more than willing to give me some advice on teaching supernatural martial arts. Pua though, when I describe the events surrounding Koneko, gets very quiet and very pensive.
We end up in the same field where Ku first taught me, and get started, while Pua mulls over what I told her. My first swing nearly takes Ku's head off, and I get thirty glorious seconds of him on the back foot, before he gets his feet under him, despite my best efforts, and things go back to normal. Or mostly back to normal. I can actually track what he's doing and how he gets around my guard for a change. And, like when I sparred with Mia, the moves he makes stick in my mind like a burr, there to be used by me with only a little bit of practice.
Ku, for his part, goes through the whole spar with a huge grin on his face. Somehow he manages to figure out that I'm retaining physical movements better, and starts using a wider variety of techniques just so I can see them.
Pua spends most of the time her brother and I are attempting to kill each other, in the friendliest of fashions, writing something out in a notebook that she'd left to get soon after we'd started.
When we finish, I'm panting and exhausted and in desperate need of mana. Ku, the bastard, doesn't look like he's so much as taken a jog, never mind engaged in high intensity combat for several hours.
Pua tears out the paper she's been writing on, folds it up, hands it to me. Then insists that I stay for dinner and tell them in person all about what I've been up to. I end up staying late, getting an impromptu therapy session to help me deal, and understand, what came up during the mass ritual suicide I took advantage of. No conclusions are reached, or at least I don't reach any. Though Pua might have figured something out, and just decided to let me figure it out on my own, but I feel better afterwards anyway.
I actually forget about the note that Pua gave me until I find it while striping down for a shower. Pulling it out and looking it over, I find myself more than a little concerned.
Written in Pua's neat hand is a list of symptoms for severe depression. Symptoms that look very familiar.
###
The list of symptoms haunts me for the next several days as Mia and I go through our normal routine. Some of the symptoms are obvious. Extreme apathy is basically Koneko's main character trait at this point in time. Well, that and an obsession with sweets, which neatly fits into another item on the list, over eating. I'm pretty sure that if she wasn't a devil, Koneko would be a white-haired feline blimp. Other symptoms are harder though, what the hell constitutes 'oversleeping' for a cat? Undersleeping I could identify, but oversleeping for critters that like to spend twenty hours a day unconscious no matter what's going on is a bit harder.
I get concerned enough about it that I call Cait to try and interrogate her about the issue. Unfortunately she doesn't pick up, which isn't unusual. She frequently has to travel either on fae/cat business, or to acquire the more unusual books she sells in her store. Being out of contact during these trips is a common occurrence. Apparently Faerie doesn't get cellphone reception.
Still, it leaves me less prepared than I want to be when my first agreed upon training session with the two devils arrives. Watching them arrive is interesting. Kiba is dressed in his uniform, which is fair enough. Learn to fight in what you expect to be fighting in. Which just raises the question of why he doesn't have armor. I have to believe that devils have armor that can keep up with them. Not my problem really, just weird. He has a smile on his face, which some other female probably would find charming, and a bounce in his step that makes me think that he's looking forward to what's about to happen.
Some dark part of me, probably created by Ku, wants to work him hard enough to make him regret living.
Koneko walking beside him looks like an automaton. She has the same blank expression that she had the first time I saw her. She's also dressed in her school uniform, the utterly ridiculous thing that passes as a girls uniform at Kuoh. She has a pair of fingered fighting gloves clutched in one hand. Just seeing her freaks me out a little, and I'm already matching up what I'm seeing with what Pua put on her list of symptoms.
Her lighting up a bit upon seeing me gives me a bit of hope though. She doesn't speed up or alter anything really, but her eyes focus on me as she approaches. She walks at the same steady pace right at me until the tiny girl collides with my legs, and wraps her arms around my hips, and plants her face into my stomach. Her ears pop out of her head again, a pair or tails extend from under her skirt as she rubs her face in my shirt, and begin audibly purring again.
At least this time she doesn't start crying.
I put a hand on the girl's head, which makes her purr harder, and turns to look at Kiba. He seems to be just as lost as he'd been in my house the other day. I sigh, shrug, and get started, "Kiba, I'm sorry about this but I'm not going to be able to work with you much today. I've seen you fight so I have a clear enough idea of what you need, and what I can do for you. I'm going to have to see what Koneko can do though, and talk to her a bit about..." I trail off and look down at the girl who has shown no signs of noticing our conversation.
Kiba seema to understand what I'm getting at, and noda, "Of course Sensei, should I keep on with the exercise that you've already given me?"
I nod, "That'll work. If you have any questions feel free to ask. She's just going to have my focus today." Kiba nods then heads over to the other side of the park, while I turn back to the small cat person trying to burrow into my stomach.
I really wish that I'd been able to get a hold of Cait, but just because I can't talk to her doesn't mean she can't help me. So, what would Cait do?
Spend the next several decades driving the devils responsible for the situation slowly insane.
Right... not helpful. What would Cait do right now? Well there's a specific way that she always greets and says goodbye to me...
I pull the little cat away from me slightly, and kneel down so we're closer to the same height. She looks up at me with the saddest eyes, like she's afraid that my pushing her away is a rejection. That vanishes the moment I gently bump her forehead with mine, and then rub against the top of her head with my cheek.
I've gotten used to Cait doing this to me as a gesture of affection, but performing the actions myself is just weird. At least until I pull back from my greeting, and look at the girl's face. I'm shocked to find she's managed an actual smile, it's tremulous and small, but it's an actual expression, and it's there. She headbutts me back, purring, and I feel like I might just be able to help her after all.
After our greetings I get her to sit down facing me, no matter how much she wants into my lap, and get started on a few very serious conversations that we needed to have. Starting with, "So what is your name?"
She blinks at me and fidgets slightly, before answering, "Kitten," in a soft voice. It occurs to me then that this is the first time I've heard her speak. That what she says communicates that she doesn't even think of herself with a proper name, starts something hot and violent boiling deep inside of me.
I shake my head at her, "No, that's what you are. And using it as a nickname, or term of affection, is fine. I have somebody who calls me Kitten, but that more describes our relationship than who I am." I gently press a finger to her chest, "Who are you? What's your name?"
The girl stares at me for a long moment, her yellow eyes meeting my gold ones without blinking. For a long moment I she's silent, and I'm beginning to worry that she's not going to answer me, or worse possibly doesn't know any more. Especially as I see her eyes become bright with unshed tears, but after a wait that feels like an eternity, "Shirone," she finally tells me, and I let out a breath in relief.
I really just want to ask Shirone to tell me her life story, but even for whatever inexplicable rapport we seem to have, it seems like too much too fast to go straight for that. So instead, "Right, well we're here to help you fight better, so to start with why don't tell me what sort of experience and training you've had before."
The answer is not a lot. Much like Kiba, Shirone has been given some sort of initial training by a member of Lucifer's peerage. In her case the Rook Surter, apparently a clone of the actual fire giant who's supposed to burn the nine worlds to ash at Ragnarok. I don't even want to think about how that might have happened. Still, it makes me wonder if any of the devils have any real idea how close quarters combat works. I'm sure that Surter is an excellent fighter, but he's a fucking giant. A giant to teach a girl who barely makes five foot, counting her ears, and would have been even smaller then.
You can't fight the same as a small person as you can as a large person. I should know seeing as I've been both. Hell, I still fight like a small person a lot of the time. Not to mention that Shirone describes Surter as a power fighter. A pugilist, somebody who embodies the tactic of take more and hit harder than the other guy, which will absolutely not work for the tiny cat Yokai.
So basically I'm starting from scratch.
Which is fine, I can work with that, but really what the hell is going on in these peoples heads?
I also use her willingness to talk and answer questions, to slowly pry her story out of her. How her older sister, Kuroka, who first taught her the basics of combat, volunteered to become a devil's bishop so that she could take care of her little sister more easily. How Kuroka went insane from the use of senjutsu, and exposure to the negativity that saturates the world's energy thanks to humanity. How Kuroka, in her madness, killed her king and the rest of the peerage she was a part of, then ran, leaving Shirone behind without so much as a word. How this led to an underworld wide purge of Nekoshu, Shirone's breed of Yokai, which had before that been popular bishop pieces in a great many peerages. How Shirone had been caught almost immediately, how she had spent weeks in a small cage in a warehouse with other Nekoshu. Watching as they were taken one at a time, dragged out, and never came back. How she'd had to listen to her kind beg and plead and suddenly go quiet, all the while not really understanding what had happened and where he big sister was. Slowly coming to the realization that Kuroka wouldn't be coming for her. How she had been rescued at the last moment, literally taken from the executioner's block which was saturated in the scent of thousands of her peoples blood, by Lucifer. How Lucifer had given her to his sister, how that sister had decided that her name would be Kitten. How Kitten had slept in Rias' bed because that's what the little devil girl had wanted, and it helped to keep the nightmares away. How her training had started almost immediately, alternating between the brutal combat lessons of the cruel fire giant, and being Rias' house pet. Not that Shirone uses that term, but that's what she describes.
By the time I get the end of the story out of her I'm livid, furious, almost literally seeing red. The only thing that keeps my voice from doing it's new multi-tone dissonance trick, is the knowledge that Shirone doesn't deserve to see even a hint of my temper. Shirone deserves all the help I can give her, and I will, no matter what that takes. By the time I leave the universe, if Shirone can't dribble any other devil she comes face to face with down the street, it won't be for a lack of trying.
We sit in silence for a long few minutes after Shirone finishes her story, during which she somehow once again ends up in my lap, though I can't find it in myself to object. I look down at her, putting my hand on her head between her ears, which makes the tiny girl almost melt, "Well I think that's enough heavy conversation. How about we get to hitting things."
Shirone bounces to her feet and pulls on the gloves I noticed earlier. Padded combat gloves, with adorable pink paw prints on their back. It's the most energy that I've ever seen out of the girl, and glancing back at Kiba's stunned expression, it's the most he's seen too. I stand up, and start with the basics, how to punch and block and move. We'll do kicks and more complicated techniques later. She takes to what I'm teaching her with a sort of determined enthusiasm that I've only ever seen in myself. The very idea that the next time something comes for her, that thing will end up being afraid of her, lights a fire in her that I doubt many people aside from myself can really understand.
Yeah, Shirone will be the most dangerous and powerful rook alive by the time I'm done with her, she deserves nothing less.
And after I finish training her today, Rias and I are going to have words.