Riveria was relieved.
For the first time in two month, Ais had smiled, even if it was only lightly. The information about Bell Cranel had hurt her, apparently her feelings for him were stronger than Riveria knew..or even Ais herself.
She had avoided him until now, in the first days after that evening, Ais had shut herself in her room. Only leaving it to go to the bathroom or kitchen and back to her room. After two weeks, Riveria had sent the most unsubtile weapon in her arsenal.
Tiona.
The cheeky amazon hadn´t asked carefully if Ais was okay, she simply kicked in Ais´ door.
"Heeeeey Ais! Enough with the moping, come out already!"
"Please leave me alone..."
"Okay thats enough...teeeeeyaaaah!"
With a loud crash, the door was kicked in and Ais startled like a frightened cat.
"Puh it smells in here! Time to ventilate!"
Ais wanted to protest, but the moment Tiona pulled back the curtains and opened the window wide, Ais covered her eyes and whined because of the sudden brightness.
"It is summer for Loki´s sake! Come outside! A young girl like you shouldn´t stay inside all the time! Let´s go in the city, if you want we can give Argonaut a kick in the butt if we see him and that makes you feel better! Or we go to the dungeon! Just outside!"
"Tiona I..."
"I won´t accept a no!"
Tiona stormed to Ais´ bed and pulled away the blanket that Ais used to cover herself against the sudden fresh air.
"Okay first you take a shower, then we go outside."
"But I..."
"If you continue to say no, I will force you to wear some of Tione´s clothes...those she saves for special occasions."
Ais gulped, wearing the clothes of an amazoness was too daring for her taste.
"Okay..."
"Geez, finally. Go shower, I will clean up here in the meantime."
.
.
Half an hour later...Ais had needed a long time to shower after Riveria had told her that she smelled...Ais and Tiona left the Loki Mansion. Tione was in the dungeon with Lefiya so it was only the two of them.
The fresh air and sun worked miracles on Ais, she had her usual calm expression, but she looked alive again.
"Everyone is worried about you, if you want to talk...or cry...or vent your anger...I´m there for you, you know?"
"Thank you Tiona." Ais looked at her friend but she didn´t smiled, her chest still hurt.
She had cried many times in the last two weeks, she felt so weak. This was not a situation where she could help herself with her sword. Ais had never experienced something like that.
On the first day she was outside with Tiona, Ais didn´t talk much but she was thankful. After that day she started to come out of her room and went to the dungeon again. Over a month she was mostly alone in the dungeon. Ais tried to calm the pain in her chest by venting it out on monsters. Sometimes she was really frustrated and screamed out her pain, defeating monsters with an enormous speed.
She did that until she was exhausted or had calmed down, it help her wounded heart. Ais let out every bad feeling in her, she still wasn´t smiling.
.
.
One month and three and a half week had passed...when she finally smiled for the first time again. The reason again was Tiona. In the morning her friend came running back to the Mansion after she was up early in the city.
"Aaaaaiiiiiiiis!" Tiona didn´t wait for an answer, she opened Ais´ door and closed it behind her.
"Tiona...it´s bad right now." Riveria was in Ais´ room and they had a mother daughter conversation.
"Sorry Rivera, I just want to give Ais something, then I´m off again."
"Tiona?" Ais tilted her head lightly, she finally got her old habits back.
"Here! I thought you would like it!" Grinning, Tiona threw something to Ais.
Skillfully, the blond girl catchet the tiny object that Tiona had thrown.
"This is..."
It was a small figure of Jaggarmaru-kun with a small chain.
"You can put that on your key chain or at the handle of your sword."
Ais looked at the small figure in her hands and then...she smiled.
Thank the gods for Tiona... Riveria was relieved.
"Thank you, Tiona."
"Have fun, I´m going to leave you two alone."
After Tiona left the room, Riveria looked at Ais.
"How are you feeling?"
"Better than before."
"Have you calmed down?"
"Yes."
"Good to hear, everyone was worried."
"I´m sorry..."
"You don´t have to, I think I can understand what you are going through."
"Do you know why my chest hurt so much?"
"Is it still hurting?"
Ais shook her head. "I just feel a bit sad sometimes."
"I will try to explain it to you."
"Mh." Ais nodded.
"What you are feeling...what you felt...that was a broken heart."
"Broken...heart?"
"When you heard that about Bell Cranel.." As she mentioned the name, Ais´ cheek twitched. "You felt like something was taken from you right?"
Ais tilted her head lightly and thought for a while. "Yes."
She is nearly twenty...I hope that girl will find someone for herself in the future...
"Ais I don´t want to hurt you, but I have to tell you what that was."
"Go on."
"A broken heart means...that the person you like, likes someone else."
"Hmm..I do like Bell, but he likes many people."
"Not in that form."
Ais looked confused.
"A feeling like you had...comes after rejected affection...or love."
"Lo...ve?"
"Yes."
"I...love...Bell?" Ais really looked like she wasn´t sure about that.
"It is likely...otherwise I couldn´t explain why you had such a strong reaction."
Ais thought for a while, slowly Riveria noticed a pink shade on her cheeks.
"But...now Bell is married."
"Yes he is."
"I...don´t understand it."
Ais didn´t meant the marriage, what she didn´t understood were her own feelings. Until now she only cared about getting stronger and protecting her friends. She followed her one goal in live, getting stronger and defeat the black dragon. But loving a man...that wouldn´t help her in getting stronger. Or would it?
I feel confused.
"You will need time to explore and understand your feelings, just like every other person out there."
Riveria got up from her chair and walked over to Ais, whos sat on her bed. She pulled Ais into a soft hug and stayed like that for a moment.
"You are strong Ais, take your time and you will find an answer."
Even though your heart is weak, but that is part of being young.
"Thank you, Riveria."
"When you have time and feel that way, talk to Lefiya please, she is lonely without you."
"I will."
.
.
A week later, Ais was called to Finn´s office, it was early morning and she just had finished her morning bath and breakfast.
She knocked softly against the door and waited.
"Come in, Ais."
Beside Finn, Gareth and Riveria were also in the office.
"You called me."
"Yes, I have a job for you in the city."
"A job?"
"Yes, you may have noticed it or not, but in the last two months, someone was attacking criminals organisations in the Entertainment District in a quite reckless manner."
"Isn´t that...good?"
"Yes and no. While the guild and the Ganesha Familia don´t act in that district, except for open violence, we can´t tolerate that. We don´t know if the ones that attack them are good people or other criminals. It could be a war of the underworld that we don´t know about and I want to investigate a bit."
"What shall I do?"
"I already asked Bete to go and check a bit, with the informations we got from him, it looks like the ones that attack those people are strong. And from their movements I got a guess where they might attack the next time."
"Okay."
"And I would like you to investigate a bit more, but in secret."
"Secret?"
"Yes, observe for now and if you see something suspicious, confront them."
"Are they strong?"
"From what we heard and from what Bete saw...they seem to be two figures, one of them at least level five...the other one might be even level six."
"How did he get that?"
"One of the warehouses they attacked, was protected by five level four criminals and far more on level three and two. The people that Bete "asked" said that the attackers went through the criminals like it was nothing, they seemed to not even notice their level."
That sounded indeed strong, with so much enemies with high levels, a level five adventurer or two would have problems, but on level six...that was something else.
"I will go, if I see something dangerous for the city, I will encounter them."
"Thank you Ais. Loki said she has something for you."
.
After she left, the three leader of the Familia talked to each other.
"Do you think she will find something?"
"To be honest, no. For the main part I want Ais to go out more and do some different things. She should live and not only go into the dungeon."
"How nice of you Finn."
"Well you were the one who told me that."
Gareth crossed his arms. "And what if she finds them?"
"Do you really think some unknown people could beat our Ais? We know every adventurer that reached level six in the city. It is non of ours, no one of the Freya Familia and I´m pretty sure it is not Bell Cranel."
Finn was right, it was announced two weeks ago. Bell Cranel had reached level six in the dungeon. He and his party went to the 37th Floor for the first time and down there he defeated a huge number of monster together with some unknown adventurer. On their first try, the three gods alliance had already cleared the first ring of the white city.
"Level six in such a short time...Bell Cranel is a monster..."
What the official records of the guild didn´t said. Bell Cranel and that other adventurer defeated a huge number of monsters, to be precise one-hundred and three...at once. They had no strong mage in their group that could manage a large scale spell to eradicate so many monsters. But Bell and the other adventurer had used something together that was a secret outside of their party. One-hundred and three monsters were turned to ash in a large firestorm. The good thing was, that their party was behind them, because both collapsed after that attack, they had no other choice to use it with so many enemies.
The party contained only ten members but they were quite strong. The lowest level they had in their party now was three, Bell Cranel as the leader on level six now, two on level four, one unofficial level five and the rest level three.
They went carefully into the dungeon, especially on the 37th Floor, as if it were something special for them, but no one outside of the party could know that.
Some might say, if the unbelievable happens again and again it gets normal or boring. But the gods watched at Bell Cranel with big interest, he had reached level six faster than any other adventurer before him. Well that was nothing new for Bell Cranel,
but now at level six...the gods asked themselves...will he make it to level seven? And if he does...how long will he need? It took Ottar almost ten years.
The gods wanted to hold a Denatus again, but it would take some time. Many children had leveled up in Orario and it was time again. Some were especially curious about Bell Cranel´s new alias. It was one of the biggest joys of the gods to name the children.
In all of Orario, many gods met with other gods late at night and talked about the new hot topic. What did Bell Cranel do to be so special? What did he do at the moment? Were he in the dungeon and trained like no other adventurer?
.
No.
Bell Cranel was sleeping peacefully in his room, his lovely wife snuggled up to his chest and was just happy with his life.
.
.
As the morning came, Bell slowly started to wake up.
Ah...bliss...
The first night they had slept in that bed...in that room, they felt nervous and kinda weird. It was their room, their bed. Both couldn´t describe the feeling they had, they needed a long time to sleep.
But waking up at the next morning, that feeling was the complete opposite...it was...happiness. And now they enjoyed every night spending at the others side.
There was no better feeling for him than waking up like that. Ryuu´s forehead rested against his chest and she was still sleeping, she had her arms around him and Bell´s were around her.
Her hair was now down to her shoulder blades, with every day Bell woke up in her arms, she became more cute and beautiful.
Is it legal to be this cute?
Bell smirked about his little joke and started to slowly and gently caress Ryuu´s back.
"Mmh..." A small moan came from her.
He really enjoyed the warmness of her body and the soft feeling.
Ryuu...I love you so much...
Whenever one of them woke up before the other, they would lie still, only gently caressing the other and waking them up that way after a while, in the most pleasant way for them.
"Mmh..." Another light moan, Ryuu started to wake up.
"Ryuu." Bell whispered softly.
He watched her calm face...her eyelids twitched slightly.
"Mmh." She pressed her face more against his chest and rubbed her cheek for a moment against him.
Bell chuckled and kissed her hair gently. He felt a light squeeze as Ryuu stretched her arms softly.
There is no better way to wake up, than to such a sight.
"Be...ll?" Ryuu peeled her forehead away from his chest, blinking and looked up to him sleepy.
"Good morning."
"Morning...mhh...just...five more minutes..."
Bell leaned forward, kissed Ryuu on the forehead, she made a pleased noise, then snuggled against him again. That happened often with one of them when they were not ready to get up yet.
So Bell closed his eyes again, hugged Ryuu gently and they cuddled for the quarter of an hour until Ryuu was ready to wake up fully.
.
"Bell...good morning." She smiled to him sleepy.
"Good morning my love."
Ryuu raised her head with still closed eyes, pursed her lips lightly and waited.
She is so cute!
He leaned forward and gave her a good morning kiss. What made it even better, only he was able to see Ryuu like that. When she slept alone, Ryuu didn´t moved much in her sleep. But when she slept snuggled up with Bell, one of them moved lightly in the night from time to time. So in the morning her clothes were in light disorder, not to the point where they revealed something, just a bit wrinkled, when Ryuu would sit up yawning with closed eyes and messy hair...Bell felt his heart throb. Seeing her so defensless...so careless...it felt like the greatest privilege of his life.
The contrast to her serious behaviour in the past was extreme. Of course she acted like that until today too, but when she was with Bell alone, she could just let go of everything.
Since she moved in, she had started to get to know everyone else. Ryuu got along really well with Mikoto and Haruhime and she had great respect for Takemikazuchi. The god had offered her to join his Familia when they had their combat training in the far eastern style. Lily was really interested in Ryuu´s experience of the dungeon, since she came to the 41st floor with her Familia.
All in all, Ryuu settled in well.
.
In the pub Mama Mia had offered her to go down to a part time employee if she ever wanted that. Ryuu would only work three or four days a week in the pub and could go into the dungeon with the party the other time.
Syr, Chloe, Runoa and Ahnya had no problem with that, they told Ryuu to do what her heart desired. Nevertheless, Ahnya had promised Ryuu, when had more free time, she could always work for Ahnya as her auxiliary detective...or become a great thief so that Ahnya would have a worthy rival. Of course Ryuu had declined. She had talked with Bell about working only part time.
"I am still blacklisted by the guild...so becoming an official member of your party...might cause problems."
"Hmm, I don´t think it will be a real problem and to be honest I don´t care about it. Having you by my side...eh..I mean in our party would be a huge reinforcement." Bell at least tried to be more professional when they had an important talk.
"Bell...please give me some time to think about that, okay?" It would be a huge step for Ryuu, since working at the pub with her friends was her life for a very long time.
"As much as you need."
.
One evening Bell had brought up another subject.
"Ryuu can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"I...have noticed that Miss Ais is avoiding me...I would like to talk to her and find out what it is...would that be okay with you?"
"Why shouldn´t it?"
"Well I mean...you and I are married and...I...would run after another woman..."
Ryuu smirked lightly. "Bell my love, I absolutely trust you. I know that the sword princess is important to you, so go and make up with her...you don´t need my okay for that."
"Still...I wanted to talk to you about that, it felt right."
Bell always considered Ryuu´s feelings and she loved him for that.
.
.
.
"Buha!" The armed criminal fell to the ground as Ryuu striked him down.
The situation in the Entertainment distric got better everytime Bell and Ryuu defeated more criminals...but Orario was a big city and the district had many people that worked there.
The facility they had attacked this time was not a warehouse, but a...love hotel. The love hotel was only a facade for the criminals, they were the worst scum that Ryuu and Bell had encountered so far.
These criminals...sold people into slavery. So for the first time, they didn´t only beat up them, but wrecked the whole building, they just made sure that no one was hurt too badly. As any time, the guild or the Ganesha Familia sent people to investigate the tumult, Bell and Ryuu made sure that they would capture all of the criminals. They would be send to court, held up by some gods and were sent to jail or bannished from Orario.
It was the only was Ryuu and Bell could do that, beating up was one thing, but judging them alone was out of question.
After they had thrown the last criminal out of the building and damaged it enough to be useless, they again vanished into the night. Both were in a hurry, for the last days they had the feeling that someone was watching them.
Or at least they wanted to...
Right as they passed a rooftop...
"Wait."
A voice came from the side, both stopped and grabbed their weapons in case of an attack.
Who is th- A young blond woman appeared from behind a chimney. ...Miss Ais?
Ais Wallenstein had watched the attack on the love hotel and was sure, that was what Finn meant. This time they had attacked a normal business building so they might be criminals from another organisation.
She held her sword in one hand at her side as she stepped forward and eyed the pair in front of her. One was...a hollow armor?...the other one wore a cloak.
Ais had worked hard on her disguise, so that no one would notice who she was.
Ryuu frowned lightly. Why is the sword princess wearing a ninja-style mask...and those clothes?
It was a very good disguise in Ais opinion, Loki had given it to her after all, she wore a black skin-tight cloth suit and a cloth mask in her face, so no one would ever detect who she was. Except for the Katana she used right now..with a tiny Jaggarmaru-kun figure attached to the handle...and her long blond hair...and the biggest part of her face unveiled...
She even had a blue fox mask at the side of her head...Loki had forgotten to tell her that she was supposed to wear the mask on her face... But Ais had tried really hard on her disguise and she was proud of it. Loki even fooled her that this outfit was worn without a brassiere, since the cloth was thick enough to cover everything...and yes that was a lie.
"Sword princess?"
Gasp! Ais gulped. "N..N-No...you´re..wrong."
"That voice...it is the sword princess."
Ack! H-How are they able to see through my disguise!
"I-I´m n-not the sword princess..." Ais sounded not very convincing. "S-See? I´m blue fox."
Ais turned around, showed her backside and swayed her hip lightly. Attached to the suit on her lower back was a blue fox tail...
Seeing her outfit, Bell had to avert his eyes, the suit was really...really skin tight and showed all the roundings of her body very well. And Bell´s weakness were women after all.
Who made her wear something like that?!
"Do you have business with us?" So far only the cloaked figure had talked, the armor had stopped moving.
"Finn sent me to investigate in secret."
"Finn?...Finn Deimne? The captain of the Loki Familia?"
Gasp!
"H..How do you know?"
"You...just told us that."
Ack!
The thoughts rushed around in Ais´ head, she didn´t know what to do. After all...it wasn´t the best idea to send an airhead on a secret mission.
Bell remained silent and watched.
Miss Ais...it has been a long time...good to see she acts in her normal way.
"And investigating in secret...you do know that you are not supposed to reveal that do you?"
Even with the cloth mask that covered Ais´ mouth and nose, she looked shocked.
"And if you are wearing disguise, you should also cover your hair...you are kinda famous for it."
Ais looked even more shocked.
Ryuu...don´t be so mean to her...
Ryuu sighed. "Anyway...we are not criminals."
"That...sounds like something a criminal would say."
"We are fighting criminals to make the city safe."
"Do you have proof?"
"We fought criminals."
"Finn said that is something that criminals do all the time."
"Sword princess...we don´t have business with you, please let us pass."
Ais´ face got more serious. "I can´t do that." Slowly she drew the katana from her back.
"Then you leave me no choice..." Ryuu drew her sword.
Both women got into fighting stance and right as Ais wanted to attack...
"Wait!"
The armor moved forward and stepped in front of the cloaked figure, protective.
"We don´t want to fight you, Miss A-...sword pri..I mean blue fox."
"I can´t let you go." Ais raised her sword.
Bell showed Ryuu a gesture with his right hand to wait.
"And if I can proof to you, that we are good?"
Bell...what are you planning?
"How?"
"I will show you something."
Bell! You can´t reveal yourself!
Ryuu made a step forward, but Bell showed her the gesture again.
Slowly Bell put his invisible hand under his chestplate and pulled something out.
Ais´ eyes widened as she saw what it was...a platinum colored ticket.
"Th-This is...!"
Ryuu was confused behind Bell. What is this?
"The l-legendary one!"
Bell raised the ticket in his hand. It was a food ticket with the symbol of Jaggarmaru-kun.
"Why do you have that? Only one exist!"
"And I won it."
"Ack!" Ais couldn´t look more shocked.
"The legendary one...the one who owns this ticket will get an unique snack that no one else gets...and you will get two extra toppings on each snack for the rest of your life.
And a special plush figure, together with a body pillow... The unique snack that is said to be the tastiest version in existence...something that even the gods can´t get their hands on."
It was clearly visible that Ais swallowed multiple times, she even pulled down her mask a bit and wiped her mouth.
"Th-That doesn´t make you a good guy!"
"But would a criminal have something like that? They would just steal a snack."
H-He is right!
"W-What are you planning to do with it?"
"I will give it to you."
"W-W-What?"
"If you let us pass...it is yours."
Bell had intended to give it to Ais anyway.
"B-But..I-I can´t..."
"Is that so?...Too bad...
"Argh...I..." Her face looked uneasy.
Bell...are you...bribing the sword princess?
"In that case...
I´m sorry Miss Ais...but we have to get away.
Bell put his other hand on the ticket and pretended to tear it up. Ais couldn´t know that he would never do something so cruel to her.
"Wait!" She raised her left hand and came a step closer.
"Now!" Bell shouted to Ryuu and threw the ticket up in the air.
In that second, both jumped from the roof down to the street. But they weren´t fast enough for Ais Wallenstein, in the same moment she started moving and...she caught the ticket.
What? M-My body moved on it´s own!
Instead of following Bell and Ryuu, her body had moved by instinct and she went after the ticket.
.
Ryuu and Bell dodged a great danger that way and in the same time he managed to make Ais really happy.
At the next day, Ais would ran to the Jaggarmaru-kun shop and redeem the ticket. She was noted as the lifetime special customer, the plush figure that Ais got...she named it "Bell-kun". Bringing home the plushy and the body pillow, Ais smiled happily like she haven´t done in a long time and took the most statisyfing nap ever, hugging her Jaggarmaru-kun body pillow and the plushy.
Ais never found out who these two figures were...but it didn´t matter as she took the first bite of the unique snack.
Aah...so good...this tastes like...heaven.
.
.
Bell and Ryuu returned unnoticed to the Mansion and prepared, after they had showered, for the next day.
.
Tomorrow they would destroy the final facility.
.
.
.
Tomorrow...their peaceful happy life would find an end...
.
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Tomorrow...Doom awaited them.
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Authors Note: Hey everyone, we´re getting close to the big part, I hope you are waiting in awe^^. To be honest the part with Ais clothes was mostly meant as fanservice, but I had fun imagining how Loki convinced her to wear something like that. About the plushy, I´m not a fan of using japanese honorifics but "Bell-kun-" sounds better than "little Bell"..at least for me.