Disclaimer: I don't own Hololive, all rights to the owners.

This chapter is about twice as long as the last one. I had so much I wanted to do with Calli and it sort of spiraled out of control, and I had to take at least two complete editing passes because the rough draft of this chapter was all over the place.


Calliope never had any doubt she was a sacrifice to the demonology arms race. You don't hand a novice a tier three summoning spell and actually expect them to survive the process. You do it because they're an experiment, or you want to get a general understanding of a demon without summoning it yourself. You sacrifice them for your own benefit.

She agrees to try it without question.

"Demon of sordid temptation, heed my call…" Calliope begins.

She knows there is something going on she isn't aware of. She was told to use the maximum security summoning chamber rather than a standard one, which tells her that while this ritual is ostensibly for a class three demon, it's probably something nasty.

"... to appear before me now in fair and pleasing form…"

If she must be sacrificed to this demon through her mistakes so her superiors can better control it, so be it. She didn't decide to join Cover because she expected to have a long and happy life.

"Appear! By my power I order you to appear!"

The rose petals that make up the restraining circle and Calliope's protection circle burst into flame. What emerges in the restraining circle could be mistaken for an angel if she didn't dress like a fast food worker/school girl fusion drawn by an erotic artist.

The demon has all the traits you'd expect from a Succubus. Bright pink eyes, hair that is some shade of red or orange (bright, shiny orange in this case), and an appearance that on the worst days could be described as flawless.

For a moment Calliope thinks that maybe her superiors just wanted to see if a novice could summon a Succubus until the demon's hair bursts into flame and two giant fiery wings sprout from her back. The wings bend and flex, trying to escape the restraining circle, but the summoning spell holds fast and keeps the demon in place.

"You made it a bit tight, don't you think?" The demon asks. Her voice is clear and loud, with a distinct accent Calliope can't quite place. "I couldn't even do my kikiriki."

"I made it as specified in the book." Calliope says curtly. "And what's a kikiriki?"

She instantly knows she's made a mistake as soon as the words leave her mouth. Never ask a demon what something is without being very specific how you want them to respond, or they can interpret it as permission to 'explain' however they want.

"KI-KIRI-KI!" The demon shouts joyously as her fiery wings flare out beyond the restraining circle, stretching several meters to each side of her and lifting her body off the ground. The demon stretches her arms up and out and throws back her head while she shouts for maximum dramatic effect.

Calliope is blasted by a wall of heat, and she swallows thickly as the demon settles back onto the ground and dismisses her flaming wings. looking very proud of herself. That's one mistake on Calliope's part already. She's not off to a good start.

"I've got to make a good first impression, you know." The demon says with a wink. "Just in case it wasn't already clear that I'm hot stuff."

"Calm down. You're alive. Either the demon didn't realize she could kill you, or wanted to make a statement. Focus on what you need to do."

"Speechless? I don't blame you." The demon brags. "I'm Kiara, by the way. You are...?

"Calliope Mori."

"Ooh, Calli." Kiara grins. "Such a cute name. I didn't expect my summoner to be so adorable this time! Is the pink natural?"

It takes a second for Calli to understand what Kiara is referring to. "Dye."

"Rude!"

"I mean hair dye."

"Ooh. It suits you! Very punk!"

"Focus Mori." A voice says over the intercom in the corner of the room. "No chatting with demons."

"We have an audience, hmm?" Kiara says. Her eyes lazily scrape the room until she spots the glass leading to the observation room.

"We do, and they're right, we need to get to business." Calli says, embarrassed. She's really fucking this up.

"Do you want observers?" Kiara asks casually. She looks at the glass with a thin smile.

"Not re-" Calli stops herself. She can think of five different ways those words could be used against her. She won't be responsible for getting her superiors killed. "They're there for a reason."

"That's not what I asked."

"To business, demon." Calli insists with more steel in her voice than she actually feels.

"Typically business meetings are private." Kiara argues.

"Aside from the point. Now-"

"But you agree they usually are."

"Sure, but-"

"And this is basically a business meeting?"

Calli can feel a muscle twitch beside her eye. She keeps her voice even despite her mounting annoyance. "Yes, but-"

Jumping on the implication that this meeting should be private, Kiara aims a hand at the intercom and a focused gout of flame springs from her fingertips, melting the speaker into slag in an instant. She then swings her hand to the glass and sends a wide burst of fire, not destroying the glass but melting and warping it until it's impossible to see through it. She finishes her task of making the meeting private by melting the door and the wall around it together, ensuring no one can get in… and Calli can't get out.

Succubi don't usually have such strong pyromantic powers. Calli can see why her superiors were interested in Kiara specifically.

"Alone at last." Kiara smiles, flashing pearly white teeth. She looks distinctly amused, and that's more intimidating to Calli than if she was annoyed or indifferent. It doesn't help that Calli is sitting and Kiara is standing. Having a very attractive woman smiling down at her while she clutches a stack of papers (the contract, she decided to go for written form) like a dumbass doesn't do Calli's nerves any good. "Now, what did you want from me, cutie?"

A cold sweat breaks out on the back of Calli's neck. She is in way over her head.

###

Two days after she first contracted Kiara, Calli summoned the demon for some simple ability tests. Kiara promptly unleashed a pinpoint explosion straight up into the sky which a technician quickly informed Calli was equivalent in power to a W47 thermonuclear warhead, and that if Kiara hadn't magically angled the blast straight up and just let it act as a normal explosion it would have leveled everything within two kilometers and caused minor damage up to ten kilometers away. The spell also should have burst their eardrums, burned them to a crisp, and probably liquified their insides from the shockwave rather than just making a loud noise and requiring a step back from the heat.

The demon had grinned when casting the spell, and just smiled and waved when the technician spoke and Calli stared at her contracted demon in mute terror.

Kiara was immediately upgraded to a class five demon, and Calliope Mori had the horrifying realization that she was now responsible for a living WMD.

That was yesterday, and Calli isn't sure if the looks everyone in the office shoots her after the morning meeting where one of the managers informs them of Kiara's redesignation are of fear or pity. Maybe both. She's the only person in the office who has ever contracted a class five demon and she's not even close to being qualified.

Needless to say, all Calli's energy goes towards figuring out how she's going to keep Kiara in check and not give her a chance to flatten the city.

###

Calli isn't stupid. She's not being relocated to bumfuck nowhere because of a manpower shortage. They're moving her somewhere that she can die and let Kiara loose without killing half a million people in the process.

It's been nearly a month and Cover absolutely refused to let Calli summon Kiara under anything but the strictest of supervision, and she was only allowed to make pre-determined statements, and there's no way in hell they were going to let her take Kiara on a mission, so Kiara's activity was limited to sitting in a summoning circle answering questions while a bunch of hard-eyed men carrying assault rifles watched carefully.

The demon was getting quite bored, and it was making just about everyone anxious. A bored demon has all the time in the world to think and plan. Cover had to let Kiara do something, if just to see her effectiveness in the field, but there's no way in hell they could let her out in London.

So that's why Calli is here in some random village to the east of King's Lynn, where the fatalities from a W47 blast would be measured in hundreds, not hundreds of thousands.

Kiara is just happy to be able to do something. Despite a general recommendation from Cover that she avoid using Kiara, the head summoner at this new location (a man who goes only by his codename "Death" and is almost always wearing a black trenchcoat and wide-brimmed hat) encourages her to use the Succubus for her first mission.

It's a simple task. Police think that a suspected murder-suicide had demon involvement, and since anything that has to do with the supernatural is Cover's job to deal with, it's up to Death (and Calli, who is tagging along to learn) to figure out what sort of demon it was and make sure it's not still hanging around.

"This is so exciting, isn't it Calli?" Kiara says, bouncing from foot to foot. She doesn't have her wings out, and her hair isn't on fire. Her cheerful excitement is a sharp contrast to Death's main demon, which is a small, gargoyle-like demon with wings and spines. A class two, if Calli remembers correctly. It perches grumpily on a nearby building, having no interest in pushing the boundary of the two-meters-away-at-all-times clause in it's contract unlike Kiara who has been skirting that line since she was let out of the summoning circle. "We finally get to do something together!"

"We're just here to learn." Calli replies curtly, watching Kiara out of the corner of her eye. Their contract doesn't let Kiara use magic without Calli's permission, and even then Calli is still wary. "Focus."

Kiara really is like a dumb bird in Calli's estimation. She jumps from place to place, latching onto the sight of interesting houses or shops or gardens like a crow does shiny things, and constantly vocalizing her thoughts in a persistent chirping in Calli's ear.

"She's a kusotori." Calli decides. A shitty bird. Dumb and easily distracted, but at least she's pretty to look at and listen to. The pretty part kinda goes without saying for a Succubus. She even sometimes has wings like a bird.

Death takes the lead when they reach the crime scene. There's a police officer there standing guard, and the man is visibly nervous when talking to Death. His eyes fixate on the spined demon flying overhead, paying no attention to the much greater threat investigating the decorated mailbox just a few meters to his right.

"The officers have heard movement inside the house." Death tells Calli as they approach the door. Death has his shotgun at the ready. It's an ornate, finely-crafted weapon with a black handle and silver barrels. The word 'SCYTHE' is engraved in gold, cursive writing on the left barrel. "If the demon can't get out it's probably a class one, and based on the fact that the murder-suicide was between a married couple, it was probably summoned inside the house itself. The police haven't managed to find the summoning circle, but it has to be somewhere."

Calli draws her pistol. "Gotcha."

"Call out every thirty seconds to confirm you are still alive. If you encounter a demon, alert everyone immediately, no matter how minor the threat." Death instructs. "And above all else, never listen to a demon unless you have no other choice. Do not talk to your foe, and do not rely on your own demon's information if you can figure it out yourself."

"Yes sir." Calli nods.

"Me and Keel will go first."

The mission is easy. The demon, an Imp the size of a small toddler, tries to jump Calli as soon as she opens the door to the bedroom. It gets a firebolt to the chest before Calli can even bring up her gun or shout for help, and putting a bullet in the thing's head is purely a mercy kill after seeing how half its body was burned and melted by Kiara's attack.

Kiara smiles cheerfully and kicks aside the corpse while skipping into the room and winking at her summoner. It's Kiara who finds the secret hatch to the attic and the bloody summoning circle within.

###

Calli likes Death. He's professional, instructive, always has constructive criticism to give, and is constantly nudging her to keep trying slightly bigger things on a daily basis. She can only learn so much in theory, and some things need to be learned through action.

Being a summoner is all about risk management. Trying new phrasing on a contract is a risk of letting the demon do something you didn't intend with the reward of potentially getting a better contract. Taking on more difficult missions is a test of your skills with the risk of failure or death and the potential reward of skill growth and confidence. Most things Calli agrees with Death about. His philosophy becomes hers. Mostly.

The first time she walked in on him disciplining a demon she nearly threw up.

She's not sure if it was the blood or the knife or the careful, deliberately painful cuts or just the look of pain on the demon's face, but she couldn't watch for more than ten seconds before needing to leave.

It's not like Calli didn't know how demons are usually disciplined. Any instructive demonology text will speak of the process quite openly, and don't shy away from mentioning how brutal it can be. That said, there's something much different from hearing it talked about in a book and actually seeing it happen.

Demons are evil. That's the justification. They're always waiting for an opportunity to slit your throat, or they're manipulating you to their own ends. Putting them in their place, making them fear you, is the only way to keep them in line.

Death tries to bring up discipline precisely once and Calli immediately changes the topic. From then on there is a silent agreement not to breach the subject. Kiara is yet to mess up in any significant way, so Calli hasn't had to consider how to handle that inevitability yet.

Just the thought of needing to hurt Kiara makes Calli feel ill. As much as she knows Kiara is a city-killing threat, it's hard to think of the demon as anything other than friendly. Scary and intimidating, yes, but friendly. Kiara is yet to outright threaten Calli like most demons would have by this point. Keel promised to rip Calli's tongue from her mouth within ten seconds of meeting her, and Keel isn't even her demon.

Calli pushes those thoughts far into the back of her mind. She doesn't want to think about it if she doesn't have to.

###

"Payment." Calli grunts, gesturing to the small bag.

"Gems again?" Kiara asks, opening the back and investigating the contents with minimal enthusiasm. "Your organization is very boring with its payments."

"Are gems not useful?"

"I mean, sure, I can sell them in Hell." Kiara hums. "And a few of them are nice for decoration and jewelry, and who doesn't like getting shiny gifts from an attractive woman?"

"Kusotori…" Calli groans.

"But frankly, what am I supposed to do with dozens a month? Make a gem-encrusted chair? I'm not that self-centered." Kiara explains.

Calli tries not to roll her eyes. A demon that isn't utterly self-centered? That sounds like an oxymoron if she's ever heard one. "What sort of reward would you prefer? Theoretically I mean. I can make no promises, and this discussion is-"

"-not to be interpreted as a statement of permission or intent, yes, I know." Kiara waves the words away. "You don't have to say that every time Calli, I know."

But Calli does have to say it every time. The instant she forgets to say it might give Kiara an opportunity to interpret her words as a promise or a deal or an order and flex her magic or hold Calli to words that she never intended to be serious.

"But really, money and gems are some of the most dull rewards I could get." Kiara explains. "I know some demons love having a hoard or a mansion or something, but it's just so boring you know? Hell is still Hell. There's very little to do down there. So, games or entertainment would be amazing. Or just getting to hang around on Earth outside of missions. Earth is so much nicer than Hell."

Calli silently notes that down in case she ever needs extra payment for a particularly costly deal.

"Or maybe just a date with my adorable summoner?" Kiara suggests, and wiggles her eyebrows.

Calli hopes she doesn't blush. "No."

###

Calli is the one to find him. She had to go digging through files she doesn't technically have the clearance to look at in order to find the location of his apartment. Death hadn't shown up to work for three days and she knew he wasn't on vacation.

As a precaution, she summons Kiara before going in. She has her pistol out in front of her before she steps through the door.

Death is lying on a chair, neck limp, eyes vacant. His chest is torn open. His shotgun lies on the floor next to the chair where it slipped from his fingers.

Calli hears the flap of wings. She turns the corner and fires while barking "Contact!"

Keel is unreasonably difficult to take down for a class two. He ducks and weaves with tight ariel dives and rolls. His first volley of spines find purchase in Calli's leg, not enough to cripple but enough to be painful.

Calli can't aim properly. Kiara's fireballs go wide, striking the wall rather than the flying menace. Keel swoops at Calli's head, and she ducks under the attack and rushes forward, hoping to not feel claws on her back. She spins around and tries to shoot, only to find no bullets in her gun. It's an amatur mistake, one born from the adrenaline of combat.

"You will listen." Kiara commands. There's an usual quality to it. Something commanding and alluring at the same time. Keel falters in his attack, hovering awkwardly in mid air with his eyes fixed on Kiara. She tries to fireball him, but he dodges.

Keel isn't looking at Calli. Without a second though she ducks down, picks up the shotgun near her feet, and unloads the weapon into the demon's side. He's little more than a blood splatter by the time the shots are done shredding him.

The room is almost eerily silent once the echo of the gunshot is gone. Only the crackle of fire reminds Calli that time hasn't stopped.

"Kiara, the curtains are on fire, could you-?"

Kiara sharply sticks out a hand and the flames wink out of existence. The demon's attention seems to be fixed on the spines sticking out of Calli's leg. Her expression is blank and unreadable.

The next three days are spent dealing with the fallout of Death's passing. An agent from Cover's secret service comes in to gather things from Death's apartment and office and question Calli and Kiara. No trace of Death is supposed to remain. Legally, he doesn't exist. All the agent will tell Calli is that working here was Death's retirement.

In the end, the only reminder of Death's presence is his shotgun. Calli is allowed to keep it, and fake documents are forged to claim she had it custom built.

###

Death's presence lingers in Calli's thoughts. Sometimes it feels like he's still there, nudging her in the right direction, urging her to be more, try more, take controlled risks, to not stop growing.

Her first solo mission feels dreadfully lonely, even with Kiara bouncing by her side. When she raises the barrel of his- of her- shotgun to the hulking demon's face it feels surreal to be the one pulling the trigger.

Kiara hovers closer than ever, always watching, dancing at the edge of her vision whenever she's summoned and in the back of her thoughts when she's not. She's a constant presence. She's no longer a menace, and is now something like a coworker in Calli's mind.

The demon has changed since Death's passing. When it's time for a mission, she's focused. The cheerful banter doesn't go away, but Kiara is always in front of Calli, standing in the path of whatever threat might come by. If Calli wants to take the lead, she has to order Kiara back or else the demon refuses to let Calli go anywhere first.

If Calli were to imagine Kiara were human for a second, her actions seem protective. Calli's injuries are few and far between because Kiara is always standing in the way.

Missions go rather smoothly for a while, despite the lack of Death to direct their actions.

And then, Kiara messes up.

Calli isn't sure if it's intentional, or if Kiara genuinely made a mistake, but she knows there is now a burned building where there didn't have to be. The walk back to Calli's apartment is silent. Kiara's usual chatter is gone and she doesn't flirt along that two meter line, instead staying a good four meters back from Calli.

They both know what is expected. A ten second clip of Death with a bloody knife plays over and over in Calli's mind.

She tells Kiara to sit on the couch, and goes to the kitchen. She pretends not to hear the demon's shakey inhale and tries oh so hard to fight down the tremors in her hand. She rifles through her utensils drawer, finding a sharp black knife.

Calli stares at it for a second, heart pounding in her chest.

The demon flinches when Calli kicks the small table in front of the couch closer, and her breath hitches when Calli sits down on the other end of the couch.

She looks up in confusion when Calli places a plate of cheese and crackers and two glasses of water on the table in front of them. Calli has no knife in her hands. She left her shotgun on another table behind them, out of sight and out of reach.

"Really let yourself go there, didn't you Kusotori?" Calli says quietly.

"It was an accident." Kiara replies quietly. Her voice has never sounded so small, and something twists Calli's guts to know it's in some capacity because of her.

"Burning that building to the ground was an accident? That fireball was absolute overkill. You're lucky no one was inside except those robbers."

"They were shooting at you."

"I was already behind cover."

"I know, but I panicked." Kiara wrings her hands anxiously.

Calli doesn't know how true that is. Demons are infamously liars at their core, and Succubi in particular are masters of deception. For all her absurd firepower, Kiara is still one of those pleasure demons. An expert of social and individual manipulation.

It doesn't really matter. Calli can't ever know Kiara's exact thoughts. In Calli's mind, this isn't a matter of punishing a single demon. It's a question. If she isn't going to follow in Death's footsteps in this matter, what is her plan? What's her improvement?

Calli's answer is a quiet conversation that might be a lecture if you squint at it hard enough, and an utter failure to justify how it might constitute an improvement over Death's methods. She could claim that the risk of not disciplining Kiara properly is worth the reward of keeping her own conscience relatively clear, but Calli knows that's not true. She just doesn't have the heart to hurt someone who hasn't hurt her. She's weak.

Kiara's smile is brighter than the sun the next time Calli summons her, and Calli feels like a failure even while her heart skips a beat at the thought that she made Kiara smile.

"Stupid Succubus, messing with my emotions."

###

"KI-KIRI-KI!" Kiara appears in a majestic flash of fire. Wings made of flame spread out wide in Calli's apartment. They brush the walls but fail to burn anything. Kiara's control over her fire is absolute. If she doesn't want it to burn, it won't. It doesn't matter if Calli tossed a pile of dry leaves through those wings. Those leaves would touch the ground without the slightest burn. "Hi Calli! I suppose this isn't for a mission seeing as we're in your apartment? Did you have a question?" The Succubus smiles impishly. "Or maybe you just want my company? The sun has almost set. Did you have something fun in mind?"

Calli fails to avoid a blush at the implication and scowls at her demon. "I have an offer for you."

"Oh-ho?" Kiara's grin widens. Her 'wings' (they're not actual wings, just Kiara showing off with her fire powers) vanish into multicolored wisps of flames, and she leans forward while tugging her collar down a bit. "So you do want some fun."

"That's not what I mean, Kusotori."

"Are you suuure?" Kiara asks in a sing-song voice. "I don't mind~!"

Goddamn Succubus. Calli knew this was a bad idea. She reaches for a vial of purified salt she keeps in her summoning kit. She just has to toss it on the restraining circle and Kiara will be dismissed. "You know what? Nevermind. Sorry to bother you."

"Nonononono, sorry, sorry!" Kiara says quickly. She holds up her hands in surrender and steps to the back of the restraining circle as if it will help her avoid the salt. "You wanted to talk about something, cuti- Calli?"

Calli debates throwing the salt anyways, but decides this is probably the closest she'll get to Kiara taking something seriously. "Like I said, I have an offer for you. It's about our contract."

Kiara goes still for a moment, eyes tracing Calli's face as if she'll find some hint of her intent there.

"I think I have a change that would benefit us both." Calli says, remembering what she rehearsed. "It has to do with your compensation for missions."

"Oh?" Kiara perks up. "I'm listening."

"Instead of gems I would instead offer you a meal of your choice, provided it is no greater in value to seventy five dollars unless I agree otherwise, as well as an hour of legal entertainment of your choice, provided it does not take more than an hour to travel to, and four hours of free time of which the meal and entertainment are included within." Calli says.

Kiara bounces eagerly in place. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Really really Calli?" Kiara asks, face split with a grin. "You're not joking?"

"I'm telling the truth."

"And what do you get in return?" Kiara asks. "You said it was mutually beneficial, right?"

"It's cheaper." Calli says simply. "Cover will appreciate not having to spend so much money on gems."

"Is that the only reason?" Kiara teases. "You can be honest Calli. Just say you want to take me on a date."

Calli scowls.

"No need to look so scary, I'm flattered, really!" Kiara winks. "I mean, how can I blame you? I'm hot stuff."

"You've used that joke before." Calli grumbles.

"On my first summoning! I didn't think you remembered! You do love me, don't you Calli?" Kiara coos.

"Don't make this weird Kusotori."

"It's not weird to love someone Calli!" Kiara leans against the invisible shield created by the restraining circle, smiling widely.

Calli holds up her vial of salt. "Don't make me use this."

"You won't!" Kiara says cheerfully. "If you were going to, you would have already!"

Calli hates it when Kiara is right. She makes an effort to change the subject. "There are a few other changes I want to suggest as well."

"Okay, but this conversation isn't over~!" Kiara sings.

"Yes it is." Calli mutters under her breath.

The rest of the details Calli suggests are much more minor. A few alterations here and there so Calli doesn't have to micromanage Kiara's actions as much, as well as a clause to allow Kiara to actually save someone's life if not in combat (because currently she can't use her powers outside of combat without Calli's explicit say-so).

The exact words of the life-saving clause are: "You may act to save a life or lives of others, so long as you make every conceivable effort to ensure there is no collateral damage, either to people or objects. You are not to inflict any more injury or other unpleasantness upon those you are saving than is absolutely necessary to save them, nor are you to get any closer to them than is absolutely necessary."

"You're being so generous Calli! Are you sure you're not trying to butter me up?" Kiara asks. "You don't have to be so shy about it!"

Calli looks away. "Right, if that's dealt with-"

"Do you want a hug maybe?" The demon offers tauntingly. "Maybe a kiss? I'm good at those."

Calli furiously tosses the salt, and Kiara disappears in a puff of flame and shrieking laughter.

###

Two years is a long time.

She's the only one left. No one she used to work with remains at the office. Calli can see the memory of some of them in the coffee maker the two other girls had banded together to buy, or the reworked floor plan the older man who had once wanted to be an interior architect had made and the office had only acted upon months after his death, or large, dark, twisted painting of a church hung up on the back wall of the reception area that they found when clearing out the room of the aspiring artist.

Or the black and silver double-barreled shotgun with the word "SCYTHE" engraved in gold on the left barrel that she keeps strapped to her back. The firing mechanism needed to be replaced, and the handle has been repainted and glazed. The barrels are more scuffed than they used to be, layering new dents upon Death's old scrapes. The gun is always meticulously polished, only appearing less than perfect when in the midst of combat.

She is always waiting at the door when a new recruit or transfer first walks in for the first time. Calliope Mori: sacrifice to demonology, she who bears the burden of a class five, who was supposed to die two and half years ago, who can't discipline a single demon to save her own or even other people's lives, is the head summoner out here in the middle of nowhere.

Most of the new recruits look at her with some amount of awe. Maybe it's her pink hair, maybe it's the shotgun, maybe it's the class five contract under her belt, or maybe it's because she does for them as Death did for her. She teaches, because she's not sure anyone else will.

If they survive long enough for it, most recruits lose their sense of awe after she comes into the office with dark rings under her eyes for the fourteenth straight day. If not then, then it's the first time they learn that her big scary class five contract is for a Succubus.

Ha ha. Boss' main demon is a sex demon. Bet she's having fun in her apartment.

Calli is more than willing to let everyone believe she's getting raunchy in her spare time instead of telling them that Kiara isn't class five because of incredible charm magic and that they're all one slip up away from getting vaporized by the equivalent of a W47 thermonuclear warhead. No need to scare them.

Besides, it's cute of them to assume she has spare time. Over two years Calli has accumulated so many little jobs. She is responsible for finances, for resource allocation, for orientation, for mentoring, she is still an active agent, she needs to compensate Kiara after each mission (despite Kiara's constant insistence that they can skip this time if Calli promises to just go to fucking sleep already), she needs to be available to call any time anyone else is on a mission.

Calliope Mori is many things now, but above all else, she is tired.

###

"I think you should do it."

The blonde girl, one Amelia Watson, looks up in surprise as Calli hands the crusty tome back to her. "But, isn't this for a class three demon?"

"It is." Calli nods.

"I've only been summoning for a few months-"

"And you're the best summoner we've seen in years." Calli says bluntly. "You already regularly deal with class twos. There's no reason you can't attempt a class three."

"Isn't that a risk?"

"Always." Calli nods. "But that's just our line of work. If you think you can handle it, then give it a shot. Just tell me when and I can be next to you when you try it."

"Right." Amelia fingers the tome, flicking to the first page and eyeing the picture of a trident decorating the top. "Boss…"

"Hmm?"

"How do you have time for all this?" The girl asks. "I'm not sure I've ever seen you leave the office except for missions. You're here handing me coffee when I get here in the morning, you're somehow always on call when I'm on a mission, I can call the office at two in the morning and you're always the one to pick up, and you still have free time to watch me try a class three or give orientation to the new guy."

Calli smiles. She hopes the lights are dim enough that the circles under her eyes aren't too prominent. "I make it work."

"You could stand to delegate a bit, you know."

"Who else has been here long enough for me to delegate to?"

A grim questition, but it makes her point.

"Besides." Calli says quietly. Her eyes stray to the shotgun lying on the side of her desk for a moment. "When I first got here, I had someone looking out for me. I sorta feel obligated to return the favor you know?"

Amelia smiles. "Return the favor to everyone?"

"Whatever it takes." Calli mumbles in embarrassment.

"You're crazy Boss." Amelia says with a shake of her head. "Not that I don't appreciate it, but consider actually taking a nap at some point. You look like a corpse."

"Shut up Watson." Calli grumbles. She feels so tired right now. "Also, stop calling me 'Boss'. Makes me feel old."

###

There's something oddly fascinating about watching Kiara beckon a serial killer out of his hiding place with nothing more than a purr and a liberal application of charm magic. It's like watching a mouse slowly walk into the waiting claws of a lion.

"You don't have to hide." Kiara coos. Her pink eyes and orange hair glow faintly in the dim light, and she walks- no, struts- around the messy house with an exaggerated swing to her hips for an audience she knows is watching. Calli shadows her path, letting her demon take the lead. Her loaded shotgun rests in her hands. "Won't you come out and greet a fan?"

Click, click, click. Calli's shoes are too loud in her own ears. She glances to all the dark corners of each room, making sure something doesn't jump out at Kiara's back. Little red lights greet her from small cameras mounted all across the house.

"Your work is quite exciting." Kiara says. Her voice hitches on the last word, breathless and laden with suggestions. It sounds so much like Kiara's usual teasing tone, but with something extra added on top. It's uncomfortable, though Calli can't pin down why. "The knife work is exquisite. Just divine."

Kiara assured her it didn't matter if he knew Calli was there. A mere human won't be able to resist the charm of a Succubus even if they know their execution is assured by falling for it.

The demon looks into each camera she passes with lidded, glowing eyes and a tempting, impish smile. Calli admires her utter confidence at least. She can barely bring herself to glance at the red dots for more than a second before getting anxious that she's being watched.

Calli catches herself staring at Kiara more than once. It's hard not to with the sort of display she's putting on, even if Calli isn't being targeted by the charm.

"You aren't going to make me beg, are you?" Kiara asks in an amused, somewhat mocking voice. She gets down on one knee, pressing one hand lightly onto her chest and staring directly into a camera. Her lips are puckered, almost looking like she's asking for a kiss. "Would you like me to?"

Calli shifts uncomfortably in her boots. Her eyes dart to a camera, and then back to Kaira. She feels like she's listening to something she shouldn't be. There's something very wrong about watching Kiara acting… subservient… like this. She'd much prefer if she could just grab this asshole by the neck and drag him outside rather than have Kiara resort to this, but the whole point of Kiara being here is to pull him out of hiding.

She hears a creak somewhere in the house and instantly brings up her shotgun. Kiara gracefully rises to her feet again, and gently pushes down the barrel of Calli's weapon.

"No need." She murmurs, looking to the room to her right with a sharp smile on her face. "He's mine."

The man is unwashed. His hair hasn't been combed in weeks, and his clothes are ratty and stained. Stubble rests unevenly on his chin. He holds a long, slim, unsharpened switchblade loosely in one hand.

His eyes are vacant. When Kiara opens her arms, he drops the knife and stumbles forward like a zombie. Kiara embraces the revolting man with a triumphant smirk, and the instant her hand touches the back of neck he goes completely slack, head lolling to the side. He slumps to his knees, held up only by the soft headlock Kiara has put him in with his chin resting on the inside of her elbow.

Now standing behind him, Kiara's other hand comes down on his hair, stroking it like one might an animal's fur.

"Like a pet." Calli thinks, and immediately realizes how disturbing that thought is.

"You've caused quite a bit of trouble, haven't you?" Kiara whispers down to the man. Her voice has a strange overlay on it, like a second Kiara is speaking at the same time in an even quieter voice.

"Yes Miss." The man says blankly.

"You are to address me as 'Tenchou'." Kiara orders softly. Her eyes gleam while looking down at the man. "Say, 'Yes, Tenchou'."

"Yes, Tenchou." The man parrots. He blinks slowly, staring at the wall somewhere to Calli's left. Calli feels a shudder go down her spine.

"You lead everyone on quite a chase. You summoned some nasty demons back in Miss Logan's house. You'll apologize to everyone, won't you?"

"Yes, Tenchou. I'm sorry Tenchou." The man says.

"You can start by apologizing to Miss Mori." Kiara says in a sickly sweet voice. "Look at her while you're talking, won't you?"

There's no spark of life in the man's eyes as the struggle to focus on Calli's face. It feels like she's being spoken to by a robot. "I'm sorry Miss Mori."

Every basic instinct in Calli's mind and body is screaming at her to fucking run and get the hell out of this creepy-ass situation, but Kiara is her demon and therefore her responsibility. She can't leave. "Kusotori, stop playing with him. We've got to bring him out."

"Don't be jealous, Calli." Kiara hums. She turns her smile on her summoner. In the darkness of the house the demon's glowing eyes stand out all the more, staring out of the darkness like beacons that Calli can't help but be drawn to. Like a moth to a lamp. "I can do this for you too, if you want. Charm can be quite pleasant."

Calli doesn't miss the way smoke springs up from the man's hair as Kiara combs her fingers through it. No dirt or dandruff marrs the demon's skin. It's burned away on contact. Kiara sees Calli staring and her smile widens, becoming toothy and distinctly predatory.

"Are you interested, Calli?" Kiara coos. She stops petting the man and extends that hand towards her summoner. "I could do so much for you, if you'll just let me. A sleep aid, perhaps?"

Calli takes an instinctive, fearful step back. "S-Stop joking around Kusotori." She says, and silently curses her voice stammering at just the wrong time. "We're on the job."

Something flashes across Kiara's face. Calli could swear it's a look of hurt. "Of course." The demon murmurs while retracting her hand.

Calli tries her very hardest to scrub the memory of that mission from her brain after it's over, but the image of Kiara petting a dead-eyed man like a pet, eyes glowing, with a hungry smile on her face, refuses to leave.

She much prefered when her mental image of Kiara was just that of a bubbly, flirty, air-headed girl who gets way too excited about fast food and bad television and who will probably vaporize the town at some point in the future. That's much less disturbing than whatever Kiara is now.

Though when Calli lies down to rest that night at four o'clock in the morning, she's not thinking about Kiara. Mostly she's just tired.

###

"KI-KIRI-KI!" Kiara's cry breaks through Calli's foggy brain, and the demon's eager smile tries to tug the corners of Calli's mouth up as well, though she fights to maintain neutrality.

"Mission." Calli says without preamble when the demon appears in the summoning circle. She stifles a yawn. "S-Someone has unleashed a flock of Vrocks above a farmer's field on the outskirts of town."

Kiara's smile is already gone. Her smile has been so rare as of late, and Calli doesn't like what that means. "Calli, it hasn't even been six hours since I was last dismissed. I don't need to sleep, so-"

"We don't have anyone to spare at the moment." Calli interrupts. "I'm trusting you to fly on ahead and get things under control."

"Well alright but-"

"Fifty Five Dart Street." Calli interrupts again. She steps out of the summoning circle, freeing Kiara to act. "I'll drive and be there as quickly as I can."

Kiara's false wings flap once, bringing her up into the air. Created by magic as those wings may be, they still work to let her fly. "You should stay here and rest. I'm sure I can deal with it on my own."

"Go, Kusotori." Calli says tiredly. "I'll be right behind you."

A frown crosses the demon's face, and she takes off across the sky. Calli rushes to her car and slips in. Everything has been a mess, and it's not a recent development. Things have been going downhill for years. It's so rare that Kiara smiles now, and some new task always looms over Calli's shoulders.

A pair of tickets sit in Calli's pocket. Just one town over, a local band is playing that Calli knows Kiara listens to. She hopes it can make a difference.

She knows that Kiara is getting tired of her. The novelty of her freedom of meals and entertainment has long since worn off over five years. Calli has been trying to find a way to keep things interesting for the demon, but it doesn't seem to be working.

Even with the siren on her car allowing her to ignore traffic lights and stop signs, it takes Calli a dozen minutes to get to her destination. She stumbles out of her car, shotgun in hand, only to find no signs of combat at all. Running around the back of the farmhouse finds her an old man with a pitchfork, glancing back and forth between the thirteen winged demons meekly doing farmwork all around them and the orange-haired Succubus standing with her arms crossed on top of a tractor, giving orders to the demons in question.

Kiara's eyes burn pink, a sure sign that her charm magic is in use. Calli tries not to grimace. She knows exactly how this is going to go. As the years have gone on Kiara has been using less and less of her pyromancy and leaning more and more heavily on her charm powers.

"Kusotori!" Calli calls out, startling the farmer. She ignores him.

"Hey Calli! I've got everything under control." Kiara says. She turns to face her summoner; her beautiful pink eyes bring Calli's tired mind to some semblance of attention like seeing the glint of a knife might. "I told you I could handle it on my own."

"So you did." Calli agrees. "Good job Kusotori."

"That means you can go back home and sleep now."

Calli knew that was coming. Kiara's been trying to use her exhaustion to get her to break the contract for a while. "Your compensation comes first."

Kiara's lips twitch downward and annoyance flashes across her face. Call's heart drops a bit at the familiar sight. Even a reminder of compensation is enough to provoke Kiara's irritation. "Calli, really, I'm fine. We can skip for once. You need to sleep."

Absolutely not. Calli isn't stupid enough to not give compensation. That's rule number one of dealing with demons: Never forget to pay them. "Kiara, you know that's not how it works. Compensation isn't optional."

"It should be. It's for me in the first place." Kiara huffs. Her foot makes a sharp tapping sound on the roof of the tractor.

Calli really doesn't want to have this argument again, especially not with someone watching. The farmer is staring at them. "Look, I had some coffee between the times I summoned you, alright? I'm fine."

Kiara is thoroughly unimpressed. "Calli, that's not healthy." She hops off the tractor and vaguely beckons behind her back. Around the farm, the various Vrocks stop what they're doing and quickly flutter over to stand at attention behind Kiara. "Look, if you really insist on not sleeping, at least let me do an energy transfer. I can give you some of my strength."

"Absolutely not." Calli says.

"I have plenty to spare." Kiara insists. She lays a hand on a Vrock, and Calli can't pull her eyes away. The winged demon spasms erratically under Kiara's touch, too charmed to even think about pulling away, while its skin is pulled taut and it's muscles thin. It withers away before Calli's eyes until it drops dead onto the ground with a muffled thump as little more than a sack of skin holding bones.

Kiara practically glows with health. In a motion that seems somewhat threatening given what she just demonstrated she could do, Kiara offers Calli her hand.

"I also have a dozen more donors right here, so you don't need to worry about me running out." Kiara says softly. Her eyes bore into Calli, tempting and dangerous as always. "Let me help you."

Calli is so tired, and something more useful than coffee would be incredible. The fact that she's even considering Kiara's offer after seeing her casually suck the life out of someone is frankly worrying. Kiara is wearing her down, and Calli can't afford to slip up. "I'm serious when I say I'm fine, Kusotori. You've already helped in getting the Vrocks under control, and that's enough."

"But you're not fine." Kiara whispers. She takes a step forward, extending her other hand. She stops at the two meter boundary, silently inviting Calli to cross the rest of the distance. "Calli, based on how often I'm summoned I know you can't have gotten more than three hours of sleep since yesterday, and the days before haven't been much better. You're summoning me all the time. It's been like this for years, Calli. Years."

"Can we not have this conversation here?" Calli says a bit more sharply than she intended, and winces at her own tone. "There are people listening."

Kiara glances at the farmer still staring at them, and the man hurries off into the field. "Calli, don't try to run away from this conversation again."

"I'm not running away. We've had this talk before and you know what I'm going to say." Calli says. She fumbles in her coat with one hand, almost knocking out some loose shots she has within, and pulls out a vial of purified salt. "Look, let me banish these Vrocks and-"

Kiara aims a hand backward and blasts the dozen remaining Vrocks with a controlled fireball without even bothering to look at them. She leaves behind a few piles of ash and a patch of burnt grass. The Succubus stares intently at her summoner all the while with her other hand still extended.

"Let me help you." Kiara repeats ever so gently, at total odds with her brutality just a second ago. "You don't even have to take my hand if you're scared. Just give me a sign and I'll handle the rest."

A demon of temptation indeed. Calli can also sense she's losing this mental battle and brings out her ace. "We should go Kusotori. I've got tickets and we need to be there in time."

As predicted, Kiara falters in surprise. "Tickets?"

Sensing her opportunity, Calli brandishes the slips of paper with only minimal fumbling. She holds them out so Kiara can read the text on them.

"Calli…" The demon breathes. "You didn't."

"These tickets say otherwise."

"Don't think you can get out of this with a pair of tickets." Kiara says. Her expression is several things at once. Joy, annoyance, and something that looks like adoration. "You- You shouldn't be doing things for me when you're-"

"So you don't want to go?" Calli pounces.

"N-No! I didn't say that!" Kiara protests.

"Let's go then." Calli says. She turns around and walks back to her car before Kiara can say anything more.

She does a double-take when she rounds the side of the farmhouse and sees Death casually leaning against her car. He's got his shotgun out, and is casually polishing a blood-stained barrel.

Calli reaches behind her to feel the grip of the handle on her back. She still has the shotgun, Death has been dead for years, so how-?

"Calli?" Kiara's voice interrupts her thoughts. "Why are you grabbing your gun? Did you see something?"

Calli blinks hard, and when she opens her eyes again Death is nowhere to be seen. She looks to the side, and can see Kusotori standing two meters to her right, showing no sign at all that she just saw a dead man standing next to Calli's car.

"No, it's nothing." Calli says. She rubs her eyes, exhausted. "I'm fine."

###

Death haunts her.

When she steps into her office, he's there standing in a corner. When she's getting into her car he's sitting in the back seat. When she's in her apartment, he's on the couch or at the table. When she's anywhere else, he wanders in the background of her vision, just behind whatever she's focusing on.

Calli knows what Death is. He's a hallucination induced by sleep deprivation. She really needs to find time to sleep.

But she can't.

Calli stands in one of the summoning rooms, shotgun in hand and the remains of four Imps and a summoner lying on the floor. She shot the Imps. The summoner, David, was dead when she walked in.

Death is standing in the corner, reloading his shotgun.

"My fault." Is her first thought. She wasn't available to help him. She should have been here. She took a nap in her office and woke up an hour later to one of the newbies telling her that David was in trouble.

He shouldn't have tried an Imp pack summoning on his own. He could have come and gotten her beforehand, or waited for Amelia to show up. Amelia is supposed to be here in a few minutes. Why did he even need to summon a pack? Did she miss an incoming call? Was there a mission?

This is why she can't.

Calli opens the door and calls for someone to bring a body bag. She checks David's wounds over once more, just to guarantee he's gone, and closes his eyes with shaking fingers.

She can hear Death sigh quietly in the corner. She ignores him.

Calli can barely remember what happens hour to hour anymore. She resorts to notes in shaky handwriting to remind herself of her schedule and what she needs to remember.

Kiara is more persistent than ever, always beckoning with beautiful glowing eyes and promises of a charm-induced rest. She steadfastly refuses to be more than three meters away from Calli at all times when summoned unless Calli outright forces her to go further by command. The demon has abandoned all pretense of letting Calli do anything on missions as well, instead curb-stomping any opposition with overwhelming charm and fire and spending the next four hours paying no attention to whatever entertainment she's arbitrarily selected in favor of hovering over Calli's shoulder, whispering and promising and pleading while Calli tries to get her eyes to focus on whatever paperwork is in front of her.

She can remember a time when Kiara would flirt with her. Those times seem so long ago now.

Sometimes, when Calli finds herself in front of a reflective surface she can see Kiara behind one shoulder and Death behind the other.

She just needs to do a bit more. Always a bit more. Just finish this task, this mission, this paper, and she can snag an hour or two of sleep. Just a bit more. Just a bit.

Amelia calls to report a Balor. Put off the paperwork, summon Kiara, and rush to Amelia's apartment. The Balor is dead by the time she gets there. Kiara has burnt it alive. Amelia's main demon, some shark girl, comes walking out of the apartment with Amelia held delicately in her arms, bleeding from open wounds on her side and leg.

"My fault." The thought repeats. Death stands behind the shark demon, and joins her in the ambulance. For once, Calli puts off Kiara's compensation (she will give it later, despite the demon's protests) so she can rush to the hospital herself.

In that place she hears words that haunt her as much as the hallucination of her mentor does.

"Why would I kill Ame? Nicest human I've met in centuries."

Calli hates those words so much. They offer hope. Hope that Calli can't accept. Amelia's demon is only a class three, she can risk trusting the shark. The shark won't nuke a city if Amelia is wrong about her.

It's not fair at all. Kiara deserves to be trusted if she's even halfway as friendly as she acts, but she's stuck with Calli, and Calli is smart enough to know she can't take that risk. It's her fault Kiara doesn't smile.

Calli hates the hope in the shark demon's words, but mostly, above all else, Calli hates being so tired.

###

"Calli?" A soft, worried voice whispers.

She blinks once, twice. Her vision is too blurry. She can't make out whatever is in front of her. It's something that glows pink and orange. Kiara? Kiara would make sense.

"Calli, can you hear me?" Kiara asks, concerned. "You summoned me, right? What is it?"

She summoned Kiara? Yes, yes she did. Calli thinks she remembers. She grabs at the note on the ground next to her (left side, not right side, stop grabbing at wood) and tries to read it. "I… It was… this."

Calli thrusts the paper at Kiara, hoping the demon can read it.

"Calli… is this writing?" Kiara asks. "Or a drawing?"

Fuck. Why was she summoning Kiara again? She doesn't even remember making the circle. Did she drift off?

There's something dark behind Kiara, standing behind the demon's shoulder. Death sits on a chair, one leg over the other, staring down his apprentice with an expression of extreme disappointment.

Calli stares back, trying to tell him to go away, and still trying to remember why she summoned Kiara. Where are they at the moment anyways? Is this her apartment? Her office? A summoning room? It's too blurry to tell.

"Calli? What are you looking at?"

"S'nothing Kiara." She mumbles. "He'll go away."

"He?" Kiara asks. "Whose he?"

"Death. He'll go away."

There's a long pause, and it occurs to Calli that she might have said something strange.

"Calli." Kiara's tone is carefully, painfully neutral. "Have you seen Death again?"

"He's here."

"Have you seen him?" Kiara asks again. Calli keeps holding Death's gaze over Kiara's shoulder as the demon tries to catch Calli's eye. "Calli, you have to tell me this."

"Yes, but he was just leaving." Calli mumbles.

"You can see him right now?" Kiara clarifies.

Calli nods absently. Her head rolls to the side, suddenly feeling very heavy, and she jerks back up into her kneeling position a moment later when she almost falls.

She hears someone take in a shaky breath, and they quietly whisper. "I suppose I have to do this." A few seconds later, hands touch Calli's cheeks, and-

-hands. Hands. Kiara's hands. As in, she's not keeping two meters away, as in, she's found a way around the contract.

Calli tries to wrench herself away, but it's absolutely futile. Once a Succubus has skin contact, there's no escape. Calli's muscles simply refuse to respond as Kiara's soft hands gently hold her face up. The demon's pink eyes come into some sort of focus a second later.

"I'm sorry Calli." The demon whispers. Her voice has a peculiar echo to it, something faint and soft and inviting. Her pink eyes glow brightly, and some distant part of Calli's mind informs her that she is absolutely being charmed right now. Kiara almost sounds like she's crying. "I've avoided taking advantage of this for so long. I don't know if you ever realized I could use the clause that allows me to save someone's life to force you to sleep, but I can. I've held off doing this for so long out of respect. You've been nothing but kind to me, giving me more freedom than you ever had to and giving me gift after gift, and I hate to repay that by forcing this on you, but this can't continue."

Calli is incapable of defending herself. She can't move her jaw to make words.

"You're hallucinating, Calli. Hallucinating. Do you have any idea how bad that is? You can't remember what you're doing, and I can tell you can barely see what's in front of you." Kiara whispers. "No matter your responsibilities, you can't continue like this. I'm going to put you to sleep, alright?"

Calli wants to protest, to shake her head, something. She has a job. She has people to look out for. She's… she's…

She's so tired…

"We'll talk when you're better." Kiara murmurs. "I promise I'll take care of you. I've been ready to for years. Now, sleep."

Calli's body goes limp like a ragdoll. She's unconscious before Kiara finishes pronouncing the word.

###

Recovery is slow, even with Kiara's meticulous care.

In the first three days Calli sleeps for almost thirty hours straight, and she doesn't remember those small intervals in which she woke up, ate, and then went right back to sleep in a charm-fueled haze. She spends almost all of the first month charmed up to her ears so she doesn't have to suffer the worst of the cavalcade of physical issues she's accumulated over the years.

Muscle tears, gastro-intestinal issues, high blood pressure, eye strain, reduced immune response, chronic headaches, various improperly healed injuries, and that's not even starting on the mental issues Kiara's charm magic is keeping at bay.

The first time Kiara pulls back her charm magic so Calli can think for herself, Calli almost immediately has a panic attack prompting Kiara to dump charm on her again to calm her down. After that, Kiara is extremely reluctant to pull her magic back for fear of Calli reacting badly, though at Amelia's prompting and Calli's request she does so regularly, if just so she and Calli can have proper conversations with Calli fully lucid and in control of her own thoughts.

At one month and two weeks, Calli tries to go into the office and Amelia promptly kicks her out.

"Calli, you just spent a whole month high on charm magic because you almost killed yourself by working too much. You're on a three month sick leave, and that's three months minimum." Amelia huffs while pushing her out the door. "I'm in charge until you get back, and I better not see you here again or I'm mandating you can't leave your apartment without Kiara to make sure you don't do something stupid."

"But-"

"And you better free Kiara if you haven't already. She could have forced you to at any point in the last month and hasn't out of some form of respect, so just do it yourself you coward."

Calli does so rather meekly when she gets home. Kiara does not, in fact, level the city as Calli always feared she would and almost immediately tackles Calli in a hug instead while squealing her joy at no longer needing to abide by the two meter rule.

It seems so obvious in hindsight that nearly all of Kiara's actions could be explained by worry, protectiveness, and adoration, even if Kiara expressed those things in occasionally disturbing ways. (Kiara insists that offering to suck the life out of a dozen of your enemies in order to give you their life energy would be considered an overwhelming display of devotion, and possibly romance, in Hell and that there's nothing 'disturbing' about it).

Calli is skeptical, but concludes she has no room to complain. Disturbing or not, she's not in a place to doubt Kiara's good intentions.

Everything seems to click one day after about two and a half months. She's sitting on her couch with Kiara next to her, watching some random cooking show because Kiara wanted to, when Kiara speaks up.

"I should get an apron like that." The demon says suddenly.

Calli doesn't see what's so special about an apron, but hey, if Kiara wants it. "Go nuts Kusotori. I've got the money for it."

"You don't mind?" Kiara says with a twinkle in her eyes. "My, Calli, so bold…"

Calli has no idea what the demon is talking about until she gets a better look at the apron on the show and sees the words "Kiss the Cook" spelt out on it. "Oh, oh."

"Oh?" Kiara taunts, leaning against her. "Is that a good 'oh'? Would you listen to the apron, Calli? You seemed happy to let me buy it."

"That's- guh- because you wanted it!" Calli protests, going a bit red in the face. "Don't make this weird Kusotori."

"There's nothing weird about a kiss, Calli!" Kiara presses, and Calli huffs and pushes the demon off of her, and Kiara laughs at her reaction.

It's a few seconds after that exchange that Calli realizes she can't remember the last time Kiara properly flirted with her. Offering to charm her so she can get some sleep isn't the same. It's been years since Kiara actually flirted, and there's something that feels very right about it. Everything about this feels right. She doesn't feel totally exhausted, Kiara is happy, and while she's still recovering she doesn't feel like she's five seconds away from falling apart anymore.

It feels right, even if Kiara's flirtation is quite embarrassing.

"Seriously though, can I buy it?"

"Like I said, I've got the money for it. My money is basically your money, so go ahead."


I took a different approach to writing Kiara than I did Gura, and I don't just mean in personality. I mean I went out of my way to make her both very friendly but also distinctly creepy at times, usually by leaning into her charm magic, whereas with Gura the emphasis was almost entirely on how human she was.

Oh, and as for why Kiara is a succubus… I just like succubi. I write them all the time, and they're surprisingly flexible for both story and character purposes. I could write a goddamn essay on their possible uses.

I also touched a bit more directly, if briefly, on the darker side of being a summoner. The overexertion is one thing, though that's mostly specific to Ame and Calli, but the 'torture your demons to keep them in line' is something I wanted to address more directly to drive home why Gura and Kiara are so fond of their summoners. Ame and Calli refuse to do that out of principle (even if that's not how they think of it), whereas it's normal for any other summoner.

Now, on the more technical side of this chapter.

This chapter was a mess to make. I had to take two full editing passes on this, and replaced nearly a quarter of the scenes. It was trying to be five different stories at once, and even now I've only somewhat tied those ideas together.

The first pass was dedicated purely to reworking every scene Kiara was in so she acted somewhat consistently, because in the rough draft she was basically a different character in every scene. Now she has two or three distinct modes (flirty, protective/serious, and maybe predatory though you might count that as a melding of the other two), all of which I hope are recognizable as her.

The second pass was dedicated to everything else. I changed up other dialogue, altered some of the more lore-focused details or details related to Cover, and generally cleaned up spelling and capitalization. Even now there are some things I'm not super happy about that I just don't care to spend the effort on because they're relatively minor gripes.

In case you're wondering, this chapter is roughly 10,000 words compared to the rough 5,000 of Amelia's chapter. I expect the other chapters to lean more towards Ame's length than Calli's.

At some point I'm absolutely making chapters for Ina, Gura, and Kiara as summoners. I don't know when, because I am really bad about starting fics and not finishing them, but I will write those chapters eventually. Maybe in a few days, maybe a year from now. Considering a mere three more chapters is all that's needed to complete this collection I'd like to think I'd do them sooner rather than later.