{Tara's POV 2 years later}

It's been a few years since we told our grandparents about ourselves, and they were going great. Sure, our Grandma may have gotten a bit carried away with my scales and stuff, but the clothes she made and the little accessories she gave us were worth it. I almost never took off my locket, and neither did anyone else in the family. She made one for all of us and I didn't even mind it was my own fang...

Grandpa was a little scary though.

With my, and mom's, permission, we trained against each other. In both my human and dragon forms. When I was a Dragon, Grandpa got to test moves he wanted to show me but didn't have a target too, or moves he wanted to try creating. And my extremely durable self agreed, because seeing cool martial arts moves makes lizard brain go brrrr. I wish I could go back a year and hit my younger self with a Roar. I must've been out of my mind when I agreed!

Since then, I was losing scales way faster then when I shed them. But whenever that happened, Grandma would collect the broken ones for grinding and used the dust in other ways. I didn't know what she was doing with them, but I knew she was making waves in the fashion industry. That became real apparent when she thanked me by renovating our house and making it bigger with the money out of her own pocket. Sure, I got a share, we all did, it was just out of our hands until we were legally old enough to touch that money. Our house ended up a three story home with more space then we knew what to do with. It took us some time, but eventually we figured out what we'd do with the space, more like Martha figured it out. Me and mom just stayed on the side and let her do her thing.

Our rooms were made bigger, like atleast twice the size they were before, and we had shelves of stuff alongside other things. My room had my bed, a nice and big bed mind you, a nightstand by the side where I kept whatever manga I was reading that night, and a lamp. I had some other stuff in the drawers but they didn't matter. In front of my bed, and connected to the wall, was my desk. I had a normal setup and an ok PC, (As ok as a 2010 PC can be.), and a jar of golden crackling lightning beads that Martha made for me. They were exactly what they sounded like, lightning compressed into beads. Martha spent months on figuring out how to do that without them blowing up at the slightest touch. They were my version of coffee, just healthier.

The shelves, as in plural as there were two of em, next to the desk were filled with manga and anime movies. I had a Fairy Tail poster above them, since the anime started airing last year, and merch was officially out. I also had a box of other stuff under it, which didn't have anything important inside it, yet. I had a fuzzy blue rug in my room, and liked to build up a shock with it as entertainment when I was bored. The room itself was painted a sunset orange, and I loved it. On the opposite side of my bed and away from the first nightstand, was another nightstand, but one that had my phone and stuff from our Grandma in it. I even had 2, 3 after today, different closets next to that nightstand. for normal clothes, clothes made from my materials, and then the new one that grandma was bringing today.

Speaking of our Grandma. [Tara, get up. Our Grandmother's on her way with our new closets.] Yup. I remembered that was today, and woke up.

I was still tired so I dragged myself over to the jar of lightning beads Martha made for me and popped one in. The jolt got me up, and I was ready for the day. I sent Martha that I was up and started making my way to the bathroom. Well, to my bathroom. We had an extra one now so we each had our own bathrooms. Looking in the mirror, I could see I was getting closer to looking like real life Erza, and that made me smile. I was also happy that I was toned in a good way, and not the obnoxious way. Grandpa gave all of us a diet to stick too and we did. And because of that, I was healthier then cannon Erza was. When I realized I might end up with a better figure then her because of that, Martha had to drop a boulder on me or else I would've flown out of the Bounded Field out of sheer happiness.

Anyway, I finished brushing my teeth, and started to head downstairs, letting my tail thump down along the way as I did. There was just something satisfying about dragging my tail around, and letting hit thump against the wood that made me happy. Mom was in the kitchen helping Martha set the plates on the counter, while Martha herself was making us a western breakfast. The scent of bacon made my tail wag around, and thump against the stairs as I almost drooled. Given the fact we were 10 now, and both standing 4'4ft, Martha didn't need a stool to cook anymore, and she ran with that.

Me and mom ate like queens ever since. Which was an ironic thought when I had it given the fact Martha looked like Irene. I made my way to the table, and sat in my spot on the left. Martha would be on the right while mom sat in the middle. It was like that ever since the kitchen was made into a mini restaurant's kitchen. After another minute or two, Martha was done and we all dug into our breakfast.

"So girls, What do you plan on doing today?" As usual, mom would start off the conversations. I was usually too zoned in on the food, while Martha was thinking about her magic.

"I think I'll look for anything I can add to the library." Ah, the 'library.' The extra room that we didn't know what to do with. Martha, the nerd that she I..- A mental whack to the back of my head, and a scoff was the response to me thinking the truth. A fun fact was that we could read 'passive thoughts' Martha called them, if we felt like it, or when either of us were mentioning the other. It made insulting/teasing each a whole new ballgame considering we could preemptively figure out if the other was going to snipe at us.

Anyway, Martha took it over and made the room a small library. It was filled with books I knew she loved, and there was even a hidden section with whatever magical books we, or our Grandparents, found. I just knew she would sometimes go to that room on her own and just cackle like a madwoman, no matter how many times she denied it!My hearing was way too good, and her silencing wards were no match for the ears of a dragon!

Both rooms were big enough for her to practice her non destructive magic, and it was usually where she did it. She didn't have many magical books though, which wasn't for a lack of trying. We had to be discreet about getting them, since someone could track us if we just bought something off eBay or Amazon. She had a book on wards and runes given to her by Granddad, who got it from Irina's dad, a book on mythical/legendary figures, a book on enchanting that Grandma managed to get, we don't know how, we just know that she did. There were a few more, but those were the ones she usually read the most.

Martha soaked up the knowledge of Wards and Runes, and found her new favorite hobby. The amount of times mom would sic me on her to get her out of her library was starting to catch up to the number of times she woke me up. Though the Wards and Runes book was just what we needed. Thanks to them, Martha perfected her Bounded Field, and made it so only people she keyed in could see us when we were training. She even warded the house to high heaven!

Well, as high as she could at this point. She managed to set up Intent Wards that'd warn her if anyone was coming within 5ms of the house, Protection Wards that could take a pounding from a few of my 'Lightning Dragon Iron Fists', before collapsing. For reference, those spells could easily break boulders, so we would be fine unless we were under siege, or a big wig came over to our neck of the woods. She made Suppression Wards, anyone not keyed into the main Ward Stone entering our house would feel pressure building up onto them, weakening them more the longer they were here. We had no idea how effective that'd be, but we weren't in a hurry to test them. She also had 'War Wards', which were basically a last line of defense, and would only activate if the other defensive Wards went down. When I asked what they were, she grinned like a shark and said 'all the diseases', and I didn't ask anymore. There were also Healing Wards, which passively worked to fix any issues we might have when we came in. They weren't as effective as Martha's ability, but they would be good in an emergency.

Speaking of Martha's healing ability, she could put limbs back on now. Well, it depended on the thing she was healing. We figured out how her ability worked, and it was surprisingly logical for magic. Which didn't annoy me. Not at all!

If she understood the physiology of whatever she was healing, whatever it was that she wanted to heal, and had the power/stamina to do so, she could heal anything. She had enough time to study my dragon form and figure it out, so she could heal it if I was ever too tired to heal and regenerate on my own. An interesting tidbit we learned was that it was one of the reasons she slept so much as a baby. Her ability had been constantly active when she was younger, eating into her stamina by a bit, until she figured that out and turned it off.

Anyway, Martha's schedule was crazy. She'd wake up before 8am and start her day there. She'd spend the morning making breakfast, and mom's lunch, she got a job as a gym teacher at kuoh thanks to Granddad, and from there her schedule would depend on the day. Every morning was spent in the library for 3 hours, take a break for an hour, to make sure she never overworked herself, and to really absorb whatever she was working on. Then, she'd come with me to our clearing to do some magic/martial arts training, and test whatever we wanted for an hour and a half, and depending on the day, we'd spar at different levels of intensity, then go home. I would stay down there and practice mixing my [Renewal Taekwondo] and 'Lightning Dragon Slayer' magic. I made great progress, and could do it reliably against Martha.

After that, she'd go research biology, diseases, and anything else that would help her healing. Other days, she would work on her Wards, either for fun or research. And the days she wasn't doing that, she was searching for magic books. The hours after that, she'd get ready to cook dinner for when me and mom came home, and we'd spend time together as a family. Then, it was either her playing with Wards and Runes, reading her books, all of us just going around kuoh, or relaxing. She knew that she'd have to take time off to not overdo it to keep herself from burning out, but the shit she was researching made my brain hurt. Anyway, back to the conversation.

"Hmm... Tara? Are you doing anything later?" I had to think. Was I? Issei and his family were on vacation, so I couldn't bother them. I didn't have anything to do after training other then hunt for manga, so I was free.

"Nope. Why?" Mom just finished drinking her coffee and got up to put the dishes in the sink.

"There's a new gym opening up and I wanted to check it out. Who knows, we might have fun there." That did sound interesting. "And I want to try fighting against you in an actual training environment." Huh?

That got mine and Martha's attention. Granddad involved mom in our training and was teaching her both [ITF and Renewal Taekwondo], along with her diet, mom was physically at her peak. She could probably fill in for professional martial artist if the event called for it. So to hear that she wanted to spar with me? That just made my brain stop.

Martha was in the same boat for a bit. But then she bounced back and just looked at mom, who was starting to was her plate, back still to us. "Why?" Mom started to hum for a bit, and when she was done with the plate and cup, she turned off the water and stood still.

"To be honest... I'm worried. Everyday, I see you two train or study, and I love that, don't get me wrong, but I don't remember when, but I had a thought. 'Do I want my girls to do all of this on their own?' And when I thought it, I knew my answer on the spot. I don't want you two to just stay you two. I want to stay with you even when I don't need to be there. I talked about it with mom and dad once. If they had the chance to live for as long as you two would. Mom just thought about it for a second before she said she'd rather be at peace with dad.

And dad? Dad agreed. But he gave me a longer answer. 'We've seen you grow from the little tyke that ran into the world headfirst, into the wonderful woman full of love that you are now. We've seen all there is to see, a few more years would be fine, but I know I'd rather let my time catch up to me. This world's bigger then I expected, but I'm fine with my place in it. But what about you my little flower? Are you fine with your place in this world?' And I had to think about it. Was I satisfied? And before I had you two? I still don't think my answer would've been yes. But now that I KNOW the world is so much bigger then being a secretary or a gym teacher? That I KNOW my little girls are going to be fighting in a world like that while I'm doing a normal job? I don't want to let you two to leave me behind. I want to stay with my two little angels and be right by your side throughout whatever you go through. I want to watch my little girls grow up and take the world by storm while I'm there to cheer you on!"

Martha and I just sat there. We sat there and took in our moms words as they flowed out from her. Even without a link, we could feel her conviction from our seats. She was serious. This might have been the most serious we've ever seen her be, and I could tell Martha was thinking that too. {Martha, what do we do? There's not a snowballs chance in hell she's saying no... What do we do?} There was silence on her end. Just silence. She was still and I felt her emotions raging in her. And how could they not? She did everything she could to make sure mom would be safe. And now she's hearing our mom outright say she wants to fight by our side? What was she supposed to do?

[I-I'm not sure Tara... I-I don't know... I know of ways and things she can do, but... I don't want to see her get hurt Tara... I don't want to lose her... What do I do?] I could feel Maria's fear surge through her. Our choice might lead our mother into whatever fights would come our way. Neither of us wanted to see her hurt, but she'd never take no for an answer.

Martha was too scared to come up with an idea... So I had to lead the charge. "One condition. On one condition and that condition only." They both snapped towards me as I said that.

[Tara wha...-]

"Name it." I looked at her. Right into her ocean blue eyes and stated my condition.

"You need to beat me at the gym. One win. That's all you need. But I'm not going to go easy on you. If you say yes I WILL break your bones."

[TARA VALERIE SAKURA! WHAT ARE YOU SAY...-] Even with the scream echoing through my mind, I heard mom's answer.

"Deal." She looked and sounded so sure, that I knew she wouldn't change it, no matter what.

For the first time in my life, I saw my bestfriend/sister utterly and truly PANIC. "WHAT!? NONONONO! TAKE IT BACK! TAKE IT BACK RIGHT NOW!"

""No."" Martha just looked at us and I felt her fear and panic turn into anger. There weren't many things we disagreed on, I could count the times we had actual arguments on one hand.

But now? It looks like we found something we'd disagree on for the first time in years. Then, the coldest look I'd ever gotten from her was directed at me, and I nearly flinched at the tone that came with it. "Tara. You will meet me at the training ground in 2 hours. You will not be late." Then she left. She got up left her plate and cup at the counter, and started heading up the stairs to her room.

We both watched as Martha all but marched up the stairs, her anger practically a physical force, making her footfalls sound way louder then they should've been. When she was all the way up, and we heard her door SLAM, mom looked to me, and slowly nodded. "You're screwed, aren't you?"

"Oh fucking definitely." There was no doubt in my mind that Martha would pull out a bunch of stops to beat the shit out of me for this.

Mom just hummed, came over to me and gently ran her fingers through my hair. "Thank you Tara. For giving me this chance." I just hugged her and started heading up to my room. Me and Martha sparred, that was a given, but that was that and this was this. Martha was PISSED, and it was aimed at ME.

I went over to the chest we used to hold scales and that stuff, and prepared to strap it on. But first, I had to go get disposable clothes for our fight, and extra clothes for when we were done.

30 minutes later, and I had everything I'd need for our fight. Martha was already gone. I heard when she left. And I could tell she was heading to the training ground. I took a peak inter her room and saw her ward box was open. (Hehe... I'm in danger.) Future me must HATE me with all this shit I keep dropping in her lap.

Martha's ward box had her strongest Wards, including a Healing Ward that worked on plant life. And that Ward was gone! (Hopefully no one notices a portion of the woods being gone until it was all fixed up.) I went downstairs in a normal white shirt and sweat pants combo, I didn't need shoes since I was just going to fly there when it was time, with the chest strapped to my back. Mom saw me off and I started walking around town. The stuff like my chest, the wooden one and not the fleshy goodness I was starting to grow, had a Concealment Rune on it, so people wouldn't notice it.

I just walked around kuoh, not really aiming for anywhere and just walking, and mentally prepared for my fight with Martha. Eventually, it was time.

I walked over to an abandoned area, sprouted my wings, and flew over to the training ground, which changed from the clearing it was before, into an actual training ground. We cleared out trees in a 60ft/20m radius, and flattened the grass around the area. That, and an Illusion/Aversion Ward for anyone stumbling across it, made a perfect training ground. It was a smooth area that was big enough for my dragon form and then some.

I saw Martha standing in the center of the training ground, looking directly at me. I could tell she calmed down a bit, but she was still VERY pissed at me. I walked over to the only stump we left in the area, and set my chest down onto it. It was far away enough that it would be safe. I slowly started moving to the center, and eventually stood in front of her. Martha looked at me, and I couldn't tell what she was thinking. "I'm not going to tell you 'this is your last chance to take it back', because I know you won't. I just want you to remember that you chose this." I just sighed and got into stance. She got into her own stance, and we stared at each other. Then, at some unspoken signal, we moved.

She led off with a palm strike aimed at my arm, and I countered with my elbow, but before we made contact, she closed her palm against my elbow, and grabbed it, keeping me in place as she hooked a leg against the back of my knee, and yanked it forward, messing up my balance. She let go when I started falling, but I brought out my tail and slammed it against the ground as hard as I could, and back flipped back to reposition myself. I didn't get much time to breath since she followed up with a bolt of fire and a brace of earth binding my legs. She was always able to read me, but I knew I had the better physique, so I broke through the bindings and backhanded the fire bolt. As soon as I was free I rushed her and slammed my tail against the ground as I jumped, gaining even more height as I flipped, into a roll, with my leg out to go for a [Renewal Taekwondo Axe], to knock her down.

That's what our spars usually amounted too. One good hit from me, and Martha would NEED to take time to heal so we could keep going. But it was never easy. Martha easily evaded my [Axe], and lined up 4 more fire bolts right at center mass. I dodged the bolts, and braced when I saw the wind pick up around her legs. Martha rushed me and started out with a Roundhouse Kick that seemed to snap something in my arm. But she wasn't done there, she used a blast of air to push herself back before I could go for a return strike, and used it to reposition herself so the earth spikes she made behind me would knock me off balance. When they did, she rushed me again and coated her legs in stone, letting me know this was gonna hurt. And hurt it did. She spun as she smashed one of her legs into my stomach, and used some wind to facilitate another spin, so she could smash the other leg into my head, which staggered me and made me see stars for a moment. A moment that ended quickly as she grabbed my head, and went for a knee strike to my jaw.

Before I could do anything, she let me go and I could feel the winds pick up again as she used it for another spin and set up a [Renewal Taekwondo Ground Drawer.] But right as she was going to make contact, I coated my knees in lightning, getting her to flinch and give myself an opening. So, ignoring the pain in my knee, stomach, head, and arm, I charged forward and coated my fists in lightning as I started firing off [Fist Strikes.] She had to avoid them or else the moment I got an opening I'd take it and deal a massive amount of damage. She kept dodging, refusing to give me anything to exploit. I tried to get her with a feint, but she read it and used that to make a small root latch onto my leg, which threw off my flow and gave her an opening to hit roll towards me and start off a bicycle kick that'd probably make that Mortal Kombat character proud. The first half of those kicks hurt, but I managed to get my tail to wrap around one of her legs, and quickly SLAMMED her into the ground behind me, forcing the air out of her lungs.

Not letting go yet, I tossed her up into the air, followed it up with a [Renewal Taekwondo Baek Rok], feeling something shatter as my foot hit her jaw, and before she rocketed away, I shot my tail out, wrapping around her again and keeping her close. Though, I felt her leg almost dislodge from that, and made it easier on her by grabbing her arm with one of mine, letting the leg go, and spinning around before tossing her towards the woods, chest first, crashing through a tree, where said tree wasn't the only thing that cracked. A part of me was worried about that, but the rest of me knew that she reinforced her body with her magic, while also having her Healing to help her if she got too hurt. It helped that it would activate automatically if she was ever too hurt, or passed out, so I intellectually knew she would be fine, I was just worrying about her. (Fight now, worry later.)

Shaking it off, I turned my eyes to the woods, and frowned when I didn't immediately find her. So, sniffing the air, I turned to where her scent was telling me she was, and got clipped from a pillar of fire! Bringing out my wings, I flared them out, breaking the pillar of fire I was in, then brought them back in when I didn't need them anymore. I recognized where the pillar of fire came from though, as well as the tree that nearly slammed into my gut if I didn't kick it apart, and saw/recognized the spinning earthen weapon Martha had in her hands as a recreation of her bardiche. Martha had looked up weapons to learn, and would make earth replicas of them as she searched for one that just felt right. That 'right' one had been the bardiche, some kind of spear sword thing that I didn't really understand.

Anyway, she had regained her barrings, and had healed fast enough to get back into the fight. I growled, and brought out my wings again, taking to the sky. Martha was competent on the ground, HIGHLY competent, so I had to play to my own advantage, which meant the sky. While I was up here, she was down a few options, while I could rain destruction from above. And as I dodged a volley of flame slashes/air and water arrows/boulders and even MORE TREES. Though while I was avoiding, or even being hit by her projectiles, I was clipped/hit head on by a few arrows and a boulder, I stayed in the air and charged up a big one.

From the ground, I was pretty sure Martha knew what was coming, since my throat was glowing gold, and I heard a "SHIT!" I grinned in my mind, and mentally called out my attack. 'Lightning Dragon's ROAR!' A beam of lightning left my mouth, and impacted the forest, causing an explosion that was followed up by a clap of thunder. A massive dust cloud sprang into existence, and blocked my vision of the forest, which was bad since I didn't know how Martha would use it to her advantage.

So, flapping my wings, I dispelled as much dust as I could, and started searching for my sister. Though, I did note that I destroyed a fuckton of the training grounds, it was damn near a crater now, and not even the edges of the grounds were safe. (And that was from a non vocal one too.) We had no idea how much damage a vocal roar would do, so we never tested it. We also didn't know if anyone would come snooping around before we could fix the damage, so that was one of the big reasons none of knew how badly I could destroy any and everything in my path.

Feeling something solid clasp my legs and tail, I cursed myself for zoning out mid fight, and was pulled to the ground. I growled as I thrashed my tail, and flexed my legs, trying to break the restraints on me, but they didn't break! And before I could try with even more force, I was met by a [Beak Rok] from Martha, as a form of petty revenge for breaking her jaw with my own. She didn't break my jaw though, but I definitely felt something crack, and felt something else rattle in my head.

She wasn't done though, and showed how petty she really was by making whatever was holding me spin me around like some kind of demented merry-go-round, which nearly made me throw up, before releasing me towards the woods. I tumbled through the air, before crashing into tree after tree, wing first, which HURT. Though, focusing on the pain was better then my nausea, and helped me fully zone back into the fight. A quick flap of my wings told me they were somewhat damaged, I saw tears in their membranes, and scowled as I pulled them back into my body, which would speed up their healing.

Turning to my sister, I saw she was atleast 50ft away. But even then, I could see the green arcs of healing light glowing around her jaw, arm, legs and side. Martha would end up tired faster, but she would be able to use her good arm again, and the ribs I knew I broke wouldn't hinder her anymore. I just groaned and rose to my feet, and staggered as the nausea of being spun like that was still affecting me, so I forced myself to get up and ignore it. Martha and I stared at each other as I did, and we both knew we had one good clash left in us, I could most likely keep going but I didn't like fighting her like this, and she knew it. So, in mutual agreement, that's what we did. We ran at each other for one last clash.

Martha started to coat her bardiche in flame and spun it, while I coated my legs in lightning. When we were a dozen feet away from each other, we struck. I jumped and spun as fast as I could to deliver a spinning [Renewal Taekwondo Scissor.] Martha on the other hand, slashed out with her bardiche, keeping the flames burning on it instead of sending them out as a strike. I could feel the bardiche break from my kick, and the arm she was holding onto it with shatter, but my leg burned from the contact, as well as the blade sticking into it. I nearly roared out in pain, but kept it in as we both crashed into the ground. The arm Martha held the bardiche in was twisted the wrong way, and my leg was charred as the molten stone was still in it. My body was wracked with pain, and I felt like I would break something just from moving. I could tell I was healing though, the broken arm I got at the start would've been fine by now if I didn't get slammed by boulders, which was probably why she did it. Oh well. I just laid there, and so did Martha. We just laid in pain and silence.

{Are you satisfied now? Or do we need to go again after we're done healing?} I wasn't feeling any anger from her, so I was pretty sure she wasn't pissed at me anymore. Though, it didn't hurt to ask.

[... We're fine... But when you're testing her I'm coming along to fix her.] I had to snort at that.

{As if you weren't already.}

[Just felt like you should know... Can you move yet?]

{Bitch, you broke my everything! NO, I can't move yet!} She had to audacity to laugh at that! I'd be offended if I didn't laugh with her.

[Oh fuck off, you fired a ROAR at me!]

{You dodged!}

[Of course I did! I can't fight that stupid shit yet Tara! Who the fuck do you think I am? GOKU?!] We just laughed even more at that, despite how much it hurt to do so. It was hard to get Martha to curse, but when I did, it was always great.

{But ughhh, did you have to throw the TREES at me too? The boulders on their own would've been enough.} No, I was NOT salty about the trees and the fact they hurt me, why would you ever think that?

[Eh, I was still pissed at you.]

{Are you now?}

[Not really. I got it out by the time I hit you with that Arc flame pillar.] I just blinked at that.

{Wait a minute... Didn't you just say...}

[Whoops. Guess you'll have to figure out which one was the lie then.]

{Ex-fucking-scuse me?} The audacity of this bitch!

[You heard me Tara.]

{So you threw BOULDERS AND TREES AT ME FOR THE FUCK OF IT?!}

[Hmm... Yeah. Pretty much.]

I just STARED at her for that, because what do you say to that? {... You are so unbelievably lucky I am in excruciating pain right now.}

[I'll heal you right now if you drop it.]

{You dastardly bitch... Fine. you have a deal.} I felt her smirk, I didn't even need to see it.

Martha eventually managed to reach me and put one of her hands on mine, and started healing me. She even made a lightning bead, and fed it to me.

5 minutes of healing and lightning later. and I was as good as new.

Martha on the other hand was better, but she still had some broken bones and was too tired to move on her own yet. So I fully transformed, and let her lay on my back as I healed. [You're such bullshit. I broke your 'everything' and now it's like we never fought. This world needs to nerf dragons. You're all bullshit.]

I snorted at that. {You're atleast 70% responsible for me being all good again, you can't complain. And I'm literally the only dragon you know.}

[Yes I can complain, and I will continue to do so. And so what? If you're anything close to the dragons of this reality, then all dragons are unfair creatures.] That amused the hell out of me.

{Whatever. So... I definitely won that, right?}

Martha looked at and sent me the most unamused deadpan I think I've ever gotten in my life. Either of em. [Tara... Do not make me drop another fucking tree on you.]

{So a draw then?}

[... Gods I hate you. Fine, it was a draw]

{Love you too Martha.} It always amused me how much our dynamic changed after a spar, and in this case, a fight.

I shook my head from those thoughts, and just looked out at our training ground. The earth where my starting Axe kick hit was cracked open, the grass was either wilted or scorched, a bunch of trees were either up-rooted, broken, or just straight up gone because of my roar. Speaking of my roar, {How long do you think it'll take for THAT to heal?} Martha raised her head to look at what I was pointing at, and just groaned. There was a crater of devastation where my roar impacted the forest, and I think it was a record.

[Probably a month. You blew it to high hell with that roar.] Definitely a record. I just hummed and looked around the rest of the training ground. There were still some stone bolts laying around, and there was some mud and puddles pooled around the area too. It'd probably take a week for that kind of stuff to be cleaned by the runes, oh well. We just laid there in comfortable silence as Martha went back to healing herself.

15 minutes later and Martha was good as new. I went to my chest and grabbed the spare clothes I knew we'd need, and put mine on and went to collect all of my broken scales and fangs while Martha put on hers. After we were done, we were about to head back home when I smelled something weird.

Thanks to granddad and by extension Irina's dad, I knew what holy smelt like, but this? This smelt like the opposite. And with the knowledge we had? I knew right away what it was. {Martha, I think there's a Devil coming here.}

Martha stopped fiddling with her sandals, and just processed what I thought. She turned thoughtful and I could feel the gears turning in her head. [How long till it gets here?]

I started to sniff, and tried to figure that out. {5 minutes?} The gears kept churning and eventually she came up with something.

[Go in the opposite direction and try to get to lower ground. Your scent is probably scattered all around here, so if you go somewhere lower it should be harder to find you. I'll see if it's hostile. If it is, come back and help me take it down. But don't kill it, we need information about this race after all.] I nodded and took off.

I couldn't find somewhere low low, but I did find an empty burrow of something big. It wasn't big enough to fit in, of course, so I enlarged it and crawled in. I had Martha in my line of sight, so she wouldn't be in danger, and I could just lightning enhance myself to flash over. The only thing that we were waiting on now was the devil.

And it didn't take long for it to get here. But the scent of the thing almost made me puke. I smelled the dark scent first because it was the strongest, but now that it was closer? The damned thing smelled bloody! And it just looked disgusting. It was at least 7ft/a bit over 2ms tall, and the thing looked like a corpse. The top half looked like someone tried to fuse a mantis and Deadpool's face with a blender! It even had this sickly bug wing twitching out of it's back, and this mangled arm that ended like a cleaver. Whatever the thing was, there was no way in hell it was sane! It didn't help my thoughts that the fucker had a mandible that was flapping like it was broken either.

"DraaaAaaGGOOnnlIIng whEEErEEEE?!" Even the way the thing talked was wrong. Martha didn't even hesitate and just skewered the thing in a cage of stone spikes. It didn't even get to react when it was turned into a shish-kabob.

[Ok... Now I know why they say plans never survive contact with the enemy.] That was an understatement if I'd ever heard one. That thing looked more monster then humanoid, so it wasn't a standard devil.

I walked over to her and looked down at the thing. "Think this is one of those 'strays' we know about?" Martha just looked at it with me.

"Definitely. If there was an entire race of creatures like this then it's a miracle they survived for as long as they have." I nodded to there was a race of bug people, or just monster people in general, they'd probably be ganked by everyone.

"So what do we do with it?" She raised a brow at me, conjured up a ball of flames, and launched it at the corpse. 30 seconds later and it was nothing but ash. "What corpse? I don't see a corpse here." I just blinked at her and snorted.

"Mom and I are horrible influences on you."

"Oh absolutely, but I wouldn't change it for all the money in the world."

"Damn right." And we left. Neither of us were bothered that we just killed/watched something get killed, and that made me think."Why am I not bothered that you just killed that thing?"

Martha hummed before she answered. "Thank our Grandfather for that. It was a subtle thing. He helped condition us into accepting killing as something that happens. He knew that I realized, but we never brought it up." That made me stop and just stare. Even as Martha kept walking.

"When the fuck did do that?"

"2 years ago. After we told him about who we were. It was his hidden reason for upping our training." That made so much sense it was embarrassing that I didn't realize it.

"Ughhh, and when'd you realize it?"

"A week after. It really was a subtle thing." Atleast she didn't figure it out on the spot. That would've made it worse.

We just kept walking home and eventually made it. It was a Sunday so there wasn't any school for mom to be at, so she was there when we got home.

When we opened the door, she just turned towards us and muted the TV. "Everything good girls?"

""Yeah."" Unintentionally talking at the same time was fun.

I could tell mom looked Relieved at that, and sank into the couch. "Great. The gym opens in an hour. Any ideas on what you want to do while we wait?"

Thinking about it, I eventually decided to spoil myself. "I'm going to the cake shop. Anyone want anything?"

""Strawberry/Red velvet."" We just turned to our mom when she said that. She even looked offended when we did.

"What? I'm going to work it off aren't I?" She had a point. I took it in stride, and went to her room to grab her purse. She trusted us with her money so she just left it on the nightstand. After I got enough Yen for the cakes, then left and went to the cake store.

Not knowing I was about to meet my future bestfriend/new sister.

[Omake - Motherly concern. Illiya's POV after the girls left.]

As soon as the girls left, I collapsed into the couch, and just stared at the ceiling. I didn't expect Martha to have such a strong reaction to me wanting to stay with them. I knew it was a major decision, I was basically telling them I'd fight Angels and Demons to stay by their sides, and willing to outlive all of my friends and family. But I was set on this, and nothing was going to change my mind. (Hopefully they don't hurt each other too badly.)

A year or so ago, the girls stopped letting me come watch their training sessions. Mostly because I was working, but even when I wasn't at work, they said it was fine, and would go on their own. I was suspicious of why, but when Martha put the Bounded Field up, I could never find the clearing they used to train in. It slowly but surely frustrated me, and was partly the reason I wanted to do this. They were training/fighting, I knew they were, and I couldn't do anything about it. Even when they came home, Tara either being exhausted or fine, while Martha was always exhausted but obviously satisfied.

That just made me think of scenarios where they would just walk out of the house one day, and come back hours or days later, hurt more then I'd ever see them, or maybe without their other half. I was scared of that, and wanted to do anything I could so my fears would never come to light.

So even if I had to break some bones, I'd do my best to stick with them.

And hopefully the bones wouldn't be all mine.