Chapter 2: The Real Trouble Begins
When the two of them reached the bathhouse Kira looked at Aura. "You do know how these places work, right?" "Well, I've never been to one," Aura began, "but I'm pretty sure I know what to do. You just go in, get naked, put your clothes into a locker, wash yourself, dry off, and get dressed again." "Uhm, yeah. That's pretty much it," Kira said, opening the door. "After you." Aura walked in with Kira not far behind.
"Are the two of you together?" the bathhouse attendant asked as Kira and Aura walked in.
"Yes, we are." "Did you bring your own bath supplies?" Kira rummaged through his bag and sweat dropped. "Ah, no. I… We accidentally left our stuff at the apartment." "Admission for two and two bath kits comes to 2400 yen," the attendant said, holding out his hand. Kira pulled a couple of bills and coins out of his wallet and handed them to the attendant. "Thank you." The attendant stowed the money in a drawer and pulled out a pair of tubs with shampoo, bath soap, and a bath sponge that he then handed to Aura and Kira. "Enjoy your bath." "Here's some change for the lockers," Kira said, handing Aura a 100 yen coin. "I'll see you in a little while." Aura just gave him "the Look" and smiled. "Oh, I'm sure you will," she said as she walked towards the women's bath, making a shiver run down Kira's spine.
Kira just stared warily at the entrance to the women's bath, and then he walked into the men's locker room. "Thank God the men and women's baths are separate," he thought as he put a coin into the locker in front of him, opened it up, and took the key. "I can only imagine what she would do if we had to take a bath together." He got undressed, stowed all his clothes in the locker, took two towels from the shelf, and wrapped one of them around his entire body. Then Kira used the safety pin on the key to attach it to his second towel and walked into the men's bath. Or at least, he thought he walked into the men's bath. When he looked around he saw that he was actually standing at the edge of a secluded mountain hot spring. He turned around to see how he had gotten there and saw nothing but a shadowed rock wall. "This is really weird," he said to himself.
"So, are you going to get in or not?" a low musical voice behind Kira said.
"Oh no…" Kira turned back towards the hot spring and saw Aura, fortunately with a towel wrapped around her, standing in the hot spring with her arms folded on the rocks staring at him. "I think I'm going to get a headache," Kira said, rubbing his temples.
"Come on," Aura wheedled. "We both need someone to wash our backs." Kira's expression suddenly became dark. "I'll leave my back dirty, thank you very much." "You don't really have much of a choice," Aura said sweetly.
Kira glared at Aura for a moment, then his expression lightened a little bit. "Oh well, if you want to," he said, setting his second towel on the rocks and stepping into the hot spring.
"Oh good. I thought you were going to argue with me for half an hour before you would get in," Aura said as soaped up her bath sponge. "Why do you have a towel wrapped around you like a girl?" "You'll see in just a second," Kira said as he turned around and loosened his towel. When he slid the towel so it only covered him from the waist down Aura gasped. Running from his right shoulder to his waist was an ugly, ragged scar.
"How did this happen?" Aura asked sadly as she ran her finger down the scar.
"Do you really want to know?" "Of course I do," Aura said as she began scrubbing Kira's back.
Kira sighed. "A few years ago, when I was a freshman, a group of senior jocks decided that I needed to be 'put in my place'. They confronted me outside of the school and tried to intimidate me. I decided to stand up to them and it turned into a fight. I don't remember much from the fight, but I somehow took out four of the school's best athletes before the last two beat me down. The leader of that little group picked me up by my shoulders and slammed me against a very large, very sharp rock. Apparently the idiot who decided to assault me didn't know the rock was that sharp, because when he saw all of the blood on the rock and the gash in my back he gathered his buddies up and got out of there as fast as they could. After laying there for a couple of minutes I got up and staggered to the hospital, bleeding all the way. When I got there the doctor tried to get me to take an anesthetic, but I just sat down on the examining table, shocked both the doctor and the nurse by yanking my shirt of and throwing it into the corner of the room, and told them to get on with it. I was so pissed off that I barely felt it when they started stitching me up. When they were done I got off the table and started to walk out. One of the doctors tried to stop me, telling me that, with all the blood I lost, I would need an immediate transfusion of I would probably die. I'm not sure why, but I knew that there was no chance in Hell that I was going to die. I just stood there glaring at the doctor, and a second later he got out of my way like he thought I was going to rip his throat out to get the blood he said I needed. I stalked back to the foster home the orphanage had decided to stick me with, and I must have looked like an absolute nightmare because when my foster parents saw me the color drained out of their faces and they suddenly decided that they had to go run some errands. When I got to my room and saw my reflection in the mirror I noticed that the silver marks on my face had turned a dark, blood red."
Aura, who had finished scrubbing a while ago, finally said, "I'm done."
Kira dunked himself in the water to rinse off and then stood back up. He got the bath sponge soapy again and waited. Aura undid her towel from around herself and just held it up to her chest to cover her while Kira washed her back. "Anyway," Kira began again as he started scrubbing, "when I woke up the next morning my birthmarks had changed back to their usual dull silver, but even weirder than that was the fact that the gash on my back had already healed. I was a little surprised, to say the least, but I wasn't the only one. When I got to school the jocks who I had fought saw me. They just stared at me wide eyed for a minute and then bolted like a bunch of scared rabbits. It was actually pretty funny. Well, apparently a number of my fellow students had seen me as I stalked to the hospital with that huge gash, because everyone at the school knew at least the basics of what happened. Some of the more popular rumors were pretty strange. They were pretty scared by what they had heard, and most of them started calling me a 'freak'." Kira let out a little laugh. "A few of the kids even had the guts to call me a 'demon'. I can't really blame them, though. I probably did look like a demon." He tapped Aura between the shoulder blades. "I'm done now."
Aura ducked into the water to rinse off, and when she came up she was facing Kira. "You've been through a lot, haven't you?" she asked as she fastened her towel behind her.
"Yeah, I guess so," Kira said. Then he grinned, showing his oddly fanglike teeth. "But I'm vicious enough that no one gives me crap twice."
"I can see that."
"Anyway, can you use that illusion of yours to put a curtain up between us so we can finish washing in privacy?" Kira asked.
"I suppose so," Aura sighed. "Just tell me when you're finished." She picked up her tub and her second towel and started walking away. After she had gotten about five feet away a black wall appeared between her and Kira.
Kira put some shampoo in his hands and started washing his hair. "I guess she's not too bad, even if she is a demoness." He continued washing his hair for the next few minutes and then let out a frustrated sigh. "If I didn't like how I looked with long hair so much then I'd just chop it all off," he said to himself, dunking his head in the water. He soaped up his bath sponge and scrubbed his upper body. Then he completely took off his towel and started scrubbing his lower body. When he had finished and rinsed off he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He quickly got out of the hot spring, would his towel around himself again, and grabbed his second towel with the locker key. Only then did he look around, and he didn't like what he saw. A large number of small, very naked blue women were walking towards him, smiling and giggling. "Aura, are you done yet?" Kira shouted.
"I was finished ten minutes ago," Aura shouted back.
"Then get over here, quick!"
"Why?"
Kira looked at the nude multitude drawing nearer by the second. "We've got some problems," Kira said, swallowing hard.
"What kind of prob..." Aura began, but then the wall of darkness disolved and she saw for herself. "Get away from him!" she snarled, her fingernails changing into dragon-like claws. When she appeared the blue women changed as well, their faces contorting into hideous expressions of rage. "Get to the shadows!," Aura yelled as she lashed out at the blue women who jumped to attack her.
Kira ran over to the shadowed rock he had appeared in front of and Aura dove to the side, disappearing into the shadows next to her. The next thing Kira knew he was being pulled backwards, and then he and Aura were standing in a shadowy and secluded corner of the men's locker room. "That was an interesting way to travel," Kira said.
"Yeah, well, it gets me where I'm going," Aura said as she reached through the shadows and pulled out her dry towel and locker key. "Dry off and get dressed. I'll meet you outside in a little bit." She walked into the shadows and disappeared.
Kira dried off, pulled on his clean white tee shirt, black jeans, and his usual trench coat and boots. Then he stuffed his dirty clothes into the bag he had brought, walked out of the bathhouse, and waited. A few minutes later Aura walked out looking absolutely glorious in her new clothes. Kira swallowed hard at the sight and then said, "So, how are you planning to make my life more interesting now?" He was trying to be sarcastic, but for some reason it came out a hopeful and a slightly pleading.
"You seem to have something in mind already," Aura said, smiling archly.
Kira blushed furiously and mentally slapped himself a couple of times. "How about we go get some dinner?" he asked, his voice wavering a bit.
"Oh? I thought you were going to ask me something else," Aura mocked, making Kira blush again. She laughed. "Sure, let's get dinner," she repented.
Kira breathed a sigh of relief and then noticed the bags of dirty clothing he and Aura were carrying. "Anything you can do about these?" he asked, holding his bag up.
Aura took the bag from Kira and tossed both bags at a shadowed wall. They disappeared into the shadows and Aura dusted off her hands. "Easy. Now let's go," she said, taking Kira's hand.
The two of them set off down the street. As they walked Aura's smile degenerated into a scowl. After a few minutes of walking in silence Kira turned to her. "What were those things back at the hotspring?"
"They were water nymphs," Aura replied crossly. "The enjoy playing with men bigger than they are." She put emphasis on the word playing.
"Oh." They walked without talking for a few more minutes, and then Kira spoke up again. "You seem to be really angry. Is it something I did?"
Aura squeezed his hand affectionatly and smiled at him. "Don't worry, I'm not angry at you," she said. The she scowled again and her grip became painful. "I'm angry at Hild!" she almost shouted. "She should have kept that whole thing with the sprites from happening."
Kira put his arm around Aura's shoulders, startling her. "Don't worry about it too much," he said calmly. "What's done is done. And besides, we didn't get hurt, did we?"
Aura looked into Kira's eyes and smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right," she said, laying her head on his shoulder.
"By the way," Kira began, "who is Hild?"
Ten minutes later Kira was nodding his head as Aura finished her explanation. "So, what you're saying is that Hild is your boss?"
"Yup, that's about the size of it," Aura replied.
"Hmmm, the Queen of Hell," Kira mused. "Interesting. I always thought it had a King. Anyway, we're here."
Aura picked her head up off of Kira's shoulder and looked at the restaurant they had come to. "McDonalds!" she nearly shouted, incredulous. "You consider McDonalds a romantic dinner spot?!"
"Will you please take some pity on my wallet?" Kira begged.
"Well, I guess I can," Aura said impishly. "But only because you asked so nicely." She and Kira started laughing and the two walked into the fast food joint.
After about five minutes Kira and Aura walked out of the McDonalds, each of them with a burger in one hand and a drink in the other. "So," Kira started to say between bites of burger, "why should this Hild person have headed off the bathhouse incident?"
"Because those sprites were a form of lesser demon," Aura said, taking a sip from her drink. "They would have listened to her. And, since you have entered into a Pact with Hell the demon race as a whole is supposed to keep you out of danger, at least for the most part, for the term of your contract.
"Kinfret?" Kira mumbled, his mouth full. He swallowed and tried again. "Contract? What Contract?"
"When you made your wish you entered into a contract with Hell," Aura replied. She took a bite out of her burger and swallowed, barely chewing. "Don't worry about it too much, it's no big deal."
"I'll take your word for it." Kira washed down the last bite of his burger with a large gulp of his drink. "Anyway, don't worry about the water sprite thing. Hild was probably just too busy to be bothered. I mean, if she's the Queen of Hell then she must have a lot of work she has to do, right? It probably wasn't anything sinister."
"Maybe," Aura replied warily, "but, like I said, those water sprites are lesser demons. When they saw you were under my protection they should have just disappeared. Instead they tried to fight me. Something doesn't seem right. And besides, you don't know Hild..."
In Hell Hild was sitting on her throne while she watched a recording taken by one of the water sprites. "I don't remember much from the fight, but I somehow took out four of the school's best athletes before the last two beat me down," Kira said in the recording. Hild fast-forwarded it for a minute. "When I got to my room and saw my reflection in the mirror I noticed that the silver marks on my face had turned a dark, blood red." Hild fast-forwarded the recording again. "When I woke up the next morning my birthmarks had changed back to their usual dull silver, but even weirder than that was the fact that the gash on my back had already healed." Fast-forward one more time. "A few of the kids even had the guts to call me a 'demon'."
Hild stopped the recording and broke into a wide grin. "This is just getting better and better," she said to herself. "I think I'll check this kitten out myself."
That evening Kira was lying on his futon, thinking while Aura finished up in the bathroom. "She's going to insist on sleeping in the same futon as me," Kira said to himself, "so I might as well get used to it. Oh well. Worse things have happened in my life and I've adapted pretty quickly. This shouldn't be too hard." When Aura came out of the bathroom, however, Kira's eyes widened. Aura wasn't wearing anything but a very lacy black bra and thong. "You have got to be kidding me," Kira squeeked.
"Nope," Aura replied as she got into the futon. "We didn't get me any nightgowns." She snuggled up to Kira's back and inhaled sharply, causing Kira to squeek again. "Besides, this is my revenge for taking me to McDonalds for our first date."
The next day Kira woke up very angry at two o'clock in the morning to the sound of someone banging on the door. Fortunatly, Aura had rolled over in the middle of the night and lost her death-grip on him. "Well, at least she won't have to wake up this early." As the banging continued he pulled on a shirt and went to the door. When he opened it he saw a beautiful, dark skinned woman with long silver hair in a pizza delivery outfit.
"I have a pizza here for 'Kira Shanio'," she said. "Is he here?"
Kira glared at her for a minute. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"It's about two in the morning," the woman said sweetly.
"Wait here just a second." Kira walked back into the apartment and closed the door.
"This isn't looking too good," Hild said to herself. "Sure, it's early in the morning, but he's not showing much spirit." She heard a steely rasp come from inside.
"Kira, what's going on?" Aura's voice came through the door.
"Just go back to bed," Kira's said. "I'm dealing with a minor annoyance." The door to the apartment opened again to reveal Kira standing in the doorway with a wakizashi in his right hand. He swung the japanese short sword up, placing the point at the delivery woman's throat. "I don't know who you are," he scowled, "but I know that I didn't order any damn pizzas. Now I'm going to give you a pop quiz. Don't worry, it's multiple choice. You can either run away as fast as your pretty little legs can carry you, or you can go home with somewhere between three and four feet of steel rammed down your throat. Choose quickly, the clock is ticking. Tick, tock. Tick, tock."
The silver haired woman swallowed hard. "I'll be leaving now."
"Good choice." Kira turned back into the apartment and slammed the door behind him.
Hild smiled as her clothes faded from the quaint little delivery costume to her usual outfit. "He certainly has the attitude of a demon. I just need one final test, then I'll know for sure." She disappeared in a burst of flame.
In the apartment Aura was sitting up on the futon, watching Kira as he sheathed the wakizashi and hung it back up on the wall with its matching katana. "So, what was it?"
"Just an anoying prankster," Kira said as he got back onto the futon. "It happens every so often. Just go back to bed, we've got a good four hours of sleep left."
When the two of them reached the bathhouse Kira looked at Aura. "You do know how these places work, right?" "Well, I've never been to one," Aura began, "but I'm pretty sure I know what to do. You just go in, get naked, put your clothes into a locker, wash yourself, dry off, and get dressed again." "Uhm, yeah. That's pretty much it," Kira said, opening the door. "After you." Aura walked in with Kira not far behind.
"Are the two of you together?" the bathhouse attendant asked as Kira and Aura walked in.
"Yes, we are." "Did you bring your own bath supplies?" Kira rummaged through his bag and sweat dropped. "Ah, no. I… We accidentally left our stuff at the apartment." "Admission for two and two bath kits comes to 2400 yen," the attendant said, holding out his hand. Kira pulled a couple of bills and coins out of his wallet and handed them to the attendant. "Thank you." The attendant stowed the money in a drawer and pulled out a pair of tubs with shampoo, bath soap, and a bath sponge that he then handed to Aura and Kira. "Enjoy your bath." "Here's some change for the lockers," Kira said, handing Aura a 100 yen coin. "I'll see you in a little while." Aura just gave him "the Look" and smiled. "Oh, I'm sure you will," she said as she walked towards the women's bath, making a shiver run down Kira's spine.
Kira just stared warily at the entrance to the women's bath, and then he walked into the men's locker room. "Thank God the men and women's baths are separate," he thought as he put a coin into the locker in front of him, opened it up, and took the key. "I can only imagine what she would do if we had to take a bath together." He got undressed, stowed all his clothes in the locker, took two towels from the shelf, and wrapped one of them around his entire body. Then Kira used the safety pin on the key to attach it to his second towel and walked into the men's bath. Or at least, he thought he walked into the men's bath. When he looked around he saw that he was actually standing at the edge of a secluded mountain hot spring. He turned around to see how he had gotten there and saw nothing but a shadowed rock wall. "This is really weird," he said to himself.
"So, are you going to get in or not?" a low musical voice behind Kira said.
"Oh no…" Kira turned back towards the hot spring and saw Aura, fortunately with a towel wrapped around her, standing in the hot spring with her arms folded on the rocks staring at him. "I think I'm going to get a headache," Kira said, rubbing his temples.
"Come on," Aura wheedled. "We both need someone to wash our backs." Kira's expression suddenly became dark. "I'll leave my back dirty, thank you very much." "You don't really have much of a choice," Aura said sweetly.
Kira glared at Aura for a moment, then his expression lightened a little bit. "Oh well, if you want to," he said, setting his second towel on the rocks and stepping into the hot spring.
"Oh good. I thought you were going to argue with me for half an hour before you would get in," Aura said as soaped up her bath sponge. "Why do you have a towel wrapped around you like a girl?" "You'll see in just a second," Kira said as he turned around and loosened his towel. When he slid the towel so it only covered him from the waist down Aura gasped. Running from his right shoulder to his waist was an ugly, ragged scar.
"How did this happen?" Aura asked sadly as she ran her finger down the scar.
"Do you really want to know?" "Of course I do," Aura said as she began scrubbing Kira's back.
Kira sighed. "A few years ago, when I was a freshman, a group of senior jocks decided that I needed to be 'put in my place'. They confronted me outside of the school and tried to intimidate me. I decided to stand up to them and it turned into a fight. I don't remember much from the fight, but I somehow took out four of the school's best athletes before the last two beat me down. The leader of that little group picked me up by my shoulders and slammed me against a very large, very sharp rock. Apparently the idiot who decided to assault me didn't know the rock was that sharp, because when he saw all of the blood on the rock and the gash in my back he gathered his buddies up and got out of there as fast as they could. After laying there for a couple of minutes I got up and staggered to the hospital, bleeding all the way. When I got there the doctor tried to get me to take an anesthetic, but I just sat down on the examining table, shocked both the doctor and the nurse by yanking my shirt of and throwing it into the corner of the room, and told them to get on with it. I was so pissed off that I barely felt it when they started stitching me up. When they were done I got off the table and started to walk out. One of the doctors tried to stop me, telling me that, with all the blood I lost, I would need an immediate transfusion of I would probably die. I'm not sure why, but I knew that there was no chance in Hell that I was going to die. I just stood there glaring at the doctor, and a second later he got out of my way like he thought I was going to rip his throat out to get the blood he said I needed. I stalked back to the foster home the orphanage had decided to stick me with, and I must have looked like an absolute nightmare because when my foster parents saw me the color drained out of their faces and they suddenly decided that they had to go run some errands. When I got to my room and saw my reflection in the mirror I noticed that the silver marks on my face had turned a dark, blood red."
Aura, who had finished scrubbing a while ago, finally said, "I'm done."
Kira dunked himself in the water to rinse off and then stood back up. He got the bath sponge soapy again and waited. Aura undid her towel from around herself and just held it up to her chest to cover her while Kira washed her back. "Anyway," Kira began again as he started scrubbing, "when I woke up the next morning my birthmarks had changed back to their usual dull silver, but even weirder than that was the fact that the gash on my back had already healed. I was a little surprised, to say the least, but I wasn't the only one. When I got to school the jocks who I had fought saw me. They just stared at me wide eyed for a minute and then bolted like a bunch of scared rabbits. It was actually pretty funny. Well, apparently a number of my fellow students had seen me as I stalked to the hospital with that huge gash, because everyone at the school knew at least the basics of what happened. Some of the more popular rumors were pretty strange. They were pretty scared by what they had heard, and most of them started calling me a 'freak'." Kira let out a little laugh. "A few of the kids even had the guts to call me a 'demon'. I can't really blame them, though. I probably did look like a demon." He tapped Aura between the shoulder blades. "I'm done now."
Aura ducked into the water to rinse off, and when she came up she was facing Kira. "You've been through a lot, haven't you?" she asked as she fastened her towel behind her.
"Yeah, I guess so," Kira said. Then he grinned, showing his oddly fanglike teeth. "But I'm vicious enough that no one gives me crap twice."
"I can see that."
"Anyway, can you use that illusion of yours to put a curtain up between us so we can finish washing in privacy?" Kira asked.
"I suppose so," Aura sighed. "Just tell me when you're finished." She picked up her tub and her second towel and started walking away. After she had gotten about five feet away a black wall appeared between her and Kira.
Kira put some shampoo in his hands and started washing his hair. "I guess she's not too bad, even if she is a demoness." He continued washing his hair for the next few minutes and then let out a frustrated sigh. "If I didn't like how I looked with long hair so much then I'd just chop it all off," he said to himself, dunking his head in the water. He soaped up his bath sponge and scrubbed his upper body. Then he completely took off his towel and started scrubbing his lower body. When he had finished and rinsed off he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He quickly got out of the hot spring, would his towel around himself again, and grabbed his second towel with the locker key. Only then did he look around, and he didn't like what he saw. A large number of small, very naked blue women were walking towards him, smiling and giggling. "Aura, are you done yet?" Kira shouted.
"I was finished ten minutes ago," Aura shouted back.
"Then get over here, quick!"
"Why?"
Kira looked at the nude multitude drawing nearer by the second. "We've got some problems," Kira said, swallowing hard.
"What kind of prob..." Aura began, but then the wall of darkness disolved and she saw for herself. "Get away from him!" she snarled, her fingernails changing into dragon-like claws. When she appeared the blue women changed as well, their faces contorting into hideous expressions of rage. "Get to the shadows!," Aura yelled as she lashed out at the blue women who jumped to attack her.
Kira ran over to the shadowed rock he had appeared in front of and Aura dove to the side, disappearing into the shadows next to her. The next thing Kira knew he was being pulled backwards, and then he and Aura were standing in a shadowy and secluded corner of the men's locker room. "That was an interesting way to travel," Kira said.
"Yeah, well, it gets me where I'm going," Aura said as she reached through the shadows and pulled out her dry towel and locker key. "Dry off and get dressed. I'll meet you outside in a little bit." She walked into the shadows and disappeared.
Kira dried off, pulled on his clean white tee shirt, black jeans, and his usual trench coat and boots. Then he stuffed his dirty clothes into the bag he had brought, walked out of the bathhouse, and waited. A few minutes later Aura walked out looking absolutely glorious in her new clothes. Kira swallowed hard at the sight and then said, "So, how are you planning to make my life more interesting now?" He was trying to be sarcastic, but for some reason it came out a hopeful and a slightly pleading.
"You seem to have something in mind already," Aura said, smiling archly.
Kira blushed furiously and mentally slapped himself a couple of times. "How about we go get some dinner?" he asked, his voice wavering a bit.
"Oh? I thought you were going to ask me something else," Aura mocked, making Kira blush again. She laughed. "Sure, let's get dinner," she repented.
Kira breathed a sigh of relief and then noticed the bags of dirty clothing he and Aura were carrying. "Anything you can do about these?" he asked, holding his bag up.
Aura took the bag from Kira and tossed both bags at a shadowed wall. They disappeared into the shadows and Aura dusted off her hands. "Easy. Now let's go," she said, taking Kira's hand.
The two of them set off down the street. As they walked Aura's smile degenerated into a scowl. After a few minutes of walking in silence Kira turned to her. "What were those things back at the hotspring?"
"They were water nymphs," Aura replied crossly. "The enjoy playing with men bigger than they are." She put emphasis on the word playing.
"Oh." They walked without talking for a few more minutes, and then Kira spoke up again. "You seem to be really angry. Is it something I did?"
Aura squeezed his hand affectionatly and smiled at him. "Don't worry, I'm not angry at you," she said. The she scowled again and her grip became painful. "I'm angry at Hild!" she almost shouted. "She should have kept that whole thing with the sprites from happening."
Kira put his arm around Aura's shoulders, startling her. "Don't worry about it too much," he said calmly. "What's done is done. And besides, we didn't get hurt, did we?"
Aura looked into Kira's eyes and smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right," she said, laying her head on his shoulder.
"By the way," Kira began, "who is Hild?"
Ten minutes later Kira was nodding his head as Aura finished her explanation. "So, what you're saying is that Hild is your boss?"
"Yup, that's about the size of it," Aura replied.
"Hmmm, the Queen of Hell," Kira mused. "Interesting. I always thought it had a King. Anyway, we're here."
Aura picked her head up off of Kira's shoulder and looked at the restaurant they had come to. "McDonalds!" she nearly shouted, incredulous. "You consider McDonalds a romantic dinner spot?!"
"Will you please take some pity on my wallet?" Kira begged.
"Well, I guess I can," Aura said impishly. "But only because you asked so nicely." She and Kira started laughing and the two walked into the fast food joint.
After about five minutes Kira and Aura walked out of the McDonalds, each of them with a burger in one hand and a drink in the other. "So," Kira started to say between bites of burger, "why should this Hild person have headed off the bathhouse incident?"
"Because those sprites were a form of lesser demon," Aura said, taking a sip from her drink. "They would have listened to her. And, since you have entered into a Pact with Hell the demon race as a whole is supposed to keep you out of danger, at least for the most part, for the term of your contract.
"Kinfret?" Kira mumbled, his mouth full. He swallowed and tried again. "Contract? What Contract?"
"When you made your wish you entered into a contract with Hell," Aura replied. She took a bite out of her burger and swallowed, barely chewing. "Don't worry about it too much, it's no big deal."
"I'll take your word for it." Kira washed down the last bite of his burger with a large gulp of his drink. "Anyway, don't worry about the water sprite thing. Hild was probably just too busy to be bothered. I mean, if she's the Queen of Hell then she must have a lot of work she has to do, right? It probably wasn't anything sinister."
"Maybe," Aura replied warily, "but, like I said, those water sprites are lesser demons. When they saw you were under my protection they should have just disappeared. Instead they tried to fight me. Something doesn't seem right. And besides, you don't know Hild..."
In Hell Hild was sitting on her throne while she watched a recording taken by one of the water sprites. "I don't remember much from the fight, but I somehow took out four of the school's best athletes before the last two beat me down," Kira said in the recording. Hild fast-forwarded it for a minute. "When I got to my room and saw my reflection in the mirror I noticed that the silver marks on my face had turned a dark, blood red." Hild fast-forwarded the recording again. "When I woke up the next morning my birthmarks had changed back to their usual dull silver, but even weirder than that was the fact that the gash on my back had already healed." Fast-forward one more time. "A few of the kids even had the guts to call me a 'demon'."
Hild stopped the recording and broke into a wide grin. "This is just getting better and better," she said to herself. "I think I'll check this kitten out myself."
That evening Kira was lying on his futon, thinking while Aura finished up in the bathroom. "She's going to insist on sleeping in the same futon as me," Kira said to himself, "so I might as well get used to it. Oh well. Worse things have happened in my life and I've adapted pretty quickly. This shouldn't be too hard." When Aura came out of the bathroom, however, Kira's eyes widened. Aura wasn't wearing anything but a very lacy black bra and thong. "You have got to be kidding me," Kira squeeked.
"Nope," Aura replied as she got into the futon. "We didn't get me any nightgowns." She snuggled up to Kira's back and inhaled sharply, causing Kira to squeek again. "Besides, this is my revenge for taking me to McDonalds for our first date."
The next day Kira woke up very angry at two o'clock in the morning to the sound of someone banging on the door. Fortunatly, Aura had rolled over in the middle of the night and lost her death-grip on him. "Well, at least she won't have to wake up this early." As the banging continued he pulled on a shirt and went to the door. When he opened it he saw a beautiful, dark skinned woman with long silver hair in a pizza delivery outfit.
"I have a pizza here for 'Kira Shanio'," she said. "Is he here?"
Kira glared at her for a minute. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"It's about two in the morning," the woman said sweetly.
"Wait here just a second." Kira walked back into the apartment and closed the door.
"This isn't looking too good," Hild said to herself. "Sure, it's early in the morning, but he's not showing much spirit." She heard a steely rasp come from inside.
"Kira, what's going on?" Aura's voice came through the door.
"Just go back to bed," Kira's said. "I'm dealing with a minor annoyance." The door to the apartment opened again to reveal Kira standing in the doorway with a wakizashi in his right hand. He swung the japanese short sword up, placing the point at the delivery woman's throat. "I don't know who you are," he scowled, "but I know that I didn't order any damn pizzas. Now I'm going to give you a pop quiz. Don't worry, it's multiple choice. You can either run away as fast as your pretty little legs can carry you, or you can go home with somewhere between three and four feet of steel rammed down your throat. Choose quickly, the clock is ticking. Tick, tock. Tick, tock."
The silver haired woman swallowed hard. "I'll be leaving now."
"Good choice." Kira turned back into the apartment and slammed the door behind him.
Hild smiled as her clothes faded from the quaint little delivery costume to her usual outfit. "He certainly has the attitude of a demon. I just need one final test, then I'll know for sure." She disappeared in a burst of flame.
In the apartment Aura was sitting up on the futon, watching Kira as he sheathed the wakizashi and hung it back up on the wall with its matching katana. "So, what was it?"
"Just an anoying prankster," Kira said as he got back onto the futon. "It happens every so often. Just go back to bed, we've got a good four hours of sleep left."