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"Godō" - Regular Speech
'My Everyday life…!' - Thoughts
"God Slayer!" - Heretic God/Powered Up Campione speech
"Fire!" - Magic/Authority Use
Beta'd By BigCC
Chapter 21: A Parting of the Ways: Jean Sets Out Alone
Christmas Day
Living Room, Jean's Home, Rìgh Rubh'a, Scotland
Jean was feeling a great deal more cheerful now, compared to how she had been immediately after the death of Hestia. The intervening weeks, and the pleasant company of Yue and Rebecca, had allowed her to come to terms with the Hearth Goddess' death.
Now, dressed in a sweater and comfy jeans, she was smirking at the content faces of her housemates and subordinates as they relaxed on the sofa after having a home cooked Christmas dinner, one that she had cooked herself. Rebecca had tried to convince her to let her cook, but Jean had been firm about it.
"How can you cook so well without adding or using magic?" the Hearth Witch asked lazily. "It was better than my mother's Yuletide meals."
"Eh, I can't honestly say I enjoy cooking, but I made it a point to learn how to make a few meals that I'm particularly fond of so I can enjoy them whenever I want. After that, it's just a point of cooking them often enough and practising enough that I ended up fairly good with them." the Scottish Campione shrugged. "Christmas Turkey just happened to be one of those recipes, and I've never been one to enjoy it only once a year."
"Thank all the saints that you are a skilled cook, my lady." Yue sighed contentedly. The Daoist Mage looked like a cat who'd gotten the canary as she curled up on one side of the sofa. She had grown far more comfortable with Jean over the last few weeks and had flirted with Jean a few times, which was something of a relief to the redheaded girl; scaring the living daylights out of someone wasn't fun if they were supposed to be an ally.
Just about the only sour note in the last few weeks had been an accidental run-in with one of the few people that Jean absolutely loathed in the world. Daniel Alexander 'Big Eck' Jacobs was a towering boy over a year older than Jean, but had been held back a year due to both disciplinary and scholastic concerns. In other words, he was a thug, and a stupid one at that. Jean had heard rumours that he was involved in drugs and a few minor assaults over the years.
He was also a sexist, misogynistic pig who had little concern for modern society's opinion of his views. To him, women were for cooking, cleaning and screwing in bed, in that order. He had casually groped any female student of Oban High School above the age of fifteen and gotten away with it because his parents had already given up on him and didn't discipline him, he didn't care about school enough for the normal punishments to bother him, and because he scared the teachers after threatening one with a switch-blade he'd snuck in.
He had focussed on Jean at one point in her Fifth Year of High School because she had done her best to ignore him if at all possible, and someone with the ego that Big Eck had couldn't very well stand that now, could he? He'd waited until the teacher left in the middle of Computing Studies and then grabbed a double-handful of Jean's breasts and commented that he was looking forward to seeing them naked.
Whatever he'd been expecting hadn't been what happened. Jean had grabbed a finger on each hand and bent them back the wrong way, which was extremely painful. He'd let go of Jean's chest and screamed bloody murder in pain, which had made the nearest teacher run in and break things up. Big Eck had gotten into minor trouble, while Jean had been cautioned against using force where words might be more appropriate.
She had to wonder if all teachers were idiots, or if hers were just incompetents.
The large boy had cornered Jean after school and made dire threats against her if she didn't 'learn her place' with him before backhanding her across the face. She'd responded by breaking his nose and punting him in the balls several times before leaving the big man-child in the foetal position as she stormed off.
The last year and a half of her schooling had been fraught with similar confrontations, which had put Jean off of dating boys point blank. By the end of the Sixth Year Exams, Big Eck's nose had been broken at least four more times by Jean, and he'd molested her at least several times more over that time period as well.
With all of that in mind, the meeting between them had been predictably tension-wrought. Fortunately, they hadn't come to blows; a man taller than Jean was, with heavy muscles, attacking a girl in public would bring the police down on him like a ton of bricks, so he'd settled for calling her a 'fuckin' dyke whore' and sneering at her in passing.
'If he even thinks about coming near me or my girls, I will personally feed him his own jewels.' she thought grimly. No way was she going to let that brute near Rebecca or Yue. She knew that Yue, as a martial artist trained by Luo Hao, the Ruler of the Martial Realm herself, could easily beat down Big Eck, who was a clumsy brawler at best, but she had no intentions of allowing the circumstance to come to pass; Yue and Rebecca were hers and no one touched them without her permission.
Pausing at the extremely possessive thoughts she was having, Jean shook her head minutely before mentally chastening herself. Rebecca and Yue were their own women and could look after themselves perfectly well by themselves. Granted, Rebecca had sworn herself in her entirety to Jean, and Jean had been magically married to the Hearth Witch, while to the hidden world of mages and knights, Yue was Jean's concubine/mistress, all of which meant that the Scottish Campione, thanks to the oaths and responsibilities of her position, did have a duty to protect them...
'Gah! Damn these bloody instincts and the horse they rode in on! I am not a fuckin' tyrant outside of the battlefield!' Jean scowled slightly. She decided to talk to the others to distract herself.
"By the way, Yue." she said after casting about for something to talk about. "How is your workshop doing? Have you managed to get everything squared away?"
"Hmmm? Oh, yes." the Chinese girl replied, blinking. "Lu Yinghua had everything labelled properly. He also brought some very good quality tools for my medicine making and Feng Shui. I had forgotten about them; I'm glad Her Eminence was thoughtful enough to send them along with the ingredients."
The three women exchanged amused looks. Lu Yinghua was a man who had a fairly solid case of well-deserved misogyny due to the 'training' he received from Luo Hao as her personal disciple, which had made his arrival in a house full of women more than slightly trying for him, especially when one of them was a Campione.
Jean had met him in Oban and led him to the house on Kerrera, which had a quick-and-dirty bridge set up to let the occupants of the house get on and off their little island while the stone bridge was being built. After he had dropped off all of Yue's materials, Jean had told the man to have a tour of her country for a week as a reward for a job well done.
The gratitude in his voice as he gave her a Chinese salute was palpable. From what she'd gathered from the letter he sent her before he left Scotland a week later was that he'd had a great vacation...the first he'd had in over a decade.
Apparently her oldest adopted sister had a demonic work ethic. Go figure.
"I'm almost ready to do a Feng Shui reading on the house as well." Yue mentioned sleepily. "I'll wait until after New Year though; all the fuss and feathers they cause will be over with and I'll be able to concentrate."
"Regular New Year or Chinese New Year?" Jean queried with a raised eyebrow.
"Chinese, of course. It would be inauspicious to reorganize a house at the tail-end of an old year moving into the new." the martial artist replied.
"Good to know." the redhead said wryly before catching sight of something glinting around Yue's neck. "I see you're wearing my gift."
Yue blushed slightly and fingered the choker around her neck in a way that made Jean grin. The choker was black velvet, with a small metal plate at the front bearing a wave pattern. Anyone who knew who Yue was and who she served would recognize that as being Jean's symbol, the symbol of the Campione of the Raging Tides.
It had only taken [Black Armoury] two weeks to enchant it with what Jean wanted. The choker could only be removed by the person who put it on, and alerted its wearer to any mundane or magical poisons within a few meters of them. It also slightly boosted her kinaesthesia and reaction times, which made Yue a far more deadly martial artist.
"I'm happy with mine as well, but I can't exactly wear it." Rebecca interjected with a small pout. Jean had given her a very special sword that would be useful if she were attacked away from her Hearth.
"The base of the hilt can be removed and kept on you so you can remotely summon it." the redhead pointed out. "It's actually designed to be made into a necklace when separated from the sword."
"...oh..." Rebecca flushed in embarrassment. "I never noticed that."
"You were a bit concerned with cooing over how pretty it is." Yue needled her jokingly.
"You'll be the same once I finish your sword." Jean decided to stop the incipient squabble where it stood. "Fortunately, one of the weapons that Princess Alice sent along was a jian, so it's working away nicely inside of [Black Armoury]."
"Not that I'm complaining, my Lady, but why are you giving us weapons such as the one you gave to Rebecca?" Yue asked seriously.
"The Rouen incident made it clear that I have to protect Rebecca when she is outside of her Hearth." Jean sighed, one hand clenching into a fist at the memory of the foolish temerity of the Brotherhood of the Night Sky. "That applies to you as well, Yue. While Rebecca did better than I could have dared hope against powerful Knights, she was overwhelmed and captured relatively easily once the Knights of the Brotherhood got past her guard, and while you are a much better close-in fighter, you lack Rebecca's ranged capabilities. The weapons I'm giving you are to alleviate your weaknesses and enhance your strong points for if and when I have to be separated from the both of you while away from Oban."
"That...sounds fair, Jean." the Hearth Witch nodded. "But please remember to make some for yourself as well; you aren't invincible, remember."
Jean smiled bitterly. "Athena thoroughly disabused me of any notions of that sort Rebecca, have no fear. I have a couple of weapons and a few accessories that should be ready by the time I head out to meet Luo Hao in Ulaanbaatar."
"Princess Alice has already sent the plane tickets." Rebecca said with a nod.
"She has? How...of course she saw my future." Jean shook her head in amusement. "Keeping a secret from her is impossible with that future sight of hers."
"If she's looking for a future you're involved in, yes." the brunette agreed. "And you are a Campione, so she looks into the future for the eight of you fairly frequently."
"Once again, I feel like a storm front being forecast and predicted." the redhead remarked dryly.
Yue looked slightly uncomfortable, but Rebecca snorted demurely. "That's just something you're going to have to get used to, Jean. You have who-knows how many years of rule to go and this will become a common thing, even once Princess Alice passes away."
"Thank you for your sympathy, oh wife of mine. Your sympathy as my spouse is oh-so appreciated." Jean drawled on a monotone, which made Yue giggle and Rebecca roll her eyes.
"Anyway, I take it that you found out about that little titbit from Alice during that phone call you answered yesterday?" the Scottish girl asked. When Rebecca nodded, she carried on, "So was there anything else she spoke of?"
"She's asked me to come and visit her at the Witenagemot in London when you head to Mongolia." the Hearth Witch replied with a slight frown. "She wants to discuss the Piper Family and their actions towards me since I jointed the Witenagemot."
"Should I stay to make sure your great aunt can't pull a fast one on you?" Jean asked with narrowed eyes.
"No need Jean. Princess Alice has said that a fight between yourself and Lord Alec will break out if you come with me this time." Rebecca shook her head immediately. "I'll be under Princess Alice's protection, and not even Eleanor Piper will dare go against her."
"Given the number of audacious actions against you that I am almost certain that she is guilty of, I somehow think your belief in her common sense is a bit much." the Campione replied with a frown. "Yue, can I ask you to guard Rebecca when she goes to London? Better safe than sorry."
"Of course, My Lady." the Chinese girl nodded eagerly. "It will certainly be more interesting than simply house-sitting would be."
"I'll give my sister your regards when I see her." Jean smirked. "But for now, let's have some wine; I think this day has earned us all a bit of indulgence."
End of January
Edinburgh Airport, Scotland
"Well, there she goes." Rebecca mused as the plane taking Jean on her journey to Mongolia took off and started soaring through the sky.
"Indeed. We should start heading towards Edinburgh Waverley Station so we can begin our own journey to London." Yue said with a nod. "Her Majesty is more than capable of looking after herself, especially with the information you gave her on the local Mage Association in Ulaanbaatar."
"The Golden Ones are barely a Mage Association; they have one Great Knight and a Paladin barely worthy of the name." the Hearth Witch scoffed. "Only the disparate warring factions in the Middle Eastern Mage Associations are weaker than they are. And before you say it, the Witenagemot are a research and mutual support group, not a Mage Association in the proper sense."
"I said nothing." the Daoist Mage said innocently.
"You didn't need to." Rebecca grumbled as she eyed her King's mistress (in name only, for the moment anyway) with very mild irritation. "Let's get a move on then. The last thing we need is for Her Majesty to somehow find out that we're going to be meeting King Kusanagi while in London."
Yue grimaced. That she had been forced to deceive her new liege-lady sat ill with her, but when the alternative was a four-way battle royal between Jean, Alec, Godō Kusanagi and Salvatore Doni in the middle of London, there had been little choice but to comply with Alice's request.
"Are you certain that this is a good idea? Even with me as your guard, you are still vulnerable to being attacked." she asked Rebecca. As her liege lady's wife, Rebecca was someone who could give her orders and she would have to obey them so long as they were not a betrayal of her liege lady. Rebecca had taken advantage of this to persuade and order Yue into following her lead on this incident.
"I am." Rebecca replied emphatically. "Jean has enough to worry about with her upcoming fight with the Ruler of the Martial Realm; bringing my stupid former great aunt into the mix would distract her unduly and would mean her using the tickets that Princess Alice booked for her would have a chance of less than nil."
Yue was forced to agree with both points. Not giving full attention to an opponent on Luo Hao's level was tantamount to suicide, and Jean had become very protective of the two of them even before the death of Hestia. Going by some of the stories that she'd told them of her time in school, the redhead was highly protective of those she called her friends and was more than willing to spill blood in order to protect them, and damned the consequences to herself in the process.
Telling Jean that the two of them would be in danger of being attacked by Eleanor Piper, or a proxy of the woman, and would be meeting with the infamous 'Womanising Campione' in that same timeframe would have resulted in the stubborn Scotswoman refusing to let them leave her side for the next few months. No, it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission in this instance.
"When Her Majesty finds out we deceived her, we are going to be in the doghouse with her." Yue predicted gloomily. Jean would find out; the likelihood that she wouldn't was so infinitesimally small that it was non-existent.
"I know...but we can assuage her somewhat by pointing at Princess Alice and saying that she made us do it." Rebecca replied, utterly nonchalant about throwing her former boss under the bus. Better to have Princess Alice irked at them than a Campione.
"I suppose." Yue sighed. She wasn't really comfortable with the inter-association politics involved with this entire endeavour; it was one reason aside from her choice in bedmates that she had become one of Luo Hao's agents, as she was so rarely in the Holy Cult of Five Mountains' headquarters that she had almost no chance at being dragged into whatever politics and schemes were being plotted inside the place.
"Everything will work out fine." Rebecca reassured her. "Now, let's catch a taxi already!"
Two Days Later
Streets of London, England
Princess Alice (or at least the Ectoplasm Clone that she was currently projecting her mind into and controlling), was skipping through London's street happily, followed by the Seventh Campione, Godō Kusanagi, and three of his five mistresses; Erica Blandelli the Diavolo Rosso, Liliana Kranjcar the Fairy Knight, and Yuri Mariya the Priestess with Glass Eyes.
The other two members of the Seventh Campione's little harem, Ena Seishūin and Hikari Mariya, were back in Japan. Ena was recovering from the battle with Guinevere and Lancelot, while Hikari was too young to need to deal with all of these complicated matters. The latter she had foreseen, but the lack of the Hime-Miko of the Sword was a slightly unexpected occurrence.
Fortunately, at least some parts of her visions were still true, such as Godō facing and defeating Circe, and Alec stealing the Grimoire known as the Heavenly Reverse Halberd, or Hōtengeki as it might be better known as, from the Japanese Ninjutsu user. That is what started the chain of events that brought the Japanese Campione here to London at this time.
Just as she'd hoped.
With the death of the Heretic Goddess Athena and the True Goddess Hestia, and yes, that was a surprising thing to happen, the bad blood between the Seventh and Eighth Campione was very much palpable. It was something she had to take care of sharpish, otherwise things would become more than slightly problematic down the road.
The King Who Manifests at the World's End was more powerful than his fellow Heretic Gods or even most Campione, and the devastation that ran rampant in his wake was what was rumoured to have sunk Atlantis and devastated several dozen cities when he last walked the Earth. Some stories said that he didn't like his status as a Campione Slayer, while others said he gloried in the battle against powerful foes. Whichever it was, he was very hard for her prophetic vision to pin down. Still, Jean Campbell and Godō Kusanagi were vital to seeing him off, and they needed to work together and trust one another to make that happen.
"Um...Princess Alice?" Godō spoke up and snapped the Speaker of the Witenagemot out of her thoughts. "Where are you taking us?"
"Before I tell you about how to find out about Lancelot and where to begin your search, I need to have you meet some people." she replied cheerfully. "It may be an experience for you!"
"Who are we going to meet, Princess?" Liliana asked curiously. The silver-haired Great Knight was taking the opportunity to stick close to her master's side, her hand touching his occasionally as they walked. Erica flanked him on the other side, with Yuri walking next to the blond Italian, throwing slightly envious looks at the other two girls every now and again.
"Two representatives from the Eighth Campione's nascent Mage Association." Alice answered simply, leading into an old area of the Witenagemot that had been around even before the founding of the Greenwich Witenagemot in the Victorian Era. It was a building that, despite looking like a typical office building from the outside, was built with massive blocks of stone and more properly resembled a fortress than anything else. It was an old neutral area used for a meeting place used by feuding families and mage associations since it was secretly built during the time after the Great Fire of London.
As she quietly explained this to the four foreigners, they approached a large pair of double doors that swung open at their approach. Behind them was a large hall with three letters carved into the floor in block capitals; PAX.
Standing on the opposite side of the room were a pair of girls, neither older than nineteen. One was a pretty brunette with black eyes and was wearing a casual, but easy to manoeuvre in, dress. She had her hands clasped in front of her, with her right hand over her left.
The other was a pretty and svelte Chinese girl, dressed in more formal, but still practical, clothes consisting of a pair of charcoal trousers, flat-heeled shoes and a loose shirt. A small bag hung from one shoulder and had one hand resting on it. She had the air of a bodyguard about her, and her eyes had locked onto the oncoming group as soon as the doors had opened.
Rebecca Gardener and Xie Yue. The only two members of Jean Campbell's newly founded Mage Association and her close confidants, one of whom was present during her rebirth as a Campione.
"Greetings, Godō Kusanagi, Seventh Godslayer." Rebecca curtseyed to him politely. "I am Rebecca, the current head of the very small Mage Association under Her Majesty Jean Campbell, the Eighth Godslayer. This is Xie Yue, my bodyguard by order of Her Majesty."
Yue nodded slightly, her eyes not leaving the three women behind Godō. "Charmed."
"Alice-san, why are we meeting them?" Godō asked, switching to his native language for a moment.
"Because you need to hear things from their perspective." the Strongest Witch Under Heaven replied. "You need to know what happened on Rìgh Rubh'a in November. And you need to be witnesses to what is to come."
That last part made both Godō and the girls with him look warily at Rebecca and Yue, who merely looked resigned.
"It's not anything that you have to worry about. All you have to do is watch." Rebecca said with an irritate sigh. "Suffice is to say, I am going to be having an issue with my former family, and having a Campione who has no reason to take my side, as well as two Great Knights and a Hime-Miko, as impartial witnesses to it is going to be invaluable."
"Being informed of this beforehand would have been appreciated." Erica scowled.
"Better to plead forgiveness than ask permission." the Hearth Witch replied boldly, too boldly really for a weak witch in the face of a Campione and two Great Knights. Erica had to wonder exactly what made her so unaffected by their presence. Was it because she was used to the company of her own King so much?
"In all of my visions, this has the best outcome for all parties involved." Princess Alice added before moving to the centre of the room. Spreading her hands and bowing slightly, she then said formally, "As Speaker of the Greenwich Witenagemot, I officially open this session of the Court of Neutrality, between the organisation of the Seventh Campione, Godō Kusanagi, and the organisation of the Eighth Campione, Jean Campbell. King Kusanagi is speaking for himself, along with his mistresses; Erica Blandelli of the Copper-Black Cross, Liliana Kranjcar of the Bronze-Black Cross and Yuri Mariya of the Japanese History Compilation Committee. King Campbell is absent due to other obligations and has designated the head of her organisation and wife, Rebecca Campbell, her plenipotentiary. Also present is King Campbell's second mistress and designated bodyguard of Rebecca Campbell, Xie Yue, formerly of the Holy Cult of Five Mountains. I am Princess Alice and shall act as mediator for this session."
Looking between the two groups, she nodded again.
"So then, let us begin..."
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Next Chapter: Mediation and Meddling
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Godō's Authority Spotlight!
[Underworld Messenger]
Athena has always been associated with owls, specifically Little Owls. They are her sacred creature and are said to be able to pass through to the underworld.
Incantation: Sacred Owl, messenger of mine. Pass through the Underworld to where I send you thus!
Effects:
- Summons a flock of Little Owls.
- They can be sent to attack someone, but that is not the true purpose of this Authority.
- The user can see through the eyes of each bird and can also hear whatever the owls hear, making them excellent spying tools.
- The owls can travel anywhere in the world by using the Underworld as a medium, making them excellent messengers.
- With time and practice, the user can communicate with others through the owls.
Limitations:
- Only usable at night.
- If exposed to sunlight of any kind for longer than five minutes, the Authority dispels.
- The initial maximum amount of owls summonable is thirty, minimum is five. With time and practice, this will increase.
