The Nekoshou's Wolf

by Curiosity44

Reborn into DxD 20 years before Canon, Hei, a human orphan, must rise with his own will to the top, overcoming Devils, Angels, Fallen, Gods, a loli dragon, and most of all, the felines in his life as he spreads the name of his legacy, the Legacy of Lupa, a legacy of assassins. Come Join Hei on his journey as Lupus, the Nekoshou's Wolf. AU world. FUCKING READ THE WARNING

4. 3: A Village of Felines

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Disclaimer: I don't own any original content; I claim no ownership of DxD or HxH content. With that said, I sure as hell wrote this fic so don't steal my shit.

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Chapter 3: A Village of Felines.

It didn't take long for us to negotiate out a plan for the future.

I was not planning on leaving the old man's side full time just yet, and I still had to continue taking jobs and dealing with my side business, so we settled on something.

I would spend two weeks in the Nekoshou village, and two weeks back here for me to take care of my responsibilities.

Leone would take me there and back by teleportation circle.

The main form of transportation among supernatural's was teleportation circles but there were limitations on it.

For various races, it just required raw power, time, and training.

It cost a good chunk of energy to use depending on where you're going, and it's not an instant process but takes anywhere from half a minute to more depending on the users skill.

Aside from a certain devil clan anyway that has an inherent ability with it.

It still takes quite a bit of skill even if they have the raw power, and there are a lot of factors that go into it.

Especially with larger groups, the more you move and the farther, the bigger the cost.

Next you need a clear image of where you're going, or you can wind up in a random place or possibly kill yourself.

But it's humans that have it the worst off. Not only do we have low mana pools, but to use such magic requires incredibly amounts of mental calculations that very few could pull off.

Supernatural creatures are cheats, they need 1/4th of the effort to do magic.

And devils can literally create magic from imagination, within limits of course. They can make thousands of useless low grade spells, but to make anything strong requires a lot of effort and refinement.

Very few go through the effort.

But the ones who do become the source of spells that spread amongst humans and other races.

Angels and fallen mostly use holy or cursed holy energy but they have some magic skills given to them by the biblical god.

Other pantheons gave blessings to groups to perform different styles of magic.

The Shinto blessed five humans clans as well as the Yokai with youjutsu. Different Shinto gods did it of course.

Asgardians, the Hindu, the Greeks, every pantheon has their own style and system, their own monsters and people, it's really all a mess and this world is confusing.

But teleportation is more or less the same among all races with slight differences.

Leone can use it a couple times on her own or less the more people she brings along.

My teacher has gotten me a tome on it years ago and I studied it in my off time. I just didn't have the reserves of mana to actually use it, yet.

Anyway, Leone gave me three days before we would leave.

She went to go have some fun in the city while I dealt with my own things.

Spell card #8: Return – Allows caster to fly back to a previously visited location.

You can't control the flight, it only takes you from point A to point B, but it's fast and cost me nothing to use aside from the card itself.

Donning my enchanted cloak, I first flew over to my warehouse hideout in the Swiss alps.

The door was literally built into the side of a mountain a few thousand feet up, and it had a double opening, one with a human sized door and the other was for large vehicles.

I had to climb up to make it, but it was worth it.

The view is a killer.

The inside was a massive chamber with metallic walls and electric lighting that was warm and cozy verse the cold wind outside. It was literally a giant warehouse storage.

The fruit tree stood to one side, the fish pond filled with bluefin tuna was next to it, the liquor spring and water spring next to that, and the bubbling hot springs stood slightly apart.

Each hideout needs a hot spring, it's good for emergencies, to relax when needed, and the Joy's love to soak in their off time.

And across from that section was a large area with numerous shelves stacked with crates.

Some filled and sealed, others in the process of being filled, and others empty.

I found Joy scratching down notes on her clipboard, and I waved and gave her a friendly hug which she returned.

The Joy pandas are very affectionate but love to work. They take great pride in their work, and one slapped me when I tried to help with cleaning.

That was a unique moment in life, I didn't even sense the hit coming.

"Thanks as always Joy, the shipment to go is in the usual spot?"

She nodded and pointed to the side where stacked crates were waiting.

"Oh, and I need a couple bottles that we set aside for connections."

Joy flipped through her clipboard before finding what she needed and waving me forward.

I set it up so that the liquor we gained went into four categories.

Personal stock: the best of the best. I like quiet drinking, but I respect my teacher enough to not do it for a few more years.

Magical stock: Some days we get the occasional enchanted liquor from the spring, such as Fire-Whiskey or Dancing Tequila. I can't let those get out into the mundane world, so I keep them stored for now.

When I start dealing on the supernatural market, I'll get rid of the lower quality stuff.

Connection stock: Above average quality drinks that I set aside for future networking. I knew I would end up having people ask for 'favors' so I set this section.

And the final stock was the largest, the mundane stock.

While the liquor spring producing a random liquor a day sounds impressive, and it is, it usually produces mundane and average types.

There was a couple days where I got nothing but Smirnoff vodka.

I grabbed a couple bottles for Winston when another bottle caught my eye and I smirked.

Silvervine wine.

'I'm sure that should be a good gift for my first visit. It should also cause some chaos which will be fun to watch.'

I grabbed a dozen bottles and filled two small crates with one holding the bottles I set aside for Winsten.

The guy has good taste, I'll give him that.

Suntory Hibiki whiskey and Domaine Leroy series wine.

These drinks go for thousands a bottle and are not always easy to get ahold of.

I pulled out my binder and rested my hand on a crate.

"Store."

There was a puff of smoke and the crate vanished while I held a card in my hand.

'I love my ability.'

I placed it in a free slot and did the same to the other crate.

Then I went to the large supply of general crates and began loading them up while leaving only three free slots open.

Liquor, spring water, bluefin tuna, and a variety of fruits, all ready for delivery.

'A man's gotta make a living.'

Whistling a tune, I waved to Joy and walked back out, passing by another section of the warehouse with a few specific shapes hidden under tarps.

'Not yet.'

Those shapes were curtesy of a specific card in my deck.

#38: Plastic King – Recombine the parts of this 1:1 scale model kit to build any kind of vehicle. Fully functional, fuel not included.

I might have said it before, but I'll say it again.

'I love this ability.'

Leaving through the door, I crushed another Return spell card in my hand and flew off to land in an alleyway in Venice, Italy.

I made sure to place on my mask just in case and moved through the back alleys to my destination in a certain location.

I heard my snake golems hissing in welcome as I approached a normal looking dirty wall.

I held my hand against the wall and felt my hand grow warm before the wall seemed to melt away and a door appeared.

The door only appears once it senses my energy signature or the signature of anyone I set it to accept.

Plus the door itself held an access panel I had to put in a code for.

Even for me, if I got it wrong 3 times the hideout would lock me out and numerous traps alongside the venomous golem snakes would attack.

I didn't know if someone could fake my magic signature so it's just in case.

This was my officially most protected hideout.

The unofficial one would be the real vault for my valuables in Cyprus. That one is hidden under the façade of a vacation home.

Still, all hideouts have the same general defensive layout.

I put in the access code, slid open the steel door, and walked down the stairs into a bunker type of space that lit up as I walked in.

The lights illuminated the space to show one wall displaying dozens of firearms, another showing dozens of pistols in specific, another showing knives and other bladed tools, and a fourth dedicated to ammunition, and a final wall for miscellaneous tools like lock picks sets, poisons, smoke grenades, and other such thing.

An area filled with computer screens, phone lines, radios, and burner cell phones stood off to another side.

A third area of the bunker had two bedrooms, a bathroom, and basic utilities. I also had the general setup of the tree, pond, hot spring, and liquor and water fountain but they were turned off.

A fourth area had numerous sets of clothes, gear, and nutrient rich rations.

And a final area was lined with dozens of empty cases and duffle bags.

Everything was neat and organized to a T. It cost me millions to get it, but I make enough to pay for it. Paranoid I might be, but I like to be prepared.

I also have no shame in admitting this was the manliest and most satisfying thing I have made in both my lives.

I gave a hug and thanks to the Joy panda in charge of this hideout before I grabbed a case to stock up on a pistols and ammo, I had a feeling I would be needing a lot of replacements while in the Nekoshou village.

I grabbed some gear, clothes, rations, and a few other things to fill the duffle bag with.

Just a casual traveling bag for all your needs and worries.

I turned them both into cards and fit them in my free slots before waving to Joy and leaving, the locks and security activating as I left.

I moved away a bit before using another Return and flying off to the underworld black market located in port of Rotterdam, Netherlands. The largest port in Europe and the best location to have underworld goods moving quickly around the world from Europe.

It was dark outside at the port, but a certain section was alight with lights and activity.

A nocturnal market of illegal goods from all around the world collected in one place with thousands of merchants bidding, auctioning, and trading their wares.

Armed guards and goons were everywhere, hell, you stuck out if you didn't have a weapon on you.

I landed in a quiet area and moved silently through the night while pulling out my phone and sending a text to my contact.

Slipping through the security checkpoint was easy and moving without being detected by the various humans wasn't a problem.

I approached a specific warehouse and entered through an open window into an office where a middle aged man wearing sunglasses indoors sat behind his text looking at his phone.

I plopped down in the chair across his desk.

"Tom."

The man looked up and flashed me a bright white and perfect smile.

"Ah my young friend. Lupus, I always enjoy your visits."

Tom was my underworld merchant contact that my teacher introduced me to. The honorable merchant who never double crosses as long as it's not costing him money.

"I have the quarterly drop off."

Tom chuckled and sat back.

"Of course you do, you never visit unless it's to drop off or pick up."

I rose a brow under my mask.

"You're a merchant."

"I'm also a human, can't hurt to say hi once in a while."

I chuckled as he stood up and poured himself a drink.

"Care for a drink?"

The man didn't know what I looked like under the mask but even if he did, he wouldn't care, there are enough loli supernatural's out there to become immune to weird things.

I denied the drink though.

Even though I have gone through basic poison resistance training and would not be affected by basic alcohol, I didn't wish to risk my face being seen just yet.

Maybe in the future I would care less.

"How's the old man doing?"

I paused for a moment before answering.

"He's… getting there."

"I see."

We had a moment of silence before he went on.

"Listen, if you ever need to take a load off and just talk, my door, or in your case my window, is always open Lupus. I'm not usually the first person people think to share their woes with, but I can be an impartial and uninvolved opinion when you need it. Everyone needs to sometime."

I was a bit surprised at the offer, but I nodded with a small smile under my mask.

"I'll keep that in mind, thank you."

Tom nodded and lit up a cigar before pointing to a door to the side.

"Well, I won't hold you up then. Same deal as always, drop your crates in there and you will find your payment on the side."

I nodded and went inside; it was just a large empty space.

Tom never tried to watch or record me, I made sure to check each time.

"Book."

My binder came out and I reverted each card into its crate before stacking them without issue for their weight.

Once I was done, I cleared out my free slots except for five.

Then I moved to the side where a small table sat with a couple brief cases.

Opening them up I found stacks of bills neatly ordered.

I threw them all into my binder, the surface seemed to shimmer as the money entered and a small section with a digital number surface began rising up.

I was a self-made multi-millionaire before reaching ten years old.

'I wonder if I broke a record or something. eh, who knows.'

Leaving the empty cases behind, I left the room and waved to Tom.

"See you next time Tom."

He blew out some smoke and chuckled.

"Always in a rush, ah youth."

I chuckled and went to leave but he sent a parting comment.

"Oh and Lupus, congrats on joining the guild."

I paused my step for a moment before shaking my head and jumping out the window.

Tom is an honorable and nice guy to his allies, but he is still an underworld merchant, and that means information is his business.

'I doubt I'm making waves, he probably just caught on to things when the name Lupus came out."

I crushed a final Return card and went off into the sky toward the guild hotel in Barcelona.

It was time to take a few Silver rank jobs to keep the reputation going strong.

*Line Break*

A couple completed Silver rank jobs and I was set for the moment.

Two were for board members of companies and a third was to take out a warehouse full of thugs without damaging the goods.

The third had raised my body count significantly for my reputation.

There were a few dozen in there and almost everyone had a bullet hole in their head.

Clean up wasn't my job, the hit was put out by a rival gang so they could deal with it.

The money was pocket change for me but the experience and growth of my reputation and rank were important.

I treated every job seriously like a training exercise.

The higher jobs I take, the more security and danger I'll see. Some of the Gold and Steel rank jobs are targeted toward the rich and powerful in the underworld and on the surface.

The only jobs I don't take are kidnapping or children targets.

For the rest, like I said, it's just business. Good or bad is irrelevant.

When I am strong and have deep roots, I can make more decisions based on what I want.

Plus, I finally go to begin my plan.

Spell Card #7: Trade - Establish a trade between two parties. Goes into effect immediately and will be fulfilled immediately on completion of the agreement.

I met one of the clients face to mask and was able to initiate the deal.

My reputation already said I was…short, so they didn't say anything on my appearance.

The cloak and mask don't make people ask to many questions, rather it makes them not want to be alone in a room with me.

I crushed the card in my hand under the cloak and worded the request carefully, and the client verbally agreed, sealing the contract.

Once the job was complete, I felt it.

A rush of energy seemed to fill me for a brief moment before settling.

The client was an untrained human, probably didn't have more than 10 units of mana, but my first exposure to it, and the actual confirmation of what my ability was capable of just had me smiling wide while standing on a rooftop and looking off into the lit up nighttime city.

I wasn't sure exactly what my mana pool level was at, put it was definitely below 100.

Using my sacred gear does affect my mana pool but very slowly.

It's using magic that actually works and stretches the pool, but magic isn't exactly ideal for me.

It's a waste of time and effort, I have little aptitude for it.

But I was excited for the training I was about to start.

Being able to sense energy should go a long way to being able to tell how much each client has.

I can't just go wasting my cards on humans with 10 units of mana, that would be a shame.

I want to find the fat sheep, the humans who naturally have a bit more mana.

Or I'll save them for the future when I enter the bigger leagues.

I'll play it day by day for now.

Giving a final look to the city, I took off back home to spend a quiet day with the old man before we leave.

As I rushed off, a pair of golden eyes tracked my form.

Leone stepped out of the shadows.

"Hm… he really is scary talented and has the right mindset for this life. My blood is boiling in excitement to see what he can become under my teaching."

She walked off with a scary smile.

"And I'm sure the others will want to have some fun at the opportunity. Nyaha, the Nekoshou village is about to raise a monster, how exciting!"

*Line Break*

Standing in the courtyard of my home, I waved to the old man before turning to Leone who stood with her hand on her hip and an easy smile.

"You ready to go brat?"

"Yes ma'am."

"What did I say about calling me ma'am?! I'm not that old!"

"What did I say about calling me brat? I have a name."

She growled a little before relaxing with a chuckle.

"We're going to have fun with you."

I rose a brow at that, but she didn't answer and turned away.

"I'll have him back in 2 weeks Lupa."

"Mn, don't go easy on him."

"Ha, you don't have to worry about that."

"Thanks a lot old man."

He cracked a smile on his weathered face.

"Hei."

I looked up at his smile.

"Yes teacher?"

"Take care of yourself."

I bowed my head while hiding a small smile.

"Yes sir."

He nodded and Leone started the process.

A golden magic circle lit up on the ground beneath us and Leone scrunched her eyes up in concentration for a few moments before the circle glowed brighter and enveloped us in light, taking me off on my first trip to the literal underworld.

The first of many.

Once we were gone, Mr. Lupa stood there and chuckled.

When he said I should take care of myself, he wasn't worried about me doing something.

The Nekomata are playful beings after all.

*Line Break*

3rd person POV:

Somewhere in the underworld.

Deep in a heavily forested jungle with tree's towering high into the sky.

Situated in a valley between two mountains overflowing with natural energy.

Stood a peaceful village.

A village that was built into the forest rather than separated.

Simple homes stood situated between tree's and blended in with a natural beauty.

Crystal clear streams passed through the village with bright red tori gates built over it in intervals.

Flowering tree's decorated the peaceful village in a cascade of colors, and in the center stood a large aged Sakura tree, blooming with a serene beauty and showering the village in its petals.

Above height level, ropes were tied between the houses with gentle sounding bells and chimes bringing a soothing vibe to the village.

It was a place of beauty, of connection with nature, and of a peaceful relaxation.

And the village was alight with joyful activity as its citizens interacted.

Dozens of cat eared and tailed women moved around, doing chores, talking, and having fun.

Every here and there you could catch sight of a snoozing cat woman on a rooftop, in a tree branch, or on one of the tori gates.

It was truly a piece of heaven for those of the nekomata race.

For this was Nekoshou village, and at the villages center by the aged Sakura tree, a teleportation circle lit up on the ground and caught the eye of a few passing nekomata.

The circle flashed and in its place appeared golden haired and eyed woman, and a young looking teen in a tight black sleeveless shirt, baggy grey sweatpants, combat boots, and holding a light sack over his shoulder.

It was none other than Leone the Nekoshou, and her new disciple, Hei the human.

POV change:

Teleportation was a weird feeling.

It kinda felt like going from standing still, to the drop of a rollercoaster, only to be on your feet again instead of actually falling.

It wasn't a great feeling, but it certainly wasn't terrible.

Leone seemed to be waiting for my reaction.

"Haha you get used to it. Besides teleportation circles are not my forte, the better you are the smoother the transfer."

"Noted, I'll do my best to manage it."

Her eyebrow twitched.

"I'm not that bad."

"I didn't say you were."

If anything, my fast response only made her more annoyed.

She grabbed my arm.

"Come on brat, I'll give you a tour of our little slice of paradise."

"Oh, it's Leone!"

"Leone's back!"

"Hm? Who's the small one?"

A trio of young nekomata girls, no older looking then a couple years, ran up to Leone in welcome but then noticed me and used Leone as a post to hide behind while staring curiously at me.

The one who called me small even stuck out a hand like a paw to try and tap me while clinging to Leone's back.

Leone found it hilarious and spoke up as my brow started twitching.

"Girls, this is my new disciple, his name is Hei, and he is a human."

Two of them jumped off her and walked around me sniffing.

"Huh, so this is what humans smell like?"

"I've never seen a human before."

Then the third one asked.

"Why is he so small?"

My second brow twitched with the first one.

Leone just laughed harder.

"Hahaha, he is young Li."

Then she grabbed each one by their scruff and held them under her arms like sacks of potatoes.

"Hei, these three little ones are Shi, Li, and Ni. They are the youngest of the village and love to get in trouble."

I nodded but didn't outwardly react beyond that.

'Ni and Li? Aren't those the twin nekomata from Riser's peerage? I guess they were from this village then.'

My eyes turned to the one who kept calling me small, the one named Shi.

'So they were triplets huh? poor girls.'

"Hei?"

Leone's voice broke me from my thoughts and I turned to see her tilting her head at me.

"You ok?"

I nodded stoically and stretched out a hand to rub Shi's head.

"Yeah, miscellaneous thoughts. They are cute."

Shi purred under my hand.

"*ppuurr* your small but you have good hands."

"hahahaha."

"…."

I pinched the tip of her ear.

"hey!"

"Be nice little one."

She stuck her tongue out at me.

Leone chuckled and put them down.

"Go on girls, I'm taking him for a tour."

"""Kay! Bye Leone, bye Hei!"""

They ran off with smiles and Leone shook her head with a fond smile.

"Sorry about them."

I shrugged.

"It's fine, I don't dislike kids."

She chuckled at that.

"It's easy to forget but your still a kid Hei."

I shrugged again but didn't comment.

We began walking through the beautiful paradisical village while being greeted and meeting various villagers who stopped to say hi to Leone and curiously ask about me while giving me a sniff.

Apparently I have an interesting scent, but it helps them identify me by my scent, so they tend to smell anyone new in the village.

It's almost like a natural reaction and I didn't mind it.

Passing under a tori gate, I felt a weight settle on my shoulder and turned in surprise to see a black cat with golden eyes staring at me.

'I didn't even sense it until it landed on my shoulder…'

*Meow*

The little cat sniffed me and rubbed against my head till I started petting it and it calmed down and stretched across my shoulder lazily.

"You have normal cats here to?"

Leone shrugged and hid a small smile.

"Yup~."

She quickly turned the subject back to the tour and I followed along without care for the little cat coming along for the ride.

I saw the homes spread around, some small fields where they grow vegetables, and lots of interesting architecture made of stone and plant life they added to blend in with the nature.

While walking, I asked Leone about some questions that came to me.

"You seem to be very popular around here Leone."

She stuck out her chest in pride.

"Of course I am, I'm one of the village leaders~!"

I deadpanned at her.

"What? Nya."

"You? A leader?"

She swiped at the back of my head, and I dodged without moving too much, getting an appreciative purr from my little passenger.

"Hey! I'll have you know I'm a very special cat."

She took on a lecturing pose and continued.

"This is called Nekoshou village for a reason.

Nekomata live into the centuries with their natural lifespan, so we don't actually get pregnant that easily. Well, we have a much easier time than other races thanks to a certain natural period every year.

But anyway, even among over a hundred Nekomata, you would be lucky to find a single Nekoshou.

We are a sub-species of Nekomata with an innate gift for Senjutsu. Something that takes a lot of time and effort to make something of but holds its own dangers as well.

After all these years, we have gathered the largest group of Nekoshou in history into one place, this village.

As far as we know anyway, there aren't any more out there.

But even then, it's still just barely a dozen.

And among those dozen, we have four leaders.

The village leader, the guard and hunting party leader, the shadow leader, and the information gathering leader."

She listed off each of the positions with a tick of her finger. Meanwhile the cat on my shoulder wanted more attention and tapped me for more petting so I complied absentmindedly.

"Can you guess which one I am?"

I looked forward.

"The sidekick?"

"Oi!"

I dodged another head swipe while my passenger hissed at her making her roll her eyes.

"I'm just kidding, you're the information gathering leader I suppose? A spy?"

She calmed down and smiled.

"Yup! I handle keeping an ear open in the underworld and infiltrating places that might hold some vital info for us.

I have the smallest group among the four leaders, I only have a few members under me."

I rose a brow at that.

"How big is this villages population anyway?"

"Around one hundred twenty give or take. A dozen Nekoshou and the rest are Nekomata."

"So you split everyone up under one of the leaders?"

"Yup, domestic and maintenance stuff, guards and hunting, a hidden blade, and information gathering."

I hummed at that.

It was a simple but easy to understand split.

There was something I never understood in canon or real life though.

"Hey Leone."

"Hm?"

"Why did you form a village like this in the underworld? Your connected to the Yokai factions right?"

Leone nodded at that while the cat on my shoulder narrowed its eyes in pleasure under my fingers.

"A fair question. And yes, we are connected to the East Yokai Faction in specific by the Nekomata leader, Magari-Sama, who leads her own village of nekomata in the Kanto region of Japan, but we also have unofficial ties to the West Yokai Faction through the vampire cat species of Yokai under Blair-Sama."

"And yet all the Nekoshou are here?"

She waved her hand.

"I'm getting there, don't be impatient.

Now, as I said before, Nekoshou are a sub species with a natural talent for Senjutsu.

Do you know anything about it?"

I shook my head, even if I did know about it from canon, I've learned that things can be very different in real life.

"Good, we don't broadcast such information and usually keep it between us, so don't go telling others or we might have to hunt you down~."

She said it in a joking tone, but her eyes were serious, and I gave her a serious nod back without being sarcastic. I missed the flash of the cats eyes that shot to Leone, but it didn't interrupt.

"Senjutsu is using the power of natural energy within all living things, from people to plants, and harnessing it to empower all of your abilities to higher levels.

The greater the mastery the larger the boost.

But it comes with a lot of risks because learning it is incredibly hard and dangerous.

It's easy to become polluted by the negative energy inherent in natural energy from generations of wars, and you can go into a berserker rage attacking friend or foe.

If you fall to far, you could actually lose your mind without being able to come back from it.

Still following?"

I nodded and she went on.

"Now, in order to reduce the risks of learning such a thing, we make sure to have at least two other experienced Nekoshou around to snap someone training in Senjutsu out of it in case they start getting polluted.

But more importantly, we need locations high in natural energy to make any real progress in training.

It can be used most of anywhere in the world, but to train you need a deeper connection, think of it like trying to get a signal on a cell phone.

You can get a weaker signal anywhere and still make calls, but to watch a video, you need a higher signal."

"I see, and this location has a better signal?"

"Yup. It's actually quite annoying but there are very few natural energy hotspots on earth, and they are all occupied by certain factions.

Even the one in Kyoto is used up in the massive magic formation controlled by Yasaka-Sama, the West Yokai faction leader.

But then one day a century or two ago, a Nekoshou stumbled on this location while traveling in the underworld and it became an important discovery for fellow Nekoshou.

Its honestly a rare surprise to find them in the underworld. The Familiar Forest is one of them, but no one is willing to mess with Tiamat for sharing her space.

Through talks with the Yokai leaders and Serafall Leviathan, one of the four satans who is in charge of international relations, we settled on an agreement.

An exchange of embassies was made, and while the Yokai get an embassy here in the underworld, the devils get one in Japan, I think it was called Kuoh.

It became a nice town over the years."

'Huh, that makes a lot of sense in the grand scheme of things. Why the Nekoshou were down here, why devils owned land in Japan, it really does make sense.

And I can only imagine the reason the devils kept their territory in Kuoh after what happened was because the Yokai couldn't afford to force them to pay the price of their actions.

Yasaka might be ultimate class in power, but she can't leave Kyoto and the devils have two super devils that can fight gods, two satans, and a lot of ultimate class powerhouses, not to mention the hordes of high class.

I feel bad for the Yokai.'

The cat on my shoulder hung down to far so I adjusted it to my chest and supported it with an arm while petting it.

It was purring in content much to Leone's hidden laughter.

"So all the Nekoshou gather here to live and train in senjutsu? Is it that difficult to master it?"

Leone sagged a bit and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah it is.

There are stages to it and all of have certain masteries of it, but we are heavily limited by our energy pool.

Senjutsu is about absorbing natural energy and mixing it with our own chakra, which is our version of mana, to create a balance.

But while training we burn through our own energy at a fast pace and we just don't have that much to begin with.

Unlike those cheaty biblical factions, we don't have access to insane amounts of raw power. In terms of raw power, nekomata are born able to match a low class devil.

But even through many, many, years of training and combat, our raw power just can't match up to high class level beings.

Us leaders of the village have barely mid class levels of energy after all this time.

But unlike those bastards, we actually make full use of what we have.

Through Youjutsu, our version of spell craft, Touki, the body enhancement I told you about before, and Kasha, using our inherent abilities with spirit flames, we can use what we have to fight head on against high class beings and their stupidly broken cheats.

The less said about when we use senjutsu as well, the better. With whatever stage of mastery we have, the only limit is how long our own energy can last.

Unfortunately, we are outnumbered quite heavily.

They could just drown us in numbers, and they still have stupid amounts of raw power so with a lucky hit we could get taken out.

Which is why we keep a low profile and don't bother anyone. Overtly anyway."

As she explained everything, we had walked around the village and saw most of everything in the small location, so we began returning to the center by the Sakura tree.

"Your trusting this young man quite a bit Leone." (?)

An unknown deep voice rang out and my eyes widened a bit.

'Oh you have got to be fucking with me.'

"Nyahaha! I was wondering when you would speak up Yoru."

I looked down at the cat that had been hitching a ride this whole time with deadpanned eyes.

It's eyes matched my own with a playful tint.

"You need to work on energy sensing boy."

My eye twitched but I didn't give her the satisfaction of freaking out.

My hand returned to petting her and my steps didn't stop.

"I agree. That's why I'm here."

The cat seemed amused with my actions.

"Oh is that so? So what's this about Leone?"

Leone stopped sniggering on the side and explained.

"Remember that favor I owed to Mr. Lupa?"

"Yeah, when he saved your life because you decided to be a moron?"

Her eye twitched but she ignored the jab.

"Well he called in the debt. I was originally supposed to find and train his heir if he died, but he found one on his own and called me in to do some of the more advanced training.

We agreed to have Hei here come train with me two weeks a month until I think he's ready."

"Oh? You think he's worthy to be trained by one of us?"

"You know I am literally right here."

They ignored me.

"Haha, Yoru, this kid is going to be a monster."

"Hmm.. a monster huh? You tested him?"

"Yup~."

Yoru's eyes turned back to me with an unreadable look.

I ignored her gaze for a minute until it got annoying, and I twitched.

"What?"

She smirked in victory, and I rolled my eyes.

Her paw tapped my face before she jumped out of my arms.

"Interesting, come, I'll see what your made of for myself."

She began walking in a certain direction and I turned a questioning look at Leone.

She just shrugged with a small smile.

"I'll still train you no matter what happens, but whether you can stay here or not is really up to her."

I nodded and began following the black cat.

"So she is the leader of the village I'm assuming?"

"Yup, that's Yoru, she decides what is and isn't allowed in the village itself."

"I see."

I didn't ask anything else and followed, but my mental image was hitting its head against a wall.

'First Leone and now Yoru? What the hell is this? Are all the badass cat women from anime congregated in a single damn village?'

We walked out of the village and into a clearing that looked like it was used for training considering the scars, indents, and craters everywhere.

Leone hung back while I followed Yoru into the center of the clearing.

We seemed to get a little following as a few of the villagers came to watch something interesting.

I stared at Yoru and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

"Oi, are you going to fight like that?"

Yoru seemed to really enjoy testing my patience.

She smirked at me.

"Let's see how far you get first boy. Leone, call it."

I took a deep breath and didn't let her taunt me.

Leone walked forward with a smile and held up her hand.

"We playing till first blood or submission?"

"Submission."

The answer came out of my mouth without hesitation.

Yoru smirked wide.

"My~ my~ bloodthirsty are we? Hehe this will be fun."

Leone smiled wide and threw her hand up before throwing it down.

"Begin!"

~Around Five Minutes Later~

"Ow."

"Not bad kid, you earned some respect from me."

"It doesn't feel like that."

"Haha I like ya kid."

My twitching, cut up, bloody, and bruised form lay face down on the ground in a small crater with my guns disarmed and a happy purple haired, golden eyed, and brown skinned goddess of a woman sitting on my back.

And she was butt naked.

"I'm not sure I can return the sentiment at the moment."

Yoru rolled her eyes and lightly smacked my head.

"Oh don't be so sour, you had fun didn't you?"

"Mn."

I couldn't deny it, so I chose silence as my answer.

Leone walked up with a chuckle.

"Haha see what I mean Yoru?"

She nodded and stretched her body a bit.

"Yeah, this one's fun, loads of potential. He actually made me change back into my normal form."

"And then I got slaughtered."

"Nyaha~ don't let it get to you kid, I'm known for my speed after all."

It took four minutes of back and forth combat without either of us getting an edge until she transformed back in a cloud of smoke.

Thirty seconds of her playing with me and cutting and electrocuting me.

And then about five seconds for me to end up in a crater on the ground with her pinning me there.

Leone smirked at me.

"Don't take it to hard brat, she's annoyingly fast even for the rest of us. She is the flash goddess of the Nekoshou."

"Aw~ your gonna make me blush Leone."

"And you're going to make my back give out if you don't get up."

Yoru slapped the back of my head, planting me further into the earth.

"Oi! I'm not that heavy, and your like what, 12? How can your back give out so soon."

Despite her words, she did get up and offer me a hand that I ignored for the moment.

I pushed my fists into the ground and spat out a wad of blood before grabbing her hand and getting hauled up.

"I'm 9."

I felt Yoru pause in helping me up before she gave me a raised brow.

"Your 9?"

I shrugged and shook my head to shake off some dirt.

"Just about."

Yoru turned to Leone with the same look.

"He's 9?"

Leone nodded.

"I told you, he's special."

Yoru turned back to me and stared into my eyes seriously for a moment before apparently seeing what she wanted and smirking.

She brushed some dirt off my shoulder.

"A monster in the making indeed. Alright kid, you got me interested in your potential. I think I'll show you a thing or two in your time here."

Leone choked a bit before looking at Yoru surprised.

"Really Yoru? I haven't seen you take a disciple since…"

Yoru waved her hand.

"That's not here or there. I'm bored and you brought something interesting home, you got my attention and I want to have some fun."

Leone looked at me with a gaze mixed between pity and awe.

I didn't feel good about such a gaze.

Yoru threw an arm around my shoulders making me internally twitch in pain, but I didn't make an outward sign and that seemed to Yoru smile wider.

"Haha well little warrior, you want to learn from me don't you?"

I don't think she was planning on taking no for an answer considering how she was pressing her naked breast into my face with a teasing smile.

I wasn't about to give the nudist the pleasure of being embarrassed.

So I bowed my head slightly with a stoic face.

"I would be honored, teacher."

And that's not a joke, she kicked my ass like it was nothing in her human form. She didn't even hide her presence like Leone did to get the drop on me.

Yoru smiled wide and rubbed messed up my hair.

"Good, I like your manners. But fair warning, there are no free lunches in the world. If you're going to stay in my village, you need to give something back.

You can help around with whoever needs it."

My brow twitched at that.

I didn't have time to spare on such things.

'Wait…I forgot about that.'

"So your saying I have to pay tribute or pay in labor?"

Yoru raised a brow but nodded.

"Yeah."

"I see, stand back please."

She tilted her head in confusion but did step back.

I held up my hand and a ring flashed on my finger.

"Book."

My binder popped out.

"Oh? Is this the sacred gear I could sense on you? I didn't know if you had awakened it not."

"It's awake all right. Yoru, this kids gear is so weird."

"Weird how?"

"I've seen him do some weird stuff already. Healing himself, flying off like a rocket, creating a panda in a maid outfit for chores, it even did something to his body."

Yoru had a face mixed between laughing and confusion.

"What? What the hell is that?"

"I know right? I damn near had a heart attack when this panda in a maid outfit just walks in and serves me tea before walking out without making a sound."

I ignored the two of them and turned to my free slots.

I only had a few filled, I dropped off the drinks for Winston while I passed through the hotel, getting a grateful hotel manager in my books.

The man might not officially do me any favors, but there's a lot he can do unofficially.

I removed a card from my free slots and tossed it on the ground.

"Gain."

It poofed in a cloud of smoke before a crate appeared.

I walked over and casually removed the lid, took out a bottle, and placed it on top for them to see.

Their eyes narrowed into thin slits.

"High quality Silvervine Wine, two dozen bottles."

They didn't move and I casually left the bottle in the crate and dusted off my hands.

"I believe my tuition is paid. I'm going to go clean up and heal myself, enjoy."

With such parting words, I walked off without a care for the silence.

There was a small crowd of around two dozen nekomata women who were watching the match while sitting in tree's around the edge of the clearing and cheering but they too had frozen.

No one paid me much attention, so I left.

*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*

The world ending explosions behind me mattered not, I was more concerned for just how many places that woman cut me.

"Sheesh, you know how annoying it is to get dirt out of a wound."

*BOOM!*

"I think I'll set up camp at the stream on the edge of the village."

With such thoughts going through my head, I walked through the peaceful village and ignored the civil war I instigated behind me.

It's not like I was holding a grudge for getting my ass kicked twice.

Not at all.

*Line Break*

"And there we go, all set up."

Next to a small stream on the edge of the village, I set up a tent I bought from the magicians guild a while back.

Damn thing was expensive as hell, but it was a good purchase.

It's similar to those Harry Potter magically expanded tents, but downscaled.

There is no bathroom, kitchen, or separate rooms, but it's three times its size on the inside and has basic furniture. Plus you can control the temperature on the inside.

It might seem pointless to buy when I can make my hideouts, but I can only make one a year and this situation says it all.

I was still a few weeks out from my ninth birthday as well as new year's, so I would make do with the tent until then and set up a new hideout down here.

I will use that time to settle if I trust them enough to share the secret of my hideout ability with them.

And when I say that, I mean how the ability works and this specific hideout.

I have no plans to share the locations of my other hideouts with anyone just yet.

Not even my teacher knows where any of them are aside from the one at his home.

It's not that I don't trust him but the less people who know about a secret, the more secret it stays.

I cast a healing card on myself and washed off the dirt in the stream.

'I'm really going to need that hot spring if I don't want to waste all my healing spell cards while I'm here. I've had two fights with them and used two cards already, that's not a good trend.'

"So this is where you went brat."

I looked up while wringing out my wet shirt to see Leone standing at the tree line.

I had to fight back a laugh at her current look but a chuckle still escaped.

She twitched.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up brat, I'll get you back for that little prank in the future. I know Yoru wants some payback as well."

I shrugged and walked over.

"I'll take my lumps when they come, so how's that eye?"

"It hurts."

Leone looked like she just lost a bar fight with a bear.

She had scratch marks everywhere, her hair was messed up, and a nice shiny black eye on her left eye.

I should feel bad, but she fractured multiple of my ribs the other day.

Still, there is being petty and being a good friend.

I waved her over to my tent where I had a first aid kit.

"So who won?"

Leone rolled her good eye and sat down on a chair.

"Despite half the village attempting to change the outcome, Yoru still came out on top. She might have to limp for a few days though."

She gave an evil smirk at the end there and I chuckled and sat in front of her with the kit.

I began cleaning her cuts while we talked.

"So what happens with my gift."

Leone twitched slightly at the alcohol wipe but didn't seem any more bothered with it. It's just instinctual to twitch when alcohol first touches an open wound.

"Well village rules, set by Yoru in the first place, is that the victor decides what to do. Yoru decided to throw a feast to welcome you tonight where she will break out a few bottles.

You do know that wasn't some cheap stuff you gave away right?"

I nodded and bandaged her up.

"Yeah, it's not a big deal for me. I grabbed it from my storage as a thank you gift for letting me stay here but Yoru decided to pull the no work no eating card on me."

I paused in my movements for a second and asked.

"Are you guys struggling for food out here?"

Contrary to my worry, Leone laughed at that.

"Haha nah, we're fine. The third leader of the village is in charge of the hunting, and she never goes a day without bringing back some game.

This valley is full of wildlife thanks to the rich natural energy."

I let out a sigh of relief at that. I didn't want to be a burden.

Leone smirked at me as I placed a path with some healing ointment on her eye.

"What, were you worried about us Hei?"

"No. I just don't enjoy being a burden."

Leona laughed and threw an arm around my head and pulled me into her chest.

"Aw your so cute. Being all tsundere on me."

My voice came out muffled.

"Leone, you have 3 seconds to let go before I replace the cream for your eye with hot and cold cream."

She let me go without a fight.

"Damn, your scary brat."

I took a breath of air.

"And you can kill people with those things."

She raised a brow at me.

"How do you not have a reaction? Are you gay?"

My brow twitched.

"Leone, I'm almost 9."

She hit her fist on her palm.

"Ah, right, I keep forgetting. You really look at least 12 and you act like an aged man so it's easy to forget with you."

I shrugged and packed up the supplies.

"Don't worry, there are plenty of loli type supernatural beings. I know it's easy to forget I'm human."

Leone laughed at that.

"You have no idea kid, I can swear some of those people throw me for a loop. There was this fallen girl who looked like a small loli but holy hell the mouth on her. It was like a sailor met a drunken Irishmen and they had a kid who mutated to have an even worse mouth then the two of em."

I pondered on that mental image.

'That's gotta be Mittlet.'

The image of a gothic Lolita with fallen wings swearing up a storm entered my mind and I let out a small laugh.

"Heh, I should introduce her to my teacher."

"Haha she would have brain damage within an hour."

"If she doesn't have any already that is."

"Ha, true."

Leone stood up with a stretch and rubbed the bandages.

"Huh, not bad brat, your pretty good at first aid. Hey, how come you didn't use that healing thing you did before."

I shrugged.

"It's limited."

"Limited how?"

I gave her a look and turned away to put away the kit.

"Nice try miss spy."

She pouted at me.

"No fair, I'm really curious!"

"Curiosity killed the cat."

"Ha, but the cat has nine lives!"

"I doubt you have more than two left."

"Oi! Why so mean?"

I chuckled and tossed her a bottle of water.

"You trusted me with vital information on your village, so I'll show some trust as well. But if you want to know more you have to earn it. I don't give my trust easily but once you have it, it doesn't go away so simply."

She nodded and leaned forward a bit.

"Don't worry Hei, the Nekoshou village is quite similar in that context. We might not have many enemies, but we would have a lot more if others knew more about us.

Yoru didn't stop me from sharing info with you because she trusts my judgement, and I trust Mr. Lupa.

Considering he chose you, and what I've seen so far, your worth a chance."

I scratched my cheek lightly in embarrassment but nodded.

"Thanks."

I took a sip and decided to reciprocate the info sharing a bit.

"My sacred gear has a certain amount of cards that each have various effects. Many have limits and requirements, but they are powerful.

I get certain cards at different times and only a certain amount of them are saved if I don't use them. Others are use or waste."

There, that was vague enough but shared a decent amount of info.

She could put together whatever mental image she wanted.

"So the healing ability is one of those cards?"

"Yeah, I only have so many of the cards so I save them for when I have annoying injuries."

"Like today?"

I twitched but nodded.

"Yes, like today. I went through electricity resistance training but it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt."

She chuckled at that.

"Fair enough, Yoru hasn't earned many favors with her electricity around here. Cats don't like electrical currents if you catch my drift."

I shared her laugh at that, and she went on.

"Anyway, so the panda maid is another of your cards?"

"Yeah, it's a use or waste type. I don't get them often."

"So you get cards at random?"

"No, I get a set amount of each one at different time sets."

She rubbed a hand through her hair with a confused look.

"That sounds really damn complicated. What the hell kind of ability is that supposed to be?"

I chuckled at that while sitting on the couch.

"It is what it is. I'll share one more point to make it clearer but that's all for now.

There are three kinds of cards. Designated, Spell, and Free. The different time's I talked about refer to them."

"How so?"

"Nope. That's all you get for now."

She pouted but thankfully didn't push more and changed the subject.

"Boo fine. So you said you grabbed the wine from your storage. Do you just keep silvervine wine in stock or something? Have any other feline friends you want to tell me about?"

She waggled her eyebrows at me, and I scoffed while shaking my head.

"Nah, it's just part of business for me."

"Business? You're in the alcohol trade business?"

I shrugged.

"In a way of sorts, didn't you see the label on the bottle?"

She shook her head with a grimace.

"No, I was a bit preoccupied with trying to beat the piss out of the other cats trying to take the wine from me to focus on that little detail."

I laughed at her pouting face and lifted the water bottle in my hand.

She got the message and looked at her own.

"A howling wolf head? Where have I heard of that…?"

I gave her a moment before it clicked.

"Ah, Lupus right? I heard a few things about a new merchant in the black market bringing in tons of high quality goods. It wasn't really a big deal but it caught my eye at the mention that he deals with bluefin tuna."

At that last part her eyes narrowed at me.

I raised my water bottle in a mock greeting.

"Yo."

She tossed her bottle at my head, and I dodged with a chuckle.

"You have been holding out on me!? Where is the love? Didn't I shower you in love already?!"

I rose a brow at her.

"You fractured my ribs, tossed me through three trees, and implanted me in a forth. I fail to see the love."

She waved a hand airily.

"It's called tough love."

I laughed at that.

"I'll share some with you guys next time, I only brought the wine this time."

She pointed a finger at me.

"I'm holding you to that, that's some top quality tuna and this is a village of Nekomata. Give us fish and silvervine wine and you might as well consider yourself part of the family."

I gave a soft smile at that.

"Oh? Is that all it takes to earn your trust."

She smiled back.

"It takes more than that, but you covered that area already."

Then she hopped over and swung me over her shoulder before I could blink.

"Now come on, we got a feast to get to, I was only supposed to come get you, not take this long."

My brow twitched at that as she walked out of the tent.

"You couldn't mention that earlier because?"

She shrugged unapologetically.

"I felt like it."

I shook my head with a fond smile.

'A village of cats indeed.'

*Line Break*

The feast was interesting to say the least.

The Nekoshou village doesn't half ass their festivities.

They threw up lanterns everywhere that cast a beautiful glow on the natural beauty of the surroundings in the night. And the forest itself had numerous types of vines and flowers that glowed in neon like colors in the dark.

It was during the feast that I met the two other leaders of the village.

I had to bite my tongue from groaning out loud, but I was mentally banging my head against a wall.

Leader of the guard and the hunters, Ghislaine.

The six and half foot tall amazonian warrior gave me a firm handshake and welcomed me before moving on.

The woman's abs were so pronounced you could have grated cheese on the damn things.

Leader of the hidden blade or the shadow leader, Chloe.

The black haired, green eyed beauty appeared behind me without me noticing until she licked my ear with a mischievous laugh.

The laughter continued as I had both my pistols trailed on her face within seconds.

It seemed I made another friend with my straightforward reaction.

Chloe was actually very friendly, but it felt like she was constantly examining me to look for openings for pranks or something else.

I would be keeping an eye open as I slept with her around.

Thankfully for my heart, the rest of the Nekoshou were not familiar faces to me and were more normal.

Well, normal for cat women anyway.

When it became known I brought the wine, they became very welcoming to my presence.

Chloe made sure to 'poison' test the wine, which was something I thought was very fair and nodded to, but something the others saw through as her getting their drinks, the party was off with a bang.

Cat fights, drinking, eating, music and dancing with a large bonfire.

It was really quite warm and festive, I found myself enjoying the atmosphere quite a bit, but I didn't participate.

I sat back with Ghislaine and sipped some fruit juice.

She was the quiet, stoic, but loving and caring type.

"Not going to join?"

I shook my head slightly.

"No, I'm more comfortable here."

"Understandable."

We didn't talk much, but I found her presence quite nice.

She was like an older lion enjoying the air while the younger ones danced around.

I snuck away back to my tent before a drunken Yoru, or Leone could get ahold of me. I saw them eyeing me a few times like they wanted to pull something, and I made a strategic retreat.

Washing my face in the stream, I looked up into the dark underworld sky. It was a blank canvas except for a large artificial moon.

The underworld didn't always have a concept of day and night, it was just a purple sky.

But with the introduction of reincarnated devils, the satans made up the cycle and created an artificial moon.

'I'll give them credit; they did a fine job.'

The moon was whole and cast a beautiful silver glow on the world.

I enjoyed the sight for a moment.

'I know this life was thanks to a random event I didn't even intend to participate in, but I'm really grateful to whatever it is that sent me here.

It's not some peaceful and generic life, but I love it for what it is. I wouldn't change it for the world.'

I threw some more water on my face and got up to head back into my tent.

I changed my clothes and hopped into bed.

'Thank you, whatever being gave me this chance.'

(AN: Your welcome.)

*Line Break*

In the center of the village, the feast had died down and the women who could still walk helped the ones who couldn't to their homes for the night.

But in the aged Sakura tree, a small meeting was taking place between the four leaders in the branches.

"*Hic* that was some good stuff."

"*Hic* tell me about it, I vote we steal that kid."

"*Hic* yeah! He's not getting out of here alive!"

"*Hic* no wait, we need the fish."

"*Hic* Oh yeah! I wonder if they deliver."

Ghislaine rolled her eyes from her branch where she was sitting cross legged while Chloe was laughing her ass off while laying down on another branch.

They were enjoying the drunken byplay between Yoru and Leone.

Ghislaine didn't care for it and stopped Chloe's entertainment.

"If you two don't mind, we are not kidnapping a human child to feed your bellies. Now sober up and get to the point, I would like some rest."

For Nekoshou like them, it just took a bit of natural energy to clear out toxins from their system. Chloe had a much more developed ability to handle poison and only let the wine affect her so much. But for the most part they only get drunk when they want to.

Chloe pouted.

"Aw, did you have to stop them Ghis? I wanted to see if they would take action in their drunken states."

Ghislaine shot her a look and she held her hands up in surrender.

Yoru was the first to shake her head and sober up a bit, but her cheeks still held a rosy blush.

"Heh, I was just having some fun Ghis, but you have a point. Let's postpone the talks about kidnapping the kid for now Leone."

Leone too sobered up a bit and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, I was only kidding. Mostly."

"So you two were serious about teaching him?"

Leone nodded to Chloe's question.

"Yeah, I owe his teacher a life debt, but I actually warmed up to the kid. He's a little monster and I want to see what he can achieve."

Yoru nodded along to that.

"I agree, I only played with him a bit in human form, but I admit in cat form I couldn't get a single advantage on him.

He has some incredible instincts, shooting skills, prediction ability, and his body is trained far beyond what a normal child his age should have."

Leone added in to that.

"Yeah, he said his sacred gear helped him there."

Chloe raised a brow at them.

"How old is he and whats the gear?"

The two shared a smirk before answering at the same time.

""9.""

Chloes eyes widened while the ever stoic Ghislaine rose a brow.

Leone and Yoru waved a hand in concert.

""We know.""

Chloe's eyes softened a bit, but she turned away and didn't comment.

Ghislaine was the one who commented.

"How strange."

Yoru sent her a questioning look.

"What is?"

She hummed.

"It's not hard to get a feel for people who enjoy silence. There is a certain aura those who can enjoy the peace of the moment without speaking give off.

I felt as if I sat next to a fellow warrior who has seen his battles when I sat next to the boy.

What is his past?"

The three woman turned their gazes to Leone.

She shrugged and held her hands up.

"I'll share what I know but Mr. Lupa didn't say too much."

"That's fine, what did he say?"

"Hm… well, he said he found Hei when he was 4. He was trained as his heir from the very beginning. And if I know Lupa, he definitely laid things out clearly even to a child.

In case you don't know, the Lupa line is scary about their dedication to their legacy. They are assassins, hitmen, mercenaries, but they have a code of honor.

Any shame on an active Lupa is a shame on their legacy."

Yoru and Ghislaine hummed at that while Chloe nodded.

"I heard plenty about them over the years. They are super professionals, and they have a lot of respect and fear in the mundane underworld. Every now and then, one of their generations enters the supernatural side and brings terror to the low ranks, so they never really grew a big reputation among the factions.

But one of the things I know for sure is they never had a generation that relied on the legacy itself. They all earned their name.

Or at least, I never heard of anyone who didn't earn it."

Ghislaine and Yoru looked thoughtful at that while Leone nodded and continued.

"Yeah, that's pretty accurate.

Lupa was apparently quite extreme on the training side, the kid has almost every foundation of an assassin covered except for the more advanced ones he came here to learn.

He might be lacking in some area's but he's young and has time. I'll keep an eye out for anything that was missed.

But he told me he was fully aware of what he was learning and what he was losing from the start. He didn't show any regret, remorse, or worry in what he was doing. He actually enjoys growing stronger."

Yoru hummed at that.

"Yeah, I saw the fire in his eyes before. The kid has the makings of the strong, if his potential can reach there, he has the spirit and mind for it."

Ghislaine's eyes narrowed, however.

"Did he say why he wishes to grow stronger?"

The three focused back on Leone who smiled wryly.

"Yeah, he did.

He said he wanted to be strong so he can be free."

Their eyes widened at that and Leone chuckle.

"I know right? What kind of child has such a wish?

I watched him in secret on a few of his jobs. He enjoys working, the hunt, and growth. But he shows no enjoyment for taking life, he understands the law of the jungle and does what he needs to do without hesitation."

They had a moment of silence to digest that until it was surprisingly Ghislaine who chuckled.

The others looked at her as she smiled.

"I think I might just want to be included in training the boy."

Leone and Yoru had surprised looks.

"Really Ghis? I thought you only cared about hunting these days."

She shrugged her shoulders slightly.

"Things have gotten monotonous; it would be nice to shake things up a bit. Besides, if the boy has such a talent for hunting intelligent beings, let's see how he handles a true wild hunt where instincts reign supreme. This forest is full of not just mundane but magical beasts after all."

Yoru smiled wide at that.

"Hahaha oh this could be fun. Leone, what did you want to train him in?"

The atmosphere was turning into something of sharks smelling blood in the water, and Leone's smile matched Yoru's.

"He has a few small things such as balance and combat stealth he needs to improve, but I mainly wanted to get him on energy sensing and suppression. And eventually if he can reach the starting line, Touki."

If anything Yoru smiled wider.

"Oh? Well then, perhaps I'll handle upping the physical training. I'll get him to the starting line and handle the Touki training."

Ghislaine added in.

"Leave balance and combat stealth to me. They are essential to hunt in these forests."

The three of them turned to Chloe who had been silent.

"What?"

Yoru rose a brow.

"Well? Are you joining in or not?"

Chloe looked thoughtful and turned to Leone.

"I don't know how much I can offer considering he was already trained by a professional assassin legacy. You said he took jobs; did he join the Mercenary guild?"

Leone nodded.

"Yeah, I looked into it, he's a silver rank and has a record of 24 completed and 4 failed. But of the failures, 3 were due to misinformation on the client and guilds part, and the last was due to just dumb luck on the targets part, he got tipped off and fled the country."

Chloe hummed at that.

"Hm, impressive for his age. I'll tell you girls what, I'll observe him and see if there is anything I might add to him. He should already be quite full with you three and his other life, so I'll see how things play out."

The others nodded at that.

"No harm in being patient."

"It's a fair argument."

"Are you even a cat? Giving up a juicy toy isn't our style."

Chloe huffed at Yoru's tease like a cat having its tail stepped on.

"Oi! I'll have you know I am definitely planning on having fun! I just need to see what he's missing."

The others chuckled at her reaction, and they had a moment of silence before Yoru spoke up.

"You know, we never joint trained anyone aside from fellow Nekoshou, and only in senjutsu."

Ghislaine nodded.

"Mn, this will be a first."

Leone smirked.

"Kids worth it."

Chloe scoffed.

"The kid will be a monster if he survives."

Ghislaine added in a small joke.

"I believe he is a wolf."

Leone quirked a brow in amusement.

"A wolf trained by cats?"

Yoru gave an excited bloodthirsty smile.

"The wolf of Nekoshou village has a nice ring to it."

The other three matched her smile and they all descended into laughter.

The wheels of fate turned, and a sleeping young wolf was sleeping peacefully, unaware of the hellish training awaiting him as well as the quickly forming pillars of support that would raise him to making his own mark on the world.

Pillars that would shape him to become the wolf whose howl was heard throughout the world.

Pillars of family.

Something he never even knew he wanted.

*Line Break*

~4 Months Later~

Sitting cross-legged with a blindfold on in the Nekoshou village forest, I focused on extending my senses to 'see' the dozens of wisps of fire floating around me.

There was darkness all around me.

I used the mental image of the void I once experienced to create an ideal mental structure.

And in that void, just barely on the edge of my awareness, were dozens of lights like fireflies, blinking in and out of my awareness.

If I concentrated on one, I could almost zoom in my focus and get a feel for where it was, but as I tried to keep aware of all of them, the difficulty increased tremendously.

The mental strain became too much, and I let out a breath and receded from the state.

The dark of the early morning began to fade as day came upon the underworld.

The underworld does not actually have a sun, they just switch between day and night manually and the sky returns to a purple color.

The valley began to fill with the sounds of bird songs and insects chirping.

It was an incredibly peaceful location that connected one with nature itself.

And in that environment, my face was scrunched up in annoyance as I rubbed a hand on my forehead.

"Stop thinking about sensing and feel it."

I internally rolled my eyes at Leone telling me about the same thing for the thousandth time.

My instincts warned me, and I quickly bent my head to the side to dodge a swipe.

"I know you rolled your eyes at me; you need to relax and feel brat."

Sitting upright I sighed.

"Yes teacher."

I might find her methods annoying, but I'll never vocally complain about what she puts me through.

Theres a difference with being annoyed or frustrated and being ungrateful.

Leone smiled down at my sitting form.

"I don't think you will make much more progress the way you are today. Let's finish up and you can go on to Yoru, I'm sure she is excited to see you."

I scoffed at that but still stood up and stretched while removing my blindfold.

"More like she is excited to beat the spit out of me."

Leone laughed and slapped my back.

"Haha damn straight. I haven't seen her having so much fun in a long time. Now go grab some breakfast and get over there."

She slapped my ass for good measure, and I shot her an annoyed look before walking away.

'I'll get her back for that later.'

While walking away, I didn't see Leone's smirk or hear the words she whispered.

"I wonder when he'll figure out I've been lowering the power output on the sensing exercise. Heh, little brat is really going to be a monster at this rate."

She walked off while putting her hands behind her head and whistling a tune.

'But he'll be our monster.'

*Line Break*

After grabbing a bite to eat, I headed off to my second teacher of the day.

Passing through the village, I got waves, hugs, and friendly licks from various nekomata.

'It's amazing what you can get used to with enough time.'

Four months ago, if anyone got to close to me, I was ready to pull a gun and shoot them, but now these cats have gotten under my guard.

'I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.'

Passing under a tori gate, I looked around for Yoru.

The day after the welcoming feast, I woke up to the strange sight of being confronted by three of the four leaders of the village.

Apparently, they all wanted a hand in teaching me and I'm not stupid enough to turn that down.

Sure I had just upped my training from 11 to 25 on a scale of 1 – 10, but I'm thankful for the opportunity, nevertheless.

'Plus, I'm pretty sure these cats were really bored and wanted a new toy.'

They split my days up with mornings starting around 5AM being Leone's time to train me in Energy Sensing.

She sends out dozens of fireballs that emit strong energy signatures using her Kasha and I have to sense them floating around me with my eyes closed.

I can't really tell if I'm making any progress considering it's felt like I've been standing still the whole time, but at least I can actually sense other beings now.

Even with my eyes closed, I could get a sense for the location of the Nekomata villagers.

Well, the ones that weren't suppressing their energy anyway.

They all have a similar 'color' but it's slightly different in each of them.

Recalling the color scheme Leone once explained to me, it feels like Nekomata have a green color to their aura.

The Nekoshou have a deeper green, like a deep forest one.

But each aura has its own unique signature to it.

It's hard to describe how their different, considering you're not actually using your five senses, but it's like seeing a face and remembering what it looks like.

As Leone loves to say, you have to feel it.

Unfortunately, there is an energy cost to using it, one small enough for me to handle it for short times, but it's there.

One of the greatest things about this training though, is that I got a feel for my own energy pool.

It's small and has a deep sapphire blue color to it, but I found it, like a spark inside me.

Every time I use my mana, I feel it leave my body and then slowly recover a tiny bit stronger.

And when I say a tiny bit, I mean like .1% of a 1 unit.

On the other hand, when I have my gear activated, it seems to stimulate my energy pool a bit more so that .1% becomes something like .5%.

It's not much, but I'll take what I can get.

Thankfully I have the 'Trade' spell card, otherwise I would be forced to change species if I ever wanted to have any significant amount of energy in this life.

"Your late!"

Coming out of my thoughts, I jumped backward to avoid a leg swipe but still ended up getting planted in the ground face down.

'At least she was light this time.'

I turned my head to see Yoru smirking down at me from her place on my back.

"Getting faster~ kid, you actually dodged my surprise attack."

I rolled my eyes at her, not even bothering to hide it.

"If I'm not getting faster after the hell you put me through, I'll just replace my legs with bionic parts."

She laughed and got off while helping me up.

"Well hopefully we won't have to remove your legs anytime soon. I worked too hard to have you give them up."

My eye twitched at that.

'Who is working hard? You just toy with me while making me move till I drop.'

*clap* *clap*

Yoru clapped her hands.

"Enough stalling, give me fifty laps around the clearing as a warm up."

I let out a breath but still nodded.

"Yes ma'am."

"Mn, good, get to it."

I ran off and was unaware of the Cheshire cat grin on Yoru's face and her thoughts.

'Kid still has no idea we tagged him with gravity runes, it's a good thing we keep making increments in tiny doses so he won't notice. I can't wait to take em off.'

As I ran around the track, I never noticed the bottom of my boots glow slightly as a rune flashed before they went away.

And before I could notice a slight difficulty increase in my running, a small bolt of electricity hit the space behind my feet.

"You call that running?! I want to see you sweat!"

Grumbling, I picked up the pace and had to dodge the occasional lightning attack.

It wouldn't actually harm me, I learned that already, but it would sting.

Yoru's smile only got wider as I ran.

*Line Break*

"That's it. Find the flow. Feel your instinct come alive. Let it guide you. Envision what you wish to happen. Take a deep breath…. And release."

Ghislaine's slow, calm, and deep voice reverberated through my form and I released a breath as my finger let go of a bow string.

The arrow flew through the air, following along the path I mentally envisioned, and pierced exactly where I aimed at.

Aimed with my mind and instinct, not simply my eyes.

A hand rested of my shoulder.

"Good job."

"Thank you teacher."

"Mn."

We walked through the heavy forestry toward my prey.

Training with Ghislaine has been my favorite time of my experience here.

After getting my body pushed through the wringer by Yoru, everyone meets up for some lunch in the village and then I follow Ghislaine into the valley to hunt.

I learned an incredible amount from her.

My true teacher, Mr. Lupa, trained me to the extreme in terms of hunting human targets. Understanding human behavior, tactics, politics, relationships.

But the wild is a different ball game.

The wild has its own rules and will keep you on your toes at every minute.

And Ghislaine believes in the philosophy of dropping a bird from the nest to make them learn how to fly.

My first test was brutal.

I was given very basic tools. A knife, a single box of matches, a flare, and a few simple things.

And then I was dropped off deep into the valley and told to make my way back to the village.

No special gear, no guns, no resources, and I was banned from using my sacred gear.

Safe to say, I learned a lot about how simple shit can get when you're in that situation. It's you and the world, winner takes all.

It took me a week to make it back, where I collapsed into the surprisingly warm embrace of Ghislaine and was placed back in my bed.

I was later embarrassed to note I was cleaned and freshly clothed when I woke up, but she never made a comment on it so neither did I.

After that, she began to break down my mistakes and correct them while teaching me step by step how to handle various situations.

She was an ocean of knowledge when it came to survival and the wild.

We hunted various game and I learned the traits of many different animals. Both normal and magical.

The underworld has many of the normal animals you would find back on earth, but most of them have mutated to become stronger or more dangerous.

Still, there is a difference between mutation and having access to an energy pool.

Elemental wolves and fire boars are far more deadly than an overgrown bear.

Anyway, Ghislaine helped solve my issues with balance and in combat stealth quite readily.

And now it's just a constant improvement in my all around skills.

And don't discount the worth of these skills.

I adapted many of the things I learn from her back into my missions on earth and it's made me all the more deadly and skilled compared to those I'm facing.

Silver rank jobs have become a breeze of fresh air compared to what I face down here.

But for the sake of finding fat sheep to trade with and improve my rank, I have no plans on stopping my work.

Not that the old man would let me.

He would crawl out of his grave to beat me with his cane if I didn't at least reach the rank of Steel in the guild.

I owe him at least that much if I chose to do something else, but I don't have such plans anyway.

It's a happy coincidence that I can do it all at the same time.

Anyway, Ghislaine replaced my guns with a bow while we hunt.

There were a few times she tested me on sniping while prone and while moving under camouflage, but she says there is more to get a feel from with a bow, and I can't deny that.

The bow will never be my main style of combat, but it's fantastic training for intuition, prediction, accuracy, and patience.

We came upon my target 380 yards from my starting position.

Shot through branches, vines, and various trees.

A large fat rabbit.

Ghislaine bent down and examined the wound.

"A clean kill. Went straight through, no damage to the fur outside of the wound. The arrow plugged the bleeding without splintering. Well done pup."

I gave her a small smile and bowed my head slightly in respect.

"Thank you teacher."

"Mn."

That was another thing Ghislaine did that was different from the others, she called me pup instead of brat or kid like the others.

She lifted the rabbit by its ears and nodded her head in a direction.

"Come, we can have a snack before we continue."

"Yes teacher."

I followed her with a skip in my step, she was the best damn spit roast cook I've ever seen. My mouth was watering at the thought of it.

Ghislaine gave me a warm smile while I was lost in my thoughts and reached over to rub my head much to my annoyance.

*Line Break*

After getting back from hunting, I helped out the other villagers with skinning and deboning the meat.

Ghislaine taught me it's proper respect to the game I hunt to handle it myself.

But I wasn't the only hunter.

Ghislaine had a squad of the villagers under her that were in charge of hunting and guarding.

I personally didn't need to help out with anything if I didn't want to.

I took care of my own food supply, washed my own clothes, and even paid for their teaching services in high quality fish and wine.

But even then, I didn't mind.

The village had become… almost like a second home to me.

I felt at peace here, within nature with such pure and free people.

The nekomata and their Nekoshou leaders were incredibly free spirited.

They laughed, shouted, slept, ate, and worked all at their own paces.

And despite their initial acceptance of me due to the wine I brought, they really did warm up to me even without it.

Washing my hands from dealing with the meat, I went to head back to my tent and change when I was assaulted by vicious and bloodthirsty animals.

"Hei!"

"Big bro!"

"Aim for the knees!"

"Oof."

I was attacked by the evil triplets.

The first two calls came from Ni and Li, the cute ones.

Ni latched onto my chest and wrapped her small arms around my neck and hung there with a big smile.

Li attached herself to my arm and I held it out so she could hang on it like a monkey.

The last call came from Shi, the more aggressive one.

She latched onto my leg and play bit on my knee.

I rolled my eyes at the three.

They took it on themselves to try and take me down since I never went along with their games and played dead when they attacked.

"Can I help you three?"

Ni gave me big kitten eyes.

"I want the tasty fish tonight Hei!"

Li nodded while swinging from my arm.

"Yeah! It's just soooooo yummy! Nya!"

"Nyaaaaaa!"

The last one came from Shi who agreed with the first two but was too busy trying to gnaw through my knee ineffectively.

I sighed and started walking again while ignoring their weight.

"I'll check out my pond and see if any of them are ready."

"You promise big bro?"

"Mn. I promise to check."

"Yay! I love you Hei!"

"Nyyeerrrr!"

I chuckled while waving with my off hand to various villagers that saw us and laughed at my plight.

I reached down with my free hand to grab Shi before she tore a hole in my pants and carried her like a sack.

"Why are you so bloodthirsty all the time?"

She sent me a determined look on her adorable young face.

"The world speaks to me; it tells me to bring you to your knees. I must answer the calling!"

"Nya! Yeah!"

"We're taking you down today!"

I rose a brow at them.

"Is that so? Well if you bring me down, who will get you the tasty fish?"

They all gasped.

Shi turned to the other two.

"Guys! We need a new plan."

"We need to take him down, but we need the fish."

"Nyyyrrrr, let's let him go for now, once we have the fish, we can get him."

The other two nodded along with the plan.

All while still hanging on my body and not at all being secretive.

Shi pointed her finger at me dramatically.

"You bought yourself more time but mark my words! You! Shall! Fall! Nyahahaha."

The other two joined her in mock evil laughter.

I just shook my head with a smile and approached their home, it was on the way to my place anyway.

Their mother was outside folding clothes from a line.

A really kind motherly woman who gives off a peaceful vibe.

She laughed at the sight of us as I walked up.

"Girls, leave the poor boy alone and come help."

"""Kay~!"""

They jumped down and waved at me.

"Bye Hei!"

"See ya big bro, bring the fish please!"

"Don't fall before I take you down bro!"

Shi made sure to give me a small, cute kiss on my cheek before laughing and running off with her sisters to have fun moving baskets of clothes inside.

Their mother laughed at the sight.

"Thank you as always Hei, sorry about the trouble."

I shook my head and waved it off.

"It's fine, they never bother me."

She bent down and gave me a hug and a small affectionate lick.

"I'm happy they can have such a cool big brother like you. Make sure you watch out for them in the future alright?"

I nodded seriously.

"Don't worry."

She stood back up and waved.

"I'm not. Now off with you, you need a wash hahaha."

I stuck my tongue out at her and walked off.

'Nosy woman. But…. I would rather see the underworld burn then have that burning chicken get his claws on those girls.'

My eyes burned with a light as I walked off.

I wouldn't let the future event happen; I would save these beautiful people.

*Line Break*

After a usual festive dinner, I had one more activity before I could call it a day.

Walking into the dark woods, I aimed for a specific location before stopping abruptly.

A gleam of moonlight reflected inches from my face.

A sharp string was pulled taut before me.

"Hmmmm. Good, you saw it this time."

I didn't move beyond my eyes roaming.

A drop of cold sweat went down my back at the sight of a very well hidden gleam of poison on the string.

Chloe's cold and teasing voice rang out around me.

"The exercise begins now. Escape the maze.

The poison on the strings can paralyze a grown human in five minutes. If you get cut, you will have to rely on your tolerance.

Will you make it out before collapsing? Or will you fall and suffer more wounds?

Let's see what it is today."

I took a deep breath and internally rolled my eyes at her words.

'Does she have to be so dramatic every time?'

It took a month before Chloe approached me.

She asked me a few questions after watching me being trained by the others, and one of them stuck out to me.

"What is your backup weapon when you can't use your guns?"

I didn't have an answer for her at the time.

I told her how I tried dozens of weapons with Mr. Lupa, but none of them felt right to me outside of guns.

She hummed at that and took me aside the next day to a clearing filled with hundreds of weapons, and we spared with them all.

And when I say spar, I mean I was used as a fun toy for her to have some fun.

But in the end, we found something I had compatibility with.

Strings.

Not the most common weapon, but it has a lot of potential if used right.

We have been discussing a hypothetical weapon that I could custom make in the future to incorporate strings into my arsenal, but for now I was being trained with getting intimate with them.

And that meant being able to recognize, understand, and mentally calculate strings in practical uses.

That tied into the second thing Chloe wanted to share with me.

Poison resistance.

I learned well about poison and how to make or use it from Mr. Lupa, but my tolerance only went as far as human methods. And even then, I can't say I was resistant to everything.

But Chloe was an expert in poison usage and decided she knew how to improve my physique against poison intimately.

So I decided to trust her to do what she thinks she needed to.

My instincts never drove me wrong so far, and with them being trained so much, I became familiar with the feeling of someone being genuine.

Mr. Lupa and my other three teachers give off such a feeling often, and so do the villagers.

Chloe, despite her teasing and downright sadistic qualities, was very genuine with her intention to help me improve.

These girls are really trying to kill me or make me a monster, some days I can't tell which is which.

"Enough wandering thoughts, move or I'll start throwing things~."

I snapped out of my thoughts and sighed before beginning.

A minute in, a hidden string cut my pants leg and just barely missed my skin.

I grunted at the feeling of air on my skin.

'It's going to be a long night.'

An hour later I managed to faceplant out of the maze while half my body was unresponsive.

Chloe dropped down from a tree with a wide smile.

"Not bad kid, you're getting better."

I grunted and attempted to sit up to no avail.

"I couldn't tell."

She chuckled and sat down next to me.

"Trust me, you are. I make the maze longer and more complicated every time."

Unknowingly to me, Chloe was actually the only teacher who didn't try to hide my improvement.

I smiled at her words before feeling another limb go numb.

"Thanks teacher, but can you give me the antidote?"

The smile she sent me was wide, evil, and sadistic.

"Nope~, you know the drill. If you can't resist it, adapt to it. If you can't make it out of the forest in two hours, I'll give it to you but I'll just make next time's test harder and more painful."

I couldn't help but groan at her words, but that just made her laugh.

"Haha don't hate me kid, it's better it happens here then when it counts right? When I'm done with you, a basilisk's bite will only tickle you. Nyahaha."

I groaned louder at that.

'I really hope that was a joke.'

The evil laughter she gave off as I struggled for the next hour did not give me confidence.

It was sheer will that got me up after an hour just to give her the finger and not give her the satisfaction of seeing me fail her test.

Because that's what this is.

She springs spring traps on me in various forms, then makes me adapt to whatever poison she concocts or she will make it worse the next time.

I shivered when I recalled the time I failed twice.

But for all her evil and sadistic tendencies, I didn't miss the soft and caring smile she sent me when I left the forest.

She's the type that wants to prepare me for anything the world can throw at me.

The tough love type.

'Heh, they're all the same in that sense.'

I limped off in the night as my body got a little more feeling back each second until I only had slight issues when I got back to my home.

I would be perfectly fine in the morning with the added benefit of being highly resistant to whatever poison she made the night before.

It's not just my body, but the mixes she makes are just that damn good at what she wants to achieve.

*Line Break*

Packing up my bag, I sent a wave to my Joy panda maid and got ready to head out back to earth.

It was the end of another two weeks down here and I was going back to see the old man.

"Ready to go brat?"

Leones voice called from the door and I nodded and slung the bag over my shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm good."

She sent me a smile and stepped out with me following.

The month after I first got here, my binder's yearly reset came and I had a new chance for a hideout.

I put it down here underneath my tent, which is a normal looking tent now.

I replaced it with a normal one and packed up the enchanted expanded space one for a future use.

The new tent was high enough for me to stand comfortably upright, but it was mainly just a cover for the hidden trap door in the ground.

Beneath the door was a drop with a ladder into a large lit cavern like chamber.

It was similar to the one I made in Province, France, except this one was half a big chamber, and half a comfortable home away from home.

I had a nice big bed, all the furniture and amenities I needed, a fully furnished bathroom, and a nice kitchen.

The big chamber held the tree, pond, and liquor spring that I used to give the village free supplies from.

I'm not losing anything by giving them stuff, I'm a multi-millionaire with more money than I could ever think to spend, and the number is still increasing.

I just do it because I want to.

The hot spring is set up nearby my living quarters for ease of access.

And of course, I told my teachers about it.

Not about my other hideouts, but I shared the abilities of this one.

To say they were shocked was an understatement, and then they shook me around like a ragdoll for holding out on them.

It was a funny and frightening moment.

Over the months, I let little tidbits of info about my ability out and I knew they were sharing what they learned between each other, but I didn't mind.

I don't know why, but these four women actually do seem to care for me in their own ways.

I wouldn't say I trust them like I do the old man, but they earned more than enough trust from me to let in on some secrets.

I gave all four of them access to this hideout with the added permission for them to bring in anyone they want in case of emergencies.

The snake golems outside would make sure anyone else would be incapacitated.

But just in case, considering this is a village of cats who love to poke the curiosity dragons tail, I made sure to set it for them to only attack if someone unauthorized goes for the trap door.

A door that's seamlessly hidden into the floor.

Without authorization, you couldn't even find a handle, you would have to blast through the floor.

And with the blackout curtain card, it's perfectly hidden from even their energy sensing.

I mostly made that rule before of the triplets.

They have stumbled into my tent before in their 'missions' but thankfully they couldn't do anything to set off the golems.

I followed Leone out of the living area and my eye couldn't help but twitch at the sight of my other three teachers casually lounging in the hot spring completely nude.

"Ah~ this is the life."

"Mn."

"I never want to leave."

Leone waved me to hurry up.

"Come on brat, get going so I can jump in with them."

She was already taking off her clothes and I just sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose.

It's not like I don't enjoy the sight.

The four of them are extreme beauties in their own rights.

I just don't see them as objects of lust for some reason. I know I'm straight and they are super-hot, but it just doesn't click for some reason.

Plus I'm 9, so my body wouldn't react even if my older mind did.

I waved at my teachers and got waves back.

"Have some fun Hei~!"

"Mn, safe travels."

"Don't forget your daily poison dose if you don't want to suffer when you come back~!"

My shoulders slumped.

"Yeah, yeah, just make sure to keep my room clean you four."

And that means Ghislaine to.

They like to bunk with me sometimes since my bed is so soft, and none of them are the 'neat' and 'tidy' type.

They like to make a mess and then run away like startled cats.

But for all of that, they more than make up for it.

I'm growing three times as fast as I did in the years before, and I love every moment of it.

Leone waved her arm and concentrated as a magic circle appeared on the ground.

I gave her permission to use teleportation in and out of here.

I stepped into the circle and gave her a nod that she returned with a smile before concentrating again and thirty seconds later, I was off in a burst of light.

Leone's hand waved without her usual energy as I disappeared.

"Be safe Hei."

She shook her head and went to go join her sisters who likewise had worried looks before shaking it off.

It was no secret to them.

Mr. Lupa was reaching his end, and he was only waiting on Hei to be ready to handle it.

Chapter end.

Omake: Joy the Divine.

It was just another day for the Joy panda maid in charge of the warehouse hideout.

She enjoyed her life filled with purpose.

She was created for the purpose of work, and it brought her joy to do it.

Another reason she enjoyed the name 'Joy'.

She brought joy to her life and enjoyed bringing joy to her creator.

Her life consisted of a few hours a day of dedicated work between collected and sorting the fish, fruit, alcohol, water, and tobacco into their designated crates.

Cleaning the warehouse and the keeping the vehicles and items stored dust free.

And after her day's work was done, she would relax in the hot springs and enjoy the extra's from the day's stock, enjoying fresh fish, fruit, alcohol, and water as she liked.

Her creator ordered her to make sure she took whatever she wanted to enjoy herself.

Sometimes she would go open the hanger door to the warehouse and drink something while staring out into the high altitude snowy mountains.

And she wasn't lonely here because her Joy sisters would come by after hours from their own places to spend time with her, or sometimes she would travel to the other hideouts.

Joy didn't know if her creator intended for them to be able to move between hideouts, but since he never said anything about it, they continued doing it after work hours unless they had occupants in their hideout.

Today was just like any other day for Joy.

She woke up in her comfortable bed, did her morning yoga and made some tea, and got ready for the day before heading over to the fruit tree to begin the days fruit picking.

Joy was always amused by the fruits she would find.

The tree sprouted dozens of kinds every day at random.

Today Joy spotted a peculiar pomegranate hanging from a branch.

It was plump and unique looking with swirls but she didn't sense anything from it.

After working with fruits and liquor that occasional sprout results rich in mana, she became sensitive to the difference.

She didn't feel anything special from this fruit so she lifted a paw and plucked it.

It had a bit of weight and was very plump and juicy looking.

Joy's mouth watered at the sight and smell.

Her eyes peered around the warehouse and she confirmed she was alone before she opened her jaw wide.

It's not like she couldn't eat what she wanted, she just felt like making sure she was alone for some reason.

The fruit landed in her mouth and her jaws shut.

There was a stillness in the air as the gentle sound of chewing echoed throughout the warehouse.

The fish in the pond went silent, the fountains of water and liquior stopped flowing, a wind began flowing through the space despite being in an enclosed space.

Joy began trembling as something hot was trembling in her stomach.

The wind began to pick up centered on her.

Crates were toppled over, shelves knocked down from their isles, the fruit tree shook violently, the water in the pond circling dangerously.

Joy's eyes began flashing with glowing orbs of pure energy.

The entire hideout was shaking as the mountain itself outside the dimensional pocket began vibrating.

And then all at once, the various effects began easing up as a titanic amount of energy began condensing inside Joy.

On her forehead a slit appeared.

Over her shoulders a pure white kimono began forming.

Yin and Yang symbols began condensing over the kimono.

Horns began sprouting from her head.

She was undergoing an evolution unseen in the world before.

An evolution as a mana construct panda maid was raised to a divine being.

The slit on her head cracked as a blood red eye snapped open at the same time as two glowing white orbs opened in her eyes.

A burst of power matching multiple nukes going off at once exploded out of her like a volcano going off all at once.

The warehouse and dimensional space was ripped apart like paper, the mountain it was inside shattered and split, the mountain range shook with a violent earthquake, and the sky itself split as if the world couldn't handle the emergence of such a grand divine being.

Joy rose in the air until her form reached the clouds.

Her three divine eyes scanned the world below and the universe beyond.

She gazed straight into the shocked and surprised eyes of Big Red, Ophis, and Trihexia as she recognized their existence.

And when her power finally peaked and reached it's apex as the void itself shook, she rose a paw and stopped the world.

The various effects on the world began to rapidly reverse direction.

The void restored itself, the clouds began connecting like normal, the mountain range filled in the cracks, the mountain restored itself to its usual state, the dimensional pocket warehouse returning to it's state just as before, and her form slowly descending back to where she was before.

Time itself was rewound as it all returned to the moment Joy bit the fruit.

Except now the fruit was gone, her third eye was gone, and she looked just as she did before.

Joy looked around and nodded with a satisfied expression before she reached out her paw and began picking fruit like usual.

It was just another day for Joy.

Three existences in the dimensional crack were the only ones aware of what had just happened and even their memories were seeing blank spots.

They looked around in bewilderment before Trihexia ignored it and continued thrashing at it's seal.

Big Red ignored it and went back to performing back flips.

And Ophis thought Big Red did something and went to attack him.

It was just another day for the world.