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FICTION

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Chapter 5: Love and Respect (2)

~Casey's POV~

I was starting to feel anxious as I went through my usual workload without anyone distracting me.

The office was surprisingly quiet, but not-so much considering the reasons that led for this day to actually be a peaceful one for me to enjoy on my own.

With the arrival of the little child from the future, the situation back home had changed quite drastically. Even more than I had initially seen it turn into.

The lewd undertone that should usually have some role within the period of time that would precede dinner had been tuned down a fair bit, with most of the attention being now channeled into making sure that Hoshiko was well-cared during her stay here in the… past-present.

It was odd already that I was supposed to take care of her with the help Nemesis and the rest of the 'housemates', but to even consider the fact that this would in the future become a normalcy.

It was just plain, ol' odd.

Mea and Yami would play around with the younger girl during the evening, being incredibly careful to not exaggerate with the usage of their powers in front of the little child.

And, despite the redhead's best efforts to offer some amusement to who was technically her niece, little Hoshiko had eagerly favored more the attention given by the quieter blonde than her more bubbly 'Auntie'.

This very circumstance would in turn create a minor rivalry between the two, a very one-sided one to that since Yami hardly minded sharing the burden with her fellow Transweapon.

It was an amusing sight that did well in keeping a degree of happiness within the strange predicaments surrounding Hoshiko's presence.

But while the two were the happiest while dealing with this new responsibility, I couldn't help but feel concerned over Nemesis' cautious approach.

It was evident, even to the little girl, that something was bothering the tanned young woman to the point that much of the original Transweapon's excitement was being held back behind what looked to be a perplexed stare.

This very scene persisting even during nighttime as everyone was sleeping and… the young woman didn't take even a moment to rest.

She was awake, vigilant as she attentively glanced at the softly-snoring form of our future daughter.

It was a mesmerizing phenomenon that ended up keeping me awake too for the remainder of what turned out to be a long night.

An All-nighter wasn't ideal considering the draining work I was supposed to be going for quite early in the morning, yet my saving grace was presented by Nemesis herself.

The young woman had seemingly been left unfazed by the lack of slumbering and, despite the fact I knew very well that she was still influenced by sleep-deprivation, I found myself even more shaken when she asked for some coffee.

Fulfilling the request with the rest of the tasks needed to prepare the breakfast, we ended up sharing a conversation that proved to be… the most serious discussion I had with her since the beginning of our relationship.

Mea and Yami had assembled by the entrance, keeping an eye over a blissfully unaware Hoshiko while we talked about the matter.

"Are you sure you don't need to stay at home?" I inquired quietly, her amber eyes narrowing at me at the mere mentioning of staying back to get some rest.

"I'm fine."

I nodded. "Never questioned that," I conceded with a nod. "But I also think it would make you feel even better if you got a little more of sleep."

She snorted, her faux glare lessening to soft annoyance. "I… I know that it sounds like I'm frightened by her but… but I'm just terrified by the chances of someone hunting her down."

"I think you're just getting yourself tangled up for mostly nothing," I commented cautiously, garnering a frown from her. "It's alright to be worried, I understand. But nobody but us knows about the truth over Hoshiko, and she is always around strong individuals."

She lowered her gaze at that, probably seeing the logic behind my words.

There was some silence, but then Nemesis sighed.

"I just can't stop worrying about that," She rebuked with a small pout. "It's just too difficult."

With my smile widening on my face, I reached her for a quick hug. "That's what motherhood is, Okaa-san."

Nuzzling on my shoulder, the young woman sighed heavily. "Then it will be truly a challenge to go through it from square one, Tou-san."

…

"I'm also annoyed that she is a daddy's girl," The transweapon admitted. "She looks up at you a lot."

I shrugged. "Who knows, maybe she is just hiding her love for her mommy for private time."

She groaned in my chest as I started to hum.

"C'mon, think about it. She was hugging you while she was sleeping," I added to my fair point, her groan lessening to a final sigh before the hug was interrupted by the tanned girl.

"It's still annoying."

I gave her an appeasing nod, yet this very topic offered me a curious idea that would work well considering numerous circumstances at once.

"By the way, I was thinking that, since Hocchan can't just be left to get bored in my office, you could spend some time with her by walking around the park for today," I proposed with a curious tone. "You would be capable to watch over her up until my shift is over, and you would also get some rest too while doing this."

She huffed. "Can you please stop treating me as a baby? I know how sleep-deprivation work."

"You literally asked for coffee early in this morning," I flatly pointed out. "Half-a-liter isn't a joke."

Bringing her arms close to her chest, she looked away in a moment of embarrassment.

"Nothing truly bad."

With one last sigh, the conversation actually ended up proving to be quite successful in convincing Nemesis to actually spend some time away from Sainan High with the girl, leaving me alone to face the paperwork without much of an issue.

The office was pleasantly quiet, yet I could still hear the muffled noises of students and teachers going through their usual day here at the school as I silently went through paper after paper.

Perhaps I should've expected that things would've been far more complicated than I had thought them to be. That this was still a world where true peace couldn't be achieved so easily and for too long.

In fact, I did feel quite silly to have forgotten a very small and insignificant detail that proved to be far worse and far more complex that I had expected it to be just a day ago.

While Yui had sounded quite understanding of the fact that I wasn't angry at her for drawing conclusions from some misunderstandings, especially since the damage wasn't as extensive as she had thought it to be early on, her little mortification had influenced her mood for the reminder of that distinct day.

Once she was back home, someone had actually noticed the gloomy expression, the mortified look, and some assault had been planned to happen that very day.

I was confused by the presence of these two, having almost forgotten about both until they were there and presenting some interesting reactions.

The sandy-blond guy with a furious glare directed at me seemed hell-bent in believing that I had done something horrible to her sister, and that I possibly 'worse than the fatter guy'.

The young woman with dark-purple hair that had joined him in this endeavor actually seemed a little more tame and collected, and she was the one that introduced herself and her boyfriend to me.

Sadly, I knew well-enough about who I was dealing with.

Yu Kotegawa was Yui's older brother, and perhaps someone I would've expected to met much earlier than now.

Maybe it was something connected to the fact that he was busy with college, or maybe that he was still trying his best to make a serious commitment with the woman that was now sitting beside him.

Quite the headstrong guy, he was also very protective of women and… from what I could see, incredibly over-protective of his younger sister.

But while the young man seemed eager to make some kerfuffle out of the chaotic mess I was supposed to waddle safely out from, his 'girlfriend' proved to be more diplomatic.

Akiho Sairenji, Haruna's older sister, kept a cautious behavior over this confusing subject, seemingly keen to listen to any excuse or answer I was willing to provide instead of jumping to conclusions like her 'boyfriend'.

It was a nice softening to the current hotheadness displayed by the blond, but still it failed to properly seal away his contempt for me.

Also, I was very unsure how I was supposed to tackle their current relationship with how divisive their individual perspectives over it were to one another.

While Yu considered Akiho his girlfriend and someone that had some chances of becoming his wife in the hopeful future, the young woman saw the emotional guy in a non-serious light.

She was still considered a 'Casual Dater', someone that enjoyed dating boys just for the sake of it, failing to see the necessity of making some binding relationship with someone already.

Both older siblings represented some 'opposite characters' compared to their Imoutos, yet they still held some similarities with them too.

And right now, I was dealing with Yui's ferocity channeled in the form of an older, more violent guy.

"As I've said before, there was no repercussion for Yui-san-"

"She came back home close to tears! How is that not a reaction caused by some punishment?!" Yu rebuked fiercely. "Plus, I'm still suspicious over the fact that someone as young as you managed to get hired in this role."

I shrugged at him, sporting a slightly nervous look at that. "I was literally forced in the job. There wasn't much room to protest about the sudden move."

"Still, from what I understand you're barely older than us, Casey-san," Akiho mentioned with some curiosity. "And I reckon that the burden of directing a school isn't that easy."

I nodded at that quiet affirmation. "It's not a simple job. I just ended college a couple of months ago and-"

"Wait, you mean to tell me that-" The blond stopped with his outburst, eyes widening at the claim I had brought up. "But how? Aren't you like two years older or something?"

"I started at 18 and I managed to conclude my studies in the minimum time of three years," I replied with a nod. "Is there a problem with that."

"College here in Japan last four years as minimum time, but people tends to study more years than that," The plum-haired woman explained with a partially-surprised tone. "It's a surprise, but I guess you aren't from around."

"Something like that, yes," I admitted with a small smile. "Still, I suppose we should return to-"

"You made my sister cry!"

I groaned at the interruption, ready to resume with my appeasing responses only for the woman to finally sigh and jump in the proper conversation.

"Yukkun, you know that the situation itself isn't that dramatic," Akiho huffed with some annoyance, swatting at the boy's arm. "I'm quite sure that Casey-san has yet to lie about this situation. In fact, I would even say that Yui-chan would confirm his words if she was here now."

"I mean, I could call Yui-san to corroborate my words if it would help with the situation," I offered after listening to that. "I'm sure that she can afford some time to avoid any unneeded misunderstandings out of this."

The blond shifted with some nervousness in his chair. "W-Wouldn't it be bad for her if she skipped class like this?"

"Not if the situation requires her presence to avoid any unwanted escalations." I pressed on with some genuineness in my tone. "Plus, I'm sure that she would be happy to know that her big brother had come here to protect her honor and feelings."

He preened under my compliments, yet his good mood was struck down by the fact that the girl wouldn't truly be happy for what was going on right now.

And if I knew something about Yui from spending so much time working with her, it was that she wasn't keen to accept kindly any unwanted actions that could technically jeopardize her good standing in the school.

Which this situation wasn't even close to do, yet the presence of her big brother was surely going to create that very sensation. Which would be enough to make the situation very awkward.

Despite Yu's weak attempts to avoid this development, his 'girlfriend' pressed him to accept this circumstance to happen and… let's just say that the scene that ensued was far more hilarious than I thought it could've gotten.

Yui was understandably upset, with her face taking a shade of red that best described her renewed mortification at the fact that her brother had decided to take this aggressive stance now of all times.

She lashed out pretty violently, albeit not too brutally as she interrogated her older sibling with a vehemence that was as amusing as partly-worrisome to watch.

Akiho stared at the scene with visible giddiness to see the young man mauled by the girl, praising 'Yui-chan' for making herself heard by 'her silly Onii-san'.

The entire predicament continued for a while, ending up with me having to once more confirm to the girl that no punishment was planned for her 'horrible ordeal'.

Her brother was convinced by her persuasive and genuine mannerism, enough to vaporize any trace of ill intent the blond had towards me.

The plum-haired young woman was the one that actually saw this discussion to stretch a little longer than expected as she wanted to check on Haruna's current grades.

In the end, everyone was satisfied with the outcome of this conversation and the office was finally vacated by the group, leaving me to face once more the incumbent papers waiting on my desk.

Yawning a little as I started to finally feel the strain of the all-nighter, my ears were keen enough to hear a soft knocking by the door of the office, making me answer on instinct.

"Come in," I muttered calmly, yet my eyes were still focusing on the words of the never-ending tower of documents.

Soft footsteps slowly made their way up in front of the desk, waiting patiently as I finally granted her my full focus.

I let out a small smile, and a confused frown. "Hello Momo-chan,"

"Casey, I see that you're… close to collapse on your workload again," The girl giggled as she pointed out the obvious scene. "I hope that I'm not disturbing."

"Not truly, no," I replied with a nod. "So, any reason to be making this little visit?"

"Arata-sensei is absent for today, so I wanted to spend some time talking," She explained with a calm tone, my concern easing up a little as I nodded at her words.

Ever since Hoshiko had arrived, the stable friendship I had managed to rekindle with Momo had seemed to have slightly derailed with what were my own worries of some unneeded twist to her current moderate stance over romance.

The girl had yet to show anything concerning, but I was still guarded over anything that could even bring suspect over her attitude towards the matter.

"I can spare a few words. Do take a seat," I conceded with a sigh, her smile widening as she sat down on one of the two chairs available.

"I see that Nemesis-san had not come at school today," The pinkette commented with some surprise. "I hope that everything is alright."

"She wanted to spend some time with Hocchan," I reassured quietly. "They should be playing by the park as of now."

The girl nodded happily at this development, yet her pink eyes gave a curious look while staring intensely at me.

"And… are you alright?"

I blinked. "Just a little bit tired. Nothing worrisome."

She nodded again, this time her tight expression showing some uncertainty over this statement.

"Any particular reason that… you lost hours of sleep?" She pressed on with some interest.

"Nemesis couldn't get any sleep and… I just ended up staying awake too," I finally confessed much to the growing surprise and worry within the pinkette's eyes. "But I'm fine, I've planned some napping once I'm done with this shift."

"You shouldn't skip resting like that. You might end up getting sick by doing this," Momo pointed out sternly, before actually bringing back the happy smile. "But I'm still glad that Hoshiko-chan had enjoyed a calm and uneventful night."

I nodded at the final comment, feeling a little relieved that the conversation had yet to derail from what I hoped to be the prelude of something messy and troublesome.

But while I had wanted to shy away from taking a more active role in this conversation, I decided to at least return the inquiry with the same intensity.

"What about you, Momo-chan?" I asked with some curiosity. "Any issues you've been experiencing in those few days? I've heard from Lala that you're almost done with your mandatory training sessions."

Her smile wavered a little at the question, but it widened at the mere mentioning of the latter topic.

"Neesan has been quite strict, but she said that in a couple of weeks I would be able to train on my own and without supervision," The pinkette confirmed eagerly. "Still, I will continue training to avoid any incidents."

I blinked at that very reminder, noticing some uneasiness on her face at the mere remembrance of that 'situation'.

"You've improved a lot. Don't think that you will just revert back to that unique predicament without any major reason," I pointed out confidently. "And I bet that some guys have noticed some of the changes too."

A blush adorned her face at the comment, with my mind thinking well about the fact that the girl had grown a little bit taller, with her body gaining a lovely hourglass shape that was overall increased her previous allure.

A blossoming beauty, one that probably might have some more Charmian potential that waited to be tapped into within due time.

Momo finally sighed at that and… pouted. "You know better than me that I do have that kind of attention."

My own smile widened at her comment, but I didn't address that 'ludicrous claim' much to her growing annoyance.

There had been some subtle attempts to reform the VMC from some of the newer students, but all of those were promptly eradicated before they could come into fruition.

I had no intentions of dealing with the rebirth of such a group, especially with how troublesome they had been to remove the first time around.

A feeling I was quite sure that Yui herself shared to a higher degree than I could muster up, mostly because she had been the one to directly deal with the morons being part of that club.

And while nothing too stalkerish had formed out, some people had ended up still noticing and praising Momo for her own gorgeous appearance.

She had grown a lot in so little, but I was sure that the process itself had began way before I had arrived in this world. My presence only enabled her to achieve some newer steps earlier than expected.

Just as I concluded this trail of thoughts, I noticed that the girl was staring at me with a somewhat interested look.

"Is there something wrong, Momo-chan?"

She blinked, turning her sight away for a moment and… she sighed.

"I know it might sound strange but- can I ask you a little favor?" The pinkette asked with a careful tone.

"Is anything lewd?"

… "No."

I hummed quietly, tensing up a little at the fact I knew the situation was a little more complicated than it seemed right now.

"And what is it?"

Her eyes slowly returned to stare at me. "Can I… Can I rest a little with you?"

… "What?"

"You remember when-" She stopped for a moment, looking quite nervous so suddenly. "When I would sit on your lap and merely press my head on your chest? Resting like that?"

I remembered that, there wasn't much to forget especially with how attached it was to that closeness before she went berserk on Yami.

But while I was skeptical over that matter, my mind couldn't help but notice that there was something off about her current tone of voice.

It was shortly after that I noticed with some accurate attention that the girl looked actually paler than usual, appearing genuinely ill from a closer look.

It didn't seem like something correlated to the inquire, but rather something genuinely concerning over her health.

"Momo-chan, are you sure you are alright?" I asked with a hint of worry. "I'm referring about being sick, not about the question."

At that probe, the pinkette merely sighed. "Just a little tired. Nothing that bad."

"You're paler than usual," I stated with some seriousness. "If you don't feel well, you know that you can ask to Mikado-sensei."

She hummed, slouching a little on the chair and making me stand up from my seat.

"I'm… I'm fine," The girl muttered with a softer voice, enough to notice that whatever was happening to the Devilukean, it was slowly making her sleepier by the minute.

Tensing up in a brief moment of panic, I rushed around the desk and I managed to catch her from falling off the chair.

"Uh..."

I took her in my arms, pulling her close in a bridal carry as I knew that whatever had hit the pinkette, it had to be serious.

Without wasting any time pondering over the circumstance, I rushed out of the office with Momo carefully nestled in my hold.

She started to shiver, and I could feel my heartbeat increasing at the sudden emergency that was ensuing right now.

I sprinted right to where the infirmary ward was and… Mikado looked surprised when I barged inside the room, staring away for a moment from an ill-looking Nana now resting by one of the medical beds.

"Put her there," The redhead aimed her finger at the bed beside Nana's and I didn't hesitate in complying to that order.

Momo flinched a little at the sudden lack of heat, but her attention was barely there to react at the unpleasant predicament.

"What is going on, Mikado-san?" I asked with a serious voice, the doctor giving me a tired sigh as she swiftly moved between the twins to administer some medicines through needles.

"Nothing life-threatening," The woman assured with a confident tone. "While the conditions seem worrying, their biology is holding well against the virus."

… "Virus?"

"Something that has been existed for a couple of years now. It has spread from Deviluke and it targets various Aliens with same biology as Devilukeans," Mikado continued with her explanation. "It's not lethal if immediate attention is given but… I've already asked for Gid-sama to contact Sephi about this matter."

I nodded, appreciating the good thinking behind the quick action. "Is Lala-san affected by the virus too?"

"She hasn't shown any symptoms, but I saw fit to ask her to return back home and be prepared to make use of some medications if she started to experience some sudden fever," The doctor answered quietly, her attention fully channeled into the two girls. "Still, I suspect that this isn't just a coincidence, but rather someone had planned on killing the princesses with this."

I frowned, the comment making me tense up at the idea. "What?"

"The virus was contained in Deviluke, and there has been no infected Devilukeans having been granted permission to come to Earth so… someone might have tried to make use of the illness to attack the Royal Family."

…This- This was actually bad. Not only this meant that Assassins hadn't stopped with their previous attempts, but that now they were making use of some bold attempts to-

I felt a cold shiver, my eyes widening as I felt a bad feeling growing within my chest as I remembered Nemesis' comments earlier that morning.

Without hesitation, I took my phone out and prepared the call to contact the tanned Transweapon.

I expected for my silly and unrelated thoughts about a bigger assault to be wrong, that Nemesis would've answered and pestered me about how much was left of my shift…

But I was met with no response from her device.

If only I had been aware that the situation was somewhat better and worse at the same time. In fact, the assault was led by a single man… just not of the normal kind.

AN

A month! I feel ashamed for having missed the update last time but… I really had to skip writing altogether at that point, there was an instance that forced me away from the keyboard.

But now? Now things are spicing up.

If you expected for things to stay 'simple' for too long. Well, too bad!

Also, quick news: I've started a new story and it's based in DBZ. The time? Three years before Android Saga; The MC? The one and only Bukharin as Kami's errand boy with Ki. Also Mr. Popo is… different.

P a treon . com (slash) socialistbukharin

k o-fi . com (slash) justbukharin

REVIEW Q&A!

Exiled Soul Nomad: Maybe both.

Gender Bend: Yes.