DISCLAIMER: I'm a dope.
St. Peter's High School; Wednesday April 18, 2000
It was early morning as Tate, Mai and Natsuki made their way from the dorms to the academic quad for a long day of classes. "So, what did you think Natsuki? Did you want to do lunch outside? The weather report says it's going to be really nice today."
Natsuki smiled at her friend, "Sure, especially if it's food that you made. You know I'm always up for that."
"Hey what about me? Am I not invited?" Tate asked, mostly feigning being offended by the notion.
Mai blinked at Tate in surprise, almost as though just now noticing his presence with them, "Well I guess you could come with us if you wanted. I think I made enough for all three of us..." She gave Natsuki a sceptical look as she said this.
Natsuki rolled her eyes, "Only if you can promise me that you won't bring Takeda with you. I swear Tate, if he doesn't take a hint soon you're both going to be in physical therapy all year instead of participating in kendo competitions."
"Dammit! Physical therapy!"
"What about physical therapy?" Mai asked.
"I have it this afternoon. I have to leave to go to the hospital during lunch period." Tate complained, attempting to still look manly while pouting.
"Oh, I'm sorry Tate-kun. I can bring you by something when you get back?" Mai offered.
"Don't do that Mai, if you feed him he'll never go away." Natsuki rolled her eyes when Mai just smiled sweetly at that idea.
"Thanks Mai-chan, I'll see you later this afternoon then." Tate said, waving goodbye as he split off to go to the building where his class met.
"You don't need to be so rude to him all the time Natsuki-chan." Mai scolded her roommate.
"Eh, Tate wouldn't know what to do if I was nice to him one day." Natsuki grinned, "Maybe I'll try it next week sometime so you can see him being all paranoid that I've been replaced by some body-snatching demon."
Mai looked surprised, "I didn't know that Tate-kun knew about demons?"
"He doesn't."
"...oh." Mai gave her friend a puzzled look as they walked into their classroom for the day. "Good morning Sugiura-sensei!" she greeted brightly.
"Yo Midori."
"Good morning ladies, I trust that the two of you had a bug-free evening?" She asked in a teasing voice. Some of the other students close enough to overhear looked at her quizzically.
Natsuki grinned, "Nope, no bugs. Which is why both of us are here this morning with our sanity mostly intact."
"Good, then you'll be ready for the quiz on the late Heian period today." Midori replied, grinning back at her Slayer.
Natsuki made a rude hand gesture at her Watcher out of view of the rest of the class besides Mai, who giggled nervously. Midori just laughed and told them to go sit down to get ready for their long day of classes.
-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-
After class let out for lunch period, Natsuki and Mai quickly headed back to their dorm room to pick up the food that Mai had prepared for them. Natsuki had an idea for where they should have their picnic, having found the small clearing in the woods behind the church a couple of nights ago while on patrol. It was just a small field, but this time of year it was covered in wildflowers and quite beautiful. They made their way across campus, Natsuki carrying the large canvas cooler with their food in it and Mai carrying a blanket and the bottled sodas that they had gotten out of the drink machine in their dorm's laundry room.
They walked slowly down the small dirt path towards the clearing that was still muddy in places from the rain that they'd gotten the other morning; today though the sun was shining, perfect warm but not hot spring weather. As they grew closer to the clearing, Natsuki's Slayer hearing picked up the faint sounds of someone singing. She smiled as she recognized the voice and gestured to Mai to be quiet. When they reached the edge of the clearing Mai let out a small surprised noise at the sight in front of them. Miyu was seated on a large rock with a peaceful look on her face, eyes closed as she listened to the small blonde girl singing. Natsuki thought that even if the little girl had sung beautifully in the church, she seemed more carefree out here. It was like the difference between how Shizuru acted with the Student Council kids and how she acted when it was just Natsuki around.
"Hey, isn't that Miyu-san?" Mai questioned softly with surprise.
"Yeah. I've seen the two of them at the church once before too."
Mai smiled broadly, "Miyu-san looks like a completely different person when she's happy."
As the little girl's song drew to a close, Natsuki was getting ready to suggest that she and Mai should take their food elsewhere so that they wouldn't be intruding, but when she turned to suggest that to her roommate she noticed that Mai was already heading across the clearing. Letting out a sigh, she followed hesitantly behind her much bolder friend.
"Wow Miyu-san! She sings beautifully! Is this your little sister?" Mai asked warmly.
"Tokiha-san. Ojou-sama is my adopted sister. We both live with Father Greer-sama at the church." Miyu explained politely before her eyes slid past Mai to rest on Natsuki. "Kuga-san." Miyu acknowledged coldly.
"I'm sorry we intruded on your time together Miyu-san." Natsuki apologized, "I didn't realize that anyone would be here, if you two wanted Mai and I could go elsewhere..."
"No it's fine Kuga-san." The young girl assured her in what seemed to be rather polite and formal tones for such a young child, "Miyu-san is just shy around people she doesn't know well, but Father is always saying that she needs to learn to interact with others better. My name is Alyssa; it's nice to meet you both."
"It's nice to meet you too Alyssa-chan." Mai replied grinning, "You really do sing beautifully, I can only imagine how talented you will be when you grow up!" She hefted the blanket in her hands, "So you don't mind if the two of us join you? I think I made enough food that we can all share." The orange haired girl offered politely.
"That would be nice, thank you Tokiha-san." Alyssa gave her a small polite smile.
"I cannot consume food at this time." Miyu replied.
"Well so long as you don't mind if we do? Natsuki-chan would probably be insufferable during afternoon classes if she didn't eat anything." Mai said teasingly.
"Hey!"
"What, you don't want to try and prove me wrong by skipping lunch do you?" Natsuki just sat down heavily on the blanket and stuck her tongue out at Mai rudely.
Alyssa giggled brightly at their actions, though Miyu's face remained an unreadable mask. "You two seem really close, have you known each other a long time?"
Mai shook her head, "No, we just met during move-in. We're roommates this year. I moved here to Tokyo for senior high." She offered Alyssa a baggie with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, "I guess we do get along pretty well though, Natsuki-chan is more fun than she seems like at first glance."
"Hey!" Natsuki complained again around a bite of her roast beef sandwich.
Alyssa smiled sweetly, "I understand, Miyu is the same way. Most people don't realize how kind she really is." Mai tried to hide her grin with her soda when Miyu blushed at her young friend's praise. "We have known each other a really long time though, it seems like Miyu has always been there for me."
"Well I think Miyu-san is very lucky to have a cute little sister like you." Mai smiled politely at the stoic pale-haired teen, "I can tell she has done a great job taking care of you."
Miyu finally cracked a smile at someone other than Alyssa at that statement, "I would do anything to protect Ojou-sama."
"You sound like Natsuki-chan when you say that." Mai grinned.
Alyssa looked startled by that, "Kuga-san has a little sister?"
The Slayer finally paused for long enough in eating her lunch to reply, "Um... no not really. Mai just likes to tease me because I worry about my friends and my guardian more than I probably should... I guess I did always kindof want a little sister, but I don't have a mom anymore and it would be really weird for me if Midori suddenly went and got pregnant..."
"Hahaha... Natsuki-chan I'm totally going to tell Sugiura-sensei that you said that about her." Mai laughed.
"Pfft whatever, I think it would be kindof weird for Yohko-sensei if Midori got knocked up unexpectedly too." The two friends were so distracted by their mutual teasing that they didn't notice Alyssa's sudden look of surprise at the mention of the Japanese History professor's name.
"What would you do to protect them?" Miyu interjected suddenly, her serious tones cutting through the roommates' banter.
"Huh?" Natsuki asked glancing at Miyu, somewhat startled that the girl was actually speaking to her.
"The ones you care about. What would you do to protect them?"
Natsuki studied those cold red eyes carefully. There was something so... flat about them that she couldn't ever remember seeing in another's before. But still, the tone of the girl's question had been serious, "I would use all of my strength, do anything that was necessary." Natsuki replied seriously, "They mean everything to me; I would protect them with my life."
Miyu gave the Slayer a sharp nod of her head, holding her bright green eyes with her own dull red ones, "I would also protect Ojou-sama with my life. I would stop at nothing to destroy any who wished to harm her."
Natsuki blinked a bit at the unexpected threat in the other's tone but nodded, "I respect that."
Mai glanced back and forth between the two curiously during their exchange. She looked at Alyssa wondering if the young girl was as lost as she was, "I feel like I missed something just then."
"I think we just witnessed two samurai testing each other's honour." Alyssa said with light amusement in her voice.
Mai raised an eyebrow at the small girl's mature way of speaking, but couldn't disagree that it seemed an accurate observation. The other two girls still seemed to be staring each other down. "Hey Natsuki-chan." Mai spoke resting a soft hand on Natsuki's knee. The Slayer turned slowly to look at her friend, but remained quiet. "I think we should be heading back to class." At Natsuki's slow nod Mai continued, "Will we see you there too Miyu-san?"
"No, I have to take Ojou-sama to get some medical treatments this afternoon." Miyu replied flatly.
"Oh... well I hope you feel better then Alyssa-chan." Mai offered politely.
"Thank you Tokiha-san. Good day to you as well Kuga-san."
"Later." Natsuki said as she helped Mai put the rest of their stuff from lunch back in the cooler. "See you around Miyu-san. It was nice to meet you Alyssa-chan."
"I only hope our next meeting is under as good of circumstances." Alyssa said solemnly causing both Mai and Natsuki to gaze at her curiously for a moment before leaving. "See Miyu? I told you they seemed like nice girls." Alyssa said softly to her protector once the other two were well out of earshot.
"The Champion would stop at nothing if we threatened those she cares about." Miyu said with worry.
"Kuga-san has much in common with my Miyu." Alyssa said as she gazed at Miyu affectionately.
Miyu shrugged, "She has many that she cares for. I only have Ojou-sama."
Alyssa shook her head sadly, "In many ways that makes her more vulnerable. There are more targets to strike at to hurt her." She let out a soft sigh, "Though I wish it wasn't necessary."
"But Ojou-sama, you are much too weak to perform another summon now!"
Alyssa smirked, "Surely if I wanted it to be strong enough to defeat the Champion. But perhaps I could defeat one of her friends... the one she calls her guardian. That one is her Miyu you know. She would be devastated; possibly unable to fight us any longer if we could destroy that one. And she isn't a child. I wouldn't have to feel so guilty."
"When?"
"I see no reason to wait. I shall perform the summoning tonight."
"Yes Ojou-sama." Miyu bowed to the blonde girl, "Do you... think maybe you could sing for me again?" She asked shyly her red eyes still averted.
Alyssa smiled gently at her protector, "Alright."
Soon the small clearing was once more filled with the sound of the golden haired girl's singing. Miyu smiled softly as she listened to the beautiful golden light. She hoped that Alyssa would be successful in neutralizing the Champion soon; the continued existence of such a threat to her Alyssa was beginning to overload her systems.
-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-
Midori took the last swig from her bottle of Kirin as she slowly read through the ancient Hebrew ritual designed to briefly separate a caster from their source of magical power so that it could be traced. It was a simple ritual that required two casters, a vessel and a source of residual magical energy from a spell cast by the target caster. She picked absently at the label on her beer as she pondered the logistics of such a ritual. The persons performing the ritual did not need to have any particular magical power of their own, so Midori figured that she and Yohko or Fujikawa could be the ones to do that part. The tricky bit was that the vessel would need to be someone capable of holding a fairly sizable amount of mystical energy. The obvious choice for that role would be Natsuki, but since they would be returning to the monastery where the attack took place, it probably wouldn't be prudent for Natsuki to be incapacitated by this Ritual of Separation when it might prove necessary for her to defend them.
"Midori." A cultured voice interrupted her musings. She startled at a noise so nearby and looked up from her study of the ritual but smiled when she saw Yohko standing there holding a box of pizza that she placed on the coffee table and two more beers. "What language are you researching in tonight?"
"Hebrew." Midori replied absently, taking the beer she returned her eyes to her research. When she suddenly realized she hadn't actually asked Yohko about the possibility of her participation she looked up, only to be startled by the sight of a bright golden light materializing into... something behind the doctor. "Yohko!" She called out in warning as she jumped to her feet, the old book falling to the floor.
"Midori? What-" The doctor's startled exclamation was cut short by Midori slamming into her to throw her out of the way. The she dropped the bottle she was holding, the brown glass clinking lightly as it hit the carpeted floor, the foamy amber liquid inside spilling out.
"Go into the other room and lock the door." Midori ordered as she stood, placing herself between the newly materialized demon and her lover.
"But Midori-"
"NOW! Don't worry about me Yohko, I've got this." She tried to reassure the doctor, keeping her voice steady. Not taking her eyes off the demon she murmured a simple defensive barrier incantation under her breath, hoping that it might be strong enough to delay the demon for a few seconds at least.
For endless moments Yohko felt as though she was frozen, unable to look away from the otherworldly creature looming in the middle of the sitting room, staring down the brave redhead who was protecting her. The beast was at least a head taller than Midori and far bulkier; it was roughly human-shaped but was undeniably inhuman in appearance. The demon was unclothed but apparently sexless, covered head to toe in sandpapery skin that was light brown in colour with darker brown stripes running down its sides. Its head was the most obviously monstrous part, with a huge gaping mouth full of large, triangular razor-sharp teeth. Yohko thought in a strangely coherent moment considering her situation, that it somewhat resembled a shark. The doctor couldn't see how Midori in her faded denims, an old green sweatshirt with a drunken leprechaun proclaiming the virtues of alcohol, and socked feet could hope to defeat such a creature.
"YOHKO GO!" Midori yelled out, "Until you're in the other room I can't move." The Watcher winced as the demon struck hard at her flimsy magickal barrier, feeling the magic discharge as it shattered from just one blow. She breathed a sigh of relief as the doctor finally broke out of her shocked state and ran for the door to the training room, shutting it hard behind her. She wasted no time leaping into action, smashing her beer bottle on the table separating her from the demon and neatly breaking the wide end off. It wasn't going to be a good enough weapon to kill this thing, but it was much better than attempting to strike at it barehanded.
As she moved she never broke eye contact with the demon, taking in how slowly its eyes tracked after her she decided to take a gamble on it not being very agile. Ducking behind it she slammed her broken bottle down hard into its back, wincing as her hand was scraped on the sandpapery surface of the demon's skin. The demon whirled around and struck out at her with a meaty fist, she dodged out of the way, wincing again as she heard the distinct sound of the demon putting one of his fists through the drywall. There goes my security deposit.
As soon as the door closed behind her, separating her from the demon, Yohko's panic only increased. Midori was alone out there. She jumped at the loud crashes she could hear coming from the other room, as she tried to ignore the thundering of her heartbeat in her ears enough so that she could think. Of something, anything she could do to help the brave woman protecting her. I left my personal cellphone charging in the car, and for once I'm not on-call tonight so I don't have the hospital one either. Finally she found what she had been looking for on a side wall, a landline phone. She wasted no time running over to it, thankful that she had memorized Natsuki's cellphone number. The Slayer picked up on the second ring.
"Natsuki! It's Midori! There's a demon in the apartment." She said without preamble.
"I'm on my way, I'm not far. If you're hidden, stay that way. Be safe."
The Slayer's tone sounded exactly the same as Midori's had when the redhead had ordered her to hide. The line went dead and Yohko was again left feeling helpless, with no clue what to do; two things that the emergency room doctor was not used to feeling in a crisis. Midori and Natsuki clearly expected her to just sit safe in here and do nothing, but Yohko knew she wouldn't be able to live with herself if Midori were to get hurt or worse because she didn't act. But what could she do?
Midori stood in the main room of her apartment watching for a moment as the demon she had just pummelled over the head with her brand new DVD-player crashed into her recently assembled coffee table, reducing it to splinters.
"It is not so weak as we were tolds." The demon whined, obviously in pain, drool dripping from its mouth full of oversized teeth.
Midori didn't wait around to let the demon get to his feet, instead running to the kitchen and grabbing the eight inch butcher knife from the drawer by the stove. As the demon rose to his knees she rapidly strode over to him, unerringly throwing her knife through his finned foot, lodging it in the hardwood floor under the carpet. The demon let out a low roar of pain that shook the few decorations still hanging on the walls. The Watcher blinked in disbelief tears fell from the demon's huge orange eyes.
"What the hell kindof sissy demon cries just because someone stabbed him in the foot?" Midori asked, picking up the screwdriver that had been lying on the floor from when she'd assembled the now destroyed coffee table just a few days ago. I always knew there was a good reason for my being lazy about house cleaning. She lashed out again, stabbing the demon through the shoulder with the improvised weapon. "If you'll just talk, I promise I'll let you go." The Watcher noticed Yohko standing in the open door to the training room through her peripheral vision, but didn't take her gaze from the prone demon.
The demon roared again in pain, "It hurts! They didn't tell us it would hurts."
"Yes well, one tends to get hurt while fighting." Midori gestured to a still freely bleeding bite mark on her right bicep, the ripped sleeve of her shirt barely hanging on. "You think that didn't hurt? And this was one of my favourite shirts too."
The demon growled angrily and once more tried to get to its feet, "You was supposed to be weak! We were untouchable!" Then it cried out again as it was impaled from behind by Yohko with a shortsword, the demon's knees gave out as the blade apparently severed its spinal cord. Midori looked up and was momentarily surprised to see cold fury in the doctor's normally gentle blue eyes, but quickly schooled her face into a wicked grin. She got to her feet and stomped her left foot on the wound in the bleeding demon's back, ignoring the warm sticky feeling of its blood seeping through her sock as she gently took the hilt of the sword from Yohko's lightly shaking hand.
"Now, as I was saying. If you'll talk, I'll let you go. Who sent you here?" She asked, making a shallow cut with the sword across the back of the demon's neck before bringing the pommel down hard on the open wound, causing it to start bleeding more profusely. The demon roared in pain and despite herself Yohko winced sympathetically, knowing that the redhead had chosen an area particularly dense with nerve endings.
"Let us go? Our legs are broken!" The demon whimpered.
Midori shrugged, unconcerned. "They'll heal won't they? I thought you had to be decapitated to die... Or was that the Akaei demon..."
"...We would tell you everything if we knew anything." The demon spoke softly before letting out an angry yell. "But the Master tells us nothing! Only that we are to hurt the loved one of the Champion. We not see the Master, but we must obey the orders." Suddenly it shot up from the ground as though its back had not been injured at all, throwing Midori off and sending her crashing into the entertainment centre. The demon ripped its foot from the ground, showering the room in golden light as it reformed. "We shall simply kill the loved one of the loved one. That will make them both weak." The demon bared its serrated teeth as it charged, wrapping a rough webbed hand around Yohko's neck and throwing her up against the wall, staring into frightened blue eyes. "This one is also not used to feeling pain." It spoke softly with a mad glint in its eye before licking the blood from the scrapes on her throat with a sandpapery forked tongue.
"Hey. I'm still in the room." Midori growled as she held the tip of the sword at the base of the demon's skull, putting just enough pressure on it to break the skin. Curious how it bled like any other animal but healed instantly like it had... "Put her down!" She added just a little more pressure, watching as more deep purple venous blood seeped down the flat of her blade.
"So that you can behead us without fears of losing anything? No. We wants you to hurts!" The demon hissed as it tightened its grip on Yohko's throat. "We dies either way. Best not to go alone."
Suddenly the demon fell to the ground, the walls shaking slightly at the heavy thud of his body. Midori blinked as she stared down at him... his reptilian looking ear seemed to have sprouted a knife hilt. A black booted foot stomped down hard on the hilt, there was cracking as cartilage and bone gave way under the pressure. An uncontrollable grin came to the Watcher's face as she slowly looked up to see burning green eyes giving the prone demon a full power Slayer-stare.
"Sorry. But those humans are mine." The Slayer's eyes seemed to glow as she drove her claws clean through the demon's neck, causing it to explode into golden light. Natsuki looked frantically back and forth between her Watcher and the doctor, breathing hard from her intense emotions if not the exertion of rushing here at very illegal speeds. "It was in your home! How could they know to go after you? Do you know what's sending these things so that I can kill it!" She asked rapidly before stopping to take a deep breath. "Ugh. Nevermind. Are either of you hurt?"
Yohko finally felt her heart beat returning to something resembling normal, she reached up to rub her rapidly bruising throat before speaking in slightly strained tones, "No Natsuki, we're fine now. Thank you for coming here so quickly." Her breath caught as still glowing green eyes met hers, she'd never really seen Natsuki in full Slayer-mode up close like this. It was a little frightening, she looked almost inhuman.
"You were in danger. Midori was in danger."
"I got some scrapes and a little bite wound, but I'll be alright." Midori tried to reassure her Slayer, drawing the dark haired girl's attention away from the frightened doctor.
Yohko spoke up hesitantly, "You know... even if the demon exploded when you killed it, there are still bloodstains on the weapons and the floor. Why is that?"
Natsuki shrugged, "I don't really know. Vampires leave behind blood too. Do you know why that is Midori?"
"Well, as a rule if it's not on the vampire at the time of death it won't dust." Midori shrugged, "For vampires it's not really helpful since it just registers as human if you try to analyze it. You can use the blood of some demons to help identify them though."
"This might be a silly question, but would it be useful at all if I took a sample of it back to my lab at the hospital to do an analysis? Obviously I'd not keep any official records of it, but I always wondered... unless it couldn't even be analyzed by scientific methods at all due to lack of similarities to animal blood?" Yohko asked, clearly already thinking of all the various tests she wanted to run.
Midori shrugged, "It certainly couldn't hurt to take a look at it. I've never seen demons exactly like these before and I haven't had any luck tracking down ones that fit the descriptions of them in my resources. I have however managed to find a ritual that could help us track down the person or thing summoning them."
"Awesome! How soon can we perform it so that I can track this thing down? This Big Bad is coming after people I know instead of just focusing on me; I have to stop it now." The Slayer's voice was strained as she spoke; sounding almost like she was on the verge of starting to panic a little. Natsuki had never been faced with an opponent that thought beyond the immediate battle like this one. She looked to Midori desperately, hoping that her Watcher would have the answers.
Midori let out a deep sigh as she limped over and sat down heavily on the couch, trying to ignore the debris that used to be her living room for now. Yohko left the room for a moment, mumbling something about getting the first aid kit. "Wait a minute until Yohko gets back? I need to tell her about it too. I was interrupted by the demon before I got to bounce the idea off her." The Watcher winced as she tried to extend her bruised muscles far enough to reach the book on the floor, but Natsuki seeing what she was reaching for simply got it for her. "Thanks. Ugh, that thing really kicked my ass a little bit. Clearly I'll need to have you do some more training sessions with me."
"You shouldn't be fighting these things at all, that's my job." Natsuki complained.
Midori smiled slightly and shook her head, "Natsuki these guys aren't going to be playing by the rules that you're used to. We've been lucky not to have faced an organized enemy like this before." She ruffled her Slayer's hair like she was still a much younger girl, smirking as Natsuki grumbled at her. "You know I'm not helpless. Even if I don't have your strength, I have combat skills and I know a bit of magic. I can use them if I need to."
They both looked up as Yohko returned to the room carrying the first aid kit. "I should really take you in to get that stitched up." The doctor complained pointing at the jagged bite wound on the redhead's arm.
Midori shrugged, "There's a needle and thread in the first aid kit. Besides, I always wanted a convincing scar so that I could tell people I survived a shark attack. That's pretty badass right?"
"What, are you going to get a tattoo of Jaws on your back now or something?" Natsuki asked with a laugh.
"...it was really more of a tiger shark."
"Oh I see. I guess that does work better with your theme." Natsuki teased, referring to her Watcher's tiger tattoo and general tendency to collect anything big cat related.
"Anyway," Yohko interjected as she began disinfecting Midori's wound with the alcohol, "Midori, I think I heard you saying something about a ritual as I was leaving the room?"
"Oh right." Midori blushed slightly at having gotten distracted, "Well I managed to find a pretty simple ritual known as the Ritual of Separation that we could use to track the location of the caster. The ritual itself is in Hebrew, so I figured that myself and Yohko, or possibly Fujikawa if his schedule works out better, would be the ones who should read it. I can write out how to read it phonetically in kana, you won't have to actually know what the words mean. This is a ceremonial ritual, meaning it doesn't actually require much or any magic to cast so there wouldn't be any issues there. The difficult part is finding a person to temporarily hold the magic of the caster. They have to be someone with a large magical capacity; the ritual will give them a lock on that person's magical signature and general location."
Natsuki interrupted, "Well shouldn't that be me? I mean, I've had lots of magic put in me before, the First District and then at the monastery. I've been hit with offensive magic plenty of times too, but I'm assuming that's not what this is."
"You're right, it isn't. But it can't be you. The weakness of the spell is that it will alert the person it's being cast upon, you can't just rip someone's magic from them without them noticing. If they're good enough they'd easily be able to trace it back to us, possibly even be able to get a summon off if they have too much power to drain it all quickly. And you've been infused with massive amounts of magic before; you know that it can leave you almost helpless."
The Slayer nodded reluctantly, "But how would we find someone else for this? We don't know any witches or anything like that do we?"
Midori shrugged, "Not that I know of." She glanced at Yohko who was almost finished stitching up the worst cuts on her arm, "Do you mind if I go grab something out of the training room?" She asked even as she slowly got to her feet, almost managing to look like it didn't hurt her.
"Well the bleeding has mostly stopped anyway, just come right back." The doctor rolled her eyes at how insufferable Midori was about these sorts of things. "I'll just collect that demon blood sample while you're in the other room."
The still charged Slayer got to her feet as well when her Watcher gestured that she should follow, her slightly bloody fists clenching and unclenching trying to dull her slaying buzz enough to listen to any instructions. "Alright I'm pretty sure I still have a few of these things." Midori mumbled to herself as she walked over to one of the various storage chests against the side wall. Opening it revealed instead of weapons, various trinkets made from different metals, animal or demon bones and wood, the significance of any of them was lost on Natsuki. She smiled to once again be reminded about the vast amount of random information stored in her Watcher's brain.
After a brief search through the various demon teeth, amulets and carved statuettes, Midori pulled out what appeared to be a small green glass bead on a thin silver chain. "Here we go! This is a spirit orb. It's really just a glass bead that has been imbued with an enchantment by one of the witches in the coven associated with the Watcher's Council. The enchantment allows it to detect the presence of someone with great magical potential."
"Then wouldn't it detect me?" Natsuki asked as she inspected the rather unimpressive trinket.
Midori shook her head, "No, a Slayer might be able to hold a lot of magical energy but as a rule you don't have what it takes to use that magic. These orbs detect witches or warlocks, or people who could become them if they were to study the ancient arts. When it is near someone with that potential the stone itself heats up and changes colour to red. The intensity of the change would indicate that individual's power potential."
"But obviously just anyone wouldn't do. And what if the orb changed because I was near the person summoning these demons?"
Midori looked at Natsuki a bit surprised, "Do you think it could be someone you see on a regular basis?" The Watcher pondered that for a bit when Natsuki just shrugged, her uncertainty clear on her face. "I think at the very least they would have to be someone that you don't have much close contact with. Summoning that difficult would require a lot of time and often some sort of sacrifice or bargain. You can't call up powerful demons like these for free."
Natsuki nodded, "So the person would have to be aware that they were summoning them."
"Definitely. There are cases of someone with untrained magic power accidentally summoning a demon, but in those cases the demon would be causing random mayhem or something like that. They wouldn't be targeting specific people nor having a plan." The Watcher thought for a minute, "Though it is possible that the summoner isn't acting completely under their own will."
"So basically I just wear this thing and hope it activates around someone we know we can trust?"
"Yep. That's the only plan I have for now." Midori said apologetically as she handed Natsuki the spirit orb. "I'll keep looking for a ritual that could perform the same function without needing a vessel, but if you could find someone to help us with this one, then we could get started faster."
Natsuki nodded quietly as she ran her calloused fingers over the smooth glass of the spirit orb, fascinated by how it didn't warm from her touch like most glass would. "Are you sure I should head back to the dorms tonight? You didn't need me to stay and make sure everything is safe?" She asked as she slipped the necklace on over her head, shoving the spirit orb down inside her shirt so that it wouldn't alert anyone else if it activated.
"You did notice that Yohko is here right?" Midori teased.
The Slayer smirked, "Ooh... was this supposed to be a date or something? But I thought you were researching."
"Well she'd only just arrived when that demon showed up and tried to ruin my chances of getting lucky."
"You think? But you saved her from it, and you were wounded in the process. Shouldn't that raise your chances? If it doesn't, I'm seriously going to have trouble if I ever start dating."
Midori laughed at the look of dismay on her Slayer's face, "I think you'd always get extra points for having superpowers. I think most girls like that sort of thing." Midori stopped for a moment as a sudden thought occurred to her, "Unless you like boys? Have we ever talked about this?"
"...Have you seen me try to have a normal conversation with Shizuru lately?" Natsuki rolled her eyes as Midori laughed at her more, "Can I look at Mai in a tight shirt without blushing?"
"I guess you have always had a difficult time keeping your cool around pretty girls..."
"Midori!" Yohko called into the room, "Are you two done? You need to let me finish bandaging that if you don't want it getting infected."
"I'll be right there!" Midori shouted back, giving the amused Natsuki a rude gesture. "Don't make fun of me, you let Mai talk to you like that and you're not even dating her."
"I'm not really making fun of you too much. I'm glad that she cares about you." Natsuki gave her Watcher a one armed hug before heading out through the door of the training room. She stopped in front of Yohko for a moment, "Hey, thanks for calling me so that I would know you guys needed help tonight. It makes me feel better to know Midori has someone who can think on their feet with her when I'm not here. Next time though, listen when I tell you to stay out of the way of the demons alright? Until you're getting combat training from Midori, I don't want you going out of your way to fight."
The Slayer was pretty impressed despite herself when Yohko didn't back down from her intense stare, "Midori needed my help, that thing was too strong for her to take on alone."
"If I hadn't gotten here in time, you might have been killed. If you want to be able to help in a fight, get Midori to train you... or you could let me train you but really she's the expert." Natsuki repeated firmly, "Also, I'm not sure how they managed to find out about my connection to Midori, but they might know about you too now since the demon got a good look at you. Don't go anywhere alone until this is resolved. She cares about you, so that means I care about you too. I really don't want you getting hurt."
Yohko nodded blushing slightly, "I was planning on staying here tonight anyway, but I promise to be careful."
"Good night Yohko, tell Midori I said to stop reading her books and have some fun."
"Oh don't worry, I wasn't going to let her do anymore reading tonight." The doctor laughed as the teenager blushed bright red at the suggestion.
"Argh, I'm going." Natsuki raised her voice a bit, "Later Midori! See you at school tomorrow!" She gave Yohko an awkward wave before heading out the door, shutting it quietly behind her.
"She was right you know." Midori murmured as she walked up behind Yohko and gave her a hug, running a scraped up hand through the doctor's dark brown hair, watching how the lamplight brought out reddish highlights. "If those things are going to be coming after us without warning like that, I should probably start giving you some basic combat training. Even if I do that, it would be preferable if you stayed out of any fights."
Yohko glared at the redhead, "You can't say I didn't help you tonight."
"No... I can't, though that's partially my problem. I guess maybe it's been too long since I've had to fight something without Natsuki. Do you think we could set aside a few hours a week to practice? I'll have to get Natsuki to help me train more too. As bad as this new demon threat is, at least it's helping us realize that there are areas where we can improve."
Yohko smiled fondly at the look of youthful enthusiasm on the redhead's face as she rambled on about the various combat styles that would be good for the doctor to start with. "Midori," She finally interjected, turning around in the taller woman's arms and nuzzling her face into her neck, placing a gentle kiss on her pulse point. She felt her own heartbeat pick up as Midori let out a sound that was a cross between a moan and a whimper and tightened her grip when she ran her tongue over the still slightly sweaty skin. Blue eyes drifted closed as she slipped a hand under Midori's shirt, running her palm over the soft heated skin, feeling the muscles tense under her touch as she kissed the taller woman's bared throat.
"If you keep that up I'm not going to let you bandage this." Midori growled out as she leaned down to kiss the brunette's mouth, biting down on the tempting full lower lip as she gently pulled her towards the couch, carefully avoiding the debris on the floor from the battle. Sitting down she pulled the doctor onto her lap, never breaking the heated kiss as she softly ran rough fingers over her lover's jaw line. "Later?" She murmured into the kiss, smiling slightly as the smaller woman replied by tugging at the hem of her shirt. Much later.