The Neko is back.

To meet her so quickly after the marriage, I can only begin to think on why Kuroka has decided to grace me with her presence. I found myself being attacked relentlessly by her while she kept herself closed off from any attacks I could pull that would be effective at all. Even the Youjutsuu skills i've been trying to learn would be pointless as there is no doubt that she has already mastered them all. I find myself in the same predicament I had during the Youth party fight with her, I could fight back well with my weapons but I just can't. It would mean less than nothing to beat her with anything bar Nekoshou style.

I bounced back further with each dodge but Kuroka would counter by catching on quickly doing the same thing. I couldn't even rely on back-up here because our flow of Ki couldn't be traced by anyone other than Koneko or Asahi. Koneko still isn't truly in tune with it so she is a no go and Asahi is probably preoccupied doing something stupid again. This is my area of expertise within the group but I can't make any headway at all, I can only combat and defend myself while counteracting her attempts to mess with my own flow of Ki.

"Why are you here Kuroka?"

There was no appropriate answer from her, just a slight fanged laugh. That would mean she has no reason to do this or she is acting upon instinct and if she is then I may be royally screwed. She is the strongest Nekoshou alive and i'm the last male one left, in her eyes and even mine in all honesty I should be hers and she should be mine. But the world doesn't work in the ways of the 'Should' but in the ways of the 'Could'.

"So you are jealous? You heard about what happened and got pissed so you came to ambush me and take me for yourself."

I don't know why I said it but it seemed to work as Kuroka's beautiful face contorted for a split second before her movements sped up rapidly, more than enough to put me at odds with her. I was struggling against her and without a tempo to go by I would continue to but this also worked for me like it did against me. Once you become anything other than calm and collected you will start to make mistakes, that's just one of the unwritten rules for combat. Her attacks became more feral, rather than precise strikes they become wild slashes like that of an angered cat. It gave me time to make the extra space needed and that split second to bring it back to level terms.

Jumping back once again I summoned the diamond veil along with my headphones launching them into a search through my music collection to find a similar tempo to the fight I was in. The tracks shuffled around as I blocked each coming attack and likewise, Kuroka blocked each of my tracks until it found a track. As the song started to get into it's grooves I found myself starting to equal Kuroka's movements through keeping in tune with the song that blared in my ears.

I'm confident in my ability to keep up with her in combat but anything else is out of the window even with my Rook enhancements. She has many years of experience behind her along with the Bishop enhancement she received when she became a devil. She knew how to use it to compliment her style where I did not, the opponents I've had haven't needed it. The Rook enhancements don't fit with my favoured style for when i'm calm, send my conscious out the window and Rook fits me to a tee but i'm calm right now.

'Come on Neko, let it all out.'

My voice resounds in my head confusing me and as I shook my head to rid it from my mind I felt Kuroka's fist hitting me square in the stomach shooting my body back with my feet still firmly planted on the floor.

'Go! Go! Go! Rip her to shreds!'

My voice resounded once again as I felt my mind closing in on itself.

I returned my attention to Kuroka as I raised my arms up to guard from another of her attacks. Explosions were going off inside my mind coupling with the music in my ears my composure was dropping. I was getting annoyed at the racket, a racket which couldnt be pushed away. The further I tried to push it back in my mind the louder and stronger it got.

My guards got sloppy and I was barely able to react to Kuroka's assault that was still coming without hesitance of my change.

'Cut cut cut cut cut cut cut.'

I was starting to lose control over myself. My body glowed over in a mix of crimson and blood as it condensed around my arms taking in the form of four claws atop both of my hands. They were sharp and menacing, dripping blood onto the ground.

My assault then begun. I suddenly had no care, I was raring to go and my powers were flared but more importantly I felt alive. I felt just right.

'We are truly one Neko. Slash! Slash! Slash! Cut her down!'

With each slash that passed, I felt my control coming back. My control though was firmly planted on continuing what I was forced into doing. I am me, I am my own person. I belong to who I choose. I am not someone's tool for anything. If I say no then its a no. Whether it's Kuroka or that Red-haired bitch.

'Red-haired bitch huh? She is here right now yanno, even Kuroka knows that. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't mind us stopping from ripping her to shreds to rip that bitch to shreds.'

That was true. Ripping the Red-haired bitch to shred would release me from her grasp, I'd be free from her control. As my right claw hit against Kuroka's arm slashing into it, I felt power well up in my eyes taking over as I turned to see the Red-haired bitch and her servants. Luckily my friends weren't with them, I could happily go all out.

I rubbed my free left hand across my face to make sure I wasn't seeing things and felt the shift from hazel to crimson. I pulled away my right claw from Kuroka and just looked at the Red-haired bitch.

'Go on. Kill her in front of them all. Grin as you disembowel her. She is nothing compared to us, she has no right be own us.'

"Okay Me."

As I took one step towards the devils in front of me the claws clumped together and moved to my forearm and bracers. I then shot forward straight towards the red-hair, fist reared back. Upon approach I let the fist fly only to meet with two swords, one of which broke from contact. I kept my eyes firmly on the red-haired one.

I could feel my grin widen as I felt her start to fill up with fear. My ice started to flood in around my body as the powers around me swelled in response to my actions. They were going to try and stop me, that's something that won't happen at all. The crimson energy round my arm died down as my ice broke out from my body in a much, much larger capacity than normal combined with new, larger dragonic looking wings that shone in the night sky. The silvery ice being tainted by the flooding crimson and blood that was now running through and over it. The tigers though did not form themselves around my arms just large claws with each talon the same size as my forearm.

'Neko. Leave the bitch for now, there is a dragon to play with.'

'Why not kill her now and then the dragon?'

'Tut tut tut Neko, kill her belongings in front of her. Make her wallow before you destroy her.'

'I see. Then that we shall.'

I turned to meet face to face with the dragon, a boy slowly being wrapped up in scaled red armour. A falsity that provides him power due to his weak nature. It came at me with no speed, it was slow. I caught the gauntleted hand simply with my left and expressed my disappointment with my eyes as I simply pulled him in close and head butted him breaking straight through his helmet to show his eyes. Without any resistance, I flung him aside and turned to follow his projection and watch him land feet first albeit annoyingly wobbly.

It was pathetic, he was pathetic.

"This is truly pointless. Why don't you back off dragon and just let me kill the bitch?"

His mouth opened but I didn't hear anything. No that's not right, I did hear what he said. I heard it perfectly but I just didn't care, I knew that I wouldn't get an answer that would be anywhere near close to what I wanted.

Then it happened, something to make it more interesting. They started to work together. As the dragon composed himself, I could feel the two devils with swords circling to flank me from either side along with the hybrid charging her magic to obviously attack me from above.

Their plan was simple, have the knights stall me so the dragon and hybrid can barrage me with their magic. Smart yet easy to predict. One plan i'll divulge into so I stayed where I was and let the knights approach me. Their approach came fast but not exceptionally so. I easily caught their blades as they came down in an attempt to strike me, my ice expanding and taking a hold of their weapons locking them in place.

That's when the magic was released.

Yellow light from above and red light from in front of me. I stayed planted and took it straight on, not a good decision in any way but one which I didn't need to dodge. My armour broke from the attack once they died down but that was the brunt of it all, I had taken anything from it so I simply willed my armour and wings to come right back and that they did with a flourish of diamond dust.

'Guardian!'

'Finally found your way through huh? Better now than later I suppose, I'll see you soon Neko.'

I felt my body shift and the crimson turn back to hazel. I looked down to my hands and I could see blood drying up as the crimson energy disappeared. My armour melted away from my body like nothing had happened and without my authority. I looked around to meet other confused faces except it was one less than I wanted, the stray cat had left. Probably as soon as the chance arose.

"What … Since when did I have crimson energy?"

I asked myself this out loud. I had no idea what was going on and my head was thumping. I turned and looked straight at Rias who took a deep breath, presumably one of relief by the look of it once she saw my gaze land on her. I feel really lost.

'Dragonrend? Do you know what happened?'

'Not really Guardian, although I have come across the crimson and the voice before.'

'Did you learn anything?'

'It was strangely willing to answer. It is supposedly you but it went by the name Lambda.'

"Lambda huh? The 11th letter. What does it mean?"

I hung my head as I started to scratch it, nothing. I couldn't think of anything suspicious to do with Lambda, not that I was really diverse in Greek Mythology to begin with. I guess it'll be a story for another day then.

"Just one bad thing after another. What should I expect with being around these devils."

I shook my head from side to side as I spoke to myself. I shrugged my shoulders to myself before just leaving the school grounds quietly but in thought.

…

The spent the whole of the next school day looking through whatever data I could find, pulling in any kind of favour I could and owing favours to others while using my positions as much as I could. Though it was all for naught. There was absolutely nothing. Lambda did not correlate with Crimson energy. Maths, Science and Coding yes but nothing to do with magic at all. It was annoying, more than it should have been thanks to the migraine I cannot get rid of.

The only help I was receiving couldn't even be considered help as I don't really want to have an x-ray or a cat scan performed exclusively by Azazel. Not that it wouldn't work but the fact that it's Azazel who would perform it, there is bound to be something weird about it.

That day wasn't a good one. I gained nothing from the data and I had acted out during school. Broke property and got in trouble with Sona, that was something I couldn't be bothered dealing with and one which nearly caused me to get enveloped in malice thanks to the damn migraine.

Something was wrong with me but no matter where I looked there was nothing. Even while looking at data you normally find something, even if its something small that correlates in some way but there was nothing.

Could it be considered Karma for everything I've done so far? I don't see how it could be though. Quite frankly nothing has been making sense right now and i'm ultimately paying for it. I can't even keep my Ki in check, it's constantly fluctuating with a fear of going above the threshold. The damn migraine is stopping me from getting any meditation done to try and prevent it all. Not even the medicine I have taken is dealing with it.

Many questions that I can't find an answer to and another problem now spells from that. Why? I'll be fine with the whole thing when I find out what it all is but the why is the major point for me. I want to know why it's happening to me, why it chose now to crop up and why in the hell does it give me a massive migraine?!

Lambda is slowly putting his foot further into the room now.
We'll be officially starting Volume 7 finally next chapter but Lambda won't appear during this arc.
He'll appear once again before his true arrival during volume 12 which is changed for the most part.

The true Kuroka fight is also going to be coming soon, during volume 7.
It might come sooner than you think too.

Well, i will be off now. Ciao-nya.