On vacation in Arizona, but I can still post updates! Enjoy!
When Honoka didn't wake up right away, Hayato initially wasn't that concerned. He could understand the need for a little lie in every once in a while.
However when she failed to get up for breakfast, he became concerned. She was such a small thing that she made a point of eating every meal and healthy snacks in between with the vain hope it would make her grow a little taller later.
The second he put his hand on her forehead to check her temperature, he started swearing and drew the attention of a less than pleased Hibari, who he had woken up.
"Puppy, it is entirely too early for me to be up. Cease your barking."
"She has a high fever. She was fine last night and suddenly it feels at least up to a hundred," said Hayato flatly. His instincts were in overdrive to protect his weakened master from any danger that could take advantage of her state.
Hibari walked over and touched her bare skin, before hissing.
"I'll excuse an absence of three days."
Honoka coughed. She had woken up at the sound of voices and the feel of something cool against her burning head.
"A week would be better. I've never had this fever go away in anything less than five or six days, and no medicine has ever helped," she said tiredly.
"You've had this before?" asked Fon in concern.
"It happens at least once every three or four months," Honoka said, curling under her covers. "I used to cuddle with Natsu until the worst of it was over, even though he made things feel much warmer. He was always so energetic after, though I think that was from pent up energy."
Fon latched onto this news.
"What is it?" asked Hibari.
"You said it happens once every three to four months, and lasts at least a week. That your first familiar made the pain easier to handle, though he was very energetic for days after, correct?" he asked. Honoka nodded weakly.
Fon curled his tail around his body with a serious look on his face.
"There are a few possibilities, though one in particular comes to mind considering the fact no one has said anything about your contract with 'Natsu' despite your age at the time," said Fon, his eyes partially closed. "I believe you are suffering from an Oversurge, which means it's a very good thing that you contracted with Hayato."
"What's an Oversurge?" asked Hayato.
"Oversurge is a condition created when a human has too much magic built up in their bodies without a proper outlet to drain the excess. Demons are more durable and when they experience an Oversurge have a habit of 'upgrading' a few levels until their power stabilizes to a new norm. Humans have no such ability, and thus require special contracts to 'vent' the excess for lack of a better term."
"Why have I never heard of this condition?" demanded Hibari.
"Because generally this only happens to the older bloodlines, and they have people specifically trained to spot when a child has Oversurge and assign a 'therapy' demon for lack of a better term. That demon drains the excess until the child is old enough to handle a full contract with a demon partner, which allows them to equalize their magic without being bedridden," said Fon flatly.
"So why is it a good thing she contracted with the puppy?" demanded Hibari.
"Because her original demon is still recovering from whatever attacked it, so the puppy can handle the job of venting the worst of it. It also has a side effect of causing the bond to form that much faster, so the gem should have a coherent shape once she recovers...not to mention it will boost his natural power levels and allow him to discover new abilities from the contract."
Hayato perked up hearing that.
"In any case you'll need to inform the medical wing that she's experiencing an Oversurge and will be unable to attend classes for at least a week," said Fon. "I will instruct Hayato on how to safely handle the excess."
Hibari said nothing, leaving the room to inform the older herbivores of her condition. The female was the most tolerable roommate he had since Kusakabe left, and he didn't want something like this to disrupt their unspoken agreements to share the den.
"What do I need to do?" asked Hayato.
"Is it mean of me to ask for cuddles?" asked Honoka hopefully. She felt like crap and hugging Natsu had always made her feel better.
"Actually in this case having close contact with each other would make the procedure easier on both of you," said Fon. "Though considering the human's sense of propriety..."
Hayato didn't even need him to go into detail about that issue. He turned into his canine form and waited for her to scoot back before letting her wrap her arms around his side. She was using him as a sort of overgrown teddy bear. She sighed happily, snuggling closer. Hayato couldn't help but blush at that.
Fon chuckled, especially as Honoka soon fell back into sleep curled up tightly against Hayato. The hybrid gave Fon a helpless look.
"You need to reach inward and find the bond between you and Honoka. Once you've found that, you must follow it to the source of her magic. From there you will likely experience some vertigo until you've oriented yourself. The easiest way to explain how to vent the excess is to 'eat' it...the most common appearance will be clumps of magic that are floating around or moving erratically," instructed Fon.
Hayato settled into a comfortable spot, though he made very sure Honoka still had her arms around his sides. He could tell her breathing was already easier having him there. Closing his eyes, he followed the source of their bond with the ease of long practice.
He often liked to follow it almost to the end, because it had always given him a safe feeling and reminded him he wasn't alone anymore. However he had never followed it to the end, because he didn't know if he could handle something that personal.
The moment he broke through, he experienced a deep sense of vertigo... he had no idea what was up and what was down, and it really, really didn't help that her magic and soul took the form of an endless sky that stretched for as far as the eye could see.
"Gao!"
Hayato 'turned' to find...a wounded lion cub made of orange fire?
The cub bounded up to him, or tried to anyway with the nasty limp it had. It sniffed him a few times, before it used it's uninjured paw to 'smack' Hayato across the nose. He blinked after sneezing a bit, and realized that the odd lion had helped to orient him in this strange landscape.
"Thanks," he said.
"Gao," said the lion cub, before 'walking' off. It paused after a moment and gave Hayato a Look that clearly meant he was supposed to follow.
Considering the feline looked a lot like the gem Honoka said belonged to Natsu, her first familiar, he did so without question. It took him a moment to realize that the cat was leading him to the 'clumps' of magic that were the excess Honoka was unable to get rid of.
They moved too quickly for the injured cub to pin down and eat, and considering Hayato knew that absorbing magic would help the healing process, he knew exactly what he needed to do.
He lightly gripped the cub by the scruff of it's neck, before calmly pinning down the clump and plopping the cat down before it.
Natsu clearly didn't need a hint and attacked the clump with his claws. Hayato observed and saw how the lion was able to 'eat' the magic so he knew how to do it himself. He could tell the cub was healing faster already...the limp wasn't nearly as bad.
Natsu didn't hesitate to get onto Hayato's back, discreetly leading the canine towards the clumps which it had been unable to pin down.
By the seventh one, the limp had healed entirely and the cat was able to chase after it's own clumps, leaving Hayato to track down his own.
Between the two of them, the excess magic was dealt with in an efficient manner.
Hayato woke up with a jolt and it took him a few moments to realize that Honoka's breathing had leveled out entirely and her temperature had gone down a few degrees.
"I see you're awake," said Fon, from where he was sitting in his human form.
Hayato had to blink at the fact that Fon bore a striking resemblance to his partner Hibari. A very striking resemblance, almost as if they were directly related.
"How long was I out?"
"Six hours. Her fever started going down a great deal about an hour in and your magic started to rise half an hour after that. There is also this," said Fon, poking at the jewel containing Natsu's contract with a pen. "This began to glow shortly after your own magic started rising and is a clear indicator that the creature has recovered enough to be summoned again."
"Yeah, I saw him in her core. It was limping pretty bad and couldn't track the clumps down. It helped me to get rid of the excess," said Hayato.
He felt really energetic, like he could run for miles and not feel tired at the end of it. But that would mean leaving her side, which was unacceptable.
"Once she's awake enough to summon Natsu to her side, I'll take you outside to help you deal with the energy. If you are going to stay by her side, you'll need real combat training as opposed to what you've been using," said Fon.
Hayato perked up at that.
"What sort of training?"
"It is fortunate we share the same fire type, though yours is a bit more diverse than my own."
Hibari walked in with a foul mood. The teachers hadn't believed him when he informed them that Honoka was suffering from an Oversurge, and had tried to demand that she submit to an exam despite the fact she was laid up in bed from a nasty fever.
He blinked for a moment when he saw Hayato.
"Why are you bigger?"
"He's still absorbing the excess he took from her core. Once she's able to summon her other familiar I'll take him outside to work off most of it," said Fon turning a page in his book.
Honoka slept through most of the first day, and was rather surprised to see her roommate still there while Fon and Hayato were gone.
"How are you feeling, small animal?"
"A bit better. Though knowing my luck it will still last the full week. How long was I out?"
"Most of the day. The annoying dragon said you should summon your lion once you were awake enough to do it," said Hibari.
"...How do I summon Natsu again?"
"Channel your magic into the gem and focus on the cub. The summoning circle should appear on it's own, since it's a preexisting contract. Once you've done that, I'm going to bring one of the medical staff here to confirm what sort of bond you have."
"Why?" asked Honoka baffled.
Hibari's look was rather cross.
"The annoying herbivores did not believe me when I reported you were suffering from Oversurge. Something about how the condition should have already been in your records before you started school, so that a familiar could be assigned."
Honoka had to wonder what Hibari would do to the teachers for not taking his word seriously, before dismissing it.
She held Natsu's gem in her hands and gently pushed a bit of magic into it.
She started to feel dizzy almost immediately, and there was a loud "Gao!" from the floor where a half-grown lion cub was.
Hibari managed to catch her before she completely passed out, and a less than amused Fon and Hayato returned.
"You should have waited until the magic stabilized. These two devoured enough of her magic that re-summoning the cub might make her condition worse."
"I didn't tell her to summon it now!"
Fon checked her condition.
"She should avoid using any more magic until this is over with. Fortunately she was merely bringing the cat out of her soul realms, rather than summoning a new one...the damage done to her powers was minimal."
Fon carefully picked her up and Hayato let Natsu ride on his shoulder.
In the infirmary
"Who's brilliant idea was it to bring this girl here when she should be in bed?!" demanded the nurse.
"The teacher in charge of the new students this term didn't believe me when I informed him that she was suffering an Oversurge and demanded that I bring her here along with the demons she had summoned," said Hibari crossly.
The nurse twitched.
"I am going to strangle that idiot. And what in blazes has this girl been doing to have her core in flux during an Oversurge?"
"She summoned her original 'therapy' demon," deadpanned Hibari.
"Restricted magic use for the next week and a half," said the nurse firmly. "Can you hand me the lion? I need to make note of it's type and register the bond."
Hayato handed over Natsu. The nurse's eyes went up in shock when she realized what it was.
"Since when do Sky-types leave their home set? With how rare they are, this little one shouldn't have left for another century at least!"
Fon blinked, then looked closer at the cub.
"Well that explains how she was able to bond to a half-Inugami so easily."
Sky-flames were pretty much the human equivalent of spiritual and magical glue. They allowed normally unstable familiars to become stable and healed damage that was normally impossible to see without using special spell sets.
They were also only seen in the human realm, as the Sky demons were so highly sought after that they never left their home set. Demons can and would kill to get their hands on one for the power boost and prestige it gave them. For this cub to have found itself to Honoka said that someone had gone to great lengths to insure they found each other.
Someone powerful and possibly dangerous.
Once her condition was verified for the records, Fon carefully carried her back to her room, where Hayato and Natsu cuddled against her. Her magic would have stabilized by tomorrow morning, but for now she was bed-bound until the Oversurge abated.
However once it was... Fon was going to track down where that lion came from to ease his own paranoia. The kitten summoner was his!