Is now officially on Ao3 as SakuraDemonAlchemist. Look at the poll on my profile page to find out why...and remember to vote people!
Hayato was admiring his much bigger form in the special mirror that was in the training room. He had never thought he could get this big so quick... having Honoka as his Master was awesome!
While his Inugami heritage was now so obvious that it was nearly impossible to hide in demon form, he could care less. Honoka loved him and he got along fine with Natsu, who made a point of sitting on his back during her Summoner-only classes. The double-takes from the jerks who used to mock him when they realized what kind of demon Natsu was made him laugh every time.
"Done admiring yourself, freak?" sneered one of the 'yapper dogs' as Honoka had called them.
Hayato ignored them. Honoka was right...they were more bark than bite and they just wanted to get him in trouble.
So it was only natural that when he heard a familiar...and unwelcome voice... that he froze before bolting straight for his summoner.
"Hayato!"
Dear gods, what dumbass summoned Bianchi?!
With the power boost from helping Honoka out during the Oversurge, he was able to easily outstrip his sister's superior size and speed.
Honoka wasn't the only one to jump when Hayato (with Natsu clinging to his shoulder) bolted into the room, turned into his human form and promptly hid behind his summoner, shivering in fear.
"Hayato, what..." started Honoka.
"Really Hayato, is that any way to greet your sister?" said a voice exasperated. Hayato whimpered.
The female hellhound had greenish eyes, long rose pink hair and was attractive enough. However the markings that moved lazily on her skin, invisible to normal humans but not to summoners and demons marked her as a hellhound that specialized in poisons and deadly vapors. Which considering her species likely meant she had a nasty breath attack on top of the minor fire breath that came standard with every hell hound.
Honoka looked between Hayato, who was terrified of the older female hellhound.
"Do you mind? We're in class and I would prefer to have this undoubtedly enlightening discussion after it's over," she asked politely.
"Hush summoner. The bigger kids are talking," said the female dismissively.
Wow, no wonder Hayato disliked her, if that was what her attitude was like.
Honoka eyed the female with increasing distaste.
"Hayato, is this the same hound who used you as a practice dummy for her attacks with encouragement from your pack?"
Hayato nodded.
"Fon, get rid of her. At least until she learns some manners," asked Honoka.
"With pleasure," said the demon from around her neck.
Bianchi's surprise at seeing him was short lived, as the dragon enlarged itself enough to bodily toss her out of the room and promptly settled across the doorway to prevent further disruptions.
The teacher looked at the shivering Hayato and curious Natsu.
"Can your familiars behave themselves for the rest of class?"
"Just keep her out of here and I'll take a nap," snapped Hayato.
He switched back to his canine form and calmly laid down, allowing Natsu to curl up against him. When no further disruptions occurred for a few minutes, the class went back to what they had been doing, which was teaching the summoners how to fix their jewels in the event of damage, or at least the beginning stages of it.
Honoka still couldn't believe she had such a super rare magic type that allowed her to use almost any sort of spell type. It also meant she had a much wider range of demons that she could summon from.
A few hours later...
Bianchi was still there and Hayato was decidedly unhappy about that.
Fortunately he had back-up in the form of Honoka and surprisingly enough Hibari.
Hibari was displeased that the demon had come through without a summons or a summoner attached.
"You know the rules. Only demons summoned via students or teachers allowed on school grounds. Leave or I will bite you to death," said Hibari annoyed.
"Like a little pup would be able to bite me," smirked Bianchi.
"Bianchi, what are you doing here?" demanded Fon. "And don't try saying that you're looking for that chaotic pain in the ass again, I would sense him if he were on school grounds."
Bianchi had the gall to sniff at him.
"That lion is the same one I sensed him leaving several years ago. I followed it's scent."
Fon blinked twice.
'Well that explains where the cub came from, though not why Reborn would deliver such a rare prize to a child.'
Not even Reborn could remove such a young demon from the Sky set without giving up several major favors in return.
Right now though, Fon had bigger problems. Namely an obsessive hellhound who was showing quite a few indications that she wasn't planning to leave anytime soon.
Which would naturally anger Kyouya, if she wasn't attached to someone who could keep her in line.
Honoka eyed Bianchi for a moment, then Hayato.
"I have no idea who you're looking for, but unless you find yourself someone willing to act as your anchor you'll have to go home. There's a reason why demons aren't allowed to wander around here without a summoner or at least being summoned by one. And Hayato has an active contract, so you can't have him," said Honoka flatly. "And before you ask, considering how he acts around you I am not going to help you stick around."
Hayato could only feel bone deep relief hearing that.
Bianchi glared at her.
"He's my brother and he needs to go home. He's been here far too long anyway."
"Screw you!" said Hayato, without thinking. "Dad and the Elders never gave two shits about me ever since they found out what Mom was and Honoka is the only person who has ever been nice to me without freaking out about the whole hybrid thing!"
Bianchi gave him a look, but for the first time in a very long time he stood his ground. He had a proper Master who knew exactly what he was and wanted him around. Who didn't care what other people thought about her choice in familiars and stood up for him without a second thought.
Honoka threaded her hand through his, bringing a sense of calm to his soul. Bianchi noticed it immediately and an odd smirk came upon her face.
"So it's like that, is it?"
Honoka blinked at the look on her face while Hayato groaned.
"For the love of... I told you before, I don't like girls that way and I would never want to inflict what happened to me on another pup!"
"Hayato?" questioned Honoka.
"Bianchi has this weird thing about romance and 'love conquering all'," said Hayato with a grimace. "And after what I went through when people found out what my mother was there's no way in hell I'm inflicting that on a pup."
"I like you more as a brother anyway," said Honoka. The fact her second familiar liked his own gender didn't really bother her.
"The fact remains that she cannot be here by the time midnight comes without a master to anchor her. At the very least the protections on the school would throw her out and there's no telling where she will end up if she tries to stay," said Fon flatly. "And considering her behavior there's no way Kyouya will agree to do it."
Never mind the fact that Fon would rip her a new one if she tried to force the issue.
Hayato was very, very relieved when the school wards forcibly ejected Bianchi back to a random realm at midnight. It would take her some time to find her way back, unless she was summoned.
In the Helios realms
"Hello Fon," said a deep, dark voice. The canine barely looked up, his coat at odds with the bright realm.
"Hello Reborn. Mind explaining why you sent a Sky lion to a young summoner?" asked Fon pleasantly.
The jackal lifted his head and gave a terrifying grin to most.
"The little one's bloodline calls to me. I merely wanted to insure she lived long enough to be interesting."
Fon paused.
"She calls to you?"
"I could hear her voice even across the realms, and her attacks were bothering me. So I found the first compatible demon I could get my claws on and dropped it in an area where she was certain to find it, with a spell to make sure only she would see it."
Fon stared at him in disbelief.
"You're telling me you believe the girl is strong enough to summon you as a Partner?!"
Reborn's grin was wide and sinister.
"It has been far too long since anything interesting has happened, and if that bloodline is coming back strong enough to reach my notice, then I intend to see what happens first hand rather than watch from afar."
Fon could only groan. Reborn was a headache on the best of times, but he openly felt empathy for Honoka if she managed to summon him as her partner.
"It would seem I will need to find a jewel strong enough to handle my own energies, if only to insure you do not scare her off," said Fon.
"A jewel?" repeated Reborn.
"She's a Jewel Summoner. So far she's managed to bond with Bianchi's half brother and the bond is rather strong for someone who has no idea what they're doing. Though I would like to know why the lion cub you gave her was so damaged that it was unable to handle the Oversurge and had to be re-summoned."
Reborn growled.
"What do you mean, damaged?" he repeated dangerously.
As Fon explained to Reborn what little he knew of the situation, the darkness around the jackal only intensified.
Then he got to the part about Nana's disappearance, and suddenly a lot of things clicked.
"Fon, keep an eye on my little kitten. There's an idiot I need to maim."
"Do I want to know?"
"Oh you'll know who it is if the fool dares to show himself before you. I'll make very certain of that," said Reborn coldly.
Damage his gift to the little kitten who caught his attention...that fool was going to pay regardless of what Lal had to say about it. Then again if she had known what that cub was and the fact it was bonded to the child, she would have maimed the twit herself.
"You look annoyingly smug. What happened?" demanded Kyouya.
"Turns out the little kitten has a very interesting protector," said Fon. "The lion was both a present and insurance that she lived long enough to reach the school."
"And?" said Kyouya, knowing Fon wouldn't have that look on his face if something weren't bothering him.
"From what my...friend...implied, the girl is from an older bloodline and no one caught her condition early. Which means that someone wasn't paying the right amount of attention to a potential summoner's child. If they had, he likely wouldn't have bothered getting involved by leaving that cub where she would find it. The thing is, her particular magic type should have been noticed immediately and she should have gotten training before now. The fact that she didn't is...disturbing."
"How so?" asked Honoka, having walked in at that.
"You know how I said Skies are extremely rare and highly sought after by my kind? And how demons like Natsu rarely leave their home set because they would be hunted?" said Fon. She nodded. "Well if demons hunt down their own kind with that magic type, what do you think would happen if they came across a human child with that magic in them?"
Honoka paled considerably.
"Which is why it bothers me that you had no protection whatsoever until that lion was sent to you," said Fon. "I know that hound and he wouldn't have left the Helios realms for a mere child, regardless of a potential call. There's no way your magic would have gone unnoticed with the testing that's always done when humans turn five."
Kyouya and Hayato frowned at that.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that whoever she inherited her magic from would have known she was a Sky-type and left her deliberately unprotected. From what my friend said he only bothered with the Sky realms because the Oversurge was becoming a dangerous issue and he saw nothing being done to help her control it. There's also the fact that he was very angry at the news that her mother had been taken roughly during the same time period that Natsu was badly injured. Considering how prized Sky lineages are, no demon would have done that much damage even under contract."
"So who do you think did it?" asked Hayato seriously.
"The only conclusion I can make is that Honoka's father is a Summoner, and that he's the one who took Nana. That being the case, there's a strong possibility he's also the one who hurt Natsu to the point he was in recovery mode, since the cat would have protected her purely because Honoka would have wanted him to."
"You're saying that my father caused me all this grief? Why?" asked Honoka. She didn't even know what the man looked like, because he never came around.
"I don't know. At the very least if it was him he should have made the connection between your reoccurring 'fever' and an Oversurge. Though I suspect Reborn is going to have a word with the man, since he clearly has an idea of who he is."
In an undisclosed location...
"AIE! Have mercy!"
"Mercy doesn't live here at the moment! What the hell were you thinking, damaging a Sky lion, you jackass!? Especially one that's been bonded to your daughter as a therapy demon for an Oversurge?! How the hell did you miss that?!"
"Now, now. I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason why darling thought it was appropriate to hurt Hono-chan's pet lion. Right dear?" said a sickly sweet voice.
"It kept biting me! What the hell else was I supposed to do?" complained the first voice.
"Of course it was biting you, you incompetent idiot! He thought you were kidnapping his Master's mother!" shouted the second voice. "Hell, she filed a missing person's report on her own mother because you didn't bother to tell her anything or give Nana a chance to write a note explaining where she went!"
As the second voice berated the first, beating him black and blue for his stupidity, the third was writing a letter. Hopefully this time it would actually reach her little girl. Poor Honoka must be so worried.