I don't own anything. All characters and all rights belong to Ichiei Ishibumi*
M for mature topics. No children allowed. *
The Broken Boosted Gear
By Try Another Time
Story 5: My love rival, the nekomata.
As she sat down on her bed, her hands reached out for a small blank notebook that was sitting on a small nightstand that was on her right. The black cover had two cats playing with each other. Her hands caress the material for a few seconds before opening it up. She then grabbed a pen and began to write.
"Raising a nekomata is not an easy task. Several months have gone by since we began living together and I can easily say that this kitty cat is the most mischievous creature I have met in a while."
Tiamat sights as she begins to remember the antics of their home's kitty cat.
"Lesson 1: Although not picky, a nekomata will use any food to create situations in which she can get her way."
A certain day.
The family enjoyed a peaceful breakfast at the family table. While Raynare brought food alongside Gabriel that morning, everyone else was enjoying the food.
"Gasper, Valerie, make sure to eat your pancakes and fruit," Issei said while he read a report and drank some juice. He was getting used to the position of "Enforcer of the Alliance" which meant that he needed to be on top of all current missions and plans for the future of the group.
Ophis who was silent continued to devour her food while sitting on his legs. The Ouroboros dragon seemed happy in her seat and nobody even Tiamat wanted to make her angry without a reason.
"I know Nii-san but the taste of Kiwis doesn't call out to me," Gasper admitted as he looked at the green fruit on his plate.
"Can he switch with me, Issei-nii-san?" Valerie asked with charming eyes. "I still have some pineapple left."
"..." Issei turned to them and looked at the pair for a second before resigning himself. "As long as you eat a balanced breakfast is ok but don't try to make it a costume of yours. There's no place for pickiness in this place."
"Alright." The pair of dhampirs smiled as they switch breakfast with each other.
"You're truly acting like a parent, Issei," Asia said with a cheerful tone.
"Well, he is an old man." Tosca joined in.
The dragon looks at both of them. "Less chatting and more eating you two. Asia, you still have your training regime with Gabriel and Tosca, the children in Grigory must be patiently waiting for you. You still need to go and get Isaiah from Okita's home."
Both girls looked at each other before they turned to the clock on the wall. It was already close to 10 AM. Asia turns to Gabriel and sees a creepy smile on her face.
The mouth of the seraph moved but no words came out and yet Asia knew what her teacher was saying. Gabriel wasn't a flexible teacher and there will be hell to pay if she was late.
"Crap." The girls began to eat much faster.
"Slow down you two. It would be bad for your stomach. Dear, try to be careful. They are still children." Tiamat says as she looks at her husband.
"Sorry, Tia," Draig says as he switches over. "Just trying to make sure they aren't late."
Tia looks at him. "Do keep in mind that your words can affect others, dear. Also, you're forgetting to eat yourself. The report can wait you know."
The dragon reacted as soon as Tia said that. His eyes turned to the plate sitting beside the one of Ophis was still filled with food that had been untouched.
"... I apologize for that. I have been too focused on the path that the alliance is taking." The dragon puts down the report with the intent of eating his breakfast but someone gets ahead of him.
While Tia was sitting on his right, the house's very own nekomata was on his left.
A fork pierces one of the fruit pieces on the plate of the dragon. "You're getting careless my sweet Welsh Dragon. Open big and I'll take care of feeding you." Kuroka said with a cute smirk on her face.
Her eyes turned to Tia for just a second and they clearly told her one single and simple thing.
"You wasted the opportunity that was lay before you. I win."
The Chaos Karma dragon's eyes twitched in annoyance at the cat. "Don't you dare! I will feed him. He's my mate."
"No, I got the idea first. He is my destined partner." Kuroka replied.
Both began to shove food into the dragon's mouth. "For the love of Gaia, is this really going to go like this?" The Welsh dragon asks himself.
And thus began one of the many situations in which the cat and dragon face each other. By the end of it, the target of their fight was fed but he was also mad at the fact that a peaceful breakfast had become a battlefield.
Back with Tia in the real world.
"That damned kitty cat is a sly one. She might be young but her mind is a perverse one and she has guts." Tia takes a few deep breaths before she goes back to writing. "Lesson 2: If she wants something, she won't respect boundaries like any other cat."
A different day.
Like a sneaky cat, Kuroka moved across their home with a target in her mind. "Tia is busy with Tosca. She's down in the basement which means that Issei is alone in their room. He might be sleeping or taking a shower. Can't waste this chance."
The 12-year-old girl approached the door into the forbidden land that was the room that both dragons shared. It was a mystery to almost everyone in the house. Nobody except Raynare and Tosca had seen the inside as Tiamat and Issei were cautious of their things.
Or simply put they were very territorial about their room. Typical dragon way of thinking one might say.
The girl reached the door before slowly opening it. The nekomata then wandered inside the room. Her eyes examined her surrounding. The bed was tidy and there didn't seem to be any clothes laying around.
The lights of the room were set up to a lower setting to keep it mostly dark. "Issei! Where are you?"
There was no sound hearable, not even a single one.
There didn't seem to be anything special about the room as it seemed very tame compared to what she was expecting. No weird objects hanging around, no mountains of gold, nothing except a certain wall.
Several photographs hung from a wall. Some looked really old, others were new. Many had them, moments from the past months and their daily lives together. The beach days they had, their trips around the planet, and even the birthday party they had for Gasper and Valerie not too long ago.
"France, 1817? What was she doing there?"
"Getting my first camera. Is one of my precious items." A voice said.
Kuroka's body shivered as her head turned around.
The true dragon king was standing right behind her and her eyes were burning with anger. "What are you doing in our room?"
"... Looking for Issei," Kuroka replied as she stood up to the dragon king. "How?"
"Is our room, we do keep runes that alert us from any entry. Best security system a dragon could ever hope to get. You have guts for even daring to put a foot in this room, kitty cat. Now, what were you planning to do once you found my dearest?"
The dragon took a step closer while keeping her eyes focused on Kuroka.
"... You know damn well what I was trying to do. He's my destined partner." Kuroka replies while not backing away.
The eyes of both girls focus on each other. One was the first bride while the other one was under his protection. Both had feelings for the same guy. One would expect a fight in this kind of situation.
But…
"... You need to cool it off. He won't take you seriously like this. You're still too young for him." Tiamat says with all sincerity. "You can like him, have a crush, and desire him but you have yet to learn how to walk in terms of love. Getting with him on the bed is a no-no in his book."
Kuroka feels a bit offended. "And how would you know that?"
"Because I'm his mate and bride. I know everything that he thinks in regard to other ladies. I know that Gabriel is a walking temptation that he doesn't try to touch for obvious reasons. I know that he finds Raynare sexy in that maid costume of hers but he is not one to cross the line due to his instincts. Yukime teases him but he doesn't play along because he's not one to fall for those kinds of things. Serafall has a small crush on him and they have gone on dates together but they have yet to even kiss. Le Fay is the second bride and he has yet to even kiss her on the lips once. I know these things, he doesn't rush into things, there are steps. We talk about it and you're trying to rush before walking." The dragon says as she reaches out to the wall.
"But you!"
"Me? I might kiss him, passionately, bite his neck, and do other small things like those but I don't cross the line. He said two years and I'm willing to wait. After that, he knows that there's no more waiting and I'm getting his baby no matter what. Tosca would love to have a sibling. Sex is not only an act of love for us, is an act to create life and expand our family; rushing into it is not worth our time. If I care about just fucking I wouldn't have stayed a virgin for so long. I would be living the kind of life that Fafnir is living." The dragon takes a photo from the wall and presents it to Kuroka.
The photo has Issei grooming Kuroka with a special brush. She was sitting down on his legs while he carefully brush her tail.
"... But…." Kuroka grabs the picture.
Tiamat puts her mouth close to her ear. "This is not a race. Tease him, play with him, but don't try to cross the line. He does like you but you're too young. The day that he takes you as a bride he won't let you go and he'll make sure that your body doesn't forget his. He is going to make sure that every single spot of your body is his and only his. You're going to scream his name until you can't think straight anymore."
The face of the nekomata goes completely red as she thinks about the future. Her legs shivered and her nose begins to bleed a little.
"See? Too young. Go slow kitty cat, you have all the time in the world." Tiamat takes the photo back before she begins to push the frozen nekomata out of her room. "By the way, dear was with Ophis. So your plan was bound to fail."
The dragon closes the door and leaves the frozen nekomata in the hallway. "Don't try that again. Keep your plans and fantasies within your room, you hentai kitty cat."
Tiamat walks away while Kuroka stays frozen in place.
Meanwhile, Issei and Ophis.
Within the room of the Ouroboros dragon. A large tv was the main focus of the pair as they enjoyed a game.
"Dodge and drink your estus!" Issei said.
"Ahhhhh! Danmit!" Ophis screamed as she held the controller.
It would be a long afternoon for the pair.
Back to the present.
Tiamat sights as she remembers the many things she had learned from the nekomata.
"Lesson 9: Grooming gets her excited. Behind her left ear is the spot that makes her the weakest."
"Lesson 28: During winter she will stay as close to him as possible and use that chance to try to steal a kiss from him."
Tiamat continues to write about the mischievous cat and its shenanigans. She was annoyed, she felt jealous, and yet she understood the girl. The feelings that Kuroka had for Issei were real and there's no way that she could try to call them fake.
"I doubt that she's going to leave him and move on. Although she is a young reincarnated devil she's far from an idiot. She can be impulsive but when it matters she chooses the best option for her and her sister's sake. She has received a few invitations from other devils. She's a gem that is sought after by those who want her powers and yet she has rejected all of them. Her attachments to him and this place are strong. This place might be the home she always dreamed about."
The dragon sights as she comes to a conclusion.
"I'll admit that I do enjoy having her around even with all of her mischievous actions. I just hope that she does mature with time."
The dragon then turns to the clock and decides to put the notebook away.
"Is time for dinner. I can continue another day." Tiamat then hides the notebook on the nightstand before she gets up and walks out of the room.
Story 6: Reincarnated devil survey- Kuroka
Kuroka stood outside of a door for a few seconds. "Why do I have to do this?" Her head turned to Issei who was sitting right behind her on a chair.
"Go ahead. I'll be right here when you're done." The dragon replies.
The nekomata sights and takes a few more seconds before she opens the door. As soon as she looks inside she finds a lady waiting for her.
"Close the door and take a seat Ms. Kuroka." The lady said as she continue to read some documents while seating on the opposite side of the table.
The room was covered in images and propaganda supporting the 4 new satans.
"You got this Kuroka," Issei said once more.
"Remember Kuroka he owes you a date after this." Kuroka enters the room and closes the door. Once she reaches the chair that was left for her, she re-arranges her white kimono with crimson butterflies before taking a seat.
"Welcome, I'm an employee of the newly formed minister of reincarnated devils. I have been assigned to you as a supervisor and a sort of therapist. My job is to make reports on your current life alongside your "king" and inform the higher-ups about anything that is deemed as a possible violation of the newly created laws that protect reincarnated devils. Do you understand?" The lady asks.
"Yes. You write a report about me and my life with Issei. If anything is going bad, the satans will interfere, I get it. Can we move it along?"
"Yes." The lady lifts her head and looks a Kuroka for a few moments before she grabs a pen and begins to write. "Let us start. I have read your file and I know about your previous king. Do you remember the life alongside him?"
"... Do we really need to do this?"
"We have to. This is a part of the report and I promise I won't bring it up ever again."
"... Alright. My life with the bastard from the Naberious clan was maybe the second worse era of my life. Imagine having no home, no food, no safety, and a young sibling with you. You'll do things that normally you wouldn't do. When that bastard showed up before us, I could already see the madness in his eyes. He was someone who had been involved in the project that my so-called father and mother had been a part of. I knew that he was bad news for me but Shirone was weak and hungry that rainy day. When he offered me a home in exchange for becoming his test subject I accepted without a second thought but I asked that nobody should touch Shirone. He accepted and we followed him."
"The super devil project. Continue."
"That same day he used his devil pieces on me. Three days later he already had me fighting his other test subjects as a way to measure my powers. I was forced to a death match with at least 12 other devils and I barely came out alive. I was only 10 years old and I had already taken the lives of 12 devils. My hands were stained with their blood. I…. Was shaking and yet I pushed myself to continue for the sake of my sister."
"Understandable, please continue. This is only for Ajuka-sama's eyes so don't hold back."
"... A week after that fight I was forced into a large test tube." Kuroka's hands shake as she remembers the experience. "At the beginning, I thought I was going to be fine but after a few seconds, the pain began. The chemicals invaded my body and I felt how the initial stages of the process were forcefully changing my organs. My powers were going rampant as they increase and decrease in irregular intervals which I wasn't controlling. My skin was burning and a few of my bones broke as the process continued. Hours went by and I would pass out for a few moments before being brought back by the pain."
The lady continue to write while Kuroka talked about the experience.
"I was in that tank for two days and when I was brought out I couldn't even stand on my own. As I was taken away by a few of his colleagues but as I turned back to see behind me I saw other tanks beside my own and saw the lifeless bodies of the other test subjects. Their mangle bodies were likely discarded shortly after. After that experience, I lay on a bed for 3 weeks while being heavily medicated and having Shirone by my side. She was being fed 3 times a day and they even gave her new clothes which made me feel a bit better since she was all I cared about. When I got better, my so-called master dragged me back into more tests. He set me up against demonic beasts to test out my powers once more."
Kuroka stopped for a moment as she remember those months.
"The cycle continued. Rinse and repeat. More stages of the process, more pain. If I survived, I would be allowed to rest until I was able to fight once more. Then I would be put against newer and stronger enemies. Devils, demonic beasts, large groups, and other test subjects. I just continued to kill and kill for the sake of my so-called master. Never got a free day, less time with Shirone, and even more tests. I was basically a weapon that he wanted to perfect and I had no other choice but to continue until that night. The night in which he forced Shirone into one of those tanks. You should know the rest."
"I do. I sincerely apologize, if only our minister existed back then maybe we would have been able to interfere."
"Maybe but that is the past and it can't be changed."
"Yes…. Ms. Kuroka, can you tell me about your life with the Welsh dragon? How is it now?"
Kuroka smiles. "Where to begin?... I never had a true home, to begin with. Back when mom and that "man" were alive we were always inside a research facility. A blank room with no windows, two beds, and barely any toys was the thing I remember the most. Mom tried to make it seem as if we were a family but that "man" didn't even look at us. He didn't even call out our names and mom was a hopeless case. She was obsessed with him and she barely had time for us. The food wasn't good either as they only worried about us staying alive…. When I compare all that to my current life I begin to cry sometimes. I wake up every day in a warm bed in a room that is mine, I can take a normal shower, and dress in a variety of clothes that Issei has brought for me. I go out and don't feel trapped. The food is always good, and there are others who I can talk or play with. I play sometimes, I train other times, and there are days in which I only relax around but I also take missions alongside the other members of this weird family which Issei has created. I feel welcome and I like it."
"What about your sister?"
"Shirone is doing great. Although we stay in different places I know that I could always visit her if I want. She has a good king as well. Although Rias is young she's far from similar to my previous master and I know that she'll be a good one. Her ambitions and desires as far from those of other kings."
"How so?"
"She's a child without the desire of being the strongest devil. Her true wish is to stand beside somebody she respects and cares about as an equal. She wants to prove herself worthy."
"A rival maybe?"
"... That's a secret. Anyway, I'm happy with my current life. Is the happiest I have been although I do wish that Issei/Ddraig would take me more seriously. I mean I like him; I want him to treat me a little bit more romantically."
"Ms. Kuroka you're 12. You should give those kinds of relationships time; you have years ahead of you and if the feelings are mutual your king will surely make you his lover one day."
"But Le Fay is younger than me and she's already his bride."
"Give me a second." The lady begins to look through her documents. "Ah, Le Fay Pendragon…. This is a different situation. It says here that their marriage is due to the events that occurred on the cursed island of Gael. Ms. Kuroka, I personally recommend that you don't make a fuss about it and just let things run their course. If your feelings start to become a problem they will create undesirable situations for your king. Based on the information that was provided to me I can say that the Welsh Dragon cares deeply about you. Not many would take the responsibility of caring for a child in your kind of situation. Ajuka-sama did say that he's by far the most mature man he ever met even if he looks like a child. So do think about it more and stop being so impulsive. I think this is good enough for today. Would you be alright with us meeting once more in two weeks?"
"... I can make it work. Thanks for listening." Kuroka quickly rushes out of the room.
The lady shakes her head. "Is an impulsive girl. Ajuka-sama, we have a lot of work ahead of us. This child is just one of many devils who have been mistreated by their original kings." The lady looks at the pile of reports she has behind her. "Ms. Kuroka, Mr. Isaiah Okita, Ms. Shirone, all of them are just the tip of the iceberg. There's still a lot of work ahead of us."
Back with Issei.
"All done?" The dragon asks.
"Yes." She quickly grabs his hand and pulls him closer to her. "So can we go on that date you promised?"
The dragon's eyes look amused. "You call it a date, I call it us going out to eat some good food."
"Is just the two of us so is a date," Kuroka says before she starts to walk with him while holding his hand. "You're even dressed for it."
"I dress like this all the time," Issei says as he points at his white suit with red flowers.
"You do but you match me today. I do appreciate that Tiamat has good taste when choosing your clothes. Makes you feel more mature and imponent."
"Hey, I do have a say in which clothes I wear."
"Now, now, we both know that Tiamat has influenced your taste in terms of clothes. She's the voice behind your ear that tells you how to look stylish." Kuroka jokes.
Issei focuses his eyes on her. "If that's the case then I have an influence on which you wear as well."
"Well, you do. You're the one that pays for it and I do want to know if you find me cute and attractive in everything I wear. I can't thank you enough for all of them."
"Kuroka, you already know that you're cute no matter what you wear."
"What about sexy?" The nekomata questions her king.
"... Give it a few years and I'll call you sexiest nekomata in all of the realms but only then. For now, just let it go. You're too young."
Kuroka's face becomes sad before the nekomata drops her head in resignation. The dragon turns to her and sights before kissing her on the cheek.
Kuroka blushes.
"You and Le Fay are trying too hard to match Tiamat. Don't rush, I see you and I will reciprocate those feelings when the time is right."
Kuroka's heart beats faster after those words. "Issei!" The nekomata tackles him to the ground. She begins to rub her face on his chest. "I love you, I love you, I love you." The nekomata began to purr as she felt his arms around her. Her tails swing from side to side cheerfully. "I'm so happy to have met you!"
The dragon smiles while he pats the head of the black nekomata. "If this is your desire, I'll match it my dear nekomata. Just know that I won't let you go if you keep making me care." He care about this girl as much as he cared about everyone else in his family of diverse backgrounds.
*Notes of the author: Next chapter, Story 7: The Vagabond Witch and the Two Fallen Ones. Story 8: Luna. Is time for this.*
*Omake: Grayfia: Maids for the win. Maid supremacy!*