Log inHe Who Fights Demons Ch 3
And final chapter of what's written so far for this one.
I will post the image of the build at the end of this chapter.
As with my other two Waifu Catalog fics. The build is a lot closer to 'guideline' than 'hard rule', because I'm using it as a prompt to write a (hopefully) good story. Not as a hard ruleset.
=][=
Pyrrha woke up a couple hours later while we were having supper. Thankfully she didn’t panic and lash out. She came to slowly and studied her surroundings, clutching the blanket tight as she sat up and looked around.
This, of course, did not go unnoticed, and the poor girl was soon swarmed by curious children asking a million questions while talking over each other.
Ma, Nezuko and I were able to corral the gaggle enough so that they wouldn’t swarm the poor girl, and Pa Kamado knelt next to Pyrrha with a serene, apologetic smile. “My apologies, they are a curious bunch. Still, if it is not too much of a bother, could you please tell me your name?”
This, of course, was all said in Japanese. To my surprise and slight dismay, Pyrrha answered in English. “I’m sorry but, I don’t speak eastern Mistralean.”
Well, shit, how did I want to play this?
As Tanjuro made a few further efforts to communicate, and while my little brothers and sisters all wondered what the pretty lady was saying, I decided to wing it. You can get away with anything so long as you act nonchalant enough.
I stood up, walked over, and sat down next to Tanjuro. “It’s been give or take sixteen years since I’ve heard spoken English, so I might be a tad rusty. So I guess I’ll just start with ‘don’t worry, you’re safe here.’”
As Tanjuro and Kie looked at me with surprise, the kids, funnily enough, all just accepted this was something I could do, Pyrrha leaned forward and frantically asked. “Oh, thank the Brothers, is Beacon retaken? What about Vale? Is everyone alright?”
I blinked, feigning surprise. “Miss, I suggest you calm down, you’ll scare the children.” She looked contrite at my chastisement. “As to your questions, I’m afraid I’ve never heard of what you’re speaking of. What I can tell you is that, wherever you were before, you are now in Taishō era Japan. I woke up here some sixteen years ago, welcome to the club.”
She blinked. “Huh?”
I shook my head. “Let’s try this, I’ll tell you about the world I remember, you’ll tell me about the world as you know it, and then I’ll tell you about where you are.”
I waited for her to nod, then I told her of the world Prime Me had grown up in. She told me about Remnant, Dust, and the Creatures of Grimm. I finished by telling her of the nearby village, of the country’s still young industrialization. Of how my father in this world was a Hidden Master of what I suspected was a magical martial art, of which I was the recognized successor, and of my family, not the first I remembered having, but who I had grown to love nonetheless.
She went through every single stage of grief, acceptance coming when I drew out of her the fact that the last things she remembered, were a still-hot glass arrow through her heart, and a flash of searing heat so strong it had felt like being submerged in ice water.
She informed me she had a scar on her left breast, and I confirmed for her that there was a matching scar on her back.
It all proved to be a little much for the poor girl, who promptly lied down and passed out.
I went back to the fire to eat my meal long gone lukewarm.
“Morihito?” Ma asked slowly, I’d spoken with Pyrrha so long that the children had been put to bed, their curiosity unable to keep their heavy eyelids open. Pa remained quietly grim, merely waiting for my explanation.
Just be nonchalant. It’ll all work out.
“Her name is Nikos Pyrrha. She remembers being in a battle, on a great castle made of processed stone, metal, and glass. Of monsters overrunning defenses that sound magical, but she assures me they were machines.” I told them an abbreviated story of the battle for Beacon Academy as the son of a poor charcoal seller would understand it. I felt bad as I realized I was having fun with it.
“And now she’s here.” I said, having described Pyrrha’s fantastical battle, as well as her subsequent defeat and demise.
“That seems…” Kie said, scowling into the flames.
“She has scars,” I said, placing my hand over my heart, “and a matching one on her back.”
“Incredible as it seems.” Tanjuro said, his eyes closed. “I am willing to believe her story. Kie, we, of all people, know that there is more on this Earth than we can ever hope to comprehend. We have been greatly blessed by the heavens, we should not balk now that they bring us a way to repay our debt.”
Kie scowled harder at the fire before nodding.
Tanjuro turned to me. “The other room is rather cramped with all the children, but I do not believe it’ll be safe for them to sleep in this room, at least not tonight. Warriors have been known to lash out when they awaken, believing themselves to still be in battle. If that happens, it would be best for us all that she is not able to cause unintentional harm.” He opened his eyes and pinned me with his stare. “I would take this burden upon myself, but I am unable to communicate with her like you can.”
I nodded. “I’ll take care of it. Ma, can you leave some of your clothes here for her? She’s…taller than most of us.” I towered over even Tanjuro by my head and shoulders, and Pyrrha would not have to tilt her head far to look me in the eye. “But I doubt she’d want to walk around naked.”
Kie blinked. “Oh my, I had not even thought of it. Yes of course, I’ll work something out.”
We turned in for the night. I dozed in and out of consciousness, too keyed up by the presence of someone who could, by circumstance, be hostile, for me to get true deep, restful sleep.
Pa’s words turned out to be prophetic, Pyrrha awoke with a startled gasp, jumping to her feet and briefly lighting up the room in a red glow.
“Easy.” I said gently in the direction of the quietly hyperventilating young woman. “Easy there, you’re safe. It’s in the past. Try to remember, I’m Morihito, I fished you out of the river. You’re safe.”
I listened to her get her breathing under control, forcing herself to calm down. Keeping herself from lashing out. I kept ready to tackle her out of the house. Sure, I’d have to fix a massive hole, but I’d take that over the literally energy shielded superhuman squishing one of the gaggle in a violent episode of PTSD.
Or worse, my possibly pregnant again mother.
Seriously, those two were worse than rabbits.
I heard Pyrrha shift and sit down again, wrapping herself up in the blanket, soon after there was quiet weeping.
I went over slowly, and when she didn’t lash out as I knelt next to her, slowly pulled her into an embrace. She turned her head into my chest and cried. I stroked her hair and waited her out, the damp spot on my chest growing by the second.
Yup, that bit that squished as I got more comfortable was definitely snot, yup…yuuuuuup.
I was going to have to wash this yukata extra thoroughly.
At least Ma let me wear whatever I wanted under the yukata.
Checking on the girl…yep, she’s still crying, my stroking her head seemingly pulling more and more grief out of her.
I squeezed her a bit tighter and held her as she got it out of her system.
=][=
The next morning, I showed Pyrrha around the mountain. She’d been officially welcomed into the Kamado household, on account of her having literally no other place to go.
The kids all took to her quite readily, and I think Tanjiro may be developing a bit of a crush on her. And probably Nezuko too, though that might be more the fact that, wearing my clothes as we had nothing else that would fit her, Pyrrha looked quite the refined beauty. Her Aura had even healed her of her puffy red eyes.
Still, chores needed doing, and she took a share of said chores without needing to be asked, immediately endearing her to my hard-working parents.
She took classes from me on how to speak Japanese and was doing short sentences by the end of the week, and the Kamado gaggle was happy to help.
It wasn't until the end of week two, as she walked with me to my workshop, that she finally accepted that there were no Grimm. No Huntsmen. No Dust.
She finally internalized that she wasn’t on Remnant anymore.
Taking into consideration that she was, in all probability, a clone with implanted memories, she’d never been to Remnant. But I thought it best not to tell her this.
Yes, Agents and their Waifus were often given just enough protection so their psyches won’t be crushed under the sheer enormity of the infinite multiverse. But my current boss seemed to like drama, so it was probably for the best that I don’t push things.
Pyrrha sat quietly, my workshop being the closest thing to privacy we’d had all week. It was difficult at best to find a moment to yourself in a small house that belonged to a large family. I worked on what I could of Pa’s sword. The actual blade was being manufactured in my actual Workshop, but I had the metal stand-in to keep up appearances.
“It’s really… Real.” Pyrrha said eventually. “I’m not just…having a dying hallucination. I really am in a different, more primitive world.”
“I worried about that same thing for years, myself.” I said. “But, as far as I can tell, yeah, you were tossed across the worldly firmament. Welcome to the club, we don’t have cookies.”
She glared at me. “This isn’t a joke.”
I grimaced. “Sorry, sarcasm is how I deal with existential dread.”
She looked guilty and shook her head. “What…what will I do now?”
“Whatever you want.” I said as I set down what I was working on and turned to face her. “You literally died fighting to uphold your duty. You gave everything you had, no more can be demanded of you.”
“But I failed.” She said, glaring at her hands.
I drew her into my arms and hugged her tightly, she instinctively pushed herself deeper into my embrace.
“And that’s just how that turns out sometimes.” I said. “Win or lose, the only thing you can do is the best you can, and you did. Now you have a chance to live for yourself, rather than for your duty.”
“That feels…like a betrayal.” She said, her hands bunching up on my clothes. “Like I should look for a way back.”
I chuckled. “If only it were so easy. Still, I think I know how to take your mind off things.”
“Yeah?”
I gave her a bloodthirsty grin. “Wanna spar?”
Minutes later, we squared off against each other, holding wooden blades. I held a replica of my bastard sword, Pyrrha was using the bokken I’d prepared for Pa, for when I planned to ask him to spar with me.
I settled into Sun Breathing, even as she did not bring up her Aura. I kicked off the ground and slashed at her throat, she dodged back, reposting with a stab that I battered away and used the same movement to score a light touch along her ribs.
Pyrrha was at an immediate disadvantage as she was accustomed to fighting with a sword and shield, the weapon she held was an unfamiliar length and weight, she had to fight against muscle memory as she tried to shift her weapon to another familiar form mid-swing, and was surprised when it did not act as she wanted or expected.
I held back from punishing those errors too severely, merely taking the advantage to lightly touch her ribs, or arms, or legs. Frustration began to mount in her face the longer the match went without her claiming a point, this frustration led to her fighting more recklessly, which led to more mistakes, which led to my claiming more points, which led to more frustration.
But this was not about winning, at least, not to me. No, this was about creating an outlet for her pent-up negative emotions. And as I gave her another gentle tap to her stomach, I succeed.
Her swings became more forceful, choosing to punish herself by taking a blow to increase the chances of her retaliatory strike would land, our wooden swords clacking loudly with the power of her strikes.
But as wild as she became, the years of sweat, blood, and tears she’d poured into fighting came across, as the basics of her form remained strong. This was someone that never stopped practicing the fundamentals, even as frustrated, as distracted, as scared as Pyrrha was, her every swing had the nearly impeccable precision of someone who had practiced each and every one of her attacks ten thousand times.
And through it all, no matter how angry and frustrated she became, she did not activate her Aura. She stuck steadfast to the limitations of the human body. And while physically she was an Olympic athlete, in this body, after the amount of practice I did to recreate Sunbreathing from the Hinokami Kagura, so was I. And in baseline humanity, being bigger, stronger, heavier, and with a greater lung capacity brought one far in a fight.
She was more skilled than I was, but not to the extent necessary to overcome the difference in our physicality. In a regular spar, without her Aura, I would say that I would win four engagements in five. Especially if we went long enough for endurance to become a factor.
Add to that the current imbalance in her mind and emotions, and there was little she could do to achieve any kind of victory. I stood as a bulwark for her to throw herself against, something she could mindlessly attack to distract herself from her situation, while gently highlighting the changes she’d need to make to her fighting style to fight within her new limitations.
I could feel the moment she realized that, to me, the spar had been my way of attempting to help. Her attacks once again became controlled, she began to fight more cautiously, making less mistakes, parrying the gentle taps that I had been using to show her weaknesses.
The spar became something akin to a half dance, half moving meditation, as she used it to work through her emotions, tears falling down her cheeks as she came to conscious acceptance of her new reality.
We came to a stop, the both of us lathered in sweat, my breathing steadier than hers.
Pyrrha gave me a brittle smile. “Thanks, Morihito, I think I needed that.”
“Don’t mention it.” I said, inspecting the practice weapons. They were dinged and in some places, I’d have to sand away some splinters, but they’d be fine.
“Big Brother!” I turned to see Nezuko walking towards us, Hanako trailing along behind her, Xolo striding ahead of them, a mouse hanging from his jaws.
“Xolo, don’t play with your food!” I admonished, switching to Japanese.
Xolo huffed, chomped his morsel into his mouth, and swallowed the animal whole.
I strode over to the girls to give Pyrrha a chance to compose herself. It wouldn’t do for the girls to see their new idol at such a vulnerable moment.
=][=
I brought the ax down, splitting the wood down the middle, Shigeru eagerly coming over to grab both halves and take them to the pile a little ways away.
Honestly, it would have been faster for me to grab them and toss them myself, but it made him happy to help, and I wasn’t exactly in a hurry.
“When do I get to use the ax?” Takeo asked mulishly.
“When you’re a bit older.” I replied. “You need to be strong enough not to hurt yourself. If you’re bored, I’m sure Nezuko and Tanjiro could use some help with the laundry.”
Taeko sniffed at that and ran off. I continued to split wood, and at the end, thanked Shigeru for helping me with stacking the wood into piles.
Yes, I had to redo his piles when he wasn’t looking, but he tried, and I was thankful for that.
I stretched and went inside for a drink and overheard the conversation in the kitchen.
“My, you’re quite deft with a knife, Pyrrha.” Ma said.
“Y-Yes, I try.” Pyrrha answered in halting Japanese. “It’s, erm, good knives.”
“They’re good knives.” Ma said, enunciating her words with exaggerated care.
Pyrrha repeated what was said until she got it right.
Immersion had done a lot toward helping her learn the language, though written Japanese was still a lost cause for her.
Then again, were it not for Communication Talent, it would have been far more of a pain in the ass for me. I was sitting on fifteen Credits, perhaps I should get Talent Sharing? I was trying to save up for Mind Defense, in case I ran into a Demon with head fucking abilities.
Not to mention her suddenly becoming a savant of language was likely to come across as rather weird. I had already pushed the poor girl farther than I felt entirely comfortable with.
Though taking into consideration how easily my parents took her in stride…
No, scrounging for Defenses was probably still for the best. Or upgrading my Chosen Undead Template.
Unfortunately, the animals I hunted gave very little Soul energy. I’d need to kill people, soldiers, warriors, or demons to gain anything substantial. And I enjoyed my sleepy second life a little too much to go murder hoboing anytime soon.
Unless something crazy came along and got me a couple hundred Credits, then I could spend those on the Defenses I needed.
I stepped around my very pregnant mother to get my water. Seriously, I was going to have to develop contraceptives, six siblings was five more than I’d ever had and more than enough! The seventh on his or her way would strain our food and space budget far too much.
If it weren’t for Xolo being smart enough to herd the lot of them when we went out, my blood pressure would already have become a problem.
My HUD pinged me, the swords I’d set the machines in my workshop to making were ready. The Adamantium blade had taken a couple of hours, whereas the Adamantium/Nichirin/Silver blade had taken the last several months due to the production of the metal being finicky.
I blinked. Only now realizing that I could have made an entire arsenal first before making the monster slaying blades. Meaning I’d be far better prepared against 99.9% of the threats I was statistically likely to face.
…
Meh, it all worked out.
Still, time to do the finishing work on the swords. All the time I’d spent miniaturizing the plasma generator battery for the disruptor field generator would now pay off, as I’d be able to fit it all in the grip and pommel. No bulky backpack battery for me.
“Hey Ma, I’m headed over to my Workshop!” I called out into the house. “I’mma finish up some projects and then get started on that second house I’ve been talking about!”
“Be careful!” She called out with a smile.
“Big Brother! Can I come too!?” Asked Tanjiro and Takeo, abandoning what they were doing to run up to me.
“Are you done with your chores?”
The two of them twitched. “Erm…no?”
“Then get back to your chores. Nezuko! You and Xolo are in charge while I’m gone!”
Xolo barked an affirmative, Nezuko wished me a good afternoon.
At my workshop, I stepped onto my apartment, ate a few oreos, and used the power tools to finish the blades. The blades of both swords marked +VLFBERH+T.
I tested the disruptor field, it crackled seamlessly onto life. I stifled my giggles, my second bastard sword joining its brother at my hip.
I took my dad’s sword, put it in its own scabbard, and picked up the bag of nails, tools, and other bits and bobs I’d need for the house I was planning to build. And made my way back.
The children had finished their chores while I was away, Pa looking over them with a small, serene grin on his face.
“Oi, Pa.” I said, getting his attention, and tossed him his sword.
He caught it deftly, looked at it inquisitively, then drew it. The moment he did, his sword turned black, the signature on the side once again turning blood red.
He slowly tested the weight and heft of the blade, taking a few, slow swings of the Hinokami Kagura. “It is an exquisite weapon.” He said, sheathing it. “But why did you feel the need to make it?”
I looked up at the cloudy sky. The temperature having steadily declined over the last few months.
“I’ve never liked snow.” I said, then met his eyes. “It gives me nightmares. Nightmares about a monster with red eyes.”
His hand tightened on the hilt of the blade. “I see.”
I nodded.
“Is that another sword!?” Tanjiro asked excitedly, making me twitch in surprise.
I was going to put a bell on that boy one of these days.
“No, you don’t get to play around with it.” I stated, then grabbed my ax and made my way to gather the wood I’d need to make my second house. Might as well get started.
=][=
It’s incredible what can be accomplished with enough unskilled labor.
A routine had formed over the months. In the mornings, Pyrrha and I would spar. Sometimes, Pa would join us.
I still only beat him two times in five. The man was a monster.
Pyrrha, the poor girl, didn’t win any of the spars. Due to her stubborn refusal to activate her Aura. Yes, the three of us were of the same Tier. But Pyrrha depended on her Aura to fight in our weight class, while Pa and I were Tier 5 natively. If she unlocked my Aura, it would not quite push me to Tier 6, but it would get me close.
In the afternoon, I took care of chores, looked after my siblings, made charcoal and fixed anything that needed fixing.
In the evening, I corralled the kids to sleep, and increasingly took care of meals due to mom’s pregnancy slowing her down.
And any free moment I had between all of that, I worked on the larger house I was constructing.
It was busy. But not bad. Very Zen and relaxing.
I designed the log building to look like a Viking Hall, the Norse architecture being one of my favorite styles. Main difference being, rather than a single large room for great feasts. It was a proper house with individual rooms.
I, of course, cheated by making heavy use of my interdimensional Workshop to work a lot of the raw materials, and use advanced materials to ensure its longevity.
I still went with an outhouse rather than bother installing piping. If only because I severely disliked plumbing.
We would make do with the plumbing I’d already set up for our drinking water and the shower.
The family had been ecstatic to move to the roomier, better insulated building. But to my chagrin, they still insisted on sleeping in one room, rather than take their individual rooms.
Still, the house was finished just in time, Rokuta happily toddling around exploring as snow began to fall in earnest. The building kept the winter chill away much better than our small house.
It was as dad went to the town to contact a midwife, mom expecting her water to break any day now, that I felt it.
Or rather, Xolo did.
He’d been resting languidly by the fireplace, acting as a warmer for mom’s feet, when he suddenly startled and jumped to his feet, a low, rumbling growl emanating from his chest.
“Xolo, what is happening?” Ma asked, the gaggle becoming concerned as his growl lowered in pitch even as it rose in intensity and malevolence.
I stood from my rocking chair next to the fireplace. “All of you stay here.” I said, took my sword belt, and made my way out. Ignoring the calls for me to wait and explain. “Xolo, protect.”
My trusty dog barked an affirmative.
“Morihito?” Pyrrha asked, following me outside.
“Stay inside.” I said. “This is my burden.”
“What is your burden?” Pyrrha demanded, very pointedly not staying inside.
I did not answer, merely made my way into the darkness of the forest around my home.
“Morihito, please talk to me.” Pyrrha said, following closely on my footsteps.
“There is something evil nearby.” I said, making her stiffen. “I can feel it.”
“I thought you said there weren’t Grimm here!” She hissed, her hand darting to a weapon that wasn’t at her left vambrace. Which itself was not present.
“There aren’t.” I said.
“Well, finally some damned food.” Hissed a nearby voice.
I turned in the direction of that voice, and saw a man with five stubby horns growing haphazardly out of his head. One eye had five pupils clustered close together, the other was milky white. He was hanging from a tree, his back to the trunk, his arms bent at an unnatural angle to manage that feat.
“Identify yourself.” I demanded.
His mouth split open into a shark toothed grin that gleamed in the moonlight, making Pyrrha gasp.
“I have no need to tell my name to my dinner!” His last two words were accompanied by kicking off from the tree it was perched at with such force, that the trunk of the tree shattered to splinters.
I met its rush with my own, drawing my monster slaying blade in a breath as I fell into Sun Breathing. The darkness flashed red as Pyrrha brought up her Aura, but before she had taken her first step to intervene, the battle was nearly over.
My blade burned bright red with my fury, it caused the demon to flinch momentarily as I glared into its mutated eye. Unable to alter its trajectory midair, it went for a wild slash with its clawed hand.
I ducked under it, slashing its legs off at the hip, I twirled, aiming a second slash at its neck.
It bent itself at the torso, its spine snapping like a twig in its desperation to escape. I clicked my tongue in annoyance as I only managed to remove most of its greasy hair.
It landed on its arms. “My legs! It burns!” The skin of its stumps bubbled and ran like wax even as they spilled arterial spurts.
Suddenly, a pair of legs erupted out of its buttocks, and it began to scuttle away.
Toward Pyrrha, who was unarmed.
I kicked off the ground with such force the snow exploded away from me. Pyrrha set herself to receive a charge, her hands balling up into fists. The demon stretched its hands out toward her, its mutated legs bending unnaturally to maintain its pace. It feinted left, then roared and leapt.
At the top of its leap, my own charge caught up with him. The blade of my sword blazing into plasma-bright fire as I brought it down in a two-handed vertical swing, splitting the demon from the top of its head to its groin. Its two burning halves tumbling away from Pyrrha, turning to ash before they hit the ground. Dying without even a whimper. Its soul flowing into me, making me feel satisfaction in a way that the souls of animals so far had not.
I landed softly; the stillness of the air broken only by the sizzling of the demon’s blood boiling on my weapon. “Sun Breathing, first form.” I said calmly, the flames of my blade extinguishing themselves now that they were no longer needed, the fiery red metal quickly cooling to its usual coal black. “Dance.”
I wrapped my elbow around the guard and drew it carefully over my clothes to clean it, then sheathed it.
“What…was that?” Pyrrha asked, not dropping her guard.
“A demon.” I said with false serenity, moving to inspect the tattered clothes that were all that remained of the creature. “A man-eating monster that exists only to kill and feed.”
“You said there weren’t monsters!” Pyrrha demanded hotly.
“I said there weren’t Grimm.” I countered. “And I still do not believe there are. And as far as demons go, I didn’t have anything to go on beyond folk tales and the occasional bad dream.”
I found a money pouch with more money in it than my family made in a year.
Yep, keeping that as spoils.
“And you just went out to fight it!?” She demanded, grabbing me by the shoulder and lifting me bodily to my feet. A feat impossible for her build and musculature.
Aura really was everything it was cracked up to be.
I raised an eyebrow. “If not me, then who? Father is in town seeking a midwife for my mother, who I’ll remind you, is pregnant. My oldest little brother hasn’t seriously practiced the family martial art, my other brothers are far too young, even if they practice it more diligently.”
I took her hand by the wrist and pulled at it gently but insistently.
“And lastly, you are unarmed. There was nobody else.”
Pyrrha glared at me, then placed her hand on my chest. “For it is in passing that…” She faltered, then shook her head and closed her eyes. Then I ‘felt’ her pushing at me without physical force.
I could rebuff this but chose to allow it to happen. Her Aura flashed red, kindling something in my chest that blazed a cerulean blue.
The light faded away, I felt powerful, exuberant, like I could lift a mountain.
Pyrrha’s knees gave out, I caught her, her cold face pressing into the crook of my neck as she held onto my shoulders and muttered. “Why is it that I only get the ones who have a lot?”
“A lot of what? What did you do?” I asked, feigning ignorance with my, by now, apparently trademarked stoicism.
She gave me the cliff notes on Aura. Light of the Soul, used for physical and mental enhancement, magical force field, Semblance. And a whole lot of mysticism and pretty words that Remnant natives couched the pale reflection of the magic their ancestors wielded in.
I scowled. She squirmed in my embrace, the feeling of her toned body wriggling against mine doing things but I set that aside for now, because I had the opportunity to play the prank of a lifetime.
I could not help but read between the lines that kindling someone’s Aura was an intimate act. It made sense, you are literally touching souls to do it. She’d unilaterally decided to kindle my Aura, even after the danger was past.
What she did with Jaune was one thing, but in this situation? She’d acted impulsively and, as a Remnant native would see it, had ‘forced herself’ upon me. A bit of a no-no.
Not to mention, I rarely showed emotion. In the months since she’d known me, my resting bitch face had very rarely shifted. Rain or shine, pain or pleasure, bored or pleased, working or resting, my face remained in a mostly neutral mask. For me to actually scowl?
It stood out.
So when I reproachfully accused. “So you’ve just been letting me win all of our spars?”
She choked on her prepared excuse about why she kindled my Aura.
“All this time you’ve held back to this extent?” I pressed.
“W-Wait, Morihito—”
“It’s like I don’t even know you.”
“No, wait, that’s not—”
“What other terrible secret have you been hiding? Are you in reality a warrior princess or a celebrity?”
She panicked, choked, and started coughing.
I lost my battle against my amusement and cackled like a madman, and Pyrrha finally caught up that I’d been teasing her the whole time.
“You, I… You!” Her face was quickly turning as red as her hair, her mouth flapping like a fish out of water.
On an impulse, I took hold of her ponytail, used the handle to tilt her head back, and kissed her. Following the instincts of Sticky Fingers, the one lure I bought, to target her every weak spot.
At first, she gasped, but by the time she thought to struggle, her body was already melting against mine as I licked, bit, and caressed. I greedily swallowed her breathy moan as I pulled her harder against me, running my hand over her legs, her spine, her belly. Every bit of her I could caress through her clothes. Subtly massaging away soreness and tension, bombarding her with bursts of pain followed by relieved pleasure.
It wasn’t long before she was subconsciously humping my thigh as I pressed it between her legs, her breathing getting faster, her arms crossing behind my head and her tongue doing what it could to twirl around my own, sabotaging her own efforts to break the lip lock.
Her legs trembled and nearly gave out, her mouth drying, and her eyes rolled on their sockets as I drove her wild with a literally orgasmic kiss. Only then did I let go of her ponytail and drew my head back, only for her to dart forward and nibble on my lip.
The hand I put on her wonderfully toned derriere was there only to offer support after her legs gave out, honest.
I held her as she trembled and licked at my lips, and hugged her tighter as she realized what she was doing and buried her face in my neck in embarrassment.
“Why did you do that?” Her wail was muffled as it was said directly into my skin, tickling me something fierce.
I chuckled, a shiver going up and down her spine. “Well, in most stories, when the valiant knight kills the monster, he kisses the beautiful girl.” She extricated her face from where she kept it hidden to glare at me. I took the opportunity to steal a quick kiss, making her squirm. “I figured I might as well fulfill the stereotype.”
We continued to hold each other for a while, enjoying each other’s warmth. But we did eventually separate and made our way back home.
There I explained to the gaggle that there had been something bad outside, but Pyrrha and I had dealt with it.
The gaggle all accepted me at my word, Ma looking a tad worried about what I wasn’t saying in front of the little ones. But at least heeded my advice not to worry overmuch in case that harmed the baby.
She did get the absolute smuggest grin on her face once she took a long look at Pyrrha and her disheveled hair, Ma’s grin turning positively vulpine when Pyrrha went tomato red at her scrutiny.
Deciding to leave womanly manners to women. I put forward my intent to go to bed.
But rather than sleep, I worried about a snowy day fast approaching.
That night, I kindled Xolo’s Aura as he climbed onto my futon to sleep.
I really should get around to building myself a proper bed.
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