Chapter Five: Deaths Large and Little
California
1:00 PM Japan, Sunday
9:00 PM California, Saturday
As Kenji disengaged her lips he took in her beautiful wings of ice as they seemingly passed through the walls of his house without issue. They were utterly breathtaking in their beauty, with delicate scattering patterns of ice all across their surface. The scatter patterns reminded him of forking lightning in some ways. Yet it was a side show to Akitsu's eyes.
The dark blue pair of orbs were lit up with an inner power, glowing from within like some type of ancient mystical winter spirit. Similar patterns that stretched across her ice wings were dancing within her eyes, only in miniature. While all around her a corona of dark blue danced across her form, sliding up her body like a sensual icy shadow. Strands of icy blue energy were arcing off of her body, the strands wavering in the air behind and to her sides. He could feel the cold slithering all around him, within him, as her innate Sekirei powers interacted with his magic in strange odd ways he didn't understand. He had thought her beautiful before but she looked like a Fae goddess of winter now.
Even as soon as the effect of his kiss and Winging had appeared, it just as suddenly died down, until Akitsu returned to normal. Her seemingly dead and emotionless eyes were filled with a rush of emotion. Shock, happiness, surprise, love, adulation, longing, desire, and a dozen others flashed through her eyes and face. Her own hands crept up and slowly cupped his face as she slid her soft thumbs across his cheeks, her eyes staring into his eyes with a nearly frightening intensity. His own were now resting on her sides, under the bloody lab coat and resting on her surprisingly warm sides.
"My Ashikabi..." Akitsu murmured, her voice soft and filled with a lilting tone of what could only be true love. "...my destined one. I thought I would never find you, I thought I would be denied you forever. I...I..."
Her words seemed to fail her as crystal clear tears slowly trailed down her cheeks, a soft exhalation escaping her lips. Despite the minor weeping it was so obvious that Akitsu loved him with all her heart. It showed in her eyes, in her posture, in her face, in her tone. It screamed itself out from her very soul. Kenji could even feel it deep within himself. Her power had temporarily formed a bridge with his own, he could feel her emotions even as they slowly faded. They were as powerful as he had ever felt in his entire life, they filled him up with undeniable and unshakable love, as stalwart and still as the planet beneath him. The depth and power of them were astounding to him even as it flowed into him, filling him with its positive influence, bringing him to an emotional high unseen or felt before. It was the most heady, powerful feeling, the strongest emotions he had ever felt. The intensity was as frightening as it was awe inspiring.
While Kenji was reflecting on the potent emotions surging into him he noted that the emotional bond between them was shrinking. While the strength of the emotions hadn't waned, his ability to feel them had. Apparently whatever the cause of this temporary bond was just that, temporary. Which was both good and bad. Good, because having Akitsu's emotions surging into him would be majorly distracting and bad, because as distracting as they were it was still nice to feel them. Despite her being the ice Sekirei her emotions were like a comforting warmth within him.
Kenji pulls the happy Akitsu forward, softly stroking her smooth back as she sheds her tears of utter happiness and joy across his shirt. He doesn't mind, how could he when he can feel the emotions surging from within her and into him? While he had summoned her in a spur of the moment thought, mostly due to his rushing because of the Wish time limit, she was here now. For better or worse they were bonded to each other. Even as he thought on it it realized he didn't truly mind it, it was nice knowing that no matter what happened in the future he'd always have at least one person beside him, backing him to the hilt no matter what.
Kenji's eyes glanced along the shoulders of the lab coat, noting the blood stains. He frowned minutely, he never actually figured out just what the MBI adjuster had tried to do to Akitsu to make her kill him. And there was a fair likely hood of him being dead with the amount of blood on the lab coat. Within the darkness of his mind it didn't take much to imagine the situation. That since Akitsu was a considered a 'broken' Sekirei the bastard had likely figured that she wasn't of any use to MBI anymore. It didn't take a genius to figure out what a lab coat wearing scientist would do to a young woman like Akitsu. The most damning bit however was the fact that besides the lab coat Akitsu was naked. Women don't run away from somewhere naked except in very specific circumstances.
Although it did make him wonder where the survival instincts were in any man who tried to rape a Sekirei was. They were either hilariously powerful physically or powerful elementally. Even those with 'just' elemental powers were much stronger physically then Humans, how else could they jump dozens of yards across skyscraper roofs? The scientist was a fool, and likely a dead fool now.
He reached up and gently pulled the bloody coat off, tossing the ragged piece of clothing onto the floor. Akitsu's tears had since stopped flowing by now, she had been just resting against his chest in absolute contentment. She pulled back just slightly, a scattering of pink across her cheeks as she stared at him, totally in the nude. Kenji sighed, he knew what must be going through her mind, even if it was the wrong conclusion.
"You need a shower Akitsu, you have blood on you and look like you could use one." Kenji said simply as he slowly helped her up.
She nodded her head in acceptance to his statement, her eyes taking in the room in curiosity once she was up. Kenji smirked a bit before he gently swept her off her feet, taking her into a bridal carry. Her face was pink once more, her eyes a bit wide as she calmly rested in his arms.
"Ah...Ashikabi-sama is very strong." Akitsu said in a soft tone, her hands reaching up to wrap around his neck.
Kenji rolled his eyes at the honorific.
"None of that Akitsu," Kenji said in a slightly chiding yet affectionate tone, "I don't want you being overly deferential to me, we are Sekirei and Ashikabi, not servant and lord, okay?"
Akitsu seems to wilt for a moment, her teeth worrying over her lower lip as she looked at him with large soulful dark blue eyes. Kenji instantly realizes this girl is dangerous, not due to her powers but due to the look she was giving him. It was weapons grade 'sad cat eyes'. Kenji looked away, his will power wilting just from a short exposure to the look.
"A compromise then hm?" Kenji asked as he carried her to his bathroom. "In private you call me Kenji, in public you can call me whatever you would like, okay? Will that make you happy?"
Akitsu's eyes went lidded for a moment as she slowly nodded her head before whispering, "thank you."
Kenji merely hummed as he entered his bathroom. He was glad that the blood from the Devil had disintegrated as well as the body. It would have been awkward if he'd walked into the room and it looked like a slaughter house. As it was he still had a hole in his bathroom wall, and likely several other walls as well. He set Akitsu down on the bathmat before waving his hand at the tiled wall, casting Repair at it.
Akitsu's eyes were wide as she alternated between watching him and watching the tile seemingly fix itself.
"Yeah, we have a bit to talk about later." Kenji said to her with a bit of humor, "first however, lets get you a shower. While you are in it I'll go get you some clothes, what size and style would you like? Keep it simple for now though, I'm just a simple teenage boy."
Akitsu nodded her head slowly as he allowed her to turn the shower on, her body sensually bending over to fiddle with the nobs. Kenji swallowed as Akitsu's beautiful full ass pushed itself out into his direction, her pussy was visible at the apex of her thighs. He noted that he couldn't actually tell if she had hair down below due to the poor angle but it was still an amazing view. He swallowed again as he noticed that she was aroused, a gathering of pearly moisture around her slightly parted lower lips revealed that fact quite obviously. So far he'd been able to avoid leering at the beautiful naked young woman but he couldn't help but take a moment to admire her lovely form from behind. It was a serious temptation to just seduce her right then and there, as he heavily suspected she would gladly welcome any such attentions from him in an instant.
He shook his head as she pulled herself back up before turning to him, giving him a tiny smile as she told him her sizes. Yet it was with an embarrassed furrow of her brows that she told him she didn't really have an opinion on clothing styles. She quietly explained that MBI hadn't allowed her to have much clothing, only bland scrubs as they adjusted her.
"That's fine I suppose," Kenji said to the lovely nude woman, his anger at MBI being held under the surface "I suppose I'll just get you something to tide you over until I can take you out to see what you want in person. I hope you don't mind jeans and a hoody until we can figure out what you like?"
Akitsu nodded her head deferentially before softly uttering, "that's fine."
Kenji smiled at her before hesitating a single short moment before he then stepped forward and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. Without hesitation Akitsu kissed him back, her ice wings not making a reappearance. He pulled back after a few moments, leaving behind a blushing Sekirei who had a dopey smile on her face. Kenji couldn't help but smile back at her, the look on her face being quite endearing.
"I'll be back in less then an hour Akitsu, mkay?" Kenji said to the still blushing girl.
"Okay my Ashi...Kenji." Akitsu said softly, correcting herself mid sentence.
"Oh," Kenji added before he turned and left, "please don't touch any of the objects on my desk. They are very dangerous objects that could seriously harm you if you touch them."
When she nodded her head in understanding Kenji gave her a single farewell smile before he left the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. He made his way to his room, entering his bedroom slowly. He took in the sight of the Deck of Many Things, the cards all returned to the deck, sitting there innocently. It was a dangerous artifact and he needed to decide on what to do with it.
The obvious solution was to devour it using his Gluttony Sin. It was the obvious solution and what he was seriously thinking on. Yet...yet for all that it was a dangerous artifact it was still a very useful artifact as well. He personally couldn't use it again, it was a one time use, per user object. As in once you drew your allotted cards from the deck you could never draw from that specific deck again.
The card that he considered the most potent, the most useful, was The Sun card. It gave the person who drew it a single beneficial medium wondrous item, which was a potent named magical object. In addition to the magical item it also gave the one who drew it 50,000 XP, which was enough to take a first level character to level 10 in an instant. Or in other words it, he hoped, could give a mundane person 10 Dungeons and Dragons character levels in a class of their choosing.
It was a very interesting thought, yet it would be a dangerous gamble for anyone who was foolhardy or desperate enough to try to draw from the deck. Yet it could give Humanity a needed edge against the encroaching supernatural threats that existed in this world. For all that Humanity had magic users already, that craft of magic was quite difficult to use, depending on high levels of math for it to function at a minimum. He was unsure what else was required for it to function but he assumed not just anyone with a math degree could use it.
Yet the odds were as simple as they were terrifying. Even if he could convince a group of 100 to draw a single card each from the deck, pure odds would dictate that half of them would pick a 'bad' card, with three to four choices spelling instant doom. That meant a quarter would be dead or the equivalent while another quarter would gain negative things that were not immediately fatal but still quite terrible. That said nothing of when someone inevitably pulled a Wish card, as he had.
One might think that pulling The Moon card, or the Wish card would be a good thing. Yet all it would take would be one overambitious fool who wished for too much. The DnD Wish spell was arguably the most powerful of non-epic spells in DnD, and it could be argued to be more powerful then a lot, if not all, of the epic spells. The reason for this was it had no true 'upper limit' on what it could accomplish. Yet if you pushed too far past the guidelines outlined in the spell description then you would most likely suffer a monkey paw like backlash as it fulfilled your Wish in some twisted way. Wish for Humanity to be immortal? Congratulations, all of Humanity are now undead and immortal. Or perhaps Humanity might become unaging, just as you wished, only everyone was sterilized to balance the karmic load on the universe.
Upon these thoughts racing through Kenji's mind he decided that as awesome as the thought of having an army of DnD Wizards and Paladins guarding Humanity would be, it was just too dangerous. With a sigh he discarded those nascent plans, it would appear that the Deck would just have to be devoured. He decided that he'd do it tomorrow, once his Devil's Luck refreshed itself.
Aside from the Horcrux he didn't believe any of the rest of the items were an immediate danger. Most GURPS magic items had to have multiple enchantments laid on them in very specific ways to create self harming or cursed magic items, which he did not think he had. Yet, it was better to play it safe with any unknown magic item just in case, so he'd proceed with caution. Sadly, he wasn't too sure how to play it safe. The only way to figure out what a magic item was enchanted with was through the Analyze Magic spell in GURPS, which he did not have. Or to test it out by pointing it away from you and 'willing' it to activate. A foolhardy proposition at the best of times, and potentially deadly at the worst.
His decision on what to do with the GURPS magic items depended on what the cloak turned out to be. If it was the Gender Bender cloak he'd likely devour those other GURPS items since he wouldn't have a way to figure out what they were safely. If it was the Wander's Cloak then he'd be in business, as the Wanderer's Cloak was enchanted with the entire Knowledge College of magic, of which the Analyze Magic spell was within. It depended on when he had time to test the cloak, it might be today, it might be later.
As for the Horcrux, it was flat out dangerous. Not as immediately dangerous as the Deck of Many Things was but still a potentially deadly magical artifact. Draining someone of their life force/soul was no joke, the fact that after said life force/soul was drained that a teenage Dark Lord would emerge was just the shitty icing on a shit cake. He hoped he could just devour the damn thing with his Gluttony Sin tomorrow, yet as he suspected from before it would likely count as 'alive' due to the part about it having a soul within it. Perhaps hitting it with his Killing Curse spell would kill it, it all depended on if it was powered through negative energy like the undead were or if it was different somehow.
He put the thought of the evil diary out of his mind, it was something he'd have to deal with later. He shuffled all of the magic items onto his desk, making sure nothing would accidentally fall off. He did keep the Death Stick with him, it was just too useful to not keep on him. If this wand was anything like the Elder Wand in the story he could see why so many magic users lusted after it. It made casting his spells so much easier and more powerful, he really did need to test it out to see what it could really do.
Kenji sighed as he stretched out his back, this day seemed to just drag on for him. He suspected it was the life and death battle with the Dread Wraith as adrenaline in a life and death battle was apparently a hell of a drug. He sighed as he cast the Teleport spell, disappearing from his California home.
------Sin Lord------
Japan
1:20 PM Japan, Sunday
9:20 PM California, Saturday
Kenji reappeared within the Yuki's apartment. He gave the apartment a cursory glance before he stepped over to tear a piece of paper from a pad. He scribbled a note down to Yuki, telling her that he'd be home later as he was...he paused for a moment in thought. He continued on, writing that he had met a cute girl and was going on a date and he'd be back later tonight.
Kenji nodded, that would suffice and it was even true to a certain extent as Akitsu was a cute girl and he was planning to have a date with her beautiful body later. He left the note in a prominent spot where Yuki would see it before he cloaked himself in Invisibility. He then once more cast the Teleport spell, disappearing from the apartment.
------Sin Lord------
California
1:40 PM Japan, Sunday
9:40 PM California, Saturday
Kenji reappeared within his California home, two bags of clothes in his hands. He'd settled for popping into a Walmart and getting three sets of clothes for Akitsu. He'd gotten her several simple t-shirts, a single big hoody and several sets of jeans. Some socks and a simple pair of shoes with some underwear rounded out his selection. Yet he'd skipped bras in total, he knew from being married in his old life for a decade that bras weren't something a guy could just grab off the shelf, they had to be checked and worn before hand for a proper fitting. He had then Teleported home and when he'd heard the shower still running he dumped the clothes on his bed, laying them out where Akitsu would find them. He then went to the door of the bathroom and yelled loud enough for her to hear his voice over the shower.
"Akitsu, your clothes are on my bed waiting for you!" He yelled through the door. "I have to take care of a few errands, so I might be gone for up to two hours! Will you be okay by yourself?"
He heard the shower get turned off for a moment, the sounds of water dripping from within before he heard Akitsu's soft voice project itself through the door.
"I'll be fine while your gone." Her voice said as he echoed through the door, easily heard now that the shower wasn't running despite its soft tone.
"There is food in the fridge downstairs if you get hungry, okay?" Kenji said in a more normal tone of voice.
"Thank you Kenji." Akitsu said, her voice tinged with a muted happiness he could hear through the door.
On a whim Kenji activated his Parabolic Hearing trait, focusing through the door and into the shower as it turned back on.
"Ashikabi-sama loves me!" Akitsu's voice was filled with happiness, even with its low muted tone. "I have my Ashikabi! I have my Ashikabi! Haaaaaaah!"
Kenji smiled at the happy sigh that follows her before he hears the continued sounds of washing coming from within the shower. He turns his Parabolic Hearing off as he walks away from the door. He did indeed have errands to run. He had information that he needed to gain, and slaving Devils that needed to die.
He needed power more then ever now that he had two unknown 'outsider' foes to deal with. What constituted an 'outsider' here was up in the air, but he at least he could mark the Hero Faction of the Chaos Brigade off the list. They were all Humans and native to Earth, thus they were incapable of being considered an 'outsider'. The most likely targets were of course the Three Factions, likely some sub leader within them. The other pantheons were of course possible as well but he didn't think he needed to worry about any Youkai, since they were native to Earth as well as far as he knew.
The Hermit card he drew or the information giving card would tell him exactly who his foes were and when they would attack. It seemed mildly unfair to have to use the card he drew to figure out who his outsider enemies were. Yet at the end of the day it was also the fastest and most accurate way to gain the information he needed. Fair didn't enter into it and whining about it would gain him nothing but wasted time.
Kenji closed his eyes and concentrated on the odd feeling within the back of his head. It had been there ever since he'd pulled that card and he knew innately how to call upon the card to use it. With the feeling grasped within his mind Kenji then thought for several long moments on how to word his request for information. It would easy to fuck himself with a vague request, it had to be right the first time as he wouldn't get a second.