Emily led the way through streets that were mostly dark, and Hina kept her eyes peeled, gazing in any and every direction. Part of her felt panicked, as if taking just a step away from her Devil companion would result in an arrow piercing her eye socket... but hopefully, she was being stupid, thinking something as ridiculous as that. After all, based on what the demon girl said before, there were plenty of people here who wouldn't even mind their presence. Some of the back decks and porches had lanterns lit somewhere on them, as had been promised, but Emily explained; "Most of the houses that say they're still open, are open so that Beast Men and other non-humans can stay the night and rest, but we're on our way to a special shop that's open only to non-humans at night."
"I see... how bad are things, really? I mean, genuinely speaking? I know you said that non-humans are usually pretty hated, but I don't know what exactly that means..."
"Ask me that question later," Emily answered as she quietly guided Hina onto the back porch of a large building that looked like a house-and-shop combo, then knocked a few times, softly, on the back door. There was silence for a moment, then, and it was a tense silence in which the honey-badger's eyes flicked anxiously around the dark. 'Do I need to calm down, or is this the right way to think?' Her thoughts were loud in her own head. 'How badly do I need to worry?'
"Who is it?" A voice behind the door, quiet and masculine.
"It's Emily, but I've brought a friend. She can be trusted, she's passing through from the West. Badger girl." Her voice was just as soft as the man's, and followed by silence. After a moment, the sound of a lock disengaging could be heard, and the door silently opened inward on well-oiled hinges. The man who stood on the other side was young, maybe thirty at most, with a shock of messy blonde hair, a thin beard, and warm gray eyes.
"Brought a new girl along, huh? Go ahead and get in here, the both of you... and Emily, my prices haven't changed. I hope you brought money? Unlike some people, I won't take sex as payment, I've got a business to run." There was a laugh in his voice, and Emily answered only once he'd shut the door with a laugh of her own.
"Listen, listen. You're cute, but you aren't my type, and I always bring my coin~ if you actually asked me to suck you off as payment, I'd probably kick your balls into your throat~" She was joking, right? Hina suppressed a laugh as the blonde man answered.
"Lucky for you, my hormones don't rage as hard as my ego, and I was only joking. Now, a pleasure to meet you, new girl. My name is Lif, and you, lovely, are...?" It didn't seem like he was hitting on Hina, just like he was trying to be polite. At the very least, it made it quite clear that he truly wasn't going to judge her based on only her appearance or species, and that was, perhaps, a bigger relief than two-toned-hair thought it should have been. It was an odd feeling, though, for a guy to call her lovely.
"My name's Hina. I've been travelling Eastward from an Island out in the far... Western seas," she said, coming up with this on the fly. Taking Emily's hint from before, she thought that it probably would be best to keep her identity as a hero secret for now. "I bumped into Emily... but I lost my Status Band a while back, so I was hoping to get my hands on a new one."
"Lost your status band? They can only be ripped off... poor girl," he sighed, shaking his head. What did he mean, exactly? Though Hina wasn't sure what he meant, precisely, he seemed to have the impression that she'd been attacked or robbed, maybe by slavers from the look in his eyes. "Well, I run a quality adventurer's shop here, if I do say so myself! Take a look around and grab whatever you like, I'll give you half off as a first time bonus, hm?" He smiled and waved around the shop, before walking off and sitting down, picking up a book and opening it.
"Go ahead, take a look." Emily's voice was soft and playful as she gave Hina a gentle nudge forward. Murmuring some sort of quiet answer, badger girl looked around at everything. There were weapons, for one; all colors of metal, and some of them even gave off a faint glow in a color or three. Knives and swords, shield-blades and bows and arrows, basic sorts of armor, and then baskets upon baskets lined the walls, full of every sort of item imaginable, some of which Hina didn't even recognize.
"What kind of... how much should I...?" Hina reeled. "What am I going to need, when we head East? You'd know better than I would." She also wanted to ask about why it was that she couldn't simply have lost her status band on her own, but with Lif sitting so nearby, that would of course need to wait until later.
"Well," Emily answered with a cheery grin. "First, you'll need a weapon or two; and I suggest magical ones. Since you're not too far from my side, I'd recommend these," she continued on, walking forward and bringing four things to Hina. Two, were foot-long knives made from some sort of deeply-violet, almost black steel and which gave off the same unearthly light as many other weapons sitting on the shelves. Under those, she carried black leather arm-guards, but these two seemed to give off an aura all their own, devoid of actual light.
"These are roughly what I fight with," Emily explained. "So, I could train you to use them, you know? The arm guards are pretty popular with adventurers; they're magical, and can be used the same way as a shield of obsidian, taking nearly any blow. These blades, this shop... high quality. The weapons would last you years, and would not need sharpened even once in that time."
"That sounds amazing," Hina said, but she hesitated. "Something so incredible must cost a ridiculous amount of money, though, right? I don't want to ask you to spend that." She meant it.
"You would be right, with plenty of people." Emily's answer was cheery and swift. "Many people, though, whether they admit it or not, have uses for a Devil. You've got a half-off deal and I've got more money than I know what to do with," she explained, patting the coin purse attached to the belt she wore. It did look to be bulging, and Hina had seen more money than that at the actual cottage. It seemed a bit difficult to accept such a generous gift... but like Hell she was going to say no! Magic weapons? Finally, she was getting to the anime stuff!
"Now, you'll want some of these..." Emily was pulling out a few handfuls of what looked like cheap gemstones. "You can keep them in a bag or something, I have spare travel bags at home. Once you learn how, you can pour excess mana in, and then pull it back out later to use whenever you feel like it. Useful for big spells or lots of them... and of course, a status band," she added, reaching up into one of the baskets and taking out what looked like a plain black sweatband.
"So that, just goes around my wrist?" Hina angled her head, curious, and Emily shook her head, stepping closer with a smile. Before the badger girl knew what was happening, Emily's hands were on her neck... and after a moment, she stepped away, leaving behind what felt like a hot band of... well, Hina didn't know the word for it. After a moment, the heat faded away, leaving nothing behind at all... Hina touched her neck, but there was nothing there.
"The status band can wrap around any part of the body, and I figure, if you're going to be my pet, we might as well call it a status collar on you, huh~?"
"No! I mean, it's still a status band... how do I move it?" Eyes widening a bit, the embarrassed, newly-reincarnated teenager touched her neck, but Emily shook her head and pushed Hina's hands away. Softly, for only Hina to hear, she whispered. "Pets don't get to say no, and I say leave the band on~" The words lit a small flame in the bottom of Hina's belly, and for some reason, she obediently dropped her hands.
"Good girl," Emily whispered, and then turned to Lif, who was sitting obliviously across the shop. "We've got everything we need, so we're going to slip out. Here." Taking the heavy, bulging coin purse from her hip, she dropped it on the shop counter, thunking against the wood. Judging by the look on Lif's face, this was much more money than he was owed, but Emily only smiled and headed for the door.
"Hey, ah... your status band? Why did you wrap it around your neck?" Lif sounded perplexed, calling out just before Hina could slip outside with Emily to ask about the band, which seemed to have melded with her skin.
"That's a question that I'm just, not going to answer, sorry. Stay safe and well, alright?" Hina passed through the door, shut it behind her and made haste to follow her Devil companion down the steps. For a while, she was quiet. In a shady alley, Emily helped Hina to fasten on the knives, and weapon belt, and to lace up the arm guards, whispering and telling her that this would be easier than someone carrying them by hand. The gemstones, she held onto in a pocket of her own.
"The status band," Hina whispered. "I want to-"
"When we get outside. Just keep quiet for now," Emily whispered, curt and dismissive, then continued on. Hina followed, but it felt strange to be wearing weapons at her waist, especially weapons that she hadn't the slightest idea how to use.
Eventually, the two girls passed out of the town without incident through the same gap between the same houses they'd entered with. For a time they remained silent, but eventually Emily stopped them in a clearing, turning to Hina.
"Now, for the band. Tap your neck with two fingers, where your Adam's Apple was as a man." Hina paused, and then did as she was told... the heat from before returned- not painful- and tendrils of blue smoke curled outward from her neck, coalescing in front of her and forming what looked very much like the screen of a smartphone or tablet. On it were written many numbers and words...
Level- 1
Class- Summoned Hero
Strength- 850
Intelligence- 800
Agility- 1000
Endurance- 1150
Magic- 600
Mana- 7800
Skills: Hero-Skill Transformation, Hero-Skill Partial Transformation, Natural Armor Lv. 15, Beast Senses
After about a minute, the display slowly became smoke and dissipated, vanished, leaving Hina curious.
"I don't... I don't know much about this..."
"Well," Emily stepped up to help. "For an average human, the mana stat, how much magical energy you have to draw from, is about a thousand, and the rest of the stats should be anywhere from four to nine hundred... on a soldier. You're on the high end of average, but you're only at level one, so with some real work... well, I wouldn't want to be on your bad side," she said, laughing, and then continued explaining what she could. "Your mana being so incredibly high is a hero thing."
"Hero skills, that's self explanatory... but I actually know what yours does. Transformation is a shape shifting skill, and it lets you transform into any human or humanoid that you've touched in any way before. The higher your mana is, the longer you can hold the transformation, but even only a thousand would be enough to keep you transformed for a few days. I guess, partial transformation would be, just your tail, or skin color, or hair, or something. Natural armor, that's your honey badger side, and level fifteen means it would be very, very hard to pierce your skin... but natural armor doesn't do anything to protect you from magic unless it's ice-daggers or rocks, something you can block. Beast senses is just heightened hearing, scent and sight, when you focus on that..."
"I... see." Hina was keeping up well enough, but it was definitely more than a small bite to swallow. "So that means... I could turn into you?"
"Don't ever tell me to go fuck myself," Emily answered with a playful twist at the corner of her mouth. "Any human or humanoid is what I said, but really it's anything with the intelligence to turn back to your normal form. Get your hands on a few citizens and pretend it was an accident, you can hide in a crowd more easily. Get your hands on the enemy? A king?" Hina whitened at the implication.
"That's..."
"It's a rare skill, quite literally one in a million, and in all honesty, I'm jealous." Emily laughed, the sound warm and soft on her lips. "I can't imagine how often it would come in handy to turn into one of the Imperial soldiers when they try to attack me, as a Devil; and imagine just how badly you could mess with people, prank them!" She laughed again, harder and more sincere... watching, Hina felt her cheeks warming. Genuinely, Emily was a very pretty girl, and no matter what Hina's body looked like, the sight of Emily laughing happily, no matter the reason, made her chest warm and her heart melt just a bit. It was like falling in love... but that couldn't be right, they'd only just met...
-but it could be right. It takes hardly five minutes to fall in love, and Hina thought that this might be exactly what was happening.
"Hina? What's with that look? You seem..." Emily trailed off as Hina walked closer, wrapped her arms around Emily and gently kissed her. The Devil seemed surprised, and her demonic eyes widened, but then she closed them, melting into the kiss and returning it. That familiar feeling of arousal was gone, but nonetheless, Hina felt her nethers becoming more sensitive as she slowly broke the kiss.
"I haven't thanked you properly, have I?" Hina sighed, stepping away and drawing a deep breath in an attempt to calm down. "You saved me life, and I owe you. That's more than a lot of people would do, where I'm from, and more than enough to prove being a Devil doesn't make you the least bit demonic." Emily listened to this small speech silently, for a moment, and then slowly smiled. She was definitely blushing, now.
"I told you I liked you Hina, already, but if you don't shut that damn mouth I'm going to completely in love in no time at all~ and I do mean completely, I can't say I don't feel anything for you now... but, you already knew that. Come on, now, let's get back to the cottage. We've got a long night ahead of us later, so I want to spend the morning before we sleep teaching you the basics to a fight." Hina, for some reason, was tempted to grab Emily all over again, but she didn't, instead following along behind as the Devil continued walking. As she went, she thought she heard a giggle... but, when Hina looked around, there was nobody there.
~~~
Hina groaned as, yet again, Emily was able to knock the badger girl on her ass. A strong girl could be kind of a turn on, but all that Emily was doing was making sure Hina saw just how inadequate she was. It made sense, and was likely a good thing, so that she wouldn't think herself some sort of invincible god and get killed like an idiot... but still, it would be nice if Emily could go just a little easy on her, Hina thought with a small pout.
"Come on, don't be upset," Emily said softly, happily, as she reached out a hand to help Hina up. She'd used a spell to guard their bladed weapons, so that all they'd be able to do was bruise each other. At a glance, if you saw that Emily was spotted with bruises and Hina was unmarked, you'd think it obvious who was faring better... but in truth, Hina's Natural Armor was really just preventing the bruises from forming. The pain wasn't nearly as bad as it probably should have been, either, but she was still getting sore.
"Why... shouldn't I be upset?"
"Because you're doing well, for a beginner. The problem is that your stats are lower than mine by about a thousand, except for your mana. I've a level forty-six, you know? You'll surpass me in no time, but not yet. I think you'll fare just fine against the weak monsters around here, though, especially with me watching your back." Hina grinned, indeed feeling somewhat reassured by that.
"Do you want my tail, to help you feel better?"
"No!" Hina laughed, standing up. Then, more seriously, "I've noticed there's nobody around. Living barely an hour from the village, would't you normally have some trouble with bumping into people?"
"Ah, this is one of the country's magical forests, they call this one the Forest of Fae. There are all kinds of fairies, monsters, giant wolves... the humans avoid it, and the monsters avoid me." She poised her hands like claws and grinned, narrowing her eyes. "They fear me, rawr~" Hina laughed sharply in answer, shaking her head, and sheathed the knives at her waist. As advertised, taking a blow with the leather arm guards rendered it useless, and while the force of the blow would push her arm, she was able to meet the force and avoid being pushed back, and she felt no pain.
"Something on your mind?" Emily feigned complete ignorance when Hina laughed.
"You're cute, is all," Hina admitted, to which Emily laughed.
"Come on, badger girl. It's already afternoon, so we should get some sleep before we hit the road. Or, really... maybe I should just call you 'pet', hm?"
"Emily, shut up...!"