Kari waited at the front gate, sipping onto her Ice Lemon Tea packet drink. Then she saw the incoming black car. It got closer and finally stopped. The door opened to reveal Qino stepping out first.
Turning his head to look at Kari, his eyes shone in relief. He walked towards her, "Thank god you're okay!"
Kari smiled in response, "Of course, I would be! Was the trip good on the way back?"
Before Qino could answer, Maida, popped up from behind him, shouting a loud 'Kari!'.
Maida rushed up towards her and gave her a bear crushing hug. "Where were you? I didn't see you in the car!"
Kari turned to look at Qino. "You didn't tell her?"
Qino nodded.
Kari turned back to look at Maida, "Just had to deal with some matters. Don't worry about it. Besides that, let's go in now! I prepared some food and drinks for you guys! You guys go shower while I return the car."
The others nodded, they all went back in the car and came back wearing their backpacks filled with the things they had packed.
Kari quickly got into the car as she pressed some buttons and waited as it brought her to the designated location.
____________________________________
Meanwhile, with the Demon King, Sugo yawned loudly. His hands were inside his pockets and in a relaxed position, his medium-sized demon wings flapping to keep him in the air.
"Can we go back now? Perhaps that girl won't reveal anything!", he said.
Zayd turned to glare at him, "We have to bring that girl back at all costs! We mustn't take any risks!"
Sugo grumbled, "You're always so flirty and laid back, now a human girl comes infiltrating and you're all serious. Honestly, just what kind of bullshi-"
Zayd shot him a menacing glare and Sugo shut up as he turned to look at the other side.
Zayd flew down, closer and closer to the ground. Landing both feet on the ground, he looked around. It was on a cliff, he had smelt the scent of humans.
He bent down onto his knees to look at the damaged grass. It had tire marks. Zayd grinned, he turned to stare at Sugo who was in a night of light sleep in the sky. He was tilting sideways and snoring loudly.
Zayd could feel his anger rising up within as he looked at Sugo. He shouted towards him, along with using his air attribute to send vibrations and movements in the air to hit Sugo with it.
"YOU FUCKING BASTARD! COME DOWN HERE! WHAT KIND OF AID AND FRIEND ARE YOU!?"
Sugo woke up with a start as his wings stopped flapping and he started falling. Letting out a loud shrill scream all the way down, landing roughly in some bushes.
Zayd gave a smirk at the dishevelled Sugo, branches were sticking out from his usual gelled hair and his clothes was in a mess.
Sugo was wearing a normal size sweater over a grey and white cotton striped shirt, jeans that had multiple slashes like holes in them and ankle-high black leather boots with laces all tied up fashionably. There was a necklace around his neck with a silver circular shaped pendant.
Meanwhile, Zayd was wearing a short sleeve grey hoodie with an army pattern style jacket over it, he wore skinny sweatpants and green sneakers.
Sugo grumbled in distaste as he saw his perfectly once nice outfit all messed up due to Zayd's sudden scare.
Quickly cleaning himself up, he turned to look at Zayd who was squatting and quietly scrutinizing the tire marks.
He walked up towards Zayd and squatted down, "Is these tire marks made by humans?"
Zayd nodded, "That's great! Let's follow it then."
____________________________________
Back to Kari...
Kari was in the forest once again, she was practising throwing, stabbing, sneak attacks and the strength she uses in each attack.
With her dark power, she was able to create an offensive shadow clone and fought with it.
Doing a quick bend as she avoided the clone's horizontal strike, she quickly took the opportunity to tackle it and stab where the heart was.
The clone faded away into nothingness as Kari wiped her forehead, panting heavily.
Taking out a water bottle from her space storage, she chugged it down and let out a soft ' woo!'.
"I think that's enough practise for today...I should go back now." Kari said to herself.
She quickly teleported back to her dorm.
Immediately headed to the direction of her bathroom as soon as she got back.
In the shower, Kari rubbed the back of her neck. She could feel something bad was gonna happen.
"Oh god...something bad is definitely gonna happen. My sixth sense never fails me! But… what bad things would happen?" Kari muttered as she tried to dig into her mind for all the misdeeds she had done and wondered if the victims were going to take revenge on her.
Kari groaned loudly, "I can't do anything but just wait I guess..."
____________________________________
With Zayd and Sugo...
Sugo looked at the city with enclosed brick walls warily. "Zayd...we are getting too close to human civilisation now..." He warned him.
"Perhaps we should go back. We mustn't risk ourselves." Sugo advised him.
Zayd bit his lips as he stared at the town with difficulty.
To go in or not...? Should he take the risk?
Zayd sighed and rubbed his temples, crunching his eyebrows. He contemplated. Finally, he decided, "Let's go in."
Sugo turned to look at Zayd with a disapproving look. "Are you sure?"
Zayd nodded without hesitation this time. "I'm sure. We're skilled enough to avoid the humans finding out we're demons." He clicked his tongue, "Besides, we need a place to stay."
Sugo couldn't refute his words and had to give in. They quickly cast a spell that hid their wings and horns.
"Do you think we need an ID?" Sugo asked, staring at the entrance of the city.
"Let's make one, just in case.", Zayd agreed.
Sugo nodded and quickly took out his phone and started typing furiously. After a while, he showed Zayd the completed ID and he nodded in satisfaction. "Well, let's go in."
Walking towards the entrance. They saw a guard looking at a person's phone. The guard nodded and the person went in.
Walking up to them, the guard asked for their ID. Zayd shot Sugo a grateful and relieved look. Taking out his phone, he flashed his ID to the guard, while Sugo did the same.
The guard scanned it for a moment before nodding and letting both of them in.
Entering the city, Zayd clicked his tongue in distress for humans' late technology development. "So old! Goodness. What have they been doing for the last few hundred years?"
Sugo chuckled, he looked around as he tried to find a hotel. Spotting one, he dragged Zayd over before stopping. Turning to look at Zayd, he asked with a frown. "Do… we… do we have their currency...?"
Zayd then realised their situation and a shadow loomed over his face. "Shit."
He turned to look at a fast-food restaurant. Pointing towards it, he simply smiled at Sugo who cringed. "Let's work there, shall we?"
Sugo groaned loudly, "Fine...."
•Hours later•
"We worked so hard and we get this much!?" Sugo complained loudly in dissatisfaction.
Zayd whacked the back of his head, "Shut up and deal with it. I stole some money from their register and cast an illusion over it. They won't find out until a month later."
"You stole money? Why didn't you tell me! I wouldn't be feeling so wasted and upset if you had." Zayd rolled his eyes as Sugo accused him so dramatically.
"Let's go just rent a room. I'm sure I stole enough money." Sugo nodded and followed Zayd along.
°The next day, In the Afternoon°
"Found her?" Zayd asked as he sipped on the cold drink he had bought.
Sugo sighed and shakes his head in a helpless manner. Zayd had the same result.
"Let's double-check one more time and we will go to the next place kay?", Zayd suggested.
Sugo nodded at this response and got up to start checking once again while Zayd did the same.
After some time, Zayd and Sugo still didn't find anything and decided to leave the city the next day.
They went to the airport to choose the next random location to search.
~A month later~
"Alriiiight, which location are we choosing this time?" Sugo asked, despite his voice sounding cheerful and energetic. In reality, he was dying inside. He was sleepy and tired, he wanted to go home and relax in the hot spring at his house.
Zayd, was quite the opposite, he was having fun.
Zayd looked at the map on his phone. His eyes went over each location before landing on a specific one. Tapping on it, he had a feeling. Showing it to Sugo he said, "How about this one? It has a school there. The human we are searching for looked relatively young."
Sugo nodded tiredly. He didn't really care where they were going currently. He just wanted to take a nap.
Zayd got up from his seat to register their tickets.
~After getting the tickets~
With the tickets in his hands, Zayd went back to Sugo who was snoring lightly, his head leaning to the side. Zayd sighed and shook his head, he took a seat next to him and took out his phone to play with.
×Arriving at the town where Kari lives×
Sugo looks around and whistled, "This place is nicer than the others we have visited~"
Zayd silently agreed with his statement. "Let's go find a place to stay at."
Sugo nodded along and they went off to find a hotel.
Checking in, Sugo immediately went to bed to sleep. He was still extremely tired and slept a lot. Whereas, Zayd went out to get a layout of the city.
Walking around, he decided to try out some cafes and stores. He then suddenly felt a magic fluctuation and raised an eyebrow.
This magic...felt familiar.
His eyes flashed with a cold light and dash off in the direction of the magic fluctuation.
'With Kari'
Kari continuously made swiping motions as she dodged relentlessly trying to get a hit on the shadow clone. Making a 'tsk' sound, she made a dash forward and quickly bent down to stab the clone's leg. The clone fell down and, without warning, Kari stabbed its head ruthlessly.
It faded into mist and Kari dropped the knife, taking out her face towel to wipe her sweaty hands.
"Well~ Look who I found~"
Alarmed, Kari looked in the voice's direction. Her eyes widened as she saw the familiar face. Zayd was currently sitting on a thick tree branch, his demon wings in view.
She quickly fixed her expression back to a stoic one and looked at him warily. Using her normal voice, she asked, "Who are you?"
Zayd raised an eyebrow amusingly, "Don't tell you don't recognise me?"
Kari feigned ignorance as she stared at him questionably. "No? I don't recall you."
Zayd then laughed, sending chills down Kari's spine. He got off the tree branch, landing softly on the dirt ground gracefully. Taking strides towards her, he lowered over her with an amused expression. 'Let's see how long you can play...', he thought to himself.
"Really?" He bent down to her height as his face got closer to Kari while she frowned heavily and tried to back away.
"Yes," Kari said, without wavering.
Zayd scoffed and moved back. His mocking expression then changed into a smiling one. He tilted his head and gave her a closed eye smile.
"Well, that's too bad. I remember you quite clearly." He opened his eyes, his real eyes glowing brightly. "I got some bad blood with you."
Kari furrowed her eyebrows, she needed to get away NOW. Without saying anything, she tried to teleport. Unfortunately for her, Zayd had cast a spell, making her unable to use any magic, sealing it away temporarily.
Kari knew she was in deep waters. She immediately dashed away from him. Zayd chuckled and followed behind her, easily catching up to her.
Zayd ran next to her until he was in her view, asking with a teasing look, "Looks like you're just not fast enough, sweetheart."
Kari cringed at the nickname, stopping. She stood in front of him and asked, "What do you want from me?"
Zayd grinned at her acceptance. "Follow me and you will see."
Kari glanced at him, filled with wariness. "You...you're not going to rape me, right?"
Zayd almost choked on his own spit as he looked at Kari, offended. "ME? Take YOU? Are you insane!? You think I'm going to rape someone like you!? My standards are not that LOW, okay! AND I DON'T RAPE! That's literally so indemon." He rolled his eyes in disgust.
Kari gave a death glare, "I will apologise for my first statment. BUT, why, EXCUSE ME! I didn't know that I was that LOW! I think I'm quite of high standard actually. I'm wayyyyy OUT of your league here buddy."
She scoffed as Zayd made a disgusted expression. "Whatever, come on, let's go. I don't want to stay near you any second longer."
"You think I don't want that too?" Kari replied with revolting emotions.
Zayd shrugged, "I don't know, all I know is that I'm very high quality."
Kari made a 'tsk' as she followed him soundlessly.
...
Kari looked at the two men in front of her.
She sat in an undignified position, her legs slightly spread out and her elbow straight up on the table as she leaned her right cheek on her open palm.
"What now?" She looked bored.
"Well, we have some things to discuss with you," Sugo said, he pulled out a chair and sat down.
Kari sat up, raising an eyebrow, "And what's it about?"
Sugo coughed, "Well, we have some problems with you and the problem is that you know the existence of demons and we can't allow that."
"And why's that?" Kari asked curiously.
Sugo gave an eye closed smile. "Simple enough. We just don't trust you."
A smile still plastered on his face, he opened his eyes. "So, can we perform a memory spell manipulation on you? Do not worry, I will only remove the parts where you saw demons and replace them with some sensible memories."
Kari glanced at him cautiously, "Why must I remove my memories? And how can I trust you?"
Just as Sugo was about to explain, Zayd cut in. "Well brat, we need to remove your memories in case you reveal us and it sparks another war again. Why would we even touch your other memories for? It's troublesome to replace them, okay? I don't wanna waste my time on you."
Kari gave him a scowl and sighed, "I guess that makes sense. Do your thing."
She sat up straight and closed her eyes.
Sugo and Zayd nodded to each other, Sugo raised his arm and put his forefinger and middle finger on her temples. Channelling his inner energy, he mumbled a spell and a bright light shone on his fingers. It soon faded away and Sugo opened his eyes, his expression one of difficulty.
Kari opened one of her eyes, confused. "I still remember everything? What's wrong? What happen?" She asked.
Sugo mumbled a 'shit'. Zayd soon realised why Sugo was in a dilemma and showed the same expression. He turned to look at Kari.
"Looks like your luck's bad. We have to kill you."
Kari sat up, alarmed. "Excuse me? That was not what you said previously."
"I forgot to tell you. The memory manipulation spell doesn't work on everyone. And in that case, we will have to kill you. Sorry."
Kari stood up, "There must be an alternative! Maybe create a contract or something!?"
Zayd rolled his eyes, looking at Kari in the eye. He simply asked, "And why should I waste my time for that trouble? Killing you would take less time and that is what I want."
Sugo placed a hand on Zayd's shoulder. "Zayd, let's take the passive route. I don't feel like killing and cleaning up someone's body. I have gone germaphobic."
Kari shot Sugo a look of gratitude. Zayd sighed and took a seat. He waved his finger and a scroll appeared in light sparkles. He manoeuvred it into Kari's hand as she took a read on it.
"Sign it.", he ordered.
Kari frowned, "Why must I go to your place every week to check whether or not I'm revealing your existence?"
"As I said, I don't trust you. Despite it being a magic contract, it doesn't mean you don't have a way to bypass it."
Kari couldn't refute his words, she then thought of something. "Hey, how old is your bodyguard?"
"You mean Henrik?" (Zayd)
"Yea, him. How old is he in human and Demon's terms?" (Kari)
"In human, he is 233 years old. However, in demon, he is just a child." (Zayd)
Kari then smiled, " How about I bring my brother to play with him? He seems lonely."
Zayd was about to reply before Kari clapped her hands again, turning to look at Zayd, "I forgot to tell you. I might have stolen the boy you kept in your dungeon."
Zayd looked at her before he widened his eyes, "YOU DID WHAT?"
"I stole the boy from the dungeon in your castle." (Kari)
"WHY would you do that!? Do you not know how fucking dangerous he is!?" (Zayd)
Kari waved it off, "I know. Don't worry, he's perfectly safe to be in range now. After all", she winked at him, "I'm alive, aren't I?"
Zayd sighed, "Whatever. What is the deal you want to make with me again?"
"As I said, Henrik looks rather lonely. And if he's a child in demon terms. I was thinking, how about I let my younger brother and his friend play with him?"
Zayd pondered for a while, Henrik was an orphan and he lived as a beggar when Zayd took him in due to the exceptional fighting skills he had despite the lack of attributes. However, demons of his age were too scared to get close to him due to his stoic expression and cold voice.
'This is a good deal...And it's an add on for me. I guess I should accept it for the sake of Henrik.' (Zayd)
"Fine, I shall allow it. Let me change the contract." (Zayd)
Kari smiled at his words. When Zayd flicked his finger again, the words on the contract changed. Kari took a pen from her space storage and quickly signed it while Zayd did the same.
The contract burst into fire and it was completed.
"Well, when should we start?" (Kari)
"How about next week you visit us?" (Sugo)
"Sure! See you there." (Kari)
Sugo and Kari came to a mutual agreement.
Kari turned to look at Zayd, glared at him and gave him a scoff. Zayd scowled, he got up and walked out of the hotel room, pissed.
Despite their rocky relationship, it might change into something much better in the future. Don't you think so?