Chapter 65: Ruler of Kyoto's Underworld I
Thank you all for your continued patience, life has been rough and busy since my last upload and I apologize for how long this took. I had planned on this chapter finishing all the events that are mentioned within but that desire was overwhelmed by the desire to finally upload a fucking chapter. I'm going straight into writing the 'next chapter' (second half) and want it out before Monday. No promises though. Again, thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter Text
"Mind running that one by me again?" I ask, shooting Shuten a sceptical look.
She huffs and crosses her arms, "I said, 'Can you please help me with an experiment?'"
I ruffle her hair and smirk, "Yeah, it was your use of manners that confused me. Typically you would've just dragged me away from what I was doing, expecting my help."
Shuten grumbles and puffs out her cheeks, not making a move to push away my hand. "I know not to interrupt you when you're training or gardening."
"Good to know," I say, a touch of wonder in my voice.
I thought it was more of a coincidence that she tends not to bother me when I am doing something important or private. Apparently, the idea of respecting other's boundaries isn't an alien notion to her.
I'm almost proud.
After Tobio's training this morning I decided to relax and spend some time gardening.
While I love training and growing stronger, balancing my training with some leisure has been helpful in making my efforts feel meaningful. When I was simply grinding away at training it always felt like no advancement was ever enough.
Gardening, with minimal use of Senjutsu, is my primary hobby at the moment and has only recently become something that could be called a proper hobby.
I originally started gardening to ensure Shuten had enough poisonous plants for her amusement and to maintain the courtyards in the estate. Of course, since it was something I did as a task rather than a hobby, I cheated with Senjutsu. Plants were forced to grow as quickly as possible without damaging their vitality, additional power kept them vibrant and beautiful, and my control kept them from withering.
This changed after my first date with Suzaku when I mentioned gardening as a hobby. Despite being an answer that I blurted out to cover my lack of hobbies, it's become an activity I enjoy quite a bit.
My use of Senjutsu has slowly weaned away as came to realize how odd it looked that I had no hobbies besides fighting; not because I was committing to that white lie.
Obviously not.
The other reason is because I want to have something to share with Izanami the next time I see her. The tour of her garden was fun for me and I could tell how much it meant to her to have a friend to share her work with. Being able to further share that interest and show her my own work sounds great to me.
My current project is trying to create a version of the flower I created for Suzaku that is able to reproduce naturally. The flower I gave her was hastily altered to look the way I wanted it to and as a result of that, and my lacking skill, the flower was sterile.
While pretty and a gift that Suzaku seemed satisfied with, the flower isn't complete enough for me to even give it a proper name. Though given its origin as a daisy variant and the inspiration being the flames of the Vermillion Bird, some links to those in the name would be an easy idea.
Phoenix flower is too on the nose and not entirely accurate so Vermillion or even Cinnabar Daisy would be a more accurate name.
Both are lacklustre as names though. They evoke no particular associations besides the colour and these flowers are more meaningful to me than their mere appearance.
I want to name them something grand if only to show how much they matter to me.
That's beside the point, I'm almost uncomfortable with how embarrassingly sentimental my train of thought is but I'd like to have some of them in my personal garden.
Blooming flowers to care for and cherish the memory of our first date through.
Thankfully, I am drawn out of my thoughts by a poke in the stomach and look down to see Shuten poking at my denim overalls.
"You're not going to make me say it a third time are you?" Shuten whines looking embarrassed.
"No sorry, I got distracted," I shake my head and focus again, "What exactly is your experiment?"
Shuten beams at me, "I'm glad you asked!"
She grabs my hand and leads me to the demonic tree I created to stabilize Lillian's demonic power.
Releasing my hand she gestures grandly at the sapling which oozes a sickly aura of demonic power out of its cracked grey bark and grows withered red leaves. Despite its desolate appearance, it has grown since its creation and is in good health.
"I want to see if I can harness the demonic power released by this and use it for myself." Shuten grins excitedly up at me and I cross my arms and frown.
"This is starting to sound more like you want me to complete your experiment for you. I was expecting you to ask me to test some of your poisons again."
With my vitality and mastery of Ki, poison at the level my sister can produce can't affect me. Therefore any poison testing sessions are the equivalent of having a tea party with my sister.
That's an indulgence I don't mind humouring but completing a project Shuten chose for herself, only to make things easier is something I'm not willing to do.
She frowns, "I said I would try and harness the power. I already thought up the procedure and everything."
If she insists like that then there's no reason not to hear her out. "Alright, tell me about your idea."
Shuten's smile reappears like the earlier frown was a lie, "Awesome!"
She clears her throat and tries to sound professional by lowering her pitch and changing her cadence, "The tree's existence alone demonstrates a possible method for channelling demonic power - through magically altered plant life. A tree, however effective though, is outside my area of interest and expertise."
I try valiantly to hold back a smile and match her attempted level of professionalism but it proves difficult with how adorable her serious expression is. I have no doubt that if there was a pair of glasses in our house she would be wearing them for this.
"I hypothesize that similar results can be obtained through the use of poisonous and/or medicinal plants as a vector for the demonic power." She nods to herself and pumps her fist at her side when she doesn't stumble on any of the words.
"Naturally, the Underworld possesses its own native flora and those species would need to be able to thrive in the presence of demonic power. Pre-contact devil societies would also have discovered poisonous and medicinal species, otherwise, their growth to a modern society would be unlikely since medicine is a key developmental technology." Rather than fighting a smile, I'm struggling to keep surprise off my face at this point.
I've always known that she was intelligent, I had simply expected her lack of effort to hinder her intelligence. It seems that I need to praise her more for her efforts in studying and thank Zen Master Jun for being a good teacher.
"With that in mind, I want to use the demonic power leeched into the air and soil by the tree to grow plants of my own that adapt to that power." She holds her expression for a few moments longer before grinning widely.
"How was that?" She asks, vibrating with excitement.
In response, I scoop her up into a tight hug, rubbing my cheek into the crown of her head. With technique honed from years of experience, I managed to get full cheek-to-sister contact without her horns brushing against me.
"So cute!" I coo, while she squirms to escape my grasp.
"Stoooooop it!" She whines piteously.
"Never!" I growl and continue giving her affection.
After a minute of this, Shuten goes limp and accepts her fate, something that quickly takes the fun out of it. It's far more adorable when she struggles.
Once she has been released, she hastily distances herself and glares at me from afar.
Her centipede Anzu was awoken by our skinship and poked her head out of the collar of Shuten's shirt, hissing at me menacingly.
I snort at their reactions and give Shuten a soft smile, "I'm very impressed by your logic and you told a convincing story but it was missing two things."
Shuten's eyebrows wrinkle as I continue, "You never mentioned how you would ensure the plants survive, nor did you state the results you expected."
She tilts her head in confusion, "Why would the results matter? I just want to see what happens and I might get something useful."
I sigh, "They matter because you're working with something dangerous that you don't understand and you're attempting to combine it with other dangerous things. Demonic power is something I don't understand at more than a basic level and you want to mutate poisonous plants with it?"
Shuten looks away guiltily, "That's why I asked you first."
"And I appreciate that but you haven't outlined what you expect to happen. How would you know if the risk is worth it without thinking that through?" I ask and she shifts her weight nervously.
Deciding to help her out a bit I change my approach, "Do you think that the excess Demonic power could make something dangerous enough to worry about?"
Shuten thinks about it for a moment, "Probably not? The energy isn't particularly dense and it comes from a reincarnated devil who was given a pawn piece. Given the quality, It can't be that strong, right? Besides, the Evil Pieces were made to adapt lifeforms to channel Demonic Power."
I nod happily and smile to show she's on the right track, "Now what do you think the likely outcome of your experiment would be, given what you know?"
Shuten pauses and mulls that over, "Most likely the plants would simply die before adapting to the demonic power. Provided they're forced to adapt…"
She sticks her tongue out of the side of her mouth as she thinks about it.
"The four most probable outcomes are; a poison that takes advantage of the Demonic power to become more effective against anything not containing Demonic power, a poison that adapts to Demonic power to become more effective against things that possess Demonic power, a medicine that is effective at dispersing the harmful effects of Demonic power, or a medicine that positively effects demonic power." She nods along with her thoughts as she forms them aloud.
"Or a combination of those effects, maybe?" She says hesitantly, pausing and chewing her lip before giving a final option, "No meaningful effects are also possible, though I think it unlikely."
"I think that's a well-thought-out set of expected results. Though I do wonder if those are for the poisonous plants or medicinal plants you wish to plant." Shuten shrugs in response.
"Either really, there's little practical difference between the plants besides their effects at certain dosages. As Paracelsus said, 'All things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison'."
I resist the urge to hug her again despite how adorable she sounds trying to sound wise.
"I'm almost ready to give you my permission, there are just two things I need to say." Shuten straightens up and smiles broadly.
"First, you need to get Lillian to allow you to experiment on the tree. Since it is the thing that is keeping her from turning into a stray devil, messing with it requires her permission." Shuten doesn't look bothered by that so worried I tag on a clarification, "Without threatening or otherwise intimidating her."
This causes Shuten to shoot me a look of betrayal which I ignore.
It isn't as though Lillian is in a position to refuse any requests. Her continued ability to live a normal, comfortable life is due to my mercy. Shuten's request is unlikely to be denied.
"Second, because you've shown your maturity and how much effort you're willing to put into this, I'll leave it all to you!" My statement changes her look of betrayal to one of abject horror. Clearly, she thought I would use Senjutsu to make things go swimmingly.
She makes to object but I hold my hand up to forestall her protest.
"If you truly want to see the results of this experiment, having to put some effort in won't be a problem." She deflates instantly and stands there with a sullen frown.
"I guess that makes sense." She mumbles, "Can I still ask for help though?"
Grinning I nod, "Of course you can. You can always ask me for help and I'm sure the same goes for everyone else. Akeno or our Mother can help with the spellwork, and I can teach you how to take care of the plants. Heck, If you ask Tobio he'd be willing to help with the planting I'm sure, and you can also ask the Zen Master for advice when he's here."
Shuten nods with a determined look on her face, "Alright then. Any advice on how to start?"
I hum as I consider it, "Choose the more resilient species we've planted in your garden to begin with. Then monitor them closely after you've transplanted them. They probably can only tolerate so much Demonic power so you'll have to either hope they don't reach that threshold or use mobile pots to increase the exposure over time slowly."
"What if none of the plants work?" Shuten asks sounding frustrated.
"You'll have to slowly breed the species to find a more resilient mutation or try different spells," I respond with a shrug.
Shuten grumbles in response, "Why bother when we both know you could force a result today?"
"Because then this would be my experiment and the only reason I'm interested in this is because you're interested in this."
Leaning down I kiss her on the forehead quickly, "Good luck, Shuten, remember to ask for help if you need it."
She makes a face and wipes off her forehead as I laugh and walk away.
After changing out of my gardening clothes, I look through my clothes for a while, debating what to wear.
The combination of my Mother's profession and my inability to refuse her on anything that doesn't truly bother me, has left me with a lot of clothes in a wide variety of styles.
It wasn't such a burdensome selection before we left the village and entered the modern world but since then, her exposure to modern fashion has caused my closet to overflow.
Some styles and outfits were clearly her dipping her toes into something new, not something she expected me to wear after modelling them for her -The Gothic Lolita dress or pastel Harajuku-inspired outfit for example.
Others were much more to my liking, like casual streetwear, modern sportswear, the traditional clothes I grew up in, and my businesswear.
Holding up a short black skirt and a baggy white jacket in front of me, humming and hawing as I gauge the look in the reflection of my mirror.
It's definitely cute and it isn't restrictive so I can fight in it fine… The only problem is it isn't exactly intimidating.
Rather than something I'd wear casually, this is closer to something I'd wear to chill and watch a movie with friends.
Placing more weight on the ball of my right foot, I twist inward with my hip, bringing my knee inward.
Looking up and down along my leg makes me nod.
The short skirt would show off my legs well, and the baggy jacket would cover the definition of my muscles. Definitely an option for a more comfy look if I don't want to show off too much. It's a nice contrast at least.
Maybe for a less formal date, it could be fun to wear If I add some accessories to make it pop.
My musings are interrupted by my phone ringing and upon seeing Suzaku's name on the caller ID I grin and drop the clothes.
Putting the phone up to my ear I greet her excitedly, "Hey Suzaku, how are you this morning?"
The sound comes out different than normal as she responds with a smile in her tone, "I'm well thank you. How are you?"
"I'm doing great. Especially with this surprise call." Saying that I reach down and pick up the clothes I dropped.
I may be excited but I don't want to wrinkle my clothes by leaving them on the ground.
"You do realize this is a video call, right? I'd much rather see your face than a close-up of your ear if I'm being honest." Suzaku teases with a giggle.
"They have video calls already?" I mumble, blushing in embarrassment as I shift the phone in front of me. "Sorry about that."
I frown when her image on the screen shows her staring away from the camera resolutely.
"You alright there, Suzaku?" I ask while leaning forward to get a closer look.
She sneaks a quick look back at the screen, noticeably pausing as her eyes drift downward, only to turn away just as quickly.
She makes a noise of frustration before speaking, "Why are you topless right now?"
Blinking in confusion, her actions up till now start to make sense.
"I was picking out what outfit I wanted to wear today when you called. I'm more than just topless." I punctuate that statement with a smirk, deciding to tease Suzaku further.
"I don't mind if you want to sneak a peak," I say innocently, watching her jaw clench and her cheeks redden.
"Please don't tease me, Ibaraki." She responds earnestly and I pout even as I point the camera away from myself.
Despite her clear interest, she also seems to be uncomfortable with this. As fun as it is to tease her and see her reactions, I don't want to push her past what she is ready for. That's how people get hurt in relationships.
"Just a sec, I'll throw something on quickly." Saying so I put on the outfit I was trying on before, only pausing to giggle at her sigh of relief.
"There, I promise I'm clothed so you can look now." Hearing that Suzaku turns back to the screen surprisingly quickly. I would've expected at least some hesitance.
My surprise must show because Suzaku answers the unasked question with a blush, "You did promise not to lie to me."
Now it's my turn to blush as I rub the back of my neck, "Um, not that I mind but what made you call me?"
"Maybe seeing you yesterday wasn't enough." She challenges, earning a soft smile.
"It's sweet of you to say that but I don't think that's why you called," I respond, setting up my phone on my dresser so I can brush my hair.
Suzaku pouts, drawing my attention to her lips, "Fine, only part of the reason I called was because I wanted to see you. I could have texted you instead."
My brush stalls and halfway through a stroke, "Having you call is already the highlight of my morning. It's cruel to threaten me with texts instead."
Suzaku hums with mirth dancing in her eyes, "Well if my call is the highlight of your morning, I might have to make this a regular thing."
She tilts her head and leans her cheek on her palm, "What should I do? I'm not sure I can fit a regular morning call into my schedule."
I huff and roll my eyes, "I would think your girlfriend is more important than whatever paperwork or meeting you need to go to as the Clan Head."
Her eyes sparkle as she smiles, "Mm, say that again."
"Which part?" I smile back, batting my eyelashes, "Your girlfriend?"
"Exactly." She purrs, "I think making time to speak to my girlfriend is enough of a reason to delay my work."
I shiver at her emphasis on girlfriend, "Who is teasing who now?"
"Turnabout is fair play," Suzaku shrugs unrepentantly.
I can't say I dislike her teasing me so I don't have a quip to fire back to that and the conversation lulls, with only the sound of me brushing my hair filling the silence.
"After we split up yesterday, I checked over the information you gave me with Seiryuu and Byakko. The evidence of Ms. Shax's crimes you promised was present but there was something more worrying we found." Suzaku shifts to a more serious tone as the topic shifts in the same direction.
Notably, though, she does become hesitant at the end. Enough that I pause my actions and devote my full attention to the topic at hand.
"I'll be blunt, by this point all the devices that accessed the files on that drive are likely compromised. There was monitoring software on the drive you gave me that was almost certainly created by Fallen Angels, likely Grigori affiliated." Suzaku says and watches closely for my reaction.
On my end, I just blink as the circumstances since I received that information come together.
After I received the information, while I knew exactly where to attack the Hell King Legion, they always seemed to be prepared for attacks from my organization. What was weird was that they never responded with overwhelming force compared to the force I sent.
Now that I know a third player was actively interfering it makes more sense.
The Black Feather Brigade gave me that information at a loss so they could control the battle between their two competitors, The Golden Dragons and the Hell King Legion.
They used monitoring software to know in advance what we were planning then sold that information to the Hell King Legion. To further their profit and slowly bleed both our forces, they only sold that information at the last possible moment. This ensured that the Hell King Legion could remove everything of importance but not assemble enough force to defeat my forces.
Each time this happened, the Black Feather Brigade would make more money and weaken both of our organizations. The ungodly wealth of the child of a Pillar Family means that this could last as long as they needed to amass funds. Then once this process lasted long enough they would sweep in and destroy the remnants.
Their plan was thwarted, not by any efforts on my end or grand plan, but by the stupidity of Yura-Ann Shax who completely misunderstood her opponents.
The revelation is too much and I laugh.
My laughter surprises Suzaku who looks at me with an odd expression and slowly speaks, "That isn't the reaction I was expecting."
As I finish laughing I flash Suzaku a grin, "It's hard to be angry when I didn't lose anything from their surveillance."
After I settle down a little more I shrug, "Besides, if they're resorting to complex plans like this, that just means they're too weak to deal with me. This information you gave me means I can settle this conflict today."
Suzaku looks shocked, "What do you mean, 'settle this today'? Please don't tell me you're going to rush in without a plan."
I pause, hearing the nervousness in her tone, and take a moment to think this through.
The Fallen Angel I met at Sentry Technologies was by no means my opponent.
While Holy Power is a threat to me, in the sense it is more damaging than other energies, the level of power he possessed wasn't enough for my instincts to flag as a threat.
The human magician he has as a security chief is even less of a threat. Barring a hidden Sacred Gear, crushing him would be as easy as breathing.
Both of these scenarios were based on my fighting ability before I copied the White Tiger Mystic Art from Byakko Shinra. Now, with the special Touki of the White Tiger, I can't see any outcome other than total victory.
With that in mind, I don't want Suzaku to worry. "I wouldn't be saying that if I wasn't confident."
Suzaku still looks hesitant so I press on, "I'm not interested in throwing my life away, especially when my beautiful girlfriend is worrying about me. I will win and call you in a couple of hours."
Suzaku bites her lip and looks away, "I'll be expecting your call."
"Talk to you soon." I shoot her a wink and hang up.
Rolling my shoulders I look myself over in the mirror. Mm, definitely looking ready to kick some ass.
Sliding my closet door open, I step forth; only to pause as I feel a cool breeze under my skirt.
I should put on some underwear first.