Chapter 72 - Some Unfinished Business

The next couple of days passed in a blur, with the newly formed party of three finding solace among each other's company.

It was far more than just cultivation holding them together: a strong mutual attraction had formed between the three, in such a short period, with them spending all their time in the day practicing their chi or going on walks through the monastery grounds. 

Occasionally, an elder would give them trouble for being derelict in their duties, and they would simply take off running away; laughing like a group of delinquents until they disappeared into the wheat fields. Where they, with their young hearts pumping adrenaline, would cultivate freely. Sometimes for hours, if the mood was just right. 

Akira and Kanna had become rebels, by day, with Kiki anxiously following along; staunchly opposed to the organizational running of the Hidden Dragon Monastery, and making their dissidence abundantly clear any chance they could get. However, in the calm of the night, they would stay up late, watching the stars. Or lay tightly together on the small dorm bed, talking, until one by one they would drift off to sleep.

All the while, Kiki—almost like a daughter to the two—was a constant target for their playful bullying, even as she was continuing to blossom before their eyes. Such as one incident, when they challenged her to a bet...

It was noon, on the second of their five days left at the monastery. The three were deciding on lunch at the cantina when Kanna had had a brilliant idea.

She sat beside Akira across from Kiki at one of the tables, brimming with mischief.

"I have a challenge for little Kiki-chan."

Kiki gulped. This couldn't be good.

"If you can finish a single bowl of [Spirit Pepper Udon] before it gets cold, we'll stop our bullying, and only compliment you, for an entire week."

"Ow!" Kiki groaned. "I hate spicy food…"

Akira looked at Kanna, grinning. "Because she's a wimp."

"Am not!" Kiki protested, puffing her face.

Kanna teased, "you're still just a little girl inside of that tough body!"

Kiki flailed her arms. "Ow…! Shut up!"

"See? Now she's throwing a fit."

Kiki rose sharply. "Okay, fine! So what's in it for you two if I lose?"

Kanna glanced over at Akira. "Any ideas?"

"Sure do," Akira said with a contented grin, fading into a stern frown when she proceeded to scan the crowd of hungry monks gathered at Fly Guy's grill, but catching no sight of neither the Master Chef himself nor Ai.

"Well, what is it?" Kiki nervously pried, still waiting on Akira's answer.

"Oh, right!" she blurted, stirred from her concentration. "The wager"—she leaned forward, to whisper into Kiki's ear, while Kanna positioned herself closely to listen.

After Akira was finished, Kiki pulled away slightly with a puzzled look.

"Uhh...that's it?" she questioned. 'Really?"

"Yep," Akira said, trying to keep a straight face while Kanna was snickering.

"Whew!"—Kiki wiped a hand across her forehead, looking relieved—"I thought for sure it was going to be something totally humiliating, knowing you two."

"I'll go place the order," Kanna said, giving Akira and Kiki a quick kiss before going.

...

While the two were left alone, Akira watched Kiki stare after Kanna as they strode away, her eyes widening with a look of amazement.

"Kanna-san...has a really nice butt."

"Nice ass," Akira corrected her. "Us grownups call it an ass."

Kiki kissed her teeth. "Whatever, jerkass."

At this, Akira raised an eyebrow.

Kiki remained silent for a bit, her face frozen into a spine-chilling glare, before abruptly crumbling into a raucous, snorting laughter. 

"Ahaha! The look on your face just now!"

"Y-yeah," Akira said, as her serious expression was awkwardly transitioning to a faded smile. "I was really...surprised." 'And aroused,' she thought—from catching what was an increasingly common glimpse of Kiki's emerging secret, incredibly sexy "bitch" side.

Not that this new side to her was a surprising development in itself.

Because, if there's one thing Akira Maximilian had learned while in Nirvana, it's that every girl has a hundred different personalities.

"Excuse me, but are you Akira Maximilian?" she heard an unfamiliar voice say.

She turned to face an astute-looking, handsome Human man with side-slicked dandelion blonde hair, thin blue eyes, and sharply chiseled features. As a [Level ???] [Dragon Monk Elder], he was dressed in a colorful robe to denote his supreme rank within the monastery: his being purple.

Just looking at him made Akira's blood boil.

"What do you want?" she snapped.

"I understand that you're still angry over the loss of your friend, during the trial."

"'Angry' doesn't even begin to cut it."

"Understandably so"—he crossed his arm across his chest from the opposite shoulder, in a genteel bow—"and for that, I offer you my most sincere condolences."

"Sincere?" Akira scoffed derisively, looking away. "If this is some PR thing—"

"I, too, have lost someone to the trial."

Akira's eyes widened, turning to the elder again. "Oh."

"Yes," he said, averting his agitated gaze. "My little girl, Demetria. She had just turned [Level 12], with a dream of becoming a great heroine like her mother."

The elder closed his eyes, jaw clenching, pain etched upon his brow.

"Those...fiends…

"Tore her limb from limb as they raped her.

"Demetria never spoke again. She wouldn't eat, unless she was forced, and would scream if anyone tried to come near her"—he sighed—"even I, her own father.

"She would wake up, screaming, in the middle of the night.

"Still, I remained by her side until…

"Through all her trauma, and the growing fatigue of countless sleepless nights…

"My little girl couldn't bear it any longer."

When the [Purple Dragon Elder] had finished, by this point with his fists at his side shaking and fiercely biting back tears with a grotesque snarl, Akira and Kiki were gaping in horror. 

"That's..." Kiki said, trailing off at a loss for words. "How is the trial even still a thing?!"

Meanwhile, Akira bore a suspicious squint. 

"Why would you tell us all this...?"

The elder abruptly stiffened his posture, regaining his composure with a dazed look in his eyes that quickly faded. "Because," he stressed, a faint sliver of a smile showing on his stern face. "I have heard of your exploits at the Macaque Village, and I believe we can work together to introduce some much-needed change to the way business is conducted here, in the monastery."

"I'm listening," Akira said as she turned in her seat, to give him her full attention, when immediately she was hit with a strong herbal scent wafting off him, making her head feel slightly dizzy.

"Not now"—the elder shook his head, shifting his gaze at their packed surroundings—"my chambers."

Akira wasn't so sure.

This man…this "elder" before her...

Was coming across as shadier and shadier, seemingly growing more antsy and impatient by the second.

She glanced back at Kiki expectantly, as they immediately became flustered—waving their hands for her not to worry. "Um, it's fine! I'll tell Kanna you'll be back."

"Mhm," Akira said, managing a small grin through her expression of creeping doubt. "Feel free to lose the bet while I'm gone."

Kiki flailed. "Ow, don't be so sure I'll lose!"

…

Akira followed the [Purple Dragon Elder] to a wide, circular building, where all the elders took up lodging. Designed so that the common room served as its core, and the doors to elders' private chambers formed into a ring around it.

"Watch where you step," the elder said while he unlocked the door to his chambers. Then, stood by with his arm held out, gesturing for Akira to enter first.

Nodding warily, Akira opened the door and was immediately hit by a scent of herbs.

Other than the smell, though, nothing seemed out of the ordinary at an initial glance, with the Purple Elder's chambers being a purple and indigo toned bedroom, office, study, and place of spiritual meditation all in one; containing bookshelves, lined with ancient-looking tomes; a regal sofa, prayer rugs and wall scrolls with bold lettering; a heavy desk covered in scrolls and loose leaves of parchment and ink wells, with a tall wicker chair; a string of paper lanterns draped across one wall; a shrine to an unknown deity lit with incense, similar to ones Akira had seen at the squirrel temple.

Akira stepped inside, looking around in awe. 

"Wow! It's way nicer than our dorms!"

The elder walked in behind her, staying at the door, his watching eyes unblinking in a gloomy gaze.

"Watch your step," he repeated.

"Watch for what? There's nothing on the—"Akira stopped when suddenly, as she was taking a step forward onto a rug, her foot landed on something unexpectedly soft, and squishy. And although she could look down and see nothing was there, an invisible mass was preventing her foot from touching the ground.

"One moment," the elder said as he locked the door behind his back, then began to slowly raise his arms. "Sorry, but I must hide them like this using the effects of alchemy potions, during the day."

Akira was sweating as she moved her foot against whatever was there.

It was squishy and squirmy. Pliable.

She didn't want to believe it, but it felt just like a woman's breast.

The elder lifted his arms as a wave of chi radiated from his palms, briefly blanketing the room with otherworldly radiance, before quickly fading to reveal a macabre truth that was almost exactly what Akira was beginning to suspect, only worse.

"Dear God," she breathed, recoiling with terror.

Because, what the chi had revealed to her was the presence of several dozens of limbless girls, scattered about the place like tossed pillows: piled on the sofa, lying on the floor, leaned against the desk and walls, set upon the bookshelf…

All despondent, barely conscious, with drooling agape mouths and idly staring gazes.