Chapter 93 - A Chat Under The Moonlight

"Okay, while I appreciate your acts of heroism today, you two have to follow along if you want ears on this, 'kay?" Red asks his students.

Fumio and Kotone swallow their questions for now and force themselves to treat everything that is happening currently, as normal.

"Tez. Seeing as you recited that spell beautifully, I'm guessing you're still fluent in the language?" Red asks the demon of sloth.

"I might be rusty, but I guess. Speaking the only human language I learned without possessing someone, is not exactly a skill that's easy to forget." 

"Good. It might be fun to learn it." Red nods.

"I'll teach you Cuneiform." Rezonad also volunteers.

"That would be nice too." Red gladly accepts.

"Huh. You two. How do you even remember these? It's been a long time." Xoz'gekal gives the two demons an odd look.

"You won't understand." Tezguniuth shrugs.

"Yeah. The mighty general Xoz'gekal won't." Rezonad comments too, sarcastically.

"Nah, don't give me that. I'm genuinely curious, so humor me." Xoz'gekal asks.

Fumio and Kotone too, become curious especially about Tezguniuth. They feel that the demon of sloth simply do not feel like a demon to them.

"I lived among the Hittites for 70 years. I was fighting, feeding for that long until I grew strong enough to break away from my summoners. I lived the life of a leader, of a king. I was someone important! It's not exactly a time to be easily forgotten." Rezonad explains.

Kotone and Fumio get weirded out by the demon's reminiscing expression and relatable sentiments.

"You… This is sacrilege…" Xoz'gekal is speechless.

"Hah! Sacrilege my ass." Rezonad scoffs at the accusation.

"He's not the only one." Tezguniuth speaks up.

"To be honest, my time with those bronze wielding tribes was the most memorable time of my youth. Although I already forgot their faces, I still remember their voices, how they were." He shares.

"And. I spent most of my life sleeping or being with myself reading. So, even though that was 9 thousand years ago, it was only two or three thousand waking years ago." He adds. 

"You two…" Xoz'gekal would have blown his top off if he can.

"So, you were treated as lords. My hounds back home treat me as their god." He can only insult them.

"They were weak, but they were smarter than most demons. And yet, they still revered me." Rezonad argues.

"That's because you had power to throw around. That wasn't reverence. That was fear." Xoz'gekal argues back.

"It's not about power... Never mind. You weren't there to see it." Rezonad says through gritted teeth.

"Can you two stop, please?" Tezguniuth interrupts.

"Like I said earlier, General, you won't understand." He tells Xoz'gekal.

"Okay. It's fun to watch this, but I'm more interested with this uhhh twig. Tez, is there any other things you've seen it used for?" Red asks the demon of sloth.

"Well. Nothing else." Tezguniuth starts.

"Unless that one claim by a friend of mine during her time in India 8 thousand years ago, is related to the thing on your hand." He shakes his head.

"Well? What did she see?" Red asks.

"Said she saw some shaman summon an angel with a twig and bucket of sheep blood. Quite similar the ingredients that was used in a ritual that summoned me." Tezguniuth recounts.

"Ah…" Red loses interest.

The demons find it odd seeing that Red is not impressed.

"Do you have an idea how powerful that thing is?" Xoz'gekal cannot help but ask.

"Oh, I do. Just touching it, and looking at it, I have a better idea than you do. It being used for summoning or subjugation? It's like using a cannon to kill a fly." Red shrugs.

"Hm?!" The group are shocked by Red's casual comment.

"Okay, then. Thanks for taking this thing to me." He says to his students as he stands up.

"You three." He addresses the demons.

"Introduce the rest of the gang to these two. Hang out for all I care."

This makes Fumio and Kotone flinch.

"Oh, relax, Fumio kid. You can beat the others easily." Rezonad is amused at the two's expressions.

"Okay. You two, stay here for a few days. Teach the kids and Yoshiko, refill their seals for me." Red orders his students.

"You going somewhere, Kichirou-san?" Kotone asks.

"Yeah. I'm going on seclusion. It's not every day I get to play with an interesting toy." Red smirks as he plays with the wood fragment between his fingers.

Before any of the group can say anything, *whoosh* Red fades into thin air leaving behind a blast of air.

"Damn, he's fast." Xoz'gekal whistles.

"So… D-demons huh." Fumio starts a chat nervously.

"A-Aherm…" Kotone wants to run away.

The two are now given the chance to process their situation.

"Hehehhhh.. We outnumber you now." Rezonad licks his lips, looking at the two with a sinister grin.

"W-wha…"

"Stop!" Fumio and Kotone jump back in panic and they pull out their rune swords and assume their fighting stances.

"H-hey… I was just joking." Rezonad retrieves his grin and puts his hands up in the air to make himself look less threatening. He feels a dangerous aura from the two cultivators' swords.

"That's what you get." Xoz'gekal laughs at Rezonad, but inside, despite feeling that he can beat  Kotone and Fumio at the same time, he is feeling very threatened by their weapons.

"We're harmless. Don't worry." Tezguniuth, who noticed the two cultivators find him the least threatening, assures them.

"How do we know that?" Kotone asks.

"Boss has us by the balls. We kill anyone of you, he'll make us suffer that we would wish for death." Tezguniuth shrugs.

Fumio looks at the two other demons to see them nodding in agreement. This makes him relax, and him relaxing relaxes Kotone.

It takes a few more seconds before they store back their swords to their rings.

"So, what now?"  Kotone asks.

"You heard the boss. We introduce ourselves and the others to you. We'll be around, maybe working with you two for a very, very long time." Xoz'gekal says.

"Or maybe 'til hell ascends." Rezonad adds.

"Still. I'm that'll take a lot of time. I wanna enjoy the world before it gets destroyed." Tezguniuth mumbles to himself, but he is still heard by the others.

"Okay…" Fumio shakes off the image of the gates of hell in his mind.

"Names first, gentlemen. We never really knew your names aside from your jobs."

<><><>

Night soon arrives and every inhabitant of the hill just had their dinner.

Kotone is currently casually walking to the top of the hill. Despite the dark shadows of the trees, making everything dark, she can see through it by infusing spiritual energy to her eyes.

After everything that happened during the day, she wants to be alone.

Arriving at the small clearing on top of the hill however, she finds an obstacle to her desire for isolation; Fumio, sitting in a lotus position on the middle of the clearing, being shined by the moonlight, almost making him look ethereal.

Feeling that Fumio is hungrily absorbing the spiritual energy in the air, she turns to leave, not wanting to disturb him from cultivating.

Before she can walk away however, "Kotone." Fumio calls out to her.

"I was just leaving. Sorry for disturbing you." Kotone gives Fumio an apologetic nod.

"It's fine. Join me. We didn't exactly have the chance to catch up earlier." Fumio invites her over.

"Alright." Kotone joins him.

"So. Demons. They seem nicer than I thought." She starts the chat.

"Yeah. That trumps the things I've been doing for the past month." Fumio chuckles.

"So. What are you doing here? Don't you train in the backyard during this hour of the night?" He asks.

"Nothing. Just nice and quiet." Kotone shrugs.

"Nice and quiet…" Fumio half-mocks.

The backyard is much better for relaxation than the clearing surrounded by weeds and trees, so he knows that Kotone just wants to be alone, suspecting that she wants to get away from the presence of the demons.

"What's up with you? You seem off since lunch time." He asks.

"It's just a lot to process. That… prison." Kotone takes a heavy breath remembering what she saw in the facility.

"I know. I'm not sure who's the demon. Tez, or Gentarou?" Fumio shares the same sentiment.

"That reminds me. We forgot to ask Kichirou-san what to do about it."  Kotone says with a snap of her fingers.

"I texted him. He said he'll take care of it." Fumio relays.

"I see. I just wish he takes us along." Kotone is disappointed.

"I asked actually. But he refused." Fumio reports.

"Why?"

"Said we aren't strong enough. So the more I thought about it, I'm pretty sure that it's heavily guarded now after what we did. Gentarou might have already figured out our ability to turn invisible, so him and his guards are ready for us."

This stumps Kotone.

"I… uh… Can you teach me weight training?" She asks instead.

"Huh.. All of a sudden? I thought you didn't want to become buff?" Fumio gets interested.

"I didn't. But I want to get stronger faster."

Fumio cannot help but notice the firmness in Kotone's tone.

"Okay… but you might injure yourself."

"I'll be careful." Kotone insists.

"Why? What's this about? Your growth is very fast already. A bit faster than me even." Fumio asks.

"I just… Just until I have the power to beat Oonishi Gentarou." Kotone reveals.

"Heh. Well. Get in line. I'll defeat him first before you do." Fumio smirks.

The next moment, he leans away from his friend. He was only trying to light up the mood, but the look he is getting from Kotone scares him a bit.

"Wait, it's not like you hate him more than I do. What's with you?" He asks nervously.

"I do hate him more than you do…" 

Fumio notices Kotone's face turn stone cold.

"I hate him enough that I want to kill him." She adds.

Fumio's eyes widen in shock. He cannot believe that the usually meek and caring young woman, seems to be exuding a dangerous aura of murder, comparable to what he has seen in Hideki the day Hideki attempted to kill him.

"H-hey. This isn't something to joke about." He can only hope that she is acting.

"I'm not joking."

"Why? Why do you have to?" 

"You don't understand."

"Then help me understand." Fumio gets worried.

"*haaa….* I thought I got over it, that I've moved on… But learning what I've learned today, I feel like I should do it." Kotone shakes her head and sighs.

Her words, not having context, confuses Fumio.

"Okay. I've heard of your vigilante activities from boss. Stopping petty criminals, subduing gangs' extortion activities. But this. This is different. It's murder." Fumio continues his dissuasion attempt.

"You yourself told me, that these people are above the law. If they get to do whatever they want, hurting innocent lives, without repercussions, then why can't I stop them because I want to?"

"It's not about being lawful. It's about you getting your hands bloody. This will stay with you for the rest of your life." Fumio gets goosebumps at how Kotone is acting.

"It's not about that. It's about revenge. He ruined my life, Haruto's life." Instead of being dissuaded, Kotone gets even angrier.

"Ruined your life? What do you mean?" Fumio asks in surprise.

"Have you ever wondered how me and my brother were orphaned?" Kotone asks.

"I did. But you don't have to tell me." 

"I will tell you so you'll understand. Ten years ago, in Itabashi. The villain called 'Rock Stampede'"

Kotone starts to recount her family's tragedy

…

"And thanks to Minoru-san, I found out who's really to blame. The man who took away my parents, and my childhood." She concludes her story.

"…" Fumio does not even know what to say, as he processes the information, empathizing better with Kotone's resentment.

"This gives me the right, don't you think? Fumio?" Kotone asks, seeing that Fumio is not talking.

"I-I…" Fumio takes a deep breath.

"I'll help you get stronger. I'll even help you fight him." He can only accept Kotone's desire for now.

"But… I'm still against you killing him. It doesn't have to be your hands." 

"I hope that I don't have the guts to when the time comes... But we'll find out then.." Kotone is glad that Fumio will not get in her way.