Chapter 236 - Vol. 4 - 35

Note: Not the lewdest chapter we've had but, I feel this is still spicy enough to have a warning up here.

---

Ash

Moments Earlier

"... Fuck." 

The morning air felt chilly on Ash's bare shoulders. Sitting outside, in the garden, with the sun rising in the distance, she'd walked out here as soon as she woke up, wearing only a sleeveless shirt and some random shorts.

Right now, she was holding her head in her hands as she wondered what the hell she was going to do. 

"What the hell am I going to do?"

She had a few different ideas but different thoughts kept interfering and preventing her from settling on anything. She had other churches marked out on her map, so that was one option. She could ask around and see where she could find stronger enemies to kill for some EXP. She could take the day off and rest up, learning those spells she'd received. 

In between considering each of these options, her mind would conjure up images that weren't useful at all in this matter. That family, Keiko's bright smile as she heard that Ash was going to handle the acquisition of the ingredients for her, the picture of Zafir walking up as he declared that the leader of this entire city had suddenly died. 

"..." Ash sighed. "This is all just too fucking much for me." 

As she felt a headache building up, she heard a door open and she looked up. Keiko was there, walking up to her with a concerned look on her face and her hands held tightly. 

Ash looked away. That expression almost hurt to see. 

"Ash?" Keiko asked as she sat down next to her. The half-demon took a deep breath, lowering her head. "Are you okay?" 

"... Define 'okay'," Ash replied. "My head feels like it's in fifty different places at once right now." 

"O-Oh..." Keiko replied. "Why?" 

"I just... I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Between Kaori's situation, all of the fuckin' weirdness going on here, and..." She briefly glanced over at Keiko before looking away again. "Yeah. I don't know." 

"... Well," Keiko leaned closer, her voice taking a softer tone. "Uh, you know, Ash... It's okay if you need to take a day off." 

"Nah," as confused as she was, that much Ash knew she didn't want to do. She couldn't afford to waste more time than she had already. She wanted Kaori back as soon as possible, after all. "I just... I need a second. Yeah," she straightened up, "I just need a moment. Give me an hour or two and I'll be back out there again." 

The concern on Keiko's face grew a little, and she reached over and took Ash's left hand, grasping it. Even with the callouses on Keiko's palms built up from years of handling dangerous weaponry, it felt soft and warm. 

"Sure... But keep that in mind, please," Keiko chuckled. "We talked about this before, remember? When everything happened at Sapphire? Everyone burns out every now and then... It's okay to rest." 

As Ash internalized that statement, Keiko got closer. She gave Ash a kiss on the cheek and pulled her face toward her gently. 

"I think it's sweet that you're trying so hard, but... Yeah. You should let yourself calm down a little too." 

"..." Nodding, Ash wasn't sure if she believed that, but at the same time, she didn't want Keiko to be so worried about her. 

One thing was made clear to her though. Through the anxiety and confusion, one statement came out from Ash's lips naturally. 

"I really don't deserve you," Ash muttered. 

"What?" Keiko asked. "Where did that come from?" 

"I dunno," Ash shrugged. "It just... sort of came to me, I guess. You're something else." 

"Yes," Keiko shook her head with a laugh, "the Savior who's single-handedly done more for the world in the span of multiple months than entire armies have done in decades doesn't deserve me? A failure of a Zayama? You can be rather funny sometimes." 

"Okay don't you start that bullshit with me," Ash said with a growing smile. "If you want to trade compliments for a few hours I'm down." 

Keiko shrugged with a grin. 

Her hand caressed Ash's own as she said: 

"If I had to tell you every nice thing I think of you, a few hours wouldn't suffice." 

Ash laughed, but Keiko kept going. 

"I'm serious. I... Considering what's happening with me, a part of me had worried you wouldn't care, or that you'd throw me aside." 

"What?" Ash asked. "Keiko, I wouldn't do that." 

"I know, but... I was still worried. You didn't though. You've shown me an entirely new side of yourself that I hadn't seen before. One that I feel I can rely on and that means the world to me. You mean the world to me." 

Ash looked away, pausing. For a moment, she just took that in. 

"That's just unfair," Ash replied as she could feel her face warming up a little. "You can't do shit like that and expect me to talk you up the same way. I'm not that good with words."

"You don't have to be," Keiko leaned a little closer, planting another, longer kiss on Ash's cheek. "You've always been better with actions than with words." 

Everything she was hearing was making her heart race.

"You know..." Keiko muttered as she kept her lips hovering next to Ash's left ear. She all but wrapped herself around Ash's arm and her warmth almost burned the half-demon. "I've been doing some thinking and... I wanted to pay you back for all of this kindness you've shown me. But... I only know a few ways I could do that." 

It was honestly getting a little harder to breathe as Ash felt her chest get tighter.

"Are you sure?" Ash asked, without turning toward her. If she did, she wouldn't be able to stop herself. "Just saying, are you in the mood or are you just-" 

Keiko then grabbed her hand and held it up. She kissed her knuckles and Ash raised her brows as then, Keiko stuck her tongue out and dragged it over Ash's index finger. She licked around it once, then twice, before finally sucking on it briefly before letting it go again. 

"Does that answer your question?" 

Next thing Ash knew, they were locked in a passionate kiss. Ash brought her right hand up to Keiko's cheeks, holding her as their lips danced together. Their tongues came out and touched as well, pushing against each other as Ash placed her left hand on Keiko's thigh, squeezing down on it. 

They were like that for a while before the garden door opened. 

Keiko flinched, and both of them stopped, glancing over to see who had come out.

Yumi was there, blinking. Her hair was ruffled, which Ash took as a sign that she'd just woken up. 

"O-" Ash was gonna say something, but Keiko turned her face back toward her and resumed their kiss as though no one was there. The fire that was in Ash's chest right now as a result of all of this burned even more strongly, and she was amazed by how quickly she stopped caring.

The door closed, and, well, they kept going. For just a little bit, Ash felt like she could allow herself this. Like she could, as Keiko had put it, rest up and let this woman calm her nerves.

However, with how the pace of their kiss intensified, if this kept going for any longer, she was going to do a lot more than calm herself. She pushed against Keiko, pressing their chests together as Ash snaked a hand around her waist, and she felt her body's temperature rising even further. 

But then, again, they were interrupted.

"How goes the fight?"

And this time, Keiko outright yelped. 

"AH!" Keiko pulled away from Ash, and the half-demon resisted the urge to pull her back in the same way she'd done, as she looked to the right and saw Sinneah. The dragon-woman was standing there with her hands on her hips and an emotionless expression on her face.

Ash looked down at herself and saw her body covered in a violet aura. Knowing what that meant, she took a deep breath, trying to slow her rapid heart rate.

... Yeah,  she closed her eyes and continued breathing. I really was about to fuck her brains out.

---

After that, a few hours later, Ash was training with Sinneah. Continuing to work on Tomoe's Divine Arts, her improved  Quick Learner  trait allowed her to increase her proficiency all the way to 3, in just a couple of days since she'd started training. She expected her improvements to slow down, but moments like these let her know how significant the buffed trait was. 

The progress brought forth some increased comfort with the fighting style, and now, Ash felt like she was getting better at fighting without a weapon. She still preferred having a sword or her gauntlets in her hands, but it felt good to know that if for whatever reason, these weapons were knocked away, she'd have options. 

Her group was watching from the side, mostly speaking amongst each other although Keiko and Yumi were both silent. Keiko was blushing the entire time, probably due to post-horniness clarity, while Yumi was being fairly quiet as well. 

Ash traded a few punches with Sinneah, trying to learn the movements of this martial arts tree before Sinneah stopped for a second. 

"You are improving quickly," Sinneah noted, as stoic as ever. 

"You could tell?" 

She nodded. 

Ash did the same and turned toward the others. 

"You know, you could teach them a bit of this too." 

"Is that so?" Sinneah asked, looking over at Yumi and Keiko. "Excuse me, does either of you want to learn with us?"

Both Yumi and Keiko waved their hands back and forth. 

"N-No, I really shouldn't," Keiko said. 

"I couldn't, I'm..." Yumi forced a cough. "I'm feeling sick today. Really." 

"... It doesn't seem like they want to," Sinneah told Ash and the half-demon raised a brow. 

"Okay, whatever."