Chapter 261 - Vol. 4 - 60

Okay... My map, some water, some bread, my Lust. I gave the dress over to Metsumi. Did I miss anything? 

"Ash?" Keiko asked from the door. "Are you heading out now?" 

"Yeah," Ash said, without turning toward her. "I'd rather we get this done before the day's over. I want to be able to focus on everything else I've got to do." 

Keiko nodded, taking those words in as Ash gave her bag another look, and then looked up at herself, in the mirror.

Because Vermia's dress had practically been torn in half, Ash was wearing her regular Savior's Armor, though, she was considering getting a replacement made. This set just felt too tight, especially given how much Ash had to make quick movements during fights, due to how fast her opponents were getting. Her armor had only truly mattered a handful of times. Most of the time, Ash would rather be able to move flexibly than be this restrained for the sake of safety. 

"You're sure you don't want to take a nap or something?" Keiko asked, walking closer, and, again, Ash kept her eyes away from her. 

The reason was simple. Thanks to her transformation during that fight against the grasshopper monster in the Mist Realm, Ash's Lust stacks were currently at 2. 

Her Lust had gotten up to this point recently of course, but Ash had made a point out of masturbating that lust away whenever she had the chance. This had been how she was keeping her Lust at 1 throughout these weeks. However, thanks to her extended night out, she hadn't been able to find any time to do that. 

This meant that Keiko's presence beside her, with the girl's big silver eyes aimed right at her, felt mind-numbing at the moment. 

This train of thought did remind her of something, though. She glanced over at Kaori's body and nodded to herself. 

Um... Maybe I'll do it if Keiko's out in the city or something when I come back,  Ash sighed, wondering if Kaori was actually getting anything out of what she asked for. 

Then again, she did insist on it, so, Ash wasn't about to reject her.

She had been distracted throughout all of this, just looking back and forth between the bag on the drawers in front of her, and the mirror, when a pair of delicate lips pressed against her cheek. 

She turned, surprised, to find Keiko standing close to her with an appreciative smile. 

"Just wanted to wish you good luck out there," Keiko stated quietly, as she looked up at Ash. 

The half-demon inhaled sharply, which was a mistake because that meant she took Keiko's sweet scent in.

Balling her hands up into fists, she stopped herself from taking the girl and pinning her to the wall. 

"... Yeah," she said, and even to her own ears, her voice sounded raspy. "Thanks." 

"No," Keiko shook her head. "Thank you, Ash. For everything." 

With that said, Ash threw her bag over her shoulders and walked out of the room. She went into the garden, where she saw Sinneah and Yumi sparring, and she spoke up to the dragon girl from the door. 

"Hey," Ash called out. "Are you ready?" 

Yumi stopped just as she was about to swing her naginata at her sparring partner, giving Sinneah a moment to respond. 

"Yes." 

"Then, come on, let's get this over with." 

Sinneah nodded, turning toward Yumi. 

"Thank you for the practice." 

"Heh, you are very welcome," Yumi replied. "Good luck, both of you," she said, turning toward Ash. The half-demon's eyes lingered on her for a second, before she tore her gaze away. 

... Fuck,  Ash thought.  This is getting to me. 

Before, she'd gotten used to just having to deal with the lust being there, and that had been how she had built up the willpower to carry a lust rating of 4 and not fuck Keiko or Kaori in the middle of Onyx. Now that she'd made a habit out of lowering those stacks as soon as she could, her resistance to these lust-prompted urges had unfortunately diminished. 

It'll be fine as soon as they're out of sight,  Ash thought.  Then, when I come back, I'll handle it. Easy. 

Satsuhiro approached her, and Ash looked around. 

"Where's Kasumi?" She asked. 

"Still asleep. Old habits die hard," he shrugged. "Stay calm out there," Satsuhiro suddenly told her. "Dragons are no joke. There's no shame in running if you feel like you can't win." 

"Yeah, I know," Ash nodded.  I don't care what Sinneah says, if we go fight this thing and we lose I'm taking one of those eyes. I want to be done with this already. 

One specific concern that quickly came up in Ash's mind was the fact that dragons were immune to magic. Granted, they were not immune to Tomoe's Divine Arts, but Ash could only launch out three  Divine Spears  at a time, currently, before she passed out from overexertion. This meant that, unlike with all of her other, regular battles, she couldn't rely on Dark spell spamming to get the job done. 

I can still use my Light magic to heal myself up, and Sin, if anything happens to her, but that's about it. 

"Good luck!" Metsumi called out to them, as Sinneah joined Ash's side. 

When Opah saw her mother saying this, she started waving her hands at Ash as a goodbye, and Luvine, seeing this, awkwardly tried to do the same. It gave Ash a brief chuckle before she and Sinneah finally began to walk away from the Manor, on what was, hopefully, Ash's last pregnancy potion-related trip before she could focus all of her attention on the Kaori situation. 

Now that she'd seen her, and listened to Kaori herself explain her situation, she was particularly motivated to do so. 

"Where are we going?" Sinneah asked, as the two of them walked out the metal gates of the Manor, and moved onto the dirt streets of the city. 

"Mountains, southeast," Ash said, looking down at her map, where she'd marked the location Lumina had specified. "Tell me again, why the hell do you want to fight this thing?"

"For one," Sinneah explained, "if we can get the eyes from it, then I do not have to give you my father's eyes... However," she added, "I wish to see it, more than anything." 

"... Okay, why?" 

Sinneah paused, and to Ash's eyes, she seemed sorrowful. 

"Because I wish to know if I could be a dragon one day." 

When Ash heard that, she paused. 

"Huh?" She raised a brow. "What, you mean like, transform or something?" She asked, using the way that she could become a strange version of a Lust demon at Lust 4 as a reference in her mind to try to understand that statement. 

"Maybe," Sinneah replied. As she and Ash moved down the dirt road, Ash kept her bag close to her body, just in case any of these citizens got any ideas. "When I was younger, my father would say that, maybe one day, I could be a dragon like him. He believed that was my destiny." 

"Permanently?" Ash asked, even more confused. 

"Maybe," Sinneah said again, shrugging. "And... I had always wanted to become one. But, no matter what, although I have this tail, and these scales, there are many things dragons can do that I will never do, it seems." 

"Hm... So, what are you hoping to get out of this then?" 

"My father was not a regular dragon," Sinneah then stated. "Tomoe civilized him. Even if at one point he was just as feral as the rest, that was not the dragon I knew. No, I want to see a dragon in its natural state," Sinneah told her. "I want to see a wild dragon. A dragon with no rules, no cares, nothing but its instincts. Maybe then, I will learn something about what a dragon is like, at its core." 

"Hm... You understand though, that we're not going there to talk to this thing, right?" Ash wanted to make it clear. "We're heading over there to kill it. And, chances are, it's going to try to kill us before we can do that. I'm just saying." 

"Yes" Sinneah responded, and when their eyes connected, Ash saw a firmness in her expression that seemed fairly appropriate for a dragon. "I too will do my best to end its life. And, when that happens, maybe through battle I will learn something about its nature." 

"I don't think that's how things work," Ash shrugged. "I think you'll be too caught up trying to survive for that to happen." 

"That is not true," Sinneah replied, shaking her head. 

"Oh? How do you know?" 

"Because," Sinneah stopped. "When we fought, I learned a lot about you, as well." 

"..." Ash narrowed her eyes at her, as Sinneah continued. 

"You are a determined, passionate person. You have no trace of cowardice in you, and even though you have understood humanity more than I have, I can tell there is some semblance of the wilderness in you." 

"You're wrong about one of those things," Ash muttered, continuing to walk. Sinneah followed, just a step behind, and asked:

"What do you mean?" 

And, when she heard that, two images came up in Ash's mind. 

One was of the Nightmare that had almost turned Kaori into a demon, and the other was of herself, sitting alone in a busy Jade street, with her knees curled up to her chest. 

"There are plenty of things I'm scared of," Ash admitted then.