Chapter 113 - Interlude 1 - Kaori, The Half-Demon, Part 2

Kaori was so nervous, her arms felt cold even as she walked under the overwhelming midday sun. Suddenly, her skirt felt too short as Kaori tugged it down every couple of minutes. Just calm down,  she told herself.  Nothing's gonna happen. We're just going to work on stuff, I'll stay as quiet as I can, and, um... That'll be it. 

As much as she wanted to tell herself that though, she felt like people were staring at her already, as she made her way to the restaurant that Ash had specified. That was of course because they were staring at her, but Kaori felt like they were judging her for even daring to go speak to someone in a casual setting. 

"Uh... Is this it?" She muttered to herself, standing outside a small place that held a sign that read "Orno's Broth". Tentatively, Kaori put a hand on the front door's handle. She took a deep breath and walked in. 

Immediately, she saw Ash sitting on a stool with her back turned to Kaori. She was speaking to an old man behind the counter in front of her. The raven-haired girl was wearing a black leather jacket, blue jeans, and black boots which contrasted heavily with the old man's traditional business ji. Kaori looked around. There were a few other stools lined up beside Ash, two tables to the right by glass windows, and a bookshelf to the left. At most, this place could only hold ten, maybe twenty people at a time. 

"Don't say anything weird..." Ash told the man. As he heard that, the man looked over at Kaori and smiled. 

"Ah. You must be Kaori then?" As he said that, Ash looked back, her eyes meeting Kaori's briefly, and then she went back to the soup she was having. 

Kaori walked up. 

Oh... Oh my... She thought when she realized Ash didn't have a shirt underneath that black jacket, which was unbuttoned and open. Instinctively, Kaori almost leaned forwards to see how much of Ash's body she could glimpse before she caught herself. 

NOPE! Stop that!  Kaori shook her head.  Don't let your horniness stop you from making a friend... but, gosh, my virginity feels so heavy right now. 

Arguably, one of the worst parts of being a bisexual half-Lust demon was that Kaori was particularly drawn to the people around her, but had no one willing to ease those worries. It sucked. 

"Um... You are Kaori, right?" The old man said and Kaori was startled. 

Kaori nodded, her hands held together in front of her. She bowed and tried to smile. 

"Good afternoon," she muttered. 

"Welcome," the man said. "Please, sit. Are you hungry?" 

"Uh... n-no..." 

"That did not sound like a very secure answer," he said with a smirk. "My name's Kairo. Let me know if you change your mind. I make a mean spikefrog soup." 

"Oh, uh, okay..." Kaori nodded.  Well, I'm not being cursed out of the building so... So far so good? 

Ash then took her bowl, stood up, and walked over to one of the tables on the right, gesturing for Kaori to follow. Kaori bowed to the old man one more time and then joined her. 

Ash continued her meal as she occasionally glanced up at Kaori, who was just watching her, feeling uneasy.  Just don't say anything weird, or scary, or unusual...  Kaori told herself.  Just act normal. 

She straightened her back and tried to make effective eye contact. 

After all, eye contact was important according to the  Young Woman's Guide to Making Friends,  a book that Kaori read religiously. 

Eye contact!  She thought, focusing hard on Ash's blues,  the first step to forming any strong human connection! 

Kaori narrowed her eyes, making sure that her pupils never strayed from Ash's own. The girl continued her meal, only glancing up a few times before she eventually put her spoon down. 

"Is there something on my face?" 

"Huh? Uh... No." 

"Then, why are you staring at me?" Ash asked. 

Kaori blinked. 

WAIT!  She thought.  This is an opportunity! The second step, compliments! 

"I-I just thought your eyes were really pretty..."

Ash raised a brow and looked back down at her soup, without responding. 

Uh... Did I do this right? Probably, the Guide to Making Friends wouldn't lie, after all. Point one for me!  She gave herself a mental thumbs-up as Ash finished up. 

Ash shifted in her seat, leaning back a little. Then, she stretched her arms and arched her back, and her jacket separated enough to give Kaori a view that made her blush. Kaori's eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of a few too many things at once. Ash's sculpted abs and half of the woman's breasts, all of which rose and fell with Ash's breathing.

Kaori gulped. 

Calm. Down.  She told herself.  Be. Normal. 

But she didn't stop staring. Something that quickly became a mistake when Ash looked back at her and scoffed, noticing where Kaori's eyes were. 

AH!  Kaori looked down at the table quickly but if Ash's half-lidded "really?" eyes were anything to go by, the damage was done. 

"So, the project?" Ash asked with some mirth. 

"R-Right... What do we have to do again?" 

"Basically..." 

The rest of the conversation was thankfully more boring. Kaori couldn't handle more excitement than what she got, so she was quite happy to focus on work for a while. They went over a few things they had to do. Apparently, they were to give an oral report on the Church of Magia and its leader, some man named Varcon. As a proud Lumina follower though, Kaori had no idea who that was. 

They talked for a little over two hours. In that time, customers came in and out of the small joint, conversations between them and Kairo serving as background noise as the two of them talked.

"So... do you want to go there?" Kaori asked. 

"Hm?" 

"To the church. We could ask around for some information..." 

"No." Ash was quick to respond. "Last thing I need is more old men trying to tell me what I should and shouldn't be doing," she said, sneaking a look at Kairo. "Besides, I'm pretty sure they'd just throw you out the moment you tried to walk in." 

Oh... Right. 

Kaori looked down, saddened to hear that. With this conversation, she'd been allowed to escape reality for a while, but that reminded her that at the end of the day, she was not human. 

"... Are you hungry?" Ash suddenly asked. 

"W-What?" 

"Are. You. Hungry?" Ash asked again. 

"Uh... Kind of. D-Don't worry though, I'll eat when I get home."

"May as well get yourself something here," Ash shrugged. 

"I... I didn't bring any money..." Kaori told her. 

"I'll pay for it," Ash replied and Kaori raised a brow. 

"What? No, no, you don't have to, I..." 

Ash ignored her and passed her a menu that was laying on the side of the table. 

"Pick something." 

Kaori looked down at it and then up at Ash. The woman had a bored look in her eyes as she watched Kaori hesitate. Then, Kaori dragged the menu over to herself. 

"T-Thank you." 

"No problem." 

Twenty minutes later, the two of them were walking out of the restaurant, side by side. Kaori felt so small next to her. She kept her hands shyly clutched together as Ash stopped. 

"Headed home?" Ash asked. 

"Yes. Thanks again for the meal." 

Ash looked away. 

"I'll walk you." 

"Hm? Uh, don't worry, it's okay, I can..." 

"The streets can be rough at this hour," Ash told her. "Are you sure?" 

Kaori knew that all too well. As much as she didn't want to bother Ash, she also knew that the likelihood that people would try to mess with her would be drastically lowered if she had someone with her. Especially if Ash was someone the citizens around here knew. 

So, she nodded. 

"I-If you don't mind..." 

"I don't," Ash quickly replied. "Where to?" 

With that, they started to walk to Kaori's house. The sun had started to go down as the two of them walked, mostly in silence. Ash kept her eyes ahead, every once in a while she would look over at Kaori who would turn away, embarrassed. 

Eventually, they were passing two middle-aged men. Kaori, who had forgotten who she was for a little bit, forgot what could happen if she passed by people too closely like this. 

One of them tripped her. Kaori yelped and fell forwards, landing fortunately with her hands on the ground, though her left knee was scraped. 

"Ahhh..." She hissed, clutching it. 

The two guys laughed. Ash saw them and walked over to them. 

Wait, what?  Kaori thought as she saw the woman march over to them. 

"Hey," she said to the one who'd tripped Kaori. 

"Wh-" 

Before the guy could finish responding, Ash put her right leg behind his, and then shoved him back, pushing him to the ground. 

"What the fuck!?" The guy yelled, his back hitting the stone ground. 

Ash placed a boot on his chest and scowled at him. 

"Maybe don't do that to people who are just minding their own business," she whispered as the guy's friend watched with fear in his eyes. 

"W-, you're standing up for a demon!?" He asked, under her foot. 

"A person," Ash corrected him. "Now, fuck off." 

With that, the guy stood up and Ash put her hands in her pockets, standing in front of him. She practically dared him to do something, but the guy just muttered something and walked away. 

Ash turned back around and walked over to Kaori, extending a hand for her to get up. 

She did so but nearly fell back down as her left leg gave out. 

"Ahh... sorry, that was a bad fall," Kaori said, holding onto Ash as the woman helped her remain up. 

"You don't have anything to apologize for," Ash muttered, "come on. Sit down." 

"What?" 

Ash led her to a nearby wooden crate. Here, Kaori sat down and Ash got on her knees. She held her leg up with her left hand, under Kaori's calf, and hovered her right hand over Kaori's scraped knee. 

Then, it started to glow white. Kaori's eyes widened. 

"Guard my soul against the dark's reach," Ash said and Kaori's wound started to heal. 

"What? Y-You're a mage?" 

"Just a spell I picked up a while ago," Ash shrugged. "Give it a second and you'll be fine." 

Kaori blushed. Even though the situation wasn't romantic at all, Ash was still fairly close to her. Ash must have noticed because she chuckled as she looked down at her knee. 

"You get flustered easily, don't you?" Ash asked. 

"Sorry..." 

"Not something you have to apologize for," Ash shrugged. "Just saying. It's cute." 

That did nothing to help with her nerves. 

After that, the two walked to Kaori's house. Once they were standing outside of it, Kaori turned towards Ash. 

"Uh, we're here. Thanks for everything." 

"No problem," Ash crossed her arms. "Actually, my house is pretty close by." 

"Really?" 

"Yeah. Listen," Ash said, "tomorrow, how about we meet up again?" 

"What?" 

"Same thing. What do you say?" 

Kaori felt so much excitement bubble up inside of her that she found herself nodding before her mind caught up to what her body was doing. 

"Y-Yes! Uh, yeah. Sure." 

"Cool. See ya." 

Just like that, Ash walked away. Kaori took a deep breath. 

I... I made a friend?  She wondered.  I did! The Guide didn't lie! The eye contact and the compliments worked!!!

With that realization, the first thing she did when she got back into her house was re-read the entirety of that book once more. 

Figuring that surely, it was a gift given to her by the gods.