Chapter 45 - 45: 3, No, 4

(Stacy POV) 

'Kitsuna improved a lot after her evolution, especially her eyes again. All she still needs is experience. She also just used her crosswheels once at the start. Her magic needs a lot of work too. Hopefully, Kayda can help with that.' I thought. Looking at Kayda, I saw her scratching her back variously.

'It looks like Kayda is distracted with something on her back, seeing as she is crashing it the entire time.' I thought, raising an eyebrow. I walked over to Kaydas' back. I pulled her shirt back to peeking in, making her yelp. Looking at her back, I got even more confused. See her ecdysis?

"Hey, Kayda, why is your back ecdysis like this?" I asked, still looking at her back. Not receiving an answer, I looked up at her. Seeing her look at the bloody Kitsuna on the floor, I ask. "Do you want to talk about it in private?"

"Yes, please," Kayda said, looking away from Kitsuna.

"Take Kitsuna to the aircraft. I need to have a word with Kayda." I said, taking Kaydas' shoulder and disappearing.

Appearing on a tower more than a kilometer away from our previous position and high enough so no one would hear us. Looking at Kayda that started crying?

"Why are you crying," I ask, confuse.

"I am really a failure, Stacy!" Kayda said bitterly.

"Failure? I thought we have been through this. You are not a failure, just a special dragon. Your father was wrong to kick you out of the clan." I said, trying to comfort her.

"I know that, but I was meant to be a failure from the beginning!" Kayda said.

"From the beginning? What do you mean by that." I said, confused.

"My soul mate is a fuċken fox, Stacy! A fox? I will be a laughing stock for everyone. Humans, demi-humans, every race will laugh at me." Kayda shouted at me.

"Wait, you mean? That Kitsuna is your soul mate?" I said, stuttering. Seeing her nod, I fell down in surprise.

For the second time in my life, I didn't know what to do or say. Should I be happy, mad, or sad? I didn't know. I felt the same when Amari accepted Zagan and said she would marry him. Back then, it was different. They weren't and still aren't 100% to be life partners. But soul mates for a dragon are lifelong partners most of the time. They won't abandon their partner no matter what. In other words, Kayda, my best friend, will become my daughter-in-law in the future.

'What the fuċk!?" I shouted in my mind.

"Wait, what do you mean? Aren't you happy to find your soul mate!?" I said, standing up feeling my anger building up again.

"Yes and No. I am happy but seeing as it is, a fox is making it hard to accept, Stacy." Kayda said. Not holding back anymore, I grabbed her collar and looked in the eyes.

"You know what. Kitsuna is my daughter not by blood but by heart. She is mine. I will not tolerate someone being unreasonable towards her, even if you're my best friend. You didn't even try to know her and find out what she has been through her 2 lives. You just saw she is a fox and wants to reject her." I shouted at her.

"Lives?" Kayda mutters, confused.

"5 years old witnessed her own mother committing suicide in front of her. After that, she lived 10 years of torture under her father. Then she went and slaughtered more than 80 people in the most gruesome ways possible to free herself from that life. She freed herself successfully and lived for 2 years in a semy peaceful way. But life won't have it. After 2 years of peace, she gets killed by some unknown power and got reincarnated into this war-loving world. You would think she would at least have a normal childhood here, but life really hates her. She woke up here only to live another 5 years of torture or 10 years if you go with the time of her original world." Realizing what I just said, I let go of Kayda and facepalmed. Looking at Kayda on the floor. I saw she wasn't crying anymore but had a regretful expression. Calming myself down, I thought about what I should do now.

'Now that I am calmer and thinking about it. Kayda would have accepted her, anyway. She always takes her time making up her mind and accepting her situations. Haah, family really is a big weakness for me. It always gets me so riled up. Whatever, I don't know. Should I tell her everything?' I thought, sighing to myself. Concluding, I started talking again. 

"Kitsuna might be mad at me for this. You remembered 3 years ago about the experiment Duke Vermillion did on children. She was the only survivor. Actually, she didn't survive. She died on the last day. On her last test, Duke Vermillion injected her with the 9 tail Primordial blood he stole, effectively killing her. But like I said, life really hates her to the bone. She got resurrected, getting a race change, and cursed in the process. She also came with Super regen making her almost unkillable. The only way really to kill her is to take her mana away and decapitate her. And that might not even kill her properly. Ooh, yeah, guess what, that isn't even all of it. She is a fuċken sins holder as well. Guess what, sin. Wrath, the second strongest sin and the hardest sin to control." I said, ending my rant with a crazy smile.

"She is at least only 13 years old, so she still has a lot to live for. However, she is immortal, so age doesn't mean much to her. So, Kayda, what are you going to do? Make her life worse or help her move forward? I really don't want to make my daughter single for life without her knowing it." I added, looking down at Kayda with a katana in my hand.

"I...I'm sorry, I was selfish and foolish. I understand I was unreasonable from the start. Please forgive my foolishness." Kayda said, bowing down on her knees in front of me.

Seeing her bow down, I understood she regretted her actions, but I wasn't planning on letting her go that easily.

"I will take it for now, but you will need to work hard to get back into my good books, Kayda," I said, sitting cross-legged in front of her.

"Huh? What do you mean?" She said, looking up.

"I am not going to forgive you that easily for what you said about my daughter," I said, grinning.

"Shit," Kayda mumbled in fear.

"You understand, right." Seeing her nod, I continued. "I already know that you want to retire from the black ops and become a full-day researcher, right. I will let you do that, but I will be hiring you as a teacher for Amari. You are going to teach her everything about magic and make her an elemental sage like you before the academy starts, got it."

"Huh? What about Kitsuna?" Kayda said, confused.

"It isn't the best way to make someone fall for you through training, especially her. You are going to have to teach her on the side and on your off time. The main reason is she is my disciple. You saw how she fights. Just think how she would be if she were on my level at weapon handling?" I said, giving her a massive smirk.

"Ooh, that would be a thing I would love to see. Wait, but what about my researching?" Kayda said, excited.

"You are a Dragon. Your research can wait until they are 16 years old for the academy." I said, shrugging.

"That sucks."

"Haha, not really. You have 3 years to get in Kitsunas pants. It took me that long to make her call me mom. Well, I do have some warnings for you, though." I said, making Kayda blush a bit.

'Haha, she is blushing already. You wouldn't think she denied Kitsuna like 5 minutes ago. That's Kayda for you.' I thought, laughing.

"What do you mean about warnings?" Kayda asks, calming herself.

"Kitsuna has 3 modes. No, there are 4 modes." I said, showing her 4 fingers. "You already know what she went through, right. No matter how strong you mentally are, someone who went through that won't be sane, and she is no exception. However, she is probably the sanest person you will find after something like that. You probably already saw 2 of her modes, right."

"I think so," Kayda said, thinking back to the days' events.

"The first mode is her playful and casual one. You will see this one the most. Personally, it is the funniest one to be around with. Her second mode is when she gets serious and starts thinking ahead, making her face emotionless. In fights, this one comes out most of the time. I'm not fond of this one much as this one also isn't healthy for her. She sometimes gets a suicidal tendency in fights as she can't die easily. An example of this tendency is when you guys were fighting against me. She told you to just attack me without caring for her right." Seeing her nod again, I sighed and continued. "Yeah, that suicidal tendency might actually be my fault. I might have cut her in half on accident in training once. This incident made her realized how hard it is to kill her."

"What!? You did what!?" Kayda exclaimed in shock.

"Yeah, I panicked as well. I ran towards her without thinking and got fuċken stabbed in the shoulder. Afterward, I found out that she didn't even flinch when she lost half her body, and fuċken healed her lower half back in 5 seconds. Like what the fuċk! Who doesn't flinch when they lose half of their body. Her curse even amplifies pain by 10. That should have sent her into shock, but I guess she doesn't mind pain anymore after 15 years of torture. Sigh, whatever. The third mode she has I haven't seen this one personally, but I know of it. Is her crazy side. Actually, we might see it tonight." I said, remembering what I had planned for tonight. "Now that last one is more speculation than a fact, but it is better to prepare for the unknown. I also never want to see or witness this mode. I think this one will come out when something precious of hers gets taken away from her, or she loses control over her life, and she can't do anything about it. I am also pretty sure this one would make her activate wrath and go world-destroying on us."

"I see. I really got a broken soul mate, didn't I," Kayda said.. Even though her wording was depressing, her voice sounded happy, and she had a small smile on her face.