Chapter 110 – The Squishy and Clothing.

Chapter 110 – The Squishy and Clothing.

Mika, Naomi, Yumi, and Kana sat around the kitchen table having lunch together at the estate. Hishya and her parents went home yesterday after they'd recovered from their poisoning, something that took a bit longer than expected. Akagi figured that the effect of the drug was even more potent in the real world, and since the two lacked magic to bolster their constitution, recovery would be slower. She'd warned the two of them to watch their health in the coming weeks and to immediately notify Hishya or her if anything seemed wrong, to which they agreed.

Originally, Mimi wanted them to stay a bit longer to monitor them, but they declined, stating that they wanted to return to work. They were grateful for being saved, and thanked Akagi for her help, who told them to repay her by keeping her future sister-in-law in line. A comment that the two found funny.

"So are we just going to ignore the fact that Akagi is coiled around Yumi like a rope?" Mika said while chewing on a sandwich. “Because no one is saying anything. Was I not suppose to bring it up?”

"I didn't want to be the first person to say anything, but I guess there's no reason not to speak of it." Naomi gave a wry smile.

"Onee-chan has been doing that for a while, you've just not been around when she's done it." Kana sighed. “Just ignore her like we ignore Mika when she gets all hyper.”

“Hey!” Mika took a moment to realize what Kana just said. “What's this about ignoring me?”

"Yumi is my squishy!" Akagi said while wrapped around the priestess. "What's wrong with wanting to be close to her?" She didn't see the problem.

"Did becoming the Demon Lord make Akagi clingy?" Naomi chuckled. “I never imagined she could be like that.”

"I think it's cute." Mika smiled. “I'd like to snuggle like that.”

"Not clingy! Possessive!" Akagi corrected. "Trust me, as someone who previously hated physical contact with other people, this is a strange thing for me too. When the bond between us was created, for some reason, we were both struck with a insatiable desire for skinship, hence me being like this.”

{Also doesn't help that my anxiety has now expanded to include separation anxiety too, but lets not get into that.} (Akagi)

"I like how casually she says that." Kana rolled her eyes. "Aren't you suffocating, Yumi? You can tell her to stop if it's bothering you."

{If Hishya got that clingy, I'd need to break out the descaler...} (Kana)

"Ah... um... I would prefer she stay like this." Yumi averted her eyes, blushing. "Having her wrapped around me feels nice, so its fine."

{Ah, so both of them are weird.} (Kana)

"See! Yumi understands!" Akagi said. Her imaginary chest puffing out in pride. "She is my squishy! Tis only natural she likes being squished!"

"What the hell does that even mean?" Naomi asked with an exasperated face. "Squishy?"

"She feels good to snuggle and hold tight, and when I thought about a word to describe it, the term squishy came to mind!" Akagi coiled around Yumi further. “Yumi is my squishy!”

"Sure..." Kana shook her head. “Odd choice of word, but whatever.”

{I don't care enough to challenge every one of your oddities. So go ahead and touch Yumi to your hearts content. You two both deserve each other if you want this kind of relationship.} (Kana)

"You can't tell me you didn't enjoy having Hishya all over you, Kana." Akagi laughed. "So you must understand my feelings."

Kana got slightly red as she nearly choked on her food. "I... I guess."

{Don't bring that up!} (Kana)

"Perhaps a better explanation is necessary, my Lord? I'm afraid this will be hard for anyone but us to understand, and you are quite bad at describing things at times." Yumi sighed.

“Hey! Am not!” Akagi protested, but was ignored.

"She and I are bound by a connection that runs between our souls, a literal link between us if you will. It does many things, but a side effect is that we prefer to be around each other as much as possible. Which means that such closeness is desired by the two of us.” Yumi continued as she stroked one of Akagi's smaller tendrils.

{Mmmmm pets...} (Akagi)

“As my Lord is the Senior partner, she has become quite possessive and protective of me, as you can see by her coiling around me. Its a natural defensive mechanism, especially as she lacked someone of such closeness in her life before. It was why she reacted so violently when I was harmed by Armalthy. I may no longer be able to die, but the thought me being taken away, even temporarily, is unacceptable to her." Yumi had gotten a bit more information from Akagi, and the bond gave her a vague sense of understanding. She actually thought it quite a nice connection, as it was something of a deeper level than mortal love.

"We watched an anime once where the two characters could fuse into a single body, and they felt happier that way, right? Think of it like that, minus the desire to fuse together." She had found the concept amusing when she saw it the first time. “Neither of us want something like that.”

"Wait can you actually do something like that?" Kana asked her sister. With Akagi's repertoire of crazy powers, taking control of someone's body wouldn't surprise her.

"No." Akagi responded. "I cannot merge with or take over someone's body, and I wouldn't want to." The thought of having a mortal body again made her non-existent stomach churn, she'd messed around with giving her body more human features and it always disgusted her.

{Though, within my body, I'm pretty sure I can control people.} (Akagi)

Akagi wanted to be feared as the Demon Lord, but also asked to be treated as a person. These things were not necessarily mutually exclusive, but her attitude and mental problems made finding that balance difficult. Kana and Yumi understood this better than anyone else, and even they still could struggle at times, since determining how the Demon wanted to be treated in a particular moment could be difficult. “I-It hurts to hear that you think of me like that...” She was genuinely sad, probably a bit more than she should've been. It didn't help that her emotions were still jumbled from her release, and things were still in the process of stabilizing.

{Good thing I'm not using a body right now, otherwise I might have cried. Stupid fucking mind! Can you just knock off the mood swings and hurry up and fix yourself?!? It's been an annoying past couple of days with you acting all stupid! It feels like I'm going to split in two with all these strange contradictory thoughts and emotions!} Akagi sighed internally. {At least it has gotten better, and I guess being a Demon Lord that kept its sane mind has some repercussions. I just hope this hurries up and finishes soon...}

"Um. Sorry about that." Naomi apologized.

"Ye-yeah. I thought that would be a good joke, not kill the mood further." Mika sighed. Her attempt at levity only caused more tension.

"At least I know you won't be scheming to make me a Demon like you." Kana breathed a sigh of relief.

"I won't be scheming to turn any of you into Yokai or other creatures." Akagi groaned. "That's also why I was so reluctant to allow Mizumi to try the magic experiment with Mika."

"I can't wait!" Mika's eyes glistened. Akagi had reluctantly given permission for Mizumi to perform the procedure to give her magic circuits. Akagi had tried to talk her out of it, but the blue-haired girl's enthusiasm was too much, even for Akagi.

"I still want your parent's approval, which reminds me." Akagi uncoiled from around Yumi and formed behind her. "I would like to come with you after school tomorrow if that's ok? Maybe we can hang out?"

"Eh?" (Mika, Naomi and Kana)

"You want to hang out with us after school?" Naomi asked.

{That's a shocker! She's never shown interest in that before.} (Naomi)

"Yes." Akagi nodded. "You can say no if that's not ok. I just wanted to ask. I'd understand if you don't want anything to do with me in your regular life." She scratched her cheek nervously.

{And now she's gone to self depreciation mode....} Kana sighed. {If either Naomi or Mika tried to avoid her outside of the estate, I'd kick their ass for being so rude! And besides, they wouldn't do that.}

Kana turned to her two friends. “How about it? I think it sounds fun, and I've never really got the chance to do some after school stuff with Onee-chan before.” Akagi was part of the going home club and rarely went out of the house except for school or things she either wanted or needed to do, which was very infrequent.

"I don't mind." Naomi smiled.

"Yeah, we never get to just hang out together." Mika nodded.

Hearing their acceptance, Akagi's face turned into a smile. She was excited to spend some time after school with them. The Demon had come to value Mika and Naomi's friendship and wanted to start acting more like peers and friend with them if possible. Being a normal girl was definitely off the table, but Akagi wanted to try to act as normal as possible with them every now and again.

"Really!" Akagi smiled. "I'm not good at that stuff, so I'll just go along with whatever you guys have planned." Akagi thought for a moment. "Trying on clothes or dressing me up will see you tossed on a deserted pacific island for the day." She actually didn't mind going clothes shopping, but hated the idea of someone playing dress up with her. Kana tried to do that once when they were kids and found herself trapped under a laundry basket.

{They actually want to hang out? But do they really? Or are they just doing it because they feel they have too...} Akagi's anxiety was once again making her doubt things. {It would make sense, I am the Demon Lord, who would willingly hang out with me? They probably just fear me and what I'd do to them if they said no... but that's fine... Demon Lords don't have friends... right?}

"Dang." Kana snapped her finger. "And here I was wanting to see you in a proper dress."

"That would have been fun." Mika laughed. "Akagi always wears Kimonos and other traditional clothes, so I'd like to see her in something more normal."

"Yeah, that would actually be kinda neat." Naomi agreed.

"Uhhhhh." Akagi snapped her fingers and changed into a t-shirt and shorts. "I in fact, do have other clothing. You just aren't around when I wear it." Akagi actually wore quite a large variety of casual clothing, though she did prefer Kimonos and other traditional dress to normal clothing.

"Huh." Mika eyed her up. "It's kinda strange to see you dress like that."

"Yeah," Naomi just stared at her.” But you look good, almost like a normal girl. Minus the eyes.”

"I'm going to strangle the two of you one of these days, I swear." Akagi put her head in her hands. "What do you people want from me?!?"

"Oh yeah. I guess they've never seen you in different clothes." Kana laughed. "Onee-chan actually has a pretty big wardrobe."

"In that case, if you're gonna hang out with us after school tomorrow, come in something different!" Mika asked, excited to see Akagi in other clothes. “Wear something normal, like what we'd wear!”

"Fine, but I won't be in this body. People would probably freak out if they saw me walking around Kyoto.” Akagi shrugged. “Is that ok?”

"Wait, who are you gonna look like?" Kana asked, worried. "Please don't copy us, that would be bad."

"You'll just have to wait and see." Akagi gave a toothy smile. “But don't worry I won't do anything bad.”

Spoiler

Akagi in Casual!

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