The Red Hand

A few days later.

"Hiyahhhhh!" Yumi yelled as she threw a blast of energy toward Mizumi.

"Weak!" Mizumi stomped her foot and a blast of water extinguished the attack. "I told you, you need to properly envision your attack and channel your energy with as little waste as possible." She flung a blast of water back at her, which Yumi only barely stopped. "You see the difference? Your attacks lack punch because you're not putting in the proper effort!" She flung another attack. It looked like Mizumi was enjoying their practice as a way to get some payback on Yumi for her maid training.

The two were sparring as they'd been doing most days. Part of Mizumi's deal was that she would teach Akagi and her followers more about magic and help them improve. Yumi was quite a powerful girl. But compared to the water spirit, she may as well have been little more than a child. Hishya and Akagi were watching the two, and Kana was hanging out with Chloe while Mika was spending time with Suzu and Yuzu. The two took an interest in the blue-haired girl and even took trips to her house from time to time. Human's who tolerated, let alone liked, Yuki-Onna were quite rare in their world, so Mika's keen interest in them was amusing. Akagi joked with Mimi that she might just get grandchildren yet, which made her laugh.

"Myaster!" Chloe jumped on Akagi from behind, hugging her.

"What's up, kitty?" She moved her hand to pet Chloe on the head. "Where's Kana?"

"Right here" She appeared alongside her. "We wanted to check out the sparring, and Chloe wanted to see you." Kana gave a smile.

"Did you need something?" Akagi asked as she scratched Chloe's chin.

"Fight me!" Chloe said as she purred.

"You want to spar?" Akagi didn't expect this.

"Yeah, it's been so long since I've had a good fight. And it's been even longer since the two of us fought!" Chloe moved in front of her. The cat's eyes glistened in the sun; she was ready to hunt.

"You're right. It has. But are you sure?" Akagi asked. "I'm not the best sparring partner for you." She had beaten Chloe many times, and her overall power level could one-shot the cat easily.

"Un." She nodded. " I want to test myself and you're the only person I can go all out on!"

Seeing the determination in her eyes and not wanting to disappoint her, Akagi obliged, and the two headed towards the sparring grounds once Mizumi and Yumi were finished.

"Should be interesting." Hishya stretched as she stood up. "I've fought Chloe once before. She's quite the nimble cat-kin." Naturally, Hishya won, but it was a much more annoying fight than it should have been.

"Have you fought all of Onee-chan's friends?" Kana asked as she watched the battle between Chloe and her sister.

Hishya took a moment to think. "I've fought most of the combat ones, I think?" Hishya liked to spar with Akagi's followers to test her strategies and abilities. "The only one I've never fought is Kira, but that will change soon." She was going to begin training with her soon to control her power.

"The dragon lady? She looks pretty tough." Kira was Akagi's strongest follower and was only deployed on critical missions, so she was rarely off-site.

"Oh, she is, without a doubt." Hishya continued. "If I'm not mistaken, she was actually a quest boss. I have no clue how Akagi turned her into a follower, but I've heard she's good enough to give even high-level players some trouble." Minazawa faced her once before, and while she did win; the battle was closer than one would have expected.

"Can she turn into a dragon, like you?" Kana was curious about Kira's power.

"No." Hishya shook her head. "She's a half-dragon, so only one of her parents was one. She's got a lot of power and can bring out wings and breathe fire, but a full transformation isn't possible."

*BOOM* BANG*

The fight between Akagi and Chloe intensified. The two were only using their bare hands and exchanging blows directly. Apparently, Chloe had been improving her martial arts skills as her entire body shone with a red outline.

"Impressive," Hishya praised the cat. "She's managed to obtain a skill from the monk class even though she's not a player." Player skills could be used by NPCs but they were usually locked to specific classes and abilities. Chloe was a rouge and shouldn't be able to use a monk's reflex improvement skill. The effect was in the name. It improved the user's reaction time and made dodging hits easier. Once she activated that, she began to evade Akagi's punches and even made a few quick strikes in return.

{I guess that means the game limits no longer apply? Or was that something Mizumi did?} Hishya wanted to know but couldn't bring herself to talk to the spirit. She still resented her.

"Oh, think you're a badass because you got a few hits in on me?" Akagi yelled out to Chloe who was smiling all proud of herself.

"NYA!" Was her only response as she leaped towards her master, but Akagi wasn't having any of this and increased her speed, tackling then pinning the cat.

"Those two are like kids, I swear." Hishya chuckled as she watched the exchange between them. "Hard to believe our little cat once tried to kill her." Her line caused Kana to blink.

"What?!?" Kana never heard of this before!

"Ah.... you didn't know? Well, shoot." Hishya kicked herself for blurting that out. "Well, too late now, and I doubt you will just let me off with that one huh?" Kana's glare told her no.

"So basically, our little cat was a member of a ninja clan in FWO. Her elders didn't really appreciate Akagi muscling in on their turf and sent Chloe to kill her. They assumed that their youngest Ace would be more than enough to handle her, but as you can imagine." She pointed to Chloe being launched across the yard. "She did not in fact handle her."

"That's crazy!" Kana was shocked. Chloe was one of Akagi's most loyal and trusted followers, so what happened to cause the change in attitude from enemy to a friend? "So why are they so close now?"

"Well, in their clan, power is everything. If you are beaten by someone, it's taken as a sign to serve them. If you don't already have a master." Hishya continued. "Akagi was the first person from outside of the clan elders to beat Chloe, as she was a prodigy. Akagi saw promise in her skills and offered to train her, and I can testify that she trained her well." Hishya gave a wry smile as she remembered her own duel with the cat. "Once she was strong enough, Akagi had her go back and defeat her entire clan and bring them under her control, and by extension under Akagi's control.

"So that's why all the other ninjas are animal-eared people!" Kana recalled the others she met when they were rescued.

"Yep, the entire clan is beast-kin, and they are quite dangerous." Hishya nodded. "I believe Akagi has them mostly do infiltration and subterfuge operations, so it was surprising to see them assault a military base like that."

"I guess that would also explain her relationship with Onee-chan, they seem super close." Kana thought back to the ear scratching.

"I'm not entirely sure on that one." Hishya shrugged. "I mean, beast-kin do value strength in a partner, but I'm pretty sure they didn't have some tropey if you defeat me, I become your wife/husband thing." Hishya chuckled at that thought. "If anything, I'd bet money that Akagi ends up with our little priestess." Kana laughed when she heard this, she couldn't be sure what would happen in the future, but she knew Yumi was important to her sister.

"Oh, are you talking about love!" Mika yelled from behind, her arms each linked with one of the Yuki-Onna sisters.

"Hey, Mika, uhh." She looked at the two girls wrapped around her friend.

"They just kinda did this, so I rolled with it." Mika gave an embarrassed smile.

{Their smiles tell me it's wayyyy more than just a prank.} (Kana x Hishya.)

"We were talking about Onee-chan's relationship with Chloe, and Hishya joked that if anyone married Onee-chan it would be Yumi." Kana tried to ignore the two Yuki-Onna who were snickering at her.

"Oh, really?" Mika looked surprised. "I figured if anything it would be you." Her declaration caused Kana and Hishya to fall over.

"What does that mean??????" Kana couldn't believe her friend's statement. "Onee-chan is my ONEE-CHAN! You don't cross that line, Mika!" Kana may have had a slight sister complex, but it didn't go that far!

"Yeah... please don't joke about something like that." Hishya chastised her, with a flushed face.

"Ahahahahahaahahaha." Mika bust out laughing. "I know, I know, I'm only teasing you!" She continued. "Besides, I know our little dragon here has already stolen your heart, Kana." She gave a cheeky grin, and her statement caused both Kana's and Hishya's faces to turn bright red.

"Aw, they're embarrassed." Suzu.

"It's cute!" Yuzu.

"Please don't say anything! We still haven't exactly figured things out between us yet," Hishya begged them to keep quiet.

"Don't worry my lips are sealed." Mika smiled, and the two Yuki-Onna nodded in agreement.

"Let's go have some tea!" Yuzu gave Mika a big smile.

"Yes, let's!" Suzu agreed and the two girls pleading eyes caused Mika to relent and head back into the house.

"Do you think she realizes that....." Kana calmed down enough to speak.

"If she doesn't, she's the densest idiot in the world." Hishya's face was still red.

"I thought Mika liked men! She even dated a few guys in High School!" Kana had no idea what brought on Mika's sudden change in preferences.

"Didn't you say she really liked Yuki-Onna?" Hishya looked at her. "Perhaps she's attracted to that more than anything else?" Hishya wasn't really good at this type of conversation.

"But still! Is she really gonna date BOTH!" Kana's head was spinning imagining such a situation, and her naturally dirty mind only made things worse.

"If she does, that's not really a big deal is it?" Suddenly Akagi's voice came from behind the two of them.

"Ahh... how much did you just......" Kana was about to die of embarrassment.

"We just finished, so I heard you talking about Mika and the two girls." Akagi chuckled.

{THANK GOD!} (Hishya x Kana)

"Yuki-Onna take romance seriously, so I doubt those two are just playing around." Akagi stretched. "It wouldn't be shocking if they took an interest in Mika. She's a cheery girl with a strange obsession with their kind, and she's quite aloof. When I talked to Mimi, she said that's exactly the kind of man her husband was."

"But both of them???" Kana was hung up on this point. Relationships were monogamous things.

"Yuki-Onna don't really care about human morals, Kana. Each of those girls is over three hundred years old and has never had a whiff of romantic attraction in their lives. Do you really think they care about such things?" Akagi didn't see the issue. Though, her own broken mind may not make her the best person for such a conversation. "And as long as Mika is ok with it, who cares?"

"Are you sure they aren't just playing with her or taking advantage of her since she's so young?" Hishya thought the age difference meant that the two would cause a power imbalance in the relationship, and she was worried about Mika.

"Nah, you don't need to worry about that. I trust those girls not to do something like take advantage of Mika. Plus, I already pulled them aside and warned them that if they did anything Mika was uncomfortable with or if they were just messing with her, they would get a visit from me." Akagi was far more threatening than any parent could ever be, and the two girls agreed to take things slowly and not to get overzealous with their actions. Akagi was mostly concerned that if the two did act up, that would upset Kana since her friend would be harmed. So, she took extra care to instill discipline into the two Yuki-Onna.

"Besides, Mimi sees this as the best chance for her to have grandkids, so I'm pretty sure she'll be on top of things," Akagi recalled that conversation and laughed.

"GRANDKIDS!!!!!! That's not possible!" The Kana and Hishya exclaimed. Such, a thing shouldn't be possible for obvious reasons.

"Yuki-Onna have just the magic to make it happen, though." Akagi winked, and the two girls looked at each other dumbfounded. "Though it only works on Yuki-Onna."