The Red Hand

Chapter 346 – Shiroe’s New Friend.

"Okay, so now we're off on another wild goose chase... great..." Akagi put her head in her hand and sighed. "Ahhhh. Can I just kill all of you and go home? Please."

{Just blowing this world up and forgetting about it would be so much simpler.... Hmmm. Its starting to sound like a better idea the more I think about it.} (Akagi)

{Bad kitty! No mass genocide out of sheer exasperation!} Yumi scolded her with a laugh.

"She... She wouldn't actually... Would she?" Kanato asked Halifax and Amakusa.

"At this point, I wouldn't put it past her." Amakusa shrugged.

"At least do it in kitty form so that it's cute." Halifax laughed.

{Why are you, the Divine Blade, just acting so calm when she says stuff like that?!? Shouldn't you at least protest the destruction of your homeworld a bit?!?} (Amakusa)

"Don't worry, Boss. We'll find it!" Ro and Zo straightened up and saluted. “It will be done faster than you can blink!”

{Well, I can blink faster than you can probably think so...} (Akagi)

"Please don't tell me that you're going to let these two run around unattended?" Elariel sighed, imagining the chaos that the two Primordial twins would cause if let loose. "You should know by now how idiotic and childish they are. If you send them off on their own then I'd wager they'll cause far more trouble than they are worth."

"We'd never do anything to harm Boss or her interests!" Zo huffed.

"Exactly! She's our Boss! Why wouldn't we be her faithful subordinates?!?" Ro agreed with his sister.

{Oh my God, they really are delinquents from anime...} (Amakusa)

{I approve of their enthusiasm!} (Yumi)

"Hmm... If I kill them, then the cringe stops, and I don't have to worry about them causing more cringe in the future. But then I lose out on very nice tools. Hmm..." Akagi thought about it for a bit.

{Both are tempting arguments. Quashing cringe is always good.} (Akagi)

{Says she who is very cringe...} (Yumi)

{Yes, but when I do it I get a laugh out of it, so its fine.} (Akagi)

{Oh, just stop acting stupid and take them in already! We both know you want them under your thumb so that you can use them for schemes!} Yumi's eye roll was audible.

"Having two basically Gods as my servants would be nice..." Akagi eyed them both up, debating if it was worth the hassle. "But the problem I'm facing is their reliability." She sighed. "Unlike Silfana or the others, I have nothing actually stopping these idiots from flipping on me the moment I turn my back. Nobody in my camp can actually stop them if they decide to go rogue and I just don't like variables like that."

{The last thing I need is for them to turn on me and start killing my people or worse.} (Akagi)

"We'd never do that, Boss!" Zo tried to assure her of their loyalty. "Honor demands that we be eternally loyal to the one who so convincingly defeated us!"

"Yeah!" Ro nodded.

"Out of morbid curiosity, did you happen to see these kinds of things from Hitomi's memories?" Akagi sighed as she tapped the side of her head.

"Yup!" Zo nodded with a big smile. "That kind of survival of down and dirty yet honorable life that those 'delinquents' lead was exactly what bro and I are all about."

{Of fucking course...} (Akagi)

{It could always be worse. At least the Yakuza and the like tend to have honor.} (Yumi)

{Oh they may act like they do, but I'm going to seriously doubt that's how it works in reality.} (Akagi)

{I don't know, I heard once that you had to take a test to be part of those kinds of organizations so that they don't just let in troublemakers.} (Yumi)

{I highly fucking doubt that...} (Akagi)

"Fighting for your family but ensuring that everything is done within a set of rules is just the kind of righteousness that we love." Ro's eyes burned with hot passion as he explained things. "That girl's memories were filled with stories about such people and sis and I couldn't help but fall in love with their passion!"

"Yeah! The one about the old man coming out of retirement to destroy the gang that killed his grandson was just so.....EEEEEEEEE." Zo squeed.

{His catchphrase of "Back in My Day" was SO GOOD! When he tore off his jacket to reveal just how ripped he was, I nearly fell in love!} (Zo)

"I..." Akagi found herself lost for words. "What the fuck..."\

{Also, I know that anime and its actually good...} (Akagi)

"Damn, there's probably not many people that can leave Akagi simultaneously angry, confused and defeated." Halifax snickered.

"Alright, fine." Akagi threw up her hands in defeat, which elicted a giggle from Yumi. "But I'm putting restraints on you." She snapped her fingers and covered the two Primordials in black fire for a moment, leaving them unharmed but with a black band around their knecks. "Just like Elariel here, I've sealed your powers. I've left you enough free to defend yourselves to an extent, but anything more than that is going to require my authorization."

{If nothing else, these two are basically walking nuclear bombs that I can choose to drop on people when I'm feeling lazy.} (Akagi)

{True, kitty is very lazy.} (Yumi)

"Thank you, Boss! We won't disappoint you!" Zo and Ro bowed to her Yakuza style, each moving to try and kiss her hand but being quickly swatted away.

"Alright, so that 'solves' one problem and leaves us with another one." Halifax said.

"No, it leaves us with multiple." Amakusa stepped toward the two Primordials. "First of all, are we all forgetting that these two not only ate a bunch of people but also ate Hitomi?!?"

{I think that's pretty fucking important!} (Amakusa)

"Oh noooooooooo.... What a tragedy..." Akagi did an overly dramatic but very sarcastic body wiggle. “How could I forgeeeeeeeeeet?”

"Do you always have to be an asshole?" Amakusa grumbled at her.

"No, but it's a hobby." Akagi snickered. "But what about Hitomi? I don't give a fuck about her, and I'd planned on capturing her and letting the Spirits probably do worse to her, so I'd say she won out in the end."

{Instant deletion is probably better than torture and execution.} (Akagi)

"Regardless of our culpability or inevitable punishment I'd still like to kill at least one of these fucks for what they did!" Amakusa drew her blade and pointed it at Zo. "Though I'd settle for carving them up a bit." She smirked.

"Come on now..." Kanato put her hand on her shoulder. "Don't let your emotions get you all worked up. I'm sure you realize that... That right now we have no room to argue about how we're treated. Just because none of us knew what was happening doesn't absolve us of sin, and we all deserve punishment."

"And you're just okay with Hitomi being killed like that?!?" Amakusa spun around and pushed him away. "She was fucking betrayed by the woman she loved, USED by her, and forced to let these two chucklefucks loose! I-" She paused as something dawned on her. "WAIT! Where is she?!? Where is that bastard? Where. Is. Rafferty?!?" She pulled Zo up by the collar. "Tell me NOW!" She yelled in her face. "And while you're at it how about you tell me WHY Alm still hasn't woken up?!?" The sleeping girl was currently sitting on a blanket on the grass next to Halifax, still unconscious.

"Hey-" Ro moved to get Amakusa away from his sister, but Akagi's glare stopped him.

"I've got no idea what Rafferty did to her, but I think she drugged her or something." Zo had no clue what their familiar was doing outside of their direct supervision and didn't really ask questions about how she was freeing them. "All I know is that she was planning on feeding that girl to us since she's got lots of Kaleago's power. What she did beyond that is outside of my knowledge."

"I still don't understand how that's even possible." Elariel commented. "He died during the war. He couldn't have left children." Her eyes moved to the sleeping girl.

{Not to mention the amount of his power within her... It almost as if she's made entirely from him.} (Elariel)

"She's had a sleeping curse cast on her." Akagi explained. "I suspect they did this to stop her power from going crazy and creating issues."

{I'd imagine this was to hold down whatever power was latent within her and prevent it from coming loose. Judging by how deep she's sleeping I'd bet she's been asleep for years.} (Akagi)

"What power?!? Alm was just a helpless child!" Amakusa retorted. "She couldn't even use magic!" She'd never seen Alm use any power before.

"At the time you knew her, perhaps not. But it's clear to me that this girl is far more powerful than one would expect." Akagi shrugged. “I can detect quite a bit of latent power within her.”

{Though I've got a hunch as to why that is.} (Akagi)

"Can you wake her up?" Kanato asked if Akagi could undue the curse.

"Sure." Akagi snapped her fingers, dispelling the curse with ease." She'll wake up at some point soon. So you can calm down a bit, pet." She said as she walked over and pat Amakusa on the head. “Your little sister is safe and sound.”

"No, I won't calm down until I get my hands on that bitch!" Amakusa pulled Zo closer, punching her in the face with her other hand. “Bring that fucking familiar here, NOW! Otherwise, I'm going to run Inori straight through your fucking skull, and I can assure you that even if you can't die I'm going to make it hurt!" She gave a slight cackle that caused Kanato's skin to crawl.

{Shiroe, were you always this fucking scary?!?} (Kanato}

"Boss. A little help here." Zo looked to her leader for help but found no sympathy.

"This is your mess, so you clean it up." Akagi replied, not caring. "I don't really care what she does to the fox."

"Bring. Her. To. Me." Amakusa said with a horrifying smile on her lips. “Now.”

"Well, I suppose that she is just a familiar." Ro gave a wry smile as he turned to Akagi. "I'll summon her here if you give me a bit more power."

"Have at it." Akagi waved her hand and released a bit more of his power, which he used to make a purple summon circle that called forth Rafferty in a puff.

"Master!" Rafferty smiled as she appeared. "I was so worried about you! Did you manage to-" She stopped mid-sentence as Amakusa's blade dove through her chest.

“Ack!” Rafferty coughed up blood.

"Hi there!" Amakusa smiled as she pulled her blade out and kicked the fox to the floor. "Did you forget about me?"

"You..." Rafferty tried to heal herself with magic but was stopped by Amakusa cutting off the arm she was using to cast. "AHH!"

{Such a good little pet.} (Akagi)

"So, remind me. Familiars can be resummoned by their master even if they get destroyed, right?" Amakusa turned to Akagi and the twins.

"Ummm... Y-Yeah..." Ro started sweating as he backed away nervously.

"Well then, happy birthday to me!" Amakusa started cackling as she dove her blade into Rafferty again and again until she vanished in a purple cloud of energy. "Bring her back, please. I'm not done."

"Ummm... Should we stop this?" Halifax asked as she walked next to Akagi just in time to see Rafferty get summoned and torn apart again. “This can't be healthy...”

"What? And miss this? No way!" Akagi laughed as the fox-girl was summoned and killed dozens of times, only finally being spared because Akagi wanted to head home rather than because Amakusa was done.

"Oh Rafferty, I have a feeling that you and I are going to be great friends." Amakusa smiled at the trembling girl, who knew that she was in for the worst hell possible. "I look forward to working with you."

{It looks Like I trained the pet well.} (Akagi)

{Well, they do say they take after their owners...} (Yumi)

{Shiroe...} (Kanato)

{SAVE ME!} (Rafferty)