A
Amaryllis
Figuring he'd done an awful lot of prancing in civilized areas with plenty of people about Akemi decided he'd finally take time to go out exploring the wilderness and see what their was to see in terms of wildlife above ground. Sure he'd learned most life was subterranean but that only made him more interested in what few creatures were on the surface. Even if creatures were relatively few in number there might be substantial concentrations of them and commercially hunting things on the surface seemed potentially inherently easier. Plus he wanted to check out landscapes and explore in general. Maybe he'd find some particularly pleasant or interesting sights or places he'd like to set up in and possibly build on. Hearing there was resistance in the mountains the Neko was a little concerned about venturing into them as some random person might try to snipe him and get lucky but then again the vast majority only had muskets and given what he was he had super agility on his side and he could always fly to really frustrate an attacker. With that reasoning he decided to give them a try. Maybe he'd find some cool tough animals like giant birds or felines while he flew about.
The majority of the landscape around the City Formerly Known as Osman was unsurprisingly desolate. Mostly tall scorched tree trunks still blackened by the destruction of Mt. Gleipnir. All in all, not the most entertaining of landscapes, but this high up there was a fine view of the green-tinged sea and the city below. A nice salty breeze blowing the fetid scent of algae up the mountain.
The mountainside itself seemed to be mostly abandoned in terms of people at least. Now and then Akemi would spot what looked like a hunting lodge, most of which had since been vacated. Although the presence of a few plumes of smoke from campfires seemed to indicate that it wasn't entirely depopulated up here.
Akemi loved the view which caused him to think he'd have to ask what kind of people lived in the area and if Smithee and Olena had been in it much before or even at all. With him around and plenty of advanced technology to share he could make sightseeing for them a breeze and give them something to appreciate besides the wonders of space. He really liked the idea that he might get to impress the two with modern vehicles while unlocking a new and greater appreciation for the natural beauty of their own world at the same time. On top of that if they were impressed with what they saw and how easily they reached it he wouldn't be boring them if he took the pair along on trips to satisfy his own personal curiosity.
Occasionally the little space kitten decided he'd nose around the camps with signs of recent habitation if only to see more of what each settlement was like. He wondered how many buildings were merely hunting retreats or temporary setups as a result of displacement after the war and the adoption of guerrilla tactics.
The first one or two camps seemed to be locals, of the sort who doused their fires and fled the moment anything appeared in the sky. It wasn't exactly clear if these were hunters, or guerilla fighters. Mostly they just seemed to be terrified.
About the third, however was a much different sight for Akemi. This one was a campfire set out front of one of the lodges. The nearby trees and soil tinged a sickly greenish color, and smelled faintly peppery. Telltale signs of chemical weaponry deployed here. But not recently. Something here was definitely from space...
Akemi might be a cat but he sure wasn't a pussy. When he saw evidence of stuff that likely had a good chance of seriously harming him he naturally got on guard but he still ventured forward to see what he could find. He pulled out his NSP and held it close, setting it to heavy stun. If he found any threatening people and they were unarmored he'd consider using its lowest setting. Deciding to be super stealthy he hovered just above the ground so he wouldn't step on any twigs and make a ridiculously loud sound like in his Yamataian cartoons or movies. In addition the Neko made sure to keep his eyes peeled like he was trying to burn a hole through Arccos' clothes to get a glimpse of her astronomical ass. He wasn't going to get caught in any cliche hunting traps either.
Up close, he could see more ready signs of something amiss. A few shallow graves dug around the side of the little hunting lodge, which had more recently been dug up. Seeing through a smashed out window showed old blood stains since faded to brown. Whatever happened here didn't happen recently...
Abruptly, close analysis was interrupted by the sound of splintering wood as the front door of the lodge burst outward. Kicked clear off its hinges as a somewhat familiar figure stepped out of the lodge, picking up the broken door and throwing it onto the bonfire out front.
The little Nekovalkyrja from the beach seemed to be the one in question. Or at least that's the only one with that same tiny stature and weird sword. Better dressed this time at least. She spared a short glance upwards, not taking long to recognise the invader on her privacy before spitting on the ground at distaste of company and marching back into the lodge.
"Oh hey, how's it going?" Akemi asked breezily before deciding to march on in after the other Neko mimicking her movements despite the fact that there was no one around to see his little act. "What brings you here?" He was quite pleased to have happened upon her in a quiet, peaceful and isolated place. Hopefully she'd be more inclined to being nice without an audience to witness that and possibly hurt a reputation she'd built up. Maybe her choosing to spend some time in such an environment was a sign she had a softer side to her. On the other hand being alone with Kiri might be far more dangerous than dealing with a large group of mountain rebels. There were no witnesses after all.
The idea of her having a softer side was pretty much squashed by seeing what she was up to inside. A massive hulk of raw meat was strung up inside the lodge against a wall, a huge ursine creature maybe? Sort of like a bear, anyway. A white-grey hide had already been peeled off its flesh and bones, and had been messily slung over a worn out sofa. A metal bowl on a nearby table contained its claws which she'd already painfully plucked off its once fluffy paws.
And Kiri was there up to her elbow inside the thing, carving out chunks of meat with a pretty fancy knife with gold filligree and an ivory handle. Maybe the fire outside was meant to be for cooking?
"Guess, dipshit." Was all she said, driving the knife back in to the creature.
"Cool!" Akemi happily exclaimed as he examined the giant carcass and the way the smaller Neko worked with it. As always with people like Kiri he didn't care much if they were rude. In general he saw rude behaviour from others as an opportunity to show how nice he was by taking it anyway. When it came from someone like her though it could also be pretty hot. "I sure wish I'd seen this thing before you got at it. Any chance I could have a nibble when you're done with it?" Noticing the ornamental nature of her knife was of a similar level to her sword's the man made a mental note that she might enjoy something fancy and bladed from the native stores as a gift.
"No chance." Kiri said, freeing one half of the creature's ribcage, and hauling it over to the table.
Up close, she seemed to be remarkably overdressed for all this. Her curly hair tied back into a bun at the base of her skull and pinned in place with hairclips that either were made to look like, or actually were made from the skulls of birds. She wore a white silk blouse with intricate frills around the hems, but the whole thing was red up to the elbows from the creature's blood. Embroidered waistcoat similar to what the locals wore, with very short shorts worn over intricate lace leggings that were torn up around her knees. Heavy combat boots with silver buckles. The soles of them very thick to give her an extra inch or two in height.
"Getchyer own, freeloader."
"Man," Akemi said, sounding breathless, "your whole outfit is super awesome and cute. I love the hair clips and the coat and everything. The shorts are certainly a nice touch to go along with them plus the boots. You are totally idol material." As he spoke he balled his hands into tight fists and brought them close to his chest while shaking them a little. The act was a signature sign of sincerity. Beholding something so swell was extremely energizing to him despite the fact that he'd worn plenty of striking stuff during his time as a female singer.
"You going to stay long?" Kiri grunted, heading over to the carcass again. Starting to work the knife around the inside of the remaining half of its ribcage.
"Whole place is starting to stink on account'a all the shit falling outchyer mouth."
Akemi acted taken aback. "What? I'm not lying. You look great. I'm sure you're crazy tough with your sword too. Any chance you're a former Mishhu Neko?" He worried the question could be found offensive but he couldn't help but ask given her attitude and clothing and weapon choice. He'd heard they only had very spartan, boring outfits but maybe that was precisely why she liked having such flashy things. The skulls and the blades were awful Mishhu in his mind. Maybe she dressed cute because Neko on both sides shared a mutual appreciation for the quality. It wasn't like he'd never met one either. He was entirely open to employing them and awful excited when he got the chance.
A few sickening crunches as she broke bone and tendons with her knife. It seemed a bit blunt, if anything. A few more moments and she gave a little frustrated grunt before blindly flinging it roughly in Akemi's direction, causing it to wobble in the wooden wall of the cabin, embedded halfway down the blade.
"Any chance you can shut ya mouth, and go away?" She asked bluntly, drawing her sword which seemed to be somewhere between a saber, and something more yamataian in make. Three swift cuts and the bear carcass fell apart in thirds.
Akemi looked at the thrown weapon given the new angle provided to examine it from and crossed his arms. "Not when you look so stunning and I just got here. Are you big on hunting?" All the blood and whatnot did nothing to faze him.
The weapon looked local, if anything. The common carvings on bone made it obviously Osman manufacturer. Although the scenes of battle on it were decidedly not this person's aesthetic making it seem more likely to be something she'd looted than bought of her own accord.
"Ms. Van Banning said not to hurt you, but I can still cut off bits I know you can grow back, y'know?" She turned to pick up the three parts of the bear she'd divided. Piling them up on a shoulder, causing gore to drip down her back before hauling them to the table and slapping them down on the slab.
"So keep on pissin' me off, dipshit. Keeeeep on..."
"Well buddy," Akemi began smugly, fully ready for a fight, "I think maiming me counts as hurting and besides that you're seriously wounding my feelings right now and Uso hasn't said I can't harm you. You're making it pretty tempting to carve you up into little pieces so I can capture and consume your cuteness and have some trinkets to remember you by. As it is I'm ready to give you something I can grow back and it's gonna be thicker than your thigh if you keep on keepin' on."
With a little flourish, Kiri returned her sword to its sheath. A few steps away, she retrieved her coat, a black thing with gold embroidery around the collar and lacy cuffs. Sliding it on over the mess of bloodstains underneath, buttoning it up she turned her neck to make a little popping noise.
"That'll just make this self defense, then." She said with a little girlish giggle. Like the idea of this turning into a fight was the exact thing she was hoping for.
Akemi sighed. As much as he loved talking trash about fighting he wasn't all that gung-ho about it at the moment. He at least wanted to learn some stuff about Kiri first. Then again maybe a little bout would immensely help get her to open up. If he could incapacitate her she'd have to listen to him. The thought of that was absolutely exhilarating. If he simply shot her with his NSP it'd all be over really fast too. On the other hand she'd closed some distance and maybe she'd have some special way of taking it. Winning a fairer fight would also be ideal of course. He wondered how hard it would be to get her to agree to an unarmed fight. On the other other hand though that sounded great given all the close contact involved would it really be fair given her size? "I really don't want to fight though, I just wanna fuck around and get to know you. I hung out with Ash and she was super chill and nice. Did you spend my little gift on anything yet?"
Kiri blinked a few times, fingers loosely around the hilt of her sword.
"Wait, Ash is a girl?"
Akemi smiled down at the much smaller Neko amused because he had learned something new and though he was larger she could easily be much older. "I could totally just bullshit you here to get you talking, but to be honest I can't say I know that. All I know is there were some signs she might be and if I had my choice she sure would be and regardless she is so great I don't care what she is."
The little neko scratched her chin, loosening some dried blood which flaked to the floorboards. Clearly thinking on some longer subset of evidence that Akemi wasn't privy to.
"Ash didn't... Touch you or anything?" Kiri asked, sounding a little uneasy, "You didn't feel anything?"
"Oh boy did she ever!" Akemi's face was alight with the glow of one of Arccos' Polysentience blazing suns. "She picked me up and drank a shot off me and recorded it. And she shoved a hand down my pants to give me the cash for her drinks when she left. It was awesome. I wish you'd eat off me and try out where we met. I bought into it and I'm gonna spruce it up. It's already great though."
Akemi sure hoped Ash wasn't secretly shy and wouldn't be offended he blabbed so easily about the end of their encounter. If she seemed bothered as a result when they next met he'd be sure to apologize and make it up to her.
Kiri started to look a little green, her cheeks even puffing out a little as though something in all that made her throw up a little in her mouth. Whether it was Ash touching Akemi, or the idea of eating off of him was hard to tell.
"Ew! That's gross!" Her voice sounded almost shockingly girlish, like a schoolgirl reacting to boys in her class "You're gross!"
"And you're totally not gross and cuter by the second! I just wanna squeeze you to death and revive you and do it again and again until you're a brain damaged, helpless little mess." Akemi simply could not get enough of this turn of events. Once more he had to thank Ash for her benevolence. "Anyway, I didn't feel anything besides those awesome arms but she had a pretty girly laugh at times."
"I mean, Ash's arms are kind of..." Kiri shook her head like a dog trying to get dry, flicking a few specks of blood over Akemi "Ugh, no. Ash doesn't do that stuff! What is wrong with you?!"
Akemi had entered a state of utter bliss. He loved seeing her struggle to reject this wonderful reality. It'd be fantastic if she was jealous or thought really highly of her peer. "Well what's wrong with you little buddy?" he asked with a silly voice as if he had no idea what might be bothering her. "Is Ash not allowed to exhibit a healthy sexual appetite in the presence of a paragon of primal perfection such as myself? If you'd like I can find out if she's really a girl for you. I'm dying to get into a situation where I'd find out anyway. I'd only not say if she wanted to keep it a secret."
"I always gotta do the guarding whenever Van Banning goes to her stupid ladies' clubs." Kiri grumbled, like the idea of having to do her job was the biggest thorn in her side, "So Ash is probably a guy. B'sides, you're basically a pile'a crap compared to..."
Her voice drifted off.
"Doesn't matter. No touching Ash!"
"Compared to what? Compared to Ash?" Akemi asked with a ridiculously smug, shit eating grin. "Could it be you want her to be your noble, unsullied prince? At this rate I think you're doomed as I haven't touched her at all but she's touched me an awful lot. Then again she's so nice nothing could tarnish her, at least not to me. You'd feel the same way if you really liked her."
The look of raw disgust returned to Kiri's face, causing her to spit on the floor a little bit. Probably all these vurps Akemi inspired leaving a bad taste in her mouth.
"Eugh. Me and Ash? Gross. He's all..." She held up her hands about two inches apart, and waggled her fingers as if that explained it. "And I'm all..." Her hands shot out wide, as if demonstrating that she was massive of scale.
"You got a sick mind."
"Well don't worry Ash will totally heal it," Akemi assured in a matter-of-fact manner. "Or maybe she'll make it worse if we do some crazy shit together." A gleeful smile appeared as fast as the last came about. "What the heck did those hand movements mean? Please, I'm dying to know. If you don't tell me I'm gonna start talking about slowly, sensually licking every drop of blood off you." Oh how he would love to do that.
Kiri crossed her arms before her scrawny chest, tilting her head down almost challengingly.
"Feh. If you don't already know you won't get it."
"Are you saying you've felt him and think he must have a tiny dick and you've got a gaping, cavernous vagina?" Akemi asked, squinting his eyes and cocking his head back in disbelief. If she had been with the squids maybe they'd done such a number on her even her superhuman healing couldn't fix the damage.
Kiri actually laughed at the presumption, stalking back through the bloodied hunting lodge and picking up her slabs of meat. Once more slinging them over her shoulder and hauling them outside.
"Y'don't get it. Idiot."
"Or do I? Maybe I was right on the money about the Mishhu thing and there's just some stuff we can't heal." Akemi gave her a mock serious, shaming stare as if he was accusing her of hiding the awkward truth and she had absolutely no reason not to reveal it to him. "Look," he said with a little irritation, "I'm not gonna judge just like I won't have a problem with Ash being a guy."
"Ash is a wimp." Kiri said, once more holding her hands just a little apart, before slapping the meat down on some rocks placed around the fire. "Liiiiittle wimpy mouse."
"Compared to him I'm like blaow!" She then held her arms out wide. "Bad match. I'd have to do every little thing for frickin' Ash all day. Just like at work."
"So why can't I touch him then? Are you just saying this because he won't choke and punch the shit out of you to fulfill some fetish you acquired with the squids and he won't even make the first move? Cuz man, I could do that." Akemi might not have been learning a lot but he was sure having fun.
"Ugh... The hell's wrong with you?" Kiri asked, this time not bothering to drop the look of disgust, "You've got tiny girl hands. It'd look stupid if you tried to get your fingers around me. Know your place, idiot."
Akemi noticed the idea seemed to be stupid primarily because of the size of his hands and felt given how good this was going he could will them to accomodate. "Then please tell me what my place is and what she won't do at work. Maybe she's just in the wrong line of business being such a gentle soul and all."
"You're the annoying bitch of a side character who thinks they're important, but always gets rejected by the people who actually matter." Kiri explained, "And you're just going to keep turning up until Ash winds up in the right way, and then you're going to break down and cry. Maybe kill yaself. Who knows?"
"Wow, jealous much?" Akemi asked in his best high school queen bitch cheerleader voice. Given the great deal of precision control they had over their bodies it was quite good. "You are literally blurring the line between liquid and solid. So, are you a Yamataian comic and cartoon enthusiast too?"
"Feh." Kiri flipped the pieces of meat by the fire, getting each side nice and seared to seal in those nice giant koala juices.
"Are you?"
Akemi rolled his eyes, shook his head and gave Kiri a knowing look. "Buddy, you projectin' so hard your body must have found a new way to use volumetrics. Why can't I touch Ash, huh? Why would I kill myself over someone I just met? Hmm? Why protect a little wimpy wimp mouseboy? You're a Neko, why not just eat 'im?"
Kiri arched her head back, giving a deep groan, "I'm not interested in Ash. He's boring and plain. Not my type."
"Well can we just chill and talk then?" Akemi offered to begin a ceasefire. "I only wanted to get to know you. She already said to call her when I want to go out drinking again and I'll be happy with just being her friend and that looks to be the case currently. If you did like him though I'd totally help you get with him. Would you show me what that thing looked like before you killed it?"
"You wanted to get to know me by being a piece of shit?" Kiri snorted derisively, stomping on any possibility of a ceasefire "I want nothing to do with pieces of shit."
"Listen lady," Akemi said with open palms raised in front of his chest. "I didn't mean anything negatively. I just figured you might be more likely to open up after some cheeky banter. I'm sure you've got a perfect, pristine pussy with a pull so strong light can't escape it." A thought came to the Neko. Maybe he could put Ash's advice to use despite his first apparent opportunity to do so being to join in criticizing her which didn't seem like a good idea at this point. "I don't want to associate with shit either. Yamatai making later models do it is absolutely horrendous. How can they call themselves the good guys after that?" Perhaps this angle would finally get her to reveal her origins too.
"Yeah. Wow. Ya think it's a good idea to open banter by talkin' a load of bull about people's genits?" she tapped her fingers along the hilt of her sword, clearly pondering if she should just cut him already. "And that's your complaint about Yamatai? What are you, stupid?!"
"Well why do care about the former? We can design ours to be whatever we want," Akemi countered, crossing his arms again. "As for Yamatai. Of course I can think of worse. My poor little giant wasp friend's people might get killed by Mishhu because it created them. Ever hug a I'ee? It's really soothing."
The man really didn't know where to go. Maybe she'd think the space wasps deserved to be killed for their weakness and gentle, simple nature but genocides were often pretty high up on one's list of complaints. Hopefully if she was Mishhu related she wouldn't get offended by using this kind of example.
"The hell's an I'ee?" Kiri asked. Her tone indicating she utterly did not care about the answer. Procuring a discarded tree branch, she prodded one of the wobbly slabs of meat where it seared on the stones.
Akemi gave an answer regardless as he thought it was important knowledge. "It's a giant yellow black insectoid that's really soft and gives awesome hugs. They've partnered with Uso. Anyway, sorry I bothered you. You're clearly nicer than you let on because you haven't attacked me yet and you want to protect Ash even though you think he's a wimp that makes you do everything. I guess your demeanor just comes with being a bodyguard."
"Ms. Van Banning says that all kindness is just self interest feeling sly." Kiri said, seemingly actually taking her boss' words pretty close to heart. "Never know when someone might want something from you, when it could be spoiled by me gutting you."
"Sure. I agree with that," Akemi replied with a smooth quickness. At least they could agree on this. "You already know what I'd like out of you though and I'm okay with risking a gutting. If it helps any I don't think I'll be sullying your partner as he said if he wanted to do someone like me he'd just go all the way and find a girl."
"Whatever Ash is, he's more into what's his face..." Kiri frowned a little, as if struggling to remember something. "Thirteenth floor, corner desk. Does something with lots of conference calls. Not a little fairy boy like you."
"Well too bad for him," Akemi said with a little shrug and sideways tilt of his head. "I like being a sprightly little fairy boy. So, are you hoping the two of them will get together? Are you into yaoi? Going by your assessment Ash would make a sick uke. I'd read that manga."
Kiri screwed up her face a little, maybe in distaste. Maybe in frustration at something.
"I dunno. I never seen thirteenth floor guy. Or at least never seen his proper face."
"Whaddya mean?" Akemi was worried she'd simply snap at him for requesting an explanation and not a yes or no answer, but he could test the waters with the query and he was genuinely interested after Ash's talk of memory wiping. Plus maybe this was something that really bothered her. He'd like to know all he could if that was the case.
"People around the office look different sometimes." Kiri shrugged, all tension leaving her face as she drew her sword again, slicing off a lump of bear-flesh and stabbing it on the end. Eating the still far too rare meat from the tip of her blade.
"I guess Ash knows the guy, anyway. They always try and break up stuff, so you gotta keep at it real hard to get anyone to do stuff to you in the tower."
"Makes me think about Ash saying you guys get your memories wiped. I couldn't live with that. I hope you don't get yours wiped just for me saying this." Kiri could easily hear the concern in Akemi's little fairy boy voice. "How do they break you up?" He really really hoped she didn't get her brain washed even though he had dubious success with their chance meeting so far. It was always possible to him that she might eliminate any memories that could make them question her policies or weaken her command over them.
"Audit guys move you around. If you keep at it, they do... Something..." Kiri's voice faltered about halfway through her explanation. Like she'd half remembered something, then lost it. "I dunno. Saves a lot of drama anyway, I guess."
"Okay, I'm a big loser. Whatever," Akemi said as he dropped to his knees and clasped his hands together under his chin in front of Kiri. "Will you please come to the place that Ash and I went to and I bought into? Then you can chat all you want with coworkers and not get bothered. I'll let you eat as much as you want." The male Neko did his best to give her an earnest stare and not the cute kitty one he so often used.
Another lump of near-raw meat was shoved into Kiri's mouth. Loud chewing from an open mouth followed, before she spat out a little bit of gristle.
"What place?"
"Oh, it's really cool," Akemi answered, staying on his knees. He loved the idea of voluntarily being on his knees with such a cute girl. Part of him wished she'd spat a piece of food at him. It was so fun to embarrass himself. As he sat he placed his hands in his lap.
"It might not be as cool as your tower but it has a bar, nice regional foods, cockfighting, rat fighting, people fighting, a sauna, cozy private rooms, a charming proprietor who's a former knight of the queen and a backroom brothel." Akemi naturally had to state the part about prostitutes last as if that was the least appealing aspect to him. "It'll have loads more stuff when I'm done with it."
"So you want me to go to a whorehouse with you and Ash?" Kiri asked flatly, flicking the last of the meat from the tip of her sword in the fire. Shifting, she held the blade up to keep the unsharpened edge on her shoulder. A neat stance which she could shift down from to cut Akemi in twain in a second.
"Whyyyyyy?"
Akemi raised his hands and put his palms out to caution Kiri and perhaps attempt to seize her sword like a master martial artist in a samurai movie. "It's way more than a whorehouse. I'm going to bring in all sorts of foods and drinks from other planets. There'll be light stuff and heavy stuff so strong only we'd be able to eat it. Like Neppies on steroids." The businessman saved what might be the best for last. "And if you like hunting I'll pay for anything you kill and bring over and have it prepared for you right on the spot." He wasn't too concerned about getting sliced when he could push her backwards with his gravity manipulation.
Kiri hunched down, sitting on her heels. Sword on her shoulder, giving her the general stance of some Kyoto delinquent. Down at eye level with Akemi she looked quite furious.
"So... What? You're just some massive perv asking me out to dinner at a brothel?"
An insanely bright, toothy grin lit up Akemi's face. "If thinking of it that way sells you on the idea then sure. But really I want you and anyone you want to chat with to have a nice local place to hang out without restrictions or disruptions. Maybe we could learn more about Ash there or hook him up with someone you approve of. Maybe we could get face guy to come if that'd interest you."
Kiri slowly moved her sword out, placing the flat of the blade on Akemi's shoulder. No real force behind it. It just sat there.
"So you are an idiot, hm?"
"Buddy," Akemi said, yet again folding his arms and tilting his head to give Kiri a judgmental look like she was a child hopelessly trying to play dumb, "take a look in a mirror. If wanting to hook up with you is stupid I don't want to be smart. Besides, being stupid is fun."
All at once, Kiri seemed to lurch closer. Whatever she could claim to be, fast was one of them. Her blade slid along Akemi's shoulder, as she planted one foot beside him and launched herself forward, bringing her torso to within about an inch of the other Neko's crossed arms. The smell of rancid blood and meat hung on her, but she seemed to be breathing steady and calm. She bit her lip, looking down over Akemi's neck in some sort of anticipation.
A fair few locks of Akemi's perfect hair fell to the dirt, as the motion had severed a good portion that hung around his shoulders. Her free hand was planted firmly on Akemi's other shoulder.
"I'm actually probably going to enjoy this."
Akemi continued to smile. Maybe slicing his hair was done for something more than to intimidate him. Maybe she was making him more in line with her preferences. Regardless of how likely that was he sure enjoyed the thought. Part of him wanted to try to go for a kiss like he did with Arccos but as tempting as that was he figured he'd simply let Kiri be Kiri as doing that was currently plenty fun. "I'm already enjoying it. Just don't expect to get my head until you give me some of yours."
Letting Kiri be Kiri would only particularly remain fun if Akemi was in fact a particularly extreme masochist. Exactly what she did wasn't clear, it started with her moving forward a little more, moving her arms around as if to embrace Akemi. Then there was one moment of exquisite, blinding, almost transcendant pain. Lingering for just a second before Akemi would be able to block out the sensation of it.
Arccos driving burning hot rivets into him was a soothing balm in comparison.
"Fuck!" was all Akemi could reflexively say. He blocked the pain as soon as he could on instinct and attempted to duck out of reach of whatever she was doing while thrusting his two clenched fists side by side at the center of her abdomen along with all the force his gravity control could generate. If he could drive her back he intended to get to his feet and draw his NSP which he would keep close to his chest while he took a hunched stance.
Light on her feet, the push shoved Kiri back a fair way. Seemingly moving back with the force of the blow and nullifying her own mass. A few steps back, the tiny neko came to ground. Keeping a somewhat low stance, and holding her sword two handed before her, the thing visible crackled to life with a sickly red light. Tiny specks of dust in the air hitting the blade erupting as tiny flashes of light as they were annihilated by whatever energies were at work.
"So yer finally going to stop suckin' yourself off and put your money where ya dick was?" She asked, almost gleefully. Like this was exactly the outcome that she wanted.
"Fuck that looks so sick," Akemi hastily and emphatically said as he saw an unknown energy dance across the blade, thinking he might need to dodge a swing at any moment. Fearing that he subsequently switched to telepathy given how much faster it'd be to simply shoot his thoughts at her instead of mouthing them under duress. "I don't wanna fight but I guess it's inevitable now. I wasn't trying to call you a whore buddy, I only wanted to compliment you. I'm a little wimpy mouse that wants to give you a place where you won't get mind wiped for socializing." As he thought the Neko decided to play it safe and floated backwards straight away from his opponent with his feet barely off the floor.
The man's expression was one of hopelessness, defeat and dismay. He figured he might be able to win and even if he didn't Kiri might at least enjoy the fight, but he had a feeling if she was so confident in herself she must have something secret to give her an edge. On top of that though a battle might make more progress than words ever could he didn't want to go at it given how smooth and peaceful his experience with Ash had been and he felt if he wasn't always being so true to his gut urges he could have ended up in a much better situation.
"Oh so you're trying to save me?!" Kiri's thoughts crept in to Akemi's mind in the same telepathic band. Only in her case, she seemed to creep in that extra little bit by accompanying the words with sensation. Akemi could feel the little butterflies in her stomach, and the sort of raw hunger in her. Anticipation. A pure and sadistic urge to simply do harm.
"And what? You want me to thank you for saving me from my job? The one I signed up for knowingly?" She sprinted forward, getting a bit of speed up, holding her sword ahead one handed now. Soon taking off and pursuing Akemi. "You don't know one thing about me other than how hard you get around me. I don't need your damn help, and I don't want it."
"No, fuck, I just want you and your buds to have fun and to be around cool, fun people. Akemi straightened up, continued to fly backwards and put his perfect memory to use to place whatever objects would best block her path between them as he ultimately headed for the exit. Figuring it was too risky to hold back any longer he carefully fired here and there when he thought he had a good shot, especially one at her core. If his heavy stun blasts didn't work he'd switch to heavy mode. He wouldn't be surprised if they were useless given that she could be part Mishhu and zillionaire Banning could have have given her any number of modifications to make her the ideal bodyguard. "You don't know anything about me either other than I like your look and dig your attitude. You also have no idea what's done to you at your job because your memory is wiped."
The blast from Akemi's shot failed as Kiri ducked low, kicking off the ground and giving a spinning slice from her sword. A flash of light and a moment of confusion seemingly making the brain reel from what just happened: She was apparently able to parry the damn shots. Chances were that it was a good assumption that she wasn't entirely unmodified for a Nekovalkyrja.
Drawing the sword back into its scabbard, Akemi might make out Kiri fiddling with some device on the heavy metallic sword-holder. The little neko flipped some switch on the thing, making a loud Sshvtvm! noise as the blade was flash-drawn. Seemingly fired from the sheathe with a force likely to break a lesser shoulder. Some fine and practiced manipulation of gravity giving her enough speed from the shot to close the distance on Akemi.
Her attack came as a flash of red, barely perceptible to the naked eye. Accompanied with the only response: A telepathic surge of almost ecstatic enjoyment as she finally got this opportunity to cut him.
"Well lucky for you I didn't bring my Zesu katana buster." By this point Akemi switched to three round bursts of his weapon and held his gun right to his body. Unable to run away he aimed a gravity strike at Kiri's eyes without any gesture to accompany it and tried to lunge forward while shifting his body to the side in an attempt to narrowly dodge her blow and perhaps come too close for her to immediately make another. Hopefully the gamble would give him a chance to level a NSP discharge at her stomach or flank.
The sheer speed of Kiri's blow, and slight rotation as she put as much force as nekoly possible into it made it difficult to properly land a blow on the little one's eyes. She ate the blow up, taking it directly on the chin more or less, judging by her recovery in which she skidded away and spit out one of her loosened teeth. But by eating the blow she'd moved herself aside enough to get enough leeway in terms of distance to deflect a few of the more accurate shots from Akemi's NSP burst.
Judging by her continued broadcast of murderous intent, her heart was pounding. Blood boiling. A sensation not unlike a particularly enjoyable rollercoaster ride.
A little breath, and she adopted her stance again. Sword forward, empty hand out to give a little gesture of 'that all you have?' as she smiled a smile with a now significant gap in its dentition.
Akemi projected feelings of his own, feelings of amusement, awe and awww. He thought the gap in Kiri's teeth was pretty endearing and he loved how much enjoyment she could experience from a fight. At the same time a sense of hopelessness and disappointment was mixed in and showed in the smile now on his face as he doubted there was any chance he could win or avoid an awful or at least highly inconvenient fate. "That's fuckin' sick too. You're totally gonna get me next time. After you do whatever you're gonna do to me will you please check out my place? I just want to see you enjoy a meal and a fight and getting to brag about the next giant thing you kill."
The male Neko beckoned with a few flicks of his free hand as if he were in a martial arts movie as he once more made for the door, intent on getting as far away from the lodge as possible before having to avoid another attack.
As Akemi fled deeper into the woods, this time he found himself not so closely followed. Instead there was a faint echoing in the distance that sounded faintly of thunder. A deep cracking noise.
No sign of the little nekovalkyrja following, but instead a hefty trunk of one of the crisp-burnt bloodwood trees came crashing down from above. Relying almost solely on the size of the projectile flung somehow or other to try and run him off.
The sensations sent to him were gone now. Maybe she just wanted him gone.
Not taking any chances Akemi stuck with the original plan in his mind and flew the quickest route to the edge of the mountain so he could fall right off it backwards until he deemed himself safe enough to turn around or unable to afford not to because of whatever he might collide with otherwise. "Your sword is super cool! I'll duel you sometime when I have mine if you want!" Along with his message he sent a burst of cheer to show he had no hard feelings. "Please check out my place. Bring anything you kill and Smithee will evaluate and pay for it." A map to The Cockpit and a picture of the former Osmani knight followed. Hopefully she wouldn't zip over to it and kill everyone.
There was no response incoming from Kiri.
...That did not go well.
The majority of the landscape around the City Formerly Known as Osman was unsurprisingly desolate. Mostly tall scorched tree trunks still blackened by the destruction of Mt. Gleipnir. All in all, not the most entertaining of landscapes, but this high up there was a fine view of the green-tinged sea and the city below. A nice salty breeze blowing the fetid scent of algae up the mountain.
The mountainside itself seemed to be mostly abandoned in terms of people at least. Now and then Akemi would spot what looked like a hunting lodge, most of which had since been vacated. Although the presence of a few plumes of smoke from campfires seemed to indicate that it wasn't entirely depopulated up here.
Akemi loved the view which caused him to think he'd have to ask what kind of people lived in the area and if Smithee and Olena had been in it much before or even at all. With him around and plenty of advanced technology to share he could make sightseeing for them a breeze and give them something to appreciate besides the wonders of space. He really liked the idea that he might get to impress the two with modern vehicles while unlocking a new and greater appreciation for the natural beauty of their own world at the same time. On top of that if they were impressed with what they saw and how easily they reached it he wouldn't be boring them if he took the pair along on trips to satisfy his own personal curiosity.
Occasionally the little space kitten decided he'd nose around the camps with signs of recent habitation if only to see more of what each settlement was like. He wondered how many buildings were merely hunting retreats or temporary setups as a result of displacement after the war and the adoption of guerrilla tactics.
The first one or two camps seemed to be locals, of the sort who doused their fires and fled the moment anything appeared in the sky. It wasn't exactly clear if these were hunters, or guerilla fighters. Mostly they just seemed to be terrified.
About the third, however was a much different sight for Akemi. This one was a campfire set out front of one of the lodges. The nearby trees and soil tinged a sickly greenish color, and smelled faintly peppery. Telltale signs of chemical weaponry deployed here. But not recently. Something here was definitely from space...
Akemi might be a cat but he sure wasn't a pussy. When he saw evidence of stuff that likely had a good chance of seriously harming him he naturally got on guard but he still ventured forward to see what he could find. He pulled out his NSP and held it close, setting it to heavy stun. If he found any threatening people and they were unarmored he'd consider using its lowest setting. Deciding to be super stealthy he hovered just above the ground so he wouldn't step on any twigs and make a ridiculously loud sound like in his Yamataian cartoons or movies. In addition the Neko made sure to keep his eyes peeled like he was trying to burn a hole through Arccos' clothes to get a glimpse of her astronomical ass. He wasn't going to get caught in any cliche hunting traps either.
Up close, he could see more ready signs of something amiss. A few shallow graves dug around the side of the little hunting lodge, which had more recently been dug up. Seeing through a smashed out window showed old blood stains since faded to brown. Whatever happened here didn't happen recently...
Abruptly, close analysis was interrupted by the sound of splintering wood as the front door of the lodge burst outward. Kicked clear off its hinges as a somewhat familiar figure stepped out of the lodge, picking up the broken door and throwing it onto the bonfire out front.
The little Nekovalkyrja from the beach seemed to be the one in question. Or at least that's the only one with that same tiny stature and weird sword. Better dressed this time at least. She spared a short glance upwards, not taking long to recognise the invader on her privacy before spitting on the ground at distaste of company and marching back into the lodge.
"Oh hey, how's it going?" Akemi asked breezily before deciding to march on in after the other Neko mimicking her movements despite the fact that there was no one around to see his little act. "What brings you here?" He was quite pleased to have happened upon her in a quiet, peaceful and isolated place. Hopefully she'd be more inclined to being nice without an audience to witness that and possibly hurt a reputation she'd built up. Maybe her choosing to spend some time in such an environment was a sign she had a softer side to her. On the other hand being alone with Kiri might be far more dangerous than dealing with a large group of mountain rebels. There were no witnesses after all.
The idea of her having a softer side was pretty much squashed by seeing what she was up to inside. A massive hulk of raw meat was strung up inside the lodge against a wall, a huge ursine creature maybe? Sort of like a bear, anyway. A white-grey hide had already been peeled off its flesh and bones, and had been messily slung over a worn out sofa. A metal bowl on a nearby table contained its claws which she'd already painfully plucked off its once fluffy paws.
And Kiri was there up to her elbow inside the thing, carving out chunks of meat with a pretty fancy knife with gold filligree and an ivory handle. Maybe the fire outside was meant to be for cooking?
"Guess, dipshit." Was all she said, driving the knife back in to the creature.
"Cool!" Akemi happily exclaimed as he examined the giant carcass and the way the smaller Neko worked with it. As always with people like Kiri he didn't care much if they were rude. In general he saw rude behaviour from others as an opportunity to show how nice he was by taking it anyway. When it came from someone like her though it could also be pretty hot. "I sure wish I'd seen this thing before you got at it. Any chance I could have a nibble when you're done with it?" Noticing the ornamental nature of her knife was of a similar level to her sword's the man made a mental note that she might enjoy something fancy and bladed from the native stores as a gift.
"No chance." Kiri said, freeing one half of the creature's ribcage, and hauling it over to the table.
Up close, she seemed to be remarkably overdressed for all this. Her curly hair tied back into a bun at the base of her skull and pinned in place with hairclips that either were made to look like, or actually were made from the skulls of birds. She wore a white silk blouse with intricate frills around the hems, but the whole thing was red up to the elbows from the creature's blood. Embroidered waistcoat similar to what the locals wore, with very short shorts worn over intricate lace leggings that were torn up around her knees. Heavy combat boots with silver buckles. The soles of them very thick to give her an extra inch or two in height.
"Getchyer own, freeloader."
"Man," Akemi said, sounding breathless, "your whole outfit is super awesome and cute. I love the hair clips and the coat and everything. The shorts are certainly a nice touch to go along with them plus the boots. You are totally idol material." As he spoke he balled his hands into tight fists and brought them close to his chest while shaking them a little. The act was a signature sign of sincerity. Beholding something so swell was extremely energizing to him despite the fact that he'd worn plenty of striking stuff during his time as a female singer.
"You going to stay long?" Kiri grunted, heading over to the carcass again. Starting to work the knife around the inside of the remaining half of its ribcage.
"Whole place is starting to stink on account'a all the shit falling outchyer mouth."
Akemi acted taken aback. "What? I'm not lying. You look great. I'm sure you're crazy tough with your sword too. Any chance you're a former Mishhu Neko?" He worried the question could be found offensive but he couldn't help but ask given her attitude and clothing and weapon choice. He'd heard they only had very spartan, boring outfits but maybe that was precisely why she liked having such flashy things. The skulls and the blades were awful Mishhu in his mind. Maybe she dressed cute because Neko on both sides shared a mutual appreciation for the quality. It wasn't like he'd never met one either. He was entirely open to employing them and awful excited when he got the chance.
A few sickening crunches as she broke bone and tendons with her knife. It seemed a bit blunt, if anything. A few more moments and she gave a little frustrated grunt before blindly flinging it roughly in Akemi's direction, causing it to wobble in the wooden wall of the cabin, embedded halfway down the blade.
"Any chance you can shut ya mouth, and go away?" She asked bluntly, drawing her sword which seemed to be somewhere between a saber, and something more yamataian in make. Three swift cuts and the bear carcass fell apart in thirds.
Akemi looked at the thrown weapon given the new angle provided to examine it from and crossed his arms. "Not when you look so stunning and I just got here. Are you big on hunting?" All the blood and whatnot did nothing to faze him.
The weapon looked local, if anything. The common carvings on bone made it obviously Osman manufacturer. Although the scenes of battle on it were decidedly not this person's aesthetic making it seem more likely to be something she'd looted than bought of her own accord.
"Ms. Van Banning said not to hurt you, but I can still cut off bits I know you can grow back, y'know?" She turned to pick up the three parts of the bear she'd divided. Piling them up on a shoulder, causing gore to drip down her back before hauling them to the table and slapping them down on the slab.
"So keep on pissin' me off, dipshit. Keeeeep on..."
"Well buddy," Akemi began smugly, fully ready for a fight, "I think maiming me counts as hurting and besides that you're seriously wounding my feelings right now and Uso hasn't said I can't harm you. You're making it pretty tempting to carve you up into little pieces so I can capture and consume your cuteness and have some trinkets to remember you by. As it is I'm ready to give you something I can grow back and it's gonna be thicker than your thigh if you keep on keepin' on."
With a little flourish, Kiri returned her sword to its sheath. A few steps away, she retrieved her coat, a black thing with gold embroidery around the collar and lacy cuffs. Sliding it on over the mess of bloodstains underneath, buttoning it up she turned her neck to make a little popping noise.
"That'll just make this self defense, then." She said with a little girlish giggle. Like the idea of this turning into a fight was the exact thing she was hoping for.
Akemi sighed. As much as he loved talking trash about fighting he wasn't all that gung-ho about it at the moment. He at least wanted to learn some stuff about Kiri first. Then again maybe a little bout would immensely help get her to open up. If he could incapacitate her she'd have to listen to him. The thought of that was absolutely exhilarating. If he simply shot her with his NSP it'd all be over really fast too. On the other hand she'd closed some distance and maybe she'd have some special way of taking it. Winning a fairer fight would also be ideal of course. He wondered how hard it would be to get her to agree to an unarmed fight. On the other other hand though that sounded great given all the close contact involved would it really be fair given her size? "I really don't want to fight though, I just wanna fuck around and get to know you. I hung out with Ash and she was super chill and nice. Did you spend my little gift on anything yet?"
Kiri blinked a few times, fingers loosely around the hilt of her sword.
"Wait, Ash is a girl?"
Akemi smiled down at the much smaller Neko amused because he had learned something new and though he was larger she could easily be much older. "I could totally just bullshit you here to get you talking, but to be honest I can't say I know that. All I know is there were some signs she might be and if I had my choice she sure would be and regardless she is so great I don't care what she is."
The little neko scratched her chin, loosening some dried blood which flaked to the floorboards. Clearly thinking on some longer subset of evidence that Akemi wasn't privy to.
"Ash didn't... Touch you or anything?" Kiri asked, sounding a little uneasy, "You didn't feel anything?"
"Oh boy did she ever!" Akemi's face was alight with the glow of one of Arccos' Polysentience blazing suns. "She picked me up and drank a shot off me and recorded it. And she shoved a hand down my pants to give me the cash for her drinks when she left. It was awesome. I wish you'd eat off me and try out where we met. I bought into it and I'm gonna spruce it up. It's already great though."
Akemi sure hoped Ash wasn't secretly shy and wouldn't be offended he blabbed so easily about the end of their encounter. If she seemed bothered as a result when they next met he'd be sure to apologize and make it up to her.
Kiri started to look a little green, her cheeks even puffing out a little as though something in all that made her throw up a little in her mouth. Whether it was Ash touching Akemi, or the idea of eating off of him was hard to tell.
"Ew! That's gross!" Her voice sounded almost shockingly girlish, like a schoolgirl reacting to boys in her class "You're gross!"
"And you're totally not gross and cuter by the second! I just wanna squeeze you to death and revive you and do it again and again until you're a brain damaged, helpless little mess." Akemi simply could not get enough of this turn of events. Once more he had to thank Ash for her benevolence. "Anyway, I didn't feel anything besides those awesome arms but she had a pretty girly laugh at times."
"I mean, Ash's arms are kind of..." Kiri shook her head like a dog trying to get dry, flicking a few specks of blood over Akemi "Ugh, no. Ash doesn't do that stuff! What is wrong with you?!"
Akemi had entered a state of utter bliss. He loved seeing her struggle to reject this wonderful reality. It'd be fantastic if she was jealous or thought really highly of her peer. "Well what's wrong with you little buddy?" he asked with a silly voice as if he had no idea what might be bothering her. "Is Ash not allowed to exhibit a healthy sexual appetite in the presence of a paragon of primal perfection such as myself? If you'd like I can find out if she's really a girl for you. I'm dying to get into a situation where I'd find out anyway. I'd only not say if she wanted to keep it a secret."
"I always gotta do the guarding whenever Van Banning goes to her stupid ladies' clubs." Kiri grumbled, like the idea of having to do her job was the biggest thorn in her side, "So Ash is probably a guy. B'sides, you're basically a pile'a crap compared to..."
Her voice drifted off.
"Doesn't matter. No touching Ash!"
"Compared to what? Compared to Ash?" Akemi asked with a ridiculously smug, shit eating grin. "Could it be you want her to be your noble, unsullied prince? At this rate I think you're doomed as I haven't touched her at all but she's touched me an awful lot. Then again she's so nice nothing could tarnish her, at least not to me. You'd feel the same way if you really liked her."
The look of raw disgust returned to Kiri's face, causing her to spit on the floor a little bit. Probably all these vurps Akemi inspired leaving a bad taste in her mouth.
"Eugh. Me and Ash? Gross. He's all..." She held up her hands about two inches apart, and waggled her fingers as if that explained it. "And I'm all..." Her hands shot out wide, as if demonstrating that she was massive of scale.
"You got a sick mind."
"Well don't worry Ash will totally heal it," Akemi assured in a matter-of-fact manner. "Or maybe she'll make it worse if we do some crazy shit together." A gleeful smile appeared as fast as the last came about. "What the heck did those hand movements mean? Please, I'm dying to know. If you don't tell me I'm gonna start talking about slowly, sensually licking every drop of blood off you." Oh how he would love to do that.
Kiri crossed her arms before her scrawny chest, tilting her head down almost challengingly.
"Feh. If you don't already know you won't get it."
"Are you saying you've felt him and think he must have a tiny dick and you've got a gaping, cavernous vagina?" Akemi asked, squinting his eyes and cocking his head back in disbelief. If she had been with the squids maybe they'd done such a number on her even her superhuman healing couldn't fix the damage.
Kiri actually laughed at the presumption, stalking back through the bloodied hunting lodge and picking up her slabs of meat. Once more slinging them over her shoulder and hauling them outside.
"Y'don't get it. Idiot."
"Or do I? Maybe I was right on the money about the Mishhu thing and there's just some stuff we can't heal." Akemi gave her a mock serious, shaming stare as if he was accusing her of hiding the awkward truth and she had absolutely no reason not to reveal it to him. "Look," he said with a little irritation, "I'm not gonna judge just like I won't have a problem with Ash being a guy."
"Ash is a wimp." Kiri said, once more holding her hands just a little apart, before slapping the meat down on some rocks placed around the fire. "Liiiiittle wimpy mouse."
"Compared to him I'm like blaow!" She then held her arms out wide. "Bad match. I'd have to do every little thing for frickin' Ash all day. Just like at work."
"So why can't I touch him then? Are you just saying this because he won't choke and punch the shit out of you to fulfill some fetish you acquired with the squids and he won't even make the first move? Cuz man, I could do that." Akemi might not have been learning a lot but he was sure having fun.
"Ugh... The hell's wrong with you?" Kiri asked, this time not bothering to drop the look of disgust, "You've got tiny girl hands. It'd look stupid if you tried to get your fingers around me. Know your place, idiot."
Akemi noticed the idea seemed to be stupid primarily because of the size of his hands and felt given how good this was going he could will them to accomodate. "Then please tell me what my place is and what she won't do at work. Maybe she's just in the wrong line of business being such a gentle soul and all."
"You're the annoying bitch of a side character who thinks they're important, but always gets rejected by the people who actually matter." Kiri explained, "And you're just going to keep turning up until Ash winds up in the right way, and then you're going to break down and cry. Maybe kill yaself. Who knows?"
"Wow, jealous much?" Akemi asked in his best high school queen bitch cheerleader voice. Given the great deal of precision control they had over their bodies it was quite good. "You are literally blurring the line between liquid and solid. So, are you a Yamataian comic and cartoon enthusiast too?"
"Feh." Kiri flipped the pieces of meat by the fire, getting each side nice and seared to seal in those nice giant koala juices.
"Are you?"
Akemi rolled his eyes, shook his head and gave Kiri a knowing look. "Buddy, you projectin' so hard your body must have found a new way to use volumetrics. Why can't I touch Ash, huh? Why would I kill myself over someone I just met? Hmm? Why protect a little wimpy wimp mouseboy? You're a Neko, why not just eat 'im?"
Kiri arched her head back, giving a deep groan, "I'm not interested in Ash. He's boring and plain. Not my type."
"Well can we just chill and talk then?" Akemi offered to begin a ceasefire. "I only wanted to get to know you. She already said to call her when I want to go out drinking again and I'll be happy with just being her friend and that looks to be the case currently. If you did like him though I'd totally help you get with him. Would you show me what that thing looked like before you killed it?"
"You wanted to get to know me by being a piece of shit?" Kiri snorted derisively, stomping on any possibility of a ceasefire "I want nothing to do with pieces of shit."
"Listen lady," Akemi said with open palms raised in front of his chest. "I didn't mean anything negatively. I just figured you might be more likely to open up after some cheeky banter. I'm sure you've got a perfect, pristine pussy with a pull so strong light can't escape it." A thought came to the Neko. Maybe he could put Ash's advice to use despite his first apparent opportunity to do so being to join in criticizing her which didn't seem like a good idea at this point. "I don't want to associate with shit either. Yamatai making later models do it is absolutely horrendous. How can they call themselves the good guys after that?" Perhaps this angle would finally get her to reveal her origins too.
"Yeah. Wow. Ya think it's a good idea to open banter by talkin' a load of bull about people's genits?" she tapped her fingers along the hilt of her sword, clearly pondering if she should just cut him already. "And that's your complaint about Yamatai? What are you, stupid?!"
"Well why do care about the former? We can design ours to be whatever we want," Akemi countered, crossing his arms again. "As for Yamatai. Of course I can think of worse. My poor little giant wasp friend's people might get killed by Mishhu because it created them. Ever hug a I'ee? It's really soothing."
The man really didn't know where to go. Maybe she'd think the space wasps deserved to be killed for their weakness and gentle, simple nature but genocides were often pretty high up on one's list of complaints. Hopefully if she was Mishhu related she wouldn't get offended by using this kind of example.
"The hell's an I'ee?" Kiri asked. Her tone indicating she utterly did not care about the answer. Procuring a discarded tree branch, she prodded one of the wobbly slabs of meat where it seared on the stones.
Akemi gave an answer regardless as he thought it was important knowledge. "It's a giant yellow black insectoid that's really soft and gives awesome hugs. They've partnered with Uso. Anyway, sorry I bothered you. You're clearly nicer than you let on because you haven't attacked me yet and you want to protect Ash even though you think he's a wimp that makes you do everything. I guess your demeanor just comes with being a bodyguard."
"Ms. Van Banning says that all kindness is just self interest feeling sly." Kiri said, seemingly actually taking her boss' words pretty close to heart. "Never know when someone might want something from you, when it could be spoiled by me gutting you."
"Sure. I agree with that," Akemi replied with a smooth quickness. At least they could agree on this. "You already know what I'd like out of you though and I'm okay with risking a gutting. If it helps any I don't think I'll be sullying your partner as he said if he wanted to do someone like me he'd just go all the way and find a girl."
"Whatever Ash is, he's more into what's his face..." Kiri frowned a little, as if struggling to remember something. "Thirteenth floor, corner desk. Does something with lots of conference calls. Not a little fairy boy like you."
"Well too bad for him," Akemi said with a little shrug and sideways tilt of his head. "I like being a sprightly little fairy boy. So, are you hoping the two of them will get together? Are you into yaoi? Going by your assessment Ash would make a sick uke. I'd read that manga."
Kiri screwed up her face a little, maybe in distaste. Maybe in frustration at something.
"I dunno. I never seen thirteenth floor guy. Or at least never seen his proper face."
"Whaddya mean?" Akemi was worried she'd simply snap at him for requesting an explanation and not a yes or no answer, but he could test the waters with the query and he was genuinely interested after Ash's talk of memory wiping. Plus maybe this was something that really bothered her. He'd like to know all he could if that was the case.
"People around the office look different sometimes." Kiri shrugged, all tension leaving her face as she drew her sword again, slicing off a lump of bear-flesh and stabbing it on the end. Eating the still far too rare meat from the tip of her blade.
"I guess Ash knows the guy, anyway. They always try and break up stuff, so you gotta keep at it real hard to get anyone to do stuff to you in the tower."
"Makes me think about Ash saying you guys get your memories wiped. I couldn't live with that. I hope you don't get yours wiped just for me saying this." Kiri could easily hear the concern in Akemi's little fairy boy voice. "How do they break you up?" He really really hoped she didn't get her brain washed even though he had dubious success with their chance meeting so far. It was always possible to him that she might eliminate any memories that could make them question her policies or weaken her command over them.
"Audit guys move you around. If you keep at it, they do... Something..." Kiri's voice faltered about halfway through her explanation. Like she'd half remembered something, then lost it. "I dunno. Saves a lot of drama anyway, I guess."
"Okay, I'm a big loser. Whatever," Akemi said as he dropped to his knees and clasped his hands together under his chin in front of Kiri. "Will you please come to the place that Ash and I went to and I bought into? Then you can chat all you want with coworkers and not get bothered. I'll let you eat as much as you want." The male Neko did his best to give her an earnest stare and not the cute kitty one he so often used.
Another lump of near-raw meat was shoved into Kiri's mouth. Loud chewing from an open mouth followed, before she spat out a little bit of gristle.
"What place?"
"Oh, it's really cool," Akemi answered, staying on his knees. He loved the idea of voluntarily being on his knees with such a cute girl. Part of him wished she'd spat a piece of food at him. It was so fun to embarrass himself. As he sat he placed his hands in his lap.
"It might not be as cool as your tower but it has a bar, nice regional foods, cockfighting, rat fighting, people fighting, a sauna, cozy private rooms, a charming proprietor who's a former knight of the queen and a backroom brothel." Akemi naturally had to state the part about prostitutes last as if that was the least appealing aspect to him. "It'll have loads more stuff when I'm done with it."
"So you want me to go to a whorehouse with you and Ash?" Kiri asked flatly, flicking the last of the meat from the tip of her sword in the fire. Shifting, she held the blade up to keep the unsharpened edge on her shoulder. A neat stance which she could shift down from to cut Akemi in twain in a second.
"Whyyyyyy?"
Akemi raised his hands and put his palms out to caution Kiri and perhaps attempt to seize her sword like a master martial artist in a samurai movie. "It's way more than a whorehouse. I'm going to bring in all sorts of foods and drinks from other planets. There'll be light stuff and heavy stuff so strong only we'd be able to eat it. Like Neppies on steroids." The businessman saved what might be the best for last. "And if you like hunting I'll pay for anything you kill and bring over and have it prepared for you right on the spot." He wasn't too concerned about getting sliced when he could push her backwards with his gravity manipulation.
Kiri hunched down, sitting on her heels. Sword on her shoulder, giving her the general stance of some Kyoto delinquent. Down at eye level with Akemi she looked quite furious.
"So... What? You're just some massive perv asking me out to dinner at a brothel?"
An insanely bright, toothy grin lit up Akemi's face. "If thinking of it that way sells you on the idea then sure. But really I want you and anyone you want to chat with to have a nice local place to hang out without restrictions or disruptions. Maybe we could learn more about Ash there or hook him up with someone you approve of. Maybe we could get face guy to come if that'd interest you."
Kiri slowly moved her sword out, placing the flat of the blade on Akemi's shoulder. No real force behind it. It just sat there.
"So you are an idiot, hm?"
"Buddy," Akemi said, yet again folding his arms and tilting his head to give Kiri a judgmental look like she was a child hopelessly trying to play dumb, "take a look in a mirror. If wanting to hook up with you is stupid I don't want to be smart. Besides, being stupid is fun."
All at once, Kiri seemed to lurch closer. Whatever she could claim to be, fast was one of them. Her blade slid along Akemi's shoulder, as she planted one foot beside him and launched herself forward, bringing her torso to within about an inch of the other Neko's crossed arms. The smell of rancid blood and meat hung on her, but she seemed to be breathing steady and calm. She bit her lip, looking down over Akemi's neck in some sort of anticipation.
A fair few locks of Akemi's perfect hair fell to the dirt, as the motion had severed a good portion that hung around his shoulders. Her free hand was planted firmly on Akemi's other shoulder.
"I'm actually probably going to enjoy this."
Akemi continued to smile. Maybe slicing his hair was done for something more than to intimidate him. Maybe she was making him more in line with her preferences. Regardless of how likely that was he sure enjoyed the thought. Part of him wanted to try to go for a kiss like he did with Arccos but as tempting as that was he figured he'd simply let Kiri be Kiri as doing that was currently plenty fun. "I'm already enjoying it. Just don't expect to get my head until you give me some of yours."
Letting Kiri be Kiri would only particularly remain fun if Akemi was in fact a particularly extreme masochist. Exactly what she did wasn't clear, it started with her moving forward a little more, moving her arms around as if to embrace Akemi. Then there was one moment of exquisite, blinding, almost transcendant pain. Lingering for just a second before Akemi would be able to block out the sensation of it.
Arccos driving burning hot rivets into him was a soothing balm in comparison.
"Fuck!" was all Akemi could reflexively say. He blocked the pain as soon as he could on instinct and attempted to duck out of reach of whatever she was doing while thrusting his two clenched fists side by side at the center of her abdomen along with all the force his gravity control could generate. If he could drive her back he intended to get to his feet and draw his NSP which he would keep close to his chest while he took a hunched stance.
Light on her feet, the push shoved Kiri back a fair way. Seemingly moving back with the force of the blow and nullifying her own mass. A few steps back, the tiny neko came to ground. Keeping a somewhat low stance, and holding her sword two handed before her, the thing visible crackled to life with a sickly red light. Tiny specks of dust in the air hitting the blade erupting as tiny flashes of light as they were annihilated by whatever energies were at work.
"So yer finally going to stop suckin' yourself off and put your money where ya dick was?" She asked, almost gleefully. Like this was exactly the outcome that she wanted.
"Fuck that looks so sick," Akemi hastily and emphatically said as he saw an unknown energy dance across the blade, thinking he might need to dodge a swing at any moment. Fearing that he subsequently switched to telepathy given how much faster it'd be to simply shoot his thoughts at her instead of mouthing them under duress. "I don't wanna fight but I guess it's inevitable now. I wasn't trying to call you a whore buddy, I only wanted to compliment you. I'm a little wimpy mouse that wants to give you a place where you won't get mind wiped for socializing." As he thought the Neko decided to play it safe and floated backwards straight away from his opponent with his feet barely off the floor.
The man's expression was one of hopelessness, defeat and dismay. He figured he might be able to win and even if he didn't Kiri might at least enjoy the fight, but he had a feeling if she was so confident in herself she must have something secret to give her an edge. On top of that though a battle might make more progress than words ever could he didn't want to go at it given how smooth and peaceful his experience with Ash had been and he felt if he wasn't always being so true to his gut urges he could have ended up in a much better situation.
"Oh so you're trying to save me?!" Kiri's thoughts crept in to Akemi's mind in the same telepathic band. Only in her case, she seemed to creep in that extra little bit by accompanying the words with sensation. Akemi could feel the little butterflies in her stomach, and the sort of raw hunger in her. Anticipation. A pure and sadistic urge to simply do harm.
"And what? You want me to thank you for saving me from my job? The one I signed up for knowingly?" She sprinted forward, getting a bit of speed up, holding her sword ahead one handed now. Soon taking off and pursuing Akemi. "You don't know one thing about me other than how hard you get around me. I don't need your damn help, and I don't want it."
"No, fuck, I just want you and your buds to have fun and to be around cool, fun people. Akemi straightened up, continued to fly backwards and put his perfect memory to use to place whatever objects would best block her path between them as he ultimately headed for the exit. Figuring it was too risky to hold back any longer he carefully fired here and there when he thought he had a good shot, especially one at her core. If his heavy stun blasts didn't work he'd switch to heavy mode. He wouldn't be surprised if they were useless given that she could be part Mishhu and zillionaire Banning could have have given her any number of modifications to make her the ideal bodyguard. "You don't know anything about me either other than I like your look and dig your attitude. You also have no idea what's done to you at your job because your memory is wiped."
The blast from Akemi's shot failed as Kiri ducked low, kicking off the ground and giving a spinning slice from her sword. A flash of light and a moment of confusion seemingly making the brain reel from what just happened: She was apparently able to parry the damn shots. Chances were that it was a good assumption that she wasn't entirely unmodified for a Nekovalkyrja.
Drawing the sword back into its scabbard, Akemi might make out Kiri fiddling with some device on the heavy metallic sword-holder. The little neko flipped some switch on the thing, making a loud Sshvtvm! noise as the blade was flash-drawn. Seemingly fired from the sheathe with a force likely to break a lesser shoulder. Some fine and practiced manipulation of gravity giving her enough speed from the shot to close the distance on Akemi.
Her attack came as a flash of red, barely perceptible to the naked eye. Accompanied with the only response: A telepathic surge of almost ecstatic enjoyment as she finally got this opportunity to cut him.
"Well lucky for you I didn't bring my Zesu katana buster." By this point Akemi switched to three round bursts of his weapon and held his gun right to his body. Unable to run away he aimed a gravity strike at Kiri's eyes without any gesture to accompany it and tried to lunge forward while shifting his body to the side in an attempt to narrowly dodge her blow and perhaps come too close for her to immediately make another. Hopefully the gamble would give him a chance to level a NSP discharge at her stomach or flank.
The sheer speed of Kiri's blow, and slight rotation as she put as much force as nekoly possible into it made it difficult to properly land a blow on the little one's eyes. She ate the blow up, taking it directly on the chin more or less, judging by her recovery in which she skidded away and spit out one of her loosened teeth. But by eating the blow she'd moved herself aside enough to get enough leeway in terms of distance to deflect a few of the more accurate shots from Akemi's NSP burst.
Judging by her continued broadcast of murderous intent, her heart was pounding. Blood boiling. A sensation not unlike a particularly enjoyable rollercoaster ride.
A little breath, and she adopted her stance again. Sword forward, empty hand out to give a little gesture of 'that all you have?' as she smiled a smile with a now significant gap in its dentition.
Akemi projected feelings of his own, feelings of amusement, awe and awww. He thought the gap in Kiri's teeth was pretty endearing and he loved how much enjoyment she could experience from a fight. At the same time a sense of hopelessness and disappointment was mixed in and showed in the smile now on his face as he doubted there was any chance he could win or avoid an awful or at least highly inconvenient fate. "That's fuckin' sick too. You're totally gonna get me next time. After you do whatever you're gonna do to me will you please check out my place? I just want to see you enjoy a meal and a fight and getting to brag about the next giant thing you kill."
The male Neko beckoned with a few flicks of his free hand as if he were in a martial arts movie as he once more made for the door, intent on getting as far away from the lodge as possible before having to avoid another attack.
As Akemi fled deeper into the woods, this time he found himself not so closely followed. Instead there was a faint echoing in the distance that sounded faintly of thunder. A deep cracking noise.
No sign of the little nekovalkyrja following, but instead a hefty trunk of one of the crisp-burnt bloodwood trees came crashing down from above. Relying almost solely on the size of the projectile flung somehow or other to try and run him off.
The sensations sent to him were gone now. Maybe she just wanted him gone.
Not taking any chances Akemi stuck with the original plan in his mind and flew the quickest route to the edge of the mountain so he could fall right off it backwards until he deemed himself safe enough to turn around or unable to afford not to because of whatever he might collide with otherwise. "Your sword is super cool! I'll duel you sometime when I have mine if you want!" Along with his message he sent a burst of cheer to show he had no hard feelings. "Please check out my place. Bring anything you kill and Smithee will evaluate and pay for it." A map to The Cockpit and a picture of the former Osmani knight followed. Hopefully she wouldn't zip over to it and kill everyone.
There was no response incoming from Kiri.
...That did not go well.
