The Red Hand

Chapter 106 – The Dragon Hero and The Demon Princess.

After tying Elna up, Hishya and Akagi waited until Superbia came to take her to RRT headquarters for processing and containment. Hishya figured Elna would struggle, but Akagi wasn't so sure.

"Jesus." Superbia looked around at the destruction. "I watched it live, but seeing the chaos in person is something else. I had no idea that Herlex could fire off a blast like that! It obliterated an entire mountain and I swear I saw it from Nagoya!"

"Yeah, and what's it tell you that Akagi just stood there and took it!" Hishya sighed. "How the fuck was the world supposed to defeat you, Akagi?" She turned to the Demon. "Like seriously, if you can handle our crazy powers, this world was never going to beat you with conventional weapons..."

"I mean. You weren't supposed to beat me, Hishya." Akagi answered. "Sure, technically, I am killable. But I was intended to destroy this world, so naturally, I'm crazy strong. Demon Lords, real Demon Lords, are not meant to lose. If one of us shows up, that's usually it." Akagi shrugged.

"Please don't tell me another one of you can appear..." Hishya groaned.

"Nope, one per world." Akagi shook her head. "Otherwise, we'd fight, and you can imagine what that would do."

“Good.” Hishya breathed a sigh of relief. “I don't need two world ending calamities running around thank you.”

"Out of curiosity." Superbia picked up the restrained Elna. "Can you fire off a blast like that?"

Rather than answer, Akagi gave a cheeky grin.

{I'm going to take that as a yes.} (Superbia)

"Well, if she ever starts losing, the world goes boom." Hishya sighed. “Joy.”

"If I actually started losing to someone or something, then this world has much bigger issues than me.” Akagi laughed. “ Besides, I'd rather not have to do that. This world is quite nice, and I'd like to continue having fun on it." Akagi said. "Hopefully, my little display showed the world the futility of fighting me."

"I'd like to think so." Superbia gave a wry smile. "Considering you effortlessly beat some of the top players and took that blast with no issue. You'd have to be crazy to want to fight you."

{But was eating Zappy and impaling Herlex REALLY necessary! I nearly lost my lunch like Hishya did!} (Superbia)

"Ugh...." Elna started waking up. "Where am I?" She looked around, her eyes landing on Akagi. "IYAAAAAAAAAAA! Don't come near me." She started wiggling in her restraints as she freaked out. “The monster! The darkness! It ate them all!”

“Hey, stop wiggling!” Superbia bonked the Elf on the head.

"What the hell did you do to her?" Hishya asked. “Did you break her or something?”

"I just showed her a bit of the darkness within me. Kind of like how I did to you, my little dragon." Akagi shrugged. "Also I kinda ate her entire her team and beat her super easily, things the human mind don't take too well to." Akagi smirked as she said that last bit.

"Stop freaking out, Elna!" Superbia bonked her on the head again, this time harder, to get her to shut up. Which she finally did after a few additional hits. "It's over. Akagi defeated Libra. Armalthy, Herlex, Zappy, Spellhauser, and Max are all dead."

"As are the rest of the crafting team and everyone inside the base. Well, barring yours truly and Alice of course." Birdy called out to them as she walked across the courtyard. She was holding Alice's hand as the two approached. “How's it going everyone? Having a nice day? I know I am!” She smiled.

"Mama!" Alice took off running towards Akagi, who bent down and picked her up, all while giving her a big hug.

"There's my little one." Akagi smiled.

"Mama! It's really you! You're free." Alice rubbed her face against Akagi's chest. "I'm so glad."

"Me too." Akagi laughed as she ruffled the girl's hair. “Me too.”

Hishya and Superbia looked at each other and sighed. "Seeing Akagi switch from Demon Lord to mom is quite something." Hishya laughed. “What a 180 from five minutes ago.”

"Yeah, I'll say." Superbia sighed. "I can't say I agree with letting Alice go after she killed all those people with her puppets. But I'm not going to argue with the fucking Demon Lord over this." She let out a dry laugh. “I'm not interested in being devoured or being throw into whatever hell you placed Armalthy in.

“A wise decision!” Akagi chuckled. “All you have to do is everything I tell you and you'll be fine!”

Superbia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure, ok...”

“When do we line up for the branding? That way everyone will know we're Akagi's personal property.” Hishya rolled her eyes.

“Hmmmm.” Akagi thought for a moment. “I'll pencil you in next Tuesday, Monday is filled with snuggles and I can't move those around.”

“Pffffff.” Superbia and Hishya burst out laughing, as did Akagi.

“It's not so bad, the burning sensation goes away quickly once all your nerves get fried.” Birdy added her comment.

"Before I forget! Birdy!" Superbia glared at the rainbow-haired girl. "You were the mole! You son of a bitch!" She wasn't really mad, just exasperated.

"Hey, don't get all mad at me." Birdy chuckled. "I'd say working for Akagi was the best decision I ever made."

"Why the hell would you become her subordinate?" Hishya asked.

"Reasons." Birdy shrugged. “Not really your business.”

{Let me guess, you had someone bumped off and you paid with your servitude?} (Hishya)

"So Akagi made you her slave?" Superbia sighed. "Real nice, Akagi."

"Listen, we don't call them slaves in this day and age, Superbia." Akagi chuckled. "In the modern civilized world of the twenty first century we call them interns."

"Considering I did an internship once, I can confirm it's not much different." Birdy laughed. "Though at least Akagi pays me, unlike those bastards in corporate."

"You know what...I don't care anymore." Superbia just gave up on the subject. "Go be her intern for all I care. I'm going home and relaxing now that all this nonsense is over. Hopefully this is the last world ending disaster I need to get involved with." She turned to leave with the, very quiet, Elna.

"Superbia," Akagi called out to her right before she left. "Hishya and I will be heading back to my place for the day, but we'll pop over to Tokyo tomorrow to finish things up. So do me a favor and make sure everyone's present and accounted for."

"Sounds good,” Superbia stooped for a moment. “There's a bunch of debriefing after today's events and it would be good for the Demon herself to be there.” She jumped away, heading back to Nagoya. 

After she left, Akagi looked at the three girls. "Well shall we head home? Birdy, you won't be able to do the whole deep cover thing anymore, but I've got other tasks for you. So come along, we should introduce you to the rest of the family.”

"As you wish, my Lord." Birdy bowed, and her tone became more formal.

"Kinda strange hearing a non-NPC calling you that," Hishya commented as she put out her wings.

"I only do it for the formal stuff." Birdy shrugged. "Akagi likes to stand on ceremony and by this point, its just natural."

"You're damn right!" Akagi laughed as the four of them took off, flying towards her estate. Alice enjoyed flying up so high and was in awe as she watched the clouds below them.

_____________________________________________________________________________

After a bit of flying, Akagi, Birdy, Hishya, and Alice arrived back at the estate. There was much to unpack, and Akagi wanted to relax a bit.

"Why don't we go inside and get some tea." Akagi said as she placed Alice down. "Would you like that, little one? I can even get some snacks."

"Yes!" Alice smiled. “Tea sounds wonderful! And I want cookies! Yumi makes the best ones with the little faces on them!”

“Then have them you shall!” Akagi telepathically told Yumi to acquire the desired cookies, something the priestess found funny.

The four went inside and were greeted by Kana. After a bit of discussion, they moved into the living room, where Yumi was preparing tea and the requested snacks, which Alice happily munched on.

“Mmmmm. Animal cookies....” Alice was in bliss over the cookies.

"So this is Alice?" Kana looked at the little girl who was happily eating. "She's pretty cute. When you told me of a daughter, I figured she be some horrible monster or something." She joked.

"Very funny, Kana." Akagi rolled her eyes. “Sorry to disappoint, but Alice isn't some horrible shadow monster or anything like that. She's human, well Star Human, but close enough. And yes, she is very cute.” She smiled.

Alice downed a cookie before turning to Kana. “Nice to meet you, Kana Onee-chan.” Alice smiled, her words as sweet as honey.

“Onee-chan...” You could practically see the heart arrow hit Kana in the chest. “I already like her! She gets my approval!” Hearing that word caused Kana's heart to melt.

Akagi sighed. “Well that takes care of one worry...”

{All it took was that one word and you folded...} (Akagi)

Kana took a moment to recover before she greeted Birdy. "And umm. I've never met you, you're Birdy, right?" Kana looked at the rainbow-haired girl. "Nice to meet you."

"Hello." Birdy smiled. "Akagi's told me all about you, but it's nice to finally meet you too."

With introductions out of the way, the conversation moved to the future. "So what happens now?" Kana asked her sister. "Libra's beaten, but well... I'd say the entire planet's going to be afraid of you." Akagi's actions were broadcast to the entire planet, and the internet was currently ablaze with discussions about her, not to mention the news media was in a frenzy.

{You went way overkill on you're little display, Onee-chan. You even got me scared and that's something if I'm normally resistant to your actions. I really hope Mika and Naomi took my warning to heart and didn't watch. Wait. This is those two were talking about. Mika probably recorded it and it watching it over and over again. While Naomi 100% watched...} (Kana)

Akagi shrugged. "Hopefully, people just leave me alone and let me relax. I've got plenty of Yumi snuggling to do from now until the end of time, and I'd rather that not be interrupted." Akagi pulled the priestess into a hug. "I just want to chill with my people in my own little world, that's all."

{Yumi snuggling...} Kana rolled her eyes.

"I would prefer that too, but you and I both know people usually can't leave well enough alone. Humanity is known for its stupidity." Hishya sighed. "Who knows how the rest of the world will react to you and your power. You did also declare that you would wipe out humanity, even if that was just you messing around."

{Messing around, sure. That's what all that was, Hishya.} (Kana)

"People do tend to be stupid, at least in my experience." Birdy agreed.

"I'll have to chat with President Rosewood and make sure she understands that leaving me alone is the only path forward." Akagi took a sip of her coffee. “Otherwise, she might get her prophesized Demon Lord invasion of the world. Though in that case, rather than just blow up the world, I'd so make an actual army and command it properly. That would be amazing.”

"Well, hopefully, getting your own country will incentive people to leave you alone. I'd rather not see you lead a Demonic army of foot soldiers on a victory parade in Washington D.C. or Tokyo." Hishya groaned. "Just please, please, please, humanity. Don't be dumb." She prayed that humanity acted smart for once.

“I think a tank parade is more my style.” Akagi laughed. “I can see it now, my version of Ghost Division smashes the American's lines and envelops the entire army. It will be like May 1940 all over again, except I wont issue a halt order.” No one except Akagi appreciated her joke.

"Ignoring Onee-chan's stupid comments, how is you owning a country going to work anyway?" Kana asked. "Will that mean I have to leave and return to 'Japan?' Will you be unable to visit me and move around freely?" She looked sad.

"Lines on a map mean nothing to me." Akagi laughed as she squeezed Yumi a bit. "I own this world. It's mine and I'll go wherever I want, whenever I want. International borders be dammed. Being the leader of a nation changes nothing regarding me and you or you being able to stay her, so don't worry. I'll ensure the Japanese government allows you to move around as you please. They don't exactly have the ability to say no to me anyway." Akagi was never going to allow such things to separate her and Kana, and with her power, there was little anyone could do to stop her from going wherever she pleased.

"I'd think many people would take exception to the idea of you owning the world, but I understand." Kana sighed.

"Well, I do." Akagi was firm on this idea. "This world belongs to me, and I can do with it as I please, such is my right as a Demon Lord. Rather than exterminating humanity, I'm allowing it to exist on my world. Thus I own it and everyone. At least, that's how I view things." Akagi laughed.

{Ah so the branding of us as cattle was unneeded since one already exists on our souls... great...} (Hishya)

"The Demon Lord owns a kingdom now." Hishya pinched the bridge of her nose. "What are you going to call this nation of yours anyway? The Scary Nightmare Nation of Hell and Also Cute Puppies?" Her comment made Kana, Birdy and Yumi laugh.

"I'm thinking The Demon Kingdom of Dumetor. It's simple, tells you who runs it, and includes my family name." Akagi smiled. “But darn yours was so good. I might steal that.”

"At least you have sensible naming conventions." Hishya chuckled. "I was worried about what you'd call it. Knowing you, my joke might have been closer to the truth."

"All joking aside, I needed to make sure it was palatable for the masses." Akagi sighed. "Otherwise, how could I convince people to come here."

"You think people would come to live here?" Hishya asked. She hadn't expected Akagi to want more people to start living around the estate.

"I'm going to put out a call to all the FWO survivors. Those with or without powers are welcome to settle here. There's not a great deal of room or fancy things, but they could live their lives quite peacefully out here." Akagi looked at her. "You and I both know people are not too welcoming of even those who were not granted powers, what with all the Libra attacks. I suspect I might get a few who are willing to move just for peace and quiet. I mean we already have that team of crazies living not to far away anyway." She was referring to a certain dryad and fairy that lived in the mountains nearby. She let them stay if they provided vegetables and fruits for her people.

"I think so too," Birdy interjected. "I've kept in contact with a few of my friends from FWO, and a lot of them are getting heaps of abuse." She continued. "I could see a few of them coming here. You'd just have to build up the infrastructure and make sure they felt welcome. I think you might even get some of those with no powers too. I know plenty of them are having a hard time adjusting back to normal life."

"I'll look into what I can do for the non-powered people. Perhaps we can do what we're plannig for the girls and give them magic if they agree to become citizens." Akagi thought that would be fun. "As for infrastructure and such. We can easily have an entire town made in a few weeks, and I suspect Daikael and Imp would be able to hammer that out with enough resources."

"How are you even going to run a country anyway?" Hishya asked. "Do you even know the first thing about that? I don't think your people will be enough to handle all that entails and even if you pull in more players, there aren't any that have such experience."

"I think we'll be fine." Akagi squeezed Yumi. "I've got my trusty [Bonded Soul] right here. What do you think about being Prime Minister, Yumi?" Akagi laughed. “Sound like fun?”

Yumi poked Akagi in the cheek, squishing it.

"I will decline your generous offer." Yumi said. "I'd much prefer to be head of intelligence. I know nothing about running a country, even if it's little more than a village. So you'd best find a more qualified individual."

"Oh well, I figured you'd decline." Akagi smiled. "I wonder which poor sap will be suckered into that job?"

“Shouldn't you run the country?” Hishya asked. “Why are you trying to pawn that job off on someone else?”

“Why do I want all that work?” Akagi laughed. “Screw that I don't wanna actually have to deal with all that paperwork! I've got enough responsibility running the clan, adding more would just reduce my playtime, and we can't have that”

"Why do I have the feeling I'm going to be forced to take on that role?" Kana sighed.

"Because you know me very well." Akagi laughed. "Just accept your role, Kana! It comes with great perks!"

{Yeah and all the pain in the ass associated with a monarch that won't do her job...} (Kana)

"At least let me graduate high school before you start trying to make me take on such a position, please." Kana complained but didn't look unhappy to do such a thing. In fact, she actually thought it sounded fun and challenging.

The girls continued chatting about a number of things well into the evening. They then broke, had dinner and took a nice long dip in the host springs before it came time for everyone to rest and get some sleep after the busy day. Akagi and Yumi went to sleep in the master bedroom and Kana decided to retire for the night.

She was sitting in her bed brushing her hair in her pajamas when a knock came from the door.

"Um... Kana. Can I come in?" Hishya asked.

"Sure," Kana replied, and Hishya came in. She was also in her PJs. "What's up?" Kana was brushing her hair after the bath.

Hishya looked a bit nervous as she walked over to Kana's side and sat next to her. The two were actually rather close in height so Hishya was able to easily look straight into Kana's eyes.

"I umm. I promised myself that after things with Libra were over, I would settle things between us." Hishya took a deep breath and looked into Kana's eyes. "I love you, Kana." She declared her love with a straight face. "You accepted everything about me. Even knowing how I was in the past, you still cared for me. I don't know that much about love or relationships, mostly because I never thought I would live long enough to find one. But I'm sure that what I'm feeling in my chest is love. So what I'm trying to say is-" Hishya's words were cut off by Kana's lips placed over her own.

"I've been waiting for you to say it." Kana giggled. "I love you too, Hishya."

The two kissed again, as they fell onto the bed together. What happened after that will remain private. Or it would have if the two didn't discuss it with others in the following days.