The Red Hand

Chapter 111 – Hanging out Afterschool.

*RINNNNNNNNNNNNNNG*

The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. Today was the first time since before winter break that classes had been held, and Kana was worried about what would happen upon her return. As expected, things were a bit difficult with many students avoiding her, Mika and Naomi. It seemed that Akagi's over the top destruction of Libra had its intended effect of putting the fear of god into people, while also causing additional headaches. Her classmates were not outwardly mean or hostile to any of them, mostly out of fear, but there were whispers about the girls behind their backs. Hito was the only exception to this, as he'd made his displeasure with the girls return known to them during homeroom, before being promptly told off by Kana, who was in no mood.

Figuring it best to ignore these issues for now, the girls went about their day and tried to return to as normal of a life as possible. Mika and Naomi had no real issues, as their other friends hadn't abandoned them, but Kana had it a bit worse. She had no other friends outside the two girls and was thus left alone when they were not around. While this was all technically her sister's fault, Kana couldn't bring herself to get angry with her, not when she knew everything that happened and understood why Akagi is the way she is. Though, Kana did find it strange that she didn't care as much about the isolation or the whispers as much as she'd expected. She figured that this was probably due to either her soul imprinting or just her numbness from dealing with her sister's antics, likely both. In this case, she was happy to ignore people and go about her day, figuring that if they didn't have the courage to say things to her face, that they weren't worth stressing about.

"Alright, I texted Onee-chan, and she said she'll be waiting near the front gate." Kana slung her bag over her shoulder.

"I can't wait to see what she looks like! I hope she actually came in some normal clothing, it will be nice to see her in something different." Mika smiled.

"I do too, but we should be wary about bringing attention to the fact that she's here." Naomi sighed. "People might freak out if they realize who she is, you saw how people acted today."

"Yeah I'd rather not have a panic on our hands. Hito was already bad enough." Kana agreed. "So are we ready to go? I can see in Mika's eyes that she's hungry, so let's get to that café before she goes crazy."

"I'm not hungry!" Mika protested.

*Growl*

But her stomach betrayed her, causing her face to go red.

"That's what you get for leaving your lunch at home." Naomi laughed. “How many times are you going to do that?” This was sadly a regular thing for the blue-haired girl.

"I wouldn't be so hungry if you would've shared." Mika puffed out her cheeks. “Stingy!”

"If we did that, you wouldn't learn your lesson. Take care to make sure you've got everything before you rush out the door in the morning." Kana chuckled, and Mika stuck out her tongue.

The three of them walked out of the school building and into the courtyard. Today was actually pretty mild. Not exactly warm, but for February, it was rather nice. Though Naomi still thought it was too cold and uttered her usual complaints.

"So where is she?" Mika asked as they looked around. “I don't see her anywhere.”

"We don't know what she'll look like, so that's already an issue." Naomi didn't see any sign of Akagi. “She really should have told us ahead of time.”

"Let me call her, that will make this infinitely easier than poking around in the dark." Kana swiped her hand to call her sister, and a few seconds later she heard a phone ring to her right.

"Come now. You don't you recognize me?" A voice Kana was all too familiar with spoke out, causing the three girls to turn their heads. Leaning up against the wall was Akagi in her original body, a sight they'd only rarely seen. She was wearing a black leather jacket, a white T-shirt, and blue jeans. “I'd be sad if this wasn't expected.” She gave a two finger salute. “Is this normal enough clothing for you? I pulled some of my old favorites out of the wardrobe.”

"Onee-" Kana covered her mouth before she could finish. People knew who her sister was, and calling her that out loud would draw attention. "When you said you were going to show up looking different. I didn't expect this." Kana and the girls walked over.

{Those are some really old clothes, she used to wear those back during her time in high school when I'd force her out of the house. It really is nice to see her like this again.} (Kana)

“You look nice. Though the leather jacket was unexpected, but it definitely suits you and your personality.” Mika complimented her. “Its too bad you can't stay like that more, you really do have good features and style.”

"Yeah, I thought you hated that body?" Naomi recalled an earlier conversation. “You said using it was unpleasant, so why are you like that now?”

"I do hate this body." Akagi nodded as she put her phone away. "But if I can't handle a bit of discomfort so I can hang out with you guys, that would be pathetic." She smiled. Akagi was really looking forward to today and was able to put aside her disgust long enough to hang with them.

"What should we call you?" Kana asked. "Rishia? Since that's what you look like?"

"Please, don't call me that." Akagi flinched. "That name is even worse now, so I'd rather you not. Just speak at me if you can, and if necessary, just call me Akagi. I have no interest in ever being referred to as Rishia ever again."

"Our secret weapon to defeat the Demon Lord is to call out her true name." Mika laughed.

"You know, Mika, I know a few fun deserted islands out in the pacific. You want to go check them out with me?" Akagi put on a nasty grin. She really hated being called by her original name. Being the Demon Lord only made that worse. 

"Eep!" Mika ducked behind Kana playfully. "The princess will protect me!"

"Can you leave her on that island for like a week? I think that will set her straight." Kana had a similar reaction to being called princess in public.

"Scary Kana has embraced being the Demon Princess." Naomi laughed.

"Do you want to go to the island too?" Kana glared at her, but then laughed since it was all in good fun.

"Alright, enough messing around. Where to?" Akagi chuckled. “But seriously Mika, please don't ever call me that name. I genuinely hate it and I've got a lot of tolerance but that's a good way to get me angry.”

Diving deep into the knowledge given to her after being released, she understood just why that name always bugged her. Demon Lords are born with an innate name from inception, and hers was Akagi. She always used it as an online handle, even before FWO, and now she knew why. Her subconscious desire to be released manifested in this single name and thus, she felt compelled to refer to herself as it, even while sealed. As such, calling her Rishia was tantamount to rejecting her existence as the Demon Lord and to still consider her a human. Two things she would never tolerate. Kana calling her that was one thing, she didn't like it but would suck it up. But no one else, not even Yumi was allowed to call her Rishia. At least not without risking a serious beating.

Seeing how serious Akagi was, and recalling their conversation yesterday, the two agreed. Having fun was one thing, but knowingly making Akagi uncomfortable wasn't something they wanted to do, and after yesterday's conversation the two girls spoke to each other in private. They'd recognized that perhaps they hadn't treated Akagi as well as they should, even keeping her slightly at arms length. Mika brought up that Akagi seemed to genuinely appreciate their company and friendship and that she and Naomi should strive to treat her more as a peer and friend than some being that lorded over then on high. Something they admittedly did, at least in their minds.

Mika was quite good at reading people and their emotions, and she picked up on serious discomfort and distress beneath Akagi's generally happy exterior. She figured that part of this was the sudden changes she was experiencing as a result of her release. While the rest were likely a result of Akagi's internal struggle over how she wanted the girls to treat her, and general anxiety. Naomi agreed and having done a bit more research on Akagi's specific mental illness she concluded that it would be for the best if they changed how they approached the Demon. They couldn't entirely separate Demon Lord Akagi from normal Akagi, but they'd do their best to treat her as a friend whenever they could, as they'd also come to enjoy the time they spent with her.

Kana even pulled the girls aside and told them that her sister was in a kind of crisis over whether they even liked her in the first place, spurring them to take drastic measures to break through her thick head with a carefully laid plan.

"Before we do anything else, we have to feed Mika before she goes crazy. There's a nice café up the street from school that we've been wanting to check out." Kana said as they started walking up the street. Mika wanted to protest, but her stomach betrayed her, again.

"Been a while since I've just walked around Kyoto casually like this," Akagi commented as they started walking toward the café. "Last time I tried something like that, people kept away from me."

{You never exactly did this before FWO either, Onee-chan.} Kana sighed in her head.

"Well, it's not like people would recognize you as you look now, anyway." Naomi commented. "Your original appearance was posted for about five minutes before your new look was the only one people came to associate with you." Rishia Tomogawa was more or less scrubbed from everything. Akagi had made sure of that, even going as far as to threaten some members of government agencies to remove her information, and now, as far as the Japanese Government was concerned, Rishia Tomogowa never existed.

"Yeah, and after last week, the last thing people will suspect is that the Demon Lord has transformed into a normal girl and is going to a café after school with her friends." Mika laughed.

"That was the idea, and why I chose this body." Akagi shrugged. "Being able to swap appearance at will is quite useful and enables some good fun." She'd played around extensively with it, causing Kana some major headaches.

"It would be funny if you could transform us." Mika joked. “We could go to school as Kana or something.”

"That would be funny, but I cannot do that." Akagi smiled. "My power is more for destruction than play." Akagi said in a fake stuffy voice.

"Though you can play quite hard with it when you want." Kana rolled her eyes. "I've seen you mess around with Yumi and the others."

"Hey, you enjoyed the shadow body too. Need I tell these two how much you enjoyed throwing me around like a bean bag?" Akagi smirked, recalling that incident in the living room.

"Oh wait, you have to show them the rabbit later!" Kana looked at her friends. "The voice she did had me and Yumi dying!"

"Rabbit want souls, not carrots!" Akagi mimicked the rabbit's voice, which caused Mika and Naomi to bust out laughing.

"What the hell was that?!?" Mika exclaimed.

"Yeah, that was great." Naomi wiped a tear from her eye.

"Demon rabbit who wanted souls." Akagi shrugged. "Kana was ready to offer up yours, Naomi. She said Mika didn't qualify since she's impure."

"I knew you were evil, Kana. But this is the last straw!" Naomi playfully punched Kana in the back.

“And what do you mean impure!” Mika exclaimed. “You're the one whose impure, Kana!”

"You should be honored, Naomi." Kana glanced back. "Your soul was deemed worthy of being eaten by the Demon Lord." As she said this, Kana started laughing. "What the hell am I saying?"

“Scary Kana is offering sacrifices to her master.” (Mika x Naomi)

The three continued their silly conversation until they reached the café up the street. The inside was nice and warm, much to Naomi's delight and was quite nice. It was small, but cozy and gave off a nice vibe. Akagi told them she'd pay, something Naomi and Kana resisted, but Akagi was infinitely more stubborn.

Mika got a sandwich and instantly dove in the second it arrived.

“This is so good!” She said as she munched away at it.

"You weren't kidding. The poor girl was probably starved." Akagi laughed as she sipped her coffee.

"She slept through her alarm this morning and forgot her lunch." Kana sighed. "You wouldn't believe how many times this has happened." On more than one occasion, the girls were pressured into sharing their lunch.

"Yeah, and she always mooches off someone when she does." Naomi shook her head as she ate her crepe.

{And we usually cave too...} (Naomi)

"Why didn't she buy something in the cafeteria? It hasn't been that long since I went there, wasn't that an option?" Akagi asked.

"No money." Mika said while she ate.

"More like her parents don't trust her with money, since she always blows it on dumb things." Naomi added context. "She would be the kind of person to hit the lottery and be poor the next day."

"Pfff." Akagi laughed. "I guess that means Yuzu and Suzu will have to get jobs to support her! Those two are gonna have their work cut out for them to keep Mika afloat!”

"Nah," Mika wiped the sauce off her mouth. "I'm sure you'd support your future daughter-in-law, right?" Mika gave puppy eyes.

"They aren't her daughters Mika." Kana tilted her head.

{What is this idiot saying?} (Kana)

"By agreeing to join the Dumetor clan, they kinda are. At least only technically." Akagi said. "Mimi is their actual mother and always will be, but they and all of my people are treated as either a brother/sister or a child. So if you want to be technical, calling the Yuki-Onna my children isn't exactly wrong, though I wouldn't refer to them as such.”

"Huh..." Kana thought for a moment. "Wait! So, I have like 100 brothers and sisters?!?"

"No." Akagi said. "They are sworn to me. That does not spread further, especially since you are not part of the clan. Thus calling them your siblings is not correct, though I suspect they'd love that." This was something common in old feudal clans where those joining would be come sworn children or siblings of the leader.

"I've never heard you address anyone as your child. Except for Alice." Naomi said.

"Because I don't see them in such a way, and I don't want to call any of them sibling or child. As far as I'm concerned, we're a clan of equals, though they heavily protested that notion." Akagi shrugged. "It was like pulling teeth the get the heads to agree to being my siblings on paper, since they wanted to be children or some other lower level equivalent. Even Yumi is a pain the ass and getting her not to stand behind me and act like some kind of lessor has been a chore!” Akagi sighed thinking about Yumi's inferiority complex. “Damn girl still doesn't agree that she has the right to treat me as an equal, something I don't think will ever change.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Mika said. “You are the Demon Lord and she's just a pretty normal girl all things considered. I think anyone would have a hard time accepting being your equal, even if you tell them.”

{I mean, even Kana sees you as above her, though she'd never admit it.} (Naomi)

“You might be right, but that doesn't make me happy. She can be so stubborn about the dumbest things some times! She's also still refuses to call me by my name thinking that doing so is above her station.” Akagi groaned. She'd tried to get Yumi to drop the my Lord thing but was rebuked fiercely. “They're all like that! I get the respect and formality, but would it kill those idiots to think a just a bit better about themselves?!?” Akagi really disliked how the rest of her family had a tendency to down play their own value and importance. She cared for each of them and seeing degrade themselves genuinely upset her.

{Onee-chan, you do realize you self depreciate quite hard yourself, right?} (Kana)

"They really are loyal to you, huh?" Kana sipped her tea. "Not to sound rude, but I don't get it. Why are they like that? What did you do for them to have such unwavering devotion to you?"

"It's hard to explain." Akagi thought. “They all have their own circumstances.” Explaining it in detail would take a very long time.

"They respect you." Naomi chimed in. "It's clear as day to me that each one of them has a deeply held respect for you. I don't know exactly what your interactions with each of them were and why they came to serve you, but all of them think very highly of you." She had a staff of her own and understood it better than the other two girls.

"That's a way to put it." Akagi nodded. "I helped each one of them with their own problems or issues. I've shown them that loyalty to me is repaid with loyalty, and that I'll fight for each of them until the bitter end. They all know if the chips are down I'll have their back, no matter what. From the top brass of the clan to the humble foot soldier they're all important to me and I'd do whatever I could to help them."

"I'd say it goes beyond respect." Kana tilted her head. "It honestly seems more like fanaticism than anything else. Seems like many view you as some higher being, almost like they're part of a cult." She recalled some conversations with Chloe and Yumi that made her head spin.

"Yumi aside, you aren't wrong." Akagi gave a wry smile. She knew Kana was right about their level of devotion being too great. "I know that they'd do anything for me, and being the Demon Lord has only made it worse now since they view all their hype and faith as having been correct." She hung her head in defeat. “I overheard some of them talking about how much longer it would be till I conquered the world! Like seriously, don't force me into something like that! I'm good thank you very much.”

{I wouldn't be shocked if they started gathering in secret for prayers and stuff. Perhaps even sacrificing people on an alter.} Kana's thoughts were only partially in jest.

"I wonder if the game caused that?" Naomi asked. “They were technically NPCs and it would make sense if the game enforced a level of loyalty to their master.”

"Perhaps." Akagi shrugged. "I did ask Mizumi about this issue, and she told me nothing within the game or her magic would cause such effects and at this point, I don't really care about the why." Akagi had brought up potential manipulation of their feelings to some of her people, and they all vehemently disagreed with that notion. “Whether their feelings are their own or implanted they still have them. That was what they told me at least, so I just figured rolling with it would be for the best. Though I did tell them to temper things a bit.”

{Though I have a feeling that they're ignoring that directive...} (Akagi)

The girls sat and chatted for a bit more, disusing mundane things like school, family and other things. They even discussed a few upcoming anime and games that were coming out.

*RING*

The door to the café rung as someone entered and moved the bell above the door, and a group of girls from the same high school came in and started walking toward Akagi and the girls. Kana recognized one of them and her face briefly twitched in irritation, something Akagi caught.