The Red Hand

Chapter 145 – Coulrophobia.

A few days before Akagi's departure to the United States.

Kana and the girls were sitting around the living room table gossiping and taking a break from studying for an upcoming test. Yumi was busy with some negotiations with the Japanese government regarding Akagi's new nation and was not around. While Akagi was laying on Mika's lap, sleeping in blob form and chilling out.

*SCRATCH* *SCRATCH* *SCRATCH*

"She really does feel nice to pet!" Mika smiled as she scratched and petted Akagi. “She's actually kinda fluffy!”

{It's like petting a small dog!} (Mika)

"I like how you're just casually petting the Demon Lord like she's a small animal." Naomi said as she bit into a pocky stick.

"Are you saying you don't want to pet her?" Mika grinned. "She's super squishy and feels reeeaaaally soft."

Naomi rolled her eyes. "I thought she'd only let Yumi do that anyway?"

"No, it's just that she prefers it to be Yumi." Kana shrugged as she swiped through a page she was reading on her AR device. "I've gotten to do it, and so have others. Actually, it's more surprising that it took this long to have Mika do it."

"I'm jealous of Yumi!" Mika pouted at Kana. "She gets something this nice all to herself! Its not fair!"

{Akagi needs to let me cuddle her sometimes! This is amazing!} (Mika)

"Well, I'm not." Kana sighed. "I couldn't handle her coiling around me like a snake. The one time I let her do that, it made my skin crawl." Kana really hated snakes, though they were only second on her list of  hated things.

"What?!? She did that for you?!?" Mika looked down at the 'sleeping' Akagi, glaring in disapproval. "Come on, do it with me! Go ahead and wrap all around me as much as you want, I don't mind!" She poked Akagi a few times, but she didn't respond. "I'm being ignored?!?"

{This means war!} (Mika)

"You're just..." Naomi shook her head at Mika's antics.

"I'm afraid that you're out of luck." Kana took a drink of her juice. "She won't do that to anyone but me or Yumi. Apparently its special."

{I'd trade my privildge to Mika if I could, I really hated when she wrapped around me...} (Kana)

"Nooooo." Mika pouted. "Fine! Then if you're going to be that way, I won't pet you anymore." She turned away in a huff, and once again, Akagi did not react. "Don't ignore me dammit! I know you're not completely asleep, Akagi!" She began squishing and smacking the 'sleeping' Akagi. “Come on! Do something! Otherwise the poking will continue!”

"You realize that you're just asking for trouble by doing that?" Kana sighed as she looked at Mika who continued to mess with Akagi. "Onee-chan has a vast arsenal of ways to mess with you, so I'd be careful."

{Onee-chan is going to do something funny, isn't she? Oh well, I can't wait to see Mika get her comeuppance.} (Kana)

"She wouldn't hurt me, right?" Mika smiled innocently as she looked down at Akagi, who responded by making her real eyes and sharp teeth appear on top of her blob form.

"EEP!" Mika jumped up, startled, and smacked Akagi sending sending her flying across the room and squishing onto the floor.

{Pfff.} (Naomi)

"I warned you." Kana laughed. “That's what you get for abusing the pet."

"You bastard! You almost gave me a heart attack!" Mika exclaimed as she threw a pillow at Akagi, who was still on the floor.

"Now, now." Naomi went over and picked Akagi up, bringing her back over and placing her in her lap. "I won't disturb you like Mika. She's such a naughty girl, picking on you like that." She smiled as she began petting Akagi.

"No fair! You stole her!" Mika cried.

"Hey, you threw her across the room. Such a mean thing to do to such a poor defenseless creature." Naomi chuckled.

{I can't believe you held a straight face as you said that.} (Kana)

"Who would you rather be pet by? Me or the meanie who threw you away?" Akagi responded by pointing a shadow tendril at Naomi.

{I love how there was no hesitation in that choice at all.} (Kana)

"After everything I did for you!" Mika fell to the floor, defeated. "I've been used and abandoned! Did my pets mean nothing?!?" She cried out in an exaggerated manner.

"Fool! You were only ever a stepping stone before she reached her true goal! Me!" Naomi put on a fake haughty tone and puffed out her chest. "Oh-ho-ho-ho."

Kana watched this stupid display and rolled her eyes. "You guys are just..." She sighed. "What the heck are you even doing?"

{Why are my friends such idiots...} (Kana)

"We're having fun!" (Naomi x Mika)

"I can see that." Kana glanced at Akagi. "And she's just enjoying herself and all this stupidity. I'm beginning to think that Onee-chan is capable of lowing the IQ of the entire room with her powers. It's like once you start playing with her, your brain turns into mush."

"Perhaps, but it is relaxing." Naomi smiled as she stroked the blob. "You really are soft, though. It reminds me of some of the cats my family used to have."

The girls continued to chat a bit more until Mizumi arrived.

"Sorry it took me so long. I lost track of time while teaching." She turned to Naomi, who was still petting Akagi. "What the heck are you doing?" She asked as she walked over.

"Petting the Demon Lord." Naomi laughed. "She's quite soft."

"Do I even want to know why?" Mizumi sighed. "Also, just seeing the embodiment of evil causally laying on your lap and being pet like a rabbit is very strange."

{What kind of screwy timeline is this?} (Mizumi)

"Onee-chan wanted to sleep for a bit until Yumi got back and decided to go into shadow form while we studied." Kana explained. "Mika ended up wanting to pet her, and well, now we're here."

"Sleep?" Mizumi looked at Akagi. "She needs to sleep?"

"Not to my knowledge, no. Onee-chan told me she just enjoys it is all, something about it being comfy." Kana shrugged. She didn't really know or care to know the specifics. "She's still able to see and hear while like that, so don't be stupid like Mika and harass her, lest you get a fright."

{That was hilarious though.} (Kana)

"That was so uncalled for!" Mika pouted. "She nearly scared me out of my skin with that stunt!"

"Scared? What did she even do anyway?" Mizumi asked as she glanced down at Akagi, who flashed her eyes and teeth for a brief moment. "Ho boy..." Mizumi took a half step back. "Yeah, that would do it..."

{Nice, the Demon Lord is out here pranking people with horrifying visages from hell itself.} (Mizumi)

Mizumi turned around and looked at Kana. "How do you cope with seeing that all the time?" She knew that Kana was able to see Akagi's shadow even while it was intentionally hidden, and thus she could see her eyes and teeth.

"Wait, you see that all the time?!?" Mika exclaimed.

"Well yeah?" Kana replied. "I told you that I can always see Onee-chan's real body, remember."

{I think I told them, or did I? I don't recall now that think about it.} (Kana)

"Well yeah, I know that, but you never said anything about seeing that." Mika said, putting her fingers under her lips to make fake fangs.

Kana thought for a moment. "Huh, I guess I didn't. Oh well, but yeah that's what I see behind her when she's in human form. It's usually around here." She put her hand behind her back to approximately where Akagi's shadow would float. "There's a black floating mass that hangs around here, and sometimes it has those eyes and teeth."

{I understand her being spooked, it wasn't very pleasant to see the first time for me either.} (Kana)

"I'm glad I don't see that all the time..." Mika shivered.

{That's some terrifying stuff right there.} (Mika)

"Don't tempt Onee-chan or she just might start showing it off." Kana laughed. "She usually keeps those things hidden, since it would cause the kind of reaction you just had."

"Wait, but why can you see it?" Naomi asked. "We all have magic, but I didn't notice anything different."

"Hmm." Kana thought for a moment. "Probably because of the imprint?" She looked at Mizumi for clarification.

"Most likely." The Spirit nodded. "I have no idea what kind of power Akagi uses to hide that part of her when using a human form, but her influence likely makes it so it doesn't work on you."

"I guess that's also why your eye looks like hers when you use magic." Mika said. "But still, I mean, I know it's Akagi, but well... compared to her eyes normally, something about what she showed me before was just..." She shivered.

"I mean, it makes sense you're freaked out. You were literally being stared at by a predator." Mizumi chuckled. "Your natural instincts told you to be afraid, as did mine. Knowing she won't harm you can only go so far in suppressing that reaction."

{I mean, Demon Lords feed on us, so its understandable that our souls scream in terror if we're looked at by what is basically a hungry beast.} (Mizumi)

"Then what about Kana?" Naomi asked. "She seems fine."

"I used to not be, Mika." Kana gave a dry laugh. "When I originally confronted Onee-chan about the shadow, I was scared as hell. I had no idea what it was, and I actually thought some monster had taken her place and was pretending to be her." She continued. "By now, I'm just used to it, so it doesn't phase me. Yumi also doesn't seem to care, but that's probably because of the bond."

{Not entirely sure its good that I'm used to seeing something so horrifying, but at this point I've stopped questioning things.} (Kana)

“Huh... I'm not sure if I'd want to see it enough to get used to it.” Mika gave a dry laugh.

"If you think that is bad, you should pray you never see anything deeper. Apparently, Hishya saw something even worse all those years ago at Hassan." Kana shrugged. Hishya tried not to talk about that incident in much detail.

"Y-yeah." Naomi gave a nervous laugh. "Good thing Akagi would never intentionally go out of her way to scare the daylights out of us, right?" She looked down at Akagi, who did nothing. "The lack of confirmation is worrying..."

"I mean, she did threaten to put that face on the ceiling of Miyako's bedroom if she kept it up." Kana chuckled. "Perhaps she'll do that to you two if I asked."

"Please, no!" Mika ran over to Kana and grabbed her shoulders before shaking her. "Are you trying to kill me?!?"

"Onee-chan was always a bit horror fan, so she might try to replicate some of her favorite scenes." Kana was not so subtly trying to convince Akagi to do just that.

"Sure, how about we start with you, Kana?" Akagi finally spoke. "I can do what I did to Hoshino and follow you around before trapping you in the bathroom. Or perhaps I could unleash some evil clowns?"

"DON'T YOU DARE! YOU KNOW I HATE CLOWNS!" Kana screamed at the top of her lungs.

*HONK* *HONK*

Akagi made a clown nose honking sound effect.

"I swear fucking to god!" Kana growled. "If see so much as a red nose in this house, I will cut you!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot Kana was afraid of clowns." Mika grinned. "Naomi, we should use this to our advantage."

Kana summoned Hikari and pointed her at Mika. "If I see you dressed as a clown I will split you in half!"

"But I like clowns!" Himari said. "They're so much fun!"

"Too bad!" Kana glared at her. "As long as you're with me, we hate clowns. This is not up for negotiation!"

Her statement caused the entire room to erupt in laughter as Akagi recalled what happened to the last clown that got near Kana. The poor man was sent to the emergency room for a week with a broken nose and leg.

"Good thing Clown wasn't a class in FWO. Otherwise, we'd have to hide them from you." Akagi said while laughing.

{Though there were clown monsters.} Akagi decided not to mention that.

"If there was, I'd smite them from this Earth!" Kana's eyes burned with a bright fire. "Onee-chan, when you get your country. I demand that being a clown be made punishable by death!"

On that day, every clown on Earth got a chill as they sensed great danger.