The Red Hand

Chapter 196 – The Transaction is Complete.

"There!" Hishya exclaimed. "You got your petting! Now give me my reward for killing Serval, before you go forgetting about it!" She pet Catkagi for a while, and both Kana and Yumi found it funny to watch the Dragon's reluctant floofing.

{But Hishya, you can't hide the fact that you enjoyed yourself from me. I could tell by your facial expressions that you thought Onee-chan was super soft, and you even pulled her in against you to feel the squish!} (Kana)

"I'm like an elephant Hishya, I never forget!" Akagi smiled. "But here you go! A deal's a deal!" She pulled the pillow in question from her inventory. It wasn't really special, but the deer pattern in the middle was unique enough to make Hishya want it. "See, all nice and fluffed, and I even gave it a deep cleaning and a new case. She pulled a white case out of her inventory and gave both to Hishya.

"A pleasure doing business with you." Hishya calmly put the pillow and its case in her inventory. On the outside, she was calm and collected but on the inside...

{FINALLY! YOU ARE MINE, MR. DEER! I SHALL CALL YOU LINGY, AND TOGETHER WE SHALL CREATE THE GREATEST PILLOW HOARD IN HISTORY!!!!} (Hishya)

"Do I even want to know what you had to do to get that pillow?" Kana said while giggling. "You've been obsessed with it for like a month." She'd noticed her girlfriend's obsession with that pillow ever since Akagi first put it on the couch.

"I just had to kill Serval." Hishya answered. "Nothing major."

"Oh yes, nothing major indeed." Kana rolled her eyes.

{You put yourself in harm's way for a fucking pillow that you could've ordered online...} (Kana)

"Nah, Hishya is right!" Akagi smiled while her ears twitched around. "It was easy! She only almost died once! So its all good!"

"Why am I not surprised..." Kana sighed. "You two are both insane."

"Hey, wait!" Hishya turned around and protested her comment. "Why me?!? Akagi is the crazy one here!"

{Look at her! She's in Demon kitty mode! That's far more crazy than me!} (Hishya)

"No, you're crazy too." Yumi said.

"Am not!" Hishya disagreed.

Yumi squinted in disapproval. "She who fought the most powerful world-ending being from my world FOR. A. PILLOW."

"It wasn't only for the pillow." Hishya tried to dig herself out of this hole but wasn't having success.

"Yeah, don't pick on Hishya! It was only 90% for the pillow." Akagi chuckled.

"Yeah! What she said!" Hishya said with a smug face that didn't last long as she realized what Akagi had actually said. "Wait, NO! Stupid cat! Stop confusing me!" Hishya swiped at Akagi, who leaped into the air and onto Yumi's lap.

"MEW! MEW!" Akagi did a tee-hee pero after she landed.

"I swear, I'm going to soak you in water one of these days." Hishya growled.

"That's fine, but don't be surprised when I start taking scales." Akagi grinned.

"It might be worth it to see you get what's coming to you!" Hishya hissed.

"Kana, your pet's acting sassy again." Yumi said while giggling.

"Now, now." Kana glommed onto Hishya. "Don't be rude to her."

"Yeah, tell her, Kana." Hishya was happy to see her girlfriend sticking up for her for a change.

"Guys, stop being so mean. Hishya can't help being this way. The behavioral specialist told me that she's hopeless, but we still love her regardless of her issues." Kana said with a giggle as she snuggled up to her.

"I..." Hishya sighed. "Forget it. I'll just take the love and move on..."

"The pet has accepted her status!" Akagi smiled as Yumi scratched her ears. "Next time I'm out, we'll get her a nice doghouse and pet bowl."

"Pfff." Kana laughed. "I kinda want to do that now."

"Akagi is one thing, but I can and will pay you back if you try that crap." Hishya squeezed Kana causing her to sqeak.

"Onee-chan would never let you harm me." Kana looked at her sister for support.

"Ehhhh." Akagi thought for a moment. "Nah go ahead and knock her around a bit, just don't kill her." She winked.

"You'd sell me out like that?!?" Kana gasped.

{You fiend!} (Kana)

"I won't protect you or Yumi from getting your just deserts." Akagi smiled.

"Oh?" Hishya's eyes glinted. "You hear that, Kana. I guess I can break out the clowns if you get too sassy!"

"I will fucking murder you, Hishya!" Kana growled. "Dragon Empress or not, you shall perish if you unleash clowns upon me!"

"Ooooo. Scary." Hishya laughed. "I'm shaking in my scales."

"Hey, in fairness, Kana is quite resourceful. She might actually find a way." Akagi laughed.

"Yeah, she is pretty smart. So maybe she's got a bit more bite to her than I thought." Hishya laughed as she pat Kana on the head..

"If it's alive, it can die!" Kana cackled. "And I will not rest till I figure out a way!"

"Maybe use that brainpower to save us from the Demon Lord?" Hishya poked her in the cheek.

"That might take a bit." Kana replied. "That's a tough nut to crack."

"It's easy! Just hit me really hard!" Akagi laughed.

"Yeah, but where are we gonna get that kinda power?" Hishya rolled her eyes. "Maybe another Demon Lord? But even then, the problem is the same no matter who wins."

"I mean, there are other Demon Lords. But first, you gotta find one, lure them to me, and then hope I don't beat them." Akagi shrugged.

"Might be fun to watch some super old Demon Lord who's been around for a billion years kick your ass." Hishya smirked. "A little catharsis would be nice."

"Can you actually beat another Demon Lord?" Yumi asked while hugging her.

"Who knows." Akagi shrugged. "I've never fought one, and I have no interest in doing so either. Besides, I'm not even sure they'd attack me. We're both Demon Lords, and even in a crazed state, it would probably understand what I am."

{I suspect having my 'sanity' intact plus my prediction ability would make a fight against another Demon Lord tilted in my favor. Demon Lords are all around the same power level, so it wouldn't be a matter of raw strength.} (Akagi)

"You said only one appears per world right?" Kana asked. "So that means we don't have to worry about another one of you popping up here?"

"Yeah, only one can be generated per world. After I was created, this world was 'marked' as having a Demon Lord. So another cannot be created." Akagi answered.

"What about one coming from another world?" Hishya asked. "You can tear open holes in reality, so what's to stop another one from doing that and showing up here?"

"Technically, nothing is stopping them from doing just that." Akagi thought for a moment. "However, you don't need to worry about that."

"Why?" Hishya asked.

"Because Demon Lords do not like to leave the world they were born in. It's kind of a natural protective measure placed within our instincts so that we don't go reality hopping. The idea of going to a different reality is antithetical to us, so we won't." Akagi shrugged.

"Does that apply to you? I mean, you went to Omara." Hishya wasn't sure if Akagi was affected by such rules.

"No, I have my rational mind. So I can tell those instincts to fuck off." Akagi laughed. "As for Omara, it's technically part of this world, so it's not an issue."

"I still think it would be neat to see you fight another Demon Lord." Hishya smiled. She figured such an event would be a crazy spectacle.

"Oh, it would be." Akagi smiled. "For about five seconds."

"That sounded ominous..." Yumi gave a wry smile.

"I assume something bad happens if two of you fight?" Kana figured it would be like two beta fish in one tank.

"Welllll...." Akagi switched her position and hugged onto Yumi. "I'd wager that an all-out fight between two of our kind would cause whatever reality we fought in to collapse."

"That sounds... bad..." Hishya sighed.

"Considering that means the entire Universe goes pop, yeah, its bad." Akagi gave a wry smile of her own.

"So, does everyone die if that occurs?" Kana was curious as to the after-effects.

"Less die and more..." Akagi thought. "So imagine it like this. The void between worlds is a place that lacks all laws of physics and other things we've come to understand regarding how reality works." She continued. "Additionally, barring the very basic functions of multiversal physics, don't worry about how that works for right now, most things just don't work out there. Meaning that if I chucked one of you out there, well.... you'd just kinda stop existing!" She smiled. "Your body would melt into nothing but basic fundamental particles, and I'm pretty sure your soul would do the same."

{Nice...} (Kana)

"So when Mizumi said travel between worlds wasn't really supposed to happen..." (Kana)

"She meant it!" Akagi nodded. "I can move between worlds in the void, but anything that's not a Demon Lord would evaporate the moment it leaves a bubble of reality, AKA a universe."

"So then, how did they travel between our world and theirs?" Hishya wasn't really following all this information.

"Hmmmm." Akagi thought for a moment before answering. "From what Mizumi told me, they basically forced open a pathway between the two worlds, think of something like a bridge. Within the pathway, both worlds' realities overlapped, and thus they were not within the void. This is obviously very hard to do, and it takes a crazy amount of energy to open such a pathway, let alone HOLD one open."

{Not to mention, you need multidimensional coordinates. Something that is not readily knowable, even to me.} (Akagi)

"Anyone else think it's strange to hear Akagi talk about something so technical?" Hishya asked, and the other two girls raised their hands in agreement.

"I'm so proud!" Kana started fake crying. "She finally got smart. I'm so proud!"

"I understand Kana and Hishya, but why did you agree with them, Yumi?" Akagi looked into the Priestess's eyes.

"Because it was funny." Yumi smiled, only to have her cheeks pinched and stretched by Akagi's tiny hands.

"It's nice to see her getting a taste of her own medicine." Hishya was happy to see Akagi being on the receiving end of some torment for a change.