The Red Hand

Chapter 214 – The Beach Episode?

"Hrrrngh..." Hishya let out a big yawn as she finally woke up the next morning. She wasn't exactly tired from all their wondering around in the forest, but she was happy to get some nice rest. "What time is it?" She checked her AR system, which could really only display time since this world had no wireless, only to find out that it was nearly noon. "I really need to be careful, I have the feeling that I'd sleep all day if nothing woke me up." The Dragon had taken to the stereotypical behavior of her kind, and had come to enjoy sleeping.

{What is this stupid pressure I feel on my chest?} After taking a moment to orient herself, the Dragon noticed that something was laying on top of her. {Did an animal come inside the cave?} Pulling the cover of the futon out of the way revealed one Catkagi happily sleeping on top of the blankets. She was curled up and looked like she was quite happy with her chosen sleeping spot, though said spot was on top of Hishya, and the Dragon did not approve.

"I swear, with each passing day, she's becoming more and more catlike." Hishya sighed as she flicked the blanket and sent Akagi flying, which caused the cat Demon to yelp in surprise as she crashed into the ground with a thud.

"What the hell was that for?!?" Akagi hissed at her as she reoriented herself.

"Its your fault for sleeping on top of me." Hishya shrugged as she stood up. "Why did you do that anyway? There was a million other places to sleep, and last I saw you were curled up by the fire."

"The fire went out, and I was too lazy to relight it. So when I was searching for another warm place to sleep, you were the only other choice." Akagi smiled as she picked herself up. "A fire Dragon makes a good heat rock and it was comfy sleeping on top of the blankets."

"Good to know that I have such an important quality." Hishya rolled her eyes.

"Hey, be thankful I didn't get inside the futon." Akagi gave a cheeky grin. "The thought did cross my mind. Perhaps I should've snuggled more directly?" She k new Hishya would've flipped shit if she did that.

"If you'd've done that, I'd've given you the most intense bath of your life." Hishya put away the futon and got set making breakfast, or well technically lunch at this hour.

{I don't want to snuggle with you. Its already bad enough that I play with you and give you pets, so don't try and make things even weirder...} (Hishya)

"Whatcha makin'?" Akagi hopped over to her side as the Dragon got to work. She was sitting on the floor and staring at Hishya as if she was waiting for her share of the food.

{Fooood...} (Akagi)

"Eggs and some bratwurst that you gave me last night." Hishya cracked some eggs and began frying them on a pan over a newly lit fire. “We didn't use them for dinner, so I saved them in my inventory.” The sizzling of the pan made Akagi start drooling.

"Neat!" Akagi smiled as her tail wagged, and Hishya could tell she was eyeing up the food expectantly, so she chose to have a bit of fun with the kitty.

"I hope you don't think you're getting any." Hishya grinned. "This is a kitty-free meal, so you're on your own."

“Nyooooooooo!” Her words devastated the small Catkagi, who fell over in shock. "I gave you all my fooood! So how can I eat?!? Do you want me to waste away into nothing?!?” She scratched Hishya's leg. “FEED ME! Pweety pweese!”

"Dramatic much? Don't you not require food anyway?" Hishya rolled her eyes as she kept cooking, and tried to ignore the pining cat at her feed.

"But I like foooood!" Akagi pined and started pulling at Hishya's pajama bottoms.

"Well, sorry. No food for kitties. I guess you should get out and hunt for your dinner. There might be some mice in the cave." Hishya smirked.

{Time for ME to pick on YOU! Revenge is a bitch!} Hishya cackled internally, believing that she had the upper hand.

"MEW!" Akagi meowed loudly.

"No!" Hishya denied the meow.

"MEW!" Akagi meowed again, this time with more force and a deeper tone.

"Nope!" Hishya turned her head away.

"MEW!" Akagi gave a demonic meow.

"Don't do that again, please." Hishya flinched.

"MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! AWOO! MEW!" Akagi continued to meow as she rocketed around the cave at high speed for nearly a minute until Hishya caved.

"OK, FINE! JUST PLEASE SHUT UP!" Hishya gave in. "I was gonna cook for you anyway, but I wanted to have some fun messing with you. My mistake for thinking I could out annoying you."

{No wonder why some people hate cats, and was that a fucking AWOO in there?!?} (Hishya)

Giving no verbal reply, the Catkagi merely gave one final happy meow before wagging her tail and nuzzling up to Hishya, which required her to suppress the urge to throw Akagi out the cave.

{Ask not for whom the mew, mews. For it mews, for thee.} (Akagi)

After being mewed into submission, Hishya cooked lunch for both her and the Demon kitty. It was nothing special, but they both enjoyed it. Once they were finished and cleaned up, they suited up and set off for another day on their camping trip sans adventure.

"So, where does your lizard sense tell us to go next?" Akagi asked.

"My 'lizard sense' is telling me to shove my foot up your ass, but I think we should continue going north." Hishya blew a raspberry.” I'm pretty sure I smell water a ways away, most likely a waterfall." Her nose was much more sensitive than a human's, and Akagi wasn't exactly using an upgraded sniffer at the moment.

"Ok, Pochi! Onwards!" Akagi cheered as she marched northward.

{Don't you fucking call me Pochi! Do it again, and I WILL put my boot up your ass, TAMA!} Hishya thumbed her nose at Akagi before following.

Wondering around the forest, Akagi and Hishya came across several monsters and dozens of smaller creatures, all of which were easily and quickly dispatched or to terrified to approach. The Demon wasn't surprised by the ease of dispatch, but was disappointed with the lack of monster quality. She'd been hoping that something would provide at least minor entertainment, but nothing was very interesting to fight. When Hishya mentioned her own similar disappointment, Akagi proffered a reason why things were so lackluster.

"I bet it's because this world is so new." Akagi said taking her blade out of a giant bear monster's skull. She and Hishya had just battled a large number of monsters at once, all of which had been easily dispatched. The small clearing they stood in was littered with dozens of monster corpses, all sliced into peaces or reduced to nothing more than goop.

"Like there isn't enough magic? Or there hasn't been enough time to make a better monster?" Hishya asked as she kicked a bear creature over to inspect its stomach. She'd heard something like that in a story she once read, a world generated monsters via high magic concentration, so if this world didn't have enough that would make sense.

"The latter." Akagi answered. "This world is full of magic, and while I don't know much about monster creation mechanics, I do know that you need both lots of magic and time to create good ones." Her work on the dungeon was basically a truncated version of natural monster creation.

"So I suppose that means we're not going to get anything decent to fight." Hishya sighed in disappointment. "I guess that's fine, not like it really matters anyway. Unless we get something on par with a World Boss, I doubt it can fight me." She figured little would compared to her romp with Serval.

"Maybe I should get Silfana to spar with you." Akagi smirked. “At least that way you can get a pretty good workout in!” She figured suping the Vampire up with some new gear would make things fun.

"I'll drive my blade into that Vampire's heart if I get the opportunity." Hishya glared at her. "I still don't like you keeping her around, but at least she's on a leash." She still wanted her dead, though didn't do so since that would likely piss of the monster's monster boss.

"More like in a dog suit." Akagi corrected her.

"Pffff." Hishya let out a small laugh. "I made that picture the wallpaper on my AR home screen, that was probably the best laugh I've had in a hot minute."

"The poor vampy didn't share my sense of fashion." Akagi shook her head. "Apparently, being cute wasn't good enough." She laughed.

"You should make that her mandatory uniform." Hishya giggled. "I'd love to see it!"

{If she has to wear that everyday, then its going to be worth keeping her around.} (Hishya)

"Nah, I'll save it for punishment." Akagi smirked. "If the vampy acts up, into the onesie she goes."

{Though I'm 100% putting that on her for Halloween this year.} (Akagi)

"That's still good." Hishya smiled.

"I should get you one too. Maybe a Dragon onesie?" Akagi thought about how that would look.

"If it's just pajamas and not a magic restricting suit like Silfana's, then I'd probably be down for it." Hishya thought it might be kinda cute. "It might actually be cute, and I'm sure we could get something for Kana that would go together."

{It could have a tail of its own, and then I'd have TWO tails!} (Hishya)

"I might have to get to making it then." Akagi nodded. "But that's for later, onwards!" With this wave of enemies defeated, the two girls continued northwards towards the watery smell Hishya was picking up. After several hours of hiking, the two of them came to a cliffside, and the sight left both momentarily speechless.

"T-That's... it's beautiful!" Hishya finally managed to speak as she took in the awesome scene before her.

"Yeah, damn. I think this is even better than Galicen Falls." Akagi whistled in admiration. Before the two adventurers stood a massive waterfall that dropped well over a thousand feet into a massive lake. Around the lake were lush trees of a variety of colors, and from where they stood it looked like a sandy beach sat at a few parts around the shoreline.

{Well fuck. This is really cool.} (Akagi)

"I wonder if any of the explorers have been here before?" Hishya asked as she and Akagi leapt off the cliff and slowly descended toward the beach area below.

"Probably not, the monsters we encountered along the way were nothing to us, but for a normal person, I'd say they might be a bit hard to handle in those numbers." Akagi shook her head. "Plus, I've heard nothing of a place like this, and I'm damn sure news of it would've spread in Omara." The two continued to descend through the sky until they reached the beach area, and, as expected, the sand was fine, warm, and soft.

"This is like some luxury resort level amazing!" Hishya put away her armor and flopped into the sand in some casual clothing. "We should bring Kana and the girls here, I think they'd love it!"

{Oh god, not a beach episode!} Akagi put her hand in her hands as she realized what was coming.

"And now that I think about it, seeing you in a swimsuit would be fun." Hishya laughed as she imagined how that would look.

"Yeah, I could just come in swim trunks." Akagi mused about what she would wear. She never really went to the beach, and had only been to swimming pools for the most part.

"Uhhhh, I think going topless, even with just us, is a bit much." Hishya laughed nervously.

{I don't want to see you run around half naked!} (Hishya)

"Why?" Akagi asked, not seeing the issue.

Hishya didn't know how to respond and just stared at her for a moment before her brain started working again. "What do you mean why?!? Do you want to show the goods off to everyone?!?"

{Are you some kind of exhibitionist?!?} (Hishya

"Hishya." Akagi looked her dead in the eyes. "This body lacks those." She pushed in on her chest area with one of her fingers.

"Oh... right..." Hishya just now recalled that Akagi's normal form was actually androgynous beyond the face.

{Even still, I don't know if I want to see the strangeness of a sexless Akagi running around on the beach...} (Hishya)

"You're an idiot..." Akagi sighed. "And also, what makes you think I'd come to some beach event? Have you met me? Do I look like the kinda girl who goes to the beach?" She was a shut in, couch potato that enjoyed the virtual world. Going to the beach with friends was basically an alien world to her.

{The beach and I are like oil and water, and in the past, I used to burn easily in the sun. Sunburn sucked so bad, luckily going into VR removed all those issues.} (Akagi)

"I still think you should come, and you could even freak the girls out with your nonexistent chest." Hishya figured their reactions would be funny.

"I guess we could set up a beach house or something here if you wanted." Akagi shrugged.

"Wait!" Hishya sat up really fast. "I've got a better idea!"

"Oh?" Akagi was interested.

"Give me the land around here!" Hishya declared.

"Why?" Akagi asked. She had no idea what the Dragon was planning, but was curious.

"Because I want to make this place my home." Hishya smiled.

"What?!?" Akagi was taken aback, this was not expected.

{Shouldn't a Dragon want a fucking cave, or some kind of mountaintop where nobody can bother them?} (Akagi)

"It's warm, beautiful, and most importantly my draconic blood is calling me here. It's like this place was destined to be mine!" Hishya's eyes burned with passion. "So give it over!"

"Will you actually live here?" Akagi asked. "It's gonna take lots of work to get something going here, and it's not like we can easily rig up most modern amenities here yet." Akagi was still working on a stable and permanent portal between Omara and Earth, so anything else was a ways away.

"I don't have to move in right now, but I can make a nice little building for us to stay at, and once we get things figured out I can move here properly." Hishya explained. "Until then, I'll just keep living like I've been."

{I can safely take out the entire hoard here!} (Hishya)

"Well if you're that enthusiastic, I can't exactly say no. Especially when I have no reason not to, so sure. You can have this little Oasis and the surrounding land as your personal property within the Dominion." Akagi shrugged, she saw no issue.

{I kinda want to see what kind of home our little Dragon makes. It will probably have its own pillow hoard room, and we can call this place Hishya's nest.} (Akagi)

"Yippie! I am now Hishya, property owner!" Hishya giggled as she flopped around in the sand.

"I'll tell Mizumi about this when we get back, and I suspect that she probably won't really care." Akagi rolled her eyes a she watched Hishya roll around. "I'm guessing you'll want to explore this place a bit more today?"

Hishya nodded. "Let's enjoy our little mini beach fun!" She stood up and dove into the lake before she started swimming about. The two girls enjoyed a bit of fun in the sun and on the beach with Akagi making Hishya howl in laughter by putting on a male bathing suit which looked very strange on her body. The Dragon even took a picture to show Kana, to which the girl would later remark that seeing said image caused her to need to bleach her eyes.