The Red Hand

Chapter 239 – Summon the Legions!

"Ok, so, can we all come to an agreement that when we tease Onee-chan, we don't drag each other down?" Kana sighed as she slowly look between her co-conspirators. She'd only egged Mika on with the cheese idea a bit, and while she thought it sounded funny on paper, Kana never expected the blue-haired girl to actually do it.

{Serves me right for expecting Mika to be anything BUT herself.} (Kana)

"I second that notion." Naomi nodded.

"Me three." Mika giggled.

"NOO!" Akagi squeaked from Yumi's arms. "You have to allow me to pick on you all equally! Otherwise, I'll suffer from withdrawal!"

{HOW CAN I SURVIVE WITHOUT GROUP BULLYING?!? I NEED TO PICK ON YOU! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT I ASSURE YOU!} (Akagi)

"Just pick on Yumi." Kana smirked. "She deserves it, and is readily available."

{...} (Yumi)

"I already do that enough, and Yumi stopped giving good reactions..." Akagi puffed up her cheeks. "I need fresh meat! I demand sacrifices!"

"Poor kitty doesn't have enough people to torment." Yumi pat her on the head. "But such is life. Not everything can go the way you want it to." She laughed.

"Then I must take drastic measures." Akagi cackled. "Yumi, assemble my legions! We must take over the world so that I can torment more people!"

{We shall march on Tokyo tonight!} (Akagi)

"I would if you actually had any..." Yumi sighed. "Right now, all I can offer is a couple of hungover ninjas since the rest are on vacation or busy with our special project."

"Then I shall reluctantly delay my plans." Akagi nodded. "In the meantime, you must provide me with plenty of fluffing. Lest I go crazy." She snickered as her ears were flipped inside out.

"Aren't you already crazy?" Yumi looked down at the fluffy Demon Lord in her arms.

{And also, how much more fluffing do you need?!? There's only so many hours in the day for fluffing and I'm one person!} (Yumi)

"I wonder if Onee-chan would eventually get so crazy that she wrapped back around to being sane?" Kana thought something like integer overflow was possible.

"Wouldn't 'sane' Akagi be even more terrifying?" Naomi figured that an Akagi in her right mind would be even worse.

"Yeah, she'd probably start talking sense and actually doing work around here. If that happened, the world is doomed!" Mika chuckled.

"Hey, I do work!" Akagi protested as she was fluffed. "You lot are the freeloaders here!"

"Says the kitty being held..." Naomi pointed at her.

"I did my work for the day and am now enjoying some R&R!" Akagi pouted and hissed.

"Seems like you have 'R&R' whenever we see you." Mika snickered. “In order to earn rest, you must first work, kitty.”

"You just come at the wrong time." Akagi huffed. "You saw me working before you went to Osaka! Wasn't that proof enough?!?"

{What is it with people and thinking I'm so lazy good for nothing?!?} (Akagi)

"Eh, that was a one-off." Kana shrugged. "Your one lazy kitty, Onee-chan." She grinned. Kana was fully aware that her sister did actually do a bunch of work every day but was enjoying harassing her.

*HISS*

Akagi hissed at her. "Yumi, tell them that I do lots of work around here!" She was looking for support from the one she trusted most to back her up.

"Hmmmm." Yumi thought for a moment. "I'd say you do fine work as our mascot." She giggled. "Seeing your cute face keeps us all nice and energized!" The Priestess smiled as she scratched Akagi's ears.

"Yes! Akagi is definitely Dumetor's mascot!" Mika laughed. "That's the perfect role for her!"

"Well, she does do tricks." Kana chuckled. "So I can see it."

"Mama would be a great mascot! She would easily be the fluffiest in the world!" Alice decided to join in.

"Kitty is super cute! She's the fluffiest pillow I ever had, so I vote her best mascot!" Miji giggled.

{Don't tell Hishya that. Otherwise, she might want to find out for herself...} (Kana)

"Ya'll are bitches." Akagi clicked her tongue. "But enough discussing my fluff. Do you want to see the arena? It's pretty much done."

"You built that thing pretty quickly." Naomi commented on the speed of construction for such a massive structure. "Did you really manage the make the whole thing in less than a month?"

{It should've taken months or even years to make something like that, even if you cheaped out and went with molds and prefabricated structures.} (Naomi)

"The tech guys are finishing up all the networking, but the rest is indeed done." Akagi nodded. "So we'll have no trouble having it all ready to go for the big day next week!" She was looking forward to the tournament and had even given Chloe approval to join since she wanted to fight Superbia so badly.

"Can I join?!?" Mika raised her hand. "I really want to! Please!" She practically begged to be let in.

"What?!?" (Yumi x Kana x Akagi x Naomi x Alice)

"Why would you want to join, Mika?!?" Kana was surprised. "This isn't a game! You could get seriously hurt!"

{She should know full well that all the other contestants would flatten her in a second!} (Kana)

"I know, but I still want to give it a try!" Mika smiled before turning to Akagi. "You did say that it was open to all who wanted to join. Does that not include me? Or rather Magical Girl Star Guardian!" She chuckled.

"I suppose it does." Akagi sighed. "Fine, just don't blame me if you get hurt or die."

"I don't know about the second part, but I'm fine with getting hurt." Mika gave a wry smile.

{Though I don't want any more of that nasty drink Kaori gave us before either...} (Mika)

"Knowing Mika's luck, she'll get Hishya round one and get knocked out by a single hit." Naomi said.

"If she's lucky, you mean." Kana sighed. "Hishya might have a bit of fun with her. Lord knows that lizard can be a bit of a pain." She figured Hishya might pick on her a bit and toy with her for fun.

"Just tell her not to do that and we're good." Mika said.

"Oh no, I'm going to tell her to fuck with you if she gets the chance." Kana's lips curved into a nasty smile as Scary Kana came out. "You've got this coming to you after all the stunts you pull. So I'd say you reap what you sow, Mika!" She cackled.

"Scary Kana!" (Mika x Naomi)

"Like Demon Lord, like Demon Princess I suppose." Yumi rolled her eyes. "You sisters are nothing but trouble, you know that."

"I, for one, like Scary Kana." Akagi smiled. "She is like the perfect little sister I never had, and I support her descent into evil!"

{More like you've molded her INTO said sister, but I digress.} (Yumi)

After putting Scary Kana back into the proverbial box, Akagi and the girls went down to the large tournament area that was in the same clearing where Hishya and the other players fought Serval. Miji was uninterested in seeing the building, so Alice decided to go watch a movie with the girl. Apparently, a story that Miji's parents had read her once had something about a singing Mermaid, so Alice knew the perfect movie for her.

"Holy hell! This place is huge!" Mika yelled as they entered the structure, her voice echoing loudly. From the outside, it looked like a football stadium and was close in size to one. While the inside was filled with hallways, doors and an overall intricate layout. "Why do you need something this big?!?"

{Is it even going to get any use after this one tournament?!?} (Mika)

"It needs to be big for the fights." Akagi explained as she leaped into Mika's arms. "Don't you recall the devastation that Hishya and I wrought during that fight at the school? And that was us holding back." She figured a proper all-out fight would need a huge area. Otherwise, it would be too cramped and would be less interesting.

{Did you just jump into my arms to get pets? Wait, this is Akagi, of course she did...} (Mika)

"Are we even going to be able to keep up with these fights?" Kana asked. "You guys are way too fast for even me to see, so I highly doubt that we're going to see anything more than just blurs zooming back and forth." She was imagining something like a video she saw in the past that was titled: Anime Fight Scenes in Real Time, and it was basically a still shot of nothing since they moved too fast for humans to see.

"For people watching digitally, I've taken the liberty of having the techs adapt the stream to slow things down so that people can see it." Akagi explained. "I showed them an approximate speed using my own form as a base, and they were able to calculate some kind of program to make things work for the audience." She didn't really understand it nor did she care to as long as it worked. "For those watching in the flesh, and who are not able to keep up naturally, I'll just channel some power into you so that it's not an issue." She figured a bit of Demonic power/Magic would solve the issue, and had already tested it a few times to make sure.

"Well, at least you thought this through." Kana shook her head. "I figured you'd've forgotten just how speedy you all are, and that nobody would be able to keep up."

"I'm not stupid, Kana." Akagi blew a raspberry as Mika pat her on the head. "I'm well aware of just how weak and frail mortal bodies are, so I took that into account when doing all this. You really don't give me enough credit for how much thought I put into things, Kana."

{Such a wonderful sister I have here. If I didn't know any better you'd think I'm so kind of NEET with the way she talks about me.} (Akagi)

Kana shrugged, seeing no fault in her logic since she knew how her sister could be at times.

"You do realize that I have dozens of parallel minds going at any same moment, right?" Akagi said. "I'm currently thinking about tons of different things while having this conversation, so an oversight like that isn't going to happen."

"I bet like ten of those are about the best snuggling positions." Mika giggled as she scratched Akagi's ears.

"Nine, but that's not the point." Akagi sighed. "I'm quite competent in areas like this, so give me a bit more credit."

"If only she'd put all that effort into something more useful than a tournament. Perhaps the world would be a utopia." Kana chuckled.

"Utopias are boring." Akagi said. "It's no fun when everything is perfect. I enjoy a bit of chaos every now and then."

{I could solve world hunger and make global peace, but then I'd have to deal with all the paperwork and that would seriously cut into my Yumi time, so we're not doing that.} (Akagi)

"You say that, but I think the last year has been about 90% chaos." Naomi sighed. "You've definitely been up to a lot since you woke up, that's for sure. So maybe we can have some proper peace and quiet this time? I'd like to just do things without the whole background threats."

"Don't worry. After I deal with those Gods, I have a feeling that things will quiet down." Akagi smiled. "I'd most certainly like to not have anything to worry about either, since it keeps me from snuggling!" She hugged Mika.

{Kitty hugs! All is forgiven.} (Mika)

"Though you'd probably enjoy being pet while fighting off whatever enemy it is." Yumi shook her head as she imagined Akagi giving one loud MEW to destroy an enemy army.

"Onee-chan would probably meet some big bad leader while sitting on Yumi's lap being fluffed." Kana commented. "Either that or pretend to be just some kind of pet while making them think Yumi is the actual Demon Lord."

"Both of those ideas are good, and I'm stealing them." Akagi laughed. "But anyway let's go check this place out! I want to show you all the really cool features!"