Okay, so maybe I was running away from my troubles. I mean, it was kind of hard to argue against that fact when said troubles were screaming my name as I ran away from them. But I was also running towards a screaming person in the middle of a monster-infested forest! So it was fine, right? I totally had an excuse to do this thing I hadn’t thought through in the slightest!
Was I going to be able to find my companions again if I lost them? Haruka apparently figured out how to find me and Akari, so she could probably do it again, right? I’d just have to wait - wait, and hope that she didn’t just have the magical equivalent of a tracker stuck on Akari in particular.
Also, speaking of logical concerns, was I seriously going to rush to the rescue while looking like a terrifying monster? Again? Yes. Apparently I was!
Was I incapable of making smart decisions? Apparently so. Or at least I wasn’t great at making them while running away from a half-resolved identity crisis that I really didn’t want to share with other people!
Also, oh look, a cliche scene to distract me from my troubles! Namely a blonde girl in a fancy looking green dress (with delicate golden embroidery and everything!) surrounded by a bunch of wolves! Though didn’t rich girls in the woods normally have at least an attendant with them for these scenarios? And didn’t they normally look… scared?
“Hoh?” the girl murmured, opening a green fan I was pretty sure she didn’t have a moment prior and waving it at herself. “An oni? And here I thought something interesting would come, if I were to scream… Like a knight, in shining armor. Or at least an opponent more challenging than a mass of muscles. Did the wind lie to me, perhaps?”
“Uh…:” was about all I could manage, under the circumstances. Because, uh. How does one even respond to that? “I uh… Would you believe that I’m here to help…?” Did she even need help? Because she seemed weirdly unconcerned about the wolves surrounding her! Even as the biggest of them growled, and took a step towards her!
“As if I would need saving from my darling wind wolves,” the girl laughed, snapping her fan shut. Instantly, the wolves began to glow, before fading into nothing. “No more than I need their help to take care of you.”
She pointed her fan at me, and I tensed, unsure what to expect. A blade of wind? A gust, strong enough to knock me over? Maybe a tornado?
I… probably should have dodged to the side, come to think of it. Not that it mattered, when all I got was a gentle breeze caressing my cheek.
“...That was supposed to take your head off,” she muttered, again pointing the fan at me.
Another breeze ran between my legs. Reminding me, in the process, that I was totally still wearing a loincloth.
“Uh….” I said again, like the conversational genius I am.
“You!” the girl screamed, pointing a finger at me. Fan noticeably missing, now, by the way. “How dare you turn my loyal winds against me!”
“Me? I didn’t do anything, though?” Also, how loyal could they be if some random oni can turn them against you, to begin with?!
“Then why did the winds stop responding to me?! They keep saying they won’t do anything to mess with your… hair? How is her hair more important than my life? It’s a tangled rats’ nest, already! I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me things are living in it!”
“Well, that’s rude…”
“N-no matter!” the girl cried. “I still have my wind shield! So come at me, terrible oni! Come, and face the terror of the winds!”
“...Right. Look, I’m gonna level with you. I mostly just came here to get away from some personal shit that I didn’t want to think about. And also because you were screaming? But you seem to have everything handled? So I’m just going to-”
“Mistress Joanna-Sama.”
I flinched, but didn’t turn. Never turn! If you don’t face the music, then the music can’t hurt you, right? That’s my personal motto! Yup! Forever and always the route I’ll take! I just needed to keep focusing on the problem in front of me, and-
“It would seem that we need to have a conversation about proper methods of conversational egress. Don’t we?”
Eek!
“My, it seems the wind didn’t lie to me at all,” the blonde woman murmured in front of me. “An interesting development, indeed…”
“And you,” Akari continued, her gaze shifting to the blonde woman. Or at least that’s what I assume she did, seeing as how I was very much not looking behind me. It didn’t feel like her gaze was still burning its way into my back, though, so I was calling that a win either way. “Do you make it a habit of wandering your way into dangerous forests, Suzuki-sama?”
“You know who I am?” the blonde asked, and for a moment I swore I could see some sort of haughty-aura keeping the barbed words at bay.
“Everyone knows of the Suzuki family’s disappointment of a daughter.”
…And so much for the haughty-aura. Akari’s words punched right through it, causing the girl’s knees to wobble.
“Even my father, desperate as he was to find me an employer of suitable wealth, couldn’t bring himself to offer me up to you.”
And now she’s leaning against a tree for support! Can no one stand against Akari’s barbed words!? Even Haruka was backing up a bit, and Akari wasn’t even focusing on her!
No. Her eyes - which I’d made the terrible mistake of looking back at - were focused entirely on me.
“If you don’t mind, however, I need to have a proper discussion with Mistress Joana-sama here. A very long discussion, on why it’s wrong to run away from your harem members when they’re oh-so-kindly looking after her best interest.”
Oh, the coldness in her eyes… People always talked about the burning heat of anger, but coldness had a way of burning you in its own right. A way of making you shudder and shiver and want to hide yourself away…
Then she sighed, closed her eyes, and when she opened them again all that coldness was just gone. Which was almost scarier than if it had stayed. “If you don’t wish to talk about your past, then I won’t force you. We don’t actually know each other that well, after all. Just… say so, next time, instead of running away. Alright?”
I nodded. Fiercely. Desperately, even! That girl was scary when mad! Thankfully my impression of a bobblehead was enough for her to let out a long, slow breath and nod herself.
“Alright then… moving onto topic number two… What exactly is the scion of the Suzuki clan doing in these woods?”
“Who, me?” Suzuki asked, pointing to herself with a wide eyed, innocent expression. “I was simply making my way through the forest when a big, mean oni came barreling in my path, making me scream.”
“With all due respect,” Akari said, in a tone that implied exactly how much respect she thought that was, “I find that highly unlikely. We were with the oni in question when you began to scream. From far away.”
“Is that so?” Suzuki asked, eyeing the three of us. “And yet the two of you haven’t been injured in any obvious way… nor are you seemingly being controlled. If anything, I’d say you have the oni quite cowed.”
“I wouldn’t exactly go so far as to say cowed,” I protested, only to freeze in place when Akari turned her glare back upon me. “I-I mean, uh… I’m not… not cowed… if you know what I mean?”
“Joana-sama is somewhat… atypical for an oni,” Akari said, after an uncomfortably long moment. “She does not partake in human flesh, in quite the same way her brethren do.”
“You make it sound like there’s some other way to partake,” Suzuki noted, arching an eyebrow.
“Suffice it to say that I have the situation well under control, Suzuki-sama. I promise that you have no reason to fear her.”
“No reason to fear her?” Suzuki asked, eyeing me. “Perhaps that’s true. But I have no reason to trust her, either. It could be dangerous having an oni so close to the city… you wouldn’t be planning an attack on it or some such, would you?”
“We hope only to live in peace, Suzuki-sama,” Akari replied. Her tone was even - though how she managed to keep it that way with the vein in her forehead throbbing like that, I had no idea. “Surely you could look the other way this one time, and not report our presence to your father?”
“Oh? But if you want to form a home, then my father would surely be of great help, would he not? Identification for an oni is a tricky subject, after all - but it would be a simple matter for my family to provide all the paperwork she could ever need. A fabricated identity so perfect and complete, the empress herself would be impressed by it.”
“We hardly need to go so far as to capture the empress’s attention,” Akari replied, vein still throbbing. “We simply wish to rent a small room for ourselves…”
“And to have access to alcohol!” I added. “And shopping. And stuff. I mean, no offense to the girls, but I kinda wanna eat real food…”
“How curious,” Suzuki remarked. “The way you speak, you’d think you’d eaten from them in some way.”
I flinched. Akari didn’t.
Haruka laughed. “Not me, she hasn’t!”
“Not yet, at least,” Akari said. “Though I do not know whether it would be better punishment to deny you it, or make you go ahead…”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Haruka asked, tilting her head a little.
“Yes, I’d very much like to know myself,” Suzuki chimed in.
Akari grimaced. “It’s a personal matter, I’m afraid.”
“Really?” Suzuki asked, glancing between us all. “A personal matter between the three of you. Now I’m even more curious… How about this? I’ll tell you why I’m so interested in your oni friend there - and why I screamed - in return for you telling me how you’ve managed to tame such a magnificent specimen?”
“I’m not a specimen,” I protested. “I’m as h… I mean, I’m a person, like anyone else!”
“And I hardly think my curiosity is so grand as to need an answer at such costs,” Akari added. “No deal.”
“I’ll throw in a bottle of high quality alcohol,” Suzuki said. “You can even select it yourself, from our stores.”
“So, you see-”
“Joana-sama!” Akari snapped. “Are you being serious right now?”
“No?” I tried, not quite able to look her in the eyes. “I mean, I don’t think it’s that big a secret, is it…?”
“If you want to tell the world precisely what you did to me, that is of course your own prerogative,” Akari replied, her voice cold as ice.
“R-right… sorry… I wasn’t really thinking about how it might affect you,” I admitted, rubbing at the back of my head.
“More and more intriguing,” Suzuki remarked, studying me. “You’re quite civil for an oni…”
“Yeah, well, I was raised by humans,” I told her, deciding to stick to my lie.
“Is that so?” Suzuki asked, instead of calling me on it. Instead she smiled, turning her attention towards Akari. “I screamed because the wind told me I should - that something interesting would enter my life if I did. And it seems the wind spoke the truth - though, for the first time in my life, I find myself wondering whether it was truly me the spirits meant to help…”
“What do you mean by that?” Akari asked.
“Only that the spirits of the world seem to have taken an interest in your oni friend,” Suzuki replied, turning her attention back to me. “Joana-san, was it?”
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “That’s what they call me… around here…”
“Hmm… as you say,” Suzuki replied, smiling softly. “I think you should visit my father.”
“I already said we don’t have an interest in that,” Akari interjected, firmly. “And I don’t think you’re in any position to force the issue.”
“I’m not,” Suzuki agreed, casually. “But the real question is how far you all are willing to go just to keep me from speaking of this to him? Because I assure you, if I tell him about meeting a ‘good oni’ in the woods, he’ll take interest. Pointed interest.”
“And if we meet him through you?” I asked, before Akari could.
Suzuki smiled. “Why, in that case, I think we could all have a wonderful, productive conversation about our future together. Don’t you?”
~~~
Author's Notes
I already had a bit over half of this written out, it seems... I've revisited it before, but usually only when dealing with writer's block on other projects, and only until I got over said writer's block...
Not sure when the next chapter will be - I wanna work on more MOV next (probably) and then maybe some Double Trouble? And then we'll see about maybe more of the fanfic, I guess...) We'll see how things go, as usual...
Tomorrow is a Game Day for me, so probably no updates? This whole week is rather busy, honestly, but I'll figure out some time to work on stuff, depression permitting.