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I cast my gaze around the wrecked-up kitchen, taking in the dents in the oven, various devices and dishwasher, the shipwreck in the center which resembled the marble and wooden kitchen counter island and all his pots and pans were scattered all over which too were damaged. All the surfaces were charred from Akuchi’s explosion, or perhaps was fallout from the struggle against Enenra, my consciousness power clashing against its substance which was deathly.

Rui moved to my side with a smile. “We got it done.”

Turning my gaze towards Rui, I thought she was a little taller now than she’d been. Perhaps this fight had grown her up a bit. I’m sure I matured a great deal thanks to those two grueling days.

I thought about Mitsuhiko’s words, You’ll just have me arrested. But, what evidence do you have that would find me guilty before a human court? I’d no idea what we should do.

“What are we going to do with him?” I asked Rui-chan. “It’ll look like we attacked him in his home. No one is going to believe us. He’s right. Which court can judge his wrongdoing?”

Rui shook her head and shrugged, staring down at him with satisfaction in her eyes. “We could give him to Rickey.”

“That’s awfully brutal, isn’t it?” I laughed wryly, running my fingers through my hair. My eyes widened but after a short time I shrugged. Perhaps the usage of consciousness power has strange side-effects.

“I suppose it is, but this bastard deserves it.” Rui chewed her lip and shot a glare at me. “Why defend him after everything he put us through?”

“Because,” I sighed softly. “I hate him, but you’re supposed to be what passes for the jurisdictional organ concerning yokai matters. There aren’t any elite police forces to deal with yokai matters. If you’re the law, so to speak..."

“I’m not. I’m just a small girl.” Rui shrugged. “I can't take on that kind of responsibility. We should settle it here once and for all..”

“He asked to die, but I refuse to kill. Not even him. Is there no way we can persecute him or punish him short of becoming his executioners?” I looked at Rui who was still focused on Mitsuhiko’s unconscious body. Suddenly a golden blur leapt through the hole punched through the floor of the kitchen. I smiled happily and I ran over to huggle Natalia-sama in her kitsune form. My arms slinged around her neck. “I’m glad you’re okay!”

She nuzzled at my face, making me giggle. Her eyes surveyed the kitchen, but after a long pause, she started glowing with golden spiritual power. Eddies of air circled her form as she morphed back gradually to her human form. Her glorious soft fur shortened and was no longer visible as her soft skin was revealed like treasure. She stood nude for a moment, perhaps it was due to her exhaustion, but her clothes formed in a soft flash of light. I faced her with a with a pleading expression. “What are we going to do with Mitsuhiko?”

She laughed softly and stroked my hair. “Well, I think you should seal him in Rui’s scroll.” She winked at Rui who rushed over to join the huggle puddle.

“I think we should just drop him off the building.” Rui’s lip trembled, but her eyes were steady and she was very determined and was a very angry loli. “He killed Reiko-chan!”

Natalia-sama shook her head. “Your emotions are clouding your judgement. I wouldn’t mind doing it after all he’s done, particularly after he captured us and took us hostage, but I’ll settle for imprisonment. We should leave the question up to the yokai neighborhood council. They can convict him and appropriately punish him. If need be, a Kami-sama can be involved. For now, be a good girl and don ́t kill him. He deserves that at the very least.”

I nodded repeatedly, grinning broadly. This is Natalia-sama’s wisdom!

Rui blushed, pouting as she crouched by Mitsuhiko to reach into the pockets of the man’s suit. She cringed as though she was digging through garbage but finally she extracted her scroll. I watched as she raised up the scroll above her head. The scroll glowed, and a corona of energy enveloped Mitsumaru. His eyebrow twitched as the light touched him. Rui-chan gritted her teeth. “I can’t get it to seal him!” She stomped angrily.

“Ah, it’s simple. You don't have enough spiritual energy to seal a mortal. My bad.” She looked at me with a motherly sunny smile. “Go put your hand on hers. Pour your consciousness into the scroll and it should be done in a blink. The reason why you can’t seal him might have something to do with his usage of his own spiritual power. Little may remain to him for now. When someone without consciousness power uses a demon scroll, it will use the power in the subject, which made it a useful tool for many priests without any real potential. For those humans without any spiritual power, the scroll won’t work on them. Apparently Mitsuhiko’s knowledge had a few gaps in it. He could have sealed you.” She turned her eyes on me meaningfully and I shivered at the thought of being trapped.

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Natalia-sama resumed her explanation, “The scroll latches onto your consciousness power and that’s why it doesn’t work on normal humans. It couldn’t be used to enslave humanity, only yokai-kind.” I heard and felt a pang at those words. They spoke of sadness and the abuse of all yokai in the distant past. Mitsuhiko was a remnant of dark practices.

She saw my sadness and tousled my hair more affectionately. “It isn’t so bad as you’re thinking, probably. Well, it was, but these gave birth to many yokai as well. Where there is darkness, there also is light.” Rui stared at us, fidgeting as she still held her scroll.

“Can we please, please, please finish this?” she begged. I flushed and nodded, rushing over to help. I placed my hand on Rui’s gently. She blushed and her eyes widened. I closed mine and focused on the picture of a man being locked into the scroll in the form of a picture.

While in Mitsuhiko’s scroll, Reiko-chan’s face was depicted as a pretty and detailed sketch on one of the open spaces in it. I saw it in detail back when Rui pressed the shadow-filled scroll against my nonexistent face earlier, so I had an idea of what Mitsuhiko should look like.

“People must become sketches of themselves when sealed. I’ll think about how he would look on the scroll. I’m no artist, though.” Warm energy flowed from within despite how little I had left. When I opened my eyes, I saw Mitsuhiko fade away surrounded by a radiant light. I thought I saw a slight smile on his lips.

When it was done, I staggered and started to wipe my brow, but Rui’s grip on my hand was firm. Her eyes sparkled with tears. They glistened as they were rolling down her cheeks. “I-it feels good to have finished it, right?” I smiled.

“That’s not it!” Rui yelled. “Idiot!” She nuzzled at me. I was so weak I was bowled over. Natalia-sama giggled softly.

“E-ehhhhh?” I yelped. Never had oni seized me in this manner. “D-did you... lose your mind?” She continued to burrow into my chest. It felt tight and even tighter as she cuddled me. I couldn’t stop blushing. I’d never had a girl snuggle up to me so much. Well, that wasn’t quite true. I thought about that rainy night and morning last night back when Ume and Rui had comforted me. This surely was like that... meaningless, but I still wasn’t sure what I felt then and saw wasn’t just a strange and wonderful dream. Rui inhaled deeply with a sigh, laying against my chest.

I gave up and laughed, still blushing. I patted her back. “That’s starting to feel strange, but if it makes you feel better, I guess that’s fine.”

Natalia-sama laughed, “Why don’t I look for..." A minor explosion nearby interrupted Natalia-sama’s words. Ume’s dress was a little torn, but she’d resurfaced. I saw chunks of wood fly from either side of her. Ume leapt at us and glomped us like the savage vampire she must have once been, her fangs were bared. They were still stained with Mitsuhiko’s blood. That horrifying expression on her face softened within a blink to reveal her customary happy and cute smile, but this time it was a bloody-fangy-toothy-grin. It was still cute, but also scary.

“Something smells good..." She purred like a kitten. “Oh, my, you’re blushing way more than usual, and you smell way nicer!” She licked her lips in a way that terrified me.

“I agree!” Rui hadn’t stopped snuggling. My sentai suit was already soaked with her tears.

“Now if Akuchi returns from death, this moment would be perfect,” Natalia-sama laughed.

“No! She’s mine!” Rui chimed in.

“Don’t be greedy, Rui-Rui-chan!” Ume exclaimed. “She’s my room freshener! Plug it in, and she spreads wonderful scents! I couldn’t live without this delicious morsel!”

Wh-what?

Another explosion went off. “HE’S MINE!!!” It was Akuchi.

She’d revived finally, and had come out from wherever she was hiding. Considering matters, perhaps she’d existed as fire or vapor while she recovered. She leapt over in ragged clothing. Apparently she wouldn’t be outdone by Ume or anyone else when it came to dramatic entrances. I seriously doubted those clothes she wore were real because those ‘damaged’ clothes perfectly accentuated her sexuality. I blushed even more, trying to cover my face. Even a bit of nipple was visible. What a dirty mind!

I tried, but my arms were pinned down by two lolis. Rui and Ume were fighting over my chest. It was a snuggle war and a third had entered the ring.

“Akuchi-chan! I’m glad you’re alright!” Natalia-sama started over, but Akuchi started jostling for a position with them. I started foaming at the mouth, barely able to breath.

“I’m going to die!” I yelped, while suffering a nosebleed.

“Drat you annoying brats!” Akuchi complained loudly.

“Please... this is excessive! You might really kill..” Natalia-sama tried to reason with them.

“Fine! This spot isn’t taken!” Akuchi leapt into the air to land squarely on my head.

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Afterwards, they were peeled off of me by Natalia-sama. I opened my eyes to see her sunny and elegant face. She was holding me gently in her arms. I drooled a little as I recovered a bit. I thought about Akuchi’s lucha libre-like maneuver. I was just glad that Akuchi didn’t have enormous male genitalia anymore, or perhaps she wasn’t equipping it. Being slammed by those tennis balls would have killed me. Come to think of it, wouldn’t this have backfired?

“There there, you’ll be okay, dear,” Natalia-sama cradled me with her typical gentleness. I’d never been held by a girl like this. This in itself was nearly overwhelming. K-kyaaaaa... I’m in heaven!

“Let’s leave. Akuchi, how much energy do you have left?” Natalia-sama asked Akuchi.

“Enough to transform a few times,” Akuchi answered as she glanced at me with an apologetic expression for suffocating me practically.

“Given the wealth Mitsuhiko has, I think he must have a helicopter pad.” Natalia-sama took over. I snuggled against her chest and she didn’t seem to mind this at all. “Akuchi, when we get out of this building, transform into a helicopter and take us to my home. We can rest there.”

“T-there is, actually,” I tiredly murmured as I snuggled. “If we head out to the elevator bank, there’s an H labeled button on it. It lets you go to the rooftop. There’s a garden up there. It’s kind of nice, even though Mitsuhiko was a total asshole.” Natalia-sama looked strangely at me and petted my hair. “Thank you, Susumu,” she murmured.

I barely paid attention as we left the building. When we reached the rooftop, Akuchi transformed into a helicopter as ordered. The usefulness of her transformation ability always amazed me.

We boarded Akuchi and lifted off. The whirring noises of the rotating propellers roared above us. Those were the last things I heard that night. I fell unconscious, cradled in the laps of my friends.

I had a feeling that everything about my life had changed forever. Change can be terrifying, but sometimes even the strangest ones are for the best.

The End

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” --- Albert Einstein