Landing the robot in front of his Grandpa's house, Ichi plopped out from the opening chestplate like a pile of goo.
"That interface... could use work." He groaned on the ground.
Renya tapped down beside him and scooped him off the ground, righting him. Ichi swirled around and leaned against Renya to steady himself.
"Direct mental link makes the most sense. Even a child could pilot it." Renya said.
The door to Grandpa's house burst open. A tall musclebound figure with arms crossed and long black hair stood in the doorframe. The shadow squinted at them.
"Hello. This is our first meeting, face to face, Ichi Danzaburo. Where is Rikya?"
Ichi caught his bearings, waving his hand at Renya who went for her sword as he met the man's stare. He stepped in front of threshhold, resting his forearm on the hilt of the orc sword, pulling in a long breath before he spoke.
"She said something about trouble with her family. I'd be betraying her if I told a stranger where she was, wouldn't I?"
"Hmph. Then you have Rikya's interests at heart, then?"
"What kind of monster would betray a cute girl?"
The figure uncrossed his musclebound arms and walked into the sunlight. A friendly looking face with long black hair blowing appeared as well as a toned hand. The hand offered itself for Ichi to shake.
"It is an honor to meet a fellow gentleman."
Ichi didn't understand, but he took his hand anyways and shook it.
"I am Oni. Rikya's elder brother, and her only ally within the Burncastle family. Allow me to show you my true form."
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With that, a puff of grey smoke covered him, and as it cleared, a little girl in a black outfit with small daggers appeared.
Ichi's hand went to the side of his head. Renya giggled behind him. The girl posed, her voice as light as a cloud, her eyes and hair black as night.
"Truly, this form is the best. It was worth obtaining immortality for, now, throughout the ages I may protect all little girls. However, it would be shameful if I couldn't protect my own little sister, as a man, Ichi, you must agree."
Ichi patted Oni's head. A grin lit up his face.
"Honorable words. Now, if you don't mind telling me, where's Grandpa?"
Oni stood stock still as he endured the headpat unflinchingly.
"Waiting inside. Once he heard the news about Tamamo being freed, he grew worried. It was irresponsible of you to release that woman so easily. I had to disable the alarm myself, lest Mordanth, my father, be alerted."
Ichi pulled his hand back from the girls head.
"Thanks. I wasn't really thinking things through back then, got a little excited I guess."
Ichi glanced at Renya, who returned his gaze. Renya nodded with a small bow, her eyes closed.
"Let's discuss the rest inside."
After greeting Grandpa who hugged Ichi with that stern eagle look on his face, they all sat down at the kitchen table.
Renya handled the explanation she heard from Ichi about the night's events as Ichi nodded. She conveniently skipped her fight with Ichi. Renya conveniently skipped how Myon and Syon were captured. She skipped her betrayal of Myon and Syon as well. Instead of telling the old men that she let Scipio know about Syon and Myon's armory on purpose, she transmuted the reason Scipio appeared to 'a spat between Dracula and Gai'.
Ichi could only pretend like he just happened to wander in to this situation as Renya lied. If Ichi were alone, he reflected, he would have just burst out the truth as fast and as clumsily as possible. No way Grandpa or the little girl man would look upon that favorably. What concerned him what that Renya's lie wasn't one he understood.
Renya placed Dracula as the convenient villain, the father of Scipio. Someone called "Gai Tengu" was setup as the opposition. Ichi didn't know who Gai Tengu was or why that mattered but he kept quiet. Oni and Grandpa nodded along to Renya's explanation without missing a beat. Having Renya do the explaining was a good choice on his part, surely if these magic people have moonbases he must have missed yet another useless detail. Or a couple thousand, he nodded to himself.
It'd only be later that he'd discover Gai Tengu was one of the strongest rulers of the Spirit World and Myon and Syon's father.
When Renya mentioned the black stick disappearing into Ichi's body and Scipio's sword turning white, Oni raised an eyebrow and Grandpa's brows lowered.
Grandpa looked to Oni at his side, and Oni nodded. Grandpa fumed out air.
"Danzaburo's experiment seems to have succeeded."