Lena said nothing, but gestured for me to follow. As I was walking out of the door I looked back at Asayo, who was currently curled up on a bench, fast asleep. Following Lena down the street, we took a left and kept walking. Suddenly, we were interrupted by a loud noise. What happened next was completely baffling.
A stunningly gorgeous kitsune in an elegant set of robes crashed through a window, after being blasted by water from an unknown source.
I soon understood what the source was when a young girl with pale, almost light blue skin, long white hair, cyan eyes and a blue glistening dress, floated out of the window. The girl, who was clearly a Naiad, went in for another attack, but before the rush of water was able to hit the kitsune, a large wall of fire appeared in between them.
“Zahra, what the hell are you doing? This eight-tailed bitch just ordered fish in front of me with no indication of any sort of empathy!”
“Whoa, whoa, Althaia, I didn’t know that your lack of eating fish dictated whether or not I was able to eat it. Because let me tell you, fish is good, and there is nothing that you can do to change my opinion.”
“This isn’t fun anymore, Zahra just wanted to eat Mr. Richard’s food, but now Zahra doubts we’ll be let back in.” A new, almost childish voice, cried out while speaking in third-person.
I looked for the source, and noticed a voluptuous tan skinned woman, with fiery crimson hair in skimpy clothing. Large wings of flame were being produced from her back.
“Oh stop bitching, you can get in anywhere, with that “charm” of yours!” Althaia replied in a mean-spirited, haughty demeanor.
“That's so insensitive, you know Zahra’s trying to get away from that life, that's why she decided to join the party!” The kitsune, who got up, appeared to be outraged.
Zahra’s flame wings began to fade along with the large wall of fire. Dropping to the floor, Zahra began to cry, not unlike a small child. Her appearance was pitiful.
“Oh look at that, you made Zahra cry, you insufferable piece of shit!” Another new voice outroared from the broken window.
Looking up, I saw a toned female oni with deep red eyes, black hair with a red tint, and fair red skin. Jumping down from the window, she aimed her large naginata at Althaia. As soon as the blade reached Althaia, it passed through her completely, like a solid moving through liquid. The Oni, who missed her attack, fell to the ground. Getting back up she looked at Althaia with a furious expression.
“Arghaaaaa, why do you always do that? Fight me like a real woman, stop using your cheap tricks to avoid this conflict!”
Looking at Lena with a hesitant expression, I couldn’t help but come to the horrible realization that these were probably my party members. As if she heard my thoughts, Lena simply nodded before yelling out loud to gather their attention. Her thought process for putting this team together was completely incomprehensible to me.
“ALL OF YOU STOP!” Lena once again returned to her true form.
The four girls immediately backed down and stopped the commotion like children who just got scolded by their parents.
“Now girls, play nice and introduce yourselves to our new party leader, while I go fix this mess of yours.” Reverting back to a humanoid form, Lena then walked through the front door of the restaurant. My attention finally returned to the unruly group that would be my new party members. After an awkward moment of silence one of them eventually spoke up.
“Heeey Leone, my name's Ichika, your resident Kitsune, and pleasure seeker.”
I was able to get a closer look now. She had silky dirty blonde hair, silver irises and pupils in the shape of ovals, which I have to admit were a little off putting. Her face was extremely gorgeous while her skin was smooth and slightly sunkissed. Her body was well shaped, not possessing too much or too little. It seemed to fit the perfect space of attractiveness. She wore a modest robe tied with a sash around her waist, along with elevated sandals. Her hair was tied into a loose bun. The most eye-catching feature was the eight large tails that emerged from behind her.
This had never happened to me before, but I was stumbling on my words trying to give a response. Eventually, I managed to find something fairly awkward to say back.
“I see. Well my name is Leone Anlett, and it is nice to be working with you.” I lied as naturally as I breathed.
Suddenly, she leaned in close to my ear and whispered, “Don’t… you… mean… it’s… a… PLEASURE… to… be… working with me.”
I could feel my face grow hot as she returned to her original position and let out a faint snicker. I tried to change the subject as quickly as possible.
“Well anyways how about you three.” I turned to look at the others.
The Naiad, known as Althaia, looked at me scornfully, “Well there’s nothing that needs to be said here about me. This is just a temporary arrangement until I'm able to get into Shyvielle’s squad.”
“Wait Shyvielle? You know my friend?” I asked, genuinely surprised.
At the mention of Shyvielle, her face turned red and her stare became more intense by the second. It was very clear, to me at least, that she had a crush on my childhood friend. Seeing her like this was honestly quite cute and made me want to tease her. I would soon regret this decision.
“Hmmm, I see, so you're in love with Shyvielle huh?”
As soon as I finished the words, a large orb of water blasted me in the face.
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“How do you know about that? You better promise me that you won’t tell anyone!”
“Well I didn’t even know what you were talking about until about ten seconds ago, but the way you reacted pretty much just revealed it to everyone.”
Again I had made another mistake. Was it because I was stupid? Quite possibly. But at that moment I just couldn’t help myself from pointing out the obvious..
A large pillar of water crashed into me, knocking my dumbass onto the ground. This sent the Oni girl into a frenzy as she charged at Althaia in an attempt to hit her. However, just like before, the Oni’s attacks passed right through her as the two resumed their conflict from earlier.
“Why are you like this? You need to get a hold of yourself, you insufferable bitch! Stop getting so fumed up for no reason!” The Oni growled as she amped up the ferocity of her attacks.
“You’re one to talk, all I ever see you be is angry. Anytime I do anything you just get pissed off immediately!” Althaia responded in kind, sending a devastating wave of water forward.
“Maybe because everything you do is just so annoying! You’re always whining, if you would just shut up sometimes then maybe you would see how calm I can really be!”
Before the two could go any further, Ichika raised her hand and waved it in a square motion. Blue flames instantly enveloped the two girls, and when the flames cleared they were trapped in blue translucent boxes that fell to the ground. Inised, Althaia melted into a puddle, while the Oni girl kept attacking the barrier in an attempt to break out.
“Damn, they should just kiss already…” Ichika said with a lewd expression on her face.
Suddenly, I felt warmth surrounding my body. I could tell that the source of the heat was intense, but something was preventing it from completely scorching me. It was evaporating the water that had soaked me, and warming my body back to a comfortable temperature. I looked to my left and saw, who I assumed to be Zahra, producing a small flame from her outstretched palms. She was undeniably attractive with her deeply tanned skin, short crimson hair, and voluptuous figure. But I wasn’t sure how to feel about the skimpy outfit. It obviously wouldn’t provide much protection during a fight. However, she just seemed so kind, that I didn’t want to see her hurt by mentioning anything about it.
“Thanks Zahra, I appreciate the assistance.”
“You appreciate Zahra? Now Leone gives Zahra something in return.”
Immediately, Zahra reached down for the waist of my pants. Before she could get any further, Ichika looked in our direction and performed the same gesture as earlier. Zahra was engulfed in blue flames, and when they faded she was in a similar box as the other two.
Shocked and blushing, I asked, “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do with that girl, her heart is in the right place, but she goes about it in the wrong way.”
“That doesn't answer my question.”
“Hmm, well it's quite a sad story, so let's not get into it for now, besides I don’t know if it's my place to say anything. Sorry Leone.”
“No, I completely understand.”
“Well then, onto a less depressing topic, let’s have you meet Kanna, that feisty little one over there.”
Ichika pointed at the box that the Oni girl was trapped in.
“Let’s.”
I followed Ichika over to the box, and she opened a small hole in the cage. Kanna ran towards it, and as soon as her head was through it, Ichika collapsed the cage around her neck. Kanna’s head became stuck, and it was quite funny to me. I could tell she was beautiful in a strange way, her skin was reddish and roughed up, her short black hair was soft-looking and tied up into a ponytail, and she had a toned physique that was just covered by large black pants. There were also some bandages covering her nearly flat chest, however, what stuck out to me the most was her deep red eyes, two horns with one broken at the top, and small fangs that protruded from her bottom lip. However, from where she was at the moment, she looked like an absolute gremlin waving her arms and legs around, unable to move.
“Hey, hey, Ichika let meeeeee out.”
“Only if you agree to introduce yourself to our leader.”
“No, I don’t want to.” Kanna said as she began to blush.
“Oh, have you developed a little crush on young Leone here?”
“Of course I have, just look at how he’s built.” Kanna said as she pointed to my arms.
While I had to admit, I gained a lot of muscle mass and toning from all the hours of combat training with my father, I’ve never really thought anything of it. I have looked like this from a young age, and my father has always had this physique as far back as I can remember.
“Oh Kanna, is that all you care about in a man?”
“I mean look at him Ichika, they are just so well shaped and finely crafted.”
“While I have to admit they look nice, there's gotta be more to a man for me.”
“Whoa, hey, I've got more to me than just muscle. I am also an expert in multiple forms of combat.” I arrogantly bragged.
“Even better.” Kanna said as she started to drool.
“Hey can you stop gawking over me, my physique is not that big of a deal, plus everyone else should be similar in order to be combat ready for adventures.” I spoke while looking at the lustful Oni’s eyes.
“Have you seen the other men in the guild? They are all fat and lazy slobs, except this one guy, but he just left because his contract is over. How’d you get those scars anyway?” Kanna asked while closely examining my build.
“Just standard combat training with my father, he had to get me ready to fight and adventure somehow.”
“Even hotter.” Kanna said as she got more of a crazed look in her eyes.
“Now look, what you’ve done Leone, this is the horniest I have ever seen her. Good going, now you’re going to have three girls vying for your attention.”
“Wait, who’s the last one, don’t tell me it's y…”
“No, no, while I think you are attractive I have my sights set on someone else. The other one is Asayo, after taking care of you for so long, she developed a little thing for you.”
“Well this is going to get real awkward, real fast.”
“I concur.”
Ichika pushed Kanna and closed the gap in the cube prison. Soon after Lena emerged from the restaurant, with a long piece of paper.
“Well look at what this little commotion has caused, here’s the list of all the damages that we now owe.”
“How much is it going to cost?” Ichika asked, giving a slight wince.
“Around twenty-thousand gold pieces.”
“That doesn’t sound like too much, only two or three missions.” I said ignorantly.
“Well yes, if every mission was the difficulty rating of the one we have been given. We were only given that mission because no one else was available to do it.”
“Well how many regular missions is it going to take?”
“Well after this first one, about thirty more.”
“You gotta be kidding me, so you’re telling me I won’t get any actual payout until I complete thirty missions?”
“That’s correct Leone.”
“Why exactly does this debt fall on me?”
“Because members of your party caused the damage.”
“Well that still seems unfair, why should I have to pay for it, can’t they pay for it themselves?”
“I mean, they will be paying for themselves, but as the party leader and their only source of income, it pretty much falls onto you.”
“Well that’s fantastic, if that's the case we should probably get going then.”
“We should probably retrieve Asayo before we go anywhere.”
“You’re right, this squad seems shitty enough as it is, we might as well pick up the sleeping cat.”
“She’s only sleeping because she’s been taking care of your comatose ass for the past few weeks.”
“Yeah, yeah, my bad. I'm just frustrated that I gotta supply the money for this stupid debt that those four dumbasses caused. You know what, each of you is gonna find another source of income as well.”
“Ooh! Zahra has an idea!” Zahra exclaimed in excitement.
“No you don’t.” Ichika responded while playfully chopping Zahra on the head.
“Alright let's go get the final member of our squad so that we can finally get to the mission at hand.”