Ch 308: Attracting the Demons’ notice.

"Almost there, about five kilometers, slightly to you right." came Da Vinci's voice through the earplug in Ciel's left ear.

She and Caren were flying over a vast expanse of trees, almost 150 kilometers west of Border Town, in the Demon's territory. They already had to deal with a patrol of Mad Demons using wyverns to fly. The spear throwers had been easy to deal with, Ciel and Karen, forewarned by Da Vinci's satellite surveillance, positioned themselves to have the sun on their back as they dove toward them and used Light swords to behead both riders and mounts when they came close enough.

"…I think I see the ruins." said Caren as she pointed forward.

Ciel saw them, too. The crumbling remains of a tower, its top missing. The light brown stones were largely covered with vines and did a good job hiding the structure in the forest background.

They landed in front of the tower, and Ciel frowned as she examined the ground.

"Look at these footprints, Caren. They're recent."

"Crude boots, not animal pawprints, and a bit too big to be from humans." nodded Caren, taking a sword from her spatial ring. "Demons have been there. Two of them, I think."

"Let's hope we aren't too late." nodded Ciel as she entered the tower, three Black Keys held between the fingers of her right hand, giving off the impression she was imitating a certain famous superhero with adamantium claws.

The floor and upper level of the ruin were empty, and they cautiously explored its basement.

It only took them a few moments to find their objective, in the room farthest from the stairs. A thick block of clear ice, about 2 meters in width and 2.5 meters in height. Inside it was a woman with long light blue hair, looking in her late twenties and wearing an opulent dress, and a thin golden circlet around her forehead.

"There are more footprints here as well. We aren't the first ones to have found her." sighed Ciel.

She also found the shattered fragments of a bone spear, and assumed that a Mad Demon had tried to shatter the ice protecting the witch.

"Alright, let's take her and leave. There's nothing else of interest in this ruin." shrugged Caren, taking the Sanctuary from her spatial ring.

Ciel nodded, and saw the block of ice and the witch disappear.

…

Over thirty kilometers north of the ruin, Lügner, Duke of Taquila, frowned as the Sentry Demon shared with him what it was seeing with telepathy, two witches flying away from the tower toward the east, no doubt returning to human-controlled territory. And likely, the closest human settlement, aptly named Border Town.

When a patrol had found the ruins and the witch hibernating inside, they had been unable to kill the witch, and the block of ice was too large and heavy to be carried thought the narrow stairs.

The two Mad Demons had reported their findings, and the Duke had decided to come in person to oversee the dismantlement of the ruin and excavation of the witch in the ice. And she would be quite a prize, as the fresher the witch corpse fed to the Chaos Beast, the higher the quality of the magic crystals the Beast would produce would be.

He had even taken Linie to accompany him and thirty Mad Demons, hoping that the young demon prodigy would be able to replicate the ice magic the witch had used to protect herself. If she could later encase in ice the bodies of the witches they killed in the upcoming war, before transporting them to the Chaos Beast, the benefits would be substantial.

…Until the day came where he would need to kill her, lest she threaten his own position.

"Accelerate the pace." ordered the Duke to his troops. He didn't care much about the two flying witches. If all they could do was fly, they weren't a threat. However, once they reported to Border Town, the humans might send an expedition to recover her.

The Mad Demons started jogging, no easy feat as they were carrying a palanquin holding the Sentry Demon.

The demon, a huge globe of dark gray flesh covered in red eyes and with limbs just barely strong enough to keep its balance, was very useful to locate enemies and view things from a great distance, but once they reached maturity and climbed on top of a stone pillar, they never moved again, and their limbs atrophied.

If only this had been another part of the plains, they could have used land wyrms and chariots to carry the Sentry Demon and the witch. But here, the thick forest and ever-present tree roots forced them to travel by foot, or on the backs of land wyrms, like the Duke, Linie and Draht were currently doing.

It took two more hours for Duke Lügner and his entourage to reach the ruins. And when he entered the basement and saw the empty spot where the scouts assured him the ice-encased witch had been, he felt deep and intense irritation. The Duke really hated having his valuable time wasted, and opportunities stolen from him.

"Do we return to Taquila, Duke Lügner?" asked Drath.

"…No." decided Lügner, displaying a cold smile. "If humans decided to intrude on our lands ahead of time, it is only fair that we do the same."

Drath displayed an eager smile. He was eager to prove his strength to increase his social standing.

"Lord Lügner, the Mad Demons do not have enough gas to follow us to the border." pointed out Linie.

Once demons reached their third evolution, they didn't need to breath the gas that was plentiful in their homelands.

"We do not really need them. The three of us will be enough. We will kill those witches, then tell a few humans that we will spare them if they help us carry their corpses back to Taquila."

Of course, those humans would be killed the instant they ran out of usefulness. It didn't even cross the Duke's mind to act in a different manner.

"I understand, Lord Lügner." nodded Linie.

None of them were worried by the perspective of fighting an unknown number of witches and human soldiers. The Demon Society was based on strength above all else, and as a Duke, Lügner stood near the very top. And Linie and Draht were his strongest subordinates.

The Duke instructed most of the Mad Demons to bring the Sentry Demon back to Taquila, and a few would take additional gas reserves and wait for them near the border with the Land Wyrms. Lügner, Linie and Draht would make the rest of the way to Border Town on foot.

In just a few days, Humans would learn an object lesson about the reason they lost last time they fought demons.

…

Is this your home, Takeshi-kun?" asked Sakura with a gentle voice.

"Yes." nodded Takeshi, unwilling to walk any closer to it. "But I can go live with mister Kaze, right?"

"Yes." nodded the man in question with a smile, lifting the child and making him sit on his right shoulder. "Let's go to your new home, Takeshi. I have prepared your room. What kind of wallpaper would you like?"

Sakura and Kaze exchanged a nod, then he left with Takeshi.

Sakura and Rin waited until they were out of view, then entered the building and climbed to the third floor.

Sakura knocked on the door, and after a few seconds, it opened.

A man stood in the doorway, tall and with wide shoulders, with short black hair and bloodshot eyes. He wore a stained, dark gray tracksuit.

"What you want?" asked the man with suspicion.

"We came to visit Takeshi-kun." smiled Sakura, before sniffing. The man smelled of alcohol.

"The damn brat ran off. Go away."

He was about to slam the door shut when Sakura moved forward, pushing the door open suddenly and forcing her way in.

"The fuck are you…" the man doubled over when Sakura lightly punched his stomach, and Rin activated an array she has engraved on a sheet of paper, creating a sound isolation barrier.

"What's happening?" asked a young woman from the living room.

Sakura grabbed the man by his hair and dragged him behind her as she and her sister entered the living room, ignoring his screams of pain and rage.

"Are you Takeshi's mother?" asked Rin to the woman. She had semi-long black hair and black eyes, was relatively plain, and wore a green tracksuit.

"Who are you bitches! Release him at once, or I'll call the police!"

"Did you know that this man beat your son?" asked Rin, carefully studying her reaction, and the woman looked away for a second, flustered.

"I see." nodded Rin. "You knew, and you did nothing. I have some papers for you to sign. Abandonment of parental rights, that kind of thing. Then you will write a confession about the abuse Takeshi suffered, and how you did nothing to stop it."

"I won't! You fucking psychos are insane! I'll call the cops!"

She reached for her phone, only for it to suddenly be pierced by a light dagger, destroying it.

The woman cried in dismay and stumbled back as the device started catching fire.

"Damn, forgot about the lithium." muttered Rin as she retrieved the damaged phone, put it in her spatial ring, and extinguished the flames.

The woman took a deep breath to scream, but she froze as she heard a blow of something hard against flesh, and her boyfriend screamed.

Sakura had just used a bat to break his right leg. His left leg followed.

Skura methodically broke all four of the man's limbs with precise blows from the bat. For each limb, she didn't content herself with breaking only the femur or humerus, but also the radius, ulna, tibia and fibula.

Then she turned the man over and put on surgical latex gloves.

The man was screaming his lungs out from the pain, and Takeshi's mother was frozen in terror, staring at the scene.

Once gloved, Sakura tore the pants and underwear from the man, exposing his butt.

"What? No! No no no no no no! Wait wait wait wait. WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT!" screamed the man, more in terror than pain this time, as he saw the black rod in Sakura's hand, and guessed how she was about to use it.

Sakura looked down at him with cold eyes.

"This is your punishment, for beating a child and sending him to the hospital. If you ever touch a child again after this, we will find you, and we will torture you to death. Now take your medicine!"

Without hesitation, Sakura shoved the rod into the man's rear entrance. His sphincter gave way, being scratched by the tips of the curved thorns as the rod went deeper. When only the handle was protruding from his butt, and he was howling in pain and terror, Sakura released the handle and stepped away. The woman looked about to faint.

"Sign the papers, or it's your turn next." growled Rin, waving the forms in front of her face, and the woman nodded in a panic.

"And hurry up, you piece of shit woman." added Rin, giving her a pen. "The sooner you're done, the faster we'll leave, and you can call an ambulance."

…

When they returned home later, they were Greeted by Unohana and Angela Balzac, the newest mecha pilot they acquired after completing the Dinosaur Hunting mission.

"Welcome back." smiled Angela. "How did it go?"

Angela, the newest addition to their team after they received the reward for completing the Dinosaur alien quest, was only 155 cm tall, but her brash and confident behavior made people forget about her height. She had long blonde hair reaching all the way down to her ankles that she tied into two pigtails, and her pilot outfit was a skin-tight white leotard with black trim and translucent green accessories, and elbow-length and knee-high boots following the same pattern, but with black being the dominant color. She also had white and green hair accessories behind her temples.

Today, Angela wore black jeans and a red t-shirt, but she had kept the hair accessories.

"Well enough." smiled Sakura. "What we did to that scum will likely make the news tomorrow, but we used hypnosis on them both to make sure they can't give an accurate description of their assailants, and I made sure a copy of that woman's confession would be found by the cops, so they won't try too hard finding us. And Kaze-san is now free to officially adopt the kid."

"Won't he catch some heat, however?" frowned Angela.

"That's unlikely." shrugged Rin. "He won't move to make it official for now, and soon, the authorities will be too busy to search for a missing kid whose parents aren't in a hurry to find."

"And now, we have a new comrade to welcome to our family." nodded Rin, taking from her spatial ring a metal pod. Some of its upper surface was made of transparent Plexiglas, and the pod bore a "Doll-05 – Haruka" marking on the side.

Inside was a girl, sleeping. Sakura could see a pretty face, an upper body covered by a futuristic white and black leotard reminding her of Asuka's red pilot suit, and metallic white cat ears peeked from her mane of long, wavy gray hair.

"I'm starting to see a pattern with the cat ears." chuckled Rin.

Sakura smiled, and pressed the single large button on the side of the pod. With a hiss of equalizing pressure, the pod opened, giving them a better view of her occupant.

In addition to the leotard, she wore white knee-high boots and elbow-length white gloves, and a thick something was resting close to the girl's left thigh. It was close to a meter long, had a black tip, but was neon green on most of its length, and it surface looked squishy and rubbery.

The girl stirred, moving to rest on her should as she stretched her limbs, eyes closed, and Sakura saw that the green and black appendage was a sort of tail, although she couldn't say if this was simply a part of her costume, or part of Haruka herself.

After a cute yawn, the girl opened her eyes, and smiled as she saw them.

"Ah! You must be my new Mamas!"

"Mama?" gasped Rin, her heart pierced by Haruka's cuteness.

"Welcome, Haruka. My name is Sakura." said Sakura with a warm smile, herself not immune to Haruka's declaration. "Just to be sure, can you tell us why you called us your new Mamas?"

"Haruka had a nice dream! A pretty lady told Haruka that Haruka would have a new family with lots and lots of Mamas, and that after killing a bunch of bad aliens with Infinity, Haruka would meet her new Papa as well!"

"Ah? You're Infinity's pilot?" asked Angela, leaning forward eagerly.

"Is she famous?" asked Rin, and Both Unohana and Angela nodded.

"The Infinity is a monster of a mecha, with high mobility and extreme firepower. Its opponents will face salvoes of missiles, a dense hail of laser shots from Infinity's six drones, and its main gun will pierce through any cover or energy shield in short order." explained Angela.

"Have you met Haruka before?" asked Haruka.

"Yes. I'm Angela Balzac. I'm the pilot of Hel."

"Ah! Haruka remembers you! I'm happy, Mama Angela!" exclaimed Haruka with a heart-melting grin.

Angela immediately became flustered.

…

Akeno was jogging down a forest path, thinking about which attribute she wanted to increase next with the daily reward, when she noticed something and slowed down a little. Three young women stood on the path, and judging from their outfits, they weren't there to exercise.

The one standing in the middle, looking to be around thirty, had semi-long black hair and black eyes, and wore a white, old-fashioned priestess outfit.

A step behind and to her right was a girl with straight, dark blue hair stopping at her shoulder blades and blue eyes, wearing a sleeveless light blue summer dress reaching down to her ankles with a few white frills, and a summer hat. Akeno's extra sense tingled slightly as she drew near. She could tell that this girl had several electrical devices under her dress, even if she couldn't determine their shape or function. Her eyes, boosted by her perception attribute, could also detect some faint traces of mana coming from the cage-shaped pendant around the girl's neck.

On the other side of the priestess was another girl with chestnut-brown hair gathered in a bun and brown eyes, dressed in a black qipao ornamented with white butterflies, stopping just above her knees. She, too, wore the same pendant.

Akeno slowed to a walk as she spread her senses and felt another source of electricity in her immediate surroundings. A single person with what felt like a smartphone, hiding behind a large tree to her left.

Even tough she was confident that she could deal with whatever those four people could throw at her, she decided to call in for some reinforcement.

[Suzuka, would you like an opportunity to fight a little?]

[Count me in! I'm on my way!]

[Come in your dematerialized state, please. I want to see what they want first.]

Akeno finally stopped when she was five meters from them. She could feel faint killing intent from the two girls escorting the priestess, but none from her.

"Ara ara, I do not know who you are, but if you wished to meet me, you could have just visited the Natsume residence, you know? There was no need to try to ambush me here. And the one hidden behind that tree can show themselves."

After a second, a young man came from behind the tree Akeno had designated with her finger without bothering to turn her head.

He was tall and wide, had short red hair cut to a buzz over most of his skull, aside from longer hair styled in a Mohawk. His most striking feature was a pattern of black tattoos on the left side of his upper body, going from his forehead to his left hand. He was dressed in a tight green shirt and camo pants, and had a thick blade sheathed in a scabbard

"Interesting." smiled the priestess. "You could detect him, but not his gender, it seems."

"I was once known as the Priestess of Thunder, and bio-electric signatures are difficult to hide. I assume you are more members of F?"

"That is correct." nodded the priestess, taking from a pocket another of those cage pendants. "I am Noriko Inue. But you will call me 'Master'."

Akeno blinked as Noriko's voice had a strange resonance to it, and she felt some kind of light mental pressure, that she brushed off before her immunity to abnormal effects even triggered.

[You have resisted Mind Control.]

Akeno nodded to herself and took her smartphone, calling Noah.

"What are you doing?" suspiciously asked Noriko, frowning. "And how could you resist my voice? No one can!"

"A moment, please. I'm calling my own Master. He's not going to be happy someone just tried to take me from him."

Noah answered the call, and Akeno activated the video feature, pointing the camera toward Noriko and the two other girls.

"Noah, do you want those three? The middle one just tried to enslave me with voice hypnosis or something." asked Akeno.

"Oh dear. Some punishment is in order." replied Noah, his eyes narrowing. "To answer your question, I find the two young women very cute, but the middle one… meh."

"That's what I thought as well! I'm too busy to take in another Bad Girl, so…"

"Do whatever you want. I love you, Akeno."

"Love you, bye!" smiled Akeno, looking back at the three women who were still confused.

"I hope you had more cards to play aside from this hare-brained attempt at enslaving me." chuckled Akeno. "What are you going to try next?"

[Just reached you.] said Suzuka, using the Master-Servant link. [Who do we kill first?]

[I suspect the two girls wearing pendants are being mind-controlled. Don't harm them if you can avoid it. Maybe try to destroy those pendants, to see if destroying them break the spell? If not, I'll try Purge and Heal on them. The man and the priestess can die.]

"Very well." sighed Noriko. "I would have preferred to take you unharmed, so that Sohaku-sama wouldn't be reborn in an injured vessel and require time to heal. Tetsuhito, Madoka, Shizuru. Do whatever is needed to subdue her but avoid her vital organs."

"I hear you killed Tessen. He was my friend, and I'm glad I'm getting an opportunity to make you pay!" said the man as he slowly unsheathed a huge, thick machete, and his skin changed color, becoming red while his tattoo was expanding and turning white.

"That guy decided to kill himself to avoid capture." shrugged Akeno. "But feel free to blame me all you want. You're about to die anyway."

Akeno was paying more attention to the girl with the summer dress. She had just lifted her skirt, displaying a sheath on her left thigh from which she took a serrated knife so large it might as well count as a small sword, and the thing coiled around her right leg…

Akeno raised an eyebrow at the sight. Segments of a large blade, linked to each other by two metal wires, were held against her leg from hip to ankle. Clever positioning of the leather sheaths allowed the girl to flex her knee without injuring herself.

"You may have beaten Jushi or Tessen, but against me, you do not stand a chance." said Tetsuhito as his transformation progressed. "For over twenty generations, the women of my family drank iron sand every night, eventually granting us Iron Bodies. Your swords won't penetrate my skin. And you are alone against the four of us."

"Who said I am alone?" smiled Akeno.

Tetsuhito and his companions warily looked around, not seeing anyone.

One second, two seconds, three seconds… Akeno sighed, feeling embarrassment.

"That was supposed to be your cue to appear, Suzuka!"

"Ah? Sorry sorry!" chuckled Suzuka, materializing beside her, dressed in her Toudou academy uniform. "I was busy checking that girl's sword. Or is it a bladed whip? Never seen such a weapon before, but it looks so interesting!"

"Invisibility?" exclaimed the girl with a black qipao.

"How about you get a taste of it, then?" frowned the blue-haired girl, taking a combat stance as her segmented sword took the shape of a huge white and blue greatsword with a futuristic design. Akeno wondered for an instant how the girl could lift the massive weapon with a single arm.

"Gladly!" grinned Suzuka, materializing her katana.

"I am Madoka Mawari, Head of the Mawari family."

"Suzuka Gozen! Let's fight!"

With those words, Suzuka and Madoka started exchanging blows. The girl wearing a qipao seemed to hesitate an instant between Akeno and Suzuka, then chose Akeno as her target. She lowered her posture, then used her powerful legs to attack with a jumping kick, cross the five meters distance in a single bound.

Her speed surprised Akeno, but she could still evade the kick with a swift side-step, and touched her waist, jolting her with a burst of lightning.

Shizuru made a strangled cry as she missed her landing, her body suddenly numb.

Akeno didn't have an opportunity to exploit Shizuru's temporary weakness as Tetsuhito slashed at her with his machete. Akeno seized his wrist, surprising him with her greater strength.

"You have an Iron Body, eh? Doesn't that make you a great electrical conductor?" smiled Akeno, sending a much more powerful surge of lightning through his wrist.

The man winced, but didn't lose control and tried to punch her, and Akeno stepped away, puzzled for a second, before she understood.

Yes, his Iron Body was a great medium for electricity to travel. And that was actually the problem, as the current went through his body and into the ground without much resistance, which meant without causing much damage.

Still, it wasn't like she lacked means of offense, and Akeno charged a powerful Iron Needle, hitting Tetsuhito's abdomen.

He grunted, but still didn't go down.

"The Natsume's Forged Iron Needle, eh?" boasted Tetsuhito. "A good attack to attack inner organs, but my whole body is stronger than iron, not just my skin!"

Akeno shrugged and used Hard Light Arsenal to create a cavalry lance. She used Shunpo to appear behind him and thrust with both arms.

Tetsuhito's Iron body was tough, but there were limits to all things, and the tip of the spear pierced his back, then his heart, then emerged from his chest. Tetsuhito looked at the blood-smeared tip, his eyes wide in shock,

"Tet-kun!" screamed Madoka, a pained expression on her face. "I'll cut you to ribbons!"

Shizuru, who had gotten back on her feet, stared in shock for a second as Akeno dispelled her lance, and howled in fury as she started using the nearby trees as springboards to turn around Akeno at high speed.

Akeno didn't bother turning to keep her within her line of sight, trusting her hearing and bioelectric detection. As expected, after a few turns and sudden changes of direction, Shizuru dove for her back, both feet first.

Akeno used Shunpo again, disappearing, and before Shizuru could recover her balance, Akeno reappeared near her, grabbing the cage-shaped pendant, and crushing it between her fingers.

Akeno then stepped away, waiting.

Shizuru had been about to try to kick her again when she blinked, seemingly confused. Then her face was filled with rage again, and she turned to run toward Noriko.

"You damn bitch! I'll…"

"Freeze!" ordered Noriko with her resonant voice, and Shizuru stopped a few meters from Noriko, her body shaking, straining against the order.

Akeno sent a quick glance at Suzuka and Madoka. Suzuka clearly had the advantage as she was grinning, dashing in and out of range of the large arcs made by Madoka's whip sword.

She got an idea and used Item Creation to make a bangle with a Stop rune.

She walked to Shizuru and slapped the bangle on her right wrist.

"You're now immune to her power." grinned Akeno.

Shizuru didn't waste time thanking her as she unfroze and threw herself at Noriko, ramming her right knee to her face. The priestess fell back with a cry, blood seeping from her nose and mouth.

"Stop!" screamed Noriko as she evaded a stomp and hurriedly got back on her feet, using her power again, but Shizuru ignored it, striking her right arm with a spinning kick that sent Noriko careening to the side and slamming against a tree trunk.

And then a large, serrated knife flew and pinned Noriko to the tree by her right shoulder. Akeno turned her head and saw Madoka furiously staring at the Priestess. The pendant that had been around her neck was on the ground, cut in half.

Noriko cried again in pain, and both of her former mind-controlled captives went on to continue expressing their 'dissatisfaction' with her.

Suzuka walked to stand beside Akeno as they watched.

"That girl Madoka is really skilled with those swords! She's at the level of mortal swordsmen who end up selected as Heroic Spirits."

"I take it you had a lot of fun, then?"

"Sure did." nodded Suzuka.

When Noriko became not more than a battered, cut corpse on the ground, Madoka stepped away, found the third pendant on the ground that Noriko had meant for Akeno's neck, and destroyed it with her segmented greatsword.

She then walked to Akeno and Suzuka, and bowed deeply.

"Thank you. You freed me and spared my life, when you had every right to kill me instead."

"It's fine." grinned Suzuka. "You're a great swordswoman. Killing you would be a waste!"

"You are my benefactor." said Shizuru, adding her own bow to Madoka's. "Thanks to you, I escaped her grasp and avenged my brother."

"It's fine. We love helping other people in trouble. There is also the matter of our Master wishing for you to join our family." smiled Akeno.

"About that, thank you, but I think I'll pass." said Madoka with hesitation. "I just recovered my freedom, and I am what is left of the Mawari family. I need to ensure my family isn't extinguished with my generation…"

"Then all the more reason for you to join us." smiled Akeno. "Noah will make certain your family thrives, you can be sure of that. And there are plenty of advantages with joining our side. But before we speak more about your future, I need to ask. Are you two members of F? And how many more members are going to try kicking an iron door?"

"I am part of F. Or was." shrugged Madoka. "Shizuru never was. She tried to kill Noriko for trying to make his brother a vessel and killing him when it failed and fell under her sway after being held captive. But the remaining members of F won't bother you. Had they been skilled martial artists, they would have been there today."

"Speaking of vessels, Noriko had in her shrine a box with Sohaku Kago's right eye. It should be destroyed. That man is pure evil." frowned Shizuru.

"His right eye?" wondered Suzuka.

"That his own that man's soul could steal other bodies, by removing the victim's right eye and replacing it." sighed Chizuru. "That evil man lived for centuries."

"Well, not for a day longer, if you can lead us to it." shrugged Akeno, and Chizuru nodded gratefully.

A few minutes later, Chizuru was taking Akeno to Noriko's place, while Suzuka brought Madoka to the Natsume household.

The two girls hadn't yet been convinced to join her faction, but Akeno knew it was only a matter of time before she pulled it off.

And it wasn't like their choice in this matter was anything but an illusion.