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Taking up Yoru's offer to 'improve themselves', Yasei now couldn't regret this choice more.

Overall intended to have rich people burn through their cash overflow and get all kinds of shady gangster, to relieve their needs of hurting people and seeing them get hurt, Yoru's offer turned out to be all but what they had excepted.

Revolving around a lot of illegal betting and whatnot, Yasei already had expected for this whole gig to escalate... yet he had never guessed how quickly it all would go south.

Managing to piss off some small-time gangster on his first try, they came after him to 'make things right', all to quick, resulting in Asami's apparent death before the young handler had even realized how dire his situation really had gotten.

Everything afterward. . . well, Yasei couldn't remember with the best will in the world, what had happened after Asami's sacrifice, to protect him. All he really could remember days after was a burning inferno... as all too soon, all he could think about was revenge on the one who hurt his beloved partner!

_ Love Hurts . . . _

FIRE... everything engulfed in a burning Inferno... the whole world ablaze in devastating flames... little more did Yasei see in his dreams... the flames even haunting him, as soon as he closed his eyes for mere seconds.

He didn't know what he had done... what had happened to their assailants... all he was certain of was Asami's death... and how it was his fault and his alone. Furthermore having not a gist of a clue how to continue on, didn't help the young man either.

Yuma - weirdly enough with Katherine helping him - had brought the young man and his partner back home, after he apparently had passed out after... whatever he had done after Asami was shot. Only keeping his sanity, as he was sure she couldn't be dead... at least not beyond recall, as he still had access to their magic. Even considering this little glint of hope... Yasei still found himself rather close to really losing it quite a few times.

The bullets shot at Asami hadn't fully penetrated her body... nor had she lost any more blood after her 'death'... yet still: she was cold... and he couldn't even feel a hint of her mind... her soul at any level of perception he had gained access to, since bonding with the Yokai.

Most of his dreams did end with Asami's body turning up into flames... yet not really burning, but more like turning into multicolored smoke, like some ghost movies used to depict it, when a spirits body turned into mist.

However... on the end of the day... considering all he knew: his partner was dead... in mind and body, yet...

"ARGH... GOD DAMN IT!!!", Yasei finally shouted angrily at his reflection, punching the mirror in frustration.

Not much caring about his now inevitable scratched up knuckles, he instead looked at his reflection, utterly devoid of any emotions.

The man looking back at him... he almost felt like looking at an utter stranger and this not only because of the grim look on his face.

Their... 'little adventure' lay mere three days back, yet the young handler had felt like not a second had passed, not even sure what day or date or even time of the day it was right now... not that he would have cared anyway.

Skeptically, like that, examining the guy in the mirror, he gave a quiet sigh. His hair, usually more or less 'tamed', with a professionally cut fade around the area of his ears, now was unkempt... literally 'scattered' in all directions.

Looking at his eyes... he had rings under his eyes, as if he was wearing some panda make-up, Yasei couldn't quite explain himself. The young man technically had no lack of sleep... but almost sleeping all day, as to not have to face the reality he so despised, didn't seem to bring any positive effects either.

Giving a quiet laugh, as he thought to himself, how he almost looked like a sad puppy... considering the look on his face, his attention once more focused on his eyes themselves... or rather on his irides, to be exact. Ever since waking up, after Yuma and Katherine had brought him home, his eyes had taken a deep red tone... and he was not only thinking about the clearly visible blood vessels in his eyes.

Deep red, like blood, was the color his irides had taken, ever since... whatever might have happened, ever since Asami had shielded him with her own body. Almost like burning hot steel, his irides glowed weakly, in an almost menacing tone of deep red.

"HA... turning into a demon, maybe?", Yasei finally uttered to himself, in a dull laugh... until he finally did take a look at his hand.

Tiny shards of glass were stuck in the scrapes on his knuckles... which healed within seconds upon him cleaning the foreign bodies out of the wound.

Looking at his hand in surprise he finally took a closer look, at the smashed mirror. The part his hand had hit, was practically pulverized... and even the tile behind it was slightly cracked. Recognizing this... 'power' immediately, he looked over his shoulders in utter surprise.

Rushing into his bedroom, Yasei sank down on his knees, next to his bed... and Asami's body on it.

The young man almost hoped the canine, which weirdly enough still remained in her Yokai form - her wounds still their... yet neither healing nor bleeding - would be hale and hearty again... yet: no changes. Clinging to the blanket on his bed, his finger buried deep in the fabric, Yasei let his head sink on the bed, shivers of rage and desperation running through his body... until he realized, what he probably should have realized days ago!

No matter what... THIS was... it was similar to the power when he and Asami were merged, even if slightly weaker. He had seen this being possible too... taping into the power of their merge, while the Yokai still was in the plain of human existence, as 'Tatsumaki' had showcased this skill rather clearly, in her fight against Yuma.

"GREAT... couldn't we have discovered this in a LESS TRAUMATIZING way...?!", The young man mumbled to himself angrily, as he slowly raised his eyes once more, to look at the body of his partner.

"VERY WELL... they want blood? So I will gladly give it to them! SCUM OF SOCIETY!", Yasei finally mumbled to himself, a crimson fire sparking in his eyes, all too literally, as the ember flames in his irides ignited in a vengeful inferno.

"FINE... I get you all what you deserve... can't go to work like that anyways... not considering my looks, nor my psyche... so I might as well teach some piece of shit 'gangsters' a lesson they won't forget!", The young man like that concluded to himself, clenching his hand to a fist with almost painful force.

Tucking Asami in with her blanket, the young man almost carefully pets her neck, as if she could turn to dust any second upon a mere touch.

"It may not be anything you might want me to do... but no matter the cost, I'll learn what this magic is all about... maybe then I finally realize how to help you...", Yasei like that promised in a mirthless laugh, as he stood up and walked towards his living room... a grim, yet determined look on his face.

THIS plan, in comparison to anything else he had ever thought up, maybe nothing more but a 'spur of the moment' decision... but he had no idea as what to do with himself otherwise, so... this was the new plan.

Resigning from his job indefinitely, he had to say... this was not quite what he had planned for his future... but Yoru was right... somehow. He had attained power, almost literally allowing him to change the word... so how could be as selfish, as to just keep playing 'the good employee', when he could do so much more?

The young man would be lying, would he say this wasn't something he otherwise wouldn't even consider a path of action... but he was done playing goody-go-two-shoes, no matter what he would and would not do otherwise!

As he discovered himself unable to summon his artifact in this 'form' - so it was not quite the same as Tatsumaki's skill - he ordered himself a new set of weapons... compiling a little arsenal, which would give even Yoru a run for his money.

Having done that, he started with his training all over again.

Yasei restarted his training on the magic techniques, which he obviously slacked of on the last few days.

Furthermore, he picked up martial arts and knife throwing, as to further his repertoire and efficiency, as he neither knew too much about unarmed nor 'ranged' fighting tactics.

Finally, he intensified his training on everything he had already learned already, overall... and even though he kinda felt like some anime character, preparing for his big vendetta... he kinda was preparing for 'his big vendetta', thus not really bestowing any consideration upon this thought.

Following his newly planned regime, the young man didn't even leave himself a second of the day to rest. This pseudo-merge allowed him to work his body to the bones 24/7 without causing it any harm, much like the 'real merge' did, so... he did just that.

His 'complexion' didn't get any better like this... yet his skills - on the other hand - got sharper every day. Sure, considering how he, in the end, more or less tried to 'do everything at once'. Like this, his progress in all his new subjects was rather slow... yet it was steady at the very least and thus achieved exactly what he wanted for.

Admittedly progressing more or less the slowest in all his new classes he still managed to internalize everything he learned over the course of a day. His progress like that was nearly perfect in his opinion, as he had chosen about four utterly new skills to develop, managing to develop every one of them equally... even if very slowly.

In Contrast to his newly chosen martial arts, in which he only had to obediently follow the teachings of his new masters, his knife-throwing was utterly self-thought though. His progress as such was rather irregular, yet he used a bit more time on this, to give himself more time to internalize all the techniques behind it. He only had some videos for guidance on knife throwing, yet in the end, he somehow did manage to make up for his lack of a master or teacher, by dedicating more time into it.

Doing most of his 'at home' training on the roof of the apartment complex, he had rented a gigantic storage unit, specifically for his magical experiments and knife-throwing. About 10 - 30 feet* in size, it was easily big enough for target practice and especially big enough as for him not to burn it down by accident... at least not to easily. The whole thing cost him almost the same rent as his apartment, in the end... yet he still found this a better choice, than risking to be discovered doing literal magic.

His preparations alone swallowed up about a week, at least he was pretty sure, whereas he had trained nonstop for about three days before Yu finally intervened. Thinking back... he had no clue what day or date it actually was. Yasei could have even spent multiple weeks on this, with the only thing somewhat resembling routine in his days being him checking up on Asami about every twelve hours... or more often.

He trained every skill he had learned from his new masters in excess and had even found back to a nearly calm state of mind, spending a whole hour a day on meditation, trying to make sense of the visions haunting him, or even find a way to help Asami...

"HEY...! Earth to Yas...! You even listening to me?!"

"What... yeah... sure, sure... I am listening!", Yasei responded irritated, as Yuma jolted him out of his daydreams.

"Oh really... so what was I talking about?", His friend asked skeptically, his arms crossed... this time not even interrupted by his partner, Katsuo, as he all too well knew how ticked off his master was.

"Ehr... you asked me... about work? Why I quit..."

"WRONG...!", Yuma interrupted mercilessly, all but delighted, "about THAT we already talked last Thursday, without you making any sense! We have the 28th of February today... Saturday! You haven't answered any call or message of mine for eight days straight now..."

"What... really? Sorry, bro, I didn't mean too...", Yasei absentmindedly interrupted the young man, earning an angered 'don't BRO me'... yet he continued anyway, "I'm really sorry... I didn't mean to offend you... but you should see my progress! Give me one week... maybe nine more days and I'll be unstop-..."

Knocking his friend - almost talking himself in a rage at this point - right off of his feet mid-sentence, Yuma looked at him with a look of utter disbelief... and anger.

Yasei literally sliding over the ground banging against the opposite wall of his living room, Yuma pulled bag his hand stating dryly, as he shook out his hand: "Oh... yeah... unstoppable! Come on... don't you realize this is getting out of hand...?"

"Out of hand... yeah? YOU THINK...?", The young man snapped at his best friend, "SO... what is BIG... WISE Yuma telling me to do instead then... HUH? Working till I am old and dried out, hoping to someday forget all about what happened... hoping for Asami to miraculously recover? Cause let me tell you... I AM GONNA TEAR THOSE-"

"- YOU BURNED THEM TO CINDERS!", The larger man finally interrupted angrily, finally earning a somewhat sane respond of his friend.

"I did what...?", He responded, sounding almost traumatized, "I... I would never... I never planed to hurt anyone with our magic... at least not until they hurt Asami..."

"YES... and that is exactly why you did it...! Melting his gun right in his hand and burning his arm to a bony piece of coal!", Yuma explained dryly, a dead-serious look on his face, "They all too soon decided you were no sham and tried to run... but you literally burned their very skin off of their flesh... and you would probably have gone after the leafing spectators too, hadn't Fortuna and I stopped you!"

"So... you just knocked me out? If so... no wonder I forgot... knocking someone out like that, could cause even more severe damage than just some memory loss, after all...", Yasei now muttered musingly, more talking to himself but to his friend, "I... shouldn't be surprised about fire haunting me than either..."

"Yeah, sorry about that, but... wait...! What did you just say...?", Yuma asked irritatedly, so far only having suspected his friend going crazy over the loss of his partner.

His friend did want to continue, but Yasei just said coldly, pointing towards his front-door: "Leave... I... need to think... rethink things...", Barely looking up, out of the corners of his eyes, the young man like that ended, "Please... just go... before I end up doing something stupid, again..."

Looking at his friend in disbelief for a few seconds, Yu finally gave an audible sigh. His friend seemed to at least be willing to reflect more closely about his actions now, especially about this certain incident he had forgotten about until a few seconds ago, so... Yuma was kinda fine with being shooed away like this, if just this one time.

Shrugging his shoulders like this he waved Katsuo over, as to leave Yasei to his thought's, commenting his leave: "Well... just don't do anything you'll regret later..."

Hearing the door snap shut, the young man gave a heavy sigh of his own, letting himself sink down on his couch, arms stretched out over his head, looking at the ceiling blankly.

Seconds... and after a while even a minute past, before he proclaimed to himself: "Goddamn... why is it that dead silent in here!?"

Getting no response, Yasei uttered a deep, annoyed growl once again, proclaiming to himself: "What is wrong with me... I lived here like... three years... all on my own... in utter silence and never had any problems with it, but living with a talkative, overly playful bitch for a measly few weeks and I suddenly get all paranoid, because of a little quiet!"

Hearing something like 'Shut up, we don't care' or something alike from the other side of the wall, he suddenly remembered something else as well.

"Oh yeah... a new neighbor moved in last week...", He mumbled to himself... before as well remembering he hadn't liked the guy one bit, thus responding loudly and utterly unmoved, "SHUT UP, OR I'LL BURN YA!"

Hearing some unclear, but still clearly provocative response from the other side, he focused on where the voice came from, easily tracing the mans 'life-force' within mere seconds. Focusing in on that, Yasei formed a little fireball, slightly bigger as a spec of dust, a good foot away from his face.

"What the...?", He could clearly hear the man say, attuned to the man's presence now... before letting the little spark explode in a tiny burst of flames!

Clearly hearing the pained cries of the man he let go of his focus on him, as he was dead certain to at best have burned off the guy's eyebrows... and that was if he was really unlucky.

Letting the focus on his neighbor fade, it took mere seconds until utter silence returned, the young man quite sure the guy next door would never dare to mention what just had occurred... wouldn't want to be called crazy after all.

"That's better...", Yasei finally mumbled to himself, uttering a quiet huff, before sinking back on the couch once more, losing himself in thoughts again.

He had thought about it a few times, upon the course of his new training... yet never elaborated more closely about it.

The young handler knew his partner for a mere few weeks... yet he went too full vendetta mode in an instance, as soon as he saw her hurt, just as if she was a lifelong member of his family. Not to mention he indeed did feel kinda more attracted to Asami as he probably should... towards a dog that is.

Sure... the female was nice... and sweet... energetic... gentle... saw the good in technically any- and everything, not to mention any- and everyone, yet in the end... she was but a dog, wasn't she?

The canine had told him how she was supposed to be his soulmate... supposed to 'complete the parts he was missing' as she worded it once, but... he knew her only mere weeks, for god's sake...!

He roughed up his hair in a frustrated growl... before he finally sat up again with another deep sigh.

"NO...!", He confirmed to himself once more.

Asami was loyal... the sweetest thing he ever met, evidently ready to do anything for him... and he did really like her! She was really fun to be around... even had managed to break his before overall way to serious demeanor. Had he let himself so far only get delighted in so few things - his near to anime addiction being the only 'absurd' thing he had allowed himself - now, after spending those 'mere weeks' with Asami, he was way more likely too just go with the flow and just... well, have fun.

Thinking back, he remembered Yuma more than once complaining about, how he had to literally force the young man into doing anything he deemed unnecessary. He once had invited Yasei to go bowling, with a few colleagues from work, to celebrate his very own birthday... yet he more but once had dismissed the idea as 'a waste of time', before he had finally given in to this idea.

"HUH... so it's not only Yuma being pushy, when stubbornly persuading me into anything and everything...", Yasei like that finally deduced throwing these thoughts aside once more with a dismissive sigh, "I surely won't let those pieces of trash go unpunished... even though I apparently already did just that, but..."

He interrupted himself once more, looking at his hand as if it could provide some kinds of answer to him... before igniting it in a brilliant burst of flames. Moving his hand in the air... turning and spinning it, as the flames danced around on it. The flames almost moved, like they were some kind of living being... like a pet mouse or something, climbing about and around in his hand, to keep standing atop of it.

Finally closing his hand in a fist, he extinguished the flames, finally summarizing all his thoughts: "WELL... I will definitely kick some gangster ass... and real gangster ass too, I guess, but no more burning peoples to cinders... Asami and I promised not to do that, after all..."

Like that - for a second almost feeling like a stubborn child in doing so - returning to his training for the day, he once more pushed his thought's about Asami in the furthest back of his mind... especially as he still found himself unable to find a satisfying answer to all this.

So it indeed was the 1st of March already?

In this case, it wasn't too bad a thing Yuma had visited him the other day, as he otherwise really would have straight out forgotten the day he was working towards to. Checking the clock in his kitchen after a quick snack, he confirmed he indeed wasn't too late already. It was about 2.48 p.m., so he had plenty of time for a few more hours of training and double-checking his new gear.

Considering the fighting ring Yoru had built was overall as illegal as possible... it was surprisingly good organized, not to mention rather well protected. Sure, considering tech it only boasted a standard surveillance system... but all invitations, plans and the building itself, had been protected by some kind of spell, as Yasei had both found soaked with Naomi's magic.

Yasei - despite his improvements - could only tell how his own invitation was soaked in Naomi's magical energies, probably making it so everybody not supposed to, would be unable to read whatever was really written on it... at least this was how Yasei would have done it, had he had the powers Naomi and Yoru possessed.

Like this he worked through all routines, he had learned in Jujitsu, Aikido and Thai Boxing he had learned so far once more. For the latter two, he had even found masters training him privately... whereas this was not really too big a feat. His master in Aikido and Thai Boxing both had learned this barely out of interest, not even having planned to ever be anybody's master... but Yasei had offered fair compensation for their troubles, so they did both agree, in the end.

His private masters had told him, they probably were a bit lacking after all those years, yet telling them he wanted to learn Aikido and Thai Boxing for self-defense purposes, instead of for some tournaments or whatnot, this concerns quickly became obsolete.

The thought of really finding masters in such martial arts, without any Dojo or other restrictions, despite him having to work around their daily schedules, elicited a short laugh of the young man... after all he himself indeed hat thought it an impossible attempt.

Yet... he had searched for 'masters' of all kinds of martial arts, thought 'perfect for self-defense' within a certain distance of his home, so... considering how near to everybody, nowadays disclosed most of their personal information, willingly on all kind of social platforms, the whole endeavor had mostly become a question of WHEN instead of IF.

In the end, he still uttered a quiet sigh, as he might have learned 'a few new tricks', yet was at best on a level where he should be able to master the first Dan of his respective martial arts, yet... he was pretty sure this was plentifully enough, to ruin some punk ass gangster's day!

Continuing his training for a few hours - like he had planned - he did feel ready for this night, even though his thoughts had kept straying ever so slightly.

He in addition had found a technique to shield himself from pistol fire, even though he so far only had tested it with iron bolts, he had shot at himself, via some more or less automatic crossbows, he had fixed for this very purpose.

His Arsenal meanwhile, even if maybe not from the finest quality, did quite satisfy all his needs he had felt arising after Asami's passing.

Yasei had gotten himself a massive bowie-knive, the size of a short sword, he affixed horizontally to his belt, so he could draw it from behind his back. Furthermore, he had gotten himself two kukri-knives, whose holster - formed much like a pistol's holster - he had strapped to his back as well, so he could draw those much like the bowie-knives. A set of three normal sized, black throwing knifes he had fixed to each of his upper arms and legs, and two pairs of smaller knifes, were mounted to an obligatory vambrace on the upper and lower part of his forearm.

As a last finishing touch, he had fixed his black tanto, to the left side of his belt... he had hesitated about this, after all Asami did kinda like this thing... at least she had thought it an 'especially pretty stick' the first time she saw it... but in the end, this fact had only reinforced his decision, to add this to his arsenal.

Having checked all of his 'arsenal', he still had to admit... Yoru's collection in the end still was bigger... or at least more versatile. In the end, however, he too had everything he wanted or needed, so he was plenty happy with this 'upgrade' of his.

Arriving at the old building Yoru had made the home of his little fight club, mere minutes before 10 p.m. - the indicated time of arrival for all participants of this day - his mask already donned a few blocks away, Yasei waited for whatever kind of reception Yoru had in place for this event.

All his arsenal meanwhile was hidden under a long coat, he had bought as a kind of finishing touch to his arsenal... or to be precise, to hide said arsenal, until he reached his destination.

Looking at the flock of delinquents, hoping for a big buck, waiting in the upper floor of the building, which he had already determined to be just as robust and safe as any other building, at his first visit... he was kinda caught off guard by the reception provided for all 'participants'.

Yoru himself welcomed the bunch of thugs... accompanied by the strange man, which Yasei already knew as the announcer for all fights in this coliseum.

"Well... well... well... look look what the cat dragged in...", Yoru finally proclaimed in a smug voice, talking to Naomi, sitting on his shoulders as always, "I had expected for you to never, ever again show up here... but look who has proven me wrong."

"Seriously? The moment you felt him near the building, you were all...", His feline companion started explaining dryly but was interrupted by her master all too fast.

Grabbing the pith black cat's snout he pushed it shut, explaining in slight shock about his partners sudden almost-revelation: "Naomi dear... this is of NO CONCERN for young Yasei... more importantly: you still haven't fixed Asami's little problem? I mean... it's really easy, after all? You just..."

Yoru this time being the one interrupted, by a paw suddenly covering his mouth, Naomi now cut her master short, explaining with sadistic relish: "OH... no, no, no, no... big guy... let him learn about this on his own... how else is he supposed to grow as a handler, if people keep telling him the solution to all his problems, just like that?"

"What? EASY...?", Yasei finally uttered in disbelieve, before finally narrowing his eyes, as he looked at the pair angrily, grabbing his bowie-knive under his coat, "If you know how to help Asami, you better spit it out RIGHT NOW... or I'll cut you into pieces and eat you both for dinner!"

"Oh... how rude...", The older man replied sarcastically, looking at the young man rather unimpressed, before he explained with a heavy sigh, after a quick look to his partner, "I won't tell... but a little heads-up should surely be okay with little Miss grumpy-fur over here...?"

His partner just responding in an annoyed huff, her master explained: "As long as she isn't dead - and she surely isn't, as no weapon forged by a mere mortal is able to kill a Yokai - your partner herself should already have given you plenty information as to how to help her! Last tip: you are a handler now... considering how close you are to the world of spirits and demons now, you really have to stop rating dreams as mere dreams."

"What... dreams...? ... but dreams are...-"

"- ... uh-uh-uh... no backtalk! ... and now go, your audience is waiting after all.", Yoru interrupted unblinking, pointing in the direction of the now gone crowd of thugs and gangsters.

"Wait, what...?", Yasei responded irritatedly, accepting how Yoru probably wouldn't tell him any more about helping Asami... but slightly confused, about how quickly the other 'candidates' for today had been allocated.

"What, what? You seriously think we would come just to welcome those human garbage?"

"Well..."

"NO... we don't... so... I assume you read the rules?"

"What? The 'as soon as a reaper is partaking in a day's fights, every registered participants will have to face off against said'? Yeah... more like: as soon as a handler is present, he has to fight everybody stupid enough to want to fight him!"

"OH... you understood already... GOOD... so off you go!", Yoru like that just responded in a pretty obviously faked cheerful manner... patting Yasei's back, before shoving him towards the stairs leading to the arena.

Quietly mumbling curses under his breath... he surprisingly found Yoru and Naomi following him rather casually.

"What... we are covering a whole building in our magic, so nobody accidentally stumbles across this, you really think we would have the energy to spare for some play-pretend of being some high-speed god?", Naomi snapped at the young man snippy.

"What? NO...! I didn't..."

"Just zip it!", The feline coldly interrupted him unblinking, averting her eyes once more, leafing the young man looking dumbfounded at the confrontational Yokai, earning a quiet chuckle from the female's master.

Kinda feeling obliged to some sort of small talk, as Yoru and Naomi more or less followed on his heels... it took a mere look at Naomi - and a cold stare of said - to remind him how he definitely did not want any small talk with those two... at least not with Naomi.

"You're making it too easy for her...", Yoru finally explained, with a quiet laugh, as they almost had reached the fighting ring in the basement.

"What...?", Yasei responded surprised, looking at the slightly older man, but merely earned an unblinking look, making him doubt if he even really had heard Yoru laugh.

"Well... fine... keep your secrets...", The young man as such responded sulkily, as he went down the stairs towards the arena, as the older handler disappeared somewhere among the crowd of spectators.

A quick thought later, Yasei concluded him probably not even looking like himself to all those people, after all his right-hand man AKA the announcer probably had loudly announced his presence, in this case. They had after all almost hyped Yoru up to be some kind of god, as he had witnessed on his first visit the other week.

Just shrugging his shoulders, as he took the last few steps to where the announcer had ordered him, he just quietly mumbled something like 'you do you' to himself, as he now waited for this 'show' to be started.

As their host like that introduced Yasei... or rather Akainu, as they knew him here, the young man interrupted him bluntly, whispering something in the man's ear, earning a pretty irritated look in response.

"Well... as you wish...", The older man like that responded, as he now pronounced, "Ladies... Gentleman... you all are familiar with the special rules, for a reaper participating in an open fight, yet the young master has one more revelation for you fair people. He proclaimed, you from now on may refer to him as Cerberus, as he'll from now on will hunt down anyone entering this sacred ring with ill intent! As such...", The announcer looked at the group of man, waiting for their chance to challenge the reaper, "... Gentleman: Should anyone of you want to retract their participation, you may feel free to do so, without any punishment. You all will be granted one minute to make your decisions... and it better be a wise one, as I reckon all those present should be well aware of the capabilities of Aka-... no, excuse me, of Master Cerberus' abilities in battle."

This development surely seemed not to their dislike, as it evidently spread a certain aura of uncertainty among all spectators, given he already had fought fiercely on the day of his premiere in Yoru's coliseum.

There was uncertain whispering among all spectators, as indeed quite a view of their 'participants' withdrew from tonight's fight... probably a few of them who in fact did know what Cerberus may be referring to with his threat.

About a handful of contestants retreating later, Yasei entered the ring waiting for what... or rather whomever they would send at him first.

Their first event for the day was a mountain of a man... big... muscular... and clearly part of the gang, which had decided to try mugging him for his fairly earned money, the other week... at least if his clothes were anything to go by.

"SO... quick question... your clothes... you a buddy of the guys who hurt my partner...?", Yasei like that asked dryly... yet the big man just spat out and charged towards him.

"OH... what refined manners...", The handler responded sarcastically, before adding as he snapped his fingers, "... but sadly it was the wrong answer."

The man halting in his approach for a second in confusion, uttered a loud shout of pain, as his whole clothes and hair went up into flames seconds after Cerberus' snap.

Watching the man burn unmoved... going to the ground, as the fire ate into his skin... Yasei just watched unmoved, as his opponent rolled on the floor, trying to stop the flames.

The fire however burned mercilessly, showing no sign of dying out, no matter the man's efforts... until all of his clothes and every last hair on his body had been burned away, at which point it suddenly diminished within a heartbeat.

Looking at the naked, burned man unblinking - his body covered in obvious burns, wherever he was covered by cloth or hair - Cerberus asked dryly: "I reckon you'll have enough for today... yes?"

Nodding hastily, the man even tried to crawl out of the ring himself, the gate too it already being opened for him, as the next contestant approached the ring.

Looking at this new contestant Cerberus almost hat a certain suspicion... which was proven correctly mere seconds later, as the muscular male shouted riotously: "Whatever you just did... WHAT ARE YOU? A pussy? No matter what kind of magician you may be... you surely can do better than that, can't you? BE A MAN... fight like you mean it!"

"There is no rule prohibiting killing is there?", The young man interrupted his opponent dryly, earning the widest... and ugliest grin he had ever seen.

"NO... there certainly isn't!", The thug responded as he drew a gun from under his jacket.

"Uh... scary...", Cerberus commented, a quiet dripping noise vaguely audible in the arena, followed by an audible click of metal on the ground... and another click, of the thug fruitlessly trying to shoot at the reaper.

"What in all...", The man uttered dumbfound, before he looked down to the floor, finding his weapons clip lying too his feet, a few drops of molten metal atop of it.

"You can be happy you didn't have a revolver, because in that case I would have had to melt way more, but the few parts holding that cartridge in place... but seriously... guns... such an unreliable weapon...", The young man proclaimed as he pulled back one of his arms a little.

His forearm raised horizontal to his body, he drew one of his smaller knives, hurling it towards his enemy in one quick motion. Piercing the man's chest with a low 'THUD' he looked at his chest in disbelief, a clear look of horror on his eyes.

"What... your heart is on the other side, just punctured your lounge... as long as they allow you to get to a hospital quick enough you should be fine... if you're lucky that is."

Just looking at the 'reaper' in disbelief, the man pulled the knife out of his chest and threw it down to the ground, before hastily running to the cage's exit.

Watching the man, as he frantically pressed his hand to his chest as he fled, Yasei shook his head in disbelief.

"Want's to be a big bad gangster and doesn't even know what to best do when he's stabbed.", He mumbled to himself, as he walked over to his knife. Cleaning it on the inner side of his jacket... he looked up slightly dumbfounded himself this time around, as he had put his knife back in its sheath.

In front of him stood another colossus of a man, just uttering a quiet 'hello there', before kicking the young man with an evil grin, knocking him over easily.

"Well... well... well... not so big after all, are we?", The guy - missing a finger on his right hand - stated, before he let his foot go down on Yasei's lower leg.

Barely in the nick of time, rolling backward and jumping back on his feet, he drew the bowie-knive from behind his back, out of this motion, glaring at the man viciously.

"OH... found some balls down there? FINE BY ME...", The Yakuza - at least Yasei was pretty sure he was one, considering the missing appendage - stated with another evil grin, pulling a knife of his own, before springing forward.

In a trained motion, quite like an attacking cobra, the knife aimed directly at Yasei's heart... but even without his enhanced perception, pretty easily able to predict the man, Yasei stepped out of the way, of the attack, executing a vicious strike of his own.

The man sinking to the ground, grabbing his side, Yasei removed the fresh blood from his blade in a quick downward motion, before turning around to the Yakuza, looking down at him coldly. With the enhanced strength of his pseudo-merge, Yasei had cut clean through the mans lower body, a cut of almost a foots length, going straight through the man's stomach area.

"Better pray I did not hit your kidney... or else your dead meat for sure... or do you want to go on?", Cerberus asked coldly, turning his knife in his hands, so the bladed faced the other direction.

"Go to hell...!", The man just responded, one hand on his gaping wound... in his other hand a gun!

"Seriously?", Yasei asked bored, bullets already flying towards him... before melting within seconds, as they hit a blinding white shield of heated plasma, the molten metal bouncing off of it like water from a hotplate.

Canceling the shield - about the size of an old round shield - Cerberus run his bowie-knive through the man's arm with the gun, pinning it to the ground effectively.

Drawing one of the longer throwing knives from his upper arm, Yasei finally asked again: "Still want to go on?"

"As if I'd be intimidated by a little kid...!", The Yakuza gasp out... before falling silent as Yasei's knife pierced right through his neck, running straight through his spine and windpipe.

Pulling the blade free with a quick jolt, he cleaned it on the man's clothes, before pulling his bowie-knive free too, cleaning it in the same manner.

This time realizing the man storming at him, barely in time, the thug still managed to kick his bowie-knive out of his hand, sending it sliding across the ground, almost to the other end of the cage.

"WELL... not so big anymore, without your BIG KNIFE, aren't we?", His assailant spouted proudly, a few more man right behind him.

"How cute...", Cerberus barely responded unmoved, before slipping out of his coat in a quick motion, throwing it at the irritated thug.

The man fighting to get the peace of cloth off of him for a few seconds, the reaper already had gripped the two kukri on his backs.

"Never heard about a Kerberos having three heads?", He like that asked dryly, pulling both kukri in a quick motion, before swinging them at the man, cutting him in a big X mark, going from his chest down to his hips.

The first thug squealing in pain bellow him - even though the cut wasn't even that deep - his companions stormed at Cerberus with a fierce battle cry.

"Barking dogs...", The young handler mumbled to himself, evading their first assaults with a few steps backward, before countering every punch with a quick hit of his blades.

Despite only hitting with the back of the blades, it took mere three punches on almost the same spot, before he could hear the quite snapping of bones. Grabbing the mans arm, right were his bones were broken, he threw the thug towards the other one, who almost got knocked off of his feet, by the man suddenly tumbling into him.

"Go on like that and I will use the other side...", Yasei mumbled dryly, turning one of his blades in his hands, so the blade faced the proper direction again.

"Ehr... no thanks...!", The a few seconds ago oh so brave thug responded, after a quick reflection, before turning tail, his buddies following suit seconds later.

Uttering a quiet huff... this pattern started to become more and more the status quo. Quite a lot of the remaining 'participants' now obviously had decided to search their luck in numbers... yet yielded not that much more results as their predecessors. Considering how Yasei had near to no experience in fighting groups, in the end, he somehow did managed to... well... manage, albeit having to heavily rely on his increased strength and reflexes.

This new battle royal like style - if it even was a battle royal, when all fought only him - seemed to be just fine with their hosts too, as their spectators nearly went crazy... as the higher count of opponents inevitably forced Yasei to fight more seriously all too soon.

Starting to fight more aggressively, he more often actually cut and even crippled the more aggressive attackers, cutting muscles important to movement or breaking their arms or legs to immobilize them.

He was almost literally without limits, in his pseudo-merge... yet he still was pretty beaten, as his very last opponent ran away from him screaming. This guy obviously had thought he would have a chance on whining everything, if he only waited till the very end to finish him off, when the reaper was exhausted and tired, which Yasei indeed was... and wasn't at the same time.

In the end, Cerberus finally felt all fatigue of the last days kick in... yet his body still worked in top form, so luckily even his last opponent's plan didn't work out.

Full of cuts and bruises, a few of the cuts even from his own blade, as one of his challengers had picked up his bowie and used it against him - Yasei out of pure spite for his thievery broke both of that guy's arms - before he could retrieve his weapon.

Panting slightly, yet still, with a clear, predatory glint in his eyes, his eyes shot towards the 'announcer' of the whole gig.

"SO... y'all happy now... no more crazy folks wanting to be cut, broken or killed?", Yasei finally asked, to his surprise indeed earning an almost inaudible gulp, from the otherwise oh so composed man, before he answered.

Instead of answering him though, he cleared his throat, before announcing to the audience: "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN... CERBERUS! ... and I believe he indeed demonstrated very well, why he and his kin have earned himself the title of reaper...!"

"How cute... we are our own race now?", The young handler mumbled to himself, as their host continued on with his summary.

"He drove nine of his opponents to flight... immobilized ten more, knocked eight enemies out cold and send three utterly fearless competitors to meet there maker..."

Considering this death tool, Yasei's victims were the first Yakuza, which practically provoked him into killing him... a crazed murderer up for death-row - would he have been caught - which had decided to either make it big in this fight or die... and one more Yakuza. This last one had been even more experienced and dedicated than the first, going as far as to even earning him Yasei's honest respect.

That man had stepped in front of him with a katana, clearly stating how this would be a duel to the death, going as far as killing one other competitor, which tried to sneak past them and ambush the reaper, thus almost interrupting their fight.

This man's skills had been exceptional and the young handler most definitely owned his victory to his increased strength and reflexes, instead his own skills... yet he at least had learned quite a lot about weaknesses and flaws in his own techniques, due to this fight.

"... so... dear spectators... I believe there are no further challenges for our reborn Cerberus? All enrolled competitors had their chance, yet considering the sudden nature of Cerberus' participation, we would be willing to allow one last challenger... should anybody dare to challenge this demon from hell!", The young man could hear the host finish his closing speech... deciding to go with the announcer's suggestion.

Giving the crowd an evil grin he crossed his arms, igniting a ring of fiery flames surrounding him, like an additional arena, eyeing the gathering of crooked politicians, bored rich folks and gangsters. Like that even managing to get a few people to hastily 'flee the premises', Yasei gave a content huff... the flames burning down, as he stepped towards the host in charge.

"So... I take it you were happy with my little performance?", He finally asked, yet interrupted the man as he was about to answer, earning himself quite a scandalized look, "OH... and you are aware, how I indeed will burn everyone, trying anything funny with me?"

"Never mind him...", The older man was interrupted once more... this time by his master, "Just give the man his money... after all, I am rather sure it was all he came here for tonight..."

Following his masters order, the host stepped back, finishing all bets et cetera... giving his master just enough time to ask his guest, with a knowing look: "... and I take it you have been able to blow off all that steam, you have accumulated all those days, since your last visit?"

Just responding with a dismissive huff, he took the golden envelope, he was handed mere minutes later, opening it unceremoniously. Tucking away the check in his jacket, he ripped the - undeniably rather expensive - envelope to pieces, earning a sarcastic 'hey... that was expensive, you know...' from Yoru, as Naomi unblinkingly watched the golden shreds fall to the ground.

"Whatever...", Yasei responded, in the end, more annoyed than anything, before he spun around on his heels, leaving the building... still staying alert though, as he wouldn't put it past those folks to still try and ambush him.

Leaving the building he indeed found one last brave soul trying to ambush him... or should he rather say an idiot trying to part him from his money?

The guy... well, he at least wasn't too bad in what he was doing, considering as anybody else - not able to feel his intent - would probably have never seen his attack coming. Yasei though, just concentrated a small amount of his magical energy, about a foot away from his face and detonated it in a small fireball, just as the guy was about to jump him.

Just hearing a surprised shout and the guy obviously running away - at least the man wasn't dumb enough to try attacking a pyromancer, which could attack him without even seeing him - Yasei just uttered an annoyed sigh.

"Would have almost caught me changing...", He as such mumbled obviously annoyed, as he turned the last corner, to where he had hidden his bag.

The young man had stashed his weaponry, mantel and mask in the said bag before leaving his flat and had only added those to his outfit, as he was about one block away from the building housing Yoru's little fight club.

"OH...? Well, this certainly is an effective way to hide your identity...", Yasei heard an all too familiar voice, just as he was stuffing his coat in his red and black sports-bag, he had hidden behind an old, practically forgotten dumpster...

Having tucked away all his 'equipment' like that, the young handler finally uttered another deep sigh.

"Say... why am I not surprised?"

"Beg your pardon?", Yoru responded dryly, with a raised eyebrow, Naomi cocking her head curiously.

"Why am I not surprised about you two stalking me?"

"Well... I am a very curious person, so...", The black haired man, just responded with a shrug of his shoulders, looking at the younger male... almost as if he was waiting for some kind of outbreak.

Yasei however just gave a low sigh, grabbing his bag and started to make his way home, as he sarcastically asked: "SO... what now 'Master Yoru'? You want to complain about my behavior today? Did I not give your precious audience what they wanted? Or heck... why not invite yourself over to dinner? After all, I am pretty sure you already know all about where I live... and probably even about my little training-facility, yes?"

Yoru apparently indeed caught off guard there for a second, it took the older man a few seconds, before he asked with a raised eyebrow: "Well... as you pointed it out just now... I would rather have to thank you, as you indeed performed splendidly. Tatsumaki shows no hesitation to kill whoever tries to attack her... but she is just that: a coldblooded bitch, at least in the eyes of the audience... you on the other hand...-"

"Let me guess... I - in comparison - am a diverse and complex character?"

To his surprise indeed earning a dumbfound, even if quiet 'ehr' from Yoru, it was Naomi answering him, in her cold, calculating demeanor: "Putting it that way: YEAH... pretty much. Especially the fight against the second Yakuza...!", The feline uttered a creepy little laugh, as she thought back to the fight, "... but to come back on topic: YES... we know about your apartment... but not your so-called 'training-facility'."

"OH... so you two finally decided to stop stalking me?", Yasei asked dryly, as they had to stop on a red light... quite a few passersby, giving him weird looks.

All they probably saw, was him talking to the cat of the strange man in black, which seemed to respond to him in some mewls and growls.

"Well... okay, I guess we can let you know at least THIS little secret: you got any idea how we found you... Katherine... Yuma... or rather all the other handler, to keep it short?"

"Dunno... I trained quite a bit those last week... or weeks? DUNNO...! Anyhow: I for once have found out I can pretty easily find people by feeling for their presence... their emotions... their intents.", The young handler just explained unblinking, as he continued on his way, as the traffic light changed.

"Wait what?!", Naomi uttered, obviously surprised and even her master now seemed to listen more interested, "You say you can locate people going by their FEELINGS???"

"Yup... pretty much what I said. Why... can't you, too?"

Changing a quick glance with her master, the female cleared her throat, as she continued, more composed: "Well... we had learned to... well, feel for their souls and energy. Have we met a person once, we can find them almost around the globe, just by feeling for the specifically presence of their soul... and searching for other handlers is pretty easy like that too. You are aware of how we Yokai are bound by magic?", Yasei just nodded apathetically, "Well, we just need to search for this energy and voila... handler plus Yokai found! ... but the further a handler and his partner master their magic, the less we can feel it...-"

"- ... so what, you want to say I am too good now? That you can't feel my magic any more? ... well, too bad.", Yasei responded dryly, "So... wait a minute...? You said you can find people just by looking for their 'soul'? ... so is that the reason, why you keep stalking all-new handler? So you two can internalize the... feel of their souls, so you can always find them, even if they were to master their magical element?"

Looking at the young man literally dumbfounded for a second, the black cat uttered a sulky huff, before proclaiming: "THAT'S IT... now you really have to invite us for dinner!"

"WHAT? Why...? By what logic do I have to invite you for dinner now?!", The young man responded in surprise, finally diverted from his cold demeanor he had taken to, those last weeks.

"Well... for starters, you DID invite us...", Naomi started her explanation in a majestic demeanor.

"THAT WAS A JOKE! ... not to mention I didn't invite you, I implied you'd invite yourselves in for dinner..."

"PFF... potato - potahto... you invited us, so we take you up on that offer!", The feline declared unflinching, having Yasei finally give up... even if only after a rather short fight.

"... but I didn't offer anything...", The young handler like that responded meekly... before finally asking in a curious tone, "SO... why are you two following me anyways?"

"Well, Shi-...", The feline starter her sentence, yet immediately shut her mouth, as she realized her mistake... her master shooting her an utter death glare the very same second she started speaking.

Giving her master a quick, apologetic look... even looking clearly ashamed, the female finally cleared her throat, before starting her sentence anew: "Well YORU here... was worried about you, so..."

"HEY... that's almost just as bad as telling him . . . YOU KNOW WHAT...!", Yoru scolded the feline quietly, barely audible for the younger man, as the man in black had averted himself from the young man... yet still following right beside him, as he quarreled with the feline.

`Huh... didn't think Yoru was one for petty scuffles like that... or, no... what was she about to call him... SHI? But, no... he interrupted her... so is it only a part of his name?´, Yasei meanwhile was sunken in thoughts, really curious now... as he indeed had thought that guy's name was really Yoru.

`BUT... if he hides his name... maybe he's hiding even more? His objectives... plans... goals... well, he obviously is hiding them, but what if what he lets out isn't his real goal either...?´

"Hey... you even listening...?", He finally heard Naomi's voice again, apparently done with the quarrel with her master, looking at the young man skeptically now.

"Oh... nah... sorry, just had an idea I reflected about...", Yasei responded innocently... earning an oh to skeptical look from the feline's master, "... but... whatever... guess I can accommodate a few more guests for tonight. ... might even help a little, after all, all this time alone now is starting to really drive me nuts..."

"WOW... WOW... WOW... wow... let me stop you right there! We're... somewhat sympathizing with you... after all, we too know about the bond between a handler and his Yokai partner...", Naomi interrupted him, as the younger handler made a short break between words, "... but, and don't take this personally now, neither of us is really good with such... touchy-feely stuff... especially not HIM...-"

This time contributing to the conversation once more, as he uttered a low growl to his partner, Yoru ended what Naomi had started: "It's nothing personal... I am just no good with all this stuff... especially not if you're talking . . . COMFORTING someone, or stuff like that."

Laughing out quietly, Yasei assured the two, with a soothing gesture, that he did not want any counseling, as he unveiled: "Yuma had tried to cheer me up plentifully... I guess... think I zoned out on most of it... so some company not trying to lull me into some false peace might be just the thing I need. You know... just some normal guy, treating me like a normal human being, instead of some ceramic pottery incarnated."

Caught utterly of guard now, as this hasn't been at all what he had intended, Yoru just starred at the young man with a blank stare, in an utter loss for words.

Uttering a quiet laugh, upon the look of the normally oh so serious and collected man, Yasei didn't say anything about it this time, instead just pointing towards the apartment building he lived in, at which they finally had arrived.

"So... finally at home... hope you guys have some time to spare, as I kinda don't like serving guests some ready-made instant food.", He explained as he opened the door to the building, inviting both of them in.

"Ha... so, you really sure about that... we knew you live here... but not on which floor, or on which apartment...", Yoru finally stated, in a slightly sarcastic... yet somewhat jokingly tone.

"NAH... no sweat... should you intrude upon me, when I don't allow to do so, I'll just burn you both to ashes.", The younger handler just responded unblinking, with a shrug of his shoulders, "My apartment is kinda small... and I am pretty sure I can at least distinguish if an image of you is real or not... after all, those don't give off any kind of intent... I guess...?"

"Huh...? So you're saying you have been not only working on improving your own skills... but also on countering my skills?", The older male stated, almost sounding impressed... or at least slightly intrigued.

"Not only you... about Kath... wait, you probably know Fortuna's real name anyway?", Yasei responded... yet just shrugged his shoulder, continuing on, without using any of their names anyways, "I tried to think up ways to counter Kinshi's, Fortuna's and Tatsumaki's magic too... and any other kind of magic I could think of too... not to mention different... special ways, too use my own magic... or I guess I should say 'our magic', shouldn't I?"

As the younger man now had closed the main entrance and guided them to his apartment, Yoru and Naomi exchanged a quick, skeptical look, before the older handler asked: "You did? Don't you think that's going a bit overboard? Training only your specialties would yield way more favorable results in the end, compared to spreading your attention thin like that!"

"NAH... I know it will lessen my results slightly... yet trying to come up with counters to guys like you, in the end only will further contribute to deepen the understanding of our own magic and thus only add to the proficiency in my very own kind of magic."

Looking at the young man unblinking, it was Naomi, which finally spoke out their both thought: "You're quite a nerd, aren't you?"

Uttering an embarrassed laugh, the young man opened the door to his apartment, finally stating: "YEAH... guess that pretty much describes it perfectly... even though I am kind of a perfectionist too."

"Oh is that so... well... SOMEBODY could learn quite a bit from you then...", Naomi responded upon this, in a cocky tone, looking at her master.

Yoru clearly intended to respond in some way, to this insinuation... but opted against it, throwing the feline a deadly glare instead, which seemed to enjoy this situation all too much.

Just ignoring the two, albeit not without an obviously confused glare at the two of them, Yasei asked with an inaudible sigh: "So... I hope you two don't mind having no meat for dinner? I got some leftover tofu, which I had planed to cook up for tonight... after Yuma finally had gotten me back to reality."

"Beg your pardon...?", Yoru at first asked slightly confused, before instead stating, "Well... sure, I don't mind..."

"WOW... WOW... WOW... wow... hold on a second!", The older man's companion finally asked, even going as far as to sit up on her front paws, on her master's shoulder... something Yasei himself had never seen her do so far, "You said: 'you hope WE don't mind'... if I heard you right... and I pretty sure I did, AS I AM A FREAKING CAT!"

Quite baffled upon this sudden outburst, the young man responded hesitantly: "Well... Yes, I did... why?"

"So you are implying you're sharing your meals with your partner?"

"Well... off course... Asami has her own bowl though..."

"SHE gets human food... homemade even...", The feline finally summarized, way to calmly... before her head shot towards her master, "She is getting delicious human food... AND I HAVE TO LIVE OFF OF FREAKING CAT FOOD?"

"So what... it's even the really good stuff... other cat owners called me crazy for spending so much cash...-"

"- SO WHAT... we are partner aren't we?", Naomi asked with pinched eyes, in an angry tone.

"Of course we are... but you ARE a cat after all, aren't you?"

"SO WHAT? You don't even share any of your meat with me...!"

"But you are a cat... you even said so yourself, seconds ago!"

"HEY... no fighting in my apartment...", Yasei finally interrupted the two squabblers, before stating, "So... you never came to the thought of asking here? If she can eat human food or not, I mean?"

Yoru just averting his eyes, almost stoically just responded: "So what... she is a cat... why would I think about...-"

"She is a YOKAI... a spiritual entity...", The younger man interrupted calmly, throwing a short glance at the feline, before continuing, "Considering how superior your skills are, I had thought you had thought about that too, but... you too surely know how Yokai ain't no REAL cats or dogs... or weasels... or bovine lion monsters on steroids, in the end? So why didn't you just ask her... about her preferred diet and what-not? As far as stories of shape-shifting cats go, she could even be a big fan of sake or...-"

"NO... never again!", Yoru finally interrupted adamantly, before explaining after clearing his throat, "We had that happen once already... and I don't fancy a disaster like that again!"

"HUH...?"

"Naomi... and Sake... definitely not...!"

"... but it is SO GOOD...!", The feline interjected, almost sounding like an addict, as she spoke.

"No...!", Her master responded resolutely, before ending the dispute, in an almost apologetic tone, "... but... FINE... we can share out meals too... if that is what you want? ... but no sake... or anything else that might send you on another rampage!"

"A RAMPAGE?!", Yasei asked in utter shock, yet Yoru just responded dismissively, as he entered the small kitchen.

"Well... did you hear about that small restaurant, that was destroyed in an unexplainable storm, rampaging throughout the restaurant?"

"Ehr... maybe I heard about something like that... quite a while ago, though..."

"All her!", The young man responded unblinking, pointing at the cat, sitting on his shoulder... which upon this decided to leave her vantage point, turning into her real form, as she jumped down to the ground.

Seeing the felines real form for the first time, the young man couldn't refrain from stumbling back a few steps, in shock. The felines Yokai form was about the size of his own partners... yet even more different than Katsuo's, in comparison.

Her Yokai form resembled what looked like a mix of a panther and a domestic cat. The female sported the powerful frame of a feral feline... but also the lean and supple beauty of a house cat. Her body was long and slim, yet still powerful, her tail almost longer than her whole body... but what had shocked him most was not this... but her fur and... remaining features.

The felines pitch-black fur, which seemed to swallow all light, was streaked with deep black stripes and towards her legs with spots like a leopard's... yet what caught his eyes the most was the barely visible dark-gray pattern covering her body, resembling a cats skeleton. Starting in a skull-like pattern around her head... over a backbone-like pattern down her spine up to her tail tip... and all bones and rips which obviously made up a cats skeleton.

Yet... what really caught his eye, where the four fireball-like, light blue Will O'Wisps, slowly floating around her body and her bi-colored eyes... one a deep gold, like a lions eye, the other in the same deep blue as her master's.

"WHAT?", The feline asked aggressively, the four Will O'Wisp floating around her freezing mid-air, before aligning towards him, as if they looked at him, ready to attack.

"Nothing... just... admiring...?"

The feline just snorted, the ghost-like fireballs returning to once again floating lazily around her, as she explained: "FINE... but the only one allowed to admire anything...", Yet the feline interrupted herself mid-sentence, looking at her master, before uttering a sulky huff, as she remembered how she was supposed to still be pissed at her master, thus just stating dryly, "WHATEVER...!"

Letting herself sink down to the floor, she gave another huff, before stating: "WELL... go on then... I am hungry...!"

Looking at the feline in slight confusion, he noted for himself, how apparently both of this 'pair in black' were rather... peculiar characters, before getting to work on dinner.

Working undisturbed for a while, it was as he was done with preparing the rice... that he suddenly found Yoru next to him... no jacket and the sleeves of his long shirt rolled up, asking if he wanted some help.

Looking at the man in a mixture of fear - remembering Yuma's 'culinary skills' - and utter surprise. In the end, he hesitated at first, yet decided to take him up on his offer after all. As he prepared everything for the Mapo Tofu he had decided to prepare, Yasei pointed his guest to the ingredients he had already prepared for the soup.

Surrendering the preparations for the appetizer... the older man to his utter surprise was done with the soup, about the same time he was done preparing the tofu... and it didn't look bad at all!

"What...?", Yoru finally asked dryly, as they had started to prepare some vegetables, for a supplement, having the young man hastily avoid the older man's gaze.

Finding the older handler had bound his hair together with the chain of his necklace, he asked hesitantly - as for a diversion - though he kinda really was curious about it: "So... that cross..."

"It was my mother's... never mention it again, in case you value your life!", His guest just responded dryly, not even looking up from his work, leaving the young man rather dumbfounded... AND remembered as to with whom exactly he was preparing dinner with just now.

Like that hastily returning his attention to his own work, he utterly failed to hear the quiet, amused snort of Naomi... as he didn't even dare to look at the other man anymore, in fear he might really do something to him.

Done with their preparations a while later, Yoru finally stated, after taking a few bites of the Tofu and finishing his soup: "WELL... I am surprised you can cook..."

"Well... firstly: I live alone, so I obviously need to be able to cook for myself and secondly: I was into cooking since... well, almost as long as I can think, so..."

"WOW... this stuff is really good...!", Naomi finally confirmed, which surprisingly enough was almost as messy an eater as his own partner.

Suddenly pausing in his movement, upon this thought, Yasei finally asked: "So what... you followed me to help Asami... or were you two just following me to rub salt in my wounds?"

"HEY... we actually...", Naomi interrupted herself, shooting their host a furious glare... but her master interrupted her with a mere sign of his hand.

Continuing his meal unblinking, the older male explained: "Well... it seems like we are on the same side for now, so...", He shrugged his shoulders dismissively, "... it would be quite unwise, to leave a potential alley on his own, in a time of need... wouldn't you agree?"

"Oh...? An alley, am I...? But who says I even want to...-"

"Shut up... your food is getting cold!", Yoru just interrupted the younger males accusation, continuing his meal, as impassive as before... Yasei only in the last second able to not answer him in an obedient 'yes, sir'.

After finishing their meal, Yasei asked Naomi, almost out of habit, if she had liked her meal, just earning a quiet harrumph from the feline. Cleaning her snout in two big licks of her tongue, she instead turned to her master once more, jumping towards him in a big leap, returning to her animal form midair, landing on her master's shoulders in a smooth motion.

"Guess she is happy enough...", Yoru stated, as his partner got comfy on 'her usual spot' again, "SO... wanna take a look at your partner now?"

"Yeah... I usually try to finish my dishes before doing anything else, after I'm finished eating...?"

"Well... come now, or I'll leave... your choice!", The older handler just explained dryly, "I got about anything I wanted... got to know precisely where you're living... some free, late dinner... so you either take my offer now or see to your problems on your own...!"

Just looking at the older man dumbfounded a few seconds, Yasei hastily agreed, once more finding himself reminded too late, as to whom he was speaking too. This reminder had him even more curious though, as for what Yoru was hiding... considering his real identity, plans... and especially his real self.

Leading his guests to his bedroom, he finally asked: "So... how you want to help me, if you supposedly refuse to tell me what to do?"

"Oh... just watching you try and fail for a bit...", Naomi responded casually, "... bit of entertainment after dinner, so to say. But... guess Yoru can give you a bit of guidance..."

"REALLY?", Yasei asked in a mix of disbelief and excitement.

Upon this new 'assignment' of his partner, Yoru just rolled his eyes, stating irritatedly: "FINE... just tell me about everything you think could be a vision from your partner and I tell you whether your ideas are wrong or not, until you get it."

"Ehr... what? Ah guessing game?"

"WELL... guess we are leafing Naomi...", The older man responded unblinking to this, already turning around to leave, as Yasei hastily declared his approval to this offer.

Listening to the younger man's following explanations, Yoru didn't even flinch, as to indicate if Yasei was on the right track, or not.

He told him about his first visions, of the big inferno, devouring the world... and all the reoccurring visions of Asami, a sea of flames and her body turning to dust... mist... or whatever you wanted to call it. Earning no reaction at all, the young man continued on to list everything he had thought about.

Explaining his very first thoughts, Yasei told him how he thought his partner might be calling out for revenge... what he had discarded pretty quickly, as it did not conform with Asami's character.

He told about his thought's, as to all this being a warning, telling him to not lose control of his magic, telling him how this might actually lead to his partner disappearing... if he lost his ways, as it were.

The young man however declared how he had partially overruled that too, even though this thought, in the end, was part of him wanting more power and more control over himself and his abilities in the end.

Merely earning... no response at all, once more. Still, reviewing all his thought's again... all possible ways to save Asami had thought of so far, as he was sure he had to have found at least ONE good lead.

The first thought he explained like that, was the idea of burning her, as to literally do what his vision showed, in the hopes of her body regenerating through the flames, in some manner.

"God no... how can you even think about doing something like that to your partner?"

The next thought he explained was about maybe getting some effect, by burning her with their own magic... like melting the bullets still in her body and cauterizing the wounds.

"No... still a bad idea... except if you were planning to willingly cancel your pact with her, that is."

Yasei further explained all possible thoughts or ideas... about burning the wounds or projectiles in some other ways, or removing them with some instruments infused with their magic... all things Yoru, at best, called nonsense, when he was really nice about it.

Quite a few thoughts later though, Yoru finally seemed fed up enough to give him a little tip: "All pretty imaginative ideas... but other handlers could come into the same situation too, so... probably think about ways user of ANY magic may be able to utilize?"

Looking at the handler dumbfounded, Yasei would have loved to slap himself... as he hadn't thought about that at all. In the end, he did find some ounce of confidence in it... after all, he indeed had learned quite a bit about their own magic, by following just his own ideas.

"So... like... can you concur your magical energies in parts of your body?"

"WHAT? Well... yeah? Originally that was the only way for me to get people under my influence, after all...", Yoru responded after a few seconds, raising his hand, which seconds later got covered in a dark-violet aura, almost looking like something in between light and smoke.

"OW... ow... guess I finally have an efficient idea then!", Yasei finally responded excitedly, covering his hand in his own magic, effectively igniting it in ruby-red flames.

Slowly moving his hand closer to Asami's head, carefully looking out for any effects... suddenly a patch of the canine's hair, which was close too his hand, seemed to turn into mist... just like he had seen in his vision.

Looking back at Yoru excitedly, the older man just rolled his eyes, responding dryly: "Took you long enough... especially considering that talk about 'our partners are spiritual entities' not even an hour ago!"

Thinking back to that... of course... Asami HAD told him, how the magic they were able to control, when bound to their handler, was not a blessing the bound Yokai possessed all along, but in fact, the very thing originally binding them to this realm of reality.

"I guess so...?", The young man like that responded bashfully, before returning his attention to Asami.

With this information, it suddenly was obvious to him... as what to do to help his partner recover... combining this insight, with all the ideas he already had. The bullets still remaining in her body, objects of the human world, must have been the very reason for her body to... not recover any further. The wounds themselves, after all, were partially healed already, suggesting these foreign bodies still remaining in her physical form represented the only thing keeping the Yokai from healing.

Like that slowly moving his hand ever closer to Asami's body, it indeed did turn to mist, like he had seen in his vision, allowing Yasei to grab the bullets, floating in the mist her body had turned to. Seconds later, however, assessing it more like an operation on a human, the young man quickly concluded this kind of dispersal of her body may not be too desirable over a long time.

In a quick, yet careful manner picking the remaining projectiles out of her form, he finally pulled back his hand in a quick motion, Asami's body taking form within a mere second before the female startled up with an audible gasp.

"ASAMI...!", Yasei shouted out in utter surprise, even though he indeed... well, had witnessed what he had just witnessed.

Looking back to Yoru... he found himself even more surprised, after all... why had he expected to see him still standing there? The older handler probably hadn't even been present for their little guessing game in the first place!

Like that oh to hastily returning his attention to his partner, which still panted in exhaustion, he wrapped his arms around the female - which had returned to her animal form once more - pulling her close to him without a second thought.

The female laughed quietly, even though she did utter a silent cough, as her master hugged her, before finally finding her voice again far enough, as to tell her master: "Ouch... still painful..."

Hastily loosening his grip, he looked at his partner in utter disbelief, before he finally managed to ask: "Are you okay... are you feeling alright?"

Uttering an inaudible laugh, Asami explained in a raspy voice, as if she just had barely recovered from the mother of all colds: "Barely... neck hurts like hell... and my head is killing me...!!!"

Looking at the bullets in his hand for a second, Yasei averted his eyes back to Asami once again, explaining in an almost grievous tone: "Yeah... I dare say... I'm sorry it took me so long to realize what...-"

Putting a paw on her master's mouth, Asami interrupted her master with a weak smile, still looking pretty much as exhausted, as if she had just given birth or something: "Don't worry... I knew you'd understand... didn't expect Yoru off all people to help you though..."

Moving the paw away from his mouth, taking hold of it in his hand instead, Yasei asked just as skeptical as surprised: "Wait... you know? I mean... you did witness THAT? ... like, did you witness... EVERYTHING?"

"Well... I am bound to you now... the fire is just a medium at this point, so... yeah... pretty much...", Asami explained... ending in another rough laugh, "Even though I kinda didn't like the thought of you wanting to burn me..."

Responding in an awkward laugh, the young man scratched his head, as he responded reluctantly: "YEAH... that wasn't my brightest thought, was it? ... but... how? How could you still... observe anything of what happened?"

"Well... I witnessed everything you did. It was almost like being back in the spiritual realm... able to witness everything, but unable to interact with anything...", Asami explained with a weak smile, still all too eager to sate her master's curiosity... even though she obviously still was way to exhausted to do so.

A few seconds later - mere seconds before another flood of questions came over him - finally realizing the state his partner was still in, Yasei was about to hastily apologize... apologize... and apologize a bit more! He wanted to apologize for not noticing how bad her condition still was... almost wanted to question her about EVERYTHING he just barely refrained of... and not to mention for how he - in his perception - had taken way to long to realize how to help her, all over again... yet was interrupted in the very last second.

"I missed you so much... dummy...!", The female just stated affectionately, snuggling up to her master with a low sigh, before he was able to utter any of those words.

Almost jumped by the sudden affection, the young man finally, almost hesitantly pulled the female closer again, burying his hands in her long fur.

"But... didn't you say you were with me all the time?", He finally asked in a quiet laugh, the canine just snuggling up closer to his face.

"Yes... but I couldn't cuddle you then, could I...?", Asami like that just responded in another inaudible laugh, all too clearly sounding way tired out.

"Oh... I am...-", Yasei was almost about to apologize once more, but Asami instead just pushed him down on the bed.

Yasei following the effort of his partner, the female gave a happy sigh, as she got comfortable on her master's chest, stating sleepily: "NO... no excuses necessary...!"

"BUT...-"

"Shh... no... less buts... more... cuddles...", Asami interrupted one last time, as she finally did fall asleep.

Looking at his partner almost surprised... and a little worried too, Yasei finally kicked his shoe off of his feet - carefully, as to not wake his partner - before lovingly putting his arms around Asami, pulling her as close as he could.

Coming to think about it now, the canine's fur still felt cold and rough... yet he clearly could feel her strong heartbeat against his chest... feel how her body was slowly heating up again, almost like a newly sparked bonfire. Literally feeling how the female returned to life, Yasei himself too suddenly felt all the exhaustion, he had bottled-up over those last days... nearly weeks kick in.

Shrouded in the weak, smoky smell of his partner, he had grown so accustomed to, once more, it didn't take the young man a minute, until he too was fast asleep, all the while well aware of the presence of his partner next to him, he had missed so dearly all this time.

Waking up way past midday, Yasei lazily opened his eyes... for a second almost thinking all that happened the last night to be a dream... but this time he was all too glad it hadn't been.

Laying flat on the bed, on her belly, her front-paws underneath her chin, Asami looked at him musingly, with a slightly mischievous grin on her face.

"So you're still into sleeping in late?", The canine asked with a quiet giggle, still sounding pretty worn out, as she deemed her master awake enough to compute her words.

Just reaching out to her cheek, an almost silly grin on his face, proclaiming as he gently caressed her, Yasei happily stated: "You know... I am mighty glad what I dreamed about this night was no dream..."

Responding with a quiet laugh, Asami gently licked Yasei's hand, nestling her head up to it, as she answered: "Yeah... me too..."

Averting his eyes in thought for a second he finally asked, almost hesitantly, as he looked back to the female: "So... want some more snuggles...?"

"Yes, please...!", The female responded with a wide grin, happily shifting closer to her master, as she cuddled up close to him once more.

"God... how I mist having you with me... it was so... quiet... empty...", The young man explained in a relieved tone, as he gently ruffled the big canine's fur.

"Well... no wonder you went crazy with your training then, huh?", Asami responded with an almost curious look on her face.

"Yeah... That might have partially been the reason... I guess? Guess I somehow knew what I had done... even before Yuma had told me and... well... unknowingly knowing how I had utterly lost control, probably led me to more willingly think those visions, a warning to get better control over myself.", Yasei responded thoughtful, before he added in a quick shrug, "SO... kinda feeling all left alone, without you, probably made it all the easier on me to jump on that idea..."

"OH... so you can know things unknowingly... didn't know my master was that much of a genius...", Asami responded teasingly, before snuggling up close to her master once more, with a content sigh.

Uttering a quiet laugh, the young man continued quietly petting the canine, as he responded in a feigned cocky tone: "YEAH... guess I do surprise even myself some times..."

Cuddled up close to Yasei, the female just responded with a quiet snort and one single comment: "Dummy..."

"Oh... again...? Cause as far as I remember 'dummy' wasn't a thing... before all this?"

"Well... honor where honor is due, right?"

"Ha... Ha..."

"Plus... we only lost a few days... so it's not quite a 'before all this', isn't it?"

Falling silent for a few seconds, he finally pulled the female even closer, earning a muffled 'OUCHIE... neck... still hurting...' as he responded: "NO... it is... it was way too long, a time without you...!"

Still with a bit of a strain, pushing her master away from her a little, so he would stop squeezing the air out of her, Asami uttered a deep gasp, before responding with a warm smile: "Yeah... I guess it was way too long."

Uttering a quiet laugh, Yasei even went as far as to proclaim: "You could almost say: 'you got me addicted to you'... after all, before meeting you I had no problem to have some good old peace and quiet... but now...?!"

Responding in a laugh of her own, the canine eagerly licked the human's face, literally until he pleaded for mercy... whereas she asked in a triumphant smile, albeit thinking it more a choke, as she knew how her master thought about 'that' after all: "Well... maybe it is about time to just acknowledge how you INDEED do love me?"

At first still laughing quietly, as the female looked down upon him like that, her words - even though they were supposedly meant as a joke - did have the young man freeze in thoughts.

"Ehr... Yasei? ... everything okay...?", Asami finally asked slightly worried, as the young man was just staring into the distance, after almost a minute.

The canine, in the end, looked down at her master in real worry, scared she did say something wrong... until he finally said: "You know what... yes... you are right: I think I DO love you!"

Her yaw dropping, looking down at her master in disbelieve upon these words, Yasei explained hesitantly: "Well... you may be dog... but to me... you are so much more! You are my partner... the one I can blindly trust to be by my side no matter what... and... I think... you may indeed be... my true love?"

Still looking at her master in disbelieve, Asami finally stumbled: "You... you don't have to say that... I mean... if you don't mean it... like... I am totally okay with... being just your partner...-"

"- NO...! I DO mean it...", Yasei finally interrupted the female determined, "I never ever want to be without you again... just as much as I don't think anyone, human or not, could hold a candle to you! You made my life so much better... without really doing anything... and thinking about it now..."

Yet... indeed 'thinking about it' at this moment, made him stop dead in his track. Looking at the female, almost in shock, he slowly sat up, looking the female over... almost afraid to find his guess confirmed.

Her fur was almost as perfect as it was before, even though it still looked a bit scruffy... her temperature almost was back to normal too... and her body was as slim and lean as when he saw her for the first time.

Following her master's eyes, Asami finally averted her eyes, unable to look at the young man anymore, as he finally asked: "What... what happened too...?"

Looking at Yasei barely out of the side of her eyes, the canine explained in a sad voice: "The little one? It's like with you humans too... should the mother die when pregnant, the offspring... returns to nothingness."

Seeing the female almost about to cry... the young man pulled her close once more explaining: "NO... don't worry... it is okay...-" "- NO IT ISN'T...-" "- YES IT IS... it is sad... I too would have loved to have cubs with you... but... for now all that counts is that you are okay again...!"

"No... no, it isn't okay...", The female responded resolutely, even trying to get away from her master... but he wouldn't let her, Asami instead explain with a low sigh, "I... I wanted this... so bad... even before my heat really kicked in... because... even if you would never see me as your mate... this young... it would have been the prove... the prove..."

Failing for words, to explain her words, Yasei finally loosened his grip, so the female could properly look at him again. Brushing away the female's tears, he responded with an honest smile: "Oh... you silly goose... well... maybe back than... I have been stubborn about it, but now... I MEANT what I said, puppy-girl... after all... why would I lie to you?"

"You... really... you are not just... you know... to please me... just... saying what I want to hear...?"

"HEY... don't just assume stuff like that! SURE... I might... if it were anybody else, besides you and any other topic but that, but even than... I'd never lie about loving someone or not."

"Ha... so you're a dog lover now, huh?", Asami finally responded in a dry laugh, her voice still clearly revealing her remaining disbelief.

"Well... looks like it... puppy-dog."

Literally jumping her master, as she licked his face, in a doggy-kiss, Yasei responded eagerly, allowing her tongue to explore his mouth, as he kissed back against the chaps of the canine.

Eagerly kissing back at Asami's lips, the female tenderly nibbling against the lips of her master, she in the end did pull back from her master's embrace... panting slightly, as she asked: "Please... can we... have another one?"

"What... you asking now... already? You're not even fully recovered yet, not to mention way out of your heat... but, if you insist... starting with your next heat we might just as well try again on that. BUT I really think we should think about your recovery first, shouldn't we...?"

At first indeed wanting to disagree and strongly at that... it, in the end, took her mere seconds to realize, how she indeed was even from such little excitement almost utterly exhausted. Almost grumpily, she like that liked her master's face once more, in a quick motion, before agreeing sulkily: "Yeah... I guess that'd be best indeed..."

Uttering a quiet laugh, the young man carefully lifted Asami off of his body, sitting up and finally stretching his tired body thoroughly. Smacking his lips, as he finally did really feel awake, Yasei asked his partner: "SO... I guess playing sadly won't do yet, considering your condition... but I could show you my 'training room' if you want? A walk there would surely be plentifully enough for a little training for you... to get you up to speed again? ... and maybe a little bath...", Sniffing his shirt he uttered a quiet 'UGH', before hesitantly adding, "... preferably for both of us... I guess?"

Looking at her master - her mate, how she thought happily to herself, albeit more 'in secret' - Asami finally nodded eagerly, even thinking a nice hot bath - or rather a shower, as Yasei's flat did not come with a bathtub - a rather lovely idea.

Standing up to her feet, with more effort as she had liked to confess to, Asami carefully jumped down to the floor, looking up to her master with a sheepish, yet confident smile.

Not quite believing the female's unspoken words - AKA her smile - he closely followed behind the female, treading carefully, as if she was walking on glass... whereas indeed, a week jolt of pain shot through the female's body, with every single step.

"I warn you, missy... you better tell me if it's too much! I'd rather carry you, than have you work against your recovery just to 'not bother' me...!", Yasei decided to warn the canine in the end... as this indeed was the case, after all.

Grumbling quietly to herself for a few seconds, Asami in the end did agree to her master's instructions... whereas she still did manage to get to the shower without any problems, except the occasional sting of pain.

Watching Yasei getting rid of his clothes - he went to bed without undressing after all - the canine lay down for the time being, after all... jeans, vest, shirt, underwear... getting his 'stuff'... it wasn't much, but it kinda did sum up in the end.

Watching her master finally return with shampoo, body-wash and her animal shampoo, she wagged her tail excitedly... it really had been way too long.

"Well... looks like somebody is excited...?", The young man stated the obvious, as he saw the canine in the shower, wagging her tail eagerly, "One could almost think I took a whole hour to return, instead of a mere minute."

Uttering a quiet snort, she responded with a mere shrug of her shoulders: "Well. We already had established 'it had been too long', haven't we?"

"Fair enough...", Yasei responded, shrugging his shoulders, as he finally closed the showers glass door... the only luxury his apartment had: a glass shower cabinet.

Turning up the water, careful as not to step into the still cold stream, he stated, as he put the three bottles down: "Hm... wonder if we could heat the water ourselves..."

"Can you shower AND keep up magic on a few millions of water drops at a time, heating each of them up to the perfectly same temperature, as it comes out of the shower head? Or heat it while still in the pipes, while showering?", Asami just asked dryly, putting a paw in the water, just to flinch back immediately, as if it were literally as cold as ice.

Quickly thinking that through... Yasei deemed that whole deal as too much of a hassle, so he just responded: "In that case, it's a no on that!"

Even a whole minute later, as the whole cabinet was covered in steam, the water still felt barely lukewarm to him. Even turning the heat up all the way, the water merely felt slightly warmer, making him change his mind rather quickly after all, considering his earlier thought.

"I think we need to rethink that last one later... but for now, this has to do...", He finally stated, all too sure now, that their fire-elemental did affect him more than expected.

Like that quickly cleaning himself, his canine partner watching him with an all too hungry glare, Yasei finally cleaned all shampoo and body wash off of him, before finally turning his attention to Asami.

"So... as I don't plan on rethinking my decision about sex anytime soon... let me make up for it ANOTHER WAY...", The young man finally explained, before starting to thoroughly shampoo the female.

Shaking off the remaining foam off of his hands, Yasei cleaned Asami's face from as much excess foam as possible, as to not 'burn her eyes', before finally kneeling down as he explained: "So... now come here my pretty, hope this will at least be... 'sufficiently pleasant'..."

Looking at her master in slight confusion, eyes half closed, as to not get shampoo in her eyes, the female obediently stepped closer, closing her eyes completely, as she waited for what the young man had in mind this time.

In an inaudible giggle, Yasei like that gently grabbed around her neck, as he started massaging the - probably pretty much convulsed - muscles of his canine partner.

Careful, as to not do more harm than good, Yasei kneaded the neck of the female, down her back, down to her hind-legs, working the shampoo deeper into her fur, as he went on.

Having her turn around, as he sat down on the shower's floor, stretching out one hand, as he asked for her paw, which Asami handed him willingly. She herself on this point had to say, her master's touch kinda did entice a week sting of pain... jet it indeed did help to get rid of some of this tenseness in her muscles.

Taking special care in tenderly kneading the sensitive paws of the canine, Yasei meanwhile worked his way up the female's leg. Carefully massaging the muscles of the female's leg, he finally asked Asami to follow the movement he guided her paw and leg in, as to test how far her movement still was limited, if at all.

Finding most of her joints eliciting a certain - even if weak - sting of pain when moved too far, they at least found no problems with moving her paws in any way. Like that only left with her hind-legs... Asami, in the end, decided to just lay on her side and stretch her paws out to her master, as to allow him to give her belly a bit of a massage too.

Gently massaging the chest of the female, Yasei found her stopping her breath for a heartbeat, sharply inhaling instead, as he carefully rubbed the musculature over her ribcage.

"Hm... is it bad...?", Yasei like that asked curiously, as he had reached the lowest part of her ribcage.

Asami however just shook her head slowly, after seemingly thinking about it for a second, just responding with an anxious: "No... it could be way worse... I guess?"

Looking at the female skeptically for a second, the young man finally uttered a deep sigh, before in the end indulging Asami's claim.

Like that working his way down her lower body, he suddenly elicited an abrupt jolt of the female... accompanied by a quiet snort... a mere second later, followed by a distinct hiss.

Yasei had guessed his partner being somewhat ticklish down there, as she had always made sure he did not touch her belly more than necessary.

"HUH... bit ticklish after all, are we?", The young handler asked like that, before adding more seriously, "... but I don't think I like you having pain from something as little as an unintentional laugh...!"

"... but shouldn't laughter be unintentional...?"

"Don't change the subject...!"

"Sorry...", Asami responded, a bit taken aback by the strict tone of her master... yet in the end still unable to refrain from stating hopefully, "... but don't worry... I am alright... definitely will be, so... no need to worry about me!"

"Yes need to worry about you...", Yasei responded dryly, almost the second she had finished talking, before dropping the subject, with a quiet sigh.

Carefully massaging the next leg of the female, they tried how far she could move this too, finding it not 'affected' as badly as her front-legs were. Finding just about the same with her other leg, Yasei looked at Asami's tail for quite a while, before finally just giving it one sudden push.

Reflexively and not to mention unblinking, the canine let her tail swish through the air once, before putting it back down over her legs, as it had been before.

"Well... I guess that concludes this matter, at least...?", Her master finally stated in a musing tone, having the Yokai look at him in an utterly curious way.

Uttering a quiet snort, at the bewildered look of the canine, Yasei explained: "Come on... I surely don't have to explain the condition of your own body to you of all people?", Earning but a continued, blank stare, the young man explained after a deep sigh, "Your hind-legs and most of your lower body seem to really be pretty much fine already... but your front-legs, back and especially your upper body and neck, still are pretty much done in, from that damage to your head and neck."

"OH... yeah... pretty much, yes.", Asami responded, affirming her master's conclusion... before suddenly stating, an almost wicked grin on her face, "So... if everything 'down there' is utterly okay...-"

"- ... nope... no matter what argument you find: no lovemaking for puppy!", Yasei interrupted the female immediately and strictly, earning a grumpy look from his partner... until it suddenly changed back to excited once more.

"But can we at least drop the walk then and cuddle and watch movies instead?", The canine suggested, slowly starting to struggle with keeping her eyes open, or shut... considering the remaining foam starting to betake itself.

"Seriously?", Her master just asked skeptically, had he so far found himself mostly unable to keep the female at one place for too long.

"You kinda said you'd worry about me too much anyway... and as you did away with your job anyway, we can watch that anime, you said you so desperately wanted to watch again...?"

With a sudden 'say-no-more' look on his face, Yasei grabbed the shower-head once more, before starting to finally clean Asami off of all the foam, remaining from cleaning her fur... off course not without a proper warning beforehand.

Uttering a quiet little squeak, as the water run down her body, the female did her best to assist her master, to clean her off... and not to mention to not shake herself off from all the water already, before they were even partway done.

A while later, after finishing with cleaning every last bit of remaining shampoo off from even her tail, Yasei like that finally stated: "Okay... guess you can knock yourself out now...!"

Giving a short, impish grin, the canine finally shook her body free from all the water... whereas she stopped mid-motion, as she shook her upper body... and a low sting of pain shot up her spine. The female had, upon that, already gritted her teeth, in preparation for a sharp sting of pain... yet in the end slowly relaxed again, before exclaiming, after a quick examination of her body: "Well... that wasn't as bad as expected..."

Uttering a quiet laugh, in a bit of relief, Yasei looked over the shower... still shrouded in mist, or probably more like steam. A bit confused at first, he finally looked at his hand, finding plumes of steam rising from it, as the water still remaining on his body evaporated.

"HUH... well, warm water may not longer remotely pose as warm to me... but seems like I can forget about towels in exchange...!", The young man like that stated, earning a bit of a confused look of his partner.

Standing up once more, raising his arms a bit and spreading his legs a bit, before closing his eyes for a second, until Yasei had all water remaining on his body evaporate as well, within mere seconds.

After looking himself over for a second, his eyes fell back to Asami, as he finally stated: "Not to mention how you had pretended as if I was murdering you, whenever I tried to rub you dry with a towel...!"

"WHAT... not my fault... kinda felt like being entrapped by some living piece of cloth!"

"Yeah... keep on saying that...", Yasei responded dryly, before opening the shower and stepping out of it again.

Asami followed in suit shortly after, before closing her eyes herself and engulfing herself in a burst of flames, vaporizing all water still remaining on herself, just as the young man himself had done too.

Fanning away some of the steam, coming right his way, the young handler stated with a dry smile: "WELL... not what I'd call subtle... but it did the job, I guess?"

"PAH... I have way more hair than you... so, of course, a mere burst of heat would not do the trick...", Asami defended herself... before Yasei just suddenly picked her up from the floor and carried her into the living room.

"HEY... I can walk myself...", She uttered at first, in a fit of rebellion... yet fell silent seconds later, as Yasei just confirmed sarcastically: "YES... of course you can, granny..."

In the living room at the end, Yasei had made himself comfortable on his favorite spot on the couch, while Asami lay sprawled out next to him, just like they used too. The canine had been a bit more careful as to how to put herself down on the piece of furniture... but in the end, it wasn't much different from 'way past'.

In the end, only half paying attention to the show, as he did find himself still curious about quite a few things, Yasei finally asked, as he lazily ruffled the canine's fur: "So... do YOU have any idea what might have happened... back then? With this 'pseudo-merged state' I mean?"

"That? Well... all I know is how I was still bonded with you... like when merged... but kinda not like when we are merged...", Asami explained musingly, "I guess... I was still bound to you... but only in mind... as my body... well, was pretty much out of commission."

"WAIT A SECOND... that's actually pretty much a rather good lead! I mean, the 'only merged in mind' part. You remembered... how Tatsumaki still could use her merges power, even though her partner wasn't merged with her anymore?"

"Ehr... kinda? My memories are a bit fuzzy... quite a bit actually, but... YEAH... I think I remember...?"

"What if they indeed still were merged... but only in their minds? Allowing them to strengthen their magic, like when they have been one in body AND soul... but also allowing both of em to 'work independently'?"

Asami seemed to quickly review the thought of her master, before finally asking, a confused look on her face: "Well... it seems convincing enough... but I thought we wanted to specialize in fighting in unison?"

"Well... yeah... that would be the most effective way, I still believe that too... but to be prepared for as many different situations as possible, it would be best to learn as many techniques as possible... as to be able to adapt in any possible situation?"

"Hm... okay, sure. Whatever you say: I'll follow!"

"... but no more wanting to sacrifice yourself, okay?", Yasei finally asked of his partner, after falling silent for quite a while.

"But... I am a Yokai... they pretty much can't possibly kill me, whereas you... even though you have all those abilities from our pact, you still are a human and can just as easily be killed like any other human being...!"

An unnoticeable shiver run down Yasei's spine, upon those words, before he finally managed to respond sheepishly: "You know it really is pretty much unsettling when you go all 'I don't care for my well-being at all' like that? I really appreciate you wanting to keep me safe... but you are so much more but some undying ghost, who can just treat her life as nothing, like that."

Averting her eyes from her master for a few seconds... her look finally got caught on her once more slim belly. Swallowing heavily, she nestled her head in her master's lap, just responding in a silent nod.

Unwillingly having followed the female's eyes, Yasei did his very best as to not even think about anything in 'that direction'... after all he had tortured her just about enough with that the other night, hadn't he?

Instead returning his attention to his TV once more, petting the female absentmindedly, he Yasei finally felt Asami nudging against his hand carefully, as she responded, in the end: `It was my fault... I more or less acted on reflex. I only wanted to protect you, but... I promise I'll try to keep myself in check... on kamikaze moves like that, that is!´

"Good girl...", Yasei just responded curtly, giving the female a short kiss on her snout, before getting himself comfortable once more, surrendering himself to this more lazy kind of routine, they had decided upon for today.

Quite a while later, probably around dinner time, Yasei turned off his TV, finished with the last episode they had started, before finally stating with a short laugh: "HUH... so my sense of time had been off way more as I had expected...! Yoru's little show for the day was over and I myself at home, like 11.30... and then we had dinner at almost midnight... well, guess it at least beat going to bed hungry huh?"

"What...? Kinda sounds more like... well... no... I guess it really does sound like your sense of time was pretty broken...!", Asami responded, at first about to say something like it had sounded like him being greedy... but thinking that over once more, she decided against it.

The young man flashed his partner an apologetic smile, before standing up once more and finally asking: "SO... I guess you are recovered far enough to hunger for some of my cooking again?"

"A double helping please...!", The canine responded with a wide grin, tail wagging excitedly at the thought of finally getting some food again.

Complying with her wish with a quiet laugh, Yasei stopped dead in track as he stood in front of his kitchen. On the counter, were he and Yoru had worked the other day, lay a small, black memory drive. Closing up to her master, Asami looked at the counter curiously, her front paws propped up on the kitchen counter, as she looked at the USB-stick curiously.

Smelling it briefly, the canine in the end confirmed what Yasei had already guessed: "WELL... seems like your new friend left us a little present...?"

Looking at the thing for what to himself seemed like an hour, he finally pushed it aside - literally - to get space for his cooking, as he stated: "Never mind... let's just worry about food first, for now."

Working on the food with his usual 'discipline'... he couldn't quite keep himself from looking at the mysterious USB-device ever so often.

It was only as he was cutting the pickled veggies - he licked to retain them at a bigger size when pickling them, as for them to not get too soggy - that Asami finally had enough. Coming close enough to cut himself earlier on quite a few times, this time he almost chopped his finger off... even if it would just have been the very tip.

"OKAY... that's enough...! Master or not... if you look at that thing one more time, BY DOG... I will eat that thing for an appetizer!", The female finally announced, shooting her master an all to determined glare.

"Dog... REALLY? Sure, god backward is dog... but... seriously?"

"No changing the subject!"

"Okay... sorry... but... REALLY? You want to tell me you'd eat that piece of plastic and metal, just to remove a distraction?!", Yasei responded, slightly apologetic... before turning more towards utter disbelief.

"You know I will...!", The canine just responded sternly, a determined look on her face.

"NO... no, you wouldn't...", The young man responded, with a quiet laugh... sincerely thinking - and hoping - for this too be a joke... but as he realized how his partner was INDEED dead serious, he just ended in disbelief, "Oh dog... you really would..."

As his partner just responded in an affirmative huff, he uttered a defeated sigh... picking up the drive and putting it down on the floor - in front of Asami - stating: "Well... FINE... you take care of it then... but no eating it...! Might be something interesting on it after all."

Just responding in an unfazed huff, Asami placed one of her paws on the drive, shooting her master a glare, as if to tell him 'continue on, haven't got forever'... whereas her 'problem' would probably rather be her starving for some food, after all this time.

"Hai... hai...", Yasei just uttered mockingly, in a Japanese style 'alright... alright'.

"HEY... less mocking me, more getting dinner ready...!", The female scolded in a sulky tone, having the young man return to his work all too quickly, albeit with an almost mocking laugh.

In the end nearly emptying his fridge for all it was worth, preparing all he could come up with, for this first dinner with his partner in quite a while, Yasei, in the end, had Asami literally stunned.

In a clear mix of disbelief and greed, she looked at all her master had presented her with.

On the table was neatly lined up everything, from fish to meat, to grilled rice and noodles and all kinds of veggies, pickled supplements and sauces... having even Yasei himself feel like he had prepared everything he was able too.

Looking at all the stuff he had prepared with an almost 'I have seen god'-like look, Yasei almost was hoping for some serious thanks... yet all of a sudden Asami literally jumped the table, chomping down everything she could just possibly reach.

The young man literally watching the display in front of him in shock, it took the canine mere minutes to wolf down almost everything, leaving him but a piece of meat, a piece of fish, some rice and some vegetables she didn't even like to start with.

"WOW... and even after more but once telling me how you 'didn't really like all that veggie stuff'...", He like that stated in utter disbelief, the female just looking at him all innocent, still chewing on whatever she still had in her mouth.

`Well... that's just cause everything you make is just SO GOOD...!´, Asami finally responded with... what probably was supposed to be a grin, as she still was gulping down on what she had stuffed her snout with a few seconds earlier.

"Well... thanks... I guess... at least you left me some...", Yasei thanked her for the compliment... yet just as he was stating his relieve about the female at least leaving him with a bit of meat... she once again jumped at the table, making his relieve naught within seconds.

Looking at her master innocently once more, as she chowed down on this last two bits of meat and fish, Yasei looked at the bit of steamed rice and veggies she had left him with, asking sarcastically as he pointed at it: "I suppose you won't change your mind on this one too, won't you?"

Just giving Yasei the best puppy-eyes she could muster, the young man just uttered a beaten sigh, scooped the bit she left him with, in his bowl and finished it in a few quick bites.

Cursing something about 'greedy female', as he like that started cleaning the dishes and utensils he had used, Asami just kept looking at him all innocent, flashing her master a big grin, every time he looked at her.

As Yasei finally was done with all dishes et cetera, the female proudly held out the black USB-drive Yoru had left them, proudly stating: `SEE... I didn't even nibble on it...!´

"Yeah... good girl...", Yasei confirmed sarcastically, as he took the drive from Asami, yet in the end couldn't resist from still ruffling the canine's fur affectionately, "SO... let's see what old Yoru wants to tell us... whereas... might just as well be some kind of virus. Wouldn't put that past him, after all...!"

Looking at her master, with her head cocked, Asami followed the young man curiously.

Starting up his computer, he mumbled something about 'really hoping for it not to be some virus', before finally opening one file after another, not having one opened for even a second too long, or - god forbid - two at a time. This cautions probably wouldn't help anything, should there be some potent virus software on that drive... but it at least kinda felt like it was helping, so...

Sifting through all the data on the almost 25 GB drive, Yasei surely was UTTERLY dumbfounded.

"What is it... is it an infection? What did it say...?", Asami finally asked curiously, as her master didn't even utter a peep, for almost two minutes, just staring at some files he had opened once more blankly, in utter disbelief.

"WELL...", Yasei finally exclaimed reluctantly, "This is either the best-forged blackmail ever... or Yoru is utterly crazy, even if this isn't all fake news."

Once more looking at her master with her head cocked - not even daring to think about prying into her master's mind - Asami asked obviously confused: "Why... I saw quite a few photos, showing your... old boss, if I remember correctly? ... and some of them... ehr... what where they called... CEOs? But besides that..."

"Well... to make a long story short... one part of all this data is cataloging in the very finest detail, how apparently all of my old firm's CEO and especially the chief were as corrupt as can be, in one way or the other...", The young man finally explained, "... and detailed reasoning why they all had had to die!"

"So... he confessed murdering them?"

"More or less... but I couldn't prove this was his property at the first place... at best it would look like I AM the culprit behind it... but more importantly...", Yasei did stop mid-sentence, shaking his head in disbelief, "The remaining data is all about the families of his victims and how he did compensate them, to negate all negative effects upon them, resulting from their family members death. Whereas... VICTIMS... I'm not only talking about the CEO of my old firm... he apparently has already murdered dozens of corrupt businessmen and even a few too-be politicians, since... well a few months after bonding with Naomi."

"He did...? SO... is he pretending to be some... kind of vigilante?", Asami asked, still slightly confused, after thinking this information she just got through for a bit.

"Well... maybe... but one reason is for sure...", The young handler responded, shrugging his shoulders, before turning serious once more, as he opened one file, hidden pretty deep in that whole archive, "THIS... is his main reason, should we really believe him...!"

The file he had opened, was rather exaggeratedly named 'the best reason'... and just showed a picture with the word POWER written in big letters... with a picture of a wickedly smiling Naomi for a background.

"WHAT... really... you believe that...?", Asami finally asked in disbelief, whereas her master just responded in a heavy sigh.

"Well... guess we might just as well follow the 'invitation' he had sent us included with this, just as we had done with the other one...?"

Once more looking at her master in utter disbelief the Yokai stared at the screen of the computer skeptically, hoping this 'invitation' wouldn't end like the first one...!

"So... what are you up to? I thought you didn't want me to walk around yet?"

Looking at the female, one eyebrow raised, Yasei just stated dryly: "I think you know very well what 'I am up to'... didn't learn this just for fun after all!"

"But...-"

"- ... no buts! No matter what might happen, I'd more or less deserve it, after all, I was the one who was all: HEY... why don't we accept the invitation of a weird stranger, who - as far as we know - is most likely an utter psychopath!"

"Well... turned out he... is... not... quite?", Asami stated in a slightly confused tone, earning but a more or less strict look from her master.

Reaching out his hand to the canine he said: "No leading of topic... no matter what might happen, it would be more or less my fault anyways...!"

About to respond in another 'but', Asami finally uttered a quiet sigh, cooperating with her master's order.

Their merge working like any other times, it was when their consciousness and cognition were fully merged, that it hit him like a train... a truck and a hammer at once!

He felt everything flashing through his conscience and very body, that Asami had felt since the second she broke their merge, to block the bullets aimed at her master.

The pain of the bullets hitting her... slowly dying... fading into nothingness... and all the pain her body had perceived, yet did never hit Asami, as her very soul was bound to her master, instead of her body, up to the numb, stinging pain she still felt, at every move.

All those sensations, not to mention the female's desperation, about her finding herself utterly unable to interact or even speak with her master... that and everything else she or her body may had perceived since their last merge hit him with the force of a nuclear blast, within less than a heartbeat!

Almost feeling himself black out from this onslaught, Yasei barely managed to keep standing and yet still, took about ten minutes, until he could think clearly again.

`Yasei...´, He finally heard the familiar of Asami, echoing through his mind, all to obviously worried.

"Nope... still deserved this...!", Yasei just responded, still feeling burning hot pain in his head and neck, as if someone had implanted some searing hot lumps of coal in his body, "If this is what you went through... I definitely deserve this... and... HEY... at least my body isn't as sore as yours... even though I can relate all too well now: My head and neck are INDEED killing me...!"

`Yasei... don't be overly proud... we don't have to do this, you know...´

`NO... especially after what happened yesterday, I WANT TO KNOW what's up with this guy... this SHI-... whatever!´

`... and you think following this... lead... he presented you with, would help?´

`Maybe...? But as I told you... it's my fault for you being in this state now, so...´

Clearly feeling how Asami was about to protest on this... and protest energetically, she in the end didn't go on about it any further, all too aware how her master surely wouldn't butch one inch on this conviction.

Even though he felt like his brain was melting, while some hot iron was shoved straight through his windpipe, they in the end did manage to reach the park Yoru had tagged for a 'point of interest'.

"Well... it's not as bad anymore...", Yasei like that finally exclaimed, trying to reassure his partner with this half-truth, as he sat on a bank in the big park, "... and I don't have to deal with hurting joints, so... don't worry... I'll make it."

A distinct sigh, echoing through his mind, Asami finally asked curiously... and probably a bit irritated: `So... as you so desperately want to change the subject: what are we looking for anyway? Some corrupt businessman... a drug-dealer... maybe even some crazed murderer?´

`To be honest... that last guess isn't that far off...´

`WHAT...?´

`Going by Yoru's data, this is one spot a rather peculiar murderer was frequenting this last few days.´

`So... you totally missed out on some important info it seems... in those days you were oh so crazy about your training?´

`For starters: I still intend to keep up my training... and for seconds... yes, pretty much guilty as charged.´

`Yasei...´, The canine's voice echoed through Yasei's mind, in all too clear frustration, until the young man sat up straight all of a sudden, looking the park over in clear surprise.

Undeniably rubbing his head, from the sting of pain, cause of the sudden movement, the young handler finally stated: `That guy really is something... whoever this is could have appeared anywhere for his next attempt... but Yoru narrowed the place he'd appear next down that precisely...! Even though... it is kind of strange.´

Slightly confused at first, Asami in the end had to agree seconds later, as she too recognized the 'aura' their - probable - target emanated. He clearly had an ice cold intent to kill... but she couldn't feel any evil intent from him... like... none at all.

`Yeah... that's quite a contradiction, alright...´, The female confirmed like that, as Yasei stood up and stepped closer to the young man, who just had entered the park, thus still about 300 feet** away.

Using the time they had, Yasei looked the man over closely... finding him to look more like some weedy student, instead of a crazy murderer, having him confused even more about his motives!

In the end deciding to observe him at first, he pulled up the cloth face-mask he had prepared, just for situations like this - situations where he might want to use their magic, without being recognized - as he followed the strange guy.

Not having to follow him too long, it took mere seconds, until he reached a pair of people - going by their still kinda shy behavior, probably a couple which wasn't seeing each other since too long - suddenly something started to move under the skinny guy's jacket.

Hastily closing up to him, as the head of a snake finally emerged from the young man's sleeve, Yasei finally jumped right in front of the guy, which neared the young pair from behind. Shouting at them to get lost, the two of them only then turned around from her seat, seeing the guy and his... strange, almost dragon-like snake, they didn't need to be told twice.

Watching the couple flee, with an utterly apathetic look, the stranger finally slowly turned to Yasei, the snake now slowly curling itself around its arm outside of the vest, until it's head finally came to a halt at eye-level of the young man.

"AW... now ssssey got away...", The snake finally stated as apathetic as the young man looked like, to their surprise really with a clear hiss in her voice, "Now ssssey know what masssster lookssss like... hope you are happy now!"

Keeping the strange pair in view cautiously, the young man finally uttered an inaudible sigh, the snake suddenly looking at him, as if he was talking to it, before the young man raised his arm, pointing it at Yasei... still the same utterly apathetic look in his eyes.

"Asss you wissssh, masssster!" The snake finally responded, with an evil sneer, before shooting out towards the other handler.

Barely able to react at the lightning-fast attack of the snake, he barely in time managed to form a shield of flames in front of him. Almost feeling like time was freezing, Yasei watched the snake-like Yokai, as it charged right into the wall of flames, unable to halt his assault.

Still stumbling backward a bit, it took Yasei a few seconds, before he could detect the snake again. It was burning... yet wasn't moving anymore... until the flames had devoured the 'body' far enough, for the handler to realize he was only looking at the shed skin of the snake.

Almost too late he could feel the touch of the snake on his leg, wiggling up his foot, it's mouth wide open, as she was about to bite his hand... until it suddenly froze in place.

Turning his head towards its master, it slowly closed his mouth. Going by the now determined look on the young man's face, he probably had just given his partner another order... what they got confirmed seconds later, as the snake stated in a low hiss: "Llllucky you... lookssss like masssster changed hissss mind...!"

Before he could look back and forth, between himself and the other handler, the snake was gone again, wiggling up his master's leg now, up to his former lookout, as the young man slowly stepped closer to Yasei.

Holding out his hand, he stayed still, as he was mere inches away from them. Looking at Yasei with an almost expectant look, the snake ordered with a 'don't you dare disobey' glare: "Take hisss hand... or I'll reconssssider about biting you...!"

Looking the other handler up and down, utterly dumbfounded, as he now couldn't feel the slightest hint of any malicious intent from his opposite. Obviously skeptical, Yasei finally hesitantly took the young man's hand... especially wary, since the handler had stretched out the arm his snake partner was curled around.

Feeling a strange surge of energy rushing through him, he quickly let go of the stranger's hand, stepping a few steps back, as he eyed his counterpart suspiciously.

Hearing an almost chortling noise from the stranger - only seconds later determining it as laughter - Yasei skeptically back down another step, until he suddenly heard a male voice in his head: `What... is this the first time of you meeting another one of us...?´

"What... no... not exactly, but...", Yasei responded irritatedly, until the young man finally interrupted him... making it the first time he was glad to be interrupted.

`Never mind then... but we should better go, as I do not want those two to call the cops on us... as long as you don't reconsider about burning us alive, that is?´, The young man stated calmly, before he turned on his heal to leaf the park, as Yasei had shortly nodded his agreement.

Guiding him to what seemed to be his home, the young man invited Yasei in, the young man reluctantly following the invitation.

`So... you don't seem to be the guy Chimei had told me about?´, He finally asked, as he closed the door to his bedroom, to give them some privacy, as he apparently either lived in a shared apartment or still with his parents.

"Chimei...?", Was the first thing popping into Yasei's mind, looking at the young man in confusion.

"Ssssat issss obvioussssly me... you buffffoon!", The young man's partner responded, shooting daggers at his master's guest.

As she said...´, The stranger responded impassively, pointing at his partner with one hand,Chimei always investigates I plan on visiting beforehand... and so far she almost every day saw a strange guy, with a ton of knives and daggers, lingering around on places we either had been too already, or planned on visiting next.´

Still, a bit dumbfounded by how utterly impassive and apathetic this guy seemed, Yasei finally asked reluctantly: "So... before... whatever this is, goes on any further... may I ask you who you are first?"

"Ssssat isss not very polite... issss it? One normally issss to introdusssse onesssself firssst, after all?"

"Oh... yeah... sorry...", The young man complied, almost out of reflex... or probably rather surprise?

Undoing the merge with Asami, the canine materialized in a burst of flames, right next to him, taking the other handler by surprise, as Yasei explained: "May I introduce to you... this is my partner, Asami... and my name... is Akainu..."

In a spur-of-the-moment decision, using his 'code-name' - like Yoru obviously did... just to make sure - it still took their host a few seconds to recover from his surprise, as he finally exclaimed: `Oh... like the One Piece Admiral? Well... I don't quite buy it, but I think if you don't want to tell me, I guess that's fine too...? My name is Konoye... and my partner's name shouldn't be a secret at this point anyways...´

A bit taken aback, by the young stranger's knowledge of this background of his name, it took Yasei a few seconds to regain his composure, before finally continuing: "So... Konoye... you and your partner... the guy Chimei saw - Yoru - gave me some... information on you...-"

`- huh... so Chimei was right, about him stalking us...?´

"... and... well... you really did murder four couples... in cold blood?"

`Actually, there were five... but as Chimei can induce anyone, with any poison she knows, they didn't realize they had died from poisoning, at first.´

"What...?"

`Well... there are some toxins, that are utterly untraceable after a certain while, as their components dissolve on their own in the victim's body, you know?´, Konoye explained as calmly, and empathetic as always, leaving Yasei even more confused.

"Yes... I think I heard about something like that once, but... my real question is... WHY? Why did you two kill them, like that... in cold blood"

Looking at the tall man in confusion, he shared a quick glare with his partner, before looking back at their hosts, as Chimei finally explained in a scandalized tone: "We didn't kill anyone in cold blood...! Quiet sssse oppossssite actually... WE SSSSAVE SSSEM!"

"SAY WHAT!?", Even Asami shouted out in surprise now, in almost perfect unison with her master.

Sharing a quick, unbelieving glance, they once more looked at their hosts in utter disbelief, returning the look just as irritated, as they both responded, not conscious of having done anything wrong: "`What...?´"

Exchanging another quick look, Yasei and Asami finally threw a deeply skeptical look to the strange pair.

This definitely was in danger of turning into one VERY long, VERY STRANGE talk . . .

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* 10' - 30' ~ 3m - 9m

** 300' ~ 90m

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HA-HA...! finally done with RotY's #7 :3

and as always:

hope y'all enjoyed the story and please, feel free to share any thought's or even critique, as I'd really appreciate any kind of comment, as there can be no improvement or such alike, without any head-ups or information on what one may need to improve on et cetera ;3

plus I'd really love to know if people liked my stories and what people think about my writing over all, as I practically put my lifeblood in all my stories and am as such really eager to know what other people think about it all ^^'