FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

_ New Blood _

"Wow... wow... wow... wow... wow! Let me summarize that!", Yasei asked in shock, after Konoye and Chimei's explanation, "You two say, you... killed them, to protect them?"

`Pretty much.´, Konoye responded.

"And you think you were protecting them... from love?"

"Yessss... ssssat was sssse idea...", Chimei confirmed.

"Protecting them... from feelings, because you had been hurt one too many times?", He repeated in disbelief, once more.

`Way too many times... yes...´, The snake's handler confirmed once more.

"Okay...", Yasei confirmed with a heavy sigh, before he this time around, repeated all Konoye had told them so far, "You said you have been an outsider all along? You had been shunned for all of your life... and... as you thought your luck finally may have turned... the girl you had admired for so long, have been friends with... you thought she could come too like you too, yes? She didn't like you the same way you did though... andshe just told you off and... 'drove you away' as you had phrased it?"

`Sadly... but yes.´

Uttering a heavy sigh, Yasei put a hand on his head, explaining with a weak shake of his head: "But why would you kill people... people in love... even with this backstory . . . it just isn't right, is it?"

`You think? I mean... human are superficial... ego-maniacal... even somebody caring for others as you do must have some hidden side. Be honest... even you should have some kind of breaking point... a point where even this resolution of yours is wavering.´

"NO... I... -"

"- ... now... now, don't be rassssh...!", Chimei interrupted Yasei's response, a knowing smile on her face, "We may have no combat abilitiessss... or training wissss magic... but we are rather exssssperiencssssed wissss telepasssy!"

"HEY... how dare you...!", Asami snapped at the snake, growling at her, fur standing on edge.

"No... leave her be...", Yasei calmed the female down with a quiet sigh, as he put a hand on her flank, "Let them know... this little bit... not like you can convince anybody, of anything if you're not telling them the truth on your part too, yes?"

Responding with an angered huff, Asami sat down once more, looking daggers at the other female.

"Yes... it may be true... I did pretty much lose it when they hurt my partner... but still! You two can't just go on and kill everybody falling in love, only because you think... they might get hurt in the process!", Yasei tried further reasoning with them, yet earned but another confused look from the pair.

`Seriously? We are merely helping them... protecting them from their own foolishness... fromhumans cruelty.´, Konoye responded calmly, looking at him warily.

"Yeah... pretty sure you should keep protecting them from their own stupidity THEIR OWN job... instead of playing vigilante.", The young man responded dryly, throwing the pair a warning glare, reaching out his hand... igniting it in brilliant flames, "Not to mention... it not only is pretty much foolery... going by our new creed we'd have to eliminate you, should you two keep on doing what you do."

`OH... so who's playing vigilante now?´

"So what? WE at least aren't murdering people just to force our idea of PROTECTION upon them!", Asami snarled at the pair, sitting opposite to her, herfur standing on edge once more.

"Shush... no fighting Asami... not to mention... since when are you this protective anyways?", Yasei soothed his partner, placing one hand in her neck, as he petted her gently, "But... you ARE right."

Returning his attention to Konoye and his partner, closing his hand in a fist, extinguishing the flames once more, as hefinally asked dryly: "SO... last chance... keep up what you're doing and you'll have to answer to me. Kill some rapists, if you insist on 'protecting' people... but keep up with your original plan and it won't end pretty for you!"

Exchanging a quick look with his partner, Konoye finally uttered a quiet sigh, merely shrugging his shoulders, as he condescended: Well... I guess you are right... not to mention... ´, He looked at his partner once more... shrugging his shoulders yet again,Not to mention... they in the end reallydon't deserve our protection, I guess...do they?´

Averting her eyes for a few seconds, Chimei finally nodded approvingly herself.

"Very well... guessss well be good and sssstop trying to help thossss foolssss", Chimei finally stated dryly, looking at her master's guests with a lordly look.

Exchanging a quick look with his partner, Yasei uttered a quiet sigh, as he explained: "Very well... I hope you honor your words... in your own interest. Yoru... the guy who gave me this tip considering yourself...I can't imagine HIM having any mercy... notlike ourselves. SO, better really be good... or you'll end up asNaomi's newest plaything!"

Standing up with a quiet gasp, the young man held out his hands to his canine partner. Merging with her once more, he couldn't suppress a quiet wince, as Asami's pain once more hit him... until he finally uttered a quiet huff, as he stated: "So... I guess we are out of here... and better dobe good... as Naomi does not play nice at all."

On their way home Asami finally asked: `SO... what is this 'new creed' of ours, you were talking of then?´

`Well... I thought: we have enough power to defeat most enemies... and as I do still have to settle a score with those thugs, we might as well really go all vigilante on them. Yoru is powerful, yet... it seems like he thinks his powers aren't quitefit to keep them under check.´

`SO... you want to scare them into submission?´, Asami asked curiously in response, even if a little skeptical.

`Well... better than nothing, yes? Not to mention... you said our appearance... YOUR appearance... of all Yokai so far, would only be the beginning to the aftermath of what the reckoning spell has called forth, yes?´

`Yeah... I sure did. SO... you want to get all of those self-centered idiots in line, so you wouldn't have to worry about some stupid humans... no matter what kind of aftermath MAY occur? To prevent them fromexploiting any kind of chaos thatmay arise from it?´, The female summarized, earning a quiet laugh from her master.

`Yeah... pretty much... as elaborate as always, huh?´

`Well... kinda... nobody watched as 'too much anime' as you did... after all.´

"HEY...", The young man shouted out loud unwillingly, before clearing his throat, as he retorted in his mind, `There are plenty people who are just as badly into anime as me... but whatever, in the end, it ispretty muchjust as you said... best take care of little problems before they can turn into big ones...´

`HM... guess you're right about that...´, The canine responded cheerfully, eagerly asking what they'd be planning to do next.

`Well... following the very idea you uncovered just now... we have to get rid of our most important 'little problem' now. You know... the one I'd make my top priority anyway?´

Clearly hearing a quiet huff echoing through his mind, Asami finally responded sulkily: `Yeah... yeah... we'll first see to my recovery...´

"Well... here we are...!", Yasei finally stated, more to himself, as they finally had arrived... in front of the big storage unit, he had rented.

OH... what's that?´, The female asked curiously, as her master opened the lock to the almostgigantic building... before suddenly hastily demanding,NO... wait... no telling! Let's see... this... this is... OH... right! This is this warehouse-thingy... your training facility as you had called it, yes?´

"Exactly... so... you can rest and I'll get some more training in."

Undoing their merge, Asami landed on her paws almost clumsily, uttering a low wince.

"See... sit and quiet for you!", Yasei like that declared, using theveryevidence she just gave him, as he pointed to the big couch he had prepared for naps.

"Okay... okay...", The female responded almost soundingdejected,as she trottedto the couch obediently.

Getting comfortable on the couch, a small smile flashed across her face. Her master HAD ordered her to rest, yet she could clearly see him doing his training right in front of her... so she could at least learn about the new skills he had acquired. It was nothing much... yet this little act of disobedience did lighten her mood at least a littlebit, considering how she could get at least somewhat of a benefit out of her time like this.

Training for as long as his now - more or less - once more human body could bear, Yasei did try to get back this feeling... the pseudo-merge, how he had called it so far.

HethusDIDfind himselfable to feel his partner's presence even more strongly now... but he couldn't seem to come up with any ideas as to how he may be able to harness this power once more.

"Sorry master... I'm afraid I can't be of any help to you in this...", The young man suddenly heard his partner's voice... Asami almost sounding saddened by this fact, "I... I wasn't able to gain any feeling on this... pseudo-merge... all thistime... I was so close, yet... I could do nothing..."

"Oh... no... no worries puppy-girl...", Yasei responded with a quiet laugh, stopping in what he was doing for a moment, "As I said... if anything, any shortcoming resulting out of this ordeal, which took you away from me, would more likely be my fault than anybodyelse'sanyway."

"NO... it...-", The female wanted to object... yet did decide not to, like that finallystating, "YES... I won't dwell any further on this... considering your plan, we need to improve even more, yes?"

"That'sthe idea, yes... so be a good doggie and rest!", Her master confirmed with another short laugh, before returning to his last bit of training. Now really at his breaking point, he 'retired' from his Kata*training, finishing his sessionwith some more practice in knife-throwing.

Continuing with his training until he more or less couldn't even look straight anymore, Yasei finally gave up on it with a heavy huff.

Watching her partner panting weakly, Asami stated with a quiet laugh: "SEE... now you are all exhausted...!"

"Well... we DOneed more training... and I guess we'll need to look out for any kind of strange things happening.", Yasei just responded unflinching, before adding with a quiet huff, "Especially since we can't keep looking for new handler upto Yoru! He may not have tried anything funny so far... but still!"

"WHAT... you think he would... like... hmm... betryingto take over the world, or stuff?"

Breaking out in a loud laugh, before explaining with a soothing gesture: "No... no... I don't think anybody would seriously try his hands on THAT... not even a weirdo like Yoru... Shi-WHATEVER his name might be!"

"Yeah... but, what are you up to now?"

"Well... sleeping of course!"

"OH... sleeping? Guess we might as well...-", The canine asked, a lusty, feral grin on her face... yet was interrupted within a heartbeat again.

Uttering a bewildered groan, Yasei scolded his partner sternly: "NO... not even one day has passed since you tried that the last time! SO... still a hard no on anything related to any kind of carnal desire!"

"Ehr... beg your pardon?", Asami askedflabbergasted, before finally stating sulkily, "Hey... I'm feeling way better already... I'm sure I could easily... OUCH!"

Interrupting her more insistently - and proofing his point at the same time -her masterstraight out pokedher ribs, even if gently... earning an all too clear, quiet yelp.

"SEE... I told you! You still need WAY MORE time to heal... and now make way, or there will be no cuddles for you this night!"

"What... but... OH... you wanna sleep here? Okay..."

"Of course... that's what this couch is for after all, so... do as master told you!"

Uttering a quiet snort, she hastily - if overly carefully - moved out of her master's way. Allowing the young manto lay down on the piece of furniture comfortably like that, the femalesnuggledup to him with a content huff.

Putting his arms around the caninelovingly, he pulled Asami closer, gently ruffling the female's fur, as he slowly dozed off... finally able to sleep peacefully again, after some good and long training to boot.

"Well... this... is fine too...", The canine finally muttered to herself, as she happily nestled her head up against Yasei's strong chest, slowly falling asleep, on the side of her beloved master.

Sleeping in till 10 a.m., the other day, Yasei did start his morningwith another bit of training... before finally uttering a heavy sigh.

"SO... what we wanna do?", He finally asked, looking at the clock he had placed in this hideout of his.

"What... we want to do? Like... FOR LUNCH?", Asami asked, turning really excited as she realized the chance for food.

"Yes indeed... after all, even nut-jobs get hungry once in a while.", Her master responded jokingly, flashing her a knowing grin.

"OH... yes please...!", The canine confirmed like that, before hastily jumping to her legs... still wincing indistinguishably, though she at least did feel a bit better.

"So... how are you feeling so far?", Yasei asked her nevertheless, keeping the female in view carefully, as she explained herself.

After a bit of an interruption Asamifinallyacknowledged, feelingthe eyes of her master upon her all to well: "I feel... better... my legs and back still are a little sore...butmy head and neck AREpretty much stillkilling me..."

"Hm... well, okay then... butlet me guess: it has been way too long since we had some barbecued chicken?"

"OH... yes... YES! I have almost forgotten what those taste like...", His partner responded almost obsessively, subtly drooling at the mere thought of her favorite food.

"Okay... guess I can let you walk on your own... it's not too far away from here after all... -"

"- ... JUST A SECOND...", Asami suddenly interrupted her master, even though things seemed to go in her favor for once, "You DO talk about our usual place, don't you?"

"Ehr... yes...? Don't worry... wouldn't want to disappoint my puppy-girl,after all...yes?"

"OH... yes... gimme!", The female responded, her tail wagging excitedly.

"WELL... let's get going then!"

Arriving at the shop Yasei had started to frequent, after meeting Asami, within... well, quite some time, itstillhad taken them merely half the time it would have taken, had they started their way attheir home.

"OH... hello there, young man... haven't seen you for days! Hope everything's alright with your girlfriend?", The old man greeted him jokingly, resulting in Yasei turning the deepest shade of red his canine partner had ever seen on him.

"What are you... MY GIRLFRIEND... no... I mean... EVERYTHING isalright, just fine... at least now... BUT STILL... how dare you talk to your customers like that, OLD GEEZER!", Yasei spouted out embarrassed, looking daggers at the older man.

"WHOARE YOU CALLING AN OLD GEEZER!", The old man responded, in a similar abashed manner, "Keep this up any longer and I will charge you double!"

"HEY...no fair...!"

Their quarrel did go on for quite a few more moments... until his wife stepped up to them, placing his usual order on the counter in between them, giving her spouse a hearty slap to the back of his head.

"Come on now... stop harassing the poor boy...!", She scolded her husband furiously, flashing the young man a warm smile, as she explained, "... and you don't worry sweety... he's just a grumpy old man, justas usual."

Uttering a sheepish laugh, Yasei picked up his order, Asami already eyeing the back hungrily, earning a curious smile from the owner's wife.

"OH... I see... is she another fan of our cuisine? I just hope you do take care you don't feed her anything strange?"

"NO... no, of course not! She is, like... the most important thing in my life. So...no...I'd never do anything that might harm her.", Yasei assured the old woman hesitantly,flashingher a reassuring, yet kinda sheepish smile.

"OH... well, aren't you a dependable young man?", The shopkeeper's wife responded with an amused laugh, shooing her husband back to work, as she affectionately bid her farewell, to her young customer and his companion.

"Thank you very much... and you don't cause your wife anymore trouble old geezer!", Yasei said his goodbye to the shopkeeper's wife, before jokingly addressing the old man himself too...whochased him away furiously, all to soon.

"That old man is funny...!", Asami finally announced with a quiet laugh, earning another quiet laugh from her master in response.

`Yeah... I guess he is quite an amusing character...?´, Yasei confirmed - if hesitantly - as he responded to the female throughtheir telepathic bond, as to not make anyone think him some weirdo, talking to his dog.

"God... can't wait for this chicken... come on... let's hurry...!", The canine finally stated excitedly, snuggling up to her master's leg, her tail wagging excitedly.

"Haha... hey, careful... don't trip me silly...!", The young man responded amused, nudging his partner's side playfully.

Uttering a quiet, playful growl, Asami finally repeated hastily: "Come on... Come on... I'm starving...!"

Cooperating with the females hustle they arrived home... not as fast as usual... but Asami did do pretty alright, even though she was kinda beat as they arrived at their apartment.

"Ha... see... I made it...", The canine declared exhausted, but with a wide, confident smile.

"Yeah... barely. You huff and puff like an old steam engine...!"

"Hey... I'm not old...!", Asami responded sulkily, as shehad been good this time, after all.

Uttering a quiet snort, he assured her teasingly: "Of course you aren't... I said 'an old steam engine'... you ever came across one of those? A really old steam locomotive?"

"OH... those things? I know about them... - you know how - but I've never seen one so far..."

"Hm... so, you wanna go see one? Got training tomorrow and today... but we could go on Wednesday?", Yasei proposed, as he put his keys away and brought the chicken in the kitchen, "On that thought... how about it? We could go to see... well, all kinds of things... if you'd like? There are all kinds of museums out there after all?"

"HUM... museums?", Asami asked musingly, before responding excitedly, "Well... sure... it sounds fun enough! ... but. First. FOOD! ... please?"

Responding in another quiet laugh, the young man pulled up a chair for himself, before finally sitting down and putting their grilled chicken on a plate.

"Well... wouldn't want to have my pretty pub starving then, huh?", He like that declared as he pulled off a piece of meat from the chicken.

Holding up the piece well over his head, he had Asami come closer, placing her front legs on his lap, to reach out for the piece of meat. Gulping the piece of meat down hungrily, she remained on the spot her master had lured her to, looking at him expectantly. Flashing her a short smile, he felt the neck of his partner... her head and feet... before finally shrugging his shoulders: "Well... I think you at least are a little better, I guess?"

His partner merely responding in an excited bark, Yasei responded with a quiet laugh himself, before returning to their usual routine. The young handler feeding her pieces of the meet by hand, only keeping the legs to himself, they pretty fast were done with their usualportion of twogrilledchicken.

"Phew... you were right... this really was good. About time even, to be exact!", Yasei finally declared with aquiet laugh... stopping licking his finger clean, as he noticed Asami staring at his hand intently.

Well aware this wasn't quite anice way... he lowered his hand, looking at it for a second, before in the end stretching out his hand to his partner, asking with a quiet laugh: "Well... I don't know... almost seems a bit kinky to me...?"

Looking at her master uncertain for a second, the female in the end just started licking her master's hand clean of any remaining gravy eagerly.

Turning his hand slightly, as to allow Asami to reach all of his hand, the young handler, in the end, concluded with a quiet laugh: "OKAY...I stand corrected. This might havebeeninnocent enough... but I am pretty damn sure it would be VERY kinky would I 'do this' too you..."

Looking at her master musingly for a second, as she was done with his hand, she slowlylicked her snout... still looking up to Yasei with an indefinable look, before flashing him an impish grin.

Stretching out to reach atop the table, she slowly lifted a paw, targeting the now empty, greasy plate they had used. Taping her paw in the residues. Lifting her paw, shaking it weakly to get lost of any excess grease, she lifted her paw to Yasei's face, with a wide grin.

"So... if I don't get any sex, well... if you think it'd be kinky, I at least want THIS...!", She finally declared with an impish grin, reaching her paw out insistently.

Looking at the paw of the canine indecisive, theyoung manfinally uttered a quiet sigh... agreeing with an inaudible laugh.

"Well... fair enough, I guess... not like I'd be one to complain about kinky stuff?"

Gripping the female's paw firmly in the end, he proceeded to lick her middle paw pad.

"HUH... that actually isn't too bad...", The young handler stated in slight surprise, as he continued liking the warm, soft pads of the canine's paw.

Feeling the soft, almost squishy paw under his tongue, he found himself more excited than he had expected. The taste of the chicken... the slightly sweet taste of his partner, it was almost intoxicating even.

Cleaning her digit paws too, Yasei in the end uttered a quiet moan, as he nudged his face against the warm paw of his partner, earning a quiet, happy grumble from the female. Draped in the familiar smoky scent of his female once more, feeling her warm pads against his face, he eagerly continued licking the tender paw of his partner.

Lapping around the sensitive paws of the canine, he nibbled on the soft flesh playfully, as he massaged her sensitive paw, gently kneading her toes in between her paw pads.

Sucking one of her toe's paw pads in his mouth, massaging it with his tongue, he gently kneaded her middle paw, as he gave the same treatment to all her digit paw pads.

Pressing his nose against the warm pad of her paw, he finally nudged up against his partner's paw once more, stating in an almost dreamy voice: "You know... this is awesome... I bet it is even better than me ruffling your fur."

"WHAT...? No... nothing is better than that...!", Asami responded in a teasing growl, still allowing her master to pressher paw up to his cheek.

"Well... I bet it is... but more importantly...", Her master retorted resolutely... before suddenly giving her a long, deep kiss.

The Yokai wasn't quite averse to this kind of attention... yetshe still was kinda taken by surprise... especially as her master broke the kiss just as sudden as he had 'jumped' her.

"Fair dos...!", He just proclaimed... Asamionly seconds later coughing audibly, as she tried to get rid of the hair in her mouth... her very own hairs!

"YUCK... not funny...!", The female finally complained huffily, trying to look at her stuck out tongue, partially covered in some of her reddog hair.

Wiping her tongue clean as best as he could, with a quickswipe of his hand, Yasei in the end asked innocently: "SO... want to get some cuddlesin, before my Jujitsu lesson starts?"

Looking at her master sulkily, she responded with a quiet huff, jumping back down to the floor, as she responded dryly: "Well... if we have too, I want to watch another of those dalmatian movies...!"

"WHAT... seriously!?", Yasei responded in surprise, just earning another sulky huff, thus hastily agreeing, "Okay... okay... we'll do whatever you want."

Asami, even if sulkily, cuddling up to her master, they ended up watching the same thing twice in a row!Pretty sure his partner only had insisted on this to spite him, it all to soon was time for the young handler to get on his feet again,to leave for his training.

One good and earnest training session later, Yasei left the building visibly exhausted... not quite because of the session alone, yet still... he overallwaspretty satisfied with himself. Asami watching him the whole time - in her Yokai form unnoticed by anyone - returned to her animal form, as her master took a detour through a small passageway, to allow for her to do just that.

"Well... don't you look excited?", The canine finally asked, her tail wagging happily... content with herself and anything, just as her master was right now.

"YEAH... being able to train roughly 24/7 was nice and all... but it kinda took the whole feeling of accomplishment too... not to mention... you know..."

"The loneliness?", Asami guessed sympathetically, gently nudging her snout against her master's hand.

"Well... yes...", Yasei admitted in a defeated sigh, giving his partner a loving smile, as he gently pet the canine, "... but now I finally got you back, don't I, puppy-dog?"

"YES... we can finally be happy again...!", The Yokai confirmed happily, half-joking... yet clearly all too happy to 'be back'.

"SO...aside frommy training... what do YOUwant to do... I mean, what do you want to go and see,in our sparetime?", The young man finally asked with a warm smile, explaining with a quiet laugh, as he earned but a confused look from his partner, "Well... you know... you may know GOD KNOWS what, through this magic... things human possibly couldn't even imagine. HOWEVER...seeing as it is pretty muchthe same for us humans... I bet it would stillbe way more exciting to SEE everything you know about, instead of... well, just knowing?"

"OH... yes... that does sound kinda fun...!", Asami confirmed after a quick thought, her tail wagging excitedly.

Talking about all the possible places they might want to visit... Yasei uttered an angry growl, as they arrived on his front door. The door was completely fine... to 'a commoner's eyes' that is.

"OH COME ON...!", He shouted out angrily hitting at his door with a sweeping motion... the 'door' disappearinglike it was a mere mirage at this physical contact.

The door had literally been dismantled expertly, the door itselfleaningagainst the wall inside his flat, all corresponding screws, bolts and what not neatly organized next to the bowl for his keys.

"Oh... that dude can't be serious...!", The young man finally ended with a defeated sigh, before painstakingly trying to reassemble the door once more.

At the end having to look up four or five different tutorials on the matter, he and Asami - which had tried her very best, to help him the best she could - finally managed to hook in the door again... not to mention the time it took them to reinstall the lock.

"FINALLY...", He in the end exclaimed annoyed, already scanning his flat for any changes, "WELL... let's see what Mr. Shi and his Miss Grumpy want this time!"

Searching the room quickly, he... found a tin of dog food on their kitchen's table, coupled with a letter... and a page of a newspaper. The letter for one - but a single piece of paper - merely said: 'You serious? ... and here I thought I could spare this fella if I let you deal with him... but it looks like you were too soft to do the job after all, huh?'

"WHAT THE... we did what he suggested...", Yasei uttered angrily, as he was finished with theletter, looking at his partner, as if he was hopingfor herconfirmation, "They said they would stop their pseudo-benefactor-ism, didn't they?"

"Well... yeah... I thought so too, but...", His partner responded, pretty much confused herself too.

Uttering an annoyed groan, the young handler picked up the newspaper page. Reading through both sides of the page, he looked at the last thing he read in utter disbelief.

"But... it couldn't be... they promised...!", The handler stated somewhere between anger and disbelief, "Another murder of an innocent couple... without anything connecting to a cause of death ,again?"

Uttering an annoyed growl, he balled up the piece of paper, throwing it in the rough direction of their paper bin.

Uttering another annoyed growl, the young man let himself sink back in his chair pondering about this new information they just had received. They had been pretty much as apathetic as they got... but Yasei had hoped they had indeed gotten through to them.

"Yas... you really think...", Asami stated worriedly, putting one paw on the human's leg.

"ARGH... I... I don't know!", Yasei uttered frustrated, placing his hand on his partner's head, petting her absentmindedly.

"I had expected them to stay true to their promise... after all, they weren't truly dedicated to their cause...", The young man pondered musingly, his glare fixated on the ceiling, "My guess... I had thought they just did... what they did, because it was the first idea... the first thingthat came to their mind, as forhow to use their powers... or rather for what...? G O D . . . whatever shall we do about themnoe, hmm?"

"I... do you... want to kill them?", The female asked worriedly, not wanting to kill the pair... even though... they kinda would deserve it... using their powers, just to hurt others...

Responding with another defeated sigh, Yasei responded after one quick thought: "Well... they got to know Akainu... so should we have to visit them again... because of this... I'll have to introduce them to Cerberus...!"

"WHAT... come on... Cerberus achieved his purpose... hasn't he...?", Asami asked in a mix of agitation and worry... not wanting her master to kill again if it wasn't absolutelynecessary.

"I... well... I'd at least need the Cerberus persona in the arena... I can't just go back to being Akainu after all... that would reflect badly onto me after all... but...", Uttering another frustrated growl, the young handler directed his gaze at the ceiling again... before looking back at his partner once more, as he suggested, "Well... we can investigate... if you want...? Search for the morgue they're at... check for their cause of death ourselves...?"

The canine's face lighting up once more at this prospect... her look turned more serious once more, as she asked skeptically: "But... Akainu will go there... no going all Cerberus... yes?"

Responding with a quiet laugh, her master explained soothingly: "OH... don't you worry about that! I'll only 'go Cerberus' for the audience in the arena, if at all! We'll go back to our old goals... now that I got you back again... no hurting people, as long as they don't deserve it...!"

Asami flashing her master a wide smile agreed eagerly, before curiously asking where they would start their search, looking at the wadded piece of paper Yoru had left them.

Searching their newspaper - he didn't read those often, yet sometimes they indeed were interesting - just as well as the web for quite a while, they in the end didn't quite find anexact destination... though they at least knew where their body's where most likely kept.

In the end uttering a quiet sigh, Yasei finally declared: "WELL... guess that's that? So... you wanna get going right away?"

"Well, sure... why not... even though I still don't like you insisting on sharing the pain... especially since..."

Just interrupting her without any more words, especially since she had more or less sniffed his mind for this thought, hereachedout his hand to his partner. Merging with Asamionce more he left his apartment once more... albeit not without checking the door again, as he kinda didn't quite trust this repair work of his.

Having prepared his face mask too, theyfinallyembarked on this newly assigned mission of theirs... even though he kinda did hate this realization. No... being ordered around by Yoru, under pain of him just killing thatguy, if they didn't take care of him, really didn't sit well with them!

Now way past 10 p.m., it was already dark outside... thusat least making their mission a bit easier.

Taking the bullet train to their first target, they just melted the locks to the morgue - in lack of a more elegant solution - breaking their merge once more, so Asami could search the building in her real form, for any security measures.

Like that knowing the layout and security system within mere minutes, Yasei flat-out burnt through the very wiring supplying it all with energy. The two like thatmade short work with all security measures, giving them all the time they neededto search the whole building, should they have too.

Finding the main office, with all records about all bodies within the morgue at the moment, the young handler soon uttered an angry growl.

"God damn it... not here...!", He explained frustrated, as he pulled out his phone.

Leaving the building as quickly as possible, he finally pulled down his mask again, hiding it beneath his shirt as best as possible, before finally calling the police.

One call of an 'agitated bystander' later Yasei left for their next target, once again merged with Asami, as he explained dryly: `Wouldn't want any creeps to go in there, with... less favorable intentions as us, yes?´

`OH... sure... THAT was why you told them about 'some weirdo having broken into the morgue'...!´, The canine stated in response, more or less merely confirming his words, as she had already guessed something alike. Her master wouldn't be himself after all, wouldn't he be as overcautious... well... as he was.

Forcedto take quite a detour to get there, they arrivedat their next target at roughly 11 p.m., albeitalreadyhaving takenthe shortest route, educing a frustratedgroan from Yasei, as he sized up the building.

"Great... we literally working the night-shift now, huh...?", The young handler like that stated dryly, as he undid their merge once more.

Disabling the lock of the backdoor, just like he had done with the other morgue, they tackled disabling the place's security once more. Like that making quick work with the security system once more, theyoung manfinally stated annoyed as they searched for the main office of this morgue too: "WELL... here we go again...!"

As they had finallyfound their target minutes later, he started searching these records too, Yasei finally statingdryly: "If this is the wrong place too, I'll scream!"

"What... you really think...?"

"YEAH... had hoped it wouldn't come to this... but if the two of them aren't... stored here either, the last place they can be is in the police's morgue...!", The young man confirmed Asami's worry... before finally uttering another angry groan, "Oh god damn it! They really aren't . . . wait a second!"

Looking at a plan, apparently some kind of shift schedule, Yasei uttered a defeated sigh: "SERIOUSLY...!"

On the very bottom, the plan was signed with the surname of one of the victims.

"Come on... seriously? Did that guy... -"

"- ... OR WOMAN...!"

"... seriously... hide the documents of his... -"

"- ... or her...!"

"... deceased family member...? Or take it home... or whatever?!", The young man uttered in disbelief, ignoring the interjections of his partner. HOWEVER... he secretly did hope this indeed was the case, as he rather really didn't want to break into what was more or less a police station.

"WELL... whatever... here we go...!", He in the end finally commanded.

Asami following her master obediently, only realizing the consequence of this plan,as they already were in front of the door leading to the morgue itself, the canine suddenly uttered in disgust: "WHAT... so we have to search all those dead people for our two targets...? EEW...!"

"WELL... we gotta do what we gotta do...?", Her master confirmed dryly, as he entered the room... not as disgusted as his partner, but definitely not at the least fond of this aspect of their searcheither.

Searching every last one of the drawers, they had searched through almost 2/3 of them, until they finally found what they came here for.

"Finally...", Asami declared in relief, feeling pretty much nauseated at this point... whereas Yasei at least had found the answer to one of their questions.

"HUH... so they hadn't even started looking... well... into them?", He assumed musingly, as the body clearly did miss the Y-like scar resulting from the autopsy.

"Still gross...", The canine, just mumbledquietly, as she looked down at the now pale white body of the female victim... before finally uttering a surprised gasp.

"What is it, Asami?", Her master asked alarmed, as he saw the look on Asami's face.

"They... smell...-", Interrupted annoyed by her master, as he thought she'd once again complain about them... smelling like dead people... yet Asami just uttered an angry growl as she continued, "NO! They smell like... well... NOTHING!"

"WHAT!? Your nose going numb or something?!"

"No... still as fine as ever... she... really just smells of nothing at all! Not of anybody coming in contact with her... not of herself... not ofANYTHINGat all! She smells... well, like she might just as well not exist at all!"

"SERIOUSLY!? ... but...", Her master responded confusedly, looking down at the woman's body.

Clearly hesitating, he reached out to the body... yet flinched back inches away from her skin. He did have leather gloves, so he wouldn't leave any traces... but still. Finally uttering an annoyed growl, he finally just - more or less - slapped his hand down on her body, not even looking at her.

Clearly feeling the body beneath his hand, he was now definitely sure it was not some kind of Illusion or such, but... fully opening his eyes once more, Yasei saw Asami... looking at him skeptically.

Looking at his partner irritatedly, the canine just asked dryly: "You are aware you're touching her tit?"

"HER WHAT!?", The young man responded in disbelief, before finally looking at the body of the woman... his hand unknowingly groping one of her petite breasts.

Unable to refrain from a - even if quiet - surprised shout, Yaseihastily removdehis hand from the lifeless body again.

"Pervert...", Asami just commented dryly, earning her but a sulky 'BUT IT WAS AN ACCIDENT' from her master.

Clearing his throat, Yasei scanned their surroundings with a quick glance, almost fearing he had alarmed someone with his surprised shout.Having made certainthey still were pretty much incognito, he finally asked hesitantly: "SO... she doesn't have any scent on her, at all?!"

"Yes... long story short: I'm pretty sure this was not Konoye... or rather Chimei's doing! We both saw, after all... their MO is... well... biting them dead! They are just poisoning them, not... this! This is some way more serious stuff.", The female explained dryly, pretty much in disbelieve, "Not to mentionthey didn't even have a catalyst yet, remember? So I'd say this isn't their doing...causeTHIS definitely is some wayserious magic!"

"So... we are searching for a handler... a handler who is able to... erasethevery presence of people?"

"Kinda...I guess?But as long as you don't want to return to check fortheautopsy'sresults, we won't learn anything more than this...", Asami concluded, after examining the body a bit more, earning a quiet sigh from her master.

"Yes...you can bet on that one... bad enough we had to even 'disturb' them in the first place...", Yasei confirmed beaten, "Not to mention: I don't think you have any interest into searching the guy's body too?Because I sure don't want to..."

"Yeah...thanks, but no thanks...", Asami verified her master's guess, alreadyslowly stepping away from the tray they had pulled out.

"Well...if you're in that much of a hurry...", The young handler declared... quickly closing the drawer again, before he too took his leave.

Until he suddenly felta shiver run down his spine... just like the timehe had met Yoru first.

Spinning around on his heels, he quickly searched the part of the building behind him, yet all he could detect was... a strange, disappearing shimmer.

"What the...", The young man mumbled to himself... that strange phenomenon... it almost seemed like a distortion of space itself... or rather a fading of said.

Going as far as to summon their catalyst - just to make sure - Yasei slowly stepped closer to where he had just seen this... phenomenon. It clearly had been some kind of magic... but definitely not a type he had seen yet. So... a new handler? Or maybe just the first time meeting a handler older than himself?

Reaching the window, in front of which he had seen... whatever it may have been, it took Yasei not too long to ascertain: whatever had been there seconds early, it definitely was gone now.

"Strange...", He mumbled to himself irritatedly.

Meanwhile Asamihadclosed up to her master...watchingcuriously, as forwhatever her master may besearching for.

"HEY... wait a second...", The young man finally uttered confusedly, slowly kneeling down... as if what he had just found might jump at him at any moment.

Resting on the ground, where he had justseen that strange distortion, was a single link of a chain... made out of deep black crystal. It kinda lookedjust like the chain which had bound Asami... although this one was in a deep, almost oily lookingshade of black.

"What... is this...?", He mumbled curiously... confusedly almost... as he slowly reached out to pick up the piece of crystal.

"NO...!", Asami suddenly shouted, as she realized what it was... but too late, as all too suddenly, the chain-link almost literally attacked her master!

The link growing new links... into a wholechainwithin seconds,itquite literally jumpedat Yasei's arm, like an attacking snake! About to ensnare the young man's arm, he flinched back... before hereleased all themagic he could muster, on a spontaneous idea... definitely notwilling to be bound by some stranger.

Covering his arm in all this energy, he punched through the chains in a slashing motion, indeed shattering it into pieces, like it was but glass!

Panting heavily it took almost a minute until all magic he had covered his arm in had dissipated, leaving him with a drained sensation,as if he had exercised for hours or something like that.

"What in all... this was just the same as..."

"YES... the exact same kind of chain as those which bind a Yokai until their master releases them. However... I didn't know one could use them willingly, especially not as a weapon!", Asami confirmed her master's suspicion.

Looking at the female, furrowing his brow suspiciously, Yasei finally asked after a quick thought: "You think one of the other Yokai... managed to weaponize the chain that bound it... maybe even binding his master and other handlers?"

"Well, what we just witnessed would pretty much suggest that much, huh?", The canine agreed to her master's thoughts, closing her eyes, as she searched the memories implanted in her by the reckoning spells magic, "I don't know... considering magic... we only get toknow the most fundamental things... everything else we need to find out ourselves... together with our master's..."

"Yeah... cause magic will take all kind's of different forms, depending on who wields it, yes?", Yasei responded with a quiet laugh, going on what he had learned so far.

Asami as such nodded confirmatory, turning around once more, before looking at her master over her shoulder, with an almost expectant look.

Uttering a quiet sigh, the young man agreed to his partner's silent suggestion: "YEAH... you're right... it's about time we leave...!"

Returning home at aboutmidnight, Yasei let himself sink down on his sofa, uttering a defeated sigh, as he stated sarcastically: "Well weren't those two hours well spent!?"

"Well... at least we know those two aren't at fault... I guess?", Asami responded shyly, trying to reassure her master.

"WOW... now THAT really helps a lot...!", The young man however retorted sarcastically, snapping at his partner, the canine laying back her ears, coyly putting her head on the couch, to her master's legs, "WE may know those two weren't at fault... but knowing Yoru he'll just kill them anyway... if onlyfor good measure! Not to mention we have to deal with some other handler, able to manipulate space itself, extinguish any kind of presence of anyone - except the physical one maybe - and not tomention use... bindingchains at will for... WHATEVER REASON!"

More or less getting chewed out by her master for no reason, Asami merely uttereda quiet whine, as she shylynudgedhis knee with her snout.

"Oh... sorry puppy-girl... I didn't want to shout at you like that...", Yasei hastily apologized, as he looked at Asami, sitting up as he gently cupped the female's snout between his hands, as he explained apologetically, "I'm sorry... I just... this gig is more frustrating thanI expected..."

Looking at her master musingly for a few seconds, the canine snickered quietly, as she asked teasingly: "OH... is master bad in the frustration tolerance department?"

"WHAT...? NO...! Or... yes... sometimes... I guess...!", The young man acknowledged with a quiet sigh, as he let himself sink back againstthe backrest of the couch, mumbling more to himself now, "It's just... THIS especially is... ESPECIALLYweird. I had expected many things, as I learned more and more about magic... but THIS SHIT? Manipulation of space itself!? ... this is just giving me the worst kind of a headache!"

"OH...? We are talking about MAGIC... aren't we? So why are you surprised about some space-and-time manipulation, all of a sudden?", Asami asked curiously, looking at her master in a bit of confusion.

"Well... all I am doing with our magic so far is more or less based on allkindsof scientific effects and suchcorresponding to heat or fire... but... whatever type of magic is able to manipulate the very fabric of reality?!"

"OH...? So you are sulky because you can't think about anything to do about... whatever magic that other handler might wield?"

Looking down at Asami's face once more, he finally uttered a quiet sigh, as he admitted sulkily: "YEAH... maybe... but let's just hope Yoru doesn't decide to just kill Konoye and his partner anyways..."

Nearly half asleep already anyways, Yasei finally just shrugged his shoulder, as he invited Asami up on the couch, while laying down on it comfortably himself.

"But for now... let's just catch someZ's... don't care if it's just here on the couch...", Yasei finally just proclaimed, as he slowly dozed off, pulling Asami close, as she cuddled up close to him with a quiet, content sigh.

Even though he tried not to panic to much about it, Yasei still hadquite a few strange dreams about being ensnared in chains... black crystal chains! They wereenough to bind him head to toe in a complete cocoon... engulfing him in utter darkness... inevitablyleaving him utterly unable to move in any way.

He couldn't use any kind of his magic either in this dreams... not summon his catalyst, or call Asami... what strangely enough was the very reason of him beingable to keep at least somewhat of his calm. Yasei knew Asami would always be by his side... it was nearly impossible tolose his catalyst... and his magic... well, he already knew he could easily break thosecrystal chains, even if they were from another Yokai, so... he at least didn't panic, at the very least.

Finally awaking after the strangest dreams, all about those strange, black chains and shadowy figures, disappearing into nothingness, the young man just uttered an annoyed groan: "OH GREAT... our special, little ordeal yesterday bugged me so much, it even haunted my dreams...!"

Asami shook her head as she sat up partially, asking skeptically as she still wasn't quite awake: "A nightmare... are you sure it wasn't a vision?"

"Hm... yeah... pretty much... it made to much 'no sense at all' for it to be a vision...", Yasei explained dryly, after a quick thought, before letting his head sink back on the sofa, "SO... what should we do then...? I don't really have any idea as to 'how to search for people' so..."

"Well... what about some food first...?", The female asked reluctantly, flashing her master a sheepish smile.

Uttering a quiet laugh, the young man pulled his partner closer to him, ruffling her fur playfully, as he scolded her jokingly: "OH... it's always about food with you... huh?"

"Well... we could make it about something else too...", Asami suggested with a wolfish grin, as she felt her master's morning wood poke her back.

Blushing deeply, as he still was pretty much resolute about... this topic, even though he kinda would love to comply with the female... the young handler hastily, if sleepily sat up, all to eager to change the topic.

"OH... sure... breakfast...", He like that hastily agreed, "So... would that can of food Yoru left you suffice... whereas... that one might just as well have beenNaomi's idea... after all, she was kinda envious about you getting human food, while she didn't..."

Just responding in a sulky huff, Yasei teasingly scolded the female, about her being 'one horny pub', as he freed himself from being trapped behind his oh so horny partner.

Hearing a quiet, sulky huff from his partner, the young man made haste to prepare his partner's meal, merely preparing some simple sandwiches for himself, as he kinda didn't feel like preparing lunch during a break duringtoday'straining.

Done with his preparations for breakfast within minutes, the young man was pretty much as suspicious as can be. Asami hadn'tcomefor her food as soon as it was ready... so he immediately suspectedsomething HAD TO BE fishyhere.

"Well... and here I hoped I wouldn't have to burn peoples to ashes in my own apartment...", The young handler mumbled to himself like that, as he walked back in their living room, finding... roughly what he had expected.

"Morning... hope we are not too early...?", Yoru greeted him jokingly, in the same overly confident tone he always used to strike.

Yasei remaining utterly silent, Naomi - sitting on his couch, next to her master... in her Yokai form at that - looked at their involuntary host, finally stating dryly: "OH... he's so gonna burn us...!"

"YUPP...", Yasei confirmed dryly, already summoning their catalyst, aiming a wide horizontal swing at their self invited guests.

A wave of flames followed the attack, dead-aimshooting at the two intruders. Ducking bellow the attack just in time, the flames struck the wall of his room... burning for a few seconds, yet leaving not even a hintofburn marks.

"Hey... hey... we come in peace...!", Yoru explained hastily, lifting his hands in a capitulating gesture, even stating furiously, as he pointed to Asami without lowering his hands, "Not to mention SHE ALLOWED US IN...!"

Lowering his blade the younger handler asked his partner outraged: "YOU DID WHAT...?"

Looking at his partner as he spoke, he technically could already answer his own question... the grilled chicken - from their favorite shop even - all too obvious had to be the reason for the female's quick approval of their guests.

The canine just lookedat her master for a second, before once more chowing down on her bribe, until Yasei declared with a defeated sigh: "You know... you are like... THE WORST guard dog of them all...!"

Stopping her meal for a moment, the canine looked at her master unblinking, before finally stating, seconds before once more returning to her feast: "They gave that to me... so it's ALL MINE...!"

Uttering a defeated sigh, Yasei let himself fall on the couch once more, slapping his partner's snout, beforestealing a leg of her chicken as she complained, until hefinally asked: "OKAY... so... speak up... what you want? . . . not to mention: how'd you get in here anyway!?"

Just pulling a key out of his pocket, still looking at their host warily, Yoru explained: "There might be a chance I exchanged your old lock for a new one... compatible with your own key and this - more or less - master key."

"Oh why am I not surprised at all...?", The younger handler responded dryly, waiting for further explanations of his guest, while defending his stolen leg from his partner. AsamiDID try herdarndestto reach out for it... though her master could effortlessly keep it out of her reach, just by stretching hisarm out and away from the greedy canine.

"Ehr... well...", Theirguest in black started explaining, looking at his hosts skeptically, before continuing on, "SO... guess you won't be surprised abouthearingme tell you, we had one of Naomi's familiars watch over you either?"

"Well... actually... I am! I saw these strange fireballs accompanying her the other day, but... -"

"Those are Hitodama... souls of human we killed, whichI made my familiars! ... and no! They don't retain anypersonality or such... each and every one of this fireballs might just as well be one and the same being... almost like copies of myself, forged on those souls we caught. As such those are pretty perfect to keep watch over priority targets,asI can learn whatever any of those learned or rather observed, as long as I keep at leastone of them atmy side.", Naomi just explained dryly, interrupting her host unblinking.

"Well... thanks for that piece of information... I guess?", The young man responded, kinda taken by surprise, before asking more collected again, "SO... once more: what are you here for?"

"Counter question: You'reprobablynot planningon killing that... Konoye guy, yes? SO... would you kindly enlighten me about the results of your investigation?"

Responding with an annoyed sigh, Yasei cooperated with his guest's request... though not without quickly finishing his stolen chicken leg and dropping it back to the rest of Asami's bribe, earning a low whine of his partner.

"Okay... very well... as your Hitodama-spies apparently aren't as perfect as you'd like them to be: Let me tell you the great tale of the mysterious occurrences, of the evening, of March the 3rd.", The young man like that stated elaborately, doing his very best to phrase his summary as long, detailed - and most importantly - excruciatingly boring as possible.

Managing to draw out the story to a full length of almost 20 minutes, the young man finally concluded: "AND THAT is everything that occurred yesterday between 10 p.m. and midnight. SO... would you kindly enlighten me now as to what the purpose of this visit of yours might be?"

To his surprise earning a beaten sigh of the older handler, Yoru explained, even in an almost apologetic tone: "OKAY... listen! I really want to cooperate with you two here! I don't want you to play obedient minions or such... it is just... I AM the more capable one of us when talking provision of information, so I'd really appreciate it ifyou two couldtolerate me being a bit bossy when talking business."

The older handlerdidn't really make sense, not to mention how he so far didn't say one thing making Yasei NOT want to chop his head off, for just breaking and entering as theydid. Like that just staring at Yoru unfazed, the older man continued his explanation.

"Well... so you said you saw a handler able to manipulate space itself... more or less manipulating the very reality? In that case - to dampen any fears you may harbor - manipulating reality to a certain degreeis technically speaking the epitome of any kind of magic. It's no different with our magic either! At this point we can manipulate the very fabric of reality, altering how anybody within reach of our abilities perceives the world surrounding themselves."

"OH... wow... and here I thought you would rather die, than telling me any secrets of your magic?", Yasei now finally responded, almost teasingly even, now a bit more eager to hear what more 'Mister Man in Black' had to tell him.

"Yeah... because I have a good reason too! You, without even as much as blinking, had started to think about ways to counter my magic... even defeat me, but now... you've seen an enemy seemingly able to actively manipulatetime and space and you're suddenly all 'OMG... what am I to do... woe is me'!", Yoru this time almost responded angrily, "You already should have the basics to trace this new enemy, so... let me promise you this: I won't even look at that Konoye kid and his partner... as long as you try to take care of this new threat, got it?"

"WHAT... wait-wait-wait-wait-wait... I thought you didn't want to minionize us?", The young handler responded outraged upon this proposition... yet did change his mind rather quickly, as he explained with a sulky huff, "FINE...! We do it... but only as long as you two keep the 'murdering to get your ways' to a minimum!"

Looking at his newly declared partner for quite a while, Yoru finally agreed with a heavy sigh, Naomi explaining annoyed: "Very well... it will make our work a bit more complicated... and boring,but we should be able to work around it, so... keep your part of the deal up and all will be just fine!", Looking over her host's shoulder, the young man only now noticed Asami's absents, as the feline stated almost gleefully, "... and in your best interest, I hope you didn't have any further plans for those sandwiches?"

"What...", Yasei asked confused, bending back in his seat, as to see into his kitchen... finding his partner greedily devouring the sandwiches he had prepared, "HEY... how dare you, that...-"

Interrupting himself, he looked to his left again... where Naomi and her master had sat seconds ago. Uttering a defeated sigh, he mumbled to himself in disbelief: "OH... why am I surprised...!?"

Shaking his head upon his own negligence... it took him quite a few seconds,before heonce more rememberdethe peril his sandwiches were in!

"And how dare you just go and eat my stuff!", He like that shouted angrily as his partner, earning a mere 'an eye for an eye', as she gobbled down the few pieces she hadn't devoured yet.

After a fight about who was in the wrong, Asami pretty much gave up the second Yasei explained her, how it was only fair for him to claim part of her bribe. Apologizing profoundly, yet all too clearly not in the slightest bit feeling guilty about stealing her master's food, the young man quickly prepared a new lunchbox for himself, before heading out for his daily training.

`Do we really have to keep this up?´, Asami finally asked sulkily, as her master still insisted on them remaining merged, during the day, to boost the canine's heeling, if even slightly.

`YES... we have to!´, The young handler confirmed strictly, at the same moment referring to his training plan and the cooperation with Yoru as well.

`Well... okay then... and as you are insisting on keeping up with THOSE TWO... well... at least I might be able to get more treats out of them like this...´, The female in the end explained excitedly, earning a quiet laugh from her master... just as well as anevident roll of his eyes.

Working on his Kata training and knife-throwing for a few hours, in his 'training facility' as he keptcallingit, it soonwas 2 p.m., whenYasei finally allowed for Asami to undo their merge, while he stepped over to the building's fuse box.

Turning off most lights, the young man returned to the middle of the room, to the spot he had prepared for meditating... even having goneas far as getting onethick, comfortable carpet for this kind of practice.

"Hm... I still can't believe you gone through all that trouble just for training...", Asami like that finally exclaimed, looking at her master curiously, as he sat down on the floor.

"Well... could as well have gotten a whole kitchen and stuff in here, so... THIS technically is tame...", Yasei confirmed dryly, sitting down cross-legged as he closed his eyes in meditation.

Looking at her master skeptically at first, the female in the end laydown in front of her master, putting her snout on his legs, as she too tried to focus her mind.

At first, merely concentrating on people and other living beings around him... it was when Asami put her snout on his legs that... he suddenly found himself in the abyss, how he had started to call it. The world of infinite darkness they entered when merged... their place of shared memories and consciousness... yet they definitely weren't merged.

Sure... he had tried to find ways to recreate the sensations of their pseudo-merge... but suddenly managing to enter this state... just like that, did pretty much catch him by surprise.

Opening his eyes - in the abyss, so to say - he found Asami sitting opposite to him, much like in the real world... her eyes burning like suns, just like his when they had merged for the first time! Looking at his partner pretty much in a mix of curiosity and disbelief, the female too looked up to her master, going all wide-eyed just as suddenly as her master.

"My eyes ablaze like yours too?", Yasei guessed upon the female's look, earning a slow nod in response, "SO... I guess this isn't too bad? Couldn't have been a better way of showing you the 'sensation' I wanted to reach."

Twitching her paw, as to ascertain her dominance over her body, the cenine returnedher attention back to her master... focusing back onto the abyss.

"You were right... it's indeed like... well... being merged, but at the same time still in full control... but... it really is weird. This really might turn out to be some tricky state to master...!", Asami confirmed what her master already had told her quite a while back.

Agreeing with a quiet laugh, Yasei focused his mind back to his meditating... trying to empty his mind, as he tried to focus back on his old objective.

Focusing the remainder of his training back on feeling for anything in his vicinity - trying to stretch this area of perception as much as he could as well - healso tryiedto focus on this new kind of merge with Asami.

Continuing this training for slightly more than anhour, Yasei did find himself a bit more confident in his 'tracking' abilities... but couldn't really say he had made progress with the pseudo-merge. Asami stated she'd understand the new kind of merge perfectly... but no matter howshe explained things... the young man found himself utterly unable to understand any more about this state, than before.

"... AW... come on, seriously? It's actually pretty simple... really!", The female desperately tried to explain herself once more... but Yasei in the end just uttered a defeated sigh.

"YEAH... sorry sweety... but it is as it is... it may be super easy for you... but so far I don't have the slightest clue how I should maintain this state, when not in a meditative state...", Yasei in the end admitted beaten, as he got up, dusting off his knees in the process.

Stowing away his equipment, he turned off the last light too, before finally leaving the building again. Trotting on silently for a while, Yasei finally asked, with an almost evil grin: "So... wanna go to Usui's place?"

Hearing that offer, Asami stopped dead in tracks, looking at her partner wide-eyed in excitement. The Usui family were the owners of one of the very best Japanese restaurants in the whole town... even when accounting for quite a few cities nearby.

"OH... yes please...!", The female pleaded eagerly, her tail wagging excitedly, "We go in like last time, yes?"

Uttering a quiet laugh, Yasei nodded in agreement, Asami instantly turning into her Yokai form, after a quick check, if anybody nearby might be able to see her - in any passerby's eyes - so nobody saw her vanishinginto thin air.

"Kinda feel a bit bad... but whatever...", The young handler stated with a quiet laugh, his partner's evident excitement, even in her almost twice as big Yokai form, way too adorable as for him to have a bad conscience.

Struck on this idea because of the simple fact of the place being mere blocks away, it also took them but a few minutes to reach the place.

"AH... young master Shinkai... it has been a while.", Yasei was greeted by an attendant, already familiar with his name, as he had placed table booking quite a few times in the past, even before meeting Asami.

Greeting the man politely, the young man once again - he had started doing so after binding with Asami - asked for a table 'in the back'... as remote as possible, pretending to just want to prevent people from seeing him eat all alone. He however really was somewhat shy about this, so... it was more of a factoid, than an outright lie.

As usually eating from the buffet, the young handler got himself as big of a serving as he possibly could, slipping some of the food to Asami, for every bite he had of his own.

Hidden underneath the table, invisible for everybody else - except for other handler off course - the female eagerly gobbled down every little piece of food her master offered her.

Finishing their first plate like that, it was when Yasei returned with a second helping... thatAsami suddenly didn't seem to have any further interest in any more food, as she suddenly just ignored the young man's 'offerings' adamantly.

"What is it...?", The handler like that asked his partner worriedly,even looking at the food sceptically, "Their anything wrong...?"

Almost dreading the Yokai might have found some signs of another handler... he almost literally froze in place as he could feel his partner lick his exposed member.

`How the hell did you...´, Yasei angrily asked the female in her mind, just earning something along the line of 'a magician never reveals his secrets'... so he just had been really careless, yes?

`Better keep a low profile... wouldn't want to be caught with your junk all out in the open...!´, Asami in the end just retorted teasingly, as she eagerly lapped around the slowly hardening member of her master.

"OH... you better not have planned this from the beginning!", The young man mumbled under his breath, with an angry growl, as he returned his attention back to his food.

Taking his dick in her mouth, as she teased it with her tongue, Yasei more but once almost bit his tongue, while chewing. Still pretty much angered with his partner, he also had to admit... all this WAS kinda accelerating.

He wasn't into... exhibitionism - or however he was supposed to call it - but this 'sense of danger'... paired with the heavenly feeling of Asami's hot snout and silkily warm tongue on his member all too soonhad him on the edge in more but one way.

Weakly moaning under his breath, seeing his partner's head bump up and down on his member, out of the corner of his eyes, he finally could let himself sink back in his seat, as he was done with this plate too.

Like that keeping his guard up as best as he could, Yasei finally uttered a quiet moan...partiallybecause of him just finishing awhole plate, meant for himself AND Asami... just as much as because of his partners attention.

Pretending as if he was taking a break from his feast, he reached beneath the table, sinking his hand into the thick mane of the female, moving his hand along with every move of the horny female. Moaning eagerly, yet as quietas humanly possible, while being sucked off by his mate.

His eyes half closed, as the female worked his shaft tenaciously, shudders of lust shot through the young man's body, as the wet tongue of the canine massaged his throbbing shaft, until itfinally tookhim but a few more seconds... until Asami suddenly let go of his member.

At first gasping out in protest, it was a few seconds later, that he realized: `Oh, no... Asami... don't... you... DARE...!´

Gasping out mere seconds later, Yasei grit his teeth, as the greedy canine buried the still hard member of her masterin her wet folds, as she had turned around on her heals, additionally hidden beneath the table.

The young man grit his teeth, as hewouldhavenever acknowledge how much he too had desired this... even though... not like this... in a public restaurant... in constant danger of being discovered!Obviously they wouldn't see him doing a giant dog... but... hecouldn't know... would they just see him with his dick out... or...

`Shouldn't you... focus on something else...´, Asami however asked in an all to eager tone, finally distracting him from his worries.

Stopping himself from an annoyed sigh, he instead uttered a quiet growl: "Well... as you so desperately insist... better give your very best then...!"

Slapping the rear of his partner with one, while grabbing his drink with the other hand, he like that tried to focus on 'keeping a low profile' once more, as to not be found out.

Responding in a low, eager growl, Asami pushed up close to her master, burying his member deep in her hungry snatch. Still not quiet sure how his partner had managed to do away with the zipper of his pants, Yasei almost was a bit disappointed... ashis pants pretty much did hinder the contact of him and the canine.

Clearly feeling her master being distracted once more, the female slammed down hard on his member once more, this time indeed earning a quiet moan of Yasei.

Looking over the part of the room he could see, quickly making sure there was no-one able to see them, not to mention of security cams, he finally uttered a low growl.

"Very well... have at it then...!", Yasei like that finally yielded to his partners desire, gripping the female's leg... pushingher body closeagainst his own, with every eager move of the canine.

Gasping out loud at the treatment of her master, her hot folds twitched eagerly around the humans member, Yasei grunting lewdly with everyotherwet slap of his partner's body against his own. Barely able to keep at least some attention on looking out for any danger of discovery... the young man now indeed was getting more into this.

Finding himself enjoying the thrill of this more than he had ever expected... thissense of danger... and the lust of the canine... her desire... for him!

"HA... I love you too my pretty...", Yasei like that declared, confirming his avowal once more, earning a content moan of his partner, proceeding to ride him with even more devotion.

Moaning quietly, as the female rotatedher hips sensuallywith every motion, her folds huggingaround his member in all the very best ways, as sherode him passionately, her tongue lolled out in utter relish, as her master had to try to not turn a hair.

Yasei as such could do little more but pant weakly in lust, ashiscanine partnerwentdown on his member, burying it deep in her hungrily twitching depths. Feeling the hot pussy of the female massaging his dick greedily, kneading it hungrily for his seed, it took the young man but a few more seconds, until he finally uttered deep growl, cumming deep in the wet depths of the female.

Panting heavily, as he kept the female close too him, he shot his seed deep into her hungry depths, absentmindedly ruffling the fur on the root of Asami's tail, asthe female put her tailon top of his arm, panting happily.

Slacking of on his look-out for people nearby, he hadn't noticed the child and her mother, sitting on a table close by... until the little girl suddenly asked her mother curiously, pointing right at him: "Mommy... what is that man doing...?"

Looking at the little one in shock - they probably just arrived a few seconds ago... they couldn't have arrived any earlier - the very first thought coming to his mind, at the same time was the most unrealistic: `What the heck... she can't see you can she?! She's not even... 5 years old... she can't be a handler... SHE SIMPLY CAN'T see you... orcan she...?´

Her master evidently panicked, Asami didn't even dare to answer that... not to mention how she still was shivering in lust, her tongue hanging out of her mouth. Not daring to keep secrets from her master, she in the end however did explain, even if still quite out of breath: `Well... I... don't want to scare you... but kids, really young ones... those who still have enough of an imagination to believe in spirits and such...´

"NO... no-no-no-no...! Don't tell me they can see...", Yasei mumbled more to himself, almost having a mini heart attack, as she confirmed just that worry.

`I... am afraid they can... anybody still deeply believing in ghosts and such can see us Yokai too, even without any amplifying effects on the reckonings magic.´, Asami affirmed... what her master really didn't wanted confirmed right now.

"Oh... hush sweety... it's not very polite to point at strangers...!", The mother scolded her daughter quietly... not without throwing the young man a suspicious look though.

Relieved about scraping past this disaster - even if just barely - Yasei grabbed his drink, really needing some extra hydration right now... before suddenly swallowing up on his drink, as the child asked his mother again: "But mommy... what is he doing with the doggy...?"

Earning a skeptical look from her mother, clearly thinking her imagination ran out, said finally uttereda quiet sigh as she looked at Yasei and couldn't see anything resembling a dog near him... even though Asami DID look at her quite panicked.

"Sweety... how many times did I tell you to stop with this talltales of yours...!", She in the end scolded her daughter, the little girl repeatedly insisting on her story... yet gladly in the end givingup on 'her story'.

`God damn Asami... now I have to pray never to meet this kid again... like EVER!´, Yasei finally scolded his partner angrily, as he wasfinally able to zip up his pants again.

Sorry... I thought it would be nice... as nobody can see me anyways...´, Asami apologized concerned... yet did add a few seconds later, with a lewd tone,... but be honest... it was pretty exciting, wasn't it?´

Still feeling a faint rush of adrenaline surging through his body, Yasei finally uttered a quiet sigh, looking down at Asami, which had turned to face her master once more: `Yeah... it WAS interesting... but still... look at what you did...´

Vaguely able to 'feel' the Yokai's body after the training earlier - even if only as long as he didn't focus on anything else - the handler could clearly feel a distinct sting of pain down his spine... and a clearthump of pain in his head.

Yeah... about that...´, The canine responded sheepishly, before proclaiming, her tongue stuck out teasingly,It was still worth it...!´

Finishing their meal after that interception, they finallypaid up for their meal, before leaving as fast as possible... Yasei at least did, while Asami immaturely stuck out her tongue to the little girl which had seen her.

"Mommy... thedoggy...-", The kid justifiably complained, pointing straight at Asami, yet was interrupted by her mother before she could even finish her sentence.

"For gods sake... TOSHIE... would you stop telling stories...?", Her mother interrupted her, evidently angered at her daughter, "Yesterday you said you saw some woman with an invisible fox... the other day you said some ghosts stole your snacks... it's enough already, keep telling tales like this and I won't take you with me anymore! See if your dad will take you out like that... that stupid drunkard!"

More or less fleeing the premises... even though they still picked up enough to understand thatthe mother apparently gotdivorced pretty recently... joint custody with her ex... and all the trouble coming with it! Surely wouldn't watch THAT... bad enough the kid had to go through this...!

"Poor girl...", Yasei finally stated with a heavy sigh, as they finally had left that woman and her kid behind.

"Yasei...!", Asami seconds later called out toher master urgently, earning buta confused look of her master.

"What is it...?", The young man asked, pretty much taken by surprise, by the sudden shout-out.

"Didn't you hear...?", Earning another confused look, the canine vaguely rolled her eyes, before explaining, "You really didn't get what they said? I didn't believe the ghost part either... but... A WOMAN WITH A FOX?!"

"OH... god damn it... I really failed to hear that!", The handler responded in surprise, sinking in a more thoughtful mood, as he guided his partner into a side valley nearby.

Leaning against the wall, he thoughtfully mumbled, more to himself: "Hm... it would be perfect could we ask that girl what she was talking about... was a big stroke of luck we met that girl, too! After all I would never had guessed to ask you if kids, or anybody at all, could see you guys besides... well, us handler."

"YEAH... you are pretty nifty from time to time... but sometimes you can bepretty dumbtoo...", Asami confirmed calmly, nodding her approval... even if she clearly was trying to tease her master too, "So... what you want to do...?"

"Me?No... you! She can see you... but her mommy can't...!", Her master explained with a knowing smile, his partner looking at him in disbelief, "YOU are gonna follow her, talk to her... and ask about that woman she saw... and better tell her a little about the reckoning to, so she doesn't have to listen to any more of those 'don't tell stories' rants."

"WHAT... seriously? Tell a little kid... about THAT?!", Asami asked in utter disbelief, earning but a resolute nod of her master, "Well... fine then... but don't complain if this whole thing comes back and bites us!"

"OH... I have complete thrust in you, puppy girl...", Yasei stated with a confident smile, lifting the canine's head, to give her a short kiss as he confirmed, "You'll do just fine...!"

Looking at her master wide-eyed at first, a resolute look appeared on her face seconds later, the female nodding determined.

"That's my girl...!", The young handler confirmed with a wide smile, ruffling her luscious mane, before he sent her off with a quick nod.

Quietly ranting on too her own, not at all happy about how she had to leave her masters side... Asami still complied, even if reluctantly.

Waiting in front of the restaurant they just left moments ago - still hidden in her Yokai form - the canine waited for this human and her child to leave the building... just like her master had ordered.

Not having to wait for too long, the Yokai quietly ordered, as the kid already was about to point at her wide eyed: "PSST... don't tell... wouldn't want mommy to yell at you again now, wouldn't we?"

Looking at the female wide-eyed, the little one slowly shook her head, looking at her mother warily, before finally asking the Komainu shyly: "SO... you are real...?"

The young girl barely whispering to the giant dog, as to not alarm her mother, which indeed did seem to think she talked to an imaginary friend or such, Asami responded whispering herself: "Yes... I am... but you are not allowed to tell your mommy...!"

"But... you...", The little girl responded, looking at her wide-eyed.

"Don't worry... I and my friends would never hurt anybody... and should we find anyone... like us... who would dare to hurt innocent human, my master will make short work of them!", Asami explained confidently, showing the kid a wide smile.

"Your master... that big man...? You are going to protect me?"

Uttering a quiet laugh, the female explained: "Well... not quiet... we want to try to protect everybody! Should anybody ever be threatened by... other creatures like me, we will do our very best to savethem! So... should you ever see any of us again... please... don't tell."

Averting her eyes for a while, she looked back at the big canine, curiously asking: "But I can tell you...! Can't I...?"

Looking at the little kid surprised, she too averted her eyes musingly for a few seconds, before explaining with a solemn look: "OKAY... you can tell us anything, whenever we mightmeet again... but you can only talk to me... or else... your mommy may yell at my master... andwe can't ever have this happen, okay?"

Facing the Komainu wide eyed, Toshiefinally nodded intently. Flashing the kid an almost proud smile, Asami nodded once more, following the two of them a bit longer, finally able to ask her what she was sent for.

"TWO GIRLS? One accompanied by 'a fox with a lot of tails'... the other with a black and white greyhound?", Yasei reviewed the information Asami had gotten, "Not to mention... she said they looked just alike?"

His partner nodding in agreement, the young handler uttered a defeated sigh: "Oh well isn't that just great!? So there are two of them... sisters maybe?... and each of them has her own Yokai partner..."

"Well... it does look like it... but why are you worrying?", The canine responded baffled, not quite sure what her master was getting at.

Responding with a quiet laugh, he gently pet Asami's snout, praising her with a warm smile: "You did good, Asami... but now... we have to find those two girls... those two women, I guess... and hope they're not both part of thesenewpointless killings."

"WHAT? You think both of them might be... evil?"

"Well... I don't know... I kind of have the feeling they aren't acting on their own accord...", Yasei stated musingly ending in a quiet growl, "Remember this chain... I think... it definitely is part of another Yokai, but... even though it was only really brief... after it even haunting my dreams on that night, I pondered about it for quite a while... and I am pretty sure those two energies didn't match at all. Whoever vanished back than... it wasn't himwho... well... cast this chain. Or we probably should say it wasn't HER?"

"Hey... I thought you didn't want to be rash with stuff like that?", The canine scolded her master scandalized, "For all we know, those are just some more handler like Yuma and Katherine..."

"Well... let's better hope so...", The young handler confirmed with a quiet sigh, "So... do you think you could track down those two, going by those descriptions the little girl gave you?"

"Kinda... she told me where she lives... address, location and all... but the rest... was more or less clues and references... go here or there, starting by her favorite playground... go that way by her favorite ice-cream stand and so on...", Asami explained musingly... but ended with a determined nod, "... but, yes... I think I just might be able to at least find the places she described."

"You could? Good girl...!", The young man praised the canine with a proud smile, ruffling her head's fur playfully... yet he did add with a heavy sigh, "WELL... let's just hope they aren't part of that killing... or at the very least not killing for no reason?"

Yasei kinda did doubt it... but hope was the last thing to die, yes?

"HUH... so this is the playground she mentioned?"

"Yes... YES, I am sure this is it!", Asami responded resolutely... before adding somewhat gloomily, "Sorry... I couldn't find it on my first try, though..."

Petting the canine lovingly, Yasei assured her soothingly: "NAH... it's quiet alright... not to mention: it at least proved how you at least was right this time... seems like youAREpretty much alright again."

"Still a bit stiff, to be honest... but you definitely don't have to worry about me anymore...!", The canine responded sheepishly, yet did end in a rather confidenttone.

Giving the female a pat on her ear, before finally stating with a heavy sigh: "It was enough of a stroke of luck we met that girl when we did... so I guess it is no wonder...-"

"- OH... lookie here... he already found us...!", A teasing voice interrupted the young man, followed by a mocking laughter.

Looking for whatever had interrupted him like that, it was a few seconds later he found A KITSUNE sitting on the roof of the jungle gym, a wide, snarky grin on his face. Considering the almost make-up like markings on the fur on his face, it made him almost look insane, earning him a quite irritated look, from the young man.

"HEY... what's that look for...!", The vulpine snapped at the handler angrily, matching the angry looks they used to depict in anime to a T.

"Oh my... as noisy as always...", Another voice suddenly popped up out of nowhere, just like with the Kitsune earlier.

Jumping away from the voice in shock, Yasei looked next to him - the opposite side on which Asami sat - finding - what seemed to be- the black and white greyhound Toshie had described, sitting right next to him.

"WHAT THE HELL... don't scare me like that!", The young man snapped at the canine without thinking, yet the male just looked at him, blinking slowly once.

"Oh... excuse me... but I don't think this really matters, after all we supposedly are enemies, yes?", The canine - probably an Inugami, or something alike - responded in an almost way too calm and polite manner, almost sounding like some kind of old-school butler, "However... our master's didn't give us any instructions concerning yourselves so..."

Looking at the canine in utter disbelief for quite a while, Yasei finally thrust his hand towards the Yokai, igniting him in a burst of flames!

"HEY... what's wrong with you!?", The Kitsune shouted at him aggravated... while the canine just looked at him in disbelieve, as the flames died out... andto make matters worth, it almost looked like they were absorbed by the canine.

"... and what was that for, if you don't mind me asking...?", The male asked dryly, looking at the young man doubtfully.

Feeling the need to apologize, more or less out of nowhere, Yasei explained flabbergasted: "I... when I... I guess when I met you the first time... this chain... ARGH... never mind... we are supposed to be enemies anyways, so..."

"Well... guess you are right about that...", The greyhound responded, still looking at the young man skeptically.

"HEY... HEY... Mamuro... why don't we just kill them right here and now?", The Kitsune suddenly asked eagerly, almost bouncing up and down, like an excited kid.

Just uttering a defeated sigh, the canine looked at his companion, before responding annoyed: "NO... Takumi... as I already said, we don't have any instructions as to how we are supposed to deal with them from our masters."

"BOO... you're such a party pooper!", The vulpine retorted flippantly, earning an exaggerated roll of his partner's eyes.

"You saw... just now, didn't you? Their element is fire... quite an unfavorable match for you...-"

"- ... SO WHAT... you'll just extinguish it... like you did just now, so... COME ON... stop being such a kill-joy!"

"They BOTH are able to use their magic... so to compensate for that, you'd have to fight that handler... and I rather wouldn't fight a lovely lady like that...!", The canine - Mamuro - responded with a suggestive look at Asami.

The female blushing deeply, at least Yasei guessed so by the look on her face, responded outraged: "WHAT... what are you saying...! I... the only one I'm interested in is my master...!"

"OH... is that so...", Mamuro responded in the same polite tone he had used so far, but clearly did bite back quite some frustration.

"HA-HA... brushed you off good...!", Takumi responded amused, clearly mocking the canine.

"Whatever...", The canine just responded with an annoyed growl... Yasei slowly getting more and more confused by the sheer presence of that Yokai.

"So... if you don't want to be burned to a crisp, what are you two here for then?", The young man finally asked the two dryly.

"OH... I just wanted...-", The Kitsune started, yet was interrupted by the greyhound unblinkingly.

"- ... he probably just wanted to kill time...!", Mamuro just explained annoyed, "I for once... WELL... my master one day started acting strangely... and as she suddenly started stalking you other handlers out of nowhere..."

Stopping mid-sentence, Yasei looked at the Yokai expectantly... yet only earned a dismissive shrug of it's shoulders, as he continued: "WELL... we've already gone against our masters wishes long enough, so... should you really be worth your salt, this little information I presented you with, should suffice plentifully!"

"BUT... I wanted to...-", The Kitsune lamented sulkily... yet was interrupted immediately by his canine companion.

"NO... you won't...", The canine just stated dryly.

"Not even a little nibble...?", Takumi asked hopefully.

"We don't have any orders, so... HUSH!", Mamuro ordered resolutely, a portal... almost looking like a black hole, appearing behind the Kitsune.

"Argh... FINE...!", The vulpine agreed, slowly turning around and trotting through the portal in a huffy demeanor.

"Very well... see you later... should you two really be any good... that is.", The canine explained dryly, as he vanished into thin air, blurring out like color dissolving in paint thinner.

Both, Asami and Yasei, looked at the spot where the hound just vanished pretty much baffled, before finally exchanging a confused look.

"What... was... that...?", The young man finally asked confusedly, utterly baffled by what just had occurred.

"Well... I don't know... the fox seemed kinda crazy... but the doggo was kinda... nice?", His partner responded musingly... before suddenly snapping at her master irritated, "BUT WHY DID YOU SUDDENLY TRY TO SET HIM ON FIRE?!"

Uttering a quiet sigh, Yasei let himself sink down on the ground, as he started explaining: "You surely remember that black chain piece the other day?"

Asami nodded in agreement.

"You surely remember how they were pretty much easily broken with a strong enough burst of magic?"

Asami nodded in agreement once more.

"So... you'd guess those would have to be 'somewhat relevant'? Like the handler or Yokai are somehowchained down by them?"

Asami nodded in agreement again... until her eyes widened in recognition.

"OH... of course... but shouldn't there be a better way to check that?", The canine like that asked skeptical, looking at the places where the two Yokai had vanished.

"Maybe... but surely no easier one. However... even though we got quite a bit of information... their still are quite a few possibilities now..."

"Yeah...? We know that doggo isn't chained... so... you think the foxie too...?"

"Well... He might be... but... either that dogs master is chained orthe Kitsune and his handler are... or only the handler are chained... or maybe that Mamuro's partner somehow resisted, as he seemed to be rather sane... BUT we still are pretty much clueless as to what those chain was supposed to achieveanyways?", Yasei mumbled more to himself musingly, "Maybe thereeven issome other Yokai, chaining down other Yokai's handler toforcethem into doing his bidding?"

Uttering a quiet sigh, Yasei finally looked over the place once more, in a final check of his vicinity, beforeuttering another quiet sigh: "WELL... guess we won't find anything more here... SO... let's get lunch and then it's time for training again, not paying for those Iaido lessons for fun after all."

"More chicken...!", Asami immediately demanded, her tail wagging excitedly.

"Seriously... again? But I guess you did well enough...", Her master responded impassively, in a barely hidden mocking tone.

"WHAT? But you said I did good...!", The female responded in a sad, slightly sulky tone, once again flashing him her best puppy eyes.

Responding with a definite laugh, the handler explained: "Just kidding... just kidding... well... I just hope you don't get fat like that... when demandinggrilled chicken foreach and every meal...!"

"HEY... I won't get fat... I am no lazy bones after all...!", Asami lamented, hastily getting up on her feet again, as her master turned on his heals once more, as he departed for the barbecue stand.

Having left for quite a different part of the city, to find the places the little girl had described, they not only spent quiet a few more hours to get there... but they now weren't to far away from their favorite barbecue place too.

Arriving their a few minutes later... they arrived to pretty much of a surprise... the very worst kind of surprise, to be precise. Closing in on the shop they suddenly found everybody seeminglyunable to move... like they had been frozen in time!

Clearly feeling their magic burning in his veins, as if it instinctively was countering this kind ofmagic, Asami immediately decided to better merge with her master. Yasei was surprised about the decision, yet didn't resist.

"What in all...", The young handler mumbled confusedly... until he could suddenly make out a change... in the air, in quiet a bit of a distance?

Merged with Asami now, he could see... well, he didn't know what, but in quiet a bit of a perimeter of the old mans barbecue place the air appeared... darker? Almost like looking at it through sunglasses.

Able to perceive some... cracks in buildings... and even the air, or probably rather space itself as well, Yasei now got a glimpse at what Asami had referred to quiet a while back. Looking through them, almost like looking through a crack in a wall, he could see glimpses of... another world?

"So... this is what you...", The young handler began to address what he saw... yet in the end just shook his head, "... but never mind, we pretty obviously have more important things to do...!"

Searching his surroundings alertly, looking for whoever cast this... zone of frozen time, sadly the young man's fears were proven correctly.

Reaching the old mans shop... they found a young woman in the small house, maybe but a year older than Yasei himself, sitting on the counter, with her legs crossed, as she received the young handler with a wide smile.

Looking the black haired woman over - way too eagerly in Asami's opinion - as the woman WAS especially beautiful, the young handler all too soon saw the greyhound from earlier - Mamuro - sit right next to her.

"Well... good afternoon, my fellow handler... took you long enough to arrive here!", The young woman greeted them mockingly, even though... she almost had just the same overly calm attitude as her partner.

"So you are that old meanie... the one who tried to set my poor, little Mamuro on fire...?", The female handler asked sarcastically, Yasei keeping his eyes on her cautiously, as she pet her partner lovingly, "Hearing you'd want to come here, I thought to myself... looks like this guy is rather fond of this place... just the right thing to punish him... for trying to hurt my doggie-friend..."

Turning her attention to the shopkeeper, standing behind the counter as usual, frozen in time, just like every other ordinary human too, the women continued: "Wouldn't it be too bad, would something... or someone have every ounce of oxygen vanish out of the owners system? Would make it really hard for him to work his shop... wouldn't it...?"

"Don't you dare...!", Yasei shouted at the woman, jumping at her furiously... and straight into a wall of... nothing?

The female handler, having but lifted one of her hands, her palm facing the young man, responded witha quiet laugh: "Nice try, big boy... but... our ability allows us to devour evenspace itself, turning the remaining emptinessresulting of it in a near impenetrable wall...", Ending her explanation with a quiet huff, she just turned around once more, merely nudging the old shop keeper with one finger, merelyshruggingher shoulders, as she returned her attention to Yasei, "Well... this didn't quiet feel satisfying enough yet..."

In a quick cartwheel-like motion, jumping to the other side of the counter, she touched the owners wife too, while keeping her other hand raised towards Yasei.

"Well... to bad... looks like this is it with your barbecued chicken...?", The young woman stated apathetically, looking back at the other handler now, as the bodies of the owner pair slowly turned pale... her eyes going wide as she looked atYasei again.

"Whoops... looks like I did it now...", She stated sarcastically... the male handler glaringat her clearly infuriated.

"You know... even though it's just vaguely... I can clearly see those chains on you...", Yasei stated dryly, his eyes turning into bright suns, as he focused the full power of their merge, "Even though... I would even burn you if it wasn't for them!"

"What... chains...?", The female handler just asked in confusion...before suddenly going up in flames, mere split-seconds later!

Shouting out in pain, it took her a mere second, to cast the same spell her partner had used to extinguish the flames targeting her, too.

Shooting them an angry glare, not hurt at all - merely some of the tips of her hair slightly burned - Mamuro too jumped tohis feet, growling at Yasei angrily.

Flashing them a wide grin, as he could - more or less clearly - see the chains burn away slowly, apparently indiscernible for the handler herself, he summoned his catalyst, throwing them a provocative grin.

"OH... you wanna dance now?", Yasei like that asked, pushing his blade out of it'sscabbard... until the young woman suddenly looked at him wide-eyed, as the chains were almost completely gone.

Still throwing the young man another angry glare, she in the end did vanish into nothingness, like her partner had done earlier, Mamuro throwing them an undefinable glare, before he too vanished into nothingness.

Remaining on edge, it was only as finally that 'field of frozen time' vanished, that Yasei let his catalyst vanish too, sinking down on the ground pretty much devastated, as the people started to move again, as if nothing had ever happened.

"God damn it Asami... am I reallygood for nothing...?", The young man finally mumbled to himself defeated, as the owners collapsed to the ground lifeless, Asami undoing their merge, as nobody had saw them yet.

"Yasei...", She mumbled worriedly, sitting snuggled up close to her master.

"I should have just exploded a fireball in her face...! Could have easily prevented her from killing them like that... but no! All that training... but no... still useless...!"

"Yasei... don't...", The female tried to comfort her master... but in the same moment a new customer entered the small shop, shouting out in shock, as he saw the dead bodies of the shopkeepers.

"Better go...", Yasei like that mumbled more to himself, as said customer was just about to discover them.

Evoking a giant blast of flames, engulfing the whole shop, they fled out of the building and the whole vicinity of the shop. The flames didn't burn anything, but did cause a perfect cover for Yasei and Asami's escape.

"Yasei... please... wait... haven't we walked far enough already...?", Asami in the end called out to her master, panting heavily as she, after all, had found the last limitationsofher recovery.

Running straight past the street leading to their apartment, Yasei had run straight for the big park, a few blocks away.

"Yasei... please...", The female asked panting heavily, as she finally had caught up to her master.

Only having stopped, as he had reached the small forest in the park, her master too panted heavily. The young man finally completely out of breath, but at least a bit down from his guilt trip, he let himself sink down to the ground once more.

"I... don't know what was up with her... with these chains... but... DAMN IT...!", He declared frustrated, sinking down on his back, looking up at the sky aimlessly.

"Yasei... no... you have to...", Asami once more tried to console her master... yet, in the end, couldn't do much more, but sink down next to her master exhausted.

Just now really realizing his partner's condition, Yasei pulled her closer to himself, gently caressing her fur, as he declared with a sarcastic laugh: "OH great... first I utterly fail in saving... well, guess they weren't quite friends of ours... but they were good people, huh? Well... but THEN... I even forget about you...! Might as well have hounded you to death."

`Yeah... kinda lame... first, you're going crazy over me being 'recovered enough' or not... and now...´, Asami confirmed with a rough laugh, not even reallyable to speak, as she still was panting heavily.

"Well... you're well enough to get all cheeky on me, at least...!", The young handler responded with a quiet laugh, still ruffling her fur affectionately, as she nuzzled her head up to his tiredly.

`Just shows... you may have superhuman strength... and magic... and whatnot... but we still aren't perfect...´, The female like that stated soothingly, weakly licking her master's cheek.

"Yeah... sure... but still...-"

"- ... NO... no buts...", His partner in the end did interrupt him verbally, if still in a pretty weak voice.

"WELL... guess you're right...?", Yasei responded with a defeated sigh, "It is just so frustrating... I try everything I can think of... and still..."

"Yas...?"

"Yes?"

"That kinda was the same as a 'but'...!", Asami responded dryly, finally somewhat recovered her breath, even though her body still did hurt all over.

Lifting his other arm, with his watch over his head,he finally stated with a silentsigh: "Well... as sad as everything occurred so far may have been, guess I better get going for my training, huh? Not want to draw any more suspicions, yeah?"

"Yes... better do just that...!", The female confirmed with a quiet laugh, as she laboriously got up on her feet once more.

"WELL... guess you don't want to stay at home alone, whileI am off for training?", Yasei like that asked jokingly, already reaching out his hand to the female.

"OH... you just know me too well...", Asami responded with a quiet laugh, nudging her snout against her master's hand seconds later, to once more initiate a merge.

An hour of training later, Yasei left the building panting inaudible. Having beaten up everybody present for the lesson, Asami had almost feared her master would beat one of them to death!

Considering how so far most of them were superior to the young man, considering their experience in this martial art, he too had gotten quite a beating. Their merge easily healing any kind of bruise or scratch within seconds, Yasei almost had somewhat of an unfair advantage... yet he indeed still was pretty beaten.

Guessing his partner's residual fatigue had something to do with this too, the young handler in the end uttered a quiet sigh.

"Well... looks like our merge ain't as perfect as we thought, huh?", Yasei like that finally stated with a quiet laugh, as they were far enough away from the building.

`Yeah... but more importantly: going on like that, you're not gonna make yourself too many friends in there...!´, Asami responded dryly, very well feeling how her own fatigue affected her master.

"Well... it's not like I had started out as the friendly boy from next door...", The young man responded with a shrug of his shoulder, "It was when I had lost you, that I started here, remember? SO... so far they would have called something like that just now, me having a good day. Not to mention I did havequite a bit of steam to blow off today too, yes?"

`WELL... just glad you didn't suddenly use all of our strength and put one of 'em through a wall!´

"Well... yeah... sorry about that sorry display... but hey... I already made my Jujitsu guys think I was sick or something, as I suddenly was all nice and polite, in yesterdays session, so...!"

`Yeah... I know... I have been there after all...!´

"Well... didn't quite cover myself with glory on those first days, ey?"

Just earning a quite humph from his partner he dropped the topic... until Asami suddenly asked excitedly: `HEY... we're done here... what about getting some grilled...-´

"Asami...", Her handler interrupted her indulgently... earning a bit of a confused reaction at first... until he suddenly heard a quiet whine echo through his mind.

`Guess... we won't have any barbecued chicken anytime soon, huh?´, The canine finally asked saddened, obviously ashamed about forgetting what had happened to the couple of owners mere hours ago.

"Yes... sadly...", Yasei confirmed aggrieved... especially afflicted by the fact of how he had not a clue how he should think about all this.

Should his presumptions turn out to be true, that female handler might not be at fault for what she did... but still... didn't everyone have to take responsibility for his own actions, in the end?

`PHEW... finally home, huh?´, Asami finally stated, as her master was almost about to walk right past the apartment complex.

"WHAT... already? OH... yeah, we really are...?", The young handler like that realized, almost running of god knows where, as lost in thoughts as he was.

`Good you got me to look afteryou, huh?´, The female confirmed excitedly, almost able to see her grinning widely.

"Yes... lucky me...!", Yasei confirmed with an awkward laugh, as he walked up the stairs to his apartment.

Undoing their merge as soon as they were sure nobody else was on the stairs with them, the canine walked on her master's side, her tail wagging slowly, as she kept her eyes on her master... worried how much further he might lose himself in thoughts, overtoday's events.

Walking straight into the kitchen, Yaseisank down on the first chair he came close to, utteringa defeated sigh.

"So whateverare we gonna do NOW...?", He asked dryly, more out of the loop than he had imagined.

"Do... you want to make something for dinner...?", Asami asked anxiously, almost afraid her master might have snapped after all, in the end.

"Well... yes... but, I... god...! I still can't get it off of my mind... first, there's my failure to protect the old man and his wife... and to make matters even worse: I don't have a clue what I should think about all of it."

"About... what happened?", The female now asked more confused than worried.

"Yeah... you know... should I be correct and these chains are really able to control people... bind their minds to a Yokai's will... what the heck am I to think about that?!", Yasei explained with a defeated growl, "I mean... she DID kill them in cold blood... but on the other hand... she kinda didn't, if she really was mind-controlled... or brainwashed?"

"Ehr... I don't know... why... why don't we wait and see? See if we can free her and that Takumi's master first? So we can see what they are really like?", Asami suggested bemused, looking at her master with her head tilted slightly.

"WHAT...? You want me to just wait and see?", Her master responded irritatedly, looking at the female in confusion.

"Well... better than pondering about it...?", The canine suggested in an almost childlike, curious tone.

Looking at his partner musingly for quite a while, he finally replied with a quiet sigh: "YEAH... guess you are right? It really might save at least my peace of mind, huh?"

Nodding eagerly, Asami's tail wagged excitedly, as she joyfully agreed... happy her master seemed to approve ofher thinking.

Yasei now himself looking at his partner with a confused look, he finally let out another sigh, as he finally declared: "Well... sure, let's try that for a while. Can't see the future after all, can we? So... let's get you some food first, huh? That was the main reason for you wanting me to get my shit together again after all, wasn't it?"

"WHAT... it wasn't my main reason...!", Asami retorted outraged... yet earned but a dry look from her master.

"Oh really...?", Her partner responded dryly, a clear look of disbelief in his eyes.

"Well... it was my second priority...?", The canine responded like that, in a tone as if she was merely suggesting it.

"Guessed as much...", He responded like that, ruffling the fur on Asami's head with a quiet laugh, as he stood up again to prepare some dinner, "In that case, we better see to this second priority, yes?"

"MMM... so good! The old man's chicken was amazing... but your cooking still is the best!", Asami finally declared with a content huff, earning but another look of disbelief from her master.

"YEAH... I'll bet...", Yasei responded dryly, examining the once more completely empty pot of his rice cooker, "In the past, THIS lasted me for three, or at the very leasttwo meals...!"

"Well... I am stuffed... and it was as good as ever!", The canine declared happily, her tail swishing to and fro excitedly.

"Hm... I guess I won't complain as long as you are happy, but... as you keep insisting... stuffed you say, huh?", The young handler stated musingly, before flashing her a wolfish grin, "I'm sure you wouldn't mind another kind of stuffing, yes? Not to mention... I could go for some dessert!"

"Dessert... you mean... I thought you weren't into stuff like that? Wouldn't want to waste food or something like that after all?", Asami responded confusedly, looking at her master with her head tilted once more.

"Well... it's not that big of a deal and... well, being with you, puppy-girl, I already came up withquite a few things I thought weird up till now.", Her master however just responded with a knowing grin, already standing up, targeting the fridge out of the corner of his eyes already, "Or would you rather have me spank you again?"

Merely responding with a quiet 'EEEP', Asami did agree hastily... especially as she already anticipated some kind of treat out of it.

Uttering a quiet laugh of his own, he went through the little stash of sauces for ice-creams he kept.

"Got a little bit of a stash of everything...", He mumbled to himself, examining the bottles musingly, "... but those I have never used so far... but, well... guess those shouldn't go bad so easily, as I did never open them..."

Asami just looking at him in confusion, her master finally responded with an almost wicked grin: "SO... got some chocolate sauce for starters... and some strawberry for seconds... and maybe a bath afterward?"

"Mmm... chocolate...!", The canine responded excitedly, licking her chaps eagerly... liking the stuff even more, after she learned how ordinary dogs couldget sick or diefrom anything chocolate.

Only having stumbled across it once or twice, he had a few - more or less - spontaneous ideas... but thinking back on her experiment the other day...

"COME HERE PUPPY!", The young handler like that ordered, pulling her close, as he ruffled the canine's mane thoroughly.

"GAH... stopit... whatareyoudoing...?!", Asami gasped out confusedly, halfheartedly trying to fend her master off, yet didn't move an inch away from him, in the end.

Letting go of her after a while, he shook off his hands, making what he had aimed at rather obvious, as quite a few long, red dog hair fell to the ground, from off his hands.

"Well... hope this at least partially saves me from an experience like last time... but seriously... you are supposed to be some kind of ghost or even demon... so why are you shedding like an ordinary dog?"

"Well... I kinda have some part cat in me too...", The Yokai interjected, earning her a quiet laugh from her master.

"OKAY... that pretty much explains it then... I guess?", The young man approved her 'explanation', brushing away the last remaining hair on his pants, before finally grabbing the bottle with chocolate sauce.

"Now... let's see what we gonna do with that... huh?", He like that said musingly until he saw how Asami's eyes were alreadyglued to the bottle in expectation.

"Oh...? WELL... let's go and try this, shall we?"

Tilting her head curiously, yet keeping her eyes on the bottle, Yasei lifted his hand well above her head, before he carefully began to trickle the sauce on the female's face. Looking at it curiously, the canine soon realized what her master was up to... or at least she thought so.

In the end, at least pretty sure she wouldn't do anything counteractive to Yasei's idea, she eagerly lapped up the sauce trickling down on her. Lot's of it still hitting her mane or snoot, Yasei pretty much got just what he had wanted... especially since his partner seemed to take delight in it too.

A while later, the female's snout and neck trickled with chocolate sauce, Yasei hastily got rid of his sweatshirt and tee, before closing in on Asami again. Burying his face deep in the canines main, he licked the chocolate off from his partner's mane, licking over the female's hot skin as best as he could.

Licking his lips slowly, he confirmed excitedly, with a feral grin: "Well... this indeed is nice...!"

Proceeding with his 'work', he snuggled up close to Asami, much like a canine male might do, eagerly licking up every little speck of chocolate sauce he had trickled on his partner.

Eagerly sticking her neck towards her master's attention, her tail wagged to and fro lazily, as Asami enjoyed the feeling of her master's tongue against her skin. A real canine's tongue might have been bigger... and softer... yether master seemed to have way better 'control' over his tongue, on the other hand.

Panting quietly, she indulged in her master's attention, turning her head side toside eagerly, her master snuggled up close to her, practically keeping on all fours, almost like a canine, as he lovingly licked her fur clean again.

Feeling the silkily warm fur of his partner on his skin again - beyond sleeping - Yasei all the more eagerly nestled up to the female, the best he could... snuggled into her long mane as he cleaned the canine's fur again. Even despite the fur in his mouth, Yasei did enjoy the sweet and almost smokey taste of the Yokai's skin mixed with thetaste of thechocolate upon his tongue.

Finally breaking away from his partner, even if only slightly, he in the end proclaimed excitedly: "Still hairy... but... very much liked it!"

Still turning his head away, as to spit out some hair... just to see Asami flash him a clearly feral grin, as he returned his attention to the canine.

"Did I say something w...", The young man like that asked utterly dumbfound, yet was interrupted mid-sentence, by his partner licking right across his face, before suddenly storming off.

All of a sudden, stopping dead in track, she just turned around, giving him an almost crazy look, as she demanded abruptly: "Clothes. Off. NOW...!"

Her master just shooting her a confused look, Asami juststormed off in the hallway again.

Turning his head the other way, in the same irritatedmanner, he looked at her a second ago, Yasei finally shrugged his shoulders, getting rid of his clothes, as he abandoned any thoughts he had to this current situation. The young man originally had been quite confused, as to what was suddenly going on with his partner, but considering how excited the canine was: WHY BOTHER?

Following the female almost overly cautiously, as if he was approaching some ferocious animal, he slowly peeked around the edge of the wall. Finding Asami looking at him with a feral grin, as shesuddenly turned on her heels, presenting her rear to her master, wiggling her hips seductively, before she jumped in the living room, with a quiet excited bark.

Staring at the door through which the female had vanished in disbelief for a few seconds, the young handler finally uttered a quiet sigh, mumbling to himself: "WELL... if that's how she wants to play..."

Slowly sneaking into his living room like that, he found Asami standing in the middle of the room, her tail swishing to and fro excitedly, anotheralmost wicked grin on his face, as she stood there in almost a fighting stance.

"OH... puppy wants to play... very well...!", Yasei proclaimed, an almost equally wolfish grin on his face as he shouted out, "COME HERE THEN!"

Jumping at the female, Asami like that jumped on the couch in the very last second, back on her masters back, repelling herself off of him, landing a few feet behind of her master. Turning around in surprise, he saw his partner flashing him a playful smile, as she once more presented his rear... her dripping wet pussy to him in a flirtatious way.

Looking at the teasing Yokai in disbelief, he looked at his hands and feet... before finally uttering a defeated sigh.

"Very well... I guess I have too..."

Assuming a quadruped position like his partner, mimicking the canine's movement as best as he could, the young man huntedafter her again...pretty much the way she wanted to.

That kind of movement rather impractical at first, Yasei soon found it at least made it easier too hunt after the canine, being at mostly the same 'height' as her now. Jumping after her like that, he quite a few times managed to almost get her, as he slowly got used to this kind of movement Asami hadforced upon him.

Hunting Asami through all of his flat for what seemed like an eternity, the female kept jumping over him like some stepping stone, or sometimes even slipped past right beneath him.

In the end, getting more or less used to this quadrupedal style of movement, Yasei finally flashed the female a wolfish smile.

"Now I got you...!"

Finallymanagingjumping at her rear, the young handler grabbed his partner by her haunches, gripping hisarms around her hips, as he let his body sink down on the female's back.

"Got you now puppy...!", Yasei like that whispered in her ear, a silent growl in his voice, as he started grinding his crotch against the female's dripping wet pussy.

Respondingin a mere feral growl, the Yokai thrust her rear against her partner's every thrust, in an eager display of shear feral desire. Getting hard all to soon, at the erratic movements of the female, he finally grabbed his hands around her hips more firmly, as he demanded in a dominant tone: "STILL NOW... puppy-dog!"

Feeling her master's hard dick poking her wet entrance, the female uttered an eager moan, pushing her rear up against his hips, both uttering a silent moan as the human's member speared open the canine's eager sex.

Humping the female in a feral manner, just as Asami had riled him up to, the female all too soon uttered eager huffs, with each ferocious thrust of her master.

Grunting in lust with every wet slap of his groin against the females dripping wet pussy, every time his cock hit home deep in her eager depth, Yasei fucked the horny bitch in earnest, enjoying every second of this kind of lovemaking.

Feeling the velvety walls of the female's pussy hugging around his member... the warm and smooth fur of his partner upon his skin... he finally felt complete again... one with his beloved partner once more. Fucking the canine thoroughly, he felt Asami melting among his attention...the warmth of his partner in body and mind... even Yasei himself found himself overtakenby an animalistic urge.

Silent, wet slapping noises of their intercourse echoing through the small flat, Asami's tongue lolled out of her mouth, the young man all too soon could feel the canine's walls grab his cock even more tightly, coaxing a quiet 'yes... I am close too' out of the young man.

His own lust peeking all to soon, Yasei finally - without even really thinking about it - bit down at the female's neck, as he finally came buried deep in the canine's depths with a deep groan.

Responding in a quiet yelp, Asami's pussy gripped her human master's member even more tightly, as her walls convulsed around him in the heights of her own orgasm.

Biting down on the loose skin of his partner's neck even harder, as another shudder of lust washed through his body, the young handler suddenly felt an... well, slightly familiar sensation... and the sudden taste of blood on his tongue!

"UGH... sorry!", The young handler excused himself hastily, letting go of his partner's neck even more hastily... withouteventhinkingabout reallyletting go of her though.

Her tongue still hanging out her mouth, panting inaudibly, Asami - still riding the waves of her pleasure - just nodded weakly as she responded absent-minded: "Yes... it was amazing...!"

"That's not...", Her master responded confusedly, before uttering a quiet sigh, as he absentmindedly licked his lips.

Unconsciously trying to pull free of the embrace of his partner's depth... Yasei found himself utterly unable to do so!

"What is this...?", The young man mumbled - more to himself - confusedly... not that he really minded, it was just... unexpected!

"Oh... well... but that's normal with bitchesisn't it...?", Asami responded confusedly, still somewhat lost in her lust.

"Well... yes... but not when... well... mating with a human?"

"Oh... that so...? Well... even if I could, I still wouldn't let go of you!"

Not quite knowing how to respond to this, Yasei just uttered a silent sigh, as he let himself sink back down on his partners furry back. Ruffling the fur of the female's chest lovingly, the young man snuggled up to his partner with a content sigh, before finally asking with a quiet laugh: "So... you liked that one, huh?"

"Yes...", The female responded, still rather exhausted, with a weak smile, "It... kinda felt like... well, you too were an animal... a real... mate...!"

"OH... so that's what things turned to?", Yasei asked teasingly, feeling the sensations of the pseudo merge - they unknowingly had entered - vanish, "If you liked that last bit so much... hmm... having satisfied your body's desires... would you like me voicing it out for the satisfaction of your mind, too?"

Gasping in surprise, Asami looked at her master out of the corner of her eyes, before averting her gaze bashfully, before nodding slowly.

"AW... my pretty not believing me...?", Yasei asked teasingly, gently petting the canine's cheeks, "But... very well... my mate... if you so love the thought... the feeling... the word even... I gladly can say it as many times as you like?"

The Yokai shuddering at the mere thought, turning even more abashed, knowing her master clearly was able to feel her embarrassment through their bond... the young man just uttered a quiet laugh in response.

"Very well... so... no matter what: I'll be by your side as long as you want me to... be your partner as long as you like to be with me... and especially... even though I am just a human... I'll be your mate as long as you're willing to have me!", The young handler like that declared, especially emphasizing on accentuating every last aspect of her relationship.

Surely blushing deeply beneath her fur, Asami lowered her head, hiding it under her paws, as she explained shocked: "I... I DIDN'T MEAN TO... I didn't mean to force you to... you don't have to..."

"BAKA**...!", Yasei just interrupted his partner dryly, emphasizing once more, "As far as I can recall, I already told you once, I'm not saying things I don't mean, especially not when saying I'm your mate! I may have been reluctant about you at first... but no more! Once more: it may have been just a few weeks... but losing you, practically had me going crazy after less than a day, so... I wouldn't call this anything but love!"

"Yasei..."

"NO... this has already turned weird enough, not to mention: I had to repeat myself again! Didn't I tell you last time to not doubt my words?", The young handler just interrupted his partner once more, "So... please... I think I already made this weird enough, haven't I?"

"No... it was all my fault... I..."

Yasei suddenly bursting out in laughter, Asami stopped mid-sentence, looking back over her shoulder once more, an utterly confused look on her face.

"You know... if you want one last piece of evidence: I guess I pretty much proved just now... thatI am too weird, as any other women mightfall for me... I think?", The young handler explained abashed... unwittingly supporting his hands on Asami's back as he did.

About to respond to her master's words, she instead suddenly yelped in surprise, stumbling to the ground as all of her master's weight was propped on her shoulders like that. Falling down tothe ground along with his partner, Yasei too gasped out in surprise, as suddenly both of them tumbled down to the ground!

All air in their bodies knocked out of them for a second, they looked at each other in surprise, before finally breaking out in laughter.

"YES... yes... I think you are kinda silly... ending up at this, after the best sex we had so far...", Asami finally confirmed in audible laughter, snuggling up close to her master at the same time though, as she happily proclaimed, "But I think I would still keep you as my mate any day! Because... even if you may be somewhat... odd, from time to time... at least you're always honest to a fault, aren't you?"

"GOSH... drop it!", Yasei burst out in laughter, after a second of baffled silence, "Don't need to rub it in like that...!"

"WOOF...!", Asami merely responded, sticking her tongue out mockingly, as she snuggled her head up to her masters.

Wrapping his arms around his partner, gently scratching her chin, rubbing her belly and chest affectionately, the young handler nestled up to his mate too... before finally asking curiously... or one may probably rather call it musingly: "Well... that's a new one, isn't it? It most definitely was above amazing... but... I wonder... remembering this feeling... focusing more on thisfeeling of 'unity'just now... instead of merely trying to copy the feeling from back then... you think this may work out better?"

Averting her eyes musingly for a few seconds, the canine finally explained: "Well... what I was looking to achieve, when learning what it is you were aiming for... it wasn't quite what you had shown me... and instead really more like what you found just now."

"What I found... just now? So you were on to this from the beginning?", Her master responded in surprise, looking at his mate in disbelief.

"Well... yeah... kinda...? At least after we had reachedthat kind of merge you talked about by chance, the other time.", Asami responded reflectively, before once more nudging up against her mate, as if to demand more of his affection.

"Alright... alright, my pretty... guess we can talk about this later...!", Yasei responded to the female's plea, hugging her close, as he buried his face in the long mane of the canine.

A minute or so later, finally able to get free from Asami's... embrace, they cuddled for a few more minutes, before finally getting up and their clothes together again... well, at least Yasei did... obviously.

Having gotten his underwear from the kitchen he like thatfinally uttered: "SO... as I told you... bath time! Don't want to have you all sticky like thisafter all...!"

"WHAT... a bath? ButWHY... everything was so nice up to now...-", The canine tried to talk her way out of it, yet in the end was interrupted by her master.

"NO... no excuse! Not to mention... I managed to master that little trick we thought of a while ago, so...", The young handler like that explained, hoping to at least pique her interest with that.

Looking at her master skeptical upon this possibility, Asami did finally agree on taking a bath, following her master to the bath... if still kinda hesitantly.

"AW... come on... be a good girl, stop sulkingand come into the shower?", Yasei like that asked half-jokingly, as he already was in the shower... the females shampoo in hand and - even more importantly, in Asami's eyes - naked again.

Jumping in the shower eagerly, her tail wagging excitedly, her master hastily closed the door behind her... before she could change her mind.

"SORRY... no more playtime sweety.", The young man like that answered,before suddenly turning on the water... almost immediately clouding the cabinet, earning a quiet, content grumble from the female.

"OH...yes... this really isn't bad...!", Asami uttered surprised,findingthe water really not to bad... whereas... it couldn't have gotten any warmer, without vaporizing anyways.

Like that obediently cooperating with her 'cleansing', her tail even waggingto and fro slightly, as she did enjoy her master massaging her, as he worked the shampoo in her indeed still slightly sticky fur.

"Mmm... good human...!", Asami like that praised her master teasingly, as she leaned in on her master's attention.

"Pah... silly goose!", The young man responded with a quiet laugh, ruffling the female's mane playfully, before commenting, ashe started to clean the foam off of the canine,"And now come here doggie!"

Yelping in surprise as her master did not only shower off as suddenly as he did, but also stopped his magic on the water!

"GOSH... you wanna freeze me? Cause if that was your plan... YOU SUCCEEDED!", Asami responded sulkily, throwing Yasei a huffy look, before finally asking, after shaking out her mane quickly,"So... bet you wantto go for a last bit of training, yes?"

Looking at his mate with somewhat of a sheepish look, the young handler confirmed with a quiet sigh: "Yes... can't go without some training for the afternoon, can I?"

Uttering an annoyed sigh, a pretty much beaten one at that, the canine more or less scolded her master: "You're pretty crazy about your training, aren't you?"

"Well... kinda? Always have been... not to mention: you said the occurrence ofaftereffects of the reckoning spell would be unpredictable, yes? Not only considering WHEN further side effects may occur, but especially WHAT impact they may have, yes?"

"Yes... that's pretty much the gist of it."

"So... I absolutely have to train as long and hard - and not to mention as much - as I possibly can!", The young man like that proclaimed resolutely... before adding quietly, "Not to mention I am still way too weak..."

"Hey... don't go on sulking about the shopkeeper and his wife again, now...!",Asami asked, finally getting off of her sulking.

"No... don't worry... I may have to admit that I'm still pretty disappointed in myself... but I guess I can't agonize about that forever, can I? SO... I just keep on trying my best in training and try to find some kind of plan, as to what to do with these powers of ours."

Looking at her beloved master skeptically, Asami finally just gave er master a quick lick on the cheek, explaining: "Well... alright then! Guess I can't stop you than... but... will you promise me one thing?"

"OH... a promise?"

"Yes... please... I... just want you to trust in me, okay?"

Pretty much dumbfounded, all that came to his mind in the end was: "HEY... you trying to trick me into something?"

"NAH... not really. Just want YOUto obey MEonce in a while, when asking you to not overdo your training, or something like that, okay?", The female responded, sticking her tongue out teasingly, earning but a quiet sigh form her master.

"Sure... wouldn't want to worry my lovely, would I?", Yasei agreed with a quiet laugh, "Not to mention: I can't overdo things anyways... after all, overdoing training wouldn't yield any proper results, so... don't worry about it puppy-dog."

Ruffling the female's fur with an affectionate smile, Asami looked at her master curiously for a while... before nodding with an affectionate smile herself.

"Not to mention... you really could have a bit more trust in me... on the other hand... you didn't worry about stuff like that before, so..."

Responding with but an almostmortified look, the canine hastily shook her head, as she explained: "NO... never mind... don't overdo things... is all... never mind me...!"

"Sillygoose...", Yasei commented with somewhat of a confused look, before suddenly assessing, "But having said that, I guess that's nothing strange for you after all, is it?"

"HEY... I am just trying to look out for you... and you are teasing me?", The female retorted outraged... but earned but a carefree grin from her master.

"Don't worry Asami... as long as I know you have my back, you don't have to worry about anything!"

"I... it's not worrying...", The canine responded sulkily, following her master, as he went to change.

"Well... just don't 'it's not worrying' then? Whatever you think you need to better yourself in, you'rejust fine as is!", The young man responded with a quiet laugh,before he finally step out of the shower cabinet, "Not to mention... NAH... overthinking stuff is my department, you're just the sweetest thing there is, is all!"

"Ehr... yes... no... waitwhat?"

Getting 'dried off' and dressed, until finally asking skeptically: "Are you hinting at that diabetes thing of yours again?"

"What... NO...! I was just talking about you rather thinking about what you could do for others well-being, before thinking about yourself...",The young handler apologized with a quiet laugh, as he signaled her to follow him, with a short wave.

"NO... not anyone... only you! Not to mention... I am your partner... and your mate... so I can't exactly do anything but think only about you, can I?", Asami responded adamantly, looking at her master as if waiting for an objection of her mate, as she followed obediently.

"Hmm...", Yasei uttered musingly, looking at the canine skeptically... before finally shrugging his shoulders, "WELL... you know the rules...! No more kamikaze and everything is alright."

"Well... okay... but same goes for you then!", The female in the end responded adamantly... looking like she was about to utter a response, yetdidn'tseem to find anything moreto respond, as she couldn't complain withher master's request.

"WHAT THE HECK?!", The young man however shouted out, astheyreached the first step up to the little platform on the roof.

Sitting on an upside-down beer crate, surrounded by a dozen of empty beer bottles, wasYoru... a half-empty bottle in his hand.

"OH... ey Yasei... bin waiting for you quied a while nao!", The black-haired man greeted him, waving his almost empty bottle at him, clearly slurring drunkenly.

"Seriously... you're using your magic for THAT?", Yasei asked in disbelief, not even needing to look at Naomi, sitting behind her master, looking all but amused.

"BOO! Kill-joy...!", Yoru responded dryly, now sitting on a leather armchair, a cigar in one and a glass of whiskey in the other hand, "How did you even know?"

Uttering a quiet sigh, the slightly younger handler responded unfazed: "Really? Laying on really thick there aren't we? Not to mention: I am technically a fire-mage... so do you really think you can fool me, no matter how good your illusionary skills? Considering your first one: thought I told you... I can feel peoples feelings and intentions... even though being drunk ain't really a feeling, it DOES blur their... their wavelength you may say. So that one obviously was a really easy one to figure out."

Looking at his 'cigar' with a skeptical look, he 'threw' it away, both it and his whiskey vanishing into thin air, before he suddenly sat there with a rather sizable bong, on top of a dozen gigantic seat cushions.

"Seriously?", Yasei just asked in disbelief once more, pointing at the bottom of the - to his senses obvious illusionary - bong, "Fake... heat... can't fool me."

"OH... so that is your solution to MY powers?", Yoru asked sarcastically now sitting... on a briefcase, "An interesting kind of approach... just dismantling them based on pure logic..."

"Well... best I could do...? SO... what do you two want with us anyway?", The young man asked in a hostile tone, looking at their - once moreuninvited- guests skeptically, "We may more or less have something of an alliance going on... but still... ruthlessly murdering all CEOs and the bosses for no reason... can't really say we are too big fans of yours!"

"Hey... hey... you really want to say you're mourning THOSE pieces of trash?", The older handler asked dryly, propping his right leg on his other, folding his hands in his laps.

Naomi jumping on her master's shoulder again, the feline explained dryly: "HEY GENIUS... you are aware they were as corrupt as they came...?"

"Whatabout it... most people comingto power tend to turn somewhat corrupt at some point... SO WHAT?", Yasei just responded unimpressed, shrugging his shoulders, as Asami kept her glare locked on Naomi.

"OH... no, no, no, no... not only a little... those pieces of trash were ABSOLUTELY good to die!", The feline responded, with that almost crazy look on her face, he had seen so many times already, "LET'S SEE... so... let's start with that boss of yours, shall we? HM... what example may I submit? Let's just go with the most far-reaching one, shall we?"

"Oh, please... go on...!", Yasei responded sarcastically, implying for her to continue, with a gesture of his hand.

"SO... you remember that time when they decreased your salary?"

"PFF... yeah, so what? It was so we could afford an upgrade to our hardware... SO. WHAT?"

Asami responded with a quiet giggle, before responding in a snide tone: "Oh yes? So... did you ever recalculate that?"

"What... they did scratch 37 000***yen of my payment, so what?"

"SO... did they ever compensate you on that? Raise your wage agin, for example? Not to mention... what did you earn at first?"

Glaring at Naomi angrily for quite a while, the young man finally uttered a defeated sigh: "WHATEVER... about 440 000****yen, I guess! SO. WHAT."

"So... and those 37 000 yen times twelve...? A small hint: it is more than a month's wage.", The female responded with a wide grin, "He effectively stole one whole month's wage from EVERYBODY working in that firm of yours, who was not some kind of executive. AND THAT my boy, is but one of his offenses."

Looking at the feline skeptically... the young handler this time had no return.

"A lot of the other CEO weren't saints either...", Naomi declared smugly, her tail swishing to and fro excitedly, "... I don't have any interest in trying to coax you... but... one last bit: my favorite one. One of the CEOs... OH BOY did he misuse his powers... you remember Hino Heikichi?"

"Hino... Heikichi... maybe... wasn't he promoted? Quite a bit if I remember actually...?"

"Thathe did... YES... he indeed was... he became an executive even... in a branch office roughly the other side of the world that is!", The feline explained with a wicked grin, "And you know what? Maybe you have heard... but his wife apparently divorced him a few months after that..."

"hm... so what? It happens...-"

"OH... no, no, no, no... not in his case...!", Naomi interrupted him, with devilish joy, "In HIS case, said CEO did only promote him out of necessity... because he wanted to hit on his wife! He actually had something going with her for quite a while before that...!"

"HE DID WHAT... what the hell...!?", Asami shouted out angrily, baring her teeth in refusal, "His wife... YOU SAY HE STOLE HIS MATE!"

"YUPP... he sure did...", The feline confirmed, her tail swishing to and fro happily, "... but enough of that. You don't want to befriend us anyway... didn't you say something like that?"

"Okay...?", Yasei finally asked, after a while of silence, appearing rather confused about... well, whatever they were up to, "So... in that case, what do you want with us then? Besides stalking us some more, I guess?"

"Well... as you said: you agreed to at least somewhatof a truce, so... we're kind off free at the moment, so...", Yoru responded, as he stood up to open the case he was sitting on, which had almost the size of a chest, "SO... we came here and waited, till you came for your evening's exercise."

Opening the suitcase he brought, whichopenedin three departments full of weapons, the older handler picked up one pretty high quality looking katana, before stepping back from it, inviting Yasei to have his pick.

"Seriously...? Not only sparing with real weapons, but you are offering your opponent a choice of weapon too?", The younger man asked skeptically, as he examined the rather vast collection.

All kinds of swords, daggers, knives and even a few axes and such, were included in this collection he had brought. The sword he had picked, apparently wasn't part of that, as it was indeed of a way higher quality than all the rest, which one might call mere steel forged in the shape of a weapon, using rather simplistic materials.

"Well... using a weapon not the weight of 'the real deal' in my experience only warps the training's effects, so...", Merely shrugging his shoulders, the older male finally ended, "Not to mention, you would never be able to even put as much as scratch me anyways, so..."

Just responding with a quiet huff, Yasei picked the second Katana of this collection of Yoru's... far inferior to his very own catalyst, which still was slightly superior in quality to the weapon now in his guest's hands... but it had to do.

"OKAY... I have to admit, you probably do have more experience... but I'd really appreciate if you didn't underestimate me like that...", The young handler like that responded as he drew his weapon, throwing the scabbard to the ground carelessly.

Taking a fighting stance - pretty close on what he had learned from his master, but still with a touch of his own style - he looked at his opponent unblinking.

"Hm... doesn't quite look like what you showed when fighting that samurai Yakuza... hope it's not YOU who's underestimating me?"

Shaking his head, without too much of a comment, Yasei just responded with a silent 'bring it' as he waited for whatever his uninvited guest may have in store for him.

"Very well... let's see who's wearing it better than?", The black-haired man responded, as he too drew his blade, taking the exact same stance as Yasei, or ratherthe basic form ofthe Iaido style he had started tostudy.

Looking at the older male in surprise he just responded with a quiet 'very well', before adjusting his own stance too. Just using this might turn out rather tricky for him... but as this was supposed to be training, it alsomight reallyturn into a good training experience, in the end.

In almost the exact second he himself was stepping in for an attack, Yoru stepped in for an attack of his own. The older man's technique was surprisingly close to perfection, almost surpassing his master's technique even.

Barely able to avoid the attack, blocking his follow up attack with the back of his sword - just as he was taught - Yaseifollowedup with a counter of his own, out of the very motion in which he had just deflected his opponents attack.

The older handler avoiding his attack and it's follow-ups with the barest minimum of movement, Yasei was just about to get really annoyed with his opponent... yet barely managed to remind himself to ALWAYS keep his cool.

An almost cold look on his eyes, Yoru avoided each attack of the young man with ease, before responding with almost way to perfect counter-blows.

After a minute of dueling, the older male - to Yasei's surprise - did start to give him subtle hints, even when not talking, literally instructing him with his very movements, as to how to adjust his posture and movement.

He really... really hated to admit it, but after almost twenty minutes of training, the younger handler had to admit: this man was a freaking genius! Not only was his technique nigh on flawless, buthe alsowas a rather ingenious teacher.

Only half an hour later, Yasei was utterly beaten... yet somehow felt like he had been able to improve tenfold on his technique!

Slashing through the air with his weapon, like he was splashing blood off of it, Yoru sheathed his blade, sitting back down on the suitcase he had brought.

"Well... to my surprise, you really can color me impressed...", The black-haired man finally proclaimed with a quiet huff, "Even though you had no real master... you're performing surprisingly well."

"WHAT? No real master?", Yasei responded slightly annoyed, "Kinda making me want to shoo you away after all, here!"

"Well... sorry, but... sure, he may be a master... but... well, no real samurai.", Yoru apologized, still keeping up that overly calm demeanor of his, "But I was thought - albeit years ago - by a real descendant of an old samurai family... heevenhad beenbrought up in all the old ways of the Samurai and all. As close to the oldSamurai's way one could call reasonable nowadays, that is."

"Huh... am I supposed to be impressed now?"

"PF... what you taking me for?", The older male just responded unfazed, his partner jumping on his shoulder once more, "Just thought it might pique your interest..."

"Hm... well... maybe a little?"

"Well... could tell you even more... but I guess that won't be of any concern to you, yes?"

"I'd have to admit... I've been curious to know more about you, strange as you are, but... how boring would thatbe, to just have you tell me...?", The young handler responded in a dismissive tone, Asami sitting down next to him, still appearing rather agitated by this story of Naomi.

"NAH... not bestowing any more presents upon you two for tonight... maybe at some later point... if I feel like it...", Their uninvited guest responded smugly, not even looking at him any longer, as he placidly stowed away his Katana, casually reaching out his hand as he demanded, "Retrieve...!"

"What am I... your pet?", Yasei responded sulkily, yet threw the Katana he had borrowed to the older man, without any further complaints.

"My pet...? NAH... in pet-play, pets usually WANT to be their master's plaything after all...!", Yoru responded casually, signaling his refusal with a lazy wave.

"WHAT?! Wherever the hell did THAT come from now?", The young handler responded in surprise, snapping even Asami out of her seething fury.

Just shrugging his shoulders as calmly and unimpressed as ever, Naomi instead answered, looking at her host's canine mate with a knowing look: "Oh... nowhere specifically... just thought you two might be familiar with the topic..."

"WHAT?!", Both Yasei and Asami shouted out - almost in terror - looking at Yoru and his partner in disbelief, before responding in unison, "That's not the case at all!"

"Oh... well... if you say so...", Naomi responded in an appeasing tone... almost as if talking to little children, in her usual near to arrogant manner.

Barely responding with a dismissive huff, Yasei barely shooed away the intrusive pair, explaining in a dismissive tone: "WELL... guess you are done with your evening's entertainment? You mayget lost than... or is there anything else you two want?"

"NAH... we're good... but this was kinda refreshing... and if you manage to keep improving your game, I might just as well come to train you some more, every now and than."

"OH REALLY... YOUmightcome to TEACH ME...?", Yasei responded sarcastically, looking at the older handler with a raised eyebrow.

"YUPP... if I feel like it!", Yoru confirmed... his voice suddenly coming from right behind him, from the door leading back into the building, "Even though... you may have found somewhat of a way to read our illusions now... but this was pretty sloppy work just now... your partner surely can affirm. SEE YA...!"

Like that leaving as unexpectedly as he had appeared, the younger man followed the departing handler with his eyes, before finally looking back at Asami, curious about whatever Yoru might have meant with this last words of his.

Looking at her mate again now, the canine's eyes however suddenly turned wide, before bursting out in laughter.

"So... seems... seems like he did give you one last piece of information after all...!", The female barely managed to explain, in-between bursts of laughter.

"WHAT... information... what... WHERE... what did he do?!", Yasei asked panicked, as he did his best to look himself over, as best he could.

Still snorting in laughter, Asami merged her mind with her master's - Yasei still pretty much pissed how easily she had learned and mastered this - showing him her perspective of view, as she looked, well... at himself.

"WHAT THE HECK!?", The young handler shouted out outraged, rubbing his upper lip furiously, "Some information that is!!!"

Using the time he had erased himself out of his host's perception, Yoru evidently had gone and drew a mustache on his face, with about a dozen of vertical lines, with what seemed to be some kind of permanent marker.

"So he is some kind of man-child, or what!? Or is he just some petty fool? . . . or is that just his sick kind of humor?", The young handler was ranting on, as he tried to get rid of the undesired 'facial markings'.

"Well... at the very least, he certainly is really skilled... like... REALLY skilled!", Asami explained awed... after she had finally managed to stop laughing, that is.

"SO... and I'm not?", Yasei asked, an eyebrow raised, even if he asked but jokingly.

"Not like he is...!", His partner just responded dryly, without even hesitating for a second, "After training with him for only thirty minutes YOU have perfected almost everything you still hadneededto improve on. HE on the other hand... you were almost dead after that training session, while he technically was just playing with you AND looked like he could have kept going on for a few more hours."

Looking at his partner sulkily, the young handler admitted huffily: "Yeah... maybe... but he still is a crazed psychopath! Killing people just because of some silly felonies?"

"SELFISH felonies...!", His mate rectified with a wary look.

"So what... isn't everybody selfish in some way?", Yasei responded unimpressed, as he clarified, "Not to mention: would Mister SHI-dunno-what have told the proper authorities, instead of going all 'old testament' on them, everybody might have easily been compensated accordingly."

"YEAH? But what about stuff that can't be returned?", Asami responded angrily, glaring at her master furiously.

"OH... you're still angry about this guy... who supposedly pinched Hino's wife?"

"YES! Of course! Why wouldn't I? A bond of mates... how dare he tries to break it!", The canine responded almost desperately, looking at her master in shock, for talking things down like that.

"Asami... I never would leave you... abandon you... no matter what... you know that, don't you?"

Looking at her master sceptically, the female nodded slowly, her head tilted slightly as she curiously waited what her master was playing at.

Shrugging his shoulders, the young handler explained, almost apologetically: "Well... you see... I know it is pretty much the worst kind of 'dick move' you can pull... stealing another's girl, especially when using one's higher social standing to facilitate it... but even if it may sound harsh: should she just fall for some pretty words and manipulation... it's not really worth any kind of regret toloose a partner like that!"

"BUT... they were mates, weren't they?", Asami tried to argue once more, yet earning but a quiet sigh from her own mate.

"Yes... I guess, but... well... what's done is done... even if I may becontradicting myself with this!", Yasei like that explained, still absentmindedly trying to rub the marker off from his face, "BUT... very well, let's just go by that, I guess? Let's see what that Shi-whoever may be up to in the long run and just go along with it?"

Nodding eagerly - as Yoru now had somewhat of a hero status in the canine's mind - the Yokai agreed to this kind of plan excitedly, happily following her master, as he went back down to their apartment.

Curiously jumping at her master's office table, her paws on the tabletop, her head placed on it, Asami curiously asked: "What are you planning now? We just came back and you immediately get on your computer?"

"Well... yeah? We still got a few hours left before bedtime, so... I'm back at this!", Yasei explained explanatory, pointing at the screen he was working on.

Looking at it curiously, the canine finally cocked her ears in recognition.

"OH... yeah... it was only vaguely... but I saw...! You tried working out some kind of plan, as to what you want to do with our powers... but you kept running in circles, I reckon?"

"YEAH... I wasn't working on it for too long... but... all I could come up with...-"

Interrupting her master, Asami skeptically read out, looking at the screen: "Kill all bosses... kill all goons... kill all members... kill all associates... kill all outsidersand insiders... WAIT... what... why would you kill all OUTSIDER? Wouldn't... well everybody be an outsider to any kind of crime organization?"

"Yeah... I was kinda crazy... but at least I still was able to realize that this... IDEAS... weren't too bright...", The young man acknowledged apologetically... before looking back at the screen, as he uttered with a quiet sigh, "Hm... hooray...? The first thing coming to my mind: better not reveal us or we'll end up getting hunted down by some government agency...!"

"WHAT... you think?"

"Well... at least that's mostly what happens in the movies... some super-powered being appears and the government either immediately wants to kill it, turn it in some kind of weapon or at the very least immediately thinks: OMG it's evil!"

Looking at her mate in disbelief for quite a while, the canine finally responded dryly: "Are they out of their tiny minds...!?"

"Well... it is at least somewhat believable... or a little bit at least...?", Yasei replied musingly... before his partner suddenly returned her look to him, almost a look of utter disbelief on her face.

"YOU SAW IT... didn't you?"

"WHAT... saw what?", The young man responded in confusion, utterly baffled as to what he was supposed to have seen now.

"Well... back then... when we merged... the cracks between our world and yours!"

"Our...? What do you...? OH... you mean cracks between the human's and spirit's world? YEAH... even though I kinda missed that... after all, we could clearly see the area of effect of that Mamuro's and his partner's magic too!", The young handler responded musingly, "But I didn't quite think about those... cracks... but whatever gave you this idea now of all things?"

"Well... I just mentioned 'watching you' whenI was... out of commission, didn't I?"

"Yep... pretty much?"

"Well... keeping in this in-between was more of a hassle as it may sound like...!", Asami explained, an almost smug look on her face, "Looks like I toogot a bit out of our worst case... you got some strength... I got some wisdom... not to shabby huh?"

The female flashing her mate a big grin, Yasei uttered a quiet sigh, before finally responding with a cheerless laugh: "Guess so...? Bit of compensation... even though I would sacrifice those trinkets anytime, should I be able to undo this time without you in exchange for it!"

"But we got quite some progress out of it too?", Asami said hopefully, kind of agreeing with her master's words... while not doing so at the same time too. She too had hated every second without her master... but the time without her had made Yasei get clear about his feelings for her, so... she wouldn't give up this time for anything in the world.

Looking at his beloved partner, the young handler finally uttered a quiet sigh, before responding with a shrug of his shoulders: "Guess I might as well agree with you... really wasn't quite pointless after all... would still be all goody two shoes, if not for that time,after all..."

`THAT is what he is happy about...?´, The female thought to herself, still sitting up as she supported herself on her master's desk.

His attention fully returned to his notes again - which now at least made a bit more sense - Yasei responded dryly: "You know I heard that...?"

"HEY... no peaking...!", Asami returned sulkily, leaving her master's side now, as she huffily trotted over to their couch.

The canine utteredan audible huff, as she slumped down on the couch, her master proposed: "If we are talking about 'our big ordeal' again... we might as well pay Yu a visit... poor bugger is probably assuming I completely gone ape-shit by now...!"

"WHAT... why that? What did you do to the poor guy?!", The female immediately assumed, a shocked look on her face... even lifting her head, unwittingly breaking her sulking demeanor.

"HEY... why are you immediately assuming I did something bad to him!?", Her master responded outraged, even looking up from his notes, "Not to mention: I thought you had seen everything I did...?"

"'t was kindablurry...", The canine responded unfazed, as she put her head down on her neatly crossed paws once more.

Writing down all the thoughts coming to mind, considering what to do for 'pre-apocalypse preparations',Yaseifinally uttered a quiet sigh. Standing up from his chair - utterly out of ideas now - Yasei finally asked casually: "So... you good?"

"Yeah... but you don't get to complain should I peek in YOUR thoughts now...!"

"Hm... yeah... sure, why not?", The young man conceded with a shrug of his shoulders, before with a faint smile gesturing Asami to follow him, "Come now puppy... it's bed time."

Asami merely responding with a quiet snort, the both of them went to bad,they sleptin till 9 a.m. the other morning. In the very second Yasei was able to be reasoned with again, the femaleimmediately demanded breakfast, earning but a defeated sigh of her mate... even though he went to work at once anyways.

"Seriously... I know you rate food over anything else... but today your behaving just like we are about to be late for a visit with the emperor...!", The young man stated sarcastically, as he finished preparing their food, "Well... I guess a bit of a haste MIGHT BE in order... after all it would be just fair after worrying Yu and your brother like that, yes?"

"If you say so... well I am hungry, so be a good mate and finish breakfast!", The female responded musingly... before ending in a rather demanding tone, grinning at him widely.

"You're silly as usual... you know that?"

"AM NOT...!"

"Whatever... breakfast is ready...!", Yasei, in the end, ended their scuffle, before it even had really started.

Placing down the last dish a while later, Asami immediately tried to 'jump' the table once more... this time though, her master didn't have her shenanigans. Slapping the female's snout unblinking, he dryly scolded her: "Don't even think about it! I let it slip the last times under the circumstance of you being starved after those days you were out of commission, but I wont accept that for a reason anymore! So be a good girl and SIT!"

Looking at her master wide-eyed, she dropped her tail, setting back her ears, as she followed his orders.

"Good girl...!", Her master commended, petting her head gently, before placing the food he had prepared for her in front of the female, "Now then... dig in!"

The female looking at her master shyly for a second, finally divert her attention back to her food happily feasting on the meal her master had presented her with.

Yasei more... timid - in comparison to Asami greedily devouring whatever she was presented with - it took his partner little more than a minute to finish every last bit of food he had served her, eyeing her master's serving, with a wolfish look.

"NO... bad puppy...!", The young man just stated dryly, slapping the female's snout with his chop-sticks, barely looking at her out of the corner of his eyes, "You had your share! Not to mention you know fully well, how you get extra large portions anyways!"

Averting her eyes with a sulky huff, the female left her mate to his meal, avoiding even looking at him with an almost guilty look.

Finishing his meal quietly, Yasei in the end grabbed the two pieces of meat still remaining, which he had prepared specifically for this scenario.

"Well aren't you a good girl...?", He like that commended the female jokingly, throwing the slices of meat to Asami with his chop-sticks, easily catching both pieces out of midair, "So... let's get this stuff cleaned up and get going, huh?"

"YESCH... letsch!", The female confirmed eagerly, her mouth still full with meat.

"Ts... ts... ts... Asami... don't speak with your mouth full...!", Her master scolded Asami teasingly, as he went on to wash their dishes.

Nodding quietly, she swallowed her food, before stepping up to her master and sitting down next to him, waiting patiently for him to finish his clean-up.

Trying her best to help her master, eagerly opening doors of the kitchen cupboards and even trying to stow away some things herself.

As they finally were finished, Yasei was drying off his hands, as his partner sat in front of him, her tail wagging excitedly, as she flashed him a happy little smile. Responding with a quiet laugh, the young handler gently caressed the female, confirming once more, with an amused smile: "YES... you are a very good girl...!"

Responding with a happy little bark, Asami nudged her head against her master's hand, tail wagging happily, as she finally stood up once more, nudging her head against her master, as to prod him to leave post-haste.

"Hey... don't rush... I'm coming... I'm coming...!", The young handler tried to calm down his mate, laughing quietly as he cooperated with the canine slowly pushing him towards their flats front door.

Barely able to put on his shoes in peace, Yasei went to get Asami's leash, explaining musingly as he clipped it onto the female's collar: "It's not even 10 a.m. yet... and Yu should be out till at least 5 p.m.! So... what would you say about some extra intensive training?"

"WHAT... seriously?", Asami responded... her eyes however went wide, as her master presented her with the stick she had brought back from their first trip to the park nearby.

"Oh really...? And here I thought I'd finally take you to the park again? The big, luscious park close by? Playing some... running some... you know... the usual things?", The young man like that asked innocently, swinging the stick in front of the female's snout, following its movement with wide, excited eyes.

"Oh... no-no-no-no-NO...! I was just joking... just joking!", The female responded hastily, almost looking like she might burst of excitement any minute, "PLEASE... let's go... let's go!"

In the end they spent about two hours playing in the park... doing fetch games, hunting each other up and down the whole park and other doggie-games. Asami even managed to coax her master into some quality-time in that somewhat secluded part of the little forest close to 'her' temple!

Weirdly enough not getting... stuck together this time, they in the end still lay down there for quite a while to regain some stamina, as they still had quite some time left to spare anyways.

Spending some more of their time resting, they finally did return to their apartment for lunch. Going for a last short round of repeating his routines until 4:30 p.m. - about the time Yuma would clock out at work - Yasei and Asami finally left for their friend's place.

Taking their time to get to Yu's place at first, Yasei suddenly stopped dead in track, looking over his shoulder, almost appearing like he was expecting to be followed. Scanning the surroundings with a musing look, he did get moving again... just to suddenly pull his partner in a small back alley street, out of nowhere!

The canine uttered a silent 'UGH' as her master suddenly pulled her in the small alley, by her leash, in the end, still following obediently though. As they finally came to a stop, the canine cast her mate a glance somewhere between anger and confusion, before sitting down on her haunches, as she looked at him skeptically.

"SO... what was that all a...-", Asami started asking... but was quickly interrupted by her master.

'SHUSH...! I just realized something a while earlier...', The young handler interrupted his partner in her mind, as he went down on her knees, to look the female in the eyes, 'It seemed like Mamuro and his partner were stacking out their prey back then... when this weird chain tried to attack us... guess in the hope of finding other handlers...'

'As they did...', The canine confirmed, in the pause her master provided, now obviously a curious look in her eyes.

'SO... what about we give them just what they want?'

'You... want to let them find us... make it easier for them to find us, even?', The female guessed, earning a somewhat reluctant nod from her mate.

'I do... but not just yet!', The young man explained with a sly grin, 'For now... you think you can use what I trained while... you were out?'

Looking at her master with her head cocked, Asami nodded slowly as she asked musingly: 'So... you want to hide our magic then?'

'YES... for now...', Yasei responded with a slow nod, '... and when we reach Yuma, we'll give them just what they want . . . well, in case they too can search for other handler like Shin-whatever can!'

Just looking at her mate musingly for a few seconds Asami too nodded slowly, before finally standing up and shaking her body thoroughly as she got up.

"Well... let's get going then...!", The young handler like that affirmed, as he to stood back up, to get going again.

Making good use of the time it took to reach Yuma's place anyways, Yasei explained Asami what he had learned... she had said she knew most just by watching, but a good explanation surely wouldn't hurt.

He like that explained what he had concluded after his training, including his most recent discovery, after the meeting with Yoru, shortly before finally saving Asami.

The young man thus far had learned, it wasn't only that he could summon fire at will, as long as his stamina held up... but he had also found a fire deep within himself... bound to his very essence, just like Asami.

Training to control and strengthen this, over time the young handler had even learned to utilize the heat of the sun to strengthen his own power... even though this find had somewhat weakened his 'firepower' at night.

He brought all that to a conclusion with what he had learned in that meeting with Yoru.

Having learned about the possibility of handlers sensing magic of other handlers and even their very soul, during that encounter... Yasei had come up with a new idea. Feeling for this fire within... the power of their bond, they just needed to suppress this power, by the force of their will, to conceal themselves from any discovery through other handlers... at least in theory.

Unable to make sure if what they tried did achieve what they wanted, Asami and her Master had to just go with what they had managed to learn thus far.

Arriving at Yuma and Katsuo's place somewhat after 5 p.m., they heard a lethargic 'yeah... yeah... coming...' as the muscular guy came slurping to the door.

"What is it...", Yu asked tired as he opened the door, complaining about not even getting to have some piece and quiet after work.

Hearing a quiet laugh from Katsuo in the background, Yasei flashed his year long friend a smug smile, asking with a quiet laugh as he looked through the gap Yu had opened: "OH... has work really turned into that much of a hellhole?"

Asami flat-out jumping up at the door, pushing it open, they now had Yuma taken utterly by surprise, as she threw him to the ground, when unexpectedly pushing open the door.

"WHAT THE...", The big guy cursed quietly, as he looked up to his unruly guests... before his eyes suddenly went wide.

"Yas... ASAMI... you two... ARE OKAY?!", He shouted out excitedly, as he jumped up to pull his friend close, in a literally forceful hug, while they could clearly hear Katsuo's excited footsteps approach.

"AWAMI... IAMWOGWADYOUAWAWIGHT...!", The guard-lion shouted out excitedly, as he cuddled up close to his sister... crying audibly!

Yasei and even his master looked at Katsuo in shock upon this burst of feelings... the feline - in his animal form barely a third of the size of his sister - took almost a whole minute, until he realized the two humans looking at him as if he was some monstrous curiosity.

Slowly lifting his head upon this realization - whereas even Asami looked at him kinda embarrassed - the feline looked at each one of them, before he audibly cleared his throat, as he explained overly composed: "YEAH... really glad you are alright sister... really glad!"

Responding in an amused snort, the female affectionately nuzzled her nose up to her brother, affirming how she too, was really happy to be back.

"WOW... so... what is it, that earned us the honor of your visit?", Yuma finally asked in a mix of surprise... and a touch of sarcasm.

"Well... initially I just wanted to come over to... well... show you two that my baby-girl is alright again... and that I didn't lose it, in the end...", Yasei explained apologetically and evidently somewhat embarrassed, before stating more seriously, "... but on our way here... a different thought came to my mind..."

Earning a confused look from the other handler pair, the young man explained what had happened to them over the course of the last day, starting with their meeting in the morgue.

"SAY WHAT!?", Yu responded wide-eyed, looking at the both of them in shock, "They just killed the old man!? That guy you suddenly started frequenting a while after your last birthday? But... why did you just let her kill them like that?"

Just responding with a confused look, Yasei explained somewhat embarrassed: "To be honest... well, her ability is to... I don't know, but at the very least she is able to open portals through space and time itself... and... 'steal the time of ordinary people'... I guess?"

"SO... you where scared of them?", Katsuo guessed mockingly, looking at his sister's master with a raised eyebrow.

"WHAT... no! ... or . . . maybe a little... I guess?", The young handler admitted confounded, Asami bowing her head in shame, "You know... their abilities are really strange... OH... and they somehow were able to extinguish... nah... absorb our flame's magic!"

"Well... those DO sound like somewhat troublesome customers...", Katsuo responded musingly... once more interrupting his master, as Yuma clearly just had been about to respond himself.

The big guy in the end just uttering a quiet sigh, Yasei responded reluctantly: "Glad you agree... I guess...? SO... to cut to the point: you in or not?"

Having explained his plan partially, as kind of a conclusion to his 'report' about Takumi, and Mamuro and his master, Yuma and his partner just exchanged a quick glance, before agreeing with a wary nod.

Following a quick instruction on their 'experimental' cloaking technique for magic, they trotted of to the nearest park. In case of Yuma's place it was but a little park, more or less merely designated for little strolls and such... even though Asami still wanted to run off immediately.

Barely clearing his throat once, Yasei reminded his partner how they weren't here for playing... having Asami turn on her heals immediately, as she apologized sheepishly.

As it was almost about dinnertime, the place seemed pretty much empty... yet Yuma still looked his surroundings over skeptically, before finally asking just as wary: "So... what you want to do for this 'invitation' you wanted to send them?"

"Well... merge and use a surge of energy to form a crystal of glass, out of our fire and sand magic... at least this would be the gist of it...?", The young man explained musingly, before shrugging his shoulders, reaching one hand out to Asami and the other to Yuma, "Just grab my hand and... fill the room between our hands with energy? That technically is all there is to my plan... this should create a crystal of powerful magic which those too, should they be about as adept as Yoru... they should easily be able to feel that."

As Asami immediately followed her master's orders, Yu and Katsuo looked at him skeptically at first, before finally agreeing: "Well... I guess if they really are as dangerous as you say... we might as well get at em, before they come after us, huh...?"

Nodding briefly, as Yuma and his partner too merged, the younger handler took his friends hand, before finally focusing on the fire within himself, trying to focus it like he had planned.

Within mere seconds feeling a surge of energy from Yuma - even more pure than his own at that - it took about a minute, before suddenly a flash of white emitted from between there hands. Holding on to each other's hands as long as they could, as the energies radiating from the mix of their magic was burning and pushing their hands apart... almost as if it tried to escape their grasp.

"Can't any...", Yasei finally just mumbled, as the colliding and merging magic finally DID force their hands apart... revealing a small crystal of glass, about the shape of a teardrop, slowly sinking to the ground, like moving through water.

"Very well, come then!", Yu finally uttered, as he snatched the crystal out of the air and through it away from them, towards the center of the park.

Pulling the younger handler along, to get to an at least somewhat hidden spot, he watched the crystal fall to the ground and shatter, releasing the energy they had stored within it in a giant burst of light.

Unable to resist feeling somewhat threatened at this point, after all he was well aware of the female handler's powers, Yasei looked the place over with a hint of panic... until Yuma gave him a slap to the back of his head.

Just mumbling a quiet 'ouch', Yasei quietly apologized, as they waited for... well... anything to happen.

Having to wait for... not even a minute, a pitch black portal of energy formed out of nowhere, at the very point the crystal just had shattered.

Routs, almost like tentacles, shot out of the ground, towards the two handler, forcing the two males to leave their hiding-spot, having them break there attention at the other handler's appearance. As the roots suddenly stopped they heard an all to familiar cackle... it was familiar for Yasei and Asami, to be precise.

"Oh well... oh well... thank you so much... really appreciate this grand invitation of yours.", Takumi explained with this quiet cackle of his, the fox sitting on one of the now unmoving roots.

"Yeah... really appreciate it guys...!", The girl they had seen kill the old man from the barbecue shop and his wife said... or was it?

The young woman did look exactly like the one that, well... evidently was Mamuro's master... yet this one wore more... masculine clothes? Her hair was completely hidden beneath the grayish hoodie she wore... and he didn't really seem to be able to make out her eye color, as they too were somewhat hidden behind the shadow of her hoodie.

Yasei just glaring at the pair skeptically, it was Yuma that answered dryly: "Well, it was our pleasure... even though, I would really appreciate you two NOT playing tricks on us, after this generous invitation of ours. My friend here may not be able to feel energy very well... -", Earning a dry 'your not that good at it either' the big guy continued unfazed, "- ... YOU aren't the one that cast this portal, so stop playing hide and seek with us, would you?"

Appearing like they were materializing out of the very shadows no four feet away from Yasei, the way more femininely dressed, black haired woman they met earlier stepped in the light, together with her partner Mamuro.

"Oh my... quite the feisty one aren't you... better look out, or else I just might fall in love with you...!", The black haired woman responded in that calm, yet ironic tone of hers, earning a quiet 'EEEP' from Yuma, "OH...? Not interested? Not even a little? ... well that kind of rejection is really hurtful to a lady, ya know?"

"BOO...! How dare you reject my sis like that?", Her sister responded in a sarcastic, yet somehow... rebellious tone.

"YEAH... how dare you... HOW DARE YOU!", Takumi eagerly agreed to his master, even though he seemed to just agree like that to tease them.

"Oh SHUSH...", Mamuro finally interrupted his accomplices - especially the Kitsune - as he finally asked in his usual calm manner, "So... for whatever reason may you four have called upon us?"

Looking both of the girls over one last time Yasei just uttered a quiet sigh, before suddenly cutting through the air with his hand, a brilliant burst of flame following the movement of his hand.

"OH CRAP... not again...!", The vulpine Yokai immediately shouted out as he fled behind some of the roots, clearly remembering the last encounter with Yasei's flames all to well.

His master - or maybe rather his mistress - meanwhile didn't fair as well. She barely looked at the flames in confusion, before they already had utterly engulfed her seconds later.

To his surprise however, her sister - which as they already knew could have easily extinguished his flames - reacted only in the last second... even though she had extinguished the flames targeting her and her partner, before they could even reach her.

Realizing this in the very last second, Yasei looked at the black haired handler in shock, unable to react in any way in time. Reaching out her hand herself, the whole park was swallowed in perfect darkness, spreading out from right where Mamuro and his mistress were standing.

To his shame Yasei was barely able to stare on in terror, while Yuma managed to at least summon his catalyst and got ready to defend himself... as they were devoured by darkness.

As the last thing he could make out - the most important thing in this attack of his - were the chains on Takumi's handler... he could just about see them smoldering ever so slightly... until he was swallowed in utter darkness.

'NO... did... did we fail...?', Was the last thought of the young handler... as everything around him turned into nothingness.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

*Kata ~ form = detailed choreographed pattern of movements for solo-practice

**Baka ~ idiot/fool

***37 000 yen ~ 340 $ ~ 295 €

****440 000 yen ~ 4100 $ ~ 3 650 €