I picked up the adorable little girl, then kissed her cheeks, eliciting a small smile from the girl as she hugged my neck.
Áine also joined in on the hug, sandwiching Lilith between us. Thankfully, Lilith didn't mind, and both girls got along well.
For breakfast, we had pancakes and bacon. Lilith, of course, doused her pancakes with enough syrup to make my teeth hurt.
After breakfast, it fell on me to get Lilith cleaned up. Her face was covered in the sticky substance. Unfortunately, I didn't have the strength of heart to stop her from giving me a wet, sticky kiss on the cheek while I carried her to the bathroom to get her cleaned up…
At noon, we all went outside for some exercise. I summoned some bokken for Áine and I to practice Zanjutsu with since she wanted to help me train my combat skills. She wasn't a fan of the oriental, single-edge, curved blade, but she was still more than skilled enough to beat me when our parameters were capped at the same level.
After a few hours, I was left gasping on the ground while Áine had just barely broken a sweat. Lilith, on the other hand, came over and hesitantly offered to share her shake with me.
I took a small gulp before thanking her, which made her smile slightly and pat my head like I had been doing to her and Áine all day. That little gesture blew all my fatigue away and adorned my face with a big smile.
Even after learning her name, Lilith wasn't much of a talker. What I learned about her was limited to her love for sweets and her weakness towards affection. She continued warming up to Áine and appeared more comfortable with her head pats and hugs. Though, Lilith still preferred my head pats and back rubs. Especially when it was nap time. She also had developed a possessive tendency towards sitting on my lap.
Áine would also occasionally give me special wake up calls when Lilith got up early and left to watch cartoons. We tried several other things, but we never actually went for sex.
•••
It was now about the end of the second week, and we had all grown fairly used to one another's company.
I was once again training with Áine, and this time we were practicing Hakuda. I had started teaching her all of my Shinigami skills since the Bleach techniques would be my troops' signature skills.
Although, we were a bit closer in skill level with hand-to-hand combat, it was unsurprising that with Áine's vast experience and training, she still managed to come out on top — literally.
Áine was currently kneeling beside me as she locked my wrist, just waiting for me to surrender. Try as I might, there was no way to break free without breaking the limit on our parameters.
I sighed at my fifth defeat of the day. "I surrender Áine."
Áine released my arm and allowed me to roll over before taking her prize. She saddled my stomach, leaned down, and kissed me for several seconds.
"Mmh, not bad, Orion. You're definitely improving, and not just your kissing. You wouldn't have an issue taking on an above-average knight from Camelot, but you are not at the level of the Round Table…yet."
Hearing her evaluation, I was eager to start tearing into monsters in the real world to increase my stats, but I also wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to get to know both of these girls better, as well as train my skills with Áine.
After spending two weeks here with my spirits, I have learned quite a bit. Áine has opened up to me about the truth of her past life and the troubled she had with her "father".
«This may not interest those familiar with her story from Nasuverse. It is almost a copy-paste retelling of her past.»
Áine, or Mordred as she was known then, was a clone of the Once and Future King of Britain, Artoria Pendragon. In those times, women were not treated with the same level of respect and equity they had been in the modern civilization from our previous world.
Therefore, Artoria disguised her true nature under the visage of the legendary Arthur Pendragon. Very few people knew of her true identity, such that even now, only her male persona is recognized by the world.
After a certain occasion where Artoria had become pseudo-male to disguise herself, her half-sister, Morgan le Fay, had enchanted her with magic and stolen a sample of Artoria's sperm. She developed it within her own womb and used magecraft to turn the child into a homunculus clone of Artoria.
Áine was then birthed and raised in secret. Due to her nature as a homunculus, Áine grew much more quickly than normal humans, and she would, therefore, also have a much shorter lifespan.
Throughout her brief childhood, she was forced to keep the secret of her birth while also being told it was her right to inherit her "father's" throne. It was her mother's goal for her daughter to defeat the father and take his place, but Áine had an ardent adoration for her the godlike-King of Knights.
Not getting the results she wanted, Morgan proceeded to twist Áine's immature personality by shaming her for her twisted origins. This made Áine feel miserable and jealous of ordinary people and families.
Despite suffering from her mother's abuse, Áine sought to become the ideal knight, while also harboring the darkness flourishing in her young mind. Even then, she felt happiness and pride, believing that she was most fit to become the true successor of The King of Knights, due to the truth of her origins.
She had approached her beloved "father" with the truth of her parentage, but Artoria stoutly rejected her claim to the throne and her lineage. She would neither allow Áine to inherit her position, nor let her to take up her title as the "son" of Arthur.
After suffering the abuse of her mother and facing the rejection of her "father, " Áine became lost in hatred and started developing thoughts of rebellion to take her "birth-right" by force.
Though in truth, she only ever wanted to be accepted by Artoria, Áine's young mind processed that as a need to surpass him. She took up the grievances towards the king in his absence and led a massive rebellion which ended in the legendary Battle of Camlann.
In the end, the battle of attrition came down to a battle between Áine and Artoria. There, Áine was pierced by Artoria's Holy Lance and tried to reach out to her "father" one last time, only to be rejected once again. In her angst, Áine attacked Artoria with all her remaining strength, mortally wounding her, and ultimately causing her death.
•••
This was Áine's side of the story, that I squeezed out over the last two weeks.
Outside of that, I learned more about her as a person. Áine was really quite innocent at heart. Just a playful and ardent young woman who was forced to grow up far too quickly.
Ironically, in her previous life, she was cursed to a short life due to her nature as a homunculus. Now, she would be cursed with longevity should nothing unexpected happen to her.
When I pointed that out to her, Áine just chuckled with her mischevious laugh as she hugged me and explained that as her elder brother, I would need to take responsibility and take care of her now. I might have argued were it not for the fact that she was doing an incredible job taking care of me and my needs currently.
It was also then that Áine began training me even harder. She almost doubled the intensity of our spars and our workouts.
While it didn't increase any of my physical parameters, it helped refine my willpower and mental fortitude both of which improved my control over my spiritual and magical powers.
Although it wasn't directly reflected in my parameters, the ease with which I could now manipulate my techniques and spells was remarkable compared to when I first entered my inner world.
I always made sure to take care of my energetic little sister afterwards with a relaxing, non-sexual massage, though, things still headed in that direction from time to time.
Of course, I did my best to make sure Áine understood that that was not something I expected from her. I didn't want our relationship to be some sort of quid-pro-quo scenario. We often just snuggled up with Lilith in between us while we watched a movie or played a game.
Without even noticing it, we had become our own happy little family…
Still saddled by Áine after my defeat, I had only noticed Lilith approaching me once she was already by my side. She perched herself on my chest, similar to Áine and tightly hugged my neck.
The first time she had done this a few days ago, she had directly copied Áine and kissed me on the lips. Thinking it was cute, I didn't stop her, but I also explained to her the importance of a kiss, and that she couldn't just go around kissing everyone, only her family and the person she loved most in the world.
She didn't really seem to understand so Áine and I didnt push the subject. It would still take a while before I could even materialize her true form in the real world at the rate we were going, so it wasn't a big deal.
In fact, although I had learned a bit more about Lilith too, our relationship had only grown to the point where I now instictively understood when she was hungry.
The most significant development, though, was getting Lilith to reveal her shikai (initial release).
Zanpakuto had two other forms, aside from their normal, sealed state. The first was called Shikai and it revealed a portion of the Zanpakuto's true form and power. The final form was called Bankai and it was generally between 5-10x as strong as the Zanpakuto's Shikai form. It is considered the Shinigami's penultimate technique.
It all started a few days ago when Áine and I were sparring with actual swords. I was using a conjured katana while Áine was using Clarent, the sword she stole from her father and was bound to her spirit through blood and hatred, or something of the sort…
Nonetheless, the moment Áine summoned Clarent, Lilith immediately reacted, instantly appearing in front of me.
Áine smiled at her, "Are you finally ready to wake up and stop being such a lazy head?" she asked, while settling into her stance.
Lilith didn't say anything, but the aura she was releasing seemed a bit unfathomable. It radiated a slightly darker, purple-black aura than my own, before condensing into a pitch black sword with rusted metal accents extending from the hilt, through the guard, and into it's blade.
The sword was shaped similar to a traditional scimatar, though it's length was closer to that of a longsword, coming in at about 120cm in length. It looked quite comical in Lilith's dainty hand, but she easily held the blade with a single hand.
"Look, Lilith-chan, the blood lust isn't coming from me, it's this sword. It's been corrupted by blood and treachery. It is no longer the token of leadership it once was…"
Clarent was the sword Áine stole in Artoria's absence and since it didn't acknowledge her, she was only able to unlock it's most basic ability by drowning it in her hatred and bloodlust. According to her, the sword had dropped an entire quality-grade after she stole it.
Despite Áine's embittered expression, Lilith stepped before her, confusing my saddened little sister. Before Áine could do anything, though, Lilith grabbed Clarent and soaked it in her aura.
Áine was concerned, but she resisted her knee jerk temptation to pull her sword away for fear of harming the little girl. She looked towards me with pleading eyes as she called out for me to do something.
I was dazed by the appearance of Lilith's sword, but Áine's shout hurriedly caught my attention. I flashed beside Lilith to try and stop her but she looked at me spoke before I could reach out towards her hand.
"Don't. I'm devouring it's sadness," she said clearly and loud enough for both Áine and I to hear.
Slowly, Lilith's aura receeded back into her body, and the once tarnished blade had returned to its silvery splendor. Along with the darkness, the hatred and the bloodlust elevated by the blade vanished too. The only thing that remained was an exquisite blade with a slightly regal appearance.
It seemed that if Áine wished to regain the swords Royal aura completely, she would need to create and bestow it herself.
Seeing the last reminder of her past sins wiped away brought Áine to her knees as she stared at the once familiar blade. Tears filled her eyes, a strange mix of both happiness and sadness. It was almost as if she only now was truly being reborn, thanks to Lil-chan.
Áine dropped the sword to her side and darted over towards us before wrapping Lilith and I in an emotional hug.
"Th—thank you, so much Lilith-chan. You have no idea how much this means to me. I—I thought I would have to bare the sins for having tainted this sword for the rest of my life, but you have given me a second chance. Both of you have …" Áine kept thanking us over and over again.
Despite squirming at first, Lilith eventually accepted Áine's embrace and returned it. I, of course, held both girls in my arms with a happy smile. I wasn't not entirely sure what Lilith had done, but it obviously wasn't some minor gimmick and it clearly meant a great deal to Áine.
In order to thank Lilith I made a large batch of cookies and brownies for dessert. Two treats she had grown to love in the last few weeks.
In exchange, while Lilith was munching, I examined my new sleek looking Shikai.