BA-BBEEEP-BA-BEEEP-BA…
"Sector Zeta-B9 has encountered an incursion-aftereffect!"
"We just lost contact with Zeta-B9! I'm rerouting tacet-field counter-actuators through a backdoor wormhole path!"
"99 Crasslers exponential surge of time fractals!"
"CAN SOMEBODY GET THE BLOOD FACKIN' STRATA-STABILIZERS ONLINE!"
On and on the alarms and screaming reports went, like a continuous orchestra of desperation and pandemonium which surpassed even the performances of Bach in their explosiveness. She traversed the dimension-flux corridors, passing through several inter-temporal microcompressed rifts to enter the control room of System C44 - the team of operatives responsible for handling the Lawframe Archimote Engine Cores to a satisfactory stability in case of emergencies like these. As she entered and the blaring of distorted hypersonic alarms blasted her beyond-human eardrums she felt an immediate headache forming. On the 6th-no maybe even 10th on the Ernestine scale of unmoderated migraines.
I wonder at times, is this what the poor, ill-prepared souls at Chernobyl felt before the disaster. she thought to herself as panic flooded her thoughts like an acidic drizzle and apprehension clouded her judgement like heavy smog. An entire prime-timeline was at stake and all she could do was meander about like a college graduate. As low on the proverbial hierarchical ladder of operatives within the Astral Nexus of the AYIN organization as she was, Patricia was still something beyond existence and creation itself. Better performance was expected of her.
As a natural Sentinel, she observed a single universe through the same lens a programmer might see the digital universe of their video game project. She rarely could relate to the inner workings of such a constrained reality. But that also meant she had little control over herself or the universe she was assigned to monitor when accidents on an unprecedented magnitude occurred. And, probably much like Aleksandr Akimov and Leonid Toptunov during the last seconds before the disaster, her thoughts were racing and clashing violently at how to respond to these unknown variables.
And unlike them, I don't have my own AZ-5 button. There's no breaks once this 'reactor' starts accelerating.
The initial panic from the invasive space-time impact with Iteration-1984, the aforementioned universe she was in charge of observing from outside, still clung to her like a gamma tumor. As much as her boss told her it's nobody's fault, she couldn't stop blaming her tunnel-vision when she was first assigned to this project. Why hadn't she double checked the outer dimensional membrane defenses?
No, no time for self-doubting, I have to get the main work-station in order before someone initiates the wrong protocol and blows up a galaxy-cluster!
"E-Excuse me everyone…" despite her steeled nerves, her voice came out meek, every drop of uncertainty in her form now dripping out like an open wound. Her sharp glare immediately faltered as the ruckus of shouts, people bumping into people and barked requests/information-relays drove her eardrums to near-rupturing.
"Eleazar, where's the goddamn report from System C38, we've got supermassive black holes tearing the dimensional veil a new ass-crack!"
"I know, Karo, I know Monad damn you! Their information can't exactly travel instantaneously, it has to reach through the Sitra Achra ontology-networks to avoid the Heisenberg principle coming into effect!"
"I don't care, tell them to use acausal aeonic amplifiers if they have to, we need that data right now!"
Patricia rubbed her temples, doing her best to stifle the arising migraine. Even though her hands were gloved, she could feel the shaking, the rigid chill that rattled her quintessential essence from inside.
"E-everyone, please calm down, we need to work this b-by the book or-"
"99, 100…no, wait, 98, 95…and now it's 99 again. Subspace anti-paradox quantum wave counter-offensive failed, offsetting the signal by .3 intensity."
"Sector Zeta B8 went dark, too! Probably another waveform temporal collapse event!"
"WHY IN THE BLOODY FACK ARE THE STRATA-BLOODY FACKIN-STABILIZERS NOT BLOODY FACKIN' ONLINE!"
She wanted to stomp her feet. She wanted to stomp her feet on the cold steel-like floor and yell at the top of her lungs, because she couldn't endure any more of this. The alarms kept blaring, the buttons kept being pressed, digital data analysis screens kept appearing and disappearing and nobody was shutting the hell up!
But…she couldn't. All she did was tap her foot ferociously and stand there with her shoulders slumped and her posture low like she wanted to curl up and cry. But right before the first tear could form-
『SILENCE!』
Everyone covered their ears and dropped to their knees with the sole exception of Patricia, who heard the utterance of the command as a faint, gentle whisper. The alloy-walls of System C44's mainframe work-station bent inwards and the visage of everything rippled as if they were previously staring through a clean water surface and some higher power had just splashed it.
"G-guh…"
"G-gah…!"
"Ugh…L-Lady…!?"
Grunts and groans, not so much from pain, but rather from a burden placed upon their very ontology as "things" that made it difficult to even breathe. Even the systems and work-station I/O devices went fully silent. Heck, the concept of sound itself within that room bowed down to that voice.
And in that rippling tranquility, Patricia saw the flash of a pillar of electromagnetic surge, shooting up into a swirl of countless stars before reforming the work-station and the order of concepts within. From the eldritch flash came a little girl, about 12 in appearance, but with the presence of an ancient god.
"L-Lady Akane…" Patricia finally muttered, quiet and flustered to herself. A dust of pink trailed over her cheeks, from the sheer embarrassment. This was the exact situation she was afraid her boss would find her in.
"If you peons keep screaming like panicked little kids on the final exams, I will have all of you stationed on the lower levels! Do I make myself clear?" Akane's voice cut through the air like a sharpened blade, expressing her anger and frustration with the professionalism of someone five times her actual age. It was a warning delivered with an even tone, her voice raising just enough, carrying a sharp bite that got the memo across.
Patricia's heart throbbed with wonder and envy. She couldn't even get the room to listen for one second. Akane spoke and the very dimensional boundaries seemed to stand at attention. With one expert usage of the right tone inflections, she let every one of her employees know - she wasn't spited, just disappointed.
She truly is a transcendental genius.
"B-But Lady Himejima we-" one tried to object, but was shot down with a raised hand. It wasn't any magic or use of power, that was just how commanding Akane's presence was.
"Status report. Now." she demanded, that quiet power oozing even stronger still. It took one of the mainframe operators but two seconds before Akane had her report. She shot a glance at the data, scrolling and running her eyes through what was probably thousands of lines of information, before swiftly discarding it. "Alright then. The situation's rapidly unfolding like 2020 US politics, but at least there's no Aeon movements nor any reality-collapse events yet."
She read through all that data as if it was just a single sentence. Her cognitive functions are beyond cosmic. Patricia blinked, the very idea of someone processing near-endless droves of information still baffling her, despite all the time she knew Lady Akane Himejima. She was so enamored with her boss' cognitive capabilities that it initially didn't hit her that Akane's silent piercing glare, and the silent stares of the working staff, were all boring into her.
Patricia sputtered and nearly let go of the e-tablet she was clutching, catching it but failing to grab it at first, making it spin in the air, before she finally caught it with both hands. She sighed and shoved her face in it, wanting to bury herself in the circuits of the device.
"Patricia?" Akane asked, her voice gentler when addressing her personally, but still sharp as steel.
"S-sorry, so sorry, Lady Akane!" not wanting to suffer any more of the humiliation nor to keep disappointing her boss, Patricia's fingers became a blur as she clicked the right sequence of buttons on the tablet to initiate the presentation protocols. Finally, it booted up and began displaying 3D and higher-dimensional plots and graphs of different sequences of data gathered by the workstation. "W-we've surmised that nearly 60% of all 'outskirt sectors' of both the Dimensional Gap and the outer dimensional veils have been breached, violently. Our main theory right now is the use of a Discordian Void Gate-"
"No, your theory is wrong. If it was that our sensors would've picked up on the collapsing of possibility-intersections of the worlds. The whole Sitra Achra would be rippling with signals of that like some kind of boyband music-fest. No, our little Invader or invaders, used a more discreet method." Akane's expert deduction and deconstruction of their overview stunned them and made Patricia's knees buckle even more. Twice now, she had screwed up, hadn't she? But her boss gave no indication of disappointment. "Go on then, finish the rest."
"U-um r-right, so…s-so with that in mind, combined with all our efforts for retracing the steps of the invading entities, as well as the lack of success of the anti-paradox protocols we believe this is not a class S world-compromise event, it's a class X one. I-In other words…"
"An Archon." Akane spoke the word out, resolute as always. And then the workstation broke apart, a million whispers of a million dead worlds flooded in and a yawning rumble from an infinitely spreading splinter in a crimson-tinted void with jagged teeth surged in, kind of like a background wall trying to "smash" the playable characters.
⧼⧼ ꋖꁝꑀ ꈜꑀ꒦ꑀꃔ ꑀꏳ꒒꒐ꉣꈜꑀꈜ ꋖꊿ ꌅꌈ꒒ꑀ ꋖꁝꑀꂵ ꁲ꒒꒒. ꋖꁝꑀ ꋖꅐ꒐ꃔ ꂵꊿꊿꃔꈜ ꋖꊿ ꀷꑀꈜꋖꌅꊿꐔ ꋖꁝꑀꂵ ꁲ꒒꒒. ꋖꁝꑀ ꋖꅐꑀꃔꋖꐔ-ꑀ꒐ꁅꁝꋖ ꉣꌅ꒐ꑀꈜꋖꑀꈜꈜꑀꈜ ꋖꊿ ꏳꌅꑀꁲꋖꑀ ꋖꁝꑀꂵ ꁲꃔꑀꅐ ⧽⧽
The gnawing crimson void spoke to them, inserting words and new ontologies into the very structure of reality around them, glyphs and symbols flying past their eyes, in both their past and their future, at the same time. They floated like astronauts in zero gravity, helpless against the tide that corroded any semblance of cosmic order. Their existences began unraveling like silk threads-
『I invoke thee, IS-NOT!』
A mirthful laughter resonated with the very walls of every dimension there ever was and a hand blacker and bigger than the gnawing void itself swatted it away like a fly, clearing the space off its taint. With a snap of her fingers Akane unleashed several arcs of fractal electromagnetic power which bounced off fragments of the broken workstation, re-arranging the world back in place.
Everyone, including Patricia, slammed back down on the reformed floor and gasped for air. Some even kissed the ground and others were in a ball whimpering.
This was exactly why Patricia was hesitant to utter it. The true name of the highest elite servants of the Pillar Gods of [E x E]. The emanations and avatars of their absolute totalities and the "Aeons" of their multiverse. To even speak their official rank was like inviting a piece of their true might to come haunt you.
"Bloody fackin hell, Akane, the hell's wrong with-"
"Oh cool your tea-pot, "King fackin George", I had counter-measures prepared in advance, nobody was in any real danger." some chuckled at the Akane's jab at their colleague's heavy british accent, while others still glared with slight suspicion.
"B-but, still…why…?" Patricia out of everyone dared to bring her superior's course of actions to question. It was not a preferred action, but the hierarchy of the Astral Nexus did not forbid critique towards anyone or anything.
"I wanted to test if our little Invader friend was truly as sneaky as he probably thinks he is. And this is the surest fire-way to have absolute, 101% certainty that what we are dealing with is…"
Everyone braced themselves, wincing, as they expected another invocation of that accursed title and the subsequent consequences of it. But it never came, instead they stood there looking ridiculous while their boss shook her head with a slight smirk which she hid expertly.
"a Prime-Class Evie."
"Oh god…"
"I thought you were gonna…"
"I might need a new pair of pants, bruh…"
A symphony of relieved sighs resounded and Patricia would be lying if she said she didn't want to join them. She had never personally encountered those things, especially not the higher-ranked ones. They say you need to try everything at least once, but that was something she wouldn't want to experience again. If it weren't for her enhanced Sentinel abilities, the sheer presence of that gnawing crimson void would've reduced her to atoms as her consciousness tore itself apart.
"I do apologize for not warning you all, but hopefully you guys now understand why we need to be absolutely diligent and on-point with our workflow and organization. The enemy is nigh-omniscient, nigh-omnipotent, nigh-omnicapable. The more you worry about what you can't do, the more time you give that thing to do whatever it is doing." Akane spoke to them, her sharp tone now assuring and almost motherly, which was an irony not lost on the whole staff. All nodded along in agreement, head hanging somewhat low, either from self-deprecation or imminent regret at taking this job.
"Normally, I would leave it at that and trust you to handle the job, but it seems I need to stay around for a bit to regulate the pipelines. Bit of a shame, since I'm looking forward to meeting good old Purgey soon, but until you guys learn to operate properly under stress, you will be closely supervised by me or some of the other higher-ups." and there it was, the utter disappointment their boss had with their lack of competence and proper emotional self-regulation. Akane let that silence marinate for a bit, before tapping her heel and humming. "With that said, everybody go to your assigned posts, keep me updated on the situation and listen to every single word I say. Follow every command and request I make. No complaints. Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am!" they all responded in unison, voices clear and loud, like a squad of trained soldiers. And just like a squad of trained soldiers, they all went back to their posts, except for Patricia, who stumbled for a bit.
"Patricia, a minute, please?" Akane once again addressed Patricia personally with a slightly gentler tone.
She took a step towards her and held her gaze with sharp but now warmer eyes. Patricia couldn't help but feel like she was being observed by a doting older sibling, which sounded ridiculous. She was bigger, taller and technically older than her young …she still felt like the little sister here.
"It isn't my place to tell you what to do twenty-four/seven, but you have to remember: A system needs a stable star to be in balance, otherwise the whole thing falls apart." Akane said and then without further elaboration left her there.
Patricia rubbed her hands, brows furrowed deep as she failed to capture the meaning. But even as cryptic as Lady Akane's message was, she couldn't shake the feeling that she had somehow failed to meet her expectations.
The Hyoudou Residence. While destined to be a grand hotel, a mansion of billionaire proportions one day, for now it was still in its humble beginnings. A cloistered and demure little two-story house, white as snow walls, bland roof tiles and a simple balcony for hanging the clothes to dry. It was the perfect "average unassuming suburban house".
Except, inside the house, it was anything but average, unassuming or perfect.
"ISSEI, GET OFF THE TABLE RIGHT NOW!" a female voice belonging to one distraught Miki Hyoudou tore through the air like a lioness' growl.
"None can do, Mrs. Hyoudou, for I, the Great Dragnarok, am here on a top-secret mission!" the target of her stress, her little 10 year old son Issei, was comically perched up on their dinner table, one beheaded toy in hand and a toy NERF gun in the other. His little feet still had his sweaty socks on as he rubbed them all over the table. Something which enraged the Hyoudou matriarch further.
"Issei, you're not on a secret mission, you're just dirtying the house, now please for the love of God, just COME DOWN!"
"Quiet, woman! I can sense her! My arch-enemy approaches!"
Miki, at this point, saw red and was just about ready to grab her sandal and start laying an absolute ass whooping on the disobedient self-absorbed child. But just as she knelt down, she felt a gentle but firm hand on her shoulder.
"Gorou, let go of me, I need to teach this little freak a lesson!" Miki hissed, her voice stern and heavy with the anger of a scorned asian mom.
"N-now, Miki. We don't need to resort to that…yet. Besides, calling our son a freak is a bit much, don't you think?" Gorou placated his wife, offering his perspective on things. A perspective which she was about to dismiss before she peeped his worried expression, for both her and their son, and she relented.
"Y-you're right, I didn't mean to. But we've been dealing with… this , for the past two years, ever since Issei met that old creep that hangs around the parks and got him hooked up on "spy-fiction"."
"Yeah, never knew why the police never arrested him, half the neighbours here filed a complaint about him and they always said they couldn't touch him." Gorou agreed with his wife on this, but still wanted to offer a silver lining. "Well, at least he didn't give him p*rn to read. Old men round here are perverted freaks to the bone. And just freaks in general."
"Yeah…remember the "Bloody Christmas Tree" incident, last December? That Mitsuki girl? I still can't believe someone would-"
Woof! Woof!
Crash!
The sound of a ceramic object landing on the floor and breaking, followed by the quiet spurts of water spilling out and wetting the floor was so devastating, Gorou could swear he saw his wife's patience physically snap .
"Aha-The Big Bad President Wolf, she-haha-wait, K-Kumo stop-haha!" the "Great Dragnarok"-'s secret service agent childish voice imitation completely gave way to the licks and incessant head rubs he endured by the assault of a small, blue and white furred canine. The scene would've been adorable, and might've fully melted his wife's anger…if not for the 60k-yen Meiji Era vase that now lay broken in twelve pieces, the water inside pooling around the boy and the little dog.
"Oh, Kami…" help us all he secretly finished in his head, not wanting his wife's boiling hot anger to be directed at him due to a badly phrased comment.
Said wife's eyes surged with the burning fury of twin suns and Gorou could've sworn he saw actual balls of fire surge from her eye-sockets.
"WHAT THE HECK DO I KEEP SAYING ABOUT GETTING ON THE TABLE WITH THE NEW VASE, THIS IS THE SECOND ONE, ISSEI!" Miki's rage practically caused a local earthquake and Gorou, once again, could swear his wife was bending the laws of physics as objects around the house seemed to levitate for a moment. Her beautiful brown hair flew-up like a dancing flame and she grabbed her sandal and took aim. "That's it, young man, no more monkey-ing around with the dog or you're grounded FOR LIFE!"
With pure motherly strength, she threw the sandal so hard Gorou swore it turned into a searing trail of light, like a comet.
"Huup! Dragon-Roll!" but with a somewhat ridiculous yet also precise jump and roll, the ten-year-old ninja impersonator dodged the sandal-comet by a hair breadth.
Woah. I know Shin and Irina liked to show him how to fight with sticks, but this is new. Did he learn it from one of those spy-jumboo comics? Gorou thought, slightly impressed. Also concerned, hoping Issei wouldn't grow up to believe he could use that in a real fight.
The little boy-wonder, with his grand feat achieved, smirked deviously and pointed at his new primary threat. "Ah, so the Fiery Demoness wants to lock me up in her ivory tower! But you will never take me!"
He then threw a makeshift smoke-bomb, which was really just a thin cloth with flour, and it spilled on the floor without obscuring anything. Gorou wanted to cry. He had cleaned the laminated wooden planks till they glistened just hours ago.
"D-Demoness…?!" Miki was at a loss for words. Literally, she couldn't even form a sentence, she just started growling and every vein in her body throbbed with sheer fury. And righteous as it was, Gorou remembered the summer of last year and wanted to avoid the house getting demolished from inside.
He grasped her shoulder, still gentle but with a bit more firmness so she wouldn't just brush his hand off.
"Honey, just let him be, he's in that phase right now, he'll fix his own mess later." he said.
Her infernal glare was on him and for a brief second Gorou thought she might genuinely rip his hand off. Then he remembered this was his wife. "Gorou, we can't just let him run around like Tarzan, this is the second antique vase I bought that he has broken! And he has to learn he can't go around calling the dog "Big Bad President" or me a "DEMONESS"!"
"Right, right, I get that, completely. But if you let him tire himself out playing with the dog, he'd be easier to deal with. We don't have to contribute to trashing the house and you can give him a spanking all you like." Gorou offered, hitting her with one of his dashing "I have the solution"-type smirks that always won her heart and she calmed down, the sizzling fireballs in her eyes dispersing.
"That's…not a bad call, actually." Miki smiled and leaned in, pecking him affectionately on the lips. "My charming problem-solving prince. Or I guess, charming "demon"~?"
She began poking and rubbing his chest with her finger while flashing a sultry little grin and Gorou immediately felt his pants get heavier by a bit.
God, I REALLY hope Issei is deep asleep tonight!
"T-that is what I'm for, honey, hehe!" he stammered after a pause, his cheeks practically glowing red.
"Hmm~, well I guess you deserve a proper reward for being such a good Prince Demon~?" Miki purred, voicing out the innuendo like she was the same young woman Gorou had fallen head over heels for. One stroke of his chin and he became soft like putty in her hands.
GOD, KEEP MY SON ASLEEP AND MY LIFE IS YOURS!
"But really, I am worried about our boy, Gorou." Miki said, her provocative sensual self fading, much to Gorou's dismay. She crossed her arms and observed little Issei running around shouting some James Bond-inspired nonsense about global conspiracies, bombs and flying dog-people. It made little sense to the Hyoudou matriarch, but she couldn't help but smile warmly at the scene, despite her eyebrows twitching every time he hit a house-object.
"Miki?" Gorou asked, noticing his wife's unusual silence.
"I love that he's found his own little hobby, and it isn't something that'd turn him into a complete degenerate, but…" she turned to him and her smile turned sad, almost burdened by her motherly worry for the boy. "I-It bothers me, dear. He has an almost freakish obsession , especially after he heard that old man who gave him his first comics…passed away on the same night they met."
That stunned Gorou briefly. Normally his wife had a relatively straight-forward way of approaching life, no-bullshit, no-hidden semantics. She knew what she wanted to do or say and she did and said it without hesitation. But this was shockingly deep.
He pondered on it. Gorou and his wife had always found that particular old man…weird, to say the least. A bit of a dodgy geezer, as his friend Touji often put it. Stranger-danger type. When he first heard from Issei he had met and talked to him, his heart froze like stone and Miki's skin turned pale. But the way he talked about old man Ozawa…
"You think he's trying to remember him this way?" Gorou asked.
Miki's response came after a heavy pause, her beautiful hazel eyes lidded slightly, heavy from contemplations. "Possibly. I'm still having trouble around the idea that Mr. Ozawa might've been a misunderstood old sweet-heart. And beyond that, there's also the dog…"
Gorou nodded, his eyes landing on Kumo.
Kumo was a wild pup they had found January this year, not that far off from the giant Christmas Tree in the city park that became the scene of the most gruesome crime scene of Kuoh in years. The dog was a mystifying wonder and everyone who saw her, adored her to no end. Gorou was tempted to call her an envoy of the gods.
From her odd white and blue fur that almost seemed to glow under the moonlight, glimmering blue eyes like sapphires and agility and strength that didn't match its size and age, it was a complete mystery box for the Hyoudou couple.
But Issei, being the bleeding heart of gold that he is and Miki and Gorou themselves being the fierce ecologists that they are, took the 'dog' in and adopted it as the house-pet. It didn't even take it two months to become sort of the neighbourhood mascot.
"She's been a great addition to the family and I know she loves Issei dearly, but she brings unnecessary amounts of attention. Mix it with his…"spy-phases" and all the other bizarre stuff and you get a disaster of a social life." Miki finally broke the moment of silence, getting Gorou's eyes back on herself.
"What do you mean, honey?" Gorou asked. He had an idea where she was going with this, just didn't want to push it further.
"Gorou, I'm scared our son might not have friends his age." Miki responded with a slight quiver of the lip. Yup , Gorou thought, there it is. And it was as difficult for her to admit this as it would've been for him. But it was a just concern to have. "I, I don't know what to do, who to call, which school to push him to attend. Touji and Elena left and took Irina with them to England, and just last year Akari and Rowan went to Scottland with Shin and Akane. And this whole year it's just been him and the dog."
Gorou nodded again, rubbing his chin and furrowing his brows, before giving his own input on the matter. "Honestly, dear, you're right to think like that. I can't say I haven't had nightmares that Issei's wife will end up being the damn dog-"
Miki's expression went from horrified to angry to just a "be serious, man" facade in quick succession after she heard that. Gorou chuckled and rubbed the back of his head.
"K-Kidding, kidding. Well, mostly, I did have some nightmares about the dog. But anyways, my point is, I can see where you're coming from. However, I believe if we pushed and tried controlling what he does, he might end up even more isolated and lose any realistic chance of forming bonds with his peers. You remember how your father used to…you know…"
His voice fizzed out as he was uncertain how to approach the topic he was connecting to this case.
"Beat me and my sister in a drunken rage? Yeah, unfortunately." Miki, direct as always, tackled those bad memories with the subtlety of a bomb. Her hazel eyes sparkled and she gasped, connecting the dots. "Wait, Gorou, are you implying if we try correcting him in every turn it'll make things worse?"
Gorou shrugged. "U-uhm, don't take my word as gospel. I've just read on some books on child psychology and asked some colleagues for advice and the families with the happiest kids were usually those who allowed a degree of freedom of expression."
"I-I see…I'll take this into account, thank you. But are you certain this is the right way to approach his 'quirks'? The other kids might avoid him for being a weirdo." Miki said, her lips curled in a small pout.
"Psh, Miki, I was weird as hell when I was young and I still managed to pull you, the hottest girl in-YEALCH!"
Gorou let out a cry, his nerves stinging from the pain of having his foot lightly stomped on.
"Gorou . Be serious. This is our son's future we're talking about!" Miki snapped, glaring at him, despite a trail of pink forming on her cheeks.
Oh woman, I am DEFINITELY not letting you sleep tonight! Gorou monologued internally with wolfish hunger. But he suppressed his more kinky thoughts and focused on approaching the problem Miki had presented.
Honestly, no matter what we do or what the kid does, it feels like he's destined to have a bumpy road ahead…but, even so…
"Right or wrong, we owe it to our son to let him walk his path in life. And if he fails or starts going astray, we just have to give him a guiding hand. Maybe the gals and the pals at his schools won't appreciate his-uh-"special talents", but I know someone will ."
Oh wow, where did that come from?
Miki stood completely dumbfounded and even Gorou himself was stunned by the resolute introspection he delivered. He laughed awkwardly and rubbed his neck, grinning cheekily.
"I-I mean I guess that's how I personally see i-MMPH!" He was cut off by his very ravenous and very smitten wife damn near pouncing on him like a hungry cat and locking lips with him. This time the kiss was more passionate, deeper, as she even inserted her tongue inside. She wrapped her hands around his neck, pulling him into her warm body and Gorou had to hold every fibre, every molecule in his being not to sink his fingers in her shapely ass, slam her on the table and start ravaging her right there and then.
The kid, man, THE KID! Not in front of the kid!
Keeping his hands and third leg at bay was probably the hardest thing he'd done all day. God almost eighteen years of marriage and he still felt like a horn-dog who couldn't keep his hands off his girl.
With a wet smack and saliva connecting their lips, Miki settled down, stroking his neck and smirked affectionately. "Gorou Hyoudou, you're the best husband a woman could ask for. This was probably the second best thing you've ever said to me."
Gorou, almost drunk on lust now, gave her a shameless leer and eyed her like she was a delectable meal. "Is the first when I said your thing tastes like strawberry milkshake?"
Miki blinked, just unable to comprehend the sheer dashing shamelessness and blunt charm of her husband, before the comment rattled her senses with arousal. Miki bit her lip and leaned in to whisper into his ear. "You. Me. Bed. In one hour."
HALLELUJAH! Gorou was practically busting Michael Jackson moves in his head. He was sure if gravity didn't limit him, he would be flying through the stratosphere about now.
CRASH!
Both Miki and Gorou flinched, being shaken out of their lustful stupor that almost threatened to devolve into something their son shouldn't be seeing. Thankfully, the kid made sure nothing explicit happened, by breaking their 30k yen impossible bottle that contained the world war 2 destroyer Fubuki toy replica, thus getting their full attention.
Woof! Woof!
"Aah! Vile Wolf President! You have sunk the ship in the bottle! You must answer for your crimes with blood!" Issei declared, with all the threatening edge his shrill derpy kid voice could deliver.
Gorou sighed and Miki exhaled like an angry bull.
"Right, before all that, I need to deal with THAT." without wasting a second, Miki grabbed the sandal she had thrown earlier and, wielding it like a weapon of mass destruction, marched towards Issei. "THE ONLY ONE PAYING WITH BLOOD TODAY IS YOU, YOUNG MAN!"
"Aaaah!"
Woof! Woof! WOOOOF!
The next day, after a whole night of bed-breaking activities and re-awakening of old kinks, Issei's parents were in the best mood he'd seen them in for a while now.
Miki even let him go on a walk outside with the dog later than usual,
"However, you MUST be back before ten or else no more outings with the dog." was her ultimatum. His dad Gorou, of course being the more lenient parent added:
"At least not alone. And if you come late it better be for a good reason."
Issei nodded his head and assured his parents at least a dozen times over that'd he be fine, he knew how to avoid suspicious strangers, to keep himself and Kumo away from bigger dogs, especially strays and to watch which streets he's walking through. His responses almost became mechanical at one point, which thankfully was the cue his mom needed to finally trust him and let him walk out the door.
Even though he had promised to walk the dog with a leash, he merely grabbed it and the second he was outside, shoved it in his jacket's pocket. That's the one thing he wouldn't follow to a T.
Kumo's a smart dog. Smarter than all other dogs. And Issei, as the inspiring soon-to-be greatest spy, was smarter than most kids. And they had complete trust in each other, so a leash was just unnecessary. Kumo and him shared an almost telepathic link. If he thought of a trick, she would do it before he even tried testing her.
"Aah, been a while since it was just us two, eh, Kumo?" Issei asked, smiling at his dog.
Kumo barked joyously in response, wagging her tail and jumping once in excitement. Issei couldn't resist her charm, patting her on the head and scratching her fur a little. People usually rubbed her but light scratching was what really got her to cloud nine.
"Hehe, with any luck we're gonna find you some squirrels to chase."
Woof!
Guessing that's a yes?
Woof!
"Heh, okay, girl! Stop reading my mind though, you'll get lost in the grand puzzle that is the Great Dragnarok's!" Issei exclaimed, posing extravagantly trying to imitate several legendary spy characters he had been obsessing over recently.
Kumo tilted her head before striding forward and licking his hand, both an act of affection and to mock his uber-seriousness.
"Hehe, ok, stop, stop! Kumo I'm gonna be the Great Drool-Man at this point!" Issei said, to which Kumo just barked in something like mirthful amusement. "Well, okay girl, how about it, ready to chase some squirrels?"
Wroof!
"Okay then, off we go, to the Lands of Mystery!" Issei proclaimed, proudly engaging into a march and pointed in the direction of the street that led to the park.
Just then, he almost slammed into a girl that zipped by like a speeding bullet. The girl and him made eye contact for the briefest of moments before she passed him and continued running in the opposite direction of where he was going with downright inhuman speed. She was surrounded by wisps of some type of blueish-black mist which almost looked like they were giving her greater aerodynamism.
From that tiny glimpse he caught of her, she was every bit as paranormal as Kumo herself was. Silver grey hair. Purple eyes. And an outfit like nothing he had seen before.
And weirdest of all, Kumo went completely still for a moment after the girl had passed before barking viciously and taking off, almost as lightning fast as the girl herself.
"K-Kumo, wait!"
What the heck's gotten into her-Oh God, if I don't get her now, Mom's gonna kill me!
Without any more time spared for questions, Issei took off into a sprint after the girl and his dog.
Appendix
Astral Nexus - the axiomic crucible and "meta-observatory" existing outside standard multiversal topology, simultaneously within and beyond all dimensional planes. It is an anchor point existing within the outerversal firmaments, spinning around the endless branches of all [Draonic Deus] realities. It is the hub-area of survivors of lost universes, unregulated "Invaders" and "Interloopers" who jump between the worlds and those who have transcended into the zenith of Sitra Achra.
AYIN (Adjudicators of the Yawning Infinite Nadir) - An interdimensional, inter-narrative counter-paradox network of beings which operate under the direct law of the Embodiment of Entropy, [IS-NOT], as well as its cosmic twin - [THERE-IS]. They are exempt from the usual affairs of multiversal dynamics and conflicts, as creation and destruction, existence and non-existence and beyond, are all natural cycles of the Monad totality - that is: everything encompassed at once. Their role is to observe, stabilize and assure the worlds flow naturally. They get directly involved only at the presence of external factors, such as the residents of [ERROR! ERROR! DATA EXPUNGED!]
Sentinels - Term for the beings who reside within both the Astral Nexus and the ineffable span of the Sitra Achra who aren't classified as [Aeons]. It consists of [Vagabonds] and [Natural], the former being those who've survived the collapse and erasure of their worlds and the latter being their direct descendants, born and raised right on the Astral Nexus. [HIGHER CLEARANCE LEVEL NEEDED - DATA EXPUNGED!]
Lawframe Archimote Engine Cores - Mainframe hyper-cosmic system "engines" which serve to monitor and ensure the integrity and stability of a timeline or at times a set of endlessly branching sub-timelines (like small What-If worlds).