"Koneko, are you alright?"
Aoi's voice was soft, but it carried enough weight to pull the white-haired girl out of the depths of her own thoughts. Koneko blinked once… twice… as if the question had taken its time to travel through the air before reaching her. Her golden eyes, usually so sharp and observant, looked unusually distant today.
"I'm fine," Koneko replied in her usual blank tone, though the slight slump in her shoulders betrayed her.
Aoi didn't believe her for a second. For the past few days, her friend hadn't really been herself. Koneko was never one to wear her emotions on her sleeve, but there was usually a steady, grounded air around her that signaled she was okay.
Now that air had turned gloomy, she had a depressing air around her. Aoi stared at her for a heartbeat longer, then decided not to push. If Koneko wanted to talk, she would. If not, forcing it would only make the cat-girl retreat further into her shell.
Her friend maybe was going through something, it's better to just wait for her to come to her.
Aoi focused back on the task at hand, her brow furrowed in concentration. "Ugh, why is this so hard?" she muttered.
She held her palm upward, visualizing the intricate patterns of a magic circle. The first layer hummed into existence, stable, glowing with a faint blue light. The second layer formed atop it, rotating slowly. But just as the third and final layer began to weave itself together, the mana stuttered. The light flickered, turned a violent shade of violet, and shattered into harmless sparks.
Aoi groaned and flopped fully onto her back, staring up at the Underworld's strange, perpetual violet sky.
"Why was this so hard" she groaned. She'd been trying so hard to learn magic on her own, and Katie had told her that she was progressing faster than anyone she knew. Apparently, she was very talented in magic, and the fact she could even somewhat reverse engineer a magic circle and create one of her own was a sign that she was gifted.
She sighed, guess it wasn't going to be all that easy at the end. She stopped to think about what has been happening.
It had been three days since their father had left them here. Part of her still felt a twinge of regret for staying behind, a lingering fear of being without his immediate protection. But a larger part of her was exhilarated. The Gremory estate had a lot of places to see, and most important of all those places was the giant library they had.
While Ayaka was busy training to her physical and magical limits with Rias's peerage, Aoi had claimed the massive Gremory library as her own personal territory.
She had spent hours buried in ancient books, learning not just the mechanics of magic, but the brutal history of this world. And truth be told, the more she read, the more she understood her father's paranoia.
The world was terrifying. She had read about gods who took what they wanted, Yokai that devoured whole villages, and Church-sanctioned experiments that turned children into weapons. While the library didn't contain much negative press about Devils, Rias's family pride ensured that Aoi wasn't naive.
She had pieced enough together from talking to Koneko and subtly probing Rias. Rias was a genuine person, perhaps one of the few truly good souls in this realm, but that didn't mean others were. Aoi realized that if she wasn't careful, a high-ranking devil could see her as nothing more than a potential "pawn" to be enslaved, and there would be nothing she could do.
She twisted the ring on her finger, her father's gift. It was apparently more than a communication device, as Katie had whispered to her, it was enchanted so that it protected her mind and gathered mana for a shield capable of withstanding high-class attacks.
It was the only thing that gave her confidence. She knew the Devil leaders wouldn't dare touch her after what her father had done to their two strongest.
Still, that didn't stop them from being "friendly." Can you see the air quotes.
Serafall Leviathan had been coming around almost daily since Kenji left. She was cheerful, loud, and seemingly helpful, showing Aoi and Ayaka magic tricks and telling jokes.
But Aoi noticed the subtle way the Pink Satan would slip in questions about their father, where he had lived as a kid, if they knew, how he and mum met, what was his "Sacred Gear".
Ayaka, being a bit of a motormouth, had definitely spilled a few harmless details, forcing Aoi to constantly drag her sister away before she blabbed about something important. Aoi had learned to stay on high guard the moment the Satan started talking, always finding a way to steer the conversation toward safe topics like magical theory or fashion.
"Hey. Anything bothering you?"
Koneko's voice called Aoi out of her head. She turned her head to see the white-haired girl lying beside her on the grass, staring at her with those calm, golden eyes. There was a flicker of genuine worry there.
"Are you going to tell me what's bothering you first?" Aoi teased, her eyes sparkling.
Koneko hesitated, her ears twitching beneath her hair. "I'm not... nothing is..." she started, her voice trailing off.
Aoi giggled and reached out, poking Koneko's cheek. "I'm just messing with you. You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to." She sighed, turning back to the sky. "I guess I'm just a little worried about everything. Dad, Ayaka, Mom... even myself. I don't know why, but with everything happening, it's hard not to be."
Koneko didn't respond immediately. Instead, she reached out and took Aoi's hand, giving it a firm, grounding squeeze. "Everything will be fine," she said with a simple, direct certainty that made Aoi's chest feel a little lighter.
"Yeah," Aoi smiled. "It will."
Koneko hesitated for a second, a scowl crossing her face. "Besides, you don't have to worry about that asshole—aargh, I mean, you don't have to worry about your dad." She spoke flatly, insulting Kenji, then quickly backtracking as she realized who she was talking to.
Aoi burst out laughing, clutching her stomach. It seemed her friend had developed a healthy distaste for her father's abrasive nature. "Oh no, don't backtrack now! What were you going to call him?"
"Nothing," Koneko said flatly, looking away.
Aoi sitting up and wipes a tear from her eye. "Come on, let's get back to training. We're ending early today anyway. Rias said there's some kind of party tonight for the high nobility. Apparently, we're the guests, whether we like it or not."
Koneko nodded, standing up and brushing the grass off her skirt. "I hate those parties. Too many smells. Too many fakes."
"Well, since you've been to them at least, you can show me how to act and dance," Aoi said to Koneko with a smile on her face.
Turtle Island – Naruto World
The ground beneath Kenji's boots pulverized into fine dust before he lunched into the air.
BOOM!
Kenji jumped back just in time to dodge a flying kick from the bowl-cut legend himself.
'How do I always find myself in fights?' he thought, a reluctant sigh escaping his lips. But the wide, feral grin on his face told a different story. He couldn't help it. What person wouldn't want to test their mettle against the greatest Taijutsu master in the world?
Standing before him was the embodiment of 'never give up' itself, the man with nothing but hands.
"Might Guy".
The man was currently in his base form, clad in that iconic green spandex, his thumb raised and his teeth catching the sunlight in a literal sparkle.
"Of course! For I am the Sublime Green Beast of Leaf! And your youth is burning with a most unusual flame!" Guy shouted, his voice echoing across the training grounds.
Kenji laughed, rolling his shoulders. For once, He was fighting a man. someone who had reached the pinnacle of physical strength through sheer, unadulterated hard work.
As someone who had cheated his way up with a system, Kenji felt a strange, nagging sense of respect for the man. He wanted to test himself, to see if his body could keep up with a master of the Eight Gates and how far he could handle it.
Guy vanished.
Kenji still seemed relaxed. He didn't think, just reacted, grabbing Guy's incoming arm and redirecting the momentum. But Guy had already seen through the move; he twisted his body mid-air, flipping over Kenji's shoulder and crashing a heel down toward the back of his head.
Kenji let go and blurred backward, the ground exploding into a crater where his head had been a millisecond prior.
"Damn, he's good?" Kenji muttered, his golden eyes sharpening.
"Bushy Brow-SENSEI, MOVE!"
Naruto's voice rang out from above. The blond ninja came crashing down, his hands already forming a Rasengan. From the perimeter, Yamato's wood-style pillars surged from the earth like giant snakes, attempting to bind Kenji's limbs, while Aoba and Motoi moved in to provide support.
Kenji sighed, the fun of the duel interrupted. "Really? I told you guys, I'm just here to talk to the kid."
Can you believe this all started with just a few words. When they sensed Kenji, they had come rushing, demanding who he was. Guess he was still a bit sleepy because he kinda blurted out that he was there for Naruto, and after that, they just kept raining down on him. Guess they thought he was Akasuki.
He didn't move. He didn't even raise his hands.
Naruto slammed into an invisible wall, then it exploded, sending them flying.
Naruto was sent skidding back across the dirt, his Rasengan dissipating into nothing. Yamato's wood shattered into splinters, and the other two were thrown off their feet as if hit by a freight train.
"Hey, it's just like Nagato," Naruto shouted, the power just now reminding him of pain who attacked the village. Everyone was sent flying.
Only Might Guy remained standing, his feet dug into the earth, his arms crossed in front of his face to shield himself from the pressure.
Behind them, Killer Bee sat on a high rock, his sunglasses reflecting the carnage. He hadn't moved yet, his red-inked tattoos stark against his skin. "Yo, this guy's flow is strange, ya know? He's got so much chakra, his power's in the show, oh!"
Kenji's smirk widened as he locked eyes with Guy. The two charged at each other.
The island shook.
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