The Red Hand

Chapter 365 – She Knows.

"Alright, Aright. Calm down, you stupid, edgy, cat." Hishya said as she ruffled Akagi's hair roughly.

"MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW! MEW!" Akagi meowed in despair as her ears and hair were treated so harshly by Hishya's mighty hand. "Halp! Kitty is being illegally fluffed!"

{THE FORMS WEREN'T FILLED OUT IN TRIPLICATE!} (Akagi)

"Kitty! I'll save you!" Miji cried out as her eyes grew fierce, and she tried, and failed, to bite the Dragon on the arm.

*NOM!*

“Don't hurt the kitty!” Miji tried again to sink her teeth into Hishya, but missed again.

"Oi! Yumi! Miji's trying to bite me!" Hishya held the chomping girl at arm's reach. “Do something about this!”

"Now, Miji. I thought I told you not to put dirty things in your mouth." Yumi snickered. “You know that lizards get into all sorts of places.”

"Why am I not surprised..." Hishya sighed as she continued to keep the chomping girl away.

"Don't hurt the kitty!" Miji said as she desperately tried to push closer to Hishya only to pause and tear up when she realized it was impossible.

"HOW DARE YOU MAKE HER CRY!" Akagi's voice distorted as she pulled Miji into a tight hug and began to pet her on the head. "Hishya, you'd better let her bite you until you're bled dry!" She hissed at the Dragon. "There, there Miji. It's okay. No need to cry over someone like her."

{Oh I see how it is, so Miji gets all that attention when Hishya does something bad to her but I get nothing!} (Kana)

"Hishya was mean to me... She... I was just trying to protect the kitty..." Miji said between tears, though her lips curving into a small grin did not go unnoticed by the Dragon.

{She 's just doing this to get attention from Akagi! And I know she had to have caught that smirk!} (Hishya)

"It's alright. I'll make her disappear forever, so don't cry anymore." Akagi soothed her as she glared at the Dragon.

"T-That's not a funny joke." Hishya said, nervous that she was about to be strung up for daring to upset Mij.

"Who said I'm joking?" Akagi smiled at Hishya.

{Welp, I had a good run.} (Hishya)

"Onee-chan, as funny as it would be please don't go killing my girlfriend off like that." Kana finally decided to intervene, patting Akagi on the head as she scolded her. "Besides, Miji is being over dramatic because she wants attention." Her words caused Miji to flinch.

{Busted! And wait! What do you mean FUNNY?!?} (Hishya)

"Is this true?" Akagi asked the tearful Miji. "Were you only pretending to be hurt just so I'd give you huggies?"

"Never! I'd never do that, kitty!" Miji said as she tightly hugged Akagi and buried her face into the Demon's non-existent chest. "I'm a good girl who doesn't lie! Hishya is a bad lizard who hurt the kitty and I was protecting you!"

"Well, you heard her. Time to die, Hishya." Akagi laughed.

"Onee-chan, if you kill Hishya I won't use you as a hug pillow anymore." Kana said, breaking out her ultimate weapon.

{ONLY THAT?!?} (Hishya)

"Hmmm...." Akagi shifted her jaw as she looked between Kana and Miji, deciding if it was worth losing hug pillow status. "How about we let this one slide, Miji? I'm sure Hishya has repented, right?"

"Yes, yes. I'm very sorry for hurting the delicate kitty..." Hishya rolled her eyes. "So please forgive me."

{Why am I doing this? Why are any of us doing this again? Oh wait, we don't have a choice...} (Hishya)

"I'll forgive you... If you take me to get that cake we saw on T.V." Miji said quietly.

"Cake on? Ah, you mean the Chiffon Cake we saw the ad for." Hishya recalled the commercial for a bakery in Kyoto. "Sure, we can go for that later. How does that sound?”

{As long as it keeps me from getting tossed to the fucking netherhellsuperdeath realm of pain I'll buy as much sweet as you can handle, kid.} (Hishya)

"Hurray, cake!" Miji cheered up immediately.

{She is fully aware of her spoiling, and is taking advantage of it...} (Kana x Hishya x Yumi x Kira x Alice)

“Then there we go.” Akagi said as she lightly pat Miji on the head, who quickly got up and started to run around, excited.

"Just please don't feed her too much sugar, and she's not allowed to have it too close to dinner or after six at night." Yumi started listing off all sorts of rules about Miji's eating schedule, which prompted Hishya to joke that she sounded like Miji's mother, rather than her sister.

"Sister is always like this." Miji giggled as she sat with the Catkagi in her lap, scratching and fluffing the floof. "She always scolded me for wanting snacks, but then we'd secretly eat the fresh bread that Mom would make."

{It was so fluffy!} (Miji)

"That's because if it were up to you then you'd probably eat all the bread she made." Yumi sighed as she recalled the comical sight of Miji tearing through the bread storage area. "Mom needed to feed the whole family and sell it to make money. So I couldn't just let you eat literal pounds of bread all by yourself!"

{And you would've too! I remember Mom was freaked out once because you passed out from eating too much bread and went into a food coma for a day!} (Yumi)

"Miji is a little glutton." Akagi laughed as she poked Miji on the nose, causing Miji to squeeze her. “But she's a cute little jelly roll.”

"Mean kitty!" Miji pouted at being called a glutton but was coaxed back around with Akagi's fluffy tail.

"But getting back to more serious things." Akagi said as she hopped out of a disappointed Miji's arms and took on her usual form. "Kira." She called out to the Half-Dragon who was still kneeling.

"My Lord." Kira bowed her head. "What is your will? I shall see it done."

"Allow the Demon Army to approach our base. Harassment or anything like that serves no purpose here, and have Black Company continue their observation from a distance." Akagi continued. "Silfana will handle the minutia and can handle the coming fight as she sees fit, but I'm going to forbid Zephiria or the Twins from entering combat as part of this operation. I'd like her to handle things without their help, I'd prefer that she leaves a sizable chunk of their forces for me to finish at the end."

{This will give me a chance to see what she can do on her own. The Ninja are strong, and I'd like to give them the opportunity to prove themselves in battle. Not to mention that I'm curious to see how the Vampire ends up handling things, and of course, we're going to need yours truly to make a statement at the end. The point of no return has already passed, but this will truly mark the beginning of the END of the Gods rule on Enoris.} (Akagi)

"What about the Demon's leadership?" Kira asked how they should handle the officers and other high ranking officials. "Shall we take them alive? Or would you rather that they are eliminated so that you can give them the treatment." She was referring to what Akagi had done to Black Company, and figured Akagi would want to install loyal puppets to govern in her stead.

"Take the main players alive, that being the Princess-Regent and the other Elector Kings. Anyone else is fair game, I don't care about officers or other rabble, so treat them as you wish." Akagi smirked, subtly indicating that she didn't mind if they ignored the surrender of individual soldiers or groups and wiped them out anyway.

"We shall make them pay for standing against you, my Lord. I swear it." Kira replied with a hand over her heart.

“Good, we shall crush them all.” Akagi cackled.

"Onee-chan, is there really a reason to go so far?" Kana asked, interrupting her sister's manically laughter. "I know that world did really bad things, but why not just take out the leaders and let the other people go?" She was hoping to convince her to change her mind. “I know you have a whole plan and everything, but still...”

"The whole point here is to crush their spirits and eradicate any resistance in their hearts." Akagi's eyes grew sharp as they flickered over to Kana. "So what good would letting people go do?"

"It just seems wrong to kill people that..." Kana paused, noticing that Akagi was in no mood to debate, and not wanting to provoke a fight with her sister as she'd done at the time Kaori was on boarded. "Never mind..."

"Good." Akagi nodded, happy to see that Kana understood her place. "Now, relay that all to Silfana and tell her I'm expecting perfection from her. I will not tolerate failure here."

"Of course, my Lord, but one last thing." Kira reached into a pouch at her hip and gave Akagi a handwritten letter, which Akagi promptly read, laughing as she finished.

"Sure, she's more than welcome to kick that Demi-God around if that's what she wants." Akagi smiled before tossing the letter into her shadow. "I'd imagine that it will provide good entertainment if nothing else."

{And it will let me get an idea of what we're dealing within in terms of Demi-Gods and their power level.} (Akagi)

"Why do I get the feeling that whatever that letter was, was bad?" Hishya said.

"It's not, not really anyway." Akagi waived her off. "Just Halifax asking permission to kick her 'Sister's' ass around a bit." She smirked. "And far be it from me to get in the way of a little Sibling Rivalry."

_____________________________________________________________________________

<Gale POV>

"Father, I've successfully retrieved the first generator. Shall I return to the Holy City for delivery?" Rehael spoke to her Father via an image and voice transmission spell. She was standing atop a large mountain with her two newly acquired Dragon Zombies sitting motionless in the background.

"No, that won't be necessary. I've already sent some of my Angels to retrieve it. I'd like you to proceed to phase two of my plan." Gale said. "That foolish Demon Lord truly thinks that she'd beyond reproach, and I'd like to show her just how weak she really is."

{Your connections to that world are your weakness, Akagi. A weakness that I'll happily exploit. You should've taken my offer, but alas you were too foolish and greedy, just like many others who came before you.} (Gale)

"How large of a force do you want me to gather?" Rehael asked, knowing exactly what he was planning. "My current reserves are in the hundreds, perhaps close to a thousand if we count some of the lessor creatures that I have."

"Ideally, I'd like you to gather up an army of tens of thousands of medium to high-ranking creatures." Gale looked at the two Zombie Dragons. "Those two are a good start, so continue to gather more like them if possible."

"Oh-ho?" Rehael's lips curved into a nasty grin. "So it's going to be an invasion, not just an incursion?" She laughed, her body burning with excitement at the prospect of a full out war.

{And that sounds delightful.} (Rehael)

"Indeed, and once you are satisfied with your forces, report back to me. Try and keep a low profile in the meantime as I'd like to have you sent without the Demon Lord's knowledge, and if we play our cards right she'll only learn of the destruction after it's too late to stop us." Gale laughed evilly.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Of course, Father." Rehael joined in, reveling in the idea of the coming slaughter. "I'll gladly finish the job that my foolish Husband and those Heroes failed to do, plus a little extra."

"I'll be counting on you, Rehael." Gale said, his expression going flat and his words sharp. "Failure is not an option, so prove to me that it was worth creating you out of a fragment of his power." He terminated the connection leaving Rehael alone with the Zombie Dragons.

"Oh, don't worry." Rehael said as she turned to the Dragons. "I'll show you that I'm more than worthy of such power." Her eyes briefly changed, looking like Akagi's for a moment before returning to normal. "Alright you two, let's go! We've got an army to build and a world to burn!"