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Ryo let himself sunk into the hot water with a sigh of relief and content.
There was a private bathroom attached to his quarters, sure, and that was what he had meant to use, but after he had accidentally stumbled upon the hot springs while searching for his room in Arago’s former palace after leaving the other Troopers, he had found himself unable to resist.
Humming, he let himself get deeper, until he had water up to his collarbones. Oooh, it was even hotter than he had suspected at first glance, and he found it delightful!
He couldn’t remember the last time he had gone to a hot spring.
Must have been a couple of years. Dad’s usual idea of a vacation was to stay home and spend time with his growing son. Which was fine with Ryo, and he understood the mindset – his Father spent half his time abroad or crossing Japan for pictures, missing out much of Ryo’s daily life and seeing incredible things all the time. It was no wonder he preferred to enjoy the comfort of his house whenever he could.
After their last battle with Arago, once Ryo had made it home, he had understood it even better. The simple fact of being back between familiar walls, hugging family close, and find the quiet relief of knowing there were safe, they were there, had brought him to tear.
And yet.
Ryo would have been lying if he said he was always perfectly happy with never going out and seeing what the world had to offer. Much as he loved the relaxing life he had in the woods and the mountain, there were times he wished for more.
A chance to move around and explore, visit famous sites, spend time at a ryokan like Seiji, Shuu or Shin sometimes did. Hell, even Touma occasionally showed them ‘vacation pictures’ he took!
As it was, part of him itched to see more of the Youjakai, see what the place was like now he and Touma weren’t running for their lives and how Kayura and the Masho might have improved the land with Arago finally gone.
He knew better than to voice it aloud, though. Things were still significantly tenses between the Troopers and their former adversaries that pushing too much, even innocently, might result in a backlash. The Masho might see Ryo’s curiosity as a proof he distrusted them or something.
But truthfully, Ryo didn’t.
He couldn’t say he liked them, exactly, because they had hurt his friends… but he didn’t hate them either. They had been fooled and used for centuries by Arago; that alone was reason enough to take a step back and quietly wonder what they were like when there wasn’t a demon overlord influencing them, pushing them to act on their darkest instincts.
Shuten had thought they could be saved, too.
He would probably be happy to see the Troopers and his former comrades get along, even if it was still a cautious, fragile thing.
But it’d get better, Ryo thought to himself, nodding in resolve as he let himself relax in the water.
They just needed to give themselves and each other a chance to mend things. Already, Ryo thought that things were going well with Anubisu and Rajura. Then again, he was also certain Rajura was being agreeable for another reason, and that reason was called ‘let’s see if I can seduce Shuu’.
A couple of years ago, he might have been worried… but by now, Ryo knew Shuu was far from naive when it came to flirting and sex, and that he knew how to hold his ground and put his foot down if needed. If he hadn’t called out Rajura on the flirting yet, then that meant Shuu was interested, and far from Ryo to stop him from having fun if that was the case.
Something brushed against his ankle, making him frown.
“What?” he murmured, peering at the water closely.
Weird. There didn’t seem to be any alga, and a fish couldn’t live in such hot water, could it?
Then again, what did Ryo know? Fishes on Earth couldn’t, but he knew little to nothing about the Youjakai’s wildlife. He and Touma hadn’t seen any while they tried to rescue Seiji, Shuu and Shin, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t. The Masho had had horses that were definitely not from Earth, for example, and they served meat and fish at meals, so there had to be a local population.
Perhaps Ryo should ask Anubisu the next time he saw him; the Yami Masho seemed to be well-versed about animals himself, from the few exchanges they had had. He might be the best one to ask about local species – him, or perhaps Naaza. But Naaza never seemed particularly happy to be spoken to, and Ryo was reluctant to force him into a conversation if the Doku Masho didn’t feel like socializing with the Troopers yet.
Another brush, this time higher, near his knee.
Ryo shifted, puzzled.
Slowly, he looked around, wondering if maybe he hadn’t intruded in a place he shouldn’t have gone to, after all.
Unlike other parts of the palace he had visited with or without one of the Masho serving as guide, there was no guard stationed anywhere near. There hadn’t been any servant either, come to think. And while there were a few summary installations for bathers, such as buckets to clean themselves, baskets to put their clothes in and a few benches, none of them looked like they had been used in a very long time.
Given how obsessively the servants were about maintenance and cleaning, it belatedly stuck Ryo as odd.
Uh. Perhaps the hot spring wasn’t officially in use anymore and had been reconverted to raise a school of local fishes as food? If so, Ryo was truly intruding where he shouldn’t. He might be inadvertently stressing them out, which he was already feeling bad about. Unless they were carnivorous, in which case he might make a tempting snack once they got used to his presence and identified him as prey?
… he really needed to get out of the water fast, didn’t he?
Something touched his legs again, this time above the knee and over his thighs and he startled.
The touch was a lot more insistent than the earlier brushes, and it hadn’t felt like a fish at all. In fact, it seemed… long. And way too quick.
“Okay,” he breathed out, starting to rise out of the water. “What is going…?”
He trailed off, eyes widening as something broke out of the water and rose at the same time as him.
It was long. Pinkish. Sinuous.
And it wasn’t alone.
And it was – THEY were towering over him in a most ominous way.
Slowly, Ryo’s jaw dropped, mind trying to make sense of what he was seeing, and he did the only thing he could think of in that situation:
“Ah, uh, hello?” he greeted with a shy, nervous laugh, slowly backing away until his back hit the stones lining the basin.
And then the thing pounced.
“Has any of you seen Ryo?”
Naaza carefully kept his face neutral and didn’t snap back at the impudent Trooper who had just barged in and was speaking to him with clear suspicion.
So much for enjoying a game of Go while everyone else was busy.
Getting angry was counterproductive and would only escalate the boy’s aggressiveness – but damn if he wasn’t annoyed that, just because the Troopers had lost track of one of their owns, they immediately assumed one of the Masho had been up to no good!
Yes, they had a History, they had been enemies, and the Masho had pulled many dirty moves on the five boys, but that had been Then. Before they realized the truth of Arago, partly thanks to those boys and partly thanks to Shuten (and Badamon being a gloating bastard). They were now allies, even if they were uneasy ones half the time.
So, while Naaza understood the lingering suspicions, he reserved himself the right to be annoyed that the group still thought that One Trooper Disappears = the Masho are Guilty. Did those boys truly thought the Masho had invited them to the palace to better trap them? Well, sorry, but no! It had been a courteous, formal, perfectly normal invitation, without any ulterior motive!
Unless, of course, you counted ‘appeasing Kayura’ as a motive. She was the most insistent that peace if not friendship had to exist between Masho and Troopers, as they were ‘all part of the same whole’. Whatever.
At least it was Kourin who had come to them. If it had been Suiko sprouting vitriol, Naaza doubted he’d have managed to keep his cool.
Hmph. All of that because Rekka had probably gotten himself lost after taking a wrong turn…
Rajura was right, they shouldn’t have allowed the Troopers to roam unchecked, even if Kayura had said it was fine. It was their home, damnit, even if the Masho weren’t always fond of it! Guests shouldn’t have had the right to move across it as they wanted, especially if they didn’t know the basic layout! That, and there were still active trapdoors the Masho had never bothered to remove; if Rekka had stumbled on one of them…
Uh.
“Not since we had lunch, sorry,” he said blandly, keeping a lid on his other emotions.
The way Kourin no Seiji looked at him let him known the blond Trooper wasn’t convinced. Well, too bad for him, because Naaza was telling the truth!
Beside him, Anubisu coughed discreetly, bringing his old nemesis’ attention on him. Naaza just sighed and leaned away from the Goban. So much for trying to enjoy a quiet game…
“I’m afraid we haven’t seen him since lunch, as Naaza said, but perhaps we can help you seek him?” the blue-haired man offered, earning himself a moody look from Naaza. Great, now they were going on a fetch quest!
Kourin eyed Anubisu for a few seconds, silent, before his shoulders sagged and he nodded. “Thank you for your offer, it is most welcome,” he bowed respectfully. Well, at least he knew how to be polite. “We lost Ryo about two hours ago, when we separated to return to the rooms you were kind enough to grant us. We had convened to gather back after we had refreshed and changed after a training bout, but then Ryo failed to appear. We thought he might have just been running late at first, but…” he trailed off helplessly.
“Hmm, he might have gotten turned around while trying to rejoin you, then,” Anubisu frowned slightly. “The palace’s corridors can form a true labyrinth if you’re not used to them.” He looked vaguely worried, much to Naaza’s surprise. He hadn’t though the Yami Masho cared all that much about Rekka.
… alright, alright, Naaza was being sarcastic. Anubisu liked to keep to himself, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t the most invested after Kayura in patching things up with the Troopers. Her spiel on them being all part of the same ‘big family’ or whatever it was that had moved the Yami Masho had obviously struck a nerve, and so Anubisu was usually the most amiable outside of Rajura – but Rajura had plans of all his own, so that didn’t count.
(Plus, try as he might, Naaza couldn’t deny he did feel a certain form of care of Rekka no Ryo. He blamed the fact the boy had been in their head and in their heart for that. That, and the fact Shuten had obviously cared about the black-haired Trooper; since he couldn’t make proper amend toward Shuten unless their former leader reincarnated, then Naaza could only watch over those the redhead Masho had liked in his stead.)
“We thought we had memorized the way correctly, but it seems that we were mistaken,” Kourin said delicately, before sighing. “And I am afraid Ryo might have gotten distracted somehow. He does tend to wander on his own regularly.”
“That will do it,” Anubisu nodded, rising and smoothing the creases in his kimono and hakama. “Never fear, we will help you. He can’t have gone that far, can he?”
“Unless he got kidnapped,” Naaza pointed out casually, earning himself two glares. “What?” he defended himself. “It was a joke! Nobody would be insane enough to kidnap a Trooper in the heart of the palace!”
“Not unless they had a serious death wish,” Anubisu nodded, but the way he kept glaring was clear; he was not happy with Naaza’s joke – and for all the Doku Masho had been kidding, they both knew it COULD happen. “We should have assigned you all servants and guides instead of merely offering our help for any issue you may have,” he mumbled, passing a hand over his face. “We wanted to respect your autonomy and give you space, but…”
“This was appreciated,” Kourin shook his head. “It is no fault of your own that we have run into an… issue,” he put in delicately. “And we wouldn’t have wanted to impose on you further.” He hesitated. “We know it’s not easy for you to host us,” he admitted carefully.
“Just like we know being here doesn’t necessarily bring back good memories either,” Anubisu replied evenly as Naaza grimaced. Nice way to dodge around the fact three Troopers out of five had been prisoners and regularly tortured in the dungeons. Even if the Masho hadn’t laid a hand on them personally, they had still offered the Troopers to their tormentors. “Perhaps it was a mistake to have such a meeting happen so soon,” he said, more subdued.
“No, it wasn’t,” Naaza grunted, making the other men look at him. “It’s like ripping one of those ‘band aids’ thing. Better to do it in one go and have it hurt once than to pry it off slowly and find yourself in just as much agony.”
“This is an… interesting analogy,” Kourin allowed. “But perhaps we should be getting back to Ryo’s disappearance?”
“Yes, yes, we’re going to help you search. Have you already asked Kayura and Rajura? Speaking of the devil, why isn’t Rajura helping you already?” Naaza grumbled, getting to his feet. “I thought he was supposed to stay nearby so you could call on one of us quickly whenever you needed.”
“Kayura left with Nasutei and Shin to visit a nearby shrine that Nasutei was curious about. And I’m afraid Rajura got himself… distracted,” Kourin coughed in his fist, looking faintly disapproving.
“Distracted,” Naaza repeated slowly, lips twitching despite himself. “And let me guess; this ‘distraction’ of his wouldn’t happen to have blue-gray hair, thick muscles and an even thicker head?” he inferred politely, barely resisting from cackling. He KNEW Rajura hadn’t offered to be a guide and chaperon out of the goodness of his shriveled heart!
“Shuu isn’t ‘thick’,” Kourin immediately replied, a hint of warning in his voice. “He’s just… hot blooded.”
“And Rajura will likely made his blood boil in short order – ow!” Naaza winced as Anubisu elbowed him. “That hurt, you know!” he growled, rubbing his belly.
“If you want to joke at Rajura’s expense, pick a better time,” Anubisu growled warningly. Naaza was tempted to snicker; it seemed to him that Anubisu was jealous Rajura had already managed to ‘patch things up’ in a ‘very intimate’ way with his former ‘rival’, whereas he could only dance around Kourin with precaution and formalities. But that was a Him problem, and not Naaza’s. “I am sorry if Rajura and Naaza’s behavior…” he bowed to Kourin no Seiji, only to be cut off.
“That’s alright,” the blond Trooper raised a hand, though he sounded tired. “While I may have reservations, I trust Shuu with his choices. Mostly,” he added under his breath.
Naaza almost snorted. Almost. But one elbow to the guts was enough for him, so he held his quiet about any potential joke. “That’s two Troopers accounted for,” he pointed out after a moment. “And where is Tenku no Touma?”
“Backtracking from the place we separated from Ryo to the path he should have taken to get back to his room while I was seeking you out,” Kourin said as the three of them started to walk the corridor. “He thought it’d be more effective that way, see where Ryo would have been most likely to stray and then come back and check with you if the path was sure. We did note the labyrinth aspect by ourselves, and we were wary of traps,” the blond explained quietly, eyes darting fast between the Masho. “If Ryo activated one and fell down those underground dungeons of yours…”
It wasn’t an accusation, but there was an edge to Kourin’s voice that belied his unhappiness with the idea.
“We made sure to deactivate all the trapdoors around your rooms and the main corridors. Rekka no Ryo shouldn’t have stumbled over one, unless he was particularly unlucky or one of us particularly bad at their job,” Naaza commented as they went down several flights of stairs and more corridors, following Kourin’s lead.
Hmm, they were in the older parts of the palace, he noted with a frown. Curious. He could have sworn the Troopers weren’t supposed to come anywhere near this place for various reasons, such as a state of disrepair that they had yet to do something about due to lack of time and a lack of qualified workers willing to get anywhere near the place.
They had never closed the lower levels after the Problem had showed themselves for the first time, but people had quietly been encouraged to give it a wide berth, just in case. Anyone with common sense knew you shouldn’t come too close.
Wait. Naaza almost stilled mid-step.
Anyone with common sense, yes – but also anyone who knew WHY the lower levels had been abandoned in the first place, or who knew anything about the Youjakai’s fauna, or why many of the outward bathhouses and most of the hot springs in and around the Capital weren’t used much anymore – unless you were particularly daring, fearless or kinky, of course.
But this was information the Troopers likely didn’t have themselves, now Naaza thought about it. After all, it wasn’t as if the Masho would have mentioned it, even casually, to prisoners – and Rekka and Tenku had been on the run, focused on getting their friends back. They likely wouldn’t have strayed anywhere near a bathhouse or a spring, not even to clean themselves from the water of the Lotus Sea. Beside, even if they had, the armors alone would have dissuaded any…
… Rekka had supposedly gone to refresh himself. He should have done it in his rooms, where the Masho had made sure each Trooper had his own private tub.
However, if he had been lost, and any source of water might have felt good for him… A horrible suspicion dawned on him. Two hours since the other Troopers had last seen Rekka? That… could fit. But, surely, Rekka hadn’t…?
Cautiously, Naaza tried to catch Anubisu’s eye, but the Yami Masho’s attention was wholly on Kourin’s back (and his backside, but that was another problem for later) and he failed to heed him.
“Which doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen,” Anubisu noted, lips thin. “But I do admit Naaza is right, it’s very unlikely.”
“If you think so, then you don’t know Ryo very well,” Tenku’s voice called from afar.
The tall, lanky youth (what did they feed growing boys those days, anyway? None of the Troopers had ever struck him as small even as half-grown men, but over the years, Tenku had collected even more centimeters than the others, even towering over Rajura of all men!) was waiting at a corridor’s turn with his arms crossed over his chest, looking more annoyed than truly worried.
“I mean, why do you think Byakuen hardly ever leave his side?” the boy (man or not, he’d always be just a boy in Naaza’s mind) continued evenly. “He knows better than us than Ryo alone is a recipe for disaster.”
“He’s kidding,” Kourin said forcefully, giving his fellow Trooper a look. “Ryo is not that bad and you know it.”
“Suuuure. That’s not what some of his childhood recollections say,” the other Trooper drawled.
Kourin coughed, making Naaza perk in interest. Now, what could Rekka have ever done to make the blond hesitate like that? “Yes, well, Ryo isn’t a child anymore and he has learned better,” Seiji insisted.
“That’s what you think, but when you think about it objectively…” Tenku shook his head only for Naaza to roll his eyes, already fed up with the banter.
“Excuse me, but aren’t we supposed to search for our missing Trooper here?” he said scathingly. To think he had interrupted a game of Go he was winning for once, and for that! “Unless, perhaps you already found him?”
Which would probably be the best outcome for everyone, since it would render Naaza’s earlier suspicions moot. He’d get to yell at Rekka for worrying them over nothing, and nobody would get injured or… otherwise caught up.
Tenku, sadly, crushed his tentative hopes with a simple shake of his head. “Unfortunately, no, but I think I know where he went.”
“Where?” Kourin immediately asked, eager.
“To take a bath outside, of course,” Tenku replied. “I saw a couple of signs that there was a hot spring accessible somewhere down that passage,” he gestured at one of the corridors that looked awfully familiar to Naaza – nobody has ever repaired the marks left by Shuten using his kusari-gama in close quarters to bat away a probing, insistent ‘enemy’ that was after the redhead’s (lack of) virtue.
There were new marks he didn’t remember, either – so the Thing was still there, and occasionally grabbing any (un)lucky(?) passerby that came down there.
But Tenku hadn’t been grabbed, so perhaps it had moved on after all…?
“I didn’t venture very far, but far enough still for me to find this,” the blue-haired Trooper showed off a towel that looked very clean and free of dust specks – meaning it hadn’t been there since long. Oh, it could have belonged to anyone, really, but…
A disappeared Trooper and a dropped towel in a passageway servants knew to avoid?
Ah!
Naaza’s fists curled in the fabric of his kimono. So much for that tentative hope, then. Fuck, he thought blandly as Anubisu blanched and they traded a long look full of meaning.
“Definitely one of Ryo’s towels, so… no need to be a genius to add two and two, right? I can’t say I blame him if he decided to go there, but he could have called us to share his discovery, you know? I mean, a hot spring sounds way more exotic and tantalizing than the tubs in our rooms – nice tubs, don’t get me wrong, but a hot spring? It’s something else, and you know how much Ryo loves hot water, the hotter the better,” Tenku continued commenting.
“You don’t need to remind me,” Kourin laughed, shaking his head. “I swear I nearly got burns the last time he prepared the bath for me. First rule of sharing the bath water if it’s Ryo who heated it for everyone? Let him go first, then Shin; that’s way safer.”
“What would have been safer would have been to avoid going to that spring at all,” Naaza muttered under his breath as Anubisu stayed utterly still.
Unfortunately, Tenku heard and saw; he tilted his head to the side curiously, eyes narrowed. “Come to think… You hadn’t told us you guys had natural hot water springs here. Any particular reason for that?”
“Ah, uh… how to say this…?” Anubisu hesitated, looking at Naaza as if searching for support.
Sadly for him, Naaza wasn’t feeling particularly supportive and held his silence. Anubisu had made the mistake of speaking first, so HE was going to explain to the Troopers why, exactly, the hot springs were off-limits and what fate had likely befallen Rekka no Ryo if he had gone there.
And was probably still befalling him right now.
“We… we don’t use the springs for a good reason. A good reason that dates back from, oh, perhaps a century ago,” Anubisu said slowly, carefully as both Kourin no Seiji and Tenku no Touma stared at him, hard.
“Uh uh. You’ve either said too much already or not enough yet,” Tenku said flatly. “Start talking.”
“This is awkward, I don’t know…” Anubisu trailed off, glancing helplessly at Naaza, who could only groan and pass a hand over his face.
“Coward,” he mumbled before sighing. “What Anubisu cannot spit out is that the hot springs around here have been declared unsafe due to one of the Youjakai’s native lifeforms deciding they liked them and more or less ‘nesting’ there. See how hard it was?” he glared at his fellow Masho.
“Well, I’m sorry to not have your talent for going straight to the point and cutting through layers of sensitive information,” the Yami Masho snapped back.
“That wasn’t ‘sensitive’, that was merely short and concise,” Naaza replied. “Now you can fill them on the rest, no?”
“And the sooner the better, if you don’t mind,” Kourin said, his voice positively glacial. “What sort of ‘native lifeform’ are we talking about? Is it dangerous? Is Ryo in danger?” There was a particular glint to his eyes, one Naaza hadn’t seen since their first ‘fight’ in Akiyoshido. The Doku Masho couldn’t say for sure what existed between the two Troopers, but it was clear the blond was particularly protective of Rekka, and woe betide those who tried to harm him.
“Not exactly,” Anubisu winced. “As far as we can tell, it has never killed anyone – bar perhaps one or two very odd case of exhaustion,” he added as an afterthought, which only made Tenku and Kourin stare at him harder. “It doesn’t seem to have happened on purpose, and both recorded victims were already in poor health!” he insisted. “And really, I could image worse ways to go than to, uh….” he trailed, a slight flush covering his cheeks.
Naaza rolled his eyes. “You’re going to play the bashful one now? Really? And here I thought you weren’t shy about your sex life!”
“It wasn’t MY sex life, it was Shuten’s, if you remember right,” Anubisu gave him a look. “HE’s the one this damn thing went after in the first place. Anything else that happened was on him and him alone!”
“I wasn’t speaking of the Incident,” Naaza pointed out reasonably, lips twitching. “I was talking in general. Why are you so embarrassed about mentioning sex around the Troopers? They’re not children anymore, and they’re both healthy young men,” he waved at the two boys. They were still a bit too thin to his taste, but that was the modern world for you, he supposed. “I sincerely doubt either of them is still a virgin or will get mortified if you say you declare that you find getting fucked to death a ‘good way to go’.”
“Well, I am,” Kourin declared, his cheeks bright red, and Anubisu gave Naaza a look that clearly said ‘see what you did?’.
Tss. Prudes, the two of them.
“Wait, what are we talking about Shuten and Anubisu’s sex life and what’s this about an incident with the native lif…?” Tenku wondered aloud before he stilled. Suspicion crossed his eyes, then dawning, horrible comprehension. Naaza just crossed his arms over his chest, noting with interest of fact the Trooper’s face changed. “Don’t tell me you have tentacles monsters in this place?!” the archer blurted out, startling Kourin.
“Tentacles monsters? What…?” the blond repeated, voice full of incomprehension as Naaza snorted.
“Worked it out pretty fast, didn’t you? Though I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised – I did see some of those ‘manga’ things young people are so fond of nowadays,” the Doku Masho mentioned, barely keeping his lips from twitching.
“That’s one type of story that is aimed at an 18+ public, and what I read in my free time doesn’t concern anyone but me and my imagination,” Tenku replied tartly. “How about you confirm wherever or not Ryo is currently prisoner from a tentacle monster that has infiltrated your own bloody palace instead?!”
“We don’t know for sure he got caught,” Naaza pointed out amiably before realizing maybe he shouldn’t push his luck there; Tenku looked ready to commit murder, and now Kourin had worked out the world ‘tentacles’ and ‘Ryo’ together, he wasn’t far behind. “But yes,” he admitted in a breath, “we do have a tentacle monster in the palace. One we haven’t managed to get rid of ever since it decided to make itself at home in the springs. Those beasts are tenacious.”
“Beasts, plural,” Tenku noted flatly. “And yet you’re sure there is only one here?”
“Unless it found a partner its willing to tolerate the presence of, yes, we’re sure,” Anubisu sighed. “And it’s just as well. One is hard enough to manage, so two or more…”
“And how does it reproduce exactly?” Kourin asked, looking unnerved. Naaza couldn’t exactly blame him there; before he had studied the beast himself (while staying out of grabbing range, which wasn’t exactly easy), he had had a few misconceptions of his own.
“It’s not going to lay eggs in Rekka’s body, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he mentioned as he summoned his armor’s first layer. No way he was setting a foot closer to the springs without it on, after all. “The Gesota reproduces asexually; once it reaches an advanced age, it creates a duplicate of itself it expulses as a… well, egg isn’t the right term,” Naaza stroke his chin, pensive. “Spore might be a better way to describe it. Anyway, he expels what is basically a clone of itself, and the spore will attach itself to anything that allows it to move away from its parent – more often than not, an animal or even an innocent passerby – and make its way to a new ‘territory’ for it to install itself and grow. As they are fond of heat and they need a continuous source of it to develop, they tend to be easily attracted to hot springs. Normally, there is heavy filtering of anything and anyone that enter bathhouses but, once in a while, someone slip, and then the spore hatches and colonize the place in no time.”
“As fascinating as it all sounds,” Kourin interrupted, voice all but shaking in fury as he summoned his own armor, followed one heartbeat later by Tenku, “perhaps we can save Ryo first and get an explanation later?”
“You’re the one who wanted to know how it reproduces,” Naaza huffed.
“What gets me is that you knew it was here and didn’t think to warn us,” Tenku said, getting an arrow out of his quiver.
“To be honest, it genuinely slipped our mind,” Anubisu mentioned, sounding weary as he too summoned his armor. “Everyone in the palace knows there is a Gesota here and how to avoid it, and since no one complained about it in a while and we were focused on bigger issues…”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t see how a tentacle monster can slip anyone’s mind,” Tenku commented as they walked down the corridors to the bath, Naaza at the head of the formation, his swords at the ready.
He knew it wouldn’t help much, but giving the Troopers a show they were taking things seriously might get them to calm down.
“Shouldn’t you guys have tried to chase him off or kill it, if it’s such a problem? Unless, of course, you’re kinkier than you appear,” the archer kept going, making Kourin hiss at him in warning.
“Oh, we can be kinky alright, but it has nothing to do with us liking tentacles and everything to do with Gesota being incredibly hard to kill,” Naaza snorted. “What, you really think we never tried, or that Arago was happy when it was reported there was a parasite in his palace? The intangible bastard may not have feared getting grabbed, but that didn’t mean he tolerated the ‘defilement’ of his palace. Funny how it never seemed to bother him if his Generals and courtiers got defiled instead,” the green-haired man added bitterly.
“He probably was a closet pervert who got a kick out of it,” Tenku commented, and Naaza nodded in agreement.
“Wouldn’t surprise me if he was. Anyway, he DID order us to deal with problem, but that’s easier said than done. We said it has been at least a century the baths have become a no-man zone, Tenku; mull on that.” They turned a corner, which was thankfully free of writhing tentacles trying to grab them.
Good for them… but perhaps not so good for Rekka. The Gesota mustn’t have had anyone in years by now; it was probably… very busy… with his catch right now.
“I’ve tried to poison it several dozens of times. Actually, I still make an attempt every year or so, testing out new formulas, and the most I ever managed was to make it back off and change which basin it prefers to linger for a few weeks.” Naaza wasn’t vexed by his failures. Much.
“And we tried the ‘hack and slash’ method as well,” Anubisu intervened. He was flanking Kourin, the two of them a few steps behind Naaza while Tenku was bringing up the rear. “But a Gesota’s flesh is so sturdy that most weapons end up blunted when you try. It is not invulnerable, and we’re reasonably certain one of our attack at full power could take it down, but then it would destroy the springs as well as part of the castle’s garden and damage the ground level if not carefully aimed, and it’d be counter-productive.”
“Learned it the hard way, I take? Or rather, as the tentacles took what they wanted?” Tenku commented, and there was a hint of wicked humor in his voice. Worried as he might be for Rekka, he was still focused enough he could read between the lines.
“Touma, that’s not a question to ask!” Kourin hissed. Naaza didn’t need to look at him to know he was likely as red as a cherry.
“Shuten learned it the hard way,” Naaza corrected before snickering. “‘Hard’ being the right way to describe how things went for him.”
“Naaza, quit it,” Anubisu warned, but if the Wolf thought Naaza had forgotten his own reaction back then, he was sorely mistaken.
“No, no, I’d like to know,” Tenku declared, sounding fascinated.
The closer they came to the baths, the more obvious the absence of tentacles was.
“This is not…” Anubisu tried, coughing awkwardly.
“Shuten was the most frequent user of the hot springs,” Naaza commented, carefully checking the ground and the cellar, just in case. “He was the first to meet our local Gesota. In fact, I’m all but certain he’s the one who brought it here in the first place. He had recently gone on a campaign in an area where they were known to dwell in number and though he wasn’t stupid enough to try his luck by going for a swim in an infected area, he probably missed a few checkups of his possessions when coming back home. Anyway, one morning, he went to bath, and then failed to show up at a scheduled meeting. Arago was furious, and sent Anubisu to search for him. Which,” Naaza smirked slightly, “is how we found out that a Gesota was now a resident of the palace, and that if you got too close, you were going to get fucked, Masho or not Masho.”
He heard someone stop walking and glanced over his shoulder, vaguely concerned.
Kourin had stopped in the middle of the corridor, a look of shock on his face as he slowly turned to look at Anubisu in the eyes. "Shuten and the... And you were... you watched?!" he asked in incredulity as Anubisu winced.
"It was accidental. I hadn't thought I'd stumble on... THAT. To the best of my knowledge, Shuten had simply fallen asleep in or out of the bath and just needed a kick to wake him up and then a good chiding for forgetting himself. I learned better fast enough, but I was so shocked at first that I couldn't look away," he admitted, but he kept evading Kourin's gaze past the first few seconds.
Hmph. Sure, Naaza was willing to bet Anubisu had received a shock at first, but if he hadn't been able to look away, it certainly hadn't been just because of the shock of seeing Shuten getting fucked senseless by very amorous and enterprising tentacles. Shuten, despite being an arrogant dickhead at the time, still had had a very hot body and wherever one wanted to admit it or not, watching someone in the middle of a nest of tentacles was hot too.
Especially if you stayed out of grabbing range yourself, which Anubisu had – at least, until the Gesota had noticed him too. That thing could zone on pheromones and other people’s arousal so swiftly, it was scary. Naaza had always taken the precaution of taking potions meant to kill all desires and make himself impotent whenever he went to observe one of the beasts later.
Wherever he wanted to admit it to Kourin and Tenku or not, Anubisu had been very turned on by the sight – and the ensuing fight to keep himself ‘pure’, given he had had a visible hard-on after they managed to beat back the Gesota enough to flee.
"I was lucky to get away with just a few inappropriate grabs," Anubisu continued, lips thinning as he recounted his own ‘humiliation’ – not mentioning that the beast HAD grabbed him at a later date, of course, and it had taken Naaza poisoning the water and Rajura and Shuten using their webs and chains respectively to pry him away. “And I was most lucky I was wearing my armor at the time, as it stopped the Gesota from going any further with me – not from lack of trying from its part. It tried to peel it off me even as I did my best to hack it. Fortunately, I was able to raise the alarm – and even more fortunately, my presence distracted it enough for Shuten to manage to slip away and get his own armor on.”
“Not that he was much of a help then,” Naaza commented.
“And you blame him?” Kourin asked in disbelief.
“Of course not,” Naaza denied immediately rolling his eyes. “Given how long and how roughly that thing had been fucking him, he was lucky to have been able to stand at all. I don’t think he was able to sit without several pillows for a week after that.” Which had been hilarious to him, but whatever. “Then the fool went and tried to kill the Gesota by himself – with very predicable results, I must add. And he did it again a couple of years later, because his ego got the best of him. For someone who had always professed to hate playing ‘bottom’ to any male, he sure seemed to love being stretched by several tentacles up his a…”
“I think we get the image, thank you,” Kourin replied curtly, but Tenku let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snicker. He mustn’t have been Shuten’s biggest fan either, Naaza guessed. “If Ryo is… if that thing has grabbed Ryo,” the blond struggled to say, “I don’t care how thick its hide is; I will kill it myself!”
“Spare yourself the pain and listen to the experts: your sword alone will not be enough,” Naaza said blandly. “But if you truly wish to make yourself a target and give the Gesota a distraction, be my guess. While he’s busy plucking your armor off you, we can always make a grab for Rekka and bring him to safety.”
“You don’t intend to try and fight it?” Tenku questioned.
“Why bother when we know we can’t actually beat it?” the Doku Masho replied matter-of-factually.
“You must understand, Touma-san, that we DID try all we could, the four of us together when Shuten was there,” Anubisu explained more calmly. “Our combined powers weren’t enough to slay the Gesota, and so we eventually abandoned the hope of getting rid of it. Whenever it grabs a servant or a guard, all we can do is getting them back and double-down on the orders not to come anywhere near the springs.”
“I’m surprised Arago tolerated that stuff,” Tenku commented. “If he was so unhappy about his palace’s springs being tentacles-infested, why didn’t he get rid of them himself?”
“Probably because, as you suggested, he was a pervert,” Naaza shrugged. “What?” he defended himself when Anubisu audibly choked. “He never seemed in any hurry to free whoever the Gesota caught when someone begged him for help, not even when it was one of us – and we all know he could have killed it if he had truly wanted. And, if you remember right, he did threaten us to throw us in the baths a couple of times when we ‘disappointed’ him,” Naaza gave him a look.
“… I had forgotten about that part,” Anubisu murmured, looking subdued and vaguely sick – because there was a huge difference between seeking a near-invulnerable tentacle monster on your lonesome because you were curious and to be thrown to its nonexistent mercy until someone felt like rescuing you. And Arago had never been particularly merciful…
“Well, I didn’t,” Naaza groused. It always unnerved him whenever they found disparities in their common memories. They knew their minds had been tampered with, by now, but to say how often and how it had started… that was much harder to pinpoint. Fuck Arago, he thought viciously. HE should have been the one getting fucked over by the Gesota – or even better, a whole bunch of them.
“Okay, that’s a part I can believe,” Tenku rubbed his face. “Why the hell not, after all? Even intangible demons must be getting urges once in a while.”
“He certainly seemed to get off in another way when he had us tortured,” Kourin muttered under his breath before his eyes hardened. “You said your power combined couldn’t kill that beast, right? But what if we had our owns?”
“That’d still be four of us against him, six if we decided to track down Rajura and Shuu and get them to help, and I’m not doing that right now,” Naaza declared. Mostly because walking on the two of them fooling around or banging each other was not on his list of things he wished to see in the immediate future. Still, Kourin had just raised an interesting possibility. “I do wonder if the Kikoutei’s power could take out a Gesota. If Ryo can grab his armor and we send our powers to him…”
Anubisu’s eyes flashed. “Kikoutei can be formed with our powers, that’s true. We might turn it into sashimi!”
“Or wipe out half your palace in one go,” Tenku pointed out casually, which sobered the two Masho instantly. Right. Tremendous power far beyond what they could imagine, Naaza thought dimly. “Beside, it’s been destroyed, so the point is moot.”
“What?!” Anubisu blurted, and Naaza wasn’t far behind. The hell?! He knew the Troopers had lived through several events since their victory over Arago, but…!
“Destroyed?! How the hell did you end up destroying…?!”
“Can we please forget the damn Kikourei and focus on RESCUING RYO?!” Kourin bellowed, bringing them to a halt.
Uh. Funny. Naaza didn’t think he had ever heard Kourin scream before. His ears were ringing.
“… right,” Naaza mumbled. Oh, but he has so many questions to ask those boys! But later, he promised himself. “You boys better stay behind me. I’m going to let venom sip out of my blades and directly into the water to start weakening the Gesota, and you don’t want to get accidentally splashed,” he warned.
“Won’t that also affect Ryo? He won’t have his armor on, and I’ve seen what your poison can do to stone or an armor. You’ll excuse me if I’m wary of your plan?” Tenku asked, and the question was sensible. Annoying, but sensible.
“It’s a risk,” Naaza acknowledged, “but I can treat him quickly once he’s out of the beast’s grasp. The poison I’m going to use isn’t acidic in nature, so he won’t suffer skin damage. Keep in mind, however, that he may already be injured,” he stressed out before either Tenku or Kourin could voice further objection. “I know you have healing powers through your armor, K… Seiji-san,” he dipped his head, “and if you wish to assist me once Ryo-san is safe, I will not object.” Mostly because that’d shut any protest and suspicion, but Naaza could easily pass it off to Kayura as him ‘opening up and building bridges’ with the Troopers. Which he was. Kinda.
“I will,” Kourin vowed, and though he still looked unnerved, there was no suspicion in his voice. Who knew, perhaps he trusted Naaza after all? Oh, whatever.
Naaza nodded. “Once the beast’s tentacles start to loosen, we will dash together to pry Ryo-san out of their grasp. Be wary that the Gesota might still try to grab you as we do, and that it may not willingly relent the hold he has on Ryo-san willingly, even if we attack and distract it,” he warned. “You may also see things you find… unsavory.”
Kourin and Tenku exchanged a grim look.
“We’re aware,” Tenku nodded sharply. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep our cool.”
“So you say,” Naaza muttered under his breath. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the two Troopers at their word exactly. If anything, he did believe they thought they could handle it. But it wasn’t Naaza’s first ride into getting a Gesato’s prey away from it, and he knew the way newcomers always froze, if only for a moment, due to their brains stalling.
Anubisu non-withstanding, that was how Rajura had gotten caught once, too. Well, that and the blind spot his missing eye naturally created.
Naaza had let him live it down… eventually.
“See that you do,” he said louder, shaking his head. “Once he’s freed, Anubisu will teleport Ryo-san directly to my quarters, where I keep most of my anti-venom and other remedies, and he will start administering first aid as needed until I can join him. I trust you still know how to do it?” he asked his fellow Masho, who harrumphed.
“Of course,” the blue-haired man stated gruffly. “Any specific vial I need to pick?”
“Blue one on the top shelf, third from the left,” Naaza replied evenly. “You should recognize it when you see it.” Mostly because Naaza had had a master glass-blower shape it for him, in a very obvious form. A very phallic form.
So he had a bad sense of humor, sue him!
“Nice to know YOU can teleport, but we haven’t figured that particular trick yet,” Tenku noted. “I can fly, but Seiji is going to be sitting duck.”
Anubisu muttered something that may or may not have sounded like ‘more like stuffed duck’, but Naaza didn’t outwardly react and took the reveal in stride. “And here I had hoped you boys had started to understand your armors better,” he grumbled. “Very well, Seiji-san will stick with me. I can easily teleport another person. Does it answer your worries?” he asked in a syrupy voice as both Troopers tentatively nodded. “Good. Now let’s move.”
He unsheathed two of his blades again, mentally sending the order for them to start sipping their venom. It wasn’t easy, and he needed a tight control to stop them from dripping all over the floor, but it was something he had grown used to over time. Behind him, he head Anubisu take out his own blade, and Kourin and Tenku move, readying themselves anew.
The sounds started to filter through not even thirty seconds later.
Very familiar sounds. Flesh slapping against flesh. Muffled groans and moans of someone choking around something lodged in their throat. Wet sounds, water spilling over the edges of a pool, wavelets crashing, and other things Naaza preferred not to contemplate – though he was privately very happy over the fact the Gesota secreted a form of lubricant from its tentacles. At least no-one was ever taken ‘raw’ with that thing…
“I wonder if Shuu or Shin would be in the mood to make takoyaki,” Kourin growled, sounding ready to dash and just throw caution to the wind.
“No doubt they will once they heard of what happened,” Tenku replied blandly. “At least Ryo doesn’t sound in pain?” he said in what was either an attempt at comforting himself or to calm down his friend. If it was the case, it wasn’t working all that well; Naaza could feel the rage Kourin emitted from here.
He was one very protective friend… or prospective lover… or whatever. Not his business.
“The Gesota doesn’t hurt its prey,” Anubisu murmured. “Not physically, at the very least. It’s only goal is to, uh, how to put it?”
“Act like a kinky bastard?” Tenku provided ‘helpfully’, making Naaza’s lips quirk despite himself.
“Something like that,” the Doku Masho acknowledged as Anubisu chuckled. “But really, it’s… feeding. Sort of.”
“Wait, it’s trying to…!” Kourin choked.
“It’s not devouring its preys,” Naaza snapped, louder than he wanted, and for a second, he stilled, searching for the sound of tentacles crawling and slipping on the floor, but it didn’t happen, and his shoulders relaxed slightly. “Gesota don’t have a mouth, so they don’t seek flesh. As far as we can tell, it leeches off the heat and energy of its captives as well as any corporal fluids it can extract during coitus, which it absorbs through skin to tentacles contact.”
“… wait, are you saying the local tentacle monsters live off sem…?” Tenku asked, fascinated.
“RYO!” Kourin suddenly crying out, taking a step forward, only for Naaza to block him with an extended arm as they finally took sight of their missing Trooper.
He blinked.
In fact, Naaza was sure they all blinked.
That was… not quite what he has expected to see, to be honest.
Naaza had seen plenty of victims of the Gesota before, and so he was familiar with the way it grabbed its victim and kept them tied up in its tentacles. Usually, dozens were used to bind each limb down, the more physically powerful the victim the more tentacles snaking all over their bodies. Bodies were usually bent in awkward positions, or lifted high in the air to lessen the victim’ leeway; Shuten, for example, had once been found up in the air, arms behind his back and legs bent at the knees, hanging like a decoration, and Rajura had found himself hanging head down and legs high in the air and spread as far as possible in a parody of his usual ‘spider-like position’.
Given Rekka no Ryo was a stubborn fighter, it was exactly the type of position Naaza had fully expected to find him in – or perhaps on his back in a nest of tentacles keeping him still while a couple were trusting up his ass.
Oh, tentacles were indeed busying themselves in and out of the Trooper but…
He didn’t look nearly as panicked or even half as tied down as the average Gesota’s sex toy/’sexy snack’.
In fact, Naaza was tempted to say the black-haired Trooper looked perfectly relaxed, which made no damn sense to him!
But here Rekka no Ryo was, on his hands and knees by the side of the hot spring he had likely been soaking before the Gesota had let its presence known. His wet black hair were tossed over one of his shoulders. Droplets of water and sweat were slowly tracing their path over his body, from muscled shoulders to a well-defined chest, hard-looking thighs and firm-looking ass. His skin had a pleasant golden hue, tanned everywhere Naaza could see (which implied the boy took time to lie in the sun in the nude, but the Doku Masho would certainly not judge him for that if that was the case).
Naaza’s eyes slowly took in the other details, catching his breath and ruthlessly quashing any stir of libido as he did – because fuck, the Rekka Trooper was one damn hot sight right now!
His legs were parted, not too far but not too close, and two tentacles were busy massaging the flesh of his rear while two more were busying themselves exploring the hole the parting of the butt cheeks had revealed – at the same time! Who knew the boy could stretch that much, he thought dimly? Not that the Gesota’s tentacles were obscenely large, of course not; most weren’t that much larger than the average girth of a man’s penis, and ever more were actually thinner than that, with the older Gesota specimens developing thicker tentacles over time.
Getting stuffed with several at once wasn’t THAT odd or unusual; indeed, they had had to pry Anubisu away from three fighting to pierce him at the same time and from Naaza’s recording, Shuten had taken as many as five at the same time himself – but smaller ones than the two working out on Rekka!
And that wasn’t counting the one the black-haired boy was currently sucking on.
God, Naaza could see the bulge in Rekka no Ryo’s throat as he hummed – he bloody hummed! – around the thicker tentacle in his mouth. His eyes were half-closed, and for all his cheeks were red, he didn’t seem distressed the slightest.
He didn’t seem all that bothered about the thin tentacle that was wrapped all over his balls and his erection either. His cock was nicely filled (and a good size, too, Naaza noted, easily on par with Anubisu’s, which made him do a double-check), the head seeping pre-cum that the tentacle seemed to spread everywhere whenever it moved and made constriction move around the Trooper’s ‘package’. From the spots Naaza could spy on the boy’s stomach and the amount of fluid over his thighs, he had already come a few times and didn’t seem all that bothered to be coaxed into another hard-on.
Good to know the Trooper had stamina, he thought faintly?
Tentacles were surrounding his wrists and his knees and his ankles, but they didn’t seem to be… restrictive. If anything, Naaza thought they were supporting the Trooper – a feeling that was only reinforced by the way Ryo’s hand was leaning over one of said tentacles, basically petting it as if encouraging it!
And the worst part?
The Gesota was… purring!
“The. Fuck?” he said slowly, his control on his blades slipping as he lowered them to the ground, droplets of poisons crashing on the stone.
“Oh Gods,” Tenku groaned, his voice oscillating between a nervous giggle and a desperate moan. “Please, don’t tell me he made ‘friends’ with the tentacle monster!”
“You can’t make friend with a tentacle monster!” Anubisu snapped before pausing and looking at Rekka more closely, practically leaning in for a better view. His eyes were definitely slightly glazed over, Naaza noted (and he understood, oh yes, he understood all too well. NOW Naaza was beginning to understand why Shuten had seemed ever so interested in Rekka no Ryo, and his respect for Shuten and his tastes in potential lovers went up a notch or two). “Can you?” he questioned in wonder.
Kourin elbowed the Yami Masho in the side sharply.
“Stop leering over my friend and help us to get him out of there!” he growled.
Naaza opened his mouth to say something, but he didn’t have time to.
Ryo made a noise, and he saw him squeeze the tentacle wrapped around his left wrist twice in rapid succession. With a twitch, he watched the ones piercing his hole retract and the one in his throat slide out with a wet ‘pop’ before he coughed.
More tentacles reached, sliding over his shoulders and back, as if to comfort him or give him a massage.
“Oww. Careful, remember?” Rekka said aloud after he finished coughing, leaning in the embrace of a tentacle that was lovingly stroking him under the chin. The Gesota’s tentacles started to vibrate, the ‘purring’ sound growing louder even as Rekka laughed and just pressed a kiss on the tentacle near his face. Naaza stared harder. Oh Gods, Tenku was right, the boy had really made friend with the Gesota! How the fuck could this have happened?!
… no, wrong question, Naaza realized, resisting the urge to facepalm.
Obviously, they had made friends through fucking. Silly him. And Rekka didn’t seem to mind having been grabbed at all. How nice.
“What did I say about being too rough? You aren’t going to get anyone to like you if you’re not gentler,” the black-haired Trooper kept tutting, and the tentacles seemed to curb and retract further, very much like a chided pup. “I told you when you first went on me, right? Not everybody react positively to being grabbed out of nowhere. If you scare them, they’ll run away before you can try to show you’re not a danger to them. Now, I’m not unopposed against taking two at once, but you need to take the time to stretch me, and then you must move very slowly, just like earlier. Alright?” he said, stroking the tentacles that were surrounding his wrists, making no effort to move away from the others.
Some of the Gesota’s tentacles visibly dropped.
“Yes, I know, you want me to feel good, and you’re doing that very well,” Rekka praised and Gods, Naaza couldn’t help but swallow; for a second, HE wanted to be the one getting praised like that. Judging by the way Anubisu inhaled, Naaza wasn’t the only one. Damnit, he didn’t need a crush now of all times! “But humans can be fragile, so you have to consider that too. Getting impatient will not be good for them, nor for you, especially if you want to make more friends. Okay?” A tentacle slide over his ass and started going after his hole again, making the boy sight. “And once again, you’re going way too fast. Just because you already stretched me doesn’t me you should and can burrow right away. You need to keep toying again, or you need to distract me by…” the Trooper started to instruct before he stopped himself, perhaps finally sensing he wasn’t alone anymore.
Slowly, oh so slowly, he turned his head, his eyes wide and rounds like a doe caught in the light of a guard’s torch during a night round. His mouth dropped slightly in surprise before a slow, intense flush crawled over his cheeks.
“Oh. Uh… hi, guys?” he said, ducking his head in embarrassment. “You’ve… you’ve been here since long?” He shifted on his knees, as if to hide his erection, but there was no hiding that, in Naaza’s opinion.
(Nor should Ryo do so; it was a very nice sight to contemplate, much nicer than Naaza had expected.)
“Sufficiently,” Kourin stated. He was still holding his sword at the ready, and it was only because Naaza was already too overwhelmed he didn’t do a sexual joke about it as well. An aura of calmness emanated from the Trooper, which was at odd with his frozen smile. “We were really worried about you, Ryo. Since, you know, you failed to show up as promised,” he commented casually, and he was clearly looking at anything BUT Rekka’s naked body – the opposite of Tenku, who was eyeing Rekka and the tentacles while stroking his chin. “But it seems we were worried over nothing, were we? You were just making a new friend, weren’t you? Did you give him a name yet?”
The flush on Ryo’s cheeks deepened. “Of course I didn’t! But, uh, yes, I guess I did make a new friend?” he glanced up helplessly at the Gesato’s tentacles. “He says ‘hi’ too?” he offered weakly.
Above him, a couple of tentacles waved.
“I’d like to say we’re charmed, but given how much trouble that thing has given us over the years, you’ll excuse us if we refrain?” Anubisu commented dryly, sheathing back his sword and nodding at Naaza to do the same.
That went against any good sense the Masho possessed, but… given the tentacles had yet to make a grab for them and seemed to obey Rekka, at least in some form… Naaza sheathed back one sword. He wasn’t going to compromise on the other.
Rekka no Ryo smiled weakly. “Yes, he’s a bit insistent, isn’t he?” he admitted as the tentacles started to rub his lower back and the one around his genital moved. “Ooooooooh, oh no, not now…!”
“Try ‘very insistent’,” Anubisu snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. “Frankly, I’m surprised it’s listening to you at all.”
“Ryo always had something of a special touch with animals,” Tenku commented with a grin. “A regular Disney Princess – though I don’t think Disney Princesses ever took on a tentacle monster.”
“Not unless you look for very specific doujinshi,” Kourin said, his voice flat.
“Come… come on, guys… the joke… the joke is old,” Rekka whined. “Hummmm, please, stop there, okay?” he begged the Gesota, which paused. “They’re not going to want to play with you just because you’re showing off what you can do.” Tentacles visibly dropped in disappointment and tightened around the black-haired boy’s limbs. He started to frown. “Ah, ah. We talked about it; people aren’t always free to play with you when you’re lonely because they might already be busy, and I can’t stay with you indefinitely. But if you release me, I promise I’ll come back to play another time, okay?”
The Gesota tentacles wavered, but didn’t completely break their hold.
Naaza was still impressed. They had never seen a Gesota being reasoned with before.
… granted, they had never tried it either. Usually, the victims were too busy choking on tentacles to try, and their rescuers too pissed and focused on rescue and getting the hell away to talk with the creatures. Perhaps they were more sentient than they suspected…
“Don’t even think about it,” Anubisu hissed sharply in his ear, making Naaza jump.
“I haven’t said anything!” he protested.
“No, but I know that look,” the Yami Masho commented. “Whatever you’re thinking about doing: don’t.”
Naaza harrumphed, but let the matter drop for now.
He could still work something out later, while Anubisu was otherwise occupied – even if he had to lock him in a room with Kourin no Seiji to keep him suitably distracted.
“Shouldn’t you refrain from making promises we’re not going to let you keep?” Tenku questioned his friend, still grinning widely. Now they knew the other Trooper was alright, he just seemed to find everything about the situation hilarious. “Though I admit, it’d be intriguing…”
“If you want to test anything, you’re more than welcome to do it yourself; don’t use Ryo as a proxy,” Kourin snapped. “Ryo…!”
“I’m not going to hurt this fellow’s feelings just because you’re impatient,” the black-haired Trooper snapped back before his voice grew gentler. “He’s just lonely, Seiji. You have to explain things to him gently so it won’t end up with a broken heart. Right?” he smiled at a tentacle nudged his face. “Can you let go now? You were a very good friend,” he said, nuzzling the tentacle.
The Gesato let go. With obvious reluctance, but he still let go.
Naaza traded a glance with Anubisu. Rajura was never going to believe that.
“Oh, Gods,” the blond Trooper groaned to express his own disbelief and frustration, pressing a hand over his face while Tenku gave him a pat on the shoulder.
“See the bright side, Seiji; at least he can’t take the tentacle monster home,” the archer said cheerfully. “And if he tries, we can always get Byakuen and Nasutei to convince him it’s a bad idea. Then again,” he added after a beat, “perhaps not Nasutei. Something tell me she’d be way too interested into a pet tentacle monster of her own.
That only made the blond groan louder.