Chapter 756
Sue paused for a second as the words caught up with her and then snorted. Kamiko raised an eyebrow as she raised another cup to her lips, intentionally swallowing it down without chewing. “No,” said Kamiko, setting Sue into another fit of laughter when she glanced over to see what had been done.
“Um... ah... hehe...” Sue tried and failed to recover herself a couple times before finally settling down. “Um... not quite? Sort of? No. No I guess we don’t. I mean, we sort of do? It’s just not the same in other animals. It’s more of... like an itch? You have the urge, but it’s very much ignorable if you want it to be and if you’re doing something intense... like deepthroating someone, you barely notice if you notice at all.”
Sue paused at the end of the explanation. “Wait. Are you pair trying to cover for Kamiko? She keeps avoiding telling us her stories. It shall not be allowed to continue,” shouted Sue. It would have been much more intimidating if she’d bother standing up to make her point or if she wasn’t the weakest of the three demons.
Kat and Lily were willing to just go along with it though. Kat even picked up Lily so that they could be stare pointedly at Kamiko happily munching away on her jelly. Kamiko for once didn’t wilt at all under the gazes. She had jelly in her hand, and there was nothing to be worried about. “I haven’t really been avoiding them... I just don’t know what to say. I mean, I’ve never kissed anyone except my family, and even then never on the lips.
“So then it just goes to embarrassing stories... but I don’t really think any of them are still embarrassing for me now? Like, for example, when I was fourteen the school wanted to have this... it wasn’t a bake sale because we weren’t selling anything... I guess a picnic? A full grade picnic? Yeah that’s probably the best description for it. We all had to bring something and we were heavily encouraged to bring something healthy. Well, I bet you can see where this is heading, at least partly.
“My Dad showed up with a veritable mountain of jelly. He had it all separated out into jelly cups like these,” Kamiko swallowed another cup of jelly. Obviously just to point out which ones she meant. No other reason. “In big crates that kept the extras cool and he stacked it all up behind the table. That wasn’t where the issue was really.
.....
“The first was that Dad was dressed all in pink. Big pink apron, big fluffy pink oven mitts. He even wore a pink suit and tie combination with a white undershirt and long pink pants. Now, as a girl people couldn’t go too hard on me for that. There was also the fact that Dad wasn’t embarrassed in the slightest and treated it as normal... and apparently if some of the other parents are to be believed he looked quite fetching in the whole ensemble somehow. The pink hair probably helped make it seem more normal as well.
“The issue for me at least was that he was very noticeable. Everyone was talking about him and with my hair, it wasn’t exactly hard for them to work out who he was related to. So it went from ‘who is the weirdo wearing pink’ to ‘who is the hot dude wearing pink’ to ‘OMG is that Kamiko’s father? How are the two related’ which... yeah. Dad did at least glare menacingly at the people who made fun of me but that didn’t help when the teachers came around.
“Then I had to watch my dad argue with them for like twenty minutes over how appropriate it was for him to bring so much jelly. First they tried to argue it wasn’t healthy before he pointed out they used a specialty brand. Then they pointed out it was designed to be nutritional only for Succubi, because yes, I learnt that day demons have different nutritional requirements, not just more or less of everything. Dad fired back with the fact they weren’t scrutinising anyone else for that particular thing, pointed out several less healthy options one of which was the stand right next to him, and finished up by saying that it didn’t really matter because they’d never specified health requirements, merely strongly advised taking them into account. Something he actually did.
“So now all the class is watching this show. I’m trying to pretend I’m not involved in anyway, then the principal comes out and tries to figure out what the heck is going on. Three teachers are ganging up on one parents, who by the way, was continuing to hand out jelly to anyone that asked during this conversation. Only to take one look at the situation and LEAVE to go flirt with his wife who was manning the water station instead.
“So argument picks up again. They ask him how what he brought could be considered ‘an appropriate amount’ of his chosen food. He points out, rightfully so, that some Gluttony demons attend and might appreciate a box or two all by themselves, then goes on to say that because they’re all being chilled that any going uneaten by the end of the day will be packed up and taken home. He has to take the chilled crates back anyway, so it isn’t even costing him extra space to take the extra home.
“At this point the teacher arguing with him, I don’t even think it was a teaching I had for classes or anything so no idea why they were going after Dad for this. Anyway, they were clearly trying to come up with something, anything basically to keep annoying my Dad but there just really wasn’t anything. I think they were going to call him out for ‘inappropriate dress’ until they took a look around at the other parents and saw that while goofy... Dad was at least wearing something modest that covered his whole body.
“So Dad managed to win that argument, the teachings walking away in shame. I’m a little sad they didn’t try to go for the ‘I’m more powerful than you argument’ because not only is that frowned upon pretty heavily I know for a fact Dad was stronger than them all. Not sure why they didn’t go for it. Still, with the teaches metaphorically limping away in defeat I officially became ‘not as cool as my Dad’.”
Sue chuckled at the end to Kamiko’s story. “I can see how that might have been embarrassing once upon a time. Just based on what I know of your dad... to be less cool than him. That... that takes some concerted effort. The fact he won the argument wearing frilly pink aprons and a pink suit really just adds to the whole thing, doesn’t it?”
Kat shrugged, and ‘Lily said, “I mean... maybe? I’m not really sure what passes for standard clothing in the demon world. I mean, does your dad wear pink a lot? I... I can see it sort of going with his hair maybe?”
Kamiko shook her head and sighed, “No. No he doesn’t wear pink often at all. It was a very clearly deliberate choice on his part. Still, I suppose it wasn’t as bad as sports day,”
“Sports day?” asked Kat for herself and Lily.
Kamiko gave a bigger sigh and quickly ate two more cups of jelly, already making a good dent in the total jelly content of the room. “See, a normal parent would come with a camera. My father comes with the whole damned electronics story. A high definition video camera, a higher definition old style camera, a polaroid camera, a magic based 3D camera, at least two drone cameras and hell knows what else.”
“How is that not more embarrassing than the food thing?” asked Sue confused.
Kamiko gave a slight smile, “Well, that has to do with two things. The first is that I wasn’t fourteen when it first happened. It happened to my sisters, and Dad did it for all my sports days. When I was younger I didn’t know any better and when I was older it was just how things were. The real saving grace though... was that he wasn’t the only one!”
“There were more people who pulled that sort of shit at your school?” asked Sue shocked.
“Oh yeah,” said Kamiko after another jelly cup. “There was... five I think? Five total but two of them were married to each other so I’m not totally sure if they count as one family or two people doing it. They just had the one set of equipment and they manned it together. I think they were lower Rank, 2 probably and couldn’t manage so many with just the one person.”
“Kami...” said Sue, “I think your school must have been fucking weird.”