D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Oh Yang was polite about it. Checking in every so often and making sure ‘Kat wasn’t wasting her time’ or ‘Lily would finally be able to go home and snuggle’ she was downright diplomatic about it considering how Yang normally acted. It was certainly still a little insulting… but at the same time Xuena had tried to acquire several other pieces of Kat’s anatomy for study and use in her alchemy. All just as dangerous as the blood. Some skin, a bit of hair, leather from Kat’s wings… even a bit of Kat’s tail. At that last one Kat hadn’t been able to prevent the small eruption of fire, though it was redirected to a nearby tree. Yang was on edge after that.

So when they said goodbye… Yang was still happy to have had them yes. Yang was glad it was Kat and not any other demon. That all being said… Yang also didn’t think it’d be good to get used to having Kat around. They were in a dangerous place and expecting Kat to scare off her kill everything was not a healthy mindset to get into. It also seemed that Kat was just too tempting for Xuena to avoid making awkward requests. Perhaps it would not have been so bad if Kat couldn’t regenerate, and had shown greater concern for personal damage. As it was… Kat was essentially a supply of unlimited rare and unique materials to examine.

Lily was barely helping matters. Other then the tail request, where Lily did actually see genuine anger in Kat, she just found the whole thing amusing. Lily was finding she saw a lot of herself in both Yang and Xuena. An idle thought of ‘if those pair had a kid, they’d probably end up exactly like me’ kept both Kat and Lily amused for far too long. Of course now… now they were both looking out into the snowstorm, not another living being in sight.

“It’s finally over…” said Kat with a sigh, letting the air stream out of her mouth, some of it freezing along the way. Kat let out another puff of deliberately hotter air and just watched it swirl around in the wind for a few moments.

“Yes… it’s… it’s strange. It’s been a long month all told and while part of my wants to go home… there was quite a lot of downtime. All the travel… while not the best of course… was quite nice. Even with things getting a bit samey, the fact that we could just talk to each other whenever we wanted. No real responsibilities besides making sure Yang and Xiang didn’t kill themselves… even the cookouts with Ron and his gang. It’s… been a lot yes,” said Lily leaning into Kat.

The pair shifted around so that Lily was now mostly on top of Kat instead of just sitting beside her. Really, why they bothered to sit separately in the first place was a mystery to both of them. “We shouldn’t really stay too long. Have to make sure you can honestly answer that we left once the job was complete…” mumbled Lily.

Kat could feel through the link that it was a grudging request though. The snow here was nice, and for Lily though it was noticeably chill it wasn’t even to the point of feeling like she should put on a jacket. Kat didn’t feel it at all of course. The sharpened hail was no longer present either. That seemed to be an effect that Ozen was inducing in the blizzard. A rather harrowing though all things considered. He had a lot of power and really hadn’t bothered to use most of it till the end there when KatE had him well and truly beaten.

“Are you alright Lily?” asked Kat softly, seemingly from nowhere but in truth following the darker thoughts Lily’s mind was turning towards.

.....

“I’m not the one that had my heart nearly ripped out?” said Lily, though the question was rather obvious in the tone of voice.

Kat decided to go full cheese, “Ah, but everything I have is yours, thus despite the fact the heart in question beats within my chest it belongs to you. By that logic, your heart was particularly close to destruction,”

Lily couldn’t help but laugh at the mental gymnastics. Just to solidify things, Kat also pulled Lily in for a searing kiss, letting go only when her poor mortal companion needed some air. It took a few moments for Lily to calm down… and calm up with a coherent comeback. “Well, if it really is MY heart, perhaps you should be taking care of it better?” suggested Lily trying to sound smug. Her voice only cracked once so Lily was calling it a win. The tears were of course, just a bit of snow melting on her face. “This is the second time this has happened you know? Same world as well!”

Kat tried to shrug lazily without moving Lily and ruining the comfortable position her girlfriend found. This turned out to take a good deal of mental effort and only LOOKED lazy. The bond ensured Lily knew just how false the attempt was, unable to suppress a chuckle at the action herself. Especially considering Lily wasn’t even in position to see the attempt at all, merely feel it. “I do not know what to tell you. I trust that I won’t die from it at the very least. I’m also much less concerned with injury in general… I mean… how scary is a broken bone when it is not the work of months to heal but minutes at most?”

Lily sighed as well, “I’m pretty sure that you were specifically told you can’t regrow organs…”

“That was all the way back when I was Rank 1 though… and it wasn’t organs I believe it was limbs. Though… if I couldn’t regrow limbs I’m not sure how I’d do if someone tried to remove one of my lungs or something… hmm… it’s somewhat awkward. I really should know that sort of thing and I bet the system will just ‘Unable to calculate based on growth. Testing required’ or something like that. It’s not really something I should test either in case it fails but…

“I also can’t really find myself all that worked up about it either. If I do take damage, I… I don’t know if it’s something I’ve accidentally trained myself in or if part of having regeneration just removes my concern for damage. It feels… more like a minor inconvenience. Like knowing you have to bend over to pick something up off the floor. The idea of bruises is really that inconsequential for me now. Bones and muscle damage don’t rate much higher either…”

“I suspect that you might’ve always had that issue…” grumbled Lily.

“Really?” asked Kat confused.

“Kat… you’ve taken water balloons to the face, stepped into punches, there was at least one kick you caught, though I think you actually caught that one rather then just letting it hit you… the idea of trading a bit of pain for an advantage is not something you’ve ever shied away from and now it really is just pain. No risk of longer term issues, at least, as far as we’ve been able to tell,” said Lily.

Kat nodded and said, “Possibly. I haven’t thought too hard about it myself. I think I’m really cheating with having Succubus regeneration instead of the normal one. Powerful as it might be… if normal people with regeneration end up with a bunch of scar tissue all over the place eventually that would be a problem. I seriously doubt normal regenerators can stand up to having their heart stabbed repeatedly,”

Lily winced. “Yeah… smooth unblemished skin is one thing but scarred organs and muscles? I think you might be on to something…”

“I’d guess it’s not really talked about all that much,” offered Kat.

“Why would you think that?” asked Lily confused.

“I think… I think it’s because Lust can claim it as one of their focus abilities, or whatever it’s actually called. They probably play up how nice it keeps their skin, how it prevents all sorts of little nicks and damage from scarring and ruining their appearance… while at the same time abusing the fact they can take near fatal damage with literally no consequences except a bit of energy and time,” explained Kat.

“Do… do you think Lust runs assassinations or something?” queried Lily.

“Oh I doubt it’s their main trade. Probably ‘too niche’ but at the same time… if 90% of the demonic assassins don’t end up in Lust I’d eat my hat,” said Kat firmly.

Lily groaned and asked, “But that’s the faction you want to join now you’re Rank 3?”

Kat nodded slowly, “Yes… yes I think it still is. I don’t necessarily fit the bill for them… but I feel like I fit everywhere else a lot less,”