The Red Hand

"Alright, please let me know when the Israeli Ambassador arrives. I'll be in the Oval." President Rosewood spoke to her secretary before closing the door behind her, entering the Oval Office and letting out a deep sigh. "I already have my hands full with the Far East, and now the Middle East might explode... again." It was already late into the evening, and she was hoping to retire for the night, but as she knew all too well, there was no rest for the wicked.

{Why do things always need to be difficult?} (Rosewood)

"Sounds like you're not having a very fun day." Akagi's voice startled Rosewood, who couldn't recognize it as she spoke in English rather than Japanese.

"Who's there?" Rosewood looked around the room, before watching the chair behind the resolute desk spin around slowly, revealing Yumi happily petting a fluffy Catkagi who was on her lap.

"Tis I! Lady Mew of the Mewpire!" Akagi snickered as her ears were floofed. "I have come to make the Earth a more fluffy place, MEW!"

"I give up..." Rosewood put her head in her hands in defeat. "And shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't the evil villain be the one petting the cat?" She figured that Akagi had it backwards.

{And since when do you speak fluent English?} (Rosewood)

"Are you saying that Yumi isn't evil?" Akagi puffed up her cheeks, disagreeing with her notion that Yumi wasn't the perfect evil partner in crime. "I'll have you know that Yumi is very evil! Like that one time where she didn't put a new roll of toilet paper in the bathroom right before Kana went in. That was very evil!"

{THAT WAS ONE TIME AND YOU KNOW IT!} (Yumi)

"Ah yes, very evil indeed. Truly a war criminal that we need to lock in the Hague. Quick, somebody call the ICC and arrest this terrible woman." Rosewood rolled her eyes.

{I could go for a drink right about now...} (Rosewood)

"Aren't you not part of that organization?" Akagi laughed.

"Please tell me that you didn't come all this way just to aggravate me..." Rosewood sighed, ignoring her question.

"Would it be a problem if I did?" Akagi asked with a smile.

"You do recall that I'm the President of the United States, right?" Rosewood shook her head. "Never mind... So what did you come here for? Does it have something to do with our Special Operation?" She'd heard reports that everything was on schedule and hoped that no last minute issues had popped up.

"Nah." Akagi shook her head. "That's already ready to go, and I've got nothing further to discuss about it." She'd just visited Seoul to make sure everything was ready, and the Operation would begin in the next few days.

"Well, that's good news I suppose." Rosewood walked over to the two of them. "But then that must mean that you've got some other issue that you needed to discuss with me."

{This one doesn't do social calls really, so that means she's here to cause me more trouble...} (Rosewood)

"Are you aware of what happened during my tournament?" Akagi asked about the incident the other day.

"I was told that some group attacked you and something about that other world declaring war on you." Rosewood nodded. "But that's about all." There wasn't much information to go off of beyond what Akagi had told the press and she couldn't be bothered to dig further into Akagi's matters.

"That's a decent summary, but let me give you the full details." Akagi proceeded to explain how the Gods were plotting a mass genocide of the Spirits and intended to come to Earth to save their own skin.

"Yep... Great..." Rosewood groaned. "Just what I needed..."

{Literal Deities want to cause chaos on Earth... Fantastic... As if the arguments over the budget weren't bad enough, now I have this...} (Rosewood)

"Well, I hope you haven't come for my help. I might have the world's most powerful military at my disposal, but I don't think Gods are going to care about cluster munitions." Rosewood shook her head.

"Less asking for help and more forewarning you." Akagi continued. "There is a chance that I may end up fighting said Gods on Earth, so I'd like to at least tell people what's going on." She figured letting people know to stay away from the massive explosions would be helpful.

"Don't tell me you want me to let the entire world know that you're going to go toe-to-toe with literal Gods?" Rosewood asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Meh." Akagi shrugged, not caring what she did with the information. "I just figured that it was best if somebody important knew what was going on when satellites start detecting explosions from orbit."

{You're one of the few idiots I can trust not to fuck things up anyway.} (Akagi)

"Yeah... The last time that happened you sent some of my analysts into a panic thinking somebody dropped a Nuke on your country." Rosewood had been informed that Halifax's Supernova attack was so powerful that it registered on Earthquake monitors in California and was visible from space.

"In her defense, it was a pretty sick kaboom." Akagi snickered.

"Yes, and kitty likes kaboom!" Yumi laughed as she pet Akagi on the head.

"MEW!" Akagi meowed, and Rosewood just shook her head, not wanting to comment on the fact that two people were flirting in the Oval Office.

{Though knowing what I know about past Administrations, people have done worse in here...} (Rosewood)

"Well, regardless, I'm thankful that you gave me a heads-up." Rosewood sighed. "But I'm not really sure what to do. I can't exactly summon my Cabinet and tell them that Gods might descend on Earth and fight you."

{That would cause a number of problems...} (Rosewood)

"Just keep this info in the back of your head." Akagi hopped off Yumi's lap and walked around the desk, much to the Priestess's displeasure.

{NO! I was away for so long! Give me more floof! Miji hogs you all the time!} (Yumi)

"If we're lucky, then I handle things without issue, and the rest of the world won't find out until my plans are complete." Akagi smiled. At this size, the Demon was barely taller than the desk next to her, and Rosewood couldn't help but think that her cute appearance didn't fit what she knew was within.

{Is the cute exterior suppose to make the subsequent evil deeds funny? Because I have a feeling that she'd do something stupid like meow in that form to wipe out an army...} (Rosewood)

"That a Catgirl is standing before the President of the United States in the Oval Office and telling me that she's going to slay Gods..." Rosewood shook her head. "No. No. No. I'm not going to think about it. I bet that's what you want me to do and I won't give you the satisfaction of making me more stressed."

{I'm on to you, cat.} (Rosewood)

"MEW!" Akagi meowed, neither confirming nor denying her claim. "If you want, my ears are open for scratching." She lifted her head up closer to Rosewood. “Come on, you know you want to.” She snickered as her ears flicked and twitched.

"I'll decline that offer." Rosewood said with a straight face. "I have a feeling that if I did that, then I'd be losing."

"Don't worry about that! Just pet the kitty!" Akagi laughed.

"I'm a dog person anyway." Rosewood shrugged. "Cats never really did it for me." She actually had a pet Border Collie named Muffin that was currently asleep in her room.

"I can change into a dog-girl if that's to your taste." Akagi snickered. "Yumi enjoys kitty mode, but I've been playing with a nice set of floppy ears from time to time.” She'd messed around with all sorts of appearances, though Catkagi was the clear winner among he friends.

{KITTY IS JUSTICE!} (Yumi)

"Please don't..." Rosewood stuck out her hand to stop her before her self-restraint failed. "I think the world is better off without an American President giving ear scratches to another world leader."

{And if anyone found out...} (Rosewood)

"Alright, Alright." Akagi chuckled. "I won't tempt you into darkness. But if you change your mind... MEW!" She snapped her fingers, and Yumi and her disappeared from the Oval Office.

"Why do I get the feeling that I'll be giving her exactly what she wants one day?" Rosewood sighed as she put her face into her hands. “I need a fucking drink...”

*KNOCK* KNOCK* *KNOCK*

"Madam President, Ambassador Ashar has just arrived and will be here in a few minutes." Her Secretary knocked on one of the doors.

{Maybe Ashar will drink with me? Yeah right... He can't hold his liquor worth a damn...} (Rosewood)

"Is he as angry as I expected?" Rosewood shook away Akagi's antics and prepared to get to work.

"If by angry you mean livid, then yes..." The Secretary sighed, noting that said Ambassador's ears were described as being bright red.

"Just what I needed..." Rosewood sighed, and a few minutes later, a very angry Israeli Ambassador stormed into the Oval Office. There had been a series of terrorist attacks throughout his country throughout the night, and he demanded to know what the United States was going to do in response.

With her usual calm demeanor, Rosewood talked Ambassador Ashar down from his fury and assured him that she and her administration would help in any way that she could but cautioned that American forces would not be deployed in or near Israel in response to these attacks. The two nations had once had very close diplomatic, military, and economic ties, but due to a series of diplomatic disputes and a general change in U.S. foreign policy over the last thirty years, that connection was starting to strain.

In the end, Ambassador Ashar left the White House disappointed and irritated but was ultimately forced to accept that his nation couldn't rely on American military power to solve this problem. Rosewood subtly tried to hint that she'd be willing to offer additional aid if his government restarted some stalled diplomatic talks but she got little more than vague promises.

"Alright, I hope that I can finally get some rest tonight." Rosewood sat on the couch in her room, pouring herself a glass of whiskey, her dog Muffin curled up on his bed in the corner of the room.

"You could've saved yourself a lot of trouble if you just kicked that idiot out of here." Birdy said, appearing behind her.

"I thought I told you that sneaking into my..." Rosewood shook her head, not wanting to get into it again. "Never mind. You're going to give either me, the Secret Service, or both a heart attack one of these days."

{I swear this girl just enjoys messing with me.} (Rosewood)

"At least I'm not sneaking into any of your more sensitive areas." Birdy hopped over the couch and poured a glass of her own. "Think of this as compensation for all the help I've been giving." She winked. Birdy had been all over the United States in her short time in the country. It had become quickly apparent that she wasn't particularly affected by most weapons in the American arsenal, even some that it was assumed would work.

"While I appreciate your help with lifting very heavy objects around, I'm not sure that entitles you to just appear in the President's private room as you wish." Rosewood side-eyed her. "It's starting to give people the wrong idea."

"Bah!" Birdy waved her concern off. "If people have an issue with their President enjoying the company of another person, then they can shove it!" She winked.

"When you say it like that..." Rosewood groaned, hating this part of her personality. "Do you have any idea how many staffers are getting questions about whether the President is dating a girl over ten years younger than her?!?"

{A reporter brought it up during one of my press conferences! I saw somebody saying that I'm being honey-trapped when don't even swing that way!} (Rosewood)

"Well, you're not so..." Birdy snickered. "Though I might be willing to if you insisted." She winked, and Rosewood wasn't entirely sure if the rainbow haired girl was joking or not.

"You're just as bad as your master." Rosewood groaned as she took a sip. “All you do is cause people stress...”

"Well, I might have picked up a few of her bad habits." Birdy chuckled as the two drank together.