The Red Hand

"MEW! MEW! MEW!" Akagi was being happily spoiled by Yumi as the two relaxed on a big fluffy futon that had been set out in their room. The Catkagi in question had been happily rolling around on the fluffy bed, and the myriad of toys and other objects scattered about showed just how much fun the two were having.

"I've got you now, kitty!" Yumi pounced on the rolling ball of cuteness, tackling her to the futon and smothering her with affection.

{WITHOUT MIJI TO INTERFERE, THE FLOOF IS MINE!} (Yumi)

"Who's a good kitty?" Yumi scratched and tickled Akagi all over. "Who's a good kitty?"

"MEW!" Akagi meowed, indicating that she was the bestest kitty of all.

"KITTY!" Yumi pulled Akagi into a tight hug as the two fell down together, laughing. "So cute! Give me more snuggles!" She pressed her face against Akagi's which elicited more meowing and happy squeals from the kitty in question.

{I just want to spoil you all day!} (Yumi)

"Aww, look at the happy couple." Halifax said as she leaned on the inside of the door, causing both Akagi and Yumi to stop their happy snuggling and glare at her. "Hey now, don't stop having fun on my account." She laughed. “And you don't need to death glare me for interrupting your snuggle time.”

{INTERLOPER! DO NOT STEAL THE KITTY! I KNOW OF YOUR WICKED KITTY SNATCHNG WAYS!} (Yumi)

"Do you want in on the fun?" Akagi asked with a massive smile on her face. “There's always room for more people to give me pets.”

{NO! DO NOT INVITE HER! SHE WILL STEAL YOU AWAY!} (Yumi)

"Maybe later." Halifax winked, which caused Yumi to hug Akagi even tighter. "Sadly, I didn't come here to enjoy some kitty fluff. Too bad."

"Judging by that look on your face...” Akagi sighed. “Can I not get two days without something happening..." She as she shook Yumi off and stood up, which devastated the Priestess.

{NOOOOOOOOO! MY KITTY!} (Yumi)

"Eh, it's not like something went wrong per se. It's more that Elariel wanted to tell you something." Halifax motioned for the two of them to follow, which Akagi did after reverting to normal and cheering the pouting Yumi up.

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"Ahhh, having a Goddess serve me tea." Silfana had a massive smile on her face as Elariel poured more tea into her cup. The Vampire was enjoying herself and taking a small break in the large cafe-looking room that she'd had constructed. “This is just perfect.”

"You're lucky that Akagi has me literally by the throat, otherwise I'd end you, Vampire." Elariel felt humiliated to be forced to act and dress as a maid, but by this point had given up on resisting.

{I swear the moment I'm able to I WILL repay this humiliation!} (Elariel)

"Now that I think about it it truly is appropriate for me to have such a high-quality servant. After all, I am an Empress and one that deserves only the finest." Silfana had taken to calling herself the Vampire Empress after Akagi offered her the title, and her usually pale skin seemed a bit brighter after her discussions with the Demon.

{Truly... Truly...} (Silfana)

"Akagi, you've created a monster..." Elariel sighed.

{Well, perhaps its better said that you made one WORSE...} (Elariel)

"I do have a tendency to do that!" Akagi laughed as she and the other girls entered the room. "But I think it's fine. Silfana was already pretty far gone before I showed up anyway, so a bit more ego won't harm anything!"

"That still doesn't mean that you should make it worse..." Elariel sighed as she sat the teapot down. "But getting past the Vampire's newly Gale-sized sense of self importance, I need to discuss something with you. Its of the utmost urgency."

"Listen, I don't need to hear about your passionate love affair with Silfana." Akagi snickered. “Keep those steamy stories to yourself.”

"I..." Elariel stopped herself from saying anything. "No, no, no. If my time with Halifax has taught me anything, it's that I should ignore your provocative statements entirely. Otherwise, it's only going to get worse..."

"Darn, she's learning." Akagi laughed. “Too bad. Its always fun when people react to my comments and actions.” Hishya had stopped giving good reactions and most other people she knew had done the same, putting a damper on her fun.

"Umm..." Yumi poked the Demon in the shoulder. "Did... Please don't tell me that what you said was..."

{If its true, I really want to hear the details!} (Yumi)

"Huh? Oh, I have no fucking clue if those two had a good time together." Akagi shrugged. "I definitely don't keep tabs on that, nor do I want to."

{Not into that, no thanks.} (Akagi)

"For the record, we did not." Silfana crossed her arms in an X. "I have quite high standards for such things, and Elariel here definitely doesn't meet them. Though I won't deny that she has quite the attractive body."

{Perhaps I'd take a sip, at least once, just to see how Goddess tastes.} (Silfana)

"Damn! To deny a Goddess!" Halifax whistled in disbelief. "That's gotta sting, Elariel. I'm sorry you got your heart broken. But don't worry, there's plenty of fish in the sea!"

{DON'T RETORT! DON'T DO IT! THAT'S WHAT THEY WANT! I REFUSE TO GIVE THEM THE SATISFACTION!} (Elariel)

"But enough picking on the Goddess, for now." Akagi chuckled while watching Elariel desperately try not to say something back. "So, what did you want to tell me?" She said as she, Yumi, and Halifax took a seat at the table with Silfana. “I'd imagine it is important if its coming from you.”

"A few things actually." Elariel walked over to another table and picked up a notebook, flicking through to a page. "First and foremost, your little stunt in the Capital has attracted a significant amount of attention. It seems that Reflia has been tasked with investigating Tahena's death and the so-called Demon Lord that was behind it." She'd been informed of what was happening via her Angels sending coded messages, and was surprised to hear that Reflia was being sent down directly.

"Oh, that actually took longer than expected." Akagi commented. It had been nearly three days since she assassinated the Goddess in broad daylight, and she'd been expecting some kind of response that same day.

{Are they just being cautious, or do they not believe they need to take me seriously?} (Akagi)

"Gale tasked her with this mission almost immediately after Tahena vanished, but she needed to get things ready before activating her Avatar." Elariel answered. “Such things are rarely in a convenient location, so this kind of delay was to be expected.”

"Wait, how do you even know all this?" Halifax asked an important question. "You're down here. Gods can't communicate via their actual bodies while using their avatar, so there's no way you should be aware of what's happening back in the Heavens." She didn't understand how Elariel was getting this information, since her real body should've been in what was essentially a comatose state within her Palace.

"Ah, but you're wrong about that." Elariel winked. "True, I can't really do much with my real body while controlling my Avatar, but that doesn't mean that nothing can pass between the two." She glanced over at Akagi. "As a certain Demon Lord has proven, the connection between a God and their Avatar is far more robust than one would expect, so it stands to reason that while my consciousness is within my Avatar there are still some ways of interacting back up top."

"The Gods that I used to worship worked in a similar way." Yumi spoke up. "There were stories of them splitting attention between an Avatar and their body in the heavens during times of crisis." She figured that it would be stranger to hear that God couldn't be in both places at once, at least slightly.

{I think the Goddess of Light did something like that when she fought and destroyed the Goddess of Darkness. I don't remember the story well but it had something to do with needing to kill both the real body and Avatar simultaneously.} (Yumi)

"Well, I work a bit different than those Gods." Elariel gave a wry smile. "I'm unable to split my mind into different bodies, and my consciousness must remain fully in one or the other." Gods had tried what Yumi was describing in the past, but it never worked and, at times, had serious negative ramifications for those who pushed their limits too far. "That said, I've been using my Avatar body enough that I've managed to find a way for information from the Heavens to at least flow down here while I'm away."

"And that's how you're still getting this intel?" Halifax hummed in thought. “But how does that work?”

"Its actually quite simple. My Angels can feed me snippets of information by sending pulses of energy into my real body." Elariel explained. "Despite Akagi sealing me down here, I can still feel my real body, and thus this method of information sharing still works." She explained that there was a code system whereby certain amount of energy sent in specific increments would spell out messages.

"Ah, so it's like morse code." Akagi nodded in understanding. "That's actually ingenious... Do the other Gods know of this method?" She figured that if they did, they'd probably command the Angels to send a recall order to Elariel, which would instantly cause a problem.

"No, and my Angels have been ordered by me to not interrupt me while I'm in my Avatar unless it's something that meets one of a few scenarios." Elariel shook her head. "I haven't told the other Gods about this simply because it never came up, and I never imagined that it would be of any use to them since most don't even use Avatars 90% of the time." She and Tahena were the Gods most likely to be found wandering the material world, as the others were less than willing to restrict themselves.

{I only ever came up with this because there were far too many times where I'd get interrupted while doing work down here, so I got sick of having to go back and forth for stupid things.} (Elariel)

"Now that I think back, are the Gods basically racist?" Halifax's non-sequitur sliced through the conversation like a hot knife through butter, confusing everyone. "Looking back at some of their statements and attitudes toward mortals, it almost seems like they either dislike them or feel they are inferior in some way."

{I've almost never seen them act truly kind to mortals, at best they were just amicable when they needed something from them.} (Halifax)

"Well, they're Gods. Being pretentious assholes is practically in the job description!" Akagi laughed. “I'd imagine the number of kind and caring Gods is quite low.”

"I was never a particularly pious woman even before becoming a Vampire, but I seem to recall feeling that most Gods view mortals in a dim light." Silfana said as she sipped some tea. "It's part of why I had no qualms with turning against them like I did." Becoming a Vampire was considered to be an affront to the Gods since they were considered to be unholy creatures of darkness and was a good chunk of the reason why she was banished and removed from the Imperial Family records.

"I will not deny your words." Elariel looked away, slightly embarrassed. "Just don't go thinking that all of us are like Gale..."

{I've spent far too much time with mortals for anyone to consider me racist! I've had kids with mortals and been friends with them, thus such a designation is ridiculous!} (Elariel)

"Alright, so we've got another Goddess walking around and potentially more friends coming to the party at a later date." Akagi took a sip of tea. "That was the first thing you wanted to talk about, but what's the rest?" She figured that Elariel's notebook had more information.

"The other thing that I wanted to discuss..." Elariel locked eyes with Akagi. "Was your plans..."

"I have many plans, so please be more specific." Akagi quipped.

"And I'd bet a few are related to the best way to snuggle and get pets." Halifax laughed.

"There may be a few of those." Akagi snickered. "But in all seriousness, I presume the plans you are speaking of are my battle with the other Gods?"

"Yes." Elariel nodded. "I wanted to speak with you because, based on some of your prior comments, I do not think what you have in mind will work."