Moonlight Demon

The next day, Ash woke up to an empty bed. That made sense to her because it had taken multiple hours before her eyes had finally stayed shut and she willed herself to go to sleep. Yesterday's news was simply too much for her mind not to worry about, it seemed. 

She sat up, sweating a little as she rubbed her eyes.  Shit, what time is it?  She wondered as she got off the bed to get dressed. She took whatever the room's nearby drawer had to offer and threw it on. She didn't really care if she looked good or not. That was the last thing on her mind. Walking out, she could smell oatmeal in the air as she went to the first floor. 

Here, she came across a sight that made her narrow her eyes. Keiko and Ayami were sitting at a table, separate from the group. Ayami's husband was sitting alone at a table behind them, while Satsuhiro, Kaori, Metsumi, and Opah were all enjoying breakfast at the table closest to the front door. Ash sat with them. 

Metsumi saw her sit down and stood up, walking to the bar, which was now functioning as a kitchen. 

"What's going on over there?" Ash asked, gesturing at Keiko. 

"What do you think?" Satsuhiro asked in turn. "She's asking for advice." 

That lone rubbed Ash the wrong way, though of course, they'd settled on that the previous day. Still, it made sense. That might have been the most annoying part. 

"What hour is it?" She asked next. 

"Almost noon," Satsuhiro replied again. "I already sent a letter to Vyl, by the way, just in case she has anything that can help Keiko out. There are a lot of little annoyances here and there that she's going to have to deal with, mood swings, cramps, the weight gain, but... Keiko's a strong girl," he shrugged. "She'll be fine when it comes to the normal stuff. The issue is, we don't know what a demon-related pregnancy specifically can bring to the table. Hence," he nodded towards her, "why she's sitting over there." 

"Yeah, I know." 

"Good," Satsuhiro nodded. "Now, listen, yesterday we were talking something through that you might be interested in hearing. Kaori?" He gestured for her to be the one to say it. 

"Uh, right, so," Kaori cleared her throat, "we were thinking about that thing that's out to get you, remember?" 

Right. With all this pregnancy talk, Ash forgot there was a literal level 80 demon hunting her. One that was just waiting for her to walk one step too far out of Onyx to destroy her. Ash sighed. 

"Yeah?" 

"Well, we kinda came up with a decent plan to deal with it. I think, at least." 

"Oh?" Ash raised a brow. "What is it?" 

"We use our new abilities," Kaori explained. "I got something pretty darn good from Lumina, something that I think could honestly let us take it out." 

Ash blinked.

"But... It's level 80," she said, hoping Kaori hadn't hit her head at some point and forgot that fact. 

"I know," she said with a smile. "It's still possible." 

"What did Lumina give you?" 

"So, basically, I can pacify enemies for a time. Which means we can take it out in that window, easy. The issue is," Kaori said, "we need it to wait a bit." 

"What do you mean?" Ash asked. 

"As in, we need it to  not  just fly at you and, you know," she glanced at Opah, "take you out instantly." 

"Oh," Ash responded as Metsumi returned and placed a plate full of oatmeal in front of her. "Thanks." 

"No problem," Metsumi replied. 

"Hm..." Ash took a bite and thought about it for a second or two. "Well... I guess I could use my power too and see if that stops it from blowing me the fuck up..." Ash speculated, which made Opah giggle.

Admittedly, she didn't know if manipulating a Lust demon into feeling even more lustful would produce exclusively good results, but Kaori was right. They needed some sort of method to prevent the Lust demon from turning Ash into dust. 

"What does it do?" Kaori asked. Ash glanced at Opah and said:

"It uh, distracts enemies." 

"Oh, sweet," Kaori smiled brightly. "See? It's all coming together, this will totally work out." 

"Please don't jinx it," Ash begged. "I just want whatever we do to be quick and easy, I don't need any more stress." 

"Ah, don't worry!" Kaori chuckled. "Personally, I trust Lumina. I think that demon won't stand a chance." 

"You're making the jinx even worse, stop it," Ash muttered and Kaori laughed. 

As the giggles faded though, someone pulled back the chair next to Ash. The half-demon turned and saw Keiko, sitting down with her. She had a strange look on her face. It was like a weird mix between concern, determination, and anxiety. 

Metsumi stood up and went back to the bar, taking another bowl of oatmeal and bringing it back. 

"I apologize," Keiko opened, "what did I miss?" 

"Just a little bit of plannin'," Kaori said with a slightly sing-song voice. "How did it go over there?" 

"..." Keiko took a deep breath. "It went well." 

And she didn't say anything else. 

Ash waited, but no. As Metsumi placed that bowl in front of Keiko, she simply muttered a "thank you" and remained quiet. 

... That's not the best sign, but okay.  Ash thought. 

Then, the front door opened. A green-haired, half-naked, short woman stood there, a slightly tired look on her face as her eyes fell on the group. She was carrying a bag of some sort in her thin arms, walking into the inn. 

"Vyl, you might wanna put some clothes on when you're in the city," Satsuhiro said as soon as he saw her. 

"Bite me," Vyl replied as she moved up to the table and gently dropped the bag next to Ash, who was closest to the door. "Alright," she clapped her hands. Listen up. I brought you those potions I promised along with a few extras." 

"Mom," Opah pointed at her. "She's naked." 

"Just ignore her, sweetie," Metsumi replied. 

"Here's what I've got for you," Vyl continued, "firstly, four healing potions, two Haste potions, one Dexterity potion, one Constitution potion, and one Strength potion. The healing potions will apply a mid-tier healing spell to your entire body over the duration of a minute. Use them wisely, they're valuable. The attribute potions will each temporarily increase those respective attributes by 10, for five minutes. Again, they're valuable. As for the two Haste potions, just in case you forgot, they will, quite literally, turn your body faster, and your perception of the world around you will be altered as well." 

"... That sounds similar to the Spirit Eye now that I think about it," Keiko said. 

"Indeed, it won't literally let you see the future the way those eyes of yours do, but it will feel like it." 

Then, Vyl reached into the bag and pulled out a violet-colored vial. It was so small Ash could wrap her entire hand around it. 

"As for you," she started, "this is... Well, the details of the potion don't matter, the point is that, as I hope you've been made aware of by now, a pregnancy caused by a demon can have... inconvenient effects. This will help you with those. Drink a sip or two from this whenever those strange symptoms start popping up, okay?" Vyl asked. "If you haven't been informed of them, well, you'll know when they happen." 

With that, Vyl turned around. 

"Now, I apologize for the brevity of my visit, but with those portals opening up, my workload has increased quite a bit. The Lord of this good city wants me to help her, so I must do my duty as an alchemist. Anything else?" She looked over at the group and asked. 

No one said anything. 

"Hmph. Take care, then." 

"Goodbye," Satsuhiro said as she turned around and left, just as quickly as she'd come. Ash looked over at Keiko and found the girl staring at the vial she'd been given. To anyone else, it might have seemed like a fairly calm look, but as Ash had been living with Keiko for so long now, she noticed the slight hint of worry in her eyes. 

So... She definitely heard something fucked up, I'm guessing. 

"So," Ash took a deep breath, briefly glancing back at her mother, who was eating peacefully with her husband now that he was occupying the chair Keiko had taken. "What do we do now?" 

"..." Satsuhiro put his spoon down, silent for a second. "Without Vermia in this fight, and without Ren," he started, "the chances that the city makes it out of this are terrible. At least, at your current level. You need to go farm," he pointed out, "but, of course, that demon makes that impossible. This means, I think... The best course of action is probably to test Kaori's plan out right now, and hope for the best because without that demon out of the way, there's just nothing we can really do to prepare for the coming fight." 

Ash nodded, understanding what he was saying, before she thought of something that worried her. 

"Wait," she started, "can't Niven hear us right now? I mean, he's a god and all. What if he just tells the demon to attack me the moment it sees me?" 

"..." Satsuhiro closed his eyes, pondering the matter. Then, he said, "he had sent the demon after Vyl, hadn't he? And to the shrine as well..." 

"So?" Ash asked. 

"That means that either he can't see where we are, which is unlikely, or that he can't directly communicate with those demons when they're too far from the portal. Regardless of the demon's level. There'd be no reason for it to send the demon to those locations  after we went to them if that wasn't the case." 

Hm. So basically, Niven's probably hearing us right now but might not be able to tell the demon to not fuck around when it sees me. Heh, she snickered. That's rough for you, buddy. 

"... I shouldn't go, for obvious reasons," Satsuhiro said, a little dejected. "If anything goes wrong, you'll need to be able to run away as quickly as possible. Now, the question is where do you go to bait it." 

"... The shrine," Keiko quickly answered. "It showed up there once. If its eyes are on Ash, and it sees her go there, there's no reason to think it won't show up again." 

"You're right," Satsuhiro nodded. "Solid. Then, in that case, finish up and get moving. When it comes to this sort of thing, a coinflip moment like this, it's better to just get it out of the way instead of stalling. So, as soon as you're done with your breakfast, I suggest you get moving." 

"Yeah, agreed," Ash said. "Actually, one of those Haste potions might be useful to bring along." 

"Mhm," Kaori nodded. "It might help me get the ability off faster. That's definitely needed." 

And, on that note, the three of them finished up their breakfast. However, just as they were going to leave, Satsuhiro raised a hand. 

"Wait, actually, Keiko," he said, "you might want to stay." 

The Zayama heard that and Ash swore she'd never seen Keiko look this offended before. 

"What?" Keiko asked. 

"There's a very real chance this plan goes wrong," Satsuhiro pointed out. "And, if it goes right, they shouldn't need you. You being there is just a risk, I think you should stay." 

"B-But, I could help clear any enemies who are on the way," Keiko argued. 

"There probably won't be," Satsuhiro shrugged, "the shrine's very close. Don't worry." 

"..." Keiko looked down. Then, she reluctantly sat back down. "Fine." 

Ash and Kaori looked at each other as they saw that exchange, and Ash sighed. She couldn't blame Keiko for being on edge like this, given everything that was happening, but she hoped that it wouldn't last. 

For her own sake, mostly.