Moonlight Demon

This time, as Ash walked up the mountain she was joined by a different woman. One with a considerably annoyed look on her face, as she let her eyes roam over her surroundings, and a certain thickness to her body that made just looking at her feel dangerous. 

Don't worry,  Ash told herself.  You'll be back at the Manor with Keiko soon enough. Just... For now, keep that lust in check, and everything will be fine. 

"What sort of monsters are we likely to run into?" Kasumi asked, and Ash forced herself to focus up. 

"I don't really know," she replied. "There's a lot more, eh, variety, you could say. Shit's weirder here, pretty much.

"Wonderful," Kasumi said, as she crouched down by a large, purple fruit of some sort. "I've never been a fan of surprises, but maybe a couple of bloodthirsty nightmarish ghouls will help that change today." 

"You sound optimistic." 

"I was being sarcastic." 

"So was I." 

At that, Kasumi laughed, and the two continued on their way as Ash tried to make sure nothing was going to jump them anytime soon. After a brief silence, Kasumi soon spoke up again. 

"... So, Keiko was pregnant, huh?" 

Ash took a sharp breath when she heard that, looking over at Kasumi with slightly narrowed eyes. 

"Y-Yeah." 

The sudden change of topic caught her off-guard, but she kept her eyes on Kasumi as the woman went to elaborate. 

"Hm. For someone so small, she's definitely stronger than she looks if she's handling things this well." 

"She is," Ash agreed, recalling the many days Keiko had spent with a sad look stuck to her face in between hearing the news back at Onyx and arriving here at Amber. Regardless of how it made Ash feel, the half-demon firmly believed Keiko deserved the happiness she was experiencing now. 

However, with Kasumi next to her now, Ash saw an opportunity of sorts. Without even really thinking about it, the words slipped out from her lips. 

"Hey..." 

"Yeah?" Kasumi stopped, turning toward her. 

"Listen. When... When it happened, and Keiko wasn't pregnant anymore, I..." 

She couldn't find the right way to say it. Taking a strained breath, feeling like there was a container full of emotions she'd put a lid on, threatening to burst, she forced herself to keep going. 

"When that happened, I broke down," she admitted with a soft voice. "But, I don't know why it happened. I just... One second, I was fine, the next second, I was crying my fucking eyes out. I, I dunno why I'm even telling you, I just, I figured maybe you could let me know why, because you were a mom, and all," she finished, her volume reducing with every syllable until she was speaking barely over a whisper. 

Kasumi heard her, keeping a firm expression right up until the end. 

She crossed her arms and shrugged before saying: 

"Seems simple enough to me."

"Yeah? Well, can you help me out here? Because I'm clueless when it comes to this sort of shit."

"It sounds to me like you wanted to have the kid," Kasumi suddenly announced to her, and when Ash heard that, her brows were lifted to the sky as she pulled back. 

"W-What?" Ash asked. "I-I didn't, I mean, there's no way," she scoffed. "I've barely been able to take care of myself, I'm gonna take care of someone else?" 

"Hey, I'm just calling it how I see it," Kasumi replied, turning away and walking forward. "Besides, I used to think the same thing before... Before I had Nozomi. It's normal. So, yeah, I think you just need to ask yourself whether-" 

Before she could finish, she stopped herself, crouching and signaling for Ash to do the same. 

Snapping back into focus, Ash quickly transformed her  Lust, into a sword as Kasumi hid behind a tree. She moved up to where she was, and then, she saw them. 

"Aghh," One, lone goblin made a guttural sound as it dragged an animal's carcass behind it. It was carrying a club on its back and looked much bigger than any of the goblins near Jade. 

Level 55

MP: 200/200

"... Let me handle this," Ash told Kasumi, moving up. "Then, you can sneak in the last shot." 

"Got it." 

With that said, Ash ran up, trying to catch it off-guard. 

"Uagh?" The goblin turned toward her, but it was too late to see her coming as Ash rammed the tip of her sword into its chest. It let out a squeal, and Ash pushed it all the way down to the ground, mounting it and pulling her blade up before bringing it down again, hoping she hadn't killed it yet. 

"Kasumi!" 

The woman quickly ran up, kneeling beside the dying creature. Then, she took her own knife and stabbed it into the goblin's skull, which finally made it stop moving. 

"Okay, how much EXP did you get for that?" Ash asked, and the EXP message soon appeared over Kasumi's head. 

EXP Gained: 1800

EXP: 270/270

"..." Ash blinked. "Well, shit." 

---

The two of them repeated that strategy a few times over, while Ash remained somewhat silent as Kasumi's earlier words circled in her mind. They ran into a few other monsters, and in just an hour, Kasumi was quickly closing the gap between herself and Ash, thanks to her buffed Quick Learner trait. 

Eventually, however, Ash decided that it would be good for Yumi and Sinneah to have their turn soon, so she stopped and said:

"Let's head back." 

"Already?" Kasumi replied. 

"Yeah," Ash nodded. "I wanna get back before nighttime. Looks like we only have a few hours left till then." 

"Okay, I have to say though, I definitely need to get used to stabbing stuff again." 

"We'll probably be doing a lot of that these days, so, yeah. That's no problem." 

They went all the way back to the base of the mountain after that, walking over to their group. 

"Yes," Yumi nodded, as she spoke to Sinneah, who was sitting across from her, also on the ground. "Then, the captain told the mercenary, 'no, I am your father'." 

"Impossible," Sinneah replied. 

"That's what the mercenary said!" Yumi replied. 

At the same time, however, Ash's eyes roamed down and widened.

Keiko was currently laying on Yumi's lap, between her legs.

The Zayama was listening with a calm smile as Yumi's hands remained on her stomach. The sight made Ash pause. 

Holy shit, when was the last time we did anything like that?  Ash thought. She felt like, outside of small bursts of affection here and there, the situations affecting them had caused some scarcity to run between them in that department. 

"Uh," Ash interrupted, "yo, we've only got a couple of hours left. So, if you wanna go in and do your thing, now's the time." 

"Hm? Very well, then," Yumi said, as Keiko rolled off to give her space to get up. She dusted herself off and Sinneah stood up too. 

"Yumi," Ash said, "try to remember the way you came. Last thing we need is the two of you getting lost." 

"Understood, understood," Yumi nodded, twirling her naginata, as though to get a feel for it. "Well, Sinneah, shall we?" 

The draconic woman nodded and Yumi waved at the group, as she and her partner for the day walked away from them. 

---

Yumi

The silence was comfortable, for her. Having spent so long on her own, Yumi was used to keeping her lips tightly shut, as she had no one to talk to. Still, a part of her wanted to change that a little, so she tried to open up. 

"The forests by Onyx were nothing like this," Yumi said. "How curious." 

"Onyx is that, ehm, big grey place, right? I think my father told me about it once." 

"Mhm." 

"Then, yes," Sinneah nodded, "I remember them well." 

"Oh? What was your time in the area like?" 

"It was mostly my father and I resting, hunting and moving before he would fly us both from one place to another." 

"Sounds exciting."

"It was just... normal," Sinneah shrugged. 

"Well, on my end-" 

"Look out!" 

Sinneah suddenly yelled as, from the corner of her eye, Yumi saw a spear-shaped object try to stab her. 

Sinneah was by her side in an instant, however, stopping the attacker before they had the chance to skewer her. It was a lizard-like creature with hands like long, sharpened spears. Just before one of those spears could plunge into Yumi's torso, Sinneah caught it with her bare hands. 

Yumi saw blood drip onto the dirt from her palm, as she noticed the spears were barbed. 

Sinneah then pulled the creature closer, and punched straight through its body, green guts exploding out from the other side. 

She removed her fist, and the creature slumped to the ground. 

"... Oh my," Yumi said, after taking a deep breath.

Then, she went next to Sinneah and held her hand up. although her fist was covered in a dense green liquid, her palm was still red from having gripped that spear-like arm. 

"Sorry about that," Yumi told her. "I was a little distracted." 

"It is okay," Sinneah replied nonchalantly. 

"Hold on a moment, I will heal you. What was the incantation again?" Yumi wondered, trying to remember the basic healing spell. She hadn't used any magic, outside of her Zayama techniques, in a very long time. 

"I am fine," Sinneah reiterated. 

"Don't be silly," Yumi waved that statement away. "This will only take a moment." 

Once it came back to her mind, Yumi cast the spell on Sinneah's hand and wiped the blood away with her shirt. When she saw the wound was gone, she was satisfied. 

However, Sinneah was giving her a strange look, so, Yumi asked:

"Yes?" 

"..." Sinneah paused, looking away. "Showing me this sort of kindness, I fear it will make me weak." 

"Hm.. I'd argue having a wounded hand will make you weaker than healing you ever could, but, that's just me," Yumi shrugged before the two of them went on with the rest of their session.