บท 156: Chapter 153: D-Humans, Curses, and Secrets, Part 2

Despite the weird turn the Goddess of Lust took with her BDSM moment, I managed to calm down from my temper and received no penalties. Once Obina catered to Nyra's masochistic desire by stepping on her ass, she changed back to her exotic dancer look and we returned to our seats. From there, the Goddess of Lust answered my earlier question.

As I feared, my closest friends from Earth, Hyoko Ishima and Komiwa Karuga, were indeed D-Humans. Not only that, but they were direct descendants of Sango's first two sworn brothers in the Kurokichi Clan. Inumaru Ishima, the loyal and violent ronin known as the Bloody Wolf, was Hyo-chan's ancestor. Komi's ancestor was Richard Caldswell, the assassin known as the Fox of Shadows.

It's actually quite amazing that Hyo-chan's surname, Ishima, had lived for that long. How Komi got Karuga despite her foreign heritage might be complicated with her ancestor being an assassin. Both of those cases made me wonder why I was a Kotori instead of Kurokichi if I was a direct descendant of the clan's founder. When I asked Obina, she told me of a woman named Michiko Kotori who was one of Sango's sworn sisters through the same pact he shared with Inumaru and Richard, thus becoming one of the main subsidiaries of the clan. Michiko was recognized for her dirty tactics of street fighting using only her fists and feet. She used these and her looks to seduce men into having a fight with her, offering her body to them should they win. This led the woman winning many battles and making good money out of it.

Michiko's winning streak came to an end when Sango came along. Through the stakes she set herself, she became one of his concubines, but from what Obina told me, she wasn't all that unhappy about the loss. After the Kurokichi Clan became D-Humans and took in more yakuza members, the woman ended up teaching her fighting tricks to those in her subsidiary. Add in her history of preying on rich, oblivious men to fool into losing their money, leaving them broke and bruised, she made a name for herself as the Gold Robbing Robin. Her surname was clearly taken into consideration for this title {AN: Kotori is Japanese for 'small bird'}.

When Michiko bore Sango's children, she wanted them to inherit her surname since she wasn't his wife. I guess he gave the okay since I hold her surname, Kotori, today. I remember Granny still had it as her surname, too, so I wondered if the women in the Kotori Family keeping their surname became a tradition. {Would that mean Granny was also an important figurehead in the Kurokichi Clan? Wonder if she and Michiko were as much badasses as Mom was? Or more technically, could Mom have inherited that badassery from them?}

Now that I know I was a D-Human by inheritance, where Mom got her strength and bravado while Granny had her sturdiness despite old age was starting to make sense. It made me wonder if there were other women like Mom in the family and how different the men are from myself.

With that and some of Hyo-chan's and Komi's ancestry added in, these were as much as Obina could tell me about them without spilling too much personal information. The Immortals were required to be discreet of such things towards Champions from the start, after all. With Palonitus being the head honcho, he was likely the one who enforced that rule, which meant only he had the final say of what information was released.

Regardless of what info I was limited to consume, I had mixed feelings. I was still uneasy about the fact I came from the bloodline of a yakuza, but I was at the same time content with finally learning something about my family origins. It also made sense why I was so different from everyone else growing up, so I felt I can finally come to peace with that part of the mystery to my identity. I just wished I could have heard it from Mom, or heck, if I could meet Granny again before she passed away, I'd be satisfied learning from her, too. I don't think I'd be as emotional hearing this from one of them as I was towards some Goddess, no offense to Obina. Still, Mom must have her reasons for keeping this from me, and outside of what I know of her after living together for so long, she must have had her own struggles that were brought on by the curse. I could never hate her over something like that.

Putting that aside, it seems Hyo-chan and Komi were much closer to me in connections than I realized. I know it's out of my control, but I still feel a little guilty knowing part of their daily struggles were due to a curse my ancestor put on us. {Come to think of it, did both of them hold some kind of secret they didn't want me to know about? Was that why Obina asked me about my stance with secrets?}

If their secrets have anything to do with the D-Humans' powers, I'd wonder how much they knew about our family history. Thinking back, though I made an attempt to keep my distance from Hyo-chan for her own safety, I did find how often she got into trouble a little odd. Not only that, but despite how she seemed to have got along with the 'normal' crowd on the surface, there were moments I've overheard some of the girls talking shit about her when they seemed so friendly five minutes ago. Some of the things they said about Hyo-chan were too far different from what I knew of her, being as sweet and kind as she was back then. Though, a lot of things could have happened between the time she moved away to our reunion in high school. We did try to keep in touch when Hyo-chan moved, but she stopped talking to me at one point for some reason. I think the biggest mystery of hers to me, though, was why she stopped taking kendo classes and going into tournaments. I knew how much she loved samurais and swordsmanship, and she had a real talent for kendo, too. I've even seen her take her shinai to school sometimes and practice alone in a private area, so her passion for it was still there. For the sake of keeping distance between us, though, I didn't attempt to question her on it.

As for Komi, even if I didn't know I had known her before, it was odd how she got so chummy with me right from the start of our high school years. Moreover, where was she before then? How did she go from the unusually serious and formal kid I saw from my recollected childhood memories to the laid-back, trendy gyaru I knew from our high school days? Why was she living alone in the same neighborhood as me? What was her part-time job that she had to leave my side for various times?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much I didn't know about the two of them, my best friends. I felt a little ashamed for not knowing as much as I should have, but they likely had their reasons for keeping some of their personal lives secret. I just wished to kick my past juvenile self in the ass for not being there as much for them as he should have. Maybe then they could open up and trust me a little more.

"A karo for your thoughts, Jinma?" Obina asked as we were taking a momentary break from our talk over water.

"I was just thinking, if my friends are with Mom and Granny right now, I hope they're all getting along. I'm sure they must be resting easier now that they're in a safer place where our curses don't have much of an effect on them … do curses still persevere in the afterlife?" I asked as I looked at my representing Goddess.

Obina gave a sympathetic smile, "Anyone who has chosen to live in the afterlife once their time on Earth ends, their souls are cleansed of all impurities, curses or otherwise."

I sighed in relief, "Good. I'm glad." Nyra then rubbed my back in comfort.

"Shall we move on, then? Any more questions you wish to ask about your heritage?" Obina asked.

I shook my head, "If something comes up after we're done, can I reach out to you through the bracelet?"

"Of course. Now, moving on to the next part of our agenda, you wish to know what to do with Sue, yes?" Obina asked, "We Immortals cannot tell our Champions what to do, but we can give our opinions on some subjects. So long as it helps them find a path in life, we provide whatever help we can give."

"A second opinion is all I really ask for," I said.

"Still, this is a very complicated, sensitive situation, one that I knew you would come to me for. That's why I went to Palonitus and got his permission to release some information," Obina said before snapping her fingers. A giant flatscreen TV appeared on my right, along with a high-end game console below that. In the CD slot was a gold disc halfway inside. Such a foreign thing coming from out of nowhere was enough to make Nyra jump from her seat. {A Playstation, huh? The latest model, too. Didn't think I'd ever see something like this again. Did the Immortals copy these from Earth's technology or something?}

"As I mentioned before, some of the recorded content got edited by Palonitus, himself," Obina continued, "Other than censoring some visuals and muting the audio, everything you'll see in this video is what happened from last night to this morning. A little of what happened to Sue after your interrogation is also included. Under the condition that I give this to you, however, I cannot answer any questions that involve what's happening in the recording. You'll have to use your own sense of judgement to figure out what's going on."

"Whoooa, is this really one of those teevees I've seen from your memories, Jinma? It's so big! And you can watch people having sex with this?! The countless treasures of live-recorded history known as porn?!" Nyra exclaimed in amazement.

I ignored Nyra's question and turned to Obina, nodding to her condition of discretion, "How different are your recordings here from Earth's?"

"Not very different from what you may be used to seeing. If you've seen popular video games that let you pause and survey your surroundings to take edited screenshots, that's basically what we did here with our ethereal powers," Obina explained.

I didn't play video games very often growing up and I couldn't do it when I stepped into full-time work to take care of Mom. The only exceptions were when I looked after Fina as her bodyguard and she dragged me into arcades. She was apparently quite the competitive gamer when she wasn't working as an idol, so she got angry whenever I, an adult casual gamer, beat her numerous times in the arcade's games. One day, when I was near my last day at Heaven's Cerberus, I figured I'd humor Fina one last time as her bodyguard when she reached out to me through my former employer. When we were done, imagine my surprise when she asked me to exchange contact info so we could play online. During that time, I only had a computer that I couldn't play many games on and I didn't have any of the latest game consoles. The smartphone I have on me was the last 'new' technology I ever had before coming here, and I'm positive there were already new models two or three levels ahead of my own at the time. I told Fina that much when she brought up the idea of gaming together through online play.

{"What?! You don't own any consoles?! And how old is your computer for it to not play games?! Well, fine, then. I'm going to be busy for a while, but once I have some idol businesses and have a schedule organized, I'll have you come to my place so we can play games on my console and I beat you for real!"} Those were the last words Fina said to me before I died over a week later.

Oddly enough, the times this haughty idol played videogames were some of her more charming moments, in my opinion, despite how rough she was with other people in the idol industry. Maybe she didn't have to worry about reputation as much and relaxed a little while she gamed? She would get a bit demanding of me at times, but not too unreasonable, and nothing really came to mind that made her out to be a bad person.

{We never really got to play her console games at her place before I quitted Heaven's Cerberus, now that I think about it. Wonder how angry she was after hearing of my death? … Actually, was it really okay for her, an eighteen-year-old idol, to invite a man in his early twenties to her home? What about her parents? Did she still live with them, or was she living on her own?}

I decided to stop thinking about it further. Whatever happens with Fina now is out of my reach, and so I needed to focus on the topic at hand.

Getting back to reality, Obina popped the gold disk in the console and used her ethereal magic to bring out a game controller. She then showed me how to watch the recording and view it from different angles. While I listened, I was a little nervous. I wanted to know what Sue did that made manipulating our memories necessary, but whatever I see here may drastically change the circumstances of the situation. Still, I made the choice of jumping into this deal and I was going to take what I could get.

When Obina finished the explanation, she held out the controller to me, "Are you ready, Jinma?"

"... As I'll ever be, I guess," I answered as I took the controller and pressed the play button.

Since the events were recorded from last night, I decided to go over them from the top. Apparently, Palonitus started the recording during the middle of my 'adult play time' with Erizora and Kalline. Sue, who I finished my moment with first, was sitting on the sidelines with Mametama as they watched us. As Obina told me, the audio was muted, but I could recall the sounds from last night as I watched myself playing with the charming Centaur and Ogre. It was a surreal experience, to be sure, but I tried not to get lost in the euphoric moment and focused on Sue's movements.

Sue was really getting off from watching us based on what expressions were on her face and how she played with her crotch. After she had a climax and was coming back from it, though, things were already going into motion as she put a hand over Mametama and cast a spell that put her to sleep, [Slothful Slumber].

"I think it was around here that my memories felt a little off," Nyra confirmed as she watched the playback with me. I was honestly surprised she wasn't masturbating to this, but I guess this was too important to get on a sex tangent.

Back in the video, after I was done pleasing Kalline, who rested on the floor, I moved onto Erizora on the bed and made intercourse with her until both of us slacked off, getting drowsy and tired from the energy spent during that time. That was when Sue, who was only in her white stockings by then, made her move and cast [Slothful Slumber] again, putting me and my lovers for that night into a deep sleep. The fake Arch Imp then stood up from her seat, stretched, and pulled out the gloves from her bag. I remembered her mentioning they were enchanted to resist magic when I interrogated her, but what came to my surprise was how she pointed her hand to the direction where I hid Nyra under my pillow, of which it glowed subtly. The audio was mute, but going by body language, it seemed Sue used magic that did something to Nyra.

"I'd wake you up right away if I saw signs of any trouble. Maybe … Sue had cast a Null Spell to stop me?" Nyra guessed.

Sue then took Nyra from under the pillow and unsheathed her while wearing the magic-resistant gloves, totally unaffected by the curse in the tanto. She gazed at it a bit before approaching my naked, sleeping self and picked up my hand. With mixed looks of unease and discomfort, the fake Arch Imp then ran Nyra's blade along one of the scars on my palm, drawing blood.

I paused the video and looked at the same hand Sue had cut, which was now shaking in front of me. Though I wasn't aware of the scar before, acknowledging its existence now gave me a subtle tingle that ran across the line. {She cut … my hand?}

Before jumping to conclusions and losing my cool, I took a deep breath to calm myself down, {I won't know what's going on until I see the whole thing. Get it together.} With that mindset, I continued playing the video.

Much to my surprise, Sue cast [Storage] to pull out a test tube before setting my bleeding hand over it. She filled the container nearly full with my blood before putting a cork on top, then cast [Heal] to close my hand's wound, followed by [Clean] to wipe away any traces of blood. Sue looked quite guilty at the permanent scar left behind before she mouthed something and placed a kiss on it. Maybe it was her way of apologizing?

After Sue made her silent amends, cleaned Nyra's blade and sheathed the weapon, she shocked me further by opening a hole in the space of my room. {So, she can cast [Portal], too, but to where …} my thoughts trailed off as I watched Sue take the test tube carrying my blood and put it through the black hole. This is likely one of the things Palonitus censored in the recording, as opening [Portal] would normally show you a window of the destination you want to hop to. It seemed someone was waiting on the other side to take my vial of blood before Sue pulled her arm back and closed the hole in space.

A few moments after that, Sue cast [Clean] on a few places in the room, wiping any evidence of her movements, before she held still with Nyra trembling in her hands. She looked to be waiting for something, because whatever it was came to her sometime later as she broke out crying, her tears filled with many emotions.

{Going through all that with little words spoken … could someone be relaying a message to her telepathically? And, could she also have the means of speaking to Nyra telepathically without either of our assistance?} That was my guess for why Sue went from anxious to relief and happiness.

When Sue calmed down, she held up the sheathed Nyra with confidence and determination in her eyes before saying some words. {I really wished I knew how to read lips. Is there a skill for that?}

"There is indeed a skill that lets you read lips, but even if you possess it, I'm afraid I'd have to temporarily seal it for the sake of discretion," Obina said, answering the question in my mind.

Once Sue was done speaking to Nyra, she pointed a hand to her and said some things. This must be where Nyra had her memories altered, and it looked like the fake Arch Imp was able to cast [Slothful Slumber] to put her to sleep. After that, Sue went around the room, getting everyone she put to sleep more comfortable in their slumber. She even turned out the lights, but I was able to adjust the brightness setting in the playback to see everything like it was still daytime. When mine and Erizora's sleeping bodies were put under the covers and Mametama was placed on top of us, Sue scooched in and pulled my sleeping face to her bosom. It was kind of amazing, and at the same time quite frightening, how happy Sue looked as she did all that, right up to when cuddled to me.

"So, part of her mission … was to get a blood sample from me?" I asked while looking down in thought, summarizing one of Sue's secrets, "But … why? What would the Demon King want with my—?"

"Jinma! Pause the video and look at Sue!" Nyra screamed.

Surprised, I did as Nyra said, and my shock only grew further.

As Sue was coddling my head in her large bosom, in the darkness, her amber eyes turned bright gold, the whites in her eyes turned totally black. Whatever she was thinking of as she was glaring into space, the anger on her face just made it to the list of things in my life that scared the shit of me, just a few notches below my acrophobia and Mom's look when she's about to commit bloody murder. It didn't help that I adjusted the perspective on the screen to make it look like Sue was glaring right at me.

"J-Jinma, could Sue actually be …"

"... A Devil," I answered Nyra, another secret of Sue's unveiled before our eyes.

Now more motivated to see if there was more to her, I zoomed the picture out to view the whole room before fast-forwarding the video to move onto the next morning. At least, that was my initial plan, but something else appeared that made me pause the video immediately.

Another [Portal] appeared in the darkness, totally black thanks to Palonitus' censorship, with a black leather boot coming out from the other side.

"S-Someone else … came in last night?" I stuttered.

"Play it! And slow it down!" Nyra demanded while shaking my shoulders.

I played the video at reduced speed, more of the mystery visitor was slowly revealed with each smooth transition of frames that would make cameramen faint in astonishment from watching it. Could I have ignored Nyra's demand and played it normally without making it so dramatic? Maybe, but I could barely think straight enough to follow requests to that extent, let alone go against it.

As the majority of the visitor's booted leg was revealed, sirens were ringing in my head from how familiar it looked. {N-No, no way …}

The next thing that came out from the censored [Portal] were two bumps, quickly expanding to the size of watermelons as they were revealed.

"It … can't … be …" Nyra strained as the two of us hugged each other in fright, watching the scene unfold.

Finally, when more than half of the visitor's figure was revealed, the familiar platinum-pink hair tied in twintails, the pair of amber-colored eyes, all attached to a head that rested above a chest too huge for someone of her stature, gave everything away.

Nyra and I screamed, "THEEEERE'S TWOOOOOO OOOOF THEEEEEEEM?!"