Sup homies.
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~About 6 weeks after Y/N encountered Cozbi~
I reached up to unbuckle my mask as I gripped the doorhandle to my room, pulling it open slightly.
"Wassup shawty!" I blinked in surprise, freezing in place, and caught sight of a small group of cloaked demons laying sprawled on my bed and hanging about the room. X waved to me excitedly as I stood in shock.
"Wha-" I stuttered, eyes wide, quickly re-securing my mask.
"Oh, Y/N!" A familiar voice exclaimed and I turned to none other than Cozbi. "Your friend Y here let us in!"
I turned back to X slowly with an unimpressed stare, both at the alias they had chosen for themselves, and the sheer audacity of the situation. "No problem!" I grinned, walking into the room, contrary to my thoughts. "Could you guys do me a favour and leave for a moment so I can speak to her?"
"Of course!" Cozbi stood up, and behind her followed 4 demons, 2 of which being taller and around our age, while two others were younger and shorter- neither of them could be over 10 years old.
As soon as the door closed, I turned to X with a hiss. "What the hell?! I live in this room! It probably reeks of human-!! And I just came back from training, so I'm sweaty and gross-"
"No biggie, Y/N." X grinned. "Mujika set a burning candle in here as soon as they arrived. Throughout the castle, too. Also, she's finished the outfit you requested. The gloves, as well."
I let out a strained sigh of relief, before groaning. "...Okay. You pass this time." I walked towards my desk and pulled out the clothes that Mujika had laid there, before pushing X out of the room.
"Oh, and there's a pack of herbs there for you-" X explained while I shoved them out of the room. "Eat a leaf and it'll remove your human odour for the next 24 hours. There are more specific instructions inside."
I blinked and took the small rectangular pouch from X, opening it slightly to glance inside as I spoke. "Uh- thanks, I guess?" I closed the pouch and stuck it in my pocket.
"I know." X grinned. "I'm the best. Also, if you'd like to be accurate, she/her pronouns today, hun." The demon then briskly left the room without another word.
I stood there, dumbfounded for a moment, before remembering about the small group of demons I was keeping waiting.
I changed quickly, sticking a piece of the herb under my mouth while I did so. Inside the folded clothes, a new mask was included, and I gave a small grin. "Mujika really outdid herself this time..."
The outfit was a masterpiece in its own right- Even while covering me from head to toe, it was breathable and light- not nearly as suffocating as the old one. The outfit came with gloves made with care by Mujika, which were modified with wooden pieces to lengthen my fingers- and give me an extra one, along with enlarging my knuckles, to better resemble those of Demon anatomy.
And then there was the mask, which had been created to resemble Sonju's- with eye slits instead of vertical eyeholes holes, like Mujika's had, considering that my eyes were not, in fact, vertical, by using a mask modelled after Sonju's, I could see much better.
Since half of the problem was me eating; I had to push my old mask up, and then my very-clearly human lower face would be exposed. To solve this, we'd considered a number of solutions together. What ended up being our decision, despite Sonju's input of "Just don't eat then." Was designing the mask so the bottom area of the mask around my mouth could be pushed up, while underneath the mask, connected to the sides around my ear-area, was a piece of cloth that draped down below my chin. By eating under this cloth, I would rather-easily conceal my facial features from discovery.
'However', I thought to myself as I walked down the large hallway, 'The problem comes when considering excuses for why I need to do this. Or so I worried, but Mujika gave me a stack of books on a small demon-religion in which they consider it fulfilling to not show any of their skin, which is willingly practiced by those of all ages. Even better, is that a village of these religious demons is located rather close to the farm I planned to claim my parents worked at. Convenient, amiright? It's almost like an author is creating these scenarios because they're a lazy little sh*t and don't want to have to deal with inconveniences.' I looked up to the sky with a small, depreciating smile. 'But that couldn't be it, could it?'
F*ck you, me.
-I arrived at the end of the hall branch and glanced both ways. "Where could they've run off to...?" I grumbled, rubbing the back of my head.
"Oh, hey Y/N!" I turned towards the sound of the voice, and caught sight of a demon-boy, who was the son of one of Mujika's ladies- a maid of sorts- and one of the sentries, I believe. His name was... what was it again? "Your friends are outside at the training grounds." He hoisted a wooden sword onto his shoulder. "I had a sparring match with a few of them, and it's a tad embarrassing, but I had my ass handed to me."
I let out a small snort. "Which one?"
"The blue-haired one."
"Cozbi?" I raised my eyebrows. "That's unexpected."
"You should go a round." The demon snickered. "Avenge me, princess."
I rolled my eyes. "We'll see. Have you even gotten any better since the last time we sparred? Should we have a match or two so I can test that?"
The demon boy sweatdropped. "Well, uh... you see- Oh! That's my dad calling me! Got to go!" The demon ran away quickly, appearing like a dog with his tail between his legs.
I let out a quiet snicker before following through the large doors, nodding politely at the sentry worker who held it open. They nodded back towards me as I continued my walk down towards the training area.
I soon arrived in the massive field of training-dummies for the capital army, walking towards a small group that clamoured in the middle of the field. The whole area was empty, seeing as it was a day off for the trainees, and how few demon sentries there were nowadays in comparison to the past.
"Y/N!!" Cozbi called out with a wave. I waved back and arrived at the small circle of demons. "Alright, everyone, introduce yourselves."
"I'm Benny." The first one spoke, a tall demon with lime green hair, and a slit-style mask that covered half their face. "She/they, by the way." They spoke curtly, as if they had a hundred better things to do than be here today. I raised my eyebrows in unamusement, when a cheerful voice chirped;
"I'm Emma!!"
I froze momentarily and glanced down at the short demon girl, who looked to be about 7 demon years. It took me a moment to recover from my momentary shock. Emma was a common name, I guess. "Are you a real-life princess?? - Oh, right, manners! I'm a girls!" She exclaimed. I crouched down and patted her head, her hair a short blue bob.
"You bet it, I'm a princess! I'm a bad*ss, too." I grinned.
"That makes two of us." Cozbi harrumphed humorously, crossing her arms. She suddenly yelped as another demon stepped forward, gripping onto Cozbi's ear.
"Sorry about this one." A soft voice spoke, and I looked up to the other tall demon, who had pale pink hair, cascading in ringlets to her lower back. "I'm Aurelia, she/her, if you don't mind."
I nodded and stood up, brushing off my knees. "And you?" I asked, glancing over Aurelia's shoulder, at a shorter demon, with short, curly, dark fuchsia hair, so dark it was nearly black.
"I'm Orion." They murmured softly, poking out from behind Aurelia, perhaps around 9 in demon years. "Uhm... they/them... please..."
I let out an internal squeak at the adorable child. 'I've only known Orion for 13 seconds, but if anything happened to them, I would kill everyone in this field and then myself.' "-Nice to meet you, Orion!" I met the expectant gazes of the others and quickly reintroduced my name and pronouns, followed by Cozbi. Interesting, how demons include pronouns in their introduction- In a good way, of course.
"Let's get this party starteddd!" Cozbi cheered, pumping her fists in the air.
"It's like 2:00 PM, chill." Aurelia snickered, betraying my initial impression of her character- which was a sweet and innocent girl. She was reminding me more and more of Mujika as time passed.
Cozbi stuck out her tongue and then turned towards me. "Oh,oh, Y/N, we were playing with swords earlier!"
"Yeah, the- erm- the... sentry trainee told me about how you kicked his ass."
Cozbi blinked, raising an eyebrow slowly. "...You don't know his name, do you."
I pretended I didn't hear her and whistled absent-mindedly, my eyes sliding to the left.
"I pity him." Orion sighed, shaking their head disappointedly, while still clinging onto Aurelia's robe.
"As I was saying!" Cozbi cut in excitedly. "Do you know how to use a sword, Y/N?" She inquired curiously.
I hummed. "I did a little work with it a while back to train an injured shoulder-and I do spar with the trainees on a rare occasion."
"No matter!" Cozbi exclaimed. "Here, take this!" She tossed me a wooden sword and I caught it in my dominant hand. I glanced down at it momentarily.
"And now, spar Benny!" She declared.
"HAAH??! Why me??" The demon exclaimed, while Cozbi pushed them towards me in a clearing suited for sparring.
"Because I said so!" Cozbi refused to elaborate, backing away once Benny was a reasonable distance from me.
"Are you sure this is a good idea-...?" I murmured, glancing between the green-haired demon and Cozbi.
"Y'all will be fine. Benny's pretty strong, y'know! Plus, y'know, regeneration." She shrugged. "I'm reffing, whoever is disarmed first loses. Start whenever you want."
I chewed the inside of my lip, well-aware that I was the only one here incapable of regeneration. "'Kay..."
"Are you ready?!" Benny yelled, repositioning themselves into a stance. "Just because you're a puny midget, I'm not going to go easy on you."
My eyes narrowed and my eyebrow twitched. "Come at me then." I blinked slowly, relaxing my shoulders and face as I slowly slid into position.
Without another moment's pause, Benny let out a war cry and lunged towards me, raised her sword over her head and slicing it towards my direction. With a step forward I redirected their blade to my left. There was the grating sound of wood on wood as Benny doubled over, as her heavy strike met minimal resistance.
Then, I grabbed a hold of their ankle to keep them from righting themselves. I spun around, then let go as I planted my foot on their ass. I mercilessly kicked them into the dirt, and casually scooped up their sword, resting it on my shoulder, along with my own blade.
"That was underwhelming." I announced cheerfully.
"You need some gauze for that burn?" Aurelia asked sweetly while helping Benny off the ground.
"Shaddup..." The green-haired demon murmured while she gripped her hand.
"The midget wins!" Cozbi unnecessarily declared.
"Oi." I quipped in irritation, I resting the swords at my sides.
The blue-haired demon shrugged with a sickly-sweet and teasing grin. "It's not a lie."
I closed my eyes and let out a long sigh. This is going to be a long day...
I felt Benny's sparring sword being pulled out of my hand, and opened my eyes while Cozbi put distance between us. "You don't mind if I try next, do you?" She asked as she turned back around to face me, tilting her head innocently.
"Why not." I shrugged, bringing the wooden sword up to ready.
Despite Cozbi's casual stance, she held the blade properly and easily, as if it were an extension of her own arm.
I swallowed drily, my grip tightening on the sword for a moment, a feeling of uneasiness in my stomach, along with one I hadn't felt in a while- pure excitement.
"I'll ref." Aurelia announced with a sweet smile. "Positions?" Cozbi and I slid into different stances, myself holding my blade with two hands, while Cozbi wielded hers with one. My heart was practically buzzing in anticipation as Aurelia raised her hand above her head.
"Ready... begin!"
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Yes, I just published 3 chapters in a row, instead of saving them and using them one-by-one to fill up my quota.
I'm a god, I know. We'll call it an early gift for 200K reads.
...Of course,it wouldn't be my writing with a cliffhanger.
Look, I even saved the one with a cliffhanger to be the last one I'll publish for a while.
I'm the best, I know.
...heheh.
2,100~ words.
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