E12: A Promise for a Soul

"I see," Amaterasu said, laying on her bed while the two stood off to the side against the wall. "Is that all that happened?" Virto and Vargas nodded.

"Then off to Vargas's room with you! You're both grounded until further instruction."

"Yes mother..." "Yes mom-in-law..." They both left her room, closing the door behind them. She waited until she couldn't hear their footsteps against the wooden ground, and sat back up. "Did you hear that Nabu?"

In the corner of the room, Nabu's form slowly materialized, slowly going from invisible to completely opaque in the dim nightlight. "Indeed. I shall have someone capture her immediately."

"Wait," Amaterasu said, holding up a hand before Nabu could leave the room. "A normal Yokai won't be sufficient to capture her. You heard them as clear as I did…"

"If it's fast enough, that power wouldn't matter enough to warrant a higher council member."

"Like it did for you Nabu?" The Hakutaku remained silent, adjusting her hat. "My Superior, you might need sleep…"

"There could be a bit of you in there," Amaterasu said, complying with Nabu and pulling the covers over herself. "Mana Stealing is a rare trait in Yokai, it would be good to have another one in the association…"

"I...I will see to it that it will be done." Nabu opened and closed the door, going to Vargas's door and peeking into the room. "Son of Amaterasu-"

She stopped, seeing them fast asleep and sprawled out on the floor. She stepped in and gently tapped Vargas' hand, a portal with a ring of fire forming to the side of her. "A bit of myself…" she said, stepping through as the portal closed behind her. She had quite the bit of work to do, before that slime grew any stronger….

_________________________________________

"And then we fought this slime that shot fire!" Sana said, in the midst of explaining a fantastic story to her picnic mates. For once, she had the complete and utter attentiveness of everyone in the tent, except Nabu, who had resigned herself to a dark corner and put her headwear over her head. It was fine to Sana though; Nabu was usually tired or on something else whenever she looked over. "She was no match for the two us, but then Ganan appeared out of nowhere and told me to run. And then boom! A line of trees have fallen over!"

Seika: "Oh my!"

Namaru: Is listening along while going through a bowl of chocolate-covered strawberries.

Mervana: "Must have been one bad Yokai.."

Sana: "She was. She did something to Vargas, and everything turned into chaos!"

"She went after him? Ooooo, she is in trouble then," Namaru said with a full mouth.

"She could have been someone confident enough to go after the higher family," Mervana said. "It takes courage to go after someone like that."

"Indeed! Nothing a mere side character or human can tackle, yet we did it with ease! I guess you respect me now, right?" Sana said, puffing out her chest and posing with her wings against her hips.

"Respect you? We always respected you," Seika said.

"W-wait what?"

"We were just teasing," Namaru continued, stuffing another strawberry in her mouth. "We would never mean anything like that, well, they wouldn't." Namaru got a tail flick from behind, causing her to drop her bowl of strawberries. She gave an upset look at Seika, who was staring up at the roof of their tent, sipping a chalice.

"Since when did you have a drink?"

"Ego semper erat. Imple meum calicem, et semel!" Seika responded, a caped guard coming to fill her cup back up. "I don't have to answer that in a way you understand."

"Fine then. It should be around my turn to be in a storyline anyway." Namaru hopped up, walking past the chocolate strawberry spill and out of the tent. "Are you not going to clean up the mess?" Seika said. Namaru shook her head, slowly falling backward until she fell on top of a shadow and sank in. They watched her body disappear into the ground, the shadow bubbling until the last of her was gone. "Rude," Seika said. "Nabu, won't you do something?" Nabu only readjusted her cap, ensuring that her face was completely hidden from the group. She had her own things to worry about anyway.

_________________________________________

"So then I said, I will in fact, NOT, pick up the bowl of spilled strawberries," Namaru said, sitting beside a small boy. It was nighttime, and she had caught him wandering around the darkness alone. The boy seemed either shy or afraid, of the purple-eyed deity that looked at him with a predatory gaze. Her short, pointy ears shook idly; her neck-length white hair was tied up in a side-bun, the little strands passed the scrunchy-like purple flower blown around like grass in the wind. Her kimono left her entire upper chest bare, letting the boy see a blossom tattoo that went down the left side of her body.

"I think you have been staring too long~" Namaru said, grabbing his shoulder. A mist of shadowy mana followed her arm, falling down around the boy like a thick fog. "Getting a profile?"

"Y-you look pretty miss-" he quietly commented, clutching his garments and looking down at his lap with a blush on his face.

"Well what a flatterer. What is your favorite part of me?~"

"U-Uh-" She grabbed his hand, lifting his pointer finger and extending it out. "Come on; don't be shy. Poke your favorite part~"

Of course, he goes for the one part that made him blush the most; that flower that sat on her head and somehow bundled her hair. "It is really nice," he said, thinking he had the green light to play with the flower. She let him get a few more pokes in but then put his arm back down. "Awwww, and here I thought you were going to say boobs."

"M-mommy told me that it is weird."

"Mommy is right. Tell me, did she also tell you anything about say…wandering through lands alone?" She moved her hand around in a whimsical fashion as if she herself didn't know anything about what she was talking about. "Maybe even about the dangerous people that lurk outside?"

"Oh! Mommy said that, you shouldn't wander off from the house, because the evil night spirit will eat you!" He seemed excited about remembering what she said, the realization having not hit the young fellow yet. Namaru snickered, sliding off the chair as she laughed at the child's naive response. "You seriously do not realize, do you? Maybe this will help jog your mind, young boy~" Her voice suddenly became more demonic, the light shadowy mist that was there before thickening until the boy could not see beyond his own hands.

"Miss lady! Miss lady!" The boy yelled out, going around the chair to find her. She had disappeared though, completely gone from her seat. He started hearing groans and moans, seeing hands suddenly swarm his vision as the mist disappeared from around him. He wasn't alone anymore, but it was far worse. There were various human silhouettes around him, purple misty outlines around the mass that surrounded him. They all had outstretched hands, slowly closing in on him and the bench like a hoard of zombies.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!" He said, panicking like hell. There was nowhere to run, and unless he was suddenly given wings to sore to the heavens, it looked like it was it. He kept screaming as the zombies grabbed, going on top of each other to assimilate him into the mass of shadow servants. Namaru watched from a tree, filing her nails against the tree bark as she watched the child suffer. "Mothers nowadays. That is the second time he's wandered off," she said, disappointed. She craned her neck a bit to see if she could see the process, but there were too many of her shadows around obstructing the view. "Can't a human recognize a Nurarihyon anymore? It's the boobs isn't it?" She thought, poking herself in the chest. "These big things on my chest distracting everyone that I catch….although, it could also be my deity power." She looked around for a shadow casted by the moonlight, finding a shrub lucky enough to have an unobstructed look at the moon. She went over to it, reaching into the shadow and pulling out a book. "Lets see here…" She flipped through the pages to her species's section and started reading, but she couldn't focus over the eerie screams of a little boy yelling for his life. Well, eerie to any human. To her, it was just annoying.

Irritated, she shut the book and snapped her fingers, the mob stopping its attack on the boy. It parted like a sea of darkness, exposing the half-turned child in the middle. His body was wholly as dark and uniform as the rest of the zombified servants, tears of white going down his corrupted body as he cried in a curled-up ball on the side. "You all are terrible at this," Namaru said, picking up the crying boy in her arms. "What's the point of sending you to corrupt people if you can't even do it fast?" The zombies just stood around, mindlessly and silently looking at her awaiting her command.

"I'm starting to question my choice to have total control of you all," she said, putting a finger on the crying boy's head. Is crying stopped instantly, hands going down to the side as she made him as mindless as all her other slaves. "See? Easy! Control the mind, control the soul. Does each one of you understand that now?" She still got only crickets while she put the boy back down onto the ground.

"I'm going to pretend at least one human or yokai here said yes. Go now, shoo, you are not needed anymore. I corrupted the boy, you all can go back to waiting...wherever you wait." She sent them away, the slaves fading back into the darkness of the night. For some reason though, the small boy stayed behind, his silhouette form-hugging her leg.

"Come on little one, I said go. Go on with your new friends, you're my servant now." She reached into him, pulling out a gemstone shroud in smoke. "Your soul is now my property, tis the fate of anyone who wanders into my domain alone." She put the gemstone back in him and tried shooing him away once more, but the body stayed hugging up to her thigh.

"Even your body wants to go back to your mother?" She said, prying him off and carrying him in his arms. "Fine then, you will take me to your family then. I'll ensure you are reunited." The servant boy pointed away, Namaru sinking into one of the moon shadows to fast travel to his house. She's somewhat blind while moving through total darkness, but she can always surface just a bit to sneak a peek of her location. She moved her legs back and forth, swimming through the void before suddenly turning up and resurfacing out of her domain. She poked two eyes out from under a table, in a lamp-lit family room as she saw a mother and two children. She then lifted the child out of the shadow, seeing if he would point to them. Sure enough, his arm stayed directed at the group of three.

"Alright kids, it's time to go to bed," The mother said, herding the kids upstairs then coming back down. She waited about two seconds before falling into a chair, quietly crying into her hands. "Oh Zackary, where did you go..." she whimpered, hunched over her chair as she continued her sobbing. Namaru got out from under the table and went over to her side, the corrupted boy tucked under her arm. She tapped the mother on her shoulder, grabbing her face and forcing her around to her. "Boo~"

"HeavenlyGodIprayforyouto-"

"Don't bother" Namaru lifted the mother with one hand, sitting her down on the floor and holding up her son like a teddy bear. "Is this your son?"

"What….what, did, you, do to him!?"

"Exactly what the tales say of me," Namaru said. "However, your son is unusually clingy to his humanity. I would have just simply completely taken over his soul for my own bidding, but I've had...a change of heart." The mother's face got less angry and fearful as the Nurarihyon uttered those words. For that moment, she had a sliver of hope that the yokai would return her son, after going out of her way to return him to his home. "Are you ready to be reunited with your lovely child?~"

The mother nodded, holding her hands out for her baby. Namaru put her son in her arms, then right after, pressed her thumb into the head of the mother. She weakly screeched before the purple darkness enveloped her, turning her into a slave just like her son. "There, now to do the other two children~"

A trip to the bedroom later, and Namaru was walking out of the house, brushing off her shoulders and hands to a job well done. As she opened the door, a man holding a bag of flour and a rope halter for his horse. "Oh, hi!" Namaru said, the man stepping back. "You don't look like my wife…"

"Oh, I get that all the time," Namaru said, pulling down her kimono to expose her breasts. "Although we could forget I existed for a nice night, if you get what I am referring to~"

"I knew that shade of purple was suspect! Where's my family!?" The apparent father yelled, dropping his stuff and rushing past her. He saw a group of four purple figures, all the sizes of his wife and his three children. "Oh, they are inside, just a bit more purple than usual."

"A bit? What sorcery is this?"

"Yo-you seriously don't know what I am?" She spun around surprised, confused that he did not know either. She looked at her attire, wondering if it was the reason no one seemed to know what she was.

"I know you are a monster!" The father pointed, hugging the body of his wife. "I shall slay you, and make you-huh?" He stopped his monologue, getting tossed a book that hit him on his chest. Inside the book was a bookmark, that disappeared when he turned to the page. "Nor-rye-ri-hewon?"

"Nurarihyon, idiot. I seduce dense people like you and imprint my seduction onto your body. Haven't you learned anything from a priest or a church or something?" The man tapped the book, seeing if he recalled anything about her kind. "In all honesty no."

"N-No!? I am supposed to be known for my seduction!"

"So you're a succubus!"

"No! You know what-" She didn't finish her sentence, finding a chair and shifting it around. She looked at the light and adjusted accordingly until the chair had a shadow that was as long as she was tall. "Listen up Orderite, this is your once chance to get your family back." The Father seemed wary, but he didn't have much other option but to oblige. He nodded, keeping himself between her and his family as a shield. "Obviously this entire village has been ill-informed of my presence, so I am going to have a little 'chat' with whoever is responsible."

"That would be the…the feudal lord down the path."

"I'm sure it was hard to throw him under the horse," Namaru said sarcastically. She pointed to the shadow, stepping on it for extra emphasis. "This is how I am leaving. If this has not moved by the time I get back, and I am able to come into your house, I shall relieve the control of their souls."

"Yes Succubus, I wi-"

"Nurarihyon! You are lucky I have a bigger slave to make than you." She promptly jumped into the shadow, leaving him with four unmoving slaves of a family to watch over. He grabbed the waist of the largest one and hugged her tight. "Don't worry honey, I shall get you back...I promise!"

_________________________________________

It wasn't hard to find after a bit of travel. She sensed a lot of moving shadows and poked her head up, using the side of the building to push herself up and out of the void. She ended up in an alleyway, the buildings blocking out the sun on either side. "Smells like shit," she muttered to herself, heading towards the noise to see what movement she saw. To her surprise and great delight, she saw a bunch of people gathered around the church, families filing in through the two wooden doors. More people means a priest, she thought, looking around and quickly plucking one of the women that passed by. She covered her mouth and nose, stifling her struggling and breathing until she passed out on top of her. "Goood girl," she said, stripping her of her clothing and putting it on herself. She inspected herself in a nearby puddle, noticing how short and small the dress looked on her compared to the lady she choked out.

"I probably should have found someone larger," she said out loud, quickly joining in with the congregation and taking her place inside the church. She ended up next to a peculiar-looking man, wearing a red long sleeve shirt and jeans in a style that is hundreds of years too early, his parted afro having streaks of red and blue that flowed out from the part in the center. His shirt had a black Chinese dragon design going vertically down its left side. His shoes looked really out of place, with padded white soles and dark, rugged silk as black as her heart. A white swoosh was on each one, cutting through the darkness with light.

"Well you're the weirdest side character I have met," she said while staring at his shoes. She poked the black shoes, the tip of her finger getting a bit through the small mesh on his feet. "Wait, there is a soft covering too?" The man she was staring at finally notice, feeling someone touch his Nikes. He grabbed her hand, whispering a psst into her ear. "You don't look so normal either," he said smiling.

"You would have been tied to a rock and dropped in a lake, with whatever magic helped to create those clothes," Namaru said. "I admire it~"

"Does that mean we're friends?" He said. "Or, could we be something more?"

"Only an acquaintance right now."

"That is fine," he said, a bit disappointed. He extended a hand out towards her, waiting for a courtesy handshake. "I'm Luke."

"Namaru, Deity of the Night," she said, taking a handshake. "Although right now, I'm just a mere, defenseless village woman."

"That is over 6 feet tall."

"Deity status tends to make you larger than life, quite literally." She said, seeing the priest coming past their row to the podium. "Aha, there he is," she whispered.

"Wait, are you going to murder him?" Luke said, suddenly alarmed.

"Of course! Why else would I be here?"

"You can't murder the priest! He helps these people."

"Yeah, by making them fear succubi!"

"Only to a reasonable degree!" Luke said. "No one here hates monster girls like those extremists, only the ones that attack the town!"

"What? That makes no sense!" At that moment, another villager pulled off the hood on Namaru, exposing her head. "Uh oh-"

"I know this is an orderite sector," the villager started, getting in on the whisper-yelling. "But can you please be quiet! I am trying to listen to the word of god!"

"Your god hates us!"

"That's only what the extremists believe," the villager said, looking past her to Luke. "Your new fellow is ignorant, protector Luke."

Namaru slowly turned back to him, with a perplexed look on her face. "Protector?"

"I keep the bad mamono away in exchange for food and a clean house," Luke said. "Sue me, why don't you!"

"What does 'sue' me- you know what, I don't care, I'm going to murder the priest regardless!" Namaru said, jumping up and pointing at him. "Hey! Old Fellow in the robes!" He stopped speaking, everyone turning her eyes to the mamono. "Ah, do we have a newcomer into our church?" The priest said, unbothered by her presence. "Our church welcomes all, now that we have realized the mistakes of our past."

"Then why haven't I been recognized by anyone?!"

"Maybe you are an obscure breed," he said. You do not seem to be any of the more popular mamono. Are you a mage?"

"I am a Nurarihyon."

"Ah yes!" the priest said. "A man that mates with you gains the charisma and seduction levels of an influential demon."

"Yes! That one, why do you not tell people about that one?"

"Well, you are the first one in a generation to appear," he said, stepping off the podium and going to her. "The last one that appeared in our part of the land was seen by my father's father, but it was only passed down through a tall tale."

"That...might, have also been I?" She said, leaning back when the priest came and stared up at her.

"He died in that encounter…"

"Died? Oh no, I just take their souls captive." The people of the church collectively gasped, murmurs going along the crowd about the chance of getting their loved ones back.

"You must return them at once!" The priest claimed. "Holding people as slaves for your bidding is wrong and immoral!" Namaru just laughed in his face, falling in her seat hooting until she opened her eyes and saw the same stern look on the priest's face. "...oh, you are serious."

"I know, deep in your heart, there is a part of you that knows your wrongdoing," he said. "Think about how many wrongs that could be right by your hands!"

"I would prefer not to," Namaru said. "My heart is a literal shadow~"

"I thought so...then on to bargaining it is. Luke…" the guy with the red and blue fit stood up, nodding in silence. "We shall give you our sole protector, a soul as unique as yours, as your husband or whatever role you see fit of him. That is how a mamono operates, no?"

"You are not wrong…." Namaru snuck a hand under Luke's shirt, feeling for any muscle under the polyester. Sure enough, she found a nice set of abs, giggling as she ran her hand across them like a washboard. "Yes, I think I will like this~"

"It is decided then. You shall get an eternal lay, and the village will get their tenants returned to them?"

"Sure~" She said, extending the word as if she wasn't. She patted the old priest and touched Luke's forehead, turning him into another slave before he could even blink in reaction.

"Traitor!"

"Blasphemy!"

"We trusted you!"

"I only did it so I could travel back to my domain," Namaru assured. "It is a hassle to take living mortals through complete darkness…" With that, she stepped behind one of the villagers, blowing in her ear while she sunk in her shadow. The villager eeped and sidestepped away, mystified that her shadow stood still until she had disappeared into it.

_________________________________________

Namaru un-shadowed Luke once they were out of the village, letting him regain his bearings in a grassy clearing. He fell on his back once he had control over his body, his limbs weak and thoughts feeling sluggish. He put a hand over his eyes, light of the outdoors near-blinding him. "Where we….if I am able to ask?"

"Outside, idiot," Namaru said. "I do not have a home, so you have to take us to your home."

"I don't have one either…" he said, pulling himself onto his arse once he had feeling in his legs. His hands and feet felt the worse, getting the sharpest pins and needles he had ever felt. "Did you cut off my blood flow?" He asked. Namaru shrugged, lacking any care for whatever happened to him. "I tend not to release control that often. It is probably harmless nevertheless."

"I, I can't feel my ankles…"

"Harmless! What isn't harmless though, is that you don't have a house…guess we will have to "borrow" one."

"Borrow?" Luke repeated, following Namaru as she started to move. "What does borrow mean? Wait!" He jogged after her, catching up and holding her hand. "You didn't seem to answer."

"That should be a hint enough. We have more, urgent things to do." She purposefully didn't let anything on, walking with him all the way to another town. She snuck into the first house she spied, breaking a window with her elbow and pulling both of them inside. Luke yelped as he landed on the shards of broken glass, getting cuts on the arm he used to break his fall. "This is so wrong," Luke said, seeing Namaru already up and peeking out of the room. She turned back and put a finger over her lips, motioning Luke to stay there.

He looked around where he was, seeing a pretty spacious bedroom. He found clothes in the closet that he could use to stanch his bleeding, saying sorry to the owners under his breath as he wrapped it around his arm. He heard screaming and stopped, hearing two more screams cut off rather quickly. Namaru appeared back in the doorway of the bedroom. Covered in deep stab wounds that were filling with a dark ooze, like sweat forming in pores. "We have a house now," she said as casually as she could to make him disregard the mess of her body. "And a couple maids, if you wish~"

"I will p-pass," Luke said, his panic alarm going off in his body.

"Suite yourself, What is a few more to my army?" She skipped around and hopped on the bed, stripping off her kimono right in front of Luke. "I could use a maid however, these clothes need a wash."

"Don't you want me outside?" Luke said, holding his non-bleeding hand over his eyes. He didn't want to be rude, although he couldn't help but blush at the thought of seeing the Yokai naked. "I-I don't want to intrude…."

"Trust me, I couldn't care less if a mortal saw my bosom," she said, some rustling going on beyond his blocked sight. "Of course, if you wanted a happy ending~" She said, Luke feeling something soft press against his forehead and face. "I am more than happy to see what you have down there~"

Ruckus Ruckus

"Would, would that be you moving?" Luke said, adjusting the bulge in his pants.

"If I moved, you wouldn't hear a sound." She took her bloody kimono and put it over her breasts and front, summoning two servants to escort her out of the room. "Stay here again, I cannot have any witnesses in this home." Leaving Luke behind, she stepped out of the room, then stepped back in to escape a fireball headed her way. It flew by her, singling the loose tips of her hair as it crashed into the other end of the hall and blew up the wall in flames. "That isn't a human…."

"Did you finally get caught by someone?"

"It isn't the Order either!" Namaru closed the door, a rush of fire appearing and spilling in through the thin slots between the door and the wall. A servant rose out of Luke's shadow to drag him into the closet, shutting it closed and pulling a dresser in front of the door. "Hey! I can help!" Luke yelled, banging his fists on the door.

"You will be in the way!" Namaru yelled, jumping back towards the opposite side of the room. The door was blown open by another fireball, a blue, armored slime walking in. An orbiting ring of more fireballs surrounded her, her wrists and legs covered in fire as well. She had a face of stone, her anger etched into the tight frown on her mouth.

"What, did I happen onto your domain?" Namaru asked, tossing her kimono aside.

"I am not after you. You're just another piece to my reign." The fireballs circling her all launched towards Namaru. Namaru dived to the side of the bed, the entire side of the bedroom catching on fire from the projectiles. The slime leaped onto the bed, holding a fireball in her hand. "It appears you have reached the end of you rope!" She reared her hand back, preparing to dunk the fireball right down into her, but Namaru was no longer there. "Retreating under the bed? How cowardly."

Namaru rose out of the slime's shadow, grabbing her in a bear hug from behind. "Not as cowardly as using projectiles, however!"

"W-are you slime as well?" The nureonago asked. "How dare you use my methods against me!"

"Close, but still so off." Namaru pulled her arms behind her back and kicked the legs out from under her, bring her down to the bed and pinning her down. "So, you're this fire slime I heard of?"

"I have fame?"

"Only the infamous kind," Namaru said, flipping her onto her back. "It's an impromptu visit, but you would make a great reward in the organization."

"You don't really think you can catch me as you are right now, do you?" Namaru removed her hands, hands from her shadow extending to keep the nureonago immobile.

"Actually, I do. Fairly confident even."

"Oh really?" The slime said, chuckling as two more arms sprung out from her back. Namaru jumped back, going to the other end of the room as the arms excitedly tried to extend further. "As I said, fairly confident."

"You have no idea how much danger you truly are in. I can break out of the thickest of chains, and a master of all abilities. I am your god!" From her extra pair of arms grew hands of fire, extending even farther than her own body could stretch. Namaru, having no space to jump any further away, put up her arm to block. "Assh!" she groaned, the fire hands tightening around her forearm. She felt her vision go woozy, her legs becoming unsteady to stand on. "So this is what happened to Vargas…"

"Just think of it as long, long, ball drain~," She said, still stuck under the shadow hands. "Your manifestations stay even without your control? Oh, I am going to enjoy that~"

"So you really do steal mana…" Namaru tried chopping the arm off, but 1) her hand burned as she went through the fire and 2) the arm reformed immediately, as all slime is immune to brute force, or at least resistant to a very high degree. She fell against the door, seeing double on the bed. The arms kept pumping away, taking her powers for the nureonago to abuse. I never even got to fuck those abs, she thought, her mind drifting back to Luke while she was fading.

Crash! The sound of a breaking dresser reached her sluggish brain, but the feeling of lightning coursing through her body woke her the fuck up. She seized up and hopped onto her feet, screaming while her body yanking the slimy fire until it broke off her body, Luke rushed her and picked her up, running out of the room and out of the house. "Where did you come from?" She said, her adrenaline wearing off as she went back to being groggy.

"I broke out of the closet," he said, a bolt of electricity jumping through her hair. "Sorry if my hair looks a bit poofier, it tends to turn into an afro whenever I use my abilities.

"That was you?" She asked. "I thought she just shocked me…"

"How else would I have broken out of the closet? Besides, she seemed like water, so I thought putting a current through her would cause her to let go. She did scream a lot," Luke said, running around a few trees a couple of times to make his tracks confusing. "Are you alright?" Namaru looked away, not wanting to answer. "I can see why you're the protector now. I don't owe you anything, but...I could reward you." She reached up to touch his cheek, but she could barely graze tiny fuzz before her hand fell back down limp. "Ow…"

"I think I know a good reward…"

_________________________________________

The father was busy trying to figure out how the table was positioned compared to the lamp. Taking care of two blobs turned out to be more of a hassle than he had thought, his acursed family constantly moving around and messing up the furniture. He had more than once had to carry his children away from the chair, and eventually decided to lock his children and his wife in his bedroom. It was hard, feeling like he had just caged up a bunch of dogs, but he had to do whatever it took to save them.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god…" he said, sweating buckets while he shifted the chair around. Each movement of the shadow bothered him more and more, till he was afraid that he would never get it just right for the one holding his family hostage to free them. His heart sunk as he heard a thunk on his floor, and some complaining from the void that lied through the shadow. A moment later a hole was kicked in through his front door, the father back scooting himself into a far corner of the room. Two more holes were made before Namaru finally decided to kick down the entire door, followed in Luke.

"P-Protector!" he said, seeing hope in his future. "Please! She took my family and she won't let me go! I request your aid!"

"He knows," Namaru said flatly. "More importantly, I thought I told you to keep the chair still."

"It was near impossible!"

"I hit my HEAD because of you!" She said, the husband cowering in fear. Luke put a hand on her shoulder, wanting her to calm down.

Sigh…. "But, I have had a change of heart. I shall return your family despite you having no brain."

"Because the protector helped you find a bit of remorse and compassion in your heart for beings you consider lower than thou?"

"No! Because, I ran out of mana." She sniffed around and found in the bedroom, touching each of them on their heads. Their shadowy exterior seemed to get sucked up like a vacuum, going into her thumb and back into her body. She then had the care to toss them onto the bed, so at least they collapsed on something not the floor. "Corrupting them is not just for tearing lives apart. Each bit of mana I use is kept with the servant, in exchange for mana. Think of you humans as a….hmm, Luke, say a word for energy storage."

"A battery?"

"What the lightning abs boy said," Namaru said, taking the last bit from the boy and tossing him onto the pile. She then dusted her hands, reforming clothes on her body as she went back out of the house. "Come on Luke, let us go fuck as we should have."

"N-no," Luke said, Namaru turning around. "What?"

"No!"

"What do you mean no? You are cute and I have not even gotten to try your body!"

"You still haven't held up your end of the bargain."

"If you think I am going to listen to that hunchback, decrepit old ma-"

"I won't move during sex if you don't," Luke said. "I can't stop you from taking me by force, I know...but I know you want to see my muscles move. Also...you're cute as well." Namaru started at him, slowly turning red in the face while her face had an unmoving look of distant. She snapped, a shadowy wave blasting out from her that knocked Luke down. "W-what was that?"

"My end of the fucking bargain, and not in the profane way." A large line of shadows all came to Namaru from the village, forming a growing circle on the ground as her body did it's best to absorb as much mana as she was returning to herself. "What is a few hundred to thousands anyways?" She picked up Luke. "You have no excuse now, take of your clothing!" Luke lifted up his shirt, letting her see his abdominal muscles. She cooed as she stared at them, sinking into the hole of shadow mana with Luke. "Ohoho, I could stare at these all night," she said, disappearing into the void as she kept ogling her new body to catch.~