Chapter 11: Pact Magician

I just realized I confused the East and West Youkai factions so I'm going to go back and swap them. West is in Kyoto, where Yasaka will be leading, while East is the one with Nurarihyon. Whoops. Though no one pointed it out, so I feel less bad about it.

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"What do you mean a contract? I know there are devil contracts, but as far as I know they all require us to sell you our souls. I assume that isn't what you mean but I've never heard of any other contract?" Suzu asked in confusion.

"Not necessarily, those are a thing, but it's rare. The most common are pact magician contracts, which gives the devil access to the magicians magic research and data, at least normally, while the magician gains knowledge, and protection from the devil, and to be honest, if you make a pact with a noble or powerful devil, then bragging rights." I respond.

"In this case, if you and Grayfia were to make a contract, you would gain everything that was previously stated, and would train her to use her weapons in return." I continued.

"Can you even form a magicians contract with me? I might be able to use magic, but that's just my clans powers, I don't actually use magic all that much. I'm mostly a physical fighter and just compliment it with my magic." She asked in return.

I shrugged, "It normally would but since the purpose would be for you to teach her how to fight physically it isn't an issue."

"I... I want to, honestly I do, I just don't know if I can; Or rather than my clan would allow it. I, unfortunately, don't have much freedom to make this kind of decision." She said in a dejected tone.

I hummed in response, and held a finger up, "Give me a minute." I put two fingers up to my ear and made a communication magic circle, its a basic spell that just transmits voice both ways, like a magic cell phone.

The others couldn't hear who I was talking to, all they heard was, "Yes, it's Valerian, I'm visiting Japan, I'm in Yamato village, you should be able to find m-" before I was cut off by a loud voice and a woman crashed into me, suffocating me in her large breasts.

"I missed you! I missed you! I missed you! Why didn't you come visit me earlier?!" She said in a loud excited voice, her nine tails flailing around in excitement as well.

"I-Inari-sama!" Suzu exclaimed in surprise seeing the goddess come flying out of nowhere.

(Picture of Inari, just a heads up, she looks exactly like Shinano from Azur Lane.)

"Hi Inari." Kouko said with a smile.

"Ohh Kouko, your here too! It's great to see you as well!" She said back while smiling back, but she still didn't let go of me.

I forcefully push her away a little, causing her to pout, which if I might add looks extremely cute. "Inari, I called you to get your help, not just to see you." She deflated a little and said in a defeated tone, "I see... You only call me when you need my help... You didn't even want to see me..." She even had tears pooling at the bottom of her eyes.

Now. I knew she was just teasing me...But... She's very good at it, and I ended up giving in and patting her head, "Sigh, I wanted to see you too, but we are here for serious business. I want Ko, Grayfia and Sera to find people to teach them, at least the basics, of how to use the weapons that fit each of them."

She stood up straight with a smile on her face, "I know. Amaterasu told me you all would be coming. I just didn't expect you to be contacting me so soon."

I shrugged in return before turning to Suzu, "Well, this young woman here wants to form a pact magician contract with Grayfia, but since she's the heiress of the Nakiri clan... You get where I'm going."

She cocked her head sideways, "That's it? I thought it was something serious. Suzu-chan, if you want to form a contract with Grayfia-chan, then do it. If those 'elders' of the clan say anything just tell them I personally gave you my permission."

Suzu smiled and bowed deeply to Inari, "Thank you Kami-sama."

Inari in return groaned, "Stop calling me Kami, it makes me feel like that stiff woman Amaterasu."

She looked back at me, "Lets catch up while these two form a contract." She grabbed both Kouko and I's hands and dragged us out of the room. Asahi, stood up and followed us out.

Asahi finally speaks up, to be honest I forgot he was even there. (I totally did) "Well, when I invited you into my home I didn't even consider you being a devil, I figured you were from some supernatural culture, but devil was definitely not what I was expecting."

I shrugged, "I'm surprised you knew about the supernatural in the first place, I was going to alter your memory once our conversation was done. I kind of figured my last name would give it away, but you didn't react."

He chuckled nervously, "To be honest, I know about the supernatural, but not anything detailed outside of our own pantheon. I know the big names, like Lucifer, Zeus, Odin and the other important figures, but I know very little overall."

Inari cut in, "If you knew he was a devil, especially a noble one like his, you would probably panic. Devils don't have the best reputation, especially ones from noble families. Most are unruly and do whatever they want, which is why they're banned from entering Japan."

"So they...?" Asahi asked, but left his question unanswered, not that he needed to finish it.

"No, they're an exception. Both Amaterasu and I know his mother personally, and we've been friends for hundreds of years. They get some special privileges." She replied nonchalantly.

"I'm starting to think mother has connections everywhere..." Kouko said while spaced out.

Inari smiled wryly, "Not exactly, she doesn't have the best reputation with the Hindu Pantheon, nor the males from the Olympian pantheon."

"Just the males? Why not all of them?" Kouko asked in a confused tone.

"Because the males form the Olympian pantheon have all their brains in their dicks, and most of the females hate them, probably." I cut in.

Inari nodded in agreement, "They're also banned from here, though Artemis and a few other goddesses are allowed here."

"Enough about that! What's happened in the last twelve years." Inari asked me excitedly.

"Hmm, first off is that I got engaged to both Grayfia and Serafall. Kouko and I have also started a relationship, though that is still a secret for now and it started very recently." She pouted and buried my arm between her breasts, "Aww why not me too."

I rolled my eyes and flicked her forehead, not responding to her teasing. We come out of the house into a courtyard, which is actually a training field in the middle of the manor. On it, Serafall can be seen learning the correct stance from Himari, and Yua, who is assisting her mother.

Out of curiosity, I look at Asahi and ask, "Does your family know about the supernatural as well?" In return, he just shakes his head in denial. I quickly look at Inari, getting ready to hide her fox features, only to see them already gone.

"I forgot to ask Valerian, what weapons is everyone using?" Inari asks in curiosity.

After telling her what weapons everyone uses, and our plan to go to Kyoto soon, she perks up. I can practically see her now hidden fox ears shooting up in attention. "Ohh you must be talking about Inanna, she's an Oni. She's a part of the West Yokai faction, and guards the fox leader as their bodyguard. She's skilled, but she doesn't have much free time."

'Hmm, I know Yasaka will eventually be the leader of the West faction, but I doubt she's old enough for that. She might not even be born yet.'

"Hey Inari, who is the current leader of the West faction?" I ask curiously, oddly enough this isn't something I was made aware of.

"Well, currently they don't really have a leader, they're ruled by a council of a few different tribes. The strongest is the nine tailed fox leader, Asano Kato. Then the wolf faction leader, Katsuo Isamu." She responded.

"Ahh, that would be why I didn't know of them, My mother gave me some background information, but it was mostly about the types of people in each faction. She didn't really go over the leaders of the each tribe in the west faction, just that they were more amiable than the east faction."

"They aren't more amiable, if anything Nurarihyon is more amiable than most of the west faction as well, but he likes to test people, and then prank them afterwards. Which is probably why your mother doesn't like him all that much, though I don't see the problem with it." Inari shrugged.

Shaking my head at her, since she pranks my mother enough, and she just doesn't like to deal with both of them. We decided to leave the three training alone, and walk back inside, the contract should be about done by now. As we walk inside, the two are talking cheerily with each other.

"I take it you're done." I say as I arrive.

"Yep, we formed the contract, I actually wouldn't mind starting her training now." Suzu said with a smile. I shrug and look at Grayfia, who smiles and nods.

"You are free to use the training yard in the courtyard if you want." Asahi suggest.

"I recommend you don't. You should go into the forest to train, since I'm sure Grayfia will want to learn to incorporate magic into her fighting style, which would, not only, likely destroy your training field, but it would be blatantly obvious to your family, who don't know about the supernatural." I added.

Asahi thought for a minute before agreeing. The two took my suggestion and were getting ready to leave, though I decided to join them, which the other two girls also decided to tag along. Asahi decided to just relax, since it was his 'day off'.

With that, Suzu, Grayfia, Inari, Kouko and I leave the village and head out into the forest to start training some.

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Some of you have wanted to see some more fight scenes, or scenes where the MC can let loose, and I can tell you they will be coming soon. There will be a few more chapters of just story, mostly with the west youkai faction, and then there will be a small fight scene with the east faction, then finishing this japan 'arc'. After that a small time skip of like a year or two before the great war starts. Once that starts there will be a lot more chance for Valerian to let loose and is when his power level will skyrocket.

Training control while fighting is much better than just training on your own, or spars where you don't want to hurt the other person. So by the end of the war, he will be full power, or close enough to it.