Gourmet Deviled Egg

Chapter 7 - Dabadee Dabadai

“Right, I got the summoning circle arranged here, should be the correct one.” Leonard checked the floor and the page he had opened up. “Yup, looks like it, you’re the catalyst, so just step into the smaller circle and recite this.” He handed Amy a piece of paper and gestured to where she should stand.

“So just read this?” Amy gave the paper a quick once over. “God, this is cheesy. You sure I have to say it like this?” Leonard gave her a quick nod. “Okay, then.” She stepped into the smaller circle, and Leonard gave her a thumbs up as she rolled her eyes and shrugged. “O Source of Strength, Blood of Blood, Join Me in This Mark so We can Bond.” Amy facepalmed. “That sounded so goofy; is all magic this goofy?” 

“Mine is based on feelings. Somehow. So far I know anger equals fire fist. Which is weird, considering the whole succubus thing.” I expected s*x powers or something, making people lustful, making them do what I said. Why would that lead to fire fists? It was something to ponder later, as a heavy Japanese accent groaned at us from the summoning circle. 

“It’s 5 am, you crazy Americans. I’m trying to rest and you decide to call on me?!” There was a c***k in the air that expanded to let through the one we were calling. “And I have to shrink down to fit in your horribly inadequate apartment as well?! I hope you have an offering prepared as an apology.” The giant arm that was as big as Amy placed its hand on the ground, visibly shrinking as the ancestor pulled through. Against all preconceived notions of what an Oni should look like clothing wise -- loincloth made of fur, huge club -- this one was smartly dressed. He honestly looked like a Yakuza member. Except blue, and tall, and buff, and sporting one horn over his left eye, the other cracked at the base. His canines were poking out of his mouth as he looked us over. As his gaze fell on Amy and then Leonard, he huffed. “So this is what I felt three days ago.” He summoned up a floor pillow and sat down cross-legged on it, facing Amy. He pointed towards Leonard without moving his gaze. “You. Out. I need to have a conversation with my great-great-granddaughter. We will talk later about what you have done.” 

“But, but I live here!” retorted Leonard, his eyes confused and pleading. 

“And you summoned me here to fix your mess. Out!” Leonard jumped, shocked at the Oni’s yell, and turned his jump into a scamper for the door, like a dog hearing a loud noise. I turned to follow him. Obviously, this was going to be a private talk between ancestor and descendant, and I had no right to intrude. I had taken my first step towards the door when the grandpa Oni spoke up. “Hold on, little scarlet one. You seem to be a victim too. You can stay.” I shrugged and made my way to my favorite armchair in Leonard’s apartment. Only now did I notice the stacks of books around it were all yuri manga. I honestly wasn’t expecting him to have yuri manga. Yaoi manga? Sure. That made more sense. Oh, okay, I had missed the stack just behind the yuri one. Leonard had both. And with the titles I saw for the yuri piles, it felt like a dare or something. Kashimashi was one of them. It caught my interest, but I wasn’t quite sure why. I decided to look up the plot later, and to borrow a digital copy from the library.

Those thoughts had a time and place though, and this wasn’t quite it. Once Leonard closed the apartment door, the Oni bowed to formally greet Amy. “The name I have claimed for myself is Naonori Asano.” 

Amy stood there for a second, unsure of what to do. She settled for sitting down and bowing as well. “I’m Amy Naonori... Nice to meet you?” At her introduction, Asano seemed to calm down and ease up. 

“Little Amy, then. It has been very long since I had to be called for an awakening. Never one that had been messed up. Little Red, any clue what might have gone wrong?” Asano asked me. I obviously didn’t know the mechanics of the ritual, how it worked, or what Leonard had done. Good news was, I had an extremely convenient way of finding out. Leonard had left his laptop unlocked. The dumbass. I had half a mind to change his wallpaper to tiled butts, but I doubted I could find an a*s as perfectly sculpted as the one on his wolfboy. It’s not like he could use it for presentations outside furry conventions anyway. 

I grabbed it and scrolled through, looking around until I found what seemed to be the PDF with rituals. He still had it open to my ritual . God, the instructions were godawful. It’s like somebody put them through a shitty translation tool instead of requesting a trained AI to do it. Considering the document was dated 2010 on the first page, that very well might have been their only option. And yes, I scrolled all the way back to the first page of it to look for Amy’s ritual. Based on the imagery, I figured I had found it. 

“Looks like it was written in Japanese originally; I keep forgetting which are called kanji and which are called hiragana --” 

“You know Japanese?” Amy interrupted me. 

“Had to justify some character’s gender online. Surprised about that, must have been some middle aged weeb. They were claiming the original Japanese gendered the character as a guy. I quickly provided evidence it didn’t. Anyways, the author of the PDF tried to write it out in Latin with pronunciation, and that’s probably where he f****d up.” I turned the laptop to show them both the page. Asano visibly recoiled when he read it.

“That is THE worst romanization of Japanese I have ever witnessed. And I’m old enough to remember the Americans forcing their way in. No wonder you lack so many of the powers you should have, Little Amy.” He put his hands on Amy’s shoulders, and with his eyes closed, uttered a quick mantra. The second he was finished, a shimmer traveled between the two of them. Amy was shrinking fast, her horn retreating into her forehead, and her skin turning from its vibrant blue to what I figured was her regular skin tone. Although I had my doubts about the large blue-tinted tattoo on her back that depicted a flower design. Doubts whether that had been there originally, that was. “There, that should do it. If you will it, you can change into your ancestral form. And change size once transformed.” Asano took off his suit coat, and slapped his thigh, turning to me in the process. “Now, bring me food. Anything will do. You woke me up, I demand an offering. And do bring in the sorcerer; I need to have words with him.” 

I could only nod and open the door, to see Leonard awkwardly standing there. “Do find Amy something to wear before --” I didn’t get to finish my sentence. They say ‘Speak of the Devil and he will appear’? Well, I didn’t even say his name and Diego was already approaching the door. And for all I knew, he was only human.

“Hey, so, the old guy’s in the hospital now, in critical condition. How’s Amy?” Diego looked inside, and clearly noticed the Yakuza Oni sitting across from Amy. “Oh. That’s how she’s doing.” I walked past Diego and put a hand on his shoulder. 

“You should probably get her some clothes if you have spare keys, and then talk to her grandpa. He seems nice? I’m getting us food. Leo, you go in and get an earful.” Leonard sighed, as his shoulder slouched. He had that look of defeat. The ‘puppy caught chewing on slippers’ look. There really was no need for Leonard to be so close to his fursona in behavior.  

The whole walk up to my apartment to grab my bag and card, I was contemplating one thing. Whether I had to turn back into my human form. The Question was right across the street, sure, but changing out of my succubus form, changing clothes, and then changing back into it to change once more was too much of a hassle, especially since I knew what to expect while in human form. I could very well pass this look off as elaborate cosplay. Just a makeup job with some prosthetics for the horns and fake teeth. It was the option with the least hassle. I really didn’t want to give up being Lily yet. Especially since I was feeling more comfortable and cute than I had ever felt my whole life. Although I wasn’t quite sure whether cute applied anymore, considering I’d beaten a dude to critical condition with flaming fists. Oh right, I’d beaten a dude with flaming fists that blew up in my face, and I’d skidded across a rooftop and got hit a few times. I took off the outfit once inside to look it over. Must have been much sturdier than it looked, considering I should have had an exposed pair of asscheeks from that skid and an exposed back, but no, the outfit was just dirtied up. So I changed into the little black dress and threw my worn clothes in the wash. Might as well, I really only had the one outfit. A quick grab of my bag and I was off for lunch. Again. It was really early after my first visit, honestly. No more than an hour. Well, I wasn’t going to complain about another meal, especially after the fight.  

It felt weird walking into the place I frequented almost more than my apartment, a place I could depend on to have my back, to help me out, and to see Olivia go into customer service mode with “Hello, welcome to The Question” instead of her usual greeting for me. She did follow it up with “Whoa there, demon gal, don’t think you’ll be able to succubus our ace cook back there,” once she had properly looked me over, along with a laugh. “Cool makeup job.” I felt a bit reassured she could make no connection between Lily and Peter. I hadn’t really shared my family history with her, or with Clark. All they knew was to let me know if they saw my dad. “So what can I get ya?” 

“Uhm, a grilled goat cheese sandwich, plus a vanilla soy latte with chocolate syrup?” A smirk grew on Olivia’s face, as she gave me another look over, really focusing on my eyes for some reason. But she shook her head. 

“Huh, funny thing, a friend and regular ordered that for lunch today; said it was for a friend. Is it safe to assume that you’re said friend?” Olivia got to making the coffee, and I could smell the bread being toasted in the kitchen from the counter. Wow, sensitive nose. 

“Uhm, yeah, I’m Lily. Peter’s letting me stay over for some time due to some problems I’m having.” I scratched the back of my head. 

“Well, that’s really sweet of him. Anything else you want besides that?” She put the coffee on the counter and waited for Clark to deliver the sandwich. 

“Oh! Right, yeah. Neighbor’s family is visiting from Japan and I got roped into getting food for them. Do you have any suggestions for what I could get them?” I eyed the coffee, trying to fight back the saliva and the urge to just gulp it down right then and there, when I heard Clark pipe up. 

“Slab a’ Pork Twixt Bread might work, a bit of familiarity with a Chertovice Twist!” was what he yelled from the kitchen, making me raise my eyebrow in confusion, as I desperately tried to parse Clarkish to English. Slab of pork between bread. A pork sandwich? 

“He’s suggesting the Pork Cutlet Sandwich, a Katsu Sando if you will. Dude’s obsessed with making his own sauces, so of course that includes Katsu Sauce. You stick around long enough, you’ll learn all his peculiarities.  Might even meet his husband by accident, Lily.” Olivia shrugged, and I hummed with a nod. 

“Yeah, I think that works… four Katsu Sandos?” I added to my order, waiting not for too long before I got handed a bag of food, swiped my card and left. I swear I could hear Olivia going “Five bucks Lily is related to Peter,” followed by Clark going “Ten bucks that Lily IS Peter.” But that must have just been my anxiety-riddled imagination, right? I mean, come on, how would they justify the height difference between my two forms?

When I returned to Leonard’s apartment, which I had no trouble entering as the door was still unlocked, I was met by a very specific sight. Asano was laughing heartily; Amy and Diego were cuddling up, with Amy in a simple dress. And Leonard? Leonard was standing amongst his books, looking as if he had just had a makeout session with a soul sucking demon. Oh wait, those probably actually exist. So they wouldn’t leave you looking like Leonard was looking. Let me rephrase that. Leonard looked as if someone had burned all his books, smashed his laptop, and threatened to eat his heart while it was still beating in his chest. Okay, no, still way too drastic for how he looked; I needed to tone that comparison down. Leonard looked like all his bees flew away. There, that would do it

“Uhm, wow. Asano, I think you killed Leonard,.” was what I managed to get out while looking at my wizardly neighbor.

“Little Red! Welcome back! And ah, he’ll be fine. I’m sure. Harsh words never killed anyone. Did you bring food?” The blue Oni turned to me with a huge grin, and I raised the bag of food. 

“Two katsu sandos for you, one each for Diego and Amy, and a thing I shouldn’t be eating but have to because of our shared dumbass for me.” I handed out the food, chugged the coffee like before and absolutely demolished the grilled cheese. 

“Why shouldn’t you be eating that?” Amy asked, moments before I finished devouring the grilled sandwich.

“Lactose Intolerance,” was my quick reply, still munching the last of my sandwich. Diego grimaced at me.

“How bad is it?” he managed to ask in between bites. Dammit, should have probably gotten a katsu sando for myself too.

“Stomach feels like an earthquake and the farts could kill a man. But if I don’t eat it, I can barely function.” I shrugged and got to the armchair as Asano looked towards me. 

“Why haven’t you called your ancestor to fix the ritual, then?” was his question as he began chewing on the second sandwich. He didn’t take a bite, he just shoved it in his mouth and began chewing.

“Because she’s MIA. Measseal, or however you say that.” Asano nearly choked up at me mentioning her. 

“The Mother with a Shattered Heart?! Okay... no surprise then. Actually, big surprise that one of her children survived The Hound of the Three, or that said child had further daughters. Never met her, my being an Oni and her being a succubus, us both from different regions, but I have heard of her through gossip...” I could see Asano leave out a long sigh. “Well, children, I think I should head back. It was nice meeting you, Little Amy. Come visit sometimes, I’ll show you Kyoto.”

“Sure thing, grandpa.” Amy waved to Asano as he ripped open a pathway in the air for himself and left. And, truth be told, after today’s excursions I felt like falling asleep right that second. Excusing myself, I went back up to my apartment, and crashed into bed the moment I got to it. It wasn’t even evening yet. It was barely half past four. But I just fell asleep almost immediately.