When the class finished, Sakamo was putting his books inside the school bag when he was pulled to his right and saw Hangaku staring at him really closely, and she spoke in a gentle voice, “What about my kiss? You didn’t answer my note.”
“You… want one right now? With everyone around us?”
“No, silly! But I bet we can find a place where we can be all alone for a while. If we leave now, we can have some time just for us before the afternoon classes. What do you say? Unless… you… don’t want to kiss me…”
Sakamo noticed Hangaku’s sad eyes behind her forced smile. He gently caressed her face and said, “I would be a fool if I didn’t want to, but aren’t we going to be in trouble if someone sees us?”
“Probably. Isn’t that exciting? The danger of not knowing if someone will surprise us! Hihihi! Come on already! I told Tomiko to go with Takechi to the cafeteria, because I wanted to rob from you enough kisses to satisfy me until we finish School.”
Sakamo complained as he was dragged out of the room. “The note said one. Now you want how many? And where are we going?”
Hangaku placed her hand over Sakamo’s mouth. “Shush, not so loud! I think no one is behind the Gym, at this hour. Yesterday, I found a bench behind a big tree. No one will see us if we arrive before someone goes there to eat. Or a couple with the same idea, that is!”
Sakamo walked faster, with his arm pulled by a smiling Hangaku that was carrying both boxed lunches. Then, he felt a tingling on the pendant that was on a string under his shirt. He frowned and thought of an excuse. If Shinatobe was calling for him, it could be urgent. He saw the door to the boy’s toilet and stopped, and Hangaku almost fell. She complained with a frown. “Hey, what…”
“Toilet. I need to go. It will be just a moment, okay?”
Hangaku tilted her head, and her eyes narrowed. “You are not trying to look for an excuse to escape from me, are you?”
“No, it’s not that. I think it was because of all the juice I drank in the morning.”
Hangaku approached with a kinky smile. “Do you need help? I don’t mind lending you a hand.”
Sakamo widened his eyes, completely dumbfounded by what she said. Hangaku made an ugly frown near his face. “You thought I was going to say something like this, right, you pervert? Maybe I will do it after we date for a year or so, but not on the second day we met! I am a lady, you moron! Go, and don’t take too much time to come out, or I will go get you and drag you out by your hair!”
Sakamo jolted from the pain her fingernails were inflicting on his right shoulder. “You know, Hangaku-chan, sometimes you say the strangest things, and I am starting to think that you are absolutely nuts!”
Her frown softened and slowly changed to a slight smile. “I am not nuts, unless you consider my feelings for you something a crazy woman would feel. If that’s the case, it says a lot about you, don’t you think?”
“I… don’t know how to answer that… Can I go or not?”
Hangaku gave him a slight kiss, and a lot of girlish squeals filled the corridor, caused by the group of girls that were looking at them from a distance.
Sakamo entered the toilet while Hangaku was waving at the angry group of girls. He looked around to check if he was alone and grabbed his pendant as he was opening the door to one cubicle and whispered, “By the power of the fallen Spirits, use the same time and open a Passage to Azurath!”
Sakamo entered the light, and when he exited on the other side, the little Shinatobe was smiling at him, seated on the edge of the bed. “Hello again. Quick, change your clothes and let me lose your hair. You have a meeting downstairs.”
Sakamo quickly took off his School’s uniform and grabbed a set of clothes from the now normal closet while Shinatobe fixed his hair into his usual low ponytail. She fixed the collar of his shirt and nodded in approval. “That’s more like it. Come, follow me. Remember that Quest I told you about? I found a Party that wanted to do it, and they want to hire you.”
Alex went down the stairs, and the clatter of voices called his attention. The Guild was full, and every table had at least four people drinking or eating. Although some of them were not complete people, that is. Half-humans with tails and ears resembling an animal of a similar species on Earth, or Humans from the waist to the head with an animal’s lower half in some cases. There were Dog-kind, Cat-kind, Snake-kind and Eagle-kind everywhere, mingling with the Humans. From his previous visits, Alex recognised some of them, and there were even some Parties of Adventurers that he easily recognised from their uniforms because they had hired him on previous Quests.
As Alex walked across the big room, several of them greeted him, and invited to join a couple of tables, which he refused with a smile, because he had a meeting to attend.
Shinatobe frowned at one Elfian girl who hugged Alex before rushing to her table again to join her group, and Shinatobe almost blew up when a young Fairy flew to him and hugged him until the ceiling. Shinatobe threw an empty cup at her head, and the Fairy immediately landed with Alex, making a deep bow to her, apologising profusely while Shinatobe was slapping her head.
While Alex grabbed Shinatobe and took her away, the Adventurers that saw what happened kept on laughing.
Shinatobe got free from Alex by shaking her arms and feet. He let her go, and she jumped to grab his ear and pulled it. “Stop messing around with every woman you see, will you? You are making me so mad!”
“Ouch! I did nothing! I was just walking! It is not my fault if I am so cute and lovable!”
Shinatobe slapped his head a few times and pointed to a table in the corner, and Alex saw some people that he easily recognized and some new ones.
Alex followed her, wondering why she decided on that Party. When they were near the table, James Macdonald got up with a smile. “Here comes our favourite rental Hero! I am glad to see you again, Mister Alex!”
Alex smiled and tried to sit on the empty chair that the Fairy Wenammy quickly brought for him, but Shinatobe sat on it and frowned at her. Wenammy frowned back, and the Mermaid Anika Wright ran from the table and brought another chair for Alex, that she placed next to the angry-looking Shinatobe. Anika sat in her chair and remained silent, trying to disguise her nervousness. Wenammy stared at the little girl in front of her, and Shinatobe warned her with a cold voice, “Unless you want to be stranded on the ground forever because I took off your wings, it’s better if you don’t annoy me, you overgrown butterfly!”
Wenammy almost spat in anger, “Calling butterfly to a Fairy is an unforgivable insult, you little…”
Anika Wright jumped to the unaware Fairy and covered her mouth with both hands, stopping her from insulting the disguised form of the Great Spirit of the Wind. She eagerly begged Shinatobe, “I am truly sorry for this. She is a little stupid, and she really doesn’t know how to act accordingly! Please forgive her on my behalf!”
Shinatobe intertwined her fingers and leaned back. She slowly nodded without averting her eyes from the Fairy that was trying to get free. “Only this time, and because you asked so politely, Anika. But if she annoys me again, I will take off her wings and shove them up her butt.”
Wenammy kept on fighting to get free and was stretching her arms, trying to catch Shinatobe. Then she stopped because a powerful strike on the back of her neck knocked her out. Everyone looked up at Sarutahiko Okami, a tall and slender woman with long green hair that framed her green eyes and always-mocking expression, enormous breasts that were trying to get out from under her tight blouse, and muscular thighs inside short trousers, which alerted anyone that looked at her that she was tremendously dangerous.
She spoke as she sat in front of Alex and everyone felt the floor trembling under their feet. “I don’t know what all the fuss was about, and I really don’t care, but no one may squeeze Shinatobe’s neck except me. Hello, my dear Alex, did you miss me?”
Alex Brim made a big smile. “I didn’t know you were back, Okami. How was your trip?”
“See for yourself. This big man right here is Suijin. I talked about you a lot, and he wanted to meet you. I may have told him a little too much. One could say I bragged a lot, but I hope you forgive me for that because I brought him.”
Alex heard the young blonde boy on the left side of Shinatobe saying, “I don’t understand why you would brag about him! He doesn’t look that much to me! In fact, I think he…”
A strong slap echoed in the room, and the young boy fell on the floor, and Shinatobe kicked his stomach. A knee on his head sent him rolling on the floor until he hit his back on the feet of a table. Shinatobe went to him and dragged him along the floor by his hair, throwing him at Alex’s feet. She grabbed a fork from the table and pressed it against his neck as she kneeled next to him. Shinatobe spoke, and the entire Guild went cold a few degrees. “Introduce yourself and apologise, or you will die right here and now, you stupid brat!”
He glared at Shinatobe with veins popping on his temples, and she pressed the fork some more. She approached his ear and whispered, “I will kill you without thinking twice, and I won’t have any remorse. I won’t repeat myself…”
The boy slowly turned his head to Alex. “I am Kagu-tsuchi. I am sorry for my rudeness.”
Shinatobe pressed the fork, and a drop of blood came from his neck. Alex could swear he saw daggers coming from her eyes when he heard her. “It won’t happen again, right?”
“No, it will never happen again…”
Alex slowly reached his hand out to Shinatobe and took the fork away. He stared at the angry girl and tried to calm her down. “Let him go, Shinatobe, it’s enough. Thanks for your concern, but I guess he now knows how to act near me, right, Kagu?”
Kagu-tsuchi frowned, annoyed by the carefree way that mere Human addressed him. Shinatobe got up and slapped the surprised boy again. He rubbed his cheek while staring at the floor, and she gave him one last warning. “If you ever look at Alex weirdly or say something that I don’t like, I will give you such a beating that not even your mother will recognise you! If he gets in danger because you were too slow to react, or you devise some kind of plan to take revenge, I will slice you into tiny pieces and feed you to the Goblins!”
She then said one sentence that made Kagu-tsuchi and Sarutahiko Okami look at her in surprise, with the realisation of what her words meant. “I swear by the wind that I will end your miserable existence in this World, if you don’t do as I say!”