8:17 PM
“I’ll go take Lili back to her home.”
“Alright, see ya back home Sora.” Nox takes her to leave.
Walking through the streets carrying Lili, he had many eyes on him, but as soon as he entered Daedalus Street, several of them left except a few.
“Oi One-eye!” Cirrus stopped and looked to find some thug-looking people.
“Hand the girl over. She’s part of our Familia!” said one of them.
“No,” he said, putting a magic item from the shadows of his sleeves on Lili.
“You sure about that One-eye…” they surrounded Cirrus. “You really wanna mess with some adventures?”
“Tell me why should I? As far as I know, you are some street urchins trying to sell a child, you can’t be doing it in the name of Penia since if it was, she would beat you black and blue so…” Cirrus gave a sharp glare to the leader of the group. “Leave.”
“!!” he jumped back from the glare. “W-were from the Soma Familia! and there’s been a change in leadership! So hand us our Familia member!” he shouted.
“… A change in leadership, huh? Was it Zanis Lustra? I heard since he took charge when he became level 2, the Familia as a whole has gotten more… organized, shall we say. In all honesty, it's far better than having so many of your Familia desperately looking for money, buuut seeing you lot here I guess some things don’t change.”
“So you know the goings on in the Familia, huh?”
“No, just hearsay.”
“Oh? Then how about what we are going to do to you if you don’t hand-!!”
As they were talking, Cirrus made a run for it escaping into the labyrinth construction that is Daedalus Street.
“Shit!! Go after him!!”
They all chase Cirrus through Daedalus, leading them deeper and deeper into the streets until eventually heading into a dead end in the sewers with only the moonlight illuminating the wet and smelly area.
“Huff! Huff! Got you now, you piece of shit!” said the leader.
“Mmm… I can say the same for you. You did a good job following me here.”
“What makes you think you’re the one leading the charge, huh? We caught you at a dead end!!” said one of the Soma thugs.
“I knew you were thugs, but I thought you at least were street smart? I mean, you can see the obvious difference between us, right?”
“Huff! Huff! What the hell are you--“
“J-Johnny! T-t-t-the guy is not even winded!” said one of them.
“!?”
“Congratulations! You were the observant of the bunch! Sadly, you're with these thugs.”
“S-so what!” they draw their weapons. “We’ll kill you and pocket everything on you!”
“… Is that so? It’s a shame then.”
As a bundle of clouds covers the moon, it covers the area in which they were in pitch black darkness.
“Get--!!”
Smack!
Bam!
Smack!
Sounds of fighting filled the leader’s head until.
Smack!
He was dealt with as well.
9 PM.
Cirrus arrives at Lili's home and puts her to bed right after he takes back the magic item.
“How handy, eliminating sound and smell.” He covered her and left.
Walking back home, Cirrus touches the earrings again.
‘It’s cool to the touch… odd… I wonder what magic or curse it has… hmm, I should have Circe or Fels look into it…’
“Haa… what I would give for healing magic that can heal anything! Bump! Oh, sorry, kid.”
Cirrus looks down to see a rather dirty-looking child with dirty silver hair and purple eyes wearing rags and holding a bag made of worn-out cloth.
“S-s-sorry sir… um, would you like to buy a potion?” she gets out a very dirty-looking potion that has unknown stuff inside.
“Hmmm…” Cirrus picks it up and looks at it. “Bottle is clean, but what’s with the flakes inside?”
“T-there apples! M-my mom said an apple helps keeps you healthy.”
Cirrus could see the look in her eyes. She was alone.
“… Do you wanna be a healer?”
“Y-yes! But no one is willing to accept me…” she touches her ragged clothes.
“… I see well, then you made this potion on your own with scrape?”
“Y-yes… my mother taught me before um…”
“Interesting… so you are not in a Familia?”
“N-no, sir.”
“Hmmm…” Cirrus pulls out a small note and pen. He writes something on the paper and hands it to her. “Here, hand this to Dian Cecht. You know that white building in the north?”
“Y-yes!”
“That’s where he is. Hand him the note, and if he says no, show him the potion alright.”
“U-umm… I don’t know what--“
Before she could say anything else, Cirrus had already left.
“Mmm…” she looks at the paper and sighs. “Better than nothing, I guess.”
9:47 AM.
Cirrus returns home.
“Mmm…” Cirrus sits at his desk thinking with a pen and paper.
“What are you writing?” asked Nox.
“An invitation.”
“Oh?” she turns into a bird and lands on his head. ‘Is it to--‘
“Yes to Ai, I’m finally going to cash in that deal we made.”
‘Mmmm…’ a grin forms on her owl face. ‘Hurry and finish it. It’s almost time for me to sleep. Make it simple and direct.’
“Hm. So there is no misinterpretation, alright.”
He quickly writes it and hands it to Nox, and she flew off to deliver it.
“Now the earring. I wonder if I can—click! Remove it… seems like a rather odd item… I’ll need to really have it looked at.”
He eats dinner and works on stuff well into the night and takes a shower.
‘How long does it take to deliver a letter?’ Cirrus thought as he was still up waiting for Nox.
Back in Melen, around when Cirrus removed the earring.
“Mmm… What an interesting way you decided to live.” Said Hera, looking at the feed. “I felt sorry for those thugs. They’ll never leave Daedalus now.” She gets up to get a drink. “But to think you would fall for that Renard, she pretty… milky-white skin, good bust, hips, hair as white as snow along with fox ears… hmmm well, I hope she likes the matching earring.”
In the Susanoo Familia’s home, Ai was taking a bath.
“Huuuuh… what a long day…” she looked at the finger that was burned by the shell again. “… Why was it hot? He said it must be a curse or something… hmm I’m sure he can take care of it.” she let go of her thoughts and enjoyed the warm bath when she felt something hard in her hand.
“Hm?”
She lifted her hand to find a blue conch similar to Cirrus’.
“…” she examined it to find it looked exactly like Cirrus’ except blue. She was going to put it somewhere, but the thought of having matching earrings was thought she wanted to entertain longer.
‘Wearing it once shouldn’t be anything serious! I see Kushida wear earring plenty of times before!’
She got the earring and:
Click!
She looked into the water's reflection to find it matched well with her hair.
“Hmm… but how to hide it…” she messes with her hair and found putting it to the right hides it very well. “Hm! it looks pretty!”
10:37 PM
Ai gets out of the bath and hides the earring with her hair. When she got to her room, she found Nox waiting for her.
“Nox? What are--”
Nox turned back and handed her the invitation.
“I have been waiting here for you to come! Here.”
Ai gets it.
“What is--“
“Read it and give me your yes.”
“?” Ai opens it and reads it. “Oh.” her face turns red.
“That’s a yes then, right?”
Ai nods.
“Y-yes…”
“Fufu what a cute expression, Cirrus it’s done.”
In a flash, she was gone.
Ai simply looks out into space for a second before getting into bed. Her eyes were wide open.
She was so taken aback she didn’t realize the soft whispers coming from the earring.
Murmur! Murmur!
…
…….
………. Goddess…… yukata……. confess……. Ai….
She would eventually fall asleep without realizing it.
Back in Melen.
“How cute… she makes the cutest of expressions,” Hera said, drinking a glass of wine.
Hmm, I only hope its mild influence and not full blown trying to brainwash the girl, their romance is well on its way there's no reason for her to really involve herself.
“What are you righting?” asked Nox.
Writing
Oh Yandere Ai incoming then?
I didn't plan on going that far. I thought on how Hera would be but from what other characters such as Loki, Hermes, Freya, and Alfia, Hera is a Yandere who's marriage was a sham. I had a bit of a hard time thinking on how to write her but kinda landed on her learning her own behaviors has driven everyone away from her and learned to be better from it. Her old tendency are still there but more tempered I should say, unless Zeus is involved in which case f*cking run.