The Red Hand

Chapter 78 – A Tea Party, and Imp’s Story.

"Mama!" Alice rubbed her face against Akagi. "I missed you so much!" This was typical behavior between Akagi and Alice and was by this point something the Demon had come to enjoy. Akagi had long given up on trying to change Alice's mind and figured that it couldn't hurt to act as the girl's mother. She resisted quite heavily at first, but hearing about Alice's tragic history and knowing who caused this whole mess changed her mind. Plus, Alice was extremely cute and Akagi had a soft spot for the girl.

The tea party was planned for a time at which Kana was still at school. Akagi didn't want her to meet Alice just yet, so they could enjoy some time together without worrying about interruptions. She planned on introducing her eventually, but not until Libra was dealt with and things calmed down.

"Yes, and I missed you too little one." Akagi gave Alice a big hug. The two held regular tea parties at Akagi's estate since she'd gotten it. After Hishya knocked her out at Hassan, Akagi had opted to hide the young girl in a far-off corner of the game. Hishya's "betrayal" of the girl had shaken her to her core and caused her fragile mind to slip into partial madness. Naturally, the dragon had come to regret her actions, but that didn't really matter to Alice. To her, Hishya was the "Bad Lady" who "Tried to kill Mama." There was a little bit more to this than just that, but it was an adequate simplification. Akagi had asked her to be nice to Hishya as long as the dragon was nice to her, which Alice reluctantly agreed to.

"Don't be rude. Say hello to our guest too." Akagi pointed at the red-skinned woman sitting across from them. Imp was also here, though less for the tea and more because she was working with Akagi on some experimental weapons. However, she did enjoy seeing Alice, both in game and in the real world.

"Hello, Alice." Imp smiled as she drank her tea. Imp was an extremely odd and eccentric person. Not only was she having tea with Akagi, an already dangerous individual, but a member of a terrorist organization she was tasked with defeating was here too! Imp didn't really care about any of that though. She was much more interested in building and tinkering, and Akagi was her favorite partner in crime in this respect. The two had crafted countless magical items, and together they'd come up with insane ideas, both in and out of the game. Currently, Imp was here to see how her modified Muskets were working for Chloe's clan.

"He-hewwo. Imp." Alice snuggled up to Akagi but gave a greeting. Albeit, after fumbling a bit. She'd seen Imp plenty of times, but was still a bit shy.

"Cute-Adorable." Imp smiled. "Want treat-snack?" She reached into her storage and pulled out a small cookie shaped like a rabbit. This instantly got the young girl's attention. She looked at Akagi, who nodded and slowly approached Imp's outstretched hand. Imp held the cookie, and after taking a moment to sniff it, Alice chomped into it and ripped it from Imp's hand before devouring it like a squirrel. The sight of the girl happily munching away at the cookie with puffed-out cheeks made both women laugh.

Alice didn't really appreciate being laughed at and pouted turning away from Akagi. Not being one to give in easily, Akagi upped the stakes.

"Imp. Don't you think it's even cuter when she does something like that?" Akagi winked at her.

"Mmhmm." Imp nodded in agreement.

"Maybe we should pick on her a bit more, might get some funny reactions out of it." Akagi chuckled.

Alice stayed facing the other direction and puffed out her cheeks. "Hmpf." she scoffed, refusing to turn around.

Akagi thought for a moment before a grin appeared on her lips. "Ok then, if your gonna be like that." She got up quickly and wrapped her arms around the pouting girl. "Then you won't mind if I tickle you until you give in!" Alice panicked, sensing grave danger, but it was too late as Akagi initiated Operation Tickle Monster.

*TICKLE* *TICKLE* *TICKLE* *TICKLE*

The young girl was no match for Akagi, who'd had ample experience doing this to Kana, and was quickly turned into a blubbering mess as she laughed uncontrollably from Akagi's ticking. Imp meanwhile was losing it as she watched Alice try to escape, to no avail.

After a few minutes, Alice was released, and she slumped over onto the ground, completely exhausted and unable to move.

"Mean Mama," Alice said this, but her smile indicated she had fun.

"Yes, Yes, I'm very mean." Akagi nodded. "Next time, perhaps I should force-feed her vegetables. What do you think, Imp?"

Imp shook her head vigorously. "Vegetable gross-nasty. No, make a girl eat! Evil Brussel sprouts...." It seems Akagi triggered a vegetable-related trauma as Imp began to mutter about boiled sprouts.

{I guess she has a bad history with the greens too.} Akagi chuckled internally.

"No vegetables..." Alice said weakly.

After a few minutes, the three returned to their tea party.

"So how're your magical experiments going, Imp?" Akagi asked, sipping her coffee. "You've undoubtedly been up to something in that workshop they gave you. Should I expect magical nukes anytime soon?"

"Heh-heh." Imp grinned. "Magitech coming along-progressing. Many ideas, much explosions, such fun!" Imp proceeded to tell Akagi a bit about some of her projects. She was currently focused on combining magic with modern technology in such a manner that allowed for its use without being able to use magic. Akagi had given Imp a copy of Mizumi's explanation about magic circuits, which greatly assisted the mad scientist's work.

Imp was quite the peculiar character and was quite possibly the most eccentric of all players of FWO. She never wavered from her role-playing, was unrelenting in her pursuit of knowledge, and her desire for experimentation and crafting was borderline insane. However, she was actually quite a nice person under that strange exterior, and she got along relatively well with most other players. The fact that she was so good at what she did probably made others more willing to tolerate her eccentricities.

While Akagi wasn't as die-hard about crafting, she did enjoy experimenting and theorizing about new weapons and armor. In fact, her sword, World Breaker, was created by Imp in an attempt to duplicate an unobtainable Demonic sword described in the game's lore. While the blade was likely not as powerful as the one described in the writing, it was easily Imp's finest work. And many players were quite upset with the maniacal craftsmen when they found out she gave Akagi a blade that was nearly unbreakable and could cut through anything.

However, she was far too valuable to banish from the Assault Team, and they reluctantly allowed her to continue her work with Akagi. Whether Imp actually cared about escaping FWO was unknown, and she rarely spoke about her life before the game. It was general knowledge that Imp was an engineer. However, Akagi knew a little bit more. During their time in FWO, Imp had let slip that she worked for the government as a military contractor. Apparently, she was heavily involved in designing military hardware and was even a project lead. This meant that she was quite wealthy, and while she loved the work, it was killing her. The long hours, little time off, and general stress had taken a toll on her body. Couple that with the fact that she was nearly fifty years old and she was worried she might die of exhaustion before she retired. She never spoke of her family, and after leaving FWO, the identity of "returnees" was made public, meaning looking into her past was quite easy.

Imp was a childless widow. Her husband had perished during an accident at work when they were both twenty-seven years old. She'd never remarried and spent the time in between drowning herself in her work to stave off depression. VR games provided a fantastic outlet since she could act as an entirely different person, and that meant she could invest fully in role-play to escape reality. When she was trapped in FWO, Imp saw it as a blessing of sorts. She could continue doing what she loved while escaping the reality that awaited her should they clear the game. Her persona was originally a nod to a game series she and her husband played together, but after a while it just kind of stuck.

When she woke from FWO and realized she was still her Imp character, she decided to live a second life. Thus, she was no longer role-playing Imp but had become Imp, just as Rishia became Akagi. During one of their first meetings after escaping FWO, when Akagi queried her about her speech pattern, she admitted it felt hard, if not impossible, to return to normal after all these years. She could speak normally, but just as Akagi felt disgusted returning to her original body, Imp couldn't stand speaking normally. Whether this was something psychological or an effect of the magic used to transfer their powers was unknown, and neither really cared, as they had no intention of returning to the way things were. Imp was Imp, and Akagi was Akagi. As far as they were concerned, everything before FWO was the role-play, and the way they were now was their real selves.

What little family Imp did still have was not interested in her or her new lease on life. For obvious reasons, they would not accept her, and that suited her just fine. Due to her contacts in the Japanese Military and Government, she was offered a lucrative position using her skills and experience to help the country. She happily accepted, under the condition that she was not as overworked as she once was, and she was given full control over her projects and staff. Seeing little choice, the government agreed. Having the greatest craftsmen in FWO on their side was worth these small concessions.

"Mama?" Alice sat in Akagi's lap and looked up at her. "When will I get to see you?" She was referring to her real self which was locked within her soul. "It's sad seeing you locked up like that."

"Soon, my child. Soon." Akagi smiled. Imp and Alice were aware of the truth about Akagi, and both had seen what lay within her soul. Imp was more curious than anything and requested that Akagi allow her to run tests. While Alice was stupefied and entranced believing Akagi's true form to be beautiful and wondrous. "I have to take some precautions first, but it won't be much longer." Akagi was still wary about releasing the seals around her soul. She wasn't sure she had the mental fortitude to control herself with all that power and the instincts that came with it.

"I can't wait to see you, Mama!" Alice smiled as she hugged her.

"Takeover-conquer world?" Imp asked. "Possible-doable. Might be interesting-fun!" Imp laughed. Whether or not she was serious was hard to tell.

"It would be quite a pain to run an entire planet. Perhaps I would start with just Japan for now." Akagi chuckled. "How does that sound little one, would you like to be a real princess?"

"Un!" Alice nodded and had a big smile as she snuggled against Akagi. "Mama would make a great Empress! Everyone should see just how amazing you are!"

"Hishya could be royal pet." Imp decided to pick on Hishya a bit.

"Nah, royal mount." Akagi corrected. "Let's be nice and give her a bit of a higher position."

Akagi and Imp let out hardy laughs. The conversation had been mostly in jest. Akagi had no plans for world conquest, at present, but she never took anything off the table. She had already asked for her own country. So taking it one step further and conquering Japan, well for her, that would be a simple matter. Wouldn't it?