No Need For A Core?

Kazue fretted as she paced in her deepest room. It wasn’t supposed to be like this! The Lady had said she was going to be reborn someplace where she could know peace. And, well, that had been true enough at first. And she’d been able to make some cute bunnies! But then that woman in the yellow and blue dress had shown up and started messing around.

The kitsune pulled her tail forward and chewed nervously on the tip for a while before realizing what she was doing and dropped it, letting the reddish fluff fall back behind her. She’d never been able to break that habit during her first life, so it was probably just as well that her default was mostly human-like, since her teeth weren’t as sharp as the more fox-like members of her clan. Though, she contemplated, perhaps the sharp nip would have been a firm reminder to stop. She sighed and returned to her original musings.

At least dropping the woman through the trap door seemed to have counted as chasing her out of her territory, which apparently gave her more energy? The weird little floating book familiar that Lady Mericume had given her was showing her some options she had, and it felt like she sort of knew them already, but seeing them written down like that made those feelings make more sense. But she really hoped she hadn’t killed the intruder. Kazue had just panicked a little, she'd read and listened to too many stories about evil villains trying to enslave nexus cores and other magical creatures. Of course, the versions she read in those books she used to trade with the other shrine maidens tended to get a little more interesting when it came to the 'romance' part of the story, especially when there were 'villains' involved!

But when Kazue had calmed down, she’d realized that the woman had mostly just been interested in the bunnies, and had even been kind of gentle when Kazue had ordered all of the bunnies to mob her and force her to trip and fall down the trapdoor Kazue had set behind the woman. The book seemed to mean well, but thinking about it, the options it gave had just encouraged her to attack with monsters and traps. The former kitsune, now a forlorn land spirit, wasn’t sure that was the sort of spiritual nexus she wanted to be.

“Eeep!” Kazue felt that weird sensation of someone entering her territory, only it was worse this time because the vibrations weren't centered on the cave entrance, they were right below the trap door instead! Wait, how did that work, why did it feel weirder to have someone coming in from the wrong entrance? Then she saw the woman who had been here before, but her aura was surging with energy and there was now random mana being flung off into her territory. It looked like more energy than the woman should be able to hold.

“Sorry about this, kind of in a bad situation here. Coming through!”

'No no no, don’t do that!' Kazue thought, and flinched as she saw the woman punch through the trap door, sending shards of stone flying into the ceiling of the cave. Then she let out a breath as she realized that it didn’t hurt. Well, that was good at least. But what was the woman doing back here? Er, at least she wasn’t dead, but was she here to take vengeance?

Kazue watched nervously through her core's senses as the intruder leapt out of the hole. Her, um, ‘avatar’, as her little magic book familiar called it, couldn’t see what was going on; there were a few corners between them, but Kazue had found she could ‘look’ anywhere that was part of her territory, which was sort of her body if her core was her brain. That was still so weird to her, and if she thought about it too much she could tell that the gold crystal sitting in a cage on a pedestal in this back room was her actual ‘self’ but that was just too weird.

Wait, her intruder! Kazue refocused on the intruder, having missed the woman saying something while Kazue's thoughts wandered. Something about an apology and gift? There was a sudden wave of distilled mana, and it made her briefly dizzy. Oh, that was nice, kind of like having some wine. But she’d always been a bit of a lightweight, and the others never let her have much. And that brought back unpleasant memories, so Kazue turned her attention back to her … er, guest?

She seemed to have brought Kazue a gift; that makes her a guest, right? Oh, rules of hospitality! Um, oh, that was weird; those rules were custom and sometimes mortal laws, but she felt something resonate when she recognized the woman as a guest. Was she bound by hospitality rules the way fey were?

That was when she noticed another part of the gift as her core analyzed a black hair the woman had dropped. It left Kazue rather puzzled; how had she come into possession of a nine-tail's hair?

But before Kazue could spend much time thinking about that, her guest started speaking again.

“This is probably going to sound weird, but a very strange set of events took place down there, and now I basically have another person sharing my head space. He is, or, um, maybe was, a living core too. He says he’d like to say hello to you, and maybe share some pointers. But for him to talk to you, he needs me to touch your core. Which he understands is a delicate subject. So I’m going to walk slowly towards the back room, and see if you’ll let me get close when I get there.”

The little kitsune swished her tail back and forth thoughtfully, her ears twitching. The idea made her nervous; she didn’t need her little book to tell her that letting someone near her core was potentially dangerous. But the woman had been nice as well as having given her gifts of sorts, even after Kazue had dropped her down a pit that, curiously, went down far deeper than the limits of her territory. As to the truth of this woman's story that she was carrying around another soul, well ... she was leaking a lot more energy than she had originally, and her aura was lit up with way too many patterns. Also, it wasn't like Kazue's own situation was normal, so she was hardly in the position to be too incredulous. Kazue nervously had all the rabbits clear a path, standing on either side of the corridors while the woman walked past.

She still hadn’t made her decision when the woman reached the innermost chamber and stopped with surprise at seeing Kazue. Well, Kazue’s avatar at least. “Um, Hi! I’m Kazue! Sorry about earlier with the pit trap, I admit, I panicked," Kazue shot an annoyed look at the book-like construct floating near her, "and my book didn’t really help.”

“Greetings to you Kazue, I am Moriko.” came the reply, as Moriko bowed to the kitsune. This prompted Kazue to remember her manners and return the greeting bow hastily. “My friend is Mordecai. He’d like to introduce himself to you, but needs the …” Her words trailed off and her eyes unfocused for a moment as if listening to something. “The matrix of your core to run his energy pattern through to create an avatar. He says there will be some more leakage as well, so you’ll get something out of it.”

“Um,” Kazue glanced at her book, which flipped through several pages as it searched, and ended with a page that said ‘It may be possible’. As usual, the useless thing had no opinion on the matter, it just spat out cold answers and boring descriptions.

“Urg, fine. But I’m watching you!” She glared and tried to look as menacing as she could. Moriko’s expression didn’t give away much, but Kazue was disgruntled by the distinct impression that Moriko found her display amusing. Maybe even cute.

Kazue met her at the pedestal, moving restlessly with nerves and whipping her tail. Her guest moved slowly, like she was trying to not frighten a wild animal, which was fair because Kazue felt like one. She knew she had some spiritual nexus instincts now, this seemed to be one of them. Moriko slid her left hand through the bars of the cage and very gently laid it on the golden core within. A ring of purple crystal adorned that hand, and Kazue could feel another presence, partly through the ring and partly from the contact with Moriko’s skin.

“Can he begin?”

Kazue yelped briefly, so distracted by the sensation of having her core touched that she’d almost forgotten the woman was actually there. “Oh, yeah, um, I guess.” She took a breath. This was her territory dammit, she was supposed to be in charge. “I mean, yes, you may go ahead.”

Oh, that tingled. She felt the energy flow through her center, and something else too, a contact and awareness that slid over her soul in an almost intimate manner. Kazue could feel herself blushing at the sensation and the awareness that this person had just seen her more truly than anyone but her goddess had.

Not that seeing and understanding were the same thing, a traitorous part of her mind whispered. How much attention had her goddess paid to who Kazue was as a person?

Purple motes of energy coalesced slowly into the figure of a man with dark, purplish-black hair and golden eyes, wearing a simple black shirt, pants, and boots. "Now he wears a shirt," Moriko muttered.

The man bowed to her politely. “A pleasure to meet you Kazue. As my soul-bound companion said earlier, my name is Mordecai.”

Kazue returned her second guest's greeting bow, though she was briefly distracted when she noticed that Moriko was looking at Mordecai with an amused expression. She refocused her thoughts on Mordecai and said, “Hi, nice to meet you too. Um, she said you were also a spiritual nexus? How did this happen? I mean, you being in her head and not in a nexus core and stuff.”

Mordecai smiled and said, “Well, perhaps I can tell you all the details another time, but in an even shorter version than I told Moriko: a long time ago someone did something unforgivable and very personal to me, rendering me mad with anger and grief. I took my revenge, but at great cost to both me and to others swept up in the conflict. Even after that, my rage was not satiated, although I could now refrain from acting on it."

She felt a little bemused by the contrast of the story he was telling and the gentle demeanor Kazue currently saw, but Mordecai was not done yet.

"This also left a lot of other people shocked and horrified by my actions, and I recognized that they were right. So I let them seal me away and I went to sleep. Moriko accidentally woke me when you practically dropped her on my head, but the seals were still there. This was the only way I could guarantee that I could get us both out. I didn’t feel like dying and this was my only other option. Moriko was kind enough to agree to help me which meant I could also help her. But now I am curious about you. Your nexus core is too young and small for you to have even an internal avatar; yet here you stand. And you have a strange familiar too. How did this come about?”

“Oh.” Kazue felt her ears and tail droop, but then gathered herself together again, the words tumbling out of her mouth. “So, um, I don’t want to talk about the details, but I died, and my goddess took pity on me, and she said she could reincarnate me where I would find a rightful peace, or something close to that.” She so didn’t want to talk about how she had died. She didn’t even remember it exactly, but she remembered enough embarrassing details as it was.

Mordecai was looking at her thoughtfully, and it made her ears itch. She couldn’t stop from twitching them and frowned up at him while she rubbed an ear. “What‽"

“Sorry, I just had a glimmer of an idea,” he replied

"Really?" Moriko asked dryly, then laughed and shook her head. "Well, go on, I think I see where this is going."

Mordecai glanced at Moriko with a somewhat embarrassed smile before turning back to Kazue. “Alright, the two of you tell me if I am wrong about any of this. Moriko, as I said before, I don’t think we can ever be fully separated, but I think you wouldn’t mind if I was not so directly in your head, and I would like to be able to give you some semblance of privacy. Kazue, I think you’d like to both have some company and have someone teach you the ropes.”

Kazue nodded in agreement, and could see Moriko making a gesture of acknowledgment. “Does that mean you could stay and teach me how to be a spiritual nexus? Or, I mean, I already am one, but be a better one?”

“I think so, sort of. So, we’re holding onto more energy than we can keep. I was going to give the overflow to you in small bits anyway, to give a new nexus core a helping hand. But if you’ll allow it, I could do something different.”

She noted that he seemed to be getting around to the point slowly, which made her wary of what the bad part of this might be.

Mordecai continued and said, “I had to attach my soul to Moriko's in order to transfer myself into her. But, if you are both willing, I think I can use that technique on you, Kazue, which would integrate me as part of your nexus core and let me construct a permanent avatar here. But there are two caveats to this.”

Attaching his soul to hers? That idea made Kazue nervous, though the memory of his mind brushing across hers added a certain flavor to that nervousness.

“First, I can’t undo this. I mean, maybe eventually I could separate myself enough to create a new core and territory nearby, but we’d still be linked at the level of our souls, just like I would still be linked to Moriko, which will also link you to her. One way or another, you would be stuck with both of us being part of your life forever.”

Oh, well, she could see how that might be a problem. But maybe not horrible? They seemed like nice enough people, and she’d mostly gotten along with everyone she’d met.

“Second, um," Mordecai paused and coughed, "I'm not sure how to phrase this."

"Let me," Moriko said, looking amused still. "Kazue, Mordecai and I had sex, and there is a good chance we're going to do it again at some point if this works out. But that means you'll feel a bit of what we are feeling. That's what he meant earlier about me wanting a bit of privacy; I am not inclined to limit my choices when it comes to pleasure, so both of you would feel an echo of that. At least, according to what he told me earlier."

Oh.

Kazue felt like her face was on fire from how hard she was blushing as she looked between them rapidly. “I, ah, wait, if you two were, you know, then I'd know and feel it? That is, well, um, that's a lot to deal with." Though in truth, she was flushing with a touch more than just embarrassment. After all, it would just be the three of them here and anything could happen without anyone else around to know...

The sound of Mordecai's voice yanked her thoughts back to the real world. “That could be difficult to deal with, but I have to say that this is a limited-time offer. I can only bind our souls while I have the overflow of raw energy to do it with. We can't store the energy forever, so before too long, we'll need to release our hold on it which will give it to your core. And you won’t be able to give the energy back once we release it, so once Moriko and I drop below the level I need, it just will not be possible. If that happens, we can maybe stay a day or two but we'll need to move on and get Moriko home. But, unlike what happened between Moriko and I, this is not life or death. It’s an option, possibly an opportunity, but not so critically important.”

Kazue’s thoughts shifted suddenly, focusing on his situation. Mordecai didn’t actually have a body of his own, and maybe couldn’t even do anything unless Moriko helped. If she... ah, did this, he’d at least have a body, and he was used to being a spiritual nexus, and she was kind of lonely here, even with her bunny friends.

Another thought occurred to her then, and Kazue said, "Um, wait, so if we do this, that only binds you and me here, right? So Moriko will be able to go home and come back? Leaving just you and me here, alone?" Her heart was racing in a way that made her want to run away so that she could calm down, but there was no where to run to.

"Kazue," Mordecai said in a gentle voice, "look at me, please."

Oh, she was staring at the floor and chewing on her tail again. Kazue couldn't bring herself to look at them, but the way Mordecai spoke left her unable to refuse him either. So she looked up and let her gaze lock with his.

Once she was looking at him, he said, "I felt your reaction when I manifested my avatar through your core. If we join permanently, the experience will be a lot more thorough. All things considered, I am fairly certain that becoming more, mm, entangled is inevitable. So you should also decide if that's something you want in your future."

"Wait," Moriko said, shooting Mordecai a dubious look before examining Kazue. "I just thought of something. Kazue, you are very pretty, but, well, you seem kind of young too. How old are you?"

“I’m twenty.” Kazue couldn’t help but scowl at Moriko for asking the question, dropping her tail once again in embarrassment and just a bit of annoyance as well. Kazue's height had always been a sore spot for her, and Moriko had a fair amount of height on her too. It didn't help that she didn't seem to be able to act the way people expected adults to act. That was another reason she’d always had trouble finding a date, too many people treated her like a kid.

Moriko winced. "I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't mean to bring up a bad subject for you, but I just needed to make sure. For one thing, I don't think this guy had taken it into consideration at all."

"Not in the way you mean," Mordecai admitted, "but I did weigh what I saw of Kazue when our minds touched. Kazue, I can tell that this is a lot for you, but I also think that you are capable of making this decision. What do you want?"

What did she want? Images tumbled through her mind, brief glimpses of so many tawdry passages in the books she'd shared with her fellow shrine maidens. Kazue wanted many, many things. Too many things, and so many of them unreasonable or something that would be awful to actually experience, but part of her wanted to experience the romanticized version in her mind anyway.

Kazue's heart raced and her breath shortened into gasps as she started to panic, but she also couldn't look away from Mordecai's golden eyes. She was certain that he had a good idea of what was in her head and the idea terrified her, but she found no judgment in his gaze. Patience, understanding, maybe just a bit of amusement, those were what she saw in his expression. The panic slowly faded and was replaced by a sort of embarrassed comfort from knowing that he didn't think badly of her.

"Oh," Moriko said with a slight purr to her voice, "I think I understand now. There's a difference between a person being naive and inexperienced, and a person being innocent. You aren't really an innocent, are you Kazue?"

When Kazue looked toward Moriko, she found the other woman looking a bit predatory. Moriko raised a brow at her and said, "If you need some advice, I am a disciple of Sakiya, I can give you plenty of that. Or I can provide a bit of hands-on guidance, if that's your preference." Moriko dropped the teasing tone to add, "Mm, but first, I should be clear that I am fine with this option, it would frankly make my life easier. You'd both be voices in my head, but having the voices be more distant and less like a whisper in my ear would be good."

That did not help Kazue's concentration at all. More than a few of the stories she had read had another woman as the love interest.

But that also meant that Kazue was the only one left who needed to make a decision. She took a moment to think, trying to really consider all the consequences, but her brain kept looping back to how lonely she'd been.

After a little while Kazue gave up on trying to chase deep thoughts and just looked at each of them, considering what it would be like to have them in her life, especially having them living right here with her. She had to admit, Mordecai was probably right. It was impossible to imagine that scenario lasting long without wanting to experience something more from them. Either or both of them.

But what if she was wrong about who they were? What if Kazue wound up hating the people she was bound to? It was sort of like an arranged marriage, which could work out well but could also turn out bad.

But if she didn’t, they were going to have to travel to find Mordecai a different way to have a body. Even if they visited, she’d still be alone a lot, and if other people came, would they be as nice as these two had been? If she accepted, then this would be their home too. Or at least, a home for Moriko, Kazue thought, reflecting on Moriko's words ruefully. Kazue wasn’t sure how that was going to work out at all.

Eventually, she realized that she just didn’t really know enough to make a well informed decision. Saying yes would be a gamble, but the last few weeks had also shown her what saying no would be like. And she didn’t care for being alone so much. Maybe she was just being a fool again, but this kitsune was going to gamble on a hope for happiness.

“Alright, I’m in.” Oh gods she was probably blushing down to her toes right now. She must look like one giant tomato. A giant, furry tomato she amended, after realizing that she'd started chewing on the tip of her tail again. “So... what do we do?” Kazue asked nervously.

Mordecai smiled with something like relief. “Thank you. I promise I will do my best to make you happy with this decision."

"And here I accepted a cursed ring to help you out, only to be spurned for a younger woman," Moriko said with a laugh. "Perverted ancient dungeon lech."

"A cursed ring?" Kazue asked.

"Only technically," Mordecai said defensively. "There's no negative affects, I just needed to be sure it couldn't be lost. It holds a lot of my memories. Without it, well, almost all the detailed memories of my earlier life would be gone."

Well, she could understand why that would be important enough to 'curse' that way. "Does that mean you'll be uncursing the ring now?" Kazue asked.

Mordecai sighed and shook his head. "No. I'm sorry Moriko, but I made it as powerful as I could, which means I do not have the power to undo it right now. In time, I can undo it, but it might take several years, depending on how fast we grow. As for what we need to do now, first, can you unmake the cage protecting your core? I can show you some better tricks for protecting it later."

Kazue did so, though her nerves jangled at the action. Mordecai smiled and said, "Now, if you will take my hand, and Moriko’s hand, then I can get us started. There is a chance that it will hurt a little, but I'm going to make this as gentle as I can.”

She paused and stared at him for a long moment. "Really? Did you listen to yourself?" Especially as he'd previously mentioned that it would be a more intense sensation than when he formed his avatar.

Moriko laughed and said, "Oh, it does sound like first night advice, doesn't it? Don't worry about it, I've noticed he's occasionally oblivious when he's focused. It took me a few tries to get his attention when I seduced him earlier."

Mordecai looked embarrassed as he realized the implications of his wording. "Ah, I apologize. That wasn't what I intended."

Kazue shook her head before taking each of their hands. "Let's just do this." She was nervous, maybe even afraid, and it was making her grumpy. This was a life changing decision, but she was so very tired of being alone, even after only two weeks. Kazue knew Lady Mericume had meant well, but loneliness was painful for her.

“Now," Mordecai said as he placed his other hand on her core, "think about forming a contract with each of us.” Her little book flipped open, showing her a page talking about contractors and the duties and responsibilities involved. Kazue just glanced at it before ignoring the information, it was clear that this was going to be different than a normal contract.

“Alright, I'm going to begin. Kazue, I need you to focus on keeping the contract offers open until I tell Moriko to accept hers."

Energy crackled and sparked as it began flowing over and through Kazue's avatar, then Mordecai's avatar, and finally into her core. She could feel him pooling the energy there while he also extended a thread of it along the connection leading back to Moriko. Her core was able to analyze the process as Mordecai carefully extracted his own soul from Moriko and drew it back to the pool of energy he held ready.

Which meant pulling his soul through her core, where her own soul resided. Feeling the spiritual energy around his soul mingle with her own was unlike anything she'd experienced before and for a moment she had to struggle with the urge to resist the intrusion.

But she caught a glimpse of something in his thoughts, a worry that he was trying to ignore. Mordecai was vulnerable right now, and Kazue held his life in her metaphorical hands. If a connection broke at the wrong moment, his soul would become unanchored and it might not be able to return to Moriko.

So she did her best to welcome him instead, inviting him into her home, and sort of into herself. Threads of mana began weaving between his soul and hers, and between his soul and the core, which began to shift and grow in response.

It was terrifying, but it also felt good to be so very aware of his mind next to hers. As Mordecai anchored himself more firmly Kazue could begin feeling Moriko's emotions as well; the tangle between Mordecai's soul and Moriko's was running right through Kazue's soul.

Part of her was certain that this should be painful, a wound of some type, but instead she felt fascinated to witness the tangle spread into her own soul, binding her to both of them, and both of them to her.

She would never be alone again. Relief and joy washed over Kazue as she heard Mordecai tell Moriko to accept the contract. It felt right to add that layer to their existing connections, even as a strange sensation began at the edge of her core. That pool of power Mordecai had gathered was being rapidly devoured to generate more crystal matrix, and the sensation built in strength as the process continued.

It reached a peak as that last of the energy was consumed, and the sudden cessation of that flow of power caused Kazue's knees to buckle. Mordecai and Moriko fell to their knees with her, all three of them gasping and slightly sweaty.

Kazue's eyes rose to her core on its pedestal; it had expanded, but not only that - its once pure golden color now had an area of purple crystal on one side, taking up about the amount of volume that her core had grown. No, that their core had grown. After all, he was a nexus core too; of course this was how it was going to work.

Kazue sat in a daze for a moment before Mordecai moved, bowing from his kneeling position to the both of them. “Thank you, truly. You have both given of yourselves, one first to save me, the other to then help give me more freedom in this world. You’ve trusted me, and I will do my best to ensure your trust was not unfounded."

She could feel the sincerity of his emotions over their link, along with gentle amusement from Moriko. "Wow," she said softly, "that's going to take some getting used to. But I think I am going to like it." Kazue smiled happily at the two of them. "Alright, well, what should we do now?" Several of her special rabbits were looking between the three of them with confusion. Well, 'their' rabbits now, she supposed.

"First," Mordecai said, "I think we should discuss Moriko's plans. I know you want to get home, but do you think you could wait a few days to help get things settled here? We truly could use a contractor's help with gathering nearby materials."

"Sure," Moriko said, "I can do that. If I decide I need to hurry, I can always run to Riverbridge instead of walk, but this shouldn't be long enough of a delay to start making anyone seriously worry."

Kazue's surprise traveled across their link, causing the two of them to look at her before she spoke. "Wait wait, did you say Riverbridge? As in Kuiccihan and the Azeria forest? Where are we and how far are we from the clan?"

Moriko was clearly just as surprised when she said, "Wait, you're from the Azeria clan? We're right up against the Raincatcher mountains, about half way between the clan and Riverbridge. Um, I followed a rabbit from the southern road, so I am not sure if we are quite within the official borders of Kuiccihan still; we might be in unclaimed territory."

Pure joy moved Kazue into action as she grabbed Moriko and kissed her. In the moment it took her to realize what she'd just done, Moriko had responded by pulling Kazue closer and returning the kiss with enthusiasm.

Warmth bloomed and spread from the center of Kazue's body, but it was also entangled with the desire she felt from Moriko and Kazue couldn't clearly tell which emotions were hers and which were Moriko's.

She started to panic and Moriko immediately stopped, pulling far enough away to create some space but touching still, just enough to make sure Kazue didn't lose her balance. "Are you alright?" Moriko asked gently. "I didn't mean to scare you."

The panic subsided and was quickly replaced with embarrassment. "Yeah, um, I'm sorry, it wasn't that, I just, um, couldn't tell our feelings apart and that was what was scary."

"That's going to be complicated," Mordecai said, and Kazue blinked as she turned to refocus on him. "Our emotions are going to be reflected in each other to some extent, so both of you are going to want to learn to control and filter what you send and receive. It will never completely mute the connection, but mitigating it is important. Most of the time." Now he gave Kazue a playfully wicked smile. "At other times however..."

Kazue felt a slow build of emotions from him. No, it was a slow release of his control, and she could feel his desires as much as she had felt Moriko's. Only, his were more distinctly layered; the desire to emotionally bond, the physical desire of pleasure, and a gentle desire to 'play' with her and make a game out of teaching her.

When he withdrew from the connection and filtered his emotions once more, Kazue bit her lip to keep from whimpering. She'd been briefly lost in those emotions and had wanted to be the toy he played with.

Bother.

She wasn't so completely inexperienced by choice, Kazue had been well aware of her fantasies and desires for a long time, but her emotions and thoughts always got too tangled up and intense for her to cope with. Now there were these two people here who both clearly returned her desire in their own way and who would immediately know if her thoughts wandered in a certain direction.

Wasn't that ever so convenient. "Oh stars and moons above, I am an idiot," Kazue said, nearly crying, but she was quick to wave them off when she felt their concern rising. "No, no, I did it to myself. Now I can't escape you or my emotions. There's no running off to get away when things get all tangled up and confusing and scary."

Kazue might not be a full priestess, but a shrine maiden's training did include the start of becoming one. She'd just used some of that taught insight to figure out the way that part of her mind had 'betrayed' the rest of herself.

Oh no, she's trapped here with two hot peoples who wanted to do 'unspeakable' things to her while she experienced their pleasure as well as her own, oh the horror. Now she wanted to giggle, but was afraid that it would come out hysterical.

She took a deep, slow breath to regain control of herself and then looked back up at the other two. "It's alright, I've got that sorted, sort of. Just give me some time and distance about that sort of stuff, please?" Not that all of her wanted them to, it would be so easy to just surrender if one of them pushed even a little.

But no, they were both well behaved. Mordecai already had his connection under control and Kazue could feel Moriko rapidly doing the same. "Wait, how are you learning to do that so fast? That's not fair!"

Moriko laughed and shook her head. "It's not that different from the training I already have. I am a disciple of Sakiya after all; controlling the expression of your desires is an important step in ensuring that your desires do not rule you. If you think you need some training there, I will be happy to help."

Oh, that gave her goosebumps. But no, that wasn't the only reason she was feeling goosebumps, her core was feeling something too, and she could tell Mordecai had sensed the same thing.

"Blood and shadows," Mordecai swore, "what now?"