GxG 33
"Is she going to be ok? I don't think that people are supposed to turn that color." Kunou gently asked, worry tinging her voice.
"Yeah, she'll be fine. She just needs to work it though her system." I replied, dimming the lights before gently closing the bathroom door.
This whole mess started earlier today when Hana decided she was peckish for some natural energy for the first time this trip. I had already purified some natural energy in the area out of habit, so I didn't see anything wrong with her eating normally.
I forgot to factor in that Hana was not nearly as resistant as I am. The best I can tell is that all the natural energy around here is flavored heavily by Yggdrasil, in much the same way I flavored the energy around my base back in America, but to the level of a Primordial.
Unfortunately, this flavoring has kicked off a pretty strong immune response from Hana, marking this as the first time she has really gotten sick.
Both Kunou and I were pretty worked up when we noticed Hana burning up, but after I did some extensive scanning with Senjutsu and realized she would be fine, we calmed down.
Her turning purple was a nasty surprise, as that is a color that makes you think more hydra poison and less food poisoning. Thankfully it was just a quirk of her being a spirit more than anything.
Her floral markings glowing as she worked through her sickness was an interesting thing to note, and would be worth checking more in depth later for sure.
Now my Little Flower was lying on the bathroom floor, claiming the cold tiles felt nice. I set up a weak sound dampening formation for her to get better rest, but for now it was just a waiting game for her to get it out of her system.
"Guess our plans for tonight are shot, huh?" Kunou asked.
"Yeah, they are. I'm positive she is past the worst of it and will be fine once she wakes up, but I don't want to leave her alone." I replied with a shrug. We had a nice dinner lined up for the three of us tonight, but that isn't happening anymore.
"Then don't worry about it, we can go on a date another night. Why don't you call Rose for some more Magic stuff while I stay here and watch Hana." She offered.
"Is that ok? I feel like I've been ditching both of you a lot since we got here." It has been much more awkward living out of a hotel room than I expected. It seems I was spoiled in Kyoto with Yasaka letting me outsource childcare so easily.
"Half the reason we came here was so you could play with Magic, and Hana has no problem spending time with me either." Kunou rolled her eyes, but made a good point.
"As long as you two aren't feeling neglected I might just do that." I grabbed Kunou by the hips and gave her a quick peck to show my thanks, which she clearly liked based on the swishing of her tails.
Having a lover who also has touch as love language is very nice.
"I have stuff I wanted to do anyways, and staying back gives me some time to do that." Kunou explained as she grabbed her laptop out of her bag before getting cozy on her bed.
While she was doing that I texted Rose to ask if she was free to do something since my dinner plans fell through.
"Oh? Like what?"
"Mostly catching up with some friends and posting on my blog." She offhandedly replied before freezing.
"…you have a blog?" I asked as this was news to me.
"If you had asked 'you have friends?' I would have bitten you." Kunou bared her teeth to make her point.
"Kunou, you didn't let me meet your friends as they were 'thirsty hussies who only want one thing'." I deadpanned.
"Yeah, well, I also only wanted one thing and got it. Sucks to be them I guess." Kunou beamed without feeling any remorse from throwing her friends under the bus.
"Ouch, and I thought you loved me for my personality."
"Yep, I like your personality and you like my personalities. The perfect couple."
"Don't change the subject miss. You have a blog? What would you even write about?"
I genuinely don't have a clue what she could be writing about. She doesn't seem the type to write about travel or her feelings, but I don't really know what else a blog could be about.
Kunou froze for a moment before looking around shiftily.
"Y'know… lifestyle stuff."
Ah. There it is. There's the Kunou I know and love.
"Lifestyle." I let the word hang in the air.
"Lifestyle!" She nodded vigorously.
"You wouldn't happen to be posting about our sex life, would you?"
The me of last year would have probably been horrified of the very idea. Then I went to Japan and got the prudishness sucked out of me by two kitsune.
"…no?"
"Oh my god you are just like your mother." I barked a laugh. It was really too funny.
"You take that back!" Kunou seemed utterly scandalized at the insinuation.
"Kunou, your mother regularly goes to important meetings in only conjured illusion clothes to get her rocks off. You are both raging exhibitionists." I slowly explained.
"Oh yeah, you're right. Teehee." Kunou stuck her tongue out, trying to act cute. "You're not mad?"
"I mean it's a little weird but overall, I'd say its hot." I shrugged, "Can't enjoy a freaky girlfriend and then be mad when she's freaky. I trust you haven't actually done anything bad."
"Yeah, duh. I've been drilled in operational security since before I could walk. No names, locations, half the dates are scrambled, and I still do some serious numbers." Kunou listed off the things she did out of habit for her writing.
"Heh. Drilled." I giggled, causing Kunou to roll her eyes and whap me with a tail.
Our conversation was interrupted by my phone going off. A quick check showed it was Rose saying she was free for dinner. I was about to text something back when Kunou grabbed my phone out of my hand.
I watched as she read over what little conversation I had with Rose, before smiling and nodding to herself, clearly pleased with whatever she saw.
She then sent Rose one of the shirtless pics I had in my camera roll and told her to dress nice. I think that was one of the ones sent to Yasaka a few weeks ago.
Not to be vain but it had really good lighting.
"You're really trying to pimp me out, huh." I flopped on the foot end of the bed, exasperated with how far my girlfriend was taking this.
"No, of course not. Pimping you out implies exchanging your body for monetary gain. This is called creating diplomatic ties." Kunou beamed as she handed my phone back to me.
"And you think this is the best way to do it?" I questioned.
"Have you seen that chick in her suit? I want to bend that ass over in those tight dress pants. Combined with that super competent while also being ditzy thing she has going on, I don't know how you could possibly resist." Kunou explained slowly as if I was the stupid one here, clearly unable to understand some simple greatness.
Kunou's not wrong. It's a nice ass.
"Well, she opened the text and has been typing and deleting for the last minute." I said after checking for a response.
"Must be making some spelling mistakes typing with one hand." Kunou quipped back.
"You are incorrigible."
"You love me for it."
My phone distracted us once more with Rose asking 'How nice?'.
Kunou tried to dive for my phone, but I was onto her games now, and managed to twist my body to block her grabby hands.
It only took a moment to reply that she should wear 'high end casual' before I tucked my phone into my pocket.
Which I then had to lay on because someone isn't shy about reaching into my pockets otherwise.
Kunou, seeing that she had lost, lapsed into a pouty silence while lying on top of me.
I enjoyed the weight, but I had a question I was burning to ask ever since Kunou mentioned her blog.
"Hey Kunou."
"Yeah?"
"Does it feel like all we talk about is sex? Are we boring people?" I threw out my honest thoughts.
"I don't have a problem." Kunou quickly denied.
"…I never said you did." I slowly replied.
"Oh. What brought this on?" Kunou asked, not moving from on top of me.
"I never knew you had a blog. I don't really know your hobbies." In Kyoto Kunou was very busy with princess stuff, and back in America she spent a lot of time helping me with my projects. We did very little traditional dating stuff.
Kunou rolled her eyes and swatted me lightly.
"Of course you don't know them. I've never mentioned them before. That's how communication works." She explained.
"Ok, that makes sense. I still feel kinda bad though."
Kunou sighed and shuffled herself around so that she could cup her hands on my cheeks, staring straight into my eyes.
"The reason you don't know every single detail about me is because our relationship is still pretty new. Meaning, we are still in the honeymoon phase. AKA I don't want to talk about the intricacies of Japanese tea ceremony when you could be balls deep inside me instead."
My Fox's words were crude, but cut to the heart of the matter. I truly lucked out scoring such a babe.
"Did I ever tell you that you're smart and I love you."
"Yes, but in this case I'm using borrowed knowledge. You might have gotten the talk, but I got the presentations." Kunou explained with a distant look in her eyes. "Mama was certain to make sure I got a detailed explanation of both the physical and emotional sides of relationships. Something about our long lives needing actively managed relationships unless we plan on being one of those supernatural couples that only talk once every few decades."
Ah.
That sounds traumatizing while also extremely useful. Kitsune being seduction aligned spirits either made the whole thing better or much worse.
Probably both, knowing Yasaka.
The conversation continued like that, time flying without either of us really noticing.
I talked about how I shut myself away in the forest practising Senjutsu growing up, and didn't develop many hobbies that would be considered normal.
Kunou talked about how growing up with the expectations as the princess meant she had very little free time, and had to learn to enjoy activities that overlapped with her duties.
About how she actually hated tea ceremony at first, as the tea was bitter and she wanted to play, but it was one of the few things that allowed her to have one on one time with Yasaka when she was younger, so she grew to love it by association.
We both found it funny that we were almost workaholics, if you looked at it right.
[LINE BREAK]
We were so distracted that we were still cuddling on the bed when I felt Rose enter my sensing range.
I nearly jumped in panic, but Kunou just laughed me off and helped me pick something nice to wear.
She ended up picking some casual slacks and a button-up shirt with 'slutty cuffs'.
Her words, not mine.
The benefits of space expanded suitcases can never ever be understated. Carrying most of my closet with me at all times means I'm never dripless.
Kunou just finished buttoning my shirt when there was a knock on the door.
"Go get'em tiger!" Kunou cheered as she slapped my ass when I turned towards the door.
I gave her a stink eye but kept walking, opening the door once I was near it, revealing a blushing Valkyrie.
Rose was gorgeous. We agreed on 'high end causal', and she sure delivered.
A sweater, jeans, and some nice looking furred boots. Sounds simple, right?
These were clearly not crafted by mortal hands. So much so that I had to take a moment to enjoy the view.
The jeans wrapped her thighs perfectly, but they were merely the foil for her sweater. Only meant to draw the eyes from her well trained legs upwards.
The sweater was form fitting. A nice light pink knitted turtleneck. The way it hugged her upper body was type of thing poets wrote about. Skintight in a way I didn't know knitting could be.
The boob window brought it from a 10/10 to an 11/10. The hole meant solely to display Rose's cleavage line was more divine than that damn spear I still haven't figured out what to do with.
Am I developing a sweater fetish?
Kunou's wolf whistle broke our silent stare-off. It seems that Rose was as speechless as I was.
"Come in, Rose. You look beautiful." I quickly moved out of the way to make room for her so she wasn't standing in the hotel hallway for too long.
"Thank you. You look nice too." She replied, her eyes drifting towards my shirt cuffs before snapping back to my face.
Maybe Kunou was onto something? Do girls like cuffs?
The smug look on her face when I glanced back meant that I shouldn't encourage her either way.
"So do we have a plan or are we just winging it?" Rose asked.
She was clearly feeling awkward. Lots of fidgeting with her sweater and glances towards Kunou.
"I still have my reservation if we want dinner, or we can go somewhere more causal and chat." I offered, seeing her light up at the second option.
"Less formal please. I've had enough formal settings to last a lifetime sitting in on Lord Odin's meetings."
"Sounds great then. Kunou, call me if anything happens with Hana but I'll still be in range and I expect her to just sleep it off."
"Kay. You two have fun, make sure to wear protection." Kunou teased, causing Rose to squeak.
[LINE BREAK]
"When you said less formal I thought you meant a café or something. I wasn't expecting a pub." I said while looking around.
We were currently in a very Norse themed pub. Nothing overt but there was lots of subtle imagery that made sense if you knew the basics of the myths.
"I'm Norse. What do you expect?" Rose shrugged before taking a sip of her ale.
"Certainly not playing into stereotypes from an intelligent young woman."
Rose rolled her eyes. "It doesn't count as a stereotype if we've had actual riots when the taps run dry. I'm pretty sure einherjar are allergic to sobriety and the other Valkyries aren't much better." Rose complained. I wouldn't be surprised if she had to deal with the messes those drunks made when working with Odin.
"And you aren't counted in 'other Valkyries'?" I poked at her statement, lightly teasing her.
"In school I was too busy tinkering with magic to go to parties, and then right after graduation I got scooped up by Odin and was kept busy dealing with that." She admitted.
"So you could be a booze hound, you just never got the chance. Very important distinction." I smirked at her across the table, causing her to huff at me.
"Whatever. Lets talk about something more interesting. Like your monstrous improvement during our little sparring game." Rose changed the subject, but I was more than happy to get some more lessons out of the genius woman.
Merlinian Magic got one hell of a workout during that. Probably made more progress in that half our than all the rest of its solo grinding combined. All the new data from watching Rose cast combined with the practise multiplier the mote gives when a skill is being actively used meant my spellcasting shot up at lightspeed.
Of course, I needed to actually be able to see the spells Rose was casting for it to help, since my Mana Sense was nowhere near the fidelity needed to read a spell from a distance. Thankfully that's nothing that my normal Sense motes can't handle, since Rose was going out of her way to show the spell circle.
I have no doubt in my mind that there are ways to encrypt or outright hide spell circles. That seems like a pretty straightforward step in any magical arms race.
"I don't know what you want me to say. Until I got here I had been almost entirely self taught. That worked really well with Senjutsu and adjacent topics as they were all willpower and perception based. Magic needed a foundation that I simply didn't have." I explained my point of view.
"If you were able to improve that fast just because you finally got a real teacher, then you were talented from the start. Everyone learns Magic from a teacher. That's how Magic works, refined over generations. Even with all the standard secrecy and murder, Magic has been on a collective upwards trend for centuries." Rose explained in a slightly scholarly tone.
I had the feeling she knew a lot more than that, and had strong opinions on the subject, but was holding back to not overwhelm me with enthusiasm.
It was cute.
"Only centuries?" I questioned.
"The witch hunts did some serious damage." Rose replied somberly.
Ah, that makes sense.
"On a slightly less depressing topic, do you want to go over some spell theory? I have some questions on the topic, and I want to start learning how to craft and cast something more complex than a cantrip." I requested, causing Rose to light up in excitement.
So much excitement that she almost dropped her drink switching her seat to be next to mine to properly explain things.
"I would love to. Can you tell me some interesting things about being a Sage while we are at it?" She counter requested.
"I would enjoy that. Maybe an outsider's perspective on the art could give me some new ideas." I smiled at her as she pulled out a grimoire from her bag, almost knocking over my drink this time, a mead made from lesser demon bees found nesting on Yggdrasil.
The bag was also clearly space enhanced, but used a totally different method than my usual way.
I was itching to compare, but I still needed to brush up my Magic before I could get anything useful.
It didn't escape my notice that some of the other bar patrons were giving us odd looks, but when they noticed it was Rose most of them either morphed into understanding or distain.
It seemed she had a reputation.
Merlinian Magic was an interesting topic, and Rose was more than happy to explain it to be between sips of her drink. The complexity of even the lower levels of spells boggles my mind that someone was able to figure out any of this at all.
I guess there is a reason that it's named after its creator even after all these years.
Despite that fact that so far I haven't learned anything I couldn't do with Senjutsu or a well place Formation, the precision and repeatability of Magic is a huge draw to me.
So many of my earlier experiments would have been so much easier with properly controlled environments. Don't get me wrong, Formations kept my lab climate controlled better than the bleeding edge of mundane tech ever could, but there were small fluctuations inherent to the lifeforce basis that they ran on.
Fluctuations that simply aren't there in a properly casted spell.
Same spell circle, same casting process, same result.
It got me excited with all the possibilities for future experiments.
Hmm, its been a while since I made a new plant. Maybe apples for my next project? Use some Norse ideas, maybe a little sympathic connection with the Golden Apples? Something to chew on.
Rose must have noticed my wandering thoughts as she started tugging on my sleeve.
"You aren't even listening." She slightly slurred, leaning on my side to support herself.
What the hell woman? You haven't even had a full cup of ale. How lightweight do you have to be to already be getting tipsy?
"Sorry, I was thinking about combining Magic and Senjutsu to do some interesting things." I patted her on the head, and my words seemed to satisfy her.
"Oh! Like wha-"
"Look what we have here. Rossweisse actually left her room?" A sharp voice cut through whatever Rose was about to ask.
Is it me? Is there something about my face that screams 'interrupt my date!'? There has to be a god somewhere laughing their ass off while they pluck at my dating life.
This time was a gaggle of mean girl knockoffs instead of a younger master type like with Kunou.
First off, bullying people who use magic is just an insane idea to me. Why would you ever pick a meaningless fight with somebody who could snap, awaken some bloodline or inheritance or break their limits or whatever, and evaporate you.
I don't understand at all.
Rose has been an utter doll the entire time I've known her, so I was about speak up before I noticed the look in Rose's eye.
Methinks my date has words to say?
"What do you want, second place?" Rose addressed the girl who interrupted us before. It seemed to strike quite the nerve.
"Don't call me that. We graduated school years ago, how can you be so hung up on our rankings still?" Second Place hissed. Now that sounded like projection to me.
"Heh. You're still mad about it." Rose drunkenly giggled, which just caused the main girl to get mad while her hanger-ons started to look awkward.
"It shouldn't have mattered. I was more qualified for the position, but you somehow snagged it by crying to your grandma after it leaked that you were too useless to cast your family's magic." The girl sneered,
Ah. It seemed this was a longtime argument about Rose being Odin's assistant.
I'm not surprised that it's a desired position but damn its annoying to mess up my date like this. That was a rather interesting tidbit of knowledge about my esteemed Magic tutor though. A Magic prodigy can't cast certain Magic?
It seemed Rose had similar feelings as she scowled before slamming back the rest of her drink.
"You're just mad that you're still heroless." Rose shot back.
I didn't feel like it was that much of an insult, but it seemed to be more of a nuke than I thought based on the utterly scandalized look on the girl's face. Even her friends took some splash damage based on their slowly reddening faces.
"Me!? Rossweisse, you are literally famous for scaring off every guy you talk to when you start critiquing their magic on the first date." The girl fired back, crossing her arms in apparent victory.
"Maybe if they didn't suck so much ass, I wouldn't have to correct them." Rose grumbled, trying to drink more, seemingly forgetting that she had chugged it moments ago.
Drunk Rose seemed much more fun than super composed sober Rose.
"How much of your nepotism salary did you spend on getting such a hot escort to listen to your inane ramblings? Who the fuck even opens a spellbook in a pub?" The girl kept gloating, feeling assured in her verbal victory.
Now hold the fucking phone, why am I taking strays? Oh my god Kunou is never going to let me live it down that I got mistaken for a male escort.
It's time to stop this.
Just as Rose tried to stand up, I put my hand on her shoulder, keeping her in her chair.
She looked at me questioningly, clearly raring for a fight, but I just shook my head.
Pulling out my phone, I dialed one of the newer numbers I had, then put it to my ear.
Odin picked up on the third ring.
"What's up, boyo? Having a good time?" Odin's voice came through.
"Yeah I was having a great time until these three harpies showed up. Now Rose is drunk and she looks ready to start blasting." I replied.
Odin didn't answer immediately, as he started coughing rather hard.
"You let her drink?" He asked incredulously.
"Yessssss?" I drawled out, not understanding the issue. Sure she was a lightweight, but nothing really bad had happened.
"Put me on speaker phone real quick. I don't need another incident." I could somehow feel both the italics in the word 'incident' and Odin shudder through the phone.
"Yeah sure, thanks."
I held my phone out, the universal sign for putting your phone on speaker, but this just seemed to embolden the girls even further.
"Aw, poor Rossweisse couldn't even defend her boytoy so he had to call his pimp." She cackled.
"Girls." The single word from my phone caused the cackling to stop very fast.
It also caused all three of their faces to whiten at a pace I didn't think was healthy.
"S-sir!"
"It appears your regiment needs to get some remedial lessons on how not to act like utter morons. I'm thinking a few years of latrine duty might help?" He offered.
Well, offered was a strong word based on the way the girls were shaking. The bar had quieted down, all the patrons watching this trainwreck happen in real time.
"Yes sir. Thank you sir!" The girls all but ran out of the pub as the call ended from Odin's end. It was slightly funny watching everyone's heads follow them out the door, but as soon as they were out of sight they snapped back to us.
It seemed having a direct line to Odin was an attention drawer in the middle of Norse territory.
Who would have thought?
I turned to speak to rose, but was interrupted by her flying towards my face.
She wasted no time jamming her tongue down my throat, not that I was complaining.
I wrapped by arms around her waist to stop her from falling, the sounds of cheering around us reminded Rose that we weren't alone.
When we finally separated Rose looked even more flushed than before, but she also looked equally smug.
"Heh. I know for a fact that they've never kissed a guy at all."
"Less about them, I think its time for us to blow this popsicle stand. We put on quite a show." I tilted my head to gesture around us, causing Rose to squeak before throwing her spellbook back in her bag and some cash on the table.
The whistling as she dragged me out didn't help her embarrassment.
[LINE BREAK]
It was pretty late by the time I got back to my hotel room. Walking Rose home was much more of a challenge than I thought it would be.
Between her clinging to me while also pulling at me towards any shop she saw, it took quite a while to actually drop her off at her apartment which was only a few blocks away.
I think she was looking for sales, but somehow a single cup got her so drunk I could barely understand her.
The quick goodnight kiss at her door was very nice.
When I slipped in, I saw Kunou typing on her laptop, and I could feel Hana still in the bathroom.
"You have a good date?" Kunou asked, not looking up.
"Mostly, yeah. We got interrupted but it was solved." I shrugged as I got undressed and ready for bed. "Hana is still in the bathroom?"
"She woke up for a bit. I got her cleaned up and in her pajamas, but she wanted to keep sleeping in there." Kunou shrugged, looking slightly baffled.
Eh, kids are weird. I'm not going to question it.
"As long as she's happy." I shrugged back, not reading into it anymore.
"I'm just finishing up here, then we can sleep. I'd tell you to shower cuz you smell like booze but… y'know. I'll live." Kunou grumbled even as she slid over to make room for me.
I didn't say anything, slipping under the sheets, careful not to lay on her tails.
Just as I was about to turn off the lamp beside me, my phone went off with a text from Rose.
> Thank you for the night, I heard guys like this. P.S., you can show Kunou too 😉, I saw the way she looked at me. <
Shockingly coherent compared to how I last saw her...
Attached was a mirror selfie of Rose in her room. She was only wearing a pair of silver lace panties, with one arm holding her phone while her other arm was across her stomach.
It was expressly not across her bare breasts, being framed by her silver hair, drawing attention to her rather puffy nipples and bright red face.
Her misty eyes struggling to look into the camera really tied the whole thing together.
Man, this girl blushes a lot. How could she ever be considered to have no game when she is so damn cute. There must be something in the water around here if she was considered undesirable by any definition of the word.
Not as cute as my fox, but she's closing in faster than I thought she would. I have a feeling I'm being trained like an unruly dog by Kunou, but I can't really bring myself to care.
"Oh nice! I don't know if I should be happy I'm totally gonna tap that or mad that she has bigger tits than me." Kunou mumbled beside me, chewing on her thumb in frustration.
"Both? I think your mom might be jealous that she has competition now. Rose is stealing her flow bar for bar. Might have to delete some pics of Yasaka to make room for the new talent." I joked as I sent a flirty reply to Rose before putting my phone away, turning over to snuggle with Kunou as she muttered something about 'unreasonably perfect nipples'.
Tonight was a good night.
[LINE BREAK]
The morning was quite fun, with me waking up to a wall of texts from Rose, ranging from her apologizing for being so forward one moment to asking if they were good and if I want more the next.
I had to assure her that no, I was not mad she kissed me and then sent nudes, and yes they were very nice and Kunou thought so too.
Hana stumbled out of the bathroom like a little drunkard. It turns out sleeping on hard tiles doesn't feel the best.
Silly girl.
"I feel better. I want to go out!" My Little Flower demanded with her hands on her hips, still upset she was sick and stuck sleeping yesterday.
"How about we visit that Root of Yggdrasil nearby? It's supposed to be an interesting site." I offered.
"Sure." Hana easily agreed. I think she just wanted to spend time with us and didn't really care where we were going.
"Will that cause issues? Seeing as that's related to how she got sick." Kunou chimed in.
"Unless a certain someone tries to eat the root directly," I glanced at Hana who was pouting at the insinuation, "There should be no issues at all."
The three of us did our morning routine and ate quickly, hoping to get there early to avoid any big tourist crowds.
The location itself was beautiful. The root was huge obviously, but according to the plaque nearby, it was only the tip of one of the smaller roots they knew of so having it only occupy part of a city block was rather small.
The World Tree was massive beyond comprehension, who knew?
As a tourist attraction, there were all the normal shops and brochures and such nearby, but since it was quite early the area felt rather sparce.
"Daddy! Take a picture of me!" Hana called out as she clambered on top of a lower part of the root near the walking path. There were signs around about not actively attacking the root, but nothing about actually touching so I thought it was alright.
"Say cheese." I called out as Hana posed, gripping her backpack with a bright smile.
"Cheese!" She replied as the phone camera clicked, Kunou looking at the screen to see how the picture turned out.
Just as Hana raised a foot to leave the root, I felt my instincts flare in a way I had never felt before.
Pressure.
Pressure from the root beyond anything I had felt before. I was pinned to the ground on my knees, utterly helpless for a split second.
To my horror, a bubble of pure lifeforce formed around Hana, nearly blinding my Lifeforce Sense.
Hana looked panicked and started pounding on the barrier, which was a cold comfort that at least she wasn't harmed by the pressure.
Flaring my Touki let me gather enough strength to move again, but I only made it a few steps before I felt the root's Ki gather under Hana.
No…
Before I could even call out, Hana dropped.
Straight into the solid Root of Yggdrasil.
Once Hana was no longer visible, the pressure receded. The few people around us started gasping for air, and Kunou looked like she was about to have a panic attack. She kept looking between me and where Hana was.
Part of me wanted to also panic, but that wouldn't help.
I needed to figure out why Yggdrasil just kidnapped my daughter, and get her back.