Rebuke of the Tatsu-boy 4 (Patreon)

Rebuke of the Tatsu-boy 4 - or ‘How SI!Tatsurou outfucked and outcucked the Dark Lord’s worst fiends’ (Taimaninverse, Tatsurou!SI)

Of all potential escalations this screwed-up operation could amount, Felicia Black didn’t expect things to go that crazy so fast.

The moment that Kazuma went missing was when she knew that Gosha Village was going to be on them. She thought her sister was behind this as the intelligence they had on their enemy through the Fuuma Clan had yielded that she had been assigned to a mission like that.

The issue was that the attack happened too fast and… it wasn’t sanctioned by the Fuuma Clan as she had predicted- in fact, the sight of invaders being known to be affiliated to the Igawa Clan created an entirely new circumstance for her to bear.

If before she had planned to stand up and fight her way out, the pink-haired Dhampir opted to keep her cover up during the attack and do nothing. As much as it was a gamble for her to do so, the options she had in fighting her way out were mild at best as the Igawa Clan was known to have some relatively powerful members that could put issues to her current fighting style.

And the reward for her submissive response was… an encounter. One that ended up shaping her current future in a way she could have never gotten the chance to predict.

She had been sitting by Kazuma’s bed, the mattress was comfy and the bastard tended to be too busy with curvier bitches elsewhere to use it. The guards there were also keen to keep to their stuff, beating the shit of anything that  tried to get close to her while she napped.

Today, these guards proved to be, despite their height, demonic power and experience, unable to survive due to a single tiny issue: Akiyama Tatsurou was a nobody to Felicia.

A little kid that shouldn’t have been there to begin with, someone that was meant to be mediocre if not weaker than any other Taimanin around. A child sent in such a mission- she should have expected something deeper was going on with that sort of decision, but to Felicia that thought perished briefly when she saw the guards getting slaughtered by the wind power mustered by the boy. Fast, ruthless, and relatively clean.

It was impressive, like a piece of art. As a Demoness and a Dhampir, this just hit the right spot in terms of a fashionably-quick fight if not for the slightly uneasy mind she had when he was done with them and aiming his gaze to her.

The boy was wearing a Taimanin outfit, but it was more fitting with the concept of ‘Shinobi’ rather than having the same skintight bodysuits many kunoichi and a few shinobi of Gosha tended to wear. It made him somewhat less of a cute treat and more of a genuine threat at first glance.

He approached her, blade still at hand and yet his gaze showed something that got her caught in a magnetic grip. It was as if she had stumbled on a hole and one that allowed her to fall into a… mirror.

Those eyes, that glance, that expression. It was far too similar to ignore.

Distractedly, she also noticed that Tatsurou did something similar to that- mutedly staring back at her, the boy narrowed his eyes at her and… hummed.

“We share eyes.”

That comment, albeit curt and blunt, hit a strange spot to her, but one she couldn’t understand on the spot- not yet, at least.

“...What are you going to do?”

He blinked, cleaning the blade and then offering a tentative smile. “I take you prisoner. So no one can hurt you.”

It was displeasing that this was the best option she got, to be further away from home and from showing her father how good she really was- but Felicia was tempted by what had just happened, the display of power and the strangely familiar face she was looking at.

So, the pinkette nodded, and she soon was given some shackles to wear. They dampened her powers, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable restriction as those fit nicely around her wrists.

The real gripe was the ‘walk of shame’ she had to endure while being led back to Gosha Village. First from the attack team as they all looked ready to jump at her for being a demon, but pausing when they realized she was bound and being pulled around by little Tatsurou.

An interesting sight to see the entire House of Greed demolished by the raid, even more when she saw a few other demons slimily claiming witness protection- some were from the Ryuumon Mafia, others were from actual Nomad.

This was going to only get more interesting, this much was clear to Felicia.

Gosha Village was… a small town. The name was a bit of a lie considering the size of the place, with the village nearby set up by the Koukawa Clan fitting more with that term. The place was nowhere near a proper city, but the services offered within the place meant it was to be addressed as a Town.

A strange nitpick to have, but boredom was quite awkward to endure when she could have just talked with her ‘handler’. He looked ready to talk, but Felicia was not. In fact, she was tempted to just not talk ever. Tempted to but not pushed into.

The boy, pleasantly so, didn’t push the issue, and, a few hours into settling in with her new arrangements in the Akiyama Compound, Felicia decided to open up. Not without reason, not without a few clues to finally make her understand why she felt a sense of kinship towards him-

It’s the Akiyama patriarch. The guy should have refused his son’s request to keep her and to even let her sleep in his room, but he almost looked too eager to comply to this and the glint in his eyes was… the same her father would have when he sent her to this mission.

The same glint, the same glee, the same… willingness to hurl someone to an early death.

That’s why it felt so familiar- that’s why she felt a bit moved by the overall situation.

How unusual to find someone that was, in a way, stuck in a similar predicament like she was. The youngest of a pair of siblings, but meant to become the heir to their respective groups despite their fathers showing more interest in their older siblings…

This was hitting very close to home, but Felicia resolved to just check how these ramifications matched with hers.

“So, do you know your father hates you?”

The blunt comment was gauged on how Tatsurou behaved. The way he hit the spot so directly made it clear he was the kind of child that preferred that and… he merely shrugged at this.

“Yeah, so?”

“So you don’t mind being hated by your father?”

A huff came from the boy, distracted as he was with cleaning his sword while they were in his room. He wasn't exactly paying utmost attention to her, but he was definitely giving it thought.

“I don’t mind the fact that my father is stupid.”

She frowned at this, surprised by this thought. “Have you tried to change his mind?”

“I doubt that’s within my abilities. It’s not a matter of things I can do to show him I am meant to lead.”

“Why?”

“Well, he is not favoring Rinko because she is stronger than me. He is favoring her because she is older than me- and no training can change that.”

Your sister is more mature than you are, Felicia. Face it that your role is the same and you will not control Nomad in the case of my passing.

Felicia’s lips twitched at this awfully familiar situation.

“What if he meant just… maturity?”

“I was the one sent to capture your boss,” Tatsurou remarked, confusing her briefly until he elaborated on this. “I was given no backup, no special weapon or equipment- I was told to go in alone for the main aspect of the operation and he tried to shame me for not ‘behaving like a Taimanin’ with how I tricked the target.”

Your blade is meant to arch this way, not this low. Your height is just not fit to handle this sort of flexibility and you are too unfocused.

The sharp judgment, the negative connotation of each comment… it was all making an awful lot of sense now to her. And she didn’t like it.

“Felicia?”

The dhampir perked her head distractedly. “Yeah?”

“Do you want to cuddle tonight?”

The girl frowned at this. Cuddling? Really?

“Why?”

“You look like you need a hug, but I don’t want to ask that because it feels like…”

Pity. He didn’t want to pity her, but he wanted to make her feel better. Stupid moron…

“Fine. But I have a tiny request.”

He tilted his head to the side. “What is it?”

She smirked. “We cuddle naked.”

…

…

“Okay.”

“Oh? You’re fine with sleeping with me without clothes~? Is Tatsu-kun a pervert?”

He frowned. “No, I just want to help you feel better. And if you just like to cuddle nude with a boy like me, then I feel flattered that you trust me like that.”

…Little bastard.

At least the cuddling was decent and he was a trooper in making her feel warm in the futon they shared.

Little bastard, but an adorable one at that.

—-------d-d-d-d—------

AN

Dhampir companion get!