Elemental Soldier Neko

"A pretty catgirl wrapped up in a dangerous tail"

Episode Three ~ Chapter Three



BekkaNeko woke up to find herself in her bed, safe and warm. Moonlight was streaming in through the window. She looked across the room to see ReaNeko sit up, rubbing her eyes. In small piles on the floor next to their beds were the clothes they had been wearing.

"What happened? How'd we get home?" ReaNeko asked. She stretched, her arms and legs going in one direction, while her tail went the opposite way.

"I don't know. I remember that guy in black something up and the fight with those things, but after that, I can't remember anything. It all seems fuzzy." BekkaNeko shook her head, trying to clear it. No new memories surfaced. She looked at the clock; it was almost three. "Maybe we should go see Akira."

ReaNeko slipped out of her bed and slipped into a T-shirt and a pair of black sweatpants. "That might a good idea. Maybe he'd know who that guy was." She tossed a shirt and some sweatpants to her littermate, who put them on quickly. "What about Brad and Steve?" ReaNeko asked. "Shouldn't we run out to the park and check on them first?" BekkaNeko nodded and they escaped out the window again, headed for the park.

When they arrived, they found the brothers gone. The ground was still littered with the small brass casing from Okami's bullets, but otherwise there was no evidence of a battle. There wasn't even blood on the grass anywhere. After a few minutes of hurried searching, the catgirls ran home and climbed back in through their window again.

They stood shoulder to shoulder in front of their mirror and clutched their soul-crystals. They thought of the Akira's study with the ravens and the large mirror. Their mirror turned black for an instant then showed the room they wished to see. They stepped through the mirror and into the little room. One of the birds was sitting on the skeleton again. It squawked at their entrance.

"Yes Memory? Who is it?" Akira tottered into the room. He wore no hat. His wild white hair frizzed out in every direction from his head. On his shirt was the picture of a smirking elf standing with a human girl clutching at either arm. The caption over the elf's head read, "Chicks dig the ears." Akira also wore a pair of red jeans and light blue running shoes. "Oh, its you," he said, looking up at the catgirls. "Ready for tonight's lesson?"

BekkaNeko and ReaNeko exchanged glances. "I'm sorry, we forgot that you wanted us tonight," BekkaNeko said.

"We had a date tonight," ReaNeko explained.

"You did? Good for you. I hope you had a good time." Akira beamed as he spoke. "Were your dates anyone special?"

"Well, that's the problem. We can't remember what happened..." BekkaNeko went on to tell him the account of the evening, starting with meeting the demoness at the mall and ending with waking up in their beds at home.

"Interesting," Akira said. He looked at the stone floor for a moment then looked back up at the sisters. "Perhaps Kami-san decided to intervene on your behalf for some reason.

"Well, since you two are already getting into fights, I suppose I should teach you a few more things tonight. Perhaps an armor spell would be a good idea." He lead them back into the dojo room and had them sit on the floor to meditate for a few moments.

"Now, focus your will on creating a suit of armor, something that will protect you, but that will still allow you to move freely, without hindrance."

BekkaNeko thought of the armor she'd see on TV. The kind of armor that a mecha pilot would wear. She envisioned a study breastplate, solid forearm and shine guards, with a tough fabric under the plates and in the spaces between them. ReaNeko imagined something a little more stylized, like the kind of armor she might find in an anime on Friday nights television. These two thoughts resonated together and the two catgirls could feel something materializing around their bodies.

"You can look now," Akira said at last. Their armors were almost identical. They each had stylized plates protecting their forearms, shins, and chests. The rest of the suits were made from a dense, yet highly flexible cloth. ReaNeko's was a dark red color, while BekkaNeko's was a dark blue. When she moved, ReaNeko could feel it shifting against her bare skin.

"What happened to our clothes?" she asked. BekkaNeko blushed furiously as she realized that, she too, was naked under the armor.

"Well, since it's simpler to change one thing to another, rather than to create something from nothing, I thought it might be easier to teach you how to shift you clothes into your armor. You can do it with any kind of clothing. Besides, this way you end up wearing it, not just holding it in your hand."

The littermates looked at each other. It seemed like a perfectly reasonable explanation. However, as they practiced for another half an hour, changing their clothes back and forth, as well as trying it after trading clothes, ReaNeko began to think there was another reason. For a few seconds during the transformation, the materials glowed became translucent, almost transparent even. She couldn't quite see everything when her sister changed into her armor and then back into her clothes, but there she caught more than a hint of what lay beneath. BekkaNeko looked at her watch. "Wow, it's almost four-thirty in the morning. I'm not tired though. Could you teach us another spell before we go home?" ReaNeko nodded in agreement and batted her eyelashes at the old elf.

"Alright, one spell. Well, you now have arms and armor. Perhaps I should teach you something you can use so that you won't need to get close enough to use you weapons. "The generic name for this spell is 'Magic Missile,' but you'll probably find something a bit more specific and a bit more appropriate to call it."

Akira spun towards a practice dummy at the far end of the room. The dummy had a huge, silly grin on its face, and its chest read "Weight of a Human Doll." "Raven Strike!" Akira shouted and pointed in its direction. A black shrieking bird launched itself past Akira should, winging for the dummy faster than the catgirls had ever seen a bird fly. About ten feet from its target, the bird began to glow. It grew long and narrow, and when the glow faded, it had become a black shafted, black fletched arrow. The arrow struck the dummy dead center.

"How'd you do that?" BekkaNeko asked.

"Concentrate on your target and pull a small bit of energy from within. Then give it the proper shape and 'throw' it." Akira's hands illustrated as he spoke. "Go ahead, try it." The purple haired catgirl closed her eyes. With her mind, she reached down into herself. When she thought she grabbed a mental handful of energy, she fumbled for a moment with various shapes for the attack. "Icicle Arrow!" she cried and thrust her finger towards the doll.

An icicle, as long as her forearm and as thick as her thumb, materialized in front of her finger and shot towards the dummy. The frozen dart hit the dummy in the face. It punched through the burlap skin and pushed itself through cotton stuffing inside, partially emerging on the other side.

"Excellent!" Akira grinned then turned to ReaNeko. "Now you try."

She closed her eyes as well then slowly opened them. She shoved her opened hand towards the doll, her spread fingers pointing to the ceiling. "Flame Shot!" A small ball of fire, about the size of her fist, burst from her palm and streaked through the air. It caught the dummy between the black arrow and the impaled icicle. The doll was rocked back, and it began to burn, but the heat melted the icicle, which, in turn, put out the flames.

"That should be good enough for now," Akira said. "Go home and get to bed. You should feel better in the morning."

The littermates nodded and followed him back to his study. They shifted back into their regular clothing and stepped through the mirror again, arriving in their bedroom once more. BekkaNeko checked her watch, noting the vast difference between it and the alarm clock sitting on their dresser. She promptly forgot about it as she fell victim to the temptation of sleep.


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