The Protagonist System

276 Baby Boomers Part Four

“...and that's why we once again request the heads of the Niberius Clan and all those involved with the subjugation and murder of our countrymen.” The red haired cat-person said, her voice flat and lacking emotion.

I could tell by this point, she didn't expect anything to come from it, especially after I read through the files Grayfia had brought in her attache case. This had been the twelfth time she had repeated the same request when the meeting had been opened for any new business after the normal trade negotiations had concluded.

Grayfia let out a little sigh and opened her mouth to speak.

I quickly put a hand on her thigh and she paused to give me a questioning look. “If you could pretend to not listen for a moment, I'd like to speak about this without your official knowledge.”

Grayfia looked a little surprised, then she nodded and turned her head the other way and looked at the wall.

I almost laughed at the shocked looks on everyone's faces, especially Yasaka's. “Officially, the Underworld's government applied sanctions against the clan in question and everything was quietly hushed up.”

A few of the youkai made hissing noises, the cat-person representative being one of them.

“Unofficially, despite their desire to, they can't do anything more than that because of the politics involved with the Old Satan Faction. They sponsored the experiments and applied political pressure on the previous Minister of Foreign Affairs.” I explained.

The hissing stopped and I smiled.

“However, the new minister is not bound or tied into any previous deals, oaths, promises, or anything else the previous minister did or said in the name of said government or faction.” I informed them and some of them gasped. “That's why today's meeting was so important. She brought me along to do the paperwork and to keep track of everything that had been previously discussed and agreed to.”

“Is that why you so easily agreed to the increased cost for our lumber?” The tall red-skinned Oni asked. “You're trying to make us like you more than the last woman that sat in your place?”

I removed my hand from Grayfia's thigh and she turned her head back to look at the youkai.

“It's not a popularity contest.” Grayfia answered. “I've gone over the numbers and your growing area is limited and takes time to grow replacements. An increase of price correlates to a reduction in yield, since the rarer the product, the more expensive it is.”

“It's just lumber.” The Oni grunted.

“For you it is, yes. For us, it is a resource we acquire when needed for our craftsmen to use.” Grayfia said. “If we used your lumber exclusively, we would run your supplies dry within a year and would have to wait at least five to ten years for the next growth of trees to be old enough to be harvested.”

The Oni looked shocked at that and sat back in his chair as he thought about that.

I placed my hand on Grayfia's thigh again and she turned her head away and stared at the wall. “I have a question to ask your faction.” I said to the cat-person. “Can you put me in contact with, or arrange a message to be sent to, the declared outlaw named Kuroka?”

The cat-person's ears went flat and she growled at me. “Why would you think I would have anything to do with that traitor?”

“Traitor?” I asked, surprised. “Why is she a traitor?”

“Because of her actions, our people were hunted down and slaughtered!” The cat-person spat at me. “It was bad enough when the devils only stalked us and kidnapped us for their Peerages. Now they kill cat-people on sight because they fear of finding a Nekoshou like her and being betrayed and murdered!”

I hadn't thought of it like that, so I nodded. “Then I sincerely apologize for my question. I did not mean to imply you would harbour such a criminal.”

The cat-person nodded and her ears rose slightly, showing she was ready to be angry again.

“Since I can't contact her, then I can tell you the reason why I wanted to.” I said and she leaned forward slightly. “As soon as I find the evidence of who was involved, they will be quietly disappeared with no evidence left behind.”

“Wh-what?” She and a few other youkai asked.

“Things like that are bad for business and are detrimental to the devil race as a whole. It's a black mark on our reputations that might never come clean, because everyone we meet will assume that all devils are the same and will always behave the same way towards other races.” I told them.

They looked shocked and I removed my hand from Grayfia's thigh, allowing her to hear what I was saying again.

“My self-appointed task as the Foreign Affairs Minister's assistant, is to clear out the mistakes and oversights that were made by the previous minister.” I claimed and Grayfia gave me a very pointed look. “I can't promise anything, of course. This whole situation is as new to us as it is to everyone else and we need to work out the kinks before we can commit to anything officially.”

Grayfia nodded. “I've been working diligently around the clock to put the Foreign Office back in order and it's going to take a while, considering I've been uncovering unresolved requests like yours going back several years.”

Yasaka looked at Grayfia's face and almost visibly came to a decision. “Then I request your help in investigating our hidden enemies that keep breaching our home, no matter what we do to stop them.”

All of the other youkai sucked in sharp breaths at her admitting they were weak in front of us.

“Do you mean here or the sub-dimension you're maintaining with your powers?” I asked.

The cat-person gasped and Yasaka looked both conflicted and relieved, probably because I could detect it and it wasn't as hidden as she thought it was.

“How do you know about our people's most sacred secret?” The tall Oni asked, menacingly.

I visibly rolled my eyes at him and one of the other youkai let out a bark of laughter. “Anyone strong enough can feel the power emanating from Queen Yasaka. It's flowing in a certain direction and doesn't feel like an attack, so she's either protecting or hiding something. By the amount of power she's using, the sub-dimension must be fairly huge.”

Yasaka gave me a very interested look. “You have a dimensional aspect to your own powers.”

“I do.” I admitted and her eyes widened at me admitting it so easily. “I can pop over to your place and inspect it right now, if you want.”

Yasaka looked at Grayfia. “Is this officially offered help, Minister?”

Grayfia glanced at me and I nodded, so she nodded as well.

“Then I conclude this meeting and declare it a success.” Yasaka said happily and stood. “Thank you all for not openly fighting and embarrassing us in front of our new guests.”

The big red Oni huffed and crossed his arms. “I doubt he can fight with how small he is.”

I clamped my mouth shut and barely muffled my laugh. Grayfia raised an eyebrow at me and I stood, bowed slightly to the youkai, and helped her stand. All of the other youkai stood as well, some of them grumbling about soreness after sitting for so long.

“I can offer some healing energy if anyone would dare to allow me to touch them.” I said with amusement on my face and in my voice.

An older man with grey hair and matted fur, that dressed like a monk, waddled over to me with a walking stick. “What do you know about Senjutsu, boy?”

I held a hand out for him to shake. “It's a physical version of your mystical power.”

“This I must experience.” The old man said and grabbed my hand tightly, too tightly, and he tried to crush my hand.

I chuckled and used Panacea's power to fix all of his problems that old age had given him. I even changed his skin from old and blotchy with liver spots into clear skin that showed off his suntan, as well as changed his matted fur to be fluffy and untangled.

I even trimmed his beard slightly to clean it up and fixed the baldness he was starting to suffer on the top of his head by growing new hair follicles and gave him a full head of hair. It was still grey, of course. I wasn't an idiot.

The pressure on my hand disappeared as he stumbled back from me. He had complete and utter shock on his face and his cane fell to the floor when his other hand let it go. He was suddenly surrounded by the other youkai and was examined thoroughly by their keen eyes, especially the cat-person. She spent more time checking his hair than anything else and looked amazed.

“You have more gifts than the rumors give you credit for.” Yasaka whispered in my ear.

I thought that was a neat trick, considering she was still across the table from me. I smiled at her and she smiled back. “Shall we head to your real home now?”

Yasaka nodded and motioned towards the door. Grayfia and I followed her out of the room and left behind the youkai as they started talking loudly about their elder being changed so much and so easily. None of them had felt any energy exchange, either.

“I should thank you for distracting them and allowing me to leave.” Yasaka said as she walked and her nine bushy tails swished behind her and hid most of her from sight. “I am usually stuck there for hours afterwards talking about the same things we did during the meetings.”

Grayfia let out a sigh. “I know what you mean.”

Yasaka glanced back over her shoulder and moved her tails out of the way to smile at her. “I know you do. I've been to a few of the multi-faction meetings and you've suffered even more than most as you attended to your King.”

“She did?” I asked.

“Oh, yes. You see, she had to stand there as we all talked for hours on end and then the meeting would start and it would be many more hours talking about nothing, getting nothing done, and then another few hours were we discuss the same things.” Yasaka said with a laugh. “Unlike us however, Grayfia was not allowed to share her opinion and it must have been sheer torture!”

“It was.” Grayfia admitted. “I was also not allowed to destroy a few idiots for their comments.”

Yasaka laughed again. “I know! I feel the same way.” She said and we left the back of the pagoda and entered a very nice garden full of various plants and flowers with a range of smells. “Things would be so much simpler if we could cull the weak and stupid, wouldn't it?”

“There would hardly be anyone left if you did that.” I commented.

Both women stopped walking to stare at me.

“What? I've been an idiot a few times and dying didn't quite cure me of it, either.” I told them.

“You died?” Yasaka asked, surprised.

“Last week.” I said and her hand reached out to take mine. “If you were in your sub-dimension at the time, you might have felt magical tremors if it's anchored on the Earth's leylines in a similar manner as the Underworld.”

“That was you?” Yasaka gasped.

“I was a newly reincarnated devil at the time and suffered from magical overload.” I answered.

Yasaka sighed and she stepped close to use her other hand to hug me. She was a few inches shorter than me at only 5 foot 8 inches, so I didn't get the experience of having my head buried between her enormous breasts.

“I can feel your disappointment.” Yasaka said and let me go with sadness on her face. “My hug was supposed to be comforting.”

“If I was a foot shorter, I'm sure it would have been.” I joked and Grayfia scoffed. “Hey, you can't blame me for wanting to enjoy them. They're right there and she put them on display for that very reason.”

“I did?” Yasaka asked, innocently. Neither I nor Grayfia believed her.

“They are as much a weapon for you to use as your tails, teeth, and claws are.” I responded and she smiled widely. I motioned to the end of the garden. “Do you want to do the honors or should I?”

“I'd like to see your dimensional power.” Grayfia said.

I nodded and used my clairvoyance power to find Yasaka's energy signature that permiated the sub-dimension and then I took out a sling ring and put it on. The two women stared at me as I waved my hand in a circular motion several times and then I created a swirling orange portal. It opened into the spot right in front of Yasaka's house.

Both of them let their magic out and examined the portal, as I suspected they would, which was why I used the ring instead of my own power. It was the easiest way for me to cover up how much power I actually had.

“What is that device?” Yasaka asked before Grayfia could.

“It's called a sling ring. All it does, or can do, is create a portal. With enough training and practice, it can also be used to open one into another dimension, as long as you know where you're going. Opening a portal with no set destination in mind, is just asking for otherworldly entities to invade and take over.” I explained.

Neither woman said anything as we walked through the portal. My words making their minds go over the possibilities. While they were thinking about how to buy or steal the ring to figure out how it worked, since they only knew about sacred gears being able to do the same thing, I let my senses and powers check over the sub-dimension.

It was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be and I suspected it was because Yasaka wasn't able to devote as much of her powers or concentration on maintaining the thing, because she was so busy with everything else.

“Momma!” A cute little voice shouted and a blonde girl of around 12 years old came out of the traditional Japanese home and leapt into Yasaka's arms.

I closely watched to see if her kimono would finally give up and let her breasts free as she caught her daughter.

Yasaka gave me a knowing look as she hugged her child and cooed at her while her kimono stayed firmly in place.

There was definitely magic at play. I thought and let my attention rift back to the sub-dimension. I discretely cast a few detection spells and found the three breaches that happened. Whatever they used, they pretty much smashed it like a hammer onto a piece of glass as they did enough damage to cause a crack for them to slip through.

I stepped from where I was to the closest crack. I felt out with my abilities and let some of the unnamed ones I had gathered from the entities out to play. Since they had the ability to seal off an entire branch of various dimensions from the multiverse, it was easy to repair the damage I could 'see'. I stepped to the other two cracks and fixed them as well, then thought about the power problem.

I knew that Yasaka was tapping into the Earth's ley lines for power and that the sub-dimension was anchored in a similar way to the Underworld, only the Underworld didn't have a guiding presence or needed a regulator to maintain it. It just existed. So, I stepped from there to the Underworld, right back to the breeding pit I had cleared out.

I did the same feeling out and didn't feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information the Underworld's dimension contained. Whomever created it was a genius, because it was a work of art that was self-sustaining and was as stable as the planet it was anchored to.

Now that I knew how to do it, and it would be downright easy to do so, I stepped back to where Yasaka was still cuddling her daughter and Grayfia gave me a searching look.

“I believe we have some heavy negotiations to go through to fix this place more than the three cracks I already repaired.” I said and Yasaka's head whipped around to look at me. “Yes, I know how many times they successfully broke through the dimensional barrier.”

Yasaka sighed and waved towards the nice house. “We might as well sit down again.”

Grayfia and I followed her and her daughter inside to figure out what we could get in exchange for making this sub-dimension into a normal one and to secure it in place.