Chapter IX: Day Off

A.N: I will be adding some personal notes in regard to the specific 'abilites' that come with the trait of being a [Legendary House Husband] for clarity's sake.

Also, sorry for the delay. I've been busy with the Elden Ring DLC.

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Akuma woke up from his sleep by the sound of his phone's ringtone. His arm moved lethargically and somehow managed to safely disconnect the device from its charging cable before bringing it before his bleary, half-asleep eyes.

The phone's screen showed a phone number that felt vaguely familiar but one which his still-groggy mind couldn't remember clearly.

With a disgruntled grunt, he swiped on the accept button and brought the phone to his ear.

"New phone. Who dis?" Sure, he was rude but he didn't have enough fucks to give currently. Moreover, he already had all the important names registered on his phone.

"I-Is this Akuma's phone?" a familiar male voice asked slightly hesitantly.

"Who wants to know?"

"Uh... Yuuki Wakura. Y'know from school? Your best friend?" upon hearing the name, the number and the voice finally registered in Akuma's mind.

With a second grunt, he sat up from his lying position, "Right. Sorry man, I had to change my phone for a more suitable one for my new work environment and I still didn't fully transfer all my contacts yet."

Sure, he just said a white lie, but what Yuuki didn't know, wouldn't hurt him.

"No, no, it's fine. I know the struggle of getting to set up a new phone. Anyway, I didn't call at a bad time did I? It sounded like you just woke up."

Akuma checked the phone's clock which read out 5:45 A.M Mato time. Yeah, he was surprised when he got informed that Mato and the real world function in different time zones. It was probably afternoon in the real world now.

"Nah," the youth said and he put the call on speaker and proceeded to stretch his body causing various joints to pop off satisfactorily, "I am just about to get ready for the day. Anyway, how did you manage to get this number?"

"Oh," Yuuki went silent for a few moments as Akuma took out a plain t-shirt and knee-length shorts from his closet, "well, it's been weeks since the day you saved me from the Mato Disaster. Honestly, everyone, including me, thought that you had died since the school simply scrubbed off your name from the name list, supposedly upon the request of your grandmother."

"What? You're thinking that you're calling my dead spirit or some shit?" the tall teenager said sarcastically, picking up the phone.

"Haha, that would've been something wouldn't it," a good antured laughter came from the phone's speaker, but no, it just happened that I ran into your grandmother incidently when buying groceries and she told me about your situation."

"Strange, grandma doesn't make a habit of speaking to people she doesn't know."

"Actually, she said that she recognized my face from a group picture you showed her before."

'That made sense,' Akuma rationalized, 'she did always hound me about showing her that I had actual friends of my own age.'

The conversation entered into a lull as neither of the boys spoke.

"So... the Mato Defense Force, huh?" asked Yuuki. "Didn't know that they accepted men into their ranks."

"Yeah," was Akuma's simple reply, "...it... just happened..."

"I see," Akuma could tell that he clearly didn't, "you'd think that they would accept me if I registered?"

"It depends. Can you bend an steel rod like a pretzel?"

"No?"

"Side-step fast enough to create after images?"

"No..."

"Punch hard enough to break through five steel plates?"

"Now, you're just messing with me.... Aren't you?"

"I'm afraid not," Akuma shook his head as he went out of his room and proceeded to knock on the doors of the other residents to wake them up. As per Kyouka's orders, no one should be Asleep after 6 A.M.

"The job of the MDF is no joke, Yuuki," the red-headed youth said seriously, "they are constantly fighting against a threat that seemingly has infinite numbers. The weakest of them will be able to tear an untrained person limb from limb. Hell, just two weeks ago, I saw one the size of a skyscraper."

He could hear the sound of the dark-haired boy gulping on the other side, "A-And you're working there?!"

"I am far stronger than I look," chuckled the muscled red-head as he entered the kitchen and looked through the fridge to decide on the day's breakfast.

"Enough about me, what's going on with you? Did you manage to get a girlfriend yet?"

The voice from the phone went silent causing Akuma a mild shock.

"Wait! Seriously?" he let out a hearty laugh. "How the hell did that happen?"

"Well..."

Yuuki began explaining. Apparently, thinking that he had died, Yuuki had entered a depressive episode due to survivor's guilt or something. It caused him to get sulky and visit the school's rooftop more frequently to be alone with his thoughts. This lead him to meeting with Asuna Ebihara who visited the rooftop often due to not mashing well with her female classmates. The two talked, one thing led to another, and Yuuki somehow gathered enough balls to confess.

"...that was three days ago," he finalized while Akuma was busy making two dozen sunny-side eggs. The sizzling of bacon strips could also be heard, "I still don't know why I did it but I am glad I did. Asuna is such a nice girl. I'm sure big sister would've liked her."

"I'm glad that my death brought about a positive result for you man, congradulations," Akuma sincerely said, his hand now busy squeezing out fresh orange juice.

"Haha... yeah," an awkward laugh came from the phone's speaker. "What about you? Did you find a girlfriend? The MDF is choked full of beauties."

The question made Akuma pause for a second before continuing his work by setting tableware.

"You're not wrong," began he in a neutral tone, "they are all nice girls - for the most part - but, they are still warming up to my presence, being a guy and all. Plus, my grandma and my superior place alot of trust in me and I don't want to betray that trust by doing something stupid."

"Man... When did you become so mature?"

"I..." the youth wanted to answer when he heard the sound of footsteps coming towards the kitchen. "Yuuki, I gotta hang up now. I'll call you later."

"Sure, man, I've already taken enough of your time as is. Good luck," with that the call ended just as the girls of the 7th unit walked into the kitchen.

"MMM~ I smell something delicious." (Shushu)

"Good morning, Akuma." (Nei)

"Good morning." (Kyouka)

"Morning... I guess." (Himari)

Soon enough, all of them were seated at the dining table and were eating their breakfast.

The expressions on their faces brightened significantly upon eating.

"Man, you are really going to spoil other food for me," grumbled Shushu audibly after swallowing her food.

"Hmm? How so?" Akuma briefly stopped eating the dozen eggs and equal number of bacon on his plate.

"This is just too good!" she exclaimed pointing to the food. "Anything else I eat tastes bland in comparison."

(LHH Note: As a LHH, one must always prepare food that will satisfy your household members.)

"You must take responsibility~" she said half-jokingly.

Akuma stared at her dead in the eye for a few moments before returning back to his food, "Well, there go five seconds of my life that I won't be getting back."

A small giggle escaped Nei, while the blond continued, "Hey, I'm serious! You-"

"Shushu, settle down," Kyouka said while dabbing her mouth with a tissue paper.

"Yes, ma'am," the green-eyed girl immediately returned to eating her food.

"Finally, some peace and quiet," muttered Himari under her breath.

The five memebers of the 7th unit ate in serene silence for a few minutes before Kyouka spoke, "I will be going having a day off today. I will leave you three in charge while I'm gone."

She looked at Himari, Shushu, and Nei. The three didn't look fazed at the sudden announcement - as if they were used to it.

Akuma, realizing that he wasn't mentioned, gulped the last of the food he had on his plate and asked while pointing at himself, "What about me?"

"You're coming with me," she said with finality that didn't leave any room for negotiation.

Thinking on it, Akuma realized that it meant that he, too, would be on break in that case and he really needed a break right about now.

"Sure," he said as he stood up from his place, "I'll prepare after washing the dishes."

"No," the silver haired chief of the 7th unit shook her head, "leave that to the others. We'll be leaving in ten minutes."

Nei nodded energetically, Himari didn't show much emotion on her face, and Shushu looked like she wanted to complain. However, a single look from Kyouka wilted any complaint on her tongue.

"Works for me. Now, if you'll excuse me," with that, Akuma left the kitchen and went to his room to prepare.

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Thirty minutes later, Akuma was standing in the Yamagata Prefecture where the fixed Mato Gate in the base of the 5th unit opened to.

Fixed Mato Gates were similar to the temporary ones that formed except that the former provided a permanent entrance and exit to and from Mato.

Since he was on a break, Akuma had forgone wearing his MDF uniform and instead went with a casual black t-shirt that hugged his figure tightly, showing the various muscles underneath, and black cargo pants.

'I really need to expand my wardrobe beyond monochrome colors,' thought Akuma before the sounds of heels clicking on stone turned his attention to the source.

Kyouka exited the real world base of the 5th unit. She wore a flower-print blouse, a white skirt, black stockings, along with black heels. A small handbag could be seen held in her hand.

For any outside obeserver, she looked just like any other pretty girl or model one would see on fashion magazines - a far cry from the katana-wielding demon chief of the 7th MDF unit.

She could've earned a fortune with her beauty; yet, she chose to risk her life fighting against Shuuki.

"Sorry for the wait," the pink-eyed said as she reached him, "there were some paper work to fill in before we could go."

"No, worry," he simply aswered before admiring the area around them. It was a stark contrast to the desolate landscape of Mato where a Shuuki could jump at you from anywhere. "Our world sure is peaceful."

"Hmm," she hummed affirmatively, "make sure you enjoy it. Our break is only for today. Come, we'll go by train."

Ten minutes later, both Akuma and Kyouka sat in a well-furnished, spacious train cab while heading to their destination. To the yellow-eyed youth, it was his first time in his life that he didn't enter a train cab that didn't remind him of a sardine can both figuratively and literally. It smelled very nice to boot.

Of course, under normal circumstances, he would've never been able to ride this train cab as it was reserved for females only. However, Kyouka had entered him as her 'partner' which allowed him certain privileges.

Speaking of his 'master' - of sorts - she was leaning her head down with her eyes closed in a sleeping posture. However, despite her relaxed appearance, Akuma's instincts could tell him that she was in no way defenseless in that posture.

'Well, it's her day off, she can do what she wants,' thought he before looking out of the window behind him at the moving scenery, 'she didn't tell me explicitly where we are heading...'

He glanced at the bouquet of flowers that Kyouka had brought with her, '...but, I can hazard a guess.'

Some time later, the two were now standing before a monument that served as a memorial to the victims of the Mato Disaster that eradicated Kyouka's village.

Akuma stayed a bit behind the silver-haired girl to give her some space as she approached the memorial.

"The number of Shuuki who found their way into our world was in the dozens," she began in a solemn tone staring at the memorial, "but there was a specially strong one among them. I remember him clearly as he had an abnormally large horn. I call him the 'One-Horned'.

The Mato Defense Force units that rushed here annihilated the Shuuki - or so I thought. Yet, once I read the logs from the operation, I learned that only this One-Horned had managed to escape through a gate back to Mato."

"That's... concerning," the youth muttered in thought. If such a distinct creature was roaming Mato, how come there had been no sightings of it after all this time.

"Of all the Shuuki," Kyouka's voice became sharper and full of hate, "he's he one that I will never forgive as long as I live. I WILL cut him to pieces."

Then, it became softer as she laid down the flower bouquet before the memorial, "I want you to keep that in mind if we fight him. This is what I wanted to tell you today. I will definitely avenge everyone..."

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A while later, the duo could be seen wandering the streets of the town they were in. Kyouka was lost in her thoughts while Akuma was tapping away at something on his phone.

Suddenly, the silver-haired girl escaped from her mind fog, "We're going back to Mato."

"No, I don't think we will."

"What?" Kyouka seemed genuinely surprised at Akuma's refusal.

"It would be a shame to end our break without doing something even slightly fun," the youth said with a shrug of his wide shoulders.

"I'm worried about Mato," said Kyouka in a deadpan tone.

"And I'm worried about your mental health. Always working without giving yourself rest is not good for you," he retorted, "look, you could either come willingly or I have to force you to do it. It's your choice."

(LHH Note: As a LHH, one must always help household members maintain good physical and mental health.)

"You dare threaten your unit Chief?" Kyouka inquired in a reproachful tone.

"Last time I checked, we're both on break so you can't pull rank on me this time. So... your choice?"

The stand off between the two continued for a few minutes before the pink-eyed girl sighed, "Fine, we can take a small break."

"Excellent choice," Akuma clapped his hands with a smile and began dragging his superior away, "I learned of a cafe here that sells a killer parfait. Come on!"

"S-Slow down!" uttered Kyouka, slightly flustered.

Soon enough, the two were now sitting in a cafe that seemed to have been only recently opened. Each had a glass of water in front of them as they waited for their orders to come.

"Despite your approach, you're more coersive than I thought," she said before taking a sip from her glass.

Then, she looked at him sharply while holding her chin in her palm, "Although, I would appreciate that this incident doesn't repeat itself."

"Well, as long as you don't endanger your mental health, I won't need to interfere," Akuma held his hands in a peaceful gesture, "I greatly admire your work ethic Kyouka but you need to let yourself rest from time to time. You told me that yourself, 'If all you do is work, you'll be too tired when it counts' right?"

His words seem to reach her as her eyes widened slightly; then, she averted her gaze to look outside through the window next to them, "I'm just worried about the situation in Mato. Being away for so long makes me feel uneasy."

"You left the others in charge, didn't you? I believe that they are competent enough to hold the fort until we return."

"I didn't know you held the others in the unit in such high regard," Kyouka said in surprise.

Akuma scratched the back of his head, "I mean, sure, they be a bit... eccentric in their personalities but they are good and competent people when it comes down to doing their job."

She smiled slightly, "It seems that my worries about you not fitting into the unit were unfounded."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," replied the yellow-eyed boy with a half-hearted laugh, "Himari still busts my balls whenever she can, Shushu likes teasing me way too much. Honestly, among them, only Nei is an absolute angel."

Kyouka opened her mouth to say something before stopping when the waiter came back with their orders. Now, each of them had a delicious-looking parfait in front of them. Whatever she wanted to say was forgotten as she looked at the parfait in awe like a normal highschool girl.

"Well, let's dig in," Akuma ate his first spoon of the delicacy. "Not half bad."

He raised his head to see Kyouka's eyes closed and a big smile on her face as she enjoyed the taste, "MM~ It is good. Good job finding this place."

'So even she can make expressions like that,' he thought, 'I wonder if this whole Mato thing didn't exist, would she have lead a normal life instead of her current one?'

Noticing his gaze, the silver haired girl seemed puzzled, "What?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing," the red headed youth fake-coughed into his hand, "I'm simply glad that you are enjoying yourself."

Kyouka tilted her head, even more confused. The boy simply laughed it off and changed the subject.

Like that, the two began engaging in small talk. Kyouka simply listened at first and only gave curt answers before eventually waming up to the conversation and joining it in earnest. Soon enough, the two were chatting animatedly with Akuma mostly talking about his school life before joining the MDF.

Suddenly, their conversation got cut short by the blaring of a trumpet coming from Kyouka's handbag.

The male was positively flumoxed at the out of place sound, "What in the-"

On the other hand, Kyouka seemed unpertubed as she smoothly fished the offending device out of her bag. She looked at it for a second before silencing it and storing it again.

"If the trumpet is played once, then it means that an emergency is happening but lives aren't in danger," she explained to Akuma whom while looking at him with her usual focused expression. "That's it for our day off. We're going to the gate at once."

It took a moment for him to understand why his superior didn't mention using the train, he sighed before rising up and following her out of the café, 'Guess that's it for my break. At least it ended on a good note.'

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On a certain highway, a little girl was sitting in a car that her father was driving. Suddenly, she picked up a weird sound coming from outside. Curious, she looked outside of the car's window only to see, for the briefest of moments, a silver haired woman riding on the back of a chained, horned, 8-foot giant before they sped past their car and vanished into the distance.

The little girl didn't know yet but she had just underwent some sort of awakening by witnessing that scene.

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Akuma and Kyouka managed to get back to the base in a record breaking twenty minute period. Having been forced to run at his maximum speed for a pretty long distance, Akuma was deservedly a bit out of breath by the time Kyouka undid the [Slave] transformation.

"Now, that was some workout," the youth said as he wiped the few droplets of sweat on his forehead.

"We came back in almost no time. Well done," Kyouka said as she entered into the base's entrance only to stop suddenly at the door way.

Akuma, who was about to enter himself to change into his uniform felt a tug on his t-shirt.

Looking to the side, he saw that Kyouka's face was facing downwards while her hand gripped his shirt.

"Follow me," she lifted her head and ordered while looking at him in the eye. He assumed that the pink-eyed girl wanted to appear commanding and confident but the pink hue on her cheeks and her shaking pupils broke the image she wanted to portray.

A few minutes later, Akuma found himself sitting on a bed that was not his own and smelled very much like Kyouka.

'As expected of Kyouka,' he thought as observed the room her found himself in. It was the picture perfect definition of 'bare necessities'. There was a bed, a wardrobe, a bedside table, and a writing desk. The only decoration in the room were the various katana stands hanged on the wall which contained several sheathed swords with only one of them remaining empty - the one he destroyed.

"Focus," Kyouka's semi-confident voice called which brought his attention back to the girl in front of him.

His silver-haired superior stood before him in her outdoor clothes from before with both of her hands on her hips, the blush from before was deeper now.

"You must not take your eyes off of me or else I will have to repeat it all again," she explained as her hands slowly reached to the lace that brought together the neck-cuff of her blouse. Her fingers were shaking slightly but her eyes were giving him a look that would've killed him twice over if it could.

"So... Don't you dare to look away!"

"Yes, ma'am," he would've been lying if he said that he wasn't enjoying these 'rewards'. It really helps alleviate the mental stress of dealing with the girls' shenanigans on a daily basis.

(A.N: I am no expert in clothing in general - not to mention women clothing - so I apologize if a fashionista among my readers is offended by how I describe the following events.)

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Kyouka's POV:

Seeing that Akuma's fierce-looking yellow eyes were glued to her body like a tiger eyeing a particularly juicy prey, she gripped the edge of her blouse's lace and pulled at it. The silky material didn't give an iota of resistance as it slid away and loosened the opening of her blouse exposing her delicate, flawless skin to the outside air.

Then, under the piercing gaze of her 'slave', her hands moved to the lower seams of her blouse. Ever so slowly, she began lifting the clothing article and revealing more of herself to the man in front of her. Admittedly, it was not her first time baring herself in front of him, but the fact that she was doing this in her room while he was sitting on her bed with a great tent getting pitched in his pants.

It didn't help matters that her damned ability was forcing her to twist and turn her hip and abdomen as she undressed. Soon, her blouse was lifted high enough to show her toned abdomen.

Kyouka was never one to be ashamed of her body since she put blood, sweat, and tears into training it to be able to battle against Shuuki despite her 'faulty' peach blessing. Defined lines ran along her abdomen showing the muscles that she had spents hundreds upon hundreds of hours developing.

Following that, the blouse had gone fully been taken off, revealing her white bra that cupped her generous breasts to her audience of one. The air of the room felt slightly chilly on her skin despite it being no different from how it was everyday. Unbeknownst to her, her breathing was becoming a bit ragged.

Thankfully, her hands skipped past her bra and gripped the edges of the her skirt. One hand was on the skirt while the other moved to the grip the zipper that fastened her skirt to her hip. Then, with excruciating slowness, she unzipped her skirt. The zipping sound echoed in the deathly silence until it reached the end and the article of clothing fell unceremoniously onto the floor.

With the skirt gone, only the semi-transparent stocking remained as the sole barrier that covered her panties.

Kyouka's body felt as if it was heating up and the sweat that was starting to run down her supple skin was a proof of that.

Her eyes wandered towards her rapt audience who was sitting on her bed as still as a statue with his arms crossed - even his expression would've resembled one if not for the red tinge that spread across it. Moreover, she could see how tightly he was gripping his shoulders by his white fingers. To top it all off, she could see how his member was struggling against the fabric of his pants to escape from its confinement.

True, she was experiencing the worst shame of her entire life currently; yet, seeing the state the powerful man before her was in solely due to her filled her with a sense of... confidence? Accomplishment?

'I must really be going crazy,' she shook her head mentally at her errant thoughts, 'although... he does look cute holding himself back like that.'

Kyouka turned her back towards Akuma. Her hands begans moving again and gently gripped the seams of her stocking. Then, with a sensuous motion, she began slowly lower the stockings while simultaneously lowing her upper body, presenting her half-bare rear to the read headed male.

Finally, the stockings had come off and her ability's influence over her body vanished.

Kyouka stood upright, her movements now janky and almost robotic without the guidance of her ability, and spoke without turning towards Akuma, "You can go now."

She head him rise from her bed and her body tensed involuntarily as she prepared for something she didn't know or understand.

Moments passed that seemed to be more like hours as the two simply stood in the room in silence.

Then, the door opened and gently closed allowing for her body to loosen. She let out a ragged breath she didn't realize that she had held.

She put a hand over her heart that was beating like a drum in the hands of a drummer high off his ass on cocaine.

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Akuma's POV:

The eighteen-year old youth slumped down against the door of his room until his ass thumped against the wooden floor.

"Fuck, that was just pure torture," he said as he tried to get his rapidly beating heart to settle. His eyes moved down to the painful hard-on he was currently sporting.

"What am I to do with you?" he muttered under his breath before letting out an exasperated sigh.

"I really need to get laid."

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After a while, all the members of the 7th unit could be seen in the base's operation command room where Himari was preparing to give a report.

"We found this place during our patrol," she said as she placed a tablet on the table that depicted some sort of crater with a multitude of white spits congregating around it, "it seems like a crater had appeared twenty-one kilometers north. An impressive amount of Shuuki are there."

The news surpised the two late arrivals to the meeting.

The green-haired girl motioned towards Nei who seemed to be focusing with her eyes closed, "Even now, Nei is watching it through her [Clairvoyance]."

The pink haired girl took that moment to speak, "There are no signs of anything coming out of it. It's as if it were a nest."

"I'm sorry this had to happen on your important day off," Himari apologized to the silver-haired Chief.

"Don't be. Well done," Kyouka kept staring at the tablet with a glint in her eyes. Then, she slammed her hand on the table before turning towards her subordinates with a confident look, "A nest is worth destroying! We'll also be able to ascertain more about their lives. This will be a great job for the 7th unit!"

Kyouka's confidence proved to be contagious as it spread to the other unit members as well.

Akuma slammed his fist against his palm with a meaty Smack!

"I've been raring to blow some stress off," he declared with a big smile that displayed his sharp teeth.

"Well, someone's fired up~" Shushu said from beside the youth while poking at his abdomen.

'This is both a chance to reduce Shuuki numbers and get achievements,' Kyouka thought while analyzing the data on the tablet's screen, 'with these, I'll be a step closer to becoming the Commander. To have vengeance, I'll need even more power.'

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Meanwhile, somehwere in mato, a white-haired woman sitting on top of a Shuuki with a particularly large single horn on its head sniffed at the air before letting out a sigh.

"I smell a faint remnant of Yuuki's smell in the air. Is he in Mato? If so, I have to go see him.