Elemental Cats

Toz, the cats, and Red Hook returned to the surface through the tunnel he had made. The first thing they saw was the Blood Fiend.

"T-that is the Blood Fiend, right?"

Toz looked and pointed at the Blood Fiend with a doubtful expression.

"What else would it be? Besides, I don't see any twenty-meter-tall giants of blood around here. Do you?"

"What about that over there?"

Toz pointed in a random direction in response to Red Hook's sarcastic comment.

"What? Where-"

"Ouch!"

Toz yelped in pain after Red Hook smacked his head.

"That's not fair!"

"So? I'm the Pirate King. I'll do what I want. Especially to annoying pricks like you."

Toz rubbed his head and clicked his tongue.

"I'll remember this."

"Hah? Remember what?"

Red Hook stared at Toz threateningly while cracking her knuckles.

"'Remember what?' What are you talking about? I don't think there's anything to remember, right?"

Toz hurriedly stepped back.

"Yeah. That's what I thought."

Toz hummed after appeasing Red Hook and looked at the Blood Fiend in front of them again. Red Hook had restrained it with her magic while she and Toz bantered. But they still had to do something with the shin-height miniature Fiend that looked at them with a menacing glare.

"It's kinda cute, don't you think?"

Toz looked at Red Hook with a worried expression after she said that.

"I call dibs!"

But Lucy talked before Toz could say anything.

"No way, kitty! This bad boy's mine!"

"No! I called dibs! It's mine."

Lucy stood up on Toz's head and hissed. It looked as if Lucy was about to attack Red Hook. And Red Hook responded in kind as she took up an offensive position and glared at Lucy.

"Kitty. This is my toy. You can't even control it!"

"I can!"

"Really?"

Lucy calmed down and avoided Red Hook's gaze as he mumbled an answer.

"Well… Not without the magic circle…."

"Hah! Bad luck, kitty! If you can't control it, it will only be a mindless thing that will attack you all the time."

"Toz…!"

Lucy bent down and looked Toz in the eyes while looking as if he was on the verge of crying.

"T-that's…."

"Hnng!"

Toz hurriedly closed his eyes to escape Lucy's teary pleading. A moment longer, and he would have succumbed to Lucy's widened pupils and yearning gaze. Toz steeled his heart and finally answered Lucy's pleading.

"I-I'm sorry, Lucy."

Toz felt his gut wrench as he rejected Lucy. But he knew he had to do it. Even if they somehow managed to make Red Hook acquiesce and give up the mini Blood Fiend, they didn't have a way to control it.

Without the magic circle, the Blood Fiend had lost most of its power. The demonic energy that leaked left its body until only enough remained to sustain its shape, which left the Blood Fiend at a few decimeters tall.

But it was still a transcendent being. If they weren't careful, Toz and the others could get hurt. All in all, the Blood Fiend wasn't something Toz thought they could handle without unnecessary amounts of stress. Besides, Toz kind of wanted to get as far away as possible from the tiny humanoid of blood. He couldn't understand what Red Hook and Lucy found so appealing about it. And based on the expressions of Asilean and Scrael, they also weren't very interested in the Blood Fiend.

"You understand, right, Lucy?"

"..."

Lucy curled up in Toz's hair.

"You know, we already got a lot of toys a little while ago."

"...!"

Lucy didn't say anything, but Toz noticed he got the tiny black cat's attention.

"Besides, you wanted the Blood Fiend so you could play with Mindle like that again, right? But you know, Mindle can't become that big whenever she wants."

"Really?"

"Yeah. So, instead of getting hung up on the Blood Fiend, let's find another way. Alright?"

"Mmm… Okay."

Toz's soothing voice as he persuaded Lucy seemed to have worked as Lucy hesitantly relented. But he held out a paw in Red Hook's direction.

Red Hook was unsure of what to do at first. But Toz gestured at her before she could shake hands with Lucy. After quickly realizing what Toz meant, Red Hook rummaged through her pockets and storage items until she found something she could give to Lucy in exchange for him letting her have the Blood Fiend.

Eventually, Red Hook found something, but she hesitated to pull it out. Lucy seemed to have noticed that hesitation as he gestured with his paw by curling it.

Red Hook chewed her lip slightly before sighing and taking out what looked like a fruit.

Lucy accepted it, even if it was too big for his paw, and inspected it with a curious gaze. Neither of the two said anything, but Toz did.

"What is it?"

"I don't want to tell you."

"Then don't. I'm not that interested anyways."

"Tch. I'll tell you if you give me a massage."

"Huh? Didn't I just say I'm not interested?"

"Fine! You strike a hard bargain. Just give me something, and I'll tell you what it is."

Red Hook obviously wanted to brag or something about what it was that she had given to Lucy, so Toz obliged and gave her something. He gave her a head pat.

Red Hook was too stunned to react and let Toz's hand land on her blood-red hair. However, it didn't stay there for long before she slapped it away with an angry scowl on her face.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I gave you a head pat. Now tell me what you gave Lucy."

"You!"

"Don't tell me! Are you going back on your word as the Pirate King?"

"Grr! NO!"

"Then tell us!"

"Argh!"

Red Hook seemed to calm down a few moments after unleashing a shout of frustration. She looked at Toz and the cat on his head cradling a reddish-orange fruit.

"It's some kind of weapon."

"..."

"..."

"That's all?"

"Yeah."

"How disappointing."

"Hmph."