D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

"Do you think this is some sort of shonen battle manga where everyone gets inspired by important fights?" retorted Lily.

"That\'s not a no…" said Kat with a wink.

Lily blew out a long stream of air threw her closed lips. "Fine… I did actually realise a few things. The main thing is the difference between shadow and darkness magic. Or at least, I think I\'ve worked out the point of shadow magic. It\'s so easy to manipulate my shadow now that I\'m used to it.

"Even if we compare it to paper that I\'ve created entirely with my own mana… I still can\'t get it to move as smoothly as my shadow magic. Which leads me to believe that what you really want to be doing with shadow magic is mostly transforming your own shadow, and occasionally shadows from other things.

"What I need are spells that let me change the… hmm… I\'m not quite sure what the right word for it is but I guess \'specifics\' of my shadow works well enough? Like that attack against Lily where I made my shadow into a larger version of myself. Sure it looked like I cut her well…

"But that was a HUGE amount of my mana and it was a direct hit too. If I\'d had some way of sharpening the claws on that shadow cat it might have managed to take her arm right off. Alternatively, if I\'d managed to make it more robust then I could\'ve avoided taking damage from Blue\'s attack… and maybe tanked a hit from March.

Less sure about that second one… but I could at least see it as a possibility.

"See… these shadow darts that I have? It\'s just wasting mana the way I have to cast it. They\'re no more deadly then one of the razor sharp paper fragments… but I can summon at least four times the amount of those. So yeah… really not worth the mana. I\'m thinking that shadow magic might lean into \'imitation\' type stuff? So if I turn a shadow into a sword I can stab people.

A shadow hand can grab people…

"And at higher levels I\'m expecting my shadow to be able to do more exotic things like burning people with shadowy fire, or by setting their shadow on fire with a fake torch. It\'s probably why I was able to come up with vague ideas for paper and \'ink\' magic using shadow magic as a bridge.

"The shadow magic helps with the \'imitation\' or perhaps \'imagination\' part, while the paper acts as a medium to hold the instructions because well… that\'s what paper does it records things. Honestly I\'m very excited to delve back into that paper book because I have a feeling there will be a bunch of new spells…

"Though if you don\'t have anything you want I\'d love some shadow spells from Thyme. As I said, the darkness spells we got are better then nothing… but they\'re not shadow spells which seems to make a big difference. Still, it\'s not a huge deal. I can… maybe work out a spell? Not sure if I know enough about the runes needed for shadow spells but I\'m not in a rush anyway,"

"No it\'s fine," said Kat. "I don\'t have anything I want this time either,"

"I feel kinda bad taking both rewards though. Or I guess all three? The paper books last time, shadow books this time, and Marigold\'s offer of stuff," mumbled Lily.

"Bah, I don\'t care. Heck, I don\'t even keep track of what I\'m being paid for these jobs. Which… maybe I should? I\'d feel worse about not contributing to the household funds if either Vivian or Nixilei had financial issues… but they\'re both well off so it\'s just… hard to get it into my head that it\'s something to worry about.

"Plus… I don\'t know about you but the idea of moving out of their house… even if I\'ve only recently moved in… is not one I like to think about. I think it\'s a matter of how long we\'ll live. I certainly don\'t want to move out until Sylvie graduates high school… which might be sooner rather then later if she\'s allowed to skip years now that she\'s not at the orphanage.

But… yeah when you\'re potentially immortal and you spend most of your time off on missions?

"It just feels weird to think about moving out. At least for me. Sorry, I know this is a bit of a tangent but it just came to me when I was trying to explain my point. Um… how do you feel about it?" explained Kat.

"This isn\'t just your way of getting me to accept getting an extra prize right?" asked Lily suspiciously.

"Don\'t be silly. I\'m perfectly happy to use my rewards to get you something nice, it\'s just a bit more direct this way. Besides, you NEED books on your magic so I\'d probably go out of my way to find some if Thyme wasn\'t so conveniently offering stuff like that. Well… assuming Thyme has shadow magic books. I suspect it\'s a safe bet though," answered Kat.

"Fine, I get your point," said Lily as she rolled her eyes. Not particularly mad. Kat was still running her fingers through Lily\'s hair after all. It was hard for Lily to be annoyed at the moment. "As for moving out… yeah I don\'t know? I\'d sort of wanted to get away from my parents for a while.

"Sure I love my parents but there attitude towards you has been AWFUL. Which… well it\'s getting fixed so I\'m not as concerned… but before this whole magic stuff happened I… well… ok. Ok, so… I don\'t know that I would\'ve had the courage to go through with it but I had all sorts of plans for moving away for university and living together.

"Of course, I\'m not sure I could\'ve survived the mortification of sharing a flat with you had I not finally confessed… it would\'ve been a wonderful hell but… yeah not sure I would\'ve had the courage to actually ask.

"What I\'m getting at is that YES I did have some plans to leave town but… with all the changes that we\'ve gone through? Both physically and socially? I can\'t say I really know what to do now. I guess… buying a house is very much a possibility if that\'s what we want to do… but… yeah it\'s weird. I guess I\'m not too interested in that anymore.

I wouldn\'t want to leave before I fully repair my relationship with my parents… and even if I did want to leave, which I\'m not sure I still do, there\'s no way I\'d leave without you,"

Kat gave a small, slightly pained laugh. "Of course, I wouldn\'t have it any other way,"

"Bah, I know why you want to watch over Sylvie as long as possible. It doesn\'t bother me now. It might have before if I saw it as the main thing preventing me from escaping my issues and having the chance to live with you… but it just as likely could\'ve been a great excuse to stay at home and not say anything about my plans. I was awfully shy you know…" said Lily with a wry smile.

"Of course, you\'ve been getting better. I\'m not sure if you\'d have been willing to admit something like that back when we started dating so it seems like my master class in embarrassment management has been doing you way," said Kat.

"You just like to tease me!" shot back Lily.

"Well you seem to enjoy being teased," retorted Kat. "So I don\'t see any problem with it," Lily pouted. "Fine fine, I won\'t tease you too much right now. Though… you did talk a lot about how you felt BEFORE in regards to moving, but not really what you want to do now,"

"I said I didn\'t know," grumbled Lily. "What else am I meant to say? You make a good point about the whole \'not being around because of Contracts\' thing. I can really see why it\'s something they force all demons to do now. It forces demons out of the house… and I guess if you were less ready for that sort of thing they wouldn\'t send you on such long missions,"

"Honestly at least part of that is because I gave out my beacons so early. I doubt that\'s particularly uncommon… but it has been a large contributor to my longer missions for the tournament stuff… and then once that became \'my thing\' between the tournament and Minor… then I guess it\'s become normal enough that I want to keep doing it regardless so D.E.M.O.N.S supplies,"

"I suppose so…" mumbled Lily. "Things have worked out well though haven\'t they?"

"Yeah. They really have," said Kat with a grin on her face, almost taunting Lily. Lily smiled back and tried to pull Kat down by her shoulders… which really just resulted in Lily being pulled upwards. That didn\'t matter to Lily though, it got her to where she wanted. Face to face with Kat. Kat just kept grinning until Lily closed that last bit of distance and their lips met in a kiss.