BXBX NOVEL Chapter 367: A Cosy Cottage
Chapter 367: A Cosy Cottage
*So system, what is the word? Oh, and can you broadcast the answer to Kamiko as well.*
User Kamiko and User Kat will find that during Punishments the relevant User is unable to leave the current Hub until completion of the Punishment or Punishments in question. If a User requires housing D.E.M.O.N.S will provide a temporary room.
*Huh, that\'s a shame. It means I won\'t be able to see everyone for a bit. I should really send them a message explaining that I suppose-* Kat\'s train of thought was cut off when Kamiko let out a high-pitched squeal. Kat was instantly on guard, looking around for danger, until she saw the large smile on her friend\'s face.
"What?" asked Kat.
"You can come over to my house for a sleepover! Oh, I\'m so excited. I\'ve never had anyone who\'d actually want to stay the night. I mean, sure I thought I did a few times but… well I don\'t need to talk about that, so don\'t worry. Oh, I\'m so so, excited." Kamiko froze her celebration. "That is… um, of course if you want to come?"
Kamiko\'s eyes seemed larger than normal as she gazed up at Kat with a pleading sensation she could feel tugging her in. *Damn, she\'s pretty good. Sylvie training doesn\'t seem to have provided me a resistance. It\'s not quite as adorable but it clearly means so much to her that my reason is willing to go along with it. See this, this is how succubus powers should work.* "Of course I do Kamiko" said Kat with a smile on her own, which, even though she\'d been fighting the urge to agree, was in no way forced.
"Great!" said Kamiko as she grabbed onto Kat\'s arm and then suddenly a blast of fire surrounded them. It was different then interdimensional travel. Instead of a soft floating sensation that stretched on over the course of a few minutes this was a quick snap, mostly of pink flame, before Kat\'s vision cleared.
Kat\'s jaw dropped when it did. *Whatever I was expecting for a house. It wasn\'t this.* In front of Kat was the quintessential cottage in most ways. Kamiko\'s house seemed to be a small stone building, that was surrounded by a small but lovingly cared for garden. First, the house.
It looked to be made of carved stone that had been stacked together. It was a nice mix of colours, mostly varying shades of soft grey with the occasional splash of light red or darker black that kept things interesting. It was shaped somewhat like a child\'s drawing of a house, though the front door was on the side of the house instead of the front, with a small extra pointed window up and to the left of the door, that must lead to the attic.
The roofing was all made out of the same black stone, even darker than the darkest supporting stone, and while you\'d think that might make the cottage take on a darker feel, the interlining of the tiles helped alleviate that alongside the garden.
Which was perhaps the true centrepiece of the cottage. There was no fence that surrounded the property, instead it was a carefully trimmed rose hedge that reached Kat\'s waist. The strange thing about it was that the roses changed colour slowly as they made their way around the perimeter. Starting with bright white, over to pink, and then a red, before the rose bushes were hidden from view.
Beyond that, was a small path to the door that had short bushes of red and white Starlias Dahlia\'s that had a bright yellow centre surrounded by two layers of six leaves each that had red on the outside and base that bled into a white centre. Off to the right side was a large tree that stood taller than Kamiko\'s cottage house. Kat didn\'t know this, but it was a large Magnolia Grandiflora that had soft pink petals and a number of branches ranging from thin and spindly to twice the thickness of Kat\'s leg.
"Wow. This place is beautiful" said Kat.
"Naw, you really think so?" said Kamiko looking away embarrassed. "A lot of people call it over done, or not worth the effort, or a disgrace of a front yard"
Kat frowned. "Ok, I was maybe following you with the force two points, but I really don\'t understand the third" said Kat.
"Oh well, um, see" Kamiko gestured to her neighbours as she talked. In the yards next to Kamiko\'s house were yards field with intricately carved stonework. "The style shifted over a long…" Kamiko coughed and looked frantically around for a second. "they changed style over the course of my mother\'s life after she bought the cottage. She… well there was a bit of a… obviously it wasn\'t a lie, but some… misleading things said about the area when the sale was made.
"See, the area had gotten together and agreed to switch away from gardens you see. They were all having to spend too much time tending them, as the massive amount of greenery was reacting with each other and the demonic energy in this place and causing some problems.
"And the people who lived here weren\'t exactly high rank at the time. Now, in comes the couple who used to own this cottage. I don\'t know anything about them, but the story I was told by Mum is that they said they couldn\'t take care of their garden anymore so they were selling it and the house.
"Now, the implication was that Mum could take over the gardening like she\'d always dreamed. A lovely little cottage house, away from her own family, and an old, and, well it was somewhat unmaintained at the time, but nothing a little work couldn\'t fix, garden. So she bought the house with dad soon after.
"The problem was, the section had already agreed to either remove their gardens or move and let the next person do it. They\'d all agreed to this so… when Mum started fixing the garden it raised some eyebrows…
"And then when she started to really spruce it up while everyone else was tearing their own down it started a massive dispute. In the end though, Mum hadn\'t agreed to anything, and they couldn\'t force her into it because, well I said this was a low Rank area, mostly for older Rank 2 demons, and she was Rank 4 at the time.
"So she basically told them they had no choice but to let her continue with the garden, because they couldn\'t stop her even if they all attacked. I\'m not sure that was strictly true, but it worked.
"Nowadays… the area has a lot of stonework, and all new residents have to agree to no gardens but… Mum still got away with it, and she tends to it in her free time… personally, I suspect, and don\'t tell Mum I said this but… I think she knew the whole time. Even though the family was trying pull one over on her, I think she knew anyway and agreed to the whole thing for the extra challenge.
"This is further supported by the fact that every now and again people try to burn down our garden, or trash it in some other way. It never works, and everything is always fixed in a day, or two days max. Mum grumbles a tiny bit the morning it happens, then she has this massive smile like the cat that ate the canary shortly afterwards."
"Huh, your mum seems like a really interesting person. Will I be likely to meet her while I\'m here?" asked Kat.
Kamiko tapped her tail against her side. "Well… that really depends. I\'m not sure she expected me home because of the punishments, and most of the others are out doing their own things, so she\'s probably at the hospital."
Kat nodded. "Hey, how many siblings DO you have anyway?"
"Well… it depends how you want to count things. I\'m the youngest of my sisters though, I\'m actually not the lowest Rank. Oh, and I have no brothers. The reason I said it depends on how you want to count it is twofold.
"One is that my oldest sister turned out to be my great great aunt who had a really bad reaction with a strange artifact that turned her into a child. The process was reversed… but she\'d lost all her memories so instead they turned her back into a child once more and my parents raised her as their adopted daughter.
"We weren\'t told about this for quite a while until one of mum\'s other family let it slip, and let me tell you, Mum was not happy. The reason being, is that, to simulate childhood a really really high-Ranking demon stripped Elmony, that\'s her name, back down to Rank 1. It\'s practically impossible to do, or so I\'ve been told, so I\'m not sure how they managed it, but they did.
"Anyway, everyone had supposedly agreed that they\'d never bring it up and treat her like her own person because… well she pretty much is. From what I\'ve heard, Elemony, and Great Great Aunt Elmony aren\'t anything alike at all. So… yeah not sure what she counts as" said Kamiko.
"Wow. Your family is weird" said Kat.
Kamiko sighed. "The others aren\'t quite that bad…"