Ryo Knetegawa's Secondary Magic Training[private]

He returned to the girl at the front desk and paid for the deck of tarot card. He and Lily left the shop once more all of the gentlemen and some of the gentlewomen callers were all flocking to Lily. She was soaking up the attention, but Ryo truly wanted nothing to do with it, and even sought to avoid it. As the pair walked with a string of people behind them Ryo flipped through the deck and sure enough he found the card he was looking for.

He smiled and held it up looking it over very closely. He finally looked at Lily with an annoyed face "Tell them to leave please. I would very much like this to be done without a whole entire crowd watching me. Its more than a little off putting." Lily sighed as she nodded "You're a total stick in the mud. Fine whatever." she looked to the crowd and smiled "Bye everyone!" all of the crowd seemed to be mezmerized and left the pair alone. When they were alone she looked to him smiling "Okay. Well we are alone. Why not try to summon her?"

Ryo blinked in confusion as he looked at the cat tarot card. He shrugged his shoulders and slowly concentrated his magic into the card. He could feel the card molding and even folding in his hand. He looked down and saw that it was a key. He looked at Lily who was simply waiting and watching what was going to happen and he swiped the key through the air. He watched as something clearly unlocked and a door opened. Out of it appeared another scantily clad woman, but she was feline in her appearance.

Ryo's mouth fell agap as he stared at the woman he had summoned. She was standing there dressed in a bikini that was made of fur. Blue fur at that. It barely covered her sensative bits, but it kept people guessing well enough. However upon closer inspection Ryo realized that her whole body with the exception of her face was covered in soft silvery white fur. Her legs ended in strange animal hybrid feet with toes and claws. Her hands did much the same thing with strange hands in general. On top of her head were two blue ears probing for the sounds around her. Her long light black hair was pulled back in a ponytail with a pink bow. After a moment of staring she spoke "Lily who is this sorry looking human who reeks of dogs?"

Lily giggled softly as she clung onto Ryo's back "He's a celestial spirit mage...well kinda. He's kinda strange, but powerful. He didn't even fall for my sexy body. He needs our help and well he asked if I knew any spirits so I told him to summon you Miyu." Miyu's large bushy tail flicked slightly as she looked at Ryo smiling "Oh is that all? Well sure!" she smiled and mewed slightly holding her paw up and winking at him "I'm Miyu! I'm called a Nekomata. If you want to make a deal then that's fine!" She sauntered over to Ryo sniffing him slightly wrinkling her nose "You smell like dog...I don't like it, but seeing as you don't have a dog with you it'll be okay."

Ryo slowly regained his composure and smiled at Miyu "I am glad to hear that Miyu." Ryo realized that her name sounded like 'mew' and he couldn't help but smile. Still he wasn't going to laugh about that out loud while he was around her. He thought it might put a damper on the fact that he wanted Miyu on his side. Presently he spoke "So Miyu what are the conditions of the contract that you want to form with me?"

Miyu mewed softly and put her claw to her chin thinking to herself. As she thought her tail swished back and forth it was a very interesting sight to see. After a moment she spoke "I won't work if there are dogs around. I won't fight them or anything like that either. You can't summon me in, or too near water. Also I reserve the right to appear without you officially summoning me. Take it or leave it." Ryo thought to himself and although it would make things harder for him he nodded his head lightly "Very well then I can agree to those conditions."

She clapped her paws together and hugged him rubbing her head against the side of his own and his neck purring softly "Oh goodie! I know we are gonna have lots of fun! All you need to do is keep me happy then you shall see I am the most amazing spirit ever!" Lily frowned and grabbed Ryo pulling him towards her "Wait a second! I found him first! he is mine!"

Miyu mewed as she looked at Lily in turn "Awww. that's not fair! You get all the hunky looking guys Lily. You should learn how to share! After all he's going to be summoning both of us so that means we should learn to get along!" She then pulled Ryo closer to her pressing him tightly against her chest "I want to spend time with the new summoner! So now it's my turn!"

Lily stomped her pink booted foot and huffed loudly as she slapped Miyu with her tail and pulled Ryo back to her "You don't get to do that just because! I am the one he summoned first so I get to spend time with him now! That's fair!" Miyu hissed and pulled Ryo back to her "You were summoned first so that means you've already spent so much time with him! Now it's my turn!!" Lily was about to try and take him back but she missed and gropped Miyu instead. They both gasped and looked down to see that Ryo wasn't around anymore. They frantically searched for him to find him standing with his arms folded across his chest "Are you two finished then? I'd like to remind you that I am a man, and I can make up my own mind thank you very much."

Both of the female summoned spirits blushed and rubbed the back of their heads looking down at the ground and they both nodded their heads in unison "Sorry..." Lily muttered in a very hurt sounding tone. Miyu's tail was wrapped around her leg and her ears had fallen slightly "Y-yeah...M-Me too..."

Ryo nodded his head softly with this little dispute handled he smiled at the both of them "Alright then. Now that we have a common understanding we can all spend some time with each other. I don't particularly have a great interest in much around here, but whatever knowledge you can pass along to me is very much appreciated. Perhaps Miyu you might have some information. Lily hasn't been contracted in this kind of way before."

Miyu's ears perked up as she heard that she might be of use and she nodded her head slightly "Alright. Well I've only made a contract with one other individual, but I know this you need to be careful. Certain spirits aren't as nice and wonderful as I am. Some of them can be evil, and some of them are just downright useless. Now I won't let you summon any useless spirits, or spirits I just don't like for that matter. Still not important. What is important is that you never lose, or give up our keys. If you do that you also give up our contract, and that is a very bad thing for you."

This revelation caused Ryo to look at where he stored the cards for both of these women with a bit of fear in his eyes. He had no idea that he would be penalized in such a way, and that simple fact would haunt him in the future. Still he nodded his head taking all of the information in at once "Very well then. It seems we have a basic understanding. I shall be sure to ask Master Talen if there is anything more we need to know. For now we simply need to determine what my next step is from here."

Ryo thought long and hard about his next move. He could dismiss both of the summons he just obtained, but something told him it wouldn't be so easy to do that with Miyu, but he still thought about it. He then shook that thought away as he refocused on the matter at hand. He looked to the two girls and cleared his throat "Alright. I'll settle your little debate. Lily I have spent a lot of time with you today, and frankly i can't handle all the attention we recieve from the lustful men...and women...so I want you to go back to the spirit world for now. I will summon you in the future."

Lily sighed but nodded her head lightly as her wings folded behind her almost like they were sad as well. "Alright...Well Be sure you call me to fight some hunky guys so I can prove to the world I am the Succubi Queen." WIth that she vanished and Ryo sighed in relief. He then looked to Miyu who seemed to be happy with how things came out and she sauntered over to him leaning against him "So tell me. nya. What are we going to do now?" Ryo looked past her and up at the sky slightly where he could see the castle like form of the Lamia Scale guild hall "We are going to pay a visit to the one person who helped me become a better mage, and the one who helped me learn this new magic. Master Talen."

Miyu looked at Ryo with a very confused look on her face "Who is Talen? Is he cute? OH does he like cats?!" she was about to ask more when she heard a tweeting bird and she looked up quickly her eyes widening with joy as she started to hunt the bird mewing playfully as she kept after it. Ryo just watched her with both amazement, annoyance, and just sheer disbelief. He thought that her condition about letting her do cat things was a joke. If anything at all he thought a catnap, maybe playing with a ball of yarn on stressful days. Not this, not in a million years this.

He was about to speak when Miyu finally jumped up and grabbed the bird in her paw and stuffed it into her mouth. Chewing it with a smile on her face and her eyes closed. Ryo shuddered ever so softly at the rather repulsive sight. He was glad that Miyu would always be able to feed herself, but he wished that she hadn't just eaten that bird live like that. Presently he spoke trying to move things along "Well Miyu. We need to get going if we wish to meet with Master Talen at what would be a reasonable time." Miyu looked to him licking the back of her paw and rubbing her face with the wet paw "awww alright then. Sure thing let's get going." the pair of them turned and walked towards the Lamia Scale guild hall. It truly wasn't that hard to find seeing as it was by far the largest building in the town.

Ryo stood there outside the Lamia Scale guild hall and simply marveled at the grand structure. He couldn't believe that something like this had been built. It was so imposing, so marvelous it truly looked like the castle of someone who could easily call himself the ruler of a country. This was a guild hall however, and Ryo had felt this source of wonder before. It was when he first beheld his guild hall that was soaring high in the sky. He looked to Miyu who was just gawking in her own sense of wonder. He smiled at her nodding "This is impressive. My own guild hall is not as tall, but i'm sure it is as big, and it flies."

Miyu looked to Ryo with horror and shock "How much magic are mages capable of?! Making something like this fly?! That's downright god like!" this got a chuckle from him. He wasn't sure how he felt about that idea, but it was truly interesting to think of himself as a god-like entitiy. Still he wasn't going to say anything of the sort out loud. Instead he nodded smiling "Well Master Talen is inside of this castle. So we are going to go inside and find him. Then we can see what my next task is. So please behave yourself Miyu." she blinked and nodded her head as he began to walk towards the doors.

Ryo slowly opened the doors to the guild hall and stepped inside his spurs clicking and the sound reverberating off of every surface. He couldn't understand why it was all made of marble, but it was spectacular. He and Miyu stood in the foyer of the guild hall just staring amazed at the interior.

Talen sat in the Lamia Scale guild hall, wondering if he had done the right thing. He had told Ryo, his latest student, to find two Celestial Spirits and form contracts with them. To Talen this seemed like an easy task, he had been doing it for almost his entire life, but he wondered if he had given Ryo enough information to complete the task. The Celestial Spirit mage thought back to when he had trained Lily, another Lamia Scale mage, and how he had not told her enough about contracts and summoning. It had slowed her training down a little bit, but with her he had at least waited to see if she needed anymore help, with Ryo he had just left him in the middle of the woods.

Melissa, who was sitting across from Talen, gave him an annoyed look. They were supposed to be playing cards, but instead he was looking at the door to the stupid guild hall. “Talen!” the spirit said for what felt like the hundredth time, “Focus on the game.” Talen turned his attention back to the cards, and made a half heart and foolish move. Melissa sighed and looked into Talen's eyes. Melissa could tell that something was bothering him, and she was sure that she knew what it was. “So, I take it you don't trust Medusa?” Talen gave her a surprised look and shook his head. “Of course I trust her.” “Then relax,” Melissa said, “she taught that mage everything that he needed to know about contracts and spirits. If you trust her, then you should not have anything to worry about.” Talen sighed and nodded, “You are right.” with that Talen returned his full attention to the game.

Talen and Melissa had been playing different games of chance, Starting with cards, and now dice, when Talen heard the large doors of he Lamia Scale guild hall creek open. Talen looked up and saw Ryo, and a female figure, standing in the doorway. Talen got up and walked over to greet Ryo and his new friend. “I can see that your search went well, tell me all about it, and introduce me to your friend here.” Talen said gesturing to the girl standing next Ryo. Talen noticed with a little surprise that she had a tail and cat ears.

Ryo turned and saw that Talen was indeed there and that was a great relief to him as a whole. He didn't want to be trespassing in a guild hall for fear they would think him an enemy and kill him. He looked to Talen nodding his head "Well to be honest it was a very interesting experience. It appears that my tarot cards are the keys I use to summon my spirits from their world. I was caught off guard when I summoned my first spirit, but she was a wonderfully nice girl. Now as for this girl this is Miyu the Nekomata."

Miyu smiled and leaned against Talen nuzzling him with her cheek. This close Talen could see and even feel that Miyu's whole body was covered in fur and that was all she had to cover her rather sensative areas. She was purring ever so softly as she nuzzled him "Awww you're so cute! No wonder you have so many students. Thank you for sending him out. I needed to get away and have some more fun." She continued to nuzzle him and purr, all of this to Ryo's embarassment.

After a minute Ryo cleared his throat lightly and spoke "Miyu I think that master Talen and Melissa aren't very comfortable with you doing something like that. Now please behave yourself." She turned his attention to Melissa hoping she wouldn't hit him or anything like that. Presently he just looked to Talen with a final smile "Well then. I've done as you instructed. Is that all there is for me to learn master Talen? Or perhaps you have some other lesson for me to learn."

When Ryo said that his keys were cards, Talen was a little confused, but in the end simply shrugged. "I have not heard of cards being keys before, but as long as you found spirits that you can have a  connection with, it does not really make a difference how you summon them." Melissa stood and looked at Ryo and said thoughtfully, "I have heard of objects other then keys being used to summon Celestial Spirits before, but it is not very common." Melissa stopped and adopted a thoughtful expression, "You must be very connected to your cards in order for that to have happened."

Talen now turned his attention to the spirit that accompanied Ryo, and was a little surprised when the feline spirit came over and hugged him. When she was this close Talen could see that her cloths were actually a thin layer of fur. Talen blushed for a moment when he realized this, but instead of pushing her away, he scratched behind her left ear, saying "It's nice to meet you Miyu. I see, like me, you seem to attract interesting female spirits Ryo." Melissa shot Talen an annoyed look, "At least we wear cloths." The spirit smiled at Miyu, "Nice to meet you Miyu, I am Melissa. I am sorry but I have not heard of you in the spirit world."

"So," Talen said after a moment, "you mentioned that you managed to summon another spirit, could we meet her? After that we can talk about finishing your training."

Miyu looked to Melissa with a frown as she disembraced from Talen despite his wonderful scritches and the fact that she wanted more of them "Well I haven't heard of you either. You know we don't all get around as much as others. I just happen to be picker than you." Ryo sighed as he heard the potential for an arguement, but when Talen wanted to meet his other spirit Ryo's heart almost fell out of his body. True he was proud of his accomplishments, but he didn't know how Talen would react to Lily, or how she would react to him.

Still with Talen's new position Ryo wasn't about to talk back to him, and nodded his head "Very well then Master Talen. We can indeed." he summoned the card from inside his jacket sleeve, but to Talen it would seem as if the card mage had pulled the card out of the thin air. Melissa might be fast enough to catch it if she chose to pay attention to Ryo's movements. With the card in hand Ryo forced his magical aura into the card and a royal purple glow came off of the card as it began to fold, and mold itself into the shape of a key. Ryo swiped the key through the air while he spoke "Gate of Lust Open!"

With the strange sound of a woman's moan the door appeared. A giant pink door with a red heart on it brandishing devil horns and a tail to match. The doors opened and the so called 'Succubus Queen' came sauntering out of the portal. The moment she was clearly able to be seen her magic was already in effect. To both Talen and Ryo she appeared as the most beautiful woman they could possibly imagine. She rushed up and hugged Ryo squeaking with delight "I knew my hunky master wouldn't let that stupid kitty cat keep him away from me." Ryo gulped as he held his arms open and away so as not to give the illusion he was as Lily painted him to be. He then spoke in a soft, but stuttering voice "M-Master Talen...Meet Lily...t-the succubus Queen." This caused Lily to look over to Talen with her eyes aglow trying to read his reaction.

Melissa had been smiling at Miyu, until the feline spirit had insulted the gambler spirit and, more importantly to her, the mages who had once held her key. Sure some of them had not been great people, but she took pride in many of the mages and had considered most of them friends. "Exscuse me?!" Melissa said putting a hand on the deck of cards at her waist, "Well at least I..." "Calm down Melissa," Talen said with a slight chuckle. "Oh sure," Melissa said rolling her eyes, "A naked cat girl spirit rubs up on you and you just take her side." Talen blushed when she said this, but still answered with an annoyed voice, "You know that is not why."

The spirit and mage stopped their bickering when Ryo said that he would summon the other spirit that he had a contract with. When the succubus queen stepped from her doorway to the spirit world Talen was not surprised when that she was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. One of Talen's teammates also had a succubus as a summon, and he was not as in awe of her beauty as most men were. "Its nice to meet you Lilith," Talen said politely, trying his best not to stare. Melissa shook her head, saying with a smile, "Well Ryo, these two look nice, but can they fight? You are in a guild right, that means you will have to fight." Despite the fact that Talen wanted to say something, he remained quiet. He knew that she had a good point. Besides if she found a reason for Ryo not to be trained, his training would stop then and their, and he deserved to defend himself.

Ryo watched the interaction with a sinking heart and he shook his head hiding his face with his hat. He was ashamed that they had started a fight and he shook his head lightly in deep shame. He couldn't figure out how to fix the situation so he just ignored the arguement between Miyu and Melissa. He didn't want either Melissa or Talen to be mad at him or upset with him so he was very upset with Miyu. However, he was quickly distracted by this when Lily was actually summoned. He let her hug him and watched her size him up. He watched her size him up. When Lily sized up Talen Ryo's heart skipped a beat. He slowly manuvered himself to stand between him and Talen knowing Lily's personality.

True to his thought her hair began to lift around her snapping her eyes turned read and her tail began to grow and change. It became a giant mouth filled with gleaming fangs. Ryo moved her head to focus on him "Lily he's a summoner. That's why he's not affected. Don't go crazy!" She sighed and stepped back her tail staying the same as she glanced to Melissa "I may not be as strong as you miss Gambler, but I am still the queen of the succubi. I can fight." Miyu looked to Melissa with a frown her claws becoming longer and coated with her magical power "Don't talk down about me. I can fight just as well as you can, and perhaps even better than you can."

Ryo cleared his throat rather loudly and stomped his boot on the floor causing both summons to pay attention. He then looked to Melissa and nodded his head "They are both very capable fighters. I've tasted Lily's fighting ability first hand, and I know very well that Miyu is able to fight. Even if she wasn't she would find another way to be of use to me in some way I am sure." He looked to Miyu and Lily "You both need to be politer to those who worked hard to teach me this awesome magic that let's me summon you." He then looked to Melissa once more tipping his hat "Melissa-sama I'd appreciate it if you had more faith in your fellow spirits. It's very rude to assume that all I need a spirit for is fighting. That's not all you offer to Master Talen so don't assume that it is all they have to offer me. It's not nice." With his little soap box speech finished he looked to Talen taking his hat off of his head and put it over his heart "Master Talen is there anything further you wish to teach me? I am eager to learn."

Talen may not have been surprised by Lilith's beauty, but he was by her ferocity. When the Succubus queen changed and looked menacingly at Talen, Melissa put an arm in front of the summoner and stepped forward in case she tried to attack. The two of them physically relaxed when Ryo managed to get Lilith to calm down.

As Miyu and Lilith answered Melissa's, the gambler simply crossed her arms and looked at the other two spirits skeptically. It was not until Ryo himself spoke that Melissa uncrossed her arms. When he finished, Melissa sighed and looked Ryo in the eyes, "It appears as though I was wrong about you Ryo, I guess you really can become a Celestial Spirit mage after all." She now smiled at Ryo, "I can not stand a mage that would let someone, anyone, insult spirits that they have a contract with, we are all useful in our own ways. As you said I helped to raise Talen, in fact I did not start fighting until he joined this guild. What I want you to take away from this is that all spirits have a purpose and can help, even in a small way." Melissa turned her attention to the two spirits with Ryo and her expression turned sheepish, "Sorry about that, but i needed t test Ryo, and that seemed like the best way." Next She looked to Talen, "Alright I will admit it, Ryo will make a good Celestial Spirit mage, He has my approval." Talen gave Melissa a smile, "Told you," Melissa just rolled her eyes, "Well Ryo, that was the last yes I needed, as far as I and all of my spirits are conserned, your training is  over and you are officialy a Celestial Spirit mage." With that Talen stood silently to allow the news to sink in.

Ryo smiled as he looked to his two spirits slowly putting his hat back on top of his head "Lily, Miyu, say goodbye to Melissa-sama, and I shall call upon you again when you are needed. Thank you both for behaving to a point. I appreciate it." Lily shrugged "It's fine. She's a man hunter in her own right." With that she blew a big heart shapped kiss to both Ryo and Talen before bursting into demonic chibi hearts. Miyu walked over to Melissa and hissed slightly before she smiled "You are forgiven. No hard feelings here. Keep after your partner, and I will keep after mine. Even if he does reek of dogs." WIth that she vanished without another word or sound.

The way the two of them vanished caused Ryo to bust out laughing. It took him a full two minutes to get hismelf under control and he nodded his head "That was a lot easier than I thought. I never thought I'd get them to leave so easily. Oh wow...This has been some of the best time I've ever spent as a Mage." he looked to Talen and to Melissa with a wide smile nodding his head "I am happy to have met the both of you. As far as I am concerned you're my friends." He produced two cards from the 'air' and thew them slowly to the both of them. Even if neither of them caught the card it would attach itself to them. He smiled as the cards arrived to their intended targets "If you ever need me. Just drop that card anywhere. I promise you this I can find it, and I will return it to you and see what help you need. Just trust in this and I'll be happy to help you. I'm a friend who won't abandon you even if you lose your way. Thank you both so very much. I must return home however my love is waiting for me. Good day master Talen, Melissa-sama thank you for everything." he turned on his heels and made his way out of the Lamia Scale guild hall. On the cards left behind was a picture of Ryo and the word friend was written on it. Not only did Ryo obtain a powerful magic, but he obtained two new friends he considered this a job well done.