Demonic Po*nstar System

Chapter 990: A Heart of Bottomless Love

Kaiden was drifting at the edge of his nap in the men’s bath when bare feet padded across the wet stone and stopped, all together, a respectful distance from the water.

Then nothing happened.

No cannonball, no ambush, no gremlin wedging herself under his arm. Just steam, lantern light, and the weight of five gazes he could feel through his eyelids.

He opened one eye.

His five lovers stood clustered at the pool’s edge, little towels folded on their heads, uncharacteristically timid. Nyx was touching the edge of hers with two fingers, visibly uncomfortable. Luna studied the ceiling beams, arms crossed beneath her petite chest. Calypso had her hands clasped behind her back, a demoness doing her best impression of small.

Kaiden sat up, instantly awake. ”Okay, this is unsettling. Who died?”

”Nobody, Kai.” Nyx’s purr came out at half power. ”It’s just... you asked for some time to yourself. Your first in weeks. We lasted only, like, fifty minutes, and that was with Aria watching the clock for us.”

”We barged in on you,” Aria confessed, lacing her fingers together in front of her. ”We’re ashamed.”

”I said we should wait until morning!” Luna hissed, ears pink. ”...Then I walked in first.”

Kaiden looked at them, five beyond dangerous women standing shy at the edge of a bath over one hour of his peace, and his grin spread wide. He opened both arms along the rim of the pool.

”Get in here, all of you. I wouldn’t have a harem of lovely women this needy if my heart wasn’t bottomless, and I could never get enough of you.”

He tipped his head toward the estate beyond the wall. ”I only asked for a quiet soak so Yunohana wouldn’t have to rearrange her bathhouse rules on our first night. Didn’t want to inconvenience her even more.”

Five faces brightened at once, and the water received the invasion.

Luna claimed his right and wedged herself under his arm with zero ceremony. Calypso waded straight through the middle of the pool, planted herself in front of him, and grinned down at her Darling like dinner had been served.

Bastet arrived last, unhurried, and poured herself into the water at his back. A low purr started up against his spine. ”Master” was her entire contribution, and it packed more intent than a speech.

Aria took the lap. Of course she took the lap.

A floating tray followed her over, a bottle from Scarlet’s cellar and a single cup riding it.

”We brought homework,” Aria said.

She had no sleeve to gather back, so she gathered nothing, slowly, and the bare arm did the sleeve’s entire job. Then she poured for him, wrist turned just so, the stream thin and unbroken, and let him watch the whole pour from beginning to end.

The ending, as they had all been taught, was not something to hurry.

”Where did my trendy gym girl go?” Kaiden wondered, accepting the cup. ”She’s been replaced by a professional seductress.”

”She graduated.”

”We all graduated,” Luna said against his ribs. ”Yunohana taught us some seriously dangerous stuff.”

Kaiden drank, and five pairs of eyes graded the effect. ”I take it the seminar was a success.”

”We were attentive students, Master,” Bastet murmured behind him, eyes closed, sounding deeply pleased with herself.

”I learned the tea pour!” Calypso whispered, at a volume that was a whisper only to her. ”Tomorrow I graduate to a real pot!”

Nyx’s fingertips traced a line down his chest under the water, and her tone alone rearranged the evening’s agenda. ”You’ve had your silence, and we’ve had our lessons. There’s one part of Japanese bathing culture nobody covered yet.”

”Which part?”

”Skinship,” Luna supplied helpfully, already moving.

”That’s not-” Kaiden started, and Aria kissed the rest of the sentence away, slow and warm, her fingers sliding into his hair.

”Mm... finally,” Aria breathed against his mouth, and settled deeper into his lap in a way that ended several arguments at once.

Nyx moved next. She reached past him, set the sake cup down on the tray, finished the motion completely, and only then raised her eyes to his.

”That’s cheating,” Kaiden managed.

”That’s homework,” Nyx purred, and kissed the corner of his mouth.

”Move it, bimbo, you had your turn.” Luna splashed halfway across him before his arm scooped her the rest of the way, and the kiss she landed tasted like victory anyway, the small ”mmh” she made into it furious about existing.

”I know the bow one!!” Calypso stood up out of the water with a wave that slapped the rim, red skin steaming, and bowed to Kaiden at her full glorious height. The bow bared everything a bow could bare, and she held it one breath longer than felt natural, exactly as taught.

Her little towel rode her head through the entire maneuver, heroically level.

”Amazing,” Kaiden said honestly.

”It works!!”

”No hurry,” Bastet hummed against his spine, hands sliding down his arms, keeping score from the best seat in the house. ”The water stays warm all night, Master.”

Kaiden’s hands gave up the war on dignity and joined the winning side.

Five little towels stayed folded on five heads with impressive discipline while everything beneath the waterline lost all of its.

Some moans might have echoed off the cedar beams before long, and the sacred cleanliness of the bathwater might not have survived the hour, but that was neither here nor there.

The bathhouse staff, professionals to the last, changed the water overnight and asked no questions.

...

Morning at the Moon-Thread estate opened with grilled fish, miso, rice, and a tea service that Aria and Alice both watched like scholars, for entirely identical reasons neither would admit to.

The family came down dressed for work for the first time since the flight: gear instead of yukata, Calypso’s axe leaning by the door, and a current under the breakfast chatter that had nothing to do with the food.

”After the gates, I graduate to a real teapot!” Calypso reminded the table, in case anyone had forgotten overnight.

Rin Sonoda appeared beside the table as the teapots emptied, folder in hand, and bowed to Kaiden. ”The cars are ready when you are, my lord. The campus is expecting you.”

Luna checked her interface once on the way out, put it away without typing anything, and was first into the courtyard anyway, loudly claiming a window seat.

By the time the motorcade rolled through the old wall, the city had learned their route overnight, and people already lined the overpasses.

...

The Shogunate Circle’s training campus sat on the city’s edge, and it was a garrison in everything but name: drill yards in long rows, barracks blocks, equipment halls with doors big enough for siege beasts.

Eclipse’s hundreds were waiting on the nearest yard, and they broke formation the moment the cars stopped.

”Boss.” Vanessa Sloan reached the doors first, offensively well rested. ”Sir. Point us at something to fight, please.”

”They’ve fed everyone six times since we landed,” Trisha reported, arriving with Brittany at her shoulder, both in guild colors. ”The recruits have started climbing the campus walls. They’re more than ready for today.”

Somewhere back in the ranks, Eugene Wexler was audibly taking bets on which gate his team would draw, and the odds were being shouted back at him from three directions.

Kaiden read the yard in one pass: fed, rested, and hungry for the part that came after all the sorting.