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

It wasn’t even a surprise at this point. Kat was pretty sure that Yang would’ve been perfectly happy to share a room with the other two girls. Despite this, Xiang just couldn’t come up with a good enough argument while dealing with all of his hormones. It was actually kind of sad towards the end. The receptionist lady could see it as well, if the slight upticks of her mouth said anything. See, Yang had been providing increasingly poor arguments up until the point she was just straight up wrong for the last two. Despite this, they were all said suggestively enough Xiang had figurative smoke spewing from his ears.

With the payment and room number settled the group was led upstairs by the receptionist to three rooms all situated next to each other. Xiang swiped the key from Yang’s hand, opened the door and then slammed all in one swift motion. Face a flaming red the whole time. The receptionist just nodded at this and then left the group to it. Hoping to figure out why the person who was supposed to replace her for the next shift was missing.

Once she was gone, Yang then decided to give Kat and Lily an impromptu lesson in what everything cost and how to tell if you were being scanned. It was clearly designed with Kat’s perfect memory in mind and was more of a list then a conversation. Yang went over everything from bread, to fancy meals to theatre shows before carefully pushing Kat and Lily out into the city for lunch. And dumping the local equivalent of ten thousand dollars into Kat’s hands.

Yang vanished while Kat and Lily just stared incredulously into the bag. “I can’t decide if Yang is good with money or not,” said Kat.

Lily took a glance around and seeing nobody paying attention transformed and leaned into Kat. “Yeah... I really don’t know either. She knew the price of basically everything and even how to tell if she was being scammed with a new item most of the time... but then handed us all this money. I... I don’t even know how we’d spend it all...”

The pair continued to stare at the bag with some minor concern for another few minutes until Kat said. “You know... I don’t think it’s safe to carry all this money around...”

.....

“I think you’re right... um... let me try something,” Lily grabbed the bag and put it in the small one she’d brought. It didn’t really fit, Yang had handed them a lot of coins but that was fine. Lily then handed the bags off to Kat and transformed. [Now put that on me] Kat shrugged and did as asked then Lily transformed again.

Now what Lily had been hoping would happen is the bag would vanish like her clothes and bag normally did when the transformation was the other way around. Apparently there was some limitations though because Lily transformed and the bag was tied around her feet. Lily frowned at this before sighing and putting it on again, transforming back. The bags vanished, as Lily suspected they would... but she wasn’t all that pleased about it. [Guess I can’t walk around on your arm... too much risk of getting pickpocketed otherwise]

With their gold secured Kat started wandering. The inn was easy to find again considering its size, extravagance and the fact it wasn’t all that far from the auction house. Now the question was... where did they want to go? *So what would you like to do Lily? This is the first proper date we’re going on and we need a place for you to eat. Should we go somewhere fancy?*

[Eh... we could but that’s something we can do at home isn’t it? I mean... I can hide my ears well enough with like a hat or something. What I’d really like to have is some local delicacies prepared by the locals. See what ‘good food’ for the more common people is here. I mean... is there anything we can get from the fancy places that would really stand out?]

*Perhaps? I doubt we could get it here because it’s a mana based dish, and you probably wouldn’t be able to eat it yourself anyway... but I’m a big fan of a particular soup that tastes wonderful, if a bit watery and spreads this delightful warmth all across your body as you eat it. It’s like a good soup warming you on a winter’s day but so much more comforting and pleasant.

Sadly it’s extremely hot and you would be physically incapable of trying it. Thyme had to warn people away from it and if you couldn’t touch the spoon or the bowl you weren’t allowed to even try it. Apparently it’d just kill you. Which... hmm now that I’m thinking about it... I’m not sure there is anything like that you could eat. Magic ice cream might be too cold for you... sorry.*

[It’s ok. It was an interesting idea at least. Maybe we’ll spot some place that works with raw meat? I mean... this IS a fishing town after all. Cultivator Sushi doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. In fact, considering I’m a cat now, it sounds like a really good one. I think I’ve decided what we’re looking for.]

*I don’t know if they have rice around here. I’ve not seen anyone growing it... though I haven’t really seen them growing wheat either and I know they have bread. So perhaps it’s a meaningless point.*

*So... ignoring my previous thoughts, should we head towards the pier or the fancy places in town? I feel like the pier might be our best bet, certainly we’d find fish there but maybe not anyone skilled at serving it or just other ingredients in general. On the other hand, I have no idea how we’d be able to tell a sushi store from one that sells steaks in a fancy restaurant especially if they don’t have anyone eating outside.*

[Um... hmm... the waterfront does stink. So I’m a little torn. I think the easy answer to ‘how find sushi’ would be to follow my nose. It should be good precise enough for something like this. That being said... maybe we can find some nice grilled fish or something at the pier?]

*Well we are here for a few days, so why not both? Start at the pier and then find some good stuff in the fancy area another time?*

[Purrfect]

Kat wondered how intentional the mental purring was on Lily’s part, but didn’t want to ask. It was pretty adorable and if it wasn’t intentional Kat didn’t want to discourage it from appearing again. Still, they had a destination in mind and Kat knew it’d be very easy to find. So they headed straight for the dock area, taking side streets when they appeared and simply hopping over boxes if it became necessary. No sense pretending not to be a cultivator when you had wings and a tail, or when you knew your girlfriend would transform to eat with you.

It didn’t take long at all from them to be right around the waterfront and it was a bit of a mess. People yelling and moving all over the place. A lot of people selling fish, usually older individuals who likely manned the stalls for their younger counterparts out on the lake. Still, there was a very noticeable lack of people selling cooked, or prepared fish in any way. The pair found this a bit odd truth be told. [I don’t get it. These people clearly catch fish, and likely use it as a large part of their diet. Why isn’t there anyone selling prepared fish?]

*I’m not sure Lily. Maybe it’s a zoning law thing? I don’t really know how those work but that’s the only reason I can think of really.*

[I suppose it could be that. Zoning laws aren’t usually so specific though. If you can sell things here, you can almost certainly sell prepared food... unless it’s a health risk? They might be able to use that as justification... but they are still throwing refuse into the water so they probably aren’t all that health conscious.]

*Can you smell anything? Because I can’t. Not really.*

[No, my nose really isn’t tuned for stuff like this. It’s all just too much. I can’t properly separate the scents. Not instinctively anyway. Finding one strong scent in the forest? That’s fine. Figuring out cooked fish from the hundreds and hundreds of raw fish amongst such massive catches? Too difficult without any training... and something prepared but uncooked like Sushi? I think I’d have a better chance at killing the snake on my own.]

*I guess we’ve got no choice but to keep looking then.* So that’s what Kat and Lily did. There were a few stalls that they thought might have met their criteria but it quickly became clear they were just butchers for larger fish. Some of them didn’t even have their own catch. Just let others bring large fish to be diced properly. The duo could feel their mood souring. Though that might have just been the smell.