Bleach Hereafter RPG

Ryoga wanted to meet up in the sensui on a beautiful Hawaiian beach; it frankly kinda seemed like a waste. An avian form was not exactly ideal for a vast expanse of water, it was a phoenix, not a waterfowl. She pulled the Ryoga-made costume out of her suitcase, and Leon looked at it with doubt.

Niji offered a slight shrug, she had already told him what she was up to tonight, ”If it is as nice as the pictures look, I will take us there one of these nights.”

She rooted through the closet, tossing a blue flower patterned swimsuit playfully at his face. ”And I will wear that one.” Her fiance glanced down at it and gave a smile, it was not particularly modest beachwear.

Then she found her old swimming club one piece swimsuit from college, and was pleased to find that it still fit. From there, she put on the sensui; and immediately the energy of the vermilion bird came to reside in it with her. Phantom flames flickered from her tail feathers, and Niji took a few moments to attune to the enhanced vision.

Leon came over and gave her a peck on the beak, ”You look ridiculous.”

She gave a slight laugh, her voice a bit more musical than usual, ”It is important to him. And once I introduce you, I fully expect you will end up with one. He is very insistent.”

Her fiance walked over to his desk and pulled out five envelopes. Niji double checked them. Four invitations for the private ceremony, one for the public one.

”After you’ve asked him about the dual soul problem, try to relax a little. You deserve it.”

Nizaku nodded absently as she tucked the invitations into a small bag, ”I love you.”

Leon smiled again as she headed towards the window, ”Love you too.”

---

She emerged from the sand of the beach and immediately sensed Ryoga hybridized with Milo nearby.  There appeared to be no one else nearby that she could sense, so she called out in greeting to the singular duo.

The tiger had gotten to work, so to speak. While he was waiting for his sister to arrive he figured he could make the place even more hospitable, since he had a super awesome tiger body he might as well put it to good use. Thus the tiger had sourced two big logs to sit on and had created a nice fireplace, ready for Nizaku's crimson flames to ignite and offer a little more light than the milky white of the moon.

Miloga's ears twitched and turned, the tiger turning around as he heard a familiar call. The hybrid's eyes would see the tall slender silhouette of a bird clad in vermillion feathers. He didn't even wait for anything else. Niji could probably expect what was coming next as the tiger charged on all fours, pounced at her and threw his fluffy paws around her neck. Miloga hugged the other tight, smothering the mythical bird with affection. "Nizaku-oneesan!" He exclaimed with his snout buried in her chest "we missed you so much!" He would add, squeezing her just a wee bit closer.

Eventually, the tiger relented and took a couple of step backwards, where he nervously shuffled on the spot and flushed slightly as Milo's trademark shyness washed over the hybrid's behaviour. "It's so nice to see you again. How have you been?" He stated, glancing at her feathers and deciding to do a quick inspection of her suit. It was still in pristine condition.

"Looks like you have been adapting to the suit well since last time. You definitely more around much easier." He concluded, reaching out for her wing and grabbing it with his left hand-paw. He gently guided her towards their resting place on the beach and motioned for her to use her powers to light a fire for them.

From that point on it was just them, the crackling of burning twigs and the sea. Milo waited for her to get comfortable before seating beside her.

"So, Niji-oneesan..." Miloga chimed. "You wanted to talk about Sensui and Soul hybrids like me yes?" He would inquire, implicitly nudging her to give voice to her thoughts.

Perhaps Miloga was just too excited to notice, but Niji instantly hugged him back without thinking, like it just came instinctually.  She had, after all, just spent a decade with particularly rowdy and affectionate adoptive younger sisters.  She'd gotten more used to hugs.

”Hey, I missed you too.

Niji smiled at his excitement, not that a beak was particularly expressive, and allowed him to bounce around, inspecting her suit. There was barely time to respond as he lightly dragged her over to a spot he had prepared. The fire sprung into an enormous beach bonfire with a small expenditure of energy. The suit really was closely attuned with the kami of flame.

She looked into the flame for a few moments, watching the dance of oranges and reds, then nodded slowly; placing the envelopes to the side for the moment, ”Kind of. Let us say there was a..." she paused for a moment, thinking of how to put it in his own terms.  Obviously he would have heard of possession before, it was a media trope at this point, but he might have a different view if they approached it with his own terms, ”A independent sensui, strong willed, angry, and powerful in her own right. If they forcibly tried to hybridize with a person, and that person was weaker, what would happen?”

Miloga was slightly surprised when the gesture of affection was reciprocated, but he certainly didn't mind it at all. He squeezed the red bird tight for as long as he was able, just smothering her in affection and oh boi did he have alot of reserves to burn through considering it had been such a long while since their last meeting. Well, to him it felt as much at least.

As they hung around the fire, Niji's question had Milo's ears droop and his snout turn into a light frown, as if had done something bad and was being called out. He shuffled on the spot, completely taken off guard but able to remain somewhat composed thanks to Ryoga's influence. "I...we would never do that!" Miloga suddenly exclaimed with a 'you have to believe me' tone, Milo's side of the fusion clearly showing full force for a few moments before the hybrid was able to compose himself and answer properly.

"I...assume this is not about Lux and the others per se, but I'll humor the question." The tiger would answer in a calmer tone this time, placing a paw over his heart. "Though to do that, I have to explain exactly what happens in here, or at least let you in on the details of it all. Alright then..."

He took a deep breath and then began explaining.

"As you know, a proper sensui is composed by an artificial body and an artificial soul that is bound to its confines. Said body can, however, merge with a living being, thus allowing them to make use of the artificial body as if it were their own. If said body has special abilities or spells woven into it, then those also transfer to the user. It all becomes second nature."

He pointed at her. "As you can testify yourself, having feathers a beak and wings feels quite normal now that you acclimated. Enhanced vision too. Now, if you want that artificial body to move around and have a degree of independence you need an artificial soul to be in control of the thing while there is no living host to occupy it. Now, normal souls are composed by two things: spirit and memories. Newly formed artificial souls only possess the spirit part and not the memories.  For all intents and purposes you may consider them incomplete up to this point."

Miloga paused. He was getting to the part he knew Niji would find worrying. He kind of didn’t want to tell her, but honesty towards his big sister was something he held in high regard.

"Though if you bind an artificial soul to said body you kind of can't unbind it without it dispersing, as it's just formless condensed Reishi at that point. To allow the living soul to use the artificial body while it's still being occupied by someone else there are a few parameters to get right. When you wear a full sensui for the first time, the artificial soul latches onto the other's memories. Much like a Blank, the artificial soul is drawn to the thing that makes it complete. Since now you have two souls connected together like siamese twins and sharing their memories and body both, the real soul's spirit now has the same recollection of facts and is exposed to the same feeling of the shared body. This makes it so the living soul is tricked into believing the artificial spirit is a fragment of itself. This prevents it from freaking out the moment it starts feeling new things like tails or wings etc and ending up seizing on the floor.

Then, with some time and depending on how compatible the two souls are, the two spirits are naturally drawn to eachother and begin to coalesce into a single entity. The hybrid that results from the merge is what we call a Soul hybrid, the process I just detailed is what we refer as Hybridization. For Ryoga, it takes him around one minute to go through that transitory period and merge into well...me or Lyoga or Ryunar. To...put it in simple terms, the hybridization process feels pleasant in order to ease the living soul's into the new body and feelings...and uhm...well...it's slightly addictive as a resut of that. It's very mild, mind you, but addictive none the less." Miloga shuffled shyly on the spot, wiskers buzzing in nervousness. The secret was out, he just hoped his big sister wouldn't take it as a bad thing. The tiger hybrid paused, gauging Nizaku's expression before continuing with the info she was actually looking for. Now that he had laid down the groundwork he could finally answer her inquiry the proper way.

"After the first Hybridization, the artificial spirit imprints on the living one and is thus bonded to it. Successive Hybridizations usually take less time to complete due to this. The artificial soul still somewhat depends on the living soul's memories, which is why anyone can wear a sensui but only the original user can actually make use of it in full, but is otherwise able to both remain stable on its own and merge with the living one as if it were originally part of it. As you have been able to see multiple times, a hybrid like me is both the original and the artificial soul. I...we share traits from both Milo and Ryoga and every time we do merge our memories are shared as well. I am as much Milo as I am Ryoga. With a deep bond like this one it's only natural a soul would influence the other. As per how that influence takes shape-"

Miloga stood up and walked towards the shore. He shifted into a slightly annoyed pose and waved at the sea. At first nothing, then a tall figure emerged from the water. At first just a shark fin, then the whole being hopped up on the beach. It was a humanoid shark, complete with claws, webbed hands and feet, sharp teeth, rough skin and pretty muscular. He was definitely taller than Miloga. It stomped on the sand and ended up in a rather dominant, predatory stance yet with no malice behind it. It was more of a hero landing pose that exhuded alot of "look at me am I not cool" kind of vibe. He started speaking with a perky tone and with lots of energy. It seemed he was a jolly one. "Oh MAN I was waiting for this moment, I swear I was getting bored spying on- I MEAN CHECKING up on you two and make sure you both were okay. Nice to meet you Nizaku onee-san! So what are you doing, Milo-kun? Is it a game? Ooh that's neat, can I play too? Yeah let me play too! Wait though...actually how did you know I was in the water there? I thought I was hidden pretty well. I even asked Runar for help..."



Miloga sighed. He would wave at the shark, showing him to the phoenix. He had hoped to introduce him another time but he had spotted him moving about in the water as he talked.  "Big sis, meet Lance. Lance, big sis. He was created while you weren't here. Since he couldn't resist the urge to be here with us he'll help me show you what I mean about the influence thing."

"Oooh! That means you're wearing me then? Awesome! I'm in! Here wait lemme stretch a moment, gotta limber up before you put me on."

"Of course," Niji said reassuringly, "I know that none of you or your siblings would ever do something like that."

She listened to the rest of the explanation quietly, there was a lot to take in on the explanation on sensui; and while it wasn't exactly (or even mildly) answering her question, it was still a valuable insight into how Ryoga and his hybrids existed. Mentioning it was addictive was...worrisome, particularly given how the young man had told her he didn't really like himself, and preferred to be a hybrid than 'just' Ryoga.  It was something they would have to address at some point.

It did, however, confirm that Niji was particularly happy that the Nizaku outfit did not have an artificial soul inside it. Though the spirit of the Vermillion Bird did provide a particular connection to the fire element, it was no different than fulfilling her role with any of the other pacts. It just allowed it to do more with less.

Before she could clarify her question, there was the arrival of a new sensui, one she hadn't met before. Her first assessment was this one was a bit more like Lux than Runar and Milo. That is to say, energetic with a penchant for disobedience. While it was a bit strange to have someone she'd never met refer to her as an older sister, she nonetheless put a wing out and gave him a slight bow, "It is nice to meet you, Lance."

She had seen how different the hybrids behaved, Rygoa plus Milo acted very differently from Ryoga plus Runar. But...maybe this was another way to phrase the question. "While I am happy for the demonstration, I suppose a better way to ask would be..." She paused for a second to consider the wording, "What happens if one sensui was to wear another?"

"Two of us together? Nothing happens!" Lance was quick to cut Miloga off. "Us artificial souls can only really merge with living souls. Think magnets yeah?" The hyperactive shark gesticulated as he spoke. He pressed his claws together with a light slap due to his webbing. "Two of the same are not compatible but one of each are attracted together!"

The tiger would agree. "Outside of shape and size difference, artificial souls need a living soul's memories and a small fraction of their reishi to remain stable. They can't sustain one another. I guess if you tried to unite two artificial souls together they'd kind of mix but not meld. Rather...they'd both try to form a bond with eachother but lack the initial point of contact, that being shared memories. At that point...hmm...I guess the more dominant personality of the two would overpower the other as they try to pull eachother together until their condensed reishi just disperses back into nothing. In short the strong one would leech off the second one until they both have no more reserve reishi to maintain themselves. Considering new artificial souls lack memories and are thus very unstable, they burn through their reserves quuuuuick."

Lance kept on nodding all the way as Miloga explained, walking over to the tiger and poking him in the shoulder to call his attention. As soon as he got it, the shark tapped his chest with his webbed claws, universal sensui sign for "I'm ready, wear me please."

Miloga pouted.

"That's-what? Now?"

"Yeah I'm here for that no? You said it."

"Yes but Nizaku said she doesn't need the demonstration-"

"Oh come on! You two get to hang out all the time, I've been worn once!"

"Lance now it's not the time, we don't even have a name for-"

"We'll figure it out as we go. How bout Lona? Rance-no Lyn. Lyn? Lyn sounds cool."

"Lance I'm-"

"We can let big sis decide."

"That's not the point, it-"

"Please? Pretty please? Just this time. I mean it's a beach, all that sain is going to be a mess to wash off."

The tiger relented. "Mind if Ryoga switches over?" Lance asked Nizaku, trying to not waste the momentum he won from the quieter less quirky tiger. "It'll be great I promise. Super fun too. Yes yes."

Miloga smiled sheepishly. "Before you ask, no I don't choose their personalities. When I create them first hand they are kind of neutral, they just happen to shift their demeanor based on the first memory they gain during the first hybridization. He's a unruly child but he means well." Perhaps it was better for Ryo to stay with the shark and calm him down.

"HEY! I'm half you you know!" Now it Lance's turn to pout.

Niji thought about his words, that sounded more like the issue with Val's soul residing in Hibano. Considering the latter's memory issues, that was not promising for the young man. Was it just a matter of time before the mad Russian girl subsumed his mind? If his memories were gone, was his personality soon to follow? He had mentioned that he had attacked her because of Val's influence. How much time did he really have? She knew souls and the sensui weren't a apples-to-apples comparison, but the analogy seemed fairly apt.

She wanted to relax with Ryoga and his sensui, no matter who he was hybridized with, but she needed answers first. "So if one sensui had started to leech off the other, would it be possible to safely separate them and if so; how would you go about it?"

The encostumed Fullbringer brought the tip of her wing to her beak in a thoughtful gesture as she listened to the bickering. The hybridization was still somewhat strange to her; did Miloga objecting to Ryoga switching into Lance mean that Ryoga didn't really want to, or just that the Milo part of his personality was objecting?  She was mildly curious about the Lance-Ryoga hybrid, particularly since the young Quincy was warning her about it.  She hadn't received a warning about Lux.  It promised to be interesting, at least.  She offered a slight shrug, "I leave the choice to you. I do not think I could join you for a swim while in the outfit, though.  I do not think the feathers are waterproof."

Miloga folded his paws together for a few moments. "...fine then." He answered, Lance practically shaking with joy.

"Yay! I promise I'll be super good!" The shark replied.

Miloga sighed again, hoping that was the case and reached for the back of his head. He grabbed his snout and pulled, removing the mask from Ryoga's face. Then slowly, an opening formed on the back from where Ryoga could slowly climb out of.

"It's hard to say for sure." Ryoga wasted no time in answering her question. "It depends on how long the two souls have been merged, how strong one is over the other and if they are going to actively fight agaist the separation.

The quincy looked at Nizaku by the fire. Her feathers lit up like that looked even cooler. Walking by Lance, Ryoga reached up and booped his snoot. "Open up silly, we can't merge if you don't let me wear you." Ryoga mumbled with a giggle. Thankfully, Lance eagerly complied, turning around so that Ryo could begin donning the shark suit.

"It could be...mmhph...as easy as cutting bread in two or as complex as neurosurgery." He would add, grunting lightly as he strained to slide both his feet inside Lance's paws. The Shark's skin seemed to cling much tighter to his form than Milo's, but Lance himself helping him in would speed up the suiting process.

Wiggling his feet into place and hopping onto the sand, Ryoga pulled lance over his hips, the young quincy took a small few steps to check if he was okay. "Not to mention that you could risk damaging either of the two souls. If the bond is deep it would be quite painful. Think like someone skinning you alive."

Ryoga stuffed his arms in while lance closed up the seam the quincy was using. In a matter of seconds he was opening and closing his hands to test the claws and the webbing. "Even if all that happens the way it should without it going crazy, there is still one major problem. You need a body for the extracted soul or it is going to go poof mere seconds after it has been divided. It will also leave the two very weak, which means that any hollow attack is fatal."

With that cleared, Ryoga raised Lance's mask near his face. He glanced back at Nizaku once, smiled sheepishly and then stuffed his face in. As he predicted, his hybridization with Lance began almost instantly. The shark hybrid stumbled forward, clutching his head as the two souls combined. Lyn trembled and shuddered before calming down...somewhat.

"Oh MAN!" the shark exclaimed, bouncing up on the spot, twirling around as he looked at himself, his tail and his webbed feet. "It always feels so good to fuse as one!" He spoke in a perfect blend of Ryoga's and Lance's voice. Not wasting a moment, the shark struck a pose, wagged his long tail with a perky attitude and spread his arms wide so that Nizaku could get a better look. The gills on the side of the shark's neck rhythmically pulsed, showing off the quincy-shark breathing pattern.

"So? So? Cool huh?" He asked, still energetic enough but this time without being over the top. It was clear that a dominant personality like Lance had a much larger influence over Ryoga, if one would look well enough though they could spot Ryoga's mannerism and body language gowerning the hybrid's momevents.

Milo decided to sit besides the phoenix and quietly observe the scene while Lyn instead started poking and playing with his own webbed hands for a moment, testing the flexibility of his membrane.

"To sum up our lovely chitchat-" Lyn chimed out of the blue as he scuttled over to where Nizaku was resting. Clawed hand raised up, the shark tapped the firebrid's beack once per point he made.

"First you need to restrain the hybrid, second: you figure out the details of the hybridization, third: you try to split them and hope to the kami you don't accidentally rip their souls to shreds. Fourth: if either souls fights back against the forced separation you gotta suppress them too and finally once you pull them apart you slap one in a new body where it can stay before it's too late and the weakened soul disperses into the ether."

Lyn tilted his head sideways and smiled. "That sums up all this souls talky talk yeah?"

She held back a shudder of her own as Ryoga merged with Lance.  It didn't look like a pleasant process, but she supposed he was used to it.  Synching up with her own suit was difficult enough without having to merge her soul and consciousness with another.  Either way, she examined the new combination, she was curious about what powers Ryoga had given Lance, "Very nice, sleek; I assume you are particularly speedy in the water."

Niji sighed as the Ryoga-Lance hybrid summarized the situation, "Well, I suppose as far as hypotheticals go, that is better than I was expecting.  It sounds like it becomes significantly less complicated if one of the souls does not need to survive the separation."

That was good, at least.  She nodded once, and stood up; stretching her vermillion wings towards the sky.  "Yes, I may ask you more about it in the future; and it may not be quite as hypothetical."

The beach really was quite beautiful and quiet; outside their conversation, the only sound was the quiet lapping of the waves on the beach.  "So, what did you have in mind tonight?"  She glanced at the empty beach, "Not that I am lamenting a lack of smores; but are sensui able to eat?"

She wasn't sure what to do about the invites at the moment, did they have room to swing a fifth invite for Ryoga's sensui? Niji didn't want him to come as a hybrid; but if he only had four invites, one of the sensui would probably convince him to do it.

"Oh yeah I am super quick in the water, I can of course breathe in there too. These are not just for show." He turned his neck towards her and with a webbed hand he very lightly pointed at the gills that were rhythmically rising and falling as he breathed. They looked extremely delicate. Lance's form was very streamlined and basically the same build as Ryoga, that is to say lithe and muscular. You could definitely spot the quincy's light six-pack, toned legs and biceps in that sea of rough gray sharkskin, digitigrade legs and webbed paws.

"Outside that, I'm taller and I can resist alot of pressure. I'm like...super sturdy basically." Lance would add, wiggling his tail at the bird with kind of the same way Lux would taunt though in clearly a more playful way. It was more like the shark seemed to really want Nizaku's approval. Perhaps the hybrid didn'tnotice it but it was basically wearing Ryoga's deepest desires on his sleeve. The young redhead absolutely longed for Niji's approval and attention both all the time. "And my skin is super tough! Yes! Also that!" He eagely scuttled closer to the phoenix and gently grabbed hold of her wings, bobbing them up and down with a very warm toothy smile. "You have to tell me what all this talk is about though! Is there like a soul you need to extract or something? I Don't think there are any other Hybrid souls but us. Maybe Yael, but he's much less into it than I am." He quipped, still excited about his fusion and the fact he could now play with his big sister. Yet another question stoked his fire and had him perked up.

"Oh absolutely! We can eat drink and all that. I explained it before yeah? This is no different than our human bodies. Would you like me to catch some fish for us? We could use the fire here to toast them and have a super cool feast! Ooh! OOh! You could like, use your super awesome mega hypervision to get us some fruit stuff. I'm sure we can find some coconuts to drink too!" At this point the shark was just a bundle of joy and eagerness at the prospect of having a hearty meal with Nizaku by his side.

Niji shook her head, "Put it out of your mind; it was not really about sensui. I have become aware of a..." she waved a feathered arm dismissively, "...aggressive possession scenario, for lack of a better way to phrase it. The concept seemed somewhat similar to hybridization, at least in theory."

She was not quite as comfortable with the Lance-Ryoga hybrid as he was obviously with her. Mentally, she tried to separate Ryoga, the sensui, and the hybrids into different categories. Lance, as well as the hybrid that had declared himself Lyn, had not earned the same affection she showed to Milo---wait, what had he just said? Thoughts of food and their interaction with non-hybridized sensui went straight out of her head.

"Wait, Yael? Yael Schwarzwald?"

She turned to the hybrid, she would rather this conversation was happening directly with just Ryoga, but this was what she had right now. While the conversation had been hypothetical, albeit informative, there was not much she could act on. This was actionable, and important; her voice became urgent, "I have been trying to call him the last few days. The phone number I have seems to have been disconnected." Despite being in a bird outfit, it was clear she was deadly serious, "It is critical that I get in touch with him; can you find him for me?"

Lance's ears flicked as the shark turned his head sideways. "Yeah it's him, how do you know?" He asked, puzzled by the new information he had recieved. Folding his arms, the shark was quick to rip info straight out of Ryoga's memories. Thanfully, Milo was there as well which was actually quite lucky for the phoenix.

"We havent seen him in a while." The tiger stated, pointing at himself. "It has been a while since we have seen him around and even then we don't know where he or his girlfriend live. Though he is the only other one who successfully hybridized with one of us-"

"EXACTLY!" The shark chimed, webbed feet slapping the sand as he weasled closer to the fire red bird. "And it's a good thing you are here as your phoenix self big sis. All of the sensui are linked to one another. By that I mean that there is one particular ability I have woven into them all just to make sure they wouldn't fall into bad hands. It's a special reishi signature. It's super faint but it always leaves a trace so if you know how to percieve it and focus you can use it to find us anywhere we are! Yael has bonded with a Tom, which you can think of as Milo's little brother quite literally. If we find Tom, we find his host, we find Yael."

Lyn happily hopped onto the phoenix's lap, gently grabbed her right wing and placed it onto his chest. "Mute all your other senses and reach out to me with your reishi BUT don't focus on my soul or my reiatsu. You need to go deeper to find what I am talking about. It's more of a...instinct? A hunch? I don't know how to describe it but you should feel yourself resonate with it. You'll know you got it because your body itself will recognize it as my essence. That's the trace we are looking for. It will feel familiar, mostly because we all have it but also distinct between us. If you try to reach out to Milo you'd probably feel a slightly different flavor but the same base. Same for Runar and Lux."

The shark would wiggle in a comfortable position and then try his best to relax to make it easier for Nizaku to lock onto his trace, which was easier said than done considering the insane amount of adrenaline coursing through his body. He would wait ther in complete silence, wing held close, until his sister confirmed she had a good idea on how to pinpoint him and Milo.

"You are the bird here big sis, so we need you to fly high high up in the sky and give us a direction, focus and find the only trace that doesnt feel like any one of us you know, that'll be Tom's trace. It's also much easier to feel the thing if there is no other living reishi in the way. If you give us a direction Milo can go ask Lux to go check it out. He's the fastest out of all of us due to his teleportation powers. That and since he can split into six he can survey a much wider area."

Niji was surprised to discover that the uptight child soldier would have been willing to slip into a mascot costume; in fact, she was shocked that Yael would have been the type to talk to someone as easy going as Ryoga in the first place. But she supposed she didn’t really know how the Quincy world worked. She found it unlikely that Yael would have the sensui with him, much less currently wearing it. Personally, Niji left hers in a closet in the ranch; and she only brought it anywhere when she was expecting to meet Ryoga.

Before she could open her mouth to respond, Lyn had jumped onto her lap.  Niji was rarely startled into silence, but this was one of those times; it was a combination of things.

The first was more unbidden flashbacks to her alternate life; Niji, after her own growth spurt with a younger Tokareva twin on each knee, both listening intently. The chill skin of the shark she could feel on her skin sent her into the second emotion.

Shock; she had never really thought about the actual interactions of her senses and the sensui outside of her enhanced vision, but she became suddenly aware that she was functionally naked. There were no clothes between her ‘skin’ and the wet skin of the hybrid that had hopped, unbidden, into her lap.

Lyn was no young pre-teen that she had rescued from poverty and adopted as a sister, he was legally an adult, still a teenager, but old enough that he should know better. In fact, Ryoga knew her well enough to know this would be unacceptable, and she thought her boundaries had been made very clear. If this was Lance’s influence on him, the shark did not respect her enough to pay attention to her limits.

These thoughts ran through her head, drowning out his words, as Niji pushed back disgust and fury. As the man began to wiggle his naked scaly form into a more comfortable position, a burst of hot wind erupted from Niji, throwing him somewhat violently away from her. A half second later, Niji was out of her sensui and felt distinctly less naked in the one-piece bathing suit than the feathered form.

Through clenched teeth, Niji spoke directly Ryoga, ”Separate from Lance.”