Chapter 9: Chapter 9: A Pleasant Night

"Are these your dogs, Chief?" (Aries)

Chief was on one of the small couches in the living room, watching over Ollie and T-Rex as they played around with the kids. Cancer and Virgo were riding on Ollie's back, who was carefully walking under the Chief's strict gaze.
'Drop them and you can say goodbye to your iced chocolate doughnuts.' (Chief)
'WOOF?!' (Ollie)
'Then don't go overboard.' (Chief)
'Wooooooffffff.' (Ollie)
'Yeah Yeah, you can get some laterwards.' (Chief)

On the other hand, T-Rex was happily relaxing on the side of his belly. A little Sagittarius was laying on his stomach and blissfully slept on it like a pillow, suckling on a lollipop. Beside them was Pisces, giggling as she flung pieces of chocolate at varying angles and seeing the Great Dane easily fetching the pieces into his endless stomach with his eyes closed. The Chief was on a couch close to them, observing the dogs in the living room.

"Yes, important partners and they travel a lot with me." (Chief)
"Aren't they a little too big?" (Aries)
The blonde teenager was sitting on the same couch as the Chief, unexpectedly very close to his left side. Despite being quite close, she was quite conflicted about doing something and tried to find a common topic to converse with the only other man in the mansion.

"They look fine to me. Maybe they ate too much lately and I need to diet them." (Chief)
T-Rex immediately looked at him in panic and slowly shook his head, trying to protest and not wake up the baby at the same time.
"They are abnormally large and their bones shouldn't be able to support themselves under such mass. Are they fine?" (Capricorn)
The bookworm Capricorn was sitting on another couch on the other side of the room, reading an encyclopedia of dogs, occasionally glancing at Ollie and T-Rex as though to confirm the notes in the book.

"These aren't even their biggest size, they have bottomless stomachs." (Chief)
'They once ate every food reserve and made the whole world starve and T-Rex still had the nerve to say he was still starving.' (Chief)
"Interesting," Capricorn said with a thoughtful face and went back to reading her book.

"Oh, by the way, where am I staying? Your sisters and father never mentioned it." Chief turned around to face Aries, unknowingly close to her face since she was inching closer and closer.
Aries flinched and panicked, backing away to the other side of the couch.
"? You okay?" (Chief)
"Ah, sorry Chief. I was just...never mind. I'll show you where your room is, Libra has already made arrangements and informed everyone already." (Aries)
"Thank you, I'll get the dogs now since they will get tired and very hungry if they don't get enough sleep." (Chief)
'Heh, we don't even sleep.' (T-Rex)
'But I don't want to keep those kids up with playing around with you.' (Chief)

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Chief was understanding when he was informed that his room was on the other side of the mansion, away from the girls' room. It would have been an annoying mess to convince Jonas that he needed to be separated. Heck, he even heard that Jonas was even considering allocating the room next to his, for closer access to ask for help. Obviously, Chief denied the proposition as he prefered peace and quiet and didn't want to sleep near a scientist who was probably looking for any chance to obtain his samples.
He was lying down on the comfy king-size bed in a simple room. It contained basic furniture but no decorations as it was primarily used as a guest room, despite the family rarely receiving any guests and letting them stay in their home.
Ollie and T-Rex lay on the foot of the bed, the former helping the Chief with organising the collection in [INVENTORY] and the latter was busy drooling at the various pictures of food that were recorded on the empty [SYSTEM].
'...Heh, those two are so idle...not like I'm any better.' (Chief)
Chief was just sorting out another folder full of Divine Aragami materials, categorising the parts as the species they were butchered from. While organising, he felt something off with his body and tried to investigate.

[TRUE SIGHT]
He scanned his body and saw the state of his body, getting agitated with the cells and soul in his body.
'They are restless like they are eager for a fight. Why is that? I never had to fight when I was inactive with God and it barely gets agitated. [NEGATE] it? But then it would backlash stronger.' (Chief)
He thought through some possible reasons and analysed them before coming up with two effects for the agitation.
'The activation of the cells during the lab earlier made them restless and not getting into a fight to cool them down started to displease the cells. This is also influenced by the lacklustre fight with those two thugs yesterday. Huh, never thought I would encounter such a problem until now. Is it because I was always fighting in the previous worlds? Maybe, [SYSTEM] did say it was regulating the equilibrium before and I thought I was able to take care of it as well.....No, the soul is also agitated. It needs to fight, it can't handle a peaceful period of time. I need to fix this in the near future cause there is no guarantee that I can fight in the next world.' (Chief)
He cleaned up the remaining materials and immediately checked some solutions.
'T-Rex.' (Chief)
'...the broth can be extracted and then used laterwards for plating while the turkey leg is seasoned with soy sauce, chilli powder and garlic? Huh, let me have a sniff. *SNIFF SNIFF* Yeah, smells delicious. Wish we could just taste it instead of sniffing the menus but we would have made it at that point. Does it go well with Mapo Tofu and Black Rice? Maybe change the rice to bread and-' (T-Rex)
'T-REX!' (Chief)
'What?!' (T-Rex)
'We got some sparing to do. I haven't fought you ever since you got back from the last world.' (Chief)
'But I want to eat normal cuisine! All I've been eating for the past week are Aragami flesh and bones!'
'I'll give you a Cockatrice Leg with Salmon Roes.'
'Only you put salmon on everything.'
'Let's go.'
'I didn't agree yet.'
'You won't say no when I offer free food.'
'....Fine, Chief.'

[BROKEN WORLD]
The white-haired man and the Great Dane slumped a bit with their consciousness slipping to another dimension. Ollie saw their limp bodies and just shrugged, going back to organising. He didn't even bother to check the door that was slowly opening to their room.

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A white plane of existence, filled with endless cracks like a drought. Cracked pillars scattered around the dimension, their debris floated aimlessly from their origin and served as great platforms.
A young man and dog were sitting across each other, eating their meal in silence. Chief concentrated on eating his whole tray of sashimi from one salmon fish while T-Rex ripped through his Roasted Cockatrice Leg that was glazed with Jester Honey. A serious atmosphere fell upon the two when they finished their meal, both being lazy and eating their plates and utensils.
"All out?" (T-Rex)
"No, 60% with the skill. I don't want to completely wreck the cells with intensive fighting." (Chief)
"How come?"
"The lab work with that father."
"I smell something wrong with their blood, obviously a God's. We got to be careful."
"I know. [SYSTEM]'s anticipated reboot doesn't help our situation either."
"Indeed...let's get to work then, Chief."
Chief nodded and they stood a distance apart from each other.

"I won't be pulling my punches, though." (T-Rex)
"Looks like I need to teach this old dane new tricks." (Chief)

[GATE]
Black flames rippled around Chief, enrichening his body with a stronger physique. No extra limbs sprouted out this time, only his body grew sturdier and domineering. His trusty scythe spun out of his hand and his grip tightened on the handle, conducting a mixture of elements like fire, electricity, ice and other powers.
Chief's red eyes glowed with battle intent as he felt the release of some of his skills. [REGENERATION] [UNSTOPPABLE MIND] [LEGENDARY RESISTANCE] [EXTREME SPEED] and similar skills began to fine-tune his body to get ready for battle.
He looked over to his opponent, watching the Great Dane coil itself with a dark red aura.

[PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD]
A red cloud started to form above T-Rex, slowly compressing to the shape of bloodthirsty eyes.
Deadly eyes of a predator.
It stared down at Chief, watching him like prey. The hunting cloudy eyes glowed and placed a mark on Chief's soul, thus commencing the hunt. They slowly dissipated and dove into the canine, giving him the information to play with his prey as well as growing continuously stronger to corner the prey.
T-Rex grew slightly larger than an elephant, yet the side-stepping movement suggested that his massive weight did not hinder his speed. He did not approach yet, instead, waited for Chief to take a coin out of [INVENTORY] and flipped it into the air.

The gold coin jumped and arched toward the arid white ground; three flips left, two, one.

TING!
The coin touched the ground.

BOOM!
BOOM!

Chief blitzed forward, and the ground crumped under the force he kicked. The scythe glided behind, getting ready for a swing.
T-Rex kicked his hind legs, lurching forward and his front paws started to stretch. His claws grew and sharpened, ready for the collision.

The coin barely got the chance to bounce when the two entities met a metre apart. Their eyes shone with battle intent.

Chief swung his scythe, and the modules at the back of the blade burst to pump more power to the horizontal swing.
T-Rex ducked, forcing his body close to the ground and lunged forward. He dashed behind Chief and swung his claws in a roundabout spin, striking the back of his opponent.
Chief didn't want to be outdone and continued the momentum to spin backwards, delivering his slash towards the claws.

BANG!
The strong strike between the blade and claws sent the two fighters flying backwards. T-Rex was able to get his orientation quicker, digging his claws into the ground to slow the force of the clash.

[BALMUNG FIREWORK]
A compartment popped off the back of T-Rex and rays of electrical lasers twirled out before targeting Chief and beelined for the attack. Chief was barely getting his bearing before seeing lasers in front of him.
SHING!
With a single swift swipe, the lasers were shattered from the blade and Chief used a free hand to prepare a skill.
T-Rex oversaw the movements of his prey and prepared to use a breath attack.

[SHADOW STEP]
SHING!
T-Rex looked back and saw Chief leaping out of his shadow, the scythe blade easily slicing one of his hind legs. The Great Dane didn't flinch from the pain and immediately retaliated, hardening his tail to become spikes and barb.

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TINK!
T-Rex lashed his tail with a quick strike, piercing and incapacitating one of Chief's arms. Chief was barely able to stop the advancement of the tail, only for another tail to sprout out and slap him.

BOOM!
Chief was launched to a nearby pillar, the broken columns floated aimlessly in the air and dust smogged the impact. T-Rex kept watching for any movements while pulling his hind legs, regenerating the missing limb. The smoke cleared from a swipe, revealing a disfigured Chief in a hole with only one arm, holding the broken tail of T-Rex.
With a grunt, he opened his flexible jaws with [DEVOUR] and ate the tail. He used the extra energy to quickly sprout out a new arm and healed most of the injuries from that violent clash.
"What a great warm-up." (Chief)
"We are just getting started." (T-Rex)

AROOOOOO!
Multiple limbs with sharp claws grew out of T-Rex's back and used them as extra hands for preparing ranged skills. Chief noticed the sluggish movement from generating extra limbs and quickly made his move.
Chief flashed forwards, his scythe grew to the size of a truck and unleashed a vertical slash from above. T-Rex unleashed his claws, a large red aura reinforcing his power and clashed with an uppercut.

BOOM!
The man and dog held their ground this time, the arid ground cracked more from the force. A crater formed underneath their collision and sparks kept on banging off the claw and blade.

CLING!
They separated and dove again, clashing again and shaking the very existence of the dimension. The plane shook like an earthquake as the two monsters flashed around different pillars, destroying the already arid wastelands.

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'I won that!' (T-Rex)
'Yeah yeah, with your special skill, totally fair.' (Chief)
'Then why didn't you use [NEGATE]?'
'Cause it was a simple spar, why would I need to use it?'
'Excuses, excuses.'
'Just go back to reading the cookbooks, you glutton. I need to check my cells.'

Chief won the spar by a small margin, carefully using one extra limb to beat the stalemate. T-Rex was going to push further so he had to [NEGATE] the [PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD] to put an end to their spar. That dimension was completely destroyed so Chief had to delete it and make or find a new world for their future training.
They returned back to their bodies in the real world, acting sober-like since their bodies needed to stabilise for a bit.

'Ollie, how long have we been out?' (Chief)
'Woof.' (Ollie)
'6 AM now, quicker than expected....Maybe I should get up for a little jog or scout around. Wednesday? Which one of those kids even goes to school?' (Chief)

Chief lifted his body in anticipation of the new day, only to find that his right arm didn't budge.
'Huh? I thought I healed it up earlier.' (Chief)
He looked over to the right.

A young blonde in pink pyjamas, patterned with white clouds, laid on his arm and used it like a pillow.
'Aries?' (Chief)
Chief, while surprised that a girl was having an arm pillow with him, was shocked that he didn't detect the intrusion and Ollie didn't even ring the alarm.
'[DISTORTION]?' (Chief)
Coiling around her body was a thin veil of the stealth skill, Chief scanned and found out it was not a part of her.
'So it is not hers? Then how does she have the skill? I'm pretty sure there are no Aragami to steal the skill from.' (Chief)
He kept on scanning from head to toe, only to find a thin thread that lead to the foot of the bed. Chief tranced the trail with his eyes and found the culprit. The culprit instantly became nervous from the stare and kept on doing its thing, trying its best to ignore the Chief.

"Ollie." (Chief)
".....woof." (Ollie)
"Did you let her in?"
"....woof."

THUD!
Chief thrust his leg and kicked the mischievous Border Collie, who let out a whine and waddled off somewhere.

"Oi, wake up." (Chief)
Chief poked Aries' cheek with his spare hand, trying to prompt her to wake up.
"Don't you have school or something to do?" (Chief)
Aries just flinched a bit, tossed and turned, and went back to her blissful nap. She still held the arm tightly like a koala and mumbled something in her sleep.

"mmm....date......next.....food...mmm..." (Aries)
'Wonder what she's dreaming about. Must be nice being young with youth and all of that again.' (Chief)
He kept on poking her cheeks, hoping that it would stir her up. However, Aries tussled even more and moved closer to Chief's torso and latch onto him. Now, she was resting on his arm and hugging a side of his body.
Chief kept a neutral thought, not being shy or embarrassed by the touch of a girl but by the trouble that would follow if their family found out.
"Let's hope no one sees this and get her back to her room" (Chief)

"Hope no one sees what?"

Chief looked over to see the source of the voice, a purple-haired girl stood at the doorway and peered into the bed. Libra wore an ominous smile, a hand reaching for her Glock underneath her skirt.
"I did nothing wrong," Chief said as he tried to pull Aries off, only for her to cling closer to his body.
She still held the same smile and pulled the slide of the Glock, chambering a live round.
"Well, I don't know how Aries got here but I did no-"

BANG!
"....God damn, you are unreasonable." (Chief)
BANG!

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{Little Segment}

"What are you, Chief?" Akali asked as she was eating her Chashu Ramen at her favourite shop.
"Huh?" Chief didn't pause on eating his beloved Salmon Ramen, "What kind of question is that?"

"Um, well, like um, you said you are a Star Guardian yet you hold some corruption inside. So are you a Star Guardian or fallen?"
"Damn, that was great!" Chief clattered the finished bowl, "I'll have another one, bossman. Now, what were we talking back? Right, Star Guardian or Fallen? Hmmmmmmm, I would say neither.
"Huh?"
"First off, I was never a Star Guardian to start. I am a mentor for Star Guardians, never was a guardian."
"Wait! What?! Then how come you're allowed to teach us?!"
"Struck a deal with that First Star," Chief received his new bowl of Salmon Ramen and quickly savoured the broth, "Damn, this is great! Anyway, I am Chief, Tatsu Nezu. I am myself and nothing is going to change that."
"...." Akali was at a loss for words, her chopsticks frozen in the air with her noodles.
"You feel lost, Akali. You are a Star Guardian that has fallen and hope to join back with Kai'sa, but you are afraid if you are found that, things will go back. You are afraid your team will turn on you, and you are afraid your best friend will see you differently. Hence you came to me. Upon finding out that I hold the same powers, you seek guidance, right?"
"...Yes."
"Good!" Chief ruffled her hair with a head pat, "At least you are being honest. Best advice, be yourself. Be Akali."
"Be me?"
"Yes, you can even ask your friends what they think as well and if you're still stuck, come and find me again. After all, I am your mentor."

"....I think I understand. Thank you, Chief."
"Anytime, since you guys don't even age! Hahaha! What? Didn't laugh at that?"
"....Sometimes, I prefer your training lessons over our meal times."
"Come on, meal times are the best! I get to eat salmon during then!"