Who Da Boss Lady? 10 (Patreon)

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRai

Who Da Boss Lady?

Chapter 10

-VB-

When Mari woke up, she heard shouts.

No, it was better to say that the shouting woke her up. 

She sat up on the couch and looked around blearily… and realized that Venalita was facing off against dad…?! 

Her stomach lurched for a second. 

Was her secret found out?

Why was Dad holding a gun?!

Dad knew how to use a gun?!

Wait, why was Mom not surprised?! 

Who was this old lady?!

Then-.

Oh.

Right. 

She had something she needed to do. 

Mari grimaced as she pushed herself up. She felt like she was on fire. Everything felt sore and raw. More than that, she was angry. 

“Venalita…!” she hissed as she vaulted over the couch. 

Her words made everyone in the room look at her. Apparently, they were way too focused on Venalita and Dad to notice she woke up.

“Mari-!” Dad shouted. 

“Mari, explain to -!” Venalita smiled. 

No no no.

You don’t get to smile, bitch! 

But she was faster than he could react.

She zoomed forward. 

Cocked her fist back.

Coated in magic however she needed it in order to make it hurt. 

Venalita realized something was wrong. 

But too fucking late.

“Wait, wait, wait -!” Venalita shrieked. 

But Mari let her fist fly true and slammed it into the flying doll’s face. 

It was only then that she realized her fist was coated in inky black mana.

And Venalita quacked as Mari drove her fist down and took Venalita along with the punch down to the ground. 

The air cracked with how hard she struck, and then the wooden floor shattered where she pinned Venalita. 

She held her steaming fist in place for a while, just … enjoying the way Venalita squirmed. Once she had her fill, she drew her fist back and let out a very long and content sigh of relief. 

It felt good to finally punch this bitch after everything she put her through. 

And she punched her with the very magic Mari got from her. 

Talk about ironic, right? 

“Mari…?”

She paused and looked over her shoulder. 

“... Hi, okaa-san. Otou-san.”

Dad lowered his gun and stared at her and then at Venalita. 

“You have some explaining to do, young lady,” he hummed. But she could see his forehead veins bulging. 

He was pissseeddd.

“Ah ha… ha…” she nervously laughed. “Um, I got better quickly?”

-VB-

Sato stared at his daughter and then let out a resigned sigh. 

She now sat on the couch that she was once laying on, and didn’t look any worse than she did before. 

Which didn’t make sense. 

Someone who got mana poisoning didn’t just … get back up. All of her systems - from physical to spiritual and everything in-between - would have been fried and in need of long recuperation, never mind a cut off from further use of mana unless strictly necessary for survival. 

So how was she up and about without a hint of the pain she was in previously. 

Well… he had a very good idea.

He glared at the tied up and weighed down doll sitting next to Mari.

Though its presence continued to trigger his Threat Sense like nothing else, it was … nonhostile. What surprised him more was the fact that it - she - let Mari wrap her up like that. Most outsiders and other powerful beings would take exceptional exceptions to such a treatment. 

“So?” he asked.

Seated next to him and across from his daughter and the “doll” was also Sara and Shoko. 

He’d once promised Sara that he wouldn’t bring magic into the family… but it seemed like that this was not going to be the case anymore. In which case, she needed to be here to at least hear and understand what was going on, even if she would not have a say on how any treatment might go for the same reason untrained civilians weren’t allowed to manage care of patients or operate military equipment. 

“Well, I’m the one who made a contract with your daughter~!” the doll giggled. 

Sato closed his eyes. “And what are you? A devil? A youkai? You don’t feel like a fallen angel.”

Sara froze next to him. 

The doll - Venalita - blinked while staring at him and then grinned. “My, my. You’ve met them all? No, you’ve fought them… and took your own prize. That pistol. It’s not a regular pistol, is it? I thought it was, but the longer I’m in its presence, the more I can feel it. It has the essence of divinity in it.” Its grin stretched wide open. “You killed a divine being, didn’t you?”

“This isn’t about me or my gun,” he snapped. “Tell us what you are.”

The doll… pouted. “Fine, but only if Mari is okay with it.”

Mari nodded quickly. 

Good. 

“... I don’t know quite exactly what I am.”

Sato glared. “Try again.”

“100% true! I used to be a human, you know, but then a few things happened and I got turned into a doll. Now, my, uh, purpose in life is to turn young naive girls like your daughter … into evil magical girls.”

“... Evil magical girls,” Shoko repeated in a deadpan. “Like a TV show about magical girls for kids? Except … evil?”

“Yes, but I make magical girls who are selfish and don’t respect no law! No self-respecting magical girl I train is going to let some bureaucrat tell her what to do!” 

Sato blinked. 

… He actually liked the thought of that. 

“And what do you mean by ‘evil’?”

“Hmm? Oh, evil is selfish. End of story. Fuck the people, fuck the government, and fuck the society. Mari lives for what Mari wants.”

As a Japanese… he found the idea abhorrent.

As a father, he really liked the idea. 

“Then why was she writhing in pain?” he snarled.

“Ah. That. I … might have overestimated her recovery and underestimated the essence of the devil.”

“Essence of the devil?”

“Yeah! Mari and I went out to kill one of those semi-invisible masked devils who eat people.”

He froze. 

“You fought a Hollowfied Devil?” he hissed out before looking at Mari, who looked away. 

“A Hollowfied Devil? Is that they’re called? Mari took out him out with a single blast! Phew phew! No, wait. That’s two. Blam. Yeah, that’s better. Mari blam’ed that thing with a single boom.”

Sato glanced at Mari… and saw her almost crying from embarrassment. 

“And for a young and strong evil magical girl to grow, she needs to swallow the essence of her kills. Gives her more mana reserve, makes her mana denser, and everything else a good- I mean evil magical girl needs.”

“I am still mad at you about that,” Mari hissed out with a very heavy flush. 

“What? You’re stronger now and I siphoned off the mana that was hurting you.”

“Why Mari?” Sara demanded abruptly. 

Both Mari and Venalita looked at her before Venalita shrugged. “First girl I met who was not smart enough to avoid an obviously talking doll inside an alley.”

Mari glared at the doll. 

“... You’ve explained what you want to do, not what you are,” Sato reiterated. “What are you?”

Venalita sighed. “I don’t know! Maybe I’m an evil magical girl mascot? Maybe I’m a Great Old One. Who knows?!” she grumbled out. “But what I am not is a threat to your daughter.”

“I will be the judge of that,” he replied. 

“Sure. Just making sure, though. How long do I have to be tied up like this? It’s not exactly comfortable, ya know?”