Inori's heard, read—many things. About this, about your first time or how the whole thing works in general. It's magical, it sucks, it's meant to be special, it's no big deal, it's awkward, it's really hot.

Saying it was all of those things would be true but also false?

He doesn't know what he's doing, not really, but neither does she. This is kind of relieving, but not for the obvious reason. She trusts him, clearly. More than just likes him, she's being vulnerable and offering him this, this time, and he's doing the same to her.

There's no anxiety, actually, to his delight and surprise and utter bafflement. The part of his mind that keeps his running self-deprecating commentary was expecting him to be unable to go through with this without freezing many times in complete tomato-based mortification, but actually... he can do it. She trusts him, even if he fucks up she's... she'll just tell him, she wants this to work just as much as he does.

He listens and pays attention. His hand goes places and he keeps track of where works best. If she makes noises, giggles or sighs or moans, if she leans into him and against him, if she flushes and can't speak. He tries things, and tries more things.

It's awkward, it's weird, it's new and embarrassing and kind of wet. He's sure there's a million and one things they've yet to figure out, but it feels okay to not have them figured out yet, to take things as they come.

It's not perfect, but that kinda makes it perfect.

Somewhere in the back of her head, Akiho notes that they’ve switched proverbial places. Usually, she’s the one gently steering a very red, frozen boy around, and taking his nonverbal cues, and, and. Now there isn’t an overall plan. Now there isn’t snarky commentary. Instead she is just thrilled to be here. Thrilled to touch him, thrilled to be touched by him, happy to just experiment and make sounds and be the undivided subject of her boyfriend’s attention. It is great to be the subject of his undivided attention.

“Nnnmmmhnnmn,” she hums into his skin in the afterglow, nuzzling him. This means, of course, ’That and you were so great that I kind of want to complicatedly cry on you about it, because feelings are hard.’ She’s smiling, though. And very snuggly.

Snuggling is nice. He is entirely 100% not a tomato, too, he's very impressed with himself.

"I think the instructional videos worked," he murmurs before kissing the top of her head.

She hums a giggly affirmative.

"So!" says Maki, during one of their training mornings. "Without Orochi you're kinda lacking in the heavy hitter department. Need someone besides your girlfriend to bail you out if you can't take the elephant?"

"...someone's done her research. What's wrong with Demon Dog?"

"You call me Zen'in, but then get surprised when I know the specifics of the clan technique. Nothing's wrong with Demon Dog, but Demon Dog doesn't have a lot of stopping power, even as a big werewolf. Light and sharp and agile is what Demon Dog excels at. But what if you need to pin something down? Or bash down a door? Or a wall? More options are better, Inori."

"Hm." He pauses. "I don't think I'm ready."

"You sure about that? I'll give you full access to my arsenal, and you'll have the school's too. Plus whatever traps you can whip up. And there's not a huge loss in trying, with us to bail you out if it goes south."

"...not now. But. Before the event, okay. It would be useful."

"Okay. Just remember to leave time to heal up after Shoko fixes you!"

"Yes, Senpai."

Training proceeds apace, which is to say it happens daily and greatly increases the pair's pain tolerance. Not all of that is due to Maki's personal ministrations; the other second years can dish out just as much hurt on their kōhai if they think it will help them improve. Panda in particular is good at throwing people so they "learn how to fall", although Inori is like 73% sure he just has fun doing it. The focus on close quarters combat is welcome, though; Inori may be one of the few shikigami users willing to get up close and personal at all but there is a lot of room for improvement, there, and Akiho was definitely even less prepared for it.

(And without their third to round out that weakness they'll definitely need it.)

But the new couple does steal some time together here and there. Inori is good on his promise to take Akiho on a tour of Tokyo, which he caps with a ride on the Diamond and Flower Ferris Wheel at night because he is finding out he's an incorrigible sap. The second years mellow out on the teasing, too, once it becomes clear that actually Inori and Akiho seem to... legitimately be dating. It's not that common in the sorcerer world, where arranged marriages remain almost a norm and the focus on preserving the clans' inherited cursed techniques trumps all else (although it's less bad than it could be since generation skips and the like happen frequently enough that they don't lose hope if no existing potential heir has a given technique).

The event is fast approaching, though, and a week and a half before it Inori decides that he's as ready as he can reasonably be before it to acquire a new shikigami.

"I just have to summon it normally," he explains to his girlfriend (!!!!!!) when they're planning and preparing. "But it won't obey any commands and will focus almost entirely on killing me, although it'll also try to deal with anyone who helps me if they get in its way whether I include them in the ritual or not."

"Right," says Akiho, nodding. "But it definitely shouldn't have any idea that I, say, helped you fell a tree or two in order to make a heavy, pointy drop trap out of a tree trunk. You'll likely need to provide all of the cursed energy, but we can make things that will knock it over and buy you time to do actual damage, you know?"

"That's the hope, yeah. Although I think... well, ideally we would want to dig a hole for it to fall into, I think, it's an elephant and will barrel through most things. We can probably make it trip, but even downed it's still very strong, it can shoot out water jets that can break down walls."

"Lovely. Yeah, sounds good. Giant hole in the ground, probably containing actual cursed weapons with the sharp points pointing up, it's just I am absolutely not looking forward to digging that pit. But. I will help."

Inori smiles and reaches for her hand to squeeze it. "We can turn the water against it. It's one of the more powerful shikigami so it's also smart, but it's still not a person, so maybe if it gets itself wet Nue's lightning attacks will help. I'm thinking I'll have Nue, the enhanced frog, and the enhanced dog out from the start, too, no reason to only summon them after the fight starts."

She returns the smile and the hand squeeze. "Works for me. Giant pit, maybe with a thin false floor, and a momentum trap with a giant tree to help knock it into the pit? Anything else we want?"

"Wire traps? Probably all over it, I should be the one to curse them like you mentioned but the fewer steps it can take without taking damage the better."

"Mmmm, it's tricky to get the cursed energy exactly right to make them slice instead of just harder to break, so I don't think you should expect that to slice like what I can do. But yeah, sounds good."

"No, slicing is probably beyond me, yeah," he agrees, nodding. "I want to give myself space to hit it, too, if the traps don't do the whole deal."

"Yeah, definitely. Oh, since we're getting access to Maki's weapon stash I should look through it for anything that can be easily launched, I bet the school can get us a crossbow or something that can launch small cursed objects. You'd probably have to trigger them, but I bet I can reload and reset anything for you."

"I could probably just set strategic shadows, too," he says, sounding pensive.

"That will launch things? Okay, all the better, even if I'm going to be bouncing on my heels desperate to find something useful to do while you're fighting."