Holding Hands

He swung his fist at the ground. Hiroshi rolled away from it, disregarding his food in favour of his life. Titan's fist cratered the ground where he had been a moment ago. He started shuffling backwards on his ass, his arms raised.

'I didn't get hard on seeing your whore's tits!' he pleaded. He avoided another blow with the other fist and struggled to get up, but his motor actions were still catching up with his panicked brain. Titan stepped forwards, smashing his fists together like an ape. 'I was shopping, ran into her, and she said I was stalking her! Then she kicked me down and held me down like this before you came! I was only thinking of my own waifu when I got hard!'

Titan laughed scornfully. 'Who would ever stay with you, runt? Your boner was clearly from you pulling my lovely wife's tits out. And since you're not even sorry for stalking her, you'll pay.'

'I didn't stalk her!' protested Hiroshi.

Titan lunged forwards and landed with both feet on one of Hiroshi's legs. He screamed in pain as he felt his bones giving way. Titan leaped off him, but the damage was done. Hiroshi held his leg, his eyes watering again as Titan loomed over him. He raised his foot and prepared to stomp Hiroshi into the ground.

'She said you stalked her, so you obviously stalked her, idiot,' said Titan, punching his right fist into his left palm. 'Well, it'll be the last mistake you ever make, if not the least.'

Hiroshi shut his eyes. It was all over. He would be stomped to death by a violent Order monster instead of having his pelvis mashed by a monster girl. He would never get back to Kazumi and feel her loving embrace again. He recalled how she had kissed him, the way she had massaged his back and penis when he had been sore from their nightly indiscretions, and even how she rubbed his cheek with her paw as he drifted off to sleep any night. The way she cuddled him. How she listened to whatever he had to say about the Order without judging him. How she had tried to keep him back at home so he wouldn't be in danger that very day. He hadn't listened to her, and he would certainly pay.

'I'm sorry, Kazumi,' he sniffled. 'I love you. I don't want to die like this, but if only you were at my side ...'

Titan's foot started descending on him as he opened his eyes to peek at him. He gave a strangled yelp and fell back, lying down on his back. He raised his arms over his face to try and protect himself, even though he knew it was pointless.

The stomp never came.

Titan gave a howl. Hiroshi opened his eyes and looked up. His jaw fell open, and he somehow got the strength to get up.

Kazumi was holding Titan's foot up, preventing him from stomping her husbando into the dirt. She gave him a disgusted look before jamming her paw into the back of his thigh, making him stumble backwards. She grabbed him by the throat and hoisted him into the air. A snarl of rage crossed her face as Titan grabbed her forearms and struggled pointlessly to pull them away.

'Get. Away. From. My. Husband.' she hissed, shaking him around like a rat.

Titan wheezed, trying to catch his breath. 'N-never! He pulled out my wife's tits in the marketplace. I have to kill him!'

Kazumi raised her eyebrows and jerked a thumb over her shoulder. 'He's far too nervous to look at or touch my own tits, you idiot. Your whore seems happy to be quite the exhibitionist, and it makes no difference to me. So am I.'

She slammed a fist against her own naked chest, her tits jiggling with the impact.

Titan's eyes were drawn to them. His jaw dropped as he looked at the huge GG-cups in front of him. Her nipples were dark, perky and erect. His eyes started travelling down to her pussy, wondering if she was always wet and ready like those Order monks told them.

Kazumi gave a mocking sneer as she saw his gaze going southwards. 'Now who's staring?'

Titan actually blushed. 'Hey, you're the one who's naked!'

Kazumi turned him around and made him look at his wife, lying on the ground face up with her nipples pointing at the sky. 'Look who's talking.'

Titan stared. 'W-wait! That's not naked! That's —'

Kazumi grabbed his throat with a paw and swung it in a semicircle, slamming him into the ground on his back. He gasped and wheezed, trying to get his breath back as he pushed himself up on his elbows. She flew forwards, kicking him on the nose. His head slammed back on the ground, knocking him out cold. She lifted him up, turned him around, and gave him a swift kick to the ass. He flew into a row of stalls, crashing into them and knocking several pots and pans, along with vegetables and fruits over. The stall owners gave yelps of protest, but they didn't get the chance to open their mouths much as the entire corrugated tin roofs of the stalls crashed down on them, burying them under the debris.

Kazumi turned around to see Hiroshi lying on the ground again, wincing as he rubbed his leg. She hurried over to him and knelt near him.

'Are you okay?' she asked.

Hiroshi grimaced and shook his head. He pointed to his leg, and then where she had kicked Titan.

Kazumi looked at the ruined stalls, puzzled, before it clicked. 'He broke your leg?'

Hiroshi nodded through his tears, holding his leg as he doubled over in pain. He was almost out of it.

Kazumi reached up and caressed his cheek, her soft paw bringing back memories. He looked up at her eyes, and noticed that she had tears trickling down her cheek, ending at her chin.

She was crying. Crying for him. His pain.

He tried to get up, but his leg hurt too much. He tried to reach out his hand and hold her paw, but she seemed to be moving away from.

The female knight came up from behind, murder on her face. Kazumi rolled aside and stood up, rubbing her back.

Hiroshi gasped and glared at the knight. 'Y-you! You kicked my Kazumi aside! If you've got a problem with me, stop taking it out on her, you coward! Are you a gallant knight or a —'

He was cut off as he felt the breath leave his body. He doubled over, his face almost touching his knees. He brought his head back up and screamed in agony, throwing his head back.

The knight had stomped her heel into the very spot where she had stepped on his leg earlier. Worse, she was turning her foot backwards and forwards, allowing her heel to squeeze into his leg. She ground her foot on his injured leg as he rocked back and forth, howling in pain and muttering invectives under his breath while pleading with her to release him at the same time.

'Stupid fool,' said the knight, raising her foot. He felt a temporary relief as she released his leg, and then experienced more agony as she stomped on him again with the other leg. He cried out in pain once more. He tried to kick her leg with his other foot, but he was in too much pain to muster the energy to throw her off. The knight laughed as he kicked at her leg four or five times, with no effect. 'You were really dumb to think you'd get away with meeting me again over here, you know. My only problem with you and this ... waifu? Yeah, it's that you exist. As an Order soldier, I condemn thee to a painful afterlife in the Pandemonium!'

'You clearly don't know what Pandemonium is, bitch,' said a voice from behind the knight.

Turning around, the knight was confronted with an Order soldier's nightmare. Kazumi was behind her, her teeth bared and spit drooling out of the sides of her mouth. She was clearly enraged at how much pain her husband was in.

The knight folded her arms and tucked them under her armpits. 'Oh? Then what is it? Though it is sacrilege to even ask a hellspawn like you.'

Kazumi shook her head sideways, sending spit flying all over the ground and the knight. The knight shook out her dress daintily, as if she was a Victorian era lady who had just walked into a puddle. She gave Kazumi a disgusted look.

'Pandemonium,' said Kazumi quietly, advancing on the knight, 'is a place I don't need to be, but is wherever my man and I have sex. We don't need Order rules or following the Fallen God to turn a desert into Pandemonium.'

'That doesn't answer my question, dog,' said the knight.

Kazumi spat on the ground. 'You're not entitled to any answers. And when you insult me, you make things worse for yourself. I'll look over that since my priority is to defend my husband, whom you're stepping on. Release him and we'll fight if you must. The least you can do if you're with honour is to leave weaker beings alone. Isn't that what all knights are taught?'

Hiroshi scowled. Weak? He was a grown man. A grown man who could take care of him — OWOWOWWWWWWOWWWW that stupid cunt was stepping on his leg with both heels now. He almost broke down and cried, but he saw Kazumi's face and decided he had to stay strong for her if no one else. He didn't want her to worry too much. He could take it. Or maybe not, he was sure she would fracture his leg if she stood on it for —

The knight drew her sword, raising it in the air as she murmured a purification spell to rid her dress of the demonic energy from the spit Kazumi had thrown at her, and to strengthen her blade to chop up this hellspawn. She bent her knees, preparing to leap off and strike her opponent. Hiroshi gave a cry of agony as he felt his leg about to give way.

A jet-black paw shot out and grabbed the knight's legs, sweeping her into the air with a swift rotational motion. Hiroshi scrambled on his backside behind them, holding his leg to see how much damage was done. The knight looked quite stunned as she flew into the air. She couldn't believe how fast a hellhound could actually move.

The knight turned in midair into an upside-down pose with her sword pointed down and her other arm spread to the side. She started turning round and round, spinning towards earth with her sword aimed at Kazumi's head.

Hiroshi gave a yell and raised his palm towards Kazumi. 'Look out! She's about to stab you in the head!'

Kazumi sighed and ran a paw across her head, brushing some of her fur aside. She took a classic cartoon unconcerned pose: one hand on hip, lips pursed as if whistling, and her naked, muscular body exposed to the world. (Okay, maybe it's not normal for cartoon characters to be naked, unless you count Tom & Jerry.) Hiroshi kept his trembling hand aimed at her. He knew that Order swords could chop apart monsters due to their enchantments and reinforcement spells. He couldn't afford to lose her. He recalled the time he had seen a succubus lose her wings to some fanatical Order bastard. He couldn't just stand and watch. He pushed against the ground with his hand, trying to get up and push Kazumi out of the way. He watched in pure mental agony as the sword came closer to his waifu's head.

The rod of steel was stopped inches from Kazumi's head before it could enter her brain. Kazumi's paw was locked around the middle of the blade, and she wasn't even bleeding. The knight landed on her heels in front of the eight-foot tall beauty, struggling to make her sword move an inch. She couldn't. Kazumi's grip on the blade tightened, and then she simply twisted her paw around. The blade shattered into pieces, leaving the empty hilt in the knight's hand.

The knight gaped at the part of her sword in her hand, her face a picture of shock and awe. She then raised her eyes to Kazumi's face, and screamed in frustration. She swung the useless hilt at Kazumi's side, but it was intercepted with a powerful paw gripping her wrist. She turned the knight's arm around, bringing it behind her back, and grabbed her throat with the other paw in a death grip.

The knight struggled. 'Let me go, you bitch! My boyfriend — husband will hear about this! He'll break your head in two ... oh.'

She almost seemed to deflate as she recalled her husband flying into a row of stalls and the entire structure collapsing on them. She gulped and tried to look back at the hellhound, though it was really hard with a paw around your throat.

Kazumi leaned forwards and put her mouth to the knight's ear. 'Dear, dear, dear. You even forgot you were married to him? What are you doing, having new boyfriends on the side?'

The knight gasped, then started kicking and struggling. 'How dare you! The Order taught us to be faithful in all our relationships! It's you sluts who capture upright, honest men and train them in BDSM arts! We show them how virtuous and chaste you can be in and out of marriage, so don't lecture me about cheating.'

Kazumi's laughter filled the air and the knight's ear. She winced with the decibel levels of sound waves striking her ear. 'Well, you've already got some preconceived ideas as to who we are and what we do. I'll just say this much: your virtuous men are having a lot more fun with us than you prudish, frigid bitches who want your man to recite the Scripture before you kiss him. And they'll keep coming to us for that reason, no pun intended.'

The knight tried to reach her feet back to stomp on Kazumi's paws, but she kept them well out of reach. 'That's what you think! Our men and women will go to heaven, and yours will rot in hell forever! You dumbass monster girls don't know how to keep a man around!'

Kazumi twisted the knight's arm, breaking it and making her scream in the same agony as Hiroshi had. A sliver of pink bone stuck out of her elbow. Tears of pain and fury coursed down the knight's face. 'That's for hurting my husband. Also, you have no idea how many unbiased men, those who weren't trained by the Order, prefer being with us since we're more open with our emotions and intentions than you could ever learn. And finally ...' She cruelly twisted the knight's other arm, breaking it too and making her give such a long, blood-curdling wail that all the stall owners who were still recording the fight for their catfight fap fantasies later cringed and dropped their phones, covering their ears and searching their pockets for earplugs. She placed her mouth near the knight's other ear. 'Hell is a lot more fun than you give it credit for, darling.'

She slammed her elbow on the knight's head, knocking her out instantly. As she slumped forwards, Kazumi grabbed her with both paws and flipped her over her head, letting her land on her feet, then swung her foot-paw around in a circle to kick her in the middle of her back. The knight flew into a different row of stalls than Titan, smashing into them and sending tent poles and tin sheets down like a cascade. These stalls were empty, though, having cleared out minutes ago when the stall owners had finished recording her taking her tits out in front of Hiroshi, so she was simply buried in a pile of metal and poles. Kazumi huffed in disgust. That dumb bitch deserved to be covered in tomato ketchup, especially on the back of her dress or panties if possible, but she supposed she would have to make do.

Her job with the knights done, she turned around and ran at her husband, seeing him standing halfway up by using one of the concrete blocks on the ground as support. Unheeding of knocking him over or sending him sprawling across the ground, she threw her arms around him as she reached him, hugging him close to her already overheated body. Her heart strummed painfully at the realisation that she had almost lost him, and she resolved to make sure he never left her side again by training him. With some whips and spanks if she had to. She knew she loved him, and it made her heart cold with fear at the thought of what could have happened if she hadn't backhanded that butcher before trying to find him. If they had killed him, though ... she would've burned the entire world down, including the gods' realm and Pandemonium itself if she had to, and then rebuilt it from scratch. Starting with him. He was the only one she needed, anyway, and she could get by with rebuilding just him from plastic, mud and sand if she needed to. As for breathing life into him ... she was happy to beat up and force every god who existed to give him eternal life. Because force could work where diplomacy failed. The rest of the world could go fuck itself too, if they weren't already.

Hiroshi was hugging her back too. She could feel her shoulders turning wet with his tears, and felt her own trickling out of her eyes. She hastily wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, lifting him up and swinging him from side to side a little.

'Are you okay?' she said, her voice choked up with worry. 'I should've come back here before, I'm so sorry. I won't argue with those dumbass butchers without checking up on you next time, I promise.'

Hiroshi gave a laugh punctuated with a gulp as he tried to dry his eyes too. 'I'm okay in your arms for now. And it's my fault too, Kazumi-chan. I should've stuck with you like I promised. I'll try not to do it again until I see a shiny new phone or another attractive single mamono. Is that okay? I hope you don't punish me for leaving your side, though.'

Kazumi gripped him so tightly he thought his head would come off. Kazumi-chan. Simple words, but with a lot of meaning behind them. It wasn't just the endearing suffix of '-chan' he had added to her name. The tone and situation which he said it in was easy to implicitly understand, if you were a discerning mamono or human.

'Thank you, Hiroshi-chan,' she whispered, cradling his head in her paws and moving her head back to look down at him. 'You don't know how much you've brought into my life, and I'd hate to lose you to anything, even old age. In fact, I think I'll be dragging you back home right now and turning you into an incubus tonight itself, so that I won't have to worry about you anymore. You'll get health and endurance similar to that of a mamono. Your lifespan will match mine too, so I'll look forward to celebrating some ten and hundred-thousand anniversaries with you.'

Hiroshi groaned and rolled his eyes skywards. 'You like this anniversary shit too?'

The teasing smile on his face told something completely different, though.

Kazumi nodded through her tears, taking out a handkerchief which was actually from Hiroshi's pocket and wiping her eyes. She raised it to her nose and let out a few trumpeting, ear-splitting noises before lowering the handkerchief.

Hiroshi raised an eyebrow. 'You used my hanky.'

Kazumi looked at it, confused, before realising she couldn't have taken it from her pocket since she was naked. 'Oh, I didn't mean to ... I just ...'

Hiroshi waved away her apology and brought his hands to her neck, his face in her shoulder. 'Anything of mine is yours. Did you forget we're together, too?'

Kazumi sniffled and wiped her nose again, turning the hanky into a wet mess. 'Not a chance.'

'Also ...' said Hiroshi, the teasing grin still on his face. 'Why are your eyes so wet?'

Kazumi wiped her eyes with her paw again, smiling at him with a trembling mouth. 'There are so many people chopping onions here, don't you see?' She gestured to the stall having onions.

They laughed, holding onto each other as if they would never let go. The moment felt so good, so perfect, even though they had almost lost each other.

They remained like that for a while, gazing at each other. So many unspoken emotions passed between them, more than what they had said to each other during those weeks they were at home. They had formed a stronger bond simply by coming out once their supplies were over, but, as Kazumi thought, it would be better not to try it again like this. She couldn't afford to risk losing him again.

Hiroshi broke the silence after a while, realising that the cameras pointed at them were still clicking, probably to capture this 'Awwwwww' moment they could put on social media to garner likes.

'Shall we ... go back to Pandemonium?' he asked.

Kazumi gave a snort of laughter and nodded. 'Our Pandemonium awaits us, dear. Prepare to experience hell.'

Hiroshi lifted his head to her cheek and kissed her tenderly. 'A tour of hell with a hellspawn as beautiful as you? I'll take it, here's my ticket.'