*𝙐𝙣𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙙*
Everything happened on a whim. Some weird looking corrupted spirits attacked them abruptly from all directions. Kaori twirled her sword in her hand before counter attacking the spirits and killing them all in one go.
Her friends were shocked, they couldn't see what Kaori was fighting against. All they could see was a Kaori, who was determined to protect her loved ones from harm. And whoa, it looked so cool as well as dangerous.
As Kaori stabbed or slashed through the spirits, they instantly dissolved into thin air, leaving some ashes behind on the ground. After she finished them all, she swung her sword in her hands as she said, "Revert, Yukine-kun."
The sword disappeared. The stunned boys and girls could see a yellow haired young boy standing beside Kaori now. He was younger than them for sure, he had red coloured eyes and yellow short hairs. He was skinny and his height was average.
It took them moments before Wood broke the silence, "Are we safe now?"
As if in reply of his question, they got to hear the low sound of humming again. But this time, it sounded different.
Kaori was listening attentively to the hum when she suddenly turned around as something caught her eyes.
A little bit far away, near the trunk of a big tree, was a small ball of light - blueish yellow coloured light. The hum was coming from it.
"What's that?" Melissa asked in wonder.
As Yukine saw the light, too, he glanced at his master from the corner of his eyes, "𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴.."
Kaori looked surprised but she still took careful steps at it.
She wasn't the only one to do so, though. Her friends and Yukine also followed her.
Standing before the ball of light, they could hear the hum clearer. The light was glowing. So it wasn't a dream...
Tom tried to reach out to it, "Will it disappear if we touch it?"
"Don't!" Kaori sharply slapped his hand away.
Tom was surprised by her action. He asked, down casted, "Why?"
Kaori let out a sigh, "I don't know if you guys know anything about this but this is a spirit. Not a corrupted spirit, a real one. Don't go around touching them, that's a forbidden task to do if you aren't someone from our world. Also.. I've seen this spirit before."
"So it's really that one," Yukine muttered as he heard her.
Robin's eyes became round in question, "When did you see it?"
Kaori didn't reply, she looked as if she was lost in thoughts, "Is it following me?"
Hardly had she said the sentence when they heard some voices again.
"A-spirit. A-new-member. Let's-welcome-her-to-our-family. She-smells-nice. She-is-powerful. We-want-power!"
"Yukki!"
!SLASH!
The spirits were killed before they could close the distance towards their pray.
"This is.." Kaori knitted her eyebrows, "Not good.."
She observed the situation quickly as she took some glances at her surroundings.
Then she said to her friends, "You aren't safe here, it's dangerous. They're after power.. So as long as all of you're with us," She indicated to herself, Yukine - who had turned into a sword - and the spirit that was still glowing under the tree, humming a soft song as if it was calling someone.
Dylanthy welped, "Then where do we go?"
"Nowhere," Kaori replied firmly, "Even if it's risky, as long as you're with me, I can protect you guys-"
"Power. So-much-power. We-need-it. Give-it-to-us."
Kaori let out a sigh as she rolled her eyes, "Looks like we aren't getting out of here any sooner. Hold on tight, it'll be a rough ride," She took a step forward, covering her friends behind her back along with the spirit.
"Yukine-kun," She said, "Let's do this for just a little longer, okay?"
"Yes," He replied. He was scared a bit. Fear was grasping over his mind slowly as he thought if they could make it out alive at this rate. But he tried to remain calm neverheless.
A huge green monster looking something that looked like a hallucinated creature - but it was real - came out of the dark, followed by some others just like itself.
"Okay," Kaori muttered under her breath in annoyance, "Great, they're getting leveled up."
"You want power?" She said to them loudly as she took position, "Then come and get some!"
****************************
Yamaken was walking with the rest of the group for quite a while now. He didn't even think of checking up on his friends or anything all this time.
It was break time now because they needed a short rest after such a long walk. The group was out of the forest already. They were now at a big open area with long green grass, butterflies flying around, birds chirping. It was late afternoon.
The guides had decided that they should have a snack here since most of them were hungry. And so, Yamaken was waiting under a tree lazily, having nothing to do.
As he watched everyone, he suddenly remembered about his friends and Kaori. Where were they? Why couldn't he spot them in the group?
He got tensed, worries rushing through his mind. Did they get seperated?
He quickly checked again to see if he had missed them in the crowd but he was right, unfortunately. They were missing. The question about how seven people could go missing in broad daylight when there are so many people along with them really made him ponder.
He was feeling frustrated, not understanding what he should do when he saw his wristband glow. He quickly moved away from the others to check on it to see that it was a voice message from Yukine.
Yamaken frowned, "Why's he sending me messages now?"
He tapped on it to hear the desperate voice of Yukine, "Yamaken, Kaori is in danger! It's an attack of corrupted spirits!"
As soon as he heard the message, his fingers flew over the small keyboard in the digital wristband. He tried tracking Kaori down and fortunately this time, he got her location.
He immediately turned around, rushing back into the forest again, no matter how many voices called him from the back. He had to save her. He had to protect her..
Because that's what he had promised to do so.
****************************
Kaori was tired. Blocking countless of attacks of spirits from all directions and counter attacking them back made her really exhausted. She was injured as well. But that didn't stop her, she's a fighter after all. Plus, the determination to protect her friends also gave her enough strength.
As she jumped up high, she spun in the air, slashing through five spirits at once. It was nothing for her, but her injury was making her weak.
As an odd looking spirit tried to catch her with it's hand like limb, she jumped away further. Holding onto her sword tightly, she lunged forwards towards it to finish it off. But she failed to do so. As she had tried to stab it, she felt a sudden force from the spirit that made her fly away, landing on the ground harshly on her back, making her yelp.
Dylanthy and Robin ran up to her, "Are you okay?"
"Stay away from me," She winced in pain as she stood up, keeping her balance on the sword, "If you interact with me too much, they'll spot you."
She glanced at her worried looking friends who were standing there looking so helpless because they were just standing there and watching, not being able to help her in any way.
She gave an assuring smile at them, "Don't worry, I'm fine," She said barely before wincing in pain again.
Of course she wasn't okay. It's been so long since she started this. She even had blood coming out of her injuries now, of course she'd not be fine. But even if all these were trying to hold her back, they were failing. Because Kaori took strong steps forward again.
"Yukine-kun," She called, "If you're tired, let me know. I can use my abilities."
"I'm fine, master," He said calmly.
Kaori hadn't said anything in reply before she attacked the incoming spirits again. She killed them again and again, but there seemed not to be an end of them.
Wood frowned as he watched Kaori, "Don't you guys find it weird?"
"What?" Tom asked him back.
"That Kaori can't take a break? It feels like there isn't an end of this," Wood said in confusion.
Robin hummed, "Maybe there's something to it that we don't know?"
"I feel so awkward," Willia said blankly. "I feel so useless," She mumbked.
None could say anything back to this, so they ended up sighing.
Kaori stroke her sword but the spirit whooshed it's hand, sending her flying away again. She crashed on some bushes as she yelled in pain, "Agh!"
The boys and girls who were watching from afar could hardly control themselves from calling out to her.
She had barely got back on her feet and regained her composure when she saw the corrupted spirit moving to end her with a wham of it's huge hand. Her eyes widened in fear. Not understanding what to do, she closed her eyes tightly as she tried to take the blow on her back, protecting Yukine in her hands.
But instead of feeling the huge blow that would take her life away, she heard a voice - "Boarderline!" And an illuminating blue light appeared, followed by some yells of relief, "Yamaken!"
She opened her eyes to see Yamaken's back facing her, he had protected her again.
She stared at him with wide eyes, she couldn't help but think as her lips twitched into a smile, "𝘗𝘧𝘧𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘶𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦.... 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘤𝘦, 𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘵."
As the evil spirit was kended by Yamaken, he looked over at Kaori, "Are you okay?"
She smiled genuinely, "Yup!" She said, making his heart skip beats.
"𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘵!" He scolded himself in his mind.
"Okay," He nodded.
"Why are you here?" Kaori asked him, back to being serious.
"To protect you, of course. If you're always protecting people, who'll do the job for you? Well, for your information, I will," Yamaken announced boldly with a straight face.
Kaori blushed slightly, "Is that so... I thought..."
Even if she didn't complete her sentence, he understood what she would have said. So he said in reply with a soft smile, "If it was like that, I wouldn't have stayed by you all this time."
It felt as if Kaori and Yamaken had a staring contest for a moment before Kaori broke the eye contact.
"Thank you," She said quietly.
He ruffled her hair with a grin, "Don't mention it."
He then spotted the girls and boys along with a spirit under the big tree, farther away.
"Oh?" He walked up to them with Kaori following him.
"Are you guys okay?" He asked as soon as he reached them.
They nodded but Melissa ended up crying, "I'm so scared!"
Willia gave her a hug of consolation, "It's okay.."
Yamaken looked over at the spirit, "It's been here all the time?" He asked.
Dylanthy answered, "Yeah."
As Yamaken was going to give it a thought, he felt something in the air, the stench of a high level corrupted spirit. So did Kaori.
Kaori quickly whooshed her hand over her friends and put a finger on her lips, indicating them to stay quiet.
The spirit arrived at the place. It was a giant one. An ugly one at that, too, even if it looked like a hallucination. As it parted it's mouth to say something, it felt like something had roared, making the whole forest shake. Some birds that were sitting on the tree, flew away at the sound.
"I-am-hungry! I-smell-power!"
"Oh wow," Kaori mocked, "Since when did corrupted spirits become a sucker for power? Seems like Fujinuma really did a good job at brainwashing them."
Yamaken snorted at her words but said, "Mind your language, Kaori."
"Whatever," She said indifferently.
"Let's do this boys," She said as she got in position, "I can't wait to get out of this place, oh my god." She seemed to have had forgotten all the exhaustion. It was as if she had gotten some life after Yamaken joined them.
Right then, the giant spirit roared, shaking the forest again.
"Oh my god, calm down!" Kaori said with a scrunched up face.
Yamaken frowned, "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"
As soon as his roar sounded, tons of spirits came out of all directions of the forest. Spirits were swarming over towards them, screaming - "Power!" As they did so.
Kaori had casted the ability to keep her friends invisible to the monsters but it seemed to had had failed. Because some of the spirits were trying to attack them as well.
Melissa had screamed in fear as one tried to grab a hold of her - she felt it's presence. She gave it a blow with her bag that was the first thing she had near her hand.
Kaori moved over to her and killed it using Yukine. Both Kaori and Yamaken stood protecting their friends from all of the countless of spirits that was coming for them.
Yamaken was using his ability to take down the ones that wanted to cross their safety line when he noticed a spirit that was lunging onto Kaori, who was busy finishing off some others that had cornered her.
"Kaori, look out!" He yelled out, but he couldn't take any actions since another attacked him.
𝘕𝘰, 𝘒𝘢𝘰𝘳𝘪!
****************************
Kaori weren't being able to keep up with the speed of these spirits. They cornered her but she tried to clean them away so that they couldn't touch her friends.
She was getting weaker as she lost all the energy and her blows were becoming more vulnerable. She was still trying when she heard Yamaken yell - "Kaori, look out!"
She turned to see a spirit lunging onto her. Her mind had stopped working again and she couldn't move her body to defend herself.
"𝘐 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦..."
She had closed her eyes, welcoming death with open arms but she had to take it back for a second time in a day.
This time, something huge struck on the spirits - yellow coloured lightning. The energy was so strong that it burned all the spirits, killing them all on spot, clearing the sorrounding at once.
"Yellow lightning?" Kaori muttered as she saw someone landing on the ground.
"Are you guys okay?" He asked as he approached them. It was Maki, the clan's student council president.
"Yellow lightning bolt!" Kaori's face lit up, "Maki!"
"Yup," He gave them a smile as some others appeared, jumping down from places.
"Sorry to have arrived so late," Another boy said - it was William.
"Kaori!" A girl rushed towards her to hug her tightly, "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"Saki," Kaori smiled at her old friend, "Yeah, I'm okay."
"Do you think we're blind?" Another voice asked, "You're injured so heavily!"
"Mabuchi," Kaori said calmly, "This is nothing for me, I have gone through harder trainings."
"Though you don't look so good," A silver haired boy, Gin, remarked at her saying.
She could see all of the new comers clearly now. It was Maki, William, Saki, Mabuchi, Koutarou, Gin, Hayami, Ishika, Aoi and Lilac. They were all the higher rank students of the clan, who had studied together with Kaori.
Kaori asked them in wonder, "But why are you guys even here?"
Maki spoke first, "The student council took the step to mark down all the entrances to the corrupted spirit world. This forest is one of them."
At this new information, everything went silent, some gasped.
Maki went on, "As we were tracking, we found your presence here so we were naturally surprised and worried if you knew about this piece of information. We understood that you didn't after we had tracked you in the same location for almost an hour."
"An hour?!" Tom, Robin and Melissa yelled out.
"Who're you guys again?" Maki stopped in surprise.
Kaori explained shortly, "They're my friends and they know about our world. I'll tell you everything later. So you're saying that this forest is an entrance to the corrupted spirit world?"
"Yes," He nodded, "If you're thinking that you are still in the actual forest, you aren't. You've been transferred to this place as soon as you got seperated from the rest of the team. This forest enters you into the world of corrupted spirits when it finds you wandering around alone. That's why many villagers had gone missing for decades, but nobody could know the truth."
"How do we get out of here?" Kaori asked urgently.
"Well-"
Maki was cut off in the middle when they heard three roars, that seemed to have shaken the whole world.
"Shoot," Lilac cursed, "Trouble coming guys."
William looked over at Kaori's friends as he pointed at them, "Kaori, they aren't safe here. We need to send them off by using a portal. Let's send them back to headquarters."
Kaori tried to think quickly. What William suggested wasn't a bad idea, so she decided to go along with it. But in order not to take the risk of them being unprotected, she also decided to send Yukine with them. Even if Yukine is the one who always protects her in missions, this time, she had to let him go with them - not giving it a second thought if it was or wasn't good for her.
"𝘉𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴, 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘮𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘨𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺..."
She hastily told her plan to the rest of them. They had to be quick before it gets too late to be prepared for what's coming next and it wasn't going to be any easier.
All of them were okay with her plan except for her friends and Yukine himself.
He objected the moment she finished her words, "I won't leave you. I can't, I have to stay to help you!"
"Yukine-kun," She tried to make him understand, "I have Yamaken here and the others aren't going to slack off in protecting me. I'll be fine. Please protect my friends for me if they face any harm."
"But-"
"Yukine-kun, this is an order," She tried to make herself sound tough.
Yukine became teary at this, "Why me? Why can't I be by your side?"
"Yukine-kun " She called softly as she grabbed his shoulders firmly, "It's because you are the only one I can trust with my friends. You know how much they mean to me and I know how much I can trust in you. Yukine-kun, I'm asking you to do this because my faith in you, is greater than in anyone else. So, please, help me."
"You're going to come back safely, right?" He asked shakily as he sobbed.
Everyone became teary at this. Who doesn't know that this will be a battle of life and death? What a lie it would be if one said he'd be back surely. Because there's no possibility of either returning nor 'not' returning, it would purely depend on luck.
Kaori smiled at the boy's question, "Yes, I'll be back. So carry out my order properly. I'll reward you with something after I come back, okay?"
Yukine wiped away his tears, "Okay. Yamaken," He looked up at the older boy who was already looking at him with pity in his eyes, "Please-"
"I already know what you'll say, kid," Yamaken gave a pat on Yukine's shoulder with a playful smirk on his lips. "Don't worry. I'll keep your request," He gave a soft smile at Yukine, making him assured.
Yukine took a deep, shaky breath. He was aware of everything that was happening, it's not that he didn't know. But... It's not like he'd go back on Kaori's orders. He had to abide by her, he would abide by her, because he wants to be loyal to his master. Because he loves his master.
"We'll go now then," He looked over at the boys and girls who looked super confused.
"Kaori, why don't you all come with us?" Wood asked.
"Because we need to finish them off before going back. As much as we can," Saki replied instead of Kaori, "Don't worry, we'll protect her. We'll be fine. Now go, it's dangerous for you guys to be here."
Wood nodded, he was feeling sad and uncomfortable. He didn't like this feeling at all.
Willia had taken Kaori's hand and didn't want to let go. Yukine was telling her to let go and not leg them behind but tears were streaming down her eyes. She didn't want to let go of her precious friend so easily.
Dylanthy and Melissa were silently shedding tears because they knew whatever they did would not come in any handy.
Wood pulled Willia with him, loosening her grip on Kaori making Willia cry out Kaori's name.
Nobody couldn't but be heartbroken at their actions. Who knew that they would grow so fond of her in such a short time?
'Such a short time?' Yeah, it was a short time... But in this short period of time, so many things had taken place that it doesn't seem like a short time at all. It feels like hundreds of years of their friendship. And now, they were parting with the uncertainty of whether they'd meet again or not... It breaks their heart.
Kaori tried to keep herself in tacts as she watched her friends stand behind Yukine who was standing before them.
He nodded at her, "We'll be going then-"
They got to hear roars again, nearer this time.
"We should hurry!" Ishika whispered urgently.
"Yukine-kun," Kaori smiled brightly at the said boy, "I'm proud of you. Thank you."
Yukine was taken aback by the sudden confession but he smiled back, "This mere server is glad to hear that he was able to make his master be proud of him. I'll be waiting for you, Kaori."
"Master will be back, I promise," Kaori raised her hand as she took one last look at her friends and her shinki, "Portal, to the headquarters."
As she swooshed her hand, Yukine, Willia, Wood, Dylanthy, Melissa, Robin and Tom vanished.
"You do know that that promise you've made just now can be 99% a lie, right?" Koutarou asked Kaori quietly.
As Kaori didn't answer, Maki warned his accompanies, "Remember, don't let them touch you. You'll be possessed if they do so and you'll have zero chance of going back alive. Keep in mind that we mightn't be able to go back and might end up dying here.... So stay strong, let's pull this off together!"
!ROAR!
Came the heavy steps of the new comer giant corrupted spirits. This time, there were three of them and just like before, they were followed by tons of tons of lower rank corrupted spirits. Those came swarming again to attack them.
"choki," Maki called as Lilac flew into his hands as a spear, that was generating sparks of lightning on it.
"Sekki," Mabuchi called as Saki transformed into dual sharp batons and flew into his hands.
"Aiki," Gin called, making Aoi fly into his hands as katana swords.
"Ikki," Hayami called, making Ishika fly into her hands as a bow - her quiver full of arrows were already tied on her back.
"Kouki," William called calmly, making Koutarou turn into a leopard and roar back at the corrupted spirits as his master got on his back.
Everyone took their positions as they stood ready, prepared to fight against their enemy.
Kaori was in the middle of all of her accompanies. The small ball of spirit was still there behind her, she had protected it up until now. Just a little more and they could get out of here safely, then she would set it free again....
But will that even happen? Will they get out of here safely? Or will their story end here?
The boys and girls took their positions. The game was soon to be on.
Kaori eyed the spirits before her with sharp and careful eyesight as she spread her right hand out, "Come, Daiki!"
⭐🌟⭐❤⭐❤⭐❤⭐❤⭐❤⭐❤⭐🌟⭐