Part 1
3rd Person POV
Standing idly with his eyes closed, Nora tried to calm his beating heart. The rest of the group was also trying to calm their nerves, but the fact that a large amount of ki continuously leaked from Nora in bursts made it hard, however, no one said anything to the youth.
Suddenly opening his eyes, Nora glared in a particular direction. Soon enough, from the trees two figures came out, Musashi's figure made Nora inwardly sigh in relief and it would've made the youth dash toward her and greet her if the situation was different. This time, he limited himself to give a subtle signal arranged beforehand by crossing his arms. The one that had to pay attention to it did not show any reaction outwardly but got the message. After checking on Musashi's safety, Nora turned his gaze towards the other figure and he clenched his teeth so hard that you might think he will break them, nonetheless, he resisted the urge to start the fight immediately. In fact, Nora suddenly furrowed his eyebrows and opened his eyes to gaze at the man who had come with Musashi.
"This is interesting, I did not expect it at all..." The man, N'gha, looked visibly surprised as he stared at Nora. "Two of the four reunited so soon..."
Looking confused, Nora ignored the man's nonsense.
"Are you meant to use her as a hostage?" Nora asked.
Waking up from his state, N'gha simply smiled at the sheer ill will that was directed at him.
"No need to get like that, I am not here to fight." N'gha said. "This body might desire to tear you to pieces, but my will is not that one. I came here with an offer and I hope you consider it seriously."
"Musashi, are you ok?" Nora looked at the young woman.
From his side, no one interrupted his actions. They just quietly followed his lead.
"Sorry, I tried to help you out but got checkmated instead." Musashi bitterly said.
Shaking his head, Nora did not mind but decided to console her later.
"What is that you want? You people would not extort me for money since you can get it easily through other means. Working as an assassin and selling dubious drugs would get you more money than I can get you." Nora muttered.
"Indeed, we do have several money entries so I would not ask you for that." N'gha chuckled. "I want you to join us. It is nothing hard to do."
Already aware of the guy's desire Musashi did not react, but even Nora simply stayed silent, however, someone spoke out.
"There is no way he will join you. Did you seriously believe he would just nod along?" Natsume said. "Your place has nothing to offer him."
"Oh? You think so? Even though we can allow him to reunite with his dear mother? I don't think you guys can do that..." N'gha smirked.
Trembling slightly, Nora lowered his head and his face was hidden after hearing that. The rest of his allies felt like tearing apart N'gha but none of them acted.
"Is she alright?" Nora asked.
"That is a good question." N'gha shrugged his shoulders. "I can take you to her to see for yourself so you can get the answer to that particular question. That said, I can tell you that she is alive."
"I see. She is alive, that's good." Nora sounded relieved. "Ikuse-san, go."
Those words confused N'gha and he had to jump away because blades made of darkness sprang out all over the ground around him, except where Musashi was standing. He tried to grab her and jumped backward, but a large black dog emerged from the shadow between the two while holding a blade with ominous carvings shining in red.
The danger he felt when the dog made its appearance caused N'gha to abandon the idea of grabbing Musashi. However, his dodging came to an abrupt stop when a black-haired youth also emerged from the shadows.
Holding a large scythe, Tobio had emerged from the shadow of a tree located in the place that N'gha had dodged towards. He swung it downward, but the hit never connected because N'gha turned into black smoke. In his new form, N'gha drifted away but the attacks were not done yet. Blue flames in the form of fireballs began raining on him and his instincts warned him to avoid the attacks so he took even more distance.
Taking solid shape, N'gha glanced at Nora who was shielding Musashi behind him, and Tobio who was at his right while Jin was on his left.
"That's some scary bodyguards you have." N'gha shrugged his shoulders. "Even though I came here peacefully..."
Furrowing his eyebrows momentarily, N'gha felt something strange behind him. An odd-shaped tree that looked like a cocoon made of roots was located in a strange location. He looked at the trees around him and noticed that they looked different that the ones surrounding the place.
Just then, the cocoon broke forcefully and pieces of wood flew off. The bloody figure of Kamiya emerged as he angrily dashed out. A pair of large horns had grown on his head and he seemed to have grown taller. His first movement after escaping was hitting the first thing that stood in his way and that was N'gha who looked surprised by what he saw. The blow sent him stumbling but N'gha only walked a few steps away.
"Wait, it is me. Stop it." N'gha dodged the frenzied attacks from Kamiya.
Bleeding all over, Kamiya's aggressive stand did not stop when N'gha spoke. On a closer look, Kamiya's eyes had suffered some damage they were half-closed and his ears had root pieces sticking out.
Clicking his tongue, N'gha was about to put Kamiya to sleep but as he raised his hand to knock the other guy out, an arrow he did not perceive pierced his hand and several others followed, but N'gha was able to swiftly escape the attack.
Sighing heavily, N'gha waved his hand, and a golden fireball formed in front of him. The fireball was sent flying toward Kamiya who kept randomly hitting whatever got in his way. Nonetheless, he raised an eyebrow when a gust of win directed the fireball away.
"I see." N'gha nodded. "I shall play for a bit to amuse you."
Waving his hand again, N'gha pulled a scepter (?) from his storage space.
The scepter (?) seemed to be made of stone and the tip was round, similar to an eye with some floating stones shaped like eye drops.
N'gha grabbed it and tapped the ground.
"I might lack most of my strength but... I was still known as the strongest magic user before any of you were even born." N'gha commented. "This should be enough to get you to calm down..."
Mumbling in an inaudible tone some strange words, the scepter (?) shined for a moment before a magic circle materialized below N'gha, it continued to grow until not only covered the area surrounding N'gha but went past Nora and the rest's location.
First, there was a small tremor, but it kept getting stronger and stronger until it was an earthquake of great magnitude. However, the spell was not done even though the earth began to crack and the terrain constantly changed. As several trees lost their ability to maintain their place, they all fell and from the ground, several stone pillars emerged.
Kamiya was lucky enough to be saved by one of those pillars, otherwise, he would've been caught in the destruction.
Smiling faintly, N'gha watched in amusement as the group emerged unharmed.
A loud cry was heard and the figure of Griffon, in his true form, appeared, the upper body of a falcon and the bottom body of a lion with four wings, much like a Griffon in the legends should have. On top of it, there was a sulking Natsume and Sae, while Nora with his crystal-like wings was flying while carrying a restless Musashi in a princess carry. Tobio calmly emerged from the shadows with Jin when the earthquake calmed down.
"Oh? Never seen wings like those before, although one of them seems to be broken..." N'gha mumbled.
"She refuses to acknowledge me so I am stuck with this." Nora said. "You are quite the Spellcaster. That guy never had such an ability as far as I recall."
"I don't mean to brag, but back in my days-" "Natsume." N'gha tried to talk but Nora's voice cut him short.
With just hearing her name being called, Natsume knew what to do. Tapping Griffon's head, Natsume seemed to order it to do something. Griffon flapped its wings and strong wings began to blow. The more it flapped its wings, the stronger the winds. Following that, Sae released a stack of ofudas that she had prepared. As they flew with the wind, they soon scattered everywhere, but when Natsume tapped Griffon's head again, the wind began to follow a new path. Instead of just blowing forward, it began to follow a pattern similar to a circle.
"Oh?" N'gha's feet left the ground.
In the air, the ofudas began shining and activated. One was shining in pale blue while others were in yellow. The blue ones began producing water in great amounts and it quickly reached a large amount while others discharged sparks causing a chain reaction and electrocuting N'gha. The electricity, however, was not able to cause him enough harm since N'gha waved his scepter and caused the electricity to stop harming him by creating a spherical shield around his whole body.
Each of his actions was caught by Nora who did not miss a single detail, although it caused him to ignore the restless Musashi that wanted to get down from embarrassment. Nonetheless, Nora signaled Sae with his hand and continued to ignore Musashi's attempts to get down.
Nodding, Sae searched among the stacks of ofudas that Nora had handed her before and took one that had a small drawing of an X over a wand on the back. She felt like she might need to chide Nora about his choice in distinguishing his gadgets, but it was not the time.
Throwing the ofuda, flew as sharp as a knife would if thrown and got stuck on N'gha's shield. The ofuda activated itself and caused the spell, the shield, to get interrupted.
N'gha was slightly taken aback, but he grabbed the ofuda and tore it apart. One chant later, the shield was back.
The wind slowly decreased as the flying ofudas no longer had the energy to produce anything.
Clicking his tongue, Nora lowered his flying speed and landed on the ground gently before releasing Musashi who got glared at by Natsume who also ordered Griffon to go down.
"Those were quite amusing for party tricks, do you have any other act to perform?" N'gha smiled.
"Don't you know? The Shiki Household has 108 nasty tricks to harass their enemies to death." Nora took out a vial from his storage space as well as a strange-looking syringe. "Don't worry, a tough guy like you would not have an issue with missing one."
Using the syringe to absorb the contents of the vial, Nora simply threw the mechanical syringe, however, his aim seemed to be off since it went to a completely different location until it landed in the hole of a bunch of rubble and rocks that had been flying seconds ago.
"Oh? Your aim is pretty bad for the daughter of that woman." N'gha mumbled.
"Is it?" Nora asked.
Suddenly, the rubble flew everywhere and a hulking figure emerged. Kamiya (?) or what it looked to be him had no longer traits of his handsome appearance. His skin had turned red and rugged, his teeth had grown larger enough to peak out his mouth. His previous garments barely held together due to the quality of the cloth, but the muscles were testing the limits of it.
"Hmmm, worked better than I expected. A red one huh." Nora mumbled. "Those are bad news."
"Oh? We were never able to produce one of these even after working for a while on the special 'medicine'." N'gha said.
"Oh yeah? It seems you guys don't have capable people on your side." Nora sneered. "Well, I will give you a trial quest for you to test how effective a grown one is!"
Picking a pebble, Nora threw it towards N'gha but before he could strike it away, Nora moved his hand and the pebble seemed to ricochet mid-air, but the lack of anything visible made it questionable if that really happened. The pebble ended up hitting Kamiya and enraging him. Growling angrily, he dashed towards N'gha with a greater speed than before.
N'gha raised his scepter and a stone wall was erected between the two. However, Kamiya destroyed it with one hit. N'gha continuously created new walls and Kamiya tore them down until they were at arm's reach. Kamiya attacked N'gha who was about to step away before noticing that his feet had been caught by a root.
"Ops." Nora mumbled.
Clicking his tongue, N'gha created a transparent shield to guard himself against the impending fist aimed at him, nonetheless, he heard a snort and an ofuda hit his shield just as the fist was about to hit it. The shield disappeared and Kamiya's fist struck N'gha with nothing to stop it.
The damage was greater than he accounted for but it was not over yet. From the distance, he was shot by a gun and the light-based ammunition distracted his chants.
Irritated, N'gha received more damage as time went on, so swung his scepter and it shined in red before a wave of cold air spread in a circle. Kamiya was affected the most as his feet became covered in ice and got stuck in place. He tried to escape, but the ice just kept freezing him again after he escaped. This gave N'gha some breathing time to make the tip of his scepter glow in red and touch the roots with it, causing them to burst into flames, no longer keeping him in place. His timing could not have been better since he perceived an incoming attack and jumped away just to avoid several shadow blades raising below him.
As N'gha landed, he felt like he stepped on something. The ofudas scattered activated and fire spread in his surrounding as it engulfed him.
Seconds later, N'gha emerged mostly unscathed, but there were some burn marks on his skin.
Trying to strike up a conversation, N'gha opened his mouth but instead, what came out was almost a curse. From the distance, Nora began throwing whole trees at him. He was about to create a shield, but he saw Sae preparing to throw a familiar-looking ofuda. His only choice was to evade by leaping away, nonetheless, he felt two pairs of eyes on him. Tobio and Jin seemed ready to take advantage of his landing. Clicking his tongue, N'gha turned into smoke and avoided the rain of trees.
The loud sound continued and N'gha emerged in his smoke form from the piles of trees. He took a look around and belatedly notice that he was missing someone. Natsume had been shooting at him at every opportunity she had, but his formless body made it so she was unable to harm him. Tobio and Jin only attacked him when he avoided attacks in his physical form while Sae focused on using ofudas to attack using different means. Nora only sporadically used his blue flames and N'gha avoided them like plague given the feeling they gave off. Yet, there was one person he had neglected since the very beginning. By the time he noticed this, the instincts engraved into the very body he was controlling kicked in. He channeled magic power toward his scepter and cast a certain spell. A spherical light shone above him and Musashi's figure which had remained invisible until now was revealed. Holding her katana with both hands in the hair, she jumped slightly to deliver a diagonal slash. A ring gleamed for a moment on her hand, but it was an unnecessary detail to point out.
Unfortunately for her, N'gha discovered her before it was too late. Yet, he was unable to escape unscathed. He raised his free hand and tried to ward off the attack as he sidestepped to his right. The katana had an ominous shine and N'gha was certain that it had the same enhancement to hurt those with formless shapes. However, he underestimated Musashi. Even if his body belonged to a powerful youkai, it was not enough to stop her blade. Her katana sliced off his arm with no resistance.
Musashi did not want to stop there and follow with another attack, however, N'gha was ready to retaliate with his scepter.
"Musashi!" Nora's yell was heard.
Just having her name being called made Musashi abandon the idea of attacking. Although, just that was not going to be enough to escape. From the tip of the scepter, a red sphere shone, it seemed to suck the light around it, and even the dirt and leaves light enough were sucked into it. Musashi got a chill just looking at it at a close range like she was and cold sweat poured from all over her body. Her feet backstepped but she noticed how N'gha would move his scepter so that the angle would always point at her. There was no way she would move toward her companions and endanger them so she fled in a different direction. Nonetheless, N'gha was not the only one who was reading the path she was taking. Nora had dashed forward as soon as he yelled and his body left after images as he ran.
By the time he caught up to her, the attack was fully charged and an attack that would easily swallow a five-story building was shot in their direction. The red beam vaporized everything in its path and there were multiple gasps of horror. Yet, before the sacred gear users went berserk, they spotted a figure amidst the destruction.
"...I am honestly speechless." N'gha spoke in a rather surprised tone.
He was dumbfounded enough to desist from attacking further. His eyes were directed to an absurd figure that had smoke all over due to the heat from the beam. A humongous axe-sword made of material similar to stone was facing him. Surpassing three meters in length, it boasted a wide body. It had a crude edge made by sharpening one side and it was uneven until the part where you would hold a sword that was covered in bandages to give a better grip. Black all over, He felt like it suck even the light directed at it.
A hand could be seen holding it in place and another one was peaking from one side of it. There were obvious injuries around them with even bones showing, however, you could easily see how they recovered in real-time and it took them nothing to be without injuries.
"How many times have I told you to not run off like that?" Nora's voiced sound angry.
"But you would get hurt!" Musashi's voice sounded angry as well.
"Who cares about that!? I can easily recover from something as minor as this!" Nora spoke.
Lifting the weapon, he easily rested over his shoulder by holding it with one hand.
"It is not about you being capable or incapable of recovering! I don't want to become a reason for you to get hurt! It pains me, even more, to know that I caused your injuries!" Musashi said.
"*Sigh* And you think my heart will not break if you die? Be a bit more self-aware about how much you mean to me, you dense lady!" Nora faced away.
"Ah!? You of all people will tell me that!? Argh, Nora-kun has lost all self-awareness!" Musashi lamented.
"We will talk about this later." Nora concluded. "We will see if not eating udon for a week will not help you to understand my point."
"Noooo, anything but that!!!" Musashi desperately clung to Nora.
Without caring for her image, she clung to Nora's waist and cried pitifully.
"...anything huh." Nora smirked.
"...crap, I mentioned the words I should not." Musashi coldly sweated.
Slightly regretting her actions, Musashi stood up and took her distance, but it certainly had nothing to do with the deathly glare that Natsume was giving her.
"I guess we bought enough time?" Nora raised his head just in time to see the moonlight get obstructed by black clouds.
Concentrated on the zone they were in, the clouds began making ominous sounds.
Distracted by the numerous antics that Nora and his group did, N'gha came to realize that the clouds were not a natural phenomenon.
"This is quite a complex spell, but... it was not you who prepared it." N'gha raised his scepter and began chanting.
His efforts were cut short when Jin leaped from the shadows and tried to attack him. N'gha clicked his tongue, but he refused to get slashed by the large dog's blade. He parried the attack with his scepter and he frowned when a nick was left on his weapon.
He did not have time to complain because Tobio put his whole attention on trying to create openings for Jin to exploit.
His gaze lingered on the sky and the clouds were noisier by the second. Arcs or lighting danced freely and they seemed almost alive.
Changing gear, N'gha accumulated as much magic power as he could on the scepter. Every time he parried Jin's attacks, the energy he prepared would leak in great amounts. Afraid that he would not be able to gather what he had in mind in time, N'gha dispersed his magic power like a wave and the density of it was enough to push back everyone. N'gha studied everyone's position and noticed that Griffon had left while he was assaulted by Tobio and Jin, but did not mention it or show any signs of noticing.
He kept Nora and Musashi in his point of view given their lack of involvement in attacking him. Nonetheless, his focus turned towards Sae, whom he considered the weakest. He tapped the ground gently and spikes grew in line toward Sae, however, Tobio intercepted the attack with his scythe. Jin attacked again but N'gha did not stop trying to send attacks in Sae's way. Natsume's covering fire was distracting, but N'gha used raw magic power to protect his body.
Calculating his movements, N'gha tried to get a breather, but Nora's blue flames would come just in time to take away any.
The lighting in the sky was getting louder and louder and N'gha began feeling like he should stop pulling his punches. Trying to keep them alive was beginning to become troublesome, but killing them would mean that they would lose what the cult was most interested in, Sacred Gears with unique properties.
Suddenly, a loud cry was heard and Griffon came back again. N'gha became extremely alert but Griffon did not attack him, he hovered over Nora and dropped a small object. Jumping, Nora caught it midair and put it on his neck at once.
Sighing after tapping the stone hanging on his neck, Nora snapped his fingers and his outfit changed. The usual hakama was again and below you could see a black body suit with green lines running across. His left hand was covered in bandages even though no wound could be seen.
Stretching slightly, Nora raised his hand to signal everyone.
Two light orbs descended from Griffon as he lowered his height, one pale blue and one purple, they both got closer to Nora and he nodded. The purple one got very close to his ear and the blue one tackled it away.
"Is it finally time for you to step in?" N'gha asked.
Ignoring him, Nora looked at Tobio and gestured for him to leave. The youth was confused until Nora pointed upwards.
Getting the message, he carried Sae in a princess carry and dashed away.
Natsume walked briskly and grabbed Musashi by the nape of her kimono, all while glaring daggers at the young woman who tried to pull away a ring that had been coincidentally placed on her ring finger.
"Keep it, I won't be using it for now." Nora sighed.
Obediently letting herself be dragged, Musashi whispered something and Nora nodded.
Griffon descended and a certain young woman dressed in white was seen sitting there giving Nora a worried look. It did not take long for Griffon to take off and only N'gha remained alongside Nora.
"What kind of game are you playing?" N'gha asked.
"Game? Hardly. I was just bidding my time." Nora stated. "I am certain that once I start fighting you for real, I will be unable to keep a cool head. Regardless of how much I try to channel my ki to cool my head, I am barely holding it together. If the fight gets too heated or you push the correct buttons, I am going to forget about caution and that will be a bad situation."
"Oh? You made the right assessment, however, even though you know that you still have chosen to step forward." N'gha looked around. "I am not that good at finding presences without using magic spells, but I don't see anyone around. Have you put yourself in the same situation you had described that would be for you?"
Snorting, Nora pointed the tip of the sword toward N'gha.
"I am an idiot." Nora proudly declared. "Have you seen an idiot do something rational?"
"Hahaha, is that really your reason?" N'gha could not help but laugh.
A large amount of ki began covering Nora all of a sudden and his form changed. His cat ears and tails finally appeared, however, his two tails split into another one, forming three before transforming into three fox tails paired with his new fox ears along with a slight increase in height and his build. The early spheres of light grew in numbers and they all hovered around him.
"By the way, I have been meaning to ask you... Are you some sort of ghost or undead? You are clearly not the asshole who owes that body." Nora glared sharply at N'gha.
Without feeling intimidated, N'gha just smiled.
"Follow me back, and I will tell you all. Not only that, I will tell you about what our goals are, and what our duty is. However, I guess the thing that you will like the most will be to be reunited with your mother, and I certainly have the authority to make it happen." N'gha offered.
Instead of answering, Nora leaped towards N'gha at an incredible speed despite still holding the sword in hand. Reading the air, N'gha enhanced his body with magic and met Nora's dash with a swing of his scepter. Magic power flowed wildly and it worked like an aura and produced a strengthening effect. The sword met the scepter and a shock wave exploded. N'gha became surprised when he was pushed back a few steps from the contact. However, he adjusted his magic power with the strength of the blow. Just in time to meet a downward slash from Nora, would he once again became surprised when he was still pushed back. Not only that, but the purple light floating around Nora sent a lighting strike at him and he briefly became numb. The power behind the light was beyond what he calculated. N'gha had accurately judged the origin of those spheres as fairies, but given their size, they were still not at the level of an elemental, creature with immense strength and unusual abilities. Nonetheless, they were still small, and while on a closer look, you could see a tiny person, there was no way she could add that much energy to one of her attacks unless she properly chanted a spell.
Gripping his scepter stronger, the stone-like surface began to crack under Nora's continuous attacks. Nora looked to be wildly swinging his weapon, but every hit only got heavier and heavier.
Making his magic power go berserk for a second, N'gha managed to push Nora back, but he failed to even cause a scratch as the fairies all moved in front of him and created shields of different elements.
Nora's pursuit was not going to end easily and N'gha was going to understand how much someone who aimed for a one hundred percent completion rate in games could persist.
Taking a stance with both hands on the grip of the sword, Nora dashed again. Surpassing his earlier speed, he swung the blade in a vertical direction. His foe reacted by changing how he gripped his scepter and instead of using it like a magic wand, he grabbed it from the base like you would do with a sword. N'gha tried to redirect the sword and parry the attack by twisting slightly the angle of the scepter. Nonetheless, his idea was unable to help him this time. Nora equally changed the angle of the descending sword and the brunt impact sunk N'gha into the ground until his knees. There were some breaking sounds, and Nora finally backed away after glancing upward.
"Do you know why was it that I stayed? I am the only one who can survive that among my companions." Nora smirked.
Pointing toward the sky, the arcs of lighting had been focusing on the center and were ready to attack.
"I am a little scared of Lisa asking me something exaggerated, but I should be thankful that she only requested two things in exchange for her support. How is it? The power of one of the witches of directions..." Nora happily asked.
N'gha wanted to reply, but the area was engulfed in lighting and a deafening was heard. The lighting struck down the surrounding area mercilessly and nothing was spared.
The blinding light brought by the lighting stole the sight of N'gha and while he tried to use defense magic, Nora used more ofudas to get rid of it.
After the attack, lighting arcs lingered in the zone and two figures stood up with difficulty. Their bodies would spam and tremble but one of the two recovered faster and soon began stretching as his body began glowing white now and then.
"How did that taste? As*hole..." Nora muttered.
Opening a closing his hands, he had dropped the sword at some point. Looking around, he spotted it. He briefly checked his appearance and noticed his hakama slightly torn apart on his left side revealing his black body suit below and the bandage covering his left arm. Swinging his arm, the bandage stretched until it caught with the grip of the sword Nora was using and he pulled it toward him.
With sword in hand, Nora carefully observed the figure of N'gha as he struggled to stand up.
"You know, there is a problem that undead who get used to not having flesh have. The same can be applied to ghosts- I mean, stands who possess people." Nora widened his eyes suddenly and began to look around.
From his body, the numerous colored spheres emerged and it was then that he sighed in relief.
"You guys want to scare me to death?" Nora grumbled. "Where was I? Oh, yeah. You guys tend to forget about taking care of your body. I am not sure what kind of method did you use to take over that body, but it still has a beating heart and the rest of the functions a regular body would. You still bleed, you still receive damage and that causes you pain, however, in your cause, you have either disabled your ability to feel pain or you have a screw loose like me and can withstand a lot of it."
The colored spheres did not seem to reflect on their action and simply floated playfully around Nora. Not bothering with them anymore, he threw the sword towards N'gha, barely missing his head from a few centimeters. On his left hand, an emblem made of ancient runes shone in deep red and from Nora's open palm, the tip of a spear began emerging. His left hand was pointed forward and N'gha maintained his eyes glued to it while his right hand was hidden behind him. In an instant, not only the tip but the rest of the spear had been revealed. Taking a hold of it, Nora swung it hard and the tip created a sharp sound and a red afterimage.
His whole attention was on the spear and N'gha seemed to feel a great deal of danger from it. His knowledge was limited given his incomplete state, but the body he was in could recognize the weapon.
"Gae Bolg." N'gha said.
"Correct." Nora muttered. "Well, I can't praise you for guessing since it is a pretty famous weapon."
Nora stood in front of N'gha and stabbed his shoulder.
"Shishou can be a bully, she made this one from the remains of a foe I defeated long ago at my request, but she could not honestly give it to me. She sealed my Touki and said, having both make it too easy for you so go test your limits without the Touki you have relying so much to not get killed. I feel like your weapon techniques have been too sloppy lately so you better fix that..." Nora grumbled. "Now then, that aside. Are you finally willing to answer my questions? I doubt your muscles will work anymore. Not only the lighting was specially made to have anti-youkai attributes and anti-evil attributes, but I did also ask that woman to make it extra charged so it could fry your nervous system."
"Heh, I guess you have been very careful to plan such a thing." N'gha did not seem worried.
"It seems I was not prepared enough if you are that calm." Nora twisted the spear.
Blood leaked in quantity but N'gha just smiled.
"Have you forgotten where we are?" N'gha spoke.
A large magic circle materialized below the two. Nora simply raised an eyebrow at the composition of the spell.
"You used him quite viciously, right? Let's see what he has to say in response." N'gha spoke.
Amidst the rubble, a scorched figure stood up slowly. His hulky figure had half regressed and he looked like an abomination with a hulking left half and a normal right half. Kamiya's skin had been mostly burned but the parts that were not had a pale color.
"Ah... Ahhh! Ahhhhhh!" Kamiya's voice sounded strange.
"Revival? No, I guess it is necromancy." Nora frowned. "What of it? He can't do much in that state. Not only he is unbalanced due to his body, but he also cannot see anything with the damage I did to his eyes."
"He is no longer a living being so he does not need eyes, does he?" N'gha explained.
Just like he said, Kamiya's eyesockets were empty of flesh, and now two glowing orbs of otherworldly fire burned with a pale blue flame. He looked at his hands and his expression distorted. Shaking his head, Kamiya turned towards Nora.
"It is because of you!" Kamiya dragged his body towards Nora. "You ruined everything! You! You! You!"
"Oh? So you plan to pit him against me now?" Nora looked unimpressed.
"You!!!" Kamiya dashed towards Nora.
Without caring too much, Nora grabbed the nearby sword he threw earlier and threw it again. His target seemed too into dashing toward him to care or even think of evading.
"You say that undead are weak because of what you mentioned? I cannot refute such a thing, but their usefulness depends on two aspects. How they are built will determine their toughness so necromancers will usually look for stronger bodies since it would make for stronger soldiers." N'gha smiled. "That can be somewhat bypassed by using catalysts or using magic to strengthen them."
Befitting the size of the sword, it had a large weight the collision sound was unnerving, but instead of getting thrown back, the sword passed through Kamiya and got stuck far away in the distance. His mangled figure was gruesome, but Kamiya single-mindedly rushed toward Nora.
"Undeads can be pretty obsessive with their behavior so I would not dismiss him as your regular one. Hatred can be one of the greatest fuels that drive them." N'gha smirked. "Do you know what the second aspect is?"
Clicking his tongue, Nora realized too late the trap that N'gha had planned to use. Kamiya was a few steps away and his body began to swell and his figure to turn unrecognizable, before he-
"Boom." N'gha laughed.
An explosion swallowed Nora and N'gha whole.
Part 2
3rd Person POV
"H-How!?" Shirone dropped to her knees and sadly wept.
"To think they would attack this place while we bitterly fought." Yume patted Shirone's shoulder.
"A cowardly move, yes." Ayanami tightened her fists angrily.
"No, isn't it strange that the kitchen is the only one on fire? The rest of the residence is perfectly fine..." Charlotte retorted.
The group was watching how their home (only the kitchen area) was burning, they all (Charlotte looked skeptical and Kanna was sound asleep) felt their blood boiling.
"That aside, the enemies we are facing keep spreading and multiplying... they are also looking more like... plants." Charlotte said.
"It is getting strangely creepy to walk around, I see almost no one." Yume commented.
"If things go south, we have... THIS!" Ayanami pulled out a piece of paper with a magic circle on it. "Nora Summoning ticket! Use one and your problems will go away! Yes!"
Raising it high, Ayanami looked at Shirone for approval.
"Not yet. We can still fight." Shirone stubbornly said. "We have to use all our strength to solve this."
"Eh..." Yume looked clearly disappointed. "Getting saved by a dashing Nora seems nice though..."
"Ahem, putting aside Yume's nonsensical reason. I believe it would be wise to ask for backup." Charlotte recommended. "Right now, the strongest fighting force is not here. Raiko-sama has left and we have not heard of Ei-sama. Yasaka-sama has made clear her stance and Sora-sama is missing along with Shion-sama. We checked their places and they are empty. In that regard, Urakyoto seems to be lacking many people and this is starting to look like a ghost city."
"There is no ghost anywhere though." Ayanami tilted her head.
"Ayanami-chan, I think she meant that figuratively." Yume smiled wryly.
"Enough. I permit all of you to go all out." Shirone said. "Anyone who gives less than their 111% won't get their puddings."
"...that is an oddly specific number, wait, it was you who took my pudding? The nerve! Nora finally made it after I beat him in rock paper and scissors." Charlotte angrily grumbled.
"It seems we have to make our stand." Kanna stood up full of energy. "Let's show them what we got!"
Taken aback, Ayanami, Charlotte, and Yume looked like they had seen a ghost. Only Shirone nodded reassured by when Kanna began to fight her own shadow.
With a subtle atmosphere of confusion, the group left the scene.
As they did, a small fox emerged from the shadows.
"...I am astounded. I took my eyes off you for a second and you blasted the kitchen." Yae reproached.
Creatfallenly slumping her shoulders, Ei did not dare to retort back.
"He is going to get angry." Yae sighed. "He might even take your Sweet's rights."
"...please kill me. I can't live in a world where sweets are no part of my life." Ei offered her sword to the small fox.
"...how do you want me to use that dangerous thing like I am? No, even if I change back, I do not know how to properly use a katana so keep that on your waist." Yae's eyebrow twitched. "She is an excellent warrior, but her passion for sweets is her weakness."
Mumbling to herself, Yae was not sure what to say.
"Cheer up, I will talk to him in your stead if it reaches a bad point. Besides, this place is-" Yae suddenly stopped talking.
From the distance they saw the group leave, an aura had burst explosively.
"We better leave." Yae said.
With a serious face, Ei nodded. Picking Yae on her shoulder, she leaped with nimble steps.
...
...
...
"What are you?" Shirone asked.
Holding her sword with both hands, Shirone looked rather irritated.
In front of her, the boy from before was smiling (?) at her.
Standing behind Shirone, the gang had their weapons equipped as well.
In their surroundings, vegetation had grown to the point of swallowing the buildings that were once part of a lively street.
"I am just a friendly cat who would like to meet some girls."
The boy continued to smile.
"My goal is to revive my race! You are a nekomata so you surely understand how important is to save our race from disappearing."
The smile on his face looked out of place as one of his arms had been blasted off. Normally people would feel incredible pain and would at least show it on their faces, but the boy just kept a creepy smile on his face. The place of the injury looked odd as well. Instead of blood, a green gooey substance dripped from it.
"I don't care." Shirone muttered. "If our race is in trouble, Nora will deal with it. Onee-sama said so."
"I don't think you understand how severe this is. You will need more than one guy to revive the race. I heard you people have numerous women here, I believe if we all work-"
"Shut up." Shirone said. "I said I don't care, didn't I? Onee-sama said Nora will do it. I believe in her and him. There is nothing Nora-onii-sama cannot do."
The normally calm Shirone was emitting an explosive aura and her ki was relentlessly released.
The words of the boy were the source of her anger and discomfort. She could not stand it when he first began talking so she attacked him with all her strength, but Shirone was shocked when her attack only destroyed one of his arms instead of turning him into a puddle like before.
"Ayanami." Shirone called out.
After saying that name, Shirone dashed towards the guy who only kept a smile on his face. Following her, Ayanami held a sword as big as the cat girl, but hers had an edge. Their attacks caused severe damage to the boy. Shirone used her sword to blast him away while Ayanami leaped and struck him down with one blow. The boy bounced a few times and his body came to a stop a few meters back.
"Charl, can you take care of the surrounding vegetation?" Shirone asked.
Nodding at that, Charlotte pulled a shotgun. It was a short one with an antique design and runes engraved all over. Charlotte easily wielded it with one hand and each shot would destroy anything it touched. The ammunition was not your regular bullets, but instead, before each shot, the shotgun would absorb the power of destruction from her hand.
Looking a little restless, Yume kept her spear in hand as she awaited instructions. Shirone was not going to say anything but the look of 'I want to be of help so I can get praised later' was too intense.
"Eh... Why don't you check for nearby enemies?" Shirone suddenly said. "I am getting some strange feeling. I see no one but there seem to be many enemies close to us."
Patting her chest reassuringly, Yume jumped towards one of the buildings. Nonetheless, it was one covered in vegetation, and as soon as she landed-
"Kya!?" Yume yelped.
A root of the plant tried to entangle her but Yume swiftly reacted and struck it with the blunt side of her spear. Her attack followed after she twisted her hand and spear spun. The plant was cut easily but it was time for the other plants to attack. Yume had to abandon her idea of confirming possible enemies and head down.
"...that was a cute sound you made. Don't worry, I will give Nora a detailed description of your heroic exploits." Shirone teased.
"This is not time for that!" Yume retorted but was secretly happy that her efforts will not go unnoticed.
"Hmph, easy." Shirone snorted at her friend's simple mind, however, just the image of getting praised made her tail wild.
"The plants have a mind of their own." Charlotte said. "I can reduce their numbers but their numbers are increasing."
The fallen boy suddenly stood up despite having broken limbs.
"Hehe, are youn't getting too worked out?"
The boy mumbled.
"Just stop resisting. They will be gentle."
His characteristic creepy smile still hung on his face as he spoke and the boy's skin began turning green and sprouts grew out of his body while a flower bloomed on top of his head. Slowly, his appearance changed from a boy with cat ears to a human-shaped plant.
"Kanna likes to eat the flowers that Nora has in his garden, but this one doesn't look tasty." Kanna bobbly stepped forward.
Staying on their back until now, she fought against... her sleepiness. A bitter struggle that no one but a certain someone could fully understand.
"It is the turn of the main character to shine." Kanna took a pose.
A little dissatisfied by the lack of a grand explosion to mark her words, Kanna nonetheless began making a series of hand signs. Each gesture of her hands made a symbol to lit up in a magic circle below her. Once the circle was fully activated, Kanna underwent some changes. Her sleepiness was gone and a surging aura surrounded her.
"I do not know what you are." Kanna took a step forward.
Her simple gesture startled the boy because he missed how in one movement, Kanna had disappeared from his point of view.
"Kanna dislikes those that disturb her sleeping time." Kanna muttered.
Standing behind the boy, Kanna kicked him and sent him flying toward Shirone. Despite having her mouth open in an unladylike manner, Shirone still reacted by swinging her weapon and hitting the boy.
A swing that would get praise from the best baseball players, sent the boy flying until his figure was no longer distinguishable.
"...it is but a small-time villain once I show what I am capable of." Kanna smugly said.
"Wait a moment! You were acting all this time!?" Yume asked.
"To think we have been carrying you everywhere all this time." Shirone lamented.
"Yes, I always followed the 'leave no man behind' policy that Nora always has, yes." Ayanami muttered.
Seeing how things were not looking good for her, Kanna immediately pointed at one of the plants that began acting up. It soon changed shape until a flower bloomed. The flower released spores as it bloomed before the flower began transforming into the boy while it decreased in size.
"That was a little rude. I just want to get along with all of you."
The boy just sulked as he crossed his arms.
"Creepy." Shirone spat out.
"Ayanami, can you use 'that'?" Charlotte asked.
"...Nora confiscated my sword so it is a big no, yes." Ayanami replied.
"Wasn't that supposed to be an important weapon for the Kishins? Why would he take me away for no reason? We could use that firepower here." Charlotte grumbled.
Looking away, Ayanami refused to answer.
"What did you do?" Charlotte asked with narrowed eyes.
"...I did not accidentally cut one of his favorite plants when I was showing what it could do to Shirone, yes, it has no relation to that event." Ayanami poorly lied.
Face palming, Charlotte decided to give her an earful later. At that moment, Kanna began engaging the boy rather aggressively without pulling any punches, or in her case, kicks. Like most bunny Youkais, she had swift footwork and powerful kicks. Nonetheless, despite bringing destruction anywhere she landed, Kanna had problems with the boy. He would get his body blasted or turned into minced meat, but he would always appear again. He could reappear through the process where a flower bloomed or after his body turned into the gooey liquid, a new plant would grow from there and he would soon appear on that spot again.
Watching the pattern, Charlotte got a bad feeling.
"Shirone... have you been keeping track of how many enemies are surrounding us?" Charlotte asked. "No, could you tell me if their numbers change?"
Pulling out her shotgun, Charlotte shot toward a nearby plant. Part of the stem of a small plant got blown away. Having held back on her power, Charlotte turned towards Shirone.
The cat girl had a grim expression as she kept her eyes on the parts that were blasted off and not destroyed upon the impact.
"We've been had." Shirone bitterly said.
While Shirone and Charlotte chatted, Yume was covering them and preventing any plant to advance too much.
"A little help would be appreciated!" Yume stabbed a root that wanted to entangle her. "I am too young to end up like in that doujinshi!"
Covering her mouth at once, Yume sighed in relief when she saw that no one seemed to react to her words. Unbeknownst to her, they all heard her, they just decided to tease her later.
"All this time..." Shirone gazed into the distance.
"We have been helping him to spread, yes." Ayanami finished her friend's words.
Groaning, Charlotte felt like they had reached a dead end.
"Are you girls going to leave all the work to me!?" Kanna spoke.
Nodding in unison, the rest of the group agreed on that.