Chapter 310: Kurai's Journey to the West (4)
Volume 2.5 – Omake 4
—
Kurai was more hyped than mad when the robots attacked—more so when they exploded into blitzars when she smacked them with the transformed Enma.
As the robots had shot towards Kurai just before getting destroyed, an explosion happened where she was standing. But Kurai had jumped up in the sky in time.
She wanted to wait out here for reinforcements to come so that she could fight some more. But when she suggested that, Enma had a different idea.
"Let's not,"
Enma said as he transformed back to his normal form, and from a pocket that was stuck to his thigh—thick yellow clouds came out and placed themselves below his feet to keep him in the air.
"These mechanisms clearly were just stationed to blow air inside the city to keep the smoke and fog balanced for the humans—yet they had such devastating fighting powers. I don't wish to find out just yet how strong the fighting-based mechanisms would be." Enma yanked Kurai by her tail and placed her on the cloud. "We leave this place, go to some remote human village, and continue our investigation from there."
"Tch." Kurai clicked her tongue, grumpy, but didn't argue. She could see his point, and there indeed may be forces that she might not be able to handle. Warning Neji that she was in danger and needed to be saved was the last thing Kurai wanted to happen.
Thereafter, the Nimbus Cloud began to move forward once more and this time the goal was to find a rundown village, rather than a steampunk metropolis.
* * *
Despite the first impression of an advanced steampunk fantasy world, it turned out this continent did have rundown villages and towns. In their short journey through the sky, Kurai and Enma came across a few towns located far from each other, and at last even a village.
"In the end, no matter how powerful the government, the entire continent shouldn't be at the same level of advance—otherwise they would have invaded our east by now," Enma said as the Nimbus Cloud started to lower towards the human village. "By the way, do you know how to use the Transformation Jutsu?"
"Mhm? Yes, I do. Why?" Kurai asked with a tilt of her head as Enma nodded in satisfaction.
"Transform into a human. I am also going to. It's better to use disguise since last time it was most possibly our appearance that alerted the things you call 'robots'. Those might not exist in this village, but you can never be too careful." Enma finished.
Enma locked fingers in front of him, and with a set of swift movements, he initiated the Jutsu. Smoke came out of his body, and when it dissipated his appearance was unrecognizable—actually, Kurai would say he did look recognizable, as if all his fur was shaved and he had normal human skin, otherwise he looked the same.
"Now it's your turn." Enma looked at Kurai who hesitated before sighing, and then—with no gesture at all—used the Jutsu that Enma had to use multiple hand seals for. "Huh…"
As the smoke dissipated from around Kurai's body, her small cat form was replaced by a tall, blonde cat-girl wearing dark gothic attire.
"Ah right," the woman, Kurai, spoke. "I could always have used this method to show the appearance of the people I am looking for…! This appearance is that of my mommy, by the way."
Enma blinked at that realization, and though it was careless how she missed that point—he couldn't blame him since he forgot too.
"Since I am doing this anyway, let me show you their appearance one by one!" Kurai suggested cheerfully.
Before The Monkey King: Enma could say anything on the matter, she already started transforming from one woman and another, and soon finished the set of five.
Kurai stopped on the 5th appearance, that of another blonde woman with golden eyes and horns in her head. Just from her appearance alone, Enma could sense the aura of a warrior from her.
"This is the last person; her name is Ryukyu…Ryuko… I think either of those." Kurai said in a voice that belonged to this Ryuko person. "I am going to stay in this form until I change."
"Hmm," Enma had his arms crossed as he slowly shook his head. "Sorry, I don't recall having seen any of them, except as I had said before—the rabbit girl indeed does match the description of someone who existed in this world. However, she was sealed within the moon a millennium ago, so I doubt they're the same."
"Hah," Kurai shrugged. "That's good enough, I will tell Papa to go check the moon once we return. Let's continue our search here anyway."
With that decided, the Nimbus Cloud continued moving downwards to finally land on the ground.
—-
Kurai and Enma landed a bit far from the village's entrance, and after packing up the magical cloud they moved towards the gate on foot. Before that, though, Enma stopped for a brief with his eyes closed as he tried to get a sense of the clothing the people in the village were wearing.
As the Monkey Sage, Enma's sensory abilities were unmatchable, and so with just a little concentration, he could replicate Byakugan's far sight. He would have needed much less concentration if the Nature Energy here wasn't so thin—it was better than the port city they left behind, but it was still far from what Enma was used to.
After getting an idea of their clothing, recognizing that it was quite casual compared to the city people, Enma changed his attire and instructed Kurai to do the same—changing into a casual shirt and pants for himself while the Ryuko-imitating Kurai wore a t-shirt and short pants.
"I look old," Enma said. "So you act as if I am your grandfather. Despite your height, you look young enough for people to not question it."
"…Hmm, alright." Kurai reluctantly agreed. "Also, let me do the initial talking, I don't think they speak Japanese like you. I catch on first and should be able to have a proper conversation in no time."
"They speak 'English' if I recall what my old drake friend told me," Enma said. "I know bits of what he told me himself, so to have a good enough conversation with him."
"Aha, I know this English you speak of, mommy taught me!" Kurai said, starting to walk off. "Anyway, let's get going."
Enma stared at her as she walked off, his eyes full of curiosity about her past, but he just shook his head in the end and followed behind her.
* * *
The village they found themselves in wasn't remote or rundown at all. In fact, the tech here was still fancier than Konoha and other hidden villages back in the Ninja continent. It was a medium-sized village with mostly one-story concrete houses, and people were interacting with each other in quite a friendly manner.
Thankfully, there weren't any of those robots here, possibly due to how the smoke pollution here was so low. There wasn't any identity-checking procedure that they had to go through either, so both Kurai and Enma easily found themselves inside the village.
As they walked by the street, people gave them glances—as it was indeed unusual for outsiders to visit villages such as this.
"Hey, you two," from the side, a street-food shopkeeper waved his hand at Enma and Kurai. "Outsiders, aren't ya? Come get some hotdog."
Some other shopkeepers called too after that, but Kurai walked to the first one—with Enma following her as he didn't understand whatever anyone was saying. Indeed, they were speaking the same language as his drake friend, and though he understood bits he didn't understand everything.
'To think they cook dogs and eat them...' Enma thought as his eyes locked on the 'hot dog' thing. 'How disgusting. Truly, the culture here is very different.'
What impressed Enma was Kurai's perfect acting—she seemed like an entirely different person as she conversed with the shopkeeper, giggling sometimes as she accepted a hot-dog from him.
Enma thought the food was free, for whatever reason, since otherwise Kurai wouldn't buy it. She didn't have the currency of this continent on her, after all—but Enma was surprised when she took out cash from her pockets, the same currency that the people around them were using.
A while later, they walked away from the shop and Kurai munched on the cooked dog (all to Enma's disgust, but he didn't protest). A bit far from the shop, Enma started to ask her what conversion she just had.
"Oh? I just asked him about Drakes and such." Kurai licked her lips off the sauce. "I told him the story that my old grandfather wishes to see a dragon before he dies—so I am taking him out on a trip around the wild parts."
"Ah-huh." Enma nodded. "And the money?"
"I have money in my inventory. Ah, it's a sort of personal dimension where I keep my stuff." Kurai shrugged. "I have quite the money from defeating mobs, they dropped those as loot. That money, when taken out, transforms into the currency of the place I am standing at. Neat stuff."
Enma supposed she meant enemies when she said 'mobs' — so she was basically robbing the people she defeated. The ability she spoke of did sound very neat, though.
'I guess she is a God in the end, even though not that powerful she has lots of useful abilities.' Enma noted, but he didn't ask anything more on that topic as he was more interested in something else.
"So what did you learn about Drakes and Dragons from him?" asked Enma, and it would be a lie if he said he wasn't excited to possibly meet an old friend. "Anything of use?"
"Well," Kurai gulped the last bite of her food. "Yeah, he said Drakes do exist and they live in the Fire Forest at the southern edge of this country. If we go there, we should get to see some drakes flying in the sky. Though he told me to be careful, saying it would be a bummer if a beauty such as I died so early. What a loser, he is flirting with a cat."
Enma broke out laughing as Kurai giggled a little too. After buying some more food from the street vendors—and this time Enma also decided to eat some of this foreign food since Kurai had the money anyway—the duo left the village and continued to travel to their destination.
Enma couldn't help but be excited to maybe meet his old friend, but at the same time he didn't forget the true purpose behind coming here. If his Drake friend was alive indeed, then perhaps he would help find the five women for better or worse.
Whatever the result, Enma promised himself to not let this cute Cat God fall depressed and lonely.
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