I was tired, mentally, and emotionally; however, looking at everything going on around me, I had no right to complain.
My arm dropped to my side, the Staff of Magnus still in my hand. "Where's the next group?" I asked one of the people also helping heal the wounded.
"That should be the last of them, for now." It was a Kitsune woman with a single tail who answered. She had been helping me along with others. She wasn't very proficient in any healing arts, but she knew a cantrip or two and was knowledgeable on basic first aid.
"Not all of them." I sighed, holding me hand out. "Arm." I stated.
"…..It's just a small wound."
"I'm healing the wounded, gimme the arm." I said sternly.
She hesitantly reached out to let me take her arm.
I pushed up her sleeve to see a large burn going up her arm. It was bandaged, but I could still see the signs. It must have been very painful. My hand glowed bright as I began casting a healing spell over it.
Those missing limbs, burns, cuts, and all manner of afflictions.
It was horrible.
The worst part were the children asking where their parents were.
"Thank you." She said quietly, retrieving her arm, rubbing it awkwardly. "I can see why Lady Yasaka likes you." There was a faint smile on her face.
"Brother."
We both turned to see Aotabō walking towards us.
The Kitsune quickly got up, bowing her head before scurrying off.
I guess he was a little intimidating.
"Someone need healing?"
"No." He shook his head. "Boss and Lady Yasaka are calling for you."
I let out a sigh. "I guess things have finally settled down then." I stood up from where I had been sitting, putting my staff away. "Let's go—"
"Brother." Aotabō put his hands on my shoulders. "Thank you." He bowed his head. "You've helped us so much."
"If you call me something like that, don't thank me." I smiled lightly, placing my own hand on his shoulder. "I knew what I was getting into when I asked to join."
He let out a long breath, standing back up straight. "We'll talk more later, don't wanna keep the Boss waiting."
"Right." I honestly wasn't looking forward to this meeting. I saw everything that happened first hand, but I didn't want to hear the numbers.
"Is Reika…?"
"She's fine." Aotabō replied. "None of them could get close with Jackie around."
"Yeah that little girl would definitely be able to protect her." What a scary Assassin servant.
"It wasn't just Reika either. She was able to protect a bunch of people by herself." Aotabō sounded rather proud.
Sending them here was a great decision.
They both deserved a better hand than they were dealt.
"Alright, lets get this over with." Again, I was not looking forward to hearing everything.
***
Even the Manor that they usually gathered at was...barely standing.
I think that's a polite way to put it. There were some obvious makeshift repairs made to keep it standing, a mark of defiance I could imagine.
And it's not like they could stop rescue efforts to just start making repairs to one building.
Aotabō led me to the same place as last time, that large open room. Even more open if one considered the holes in the ceiling.
There was a understandable somber atmosphere amongst everyone.
Seats were taken as everyone waited patiently, and I had to do a double take because I saw a new face sitting right next to Yasaka.
"Izzy?" I blurted out.
"Wilhelm." She nodded slightly towards me.
"….You know each other?" Nurarihyon muttered.
I glanced at Yasaka. "You didn't tell him?"
"It slipped my mind." Yasaka sighed. "We've been busy with other matters."
That's fair. "We're friends." I said plainly. "I go to Yomi often to visit."
Nurarihyon opened his mouth like he wanted to respond but closed it again. "I'll unpack that later."
Well, the unease in the room seemed to lift a little.
I guessed they were on edge with Japan's Death Goddess sitting the room. I had to remind myself sometimes that they viewed Gods differently than me. They're revered and feared mostly, while I would happily walk up and give her a hug.
"I invited her here; we had a slight problem and she was able to solve it easily." Yasaka stated, gesturing for me to sit down.
I walked over to my spot, plopping down next to her. I smiled towards Izzy who also returned my smile.
I glanced to the side to see Yasaka's tail creep up on my, finding my waist. I ran a hand through her fur, doing my best to comfort her. I knew she had to keep up appearances right now, otherwise I know I'd be holding her in my arms.
Nurarihyon stood up once everyone settled down. He had a few bandages on him and was supporting himself with his sword. "I'm not going to sugar coat this. We were attacked and we did not come out unscathed." He wasn't loud, it was just that the room was deathly silent.
"Boss, how many….?"
Nurarihyon turned to the speaker, a youkai who was missing an arm, bandaged up. "Too many." He shook his head. "Way too many." He let out a long sigh, looking up at the ceiling where moonlight shined through. "We don't have exact number right now.... But roughly a good third suffered some heavy wounds. While about a tenth..." He shook his head again.
A tenth of the people in the city are dead.
There were thousands upon thousands of residents here.
Fucking hell.
"Some things that need to be talked about and what we're doing to do now."
"REVENGE!"
"Sit down, Zhu Bajie." Nurarihyon sighed. "But I share the sentiment. First off, the prisoners…."
"Are we not executing them?"
"Yeah, put their heads on spikes!"
"Fuck that, burn all those fuckers like they did our home!"
"Quiet." Nurarihyon spoke, silencing them again. "We're keeping them imprisoned for now. Believe me, I would like nothing better than heads to literally start rolling, but we have to be smart about this. Yasaka was able to reach out to Lady Izanami." He gestured towards Izzy, in a surprisingly formal way of addressing her. "She also expressed…..dissatisfaction at what happened. We're keeping them in Yomi right now."
It made sense after thinking about it. Where exactly would they keep so many prisoners, and how would they keep them contained? They didn't have any free resources to put towards the task right now.
"I can assure you all, they are most certainly not having an enjoyable time." Izzy said softly, but her voice carried in a way that only a Goddess's could.
That seemed to satisfy everyone for now.
"We were able to acquire some information." He glanced at me briefly before sweeping his eyes around the room. "And we know why they attacked us. Their little infiltration missions, we found out that one of their Queen's Daughters snuck into it amongst the ones sent out. A woman we currently have locked away. They attacked us to rescue her."
A rescue mission.
That had been a recuse mission for them.
A City burned because they had sent spies in, the spies got caught, so they fucking attacked to rescue the spies.
….he never specified that she was kept prisoner in Yomi like the others.
"Make no mistake, this is an act of war." Nurarihyon snarled in anger.
No one spoke, there was no hollering our shouting. But acceptance and agreement was clear on everyone's faces.
"My territory was infiltrated as well." Yasaka stood up, joining the old man at his side. "My people had been taken and replaced. It could have just as easily been Kyoto that was attacked. We're separated by territory, by region and by leader, but we're all one people. We stand by our brothers and sisters; we acknowledge the declaration of war and stand with you."
I see, Yasaka has chosen this path then.
I can't say I didn't agree with her.
"This – Princess, we were able to gleam some things from the prisoners. She's the Daughter of the one known as the Winter Queen. I won't go in dept about the political spectrum of these Fae for the moment, just know there are two main factions, the Summer and Winter courts. So let this be the official declaration; The Youkai of Japan are at war with the Winter Court!"
I doubted most here understood the implications but nearly everyone jumped to their feet, shouting in unison at the declaration. A universal support of Nurarihyon's announcement. It wasn't a matter of wanting to or not, there had to be a proportional response.
"Boss, I don't mean to be a downer, but…..are we really in a position to fight a war?" Amongst the excitement, there was someone with a voice of concern. It was the Spider Youkai I had seen the last time I was here.
"Don't get me wrong, we're not marching on them right now...admittedly we can't." He let out a sigh again. "They're hiding in their realm, a place that even Gods can't really go to but…..I've been told that we may have a way to overcome that. Besides the logistics of launching an offensive, I realize we're not in a good state right now, I don't expect us to be battle ready for the time being."
Ah, more of a formal rallying cry. And I had a feeling that the method to overcome that may be myself.
"What if they attack again?" She asked again. "As much as Lady Yasaka has helped us with everything. And we're extremely grateful, she has her own territory to protect too."
"I will be lending a hand, child." Izzy answered for him as all attention turned to her once more. "I despise these invaders as much as you all do. If I had known previously, I would have stopped it."
Huh, did Yasaka ask her or did she volunteer herself?
I'll have to talk with her once we're done.
"It is unlikely for them to move again so soon. And It is further unlikely that the Winter Queen will make another move without investigating after she was hurt." Izzy glanced at me.
"Wait, Winter Queen?" I blinked in realization. "That hand, that was her?" Because the presence on the other end of that thing wasn't something to scoff at.
"Yes." Izzy said simply. "I was told of what happened, and I felt a fluctuation of power from here. I reached out to Yasaka and asked her if she knew anything, and she explained which is how I ended up here. The Queens of the courts aren't simple beings. They are not Gods, but they aren't very different."
Well….I have probably painted a hefty target on my back.
No regrets though.
But it was a curious thought. She said they were like Gods, and the closest approximation I can think of were Nature Spirits. Could they perhaps be this world's equivalent to what I knew from back home?
Summer and Winter, I had a feeling that the titles were more than just monikers.
There were many stories and legends, but I was very far in the dark about the true facts. I would have to do some research on my own to figure it all out.
But one thing stuck out to me as she spoke.
"You're acting as more than support; you're being a noticeable deterrent. The Winter Queen won't move if she knows you're freely moving around here."
Izzy didn't answer, but the look on her face made me think I hit the mark.
She's always so sweet. She usually doesn't like drawing attention to herself, yet here she is, out in the open and basically declaring to everyone that she's front and center just so no one would try anything.
I wanted to go over there and give her a hug.
"Speaking of large deterrents…." Nurarihyon stopped, turning around to face me. "An explanation on the Dragon would be appreciated."
Oh right, I never did say anything about that.
"So…..uh." I scratched my head. "I have the Boosted Gear, and I made a spell that lets Ddraig come out under the guise of another Dragon?" I gave a very abridged version.
"And that's not the strangest thing I've heard today." Nurarihyon accepted it on face value.
"Are people worried about him? I could imagine that a Dragon presence would be cause for some concern…"
"The opposite, actually." Nurarihyon shook his head. "Ddraig, he seems have been eating those nightmare horses like they were snacks. Those things had been causing trouble and we didn't know what to do about them. Then comes a big Dragon that just starts snacking. Of course everyone saw him protecting the city, so they're treating him like a hero. Kids had even been running up and touching him."
That was stupidly wholesome and when I was in a better mood, I was going to tease Ddriag later. "I don't know how long the spell will last, and I didn't want to force it to end since it's the first time he's been out in a long time." Knowing the extent of the duration would be very beneficial. So far, it's been about an hour and a half?
"Don't worry about it, he's welcome here just as much as any of you all." Nurarihyon let out a melancholic chuckle.
That's good, I want Ddraig to enjoy his temporary freedom. "On a side note, can we keep the fact that I have the boosted Gear quiet?"
Nurarihyon look at me before nodding his head. "My people won't talk about it." He didn't even need to make an announcement, he seemed to trust them well enough. And I….trusted the old man, I would take his word for it.
It's not that I was overly cautious about it being revealed, but I didn't want to just wave it around for the world to see if I didn't need to.
"Now with that settled, we need to start discussing our next move." Nurarihyon stated, tapping his sheathed sword against the ground. "I don't predict another large fight in our immediate future, so our priority is stabilizing."
"We'll help where we can. I recently had an influx of money that'll help with certain things, but we still need to be...frugal." Yasaka spoke up. "But we too need to start preparing in the worse case."
"Agreed, I don't want to see Kyoto suffer like we have. You have more...civilians than we do, I fear what would have happen in a similar situation. I'll also ask around, see if there has been movement of the Fae in any other places."
"Mmm, I'll ask around too. The Fallen should answer my inquiry after the last debacle that their leader was involved in. And I'm also holding a small incident over the Angel's heads. It should not ruffle to many feathers if I try to get this kind of information out of them." Yasaka added on.
I had my own trees I could shake as well.
But there was one thing abundantly clear even with the civil nature of this talk, there was a barely held back bloodlust that permeated every corner of this room.
We were out for blood.
I'm sure they were active in other parts of the world right now.
It was just a matter of hunting them down.
***
Sorry for late chapter, had to go to an Urgent Care earlier today, the medicine they gave me made me super drowsy.
If you want to read 7 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone Kokabiel had his appearance.