Chapter 1: the Lady's Distress
Near the Park, Somewhere in the forest
8:21
"What happened, where the hell are we?" Shin groaned when he woke up with Carla in a forest.
"This must be the mysterious light's doing," Carla responded as they both took in their surroundings. "I only remember fighting with the Sakamaki's and when Eve harmed herself and then there was this bright light,"
"I remember it now, Nii-san," Shin said.
"I think we aren't near the Sakamaki mansion or the Mukami's anymore but something different," Carla deduced, clutching his aching chest.
Carla spared a glance at his wounded left arm and chest before glancing at his very much beaten brother. Shin had sustained several injuries from his fight with Sakamaki Ayato and Mukami Yuma. Shallow cuts adorned his arms and chest but the most worrying wound is the wound on his back, the one that Ayato slashed with his sword.
"Can you still manage?" Carla asked from his scarf.
"I'm fine, Nii-San," Shin huffed before staggering on his feet. Few droplets of blood fell on the ground, staining it red.
Carla knew that Shin was suffering with each step he made but Carla also knew that his little brother's pride was more important to Shin more than anything.
"Let's -," Carla started to say when he suddenly covered his mouth and had a coughing fit. He saw blood on his hands when he finished coughing. "I-I must have used too much magic," he muttered absently.
"Are…Are you okay, Nii-san?" Shin asked, frowning at the blood on Carla's hand.
"I'll be fine," Carla replied curtly. "We should know where we are first," he raised his hand preparing to summon a familiar but decided against it as he was still worn out from using his magic. "Can manage to summon a familiar?" he asked Shin.
Shin raised a hand then winced, biting down a yelp.
"Then we have no choice but to walk -," he stopped abruptly when they heard a faint yelling, a good distance from their location.
Boundary of the forest and the park
Few minutes earlier
"Kaede-sama, they're catching up on us!" Onikiri yelled as we forced our way through the forest.
I silently scolded myself for getting into trouble once again. "Damn it, Dad's going to kill me for this," I muttered to myself while trying hard to avoid the bushes.
My bag thumped against my back as we ran. Few strands of my long, light brown hair escaped its ponytailed state and flew behind me as I ran. I scowled at my destroyed sakura-printed black umbrella which I held by my hand. I usually ride on it like my father does when I let my fox fire fly me back home but now it was ruined. Those damned fire breathing lizard-like demon's burned it when I tried using it to escape. I glanced behind us and saw that Nishiki's swarm of followers is still pursuing me. I cursed and ran faster with Onikiri and Kotetsu flanking me.
Dad will be beyond irritated and probably try to burn Nishiki's lair, if he finds it. I mentally groaned. Nishiki has been trying to charm me to go with him and become his wife but, I don't think so. I don't have a personal dislike with lizard yokai but I just don't feel something for him. He started trying to kidnap me when I bluntly refused him. He better pray to the gods that I have my pride preventing me from blabbing this to my father; else he'd be sashimi by now.
"Kaede-sama!" Kotetsu yelled as one of the lizard demon servants of Nishiki jumped me.
I instinctively jumped out of the green scaled demon's reach. In an instant, the other pursuers surrounded me. "Well, damn," I muttered, eying the demon's surrounding us. Some of them stood on the tree branches while others stayed on the ground.
"Ka-Kaede-sama, we'll try to divert their attentions while you make a run for it," Onikiri suggested shakily.
I did not have to glance at them to know that both of them are sweating profusely. I find my yokai friends' loyalty cute and heartwarming. They were previously my guardian Mikage's, the god of marriage, servants who became my mother's and now mine.
"No, I'd rather fight than let father know," I glared at the pursuers with renewed determination. "He can't always fight my battles," I added.
"Woman, you have no means of escaping now," The speaker was a yellow-eyed lizard demon with a long purple tongue sticking out of his mouth with each word he speaks. The things that set him aside from the others are 1) he wore a black ripped shirt 2) He was bulkier and taller than the others in comparison 3) he wore a single piercing on his left ear. He seemed to wield power over the others, who looked at him awaiting orders, but to me, he's just as irritating and repulsive as them.
I let out a smirk. "Are you sure about that because I escaped you countless times before, what makes you think I can't do it again?" my violet fox-like eyes took in my surroundings with my heightened senses. I counted about a dozen of them.
I let my smirk grow wider when I sensed a hesitation in the air. "Today is a special day so I would like to avoid fighting with you. Why don't you slither back to your master and tell him to stop pestering me? I already rejected him, seriously, what does he doesn't understand in the words 'I'm not interested'?" the Ear Pierced reptile, as I decided to call him, glowed red as I continued disrespecting his master.
"You bitch!" he yelled, signaling the others to attack.
The first four of them jumped at me all at the same time. I waited patiently until they are almost at arm's length, "Now!" I yelled. I took out the talismans with my name on it and stuck it on the four attackers. I stuck two enchanted leaves on the three of us to appear like my pursuers. With a puff of white smoke there were four confused replicas of me and my friends and I were now reptiles. The second wave of attackers paused, unable to contemplate which one is the real me. While they were confused, I swiftly made my way to Ear Pierced reptile while sticking on some enchanted leaves I got from my father, turning them into fishes. Ear Pierced reptile lashed at me when he realized what was going on. I narrowly avoided being whipped with his snake-like arms but, unfortunately, his short sword got me on the arm. I backed up a bit in surprise. He lunged at me again but I maneuvered myself stamped the enchanted leaf on his face and he immediately turned into a fish.
I looked back at Onikiri and Kotetsu. They were panting hard with broken branches of the trees on each hand. They had managed to beat the four lizard demons we turned into 'me'. I smiled at them before checking my wound. It wasn't deep but it was still bleeding so I tore at my sleeve and wrapped it around the wound. I picked up Ear Pierced reptile, now Ear Pierced Fish, by the tail.
"You know, I'm tired from all the running you made me do. My arm is still bleeding and I'm hungry," I smirked menacingly with narrowed eyes. "I think you'd make a nice dinner," I held up my hand which lit up with blue fox fire I inherited from my father. The fish shook in fear.
"Kaede-sama," Kotetsu tugged at my sleeve. "Your phone is ringing,"
"Oh!" I snapped out of my thoughts on how to dice the fish in several ways. I snuffed the flames on my hand and took out my phone. It was dad.
Well, damn.
I answered the phone. "Hey, dad," I let out a nervous laugh.
"Where the hell were you?" he yelled through the phone.
"I, um," I looked around nervously, unable to find a proper excuse when Kotetsu pulled Uncle Kurama's card from my backpack and waved it in my face. "I'm in Uncle Kurama's condominium. He's on vacation in Kurama Mountain so he decided to lend me his card to access his condominium to keep it for a while," I explained.
"Why are you at that crow's lair?" he demanded, spitting the words like a bad taste on his mouth.
"Well, I," I started to say when my dependable sixth sense told me that someone's eyes are observing me. "I'll talk to you later, bye," I turned off the phone and turned the fish back into his original form.
He immediately cowered in fear and joined his friends when I glared at him. "Tell your master that no matter how many times he sends his minions after me, the answer's still 'no'. I will never marry that annoying reptile but if he insists, tell him to face me," I flipped my hair. "Now, scram!" I ignited the surroundings with my flames and they run off yelling obscenities at me.
"Kaede-sama, you should really tell your father about those -," Onikiri started to say but I raised my hand to stop him.
"No," I sighed, adjusting my bag and picking up my umbrella but mindful of the gaze of the ones hidden in the shadows. "The last thing I need to deal with is my father burning the whole city to hunt down those pests,"
"But, he will be more furious if he doesn't find out from you," Kotetsu interjected.
I shrugged. "Well, if it comes down to that, I will just have to avoid him until his anger wears down," I muttered before turning to the source of the critical gaze I was receiving. "Will you come out already, or is spying a woman your favorite pastime?" I called out in annoyance. The Fire children jumped in alarm and looked around, nervously.
Silence followed until there was a rustle in the bushes and a deep chuckle rang out. "Oh, so you're not so dumb after all,"
Two handsome young men emerged from the shadows. The first thing that I noticed was that they were wounded and bloody. The second thing was that they weren't humans.
The one who spoke had ruffled rusty blond hair with a part on the left side. He wore a black eye patch covering the left side of his teal glasses along with his left eye. He had a black shirt topped with a white long sleeved shirt and a black vest with crests and dark plaid pants and black boots. He also wore black gloves while his companion had white ones.
The rusty blonde's companion was tall and slender with white hair with dark purple-brown fringes at the tips. He wore a black scarf that the bottom portion of his face and is wrapped around his shoulders and draped along his arms. He had a black jacket and button-up shirt with a sort of bow tie or cravat on the collar. He wore it with the dark pants with a white belt and black boots that have crests similar to the ones on his scarf. The only thing that interested me much more was that both have sharp golden eyes that resembled snake eyes.
"Ka-Kaede-sama, we-we should leave," Onikiri stuttered and tugged at my sleeve.
They probably felt the huge waves of danger coming from the two strangers despite their battered appearance.
"Who are you?" I asked, tilting my head in curiosity.