Oath of Allegiance

by Sefeia

Ever wondered what happened with Chen at the start of it all and how Ran met her? The day came when Ran finally was able to create Chen thanks to Yukari's help. But... there's something not quite right with the ritual that went underway.

2. Coexistence

Chapter 2: Coexistence

Somewhere along the road on the way to Myouren Temple, Mamizou Futatsuiwa is seen walking towards the temple and humming to the tune, "Futatsuiwa from Sado."

"Oh, what a lovely day this is," Mamizou says as she is heard chuckling, " It will be nice to get back home. I wonder how my dear Kagi is doing?" Just then, Mamizou begins to stop as she begins to notice something really odd. "Wait…," says Mamizou, in shock of the sight of what's in front of her. " Where has the entrance gone," she questions, as she looks around the area, "no, not just the entrance, THE ENTIRE TEMPLE!" "This cannot be happening," Mamizou slowly begins to bring herself down to the ground, her legs landing firmly onto the ground, "this simply cannot be happening.

Just then, Mamizou heard rustling from within the trees. "Hmm?" She murmurs, as she looks in the direction of where she heard the noise and slowly starts to pick herself up from the ground and stands up. "Who is there?" The rusting gets emitted again and Mamizou sees movement and Mamizou continues, " I know you are there. Come out, whoever you are" and then thinks to herself, "it is probably just a bird or squirrel." Mamizou then turns into the direction of where the temple supposedly was and starts to move and thinks to herself again, wondering what ever happened to Myouren Temple, "now onto this mystery. Just what did happen to Myouren Temple?"

Just then, a figure appears from the trees and jumps towards Mamizou. Mamizou quickly notices and dodges just in time.

"You dodged that well," the person says as he/she begins to straighten him/herself up. Mamizou responds, question the person, "who are you? You should leave." "Does it really matter who I am? Oh yes, that is right. You have never seen me before, have you?" The person responds with and then Mamizou answers with an answer that tells the person that she had never saw him before, "That is because you have never BEEN here before." "Leave! Now!" She demands. The person moves his kasa down a bit, covering his/her face a bit, and says to Mamizou, " I really cannot do that. Not when I have grown so…

Mamizou then attacks the mysterious person. But just as she attacks him/her, he/she disappears and then reappears just behind Mamizou.

Mamizou then begins to wonder what happened and thinks to herself, "what the…?" "Surely a lady like yourself, has time to let others finish their own comments" The mysterious person responds with. Mamizou then turns around to look at the person and informs the person that he is an intruder. "But you are just some shady person, an intruder," she says. The intruder questions Mamizou's own words and begins to snigger. Mamizou then has a good look at the person and examines the person thoroughly, "So, hun, who are you? You look like some youkai to me," she says.

The person stays silent. Mamizou picks up on this and responds by saying, "Being silent now, are you?" She then begins to smile and wink and the continues to speak, Fine then."

Mamizou begins to produce a bullet in her hand and then she fires it at the mysterious person. But then the person suddenly disappears.

This causes Mamizou to wonder as she thinks to herself, "again? What is this person?"

Then suddenly, someone emerges from the forest nearby and moves into the sky. The person begins to bring his/her sword in front of him/her and starts to say something and begins to say something, "Sword Dance Ni: "Light Shower"!"

After bringing his/her sword up, bullets start to appear and as he/she quickly brings his/her sword down, they start to fall down into Mamizou's direction. Mamizou dodges all of them and starts to run in a direction. The bullets then follow her, leaving Mamizou to ascend into the sky.

Mamizou then retaliates by releasing white bullets as well as purple bullets from her spell card, Raccoon Sign "Full Moon Pompokolin". The person then tries to move towards Mamizou, trying to dodge each bullet and also uses his/her sword to try and eliminate the bullets. He/she then gets hit by a bullet, which then causes him/her to fall down.

Mamizou begins to descend and says, "That was simple enough," implying that it was such an easy battle. She then walks up to the person and begins to demand answers, "but that does not mean that I will leave you to it. Who are you? Who sent you? The person begins to get cocky. "I have you right where I want you," he thinks to himself. He/she gets his/her sword and brings it upwards and begins to say something, "Sword Dance Ichi…," to which, he/she then hits the ground with the sword, "... "Shadow from Below"!"

Blades begin to come out of the ground and go towards Mamizou. Mamizou quickly goes into the air and the person then appears behind her and attacking her with his/her, wounding her slightly via cutting her as she tried to defend herself, and then he/she kicks her, which causes her to fall to the ground.

Mamizou begins to cough. "Ow, my head," she says as she begins to get up off the ground. The mysterious person descends, "I never wanted to fight you to begin with. My own doing was just self-defence because of you," he/she says, trying to clarify himself. Mamizou chuckles, admitting that she was the one who attacked first and says this, "that is true, I did attack you." She continues, "but that is because you are an intruder," saying that she only did it because it was her job to, considering she is Myouren Temple's last line of defence.

The mysterious person begins to sigh and and sway his/her head from side to side, "You are only saying that because you have never seen me before," he/she says. "Never…," Mamizou says as she becomes puzzled, "... seen you before? Well, no, I haven't. Tell me, if you have been here, then why have I never seen you before?".

" I live out here, in the trees," the person explains. "You see, to me, this is my home." Mamizou does not seem to understand the person. Being sceptical, she still says that he should not be here, saying "but "home" is not at the Myouren Temple, now, is it? You still should not be here." The person begins to say "really?" Just then, he/she takes his/her kasa off and continues, "tell that to Byakuren, then."

Mamizou becomes shocked by this. Not because of the person's appearance since she now has a good look at him/her, but at what he/she just said. She questions the person, "who… Just who are you? How do you know Byakuren?" This is where the so-called "intruder" explains him/herself and says this, "I am Yashima Hogo of a place called Takamatsu. And this… this is my home." The person's name is identified as "Yashima Hogo". Mamizou does the same and says, "I am Mamizou Futatsuiwa from Sado. And you said you were from Takamatsu? I have never heard of such a place."

Yashima says that the place is a far away place and continues by saying this, "A place where I lived with my former master." Mamizou becomes intrigued by this, "master?" She says, then thinking of something else, "so you were not sent here by Nue?" This is where it gets a little bit interesting. Yashima is not exactly what Mamizou thought he/she would be. To explain, Yashima had this to say, "I was not sent here by anyone. I am a shikigami, a Bake-danuki shikigami."

"So why are you here? Why not just stay over at… er.. Takamatsu?" Says Mamizou. Yashima then explains why he decided to come to Myouren Temple to begin with, "Byakuren was the one who said that I could come here and I came with her out of my own accord. I am here as the guardian in order to pay my debt to her." With he, he/she implies that he/she is doing this all on whim. Mamizou took note of this and begins by asking him/her something, "and what is this debt, hun?" "I…," he says, hesitating for a bit, "... would rather not go into it."

Mamizou begins to realise something and says, "so if you are the guardian here, how come I have never seen you before?" Yashima begins to talk again, "that is because…" he/she says, as he begins to clear his/her throat, "... I live out here." "As a guardian I am meant to be outside anyway, but I like to live out here instead of the Myouren Temple. I do go into the premise from time to time, though."

Mamizou begins to confirm Yashima's gender, "and you are not a female either," she says, "that's… unusual." She then moves her thoughts over to Myouren Temple. Still confused as to what happened, she questions Yashima, "But why isn't the temple here? There is nothing ahead of us."

Yashima then says " Oh, that…," afterwhich, he begins to click his fingers. After doing that, Myouren Temple starts to materialise. This moment then shocks Mamizou.

"I cannot transform like a bake-danuki should. But to make up for it, I have an ability to create illusions. Myouren Temple has always been here. I just did not allow people to see it," says Yashima as he then begins to jump onto a tree. Mamizou begins to try and get his attention again, "where are you going?" She says.

Yashima puts his kasa back on and responds, "I am going to Myouren Temple for a bit. Talk to you later! But before I go, mind your step! Bye" He then starts to jump from branch to branch and into the premise of Myouren Temple.

Mamizou begins to shout, trying to grab his attention again, "wait a minute," she says and then lowering her tone, she continues to talk, saying that she had queries about him, "I wanted to ask him something. He said he was a shikigami. He said that he lived with his former master. Then this master of his must have created him."

Mamizou covers her wound with her hand and then begins to walk towards the Myouren Temple. But just as she was walking to it, she noticed something about the ground. The ground started to move. Mamizou quickly goes to safety and after that, the ground came apart.

Mamizou begins to look surprised whilst sweating at the same time and begins to laugh nervously, "Aha ha… ha…"

Meanwhile, at the Yakumo house, Ran and Yukari come back with the unconscious Chen.

Yukari begins to smile and says, "here we are. Home, sweet home," talking with a sense that shows that she is glad to be back. Ran, however, sighs and is not showing the same mood. "That was tiring and annoying," she says. Yukari responds to Ran with, "hehe, no one said that having fun was bad," which does not make Ran amused at all. She ends up saying "who said that I was having fun?" To Yukari as she is looking at her. "Oh yes, that's right," says Yukari as she opens up her fan and puts it in front of herself, "you were having difficulties.

Ran begins to place the unconscious Chen onto the bed. "Difficulties with controlling your own flesh and blood," explains Yukari. A puzzled Ran then says, "my own flesh and blood? What are you talking about?" She did not even understand what Yukari was talking about. Yukari brings her fan down and tries to explain herself, "A shikigami is not just another entity, it is also a part of you." This does not make things easier for Ran, as she is still puzzled by Yukari. "it is also a part of… me?"

Yukari had this to say, "yes. Tell me, Ran, did anything happen when you were fighting Chen? Did you notice something strange?" "I…," says Ran, as she begins to remember that sensation that she felt when she attacked Chen,"when I attacked her, it felt like I was the one that was damaged. I do not know why but I could feel pain." She begins to remember the time she attacked Chen with her laser. "At that moment…," she begins to grab the part of her where she felt the sensation, "... I could feel a strange feeling right here."

Yukari then notices that Ran did in fact notice something and says, "oh? So you did notice it." Ran still does not know what Yukari is talking about and responds with, "just what are you trying to say?" Yukari goes to get a bandage, "I will tell you in a minute, but first let's get your damaged tail sorted out. And Chen, too." She says.

Yukari, after getting the bandage, then goes to goes to Chen and starts wrapping the bandage over the part that was bleeding due to the laser penetrating her. After that, she then goes to Ran starts to wrap the bandage over the part of the tail that was cut off.

Ran cringes in pain. " I cannot believe this actually happened to you. You can be careless at times, Ran." Says Yukari. Yukari explains how she is about as shock as she is, saying "I am just as shocked as you are. I cannot believe she could be this powerful." So, it seems that even her own shikigami got her surprised.

"Powerful enough to cut your tail? Or do you mean just enough to break your own shield." Says Yukari. This intrigues Ran, " ... How did you know about that?" She says as she tries to demand an answer.

"How else can anyone cut off one of your tails? I said that you can be careless at times but I know well enough that you are well prepared." Yukari, after saying this, finishes off wrapping the bandage around Ran's tail and then says something else, "there, I've finished. You can release your Hoshi-no-Tama, now."

Ran's shield then dissipates.

Ran is still bringing about concerns since Yukari has not been very clear with her. She wanted answers about her shikigami. The ritual that Yukari had her do did something and she did not know what happened or why it happened. "I still do not get it. You told me to put in an adequate amount of power into her for a healthy shikigami. How could this have happened?" Questions Ran.

"Hmm…," goes Yukari as she begins to theorise, "maybe it is because you added too much power." Ran begins to look at Yukari in a weird way. "What!? Bu-but you said…," she says, awkwardly. "I told you to put in enough power. I never said to add more than enough power or less than that. Using less power gives you a weak shikigami…," explains yukari. Ran continues, thinking she knows what Yukair was about to say. So in response, she says, "whilst giving it more power makes it a threat?"

Yukari winks at Ran, hinting that she got it right, saying "you've got it!" She carries on, saying "but luckily for you, I have the perfect solution." That is when she goes to get something and then comes back.

Ran looks at Yukari. "What is it?" She says. Yukari opens the box and explains, "what is inside this box? It is a ring used to control people. Well, earring. It normally gets used on shikigami so that their Masters can keep them in check. Ran becomes concerned, thinking that it is just an earring and nothing more. "But it is just an earring… How is this supposed to help?" She says, unconvinced that this will help her in any given way.

"Silly kitsune. It works like this: all one has to do is put his or her energy into the object. The energy that got transferred acts as a means to keep the power in check by rejecting it, therefore the energy does not pour out," says Yukari, more words of wisdom from such a wise youkai. This leads to more questions and it is Ran who has more questions that needed answering and so she goes to ask this, "but what he it gets taken off? People would not want to be controlled or anything like that. Surely they would at least try to take it off."

Yukari sticks a finger out in front of Ran, starts to move it left and right and also has one eye closed. "That is why I will be putting my power into it and not you," she says.

Yukari puts a hand onto the earring and starts to imbue it with her own power.

After doing that, Yukari has more to say, "you see, with me doing this instead of you, it will reject anyone that tries to even touch it. Anyone but the one whose power it belongs to." "So Chen can never take it off?" Ran questions, and Yukari responds, as she closes her eyes and smiles, with, "exactly!" Ran looks more confused at this point, since she the whole thing makes no sense to her whatsoever. "That does not make sense. That would mean that I have the right to do it," says Ran. Little did Ran know that she was in fact forbidden from actually doing that. This is where Yukari has to explain herself even further. "Your power flows in Chen's veins now. Using your power on such an item would only make things worse," Yukari says, as she adds more explanations.

Yukari Yakumo then goes to Chen and begins to put the earring into her ear, piercing her ear in the process.

After that, Yukari draws her attention to Ran once more. "Now, about what I was talking about before." Upon getting Ran's attention again, she is sort of puzzled by Yukari's comment, saying " About before…?" She then begins to realise what Yukari meant and so carries on by saying "oh, about the occurrence. So, what was that exactly?"

"It was the bond between master and servant," Yukari explains to an eager Ran. Ran begins to squint an eye and says, "what are you talking about?" This is where Yukari becomes even more like a teacher and so she begins to tell Ran a bit more about her role as Master and how her role is important.

"The blood that gets injected into a chosen animal acts as a trigger for this bond that I like to call "Kyōzon". With this, you and the shikigami become one. This means that when your shikigami gets hurt, you too, get hurt. But do not worry. You will not die from this." Ran thinks to herself after Yukari's this, coming to the realisation of something, "so that explains the pain that I got more than once."

Yukari continues, "there are two types of Yuketsu; Ketsuyuketsu and Hāyuketsu. Ketsuyuketsu is the transference of DNA that gets poured in via the blood that you inject. With this, you and the shikigami become one and the shikigami's pain becomes your pain but not the other way around. Your shikigami's death will not result in your death and it is the same if you die. Hāyuketsu is a more serious matter that strengthens the bond between you and the shikigami. It is the transference of the heart and with that, you sort of become immortal."

This gets Ran a little bit interested as the last part of what Yukari said got her wondering, "you become immortal?" Yukari responds with, "in a way, yes." Yukari continues, "the shikigami becomes your heart in other words. As long as your shikigami lives, you live. Any damage you take however, gets inflicted onto your shikigami. But thankfully, he or she will not die from this. Ever. Likewise, if your shikigami takes damage, you take damage. Doing this also gives more power to the shikigami on top of the power that one bestows upon it."

This is where Ran stumbled upon something. Her ears twitch a little bit as a keyword entered her head. "But wait… What did you say before?" Ran says, as she wanted a confirmation on what Yukari just said, as so to believe what she thought she heard was actually what she heard. Yukari looks at Ran with a puzzle expression and she says, "what I said?"

Ran begins to explain what she thought she heard, "what you said… about the shikigami dying. Tell me, what would happen if the shikigami died?" She asks, since she did not hear Yukari clearly when she said this. Yukari responds and her response was not a pleasant one, "that is simple. The master would die." This eerie response shocks Ran. She could not believe what she just heard.

Yukari sort of took note of that and adds more to her words, "that is what makes the Hāyuketsu so much more dangerous. Not only does it increase the chances of an unstable, out-of-control shikigami, but the price for if the shikigami were to die is too great."

"Is that so?" Ran says, as she then looks at Chen. She then begins to think to herself, "no wonder she did not want me to transfer my heart. She must have been concerned about me. Because I am her shikigami." This is where Yukari believes that her work is done, "right, that is me done." She opens up a portal and puts her hand into it. "I'm thirsty after all that," she says, as she takes a bottle of sake out of the portal and then closing the portal.

Ran looks at Yukari in an awkward sense, thinking to herself, "where is she getting those from?" Yukari announces that she is tired. "Not to mention I'm tired," she says while she yawns, "and we still have all that fur to clear up." Rather than letting Yukari do that, Ran volunteers. "I can do that for you, Yukari," she says. Yukari then begins to feels pleased at Ran for wanting to do that for her, as so to save her the trouble, and says, "oh, would you? That would be lovely of you, Ran." She then says more, "but then again, you are my Shikigami," saying that it was her job, giving her role, and she then winks at her.

Yukari Yakumo then leaves the room.

Ran gets a brush and shovel and starts to clear away the fur that fell off of Chen after the procedure was underway. Ran then stops and begins to think.

Ran begins to get bothered by something. She begins to think back when she fought Chen. "That time when I saw Chen…" She then begins to remember the time when Chen moved to her, just before breaking her shield. "At that time, I did not like the look in Chen's eye. Not… one… bit…," she says, feeling a little bit of concern. Thoughts of that battle enter her mind again and then she carries on cleaning soon after. After which, she then goes to Chen and she then looks back at Chen and thinks to herself, "oh, Chen… What am I going to do with you? Now the dress is in a mess and we do not have any spares, all dusty with blood. I might have to see what I can find." Ran then begins to sigh and then leaves the room.

Chen then begins to wake up.

As Chen wakes up, she closely begins to open up her eyes. It was at this moment that she felt relieved. "I'm… I'm alive…," she says, as a tear rolls down her face.

End of Chapter

Next Chapter: Subterranean Influence