Chapter 2: Among the Enemy
Three girls walked around the Holy Land. However no one paid these girls any mind at all, as absolutely nothing was wrong with a few Mototsumitama's walking around together. However in reality, these three Mototsumitama's were quite dangerous. These girls are the ones who spoke to Kuro inside her mind, telling her the curse of the Masagami was not just about the Doppelganger System. These three knew something about the Masagami's curse that not a single other soul in the Holy Land had any knowledge of. Even Nam, one of the Holy Land's history keepers', was unable to supply an answer when asked what it could be.
"We gave her a deadline, and now that's it's been met, it's only courteous of us to hold our end of the bargain." One of the girls said quietly so only her two companions would hear. She had long maroon colored hair she tied at the base of her neck and black eyes, and she wore a red and black Chinese fighting outfit.
"That's right Skuld. So the only question that remains is whether or not we should tell her about the curse strait out or not?" The second girl said. This girl was a bit younger than the other two; she had black hair that went just past her shoulders and blue eyes. She wore a karate-like shirt and a beige skirt.
"We shouldn't tell them. Telling them about the curse ahead of time could change our overall plans. And you shouldn't be using our names so openly like that!" The third told the younger girl. This girl had short cut black hair and gold eyes, and wore dark Taekwondo shirt with no sleeves, kendo-like pants and was barefoot.
"Let it go, Verdandi, it's not like we need to hide our identities." Skuld told the third. "It won't make much difference soon anyways."
"S-still," Verdandi protested.
The three girls stopped at the base of the forest that led up to the entrance to where Kuro was kept. "Alright, you two know what you need to do. I'll go pay a proper visit to our little Princess." Skuld told her companions.
"Right, I'll head off then!" The younger girl said happily and ran off, jumping across anything she went past.
"I'll be waiting up ahead." Verdandi said and began walking into the forest.
"Alright then, Princess, let's see how well you've prepared in the past year." Skuld whispered to herself, and then vanished from sight.
"Princess, we're here." Yakumo stated as he, Mikami and Nam entered Kuro's cave.
"Thanks for coming, as you know the deadline is up, so we need to prepare for the worst." Kuro told them.
"Princess, if I may?" Nam asked.
"Of course, what did you find out about the Masagami's curse?" Kuro asked.
"That's the problem, I couldn't find anything. And I don't mean I looked through the old records of the war with the Masagami and didn't find anything. I mean to say I couldn't find the records on the Masagami war at all." Nam explained.
"What, how is that possible?" Mikami asked.
"I don't know, and when I asked where they were, the others in my tribe didn't know where they had gone either. They just vanished into thin air..."
"You have me to thank for that." Someone suddenly said from the cave entrance and in walked a girl none of them had seen before.
"Who are you?" Yakumo asked as he turned around and became defensive.
"I thought it would be obvious after what I said. I'm the person who told you there was more to the Masagami's curse; call me Skuld." She said.
"So what is it? What else is there to the Masagami curse?" Kuro inquired.
"More importantly," Nam began. "How did you get your hands on the Masagami's history files?"
"I snuck into your tribe and took them right out from under their noses."
"So why is it I didn't know about this extra part of the Masagami curse if it was in the history? There's no chance I overlooked it." Nam asked.
"You didn't, the third part of the Masagami curse is never mentioned in the history files." Skuld told them. "I had the same thought years ago that you had after I spoke with you last year 'princess.' You see/"
"Wait, did you say 'third part' of the Masagami curse?" Mikami interrupted.
"That's right, you know about both the other parts don't you?" Skuld asked, genuinely surprised.
"Right, the two parts history speaks of is first of all the Doppelganger System." Nam said. "And the second I guess you all never thought of as a curse, it was placed on the Masagami itself so one of the three would be reincarnated continuously as a Mototsumitama, the reason Kuro was born."
"That's right; your 'princess' is the reincarnation of one of the three Masagami." Skuld said, holding up three fingers. "You understand now right? There were three Masagami, so the Masagami's curse is a three-part curse, one curse from each."
"I see," Kuro said.
"Now back to what I was saying before I was interrupted." Skuld said. "As I was saying, the third part is never mentioned in the known history. But like the 'princess' over there who realized there was more to the curse, I had that thought a few years back. So to try and confirm my suspicions, I snuck into the history archives and stole the records from the war with the Masagami. Although it was never stated directly, I did find underlying context pointing to me being right. However, I still couldn't be certain until a certain incident when the Holy Land was split open." Skuld said, referring to when the Masagami unleashed their full powers to do so.
"What do you mean?" Yakumo asked. "What did you find?"
"Tisk, tisk, tisk, I'm not about to tell you everything right off the bat." Skuld answered rudely. "The only other thing I'm going to tell you is my goal. My plan is to become the next Masagami." She told them with a lust for power in her voice.
"What, is that even possible?" Nam asked, and the others looked at her in surprise, as this made two thing someone knew that she didn't.
"Consider that your final hint. Now I'd rather just walk out of here so I can finish preparing. But something tells me you aren't letting me go out of here without a fight." Skuld said.
"Not a chance! We can't possibly let you become the Masagami, not after everything the first three put us through!" Was Yakumo's reply; he ran forward and punched Skuld.
Skuld grinned as if she actually wanted this to happen. Skuld steadied herself and put one hand in front of her. Just as Yakumo's fist crossed her arm, she pushed it up and to the right so that it went over her shoulder instead of hitting her. Then she used Yakumo's momentum against him and brought her leg up and connected the front of her calf with Yakumo, knocking him backward.
"Yakumo!" Kuro cried out and was about to get up to fight herself when Mikami rushed forward to try her odds.
"Take this!" Mikami told Skuld and jumped over her and brought her fist down on top of her.
Again Skuld readied herself for the attack without moving, but rather then deflecting the attack like she had Yakumo's, Skuld just barely twisted her body back to avoid it. At the same time Skuld brought up her left palm and sped past Mikami's defenses to deliver an attack to her chest, knocking her back as well.
"Mikami!" Kuro cried out again, seeing two of her friends get defeated in less than 10 seconds without so much as moving Skuld.
"So you want to take a go at me, 'princess?" Skuld asked Kuro, but Kuro couldn't seem to move, she was petrified by fear. If someone with so much strength on their own became a Masagami, what would ever become of the world if she actually achieved it? "And what about you?" Skuld asked Nam, obviously seeing Kuro's fear.
Nam remained motionless and said nothing, but stared at Skuld as if her very face made her want to vomit.
"Alright then, I guess I'll be going." Skuld said.
"Stop right there," Yakumo said as he got up and ran at Skuld again. However, before he could attack, Skuld just vanished from sight
For a moment no one moved or said anything, but finally Nam broke the quiet. "We shouldn't dwell on this too much, we still have our own affairs to worry about."
Yakumo tried to argue. "But-"
"We can't do anything about her plan until we know how she is supposed to achieve it and what she plans to do in the mean time. She said she still needed to prepare herself before becoming a Masagami, that means she must have something planned to keep us busy in the meantime, or she wouldn't have told us about her plan at all." Nam explained the situation, doing her best to stay calm for the others.
Another moment of silence past, then Kuro spoke up. "Nam is right Yakumo. We need to stay calm right now. You should get to your students Yakumo." Kuro said.
Hearing this from Kuro, Yakumo calmed down and nodded, then walked out of the cave. "I guess we should go too." Mikami said to Nam, who nodded and the two left as well so Kuro could be alone.
Mikami went off ahead of Nam through the forest in front of the cave. She ran through quickly so she could get back to her tribe, but in the middle of the forest someone sitting beneath one of the trees spoke up. "Hello there."
"Who are you?" Mikami asked, it wasn't often someone would wander out into these woods, so this girl seemed suspicious.
"My name's Verdandi. What's yours?" Verdandi asked.
"Mikami, what are you doing out here?" Mikami asked the girl she had no way of knowing actually worked with Skuld.
"I come out here every now and then just to clear my head. Being surrounded by nature instead of people calms me down." Verdandi answered.
Mikami laughed. "Am I an exception of something, you seemed like you wanted someone to talk to."
"Well it's not like I'm anti-social or anything, crowds annoy me, but someone to speak calmly with is always nice." Verdandi told Mikami, who looked up at the sun through the trees.
"I guess so, huh?" Mikami said with a smile.
Yakumo finished paying his respects at Reishin's grave and entered the dojo to begin teaching his class. Upon entering the dojo he found his many students already sparring with one another, a sight that pleased him quite. "Everyone, attention," Yakumo called, and everyone in the room stopped what they were doing to listen. "Before we start up today's lesson there's someone I want you all to meet." Yakumo said, and as if responding to a cue, the Dojo door opened behind everyone, and a person entered. "I'd like you all to meet your new instructor, Urdr." Yakumo introduced the young girl in a karate shirt and skirt whom had a pleased smile on her face.