The Gremory manor was filled with bustle and high spirits on this summer day. Maids and butlers dutifully cleaned, increasing their efforts as the head maid passed by with a young child holding her hand. The head maid was had silver hair that she kept in two pigtails and a ponytail. She stood straight in her impeccably neat maid's uniform with red eyes locked in a piercing glare that only softened as she gazed at the child next to her. The child next to her bore no similarity to her in features. He stood barely above her waist and he met her red eyes with his own curious blue ones. He lightly swung the both of their hands as he walked and the maid favoured him with an indulgent smile.
"Hey Grayfia, where are we going?" Raise said grinning upwards at the maid.
"That's the third time you've asked me Raise," the maid said huffing disapprovingly although there was a hint of a smile. "I know about as much as you. Your parents just asked me to come and fetch you. Apparently they have a very important visitor who wants to see you,"
"Is it one of my friends?" Raise asked and Grayfia shook her head. "If it was your friend then you would probably be already running around with them. No I'm sure whoever it is you have never met them before."
"I hope they're nice," Raise said optimistically as the two of them came to the room that housed his father's study.
"I can't think of a single person who would be mean to such a nice polite child as you," Grayfia replied as she knelt down fixing up the collar of Raise's clothes. "Come on let's go inside," she said standing to the side of the door and pushing it open allowing Raise direct access to the room.
Nodding his head in silent thanks to the maid Raise stepped into the room which he knew so well, having snuck in here multiple times. Multiple bookshelves lined the room filled with dusty tomes and purple light flooded in through windows that took up an entire quarter of the room. A desk of dark polished wood sat in the far side of the room away from the light although it was unoccupied at the moment. The whole room was adorned with a scarlet carpet on which three devils stood.
Raise watched as his father turned towards him but he didn't look at him. Even as his mother smiled and moved towards him he paid no attention. Like transient shadows the words that they spoke brushed through his ears like waterfall over rapids and he took none of the all too familiar words in.
Instead the entirety of his attention was occupied by the devil standing in front of him. He was dignified and stately in his appearance with a power and wisdom from a different era that would have inspired respect among all of devil kind. In front of him looking down at him with an appraising look, the true ruler of the devils Zekram Bael stood.
Raise's veins filled with liquid hate and every fibre of his being cried out to wipe this beast off the face of the Earth. His hand thrust forward summoning a power that would have reduced him to non-existence.
But his magic didn't respond as he began to feel his body start to burn. Hate rampaged uncontrolled and uncontrollable through his small frame tearing apart half his body with the ease of the sun dispelling a shadow. Desperately he tried to clamp down on the hatred but with each exertion the power grew until he began to feel his very skin start to burn under the wrath. Suddenly without warning the pain settled down into a sharp throbbing and he managed to relax for a moment.
That moment of relaxation was his end. The last sight he saw before his eyeballs evaporated was the blinding, burning light of a star descending onto earth that ate into his flesh.
xxx
Raise Gremory shot upwards from his slumber with vigorous motion and was rewarded with a brief moment of clarity before knives dug into his skin and his flesh caught fire. A single pained screech managed to escape his throat before his throat closed and he found himself able to gesture. Under the stimulus his muscles rebelled and he fell backwards. He tried to stop himself by bringing his hands to stabilise him but his hand seemed to phase through the floor and then everything went white.
xxx
Consciousness came slower to Raise Gremory the second time as his mind gradually ascended from the black void and two sensations made themselves on his body. His entire right side was on fire as constant waves of terrifyingly familiar pain that brought to mind months in a hospital from a time that he wished to forget. The second sensation was almost infinitely better by comparison, being the feel of cold wetness rubbing along his neck.
Curiosity overcame him and he opened his eyes, the simple action taking energy far disproportionate to the effect. A gasp greeted him that came from the fuzzy shape that sat in front of him. He blinked rapidly to try and get some clarity in his eyes and the image reluctantly managed to resolve itself into the form of a young black haired girl who may have been pretty if she did something with that terrible blur all over her face.
"_," she spoke some kind of words that washed over Raise unable to take in any meaning from the gibberish. In response he slowly weakly tried to lift his arm but it didn't seem to respond; only allowing that ever present pain to rise to a crescendo inside his head. He screamed once again, his voice overruling his brain and he saw the fuzzy form of the girl frantically moving around before another figure burst into the room and he felt a wave of lethargy carry him to sleep.
xxx
Raise came into consciousness for a third time and it already proved to be more promising than the other two. His stomach ached with hunger and his body was still heavy with fatigue but the ache on his right side had dulled and his vision and senses were clear. The darkened room that he had seen was empty, Spartan and in a style that was unfamiliar to his devil tastes. 'No,' he thought. 'They were not wholly unfamiliar.' He had seen a style like this once before when he and Serafall had travelled; back in happier times. Memories from the past assailed him and he was glad that his stomach was empty; otherwise he would have surely regurgitated anything he had eaten. Forcefully turning his mind away from the past he scanned the area for any signs of life and found nothing before he decided to get up and look further. Attempting to place his hands on the ground again his right hand surged in agony that caused him to bite his lip as an utter feeling of wrongness engulfed his limb. He gripped it in his left hand before his face went white and he hastily jerked it in front of his face.
His right hand was gone. Only a stump remained buried in bandages from where the appendage once stood. A wave of light-headedness hit him but he gritted his teeth and forcibly calmed down. Gingerly he rubbed his arm over the left side of his body and felt only bandages above tender flesh. A blanket lay over his body and he removed it revealing a torso that was on the verge of complete mummification. The shift of his body was enough for his body to feel like it was being flayed within the bandages and he relaxed.
"Pain is an illusion," he reminded himself, speaking out loud with a voice that was hoarse and cracked from disuse and then he crept unsteadily to his feet. White pain assaulted him stabbing into his body but he let the sensation wash through him before he snapped his fingers with his one remaining hand and clad his body in illusory flesh and garments.
A sharp sigh was enough to draw his eye and he immediately became aware that he wasn't alone in the room. A single glance was enough to pick up the illusion and he mentally berated himself. Even injured to be so terribly unaware was unlike him and he could only attribute it to his mental state. He turned in the direction of the illusion and directed his gaze towards the spot where his host hid themselves.
"Ah so you noticed," the voice hit his ears and an instant later the illusion was dispelled revealing the oldest looking person that Raise had ever seen. A beard grey and well kempt dangled past his waist and his face was covered with countless wrinkles. A pair of grey eyes that bespoke wisdom and acceptance calmly eyed Raise seeming to know everything about him, to understand him and Raise blinked first before examining the rest of the picture. He was wearing a kimono that was decorated in colours of red and pink indicating his Japanese origin, but not more so than the grey fox ears upon his head and the nine grey tails that draped on the ground behind him.
"You have been asleep for a long time," the man said recognizing Raise's scrutinizing gaze but not taking any special notice. "I would normally advise one so injured to return to their bed but you seem like the person to do the opposite. That being the case I will humbly invite you to dinner."
"That would be perfect. Thank you for healing me," Raise said in response only to see the man frown.
"I'm afraid I couldn't heal you," he admitted. "The damage done to your body was severe but could have been restored in time if it wasn't for the remnants of magic left in the wounds. I'm afraid that while they remain dormant at the slightest hint of any magic they will flare up and likely continue to harm you. In all my years I've seen fewer crueller examples of magic. I cannot tell you how long if ever they will disappear but I will turn all my efforts into finding…"
"Don't worry," Raise said cutting the old Kitsune off mid-sentence. "The effects will only last between two and three years. Afterwards it will wear off and from then onwards the pain is negligible."
"You've been through this before," the older man said narrowing his eyes at the young devil.
"It's my own magic," Raise admitted. "I know just how cruel it can be."
"I see," the grey haired Kitsune said and the room lapsed into silence although there was an air of comfort present here that was missing in many other conversations that dwelled upon these topics. "You have become strong through your suffering."
"No," Raise rejected immediately. "I'm not strong." Once again the conversation lapsed into silence and Raise suddenly felt the urge to bring up that but he crushed it down. He hadn't had time to think about it himself let alone mention it to a total stranger no matter how much he had helped him.
Suddenly another person burst into the room surprising the red haired devil, although the man beside him just chuckled. His first impression upon her was that she was very short and if it wasn't for a certain maturity upon her face he would have mistaken her for a child. Raise was not the tallest person himself but the girl was at least a head shorter than him. She was wearing a blue and white Kimono and had nine black fox tails behind her. Dark blue eyes twinkled with excitement as she flashed a radiant smile at the sight of the devil.
"Grandpa, he's awake," she said wagging her tail with excitement
"I know," her apparent grandfather said and there was a note of exasperation beneath his fondness. "He's also right in front of you and it's incredibly rude to talk about him as if he's not there."
"I'm sorry," the young girl said bowing deeply. "Hello my name is Kaika Saito." She tilted her head. "Who are you?"
"Raise," Raise replied. "Sorry no last name for the moment."
"That's perfectly fine," the older man replied. "My name is Kareta Saito. Have you finished with the soup," he said as he turned to Kaika.
"Oh s_ darn," she said looking embarrassed and Raise got the feeling that whatever was translated was probably going to be a lot less clean. "I have to go. Bye grandfather. Bye Raise," she said darting away from the room.
"Quite an energetic young granddaughter you have," Raise said making conversation.
"Yes, she's grown up just like her mother," Kareta replied smiling in fond reminiscence. "Just a friendly warning," he said his face suddenly becoming intense. "She's much too young for dating. I won't tolerate it."
"I've just got out of a toxic relationship," Raise said, putting forward an explanation that was almost true if you squinted. "I have no interest in starting a new relationship."
"That's good," the man said chuckling to himself. "Have you thought about what you're going to do? If you have a way of contacting other devils then I can take you somewhere to get picked up." The old man said, subtly suggesting that while he would like to help Raise there was no way he would give devils the location of his home.
"I'm afraid I'm quite unwilling to encounter with any of my kin at this present moment," Raise said, each of his words injected with a tone that tried his best to convey just how poor of an idea he thought that was. "How did I get here anyway?"
"I found you at the bottom of my garden, blood pouring out of you," Kareta explained in that patient tone of his. "How you ended up there I don't know but I am not the kind of person to turn away a wounded person, devil or not."
"Thank you for that," Raise said as he silently contemplated his future. Suddenly the thought hit him like a thunderbolt washing away all other feelings and even dulling the constant pain. "I'm free," he said out loud.
"I'm free," he repeated the words stirring something very deep inside him. Unconsciously a smile crept over his face and he could feel a weight that he didn't even know existed until now lift from his shoulders. Suddenly the wide, scary, exciting, new, dangerous, amazing, interesting, terrible, beautiful world lay right outside the door.
His smile dimmed as he remembered the cost, a terrible one that he had only personally paid a portion of. He personally had no idea if Delilah was killed in his final attack but the arena had definitely registered her complete defeat. He wondered if… regardless she wouldn't escape the fight unscathed. Light magic is poison to devils and any recovery would be slow and painful, that was if she got the chance to recover…"
"Remember with freedom comes responsibility," the old youkai said as he sat down on the floor patting the spot next to him as a signal for Raise to join him. "If you make the wrong mistakes then you will come to regret them in your later years."
"How do you know you've made the wrong mistakes," Raise said, fearing that he might have made them already. "Don't worry," he said cutting off any reply. While Raise liked to talk and the Kitsune was a good listener, he had no idea to divulge his concerns about something so personally with somebody he had met today.
"The soup is ready," Kaika said bursting through the door interrupting the moment. She looked at the two of them before she ran out of the room and came back with two bowls of what looked to be dumplings of some sort in soup. She handed one to her grandfather and one to Raise, before she left, presumably to get her own. Raise took the opportunity to sit down next to the ancient Kitsune and tuck into his own soup.
The soup was delicious and quite different from most of his usual fare. Raise ate in silence alongside both the elderly and the young Kitsune and quickly polished off his plate. He didn't know how long it had been since he had last eaten but he suspected that it had been more than a couple of days.
"Go get our guest some more," Kareta said and Kaika didn't hesitate to obey, grabbing Raise's plate and rushing from the room, bringing back a full portion a few seconds later. She sat opposite him and wolfed down her food before sitting down and staring at Raise.
"That's rude Kaika," Kareta said as one of his tails whipped out and tapped her on the nose. "Let our guest eat in peace."
"But Grandpa, you said I could ask him my questions when I woke up," Kaika said childishly.
"I didn't mean immediately," the older man rebutted.
"It's okay," Raise said putting down his plate. He owed them for taking care of him and he was not really averse to answering questions as long as they were not too personal.
"What's it like being a devil," she asked her tails wagging in anticipation.
"Constraining," he said. "Although to be fair I've only ever been one devil and many other devils seem to be better at being one then me."
"What kinds of powers do you get," she continued immediately.
"You get whatever your ancestors got, although I personally prefer to use illusion magic."
"Grandpa will like you then," the girl said with twinkling eyes. "He's always going on about how young people don't appreciate the subtlety of illusions."
"I do," the older man said before he draped one of his tails over the younger fox girl's shoulders. "However I think you might have gotten a bit too cocky recently and I may have to test to see how well you've been progressing our little hand to tail combat."
The smaller fox gulped and Raise couldn't help but smile a bit before a twinge in his side reminded him of his current situation. The first time that his magic backfired it had been years before the residual energy dissipated and he was able to heal but he wasn't the same person back then, as evidenced by the fact that he was still able to walk around. Plus there was another difference between the old him and the current him. Raise closed his eyes blocking out the pain and sharpening his concentration to a maximum before shattering his own concentration and allowing his mind and magic to blend and assimilate with the forces of nature outside of the confines of his body. It was a practiced manoeuvre that he had refined and employed hundreds of times when training his Senjutsu, which is why what happened next came as such a shock.
Hatred and rage flooded through his body setting his mind, body and soul alight. His entire side flared up and he could feel the embers of the Power of Destruction flare back into life and dig into his flesh. Pain assailed his mind fuelling the rage and a sudden irrational desire to reduce everything around him to dust swelled within his brain.
He forcibly broke his connection to the world and clamped down on his rage entering into a calm state of mind, creating a mental world far removed from the all-consuming rage. Opening his eyes he was just quick enough to catch a flash of tails withdrawing and he understood that despite the old man's unchanged demeanour he was very aware of what just happened. Even through the pain he could feel the energy contained within just one of those tails and while he felt nothing but goodwill from the older man there wasn't any doubt in his mind that he was a pushover.
"Sorry," he said inclining his head slightly. "I guess I'm worse than I thought."
"That's okay," Kareta said and there was no hint of anger or wariness. "Just try to do that outside if you have to." To which Raise nodded in agreement before turning towards the younger fox.
"I'm sorry what other questions did you have?" he asked politely.
"Did you fight in the Heaven-Hell war?" she asked excitedly.
"Way before my time," Raise immediately countered. The Heaven-Hell war was what the other factions called the Great War. Or to be precise only members of the Three Factions called the Heaven-Hell war the Great War. No doubt other species had their own Great Wars which stained their history.
"You were quite lucky to have missed it," Kareta spoke up. "It was truly a terrifying event. Once in a lifetime even for somebody like me."
"Did you participate?" Raise asked immediately picking up the man's use of words.
"I volunteered as did a few other Youkai I know, even though the faction as a whole never moved," he said his voice telling nothing of any emotions he felt over his past.
"Ahh," Raise said not continuing the awkward topic. The man had likely not entered on the side of the devils and judging from what little he had seen of his skills there must have consequently been a lot of devil blood on his hands. Not something that you would advertise when your guest was himself a devil.
Not that he really cared. His own brother had killed hundreds of devils in the Civil War. While he despised killing he wasn't a devil to push his own unique view of the world on others. His right side burned as he recalled that he had even less right now after he had killed his future fiancé.
He gulped down the rest of his soup in his silence and Kaika seemed to sense his discomfort. He suddenly realised how tired he felt, both in body and mind. He sat there in silence as the smaller Nine-Tails brought back some cups of some unidentifiable liquid.
"It's tea," he said looking with some amusement at the young devil.
Raise accepted the cup and took in the smell. 'That was definitely not tea,' he thought silently wondering if the part of his brain that allowed him to understand languages had also taken a bit of a beating. The concoction was incredibly bitter and not really… well not really his cup of tea.
"So what are your plans going forward," the older man said to the now quite sleepy devil. "Are you sure you don't want me to drop you off so your folks can come pick you up?"
"I'm not going back yet," Raise said silently adding 'if ever' in his mind.
"Nobody," Raise said looking at the expectant face of the older man he decided to elaborate. "My brother gave me a book on surviving the wilderness for my last birthday. I'm fairly sure he saw this coming for a while then," he said smiling at the thought of his brother who always looked out for him without fail. "My parents," he said thinking about them for a moment. "Fu_ forget them," he said looking at Kaika who was at least a few years younger than him. Those bridges that he had built between them over fifteen years had turned to ash in under one. "There is one," he admitted thinking of his best friend.
"Your lover?" the older fox asked in a teasing voice and Raise felt a small flare of irrational anger that stung his side before he forced it down.
"What did I say about getting out of a toxic relationship," he said. "No she's not my lover," he said. "But besides my brother she was the one person who spoke to me without any ulterior motives. She was the one person who tried to understand me when I didn't even understand myself. Something like that is a lot weightier than lover or wife. She is probably the one reason why I stayed so long. For all the good it did," he said thinking bitterly of his fight with his fiancé.
"I'm tired," he said looking at the older Kitsune. While it may be a bit rude to cut off the conversation so abruptly he just really wanted to be alone right now.
"We can speak more in the morning if you want," the older fox said. "Come on Kaika," he said practically dragging the younger fox out of the room.
"I'm going," Kaika said waving goodbye reluctantly to the younger devil.
Raise waved back in response before his smile faded and he crawled under the covers. Despite his exhaustion it was a long time before he managed to get to sleep.
xxx
Raise awoke in the morning feeling a bit better than yesterday. His entire right side still burned but his mind had quickly adapted to the pain adjusting until it faded into the background music of his life. He glanced at his perfectly undamaged hand before sighing and letting the illusion drop. Like his wing and his leg, his hand would serve as a reminder, although of what he wasn't quite sure yet.
Seeing nobody around him he stood up from his place of rest scanning the empty room and finding that there was nobody hiding under an illusion. With an unsteady step that he had perfected due to his long crippling he limped through the door, finding that the other rooms of the house were similarly utilitarian. Sounds outside the room drew his curiosity and he walked towards the front door, judging by the light flooding through the windows, and slid it open.
The first thing that Raise thought was that the garden that he was in was beautiful with graceful flowering trees providing the ground and sky with a colourful covering and ringed by a babbling creek that gently flowed. Small flat stones littered the ground, seemingly at random and there was a fragrant odour in the air distinct from any he had smelled before. The second thing he noticed was the massive fight going on in front of him.
What was going on was nothing short of a non-violent intergenerational beat down. The young and the old Kitsune looked to be engaging in sparring of some sort. It was an incredibly lopsided result with Kaita darting forwards using a combination of all of her limbs and her tails with blistering speed and coordination while at the same time as Kareta used only one of his nine tails, efficiently repelling all of her attacks with the bare minimum of effort.
"Oh you're here," he said turning towards Raise without even looking at his granddaughter who took the opportunity to use his moment of apparent distraction for a sneak attack. It was futile however as his sole tail in use extended and whipped around like a snake blocking all of her limbs
"Senjutsu," Raise said making an observation. While he couldn't use it currently, there was no way he wouldn't recognize it.
"Exactly, good eye," the older fox said and in the next second his tail lashed backwards grappling the smaller Kitsune and the next second Kaika had fallen asleep. His tail extended and gently placed the young girl in one of the boughs of the trees nearby. "So you're having trouble with Senjutsu," he said. "Would you like to try it under my supervision?"
"That would be great. Thank you," Raise said gratefully as he moved away from the house and the tree on which the little Kitusne lay.
"Well give it a go," the older man said egging him on.
"Give me a moment," he said reaching deep inside into his magic, the source of his power and combining it with the world around him. The world responded with anger that seared his already burnt flesh but this time Raise was ready. He let go of all of his anger destroying each and every instance of wrath that he could feel until nothing remained. When a calm mind had been entered he synchronised his senses with that of the world and frowned. The link was far weaker and he found that he could only blame himself. The world hadn't changed. Thick spreads of natural ki combined with smaller sources of demonic energy, most likely from him, foreign ki, most likely from the two foxes, and even weirder elements such as solar energy and traces of energy he couldn't even begin to define. Underneath all of this power lay the Source, an energy so potent there was no way he could touch it even with a hundred years of training.
"I can barely do it," he said looking at the tenuous string between his own energy and the world around him. His own bodily energy fluctuated wildly and the embers of the power of destruction in his arm flared up, but he forced the rampaging magic down by sheer willpower.
"Can you actually do anything with it or are you just going to stand around looking clueless," the older fox said taking a seat on a nearby stone.
"Let's see," Raise said with far more confidence than he actually felt. He looked his arm but he had no confidence in healing the scoured flesh. He didn't feel like growing the plants around him. In fact there was only one specific thing that he felt like at the moment. Stretching his destroyed arm upwards he summoned illusions of ice before filling it with energy that he was well accustomed to. The air became colder and he watched in satisfaction as the face of Kareta started to show amazement.
Then everything went wrong as the icy feel of the energy broke open to reveal raw, hateful, destructive power. A red tinged black wave of oppressive magic burst out from the shards falling directly towards him and suddenly he found himself a few dozen feet backwards and with tails wrapped around him.
"I'm assuming that wasn't what you wanted to happen," the aged voice of Kareka made itself known to his ears. The old fox was examining one of his tails that were being eaten by the dark energy before without a pause he severed his tail and tossed it into the writhing mass of black that was consuming the land.
He waved his hand and a streak of shining white fire appeared from the sky and Raise watched in pure amazement as the unstable Power of Destruction was purified by the relentless barrage of flame. When the blackness was gone leaving nothing but a crater where it hit Raise felt another surge of natural ki and watched in amazement as the tail of the old Kitsune regrew before his eyes.
"That really is some nasty stuff," he said waving his newly healed tail. "If you don't get a handle on your power then it will eventually destroy you," he continued inspecting the younger devil. "Do you understand? You will be devoured by your own magic."
"Thank you for saving me and the advice," Raise said gratefully.
"What are your future plans?" Kareta asked as he resumed his seat on the stone.
"I'm not sure," Raise said. "Travel, explore the world and fix my Senjustu," he said after a few moments.
"In your state you will die in a few weeks," Kareta said tearing down his plans. "Japan is especially dangerous at this time. The humans have gone an anti-youkai streak quite recently and the majority of the supernatural creatures have gone underground. All those too brave or too stupid to hide have likely perished."
"Is that so?" Raise said, not doubting his words in the slightest. A moment passed in which both Kareta and he seemed to share a secret before the moment passed. "Humans can be scary creatures."
"Stay here," Kareta said as he stared up at the blue sky. "Take some time to relax, fix your magic and maybe heal up your arm."
"Maybe I should," Raise said deliberating over the prospect. The place was peaceful the food looked good and…
"Let me rephrase that," Kareta said cutting him off and his voice seemed to take on sinister undertones. "You don't have a choice." He suddenly chuckled but the atmosphere didn't dispel at all. "You really didn't like that. I can see it in your posture and in the way you breathe. As soon as I took away your chance at freedom you immediately started seeing me as an enemy regardless of the fact that I saved your life and healed your wounds."
"If you know how I would react than why would you do that?" Raise said as he purposefully forced down the sense of shame that arose him. He had instinctively readied his magic and focused his mind, illusions forming beneath the lids of his eyes ready to spring into existence.
"Why did I do it?" Kareta asked as if he was musing over the question. "If you leave the confines of my home then you will die. Right now your magic is uncontrolled and your mind is unfocused. Even your tenuous grip on Senjutsu will easily sever under the harsh world in your current state."
"Besides," Kareta said leaning in front of Raise. "Can you accept gaining total autonomy just like that? If it was so easy to live unrestrained and unaffected by the world then don't you think everybody would do it? Think of me as the penultimate gatekeeper to the ideal you hold so dear."
The old fox turned away heading towards the house and Raise contemplated just leaving for a single moment before he turned back and met his eyes, his smile seeming to see through Raise's inner thoughts.
"Oh by the way," he said offhandedly and those casual words caused the world to tremble as the natural ki that saturated the Earth shuddered and began to slowly move. Raise gasped as nature bent to the old fox's will and the surrounding energy that lay eternally dormant converged upon him, rising higher and higher to a crescendo of calmness that indicated the possibility of a violent unstoppable natural disaster. "Your illusions are astonishing, but it is still beyond the realm of possibility for a mere Senjustu user, to hide from a Senjutsu master."
Those words resounded inside Raise's head as once again nature became still and the old Kitsune headed indoors leaving the devil standing outside alone, except for the snoozing girl in the tree. He sighed casually putting his one remaining hand inside his pocket and froze as he felt cool metal. Pulling the mysterious object out of its resting place he lay his eyes upon the cracked and broken form of the golden pocket watch that Serafall had given him so long ago. He must have forgotten it and taken it into the fight with him because the metal was bent and the glass was cracked. Not a single tick could be heard from the very dead contraption. Smiling in nostalgia Raise watched as the pocket watch seemed to repair before his very eyes and Raise swore that while it only appeared to be fine for the moment, the illusion would in the future become real.
xxx
3 Year Later
"Nine of the clock," Raise said snapping his golden pocket watch shut. The device had been repaired as a graduation present from his master when he had completed his training a few weeks ago. Poor Kaika had cried when he departed and the old man had to pull her off him when she wouldn't let go. Still he would not be dissuaded from his course no matter how many good memories they shared together.
He wore a white hooded cloak, which covered his distinctly non-Japanese features, over a more traditional hakama. He probably cut quite a mysterious figure standing on one of the highest branches of a tree scanning the structures that completely filled the spacious clearing in front of him. This place, surrounded by a massive forest, was nearly impossible to find even with the precise location that he hadn't originally been given. It was only by sensing the life energy of the youkai from far away that he was able to find his way there. Grassy plains surrounded large walls that appeared to be more suited for western castles even if their overall style was Japanese. Apparently the Youkai that inhabited this fortress were more insular than most and quite xenophobic if what the old man said was to be believed.
Still they had information on an object that he needed, so they will just have to suffer through his company for a bit. After a bit of thought he decided to forego stealth in this endeavour. While he could probably sneak his way into the fortress and interrogate one of the crows that were lived there it was quite unlikely that he would find one who knew anything in the first place and he didn't want to make an enemy unnecessarily.
Dropping down from the tree he casually strode towards the fortress with his hands at his side and no sign of aggression. Barely had he moved a few metres from the treeline when his senses picked up the movement of ki and purposefully didn't react as a warning arrow flew past his head. From above the wall of the fortress a dozen Karasu-Tengu flew forwards surrounding him in a circle and looking down on him. They were all in their complete youkai form which meant full crow heads and wings as well as claws.
"Devil you are trespassing on territory of the Youkai faction," one of the crows apparently speaking for the rest told him. "Turn around now and leave for your own territory or die."
"I came here looking for a mirror," Raise said ignoring their warning. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say as arrows rained down amongst him and he sighed. He didn't even have to look at the projectiles as their owner's ki signatures made their trajectories abundantly clear. With only a slight bit of movement he was able to dodge the hail of deadly barbs. Over the last three years under the guidance of the old man he had transitioned from a user of Senjutsu to a master.
"Are you done?" he asked looking down at the blades of grass with little hope of that being the case. His instinct was correct as he felt a sudden burst of Youjutsu, basically Youkai magic, in the form of wind that was bearing down on his position. Somehow those twelve guards had combined their magic into the form of a spell that was greater than the sum of its parts. He could already feel his skin start to burn, the tell-tale sign of anti-devil magic and he sighed in annoyance at how far they were escalating the fight even when he had no desire whatsoever to kill them. Unfortunately for them, while he in no way didn't like fighting he was in no way poor at it.
xxx
2 years 8 months earlier
Raise hit the dirt rolling, and bobbing to his feet. A relentless assault disguised as a small Kitsune launched herself forward punching and kicking without pause. Every single one of her movements was read easily but Raise was unfortunately inferior to his junior in both speed and strength. Of course none of this would matter if he could use his Senjutsu, but unfortunately both he and Kareta agreed that it was off the table for the moment until he could perfectly control it. He saw the kick before it hit him and so despite his inability to avoid it he rolled with it flying backwards and landing on the grassy ground.
"Ha I win again," Kaita said with all the grace of somebody a few years younger than her actual age.
"Well done, you beat up a cripple," Raise said dryly. While normally he would never refer to himself as such, he was nowhere near to recovering all of his functionality. Even he could admit that he had fallen very far.
"Would you like me to tie one arm behind my back again," Kaita said smugly. "Maybe you will be able to last five minutes then."
"Maybe you can do that after you finish your chores," Kareta said signalling an end to the trash talk. "Raise come talk to me," he said walking over to the stone and sitting down. Kaita waved as she headed inside the house, understanding her granfathers direction.
"How do you like your stay so far," Kareta said.
"Mixed feelings," Raise shrugged as he sat down on the grass opposite him. "I'm filled with background annoyance that I'm still a captive and more acute annoyance that I'm not learning anything."
"You will," Kareta said. "Do you know I always feel that exercise is good for centring yourself. I find it helps get harmful emotions out of the system." The old fox didn't need to elaborate at that. Anger and despair had been Raise's constant companions when he first started living here, but they had faded with the passing of time and if fighting the tiny fox helped than it was worth it.
"Thank you," he said with sincerity and despite the fact that his desire to leave had not faded; he felt only fondness when he thought of the pair of foxes.
"Thank me in a few minutes," Kareta said. "After I tell you the other reason that I had you carry out the exercises. You see when you use your Senjustu you use your devil magic to link to the surrounding natural ki." Raise nodded in understanding. "There's nothing wrong with that," Kareta said emphasising the point. "The downside however is that unlike other Senjutsu users since you haven't been using your own ki, your own life force, there is one thing you haven't learned. Today I will teach you this as I have judged that you've sufficiently built up your life force and stabilised it over these past four months."
"Feel your ki now," the old Kitsune said staring at Raise with piercing intensity. "You already have everything you require. Now all you need is to use it."
"I can feel it," Raise said almost immediately. No searching was required. His life force was weaker, stable and steady while his magic was powerful, erratic and wild. These two forces mixed like oil and water in his body and were absurdly easy to seperate.
"Good," Kareta said smiling proudly at his student. "Now I'll teach you to draw it out. I'll teach you to use your own life energy as a shield and a sword granting you great power. The name of this technique is…"
xxx
Present
"Touki," Raise said idly to himself as blood red energy formed around him blocking off the force of the devil killing tornado that slammed into him. The energy from the magic was intense, a true testament to the power of cooperation but it failed to pierce Raise's armour and Raise aimed his eyes skyward looking at the disbelieving forms of the crows.
"I tried," Raise said and then he vanished from sight appearing just in front of one of the crows he launched a kick at him launching him backwards. Smiling he faded from sight as the arrows passed through him before he leapt through the air and into the form of one of them a single punch from his only hand driving them to the ground. This scene repeated itself with a few variations over the next minute and when the majority of the guards were down the entire scene faded to reveal the wounded bodies of the crows on the ground, riddled with arrows and tended to by Raise who healed them enough so that they would remain out of reach of the reapers grasp before using his Senjutsu to force them to fall asleep using one of the tricks he had learnt from the old man.
There were probably more of his like in the fortress and even stronger ones held in reserve. Diplomacy had effectively failed and the wounded guards would probably not help the situation. He watched as crows arose from the walls blotting out the sky with their black wings and the area in which his illusion stood was bathed in arrow fire. Some of the arrows in fact landed among their comrades piercing their prone bodies and finishing the job.
These crows were so determined to kill their intruder that they wrote off the lives of their wounded, obliterating any future goals that they might have. Anger coursed through his veins but it was good, righteous anger this time. He hated killing with a passion. He had always felt that death is the one cage that nobody can escape and that killing somebody irreversibly cuts short all of their future choices and resetting their potential to zero. That attitude had lessened after many talks with Kareta and his teacher's assurance that there were times that he would have to infringe upon others freedoms to protect his own and others but it never quite disappeared and he still vehemently disagreed with the old Kitsune about some things.
"This is your last chance, just surrender and let me through and no harm will come to you today," he said although there was virtually no chance for that to happen.
The response was nothing but mocking laughter and a bombardment of arrows that had no chance of hitting him, or even penetrating his Touki if they did. He decided to forego the usage of his illusions for the moment. While the crows had no defence against them there was no use in practicing something that he had long ago mastered. His armour of Touki extended outwards forming a pair of large red dragon wings and he took off into the sky heading into the salvo of missiles. His fake Touki formed wings whipped towards the arrows deflecting any of them that he chose not to dodge as he moved at a speed faster than these cretins could perceive.
He had been incredibly satisfied when he learnt how to produce wings of Touki nearly two years ago. While he had learnt the ability to stand on air he had never quite been able to fly since his first incident until the day he had first took to the skies on blood red wings. He smiled at the freedom it offered him as he spun around lashing out with his wings and taking over a dozen of the crows down hard, with a lot less care for their continued survival than he had started with. Bows were discarded and staves carved with arcane runes were brought to the fore but apparently crow Youkai had hollow bones as well because they were unable to penetrate his Touki or even receive one of his blows. The ones that didn't fall to his wings or fist; fell to illusions, or the effects of having their life force torn away by Senjutsu.
Like shadowy rain the broken bodies of the murder of crows fell to the ground and Raise grimaced as he felt more than one source of ki fade suddenly. Using his wings he dropped down into the empty courtyard on the other side of the castle. There were still a few crows that were apparently scattered remnants that hadn't left the fortress but they ran from him; either to cowardly or too clever to face him after what he did to their comrades.
While there were many buildings that were spread around the confines of the walls, it was fairly obvious where the leaders of this fortress were hunkered down. A castle constructed of stone and wood sat in middle of the stronghold with all other buildings subtly angled towards it as if paying reverence. That would be his first stop. The entrance was guarded by two more of the crows although these ones were decorated in much more elaborate armour. As he approached the two stepped forward as if to block his way.
"State your purpose here," the one on the left said.
"I've come looking for a specific mirror," Raise said. There was really no reason to elaborate. There was only one mirror that he could be talking of.
"The Elder One has not arranged for your arrival," the guard said. "Return with an appointment and you will be allowed through."
"Have you been inflicted with madness?" Raise asked quite confused. "Did you not see my scuffle with those other Karasu-Tengu?"
"What you do with those trash is not our concern," one of the crows spoke up causing Raise to instinctively dislike him. Our job is to guard the gate for the Elder One." Okay he would definitely have no compunctions if they got a bit roughed up. Just as he was about to do the deed he felt a sliver of magic and the two guards jolted to attention.
"The Elder One has commanded that you come through," the guards said standing aside and opening the gate.
"Commanded, huh," Raise muttered to himself, once again filled with the paradoxical desire to just leave. "All right let's see what's going on here," he said as he stepped through the door and into a surprisingly opulent hall.
"I am Kezumi Aoba, please follow me," a crow dressed in a butler outfit curtly introduced himself before turning away and walking in the opposite direction. Raise shrugged and followed the butler crow as he directed him through the large rooms of the castle, filled with numerous rare and valuable looking Japanese artefacts and protected by more of those decoratively armoured guards. Unfortunately none of the artefacts that he saw was the one that he was looking for otherwise it is likely that Raise would have simply stolen it and ran.
The butler stopped at a large latched set of double doors, before knocking three times, causing an echoing boom to resonate throughout the room. After a pause of a couple seconds the latch clicked open with that same pulse of magic.
"The master will see you now," the butler said turning and leaving without a look back.
"Apparently devils aren't very welcomed here," Raise mused to himself at the chilly reception he had received so far. "Or maybe they just don't like my face." Walking forward he pushed against the door with his one good hand and stepped into the room.
A stone throne sat at the far end of the room housed an aged red faced man clad in a surprisingly drab hakama. A simple glance at the expression on his face was enough to reveal that he did not like the younger devil at all. In fact he had the expression of a man that was eager to tear him to shreds. Suddenly laughter broke out and Raise's eye was drawn to the second man in the room whereupon they widened in disbelief before he schooled his expression.
"Yes, I think you'll find that the majority of Youkai are not grateful for the 'gifts' your species have given to us Youkai over the centuries," the third Nine-Tailed fox he had ever seen said chuckling with a hollow sort of delight. He had blonde hair and amber eyes and a sharp smile that brimmed with glee. He was also wearing a hakama, but where his companion's was drab, his was bright gold and filled with images of the sun. He seemed to be a few years older than Raise but honestly the young devil was not so clued up on how Youkai aged considering it had taken him by complete surprise when he found out Kaita was thirteen.
"I am not my species," Raise responded.
"Really," the Kitsune said in a deliberately exaggerated tone. "Because from where I'm standing you sure are behaving a lot like most other devils that I've met; breaking into our territory, killing our men," he said with a smile that bared his fangs. "It sounds pretty devil-like to me."
"You killed more of your own men than I did," Raise said with stoic features.
"Are you sure," the Kitsune said tilting his head as if deep in thought. "From where I'm standing it looks like if you hadn't come today they would still be alive. What is a devil even doing here?"
"I'm here to take a look into a mirror," Raise said and he watched as the crow that had stayed so silent until now immediately shot out of his seat.
"Lord Katonori, the devil seeks to steal the Yata Mirror," he yelled pointing at Raise. "We must stop him."
"Of course what other mirrors do you have here," the supposed Lord Katonori said and there was a distinct note of puzzlement in his voice. His eyes narrowed as he inspected the Karasu-Tengu besides him. "Your reaction is a bit odd though. We'll talk later," he finished cutting them off and the crow's scarlet face turned pale.
"I will say that I've never seen a devil use Senjutsu before," he said turning back to Raise. "Just who was the teacher that was able to accomplish the impossible?"
"We both know that's not something I'm going to reveal," Raise said.
"Understandable," the Kitsune said nodding his head as if it were eminently reasonable. "I'll just have to torture it out of you," he elaborated his mask of false affability dropping completely. "I am Yasu Katonori the heir to the Youkai faction and one of the only two Nine-Tailed foxes in existence and you filthy devil have trespassed on our land, demanded our riches and stolen our secrets. Repent with your life."
'He isn't aware of Kareta and Kaika,' Raise thought. 'That doesn't matter. It's not my business why they are hiding. Still I wonder how he stacks up to the pair.'
A massive surge of ki was the only warning he got and he raised his Touki to the absolute maximum before a hit on the chest sent him plummeting through the stone walls and through a few rooms before he came to a stop disorientated but unhurt in what looked to be some sort of barracks. Apologizing to two astonished crows that were playing Shogi he focused on the source of ki again and sidestepped a second before the Nine-Tailed missile sent him through another few walls. He moved again and watched the clawed fingers of his foe tear through one of his illusions before he fired off a punch at his aggressor coating his body in Touki and causing the fox to stumble backwards.
Raise followed up by clapping his hands and generating a massive burst of light that caused the Nine-Tails opposing him to let out a painful cry. Snapping his fingers he summoned mist and moved towards the fox launching a kick that let him stumble backwards. The kick was followed up by a punch that was caught and Raise barely escaped being grilled by the retaliatory strike in the form of white flames that tore through the walls of the building melting the stone and disintegrating the wood.
What he couldn't dodge, was the mass of tails that hit him like an avalanche and sent him through another of the castle walls and ploughing into the grass and dirt that signalled that he had left the castle confines. He stared up at the blue sky for a brief moment before the crunching of stone and wood reminded him that he was currently in a pretty dicey situation. Standing up on aching legs he watched as the massive form of a fox, as big as some of the smaller buildings, burst through one of the rooms in the castle causing masonry to go flying everywhere.
The fox caught sight of him with its reddened inflamed eyes and Raise saw hate in those amber orbs before it opened up its mouth and spat forth a sea of flames at him or at least where the illusion of Raise was standing. Flanking from his blind spot Raise was able to land a punishing blow on his side but when he attempted to use Senjustu to attack the ki of his opponent he felt resistance in the few seconds before a retaliatory paw shot towards him sending him flying backwards towards the other end of the encampment where he landed on his feet.
"Haha," the fox laughed, its voice surprisingly normal sounding coming from such a huge fox. "Do you think your shit grasp of Senjutsu would be able to compare to that of a Youkai; to that of a Nine-Tailed fox. How laughable is that, how pitiful you are. Let me end your pitiful existence." His last words were accompanied by a white hot yet of flames and Raise took to the sky to avoid it.
More and more flames spewed from the Youkai's mouth missing the nimble form of the devil and landing in the nearby forest causing the woods to burn. It was incredible for Raise just how little these Youkai seemed to care about the collateral damage but if they were not going to care for their own subordinates than Raise was not going to waste the energy doing so either.
He tucked his wings and rolled out of the way of another one of those jets of flame, closer this time than before. It seemed that the fox was improving his aim as the fight wore on, but it also meant that more of the forest burnt down due to the wildfires rampaging around the wooded area.
"Just give up and burn," the giant fox said with a simply abnormal amount of bloodlust.
"I guess the peaceful way really was just a pipe dream," Raise said to himself as the flames closed in further. "Oh well, if I've done all I can and tried my best. Forgive me but you may feel a slight chill."
xxx
2 years earlier
"So that's the power of destruction," Kareta said as he watched another attempt at replicating the light spears of angels turn into blackish energy and begin to devour the surroundings. Without missing a beat he summoned flames and burnt the energy out of existence. "It's quite tenacious stuff; you really are giving your teacher a hard time."
"It took you quite some time to recognise it," old man Raise said shaking his hands as he looked at the remains of his failed attempt.
"It's a bit different from any other time I've seen that particular devil power used before," he said. "And I haven't seen it used too much in the first place. Besides this looks more like a mutation than your standard POD."
"Really," Raise said frowning at another failure.
"You don't really care," he observed. "You absolutely refuse to use your natural magic, the magic that was with you when you were born." He cocked his head. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No," Raise denied turning away and trying to form the light spear again. "No I'm lying to myself, I do. Every time I try to think my way around it all I do is keep getting stuck."
"I hate my magic," he said. "A long time ago I ended up very, very hurt by own magic." He paused and Kareta filled the void.
"And that's why you hate your magic," he stated although Raise was already shaking his head.
"No, yes, maybe…" he started. "When in the hospital I realised that in the end to my parents and to devil society I was nothing more than my Power of Destruction. My mutation as it were would only help me fit better into that nice little box labelled Raise Gremory. That's not even the worst bit." Raise said as he lay down on the grass staring upwards at the sky. "You have to realise that the Power of Destruction is really, really potent. If I were to use it then I know that I would soon rely on it exclusively. Every fight and battle would be a matter of releasing the power of destruction and obliterating my foes. Every confrontation would end with death and I know that I would be celebrated for it."
"Gremory, so you must be Sirzechs brother," the old fox said, watching as Raise started. "Oh don't worry, I've taught you for two years there's no way that I'm going to take advantage of that."
"Thank you," Raise said gratefully. "I don't want to end up like that."
"I see," Kareta said and there was a sudden look of clarity on his face. "All this supposed anger you've displayed against the other devils, your family even your future fiancé. You were never angry."
"I can assure you that I was," Raise said. "I've battled with my anger constantly over the years. No matter how much I've tried to let it go. No matter how much I ignore, or bury, or accept or destroy my anger; it keeps coming back. No matter what I do, so if you have a solution please tell me." By the end of his rant his voice had started to rise until he was practically shouting at the older fox.
"You were scared," Kareta said stopping the younger devil dead.
"Scared?" Raise said immediately scoffing. "That's ridiculous. Why would I be scared of something as pathetic as devil society?"
"Because you know that it's a possibility, no in fact it's very probable that, you would end up enjoying it," Kareta said. "You may rage at them and hate them, but beneath it all the real reason is simply because you're scared that one slip up, one moment of happiness, one mistake and you will simply become them, another cog in devil society and that scares you. You hide your fears in mock anger because you're afraid to acknowledge the paper thin line between you and them."
"I'm nothing like them," Raise rebutted clenching his fist. "They're the ones that have given up. They're the ones who are content to slave themselves for the good of their house or the Kings of their Peerage. I will never be like them." Raise stopped and for the first time he managed to look down at his hands that were shaking, but this time he understood that it was not in anger. For the first time in his life his illusions crumbled and he collapsed to his knees, drained of all his willpower.
Kareta was there in a moment, holding his shoulders. "What do I do?" Raise said. "What do I do? He repeated. "Please tell me what to do?"
"No," Kareta said with the finality of a door slamming shut. He stared into Raise's eyes as he spoke trying to capture the devil's full attention. "You've spent all your life trying to live by your own rules. You've learned Senjustu, which I would've thought impossible for a devil. Your mastery of illusions is equal to that of a Kitsune and you have figured out a way that you can use light energy as a creature that is antithetical to it." He dragged Raise to his feet. "You did all this by following your own path. Do you really think you need me to tell you what to do? You're feeling scared are you? Good, scared means you're winning. A man that has nothing to lose can feel no fear. Only those that have reached heights can look down and fear failure."
He let go of Raise for a moment and Raise stumbled briefly before standing on his feet. "Use you fear to propel you, but do not be the sort of person who would allow it to rule over you."
"Thank you," Raise said after a moment of collecting his thoughts.
"It was simply a moment of weakness," the old man rebutted. "We all have them do not give it a second thought." He smiled gently to the younger devil. "Now why don't you give it another go?"
It took a moment for Raise to remember what they were doing but when he did he immediately focused on his task. A light spear formed in the air in front of him and for a moment he dreaded that it would burst open and rain Destruction on him, but then what was so scary about that. The Power of Destruction was part of him, but he chose not to use that part and despite its might it held no power over him.
After a few seconds a completed light spear dropped down into Raise's hand and he smiled.
xxx
Present
Stormy black clouds billowed out from Raise's location covering the sky and turning the bright day dark. From the black clouds icicles dropped hitting the ground and causing frost to spread from the point of impact. Icy winds started blowing freezing large portions of the forest and even icing over the raging fires. Raise tucked his wings and dropped down to the ground, summoning walls of ice to block the rampant firing of the Kitsune's fire. As soon as he hit the ground the grass and dirt froze over forming instant glaciers.
"What the Hell," the fox remarked before breathing out more and more jets of flame trying to burn him and stave off the approaching ice.
"I'm afraid Hell has currently frozen over," Raise said instantly regretting the joke. Each jet of flame did nothing but briefly melt the ice that rapidly solidified. With each step he took the ice seemed to shift further, moving slowly but inescapably towards the gigantic Kitsune.
"Hey, hey, you can't do this," the fox said clearly panicking as he approached. "I'm the heir to the Youkai faction, if you kill me that's the same as declaring war on the Youkai faction. Can your shitty faction even survive another war?"
"I am not my faction," Raise said. "And neither are you yours."
"Fuck this then," the huge fox said stepping backwards before opening up his mouth. "You forced me." The words had barely reached Raise before a jet of flame larger and hotter than ever before actually burst from his jaws like a volcano erupting. Raise could feel his very life force imbued into the heat of the attack and he couldn't imagine power like that could be invoked without consequence. It was an attack that would prove hard for him to block even with his ice so Raise didn't bother instead flying upwards invisibly and letting the illusion of the ice disappear and turn back to his Demonic Power.
Dropping down to the molten ground after thirty seconds of watching the entire area burn Raise was confronted by the cocky, yet tired looking brat that he had been fighting all along.
"I warned you," the fox said triumphantly. "No fucking devil could take my strongest attack and live. Blame your mother and father for not teaching you not to mess with a Nine-Tails."
"You are remarkably celebratory for the middle of a fight," Raise said and he watched as the fox's celebrations were immediately cut short and he gave one of the most shocked expressions Raise had seen in his life.
"No you can't be alive," he said inching backwards. "It's not possible. You should be dead, dead, dead. Hey there's no need to go further. If you just stop here the Youkai faction will forgive you…"
Raise had reached his limit of patience by this point. While he knew that he was probably giving Serafall more work in smoothing over this incident, he also knew that this absolute imbecile would probably inflict more death in future if he wasn't curtailed. With a thought he gathered the remaining Demonic Power and shaped it into something that the fox would surely recognize and with a snap of his fingers the Kitsune was bathed in white fire.
The scream that he set off was horrible as he increased the illusionary pain while toning down the effects of the actual fire. Without a doubt the fox would probably get mental scarring from this but sometimes mental scarring could do a person good. He survived it and what he was doing was trivial compared to what the Kitsune received. Another snap of his fingers extinguished the fire and he walked past the Nine-Tails.
"Reconsider your life," he said to the barely conscious Youkai before he retraced his steps to where the head of the Karasu-Tengu sat.
The shock and horror on the crow's face was not something that Raise relished seeing. Technically both him and the Youkai were at felt, with him wanting to gaze into a mirror that didn't belong to him and the Youkai overreacting to his relatively peaceful invasion. Still no doubt others would see it differently, but he hoped the crow had the sense to at least stop this fruitless opposition.
"The young Master," the head of the Karasu-Tengu said with more than a trace of fear in his eyes.
"Alive but not moving anytime soon," Raise responded flatly, seeing slight signs of relief in the crow's face. "Let's not beat around the bush any longer. I wish to view the mirror. I would have compensated you for your effort but I doubt any manner of compensation would matter at this point so I'm just going to come out and say it. Show me the mirror."
"I refuse," the crow said defiantly. "I can't," he amended upon seeing the young devils unamused gaze.
"You say you can't," Raise said sighing. "That either means it is sealed away in such a manner that you can't open it or you don't have it. This fortress was designated with the divine honour of keeping the Yata mirror. Either show me to the place it is sealed or tell me how you lost it."
"How could you know in the first place?" the Karasu-Tengu said and it was clear he was grasping at straws.
"I have my sources," Raise said locking eyes with the crow youkai, those being Kareta. He had given the information even as he admitted that it might be a bit outdated.
"It was stolen alright," the leader of the Karasu-Tengu said after a while. "More than ten years ago we were invaded in much the same manner as you attacked us."
"Oh by whom?" Raise asked. This was honestly the first time that he had heard of this happening.
"By somebody who even you won't be able to mess with," the crow said before sighing. "But sure I'll tell you. If you want the mirror so badly you can try stealing it from them. The one who took it was the one crowned emperor of all Oni; the one who is named Shuten-Douji."
"Oh," Raise said suddenly understanding just what their problems were. "That might prove tricky."
Author Note: Wow last chapter was the most controversial I've ever written. Thank you for all the reviews it was great. Surprisingly the one that actually did the most damage to my ego was Terranorth. Well done. I can possibly bullshit excuses but the real problem was that I didn't do enough timeline research. You've got me, those were my first real plot holes. But I've included both flashbacks and timeskips in this chapter so who knows. Maybe it will be just as controversial. Fingers crossed.