Surprised described Denko best. The fox looked no older than ten, and had been changing forms like it was natural, and the last few ones had been abominations! Then again this was Japan and Denko had been alive to see the tanuki and kitsune, both of whom had vanished. Intrigued he approached, curious to know more about the vulpine.
He clapped, and surprise turned to appreciation. It had been a good show, despite the ending.
"Congratulations young one. That was a marvellous display."
It was clear from the bewildered look he received in turn that the kit had not understood anything. The light brown eyes darted to his sword and back at him.
"I mean no harm." The raven added, placing his wings in the air. "I was merely impressed by your display.
"Um…" Saras relaxed slightly, only due to the innocent stance the avian had taken. He had still understood nothing.
Then Denko realized. "Oooh, you're Chinese. I was merely complimenting your skills."
"Riiiiiiight." The fox was still wary, and now was hastily gathering up the scrolls.
"A dragon?" The raven frowned, picking up the final scroll in the circle. It was a fanciful drawing of a thin, bat-winged dragon with red scales and black horns. He smiled a little. "My title is the Dragon of Yang."
"Er- that's great." The fox snatched the scroll back and turned away. He tripped on the hem of his green cloak, and fell to the floor, a bundle of scrolls spilling around him. One rolled towards the avian, and opened at his feet. It read, in both Chinese and Japanese 'Plans of the Silver Fang Estate'.
Saras got up, and took one look at the open scroll and the raven.
"What's this?" Denko asked. No wonder the fox had been in such a hurry.
"Er- it's a-." The fox started, but Saras failed to think of an excuse and ended with an audible gulp.
"I'm interested to find out how you got hold of this." Denko said, though his tone was not harsh and his sword remained undrawn.
"I… Er- found it?" The fox blurted out.
"Really?" The raven replied deadpan.
"Well not really, but-"
"How did you get this?"
The tension was so thick it seemed neither could move. The only sound was the rush of the waterfall.
Then Saras picked up a scroll threw it at him. The raven drew his blade and sliced the poor parchment clean in half.
"Er…heh-heh." The fox gulped again.
Denko replied with a pair of shuriken. Saras teleported away from them in a flash of green. He reappeared behind the now smirking Denko, who blocked the fox's claws with his unsheathed blade.
"I don't mean any harm. I just want to know how you got the scroll."
Saras gulped again. "Why do you even care?"
Denko paused to think of a reply. And in that pause there was a flash of green where the fox teleported over to the plans and picked it up. The other scrolls weren't as important anyways.
Denko shot a shuriken at it and flung the scroll into the air, where the raven made to go for it. To his surprise a crane caught it first in one long leg, before taking off into the air with his larger wings. The smaller avian sheathed his sword and gave chase.
Saras had had a headstart, but was not as accustomed to flying as the raven, who was gaining on him fast. A puff of green later and Saras went from soaring to falling.
Denko let out an unprofessional squawk as the mole fell past him like a boulder, before regaining his composure and diving after the falling form.
As the ground drew closer Saras shifted into his armadillo, and curled into the relative safety of a ball, the scroll tucked in safely against his stomach. As the pink and purple ball hit the ground, his leathery hide and the soft grass propelled him back upwards, and right into the diving raven. Then both were falling, and hit the grass where they had started. Saras uncurled, looking somewhat green, while Denko got up.
The shapeshifter was surprised to find his opponent was still good-natured. "Don't make me hurt you. There is no honor in harming children."
"Well, I'm not exactly asking for a fight either." Saras replied, stalling for time.
"Fine. Hand over the scroll and you're free to go." Denko replied, apparently relaxing.
Then Saras changed forms, and a puff of green later the armadillo was a mole once more, and desperately digging into the earth.
"Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you." The raven drew his blade, which crackled with lightning.
The shapeshifter charged head on, a mound of raised earth trailing in his wake. He burst out of the ground head-first, and received a kick to the head that would have knocked him out had he not been wearing the purple crash helmet. Instead it only hurt a lot. He teleported away before the raven could do any more damage to him, and became a hedgehog a few feet away.
"Two can play at that game." Denko muttered. Lightning struck him from the air and a moment later there was no raven.
Saras blinked. Lightning crashed behind him and standing there was Denko.
"You didn't think you were the only teleporter in the world did you?" He remarked at the flabbergasted look on the shapeshifter's face. He then swung low.
The hedgehog landed on his back, Denko grabbed hold of the scroll as it fell loose.
"Well, now that that's been-" He only just blocked the spines. The hedgehog had spun around, and they had come loose at the raven. Then in another flash of green a hummingbird rushed past, and took the comparatively larger scroll with it. Only to find that Denko was preventing him from flying away by holding back on the smaller avian's tail. The hummingbird swapped directions and crashed repeatedly into the raven's wing, until Denko had to let go. Saras swapped into a mouse and made to scurry away. To his surprise there were two more ravens flanking the first one, all three of whom had matching blades. He blinked in response only to get kicked into the dirt by the one in the middle. Then he was tossed into the air and the blade came flying towards him. He landed on his head, only to find his pants had been sliced clean open.
Denko was also holding the scroll, and the blade pointed at Saras. "I did that on purpose." The mouse, to his surprise, launched himself forwards, rolling under the blade he scurried up the raven's leg, leaving a significant mouse-shaped bulge racing around the inside of the avian's ninja outfit. Unfortunately for Saras Denko was a ninja, trained to not make a sound. He was not ticklish. Or stupid enough to try and whack at the shape.
"What are you doing?" He asked, utterly deadpan.
The mouse did not reply as he raced around him, before snatching the scroll out of his grip.
The mouse landed on the soft grass, still clutching the scroll, only to duck the flat of the sword as it flew over his head, and knocked the plans out of his paws, and into Denko's awaiting wing. The raven then took to the air. Saras was not about to give up immediately, and chose his crane, giving chase to the now-smaller avian. Denko may have been a better flier, but a crane was naturally faster than a raven, and was soon in reach of the bird. A puff of green later and a platypus was falling down, just managing to grab hold of the raven's feet as he went. Denko was more than capable of lifting the billed mammal, but the sudden weight came as a surprise and they dropped a foot closer towards the ground-and into an extremely fat tree-branch. Denko just managed not to fall down completely. He dragged himself on top of the branch, only to find that Saras had dropped onto the forest floor next to the river, scroll in webbed foot. With a smug look Denko desperately wanted to wipe off his face the shapeshifter fell back into the river with a splash. Denko frowned, and gave chase, drawing his blade with his talons. It crackled with energy. If he used too much power he could very easily kill the kit, but the fate of the world depended on that scroll! He plunged it into the water, where lightning crackled around. There was a flash of green and the shapeshifter was on dry land looking like he had been hit by lightning.
"You were lucky it was a glancing blow, and if I had used my full power your tail would be fried." Lucky for you I don't hurt children. "Now please, just hand over the scroll."
"Er… Well this is a bit of a dilemma." The platypus backed away from the blade. He was sweating profusely, and platypus sweat was milk… "I'm guessing if I yell 'look over there' you won't look?"
"Why?"
"Well in books one guy yells 'look over there' and then another guy looks over and when he looks back the first guy's gone. Heh-heh… I'll shut up now…"
"Just give the scroll. You have no idea how important that is!"
"No! You have no idea how important this is!" He retorted, waving the scroll around… Only for it to drop open. Inside was the picture of a thin, red-scaled dragon.
They both blinked and looked back towards the waterfall.
The mansion was large and out of town-and stunk of Wan Wu. There even was a swimming pool. Thoughts of his mate flooded Jin's mind. Her fur. Her eyes. Her voice yelling 'Jin!' While in the background a disgruntled Wing asked 'what are you doing here?' And yet he could not make himself smile. What if He I Zei and Lang found out? Would he be forced to reveal the truth about himself? Would he be forced to choose the love of his life over his former friends. Much as he loved the sight of her he hoped dearly that she did not open the door.
His hopes were answered. Wing opened the door.
"Jin!" Yelled Wan who was behind her, and she pounced onto him.
"What are you doing here?" Wing asked, sounding exactly like she had in Jin's mind.
"What are you guys doing here!?" He squeeled, his heart pumping vigorously.
"Yeah Jin!" Cut in another voice. To his horror, the fox, Wan still attached to him, turned to see Lang spinning a meteor hammer around. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Footnote: The next chapter focuses a bit more on the other characters, but I suppose I got a little carried away with the Battle for the Scroll, which became the center of this chapter. But as you can tell from the little twist at the end I haven't forgotten everyone else.
