The group returned to the Kamiki village and announced that they saved Sakuya's life and removed the darkness' effects from the whole zone. Needless to say that the whole group (Reiya taking more credit than the others) were praised as heroes and received a lot of thanks.
For the rest of the afternoon up to the night, Tamaya left for a free spot of the village to work on something new, leaving his partner in the village. Kushinada made her famous God's Sake which Reiya kept all for himself while Granny Mandarin, the wife of Mr. Mandarin, prepared sakura morochis, little cakes of sakura flowers, for everyone. Saisuke liked them so much that he decided to get closer to both Granny Mandarin and her husband.
Alena and Kasaiori were enjoying a good bath in an hot spring behind the village's waterfall. They decided that they deserved it after everything they did for the village.
"Awww, this is so good..." The female eagle sighed as she let the warm water relax her muscles.
"Yup..." The black panther nodded as she did the same. "It might be fun to beat bad guys, save the world and all, but it's also good to take a break once in a while..."
The two girls remained silent for many minutes until Alena opened her eyes and gasped upon seeing Mantis in the water with them.
"Mantis?! What the (CENSORED) are you doing in here?!" Alena shouted as she was about to squash the bug.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Kasaiori said and lifted a wing to stop her. "I'm the one who invited him." She said and wrapped a wing around the little green bug.
Alena widened her eyes in shock as she took a moment before realizing what that was all about. "Wait a minute. you two...?" She said and pointed at them.
"Yes." Mantis simply said with a smile and nuzzled into the eagle's feathers.
"What the hell?!" Alena said in shock. "How is that even possible?"
"Well, I always had a little crush (Mantis winced a bit at her joke) on Mantis for many reasons. First, because he's cute, but also because he doesn't let the people nor his size affect his confidence which is something that I absolutely admire." She explained and gently caressed her boyfriend's head with her other wing.
Alena totally didn't expected them to end up together, but shrugged it off and sat back down in the water. If her friends were happy together, she could only feel the same for them. Mantis only stayed for ten minutes before getting out.
"Okay, I have to go: Tamaya wants to see me for something. See ya later, Kasaiori." He said and jumped away.
The eagle waved her wing at him before turning to Alena who gave her a cheeky grin. "What?"
Mantis arrived to the garden up the village where Alena used her brush to bring back the sun for the first time. Tamaya was waiting on the balcony with a seemingly impatient look.
"There you are, pal! Where have you been? It has been twenty minutes since I arrived there!"
"Sorry, I just went to see my new girlfriend by the hot spring." He said with a clearly satisfied smile.
"Anyways," The goat interrupted him before he could go in deeper details. "the reason I asked you to come here is because I have something for you."
He then reached into his bag and took out a smaller bag which he could hold between his fingers. "Huh, what's this?" Mantis asked as he took the bag between his pliers.
"Search inside to see." Tamaya replied.
Obeying, Mantis dipped one of his pliers in the bag and actually grabbed something. He took out what seemed to be a small firework. "A firework?"
"Yes." Tamaya nodded. "This bag have the unique ability to produce fireworks in unlimited quantity. All you have to do is turn the rope on fire with your pliers."
Mantis did just that, turning on the rope thanks to his quickness and the firework was sent flying in the sky where it exploded. "Whoa! Too cool! But why did you gave it to me?"
"Well, considering Alena is the demigoddess of sun and moon, your girlfriend can shoot fire with her wings, Reiya have a giant sword and Saisuke have two cool ones, I though you were the one in need of an advantage."
"I have Earth Chi." Mantis replied with his eyes half-closed.
"Really? Sorry, I didn't saw you using it during your fight. Guess I'll just take my tool back then."
"No, no, no! It's alright, I actually like this weapon. Thanks." The little bug said and was going to leave when he ran into Nuijiao.
"Hey, guys. Granny Mandarin made sakura morochis for all of us!" The young goat happily said, holding little pink cakes in his hooves. "Wait, am I interrupting something?"
"Nah, Nuijiao, I justly finished talking with your friend." Mantis said and took one of the cakes which he took a bite from before talking again. "Say, while you're here, I'd like to know what was that pill you used that made you grow in size during our battle with the Yokais."
The goat smiled and took out seven small pills that looked like gum balls, each having a different color. "I'm not really good in combat due to learning medecine my whole life. To compensate this weakness, I fabricated those pills. Each one of them give me a specific power for a short ammount of time. This is why I carry many ones on me all the time."
"Cool." Mantis said with a smile. "Now, if you'll excuse-me, I'd like to show my new bag to my girlfriend. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll see her again before she and Alena put their clothes back on." He said with humping away, letting Nuijiao roll his eyes.
Kasaiori with Mantis, you didn't see that one coming, did ya?
