Final Tale: Success or Failure…Can we Shine Golden?
After the dark winds took over, everyone was now standing on a large chunk of rock, crudely lifted up from where the fusion occurred. The iconic castle of the Dreamy Domain was there, but nothing else in sight. A dark, eerie abyss expanded below and above, thick and dark clouds swirling all around. Barely any light was visible within this dark and crude battlefield. The air was thick, feeling like it was where anything good and hopeful went to shrivel up and die.
"Guys...is...is everyone alright?" Mai asked, getting up from the great impact. She stumbled slightly trying to get up. It also seemed such a powerful impact from the ritual caused Mai and everyone else to revert to their civilian forms.
"Yeah I'm okay…" Kokoro muttered, getting up to join with Mai.
"Same here…" Shinju added in as well.
"My head hurts a little...But I'm alright as well," Mao stated.
"That was...something I'll say that much," Great King Enma made clear.
"Ow...What on earth happened?" Kaira gave his status to Mai.
Once all the young teens were together, their bestial companions joined up with them, having shifted to their humanoid forms.
"Ah great, seems history is repeating itself…" Byakko commented on the matters, not liking the sights he was seeing.
"She really did get the last laugh it seemed," Seiryuu observed.
"Of all the moments in my time...This was never one I wanted to ever relive," Suzaku roughly said under her breath.
"Perhaps there might be some hope, we're all together right?" Genbu tried to reassure.
"Yeah! We all have our…" Mai tried to cheerfully say, noticing her emblem on the ground. However, alongside hers and the other three, there was something deadly wrong.
All four of the holy beast emblems had been shattered in half, cleaved and completely rendered useless.
"N-No way, I thought they were indestructible!" Kokoro stammered, looking uneasy with the two halves of the broken azure emblem.
"I don't like how this is already starting…" Mao added in just as fearful, if not more so than Kokoro.
"How are we even going to try and get out of here?" Shinju panickedly questioned. Mai, while incredibly anxious about all this, took a deep breath to try and compose herself.
"M-Maybe we can at least try?" Mai stated, clearly quite tense about all this. Thankfully, while the emblems are broken, the Fire, Lake, Thunder, and Water jewels used to transform and call the holy beast yokai were still in tact. "The jewels are still here."
"Mai has a good point, we have the other jewels with us, so maybe they're scattered around here somewhere…" Great King Enma stated.
"Yeah it would be as easy as a springtime egg hunt….if it wasn't for that thing," Kaira snarkily commented, getting everyone to look up into the darkened sky.
Looming behind the fiberglass and steel castle, a large shadow was behind it. Whatever it was, it was big, easily the size of large monsters from old television and movies at a minimum, and could easy best any combiner robot from any recent live action hero shows in a fight. The being's red and blue eyes with piercing golden pupils gave a glare from the shadows, a glare enough to make even the bravest of soldiers shiver ever so slightly.
Making itself more clear from the shadows, it was a massive humanoid yokai, being half red, half blue, with plenty of black and white across it's design. It has massive, red and blue wings, sharp black tipped talons, onyx black horns, large fangs, yellow glowing bauga lines and a pentagon with the five classical elements: Fire, Wind, Earth, Wood, and Metal. Such a horrifying force radiated nothing but disharmony, like a bright light without any shadow, or night without the light of the moon or stars.
It was pure evil and discord, manifested into a horrifying physical form.
"It seems you have already lost…" The large yokai lowly boomed, his voice warped and twisted as he looked down at the group. "Unless you're willing to fight, like the way of me, Norukasoruka!"
Everyone was stunned at the voice of the twisted and evil yokai, combined from two recent friends of the young teens. They were shaken by such a being's presence, sending shivers. Mai took another deep breath, followed by another, and then another, trying to ease her shakiness to finally speak to her friends.
"Guys...we're going to have to try no matter what, this is a matter of winning or losing..." Mai spoke, trying to rally up everyone together.
"Living and Learning..." Shinju spoke up.
"Skate or die…" Kokoro added in.
"Sinking or swimming…" Mao said a bit fearfully.
"To succeed or to fail…" Enma chimed into the situation.
"All or nothing..." Kaira stated.
"Everyone! For everyone's sake, let's win this!" Mai shouted with her heart, knowing full well that this was it. Her heart was pounding out of her chest, but she kept herself steady.
"So you try to oppose me despite your disadvantage?" Norukasoruka asked sinister, taking up a battle stance of his own. "I'm going to win against all of you no matter what! That's the only thing I strive for!"
The large yokai was about to cleave one of his large talon-like hands down to the group, only for Suzaku to quickly fly in and hold back the large claw.
"I...won't...let...you...win...again!" Suzaku harshly said under her breath, trying to hold back the large unholy beast's claw from striking with all her might. The other three beasts made themselves clear, and while still in humanoid forms would still to try to put up a fight.
"We're going to try to hold off him as best as we can," Seiryuu explained to the teens. "Try to look for the other jewels, give the jewels you have to Great King Enma and find a safe place to try and call forth Huang Long!"
"Got it!" Mai said, running off to try and investigate. But before she did so, she, Kokoro, Shinju, and Mao quickly handed their sacred jewels over to Great King Enma. Fire, Lake, Water, and Thunder were in safe hands, now it was to find the rest...
Glistening nearby was the northeast jewel for Mountain, high up on some debris.
"There's one!" Shinju said to herself, starting to run up to climb up to the top of it. However, among the debris, the dark haired girl caught eye to eye with none other than Norukasoruka himself, though he seemed preoccupied facing against the immovable force that was Genbu.
The large tortoise yokai tried to stop the unruly beast by blooming some vines, but they quickly withered and were broken off quickly. Norukasoruka simply held up one of his large, talon like claws to the levelheaded duo.
From the amount of evil energy Norukasoruka radiated, he was able to make several large, pointed rocks start to violently rise, trying to mess up Shinju's ability to climb upwards to grab the mountain jewel.
Clutching onto her moonstone, Shinju began to focus some energy within her. She had been practicing her yoki abilities these past few months and had been trying to perfect them. She was not perfect by any means, but she was doing better.
"Hah!" Shinju yelled, unleashing a destructive yoki charge onto the cluster of mountains rocks to shatter them, making her swift climb a whole lot easier to quickly grab the jewel without any more issues.
At least, that's what she thought, as Norukasoruka looked at the long haired teen trying to run off with a jewel in hand.
As Shinju began to run, there seemed to be something a lot like darkened muddy water beginning to form under her, causing her not only to slow down, but to slowly start sinking into the ground as well.
"Not today…!" Genbu called out, using her floral magic once again to try and save Shinju. This time, it worked well, sapping up all the evil lake water and freeing Shinju. While the flowers and flora wilted away pretty quickly thanks to the heavy evil atmpsohere, at least Shinju was out in the clear.
"Thank you, Genbu!" Shinju thanked, starting to make a run for it, though she was still a bit concerned for her tortise friend.
"I can take plenty of hits, now go bring that jewel to that son of Huang Long and his friend!" Genbu finished, not even flinching at attempted strikes from Norukasoruka.
But, the old beast was right, Shinju had to hurry over to Enma and Kaira so they could hopefully put an end to this mayhem once and for all.
Meanwhile, Kokoro was making her way through and making sure to not take any sort of nonsense that Norukasoruka was throwing at her.
"Yeah you keep comin' at me like this, buddy!" Kokoro yelled, bursting with raw energy. Perhaps her heart was racing with anxiousness from the situation, but perhaps she really was just ready to take nothing in this situation.
Seiryuu was busy fending off Norukasoruka with calculated strikes to and fro, though even then it wasn't enough power to even make a dent into the evil being.
"Do you have any ideas?" Seiryuu questioned, trying to keep a steady pace. Kokoro was in deep thought, before seeing something in the corner of her eye and sparking with an idea.
She saw a sparkling jewel in the corner of her eye, the southeast jewel for wind. It was simply sitting there, waiting to be grabbed by someone in a small bowl like structure of rocks.
Easy said and easy done, Kokoro grabbed the jewel, but Norukasoruka took offense to that, raising another one of his talon like hands to send a wave of blackened, muddied water right her way. It would either be enough force to crush her, or to drown her within the structure, whichever was more likely to come first.
"...Shoot..." Kokoro muttered, noticing her situation has gotten a whole lot worse now.
And it was now getting even worse for Seiryuu, as there was a bit of a miscalculation on his part and got hit by one of Norukasoruka's large wings. One would expect them to be soft, but rather than that, they were as hard and as sharp as finely forged blades, enough to knock a dragon onto their back.
Though, this hopefully wasn't going to put too much of a halt into Kokoro's plan. Still feeling adrenaline beating through her fiber and soul, she busted with electrifying energy to awaken back to her true form of Suserihime.
At this rate, the wave of dark water was getting closer and closer, but the wild princess was not taking any prisoners. She took the wind jewel and leaped up into the air to assist her dragon friend, before emitting a large burst of lightning that completely vaporized the wave into thin air. Soon, Seiryuu was back on his feet, slightly baffled as the princess got onto his large scaly back.
"So, what's your plan?" Seiryuu asked with a bit of hesitation. "Even with all my calculations, that attack still struck me..."
Suserihime gave a smug grin. "Just keep charging at the big dude, aim for his eyes as well!"
Hesitantly nodding, Seiryuu took Suserihime's word for it and began to get closer and closer to Norukasoruka. Suserihime began to charge up with electrical energy, before reaching a maximum charge.
Once she reached a full charge, Suserihime got up and started to run across the back of Seiryuu, getting as much of full speed as she could, before jumping right off the big dragon's head and up into the air.
"Take this and regret it!" Suserihime rather angrily shouted, unleashing a strong bolt of lightning, striking right into the evil yokai's eyes. Norukasoruka howled in pain, Suserihime quickly jumping back onto the back of Seiryuu.
"Why...I won't be moved that easily!" Norukasoruka yelled, unleashing his own attack of lightning at the girl and the dragon. Bolts of dark, shadowy lightning began to strike all across the field, proving to be quite intense as they each made a thundering boom after each and every strike.
"Keep it up, Seiryuu! I believe in you!" Suserihime encouraged, holding on as tight as she could. "Because today we're not going to skate and then die, we're going to skate then live!"
Hopefully at this rate, Suserihime would return safely, able to hand over the jewel to get Huang Long summoned once again.
Elsewhere, Mao was trying to avoid even the slightest eye contact with the large demonic yokai, much like how his holy beast companion, Byakko, stayed within the shadows to strike unsuspecting foes.
It was all a matter of stealth and staying low among the mayhem of a battle. Not a sound could be made, not a sight could be seen. Not even a loud gasp could be made when Mao saw the jewel of the northwest, heaven, in plain sight. Very slowly and carefully Mao quickly grabbed the jewel, making absolutely sure not to make a single sound as he did so.
Though, the poor boy ended up tripping on a nearby rock, large enough to be tripped on, but small enough not to be seen on his way out. The tripping fall wasn't enough to make him drop the jewel, but it was just loud enough to make an audible thud.
Audible enough for Norukasoruka to turn around, spotting the poor boy.
"You're making this all too easy for me..." Norukasoruka muttered, before letting out a screech and a movement with his talons. It let out a massive fissure into what little earth there was here, crumbling underneath Mao, leaving him to fall into the cloudy abyss bellow to perish.
Or at least, that's what would have happened, had not a swift, white shadow came just at the right moment, when least expected.
"T-Thank you, Byakko," Mao thanked, the white tiger quickly jumping across the debris until they were back onto the main floating island, safe and sound.
"Don't mention it, but I don't think we're exactly out of the woods either..." Byakko commented, keeping a swift pace before finally stopping, and then realizing he and Mao were still within eyeshot of Norukasoruka.
The large demon demon have anything to say upon the survival of the two polar opposite souls. Only unleashing his dark magic once again, this time it being of a cloud of smoke to the two. But, from within the cloud, it felt like the weight of the sky was slowly but surely crushing them ever so slowly.
Feeling the literal pressure, Mao really had no choice at this point, but to awaken to his yokai form, Yeomao. Even in his true form with heightened strength, he still felt quite pressured within the cloud.
Keeping calm and focusing at the situation, Yeomao unleashed a strong whirlwind to disprese the pressure, freeing both him and Byakko. Byakko seemed to still be shaken by the pressure, so Yeomao quickly used his strength to bring the tiger to safety.
"Okay, now I think we're out of the woods kiddo," Byakko commented, doing rather feline stretches to warm himself back up. "Now I'm going to keep on fighting Norukasoruka to hopefully teach them a lesson...again..."
"Good luck, I'm going to make sure this jewel is brought safely!" Yeomao finished, running off as Byakko stealthily kept scoping a good place to strike the evil demon.
Finally, Mai was left trying to find the last jewel. She had clutched onto the Yin and Yang jewels very closely and dearly, and all she had to do was find the final one needed to summon Huang Long.
This was extremely tricky, however, as Mai didn't have her Yokai Jewels with her, nor would summoning really work with her watch and the sacred jewels. She didn't have any sort of magical powers or secret forms, she was just a normal girl from Sakura New Town.
Yet here she was, trying to run for the life of her away from this embodiment of raw evil. It didn't help that she wasn't exactly sporty or athletic like her brother, Gou Suzuki, yet she had to run over who knows how many debris at this point.
And it didn't help the tiny sparkle that belonged to the jewel of the southwest, representing earth, was pretty out of reach. The blonde quickly scurried around to grab some rocks to try and scale up to where the jewel was.
With a bit of dirty work, Mai was able to reach up to the lower part of the castle where the Earth jewel was, jumping up slightly to grab it. It was a tricky thing to grab, but Mai managed to do so.
"Got it!" Mai cheered to herself, starting to scale back down slowly to make sure she wouldn't fall. It wasn't tall enough that Mai could fall and die, but it was tall enough that Mai could seriously hurt herself if she wasn't careful.
Things were going smoothly for Mai, until a large gust of ominous wind made sure she lost all her balance, and given her slightly clumsy nature, it was only natural she would start to fall downwards.
"W-Waah!" Mai yelped, only for Suzaku to notice the call for the girl and swooping in to save her.
"You alright there?" Suzaku asked, getting back up into the air as Mai re positioned herself.
"Y-Yeah..." Mai said between some heavy breaths. "H-Haven't...climbed...that much in like...ever..."
As something didn't feel quite right in the air, Mai popped in a question to her feathered companion. "Is...Is this form why they were sealed in the first place?"
Suzaku was silent for a bit moments, before eventually answering. "Yes...This form, Norukasoruka, is dangerously powerful. His heart is blackened with darkness, going to the absolute extremes...Such a destructive force nearly brought the end to humanity and yokai alike…"
The blonde girl could absolutely see why that was the case. Norukasoruka was one thing: horrifying. But, even within these tense atmosphere, she had to focus.
"While this is a powerful form of pure evil...Maybe there's some light left in his heart…" Suzaku remorsefully commented. "I don't want to think I'm just having rose tinted glasses for days long passed…"
What Suzaku had said gave Mai some hope. Maybe...Just maybe...Something could work...If things kept going simply and smoothly right now...
Yet, things didn't seem to go that simply this time. The gusts of wind only got more and more strong, as Norukasoruka gave a mighty gust of very uneasy wind from beating his wings. The wind got strong enough that while Suzaku was able to keep on flying, Mai fell right off.
Briefly, it seemed thankful as she was caught by something before she came crashing down, but it soon became a bad thing as she realized what had "saved" her from the fall. She was gripped between the large, talon like hands of Norukasoruka, but thankfully had some wiggle room to get into her pockets before the grip got too tight for her unable to do so.
"Suzaku!" Mai yelled, catching the bird's attention. The blonde held up the jewels for Earth, Yin, and Yang in her hand. "Quickly catch these!"
Suzaku didn't say another word as the blonde dropped each of the jewels, one by one, catching them within her large talons with one somersault motion in the air.
"Bring those to Enma and Kaira, quickly please!" Mai asked of Suzaku, the great bird looking a bit concerned.
"What about you? Do you realize how much danger you're in!?" Suzaku responded, Mai looking a bit hesitant, before nodding in panic.
"I...I'll think of something, don't worry! But for now, go help the others!" Mai finished, before the large talon like hand brought the blonde face to face with Norukasoruka.
Elsewhere, within one of the rooms within the palace like structure, Great King Enma and Kaira were busy trying to get the summoning for Huang Long underway.
"Mark it like...this..." Kaira muttered to himself, swiftly using his sword to draw lines and kanji in the earth. There was a specific pattern that needed to be followed, and Kaira made sure to work efficiently and yet quickly. Time was certainly not on their side.
Meanwhile, Great King Enma stood in the very center of the summoning circle, focusing all his energy. It would all come down to this, to see if his powers would be enough to bring forth the great light again, and finish this once and for all.
"Seems everyone has brought over their jewels, Suzaku bringing over the jewels for Mai," Kaira commented, looking a bit worried.
"Did you see Mai at all?" Great King Enma asked, still trying to stay focused. Kaira simply placed the last two jewels, the Yin and Yang ones, on their place on the circle.
"Sadly no, but I'm sure she's alright," Kaira remarked, having a bit of doubt and hesitation.
Elsewhere within the same domain, skies were much greyer and bleaker...
"So, a plain, unnoteworthy human among all these yokai and souls more closely tied to yokai..." Norukasoruka questioned, his evil gaze piercing right though Mai's heavy feeling heart. Norukasoruka unfurled his hand, letting Mai stand, or at least try to. Her legs felt like very gelatin as she attempted to stand, making sure not to fall.
"Noruka...Soruka..." Mai began, trying to make sure her voice could be heard to the large winged monster. "Do you realize what you're doing? You're causing so much destruction and decay!"
Norukasoruka furrowed his eyes, glaring down at Mai. "I'm winning, that's what, and winning is all that matters..."
"Can you even feel things like love? Happiness? Any of that?" Mai asked, border lining on tears. "Do you remember what I said about our friendship? Or how much you loved and missed your mother?"
"I don't understand what you're saying," Norukasoruka responded to the girl. "The only thing that beats through my heart is a desire create a world without any goodness left in it. Since why bother, anything good or you fondly savor will just be sapped away. It's pointless to have a world with such a thing, so I'll do everything to make a hopeless world a reality, which will come at breaking either this world or myself!"
Norukasoruka took a moment to think, before getting back to his speech. "But, whatever you're blabbering about...why do you fight? Why do you say such...such things that don't make any sense?"
"Because you're our friend! We know your hearts are in there somewhere, and we want you to listen!" Mai snapped back, tearing up absolutely at this point. "We know neither of you want to cause such destruction! We know the both of you are good despite how broken you are deep down! Just listen to us, please!"
There was a pause of silence, only the gusting sound of the ominous wind. Norukasoruka looked displeased at what Mai had to say.
"All you're doing is making it harder for me to win, and I don't think I'm going to keep allowing you to stand here and spew nonsense! People like you deserve to perish in the new world I'm going to usher in!" Norukasoruka concluded, turning over his hand to let Mai start plummeting downwards, being many feet up in the air.
Nor was this the end for Norukasoruka's plan. He spread both of his arms, flapping his wings even stronger now.
"Take this! Flame Blizzard!" Norukasoruka boomingly shouted, unleashing a large gust of wind that began to manifest into small snowflakes and embers, before quickly turning into what felt and looked like both a forest fire and a blizzard, constantly twirling in the air like one deadly tornado.
And Mai kept on falling, getting faster and faster. The storm of both flame and ice was not helping, and nothing could really be done with it either. She just had to brave on through it, hoping she would survive through it.
Now, Mai was unsure that she was even going to survive, until a bright light started to appear nearby, breaking through the darkness and storm, getting bigger and bigger. There was a large figure starting to appear in the light, two smaller ones accompanying them. One of the smaller figures seemed to start heading to Mai, shortly followed by the other smaller figure...
Norukasoruka only gave a small "oh?" when the light died down slowly, revealing what had come from the light.
What had emerged from the light was a massive dragon, easily the size of Norukasoruka himself and towering over the other holy beasts. His scales were a glistening gold that glistened, his mane being made of solid, flowing light. He was accented by armor that was a light jade, and consisted of a solid jade face plate and a chest plate with a Bagua, all of the jewels in place.
The being wasn't entirely dragon either, being accented with white, black, vermilion, and azure throughout. His front legs were that of a dragon and a tiger, and his back legs were that of a tortoise and a great bird.
"Norukasoruka..." The large dragon began to speak, his voice booming with nobility. "Your reign of chaotic terror ends here!"
The other beasts and their human partners looked at the sight with awe. "That...That must be..."
"Bringing the golden light from heaven to earth, I am the great beast god of the center..." The grand dragon began to introduce, starting to pose slightly to make his introduction much more stylish. "Huang Long!"
"If Huang Long was summoned...then who were..." Genbu began to ask, the two smaller figures making themselves much more clear before the group.
It was none other than Enma and Kaira, looking different yet the same. Enma's hair was now much more spiky and tipped with a pearlescent white, and a third eye having been awakened on his forehead. His eyes were a much more vibrant gold now, donning elegant robes of an empror that were done in gold and a deep violet.
Kaira had similar gold and violet clothing, but being more of a royal blue shade. His hair now flowed a lot more and was a deep gold tipped with bronze, his eyes being silver and gold instead of their usual blue and red. Most notably Kaira now had a snake tail and several patches of scales being more apparent, done in a glistening silver and accented with gold.
By their side, they both held onto Mai's hands, before gently descending. Mai looked at the two in eye widdening wonder.
"E-Enma!? K-Kaira!?" Mai gasped happily to see her friends.
"Hey, you saved me, it was the least I could do," Great King Enma smiled back, looking confident.
"Summoning Huang Long was a success, but I'm not sure if I was expecting this..." Kaira commented, seeming a bit shocked at his awakened powers. Perhaps since it was because he and Great King Enma were both nobility? Who knows…
Once Mai was returned to safety, Great King Enma looked over to Kaira, balling up his fists. "You know, Norukasoruka isn't gonna beat up himself!"
Kaira gave a smile back, looking back at Great King Enma. "You're right, not gonna lie,"
Soon enough, the regal boys flew up to join alongside Huang Long to face against Norukasoruka, ready to face against the evil that was ahead.
Taking note of the trio that opposed him, Norukasoruka charged energy into his hands, firing large bullets of evil energy at the three.
Huang Long was able to send bullets of light in response, canceling out most of Norukasoruka's evil energy bullets. But for the few stray ones, they were quickly taken care of by Great King Enma shooting similar light bullets or Kaira slicing right through them with his sword.
Frustrated and still determined to win, Norukasoruka began to fly right to Huang Long, both the massive beasts of light and darkness tackling and clawing eachother to claim a singular victor. They were both very equally matched, several strikes appearing on both beings.
But even then, things started to look ever slightly grim for the side of Huang Long, and someone took quick note of it and wasn't going to hesitate.
"I've had enough of this!" Great King Enma yelled, focusing plenty of energy, it practically radiating off of him at this point.
Forming in the king's hands was a small ball of violet energy laced with gold, it eventually getting bigger and bigger before it became absolutely massive. Great King Enma then held it up in the air with both of his hands, looking angrily at Norukasoruka.
"Take this! Supreme Golden Awakening Eyeball Rage!" Great King Enma shouted with all his might, unleashing the energy blast onto the evil demonic bird, exploding into light as Norukasoruka let out a mighty hiss upon being stricken with the light.
It was enough for him to start shifting his attention over to Great King Enma and Kaira, giving time for Huang Long to start focusing energy himself.
Kaira took out his sword, starting to pose. His blade began to glow with a powerful light energy, as the snake king began to dash in the air right after Norukasoruka, rasing his mighty snake blade high into the air.
"Glistening One Thousand Snakes Wave!" Kaira screamed, seeming to slice right through the thin air in front of him, a cut between the hypothetical fabric appearing and releasing several large snakes made of light. They were all angry and made their way to Norukasoruka, pelting him repeatedly before Kaira charged right in to deliver the last blow with his blade.
"Ghhh...You're pretty persistent, aren't you?" Norukasoruka arrogantly scoffed, still managing to fly in the air, but there seemed to be quite a bit of a dent on him.
"You're going to want to change your tune with your attitude..." Huang Long began, a truly powerful amount of energy radiating from him. "Since all of us here, we're going to make sure you don't come close to winning ever again!"
Huang Long closed his eyes and began to focus his energy one last time, the energy starting to split off before shaping into large spiritual manifestations of a dragon, bird, tiger, and tortoise.
"Golden Radiant Cardinal Beast Charge!" Huang Long called out, dashing right into Norukasoruka, the spiritual beast manifestations joining in alongside the great holy beast. The power was truly great, as what looked like a large comet of light took Norukasoruka up high into the air, before swiftly crashing on down, getting faster and faster before slamming the beast right into the castle. To top it all off, Huang Long turned the beast manifestations back into energy, and then launched them at Norukasoruka like solid rockets of light.
"Alright!" Shinju cheered despite the large crash and debris.
"Huang Long truly is powerful..." Mai commented on the fight in awe at the sheer power.
Victory was claimed for the side of good...Though the clouds weren't dispersing...Nor did anything seem to go back to how it was before…
Once the debris of the great castle cleared, Norukasoruka shook off the rubble, still in that form and quite enraged. His heart was cold, and his eyes fiery with rage as he started to fly on back up into the air. Darkness radiated from him, more than ever.
"You...All of you..." Norukasoruka huffed, absolutely full of rage. On the ground several dark markings on the ground began to appear. "None of you are going to win against me!"
The mighty evil beast flapped his wings and spread out his arms.
"Win or Loose, Breakthrough Limit!" Norukasoruka shouted loudly, the floating island everyone was on or nearby soon being destroyed and pelted by blasts of evil energy, seeming to have shrieks and screams of people, yokai, and everything in between in pain and suffering.
The island began to crumble, and everything with it. There was nothing left for anyone to stand on, and Huang Long, Great King Enma, and Kaira began to fall down alongside Suzaku, Mai, Genbu, Shinju, Seiryuu, Kokoro, Byakko, and Mao. They tried to fly back upwards, but it couldn't be done. There was too much pressure, making it impossible for any of them to get back up.
Then it was nothing but darkness, blackness throughout...While everyone in the group was different from differing parts of the world and witnessing things in their own way, they all shared the same exact question.
"Is this what it feels like to die?"
Across the human and yokai worlds, darkness began to spread throughout, not a hint of light in the sky or anybody's hearts. Everyone kept chanting about despair and suffering, no longer believing in any hope or goodness in the world...It truly was a bleak and horrfying world come to reality…
Except…
Except there were a few flickers of light among the darkness…
Nyanmajo and Sailornyan were still enjoying their vacation, at least are attempting to.
"Hey...Why is everyone, and I mean literally everyone here so glum?" Sailornyan asked with concern, looking around. Nyanmajo shrugged in response.
"I'm not sure, but I don't like the vibes in the air..." Nyanmajo commented, before holding her wand closely to her. "However...I hope Mai and her friends are safe..."
"Even if things start looking dour like this, we can't loose sight of the good in the world..." Sailornyan responded, still keeping her head up high with Nyanmajo.
Across the globe, the Sakura New Town Zoo was once bustling, but now nearly every person, yokai, and animal is hung over with sadness and unease.
"Isn't the zoo supposed to be happy, Rabby, Mama?" The usually chipper voice of the young moon prince, Tsukinoyami, asked their mother, Kaguyahime, and her faithful companion Snow Rabby.
"You're right, young one..." The head keeper of the zoological park, Darwin, pondered. "But not even I know exactly what's going on..."
"None of us do, sadly..." Kaguyahime said with a great dissapointment. Snow Rabby perked up a little bit.
"I don't know, maybe if Shinju was here, she would know what to do..." Snow Rabby tried to lighten things up.
"She's really smart! She could probably make all these animals happy again!" Tsukinoyami responded, seeming a bit hopeful now.
"Though even she's on that trip with her friends...I do hope all is well..." Kaguyahime began to wonder, hoping for the best…
Deep under the sea of the yokai world, there was a bit of a panic of unease. Several of the nobility were scurrying around pretty worried. It got bad enough that even Fuyunyan Ace was on the scene to try and help out the worried queen of the sea.
"What am I going to do..." Otohime began to wonder, feeling uneasy as she was at the bedside of her adoptive child, Umioji Orochi. Poor child wasn't feeling too well, curled up in his blankets.
"Why is nobody being hopeful...Everyone's saying the worst of the worst..." Otohime's slightly younger uncle, Nanda-Ryuuoh, began to question as well.
"Mama?" Umioji Orochi asked softly, keeping his innocent and sweet eyes of his filled with joy.
"Y-Yes dear?" Otohime asked, softly grasping her child's hand.
"When I'm better...can you make sure Kokoro comes back over again?" Umioji Orochi asked sweetly. "I wanna...play with her again..."
"Of course dear," Otohime smiled with in response, Fuyunyan ace coming into the room.
"Even if she's dealing with larger things now, she's going to make sure any bad things are defeated as soon as possible," Fuyunyan Ace assured as well.
"Why hope for the worst when we can all start hoping for the best," Nadna Ryuuoh finished with a smile, trying to keep the spirits light hearted. It was just a common yokai flu virus the little sea snake had, so he will be back to his happy self in no time.
Within the Yokai World, near a serene mountainside, a group of yokai had gone out to get some peace despite everyone becoming mindless and groaning only about despair and how the world was hopeless. The group of three were being lead by Yamaokami, who brought them over to a peaceful looking shrine on the quiet yokai mountainside.
"I had the seven lucky gods pass through here recently," Yamaokami commented on the matters, taking a moment to pause with silence.
"Oh dear, seems even yokai divinity isn't safe from feeling uneasy from all this..." Jorogumo added in her own comments to the matter, her hand covering her mouth slightly.
"They rely a lot on blessing with happiness and luck...and a world without any of that struggles their existence," Ashura stated, giving a hefty sigh.
"At this rate, all we can do is hope things get better..." Oyamori finished, still feeling a bit glum, but nowhere as glum as everyone else across both realms.
At the shrine, the spirit of a great horse like dragon with a singular horn appeared before the four.
"Lord Ikkaku..." Yamaokami gasped, having a bit of doubt in her voice. The spirit of Ikakku looked at the four.
"I can sense within the wind that times are looking dour, I know someone is making sure the world will shine brightly again..." Ikkaku began, looking up the clouded up sky. "Mao...Wherever you are, I hope you're making sure either the human or yokai realm a happier place..."
"Mao, huh?" Ashura remarked with a head tilt. "I'll keep that name in mind..."
While everyone except Ikkaku in that group had met Mao, they kept him close in their thoughts, knowing whoever he was, they were important and needed to return home safely.
Still within the yokai world, the great palace that ruled over every yomakai was cast under dark skies as well. Nobility felt at unease as it seemed with the light, all hope had completely faded as well.
"Oh Yami, what's wrong with you, your highness?" The usually flamboyant Gorgeous Tashi asked, being followed behind by Chocolina, Norino Hanako, and Mebinanyan.
"It's...It's nothing..." Yami responded, her voice a bit uneasy.
"Are you sure? I feel something uneasy in your heart..." Chocolina responded with. Mebinanyan held her fan to her face, walking up to her longtime friend.
"It's about your son, is it?" Mebinanyan asked, Yami slowly nodding.
"Whatever he's doing right now, it can't be easy...And last thing I want him to to perish at the hand of darkness again..." Yami began, slowly forming each word but still managing to keep a strong head.
"None of us do..." Norino Hanako assured.
"But none of us need to loose our hope in this world," Yami finished her statement, with a nod. "I know Jizou's strong, so maybe this will be like nothing to him..."
Hope couldn't be lost, even among the highest ranking yokai, and it still was within their hearts no matter what.
The scene focused now to the disheveled remains of the palace of snake kings. It seems to have gone into abandonment and disrepair after a fight broke out within most of the parts of it with nobody to rule over. However, one soul was busy recovering whatever mementos could be found.
"Oh dear...This place looks like a mess" Yao Bikuni began to herself, looking around before finding an old photo album that belonged to Paradmavati. There weren't a lot of photos of her, but plenty of her dearest and only son, Kaira. It brought a warm feeling to the mermaid's heart, being there for a few of those memories.
"Kaira..." Yao Bikuni began to monologue to herself, knowing nobody can hear her, but that was okay. "You're a very troubled child, and you've been through a lot in such a short amount of time..."
The mermaid yokai flipped through some of the pages, finding a photo of the snake king with his beloved mother, feeling the warm happiness from the image. "But I know your heart is in the right place despite everything. Please keep fighting for a better world, one that you and your mother would have loved..."
Even if there was a single soul, it brought a lot of power. Yao Bikuni couldn't also help but shake the feeling some of her clinging of hope was coming right from the Divine Plain itself.
Lastly, our last stage is in the human realm, within the usually peaceful Sakura New Town. Though, the skies were grayed and so was just about everyone else. Not anyone seemed to flinched upon hearing a loud crash near the sacred tree just outside of the residential area of the bustling town.
Though, there were some that seemed to have heard it.
"Come on! We got to hurry!" The voice of Mai's twin brother, Gou Suzuki yelled out, running as fast as he could. By his side was the half dog, half cat yokai, Inunyan, the two seeming have become friends.
"We can't let a crash like that go undetected!" Inunyan woofed, following behind the boy. They were going fast enough they didn't pay attention to the streets and crosswalks, not even pressing the light.
"Hold it," A familiar, almost equally energetic voice said, booming with justice as he appeared in front of the duo. "I, the ally of burning justice, Kyubi, won't allow you to break such a law!"
Kyubi took a moment to pause, before rubbing the back of his ears. "Well, I'm here more to give a polite warning. You don't want to know who punishes naughty, jaywalking brats."
"Listen, neither of us can pay attention right now!" Gou tried to explain to the Kitsune. "There was a large crash nearby and nobody is really paying attention! I have to do something!"
"I see..." Kyubi commented back. "I'll keep an eye on you, but don't do it again, alright?"
The trio ran to where the crashing sound was at, revealing to be not just any crash, but that of the great ship the Seven Lucky Gods used to go to and fro, to bless people wand yokai alike with good fortune.
"Seems...Seems we're the ones in need of luck, huh?" Benzaiten commented, being the first to see the group.
"W-What happened!?" Inunyan questioned in fear. Benzaiten getting up and shaking her head.
"Something awful is brewing in the yokai and human worlds, literally everyone seems to have given up on happiness and luck..." Benzaiten explained. "So even yokai gods like us, we start to loose power..."
Gou looked up. "Well, I haven't given up yet! My sister can be a pain sometimes, but she's taught me to be better, even with all these funny spooky ghost guys around! None of us can give up now!"
"Your sister huh?" Benzaiten responded, giving a sweet smile, remembering the good times. "She's a strong one, we can count on her and her friends to clear up these cloudy skies..."
"Mai! Kokoro! Shinju! Some other people, probably!" Gou shouted to the skies as loudly as he could. "Wherever you are, don't loose yet!"
Even if it seemed to be a hollow attempt to call into the sky, the blond boy seemed to have some belief in himself that his words would somehow reach…
Darkness still remained in the realm Mai and company were fighting at, though it slowly started to clear up. The weightlessness and darkness started to fade away, the echos of everyone's hopes and prayers began to flicker in everyone's hearts. It was proof of one powerful concept, one that won time and time again.
Love, Happiness, Hope, and Goodwill always conquered Hatred, Fear, Sadness, and Dread.
A powerful rainbow of light lifted through the void, the silhouettes of everyone starting to rise back up. Norukasoruka couldn't help but look at what was happening.
"W-What...What is this!?" Norukasoruka questioned, seeing everyone rise up again.
The holy beast yokai of Suzaku, Genbu, Seiryuu, and Byakko were back, still in their more bestial forms, but now with glittering gold armor and accents in some places. They all managed to fly in the air, being lifted with a great power.
And their companions, Mai, Shinju, Suserihime, and Yeomao had also returned. They were on the backs of their beloved beast companions, and in their transformation outfits with them. Though much like their beast partners, they had gotten golden accented upgrades.
"If this is a matter of winning or loosing, we aren't going to loose anymore!" Mai let out a loud yell, making sure the demon could hear her words.
Behind the quartet, Great King Enma and Kaira were still there, in their awakened forms, though Huang Long seemed to have taken on a new form.
The great dragon god was now more humanoid, but his limbs still resembling that of each of the beasts. He wore the clothing of a great and powerful emperor, his hair still being flowing light. In his hand was a jian sword that had light golden accents and the main blade being made of more of a brighter, yellow-ish gold. It was decorated to the motif of the four cardinal beasts.
"It is my duty as Great Beast God King Huang Long to make sure both worlds are at peace once more!" Huang Long shouted as well, his voice far more booming and intimidating. "So surrender, foul demon!"
Huang Long charged right at Norukasoruka, and while he was much smaller in comparison to the mighty demon, he still managed to put up a fight by slashing through dark bullets fired by the dark being. The great dragon humanoid used his blade to try and counter a slash from the evil yokai, though it was becoming clear he was going to need time to charge up his soultimate, and he was going to need help in the meantime.
Before he knew it, Norukasourka found himself being pelted with a great wave of water that glimmered with radiance, even with barely any light visible.
"Alright, let's get this started!" Suserihime yelled, getting into a fighting stance as she and Seiryuu focused energy together.
"Take this! Supreme Tsunami Dragon Breaker!" Suserihime shouted with all her might, cracking out her nine section whip. With a mighty crack and a water spell from Seiryuu, two massive waves of water seemed to form out of thin air, crashing onto Norukasoruka before the two waves came together into a dragon-shaped whirlpool to finish the attack, ending with a great roaring splash.
"You..." Norukasoruka hissed, shaking off the water from the large attack. Shinju got on top of the head of her large tortoise friend, getting a closer look at the winged yokai.
"Do you need a healing spell to help with that?" Shinju asked, spinning her staff around and focusing with Genbu. "We can absolutely help with that!"
Once enough energy was focused, Shinju leapt up into the air, her staff twirling. "Queen Mother Nature's Greatest Healing Call!"
Genbu closed her eyes, as Shinju kept spinning her staff, this time glowing, seed like pellets starting to spew from the spinning stick. The glowing seeds stuck onto Norukasoruka, all throughout. Shinju gracefully landed on his head, tapping her staff on top of the demon, allowing the seeds to grow into vines before the teen jumped off and back over to Genbu.
When the tortoise finally opened her eyes, a truly radiant amount of flowers explosively blossomed, causing Norukasoruka to howl in pain from the blossoming attack.
As the winged demon howled, the stealthiest white shadows were up next, having already prepared their charge beforehand.
"I-I don't have anything cool to say but..." Yeomao began with a bit of a stutter in his usually quiet voice, before getting back to focusing on the matters. "King's Roaring Night Blizzard Claw!"
With that shout, Byakko and Mao took differing sides of Norukasoruka, starting to be cloaked in beautiful diamond dust snow. The two charged up undetected, cloaking Norukasoruka in a truly staggering amount of snow, then finally finishing it off with a slash from ice covered claws from both Yeomao and Byakko.
"Tsk...I still won't loose! I won't allow it by any sort of power!" Norukasoruka roared in his booming voice. Before long, his eyes were met by a girl and her giant bird.
"If you won't listen to our words..." Mai began, focusing with a fiery energy with Suzaku, a truly determined look on the sweet girl's face. "...Then we will make you feel our actions!"
Mai held her arms out, before jumping off of Suzaku, flying all on her own now. Her feather companion wasn't far behind, keeping up with the girl's pace, hearts beating in sync.
"Majestic Majesty Corona Feather Dance!" Mai shouted, starting to gracefully twirl around Norukasoruka alongside Suzaku. Feathers started to float around Norukasoruka gently and easily...before starting to fall faster and faster, into a great whirlwind, starting to get hotter and hotter, until finally exploding into several large bursts of sparkling flames.
"This...This isn't over just yet!" Norukasoruka responded quite aggressively to all the attacks he was pelted with. He flapped his wings once more, unleashing the small blasts of evil energy, though they merely bounced off of everyone.
Feeling humiliation for his attack not working, Norukasoruka focused a bit more, unleashing bigger, more dangerous blasts of evil energy. None of them managed to affect anyone, as they were quickly sliced down with the striking power from a certain golden jian sword…
Huang Long didn't have anything to really say at the moment, his radiance was glowing and quite powerful at this rate. He held up his mighty blade into the air.
"The shadows are deep right now..." Huang Long began to speak to himself, his blade starting to glow powerfully. "But, with shadow, there is a light...And I am the light that will outshine your dark evil!"
Huang Long gave a mighty shout, lunging himself lightning fast to Norukasoruka, his blade becoming that of solid light. First he slashed to the north, the sky clearing in that direction to reveal the black tortoise constellation. Then a cleave to the east, showing the azure dragon constellation. A strike from the southern sky displayed the vermilion bird constellation. Finally, there was a cut from the west, unveiling the white tiger constellation.
"Come forth, my comrades!" Huang Long called forth, the holy beast yokai coming to join alongside Huang Long. They all glowed with a powerful force, unlike any seen before as the stars in the sky began to shine.
"Now, let us finish this, right here, and right now!" Huang Long shouted, his sword of light becoming rather large, the great beast king leading a powerful charge right to Norukasoruka.
"This won't be your victory!" Norukasoruka shouted, his claws glowing with an equally as powerful, but far more sinister, energy around them.
Using his mighty claws, Norukasoruka begins his attempt to stop the great charge from striking him. He seems to be doing his best to start pushing away Huang Long and his sword, alongside the other four holy beast yokai.
"Tsk...none of us are in the mood to loose to you today, neither are...any of our friends!" Byakko snarkily stated, starting to focus even more.
"Even if the odds are slim...I believe we will succeed...Our numbers are greater...and have a greater strength in the heart….!" Seiryuu commented as well, focusing his energy even greater.
"Life in both the human and yokai worlds is truly stunning...And absolutely worth preserving, for those I've met and those I haven't!" Genbu added in, her the force in her heart starting to get even more powerful.
"As my friend said...If you won't listen to our words...we'll make you feel our actions!" Suzaku screeched, making sure her heart and soul were into full focus.
"All of us together, the light in our hearts will outshine your darkness!" Huang Long finished, focusing his strength even harder this time. With everyone in full focus, they all managed to break through Norukasoruka's attempt to stop them, fizzling off all the evil energy from his claws.
"Divine Heaven and Earth Shaking Shimmering Cleave!" Huang Long loudly announced, his blade now at it's full strength now.
The five charged forward, glowing with light and ready to claim victory. Finally, they all unleashed a beam-like slash that had the power of heaven and earth, cleaving right through Norukasoruka with a great explosive shine.
The last thing that could be heard from the evil yokai was a loud scream, the area starting to fill with a blinding amount of light...Nobody could really see what was happening…
Once the light calmed down, The floating island was back together again, though missing the large castle. The skies were far less dark, the stars from earlier still sparkled and shining with other stars.
Mai, Shinju, Great King Enma, and Kaira all returned to their normal selves, whereas Suserihime went back to being Kokoro, and Yeomao became Mao again.
"Is...Is it finally over?" Mao asked, looking around.
"Seems like it, and we've won too..." Great King Enma remarked.
But, something was off, something was preventing everyone from cheering for victory.
The four holy beast yokai were there, but there were parts of them that were starting to fade away with glimmers of golden dust. Noruka and Soruka were there, but knocked out cold. Huang Long was still there, in his humanoid form, but silent with a face of remorse on his face.
Quickly, everyone rushed over to their beast companions, Great King Enma rushing to the aid of Noruka and Kaira to Soruka.
"Seiryuu!" Kokoro yelled, kneeling down to the dragon's head and slowly petting him on the head. "W-What's happening!?"
"I'm afraid it's our time to go..." Seiryuu remarked weakly, looking up. "We wanted to make sure the human and yokai worlds wouldn't separate again...possibly even completely...but it came at a cost..."
"I thought...all of you were immortal or something..." Kokoro commented, trying to hold back her tears. "I was hoping...you'd teach me more about a lot of things...since I'm not all that smart..."
"That's a long story..." Seiryuu responded, giving a gentle smile. "However, you taught me something new...that being about just...going for it without any calculation...And I'm happy..."
"Byakko..." Mao weakly gasped, trying to hold the weak paw of the tiger gently.
"Yeomao...Mao...no...my son..." Byakko began to respond to his third child. "You and me both know I've messed up greatly in a lot of places...So I think this is for the better...in all honesty..."
"But...You can try to learn to better yourself, right?" Mao asked, looking very uneasy.
Byakko looked off to the side. "I'm at least glad I got to apologize to you...and Soruka...but sometimes you just don't have time to learn...and people will only remember you for your mistakes..."
The tiger gave a weakened smile. "Maybe my successor will be much better than me...Guide the next White Tiger of the West to being a better soul...for me and everyone else...please..."
"Genbu...are you still here?" Shinju asked, the great tortoise on her side, weakly turning her neck to face Shinju, giving a weak nod in response.
"I'm still here, but not for much long..." Genbu stated, shaking her head. "Even if someone else is lined up to take my title, I'm going to miss having it...It was a lot of fun..."
"And I'm going to miss you plenty too..." Shinju responded, being tearful. "You were like a mother to all of us...even to me...who lost my mom so fast..."
"I won't be gone, Shinju...None of us will..." Genbu spoke back very calmly. "Just...Think of it was a long trip we're all taking...Our day to meet again will come...Don't worry..."
"Suzaku..." Mai asked sweetly and gently, soon coming to the bird's side one last time.
"Mai..." Suzaku added in, looking up weakly.
"Things for us both...They started really rough..." Mai began, starting to tear up. "But...You've become such a great friend...I'm not sure what I'd do without you..."
"Heh...I see you as a friend as well..." Suzaku began to genuinely and kindly say. "...Someone who can get past my hard shell…is someone more powerful than I am..."
Mai hugged the bird by the head, starting to cry even louder. "I...I can't say goodbye to you now...It's too soon..."
Everyone's emotions were quite tearful, but thankfully, Noruka and Soruka were finally starting to wake up.
"You...You're still here..." Noruka questioned, trying to deny just how weak he was right now as he looked up to Great King Enma.
"We're...we're alive…!?" Soruka asked in shock, happily surprised to see they were still alive, no longer fused.
Though, the twins soon started to notice that their defusion and survival seemed to have come at a great cost. Their hearts almost stopped, starting to sink upon this realization coming to light.
"M-Ma!" Noruka yelled, trying to get up, but his body was unable to at the moment. He hastily started to try to get his body to work, insisting his brother to come on and hurry. They didn't have healing powers, but maybe they could try to save their mother, father, Seiryuu, and Genbu.
However, by time both twins got up, it was too late. The physical forms of the four holy beast yokai were gone, the beast's friends starting to tear up over the loss of the great yokai.
"Please...remember what I said.." The gentle voice of Genbu stated, Shinju feeling something trying to wipe her tears. "I'm not gone forever..."
In front of the dark haired girl was Genbu, now in her humanoid form, but transparent and spiritual. She got a wardrobe update as well, wearing the clothes of a Vietnamese noblewoman.
"G..Gen-" Shinju tried to say, only for the tortoise to shush her before she could finish.
"I no longer carry that title. My true name is that of Tuyet Hoa Le," Tuyet, formerly known as Genbu, corrected.
"So does that mean..." Kokoro asked. Before her was the spirit of Seiryuu, now in his humanoid form and wearing an outfit that a Japanese emperor would wear.
"Yes, my true name is Ryuunosuke Konpeki," Ryuunosuke corrected for his summoner. "All of our apologies for not telling you this information sooner. We didn't know when it would be a good time to say such things..."
"As for me, I'm none other than Jun Baeg-Saeg," Jun, the former White Tiger of the West reintroduced himself. He was in a spiritual state of his humanoid form, but now donning an outfit of Korean kings.
"Lastly, I'm truly known as Xia Houzhu," The spirit of the former vermilion bird finished, giving a smile for once as her humanoid spiritual form now wore the clothes of a Chinese empress.
"So...What's going to happen to you guys now?" Mai asked, still pretty tearful.
"We're going to ascend to the heavenly plain, and await for the day for someone to take our former titles," Xia explained, seeming a bit uneasy.
"Simply put, our time here is done..." Jun finished for his ex-wife.
Everyone was a bit silent, uneasy for what this would bring. Especially for Mao, he was extremely quiet, knowing that he had just lost his real father before his very eyes.
Huang Long finally stepped forward, looking uneasy. "Now, before we all go...do any of you have final parting words?"
There was a moment of silence, before a voice spoke up.
"Actually..." The voice of Soruka spoke up, followed behind by Noruka.
"We actually have more of a request..." Noruka stated, even for someone like him being a bit uneasy, Huang Long looking at the two, ready to listen.
"What is your request?" Huang Long asked sternly to the two twin yokai.
"If mother and father and the others ascend to the heavenly plain after their physical forms perish..." Soruka began to speak, looking a bit uneasy. His poor heart couldn't seem to finish his statement, leaving Noruka to finish for him.
"We wanted to ask if we could...you know..." Noruka began, even him proving to have a hard time saying this. "...Join them..."
Huang Long, as well as everyone else was speechless on the matter. There was a great amount of silence before someone finally decided to speak up.
"Listen, we caused a lot of trouble, we can't let someone like Tamamo no Mae fuse us like that again," Noruka began to reason for the decision of him and his brother. "None of us are sure if we can handle taking on something like this for a third time...we barely made it out the second time!"
"That and mother and father, they've only reunited with us for a few brief moments..." Soruka added with his brother to reason. "After over six thousand years...we need to make up that time...It's been far too long..."
There was another break of silence after those words. While all was tragic and heartbreaking, it was one thing for sure. It was all true.
"...Is that what you both truly wish for?" Huang Long asked one last time. "Because, if this is granted, there is no turning back or reversing it..."
"Yes, it truly is," Noruka answered with honesty.
"Second to that," Soruka agreed with his brother, one of the few things the two could really agree upon.
With a deep sigh, Huang Long approached the twin yokai, holding out his mighty blade. Nobody dared to look, even Huang Long had trouble looking at the action he was about to commit with his two hands. The great dragon king gave a heavy sigh, tightly gripping around the handle of his sword.
Nobody dared to look at the action that was done. The only thing anyone else could hear was a fall to the floating island's ground, shortly followed by yet another fall.
Soon, the twin's physical form faded, as if they were never there. However, their spirits were there, being the same glowing form much like the other four former holy beasts.
Aside from being now more spiritual projections, they largely stayed the same, though now donned more regal clothing to match more in suit with their mother and father.
Without another word, the two walked up to their mother and father, seeming to be quite happy right now.
Especially that of Xia, her avian heart was filled with nothing but true, absolute joy...Her children wouldn't be separated from her anymore for all of time. Some birds leave the nest forever...but some come back it seems…
"So...I think it's now for us to go..." Huang Long began, everyone trying to dry up their tears, to give one last smile before their newly formed friends would ascend to the heavens.
"You take care of both these world's natural good, alright?" Tuyet asked to her friend.
"Count on me to make sure both worlds are still beautiful, maybe even more beautiful than before!" Shinju responded to the question, trying to give a happy nod despite her tears.
"It's impossible to learn everything, but try your best to keep learning what will better you and those you care about," Ryuunosuke stated sincerely. "And if you can, please take care of my daughter and grandson."
"Of course, I'll make sure I learn all kinds of new ways to fight for those I care about!" Kokoro thanked, despite being a bit choking on her tears.
"I'm afraid this is our final goodbye..." Mao began, being a bit quiet and distant. "I'd never thought I'd find my true family...only to not know them for so long..."
"Try to remember what the old tortise said, it's like we're all going on a long trip," Jun tried to reassure as best he could.
"One day we'll get to hang out more!" Noruka reassured to his half brother as well.
"I could use a brother quieter than Noruka...so I hope we can meet again in the future..." Soruka gave a legit smile for once, Mao feeling slightly easier, giving a quiet and genuine "Thank you" to his father and half brothers.
"We'll...We'll still be friends, right?" Mai asked, trying her best to stay positive.
"Absolutely, we'll be friends forever, Mai," Xia answered back with a genuine smile on her face.
A path in the heavens made itself clear to the spiritual yokai, the group starting to walk up to it. Everyone gave their heartfelt goodbyes, trying to stay happy despite the face they would be far apart.
It was bittersweet, but so was life at times.
As the heavenly light faded, the group of teens found themselves in front of the Dreamy Kingdom Castle, being fully in tact like nothing had happened earlier. The sun was shining brightly, the sky and land bellow now full of color, a crowd that had come back, all applauding and cheering in front of the group of six.
They must've thought the fight against Tamamo no Mae was a new show, or maybe they saw that Great King Enma of the Yokai World was among them, or perhaps a mix of both. Either way, everyone smiled and waved, giving a bow.
"Mai!" Nyanmajo cheered, her and Sailornyan running up to the blonde girl.
"You and your friends did it, and you're all in one piece too!" Sailornyan happily said, beyond relieved and happy to be in the arms of the girl once more.
"Yeah…! I didn't think it was entirely possible..." Mai responded happily, hugging her feline friends.
"Now...Let's spend the rest of this vacation...together!" Mai finished, the other five nodding and following the blonde around.
Peace had truly returned for the teens, and nothing like enjoying their time at a grand resort sounded like the perfect way to celebrate their grand victory.
A few weeks had passed since the human and yokai worlds were brought back to peace after a great crisis.
Mai had since returned to her normal life in Sakura New Town. She woke up, she went to school, she had meals with her family, she had some quiet time to herself, she hung out with her friends of both the human and spectral variety when she had the free time.
Despite everything she did, she was just a normal girl living a normal life.
Outside was a beautiful day, the sun shining and not being unbearably cold as it was the last few legs of winter. It was a Sunday, meaning Mai had the day off, but she had somewhere to be.
Despite that, she took a moment to stop and smell the roses by getting out a journal she had gotten in America. It was a bit simple, hard bound with faux leather, and had a few small stickers put on by Mai to make it a bit more interesting.
"Let's see...Where's the next page..." Mai began, thumbing for something, before audibly saying "aha!"
What she found was a colorfully tipped vermilion feather, the same feather Xia left behind when the two first met. It was kept delicately within a laminated pouch used for bookmarks. The blonde got out a cutesy little pen and began jotting things down.
February 16th
Today is my birthday! I'm officially 16 years old! It felt for a while this day wouldn't come, but before I knew it, it was here! It's also my brother's birthday, but he has plans himself with his friends.
Hopefully my friends can find time today. I mean, Kokoro is a princess, Shinju probably has more training with Kaguyahime to do, Mao's probably dealing with his newly found yokai powers and moved to Sakura New Town to better understand them, Great King Enma is, well, the king of the Yokai World, and Kaira recently moved in with his biological father after reuniting.
As for me, I'm still me, my same ups and downs. While sometimes it's cooler my friends have all sorts of awesome powers and connections, I think I'm happy with just being me and being a normal girl at the end of the day.
Anyways, I have somewhere to be. I'll update you later!
Mai finished writing in her journal, alongside a few small doodles of things like her friends and herself, though represented by small, cute animals along the way. She quickly closed the journal and started to head out.
"Alright so my friends said they would meet me at..." Mai began to think aloud to herself, looking through her phone to see the message her friends sent. Though, something else seemded to have caught Mai's curiosity at a playground at the nearby park.
"C'mon! Let's play Three Kingdoms!" A rather energetic voice said, coming from a young human boy with dark crimson hair. By his side was a similar looking but far more shy acting boy with jet black hair.
"But how do you play that, zura?" A small white dog yokai with blue, swirly eyebrows asked.
"Well..." The black haired boy began, one of the yokai nearby looking a bit bored as the boy tried to explain.
"Sounds...A bit too complicaited, nya," A red cat yokai responded, snacking at a chocobar.
"Hush, I'm trying to listen, dani!" A third yokai scolded, being that of a rabbit in a yellow spacesuit.
Mai decided it was best she didn't get involved, but something was oddly familiar about the sight. She smiled at the sight of humans and yokai getting along together harmoniously.
The blonde girl kept on going, before coming up to a small cafe, only to be loudly greeted by her friends.
"Happy Birthday, Mai!" Kokoro shouted, hugging the blonde girl.
"We made sure we didn't forget, or try to make you think we forgot, either!" Shinju added in, both with the words and the hugging of Mai.
"Ah goodness, you guys..." Mai responded with a smile and light blush on her cheeks.
"Also feel free to go nuts guys," Great King Enma in his human alias of Daitaro spoke up with a grin. "All of this is going to be on me."
Kaira looked off. "Of course it is...But I don't mind..."
"Are you sure?" Mao asked, Great King Enma giving a nod.
"I love you all so much..." Mai spoke up, her heart filled with a truly great amount of happiness and love. "Thank you...Thank you all so much for being not only a friend to me...but to eachother...It means the world..."
Soon enough, everyone sat down at a table and started talking with another and ordering their drinks and food. It was the start of what would be a fantastic day, and one to start a series of equally as blessed, peaceful days.
For now, threats to the yokai world had finally stopped, and peace and harmony was in hand and hand for both realms. Evil was far from the scope for the time being, and for now, everyone was here to enjoy themselves and have fun.
It be with other humans, yokai, or both. Both could be friends, and friends forever.