All right, everyone! It's the start of the third plot arc! Who's excited? 8D
Thank you to everyone who reviewed. If you don't already have one, take a map to cookie island. We now have...umm...*glances around room* WE'RE GIVING TABLETS TO ALL THE TABLET-LESS PEOPLE! COME NOW AND GET YOURS! *shot*
And I just thought I need to explain something before you all read this chapter. If anyone thinks Ammy is out of character in this chapter, I'd just like to point out that she does seem a bit silly in Okami. She's not always serious. I don't really show her playful side that much, so I decided to do so in this chapter. Sorry if you don't like that part. (You'll have to deal with it for the next few chapters. It's a running gag. XD)
For the first part of the chapter, listen to mysterious power, rage of a god, or behind the veil from the Okami soundtrack. I think any of those will work well for it.
I don't own Okami, I only own Celia, yada yada yada, on with the story!
Chapter 25- Kamui, Oki, and girl talk
"Waka."
The voice pulled the prophet out of his thoughts and he turned around, putting on a fake smile. "Bonjour, Shamiterasu! May I ask, what are you doing here?"
The golden wolf frowned at Waka. "The group made it through Oni Island and defeated Ninetails."
"Well, that's very good news, is it not?" He tapped his flute to his chin and closed his eyes. "Or are you here to yell at me that I never gave a fair warning to Celia about the pit filled with bamboo shoots?"
"You said it, not me." Shamiterasu defended. "So why didn't you? Do you get a kick out of seeing her in near-death situations or something?"
Waka raised an eyebrow. "Get a kick out of it? Methinks someone has spent a little too much time watching Celia."
"Just answer the question!" She snapped, eyes narrowed in frustration.
The prophet let out a sigh. "I can warn them in riddles, but nothing can be directly stated unless they have seen the same things. Besides, Nippon isn't exactly in its finest state right now. Dangers are everywhere." He paused. "Although I'm starting to think bringing Celia here wasn't the best idea."
"What do you mean?" Shami stared at her father. "If you hadn't done it, Amatearsu and Issun would be dead by now!"
"I should have just sent her back after they defeated Orochi." Waka muttered, then sent a small glare at his daughter. "But then you pushed Celia at Issun, and I just couldn't do it. I had to at least wait and see what would happen." The prophet sighed again. "Perhaps I should just send her back now…"
"No!" Shamiterasu growled, startling Waka, although he quickly recovered.
"Celia has died once and come close too many times to count. I'm worried about the emotional stress it could be putting on her." He put his face in his hands. "She may have gotten along fine in Nippon at first, but she wasn't raised here. She's a ticking time bomb that can implode in on herself at any given moment."
Shamiterasu gave Waka a cold stare. "You have too little faith in her."
"And you have too much!" Waka retorted quickly before settling down. "Besides, Celia isn't the only problem. …She is gaining power.
Shamiterasu froze, her eyes widening in terror. "You mean…"
Waka nodded grimly. "She left behind a string of monsters to keep Nippon, and Amaterasu and Celia, occupied. But every second the time rift we made stays open and Celia is here, not just Nippon, but the universe is in danger."
The golden wolf closed her eyes, contemplating what to do. "They don't have much further to go until they reach Yami. Just let her stay. It won't cause too much harm."
You have no idea how quickly she is waking up, Waka thought, but finally nodded. "All right, she can stay. But just pray that they don't run into too many problems in Kamui.
(Time Skip: Oh, great. Plot. Fun.)
As soon as we made it back to dry land, we were met with the worst welcoming committee in existence.
"Bonjour, Amaterasu and Celia!" Waka greeted with a smile. "Been on a little fox hunt over on Oni Island, have you?" By the looks of it, I'd say you had a rather rough time." He observed.
"Yes, and we would love it if you'd just leave to let us get to the nearest origin mirror, thanks." I snapped irritably. I wasn't in the mood, especially after my near deaths. The least he could've done was warn me. I mean, he told me about Issun and Ammy. What, I wasn't important enough or something?
"Was that wily fox really so formidable?" He continued to tease us and laughed.
"Why you-! How can you say that?" Issun demanded, clearly infuriated with the prophet's antics as well. "Himiko's dead, you heartless swine!"
"Hm? Oh, I see…" Waka trailed. "Well, I never expected to see you acting like such a little whelp. After all, Queen Himiko was resigned to her fate. Even you knew that, did you not, Amaterasu?"
I stared at my friend with wide eyes. "Ammy?"
She stayed quiet, a sad expression on her face, before giving a small nod.
"Anyways," I swear, changing topics seemed to be a new hobby of Issun's or something. "You're the last person we wanna see. Now get outta my face, you two-bit prophet!"
"I have to admit, I agree with the idiot."
"Thank you…HEY!"
"My, my, what fabulous moods you two are in today." Waka commented dryly as he crossed his arms. "Your anger is enough to cloud the sky." As if on cue, the loud echo of thunder could be heard. "See, I told you. That thunder is coming from north of Shinshu Field. It no doubt heralds the coming storm."
"Fantastic. Now will you please move? These injuries really sting."
Waka just laughed and nodded. "Very well, ma cherie, mon etoile, it is time I bid you adieu. But first, let me leave you two with this-" He did his stupid pose thing while saying, "A shocking zap and it opens! Phew…feels good to get that one off my chest! And while I'm at it, I'll just make a little mark on your map."
Thank you, Nippon logic, for making it so he didn't have to yank the thing out of our inventory, and instead the circle just magically appeared on our map. But that didn't make everyone happy.
"Hey, who said you could do that?" Issun snapped.
"Did you not plan on going there anyway, ma cherie? You know…"
"WILL YOU PLEASE JUST LEAVE ALREADY? I WOULD LIKE TO SAVE YEN AND USE THE ORIGIN MIRROR INSTEAD OF USING A HOLY BONE, PLEASE K THANKS!"
Of course, like always, my rant was disregarded entirely. "In the direction of the evil that sprung from the wily fox's body?"
"Okay, whaddya up to this time, pretty boy?"
"Stalling us as long as possible to prolong our pain."
Waka just chuckled and pointed his flute at us while speaking. "Oh, it felt so good to prophesize after such a long break."
"You know what else would feel good? Standing on an origin mirror, IF YOU WOULD ONLY LET US!"
Waka smirked and rolled his eyes. "Now you see me, now you don't! Au revoir!"
"Thank the thirteen brush gods!"
(Time Skip: HEY, I THOUGHT I WAS ON MY LUNCH BREAK! JUST USE THE STUPID ~, DON'T FORCE ME TO WORK WHEN I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO! JEEZ!)
"All right," I heard Issun clap his hands "There's the catwalk statue, there's the giant sword, there's the lightning, and here are the two well-rested wolves and a poncle. Can we go now?"
I may or may not have suggested we take a short nap. Considering it was still nighttime when we woke up, it was either a very quick one or we slept through the entire day. I'd say it was the latter, judging by how well-rested we all were. Issun may have been frustrated by the stalling, but I'll never complain about a few more hours of sleep.
"No. We still need to collect all the treasure chests up there, if there are any." I said with an innocent look and started to climb up the wall. I looked around. Everything looked normal enough, so I just ran over to the left. I planned to circle around and end at the dome with the sword.
"Demon gate." Ammy informed from behind me. I nodded, and we both ran in. Just a couple imps. "I'll get the blue."
"And I'll take the red!" I powerslashed the imp twice, destroying its shield and weapon. One hit was all it took to bring the monster down, demon fang and all. I did the exact same to the next red imp that came my way, grinning broadly. If only we had those glaives back in the beginning! Admittedly the last imp I faced, a blue one, took two hits, but still, compared to my first weapon, this was cake!
The fight rewarded us with thirty praise and bunnies to feed, which added 8 more to that. Since everything else was pretty normal, I'll spare you the boring details. The gist of it is we got treasures, we killed imps, and we got a total of 138 praise while doing it. After that, it was time for Issun's comments on the dome with a sword sticking out of it.
"This has been here for ages, but…nobody knows what it's for. There are many things like that in Nippon. No one knows when they were built or even who build them…but I suppose people have more important things to think about."
And this concludes another thrilling episode of Comments with Issun.
"So, who wants to use thunderstorm?" Ammy asked.
"Dibs!" I shouted and commenced to use said brush technique on the sword. The entire dome was engulfed in electricity before the top began to rotate and the door opened up.
"Let's go."
"Wait," Issun stopped us. "Do you two know where this hole leads to?"
"No clue!"
"You know, there was a foul smoke rising from Ninetails which flew off to the northern lands. That's what's waitin' for us at the other side of this tunnel."
"And now we know."
"Anyway, what's up with that creepy lightning?"
"How is it creepy? It's been going on for twenty four hours? That would be called Nippon logic. You obviously didn't get the memo."
I swear, I could just feel Issun glaring at me. "Well, I've got a bad feeling about this!"
"And no one cares. Now let's just go."
(Time Skip: Who knows how long later…c'mon, they're traveling all the way to the north by foot. It's gonna take a while.)
"Brrr…is it cold here or what?"
I shook my fur, which had already acquired a good amount of snow in the short time we left the tunnel. "Amen to that. At least Ammy and I have fur." Even though I said that, I still shivered afterwards.
"How could anywhere be so darn cold? I know Kamui's the northernmost part of Nippon, but c'mon! I don't remember it ever snowing this hard before!"
"What is this, the next ice age?" I complained, stepping closer to Ammy for warmth.
"Listen, Silver. I'm gonna hunker down in this fur coat of yours. You two try to find us some shelter from this nasty blizzard!"
"Of course. Leave all the work to us. It's not like we care at all." I muttered, then felt Ammy nudge my shoulder.
"Come on. I'm sure we'll get somewhere if we just follow this path." She suggested gently. We padded through the blizzard, side-by-side to keep in as much body heat as we could, before coming to a wide-open area with a house on the other side.
"Shelter!" I cheered as I made a run for it. Unfortunately for me, a battle barrier went up and a monster that looked like it belonged I Hawaii rather than Kamui appeared. "Oh, come on!"
"They're just like imps or guardians." Issun informed. "Figure out which is which and you'll be fine!"
I blinked. "Wow. Useful information. Thanks." I rushed forwards and attacked the group of monsters, and after two hits, I figured the smaller ones were the green imps and the two with signs on their backs were the reds, judging by how they blocked my attacks. I powerslashed their signs, leaving them both vulnerable. After that, the battle was just like the old ones I used to have with imps, the only difference being galestorm was the floral finisher instead of powerslash. It felt almost nostalgic. And hey, the barrier even kept the blizzard at bay!
"Are you alright?" Ammy asked as soon as the fight ended. I must've accidentally left her behind
"Piece of cake!" I smiled. "Now c'mon! Let's go into that house already! I'm freezing my tail off out here!"
(Time Skip: Inside the house… [Because apparently a scene transition is needed for this.])
"Brrrr!" Issun jumped out of my fur and right next to the fire in the middle of the house. "Look! Fire! Fire! Guess we're not gonna freeze after all!"
I heard a soft noise and looked across the room, eyes widening at what I saw. A person slowly stood up, glaring coldly at us through his mask. He unsheathed his sword, causing both me and Ammy to jump up and growl.
"How? What's your problem, you two?" Issun questioned. "I'm allowed to relax in front of the fire, ain't I?" The man mumbled something under his breath, finally causing Issun to turn around and figure out exactly what our problem was. "Yikes!" He stopped bouncing. "You…?"
The man just pointed his sword at us and we all started to circle around the fire. When he reached the door, he relaxed, tilted his head towards the exit, and dashed outside.
"You see that? I'm not talking about that silly mask. I mean his sword! That puppy's a bona fide masterpiece!"
"I don't care how good his sword is; I just care about following him. If it's a fight he wants, it's a fight he'll get!" I said with a growl.
Sure enough, waiting for us at the other side of the area was the man, holding his sword threateningly.
"Looks like he means business!" Issun observed. The only response he got was three torches lighting up and an inhuman growl, which signaled the battle barrier and beginning of the fight.
Ammy and I both attacked once he was in range, backing off right before he tried to counter. He jumped over to us again, but before we could escape, a blast of ice shot out of his sword. All I can say is, thank Yomigami for godhood. Five knives appeared out of nowhere and we quickly poewrslashed them all, sending them flying back at their owner, who was flung to the ground, stunned. Ammy and I attacked again, but I could tell it wasn't doing much, judging by how much power he put into his next slice, which we barely avoided. On the next chance I got, I used fire, but still, nothing. I saw Ammy use a different brush technique, causing mist to appear all around the area, and I would've slapped myself, had I not been a wolf. How did I forget all about veil of mist?
With two wolves working together to attack at what any onlooker would think of as super speed, the damage we dealt was a lot more, and it was pretty easy to see. The man tried to use an ice blast again, but we were too far away for it to do anything to us. He stupidly tried to attack with daggers again, which were just repelled and served to damage him. We didn't do as much as last time, and he ended up hitting Ammy, but we still had godhood, so she was perfectly fine.
With a couple more hits, we thought the fight was over. But apparently, we were far from it. The man did a backflip, and when he landed, he was a wolf. Confusing and logic-defying? Yes. But not only were we in Nippon, we were still in the middle of a battle, so I had to push the questions in my mind aside for the time being. With yet another growl, the man-turned-wolf made three huge ice spikes appear out of nowhere. Powerslashing them didn't stun him, unfortunately, but at least we weren't hurt.
Of course, right when I was thankful for that, the wolf charged up an attack and charged at us three times, like the canine warriors did. We both dodged the first time, I was hit the second, and Ammy the third. The thing did two solar units of damage, too. Ouch. He wasn't exactly stunned, more so just out of breath, but that didn't mean we took the opening to attack for granted. Once he jumped away from us, he prepared to do the same attack, but we dealt with it like we did with all other canines- a simple powerslash. That didn't seem to teach him his lesson, considering he tried- and failed- to do it again. After that, common sense must've kicked in, because he did try something different. Sadly for him, we still knew that ice spikes could be powerslashed. He finally got a bit more creative, making two clones of himself to join in the fight. Still, the magical poewrslash solves everything, and for that, we are eternally grateful to Tachigami.
Something I wasn't so grateful for: The fact that ink is limited.
"Oooooh crap!" I exclaimed before getting utterly pwnd by the charge attack. Why Ammy didn't prevent it, I'll never know. I just assume she wanted me to learn my lesson: Never abuse veil of mist and poewrslash. It will bit you in the butt in twenty seconds flat. "Ow." I grumbled, forcing myself to my feet. I'm not even sure how, but while I was down, Ammy somehow stunned the wolf and ended the battle, basically taking all the glory for herself. Yeah, that made me real happy.
"Not bad, white and silver ones." The man-turned-wolf now turned man again praised. "I am Oki of the Oina tribe." He turned towards us, and I suddenly felt my heart rate speed up. His hair was epic, red on top but turning to black below the ears of his mask, his skin was dark, almost looking like he had a tan, (Although how he managed to get one in Kamui, only the brush gods know.) he wore a demon fang as a necklace, (I had a feeling he didn't get it by trading treasure.) and he wore just a t-shirt and a vest, but he didn't seem cold in the least. Even his mask, which I thought looked weird at first, was now pretty cool. There was only one work I could think of to describe him. Hot. Even in wolf form, my face burned at the thought, and I forced my ears to stay straight up and not flatten in embarrassment. He was also a wolf. I was pretty sure he knew that was the equivalent of a blush.
"You are obviously not of our tribe." Oki stated calmly, walking closer to us, then pointing his sword at us. "And I can see that you are no mere wolves, either. What names do you go by?"
Issun jumped from my nose to Oki's sword. "These two are Amaterasu and Sela, the great saviors of Nippon!"
"At this point, I've given up all hope of you ever pronouncing my name correctly." I growled softly at Issun, then looked up at Oki. "She's Ammy, I'm Celia. The reason we don't seem like normal wolves is because she's a goddess and I'm a human currently stuck as a wolf." I said the last part a little sheepishly, suddenly embarrassed about the fact in front of him, an Oina. He just nodded, and I relaxed a little.
"But enough about us." Issun interrupted. "Why'd you hafta go and attack us? And what are you doing with that sword in the first place?"
"Oh, I see you have a poncle with you." Oki noted nonchalantly and lifted up his sword a little to see him better. "Wait. Is that Issun?" He lowered his sword and pushed it a little closer to us, as if offering us our little companion back. "I haven't seen you around in ages. Must be nice to be able to roam Nippon on the backs of a couple wolves, huh? I heard you got tired of painting and ran from this land in disgust about a year ago. So why did you come back? Did you have second thoughts?"
Issun jumped back on to my head angrily. "Why you..!"
"I don't know who you three think you are, but you're nothing like the legendary Shiranui, Shamiterasu, and the pint-sized warrior!"
"Bah! Put a cork in it, will ya? Why don't you start by telling us why you have that sword!"
"This sword?" I had a feeling Oki was raising an eyebrow behind his mask. "I have this sword because the time to wield it has come."
"What?"
"As you well know, Kamui is a harsh land covered in snow and ice." He began. "And the monsters that infest the region only make our life worse. Yet we, the Oina tribe, have managed to survive to this day. It is because the sacred Ezofuji mountains have watched over us. However, our mothers and protectors, our most sacred of mountains, have been taken over by those demons! Yes, I speak of the twin demons, Lechku and Nechku. They had been imprisoned at the twin summits of Ezofuji. But they suddenly broke free one day and began their deadly assault upon the land of Kamui. The snow storms grew more intense, transforming Kamui into a frozen wasteland."
"Those two are back?" Issun gasped, obviously shocked.
"No. They're just taking a vacation from their imprisonment." I replied sarcastically.
"Many of our tribe have been killed by their relentless attacks." Oki informed us. "It was as if they roamed our land in search of something. But they mercilessly slaughtered all the Oina they came across. The good earth is losing its power and its soul. Without these gifts of the gods, Kamui will become uninhabitable. I must slay those wretched demons now, before it is too late!"
"What about the villagers?" Issun questioned in a panicked tone.
Oki looked at us. "They should be battling the cold that blasts down from Ezofuji." He then focused his attention on the path behind him. "After all, our village lies at their base. It is only a matter of time before Kamui becomes an icy tomb."
"An icy tomb?"
"That is what he just said."
"Shut up." Issun turned his attention from me to Oki. "Then what're ya doing out here with that guardian sword? Why did you bring it out of the village?"
Oki raised said object in the air."Did I not say the time to use the sword has come? You've heard of the prophecy of salvation, have you not?"
"He's Issun. Even if he has, he's probably forgotten it by now."
"Hey!"
Oki was kind enough to repeat it to us. "'The wall of ice shall shatter and open the way to the heavens when Kutone, the guardian sword, glows silver.'" He lowered his weapon. "It means that when this sword glows silver, ridding the village of this abominable blizzard will be child's play!"
"The sword's gonna start glowing?"
"Oh my Nuregami, he paid attention."
"I hate you."
"Love ya too, bug boy."
Oki just ignored our bickering. "Yes, but Kutone will not wake until it has tasted more monster blood. So I will continue slaying the foul beasts wherever they may be, until Kutone lights our way to victory!" And then the Oina man decided to switch topics. "It appears the blizzard has lightened a bit. I don't know when the demons will went the next blizzard, but now would be your best chance to flee to the village."
"Wait a sec, Oki…" Issun trailed. "I can't believe the chief let you take that sword. I mean, he tanned my hide once for just touching the darn thing!"
"I already told you. The time to wield it has come." Oki replied.
"Oh, hey. It's daytime." I observed bluntly. "Let's get going now. See ya later, Oki!" And with that, we ran down the path and turned right to avoid the cursed zone, quickly running into an old face.
"Oh, it's you again, poochies!"
Yup. Yoichi.
"Hey! Aren't you…? I knew it! You're that master bowman. The apple guy!" Doesn't Issun give out the greatest nicknames? "What're ya doin' all the way out here in this nasty blizzard?"
"Well, y'see, I've come to realize something since setting off my travels."
"AKA running away from the bridge incident."
"It's my bow. It seems to bring about misfortune. So I decided to go far away where I couldn't cause any trouble. And what do you know, I ended up all the way up here in the north! Anyways poochies, why not have a bite to eat and relax a bit?" He tossed us an apple, which I quickly started nomming on while Ammy used thunderstorm on one of Yoichi's arrows. This somehow caused it to break through solid rock, revealing a guardian sapling. Yoichi began talking again, but I was too focused on eating to pay attention to his words until we got fifty praise out of nowhere. Does that make me a bad person?
"All this time I've been saying I wanted to do bit things, but I was really just traveling so I could have an easy life. Now I see there's no such things as an easy path. Not when you dedicate yourself to mastering one thing. The gods have shown me my true path! The path of archery!"
"So what're you gonna do now?" Issun questioned.
"The time's come for me to stop being so whimsical. My real journey starts here and now! We must have some kind of strange link between us. It's only when you three are around that the gods show their hand!" That would be because Ammy is a god… "I'll never forget any of you. If we ever meet again, let's share a few apples together! Farewell, my friends!" And then he ran off for the last time. Straight into the cursed zone.
Whoops?
"The apple guy's gone…" Issun announced like we didn't just see it. "Maybe he's found his reason to live."
"He realizes he's not going to find it in the cursed zone, right?"
"If only all of us could do that…"
"If you wanna charge into there, be my guest."
"Silver, quit ruining the moment."
"It's Yoichi's fault."
Ammy pulled us out of our argument by blooming the guardian sapling. Curse those trees and their hypnotizing prettiness. Our friend then fed a few sheep, and we were headed right, walking around a demon scroll and feeding foxes before running into a couple more familiar faces.
"Huh? Is that you, doggies?" Kokari, now wearing blue and orange clothes that looked more suited to the environment, asked, or rather, exclaimed in shock. Take your pick. "Remember me? We played together back in Agata Forest."
"Hello, Kokari." I greeted with a smile.
Issun was just as shocked as the boy. "Kokari? Is that you?"
"I just said his name. Yes, that is him."
"Silver, shut it. Anyway, how'd you get all the way out here?"
"I wanted to become a real man like Susano."
"Susano is not a man. He's a walking, talking jug of sake."
"So I took my dad's fishing pole and set out on an epic journey." Epic? "You know, I liked the river, but it's nothing like the vast sea. It makes me realize just how insignificant my life was."
"Wow. You're no longer that crybaby we met back in Agata Forest! Now that I think about it, you look more grown-up, too!" Issun commented.
Kokari's face lit up instantly. "You really think so? I've seen a lot of Nippon's great outdoors, but the vast and icy sea of Kamui is a far harsher environment than anywhere else."
"Well, yeah. I mean, there's been blizzards 24/7."
"If I could prove myself equal to the harsh wilderness here, maybe I could become a real man like Susano."
"Real walking, talking jug of sake." Of course, I was just ignored, or rather, not even heard, and Kokari resumed fishing.
"There he is again, getting' back to nature with his fishing pole…and without a line or bait to boot." Issun said.
"Hey, you encouraged the kid." I reminded him.
"Now I know why my dad cherished this pole. When I hold it in my hands, I hear Mother Nature herself speak! Hey, doggies. How about we do some fishing? Just like old times! I wanna show you what I can do now!"
I shook my head. "Sorry, Kokari, but not now. We have a lot of stuff to do before another blizzard hits." The explanation may have fallen on deaf ears, but it just felt better to say it, anyways. And besides, he saw the earlier gesture I made, which was enough.
"Huh? Going already?" Kokari tilted his head. "Well, come on back if you change your mind!"
"I'm back."
I nearly jumped out of my fur at the sound of Ammy's voice. "You were gone?"
She glanced backwards. "Cranes."
"Oh."
"C'mon, you two! Let's get going!" Issun urged. "And I think I see a treasure chest peaking out of the snow over there!"
"How is anyone's eyesight that well?" I questioned as I ran over and started digging up said chest. There was a stray bead inside. When I looked down the path we were going on, I smirked. "Dojo! Let's go!"
(Time Skip: Inside the dojo…am I seriously needed for this?)
"Look who's here! Greets my little wolf friends!" The Onigiri Sensei said with a smile…at least, I assume he was smiling. With a face like that, you can never really tell.
"What the? Not you again?"
"Issun. We're in a dojo. What did you expect?"
"C'mon! Can't he just pick a place to run his dojo and stick with in?"
"I've already explained myself, no? Be it a lone isle among the waves or the most frigid mountain peak, I forge a warrior's path throughout the land."
"Wow, you are one serious dude. And here I thought you were laid back. Your face really changes when you get down to business!"
"You couldn't tell by the head spin thing?"
"What has brought you two here?" He questioned. "Do you once again seek my tutelage in the fighting arts?" Ammy and I looked at the list of things to learn.
"How much yen do we have, Issun?" I asked.
He took a second to reply. "About 700,000."
"Dang. Not buying tools really pays off."
Ammy pointed with her snout to the first thing on the list. "Hardhead sounds useful."
"Break objects that you couldn't before by tackling them. 10,000 yen."
I nodded. "That one goes on the list We're not getting fleetfoot…or counterdodge, apparently…"
"What about holy falcon?" Issun inquired.
"Damaging enemies with a double jump sounds cool, but it's 30,000 yen."
"We'll decide on that later." Ammy said.
"All right. Five winds sounds useful…"
"You haven't even learned spirit storm yet." Issun pointed out.
"We can do that, then learn spirit Armageddon."
I frowned. "But it's 30,000."
"We have 700,000 yen."
"…True."
"What about four shears?" Issun asked.
"50,000. I don't care how much yen we have. No." If I was human, I would've crossed my arms. "And we don't need the next three, either."
"Fine then." Issun huffed, clearly irritated. "The last two are golden fury and brown rage."
I went into little kid mode. "Can we get golden fury? Pleeease!" I begged Ammy, giving her arguably the biggest puppy dog eyes in history.
My friend sighed. "How much will the total be?"
I swear, that was the fastest I'd ever done math in my head. "167k without holy falcon, 197k with."
"Well, we have 700,000…" Ammy trailed.
I instantly glomped her. "Thank you!"
(Time Skip: I'm saving you people from reading boring, redundant crap. Be thankful.)
"That…was disgusting." I could feel Issun shiver from on top of my head.
I just laughed. "Hey, whatever gets us demon fangs. At least I didn't beg to get brown rage."
"Oh dear Shiranui…" Issun groaned.
She probably would've denied it, but I saw a smile on Ammy's face as she used a torch near Yoichi's house to melt the ice around a treasure chest. It was obvious she was trying not to laugh as well.
"What's that?" Her expression suddenly turned serious. She pointed with her tail to a mound of snow that seemed to be moving. I cautiously moved forward and sniffed it, only to be thrown onto my back as the mound of snow emerged, revealing itself to be a monster.
"Igloo turtle!" Issun gasped as a battle barrier went up around us.
"Can you be a useful little poncle and tell us how to kill this thing?" I requested, getting into a fighting stance.
I felt Issun glaring at me. "Attack it then use inferno when it's stunned."
Ammy sprung towards the enemy and I just watched in awe as she ran around the thing, not even giving it a chance to attack with how frequently she stabbed it with her glaive. It was quickly stunned, which was when she used the blazing fire on its tail against it, revealing its weak spot, like a bud ogre. She took away what appeared to be a good chunk of its health before it got back up.
"Little help over here?" She requested.
I shook my head and ran to my friend's side. "Sorry!" Together, it took us even less time to kick igloo turtle butt and get three demon fangs while doing it.
As soon as the barrier disappeared and we began walking again, my mind drifted to Oki. I just couldn't help it. He was so cute! And being able to turn into a wolf at will? That just made him five times cooler. He was really good at fighting. I'm not even sure if I could've beaten him without Ammy's help. Everything about him just seemed…perfect.
"Nippon-to-Celia."
"Huh?" I jumped.
Ammy rolled her eyes. "You're zoning out."
"Am not." I growled and narrowed my eyes.
"I just went into a demon gate and you didn't go in with me."
I blinked. "I didn't?"
"Issun, go explore the hole over there." Ammy suggested. Issun chuckled, and I gave him a nice wolf spit bath before sending him off. My friend gave one last glance at the hole before looking at me and smirking. I didn't like the glint in her eyes at all.
"Um…can I help you?"
"You have a crush on Oki."
My jaw dropped, my ears flattened, and my eyes widened. "What? N-no way! I-I mean, he's cool, but-"
Ammy cut me off. "Oh, calm down. Just between you and me," She looked around one more time and lowered her voice. "You aren't the only one."
I stared at her. "Are you serious?" She just nodded. "Dang, Ammy. I'm the teenage girl here, not you!" I laughed.
My friend smiled sheepishly. "I have my moments."
"Silver!" Issun's voice echoed as the poncle bounced over to us. "You jinxed us back on Oni Island! There's another blockhead! And it's got ten weak points! Ten!"
"Mhm. That's nice." I said absentmindedly. "Ammy, that's just hilarious…yet awesome."
If she were a human, she would've been blushing. "Can we change the topic now? This is awkward. "
"No." I said firmly and started walking back to the main path. "You. Me. Girl talk. You will have fun."
"Girl talk?" Issun groaned. "Just kill me now. I should've stayed back in that hole. Dealing with Blockhead Grande would've been less painful."
"Well, boo hoo. Your loss." I pushed a fish feedbag over to a bear. "So…Oki."
"Oki?" Issun exclaimed. "It's official. I died and didn't make it to the Celestial Plain."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Oki." Ammy said flatly, clearly unsure of what to say next. "Um…he's cute…?" She looked away from me and powerslashed a rock.
I rolled my eyes. If I wanted to have a girly discussion with Ammy, it seemed I was going to have to take the first step. A veeery big first step. "Definitely! Especially his hair!"
Ammy gave a tiny smile after she bloomed a clover. "The different colors are pretty cool…"
"Pretty cool?" I raised an eyebrow. "C'mon! It's epic and you know it!"
She stared at the ground for a few seconds before locking gazes with me, a huge grin on her face. "All right, I'll agree. It's awesome."
I ran down the path with my friend by my side. "Seriously, how does he do that? Is it natural, or does he dye it or something?"
"It's natural." Issun answered bluntly. "All Oina's hair is the same color as their wolf fur."
"Oh." I paused before dashing into a devil gate. "Well, that just makes it better! And how does it get all spiky like that?"
"Again, natural." Our poncle's patience seemed to be wearing thin.
"You're making me with I was an Oina." Ammy commented as she powerslashed the monsters in front of us.
I used the same brush technique, leaving the monsters weaponless. "You're a goddess! And besides, you probably have an awesome-looking human form, too. I'm just a regular old fourteen-year-old girl." I started spamming one of the monsters with attacks.
Ammy went after the other. "You have highlights the same color as your fur. That has to count for something, right?"
I gave a small laugh. "Maybe, but unless we're real Oina, actually dating Oki would technically be considered bestiality." I swished my tail and got the floral finisher for my monster.
An igloo turtle popped out of the ground, and Ammy and I lunged at it, attacking it mercilessly with our glaives while we continued our conversation.
"As long as we have a wolf and a human form, I think we'd be fine." Ammy replied with a wolfish shrug, using inferno on the stunned enemy.
I quickly got to work on the monster's weak point. "Yeah, but if it's between you and me, you'd win, hands down."
"Aww, why the low self-esteem?" My friend questioned as she joined in.
"I think we've had a conversation similar to this before. Goddess. Human. No competition." I pointed out, using fireburst on the monster's dead body.
"You don't think you could win with personality?" Ammy jumped onto the frozen surface of the river.
"Nah," I followed her and we walked, or rather, slid across the ice and into a cave. "With your looks, you'd probably have him wrapped around your finger in an instant." I used a torch on the wall to unfreeze a chest and get a vengeance slip before we jumped across a gap to a ledge with another chest. We obtained a scroll titled Tribe of the Moon, but ignored it in the good name of girl talk.
"You've never even seen me in human form." Ammy pointed out as she landed on another ledge and melted an ice-covered chest, earning us a large exorcism slip. "I've never even seen myself in human form…that I can remember, anyways."
I double jumped across the gap to join her. "It's an educated guess. The point is, between us, Oki would totally choose you."
Ammy laughed as she gave a bear at the end of the path some food. "You think so?"
I turned around and began to backtrack to the beginning of the gap. "In fifteen minutes can Geico save you fifty percent or more on car insurance?" I was answered by silence and a confused stare. "That means yes, I do." I laughed and went down the path to the right, blooming a clover as I went along.
"We would probably have to wear masks, though." Ammy said.
I fed the bear at the end of the path and watched as my friend found a stray bead in a frozen chest. "Wouldn't it be annoying to have one on 24/7? How would you eat? How could you sleep? What if you wanted to make out with your boyfriend or something?" I couldn't stop myself from giggling at the third thing I said. And it must've been contagious, because Ammy joined in.
"Oina don't wear their masks all the time." Issun told us. His tone was flat. "When they're alone or with their family, mate, or very close friends, they normally have their mask off."
"See? You'd be able to kiss him if you wanted to." Ammy said jokingly.
"No, I lose, remember?" I jumped out of the cave entrance and onto the ice, almost falling down in the process.
The wolf goddess took a second to respond. "Who ever said we can't both have him?"
I opened my mouth to reply, but Issun cut me off. "An Oina can only have one mate. Besides, Oki's better than that."
"Better than that?" I questioned and walked past Ammy, who was busy feeding some rabbits. "You should be the last one talking like that, bug boy. As long as it's female, an intelligent life form, and has a pulse, you'll flirt with it." I jumped up a small frozen waterfall and fed the cranes that were there. "And I highly doubt poncles are allowed to have more than one 'mate'." I waited for a reply as I opened up a chest and grabbed some amethyst tassles. It never came. "Exactly."
"Celia, Issun, are you ready to go?" Ammy asked from the bottom of the waterfall.
"Yeah! Just a sec!" I called down. I backed up to the cliff wall, took a deep breath, and started running. I leaped off the edge and hit the ice hard. The little amount of friction there was did nothing to stop me as I slid all the way to the snow. "Woo!" I cheered with a huge smile. "That was awesome!"
Ammy laughed as she made her way over to me. "Why'd you leave?" She questioned, a small pout in her tone. Oh, great. Apparently my mood swings were contagious. "That conversation was fun."
I smirked. "Don't worry. We'll have another one later." I assured my friend. "Hey, wanna upgrade stuff before we go to the Oina Village? We got a crapton of praise."
She nodded. "So, what do you want to upgrade?"
I took a second to think. "We should just ignore the purse. We'll never fill the one we've got. Let's do astral pouch once for safety, the rest solar energy." Ammy agreed and said attributes were upgraded. The fact that we were only two praise away from another solar unit was infuriating, but my friend reminded me we'd find animals in the village, and with that for encouragement, we ran full-speed for said area.
All right! Behold, another author's note at the bottom of the chapter! *shot*
I just felt like I need to say this. No, I do not support OkixAmmy. I like WakaxAmmy, thank you. I just wanted Celia to have someone to senselessly babble with. XD
And everyone, be looking forward to next week! There'll be a double update! 8D
