Chapter 24: the "Rare" one.
"Seriously?" Zoey said as she and Nate walked to the latter's home, "you two did all that, and I missed it?"
"Well, we were up against an exorcist, and you don't have any yokai," Nate chuckled.
"That one be the case much longer," Zoey raised her wrist, showing off a black and blue yokai watch.
"How did you get that anyway?" her friend asked.
A sweat dropped down the bespectacled girl's face, "story for another time."
As they came up to Nate's porch, they noticed something odd. Slithering across it, was a chubby, yellow, snake like creature with a pink heart on it's tale and a large four leaf clover on its head, it turned to them saying in a high pitched voice, "Noko!"
"What the… is this some kind of yokai?" the boy wondered.
"Awe, it's cute!" Zoey said, kneeling to get a closer look, "come'ere little guy, I won't hurt'cha!"
"Noko!" the creature said slithering towards her, licking her hand.
"Guess it can't talk," Nate said. It seemed reasonable, sure he'd a decent number of yokai he knew were animals in body, but there was nothing ruling out that some just remain animals when they die.
"Hmm, well what should I call you," Zoey wondered.
"Noko!" the snake yokai replied.
"Well, that seems like the only thing he can say," the male watch user said.
"What, we going off pokemon logic?" his friend grumbled, she thought to herself taking a close look at the yokai, "I've got it! Clover!"
"Noko!" the yokai gave an excited cheer.
"Guess he likes it," Nate said opening the door, "come on, let's show Damona."
The boy walked in, followed by Zoey holding the newly dubbed, Clover. The group heard clanging from another room, followed by screaming, and what sounded like a small explosion, regardless of what they were hearing, Damona, with a pot on her head and broom in hand, frantically opened the living room door, flew through in a panic, and slammed it shut.
"Nate!" she screamed, "we have a situatiooooooonnnn-AHHH!"
Nate noticed that she seemed to be staring at Zoey, more specifically, the yokai she held in her arms.
Still screaming, Damona grabbed Clover and threw him out the front door, slamming it shut afterward.
"Clover!" Zoey yelled.
"Damona, what is up with you?" Nate asked his undead fiance.
"W-what's u-up with me? Why don't you j-just take a look!" the half demon's eye twitched, she pointed at the living room door. From the otherside Nate could faintly hear noise, "Noko! Noko! Noko!"
Nate carefully creaked the door open, and his eyes widened. All over the living room and kitchen, were at least 30 exact copies of Clover, each one saying, "Noko!"
"What are those things?" Nate asked quietly shutting the door.
"They're called Noko," Damona said showing the page on her yokaI-pad.
Noko: E rank
Slippery
"Read it and weap!" she handed the device to her fiance, who read aloud, "Noko, the lucky snake yokai. Originally thought to be extremely rare, it was recently discovered they reproduce at an alarming rate, if left unattended they could easily take over a small residential area."
"Ugh, I hate those things, they're all slimy and lick nearly everything," Damoan shivered.
"Really, I think they're cute," Zoey said examine the chubby snakes.
"CUTE!?" Damona held Zoey by the collar, "those things are pests! When I was little, a whole bunch of them got into Oni Castle, living in the walls, eating any thing they could, by the time we figured out they were there, there were hundreds! So… much… licking."
"Okay, you've got problems, girl," Zoey said.
"How long do you think they've been here?" Nate asked.
"There are exactly 37 of them, not counting the one I threw out, so they've likely only been here a few days, must have smelled the food and noticed no one was here," the half demon replied.
"Wait you counted?" Zoey asked though she was not answered.
"We have to get every last one, if even one is left this could all start over!" Damona said as she joined Nate in peaking at the infestation of snakes, "we have to be very qui-"
"HEY GUYS, I'M BACK!" Jibanyan called as he opened the front door, drawing the attention of every Noko in the room. As they all turned head toward the door, Nate and Damona's pupils shrunk.
Damona grabbed the back of her Fiance's shirt, and yelled, "Run!"
She pulled him back and ran out through the front door, followed by Zoey carrying a confused Jibanyan, just as a tidal wave of Noko burst through the living room door, following them outside. Now in the street, they were quickly surrounded.
"Not good, not good, not good," Damona said frantically as the Noko began to close in. She covered her hands in her purple aura and began blasting them with her ice, keeping them at bay.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Zoey asked, though her words fell silent as Jibanyan joined her, clawing at the snakes.
Unfortunately, there were too many and the noko were too fast for either of them to do much damage. One Noko got really close to Damona and licked her straight up the face.
"Ew, ew, ew, ew!" Damona screamed in response, knocking the snake off of her. She began swirling her aura frantically, "SHINY CHAOS!"
An orb of her purple aura was launched toward the hoard of noko, most moved out of the way, but three in the back were not as lucky. When the soultimate hit, a flash of white light blinded everyone. When it faded a purple mass was left in the Nokos' place.
"Uh…" everyone collectively said.
"That's never happened before," the demon princess said in confusion. Confusion that turned to fear when the purple blob began moving. The mass began to shift, almost slithering. From it, three heads that resembled the noko, yet without their clovers, rose from it, all three connected at the bottom of the neck, attached to which were two, chubby little arms with four fingers each.
"Damona… what did you do?" Nate asked in a quiet panic.
"I have no idea!" the yuki-onna replied.
The head on the left opened its mouth letting out a long purple tongue. The head on the right did the same a few seconds later. Finally, the middle mouth opened, only instead of a tongue, was a huge, beety, red eye that starred the group down.
"Slimamander!" the beast screeched through all three mouths, "I see you!"
Slimamander: A rank
Shady
The beast began using its arms to drag itself forward, all three of its mouths sprouted tongues that began to go towards Damona.
"Oh no you don't!" the oni princess said blasting tongue after tongue, but it seemed every tiem they just came back. One latched itself onto Damona's arm, she screamed and blasted it off with her free hand, which another tongue instantly went for, "What the infinite inferno is this thing!"
"Slimamander!" Nate said reading form the yokaI-pad, "it says that when three Noko are exposed to demonic energy at the same time, their bodies can combine into a three headed, fire-breathing, Snake-like monster!"
"Now ya tell me!" Damon yelled just before Slimamander grabbed both her arms pulling them apart to prevent her from attacking, "these tongues have surprisingly strong grip!"
The third mouth opened and inside she could see a developing fireball.
"oh shoot this thing is mad!" Nate said.
The next thing anyone knew, Zoey ran in front of Damona and threw a rock into the open mouth. It hit the back of the monster's throat, causing it to yelp in pain, dropping the oni princess. The eye rolled into its middle mouth and glared at the young, ghost fanatic, however after its eye soon pacified.
"What the?" Zoey said, only to be interrupted by Slimamanders tongues affectionately licking her," hey, Stop it! That tickles!"
The beast stopped, then said with all three mouths, "Friend."
"Wait a minute… Clover?" Zoey said. The middle head came down to her chest, seeming to purr against it, "woah… you look awesome!"
The head seemed to smile, before spitting out a yokai medal. The bespectacled girl picked it up from the ground and gave the now much larger Clover a hug, "you and I are going to raise so much hell!"
"Um, should we be worried about that?" Nate asked.
"Meh, I'm sure it will be fin-" Damona's thought was interrupted by yet another Noko coming up and licking her, "AHHH!"