Irony, your name is Ayaka
Chapter 1
Author's notes: Welcome to this two-shot crossover story. This will be a rather short work, so I will not bother with very long explanations, descriptions and translation of terms since I will use the English translation to vary the words I used. The readers will truly need to have at least a passable understanding of the anime/manga Katekyo Hitman Reborn and Inuyasha if they wish to enjoy this work. As for the timelines of both series, it will be before canon for Katekyo Hitman Reborn, more precisely during the missions preceding the choosing of this generation's Arcobaleno but an alternative universe of after canon for Inuyasha. This work will not take «Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon» into consideration since I know too little about it.
It is also my executive decision that pureblood Yōkais can't awaken Dying Will Flames. On the other hand, it is possible for Hanyōs to awaken them since they have the required human blood. Yōki or Demonic Power in English and Dying Will Flames are like oil and water, they do not mix even if the use of both can accomplish rather similar feats. When a Flame Active Hanyō or Half-Demon uses one of them, it is impossible for them to actively use both power sources at the same time. Now, it's time to get this show on the road!
Fon was usually a very patient man. He was a calm and fair person, normally seen with a slight smile. Contrary to the many stereotypes attributed to his Flame type, he was anything but hot headed. But right now even his legendary patience was running thin. He was a tall man of an indeterminate age of Chinese nationality, his long black hair held back in a braid. His usual immaculate red Chinese shirt and pants were now dirty, torn and he was covered in bruises and abrasions of all sorts. After having been hired by Luce Giglio Nero, the Donna of the Giglio Nero Famiglia as the strongest Storm Flame user with all the other strongest users of the Dying Will Flames of the Sky, they had run multiple missions together until they were more or less a cohesive unit. But this particular mission had turned sour quite quickly.
It was supposed to be a rather easy mission, to wipe out an extremist group based in the mountains of China who were endangering Omerta by selling experimental flame enhanced weapons on the black market. It was better for them to clean the mess than let the Vindice get involved. Vindice prison was not a nice place and very rare were those who left the penitentiary while still alive. But in the end, their intel was faulty. This terrorist group had allied themselves with an Oni tribe of all things. The leader of the Onis was not one of those brutish and dim monsters like the majority of their species. Oh no, she was very much human in intelligence and appearance if you didn't take in account the horns sprouting from her forehead, the pointed elf-like ears and her sharp fangs. She also had the game of seduction down pat. More than one flunky embarrassed themselves by trying and failing to get her attention.
Now here they all were, each of them locked down in an individual dungeon cell inside a restored mountain fortress, shackled in Yōki forged metal manacles. Those specially forged manacles had the irritating ability of making it impossible for them to use their Dying Will Flames to escape. Skull, their Cloud Flame user, was also in a rather bad way and would need to be brought to a doctor quickly. The kid had jumped in front of a few men wanting to «play» with Lal before they were sent to their individual cells. While it was an admirable act, Skull should have remembered that their Rain-using colleague was in fact former military and even bound and cut away from her supernatural power, she would have been more than able to defend herself from unwanted advances. Lal Mirch hadn't made it to the Italian Special Forces ,more specifically COMSUBIN, without surviving the training after all.
Even Reborn, their Sun Flames user, world renowned Hit-man, certified troll and all around pain in the ass, had to metaphorically tip his hat at the Stunt-man's actions, foolish as they were. The only silver lining to this situation was that before their collective capture, they had managed to bribe Viper, their Mist Flame user, Information Broker and all around miser, to teleport Luce, who was their Sky Flame user, away. Such captivity wouldn't have been good for her and her baby, since she was three months pregnant. But now they had languished here for days, barely fed and watered to the minimum so they could survive. Their captors hadn't yet decided what to do with them. Some wanted to simply kill them all and be rid of the problem. Some others wanted to make use of their considerable skill sets for their Organisation's benefit. Most of the Onis wanted to eat them, but were kept in check by their leader. All but except one that is.
The alpha Oni had made a very public example out of her kinsman who disobeyed her commands by trying to eat Verde, their Lightning Flame user. Said example hadn't been pretty nor done quickly. She had prolonged its agony for hours before finally granting the condemned the right to die. Needless to say after this gruesome spectacle, there were no more attempts to eat the prisoners. While none of the group would admit it out loud, they were getting somewhat desperate. Well except Skull, but as a former civilian who was forcefully dragged kicking and screaming - literally- into the Mafia only because he somehow accessed the Flames of the Dying Will, you couldn't expect the kid to keep his cool like the others.
For Fon though, something other than his safety and those of his colleagues was starting to worry him greatly. His adoptive daughter would be quite upset with him for missing his appointed visit. He could only hope that she would wait for him patiently and not try to find him. While his current lifestyle wasn't exactly ideal for child rearing, he loved her with all his heart and wouldn't want things to go back to what they were before she entered his life. His clan had been approached by a supernatural being of great power, fourteen years ago. Sesshōmaru, an immensely powerful Inugami daiyōkai, had entrusted to them the rearing of his newest Hanyō daughter.
She was at least a few days old, but she already had her father's silky silvery hair and two dog ears on top of her head proving her hybrid nature. Of course, Lord Sesshōmaru didn't exactly explain why he was entrusting his pup to Fon's clan instead of fostering her closer to his lands in Japan or what happened to the girl's mother, but the political and monetary support that flowed their way in exchange was a rather good carrot. As for the stick, well, being threatened with total annihilation if the pup ever came to harm at their hands outside of training was one hell of a big one. That it shut up the protesting elders rather quickly was a very enticing bonus in Fon's humble opinion.
While it hadn't started like that, the girl whose name was Ayaka, eventually ended up in his family's personal care. His two younger sisters all helped, but the pup seemingly imprinted on him more than the others. Being the only man and now head of his family, with their parents having passed away, his sisters continually teased him that he had the making of a good father. He had tried to fight it, really he did. At the time he felt he was much too young to be a dad. He didn't even have a wife for Buddha's sake! But in the end, he eventually got attached and finally took the role both his sisters and Ayaka wanted of him. The rest was, as they say, history.
These days, his precious little girl was living with the oldest of his two sisters, who was attending University in Kyoto. The now teenage pup was attending a private high school and had great grades from the last report card he saw. He could only hope that his group and him would manage to free themselves and go back to civilization so he could enter in contact with his surrogate daughter before she gets into her head to track him down. The last thing he wanted was to involve her in the criminal underworld. Not that he was fearing for her safety, she was much more powerful than regular humans after all. He was rather certain that with a bit more experience under her obi, his Ayaka could eventually take on even veteran Flames users and win. But as a father, he wanted better than a life in the criminal underworld for his little pup.
Fon really should have known better than to tempt fate since there were some things he didn't know about his adoptive daughter. During one of Papa Fon's many overseas travels over the last few years, Ayaka had met with her biological father a few times, who had gifted her with the sword of his deceased half-brother forged by the Yōkai sword-smith Tōtōsai and also taught her the basics of her Inugami abilities. While she was no master swords-woman, at least not yet, Ayaka and Tessaiga had bonded in a way that the late Inuyasha had never managed to accomplish. It was also imperative for Ayaka to have access to a yōkai blade to make sure she wasn't overwhelmed by her demonic blood due to puberty. Ayaka's father had always been very discreet about his illegal dealings, but it wasn't easy to hide things from a curious teenage girl with supernatural senses. Of course, she never breathed a word to anyone off what she had heard.
So when Fon missed his scheduled visit without calling to apologize and reschedule, she grabbed the phone and called her other aunt in case she had received some news. When that avenue didn't yield any results, Ayaka decided to make use of her supernatural blood. What was confidential for humans wasn't exactly the same for the various spirits and lesser yōkais. A certain secret meeting could have easily been overheard by a tree nymph or a wind spirit after all. You just needed to find the right informant and negotiate the price for the information. The supernatural denizens still loved to mess with the humans whenever they could, even if they had to become much more subtle about it. The end of World War II and the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had proven that the mortals could annihilate them all if given a chance. So for them it was quite easy to get around the so-called Omerta. It wasn't like the Vindice would suddenly appear to drag the beings who spoke to her to prison after all.
While Ayaka was getting her information from the various spirits and other supernatural beings she knew of, Luce was not sitting idle once she was back in her mansion in Italy. She had a lot of information on all the people she worked closely with, thus she knew about Lal's former student and his infatuation with her. To get her allies out from where they were detained, she had retained the services of another ex Special Forces soldier. The man's name was Colonnello. Or was it more likely his code-name? Luce had to admit her ignorance on the subject.
Colonnello had blonde, spiky hair, light blue eyes, and even now that he was no longer part of the military, he wore green army camouflage. He wore black army boots and a camouflage bandana around his head. The former military man had just gotten settled in a sniper nest on an adjacent mountain pass to observe the fortress and plan his rescue operation. He was checking what he knew while putting together his sniper rifle as the night was slowly falling. When it was entirely dark, something incredible happened.
If he hadn't been stone cold sober, Colonnello would have thought that it was a hallucination caused by an excess of drinking or for something he accidentally inhaled.
«What the fucking hell-kora?!»
But no, there was, what he could more or less guess, a girl in her mid-teens on the back of a truly gigantic black wolf coming out of the forest not far down from his position. After grabbing his binoculars, he could now confirm that it was indeed a teenage girl, but not only her shoulder length hair was a startling silvery white, she had furry animal ears on top of her head! And they were real since they were pivoting every which way. Suddenly, her golden eyes were looking straight at him in a mix of concern and confusion. But she likely chose to ignore him instead of coming up here to get answers; since he saw her get down from the wolf's back before sitting on the ground Indian style with a sheathed katana resting against her shoulder.
Colonello finally decided it was best for his sanity to ignore the cosplaying teenage girl and to go back to his surveillance after the gigantic wolf trotted back where it came from. She couldn't be all that dangerous no? While his ability to sense Flame actives wasn't his best skill, he could usually sense them at close enough range. Lal's would-be suitor couldn't tell if she was active or not, she was hard to pin down from all the way up here. But she was already unusual, so he would still keep a wary eye on her while preparing his plans for his current Op.
Ayaka intended to stay where she was until nightfall. She was lucky, tonight was the new moon so it will be quite dark. She could smell the foul odour of the Onis on the wind and it made her slightly cringe. While her heritage made her very resistant to poison, with her Sire being very handy with the poisonous whip and claws, there was a limit as to what she could endure. This would mean that she would have to charge with overwhelming force. She would have preferred to sneak in and out, but Onis could be quite tricky when underestimated.
If this group allied themselves with humans, they weren't the dumb as a rock kind. Her informants were very clear. Her father was kept prisoner with other Flame active humans inside this fortress. With everything taken into consideration, it was a good thing she had been gifted Tessaiga. Without the sword of her late biological uncle, the mission she was embarking on would have been much more dangerous. It was why she had sent her new friend away. Ayaka would have felt horrible if he had gotten hurt because of her direct or indirect actions.
Ayaka wondered why there was a blonde haired mercenary with a sniper rifle higher on the mountain, but since he wasn't hostile or getting in her way, she had chosen to ignore him. It wasn't like there were yōkai laws against being seen by humans. And it's not like anyone would believe him if told anyone what he saw anyway. Now if he had gotten in her way, he would have gotten a taste of her claws. She closed her eyes and started to meditate on the power that was her birthright, bringing her Yōki close to the surface but not letting it run wild. Of course she also. did the standard breathing exercises. Ayaka waited until it was truly dark before getting up and helping her blood flow correctly by shaking the numbness out of her limbs. Once she was ready, she took a great breath before letting it go slowly.
Ayaka put her best game face on and after a last look towards where Colonello was perched she dashed at a supernatural speed towards the fortress after securing her sword in the obi of her kimono. When she was at about five hundred metres from the portcullis, she drew her blade and in an explosion of Yōki it transformed from a chipped and battered katana into a weapon roughly the size of a car bumper that somewhat resembled a dadao sabre, with the cross guard turning into a large patch of fur similar to a dog's. Ayaka then raised her sword at arm's length above her head before all but howling at the top of her voice in Japanese while correctly channelling her Yōki through the blade
«KAZE NO KIZU!»
Right as she was howling the technique's name, Ayaka forcefully smashed her blade to the ground, which had for effect of sending three devastating blades of yellow coloured Yōki rushing at preternatural speed towards the fortress. Soon enough, when the technique made contact, it wrecked everything in its path! And judging by the many anguished screams she could perceive, her technique had done its job. Of course she had kept running even after attacking and to get ready for an eventual fight, she had settled Tessaiga over her shoulder.
Ayaka soon found herself under a hail of bullets, since the terrorists who had survived her initial assault had quickly snapped out of it and launched the counter-offensive. While she was quite quick and nimble, the Hanyō couldn't dodge or block them all. It was inevitable that she took a few bullets, but she hadn't even flinched or slowed down. Being on the receiving hand of Flames enhanced punches during her training was much more painful than that. They would have to do better if they intended to slow her down or to stop her in her tracks. With another growl of righteous anger, the teenage half-demoness swung down Tessaiga again, launching another Wind Scar at point blank. Everything around her turned yellow and numerous screams of pain and terror alike blocked everything else.
From his Sniper nest, Colonello was observing the sheer destruction the strange little girl was dishing to the previously impenetrable fortress. How was it even possible? What she was doing wasn't Flame related, he knew that much. But what was it? Then he finally remarked that through the girl's rampage, the path into the fortress was now wide open. Knowing when to take advantage of the situation, the former military man quickly put his sniper rifle on his back with the strap connected to it before hurrying towards his destination and the love of his life.
After the second Wind Scar had entirely dissipated, Ayaka was now running through the courtyard, using her nose to try to pinpoint her father's emplacement. And to raise her chances in trying to find him, she called out loud for him in fluent Chinese
«Féng bàba! Féng bàba! Nǐ zài nǎlǐ? Qǐng huídá wǒ!» (Daddy Fon! Daddy Fon! Where are you? Answer me!)
Ayaka's search for her father had to be put on hold, since her senses alerted her of something dangerous heading her way. In a fraction of a second, she jumped a few metres aside. It allowed her to dodge an incoming stream of acidic poison. Limping towards her was the spitting mad Alpha Oni. She was in a rather bad way though. She was missing an arm entirely up to the shoulder, one of her horns was cut in half and she was bleeding from multiple cuts all over her body. The monster in human skin hissed at Ayaka and snarled at her in Japanese
«You disgusting half-breed! You just ruined everything! You will pay for this, mark my words! I'll send you to Hell and feast on your corpse!»
Had the Alpha Oni been hale and hearty, the threat would have had more weight behind it. But as the creature in front of her was right now, she posed only a minor threat to Ayaka, who minus annoying bullet wounds, was still fresh as a daisy. Two Wind Scars weren't enough to deplete her Yōki reserves. With a disconcerting ease, Ayaka glided by the Alpha Oni and cut off her remaining arm with a simple swing of Tessaiga before jogging toward the interior of the fortress. Before the Alpha could order her remaining men, after overcoming the shock of her new wound of course, be they Onis or Humans to attack, Colonello shot her point blank in the middle of her forehead. A few seconds later, she fell to the ground, dead.
Now normally, a Yōkai of her stature wouldn't be bothered by regular munitions. It would take something with a much bigger payload to bypass their natural resistance. But the former soldier had enhanced it with his own flames and it was enough to kill her. While the Rain Flame user was a bit out of his depth, he knew enough that to let such a dangerous enemy live was a mistake. When the situation would permit it, he would tell the girl off for her idiocy. If she was trained enough to use a magic sword and attack a fortress, she should have known when it was or wasn't adequate to show mercy.
It didn't take long for Ayaka's nose to lead her to the lower levels. She had sheathed Tessaiga since the walls were too close to each other for her to use such a huge blade. One of her ears twitched, hearing the footsteps of the blond soldier not far behind her. Resistance was minimal, the half-demoness only had to use her claws with lethal intention six times. Two of which required her to use the poisonous claws she inherited from her Sire due to magical protections provided by the Oni clan. The first prisoner she saw was a man who would have likely been handsome if he were at his best. But she recognized him all the same due to his trademarked hat and his curly sideburns. With a childish tone of voice, she pointed to the man with her index and told him with a beaming smile
«Oh, I recognize you! You're Reborn, the World's Greatest Ass-hole! Mama says that there's no one better than you to piss people off! She said that you could even piss off inanimate objects without breaking a sweat! Could you come with me to my school please, one of these days? There's so many self-righteous idiots there that could use your expertise!»
Now Reborn was of two minds about it. He was rather proud that this slip of a girl recognized him at all but on the other hand, being called the World's Greatest Ass-hole wasn't really flattering. It didn't help that his fellow colleagues were now all laughing uproariously at him. Before he could do or say anything else, he was rendered entirely speechless when the wannabe kemonomimi took hold of his cell's door and ripped it out of its hinges with only a soft grunt of exertion. He was snapped out of it when her overly long nails started to glow an acid green and used what was probably an acidic poison to break the suppression cuffs.
Ayaka repeated the operation on Verde next, but someone else came running when she was grabbing the door to Lal's cell after she was done freeing the scientist and refusing to let him take a blood sample from her.
«Lal? Lal?! I'm here to rescue you, babe! I just got the keys from the guard!»
The blonde mercenary who had followed her came bounding down the stairs and Ayaka told him with a raised eyebrow
«You're late. I was just about to cut her loose. If you want to be useful, go open the other doors or bring the Cloud user to a medic. I can smell the blood oozing slowly from his wounds all the way from here.»
And to add salt to the wound, because being told off by a teenage girl was already harsh enough, Lal told him with a blush and a furious tone of voice
«I already told you many times to stop calling me «Babe», idiot. And I also told you to stop following me around! You have no place here!»
Colonello's expression turned to a crestfallen one and told her in a pouting tone of voice
«But, but! Lal! I love you! You're the love of my life! I was hired by Miss Giglio Nero to help you and your comrades escape! I came here from half-way around the globe, the least you could do would be to greet me with a hug!»
Ayaka had other things to do than listen to those two bicker like an old married couple. Even as inexperienced in matters of love as she was, it was clear to her that this Lal woman had thrown either a bone or a pity date to the guy and he couldn't just take a hint and vanish. With a surprising strength for someone of her height and weight class, she forcefully pushed Colonello away from his current place in front of the door, but not before swiping the keys from him.
She unlocked Lal's cell and made use of her poison claws once more to break the shackles after finding out that no keys on the key-ring could open them. When she entered Viper's cell next, her healing factor finally kicked in. The Half-Demoness' wounds started smoking and the bullets lodged in her flesh were expelled before they started to close in front of the speechless Mist. They had never seen something like this before. It was unreal.
The girl's demeanor changed from aloof but confident to exuberant and quite joyous once she opened the door to Fon's cell after freeing Skull. She spoke one word that shocked everybody else once the Storm Flame user was freed
«Daddy!»
Then she glomped on him with her considerable strength.
Even Viper and Verde, the two most impassive of the group, repeated out loud with the others
«Heh?! Daddy?!»
Fon let out a defeated sigh, before accepting the reality he was living in and held his adopted daughter close to his chest. Oh, she was in so much trouble, it wasn't even funny. But he would let her savour her hard earned victory while she still could.
«I missed you too, dear. Now, let's get out of here.»