Okay, tip of the day for my fellow writers and readers: always remember the Save button!
I was typing up this chapter yesterday, and I went to turn off my laptop, and I forgot to hit the save button for the document...Luckily, I didn't have to start completely over, but I had to re-type everything from a certain point, which is reeeaaally annoying!
Again, save button = really important!
Okay, that's my little rant for today...On with the story!
Update (May 2020): Chapter edited and lengthened!
Chapter 8: The Princess & The Demon Toad
A new day dawns in Sengoku Edo, and after leaving Goshinboku Village behind a few days after the Tessaiga incident, we zoom in on an idyll pond as Coraline - clad in a blue two-piece swimsuit - swims around in the water, her day clothes sitting on a rock nearby...
(Splash)
"Haah, this water feels fantastic! And the air here is so fresh...A shame it'll all change come the next couple centuries..."
...Up in a nearby oak tree lays Inuyasha, hidden within the leaves as he spoke with Myōga about the trio's new travel plans.
"We've been away for three days now. You said if we left the village, we'd find more jewel pieces out here in Musashi, but-"
"Yeah yeah, sure, whatever."
The half-demon opens his eyes and narrows them on the flea demon.
"Are you listenin' to me or what?"
"Uh, w-well yes, of course, you're right. I was just a bit, distracted, by the young lady down there..."
"Listen, you..."
Myōga hops onto Inuyasha's knee and quickly says,
"I'm just, gonna go check on her, 'kay?"
He then proceeds to hurry down to the pond where the human girl was, despite the boy's warning.
"You're just gonna get clobbered! I wouldn't do that if I were y-Hm?"
Suddenly, he spots a small white blur zoom past, heading straight for the small body of water below! Concerned it might be a danger to his other travel companion, Inuyasha began bounding after the blur...Of course, in Myōga's perspective, it looked like the half-demon was going down for 'another reason'.
"Lord Inuyasha, you naughty boy~. You can't resist either."
Back in the shallow end of the pool, Coraline felt something behind her, and turns around, only to yelp in surprise! Inuyasha is startled by the noise, and flails his arms a bit while balancing on a protruding rock. Once he steadies himself, he calls out to the girl,
"Geez, would ya not scare me like that? It's not what you think!"
"I didn' yell 'cause of you; I yelled 'cause of that!"
Inuyasha looks where she's pointing, and sees the white blur making off with Coraline's clothes!...Suddenly, the teenage boy's ears pick up on something echoing over the hillside.
"I heard a whistle..."
...
In the distance, a young man with fair ivory skin, black hair with curtain bangs and the rest tied into a short high ponytail, seal brown eyes and wearing a cobalt blue haori/hakama set - each decorated with Takeda clan emblems of four diamonds forming one - with a matching obi sash over a pink lavender shitagi (a common article of the samurai class), the belt-like garment holding his katana, and wooden zōri sandals on his feet sits at the base of a cypress. He whistles three more times, calling the white blur - revealed to be a small macaque - to come hopping his way with Coraline's clothes in their arms.
"That's my good boy! So, what'd you bring me this time?"
He rummages through the bundle of garments, only to pull out...a dark red bra?!
"Th-This isn't something to eat!?"
The macaque is just as confused...
"Hey!"
Jumping in their seats, the odd pair whirl their heads towards some nearby bushes as Inuyasha and Coraline come popping out, the redhead sporting a more insulted glare.
"Return my clothes, ya thief!"
Taken aback by their sudden appearance, the young samurai goes on the defense.
"W-Who are you?! (Pulls out katana) You look suspicious!"
(Stomp)
The half-demon acts quicker with a simple foot to the back of the skull.
"We were just about to say the same thing!"
That just left the poor little snow monkey to start a panic attack, running around in a frenzied circle while the redheaded teen watches with a blank expression...Once the misunderstanding is cleared up, Coraline - now redressed in a white tank top, a harvest gold/chestnut brown checkered flannel shirt (unbuttoned), medium slate blue jeans and her hiker shoes - decides to take pity on the samurai by providing him a little of her provisions, namely, a bag of chips and some tea.
"Goodness, you must'a been really hungry if ya had to resort to stealin'. Tea?"
"Thank you."
Turning attention from the slurping samurai, the girl reaches into her backpack to pull out another travel snack - a package of smoked jerky - to give to Inuyasha.
"I have somethin' for you as well, if you're hungry."
"No thank you."
"Well, if you're sure...Maybe I'll have i' and lessen m' load."
The half-demon hops off the tree root he was previously laying on and snatches up her army surplus-style bag before replying in a style akin to complaining,
"Look: it's not my fault you gotta carry around so much junk all the time!"
"It's not junk. Unlike some travelers where I come from, I rememb'a only the bare essentials...I'll admit, this isn't 'ultimate survival' style, bu' at least I'm keepin' i' to two bags..."
"Hauh, if you say so..."
The other male around the age of a teen if not near adulthood finishes up his snack before performing a senrei in gratitude to Coraline.
"I give you thanks, woman. The chips-potato were delicious."
She smiles lightly and replies,
"My name is Coraline. (Gestures to her companion) An' this is Inuyasha, and-"
(Sluuurrr-slap)
"Eh-heh, and tha' was Myōga the Flea you jus' slapped..."
The samurai looks at the travel trio with apprehension, unsure what to make of them.
Who, who are these people?!
He's interrupted out of his thoughts by Coraline when she asks,
"You said before tha' you were separated from your allies. Tell me, are you a nobleman?"
"Hm...I'm not at liberty to reveal my family, (...smile) but my name's Nobunaga."
The redhead's eyes widen, recognizing the name.
"Nobunaga?...As in the Nobunaga?!"
She then comes up to shake the samurai's hand, a new but carefully subdued excitement building within.
"Excuse me, but it's such an hon'a to meet you! Would you be willin' t' give me your autograph?"
"Umm, okay."
He takes the offered paper and pen from her as she directs,
"Here, if it's no' too much trouble, and of course yo'r full name."
As she steps back with a smile, Inuyasha asks with a deadpan,
"What's got you so excited?"
She turns to him and explains,
"This is Oda Nobunaga. He's a-or I should say will be a famous figure in Japanese history someday."
Myōga hops onto the girl's shoulder and says,
"Well, actually my dear, that's not what the signature says..."
Coraline forms confusion on her face, until she actually reads the autograph...
"Amari Nobunaga?...Oh. Oh dear, I'm sorry; I was und'a the impression you were Oda Nobunaga..."
The revealed Amari folds his arms with a somewhat indignant frown.
"Humph, I belong to the Takeda Clan in the land of Kai. Please do not confuse me with him."
"So you two h've crossed paths, then."
"Yes, and he's a big idiot!"
Coraline smiles apologetically and replies,
"I see. Forgive me fo' the mistake of identity...though it probably would'a helped if you had said your full name..."
How odd. I don' recall comin' across 'Amari Nobunaga' in any history texts. I wonder why...?
"Ahem. I trust you'll excuse me, an important mission demands my immediate attention. Farewell."
As the acclaimed member of the Nobunaga family began walking away, Inuyasha calls out,
"Uh, I wouldn't go that way if I were-"
"Gaaah!"
"You..."
Unfortunately, the half-demon's warning came a bit late, and the young samurai slips down a small ledge and lands upside down on his head...
"I tried to tell you, but you wouldn't listen."
"Hmm, I'm starting t' see why Amari Nobunaga may not be well-noted in future documents..."
...
...
We jump ahead now to a small village secluded within a woodland mountain area, and watch as several samurai guards arrive to take away some young women...Apparently, this isn't the first incident either, as one of the elder men comments with a concerned frown,
"Haven't they taken enough young women away from our village already?"
Another man adds just as worried,
"Of all the girls summoned to the castle, not a one has yet to return..."
As the young females are lead away with wrists bound by rope, Amari pops up from behind some bushes in the treeline.
"Ah-ha, I knew it. So the rumors were true after all."
We notice that Inuyasha and Coraline had followed him, the former asking the latter,
"So, why was it that you and me had to follow this guy again?"
"Because he obviously needs help. We can't jus' turn a blind eye."
"What about us?! We still have our own mission!"
One man then whispers this to his companions,
"I wouldn't want it repeated, but, they say the lord's been possessed by some kind of demon..."
That caught Inuyasha's attention:
"Demon?"
...
Meanwhile, within the local palace walls, another soul has become uneasy by the events that were going on. She's a young woman with a fair complexion, black hair cut into the Hime style (the longer portion tied into a ponytail with a white ribbon), and dressed in the jūnihitoe royal garbs, the karaginu being a very bright shade of persimmon and decorated with light gold flower designs, a light cherry blossom uwagi with a navy blue obi-age tied overtop over waist and a carnelian obijime just above that, and of course the deep red naga-bakama.
She pours some water for the said lord of the castle, he considerably heftier than the court lady and also dressed in a royal-quality kimono of Egyptian blue with a dark onyx haori overtop (the latter garment decorated with hollyhock crests), and bandages wrapped around his head and hands. He laughs a bit before asking,
"Likey well, castle life, my princess~?"
"Yes, my lord. I, lack for nothing."
"That's alright then."
As he sips his water, the princess then asks,
"If I may, my lord?"
"Yes, princess?"
"The young women, my lord, the ones your highness has so generously summoned here to the castle. Might I ask, where they are?"
...The lord pauses, before dropping the bowl and smashing it to bits with his hand! The princess gasps with a sleeve pressed to her lips, watching with fear as the male then slams both palms on the ground while shouting,
"You, may, not!"
Sensing his anger, she quickly forms the Saikeirei - zarei style - to repent.
"Forgive me! I had, no right to ask."
The lord calms down a bit, and walks away...Yet the fright remained in the young lady's dark brown eyes as well as her voice as she whispers to herself,
"Uh...Oh...Oh, that I might return to Kai..."
Time Skip
Night soon falls over the land, and we catch up with Inuyasha, Coraline and Amari as they stop below the cliff leading to the local castle, ready to infiltrate...
"That's the place."
The half-demon smirks and comments,
"Huh, I smell the demon stink from here. There's a piece of the Shikon-no-Tama there alright."
He then goes on one knee and turns to the redhead to say,
"We better go and have a closer look. Jump on, Coraline."
"Right."
...But just as she readies herself on one side of the boy's back, the young samurai grasps the other side.
"Ey, what's the big idea?! Get off!"
"I've got business up there."
"Then go find your own ride!"
Coraline sighs,
"Just do it, Inuyasha."
"...'preciate it."
The other male youth grumbles to himself,
"Why does it always gotta be me who's the nice guy?...You ready?"
Amari nods, and Inuyasha takes off, springing over the wall and into the castle courtyard...When they land inside, the first thing they see is one of the guards asleep by an open fire. In fact, all of the guards were sleeping!...Coraline wanders to one up on the stairs while commenting,
"Huh. Would've though' castle security would be bett'a than this. These guys are so ou' of i', an earthquake probably wouldn' wake them up..."
Myōga hops onto the other demon's left shoulder and warns,
"Don't be fooled, Lord Inuyasha. Their sleep is hypnotic, not natural. Possibly, it may even be castle-wide."
...They all move inside, and Amari immediately began searching every room within his range for the person he's looking for.
"Princess! Princess Tsuyu! (...Slide) Princess Tsuyu, where are you?! (...Slide) It is I, Nobunaga, come to save you! (...Slide) Princess! Princess Tsuyu!"
As Coraline watches him shouting for the court lady, she asks Inuyasha with a bit of uncertainty,
"Uh, is it a good idea for 'im to be shoutin' around like that?"
"Dunno why not. They're asleep, ain't they? Besides, the sooner we find the demon, the sooner we find the jewel."
It takes at least two more rash searches before Amari stumbles into one particular room, where a feminine figure lays passed out on the floor...
"Princess Tsuyu..."
He goes to lift her from the ground:
"Princess, be brave...Uh-h!"
The samurai suddenly cringes, seeing the face of an elderly woman!
Thinking it was the princess, he began to wail in despair.
"Oh, what has happened?!"
As he continues to weep, he fails to notice the actual Tsuyu asleep on a futon...But Coraline sees her.
"Uh, pardon my interruption, Nobunaga, bu' I believe this woman here is the princess."
He looks over the girl's way and gasps in surprise, dropping the elderly woman to the floor. Myōga then hops onto the redhead's shoulder exclaiming,
"Did somebody say princess? I~ know a good way to wake her up!"
The flea demon bounds onto Princess Tsuyu's cheek, and starts sucking out her blood...
(Slap)
The court lady's hand came down onto Myōga, and she opens her eyes as the smaller entity's flattened body floats to the floor, awakened from her hypnotic slumber.
"...Princess..."
She turns to the samurai in surprise:
"Nobunaga? Why are you here?"
"Princess Tsuyu, you remember me?"
She smiles and replies,
"Of course I do. I'll never forget: you and I were friends as children, and you were always so very kind."
Amari's cheeks flush at the princess's compliments, and says modestly,
"I, I dunno what to say. I, I just thought you wouldn't remember a lowly vassal like me, heh-heh..."
"I remember everything: how you'd slip and fall in the pond, how I'd laugh and laugh when you fell in horse dung..."
And just like that, his face darkens considerably from embarrassment...On the sidelines, the girl from another era asks her fellow teen,
"Hey, Inuyasha, you don' suppose Nobunaga is in love with Princess Tsuyu, do you?"
"Tuh, pathetic..."
The royal female then spoke up tearfully, the fear returning to her face as she remembers the troubling events that have been occurring not long after her arrival in this kingdom.
"If only I could, go home..."
Amari chides her title with concern, and she tells him of her observations regarding the other royal in this castle.
"It was shortly after I came here as his bride that my lord has begun to act, strangely...He'd fallen into the garden pond, and ran a terrible fever. It was as though he had become a different person...Nobunaga, whatever shall I do?"
"There seems no choice: you must return to Kai. Even your father so far from here has heard of the lord's derangement. Indeed, it was his wish I come that you might be returned to him."
"You, came on my father's orders?"
"Even if he had not ordered it, still, I would somehow have come!"
"Nobunaga..."
"Yes, my princess? I'm listening."
"Nobunaga...there's a monkey on your head."
The samurai weeps a bit in dismay thanks to his macaque's antics derailing the seriousness of this situation.
"Yes, princess..."
...Suddenly, Inuyasha's ears pick up on some padded footsteps heading their way.
"(Stands up) Sounds like he's finally here. You coming, Coraline?"
"Right behind ya."
The teens enter the hall, just as the lord comes into view within the dim light of the darkened corridor.
"I thought I heard something."
Inuyasha retorts back,
"Yeah, and it took ya long enough. Let's go! Ha! (Lunge) Let's see your true face!"
(SRRRIP)
The half-demon claws away the bandages, and as the lord falls backwards, it's revealed that he's not human, but rather, a toad demon! Coraline exclaims in surprise,
"A toad demon?!...Guess tha' makes sense considering where the lord fell a while back..."
"My lord...?!"
Overcome with shock, Princess Tsuyu faints into Amari's arms.
"I-I have you, princess! Don't worry."
The toad lord leers at them all, and Coraline notices a familiar amaranth pink glow near his head...
"The Shikon-no-Tama! It's in his righ' shoulder!"
"Yeah, that 'lot a good it's done..."
Myōga hops onto Inuyasha's beads and warns,
"Not so fast, Lord Inuyasha: he's the ninety-ninth toad of the ninety-ninth generation. He's stronger than he looks."
"Then one good punch oughta make it a hundred!"
The half-dog demon charges at the oversized toad, but before he could reach them, it suddenly opens its mouth and expels a cloud of noxious gas! Inuyasha falls to the ground and clutches his throat a bit from the effects, while Coraline cringes and coughs. Myōga comes to her and says,
"Coraline, toxic fumes! Very dangerous..."
"Yeah, I had a feelin' as such..."
As everyone sputters from the toxic cloud, the toad demon walks over to Amari and Tsuyu. It glares at the samurai and demands,
"Rrrr, gimme back my princess!"
But the brave retainer brandishes his katana out, determined to protect his childhood friend.
"Stay back, monster!"
"Very funny. As though you could, stop me, human scum!"
The demon toad then shoots its tongue into Amari's shoulder, and he goes down, dropping Tsuyu in the process...
"Nobunaga! Princess Tsuyu!"
(Crash)
And just like that, the demon toad crushes its way through the wall to run across the rooftop with the princess in his hands...
"Princess!"
Coraline rushes over to the samurai's side.
"Nobunaga, your shoulder..."
"It doesn't matter what happens to me, please! You've gotta save the princess!"
"(Knowing smile) So I was righ'. You really have fallen fo' Princess Tsuyu, haven' you, Nobunaga?"
"H-How could you tell?"
The redhead giggles out,
"Love has this funny way of makin' i' obvious sometimes..."
Inuyasha looks out the hole in the wall and exclaims angrily,
"Lousy, stinkin' toad! No way is he gettin' away!"
"...Aaaah!"
Princess Tsuyu's scream echoes from the other side of the castle, and the half-demon calls back to the others,
"I'm goin' ahead! (Leap) Come back!"
"We'll be righ' behind you!"
...Meanwhile, in a secluded room, the demon toad leers at the court lady with a dangerous smile. Watching her crawl back in fear, we see that her karaginu has been removed.
"Princess, my princess~...I could eat you up."
All Tsuyu could do is shudder in fright, praying for someone to rescue her...
(Crash)
Inuyasha soon claws his way into the room.
"Ha, knew I'd find ya! Huh?"
...If only he had come a few seconds sooner, for now the princess from the land of Kai has become trapped in some sort of bubble casing!
"Too late, heheheheh!"
Coraline arrives with Myōga and the injured Amari, the humans shocked by the scene before them.
"What th' hell...?!"
"Princess Tsuyu!"
The flea demon explains the disturbing situation.
"Sealed her in like toad spawn, just as the rumors said! Young women, kept in egg sacs until their souls ripen, and then, eaten. With the power of the jewel shard and the young lord's position, no one could appose him."
"Y-Y-You mean, that thing is going to eat Princess Tsuyu?!"
As the giant humanoid toad laughs, Amari charges with his sword.
"Not while I'm alive!"
Inuyasha dashes in front of him just as the enemy unleashes another toxin cloud.
"Poison gas, watch out! (...Leap) See how you like, this!"
(SLASH)
"Aaauuuugh!"
The demon toad is driven backwards by Tessaiga's power as it cuts through the floor! Coraline exclaims from the side,
"Yes, he got 'im!"
Myōga adds just as enthusiastic,
"And not only that, he was able to use Tessaiga to do it too!"
"Righ', because he was protectin' humans!"
Inuyasha holds the transformed dog fang sword at ready.
"I'll dissect you with this if I have to, and cut out the jewel myself!"
The amphibian rises up, and notices the wound on its shoulder, causing it to break into a worried sweat.
"I-I, I don't wanna die. Come to meeee! Souls, sooooouuuls, I need sooouuuls!"
The egg sacs holding the other victimized women begin to destabilize, and the souls start floating out to fly into the demon toad's mouth!...Once it absorbed enough spirits, the wound on its shoulder is healed anew, and it faces its enemies with a grin.
"I live again...!"
Coraline becomes horrified by such a heinous regenerative ability.
"Its wound, completely healed...and those wom'n...!"
Inuyasha growls,
"Filthy, no good...!"
"What are you waiting for? For each cut you make, I'll take another sooouul, hehehahah-huh?"
The demon toad's attention then turns to the left when its hears something cutting into one of its egg sacs. The source is none other than Amari, using his katana to cut Tsuyu free...
"Princess Tsuyu, talk to me!"
"Uh...uh...Koff-cu-oh!...Huh?"
"Princess..."
"...Nobunaga. Nobunaga!"
The court lady goes to embrace the samurai in tremendous relief, causing him to blush deeply.
"P-Princess, Tsuyu..."
He then embraces her back, adding fiercely,
"Now I die without regret," while his macaque stands atop his head and spins a bowl on a stick...
"Don't you touch my princ-"
"Hold it!"
(Clonk)
Inuyasha stops the demon toad's trudging with a blunt swing of his Tessaiga...
"You got nothin' to say."
The enemy falls dizzy on its backside, and Amari hurries to position himself in front of Tsuyu protectively...But then, the demon's eyes blink open, revealing a new shade of light blue rather than red, his voice muttering out in a much softer tone rather than the pitched nasal.
"P-Pr-incess, Tsuyu...Wh-What have I...Wh-Where am...Please, someone tell me this isn't my doing...!"
Inuyasha felt that this was a ploy:
"Well, well, isn't that convenient?"
Princess Tsuyu however, saw differently:
"That voice...It is the voice of my kind lord husband!"
Coraline then realizes,
"So...this means th' true lord is still alive!"
Said royal - speaking through the demon toad body - laments in a scared tone,
"I-It's like a nightmare but I can't wake up. Somehow I knew, deep inside...I realized what was happening...and yet I was powerless to stop it. I, I wanted to, but I couldn't...Kill me, please."
Inuyasha looks at him with surprise by the request, and the lord adds,
"I don't think I have the strength to stop myself!"
Princess Tsuyu mutters her husband-to-be's title with worry, but he knew that it wouldn't be long before the demon possessing his body would take back control.
"Do it now, please, before it's too late!"
The half-demon was more than (morbidly) happy to oblige.
"Alright, now you're finally making sense! So, you want it in the gut or, do I take the head?"
"Inuyasha, wait! What about the lord?"
Coraline agrees with Amari, and tries to reason with her companion.
"The lord's spirit is still figh'in' in there! There must be anoth'a way!"
"It's you who didn't hear! He just asked me to kill 'im, didn't he? This ain't the time to go all mushy!"
"Stop it!"
"Huh?"
The samurai suddenly stands in front of the demon toad/lord, shielding them with his arms!
"Sheath your sword, Inuyasha, please! Inside this monster, the real lord's heart is still beating!"
"Why, you-! Move it, little man or I'll kill you too!"
Despite the dog fang katana pointed his way, Amari stood brave to his beliefs.
"Please, don't!"
"Then move it!"
"I can't! I cannot let you kill him while the real lord's still in there! Besides, even if it wasn't in there, I can't approve of your taking life!"
Coraline smiles faintly at his words:
"Nobunaga..."
A noble soul in tha' one, if a little arrogant t' stand by his ideals.
"I realize that it's crazy in today's world to feel this way...but I can't help it! I can't!"
...
...
Inuyasha lowers Tessaiga, and sheathes it before looking up at the human retainer with an annoyed but serious glare.
"Have it your way. I'll let you settle this yourself. The responsibility's yours now."
And he goes to sit down, arms in his sleeves. Coraline whispers his name gratefully...just as a menacing laugh began resonating, and its revealed the demon toad has taken control of the body again! He says to Amari,
"Thank you for sparing me," before-
(JAB)
"GAAAAAAHHHHH!"
The demon toad's tongue shoots through the samurai's shoulder again, and he goes down hard...
"Nobunaga! Gh...You bastard; you forced th' real lord back in again!"
Princess Tsuyu tries to wake her dear friend.
"Nobunaga! Nobunaga!"
Coraline calls Inuyasha to help, but he merely replies,
"I'll help alright, but only if I get to kill him."
The demon toad begins to slowly make his way over, muttering for the court lady almost lustfully. Knowing he's in no condition to act as protector anymore, Amari painfully urges,
"L-Lady Coraline, t-take the princess; don't worry about me...!"
"Alright. Princess Tsuyu, come with me!"
Said female calls back to the samurai one more time before she and Coraline are out the door...The demon toad goes to follow, but suddenly stops and looks down, seeing Amari trying to stop him...
"Get off!"
They nudge the human away and continues their chase, leaving both young swordsmen the only ones left in the room...
"Well, how 'bout it? You want I should kill him yet?"
"N-Ngh...No killing..."
"Idiot..."
"P-Princess..."
...Inuyasha looks up where the girls and the demon toad left, contemplating on what to do next.
Coraline's POV
"C'mon, Coraline, think! There has t' be a way to defeat it!"
I hurry to lead the princess down the hall as far away as we can travel while trying to come up with some sort of plan of attack. Though given that this is my first time actually battling a creature like this, I had no real sense of how to go about it.
They should have a manual fo' these situations...
Myōga then hops onto my shoulder and suggests,
"A monster toad is still just a toad. Try something hot!"
"Hot?"
"Like hot water or something."
"...Are y' inferrin' we try an' boil the beast?"
"Well, sure! Distract the toad and the lord can come out!"
I give the flea demon an incredulous glare and retorts,
"An' where the hell am I suppose t' find hot water, smart guy?!"
Still, he's go' the right idea: we need to force the demon ou' of the lord.
If it's possessin' a human, then they likely won' be able to put up much of a figh' once they're robbed of their shell...
"Waaait!"
Ah damn, already?!
Cursing my luck and the demon's persistence, I urge Tsuyu onward while trying to block out the creep coming after us...
"Waaaaiit!"
Something hot, something hot...I have it! Fire!
"If we can se' the monster ablaze, tha' should force it to release th' true lord. Princess, do you know if there's a torch somewhere near us?"
"I-I..."
Suddenly, a little white friend appears on her shoulder.
"Nobunaga's macaque? When did he-"
I get no time to question their presence when they suddenly take off ahead of us...
"Oh!"
Tsuyu suddenly slips on the hardwood floor, forcing me to stop and help her up.
"Are you alri-"
"Wait for meeee! I'm gonna eat both of you~!"
I glare down the approaching demon:
Ugh, how obnoxious can y' get?...Hm?
That's when I hear a familiar chitter, and turn around to see the monkey returning with what I need to beat this monster!
"Ha, what a smart macaque; thank you!"
But when he hopped into my hands, I notice a-uhm, 'size' problem.
"...Oh, if only the flame was a bi' bigger..."
How 'm I suppose to figh' with this?
(Jab)
"Waaah!"
I'm suddenly hit by the demon toad's tongue, thankfully not hard enough to penetrate, but definitely enough to throw me on my stomach and spill a few things from my satchel.
Oh great...Huh?
My eyes then lock onto one particular bottle I don't remember packing.
How'd that bottle get in there?...Must've been Akari-sama. But I told her I don' use that stuff anymore...
I look back up at the laughing demon toad just as Inuyasha finally comes springing in.
"You still in there, toad lord?!"
"Inuyasha!"
"Coraline, I'm sorry, but mercy's a luxury we cannot afford!"
"Lux'ry, (glances at bottle) as in...I got it! Hair spray!"
It's so combustible t' extreme heat, ya may as well call it a makeshift flamethrower!
...Yes, this'll definitely save the lord!
I grab the small travel bottle just as Inuyasha went to attack.
"This is it! The only way!"
"Sit, boy!"
He slams to the floor, allowing me clear range as I unleash hell on the demon toad.
"Take this, bastard!"
(Cchhh-FWOOOOM)
"AAAAAHHHHHHH!"
It yells in agony from the wave of fire, and leaves the body of the young lord once the pressure became too great.
Go'chya.
"He's left the body! Inuyasha, now's your chance to get th' jewel!"
"Don't worry, I'm on it!"
The disembodied demon toad tries to float away, but wasn't fast enough to escape Tessaiga.
"Die, stinkin' toad!"
(SLASH)
It's cut in half, dispelling in a spirit-like smoke and leaving behind the jewel fragment which Inuyasha grabs as it floats down...That's when Nobunaga comes down the hallway.
"Inuyasha!...Inuyasha! Well done!"
He grabs the other's hand and adds in praise,
"The lord is still safe; you drove out the toad! You worried me for a bit, but then you came through!"
"Actually, I, uh..."
I come over to him and whisper,
"Probably best t' leave it and le' him be glad it's over..."
"...Nobunaga?"
We all turn Princess Tsuyu's way, as she shoots a relieved smile at Nobunaga.
"Princess Tsuyu..."
"Nobunaga!"
"Princess Tsuyu!"
(Hug)
"You saved my husband! Thank you!"
The poor samurai trips in shock and woe while she addresses her husband, who looked to be in good health despite his ordeals.
"Oh my lord, you haven't changed a bit. It's as though you were never away."
"I'm so sorry I worried you."
I smile somewhat awkwardly and comment,
"He, uh, seems well enough of a guy," while Inuyasha scoffs,
"He had his chance..."
...
...
Pretty soon after seeing off the other women freed from the demon's power, we'd find ourselves sitting at the place where we started from.
"Now tha' the demon toad is gone, the girls can return to the village safely. Isn't that nice?"
...Nobunaga continues to gaze out to the horizon, not saying a word.
Still hung up over Tsuyu, huh?
"Oh come on, say something, Nobunaga..."
"Idgit. Even though he practically got himself killed, he still went out of his way to save the life of his only romantic rival."
Nobunaga laughs in a defeated manner at Inuyasha's comment and doesn't disagree.
"That's me, alright. Amari Nobunaga: world's biggest idgit and fool."
"You are an idgit...but you also saved a lot of lives, so don't beat yourself up. There's plenty others who will do that..."
I give Inuyasha a pointed look, but his words did seem to get through Nobunaga positively.
"(Stands up) Know what, that does cheer me up! Okay..."
He begins to journey away without a farewell, and I notice which direction he's going.
"Hold up a sec, Nobunaga..."
"Wouldn't go that way if I were-"
"Gah!"
"...You."
But once again he misses the warning and falls off the ledge on his head...As we look down at him now, I can't help but remark with a grimaced smile,
"I have a feeling 'idgit' may become a perman'nt label for the poor guy..."
An' maybe for his sake, it would be best t' keep his name infamous.