Chapter 4: spooky intersection.
The next morning Nate woke up uncharacteristically early, he knew this because it was still dark out. He felt something cold on his chest, like ice-cold. In the darkness, he could make out the vague shape of Damona lying on him, sound asleep, guess demons need rest too. He carefully moved out from underneath her, afraid to see what she was like when woken up. He slipped out of bed as silently as possible, then was greeted by a monotone, robotic voice, "Master Nate. -_-"
He jumped in surprise due to the dark grey and red, sarcastic Yopple-bot that he had decided to affectionally call, "No-Bot." he turned to see that Damona was still asleep.
"You scared the crap out of me!" Nate quietly scolded.
"Apologies, Sir. -_- I simply thought it odd you would awake at five in the morning. -_-" No-bot said.
"It's five?" Nate asked surprised.
"Correct -_-" No-bot said.
"Huh, weird," Nate said to himself. He just kind of let things happen that morning, he was quiet during breakfast, Let Damona do her thing, things were kind of normal. That normalness left when she said that they should go out to make sure they weren't ripped off.
"So what are we doing?" Nate asked.
"Looking for yokai, we need to test whether or not the watch will actually work," Damona said, "whats the most supernatural place you can think of?"
Nate rubbed his chin for a moment, then said, "well, there have been a lot of near misses in this one intersection."
"Near what?" Damona raised an eyebrow.
"Near misses, you know where someone walks into traffic almost gets hit but the car stops just in time, only nearly missing," Nate explained. His undead fiance eyed him, "then shouldn't they be called near-hits?"
"I don't make the rules I just follow em," Nate said.
"Never the less, that seems as good a place as any to start," Damona sighed.
The two walked down the block to the intersection in question, everything seemed normal about it, but Damona seemed to be staring in a particular direction.
"There, shine the light over there," she pointed toward a specific spot. Nate obliged and began shining the watches light at the area, after a few seconds a figure began to take form. It had the shape of a chubby cat with two tails standing up-right. After a few more seconds it was fully revealed, showing off its red and white fur, yellow belt type thing, and blue flamed tail tips.
"A nekomata!" Damona exclaimed, "total score! It'll make a great servant."
"Wut?" Nate eyed her.
"Oh come on, we gotta have servants! And the nekomata make pretty good ones, let's go get it!" his fiance answered with a sinister grin.
The demon was about to float over to it, but before she had the chance the nekomata jumped into a random bystander.
"What the?!" Nate exclaimed in shock.
"Possession? I like him already!" Damona said with a cackle.
The now possessed person walked straight into traffic, a 16-wheeler quickly approaching.
"He's gonna get hit!" Nate yelled.
"Oh ho, I really Like him!" Damona exclaimed.
As the truck approached, the nekomata suddenly jumped out of the person, taking a mid-air fighting stance. Both Nate and Damona looked in surprise as the cat exclaimed, "Take this you stupid truck!"
He pulled back his paws and yelled with a fiery passion, "Paws of Fury!" and unleashed a barrage of punches, the truck was held back for a moment before ramming the cat out of sight, then the driver stopped to yell at the man in the street.
"Ouch, that's gotta hurt," Nate said.
"I take back what I said," Damona sighed. The cat landed just a few feet near them. He got up and brushed himself off, at that moment Damona picked him up by the neck and said, "You are pathetic and useless." she dropped him then turned to Nate, "this was a waste of time, let's go find some other yokai."
"You insult him cause he got hit by a car?" Nate said facepalming.
"What can I say, he's a loser," Damona said bluntly.
"Loser," the words replayed in the nekomata's mind. "I can't believe you got hit by that truck… Loser."
The nekomata began to growl, "What… did you… Just… call me?"
"Duh, a los-" Damona didn't have the chance to finish as the cat ran at her full force clawing her face. For a moment, Damona's face bled from the scratch, although it was black instead of red, then the scratch healed itself, no indication it was ever there, to begin with. Damona's eyes sharpened on the cat, "Big mistake, Loser."
The half-demon's hand began to glow a bright blue as the cat growled baring its claws and fangs. The two never broke eye contact. Nate stood as still as a statue, afraid of the consequences of intervening in this supernatural affair.
Damona shot a blast of ice at her opponent, freezing him in his tracks. She dusted her hands off, but it was a premature celebration. Both her and Nate heard a bang, then another, until the cat busted through the ice, claws on fire, literally.
"I am nyot a loser!" the cat said as he lunged at Damona. The ladder dodged and fired an energy blast. The cat swatted it away and went in for another face shot. Damona grabbed his paw, ignoring the fact it was on fire, she tried to force it back but the cat had a strong arm(?) and slashed her, leaving another cut on her face, she held the cut but didn't acknowledge it as pain.
She growled and rapidly shot blasts at the nekomata, he was hit several times in the chest but kept on going, he leaped at her again and began rapidly scratching. The demon ripped him off of her.
"Alright, I'm done with this," Damona said huffing from exhaustion. She began to start swirling purple energy around herself, "I'm going to freaking end your miserable existence, Shiny Cha-" "That's enough!"
She stopped and both of the yokai looked at Nate, "What are you two thinking! Seriously, you're trying to rip each other apart, and I've let this go on long enough!" Nate turned to the cat, "you, Neko-whatever."
"Nekomata and My nyame is Jibanyan!" the cat growled.
Jibanyan: D rank.
Charming
"Well Jibanyan, why did you attack Damona? Because she called you loser?" Nate asked.
Jibanyan looked away for a moment, holding back tears. It was then Nate and Damona realized that the attack was the anger before the sadness.
"It's the reason I fight cars," Jibanyan sniffed, "Back when I was alive I had an owner nyamed Amy, she was so nyice to me, until… one day, I don't knyow how it happened but… I got hit by a truck."
"And so you got addicted to it and now constantly get hit by them," Damona said as Nate gave her the death glare.
"Nyo, the painful part didn't come until after I became a yokai," Jibanyan said on the brink of crying, "Amy came up to me and said, "I can't believe you got hit by that truck… Loser,"."
The nekomata's will power ran out and the waterworks let loose. Nate went over to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
Damona just stared at the two, though she would likely never admit it, she felt sorry for the little guy. She sighed and floated over to them, "Look… I guess I'm sorry for calling you a loser, it's just kinda hard not to see you as pathetic after getting creamed by a truck."
"Thanks, I guess," Jibanyan said wiping his cheek.
Nate rolled his eyes and said, "Hey, if it will make you feel any better, You can come and live with us, I can feed you, and you could nap pretty much anywhere, you could be a regular cat again, it's the least we could do." he gave Damona a glare.
"I-I'd like that," Jibanyan said with a weak smile. He glowed blue for a moment, then a yokai medal flew out of him.
"What the?" Nate said.
"Relax, not all medals mean marriage, most of the time they mean friendship," Damona snickered, "he'll just be a good friend."