Chapter 18: the REAL Falsina.
After an awkwardly quiet walk back to the hotel, Nate got some snacks out while Damona and Falsina began to catch up.
"And that brings us to present date," Damona said taking a bite of a chocolate chip cookie, "when dad told me, I knew I had to come find you."
The younger yuki-onna/oni hybrid had been quiet, clearly paying attention but not interjecting. Just sitting on her chair silently eating her cookie and staring at her sister. Her light violet eyes not breaking from her sister.
"I… am gonna go get some more milk," Nate said leaving the room, leaving the demon sisters alone.
"Sis," Damona said to the younger princess, "are you ok? I know this all a lot to take in but-"
"I'm fine," Falsina said with a smile. The elder sister looked a little puzzled expression.
"Are.. you sure?" she asked again.
"Of course," Flasina said holding out her last cookie to her sister, "no hard feelings!"
She gave a warm smile, one which Damona returned. Happy that her sister was alright with what had transpired, she took the sugary peace offering from the younger yuki-onna's hand. She took an appreciative bite out of the cookie, when Falsina quietly cackled with a grin almost identical to damona's signature one. Damona only had a second before her sister cried out, "ONI-CHAN! DAMONA TOOK MY COOKIE!"
"What the?" Damona said in confusion as Nate came back in the room. The smaller yuki-onna rushed over, clinging to him whining, "She took my cooke and ate it right in front of me!"
"Damona!" Nate yelled.
Unfortunately for him, his fiance was still in her own head, "did she just con me? No, no falsina wouldn't do that, I must have just misread the gesture, that's it."
"Uh… sorry, just thought you were motioning to take it, my bad," Damona apologized, "uh, hey, I got an idea for something the three of us can do!"
About a half hour later, the three of them were standing outside an amusement park just a slight bit out of town, (yes this is actually a thing, just has never been around in the game, episode 19, look it up!).
"Seriously? You couldn't have picked something inside so you know who doesn't do you know what!?" Nate quietly scolded his fiance, careful not to say the name of the Lion-Dog he was referring to as to not scare Falsina.
"It's been two days since he last attacked, Nate" Damona said, "besides, 1: I'm getting better, it won't be long before I can take him on head to head without being buffed, and 2: the amusement park is a highly populated area, they'd be crazy to attack us here! And look at Falsina!"
She pointed to her little sister who was staring in awe at all the rides lying just behind the gate.
"I haven't seen her in almost two centauries, I want her to feel happy I'm around," Damona explained.
"Did you just have empathy?" Nate questioned receiving a punch to the shoulder, "Ow, ok, let's just go in before anything bad happens."
A couple blocks away… eh, you know the drill by now, the Exorcist and his dog are creepily spying on an eleven year old again.
"Another one?" the man said in reply to seeing the shorter yokai. He handed the spyglass to his Canine companion.
"She looks the same, but smaller… and a different color pallet," Komane replied.
"Perhaps a relative," the Exorcist suggested, "which means she is likely also an oni."
"Which makes her the fourth to appear since we got called in," Komane sighed, "that can't be Coincidence."
"You're correct, their must be something larger at play," the Man nodded, He reached for his bag, taking out his black book.
The lion dog took another look at Damona, then said, "ya know, she's been fightin me with mostly ice-based attacks."
"A helpful piece of information, Komane," his partner replied, as he began looking for a specific medal.
"No prob, Gabe," Komane smirked.
"Gabe" pulled a medal from his book, "I call forth my familar, Yokai Medal, Set on!"
"Summoning, CHARMING!" his stopwatch chimed as he inserted the coin.
"Alarming, Boom Boom, Wala wala, dance dance, Charming!"
"Swelterrier!" a fiery, red dog yokai exclaimed as he appeared.
Swelterrier: S rank
Charming
Back with Nate, Damona and Falsina, who were now at the front gate. Suddenly nate had a thought, "Hey wait, you two are invisible, so how are either of you supposed to enjoy the place?"
"Relax, hun," Damona said taking two leaves from her kimono, "I thought of everything!"
Nate and Falsina looked at her puzzled as she put one leaf on her head. The yokai was engulfed in a purple smoke, when it disappeared, in her place was a human girl. She was about Nate's height, with shoulder length purple hair, violet eyes, and pale skin. She was wearing a black hoodie, dark colored jean shorts that looked ripped at the bottom, black knee socks with purple polka dots, and black sneakers.
Nate examined the girl, he had to admit she was quite cute, however there was a very familiar feeling to her, and seeing the grin on her face hammered it home. This was Damona.
"How did you…" Nate started before his now seemingly human fiance said, "you don't know everything about yokai, sweetheart!"
"Ooh, me next! Me next!" Falsina cheered. Her sister obliged putting the second leaf on her head. Another puff of smoke and a 5-year-old looking girl with green, pigtailed hair, a pink hoodie and blue skirt had replaced the yokai.
"Alright then," Nate said, still a little confused that yokai could do this, and questioning how many humans he'd met were actually human, "we ready to go in?"
"Yeah!" Falsina cheered as the three of them went to the ticket booth.
"Three please," Damona said pulling… human cash out of her pocket?
"Guess her money's disguised too," Nate thought to himself as she paid.
"Have a good time," the employee said putting wristbands on them. As the three of them walked into the park, two canine yokai approached.
"Huh, where are they?" Komane said as he could not spot his prey.
"They probably are inside the park, lots of places to hide!" Swelterrier replied.
"Right," the other yokai replied. The two of them leaped over the fence and began to search for their demonic target.
"Alright, which ride do we want to go on first?" Nate asked as they passed a sign for a ride called "the suspension bridge effect."
"Woah… How bout that one!" Falsina cheered pointing out west. The ride she was referring to looked like a metal tower, around it were four rows of three seats on some kind of platform, which was being shot up and down at high speeds, the name of the ride was "Dropzone."
"Ok, then," Nate nodded as the three of them went in that direction.
After getting through the line to the ride, a park employee stopped them saying, "Sorry, only room for two, one of you has to stay behind."
The three of them looked at each other, than nate said, "You two go ahead, you guys need a little sister time."
"Thanks, hon," Damona replied as her fiance walked off. Though, in the corner of her eye, she swore she saw Falsina scowling. She turned toward her little sister, who quickly donned a smile.
The two were lead toward the ride, Damona helped her sister into one of the two remaining seats, getting into the other after buckling her. When given the all clear, the park employee pressed the button activating the ride. It slowly began its ascend to the top of the tower, truth be told Damona didn't really know why humans found these impressive, though she had been gone for almost two hundred years. She looked to Falsina, who had a small smile as they reached the top, a smile that turned into a wicked grin similar to the cookie incident's.
Before Damona had the chance to react, Falsina phased through the buckling of her seat, she fell out of it, grabbing on to the edge of her seat. Her older sister had a look of panic as she stared at the young oni's unfaltered grin, a grin that made her think she planned this event.
The disguised yokai changed her expression to a very convincing look of terror, "Help me! Please!"
"She has to be faking, she and I both know she can float!" Damona thought as Falsina pleaded for rescue, "what is she trying to do? She knows she's not in any real danger!"
At the sight of the girl seemingly dangling for dear life, the rides operator hit the emergency stop button, just before the ride began to descend, gah! Don't worry, little girl, we'll get you down, just hang tight!"
"HELP ME!" Falsina screamed again, sneakily shooting her sister a grin before continuing to cry out.
"You're doing this on purpose!" Damona quietly scolded.
"Where'd you find your first clue, Sherlock?" the younger sister quietly shot back before screaming, "Help me! I'm slipping!"
"What is with you?!" the older oni princess quietly demanded.
"This is who I am, Damona," Falsina giggled, "Got a problem with it, thats your own fault."
The younger demon began to cry out more as the operator set the ride to slowly descend. Within a minute the ride was close enough to the ground that he was able to have Falsina hop into his arms. The ride was closed to determine what went wrong.
After faking some gratitude for saving her dear sister, Damona pulled falsina into the nearest girls bathroom and yelled, "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?"
"I was bored," Falsina replied in a deadpan tone.
"I thought dad was exaggerating when he listed off things you've been doing, but this little stunt proves that wrong!" Damona yelled, "Why are you doing these things?"
"What can I say, it's fun to play with people's feelings, Like when I made you look bad in front of Oni-chan earlier," the younger yokai giggled.
Damona growled at the little brat she called a sister, she turned around storming out of the bathroom. Outside, nate was waiting, "hey, what happened?"
Damona ripped the yokai leaf off her head, returning to her normal form, "You deal with her, I'm going back to the hotel."
She began flying away as Nate looked back at Flasina, who gave a shrug, then returning to her cutesy false demeanor, "hey, can we go on that one?"
Nate looked at where she was pointing, a haunted house, " sure!"
The two began walking off, from about twenty feet away, two yokai caught sight of them.
"Hey," Komane said shaking Swelterriers hot shoulder, "thats the adams' kid! I've been trailin' him all week and the Oni is always with him!"
"Let's see if thats still the case," the other canine yokai replied.
The two dogs began silently trailing Nate and Falsina, watching them go into the haunted house ride. As the two walked in, the Dog duo followed, though after a couple seconds it became too dark to see. Both yokai ignited their flames and began looking around, going in opposite directions as the area seemed to be a maze.
"Careful, Lot of flammable stuff in here," Komane said walking away.
"Right," Swelterrier said carefully walking through the haunted house maze, he could hear a couple of people walking behind him as he entered a pitch black room covered in glow in the dark masks. His flames weren't revealing anything, meaning the room was just empty. He was about to leave, when he heard someone enter the room, at that moment a man dressed in complete black save for a glow in the dark mask ran forward screaming like a maniac.
Hearing the noise, Swelterrier panicked and shot a blast of flames, setting the man's clothes a blaze. He began to actually scream as he tried and failed to put out the fire, stumbling into the wall next to him, the Fire spreading.
"Uh-oh," Swelterrier said as the fire began quickly spreading throughout the room due to the walls being coated in construction paper, "NOT GOOD!"
Back with Nate and Falsina, who were now thoroughly lost more towards the middle. The section they were in was styled after a corn maze, how appropriate. As they continued to walk, Nate began to smell something, something… burning. Sure enough, soon fire alarms began to go off, blaring as the smell of smoke grew more potent.
"We should probably leave!" Nate said frantically looking for an emergency exit, the young demon following him. The two did a one eight and began running back toward the entrance, only to discover that the blaze had come from that direction and had made some decent ground, "it's a minefield in there!"
"Oni-chan, I'm scared!" Falsina said, this time with actual concern.
The two started walking backward as the flames came toward them. Nate thought frantically about what they were supposed to do, then remembered that Damona could make things colder.
"I've got it!" the boy exclaimed taking out a medal, "Calling Damona, Yokai Medal do your thing!"
"Summoning, Charming!" the watch chimed as he inserted the medal.
"Alarming, boom boom, wala wala, Dance dance, Charming!"
"Damona!" the demon princess said with an annoyed tone as she appeared, "couldn't go ten minutes without me, could- OH MY ENMA, THIS PLACE IS ON FIRE!"
"Yeah, thanks captain obvious, and unfortunately the exits on the other side of those flames!" Nate yelled, "you think you can put the fire out with your ice?"
This went unheard as damona was lost in her own thoughts.
An eerie image of a burning village flashed in damona's mind. She was surrounded by fire, trying desperately to extinguish the flames using her ice, but to no avail. She was soon cornered by men in black robes marked with crosses yelling, "DEMONS HOLD NO PLACE HERE!"
"Damona!" Nate yelled catching her attention, "the flames?"
"Uh, I can't stop the fire… But I should be able to clear us a path!" Damona replied firing shots of ice into the blace, the forming solid water clearing the way, yet melting quickly. Falsina hopped on Nate's shoulders as Damona continued to clear a path leading the way, her fiance and sister closely following, "what happened anyhow?"
"I don't know, we were just enjoying the haunted house, when suddenly everything's on fire!" Nate yelled as they ran through the maze. The half demon continued to freeze their escape route, though as they got closer to the exit, the flames became thicker, denser, harder to put out.
"These aren't normal flames," Damona said, prompting confusion in Nate, "they have an aura to them, some yokai did this!"
"Komane?" her fiance inquired.
"No, his are blue, can't be him," Damona said as the flames began to grow more intensely, the walls began to cave in as the fire burned through their wooden support beams. Nate was careful to dodge the falling debris, then the three of them continued to push forward.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" they heard a voice in the next room yelling, save for Nate.
"Someone else is in here?" Falsina questioned.
"What? I don't hear anything," the boy replied.
"No, she's right," Damona said gesturing her fiance follow. The two entered the next room, which had much more intense flames, after shining his light, Nate saw the red, crystalline dog yokai.
"YOU!" the trio yelled getting his attention.
"What are you doing, this place is on fire!" Nate yelled.
"Ya think I don't know that?!" the dog said proceed to attempt to blow the fires out, however his breath only added to the blaze.
Damona quickly pulled out her yokaI-pad and pulled up his wiki page, "says here that guy is Swelterrier, he's what happens when you take "Hot Dog" literally!" she then turned to the dog and said, "Which means this mess is your fault! Can't you do something?"
Swelterrier was taken aback by a sudden fear, "She looks almost exactly like Blizzaria!" realising that she could be just as dangerous as a certain yuki-onna, he stuttered, "I-I can o-only m-make f-fire, I c-can't p-put it o-out!"
"What do you mean you can't!" Nate yelled as the flames began to close the three in. Damona tried to keep them at bay, but to no avail as the fire was too intense to allow ice to form, "this is bad."
The half demon's eyes began to dart around her surroundings, the scarlet blaze continued to enclose them, a frantic Swelterrier desperately trying to douse his flames, only making them worse than ever. She looked to Nate and falsina, the former with a solemn expression, realization this might be his last moment as a human, and the ladder had a face of fear, fear for what could happen next.
In that moment, Damona couldn't tell what she was thinking, but she felt her hands go in front of her, and begin to get cold. Slowly, yet surely, a purple snowflake began to form in her clutch as her eyes glowed a purple hue.
On pure instinct, she launched the snowflake to the ceiling, at which point it exploded into a purple, puffy cloud. From the cloud, smaller snowflakes began to descend. Within seconds the purple snow was weakening the flames, causing them to shrink more and more, until all that was left was frozen ash. As the last of the fires died in the snow, Damona's eyes returned to their normal state.
She looked to Swelterrier who was now inching away, and shot a blast of ice freezing him from the neck down, "you've got some explaining to do."
Unknown to the group, Komane saw the scene unfold and began to make his escape, meeting the exorcist at the park's entrance.
"What happened in there?" the man questioned his familiar.
"Swelterrier, ah told him to be careful, but somethin' caught fire! The oni's got him frozen solid!" Komane explained in panic.
"It's alright, I'll just summon him again," the man replied taking out a yokai medal, only for it to be swiped from his hand by a familiar blue tongue. The duo's gaze shifted to an also familiar pair of oni.
"Fancy seeing you two here," Toadel Demon said as his brother swirled his aura.
"WEB SMITE!" Arachnevil said launching his web. The Exorcist and his lion dog leaped out of the way, the scarlet attack crashing into a wall behind them.
The man pulled another medal from his pocket, this time inserting it. After yellow runes burst out of his watch, a purple, mirror-like yokai appeared, "Mirapo."
Mirapo: C rank
Mysterious
"Komane!" the man said leaping into Mirapo's mouth, entering the mirror world.
"This ain't over!" Komane growled before following his master.
Before the Kabuki brothers had the chance to do anything, Mirapo disappeared in a blinding light.
"Dang it!" the blue oni yelled in frustration.
"Calm, brother, savior the hunt, we will catch them next time," Arachnevil said leaping away, his brother following suite, "next time."