Chapter 23: Nate to the rescue
"Nyate?…
Nyate?...
NYATE!"
Nate suddenly woke up to see Jibanyan whom had a worried expression, "What happened?"
"Ugh, Jibanyan? Whe- where've you been?" Nate asked as he felt a headache coming on.
"I was getting Nyo-bot from the Hospital, his missing part finyally came in," the nekomata said in replied. Upon closer inspection of the room, Nate did see the mechanical Yokai at the other end of the room. His thoughts were interrupted by Jibanyan continuing, "What happened, where's Damonya?"
"Damona?... DAMONA!" Nate said leaping up, "Komane and the exorcist came here, they caught her and knocked me out with some blue gas!"
"THEY DID WHAT!?" Jibanyan said in shock, "How'd they even find us?"
"I don't know!" Nate replied in a panic, "oh, they could be anywhere by now!"
The boy contemplated what could happen, from her story, Damona described the Crank-a-kai, a cold, dark, limbo-like state. The entire time you were conscious, but you couldn't move, you couldn't speak. You were left completely alone with your thoughts, for years, decades, maybe even centuries if you weren't lucky.
"We have to find her," Nate concluded.
"But how?" Jibanyan asked in worry, "how'd they catch her, anyway?"
"The exorcist had a yokai watch, he summoned a yokai who made Damona do the opposite of whatever he said.
"Sir? -_-" No-bot piped up getting Nate's attention, "would you have happened to have caught the name of this exorcist? -_-"
Nate thought for a moment, "actually, yeah I did, it's Gabriel… Mamoru I think."
No-bot's chest plate opened up as a screen took its place, "Searching for yokai watches registered to Gabriel Mamoru…"
The screen loaded for a moment before showing a satellite image of Mt. Wildwood, about halfway up the mountain was a beeping red dot, "one result!"
"YOU CAN TRACK YOKAI WATCHES!?" Nate and Jibanyan said in unison.
"As a Yopple-brand robo-kai, I am capable of tracking any and all yopple-brand tech! :D" the yopple bot exclaimed as it began to shift into its defense mode, sprouting etra arms equipped with blasters, "Now I would recommend we save Mistress Damona while there is still a 65% chance of success!"
Nate donned a look of confidence as he pulled his phone and every yokai medal he had, "let's hit him with everything we've got!"
"Nyow you're talking!" Jibanyan said igniting his fists.
About five minutes later, Katie, who was watching the news about Shoppers' Row, received a phone call.
"Hello?" she answered her phone.
On the other end, Nate said, "Katie, I really need your help!"
"Woah," Katie was taken aback by her friend's panicked tone, "calm down, Nate. what happened?"
"Komane showed up again, only this time he was backed by an exorcist!" Nate continued as, from what Katie could hear, he was running frantically, "they kidnapped Damona, they're gonna put her back into the Crank-a-kai! We're going up to Mt. Wildwood, come with any yokai you've got!"
Katie was quiet for a couple of seconds.
"Katie?" Nate asked.
"Um… Nate… are you sure saving Damona is a good idea?" Katie asked being met by blank stares from both her yokai partners, "I mean, look what she's done since you've known her, she's terrorized your family, got you booted from your house, attacked me and my yokai, don't you think you'd be better off if she wasn't around?"
"Katie… how…" Nate was at a loss for words, he'd never heard her speak like that about anyone, while she wasn't wrong, the half-demon in question had quite the streak, but she also had her moments of light, she introduced Nate to the yokai world, she felt remorse when she knew what Jibanyan had been through, she tried to reconnect with her sister the moment they were in the same room. Damona wasn't bad, per say, she just… needed someone to point her in the right direction, someone like Nate. the boy sighed, "Katie.. I'm going to at least try and save her. If don't wanna help… well I can't force you, sorry for wasting your time."
The line went dead.
"Ugh… come one, the Crank-a-Kai can't be that bad, right?" Katie asked her butler, looking for some reassurance, the look she was met with was one of anger and disgust.
"You haven't a clue what you are talking about, mistress," Whisper said in a grimm tone, "the Crank-a-Kai, is the cruelest, most inhumane punishment in history."
Katie's eyes widened as the yokai continued, "Humanity thinks solitary confinement is bad, this is on a whole nother level. While inside, the yokai are trapped in a sentient limbo, unable to move, speak, not even blink. They lose track of time after the first day, everything just begins to blur together as you are left with nothing but your thoughts, minutes begin to feel like years, as you are locked in a perpetually sleep that you cannot wake from. I wouldn't wish this fate on my worst enemy."
Katie and Komasan looked him straight in the eye, then realised, he'd gone through the same thing as Damona.
"You know why we are indebted to the humans who release us?" Whisper asked, before Katie could answer he said, "because they save us from a fate worse than death, or torture, maybe even worse than the Infinite Inferno!" he looked as if he would snap, "the monks who created that mechanical monstrosity were monsters for wishing that fate on anyone… even creatures they despised."
Katie looked at the sorrow in his eyes, the look of someone who had truly gone through hell and back, and she couldn't help but question, "would she even deserve that?"
Back with Nate who had now reached the foot of the mountain with a look of pure determination, to his right was Jibanyan, paws ignited and ready to brawl, to their left, No-bot, prepared to blast any enemies who showed their face.
"Alright, come on out, EVERYONE!" Nate yelled inserting every medal in his arsenal, the yokai announced their names as they appeared.
"Insomni."
"Yoink!"
"Enefly!"
"Faux Kappa!"
"Swelterrier!"
The five yokai appeared at attention as Nate said, "alright, Damona was kidnapped by an exorcist named Gabriel, the Komane that has been attacking us is his familiar, and from what we can tell, he's going to put her back into the crank-a-kai!"
A chill rolled down several of the yokai's spines at the mention of that capsule machine. The human boy continued, "alright, Enefly, Swelterrier, you know him best out of us, what should we expect."
"Bzz, Uh, Gabriel didn't summon me all that often, bzz," Enefly admitted.
"Ugh, stand aside," Swelterrier pushed him out of the way, "Gabe is one of the best Tamer-class exorcists in the business, perfect record, hasn't lost a target to date."
"That doesn't sound promising," Jibanyan sighed.
"That being said, he's never faced anyone else with more than one yokai at his disposal, occasionally I was called to face a rogue exorcist, but they are usually only armed with a familiar or any weapons they took from the order, so we have a slight advantage," the fiery yokai continued.
"Data collected, Recalculating odds…" No-bot said, "odds of success: 39% :("
"Hmm, what about the yokai he used, Copperled?" the boy asked.
"Copperled?" Swelterrier questioned, being met with a nod, "he's one of the older yokai in Gabriel's arsenal, his yokai power is to make people do what he says, want to avoid him? Don't give him the chance to speak."
"Alright," Nate said turning to No-bot's GPS, "looks like he's about halfway up the mountain, we've got to catch up to them, remember, don't give any of them the chance to do anything."
The five yokai nodded and said, "Right."
And so, they began to ascend the mountain, unbeknownst to them, however, they weren't the only one's on Gabriel and Komane's trail.
At the halfway point of the mountain, the Kabuki brothers stood in the seclusion of the forests, their eyes on the Exorcist, who was leading the small group of their prey, carrying several books in his hands, as well as a wooden staff, close to him was Komane trudge on, a look on his face saying he was done with all of this, at the back, a red snake yokai was leading the elder Oni-princess, who seemed to be in some kind of trance.
"He's taken the princess!" Toadel Demon said ready to leap into action, only to be held back by his crimson brother.
"No, we have the element of surprise, we need a strategy before we can engage, less harm befall her majesty," Arachnevil said, his brother begrudgingly nodded. The two oni huddled to plan their assault. Toadel demon leaped to the opposite end of the trial, ducking into the cover of the trees.
However, the rustling his route caused caught Komane's attention, "Hmm?"
The lion-dog looked to the origin of the sound, seeing nothing, he proceeded, only to hear more rustling. His eyes darted as more rustling came from the opposite end of the woods, "we ain't alone."
Gabriel took notice of his familiar's concern and grabbed his watch, ready to someone a yokai at the drop of a hat.
The rustling continued on either side of the group, making it clear there was more than one hidden observer. Without warning, both the kabuki brothers leaped above them on opposite sides. Arachnevil dove into the ground, smashing it creating a small tremor, knocking Komane and Gabriel off balance. From there, Toadel demon began to launch giant orbs of water, the first two landed near Komane, popping on impact and extinguishing his flames.
The blue oni landed as his brother said, "you are under arrest for the capture of Plundros' daughter, princess Damona. Surrender or we will use deadly force."
The brother's took fighting stances as Gabriel growled, he quickly inserted a medal into his stop-watch.
"Summoning, Tough!" the watch chimed.
"Gruff stuff, Rough, bluff, Red Bang, Chacistand, bling blang, Tough!"
"DROMP!" the massive earth golem's voice echoed through the mountains, causing birds to scatter from the scene. The Kabuki brothers were jaw-dropped at the size of their new foe.
Dromp: A rank
Tough
"Dromp!" Gabriel yelled to the mountain-like yokai.
"Hi, Gabriel!" Dromp waved, moving clouds as he did.
"Dromp, I need to make it to the Sacred Tree, do not allow these oni to follow!" Gabriel called out to him as he, Komane, Copperled, and (on Copperled's opposite command,) Damona started running up the trail.
The kabuki brothers were about to follow, but the terrain beneath them suddenly opened into a massive canyon.
"Oh this is just unffffffffffffffffffaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrr!" Toadel demon screamed as he and Arachnevil plummeted, hitting the bottom with a loud "Crash."
This noise was heard by Nate's group as they passed a tailesmen placed on the side of the trail. The next thing they heard was No-bot say, "error, signal lost."
"What do you mean 'signyal lost'?" Jibanyan asked.
"It would seem I've been cut off from satellite. '-_-" No-bot answered.
"Gabe must have figured out we were tracking him," Swelterrier sighed.
"Don't worry," Nate said getting all the yokai's attention, "I know the mountain trail like the back of my hand!"
He ran ahead, his 7 yokai following his lead. They took a turn to the right only to end up right back at the tailesmen.
"What the?" the boy said in surprise.
"Back of your hand, huh?" Insomni questioned.
Nate sighed and began running again, taking the same turn, only to wind up back at the tailesmen. They repeated this multiple times, before they finally thought something was up.
"Insomni?" Nate asked, "can you give us a bird's eye view, maybe you can see where they are?"
"Gotcha," the Djinn nodded flying upward. She began using her single eye to survey the area, only to be met with a mind boggling sight. The ground around them was moving, shifting, it was as if the mountain was a giant rubix cube, "what is going o-"
He thought was interrupted by her bumping into something, she turned to see a 10 story high dirt mound, with a large patch of grass on top, with huge orange eyes staring right at her.
"Ugh… GUYS!" Insomni yelled drawing the other's attention to the large mountain yokai.
"What the heck is that?" Yoink asked point at the large creature.
"Dromp," Swelterrier answered, "he's a massive earth elemental yokai that can bend terrain to his will, he loves using this ability to mess with humans' heads and make them hopelessly lost in his mazes."
"That's why we keep ending up here," Nate realised, he turned to gargantuan golem and yelled, "Um.. Dromp is it?"
Dromp's eyes seemed to shift toward nate, than he said, "oh, why hello down there!"
His voice boomed causing a gust of wind to blow over the group.
"CAN YOU STOP MAKING MAZES FOR A SECOND? WE REALLY GOTTA GET TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN!" Nate yelled.
"Sorry, but Gabriel said not to let any oni up here!" Dromp's voice boomed.
"Of course, this guy set up a maze maker… wait, did he just say oni?" at that moment Nate got an idea, "WELL… I'M NOT AN ONI! I'M HUMAN!"
"Yeah," Faux Kappa agreed, "NONE OF US ARE ONI!"
Dromp leaned down to inspect them, then said, "well would you look at that, I guess you aren't!"
"SO CAN YOU LET US THROUGH?" the young watch user called out.
"Well…" Dromp seemed to be thinking it over, "Okay I will!
"Yes!" Nate cheered.
"... if the pretty horned lady gives me a kiss!" the giant added.
At that moment, all eyes fell on Insomni, who despite not being seen, was blushing furiously, "NO! No way, I am not doing that!"
"Oh come on!" Nate called to her.
"You wannya save Damonya or Nyot?!" Jibanyan asked.
The one-eyed djinn pouted, "fine."
She floated over to the living mountain, and quickly pecked him on the cheek. Her lips met the taste of dirt which made her gag, despite this, the giant blushed and said, "Ok, you can go."
The sound of the earth shifting back to its original formation rang through the air as the group began running up the trail.
"And one more thing!" Nate heard Dromp say just before something small and metal hit him in the back of the head. He looked down to see Dromp's yokai medal laying on the ground, "Call me anytime!"
"Once you get past the mazes and bleeding ears, Dromp is actually a pretty nice guy," Swelterrier chuckled.
Nate pocketed the medal and joined the haste the others displayed, within minutes they had reached the Mountain shrine, if Nate recalled correctly, the Crank-a-kai was in the back woods behind it. Nate gestured to the yokai to follow him as they were hit by thick forests.
Swelterrier took the lead and began swiping his balde at every branch and plant in their path, eventually, they came to the barrier blocking the capsule machine off from the rest of the world, only now it was opened. The group passed through it and continued to run toward their destination.
In front of the tree that was home to the Crank-a-kai, there was an orb of golden energy, inside of which, an unconscious damona, in front of her, Gabriel stood chanting something from a book in japanese. Close to him, Komane stood and had seemed to have taken notice of their approach, he shook his partner's shoulder, "Gabe, we've got company!"
"What?" he briefly turned to the rag tag team, "keep them away, I'm not done with the ritual!"
"On it," the lion dog said leaping up while swirling his aura, "Spirit Burst!"
A shockwave became a blue barrier of fire blocking them off from the tree.
"Hmm, how are we gonna get past this one?" Nate questioned staring down the wall of fire.
"I've got this one!" Jibanyan said running forward. He began to swirl his own aura before leaping into the air, igniting his fists, "Paws of Flaming Fury!"
He began to rapidly punch the fire wall, his paws glowing like red embers against the blue light. With each punch, the barrier seemed to weaken.
"Hellfire?!" Komane said as Jibanyan delivered a finishing punch, causing it to collapse.
"Like the nyew trick?" the nekomata asked.
"Definitely!" Nate exclaimed as the rest of the yokai charged in. seeing the approaching onslaught, Gabriel went for his watch and began to summon yokai of his own.
"B3-NK1!"
"Enerfly!"
"Rhinormus!"
The three newly summoned yokai, along with Copperled, joined Komane on the battlefield. Enerfly began inspiriting Rhinormus as the beetle yokai charged forward.
"Deleting opposition!" No-bot said coming to the front of the group swirling his electric aura, "ALL GUNS BLAZING! :D"
The yopple-bot began firing all of his artillery toward the insect duo. Thanks to the luck boost, Rhinormus had just the amount of time to turn his back to the robo-kai's soultimate, his back carapace tanking most of the blast, however he was knocked back a few feet.
B3-NK1 saw an opportunity to attack the yopple bot, only to be countered by a blast of water from Faux Kappa, "not happening, my dude."
From his left, Swelterrier drew his blade and swung at machine yokai. However, B3-NK1 swung back with his own weapon, locking the two swordsman yokai in a duel.
Enefly was flying around Komane, taunting the lion dog as he constantly flew just out of his reach.
Copperled slithered over to insomni, with a wave of his fan he said, "you will sssurren-"
He was interrupted by the djinn's eye beam removing his ability to blink, causing him to squeal in pain. Jibanyan jumped into the snake yokai, piercing his hide with his flaming claws, adding to his agony. Finally, Insomni used the end of her spectral tale as a mace and knocked him upside the head. Copperled fell to the ground, disappearing in a puff of purple smoke, only his soul remaining.
At the same time, both Swelterrier and Faux Kappa unleashed their soultimates on B3-NK1, the combination of heat and water being too much for his body to handle. With their own target down, Swelterrier lunged forward and jabbed Rhinomous's chest plate, while his kappa companion hit enerfly with his flask, canceling the inspiritment.
Without his luck boosted, No-bot launched a final bomb toward the giant rhino-stag, destroying his form in a fiery blast, Swelterrier leaping out of the way.
Enerfly attempted to out rune Faux kappa, only to have his thorax pierced by Jibanyan's claw, "Bzz, I regret nothing!"
Seeing his yokai fall, Gabriel prepared to summon more to the scene, only for Yoink to appear out of nowhere and snatch his stopwatch, "Yoink!"
"Ugh, Komane, Stop them!" the exorcist yelled.
The lion dog took notice of the big headed yokai, and tore through Enefly's physical form and began to give chase. Faux stood in his way, but to no avail as Komane's holy fire evaporated the water in his plate, reducing him to a statue.
Next to get in his way was insomni who received a sucker punch to the eye. Finally swelterrier blocked his way, the two fiery canines became locked in combat, Komane was strong, but swelterrier was immune to his heat.
Yoink ran up to Nate handing him Gabriel's watch, "here ya g-ah!"
That was all he had time to say before Komane overpowered Swelterrier and launched a fireball, destroying his form in one hit.
The lion dog glared at Nate, whom was now only defended by No-bot, and Jibanyan, both staring daggers at their opponent. Though upon seeing Nate, Komane's look of anger turned to one of confusion, "what? That's impossible, the holy water in that gas should have removed any inspiritment you were under!"
"I was never inspirited!" the boy shot back.
"But… that demon.." Komane was looking beginning to think this was a huge mistake.
"Damona was never any harm, yes she was annoying, but in the grand scheme of things, the only people she really hurt were those trying to attack her!" Nate yelled in frustration, "she's to me what you are to Gabriel, she may make threats, but she doesn't make good on them!"
"This… Oh no," Komane's face turned grim as he looked to his partner, "The ritual is almost complete! Gabe, SHE'S INNOCENT!"
Gabriel seemed to have not heard him, as he continued chanting. Looking at the watch in his hand, Nate got and idea. He curled his hand back and pitched Gabriel's yokai watch straight at the orb, went it hit, the golden light shattered like glass.
Damona's eyes shot open, in a panic her hands ignited her hands in purple aura, the surpirsed Gabriel also took a fighting stance, pulling out a holy water grenade.
"Stop!" Komane yelled, getting both their attentions, "this is all a big misunderstanding! The family was never in danger, and she was only fighting in self defence!"
"What?" Gabriel said in surprise, before anything else could happen, Nate ran over and grabbed damona in a bear-hug, "Damona!"
"See?" komane said to his partner, who seemed to have gotten the picture.
"Oh… well I'm glad I was stopped," the man rubbed the back of his head.
"Ugh, what happened?" Damona asked, feeling a splitting headache.
"They almost put you back, but it's totally cool now!" her fiance chuckled nervously.
"We apologize for the inconvenience," they heard gabriel saying from behind them, "I hate getting into misunderstandings like this."
"Wait… you guys aren't gonna attack us… but you're members of the order," Damona said skeptically.
"Be that as is may, I would never put an innocent soul in the crank-a-kai," the exorcist replied, "not even demons deserve that punishment without reason."
"We just got a lil' carried away," Komane sighed, "really sorry y'all had to deal with this."
"Well, next time how about you don't start things off by attacking and hospitalizing one of us, mkay?" damona said with a bit of venom, she was rightfully ticked off.
"Point taken, though only if do not get any reports of your antics," Gabriel held out his hand.
"Deal," Damona said shaking it.
Komane flashed a grin at Nate, "here, no hard feelin."
Komane flipped his medal toward the boy, whom caught it and pocketed it.
"Try not to summon me too often, Ah do hav' ta work ya know," the lion dog said, to which Nate nodded. The fiery yokai pushed his partner, gesturing the couple.
"Oh," Gabriel said picking up the hint, he looked through his bag for a few seconds, than pulled from it a Blue book decorated in golden writing that Nate couldn't understand, "I hope you will take this as retribution, it is a yokai Medallium, used for storing medals."
Nate took the book from the man, " thank you, Mister Mamoru."
"You're quite welcome, you should be able to return to your home soon and-" "there he is!"
The exorcist was interrupted by a pair of oni leaping to there side.
"The kabuki brothers?" Damona questioned as a sweat roled down Gabriel and Komane's faces.
"Um… we gotta go," Komane said as Gabriel grabbed his watch and quickly summoned Mirapo, "seeya!"
The exorcist and his familiar leaped into the mirror, which disappeared in a flash of light.
"Darn it, not again!" Toadel demon said kicking the ground.
"Don't worry, your highness, we will not stop until justice is served!" Arachnevil said addressing Damona.
"Uh-" the half-demon started, but before she could say anything, the brothers leaped away, "well than, so you came to save me, huh?"
"Hey, I came here too!" Jibanyan whined.
"Couldn't let my fiance get locked in limbo," Nate chuckled.
Damona returned the favor in one of the cutest giggles Nate had ever seen, especially from her, "thanks."
She pecked him on the cheek, before giving him a grinn.
"Anytime," Nate said.
Meanwhile, in a time and place that they were unaware of, Kin and Gin kneeled in front of a large japanese paper door. From the other side, a figure loomed over them.
"Your highness," Kin said to start, "we were unfortunately unable to persuade the oni princess."
"WHAT?!" a rage filled voice of an elderly woman rung through the halls, "The Brat she's engaged to is the biggest threat to my plans out there, and you FAILED!"
"Forgive us, oh great one, she was much too stubborn!" Gin pleaded.
"I DON'T CARE WHAT IT TAKES!" the voice boomed, "GET RID OF HIS FRIENDS, TEAR THAT WATCH TO PEICES! TAKE EVERYTHING FROM HIM! DUN, DUN, DUH!"
"Yes, your majesty," the two yokai said in unison. What? Did you think we were done?