Chapter 34: the hot clan
It was a hot day in uptown Springdale. Extremely hot. So hot that when Jibanyan tried to eat a Chocobar, it immediately melted.
"WHAT!?" He yelled as the melted chocolate covered his paw.
"Seriously? The AC's on full blast, how is this possible?" Nate questioned.
As if to answer, Damona screamed from downstairs, "NATE!"
The human met his fiance at the bottom of the stairs, she seemed angry. Purple sweat was rolling down her face and her kimono seemed to be on a lot looser, with the obi just gone.
"Who invited them?" she asked, pointing to the living room.
"Invited who?" Nate said opening the door, he immediately noticed a familiar red dog yokai sitting on the couch, "Swelterrier?"
The fiery yokai turned to Nate, "oh, Nathan, I had no idea you lived here!"
"What are you doing here?" Nate asked as sweat rolled down his face.
"Me and the boys are having our monthly heat party!" Swelterrier replied.
"Boys?" Nate asked going for his watch, after shining the light, three more yokai were revealed.
One of them was a short, bipedal Lion with a main of fire and wearing a black gi, a white scar between his eyebrows.
The second was much more humanoid, but was definitely obese, his roles of fat covered in sweat, he had a big lip, tiny nose and several black and red horns on his head. The only thing he was wearing was a red towel around his waist.
Finally, was a large pig yokai who was wearing a scooba mask, a towal around his neck, and a loincloth, had a weird purple mohawk and was carrying two wooden tubs.
Damona sighed, "evidently, Swelterrier decided to invite his buddies for a heat themed yokai party."
"Ya darn right!" the pig yokai exclaimed.
"ROW!" the lion roared in agreement.
"Let me introduce everyone!" Swelterrier said, "this is my bud Blazion, the maestro of motivation!"
"Rowr!" Blazion roared again, something told Nate he couldn't speak.
Blazion: C rank
Brave
"This is Sproink! The big pig who'll never turn down a lava bath!" Swelterrier continued pointing to the largest of the bunch.
"How's it hanging?" the pig chuckled.
Sproink: A rank
Eerie
"And lastly, our newest member, Swelton," the fire dog finished.
"Hey," Swelton said.
Swelton: C rank
Tough
"Question," Damona said, "why did you bring four heat yokai to a place where an ice yokai lives?"
"Jibanyan's a fire yokai," Swelterrier said in his defense.
"Jibanyan doesn't burn, melt or heat everything he touches!" the oni-princess shot back. She growled, "honey, can we discuss something in the other room?"
Based on her tone, Nate knew he had no real choice hear. The young couple went into the hall.
"Ok, we need to get rid of them," Nate said.
"MY GLACIAL CLIP IS MELTING, OF COURSE WE NEED TO GET RID OF THEM!" his fiance screamed.
"Can't you just freeze them?" Nate asked.
"If it were just Blazion or Swelton definitely, Sproink maybe, and Swelterrier if I had help. But all four of them? I can barely make ice cubes!" Damona said, making an ice cube and pressing it to her face, it promptly melted five seconds later, "... see?"
"With help… I know!" Nate said, pulling out a yokai medal, "Come on out my friend, calling Faux Kappa! Yokai medal, do your thing!"
"Oh? Summoning time," the watch chimed as he turned the dial to 1, the charming melody played before he switched it to 2, "Summoning, Charming!"
"Faux Kappa!" the turtle yokai said on his arrival, "what's the word, chief?"
"Swelterrier's acting up again and this time he brought his friends," Nate said bluntly.
"We recommend we freeze them now before all water in the area is evaporated," Damona charged her hands with her cold magic, "you soak 'em, I'll give' em frostbite!"
"You got it," Faux began charging his aura.
Damona open the door, "alright, you suckers are getti-"
She was cut off by a blast of smoke blowing in from the living room. The oni princess coughed a few times before it cleared up enough for her to see the four heat yokai chuggin hot sauce.
"Ugh, it's worse than I thought!" Damona yelled, "flood the room!"
"Um… Damona…" Nate said, turning his fiance toward the Kappa, who was now a statue.
"They… evaporated the water in his plate?!" the oni princess yelled.
"We're just getting started, bring the heat boys!" Swelterrier exclaimed, the rest of his clan cheering.
"Ugh, now what?" Damona asked.
"Let's try Robonyan," her human fiance replied. He inserted their medal in the watch.
"Robonyan!" the robo-kai said on arrival, "how can I be of service?"
"We're dealing with four heat yokai," Nate and Damona said in unison.
"Oh… the hot clan… Don't worry I have a freeze ray," Robonyan replied in an annoyed tone as a canon extended from their chest, "time to put these fiery fiends on ice."
"Eh!" Nate cheered as the mechanical nekomata charged into the room. Sounds of zapping and explosion were heard.
The door opened to a dazed looking robonyan, "error… heat… unbearable..."
The robot collapsed onto the floor, their face smashed into the hardwood.
"We're gonna be here awhile," Damona sighed.
Meanwhile, in another part of town, a gruff old man in a black robe and old timey shades unlocked his door, carefully checking for anything suspicious before leaving his home. He walked to the edge of his yard, opening up his mailbox.
He sighed as he pulled out yet another letter from "R.R."
"You know, it'd be polite to at least reply," a voice said behind him.
"What do you want with me, mortal?" the man growled turning.
Roxy snickered, "your help, of course."
"I've heard of you, foul woman. I want no part in anything you say!" he shouted. Walking back to his home.
"Really… not even retribution?" Roxy asked, this caused him to stop. She continued, "your little disguise doesn't fool me. I know well enough who you are, and what the order did to you… and your wife."
"What are you playing at?" the man asked, his temper rising.
"I have a plan to strike the order where it hurts most. It would go much smoother if it were to be aided by… I don't know, the storm of the century?" the woman went on, "what do you say? Because of them, your son will never know his mother after all…"
The man took a deep breath, "I can never forgive what the order has done to my family… what is this plan you speak of?"
Roxy smirked, "let's discuss the details, shall we?"
Later, Katie arrived at Nate's doorstep after getting an urgent text. She knocked on the door, her friend opened up immediately.
"Katie, I need your help," he said.
"Help with wh-" she stopped after seeing what looked like every yokai friend Nate had passed out of the floor, covered in sweat.
"Swelterrier's hot clan showed up and I have exhausted literally every option except you and Noko, but that's not really an option because Damona is terrified of them," Nate explained.
"Screw you!" Damona panted on the floor.
"Hot clan huh?" Katie asked, "actually… I might have something for that!"
She brought out her yokai watch and inserted a medal into it, "Summoning, Charming!"
"Alarming, boom boom, wala wala, dance dance, Charming!"
"B-blizzaria," the yuki-onna said nervously on arrival, "h-hello everyone!"
"Wow, she look's just like Damona," Nate said in surprise.
"What! No she doesn't! We look completely different!" Damona yelled jumping off the ground.
Both Nate and Katie gave her a "really?" look.
"Aria?" Katie said, "could you try and deal with Nate's hot clan problem?"
"I c-can try, I've b-been gaining some confidence thanks to Beelzebold," Aria replied, "my p-powers should work a bit better than before."
She floated over to the living room and opened the door, "h-hello?"
Three of the the for hot clan members stopped in their tracks, staring her straight in the eyes with tiny pupils.
"Bli- bli-bli," Swelterrier, Sproink and Blazion all seemed to be frozen in fear, they all finally ran out of the room screaming, "BLIZZARIA!"
They took off running out of the house leaving everyone confused.
"W-was it something I said?" Aria questioned.
The final member of the hot clan walked up to Nate and said, "I don't know what that's about, but Blazion is my ride, so I'd better catch up. Here, for your troubles."
Swelton handed over three yokai medals, one for himself, Blazion and Sproink. The sweat yokai than took his leave.
"Um, thanks Katie, you too Aria," Nate smiled.
"No-prob!" Katie replied, returning the expression, though Nate noticed something off about her. On her right ear was a piercing almost identical to Gabriels, she'd never worn it before.
Damona also noticed this, "That little traitor."