Im back, suckas~! The hiatus is over, here's a chapter!
Chapter 36: who was she?
Gabriel walked into a dark office, he had received a call from his superiors lately and had been asked to meet with his superintendent.
"You asked to see me, Sir?" he said.
"Agent Mamoru," the man said, turning his chair, "Have a seat."
The superintendent placed a file on his desk labeled, "the Hanran Case."
"You're aware of Miss Hanran, correct?" the man continued.
"Of course," Gabriel replied.
"Well then, I'm sure you're aware of her recent activities," the superintendent pulled several pictures from the file depicting Roxy speaking to various yokai, "some of our spies in the dark corners of the world have discovered she's spoken to all of the major yo-criminal gangs in springdale, the uptown nekomata colony, and multiple high ranking yokai, most of them demons."
"Why would she be doing this?" the exorcist examined the photos.
"That's what I was hoping you could tell me," his superior said, "we have agents investigating but she's proven to be much too illusive. Your record shows you've known her since childhood, so we figured you the best place to start."
"Well, as for how she'd gone from honorbound exorcist in training to dangerous criminal I cannot answer," Gabriel sighed, "however, I can say with certainty that whatever she's planning, she isn't backing down…"
Meanwhile, a storm was brewing outside the Minamoto Memorial Temple. The temple was a grand, japanese inspired building that was roughly seven stories high, surrounded by woods on every side, save for the access road. It was supposedly a budist church in the eyes of the public, but those who resided in it knew better that it was an operation's base for the Order.
Roxy looked the temple over with her binoculars, within her sight were ten or so guards. She was well aware there would be more inside.
"The troops ready?" She asked.
Beelzebold's aura engulfed a nekomata as he said, "That's the last of em."
"Good to hear," She nodded, she turned to the oldman, "Infinite, bring the storm."
The man nodded as his form was engulfed in a purple smoke, revealing his true form. The yokai had dark skin and silver hair, his robes became dark red and covered in golden rope. The bottom half of his body became pure storm clouds.
Uncle Infinite: S rank
Heartful
"Order of the Cross!" He yelled as lightning crackled in his hands, "Your reckoning… HAS COME!"
He shot the lightning into the clouds, charging them with massive amounts of electricity. Several other electric yokai followed suit as the storm continued to grow, blocking out all sunlight for a least a mile.
Next rain yokai shot their own energy into the clouds causing rapid, instant precipitation. Following the rain, wind yokai began creating massive gusts powerful enough to knock down trees. Within minutes, the amalgamation of all these yokais' power had created a record breaking storm.
Of course, this storm did not go unnoticed by the guards.
"Woah… talk about a shift in weather…" One said.
"Yeah, the Next Harmeowny weather app called for all sun today," another said.
"You actually bought that?" the first asked him in a disappointed tone.
"Quiet," the second guard said, "i think I saw something…"
The two looked to the woods, seeing a person riding on a yokai's back come out of the darkness of the forest. The first guard took out a spy glass to find the identity of this mysterious figure.
"Oh my god…" he said, "It's her! Roxy Hanran is here!"
Roxy took a megaphone from her coat, "LOOK! I'LL GIVE YOU ORDER ASSHOLES ONE CHANCE TO SURRENDER! IF NOT, WE'LL TAKE THE TEMPLE BY FORCE!"
"OH YEAH?" one of the guards yelled, "YOU AND WHAT ARMY!?"
The guard next to him promptly face palmed.
"HOW BOUT THIS ONE?" Roxy answered. Behind her, the eyes of tens, nay, hundreds of yokai became visible as they glowed yellow. The guards gulped in fear.
Back with Gabriel, who was unaware this was going on, his superintendent had begun questioning him.
"So prior to finding her in that abandoned house, when was your last interaction with Miss Hanran?" he asked.
"In the academy, just before she was expelled," Gabriel replied, "it had been during the Familiar ritual. Everything had gone normal until it was her familiar being summoned."
"Her familiar being a demon, if the record is correct?" the man interjected.
"Yes, our teachers did not seem very… excited about that," Gabriel nodded, "I don't think anyone had been prepared for that day…
It had started normal, our professor had been lecturing us on the many species of fox yokai, a few of my classmates were goofing off, it was a standard day… than one of the priests walked into the room.
"Good morning, young exorcists," the man said with a grin. The entire class greeted him, bowing in respect.
"What are you doing here, Sir?" One of my classmates asked. Surprisingly, it had been Roxanne to be the first to speak.
"Don't you know anything, jimmy? This is the day we get our familiars," she had said with confidant grin, "bet mine will be metal as hell!"
"While you are correct, miss Hanran, please keep the profanity to a minimal," the priest said dryly, "if you will come with me to the ritual room."
He guestered the door as we filed out of the classroom, I was nervous about the whole thing. Some of the older years had told me frightening things about the ritual, some said they took some of your blood, others that if you didn't speak with with confidence and authority that your familiar would attack you. Roxanne noticed this of course.
"Yo, Gabe, something eaten ya?" she said, her choice of words making me uncomfortable.
"Hopefully not," I replied.
"Nervous about the ritual?" Roxanne asked, she could always see right through people, tell what they were thinking.
"Um, yes, I've heard some… unsettling things about it," I choked out.
"Relax buddy, I got your back," she replied, sporting her signature grin, "as long as you've got mine!"
As Gabriel told his story, the woman in question called fourth her assault. She pointed forward yelling, "CHARGE!"
From the woods, countless Nekomata, Yo-criminals, and random yokai come either to stir up trouble or because they were paid to come, stampeded forward. All of them were engulfed in Beelzebold's golden aura, they might have known this was a suicide mission, but right now they were too bold to care.
The guards commanded the lion dogs of the temple to use their soultimates, creating a massive wall of holy fire… that was where the storm came in. A normal rain storm wouldn't affect holy fire, but since this rain was mostly demonic in origin, it affected it's natural opposite. The rain continued to pour, causing the flames barrier to fall.
Grim expressions fell on the guards as the opposing army enclosed on their temple. Some of the guards began throwing holy water grenades in attempt to slow their approach, however the yokai with the thickest skin took the lead, and a fair amount of them weren't demons. The small explosions barely phased the large yokai.
More exorcists began to join the fray, exiting the temple and drawing their arms. Taking aim, they began to fire their holy water infused bullets. They were able to destroy the physical forms of the front lines, until Baddinyan got an idea.
She turned to a large, gorilla like yokai, "Hey big guy! Throw me!"
The yokai nodded, hosting her in its arm, chucking her over the front lines.
As the nekomata flew through the air, yelling, "Nyice to beat'cha!"
Her paw was engulfed in green flames, similar to her tails. She flew toward an exorcist, knocking him in the face so hard that they both went through the wall behind them. Seeing this display, more of the larger yokai began to throw the smaller ones, who would then use their soultimates.
Roxy donned a grin, her plan was working perfectly.
One guard forced a snake yokai off of himself, "Retreat! Fortify the temple, don't allow them inside!"
The exorcists began to retreat to the temple, locking the doors behind them.
"RAM THE DOOR!" Roxy ordered.
Back with Gabriel, who was continuing his story, "Roxanne was always a confident girl, almost nothing could crack her, so of course she was the last of us to be nervous about meeting their familiar…
Just before her, I had gone through the ritual. It was ultimately a simple endeavor, I simply wrote the kanji for familiar as well as my last name. Next thing you knew, a small, white lion-dog appeared.
While I was getting familiar with my new companion, Roxanne had stepped up to preform the ritual. As she finished writing her name, orange runes had surrounded her. Finally, when they faded everyone was shocked.
What had appeared was a large, reptilian demon, with purple skin and a yellow pompadour, he seemed to have grinned at her, saying something I couldn't hear. The exorcists stationed in the room didn't give him the chance to try anything, they closed him in, but unfortunately he was strong enough to beat his way out of the school. Roxanne wore a face of shock, she was pulled into the headmaster's office…
...that was the last time I had ever seen her, it was weeks later I would find out she was expelled," Gabriel finished, "I heard rumors she had been disowned by her family, but never believed."
"Hmm… unfortunate, thank you Agent Mamoru, I'll see what we can do with this-" the superintendent was interrupted by his phone ringing, "excuse me."
He answered the call, turning away from Gabriel. After about 30 seconds he yelled, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S INVADING THE TEMPLE?!"
Sure enough, Roxy's army had broken down the temple doors, allowing her forces access.
"What took ya?" Baddinyan said as she knocked out another exorcist.
"The door," Roxy replied, before yelling, "RANSACK THE PLACE! ANYTHING THAT ISN'T USEFUL TO US GOES UP IN FLAMES!"
"YOU HEARD THE LADY! GET TO WORK!" Bruff said in agreement.
The various yokai began to swarm the temple, taking anything they found valuable. They began filling sacks with the various golden decorations, weapons from the locked rooms, money from the temples vaults. Any order members were promptly overpowered and tied up… either that or throne out the windows.
Anything not of value, like chairs, tables, non-important books, were all thrown into a pile. As they proceeded, the pile rose up to the ceiling.
"You won't get away with this!" a tied up priest said as Bruff covered the pile in gasoline.
"I'm pretty sure that I just did," Roxy replied with a smirk, when the last of her forces left the building, she through a match onto the pile, "come on, Bro, lets blow this pop stand."
The pile quickly caught fire, fire which spread to the floor as the duo exited the building.
"All right, not bad for our first mission," Roxy said to her army, "alright, you undead bastards, we gotta run. Reinforcements will be at this temple in a matter of minutes, which means we gotta hightail it! Everyone get to the agreed rendezvous points and wait for further orders!"
"THAT MEANS RUN, MORONS!" Bruff yelled, which got the point across that they had to leave. The various yokai all ran or flew in different directions, Roxy hopped on Bruff's back, and they followed.
Just as they said, several black cars pulled up to the burning temple minutes later. The many order members quickly tried to dispelled the flames. Unfortunately for them, it was too late. The half the temple was destroyed, and almost nothing could be found of the valuables it once held.
"I'm sorry sir, we were too late to stop the attack," an exorcist said into his phone.
"This wasn't an attack," the superintendent sighed, "this was a declaration of war."
"Roxanne…" Gabriel sighed behind him, "why are you doing this?"