Occult Beasts: Yatagarasu
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the author created characters and concepts. Thanks to Ranger Red 2.3, Mistycharming and SA June for their OC's used in this fic.
Towering grey brick structures rose either side of an alleyway as a figure within a cloak walked through the narrow passage between the two buildings. The City of Alycone, the Fallen Angel Capital within the Underworld, a den of shady business and bordering atrocious acts during the night. The embodiment of just how far the people of this City had fallen. Continuing through the near pitch black alley, following the brick paving, the figure turned into a narrow corner, being met with the glow of torches and the entrance to a large back alley space crowded with both people and large cages containing beasts snarling, howling and screeching at the mass of individuals gathered.
In truth, those that were gathered were primarily Fallen Angels while others such as demons and even those who at the moment took the appearance of humans were also scattered throughout the crowd. A well dressed Fallen Angel stood out in the open area the crowd had left as two large and burly subordinates wheeled over a large cage. Inside was what looked to be a gigantic crow, spanning eight pairs of wings, varying in size across its body and three legs, thin for its size but still strong enough to tear the average being to pieces with its talons. The beast flapped its wings violently, attempting to break free of the cage that bound it, but unfortunately its efforts were in vain.
The well dressed man rubbed his hands together as the cloaked figure made their toward the front of the crowd. "Alright folks, next up on the list is a really rare one. Coming from a distant realm we don't know too much about is our friend here. From what I've been told by the guy who captured it, it's a rare one called the Yatagarasu. Now I know it looks similar to your run of the mill giant bird but don't worry, I have it on good authority that this creature has a ton of mystical properties that you wish those other giant birds had. Besides you know me, would I ever try to rip you guys off? So that said, how about we start the bidding at say nine hundred souls?" The auctioneer began the bidding.
However, as the bidding began and the first few bids came in, the cloaked figure rose his arm high, holding a sceptre within his extended hand and spoke up with a calm and aged voice that seemed to overpower the other voices at the black market auction. "I'd like to raise the bid to eight thousand souls and if anyone thinks to outbid me, I have ten thousand more at the ready, all from the human era of the black plague."
"Oh my, now they are valuable." The auctioneer's eyes lit up, rubbing his hands together with a wide grin. "Any better offers?" He asked, hoping to milk any further currency he could claw away from prospective buyers, though the area was silent. "Alright, sold to you in the cloak, would you like a control device we recently acquired for an extra two hundred?" he asked with a confident chuckle he could extort the buyer further.
The figure firmly shook his head as he proceeded toward his new possession. "That won't be necessary." He answered as he rose the sceptre, worn and made of bronze, embedded with numerous unfamiliar symbols. Pointing it at the beast flailing in the cage, the figure muttered a few words in an archaic language, a dark purple aura surrounding both the sceptre and the beast within the cage as a result.
A few more moments passed before the aura subsided and the once distressed being trapped within the cage calmed, tucking its worn wings in and sitting perfectly docile as the cloaked man brought down his hood. "Very good, this should prove to be a most interesting test." He spoke as the light from the torches scattered around the back alley flickered against his face, revealing him the be the Fallen Angel General, Amon.
[Occult Circle]
Mid-November, at this time of year, the trees throughout Numin were completely bare and the air was bitterly cold. An unfortunate fact that the students of Numin High had to come to terms with, as on this particular day, the school's heating system had a fault and would take time to fix. The result was that most students were either left shivering in what little layers of clothing they wore or were covered from head to toe in cold weather clothing. In the class where Max and Nyssa resided, this was also the case, except for one exception. The latter wore the same kind of outfit as usual, completely unphased by the cold environment while others clad in far more layers than her shivered uncontrollable.
"Nyssa, how can you be completely fine when its this cold out? Even I'm not doing so good and I should be used to the cold by now." Max asked as she gave a nonchalant shrug.
"I'll admit that I'm surprised that Numin gets this cold but compared to my home, it's nothing. So I suppose I'm used to it. Even then, we're conditioned to stand the cold so we don't even notice when we are cold."
Scratching at the side of his neck, Max gave a nod. "Yeah, I'd get why then, from what I read up on Wulfen, seems like Lycans go through something similar. Pretty surprised you guys go through that too, is you're home that bad you need to or something?"
Nyssa promptly shook her head and clenched her jaw, remaining silent for a few moments before uttering quietly to the fellow ranger. "Alycone is practically one big crime ridden ghetto for my people and it's been left to go wild by Skuros. The one's on the top like to keep appearances so the City doesn't look as bad as it is and everyone usually lives as good a life as this country's poor. Meaning it's not something we need to learn but if we ever lose everything, there's only the dark and dank slums left. So I guess we all learn to prepare for if we're ever unlucky enough to end up there."
Max pulled his head back slightly. "Damn sounds like things are rough, maybe once we're done with Skuros you can do something about it." He suggested.
"Hmm… I doubt I could but it's something to think about I guess. Speaking of the cold though, I'm surprised you're all wrapped up too. It isn't too hot under that collar of yours at all is it?" She asked with a small chuckle.
Giving a sigh, the ranger shook his head. "You're not gonna stop with the dog jokes any time soon are you?" To which Nyssa firmly shook her head. "Why am I not surprised. Guess I'm just not used to it like you."
"Maybe… but sometimes I wish I didn't need to at all." She muttered quietly.
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Max asked, his ears twitching as he picked up on what he wouldn't have heard had he not been a Lycan.
"Nothing to worry about, let's just get through the rest of the day, I heard Joe wants to go over another one of the cases today, something about a ghost I think."
"G-Ghost!?" Max asked, visibly panicked.
"Oh, you're afraid of them? It'll be a bad day for you then." Nyssa giggled.
[Occult Circle]
Numin City Center, only a few blocks away from the High School, is a popular commercial district, housing a large garden plaza at its core and surrounded by rows of modern buildings, housing stores, restaurants and several forms of entertainment, the most popular being an arcade. In recent years this area has been revitalised in the first phase of restoring the rundown aesthetic of the City into what it is today. A success which is evident in the crowds throughout the area.
Atop the old Colonial town hall building, Amon stood watching the innocent civilians below go about their daily lives. He now held both his staff and the sceptre that controlled the mythical bird he had bought from the auctioneer. Tapping the latter rod on the roofing of the building, a gust of wind blew by the Fallen Axis member as the Yatagarasu swooped by, latching onto the edge of the building with its three spindly legs.
Amon wore an amused grin. "I've waited for quite some time to test our opposition with something so powerful. While our armies gather, our agents sabotage and Lord Skuros prepares us for our war against the Underworld, this should see just what the Occult rangers are made of. I've only heard the tales, but I suppose I'll see for myself. Just what makes a beast of the Farlands so special." He said with a grim tone. "So, let's begin." The General finished as he unfurled his four sootlike wings and swooped down toward the unsuspecting victims below, followed shortly by the Yatagarasu.
As the bystanders walked freely through the plaza, the dark shadows of both the Yatagarasu and the Fallen Angel glided across the ground, prompting curious civilians to look above to the sky, only to be met with horror as Amon unleashed darkened bolts of magic from his staff as he flew, attacking aimlessly. As he did so the sceptre he held to control the beast flared to life and the crow-like creature circling the area opened its large beak as a large sphere of fiery energy built up from within. In only a few seconds, the fiery energy sphere erupted from the Yatagarasu's beak and propelled itself down toward a young family below.
Their eyes wide with terror and petrified with the fear of what they were witnessing, a young man and woman clutched their infant tightly between them. Their fear too overwhelming to do anything else as they waited for the fiery end to come. As the sphere came into contact and the couple thought it was over and shut their eyes tightly, bracing themselves for the excruciating pain that would no doubt come from being hit with such and attack, they only felt a warm glow cast over their eyes. Opening them hesitantly, relief came over them as the white ranger stood ahead of them, wings extended and struggling to keep her footing in her rush to reach the in time.
As they looked on both grateful and in awe of the angelic being, Sera had her hands extended, projecting a barrier of Celestial energy to hold back the beast's attack. Turning her head as far as she could without losing her focus, the white ranger spoke with haste to the couple. "Please, get to safety, we'll deal with the creature." She prompted them to seek shelter as the Occult rangers sprinted and flew onto the emerging battlefield.
As they ran from the scene, Sera redirected her efforts to the fiery energy sphere pushing back against her barrier. Soon enough the Occult rangers joined her.
"Sera, you alright there, looks like you could use a hand with that." Max asked as her foot slid back slightly.
Gritting her teeth as the force of the energy strained her own powers and her barrier began to weaken the white ranger nodded. "I'd appreciate the help, I don't know how long I can hold on."
"Alright make room everybody, I'm gonna do something pretty reckless here." He added as the rangers shifted from where he was signalling.
"Max, you're not about to do what I think you are, are you?" Saya asked from where she stood, but the blue ranger simply shook her head as he answered her question with action rather than words.
Tapping into his Lycanthrope abilities, Max shot forward with an incredible burst of speed toward the weakening white ranger, pulling her out of the hit zone of the attack as her barrier broke and the Yatagarasu's attack struck into the ground and unleashing a small quake as it erupted. Regrouping with their two comrades, the rangers helped them to their feet as both Amon and the beast under his command descended to the damaged plaza.
Joe sighed and shook his head. "You're right Max, you were a little reckless there. Just try not to make a habit of it. But thanks for getting Sera outta there."
Slapping the back of his helmet, the Lycan ranger shrugged. "No problem, just doing what I think is best in the moment. But after doing that, I don't think I wanna try it again." He added with a nervous chuckle.
Their attention quickly turned to the perpetrators of the attack however, as the Yatagarasu landed with a heavy thud and Amon lowered himself to the ground beside it. Each ranger tensed up on seeing the Fallen Angel general and the creature responsible for the powerful attack.
"So, it seems I finally get some time with you rangers. Impressed by the display? I know I am, to think, the power this beast wields can easily shatter a barrier of Celestial energy. You did put up a fight though, commendable little Angel." He expressed his observations before shaking his head. "But now is not the time to examine my enemy. Now is the time for battle. Come, let us see just how powerful you are. My Yatagarasu should be the perfect foe to test you." As the General raised the control sceptre, the five Occult rangers drew their weapons.
"Sera, stay back on support, that new power of yours should come in handy." Joe ordered, the white ranger returning a firm nod. "Saya, Max, we'll go after Amon, hit him with everything we can. Nyssa and Ellie, keep that thing off us. He's the priority, so if we can take him out, the bird shouldn't be a problem afterward."
"Alright!" Came a confident chorus from his teammates as they charged toward their intended targets.
Taking a firm footing, Sera began calling upon the Celestial energies flowing through her. Underneath her feet, a seal of Celestial energy began to manifest while smaller variants appeared hovering from her palms. In a short burst of light, the energy fired from her hands in five directions, connecting with each ranger's personal weapons and imbuing them with Celestial power.
"Your weapons should be a bit more effective now, I'll keep support from above!" She called out to the other rangers as she unfurled her wings once more and ascended above the battlefield to do so.
As the amber, red and blue rangers charged toward Amon, the old Fallen Angel laughed. "So that's your strategy? Divide and conquer, such a simple move." He commented as he unfurled his wings and leapt backwards and slightly to his left.
The three rangers followed wondering why he had only taken a short leap. As they came near enough to strike, Amon tapped the sceptre on the ground and shook his head. "I expected better than that from you." He spoke as the large raven-like beast swooped in with tremendous speed, outmaneuvering both Nyssa and Ella who struck at the air instead of their target.
All three rangers on the ground froze in complete surprise as the Yatagarasu knocked them to the ground with the force of its wings. While the three flew back and hit the ground, the other two rangers darted over to their downed teammates. None of them had expected the beast to be so fast or powerful but now they knew they were dealing with an extremely deadly foe.
Sera soon floated down to her teammate's side and helped the crimson and black rangers raise the other three to their feet. "Are you all alright? We're up against a strong creature here, if we can't beat it we should pull out before anyone else gets hurt." She expressed her concerns to them.
Joe shook his head as they turned their attention toward the beast and the General it was protecting. "No, it's fine. I think I've figured things out anyway. Looks like that staff of his controls it."
"Like how the collar controlled the Nightspawn?" Ellie compared the two situations.
The red ranger nodded and gripped his blade tighter. "So maybe it's just another innocent creature they're using against us. There's only one way to find out though. Saya, you think you can break it?"
The blue ranger nodded firmly as she gave her blade a twirl. "I'll be ready to kick it in half on your signal."
"Sometimes I wonder if you really know what a kick is." Max muttered as they prepared to launch their counterattack.
"Alright, everyone else, let's keep it occupied." Joe commanded as he led them toward the beast before them.
Rearing up and spreading its eight spans of wings, it unleashed an aggressive screech to unnerve the five as they charged forward to meet the beast. Advancing ahead of the other rangers, Ellie and Nyssa took first shot at distracting the beast, Nyssa firing arrows it it's wings as she used her own to maneuver around the beast and take aim at non vital areas. As she did so, Ellie took the primary focus of the beast, nipping at it's with her dagger.
"Alright, looks like it's distracted, Saya, go after Amon! Max, let's charge it head on." Joe decided as Max readied his axe.
"I'll lay down some cover." Sera added as she called upon her celestial power and began forming several Lightspears around her.
Clashing with the beast, max knocked it's beak away, using his axe to guard him and the red ranger from the attacks the birdlike creature tried to land while Joe danced in and out of the Yatagarasu's line of sight, cutting along its body as he did so.
Having been bought the time uninterrupted to form the lightspears, Sera now took aim and directed the weapons formed of pure Celestial energy toward the current major threat. As they zipped through the air, while the beast swatted at the other rangers around it, Sera was certain this would be enough to stop the beast in its tracks.
As the weapons approached however, the Yatagarasu turned its head toward the weapons and beat its wings, unleashing a great gust of wind that knocked the rangers backwards and scattered the lightspears across the plaza which soon dispersed as Sera's surprise at the creature taking such action caused her to lose her focus on manifesting the Celestial weapons.
Joe winced as he hit the ground hard and gritted his teeth as he slowly stood up. Looking toward the sky above where the Fallen Axis member stood, he gave a nod. Saya, who had took position and now floated above the unsuspecting General quietly observing the battle with interest, returned a nod as her blade ignited with fiery blue magical flames.
Tucking in her wings and descending with speed, Saya brought her leg out in preparation to kick, bringing it in just as she reached the staff and replacing it with her flame imbued cutlass. "Leviafang Kick!" She announced, gaining the attention of amon who stared on dumbfounded that they had outmaneuvered him as the blade sliced through the control sceptre, breaking it cleanly in two.
Amon took a few steps backward, visibly shocked and waited a few moments to regain his composure from the surprise attack landed by the rangers. "Well played miss Leviathan, using a kick as a feint and substituting it with your blade for the real attack. Quite a well thought out move from you, especially vocalising it to misdirect your opponent. I'd imagine they'd respond with shock too, further throwing them off."
"At least someone gets it." She muttered with slight frustration that only this particular foe understood.
"Regardless, it seems you've broken my staff and my hold over the Yatagarasu, unfortunate. You see, now I can't control it, I may as well kill it. From what I understand, its bodily components can still be of use and it isn't useful alive now. You see I'll win this either way." He explained as he brought his staff around and struck her with a heavy blow to the side of the head, knocking her to the ground. "Now to deal with the beast."
Raising his staff, Amon began channeling the dark magical energies from his body and unleashed a wild chain of darkly hued lightning upon the freed creature. It let out a screech, clearly in pain as the other five rangers regrouped to plan just how they were going to stop this.
"Looks like Saya broke the sceptre." Ellie commented as she looked back to the creature yielding to the lightning. "But now Amon's trying to kill it."
"We can't let him hurt an innocent creature, we've got to stop him." Sera called them to act.
"You're right, we've gotta stop him now, but that lightning… It's straying from the main burst, I don't think we could get near him without it taking us down too. We can't risk getting ourselves caught up in that and dying too, much as I hate to say it." Joe observed, grimly deciding it was too risky.
"I understand why, Fallen Angels like Amon tend to use death magic like this, it saps away at the life force of anyone caught up in it." Nyssa explained to them. "But we're in luck, death magic tends to make the user suffer too."
"So we just wait for it to hurt Amon too? You're going to risk it dying over that!?" Sera exclaimed, clearly thinking it was an unacceptable course of action.
Nyssa however, shook her head. "Under normal circumstances, we would wait, but we're fortunate. You see because as our name suggests, we're Fallen. Meaning the life granting energies of an Angel were stripped from us, and we were marked as bringers of death. Thus, death magic doesn't seem to affect us because we were stripped of the essence contained inside all other beings."
"Meaning you can get close enough to stop him." Max worked out where she was leading.
"Exactly. Now stay here. I'll take care of Amon."
Walking forward, Nyssa moved freely through the chaotic chains of lightning, the electricity repelling from her ranger suit. Pushing forward, Nyssa soon reached Amon who simply chuckled. "So that's how it is." He said as Nyssa balled her hand into a fist and brought it back before throwing a right hook into Amon's face, connecting and knocking the General back.
As he staggered and tried to regain his footing, the spell chain broke and freed the Yatagarasu from its impending certain death. Amon simply smirked. "I think it'll be more useful to you than anything, besides it is of no loss to me. When next we meet, daughter of Skuros." He said, sending a shiver down the black ranger's spine as he extended his four sootlike wings and fled the area with haste.
Turning around, the other rangers ran up, both Joe and Sera helping a dazed Saya to her feet and checking her over for injuries. As they did so, the Yatagarasu cautiously approached. Appearing much calmer than it had been in battle. Walking on its three lanky legs, the beast approached Nyssa and lowered its head, as if it were paying respect to her for her actions. Playing her hand on the beak of the Yatagarasu, Nyssa gave a nod.
"I'm sorry too that one of my kind would cage you like that, we're given wings to fly free after all, not be tied down by power hungry monsters like that." the beast seemed to let out a heavy breath to imply it agreed.
Surprisingly, as it did so, the Occult ring on Nyssa's finger flared to life with energy, spreading around the Yatagarasu in similar fashion to the Nightspawn residing inside Ellie's ring. Encompassing the giant crowlike creature, its form shrank and devolved as the creature became part of Nyssa's Occult ring.
"Huh, looks like that thing with that Nightspawn wasn't a one time thing…" Max spoke up.
"It looks like it. Maybe we're encountering these creatures for a reason and this isn't just something random." Joe suggested.
"Whatever the case." Saya spoke up, having come around. "We should get out of here for now. We've kept a low profile thus far, but it seems that might change soon. We should depart before they try to come thank us." She pointed out as the once terrified civilians emerged from their hiding places to see the six rangers standing there, triumphant. The looks of relief and gratefulness to the six mysterious rangers only heard about in rumor so far, was definitely more than enough publicity for one day as some civilians began taking photos of the group with their phones and others began filming them.
"Then allow me." Sera spoke as she began channeling more of her energy to form a large golden Celestial themed aura sigil beneath their feet and in a flash of light, the six disappeared completely much to the crowd's surprise.
[Occult Circle]
That evening, Saya lay resting on the roof of her home in Numin, looking up to the clear skies and the stars twinkling in the sky. She let out a clearly tired sigh as she looked to the sky. As she rose from where she sat and decided to go inside, she stopped in her tracks, her ears pricking up. Though it was distant, she could hear what sounded like wailing, yet it was still very far from her current location. "That sound, I'm hearing it again but… It's closer than it was before. Could it really be?" She wandered as it seemed to fade and the young demon shook her head. "Maybe I'm just tired after all."
|Occult Circle
Occult Beast - Yatagarasu - A great, powerful and mystical giant bird from the mysterious realm of the Farlands, this beast has been widely revered in eastern human cultures. Because of its abilities and the uses of its body parts in the Supernatural world, this creature is widely sought after, thus they tend to stay within the realm of the Farlands for their own safety. As its name suggests, the 'eight-span crow' possesses eight spans of wings, many of which are used in combat. It is also believed that the appearance of one is a sign of Divine intervention in the affairs of mortals, though which Divine could be interfering with the path of the Occult rangers is a mystery...
And that's chapter 24. Before I go on, a big Happy New Year to my readers, whether you be regular or new, even though I'm two and a half weeks late to that and I hope you all had a great Christmas or whatever you might celebrate too. Apologies for the wait with this one, Christmas and the New Year surprisingly gave me less time than usual to write anything and I didn't really make any significant progress with anything until getting back to Uni. That said, I'm going to try and do better this year in terms of how much I get out and try and improve the quality of my writing if I can too.
So this chapter was interesting, instead of going for something made up for the series, I went for a mythical beast of the same name. It's closely related with several eastern cultures and folklore but I decided to focus on the Japanese mythology of the creature with a few deviations here and there since it seemed most appropriate. As for what Saya heard again, don't worry, you'll see about that soon. But for now, the next set of chapters is gonna focus on Max and the first of which will involve a special character in my opinion. So until then, thanks for reading.
Next Chapter: Occult Encounters: Aumakua
Synopsis: When Max and the others search for a mysterious ghost haunting an old building, they encounter Hunter leading a hunting pack of Lycanthropes. When a battle ensues against an overwhelming foe, will things go in their favour or will the barbaric Lycanthrope finally establish his strength over his rival, or could other, stranger things transpire? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Occult Circle.
