Welcome to chapter four... already. But it's nowhere near where I want this to go yet.
Just another step, but this is a big one nonetheless.
I'm glad a few of you have favorited and followed my story, it drives me to write even more in the hopes of satisfying your needs.
It's not a classic [insert pairing] where things usually evolve pretty fast, I'm sure I've lost more than a few because of it. That's why I'm really happy about those who did end up following my journey with this. I love you guys.
Enough rambling, let's get to it, shall we?
Echoes of several clashes resound in the glade at the foot of the mountain, each strike getting louder than the previous one. Sangonomiya Kokomi, formerly knocked out of the fight by the surge of power emanating from the rampaging Oni, is currently watching the two protagonists perform their violent dance before her. Unable to find an opening, she is forced to watch or at least, attempt to, as they both fly at each other's throat with inhuman speeds.
"I can barely comprehend what's happening... their heritages are truly preposterous."
Voicing her inability to entirely follow what is unfolding before the indigo of her eyes, the priestess manages to stand up, albeit with difficulty, and rests her back against the rocks behind her.
"Waaaaah! Waaaaah!"
The cries of children reaches her ears, surprising her.
"This is unfortunate. Why are there children here?! I have to do something..."
Kokomi proceeds to slowly walk towards the stronghold above them, abandoning her partner's battlefield. It's not like she could have helped her anyway. There is no opportunity to slip by and even providing healing proves impossible, as Arataki Itto's tremendous supernatural abilities would dispel her jellyfish again. More than that, the dutiful Kujou Sara wouldn't forgive her for leaving vulnerable children fall to the fiends which threatened the peace of the region.
"I leave this matter to you, miss Kujou."
Of course, there was no way her words could reach Sara, but she pronounces them regardless of that fact. It's a form of prayer, a good luck wish of sorts that also serves as reassurance for herself at the moment of leaving the scene.
The magic of words is presently absent from said scene, to begin with; its occupants are too busy conversing through the trading of blows. The tall Tengu is letting arrows lose as the finely muscled Oni employs the art of evasion, with battle-cry shouting in-between. Fierce as the rumbling thunder of Seirai island, their turbulent fight rages on, producing a considerable cacophony of destruction.
"KUJOUUUU!" Roars Itto, his single-minded obsession and Oni blood fueling his will to fight, despite the fatigue plus the wounds wearing down on him.
Releasing a flurry of Electro imbued projectiles, Sara has one advantage over her opponent, being that she remains more level-headed despite her blood-related physical enhancements. Itto manages to dodge most of them on the way to her location, his frenzied state impairing his cognitive reaction time but not his instincts. That being the case, it is nonetheless a melody of fury lead by the general of the Tenryou Commission.
Methodically, she's writing the ballad of her enemy's demise, note by note. The first movement of the score was to play defensively as she had done beforehand, the aim being further exhaustion of the other party. Tapping more into his lineage just by attacking without finding his target was the strategy, but it didn't pay off as much as she had expected, Itto appearing to have bottomless stamina in this instance.
The composition of this second movement is to now go crescendo on the offensive aspect, leaving the defense aside and putting her at risk in order to sound the bells of victory. Sara's focus is now solely directed at her positioning and her zeroing in on Itto's limbs to incapacitate him once and for all. The usage of her Vision is crucial in this endeavor, the Electro element providing local paralysis, were the arrows to find their mark.
In spite of the carefully planned path to Itto's subjugation, such a prowess would only be achieved through an arpeggio of disciplined efforts, with pinpoint accuracy, on a tempo she is only attempting for the first time, today. All of her daily training, coupled with her genealogical inheritance, is necessary to perform at the level required for such a feat. While her Tengu genes grants her better mobility and awareness, it doesn't measure up to an Oni's stamina and brute strength. She is painfully conscious of it: the few blows she couldn't escape or parry had blemished her flawless skin in some areas, like her left cheek scratched by his weapon's spikes or one of the gang leader's kicks striking her right leg, exposed at the end of her splitting outfit.
Itto's ragged breathing ever rebounds on the nearby trees, its tonality making their way to her ears. Their vehement waltz continue for ten minutes which felt like a few seconds for the club armed individual and like eternity for the archer, ironically enough, for how adamant she was about defending the Shogun's concept of it.
"Will you tire already, you idiotic cow?!" Shouts Sara, trying to taunt him and induce a flaw in his assaulting pattern to slip past his defenses. Half of that, though, is also coming from her being tired herself, much faster than he does.
"BWAHAHAHAA! THAT'S IT, GET MAD AT ME! JOIN THE MADNESS WHICH UNITES US IN THIS VERY MOMENT! LET EVERYTHING LOSE!" Replies the taunted, oddly enough mindful of his berserk state.
"Tch. As if I would behave so crudely. Not only would it be a disgrace to the Shogun and everything I stand for, but I would never be able to look at myself ever again, were I to roll in the mud as you constantly do. I've heard of your weird hobbies. To be playing with insects really suits you, I must admit." Retorts the winged woman, exhaling through her nose as a sign of mockery.
"WELL, THANK YOU FOR ADMITTING TO THAT. YOU ARE QUITE THE CUTE LADYBUG. I'M INDEED HERE TO PLAY WITH YOU! LET ME PLUCK YOUR WINGS SO THAT WE CAN ROLL IN THE DIRT TOGETHER THEN!"
Performing some powerful gymnastics as he says that, the man surrounded by the crimson aura of an Oni jets towards her, his left hand extended towards one of her wings while his right hand firmly holds his club behind his frame, ready to parry or strike if needed. Any other person doing this would put themselves in grave danger by being this open, but his otherworldly reactions can cover such things in this state. This brief miscalculation leads to his prey being caught off guard, despite the disadvantage he has been experiencing thus far: Sara was readying a shot at him for his semblance of recklessness, which gave Itto an ample opening to grab her.
Sara instantly covers her feathers with Electro energy, trying to get him to release his grip on the wing. To no avail. She can see him gritting his teeth and pushing through the pain to swirl her around by her fluffy protuberance. Gaining momentum by the second, she is unable to free herself from his iron grasp, spinning at dangerous speed until he abruptly releases her, sending her flying into the trunk of the woody plant a few meters away.
"Gargh!"
Sara spits a burst of sanguine fluids, her neck having hit the frame of the tree first. Stunned and convulsing slightly, the woman cannot help but fall flat on her belly, face to the ground.
"CAUGHT YOU... "
Itto jumps from his earlier spot right to her back, sitting on waist. The weight on her gets her to come to her senses faster, bending her left leg backward to deliver a hard-hitting blow to his own back. He stops it by letting go of his club and catching it, as his other hand is resting on her head to keep her visage into the beaten field.
"YOU SNEAKY BUG... I'M NOT THE IDIOT... YOU THINK I AM...!" He says, while panting from the extended efforts he had to maintain for him to reach this current standing.
The white haired man proceeds to grab her shoulders, holding her arms rigidly fixed in place, and rolls with her in his arms, dirtying their outfits with gray scaled dust and soil, for about three meters. The motion ends with him topping her and the both of them facing each other this time, as he managed to make her lay on her back without letting go of his grip during their time tumbling around.
"KUJOU TENGU...! ADMIT DEFEAT, OR SUFFER EVEN MORE... THE CHOICE IS YOURS!"
"Ugh... huff... huff... I would... rather die in battle... than lose to you.. you... persistent pest... you're nothing but a parasite... refusing to... leave... my life..."
Barely able to align her words, with her voice almost gone due to her windpipe somewhat having been crushed, after Itto had thrown her towards the sturdy plant.
"OH...? VERY WELL THEN! DIE!"
Forming a closed fist with his right hand, the left one strongly pushing between her breasts to keep her from raising her upper body, he swings it down seemingly towards her face with astounding strength. Even the stoicism Sara always sports completely melts in front of this degree of savagery, making her close her eyes in preparation for the impending doom.
'WHAM!'
The punch brutally strikes the terrain, right by her bruised and bleeding left cheek from a previous injury. The improvised arena shakes ever so slightly under the brunt of the hit, surely another proof of his diabolical force.
"YOU THOUGHT I WOULD... KILL YOU? NO, NO. I NEED YOU TO SURRENDER TO ME, NOT RUN AWAY FROM ME. YOU'RE ONE COWARDLY WOMAN, YOU KNOW THAT?"
Prisoner of his whim and weight, Sara cannot do anything else but stay put. She reveals her golden eyes anew, both of the miniature suns greeting the view of the sweaty and bloodied male figure overpowering her. Akin to animal fur, his flowing ivory hair adorn some gravel and mud that he never bothered removing in the heat of action.
"Someone like me... surrendering is unfathomable... use your head for... once... what do you think would happen-"
"SHUT UP, YOU DUMB CROW! STOP THINKING OF WHATEVER YOU DO AS A TENRYOU OFFICIAL AND THINK OF ME! OF WHAT YOU DID TO ME! EVEN IF IT WAS IN THE NAME OF YOUR PRECIOUS SHOGUN..."
Drunk on the awakened Oni powers flowing through him, he pauses before adding.
"KUJOU... IT'S BETWEEN YOU AND ME FIRST OF ALL!"
Itto beats the ground multiple times where he already struck, punctuating his sentence with punches as he voices it. He gets closer to her face with his own, forcing their eyes to meet and their breath to mix.
"LOOK AT ME. NOT AT YOUR DUTY, NOT AT WHOM YOU SWORE LOYALTY TO. AND ESPECIALLY NOT AS HER PAWN, BUT AS YOURSELF. I NEED ANSWERS COMING FROM YOUR SOUL, TENGU."
Closing the gap to her mien even more, as if to scrutinize her soul through the lemon colored windows allowing it to be done, his red horns end up touching her forehead. The uneven haircut she displays splits even more beneath their influence.
Then... it happens.
An electrifying sensation travels both of their bodies, a reaction surely issued from the contact of Itto's active horns under the influence of his blood. The results of the unexpected occurrence... are quite peculiar. Itto grins at her, after the shock dissipated. His aura instantly subsides, returning him to his normal state.
"Eheh. You really... thought that?" Mentions the man, staying cryptic for now.
"Huh?" Sara, in confusion, doesn't quite gets what he meant by that.
The self-proclaimed leader of his gang smiles with a hardly hidden pride, his ego reflected plainly upon his facial features. He then gets a comb buried in his outfit, which makes her raise an eyebrow, before combing his hair with exaggerated gestures: getting rid of all foreign elements from his long and pearly mane, he arranges his appearance without departing from his arrogant smirk.
"I don't blame you. Many maidens would come running to me if I ever went in quest of a woman to start a family." Declares Itto, filling up his chest.
Sara looks at him like he just totally lost his mind. But deep down, she is profiting from the situation, silently gathering enough strength to literally shock him this time, with enough Electro energy for lightning strikes to rain down. His ongoing boasting was anathema to her.
He clears his throat, as if to speak in a more comprehensible fashion, before adopting Sara's hard-nosed tone as he begins speaking afresh.
"Ahem. 'What a shame. For a man with such beautiful countenance to be idiotic enough to oppose her Eternity. His hair like the shiro-naga wisteria, his red horns in their midst attesting of an heritage once precious to the Shogun... I wouldn't have minded if...' ... and I didn't get to find out about the rest, hehe."
To say that Sara was blushing profusely would be an understatement of the highest caliber. Tomatoes would wish to be clad in such carmine hues.
"W-w-w-what nonsense are you spouting?!" She exclaims, flustered beyond reason.
"Tsk, tsk. No need to act all prude and shy now! Bahahaha!"
In Oni folklore, it is said that they were capable of telepathy, effectively making them able to read the minds of whoever they came into contact with. Arataki Itto's lineage only coming partly from them, he cannot use the ability at will. However, the peculiar circumstances of these two individuals seem to have triggered his innate ability automatically.
Sara's cold demeanor she usually wears has totally vanished, leaving nothing but a shadow of her former self. A contrast no one has ever witnessed to this day. Never, ever, had she laid her true feelings for anyone to see. Not even herself. Anything that doesn't further the will of the Almighty Shogun is to be discarded, that is her policy, and she takes it to heart even in private matters. But for her inner thoughts, her only space where her mind and heart can sincerely express themselves, to be violated this way... it is humiliating... shameful!
"Sadly, Kujou... no, Sara." He corrects himself, as he addresses her by her first name. He isn't going to refer to her borrowed family name, nor her race, this time. His objective is to talk to the core of her being, who she truly is behind all those pretenses and titles.
"I cannot answer your passion as long as you keep up this front with me! I've first seen you as a beautiful, majestic bird coming down before me that day. It's that hateful deed you performed which painted you in another light in my eyes! You became a despicable being I needed to defeat, before being the alluring existence I witnessed then. And you hid it all behind duty, mission, and worthless pride!"
Ending his phrase with what turns out to be fairly like a confession, Itto gives a stern look at her, conveying his seriousness.
"D-don't get ahead of yourself, Arataki! I'll never forgive you for this! You hear?!" Spits Sara, after he's finished, having regained a bit of her senses.
"Hey, it's not my fault. Blame yourself for lying and deceiving all those around you, including your beloved Shogun and most importantly, yourself. How does it feel living such a life, I cannot imagine, but I can't say I envy you."
"You've gone... too far now. You will regret... everything you've just said!" Replies an enraged Sara, having finally lost all her cool between the shame and anger building up inside her bosom this whole time.
"Woop."
Itto dodges her attempt at grabbing his throat with her hands, after his guard had ever so slightly been lowered during their exchange, jumping away from her and leaving her free to move again. Be that as it may, she cannot find the strength to stand up, simply kneeling down in front of him. Seething, her panting is loud and rough, her shining orbs set on his primal but undeniably charismatic presence.
"How dare you... invade my thoughts... That's twice today... scums of the earth whom have been forcibly imposing themselves on my intimacies..."
"Don't be so dramatic. Just because I learned you love me... it's no big deal, y'know. I already know my worth after all, it's no wonder your heart was all up in passion."
"Stop saying that! W-Who would... even bother... loving you?! All you do is either childish nonsense or being the most annoying living being in the world! And... love?! As if I would entertain such a... silly thing! I don't... need that!"
Denying it with vigor, Kujou Sara tries to rebuke his argument, shaking her head and translating all her animosity towards the pest who has been on her ever since they met.
"The fact that you even thought of me as good looking and all that shit about you not minding something... seeing you in denial right there is proof of the conflict that exists between who you want to be seen as and who you really are, Sara."
"STOP CALLING ME SARA!" She says, in her ire, turning her head away from him.
But this time, her shame definitely has taken over her anger inside her. Everything tied to her first name... deep down... it's scaring her. She had always lived as a Kujou before all. A general. An enforcer of the Almighty Shogun. Sara? Where was Sara in all that? The little girl who practiced with the army at a young age, when everyone was just thinking she was a boy... even at that time: a girl named Sara was nowhere to be found.
"Aight. But I'm not giving up on making you admit defeat. You're done right here."
"Dream on! I'll never be defeated by the likes of you!" She tries to stand up again, only to fall once more to her knees, having all but exhausted her physical capacity. Her muscles are strained to the utmost, some cramps even surfacing to her calves.
"Aye, aye. You're starting to get boring now. If you want me to stop bothering you, you gonna have to be more compliant and honest with yourself."
Itto then approaches her, before sitting right behind her. With a not so delicate gesture, he slams her head on his lap, laying her down next to him in the process.
"Oi, behave now. As the loser, you have no right to complain." He adds, as she struggles to try and move away from this position.
"Rich coming from you, you bastard! Who kept harassing me on public boards and sending letters every single day to the Kujou estate?!" The woman with the bob erupts in indignation, irritated to witness the nerve of the man she is laying against.
"You think I'd stand by and do nothing after you came up to me the way you did? If it were you in my position, you would have went for revenge, and you know it. It's like a stain you desperately want to erase from your records, ain't it? It's the same for me."
He wasn't wrong, but she would never admit to it.
"Shut up, I'm nothing like the barbarian you are."
"Sure, sure." He pats her head twice in saying so, still with no delicacy whatsoever, Sara wincing under his palm quite literally striking her skull rather than being affectionate.
"Now we're even, so I'll stop chasing after you. I don't know if I feel really satisfied because I could go all out even further... but you offered some resistance. That'll be good enough. I still need to go defeat that fucker who ran the place lately."
Itto touches some spots on his body he had been hurt with blows, and even a wound from an arrow he couldn't dodge. He still kept it in place to avoid bleeding out, counting on his robust constitution to avoid infection. His Geo affinity helped numb the pain and dissipate the Electro contained in the arrow quicker than normal.
Sara's eyes widened at the mention of the enemy she came for in the first place.
"A-ah...! Leave me be already...! I need... to go myself...!"
"Oh shut up, moron. You've flown enough for the day. Leave it to me. Where did the pretty miss go? Isn't she your ally?" He asks, looking around.
"She's... Oh... Probably went ahead... and stop petting my head!" She complains, as he kept giving her head some hand pats absentmindedly.
"I'll take revenge for what they tried to do to you... and fulfill your so-called duty in your stead. 'Not like my objective has changed just because I met you on the way. I was going to do that anyway. This is my hideout, and they ain't gonna rob this from me, like you did with my Vision." He suddenly says, with an austerity he hadn't showed thus far, while touching his godly gem which had been put back in its rightful place recently.
"How-" She interjects, before being cut off.
"Don't worry your pretty head about that and rest. Let me show you which is more comfortable between my manly legs and kissing the ground, first. Bahaha!"
He gets up unceremoniously, which results in Sara's head meeting the soil and getting a pained exhalation out of her.
'But that means he also read my mind about these bastards assaulting me earlier...'
Her thoughts are preoccupied too much with that to criticize Itto for his lack of manners. That realization has her prideful self feeling embarrassed even more. What if he also gained precise knowledge of how she felt at the moment their hands were starting to...
"Gonna look for the pretty lady first and send her back to you. Then I'll deal with that leader of theirs, and make him pay in full. After that, I'll disappear from your life as you wanted. My gang awaits my return, and I have no time to spend on you anymore! I can finally move on!"
Stretching his arms, a bit of pain showing on his face in doing so, he resumes his advance towards the enemy base after the violent interlude between these two fated individuals.
"Farewell, Sara~" He playfully says, waving a hand in the air as his back is turned to her, concluding after.
"Try to be yourself more, I'm sure you'll enjoy the little things in life if you do so. It's important, y'know? You obviously can't wear your heart on your sleeve like myself, it's not in your temperament or upbringing to do so, but being honest with those around you would already be a step in the right direction. Who knows, maybe you could find another to live with, even if they won't be as majestic as I am!"
With those parting words, Itto slowly disappears from her view, his slender but well-built silhouette getting engulfed in the surrounding fog. The winged woman, battered and exhausted beyond measure, can only watch him head to yet another battle. Her feelings are just as much in tatters. Sara's existence is filled with turmoil and barely distinguishes what she perceives inside her heart... as if the wood's fog is also manifesting itself in there. And even the thunderous blast which ensued did nothing to get her out of her own mess of a mind.
Honestly, I made myself sad writing about Sara in this chapter. It's my own headcanon, I know, but the perspective of her not having any sense of appartenance to her first name... I legit felt sad when I ended writing. Man, I really love her though. I'm sorry I'm making you suffer in this story! Hang in there!
As for Itto, well, it's all imagination since he is not out yet, but I'm having a grasp of his persona in my headcanon that I feel isn't that far from reality. Of course, even if he said farewell, this isn't over.
So... be patient, everyone! Thanks for reading!