'Relax I'm not going to harm you.' The humanoid calmly told her as she exhales loudly. She inhales and suddenly jumps up and raises her scythe at the end of it and her hair drips with water. She got a closer examination at what was in front of her and she realised it wasn't human. It was barefoot with two pointed talons with sharp nails similar to a bird's claws. It wore mainly plain black and slightly baggy cloth to cover its legs. Around the waist a long purple sash was tied with loose plates of light armour hanging down in front of his legs as well as the sides. All of them were stopped at halfway to his thighs. He didn't wear a shirt so his lower half of his dark grey skin and toned body is revealed. The top half from the chest upwards is covered with bandages. He also didn't have a weapon with him, only metal gauntlets on both of his arms. He wore a shoulder guard on his right side. His face however is covered by a very strange golden mask. The front of his mask has a huge dark space where his mouth should be, along with two spikes of sorts that resembles very short mandibles hover over the mouth piece emerging from where the cheekbones would be. The nose is covered as the mask forms a thick line that separates the mouth piece from another dark space where his eyes should be. However only one huge glowing eye filled this space. He wore a golden helmet the same colour as the mask on top of his head that was similar in shape to a World War 2 helmet. However the bottom of it curved upwards to not block the eye hole at all. The helmet also protects the sides and back of the head with small plates as well as the top of the helmet has a long spike like the tip of a spear.

'What the fuck are you?' Mitsuko asks the creature in front of her chuckles at her.

'Isn't it obvious? I'm a friend of yours. If you wasn't you'd be dead where you stand.' Even though this creature told her that something told Mitsuko that she can trust him even though he is clearly not human. She lowers her scythe slightly but not enough to lower her guard.

'Ok you may not be human…but I'm willing to give you a chance to explain yourself, so start talking.' She demanded.

'Wow such confidence I didn't think you had that much lady Mitsuko.' Mitsuko's eyes widen in response, if this thing knew she wasn't as confident before that means he must know something about her situation right?

'Ok to start off how do you know me?'

'Didn't my lord explain? He informed us about you.'

'Your lord…that giant water snake thing that dragged me here!?' The creature nods.

'That very one.'

'Ok why did he bring me here?'

'Simple, because he thought it would be entertaining for him to see you develop in this world. As to why you in particular I would probably say it was random chance really. Maybe you have more potential that he saw I truly do not know.' He shrugs his shoulders and immediately crosses them.

'Right ok, how about telling me why time has skipped and no one seems to notice?' She interrogated.

'Ahh so you've noticed that have you? An unfortunate bi product of a…private matter of mine. Nevertheless you don't seem to have changed too much by the looks of it. It may be because you were not originally a part of this world so only we noticed the small skip.'

'Small!? It was six years!'

'And how many of those years do you think were significant? Would you have preferred to be bored guarding that useless emperor for all of them?' Mitsuko grits her teeth and lowers her scythe more as the humanoid chuckles again.

'I didn't think so.'

'Ok…now answer this one…why are you even here talking to me?' She questioned as the humanoid stayed silent…almost like he didn't know how to answer that question.

'I came to ask a simple question…have you figured out why you fight?'

'Why I…fight?' Mitsuko echoed his words inside her mind. She fought to survive that one battle but…that's it. She was just going along with the flow up until now.

'Going along with the flow is all well and good for the moment but you know full well what is going to happen soon. The three kingdoms will form and where will that leave you? Are you just going to serve someone and go along with whatever they tell you to do?'

'I…' Mitsuko hesitated to answer because it was true she didn't really have a goal, all she wanted to do for the moment was survive. She never thought about fighting for a cause.

'There is the option of not fighting at all but we both know you won't do that.' He laughs quietly as Mitsuko glances at the ground as a small frown starts to appear. Water drips from several strands of her hair in front of her crash to the ground.

'W-well its not like you're wrong for not thinking about that during this time. Its perfectly understandable, I would suggest that you give it some thought though after all, you can't be too prepared for the future when you know what's going to happen right?' the creature stammers a small amount. Mitsuko raises her eyes at him and wonders what does he get out of this if he isn't going to kill her like she suspected. A small smile subconsciously forms as he coughs out loud.

'Well anyway I should inform you there's a small village to the North East. About a two day journey I estimate. The village has a small inn you can stay, the Wu Zhu coins in your pouch should be enough to cover the cost. You'll see the army encampment on the horizon the morning after if you move now. It should be easy for you to infiltrate their ranks as they lay siege to the gates.' The creature as he points to a pouch of coins attached to Mitsuko's sash around her waist as well as the direction she needed to go. She grabs it and wonders how it got there since she was pretty sure she forgot to pick it up before she went ahead with her failed assassination attempt. She didn't complain though and figured that she simply forgot that she did it.

'One last thing.' He said as he reached to his side and pulled out a rather large ball of cloth and threw it to Mitsuko who barely catches it with her left hand. She unravelled the ball as it formed in the shape of a small towel.

'You should dry yourself up, we wouldn't want you catching a cold or anything more deadly now would we?' he chuckles as Mitsuko dropped her scythe and quickly dried her whole body. As she was drying her hair the creature in front of her spoke.

'Well if you excuse me I have some other private matters to attend to, we shall meet again Lady Mitsuko.' He started to run but stop once Mitsuko called out to him.

'Wait! One last question…what's your name?.' She told him.

'You may call me…Dodomeki.' He replied as he fled from the scene leaving Mitsuko to continue drying herself as she finds herself repeating that name in her mind.

'Dodomeki huh? I should thank him if I see him again.' She thought to herself as she finished drying herself up. She figured she might aswell take the towel with her as she rolls it up in a ball and attaches to her belt next to her pouch of coins.

'Why I fight…hmm well I'm sure the answer will come soon I guess. Well might aswell go to that village he was talking about.' Mitsuko picks up her scythe and started to travel in the direction where she was told to go. Dodomeki in the meantime scaled up hills near where Mitsuko was. Around half an hour later was when he reached the peak he was surprised to see his huge partner up in front of him looking at the spot where he was.

'Gyuki what are doing up? It was my shift to look after her remember?' He questions as the large shadow turns around to reveal a giant with two massive hooves to stand on. His skin was the same as Dodomeki's however he only wears a large loincloth around his waist. He wielded a giant club in his right hand along with skeleton bracers on his large forearms. His head was similar to that of a pig, a large snout and two giant tusks that extended outwards and upwards.

'I don't know I thought I heard something so I looked around and noticed you weren't here so I looked down and what do I see? You of all demons talking to our lady.'

'Well its not what you think.' He replied as Gyuki walked over to Dodomeki and lumbered over him for a moment before putting his giant hand on his shoulder.

'She's really lucky to have a demon like you looking after her.' He laughed as Dodomeki overcome with Rage punches him in the gut ceasing his laughter. He clutches his stomach and went down on his knees while groaning in pain.

'You really need to learn to watch what you say.' He told him as he crouches over the edge and watches Mitsuko as she starts to travel in the direction he told her to.

'That was really unneeded Dodomeki…urgh.' Gyuki groaned painfully.

'Well that's your fault isn't it? Besides I didn't go down there just to help her a small amount. I wanted to see how the possession was coming along. It seems your little time skipping object didn't affect it like I was expecting.'

'So does that mean its going well or?' Gyuki questions as he starts to stand up still feeling some pain in his stomach.

'It seems its going well. There is something I don't understand though when I looked into her eyes she was…taking it in her stride. She seems to accept it rather than reject it something I didn't anticipate.' Dodomeki tells Gyuki as he contemplates the possibilities of why this is while hunching over the edge.

'Is that why she isn't rolling in pain every five minutes like those that Lord Orochi possessed before?'

'Yes…perhaps he had a plan for her after all…I'm not too sure.' Gyuki slowly crawled to his side.

'Well its probably best not to think about it too much right? After all we're not gonna know what's truly happening unless she tells us right?'

'Heh I suppose…that and we can't make you think too hard right?' Dodomeki prods Gyuki at the side of his head as he chuckles to himself.

'Hey! Don't make me smash you!' Gyuki threatened as he stands up and lifts his club in the air.

'Shh!' Dodomeki replies as he points his finger up at him as he starts sniffing the air.

'What is it?' Gyuki asks with confusion.

'Do you smell that…the smell of mystic flesh. One is very close by.' He answered as a young man appeared before them wearing a standard military uniform but this uniform was a very light teal colour along with a teal bandana. He was armed only with a spear with a light red cloth attached near the tip of it.

'Tch you may have noticed me but this doesn't mean you're not going to die this night.' He proclaimed as he points his spear at them as dodomeki chuckles.

'Is that right? And what makes you think you can take on both of us young one? I thought you mystics decided to your home after that last battle?' He extends his arms outwards.

'Did you really think we didn't notice that disturbance that Orochi caused recently?'

'Disturbance? What disturbance me and my partner here was just out enjoying the scenery and we didn't notice any disturbance.'

'Don't toy with me demon scum!' He shouted as he almost senses the grin behind Dodomeki's mask.

'You can't trick us, we know about your serpents resurrection trying to convince us it's a different one each time but we know all too well. We also know about the latest victim, that poor girl Mitsuko me and my partner saw you with them.' The young mystic smirks as Dodomeki stayed silent.

'Hey what do you plan to do with her?' Gyuki asks in a threatening manner.

'What else? We have to kill her we're not gonna allow another serpent king…well queen in this case to rise. My partner went on ahead knowing where to get her. He'll kill her and I'll kill you and finally we'll put this menace you pose to rest.'

'Damn you I'm going to enjoy crushing you!' Gyuki shouts as he prepared to charge at him Dodomeki put his hand up in front of him saying nothing as he walks forward. The mystic arrogantly smiles as he gets into his battle stance.

'You think you a lowly demon can kill a pure mystic like me!? You must be really willing to die! In that case I'll gladly grant you that!' He charged forward with his spear in front of him. He sprinted halfway until Dodomeki made his move, he lunged forward so fast the mystic had no idea where he was. The next second he was spitting out blood as he saw Dodomeki's piercing eye stare at his soul. Dodomeki bypassed the spear completely and used his left arm to penetrate the mystic's stomach. His gauntlet covered and dripping with blood. He grabs the mystic's head as his head starts to descend from his view and made him look at his eye.

'You have made your final mistake. We are the shadows of our lady and we will make sure that you or anyone will not lay even a finger on her if you dare try to cause her harm. Any who intend to do so will suffer a fate worse than death we will see to that personally!'

Dodomeki slowly removes the arm from the mystic's stomach he screams in pain. He looks at his arm drenched in blood and silences the mystic by penetrating his mouth making only silence fills the air. The drops of blood could be heard as they crashed into pool that is forming below the freshly made corpse. He removes his arm and the body dropped to the ground. Dodomeki stared at the corpse for a few seconds before turning around Gyuki who stood there awestruck.

'Come on its time to go.' He states as he starts to run.

'Wh-what should we do with the body?' Gyuki questions pointing at it.

Dodomeki turns to look at the corpse and replies 'leave it. The crows and the vultures will make short work of it. Now come on we have to get reach the location before that other mystic does.' Dodomeki starts to run in the direction where Mitsuko was headed as Gyuki follows suite.