Kogatana's Challenge

Kogatana met them almost as soon as they entered. His eyes were full of determination, surely Sierra would be his now. She, however, had different plans, and shot him with her simple Handgun. It was a message to say she wasn't interested, that he ought to look elsewhere for a bride. Not that it convinced the Ninja Demon in any way, if anything it increased his determination to snag her.

"Now then, my lovely," he whispered, "You and I are above these foolish humans in terms of power. I will give you whatever you want, just join me and be my bride. You can have money, power, be a general in the Lady Shihaisha's army. Just marry me, and I will get it for you, sweet Sierra."

"No thanks, I'm not interested. I told you before, my kind was created to fight the Demons in the old war. We may resemble them, but that's only because captured Demons were the subjects for the whole experiment, it was through studying them that the human and Elw scientists were able to find a way to create my race. So, I can't be your bride, sorry to disappoint you," Sierra stated.

His wicked laughter was so loud, that Kyoku hid in her friend's backpack. The Demon said, "You are quite the disagreeable woman. But you know I can claim your soul in the same way I did before. And this time, I'll know to do something about that horrible mouse first, say put her in a cage until there's no going back. For once you drink of my potion of servitude, I will have control over you for all eternity." He continued his insane laugh, and the whole team began to back off a little bit.

Sasha looked at Jacob, signaling his attention. "He's a happy little nutcase, isn't he? There must be some way of keeping his greedy paws off of Sierra, say a little Saint and Super Nova to the heart." She had just named the light elemental spell on her Crest Board, as well as the more powerful spell that had been granted to Jacob in the time he'd practiced with Iona Paua.

"Yeah," the Baskar replied, "That ought to shut him up. Mostly because he'll be dead as well." The youth chuckled at his own joke, and smiled at his beloved. Of course, no one could see what was so funny, and the human, Holmcross, Wind Mouse, and Demon were all sweat dropping.

"You guys are weird. Anyway, we're fighting if you don't want to leave us be. All we need is to stop this plot, if you just stand aside and let us kill the Lady Shihaisha, and Lord Kaibutsu, you can live in peace on Filgaia. Don't you know, the Lady was stealing the power and life from those of her mortally wounded warriors? If you want to live, let us get by and stop her plans," Lyle told him.

Kogatana yelled, "I will never yield. All you fools will die. Except, of course, the beautiful Sierra, she will be mine before the night is through." Then, he pulled out his two daggers, and faced the four Silver Wolves. In turn, each brought out their own weapons, ready to fight to the death to stop him.

Kogatana jump attacked, using his daggers to spear Lyle, seeing that he seemed to have a sort of

crush on Sierra. The Demon blamed him for the woman's unwillingness to join him. Lyle, in return, hit him with a Divide Shot. Sierra followed up with Arc Smash, while the sorcerers used their most powerful light spells. That was when Kogatana got mad. He began to cast a spell to kill all of them in one hit. It was able to knock down Jacob, but Sasha had already begun to cast Hi-Revive on him.

Lyle began thinking about that attack. 'He cast it with knives, but maybe I can put that power into a sword. Then, I can stop him in one fell swoop.' With that, a new Fast Draw hint was acquired. On the first shot, it went off, casting the Void spell. This instant death attack hit Kogatana, knocking him down as well. The Demon fell near the wall, his body already near death, and cried out in agony.

"Why," he wondered, "Why does it have to end this way? I was all powerful, I had all the abilities that were needed to make my goal. The girl was almost my bride, why do I have to die now? Curse you, swordsman! Curse you for stealing the woman I loved from me! If you weren't here, she would have been able to realize her true fate, and married me on the spot. Because of you, I lost everything!"

"You're just a sore loser, you never had anything to begin with. I never did love you, all you were was an annoyance. You couldn't accept that I wasn't the girl you thought I was, even though I told you many times of my origins. It's your own fault that you died this miserable creature," Sierra replied.

He asked, "Could you, do something for me? One last request for the man who loved you?" Pleading eyes locked onto Sierra, the Demon really wanted this one thing badly. She stepped forward. There was no timidity in Sierra's walk, Kogatana was of no harm to anyone in this condition.

Her eyes locked on him, but a stern look was in her face. "What do you want? I don't have time for your games, I've got to get going towards our next destination. So tell me or let me go."

"Kill me, sweet one," he whispered, "I'm in pain, relieve me of it. If you wish to know, the command center isn't even in here. It's in the middle of the Circle Island, north of Baskar. That's where you'll find Lady Shihaisha and Lord Kaibutsu. Go there, to finish your quest, just please put me out of my misery. I hope you know, that I did love you, always have and always will, Sierra dear."

Sierra found that she couldn't refuse, no matter how much she hated him for doing all of that to her. She aimed the Arc Smash at the Demon's head, and fired. A smile crossed Kogatana's face as the bullet hit, his breathing stopped, and he was peaceful. But no energy left his body for Shihaisha's.

"I think I know why. When he helped us, he betrayed the Lady. That severed his connection to the Demon Queen. She'll never know he died, thinking he'll come back in the end to help her. Now we've got to go to this island that Kogatana told us about in his last moments," stated Lyle.

Sierra thought about it for a moment. Lyle's explanation did make sense. And the circular island, she knew it was the sight of the meteor crash of a hundred years ago. Could that have been the vessel that the demons had come here on. One thing's for sure, they had their work cut out for them now.

- - - -

Teefa's Last Words…

This guy is starting to remind me now of Boomerang, Zed, that pirate I created for a scrapped OLS fic, and Harry Champ. Now there's a headache of a crossover. More than Princess Mononoke/Wild ARMs? Or Inu Yasha/Wild ARMs? I can't do the second, imbalance in characters. Not enough villains in Wild ARMs, and a hard to find lineup in Inu Yasha. Where am I going to get a character to resemble Shippo, the only cute little boy is Shane but even he isn't that young? And who could Clive be? Ginny and Jet are clear cut, as is Gallows (anyone who watches Inu Yasha would probably get this one).