Author Note: This is such a splattering of text...I am so sorry! :'(
"It says Umewakamaru."
He could read the text when no one else could. Not that she needed anymore proof but this confirmed it. She should have asked her new friend when exactly this brunet started wearing glasses but at the thought she reminded herself that she was not interested in his personal life. He needed to be defeated so that she could make him, and his clan, stay away from humans.
This goal was recent. She had made defeating him her primary objective and that in itself was already giving her enough food for thought. It was best to consider the long run in the long run.
This girl, Tsurara Oikawa, went everywhere with him. She noticed that when rejecting Saori and Natsumi's offer to go to the hot springs at the comfortable inn (now that Kana Ienaga was no longer here to watch over, she could not allow these two youkai to keep being around humans out of her sight).
"Well, you don't know what you're missing," shrugged the green-haired girl and both she and the blond proceeded to the direction of the changing rooms. They were fine with staying alone at the inn, trusting the hostesses they had met to look after them.
Once they were gone, Kiyotsugu ushered the rest into his room and, with an anticipating grin on his face, said, "Now that the nuisance people are out of the way, we can go on with our nighttime youkai search tour!"
"Right now~~?" yelped Shima, a spooked expression plastering on his face.
"Idiot! How could you have forgotten our objective, Shima-kun?" the wavy-haired male bawled irritably at him.
"Our objective is to be caught by the youkai, right?" he put his index and thumb on his chin and grinned, "You heard what Adashibara-sensei said earlier, right? We mustn't go outside at night! We'll definitely get to meet him here!" His face changed to an awed one as he breathed, "The Master of youkai!"
The blond's face was clearly conveying that he hoped this would still somehow turn out to be a joke.
Yura watched closely as Rikuo's gaze shifted to a more worried one rather than frightened as he stepped forward, in the attempt to break the Patrol leader's enthusiasm.
"Wait…hold on! It's not a good idea to go out!" he warned with panicked urgency, "You guys are taking the youkai too lightly! There are some who will really kill people!"
"Rikuo…"
"Nura-kun…and just what do you know about youkai, hmm?" the youkai fanatic retorted, "There's no use in trying to stop us! We're not like you! We're far more active when it comes to youkai! Right, Yura-kun, an onmyouji like you?"
Before the black-haired one could respond to that, the brunet cut in.
"If you insist on coming, then I'm going with you! It's way too dangerous for just the two of you!" his hand formed a fist while raised.
"Why's that!" asked Kiyotsugu.
"Wait for me!" called the approaching indigo-eyed girl from behind them, "If that's the case, I'm going too!"
"Tsurara!" the brunet's head snapped over to the scarf-wearing girl, his mouth falling open.
"I can't let Waka go into danger by himself!" she said in an undertone to him while the other two began walking.
Having confirmed what she needed to, the onmyouji joined them.
Though she did not know entirely what Kana had been going through, she was certain that this protective attitude of her friend would invite some interest from her. But, being as suspicious as she was of him, she wondered if it was not just an excuse to go with them for some sort of ambush. This place was rumored to be teeming with youkai and for all she knew, they might be friends of his.
The sun was almost down by now, the purplish pink in the sky becoming darker and darker as they moved. It was a good thing they all had bags or pockets in which to keep a spare flashlight.
As she had expected, the tactic of splitting up was employed once they reached the fork in the road. Kiyotsugu took the right while Shima took the left. And again, as she expected, the two of them began muttering to each other about this, 'Waka' and the one who addressed him as such while she pretended to be going the same road as the soccer player. But, seeing the two youkai behind her actually worry made her feel uncertain – was it really all that safe for Saori and Natsumi to be at the inn?
She was far enough to only spot their forms which looked a lot smaller from this distance. Planning to catch up with Shima, she thought it might be best to talk them out of this after all. If anyone should have been out here, it should have been her alone, searching for youkai that may try to harm them. What made Kiyotsugu even respect the Master of all youkai anyway?
Still, her decision was not regrettable. She wanted to see how the grandson would behave and that she would after stopping the blond's progress. This fork in the road was bothersome: the humans to be protected had become too sparsely located.
Soon, after jogging a little, she caught sight of the soccer player disappearing in the distance. Raising a hand and about to call out to him, she had now one motive to subtract nuisance from people, with what the phrase now meant in her vocabulary…
Good, now I need to get to Kiyotsugu-san, quick…why couldn't those stupid youkai have taken one path too, it's not like they care what happens!
…when the blade of a katana whipped the wind as an only warning…
…tch, it had to be now!
…and slammed against the blade of a huge naginata, wielded by the powerful, tall black ochimunsha, Bukyoku.
The attacker and the shikigami both withdrew their blades and the onmyouji, standing at the ready with two to three ofuda in her hand stared shrewdly at him. He had raven black hair, cobalt blue eyes and wore the traditional clothes of a samurai, accompanied by a magenta scarf and was not quite so far off from her where stature was concerned. And with a simple frown he showed composed displeasure at how his attempt to wound had failed. His blade was indeed a katana and he had another one tucked under his obi.
"Well, well, you sure aren't as helpless as you look," he jeered, not looking intimidated in the least.
"Keep your praise to yourself, youkai," she scoffed back while mentally communicating with her summon. Bukyoku, we don't have much time, just give him a good distraction.
Though, she might have fallen for his ploy already. How was it that Shima had been easily walking ahead without fear or worry?
This youkai merely rubbed his nose and then rushed forward with abruptness and force that made it clear he attempted to barrel through the shikigami. Their blades collided once again, silver against red this time and though Bukyoku towered over him, he was still having a hard time pushing him back. But so far, that did not bother Yura at all.
The raven haired one pushed through with a heave, briefly pushing the shikigami out of the way.
"Can't fight your own battles, onmyouji?" he sneered with a glance and then became preoccupied with fending off the ochimunsha once more, his back turning to Yura.
The collisions from their blades released forceful winds into the surroundings and the blunt sound of metal against metal was deafening. The red naginata was used in slow attacks, all of them easily dodged with a jump or a duck, if not blocked. The katana in turn was faster and always blocked or parried and never dodged. The attacker lunged forwards as the ochimunsha stepped backwards a little, and aimed a blow at the right side, his grip visibly tightening on the handle.
Bukyoku had his weapon in his left hand and due to its length, was unable to swing it quickly enough to parry the vertical slitter and ended up getting a deep gash from his shoulder to the thickest parts of his armor, the katana penetrating them easily. He froze on the spot, his grip on the weapon slacking, bringing it to the point of falling.
"Y-Yura-sama…"
The shikigami weakly twitched before in a flash of light, it dissipated into thin air.
The raven haired one slashed his sword in midair as though to flick off blood but there was none on it. Standing tall as the ofuda of the defeated flew behind him, he said, "How d'you like that? You're in for the same."
His face moved backwards to gaze at the summoner but all he was greeted with instead –
"Yomi Okuri! Yura MAX!"
"You stinking, cowardly –!"
–was a dazzlingly bright flash of blue, approaching nearer to him every fraction of a second.
The sword wielder was blasted off his back as a bomb of water energy hit it squarely. Yura did not stop, firing off three more raucous blasts at him repeatedly for good measure, although the first swept him off his feet already. By the time the koi fish was finished spouting, the youkai had scooted off to what looked like further beyond where Shima had disappeared, groaning in anger or pain all the way.
The onmyouji picked up Bukyoku's paper from the ground. Not pausing to celebrate her victory in the sudden silence that followed, she wished she had sent him in some other direction. They must somehow have the soccer player under their control because there was otherwise no chance that ayakashi would leave him unharmed. Not ones who were this contemptuous of humans and this good in combat alone…
She needed to hurry and find Kiyotsugu. There was no telling where the soccer player might have been dragged but the sight of him had been enough to lure her into a trap. It was a difficult decision: whether to assume that she had dealt with the trap and bring the blond back by going forward or check if the Patrol leader was in danger thanks to him being around two youkai when she left or go back to the inn to see if the girls were okay.
I am a shikigami master. I'll just have to use that to my advantage.
With that thought, she reached inside her receipt pouch, retaining a good hold on the ofuda she already had in her palm and took out another one. It materialized into the large deer, Rokuson in front of her.
"Go and retrieve Shima-kun, wherever he is in there." She waved her hand in the forward direction and the Sika deer obediently turned on its heel and began cantering off. Eyes narrowing at what could come next, she hurriedly began to run back to where the fork in the road started.
"Shima-kun!" she heard another female voice calling and inwardly groaned while her feet carried her through the still trees right to the source.
Indeed, the long-haired, frost and navy haired student was there, looking around left and right as she walked, though it stopped when the onmyouji reappeared. Tsurara's white-skinned face was about to show signs of surprise but she seemed to want to do it with her voice instead.
"On– Keikain-san, you should probably go back to the inn, it's not –" she began in a serious voice but the Keikain heiress was far from interested. If she was here…
"Where's Nura-kun? Has he gone back too?" she interrupted sharply, keeping her hands clenched.
Apart from not appreciating her speech overlapped, she also frowned a little at the suspicious sounding inquiry.
"He's with Kiyotsugu-kun. I'll try and say this again, it isn't safe for y –" she was clearly having her patience tested. That was not totally against the onmyouji's wishes.
"But it is for you? How come?" Yura literally snorted, drawing nearer, "I mean, how is it any safer for you and Nura-kun here?"
"We just want everyone to get back to the inn safely! We're all in danger!" she argued, starting to get angry.
"Why are you looking for Shima-kun?"
"What's your deal with all these questions? If you don't want to go back, fine by me, I'll –"
"Yes, please just take your own advice and tell Nura-kun to do that too," Yura snapped, walking to the side so she could pass her, "In fact, there's no need, I'll go tell him myself. Something isn't right in this forest. I'll bring both Shima-kun and Kiyotsugu-kun back so you can rest easy, Oikawa-san."
"Why, what happened?" she asked concernedly, now coming in front of her.
"I was attacked by a youkai. And unless you want the same, go back," Yura took another turn and continued away placidly, "I needed to have a chat with Nura-kun in any case."
"A youkai? When? Where?" Tsurara chirped, once again intercepting her and this time doing it demandingly.
"Most people would just run." A black eyebrow was raised at her reaction.
It seemed that the indigo-eyed girl had no answer to that and simply stared at her with overwhelming curiosity.
"Oikawa-san, I don't know what's gotten into you…well actually I do. Why do you even bother taking human form if that's the best you can do with words?"
With this, she swung herself ahead around the youkai and continued walking, albeit enjoying the gasp she heard at her response.
"Hold it!"
And she stopped, flinging her neck at the back to face her again.
"All that youki I was sensing at Nura-kun's mansion, did you think I'd just forget about it?" she nearly shouted, though still maintaining a vapid demeanor, "Yuki-Onna?" she added, stressing the words.
Tsurara Oikawa's eyes were at their widest upon hearing that. Then they slowly narrowed.
"How long have you known then, onmyouji musume?" she murmured in a deadlier voice, her face a little bent so that her side bangs cast shadows all over it.
"Does it matter? I've cut you and Nura-kun a lot of slack considering you both know what I'm here in Ukiyoe for. You must have been there, listening to what I said. So go on, keep strolling, I bet these ayakashi here are buddies of yours."
She turned her back on the youkai not looking intimidated by her angry face.
"If you think I'll let you anywhere near Rikuo-sama now…"
Yura sighed and continued to ignore her for as long as she could, in terms of seconds.
Well, I was asking for it…
Author Notes: I did this in a rush and it will seem like rushed too. I'm really sorry, I know it feels like it is too fast paced but this may be the only update in some time because I have to go on an unpredictable hiatus. I'm sorry, I know this is a really big muddle. :'( Horrible.
Yura's strategy may seem poor but there's a reason. It also relates to why she is so nonchalant.
No Kana in this chapter but we will see more of her. For now, Miss Keikain is on a rampage.
I thank everyone for reviewing and thank you coolmon for favoriting and following and special thanks to all who have been supporting my story. And Firered, are you someone now using a different account because I don't recognize you...