Chapter 8
Faded Memories
Danzo was mildly upset at leaving Miyabi behind with the Youma, but he knew he had to carry on. He walked slowly and carefully cautiously waiting for any Youma that would ambush him, until he spotted spider like Youma nearby on the door above.
Drawing his blade, he charged at them cutting off their legs, then finished them off with a heavy barrage of cannon fire. More of the arachnids jumped down and tried to to wrap him up, but they were too slow and he marched off to find a chamber nearby.
As he progressed further down the corridors he saw a welcoming sight. Kagura and Naraku were busily fighting against their foes when Danzo leapt forth to join them and massacred the youma in a single strike.
"Impressive, for a hybrid," Kagura commented.
"Thanks, you guys are cool too," replied Danzo.
"Thank you," added Naraku.
Although her adult body was powerful, Kagura slowly glided to him.
"I'm known as Kagura," the dark haired girl said to him.
Danzo noted that Kagura's eyes were red, her clothing consisted of a black dress with brown trimmings, black shoes, a breastplate, and red cape that barely reached down to her ankles. Then he saw that Naraku was wearing a black sleeveless dress, a sleeveless orange hooded jacket, white socks that came up to her upper thighs, black sandals, a green knapsack, and a red scarf with a yellow and black pin shaped in a cross along with two green Shinobi stones. Her hair as green and her eyes were pink.
"I'm Kagura's guardian Naraku," said the other girl.
"Friends call me Danzo," remakered the half-youma.
He turned and waved at them as Kagura smiled happily at her new friend. Once he passed thru the doors ahead, he knew that the fight would not be easy, but proceeded to cut down the Youma that stood in his way. He continued to march on until he saw something that looked like a heavy cannon. Picking it up he saw that it's weight was good and heavy for him to carry. The weapon's inscription read "Cyclone." Danzo decided to put this weapon to the test, by shooting a Youma that was far off and alone. With a loud bang, the Youma turned and was then caught off guard by the shot as it fell to the ground with a loud crunch. Danzo liked this weapon now, as he holstered it into his coat and walked off.
Meanwhile Homura soon caught up to Asuka and Yumi in the corridors of the tower.
"Have either of you seen Danzo?" she asked.
"No we haven't," replied Yumi.
Kagura however appeared from the portal near them.
"I have. He managed to help us dispatch some youma, but I also sense that his powers have fully awakened, when the sword Defiance reacted to his blood," explained the youma slayer.
"Well what do you know. I knew that he was a tough nut to crack," smiled Asuka.
Homura chuckled, and playfully punched her friendly rival in the arm.
"I'd suggest you follow us to the forbidden underground," Kagura said to them.
"All right. Asuka, can you send up a flare so that our friends can rendezvous with us in the forbidden underground?" asked Yumi.
Asuka nodded, then sent out a flare for all to see. Then with Yumi and Homura at her side, took Kagura's hand and felt herself being transported to the Forbidden Underground. Once they arrived, the rest of their friends found the portal that Kagura was holding open and went through it one by one.
Danzo had managed to find a certain fruit called the Ambrosia and pocketed it before proceeding onwards. He had managed to clear out the spider youma much more easily now after experiencing their webbing first hand. Then he raced back to the watery cavern behind the waterfall to the door of the nude woman and placed the fruit into its hand. The door soon opened, and Danzo walked in just as the Mikagura sisters arrived.
"Well look what just dropped the beat girls," the girl in the brown red outfit said.
"He looks pretty handsome," said the blonde who wore a striped tank top, green kimono, white hachimaki, denim skirt with a white ribbon, and white flip flops.
"I have to admit, he seems okay with dealing with close calls," said the dirty blonde. She wore a pale blue and white dress with a green choker that had a whistle hanging from it. Red strings accented the dress and were tied in bows, with a row of tiny navy blue buttons, a blue plaid skirt on a white pleated petticoat, and a pair of boots that were shared the same color scheme as her dress. Her hair was tied in pigtails, with white and blue ribbons, and her eyes were dark grey and slanted.
"You girls stay close to me and stay alert," warned Danzo, as he walked into what he thought was a room with a stage.
The three sisters walked after him looking very alert. They also saw the same room as it looked more like an opera house, but saw that the stage in front had speakers to the left and to the right. Danzo slowly walked forward and took note of the area.
"You girls seem to be new around here, but also kind of cute," Danzo said to the three girls.
"Thanks. I'm Hanabi, and these are my sisters Renka, and Kafuru," said the blonde.
"The name Danzo," replied their new ally.
Before Renka and Kafuru could respond, they saw what looked like bats fluttering past them. A cloud of smoke appeared and vanished revealing a woman covered in bats from her feet to her waist. Her crimson hair covered her breasts, her skin was a light blue, and here eyes were a crimson color with yellow irises.
"Welcome young man, is this your first time here?" the woman asked in a seductive tone.
"Yeah it is. You'll be nice to me, won't you?" asked Danzo smirking at the youma.
"Of course I will," she replied touching his face, "I'll treat you so nicely, You'll never want to leave."
Danzo placed his hands on his hips and twerked slowly.
"Now that's what I'm, talking about," he replied, drawing his sword.
The youma walked back to the stage and turned to face him with crafty smile. She exhaled slowly as there was an electrical burst coming from the speakers with lightning appearing from her mouth.
"Then, come to Nahema sugar," the youma said seductively.
"Oh I intend to!" replied Danzo, as he lunged at Nahema.
Danzo was avoiding her attacks as Renka sent the bats flying about giving them several thwacks with her drumsticks. Hanabi was brought down her hammer and sending a powerful wave of explosions that hurt the youma, but quickly disappeared into the ground and returned to the stage, where Kafuru fired rapidly with her dual water pistols.
Danzo swung his sword at the youma clearing the bats away, and wounded her again. Nahema transported and began to set electrify the floor, making Danzo jump, but the Mikagura sisters quickly raced up the walls to evade the discharge of electricity near their feet, barely managing to keep their ninja outfits intact.
Nahema then retaliated with lightning bolts that arched both horizontally and vertically at them as Renka unleashed a powerful combo attack upon her. Blades of darkness erupted from the ground forcing them back, as Hanabi brought her hamner down with a loud crash, followed by firework grenades that sent Nahema on the defensive. Taking advantage of the situation, Danzo activated his youma power, the kabuki makeup appearing on his face and his exposed right forearm surprising the Mikagura sisters immensely.
Quickly teleporting back to the stage Renka charged forward swinging her makeshift clubs at Nahema who felt the beating and quickly sent the older sister flying back towards the wall. Reacting fast Danzo caught her in his arms and gently set her down, surprising her younger sisters who continued to keep Nahema distracted long enough.
"Thanks for saving me," Renka said.
"Don't thank me just yet!" he replied lunging at Nahema again. This time he struck true and sent her flying back to the stage where she tumbled and rolled, Nahema slowly stood up and tried to fight back, but she felt that every bruise and strike left her completely exhausted. She was about to fall when Danzo rushed forward and caught her in his arm.
"My, you're sweet," she said stroking his head and shoulder.
Danzo saw that Nahema was about to attack him again, when he quickly pulled out Silver-Moon and shot her point blank in the stomach making her drop in pain. The mikagura sisters flinched at the sight, think that their new friend had a twisted pleasure in shooting anyone that got in his way.
"You'd think so, wouldn't ya?" he asked sarcastically, blowing the smoke from the barrel and quickly holstering it.
"All right. I'll help you," she replied slowly pulling herself up and touching his face affectionately, "Mmm, your father was a handsome youma. But you're slouch yourself."
Nahema vanished in a burst of electricity and light, transforming into an electric guitar that had many skeletal-looking features. A purple neck that had many electric strings, but could also change into a scythe as well. Danzo looked at his new toy, then jumped up and struck a cord loudly with mighty strum. Sparks erupted from behind as the speakers blasted the sound at full burst.
"WELCOME Y'ALL!" he screamed, and began to jam loudly with the Mikagura sisters watching in awe.
"THE FLINCH IN YOUR EYES CALLS YOUR BLUFF! FEEL FREE TO DIE WHEN YOU'VE HAD ENOUGH! USELESS CAUSE IS BREAKING YOUR BACK! YOUR LIFE WILL END, WHEN YOU ATTACK! MAKE YOUR MOVE! MAKE YOUR STAND! MAKE THE WIN! LIKE YOU CAN! SEE THE MORAL! SEE ME RULE! SEE THE MIRROR! YOU'LL SEE A FOOL!" Danzo sang, as he danced about on the stage, transformed it into a scythe, and slid on the stage with the guitar in hand striking one last chord.
The Mikagura sisters were amazed as they saw him fist pump the air and fall onto his back with an ecstatic grin on his face. Hanabi's feelings for him were so strong that she thought they were going to burst.
"THAT WAS SO INCREDIBLE!" she squealed excitedly as Danzo slowly stood up and holstered his new guitar/sickle hybrid into his coat.
"You're damn right Hanabi," smirked Danzo giving her a fist bump before waving his fingers and making an explosive sound. Renka and Kafuru were also impressed.
"I can tell you sounded like a rock star," Renka grinned.
"Yeah, you came in pretty close to getting beat, but that new power made us a little bit uneasy," added Kafuru.
"Guess you now know that I'm half-youma now," he said, "But I'll take the compliments and roll with 'em."
He soon started off towards the next door as the Mikagura sisters stood by watching with smiles of admiration.
Outside the forbidden underground, Miyabi was hacking and slashing at the Youma that were closing in. She swung her sword creating a blade beam the at split them in half at the waste. Placing a Kunai in her mouth she cast her sword into the air, pulled out to shuriken, and placed them between her ring and pinky fingers, pulled out two flame bombshells, and threw them at the youma burning them with killing fire. Then Miyabi cast her shuriken at two more youma coming at her from behind killing them instantly. With the electric bombshells in hand six youma fell with severe electrical burns. Seeing her sword falling to her, she caught it by the hilt and smirked.
"Welcome back," she said, and set off following Danzo's footsteps into the Forbidden Underground.
In a hallway of silver and dark blue, Akira and Ryuki were walking towards their final destination.
"Soon we will reach the lair of judgement. The Tower of Darkness will finally regain its full function and lead us into the Youma Realm. The world where Sato's power has been sealed. And the one who will lift the incantation is you, his own son. It must be fate," Akira said proudly as the door opened.
He beckoned for Ryuki to proceed ahead, but soon saw that he stopped.
"Does that woman really bother you?" he asked Akira.
"What are you talking about?" Akira demanded, looking sharply at Ryuki.
"Why didn't you kill her? Perhaps because she's your sister? Did some pesky brotherly love get in your way?" he said calmly.
Akira stepped forward trying to tell Ryuki it was not his concern, but felt the Yamikaze plunge through his body. Drops of blood fell onto his book.
"To further your study of the forbidden arts, you sacrificed your loving father. To become a youma as well. Knowing this I thought you'd be more useful to me, but I was wrong. No wonder your attainment of power is incomplete," Ryuki said coldly thrusting his sword deeper into Akira's stomach.
"What about you? You're an incomplete being as well. Both youma and human blood mingle in your veins," Akira said through his pain, as he coughed up more blood which fell onto the book.
"Shut up," Ryuki replied calmly, retracting his blade, swing the blood off it, and carefully sheathed.
As he did so, Akira collapsed onto the ground in a crumpled heap.
"Now that the final door is open, I have no use for you," Ryuki said, as he strode pridefully away from his former ally's corpse.
Author's notes
Oh snap, Miyabi is certainly gonna be pissed that her chance for revenge has been stripped away. But at least Danzo impressed the Mikagura sisters with his rock star motivation. But what of the other Kunoichi? Will Miyabi begin to trust Danzo as well and accept that even human-youma hybrids care about humans while filleting other Youma.
Hope you enjoy the chapter.
Peace.