Countdown to the last battle (with Tohru's dad that is!)

AN: It has been a wonderful ride of highs and lows for me. I'm happy so many people are reading my fanfiction. Once I finish the story, I will look over everyone's feedback and make improvements so that people in the future will be able to find and enjoy my story months after I finished it

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Who is it this time?" I drop my controller on the table and open the door. Elma and a few harmony dragons are waiting for me. She taps her foot on the floor impatiently watching the clouds. She turns around and sees I opened the door.

"Mr. Kobayashi," she bows.

"Hey, Elma. What is it you need?"

She points at the clouds. They're dark as the night.

Ptoom. Lightning roars in the distance.

"The portal is about to open. I predict we have 7 days," she extends her hand for me to hold,

"Tohru plans to leave, right? We should say goodbye to her once it opens. You all have a right to say goodbye before we close it."

Tohru steps into the light of the hallway leading to the front door. She's wearing her maid outfit, "Actually, Elma…I've changed my mind. I plan to stay."

Elma is shocked. Her jaw drops open. She notices she just lost her calm composure and reforms herself by standing upright, "Are you sure? It will be a difficult fight."

Tohru gives Elma a hug. Elma shakes wildly, "E-Eh? What is this for?"

"You're my friend, Elma. I can't leave you in the human world alone."

Flustered, Elma wails her arms, "Arrggh, I can't leave you either!"

"That's right, Elma! Besides, there's a way we can fight the emperor. Do you remember what happened to Shiro?"

She nods, "Yes. We barely stopped him."

"It's more than just that. Our magic mixed. Now he can see visions of his mother."

"Oooh," Elma gasps. She walks in circles around me, poking at my shoulder.

"Elma," Cremene wiggles his index finger.

"Cremene. Why are you here?" Elma steps away from Tohru.

He speaks to her in the most condescending tone I have ever heard, "Did you forget that we voted to close the portal?"

"Yes. We will close it. That's all," Elma replies.

He laughs, "It's not that simple. The Emperor came here for Tohru. He is already desperate. Tohru has to leave if we want to maintain the balance between dragon and human here."

Elma nods, "Tohru has to leave if the humans must be safe."

"That's right. We have to think about the humans," he says in a very calm and relaxed tone.

"Elma. Don't listen to this creep. None of my chaos dragons hurt anyone. These people will only lead you down a dark path."

"Elma. Would have been lead down a "dark" path if she continued to listen to your lies," Cremene hisses, " She lost her focus until I found her. Humans and dragons are better off if they live apart. Not together."

Elma indecisively looks back and forth between Cremene and Tohru.

"You got along with humans before. Balance didn't go haywire when you worked with Kobayashi? Remember?"

"At what happened when the emperor of demise returned, Elma? Where is Kobayashi now, Elma? What did your decision to be with Kobayashi lead her?"

Elma mutters, "My decision to be around Kobayashi…it led to her death."

"And what did you do?" he continues.

"I passed laws to keep humans and dragons separate. I banned marriage between them.."

"Why?"

Tohru lunges for Cremene. I grab a hold of her, "Tohru! You can't attack him!"

She groans and wrestles out of my grip, "He's manipulating her."

"Stop!" Elma shouts. She glares at Tohru, "Dragons outlive humans. Love isn't possible between them. They'll only die. I passed those laws so no one else would suffer. Tohru, you have 7 days to reconsider your decision. As for Shiro, I hope he and Magus wise up and leave their dragon family members and find humans to take care of them."

Elma storms off furious with a face like lightning.

"Wait," Cremene caught up to her, "Shouldn't we punish them right now?"

"There's no need. We have to fix the crystals we used to close the portal. This time, they need to be able to close the portal for good."

Elma, Cremene and their guards vanish.

Tohru punches the floor.

Crack.

A crater appears in area she punched, "Damnit!"

"There's nothing we can do for her. We're going to have to fight on our own. We have 7 days."

She nods, "Every morning we'll train. After that…you should spend that time with everyone. To keep them cheerful. This could be our last battle after all," Tohru finishes.

I write down a huge list of things to do with others. I can't waste a single minute then.

Day 1

I went to see my dad. He provided training for me at his company. I can see a dozen people in the room typing away.

"This is the same room your mother worked in. We'll start with the basics."

I made a few mistakes. The work was pretty fast-paced but it wasn't any more demanding than most salary-men jobs. Once the work was done, my dad gave me a pat on the back.

I walk home that night. That's when I see Kanna and Saikawa standing together in front of a store. I run up to them to see what's going on.

"These clothes look pretty," Saikawa points to an outfit.

Kanna nods, "It would look good on you."

"Wait…hah….," I catch my breath, "Saikawa. You're back!"

She nods, "I saw Georgie working in a maid café."

"How? Where have you been this whole time?"

She puts her palm on her forehead, "I started looking for places to stay. A nice elderly couple let me stay at their place. I then worked a bit as a maid. That's how I found Georgie."

Kanna gets closer to Saikawa, "So…do you forgive me?"

"I can't forgive you," Saikawa says.

Kanna looks devastated…that was until Saikawa continued.

"I can't forgive you…because it was never your fault. All that time alone made me realize how horrible it is to be alone. Leaving solved nothing. I promise I won't do that again, Kanna."

"I'm grateful," Kanna says and scoots closer until their shoulders bump. She waves her hand to say, "Shoo, go away."

"Geez, fine," I walk home. I wave goodbye to Kanna, "Seeya later."

Day 2

Magus invited me to eat today. The first I did was head over to his place. Shouta and Magus sit together while Lucoa prepares dinner.

Lucoa bows, "It's good to see you again, Mr. Kobayashi!"

She goes back to preparing food.

I notice Magus and Shouta are reading a book together.

"How does this spell work?" he asks.

"It's like an enchantment," Shouta replies. He notices me, "In fact, I think Shiro can explain," he waves for me to come over.

I channel my magic into my body and release it on a paper crane that was placed on the table.

Poof

It turned into an actual bird.

Fwoop Fwoop

It flew out the window. Magus attempts the spell on another paper crane. He was partially successfully.

The small bird pecks on the table. Its wing is broken and it can barely move.

"I'll take care of it," Magus holds the bird close to his chest.

"You did a good job, son," Shouta casts a healing spell on it.

"It could have gone better. But yeah…It was okay, I guess."

Lucoa puts plates on the table. They're full of corn sprinkled with lime, pepper, and cheese.

"What kind of food is this?" I ask.

"It's a street-recipe I learned in a foreign country. I can't remember the name. It started with an A."

"America?" I answer.

She nods, "Oh yes, yes. That was the place. I have trouble with names sometimes. The map of this world has changed so many times it's hard to keep track."

I can imagine. A dragon like her probably lived for so long most of history just flew over her head. Not literally of course.

Magus chews and swallows everything rather quickly. He clears his throat.

"I heard Elma came. Did she arrest you?"

I shake my head, "No. She did say we should probably leave our family."

"I'd love to follow that order. In fact, I would have left willingly in the past. Now I'm not so sure."

I think about Elma's indecisiveness. Cremene had to convince her to follow her own laws and arrest us. That makes me curious. Are "Elma's laws" really Elma's laws? Or did that man force those rules on her and made her enforce them?

Day 4

Kotori and Tohru finish cleaning up the apartment room. Everything is spotless.

"Good job, Kotori. I know a friend from the mall who would love to have you help around his house."

I walk into the hallway. Tohru waves to me, "Shiro! Kotori is about to work professionally as a maid for the first time. Would you like to come with us to support her?"

I nod. There's nothing else to do anyway. We walk to the mall. It's outdoors with four intersecting alleyways. There's a glass ceiling at the top. I can see the storm hasn't calmed down. The clouds are still pitch-black.

The vendors are whispering nervously, "It's Tohru and her daughter. Those two look weird."

Tohru hears them but she doesn't say anything. She finds the man she is looking for. A middle-aged butcher working at a deli.

"Oh, Tohru. It's good to see you. So this must be your daughter," he waves to Kotori, "I need someone to clean my house every weekend. I've been busy with the store that I forgot to clean my home. Are you sure your daughter is willing to work for me?"

Tohru nods. She nudges Kotori. Kotori bows, "Thank you!"

Two men approach the butcher, "Oy. Are you talking to her again?"

The butcher nervously replies, "Well, they're nice and help every now and then."

One of them speaks to the other, "What should we do?"

The other glares at Tohru. Tohru glares back. Her eye flashes red and she growls. The two men jump back in fear.

"Fine. Fine. We'll leave."

As they walk past us, one whispers, "Cause a scene and Elma will come for you."

The other vendors whisper to each other.

"She almost hurt those poor boys."

"It was only in self-defense. I would have done the same."

Tohru makes a depressed frown. Ashamed by how she acted, she leaves.

"Please come back again, Tohru!" the butcher shouts.

Kotori bows to him, "I'm sorry. We'll come back later."

"I hope Tohru will be okay. It's not her fault. And she is friendly after all."

"True," I concur, "It can't be helped."

Day 6

It's almost midnight. Everyone is gathered in our apartment room. This is Christmas night. All the gifts are underneath the Christmas tree.

"Are we going to open them now?" Kanna asks, pacing back and forth.

"Of course!" Tohru hands out gifts for each of us.

Fafnir is holding up a new headset, " I don't need this. I can hear a pin drop from a mile away…However Takiya might," he hands the gift to Takiya.

"Hahha…Thanks Fafnir," he starts tearing through the paper wrap, "More for me!"

When he opens the present he finds a large amount of doujinshi, "Whoaaa. This is from Comicket. How'd you get this, Tohru?"

"Help from friends," she makes eye-contact with me and Kotori, "And family."

I look away, embarrassed that I was put on the spot, "It's nothing."

"Y-yeah. We were just trying to keep the Christmas spirit alive and stuff…," she fiddles with her fingers.

Lucoa smacks Kotori's back playfully. She nearly loses her footing from Lucoa's blow, "No need to be modest. Be proud!" she opens her gift and finds a swimsuit inside it, "ohhh, I should try this on!"

Magus runs in front of her and grabs the swimsuit, "No, not here, mom. You're embarrassing us!"

Shouta sighs, "Lucoa never changes."

"Hah…That's why you like her so much, right?" Tohru asks.

He nods, "Exactly why I like her."

Kanna and Saikawa rip open their boxes. They find matching necklaces. The piece of jewelry attached to their necklaces is the shape of a dragon.

"Thank you, Lady Tohru. For as long as we are together, we will cherish it, " Kanna waits for Saikawa's response.

"It's pretty…I'll cherish it forever for Kanna."

Shouta and Magus open their box and see a wide variety of magic spell-books.

"We should practice these spells immediately," Shouta flips through the pages.

"Indeed," Magus nods. He leans over his father's shoulders and they read through it together.

The only people left who haven't opened their boxes are Tohru, Kotori, and me.

"This present I'm about to give you I kept a secret from both of you. It's something I kept for a long time. It means a lot to me. That's why I think you should have it," Tohru hands the box to me.

I untie the bow on top and open the lid. Confetti fills up the inside. I dig my hand through It. My fingers touch something. It's solid and has bumps. When I pull it out, I see two rings with engravings on them.

The engravings for two rings read,

"Kobayashi – Tohru"

It's their engagement ring. They were that close? I had a hunch their relationship was that serious. But I didn't think it would be that close.

"When this is over, and you want to marry, use these rings. It's a gift. So you can remember what family you came from."

I'm speechless. Kotori tries to speak first, but it's just random mumbling.

"Hahha…It looks like you're not disappointed."

Ding Dong

The clock strikes 12. It's the 7th and final day. The chatter and laughter among family and friends dies down. We can hear a knock on the door. It could only be one person. Elma.

I walk to the front and swing the door open.

"It's time," Elma says.

She's with Cremene. I don't see anyone else nearby. She leads us downstairs into the middle of the street. Since it's late, no one is driving.

"Tohru. Have you decided what you will do?"

Tohru nods, "I'm staying."

"Are you sure? If you stay you will have to defeat him on your own," Elma continues. I swear I could hear a shred of uneasiness in her voice. A drop of hesitation.

"I won't be fighting alone. I'm relying on everyone I know to help me defeat him."

Cremene whispers in Elma's ear.

"I would like to speak with your son, Shiro," Elma holds up her trident.

"Shiro can speak with whoever he wants," she smiles.

I walk with Elma further away from the others so they can't hear me. When she is sure that they can't hear us, she speaks,

"Your mother confronted the Emperor of Demise. She couldn't defeat him. You won't be able to defeat him, either. Please, convince her to leave with her father…before people die."

"We can defeat him. We need a different plan, different tactics. That's all."

She points her trident straight at my chest, "You can't kill him."

"That's not part of my plan. No, I plan to persuade him."

"What?" she raises her eyebrow as if I were crazy and spouting nonsense.

"If the Emperor of Demise is really Tohru's father then he was the one who molded Tohru into who she is now. That means…He fights so dragons can do as they please. Tohru has to fight back and show she's not weak. That should be enough to convince him to leave this world alone."

Elma pushes the trident deeper. I can feel the sharp tips prick my body, "And what about the humans? The ones that will be caught between us and the Emperor?"

"We only need the others to protect the city while Tohru fights the Emperor," I explain, "Elma. You created powerful barriers to imprison people. Couldn't you use them to protect the entire city?"

Elma processes everything I said. She gently lowers her weapon, "I can create a barrier, but it will take time. Your friends need to be at multiple parts of the city at once," her stomach rumbles,

"We can discuss the details at your home. Over sweet, delicious pastry…mmm…"

Cremene grabs Elma, "Are you a fool?! You're just going to let them free? What about the balance?"

Elma grabs his arm and shoves him aside, "Tohru's intentions are pure. If the balance was in jeopardy, Tohru would be burning cities down. She hasn't. She's kept to herself. The true threat to balance in this world is her father."

Cremene shows his razor-sharp teeth. Horns come out of his skull.

He pointed at us, "You! You're corrupting her. According to Elma's laws the penalty is death-

Elma swings her trident at him, she hits him directly. He falls over.

"I don't kill people or dragons. That wasn't written in the law."

Cremene's eyes open wide, "Forgive me. That was a mistake."

Elma holds his body up with one hand, "You should know that isn't part of my laws. You wrote them for me."

Elma claps her hands. Two portals appear. Harmony dragons in armor step out and encircle Cremene.

"Arrest him. He's guilty of treason," she orders. They drag Cremene into the portal.

"You can't do this! Elma is the traitor! Not me!"

The portal close when he gets dragged to the other side. His screaming fades away and there is silence.

Elma shakes her head, "He helped my comrades flee into the human world."

"We don't need him anymore," I reassure her.

"Let's go back to Tohru, then."

We meet up with the others. The storm is getting worse. The winds are howling violently. Tress sway back and forth like a rocking chair.

Ptoom

We see a flash of lightning. The center of the clouds swirl like a vortex. A black whole opens up in the clouds.

"Looks like I won't be having sweets tonight…," she turns to me.

"Do you have a plan?" Elma asks.

"We need you to set up the barrier," I explain. I turn around to face everyone present, "Elma needs your help. Make sure everyone protects each other. When the shield is up, it's up to Tohru to fly into the portal and face her father.

"One problem…," Elma interrupts, "The harmony dragons will try to close the portal."

"Shit," I swear. I pace back and forth, "Elma, can you tell them to stop?"

"I…I ordered them to seal the portal when it opens up. But I think I can order them to stop."

She hands out paper maps to each and every one of us, "here are the places you need to go to. Hold your ground until I can convince my comrades to stop sealing the portal. Then I'll come back and help each of you set up the barrier," she waves for me to follow her.

Elma floats in the air. Kotori turns into a dragon, "You'll need a ride. Should I fly slow?"

"No. Fly fast this time," I jump on Kotori's back.

"But-"

"I don't care if you're too damn fast. Time is of the essence!"

Roooar

The hairs on the back of my shoulder stand up, "Is that…"

"My father," Tohru replies.