Usagi: Welcome back everyone! To more demonic action in the Netherworld.
I've decided to bring in some of Kyuubi's old "friends" into the fanfic:3 Mind you, they are NOT Naruto-characters, the only Naruto-reference in this fic (yet...) is Kyuubi and Buxyuki's designs. Everyone else's designs will be partly based on the legends and partly created by me. Same goes for their personalities (I took a lot of liberty with most of them... but a few have background history inspired by old legends)
They are all based of random information I found on the internet and some my own imagination. Also I should probably mention each bijuu will be known by two names in this fic. One to describe how many tails they have (in japanse), and one other name. Most will be known by their names but Kaku refers to most of them by tail-number. (Random idea…I just felt like having someone who only refers to them by that)
Shukaku the Ichibi, meaning one tail. He's a racoon-dog demon or Tanuki (they are not racoons or badgers, but more closely related to dogs). I somehow got the idea that he was somewhat of a pervert in the legend because he's said to have a very active sex-life…so in this fic; he'll be somewhat of a pervert:3
Nekomata the Nibi, meaning two tails. A cat, ironically there's a class in Disgaea called Nekomata, so I based Nibi-Nekomata of them. According to the legend it was a black cat with feather wings and two tails. I mixed it with the Disgaea designs by giving her dark red bat wings (instead of the feather wings) and two tails (the Disgaea-Nekomatas only have one tail).
Isonade the Sanbi; meaning three tails. A shark. And it will be a shark in this fic and not a freaky turtle thing. In the legend Isonade is always followed around by a fish called Samehada, so he will be in this fic too, but he won't appear in this chapter.
Soukou the Yonbi, meaning four tails. Described both as a lizard and a lizard-rooster cross in the legend… I haven't quite decided how he will look yet.
Houkou the Gobi; meaning five tails. A dog. The legends tells that he and Nekomata fought Kyuubi once but lost, so the two being attacked is based on that story (although the reasons are slightly altered) He does not appear in this chapter.
Raijuu the Rokubi; meaning 6 tails. A weasel with powers over thunder. He does not appear in this chapter.
Kaku the Shichibi; meaning 7 tails. Kaku is a badger, and in this fic the only one (yet) who refers to all the other bijuu by how many tails they have (the Japanese phrases). He's the smallest of the bijuu and lives underground. This still doesn't mean he's the weakest. He's very cunning and smart.
Yamata no Orochi the Hachibi; meaning 8 tails. A giant snake with eight tails and eight heads, and the most evil of the bijuu. According to the legends it was because of his powers the other bijuu awoke in the first place, and he's also very arrogant and the second strongest of them, only beaten by Kyuubi, that story has already been told back in LiD and he's apparently been resting ever since. (Since no one cares about trying to wake him up)
Kyuubi no Youko; Kyuubi means nine tails. Simply referred to as Kyuubi by everyone, you already know him.
Some of the bijuus' designs and personalities are based of the legends, others aren't, and I don't want any (especially not Naruto-fans) whining over how I don't portray them right, because 1: I don't care and 2; I don't feel Kishimoto portrayed them right either, and I HATED the way Nekomata and Isonade turned out in the manga. Legends come in different varieties you know. Nekomata was among my favourite bijuu so safe to say…I got awfully disappointed after seeing what Kishimoto did to it.
As I've seen many of the bijuu have shape shifting powers (Kyuubi, Nekomata and Kaku etc) I decided to let them all have at least two "standard" forms.
One will be their "monster forms" which is how Kyuubi has been appearing up until now, meaning gigantic animal-demons with X amount of tails.
The other will be a more humanlike form. Where they look mainly like humans with animal-ears and tails, occasionally some other effects too such as the Nekomata's wings. But as of yet Neko is the only one I've actually drawnX3 (Probably because she was easy to design, in that she's based of a Disgaea-character.)
But now the Author's note has lasted more than one page already so enjoy the chapter:
Chapter 7
Meeting the Tailed Demons
Nanami's house was big; one wouldn't expect that up until recently all who lived in it was one woman and a dog, and a very small dog at that.
Then again now they weren't the only ones living in the house anymore.
"Isn't it nice to have Kairi living with us again Fluffy?" Nanami said.
Fluffy, who was a small black and white female Papillion, barked happily, ignoring the fact that she had never met Kairi before so "again" wouldn't be very meaningful for her.
"You're right, it's been a while since we ate, wonder if she's hungry" Nanami said.
Fluffy barked again, both blissfully unaware what the other one was saying yet kept replying to each other so they wouldn't feel too lonely.
Nanami walked upstairs to where Kairi's room was (which up until recently had only been a guest room) and knocked on the door.
"Kairi honey? Would you like something to eat?"
But as anyone whose read the last chapter would know that there was no way anyone would reply.
"Hm…she must be sleeping. It's been a long day after all" Nanami said. "I better go check on her".
Nanami opened the door slightly and peeked inside. Lots of boxes were still stacked up against the walls, and the only pieces of furniture in there were a bed, a wardrobe and a pink cat bed that was chewed to bits.
Nanami went over and picked it up. "Aw… seems Schemer didn't like the bed I bought him, it was such a cute colour too" she said and looked over to the bed…only to see it was empty. "That girl is in so much trouble…"
Nanami's comment wasn't too far from the truth, as the girl in question was currently in the Netherworld, home world of the demons, and usually not known to be a very pleasant place.
Although currently she was in no danger. Currently.
"What? Are you serious?" she said in disbelief after having listened to her friends' tale.
"Oh I wish" Demyx said, sounding exhausted. He was lying on the ground completely stretched out, still soaking wet after the temporary flood.
All the water was now gone and the only clue it had ever been there was a couple of puddles and the ground being wet, plus Gordon and Jennifer who were busy drying of Thursday in a hope he could still be fixed.
"Xemnas never mentioned there being more than one humanoid heartless" Zexion said, raising an eyebrow.
"He doesn't know" Demyx said. "At least I don't think so. I've never told him."
"Lets hope it stays that way, since if Xemnas knows then maybe HIS heartless will find out, and I'd rather not have Xehanort getting another ally" Riku said.
"I wouldn't worry about that; Deym isn't much of a team player" Demyx sad.
"Neither is Xehanort but you'll never know what he'll do to gain more power" Riku said.
"So… what next?" Axel asked.
"We should start looking for the Laharl, who knows what trouble he could have gotten into" Flonne said.
"Then it's decided" Etna said getting up. "Laharl is cocky and loud, it shouldn't be that hard to find him".
The sun was setting over Laharl's kingdom, but the demons could see just fine in the darkness, another advantage to Sora, Riku and Kairi's transformations.
Both Demyx and Zexion were nocturnal creatures (thanks Wikipedia for informing me that beavers are mainly nocturnal) and could see perfectly as well, while Axel had made a torch out of his tail, which seemed to catch fire on random occasions.
The humans had stayed behind with their ship to fix their robot (and because Etna claimed they wouldn't be much use anyway, since they couldn't see in the dark, after they had gotten out of hearing range she also commented that she'd rather not have Gordon on the team because he was an idiot).
They decided to move towards the Bijuu's territory, seeing as Laharl was last seen fighting Kyuubi he might have followed it. Also they hoped to get more information about the fox's heartless.
"Be careful everyone" Flonne said. "Some of the more aggressive demons often come out at night."
"Let them come, we can handle anything that this world throws at us" Riku said.
Just as he said that however, a black portal opened in front of them and as the dust cleared, an enormous dark red fox, with glaring yellow eyes and nine long tails stood in front of them.
"Good job Riku, you just jinxed it" Sora said.
"So this is Buxyuki's heartless? Who would have known" Riku said. "Then again…it wouldn't be the first time" he added looking at Demyx.
"Aw come on! Not even my heartless is that extreme…at least not size-wise" Demyx said.
"Any idea how to defeat this thing?" Kairi asked.
"No, the Kyuubi is the strongest bijuu alive, and among the absolute strongest demons, even Laharl would have had problems against this one one-on-one" Etna said.
The Kyuubi growled and charged a them, but was unable to attack as just then the ground collapsed and the keybladers with friends suddenly fell down into a hole that had appeared just bellow them.
Looking up they saw the hole closing behind them before finally hitting solid ground again.
"What just happened?" Flonne asked nervously.
"You should just be grateful I just saved your sorry asses" said an unknown voice. "You don't want to encounter the nine-tailed on a bad day and after he turned into a heartless EVERY day is a very bad day indeed."
The gang turned around in surprise and spotted a badger. A blue badger none the less, the size of a medium sized dog and with seven tails growing out back.
"Who or what are you?" Riku asked.
"What am I?" the badger asked, sounding offended. "Have you never heard of the seven-tailed badger kid?"
"To be frank, no I haven't" Riku said.
"Oh I've heard of you! You're Kaku the Shichibi, the smallest of the bijuu who hides underground like a coward" Etna said.
"I AM NOT A COWARD!" Kaku yelled. "The earth is my element you know, so I HAVE to stand down here, foxes run about above-ground while badgers crawl under ground. That's the laws of nature."
"But even badgers come up occasionally don't they?" Kairi asked.
"Yes, you should listen you your friend demon, how else would you have heard of me if I never even left these caves. Now come on, you don't honestly think the Kyuubi is incapable of digging?" Kaku asked and turned to leave into one of his tunnels.
"He's kind of strange" Axel said.
"I guess there's weirdoes even among the tailed demons then" Etna said.
The group followed the badger trhough the tunnels, and while they were walking Kairi decided to try and start a conversation with him.
"So do you know what happened to Kyuubi?" she asked.
"Nope. One morning he just suddenly came out and tried to beat us all up, nothing really new there…but the dark fur and yellow eyes still creeped us out a bit, classic heartless signs" Kaku said.
"He…beats you up regularly?" Kairi asked.
"All bijuu constantly try to kill each other" Etna said sounding like that was the most obvious thing in the world. "They're obsessed with finding out which of them are the strongest."
"That's barbaric" Kairi said.
"That's the Netherworld" Kaku replied. "But if you want to know exactly what happened to the king you'd better ask Nibi, she was there when it happened. We're headed towards her place now."
"So… this Nibi is she a friend of yours?" Kairi asked.
"Not really, but after Kyuubi turned into a heartless the rest of us had to join forces not to get killed" Kaku said. "He usually won't bother us if we don't bother him, but then one day he attacked Gobi and Nibi with no provocation at all, aiming for their hearts. Nibi got saved by a grim reaper friend of hers but I don't know what happened to Gobi."
"How many of you are there anyway?" Sora asked.
"We used to be nine" Kaku said. "But then Kyuubi beat up Hachibi and we haven't seen him since, rumours has it he's sleeping somewhere, good riddance, he was a mean snake indeed, even for us bijuu. Then Kyuubi got turned into a heartless and no one's seen Gobi in ages… so there are six of us left now. Plus a few lesser demons of course."
"Lesser demons?" Kairi asked.
"It's said to only be nine bijous" Etna said. "But there are several tailed demons though; the 9 bijuus are considered their leaders. There are several animal demons in these lands, more foxes too, but as far as I know only one has lived long enough to gain nine tails, they get one every 100 years or so."
"But then…Kyuubi must be over 900 years old!" Kairi said in shock.
"Waaaay more than that, Kyuubi is a few thousand years old at least" Kaku said shrugging, Kairi just stared at the badger in shock.
"Do all bijuus live that long?" she asked.
"All demons have long lives compared to humans Kairi" Etna explained. "For instance: Laharl is 1316 years old, I'm 1473 and Flonne is…"
"DON'T SAY IT!" Flonne yelled.
"…sensitive about her age" Etna finished.
"We're here" Kaku said finally, as they were nearing the light at the end of the tunnel.
The tunnel ended in what appeared to be the inside of a house, and Kaku spilled quite a lot of clay on the carpet as he entered.
That didn't go un-noticed very long though, as the head of a woman appeared on the door. At first sight she looked normal, except the fact that her white long hair was accompanied by a pair of black and white cat-ears, they couldn't see her body.
"Aw, not again! I just cleaned that carpet" she said.
"Then stop cleaning it or move it elsewhere, why on earth you put a carpet just outside the tunnel is beyond me" Kaku explained.
"YOU dug the tunnel there" the girl said.
"Whatever. I brought the Overlord's vassals, you said you wanted to see them right?" Kaku said.
The cat-girl looked up as if she noticed the gang for the first time.
"Oh that's great! Welcome to my home everyone!" she said and entered the room.
Just now the gang could see how she looked like from neck and down.
The main body was like the one of a normal human girl, a very sexy human girl one might add, wearing only a bikini. However her feet and arms resembled the paws of a cat, with mostly black fur and white tips. On her back she had a pair of dark red demon wings, and no less than two thick cat-tails, like the ears and feet they were black with white tips.
"Oh, you're a nekomata aren't you?" Flonne asked.
"Not just any Nekomata dear, I'm the two tailed Nekomata" the cat-woman replied. "But you boys may call me hot stuff."
The boys just stared at her in shock.
"Don't mind if I do" Axel said.
"Sorry, I don't date rodents" Nekomata replied.
"I'm not a rodent…" Axel said.
"We're not here to pick up ladies Axel, we heard you had some info on whatever happened to Kyuubi" Etna said.
"Oh that's right! It all started a couple of years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday. It was horrible! I was just on my way to a date with him…" Nekomata started but got interrupted by Kaku.
"Yeah right! You wanted to fight him again didn't you?" the badger said.
"How can you say something that cruel?" Nekomata said. "Kyuubi is sooo handsome and strong, I wouldn't stand a chance against him."
"Also he would never go on a date with you" another voice said. Another demon stood in the door, humanoid like Nekomata, with black sharp ears and one brown black-tipped tail. "Welcome back Shichi, now why are you still in that form?" he asked.
"I've told you not to call me that Ichibi, its ShichiBI!" Kaku said annoyed, but then the clay on the carpet surrounded him and as it cleared a humanoid demon with badger ears and the seven tails stood in his place.
"I'll stop calling you Shichi the moment you stop calling me Ichibi, its getting old" the new demon said. "Oh and by the way, my name is Shukaku, also known as the one-tailed tanuki!"
"There's nothing special about a one-tailed tanuki" Riku said.
As he said that, Shukaku suddenly turned around and started sulking in a corner.
"He's a little sensitive about that" Nekomata whispered. "He's the only one of us who only has one tail."
She suddenly turned around, as she saw a hand made from sand, trying to touch one of her tails. She grabbed the hand probably out of reflex and it dissolved, then she grabbed Shukaku by the scruff of his neck.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" she yelled.
"What am I doing? You're the one who's always flirting with everyone" Shukaku said stubbornly.
"NOT WITH PERVERTS LIKE YOU!" Nekomata yelled and threw the tanuki through the wall.
"Now…about Kyuubi?" Riku asked, he felt he had gotten used to the demons acting needlessly violent towards each other now, even as Kairi stared at the hole created in the wall in shock and Sora and Axel looked about to break out in laughter.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that" Nekomata said innocently, as Shukaku just stared at her in disbelief through the hole in the wall.
"Where was I? Yeah I was on my way towards the area I knew he was staying at, and then I spotted him fighting some kind of human or humanoid demon, I couldn't see from that far.
He was no bijuu, since I couldn't see a tail on him, but he was strong. He summoned some kind of big water dragon of some sort…"
"That sounds like our old friend Deym now doesn't it?" Sora said.
Demyx merely nodded.
"So like, as any idiot should know Kyuubi is fire element, so his attacks had no effects on this dragon thing, also his claws just went through it like it was made from nothing but water.
I couldn't see directly what happened afterwards, the dragon just surrounded Kyu until I couldn't see him anymore, eventually the dragon disappeared and so did Kyuubi for a while, and then…that thing appeared" Nekomata told. "Houkou the Gobi tried to help me fight him but we weren't able to beat him".
"So Deym was involved…did you know about this?" Riku asked Demyx.
Demyx was shivering.
"I didn't want to tell you, since I knew if I did you'd force me to try and fight it" he said. "I'm not a good fighter; I couldn't stand a chance against that fox!"
"Don't worry Demyx, we won't let you fight Kyuubi or Deym on your own" Kairi said.
"Another thing though, you two are vassals of Overlord Laharl aren't you?" Nekomata asked looking at Etna, Flonne and the prinnies.
"That's right" Etna replied.
"Then why isn't he with you?" Nekomata asked.
"Actually…that's what we'd like to know too" Etna said. "Kyuubi's heartless showed up at his castle and destroyed it, we haven't seen him since."
"What good would that do? That kid won't stand a chance against Kyuubi" Kaku said.
"Hey, Laharl isn't as weak as he looks" Flonne said. "We must have faith in him!"
"We're talking the king of the tailed demons here, nine tails and unlimited power, and he didn't exactly shrink after turning heartless" Kaku said.
"We were hoping he could help us turn him back to normal, if not, kill him" Nekomata said. "If he turns into a heartless it won't be long before the rest of us follow."
"And if the rest of the bijuu follows…then it won't be long before all demons turn into heartless…and if they…oh snap!" Riku said.
"Is something wrong Riku?" Kairi asked.
"I can't believe it! How could I be so stupid I forgot?" Riku asked. "Remember when we first met Deym and he asked us what heartless normally search for?"
"More hearts?" Sora said.
"Not just any heart" Riku said. "The heart of the Netherworld.
The keybladers and nobodies gasped, the demons just looked confused.
"The Netherworld doesn't have a heart, it's a planet" Etna corrected them.
"I'm afraid you're wrong, all worlds have a heart, and if it's lost… You don't want to know what happens" Riku said.
"Is there any way to keep the heartless from taking it?" Flonne asked.
"There is, but then we'd have to find if before the heartless do" Riku said. "And we have nowhere to look."
"A shadow heartless might be able to sniff it out" Sora said. "At least if it's close by".
"That might be but how are we going to find a shadow to help us? They're not exactly easy to tame" Riku reminded him.
"Actually…it's funny you should mention that" Zexion said. "I know where we can find one".
Usagi: I'm sure you do kitty…
I hope you liked that, Fluffy's been introduced which is what you've all been waiting for right?
Zexion: (glares)
Usagi: I just want to mention some things regarding the demon's ages here. These are based of their actual ages in Disgaea (and FYI: Flonne is currently 1512 years old) Darkness of the Heart takes place 3 years after Disgaea: Hour of Darkness.
And what shadow heartless could Zexion be talking about?...its not a big secret, he's shown up once in the Author's note earlier already.
Where is he? Well you'll have to wait to find that out since this chapter has gotten long enough as it is. PLEASE REVIEW! And I'll let you pet this cat (holds up a small black cat with two tails.
Nekomata: come on boys, you know you want to.
Shukaku: and she calls me pervert…