Things were earily quiet, Fon reflected. The hair seemed to have attacked all life in the area without any form of selection. Even as Inuyasha continued to climb the cliff that they had approached, she saw multiple strands of hair acting suspiciously like scouts.
"There is some hair to our left. It's just hovering." She quietly murmured. Inuyasha grunted in acknowledgement.
"Then it is a trap. How close?" He asked quietly. Fon took a quick glance to judge the distance.
"Right at the tree line. I suspect we'll be ambushed upon reaching the top." Inuyasha's ears twitched here and there in an effort to get some sense of where the enemy was. Fon found herself silently commending that.
Without another word, Inuyasha made the final jump.
"From the left!" Fon shouted, causing Inuyasha to jump right in an instant. Fortunately too, as a large clump of hair destroyed the rock formation he had just been standing on an instant later.
"From the right!" Inuyasha headed the warning and twisted midair to avoid the attack, landing on another rock formation afterwards.
"So much hair..." She muttered. Indeed, large quantities of hair were floating overhead, a sea of black in the middle of the sky. Fon forcefully stopped herself from thinking of her own sky and the woman's whereabouts for the time being.
Sure, she could take it all out in one fell swoop with her storm flames. Fon slightly turned to regard the demon she was riding. Or she could see how he handled this situation.
"Well? How much?!" He shouted irritably. Fon gave an amused little hum as she easily suppressed the natural rage she felt at being snapped at. Inuyasha didn't know the rage of an active storm, and he didn't deserve the wrath of an atypical storm.
"A fair amount. It seems we have arrived at the base." She stated as her gaze landed on a giant hair ball hanging in the air behind the sea of black, the latter of which was the more immediate threat.
"La, so you can see it then." A new voice called out.
Both Fon and Inuyasha snapped their heads up to see a woman standing on a strand of hair, more strands linking off of her fingers and controlling the offending strands. Though Fon supposed Inuyasha was just seeing a woman standing on thin air.
"My net of hairs, I mean." The woman finished upon noticing she had their attention.
"So you're the one who killed those villagers? What's up with that?!" Inuyasha called out as he seemed to unconsciously adjust Fon's position to be out of the woman's sight.
"The hair can be a nuisance. I suppose I shout get rid of that for you." She breathed out as she jumped on his fluffy head once more. So soft...but her companion would be upset if she said that aloud.
"What the hell are you thinking?!" Inuyasha shouted as he reached to grab her again.
"You fool, I'll be taking the jewel if you don't mind!" The girl shouted, sending out a singe strand of hair to snatch the jewel from Fon's neck.
The child herself gave a soft hum as she grabbed the hair, subtly sending her storm flames through it to destroy most of the connecting strands.
"I can't allow that." She breathed out as she watched her flames do their job and travel through the hair, spreading and increasing speed the further they went.
"What are you doing?!" The enemy cried in fear.
"Is she purifying it? No, this is different." Inuyasha called out to himself as he watched the red flames travel and leaving nothing in their wake. Soon enough, the flames began winding their way through the large ball of hair, each individual strand lighting up until the who ball was a blazing flame that disappeared seconds later.
"You may fight her now." Fon called as her work finished. Inuyasha growled slightly as he flexed his claws, apparently resolving to ask her about it later. They then noticed their missing enemy.
"Oh?" Fon questioned as she caught sight of the clothes on the ground.
"What the?" Inuyasha was a bit more vocal with his surprise, bordering on disbelief, before growling slightly. "Che, she must have hid her true form inside the hair ball." He muttered afterwards. Fon hummed slightly in acknowledgement.
That had been anticlimactic. Then again, her term of 'anticlimactic' was probably biased with her position as the Storm Arcobaleno. She got the strangest feeling that this was the mark of the beginning of something significant. Either way, she couldn't help closing her eyes to enjoy the slight breeze that had appeared. She always had loved the wind.
"My apologies. I only meant to get rid of most of the hair for you."
Elsewhere
"This is interesting." Verde muttered as he looked inside the cave they had found.
"We've got company, kora." Colonello annouced as he looked through the scope of his rifel. Lal lowered her goggles in response.
"It looks like the owners of this place have come home." She stated as her gaze zoomed in on the two demons flying through the air, one of which was riding a cloud. Reborn tipped his fedora.
"How welcoming do you think our hosts will be?" He drawled.
"I bet they'll decide to kill us on sight, kora!"
"How much do you bet?" Viper questioned.
"Why is it always money with you?" Skull questioned nonchalantly.
"Money is power, myu."
"Based on what I found in here, I bet they'll try to either turn us into a potion, or kill us for sport." Verde nonchalantly stated as he came back out.
"I'm betting the one without the cloud will have us killed for sport." Reborn stated as he sat in front of a tea kettle he'd produced from somewhere. Luce clearly saw the absence of her Storm in this action as Fon would usually sit across from him in these situations waiting to make some oolong tea. (Only Fon got away with that. Reborn called her 'interesting'. Luce was convinced the girl had no idea the effect she had on people.)
"I bet that they will try and scare us." Lal chimed.
"Ugh, smells like a nasty curse. What do you think Manten?" Luce looked up to see that the two demons had arrived, noticing absently that it could be bad if they smelt the curse.
"It certainly smells disgusting Hiten. It's too bad, some of them looked like they'd make great potions otherwise." The less human looking one said. Both demons landed and the one known as 'Hiten' leaned down mockingly in front of Colonello.
"Now how did a bunch of human babies manage to get cursed?" He asked tauntingly. Colonello headbutted him, eliciting an amused chuckle from the other.
"It's rude to get in your guest's personal space, kora." Colonello spoke just as mockingly as Hiten had. Reborn took a sip of his expresso.
"Well you're overstaying your welcome. I'll show you the power of the thunder brothers!" Hiten laughed as he summoned lightning from the sky. Both brothers were confused when all the arcobaleno blinked and turned their respective gazes to Verde, who gave a slow blink while maintaining his bored look.
"Mu, are you trying to elect fear from us?" Viper asked, sounding honestly confused.
"Damn, Lal wins." Skull muttered.
"W-wait, you mean you are not terrified of the mighty thunder brothers?" Manten questioned in shock while Hiten gave an incredulous 'huh'.
"Reborn-sempai and Colonello sempai raised some pretty high stakes for terror." Skull said with crossed arms and a small nod to himself. Hiten scoffed.
"As if mere humans could be more terrifying than us!" He shouted.
"You really shouldn't underestimate us humans." Luce suggested with a glance to the sadistic duo. Reborn had his eyes shadowed by his fedora while Colonello was eyeing the demons like a predator. Somewhere overhead, Falco gave out a cry.
"Pathetic." Lal scoffed far more condescendingly than Hiten had.
"My lightning is stronger." Verde muttered boredly.
At that, Hiten seemed to have had enough and slammed his thunder pike on the ground, sending lightning hurling down at the arcobaleno. In his rage, he didn't notice Reborn look up as he fingered the rim of his fedora. He smirked at the resulting dust cloud.
"Man, what's with humans nowadays? They survive a curse or two and think they're all that." Hiten complained as he moved to walk to his home.
"You know that the only way to confirm a death is to see a body right?" Verde questioned boredly from within the smoke cloud. Hiten stopped mid-step and turned around.
"What?!" He shouted in outraged surprise.
"Impossible! How could mere humans survive your attack?!" Manten cried out in shock. The dust cloud soon cleared to reveal that Reborn and Luce were safely tucked under a Leon- rubber umbrella while Colonello and Lal were safely under Verde's lightning shield and Viper wasn't present while Skull had his arms raised over his head in a defensive stance, purple flames rapidly working to heal the wounds.
"Haha, you should really know your opponents! The great Skull is immortal!" He proclaimed arrogantly after lowering his arms. Reborn's Leon - umbrella shifted into a Leon - gun as his eyes remained hidden under his fedora, Verde releasing his shield an instant later.
"Yare, yare. It seems you haven't hurt any of us." Viper spoke from behind the thunder brothers, causing them to briefly turn around. In the end, Manten focused on the single enemy while Hiten focused on the group.
"Haha, what do you do to wanna-bes Reborn?" Colonello questioned with a challenging gleam in his eyes. Reborn smirked.
Eve of the first day.
60 hours remain.
And the countdown begins.