Author's Notes: Sorry for the long wait but I made it somewhat longer... :)
The two owl demons still were not fast or high enough to stop Sora and Wawku jumping upon their backs and clinging to their feather. Furious, the birds called upon a blizzard to try to shake off the battle hyped warriors. The icy wind howled around them, pummeling their bodies against the feathers. Waka, Goofy, and Donald were lost in the twirling white world as the demons tried complicated flight maneuvers to shake them off. Sora even lost sight of Wawku but he knew he was still gripping Lechku by the sound of the distressed bird's calls. The air pockets within the fur gave Sora enough air to keep from losing consciousness as Nechku went into a sudden ascent. The two demons gave up hope of trying to shake off the tiny beings nestled in their fur and instead, decided to take them to the peak of Ezofuji. If the altitude and blizzard did not kill them, then they would surely try.
Wawku, used to climbing Ezofuji, had no problem combating the air deprivation or the cold but he was worried about the young keyblade master. He caught glimpses of him in the blizzard driven wind, his body entangled within feathers but his still had the fighting spark. He would've laughed if the situation had let him. The boy reminded him of Waka, there was a lot more about him than his looks gave. He would fight, even if their was no hope, till the end. How many times had he and his white, ethereal wolf companion would fight demons marching from the depths of Laochi lake for days on end as if he were obligated. Perhaps they were.
Wawku was snapped out of musings by the sound of rock scraping against smooth rock. The blizzard parted and circled the two owls like the eye of a storm. Simultaneously, Sora and he leapt from the backs of the owl and onto what appeared to be a makeshift arena. A trap.
Sora gazed around him for a brief moment, looking at the curtain of blizzard that circled like a halo around a rocky and forgotten battle arena. He knew that they were at the peak of the mountain from the bitter cold wisping through his enchanted clothing. There was moment of showdown as the owl perched onto a branch of a large dead tree. Hanging from the branch was a frozen clock with an eerie look about it. Sora drew Oathkeeper and Wawku unsheathed his loyal kutone. Nechku was the first to strike.
The owls threw all precaution to the wind and exposed all the demonic power they could conjure. Sora spent the first grueling minutes of battle memorizing the demons' pattern. As he evaded, he realized that they were bound to a very strict pattern of battle. He also realised that they could not win this battle on strength; their blades strength, even Kutone's, were not enough to pierce the metal shields without the help of magic. Their greatest advantage was the bird's attacks themselves. All of their attacks could be sent right back at them.
Battle raged for a good fifteen minutes, and the two warriors had only done so much damage. Sora, tired and worn, could not block Nechku's talons and Wawku was deep in thrashing the face of Lechku with his claws and sword. He felt the deep pain of a talon rip into his back before he countered with an impressive spinning move. He took out a potion, and carelessly dumped it upon his back since he did not have the luxury of drinking it. He felt the warmth of the potion stiching his wound and the blood dry on his back. His enchanted clothes were softly humming as they repaired themselves.
Wawku leapt back from Lechku the moment he heared talons rip into Sora's back. They would not last much longer, and with the blizzard surrounding them like a cage, he doubted their friends would come in time to aid them. He, still in wolf form, bounded to Sora with his tongue lolling in exhaustion.
The owls, too, were worn and were on the verge of death, but their mechanical features could not express their fear. The brothers looked at each other in finality. They had decided to use one last desperate trick. One that not even the greatest warriors of the Oina tribe ever succeeded of getting out alive.
Lechku raised a staff that was hidden among the rubble. It was a dark wooden oak staff as big as a tree trunk with a razor point edge. Before the two could even act, it slammed the gnarled and twisted staff onto the ground. The frozen clock that was hanging lifelessly from the withered tree ticked into life. It was ticking backwards.
Sora felt all time stop around him and constrict his body. He couldn't breathe...he could hardly think. Lechku was slowly appraching them in a slow, deliberate manner, thumping the cane to the ground each time it hopped closer. He knew they were under an extremely powerful Stopga but he couldn't command even a simple haste from his blade. He could not feel the pulse of the light from the blade and it felt numb in his hands. It felt like a race against a nonexsistent time, a race from the ticking of both the clock and Lechku's deadly staff.
Lechku raised it's staff toward Sora, deadly point straight above his slightly heaving chest.
Kutone was pulsing with blue aura and it's glow had become so bright that it startled Lechku. For all this time, it kept it's true nature hidden even in the most desperate struggle of battle. It's own power was locked by a simple charm casted by the weilder who had reincarinated it from a lowly imp knife to a magnificent sword.
'To protect all that I hold dear, friends and family, and do nothing else.' Kutone glowed such a silver that it would've even put the heavenly sun to shame. The time barrier shattered like glass around them and the owls were left defenseless and open. Regardless of it's stunned brother and the world coming to life around it, Lechku brought down it's staff on Sora.
The black wood stood no chance agaisnt the newly revived Oathkeeper. The keyblade tore through the wood like paper and brough the keyblade right into the heart of the demon. Sora pulled back and let Wawku deal the final blow to the crippled demons.
The wolf leapt high into the air, Kutone flashing in the light blue sky, and brought the sword down right through the middle of the two demons. There was burst of dark mist swirling around the two lifeless owls while Wawku jumped to Sora's side. Finally, the mist subsided leaving nothing more in it's wake than two statues of wise owls and a small plain of white flowers. The blizzard died without the malice of the demons to give it life and the ruins glinted in a sense of peace that wouldn't be disturbed for a century to come.
Waka had manage to drag Sora's frantic companions into a snug crevice in the mountains before the blizzard could take them. They waited in the crevice, silently, for any hope that the storm would diminish. All of the sudden, it stopped right before their eyes. The screaming howl of wind quieted to a gentle breeze and the pounding hail turned into twirling snowflakes. The odd trio cautiously walked out of the snug crevice, fearing the worst for their lost companions. Then, they heard Sora call to them from the eastward peak of Ezofuji and triumphantly thrusting Oathkeeper into the air in a sign of victory. Donald and Goofy cheered raucously and Waka crossed his arms with the faintest of smirks gracing his lips. Waka led Sora's two eager friends up the side of the mountain with ease thanks to his beloved hat. The trio celebrated cheerfully and Donald healed the multiple bruises and cuts on the two joyous but exhausted warriors.
Wawku didn't have Sora seemingly endless supply of energy and sat on the ground to rest. He would definitely retire after this, and he spent the rest of his days rebuilding the shrine for his village that would one day be named after him for his heroic exploits. For now, he sat relaxed upon the stony ruins looking to the sky that seemed to be darkening.
"What in the gods' name?" He said, standing up to peer at the sky that was awash in glittering stars.
"Another demon?" Goofy asked to none in particular as he too gazed at the stars. He could make out the faint trace of a constellation among the sea of stars.
"No, it's Amaterasu." Waka whispered, more to himself than anything else. Once Lechku and Nechku's presence had been swept clean from Nippon, the celestial sky could finally shine down on the land without the presence of dark clouds. All the other brush gods, hidden as constellations, swirled in the sky above them around Amaterasu's own constellation. The starlight poured down like a curtain before them and beckoned them to come like a heavenly gate. Waka stepped forward with Sora in tow through the light.
Since Sora wasn't as ethreal as Ishaku or Waka, the trip through the limbo between life and death was quite disorienting. He was still semi-concious by the time the celestial world around him materialized. It reminded him of the World That Never Was, a sense of quiet emptiness lingered in the nonexistent wind. When his head finally stopped spinning, he saw a bright being laying very still a couple feet before them. It was very white with red, glowing markings...could it be? Waka had already knelt before the slumbering girl and shook her gently.
"Is she dead?" Sora said, his voice echoing his guilt. The goddess twitched for one minute, to a very relieved Waka and Sora, and then she kicked her foot so it connected squarely to Waka's jaw. Hard.
Amaterasu had done much thinking and watching when she was confined to her celestial prison. More thinking of the past, however, and strangely, much about her Moon Tribe friend, Waka. She had a dream of sailing the heavens on a grand ark, to worlds she had only read in the scrolls that cluttered in the celestial library. He was with her and they were above a beautifully restored Nippon with it's sakura tress reaching up to the ark as if trying to embrace the ship in it's floral branches. And there were holy bones. Many, many holy bones with a mountain of cherry cakes to boot. Her friend Ishaku was bouncing on her lupine head, looking forward to a bright adventure.
Then the dream disappeared like smoke in a mist when she felt a hand shake her gently.
She must've been napping again under Sakuya's tree again and Waka would have a delicious snack, preferably bones, for her like he always did on his visits back from the capital. Her hunger took over her body like she hadn't eaten in a week. It was actually a day but it was all the same to Amaterasu's bottomless hole of a stomach. Why hadn't Ishaku waken her up? Surely he would've noticed her hunger ravaged stomach bellowing stomach. He was probably off, trying to flirt with Nami. Oh, how she grew so fond of the perverted little scoundrel, she will never know. She raised what she thought was her paw to try and get herself up. She didn't realize the strength or dexterity her new human limbs would give her. Her foot collided something very hard and something that also had a good knowledge of swear words.
Amaterasu bolted up, angry both at her hunger and throbbing foot. She then looked at Waka who was clutching at his bleeding lip and then to Sora who was looking from Amaterasu to Waka in a bewildered sort of manner that he found himself more in the longer he stayed with this odd company. The boy walked over and cautiously helped her up onto her two wobbly feet. She could feel her muscles expanding and contracting to her new body and the loss of her wolfen limbs. Not much of her last body remained on her new body; only her pointed canines and her wild white hair that was long and in eternal disarray after a near century of countless battles was visible. She soon found her balance after a couple of awkward steps on the twilight world.
Waka wiped his bloody lip on the back of hand, his ego slightly bruised but all else was fine. He looked to Amaterasu who was now testing the agility and newfound limberness of her body by doing flips and sprints around the duo. Once done, she looked around for her little Celestial Envoy to tell her all the adventure she missed during her slumber.
"The little bug had some errands in his village." He said in his usual light tone. Amaterasu was a bit miffed at the bug comment but she had grown use to their quarrels after a century. She nodded, and wth a graceful leap, exited the world among the stars with her friends close behind.