Chapter 11

Sweets and Demons

The castle exploded and I gripped onto Yoshimori as we flew through the air. Yoshimori created a kekkai and caught me as we landed on it. Hiba held Gen and landed next to us. Gen coughed loudly and spit up blood onto Hiba's coat.

Suddenly, Tsurosa and Lilium shot out of the dust cloud that was the throne room. A large blast of ice shot out and hit Tsurosa back and froze her against a wall. Christeenala jumped out of the ice and kicked Lilium straight into the ground. Christeenala landed gracefully on the ground and crushed Lilium's head with her high heel boot. She looked around and the castle repaired itself from just her gaze.

Lilium grabbed her leg and swung her into the air. Lilium's arm elongated and smashed Christeenala into the wall, freeing Tsurosa from the ice. Tsurosa landed on the ground easily and sent a claw flying into the dust and pulled Christeenala out and slammed her into the ground. Christeenala stood, unharmed, but still caught in the claws grip.

The claw tightened its grip but broke, Christeenala's skin being too hard for it to break. The pieces of the claw scattered around and Christeenala grabbed the claw's chain. She pulled it forward, yanking Tsurosa towards her. She punched Tsurosa in the face, sending her flying towards us. I braced for impact but Christeenala pulled the chain again pulled Tsurosa back to her.

Tsurosa spun in the air, pulling the chain out of Christeenala's hand and swung with her claw while falling at almost 100 MPH. Christeenala flew back into a wall of the castle, collapsing the wall. Lilium and Tsurosa jumped next to each other and looked at the rubble.

A large ice shard flew out of the debris, slicing both their head off. Christeenala walked out of the rubble and kicked the headless bodies over.

I gasped when I noticed something abnormal, Christeenala's face was cracked. It took over a hundred pounds of pressure to just crack her skin. It's not cut, or bleeding, cracked like it was made of steel or …. Ice….

Lilium jumped up, her head regenerated and swung an arm. The arm turned into a barbed vine that slammed into Christeenala, enlarging the crack on Christeenala's cheek. Christeenala slid on the ground a little as she was hit, but grabbed Lilium's arm and tore it off.

Using the severed arm as a bat she swung at Lilium, sending her crashing through several walls. Tsurosa jumped onto her feet, her regenerative powers powerful, but slower than Lilium's, and slashed at Christeenala again, hitting the crack directly. Christeenala's head cracked open completely, sending frozen shards everywhere.

Tsurosa smirked at this, "I did it, bitches! I killed the unkillable Christeenala! Her fucking head is split along her precious castle's fucking floor!" Suddenly a hand grabbed Tsurosa's neck, broke it easily and tossed her aside.

Christeenala's body stood, the head completely missing. I could tell, even from this distance, that the body was hollow. The pieces slowly floated back into place, recreating her head and flowing light blue hair. She looked at Tsurosa, who was adjusting her broken neck back to normal, and Lilium, who was crawling out of a pile of debris.

"I am unkillable, because there is nothing to kill. This is not my actual body, only a puppet with skin harder than steel. This is the first time it's ever actually been damaged." Christeenala said.

"Did Xorin know about this!" Lilium shouted. Christeenala stiffened at the mention of her lover's name and glared at Lilium.

"This castle, My Castle, is being destroyed. Shall we move to a different location?" Christeenala said, suddenly a portal slowly formed over the castle and sucked Christeenala, Lilium, and Tsurosa in. Before we could react, it destroyed Yoshimori's kekkai and pulled us in too.

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I appeared in my bubble of water as I usually do in a hallway of Karasumori. I pulled my staff out of the portal, the bubble of water, and turned to walk deeper into the damage Karasumori.

All I have to do is eliminate this demon and then Leo will be freed. Xorin promised our debts would be paid off after this task. We could go live happily ever after like we always planned. I miss Leo so much.

"Linzang." I turned and saw my partner for this mission waiting for me.

"Gingross." (Gin – Grahss) I returned the feeble greeting. He pulled his hood off to reveal his dark purple hair and cold black eyes. He unsheathed his rapier, his prized possession named Metanoru. The poison dripped off it onto the floor, melting away the concrete like acid.

"Shall we search for our target?" Gingross asked, returning his sword to its sheath. I nodded and pulled my hood off as well. We walked through the empty halls of the academy. Most of the damage done by the other guardians has been repaired, by the looks of it. I stopped and looked at the cherry blossom tree. There's a suspicious woman and old man underneath the tree, admiring it's out of season blooming.

"Our target has the ability to change form correct?" I asked the senior operative, I am rank 9 after all.

"Yes, it does. It is an ayakashi from America, and is much viler than the ones around here. It has a contract with an old man and their after one of the teachers here for revenge. We need to eliminate the western ayakashi and we'll be done here." Gin gross explained.

"I think that the woman down there is our target, I sense ayakashi aura from her." I said, pointing at the tall woman.

"I believe you're right. Good eyes for a low ranked puppy." Gingross remarked. I flashed him a glare and he laughed it off. He sliced through the window without even drawing his sword and jumped through. I followed and we both landed on the grass below. The two looked at us, and by their faces, I could tell they knew who we were.

"I knew one day you'd come to eliminate Lady Kagami." The old man said with a serious face. I shrugged and Gingross nodded. The woman behind him quickly stood in front of the old man.

"I should fight them off master?" She asked, I assume her name is Lady Kagami.

"Yes, you should dear. And I asked you to call me Heisuke; it's in your contract." The man said to her. She nodded and sprouted giant crow wings out of nowhere. She suddenly turned and picked up the man known as Heisuke and flew into the air.

Suddenly there was a kekkai around us while we were distracted. Gingross cleaved through the kekkai with his infamous quick-draw technique and it vanished. The quick-draw technique, I wish I could do it, it lets him draw is sword and swing it so quickly that its invisible, then he sheaths it again as if he didn't even move.

I turned and saw a tall man in kekkaishi- esque robes standing behind us. I walked over to Gingross side and looked up, we're practically surrounded. The night troops around us, this mysterious kekkaishi before us, the target and old man above us.

I held Umi, my staff, in the air and slammed in onto the ground, summoning a giant tidal wave. The wave stormed over the academy, crashing over the troops until it was halted by the mysterious man's kekkai.

"Raizo!" Suddenly an electric wave flowed through the water and zapped me. I stood there and looked around for the source.

"Now you're a strong one! That much water should have made that electric bolt roast you!" I looked up at the top of the academy and saw a woman with a large bear, a golden griffin, and multi-eyes unicorn ayakashi, all wearing striped scarves. I can sense more ayakashi in this vicinity too, like one in the loud mouthed woman's backpack.

"Who are you two?" Gingross asked, deflecting an attack form one of the troop's members by just slapping it away.

"Masamori Sumimura, chief of the night troops." The kekkaishi introduced himself. Then he put on a smug grin, "It's only fair you know the name of the person you'll be defeated by."

I hate smug people like him… like Lilium…

"I'm Atora Hanashima!" The woman said, jumping into the air and landing perfectly with her ayakashi beast right behind her.

I sighed, this is going to be more trouble than I thought. But, I'll do anything to save Leo!

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I looked around in the new dimension Christeenala transported us too. It… looked like it belongs in one of Yoshimori's cook books…. There are cakes and pastries floating all over the place in this endless void.

I tugged Yoshimori's kekkaishi robe. He looked at me and I flicked my ears at him.

"When new get home, you have to make me a cake, nyan."