Chapter 5: The Purple Crossbow
Wednesday: Mcfist Industries
The Sorcerer roared in rage as he watched his plans fail, the Minotaur robots were destroyed and the Sorcerers Oni failed as well, this is largely due to the fact that the Sorcerer didn't expect a revolting and Ninja-helping Oni, something that was common when he first unleashed the Oni to begin with.
"You failed me again Viceroy! Why didn't you know that the Ninja had help!?" Hannibal Mcfist said, the owner of Mcfist industries yelled at his personal assistant and robot-maker Viceroy.
"Because the Ninja never had help before!" Viceroy replied with a tone of having to endure annoyance and partial stupidity.
"Silence the both of you!" The Sorcerer roared, this caused his two personal human minions to silence themselves.
"It seems like the Four Legendary Oni are back or at least one of them is back and fighting once more, if we only seen one of them, its a possibility that the Oni keeper didn't find any of the other weapons..." The Sorcerer began to prattle on.
"Mcfist! Gather your forces! Find me the other weapons! Find me a purple crossbow, a red sword, and a blue trident!" The Sorcerer said to Mcfist and Viceroy.
"You heard him! Find them Viceroy!" Hannibal yelled to Viceroy who only grumbled loudly in response.
"Not just yet Viceroy, did you brought the animals I wanted?" The Sorcerer said, stopping the assistant dead in his tracks.
"Of course I did, bring them in!" Viceroy said to the Sorcerer then to a certain pair of robotic-apes, they nodded and brought in two cages, one cage had a white bat inside, it screeched and screamed as it tried to get out of its container, the other cage contained a dove, its feathers were as white as paper and unlike the bat, it didn't seem to care that it was caged as it sternly stood in its bird cage, the Robo-apes planted the two cages right in front of the Sorcerer's view, with a satisfied smile, the Sorcerer spoke to the white bat and dove.
"Don't worry, this will only hurt for a bit..."
Thursday: Norrisville: Greg's Gaming Hole.
Theresa placed her hands to her face, sighing loudly as she sat on a nice and comfy bench in the middle of Norrisville, near Randy's usual hangout is, some sort of arcade that Theresa has to force herself to enjoy if she want's Theresa to be her boyfriend, it was eventful, just like any other day, except half of the events were only bolstered by being the Oni Keeper, something that she never asked for and is currently regretting.
After Shirokuma defeated the Rat Oni, he effectively stole the Ninja's 'thunder' as Randy describes, but then again, maybe that was Shirokuma's true intentions especially after he called the Ninja, prideful and uncoordinated, something that Theresa took personal offense, this is due to the Ninja saving Theresa's life after an encounter of the Psycho-bot, something that made Shirokuma to ironically humble out when she told him this, although he still did responded with a gruff and strong.
'He still needs to focus on fighting, rather calling out your attacks though.' This statement made Theresa to laugh, she could literally sense the bottom of the barrel Shirokuma is scraping.
"Like you?" Theresa retorted, Shirokuma stayed silent, Theresa smiled, feeling accomplished that she finally and ironically humbled the Golden Oni out with her wordplay.
'Fine, he's good, but not as good as the Ninja I fought with.' Shirokuma said with a growl, Theresa then abruptly dropped the guitar case that contained Shirokuma and his axe, he yelped loudly in surprise and grunted angrily to Theresa.
'Stop doing that Fowler!' He said as Theresa laughed in Shirokuma's misery.
"Not until you apologize!" She responded as she quickly picked up the guitar case and dropped it again, after some more times of Theresa dropping the guitar case and picking it up, Shirokuma finally did apologize, much to Theresa's happiness.
"Now that you learn that I can make you vom or not, I'm going to go talk to Randy again, you got any ideas? Since you know a lot about love!" Theresa said sarcastically, Shirokuma responded with a venomous statement.
'Don't randomly drop me next time so that you won't seem like a strange girl?' Theresa quickly responded with silence and a glare, but she quickly resumed what she was doing, she entered into the arcade known as Greg's Game Hole, the guitar case in her right hand as she entered inside.
To little surprise, the arcade was loud and very in-your-face, bothering both her and Shirokuma, something that both of them took notice of each other, it had many rows of videogames, Shirokuma questioned the purpose of these electronics, something that Theresa also questions as well, to bad her biggest crush loves them dearly, to the point that his time spending on videogames is on par to him spending time with Howard.
Theresa sighed loudly in an saddened tone as he spotted her crush and her crush's best friend playing videogames and drinking soda made by Mcfist, like any other product in Norrisville, Theresa tried to say hi to her crush, only for her attempts to be proven fruitless as the sounds of Randy's videogame completely out volume's Theresa's words, causing her to sigh once more.
To Theresa's surprise, there was a prize corner, to bad most of the prizes mainly consist of cheap novelty and plastic, that is until Shirokuma pointed out something that quickly caught Theresa's eye.
'Up there, to the top left, could it be?' Shirokuma said, his voice having genuine curiosity, quickly Theresa looked up at the top shelf, and mounted on the wall in a case display was a crossbow that lacks that plastic shine that most of the other prizes has, it was about a foot and a half long, making it seem like a one-handed crossbow for anyone that's older than twelve, the head of the crossbow was that of a dragon of the European variety, the mouth open so that arrows can shoot out of the crossbow, its limbs was akin to that of dragon wings, its string was black and the stock was extra long, it even has a scope, seems pretty well-made, just as well-made as the axe of Shirokuma.
"Is that of one of your brother's weapons?" Theresa asked the Golden Oni who's spirit was trapped in an axe of gold, The Oni scoffed before saying.
'Seems to be, same design, same type of weapon, the difference here is that the Ninja placed his weapon on top of the highest mountain this land has, not some place where noise is its highest point.' This honestly made Theresa snicker in response to Shirokuma's blunt but truthful statements
"Don't worry, I'll just go and ask." Theresa said to the unsure Oni, quickly she walked up to the owner of the establishment.
"What do you need?" Greg asked Theresa politely, his natural tone of voice however being calm and relaxed.
"Where did you get that crossbow?" Theresa somewhat bluntly, not wanting to sugarcoat her words as she tried her best to not sound demanding.
"That old thing? One of my old friends was a hiker and he found that weird dragon-looking crossbow thing on top of the highest mountain of Norrisville, it was an extra reward after he climb on top of the mountain, he gave it to me since he didn't really need it. " Greg replied coolly.
"Can we buy that off from you?" Theresa asked, Greg looked at Theresa confusingly and spoke with the same calm voice.
"Its on the prize shelve for a reason, you need to win it." Theresa responded with a small frown, she sighed once more, guess she'll just ask Randy if he can help.
"What do I need to do?" Theresa asked, not expecting much, she'll probably just ask Randy to do it since he's a lot better at videogames than her, but then again, she'll risk revealing herself as the Keeper of the Oni, which is bad for Randy likes the Ninja and has a dislike for Shirokuma so that won't help in her relationship if it meant being something that Randy didn't like.
"For a prize for something like that? Get high score on every game." Greg said coolly, clearly saying his words like they were the nature of life rather than putting it lightly or harshly for that matter. Theresa's jaw literally dropped, she's not even good at playing videogames, in fact, she doesn't even like videogames in general.
"Hold on for a moment." Theresa said, quickly she turned around and walked back to where Randy was, trying her best to interrupt Randy and his gaming time while not being rude was a difficult task to say the least.
"Hey Randy..." Theresa said as an attempt to get her crush's attention but no avail as he was to focused on playing his videogame with his best friend.
"Randy." Theresa said once more, it had the same result as before, she sighed loudly.
"Randy!" Theresa shouted, this finally got Randy's attention, making him lose at the arcade in the process, he turned around to see Theresa, instantly a small blush appeared on the Teenager's cheeks
"What do you need Theresa?" Randy asked, not even caring that he lost at the game due to Theresa's interruption. Theresa was hesitant to say what she needs to say, due to her secrets of course.
"Can you help me get something from the prize corner?" Theresa asked sweetly, giving Randy an look of innocence and kindness.
"Sure, what do I need to do?" Randy asked, happy to help his friend, a friend, not a love interest, or an extreme love interest, just a friend.
"Get high score on every game..." Theresa said, waiting for Randy's reaction, he laughed a response.
"Don't worry, I got high score on all of them! Well, except for one..." Randy said.
"And Howard wants that high score for himself and we're bros so..." Randy scratched the back of his head, his voice becoming noticeably more quiet. Theresa sighed loudly in response.
"But I really want the grand prize..." Theresa responded as she feigned sadness, something that took effect on her crush, causing her to blush slightly as he valued her feelings
Then all of the sudden, a loud explosion echoed outside of Greg's gaming hole but due to the sheer volume, it seems like it was a very close explosion, both teens eyes widen in response, Theresa noticeably loudly gulped.
"What the juice was that?" Theresa said to Randy, somewhat blushing when she used Randy's own slang right in front of him.
"No idea..." Randy responded, both teens quickly exited out of Greg's Gaming Hole and to their shock and horror they saw another Oni rampaging through the streets of Norrisville, it was about eight feet tall, it lacked eyes of any kind and instead only sported a large bat-like nose and two large rotten-yellow ears, its form was lean but muscular, its disease-ridden pink skin was covered with pieces of grey and green-colored armor and on its arms was also wing webbing, on its long and bony hands was bladed claws that was about two feet in length, it screeched loudly as its claws glowed in a green magical aura, the Bat Oni screeched and he swung its claws, causing powerful beams to shoot out of its magical-enchanted claws, the beams collided with the bus bench that Theresa sat on earlier and the bus bench quickly exploded, the burning shrapnel almost hitting Theresa and Randy but luckily, Randy forced Theresa to duck.
The two teens looked at each other both in shock, but they did say something to each other right before parting their separate ways.
"Go inside where its safe!" they both went there separate ways where no one can see them, Theresa went to an very nearby alley where no one could see her and the Bat Oni could not see her. (but then again, the Bat Oni doesn't have eyes so it couldn't see anything to begin with.) Theresa quickly opened her guitar case, which, of course, contains the Axe of Shirokuma.
"Are you ready Shirokuma?" Theresa asked the axe, the Oni replied with a scoff, Theresa with a slight huff of annoyance due to Shirokuma's constant scoffs, quickly grabbed the axe, instantly streams of gold began to come out of the axe, the streams completely covering Theresa's body, after Theresa's body was completely covered in the streams of golden energy, a flash of light occurred, after the flash of light dissipated, what replace the Violet-hair baton-twirler was Shirokuma, the Yellow Oni of the Legendary Four.
Quickly Shirokuma ran out of the alley and into the battle-ridden street, the Bat Oni stopped causing havoc and chaos and instead paid all its attention to its new foe, the Bat screeched loudly at the Golden Samurai as it flapped its wings as an attempt to intimidate the Golden Oni.
"Seems like you not as smart as the others, at least they spoke before their demise..." Shirokuma said to the Bat Oni as Shirokuma folded his arms, angling his axe hand so he could fold his arms properly.
"Smoke Bomb!" The Ninja said as he appeared in a puff of orange and red smoke, right next to Shirokuma this time instead of in front of him like the first time they fought with each other.
"Are you wonkin' serious right now? First you appear out of the blue yesterday just to steal my thunder, and your at it again today?" The Ninja exclaimed, the Golden Samurai only grunted loudly as a response not wanting to argue with something that is so minuscule like stealing the spotlight.
"Alright Shiroshoobma, since we're on the same team, lets waste Bat Ears okay?" The Ninja said begrudgingly, wanting to fight the enemy and not wanting to argue to with a shoob who is at least helping him.
"Fine, lets show them what it means to fall..." Shirokuma responded strongly as unfolded his arms.
The two protector's of Norrisville charged to the Bat Oni, that is, until the Ninja and the Golden Oni was blasted with a ball of white and green energy, causing both heroes to be pushed back by the blast. The Bat Oni screeched loudly as the Dove Oni joined its side, the creator of the ball of white and green energy, the Dove Oni was only six feet tall, it had diseased patches of skin and skinless patches that most Oni have, the difference here is that the Oni still had many feathers of that of a dove, it wore armor that was akin to Mcfist's armor plating that his robots have, only for it be fashioned to be similar to gladiatorial armor, its head was simply a large beak that was pitch black, it eyes were tiny and beady and instead of the basic two eyes, it had seven. On its back was a pair of angelic-like wings
The Bat Oni laughed and screech as the Dove Oni laughed as well, quickly the Dove Oni took flight and quickly tackled the Ninja, leaving Shirokuma with the Bat Oni, something that made the Golden Samurai Oni scoff loudly.
"It seems your fight is with me, Bat ears..." Shirokuma said as he charged at the Bat Oni with his Axe raised, the Bat Oni responded with a beam of green energy, something that Shirokuma barely dodged, once Shirokuma was close enough, he swung his axe the Bat Oni quickly blocked by grabbing the axe with his two claws after he stopped firing his beam. Shirokuma quickly kneed the Bat Oni in the side of its stomach forcing the Bat to let go of the axe, quickly Shirokuma swung his axe in a horizontal swing only to be hit by a ball of white energy that was from the Dove Oni who pinned the Ninja to the ground about like fifteen away from the Golden Oni, Shirokuma was disoriented and the Bat Oni quickly capitalized on this.
The Bat Oni screeched so loud, it created a sonic boom so strong it sent Shirokuma straight into Greg's Gaming Hole through the window, causing the glass to shatter to many pieces and causing several citizens in the arcade to get away from the window just in case if the Ninja was going to meet a similar fate.
Shirokuma growled loudly as he quickly recovered from the sonic boom, but he didn't have enough time to dodge a beam attack from the Bat Oni causing him to growl in pain loudly as he was pushed back even more so, the Bat Oni continued its beam attack, not ever batting an ear to the Golden Oni as it knew that the Dove Oni has the Ninja already pinned down. The Bat Oni laughed as it got Shirokuma with its beam attack essentially rooting the Oni to where he's standing due to the pure force of the beam.
'Shirokuma you need to move to cover!' Theresa said, Shirokuma only spouted out a pained scoff as a response, doubt started to course through Theresa as this was the first time that Shirokuma was struggling when it comes to fighting another Oni.
"Your strength..." Shirokuma said, he took one step forward, the Bat Oni was surprised by kept on assaulting the Golden Oni with its beam attack.
"Does not..." Shirokuma raised his axe and took another step forward, the Bat Oni tilted his head.
"Make me..." Shirokuma took another step, effectively taking the damage for he knows what will happen if the beam hits anything except himself.
"FALL!" The Golden Oni finished as he threw his axe at the Bat Oni, quickly the Bat Oni stopped using his beam attack and then dodged the axe by ducking, causing the axe to be planted behind the Bat Oni, before the Bat Oni can resume his beam assault he was then punched right in the gut by Shirokuma who charged at the Bat when he ducked the axe.
Quickly Shirokuma grabbed the right ear of the Bat Oni with his right hand and without a second and with great strength he tore the ear out, leaving the Bat Oni to have an ear and a half. Before the Bat could screech a sonic boom once more, until he was then kicked in the gut and was grabbed by the neck and then was thrown to where Shirokuma's axe is.
"Rest forever about that!" Shirokuma said in a proud tone and with a loud scoff right before speaking, Shirokuma could have sworn that he heard cheering from the citizens in Greg's Game Hole after he said the sentence. Shirokuma quickly walked close to lying Bat Oni, it quickly scooted away from the Golden Samurai in fear, not wanting to die, Shirokuma quickly pulled out his axe from the ground but once again, he was interrupted by the Dove Oni who was having no problem against a Ninja if the Dove was flying and the Ninja's only solutions to defeat flying enemies is a easily-seeable scarf and Ninja rings that were limited in amount.
Shirokuma was once again disoriented lightening his grip on his axe, quickly seizing the opportunity once more, the Bat Oni yanked the axe out of Shirokuma's hand, swung the axe slicing Shirokuma, chipping pieces of his chest armor and quickly blasted the Golden Oni with a loud screech into Greg's Game Hole once again.
The Bat Oni laughed loudly as it now gained a weapon and Shirokuma was once again back to square one and in worse conditions than before.
'Are you alright Shirokuma?' Theresa asked, her voice being frantic and filled with worry, Shirokuma hazily and weakly got up and simply replied with a gruff but noticeably faltering.
"No..." Shirokuma touched the shredded part of his chest armor, he felt something that was slimy, he looked at the hand that he touched his armor with, it was doused with his own blood, looks like the Bat Oni managed to damage the Golden Samurai, something that made Theresa worry.
'What are we going to do now? You can't take another beam like that again!' Theresa said, her voice becoming more frantic than before, Shirokuma didn't spoke a word he only eyed the Purple Crossbow.
"Are you thinking of what I'm thinking?" Shirokuma said, his voice being somewhat less strong and more lighter. Shirokuma could literally sense the nod that Theresa gave him while she was in Purgatory. Quickly Shirokuma ran up to the prize corner, he broke the display case, containing the purple crossbow and quickly grabbed it with his left hand, for the Oni that once held this crossbow was a southpaw.
Silence...This made the Golden Oni and the Oni keeper to gulp loudly.
But then they heard something...
Purgatory
What appeared in Theresa's eyes was something that was brought hope to herself, it was magical influx of purple energy, it shine brightly, like a light in the eternal darkness, what appeared after a flash of purple light was an one of the Legendary Oni.
He was only a couple inches taller than Theresa, making him only 5'11, his armor was that of a tight and ornamental top-chest purple jacket, the top of the chest only bearing metal while the rest such as the bottom part and the sleeves being purple and leather, he bear shoulderpads that was made of leather and was diamond shaped but the diamond shoulderpads were pointing upward, making the shoulder pads seem like they only guard the side of his shoulders, his tasset was long and purple, covering his entire lower body, he wore white cloth gloves that covered his soft-looking hands, unlike Shirokuma, this Oni had a helmet that looked exactly like the dragon head on the tip of the crossbow except that in the back of the helmet was a long white pony tail that reached down to the Oni's waist, the dragon head being open so that the Oni could see, revealing his orange and lacking of irises eyes, and nothing more besides a black void.
The Oni blinked for a moment, only staring at the Violet-haired girl, Theresa only responded with a sensible question.
"Who are you?" Theresa asked. The Purple Oni took a second to answer, he put a gloved finger to his helmet's chin, probably searching for a good way to introduce himself to the new person in front of him.
"Kazeryu! Nice to meet you!" The Purple Dragon Oni now known as Kazeryu said he bowed to Theresa politely, his voice becoming light and somewhat immature, it wasn't deep like Shirokuma, in fact, Theresa noticed that his voice was even lighter than HERS. This of course surprised Theresa as she never expected a voice to come out from something like an Oni.
"Is Shirokuma possessing you? Kind of easy to tell, Are you his new friend? Are you his new apprentice? I used to be his apprentice! Hehe! Like an endless cycle!" Kazeryu said loudly but innocently as he spun around to see if there was anything new to Purgatory.
'She is our Oni Keeper Kazeryu, Now, can you please take my place for me?' Shirokuma said and asked, Kazeryu laughed and simply asked in a light and somewhat polite voice.
"What do you need Kuma-san?" His voice having a noticeably tinge of excitement and many centuries of tranquility and from interacting with a elderly friend.
'To fight some Oni.' Shirokuma bluntly said, Kazeryu gasped loudly and nodded quickly. Quickly he disappeared as streams of purple energy, and what replaced Kazeryu's spot was Shirokuma.
"He is always like that?" Theresa asked, somewhat rudely, which she admitted was uncalled for.
"His original body was a dragon hatchling, for our Master wanted a powerful Oni but lacked the patience to raise a dragon to full maturity so he decided to corrupt the dragon while it was still a hatchling, Kazeryu is still quite powerful despite his age." Shirokuma responded, right before sighing in relief due to being able to take a break.
Norrisville
After a puff of purple smoke, what replaced Shirokuma was the Legendary Purple Dragon Oni, Kazeryu, he laughed innocently as he spun his crossbow around his finger as the Bat Oni tilted its head at his new opponent. The nearby citizens looked at the Purple Oni in sudden awe, Kazeryu looked around his location, with a big smile on his face that no one could see.
"Hello everyone!" Kazeryu said with a quick giggle afterwards, waving hi to everyone around him, quickly he redirected his full attention to the Bat Oni and titled his head slightly and asked innocently.
"Mind if I defeat you?" Kazeryu said as he pointed his crossbow at the Bat Oni with his left hand, the Bat Oni screeched loudly as a response.
"Can't hear the answer!" Kazeryu said as he shot the Bat Oni with a crossbow bolt, the bolt of pure purple energy colliding with the Bat Oni's chest causing it to scream in pain, Kazeryu laughed and spun around right before shooting out another bolt of his crossbow, this time colliding with the Bat's knee, the Bat Oni screeched as the bolt went through the knee, the bolt being stuck in the Bat Oni's knee as the Bat Oni kneel due to being unable to move with the bolt being stuck in its knee.
"Hehe! That was so fun!" Kazeryu said as he shot the Bat Oni in the chest, the Bat Oni screeched in pain, Kazeryu then shot the Bat Oni in the neck and then finally in the head, effectively killing the Bat Oni, Kazeryu giggled as he walked up close to the dead Bat Oni, quickly he kicked the Bat Oni to the ground sticking his tongue out in the process. Kazeryu then heard the Ninja being punched by the Dove Oni quickly he redirected his attention to the Dove Oni who once again pinned the Ninja down to the ground.
"Who the juice are you?" the Ninja said right before receiving a left hook, Kazeryu laughed and pointed his crossbow at the two.
"Kazeryu, Nice to meet you Ninja-baka! " Kazeryu said as a magical bolt of pure energy appeared in the socket of the crossbow just like the other bolts that he shot before, Kazeryu giggled and said once more.
"Mind if I blow you up?" Kazeryu's crossbow glowed an aura of a hue of pitch black, both the Ninja and the Dove Oni looked at the purple Oni with widen eyes
"What!? No!" the Ninja exclaimed, as the Dove Oni quickly got off of the Ninja unpinning the Ninja in the process, quickly the Dove Oni took flight as an attempt to run away.
"Can't hear the answer!" Kazeryu shouted as in a split second he redirected his aim at the fleeing Dove Oni.
"Storm Bolt!" Kazeryu said as he held the crossbow with both of his hands and fired, firing a massive bolt of purple and electrical energy, the Dove Oni quickly shot a ball of white energy, as an attempt to stop the Storm bolt but the ball quickly dissolved when it made contact to the storm bolt, not at all stopping the Storm Bolt as he collided with the Dove Oni, causing the fleeing Dove Oni to blow up in an explosion of purple and electricity. After some silence, Kazeryu laughed and quickly ran up to the Ninja and said in a innocent tone.
"Wasn't that fun Ninja-baka?" Kazeryu said as he quickly the Ninja a peace sign, the Ninja only glared at the Oni as a response.
"That wasn't bruce at all! Do me a flavor and stop taking my thunder!" The Ninja said as he quickly got up and dusted himself off, Kazeryu only giggled at the funny Ninja and his over-the-top reactions
"Well Baka, sometimes being a Ninja-baka isn't always about making thunder to begin with!" Kazeryu said innocently, this only got the Ninja even more madder than before, before the Ninja could slice the Purple Oni with his sword, Kazeryu quickly disappeared in a puff of purple smoke, leaving the Ninja to his own anger.
Theresa appeared right back to where she was, except this time, what was in her hands was the axe of Shirokuma in her right hand and the crossbow of Kazeryu in her left hand.
'What's your name Onee-chan? Or do you want me to call you Onee-chan?' Kazeryu asked politely, Theresa sighed loudly as she spoke to the Dragon Oni.
"Theresa...Theresa Fowler..." She said, realizing that she now has to deal with two voices instead of one.