Sniff. What can i say. It was a hell of a night.
oh wait...wrong universe.
Any way, this wraps up the entirely of the Arena arc and hints at the next one. And i swear, by the next chapter, i will have a lynch mob gunning for my head.
RNR so i may enjoy this while i still can.
That being said...enjoy.*Hurriedly starts carrying supplies to a nuclear bomb shelter*
?
The world burned.
Tenma sucked in a breath of acrid air as she walked down the battlefield, Eri by her side. Small fires flickered around them and the air was pungent with the smell of cooked flesh. Crows cawed as they descended upon the feast below them.
'Just like our namesake, we descended upon them.'
The grim thought drifted through Tenma's mind as figures obsured by the viscous smoke took off, returning to the village, their dark deed done.
"How many?" She asked as the pair passed an eviscerated corpse. Both could not tell whether it was human or youkai.
"Thirty at final count. Our crow tengu ambushed them from the skies with no losses." Eri reported these facts as though discussing the preparations for a walk around the palace as they continued to see first-hand the damage the crow tengu had done. These foreign humans, white men as they called themselves, had scoffed at their short swords, their wakizashis. They called it weak, labeling it as a toy compared to their great swords.
The result of their arrogance stood around Tenma.
A gasp made Tenma and Eri turn. A human, lay mortally wounded against a tree. The steadily bleeding wound around her chest made predicting her fate easy. She stared at the pair of youkai with hate.
"Foul creatures. Using such tactics." She spat in a spray of blood.
Eri moved to pull out her scimitar but was stopped by Tenma. The silver-haired youkai lord motioned her to stand down and walked up to the human woman.
"It does not matter. I Won." Tenma retorted, slightly surprised that a foreigner knew the language of the land.
The woman grinned. "It does not matter? Hah!" She uttered a caustic laugh, releasing a spray of blood.
Tenma did not flinch as she was showered with crimson droplets of blood.
"When we disappear, others will know. More will come and your unnatural existence will be wiped from this land. This land belongs to the humans." The woman coughed as if each word drew more of her rapidly depleting life force from her .
Tenma grabbed the human woman and lifted her up by her throat. The woman gasped as she felt the grip tighten.
"We were here before you, human. We have far more right to this land than you. " She hissed. She dropped the human and sighed in contempt.
"Your arrogance human, disgusts me."
The human woman, grinning a death smile, reached behind her back for a small hand-held crossbow. "Your time has passed." She said victoriously as she pulled the trigger.
The crossbow bolt left its weapon.
A white and yellow blur appeared next to the human and knocked the crossbow bolt out of its flight. Then with the same movement, it decapitated the human woman. Her face frozen in a death grin, the woman died. Her body jerked as her nerves fired their last.
The bolt clattered on the hard, cold ground and lay still.
Ran Yakumo dropped the head. Her claws retracted into her blood-stained hands as she licked the blood off the tips of her slender fingers. A pair of tamed predatory eyes gazed at Tenma.
"Kitsune of Yakumo. How is your new master?" Tenma appeared unfazed by the near death experience she had just gone through or by the supremely powerful youkai in front of her. The platinum haired youkai knew that the newly-created shikigami would already have killed her if Yukari wanted it so.
"Yukari-sama sends her regards." Ran answered, her hand cleaned of the lifeblood of the human.
Tenma nodded. "What news does her shikigami bring?"
"The herald of her mistress's arrival." Yukari answered as she walked out of the smoke.
Ran bowed to her mistress. Yukari nodded to her underling's greeting and motioned for Ran to be off. The Kitsune obeyed her mistress gestures and disappeared into a conveniently placed gap.
"She changed fast." Tenma noted.
Yukari smiled. "She is only mine in body. I hope to convince her spirit one day."
Tenma nodded as they started to stroll down the destroyed land.
"I have convinced the shogunate of the dangers of these... White men, as they call themselves. However, they wish to trade with these foreigners and their technology. As of such, they have compromised. The foreigners will be confined to a small city. That is the furthest they are willing to go." Yukari announced as they walked.
"I am surprised that they would listen to you." Tenma noted. Relations with the humans are only confined to a few cities as youkai are not commonly known to band together. And even then, only humans of power actually knew of the organized youkai. Your average villager would only know of monsters and nuisances, not organized societies.
"What affects Honshu affects Gensokyo.."
The golden haired youkai looked to the heavens, her gaze appearing distant.
"Though the clouds are rumbling, I expect turbulent weather."
"Conflict again? So soon after the Ōnin war?" Tenma frowned. While the tengu were safe from the majority of the fighting, there was bound to be some fallout. She would have to co-opt in the Hanataka tengu if it got bad. Yukari merely hunched her shoulders and exhaled.
"The recent earthquakes and famine have caused unrest. Even the gods have to make difficult choices in these strife filled times."
She chuckled scornfully. "These humans. Their lives are so short and so too are their memories. Within a blink of an eye, you see another and another. And with the changing tides comes the breaking of the old. The time of the youkai is passing. Our grip is being shaken. We must do what we must to survive."
Tenma's frown deepened. What was Yukari getting at?
"I hope to create a land, a land in which youkai can live freely. A world safe from human intervention." The gold tressed woman paused for a moment, allowing the concept to sink in.
"For that, I need your help. You represent the largest group of organized youkai in Honshu. You control what most call uncontrollable. I need your support if I am able to succeed in this endeavor. Already the local shrine has agreed to follow through. I can't however, create a land for youkai without youkai."
"What do you need?" Tenma asked, as she strained to keep her excitement at bay. A land for youkai? Free of youkai hunters? This was something even she had never dreamed of.
"Your support for now." Yukari said.
Tenma folded her arms across her chest, finally nodding, she looked up at the flaxen haired youkai beside her.
"That can be arranged."
The scene started to fade into a smoky blur.
"He is a good choice, Tenma." Yukari's voice rang out as everything around her gradually blanketed in smoke.
Tenma blinked as she realized she was experiencing a past memory. It had seemed as if she was once again standing on that smoldering battlefield, as if it were real, but nonetheless, it had been a dream and she was still in it.
"If I can minimize the amount of danger you have to face, then yes I would. Even if it hurts me." Dutch's voice rang out in the smoke.
She remember a conversation she had had just a couple days earlier. A conversation with a certain gap youkai.
"He brings a special skill set that will solve your problem. An outsider skill set." Yukari had told her.
Tenma remembered these words frowning. Using a human? It was risky but there would be very little long term problems for the tengu. If the worst came to the worst, she could dispatch the crow tengu to take care of the human.
"Very well, I shall try him." Tenma said.
And look where she was now. Feeling possessive of that specific human.
But she could not help it. There was something about the human that drew her in. That young face with the eyes of one that had seen monsters. The well-shaped body, not bulky but streamlined. The fact that he did not treat every new youkai he met with hate.
Tenma wondered what sort of relationship they now had. One between equals or something more? Partners? Something more?
Then she entertained the notion of Dutch under her servitude. What would he be like? Defiant? Submissive? Broken? Scheming?
As a mental image of Dutch appeared, a look of hopelessness on his face, she did a double take.
BY THE GODS WHAT WAS SHE THINKING NOW!
This is unacceptable! She screamed at herself. The Tengu slapped herself mentally, punishing herself for having such an idea...
Too bad her body actually followed through with it.
Youkai market
Arena
Challenger rooms
Dutch sat, disassembling his carbine.
While he did not need to, the vault being more than capable of magically maintaining the weapon at peak capacity, it was one of the many ways he wound down after a fight.
He disassembled the weapon, carefully checking to ensure that everything was in place. Several parts of the firing mechanism were incredibly small and any error here would essentially turn his weapon into a paperweight. Having double checked his work, Dutch proceeded to reassemble the weapon.
Whoever converted the weapon to have a left side charging handle was a genius, Dutch decided. It made his job so much easier.
Having rebuilt his weapon, Dutch pulled the charging handle to arm the weapon. He pulled the trigger, expecting to hear the click of the firing pin.
Slap!
That was not a click.
Dutch turned to the bed. Tenma blinked, awoken by her self-induced pain.
"Any reason why you decided to hurt yourself?"
Tenma took a single look at the human and blushed, her pale face turning the hue of rubies. She kept quiet, looking incredibly sorry for some reason. Not privy to the images that ran through her head, Dutch decided to ignore the matter.
"You know what? Forget it. I don't need to know. A better question is how are you? You took quite a beating back there."
Tenma gladly accepted Dutch's words. Telling a person that you have been dreaming of him as a servant to you would generally be a sure fire way to experience extreme awkwardness.
"What happened? Did we lose?" Tenma asked. She had no memory of the ending of the fight since she was out for the count during that period. She wondered what could have knocked her out.
"First, you got hit by a flying piece of golem when they blew up. Secondly, yes we did lose. I forfeited." Dutch said. He braced himself for the expected attack.
"What? Why?" Tenma all but squawked. She had the full level of confidence in the human's abilities. After all, he managed to beat an entire squad of white wolf tengu. To learn that he was bested by a pair of upstart arena fighters was unacceptable to her.
Dutch readied his explanation. "Because I did not come to win. I came to secure my position."
Tenma's eyes narrowed. "Explain."
"Remember when I said that I came to address the problem of youkai wanting to challenge me? Well it would be problematic if I had managed to beat the best. If I did that, every youkai would want to fight the new human that managed to beat one of the best fighters. After all, he is just a human. So I did something else."
He took a breath to replenish his air supply and continued. "I checked with Ushi. Apparently what I did does not constitute being defeated. In fact, we clearly won. Not that you were awake to actually realize it but we had won. I forfeited because I did not need the formal declaration of victory. As of now, only those who saw the battle know that I won, but forfeited. The rest of the youkai would only hear that Death-legs had beaten another fighter in the arena."
"And what does this mean?" Tenma asked, not understanding the reasoning behind his move.
Dutch smiled. "It means that any youkai wanting to beat me would have to go through Death-legs first, even if they do not know why. Since she was one of the best, we now have a confirmed powerful barrier for any youkai who wish to challenge us. It helps to weed out the weak ones and narrow down the fighters we have to fight to the ones that defeated Death-legs. Given her track record of constant victories, it might be a long time before we have to fight someone."
Tenma nodded, finally understanding the reason behind Dutch's actions. She marveled at the plan. It was simple and as Dutch had said, it helped narrow down the fighters that they would have to contend with.
"I would rather that you use her name."
Dutch and Tenma turned to the door where a glowering Mekan stood.
"My partner does not know her name after all. Using her name would cause confusion." Dutch offered.
Mekan pursed her lips. "Utsudo told you her name. The least you could do is use it."
Dutch sighed. "Alright, alright. How is she anyway?"
"She's fine. Your attack did quite a number on her but it's nothing that she cannot pull through." Mekan grinned wryly.
Tenma took the opportunity to ask a question. "The staff that Utsudo used, it's a hunter's staff, isn't it?"
Mekan nodded cautiously.
"How can she use it? It is a weapon made to hunt youkai after all." Tenma continued. For a youkai to use a weapon that was made to hunt it would require a strong will and a great level of insanity. The weapon would have caused the youkai wielder pain on contact. To hold it would have brought out a torrent of pain on the youkai. Most youkai would simply just drop it and use their own body. It would hurt a lot less that way.
"She tamed it. That's all I shall say." It appeared Mekan would offer no further comments on that discussion.
"I see." Tenma muttered, accepting that that was end to the subject.
"So why are you here? I hardly believe that you came to here to gloat about your victory." Dutch placed extra emphasis on the word 'victory.' He knew it would be foolish for them to come just to gloat about their win, since they knew they had clearly lost.
"I'm just here to convey a message. She asks for a meeting, preferably at a time when both of you are available. She is indisposed at the moment." Mekan told him, her voice guileless.
Dutch nodded. "And how shall we contact you when the time is right?"
Mekan tossed an orb over to Dutch who snatched it out of the air. The grey ball sparked with compressed light.
"When we want to contact you, this will transform." The kappa said before turning and leaving. Her mane of navy blue hair swished as it and it's owner disappeared behind the door.
Dutch stared at the door, the thinking process in his head clearly displayed for Tenma to see.
"What are you thinking?" The youkai lord asked.
Dutch looked at his arm where Utsudo had struck with her staff. "Can the power of a hunter staff be redirected back at humans?"
Tenma shook her head. "No it cannot. The staff is resistant to any tampering. The magic that powers it is built into the staff and cannot be changed by any means. We tried. Why do you ask this question?"
"Because just now, when the staff struck me, it fired off a magical burst into my arm. That strike hurt much worse than normal." Dutch answered grimly, a hint of worry clear in his voice. If a hunter staff actually worked against him, then he was not human. And if he was not human, what was he?
"I'm sure it might have something to do with your ability. Certain abilities can set off anti-youkai weapons." Tenma answered reassuringly.
Dutch nodded, happy with the answer. "Thanks. Good to know there is a good explanation for it. Anyway, it's getting late. Unless you want to spend the night here, we need to head back to the guild. I'll wait outside while you get ready."
Tenma nodded. She waited before Dutch left the room before getting out of bed.
Outside, Dutch closed the door. Sliding it into place with a click, he scoffed in annoyance. "How long do you plan on keeping the blade there tengu?"
Eri stood behind him, the tip of her katana pointed at the back of his neck.
"If it guarantees Lord Tenma's safety, forever." She answered.
"Her safety is hers to decide. You can hold the blade forever but if she decides to face danger, what are you going to do? Bar her?" He returned, none too concerned by the blade.
"No but you cannot be forgiven. You do not treat her with the level of respect she deserves and you even bit her hand. As the highest member of her guard, I cannot let this transgression pass." Eri shot back haughtily.
"Tengu are not very smart about secret procedures, are they?" Dutch snickered.
The words surprised Eri. It was so different from what she had expected that she paused, her jaw gaping as she tried to regain command of the muscles which her stunned brain had forgotten how to control.
"Firstly, if she is traveling in secret, giving her a high level of respect goes against the objective of hiding. How many youkai have the position to have humans give them respect? Anyone with a good head will know something is different. Secondly, in your sentences, you have just given away who she is. You, a member of her guard. You might as well have her entire protection detail follow her, at least she would be safer that way. Lastly, it was merely a playful gesture. Even she herself shrugged it off." Dutch ticked off each point on his fingers.
"The rule of traveling incognito is to discard everything. Even tradition. If one cannot, what is the point of doing so?" He finished.
"Ah..." Eri stammered, shocked that the tables had been turned so quickly. Now the human was lecturing her, instead of her impressing on him the enormity of Tenma's position.
"She is safe with me. Or at least as safe as a human who is well-versed in what's important can bring. I have no intention of letting her come to harm if I can help it. I can give you that much." Dutch said, his eyes resolute.
"Why? Humans have always hated youkai." Eri answered, reduced to simple questions by her still floundering mind.
Dutch shrugged. "As dumb as it may sound, it's what inside that counts. Humans can be just the same as monsters. Although I admit, there's something about her that I can't seem to leave. Maybe it's her or something but I feel that I should be protecting her for the duration of this journey, seeing how I have experience in this sort of life."
Eri nodded as he spoke, silently accepting the explanation. As she scanned Dutch's face for any sort of deception, she saw a look on his face. It was the look of a person who was willing to sacrifice anything. Anything and everything for a loved one.
Could it be?
Eri prepared to discard the idea. A loving bond between a youkai and a human? Impossible. Both sides were too different to have such a bond exist.
But as the idea started to disappear, Eri reviewed the facts. Tenma told her advisers that Dutch was the one who highlighted her problems. And after the human appeared, there was a change in Tenma. It was not good or bad but a change nevertheless.
Perhaps it might be possible, no matter how impossible it might seem. If it was real, Eri at least knew now that a possibly serious threat was really an asset.
So she would wait. Wait to see what came out of this. Right now, it seemed that the human was not consciously aware of his own feelings. Only time would tell.
"Very well human. I trust your word. If she comes to any harm, I will find you."
Her words left no doubt as to what she was saying, Dutch grinned, the threat fully understood.
Challenger rooms
Mekan reached for the door, as her hand touched the oily knob, a crash sounded from the room on the other side. Hurriedly, the kappa pulled the door open. Sprawled on the floor, her legs in a confusing mess, Utsudo winced at the pain as well as the sight of her friend. Tears appeared at the sides of her slit eyes.
"What in the old hells are you doing?" Mekan shouted as she bustled across the room to lift the Tsuchigumo up onto the bed she had fallen off of.
Utsudo brushed away a strand of honey gold hair from her face and smiled faintly at Mekan.
"Don't you dare sit there and smile at me! You are not exactly in the best state of health to be running around!" Mekan snarled as she pushed the youkai down into the bed.
"I need to tell the others that we will be back late." Utsudo mumbled pathetically, she allowed Mekan to cover her with a blanket.
"No you do not! I can handle that, you rest!" Mekan ordered. The Tsuchigumo obeyed the kappa, sliding into the bed until she was just a lump into the blanket.
As Mekan picked up one of her orbs, Utsudo spoke.
"I still remember that day. That day when father and mother died defending me."
Mekan's expression softened. "They died for your sake. What would they feel if you went around in your injured state?"
The lump trembled.
"I still remembered what I promised. That I will never lose a battle. That I will be indomitable so that father and mother will be proud of me and what happened to me will never happen to anyone else again. And now I lost." Utsudo whispered, unseen tears trickling down her cheeks.
A pair of hands surrounded her covered body. "Don't think that way. To be indomitable is not to be undefeated but to be able to stand up even when you are defeated and be strong. That is why the orphans look up to you, Utsudo. Because you are the indomitable one that they need."
The orb chimed gently. "Onee-sama!" A voice cried out urgently.
Her hands left the blanket in a flash.
"What happened?" Mekan cried into the orb. The urgency in the voice from the orb drove shards of fear into both of the youkai's hearts.
"Mekan Onee-sama! Some bad people are at the orphanage! They hit Rosa-San!" The voice blurted out, her own fear radiating from the magical orb.
"Hide yourself, we are coming." Utsudo stood up painfully, a fire blazing in her eyes. She reached for her clothes but was stopped by Mekan's hand.
"Are you sure of this? You are still in really bad shape." The kappa looked at her friend, worry for her as well as the orphanage occupied her mind and showed clearly upon the window of her face.
The Tsuchigumo gave her a bright smile. "Isn't this the meaning of being indomitable?"
Mekan hesitantly released her hand. Resigned, she reached for her war fan and her coin pouch full of orbs. Reaching into the coin pouch, she pulled out three blue orbs and handed them over to Utsudo.
"Take it. If you are going into a fight, at least I know that there is something else protecting your spidery butt when I am not watching." She commanded. Utsudo grinned and nodded, accepting the blue orbs and putting them in a pocket of her tunic.
As she pulled on her clothes and a buckled on a new set of leather armor, her face slowly drained of humor until it transformed into a resolute expression. When she picked up her hunter's staff, there was an inferno in her eyes.
She looked at her friend and saw the same blaze in the eyes of her friend. The two arena fighters left their room.
Though courageous, both were gripped by a cold fear that it might not be enough.
Arena entrance
Dutch and Tenma walked out into the evening sun.
Streams of citrine orange and glorious gold stretched above them, turning the once white clouds into patches of amber. Occasionally, a crow tengu flew over them, returning to the safety of the village before it got dark.
"How are we going to take care of lodging?" Dutch asked as he walked in front of her to the guild.
Tenma regarded him with surprise. The question had appeared out of nowhere and she had no answer for it.
"From what I saw of your lodging, you have only one bed. I highly doubt that you would prefer that we both share the same bed, would you?" Dutch continued, his forward positioning making him unable to read her expression. Good, because Tenma was blushing furiously from the idea of it.
"Ah well, we could have the guild grant you a room after all. Your seal should do the trick." Tenma said, fighting to bring down the red in her cheeks before Dutch saw it.
Just then, two figures streaked past them in a hurry. The long azure mane and honey gold hair made it patently clear who they were but the two showed no sign of recognizing them. Both of them gripped their weapons tightly as they trotted down the street.
"They seem to be in a hurry." Dutch remarked as the pair watched the two disappearing into the distance.
Then another pair of youkai passed them, also moving fast. These two kept wicked looking clubs by their side as they tracked their path. They radiated an air of malice as they moved.
They gave Dutch a bad feeling.
"Hey Teri. Can you make it back to the guild on your own?" He asked.
Tenma gave him a suspicious look. "Of course I could. Why do you ask?"
"Because I have a bit of trailing to do. Those youkai following Mekan and Utsudo don't exactly look like they are selling milk and cookies." Dutch said this as his nanotech infused eyes target designated them. A pair of arrows flickered into being over their heads, indicating their position to him.
She grabbed his hand tightly.
"No."
Dutch turned to her with an incredulous expression painting his face.
"Or at least, not without me. We are partners." She said, smiling warmly.
Dutch remembered his promise to Eri that Tenma would not come to any harm. And then he also remembered Tenma having just accepted his request to follow her on her journey. Thinking fast, he chose what seemed right.
"Okay. But keep a low profile." he answered, hoping fervently that Eri would not strangle him if she ever found out.
Vault
"Why that..."
Vale glowered jealously as her point of view and Tenma proceeded to follow the two other youkai.
This Tenma. Like Vale, she was a person that managed to garner a rather large reaction from Dutch... That made her someone to look out for.
Vale fumed silently as she watched from Dutch's view. Since she was stuck in the vault, she could only interact physically with him when he fell asleep. That meant that the time he spent with her was far less than the time he spent with Tenma.
The thought that her Dako was spending less time with her awoke a dark monster in the back of her mind, a beast that howled in fury. That meant that she was losing her Dako to someone else.
Wait. Her Dako?
Vale backpedaled from her angry thoughts. What was she thinking, acting as if Dako was some sort of property belonging to her?
She, however, could not rid herself of the Dako centred thoughts which swam about her mind.
What was Dutch to her? She had entertained ideas of him and her together in love but she had always regarded it as an impossibility, a play on reality. Right now though, she was not so sure.
The beautiful, crystalline angel sat down and thought. She needed an answer for herself.