After Rei, Asuka and Shinji departed Sendai they headed south towards Kenji's temple. The route they chose was the most direct with no towns or villages on the way. Rei's best guess, if they avoided all obstacles and traveled over as level terrain as possible, the journey would take about a little less than a month.
"A month!" said Asuka in surprise. "Why did we go all the way up here if it would take us that long?"
"Well going this way is actually faster than any other route. This is the only way we can avoid going over mountains and really increasing our time."
"A month sure is a lot of walking."
"Thank you for that Shinji you provide such useful information."
"No need to be rude Asuka. What I mean is there is no point complaining, all it is walking."
"Yeah whatever."
"So Rei, do you really think that anyone at this temple will actually be able to help us? I mean if they could tell when you would be born couldn't they have also seen where the source of this mist is? And told you."
"Sure they'll be able to help us. And how am I supposed to know how magic visions work? I'm not sure if you get that much detail. But, someone there surely will be able to give us a clue, or some assistance in someway."
"Well at least your positive."
"Anything else is self defeating right?"
"That's right."
"Hey you two hurry up." Asuka called from up ahead. "Your chatter is slowing you down."
"Sorry, we're coming." Rei called back, picking up her pace and catching up to Asuka. Shinji did the same.
The snow around Sendai had lessened quite a bit since last they tried to travel the area, but there was still a white covering on the ground and trees. While traveling by tree as in the year before would have been much easier than walking Rei would not allow it as the tree's would be used by many animals and their newborns as spring approached. Spring also meant finding food would be much easier. Traveling now would get easier instead of harder.
Later that day Rei, Asuka and Shinji completed their first successful hunt of the year. While the catch was only a few small rodents that had come out early, they were very happy to be able to acquire food with such ease.
"This is great, we probably wont have to go stupid lengths of time before we find food again." said Asuka happily as they waited by the fire for their food to cook.
"Yes with the seasonal change and more creatures coming out we will be able to eat more." replied Shinji.
"We'll probably need the extra strength, who knows what else what else we'll have to do or when we'll have to fight."
"Yeah as much as I want to get that guy back for tossing me into a building I don't feel like fighting him right now." said Asuka.
"That guy, Shi, he sure is strong." said Shinji.
"What bothers me more is that, if you follow the naming pattern, there are three more stronger than him plus Shinigami." replied Rei.
"Yeah, that could be a problem." said Shinji calmly. "Oh well. That's why we spent so much time training back in Sendai."
"And Rei you said your master came from this temple, so there should be some pretty strong people there right? Maybe they can train us too."
"That's actually one of the things I'm hoping for." said Rei. "Any extra training would be helpful to us."
"Well now that we all fell better, lets eat."
"Wow you can focus well."
"I focus on what's important or what we can do anything about. Everything else is just extra worries I don't need."
By this point the tossing around of light insults and personal philosophy was so normal for Asuka and Shinji it was almost as if they were expected to do an exchange like this one two or three times a day. They knew how each other thought and reacted to situations, but old habits die hard and the arguments came. Rei thought it was kind of humorous how Asuka and Shinji kept up that external relationship. The group had grown so much closer than when it first started and even since before their stay in Sendai. Their winter of training had bonded them all to each other.
After they ate dinner Rei, Asuka and Shinji sat around for a while and talked. They did this a lot considering they were always together. Many times the talks would be about their thoughts or things they did when they were kids. Never did their conversations go into the realm of "what will you do when the mist is gone?". They felt it almost taboo to do such a thing since they were never sure if they would succeed or if they would all survive. None of them were negative and thought they would be defeated, but at the same time they recognized the possibility of it happening at anytime. Even with this occasional thought, no one ever expressed it or showed any real concern about it.
The next few days were the same, walking until they found food, eating, walking some more, a little more food, and sleep. On the fifth day of their trip Rei was growing uneasy.
"This isn't good at all." she said as they all walked.
"What isn't good Rei?"
"The peace and quiet we've had. We haven't been attacked by demons outside since we left that underground library. I don't like it."
"Your right." replied Asuka. "Before we were attacked all the time, I wonder why there aren't any out here."
"This is a most befuddling conundrum." said Shinji. "No demons could mean either; they don't live this far north, the bad guys are stopping them from attacking us, or they realize how strong we are and are staying back. I doubt the first and last option and don't understand the second."
"Ok your going to have to explain befuddling." said Asuka confused.
"Really?" asked Shinji. "That's not that hard of a word."
"Stop you two, I'm serious about this. I don't like it at all. I don't like the feeling of things around here."
"Well I don't know anymore about this stuff than you do." said Asuka. "I guess the most we can do is keep are guard up."
"Yeah your right." This didn't help Rei at all. Something inside her felt off. It was as though she could feel evil around them, but could tell nothing else about it. She didn't want to say too much and worry her friends so she kept silent about it.
Later that day Rei, Asuka and Shinji came across a man standing on the path they were walking. He was facing the other way and not moving. They were surprised to see someone outside and were very cautious when they approached.
"Excuse me sir," said Shinji, "what are you doing out here? Is your village near by?"
The man turned around and looked at the ground.
Shinji asked again, "Hello, what are you doing out here?"
The man looked up at them. He was a very skinny man and average height. His hair was loose and strands covered his face. He had on a men's kimono and sandals.
"I was waiting for you." he said. "I'm here to kill you."
"Really?" asked Asuka. "And just who the hell are you?"
"My name is of no concern to you. You can call me San if you must."
"So you one of them." replied Asuka.
"Yes I am. I have been charged with killing you, but if you wouldn't mind would you just die easily? I don't want to damage your bodies too much. Just stand still so I can cut your throats."
"Are you insane? Why would we do that?"
"I need to examine your bodies and if I tear them up too much they will be hard to study."
"Forget it." said Asuka. "Lets get him."
"I guess I'll try this then." said Rei.
She focused and summoned the new demon from Sendai. What appeared was a demon that looked very much like a human. It had long arms and legs and was ghastly thin, as if it had bee starved. The demon reached out and grabbed San when it did it let out a breath of toxic gas and then vanished. Rei fell to her knees.
Using one hand to hold herself up she grabbed her face in terror. In the instant she summoned that demon she felt something evil within her. It grew to a point where it was able to speak to her.
"I'm so glad you set me free." It said. "I had been waiting for so long."
"What the hell are you?"
"Me? Why I'm just you, the evil side of you. The side that is strong, the side with no fear of power and the side that lusts for battle. The side that, if you embrace, we make you unstoppable."
"No go away, get out."
"I'm not leaving, I can't. I have been her growing since you were young. I grew every time you had a thought about power. I was worried for a while that I was going to be stuck here, but ever since you killed that human king I've been growing strong. Using that dark demon brought me this close to the surface."
"Dark demon?"
"I see you have felt the effects of Shinigami's demon." said San.
"What?"
"Shinigami said he did something to those demon that he place in Sendai and that they would do something interesting to you. And it looks like that they awakened your evil side. How fun."
"Evil side?" said Shinji softly.
"Every time you use magic it will grow until eventually it takes you over."
"You bastard!" cried Asuka as she jumped in to attack San.
When Asuka attacked San vanished and reappeared behind her with a sword in his hand. As he brought it back to stab her Shinji cut him from behind. Asuka jumped away and turned toward San.
"Well what a fun observation." San said. "The next time we meet things will hopefully be a little better."
San fell over and inside the cut Shinji could see metal gears.
"It looks like the wind mills back home."
"You mean he made a mechanical copy of himself?" asked Rei.
"Rei are you alright?"
"Yeah I'm fine."
"Why are you lying? What happened to you?"
"It's just like San, or the fake one, said. My evil side grew and started to speak. It's very close to coming out it says."
"So that's what it meant." said Shinji holding chin."
"What are you talking about?"
"In one of the books that I was translating for the library it mentioned demons made by Shinpishugisha. The attempt was to make ones that they could use."
"Like back at your fathers lab?" Rei asked.
"Exactly. But this book said that when they were used they amplified undesirable traits. It said that evil grows in its presence."
"So those demon from Sendai were those created demons?" asked Asuka.
"It looks like it. I guess Shinigami must have found some and placed them there to harm you."
"Crap now what?" whined Asuka. "If Rei doesn't use magic anymore there isn't much good we can do."
"Shinji, did the book say anything about fixing this?"
"Not much. It only briefly mentioned that someone else was working on it. These books don't seem to use names or locations, they are written as though that information should be known just by the scope of the project."
"Well that doesn't help." Rei stood up. "I think I'm fine now. All I have to do is make it to the temple without using an magic and there, hopefully we can find some help."
"How optimistic of you."
"We've got to be that way right?"
"Right."
Rei, Asuka and Shinji continued walking after that very concerned about what had just happened. Shinji wanted to stay and examine the fake San but was not allowed. That night there was no light chatted about childhood, the were all to busy thinking about what had happened that day. Sleep was a much needed break and did not come easily.
The next day Rei, Asuka and Shinji came up to a clearing and saw a man sitting cross legged on a rock in the center. He was facing the other direction and responded to their gaze.
"Hello everyone, it's a pleasure to finally see you in person." He turned around reveling a very well kept man. If standing he would have been slightly taller than average, had short neat hair, and wore perfectly white kimono and hakama.
"Who are you?" asked Shinji.
"Well you not too smart are you? I'm San."
"What? You look nothing like the fake we saw yesterday."
"Yes I know, that was a terrible failure that one. Making doubles out of machine like that is so challenging, they rarely look right and are never fast enough. It realized you were behind it but was killed anyway. What a shame, a failed experiment."
"So you're the real one." said Shinji.
"Yes I am." San said Standing up on the rock. "Now, since you know my objective lets get this underway. I have to kill you quick if I want to save your bodies."
"You'll do no such thing." said Rei.
San had demon armor covering his left forearm and hand. In the center there was a red jewel. He placed is hand on the jewel and smiled. "This is one of my favorite inventions." he grabbed the jewel and pulled it from his arm. The jewel and armor came off and reformed into a large scythe.
"You can remove your armor?" asked Shinji calmly.
"So your interested I see." replied San. "No I cannot I simple created some extra from other demons and made this weapon from them. A sword is so dull and unimaginative."
"As boring as you may think it is," Rei said appearing behind San, "it's more than enough to kill you." She swung her sword at San's neck, but he vanished and reappeared off to the left.
"My, my that was a good move. I didn't even notice you flash over here. Good thing I've studied you."
"What?"
"In your last fight Shi recorded all of your combat information. How you move, attack, your speed, everything. You can't win."
"You cocky son of a bitch." Asuka said charging San and thrusting at his body. He easily side stepped and stopped.
"Well since you are going to die I might as well show you my real power huh? This way I will have no chance of ruining your bodies." San swung his scythe into the ground and removed his shirt. He hunched over slightly and from his back came two large wings made of the same crystal material as the demons and their armor. The wings were like that of a bird.
"His demon armor is on his back?"
"Yes." replied San. "The armor is fused directly into my spine. This made it difficult to work on but I was able to do it. It took a lot of experimentation but I have these wings."
"Experimentation?"
"Yes. I had to sacrifice thousands of demons before I was able to figure out how to do this. The key was a human life."
"What?" Asuka gasped in horror.
"For some reason humans have a lot of energy tucked away in their little bodies. Using that I was able to first make the wings and then fuse them to my body. There is some much that you can do if you know how to use the power of a human life. And now," San said vanishing. He reappeared behind Asuka holding his scythe in front of her neck. "you die."
As San pulled the blade to Asuka's throat she fell backwards and put her hands on the ground. Continuing the motion she brought her legs over and kicked at San as best she could , he moved lazily to the side to avoid. San swung his scythe back around at Asuka and Shinji stepped in to block. Only when Shinji held San's attack did anyone notice what was happening.
"Your flying huh?" Shinji said.
"But of course." San replied and flew up above them. "One thing that we observed about you three is your skill as a team and you speed in general. It is all very good, much more than humans should be able to do. So the simplest way to fight you was to create as large of an advantage as possible. You can't fly, I win."
"You think so." said Rei who was above San. She swung her sword down at his head, but San turned and blocked.
"Not bad, but I still have the advantage." He threw Rei off to the side and as she fell he vanished down below her, still in the air. As he swung Rei was able to turn her body enough to block the attack and land safely on the ground.
"Birds can catch their prey because they have the advantage of the sky. You even with being able to get this high can only go one direction. I can stay up here indefinitely and make maneuvers. You can't win."
"Damn him." Shinji said calmly. "So he just plans on swooping down and killing us one by one."
"I figured it was something like that." said Rei.
"Why did you have to tell me that?" asked Asuka.
San attacked viscously from the air, swooping down and attacking only one at a time. All they could do was block or evade, no counter attacked could be launched as San did not stay down long enough. Without an effective means to strike back Rei and the others held their defenses for quite some time.
"Damn this isn't good," Rei said after San retreated back into the air, "we need to do something besides just blocking."
"Yeah it doesn't look like we can wear him out doing this." said Asuka.
"You thought we could?" asked Shinji.
"I can hope can't I?"
"Still with the light chatter I see." said San calmly from above. "Either your all idiots and still thinks there's a chance to win, or you've been deceiving me all this time. Well I suppose it doesn't matter. Nothing you can do will save you."
Suddenly Asuka jumped up at San. Her jump was not high enough to reach him, she was a few feet short. Despite this she swung her spear over her head and down at San. He blocked the strike with his scythe.
"Did you really think that would work?"
"Yup." Asuka replied. She then swung herself at San using the spear now secured by the scythe. This caught San off guard and he was kicked my Asuka in midair.
"Damn that woman." San said to himself. Then noticing that someone was behind him turned to barley block a kick from Shinji.
Shinji repeated Askua's tactic but this time his second attack was with his weapon not his body. From his kick he thrust the blade in his left hand forward and cut San on the shoulder. The wound was not serious, but it would limit his motion a little.
As Shinji and Asuka began to fall San realized what had happened, he was completely distracted and off guard. He looked and saw Rei above him, her left arm straight down with her right across her body. She descended and slashed at him. San tried to move but was cut across his right side between two ribs.
Rei and the others landed and looked up at San who was slowly falling and bleeding. Holding himself only ten feet in the air he looked at them infuriated. Breathing heavily he spoke, "Damn you. You are definitely worthy of being my research subject. How could you coordinate an attack like that without talking to each other? So interesting."
"Who knows?" replied Shinji. "We must be that good."
"Must be that good? You underestimate me. Do you really think this little injury can stop me? Even harm me?" San pulled out a small capsule from his scythe and smashed it on his chest wound. From the capsule came a think liquid that covered his wound and stopped the bleeding. After a moment it changed color and matched that of his skin. There was no longer any indication that he had ever been cut.
"What the hell was that?" exclaimed Asuka.
"That? That was just some medicine I created to insure that I will never die."
"This is bad." said Rei.
"This little dream of mine can seal and any wound and make by body recover from any injury even external ones. I must admit, without it that attack of yours might have worked. That blade almost hit my liver."
"Well this isn't good." said Shinji calmly. "Now we have to kill him before ha can apply that crap. Or we have to cut off his hands."
"You wont have that chance." San vanished from his place in the air and reappeared behind Shinji. He swung the blade of his scythe up to impale him in the back. Shinji barley avoided a direct hit.
Shinji's dodge left him with a large gash on his back and left side. His clothes were torn and his blood sprayed on the ground.
"Shinji!" Rei yelled.
"I'm fine don't worry."
San appeared in front of Rei next and swung for her neck. She blocked the attack and struck for San's head with her palm. He flashed away to avoid the hit and reappeared in front of Asuka. When he attacked her Asuka narrowly avoided by jumping backwards. San flew back up into the air with a grin on his face.
"See you cannot win. I was able to injure one of you fastest teammates. Do you think you can keep fighting?"
Rei had flashed over to Shinji to check on his injury. "Are you alright, can you move?"
"I'm fine I told you that." Shinji said standing up. "But we need to end this fast, I would like this cut patched up."
"Foolish humans." San said flying back down towards them.
He flashed towards Asuka and as he did Rei flashed toward him. As San attacked Asuka Rei also attacked. He was able to block her attack with the long handle of his scythe. When San counterattacked Rei the scythe just below the blade with her free hand. San's eyes widened.
"Now die." Rei said as she thrust her blade at San's chest.
San avoided the full thrust but was cut across the chest again by Rei. In the middle of his dodge both Asuka and Shinji attacked him from different sides. San closed his wings and the attacks were stopped. By forcefully opening his wings San pushed back Shinji and Asuka. He swung his scythe hard to free it from Rei's grasp and she let go and jumped back.
"Your wings can be used as Shields?" said Rei in slight shock.
"Yes and I'm very disappointed that I had to use that ability of theirs. I really thought I wouldn't have to use that much power. Oh well," San said drifting up into the sky, "I'll just have to kill you all from up here. It's a little bit messy, but as long as there is something left to you to study. I suppose I only need to look at you musculoskeletal structures to see where all your strength comes from."
"Kill us from, up there?" Asuka said worried.
From the sky San summoned a large number of demons. They resembled wolves but were larger and far more viscous. They began to attack Rei, Asuka and Shinji while San floated up in the sky. After a few minutes of fighting San summoned even more to replace the ones that had been killed. He began to laugh loudly.
"Do you like my pets?" he asked between laughs. "These are one of my many successful experiments, demons made stronger than they were meant to be. They can do some other fun things too."
As a group of wolves attacked Asuka San snapped his fingers and wolves stopped and their backs arched. Before Asuka could react the demons exploded, the force shaking the ground and trees all around.
"All of my demons are implanted with explosive material that can be triggered by sound. Do you like? Sure it's a messy way to kill but it works."
Asuka was kneeling on the ground when the smoke cleared. Rei and Shinji flashed over to her to make sure she was ok.
"I'm fine." Asuka said when they arrived next to her. "We need to stop this. There has to be a way for us to kill this guy."
"Yeah but as long as he's up there and has his scythe we can't kill him." replied Rei.
"We need to get creative." said Shinji.
All the demons that had been fighting were now circling around the group. They stood ready to pounce and San was ready to explode his demons. Rei, Asuka and Shinji exchanged smiles and got Asuka to her feet. After a short stand off the demons jumped in and all at once exploded by San's command.
San who was quite high in the air began to laugh for his victory, but it was cut short when Shinji appeared in front of him and attacked. San flew up into the air to avoid the attack. Asuka appeared level with Shinji. She put her foot on his now extended arm and she jumped as he propelled her upward. Asuka reached San's height and swung at his stomach with his spear and he again flew away. Rei appeared in front of Asuka and they repeated what happened with Asuka and Shinji.
Rei and San were very far from the sight of the explosion both in altitude and lateral distance. San, not wanting to take any chances, flashed away even further into the sky to escape Rei. San was high enough up that Shinji, who was back on the ground, look about the size of an ant. Just then Rei again was at his level flying on the back of her demon. San was full of fear.
"What!? Your not supposed to be able to use your magic! It will kill you!"
"It will kill you first." Rei said. She jumped off her demon and it disappeared.
San tried to fly away but Rei was right on top of him and grabbing his shoulder. She lifted her right hand up above her head. San tried to block the oncoming attack with his scythe, but as her brought it in front of him Rei summoned her fire demon. She released her grip on San and the fire demon exploded on top of him.
Rei was propelled down towards the earth by the force of the explosion. After the long fall Rei landed fully absorbing the force of the fall with her legs. From her landing in a crouch she fell onto her left hand in pain, fighting back the evil side of her which had come back from her using magic. San hit the ground hard on his back. The loud thud was repeated when he bounced of the dirt and landed again.
"REI!" Asuka and Shinji called in unison and raced over to her side.
"Are you alright? Why did you use magic?"
"I'll be fine and I had to. We weren't going to win without it. His whole idea was to fight us without my magic that's why he waited. That's why they infected that demon."
"That was still pretty reckless." said Shinji. "We don't know what it will do to you if you over use you magic so please, hold off anymore until we know what to do ok?"
"Yeah sure."
"YOU BITCH. HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?" San said infuriated. "No matter. it's worse for you in the long run. Not like I'll let you walk away from this." san motioned to his scythe but grabbed nothing. "WHAT!?!?" San exclaimed when he realized he was not able to get a healing capsule.
"You didn't notice the weight difference?" asked Shinji calmly. "That's just horrible."
San's scythe had been blown apart. The blade was stuck in the ground several meters away leaving San with no way to heal himself. San's wings were also damaged severely. He tried to stand up and make his way over to his scythe, but as he did Shinji and Asuka flashed to him and stabbed him in the torso. San gaped upon the killing blow and his body faded into dust, his armor spin and broken wings crumbling. Shinji and Asuka turned back towards Rei who was standing now.
"Should you really be standing Rei?" asked Asuka.
"Yeah I'm fine. Lets just leave ok."
"Yeah sure."
Rei, Asuka and Shinji walked away from the battle ground, both Asuka and Shinji were assisting Rei with the walk. After a very short walk Shinji and Asuka stopped and had Rei rest against a tree. They also sat down to rest.
"Thanks you two." Rei said calmly. "I'll be ready to go again I just a few minutes."
"No you wont." said Shinji. "We are done for the day we're all far too injured and tired to keep going right now. We are going to rest for the remainder of the day."
"Oh shit I forgot!" exclaimed Asuka. "Shinji you were cut in that fight are you ok?"
"Huh? Oh yeah I was cut wasn't I. It doesn't hurt anymore, it should be ok."
"Here let me look at it." said Rei.
"It should be fine really."
"No let me see."
Shinji gave in and turned his back toward Rei. Upon removing his shirt they saw that the bleeding had stopped but his back was covered in blood.
"What a mess." said Rei calmly. "Asuka can you go get some water we need to clean this wound up?"
"Yeah sure." Asuka said as she stood up and ran to get water.
"We came really close to defeat today huh?" asked Rei.
"Yeah we did."
"You need to be more careful. There's no reason you should be getting cut across the back."
"You shouldn't do anything reckless either. Your basically cursed right now and you still used magic. Why?"
"Because we couldn't have won without it. San was too powerful for us to take down normally."
"You were close enough to grab him you should have simply cut him."
"Your probably right." Rei replied looking down at the ground. "But I don't want to live in fear of this evil thing inside me. I have to be able to control it."
"And stupidly using the power that makes it stronger will do that?" asked Asuka.
"Asuka…."
"Rei your really strong, the strongest person I've ever seen, but you shouldn't do stupid things like that. Even though your strong you still can be hurt and killed so, so be careful from now on ok." Asuka broke out into tears trying to finish her sentence.
Rei stood up and hugged Asuka. Asuka stopped crying out of surprise. "I'm sorry Asuka. I'll be careful from now on. I'll never make you two worry or cry ever again. Ok?"
"Ok. Thank you Rei."
"Alright, now lets patch Shinji up so he doesn't get an infection."
After they had patched up their injuries Rei, Asuka and Shinji managed to find a little food and set up camp. They spent the rest of the day sitting there, resting after the battle. After a while they all fell asleep, exhausted from the battle.
The next morning Asuka and Shinji awoke and Rei was still asleep. Allowing her to rest they packed up their camp as quietly as possible. When Rei finally woke up she noticed the work that had been done while she was asleep.
"I'm sorry." she said bowing. "I did not mean for you to do all the work, I'll try not to over sleep from now on."
"It's ok Rei." said Asuka. "You were tired from what happened yesterday. We were letting you rest. You deserved it."
"Thank you Asuka."
"Alright then, lets get going."
"Pushy aren't you Shinji?"
"Well we do still have quite the ways to go before we reach the temple."
"Good point. Are you all good Rei?"
"Yeah, let's go!"
The remainder of their trip to Kenji's temple was quiet. The journey contained only random attacks of weak demons. No battles with Shinigami or his minions. Rei refrained from using any magic as to stop the progression of her evil side. After the long month of traveling Rei, Asuka and Shinji finally arrived at the temple.
"Shinigami-sama, San was defeated by the Shinpishugisha and her friends. We have lost yet another comrade."
"THAT GIRL IS STARTING TO GET ON MY NERVES. WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT HER."
"I think we should do nothing." said Ichi.
"What is your reasoning behind this Ichi?"
"Well Shi, are forces have been depleted down to you, a number lower than San, Ni, myself and Shinigami. If we send any more of us out to attack them are forces will be too thin. I think we should just wait for them to come to us."
"That's not a bad idea Ichi." said Ni. "Since there are only two of us that are able to stand against those humans. Sorry Shi but San's dead. You were one spot lower than him so you wont be much of a help."
"YOU THINK WE SHOULD ALLOW THEM TO REACH THE FORTRESS ICHI?"
"Why not. The demons here are many times stronger and the three of us are here. If they attack here they will be fighting on your ground and you will have the advantage. Your victory should be guarantied then Shinigami."
"THAT IS A VERY STRONG PLAN. WHAT DO YOU THINK SHI?"
"Excuse me Shinigami-sama!" interjected Ni. "I know that Shi is a loyal member of you army, but a member higher than him has been defeated. His opinion dose not matter and neither should his presence here. He lacks the power to be useful to you."
"NI ARE YOU QUESTIONING ME?"
"No sir, of course not. I merely suggest that.."
"THEN DO NOT SPEAK OUT OF TURN. SHI YOUR OPINION PLEASE."
"Ichi's tactic is a playable one. No matter what the Shinpishugisha gains at the temple it will not help if she decides to attack this fortress. If you choose that plan of action, her death will be assured."
"GOOD, THEN WE SHALL WAIT FOR HER TO COME TO US." Shinigami said and disappeared. Shi also disappeared.
"What good is he if a stronger member has been killed? Why dose Shinigami-sama even bother with that weakling?"
"Relax Ni, it's not as though Shi is exceptionally weak. Now if Nana was left by now he would be worth throwing away, but Shi still has many uses. Just do as Shinigami tells you ok."
"Since when did you follow orders so exactly?"
"I'm not following orders. That plan was so we could sit around here for now. I don't feel like being told that someone else has died."
"Your getting soft in your old age."
"No. It has just gotten annoying."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: To thoses of you who actually follow the story i am very sorry about the time between updtaes. My schedual at college does not lend much time to writing so i work on these in small parts. Since I'm away from school from a week and a half i should be able to get at least one chapter written and posted before i go back to school. Enough with the apoligies. This chapter was kinda hard to write so if it wasn't as good oh well. Next chapter we finnaly get to see kenji's temple. Will it be helpful as they think or a waste of time. Hopefully you'll find out soon.