There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not.


"So… now where do you suppose we go?" Karin asked. They were no closer to finding Miya, and worse yet, they were out of clues. They had hit a dead end.

But not for Keiko. Because Keiko wouldn't accept leaving Miya behind. Keiko would find Miya when the odds seemed stacked against her.

"I know it! I know where Miya is!"

And she had god-powers. Granted, those were never on the menu, but still.

"Keiko, why are you so excited? You don't know where Miya is. There is just no way."

"Karin, you've hung around for how long and you haven't noticed some of my weirder traits?"

"I've seen weirder, to be honest."


"There it is… it should have been obvious before now…"

"Huh? What am I looking at?"

"Oni Island… home to the ravaging Ninetails… and pretty much the dead ringer for Miya's current location."

"The real problem is getting there."

"…The Water Tablet!"

"Of course. Why didn't I think of that?" Keiko back flipped into wolf form, and Karin hopped on.

"Tell me, Keiko… have you always been this soft?

(Not the time… I've gotta rush!)


The natural state of things was that progress was difficult. The demons of Oni Island did have defensive systems worth writing home about.

(Any bright ideas?" Keiko asked, changing forms as well.

"Well, Keiko, this device here is what we simple commoners refer to as a 'plug'. I don't know how they work, but my advice is this: put in some form of 'electricity'."

"Karin, what is 'electricity'?"

"Dunno for certain, but you can find some in lightning."

"This conversation would have been a lot shorter if you had stuck to thunder and lightning."

"Eh. Thought I'd at least explain the soup cans."

"Huh?"

"Nothing!" Keiko rolled her eyes. She started to prowl around Oni Island, looking for some eerily convenient way to redirect thunder or lightning.


Finding one was par for the course these days. Finding two was probably the stupidest luck Keiko had ever had with these papers.

"Still, I'd stay with Thunderstorm. Magnetism won't help. For now."

"Of course. I'll go strike this thunderbolt."

Redirecting a source of lightning was not nearly epic enough to sum up entering the demon's lair.


Keiko and Karin turned up at the top of Oni Island. In its centre was a scrap of paper.

"Really? A third one? I smell a trap a mile off…" Karin muttered. Keiko had already begun reading it. It glowed an ominous red colour, and the field turned gold. A white fox emerged from the parchment.

"Welcome, Keiko. Daughter of the sunlight. Origin of all that is repulsive to the demon world. You're very existence is a stain on the existence of demons. I feel no guilt, whatsoever, about tearing you into as many pieces as you have torn us."

"Sorry to disappoint you, but you're the one turning into confetti!"

The words 'evenly agile' have never been so apt. Unburdened as she was, Keiko's wolf form was equally as speedy as Ninetails. Perhaps even a shade less speedy. Ninetails' own strategy was Keiko's. There was no clear winner.

Until Ninetails made the mistake of holding up his glaive.

Keiko sent a thunderbolt the glaive's way, and Ninetails' nine tails split into nine women.

"I'll help, too!"

The two combined barely defeated eight of the women. But the last remained…

And reformed into a true fox.

It had the mobility needed to out speed Keiko. It had the power to make that matter. And it had the ability to

"I have never seen you produce solid ice before!"

"I don't know how!"

"That scumbag! He's interfering with your brush!"

No saying how Keiko and Karin pulled out of that one alive. Oni Island dissolved in a burst of petals, with Keiko and Karin on the mainland.

"Wait, how did we get here?"

"I'm a goddess now."

"Hey, what about me?"

"Miya?"

"Yes, I'm back! And it's about time we head back to Kamui and free it from the ravages of the demons. And rematch that dark foe that turned us into a pulp."

Yes, Miya's back. And we are heading to Kamui: the home of the very demon that hogged Chapter 2. But are Keiko and Miya any more ready?

I tried something new here: I watched omegaevolution's Ninetails fight to simulate it here. I think, overall, it adds to the quality of the story, and I wish I had done it earlier. I'm just not much of an action writer...

Details about Karin: She was supposed to leave Keiko here, but I couldn't justify it anymore. I don't know whether Karin will help Kamui or not, but don't be surprised if she's not on Keiko's back next chapter.

Leap before you think!