A boomerang returns back to the person who throws it.
"Brr… Keiko, you could have warned me that Kamui was this cold!"
(Miya, you should have noticed that before we were ejected.)
"Oh."
Keiko looked around the tundric wasteland. There was precious little remaining to the pair.
"Frozen… solid ice as far as the eye can see…"
(This is horrible…)
(Halt! Who goes there?) A blue wolf leaped forward to intercept the duo.
"I am Miya, Eighth Celestial Envoy. This is Keiko. Tell us your name, and Keiko may resist ripping your neck off."
(Still your tongue. Let's fight!)
Meet tiny Ninetails. Not agile enough to be as big a threat, but close enough. Fast enough to duplicate himself, though. And icy daggers helped none.
"Keiko, remember your last fight!"
(…)
(Agreed.)
His icy attacks were warded off by the fires that burned around the arena. All in all, less of a hassle than Ninetails. But he was in another tier altogether.
(Your blade is as sharp as your tongue, girl," he said, turning into human form.
(Oki?) Keiko asked. She ran up to him, and began licking him the way overexcited dogs tend to do.
"Down, girl." Keiko did so. "Keiko, you have been absent for months. The whole of Kamui was on lockdown searching for you. Meanwhile, the blizzards have been getting worse. Where have you been?"
"We went into Ezofuji to tear that dark spirit asunder, but he wasn't in charge of this scheme! Worse, he beat us to a bloody pulp and sent us down the river. If Tetsu hadn't found us, me and Keiko would be dead! As it is, Keiko just has really horrid wolf scars. I haven't seen them in human form, though…"
(When was the last time you saw my human form?)
"Fair point. Anyway, me and Keiko went looking for Issun's notes on the legendary brush techniques. We are missing exactly two."
"Come into the village, Keiko. If you must be our lady is bedazzling robes, you might as well be as optimized as possible."
"Keiko, Keiko, Keiko… you never learned, did you? Think, and then leap. No wonder the fate of this village lies in your hands…" Samickle lectured.
(Yes, let us skip the part where you scold me for my temper, and pass me the ancient tools.)
"Keiko, I'd reprimand you if that weren't so true. Here you go, two of our finest weapons."
You got: Thunder Edge.
You retrieved: Blizzard.
"Hey, that's mine!"
"Yours? How?"
"The fifteen Brush Techniques. Issun put one each on separate pages, and included them in my book. We're looking for them."
"How many do you have?"
"We are looking for one more past this one: Veil of Mist."
"Do you know where it might be?"
"Ezofuji. Lika said one of the scrolls gusted into that ice-cold prison. And something tells me it wasn't this one."
"…What do I say to such an inconvenient truth?"
(Eep. Just, eep.)
Eep is correct. Keiko has very little hope. But help can arrive even in the most darkest of times.
Also, The Legend of the Oina has two chapters left. Cursed Summer (or Mystic Amber, depending on which sounds cooler) will not receive updates in this time.
Leap before you think!
