Demon world was not what Cheza had expected. Kurama and herself were in a bamboo forest, the area they were walking in was like a ghost town. She expected to see demons everywhere, but no sign of life had been seen since they started their journey. A loud growl echoed throughout the forest causing Cheza to stiffen. "Raizen's stomach" Kurama stated nonchalantly . "What?" Kurama informed her the land they were treading on was ruled by a demon named "Raizen" and that he had fallen in love with a human woman, vowing never again to eat a human. Hense, the loud growling noise was Raizen's stomach begging for food. "so…does all of demon world look like this?". Kurama shook his head no, "Most of the other lands are much more baron.. ". "so…where exactly are we going?". "First to my old hideout..then we will need to head to the black market". The two walked in silence for at least an hour, the forest seemed never ending. Eventually Kurama came to a halt, he brushed aside tangles of vines blocking entrance to a cave . "Is this your old hideout?" Cheza questioned. "Yes" Kurama answered while pulling a seed from his hair. A bright yellow flower began to bloom soon enough it blossomed and illuminated the entrance of the cave. Hesitantly Cheza followed Kurama inside. "So..why exactly did you want to come here?" Kurama walked deeper and deeper into the cave , torches lined each side of the wall. He stopped abruptly at a wall to his left, tugging on one of the torches. The wall slowly slid open revealing a hidden room. "there is a certain item I hid here long ago..we will need it to bring Kuronue back." Kurama entered the newly lit room followed by Cheza. Cheza gasped, there were heaps of treasure. Rubies, gold, pearls, diamonds..all sorts of valuables! " Kuronue and I went on many raids in the past…we stole just about anything we could get our hands on." "Why didn't you ever come back for any of this! You could be rich!" Cheza exclaimed. Kurama's eyes permeated with sadness, "I never wanted to come back here after what happened to Kuronue..to many memories I guess." Cheza gave Kurama a sympathetic look, "I see your point." Kurama sighed fumbling through the piles of jewels and such. Eventually he found what he was looking for, a handheld two way mirror . "A mirror?" "This is no ordinary mirror… this will keep the soul collector at bay… once I break the pendant Kuronue's soul will be loose and the soul keeper will come" Cheza stared at the mirror…it looked like an ordinary mirror to her. "I was informed that the soul keeper cannot stand to see its own reflection..Im not quite sure the reason behind this..it would be foolish to engage in battle with the soul keeper..its a battle no demon could win..anything it touches dies." "Why didn't we just get a mirror at the store then?" "One side is to keep the soul keeper at bay..the other side is to communicate with Kuronue." Kurama walked across the room picking up a black cloak, " You will need to wear this once we enter the black market..you will be killed instantly if anyone discovers you're human". Kurama grabbed a handful of golden coins, "some of the items required are quite expensive..but this should cover it".
The two had walked for about 3 hours, the scenery had changed drastically. No more trees or anything green, everything resembled a desert. "water!" Cheza cheered running over to a large lake, it seemed quite out of place considering everything around her was just sand. "don't get to close" Cheza stared into the water, "why not?". "it's a trick…a mirage..it belongs to a worm demon". "A worm demon..whats a little worm going to do!" "Eat you alive" Cheza's eyes widened, "let me guess..their like gigantic evil worms right!" "it is hard to survive out here..the worm demons set up illusions like this to catch prey...if you were to fall in you would be stuck at the bottom of a giant hole awaiting your fate as dinner". "eep!" Cheza backed away from the water. "I sense the barrier..were close." "barrier?" "The black market is kept on the down low.. many illegal transactions take place there" Cheza put the cloak on, her face could no longer be seen after she placed the hood over her head. "Don't look anyone in the eyes and keep quiet for your own safety" .Cheza watched as Kurama transformed into his demon form. Yoko appeared with a sly grin, "hello again kitten". In a blink of an eye he had vanished from her site. "Hey! Where'd you go!" She felt someone breathing down her neck, "behind you". She felt his arm wrap around her waist, "this is really..awkward? lets umm..lets just get going!" Yoko's arm fell to his side, "whatever you wish kitten".
Chills went down Cheza's spine as she walked through the barrier. Her eyes fell upon a completely different world. Demons were every which way she looked! She couldn't even hear herself think with the millions of voices chattering away. "1000 going once going twice sold!" she looked to see a little demon girl being pushed forward to a gross hog looking demon man. He had a perverted smile on his face, the site sickened Cheza . "the slave industry is booming here" Yoko informed. She glanced back at the scared little demon girl before following Yoko who was making his way to a bar.
Once inside she sat down next to Yoko at a bar stool. The bar tender, a fat dog demon walked over, "what'll it..Yoko! my old friend! Its been too long! I heard rumors a bounty hunter killed you!" Yoko shrugged, "cat". Cheza later found out "cat" was codeword for "I need you to sell me something illegal". "Oh I see, come with me" Cheza followed Yoko and the dog demon behind the counter and down to a basement. "What is it you want?" Cheza scanned the room, there were jars upon jars of gross things on the wooden shelves. Labels that read "Human eyeballs" and "worm guts" just to name a few. "koumori wings and oni blood" Yoko replied. "Coming right up!" The dog demon walked across the room, "ahh here were are!" he came back with two glass jars in his hand, one jar had a digusting looking black goo inside, the other looked just as disgusting.
After Yoko said his farewell the two walked out of the bar. "Theres still a few more items we will need". "AND STAY OUT!" Cheza looked over to see a lizard demon land face first into the sand in front of another bar, an angry looking bar tender was glaring daggers at him. Her attention averted to two cat demons arguing over a weird looking fish. This place is defiantly intersting...Cheza thought. Yoko lead Cheza into another building, it smelled of incense. An elder women with a crystal ball sat in a maroon colored chair in the middle of the dimly lit room. At least 30 candles were scattered around the room, all of them alit. She had features that resembled a bird, and yellow and green feathers atop her head. "ahhh you come for a phoenix feather, yes?" Yoko nodded at the bird demon. Cheza watched as she got up from her chair walking over to a large red bird she hadn't noticed before. She was in awe at its beauty, she stared into its eyes..she could literally see flames in them. The bird demon plucked one of the Phoenixes' feathers, causing the bird to hiss and take flight to the other side of the room.
"was she a physic demon? I mean..its pretty obvious shes a bird demon..but is she also physic?" Yoko nodded, "theres one last item we must retrieve..this is the most difficult one to find". The two walked around for quite some time before stopping in front of what looked like an abandoned shop. The windows were dark and covered in dirt, part of the roof appeared to be caved in as well.
Yoko motioned for Cheza to follow him to an alley way that lead behind the store. He knocked 3 times, Cheza figured no one would answer. The door creaked open and an old women peeped out, "what do you want!" she said in a raspy voice. "You have something I need" "Sorry hun cant help you" Yoko fumbled around his pocket pulling out a coin pouch gesturing he was willing to pay extra. "come in, come in!" the women said opening the door wide enough for Cheza and Yoko to enter. The floor boards creaked as the three walked to the kitchen. Corpses of shriveled up spiders could be seen in cobwebs located in every corner of the run down shop. "What is it you want?" the old women said taking a loaf of bread out of the oven. " I need a spirit turkey". Cheza gave him a weird look, what the hell is a spirit turkey she thought. "it'll take me a few hours to cook..take a seat". The old women opened up a door leading to a basement, "I'll be right back, don't touch anything!" . Cheza waited until she was sure the women was out of hearing range. "what the hell is a spirit turkey!" Yoko gave her an amused look, " you ask a lot of questions kitten" "Well sorry if I haven't heard of a spirit turkey before!". " A spirit turkey is used for a spirit to take refuge in until a body can be materialized". Yoko leaned back in his chair, " We have the ingredients to create Kuronue's body..but it'll take about 20 minutes for it to actually materialize until then he will have to take refuge inside the spirit turkey". " How are you going to materialize his body from koumori wings and oni blood..and a phoenix feather!" Yoko shrugged, "I thought it was pretty strange myself when I was told how to materialize his body…I get koumori wings..I guess..but oni blood is a bit odd. Kuronue was told Fox tails, phoenix feather, and cat whiskers were required to materialize my body..if he ever needed to bring me back." "hmm I figured he'd need snakes and snails and puppy dog tails" Cheza wise-cracked. "I don't seem to have any frozen turkeys left in the basement..I'll need you to go catch one for me" the old woman said while shutting the door of the basement. Yoko sighed, "this'll be a pain in the ass" he muttered. "you know where to find one right?" Yoko nodded standing up, "yes..we'll be right back".
Cheza was laughing uncontrollably at the scene before her. Yoko had tripped and landed face first into a puddle of mud while chasing after a mischievous turkey. They looked like ordinary turkeys, except their eyes were bright red and they were very vicious. Two of the many turkeys charged at Yoko for chasing their buddy. Yoko quickly got to his feet and started to run, the tables had turned. Four turkeys were now chasing Yoko around. What am I doing! Im running from stupid turkeys! Yoko thought. He came to a halt and spun around, an evil grin appeared on his face. The four turkeys that were chasing Yoko stopped, their eyes widened. Feathers began to fly every which way as they frantically took off in different directions. Eventually Yoko finally caught one of them. Cheza laughed as Yoko walked over to her. "Whats so funny!" He was a site to behold, his normally white attire was now dripping with mud and his ears were flattened upon his head. "You need a bath!" Cheza replied between giggles.
"knock knock knock" Once again the old women peeped out, she looked at Cheza..then Yoko..then the dead turkey in Yoko's hand. "Oh so you caught one!". Yoko nodded handing over the lifeless turkey. "now I'll work my magic..you two come back in exactly 2 hours!" the old women said shutting the door before they could reply. "so what are we supposed to do for 2 hours?" Cheza asked.
Yoko chugged down his 12th beer. Cheza sat at the bar stool still on her first. "should you really be drunk when we bring Kuronue back!" Yoko's golden orbs were glazed over, a tinge of red in them. "We have to wait until tomorrow night to bring him back..when it's a full moon." "Where are we supposed to sleep!" "We'll figure it out" Yoko replied. He stood up swaying back and forth before falling face first onto the wooden floor. The bar tender chuckled, " just like old times!". Cheza sighed as she poked Yoko in his side, but got no response.
Two hours had passed and Yoko hadn't moved from his position, everyone simply stepped over him like he wasn't there. I guess I could go get the spirit turkey myself… she thought in her head. She glanced at Yoko one last time before exiting the bar. She lowered her head not making eye contact with anyone as she made her way to the run down shop. Cheza reached the alley way leading behind the shop, she glanced over her shoulder as she heard a menacing voice, " My lucky day a human!". She quickly spun around, but there was no one there. "Behind you". Her eyes widened as she slowly turned around meeting eyes with a stubby looking toad demon. It had beady black eyes and slimy-green skin and was wearing a navy blue kimono. Cheza began to back away as the toad demon walked towards her. "Many humans have the misconception that we only eat flys..as you will see that isn't true" The toad demon's long tongue shot out licking Cheza's face. "eww!" she said slapping the tongue away. The toad demon simply placed its hands on its hips, "that wasn't very nice! I like to sample my victims before I gorge". Cheza decided to make a run for it, but to her dismay the toad demon was actually quite fast. It appeared in front of her, licking its lips. "Im done playing games, I haven't eaten all day!" The toad lunged at her, she shut her eyes tight awaiting for the inevitable. Nothing happened….
Her eyes slowly opened, to see the toad demons kimono flutter to the ground into a puddle of green goo. She jumped as she heard a voice say "boo" into her ear. She turned to see Yoko standing there with a smirk on his face. "Hello kitten, miss me?" She let out a sigh of relief as Yoko took her hand in his, "come on were late!"
Cheza poked the strange glowing turkey laying on the windowsill. It looked like a cooked thanksgiving turkey, aside from the purple glow around it. Yoko had paid for an Inn to spend the night in. He was already fast asleep, but Cheza remained awake staring out the two story window. She was eager to speak with Kuronue that night, so she finally decided to hit the hay. She flopped down on her bed eventually succumbing to fatigue.