Hello there! Phew, I was pretty nervous 'cause I didn't know if I would make it in time and unfotunately... I didn't. I'm so sorry! But it's here, so go ahead and read!
Chapter 13: Let's play a game
Third person's P.O.V.
The four of the No Names, Black Rabbit, Izayoi, Yo and Asuka were heading to the place where the festival took place two days ago. It was also where Izayoi met the mysterious woman who was supposed to be a witch. Hoping that they will find her there or at least find a clue, they decided to search the place even though it was already very late.
"Is someone here?" Asuka asked, but no one replied.
"Hey! Old hag!" Izayoi called out while looking around for her. "Come out!"
"It looks like no one is here..." Black rabbit sighed.
"Hey you old witch, Come out! Or are you so ashamed of your wrinkled face?" the blond started provocatively laughing.
"I-Izayoi-san, you shouldn't say that. What if she gets mad?" The bluenette looked a little worried.
"I bet she is sooo old that she doesn't even hear us! I even doubt that she is able to tell a difference between a fish and cat!" and again, he laughed.
Suddenly a strong wind blew and forced everyone to close their eyes. While not knowing what happened, something threw Izayoi on the ground.
"You dared to call me an old hag!" An unknown woman hissed.
"Izayoi!" Yo yelled alarmed as she noticed what happened. The other two girls also saw the scene and intended to help, but it didn't look like Izayoi had any problem.
Izayoi knew very well who it was though her voice now sounded a little... younger? And the hands which she was choking him with also belonged to a woman in about her twenties. He opened his eyes and stared at the young and beautiful, but now furious miss.
"Could you please let go of me? It's kinda uncomfortable" the one on a ground requested with an untroubled face.
"Brat" the woman snapped and intensified the pressure on the boy's neck. "Why don't you just die?!"
"So you are that old ha- I mean, witch from before?" He queried with a teasing voice. Obviously, he addressed her old hag on purpose.
"You are that kid who fainted, right?" She sarcastically returned those 'flattering' words.
"Pff, you got me" He admitted with a smile on his face. "Well, could you please let go? Or should I do this?" He suddenly grabbed her hand and rolled at the left side. Now she was the one on bottom tacked by the strong teen who triumphantly grinned.
"Jerk" the woman frowned.
"Well then, I think you have to tell us something" the blond stated as his face got serious.
"Hm? You want to know what your mother said?" she laughed.
Izayoi toughened his grip of her hands and demanded an answer: "What were her last words?!"
"That hurts, kid" She grinned with a hint of pain in her face. "Do you want to know? Then get of me" she commanded.
"I'm not stupid to do so" he refused and pierced her with his violet eyes.
"Well, I have no choice then" she sighed and cracked her fingers.
Suddenly, everything got dark and the four 'No names' stared in confusion as the empty street turned into a big and dark house...
"Welcome to my palace" the witch announced... but she was no longer in Izayoi's clutches but sitting on a large chair resembling throne.
"You-" the blond boy who was now standing up hissed.
"Hm? What's wrong, boy? Did you think that witch isn't capable of something like teleportation?" She proudly asked.
"Yeah, you look to me more like a super weak chick with big boobs" he enounced tantalizingly.
"So you are perverted brat" she seemed rather amused than annoyed. "But you are completely wrong, boy"
"So you are not a chick? Then a guy?"
"WRONG!" She shouted and threw at the blond ... a skull?
"Just a joke, missy" he laughed as he dodged.
"Do you know how long I have lived? I'm one of the strongest witches in Little garden and you dare to make fun of me?! If I wanted, I could destroy you right now, impudent brat!" She declared angrily.
"Izayoi-kun, I don't think it's a good idea to pick a fight with someone you want to ask something" Asuka whispered.
The violet-eyed boy chuckled and said: "Guess you're right".
"Ehm... Miss witch, we didn't come here to fight. We just want to-"
"Ah? A rabbit!" the dark-haired woman approached Black rabbit and started to view her.
"W-what are you doing?!" the bunny girl asked a little startled.
"The rabbit ears are very valuable! If I could get them, I would finally be able to make my potion! Hey, can I cut them? Let me cut them, Rabbit-chan"
"N-No!" the blue-haired broke away from the woman and tried to cover her ears.
"Hm? Such a pity..." she sighed.
"Hey witch" Izayoi called her. "tell me, what did you see in my past?"
"Don't call me witch, I'm Serene, punk" she snapped.
"Fine, Serene. What did you see?"
"I saw how that woman died, and it kinda interested me so while you were unconscious I looked through your whole past. How pitiful you were" she chuckled and looked at him with mad and provocative eyes.
"And who is impudent again? To peek into people's own past" he grinned.
"I guess it was a little rude of me, but thanks to that, you will at least know your mother's true words" she remarked and came closer to Izayoi.
"You want to know, don't you?" she remarked. "But I won't tell for free"
"What do you want?" the blond asked while looking at the witch who was spinning like she was dancing at a ball right now.
"I want those rabbit ears" she pointed at the bluenette hiding behind Yo and chuckled.
"Denied!" Black rabbit screamed while looking pretty scared.
"You heard, Serene" Izayoi replied again and stared at the witch who looked very disappointed.
"I thought so" she sighed. "Well, I didn't really mean it. It's forbidden to use rabbit's ears after all." Serene turned away and headed to her chair.
"So what do you want us to do?" Yo asked as the witch sat down.
"Well, there is acutally one thing that I want" her eyes suddenly gained something 'evil' in them.
"And that is?" Asuka demanded an answer with an obvious impatience in her voice.
"blood of dragon" she announced with a challenging smile. "I want a blood of dragon"
"D-Dragon's blood?!" Black rabbit asked shocked.
"Yeah, that's right." Serene laughed madly and stared spinning again...
"B-but that's one of the most dangerous tasks! Almost no one stood a chance in getting Dragon's blood, some even didn't return!" The blue-haired one protested.
"Yeah, but that's unfortunately for you the only thing I want. Of course, if you don't wanna do it, I won't force you, but..." She turned her gaze at the blond teen standing with a frowned face. "I doubt this brat will give up so easily"
"You're damn right, witch" his dark face turned into a provocative one. "Sounds like fun"
"I-Izayoi-san! It's dangerous! I know you want to-" she was interrupted by the loud laugh coming from the teen.
"Dangerous you say? That's much more better than those boring games!" then he looked at the witch with a curious smile. "I accept your challenge, Serene. But I have one condition."
"Hm? And that's?" she stared at Izayoi.
"To turn this agreement into a game" he answered.
"Oh? So you aren't such an idiot?" the witch chuckled as she realized his aim. "Fine, I don't have a problem with it"
"Well, let's play the game" he declared and that's when their impossible mission started.
Black rabbit's P.O.V.
This was a bad idea! I didn't like it even a bit, but that problem child just agreed... and now?! We are in a crater surrounded by fire and lava! How did it come to this?
I understood that Izayoi-san just wanted to know the truth about his mother's words, but getting into something as dangerous as this was just too much! He was so irresponsible to accept this game! He is strong, but a dragon, a pure blood dragon is a big deal even for Floor master!
"Hey, stupid rabbit! You want to get lost?" Suddenly the blond teen aka the biggest problem child in this world called me.
I ran toward them to close the gap between us so that we wouldn't get separated.
"Izayoi-san, we should go back" I whispered and urgently looked at him.
"No way, we are already here and the game is valid" he answered without hesitation.
"But this isn't so simple, going after a dragon's blood is hazardous!" I objected and stopped him. "I won't allow this! As a friend and a guardian, I will not let you do something so risky! Please, let's go back!"
The boy just silently stared at me. After a few minutes, Asuka-san and Yo-san called us and he finally answered: "I have to do this, Black rabbit" and continued walking to the very core of this hellish place.
Every cell in my body commanded me to go back immediately, but I had to look after those children... I hated when they got themself in these kind of situations! More or less I expected Izayoi to do it, but I thought those two wouldn't agree.
To get dragon's blood, there was no need to hurt it too much, just a little cut was enough. But to do so, one had to get the only thing capable of cutting dragon's skin, and that is its own fang. Getting the fang was already very difficult, before we would take it, he would turn us into a grilled meat! So how in the world were we supposed to get it?!
"Hey, is this the thing you were talking about?" The blond boy suddenly asked as he bend down and picked something up. It was as big as his own palm and long like his forearm. Wait...
"AH! D-d-dragon's fang?!" I screamed as I realized that the blond discovered the essential tool to carry out our mission.
„B-but how?!" I couldn't believe my own eyes! How come could something as valuable as this just lie on ground? And it's not like those big and to snakes similar creatures just throw out their teeth out of blue.
„I took it from that corpse here" he answered and pointed at the... burned up skeleton of a man?!
„KYAAAAH!" I shouted shocked.
„You are so indecent" Asuka-san sighed.
„I bet he got the fang but got burned to death" Yo-san suggested, completely right.
„At least thank him, he saved us some effort" Asuka-san said while looking at the blond teen.
„You thank him, I'm indecent and stupid after all" Izayoi-san snapped with a smile.
„Thank you, Ms. Dead meat" the short-haired brunette said, obviously joking.
„Good job, Kasukabe." he chuckled with his thumb up.
„So we have the fang now so let's go get the blood" the boy's voice commanded and lead us deeper into the crater.
And so we had to endure another ten minutes of walking through this vulcanic-like place while sweating like some athletes who just ran a marathon with 20 kilometers.
Finally, we got into the core and to our surprise, found out it was much more bigger than expected. The place was resembling an enormous cave, and thankfully it was not as hot as before which I didn't understand.
We didn't have to search for our target, it was so big and extravagant, that even a blind person could see it. The dragon was lying on the ground, curled up and sleeping.
„Yosh, so we just need to cut it a little and get the blood. Good thing it's sleeping" Izayoi-san laughed while running toward the creäture.
„Izayoi-kun! Wait, you idiot!" Asuka-san yelled and went after him.
I was a little at ease, because I didn't expect the dragon to be taking nap... that was rare. It should be easy to get its blood since just a little cut won't be even sensible.
I just slowly walked toward those two with Yo-san by my side, watching as they get closer and closer. Suddenly, I noticed the small movement of its limb... it was only a small and almost unnoticeable. I looked if those two also saw it, but realized that it was possible to observe it only from a certain distance, from my distance...
„Izayoi-san! Asuka-san! Please wait, something is wrong!" I screamed, hoping that my assumption was wrong!
„What?" the brunette asked a little confused.
„I saw the dragon move! Please, retreat, I have a bad feeli-" and before I could finish it, I was stopped because of shock.
The dragon, it was awake. Its head was already lifted and eyes fixed at the two teens.
„Izayoi! Asuka!" Yo-san shouted to warn them from the big and dangerous thing just a few meters before them.
But it was too late, Izayoi-san and Asuka-san were distracted by us and let their guard down... and that's when the dragon took opportunity to attacked them.
As soon as the dragon hit the ground where our problem children stood, there was a big explosion. We ran toward them and yelled their names... But no answer was heard, just a horrible and brute roar from the red creäture with blood-thirsty eyes.
I'm sorry for the wait, but at least I managed to write this chapter and I even got to start another one!