CHAPTER NINE
Angels, Demons, and Samurai
"Okay. They're around here somewhere."
Descending to Earth was always a great experience for Pit. The wind rushing through his hair and wings, the clouds zipping by him…it just felt so exhilarating. It made him truly appreciate being an angel considering the last thing he wanted was to splatter all over the ground.
That said, he had more important things to think about. By Palutena's orders, he was to find her friend Amaterasu and help her in any way that he could. Pit, being the adventurous cherub that he was, sped off in an instant without even bothering to listen to what else the goddess had to say.
"Didn't really go into much detail about it…let's see…aha! There she is! Who're those kids with her, though?"
With Amaterasu in his sights, he delved down to the ground and hid behind a tree once he saw that there were other humans in the area. This didn't really surprise him. Mount Fuji was a phenomenally popular tourist attraction in Japan. The question was what his target was doing here.
Once he was sure no one had spotted him, Pit phased his wings of sight and quickly slipped into the human clothes Palutena had provided him with. With that done, he stepped out of the bushes and tried his best to blend in, which didn't really take any real effect considering his skin gave off a slight glow.
"Okay, where'd they go…ah!"
Once he spotted Amaterasu and her companions, he immediately broke into a run toward them. As he ran, he accidentally brushed up against a tall fair-skinned woman. When he turned to apologize, their gazes locked as he got a good look at her. Her long hair was emerald green in colour, and she wore a long-sleeved white shirt and red leather pants. The woman looked at him for a few more moments before suddenly growing an excited smile.
"Pit?! Is that you, sweetie?!"
Then the sense of familiarity struck Pit like a hammer to the head and he grimaced before reeling back.
"Oh, crap, it's YOU!" he shouted.
The angel had no time to get away before Morrigan seized him and brought him into a tight and loving embrace.
"Aww, it's so good to see you again, honey! How's Palutena been?!"
"Shmms fmmn…cmm ymm lmm gmm?"
"What's that, darling?"
She loosened her grip just enough that Pit could both speak and breathe.
"I said can you let go? People are staring."
"Aw, don't act like you aren't happy to see me!"
"I'm not."
"Well, anyway, what's up, Pitty?"
"…Pitty? Really? …well, anyway, if you must know, I was about to meet up with Lady Amaterasu when you so rudely grabbed me. Now I gotta find her all over again no thanks to you!"
The two were interrupted by a light chuckle.
"Come now, Pit. There is no need to be so hostile towards her." Amaterasu said as she and her human companions stepped up to them. "What is it you need of me?"
Pit was finally able to duck out of Morrigan's arms and brush himself off before speaking.
"Palutena sent me to find you. She said that you needed help in finding Saya Kusanagi, so here I am…who're the boys?"
"Ah, yes. Pit, these are Ness and Lucas."
Ness and Lucas themselves were staring at Morrigan with wide eyes. She returned their gaze and giggled.
"Something wrong, little ones?"
She nearly jumped when Lucas pointed an angry and accusing finger at her.
"You're that devil woman that dragged Saya away! It's your fault were even having a hard time finding her!"
Morrigan chuckled and patted Lucas on the head.
"Seems little Saya has an admirer. And an adorable one, too!"
Lucas flushed bright red while Ness and Amaterasu stifled laughs. He nervously scratched at the back of his head and averted his eyes from them.
"Well, she…she's really cute and nice…hey, quit laughing, Ness! I thought you were on my side!"
"In any case, Ms. Aensland," Amaterasu interrupted. "Why did you steal Saya away?"
Morrigan salaciously grinned and shrugged.
"That little power of hers is very intriguing to me and I kind of wanted a little taste of it. Let's leave it at that."
"And let me guess: you've got her locked up in Hell and we've gotta go through you to bust her out, right?!" Lucas growled.
"Wrong in so many ways. I did have her with me in my castle in Makai, but a young fellow in a green tunic broke her out. This snotty teenager with a black jacket joined them afterwards and they both escaped."
"You mean Dante?"
"Wrong again. I know the real Dante. That wasn't him. I mean, why is it so hard to understand? The real one has shaggy white hair, a red jacket, is a lot taller, and I think I just answered your question as best as anyone could."
Pit mulled the name over in his head before snapping his fingers.
"Oh, yeah! That guy! Dante the Devil Hunter! He's awesome…or, y'know, STYLISH as he'd put it."
"In any case," the celestial wolf interrupted again. "If you would like to assist us, Ms. Aensland, you are more than welcome."
"No real choice in the matter. It's not like she'd go away if you said to get lost…"
Morrigan smirked and sidled up alongside Pit, draping her arm around his shoulder.
"Oh, I'd be more than happy to if little Pit's by my side."
"I would take that as a compliment if you weren't a succubus…" Pit groaned.
"You guys know each other?" Ness asked.
"Yeah. She and Palutena are close friends and they kinda look like each other, so they pulled a prank on me where Morrigan dressed up as Palutena and greeted me when I got back home in…probably the most awkward way I've ever been greeted. Little Miss Demon got a bit too touchy-feely if you know what I mean."
"I…can probably guess…"
Morrigan peered at the shrine at the top of the mountain and noticed something off about it.
"Ammy, what're you here for again?"
"I must retrieve the ancient relic known as the Celestial Brush from the shrine near the top of the Great Mountain. Only then can I be of any use offensively."
"Okay, but if that's the case, we better get up there. Looks like the joint's getting ransacked."
"Eh?!"
Amaterasu looked up at the mountaintop and saw the calamity going on. There were several pig-like creatures trying to barge their way into the shrine, but someone up there seemed to be holding them off of the moment.
"Damn, that slime must have known I would be coming…" she growled. "Let us make haste, friends! We cannot let the Celestial Brush be stolen!"
The creatures attempting to make their way into the shrine were larger than the average human and carried mighty spears with them, making it no small wonder that every human visiting the shrine ran away as fast as they could. All but one.
"This is a sacred place of the gods, fouls beasts!" yelled the lone man. "I will not let you pass!"
The goofily grinning creatures rushed towards the violet-haired young man and slashed at him, only for him to athletically backflip away and place a hand to his hip with a smirk.
"Come, then! To battle!" he said defiantly, unsheathing a razor-sharp katana and rushing at his opponents at full force.
Amaterasu, Morrigan, Pit, Ness, and Lucas had made it to the shrine several minutes later, and the man showed no signs of slowing down as he continued to hack away at the creatures, though was unfortunately seized from behind. Ness and Lucas wasted no time in reacting.
"PK THUNDER!"
"PK FREEZE!"
Several bolts of lightning and ice shot out and enveloped the creatures, immobilizing or otherwise killing them while the samurai looked about wondering what had happened. As the group approached him and he saw the white wolf with them, he sheathed his blade and bent into a deep bow.
"Many thanks, Lady Amaterasu. I am called Takamaru."
"Well met." Amaterasu replied.
"What brings you to this place, milady?"
"I seek the Celestial Brush. It seems that humanity has need of me again."
Takamaru nodded.
"Excellent." he said before turning to Amaterasu's companions. "If I may be so bold, may I have your names?"
"They are Pit, Ness, Lucas, and Morrigan." Amaterasu answered. "They seek to provide me with assistance. Please, join us, Takamaru."
"Anything for the great mother to us all…look sharp, now! We`ve got company!"
Another wave of the pig-like creatures emerged and Takamaru stood at the ready.
"You all know how to fight, I hope."
Morrigan chuckled and patted him on the head.
"Darling, I live to fight…and fly around lazily and get Pitty into my bed with me."
"Damn it, will you knock it off?!" Pit half-shouted.
The pig-men attack, all six fighters immediately jumping into action firing bolts of thunder, spheres of ice, arrows, claw and swords slashes, and thorn whips as quickly as they could. Their adversaries had no feasible room to sneak in and strike at them until something quite unexpected erupted from the ground, grabbing onto Lucas' leg and causing him to cry out until Morrigan yanked him free right as a towering skeleton holding a metal club pulled itself out of the ground.
"Um…thanks, I guess."
"Aw, you're so cute when you're nervous, Lucas." Morrigan giggled. "I kinda wish I could trade places with Saya now."
"And now I retract my earlier thanks."
The skeleton swung its club at Ness, who attempted to block the club with his bat but just ended up being forced backwards until Takamaru rushed forward and properly dispatched the undead creature by cutting off its head.
"You seem to be more skilled as a ranged fighter, Ness."
"Yeah, I can't disagree. But you don't seem like a ranged fighter yourself."
"Not really. All I have in that respect are shuriken. Speaking of which…"
He reached into the pouch on his belt and pulled out a thick metal throwing star, throwing it cleanly at the pig-man trying to sneak up on Amaterasu while she and Pit occupied themselves with another skeleton. The former finally managed to incapacitate the skeleton by grabbing its thigh in her mouth and yanking it free leaving Pit to split his magnificent bow into two blades and impale the skull.
"Good teamwork, Lady Ama…huh?!"
"Eh?" Amaterasu said mindlessly before flushing once Pit saw she was gnawing on the bone she had taken. "Oh. My apologies. This form presents many strange urges…in fact, if we should meet any other canine creatures on our travels, please prevent me from…you know."
"I can probably guess…ah, crap, here come more."
Indeed, another massive wave of the pig-men was charging up towards the group. Takamaru planted himself at the ready
"Go! Get the Brush! I'll hold them off!"
Ness, Lucas, and Amaterasu dashed to the temple, not bothering to take the time to remark on its beauty in both its size and design for fear that the pig-men would catch up them (not that they doubted their comrades' abilities). The most outstanding feature of the altar before them was the enormous statue of a woman garbed in a billowing kimono with her arms reached up toward the heavens, the sun in between her hands.
"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that's your real form." said Ness.
"Correct. What do you think? Or am I so beautiful that you've no words left, Lucas?"
Lucas flushed and looked away from her before mumbling something that sounded a lot like "First Morrigan and now you…" Amaterasu gave a mischievous grin.
"Come now, my child. A woman appreciates compliments on her beauty."
"Not when we're at the risk of getting overrun by walking hams." Ness grumbled.
The celestial wolf stepped in front of the statue, reared her head back and let out a ghostly howl. The sound bounced around the room, filling the ears of Amaterasu's companions and chilling them to the bone but mystifying them at the same time. Indeed, this howl could be heard from miles around, striking wonder in the hearts of all who heard it. Most importantly, it summoned a beam of light in the temple that revealed what looked like a calligraphy brush floating just in front of Amaterasu's face.
"Is that it?" asked Lucas.
"Yes. This brush grants me with the power I need to be of any use to you and Saya."
She lifted her paw and touched the Brush. All at once, it began to glow and decompose into a sparkling dust before it draped over Amaterasu's body and reformed as bright orange markings that heavily resembled flames draping behind her. Stranger still, a large shield-like object was now hovering an inch or so above her back.
"…trippy." said Ness after several moments of silence.
Amaterasu giggled again, but this ceased when she spotted a strange glow behind the giant statue. She sniffed at the air.
"Incense…a priest, maybe?"
The three crept around the corner and looked carefully at the source of the light, but were very surprised to see that said source was not one of the temple's priests. In fact, it was the exact opposite: a group of stereotypical-looking ghosts, each with a skull-like mask and lanterns that started to glow green once the group had set their sights on them. The spirits smiled malevolently before retreating when Amaterasu growled at them.
"Get back here, you cowards!" she shouted after them.
Then the ghosts did something that could only be described as shocking, for behind the statue of Amaterasu's humanoid form were a series of oni statues. The ghosts slipped under the stone frames of each one, and much to the shock of the three onlookers, the six ten-foot tall statues turned their heads, their eyes glowing and glaring in a frightening manner.
"Um…" Lucas started. "This might just be me, but I think it would be a good idea to RUN!"
The oni lifted their massive clubs and started running toward their targets who had turned on their heels and started running for the entrance. The three made it outside just as the one I crashed out after them.
"Oh, my!" Morrigan laughed. "More guests! Well done, you three!"
"Hey, instead of yuking it up over there, help us!" Ness shouted.
"I dunno, sweetie. Those fellas look pretty hard to take down."
Takamaru smirked and lightly tapped his blade against his shoulder.
"Don't be so quick to accept defeat, demon. Compared to Murasame, they're nothing."
"That's good enough for me." replied Pit, lifting himself into the air with large flaps of his wings. "Let's show 'em who's boss!"
The nearest oni swung at Morrigan who strafed out of the way, lifted off of the ground and lunged straight at its head.
"SHADOW BLADE!"
Her wing morphed into a giant blade and she buried it as far she could into the statue's chest, getting somewhat discouraged when she saw that the statue hadn't even flinched and her wing was now stuck inside the stone surface.
"Discouraged, not scared. I don't get scared…though the idea of getting smacked with a giant stone club isn't exactly appealing to me."
As the statue swung its club down at the defenseless succubus, Pit rushed forward and thrust his arms forward, forming a translucent shield that deflected the statue and knocked it off-balance long enough for Pit to seize Morrigan around the middle and pull her free.
"Oh, Pitty, you're so wonderful!" she exclaimed in a fake and girly manner before planting a heavy kiss on his lips.
"Gmddmmmit, Mmrrigmn!"
Takamaru had a similar problem when he made an attempt to slash at a statue's leg, confident that the enchanted nature of his blade and the strength of his swing would dent it at the very least, but it resulted in his attack simply bouncing off and him getting vaulted several feet away when the statue lightly kicked him. Even a light kick was enough to make him feel like his bones were broken, but Lucas was quick to run up to him.
"PK Lifeup!"
Strength flowed back into the samurai's body and he hopped to his feet.
"Many thanks, Lucas!"
"Anytime…WHOA, HEADS UP!"
Takamaru vaulted over the club of the statue trying to sneak up behind him and both he and Lucas stayed in close proximity to one another as they continued to attempt to damage their adversaries.
"So what's got you and your friend allying yourselves with Lady Amaterasu?" Takamaru asked as he deflected a blow from one of the statue's massive fists.
"We're trying to help a girl named Saya Kusanagi." Lucas responded as he launched a bolt of lightning at a nearby foe. "Of course, we wouldn't have had to go on this wild goose chase looking for her if the demon over there hadn't kidnapped her for a little while."
"Morrigan kidnapped her? Then why in the world are we allying ourselves with her?!"
"She said she doesn't know where Saya is now, but…yeah, I trust her about as much as you do, which pretty much means I don't and I'm fully prepared for when she decides to go stabbing us in the back."
"I see…it's kind of funny. I knew a Saya back in my own time. Quite a beautiful young woman"
"Your own time?"
"Yes. The year 1654 if I remember correctly. Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate at the time, but it seems times have drastically changed. I can still certainly say that the landscape is as beautiful as it's always been, though."
"1654? …I guess I'm not one to complain about time travel since I've inadvertently done it myself."
It was then that Lucas noticed that Takamaru was grinning mischievously from ear-to-ear, prompting him to raise his brow.
"What's so funny?"
"I noticed your anger when you mentioned Morrigan having abducted Saya. Do you fancy her?"
"What?! No way! She's a succubus! She could kill you just by kissing you, you know!"
"No, no, not Morrigan. Saya."
"Oh…well, I…well, she's really pretty and nice…and she did save me and Ness."
He didn't give a straight answer to his samurai comrade, but it didn't look like he needed to.
"It's quite alright. This same Saya I met bewitched me in the same manner. She was a noble, though. It was all a matter of social hierarchy."
"Um, question. Why are we talking about this stuff when there's giant demon statues trying to kill us?!"
Three statues ganged up on Amaterasu and Ness, both of whom could only dodge and throw out as many attacks as they could with Amaterasu waving her tail and forming slashes of ink across the statues that somehow managed to unbalance them slightly, but nowhere near enough to properly damage them.
"For crying out loud, are these things invincible or something?!" Ness shouted before noticing one of the statues making an attempt to slam its foot down on top of Amaterasu. "PK FLASH!"
The explosion caused by the PSI attack did nothing, but what intrigued Ness was that the statue froze and began fidgeting about when the light had appeared and didn't stop until it disappeared.
"Ah, yes, of course!" said Amaterasu. "Those malevolent spirits must be vulnerable to bright light!"
"Maybe, but I can't keep doing that! I'll run out of energy!"
"You do not need to, child. Observe…well, actually you should probably shield your eyes."
Ness obeyed, and with that, she turned her head to the sky and spun her tail in a circle. Said circle formed in the sky and surprisingly brought the sun with it, lighting up the night sky enough to freeze all of the statues in place and force them to fidget uncontrollably and leave them wide open for attack.
"NOW!" the celestial wolf called. "STRIKE AS HARD AS YOU CAN!"
And that was what they did. Morrigan with a Soul Fist, Pit morphing his arm into a giant gauntlet and punching, Ness and Lucas unleashing PK Flash and PK Thunder respectively, Takamaru crouching down and sheathing his sword for a moment before unsheathing it again and slashing to produce a gigantic energy wave, and Amaterasu using the Celestial Brush to paint a large bomb which she then shoved forward.
Their assault was successful as the malevolent ghosts were suddenly launched out of their stone shells which crumbled away into dust. With the ghosts realizing that they were now solid and vulnerable, their mass quivered before they brandished large scythes, lunging at the first of their adversaries they saw. Of course, this proved fruitless within moments.
One attacked Morrigan, only for her to seize it around the middle and haul it high into the air. She giggled, staring at the ghost in a very coy manner before suddenly tightening her grip, flipping around, and diving back down to the ground where she slammed the ghost on its head that let out an audible snap. Ness tightened his grip on his bat, and as soon as his ghost came forward, he swung with all his might. The bat struck the ghost across the head and due to both its light weight and the strength of Ness' swing, it went flying away like…well, a baseball.
"YEEEEEEER OUTTA HERE!" Ness cheered, wildly pumping his fist afterwards.
Amaterasu nimbly flipped over the swing of her ghost, and as it swung at her again, she seized the blade between her teeth and demonstrated phenomenal strength by pulling it from its hands in less than a second, juggling it around until she had firm grip on the handle and slashed the ghost apart. Takamaru was locked in a series of blocks and attacks until he finally slipped underneath the ghost and impaled it from behind. With a slash of his twin blades, Pit sent his ghost into the air where he joined his blade back into a bow, pulled the strong back as far as he could, as released an arrow that pierced the ghost's head.
Lucas, however, wasn't having the same luck as his allies. He fired out a blast of PK Freeze and several bolts of PK Thunder, but this one ghost seemed far more aggressive than the rest. It kept madly swinging its scythe whenever it got close enough, forcing Lucas to dodge and hop about until he finally tripped. The ghost smiled madly at him before raising its scythe…and getting launched away with a quick bat swat from Ness.
"You okay, Luke?" he asked as he helped Lucas to his feet.
"I…I could have handled that on my own."
"Sorry, but it really did look like you were in a tight spot there."
"…thanks."
He was grateful that Ness had rescued him, but it felt embarrassing that he had psychic powers and couldn't take care of a simple ghost. He had been thinking about Saya for a great span of time and had thought about how he had been unable to save her from getting sucked into Limbo by Morrigan and promised himself that he'd do better. If this was better, then he was about as useful to Saya as a used gym sock.
"Whew! Nice warm-up, ghouls." Pit said with a faked yawn. "Thanks."
"Yep. They're the warm-up, Pitty." Morrigan whispered as she draped her arms around the angel. "The real exercise? That's me."
"…what am I supposed to say to that?"
"You could so 'Oh, hell yes', right?"
"Well, let me paraphrase it: oh, hell NO!"
"In any case," Amaterasu interrupted, though chuckling slightly at the demon and angel's display. "I must say that's I am quite tired."
"Amen to that." Morrigan replied. "Oh, and could you turn the sun off, please? Don't want anyone thinking it's the apocalypse when the sun's up at night."
With a wave of Amaterasu's tail, the sun was gone, the night sky settling in once again.
"And as for where we could stay," Morrigan continued. "There should be some very nice hotels in Tokyo."
"I see, but would a party of six not be quite expensive?"
"It is, but I've done one of two things that gets most guys and some girls just throwing money at me."
"Excellent. Shall we?"
The two walked off and left the four boys to stand there with their eyebrows raised for a few moments before shrugging it off and following closely behind, Takamaru smirking the whole way.
"Women…"