Intermission 4: Yokai Summoner and the Cave Temple of Doom
Another morning had risen for the yokai summoner. For once in her apartment, the news was on. She had heard of murmurs of some show in the vein to her beloved tokusatsu that was known around these parts, so she had to check it out. However, the news caught her eye.
"...Earlier this week, there was a strong winter wind that did severe damage to the Super Market located in the East Cashew district. Authorities have concluded some large foreign object had impacted and crashed within the site." The newscaster reported on, images of the crashed glass and debris in the market. "Repairs have begun on this severe damage as investigated reports have concluded this was merely natural causes and no criminal or malicious has been going on."
Kiara gave a much needed sigh as she got out a bag of chips. "Well, seems that a load of fear right off my back."
"Though, it isn't like most can see yokai anyways." Lunarnyan commented, still stretched a bit on the couch.
"Plus I don't really expect the authorities to easily explain that there was not only a T-Rex, but also zombies at the sight of the crime." Solarnyan added with Lunarnyan's comment quite relaxed.
"I mean I wasn't expecting wrestlemania conspiracy mystery, but I think what happened the other night was something." Kiara remarked. "I gotta say, I liked that kind of thrill. Really got me to wake up, get up, get out there you know?"
Sitting at the table, Kiara got out her medal case, and spread out her medals. It's what she did on a daily basis, it felt like.
"I'll say, Bunny Mint is quite a clever yokai, throwing me for a loop when I first met her." Kiara commented, looking over her shiny new Merican Yokai medal. "I mean I took her questions a bit jokingly, then again I don't think I've ever been too serious."
"You have a point in not being too serious, summoner." Lunarnyan chimed in with a sense of snark. "Lately you haven't been freaking out as much and when you fight yokai, you treat it really over the top."
"To be fair, my track record of yokai encounters have been hero yokai I believe." Kiara informed politely. "I gotta be dramatic with my speech to show I mean business, that's how sentai does it, so that's how I do it. All I need is excessive explosions!"
"Good luck with that, Kiara." Lunarnyan commented, already have grown accustom to Kiara's shenanigans.
"Maybe I can finally fulfil my long time dream, even if it's a bit childish." Kiara responded, seeming proud before stooping down. "I mean, I've always kinda wanted to be a hero, after all I'm unsure where to go."
"Why do you say that?" Solarnyan asked. "Aren't you here because of an internship?"
"Yeah but it's more of a fancy veil to look into the yokai here in St. Peanutsburg, since there's been a lot more yokai activity recently." Kiara explained. "Plus I dunno, I don't know what I can exactly contribute since all I do with yokai is scream loudly. What if I don't even do anything extraordinary? I think I already had my run when I was young, but a lot of time has passed since then..."
"If you were asked to investigate yokai activities here, that means your shenanigans with yokai isn't over, right?" Lunarnyan asked sweetly, Kiara looking off a bit.
"I don't know, I only have less than a week left here in St. Peanutsburg. Most I've done is collect three out of five of these crystal shards, but what does it all really mean?" Kiara commented, looking at the three Silver Crystal Star Shards she had gathered, all gently placed into the compact case she had clipped to her scarf. Forming the top part of the star was the Diamond, Emerald, and Golden shards, leaving only two spaces left. "I mean, what happens when I get all of them? I fight the final boss of St. Peanutsburg? That thing only happens in video games, and this is reality."
Kiara kept on sulking, ignoring any responses from her feline companions. It only took a little tap from a third yokai living with Kiara to get her attention.
"Miss Kiara?" Sophie piped up, getting the saddened summoner's attention.
"Yeah?" Kiara responded, trying to hide the fact she was on the verge of tears.
"Is something wrong? You seem very upset..." Sophie asked, as Kiara sighed, her mood not really been improving much.
"...I don't really know what I'm doing with myself at this point. Am I even a hero to anyone, is that goal even possible with someone as much of a confused mess as me?" Kiara began to question herself, seeming to spiral more and more into sadness.
"You're a good person to me, though. Even my parents are heroes and I think you're up there with them..." Sophie quietly added in, as Kiara kept looking out of her usual zest and spirit.
"Kid, I'd hate to break it to you, but whoever your parents are, they'd both be disappointed that you think I'm on their level." Kiara commented glumly. "Not only am I a human, but I'm an embarrassing mess, chasing after something far out of my own reach instead of doing something productive like medical science or engineering."
The two other felines stepped in, bringing Kiara the medals she had laying around on the table and neatly spreading them across the floor.
"Kiara, look at all these yokai who've become your friends though. I know in total it's about only seven, but it's still a lot." Solarnyan chimed in. "And two of those medals is me and Lunarnyan, but still look!"
"And it's not like you're going to stop helping those in need, right?" Lunarnyan added in. "That is your dream, right?"
Kiara stopped for a moment to look over to look at all the medals before her. Sure, it wasn't like fifty yokai or anything, but it was still a strong amount.
"...I guess even if the number of yokai is small right now, that doesn't mean I can't help more and more in the future." Kiara said, have finally calmed down and come to terms with what was before her as she picked up the medals and got up. "Now, did anything weird happen with the fancy crystal shards again?"
"I don't think much has happened, other than me and Lunarnyan became B Rank!" Solarnyan said, attempting to flex a little with his stubby little paws.
"...And that I believe the map has updated to show the location of the next shard as well." Lunarnyan added, handing Kiara the old paper map.
The summoner looked over the map carefully. It seemed there was a fork in the river that took them to the Emerald Shard, this new path leading to a cave containing the next shard of the Silver Crystal Star.
"Hmm, seems like we're going to have to all raft down the river again." Kiara said, before looking a bit smug. "Not like that's going to be a big issue. Sure, the fact Alligators are a normal thing really frightens me, but I think we'll be okay."
"How can you say that with that much confidence?" Solarnyan asked, as Kiara got ready by putting on one stylish black leather jacket with purple highlights. It all went rather well with the black shirt with a matching sentai emblem on it.
"Alright fellas, we all need to prepare for the adventure ahead, it could be dangerous." Kiara announced, rallying up her friends. "We are going to need food, water, a first aid kit, a flashlight or two, and most importantly, churros."
After packing everything they needed, consuming some churros and rafting a river, the gang had finally arrived what looked like a big cave entrance. Kiara grinned, pulling out a flashlight from her pocket.
"While this isn't as flavorful as taking in a classic fire torch, it still gets the job done." Kiara commented, spinning the flashlight in her hand. She looked at her squad, opening up her medal case to summon out two more yokai.
"It's Mysterious time!" chimed from Kiara's belt bound yokai watch, as out popped Snow Rabby. Shortly after that, "It's Shady time!" chirped from the watch and Dr. Kagemura had joined in as well. Now, the squad was truly complete.
"Okay so the battle plan is this..." Kiara said, looking over a notepad she carried in one of the jacket's pockets. "Sophie, Snow Rabby, Dr. Kagemura, you three stay outside and make sure nobody tries to get after us."
"Got it, I'll be sure to teach any bad guys a lesson!" Sophie responded to the orders cheerfully, Snow Rabby and Dr. Kagemura looking concerned.
"You sure she can fight back?" Dr. Kagemura asked concerned.
"Oh trust me, she can punch an alligator like it's no big deal." Kiara reassured, as the other two yokai's eyes just widened.
"I-If you insist." Dr. Kagemura responded to the summoner's answer.
"Even then, we're all pretty strong." Snow Rabby added in. "We can take things on just fine."
"Alright, as for me, Solarnyan, and Lunarnyan, let's all head right on in." Kiara finished, leading the way into the dark cave with her two yokai companions following behind her.
Upon entering the dark cave, it was obviously dark, but massive. Several natural paths twisted and turned, many stalactites hanging over the ceiling to give it a must more foreboding feeling. Even some ropes going downwards hung over some of the pathways, as somebody must have been here in looking for something.
The trio kept going through the cave, and pretty early on a few bats flew past the three. This startled Solarnyan, but only made Lunarnyan and Kiara flinch a little bit.
"What on earth were those!?" Solarnyan yelped, as Kiara looked down to try and counsel the yokai.
"Those were bats, they're mostly harmless." Kiara said. "At least, I ain't afraid of them. Though, let's hope this cave is free of one thing I'm afraid of."
"And that would be?" Lunarnyan asked, Kiara looking off with terror.
"Something so horrifying, I can't dare utter the name. They come in all sizes, from very small to very large. They have eight legs and many eyes that can pierce the soul." Kiara explained. "Some even live in caves, so that's what frightens me the most."
"I see, though hopefully none of those scary eight legged monsters are going to be in here, right?" Solarnyan chirped.
"Yeah and even then I got more yokai with me to help if any of us are in trouble." Kiara commented. "I got a bunny agent, a ninja, and a T-rex. I should be more than good to go if danger arises."
The trio kept on walking through the cave, finding their way through all the binding paths. The cave seemed to have contained a lot, intricate stone carvings in the walls to even an entire minecart track.
But soon, they came to a wall where something had caught Kiara's eye. It was a large stone statue holding onto a similar shard of the Silver Crystal Star, this time it having a ruby red hue.
"Well, call it my lucky day." Kiara gasped, looking at the shard held within the statute. With a few pulls and tugs, the shard was free from the binds of the statute, giving a faint red glow in the summoner's hands. Opening up the summoner's medal case that doubled as a way to keep the Silver Crystal Star, the shard joined with the other pieces, giving a bright red glow, before the diamond white, emerald green, and golden yellow shards also gave a powerful glow alongside. Truly, it was a rainbow sight for the eyes, signifying that there was now only one last piece to the puzzle.
"I feel a lot stronger now." Lunarnyan commented to herself, as Solarnyan nodded. Kiara, was busy jotting something down on her notepad.
"Hey Kiara what are you doing?" Solarnyan asked, curious as to what the summoner was doing.
"Putting down my calling card. I think it's what extra stylish phantom thieves do once they steal something." Kiara responded, almost finished writing her message. "At least, I saw it in a game or a show based on the game, I don't remember."
One Kiara's note was finished being written, she neatly placed it on where she ripped out the shard of the Silver Crystal Star. Both felines looked at the note.
"...You're too slow?" Lunarnyan observed, looking at the note. It had incredibly beautiful handwriting, but the words contained were a different story indeed.
"I don't get it, but I guess it's meant to be poetic." Solarnyan remarked. "But what's next Kiara?"
Kiara looked at both cats, getting in position. "Now, we make a break for it!"
Soon, the summoner and her companions were making a good long run for it, running as fast as they all possibly could. The statute became more and more in the distance, but now it was an all out scramble to figure out how they exactly came here in the first place.
Throughout the mad scrambling, Kiara had bumped into something and something pretty hard. Hard enough to cause some knock back and to fall on the seat of her pants.
"Ow!" Kiara yelped, slowly getting up to see what was before her. With a shine from her flashlight, she saw...something alright. What stood before Kiara was an oddly very light purple yokai, with glaring yellow eyes and darker purple swirls. He didn't don any accessories of note or anything at all for that matter.
"I wasn't expecting to see anyone else here." The yokai remarked. "But to get introductions out of the way, I am Origin, yokai hailing of the Eerie tribe and second in command to the team Super Seed. And just who are you?"
Kiara took a few steps back from Origin to do what she did best with her introductions to other yokai.
"Excitement, my style, to the limit of my will, I will defend for everyone's sake! With a strong and honest heart of justice, I am Yokai Summoner! Kiara Noha!" Kiara introduced herself, while without the random excessive explosions most introductions of the tokusatsu flavor are known for, got the job done of introducing herself.
"I see, so you are that human after the dangerous artifact known as the Silver Crystal Star." Origin concluded, leaving Kiara absolutely shocked.
"Listen here buddy, it ain't right to just assume things like that." Kiara remarked, absolutely stunned about this. "What on earth made you come to that conclusion from my introduction alone?"
"From a member of our team and research, you are Katherine "Kiara" Noha, you are nineteen years old and your birthday is July 30th. While you do not possess any superhuman abilities, you do posses a yokai watch dream, this specific version dubbed as "Model Kohryu" by yourself alongside a version of the yokai blaster with a similar motif. You enjoy sentai shows and quote them, alongside investigating the paranormal and video games." Origin explained, catching Kiara dead in her tracks. "Also you match the photo we were given."
"...Well I'll be darned, you caught me right in my tracks." Kiara responded, absolutely stunned. Guess this is why phantom thieves wear masks and wear flashy costumes. "I don't even know how you'd be able to figure all that out about me."
"Alright, you are quite the odd one regardless." Origin remarked in a monotone voice, completely unfazed at the yelling summoner
"Regardless, I'm still going to kick your butt, just watch and see!" Kiara proudly and boldly stated, doing her usual assortment of flashy poses, even Solarnyan and Lunarnyan joined on in.
Origin just stood there, looking at Kiara completely unphased at the summoner's actions. He could get this over with quickly, but it was more entertaining to watch
"Even if you just stare at me like this, I'm still keeping my shiny jewel, and if you want it you're going to have to pry it out of my cold de-Aaaaaugh!" Kiara yelled with uppermost passion, starting to ready her yokai blaster to try and fight back, her footwork was not playing right today as she slipped and lost her balance. She was on the edge of the cave path too, but with a few clumsy felines, she and her nyans went tumbling down.
"Wuuuooooah!" Kiara yelled, quickly scrambling to grab a rope hanging off the edge of the path. Thankfully this part of the cave didn't seem to tumble too terribly deep, so Kiara could start her climb back upwards.
The climb was going pretty well, not much of a hassle even with the nyan companions on Kiara's back. It seemed things were going well.
...Almost too well.
By a force Kiara couldn't see, something sliced Kiara's rope, leading her to come crashing down. It wasn't a hard fall, even when falling face first onto the cave floor, thankfully.
"That's the second time I've fell over something, ow." Kiara commented, rubbing her face. "At least is wasn't on my butt again."
"Ha you said butt." Solarnyan laughed a little at the juvenile word.
"Either way, we need to find our ways out of here." Lunarnyan stated, looking around for a way out. "Who knows where Origin is, and who knows if there's any other yokai after us."
Kiara kept nonchalantly walking, keeping her flashlight on as the group kept looking around. "Psssh, this cave is so big and empty, ain't nobody going to disturb us down here. I took care or Origin like it was no big dea-"
The summoner not only had her sentence cut off, but nearly had a part of her cut off as well. This was responded by moments of silence before something finally spoke up.
"You dare bring light down here..." A raspy, demented voice harshly whispered. "Not from just the flashlight you carry, but the pieces of the legendary Silver Crystal Star."
Shining the light from Kiara's flashlight, she got a much more clearer image of this yokai. This yokai was a dark cloaked swordsman, with old torn robes of varying shades of dark violet. He had quite the angry look on his face with a tattered teal blade that reeked of absolute cursed energy.
"Now there buddy, easy with the sword and stuff. I ain't handing over any pieces of the Silver Crystal Star." Kiara remarked, trying to keep her head up high in the face of danger. "Now why don't you introduce yourself before I do so with myself, eh?"
The yokai was silent for a bit, before he finally spoke up. "I am none other than Snee, hailing from the Brave tribe. I am one who does not tolerate such foolishness from humans like you."
Kiara paused for a moment, looking over her notepad. Never did she thought she was going to have to introduce herself not once but twice to a yokai.
"Infinite power flows through my body, mind, and soul! With an honest heart and fantastic techniques, I am the unbreakable Yokai Summoner! Kiara Noha!" Kiara introduced herself going through all her usual motions and poses. But with a surprise, her final pose there was an eruption of explosive fire behind her.
Moments passed and the flames were still blazing. Kiara looked around. "Uhh, you realize the explosions are supposed to go away after I say my name and all that, right?"
Snee only glared down at Kiara's panicking sight. "I haven't introduced you to my assistant on this mission, have I?"
"Wait, you're not alone!?" Solarnyan yelled, quite shocked at Snee's statement.
"Of course I'm not." Snee snarled, as he was joined by another yokai. This yokai donned a red jumpsuit with yellow and black highlights, and large black bat wings.
"So, Kiara Noha is it?" The bat yokai asked.
"Yep, I don't feel like doing another dramatic introduction again." Kiara answered, looking back at the fires growing stronger and stronger. "Hope you got all that when you finished off my introduction with a bang."
"I see, well if that's the case, I'm an Eerie yokai of the night with the scent of fresh Tempura, Saki-chan!" The bat yokai, Saki-chan, introduced herself. She seemed to have just as much enthusiasm as Kiara. This was going to be proven to be a worthy challenger.
"This is going to be fun, but even if I may seem less than mysterious, I ain't alone in this!" Kiara shouted, doing more and more fabulous posing as she inserted another medal into her belt clipped yokai watch.
"It's Mysterious Time!" Kiara's watch chirped, as with a yellow aura came Kiara's recently befriended yokai, Bunny Mint. Bunny Mint looked over at Kiara, pressing one of her playing cards to her lips.
"So, what's the mission, summoner?" Bunny Mint asked, as Kiara looked absolutely serious.
"It's simple, it's a mission to kick the other guy's butts!" Kiara ordered, keeping her tone serious yet enthused. Solarnyan couldn't help but snicker in the background.
"Alright, got it!" Bunny Mint said, the two felines taking their stances before going out in a full on charge.
"You guys take care of those two, I'm gonna find a way outta here!" Kiara responded, frantically dodging under the crossfire to find a way out of this hole in the cave. Slashes from blades, fire, extra sharp playing cards, even hotter fire, some ice as well, it was pretty wild and explosive. Though despite all the dangers, Kiara needed to find a way out for not only herself but her specter friends as well.
Among Solarnyan and Saki fighting fire with fire, Kiara was able to see something, another rope leading back upwards! The summoner was quick, trying to make sure nobody else would notice her quick escaping.
Without any interruptions, Kiara managed to climb back up on the path she fell off of. With a confident stance Kiara looked down at the ensuing chaos below.
"Hey guys! It's good to break away now because I found a way out of the pit!" Kiara yelled, as her three yokai noticed the rope and all made a break for it.
"Later, sweet stuff." Bunny Mint teased to Saki-chan, before she, Solarnyan, and Lunarnyan all went up the rope that Kiara had found.
"What part of 'meet me in the pit' don't you understand!?" Saki-chan yelled, so bitter and angry she decided to take off after Kiara and her three yokai!
Kiara looked around. It seemed to have been a different place than where Kiara had landed, that or she didn't look around enough initially at first.
But the yokai summoner noticed something on the side: a mine cart and plenty of minecart tracks.
"Everybody into the cart!" Kiara shouted, narrowly dodging a ball of fire. Kiara first got into the cart, followed by Bunny Mint, then the celestial duo of nyans.
Saki-chan was only approaching in faster and faster, as Kiara tried to get the thing to go.
"Come on, we're about to be more fried than an independence day barbeque!" Kiara yelled, before she gave enough nudge for the cart to finally go.
And boy, did it go. It was almost insane with how fast the cart was going on the dingy old tracks. But, if it was a means of escaping, then it was a means of escaping.
Even Saki-chan seemed to have given up flying after the speeding minecart of a summoner and her yokai. But, that was not going to stopped the bat winged anti-hero.
The floor below the mine cart track began to rise with fire, and a lot of it. Not only that, but it was rising pretty quickly.
"Geez, things are heating up a lot worse than I thought." Kiara commented.
"You don't say." Bunny Mint responded. "If we don't stop somewhere soon, we're going to really be toast."
The cave was still rather dark, even with the rising flames about ready to cook everybody. Though, to the right Kiara could see another path in the track that would get them to safety really quickly.
"Alright everybody, veer to the right, we got our ticket outta here!" Kiara yelled, as everyone in the cart did as instructed and they were now on the right track.
Before the entire track was engulfed in a raging inferno, the gang had made their way to safety without any sort of skids and crashes either. The group took a moment to catch their breath before the lunar feline noticed something.
"Guys! There's an exit in the distance!" Lunarnyan pointed out. Indeed there was, just a simple path upwards was everybody's ticket out of this crazy cave.
"Well what are we waiting for, let's go!" Kiara said, only to be stopped without even taking another step.
"Never thought I'd see you again, summoner." A familiar voice said, revealing to be Origin from earlier. Kiara took a step back and did a pose with a slight flavor of sass to it.
"Hey there buddy chum pal I wasn't expecting to see you around here either." Kiara responded to the ghost. "I am going to just, you know, safely walk on out of here with my yokai pals and not risk any more fighting. I've already fallen twice already, that can't be good luck."
"I saw, you were...quite the daring one I must say." Origin said, sounding slightly impressed. "For that, I have something to give you."
Before Kiara even knew it, she was holding Origin's medal right into her hand. This left the summoner puzzled.
"Are you serious?" Kiara commented, pretty confused at the sight.
"And with that, my work here is done." Origin finished, before Kiara looked even more confused.
"But you didn't even do anything!" Kiara shouted in confusion. "Also buddy where are your-"
Kiara stopped herself, realizing Origin was gone. "...Clothes."
Bunny Mint stepped on in, putting her hand on the confused summoner's shoulder.
"Well, Origin is a strange one. We don't really know much about him." Bunny Mint informed to Kiara.
"Isn't that ironic, for a guy named Origin we sure as heck don't know a dang thing about him." Kiara responded to the bunny yokai.
"Even if he works in mysterious ways, to a very eerie degree, he is an incredibly powerful ally." Bunny Mint added to her previous statement. "He is Super Seed's co-leader for a reason, after all."
"Though one thing remains important, we all need to get out of here as soon as possible." Kiara pointed out, starting to make her way to the cave exit. "I think we still got that fire bat on our tails so we gotta get out of here and get out of here fast!"
Kiara and her yokai made a break for it, taking no chances as they all ran out and into the winter sunlight after being in the dark cave for who knows how long. There was a group of tourists outside, with their bus parked not too far back.
"...And that concludes the tour of St. Peanutsburg's Mac Runner Cave. Any questions?" The tour guide asked the group.
"Uh yeah was that person yelling like she had a case of jungle fury a part of the tour?" A person said, as the tour guide looked confused.
"What?" The tour guide said in response.
Kiara slowly took this as her chance to sneak onto the bus, it seemed the three yokai she had keep vigil outside were already in the bus.
"Alright, got the fourth sparkly shard thing, only one left to go." Kiara quietly said to herself, crashing onto the nearest bus seat and waiting for the small tour group to get back so Kiara and her yokai could all make it back home.
The recent days in St. Peanutsburg seemed to have been filled with plenty of adventure, and there was no sign of any of that slowing down. Today's skirmish had a lot, but Kiara liked it that way. It made the thrill all that much more fun.