Confrontation
A new day was upon the denizens of Pure Heart Valley. It wasn't until late into the morning that the three Mao siblings woke up. Violet had been the first of the three to seat herself at the kitchen table for breakfast. Tanya watched the purple Mao sister intently, taking every micro movement into consideration.
When Mao Mao walked in shortly after, Violet averted her gaze, still feeling guilt after the way she and Minori treated him the night before. Violet's grip on her cup of tea clenched tighter, threatening to shatter the porcelain under the continuous strain of pressure.
"Morning," Mao Mao called out groggily.
"Sup, bro," called back Badgerclops. "Did you get enough sleep last night?"
"Just give me my coffee," leaning against the kitchen counter, Mao Mao held out his hand. Badgerclops passed him an ugly cup, it looked as if someone had smashed several cups and then attempted to meld them together with melted down gold. Taking a long sip of the dark liquid, Mao Mao's half lidded eyes opened a bit more. "Okay, what's on the agenda today?"
Badgerclops proceeded to inform the Sheriff of the day's patrol schedule. "Minori and I will be going out on patrol later this afternoon, then it'll be you and Adorabat, after she gets out of school."
"Can someone inform me why and how a five year became one of the protectors of this valley, if you wouldn't mind." Violet said, quickly adding that last bit.
"We first thought that she was older than she was," Badgerclops answered. "I mean, it's hard to tell anyone's age here."
"I see."
"Anyway, I've got some work to do," Mao Mao took a step towards his office. "With the king's party being held in the square tomorrow, I need to get the proper paperwork filed."
"It's a party, why does there need to be paperwork involved?" Tanya asked. "Throw up some streamers, make sure you don't run out of punch and you'll be fine."
"I don't know if you've noticed, but the king like to make things flamboyantly flashy. Even after bouncing ideas off me, he intends to make this party huge."
"And because of that," Mao Mao adding on to Badgerclops' statement. "I've gotta get the paperwork in order, putting up detour signs in the streets leading to the square, clearing out the area to get everything settled, putting up the equipment, all that and more will need to be filed."
"Sounds like a pain," Tanya said, watching Mao Mao as he moved to his desk.
"You have no idea," he mumbled back under his breath.
Tanya bided her time throughout the day, waiting for the perfect opportunity to be given to her. Eventually, the most convenient set of circumstances were practically thrown into her lap: Badgerclops and Minori were out on patrol, Adorabat was at school, and Mao Mao, after finishing the paperwork, said he was going to be gone awhile. All of this meant that the only people at Sheriff HQ were just her and Violet.
Meditating out in the yard, Violet focused on nothing but the sounds of the environment. The shifting of the branches in the wind, the buzzing of a fly as it flew by her ear, and the rustling of blades of grass as someone approached her. "Did you want something, Tanya?"
"Answers," replied Tanya. "I've been under your employ for how long? I know next to nothing about what's going on."
"Under my employ? Your job was to get me here, it ended the minute we entered the village," Violet spoke, never opening her eyes or turn to face the tanuki. "As for 'what's going on' none of that is your concern."
"Like hell it's not!" Shouted Tanya. "If it involves Mittens, I need to know about it!"
"All you need to know is that this is a family issue, and that's how it will stay," Violet stood up and faced Tanya, glaring at her from beneath her hat. "What's your relationship with my brother that you feel as if you need to know this?"
"I'll tell you, if you tell me what this is all about," answered Tanya.
"Looks like neither of us will be getting the information we want," having had her meditation interrupted, Violet moved towards the HQ, wanting to make a cup of jasmine tea.
As Violet passed by the furious bounty hunter, Tanya reached back and grabbed Violet by the hem of her kimono, moving into a shoulder throw, tossing the legendary hero away from the house.
Violet rolled across the lawn, the grass staining her clothes. "Do you want me to kick your butt again?" Violet asked as she pushed her herself off the turf.
"I was holding back then, this time I won't be so generous," Tanya lowered herself into a fighting stance, her fists raised. She kept her eyes on Violet's hat, any number of items of varying nature, could be in there.
"Very well then," Violet rushed towards the tanuki, throwing a volley of punches.
Tanya knocked each one aside, but Violet pushing the assault, forcing Tanya back. Violet must've been holding back as well, figured Tanya. Guess I need to pop them out already.
Pulling a set of leaves out of seemingly nowhere, Tanya tossed a few into the air. With puffs of smoke, three leaf clones of Tanya landed on the soft grass, each of them baring an impossibly exact resemblance to Tanya, that even an identical twin wouldn't posses. They dawned her iconic smug grin, as they set their sights on the warrior in front of them.
Violet put a stop to her assault and stepped back a bit, processing her adversary's unique ability. Tanya wasn't bluffing, she really did hold back at the bar, otherwise why wouldn't she have popped this trick out sooner?
"What do you think of my lookalikes?" Asked one of the four Tanyas before her.
"They really come through in a pinch," said another.
Violet was sure she could manage against Tanya, but this just became a whole new matter. Fighting against multiple opponents was something she trained for, sure, but multiple well-trained fighters was something else. Not to mention that if Tanya used this opportunity to turn this into a war of attrition, Violet would spend everything on limitless clones before she even got near the original. That left one option, take out the original, now.
Violet pulled out a pair of dulled blades, and rushed the quartet of tanuki. In her early years of being a hero, Ashaki ran her and the others through simulations of hundreds of possible scenarios just like this. And like usual, Ashaki was right on the money; as a coordinated group, the tanuki scattered, their goal being to try keep at least one of them in Violet's line of sight so that she'd subconsciously be brought to focus on that one, while the others will circle around and strike. When Violet moves to look at the one who struck, the third will strike, and the cycle will continue until she's on the ground saying uncle.
But as Ashaki told Violet, the down side of that strategy is that they'll be jumping in and out of arm's reach, which is why she selected this special pair of swords. Once two of the tanuki were out of eyesight, Violet glanced back caught the sight of one, then immediately graphed a mental image of where the tanuki were positioned. Almost like a square, and the tanuki were the corners.
Taking this information, Violet began her maneuver, whipping the swords towards tanuki 1 and 3, pressing a hidden button on the grips, the blades formed a numerous amount of seems, from there the blades split apart, revealing its true nature to be that of a chain sword. The chains wrapped 1's forearm, which was thrown out for self defense in haste, and 3's ankle. Twisting on the heel of her foot, Violet pulled the tanuki of the their feet, and pulled them into tanuki 2 and 4. Of the twenty-seven ways Ashaki gave to counter, this was Violet's go-to.
Pulling themselves off the ground, the four Tanyas pulled out more sets of leaves, making them take the form of weapons. One had twin blades, another had a pair of kama, one of them however, kept her leaves detransformed. Three of the Tanyas rushed Violet, who whipped the chain blades, keeping the clones out of arms reach. But her mistake was pulling her eyes off the Tanya who still had her leaves. Looking back, the Tanya was no longer standing there, in fact she wasn't anywhere.
The Tanyas pulled away from Violet. While Violet searched for the missing Tanya, Violet noticed that it was suddenly cloudy, yet her surroundings were still pretty lit up. Wait a minute...
Looking up, there was no way for Violet to hide her shock, "WHAT THE-?!" Violet dove off to the side, as a solid iron anchor slammed down where she stood moments before. Standing on top of the anchor was the missing Tanya. How did she even go that far into the air like without her Aerotruck? No, it didn't matter, Violet curled her fist, pulling a handful of blades of grass out of the dirt. She'd had enough.
Violet whipped her blades out to two of the clones, the multiple blades wrapped around the copies' torsos. With a twist, the dulled blades dug into the copies, causing their bones to crack, which lead for them to poof into smoke and leaves. The third clone ran to strike Violet from behind. Violet, without looking at the clone, swing the blade out, the inertia carried the blade to crack against the clone's throat, causing it to poof like the ones before it.
"So you're finally taking this seriously," said the real Tanya, who was standing on the anchor.
"I'm just sick of your games," pulling a knife out of her hat, Violet whipped it toward the tanuki on the anchor.
Tanya had more than enough time to tilt her head to the side as the knife sailed by. It looked like she was finally breaking that emotional shell around Violet, now this is where things get interesting.
Tanya forced the anchor to poof; with her footing gone, she fell back to earth, grabbing the leaves that made the anchor on the way down. Putting several in each hand, she held them out to either side. Puffs of smoke billowed out from her clenched fists, curling around her arms. When the smoke cleared, what emerged were a pair of pinkish-red wings with black tipped feathers. The wings caught on the wind, allowing Tanya to hover over Violet, whose eyes widened in shock.
Since when could Tanya do that?! Violet had heard stories from both Tanya and Mao Mao from when they traveled together, and from what Violet had gathered, Tanya's abilities were: making objects with her leaves, as well as some shapeshifting capabilities. But even then, even with wings, Tanya shouldn't be able to fly, her bones would have to be hollow (but then again, Adorabat has denser bones than any of them, yet she can float like a butterfly). Does that mean her abilities can mimic those of the actual objects to a near one hundred percent? If she made a bucket of water with her leaves, would the water still be made up of the H2O formula? This is something Ashaki would either know, or love to know.
Tanya twisted midair, angling herself towards the Mao sister, and with one flap of her wings, she launched herself at Violet. Violet tossed her chain blades back into her hat, quickly rummaging through it. Eventually, her clawed fingers got purchase on what she was looking for. Violet pulled out a round buckler shield, using it to shield herself from the rocketing tanuki that was coming straight for her.
Before colliding with the shield, Tanya swung her legs out, placing one foot on the shield, and hooked the other around the bottom of it. Once her feet were properly latched onto the shield, Tanya gave her wings a strong flap, pulling the shield out of Violet's grip.
"Well that's just great," murmured Violet, glaring daggers up at the smug tanuki.
Tanya, after throwing the shield off to the side, dispersed the wings, dropping to the ground. With a tuck and roll, she shrugged off most of the impact, letting her transition into a dash almost instantly. Taking another fistful of leaves, smoke shrouded Tanya's right arm, veiling it in mystery until she was right up on Violet.
Violet was starting to be left for a loss; usually when confronted with a problem, she can figure it out (after an allotted amount of time). But Tanya was refusing to give Violet that time. It was almost like a race, Violet had a strong start, but her stamina gave out quickly, whereas Tanya was a bit sluggish, but she had tons more energy to burn.
Emerging from the smoke was a fist, but this one was ten times its normal size. Violet would've thought maybe knife hands, or even a cannon arm after that wing stunt. Maybe that was its purpose? To throw Violet for a loop. But this was exactly the point; when it comes to these two, their strength is derived from how creative they can be. Violet had whatever items were in her hat to do with as she pleases, but Tanya can create the items she needed, she didn't have to have it stored for later, or come up with a second plan if she didn't have it. None of this is to say Violet isn't strong, Tanya was just stronger, and better equipped.
Violet threw her arms up in a vain attempt to block the cartoonishly sized fist, but it proved useless when the purple-clad warrior was sent flying, crashing into a sturdy tree, falling to the ground in defeat.
Violet lied there, the pain in her arms stung like hell, and bashing her head against a tree didn't do her any favors. Turning over, Violet faced the unwelcome sight of Tanya, lording over her with that stupid smug grin.
"Now," Tanya held up her hand, pretending to inspect her claws. "About those answers I want."
Violet let out an exasperated sigh, "tell me what you want to know, and I'll answer if I'm able."
"Why are you and Minori here in Pure Heart?" Tanya wasted no time in getting to the root of the situation.
"Can't tell you," Violet said immediately. Out of anger, Tanya grabbed her by the hem of her kimono, and slamming Violet against the tree. It was obviously an attempt to intimidate her, but it wasn't as effective seeing that Tanya was roughly Mao Mao's height, and Violet herself was almost a foot and a half taller (putting her about six inches less than Badgerclops, for scale).
"I thought you were going to tell me what I wanted to know," Tanya spat, her brows furrowing.
"Gah," Violet said as she was slammed against the tree. "I never said I wasn't going to tell you. I said that I can't!"
"What do you mean you can't?!" Tanya exclaimed, gripping Violet's kimono even harder.
Violet opened her mouth to speak, but the words caught in her throat. This was a severely personal matter, and she was about to disclose sensitive information to an outsider, who had nothing to do with it. "The pact... it has rules I must adhere to, and one of which is I'm not allowed to tell anyone outside of the family any details."
"Then you fought me knowing I couldn't get anything out of you either way!" Tanya's voice kept raising with every sentence.
"Not true," Violet spoke quickly, before Tanya had a chance to start throwing fists again. "The one exception is that if the five of us agree unanimously, we can tell outsiders details about the pact."
"But the other night, you said Hinata was missing, how can you tell anyone when the five of you haven't been in the same room in almost ten years?!"
"So you see my predicament then."
"Gah," Tanya punched a part of the tree next to Violet's head. Letting go of the hero's clothes, Tanya took several paces before taking a deep breath and placing her hands on her hips. "Well, what can you tell me?"
"Dusk." Violet said.
"What's Dusk?" Tanya asked. That name could be anything, a person, an organization, a code phrase.
"The reason for everything that's happened in the last ten years," replied Violet, as if that cleared anything up.
Scratching the back of her head, Tanya deemed that she wasn't going to get anymore out of Violet on this particular topic. However, since Violet was finally feeling chatty, "can you tell me one more thing?"
"Depends."
"Why did you take that vow against killing?"
Violet's eyes widened, caught off guard by the question. Tanya's focus had been spent on why the two Mao sisters were in Pure Heart, that this sudden curiosity on something else... "After Dusk did what they did, I... I made a mistake," Violet started, struggling to get the words out. "And it's haunted me for years. I couldn't sleep without my final thoughts being about what I did. I couldn't stand it, so I vowed to never take a life again, and dulled most of my weapons. I'm not comfortable saying anything more."
"I see. Well I guess that's all I have to say then." Tanya began to walk away from Violet, towards the edge of the cliff, with a fistful of leaves in each hand.
"Wait!" Called out Violet, causing Tanya to stop in her tracks. "Why did you want to go through all of this? What kind of relationship do you have with my brother?"
Tanya tilted her head as she thought about this. About every interaction between Mao Mao and her, about every struggle they went through together, and... about what he meant to her. "If I were to describe how I think of Mao Mao, I'd have to say, he's like a pillar."
"A pillar?"
"Exactly, a pillar. When I was going through some stuff way back, he was there for me. Should my world collapse around me, I always know that he'll be there, for me to lean on, and share my troubles with. That's what he means to me. And should anything happen to him... I'll be very unkind to whoever is responsible." Staring back at Violet, it was clear that she meant that last part as a threat.
Tanya continued to walk forward, stepping off the ledge, Tanya turned her arms into wings; letting the wind catch on her feathers, she soared through the air. Violet's words have given Tanya a lot to think about.
A lot happened at Sheriff HQ this day. But no one would know anything about it, until Mao Mao would return a few hours later, where he would notice a crater in the front yard from the anchor, and scattered leaves spread about where there wasn't a tree for at least ten meters.
"What the hell happened?" Mao Mao shouted, the sound carrying its way down to the village, where Minori and Badgerclops were having ice cream.
HAPPENED? HAPPened? Happened?
"What was that?" Minori asked, her ears perking at the sound of her brother's voice.
"I'm sure it's well handled," Badgerclops waved the matter aside. "I mean, what's the worst that could happen while we're down here?"
"Fair point."