Teen Titans Presents Tokyo Knights -

by INKblOt32

NEW GEN! Ami Grayson is encouraged to study at Osaka's oldest school for modern day Onmyouji. She'll have a new test to pass; being put onto a new team with her prefect Senpai and her strange familiars. Their new job? With old allies and new youkai to send them flying - our mini miko must make the grade, and help protect Japan from things that go bump in the night. Find out!

10. Chapter 10

Teen Titans New Gen Presents – Tokyo Knights –

/

Chapter 10: Grounded – See Me After Class….

/

Ami looked down the stairs to see a slim sunglasses - wearing Shoji Takahara and the car they'd come in.

He, and his companion.

Richard Grayson, a very worried father.

"Ami…." He panted, hands to his knees as Shoji looked untaken by the out of breath American male. "Oh, it's you…" He sniffed, seeing Kazuya's smile of an innocent, a hand to Ami's shoulder in reassurance. Or, to use her as a handy shield.

"We're going back to the school. Ami? –

"But, dad! We can't go…Iyori –

"She's coming too. We got the gist from the co – director of your school. Ami, we want you to be a part of what we need to say here." Shoji told his psuedo – niece. "You're not in trouble. We're trying to get to the bottom of what KAZ."

Shoji pointed at the fox with his nose upturned. "What he told us, and why we are not allowed to interfere. It's –

"It's about time I stepped in to be sure of that." Dick finished; his breath recovered quickly. "No buts. In the car, Kazuya?" Dick raised an eye to the kitsune lord. "You're going too. And the others. The car is big enough, we didn't think you'd mind."

/

The trip to Ami's school in Osaka and back was not as dangerous. Dick was on Ami's side, sure. Then what about that vision? The face of the real Seimei saving Iyori – Chan? What was everyone even hiding?

"Ami." Haru nudged the not – yet - sixteen-year-old with a frown. "You're so sad, can I help in any way to cheer you up?"

"No, you need to get your strength back too. Just, I'm really sure Kazuya is on our side, but why is the fact I wasn't lying…about –

"Seimei isn't alive. You are no medium, yet the power Iyori carries could have given your magic a boost." Kaede wondered with a swish of her invisible tail. "I think that Kazuya knows about Iyori – chan's past. You can open up to your dad. He's trying to protect us."

"No, I need to know what that curse actually does. All Ageha said was it was to…bloom? I don't know. Was she going to eat that power. Suck it out with her proboscis?"

"Way informative, kiddo." Kaede snorted. "The other, Jorogumo was the one who wanted to take a bite of all of us. I doubt her lackey –

"Then why did Raku know her?"

The rest was quiet as Dick eavesdropped, not popping in to ask a thing. He'd talk to the kid. He was taking philosophy courses in London. Constantine had to have been there to hear the spider's banter. "You look stressed out, you two." Kazuya smiled back at Shoji as he on the train did not try to act interested. "The fact that you ended up taking them to your shrine, your territory –

"It was safe." The fox pulled out something from his sleeve as the others tensed a moment. "Here., I tracked the scent of that insect and she is everywhere. No need for disgusting orb weavers to be the color of darkness incarnated…she is not the sort of being that is generally unwelcome." He pulled out a dead specimen that was inside a folded card. A seal.

Shoji glared at the demon in its cell. "She'd get control of any creature. Like a –

"A NET work, of spiders." Drawled the fox. "You have to be extremely careful; Iyori's family made enemies and this one, well…. they can't be taken out by squishing one bug underfoot."

/

"We're home!" Ami said aloud as Tomori walked down to greet the others on the school's woody grounds. She nodded to Shoji, and winced as Kazuya waved. Then, she bowed lowest of all.

"Welcome back, Head Director."

" HUH ??" The foxes and Ami with Aya even all gawked.

"She's just watching the place." Kazuya moved his arm and transformed into the half hybrid self that was rare of his kin to do. ~ This, is my school and I allowed Ami the invitation. That creature was unexpected, yet are we all in understanding yet? ~

"This…this is incredible!" Saturday swapped forms as he became a moon eared, tanned student in a uniform similar to those attending. Red and white for the girls and Black with white for boys. "This is where Iyori – sama has need to rest. Where is the closest place to do so? Hmm?"

/

Miss. Tomori's office was now stuffed with a few others. Shoji, Ami, Aya and Dick as well as Kazuya and Kaede were all invited inside. Saturday, Iyori and Haru were in the infirmary to see to the recovering mistress. "Are we all in agreement that nothing in this room shall leave here today?" Tomori began with a straight, strict look in her eye. Everyone nodded, so she took in a breath before releasing. "The demon is no god, but a youkai with the power to manipulate higher beings due to her past as a woman of high society. She was the wife and mistress of a powerful court official and lord beside Lord Seimei. Abe – No – Seimei's bloodline was not built to last and the last of his clan are split as of today. Iyori - Chan and her mother and grandfather were the last to inherit Seimei's gift. The gift of foresight of the unknown forces, such as Jorogumo realizes. This is because of Seimei's fight with the woman when she turned into a demon. He defeated her, only to be injected with her venom. His line was after that, cursed to feed her hunger and to bring her from the underworld and to our world. The land where she once too lived. Jorogumo is a spider whom you've fought and I fear Iyori's life is now far too ingrained in –

"I can fight the spider. I know what can stop her. It's got to –

"Ami, don't interrupt." Dick stopped the teen, her big blue eyes trying to tell him and yet, she had to wait. She would tell them all what she knew. The curse was a type of sign that something else was going to happen. "Iyori's curse was sealed before it could do any lasting damage." Chimed in the fox god, earning a huff from Tomori. "That is fine, yet the more you saw for yourselves; Jorogumo has returned and her only wish is to rid the line of Abe to not oppose her. She will not allow us to move; we must act and erase the demon's curse."

"It cannot." Aya told the director. "The curse is until the victim who's been afflicted is no longer moving….and it cannot be! There is a way? Maybe the western magi have the answer?" Aya flipped and reverted to her nervous grasshopper self. ~ Not again…~ She moaned anxiously as Kaede knew that Aya was miserable right now. All that was happening, and she wasn't strong enough to so to protect her human.

"Aya was appointed this role by Iyori's grandfather before his passing of the same sort." Kazuya sighed, then reverting to the face of a smaller fox as he spoke to the bunch in a white fox's form upon Tomori's lap. ~ Jorogumo, you see… she took the life of Iyori's dear, mother. ~

/

Ami's stomach was icy and sick. She had no idea, the smart alec was a trauma case. Well…that made for a good Television series!

She had to ask, so she didn't hold back much longer, even when her father gave her that earlier look. "I saw Seimei! He overshadowed Kazuya somehow in the alter room, he saved…..he helped me to use my power to help Iyori AND he took away these wild burns on my hands. It was like I was in another place. I think, he called out and I saw his face! He saved her, I swear." She told the two directors. "Iyori – Chan needs us, I think because Amaterasu needed me to do this. I don't know, I can –

~Amaterasu – hime is still active and she told me personally…. that you must not. ~ (Notice how he is pretty down to earth and not using italics.)

Ami's eyes dropped to spot the fox. "What? Why?? I can help her! Aya won't –

"She'll recover, thanks to the curse being sealed up in that temple. She's under our protection as are you all."

"Huh?" Kaede sniffed. "Are we targets for the spider, too?? What? That's –

"It's true." Shoji rubbed his face and looked ready to lie down for a cat nap. "Raku is also a target since apparently, Jorogumo and Lord Roku met in the past when she had turned. He offered her power in the circle he ran when he'd taken over the Eastern Realm of Spirit. That was when the dragon became the red lord. He's not wanting to recount it, but he knows and I fear…"

"Jorogumo…" Dick grunted. "He's trying to change and she's just going to keep trying to undo what he's accomplished. I'm in. If I have to stay with your brother or Shoji until the crook is stopped, I have permission to do so from my employers."

~ You don't use magic. What could you carry for the rest of us, Grayson? ~ Sighed the kitsune lord. (Only when being serious here.)

"I can watch my kid. I'll stay with Ami, then."

"Ah….no way!" Ami jumped up in protest. "Uncle Shoj!" Ami whined. "Permission to move back in?... –

"No, your dad won't have to go that far." The dog said with a sideways glance. "Dick, my place is enough. Ami is going to –

"NO." Dick stood up, unsure of why Ami was given so much credit after nearly being eaten be an evil spider queen. "Ami. Either you let me stay with you and the foxes, or I put you in a dorm here."

"Dorm?" Ami noticed that Dick was grinning as he walked up to Tomori - san. "She's going to need to be close to the one cursed, right?'

"Do we have any spare spaces free, Tomori - san?" Kaede's tail swished excitedly. "I can bunk with the princess!"

"Ah, this is getting out of hand…. what are you thinking?" Shoji apologized to Tomori and pulled Dick aside. "Super rude. That's two strikes –

"She needs to stay here, Shoji." Dick frowned and rubbed his neck. "You…. always call me Vee. Why now?"

"I, think I need to let her show that I'm not just here to babysit. She's sixteen. I had my own team to manage and we were roommates. If Iyori is ok with Ami being a roomie too, why not?"

"The expense is minor, but to …. You sure y –

"I'll stay with you, find out more about this spider's curse and keep an eye on John and Raku. I promised Aiden he'd be like our kid too."

~Loyal, so good of you then! ~ Grinned the white fox god. ~Well, I see no trouble. It will be done. Ah, and I must tell you why I'm even in this mess at all. My real role is for the Society of Lost Magical Arts. I run the facility here and direct Tomori to have the youth of tomorrow to control their powers where they can be needed for this country and the rest of society. We are the balance of God and spirit. Human and of course, those passed on. So? ~

"You got me here, and I thought Shoji was to blame." Ami pouted. "So, when can I see Iyori? Today or…"

"We'll call for you. Right now, she is resting. Healing. The curse eats away at one's strength. The miasma of the one to have cursed her made her magic weak and that is why if she is weak, the curse becomes active again." Tomori - san told the teen, mostly. "There is nothing more to do but contact that child's last surviving relative and to…. see through how tonight goes. All eyes will be watching. Jorogumo has no power as long as our barriers cannot fall."

"Magic…so I'm here so…I'm protected too?" Ami pointed to herself.

"Yes." Shoji told the teen. "We made sure you wouldn't be afraid of the gifts Amaterasu left for you or the source of energy that Raku imprinted due to that last, effect."

"If I'm light and the wind and the sun…. well, I guess Iyori is wood and the night and water! Cool! I really am a Mahou Shoujo!"

/

While Ami was getting a new place to study her butt off prepared, Hisao and Sun Woo were back at the latest sign of a disturbance; this time, in a host bar.

"I told you cops; I haven't done anything illegal!"

The member was in the top winning circle for the most drinks sold, and yet she'd let some words slip out that had the police in on the joint in seconds no less. "We'll see that you confess your wrong doings down at the station. Sun – Woo?" Hisao called over to his partner who was being questioned BY the hosts' young women instead of the other way around. "What – do oh! There is a lot for me to ask, but…"

Hisao rolled his eyes and had the high earner back in the interrogations room as they dimmed the lights and sat quietly. "I wanna see my lawyer, oji –

"You're not getting anything until you talk."

"Your partner wasn't much help, was he…" She idly looked at her nails, looking to have had them done only recently. "You started this, Kaya. now, I want to get you to open up. Maye it is nobody's fault. Maybe you should come clean about how you won that spot."

"I didn't cheat." She sighed at Hisao's expression. "You're going to get wrinkles early –

"And you're going to look amazing in Tokyo – orange and white." He smirked. "I need you to quit toying and tell me about the thing you used to win. That was all we ever heard from the witnesses at the club."

"The thing I used….it had to do with a dog." She smiled with red lipped enthusiasm. "They promised me my own win if I let them put their paws into the competition. I just said yes, and before I knew it…. I was convicted of murder? I'm innocent!"

"Not exactly. That dog, what did it look like."

"Tall, dark hair, and he was pretty hot…" She licked her lips at his face in the back of her mind. "He didn't act like a dog or say woof, if that's what you're implying. Just said if I let him take out the girls, I could get my way. That he'd never…"

She turned pale, then started to wail out. "Y – cursed?? Is he cursing me?? I heard that story was just –

"Calm down. You got scammed and I'm sorry to say it…. but you're still an accomplice until we can look into the dog youkai. The story goes that dog youkai were vengeful only if a human made a contract with them. If they ever broke that contract –

"They'd die. I know the story…. I can't believe…he's not a yakuza but –

"A demon, and he's after your co – workers and you when you just made sure to believe in what I had to say. We have a group –

"You've gotta convict him! Exorcise him of something! Oh god! I can never go home again???" She started to hyperventilate as the officer just ended their talk. "I'm getting ahold of my team and we will make sure your coworkers and the staff are safe."

"They never were, not after what I did…" The aura she held was clouded by sorrow and regret, the perfect bait to trap a demon. Now, to find the team foolhardy enough to go after a nearly serial – killer like an Inu – gami….

/

(I'm borrowing the look from dogs, gangsta, and kokkuri san.)

The woman dragged their kids away from the sidewalk as a man walked them and whistled the tune passed down in his time. He had dark hair that trailed to the side of his face in a sweeping motion, and wore a suit like some yakuza punk. The man also had a cigarette between his lips that acted as a type of relic meant to change shape into any weapon – a gift from a former master. The side of the street he was on said a name on it that…had the non – Osaka native raise a brow. "Huh. You don't say." He took the item from his lips and looked up. A residence in this minor suburb and he smelled something ice cold permeating past its wall. He took a few sniffs and pulled away. A barrier??

Definitely not a middle-class act. He huffed, finding the welcome a bit concerning. This was the place. The last place he'd imagined finding a fox to be so worthwhile. "Kaede – Chan…... Mitsukemashita...!" He grinned at the enemy's tiny safe house.

/

Haru sneezed as soon as the ones to enter the infirmary made her jump up in surprise. "Ami – nii!" The littler fox nuzzled at the fifteen-and-a-half-year old's chest. "Iyori – nii isn't –

"I am up, kit." The others gasped and the first two to run over were the grasshopper Aya, and Saturday. "Mistress!!

~ I apologize, my lady! It won't ever happen again! ~

"Get…...you are too close!" Whined the princess as the others got the two familiars to pull back a bit. After, Aya made tea and Iyori decided it was time to let some walls down. Due to the next thing, she'd be told without knowing why.

"That nosy kitsune ended up taking all of the credit. Expected him to do what he's good at." She huffed an took a sip of her tea in a dignified way.

"Anyway, your job has ended –

"It hasn't, Iyori." Ami dropped the honorifics. "Kaede? Saturday? Aya, you can stay. I want to talk with Iyori - chan, alone."

/

"You have family in Kyoto, don't you." Ami turned her head a bit as Iyori put her cup down, mulling over the past and present. Muddled, she still wanted to forget everything since that time. "You know from whom."

"I just figured it out. That you weren't being honest. Your body and, the spider –

"She is a liar and a killer!" Shot the long haired princess. The grasshopper that was Aya reverted and hopped out of Iyori's lap on the gurney. "You have something to say?" Iyori sniffed at the magical girl wannabe. That's all she was. Trying to take charge when Iyori was Grayson's upperclassman.

"She knew you and sensed magic in both of us. I'm in danger too. I thought, well…my dad came up with the idea. He's out with Uncle Takahara –

"WAIT." Iyori put up a delicate finger to pause. "As in the Takahara Corporation? That same man is your –

"Sort of…my kinda half – guardian, abroad?" Ami shrugged and sheepishly tried not to give too much away. "Anyway, we all decided that…you and I could be close to protect one another from Jorogumo."

"She can't be stopped." Iyori went fir her cup and Ami reached out to her arm a minute. "We don't have to be her targets. I know how to fight demons way eviler than that. I fought Lilith and Eris! They were really spoiled …and, that boy. The one who was next to the taller guy. They also are in danger, so it's not all about you –

"It was because of my ancestors that this all occurred." Iyori tugged her arms away. "I would if I do not live long enough to have any children…be the last with the gift of foresight as Abe – no Seimei. My ancestry dated further back than even that. I'm a small percentage…. daemon." She grumbled. "But that's not why Jorogumo is so upset! She lost to my grandfather. A ….and…a…" Ami knew that the past for Raku also hurt a whole lot. "I understand-

"How could you? My brother and….and I could get into more trouble if they find out." She gave Ami a deadly glare and crawled up to point at the blue eyed fifteen and a half tear old's clueless face. "My brother, could take me out of this school. The Dairenji family is just if not more involved in the founding of this nation as Takahara is for bringing it into the modern era. You must NOT." She heaved out, "Breathe a word once he gets here about the fact…. that I am going… to take up your offer –

"REALLY??" Ami blurted out as Iyori studied the pony tail wearing Kohai.

"SHUSH!" The princess put a hand over Ami's mouth before removing it with an embarrassing blush. "You…are so loud. If he finds that you are in a dorm at all – I won't be staying. You have to act natural. Like you don't know me." Iyori told the other teenager.

"What? But they all know we're partners!" Ami protested in a smaller voice. "You... you don't want to be at all? Even if it's to save us from the –

"I have to speak to the director after I'm better." Iyori sighed. "You, won't see me in your same class if I am given warming by my brother."

"Wait…." Ami let her jaw drop as she ran to the window. "Is he here??"

"Not yet." Iyori scrunched into her neck and sat back down. "He is…always worried because I am the youngest and most valued of my family. He oversees the group grandfather takes no part in any longer."

"What group?"

Ami saw how Iyori was blushing again. Why…

"The…Dairenji – Soho District…. we make…toys."

Ami's mouth held back a shriek. "You…are the sole heiress of M chi Madness INC !!??"

(SHE IS A KAWAII FAN FROM THE FIRST NEW GEN ARC. MOCHI themed dolls/TOYS WERE HER FAV GROWING UP.)

"Don't yell!" Iyori warned. "Yes, I have fifty percent of my family's stocks in the company. And…. I don't want you to talk to my brother! Let me, I'll find you..."

"OKAY!" Ami saluted the girl cutely as she backed up, taking Aya by surprise by how nothing had escalated. "I'll set up your side of the room, future roomie!" She winked, Iyori and Aya groaning as the teen wonder disappeared for a while.

/

Ami hummed down the hall as she ignored the clatter of footsteps from the students surrounding the next hall down. She saw him and her eyes…wouldn't let go.

" Aah! You are so famous; your sister must be jealous of your looks."

"I wish my brother looked at me like that…hee-he!!"

Ami saw the girls talking and realized that they were the same group that Iyori sported while berating any odd balls like she had been. The policy here was clear. No one wanted friends for longer than they had to. No one was going to be alive forever if a youkai blew your head off.

The green eyes, violet to black haired male suddenly met her eyes as Ami didn't get to leave his sights.

"AUUH…. Reizo - Sama!"

"He's going to see, her…" The girls all turned up their noses as this Reizo "character" bowed quite formally and smiled. Oh, wow…

Was….

Ami swallowed. He was…a prince!

/

The rest of that afternoon, Ami was clearly stalked by the handsome Dairenji Reizo. Turns out, she didn't know it yet but she was about to let the rest go until Tomori Valle Ami back to her office.

In, sat Iyori with bandages around her head, slowly coming off as she revealed a wound there that was already stitched. Ami wondered if her super healing was because of Amaterasu at all, though the third guest in that room had her stare and nearly fall back through the office door.

"You!!?"

She didn't know that he was, no prince but a sibling of one such princess as Tomori greeted the group and began with introductions. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Dairenji Reizo. Eldest son to Harumi and Basho and sibling to my sister, who I believe you have become also, acquainted with?" His eye! Did it just twitch??

Ami gulped, allowing Iyori to jump in and twist the whole dynamic.

Ami came to know that day, that Reizo had a god-awful sister complex.

"Brother, you did not message me –

"And you did not answer any calls since the trip…to where, exactly?" He egged. "To grandfather and his failing shrine cash – cow?"

Ami sat back while Tomori offered her a manju bun from her stash. "Well, at least I don't float around pretending to care about the company just so you can SPY on your sister!"

"How dare you accused me of being some type of deviant!" Reizo gasped back at the twin in his eyes. Her eyes were more so black and violet while his were green like Ami's mother's. A tad darker too though. They both had similar straight cuts like a princess and prince. Ami took a bite of her treat as this was actually good television. Wow.

"For an independent member of all that father built, you still try to act superior to all of us. I still am leagues ahead and…" Reizo clenched his fists as the melodrama started to come to the surface.

"You were attacked, again! And I wasn't there to stop whatever demon came after my baby sister!" He didn't look his age. He looked like a child with those eyes, begging Iyori to know how he feared for her safety.

"Imagine my shock…when I see you with some American girl and you didn't even tell me the best part! You're living together!"

The echo resounded as Ami jumped back. "What the what??"

"Stay, don't listen to this creeper. He's just jealous?" Smirked Iyori as the brother with sad eyes turned into a growling poochie.

"I am not!" Protested the elder twin. "Grandfather was expecting you to come, and so was I –

"I'M FINE." Iyori glared back. "My new teammate and I had it handled. I was this close, but the gods wouldn't want me to go!" She laughed haughtiness as Ami's eyes popped. "W…wait! You did though! The curse –

"It took our mother, and it will take you too if you don't look at this seriously enough." Reizo told his sibling "Ami, was it? My sister is a special sort of case."

"Mammoth, my sister is a fairy queen from another realm if the spirit world that controls snow and ice. My brother is a Chosen relic" that is supposed to keep the balance between the spirit world and I'm a part of that. My other sister Anna is the incarnated vessel of Firebird's power. My dad is a former teen titans with my mom who is an alien queen who rejected her throne until she's ready to go back…and my adopted brother Raku was once a power hungry spirit world overlord that terrorized us all and almost ended the world a few times!" She chirped. "Iyori, is typical in my book. Oh, and Shoji Takahara is actually-

"She's got quite the lip." Laughed Iyori with a smile. "I am in a…. partnership in our exorcism course. And she's actually coming along. In fact, she can summon beasts just like me. Brother? Can you summon creatures as strong as my Aya and Saturday- san?"

Teasing it, this was serious and yet to upset the boyish brother made more sense to the proud and presentable Iyori -sama.

Ami bit her lip and was handed another Manju as Tomori remained patient. "So, until you can speak to grandmother from the grave like me, why should I listen to a no talent normal human like you? I have the ability to do better. We saved lives, even if I wasn't the one present in doing so…. yet, this is how it should be." Iyori crossed the floor to Ami's seat as she put her arms around the back of the frozen teen. "We'll see all the cases this beautiful country has to throw at us – and…I know my hunch wasn't wrong when I chose this lovely dear to assist me in our daily happenings. You can go –

"But –

"I've made up my mind." Ended the princess. "Shoo, if I need, I'll call. You're always in my thoughts, dear brother!" She faked a smile as Reizo was shoved out the door quickly. As soon as he was away from being a wipe on her eyelash, Iyori groaned and let go of Ami's neck. "Do you have any more snacks, Tomori- san?"

/