Teen Titans New Gen Presents – Tokyo Knights –

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Chapter 20: New Additions - Old Addictions

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Tokyo was busier than here in Mount Kongo region of Osaka. It was one of the last few nature reserves that was only a few steps outside of the bigger cities. Ami yawned and found her shoes by the door to swap into a pair of flats as she'd been taught upon becoming a Japanese resident from the USA.

Iyori was back to her old dismissive and snobby self. Ami had wished they could have bonded a bit longer, yet she went to her dorm room and picked up her cell to call the last person they needed now.

~Hi…..I need to have you arrive as soon as possible. ~ Iyori held onto her burning shoulder as her arms caught the bed in time. ~It happened, I need you, Oni – chan… ~ She wept into her arms, feeling incredibly hurt and weakened by the curse that the butterfly and spider wanted to last. Ami did not come to aid. She took every chance to text or dismiss the pig tailed teen's kind words. Ami retreated to see to Kotori, as in the hall the director was doing her best to finish up an interview with a lovely woman. A very…very, beautiful miss…

Dark hair and a short bob that was asymmetrical with long legs. Ami felt short just looking this model's way. No way she was from the board! Her dad's genes would keep her the tiniest of her family next to Anna and Aiden. Ava wasn't related by blood, so she would remain the tallest.

"Ah, Ami – chan." Smiling calmly, Kotori coaxed the girl over as the new staff smiled back. Warm as sunshine, Ami sensed no ill of her. Not now.

"This is a surprise. The rest of the classes here are smaller for the summer." Wondered the new teacher. "Oh, I apologize. My name is Ziyi Feng; I was hired to replace Mr. Fukuyama in his history courses. He somehow…seemed to want to stop and do other things with his career. (real person I apologize!!)

"Ami was not aware. She was off on a soft errand for the school. Weren't you?" Kotori nodded to Ami to agree, "Y – yes. I was with my Sempai on a…a field trip for our club!" Ami bowed, feeling out of place with two of the adults at this time. All while around the corner, Haru was seeing a different appearance.

An aura, of violet and dark, dark shades. Miasma, around the two. Haru swapped bodies to become a dog as she ran over to the girl in her white fur and charming collar that resembled red and white rope – bells from the shrine.

"Oh, that is adorable!" Ziyi gleefully said, as Ami scooped up the pup and pulled back with a new bow. "It was very nice to meet you, Ami – Chan. We will have class together; you are one of the grades I'll be teaching. Won't she?"

"She and Iyori, I hope that you will continue to perform as well as you have." Kotori said, her voice rather different than the spirited norm from earlier.

Haru looked over Ami's shoulder and saw the same aged Eiji as he sniffed not at Ami, but at her little pursuer. "You took no effort, fox."

"I did it for Ami – chan. That woman is not as she seems. I saw a strange myriad of elements around her body and Lady Kotori's!" The kit whined. "Ami…go tell Kaede – nee san. That there is someone else to watch out for besides a queen spider and a possessed demi god."

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Ziyi. She'd heard of a face from the vlogs online and to her delight, the real Ziyi folded with no issues at all in letting the demon take control. Raku was in his classes, living it up as he wanted to with Rokou to be so kind – while John C and the magical nitwits all took their sweet time catching up to finding out if they were truly safe. They never could be. "The more she gets to meet us, the higher our chances are for bringing the world Lady Jorogumo wants into this plane." She grinned and skipped over her notes in the lesson plan for tomorrow. "I just have to keep looking out for how to go about –

The demon stopped. She was able to speak to so many insects as they spied for her. She nodded to the centipede demon incarnate as it told her about the target. "Delay that brat." Grimaced the demon butterfly. "No one shall get in, or out and from that mountain pass. Locusts to the skies…blanket the air…" She smiled as her eyes began to glimmer near purple and magenta. "No, he'll try it. I know you'd love to have your time fir a scare…right?"

She turned back to the window as by it was the face of Kotori. Controlled by threads of silk of a month's cocoon, she nodded with elderly, glazed eyes. "It was easy to have my way as soon as Fukuyama left his post. Without Inari to blab to his supervisor, I'd had no trouble becoming one of your staff. Poor Ami – chan, was it? A lot of buzz around her…and the goddess she harbors."

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Ami rushed to find Iyori, only to press on as a group of upperclassmen in the archery group Iyori was from, came to bring her back. Iyori didn't even look at Ami, so much as Haru gritted her teeth and hid her ears with the teen around the corner. "Wasn't she our partner?" Haru grumbled to her contracted human. "I thought she was our ally!"

"She is, Haru – chi." Sighed Ami as she turned to go back to what she had to do. That door, would stay open but no one was there to greet her anyway. "She has always been like that. An important person; you heard how her family is in competition with Uncle Shoji." Frowned the fifteen going on sixteen-year-old. "We aren't a part of the group, only on our jobs because she was told to."

"But…" Eiji rubbed his chin. "How can you protect her? Those children use lesser magic from their bloodlines and teachings. Most spirit could sense if either were a threat. Even that spider and her minions."

"I don't know…but there is one person I do want to get ahold of before today ends." Ami looked to the present a s both kitsune and Inugami cocked their heads. "Tell Kaede- chan that I'll be back in time for supper. I need to make a direct call…to my family, too."

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Shoji was settling in to leave the building and do one quick sweep over the security he'd set in place by his own way. Magic. He didn't trust whatever had happened. It was one way to drive him batty, yet the fact that his employee had caused damage to the facility to start and stop an attack on the city with a dangerous pseudo-scientific project…crafted voluntarily by a spirit with a bad rap in the past.

Then, there was the puppet. The one now walking around while no one said a word of his disappearance. As if he had never existed. Shoji didn't care for mysterious happenings under his watch. Ami was already in over her head; protecting the heiress of a toy and game company the tyke had grown up to because of the dog's gift giving. She probably slept with her Mochi - mania dolls – plush toys, even at her age. She was still young at heart.

"I'd hate to tell her. Iyori isn't staying around like she'd want her to…" The dog in man's skin did one quick look around. "All clear." He thought about the Inugami and wondered if Eiji was…trustworthy for having grown up with Kaede and her fox clan.

Ah, of course, Ayane was back home, sleeping off the slight shock. He'd have to apologize for waking her. On the ride back, Verra popped out of the man to sit as a front seat conscience.

~ You sure no one is gonna go for round two on the computer game that Shun guy left? You still didn't find who sent Shun to do you a royal –

"I did, sort of. It has to be a competitor who is after video game programmers out of envy. How the hell is the question; Slade was hired but I paid a hire fee out – he swapped sides. Merc codes."

~ So disloyal. Ah, but it was nice to see the tweets again! You missed em. Tell me you didn't want to make your famous feast for those kids with Ayane – chi? ~ The sneaky long eared dog grinned with an eye tooth poking out. "Well…Dick is going to swing by, but he asked me to do that out of sight. Cause he needed an excuse out to talk to his kid and her mentor."

~ AHAI!! Anna is twenty! He's such a helicopter parent. ~ Groaned the pup. ~ Dick face is definitely gonna give himself a torn tummy over worrying so much. Ah, minus the immortal bit. ~

"He…" Shoji bit his lip. "He's still keeping that mum. We know because they also have an idea, but Hisao and Jin Woo don't. I'd like to not spread the word that metas are invading Tokyo. Thanks?"

~ Party pooper! ~ Growled the dissatisfied dog. ~Then what about Ami? She needs our help, she didn't use the invention yet. It's your latest work –

"Only in an emergency." Snipped the male. "She can't use it multiple times unless the other options she has, run out. It can be pretty risky to…"

The man trailed off.

"Is…."

He was seeing things. A vortex, swirling light that was coming directly from the shrine close by.

"We're taking a detour."

~ Right….so. I was kinda hoping you'd let me run this one out of town. Yeah?~

"We'll see, Vee." Shoji swerved and turned back towards the city line. He was going to need to telepathically tell Ayane why she'd woken up in an empty pent with only him missing.

"I might need the exercise though, and answers if we'like get any tonight."

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John flung open the doors to Raku's college library. The staff member at the desk might have been part demon, herself. She looked middle aged, had a nasally and dismissive, almost sarcastic voice about her. Her large glasses made it easy to glare his way as she stopped typing whatever she wanted into the desktop in front of her aging eyes. Skeptics. The lot of these librarian types. "May I help you with anything, Mr.…"

"I'm here looking for my ward. Raku, heard of im?"

"Oh, you're a registered parent, then. Guardian .. right, right…" She adjusted her glasses and checked the information on her screens, possibly the list of students that had signed in today.

"Looks to me as though he's left for today –

"Never mind then." John saw a boy with his hair tied under that description at the far back of the shelves labeled " fiction."

This was not his reality. Whoever had snatched up the boy's half mortal body was making it clear than you could look but not touch.

"Sir, sorry? Is everything-

"You've been a great big help." Snorted the magi as he walked past her desk. "I'm all set, lov."

She might have let her glasses tip off the brim if her face as he dashed by in order to catch an unruly genius teen in the act.

"Oy! Oy, you –

"What's up, this your grandad?"

He heard that, and stomped over. Raku had his hand in the other student's back pocket. Little…. "I'm letting you know it; we need to talk."

"Who are you, again?"

John felt a shock run through his whole body. "I'm…your teach –

"Let's ditch. I have my last term to finish through. Ronnie? Coming?" Raku batted his eyes a bit and tugged the other poor sap out to the exit. "I'm not done! Don't you –

John pulled out a talisman and sighed. "Didn't want to have to do this to ya' mate." John took in a breath, the world around the them freezing up. "You're to stop lolling around showing off what you ain't got to show. I know a damned dopple when I see one. Where. Is. My. Protégé."

Raku with those same dad eyes, tricked John as his words sounded as sweet and meek as before the events if his knapping.

~ You never had one, Constantine. I never wanted you to continue to give a damn. You don't care for anyone, so why should I care that you volunteered to babysit the nobody?"

The world turned against all odds, the boy to him didn't act like he wasn't Raku…

John, was afraid to compare the aspect of darkness with one prior to the eclipse.

"I'll find a way, mate. We made a promise." The boy walked off as he simply smiled sweet as sunlight through the cracks. And he roughly through those same cracks…someone else wanted to speak their mind.

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~ Stop…. give him back…no…John…it's not me…~ Raku sobbed into his chest. ~ Not me…not –

~ It was always who you were. Dear prince of the red dawn. ~

The skitter if eight legs had Raku look up. ~ Get away. Take you promises elsewhere!! I'm not –

~ Dare you spake to thine keeper, boy king?? Your queen wants her prince to relive what was lost. She wants you, and I shall seek to be…. not just content with some crying brat. But a god, once more. ~

Her arms ghosted outwards. Arms, not many legs as she embraced him. Her eyes never met yet he was losing his breath. The flashback of a winged woman doing the same made the demi creature's heart ache as he cried out and batted at something. Furry. Eyes dripping fresh tears, his sweat dropped faster as her body no longer made him think of the strich.

But a monster, plain as day.

~ You avoid my touches. What did that filthy succubus cause, an incurable defeat in you? My lord…~ She crawled past and invisible line as a set of fangs revealed themselves. ~ Time to establish MY claim on you. Even if I say it to be so, as it stands, you'll reject what was. I want you to SEE what I've seen. A part in this late time that is only for the fallen. That YOU can make real by your ability-

~ Never…. I trust no one with that-

Her legs gripped him as Ami and strung him up above. Powerful no more, he had to just shut his eyes and get hurt. That was the way a djinn kept their magic from the unwilling. The miserable misers that stole and pilfered life out of the world. As colors to a painting with many tones, many shades of red and gold.

~ I'll have my king back. ~ She promised, fashioning the teenager up onto a wall that was in fact a spider web of such tackiness, that it was unbreakable by even Abe No Semei at first shot. ~ I cared for you once before, my lord. I did as you asked, yet you were lost to us. Banished before your time to the realm of mortal bound. ~

He heard her speak of Lori, as Raku struggled against his entrapment. ~ Not…again…that person, was never right in the head –

Raku didn't see her leg jab into his gut. A pressure point there, and he'd lose it. A dribble of spit was coughed from his lips to his chest as she raised his face to her. Many red eyes looked back as Raku was frozen by a gorgon in his mind's memory.

~ It was always to become you. That perfect face. My dearest king, I shan't leave you forever. But, for now. ~ She reverted to the form of a woman with a long dress that covered her legs. Her face was entirely if not naturally human as Raku felt bile rise in his throat. ~ That pressure applied to the space where your book manifests with a dragon's fire, will spill out. Whence I fo return, the magic shall be replenished and all of your aura shall change along with it. That is your duty as a half djinn. I caught you. You must abide by your own laws, my little spectacle. ~

The demon left him. The magic…the eternal flame?? The one from the desert keep in his –

Raku coughed what looked to be specks of gold blood, his fears rose. The blood that hit the ground however, changed slowly from red. To a dark black as it littered the room's stone setting.

Raku kept pulling, yet each time was as if he had a rib poking out and he bled. All over, growing faint…tired. She was trying to bleed the God's blood from him. Taint him by sheer force…to come to her. To her beck and call. To create her world as she wanted it. Raku did his best to quiet himself as his mind forced itself to seek an Astral body. A body, known as….

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Find out.

This Is getting dark!!