Teen Titans New Gen Presents- Tokyo Knights –

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Chapter 22: Tapir Troubles

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John made sure the candles, torches, any wards were up and books splayed back. Tomes out and ready to sense the danger he was providing them with his time. Raku, or Roko's chest stirred with a red and golden light. She bit back the call of the Manifesto as John turned to Zee. "We'll need the display. All of it."

To summon a sleep God was far different in culture to culture.

To entrance a demon to sleep, was something otherwise as John got up and moved round the closed room. Roko watched through black and red pupils. The dragon's own aspect, the meaner one. The one Raku refused to become ever again. Somehow, he'd been salvaged by the widow spider doing her only tactic. Having the aspect of feminine angst replace the barer of this body of John's student's. He wouldn't let it go, so the sands of the desert sat upon a tray. A scrying board for the directions of the east; the star and the magic that cane with it as John had Zee start to raise a chant as he brought sleep herbs of grass to fall upon the sands with a nick of his own flesh. ~ Alive, I crave it. The chance to walk among the dreaming. The great devouring God of sleep – I call to thee. Shinigami of night mares so horrific…we summon you to this plane!! Show yourself!!~

A swirl emerged in hazy blue and silver from the sand as a vortex of wind appeared inside it. It began to get bigger and soon…

A figure appeared from it, in not a human form at all.

But a dreamy eyed, dozing tapir with wings and a stubby set of legs. Roko held back a giggle as the magi looked over the page, then at the cute little baby beast of burden…

"This, isn't how I imagined a dream eater to look. Did we…take its… son, Zee?"

She threw a hand over her face and had no words, until the thing opened its eyes. They were….

Lines, horizontal??

" THIS??" Roko laughed as she remained tightly bound by magic. "Dear gods, Johnny! You need a new professio-

"Cut the crap, lov." Sneered John to this wilderness guy in his home. "I'm trying to save your life too. Those animals would dry you up and barbecue the remains. This little... –

"Tapir." Zee sighed.

" Tapir…Is supposed to know what it –

The thing sniffed John's leg as it tapped, then stood on two.

Oh gods.

Youkai

"Well, it seems to know exactly what's in your pockets." Huffed Roko as she wriggled a bit, Zee lifted a palm to wind the knots even tighter. "Ow! It's his body too! Watch it, show gir –

"God of dreams, I seek to enter the mind of a dear companion." John came to look the creature in its silly little eyes. "Can you, will you, help us to locate a friend?"

The little guy nodded, not speaking but snorting like a cute baby piglet. It fell to four feet and walked over to the circle holding Roko against their will. (Notice the pronouns. Raku is non binary and gay. So, yep.) It sniffed the body, pulling back before tapping the floor with one foot, then the other. It sneezed but only the sand from before layered onto Roko's miserable face. "You… insect!"

The chuckle the thing gave meant John was not long to see, as Roko began to nod off, slowly. "Sand….is…so sleepy…" Roko started to finally doze as the god of dreams ended up opening its eyes again. This time, a form of a dream cloud appeared above Roko's head.

"That's our cue. Coming?"

Zee shook her head. "My job is to save you if this fails. He's cute, but still a powerful figure in myth and folklore. Be careful, John… I'll be sure to watch your bodies like a hawk."

John grinned and hopped inside the cloud as it continued to broadcast the dream while the little tapir took a nap like a dog beside Roko. They looked cute, had this not been a life-or-death mission. From the looks of that dream…

The sky was getting darker and darker.

/

Aiden saw the uniforms and shook his head, he saw how well everyone was. Compared to college life, he could never survive the pressure to be anywhere on time. Reizo was also very popular he could tell. The girls came by and even bowed and smiled at the older boy. Aiden looked for the office but he instead ended up following Reizo down the hallway to the director's front door.

There was a strange sound coming from beyond it as his hair stood up. In the corner of the wall across from them, a large hair spider was chewing the head off of a moth.

Crunch.

Aiden went for the door.

Crunch.

Reiko was pushed out of the way as the blonde flung it back forcefully.

CRUNCH.

There, at the director's seat was a balled-up web hanging from the ceiling and inside it with their head poking out, was a dark-haired young woman who looked to be in distress. Almost, unconscious as a victim of…

Reiko rushed in and looked for something to carve away the shell if threads with. "This…was not naturally caused. Someone did this?? Who??"

The woman batted her lashes as her eyes sensed while his aura radiated a familiar energy. "You…. your sister…. danger…in danger!" The woman cried out, her voice as feminine and hapless as Ageha had hoped to sound to the brothers of her two soon to be, victims.

"AMI…" Aiden looked to the exit as they dug out the teacher, her eyes still woozy from the spell she had cast unto herself to fool them. "Where are they? The first years?"

Reiko pulled out his phone. "Pick up….zak –

"AH! Iyori! You must listen. A monster is in the building. Where are you??"

~ Brother?? You shouldn't get close. You could be hurt. Why did you come!? I told you…nothing is –

"If you let this lie go any longer, I will expose us both. You must let me in, or your life is in grave danger with all of the students. We found one instructor. She is safe."

~ I…Ami is there, out in the yard and she won't stop trying to get close…you have to just –

"No!" Reizo shouted. "You are MY responsibility. Father will have us both cut from the family and you will never receive the help you need here. Please, I am trying to fend for us but this is…you cannot be such a child any longer!"

~ Brother…you don't know anything! ~

"HEY." Aiden spoke up. "Iyori, you know my sister? Right? I'm her big brother and I worry too. He may not act like he should, trust me. But he's family. You can talk to us. Don't worry." Aiden spoke in a softer tone as Iyori seemed to cool off with her brother simply steaming at the blonde's carefree ways. "Sister. Direct us to where you are now. We don't have much time left. Please."

"Send –

There was a chant through the lime as through it, a small whirling light had the two look and jump in. Reizo did it, as if this was the twentieth time today.

/

Even if Ageha in this form felt a tad weak, she could still bypass whatever magic had given her access. They came to be face to face with Haru, who was busy watching with Aya, Iyori. Ami was outside. And…she'd found trouble already.

Reizo went up to his sister as she stayed on her bed in her dorm room. Aiden looked out the window and saw Ami in combat with a very ugly centipede monster. "What??"

"Aya chan!" Haru pulled Aiden in as he hid his surprise. Ziyi tried to get over what she was seeing. As acting went, she was her own person right now. Completely natural.

"They saved you?" Aya looked over the teacher as Haru and she nodded to each other and took the teacher over to the other side of the room. Ami's bed was there as Ageha waited to gather what she needed.

"Now, we can talk freely." Iyori pointed at Aiden. "You're my kohai's brother??" She assumed with her eyes showing a less than friendly attitude. "He is, and he is also able to speak with her. He said, to you as well. Didn't you?"

Suddenly, it made sense that Reizo would be man at him. This was a family affair, and he had jumped in without permission. A very westerner thing to do.

" Gommenei!" Aiden bowed in apology. He'd learned that a few years back. "We are not friends. Your rude attitude is unwelcome. Iyori, where are the staff? The director with that face of a fox?"

"Kaz –

Aiden slapped a hand over his mouth.

"They, were taken. Students too. This…something isn't right. It feels so unrealistic. What is going to happen if we don't find them? This is all my –

"Iyori – San!" Reizo exclaimed. She seized up, seeing their father in those eyes. "I'm here to so what I can, but you have to stop and listen. Where is the last place where anyone else was seen? We saw students in the halls –

"Impossible!" Ageha as Ziyi apologized in her own way to the other male. "They were sent home hours ago and should be far from here while an attack…I was making sure to see if the staff had all gotten away." Ziyi began to feel faint as Haru caught her. "You poor woman…" Aya frowned to the window. "This is a ruse to bring about our end –

"No, to pull me out. None of it can be real. Where is this if not fake? I think it's been that way ever since my junior was eaten alive by whatever got in."

"We cannot stay here." Ziyi moved for the door as she beckoned them to follow. "I can lead you to the –

Down the hall, a great shadow clasped at her foot as part two. She was pulled with a blood curdling scream into the walls. Facing through, Aya and Aiden failed to pull her back out as they remained on their own. "No…we lost…I can't take this!! This has to end! "

"We have to go after Ami, even call Shoji –

" That dog??" Reizo sniffed. "He won't save the school. He'll just make it here when the beast has already done enough damage. We fight." Reizo went to look for a door as Iyori stayed by the others, her brother too determined to end whatever was still hunting them. Aiden though, saw as Iyori held her shoulder and walked on. She'd not told them enough, and from what Ami was like before…

She was definitely not any better at lying about how miserable she was in her new school. "I'll go, but you guys have to stay by Haru and your guardian." He looked up at Aya as the wood ninja nodded. "I agree with this person. His heart is very sure of our foe's potential to do harm. He is very supportive by his aura."

"You are hopefully on our side, so I won't say no to any aid we can receive. I'm going to be sure whoever has harmed my sibling is punished by the full extent of the law."

/

Ami and Kaede with Eiji were far too busy diverting dark spirits away from the grounds. She was watching the alligator faced goons get slaughtered as Eiji turned into a black dog and ripped them to bits. "Kaede! We have to head back to the shrine! I can unlock my mag –

~ Look out, Ami – chan! ~

Eiji flipped over and gashes into a biting insect. A wasp.

"New…."

"ENEMY." Kaede growled and let her jaws show those hidden fangs. Ami had not forgotten that Kaede was as reckless and dangerous when unkempt as Eiji. Same with Shoji, though he had more control now than before unless it were to protect others.

/

Shoji got on his suit and had to head out. His head was killing him as he got to the parking garage. The tension there was a radar. Ami was in danger as he geared up. As he got to the next floor, men in suits and dark hats boarded the elevator. Four in total, he saw they were keeping him busy and got ready to cast –

"I don't think so."

Gasping, the thugs put the dog to his knees as he was ripped from the shift to be dragged across the garage platform past his vehicle. In the way back, no one would bother them.

The hat came off as Shun's sloppy grin stared back beside a bunch of demon scum disguised as bodyguards.

"Long time, no threat! I was hopping you had not forgotten about your old punching bag. Boss…" The techie snapped his finger as the scum had one thug pull out a cell phone with an image on it from a city over.

Ami….

"We are keeping an eye on your niece. She wants to fight back, but no one wants to start trouble. We're the messengers, and…you shouldn't have to go check up after school gets out. Right?"

"Ami…what are you up to?? Wjat did they promise?? Life??" Shoji growled at Shun's smug face. "They ate your soul! You can't come back, ever! I did the same to Shoji. I now inhabit his body –

"So, who is in my body then?"

Shoji's face went blank. "You…you're not living, you're being trick –

"I'M given an actual position by someone else. Idiot." Snorted the adult zombie. "Did you think your enemy was in another world entirely? They're been under your nose the whole time! The merc was hired to attack and he got you to spill the beans, but what about their loyalty? Can my big bad boss in the shadows by yours too?"

"NEVER." Snarled the ceo. "A guardian can't be bought out like a cheap date. You are going to pay tenfold if your plans –

"You are no hero, stop talking!" Shun snipped. "If you don't reveal where the gems are that YOU created, I'm going to use that body of yours that you STOLE to go find it and…your assistant." Shun licked his lips. "She's a thing of beauty. Not human either, eh?"

"I don't know, ask that of yourself…Kokkuri – san." Shoji grinned, getting a slap in the face by white claws. "Fine! I'm using it, happy? But I will strike the girl, or. My mistress will make her one of us if you resist again…"

The silently creeping cure to his every intention was by Ami, tormenting her as she ran to the main shrine of Amaterasu's last hope. She was going to strengthen the barrier on her own, Shoji realized. That could…

He had to find a way, some way to contact help.

"Fine." Shoji grumbled his response coldly. "I'll show you where the prototypes are kept." Would he? Shoji was brought up as the only ones left in the building might have gone home soon. It was only late here, while elsewhere, there was no illusion and it was day time. Early enough to stop a goddess from breaking her vows under a rising solar eclipse.

/

Tapir, magic.

John looked around for a door but saw only sand. In fact, he saw an entire city of it. Deserted.

Not a city, he squinted again.

A…slum. Of tents, not houses. Like a dark ages trailer park, only even older, he stepped through to see what was calling him in.

"Aiden has seen this before, I take it. So, have I. It's your past, lad." Sighed the magi as he kept walking. The streets were a sad place to be as he made his way to a row of tents in the desert. People did not –

"That's all wrong…"

A groaning child had a small bit of locust remains in his hands as the last sandstorm had been unkind. His mother was in, preparing for supper while Raku had not yet mastered Grandmother Sarah's trick she'd tried to teach by her craft. It was a way to turn a dead insect into a blooming flower in the desert from its remains. All that popped out when he did it was green fluid or even sand from its interior body.

Aiden had not seen…kid Raku, had he?

The boy gasped when he saw John. Those eyes were nearly amber but surely dimmed ny magic yo keep him safe. His hair was barely tied back as it was as long as his counterpart's by far. He was short, about eleven or ten by the looks, but maybe even not. He wa a stuck staring as John made the first move to break their silence. "Ah, sorry. Just passing through."

~ Who are you? Ah, no wait…~

Sumerian. John heard aa he began to talk like the boy.

~ I'm not from this time I am afraid. Neither is this world. It is in the past. My name is John, and you must be Raku –

The boy gasped again. The bug cupped in his palms began to grow a tendril of green as the magic was there in his hands from day one. John decided to help along the process. It was a dream, but he was in a vision of the boy's past. He'd read the story a while ago to prepare for Raku's arrival. The kid was meek even as an adult. He aged slowly like an immortal so that was to be expected. ~ Sorry, I am from another time and in that time we've met.~

~I must go. You are not making sense, sir. My mother calls-

~ Wait!~

The flower was a bit strange as it erupted from the boy's hand into a giant date palm. People started to come out of their tents as Raku looked up at John. He stayed for questioning as the group led both boy and man to a tent further along the stretches of sand dunes.

/

~ He helped you to make the insect give up its life?"

She had grayed white hair and an old face like some gnarled branch. The boy was her student in herbal magic and protective spells. That made sense. Medical use would be big here in a few years' time.

~ I am called Grandmother Sarah to all that inhabit or travel to this place. This boy is my apprentice in the arts of healing. He tells me you claim to know him in another, time. You are from, the west?~

~ In a way, but not in this time. Another. A time to us that is the present, while that boy will be my student in the future. Does he know about his heritage?~

Sarah's eyes shown back with a reflective film to them. ~ Raku, my pupil. Leave us. ~

~ Grandmother-

~ Do this so, my boy. I will need time to enlighten our guest.~

He nodded, as a child he could say nothing abd meekly walked off and crawled out into the sun once more to tend to his new creation.

/

~ Your disguise is impressive. ~ Smirked the magi as Sarah sighed and let her enigmatic sternness drop. ~ How long did it take to enter our time, Constantine? ~

~ You basically had him off the leash, so I made sure to follow the lead here, I'd think. But then again…why were you so invested in bringing me to die. Lilly. ~

(In my wattpad story, Sarah was a different incarnation in disguise of an older protective goddess. In this case, John is in Raku's nightmare and because he is a demi God of manifestation and creation…. his dreams can be reality.)

~ Couldn't have fooled me any better. The myth said that 'Sarah' was a goddess, but not a demon.~

~ Books weren't written to do well to my kindred, magi.~ Lily was as voluptuous as he recalled in myth, yet John was trained to hate demons at their rotten cores. Raku was still willing to be saved.

~ How can you prove that, lov? He's a god who kept you inside his book, his heart. Didn't he? You're here, but you should be long lost to us both. ~

~ That is the thing about summoning spirits, John.~ She smiled as her eyes betrayed her words. ~ As long as his totem is the of the owl, he will never be rid of my face and form. Nor of the message that he might heed into old age. That boy has the makings and always has, if a true king Solomon. You couldn't care to see it. Your world, so messy and magic has died there for decades. If he remains mortal, you may bring about the end of his days.~

~ Let him decide if a life on a cloud is so fitting, Lily. I know what you did then, but my instincts brought me here to clear out some dusted cobwebs from his mind. Not sot and chat until my tongue falls off.~

~Ah, John. ~ She teased with a pitiful tone. ~ That child won't want you to be his teacher, if all you do is push away. Do you think he would kill you? Roko seems tempted to try –

~ She was born by YOUR finagling, strix. ~ John happen the finger as he went to rise. The sands though, were getting hungry as his legs refused to budge. ~ The best you can do? Glue me to your presence while you have nothing here but your fond memories to complete you?? Pathetic-

She lifted the sands as they buried him, the land transformed into a tidal wave as he sputtered it. It was a dream. Not teal, but it felt alive in his lungs. Burning every organ as he willed on his might to break…her.

/

She cried out as the doors appeared. John dusted himself off, a single owl feather fluttered from his shoulder and vanished. And to his right, the doors were covered in…

Cocoon webbing. Silk moth strands as John knew he was closer than ever in pulling the kid back home.

/

So, the tapir is a gate keeper that is adorable. Until it has lunch time planned. Was Lilu still alive abd is Raku really still keeping her behind closed doors in his mind??

Will Ami be safe to transform and summon the power to reset the barrier and stop any demons from getting onto the school grounds? Where is Kotori and why is Kazuya not showing up??

Is Reizo on Aiden's side?

Will Shun get what he came for. And who WAS it that hired him to create Project Daylight and hired Slade to go after the cross little project?

Find out!!