Suzumebachi was not often happy. She could have been Seelie Queen, but the people preferred Dachu. That man was better at Cantrips, better at controlling the Dreaming, then she was. By all normal standards, he was a better Fae, and thus on the surface level much more qualified to lead their Village.
Of course, dig beyond the surface level, and he was also a man who suffered Banality at the mere mention of paperwork, who found no hope or dreams in the interplay of war and politics, and who only saw assigning missions as a ploy to find more romance and adventure in this world.
Thus, he was the worst possible candidate to be the person running the financial and political decisions of the Village Hidden in Dreams, but that was how it often went.
The Seelie and Unseelie Monarch, the Great God-on-Earth, the Tyrant, the Broodkeeper, and so on and so forth were the most important people in their respective Village in all matters except skill at one-on-one combat, so of course the test to choose them was entirely based on one-on-one combat.
Becoming one of the two Queens wasn't just a power trip to her; where other Fae saw the endless crunching of empty numbers and dull, dreary paperwork about dull, dreary political nonsense, she saw the mathematical underpinning of the universe, she saw how the simple act of writing one's signature on a piece of paper would change the world miles away. There was nothing Banal about politics or economics, but alas, her view was an abnormal one, and thanks to raw power being the basis for far too much of politics, it was those who suffered Banality from having to think about a major business deal who ended up running all of their businesses. Was it any wonder the Village Hidden in Dreams had fallen to a 'minor Village?"
And of course, even though their current leaders saw the problem and wanted to fix it, their solutions were to focus on the big, the dramatic, the exciting. It was why they let that Fuu girl with Crom Cruach himself locked inside her stay in the Village.
So, she found herself out here, going on a mission she easily got approved by a Seelie King that had no interest in the finer details, finally embracing her people's ideas and going for something big, dramatic, and exciting to make a power play. The Lia Fial fell in a rare insect sanctuary, or at least something she could easily convince others was the real deal, and thus she had what she needed to convince the others that she should be Queen.
She hadn't actually expected any real resistance in this search, so when her followers reported back that not only had a Band of Scions approached, but that two of them were of the False Kings of Tir na Nog, she was both irritated and delighted.
In spite of what some might think, she did not dismiss her peers' ideas of what constituted a proper Dream, she just appreciated the bigger picture more than they did, so the idea of a thrilling match of wits against the Gods' children was just as pleasant to her as to her followers.
--
The very small number of mortals manning the Sanctuary were willing to let them in, but absolutely refused to let Shino take any of his crows. Wild birds that moved about naturally couldn't be helped, but putting these creatures at risk like that was just too much!
While Shino wanted to put up a fight, Kurenai just let them know that they were happy to comply, subtly winking at the boy to indicate she had a plan, and then casting a spell to tie Shino and his crows' fates together so that their paths would cross within. Thus, the birds would have no difficulty finding them without the need for complex direction when the time was right.
Entering the sanctuary, Hinata was a little grossed out, almost shrieking when some cricket landed on her back, but then Shino calmly plucked it off of her, careful not to injure it, and showed it to her, emphasizing the pretty sound it made. With that in mind, she started to look at it anew, and see a beauty where there hadn't been an obvious one before. Shino cared for animals like this. In fact, she imagined that there was some alternate timeline where he commanded an army of beetles instead of crows, but that was not the one they found themselves in, so they continued on, not entirely certain what they were supposed to be looking for.
"The original stone in the World-That-Was jutted up from the ground, almost the size of a man, but when it was returned to the Cities after the Doom, it was reduced to something resembling an egg. According to the witness that started this mission, it was hatched from a crow, so, we should check for where they would make their nests."
He immediately started looking for conifers, but then realized that none of the others would realize why he was doing that.
"Crows like to build their nests at the top of trees, and they prefer conifers, or the trees with pine-needles, because they're harder for predators to find."
Nodding, all four of them moved out to look for such trees, keeping an eye out for weird rocks on the way. Fionnadh Dearg, long acquainted to the scent of crows from Kiba's association with Shino, was sent to seek out their scent.
--
Rock Lee had a near-unhealthy obsession with working out, doing so to such an extent that it would actually do more damage to his body than strengthen it if he were incapable of Stamina Knacks. Maito Gai, the one who had done so much to foster this attitude, would have been utterly confused by anyone trying to point this out to him, as it was only a continuation of his incredible (everyone else would say obsessive) work ethic.
Regardless, it turned out to be useful to them today, as not only had Lee actually been to the area immediately surrounding these mines on an absurdly long run (Tenten questioned whether it was legal to go that far from the Village without an approved mission, but everyone ignored her as always), but was aware of a curry shop in the general area that could supply them with room and board.
"Excellent job, Lee! The fruits of hard work are plentiful and grow in the most unexpected places!"
"That is so wise Guide Gai! You are truly a philosopher for the ages!"
Tenten, in spite of herself, still managed to look aghast at their strange behavior. Neji had somehow gotten used to it and was focusing on how they could strategize.
"Would the people working at this curry shop know anything about the mines? Maybe we could use their intel."
"I do not know," Lee responded, "but they could definitely aid us with their wonderful curry! It's blend of spices will rejuvenate and uplift us, as they did me the last time I was there!"
"That is wonderful, but I hate spicy food," Neji replied through the gritted teeth of very thin patience. "I suppose we'll have to get there before we see what they actually have for us."
"Yes, let's run there at full pace!" Rock Lee immediately jumped up and started running in the general direction of the shop. He hadn't even bothered to go home and get supplied up.
"Yes, lets!" Gai shouted, enthusiastic about his student's, well, enthusiasm. He also started running.
"Guys, we can walk…or rent a cart…" Tenten barely managed to whine, although they were both already out of earshot.
"Why do you bother trying to talk reason into them?" Neji asked her.
"Well…Gai does say we should never give up, no matter how hopeless it is."
Neji sighed.
--
When Shikamaru next saw Ino, she immediately moved to embrace him, hugging him with tears running down her face. She then proceeded to slap him. Women, he thought.
"Where were you? We'd, well, we'd thought you died!"
"So did I," he responded nonchalantly. "Then I woke up in a dilapidated hovel with some weird girl who claimed to have saved me from drowning. It was all really a drag."
"See, I told you guys that he'd make it," Choji interjected, though his facial expression indicated that he'd been holding back tears for a while now. The two of them had known each other for most of their respective lives, so it was to be expected. Asuma looked even more relieved.
"Well, you guys handled your first real crisis with diligence, bravery, and clear heads. And," double-checking Shikamaru, "none of you were lost to us today. I think you should all be proud of yourselves, but we still do have a mission to complete. Shikamaru, what can you tell us about this strange girl?"
Recounting his adventures, and telling him in particular about her weird bandages, Choji informed them all that that matched up perfectly with the legends that he'd heard.
"They say there's an island that only appears at certain times, and that people vanish there. Then one day, a girl vanished, but came back, covered in bandages. At first, the people were thrilled to have her back, but then more disappearances occurred until they learned that the girl survived whatever was on the island by betraying them. She came back because she made a deal with the creature responsible; she would bring back more victims than it itself could procure, and in turn she specifically would live. So, they ran her out, but she remains in the wilderness somewhere, looking for revenge." Once he was done, he shrugged. "I figure it was just a local superstition."
"True or not, it's a lead worth looking into," Asuma noted. "Shikamaru, where was this hovel?"
--
They found the home, if it could be called that, in the same general state of disrepair that Shikamaru had left it in. There was no one there, nor was there anything to find. Choji looked at the leftovers of what apparently counted for her food in despair. "What could reduce her to eating so little?" He cried.
"A group of ignorant villagers quick to jump at the the first accusation could," a bitter feminine voice sounded from behind them. "Why are you back here?" She glared at Shikamaru.
"Because we need to find out what's happening to those ships," he responded.
"Oh, and you heard the legends, and just assumed that the freaky girl must be behind it, because of course she was, so…"
"You knew about the ship sinking, and who survived it, in spite of never going to town or learning what happens there," Shikamaru interrupted her rant. This stopped her.
She looked to the four, sizing them up, and, quickly coming to the conclusion that she didn't stand a chance against the four of them, merely said, "fine, I'm the monster everyone says I am. Yeah, I sunk those ships. Why? Well, I guess I'm just evil," and she ran to the shore before they could react.
Asuma was certain that he was faster than her, but when Shikamaru asked "if you're such a monster, then why did you save me?" he decided to let her go and lead them to where they needed to be instead. "Shikamaru, can you get a totem of hers here?"
"Easily," the boy responded, already seeing what his Guide was getting at.
Grabbing the material, he set himself into the traditional meditative pose while shouting "Cheval Purview: Rada's Eyes." His vision was replaced with that of an underwater setting, making him note that her eyes were great in this environment, presumably related to whatever 'enhancement' she had. Following how she weaved in and out of the natural rock formations that he knew he'd have to make careful note of, she eventually came to an island surrounded by mist. Surfacing, she simply gazed around the general area, seeming to stare at the more notable landmarks before heading to what would otherwise be well-concealed entrance.
She, apparently, knew how to rearrange the vines so that they exposed a doorway, one that looked too technological to be the domain of some ancient evil. Speculating on it, it was a little odd how much she was looking at that would be useful in finding her later, almost as if she knew what Shikamaru could do and was purposefully baiting them.
When she sat down and stared at a wall long enough for him to suspect that he wouldn't get anything else useful for quite a bit, he returned his vision back to his own body and relayed what he had seen.
--
The rare insect sanctuary was actually a pretty interesting place. The mixture of chirps and buzzes, the bizarre wing patterns flitting about, the various parts of plants that turned out to be camouflaged phasmids, it was in fact turning out to be the kind of place that might have been a nice vacation spot, even if none of them would have thought that beforehand. What it was not was a good spot for finding a specific rock, nor a bird's nest.
While they knew that there was some form of barrier that stopped an excessive amount of predators from getting in, they also knew that it let quite a few through anyway (predation was a natural part of these creature's lives, after all), and thus there should be something around here, but all they found were insects, arachnids, myriapods, and more insects.
Between Hinata's Awareness Arete, Kiba's Animal Aspect giving him a dog's sense of smell, Fionnadh Dearg's natural dog's sense of smell, and both Shino and Kurenai being generally competent, some sign should have established itself by now, but there was…nothing.
--
The Chimeric Bee landed on the Fae's shoulder and whispered what it had learned. "The false Tuatha and the other Scions with them haven't found it yet, but they seem to have a better idea of what they're doing than we do."
"We should follow them," another responded, "and snatch it from them when found. A proper trap shouldn't be too hard to unleash."
--
It was Shino, entirely by accident, after he tripped and fell in a moment that he was glad no one else saw, that first noticed the crow's nest.
Taking the time to climb the tree and see if it actually had what they were looking for before finding his bandmates and wasting their time, he was glad to find a stone egg, the very one he had been searching for. It was, unfortunately, being guarded by a particularly angry mother crow, but that was little problem for him. "Animal (Crow) Purview: Animal Communication" he whispered, and then said, "may I take that rock?"
"My chick!" It screamed, "my chick! No take!"
"It's a rock, not a chick," Shino patiently responded. "Wrong color, wrong strength. Check it out."
He had to say that a few more times to find the proper wording, but it eventually pecked at the stone in question and then proceeded to reject it, hmphing in disgust. Relieved, Shino reached for the stone.
--
Seeing that the False Tuatha had, in fact, found the Lia Fail, one muttered "Chicanery Cantrip: Fuddle" weaving his Glamour as appropriate, while the other gathered his Glamour together.
--
Shino, climbing down the tree, reached for a branch that turned out to not be there. As a conifer, it already wasn't prone to supporting a human body, and had required Dexterity Knacks (something he had only recently put effort into learning, and not particularly skilled with) to climb at all, so now he found himself tumbling even as he pondered how the hell that illusory branch got there.
Smacking into the ground, dazed and hurt (seriously, crows were prone to building their nests way too high), he technically got his answer as two men wearing headbands with a stained-glass image of fairy etched onto them crouched over him. Fae, he thought, with some trepidation.
His Clan and the Fae had a weird feud going on over some long debate about where in the Overworld the True Fae really came from, and where the Tuatha da Danaan fit into their cosmology, so he didn't put much hope into the idea that they were here for friendly purposes.
"Kryos Cantrip: Crystal Prison," one of them exclaimed, solidifying his fears. It also solidified whatever water was in the air into a crystal of ice surrounding him, freezing him solid. Weirdly, it didn't seem to be killing him, just making him uncomfortably cold and unable to move. It even left a breathing hole.
--
"What's with the hole," one of them asked.
I don't like killing," the other responded, "and we really don't have to here, even if he is a False King."
His companion shrugged. "If Suzumebachi gets mad, you'll deal with her."
Grabbing the egg-shaped rock, they went on their way before thinking, "but getting in touch with his companions would be a hindrance to our mission. If we really don't want to kill him, then let's bring him with us." The frozen kid was heavy, but they didn't have much other choice.
--
Kiba was wondering when he would find a sign of anything interesting or worthwhile, anything at all, when a glowing blue flame appeared before him. While not always being the brightest of students, he wasn't stupid, and recognized a Will-o'-the-Wisp when he saw one.
Therefore, he promptly turned in the opposite direction, and was immediately assaulted by mutant bees. They were larger than any bees had the right to be, and far more dangerous. Both he and Fionnadh Dearg were incapacitated in an embarrassingly short period of time, and the bees spun a prison of honey around him.
--
"Hmmm, this has proven rather simple," Suzumebachi thought. It clearly wasn't a high-ranking Scion, probably someone sent to check on the Lia Fail rumors and, like her, assumed that there'd be no real resistance. That's one down. Three to go.
Not knowing that her followers had already taken one out, she grabbed the honey prison, murmured "Wayfare Cantrip: Flicker Flash," and appeared in her hideout. As a Chimerical creation, the prison she had created for the boy wouldn't last long, so she placed him over a crevice that led into an underground river that itself would flow into a much larger river. Thus, whenever he inevitably got out of it, he'd find himself stuck getting out of said crevice and too distracted to immediately get out of it. He'd probably live. Either way, his death wouldn't cause an incident.
While Mission Rights and what actually counted as conflict between Villages could get messy, she knew that directly slicing his throat while incapacitated was a frustrating gray area while getting him caught in a trap that he couldn't get out of was within the expected dangers of going on a mission. Thus, she left him like that and searched for the other Scions.
--
I really hate spicy food, thought Neji. Rock Lee's curry shop existed right where he said it would. The curry he advertised to them turned out to be…well, Lee wasn't wrong about it leaving an impression. It was just that that impression happened to be wondering if he had discovered a new power of the Fire Purview by the shop's cook using on his mouth.
Tenten had the same reaction. At least, that was what he could tell from the facial expressions she was trying to hide from the shopkeeper. Gai and Rock Lee…were scarfing up the curry like a starving man given the most delicious cut of meat possible.
"Once again, I must commend you, ma'am, on a most excellent meal! However, the last time I was here it was your grandson that prepared this most heavenly of dishes, was it not?"
The woman's face immediately drooped. "That boy…has had some problems since you were last here. Arguing with me about his future, wondering if this is all there is to life, that sort of youthful arrogance. He ran off and joined up with some group of hooligans, and I really don't know where he is."
"That is most unfortunate!" Lee screamed. "For someone with such skills in the kitchen to abandon a noble calling to join with low-lives! It is unforgivable!"
Gai, though seeming to agree with the boy, put a hand on his shoulder. "Lee, many of us make unfortunate decisions at this age, and all we can do is provide them with advice and hope they take it. As a mortal, this boy must forge his own path, and there is little we can do for him now."
Lee had tears running down his face. "You are so wise, Guide Gai. I hope that, if I ever succumb to the need to make foolish decisions in my youthful arrogance, that I find the wisdom to heed your advice!" The two embraced.
"As if that'll ever be a problem," Tenten muttered, trying to ignore the sunset scene materialized by Gai's rainbow scarf.
While Neji could empathize with the boy on some level, not wanting to embrace an uncomfortable fate, he ultimately couldn't condone such actions, as Fate led men (and women, as Tenten would annoyingly remind him if he said it out loud) where it would. Fighting it was foolish. The itch of his 'Romane' brand, even concealed under his headband, reminded him of that well enough.
Regardless, the boy's fate wasn't immediately relevant to their mission, and thus he took it upon himself to ask the shopkeeper if she knew anything that was.
"Have you heard anything about the nearby mines?" He asked.
"Oh, dear, it's terrible. Many of the miners used to come here after work for meals, but ever since that new owner showed up the whole place has closed up. No one goes in except those thuggish men in the weird clothes, and no one comes out unless they're in a coffin."
"Tell us more about those 'weird clothes,'" Gai interjected in one of those rare moments that reminded Neji that he actually was a competent Upper Demigod on the verge of Minor Godhood.
"They would be robes, but they're all cut up, and they have this sickly bird on their backs."
That seemed to terrify Gai for reasons none of the three Heroes could explain, but he merely asked, "could you try to draw this bird?"
She briefly looked about for some paper until Rock Lee pulled some out of somewhere in his spandex (Neji and Tenten had long ceased to wonder where). Not long after, a series of sticks with enough lines sticking out of the ends that one could barely make out the image of a bird's wings and feet was etched in pencil.
"The House of Slayers. Well, my wonderful students, unless the Village Hidden in Torments has seen fit to invade the Land of Heroes, it seems we find ourselves dealing with a Rogue Demon." His normal machismo was somewhat deflated. Neji stared at him.
"Something is wrong, and it would be better if you told us."
"A Rogue from the House of Slayers, and what we've heard about odd funerals," Gai said, clearly uncomfortable, "we might be dealing with Raiga, former holder of one of the Earthbound Swords."
Looking at their blank faces, he showed no impatience when he continued, "and not one to willingly send a group of Heroes against. We will investigate further, of course, but though it pains me to say it, if we find out that it really is Raiga then I might have to order you three back so a group of Demigods can be sent out here." None of them were happy about this declaration, but none objected either.
--
Climbing the mountain wasn't overly difficult. It was a little painful knowing that the pathway through this mountainous terrain to the mines they wanted to find was right there, but they had no interest in running into these bandits without the element of surprise.
So, they climbed outcropping after outcropping until they could peer into a valley where they saw miners working in, well, a mine. It didn't actually seem to be that different from a regular mine until a group of men spread out from a nearby building and pointed to one of the laborers, an older looking man who seemed to be working more slowly than the others.
The four moved in as close as they could without getting caught. Those men, who they could now see were wearing the symbol the old woman described, brought the miner before a small house. Another man, this one with a strange face that was disturbing to look upon in a way that none of them could describe, walked out and smiled at the miner.
"Ebisu, we've been such good friends. Why were you short on the quota? Why are you betraying me?"
"It's nothing intentional, it's just, my back's not so good, so…"
"Shhh," the strange man replied. Then, he started to cry of all things before placing two hands on Ebisu's shoulders. "Ebisu was a loyal worker and a good friend. He was always kind to others, and ready to help."
The man reacted to the bizarrely kind words by freaking out, but one of the men with bird symbol on their backs smacked him into silence. "We gather today to remember, not who he was in the end, but who he was in his best days, when his smile brightened up the scene and made us all happy to be here. I ask that you all cease work for today, and bow your heads in respect as we attend his funeral."
Ebisu went back to screaming his head off, which the men didn't even bother to stop as they brought a coffin over and tossed him inside. While most just stood silently at the spectacle, the strange man brought a tissue out of his pockets to dab at his eyes.
"People are so cruel. The living world is one of unkindness and pain. But funerals are different. Funerals are where we see our loved ones and all of their pleasant memories come together. People are never better than they are at a funeral. So, come, mourn, and remember Ebisu together!"
The three Heroes stared at one another, thoroughly disturbed. Gai, on the other hand, was examining the condition of the miners and assessing what wealth he thought they could procure to pay for Scions' services. While the mine as a whole could easily produce enough, with how badly they were being robbed it would be a while before they could actually afford the Demigods that would be needed here…yes, the best option would be to try to take care of it himself before the Great God-on-Earth could order otherwise.
Unfortunately, that meant risking his students, the only actual moral compunction he felt about indirectly disobeying orders.
"Guide Gai," Rock Lee interrupted the Demigod's thoughts, pointing out a younger member of Raiga's gang, "that's the shopkeeper's grandson." A complication…or an opportunity?
--
Once the funeral was done with, Karashi was once again stuck wondering what to do. With quite a few of the men under Raiga's command, he had wandered off to a side area a distance from the workers and the men overseeing them, just trying to keep out of the way. He wasn't a real Thrall yet, and thus didn't get any of the powers, and the men with him weren't exactly the best of company. They would train when it suited them, but for the most part he had found this group of bandits to not be what he was expecting.
Ever since that day, when that Scion collapsed from exhaustion outside their shop, he had been impressed with the boy's strength and endurance. It was so far above what Karashi himself could ever be capable of.
The Scion, however, would hear none of it, and thus taught him to never give up, to keep seeking to become stronger, and then one day he too would be powerful. That stuck with him.
Karashi, seeking to follow that kid's advice, sought out power wherever he could find it, and when a Rogue Demon set up shop in the nearby mines, well, then, that was when he was ready to take his opportunity. Somehow, he didn't feel stronger in spite of all that. Rock Lee, what am I doing wrong? He had not meant it as a serious prayer, but it was immediately answered anyway when the figure of his inspiration appeared in front of him.
"Karashi, what are you doing here, with these lowlives? Why are you not making your most excellent curry?"
--
Tenten had to slap her hand to her forehead when Rock Lee chose to converse with their target in front of several gang-members, but it was done quickly enough that she could draw her replica of Houyi's bow and send arrows through three of them before they could properly react.
"Hey, I think we're under attack," one of them cried out, though thankfully not loud enough that anyone could hear it.
"War Purview: Warrior Ideal" Neji proclaimed before drawing his Pilum from a bag that should have been too small to store it and leaping before the group of bandits, taking the stance of a Roman Legionnaire in full fury. None of them knew what a Roman Legionnaire was (nor did Tenten actually, outside of Neji's idealization), but the effect of the Purview meant that they were terrified, losing their nerve and striking at him only nervously and haphazardly.
Grinning, he stated "Marksmanship Arete, Melee Arete," before throwing the pilum and felling the man before him, grabbing it from his corpse and using it as a spear against the completely outmatched bandits surrounding him.
Rock Lee was still trying to talk with the one he apparently knew, letting his Dexterity Knacks do the dodging for him when one of the gang-members swung a club his way and not breaking his attention from the boy when he grabbed the gang-member and threw him three times as far as his musculature should allow.
It was not a significantly long time before all of the bandits in this little alcove, bar the one Lee was insistent on communicating with, were on the ground either dead or unconscious. One, who had seemed incapacitated enough that they were going to let him live, shouted at the air to 'let them know,' so Neji rammed his pilum through the man and finished him off.
Lee looked like he didn't approve of such brutality, but said nothing. Tenten, looking at the men who were dead because of them, fought off her queasiness. It wasn't the first time she had killed, but it was the second, and she somewhat hoped that she never experienced the callousness that Neji seemed to experience when he took a life, so as useful as it would be to experience desensitization, she instead let the guilt and disgust wash over her and then turned back to what was important.
"Karashi, answer me. What are you doing with these men?"
Gai was not comfortable with how quickly Neji embraced killing as a solution, but he was proud of how his students took care of things without him. To be clear, he expected them to kill here (while he would have gone for incapacitation, he knew that that was actually harder than killing, at least when the enemies were a lot of mortals, and couldn't expect his students to handicap themselves that way in a real fight at their level), but he disliked how that seemed to be the Dodekatheon's first choice. The kid didn't show signs of enjoying it, which would be an immediate concern, but he worried.
Still, that was, unfortunately, a matter best left for another day and thus he leapt down and congratulated them on their work, but then let them know that they might not have much time.
The House of Slayers knew Evocations that would allow them to speak with ghosts, and if that last man was a Thrall he might very well know the same Evocation, as it was apparently weak enough. So, they had to move.
"Come on, Karashi," Lee told the last standing gang-member. "Return to your grandmother's shop with us."
"No, I came to here to be strong, like you! I won't be weak again!"
Rock Lee and Gai both stared at him in shock. Tenten and Neji both looked in dismay, but said nothing.
"You think that working with these men is strength? You think that helping to hurt these people makes you powerful? Where could you possibly have gotten that idea?"
"Well, because they're strong, and tough, and…" he looked around at all the 'strong and tough' people who'd just been felled effortlessly. "I can't go back to just being a curry chef."
--
Poor child, unable to accept your fate, Neji thought. Consciously, he sneered at the boy's foolishness. On a very deep level, there was some degree of understanding, but it was a level so deep that he wouldn't deign to acknowledge it.
What he would deign to acknowledge was that they were wasting time in spite of Guide Gai's perfectly reasonable warning; obviously the boy wasn't an immediate threat, just an idiot, and didn't deserve to die, but if so they should knock him out and get out of there before…
"My good friends, you have died, and to strangers," it was the madman from earlier himself who showed up. "I will ensure you all get funerals," turning to the group of Scions, "as for you, however, I'm not sure you deserve any."
Neji didn't even notice Gai moved. The first punch should have shattered bone, or would have if delivered to a mortal.
"Lore of Realms: Ghostwalk" Raiga managed to get out before Gai's second connected. Walking through Gai, Raiga then turned around and placed a hand on their Guide's shoulders. "Lore of Death: Extinguish Life."
Neji noticed that the Demon returned to physical form in order to do this, and tried to point this out to Tenten as quickly as he could. Nodding, and getting over her shock at the situation strung up an arrow and shot at the Demon, which seemed to annoy him as he turned away from their Guide.
--
Maito Gai knew full well that that particular Evocation normally had little to no effects on someone as versed in Stamina Knacks as he was, and that if he hadn't been so versed he would have just died right then and there.
As it was, an icy sense of his impending end still reverberated through his muscles. That shouldn't have happened, he thought, even taking into account Raiga's skill and strength. I should have been fast enough to avoid that, even with his abilities.
Regardless, the Demon was now heading straight for his students, and he could not let that happen. Would he manage this through sheer determination…or, could he use his wits?
There was a nearby cavern, presumably an older part of the mine, sustained entirely by machinery. As a Yankee Scion, his unique Purview of Industry dealt with hard work and innovation as a concept, but it also dealt with machinery in a more mundane sense.
"You are all creatures that could be a threat to me, and there is no need to drag this out," Raiga proclaimed. "Namtar, the Visage of Death."
Raiga's skin turned to alabaster, dark mist surrounded him, shadows covered his face. Nearby plants, as few as there were in this rocky terrain, started to wilt and die, and Gai could tell that all of those in the area could feel the same icy grip that was just soaked into his veins.
Yeah, it's time to do this now, Gai thought.
"Hey, I'm your strongest opponent here. Instead of picking off those mere children, why don't you come experience the magnificence of youth. I swear on my honor that facing me will be to your advantage, and a Scion's honor is too important to lie about," he proclaimed, crossing his heart.
Manipulation Knacks were his weakest of the nine, but one didn't become the Master of Knacks by half-assing even one's worst skills. Whether it worked, or if Raiga was just prone to seeing Gai as the biggest threat anyway, the creature rushed him in an odd zigzagging motion. Gai ran for the cavern from earlier.
Once in the area, Raiga blended in with the shadows beyond what was naturally possible, practically becoming invisible. Luckily, Gai didn't need to see him for his plan to work.
"Industry Purview: Gremlins," he shouted, sending forth 'spirits' of Ichor into the scaffolding. Soon, wires broke, bits of metal snapped, and the machinery keeping this unstable cavern from collapsing collapsed. The cavern itself was not far to follow. Raiga, for whatever reason, still tried to strike at Gai, but the Demigod kicked him back into the collapsing cavern as he himself backflipped out of there.
--
Something didn't sit right with any of them as they returned to the curry shop, Karashi in tow. Cleaning up Raiga's mortal servants hadn't been too difficult; many surrendered when their boss was defeated. The miners seemed happy. Karashi's grandmother seemed happy even as she scolded her grandson for his stupidity. So why did they feel like this wasn't over?
--
Terms:
Fae-when a child makes a wish that a True Fae hears, their souls can be partially replaced by that of a Fae
Banality-that which is too boring, or hopeless, can be genuinely destructive to a Fae
Seelie Monarch-one of the two leaders of the Village Hidden in Dreams, the leader of 'order'
False Kings-Fae history mentions the Tuatha da Danaan as the greatest of their kind, and refuses to recognize the Gods as the actual Tuatha da Danaan, a long-standing source of disdain
Glamour-energy created by human imagination snd wonder that Fae can pull on to bring about supernatural effects
Chimerical Creatures-creatures from human dreams brought into the real world by abnormally powerful Fae
Yankee-beings resembling figures from American folklore that are recognized as Gods, with the same Scion-bearing ability as others
Techniques:
Cheval Purview: Rada's Eyes-allows the User to see through the eyes of another if they have a totem, cannot use their own senses while doing so
Magic Purview: Shared Road to Destiny-ensures that unconscious decisions and coincidences will lead two targets to one another in the future
Animal (X): Animal Communication-exactly what it sounds like
Chicanery Cantrip: Fuddle-create a simple false image or minor source of confusion for a target
Kryos Cantrip: Crystal Prison-encases the target in ice, not designed to kill, but can in the hands of a careless user
Wayfare Cantrip: Flicker Flash-effectively allows the user to teleport
War Purview: Warrior Ideal-makes the user strike the image of a powerful and dangerous foe in his enemy's eyes, screwing up their morale
Lore of Realms: Ghostwalk-allows the user to exist in the Middle World and Underworld at the same time, becoming intangible to both
Lore of Death: Extinguish Life-kills a weak target and drains energy from a strong target that the user is touching
Industry Purview: Gremlins-causes nearby machinery to go haywire