Salem pov

I was currently in a cheap inn room sitting on a bed swallowing some medicine tablets I got from the pharmacy to help with my pounding head. I was still in the same town as I didn't see myself fit to travel for a good bit.

"Damn." I moaned a bit as I clutched my head but the medicine started to kick in as the pain began to reduce a bit but I felt something off with my hand. I removed it from my head and took a good look at it and saw it was scaly green. "Tck." I sucked my teeth in a little and I felt my head pound a bit again.

I sighed a bit and took out my phone and began contacting Morrigan.

"Hello~." She answered and I heard heavy rain in the background.

"Hey Morrigan, it's me.'

"Me who~?" She teased.

"Seriously. It's me Salem?" I rolled my eyes

"Oh, hello Junior. I am impressed that Lacrima of yours managed to contact me even though I'm on another continent."

"Yeah, look I need your help on something." I skipped the small talk.

"Oh, I see~." She began to chuckle. "Look kid, I understand Kagura is a pretty girl. She's like fifteen or sixteen and you're only thirteen turning fourteen soon. I don't think you're man enough yet t…"

"Not that." I said a little deadpan.

"Oh, so what is it then?"

I then gave her a detailed explanation on what was happening with my magic, dreams, the times I just de-forming, lost magical power out of nowhere and my Quetzalcoatl form acting up.

"I see. Well junior I can guess you already know what caused this?" She asked.

"A consequence of using take-over on something stronger than me." I answered with my ears dropping a bit.

"That's right Salem I warned before that using-take over on something stronger than can have a major backlash. To make it worse that giant snake was not just out of your league but it also had some divinity."

"I thought it was only during the Take-Over process that things could go wrong not long after it." I scratched my head. "Anyway, why am I feeling the after effects now when I had this thing for months, a little close to a year now?"

"Well as you know I'm a god slayer and it's very efficient against gods or anything with divinity. That giant snake transformation of yours isn't a god but it does have some divine origins to it so during the battle I used one of my powerful spells damaging its soul so when you used your take-over magic it was recovering."

"Wait, you can screw with souls now."

"It's complicated but that's not the point. This thing's soul is regaining strength and is fighting back against you but from these dreams you've been having I can say that your other transformations or at least the stronger ones are acting like some sort of defence for you or something. And it also seems like your soul is also doing its best to also hold it in place. But it seems like it's slowly winning and soon the Quetzalcoatl will soon take over your body." She explained.

"Damn. So, what should I do?"

"Um really don't know how to help you here Salem but I heard how Taiyo has a lot of spiritual temples plus I've seen a lot of them from Lacrima movies so if it's true you can Harumi about them or something."

"Man, you can't come over here and help me out."

"Sorry junior, I can't help you. I'll be busy with some serious business for now just ask Harumi if she knows any good places which could help you. But coming from personal experience don't use your magic or at least refrain from using your heavier hitters' 'Then I heard loud yelling in the background.

"I SEE THAT THRIVING BITCH GET HER!!" I heard some man scream.

"Okay well thanks Morrigan I'll leave you to do whatever you're doing."

"Alright kid."

"Byeii~." We both said and we ended the call.

I sighed and went to the bathroom to freshen up a bit and I looked at myself in the mirror. I sometimes forget how green my eyes were. I twitched my slightly pointy ears a bit.

"Not that I think about it, am I a dark elf or this is a byproduct of my magic affecting my appearance or something." I made my ears twitch a bit as I spat out the tooth paste. Then I saw how long my hair was. It wasn't crazy long by anime standards as I was just reaching my lower neck to a bit of my upper back. "If my mom were to see this she would have sent me straight to the barber shop to shave it all off." I chuckled to myself remembering my mom.

I wondered what they were doing especially with my copy living my now old life. Did he get the computer science degree, did he get a job as the economy in Zambia was a little crazy, did he finally ask Jasmine on a date, how his mom, dad and older sister Leticia were doing. My ears dropped a bit.

I went to the bedroom and laid on my bed and took out my phone to check on the anomalies in this place. I saw the froghemoth was around the same area with seven other anomalies which I assumed was the oni-dragons base or one of their bases. Now six others were still out there but at the level most of them where I didn't think I could fight with my powers still whacked like this.

"Maybe Morrigan is right, maybe I should call Raiden to ask her if she knows some good spiritual buddha temples or something." I thought to myself than my stomach rumbled so I went out to get at least something to eat. But also find a way to gain some cash while I still had the reward money to live on.

'I wonder how much the exchange rate is though.' I thought of the little I had left from Pergende and Fiore.

A little while later

After looking for a good and somewhat cheap place to eat I had reached a ramen shop but plan to go to a bento shop I saw a few blocks away.

"Hello there young man, how may I help you today?" The chef questioned.

"Just give me some miso ramen please." I said putting the menu away but then I picked up something and a man dressed in ninja gear came out and sat down next to me. My eyes narrowed as I scanned him up and down. I wasn't wondering why he wore a ninja outfit in public as I've seen people wear much weirder.

He wore a sleeveless dark ninja outfit, a hooded cowl which was up, a mask covering his lower face and a katana strapped to his back. He kind of reminded me of Ryu Hayabusa a bit but paranoia from the last ninja's made me suspicious.

"And what will you be having sir?" The chef asked the man.

"I'll have whatever his having." He ordered and the chef left telling however was behind there to make the food. Guess he was being obvious on purpose.

We sat in silence till our meal appeared and I got to say it looked really amazing. The man took his chopstick and pulled down his mask and began eating.

"Hey can I get a fork please?" I asked as I still didn't know how to use chopsticks and the chef nodded and brought me a fork and I silently prayed and began eating and it looked good as it tasted and I gave the chef a thumbs up. We continued to eat until I broke the ice. "Okay man what is it you want?"

"Discussing it here is not the best choice. We will speak about in the forest of Shupiwe Salem."

"Are you serious my guy you just raised huge red flags from mentioning my name out of nowhere." I narrowed my eyes and tightened the grip on my fork.

"I understand you suspicion but rest assured I am not an enemy but I can understand your distrust. You can contact Harumi Raiden and state the Yūgen Kazuki of the Yūgen clan and she'll confirm it."

"Being mysterious is not helping your case my guy." I began to drink up the remaining soup of my meal with a ton of questions running through my head. I left to get away from him a bit to think it over and made it to the bento to get some good take out.

Sometime later back at the inn

"Hello?" Raiden answered her Lacrima I'm sure I did like four missed calls.

"Hey Raiden, it's me Salem.".

"Shupiwe-san, it's nice to hear from you."

"Yeah, you too anyway I wanted to ask you, does Yūgen Kazuki of the Yūgen clan ring a bell to you?

"Did he have a tattoo that radiated a strong magical presence?"

"Yep."

"I see. Kazuki-kun is a ninja of the Kitsunehara village and the clan heir of the Yūgen clan and the village leader." I raised my eyebrows a bit after that. "What does he want with me and how did he know my name?"

"Probably has something to do with those creatures. It's come to the limelight they've caused more problems than I gave them credit for and it seems like Kazuki-kun was investigating them. He contacted me some time ago about the battle in oak town and I dropped your name in the conversation." She explained. "But whatever reason he came looking for I think you should hear what he has to say Shupiwe-san. Kazuki-kun is a very honourable man and I've worked with him numerous times so you don't have to worry about him trying anything sketchy nor is he part of a dark guild."

"Alright if you say so." I scratched my head a bit but I'll still keep my guard up. "Oh, by the way do you know any temples here in Taiyo which specialise in soul cleansing or something?" I asked, remembering Morrigan's advice.

"Well, there are two great temples here in the Hokkaido region one is in the Kitsunehara village and one in the city of Sapporo which have practices of spiritual arts and nature magic but to save yourself there are good shrines which also practise spiritual not at the extent as the two great temples in Hana village which I saved and another good one in Kushiro town." She do finished

"Okay thanks."

"By the way, where is the Cerberus now?"

"It's in sin right now." Wait isn't that where Morrigan is right now.

"Hm alright please inform me if it ever comes to Taiyo."

"Yep. Well, byeii~." I cut the call and began eating my fourth bento box.

Later that day

After I was in the forest after I was done eating my six four bento boxes and drank my medicine. I realised two things: one the guy never told me where to find him and two this really has a lot of forests.

"With all these trees and vegetation around I wonder if plant or tree magic is common in this region." I wondered out loud but my ears twitched and I faintly sensed someone's magic close by. "So, are you just going to stay there or are you just waiting for a dramatic entrance?" I questioned as I tapped my foot and rubbed my head as it pounded again.

Kazuki then jumped out of the trees and then gracefully landed on his feet with his arms crossed.

"Nice landing my guy." I complimented him and clapped my hands.

"Thank you." He nodded. "And I'm impressed you actually managed to sense me and also you don't look very well."

"Don't worry, just a headache." I asked as I sat down on the grass. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Well in recent years the country has been attacked by powerful creatures most very similar to divine-yokai and oni-youkai. There were multiple sightings of these creatures and when mages for guilds, soldiers from the imperial army and ninja villages tried to take care of them. Yes a few were killed but only that a few but many died fighting just one. But those which were killed just kept coming back stronger and stronger till only a team of s-class fighters could take them on but still suffered losses and injuries."

'I guess Raiden called it.' I thought. "So where do I come in with this?"

"You see my village has fought three times and we have killed it twice but the third time we decided to capture it and study it to find ways to kill it and hopefully kill the other as well. I heard a huge battle in oak town with unspecified creatures and they were said to be defeated by Harumi-san and three other mages. I contacted Harumi-san asking her about the battle and said a boy by the name of Salem was able to permanently banish them. Then I heard there was possibly one over at the swamp and I came over to investigate but I heard from the captain that the creature was captured by the oni-dragon and he also mentioned your name." Kazuki finished his explanation.

"Okay so what, you want me to kill it then." I raised my eyebrow.

"You could say that. I really want to know how you managed to kill it."

"Sorry my man for reasons I'm the only one who can permanently kill them. So, I can't teach you the technique if that's what you want." I shook my head. 'Or give up my phone.'

"I see you're one of the secretive types." He shook his head. "How about we cut a deal?"

"Oh, what kind of deal?" I raised my eyebrow at him.

"My village will pay you a large monetary reward as you help us permanently kill these creatures."

His offer really got me thinking there must be more going on here than just typical stop monsters from destroying the country. 'Oh well their business is not mine as long as this is a win and win situation'. "Okay that sounds like a fair deal to me but I also need to ask if I can gain access to your temple, not for anything major. I just need spiritual cleansing or fixing to help out with a problem I've been having as part of my payment?"

Hm that's tough since the temple is very sacred but I can sense your soul is not in balance so if cleansing is all you need then that can be easily arranged you in the right position to travel though?"

"Sweet." I smiled and was glad he was reasonable. "So we have a deal?" I asked as I stood up

"It's a deal." He shook my hand then let go of my hand. "But are you in the right state to travel?"

"Like I said I'm fine now, lead the way big man I can keep up."

The two of us then sped off towards his village.

For a good while we hopped from tree to tree towards Kitsunehara village like we were some Naruto characters. Though I wondered how far the village was and I knew he was a ninja and all but why couldn't.

"Hey Yugen I was wondering if your hidden village leader has the title of kage and if it has a ninja clan in which the members have the ability to turn their eyes red and do all sorts of broken stuff with them?" I asked.

'No Shupiwe-san, the village head is called Nanushi and no, we have no such clan in our village.'

"Damn well that dream is gone." I sighed in disappointment. "By the way how far is your village anyway and it's cool you can call me Salem dude?" We have been Naruto trees hoping for an hour now and wondering if it would have been better if I just flew there and gave me directions.

"Alright Salem-san and don't worry, we're almost there." He informed me and I just accepted his answer.

After travelling for a little while longer I felt something different in the ethernano ahead. It felt denser and more concentrated but also pure like completely clean and pure air. As we got closer it subconsciously wrapped around my body and I felt my headache get a tad bit better.

"Damn~." I accidently let out a small moan that covered my mouth but Yugen turned my direction. "Ignore all that." I said a little embarrassed good thing he didn't seem to care that much and continued on.

After a bit we stopped by a tree by a hill and I looked down and saw his village.

The seamless blend of tradition and nature. Rows of elegant wooden buildings, adorned with curved roofs and intricate carvings, lined the cobblestone streets. Each structure stood in harmony with the blossoming trees, their petals drifting lazily in the breeze, forming a carpet of color along the paths. The air was rich with the fragrance of blossoms, mingled with the faint scent of fresh water from the streams that wound through the village.

In the distance, I noted the docks along the river, where small boats swayed gently, their occupants trading laughter and goods. The village seemed alive with quiet activity—ninja trainees sparring under the shade of trees, elders sipping tea in quiet contemplation, and artisans displaying their crafts in bustling marketplaces.

Streams crisscrossed the village, their crystal-clear waters reflecting the violet canopy above. Small wooden bridges arched gracefully over the waterways, connecting different parts of the village. Children played along the edges, their laughter blending with the murmur of flowing water.

"Wow nice place y'all got here my guy." I was complimented. I narrowed my eyes and I better thanks to my better sight.

"Thank you I'm always proud of it every time I see it from these angles as well." He nodded.

"So, any special rules I should know before I enter the village. What I should do or not do. Where and shouldn't go and touch or not?" I asked him. If this was a ninja, I don't know it was high on tradition but knowing what those are like back in Malawi and Zambia I didn't want to risk it too much.

"Well, I won't ask much from you since but I noticed that you already call me by my last name so that's alright. So please be respectful to the people, don't touch anyone without consent, don't enter sacred ground without permission, follow the law and be respectful of our traditions." He advised.

"Okay." I nodded. Calling people by their last name was something I already did sometimes due to the world of Earthland having a lot of people and places influenced by Japan or Tayio so I called people or at least most older people by their last name. But I again read the reason there was such cultural merges was due to the great movement.

We entered the village and I was just following Yugen as we walked through the village. I noticed how culturally rich it was. The last town was a little more western while Raiden was a little mix of eastern towns and Japanese or Taiyo in this case.

As I continued to follow Yugen I kept absorbing the Ethernano into my body and released a satisfied loud purr similar to a cat as we walked but I quickly covered my mouth and throat. But it was too late as I got some small attention.

"'COUGH' Excuse me" I faked coughing and put my bandana which was tied to my neck and pulled it to my mouth in a little embarrassment.

"You have nothing to be embarrassed about. I think some women found it adorable." He said in a bit of amusement.

"Man, whatever, let's just go a little faster please." I said in a little embarrassment but then suddenly three people jumped in front of us and while my hands were still in my pockets, I got my cat claws out ready for action.

The one in the front was a pretty woman with chestnut brown hair, brown eyes and wearing that kimono/kunoichi outfit which compliments her body.

"Well Kazuki-kun this little trip was faster than your usual one and who is this boy beside you?" The woman named Iroha asked.

"Well, this is Shupiwe Salem." He introduced me.

"Sup." I greeted her while throwing them a peace sign and I noticed she looked at me weirdly and I remembered my arms were still in cat mode. "Oh, sorry about that." I transformed my arms back to normal.

"Going on Salem-san is going to help us with the monsters which have been giving us trouble in the past year."

"Oh, interesting and what does the boy possess that many of our most skilled mages and fighters do not?" She asked while curiously looking at me up and down.

"A secret magic technique~." I cheekily replied and she raised her eyebrow in amusement.

"Anyway, is my father in the office right now?" He asked.

"Of course he is. I mean Nanushi-sama hasn't really left it for months now." She joked a little and Yugen chuckled a bit.

"Guess not. Let's go."

At the village head's office

Yugen, Iroha and I were in the village head's building. After Yugen spoke to the receptionist we walked over to the office. And after we were currently in the office and I was currently looking at the man behind the desk filled with a lot of paperwork.

He had short black hair, a beard, grey animalist eyes behind glasses and had bags under them clearly indicating he hadn't slept for a while, and whisker marks on his face. He wore a blue white kimono with a blue flame design on it.

"Father." Yugen bowed respect so did Iroha.

"Son, I'm glad you've returned. Please tell me you've brought some good news?" Nanushi asked hopefully while rubbing his tired eyes.

"Don't worry, the father I have is Shupiwe Salem." Yugen introduced me and I gave a small bow to him.

"Hello Nanushi sir, it's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too Shupiwe-san." He nodded at me. "So, my son, how is he going to help us?"

"Father, I got word of him from Harumi-san who was also dealing with a similar situation to us. She said he has the most experience with dealing with these kinds of abnormal creatures so I ran into him when I heard of one of them being in the swamp."

"Raiden-dono you say." He stroked his beard a little then turned to me. "Tell me, child , who can permanently deal with these creatures?" He asked me.

"Well let's just say I have a secret technique which allows me to keep them dead." I gave a vague answer. I don't know if it was the experience with the ninjas from the swamp or all the ninja movies I've watched but I was a little more paranoid about giving too much information. It didn't make any better that I sensed four more people in the room hiding. 'Must be his guards.'

Nanushi narrowed his eyes on me and I felt like he was trying to pick out my soul or something. His markings thicken and his eyes become red and more animalistic.

"Keeping secrets, I see well I can understand but if you act in any way against my village I hesitate to put you down to understand." He said sternly releasing his magic concentrating solely on putting pressure on me butI wasn't that bothered by it.

"That's fine but in exchange for my services Yugen and I agreed to some payments and since you're the boss around here I guess you have the final say on it."

"Oh, really what did you and my son agree to ?"

"Well for one it was obviously a cash reward because I'm broke as hell right now." I rubbed the back of my head and rubbed my fingers in the money with a small smile on my face. "Plus, I've been having soul troubles and I heard you guys have a pretty good spiritual temple which can help me with my soul problem which is also messing up magic a bit and I can't properly get rid of the creatures if it's not taken." I lied on the last part.

"You want access to our sacred temple?" Nanushi raised his eyebrow while looking at me up and down and I nodded. "I can sense the distortion in your soul but I have a few conditions of my own. First, we have to see you actually truly get rid of one of these creatures as my son probably informed you, we already have captured. After that we will help you with your problem, then after you help us with the rest, we will reward you with the money." He finished explaining.

"Sounds good to me." I nodded and stretched out my hand. "So do we have a deal?" Nanushi smiled and stood up and I noticed how tall he was.

"We have a deal." We then shook hands. "Excellent, now Iroha-san, go alert the force to get the creature ready."

"Hai Nanushi-sama." She nodded and left the room.

"Shipwe-san, can you give me and Kazuki-kun some privacy."

"Yeah sure." I got out of the room and just stood by the waiting hall.

I sighed in relief and was glad that the top dogs here were at least reasonable but I thought this was all a little too easy or I was just being too paranoid. I then felt my chest thump and sight got a little blurry and I saw my teeth got sharper arms turning scaly green.

'HHIISSS!' I heard the Quetzalcoatl hiss loudly in my head and I hissed in pain and my magic began to release. As I was suppressing the strong soul, I sensed multiple people around me and when I opened my eyes, I saw seven ninjas surrounding me with swords pointing at me. "Sorry about that." I chuckled dryly and raised my hands.

I turned and saw that Nanushi and Yugen had already come out of the office giving me a calculating look.

"Stand down." Nanushi told them and they listened. " So you're a Take-Over mage I see. Now I somewhat understand what your problem is." The Nanushi rubbed his beard giving me a cautious look.

"Salem-san, are you still able to get rid of the creature?" Yugen asked.

"I'll be fine a little but you please point me to the restroom to wash my face a bit." I asked and they pointed the way for me.

"Nanushi-sama Yugen, are you sure it's okay to work with that boy? The release of his magic shook the whole village and probably extended further." I heard someone lightly whisper thanks to my enhanced earning.

Hope this won't start roots which will grow to bigger problems in the village.

Sometime later

I was at a clearing in the village green away from the population along with the Yugens waiting for the anomaly to show up. Luckily the Ethernano around was helping to give me an extra kick to help control my magic. It didn't take long for Iroha to come with seven ninja dressed in black and two car sized car foxes each with three tails green in colour while behind him dragging a large cage which contained a Golshard from a world called wild hearts.

Looking at it up closely I can understand why they had so much trouble with it. Especially those porcupine earth spikes and considering it was also an s-class threat I can see why many died in the first place. But as I analysed the anomaly my attention was shifted to the foxes.

"Holy shit kitsune!" I fanboy 'ed as I saw the majestic foxes both green in colour.

"Um Salem-san you have a white dog tail coming out of you." Yugen pointed out.

"Yeah, that happens sometimes." I said looking at my wolf wagging tail. "But enough about that you guys have kitsune." I then sped past the ninja and was automatically in front of one of them.

"Th hell, how are those kids so fast?" I heard one of the ninja mumbles and I heard the others also agree.

"Wait Salem-san!" I heard Iroha call out to me.

"Wow." I awed in amazement and got a little closer to the fox and then it affection ally licked my face and rubbed it's face on mine. "You both look so cool! It's great to meet you too." I began rubbing their heads making them tail wag happily.

"Wow they actually like him, that's a surprise." I heard Iroha chuckle.

"Salem-san the creature." Nanushi cleared his throat.

"Oh right sorry." I chucked and focused on the anomaly.

It was a form and it looked like it was extremely weakened as it was in that cage. It had multiple talismans places on it and there was also one on the cage. Its condition wasn't better as it looked to have fresh wounds on it.

"Okay." I requipped my gun in my hand and concentrated my magic in it and instead of making a usual blast of magic I made a focused and condensed bullet of magic firing it in the anomaly thus killing it. It began to turn purple and I used my phone which I stashed in my inside pocket of my jersey and so the particles floated in my chest area and my phone sent it back to Morpheus. "And done."

"What did you just do?" One of the ninjas asked me.

"I take that every time y'all killed this thing it turned into purple particles and it disappears in thin air, right?" I asked while rubbing one of the kitsune's head and they all nodded. "Well, all I can say is I just used a magic spell to completely destroy it so don't worry it won't bother you anymore." I resumed them while patting and rubbing the kitsune.

"Do you really think he did it?" Iroha wondered.

"I don't know but those particles did seem to enter his body so there is a chance he did or something else happened." Yugen also questioned.

"Like I say there seems to be much more to it than he's letting on." The Nanushi commented. "But at least with his help we got rid of one of those things once and for all."

"Hey where did your friend go?" I asked the Kitsune who was just enjoying the belly rubs I was giving it as I noticed the other one seemed to have disappeared.

'Probably back to the mistress.' I heard a male voice answer me and I looked down and saw it was coming from the kitsune.

'The hell?' I questioned myself in a bit of surprise.

Elsewhere.

In a majestically designed palace, a very beautiful woman laid peacefully on a red tatami reading a book. She had pale skin, golden slit eyes, long black hair, white fox ears and nine white fox tails. She wore a beautifully tailored red and white kimono.

As she continued reading on of the foxes which helped drag the anomaly appeared in front of her and gave the some information which transpired today.

"Ara Ara~. How interesting." A saucy smiled on her face