Taniwha / Leviathan (Interlude II)

Sakura looks around in worry as her brother goes to Kyushu and fights the big monster. Sister Yasaka says to her that they will fight a sea monster with the other. She also says that they cannot come to them because it will be dangerous for them. She is a little bit angry with her brother for leaving her behind, but she also knows that if she comes with her big brother, then she will be injured, thus making her big brother sad and upset. She doesn't want to make her brother sad and angry, so Sakura decides to stay in Kunou's home.

While staying inside the palace, Sakura and Kunou decide to train with the help of their magical stick. Sakura can see Sapphire struggling to teach Kunou magecraft, but she knows that Kunou will learn how to use magecraft in the end because Kunou is her sister after all.

On the other hand, Sakura looks at the rune stone in front of her. The stone is the one that her big brother gave her to study and try to recreate. Her brother already teaches her how to engrave the Rune on the stone, but she still needs to learn to control her prana that she needs to give to the stone. Unlike Kunou, Sakura learned how to use magecraft alone as Ruby decided to look around the palace and try to gather some data for her creator, Grandpa Zelretch.

While engraving some rune on the stone, Sakura looks at Kunou, who suddenly freezes and looks at the door with a worried expression. After a few seconds Kunou released a relief breath.

"Kunou. Is there something wrong?"

"There someone decided to attack the palace, but don't worry, Nurarihyon already takes care of it."

"Are you sure?"

"En"

"Okay"

Deciding to trust Kunou, Sakura continues her study on Rune. Ten minutes later, Ruby came to her while shouting.

"Sakura-san! Sakura-san! An enemy is coming near the palace!"

"What?!?"

"Yes, there is a weird glowy woman and this weird looking man standing outside the palace. The woman is preparing something as her hand shines, and I can feel a large amount of mana get absorbed by the woman."

"Is it true, Kunou?"

Sakura looks at Kunou, who closes her eyes and looks like she is concentrating on something before she opens her eyes in horror.

"Yes, Ruby is telling the truth."

"What should we do? Is Nurarihyon Oji-san finished fighting the other people?"

"No… We should tell the other about this"

Kunou suddenly gets up and walks to the door where she knows there is a guard standing. Sakura follows Kunou to the door and sees her talking to the guard who has a shocked expression before running away from their post, leaving his partner behind. Sakura looks at Kunou in worry as she doesn't know what to do in this situation. Seeing Kunou walk to the throne room once again, Sakura decides to swallow her nervousness and follow Kunou's example.

They continue to sit down on the floor while occasionally eating some snacks her brother made for them. For another fifteen minutes, they sit down in silence before suddenly an explosion happening from the outside of the palace. Sakura can feel the bounded field around the castle has been destroyed by a brute force as she can feel the mana around the place become fluctuated.

"They are here."

"Who?"

"Bad guy. They bring many sorts of the golem to distract the Karasu Tengu corps while the woman blasts the barrier with a concentrated light attack."

"What should we do?"

"We fight."

"But…"

Sakura hesitates because, by the end of the day, she is just a child. Her entire life Sakura is always the one who is saved by the other. She still remembers her uncle Kariya promising her that she will save her. She remembers the day her brother saved her from the creepy old man. She doesn't know what to do. What if she messed something up? Her brother fights the sea monster far away from her, so who will save her if she messes up? What if she fights but only to become a burden to Kunou? What if…

Sakura snaps from her depression, though, when she feels someone slap her in the face. She looks up and sees Ruby floating above her, and she can feel that Ruby is angry at her.

"Why are you thinking something like that? If you messed up, then you should stand tall and fixed it! Your brother will not always come and rescue you, Sakura-san! Why do you think your brother trains you non-stop for a week? It is to help you to stand on your own feet! You don't need to be rescued like your past. This Sakura is not the same as the past Sakura! This Sakura is a strong girl who wants to make her Oni-chan proud. So stand up, and let's kick the bad guy butt!"

Sakura looked at Ruby with a shocked expression before it was replaced with determination.

"Fou Fou Kyuuu Fou"

"Shaaaa Shhhhhh Shhaaaaaa"

"Thank you, Fou-kun, Lilith-chan. You guys are right."

She doesn't know how Ruby knows what she was thinking, but she can ask Ruby about it at the other time. She looks at Kunou before nodding at each other and taking out a card from their card holster.

"Ruby"

"Sapphire"

"Roger~."

"Yes, Kunou-sama"

When the Kaleidostick appears in front of them, Sakura and Kunou cloth begin to change into their Magical Girl Costume. They then place the card on their Kaleidostick.

"Install Saber: Arthur Pendragon"

"Install Lancer: Leonidas I"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blasto looks at the barrier, getting destroyed by a Purity attack. He looked at his minion, who was holding the incoming Youkai and a few Exorcists. At first, Blasto and his team hesitate to accept the job attacking Kyoto palace, but after their client says that Taniwha is attacking Kyoto, they decide to take the job. However, there is one thing that makes him uncomfortable, the presence of Hookwolf. Hookwolf is well known for his violent tendency and never obeys any orders given to him by anyone except one person, Kaiser.

Blasto snaps from his though, when he sees Purity blast another Karasu Tengu away from her path. Their main goal attacking the palace is to plant some sort of parasite inside the Leyline of Kyoto to weaken the Youkai rising power. The secondary task they need to do is to kidnap the princess of the Youkai faction, Kunou. Usually, they don't accept a job involving a kidnapping, especially a child, but seeing the reward their client offers, they decide to take it.

Blasto sees his teammate defeat the small army of Karasu Tengu and exorcist. He also sees his creation tear through the incoming enemy with ease. He brings with him around 150 minions that he creates using his power. While they can't think for themself, it was compensated with physical strength and endurance.

He suddenly looks up to the castle as he feels a sudden spike of mana coming from the palace. However, Blasto decided to ignore it and continue to fight the palace guard.

He doesn't know that the palace guard can use some weird magic without using incantation but rather a hand movement. They know how to handle Youkai using Senjutsu, Youjutsu, and Touki, but the palace guard using this new form of magic. Senjutsu usually gets used as the magic of devil and light of angel, very destructive but cost a tremendous amount of energy. Youjutsu is the opposite of Senjutsu, it doesn't have the destructive power of Senjutsu, but it can be used many times. While Touki only boosts the physical traits of the user.

Their team knows how to handle the other three as they already fight some strong Youkai like Nurarihyon in the past, but this new magic is very different from the other. This new magic is like a combination of the other three. They can use destructive spells multiple times while also using something like an illusion at the same time, making fighting the palace guard rather annoying.

*Boom*

Blasto looks to the side and sees his minion get thrown away by someone. When the dust disappears, he can see the one attacking his minion. It was a little girl wearing a golden cuirass as her armor, and she was also wearing a Corinthian helmet with bright red horse hair on top of the helmet. The little girl also held a spear on her right hand and a golden shield on her left hand. Blasto knows the identity of the little girl in front of him, Kunou, the princess of Youkai.

*Splurt*

He looks to his other side and sees another girl wearing a knight armor with silver color. While under the armor, she wears a blue tunic. She has short black-brown hair and teal eyes. The girl currently cut his minion in half with impressive grace.

"Minions 20 to 30 change your focus. Attack the little girl with a sword."

Hearing his command, ten of his minions who supported another minion in taking down a group of Karasu Tengu begin to charge at the little girl. When his minion arrives near the sword-girl and ready to attack, Kunou appears near the sword-girl and thrust her spear at the golem right in the heart of his golem, killing it instantly. However, his other golem, who also appears near the sword-girl, tries to attack her, but before the attack could touch her, his golem gets sliced in half.

When Blasto is about to order all his golem to focus on the little girl, a beam of light past him, he knew that it was a Purity attack. He sees the beam fly toward the duo, but it gets blocked by the Kunou shield.

Blasto then sees the sword-girl, who finally kills all the golem that is coming at her, begins to appear in front of the people that get injured, and draws a rune in the air before saying.

"Uruz"

When the Rune is activated, he can see the people that are injured getting healed at a fast rate. He mentally orders all his golem to attack the little girl who is treating the wounded. Seeing the incoming golem, the sword-girl makes another rune in the air.

"Anzus, Sowilo"

"Thurisaz, Isa"

Suddenly the ground under his golem became ice and slowly froze his minion. A second later, a fireball launched itself at his golem, making a big explosion. When he is about to summon his bigger minion, Purity comes near him and says.

"We need to retreat."

"What?!? Why?!?"

"Grumman says that they can't hold Nurarihyon and his man any longer. Nurarihyon tries to go back to the palace."

"Tch"

"Summon the destroyer to be our decoy. Our client says that we will get the minimum reward if we can destroy some of the palaces."

"Tch, You will pay for my minion."

"Very well."

"... You only want to get away, don't you? You don't like this mission to begin with."

"..."

"Ceh"

Blasto then creates a massive magic circle, and suddenly, an enormous golem appears from the magic circle.

"Go prepare your attack while the destroyer distract the other"

"Very well."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yoshida looks at their princess walk in front of them after rescuing all of them from the golem that is attacking the palace. While he felt ashamed by his performance as the palace guard, he was also grateful for Princess Kunou coming to his rescue. He sees princess Kunou and her friend Lady Sakura, sister to Sasaki Kojiro, fighting the enemy with surprising teamwork.

They continue to kill the golem one by one while watching each other back from anyone that tries to attack them. For a few minutes, it continues like that before Sakura walks toward them and begins to write a rune that heals them.

After getting healed, Yoshida and his comrade begin to fight once again and help their princess defeat the enemy. They continue to fight back to back with princess Kunou for a few minutes before they feel a spike of mana coming from the enemy location. Yoshida looks to his side and sees a giant appear from the massive magic circle. The giant roar at them before it charges at princess Kunou and lady Sakura.

Without hesitation, Yoshida makes a hand seal before slamming his hand on the ground and says.

"Earth Release: Bottomless Swamp"

Suddenly the ground under the giant golem becomes a swamp that slowly swallows the golem whole. However, before his Jutsu could swallow the giant, The giant used its hand to leap away from the swamp and then appear in front of them. Yoshida saw the giant swing its hand and throw many of his comrades away.

However, before it could reach him, princess Kunou appeared and blocked the giant attack. Seeing his chance, Yoshida immediately made another hand seal and inhaled a large amount of wind into his stomach.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Sphere"

He then released a crushing wave of wind from his mouth. He saw his Jutsu successfully damage the giant even though it was just a little. Yoshida widens his eyes when the giant opens his mouth and begins to fire a beam of light. Lucky for him, before the laser can hit him, princess Kunou appears in front of him and blocks the attack.

When they land on the ground, he sees the giant leap away from his position to its summoner side. Yoshida widens his eyes as he sees the woman near the summoner has a pulsing wave of white energy on her hand. He also sees the Giant open his mouth widely and charge an attack.

"GET BACK"

He and his comrade immediately obey the order of their princess.

"Sakura"

"Roger"

Suddenly both of the young women raise their weapons high in the air.

"Feel our raging will!"

"Seal Thirteen, Decision starts!"

The first one he sees is a ghostly being appearing behind their princess. It was an army of a few hundred strong men. Yoshida can feel he will be safe behind princess Kunou back.

"Thermopylae Enomotia!"

*BOOM*

Yoshida shields his eyes as he sees the beam of light meet the barrier princess Kunou made. He sees many shields begin to break one by one, but slowly the beam begins to weaken.

"───Approved"

He looks at Lady Sakura, who raises her sword high in the air as the sword creates a pillar of light that reaches heaven. She then slowly brings down the sword toward their enemy while princess Kunou throws her spear toward the woman in white.

*Boom*

Yoshida opens his eyes and sees the giant is already gone, and the one that is still standing is the man and the woman in white. He doesn't know how they can avoid getting killed by the combination of Princess Kunou and Lady Sakura, but he can see they are severely injured. Seeing their chance, Yoshida and his comrade decide to attack, but before they can reach their enemy, both of them retreat using teleportation.

Seeing there is no more enemy, Yoshida and his comrade begin to shout in triumph.