4 Chapter 4 - Preparation

Takumi was enjoying his healing bath where he could sense for a short while that Ichika was watching him.

"I see you've been watching me for a while," he boasted, "why not strip down and join me?"

Ichika's face was flushed red instantly as she stuttered, "d-don't flatter yourself, I was just checking to see if you were okay,"

Takumi laughed loudly while she pouted intensely while looking very cute at it, he then thought that he should once again try and work his magic on the cat loving girl who was still pouting so he decided to up his game. Takumi quickly got up, showing everything to Ichika who's face got even more red as she exclaimed.

"Put that thing away!"

Takumi had a very good laugh at her expense as he put on his clothes.

"So what now?" He asked her.

"We should return to Lancelot so he can tell us the rest of our mission." Takumi followed her orders as he finished getting dressed then they set off down the mountain.

When they reached the mountain's foot, Ichika noticed that the draining effect of the mountain atmosphere made Takumi out of breath even though he tried his best to hide it. She further thought that it was because of his injury so she put on a smile identical to the devil's and proposed that they should have a race to see who would reach to the village first, Takumi couldn't hide his surprise but he wouldn't ignore his pride so he agreed, just as Ichika predicted.

They both got into a stance in which they were both comfortable and Ichika sprinted off before Takumi could catch his breath and in a few seconds she was out of sight. The astonished Takumi couldn't believe his eyes.

"That girl is always in a hurry, I'll walk the rest of the way, she's going so fast she won't even notice," then he started walking.

As he walked he could slowly feel himself regaining his stamina but he refused to waste it again, he started to take a good look at the scenery as he walked but payed more attention to the fact that there were two suns.

"It looks like I'm really in another world huh," he wondered, "that two sun thing creeps me out though, I've got to ask that old guy about it."

As he walked and walked he got more and more bored but then he came across the same tree where he met Ichika and it looked very tempting so he decided to stop and take a quick nap before going back.

The sound of thunder interrupted Takumi and he snorted as he jumped out of his sleep.

"Oh shit, looks like it's gonna rain, better get back." Takumi said as he brushed himself off and rushed to escape the sudden downpour.

His hate for bad weather put more pep in his steps and in no time he was back in the village, he thought Ichika and Lancelot were waiting in the main building so he went there instantly.

Ichika was standing at the table with a smug grin on her face, "I'm still unbeatable in the speed department."

Takumi didn't have the heart to tell her the whole situation so he just supported her boasting, the tried to start up a conversation but they were interrupted by Lancelot.

"No time to waste, children. You need to be educated before you head out." He beckoned.

Takumi took the chance to ask about the two sun issue which has been bothering him ever since he came here. Ichika answered saying that they weren't actually two suns, they were two moons which used to house one of the two celestial dragons. Lancelot added that the planet they were on was ruled by the celestial dragons Kage and Haruka, Takumi was somewhat surprised but he already had his fair share of surprises.

"So where does the light from the moons come from?" He asked further.

Ichika told him that it came from the celestial dragon of moon's pure energy which was left behind, she further added that the light on the sun comes from the outside which represents having power from your surroundings and the moon represents power from within so the light comes from the moons' core, Takumi felt enlightened from this information.

"Enough of that now," Lancelot interjected, "to the matter of the demonized queen, my spies told me that killing her won't help, we have to take out Kotsukuo himself." Ichika was shocked but Takumi's arrogance healed his state of mind.

Lancelot said that the journey to the castle was not going to be easy and finding the queen was going to be even more difficult.

They were informed that the queen had also summoned a helper from Takumi's world to protect her kingdom which would have power opposing his own. Upon hearing this, Takumi was even more pumped up and quickly asked how to get there while Ichika was still frozen from shock, Lancelot said that there was a path behind the village that would lead them to the castle and they would know from the ominous aura and demonized animals that they were close.

Takumi was ready to leave but he was held back.

"We still need some more gear before heading out" Ichika advised, she then lead Takumi to a blacksmith that would build a suit of armor for him, the blacksmith had a scar over both his eyes but didn't seem blind.

"Oh, this is our soldier ready to get his armor?" Said the man in an old cracking voice, he then offered to test Takumi's strength before he started.

The conceited Takumi accepted quickly and gave a full burst of his Ryū no chikara, the blacksmith was impressed and told Ichika that Takumi's armor will be ready in a minute and with that they left.

Takumi came back alone after an hour and was greeted by the blacksmith, "I made it special for you kid, the name's Gyotan by the way," he said as he gave Takumi a ring with a purple gemstone, "just power up and you'll see my hard work."

Takumi did just that and was very pleased with the suit of light armor covered in purple scales. Gyotan told him that it was one of his best works and there were more perks to it that he would have to find out for himself. Takumi thanked him, got Ichika and set off for the demon castle.