Interlude Kagura - You Do Not Rise to the Occasion

Kagura had long understood the need to train. Validator pressed her on just how important training was, her guild master also stressed just how much potential she had, and now, she was further proven correct in her choice to train as she watched her unwilling companion.

She didn't know if it was exhaustion or exasperation as she swung down Validator while she thought about the demon, Daki. The human-turned-demon was a point of annoyance for the young girl.

"Hey!"

Kagura ignored the demon's words as she swung Validator down, focusing more on getting the form right. Sweat began to run down her brow as she continued to practice in the cool, night air. Nearby, the crackling fire rose and fell as it illuminated their surroundings.

The caravan had stopped for the night; something that had become the norm for their small group. They had stopped in a small clearing with several fires to illuminate the night. Nearby, Kagura half-listened to the menial worries of the caravan members, noting that their worries had transitioned from small concerns about animals to business transactions after a couple of nights.

She supposed it was due to their fairly peaceful journey. So far, Kagura and Daki hadn't gotten the chance to show off, but that didn't mean nothing had happened. Kagura had already scared off several packs of wolves that wandered too close to their camps.

No, the only problem came from Daki.

"Hey, brat! I know you can hear me." Said demon imperiously laid nearby, waving over at Kagura when the girl turned her head over.

[Disgusting. Every Time I See It.]

Kagura was never one to look down on others. Even when she was only a slave to those horrible people, she treated them with a modicum of respect. A respect that only went as far as her hatred for what they did to her and her brother.

However, Validator's words were something she felt a little guilty about. Not because she felt it was mean but because of how true the words were.

Beyond Daki's personality, something that was already grating on her nerves, Kagura could glimpse at the steel of the human-turned-demon's resolve. To put it bluntly, Daki was a rotting piece of wood encased in a rusted shard of metal. It was lopsided, as if she were supposed to lean on something to even stand up straight.

There was nothing that held the demon together. Not her humanity, not her experience, and certainly not her ambitions. To say that Daki had no personality beyond being a bitch, Kagura wouldn't doubt it.

The girl would never disparage someone's goals or ambitions, yet Daki seemed to only seek the next pleasure. A simple-minded pursuit of expenses that seemed to bask in whatever superiority she could get strained the relationship of Kagura's guild and the merchants in the caravan. Something that was proven from how far everyone else set their campsites for the night from the demon.

"About time you paid attention. Go and get me something to eat." Daki ordered imperiously. "Don't worry, I'll make sure you are kept safe."

Kagura hid her sneer. She didn't like questioning her guildmaster's decisions, but she truly wondered if Daki was a net positive.

"You do not need to eat." Kagura said back, letting go of Validator's handle so that the Pokemon could sheathe itself behind her. The floating sword always served to unnerve the demon, but that still did not stall the demon enough to correct her personality.

Daki scoffed in the girl's direction. "So what? That man– er," for a second, Kagura saw the rotten wood behind the rusted metal as the demon looked around warily. The strong front that the demon used to pretend that it wasn't weak and vulnerable seemed just as fragile. "... The guildmaster assigned me to protect them, so the least they can do is provide for me."

"I am also here." Kagura said, trying to hide her pout.

"Hmmm? Sure, whatever. What can you do again?"

[Engaging In This Discourse Grows Tedious And Fruitless.]

Kagura agreed with the Pokemon, huffing off to the side. It would be simple to argue with Daki, but Validator moved around to knock her back with its handle. Getting the signal, the girl turned to the other campsites to get the demon's food.

It took only a minute or so to walk to the other's campsites. Not that long, but for how fast she moved, Kagura felt that they might be a bit excessive.

The girl took in the stares as soon as she got close. They knew why she was here, yet the girl found several more shameless merchants groaning when they thought she couldn't hear them. Her guildmaster had said that the contract promised food and shelter for the trip, but Kagura wasn't someone who grew up without learning a thing or two.

She was nowhere near the level that her guildmaster seemed to be at. Though, she attributed that to the fact that she didn't completely suspect everyone was out to get her. Her own secondary vision did help with categorizing people.

Which was why she ignored most of those whose metal, whose strength of character and will, was flimsy and weak. She wandered through their collage of fires and sleeping bags to find one of the few merchants within the caravan who didn't outright say anything to her. However, the overall experience had been horrible for her.

[You Heed The Gazes Of Those Who Mean Nothing To You Too Much.]

Kagura tried not to flinch at her friend's words as they rang in her mind. There was something about how close their connection made it so that the Pokemon would always say something to strike at the heart of the problem.

"Miss Mikazuchi, I take it you are here for food." A kind old merchant asked with a smile. The older woman's long, black hair was peppered with white strands and tied in a ponytail as she gestured over to a bowl of stew.

It was still hot as the steam clung over it, letting the girl know that they prepared it for her as they saw her come over. Kagura smiled and bowed awkwardly; she always felt weird when people did things for her.

"Um, thank you." Kagura said softly. She looked around for another bowl for Daki, and pursed her lips when she found none. "Um…"

"Is there something wrong, dear?"

Kagura bunched up her fists against her pants, feeling a bit embarrassed. "... C-can I have another bowl?"

"Oh, for your… companion?" The old merchant asked carefully, but Kagura saw the anxious woman glance in the direction that she just came in. The girl tried not to flinch as she saw this. After all, Daki was not well received in the first place.

"Yes…"

"Forgive me for prying," the woman started, leaning conspiratorially. "But are you okay? Is everything… you know, well? In your guild?"

Kagura hurriedly waved her hands, feeling Validator's sash wrap around her shoulders for comfort. Something that seemed to set the old woman on edge. "No, no! I'm fine!"

"If that is what you want to say, then I will not say any further, dear." The old lady smiled thinly, but the young girl could tell the woman wanted to say something. "I'll be here if you wish to talk."

Kagura hid a sigh of relief as the woman calmly got up to get another bowl for Daki. It gave the young girl enough time to inspect the wooden carriage of the old merchant that sat near her campsite. The scent of heavy spices from brown, burlap sacks drifted into the girl's nose as she curiously stood on her tiptoes to eye the large amount of magic items that had been packed in wooden crates.

"See something you like, dear?"

Kagura jumped a bit as she swerved around to see the old lady's mirthful smile. "I, um, didn't mean to."

"No need to be too distraught." The old lady tapped the girl's shoulder. "How about you choose something you like? As thanks for all your help."

"No, no, how can I–"

Kagura didn't have a chance to continue as her world suddenly shifted. A massive blast of air sent her to the ground, shoving her hands and knees against the sharp pebbles underfoot. Next, a wave of intense heat forced a sheen of sweat down her back and neck.

The girl felt Validator forcefully pull her to her feet, and she wobbled momentarily on shaky legs before the Pokemon sidled right under her left armpit, letting her lean on it for support. Her head was sent on a swivel as she looked around in a hurry to locate what had just happened.

She saw several merchants scramble away, running in a panic. A couple of people were elsewhere as they tried out the reign in the frightened horses used to pull their carriages. Nearby, the old woman's mouth had been moving in the corner of her vision, but no matter how hard she tried, Kagura couldn't hear anything other than a few words.

"Hurry… run!"

Kagura's lips curled into a frown as her gaze finally locked on the source of the panic. Her previous campsite had been turned into a giant conflagration. A massive plume of fire rose up from the ground past the treetops that surrounded them; tongues of flame and heat ate at the surrounding vegetation as nearby trees and bushes quickly caught on fire, ruining the girl's burgeoning nightvision.

It was like her vision had been consumed by the fire as well.

Panic began to set into the girl's spine as a cold realization set into her mind. She had known her small stint of peace and quiet wouldn't last; that those horrible people would come for her at some time or other.

A desperate part of her died a little when she thought about how many people she had unknowingly dragged into her own problems. Even her caustic and downright despicable teammate, Daki.

[Center Yourself, My Lord]

Validator's words cut through the girl's thoughts, seemingly ripping the fear and depression that curled into her thoughts. A silent moment was all the girl needed to further clear her mind with her partner's assistance.

First, she needed to protect the people she had dragged into her problems. Her gaze shot around the panicked merchants as they scrambled to save their wooden carts and merchandise from the spreading flames. Unconsciously, the girl sent another guilty look into the fires, knowing that Daki probably wouldn't survive such a targeted attack.

Kagura's gaze shot down as she felt someone tug her wrist to no avail. She found the old merchant trying to drag her away from the clear signs of a magical attack, panic written over the woman's face as she continuously moved her mouth. Why did she do that?

[Your Senses Have Been Damaged By The Magic]

That'll do it, Kagura supposed. She was confused why everything had been quiet, but she wondered why it seemed to hit her the most.

[Your Attackers Are Targeting You, My Lord]

Kagura's lips parted in an 'o' shape. That made more sense that she had time to process, and suddenly, she felt rather embarrassed that she hadn't seen that coming.

Using her embarrassment as fuel, she focused on the bigger problem: how she was going to protect these merchants. She first sent her intentions to her companion, hoping for a solution.

[We Have Not The Strength To Fight Such A Fire]

Kagura deflated a bit when she heard the confirmation. It had been a shot in the dark, but she knew her strength, while strong in potential, did not have the time to grow as much as she wanted it to.

Shifting her train of thought, she went on the move. Her body was much stronger than a normal human due to her status as a mage, and she quickly navigated through the people who moved around her. She focused more on the marchants whose stuff had been dangerously close to the fire, tugging on the roped that horses normally were connected to.

Kagura felt her muscles strain as her feet dug deep into the ground, yet miraculously, step-by-step, she pulled the carriages away from the fire. Around her, she could sense the incredulous gazes of some merchants who watched her.

However, her efforts had an effect on the panicked people. Kagura felt other rough hands grasp the ropes and pulled along with her. Many frightened merchants seemed to gather their wits as they helped others either get away from the fire or protect their products. It was a little odd for her to understand that aspect of the merchants, but the girl knew that if they didn't move their carriages, some merchants might be tempted to throw themselves into the fire to save their merchandise.

At the same time, Kagura's hearing had finally started to come back. Loud buzzes that sounded like the rings of a massive bell echoed back and forth within her head as the girl continued to help the people around her.

"...irl! Girl! Stop!" Kagura turned to someone who had been yelling in her ear the entire time. An older man who she had remembered had eyed her like she was a plague. Instead of a frown or anything negative, the man just nodded to her with a complicated smile. "We can take it from here. I think other people need more… strength to pull their carts."

"Got it." Kagura said, moving quickly to help.

However, she wasn't halfway to the others before she saw something that nearly caused her heart to stop. From the massive bonfire where her old teammate had been, the girl saw strips of something reaching up inside the fire. They were almost like long, flat snakes that shot up into the air before a familiar yell reached her ears.

"Dammit! Stay still, bastard!"

Kagura's lips trembled momentarily as the once grating voice sounded so pleasant to her ears. Her direction changed immediately, ignoring all the merchants as she ran towards the fire.

The heat singed her skin as she got closer, and the girl, body of a mage or not, knew that she would only have a few short moments to save her teammate before she succumbed to heavy burns. Hot smoke stung her eyes till the tears made her vision blur as she got closer. Every breath nearly caused the girl to stop to hack her lungs out. The superheated rocks burned underfoot, growing hot enough that every step made it feel like she was on hot coals.

Yet, she continued on.

Then finally, she reached the threshold of the main fire. She could practically feel the magic that ran through its orange-red tongues. It was faint, but the girl remembered when Locki had described how to sense other people's magic.

How different people might use their magic to create different effects. For persistent effects like this one, the best case would be to take out the caster or disrupt their concentration.

Right now, those lessons ran a thousand words per second in the back of her brain as she reached over her shoulder. Validator's hilt met her palm with a sizzle of pain and heat, but the girl had given up on everything else other than her intense focus.

That focus, honed under three months of constant effort, tightened in her gut as she gripped her magic. Kagura felt her connection to Validator as a physical thing. A long string of impressions, emotions, desires and sheer magic connected the two from her navel to the eye on its crossguard.

"[Unison Magic - Metal Sound]." Kagura intoned, feeling like someone had her magic core between a metal vice and squeezed hard.

The motions came naturally to the girl. She unsheathed her partner and swung it towards the source of the magic traces laid throughout the fire.

The next second, a screech so loud it rattled the girl's ears came from her Pokemon. In front of her, the ground exploded, creating a path that extended from the tip of Validator that expanded as it traveled.

Fire parted in the wake of the sheer massive wave of sound. A path free of fire opened up in what seemed like the blink of an eye. The horrible sound shot straight through the fire, flying further and slamming hard into the trees behind it fast enough to drown the fires that had spread in that direction.

In the middle of the cleared fire was a tall, redheaded man. His long, bony limbs were covered in bandages like a living mummy, and his face was horribly disfigured for all to see deep wrinkles and recesses where it looked like someone had burnt him constantly. Yet, the most prominent thing was the dark purple tattoo of what looked like a stylized 'H' of two interlocked characters. The symbol of the cults of Zeref.

Kagura felt a flash of fear and intense anger shoot through her in a second. The mage was clearly disorientated, shaking his head as he rapidly blinked his eyes. It was enough of a distraction that the girl needed to attack him. To destroy the threat so thoroughly that she could finally spend her days in peace with her guild until she was ready to save her brother.

And she hesitated.

Fear waged a war with her anger and determination. On top of that, Kagura saw the rapidly recovering body of her teammate.

Daki's clothes had been melted into her skin, and her once pristine, white skin had been charred beyond recognition. If it weren't for the demon's expressive eyes, Kagura would have assumed the demon was dead. And without the fires to continue to burn her, Kagura saw the demon's body twist and contort as it healed fast enough that the young girl thought Daki hadn't even been injured.

And from the blackened throat, the demon's recovered vocal cords could finally scream. "AH! Fuck!"

At the same time, the cultist mage regained their senses, their red eyes widening as they caught sight of Kagura. A sickening smile twisted their grotesque face, curling into their multitude of burn scars. They raised their arms as the effort Kagura took to clear a section of their fire slowly closed off.

The first to disappear were the entrance and exit she had cut out with her magic. Then, the walls of fire slowly closed in on her and her demon teammate.

Yet, the girl froze as she shot a glance at the demon, hoping that the older girl did something. Daki's limbs twitched erratically as she continued to scream in pain as she scrambled away from the flames that still surrounded her. She seemed insensate, panicked. Scared. Alone. The weak and irresolute will behind the demon finally crumpled in the face of a foe she could not best.

Kagura felt the fear that creeped in her heart surface once again. However, her legs would not stop. She continued to run forwards without a clear goal in her head.

"Will you scream as much as your brother?" A raspy, horrid voice centered the girl's emotions on the cultist. They grinned. A sick, warped smile that sent shivers down the girl's spine.

"When we're done with you, we'll go and kill that pesky guild you joined as well." The mage said as if he was talking about the weather. "Why did you have to drag so many people into this?"

Kagura was still a distance away from the mage, but even then, she had no idea what she was going to do. Daki was incapacitated, her own magic ate too much of her reserves for her to use it in a protracted fight, and she had lost all sense of an ambush.

[You Fear Too Much, My Lord]

Kagura's small conversation with Validator sped by faster than thought. The Pokemon read her emotions, desires and fears at an intrinsic level; a union brought about by a magic beyond any other. A magic that tied two individuals beyond the sense of self. And because of it, her stamina could never withstand its use.

[When You Fail To Rise To The Occasion, Fall To The Level Of Your Training]

Kagura's heavy run slowed to a halt. The heat around her burned with every breath, and sweat only stayed on her brow long enough to turn to steam. Her hands hurt, her feet cried, her lungs stung, tears clung to the corners of her eyes.

"Have you finally given up to the graces of Lord Zeref?" The cultist gloated as Kagura stopped several meters away from him. "The prophet, Jellal, had known you would give in and–"

The girl cut him out. Her ears had gotten used to shutting off Daki every time she spoke. Her hands gripped the familiar hilt of Validator, raising the Pokemon above her head in a textbook stance for an overhead slash.

The walls of fire continued to close in around her, but she closed her eyes to feel the magic within her. It was weakened and strained, clearly unready for another attack. She had known she had passed out the first time she used [Unison Magic], and every subsequent time she had been warned by Locki that she shouldn't push her magic beyond what it could take.

She feared getting taken back to the Tower. She feared what would happen should she lose.

Fires burned her shoulders slowly, burning her white skin black.

Still, Kagura tuned out the pain as she finally opened her eyes. Daki had seemed to regain her senses at one point, and he tried to attack the cultist with a long piece of cloth. The man seemed to laugh, letting it hit his chest as he dissipated into a plume of fire. If anything, that served to make Daki angrier.

However, the demon did not run off into the fire, and the white-haired demon took off towards Kagura. Her limbs burned in the fire, recovering and blackening with every step. Her perfectly painted lips were pulled back into a snarl of teeth, saying something to Kagura that she refused to listen to.

Instead, Kagura smiled happily.

"I leave everything to you." She said happily, enjoying the look of confusion of the demon before she felt she had enough magic.

Kagura mentally grabbed every miniscule bit of magic within her, squeezing it into the bond with Validator. Her Pokemon seemed to know just what she wanted, and it obliged. A dark, wispy shadow seemed to taint the blade of the Pokemon, spreading out from the hilt to the tip of the sword.

[Aim For The Head, My Lord]

"U- [Unison Magic – Night Slash]."

In that instant, Kagura felt her muscles clench. Her body seemed to force out every bit of strength as she swung downwards. Daki's eyes widened, hurriedly dodging out of the way.

The cultist that chased behind her didn't even see it coming.

Kagura's swing didn't even register to the man before Validator had already landed between his feet. The girl instantly collapsed, but not before she witnessed the black arc that traced the path of Validator slowly start to disappear. It disappeared into the mage at one point only to appear once again between his legs after it went through his body.

"What…" the man didn't have a second to speak before his body tilted. One side fell to the left while the other had been pushed away into the dwindling fires, falling to the ground in a disgusting squelch.

Kagura felt sick to her stomach, and had to struggle to hold the contents of her dinner down. Lucky for her, her body began to give out. She curled in on herself, feeling like every part of her was experiencing pins and needles. Deep in her stomach, Kagura felt where her magic was stored tremble and spasm as her strong muscles twitched around it.

"What the hell was that, brat?" Daki's hand brushed the hair that clung to Kagura's forehead. Though, the demon's face curled into a frown as she saw how the young girl's face had been twisted in pain. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Hurts…"

"I know, I can see that." Daki groused, but it didn't get better when Kagura offered a painful chuckle. "Fuck, what's wrong? Is it magic? Dammit…"

"They took out Dreud…" More voices filtered into Kagura's ears, but her vision started to blur before she could make out what they looked like. She shut her sight when that began to give her a headache.

"They look weakened, though…"

"Yeah, that pretty one definitely isn't their strong mage since she had to get a girl to save her."

Kagura felt a strong grip wrap around her, cradling her as gently as they could. However, it was clear they were a novice about it. Like they hadn't tried to carry someone gently in a long time.

It was warm.

"Stay with me, brat." Kagura shifted in pain in her teammate's grasp as she searched her memories for what happened to her. Meanwhile, screams and begs for mercy echoed around her as she realized a condition that Locki had long stressed she might be heavily susceptible to: Magic Deficiency Disease.

The girl didn't really know much other than it was a rapid loss in magic, or that it was fatal in worse cases.

…oops.