Of Flowers and Foxes

*3rd person POV*

While Ohari wraps the sarashi around Sura's chest, Mokuren takes notice that despite how small the flower maiden is, she has a powerful frame. The ornate flower symbols on her stomach and chest… it grew more. The silver strands of hair have incrementally increased as well… she has no idea what these changes indicate, but if anything, it seems to correspond to her continual use of her power.

Of a possible correlation, she commands the Matrix cube to respond and jots down the observations. Her mother is coming today too, to bear witness to the little flower's growth.

Making sure the sarashi wrap was secure, Ohari was thanked with Sura's pure honey smile enough to melt the coldest hearts.

"Thank you!! Phew… I have to keep improving."

With a motherly pat on the head, Ohari sends Sura off. Exclaiming with conviction, Sura leaps down to a rocky platform Kyuu-san stands across from Mokuren, arms on her hips. She smiles and looks at the celestial dryad with a smirk.

"Time to kick her butt some more right?"

Sliding off the arch, Kyui flips onto the same platform. Curled, vicious like a snake, Kyuu's hand thrusts forward. Her scruff raised up likes flames in anticipation of battle.

Another figure makes it across the portal to the Akasha dimension, dawning in nature's glory, Myriam makes herself known.

"Myriam, are you coming here to watch?"

Nodding to Ohari, Myriam confirms her question.

"I am, I lose connection to Mokuren when she travels to a different dimension. I wish to see how far the Flower maiden has come… and how much time we have left before the Promethean clan comes for her."

That last part remains unarticulated by words but by thought to Ohari. Expression of pain crosses the weary mother.

"... I guess… I knew I couldn't raise her forever in peace right? Promise me, Myriam… don't make them turn her into a soldier. The Promethan clan was my family, but I don't want her to be dragged into a life of peril."

"... I will try, Ohari. But… can I even stop them if they do? Durga has a good heart, but, it may be inevitable. She can't be hidden forever."

The ground feels rough, the grains of sand grating to the touch as Sura steadies one hand on the ground, legs spread out. A boom is heard, and Sura's figure blurs.

Consecutive sonic booms are heard, circling around Kyui, she remains steadfast, eyes tracking a movement undetectable to the mere untrained eye. Sura suddenly slides underneath Kyui, arms at the side. Her legs extend and she punches upward in a massive twisting uppercut but Kyui's fist comes down fast.

Uh oh, but just as Kyui's attack strikes at Sura, she dodges. Feinting the uppercut, she instead skids to the side and kicks off with a flying knee, digging into Kyui's side with a resounding thud. Kyui gasps as air is forced out of her lungs.

Firing saffron flames from her foot, Sura pushes more and launches Kyui like a missile as she slams against a pillar. Embedded into the rock, she clambers out… the edges cracking under her fingertips in anger.

"Hahaha!!"

An amused chuckle grinds against Kyuu-san's pride as she blushes.

"It's what you get for underestimating her, Kyui."

Mokuren teases.

Kyuu grits her teeth and couldn't help smiling at her own ironic mistake. But the fact her mom was here to bear witness, an itchy desire to impress her made it all more embarrassing. Even Ohari holds her hand to her mouth, covering a light chuckle.

"Are you fine dear? Hehe, it was a good move by Sura-chan. Watch yourself, or else your little sister might get the upper hand~"

Ohari adds to the Kyuu's wound.

"Ow, didn't expect that… lucky shot brat!"

Kyuu runs down the crevices and scales down the rock wall. Leaping from one outcrop to another, both seem to collide with one another before Kyuu spins over Sura at the last moment.

"Geh!!!"

A sudden tugging force pulls Sura backward as she feels her petals grabbed, Oh no!! She thought as she tried to retract them to only find herself wrapped in her own petals. Kyuu grins.

"This is for spinning me before!"

*gulp*

"Waaaaaaah!!!!"

Spinning around like a tornado, Sura feels the centripetal force build… and release, and her quick thrown descent down the pillars, crashing into one, crumbling on top of her.

"Sura-chan!!"

Ohari calls out!! Mokuren assures her.

"Hehe don't worry Ohari-san, she can take it, it's always like this back and forth."

"She's advanced far more than I anticipated, especially against someone of her caliber, Ohari."

Goddess Myriam obverves, but this quickened growth in power only worries her. If she could grow so fast in power... thank the universe, that she and Ohari found her first.

Sitting in the pile of rubble, Sura finally manages to untie herself.

"How dare you betray me! Humph!!"

She scolds her petals, looking up, she's got some ways to get back up. The illuminated high ground taunts her as she sits in the shadows.

With a long inhale, she launches herself onto another pillar and runs up… kicking off crevices, she continues up when suddenly, she feels her feet lose hold… the footing breaking.

"Uh oh!!"

Out of panic, she tried to reach for a nearby hold but it was too late. Free falling, Sura's arm shoots out again for something to grasp on… and suddenly, she feels her body hit the side of the pillar as something is stuck on… looking up, she sees the fibrous glowing veins of one of her petals, now embedded into the rock like a pickaxe.

"Huh…"

Since when? Oh well… grabbing protruding rocks with her petals, Sura musters more power to flow through her petals.

*Chink… Chink Chink!!*

The tips of her petals pierce rock, jabbing itself into the pillar. Standing on the side of the pillar, Sura grins as an idea comes to her mind. She digs her petals deeper as much as she can… it is still hard to control… and she jumps back, stretching her petals as she pulls. Kyuu-san stands on top, wondering what's going on.

"What's taking her so long?"

As Kyuu-san leans down to see, something flies right past her head, surprising her as she flips back on instinct.

"What the hell?"

Slingshotting herself up into the air with bursting speed… two grappling hooks of Saffron shoot past Kyuu-san and with a mighty pull, Sura launches herself with her a dive kick.

Surprised, Mokuren has never seen her use her petals that way before… she's gotten much better at controlling them, she notes in a datapad.

Kyuu-san rolls to the side as Sura splits the platform with her kick, erupting in an explosion of boulders and rock. Adrift in the air, Sura jumps off the debris and uses her petals and latches onto a giant boulder.

Grabbing her own petals, Sura grits her teeth as she swings the boulder at Kyuu-san. The wind rushes past Kyuu-san's face as she ducks backward and launches herself with flames at Sura. Firing blasts at one another, together they rain hail fire from the sky.

"Just a little bit of power!"

Sura shouts as a Saffron flame grows around her foot as she sweeps her leg at Kyuu-san, creating a cutting wave of primordial energy. Melting everything in its path, Kyuu-san observes, before throwing a blast into the attack, only for it to dissipate and be absorbed.

"Interesting. Just like the other time."

The other time, Sura's aura attempted to overtake Kyuu's aura, eating away, burning away Kyuu's strength. A strange effect, Kyuu never encountered before. But…

The wave of energy collides with Kyui's arm before she empowers her arm and breaks the attack. It seems to be able to be prevented by enough power, at least greater than the attack itself.

"You felt it too, in the flower maiden's outburst, right, Ohari?"

Myriam asks, tinged by perhaps fear in not wanting to be confirmed in her suspicions.

"There's no doubt, the power Sura-chan gives off… also affects us, and everyone."

"Is it some primordial effect of hers? It'll be dangerous…"

Not alien to the strange effect of Sura's primordial essence. Back then, as fear gripped Mokuren's soul when Sura first unleashed her rage, she also felt a creeping, corroding of her senses as she felt an ever mild, increasing rage in herself too. Making her lose reason. With a grimace, Mokuren felt the need to state it, especially to Ohari.

"Can you imagine the devastation it can cause if left unchecked? A power that can instill bloodlust and rage to others and spread… what if other Gods find out? I'm sure Kyui, saw it herself too."

The stark… cruel revelation silences the three. As they watched.

That attack felt strangely invigorating, as Sura felt her arm tingle in excitement and rage. Noticing her veins tightening as her primordial energy desperately tried to push past her restraints, it's as if her body has a mind of its own when Saffron flames begin to curl from her body…

"No no… calm down."

Humming a soft melody, uplifting music Sarawasti had taught her. The fire grows tamer in her heart… don't let it get out of control. But if a little bit… deepening her breath, Sura tries to erase any vengeful desire in her mind, and her aura seems to dim, down to a simmer of Saffron.

The flames almost seem to gravitate towards Kyuu as Sura's hand reaches towards her in a stance. And so begins their sibling rivalry, as they engage in a fierce battle, a strike to the gut repaid with a quick elbow to the side, a blow to the face repaid with a blast, and a grapple reversed as Sura flips over Kyuu to escape her pinned arm.

Predicting the move, Kyuu grabs onto Sura's petals again.

"You're getting predictable brat!"

As Kyuu readies to pull Sura in, she then feels anchored to the ground, what?! Unable to move, the petals have instead wrapped around Kyuu's arms and anchored themselves into the ground.

With a mighty pull, Sura summons as much strength as she could into the petals and picks up Kyuu, before kicking Kyuu with a roundhouse right in the face.

It was Kyuu's turn to bite the dust, as the force jars her vision before she braces herself for impact.

Kyuu-san picks herself back up… the brat really is catching up to me. And the realization is only ever real, as Kyuu roughly smears off a little blood from her mouth. Looking at the brat, Sura appeared strangely quiet, her eyes stern. She's usually a bit louder.

"A true prodigy, So Artemas says… she really is, adapting at such a rapid pace. But I'll be damned if I get left behind, I've trained for far too long to be beaten by some brat!"

Quanta gathers as electricity crackles around Kyuu, a sphere of blazing quanta spirals from her hand and Kyuu slams the attack on the grund in frustration as she pulls back her two hands.

Drawing a Yin and Yang symbol in the air, Kyuu builds her momentum as she cracks the ground with her foot and she brings both fists forward until the sphere. In a deafening electrifying crack, the sphere nearly bends and becomes misshapen under the force, before shooting straight towards Sura like a railgun.

Emitting arcs of electricity and blazing fire in its path, each arc followed with a rumble of thunder. The winds and storms almost change, as Sura feels the vortex of pressure and energy approaching her.

*click… hisssssss*

Slide the lower section of the control rings to adjust how much it inhibits… the small dial clicks right, and the sections of the ring reform. Right… to lower the inhibition more… just a tiny bit. I won't go out of control… I won't hurt others, repeat the maiden in her mind.

"Huff… haaaaaaaa."

Light steam emits from Sura's mouth, just a little more power. I can do this!! Saffron flames spiral from Sura's arms as the white petals of her body glow a hot white.

She brings her arms forward and shoots all her petals into the ground as an anchor. The heat radiating from her builds up, felt even far away.

*Crack*

The sounds of… shattering are heard, as sand becomes glass, and glass to shards. The melting heat of Sura transforming. The coming electrical, burning sphere of power coming before her to meet her.

"Kyuu-san!! HERE I GO!!!"

With an explosion of glass shards at the height of the melting point, Sura fires from her arms two engulfing pillars of Saffron flames towards Kyuu's attack.

Both attacks clash in a display of destructive electricity and red Saffron fire.

"You're going to have to try harder than that!"

The blazing ball pushes against the crashing Saffron flames, as Kyuu thrusts her hand forward. But the gusts of wind turn against Kyuu, as she finds herself pushed back by pressure. Her step backwards, met by Sura's step forwards.

"Damn it! Take this!"

Kyuu throws back her hand and launches a beam, invigorating her blazing fireball, even more, it increases in size, starting to swallow the Saffron flames.

"Grrrrrrr!!!"

Sura's spits out fumes of sweltering heat, as she nears her limit… and the rings on her arm begin to hiss.

"I don't have much time left!! Tch… but I'm not losing today!!! Hraaggghh!!!!"

Let thy Saffron flames free!! Sura's heart roars! As gives the last of her power, summoning from the pits of inner fire into one last push. The ground crumbles and cracks as Sura's petals anchor loosens bit by bit.

The two attacks begin to reach their critical mass, as violet flames pour out, overflowing from a mix of Saffron and blue. But slowly, it begins to burn red…

*Boom!!!*

The explosion sends an outpour of electricity that ignites the barren land with thunder strikes and fire. The force rushed past Myriamm, Ohari, and Mokuren's hair.

"Amazing... they're a lot stronger than even I was."

A joy of pride fills Mokuren as she watches her two daughters strive for their best. Even against the uncertain future.

Through the flames and violet-red smoke, two voices are heard.

As the smoke blows hard and funnels as Kyuu and Sura charge towards each other. Their voices in unison.

"HAAAAAAAA!!!"

Sura's eyes never left Kyuu's. The ground splits upon their impact… and Ohari watches with worried, yet attentive eyes.

"It seems… my two sweeties ended in a draw."

A fist digs into Sura face, but a kick counters the same. A blow for a blow stopped mid-air, a moment elapsed in their clash, before both fell to the ground next to each other. The sounds of gasping air as Sura, and Kyuu lay defeated next to one another.

*Sura's POV*

As the sandstorm calms down and the dust settles, I gaze up at Kyuu, lying next to me, out of breath… and... we started laughing.

"Hahahahahaha!! Hahaha!! Achoo!!"

The dust tickles my nose and I lets out a loud sneeze… This has been the most fun battle yet.

"My, did you knock each other senseless or something? Hahaha~"

With hastened steps, Mokuren lands near us as the whip vine retracts. Along comes Mom and Myriam, stepping upon arcane circles of energy through the air. I leap up and into Mom.

"Did you see us!! Were we awesome?!"

"Hehe, yes, yes~ my, I can't believe you've managed to reach Kyuu's level."

Putting me down, she goes over to Kyuu who already stood herself back up. Gently brushing off the dust on Kyuu-san's black gi, mom cups her face, awarkly tip-toeing a bit to reach her.

"You've gotten so much stronger, Kyui~"

"Mom! What are you doing in front of everybody!"

Though she didn't bat away mom's hands hehe. Casting a wave of healing aura, Myriam rejuvenates and heals us.

"Careful now, don't tire yourself out more hehe. It's astonishing that Sura can catch up so fast, especially to someone of such high proficiency. I'm not that much of a fighter but I can tell that much."

Mokuren nudges her mother.

"That's my Kyui~"

"Oi!"

Together we took turns embarrassing Kyuu-san, but even she chuckled here and there. It's… peaceful, like this. It almost feels like I've been living in Heiwa my whole life. Will it remain like this?

While everyone else was talking to one another, I took the chance to take a breather, as I sat on the edge, looking across the hazy, stormy horizon. I still don't know what I am… or even who I am. Seriana… I remember that name, I didn't forget it in my dreams, as well as the way she looked. What… are these dreams? They feel so real, yet not.

"What are you looking out there for, brat?"

Kyuu-san comes over and nudges me gently.

"I'm just… thinking about what I am, who I am."

"Heh, you're actually thinking deeply? That's a first~"

"Hey! Mean!"

"Haha!"

Avoiding my attempts to grab her, Kyuu-san smiles confidently at me.

"I'm sure you'll find out one day, Sura."

Words of encouragement I'd thought I'd never hear, from such a big mean sister, hehe.

"Now head back first brat, if you could too mom. I've got something to do."

Mokuren leans over and whispers to Kyuu-san, but I pick it up with my long mischievous ears.

"Is it the place you wanted to show me here?"

"Yes."

Before exiting through the portal, mom gives Kyuu-san a wink to which Kyuu-san immediately blushes. Mom must've heard too hehe. Myriam notices and asks in confusion only known to her, how odd, you'd think a God would know.

"Why did you wink? I wonder what my little jewel and Kyuu-san will do here. It's a barren landscape! It's like a horrible nightmare!"

Mom bemuses with Myriam with a quirky whip of her tail.

"What do you think of being a parent in-law Myriam?"

"...What?"