Chapter 11

"Y'know, you should stop complaining. At least I had another helmet!" I say with a smirk as Bikey zooms through the highway.

Behind me, holding me tight, Takae in a pinkish-yellow helmet with a horn in the middle. "Hmpf. Yeah sure. I have observed you, Nat. You had thirty or so of the same chair. I am pretty sure you have more helmets." Is she pouting? I wanna see her face!

"Hehehe~ Is that so~ Observing me~ Hehehe~" I remove my hands from the Bikey's handles. As I start squirming from side to side.

"Ah! Idiot! Grab the handle, grab the handle!!" She screams in alarm just as I expected. Now she's trying to grab the handles from behind, but since I am squirming coincidentally whenever she's about to reach and grip the handles, she's growing more and more panicked.

Good, she forgot about the helmet. Can't let my unicorn not be one, after all. "Oops, now, now. Relax Takae, Bikey can drive by himself. Say hello Bikey." I say patting the side of the sudden shadow horse.

"Wha-? No, you know what. I am not going to panic anymore. This is expected, this is expected, this is expected." She mutters with her eyes closed.

"So, where exactly are we going? We haven't had breakfast yet." Is that a complaint? Hm. Perhaps her metabolism?

"We had pancakes though," I answer easily as I turn around in my seat, facing her. "Were six pancakes not enough?" I smirk watching her blush in embarrassment.

"Our destination is the island of Shikoku! Well, more specific towards Köchi. it's a date! A romantic trip to the deep mountains of the island of Shikoku! And rivers." Hmm. I mull over as I look at the passing clouds. "To be honest, we have a few objectives. First of all, there's the castle on the hilltop, an old feudal castle, perhaps there's youkai there at night. Nearby on another mountain, Godaisan, there's the Chikurunji Temple, one of the 88 temples along the Shikoku Pilgrimage, and the most revered. This means probably has the most supernatural presence of them all."

"Wow." She is looking at me in surprise. Huh? What happened? I quickly look around. "No, no, it's... I didn't expect you to come with such a plan so fast and on the fly." Her voice displays her wonder.

"Well, there are very few things I don't know about. I am good at my job." I say proudly, puffing out my chest. Only to receive a smack on my right boob. "Ahn~ Not here Takae, or maybe you want to get raunchy on top of Bikey?" I say with a smirk.

"Yeah, yeah." -sigh- "You know, to Shikoku it's four hours from Kawakami city. And how are we gonna travel through the ocean? I think I can run over it, but I don't know if I can carry you at the same time." Takae's words come out with doubt. As her eyes light up at my teasing.

"Well, have you ever heard of ferries Takae?" I grin back at her.

As she blinks and a blush spreads through her face. I start cackling. "Oh god! Hahaha! You need to stop thinking so complicated!"

"Uh, yeah I... I don't know why I thought of something so silly. Sorry." She adverts her eyes.

Rolling my eyes, I right myself and grab her face, turning it towards me. "Now, now, don't be ashamed or sad about me laughing at you. There's nothing wrong or inherently evil about it. It's just some fun between friends, alright? You can rib me, you have done it before! And I smiled didn't I? I am not gonna leave you alone." I caress the side of her face with a smile. Suddenly, we're jerked to the side and the horn of a big truck thunders in my ears.

"Ugh. Good job in avoiding the truck Bikey." I mutter as I look towards the tree-carrier truck as the trunks of trees suddenly are released and bounce towards us. "Curious," I whisper.

Takae, who was in the middle of introspection, grabs my arm as she gets ready to jump with me from Bikey. Hm, now. That won't do.

"Takae, relax. You don't have to worry about anything. I told ya before, I will protect you until this curse is over." I say as I snap my fingers, dropping a grenade to the highway, in the path of all the trunks rolling towards us. As the grenade detonates, instead of an explosion, a storm comes out of the grenade, grabbing all the trunks and throwing them to the side. Towards a forest.

We've been on the road for about three and half hours, I can smell the ocean. Takae was silent for a while after the accident, but suddenly seemed to rebound and started talking with me with a surety and a determination that surpassed whatever she had before. Hard to not find her cute.

"In the end, Matsunaga gave me a hundred or so coupons of her Natto." Takae ends her story with a smile. "I think in Katsurahama beach there's one of her shops. Let's go later." As she finishes her story as she stops playing with my hair.

"Oh, that was way too relaxing. Yeah sure, we'll do whatever you want. Even if it's to eat rotten beans." I smirk at her affronted look.

"They're not rotten!" "They are." "They're not" "Yeppers!" "No!" "Oh, indeed!" "They're just fermented though." "Yes, fermented in rot."

With a smirk at her wordless face, I point to the side. "Look, here we are." I say pointing to a big cartel saying 'Welcome to Kichi prefecture.'

"Alright, what's first? Eating? Curse? Beach?" I ask as Bikey turns back from a horse to a motorcycle.

"Let's end the curse first. But... Hm, if we find food on the way, then we eat." She's nodding at herself! Ah! How cute!

"A'ight. You heard that boy, let's head southwest, towards that castle first!" I point towards a mountain in the general direction.

At the top of the mountain, flat as a hill, the Kōchijō, or the Castle of Kochi stood up. The Castle of Kochi is one of the twelve Japanese castles to have survived the fires, wars, and other catastrophes of the post-feudal age. It was first constructed between 1601 and 1611.

The castle used to be the seat of the Yamauchi lords, who ruled over the surrounding region, then known as Tosa, during the Edo Period. What most don't know is that the Tosa were, and still are a clan of Youkai. Specifically the Kijo Clan.

Kochi Castle's donjon, the main tower was the residence of the leaders or the lords. The castle's wooden interior maintains the appearance of the Edo Period origins, and the lookout point from the castle tower's top floor offers a nice view of downtown.

It doesn't really surprise me, that most of the castle has actually become a tourist spot. Weaving through the people towards the Donjon, I release a little bit of my pressure in bouts of threes and twos. A universal "Hello I wanna speak with you" for those that have any kind of energy.

As we near the donjon, the door opens, and we're let in. The door closed behind us. As a credulous Japanese who believes in myths and things like that, Takae is trembling behind me, grabbing my hand.

"Listen, I told you a few times already. Whatever you were taught about yokai is probably a lie. Well, probably not a lie, but exaggeration. You need to calm down and make your own opinions." I whisper gently as I pull her towards the only open room.

Kijo yokai are weird. Kijo are one person, but they're also two, often sitting side by side, touching their legs. One old, and one young. But with the same face.

Kijo are jealous monsters, women who got corrupted and transformed by jealousy and greed. Their bodies were divided in two, one young and vibrant, and one old and wise. Yet they remain greedy jealous monsters. They're connected by their shadows. and as long as they touch each other if there's no shadow or they stop touching each other they will suffer unimaginable pain.

"What-Brings-You-Here-Stranger." They speak in turns, the next word always coming from the other.

"I wish to know where the Yosuzune sleep," I answer demurely.

"And-Why-Should-We-Tell-You-Anything-Stranger." There's a mocking tone in their words. Clipped with disgust and superiority.

"Because you don't want troubles with me," I answer easily, this time looking at her in the eye. Don't want to play nice? Then I won't either. At my side, Takae stiffens.

"Hoh-You-Think-Too-Highly-Of-Yourself-Human. Hmm-Very-Well,-There's-A-Hunter-On-The-Island. Bear-Destroyer. Yokai-Eater. Sleep-Watcher. Bring-Its-Head-To-Us-And-You-Shall-Know-Where-The-Yosuzume-Sleep." And with that, they stand up, holding each other arms and leaving without a second glance. The door at our back suddenly unlocked.

Hmpf. You think I can't see their plot. Waving my hand, a rune appears under the table. Smirking I motion Takae to follow me as we leave the donjon.

"They're quite scary. That's my opinion. And I think, they're scarier than the stories." She says.

"Well, you're not wrong. There's a reason this castle still stands, the Kijo is strong and greedy. And because of their greed Kachi is economically powerful and the people are happy. The reason is simple, they consider all this theirs. So if something is theirs, they will take care of it till it shines golden. Even the people." I answer as we walk towards the city.

"Oh, they're not so bad then." She doesn't understand yet.

"The downsides are that the people belong to them. They're not free, they have almost zero opportunities of leaving Kochi. Every single person here, except tourists, is cursed to stay in this city. You have to understand, they were humans once, but the Kijo are demons now. And demons are evil fucks. Now, since they are useful and don't harm anyone, the government decided to let them be. Besides, they don't care if the people are bound here, as long as they're not harmed." And now she understands. I watch the emotions on her face as I shatter her illusions. "Yokai curse people. You're not the only one." I curve my lip a little as I grab her hand.

"So, how do we find this hunter?"

"Well, it's easy. First, look at the clues she gave us. Bear destroyer, yokai eater, and sleep watcher. Bears are strong, and they are also isolationists, always living outside of contact with other species. They go hunt, but their dwellings are usually caves outside contact, be it human, yokai, or animal. Yokai eater, well, the description is enough ain't it? We'll just find Yokai in the forests, near caves, and ask when and where they were attacked. And lastly, sleep watcher. A night creature. In simple terms, we're looking for a creature that prowls on the night, probably big, if it attacks bears, that eats Yokai. Yokai are good at hiding, so probably some kind of feline? We'll see." I answer easily as we go towards the foot of the mountain.

We have been looking for caves or yokai villages for the past hour, just as I was gonna call the search of, because, well, I am hungry. Takae calls me.

"Nat! Come here!" She shouts while waving at me from the other side of a river. Looking at her from the top of the tree I find myself in. I smile as I jump towards her. "Got something?"

"Look, look!" She points towards the carcass of a dead bear.

"Oh, nice!" Walking towards the bear, I light one cigar. Sparkly green smoke rushing towards the carcass, wrapping the corpse, a few seconds later, the injuries that killed him are highlighted. The bear had a lot of wounds, not all are highlighted, which means they're old wounds. Nothing to worry about. The recent injuries, however, reveal that I was wrong about something.

"There's no way a feline did this," I say pointing towards the biggest injury. The torso of the bear is clawed out, not many times, just once. Probably the swipe of a single paw destroyed the bear.

"Hm. He got destroyed, with a single attack, the claws are probably bigger than us. And look at that, thicker than your legs too." I smirk.

"I have an idea, but until we find a Yokai village or the bear caves I won't know for sure. Let's keep going." Grabbing Takae's hand we walk in a random direction, hoping to find a town or something.

Suddenly, I feel an aura flashing intermittently from the south. "Oh, there," I say as I walk towards the aura. Flexing bits of my aura towards where the presence was.

"Humans!" A high-pitched voice calls to us. Looking around it seems he's still hiding. "Idiots, I am here!"

"Nat, down there." Takae points toward the roots of a tree, a little eye looking at us.

Rolling the only eye the root had, "Finally, you bipeds have two legs and two eyes, yet never seem to see! Idiots! We received a message from Lord Kijo. I am supposed to answer your stupid questions."

"Then, can you give all the information you guys have on the Yokai Eater?" I ask with a smirk at the attitude of this root Yokai.

"Hmpf. The Yokai village is sealed right now, so you won't be able to visit it. But we know it comes from the top of the other mountain. It comes at night, no one sees it, but we feel it. We did hear its roar. Also, it suddenly appeared two nights ago. There, all we know. Now go and kill it." Mr. Root grumbles as he disappears after closing his eye.

"That... That was a root?" Takae asks five minutes after we start trekking the mountain.

"Yep. Well, yes and no, their kind is actually just a red sappy eye. It can control roots and travels from root to root. When they're strong enough they can choose one root to live forever, and the root evolves, they become capable of movement and whatnot. It's weird. Frankly, Yokai are weird. But to be honest, at least Yokai are mostly documented because they like to speak, monsters in other places are weirder because we know nothing about them. Like the monsters in America. There are a lot of them, and yet, barely documented."

"You know a bunch of things, Nat. Who are you?" She questions in amazement.

"Oh right, forgot I am not famous here. Hm, well, I do owe you. After all, I did see your past. So it's like I know all about you, and you don't know much about me. Fair is fair. Wanna ask precise questions and I'll tell you? Should I just ramble about whatever I can think? Or wanna see my memories? I'll tell you however you wish, Takae." I turn around while we climb the mountain, chuckling at the expression on her face. "What? You thought I wouldn't tell you? I like you quite a lot, Takae."

As her entire head turns red, a little bit more and smoke would come out of her ears. I smirk and turn around again. "There's a cave in front of us."

"What a scary sight." Well, her opinion is obvious though.

The cave rests at the side of the mountain, a rocky path outside of it. Smoke comes from inside the cave, and on top of the mountain. It seems the top of the mountain is the other exit of the cave.

The entrance looks like a big maw, about to eat anyone who dares enter. Blood and bones outside the entrance, and a trail of blood losing itself inside the cavern.

"Oh well, look at that, that's the head of a Tengu. Hmm. Well, the Yokai Eater must be quite strong. So, wanna deal with it yourself? I smirk. Here." I wave my hand and two black boots made of something looking like leather appear.

"I enchanted them last night. While they do not mesh well with your style, they're the only ones of this length I had. Later when you find boots you like I'll do it again." Before I could explain what the enchantments do, I find myself engulfed by Takae. It's almost like she's hugging me with her whole body. Nice!

Hm? She's crying? Again? "Why are you crying now?" I say exasperatedly as I hug her back.

"I-I... I don't usually receive gifts. It makes me really happy, thank you." She sniffles.

"Hehehe, don't worry. Now, as I was saying. These boots will automatically adjust to your body, they're thigh-high. And stronger than steel, they absorb kinetic movement, and then you can release it, through kicks or a speed burst if you want. Just don't save too much energy or it may hurt you. I don't know your limits yet." I explain as she quickly removes her shoes and puts on the boots. Yeah... They clash with her style. Hahaha! I mean, her legs are something legendary and sexier than a parade of Valkiryes but it clashes so much. Oh god. Hahahaha!

"How-How do I look?" She turns to me, smiling wide and stars in her eyes. Aw. Damn it. Should I say it? She turns around, posing for me. But keep her eyes focusing on my own.

"Well. Hehe." -Ehem- "You look beautiful, as always. Buuut... Well, they kinda clash with your Yoga pants and your sporty top. Y'know? Look, just use it for this battle and then we go and shop for another pair of shoes or something that you like. Hahahaha!"

Pouting, she mutters something I couldn't hear because of my laughter, she just turns towards the entrance, and with newfound strength, she enters the destroyer lair.

Following that ass, I mean, Takae, we find ourselves in a big spacious cavern. There's light from a hole in the roof, in the middle of the cavern there's a big cauldron, bubbling, and smoking. Black red liquid stirring inside. I can see eyes, legs, and arms floating on the liquid. Besides the cauldron, a big, humongous black bear stands on two legs.

As it starts growling towards us, Takae jumps in front of him and kicks its chin.

"An Onikuma," I start. "I don't know what it's doing here, this is too far from their dwelling. Don't worry, they don't have special powers or anything, it's just a big bear that can walk on its hind legs like a human. It is exceptionally strong though, so be careful." I say as I go towards one of the walls and rest on it crossing my arms.

The kick to the chin did nothing, it didn't even move the Onikuma's head backward. It just made it growl.

Roaring at the top of his lungs, a sonic wave came from him, destroying the rocks that protruded from its surrounding area. Takae jumps backward before the sound reaches her, she's quite fast after all.

Crouching when she landed, she suddenly impulses herself towards the left side of the Onikuma, she's going so fast lightning appears where she was.

However the Onikuma is not a beast for nothing, he may not be as fast, but he has the instinct only a beast of its type can have. It sweeps with his hands to the sides.

Takae who was rushing towards the left side of the Onikuma can see the big arm going towards where she was going. With a grunt she jumps, twisting her body in the air, until she's spinning fast, her legs crouched in the air.

With a shout, she kicks the joint of the giant arm that's reaching the ground, trying to break it with its own force. Smart.

And while the bear is hurt, its arm is far from broken. A red aura covers him now, his eyes shining red on anger.

Each roar shaking the cave, his spit burning the ground, his blood, berserk.

Each swipe of its claws, rebounded by a flurry of kicks. Takae starts spins dodging a sudden bite, her hand grabbing the bear by the ear. As her legs spin in the air, her hands grab its ears, the own force of her kicks forcing Takae to tear its ears off.

Bending her body, so she can bounce from its head, she didn't count on one thing. This is a Yokai, not a normal bear.

As she was gonna bounce from him, the arms of the bear, grab her legs at an impossible angle. Luckily, my boots protect her legs from being crushed. It does not protect her from being thrown like a ragdoll. As the bear closes in the immobile Takae, I am about to intervene when she suddenly looks at me. Fire in her eyes.

-sigh- Very well. You can do this.

As the Onikuma jumps towards her, face first, intent on devouring her even if he headbutts the ground, Takae suddenly moves. One of her legs pushed the ground, the other kicking towards the Onikuma's jaw. She is about to handstand on the ground as she kicks with the impulse of her own leg. Amazing.

Her legs shone yellow, thunder around them. The boots, shining red, the enchantment at play. The kick tearing through the bear's jaw, it doesn't stop as it reaches the upper jaw, tearing the Onikuma's face in two, bits and pieces of gelatinous brain. Before the Onikuma's body falls to the floor, Takae is already out of there, jumping backward thanks to her handstand.

With a huff, she looks at me with a brilliant smile, as she's about to tell me something, I shush her with a finger making her confused. Her confusion is dispelled as a rain of blood falls on her.

"Well, at least you didn't swallow Yokai blood," I smirk.

"Ah! Disgusting! This... This is a little bit of the brain!? On my hair!? Oh no, my hair is hard to take care of!" She suddenly stops, as if remembering something, she looks at me, from feet to head. Eh? Flattering? What's going on?

"You... You shushed me. You knew this was gonna happen! And what's that umbrella on top of you!?" Ah, yeah. Oops.

"Hahahaha... Yeah, about that. Hm. Fine, don't worry, I'll help you clean later. For now, let's inspect the cave."

"Hmpf. Fine." She starts stomping around. "Still... Thank you, the boots are amazing." She smiles at me.

Hm. I would glomp her if she wasn't dropping blood and brains all around. Do I tell her that a tooth is on her collar? Haha!

"Oh hey, Takae! Look at this!" I shout from the other side of the cave, where an entrance to another chamber lies. In it, there's a natural pond. Beautiful, shining blue because of gemstones in it.

"Oooh!" In a flash she's naked, jumping towards the pond.

Hm. Oh well, lighting a cigar, silvery sparkly smoke rushes towards her clothes. From it a dark red cloud with bits and pieces of Onikuma float towards the center of the other chamber. There, clean clothes.

Takae gapes at me, understanding that I could have done that from the very beginning. "Ah! You bitch!" I find myself suddenly falling face first towards the pond. "Kya!"

"Hahaha! You deserved that! Also, kya? You shout like a little girl!" She's making faces at me.

My clothes suddenly disappear, I smile in challenging joy, "Oh yeah? Get ready Takae. No one plays with me and wins!"

An hour later, we're sitting beside the pond, on chairs. A table between us. Yep, having everything I can find on my ring is always amazing.

"So, now what?" She asks before biting on her chicken.

"Well, the Kijo Lord with undoubtedly try to con us, or cheat, or something. They're not well known for their word. However, we did do what they wanted, along with their con, the location of the Yosuzume will lay. We only need to, push her. It's quite easy, if she doesn't come through, we make trouble to the tourist spots on the castle." I smirk, amused by the idea of trolling the Kijo Lord. Or is it lady? Meh. Whatever.