And now for everyone's monthly double dose of TTY!
12. Ishida Ayumi
Getting into the city was easier than she thought. It wasn't so much paperwork that was causing such a ruckus but just the fact that the city was severely discriminatory against demons. The guards only took one look at her before waving her past the checkpoint. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to be offended that she looked so ordinarily normal or be thankful for it that they didn't ask any questions, but she couldn't help but feel bad for those who were turned away just for having a little bit of demon blood in them.
That problem was seriously getting out of hand. Not all demons were bad... Especially not Riho or Michishige-san. She could actually sneak Michishige-san in if she wanted to, but a human who would insist on bringing a bunny in would raise unwanted questions...
She wished the both of them were with her to see all this. Despite the rain, crowds were bustling and hustling all around. She had never been in a city like this! There were so many people! At least four bumped into her as she stood still in awe! Not wanting to be in the way or in the rain, she tucked herself near a roofed corner and continued taking in the sight.
This was definitely a commercial district, for stalls selling everything from food to distinct wares were all she could see. If Riho were around, the cat would definitely eat everything in sight! This wasn't where she needed to be though. She needed to find an inn or some sort of bounty hunter den for a job. Riho told her that in cities, those would be the easiest places to find jobs in.
"Excuse me..." she looked to a monger of a fish stall next to her, "Where is the nearest inn? Or is there a hunters' den somewhere?"
The balding fishmonger looked at her with a careful scrutiny, arcing one brow up in bemusement, "And what does a little girl like you need with a hunters' den? Revenge?"
To be honest, Ayumi was focused on the rather large mole at the side of the fishmonger's heavily wrinkled eyes. "I.... Uh.... I'm looking for work..."
"...Hotaru?" the old man squinted.
"I'm not," Ayumi waved her hand dismissively. What a strange old man. Did he mistake her for a grandchild or something? "I'm a bounty hunter..."
"At your age?!" the old man tilted his head side to side, as if appraising Ayumi's value of strength, "You don't seem the fighter..."
"Oh, I may be..........tiny......" she said that last word with slight chagrin, "but I've taken out things a hundred times my size!" She raised an arm up and slapped her bicep, displaying her initiative.
A tall man with an umbrella placed a hand on her shoulder, "You can take on things a hundred times your size?"
Ayumi looked up in surprise, though kept with her image, "Yes, yes I can!"
The man stood back and looked her head to toe, hand stroking his chin. After what seemed like forever, he looked at her. "What kind of reward are you going for?"
"Honestly, I just need money for a ride to Okinawa..." Ayumi said cautiously. She was warned about scammers but this one seemed genuine enough... She needed to try this out, this was a make or break deal after all: "But I need enough for two."
The tanned man reached into his obi and pulled out a pouch. "This will definitely cover you," he opened the pouch and she could see the fine glitter of the coins on the inside.
"May I check?" she reached out for the coins, her parents taught her the difference between a scammer's coin and the truth. The man nodded and she plucked a coin out, studying it. Finding no strange kinks, or any of the other telltale signs of a fake, she put it back.
"What do you need?"
"We need you to get something from a cave."
A retrieval mission? Too easy for something of that much reward.
"What's the catch?"
"There's a dragon in the cave."
Ayumi internally screamed.
However, she kept tightlipped.
"My boys and I were resting in a cave not too far from here, but then that dragon came in and nearly wiped the majority of us out! Thankfully we escaped but we left behind a bunch of our stuff!"
Ayumi nodded. She wondered if the leftover stuff contained...
"Mind you, we already took the money with us, we have our priorities..." the man glared at her, assuming he knew what she was thinking of, "what we left behind were just barrels of sake. And they're important for business."
Ayumi nodded. This man must have thought she was younger than she looked. She knew how expensive sake could go for, and frankly, if she sold those instead, she'd make far more than what the man showed her.
"What I need you to do is to just find a way to get the barrels back here. You're obviously too weak to take on a dragon, but with your size... you could definitely get the sake back. Though if you're confident you can defeat the dragon, that's even better, but for now, it's just the barrels that are top priority."
Ayumi nodded. "Where is this cave?"
"If you come out of the city, follow the eastern coastline up and you'll find a cave beneath a cliff. If the rocks begin to point at you, you're on the right track. Once you see it, you can't miss it. There's an old wreckage of a ship at its entrance. It's seriously not too far, you'll be able to reach it long before the sky even thinks of setting."
Ayumi nodded. Can't be too hard to roll out barrels of sake, right? "How many barrels are we looking at?"
"I know some were destroyed in our escape but there should at LEAST be four left..." the man counted on his fingers, recollecting his memories. He then pointed at a building at the other end of the area, "See that building? Near the stalls with the vegetables? That's the inn the boys and I are staying at. If you succeed, you'll find us there."
"I'll need papers to get them in, right?"
"Ah! Yes," the man rummaged through his sleeve this time, "here."
Ayumi received the document and looked at it, scanning its contents. It looked real enough, so she tucked it in her bag. "If I don't personally notify you, consider an absence of three days a failure."
The man nodded and went about his way, leaving Ayumi to herself.
A dragon...
A dragon?!
Not that she didn't doubt Riho's strength but a dragon?! She really hoped that Riho had enough to eat that she could at least transform or something! Being able to transform would be the one thing guaranteeing a successful mission! She got back in line to exit the city and began breathing in and out erratically.
A dragon... A live dragon... Oh wait, she forgot to ask if it was a demon or not! Maybe if it was a demon, she could... try to reason with it? If it was a live, feral creature, then gods help her...
"...But then that dragon came in and nearly wiped the majority of us out!"
Ayumi gulped. This was by far the most intense mission she and Riho would ever take on! What they've done the past weeks were simply eliminating lesser demons or even things as little as helping a kid out of a tree! Never a...a...a dragon!
Once she was out of the gates, she took out a piece of clothing from the bag and draped it over her as cover from the rain. She then immediately bolted straight for Riho.
As she ran up a hill, she noticed a cloud flying awfully low to the ground of another hill...
"Must be Mint-kun..." Ayumi uttered under her breath. As she was getting closer to the two, she paused. Nevermind Michishige-san, who was grooming herself meticulously, but Riho...
Is she... sleeping?! The twintailed girl looked on with disbelief at the other.
Not caring about the rain anymore, she twisted the wet cloth in her hand and whipped the cat.
Riho merely rolled over from the hit, but the moment she rolled away from Mint-kun's protection into the rain, her hand reached up and yanked Mint-kun over to where she was.
Michishige-san was drenched, however. With the anger of a thousand suns, she pounced on Riho's side and ferociously thumped at the her. Riho merely opened an eye, seeing Ayumi, before rolling over again, crushing the poor bunny.
Annoyed, Ayumi punted Mint-kun into the air, effectively dispersing him.
"STOP KILLING MINT-KUN!" Riho sprang up immediately. What a brat! She wouldn't wake up after a wet whip nor an angry bunny but the moment you kick her cloud, she was as sprung as a squirrel?!
No matter, she wrung out the wet cloth as much as she could, "We have a mission to either get valuable barrels of sake out of a cave, or defeat the dragon protecting it," she lifted it over her head, acting as a cover once more.
Riho's ears perked upwards. "Dragon?" she did a rolling motion with her hands and all of a sudden, Mint-kun reappeared with all his cloudly bits attached. "We're up against a dragon?"
"That's what the guy said," Ayumi noticed how Mint-kun seemed to be an ample umbrella, so she began walking underneath it as well. "We just have to follow this coastline up until we see the cave its in." She pointed along the beach.
Riho nodded and continued along. Michishige-san hopped along, doing her best to keep up with the cloud. Was there a way to make the cloud just a tad bit bigger though? Ayumi felt rain hitting her in the shoulder and it was rather unpleasant... She attempted to shuffle closer to the other but still kept her distance. However, Riho noticed.
"Here, you're going to get sick like that..." she unceremoniously draped a hand across the back of Ayumi's shoulders and brought her closer. Ayumi couldn't help but shiver slightly at the touch.
But some part of her told her that it was nice.
13. Niigaki Risa
Why in the world was she in this predicament?! She came from the first village into the next village and then she crossed cities upon cities and she even flew between them at one point, just how many months passed since she began her journey!?
She hissed as the taller girl poured a bit of alcohol on her leg.
"N-Not too much! You'll waste it all!" she snatched the gourd and drank a little bit.
"But Niigaki-sama, your leg will get infected!" the frantic girl looked back and forth between the rather nasty gash and her charge.
"I'm a storm dragon, Erina, you don't have to worry," she leaned over to pet the short haired girl.
Somewhere in her journey southwards, she came across a rather unorthodox blacksmith who seemingly idolized her... for whatever reason. She kept telling her that she shouldn't leave the vicinity of the castle she was smithing for, but Erina insisted on coming. It didn't help that the princess allowed smith to go in the first place!
The auburn haired dragon sighed heavily. Thanks to her leg injury in the previous fight, they were stuck in a cove. They were lucky they even found a place like this! They were innocently flying in the air, with Risa in her true form, until a band of pirates decided it would be fabulous to shoot arrows at her. Not that it would do much, storm dragons had scales tougher than any samurai armor to boot, but that ship had a ridiculously heavy harpoon!
It had pierced her right in the thigh and when she pulled back, excruciating pain shot through her veins--the harpoon was anchored to the ship and when she pulled back, she pulled the ship along with her. The blacksmith was hanging onto her head for dear life as she mustered enough strength to fly to shore and smash the ship against the rocks!
They didn't think there were any survivors, so Risa transformed back into her human form, though not without a bad fall right after. The hot sand was so painful against her thigh... Eripon managed to carry her to the very cove they resided in, only to find out it was packed with the very pirates they thought were dead! How was she supposed to know this was a secret pirate base?!
The storm dragon rubbed at her temples. This was troublesome.
"Aren't you cold?" she looked up at the other.
Erina was only dressed in a simple grey farmer's robe. The sleeves were tied up by green sashes. Just like her sleeves, she wore a sash around her forehead as well. What was most worrying was that her clothes ended above her knees! She was also walking around bare foot too, so it was even more worrisome!
"Remember, Niigaki-sama, I'm one with the earth!" she stuck her index and middle fingers out in a victory sign.
"Lies, what about those leg bracers you're wearing? It's really cold, you've been in water, and that surely can't be comfortable to wear at all!"
"Niigaki-sama is covered head to toe in armor!" the young human pointed out.
Yes, although she had the official black and blue armor of her clan, she was a storm dragon foremost and storm dragons were not fazed by wetness or coldness. Even if she had some of the heavier armors on!
"That's different, I'm one with the storm!" Despite that though, the clothes beneath the armor were taking their sweet time to dry...
The air in the cove was incredibly humid thanks to the rain happening outside, and the storm they brought from the sea.
When she looked around, she found that her escort was missing.
"Eripon!?"
"I'm here!"
Risa's eyes went the size of two shields when she saw Eripon gleefully running towards her with a gigantic wooden door over her head.
"NO WAY!!!"
"I can carry you on top of this!" the other set the rather humongous door down. "But if it's beneath you, I could instantly craft a carriage for you."
"NO WAY!!!"
But it was too late, Erina was already in work mode. It still astounded her whenever she did it. She did not need to use tools. One of Erina's charm points was that she was able to literally craft everything with her bare hands! The storm dragon watched in shock as the muscled girl literally hit things into place--all with that frivolous smile on her face.
In her 200 years of living, she had NEVER seen a human capable of doing that! Her jaw dropped as the young girl easily pried nails off of boards and literally slap them into the right place. She was practically juggling the pieces in her hand as she looked for more material to use.
"So how did you find out about your magic again...?" It had to be magic. No normal human was able to do it...
"I only have a little earth element in me! But thanks to that, and the fact I work out" she flexed to show off her biceps and triceps, "it all just added up. Mizuki took notice of my talent and personally invited me to use her castle's forge."
"You need to call her Fukumura-hime..." Risa deadpanned.
"She said it was okay!" the smith retorted.
"How does everyone else react when you call her that?" Risa leaned back against the rocky wet surface behind her.
"Oh that..." Erina looked up for a moment, "it seems all the times I did it, it was just the two of us."
Oh?
She was feeling mischievous now, "Do you have a thing for the princess?"
"Huh? I've built her room if that counts. You won't even believe all the times we've been in the rain in her old room. So unpleasant! We'd break the doors all the time and I think even one time, my head went through the wall! So we decided to build a new room capable of all of our activities. I reinforced it with the same alloys we use for swords!" she laughed as she twirled the newly built (!?) carriage in her hand.
If only Erina knew the implications!!! Risa couldn't help but laugh at the other's obliviousness. But then it dawned on her.
"NO WAY!!!" The carriage was done?!
"Now I can carry you comfortably!" the smithy smacked the roof of the rather aesthetically pleasing carriage.
"Wait so there's no wheels or anything?"
"Oh you wanted wheels?" Erina began to turn, "It'll take a while to bend wood but since the water is pretty cool, this should perfectly work--"
"NO WAY! Don't do it, I'm okay, just carry me!" she waved frantically. Erina looked at her for a moment before smiling blissfully and returning.
What was she going to do with this girl?
"Should we move out now?" The taller sat down in front of her. Risa couldn't help but smile at the sight, for it was as if Erina was a puppy with its tail enthusiastically wagging.
"Let's not, it's raining out. Maybe we can go after the rain stops?" the elder looked towards the where the entrance might have been. The pirates did a good job scoping out this cove, for it was definitely large enough to hide two ships in. However, there were hardly wooden planks for walking. This crew was only average intelligence at best, probably. Or they barely had time to truly outfit the cove to their liking. Too bad there were no rooms or beds or anything like that around.
"Should I make a bed for you?"
She was tempted to say yes, but Risa had to decline. "The rain will let up after a while. We need to move again. If this was just one ship, the other ship could be back any time too..." she looked at the empty waters in front of them. Despite the lack of wooden paths, there were still two loading docks. That meant two ships were meant to fit in... "My leg could take weeks to heal though..."
"Let me cast a magic spell on you," Erina twirled her finger at Risa's face, "TADA it worked, your leg is instantly healed!"
Risa stared at the other, the corner of her mouth twitching.
Erina squealed as a wave drenched her--specifically her. Risa steadied her hand after, the water receding back into where it belonged.
"Niigaki-samaaaa!" the smith rubbed her eyes.
Risa looked away.
Why am I stuck with her?!
NEW CHARACTERS YAY : D