/jp/ - Otaku Culture

In the centre of the crater, which had widened in size slightly - and the ring of snowless trees had expanded further - I could see Tenshi, her feet still planted in the ground, but her arms now blocking the attack that had come from above. I'd recognize the attacker anywhere. Marisa had even more of the strange armour additions that Tenshi had, and they seemed to even run through the broom which Marisa gripped in her left hand. She had twisted in mid-air with her fist lashing out and her elbow striking downward, but Tenshi had blocked both which had caused the massive shockwave. Now, the two were locked in place. I imagined that there was some intense strain going on inside, the kind I'd seen between the oni, but perhaps more magically assisted. "What's that on her broom?" Kisami asked, having managed to release her grip on me and get back to her feet. "Just before the bristles. It looks...Uh, sort of octagonal?" That was probably Marisa's Mini-Hakkero, I said. Her magical furnace. Suddenly, the power behind that attack made more sense. I'd seen - More than seen - her Master Spark in action, and I'd seen the way she braced herself before using it for the recoil, so she must have been using it to increase the strength of her attack. In the back of my mind, I wondered if they were beginning to enjoy the whole thing a little too much.

Suddenly, the two broke apart, before rushing at each other with physical attacks. These each left sounds like thunder echoing through the air, and after a few seconds more, Tenshi shot off into the sky again, and I saw Marisa follow a moment later, her broom shooting upward so quickly that it looked like Marisa was only barely clinging onto it with one hand. She too disappeared behind the clouds once more, and if it wasn't for the destruction they'd left in their wake, I wouldn't have even known that it had happened.

At least, until I saw the blue and the green of the kappa and yamawaro respectively break out of the trees and start fights of their own. "I guess their war thing is going well." Kisami commented, patting the snow out of her hair. After a moment, I realised that she'd never get it all, so I spun her around and brushed off as much of it as I could see. "Well, that was...Interesting. What's their deal?" I thought for a moment, and was forced to say that it was a very long story. "Ha." Kisami said. "Of course it is. The best ones usually are." She sighed and shivered, pulling her coat around her tighter. "C'mon, let's keep going. We've got to get across this whole section. Over there, you see?" She pointed toward a massive cliff face, easily dwarfing the tallest buildings I'd seen in my time in the Outside World. "That's the Secret Heaven Cliff, and above that is the False Heaven Shelf, which then leads to the Rainbow Dragon Cave." Those were three names that I didn't recognize, but my most important question was how exactly we were supposed to climb the cliff face. "Er...I'll just carry you, probably." Of course, I muttered. I couldn't wait.

What was the Rainbow Dragon Cave, anyway? "It's a mine. No idea when it was made or who made it, but it's been around forever. Recently, someone's set up in there and started working, but they don't care about most of the stuff you can actually mind from there, she just wants these weird rainbow rocks. So, I said, "Can I have all this gold?" and she replied that as long as I didn't touch her 'dragons', that was fine. I mean, she did try to attack me first, but I'm no slouch, so I managed to hold out long enough to calm her down. I don't really know what that thing about dragons meant, but I wasn't complaining, but then, when I left..." Kisami seemed to have been wanting to talk about this for ages, because once she'd started, she couldn't seem to stop.

Even though I still had the prickling on the back of my neck from being watched, I felt a little bit more relaxed. Especially since I doubted that the whole thing would take much longer. It seemed simple enough to get to this cave, then find whatever it was we were here for and get out. What could go wrong? Well, apart from the breathing thing. I was still waiting for a solution to that to present itself. I looked over my shoulder for a moment and I could have sworn that I saw someone balanced on the tip of a tree, but in the blink of an eye, they disappeared.
But I'm sure it was nothing.