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geminmyeyes · 10 months

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Chapter 1 - Beyond Light and Shadow (Tumblr Backup Edition)

Inspired (?) by the Ao3 outage, I have decided to take the time to back up my chapters onto tumblr (and hopefully later, my own site) and to try to reach here as well.

Rating: Teen and Up audiences for violence, swearing, and mature themes Characters: A vast majority of the original Shadowside cast (so Natsume, Touma, Akinori, Ayame, etc.) as well as several new Yokai and characters Other Tags of Note: Sequel Fic, Focus on Mythology (namely Hindu and Chinese mythology) Premise Synopsis: Two years have passed since the Soranaki incident, and everyone’s been living their happy lives. Though, while some things have changed, the youkai are always a part of it. Now, the happy peace is disturbed with murmurs of A Queen of 100 Demons and The Sacred King’s Armory, all colliding with a boy who’s entire arm is a watch. Will everyone be able to stop this new threat, or will the human and youkai worlds be plunged into a reign of bloody malice?

Next Chapter ->

I barely remember anything about myself, or who I was before that oni promised me I would be able to live a normal life.

But did he really? He possessed my body to do things I can’t even recall. Then if he needed to appear in his full form, discard me back to where I was until he needed to be a human boy again.

Now, I’ve been discarded for good. Back being bedridden with only about half of a functioning heart.

I was used to this, however I wasn’t used to hearing a serendipitous string of syllables.

“We can fix your truly vexatious instance of congenital heart disease with breakthrough but experimental surgery. Are you willing to take this chance?”

After having my body possessed and paraded around, I should have probably known to reject the idea of miracles. Yet, and yet, a part of me still hopes. Still hopes for things to get better.

Since despite it all, I believe in a hopeful future.

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It had been about a little over two years to the day since Soranaki was defeated, Shuka and Kuuten finally being at peace after what felt like an eternity of endless suffering.

Since then, life has gone mostly back to normal, though with a few changes.

First it was Ayame who said she was going to study in Europe, not only for training in different forms of magic, but also to study becoming a patisserie. Her eyes sparkled when she mentioned her plan to be learning the sciences of baking by day, and practicing magic at night. She does her best to keep in touch, especially Akinori, despite the difference in time zones.

Then it was Akinori, who needed to focus on becoming on par with his grandma full time for the most part. Even though the woman was capable physically, death would come to her eventually so it was vital to teach Akinori absolutely everything she knew, even the boy ditching to go to high school completely to focus on magic training.

Finally there was Touma, who ended up being enrolled in a completely different high school from Natsume’s. It was by sheer cruel fate it seems, different programs and benefits appealing to their different needs, despite how much in common the two shared. But, even when she moved when they were young, they managed to still have a small spark of friendship. Hell, that spark grew brighter and stronger into a supernova by the time Oni King Rasen was done and over with.

Natsume was, well, still Natsume. She was still trying to live an average but happy life to the best of her abilities, even after harboring the soul of a powerful princess for who knows how long and only letting her rest two years ago.

Right now her focus was on High School, which would be starting in a few days. But before then, she and the others were going to have a small reunion party tomorrow afternoon. Well, at least the ones that could physically be there, but Ayame said she’d set an alarm to make sure she was up in her timezone.

It was hard to try to go to sleep, the lights in the teen girl’s room haven’t even been turned off yet. The faint buzzing of lights were the only noise Natsume could focus on, thoughts racing constantly through her head.

“Somethin’ buggin you kiddo?” Jibanyan asked, startling Natsume right back into reality in the process as she fumbled a bit from the shock.

“Ah! Uh…umm…no? Well, maybe? I don’t know…” Natsume gave her best answer despite her scrambled thoughts. “It’s just, you know, High School is starting soon. My life to this moment has felt like this major now or never moment as I live the best years of my life! At least, that’s what I’m told by my parents, by a few friends, by all the shows on TV about high schoolers doing all sorts of incredible things…”

Jibanyan gave a well meaning sigh. “Ah, I get that feeling quite a bit, a lot of stuff you humans have hype those up as the best years of your life where you can be running from death only for a knight in shining armor to save your sorry ass. But really, your life doesn’t get worse the moment you finish up your graduation ceremony. The arcades and wherever won’t kick you out just because you hit twenty five.”

Natsume nodded, understanding what her feline friend was getting at.

“Yeah…I guess after all that happened two years ago with Shuka and Kuuten and all of them, I am prepared to expect my high school years to be even crazier than all that, and we faced the near apocalypse then!”

“I get ya, I hadn’t been on a crazy adventure like that in a very long time, and I had faced paw to paw with a reality bending flying whale. Seize the moment and all that, but don’t expect to get whisked away into fairyland, alright?”

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Morning was starting to shift into afternoon, and the time for the Youkai Detective Agency reunion party was drawing near. Having had a smidge of trouble getting some shut eye, Natsume found herself scrambling out the door in a hurry.

So much in a hurry she didn’t realize it was raining cats and dogs outside and she didn’t grab an umbrella. Had time for a raincoat, but not an umbrella. Ah well, it wouldn’t kill her if she showed up with a wet head of hair, nothing a towel can’t fix.

In fact Natsume was in such a hurry, she didn’t notice someone turning the corner, running right into them like a perfectly calculated throw by an expert bowler for a satisfying strike.

“I’m s-so sorry about th-that!” Natsume muttered in an instinctive yet trepidation fueled response.

The person she ran into was silent for a bit, but didn’t seem angry. He was a university aged student, skin a rich and deep chestnut hue with hair like a deep ocean and eyes like the silver lining in the clouds.

“It’s alright,” the young man began, giving a slight sigh. “It’s understandable that you youths refuse to waste a moment.”

“Call me Shirogane Inazuma,” He answered without a second thought.

“Wait what about–” Natsume made a valiant effort to ask, but she realized that Shirogane had gone the other way. Who was that guy anyways?

A few swift (but more careful) steps later, Natsume made it into the detective agency safe and sound.

“Natsume, you’re here!” Touma spoke, his soft spoken voice trying its best to bring in enthusiasm, even if it was hard to express at times.

“Hey! It’s been way too long, it’s great to have you here!” Akinori gleefully added in, the two boys hugging their friend. Really, even if they had small meetups and the like over the weekend, it felt like far too long since they’ve all properly met together in the same old place as before. Youkai cases weren’t as severe in needing all of them, usually something Akinori could now handle on his own for the most part.

Everyone knew the meeting began when the tablet set up on the desk had its screen flash indicating a video call was being started by Ayame. Now, when that video call would be answered, it truly would be a reunion party!

“Bonjour! Hoi! Top of the morning to you all!” Ayame greeted from a living area in a dormitory, bright and chipper as ever even though it was the dead of night where she was. Behind her was another girl, turning at the sound of her friends greeting one another.

“Who’s that behind you?” Natsume pointed out.

“Oh that’s my dorm mate, Dorothea, she’s two grades higher than me and we ended up together due to an error that couldn’t be fixed before the year started. We don’t start classes until the day after tomorrow, so they wanted us to get nice and cosy in our dorms first,” Ayame pointed out, leaning back to look at the older girl, who was saying something in French that wasn’t quite understood by the other side. “Do you want to say hi to my friends?”

Leaning into view was a beautiful young woman, with dark tawny skin, naturally curly black hair and deep brown eyes. She had pink sunglasses resting atop her head and a plain but fashionable top as expected for the future trend setters of France.

“H-h-hello…!?” Dorothea said to the best of her ability, her french accent thick as she attempted to communicate across language barriers. Everyone waved hello as she spoke to Ayame some more French, likely that she was going to probably grab something and then go to her room to not interrupt the call further.

“So how’s everyone been lately?” Ayame asked sweetly.

“Things have been going well! Been training up my yojitsu extra hard to the point I can maybe do a little bit of magic with Suzaku summoned, but it’s still a bit risky,” Akinori began without hesitation, heart racing all the while. “You should see about coming over sometime, there’s been an Ayame shaped hole in my Ayame shaped heart after all!”

“A few things have happened,” Touma started to give his response to the prompted question. “Firstly I had returned the Youseiken keys of the Azure Heaven Blades, the Righteous Heaven Axe, and the Great Spirit Spear to Suzaku, Genbu, and Byakko respectively. It just didn’t feel right having that much power in my hands, especially since we’ve defeated Soranaki and I can probably face off threats just fine with the Genma and Fudou Muyoou. Besides that, I’m going to start high school soon, and managed to get into a more technical oriented school to pursue computer science and programming.”

“Oh I’m uh, well, still me,” Natsume gave a sheepish shrug. “I start high school soon! It’s at a different school than Touma’s and especially yours, but it’s something! I still have no idea what I want to do, so I’ll just see what I’m dealt.”

“Well gaze your eyes on this!” Akinori said with bright enthusiasm.

The image of the engraving was moderately blurred making the infer details hard to decipher, but not to the extent one might have when witnessing a cryptid in the wild. What could be made out in the image was an engraving of five weapons similar to the Youseiken, even down to largely the same colors of dark blue, cyan, green, magenta, and red.

However, things started to differ slightly. Sure it was clear whatever the green one was, it was still a blunt force weapon like the Genbu Righteous Heaven Axe, there were a set of twin blades in one engraving, and finally a spear, but that’s where the similarities ended. The spear was the one with red coloring, not cyan like the Byakko Great Spirit Spear. Even some weapons never seen before with Kenbumajin like a bow and chakrams were present, even one just out of frame was present that was extremely difficult to make out any details. How strange…

“These are what Great King Enma called The Sacred King’s Armory! As for what that is, they’re the original Youseiken and Kenbumajin folks!”

“Didn’t we already run all over the place looking for the Youseiken? Or is this a completely new set of them?” Natsume inquired, Akinori simply stroking his chin, knowing this was his moment to explain this exciting new information.

“Allow me to explain that one, you see the Youseiken we were scrambling for two years ago that ended up awakening Soranaki…they were a ruse as well despite the power being very real. The ongoing theory is that Soranaki tricked five different ordinary youkai into getting great amounts of power at the cost of acting as his keys. Some of them were dangerous, like Fudou Muyoou having to be sealed by all the previous kings of the Youkai World! The whole princess awakening stuff was playing off of how I think one of The Sacred King’s Armory is used in coordination rituals in the Enma clan.”

“So that explains why Byakko, Suzaku, and Genbu are Kenbumajin and not Kirin or Seiryuu. They are typically depicted as equals with different elements and abilities. At least, going off where I first heard of these creatures, Explosive Shooting Bladespin Force ZX.” Touma commented as he pieced the information together.

“It’s all quite strange how history can be altered like that,” Whisper commented, having not made his presence known earlier. This resulted in everyone jumping out of their skin in a startled fright.

“Regardless of history being altered and lost to time, it’s my duty to protect Natsume!” Micchy added in as well to the conversation, the aforementioned Natsume being miffed.

However.

When a blood curdling scream and the sound of something hitting the trees in the nearby forest of the temple could be heard, any and all jovial joys had stopped right there.

There was silence, everything processing despite all the panic beating through everyone’s hearts faster and faster.

“Are you guys okay back there!?” Ayame asked worriedly, whereas the Youkai Detective Agency panicked in trying to figure out where that sound was coming from.

“I’m sorry Ayame but we gotta call this meeting off right now, I’ll call you back later tonight if this is just a minor incident,” Akinori reassured, the boy and the others rushing out to see where the noise was.

Everyone had rushed out to the woods behind the shrine. The group was greeted by Shutendouji, who looked beaten with only an inch of his life left. He was clearly shaking as he tried to get back up despite the numerous wounds that painted the grass with blood.

“What on earth happened here?” Natsume asked, Shuten coughing a bit as he tried to get his composure back.

“I…someone who I contracted with…they betrayed me because of the power The Queen of One Hundred Demons gave him…” Shuten tried to riposte with a pathetic wheeze in his shaking breath. “K-Kid unleashed something I had never seen before and it was horrifying, Princess.”

Natsume would have given a snarky correction to the oni, but things were looking dire so she bit her lip to hold back. “Is there anything else you know? What kind of power was it?”

Shutendouji looked towards Touma, handing him back the Asura Wildfire Blade he had been given two years ago.

“Listen, squirt, I can’t use Kenbumajin but you sure as hell can. Because you got to understand, what that kid unleashed was a Kenbumajin I had never seen before, and he was no joke…” Shuten instructed, Touma taking the small red key and looking at it intently.

“What kid are you talking about?” Touma worriedly inquired, only to get a response to that very question.

“The hell are you doing, trying to defend such a worthless youkai?” A voice asked, a bit more ridden with angst but the appearance was unmistakable to everyone.

“H-Haruya!?” Natsume choked out in shock. “But, you’re just Shuten’s human disguise!”

“Beating yourself up just isn’t physically possible!”

“This…This better not be some kind of sick trick…! Sure the scarf and vintage look is new, but I don’t trust it…”

‘Haruya’ gave a seething “tsk” at that comment. It was true, he looked mostly the same as before with pale white skin, ice blue eyes and carbon black hair, but had gained a long, slightly tattered scarf made from a cloth and a few new threads that wouldn’t look out of place from magazines that were cutting edge vogue fifty years ago.

“Is that really what he called me when he was using my physical form like it was his shiny new puppet? Ugh,” ‘Haruya’ cursed, gritting his teeth.

He raised his left hand, showing that something similar to a Youkai Watch wasn’t strapped on, but physically grafted on his arm in a way only thought possible in sci-fi movies and comics. With a swift snap of his fingers, a portal opened and he managed to kick Shuten’s quivering, bloodsoaked body through it, closing without a sign of struggle.

“I am the blade of her greatest majesty to grace the Youkai World,” A proper introduction was finally given, his face far more grave and less smug than when Shutendouji possessed him. “It’s my duty to help in claiming the throne of the Youkai World as her own,”

“What!? You’re trying to take over the world?” Natsume asked, Chiharu cold as ever as he shrugged.

“I’m not taking over the world, I’m merely carrying out the wishes of her majesty,” Chiharu answered. “The Queen of a Hundred Demons. She was the one who was able to make me live more than a corpse with thoughts, so I pay the favor by capturing anyone she points me to or reduce to marks on the floor.”

“H-How can you be so certain she’s not just using you!?” Touma spoke up in a rather shocking amount of trembling anger, giving even Natsume and Akinori a bit of a frightened shock. “

“Her Majesty saved my life and gave me an actual life to live! Do you think it’s foolish to not repay someone who did that?” Chiharu snarled back.

“She’s probably just using you! I know how a lot of these sorts of things go!” Natsume backed up Touma. “I saw it happen to a close friend of mine before my eyes, his emotions being taken advantage of and everything!”

“But how can you be certain this will end differently?” Chiharu’s eyes narrowed, exhaling with a sense of annoyance. “You might prove yourselves to be a thorn in her Majesty's side, and I’ll have to exterminate you ahead of time. Bear witness to the power of the Youkai Watch Tenou!”

Raising his left hand, Chiharu adjusted a dial on his watch, shifting it slightly.

“Six O’Clock, set. Now, combine our strengths!” Chiharu yelled, his eyes glowing a deep magenta as he pressed down on a mechanism on the watch, becoming enveloped in a vortex of energy.

Once it died down, standing in front of everyone was no longer Chiharu, but rather a formidable youkai, energy oozing from a form that looked seasoned, yet with his hair slicked back and pulled into a ponytail with a sense of a wild energy. Both of his hands carried large blades, one of a burning flame in his left hand, the other of a freezing ice in his right hand.

“Musashi, arrives!” The youkai announced, his voice a deep bassy tone that could make just about anyone tremble.

“Think this might be a rough fight, we got to hold nothing back!” Natsume thought aloud, grabbing her most reliable arc in her arsenal. “Summoning, Shadow! Please come out my friend, Jibanyan!”

Without a moment to spare, the monstrous cat youkai made himself known with a loud hiss, holding his claws out.

“You haven’t brought a single blade to this fight,” Musashi commented, giving a little heh. “This may be interesting, with your naive belief that the paw is mightier than the blade.”

A mighty swing of the fire blade opened the fight, Jibanyan managed to sidestep just in time, but was blind sighted by the ice blade hitting him from the side. Everyone gasped in worry, but then quickly turned to cheering when the large feline managed to do a kick in the gut with his knee, followed by using both of his large paws to punch Musashi in the side of the head, before punching the other into a nearby tree.

“That should take care of that pain our a–” Jibanyan tried to say, before noticing Musashi getting up. The sword wielder got a grin on his face, putting the fire blade in his right hand and the ice one in his left. Once they switched hands, so did their element, the fire turning into sparking electrical shocks and the ice one being of a strong, mighty gale.

“You think you’ve won?” Musashi opened, using his left blade to create a vortex of wind that sent Jibanyan into a nearby tree. Not down and out, but needed time to recover.

Taking the advice Shuten had given him, Touma jumped in, running with red blade already inserted and ready to go.

“Possession, Kenbumajin! Asura! Lend me your strength!”

After a jaunty little tune, the burning Kenbumajin appearing in Touma’s place with the blade of wildfire in his hands.

Musashi didn’t have much of a comment for Asura, despite being in the presence of one of the legendary Kenbumajin right before his very eyes. All he knew is that he had to grit his teeth to try to take down such a mighty being.

A flurry of flame, gale, and lightning commenced, Musashi being much quicker with his strikes to try to take Asura down. He quickly switched his blades again, going back to the fire and ice that he started the fight with. Sure, the fire blade might not be able to do much of anything, but the ice one might.

“Take this!” Asura yelled, slashing his smoldering broadsword to smack the other like a baseball. Musashi kept his cool, jumping back from such a hard strike to deliver an effective slash from the ice blade, knocking Asura back a little.

“Never thought I’d be toe to toe with a god of the sword, yet here I am about to finish you off–” Musashi tried to say, getting cut off by Jibanyan managing to recover just in time to deliver a powerful kick to the head that knocked the dual sword over.

“Alright big guy, now!” Jibanyan said, Asura getting a grin on his face.

“Quake in fear, and witness my power! Great Flame Overlord’s Blade!” Asura yelled, releasing a devastating slash of fire onto Musashi, enough to knock him out and Chiharu returning.

Asura pointed his blade at the child, smirking a bit. “Have you thought about surrendering yet? We defeated your Kenbumajin easily.”

“Did…Did you think that was my Kenbumajin?” Chiharu responded, getting a slightly more cocky look than the actual Kenbumajin before him. “That was merely a Genma I had, but if you want to meet him, I can do the honors.”

Out of one of Chiharu’s pockets, he pulled out a Youseiken without a doubt, even if it looked a little different. The blade part was a jet black, accented by an elegant gold color scheme. The intricacies were vague, but seemed to be solar themed from what could be gleamed. Asura however, was taken aback a little.

“That’s…That’s…one of the Sacred King’s Armory…!” Asura gasped, looking a bit frightened. “It has to be, the patterns look all so familiar–”

“O’ great king from the sun, come forth, Kenbumajin!” Chiharu yelled, the name of the Kenbumajin not really getting through the sheer shock that he wasn’t going to waste any more time. “Make them fear our power!”

A harsh sunlight enveloped Chiharu, tossing the Youseiken after doing the summoning call to reveal it to be…a bow of all things? But that wasn’t even getting into the Kenbumajin that was summoned, a slight grin and all.

What was summoned from the Youseiken was something nobody was prepared to see. The energy that radiated felt like the concentrated essence of the harshest of summer weather in a single humanoid being. His hair was dark and tipped with orange-reds much like magma peeking through dried lava, a long, thin, near body length ponytail being concealed by a series of golden rings. In fact, while most of his cloth was pitch black, he was adorned with armor that glistened like the sun’s very rays. His skin was a rich, reddish mahogany brown, highlighted by gold and scarlet colored tattoos.

His golden eyes concealed by a sky blue sclera looked down with a smirk. He held a simple but somehow elegant bow in his hand, looking similar to the one that the Youseiken turned into, but somehow a little bit simpler?

“You’re the ones challenging me huh? Heh, just because you’re a bunch of brats doesn’t mean I’ll go easy on you,” the nameless Kenbumajin spoke, his tone calm, yet managed to deliver a sarcastic snide effortlessly.

“Just who do you think you are?!” Akinori demanded, the Kenbumajin continuing to have a confident look on his face.

“Please, I don’t think I can tell you and still be standing,” The solar Kenbumajin answered, grinning. “Now let’s stop chatting and get to the good stuff!”

Arrows of light manifested, three being loaded at a time and he fired away, one hitting Jibanyan and forcing the cat to retreat, two hitting Asura and forcing him to take significant damages.

“I think I’ve heard of you…some sort of…uncrowned…king…” Asura’s breath started to heave, before dissipating and Touma returning unscathed but still a little shaken. What in the world was this Kenbumajin, and what power does he possess!?

“Quick Touma, use Fudou, I’ll try helping out in getting this guy to buzz off!” Akinori assured, getting out the Youkai Watch Aminas.

“Descend! Genjuu Kirin!”

Right on cue, the Genjuu appeared, with Akinori going from feeling like having a full night’s rest to having pulled an all-nighter. Ah well, such was the cost of summoning a Genjuu.

“Alright, Kirin! Ram into him to knock him over!” Akinori commanded.

“On it,” Kiron responded, leaping to fight against the deadly new Kenbumajin.

As instructed, Kirin tried to charge towards the Kenbumajin, avoiding any arrows shot his way, to make a valiant effort to knock him over, but he just held a hand out and the Genjuu came to a full stop.

“Now now, you can be a little less ruly, horsey,” The powerful being called forth, Kirin being subdued long enough to have golden reins appear around him.

“K-Kirin! What are you doing!? This is no time for horsing around!” Akinori tried to reason with the Genjuu, but there was not a single word from him, nor did it seem keen on obeying the boy’s commands. In fact, he allowed the Kenbumajin to get on his back like a horse, no problem!

“This guy is something else..” Touma muttered, grabbing for the golden yellow Youseiken of the fully awakened and ever powerful Fudou Muyoou Kai.

“Possession, Kenbumajin! Fudo Muyoou! Lend me your strength!”

The great Kenbumajin, the one who’s blade allowed Soranaki to be at peace, appeared with cracks of thunder that made him appear formidable. The other Kenbumajin was however, not easily moved even if he seemed to be taken aback just ever so slightly.

“Bring it on big guy, I’m not afraid of you!” The other Kenbumajin taunted Fudo Muyoou, keeping a stern, determined demeanor in trying to confront the Genjuu-back riding Kenbumajin.

Arrows of light, slashes of thunder, all lit up the sky above the woods as their fight took them higher and higher, Fudo Muyoou trying to gain in closer, whereas the solar Kenbumajin tried to keep him away with arrows.

Finally, a cleave of the legendary lightning blade knocked the other clean off, but not before having Kirin be let loose and tackle right into Fudo Muyoou. Shortly afterwards, the beast had retreated, Akinori going back to feeling like he had gotten a good night’s rest before.

Both parties landed still standing, but the Kenbumajin still standing. Despite taking a bit of a beating from the almighty Fudo Muyoou, he still stood, quite smugly, knowing that he survived being hit by such a powerful being and living to tell the tale.

His armor glowed, turning into light to form around his bow, making it look even more powerful and deadly than before. With his hair no longer concealed, it flowed freely like a solar flare and the new burning energy around him.

The arrows he loaded up were much larger and missile-like, and smothered in an absolute corona of flare.

“Now even you’ll cower before the might of a gift bestowed upon a weeping god!” He loaded one up, a grin on his face as he watched Fudo Muyoou charge right at him. Just as according to plan. When it looked like the immoveable thunder king was about to unleash his ultimate technique, one of the larger, deadlier arrows was fired.

It went straight through Fudo Myoou’s chest, the mighty being catching on fire before shriveling up into absolute nothingness.

Falling to the ground, Touma looked fine, but his mind, dear gods, his mind wasn’t. Not only did he now know in excruciatingly painful detail what it was like to be set on fire, but could feel a pain in his chest. The same one from that winter night, the one he was nearly dragged by the reapers to the other side suddenly. Even if that part was healed thanks to the Onimaro trio, it still stung if it was brushed up against in the right place.

The poor boy couldn’t move. The Immoveable Thunder Sword having been reduced to being completely grayed out, no sign of color or the Kenbumajin that was once proudly engraved into it being present.

As far as Touma knew, Fudou Muyoou, the one he proved so much worth to, a legendarily powerful youkai, was dead. Sure, youkai only died if they were forgotten, but there was no telling how long it would take for Fuduou Muyoou to either regenerate or reincarnate, it would probably be long past his feeble lifetime.

The other two watchers did their best to comfort their friend, but it was far too short, with the killer still looming over them. He knew damn well he could win without breaking a sweat, giving a haughty laugh.

“I’m hoping you snots were asking for a western style funeral, because I can send you over already cremated!” Those worrying words got everyone to look in the direction of the mighty spirit, loading up another arrow while reveling in glee.

Moments before a second one of the death arrows could be launched, there was a strong gale as something ran past at accelerating speeds, binding the Kenbumajin within bolts of binding red and blue dark energy. A portal opened as the mysterious rescuer made themselves known.

“All of you, come this way right now!” The one coming to everyone’s rescue, Yami Enma, insisted worriedly. “He can only be kept put for so long, so there isn’t a second to waste!”

Quickly, the three Watchers went through the portal, leaving the dangerous Kenbumajin to go on a hunt for them or retreat. Either option, while not ideal, was better than dying in a horrific, burning manner.

The detective agency had arrived safely to a chamber within the palace in the Youkai World, sighing in relief that they were all safe for now at the very least. Yami Enma unfused, Lord Enma and Snake King Kaira appearing.

“That was close, I wasn’t expecting one of the Sacred King’s Armory Kenbumajin to appear so soon after recovering information on them,” Enma began, trying to save face as his usual self but was clearly a bit worried. “Especially not…The Forbidden Armory. That was the secret ace of the Hundred Demon King’s Army during the Great Throne War.”

“Yeah, Asura was saying something like that, how the patterns were familiar,” Natsume began, looking to be in deep thought.

“I believe it might be because they’re from the same region and era in the Youkai World’s History,” Kaira said, recalling what he had seen. “It was after Soranaki had annihilated a majority of the Oni tribe and the surrounding society. There was a power vacuum, leading to a succession crisis on who would rule the Youkai World now with the Oni leadership long gone. It led to the Great Throne War, the Mikado tribe just barely able to secure the throne. Why and how the Hundred Demon Army is back is beyond me, but I don’t like their plan.”

“The forbidden armory, it’s affiliated with one of the Sacred Kings, but one that refused to be on the side of the others for whatever reason,” Enma said. “That is still something being figured out, but what we do know is that he’s incredibly powerful. He may have not been kind towards you, as you were his enemy, but he is said to have been nothing but kind and loyal to his friends and even strangers. So kind in fact, it brought the gods to tears, giving them no choice but to immortalize his feats alongside the other Sacred King’s Armory.”

“Wait so you’re saying the guy who tried to fry us into nothing is actually nice!?” Natsume sputtered in such a confused statement.

“To some extent, good and evil can’t really be defined by a rigid definition. Some people may find setting trash on fire to be a good, noble thing, or others might think it’s foolish to give your life for another,” Kaira stated, closing his eyes. “Humans, Youkai, Gods, it doesn’t matter, we’re all a bit confusing creatures.”

“So…So what should we do now?” Akinori asked.

“The best option would be to look for where the Sacred King’s Armory could be, of course. But, unlike Kenbumajin who are also Genjuu, they are a bit trickier,” Enma answered, looking to be in deep thought. “Instead of having an alternate form of a great beast, they take a perfectly innocuous human disguise, blending in perfectly within human society. Not even I can pick up their presence unless they so choose to reveal themselves.”

“But, that means they can literally be anywhere in the world! At any time or any place!” Natsume responded, trying her best not to panic. “And even if we do find one, how will we know it’s really them?”

“I’m not sure, but I know they are drawn to individuals who show a great amount of traits considered important to becoming a King,” Enma added in. “Fortitude, Trust, Wits, Compassion, there is also Justice, but that’s more of a part of the King’s Coordination Trial with The First Enma himself. I met the guy long ago, he isn’t really the type to hand his Youseiken, and his location changes constantly so people don’t come to his door asking for power. So not even I remember where he is.”

“So what we have to do is hope these divine kings are within our town, be brave, trusting, smart, and nice to people and they’ll show up with divine weapons ready to go?” Touma finally spoke up, finally getting the will to speak after not only being shaken up, but taking in so much information.

“Ideally that’s the case, but the weapons themselves could be scattered all over the place,” Kaira shook his head. “Though, perhaps finding the actual armory themselves could bring the attention of the legendary kings themselves.”

“Right, if you can get us a clearer picture of that engraving, we might be able to find the weapons no problem!” Akinori concluded, the duo kings nodding before presenting the engraving itself, in its full glory without any blurs to get in the way.

The layout, now more clear, showed the cyan Kenbumajin had a bow, the pink one a set of chakrams, the green one with a large mace, the indigo-blue one with two blades, finally the red one in the center holding a mighty spear.

Studying the details intricately (and taking a few clearer pictures), it was time to start the biggest mystery that the Youkai Detective Agency would have to take on for sure. And they didn’t have a lot of time either, as Chiharu and whatever else the forces of the Queen of One Hundred Demons had, would likely be pursuing them to stop their goal.

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