While the battle was taking place in the throne room, the shadows were trembling beneath the constant rainfall in the Shadow Valley.
“What are you doing here… Shadow Queen?!!”
The muscles in Kojiro’s face were being stretched tight as it twisted into a nasty expression.
He couldn’t believe his eyes. The plans he had setup should have made sure Taiga wouldn’t be leaving the Royal Castle, let alone anyone seeking and even finding him this deep into the Shadow Valley.
“How did you find out about this? My grandfather should’ve surrounded you and forced a surrender by now!”
“...”
As Lawkey and Jun made brief eye contact, Taiga simply took another step forward as the swirling darkness around her continued to gather and subtly hover around the purple and black crown sitting over her head.
The surroundings told her everything she needed to know. The remnants of a battle, the stench of blood and fresh corpses, the chaotic destruction of the rocky cliff sides…
That old saying about Hykings seems to be as accurate as they say. She thought, chuckling in her mind at the irony.
“I’ll give you one thing, Kojiro. You are far beyond your years.” She paused, then made up her mind, “If it weren’t for everything you did, I’m sure Sasaki would have been proud to know she had a son like you.”
“... that-”
“But I’m glad she isn’t here to witness what will happen to her family today.” Taiga came to a halt, “You planned a revolution, put my people in danger, and even worked with enemies of our clan…”
She looked directly at the adventurers and monsters standing behind Kojiro and all around.
“If he is lucky, Hideyoshi must be getting the same treatment about now, so listen closely.”
Then she stood with her arms crossed, and her legs far apart. The giant shadow tiger that Jun was still riding on towered over its master from behind, as more shadows gathered around her and the glowing crown over her head, making it seem bigger.
“Choose right here and now, come in peacefully or die in this place as your father did twelve years ago!”
“!” Jun’s eyes widened.
“...”
Lawkey, still forcing his body to stand, looked down, and then over to see Kojiro’s face.
He didn’t know what to say to him. Being Sasaki’s son, the two were connected by her. From the moment he met Kojiro, Lawkey had thought of that, but he wasn’t someone who can easily talk things through. He was never good with words.
That’s why he had challenged him to a duel instead, to exchange swords. That had always been the way Lawkey could communicate clearly.
And despite them having just had a duel, he didn’t feel like he was able to properly communicate with Kojiro.
For his part, the half-vampire Hyking was clenching his teeth, holding his fists tightly at his sides.
“Dammit!! This isn’t fair…!”
Then he looked up to face Jun.
Just like always… Just smile at me again the way you always do… He begged in his mind.
But she wasn’t smiling at all, her eyes were shaking, her tears in the process of forming.
“This isn’t what I wanted… It shouldn’t have ended up like this!” The red and purple emblem began to appear on Kojiro’s forehead again as his powers began to emerge from underneath him, “I won’t let it end like this!”
“?!”
“...”
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Lawkey, Jun and the rest of the adventurers all watched with wide eyes, but all Taiga did was furrow her brows.
“Queen or not, I’ll kill you myself!”
Kojiro pointed his longer sword forward, and with it, a wave of blood and shadows followed.
He had expected for the monsters to move on the offensive too, but neither they, nor the adventurers seemed to be affected by his second power anymore, as if someone with higher authority was present.
Seeing the attack coming, Taiga simply waved her hand and all the shadows dispersed immediately.
As for the blood waves, as they got close to Taiga, they were quickly intercepted by silhouetted figures appearing out of nowhere.
“?!”
“What… is that?” Lawkey asked with a slack jaw.
Taiga opened her arms wide as multiple figures appeared all around her, clad in complete black attire, with most of their faces hidden.
“Meet my hidden squad of assassins! Munisai had recommended you to join their ranks when the time came, but to think you would have to go against them in the end.”
Lawkey remembered that sharp-tongued Mai mentioning them, that she was a descendant of these assassins and was training to join an elite secret squad one day.
“You think you’re the only one who has made an attempt on the throne in the last nine hundred years?” The Shadow Queen tilted her head slightly and smiled, “I guess you wouldn’t know if they were never seen again.”
“Aghh!” Kojiro suddenly snapped and screamed out of the top of his lungs, “Unfair! This is Unfair! You, all of you! And this curse! Everything is unfair!”
“...”
“You must’ve gone through a lot, kid. Hideyoshi hid you for a reason, didn’t he?” Taiga narrowed her eyes, “but our teachings remain the same for you, Kojiro.”
Taiga paused, then continued to repeat the clan’s lines.
“No one can escape their own Shadow.”
“Shut up!”
“Embrace your darkness.”
“I don’t want to hear it!”
“!”
Kojiro shouted as he jumped back, putting as much distance between him and everyone else.
He couldn’t see a way to win as he was now, especially not against the queen and her secret assassin squad.
“I don’t care anymore… I’m done for today.” He said, continuing to put distance between him and the others, “I’m not taking any of your options either.”
“...!” Taiga quickly noticed his intentions, “get him!”
Her assassins immediately went to action, zipping through the air like afterimages.
Having landed far enough from Taiga’s influence, he quickly activated his powers and began to sink into the shadows below.
“I’ll retreat for now, but I’ll be back.” He said, activating the shadows under the other adventurers too, “I’ll come back to kill you all when I’m ready!”
“Kojiro! Don’t do this! Let’s go back…Back to the Dojo and talk about it!”
“...”
Jun shouted after him, but all she got was a conflicted side eye as his head continued to sink into the shadows.
Just before the assassins got to him, he looked at Lawkey one last time. His eyes changed, becoming narrow and sharp to leave only the blood-red glowing pupil visible.
“We’ll postpone our duel’s conclusion. Next time, I’ll kill you with everything I have.”
“...” Lawkey narrowed his eyes and then said, “Fine by me.”
And with that, Kojiro and the rest of the adventurers suddenly disappeared, the assassin squad missing them by a split second.
Taiga rubbed the surface of her forehead. To have let him go meant this conflict wasn’t fully resolved yet either.
And seeing as Kojiro can teleport in and out freely, this would mean there is constant anxiety for her and the clan.
She felt a headache creeping in, so she let out a long breath as she deactivated her powers.
“No use spending time on it, make sure to increase security around the entire village and keep your eyes open at all times.”
As a response, the entire assassin squad simply blended in with the shadows, removing themselves and their presence completely.
“Laww!!”
“...”
Jun barely made it in time to catch Lawkey from falling face first from exhaustion. She supported him up, holding his arm over her shoulder.
Having realized the threat was gone, his body quickly gave in to all his injuries and the inevitable side effects caused by stretching the limits of what he could do.
“Those wounds… we need to get you back quickly…”
“Sorry… I left…Without saying anything…”
“It’s fine, don’t talk for now.”
“I wanted to… take responsibility… to protect you all for once…”
“...”
“You… the old man… and the others helped me… I…” He paused, hesitating, “I wanted to make sure… I could stay for a while longer…”
Jun’s eyes widened as she felt tears starting to form, but she quickly pushed them back down.
Taiga listened from the side, her eyes narrow.
“Aunty!” Jun called out, gesturing to the giant shadowy tiger.
When Taiga had first summoned it, the shadowy tiger had been much smaller in size. Taiga knew Jun was hinting at that so the tiger could carry Lawkey, but…
“Not yet, Jun. We can’t go back just yet.” Taiga adjusted her posture and looked around, “Hey, kid. Can you hold on for a bit longer?”
“Heh, sure… Teach them a lesson they won’t forget.”
“?!”
Jun finally noticed as she felt the shadows of countless monsters surround them.
“It seems all your reckless fighting throughout this valley upset all the monsters enough to gather here.” Taiga reactivated her authority, the shadow crown reappearing on her head, “Well, at the very least, this might not be a bad thing.”
“What should we do, aunty?”
The Queen took a step forward, the giant shadowy tiger on her heel.
“Stay put, Jun dear. Now that I have reached this power, I can finally conquer this valley and put an end to this conflict once and for all.”
“?!”
“From this day forth, my rule expands not only into the Kage Clan, but into the entire shadow valley!” declared Taiga Kage, the 22nd Shadow Queen of the Kage Clan.
Lawkey had already passed out, so he couldn’t see what happened next, but Jun however, saw it all very clearly.
Monsters of all sizes and forms kept rushing at the Shadow Queen, as if the Shadow Valley itself was sending them to challenge her new authority.
For the first time in a longtime, Taiga had not stood watching, but charged in and got her hands dirty along with her new pet.
The battle hadn’t taken long, but it covered the entire surroundings in blood and gore.
On this day, the Shadow Valley had been conquered along with most of the monsters within it.
It would take more work, but this was the first step toward opening the clan to the outside world, as well as preventing any more monsters from invading the clan as often as they did.
Later, rumors of the Tigress of the Shadow Valley spread amongst adventurers, although no one knew how they began in the first place.
With that, the conflict of the revolution was thwarted.
At least, for the time being.
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image [https://i.imgur.com/KQmIY8F.png]