I walked along the path towards the city entrance closest to the Tiger Lily Hotel even as the sounds of Somnia’s battle rang from behind me. I’d been attempting to sense the Honor Guard she’d insisted was trailing me, but I had no luck. That bothered me. Sure, I wasn’t a trained member of the Galerose Family, but my ability to sense aura wasn’t that bad. The only way I wouldn’t be able to sense someone’s aura was if they were that good at suppressing it. Once I’d considered that, the truth of my situation started to finally set in.
It was then that I’d finally sensed the Honor Guard tailing me, though it would’ve been impossible to miss them considering they very suddenly appeared right behind me. I turned to find a young man dressed in what looked like a white and purple version of the Galerose uniform with a rapier at his side. He stared deep into my eyes as I scanned him.
NAME: UNKNOWN
APPROXIMATE LEVEL: 20
CLASS: C
SHIFTER: LIKELY
“I’m sure you know why I’ve stopped you tonight, correct?” The “Honor Guard” asked.
“Enlighten me.”
“Your group. Your brazen attempts to lure Shogun Hana from her home. Why did you all do it”
Considering who I was most likely talking to, it seemed futile to lie. More than that, I refused to play along.
“You’re putting people at risk. You killed the previous Shogun, turned the Honor Guard into your private army, and you’re aggressively expanding into the Oni Prefecture which is putting your citizens at risk.”
The Honor Guard smiled faintly. “That is within my right. How do you think lands were obtained throughout history? How do you think Saikou became what it is today?”
“If this is how things have gone throughout history, then you must be used to pushback. That’s what me and my friends are for you. We’re here to kill you and protect the townspeople from your warpath against the Oni.”
The Honor Guard stared at me for a long moment before finally bursting out into teary-eyed laughter. I never once dropped my guard, fully expecting a sudden barrage from the Myth I knew stood across from me.
“How much practice did it take for them to get you to say that so fluidly?” The Honor Guard laughed. With each word, their soft, masculine voice turned to a smoother, feminine one. He grew a few centimeters taller, his body contorted to a more feminine physique, and his face shifted to look more feminine. “I am here to grow my home and take care of my family. That is my dream. You wouldn’t know anything about dreams, Curse.” She smirked. “Only Myths have dreams. Curses have impulses.”
Futakuchi-Onna was as tall as a Galerose man. Her hair was long and white and she wore white and red kabuki makeup like a Saikyojin stage performer. She seized me by the wrist, lifting me off the ground to face her at eye level. I scanned her as she spoke to me with unmistakable venom.
NAME: FUTAKUCHI-ONNA
APPROXIMATE LEVEL: 312
CLASSIFICATION: HYBRID
“Tell me, Curse. What impulses of yours are sated by playing hero in a town you aren’t native to?”
I gritted my teeth, reminded of Ares and his insistence on calling me Fallen Star. “My name isn’t ‘Curse’. It’s Rui Payne.”
“And my proper title is ‘Shogun Onna’. I never once allowed you and your ilk to call me by my given name.”
“Why would I waste my time calling you that?” I snorted. “You won’t be alive by tomorrow night. Once you and Hana are dead, there won’t be any Shogun.”
Futakuchi-Onna squeezed my wrist harder as she bared my teeth at me. The change was over as soon as it’d begun, though. She gathered herself, smiling that familiar, cocky smile she had been up to this point. I made sure to take note of the momentary slip, though.
“You sure know how to–”
I never let her finish. I hit her with a [WRAITH STRIKE] straight to the face. To my absolute horror, the attack did nothing. She didn’t flinch despite me putting my all into that attack. It was at that moment that I noticed how weak I felt. I hadn’t used any aura up until this very moment.
Futakuchi-Onna smiled wider as she registered the shock that inevitably made its way to my face. She stared at me, even as my hand was planted between her eyes.
“...piss me off.”
She kicked me hard enough to send me flying into the distance, meters away from the city wall. She chased after me, purple aura gathering around her hands as she ran. I had no choice but to use [REINFORCE] just to move my body normally. Unfortunately for me, Futakuchi-Onna wasn’t making that any easier for me.
The woman made that flimsy rapier look like a Mythical Weapon by the way she used it. Each stab and slash summoned purple light that destroyed the terrain and cut anything it touched. I couldn’t afford to even attempt to counter her, as a single one of those attacks from her would send me to an early grave.
“Surely you aren’t the one who planned on killing me, Curse?! Surely you aren’t the one who planned on killing my successor, Curse?!” She taunted as she split the ground with a vertical slash.
I only have one way to counter her.
“THE RISKS OUTWEIGH THE REWARDS.”
Do you have any other suggestions?! Because [SACRIFICE] isn’t gonna work here!
“...BE CAREFUL.”
“It doesn’t need to be me!” I shouted, dodging a piercing strike that trailed purple light. “As long as she dies, we’re all good!” Once again Futakuchi-Onna slipped, closing the distance and reaching for my wrist. Thankfully, I was able to dodge the telegraphed move. I smirked at her. “Who knows? Once you two are dead, we might just put Shuten Douji in position! How funny would it be for you to go through all this trouble, just for the Oni Prefecture to be the ones that conquer you.”
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My plan was to make Futakuchi-Onna angry to the point where she’d get sloppy. In her stupor, I’d strike and stab anywhere I could, eventually tiring her out enough to incapacitate her or give myself an opening to gather the others. It was working, too. I’d managed to land a few more [WRAITH STRIKES] on her, and with [REINFORCE] active they even managed to get her to stumble a bit. Unfortunately for me, though, I’d forgotten that [REINFORCE] was a temporary buff. Likely because I was using it to fight at my normal strength and not my boosted strength. Either way, this was a terrible time to be approaching that limit. I fought back as hard as I could, making sure not to show my mounting exhaustion. It was going well, too. But when she smacked me down with the hilt of her blade faster than I could react, I knew the fight was over.
Futakuchi-Onna seized me by the wrist, once again lifting me to be at eye level with her. She didn’t look as angry as I imagined she would. On the contrary, her eyes widened as she inspected my panting form.
“How curious. Your aura pool is seemingly limitless.”
“How can… you tell?” I said in a feeble attempt to buy time. To my relief, it worked.
She squeezed my wrist a few times. “I can drain one’s aura with a touch. All of the aura I used in our skirmish was yours, not mine.” She looked me up and down. “While your aura may be endless, your vitality is not. You lost today because of a lack of vitality. If you had even half of my vitality, you would have eventually worn me down and defeated me.”
Is she stroking my ego?
“DO NOT RELENT.”
I won’t…
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I recognize your potential to be stronger, Curse.” She smiled at me, somewhat earnestly. “Join my Honor Guard, and I will lead you to more power than you’ve ever seen in your long life.”
I found myself considering her offer. Somewhat. There was no chance I’d say yes to her, but I considered what my life would look like if I did. I sensed no deceit in her words. If she said she’d make me strong, she would. Still, there was no way I’d agree to join the Honor Guard. In the end, once she made me strong she’d just turn me into Ares’ Fallen Star. She’d use my power to destroy and nothing more. That wasn’t the life I wanted to live, and the fact that she thought I’d want that was maddening. Rage boiled inside me, and I found myself eager to fight her despite my low health.
Who does she think I am?
I glared at the woman, whose eyes narrowed as she understood my still-unspoken answer to her question.
“HOW DARE YOU LOOK DOWN ON ME!”
“How unfortunate,” Futakuchi-Onna crooned in a voice full of mock pity. “Might I ask why you’re disinterested?”
I gathered aura, fighting against my own weakness. “Because you keep calling me ‘Curse’. I told you. My name is Rui Payne!”
I hit her again with a [WRAITH STRIKE], except this time it was enough to send her flying toward the city wall. The attack, while powerful, took the very last of my energy. I was on my knees gasping for air on the ground as Futakuchi-Onna approached me, dusting off her armor as she formed something above me. I glared up at her as she did it, her eyes once again full of pure venom.
Suddenly, my entire body was enveloped by purple water. Rather, it felt like the impression of water, like putting your hand in the ocean while wearing a glove. With each passing breath, my body was getting zapped by the water. When it dissipated, I was completely unable to move. I was paralyzed.
“You should’ve agreed to join me, Curse.” She spat.
I tried to respond, but not even my mouth could move. Futakuchi-Onna unsheathed her rapier, turning it in her hands so the blade pointed downward. She hovered it over my body, prepared to skewer me when suddenly her free hand reached for the weapon. Futakuchi-Onna scowled.
“Stop it, girl! Not now!”
All of a sudden, the paralysis over my body was undone. I could move again, sort of. My body was still weak, but I had the freedom to move it. While I gathered myself, Futakuchi-Onna’s face contorted once again. Instead of the kabuki-faced woman I’d known, she now had the face of a younger woman with black hair. This was Okita Hana, the girl who’d Contracted with Futakuchi-Onna. Well, half of her, anyway. The other half was still Futakuchi-Onna’s with the kabuki makeup.
“N-no! Don’t kill… him!” Okita Hana looked at me with pleading eyes. “Stay out of this! This is my problem to–”
“Enough!” Futakuchi-Onna shouted. She took full control of Okita Hana’s half and stared down at me with renewed vitreal. “You should’ve taken my deal when I offered it to you. Perhaps then I wouldn’t be forced to kill you.”
She gathered aura in her right hand, only for her left to grab at her wrist and aim her hand away from me. I watched as Okita Hana struggled against Futakuchi-Onna’s control, reminded of a specific memory of mine. It was two years after they’d forced me to kill my mother. Zelos went on his usual rants about Myths and humanity before asking me to live amongst the people for a week. I did, finding that they’d all been good people despite Zelos’ insistence that they were monsters. I made friends with the other kids, ate with the families, and participated in the community. Ares had activated my mark in the middle of the night, forcing my latent power out while Zelos piloted me and made me kill each person in the town one by one. I fought against him the whole time; attacking myself, warning the villagers to run, even trying to [SACRIFICE] myself, but nothing worked. In the end, the entire village was destroyed. By my hand.
I stared up at Futakuchi-Onna, seeing her in a brand new light. She said Curses had impulses, and she may have been right. Everything in me screamed that she needed to die, and I wanted to be the one who did it. She was no better than Zelos. Than Ares. Despite being at my absolute limit, I gathered all the aura I had in my system. Futakuchi-Onna smiled down at me, anger mixing with cockiness.
“There it is. Now you look like a Curse!” She smiled. “Show me what you can–”
She turned, guarding against a sudden Wraith Strike from Yugo who’d teleported in from above them. The Minashire Monitor appeared behind him, swimming through the air towards me and spinning in circles around my body. It reminded me of Mr. Perrow’s Contracted Fairy the way she fussed over me. Archie and Somnia ran after us as well, Somnia with a sword drawn and Archie with Lochness in her bipedal form running beside them both.
Futakuchi-Onna looked up at Yugo and gave him a wicked smile. “It seems the puppy’s grown fangs!”
Yugo said nothing, blasting her point blank with those explosion attacks of his before following that with a powerful Wraith Strike. Futakuchi-Onna unsheathed her rapier, only for it to be smashed to bits by Shuten Douji’s club. He was trailed by some Silent Hand, the Tiger Lily employees wearing suits with the red sashes across their bodies.
Futakuchi-Onna cursed. “I’ll remember your faces. Every single one of you will be dead by tomorrow!”
With that, she shapeshifted into the form of a snake and burrowed into the ground, leaving us all alone in the open field outside of downtown Saikou. Archie and Somnia rushed over to me while Mina continued to circle over me like a Fairy.
“I see him, Mina,” Yugo said. “We’ll get him patched up right away, alright?”
She continued to hover over me.
“You fought the woman of the hour!” Archie noted, his eyes wide. He laughed. “You might just hit Level 100 after this! Lucky you don’t have my System.”
“Yeah, I envy you.” Somnia nodded. “I had to fight these two corrupt Honor Guard. They weren’t all that.” She gave me that creepy, wholesome smile. “If I’d known you were gonna fight Futakuchi-Onna herself, I would’ve swapped with you.”
They both picked me up, carrying me by my shoulders as we talked about Futakuchi-Onna and her fight. It was hard for me to focus on our conversation, though. Not with the truth of her and Hana’s Contract stuck in my mind. I saw myself in her, and I saw my enemies in Futakuchi-Onna. This had all started as a simple mission to gain strength, but now? It was much more personal.