Investigating the area, Kurai found no reliable clues to anything. The only clue to the Phoenix Queen's presence being the ruins, and some energy traces of the Phoenix Queen's attacks. Kurai could figure out where the attacks hit, leading to him figuring out what type of attack she used and which type of Phoenix she would be. The conclusion being fire, and the fact that Phoenix Queen did not want him to find any clues regarding her, most likely knowing he would come here.
Kurai concluded this when even Kesshō failed to find any clues, and any trails she found led to dead ends. From the trails Kesshō followed, it seemed obvious that the Phoenix Queen purposefully walked through the entire city so no one would succeed in figuring out which direction she went in. There were some new findings too, however, regarding Kesshō and not the city.
One of them being that her tails were, in fact, much smarter than her, and a lot more sentient and coordinated than Kurai ever expected them to be. They moved swiftly, multiple of them at the time, to keep Kesshō from tripping on the ground or bumping into anything, a thing she does a lot. Not only that, but they preferred not to let Kesshō see any of their kills.
While Kesshō investigated a trail of energy residue she found, a goblin attempted to sneak up on her, which Kurai noticed just in time. But before he could even react, two of her tails stabbed into the goblin as four others wrapped around some heavy debris. The two tails then pinned the goblin to the ground, all six of them collectively crushing it with the debris.
During this, two of her other tails picked up two pieces of a broken brick and dropped them just as the goblin was crushed. Kesshō turned around, alerted by the loud and heavy noise, sighing and staring at the two tails that dropped the brick in disappointment. Glancing down, she noticed six of her other tails were also doing something, but before she could see where they were her last tail pointed to a spot on a wall in the opposite direction, bringing a spot of energy residue to Kesshō's attention and distracting her from what her tails were doing.
Kurai stared wide-eyed at Kesshō's tails, who deceived their master in a well-coordinated manner. Kesshō's tails slowly retracted to their original length, seemingly trying not to alert Kesshō to any sudden changes. Two of the tails formed a cross as two others made the gesture of joining hands. Kurai figured they requested him to not tell her about what they did, but he felt too shocked to even react to them.
Kurai and Kesshō were done with all they wanted to investigate a short while after dark, having concluded that it would be a waste of time to continue. They started their journey to another nearby city, which Kurai expected they would be able to reach by the next day. For the time being, he planned to sleep at a suitable spot, a good distance away from the destroyed city, for safety.
The night went by fast, and Kurai guessed it to be around midnight, or sometime after that, when he finally found a good place to rest. Close to a tree, which stood a short distance from other similar trees, closer to the dirt road as compared to the others, but still far enough for passing travellers to not notice Kurai and Kesshō in the dark.
Kurai sat down with his back to the tree and laid the bag carrying Opal near himself. He found her to be already sound asleep, thus choosing not to disturb her. Kesshō sat down right next to Kurai and laid her head on his side as she clung to him. Kurai affectionately caressed her hair as she drifted to sleep, quicker than usual.
He did not feel very tired, and even though it happened to be nighttime, he did not feel like sleeping. "Are you awake?" Kurai inquired. Kesshō's tails slowly raised themselves off the ground, their tips pointed towards Kurai. "I don't suppose you can talk," Kurai sighed.
The tails shook themselves, confirming his doubts.
"But you can still think and act independently?" Kurai questioned. The tails nodded. Murai thought for a moment. "You always protect her, right?" He inquired. The tails nodded again. "Continue doing it then, and don't let her be hurt by anyone," Kurai requested as he rested his head against the tree trunk.
The tails seemingly glanced at one another and nodded before lying back down where they were supposed to be, seemingly lifeless once again.
I don't think these can even be called phoenix tails at this point. Kurai sighed in his mind, drifting to sleep shortly.
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The sun peeked over the horizon, the trees extending their leafy arms to shield the slowly rising creatures of the day. The chirping of birds along with the occasional sounds of other predators and prey echoed through the forest, a gentle breeze whistling through the woods and shuffling the leaves and branches of trees. The winds carried moisture, and dark clouds loomed on the southern horizon, gesturing for rain to arrive soon.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Kurai woke up shortly after sunrise, waking up Kesshō and Opal to get prepared to continue the journey. The two shuffled in their sleep and snuggled up to each other instead of getting up. Leaving them to sleep a short while longer, Kurai ventured out to get something for them to eat, knowing the two haven't eaten in a while. He didn't eat for about as long, but he has already gotten used to not getting the chance to eat for long, and thus, tends to forget that most are not suited for going extended periods without food. He picked several berries and three apples from an apple tree he found and some bushes nearby, confirming none were poisonous before bringing them back to Kesshō and Opal.
As Kurai wondered if leaving Kesshō and Opal alone while they were asleep was a good idea, an explosion not far away caught his attention, the shockwave from the blast shaking the trees near him. Dropping everything from his hands, he ran towards the explosion, which occurred just where Opal and Kesshō were.
When Kurai reached the scene, he found Kesshō standing at one side, carrying Opal in her arms. Her eyes were half closed and sleepy, waking up slowly, the nine ever reliable tails lying on the ground in front of her during that time. Opal seemed to be fully awake, and scared enough to attempt jumping out of her scales and running, but she knew her current position just happened to be the safest place nearby.
On the other side, two girls were standing, their attention on Kesshō, seemingly the ones who caused the explosion. They looked alike, twins, as anyone would guess. One possessed pink hair and light blue eyes, wearing a black shirt under a white jacket along with a white skirt. The other one possessed black hair, her eyes pink, and her clothes the opposite colour scheme from her sister's: a white shirt along with a black skirt, and a black jacket over it.
"How did you even miss when they were sleeping?" The pink-haired twin sighed.
"I didn't miss, she blocked it or something, they clearly weren't asleep like someone told me they were," the other protested.
"Just what type of people is that guy sending for this type of mission?" Kurai sighed. "These kids might be strong, but they are nowhere near experienced enough for this. By now, I am convinced he is just using them as sacrifices." Kurai walked out of the natural cover of bushes and trees, attracting everyone's attention. "I would like to suggest you return and tell your boss the mission failed."
"Why do you think we have a boss?" The black-haired one inquired.
"Because you are clearly not from this world and your boss has already tried sending two other kids to try and capture her," Kurai answered. "So, just tell him to come himself if he even wants to stand a chance, not like he would succeed even then."
"How do you know we are not from this world?" The pink one questioned, shocked from realising the two were so easily found out.
"Because this is a world in the medieval period, and your outfits are quite obviously from a much later period," Kurai sighed.
The two looked at each other, realising what Kurai said to be true when they did, a sad expression creeping onto their face. "So what," the black-haired one stammered, "it doesn't stop us from doing what we came here for."
"So you would prefer to get embarrassed and then leave rather than leave with whatever little respect others may have for you?" Kurai inquired with a sigh.
"Okay, that's unnecessarily mean," the black-haired one sobbed.
"We were just meant to capture her, why do you have to be so rude," the pink-haired one complained.
Kurai sighed and walked towards Kesshō. "You are here to capture her right?" Kurai inquired as he took Opal from Kesshō's arms and placed her on his shoulders.
"We just said we are, are you older than you look?" The pink-haired one questioned, clearly trying to be insulting, and using a very fitting insult for her age.
"Maybe he is a few hundred years old, just like master," the black-haired one pointed out.
"Blac, how old was master?"
"I think twenty times Pic's age, so around two hundred years," Blac shrugged.
"He is so old but he doesn't look like it," Pic gasped.
"All of the Celestials are, we can't hope to become Celestials till we have at least fifty years of experience," Blac sighed as she shook her head.
"Flare and Fim are also really old right?" Pic questioned.
"They are around sixty years old, but because they are not humans, Flare would be less than one year old in Phoenix years, and Fim would be just around as old as us," Blac explained to Pic. "Wait, we almost forgot what we were here for," Blac reminded.
The two turned to Kesshō and Kurai, who had been listening to the conversation with interest. "It's not nice to eavesdrop," Pic complained.
"You two were the ones talking when you were here to fight, we could've easily killed you when you were talking to each other if we wanted to," Kurai pointed out.
"Well, you should've because now we will kill you." Pic laughed as she stepped forward, tripping on nothing just as she did.
"What happened?" Blac questioned, noticing the reason Pic tripped easily right as she asked. She turned to Kesshō and Kurai to find Kurai barely holding his laughter and Kesshō laughing with her hands covering her face. "How did you, and why did you, tie her shoelaces together?" Blac fumed, only to step forward and trip herself, causing both Kurai and Kesshō to burst into giggles.
"Well, this is what happens when you don't pay attention to your opponents on a battlefield," Kurai lectured. "You are lucky I only told her tails to tie your shoelaces, and not to kill you. I just thought teaching you something would be worth the time."
"You!" Blac and Pic exclaimed in anger.
"Anyways, I will be off now, Kesshō, you are free to play with them till I return, don't go too far from this place, and don't use lethal force, they are too weak to survive if you do." Kurai waved as he walked away, Opal still perched on his shoulders, glancing at the pair in grief, knowing their fate.