• The Story of Katakune Tamoku
    (Hardships)

    Chapter 6 - "Nightmare"


    It's been two years now and I've grown out of old clothes and into my new life style. Do I even have to mention Okashii? He's huge now; almost my size. His favorite thing to do is hunt now, and lucky for him, he's strong enough to help me out. He's also improved his powers too, but still can't manage to outshine the Fire Spirits.
    On our new hunts we like to explore farther and farther into the country. So far, I've found out that we live on a small cresent shaped island filled with tiny villages, small lakes, thousands of trees, and ocean everywhere. In fact, we don't live far away from the ocean right now either. I haven't explored that far inland though, all I know is that it's way better than what's over here. They say they hold huge festivals and parades over there, and home golden palaces floating on seas of cotton. Someday I want to live there, but it seems a little too expensive.
    Okashii and I are out on another hunt like always. It's late fall, and we really have to store up for the winter. I get ready my weapons and make sure the Fire spirits are good. "Check, you ready Okashii?" He replied with an encouraged "yip!"
    We headed out, Okashii in front of me, searching out for the best food. I stay behind him with my hands behind my head, "Hey, resting is an important part of a hunt too, isn't it?" I chuckled to myself as I wiped morning due off of my glasses. He took us really far this time, past the main forest, through the fishing village, over the Yon river, and into thicker woods. We finally stopped once we saw a family of furry giants. "What a meal," I thought to myself. "You know what to do, Okashii, right?" Okashii got into fighting stance, back paws still, ears pointed up and canine teeth showing. I was almost amazed on how much ghostly fox fires he pulled up this time.
    I'm most certainly ready. Gleaming red jewels appeared on several spots on my body as I closed my eyes for the amazement of the Fremere's Guard evolving on my body in an instant. From the jewels, silver armor formed in a flame style to protect my body. From that armor weaved from golden flames, made stronger armor, encasing my whole chest, arms, and legs. I tightened my eyes as the final touch was added. Giant red and golden flames ignited in each spot of the jewels and made me look like the ultimate Sun god. I looked up enraged at the bears as the flaming halo finished around my head, "This shall be a fine feast, monsters." They replied with a furious growl.
    A dark burning ring appeared around Okashii and he suddenly turned into a real kitsune, black and blue fur with a long tail and small wings. His eyes also got sharper along with his ears.
    I lunged to the bears with a flaming fist and jumped in the air. The bear growled and stepped back at the last second as I striked at the ground. The area turned into a flaming grassland and the cubs got scared. I looked at the bear and with my strongest flames, I pierced my hand through the bear's torso, killing it in an instant.
    Okashii looked kind of worried but I was just fine with burning flesh of a bear. A crimson circlet formed around my skull and my eyes turned a red-orange color. I held both hands out and golden arrows formed under them. I let go and they almost struck the cubs. They climbed up a tree at the last second though. I looked menacingly at them then struck the tree down with a lightning strike. "Stupid babies." They fell to the ground crying but I showed no mercy. My eyes turned a deep red and the circlet advanced. I smiled evily and walked towards them, them defencless, holding onto eachother. "Time to die," I said, emphases on each word. Okashii ran towards me, presumably trying to stop me. He was too late though; I touched the shining stone on my forehead and a massive explosion came from it, destroying the whole entire area. Birds flew away, Okashii and the cubs got dragged out of the smoke from the force. Since I was in the middle, it just forced me to the ground to watch. As the dust cleared I looked up at an aggresive large bear that had probably been watching from a distance. It pulled back it's arm and I tried to activate the Scarlet Spirit again, but the explosion took away too much energy. He swung his arm to me and slugged me farther back to Okashii, instantly knocking me out.
    I woke up a few minutes later to find myself looking at a grown woman fighting the same giants. I was confused, why in the world is there a woman helping me? I looked at the cracked Fremere's guard on my neck which suddenly shattered. "Kuso...," I thought to myself, "I can't lose the other." I looked back up at her and she turned around to me. I could see her physical characteristics clearly now. She wore a shoulder-less white kimono that reached to her knees and long white high-heel boots. I could see alot of skin through her kimono and it seemed that she didn't hide her pride, showing a huge bust in the front. She wore a load of make up which made her look more lusty, then looked angrily at me. Her red hair seemed to be the idol of her life. She wore a bandana ontop of it to keep it in place but every twitch of her head made it move in the wind like some kind of model. I weakly stood up. "Do you have any idea what you're doing right now, Katakune? You can't fight, you have to go back and rest!" Her voice was the ultimate beauty that completed her figure. It was as kind as a mother's but as serious as a father's. She also sounded like she was always quiet, like she could put sheep to sleep with her enchanting tone. I stood there breathlessly at the beauty and held my hands to my nose to keep from having a nose bleed, but I could already tell I was blushing. She twitched and got furious with me. "Go now, you can't be here, you've already risked your life for me so many times, it's my time to risk mine!" I looked at her with a puzzled face, "So go and let me protect you now!" This gorgeous woman spoke to me as if she knew me since I was a little kid. She seemed familier but I couldn't remember how.
    "O-...Okashii?" I looked surprised as she replied half-heartidly, "Yes, it's me." I smirked at her and stood up straight. "It's your turn now, Anima Adamantea." I closed my eyes and waited for the Azure spirit's formation. Okashii went frantic telling me I was in no condition to fight, but I hushed her and the blue flames formed.
    This time several blue stones appeared on my body and formed silver armor, stronger black armor wove with blue fires, and made bug and ninja-like features around my body. The egg turned into a flying blue and silver robot that guided me with almost everything and also good for hard hunts. Claws formed around my hands as spears of icy fire ignited. "Let's finish what we started, idiotic fuzz-bags." The bear looked at me furiously and sprinted my way. We took the fight to a battle, and with each hit, I could feel myself getting stronger and stronger. "More power, I need more power," I chanted to myself. Once I killed the father bear, the helmet closed around my whole face with cold fires enraged from it. The claws and boots turned into glowing leggings and ignited sleeves. I roared back at them, something I never thought I could do. Okashii got extremely worried now and started holding me back. Without a thought, I slammed the pathetic human to the ground and fully activated the spirit. The flying mech formed with me and my eyes got enflammed with bright blue fires. Okashii sat there helplessly.
    I slowly walked towards the shaking and cut up cubs crying with each other, feeling the power surge through my veins. They looked so vulnerable over there I just couldn't help but slaughter them. So I took one wrong move and wiped them out with a giant flaming blast. The energy felt so great flowing in my fingertips as I look down at the last victim, a defensless human on the ground. The flames dissapeared around my eyes, leaving them a bright white, no pupil or iris. The only part of skin you could see was all black, and right then I knew the spirit possessed me. I couldn't feel a change though. I could feel the power practically sparking off my metalic armor.
    The human had fox ears and tail. She looked at me with closed sparkling eyes with tiny rivers streaming down her cheeks. I couldn't tell what she was saying but she seemed to have a broken smile. I rose up my hand with a cerulian gem and pointed it to her. As the light shone brighter in each direction, the woman's mouth went faster but was drowned out by the high pitched squeal. I let go of the energy and...
    I woke up staring at a flock of birds flying through two clouds. "What... happened?" I looked at the shattered Azure spirit then turned my head and saw a small animal covered in blood. My eyes opened wide and I sat up forcibly. I was sore from my hips down so I dragged myself towards the animal. It turns out this injured animal was a fox. A very familiar fox, too. I cried ontop of him as I realized it was Okashii. "No, Okashii. You're not allowed to do this. You can't leave me now, it's not fair. Please wake up. Okashii, now! Okashii! NO!!!" I lost a few tears, sniffed, then got up. I understand crying won't help this. I have learned to accept the pain in life even if it's unfair or if you don't know what's going on.
    I continued walking through the forest, on my way home then suddenly saw a girl running by. I quickly hid in a bush and studied her. My eyes opened at her beauty. She was prettier than Okashii to me. I kept on following her and studying. She was crying out, "why", and bawling. Her long black hair matched gracefully with her short tight black jacket, vested over her v-cut crimson shirt. She bared a heart with a sword through it as buttons and acutely designed black high-heeled boots. She also adorned a black mini-skirt. I wondered why she was running so I kept following and accidently stepped on a twig, making a loud sound. "Kuso," I thought to my self as I quickly and nervously hid behind a tree. "Hello? Is anyone there?" she sniffed and I noticed black cat ears ontop of her head. "What the? Cat ears?" I whispered to myself. I turned red and followed her when she continued to run. I was blushing and thinking about going up to her and asking her her name. She suddenly tripped and fell on the ground crying more, "Why does this always happen to me? Why me?" I got shocked and slowly got out of a tree behind her. She pulled something out of her pocket and held it very close to her heart, it seemed. I got closer to her until I was about to touch her shoulder, but before I could touch her, she fell back, her head on my feet. I hyperventilated when I saw it. Her eyes were rolled back in her head and blood was coming from her mouth. The object was a kunai which had been buried into her heart. My mind went blank as my body took control. I reached down and took the bloody kunai and brought it to my turned arm. I hyperventilated slower then cut the flesh from it, slowly and painfully. I bit my lip to keep from the pain and squeezed my eyes tight together. The blood mixed together and dripped to the ground. I fell to my knees, crying ontop of her. Then I looked down to see a little bud forming where the blood had dropped. I reached down and plucked it out of the ground. It was the bud of a winter rose only found at the beggining of winter. "So it's winter now?" I kept the flower and started walking back home, thinking of the things that happened to me that day. Once I got to my house however, the worse happened. Tears formed around my worn out eyes as I saw everything demolished. It was a war zone, worse than anything I've seen. I found myself repeating the black haired beauty, "Why is this happening? Why does this always happen to me?" I fell to the ground crying and clenching to my cut arm. This is the worst day of my life. It has turned into my worst nightmare! My eyes closed tighter, crying more as I fell slowly to the ground until my head was on the soft grass. No home, no love, no help, no encouragment. It's impossible now, it's done. I can't believe this has happened. I don't know what to do anymore.
    I kept on thinking about the black haired beauty until I fell into a deep dark sleep, still crying.