SHIONxxxxxMORI The girl's hand glowed with a feint, blue chakra, flickering with a steady pulse. Takao's seal would respond in kind. Shion would analyze the seal, pretty much ignoring the boy as he readied himself. "Neat." Cracking her knuckles, Shion wound up a punch. "Alright, on three..." Shion drew her arm back, "One!" and slammed it into the seal.
The protective layers of the seal would weaken, breaking the first outer seal, allowing the gates to open. "Alright, kids. You two play nice." Shion would muse, jumping to a safe distance.
Takao held his breath as the seal released, but nothing bad happened. Slowly, Chomei crawled forward and the candles suddenly went out. Before Takao could freak out, the entire subconscious world became brightly lit with decorative lanterns all over and a large, endless lake at their feet. The sky was dark besides the lanterns, which revealed a Chomei who was floating above the lake, wings spread in all their glory and the last crumbs of shed carapace falling into the lake, which sent a serene ripple down to Takao and Shion who were water walking. "Wow," he said simply. Chomei was fluttering his wings with such visible joy that Takao could feel himself getting excited. "Feel good?"
"I am lucky that you have come, sister. Shion." His gracious acknowledgement of the two newcomers boomed through the area pleasantly. "What is the purpose of this visit? I haven't seen Takao in a long time." Takao rubbed the back of his head and let out a brief chitter of laughter. "Um. Well, we've been on off terms for long enough. It's time to reconcile our differences and move forward. I don't want to feel like your jailer. I'm sure you don't want to feel imprisoned. Y'know?" It'd also make Toso happy, probably, but that was just a bonus.
"I am glad we can move forward. What are you thinking we do?" Takao hummed thoughtfully at the question and looked at Shion as if she could inspire him with an answer. He'd done the first cloak transformation training with Shion before, not long after their very first meeting, but he didn't know if she would be up for anymore of that. She had mentioned beating them up, too. It depended on what she felt was the best route for them.
SHIONxxxxxMORI Shion was relieved to see her plan actually work; to be completely honest, she was only 50/50 on whether Takao would be able to coexist with the demon or be violently ripped to shreds in his own body. Good to see things work out for once.
When Takao shot a look her way, she immediately froze up. "Hey, don't look at me, I just got you here. You're the one who has to figure this out! It's like... a host right of passage or whatever." An obvious deflection, but not one Takao could readily dismiss. After all, who was he to argue with someone who was clearly a master of their own demon? The reality of it was that Shion was actually kind of jealous of Takao. Sure he had a hiccup along the way, but his taming was going so smoothly compared to the time Shion almost literally exploded.
Perhaps Chomei had a more lax personality, though that didnt mean the demon wouldnt be brutal; there were none more 'lax' than Matatabi, and look how she turned out. "Go on, see if you can tap into any more of Chomei's power. See how much you can take and we'll go from there."
Takao frowned at Shion's answer, unhappy to have to do the rest of his jinchuuriki journey alone, though she had helped more than he could ever explain, too. "Um, okay, Chomei. Are you ready?" The bijuu chiired in response and Takao let himself take on some of the beetle's power, returning to the first cloak stage that he had mastered long ago. The cloak was neon green and vibrating with chakra, giving him four tail wings and a helmet that resembled Chomei's head. He breathed through his mouth, a little too anxious to manage calmer breathing.
"Is- is this okay?" Chomei seemed chuffed at Takao's lack of confidence, which would have grinded his gears if he wasn't more afraid of making a fool of himself in front of Shion. "I think, to understand where I was coming from back then, that you should try to enjoy some flight yourself."
Takao immediately shook his head. "Oh, no, no, I don't think that's necessary, ya know. I am plenty comfortable on the ground." Chomei made flying look easy. He was almost taunting Takao with how easily he fluttered through the air. Damn, was he gonna let this bug show him up in front of his girlfriend? "s**t," he swore under his breath as he tried to focus on using Chomei's power, Chomei's wings, to get into the air. The four tail wings fluttered in unison until Takao was a few inches off the ground; he crossed his arms and squared Chomei with a look. "Okay. I'm flying."
"Trust me, Takao. The air is my element. My power will take care of you when you are airborne." At that, Chomei's power over him seemed to increase, the cloak growing two more tail wings and putting him up higher in the sky. If he squeaked at the sensation, well, Chomei was amused enough to keep his secret. "Ah - hey, okay, okay, this is enough, this is plenty airborne for me."
"Breathe, Takao. You can take it. My chakra protects you. You will not be able to understand me if you do not at least to try to see the world through my eyes." Takao was unhappy about it, but it made sense. At the very least, he could feel his eyes blinking weird, so he knew they had morphed during the transformation much like the armor on his body had grown.
"Okay, okay, I'm up here. Uh, but the air is getting thin up here, so, maybe this should be it for a day." Chomei chittered. "You are alright. There is no air quality here - it is all the same, and it is all in your head. Relax. If anything did happen, you have my armor and you have Shion and my sister here to help you." Okay. That was a good point. s**t.
And then the chakra was expanding again, the armor growing and a seventh tail appearing and though the final tail was not necessary for flight, it became easier all the same to ascend to the same height as Chomei. Takao felt simultaneously larger than he'd ever been and absolutely dwarfed by the demon in front of him. It was the strangest feeling, experiencing two separate experiences at the same time, and it took him a moment to place that he was feeling what Chomei felt, and the only thing tying the experience together was nervousness and elation. "Oh," Takao said simply. Chomei seemed to agree, and Takao let himself stay ascended for an unknown amount of time, just free of the ties of the earth and somewhere closer to heaven. It felt great. It felt better than great.
"Oh," he breathed again. So this is what Chomei had wanted. Freedom and flight within Arashi had not been possible for the demon, even though the village itself had been airborne - an even crueler fate - so the escape had been a singular opportunity given Takao's reluctance to try any of this before.
"Call on me when you need it, Takao. I experience the same world you do. When you are airborne, I am experiencing it through you. Do not hesitate to try my flight." Takao let the demon's words sit in the air between them, giving them their proper weight, before he descended. He felt controlled in the landing, tippy toes reaching the earth before he lowered himself the rest of the way, tails descending and armor rescinding until he was simply Takao again, though his hair was a little air-whipped this time around. "Yeah," Takao said, "we can do that again."
"Next time, you can try the hurricane power of your wind jutsu and my supersonic abilities."
"Your what?"
Chomei outright laughed at Takao there, voice modulated in the same strange bug-like manner that was difficult to describe but natural to Takao all the same. He blushed a bit at Chomei's teasing, or perhaps the redness was from the excitement of before, but he turned to Shion happily. "Thank you. For everything."
