Facing the Storm

by Wilson, Yumoyori

  "Good call," Aki praised. "Coming back would have made her more anxious and her Kitsune could go off again. Letting her have space and time to relax her emotions was the perfect move to make."

  My eyes scanned the room, and I wondered where Hakua was. "Where'd Hakua go?"

  "She went back to Nokamato," Itsuki announced.

  "Nani? Why?" I questioned, feeling a bit upset by the sudden departure. "She didn't tell Crimson she was going. It's going to make Crim feel like it was her fault. That's what we're trying to avoid here."

  "We agree." Quil sighed, running his hands through his short blond and red hair and looked just as disturbed as I did. "It wasn't a good move, but she didn't have a choice."

  "What do you mean?" I asked.

  "My father called and said he needed Hakua's assistance with a few things. You know Hakua is highly skilled in sword dancing in combat, so he must have needed her for something within that department. Otherwise, I don't see why he'd summon her to return so quickly," Yoshi explained.

  "Doesn't make sense," I grumbled and looked at Crimson who stirred slightly. With a frown, I moved over to her left side. Urufu shifted to give me space as I knelt down to lay my hand on Crim's forehead.

  "Is she catching a fever?" Malachi asked.

  "No. She's just not deep in sleep I think," I replied. "Maybe having a disturbing dream."

  "Her nightmares have been more frequent as of late," Aki mentioned. "I don't think it's normal."

  "You mean her nightmares should be decreasing with her therapy and her wounds healing. Not increasing," Quil verified.

  "That's what I'm thinking. It's different for everyone. However, Crim's been muttering weird stuff in her sleep."

  "Weird stuff?" Malachi questioned. "Like Aki has a small cock, weird? Or actual weird stuff."

  Aki rolled his eyes but continued. "Mantras and weird spells. I don't know if it’s some type of side effect with Storm's essence still being inside her, or if it's her powers growing a lot stronger than everyone anticipated."

  "The pace is a bit too fast," Itsuki admitted. "I've been watching her aura as of late and since the last time we saw her, it has practically tripled. I think we'd have to try to schedule her with the Mage Master sooner, rather than later."

  "I agree. If anyone who can read auras just by one glance notices, she'll be a target," Yoshi noted.

  "Can we place a spell on her to hide or lower her aura?" Malachi asked.

  "We could," Aki replied and Yoshi nodded.

  "It would give us some leg room while we figure everything out."

  "Do you want me to do it? Would be faster," I suggested.

  "If you can, that would be great." Yoshi gave a supportive nod.

  The task was easier for me to do than the others seeing as Quil and I were stronger in the magic department, but I still ranked at the top. I just tried to hide my capabilities most of the time.

  "How soon do you think the Master Mage can take Crim in? We'll all have to go, and I think Itsuki should be in charge of sword training, Malachi hand to hand combat, Haru and Quil with magic usage, and Akihiro with kitsune training. I know a little bit about her cherry blossom power and I think it can be incorporated into her sword dancing training to give her an extra boost." Yoshi glanced around at each of us as he spoke.

  "I'll contact her now. Give me about ten minutes?" Aki replied.

  "I think we'll need her to make a bracelet of some sort for Crim as well," I noted.

  The others turned back to me and I met their curious gazes. "I can hide Crim's aura for a few days, but it won't be long term. It's strong, even for me."

  "Could be because Hottie's power has been sealed for a good five years when it should have been a part of her. The entrapment of power only causes it to grow in anger and now it's far more powerful than it should have been," Malachi explained.

  "That would make sense," Yoshi agreed.

  "This is going to be complicated and out of our area of knowledge," Itsuki mused.

  "Master Mage isn't far from here. I'll go and see her. She'd rather talk in person anyways. You guys relax. I'll be back in an hour or two," Aki announced.

  "Alright. Be careful," I replied.

  Aki nodded in understanding and left while the rest of us decided what we wanted to do.

  "Who's staying with Hottie?" Malachi asked.

  "I don't mind staying. I'll finish up this spell and rest for a bit. You guys go soak in the hot springs. We should take advantage of being here before we, too, have to start training," I reminded.

  "I agree; my muscles ache." Quil sighed and Malachi rested his arm on Quil's shoulders.

  "You'll be good, Haru?"

  "Ya, I'll be fine. I'll join when Aki comes back. He shouldn't take long, and knowing him he'll need a nap after he shifts back to human form," I replied.

  "Good point," Yoshi noted. "He always naps after he shifts."

  "Shifting is exhausting. I'm surprised he can do it so smoothly. If I shift it leaves me aching for a good month," Quil complained.

  "Because you're a damn dragon. Takes up half this resort with your big ass." Malachi snorted. "Being a lion is so much easier."

  "Wolves are better." Itsuki shrugged.

  "That's just bias," Malachi countered.

  Quil nodded. "Totally biased."

  Yoshi sighed. "We can continue our debate in the springs. Let's go."

  "Hai." The others replied in unison before bidding me farewell. Once everyone was gone, I took a deep breath and looked at Crimson, who was still deep in sleep.

  I got up and dimmed the lights before I changed into some shorts and a white t-shirt. I laid a futon next to Crim and slipped myself under the large comforter, my eyes on Crimson as she continued to sleep.

  "Woofa?'

  I grinned at Mizu snuggled between Crim and me, reaching up to lick my face. Lifting my hand, I stroked his head. "Crim's going to be just fine, isn't she?"

  "Woofa!" Mizu replied and rested his head on Crim's side. It wasn't long before both Mizu and Uru were asleep.

  I watched the three of them sleep while I finished up the spell to hide Crim's aura. With a sigh I closed my eyes, getting lost in my own thoughts.

  We have to get stronger. No, we will get stronger.

  ~AKIHIRO~

  I stretched out my arms before I leaned back to help stretch out my back. "Fuck. Why does shifting still hurt when I do it so often," I groaned to myself.

  My Kitsune lifted his head and practically rolled his eyes at me before he curled up in a ball and went to sleep.

  "Rude," I muttered to my Kitsune who completely ignored me. His sleep was far more important than my rambling about aches and pains.

  I began to gather my hair up to tie it when my ears twitched. With a sigh, I let down my hair and turned to look behind me.

  "You could do better than that. Unless you got tired of me pretending you weren't following me this whole time."

  "You could have ended my misery and said so. I could have been in bed sleeping by now. Instead, I'm here," the familiar voice huffed, moving out from the darkness to reveal himself.

  "No one invited your ass here, James. If you want to join the harem, you can ask nicely you know," I pointed out with an eye roll.

  My gaze met his and his cheeks tinted red. He crossed his arms in obvious annoyance.

  "Whatever," he grumbled, and I shook my head at his stubbornness.

  We'd caught onto his presence once we left the resort, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with him until things were done with the Master Mage, ChiyoChi Na. She'd accepted my request with a little hassle but said she'd still need to test Crimson.

  I'd at least had enough time to give her a brief summary of what happened to Crim and her current wounds and healing process. Training would be a lot of physical hand to hand combat in the beginning, and I needed her to understand if Crimson did freak out, and know the reason.

  I wasn't worried about Chiyo working with Crimson, especially since I'
d trained with her when I was going through darker times. All I wanted was to ensure Chiyo would test out Crimson's strength and not push her to her breaking point right away.

  "Why are you following me?" I asked, looking at his 6'3 frame. I'd noticed his red locks were long enough to tie up in a tiny ponytail, the ends transitioning to black.

  He wore a short leather jacket, red t-shirt, and cut black jeans. Simple black running shoes completed his somewhat punk look.

  James lowered his arms and pulled something out of his leather jacket. He walked up to face me and presented me the box. "This."

  "What is it?"

  "If you opened the box, you'd find out."

  "Could be a bomb and then I'd be dead."

  "If it was a bomb, we'd both be dead, Baka. Just open it already. I'm on a time limit and I’d rather avoid getting lashes because you're a stubborn ass," James complained.

  I frowned at his statement but reached out for the item.

  I didn't sense any ill intent from him, so I opened up the box to see a white beaded bracelet with what looked to be light pink roses. My eyes lingered on the dangling charm on it that had a special incantation symbol.

  "Is this..."

  "My master knows Crimson has her powers back. When we broke in to retrieve the crystal, he wanted me to make sure I destroyed that. I'm assuming it can hide her aura like how mine does," James explained, sliding his left sleeve up to reveal the bracelet on his wrist. "Should also help her harness her power so it doesn't overwhelm her."

  "Are you spying on us?" I asked.

  "Not really. More like I overheard while I was minding my own business and enjoying the fresh air of this resort. You're the one who said I can join the harem."

  I sighed. "You didn't even ask."

  "Hmph." He grumbled, and I closed the box and raised my gaze to look at him.

  "Crimson's having major nightmares and flashbacks."

  James grimaced, his eyes growing serious as he locked his gaze with mine. "With what that bitch did?"

  I nodded. "She snapped at her best friend today."

  "Hakua? I guessed that most likely would happen. Hakua is the type to not let things go until she can find the root of the problem, but she's usually more observant than that. You guys didn't tell her what happened?"

  "Didn't think it would be necessary. She may be Crim's friend and a helpful resource to what's going on, but none of us think she needs to know that much."

  "Makes sense. She's not around anymore. That annoying perfume is gone," James noted.

  "She left."

  "Why?"

  "Got called to help with stuff," I replied.

  James looked a bit concerned, but it was gone. "Be careful. I'm not saying Hakua is bad or anything, but things look like thye’re going to heat up now that N.R.O is desperate for the crystals and Crimson."

  "We know...thanks," I whispered. Since Erica was a spy, and now that we found out the truth about Storm, we were having a difficult time knowing who to trust.

  "I suggest you guys stay away from the palace for a bit. That includes the emperor."

  "Is that a warning?"

  "If you want to take it like that. It's your choice. Didn't hear it from me. Maybe you guys don't know, but I know who to trust in this war."

  "And you trust us."

  He shrugged and didn't answer, but his relaxed body language told me and my Kitsune that he did trust us. Trusted us enough to warn us as to what was to come.

  "Has Crim done therapy?"

  "Physical?"

  "Emotional and mental therapy? Like talking it out to someone and explaining how it made her feel?"

  "No. She's been closed off lately. We came here to give her a bit of a break, but the fight happened," I admitted.

  "She needs to talk to someone about it. You guys may have noticed, but Crimson keeps things in. She doesn't want to burden people with the full extent of the situation. You don't know what Erica did and if it was the only thing that happened. Crim gave you the basics, but what if there's more? She needs to let it out, and I'd make sure she tells a female with knowledge about such things."

  He turned around and put his hands in his jeans pockets. "I got to head back."

  "Who do you suggest talks with Crim?" I asked.

  "She should be fine with that Mage Master. If not, let me know."

  "Why are you helping? You know it can get you in trouble if your Master finds out," I pointed out.

  James stopped midway of taking a step and looked over his shoulder to reply. "She could have killed me in the forest."

  I lifted an eyebrow at him and he elaborated. "Her cherry blossom skill activated, and if she truly had the intention of killing me, she could have. Yet she had space in her heart to forgive me. To forgive someone who tried to kill her, made her life a living hell half the time when we dated...and essentially made her feel like shit. It's also my fault for leaving the forest and not keeping an eye on her. If I had, Erica would have never laid a hand on her."

  He turned away and took a deep breath. "I can do what I can from behind the scenes, but Crim needs to get stronger. If you guys want the last crystal, Master isn't going to come to you. All of you guys are gonna have to go to him and N.R.O isn't a playpark of average shifters. It will be the fight of the fittest, and he won't lose without an intense fight."

  "Which side are you going to be on?"

  James chuckled. "Don't know. Guess I'll let my heart decide when that time comes. Take care of Crim and if you make her cry, I'll kick your asses."

  Before I could reply he walked away, turned the corner, and then his presence was gone. My Kitsune lifted his head and tilted it to the side in confusion.

  "I know. He's confusing as hell," I replied out loud.

  "Who's confusing as hell?"

  I glanced back to see Malachi with a white robe on. "Was someone else here? A different scent was bothering my Lion. Smells like a sweet cologne like in the forest."

  "James was here."

  "Why was Mr. Bipolar here?"

  "This?" I opened the box to show Malachi the beads. "It's Crimson's beads from her family home. James was sent to destroy them when they invaded their place to get the second crystal."

  "The beads we were talking about? How did he know we needed those? Is he stalking us?" Malachi questioned, appearing displeased.

  "Who knows. I didn't sense him until I left the resort and he followed. He clearly knows how to cloak his presence which includes his cologne," I replied.

  "He really still loves Crimson, doesn't he?" Malachi whispered, reaching out to hold onto the box and inspect the beads.

  "Loves her hard. I guess he didn't know how much he cared about her until she was out of his life for good."

  "What do we do? Should we trust him?"

  "I don't feel like he wants to do harm to us. He's still a pain in the ass, but I think he wants to pay it forward. To fix his wrongs? We need to figure out how badly entwined he is with his Master."

  "You're worried if we kill White Eyes...James will die as well?" Malachi asked.

  "Maybe. We don't know who White Eyes is and it seems clear that James is his second in command. There has to be a reason for it. Even if James is a dick...he doesn't deserve to die. It would also hurt Crimson."

  "She does still care for him." Malachi ruffled his current afro and looked to the starry sky that was to my right. "We're going to have to tread carefully. Things are going to spiral out of control and we have to make sure we're not left in the fire."

  "Agreed. We all have to train hard and help Crimson the best we can."

  Malachi nodded and looked to me once more, his sky-blue eyes transitioning to a light gold which told me his Lion was at the surface. My Kitsune noticed the change and he got up and moved to the surface as well; my tails began to glow as a result.

  "We need to do another check of the palace."

  "I'm aware," my Kitsune noted.

  "When we get back. You and me. Let Yoshi ke
ep his father busy. Itsuki and Quil can stay with Crim and help train her. We'll need Haru."

  With a nod we replied. "Sounds good."

  His Lion pulled back then and so did my Kitsune, seeing no need to expel energy. Malachi stretched, returning to his usual self. "My hot ass is tired as fuck. Where's Haru? I bet he's cuddling Crim right now. Haru?" Malachi whined, moving down the hall to Haru's and Itsuki's room. I smirked and looked out to the starry sky.

  War is coming, and I pray we all get out of this alive…

  "You okay, Crim? You don't look too hot," Malachi whispered as he slipped his hand into mine, stopping me from entering the shrine entrance.

  I let out a long exhale and turned to face Malachi as the others walked away, not noticing either of us had stopped. "I'm nervous."

  "About the testing match?" he clarified.

  "Yes," I said quietly. "What if I fuck this up and we have to go home? I'm not like you guys who've trained for years. It's been about 3 months and half of it was me discovering who I was. I don't think I'm ready, and I could fuck up this only chance."

  "Crimson." Malachi used his free hand to reach out and brush my cheek. "You will be just fine. You've trained with us and have done well at defending against and attacking your opponent. You're second guessing your power. This Master knows that you're new to this part of our shifter world, and she's doing this to test where you are so the training plan is individualized to your needs. Just take a deep breath and use your instincts and kitsune to help you."

  My Kitsune lifted her head, her ears twitching as her currently four tails wagged back and forth. She looked excited to get some screen time and it reassured me a bit that she wanted to help.

  I definitely wanted to learn more about her and how I could use her powers in combat. Aki would assist, but it would be nice if this Master could help me harness those traits more.

  "You're right. I'm just...nervous about other things..." I whispered, looking at the floor.

  I wore black leggings, a white t-shirt, black Nike's, and my favorite black leather jacket. My hair was up in a ponytail thanks to Aki who'd given me a row of colored ribbons, all in various shades. The one currently in my black and silver locks was black with pink incantations.