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Youkai Busters:  First Encounter

By

Ikiyouyou and Kazaam

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            Frigid winds howled through the craggy gray peaks of Mount Samuiryuu.  Nothing grew on these lifeless rocks, and nothing could be heard other than the wind and the soft creaking of a taut rope.  Claws scrabbled on hard stone as Kaze paused in rappelling down the cliff’s face.  A loosed pebble was knocked free, and she watched as it plummeted downward, eventually lost in the haze below.  Sighing, she glanced upward through her frosty breath to where her partner waited somewhere above.  They had almost reached their goal.  Finally.  Wind ruffled Kaze’s black and silver fur as she considered her position.

            She hung suspended just above a rock overhang, under which the cave should be hidden.  A good leap and swing should have her touching down just inside.  Taking a deep breath, Kaze yelled upward, “Yo!  Almost there!”

            A white head appeared above, silhouetted against the gray sky.  “Good!  Catch!”  Ikiyouyou held out her hand and promptly dropped a black, undistinguishable object.

            “Whaa--!”  Kaze twitched violently out of the way and snagged the backpack’s strap on its way past.  Swinging lightly back and forth, she shouted back, “Watch it!  You almost hit me!”

            Only a muffled response was heard, and Kaze assumed Ikiyou had gone back to preparing the rest of their gear.  Growling softly, she used her claws to stabilize her swing.  “Give me a minute so I can anchor the rope!”  Then, with a mighty push, she swung off and dropped the remaining forty feet to the cave’s floor.  She unclipped herself from the rope, dropped the pack on the floor, and cast about for some stone to tie the rope down with.  Finding nothing, she resigned herself to holding the rope with one clawed foot.  Then she glanced above to the black shape of the overhang.  “Ready when you are!”

            Having already clipped two packs of supplies to the rope, Ikiyouyou slid the first one down the rope to her waiting ally.  She clipped on the third and started to ponder the mission for the nth time.  She really wished she were elsewhere at the moment.  Preferably somewhere with sunshine and blue skies.  But no.  She had to accompany that crude, hairy, thing down there on yet another mission, to spirits knew where, that Iki could take care of herself.  But no.  She had to baby-sit that werefreak until it proved itself worthy of those swords, Masamune no Daburu Himitsu¹, in Sensei’s possession.  Letting out a gusty sigh, Ikiyou arched her back to ease tense muscles, and gazed off into the sky. 

            “Hey!  You fall asleep, or what?”  Ikiyou started, and twitched a white ear in annoyance.  Roughly kicking off the second pack, and shoving the third, and last, soon after it, she readied herself for her own dramatic entrance.  Deciding to bypass the direct route of the rope down the front of the overhang, she sprinted off to the side.  Bending down and touching the tips of her clawed fingers to the ground, she vaulted over the cliff’s edge.  “Ya-haa!”  Rockslide Ninjutsu was totally cool!  Channeling energy to the hand touching the stone, she slid downwards, long white hair trailing after and blue kimono flapping in the wind.  Gray rock became a blur as it rushed past her. 

            As she passed the overhang, she touched a foot to the wall, redirecting energy to slow her descent.  Spying Kaze, she came to a halt and gave a jaunty wave.  Then she kicked off of the wall and launched herself safely into the cave.

            Ikiyou strode over to where Kaze stood gazing into the depths of the cave.  The werewolf twitched an ear in acknowledgement.  “Hey!  See anything?”  Iki asked.  Kaze remained silent for a few moments.  Briefly, Ikiyou wondered what it must be like to have senses as keen as Kaze’s.  Sure, being a dog “demon,” Ikiyouyou had all the senses of a finely trained hunting dog: enhanced sight, hearing, smell…but, after working together through several missions, all the indications were that Kaze took “enhanced” senses and upped them to the next level.  Or the next several levels.  Must be nearly maddening, Ikiyou thought, to be constantly bombarded by all those intense sounds…smells…And, although Ikiyou had yet to see it herself, Kaze had hinted at having even stronger senses in her final form.  Wolf.

            “Hmmm…”  Kaze seemed to almost lazily stare into the gloom, head held upward, nose and ears twitching occasionally.  “Nope.”  Then her glowing golden eyes shifted craftily to the side to land on Ikiyouyou.  “But now that you’re here, I do catch the stench of something really nasty.”

            “Hey!”  Ikiyou growled.

            Kaze smirked and returned her attention to the darkness.  “I’m pretty sure it’s that…thing…we’ve been tracking.  The scent is thick here, but extends farther into the cave.  It seems recent.”  All of Kaze’s knowledge and experience screamed “dragon!”  But there was something just wrong with the signs that had been left behind.  Something unnatural.  Kaze had the strongest feeling that she should know what that meant, like it was on the tip of her tongue…

            “This place reeks of youkai.”  Iki stated.

            “Ya think?”

            Kaze turned around to grab the packs.  She tossed two to Ikiyou.  “Here.”

            Ikiyou tossed them back.  “Here yourself.”

            Kaze gave Ikiyouyou her “what-the-heck?” expression.  Ikiyou, waving a hand loftily in the air, turned around to face the cave’s depths.  “I’m going to be sniffing out the enemy, I can’t be carrying the packs around.”

            “You can at least carry one, fleabag.”  And Kaze shoved a pack into Ikiyou’s arms as she strode past into the gloom, hefting the other three onto her back.

            Rolling her eyes, Ikiyouyou proceeded ahead of Kaze, pulling out an mp3 player from her deep pockets.  Arranging the headphones over her ears, she got down on all fours and started to sniff out the trail.  Well aware that Kaze’s hearing was many orders of magnitude above her own, Ikiyou said, “Give me a ring if you hear anything.”

            “Hmph.”