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Ena quite likes painting outdoors.
It's quiet and peaceful and nobody's around to pick apart her art and tell her all of the things that she's doing incorrectly. She'll never grow without proper criticism , and her father and Yukihira are professionals, so their word holds merit. She knows that, but sometimes their harsh critiques stung more than she'd like to admit.
Is it really so impossible for her to draw without the approval and validation of others? Isn't the purpose of art to convey her feelings? Shouldn't her motivation come from within her and not from her ego?
Evidently, today's art classes had been particularly hard on her. As such, she doesn't want to return home just yet. Her parents will surely ask her how her day was and she doesn't want to admit to them that it sucked because Yukihira hurt her stupid feelings with his criticism.
So instead of going straight home, Ena sits on the edge of an abandoned well sketching the scenery.
A small black cat nuzzles at her feet and though she isn't a cat person, she finds the sight quite adorable. Maybe if she could get it to sit still for long enough, she could draw it. She sets down her sketchbook, reaching to scratch behind its ears, but before her hand even makes it halfway, the cat fluffs up and hisses before scurrying away. Oh well. It can't be helped, cats are known to be skittish, stray cats even more so. She leans back to grab her sketchbook again, but loses her balance. Before she knows it, she's falling into the well.
Desperate to find purchase, she scrambles to grab at the well's walls, managing to snag her backpack and knock her sketchbook inside with her. At least she'll have her phone to call for help.
A blinding white light engulfs her.
As soon as she can see again, a centipede woman is circling her, far too close for comfort. Ena tries to scream, but she claps an all too pale hand on her mouth before she can.
"You have it, don't you? The sacred jewel?"
Ena has no clue what she's talking about but she needs her to get her hand and her gross centipede body away from her as soon as possible. She bites down on the hand obstructing her mouth. It tastes like ash. The centipede monster lady screams as if she's been burned. Ena uses this opportunity to swing her bag at her with as much force as she can muster.
"Insolent wretch!" she screeches, "I must have it. I must have the sacred jewel!"
Then she disappears deeper into the well, and blinding light envelops her once more.
Next thing she knows, Ena finds herself at the well's bottom, panting as if she's just run a marathon. What was that thing? And what exactly was it talking about.
She decides to figure that out later. Right now, her immediate priority is to climb out of this well. Luckily for her, there are a significant amount of vines she could use to climb up. With a significant amount of difficulty, she's back in the park…
…except it looks wildly different. There aren't anymore park benches or water fountains, and it looks far less maintained than usual. The tree large tree, which was the focal point of her drawing, still stood proudly in the distance. Maybe if she climbed it, she'd be able to get a better look at her surroundings. She'd made it up the well, so it was certainly doable.
Adjusting her backpack, Ena makes her way to the tree, only to freeze when she gets close to it.
There's a girl there, pinned to the tree by an arrow to the heart. Vines encase her body, meaning she must have been here for a while, but she doesn't smell like a rotting corpse. Her soft pink hair moves with the breeze, and, most peculiar, there are cat ears at the top of her head, and a long fluffy tail that hangs limply behind her.
Ena gasps. Though she's very likely dead, this girl is ethereal. She looks like a work of art. She's almost tempted to pull out her sketchbook and draw, but she feels as though that would be disrespectful to the dead.
She opts instead to get a closer look, climbing on the thick vines around her to reach her eye level. Curiously, she reaches out, grabbing the odd girl's ears. The fur on them is soft to the touch, like a real cat's and she finds she can't quite get enough of—
"Get away from there!" shouts a male voice.
Surprised, she turns around too quickly, her fall from the vine she stands on being the only thing that saves her from the arrows sent flying her way. A group of men rush towards her, tacking her to the ground.
It's just Ena's luck to be tied up and sat in the middle of a village, surrounded by people pointing and gawking at her as if she can't hear their every word.
"A foreigner with strange clothes…"
"Do you think this is a sign of war?"
"And during rice planting season…"
"What if she's some kind of trickster spirit, like a shape shifting kitsune?"
"Nah, if that were the case she'd be much trickier…"
"Well, she was found in the—"
"Make way for high priestess Kanade!"
Immediately, the crowd parts to allow a short woman with long white hair pass. Her sky blue eyes are hardened with an intense focus as she examines Ena, a jug of something in her left hand. Immediately, the clamor of the crowd picks up again, but Kanade silences them with a simple movement of her hand.
She pours the contents of the jar— salt or sugar, from the look of it— around Ena until it forms a ring.
"Know this, demon," she says, "A sacred duty has been entrusted to me, and I will not allow you to wreak havoc on this village."
"I'm no demon," Ena snaps, fed up with the treatment she's endured so far.
"Really?" Kanade asks, "But you were found in the Forest of Mizuki."
Ena thinks that is a really stupid name for a forest, and frankly, it shouldn't matter which one she ended up in. They were all just trees in the end.
"I don't believe you!" someone in the crowd shouts.
Kanade hums, untying her before stepping back and holding her hand out. "In that case, you should have no problem crossing this salt barrier and letting me take a closer look at you."
Ena reaches out, grabs her hand, and, much to the shock of the peanut gallery, crosses the ring of salt.
Kanade brings her to to her house and treats her to stew, the first bit of real food Ena's had almost all day. She offers to let her stay the night.
"My apologies for the way you've been treated," she says, "But we can't put too much trust in strangers nowadays."
She has a far off look in her eyes, as if she's reminiscing about something.
"That's okay," Ena says, mostly just happy to be untied. "You were doing your job, I get it."
"Still, I—"
A loud bang sounds from outside, followed by screaming. Instantly, Kanade shoots to her feet, rushing outside. Ena follows.
The very same centipede woman who'd attacked her in the well is now terrorizing the town. She bowls over buildings as the townspeople scramble to protect their homes. Their arrows bounce off her exoskeleton like rain and she knocks them aside with ease. Finally she spots Kanade and Ena.
"Give me the sacred jewel," she demands.
Kanade looks haunted by her words, "The jewel… but I was sure I— so then is it still— Oh, Mafuyu, I'm so sorry."
Ena understands now. The centipede woman is after her. If she doesn't do something quick, the village will end up as collateral damage.
Two men holding spears stand protectively in front of them. "Spear, arrow, no matter what we try we can't seem to do anything against her! Priestess, what do you suggest we do?"
Kanade remains frozen for a moment, her wide blue eyes staring at nothing, but then she steels herself. "We must lead it away to the dry well."
"The dry well," Ena echoes.
"Yes in the Forest of Mizuki, it—"
The very second she realizes Kanade is talking about the well she came out of, Ena wastes no time, turning and fleeing in that direction.
She hears a call of "wait" and the sound of the centipede monster giving chase. She runs as hard as she can. It proves to not be fast enough as the centipede woman catches up in no time. It suddenly occurs to Ena that this was a terrible idea and she is most certainly going to die. She does the only thing she can think to do in the moment. She screams.
"Somebody, help me!"
The centipede lady strikes the ground directly behind her, sending her flying.
When Ena comes to, instead of being in her bed like she'd hoped, she's back in front of the stupid tree, which is still littered with arrows. Oddly enough, the cat girl is missing. Maybe someone moved her body and properly buried it. Good for her.
"You're awake," says a voice Ena doesn't recognize, "I've been meaning to ask you why you smelled like that."
Her head snaps up to the source of the voice. "What?!"
Above her sits the pink haired cat girl who'd been pinned against the tree last time she'd checked. She is decidedly not dead as her tail swishes behind her from her perch on in the tree while she examines Ena closely.
"You heard me. You smell a bit like Mafuyu, but you certainly aren't her. What's up with that?"
"You can't just ask people that! And how come you aren't dead?!"
"Such an insensitive question!" she whines, "Did you want me to stay dead? How cruel!"
"Hah?! You were shot in the heart, people don't just—"
"Heads up, stranger~" the strange girl interrupts, "I'd hop up here if I were you."
She holds out a hand. Ena begrudgingly takes it.
"You know, it's rude to—"
Of course, the centipede woman chooses that exact moment to strike the ground Ena had been standing on previously. Almost instantly, her head snaps up, locking on to her.
The cat girl whistles. "Wow. It's like you're some kind of demon magnet. Guess that's my cue to scram."
"What? You're just gonna leave me here?"
"Well you've gotten yourself into this mess. I'm sure you're perfectly capable of handling yourself."
"I can't fight that thing!"
"What, and you think I could? I mean you may be right, but," she turns, "I've got better things to do than clean up a human's mess. You understand, right?"
The centipede woman grabs Ena, who flails and grabs on to the first thing she can reach, which happens to be the strange girl's fluffy tail.
"Yeowch!" the girl exclaims, "Let go! That hurts!"
Below, Kanade and some of the remaining townspeople arrive.
"Mizuki has revived!" one of them exclaims in shock.
The cat girl, who Ena assumes to be Mizuki, bats at her with her hands. "Seriously, that hurts!"
"Cut it out!" she hisses, "Your tail is the only thing keeping me from being centipede food right now!"
"Hand me the sacred jewel," the centipede demands again.
At her words, Mizuki's ears twitch and she stops trying to dislodge her. Ena's grip is already slipping, and desperately, she lashes out. The centipede screeches as if she's been burned and Mizuki catches her before she falls.
"I knew you could clean up your own messes," she says. Then she leans in to sniff her again.
Ena pushes her face away, "Stop it! You can't just go around sniffing people!"
Below them the townspeople gape. Angered, the centipede lunges. Mizuki leaps to another branch, but the monster's teeth still clip Ena in the side. Blood and a small pink orb come out of the wound as she cries out in pain.
"The jewel!" Mizuki exclaims, reaching out to catch it. It bounces off her fingers, falling to the ground.
"I see now," the centipede woman says, "I had heard of the stray half-demon who'd been seeking the jewel. It was you, wasn't it."
Mizuki sticks her tongue out at it. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
"Insolent child. I shall devour you in one—"
Before she can finish her sentence, she seems to crumble apart as if she's been sliced to ribbons. The only indication of who the culprit could be is the sound of Mizuki's claws retracting.
She yawns. "Boring. For all that talk, I would have thought you'd put up more of a fight. Say, is this really who you've been running from?"
"And what if it was," Ena hisses indignantly, climbing down the tree.
"Well, for starters, any demon worth it's salt would've turned a halfling like me into fish food. Aren't you priestess' supposed to be good at handling this sort of thing?"
"Who said I was a priestess?" She asks, holding up the pink pearl-like jewel and examining it.
Kanade approaches them. "Ena, are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she says, "But look! This thing came out of me when that weird centipede bit me.
The priestess gasps when she sees it.
"It's the sacred jewel! Ena, you must guard this with your life," she pleads, "You are the only one permitted to keep it."
"But why?" she asks.
"Yeah," Mizuki interjects from her perch in the trees, "How come she gets to keep it? She can't even use it."
Kanade glares up at her accusingly. "So that it doesn't end up in the wrong hands. You know this very well, don't you?"
"Ouch," she says, feigning being stabbed in the heart. "That really hurt my feelings. But hey, maybe we could talk this out."
Her gaze is fixed squarely on Ena as she speaks, "You could hand me the jewel now, or," her claws flex and her tail lashes behind her, "We could do this the hard way. You might even make for a good warm up."
Kanade glares, "To think you'd stoop so low."
Mizuki's ears flatten against her head. "What? I'm just doing what real demons do. It's been made very clear that you humans don't trust me no matter what. At least this way I can earn a little respect."
The white haired priestess looks very hurt for a moment, but then she steels herself again.
"Ena, pay her no mind," she commands, "Quickly now, you have to—"
Mizuki pounces before she can finish her sentence. Ena runs as the cat demon swipes at the air where she'd been last. The townspeople try to shoot their arrows at her, but they do no damage. Mizuki quickly deals with the rabble.
She laughs, "Your arrows hardly even tickled! I knew humans were weak, but I never thought it was quite this bad."
"Lady Kanade!" one of the townspeople cries, "What do we do now? Our arrows don't even leave a scratch!"
With a saddened look on her face, Kanade pulled out a beaded necklace. "Oh, Mizuki," she sighs, "I had hoped it'd never come to this."
Meanwhile, Mizuki quickly gains ground on Ena, swiping furiously at her. One misstep sends Ena careening down a river bank, dropping the jewel. She watches in horror as it bounces across the rope bridge.
"Aha! That was way easier than I thought!" Mizuki exclaims excitedly, leaping over Ena entirely and rushing after the jewel. "The sacred jewel's as good as mine!"
As she leaps, the beaded necklace materializes around her neck, giving her a brief pause.
"Hm? What's this?
"Now, Ena!" Kanade calls from above, "The binding word!"
"What word?"
"Doesn't matter! As long as it comes from you, you'll be able to stop her! Just pick any word."
Ena knows very little about cats, having never owned one herself, but she's always assumed it was the same as having a dog, not that she'd ever had one.
It's for this reason, that Ena immediately knows what word she's going to use when she looks at the cat ears on top of Mizuki's head.
"Sit!"
The effect is instantaneous. As though overcome by gravity itself, Mizuki is squished face-first onto the bridge's surface. She hisses and her tail lashes behind her, but she is unable to move.
"Ha! Not so tough now, are you?" Ena notices her slowly rising to her feet. "Sit!"
"Cut it out!" Mizuki whines, "What is this thing, anyway?!"
She claws at the necklace, but she cannot remove it. She cannot break it.
"Sorry, Mizuki," Kanade says, "But you won't be able to remove that necklace. High Priestess Asahina made sure of that when she made it."
Mizuki growls, but makes no further attempt to move.
"Well then," Kanade says, making her way over and picking up the jewel. "Why don't we all go home."
When they return to the village, Kanade bandages Ena's cuts and tends to her bruises. The townspeople rebuild their homes. Mizuki hasn't moved from her spot at the steps of an old building since they arrived. The townspeople who she'd briefly terrorized now milled around her like she wasn't even there, though a few of them shot her dirty looks which she seemed to ignore.
"Chop chop," one man shouted, "Now that the jewel has returned, we must make haste!"
"What's everyone in such a rush for?" she asks Kanade.
The priestess seems happy to answer her question, "Well, now that the jewel has reappeared, many greedy humans and demons alike are bound to come searching for it. This village is in for rough times."
Opening her palm, Ena looks at the jewel. It was hard for her to believe such a small thing could cause so much trouble, but if she'd already been attacked by two demons in the span of a day over it, she could only imagine what was to come.
Speaking of…
"What's Mizuki doing over there?"
"She's waiting," Kanade answers, a look of mourning on her face, "She's waiting for Mafuyu."
"Who's Mafuyu? You two mention her a lot, but I still don't know. And why don't any of the townspeople mind her being there? She was attacking them just last night!"
Kanade smiles. "It's a bit of a long story if you don't mind."
Ena doesn't mind at all. It's not as if she had much of anything better to do.
"As far a demons go, Mizuki has never really been a threat. She never used to have any desire to harm humans. In fact, she seemed to prefer our company. Demons don't deal in kindness, you know. Out there, the strongest takes all, and half demons like her are consider the weakest link, even if they're able to take down weaker demons with no issue.
"Mafuyu was… she was in training to be the next high priestess at the time. She was to be her mother's successor. Not many people know this, but she was pretty unconventional, and so when she saw Mizuki, she had a novel idea for protecting the shrine.
"I don't know what exactly the deal between them was, or what their relationship was before hand, but Mizuki trusted her with all of her heart, and Mafuyu did the same. She used to guard that shrine she's sitting in front of day in and day out. She never seemed to mind the work. It earned her the respect of the village people, even if it came with a bad reputation among demons. Everything was going well for a while. Even after Mafuyu and I were wed, Mizuki never seemed to have any problem. The only real snag I could think of before was… well…
"Mafuyu's mother was… traditional. When she caught wind of Mizuki being allowed to guard the shrine where the sacred jewel lay, she had that necklace Mizuki's wearing right now made immediately. It was meant to be a simple safety precaution and Mizuki was never told about it. Besides that, everything was fine. I don't understand why—
"One day, high priestess Asahina was found dead. She was covered in deep claw wounds so we could only assume Mizuki did it. That same day, she made an attempt to steal the jewel for herself, and ran off into the forest that now bears her name. Mafuyu had no choice but to pin her to that tree. Afterward… she was inconsolable for days, and then one day, she just ventured off and never returned. She'd been high priestess for all of a week.
"Before she left, Mafuyu gave me instructions. First, I was to burn the jewel. With no one left to protect it, this was the only way she could guarantee its safety. Second, I was tasked with protecting the village she'd cared so much about as high priestess.
"Now, sixty years have passed since then," Kanade says, "The jewel is back, Mizuki is back, but Mafuyu is still gone. And Mizuki has no idea. She's waiting for someone who will never come back."
They both see Mizuki's ears twitch. "But I guess she knows now."
Mizuki stands, making her way over to the pair. "So you just weren't going to tell me any of this?"
"I was," she says, "You've missed a lot."
Mizuki's tail lashes behind her for just a moment, then she deflates, and retreats back to her spot on the shrine's stairs.
"It's been sixty years?" Ena asks, "But you don't seem nearly that old."
Kanade smiles. "Mafuyu was very unconventional."
"Mind if I sit here?"
Mizuki glares at her as the binding spell takes effect.
"Sorry, still do you mind?"
"I guess I don't," she concedes, "But I'm begging you to never say 'sit' again."
"Sorry."
"Of all words did you have to choose that one? I'm not some domesticated house-cat, you know!"
"I don't know," Ena says, "Kanade told me otherwise."
Mizuki has no response, looking out over all the townspeople as they rebuild. From the shine's steps they both have a good view of the entire village.
"You really gave them hell yesterday," she says.
"I hardly swung at them," she protests like a child, "Besides, they're the ones who started it!"
All is silent for just a moment, and then a low growl emits from Mizuki's stomach.
"Right," Ena says, "You haven't eaten anything in sixty years! Hang on, I'll be right back!"
She rushes into Kanade's house and digs in her backpack until she finds a granola bar. Returning to Mizuki, she offers it to her.
"Here. It's not the tastiest, and it's been in my backpack for a while, but it's better than nothing, right?"
"Sure," she says, "What is it?"
"A granola bar," Ena explains, unwrapping it and handing it to her. "You need to eat."
She stares at it apprehensively.
"Well, are you gonna eat it or what?"
Mizuki sniffs it. "It smells pretty harmless," she concludes before taking a bite.
"That's because it is harmless!"
She wolfs it down like… well like someone who hasn't eaten in sixty years.
"Yuck!" she exclaims once she's finished it. "It certainly doesn't taste harmless! But… thank you."
"No need. You were hungry so I fed you, that's all."
Mizuki looks at her like it's some sort of novel concept to her. She remembers Kanade's words. Demons don't deal in kindness.
"I don't think you're a bad person… demon… whatever. Point is, I don't think you're bad," Ena says, "I just think you've been hurt."
Mizuki's pink eyes are wide in surprise, but then she shakes her head, leaping to her feet.
"I'm a demon, you know," she growls, baring her fangs and extending her claws, "We eat people like you. And you look like you'd make for a pretty decent meal right about now."
She wiggles, like a cat about to pounce. Ena feels absolutely no fear.
"Sit." Mizuki falls to the ground again. "That's not gonna work on me, you know. If you really wanted to eat me you'd have done it already."
She growls, tail lashing behind her as she claws futilely at the necklace. "Take this stupid thing off of me and see how 'good' I am then!"
"Yes, yes, you're a big scary demon," Ena says, walking away.
"Don't patronize me!"
Mizuki does not make a move to attack Ena, or anyone else again.
Ena lets out a frustrated shout as she misses the dummy again. Her arms and back are sore from all of the arrows she's shot today, but she hasn't hit her target a single time.
Above her Mizuki laughs. "You're an awful shot, Enanan!"
"As if you could do better!"
"Actually," Mizuki says, a cat-like smirk on her face, "I probably could. Mafuyu taught me a thing or two."
"Then why don't you come down here and show me how it's done?"
"I would," she hums, "But those aren't any old arrows you're dealing with. I wouldn't touch a blessed arrow with a thirty foot pole!"
Ena's about to retort when Mizuki's ears twitch, and her head snaps up.
"What is it?" she asks, having been around Mizuki long enough to know what that means. "Do you hear something?"
She doesn't answer for a moment, eyes scanning the sky for threats.
"Incoming!" She shouts, leaping from her perch and tacking Ena to the ground. The jewel falls out of her pocket in the process.
A large three-eyed crow strikes the ground where Ena had been standing seconds ago, picking up the fallen jewel before taking off again.
"You're kidding!" Mizuki hisses, hoisting Ena onto her back and giving chase.
"You've gotta shoot it!" she says to Ena, "We can't let it swallow the jewel!"
"Alright, alright," she says, nocking an arrow. "Don't rush me."
With an intense focus, she aims, then pulls back and fires.
She misses by a long shot. The crow demon swallows the jewel.
"You're an awful shot," Mizuki says again. The crow has grown to ten times its original size. "Surely you can a least hit a target of that size, right?"
"Shut up," Ena says, "Let me focus."
She nocks another arrow, fires, and misses by a mile."
"What are you aiming at?!" Mizuki heckles. "Nevermind, no time! It's heading for the village!"
"Well, got any ideas or all you all talk?"
Mizuki smirks. "Hang on!"
Then, she leaps, claws out, and tears the large crow to ribbons like she had for the centipede."
She lets Ena down when she lands, dusting herself off.
"These guys are pretty much fodder," she explains, "but you should probably retrieve the jewel before it regenerates."
The problem is, Ena isn't entirely sure where it is. She's supposed to be able to sense it, considering it came out of her, but she hasn't honed it enough to be able to tell where exactly it is at any given time. So naturally, the crow demon regenerates, before Ena can find it, heading straight for the village.
She climbs onto Mizuki's back. "Come on! We have to stop it before it reaches the village!"
"If you'd found the jewel sooner, we would have already stopped it by now," she points out, still giving chase.
Ena's half tempted to tell her to sit, but they don't have time for that right now!
"Can it!" she hisses. "That was then and this is now, just hurry and tear it to pieces again!"
She feels something squirming in her hand, shrieking when she finds it to be the crow's foot. It's twitching as if it's trying to reunite with the rest of its body. Ena has an idea.
"I'm going to shoot it again!" She calls.
"What?! But that didn't work the first two times you tried it!"
"Just trust me, okay?"
Mizuki offers no further complaint as Ena attaches the squirming foot to her arrow. She nocks her arrow one last time, aims, and fires.
This time her arrow strikes true. A bright pink light emits from the crow before it disintegrates and pink light scatters from it.
"We did it!" she cheers.
"You're still an awful shot," Mizuki teases.
"Sit," Ena hisses.
Ena's jewel sense must be out of whack, because now she feels it absolutely everywhere.
At least, that's what she'd thought before she and Mizuki returned to the village, where Kanade stood, examining a shard that was a very familiar pink.
Mizuki approaches her first. "Is that?"
Kanade nods gravely. "It appears you've shot the jewel and shattered it to pieces."
So then that pink light that had scattered was actually pieces of the jewel.
"Well that's no good," Mizuki sighs. "Come on, Ena. Looks like we have our work cut out for us."
"We?"
"Yes, we." she says, "You're the jewel's gaurdian now, remember? And that was my job before it was yours. Or are you saying you're going to let nasty demons like that crow from earlier find them all first?"
"No it's not that," she says, "I'm just surprised you're so eager to tag along."
"Well, you're a hopeless shot, and you're certainly not very strong," she says. "If I didn't come with you, that'd be like sentencing you to death."
Ena does not mention how the big evil demon Mizuki claimed to be would be all to happy with such an outcome.
"So then I'm stuck with you," she says instead. "Alright then, let's go get this over with."
Ena gathers her backpack, stocks up on blessed arrows, and then they set out.