Gardens of Eden [Job]

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Jiyu was still weary of going on this journey with her friend, sure Leila claimed to need her there, but the inu knew things about herself that the other girl did not yet. Even though most of the time she now seemed alright with her being a demon? Kazehime knew there was a considerable amount of malice hiding within herself that she rarely allowed to leak out, a possessiveness she couldn’t force to submit after it was unleashed. Meeting the entity that had been tormenting Leila and trying to take the Eden Mage away from her? Could undo every little bit of work she’d put in to seem still mostly human towards the other girl, despite her clearly demon features. It was the other entity who had a problem with her demonic ways, but still she couldn’t help but worry that her friend wasn’t quite as comfortable with it as she often claimed to be. Maybe that was just the past speaking thought? She really had no way to be certain and that worried her, it was likely just the fact that no one could ever truly see into another’s heart that made Jiyu so nervous about her life state. Kazehime was coming with the other girl no matter what thought, she had already given her promise and she put a serious amount of pride in the vows she made in life, she would never break one of them, even if it her death could be caused by keeping it. Locked in her mind, she leaned further into the purple highlighted fur beneath her, clutching it in her hands and sighing out as the beast beneath her took long strides in a bid to arrive at the scene faster. Normally Jiyu would have flown them to the gates, but today she had to converse everything she had, so that she could protect Leila properly, so Maka used her transformation ability to take her larger form and help them cover a greater distance more swiftly.

When they finally neared the Gates, the wind user had her kitsune transform back to normal size and climb onto her shoulder. One of Maka’s newer abilities? Would be useful in this quest to reach the deepest part of the gardens and confront the one who was tormenting Leila. In the past Kazehime had been very reluctant to bring her young charge with on job’s, but this was no job, it was much deeper than that, considering this she had no issue bringing the fox with her. ”I hope you don’t mind Maka coming along, she has two skills that will be very useful to me while we’re doing this.” an amulet sat around Jiyu’s neck, an item Leila had certainly not seen before, which would be made useful by Maka’s ability to glow on the same wavelength as moonlight. Secondly the kitsune could aid her in upkeeping her magic power, which was very useful since she tended to use more than one spell at a time. This time Jiyu had pulled out every single stop, night hunt in one hand, a dagger in her chest plate, her fan tucked beneath one bracer of her new armor, an outfit entirely different from the one’s Leila had seen before.

Jiyu gulped slightly as she closed the distance between them, recalling one of the secrets she’d been keeping. If this was truly risky as Leila had mentioned? The other girl needed to know about those two facts. “Leila.” she seemed more serious than normal as she averted her gaze and bit her lip. “You might have figured these things on your own, but before we do this I need to make sure you know.” damn, this was so embarrassing, admitting she had flaws as severe as this, trait enemies could use to make short work of her. “Beyond about twenty feet I can’t see anything clearly, and my tail-” she cut herself off, closing her eyes, cursing everything that existed, red dusting across her face, admitting weakness was no fun. “If it's grabbed at any point, I’ll be unable to fight until it’s released. Unless it’s takeover is active, I won’t activate it unless necessary, encase-”  she didn’t say anymore, and she would not. At this point? Leila should know she revealed her tail, because the eden mage could use it to stop her if she went too far, got too angry, lost control. Plus? It was likely an enemy could grab it on her and Leila needed to know for sure, Jiyu was incapable of moving while it was being handled.

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The other missions they had partaken in during the past? Jiyu was training or eating through some spare time she had, or it was something they got into without knowing truly what they bargained for. On this day thought, she knew what she was getting into, it certainly wasn’t training and this was not just something she was doing out of boredom. Today’s quest was personal, deep and meaningful, the wind mage treated it accordingly, waking earlier than normal, eating right that morning, dressing carefully with everything she had at her disposal in terms of increasing her power, and even allowing maka to accompany her. Kazehime still couldn’t help but feel she wasn’t ready, despite how much she had prepared before heading out. However that was how dangerous quest’s like this always went, you could never be entirely prepared for everything you faced, just mostly ready and stocked up enough to avoid your own death. Also in all truthfulness her kitsune had never been useless or weak, when Jiyu obtained her she had been terrorizing people with her power’s out of grief, maybe even killed people. Yet? In the eyes of the demoness, Makoto was a child at the end of the day, and it earned the kit pardon, alongside her new home, Jiyu willfully forgot everything she knew the fox had done, befriending her instead of dispatching her like she should have. Even now? She was not sure if she’d really been herself when she befriended the entity on her shoulder, facing that heat, just because they shared one thing in common, well it had been enough and there was no reason to really dwell on it much longer. Considering how easily frightened Jiyu was, this could become difficult, little did the wind mage know her demonic strength was rising every day and would soon give birth to new abilities, one’s she might even discover during this, if fate permitted.

”Maka Turn Invisible.” the fox spoke up from her place on Jiyu’s shoulder, nodding her head as she vanished from sight for several moments, before reappearing on the other shoulder. Almost like the fox was trying to display to Leila that she would be just as alright as her owner would be, since her mistress had hinted at how important this whole thing was, right before they headed out. Sadly the new equipment she had ordered for the kitsune, didn’t come in time, but they were strong without it. Kazehime smiled slightly, laughing softly as she closed the rest of the distance between them, elfin ears twitching as she aimed to poke Leila in the shoulder. “It’s not just your problem Leila.” the other entity had tried to rip the Eden mage away from her once, that was plenty enough, especially atop their friendship, for it to automatically be Jiyu’s problem as well. The dog offered no explanation for what she meant, not really having words for it that did not sound possessive and dangerous, but at least the feeling itself was pure, hopefully that was what would go through, instead of the corrupted primal instinct egging it on.

“This armor is special, don’t worry, even my exposed skin is protected by it, hmm.” how could she prove that one, demonstrate what she was speaking of? Jiyu removed the ornate dagger from her breastplate and dragged the double edged blade across her stomach, not harsh, but a level that should have cut someone with a body weak as her’s, yet no blood rose, not even a pink line. “There’s a thin barrier extended by it, so long as the armor itself is in tact, even the skin that’s still visible, is protected.” Maybe she could have thought of a better method, besides dragging a dagger across her own stomach, damn, she quickly hid the dagger back between her breasts, before Leila would decide to take it from her. “I spent months looking for it, considering the wind would rip anything else of me.” she had known from the very beginning that she needed to have something like armor to help protect her, but it had been troublesome actually getting her hands on the equipment that she could use. If the wind wasn’t so possessive? The story would be different, but in the end the wind liked caressing her at any given time, and when it couldn’t feel her, the element became irate, just how she’d become distressed if someone blocked her connection to it.

If the demoness had any inkling her friend was amused as she degraded herself to help their cause later on down the line? Jiyu would get rather aggressive, she was protective of herself and this was a serious weakness she was disposing to Leila, something she had never directly told anyone before! Sure she’d been grabbed in front of allies, but Jiyu had been rescued quickly enough there was no reason for everyone to know, and in those fights one could easily think she was slammed onto the ground, not that she fell there because of a weakness in her tail. “I told you before that I am and always have been a dog demon, I was just dormant when we met because my father is human so I needed to consume blood to awaken.” she had a hard enough time accepting it when she first transformed, Jiyu didn’t need any reason to become insecure once more, thought by the still slightly present smile on her face, she knew Leila didn’t mean anything by it this time. “Don’t you dare go abusing it, it’s an erogenous zone, that's why it’s so sensitive.” she had not told Leila about the spot on her spine, her friend didn’t know, she couldn’t know, Jiyu struggled to stay calm, but her hands unconsciously went to cover the spot where her tail originated from, to protect the true Achilles heel of her body. While her tail was a weakness? That spot was a crippling deathblow.

“It’s troubling to say the least.” why would the gardens be rejecting Leila who was born within them? Had her friend been gone for too long or something, something was wrong in Jiyu’s opinion, but she’d stay mostly silent. “It doesn’t matter much though, you have us here and Yuki after-all. The four of us should be able to traverse from here towards the center so long as one of you know’s the-” it took a little bit and she was a fast talker to begin with, but suddenly the wind user cut off and her eyes widened, as if something had shocked her. Kazehime suddenly fell to her knees in the blue grass beneath them, eyes looking at the solid ocean spread out around them, her gaze growing oddly passive as she seemed to look around for something, desperately. “They don’t exist here.” Suddenly, expect for her demon features, she looked exactly like when Leila had first met her. “Your world it-” she tried pushing herself up, but she seemed unsteady and frightened like back when they had confronted lilith, passive and weak. “has no electrical fields.” she went to move forward, but her body stumbled sideways and back, nearly falling, as if she was drunk. “I can’t- I normally gauge my body's movement with them, I can’t tell where I’m going.” she was like a fish failing out of the water, not even having heard anything else said after they arrived, because she was just so lost, and you could see it. Despite logically knowing she was in the Gardens Of Eden, Jiyu suddenly had no idea where she was.  Once more the wind mage tried to move, this time her body falling forward against her will, and she couldn’t find a way to right herself, not even a way to stretch her arms out to stop the fall.

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Metaphorically playing with fire was one of the thing’s Jiyu did best in life. Considering they met going after a dangerous murderer? Leila should have had that figured out long ago. No matter how much trouble she got into, nor the amount of strife it caused to her, Kazehime was going to keep doing dangerous things, throwing kindle into the burning bonfire of her adventure. However such metaphors would likely upset someone who was deathly afraid of fire to begin with, make them frightened to continue on their ways. Even so much as being around the little dog demoness? Was an open invitation for danger’s of all kinds to migrate towards you, almost as if she drew the negative monsters of the world towards her, like some part of her enjoyed this turmoil. As a demon she thrived when suffering, the scent of blood was around, even if she did work that put an end to such circumstances. Despite being stronger than her basic urges most of the time, Jiyu couldn’t fight what was the essence of all demonic beings, not when she had that blood flowing strong through her veins.  Her armor’s barrier didn’t even get pushed in when the knife dragged across it, yet some part of her knew that the action she had taken was the wrong one, and another part of her just didn’t care much as she should. What leila needed today, to get through this alive? Was not her human half, it was her demon one, were her strength came from. The closer that came to total control? The less she could really care about anything outside demonic instincts, luckily she knew protecting her pack was an urge she’d have no matter how far gone she was. Little did Jiyu know that wasn’t true, she had no way of knowing the true nature of her takeover.

It had to be extremely confusing for Leila to see her like that, on her knees, gripping her head and looking around wildly for something that didn’t exist in this world. As her nose touched the other mage’s shoulder she gave in to the base urge to inhale the scent there, ears twitching. So long as her other senses worked? Somehow she could and would figure out how to move her body without the fields she had used to define her movement since birth. After-all? Even if Leila was born of this word, Kazehime could never expect the girl to be able to change the structure of this world! This was just something she would have to learn to deal with slowly but surely. “I’m not going home~” she chuckled it out, leaning more into her friend when she had actually meant to stand up, try to get to her own two feet, panting slightly. Even if she was really only exhausting mental energy right now? It was still hard to figure this out. “I still have other senses.” she bit her lip slightly, sweeping her tail through the grass, causing it to rustle and make noise. Maybe she could move forward by telling herself to move away from that rustling? However if the biome changed she would be screwed. “I’m less worried about walking and more worried about if my spells will cast straight.” she snickered slightly, rolling her eyes and sighing as she rubbed her temple, finally having been able to lean back slightly. Honestly it was a real concern, considering her magic could damage her allies as well.

As she finally found her feet on her own, thought still gripping onto Leila? The inu looked drunk off her ass, a small whine escaping her throat as she wobbled slightly with her first step. Normally she’d only had this reaction when electrocuted once in the past. Kazehime was struggling mostly because she had not been ready for this, no way to prepare or know this would take place. “Maka can carry you?” the tiny kitsune looked up at her mistress with large eyes, tilting her head to the side and Jiyu responded with a simple shake of her head, shortly uttering “No.” she wouldn’t resort to that unless she absolutely had to! If she made the choice to come here on her own, she should be able to work through one simple problem in the same way. “I’ll be fine in a minute.” still, she didn’t quite know how she was going to keep herself straight in this world, it was so weird to not have something she’d lived with for her whole life, used for that time as well. “My body can still move, it’s just weird because I’ve used those since I was little.” she was finally managing to slide her feet around slightly, trying to make sure they went where she focused on making them go in relation to the noise her fluffy tail was making, ears twitching constantly for that ruckus. “Just a learning process.” one most people did their whole life, but she had to do it quicker than that, or they’d fail here, and she couldn’t let that happen! Better wording, she refused to let them falter this soon, it just was not going to happen.

“Lead the way, just for a bit.” she stumbled like a drunk would, looking at the area Leila had been trying to tell her about, the mansion in the distance. “You know I can’t see that far, right Leila?” the mansion indeed was just blurry, and part of the field of colorful shapes. “It’s that cream blur, right?” sadly the inu was incapable of seeing the color pink, even if she owned a pair of pajamas in that color, it was in the red group, and being red-green colorblind, meant she could not see it. “But than there's that blur over there-” which just a large clump of trees to the side of them, Jiyu’s eyes narrowing as she tried to make something out in the world beyond twenty feet of her. Kazehime sighed slightly and gripped Leila’s hand tighter, she couldn’t lead this time, she knew not the scent or sound of where they were heading, and her vision was beyond crap. “Yeah you definitely have to lead.” it was a small laugh as she finally managed to stand straight, despise the fact she was clearly still disoriented.

Hopefully her other senses would help her make up for the one she could no longer use, and soon. Being lead around by her friend? Could be nice sometimes, but not when she was incapable of making her way without that lead.

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Getting herself to be able to stand was not really an accomplishment for Jiyu, nothing to impressed by, for the canine this was a necessity. Even back when she had nobody? She had wanted to stand on her own two feet, that wasn’t about to change about her now, especially when she had someone to protect, it was just the way she was. Losing one person was enough for Kazehime.

Leila was very wrong about one thing. The reason Jiyu became so frightened when she thought someone close to her would become lost to her? Was the simple fact, she didn’t recover, Kazehime never recovered from such losses! They changed her forever. Back when she was a child, Jiyu had been a very bright and happy little cry baby, something precious and adorable, seemed like she would grow up to be a normal village girl or a metal worker like her father, never once before the age of seven would you think the girl would become a mage. However after that house fire, Jiyu had no other path to walk down, because she could never forget anyone, her magic was left to her by her mother, and that loss changed her forever despite her young age. The inu never thought of what effect losing Leila would have on her, because she had already promised herself to lose no one else to anything she could prevent. Yet if it were to happen, it would be no different than her mother’s loss, Jiyu would never recover from it, the impression left on her would be eternal and extremely damning. This girl did not do well with those she loved being ripped from her, and it would be taken even less well, especially now that she had her heart finally opening itself back up after almost ten years of being shut off! If someone was ripped from her now, it could do irreversible damage, the kind that could even make her into a dark mage if it struck deeply enough. When she allowed feeling’s to take root in her heart, the canine felt them so deeply, losing those she felt for could change her entirely.

Than leila brought up her sniping of Lilith, and the wind user guessed she should explain how that had worked in the first place. Considering she couldn’t see the distance away she had been? Leila deserved to know how she had avoided hitting the wrong person. “That was entirely different, I was human.” and that was just the beginning of it, because even before her body transformed from her actived demon blood, her sight had been fairly poor, thought she had human sight range at that time. “My sight field didn’t shrink so much until I transformed, plus I knew what you smelled like, what she smelled like and her heart was beating, it helped me hone the shot right.” the little female was pouting now, cheeks puffed up as she looked off to the side, following Leila’s lead as they trekked deeper, rolling her eyes slightly, one arm wrapping around herself under her chest, in a partial self hug. “I don’t know what this building smells like or what it sounds like.” she looked like a dog who had been scolded of something, throwing a tiny bit of attitude into the grass as she huffed out. It was actually kind of cute if someone looked at it right, made her seem more like a child than a nearly full grown woman.

Her friends pace was a little swift for the still stumbling wind user, ears flicking slightly as she started to hear things like birds and found her brain could still tell where all that was coming from. Even if she was now becoming assimilated so to speak? Jiyu would not let go Leila’s hand, somehow she felt that her friend needed to hold onto her right now. Even if she didn’t love the eden mage in the romantic way being given to her? The inu still adored her and loved her nearly as family. It wasn’t easy to become part of a dog demon’s pack, and Leila was part of hers, the only person outside of Black Rose who belonged there, who she chose. They went on speaking to each other “This is like the orange fiasco all over again! What is pink?!” she was part color blind, so sadly Leila would never have luck explaining or showing the color to her friend, because Jiyu was incapable of seeing it. Instead? The female saw it as some shade of cream depending on the intensity. “It’s just like when people tell me the grass is green too~” she laughed at that comment she made, wondering why tons of people were crazy enough to think the grass was green, clearly it was cream or brown! “The grass here is really nice thought, it’s pretty and cool.” plus little did she know, it was immune to her color blindness, since she could see all shades of blue, thus her and her friend saw it in the same way. Right now? They saw everything but the mansion in the same way! If that mansion didn’t exist, they’d be seeing the exact same image today.

“Maybe we should throw something pink at her to appease her?” she was here to protect Leila, but until she went to the point of no return, she was open to peaceful solutions. Once she found herself facing the devil trying to take Leila’s body? The story might change. “But you don’t want to kill them.” that had been clear, this was her place, leila couldn’t harm them, no matter if the spirits were trying to kill her, Jiyu knew that her friend couldn’t actually harm them. “Leila.” she rooted her feet, before they could get too close, and looked at her seriously. “If it goes that far, if they have to be dealt with that way , you can just close your eyes.” she didn’t have to day it, she’d said it before, if they tried to take Leila from her, she would kill the eden spirits. However this statement was a little different from her enraged one before, this one was not to protect Leila’s existence, but her heart. Saying she’d take care of it for her, so the mage wouldn’t have to hate herself for it.


They were in, and Jiyu looked up at the cream covered girl, mentally cursing her camouflage in this place! “So your fleta?” she hadn’t attacked them. Maybe there was still a peaceful way to solve this for Leila. Even though Jiyu wanted to get to the devil soon, end that beast.

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Even as they went forward, something was etching at the inside of her forehead, rattling around in her brain, as if her consciousness was trying to tell her something very important, but it couldn’t get past her own screaming internal voice. Kazehime was thinking and could recall a few more times she had felt this way, but they were blurred in her memory, for some reason they could not come all the way to the front, as if something was still blocking them. Most of the talking did not make sense to Jiyu, because her own head was consumed with whatever was crawling around inside of it On one hand she understood the connection, but in this state, would not have proper time to settle into her head. No matter how much she fought the ideal, Fleta was still her enemy here, a potential threat to Leila, and one of her basic instincts was to protect those she loved, defend them even if it cost her life, or made them hate her. Kazehime was still struggling to deal with whatever was inside her head, when suddenly Fleta started shouting things and the pumpkins around them became to laugh maniacally. She was scared, no idea what to do, she didn’t want to hurt Leila and hurting Fleta would do just that, but she didn’t want Leila getting hurt in a cross fire attack either, but she didn’t- there was nothing she could do, everything was so messed up, she couldn’t even think straight. Than her mind went blank.


Jiyu jolted significantly, flinching as the other girl seemed to change, but the flinch was not from Fleta’s harsh words or persona shift. An event was taking place within the inner working’s of canine, something that neither of the other girls present could see yet, or even sense as an event. The wind that would normally lash out at anyone trying to hurt Jiyu by now, was entirely still, as if her magic thought she was in no danger whatsoever, as if there was no red-eyed threat here. However the risk present to the canine was clear to see. Could the wind not sense it’s mistress here? No that was not possible, it had blown earlier in attempts to comfort her when she fumbled about. So what was preventing the element she controlled from aiding, spells from being cast. The canine stood behind Leila in the completely stilled air, and if the eden mage glanced back she’d see an expression completely different from normal, Jiyu’s gaze was empty and terrified at the same time, mouth gaped slightly. Nothing going on with the canine’s body? Was caused by her opponent, head falling as a blue mist began emerging from the area around her body, leaking out and falling to the ground, spreading like some sort of wildfire, until it had filled a good area around them, a deep plume of baby blue, just hanging there in the air, obstructing vision. Considering Fleta was at the top of the stair’s, the spirit might just be safe, the blue smoke lapping at the steps but never ascending more than about five of them. The pumpkin’s moved about in the smoke, green vines rolling across the floor as they moved with their constant giggling, other’s rolling towards where they had seen the two girls, where their magic was still coming from, never realizing the mist seeping into them. It was when the first pumpkin made a move to bowl into Jiyu that something finally happened with her magic. Suddenly? The peaceful blue serene mist, exploded violently, blew up in the blink of an eye, no loud boom noise, just an explosion before the mist lightened and fell further towards the ground, creeping it’s way back towards Jiyu.

A pale hand rose to wipe something moist and sticky from her cheek, open palm trying to wipe it from her face and body as the mist slowly returned visibility to everyone. Jiyu looked at her hands and body, seeing shades of cream all over it, dripping from her body and claw’s, laying at her feet. Suddenly she looked horrified, staring at her hands, and then the cream pumpkin parts laying all over the floor, not a single one left standing as the wind user rushed forward, hitting her knees in the carnage, hand reaching out to one that was not in a thousand pieces, slender appendage picking up one of the pieces she guessed had come from it, her other hand falling to the ground and reaching for another piece, placing the matching pieces together. Jiyu tried to put it back, tried to fix something she was almost certain she had done, revive even one of the pumpkins. “No.” it was echoed in the mansion as she lifted her head up, finally rendering it at an angle where the other two could see her profile, powder blue lines cutting the paleness of her flesh, slicing through her eye itself a thick eye shadow effect above each, and beneath that lay a pointed, curved line of the same color, half a circle visible on either side of her face. “I didn’t-” she hadn’t meant to do it, she had just been so frightened by them that the mist from her demonic aura lashed out! Small tears pricked on both eyes, starting to roll down her face, taking a small bit of the pumpkin guts with them as they splashed to the ground, adding to the carnage beneath the inu.

Suddenly it seemed as if Jiyu had become the weak little mage afraid to kill anything, the same girl she had been when the two of them first met, desperately trying to piece the pumpkins back together, tears streaming for her eyes. “Isn’t there anything I can do for them? I didn’t mean to! Honestly, I didn’t- I don’t know what happened, I just got scared, I didn’t want to hurt them!” the pumpkin’s were dead, she couldn’t bring them back, holding a piece of pumpkin shell between her small hands, looking between Fleta and Leila, hopping one of them could bring the pumpkins back.

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Jiyu honestly hated it when other people were watching her, just the mere word inquired she needed looked after, she was not capable on her own! People staring in admiration? Was one thing, but watching just sounded as if they believed taking their eyes off her could result in her getting seriously hurt or something. So many people treated her like she was helpless, and that was why she strove to increase her power the way she did, gathered the immense magic she had collected. If she became strong enough? She thought she might just be able to break free from that cycle a little bit, truly protect the people she loved for once, instead of just aiding them as she always did! No matter how strong she got, it always seemed there was someone much more capable than herself and it pissed the wind user off, the fact she never seemed strong enough compared to those around her. Yet their was a reason for her aversion to being looked after, part of the situation she did not understand, had no way to logically know of the truest reason for her dislike of that sort of thing. Kazehime was still functioning under the belief she was a simple Inu Youkai, some normal demonic presence. Instead the truth was much more grad, the girl was what in some culture’s could be considered  goddess, a kami, a deity, something that looked after something around them with the immense power they held. At the end of the day, Jiyu was an Inugami, an entity that could be evoked by those who worshipped it, summoned. If she was born in another way? She might have even been something akin to the spirits Leila could summon or the type celestial wizards used. However due to the way she came about being an inugami the girl had no master, no evoker. Yet she was still driven by a dog’s loyalty. In fact she had an advantage over others of her kind, due to not being brought about in the normal way, the rage inugami normally had was sealed deep inside, not a part of her day to day life! Still, she didn’t know about any of it, it was something waiting beneath the surface, an unknown variable involved in everything she did.

Everything was so fast, it went by quicker than Jiyu could well and truly process, ripping her mentality to shreds and leaving only the inugami portion of her behind for now. Until the powder blue markings would fade from the inu’s face? Leila would find herself accompanied by a very changed Jiyu, maybe that wasn't the right wording, because it was still the wind user. Maybe it was most accurately described as  a flash to the past teleported into her current body, the nature of human Jiyu imbedded into her demonic one with those blue lines supporting it. “Harm?” the echo of the word and the fear placed on her face by uttering it, only furthered any conclusion that she had changed suddenly for some reason, a small fist rising to cover her mouth as she looked down and bit her lip. “I could never hurt someone!” she sure had not been saying that when she was telling the angels to die back when Leila first found out she was not human, and he certainly had not been saying that just minutes ago! Only moments ago the witch had seemed fine with harming anyone she came across if it was for the Eden Mage, seemed as if she could even commit cold blooded murder without regret. Now however, she seemed so frail and meek again. Maka finally reappeared after having rendered herself invisible, placing  paw on Jiyu and restoring the magic power her takeover had required. “Jiyu, Take Over.” the kitsune was a little more aware than the girl herself was, trying to meekly explain things to Leila in her simple way of speech. Explaining what was happening to the she-dog herself? Just would never work, until she found out of her inugami status, so maybe she could make Leila realize the current behavior was caused by something of a takeover.
“I’m ready when you are thought.” she offered it up, smiling at Leila, the blue line around her pale pink lips accenting the little grin. It was when her friend made her promise that something roared inside of her, making her shake her head to rid it off the possessive, brutal voice there. Jiyu had never experienced a sensation like the one she had when those words of promise to protect flowed into her ears. You see? Inugami were a species that often made contracts with other people for various things, numerous reasons. Kazehime was not immune to the nature provided to her species, nor the intense desire they sometime developed for consuming the souls and life of others. Luckily, since her gentle soul was the one currently in control of everything, the rage hidden beneath and the malice, neither had any chance to surface and possibly get everyone involved in this into trouble. However, it still existed deep within, the urge to hurt people in order to get revenge for what had happened to her in the past, make the whole damn world repent! Right now the urge to form  contract was eating away at her, it was not the soul stealing kind that she could end up desiring from people eventually, but rather just a way to ensure promises given to her could never be broken, unless someone wanted to lose their life or what not. Even as she stood there with her that desire burning it’s way into the deepest pits of her soul, that hunger slowly rising, Jiyu had no clue what it really was, no idea what was going on. All the lithe female knew? Was she wanted to ask Leila what she was willing to promise on that swear, or take it another way and give her own promise back, ask what the eden mage wanted in return from her. Words pushed in the back of her throat, fighting to escape, find some way out of her throat and into the air, some way to enchant the moment. However if she locked her friend into a contract now unknowingly? It could have drastic consequences, even containing a cost that could take someone’s life or their freedom. Some part of Kazehime knew this even if her conscious mind did not, and that was enough to keep her inugami instincts at bay.

“Alright.” it was a small comment as she fought a warmth swelling up in the area around where her heart sat, making the area go stone cold as she struggled internally without even knowing what she was fighting. “Jiyu?” Maka knew the risk involved in promises these days, especially with the marks of a deity so clearly displayed on the girl's face, the fox could only pray Jiyu wasn’t considering something. The fox shook it off, there was no true confirmation her owner was an inugami anyways, so why would contracts even be a concern here. “I’m fine maka, just a little light headed.” the female shrugged stumbling a step or two before she had her feet, walking up to the space next to leila, tilting her painted face to the side slightly. “Scary thought?” the comment was off handed, a thoughtful look on her gentle face, ears twitching slightly. Fear? Actually made the event’s that had just taken place, the vanished massacre started making sense to the female who had committed it. “Maybe that blue mist is a demonic defense mechanism I didn’t know about before.” outright admission that the girl was fairly sure she had created the mist, but was actually unsure how or even why she had done it, lost trying to figure it out. “I Guess we should get going soon.” What would await them on the other side of that mirror? Jiyu had no idea what could be laying there, however she was fairly sure it actually did scare her now, arms crossed over her body, she glanced at the floating item in the blackness, glancing back at Fleta’s sleeping form on the expansive cream sheets.

She could see why the little girl hated her so much, it was entirely deserved. Even though she knew of Leila’s feelings, of her friend’s loyalty? She never said anything definitive and never seemed to take any measures to help the other girl. In the end she was greedy, immensely needy because after sealing herself off for ten years, she did not want to miss a single ounce of the new love surrounding her from pretty much all sides. However this also made her much more susceptible to the hate of others, more prone to taking it far too personally and internalizing it. “A.. Are they all going to react like she did?” it was a seemingly sudden question, but the other girl had to know where it was coming from. Jiyu did not want to be Leila’s reason for staying in the land they had come here from, if it was not really where the eden mage belonged. In fact, she would rather let go, than cause Leila the suffering being away from home could cause. Jiyu suddenly felt lost again and the urge she had felt earlier returned full force, the marks on her face starting to glow slightly as she moved forward to look up at the slightly taller girl, unsure of what she was going herself. “Promise Me.” she looked normal, but on the inside her body was burning.

The marks on her face seemed to solidify into her actual flesh instead of looking painted on as they had before, their glow a steady dull beam of light in the darkness within here. Once her emotions got the best of her, the inugami was no longer able to surpass her basic instincts! Hands reaching forward as nothing besides pure instinct drove her movement and words, it was like an out of body experience for the mage. Kazehime couldn’t believe anything happening, but she could see it all so clearly. “Promise me again.” Her voice was slightly softer than normal, and it seemed to echo in the small space as her wind boosted her height to force their foreheads together. “If I promise to keep smiling, you promise to keep on being my friend no matter what.” as she spoke her half, the glowing marks on her face pulsed and the warmth around her chest returned. However? Her body was actually hot enough to be felt entirely by the other girl, and where their foreheads touched it would feel near burning, not in a bad way, but it certainly suggested the contact should not continue past the promise. Leila would have no idea what she was getting into if she spoke as directed too, and Jiyu had no idea what she was doing in the first place.

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Her mind was hazy as she made her movements as everything happened, her brain just didn’t seem to be there fully for her. Why was that fact something that existed? Nothing made sense to her in this state, with her body processing the contract the girls had just unknowingly agreed to. The exchange level was a bit much for her first swear, but soon enough the glowing of her marks ceased, sealing the contract as unbreakable expect for drastic means or maybe the inugami herself choosing to give it up, burn the bridge. From this day forward, it was very likely Jiyu would be unable to wear anything besides a smile around Leila and the Eden Mage, well she was gonna be held to every promise she just made. Honestly it might not even be just a bad thing if she had known what she was getting into, but the young mages had no clue what had truly taken place, what they had gotten into. Hopefully there would be no soon nor upcoming urgent reason for them to learn of the contract form or Jiyu’s truer form as an Inugami, for now hopefully she could continue being just someone coping with a major change, instead of one of the deity dogs. Only time would tell them what was in store in terms of the event that had just taken place, nothing else could unveil anything relating to it.

Even if the contract was swift to form, Kazehime took additional time to allow her body to cool down, confused as to the origin of the sudden blaze she had felt consume her from within, and left oddly cold now, shivering even though there was no reason to be really cold. “Is it just me or did it get cold in here?” she wrapped her arms around herself and chewed on her lower lip, but a pale smile was still worn across her dim pink lips as she did so. Honestly she suddenly felt like an icebox, she went from being on fire to being nearly frozen. Maybe she was getting sick? Should take a rest after this mission, so she didn’t become seriously ill. “Well it’s good they all won’t want me thrown down a set of stairs.” the wind mage laughed it off, shivering once more as her body temperature slowly started rising back up. Also it clarified well for the inu what had to happen here, but thing’s in a different light for the youkai who by birth belonged to a species that normally ran in packs. “So this is just a whole reshowing of dominance?!” she broke out laughing after she spoke it, walking towards the mirror with a small smile on her lips. Now? Thing’s made much more sense, this was Leila’s pack and she just had to become the alpha of it for this whole thing to end alright. A pecking order battle, was much easier than what she had been considering before, earning the trust of a pack-mate was much easier than fighting your way through unpredictable challenges.

Jiyu followed Leila shortly after the other girl leaped into the mirror, looking around at the water like short portal she passed through. Considering the way the portal could be compared to a lake? She checked her equipment afterwards to make sure she was not soaked. “Huh.” she took a single step so she was beside Leila, taking in the decomposing area, eyes darting all over the place. Finally the girl noticed the book’s, bending down to blow the dust off one of them, touching her slender finger to the cover. Shockingly Kazehime was not much of a reader despite her intelligence, her personality was just a little too short fused to allow truly deep reading without an ulterior motive behind it. “These book’s their.” her finger flipped the cover only to find it was written in braille, a language she did not yet understand, so she didn’t dare try to read it. Instead? She stood back up, brushing a strand of hair back behind her ear, eyes wide as she looked around, before settling back down. Maka landed on Jiyu’s head after jumping through the portal herself, and this prompted the subject to change. Right now she could sense no other presence in the room, and honestly this place was relaxing to her, the scent of old books filling her nose.

“Hey one of you two, remind me when we’re done here I actually need to visit a bookstore on the way home.” Now what reason could the girl have for visiting a bookstore when she was not a major reader? Contented with mostly her single magic book for most days. Well while Jiyu herself did not read excessively due to studying too hard bringing up painful memories of when her mother would bring her home books, the girl did have friends that read a good deal of their time, enjoyed it greatly. “It would probably do me good to finally get an apology gift for Ruminal, he’s probably still a bit bitter over the fact he misinterpreted my actions as tricking him into a mission once. He always seems to have a book on him, a new one should be a good apology gift.” she explained her reasoning without mentioning the fact that she was also considering getting one for a certain someone else, the wind user wasn’t sure if she mention him around Leila, she was still confused and uncertain in everything involving the both of them. Shaking it off her head, she shut the book she had glanced at, walking back over to Leila, looking around the area suspiciously. “So where is Harpae? I don’t see anyone besides us and the library, Fleta showed up soon as we entered her place. Are we going to have to find a room here or something?” Or could she just not see the other entity because they looked like a book or something, had brown eyes and were well camouflaged here to someone who was half colorblind.

Jiyu couldn’t stand the silence, mostly because every second this rustic old scent filled her nose, she was sent back years in time within her head. “You know? I might just start keeping books around my room again for the smell of them, this is really nice.” the female inhaled deeply, her tail wagging as she smiled softly. A little girl sat in her room, a book slightly thicker than what her age group would normally be reading, clutched between her small hands. The raven haired child was clearly reading the book carefully, trying to understand every single word. “Jiyu sweetie, my little puppy?” the girl’s head lifted and she looked at the border collie looking woman in the doorway to her room, rushing over when a hand was extended to her by the most beautiful woman in the world, taking her hand and hugging her leg, book left forgotten. “Enjoying your books dear?” the woman carried her daughter back to where she had been reading and sat with the child in her lap. “Yes mommy.” Akane smiled at Jiyu, and picked up the book her daughter had been reading. “Where did you leave off?” once the child pointed it out, the older woman started reading the book out loud. A few minute’s later, strong arms wrapped around both women and Akane leaned back into the father of her child, as Jiyu grinned at him. She didn’t shake the flash back away, but kept smiling with a sad light in her eyes. “Yeah old book smell is definitely a good thing.” the woman echoed her words from before, the sorrow fading from her eyes as she perked up again, glancing over at Leila, wondering if the other mage had noticed the fact she had been lost in the past for a few minutes.

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Every single person in the world wanted different things from the world surrounding them, sometimes it was sickening and other’s refreshing or simply existent. The core of everything in the world? Was emotion, even those who did not feel them could be afflicted by those simple word, the simple ideal that became so damn complicated in the end. Nothing in the world, no matter how powerful could trump the way people truly felt about something if they were absolute. Jiyu had tried to live as much of her life as possible being decisive about how she felt and expressing that just as brutally. When the short woman had first came to Black Rose, she had been something stronger than what she currently was, or maybe she was weaker due to how little she let emotions into her. For the past ten years? Her heart had been contained in such a tight prison cell, a worse captivity than her two year torture, and she couldn’t fight her way out of that. Somehow more recently, there was a crack in the armor protecting her heart from being broken again, as each day passed, so did an increase in the number of people who could shatter her or the ways they could do so. Yet, the canine found she would not trade this for the world. Sure! It got hard feeling thing’s deeper than she once had, but even when it was something so complicated like how to break Leila’s heart without hurting her, or how to make Marschal fully realize she felt the same way and wanted to take the next step, force Iza to realize how of a secondary mother she was sometimes like, no matter what faced the mage, everything was so much stronger now, and she couldn’t trade any of it for the world, because it was her world. It was part of the curse on the inu, a mark staining her existence but also defining who she was at a core level. Be it hatred, love, friendship, joy, sorrow or even the agony of death? She felt it so deeply, and due to the barrier still around her heart, the years she had suffered, Jiyu was unable to cope with any of it properly.

“Leila.” to the senses of a dog whatever was going wrong with the eden mage was painfully clear, especially now that her body was adjusting to all the portal jumping and absence of electrical fields. Jiyu moved closer, slender fingers slowly leaving the surface of the book she’d set down, one pale hand out reached wondering if she should try to embrace the other girl, listening but her sensitive ears did not hear the words. Instead what Kazehime processed? Was the sorrow and fear dripping from the spirit, and she wanted to do something about it, so badly wanted to fix what was going on. However something even beyond logical sense told her that the power she held here was next to nothing. “Leila. Harpae.” her hands reached out, aiming to grab both of their own hands, because it was all she had left without her magic, her ability to down people. “Even…. Even when things go wrong, tragically so, destroy you….” she forced her smile to remain, not knowing it could never fade at the moment anyways, eyes gentle with certain unique fear in them, a vulnerability close to the one that only he who held her heart had seen, something that should often remain unknown, held in those swirling optics of hers. “Its for a reason.” she would not never stop seeking revenge for her mother’s death, but these days she was starting to understand it had to happen. Otherwise, she would be living a completely different life today.

Shaking the expression and aiming to release Harpae’s hand, the wind mage blinked once. “Since we’re not going to fight. How do we open the next portal?” the wind user asked it, leaning to her own side slightly, as she cast her gaze somewhere else. Something seemed to be on her mind now, it didn’t seem something dangerous like other time’s, but there was still something there.

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Suddenly the small girl looked frail gin, her body flinching once and nearly falling as she stumbled backwards, the blue lines on her face slowly vanishing, abandoning her bodes exterior for now. Everything in the wind user’s mind? Was fogged as if a mist had descended over her mentality, something blocking her from clearly regarding the last few thing’s that had happened, which was a good deal of what had happened, the last clear thing was seeing the creamy palace, everything else after was a blurr. Jiyu was alarmed by this but she chose to keep silent about it right away, for today was about Leila and the eden mage did not need her problems on top of what was happening in this realm, even if Kazehime could not recall what was going on anymore, she knew that much! The female did not let her mind worry right now, it would do no good to consider something like what was troubling her, unless she had hours to convince someone to do research for her and to ponder all of it as a collective whole. Somehow she thought she should do the research herself this time, though she did not know why, or how come she was considering buying a bunch of books now. Honestly it did not make any sense right now, and she would not try to make sense out of it, shaking the thoughts off without a single exterior move, knowing if she acted out Leila would see it and become concerned.


“Hmm you assume to know me so well~” she might be overdoing it to hide her interior concerns, but she smiled large, brushing her bangs back behind one ear as she looked over at Leila. If anyone had told her when she ran away that all of this sort of stuff was waiting for her seven years down the road? Jiyu would have called them crazy. Honestly it was amazing that now after all this time, she could start moving on with the life she had hit pause on seven years ago! On that day the wind mage thought she would never move on, that her own death would come soon after if she was not driven by revenge. However now she felt no spite, in fact it was to an unnatural level, as if something had stolen all ability to truly feel rage from her, making some sort of saint out of her. “But you're right.” somehow she didn’t want to say many words or prepare any speech, all she wanted to do was to stand next to Leila and smile, as if something was possessing her body and ebbing it’s way around her soul. “Dog’s don’t know when to give up.” and they would take bullet, death for those they adored and swore loyalty to, something told her not to add that last part. Likely the fact this girl was one of the people around her who did their best to keep her out of danger.


The eden mage dragged her by the hand, and the contract served to keep the smile on her face, even as she was shocked. Jiyu didn’t know what they were doing! Leila thought her friend knew what was going on, was fully alert and well but it was all one big farce. In fact? So recently coming off her second soul taking over, the girl did not even really know where they were, was just blindly following Leila like she had done several times in the past. The two of them? Could take on anything anyways, they had proven to be strong and together unstoppable, plus with their bond there was nothing that could frighten Kazehime in the taller girls presence. If someone had sworn to protect you? Why should you be afraid near them, with your hand in theirs. Only Jiyu did not even remember their promise clearly, it was in her memory but right now she didn’t have the time to process it. Jiyu had no time to process anything properly, but there was no reason for it right now, because there was no way they would lose to anything they met anyways.


“This place.” the girl looked round her, instantly noticing how different this place was compared to the rest of eden, even with her fogged memory there was no way to think this was what the area was suppose to look like! Jiyu took a few steps forward, and bent down, running her slender fingers through the dead grey dirt beneath them, picking it up and watching it fall like sand, but sadder, like the corpse of a loved one turning to dust. An ironic, cruel metaphor. Jiyu turned her body slightly as she stood, unable to stop her smile for some odd reason, even though her eyes sung of sorrow, those optics widening in terror looking at the grey marks on her friend in a new light. “Leila.” she moved forward, her pale hand reaching to the grey side of the girl’s neck that she had most noticed back in heaven. The female reached out, aiming to pull the taller girl to her, even though it could look like Leila was comforting Jiyu due to their height difference, the shorter woman was the one aiming to give comfort even if it might not be required. Even though those marks had basically been there since they met? Hime had never realized their significance until today, when she was met with the sight of the corrupted part of the gardens “They didn’t mean her temperament only when they said she’s ill did they? Those marks on you… do they hurt?” how she not noticed those symbolized something wrong?! She went so long with the thought it was just part of leila naturally, no different from her own tail or elfin ears, but she could not have been more wrong.


Suddenly Jiyu had no desire to fight this lisette, the protectiveness that had been built up on the way here, shattered under an ocean of sympathy. If this corruption, destruction, horrible crime was enough to reach Leila's body? What had it done to the spirit who lived within this stage of eden?! Of course if herself and her friend were attacked, her canine instincts would flare up with the need to protect once more. However right now she could not bring herself to be mad at anything within the land they were venturing through. Jiyu knew better than some how much life could be ruined, how it could go from perfect and peaceful, to chaos and pain. She could recall so clearly how she had felt when she was sitting beside her mother and the few mornings for the next three years where she had almost been convinced she could let Rose's mother adopt her and she could stay there. Kazehime could remember the days she had hid herself in the forest or the thick fog that she needed to practice her magic when she first started, hid and cried her heart out because there was nothing else to do. This whole world had been through trauma like that and she wished that Leila had told her sooner. If the corruption was not cleansed when this was done, she would pick up reading once more, just to do research to find some way to help make this space beautiful like the rest of the garden was, restore it to whatever shape it had taken before. When Jiyu looked up, there were little tears in her eyes. “Why would someone do this.” she released and shook her head, smiling as she shed the tears, not for herself but for leila, her spirits and the realm they inhabited.

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The wind user was extremely upset, more than her few tears told, in truth it was the fact she cried in the first place aggravated her the most. Spilling tears once more for something like this? Part of her roared in rage because of it, as if she was being wronged by this, something was a threat to her existence at the most basic levels. Jiyu’s hunch was not too far off, as she looked at this, positive emotions of sorrow flowed at her and little to her knowledge, those emotions could actually act as a toxin to her in large enough dosages! Creatures like the one Leila called her best friend? Were actually spirits born of negative emotion, rage, anger, an intense need for revenge even on those who not the one’s who harmed the soul in the first place, so filled with malice even an innocent infant was not beyond their spite. Kazehime was one of those types, sure it was sealed deep inside of her, kept at bay by the other three souls of an inugami, but the truth of her existence still lurked within. Honestly? Turning had saved her life, and if she gave up the rage she didn’t even know she held, Jiyu would likely die, her soul unable to keep itself sewn together without that animus she would be unable to go on. Yet if she became too vengeful and did nothing with it, unaware she even held this malignant collection inside of herself, left to fester without use it could also backfire on her. Normal inugami? Utilized black magic for a very good reason, their malice never stopped building and those feelings often served as fuel for the dark arts. However jiyu didn’t even know what she was. As the tears stopped slipping, a dark mist surrounded Jiyu for a second before vanishing with no effect, it was the girl's inner monster trying to emerge, but the three souls were able to keep it suppressed, hide it from someone jiyu certainly would not want seeing her inner darkness. The fight was something her body could sense coming due to the threat it sensed and the general feeling of the area, thus her takeover’s slowly began to emerge once more, the markings reappearing on her face only this time they were violet instead of blue, a different soul showing it’s face. “Shatter?” she echoed after the spirit's words as Liela’s touch faded from her cheek’s. Inside of her head everything throbbed painfully, haze taking over her vision as the happy soul emerged fully. Suddenly Jiyu  wore a smile that was entirely out of place in the current circumstance, maybe even a big enough grin to make her seem sadistic as she held her fist in front of her mouth. “Breaking thing’s isn’t too nice at all…... But it’s fun as hell.” she chuckled, taking a step forward but doing it as if she was dancing, bringing both hands together in front of herself, large claws touching gently together a clanking sound emitting from the contact. “Sadly you’ll have to be the one who shatters, because you’ll never even get to touch Leila~” as she spoke a white mist slowly crept from her feet, filling the air around jiyu almost like a shield, a healing lavender mist seeping out that would restore some health to Leila, finally a golden mist danced out.


The reflections appeared and Jiyu laughed as if they were playing a game, crossing her arms over her chest. “Number’s game? That’s useless against me, maka do it.” now the wind mage revealed the reason she had brought her pet, the animal leaped up onto her shoulder, beginning to glow, something rattled on the girl's chest, a pendant. Now Jiyu’s magic power was nearly tripled, on top of her aura lashing out at everything besides her allies. “Leila? You ready, I don’t think this can be solved like the last two, just something, the malice here.” she spoke, but something felt as if it was trying to claw out of her skull, break her skin and erupt from her, her gentle and mysterious soul pieces struggling to keep her assertive side down when this area was something that could easily draw it out. Even if she had not spoke it out loud, part of her knew she had to fight here, or else, she didn’t want to think on it. “Let’s play.” she moved one clawed hand forward and suddenly the golden mist became clearly sharp, cutting into everything it could, even the ashy ground was not spared by it. The next few moves were barely seen, but Jiyu had moved, her movement triggering the wind to lash out in a bludgeoning way, along with a few violent eruptions of the element before Jiyu took one of her arrow’s, firing it. Suddenly mercy had vanished from her, thought she seemed to still be acting with the intent to protect Leila. When one of the reflections lunged? The blue mist from earlier reemerged and blew up as it had done before.


“Careful alright Jiyu?” Maka glanced as the girl let out a series of attacks, all of them meant to affect every single enemy on the field. However the fox thought these things were weird because her owner normally was more reserved in her attack style despite the massive amount of power jiyu had at her disposal, the fox had never seen her let out so much of it at once alongside using the amulet to provide a further boost. Koto knew that unless Jiyu had never been serious in a fight before? Something was going wrong with kazehime and it could bite them in the ass later. “Take over?” she theorized that it was something to do with the takeover’s jiyu used once more, but she had no way of being sure, and it really sucked. Heck it even looked a bit like Jiyu didn’t even know this was a fight! Maka was concerned but they all needed to fight.