A Mystery in the Canyon (Moto, Meletzo, Kusanagi)

With a loud yawning sound, the bunny mage would let out a stretch as she led her group of friends and mages into the canyon. A light echo would reverberate from the surrounding area, just enough that her ears could pick it up and making them twitch just a bit. The astounding things nature came up with always amazed her, even as she grew up out here... Well though not necessarily in the mountains, the way papa had come to form it's creations had made things much more appealing when she got to see them in person. She was like a child whom got to see the things their parents crafted with their bare hands, it was just something she had found to be one of the most amazing things about who.. or rather what it was she had been. Something she never shared with another person, but even in such a stead she loved what she was and stood to help protect it in any way, motivating others to help do the same. Not just for her though, but rather for the others whom had been around and WANTED to.

The bunny girl had worn a smile on her face as she had led the members along with her to the canyon. Venturing off the normal path, they would continue to just follow behind her, as she knew- or rather was led through the path that required no climbing. Adorned to this guild masters body had been a red Cheongam dress with a dragon print wrapping from the bottom to the front left shoulder. Matching red heels clicked on the rocky path while her blonde hair laid like had usually been, braided down her back. "We should almost be there now! You gals keepin' up?~" She let out a little giggle as she swung around to make sure they had kept up with walking such a great distance. Surely walking in heels backwards was a tough task, but she wasn't one whom was inexperienced in any way with wearing them, so this was like walking barefoot to her.

"I'm doing fine," Maya replied, although her slightly unsteady steps gave away her inner tiredness. This was her first time on an extended hike. It wasn't the worst thing in the world (very calming and hanging out with the rest of the guild was fun), but she was most definitely unused to longer treks, and it was showing. She was wearing what she usually did, brown pants and a green shirt with her trademark hoodie, although the hoodie was wrapped around her waist rather than actually being worn at the moment so as not to make her overheat.

The green-haired girl's eyes were trained on the natural beauty of the canyon around her. She'd seen places like this in books and movies, and heard it talked about in countless songs, but she'd never actually been to one of these places. It was a totally new experience to her, and she had to say, she was enjoying herself. Nature was a force that Maya admired, although her body currently seemed to mock everything nature stood for.

Speaking of her body, Maya was starting to finally feel comfortable with her current situation. She still wanted to return to normal, of course, but with every passing day her body was feeling less and less foreign. Part of that had to do with how her body was beginning to integrate with the Lacrimas fully (at least, according to Z), but the mental part of it was all due to the help of the Guild Master in front of her. Gisen had been the one who helped her take the first step, and had been there for many of the other steps; it was like having a kind and caring older sister. That was very different from her other sibling experience, which she was glad for.

All she had to do now was get stronger, in order to help everybody who had helped her before and to find the doctor who had done this to her. And, of course, survive this trek. "How much longer do we have to go?" She asked Gisen, trying to appear as un-tired as possible.

Enemy? Prey? Something had come crawling into this canyon. Into the territory of the feared monster who stalked this area. It saw two creatures walking within the canyon. One was clearly female, with rabbit ears on her head. A strange creature the beast had not encountered before, but the female did not seem to be any different from any other female it had encountered. It was dangerous. It was dangerous because it was female. All females were dangerous. This was self-explanatory.

The other person was completely covered so the monster could not recognize its gender. Based on its chest size it was a male. Females had larger, rounder chests, which this person did not. As this person was male, it was obviously weaker than the rabbit-eared female so it would be an easier target. Kill the male, that should frighten the female enough to make it flee and prevent a return to the beasts territory, or so the beast believed. Even this male was a threat. It came into the monster’s territory and the monster did not recognize it. Therefore it was a threat, although not as dangerous as the female, a threat no less.

The beast was eying the two from above, on a higher trail than the two were traveling on. It led to nowhere so nobody used it, but it was good for the beast, because he could track people who used the lower trail and see the canyon fairly easily.

The beast waited. The beast waited some more, stalking its prey. It waited a little longer. The beast pounced, its arms turning into elongated claws and raised over its head, swinging them downwards towards the unsuspecting male with its head covered. Kill the trespasser. Kill the threat. The blades were aimed at both the males shoulders, with the intent of destroying its arms before swiftly going into a lethal blow to the neck.

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Word count: 317

Motoaka was nervously twirling some hair from her twintails as she followed behind Maya and Gisen. The young girl didn't like this canyon, it was so.... enclosed. She wanted to complain, but wanted to remain as indifferent as possible. She wished she had her motorbike... it would be so much easier that way. But the space was too narrow for it, so she had to leave it at home. Moto would feel much better if she had it, or if her instruments were in her hands. She sensed something, something following them, but tried to ignore her instincts. There was nothing there... was there? The girl shook her head to rid herself of those negative thoughts. No way anything would challenge three mages travelling together, right?

Surely this adventure would prove to be fun. Placing a staple into the guild's big goal with the hunting of this creature within this canyon, the more unconventional client was left for Gisen to leave as more of either herself or of her papa, but the enjoyable part of it all was how people seemed to take the idea of her wanting to play it as she had done so, which was perfectly fine. The less people knew, the better it was for everyone else anyway. With a giggle, she would turn around to look at both the girls who had accompanied her. Maya seemed to be keeping up pretty nicely, but there wasn't really a tell that she noticed of her struggling. She was good at hiding things from people, so perhaps she was truly fine or just masking the exhaustion.

While her hand slid along the rocky terrain around them, she had looked slightly further back to Moto, of whom was playing with her hair. Being on their first hunt, it was rather common for one to be nervous, but the hike made the hunt half the battle anyway. "If you keep it up, I'll play with your hair when we get back, Moto." She laughed jokingly, though if she'd take up the offer than there wouldn't be any real going back on the idea to be honest. Truthfully, her taking up the idea would be probably something that would be more useful to being able to get more comfortable to being around people... Especially those she knows already, but for now she would take things naturally as they occurred.

The ears atop her head twitched as she heard the voices of the earth warn her. It was close... She grew silent and focused on the surrounding, but without really knowing what she'd do just yet until it would reveal itself. A small rock tumbled down from above, which in turn made Gisen look up to see something shaded with a blade coming right down. Hands would wave around frantically as winds would color themselves and shift into a barrier surrounding the three females, having this figure collide with her barrier. "This won't hold long, back up and get yourselves ready!" She prepped, loud and clear with a voice guaranteed to be a surprise to both girls.

Maya continued trudging along the path behind Gisen, wondering when the group would end up finding this beast. Of course, she was completely blind to the fact that what they were hunting was, in fact, hunting them. When Gisen began to panic, Maya turned around to see what was happening. She was met with the terrifying visage of a man with blades for arms just barely away from her, his deep blue eyes filled with hatred and savagery. She leapt back in a panic as Gisen shouted to them, telling them to prepare for battle.

Maya fought to keep her breathing steady as she settled into what she thought would pass for an acceptable combat stance. That had been entirely too close of a call. Had it not been for Gisen, the green-haired girl would have been mincemeat by now. That was entirely unacceptable; she had to learn to protect herself at some point. Maybe she'd go about getting a combat tutor after this scenario. It'd probably be the smart thing to do. That was neither here nor there, however; the current issue was the savage man trying to tear up the shield Gisen had created. Maya had recently become stronger, but she was still unused to her new power; this was a good time to test exactly what she could do.

Maya took a deep breath and concentrated, the Lacrimas in her hands lighting up as she concentrated her power there. A web of Lacrima crystal began to emerge from her palms, weaving and interconnecting to form a crude quarterstaff in Maya's hands. Not the best work, but it was enough to fend off a few attacks from the beast at least. Maybe she'd be able to get in a hit or two as well, who knew? If she had a chance against anything, it was against something that wasn't thinking clearly. And this man...beast...thing certainly wasn't thinking straight, challenging all three of them at once. They could handle this. Nobody was going to die.

Probably.

A pale wall of translucent, white light suddenly appeared in the beast’s path as he landed on that and his blades hit it, immediately making contact. Its eyes filled with rage and confusion as the stealthy kill strike was failed. In response the animal started slamming the blades violently at the wall.

The cracks started to form, and gradually got larger before the wall shattered and destroyed, allowing the blade-handed monster to descend back to the ground. His eyes were averted as he saw a third person. A female with a smaller bust yet clearly a female because nothing was being covered up well enough to hide the fact. ANOTHER FEMALE! The panic alarms rang within the beasts head. He should have seen it earlier.

It wasn’t good. It was terrible. Dealing with two people was a bit complicated but three people was more than complicated. Three people was a problem. Three people was a big problem. It was a problem out of the beast’s ability to handle. The beast would have to retreat from this and find another way to deal with the trespassers.

The beast fell and landed on his feet. The moment its foot landed on the stone ground he made a quick pivot and jumped over the nearest ledge. The ledge sloped downward at an angle, allowing the bladed monster to slide down to the next ledge and make a quick bolt for a nearby cave. Within the cave was a thick network of passages that acted more as a labyrinth than a simple residence for the beast. It knew these caves well, nobody else knew these caves however so one would be hard-pressed to find him. They were more likely to be found than to do the finding themselves. The hunter is the hunted and the hunted is the hunter. So who is which?
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word count: 309