◇ Nothing Burns Like Winter ◇

Itori heard Kenna loud and clear as the demoness yelled at the merchant who'd brought the scorpion-spitting mound into the town. She could understand why her lover was so upset: today had looked like it would be a nice date spent together only for a man's negligence in ensuring the quality of his merchandise to result in lots of people being in danger and needing their help. However she didn't hear any deception in the man's voice so at least he wasn't pretending to be unaware of what he really was carrying with him. If he had done this knowingly the nine-tailed fox would have been a bit less pleasant about the whole situation.

As it was the spirit fox was using her powers to quickly get people to safety. Fortunately she was very suited for this task: grab a civilian, shift them into the spirit world, relocate them outside of the fire barrier, rinse and repeat. It might leave people a bit disoriented as they felt the weightlessness of being a spirit for a short moment but it was definitely fast and efficient. By the time that Kenna finished yelling at the merchant and asked for the vixen's status update she was already done with relocating the last citizen, which meant that they could focus on the threat at hand.

"The citizens are all safe Kenna. We can focus on the threat now." The fire barrier was doing an amazing job containing the outbreak of icy stingers but the sooner they dealt with the origin the better. It would also mean that they could hopefully return to the date proper rather than running around fixing issues on what should have been a relaxing day which people could spend with friends and loved ones.

However it looked like killing the scorpions on its own wouldn't be enough. The pile of snow which had been spitting them out suddenly stood up and turned into a much bigger monster, one formed of snow and ice and a lot of aggression. The tenko frowned as she saw the creature grin. Apparently it thought that it would be able to deal with its opposition without much issue.

"We will have to find the one who convinced the merchant to accept this package. The ice scorpions were already dangerous on their own, but a hostile snow elemental is an entirely different matter." While they were made of normally fragile snow Snow Brutes were actually incredibly strong. Ice scorpions could at worst inflict frostbitten wounds which with the help of healing magic and proper care was dangerous but rarely life-threatening. A snow brute could crush your average person easily and inflict a lot of damage to structures and buildings as well.

"I shall take care of the ice scorpions so you can focus on taking down the large threat." Ice scorpions were barely a threat at all as long as you didn't have to keep an eye out for innocent bystanders. With Kenna's fire barrier keeping the people outside of the square safe that meant the nine-tailed fox was about to clean up.

As she talked she used her sword to cut some of the scorpions that made the mistake of getting too close. Their carapaces were shiny but they didn't match up to Itori's razor-sharp white blade, cleanly cutting them open even as above the kitsune's head blue flames began to take shape. It started with a single dancing flame, which soon was joined by another and then two more. The flames kept multiplying until dancing ghostly flames covered the sky above the entire square.

With a simple gesture the spiritual tenko sent all her foxfires down like a rain of blue flames, each flame consuming an ice scorpion with unerring precision. The kitsunebi didn't contain that much raw power but with these opponents she didn't need that, she just needed to make sure she hit all of them.

While the frosty arachnids quickly fell and burned away the kitsune kept an eye out for Kenna, making sure the demoness didn't do something reckless while fighting the snow brute.

WC: 684
TWC: 684/1,500

Itori didn't know whether to smile or sigh when she saw that Kenna's answer to the snow brute was to meet it in a contest of strength. It wasn't terribly surprising: the tenko might be a creature of subtletly and slyness but the demonic heiress had never pretended to be against displays of raw power. Itori assumed that being a creature of fire made it difficult to dislike the idea of just blasting your problems away if they became too big. Still, she loved Kenna's passion and energy. The demoness wasn't so one-sided that she couldn't have her soft and gentle moments but when she flared up she shone brilliantly, blazing like the liveliest of flames as she met all challenges head on.

So instead of interfering the nine-tailed fox just kept an eye out while Kenna took care of the snow brute. The icy creature was definitely powerful, and in raw power might actually exceed Sabertooth's guild master. However Kenna had magic and intelligence on her side, as well as that passionate personality of hers. Even if she couldn't overpower the brute with physical might sooner or later she'd lose her patience and melt it away, and that would be the end of that.

That didn't mean that Itori wasn't ready to step in the moment it looked like things were turning out worse than she expected, but she wasn't going to treat Kenna like a child who needed to be kept away from all danger. Her lover was a grown woman and she could be relied upon to solve her own problems: Itori was only there as backup in case it was actually needed.

Instead she spent some time getting a better grip on their surroundings. She knew the Ace of Spades so well that she could sense the smallest sounds, her ears practised in knowing the surfaces of the buildings and how they reflected the vibrations. It looked like so far the threat had been isolated to the square which Kenna had contained by setting it on fire, but she could sense that this wasn't all there was to the situation. Other hostile forces were convering on the ignited square, one big one and three smaller ones. They were entities of winter so they were effectively camouflaged, but a tenko's ears and eyes were difficult to fool to say the least. In Itori's case it was mostly her ears but that still meant that invisibility meant nothing to her, and neither did matching your magic to the surroundings. The vibrations of the world would betray you no matter what you tried.

Sure enough Kenna finished the fight with a flare, Itori closing her eyes so she didn't get blinded by the fireball that quickly consumed the snow brute and only left some fast-melting snow feet. The ice scorpions had also all burned away so for the moment the square was empty aside from the two of them. A brief respite as they had four more dangers to contend with, but Itori would take the opportunity presented to the two of them.

"So I see." She answered Kenna's confident statement with a smile, then when the demoness came closer for an embrace she stepped into it, wrapping one arm around her beloved while her other hand moved up to lightly touch Kenna's forehead. "Albeit not without some damage." She tilted her head slightly, her vermilion eyes friendly and perhaps even mildly chiding as she healed the bruise on Kenna's forehead before that arm joined the first in embracing the demoness. Her nine long silken tails also curled around the two of them, granting them some more privacy as Itori basked in Kenna's warmth.

It was truly unfortunate that their moment of peace would be interrupted once again, and so quickly at that, but Itori couldn't really do anything to prevent it. One moment there was silence with her beloved demon obviously hoping to use the opportunity, the next a big hunk of ice smashed through the fire barrier, followed by the bigger of the four hostiles: a yeti. Why there was a yeti inside the city was a question which would have to be investigated later, but for now Itori just patted Kenna on the back of the head and stroked her hair as the heiress to the demon throne expressed her frustration at never having a moment alone with the vixen.

"I believe these four are the last of them, so once we take care of them we will be able to spend our time however we wish."

She felt Kenna's gift, the way the fire magic began to flow through her. Dangerous for enemies but comfortable and invigourating for her. She nodded in acceptance, then turned to face the yeti. "As you know I am not one for prolonged fights, so if you wish to join in you would have to hurry." As a tenko she already possessed foxfire, which when combined with Kenna's pure flames... had some very strong potential.

The yeti, meanwhile, didn't exactly wait for the two of them to finish talking. Even as Itori finished her reply the beast roared and charged, bringing forth two large hands tipped with claws to smash the two of them flat. Before it got close enough to do that the nine-tailed fox answered the charge, shooting forward as a stream of ghostly white.

From the surroundings several icicles burst through the fire barrier, heading straight for the fox. The ice elementals came in view, clearly serving as they yeti's backup -or servants- and trying to keep Itori from either attacking the big thug or getting away. They had the plaza surrounded so their icicles couldn't be avoided by going anywhere but backwards... if you didn't have magic that was.

Itori disappeared in a flash of white and reappeared several meters ahead, the icicles all harmlessly ripping through the empty space her body had been occupying before. The yeti, not expecting this, quickly brought its hands down to either grab or crush the tenko, but Itori's vermilian eyes glowed for a but a moment. In this moment she disappeared once more, or rather turned into a silver stream which shot straight through the yeti and turned back into the nine-tailed fox proper on the other side. And she had her sword out now.

And then the sword ignited, brilliant blue flames covering the white blade. Kitsunebi enhanced by Kenna's gift, allowing Itori to not only burn things with them but actually create a heat powerful enough to enhance the cutting power of her attack.

The yeti was still moving when it fell apart, neatly cleaved into two pieces which each crashed onto the ground and slid over the snow-covered pavement before coming to a halt. The blood and gore that might otherwise have spilled out was contained by the flames that covered the entire surface of the bisection, cauterizing the yeti's corpse and quickly expanding to envelop and consume both parts in their entirety. A slash of high speed and high heat, cutting through both the material and the ethereal.

The abominable snowman was a mythological creature and rightfully feared, as it possessed both physical power far beyond what humans could normally even imagine and a cruel intelligence. It could hide in the snow and set traps, use rocks and ice as highly destructive projectiles and had horns, claws and tusks to pierce and tear. It was a monster which should never have been allowed to get close to the city.

But Itori and Kenna were also mythological creatures, a divine nine-tailed fox and a demon queen of flame, and the yeti couldn't use that power and that intelligence if it was eliminated by something it couldn't anticipate.

The three elementals which had been planning to serve as ranged support for the yeti as it crushed and consumed the two ladies were now frozen literally as well as figuratively, staring at the blue flames consuming the yeti's corpse and trying to figure out what to do next. They weren't so stupid as to believe that they could take down the tenko and the demon on their own, but getting out of this situation would most likely be immensely harder than getting in.

WC: 1,375
TWC: 2,059/1,500

With the yeti gone only the three ice elementals were left to contend with, but Itori could tell that they would not be much of a challenge. In fact she was confident that Kenna could take care of all three by herself, as quickly and efficiently as the tenko had taken the yeti out of the picture. In response to the demoness's unusually honest words the nine-tailed fox sheathed her blade and turned her head to give her beloved a smile and a wink. When she was around the princess and there was nobody else around she felt more playful, more teasing. Maybe it was because the two of them had bonded on such a deep level that there was little reason to not be a bit more passionate with her. Not that Itori's gentle demeanour that she usually wore was fake, but she was capable of more than just calm politeness. Even if most people didn't provoke such strong feelings.

As Kenna got to work getting rid of the ice elementals Itori walked over to where the bisected remains of the yeti were burning away. With a flick of her wrist she called forth the soul of the recently deceased beast. While she had used her sword to cut both the corporeal and the ethereal the cut had been precise, designed to sever the link between the two worlds rather than to inflict serious harm to the soul. Instead the tenko would summon her essence orb and absorb what power the yeti had left to give before she dismissed its soul. Whatever the afterlife had in store for it was not her business, but at least she could ensure an easy passage once she had extracted her payment.

In the meantime Kenna had been as quick at dealing with the elementals as the vixen had expected of her. She turned away from the carcass (which was quickly turning into charcoal and ashes) even as the fiery hotheaded demoness stabbed the last of the enemies, leaving the two of them alone once more. Using her sharp ears Itori could say for certain that there were no other adversaries lying in wait, which meant they wouldn't be interrupted for a while. As long as it would take others to return to this square and begin the clean-up, that is.

With how quickly her beloved approached the vixen had a good idea of what Kenna wanted. However she just smiled and waited, letting the passionate demon princess decide how she would proceed. Both of them were aware that there was nobody else around so they didn't have to rush... although knowing Kenna she might have trouble holding back either way.

When Kenna grabbed her and kissed her Itori answered the affection without hesitation, letting her own arms slip around Kenna's waist as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the senation of her beloved's body pressing against hers. She didn't voice any complaints as Kenna pulled back to see if there was anyone who'd tried to take advantage of the opening, a pleased light dancing in her vermilion eyes as her nine tails lightly swayed behind her. "I do believe we are alone for now. Although you will have to erase those flames eventually..." She tilted her head and twitched one ear as Kenna complained that she'd rather not have to deal with these circumstances every time there was a festival. The tenko understood where the demoness was coming from, but would still have to respectfully disagree.

"With all due respect, my beloved guild master, while I certainly hold no objections to the idea of enjoying our time in private the fact that such incidents occur every time there is a celebration is an argument in favour of us getting involved. Many time these hostile entities are intruders from other realms after all, and it is our duty to protect this world from outsiders. In addition it is good publicity for our guild if we show ourselves to protect the citizens of this land as they gather and celebrate."

The hands resting on the small of Kenna's back gently stroked the fire mage as Itori chuckled softly. "Besides... As you must undoubtedly have heard, hard labour makes the fruits taste sweeter." With that she angled her head and closed the gap once more, the tenko this time being the one to initiate the kiss even as she held Kenna a little tighter and her tails curled around the two of them. They couldn't stay like this forever, or even very long, but after the demoness's aggressive kiss she at least wanted to return the favour.

WC: 772
PWC 772/8,000
TWC: 772/16,000