A Little Early For Christmas...

“Come on you lot! I can’t hear you!” Yelled the incredibly loud voiced creature, her hands strumming her guitar as she continued to sing for the crowd of people before her.

She clearly wasn’t quite human and there was something about the woman that seemed to draw the poor fools towards her. A powerful yellow eyed gaze, along with a pair of rather majestic horns were enough proof of that and there was an almost feral look in her eyes that almost gave her a look of savage hunger. This individual clearly longed for the attention that she was receiving from those all around her, even if the attention was brought on by her own magical power. The people weren’t surrounding her because they loved her music but because they couldn’t help themselves. They were under the devil’s spell, with every last one of them acting like a groupie.

One woman who wasn’t captivated though was a tall, redheaded individual who was currently perched on top of one of the village buildings, her form invisible from any natural sight. Taking on the form of Shadow once again, her alias while on the job, Shirayuki sighed with irritation at the sight before her. Her task for the day had been simple. Slip into the village leader’s house, nab his daughter and get out of there before anyone knew the wiser. It was fool proof or at least she thought it was but now she had this extra wrinkle to deal with. She’d seen such creatures before and would guess that the crazed attention seeker was a demon of some kind, similar to the kitsune perhaps in nature. The ability to bewitch was a common trait among demons, after all.

What annoyed her further was the fact that she could see her target from where she stood, a rather vibrant and excitable brunette who was jumping up and down with glee. She was right in the middle of the front row and if Shirayuki didn’t know better, she’d have guessed that the girl might be cheering for real rather than by the music woman’s magic. There was a majestic vibe to her that certainly made her stand out from the rest of the villagers. Her gaze had already fallen upon them and there was very little money in it for her if she took them. They just weren't valuable enough to be worth the effort. The brunette, however, was worth a great deal and her employer had been adamant that she be brought in unharmed. Shirayuki had no real issue with that and it was rare that she was rough with her targets but there was a risk if the kitsune just dived for her now. She had no real idea about what the devil might do and the redhead wasn’t one to gamble unless the odds were in her favour. She’d have to remove the devil from the game first or at least make her less of a threat to her plans. Fortunately, the slayer had just the right tools for that.

(511 Words)

Moving slowly, Shirayuki would make her way from building to building, clambering over the rooftops until she was directly behind the stage that the crazed woman had created for herself. There probably wasn’t even any need for the kitsune to be so cautious, given how loud the woman playing was but she felt that it was the prudent method of moving nonetheless. The redhead moved with such grace, a testament to both her natural abilities and devoted years of training. She’d broken into the most expensive of houses without being seen and by now, the centuries old demon could probably do whatever she wished, without breaking her invisibility for a second, such was her skill and magical strength at this point. She wasn’t intimidated by the devil in the slightest although she was slightly curious as to why the unusual creature had chosen Peace Village to torment. It wasn’t exactly large or grand. What was her game?

Seemingly oblivious, the yellow eyed devil would continue to blast out songs on her guitar, the villagers toing and froing in time with her musical beats. It was only then that Shirayuki took a moment to actually listen to the songs being sung, the result being a raising of her eyebrows. This woman was singing Christmas carols but the lyrics were quite different and far more adult than their traditional counterparts. The kitsune had to hide a smile as she waited for her moment to strike, beginning to figure out just who this woman might be. Christmas demons most certainly existed and it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that this girl was one of them but who was she in the grand scheme of things? It was an entertaining question and one that she couldn’t help but ponder about. That wasn’t the only question that started to reverberate around her mind either.

Just how much would she be worth to the right buyer?

The cogs were clearly starting to turn in her mind and the thought of two valuable captives was more than enough to tap into her more greedy side. Yes, she’d take this woman too and see what prices she could get for the exotic creature. What if the woman escaped from her buyer and came after her? Well, who cared? She’d just capture her again and repeat the process.

Once the Christmas devil reached the final chorus of her latest song, Shirayuki would create an orb of her combined slayer elements and hurl it into the air. The spell would travel quickly and fall upon the cheering crowd but rather than set off an explosion or something, the orb would release a vast amount of rope, tape and handcuffs which would start lunging out at the nearest targets. The crowd would go ballistic, freed from the devil’s spell, only to be swiftly trapped in Shirayuki’s instead. In moments, the crowd would be little more than moaning and wriggling human caterpillars, helpless.

The devil, who had managed to avoid the attack, would spin on her heel, staring angrily around in search of the attacker.

“Who the fuck did that?! Show yourself or I’ll tear them all to shreds!” Her threat sounded sincere enough but Shirayuki barely even blinked, drawing her sword and jumping from the building towards her opponent.

(549 Words)
(1060 TWC)

It appeared that the Christmas themed demon had good reflexes as she was barely able to get her guitar up to block Shirayuki’s strike. The redhead wasn’t finished, however, launching into a barrage of graceful sword strikes that forced her opponent onto the defensive. Snow and mist began to fill the area around them due to Shirayuki’s icy blade and soon enough the temperature started to drop, yet the kitsune seemed to be unaffected and her assault didn’t pause for a moment. The devil on the other hand was just trying to stay in the battle and when her chance came, she jumped away and unleashed a barrage of sound waves that the slayer was forced to dodge. Shirayuki’s form would disappear and reappear as she did so, barely in sight for more than a few seconds before vanishing again. Graceful, formidable and just waiting for a hole in her opponents defences.The chance came and Shirayuki unleashed a powerful wave of ice that travelled quickly towards her foe, forcing the devil to leap out of the way, which she narrowly managed to do.

It was clear that there was a difference in the power levels of the two and as the moments passed, they both came to realise it soon enough. The devil was unwilling to give in though and whistled, resulting in a sudden sleigh appearing in front of her, carried by a group of reindeer, which took her up into the sky and above the village. “Take this you dirty cheating bitch!” The devil angrily shouted, before starting to play a long and powerful solo on her guitar that sent dozens of musical notes towards the reappearing slayer. It wasn’t just her though and the notes seemed to be flying out in all directions, which was a bit of an issue.

Coming to a quick decision, Shirayuki would briefly teleport beside the villager’s daughter, still immobilised and toss her over her shoulder, before summoning a pair of icy blue magical wings and launching into the air. The rest of the villagers were not saved, however, the musical notes coming down hard on the defenceless men and women, dealing severe damage to them.

“That’s cold.” The devil shouted from her sleigh. “You left them to die without a moment’s thought. What kind of hero are you?”

“They’re not my problem. This girl is and now, so are you.” Shirayuki replied, closing in on the sleigh and firing a blast of what seemed to be liquid metal at the reindeer.

“What’s that going to…?” The devil started to ask, before her eyes opened in disbelief as her reindeer suddenly turned rock hard and stopped in place.

As the realisation dawned on her, the devil could only scream. “OH SHIT! GOING DOWN!”

The sleigh fell out of the sky at that moment, crashing rather unfortunately on top of the wounded villagers, injuring them even more.

Turning around in the air to watch her foe, who was struggling to clamber out of the debris, Shirayuki would simply hold her sword in front of her face and channel her magical energy. The result was a large ice dragon emerging from it, before flying down towards the devil, its mouth outstretched. All the Christmas devil could do was scream, thinking her time had come.

(550 Words)
(1610 TWC)

That wasn’t quite the case, however, with Shirayuki holding back just enough to make sure the exotic woman survived. The spell did knock the devil out though and the kitsune wasted no time in casting her restraint magic upon the woman, making sure that she wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while. By the time the kitsune was done, there was hardly any of the woman still visible, with the vast majority of her buried under layers of tape, cloth and ropes. Shirayuki never took chances when it came to her work and when the woman awoke, she’d find that she wouldn’t be able to see anything or utter a single word. Struggling wouldn’t do her much good either, with the slayer knowing exactly how to stop that, a well positioned rope making any such movements rather painful or perhaps pleasurable, depending on the woman’s nature.

With both her target and the devil now tied and ready to transport, Shirayuki was more than ready to leave the village for a while. There was no one left to speak to anyway and she never liked to remain in one place for long. Her employer was no doubt waiting for news about her success and the kitsune was also rather looking forward to taking a closer look at her other catch. She wasn’t sure just whether she’d be able to sell the devil or not but perhaps there was an alternative. Perhaps she could use this woman for another purpose and keep her around for a while. It was worth considering and the redhead would muse about it during the journey home.

Making sure that she had a comfortable grip on the two women, Shirayuki would then leap into the air and take flight, heading for home, her form and that of the two women vanishing as she became invisible again. It’d been a more interesting job than she’d expected but the end result had been more than acceptable for her. The fact she’d left quite a mess could be considered a downside but it didn’t bother her all that much. The villagers were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was just business as usual for the redheaded jewel loving woman and another job well done.

“Welcome to your new life girls.” She uttered with a devious smile, with only the sounds of muffled words coming from her victims in response.

(403 Words)
(2013 TWC)