Oh? He wasn’t sure where this Arthur Wick came from, but as a teacher of a school for magic-types, Arata was surprised that the man wasn’t an emancipated, bespectacled skeleton. Though his clothes looked a little too flamboyant, perhaps the man was a Physical Education teacher or something. Didn’t give off the impression that he spent his days slaving away at a desk, at least.

A mere battle though? A battle that doesn’t even drastically change the world? When had the world become so soft, that a fight to decide the fate of the planet didn’t have any lasting consequences? Bah, it left a bad taste in his mouth, and Arata grimaced. As an oni, if he was asked whether or not he enjoyed a permanent status quo, he would say no. And as an individual, he would answer the same way.

How irritating.

The blond-haired oni’s body tensed, becoming as rigid as steel, before he sighed. [b]“I’m Arata, representative of the Night Parade of One Thousand,” he said. “One of your midget representatives scouted me or something.”[/b]

Turning back to the nekomata, who had now managed to crawl out of her cage, he looked down at how she stayed sitting in that embarrassingly subdued manner, blushing. Well, at least it sounded like there were a few fights before he arrived. Maybe more in the future then. About to offer a hand to pull her upwards, Arata suddenly stopped, his eyes narrowing as a familiar scent was caught.

Well, no, it wasn’t a familiar scent. It was one similar to something he had been accustomed to in the past, when the Night Parade used to hold drinking contests and pissing contests. The smell of someone’s bladder about the burst. He wrinkled his nose, sighed, and then said, [b]“Guess it can’t be helped?”[/b]

Raising up one foot, he stomped down onto the soft earth, sinking a good twelve inches into the ground before he lifted it out once more. With his right hand, he brushed loose soil off his sandaled foot, while with his left, he removed the gray cloak that hid his dimunitive horns. Creating an impromptu curtain by holding it up behind the hole in the ground, the oni said, rather plainly, [b]“There you go, Shino-kun.”[/b]

There weren’t any female oni in the Night Parade, so having to create a latrine was a new experience to him, but hey, at least it provided some degree of privacy for this nekomata.

The oni still didn’t understand why she didn’t just do the deed after transforming fully into a cat though.

[b]“By the way, Arthur, the representative didn’t tell me where to go after I arrived. So…like, are there monsters to kill or something?”[/b]