AlteredTundra

Yu Yu Hakusho - The New Agency

---

"Well, so much for that."

Jaakuna was curing himself somewhat silently, watching how his Spirit Stars were easily dealt with by the demon in front of them. This demon, who Jaakuna was sure was above his and the rest of Team Slacker's pay grade posed a difficult situation for the trio. They were the only ones who answered the calling of the odd demonic signature. Jaakuna was the one who attacked and they saw how that ended up. So there was definitely a need for an alternate strategy than just one-at-a-time attacks. Attacking as a team seemed like the best scenario.

As the idea became the dominant thought in Jaakuna's often empty mind, he would notice that Ayame, after she said some pretty amazing words to the demon that got Jaakuna hyped up and officially made him recognize her as the leader of Team Slacker (for now), she then did the exact opposite she said they should do and that was to take care and hot rush into anything.

"Eh, since when were we the careful team?" JAakuna joked as he cocked his head to the side.

Following suit, he charged his spirit energy in his palms, this time knowing that just four wouldn't do. If he really was going to have a real attempt of potentially damaging the Demon, Jaakuna would need to up his game. Consciously making that decision, Jaakuna produced an array of his Celestial SPirit Stars. There was about three times the amount previous. And as he saw a big-eared person come down from the rooftops, Jaakuna would send his attack forth.

"Celestial Spirit Stars: Barrage!" He shouted, commanding the twelve spirit stars to fire at the demon in a barrage-styled energy attack.

Shrouds of Hatred | | Tundra ♦ QueenofWands

The early bird gets the worm; the late flower gets the dirt

---

“Yeah but your reaction would’ve been worth it,” Rai teased Ren, giving her a cheeky grin.

Rai stayed hanging upside down, simply watching Ren as she carefully gathered the rest of the cherry blossoms that she was originally doing before he decided to spook her. Even though it would’ve been hilarious to see her fall down, Rai was glad she didn’t, though she wouldn’t have been in any real danger. Rai was quick and nimble and was in the perfect position to catch her if she fell out of the tree. She should’ve known by now that, should she fall down, Rai would be there to always catch her. Around him, though it might seem like it to others, she was in the right hands.

An entertained smirk suddenly replaced his cheeky grin as Ren wanted to race to the village. He allowed her to get a few yards ahead of him before he allowed his legs to free-fall his body down the tree. After that, he swung himself off the branch closest to the ground and glided in the air until he would use his stealth and other means to make his own way to the village. These sorts of races they did were only one of the many reasons why the two of them got along so well. And they also were the only two in their age group in the village who weren’t training to be priestesses and demon hunters. Rai would never follow down that path for as long as he lived.

Rai had jumped across the building in the shadows, taking him clear across the village. He ended up on the roof of the Ito family’s home. He had landed with about half of a minute before he saw Ren arrive, seemingly looking around for him. But one thing that couldn’t be ignored was the storm gathering over the mountains. It had gotten so bad that it no longer was contained to the mountain range. The grassland that separated the Serpent Mountains and Seiki Village were no longer completely visible. About a quarter of it had lost availability from sunshine and was covered by darkness.

“It won’t be long until it reaches Seiki,” Rai noted causally, loud enough for Ren to hear him. “We’ll have to be ready for anything.”

Shrouds of Hatred | | Tundra ♦ QueenofWands

I'm thinking Rai's abilities will all be -skin based. (IE Shadow Skin allows invisibility for a limited amount of time).

Shrouds of Hatred | | Tundra ♦ QueenofWands

Pranks are best done from the shadows.

---

As he traveled through the village, saying hello to the villagers as he passed them by, they never seemed to judge him despite the fact that he was a half-demon. They found out long before Rai knew it himself. Even if he had feelings, growing up without any memory of where his real parents were, who they were, what kind of demons they were, there had always been something that tugged at Raiko, pushing him into the direction of his demonic heritage. But, he had been too afraid to seek out those answers. In Seiki, nobody looked at him differently. Fear and hatred ruled the land and in it were demonphobes, the kind of people who, without even knowing them, they would treat them unfairly. However, that wasn’t the case in Seiki. Here, Rai felt safe. Despite his pranking nature and how, on occasion, he would mistreat some of the animals and annoy some of the more rigid members of Seiki Village, in the end, his antics didn’t matter. In the end, Rai was loved and respected. The villagers would die for him and he for them.

The wind passed though Rai’s silver hair as he soared through the forest that separated him from the village. He preferred to live close to the forest and the rigid villagers did as well. The thing that he loved most about the amount of trees near Seiki was how easy he found it to hop from one tree branch to the other, effortlessly hopping and gaining traction and speed as his nimble form traveled freely through the open air. Though, he did come to a stop about a few rows of tall trees away from the village. This particular tree he stopped at gave him the perfect view of Ren, who was picking some cherry blossoms.

Time to have some fun.

Rai snickered as he would continue to the village. Right before he entered it, he activated his preferred method of sneaking around: his Shadow Skin, a special demonic ability that allowed him to temporarily blend in with any surroundings by manipulating his demonic energy to appear invisible. He couldn’t maintain it for that long, though he knew that based off of the distance between where he was at the moment of activating it and where the tree was, he knew he could make it in time.

And so he was off. His body blended into the background of the village and he zipped past all villagers. Quickly he scaled the tree. Fortunately for him, any shaking he caused could easily be explained by the wind that had picked up due to the cloud over Serpent Mountains. As soon as he was in the tree, as silently as Rai could, he was just a few feet above Ren. Placing his legs perfectly on the branch, like a bat, he dropped down to where he was upside down to Ren’s upright form. He achieved this at the right moment because his Shadow Skin had faded.

As soon as it did, he was visible and he let his sudden appearance do all of the talking.

Shrouds of Hatred | | Tundra ♦ QueenofWands

Okay, so yes, Raiko is for sure aware that he is a half demon but he isn't aware of what kind of who his parents are or what type of demon he is. This, I think, will provide for some nice reveals later down the road. But, I do think on some level he be aware of it. All I know is that, for his demonic abilities, he will kind of just know it. Like, he won't be able to tell you who his father is or if he is a dragon demon or whatever, but there'll be this part of him that will just know.

As for Ren being aware, I'll leave that up to you. If you wish to have her aware or not, that's entirely up to you.

For the villagers, I actually want them to know and to accept him because the meaning of "seiki" is sanctuary. I think this would be one of those villages where they take care of their own. In that, it would mean they don't care if Raiko is a demon or not. He grew up as one of them and despite his demonic nature, he is one of them. For better or worse, he has sanctuary within Seiki.

And yeah, at his current age, Rai is still very early in his power development. So if something were to happen where he would use them, it could potentially result in something bad for those on the opposite end. >:]

Shrouds of Hatred | | Tundra ♦ QueenofWands

As they say, let the show begin! @QueenofWands

Shrouds of Hatred | | Tundra ♦ QueenofWands

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

And when light shines upon the darkness, a greater evil than hate is illuminated.

The shrouds of hatred will forever sink into the beings' heart until it is no more.

---

Long ago before there was fear and tensions among the many demon races - and the many tribes - within the land and the humans with whom they share the vast grasslands and mountains and seas with, there was a form of a truce between the two races. Though they didn’t get along to the point they’d be able to live side-by-side to one another, they had an agreement for which they would stay out of each other’s way. The humans wouldn’t knowingly venture into their territory without any just cause and the demons would not feast upon the humans. It was a great practice in theory.

Yes, in theory. Unfortunately, the demons - specifically their rulers - eventually betrayed the treaty and soon wars between Demonkind and humankind had been declared. Over the years, battles were waged, resulting in over 5000 deaths on both sides. Innocent lives were lost because the anger and fear of both races couldn’t be put on the back burner to fortify something much stronger and effective than pure hatred for one another.

And whether or not it was originally intended, the recent attacks from the demon tribes from the north on the humans of Seiki Village - a village that’s just twenty miles of open grass from the home village of one Raiko.

Raiko was one of those guys who often got into some trouble when left unsupervised for a certain amount of time. Growing up in the Seiki Village, he was always a troublemaker, though he did have a good heart. There had been moments for Raiko when he had started to feel out of place in Seiki. What bothered him most was that he started to have dreams just about a year ago. They felt strange to him because they had him older and wiser, only he was among the demons. He had no idea why, but there was something so familiar about it. The worst of it all were that these dreams became more frequent and recurring as the days went by. It was only last night did he have a clear picture of what he was experiencing.

In a word? Death.

Rai stepped out of the hut just outside the village that he lived at and looked south towards the Serpent Mountains. He noticed there was a dark cloud gathering. “So, it’s that time already,” Rai sighed.

Whenever dark clouds gathered, it was the universal sign that demons and humans were fighting. Surprisingly, Rai could smell it. The half-demon might not have been able to catch certain things, but the smell of demons within a few miles was so putrid that he had no problem picking it up. It was the strength of the odor that often led him to vomit. But nevermind that, he had a lot more important things to focus on. The black, omnious cloud aside, today was going to be the day that Rai would get Ren back for that prank she failed to fall for yesterday. That was where his mind was at.

You Can Become a Hero!

_{Sapporo, Japan
Ishin Academy, April 7th}

^@floodtalon

Yuki was sitting quietly and politely near his fellow first-years. They seemed to be a batch of interesting and unique individuals. As not to pun himself away, Yuki refrained from commenting on their quirky nature, though they did seem to have an odd aura around them. Yuki simply observed them, waving and smiling when new ones came and joined.

He couldn’t help but notice that a few of them were standouts just by their physical appearance alone. There was the taller one with a darker skin tone that Yuki was used to seeing. There was one with cat-like features. One who kept referring to themselves in the third person. There was also one who seemed to have a very high opinion of themselves. Suffice to say that, based off of their introductions alone, Yuki was surrounded by a diverse amount of aspiring heroes like himself. And as it would follow his first gut instincts, their personalities seemed to be set in stone. Each had their quirks and each had something that made them who they were. Yuki respected that about them - so much so that he would embody his mother for his next course of action.

“Oh, you’re from Tokyo as well?” Yuki’s eyes lit up as he looked Chen’s way. “I hale from Tokyo, as well!”

Minutes to Manhattan

I think, given Lillian's nature, her just fading into the background would make sense. Given she does seem to be a bit of a loner (for the most part), we needn't bother with that character. Just let her fade into the background.

Minutes to Manhattan

@Inkarnate
My reason for suggesting a 2-3 month skip was to potentially catch it up to real time and/or give us a decent excuse why certain characters wouldn't be around.