Kenshiro's Rest
"All of you, gonna join fight? Then you follow Underboss Takeshi, or Shizuka. Or I crack yer 'eads in. If not, then do whatever you want."
"Fufu, we'll help in our own way, Sir..." The Raiju responded coyly at first, before her eyes narrowed as she realized just exactly what Gringor was. "Wait, you are a monster... but also a--"
The Raiju was interrupted when the better part of the taskforce intervened to defend Dinah from the upset Takeshi. The stress soon got to the fused mycelium yokai, which prompted her to dash away in search for peace in multiple meanings of the term.
"Right, anyone wants to explain further on who's Dinah? She's like...a twin of Alice or something? You said something about merging and ripping eyes out-?"
"Okay! So! Dinah is Alice and Carroll when they do a…a thing…and…become one person, somehow. And she’s really cool and fast, and we fought, and she was like ‘wunanunanuna’ and I was like “kapow, blam, zoom,’ but she’s still waaaaaay faster than me, so, so, and then, she’s scared of fire, so she freaked out from the lightning during the battle, and was scared, and got scared that we were gonna die and was running to get us out of there, but I told her we were gonna fight, and she got her feelings hurt, but she came back and used her party to heal everyone during the fight, but I think people calling her Alice upset her because she’s her own person, so I gotta go!”"
Takeshi Oja wanted to respond, mostly with questions, but about half of the taskforce went after Dinah after Liliana's brief explanation. Well, at least that cleared one detail for the young lord regarding Alice and Caroll. "Whatever am I gonna do with these yokai?" He released a very tired sigh.
"Uhh... Is everything alright with the taskforce, milord?" The Raiju, who only watched the scene unfold dumbfounded, was compelled to ask.
The young lord pinched the bridge of his nose, attempting to form a suitable explanation but could not come up with any. "It's... complicated, I suppose." He replied to the Raiju yokai present. "My gratitude, by the way. Even though such words would earn me execution had our circumstances been normal. At any rate, I think we should part ways for now. Farewell."
"Let's go, everyone. We're finished here." Takeshi took his leave, heading through the crack in the mountain wall, but the taskforce members would hear a bit of the Raijus gossip as they left.
"Aww, man. I wanted at least one of them to introduce me to that azure swordsman guy."
Shizuyama Wilderness
Takeshi's half of the taskforce traveled peacefully through Onrai's countryside. Smoke pillars rose in the horizon, but there was nothing much the group could do about it. Still, it pained the young lord that their fight was far from over. Looking for a distraction, he had the taskforce to converse with... even though they were his and his ancestors' sworn enemies for hundreds of years. War truly made for strange bedfellows.
"I believe this is the first time we've all fought together, haven't we?" Takeshi began. "It could've gone better... but the others were right, it could've gone worse. Way worse." Approaching Io, the young lord's mischievous side showed when he decided to ruffle her hair. "I guess a second death would be quite troublesome, don't you think?"
Being alone with the young lord, the taskforce members present were afforded an opportunity to ask any questions they want from the island's royalty... Or notify him of any future plans.
Terauchi Temple
Shizuka and Dinah carried their dozing teammates back to Terauchi Temple without further incident. They reached their temple base first, having already traveled a bit ahead of Takeshi and the others. The refugees in their way immediately recognized them and bowed lightly in respect and gratitude.
Oddly, however, there seemed to be less people in the temple than when they left. In fact, most of the warriors guarding the area were gone. Inquiries should probably be made about that.
Revuel was the first to actually greet the arriving taskforce. "You've returned." The former Warlock was not sure if he recognized Dinah, but definitely Shizuka. The former was also carrying asleep taskforce members so she was probably with them. "Looks like it was quite the quest with some of you knocked out." He remarked. "Your quarters are fully prepared. Take some rest, you all."
Gazing at the sleeping Kerry, Revuel became pensive. "Any... developments regarding the Madam Kerry's pregnancy?"
~~ TAKESHI'S JOURNEY ~~
~~ TAKAMORI TALES ~~
~~ SORAE TALES ~~
~~ SHIZUKA (MERCHANT) TALES ~~
~~ TALES OF SHIZUYAMA ~~