To Kamui! (Bailey Jane)

Okunushi was finished with his map reading and began to put the map away as he heard something scuttle near the mouth of the cave. He stood up and slammed his foot into the ground, raising a large boulder to his side. "Who's there!" cried Okuninushi. Sakuyahime was defenceless in the cold, with her current skill in nature bending she couldn't create plant life to bend in cold regions like this. She stepped back towards the farther end of the cave, and Okuninushi signaled for Bailey to come back him up. Another scuttle, what was it? It didn't take long to find out, as several Namahage, some with massive blades, others with buckets and ladels, and some with signposts in their hands were jumping around at the mouth of the cave, an Igloo Turtle behind them. "Damn," hissed Okuninushi, he threw the rock but it just missed a Namahage, shaking the ground as it hit. Bending doesn't work on demons here in Nippon, they needed to be killed with weapons. "Bending wont harm them, Bailey!" cried Okuninushi, drawing his blade, "It's only going to make them stronger. They absorb and eat chi, you need to kill them with weapons."

((OOC: You can find pictures of the demons in the Information About the RP World section :p I don't remember the topic name, but it's there XD I just posted it a few days ago.))

Bailey jumped up from her mat, dagger in hand and ready to aim when Okuni called for her. She smiled at the new challenge and threw her dagger at the closest Namahage. Swinging her foot behind her, Bailey pulled up her bow and shoot two arrows at a pair quickly. She hesitated on drawing out her boot knife, unsure that she would get close enough to them to use it. Almost in the same instant, Bailey remembered Sakuya's lack of skills to protect herself with and moved in front of her. "Sakuya, stay behind me an let me know if anything gets behind me." She said ina low whisper as she readied another arrow. "Know anything about weaknesses? Cause I could use one about now?" She called to Okuni, looking over at the turtle-like creature.

"Only what I heard in a market once," said Okuninushi drawing one of his swords, "Take care of the Namahage with your bow!  I'm going for the turtle!"  Sakuyahime wanted to call out, to stop Okuninushi, she knew he was going to get hurt.  He always did.  But she stopped, knowing that he had grown in their time since they'd arrived here in Nippon.  Okuninushi wasn't the same kid that had come to Nippon and kept getting his butt beat down by demons.  Now he was maturing a bit, growing up, and learning.

Okuninushi ran towards the mouth of the cave, vaulting off of the Namahage's heads and landing in front of the turtle.  He managed to jump to the side just in time to miss the giant shards of ice being shot at him by the Igloo Turtle.  He needed to go for the tail, running in a circle around the beast, Okuninushi managed to grab the tail, and yanked as hard as he could, pulling the creature off balance.  Using his sword, Okuninushi cut off the tail with the flaming lantern on the end of it, and threw it at the snowy-icy dome that protected the turtle's true form.

The flame melted the dome, and Okuninushi ran in for the kill.  He managed to jump up and slam his sword into the turtle's wicker idol.  It looked like a woman, and was made of wicker and grasses.  The heart and brain of this turtle though, were inside, and they leaked black liquids everywhere.  The turtle roared, reared and rampaged, but it finally fell down into the snow, dead, leaking black fluids everywhere.  It was only there for a few seconds, and then it disappeared, vanishing into snow and wind.  Okuninushi stood up, and walked back towards the cave.  The deed was done, and hopefully the Namahage were too.

Bailey had issues with taking orders form others, but obeyed when she realized that he knew a bit more about the enemy than she did. She nodded and jumped forward into her hunting stance. There were too many Namahage to each get just one arrow, however that never stopped Bailey. She shot the last few of her arrows while moving around to avoid attacks and pulling her used arrows out of the dead Namahage. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one try to attack Sakuya and spun around quickly, stricking the demon with an arrow still dripping wet with blood.

Bailey was a bit releaved when the demon slunk to the ground dead in front of Sakuya. She had almost forgotten about the girl and felt a bit bad for it. In her lapse of thought, a Namahage tried to swing at her. She felt the whoosh of the post fly over her head as she ducked under it and stabbed it in the throat with her boot knife. Pulling the knife back, she let the demon fall over dead in front of her and switched back to her bow. Moving back to Sakuya, she fired at the last two Namahage. Smiling as the arrows struck their head right in the middle of their mask and knocked them over.

"Somehow I think you had the funner battle my friend. " She replied as she turned to Okuni with a smile. Out of the corner of her eye she had watched his fight to make sure he didn't need any help. He seemed to manage well and had taken down the turtle thing with what looked like ease to her. "Although, if all you had to do was light his back on fire, wouldn't lighting one of my arrows be easier?"

"The only fire hot enough to melt the ice is the one on the demon's tail," explained Okuninushi, "It's a strange design flaw.  Perhaps the one who created this demon thought it a cruel joke, truly that's what it is."  The dead Namahage disappeared as well, their body becoming snow and vanishing into the blizzard.  "Just like the ones in Hana Valley..." said Sakuyahime, noticing that the bodies of the demons never stuck around for long, "Where do they go?"

Okuninushi shrugged, "I heard that when all evil in this world dies, they return to the origin of all evil on this planet, the Ark of Yamato, but there's no actual proof of that," said Okuninushi with a shrug, "For all we know that's just how their bodies decompose.  They're not really of this world anyway, it's hard to tell."  Okuninushi sat himself down, cleaning his sword off and putting it away in its scabbard before placing it against the stone wall of the cave.  It was long before he was forced to grab it again, as he heard the presence of a person at the mouth of the cave.  Grabbing his sword he saw a tall man, with long dark hair to his waist, flowing blue robes trimmed with fur, and a blue mask of a bird with green palm leaves coming from the masks's forehead.  This was an Oina.

Bailey watched as the bodies merged into the snow, she lowered her knife and walked over to pick up her dagger when she noticed the Oina standing there. "Oh, um, hello." She said as she grasped her hand around the dagger and put it in her holder on her forearm. Bailey eyed the new person, unsure of exactly who the person was. She wasn't sure if she could trust them or not, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw Okuni seem to recognize them. Straightening up a bit, Bailey walked back to stand slightly in front of Sakuya

Okuninushi watched the Oina man carefully, not wanting to attack him and be refused training, but also wary of any attack that may suddenly come the group's way.  "Who are you?" he asked confidently, "What do you want?  Why is an Oina so far from Wep'keer, and here following us?"  The man only stared at Okuninushi and walked towards him, ignoring his sword and any possibility of Okuninushi being a threat.

"I am Samaikuru," said the Oina man proudly, "I am assistant to the Chief of the Oina and Wep'keer, Kemushiri.  I have been following your group since your arrival at Kamui."  "Why?" asked Sakuyahime, "And why reveal yourself to us just now?"  "By order of Kemushiri, we are not allowing insiders into Kamui," he explained, "When we saw a ship carrying three outsiders followed by a bear arrive, I was sent to investigate.  We never expected that you would get this far inland...and while I was told to exterminate you on sight....the way you dealt with that Igloo Turtle and the Namahage.  I knew what you were here for."

Okuninushi put away his sword and watched the man, their eyes locking.  That was all of the man's face Okuninushi could see, were the eyes through the masks's carved eye holes.  They stared at each other, the two men, and then looked away.  "You come for training in the arts of demon extermination," said Samaikuru simply, "Is that so?"  Okuninushi and Sakuyahime said nothing, but that was enough for Samaikuru, "I shall speak to my elders," he said walking back towards the end of the cave, "I will return tomorrow afternoon.  Do not go anywhere."  And with that, he turned into a wolf, his phoenix mask sitting on his forehead and ran off into the blizzard, presumably back to Wep'keer.

Bailey couldn't believe her eyes or her ears as she listened to the Oina's tale. She kept her boot knife at her hand while he talked, not sure of what his intentions were. Ads he spoke, Bailey listened, putting her knife away. She wasn't totally comfortable with him, but she didn't want him thinking she would kill him on sight, even though that was on the top of her list. The moment the Oina spoke of killing them, Bailey had her bow drawn and was ready to pull an arrow into his chest. Her mind drifted to her children back home before focusing on the Oina again. Relief came as she watched him disappear into the snow to talk with the other Oina, but at the same time, she feared the whole Oina's attack. "Okina, what if he brings them to attack us? He's already been sent to kill us just because we crossed into their territory, what if they don't want to train us." She asked, keeping her eyes and stance on the cave entrance for anything.

Okuninushi put his sword away in its sheath and sat down, grabbing some of the salted fish from the fire and blowing on it.  It was close to being burnt, but it was still edible.  Damn demons had such a horrible sense of timing.  "We fight back, to the death," said the young warrior simply, "It's fight and die honourably, or stand still and let them pick us off like a flock of sheep surrounded by wolves."  Considering all Oina turned into wolves, Okuninushi gave a small laugh and added, "No pun intended of course."

Sakuyahime looked worried, not wanting to die, "So you just expect us to die here?" she asked, afraid for the groups' safety.  Okuninushi tore a piece of fish off with his teeth and swallowed, "Actually I'm hoping to talk our way out of it before we are forced to fight," explained Okuninushi, "But if it comes down to a fight, we'll be up against some of the strongest fighters of the Oina Tribe.  And they're fierce in battle, I doubt we'd last longer than thirty minutes if we're lucky."  Okuninushi kept eating his fish in silence, passing some to his sister, making sure she ate too.  He left a piece in the corner of the cave with the higher ceiling; no doubt Nemuri would want some, and being on his stone ball no doubt would mean he'd be standing very tall and the higher roof would benefit him.

Bailey sighed and looked at the fish she had placed on the fire. She puled it off, tore a small bite from it before handing it to the twins. "I'm not as hungry and don't want to waste it. Eat." She picked up the rest of her arrows and slide her dagger back in her wrist sheath. "Sakuya, if they attack us, stay behind me like you did before." As she spoke, Bailey turned to watch the mouth of the cave. She couldn't turn her back to it knowing that at least one person would be coming back for them. I'll let the twins eat, save their energy. I don't trust the Oina. Bailey sat by the entrance of the cave, keeping a watchful eye on the horizon. Almost as if it had heard her thoughts, Bailey saw something in the distance walking toward their cave. "They're back." She said as she pulled her bow up to fix her aim on the subject just in case.