Darkness

Day Fourteen, Part Four

         As was our usual Modus Operandi, we split up. My sister was with Botan. Both of them defended themselves well enough, with Botan providing the energy shields and my sister supplying the missiles. They, whatever they were (but most likely to be youkos), were dying like flies.
         None of us spared any attention to the man as we were too busy getting rid of the youkos. Notice that I said getting rid of them. They were numerous, but none of them were even close to our level of expertise, so the guys got some much-needed excercise. We were cutting them down like stalks of grain. I didn't get involved physically as my Shikigamis were already out. They were gleefully eating the youkais, but I could hear the Twin Maidens, daughters of my second-in-command Shikigami, Plenia, complaining to their mother that the youkais tasted horrible! I giggled.
         Suddenly there was a orange blur among us, biting and snarling at the youkais. I turned my head to take a good look, but suddenly the youkos broke through my defense shield and attacked me personally. "All return!" I shouted, jumping but holding my right hand out to them.
         In the moonlight the Shikigamis returned to my hand's shadow and disappeared. Instead, I strengthen the walking stick and used it in a spinning arc as I came back to the ground. Several of the youkais had a problem with their cranial capacity also immediately. The others started having second thoughts as I decimated their ranks fairly quickly. Three of them were smarter than their compatriots. Instead of trying to attack me they took hold of my staff. "Onee-chan, look out!" Sukina said. I cursed. I could feel the youkai behind me, but I couldn't touch him as my staff was being held securely by the three youkais and I didn't have the strength to throw them off.
         "Drop it Naoko!" I heard someone shout. I dropped the staff and found myself in warm arms going above the youkais.
         I didn't think, just reacted. "Diranes!" I said, holding my right arm over the red shoulder of my rescuer and burning my former attackers to a nice crisp. I think I won't eat BBQ food for a while.
         All about us the last remnants of the youkos were dying. We counted about 150 of them, most of them lying in pieces and their blood staining the ground.
         "Uh... Naoko-kun? You're a little heavy," Kurama said, his voice close to my ear.
         "Oopps!" I said, blushing. I picked up my staff which had remained untouched by the fire and planted it square in the ground.
         A cry of dismay arose from my sister. "'Nee-chan, you can't wear that tomorrow!" she said, referring to my blood-stained cloak. She held it up and mumbled something about bloodstains being hard to wash out. The guys sweat-dropped.
         "It is an honour to meet you," Peter intoned.
         A griffin was standing next to the man who now looked vaguely familiar.