Pyros flinched. First he felt the joyful cries of fire spirits as they were given material out of their bounds to burn. Which wasn't too out of the ordinary, the monks may have magical gifts. But then he kept getting the feeling that someone was in pain somewhere, dying needlessly.

He couldn't shake the feeling. Like he was supposed to be doing something important. It reminded him of days in his past, when he ignored the world around him and tried to shut it all out in his solitude. But that feeling, that feeling remained. Pyros quietly excused himself from the table, and walked off into the temple. He wandered about, enjoying the ancient temple's decorations and timeless beauty. But he still could not find what had made him uneasy.

He turned a corner and saw a strange light coming from the room ahead. As he neared it, a monk stepped out.

"Oh, servant, You have come here just in time. We have prepared a place for you."

"Actually, believe it or not, I have a very good feeling about this place."

Drak continued to happilly munch away on various fruits, completely ignoring Garud.

OOC: It's kinda funny that no-one's ever really seen Kirakiri fight. He strikes me as the quiet one of the group.

Kirakiri thinks that his allies are somewhat preoccupied with slaughter as he steps carefully through the smouldering wreckage of the prayer room. He can not help but feel that for most them, subtlety is not their strong suite. He had not wished to draw attention to himself and so he had not called out to Chikane and Yaburu before. The regrettable consequences that went with surprising most of his companions also runs through his mind. Still, he had best bolster their forces now. Moving swiftly, he catches up with them part of the way to where the Shield Master is. Delibrately making a carefully gauged sound to get their attention, he bows with an economical gesture and simply says, "I have returned."

OOC: I'm anticipating something along the lines of, "How the hell did you get here?"

Chikane turned, bow drawn, then lowered it as she noticed Kirakiri's distinctive six-horned head.

"So you have... where have you been since the attack on the airship?"

Yaburu didn't even bother turning around at the sound. He was in his battle zen and nothing could shake him, however, when Chikane asked the question, he spoke as well. "It does not matter where he has been. He is here now, and we have work to do... before the monks find their dead allies and bring the entire temple down on us."

He began to walk toward the shield master's room once more, not bothering to wait for the others. "Idle chit chat can wait."

"Do go in first, Yaburu. I'll need someone to draw fire away from me."

Chikane followed behind him, closing ehr eyes briefly to subsume her mind into the Happo Zanshin battle meditation.

Yaburu responded with action instead of word. What had once been a calm walk slid into a sprint seamlessly as his fist drew back. For a moment it looked as though he would collide face first into the wall, until his arm pumped forward and his fist connected with the solid wall, about one foot from the door proper, turning it into a fine powder so close to him that the dust it had turned into had not even had time to dissipate. His precise timing gave the illusion of him actually running through a solid wall that turned to powder and was pulled behind him after his passage.

Needless to say, the shield master was a bit surprised, but he was a warrior monk himself, and so he sprung to his feet, and was quick to throw up a defense. Not quick enough, however, as that his body had, like anyone's, weakened and become slower with age. Where he would have once side stepped, he was only able to bring up an arm to block. An arm that rippled hideously underneath the skin, and became nothing but a limp bag of flesh, that oozed from multiple hairline breaks in the epidermis, after intercepting Yaburu's punch.

Somehow, the old man managed to avoid going under from the pain, however, and moved his torso out of the way of the still travelling fist, while simultaneously swinging his leg toward Yaburu's back.

The fallen monk sensed the attack and dropped into a roll moving forward and under the shield master's attack. His hand planted on the ground after one somersault and Yaburu flew up into the air, twisting as he did so, and landed on the balls of his feet, opposite of his entrance, and facing the shield master, whose attention was now entirely consumed by the pain of destroyed nerves in his left arm and the existence of his attacker. If he was paying any attention to the opening in his wall, he did not show it.

Vance stood up and tested his newly finished body. He bounced on his feet and tested the weight. "Good as new." He declared. "Now to figure out what the hell happened to me..." He finished as he gathered his weapons up and prepared to leave the ship. "Better tell Takin where I'm off too."

Vance walks below deck and follows the sound of banging till he finds the man with his head in a hole. Obviously checking on something. "Hey Takin!" He says Causing him to jump and point one of his weapons at Vance. "Easy up youngster. I'm just letting you know I'm off to check out the island. Something weird happened out there and I intend to find out what it was. Just be safe and keep the engine running, we may have to leave with trouble on our tail." With that said Vance went up onto the deck to see if any other stragglers were going to come with him.

Garud slapped Drak behind the head.

"Dont contradict me. What makes you think that there isn't something wrong? You are a fool if you arent prepared. And, probably your death. There is a way past the barrier, and we could be falling for a trap."

Garud looked around.

"Er...is it just me, or were there more monks here before?"

Akimoto woke up...and for the first time in a long time, felt...acceptable.

Pain from his "fight" against the snake demon still lingered, but the fatigue from creating the giant stone box had faded with his nap. Standing up, and stretching a little bit, he found he could move with a minimum of pain. With a sigh, he put on his armor and his short sword, grabbed his spear, and left his room...and found the ship empty.

"Great." he muttered to himself. "They left without me...again."

Akimoto walked towards the exit of the ship, when he ran into Vance. "Hey, Vance!" he said. "Where is everyone?"

Raikotsu turned a corner, and saw, to his surprise, a familiar sort of hole blasted into the wall. Peering inside, he noticed Yaburu battling an old, yet obviously skilled, monk. Chikane was close behind him, but she hadn't appeared to have entered combat yet.

"Remember not to kill him." the Air Demon remarked breezily as he resumed his humanoid form, leaning up against the wall and watching with amusement.

White Kimono (Tsubasa Hirasaka)

No response for a while. Tsubasa didn't like the idea of what her allies were doing, but as far as she was concerned, keeping them from being sandwiched by the enemy was her job. Aside from the four monks, no one, regardless of alliance, had been through in a while. Tsubasa had long since removed the traps and was intent simply to assassinate any passersby, and hasn't had contact with anyone since. So she waited in the deadend chamber with the four monks her traps took out.
-----
Black Kimono (Chizuru Suzuki)

"Lady Rio. Lady Kiyomi. It's an honor to have you here. I must apologize but Lady Tsubasa is within the temple now." Chizuru bowed politely to the blonde woman with the violet kimono and the pink haired beauty in the blue kimono. Neither were wearing their demon masks, so Chizuru could clearly see that both had the same crimson eyes common among the sisters. They were armed with their favorite weapons, the violet-clad Rio with her claws and the blue-clad Kiyomi with her spear. They were hidden at one point, but Chiyo had somehow spotted them and pointed them out. Chiyo was nearly killed, but they saw Chizuru and got the explanation.

"Lady Kirie would like a report. Have the legs been recovered yet?" Kiyomi said. She certainly wasn't one to beat around the bush. Chizuru straightened up and tried hard not to look at Rio undressing Chizuru with her eyes. That girl was just wrong in so many ways. Chizuru had seen Rio's room one time. Now it haunted her dreams sometimes. "Ever since they infiltrated the temple, there was been no responce."

Kiyomi nodded. "Send a messenger inside."
"I'll try," Chizuru shrugged. "But it's likely that they will be finished by the time the messenger finds her."
At that, Chizuru extended her hand. Rio released a butterfly she had brought along and by some bizarre coincidence, the butterfly fluttered from Rio to Chizuru. Chizuru got to work, using a brush to write a tiny and neat message. Chizuru was the best at writing small characters. "'Lady Kirie wants a progress report.' Is that what we want?" Chizuru said, knowing it was the proper message to write.
"Yes. Thank you." Rio said, her sexy voice purring. Chizuru shivered involuntarily. "Understood. I'll deliver it right away." Chizuru said, then released the butterfly. The butterfly would know who to look for.

"Well, if that's all, I need to concentrate on not being spotted," Chizuru said with a sigh. Silence. "Lady Rio? Lady Kiyomi?" Chizuru turned around to find them both gone. "Eh. At least Rio didn't feel me up like last time...and the time before that...and the time before that...damn, what is wrong with that woman?"
Chiyo tugged at Chizuru's sleeve. "What are you talking about?"
Chizuru smiled uncertainly. "Don't worry about it...until you're 18."
-----
Blue Kimono (Kiyomi Matsuraba)

Blue Kimono and Violet Kimono were leaping from branch to branch, one of the things mandatory for them to learn. Sometimes the ground was just too perilous these days. When they got far enough away from the temple, Kiyomi heard Rio curse. "What's wrong?" Kiyomi asked.
"I forgot to get a feel of Chizuru."
Kiyomi sighed. "Yeesh. Get a grip, Rio."
"I forgot to get a grip. That's the problem."
Kiyomi sighed again. At least Rio wasn't boring company.

Sanjuro and his somewhat captive companion strolled out of the forest moving quickly towards the ship. "See thats where he'll be."

"Fine, fine just please let me down." Kambei seemed quite tired from Sanjuro's antics. "I'm not to old to make my way onto a ship."

"I don't know Elder Kambei," Sanjuro said as he lowered the ancient monk, "I mean you're really old. I mean you are really ol-" A quick tap of the old man's staff against his head stops Sanjuro midsentence. Katsushiro was quick to leap to Sanjuro's head to investigate the area for something of interest.

"Just because one tells you he is your elder is no reason to call him old in such a rude manner. What are they teaching you now?" Kambei was growing quite concerned about those raised outside the barrier they didn't seem to have any manners at all. The two moved onto the ship rather silently as Sanjuro tried to get Katsushiro out of his hair, they strolled into the hallways as the old man gasped at the vehicle of their journey. "This boat, I've never seen anything like it. What is it?"

"Beats me. Katsushiro get out of my hair damn you, thats not your hair to play with, if you continue at this pace we will no longer be on speaking terms!" As the volume of Sanjuro's rose the squirrel quickly lept away running down the path. Chasing after him as a child would a ball, Sanjuro stormed past Kambei who seemed to be lost in admiration of the ships very creation. As Sanjuro turned the corner he found his squirrel companion running back towards him in a frenzy to avoid the demonic prescence of his two companions.

"Oh HEY! Earth mover and Never-Broken I brought an old guy her-" Kambei's walking stick broke across the back of Sanjuro's head and he flinched suddenly more from the noise then the actual strike. "I mean, I brought a monk named Kambei, Kambei this is Earth mover and Never-Broken." As Sanjuro stroked the back of his head, Katsushiro again jumped into his hair to investigate.

Pyros looked into the room. It was a shrine of sorts, and statues of different shapes and makes filled the circular room. Pyros found many of them to be familiar, as he had met a few of them in places, as well as found people who worshipped them. A few of them were nonexistant, but it was hard to convince people that they could answer their own prayers better than the statue. They usually ended up throwing things at him.

The monk led him to a place where before him stood 3 statues of the fire gods, as well as supposed demigods and spirits. Pyros knew Ifrit, the other was Efreet, Ifrit's creation, and the third was strange one called Trogdor.

The higher monks pointed to the mats before him. Pyros was confused. Another monk came forth. "Please sit where you show allegiance to your master deity. Pyros was confused again. It seemed that they believed him to be a divine servant to the gods, and were asking him to sit near his master. But Pyros had no such master.

He did remember a chance encounter with Ifrit, that caused Ifrit to call him 'master' and he uneasily bowed toward Pyros, but Pyros disavowed any sort of dominion over Ifrit. These people would definately be upset if he were to mention this, so he just sat down at the mat at the very front of the fire deities.

The monks looked him up and down, confused. "Are you truly such a lowly servant?"

"Noooossss He isss Noootsss!" A hissing voice claimed in a booming voice that filled the room. The monks looked around, and saw with wide open eyes as the statue of Ifrit stirred. Pyros turned to watch as the Ifrit statue came to life, and set ablaze. Ifrit moved from it's spot and walked toward Pyros. "Yousss donotsss deservesss to sitsss in thatsss ssspot, itisssss notsss worthy for you master." The spirit of Ifrit came to rest fully in the Statue, and it's spirtual hissing ended with a corporeal mouth.

Ifrit grabbed Pyros by the arm, which Pyros resisted, and the monks were the first to ever see any spirits fight amongst themselves, let alone one of them be Ifrit, the god of flaming destruction, and the other a winged unknown spirit. Heck, they probably never saw such a wrestling in their life.

Ifrit grabbed a hold of Pyros's wings and held them tightly to his own back, and carted Pyros over to the spot where Ifrit himself had sat. "Hey! Stop! Put me down! If I'm truly your 'master' you'd llisten and put me down!" Pyros whined as he struggled to right himself and break free. Ifrit knew he would have difficulty holding on much longer to his master, so he put him down. In a throwing motion.

Pyros sailed into the air but managed to use his wings to stop himself just before he hit the place where Ifrit sat. Pyros wiped his brow with a "phew!" What he should have done however, was to dodge aside as Ifrit gave a flying tackle. The tackle's power shook the room, cracking the cieling and knocking over all the false statues, as well as statues of deities who didn't give a damn about their statues.

The tackle knocked the wind out of Pyros, who sat for a few seconds to catch his breath. His lungs had been feeling it ever since that run in with the air demon. As he sat up to continue his wrestle, Ifrit calmly stood back a few steps and sat down in another bow, giving his beastly smile. Pyros became aware he was sitting in ifrit's spot, and all the other fire spirits, including ifrit were facing him. Just like before...
<Darvit!>

The monks were busy praying to Ifrit and Pyros to stop, as well as to Undine and her ilk to stop Ifrit and Pyros. However, Undine had a strict 'None of my business what the Fire spirits make their business' policy and ignored it. Plants and earth cared little, and Electricity lacked the attention span.

Ifrit crossed his burning arms. "Master is too humble. It is bad enough that I must bow to you as my master, but worse that I have to force you to accept my bowing. Gaia can be so annoying with his laws."

(If anyone has any beefs about this, keep in note Pyros is not only extremely humble, but also a pacifist.)

(OOC: Mintaro Written, Blindmime approved. If anyone has any objectives to the actions I had them take then feel free to let me know and I'll alter/erase them. I just wanted to move off of the ship and not wait for a bunch of responses.)

Vance looks over at Akimoto. "Oh hey...Akimoto I beleive. You're the one that made the earth walls. Thats good magic. They all went inside the temple on this island. I'm about t-"

Vance sighs. "Hello rock-brain. My names Vance. Not Never-broken. Besides I break pretty easy its just that I don't stay broken and...Where did you find a monk?"

"He was in the forest! I was all asking him questions and he was answering them. Like 'you who do not know shall never learn.' Oh man it was neat!" Sanjuro blurted out. He only stopped after the monk cracked on his head again.

"Well thats, certainly special." Vance says in response. "Well I was actually going to check out the forest. I have a few questions about what happened to me that I need answered. You're all welcome to accompany me....where did Suzume get to?

Suzume walked up. "Sorry I was hungry, and thirsty."

Vance nods understandingly. "Alright then, lets head out."

Sanjuro gets excited at the prospect of exploration and begins talking again. "Alright Earth-Mover, Hungry-thirsty man, Nev-" He changes what he was going to say mid word, "-Vance, and me the great ROCK-BRAIN! I mean SANJURO YAMADA! Shall seek what has been going on!"

A loud crack rings out echoing off the hull and nearby trees as the older monk raps on Sanjuro's head once more. "Don't forget to put your elders names first! You should be more respectful!" The monk reminds him.

Vance sighs a little. "Great the B team is now assembled..." he thinks to himself. "Well lets go. Into the forest." With that Vance leads the Rag-tag band into the small forest around the Temple. To search for the answer to Vance's unexplained demise.

Violet Kimono (Rio Ikage)

Rio rested on a tree branch in the forest. Kiyomi had already gone to Kirie, Chizuru was in hiding, Tsubasa was in the temple, and Kirie would get her message and stop having her suspicions of Tsubasa.
"What is up with that girl, anyways? Tsubasa is the leader, not her. If Kirie wants the lead, she can challenge Tsubasa, which is something she won't do all because Kirie knows Tsubasa would whup her ass. And I'd hate to see that. I always favored Kirie's ass. Mine is lovelier, of course, but Kirie has something going for her."
Then she heard them. Footsteps on the leaves. Neither Kiyomi nor Chizuru would walk on the ground with all these trees to help them stay out of trouble. Tsubasa was inside, so this meant interlopers...but...
In the forest?
It didn't make sense, but Rio didn't care. If the enemy was an honorable as the first report suggested, Rio wouldn't have any trouble, and if they would attack a woman who hasn't harmed anyone as of yet, then she had her own defenses.

"Damn it. If he keeps calling me that, I swear I'll blast him into a million pieces..." Suzume thought as he was called "Hungry-Thirsty man".

Tying the last of his swords to his back, Suzume walked in the back of the group. He would have gone up to the front, but he figured that Sanjuro or Vance could take the beating, since nothing seemed to faze either of them. It actually was kind of nice keeping a slower pace, too.

"So are we just going on a hike? What happened to going to that temple after Kurama?'

"Kurama, I've been thinking about that message." Kiro said. He had been sitting quietly eating a little bit of the food, but mostly pondering the message. "I believe that your ancestor wasn't so vague about the message, and it has a lot of hidden meaning. I could be over analizing it but I would like to tell you what I have come up with." Kiro said, then cleared his throat.

"It says 'That strength alone will not last them'. I think it also is refering to the test, that you have to prove something other than your strength." Kiro went on. he wanted to win Kurama's trust so he could get information, and right now this seemed like the best way, so he went on.

"I'm guessing that it wants to prove that you are willing to protect people against all odds. I feel you will fight a battle you can't win, but you will have to continue to protect someone." Kiro then took a drink, took a second to enjoy it, then set the glass down and continued.

"This thing about the corruption also has to do with this. Once you gain this ability to defend yourself and others, then the corruption will be revealed. Does the corruption refer to Talkatz? Because the way it makes it sound it just doesn't seem to qutie fit."

Kurama's head began to bob. He was very tired. The events over the past few days had left him extremely stressed, and he normally took a nap during those times. However, he hadn't had much of a chance this time around.

The others talked of the message, and Kurama should have joined them. 'Should' being the important word. However, slumber was overtaking him. As the others talked and ate, Kurama slipped into a sleep.

(Post limit. Next chapter will be up in a bit.)