Soldiers of Light ch. 5 "The First Destination"
 

Kurama rubbed his stomach in hunger. His dinner had been interrupted by all of this commotion, and now he was going to go back and finish eating.

Grim was putting the seal on Ningyou, Garud was working on his new summon, and Youji was following Kurama back to the dining hall.

Moriko emerged from the tent a few moments later. She was wearing a red kimono slit deep in the front and high on the sides. Her hair was out of its usual braid, instead in a bun held up with chopsticks. She was also wearing makeup, some of which was covering the scar over her eye. The kimono had long sleeves, which she pushed up angrily as she approached Hen Gen. "How on Earth am I supposed to shoot my bow with these ridiculous sleeves?" She roared.

"Don't worry, baby. Where you're going, you won't need your bow." Hen Gen winked. "You look gorgeous." Moriko slapped Hen Gen hard across the face. "Don't ever talk to me like that again! Do you hear me? I am only coming along with this stupid adventure in the first place because I don't want anything to happen to my partner." "Your partner, riiiiiiiiiiiight." Hen Gen replied. "I knew one of you would admit it eventually."

Moriko looked like she was getting ready to smack Hen Gen again, but was stopped when a cry came from the tent: "Holy crap, he has wings!" "What on Earth?" Moriko thought. She ran back to the tent to find Pyros standing, wings spread, half-dressed, in the middle of a circle of startled servants. "Oh, so this is what you have been hiding from me." She murmured. "You can leave now, ladies. I will take care of this."

The Adventures of Pyros+2: Man enough to wear a dress!
 

"I would have told you earlier...but you never asked...Sorry." Pyros explained to Moriko as she helped him dress.

Moments later Pyros exited the tent and entered the sunlight, careful not to trip. The garments given were okay, but he was unused to them, and found that they hampered his movement. He had to take smaller steps or else he'd step on the edge of the fabric and fall over.

Seeing the clothes in the fine light, he became aware of something. He checked over to Moriko who followed after. He examined her from her feet to her wrapped hair, and found something amiss. He examined her again. With further examination, he concludd something was really amiss.

He seemed to be wearing clothes that looked just like hers. Now it was perfectly normal for orders or businesses to dress their employees and members up in similar garb, but the similarities between what he and Moriko wore were far too similar. If he was not mistaken, they were even wearing the same underwear, and he found the wrapped hair slightly annoying.

He decided to ask Hen Gen about it. He walked up to the portly man, who was busy counting his money before the trip. The man, ever quick to spot an opportunity, looked up.

"Well, about time you were dressed in the company's clothes. Remember, a good employee always keeps his clothing according to the dress code. And besides, it looks great on you, real....slimming."

"Umm...Mr. Hen Gen? I have a slight problem with this...dress."

"What? You find something wrong with it? How is that possible? It's made from imported satin and silk, and guaranteed for all stains to come out in the first wash! It's a marvelous dress! Most people wish they could wear such a dress as that. Even I wish I could wear a dress such as that. But naturally, I can't. So I can't believe someone with such taste as yourself should hate it so much! Why? Why, have you no heart?"

"Because, it is in fact, A dress. A very womanly dress. And if I'm not mistaken-"

"Oh, don't be so picky! All my other employees like it just fine. Isn't that right, girls?"

On cue, the servants threw off their dark cloaks to reveal a great many beautiful women dressed in the kimonos, wearing the same makeup, and wrapped hair. Their kimonos sparkled in the daytime sun, and Pyros was aghast to find his kimono sparkled the same.

<Oh. This is a harem.> Pyros thought.
"Oh. This is a harem." Pyros thought aloud.

"That's right m'boy...girl! Welcome to Hentai Genki's famous travelling harem! As seen in the Emperor's palace, the estate's of the richest, and in the dreams of every poor, lonely man."

"Hentai Genki?" Pyros asked himself, and the world, and no one in particular. He gave an "I'm sorry." look to Moriko and turned to find his sleeve covered hand being vigorously shaken by the portly and aptly named Hentai Genki.

"That's my name, don't wear it out! Not that you could, because it's said hundreds of times by men world over. Or will soon be, anyway. Now that everythings settled, it's time to shove off. Gotta be in Treeport by noon, y'know."

"But...I'm a man. How can I wear such clothes?"

"Eh, it's not like anyone'd notice. See?" A pair of girls brought a mirror before Pyros. He was beginning to become amazed at the servant's speed and timing of all their actions, always on cue. He wondered if they'd put a seat under Hentai Genki before he even bent over to sit?

But hen he noticed his reflection. Then he noticed it wasn't his reflection, but the reflection of an extraordinarily pretty harem girl. Then he noticed it was, in fact, his reflection.

"Ohhh....my. Heh...I guess they won't?" :sweatdrop

"Exactly, but just in case, as part of company policy, if anyone asks if you're female, you have to say yes. Let me demonstrate. Hona, are you a girl?"

A woman who's chest threatened to rip through her kimono nodded. "Damn straight I am! I am a womanly woman!"

"But if I say it, won't that be lying?"

"Hmm...I suppose lying might be in bad taste for a lady such as yourself, but that can be fixed."

On cue as always, a harem girl was immediately in Pyros's face, marking it with black ink. She stopped to dry and check her handiwork, and was gone.

Pyros took the mirror back, and looked to his reflection's forehead. She had written a Kanji in the black ink on his forehead.

GIRL, it read.

"There we go, problem solved. Now, it's high time to get going, so I suggest we all get into the main wagon. Oh, wait, there's Anji coming. Almost forgot her."

He pointed to the Cloaked woman from before, who had already taken off her cloak and wrapped it around her arm to further protect it. Protect it from what, of course? The enormous bird of prey from before, which perched quite nicely on Anji's arm, without any of the ferocity from before.

"It wouldn't be the first time you've forgotten me, might I add." She said with a chuckle. "But I suppose you wouldn't forget me if I was here on time. Sorry, just found a lovely friend in town. I suppose you won't mind if I bring it along, will you?"

Genki waved his hand. "Nah, any friend of yours is a friend of mine (and now working for my company) and welcome to come along. Especially when they're that nicely sized. Now, come on. We haven't got all day to waste the sun, I assure you. Get in the caravan."

The many servants were quick to get into their various wagons, and the horses were whipped forward. Pyros, Moriko and Anji got on last, Anji still carrying the large Falcon Turkey. They sat together in the back of the caravan, 3 of them still not knowing why and where the heck they were going.

(OOC: Pyros finds himself dressed up as a girl, Falcon comes along with a harem girl who part times as a falconer, and All our heroes find themselves riding towards a place called "Treeport.")

Ningyou looked around after the bonding ritual. "Huh, for all the talk of not trusting me there wasn't much of an audience." Ningyou pulled a Yo-Yo out from her dress and began to play with it. "Well I think I'm gonna go look into getting some of those cookies. I think Mr. Yamada is eager to get one too. Poor guys been stock still sense the little boy started crying." With a quick step and a jump she was up on Sanjuro's shoulder again. "Come on Ani. Lets go get some cookies."

There was definitely a plus side to acting tame, Falcon decided when she had accepted the arm of the - to her - smaller-than-average human servant.

Yessss... definitely a fine plus side. I could get used to being more falcon than human, Falcon thought as Anji scratched the enormous bird under the crest. She chirrupped in happiness and almost melted into Anji's touch.

Mmmm... Woman's touch are always better than a man's.

".... is probably the pet or hunting animal of somebody in this region, because of the daggers on her neck," Anji was saying to another person, "she's sustained a nasty injury on her leg, so that's probably the reason she crashed down over your head."

What? No! I was hungry, Falcon thought, ruffling her feathers as indignantly as possible when one had a finger scratching a pleasure spot in place. Although, she conceded, it's nice to be fed for free and to get scratched by - oooh - such an EXPERIENCED falconer!

Kazunori watched the fight between the air demon and Iori, ready to step in when Iori needed him, when suddenly he was struck with a realization.

Why did he care?

The thought circled through the drunk's mind over and over again, and finally he decided that he didn't. So he left. Koyuki probably didn't even notice he slipped by. Though she may have noticed that he gathered the peices of the bottle, for whatever reason.

So now our hero Kazu is walking down the road, taking a drink from his jug, and waiting for the next big thing to happen.

((OOC: Since I have no freaking idea on how to get to Team Not Bad, I have decided to just walk there.))

"Cookies?" Sanjuro questioned, he had not known how to react when the child cried at his outburst so he had become lost in thought. This would have remained for days but Ningyou was kind enough to awaken him. Charging off Sanjuro began his anxious search for cookies, with a blood demon nestled gently upon his shoulder. "COOKIES!"

Suzume, having been pulled away from his course by the sweet smell of food, was currently in the dining room, eating to his fill. Despite not being as comfy as that chair, actually getting all the food he needed was well worth it. The noise level was also kind of calming, but that was another story.

He looked a lot more calm than he had when he was slumping off, but he still looked extremely annoyed. Maybe he just had some issues he needed to work out that weren't from all this noise...

While he was pondering that, Kurama walked in and sat down to eat. It was actually the first time Suzume had a chance to peacefully talk to the man. They didn't even know each other's names yet because of all the commotion surrounding the samurai.

"Huh, so I finally get a chance to talk to the boss man," Suzume remarked as Kurama sat down to eat.

Kurama raised an eyebrow as he put a bit of rice into his mouth.

"Yeah, you're....that......guy.............."

Suzume chuckled. That really was pretty predictable. Still, he might as well know the guy he was hitching a ride from.

"Yeah, and you're that other guy... Name's Suzume, Mr. Samurai. You said we fight demons, and I'm here to do just that."

Well, with introductions done and over with, Suzume didn't really have much to say. He felt like complaining about the noise, but that wouldn't exactly break the ice too well. So, instead, he opted to shovel more food into his mouth to keep himself from saying something stupid.