Kirie recognized this one from the short duel with Kurama Genkai. She didn't know his name, but wasn't sure if that was due to her forgetting or just that nobody told her who he was. First and foremost, Kirie was surprised at how handsome he was. She wasn't really paying attention to him the first time. Tall with a manly frame and finely chisled features, and his voice and tone made Kirie's knees feel a little weak. She then felt somewhat guilty about meeting a man this pleasant while smelling like strong booze in addition to wearing a skin tight mechanic suit without having any underwear to at least keep her naughty bits from becoming too exposed.
Ultimately, he was a part of Talkatz's handpicked demonic strike force, and thus in a way was superior to Kirie, both in rank and in raw potential. "Yes, that's correct." Kirie said, grinning nervously and sheathing her sword. "My apologies about not coming immediately, but I was stalled by some pervert."

Taken watched the ship begin to fall, with his stange unfocused gaze--which seemed to penetrate the hull into the sky beyond, and walked calmly, some distance behind Koyuki, toward the crash site. His gait was relaxed, and his mind apathetic. He cared not for the ship, or the goals of these demons--even his employer. The fate of humanity or Talkatz was nothing more than a minor thought of a potentially powerful opponent.

In truth, he had no intention of lending his sword to this battle unless he was paid once more for these new opponents. His contract was to slay Genkai Kurama. His employer was obviously planning on using him for much more. He had already allowed this once, out of apathy, however, he knew from experience that if he allowed an employer to continue on like this he would soon be exploited.

OOC: Sorry for the really bad post, I just didn't have any inspiration, but I want to stay in this.

"This appears to be a safe enough spot" Hinote muttered to himself as he walked alongside the breadth of the barrier. At the moment he was mere feet away from a grove of trees that nicely obscured much of the view of those on the other side of the barrier. Their leafes and branches would be a good cover for Hinote as he prepared to enspell the barrier with his own insidious magics. Looking around with a furtive glance, he surveyed the area making sure none but those he wanted saw his approach. Sure, that at the moment there were no monks looking on to him, Hinote came into the grove, and settled himself down mere inches from the barrier, only a thin wall of leaf protecting him from onloookers. Taking out his ritual knife, Hinote sat crosslegged on the ground and pricked his finger. Using the well of blood that sprung forth, Hinote drew the symbols of the arcane on the ground, in the air, and just from the barrier. When he was finished, there would be much different about the barrier, for in addition to its usual effects, there would be other additions to it as well.

The woman's eyes unfocused slightly with the difficulty of the question.

"My.... name...?" her brows drew down in an effort. She could barely remember what she was standing on (was it feet?) let alone such a hard question.

But somewhere in her cranial space a few non-spasming neurons knew, and thusly passed on the message.

"F--Falcon... I think," Falcon looked at the clothes-giver, "a-are you... good? You won't... kill me... will you? What's an Island? Where's China?"

OOC: For mild clarification, the first part of this post happens about the time of my last post.

In the dim twilight of the forest were scattered those watching for the airship's fall. Sakiko and Moon waited together. Kirakiri's daughter simply stood there, seeming almost like a part of the forest around here while the half demon monk sat cross legged on a rock, a pale ghost in the gloom.

Kirakiri had used the Shinkei no Oni's portal to bring her here from Mizukyo along with Gekido. Moon was unusual because of what she had named the Diamond Path. She had tipped the use of her relatively weak shapechanging powers on its head. Instead of chasing a mastery of many forms, she refined just a single one towards perfection. It showed.

Sakiko briefly turned back from scanning the horizon and looked at Moon, "What do you think of these allies that Kirakiri has found?"

The half demon monk tilted her head thoughtfully, making a brief ripple in the silvery tips of her short hair, "They certainly appear to be strong fighters, but some of them are idiots."

Sakiko nodded, "Yes... I thought so too." The demoness felt slightly heartened. She was not generally that skilled a judge of character.

Moon's eyes suddenly focused past Sakiko and on the night sky. "The airship is descending. Looks like a crash."

Sakiko spun around, long coppery hair flicking out and her golden eyes narrowed as she scanned the horizon. The airship was definitely going down. "Let's go." she said and the pair rushed into the night.

* * *

On the airship, Takin was doing the work of three men. He clung to the tiller with a grim determination, every few seconds locking it into place to pull switches and open or close valves around the control room. Pressure loss with a main engine damaged and the steam pipes throughout the right wing damaged was threatening to kill them all. And if a backlog of pressure built up... Takin wasn't about to let that happen to his ship though, springing around his control room like a deranged monkey.

Outside, seeing the airship begin to be very low in the sky, Kirakiri lunged forwards and left a parting gift. Both scythe blades sliced at the cables Yuu had tried to connect several of his miniature tiger airships to the and severed several. With the monks running forward to counterattack, Kirakiri spread his wings and released his grip on the airship's hull. His wingspan was huge, at least a third of the airship's total length. The wind filled them and carried him away.

The airship lurched again in midair as most of the tiger airship's extra lift and Kirakiri's own ponderous weight vanished. Just before it hit level with the tree tops, Takin yelled, "We're going to crash!" and hit an emergency stop on the boilers. If a fully active high pressure boiler split open when on landing, it would be like a bomb going off.

A tree raked along the airship's keel. As they descended further, the undamaged wing clipped another tree, jolting them again and snapping off the tree's top. Everyone not already braced for impact did so at this warning. A nightmarish period of jolting thuds later, they hit the ground.

The jarring impact made all the previous hits seem like nothing. The airship's nose plowed into the ground, burying itself in the forest's rich loamy soil. One of the few remaining tiger airships still attached after their rough passage jammed into a tree's fork and, miraculously not having it's anchorage snap, dragged the airship in a slight arc to the left, helping slow it's momentum.

The airship finally stopped. Steam hissed out of rents in the hull, but nothing seemed in danger of exploding. It was over. Everyone uncurled from where htier landing positions had left them and some even began to leave the wreackage already, feeling that trying to get back to the Temple as soon as possible was thier best bet.

Then Kirakiri's winged form appeared above the treetops, a vast shadow of despair that blotted out the stars. He circled once and then descended on them. He didn't even bother to soften his landing, coming down right on top of the airship's control room, collapsing it with his arrival. Takin was still in there.

Koyuki watched the airship decend toward the forest she had been walking toward for the entire duration of Kirakiri's exibition of destruction. The feeling of finally hurting Kurama, if indirectly, surged through her like a wave of energy from the ground. If anything, she wanted to be the very first of the ground units to draw blood.

As the crash seemed imminent, Koyuki spontaneously burst into a run. The steely crystal rasp of Angetsu Shouten leaving it's sheathe accompanied her as she spun the weapon in a wide arc behind her, into a charging ready-position, the scythelike blade held overhead, point toward the airship.

Soon she hit the treeline, and Koyuki began to calculate the required distance she would have to cover to scale the rather high wall of the airship's side to reach the deck. Kirakiri had already crashed himself into the control-room, and so Koyuki endeavoured to position herself toward the rear of the ship's deck to better screen Kirakiri from anyone attempting to attack him from above.

The two remaining, and somewhat shaken elite monks began to make their way back to the deck to fight off the marauding shapeshifter, though they didn't show much fear. Monks of their calibur had been conditioned to not fear, merely calculate. After all, they did not fear death. Reincarnation was a natural cycle of life.

Koyuki however, enjoyed employing shock and awe tactics just as much as Kirakiri had. Where he had shown them strength and size, she would show them speed and fury.

The demoness' eyes locked on a pair of tall pine trees that were close enough to the Airship's rear deck, but had not been felled from it's crash. Spriting toward the far tree, Koyuki lept several feet up the trunk of the tree, landing footfirst on the pine's rough bark, and immediately springing off toward the second tree, one closer to the airship. Somersaulting in flight to hit it at the correct angle required to spring herself just over the gunwhales of the Airship's deck. Now flying at great speed while upside down, she extended the blade of her sword downwards to clip the edge of Airship's railing, not only slowing her excessive speed, but also righting herself like a spun gear. Koyuki easily curled into a roll, rising to her feet in a crisp horizontal sweep to deter any enemies from taking advantage of her prone position.

One of the two monks turned around, and then tapped the shoulder of the other, pointing at Koyuki with his other hand.

Both looked once at Kirakiri, and then back at the snarling Dog-demon, and decided that should they save the airship, both threats must be eliminated, thus, each monk headed off toward one of the respective targets.

Koyuki's monk reached into his Gi, tossing a spirit-sutra at her, which was cleanly swiped in twain by the blade of Angetsu Shouten. The sutra pulsed an electric blue of purification energy, momentarially extinguishing the roiling black essence-cloud covering the weapon.

"Entertain me if you will..." Koyuki growled, her face contorting into a savage grin at the monk.

"Very well then, Lady Falcon. It is difficult for anyone to say they are "good" or not, but know that I will not harm you." Pyros put his arm on her shoulder to help support her. "As for what an Island is, it is land that is surrounded by the ocean, the peak of an underwater mountain range. This island is fairly big, as it even has it's own mountain on top of the mountain. As for china, I know that we are at least south of it. Maybe eastern or western of it as well."

"But I know no more than that. But there appears to be a disturbance up ahead, and perhaps it is the ship I sailed here in. Surely they will have clothes and perhaps some medical care for you. Do you wish to come along?"

He held out his hand to the weak and confused Falcon.
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When the ship crashed, Sanjuro fell over. Then he got back up. A giant beast flew above the ship and smashed the place where the grouchy man with cookies was. Sanjuro fell over. Then he got back up again. Then Sanjuro became aware that if something bad happened to the man who had brought the cookies, then there would be no more cookies. Forever.

Not feeling particularly innovative, Sanjuro ripped off another part of the deck and flung it at the beastly birdlike Kirakiri. "I, THE GREAT SANJURO YAMADA, SHALL NOT LET THERE BE NO MORE COOKIES, GIANT BIRD THING!"

Sanjuro took one of his greater blades off his back. "FOR THE COOKIES!" He charged the bird.

Meanwhile, the ship's landing and the Air-demon's leaving had removed the wind barrier of the ship, allowing Chi to return. Chi was a bit miffed that the ship failed to explode, or even break into a million pieces, but supposed there would always be a time for that to happen later, when Talkatz was revived.

But first, there was fun to be had. The Dog woman that Chi knew had appeared, and was attacking the monks. She was breaking up Chi's nice toy, and had to be punished for doing so. And perhaps even Kirakiri would suffer for getting in Chi's way. He was far too manipulative and cunning to exist in the same world as Talkatz, truly. But first, she'd see if the dog wanted to play.... Chi let out a great scream and fell from the sky, right above the monks and Koyuki.

As Koyuki was menacing a lone monk with her Angetsu Shouten, a little girl fell in front of her in a blur and hit the ground with a sickening squish, splattering all over the boards of the deck, spraying blood on Koyuki and the monk.

"Hee hee hee hee! I made a mess of myself." A little girl voice giggled. The body of the girl slowly dissolved into the puddle of blood she had made, and the blood that went everywhere returned to the puddle as well. The blood that had fallen on the monk flowed down as well, except a few drops of blood on his neck that pinched a major artery. He collapsed on the deck. He would be fine, but Koyuki wondered about herself.

The blood on Koyuki also took with it the blood of her victims that day, and ran down her body. The blood also seemed to concentrate itself on certain parts of her body as it went down, giving Koyuki a feeling of being groped. Then it too flowed along the deck and into the puddle.

"So miss Koyuki, you want to play with my ship too? But you play far too rough! You're a bad bad girl. Bad girls get no dessert after supper. Bad girls don't get new dollies. Bad girls...get spankings. Hee he hee heee!" Chi giggled. The blood oozed upwards and formed into a faceless figure with a giant paddle, and red sensei headband.

The ship had crashed. They had been under attack, and yet he was utterly useless in the battle; hell, he hadn't even made it onto the deck. Now, it was only a matter of time until the demons would start invading, assuming they hadn't begun to already. If he could, he would have felt ashamed of himself.

He needed to find Takin. At the very least, he had to get that man to safety. Luckily, he wasn't too far away from the control room. He had no time to waste though; he was sure he had heard something breaking in from that direction.

Bursting into the room, he saw a winged demon and, above it, a rough hole in the ceiling with some wood dangling at the edges. Gritting his teeth, Youji ordered Takin to get away while he himself took a step cautiously towards the demon.

"I'm going to assume that you're the one responsible for the remodeling."

"Heh, looks like I'll get some exercise after all!" Koyuki yelled as she made a lunge toward the monk facing her off.

But the strike never landed, because the monk collapsed. The AWOL Chi had arrived, and arrived in a way Koyuki despised. All over her.

"Grah!? What in oblivion's name!?" she coughed, spitting a piece of Chi attempting to slide down her throat, and clawing futily at the blood-demon as it ran down through her kimono like a naughty Peronelle.

"So miss Koyuki, you want to play with my ship too? But you play far too rough! You're a bad bad girl. Bad girls get no dessert after supper. Bad girls don't get new dollies. Bad girls...get spankings. Hee he hee heee!"

"You cannot be serious." Koyuki scoffed, holding her blade between Chi and herself, point leveled at the blood-child with the paddle. "You don't honestly intend to fight me, Talkatz' lead tactician, do you?"

"You're a bad girl!" Chi chuckled back. "Tactician or not, You deserve punishment!"

Koyuki gave Chi a confused, incredulous look. "Rrgh!" she growls, "I have no time for these games! You are in my way!" angrily thrusting her sword at Chi's torso.

Raikotsu sniffed, detecting the scent of alcohol, and looked Kirie over without letting his gaze linger on her naughty bits...much...

His lips curled into a smile at her nervous grin, a note of pleasant warmth entering his voice, "Well, I think I like this outfit better than the one you had on last time, wear it in my presence henceforth. Now, we have a battle to win. Come along, girl, I'll bandage any wounds you might get myself."

His fingertips caressed her cheek, moving down her neck, over her shoulders...tracing her backbone down to her buttocks, which he squeezed suddenly. Then he took her hand, and led her toward the battlefield.