Tayuumi had finally arrived at the side of the temple. There were no monks around this side yet and she decided to sit down until there was some way to get inside.

She angled her sword so she could rest her head upon it. After a few moments she had fallen into a sub sleep state. Thinking and hearing were still possible, but her eyes were closed and movement was barely possible.

Many thoughts dashed through her head. Such as, "Damnit Kurama, we need your help." and "I can't believe I was beaten.". But her most prominent thought was, "Who was that?"

That's all she could ask herself. The only real thing she thought about.

"Who was that?"

It resounded over and over again. The beautiful demon with the power of wind.

Then, the thought shifted.

"Why did he save me? This thought somewhat burned in her head. Over and over, "Why did he save me? But why did he? He had no reason. I was just trying to kill him. What was that for?"

Then, the final question.

"Why didn't I want to kill him?"

This thought worried her the most. She had never hesitated on attacking an adversary before. But him. What was it? Her attacks could have been faster. They could have broke through that sheild, but she didn't. Why?

She sat there. Half asleep, half awake. Head sunk and completely confused.

Then, the final thought.

"I...have to kill him. But...I don't think I can. What's wrong with me? Dammit, I...don't know what to do."

Motionless. Nearly lifeless. The blonde haired shadow weilder sat by the temple, tears swelling in her shut eyes.

((SUMMARY: Tayuumi's inner monologue.))

Kirie couldn't help wanting to cry. Fortunately for what remained of her dignity, the tears didn't come. She simply felt it was best to go with the flow until this ridiculousness played itself out to its embarrassing conclusion. Before the whole operation began, Kirie decided that she would lead the charge every chance she got. Now, having lost her clothes including her underwear to monks who are probably sniffing them in some quiet place right now, being forced to wear an outfit that showcased her as though she was wearing nothing at all, finding out the troops she came here with were passed out drunk at their amphibious ships and completely vulnerable aside from Sanaka, herself now smelling of Kazunori's current choice of favorite beverage, and discovering that not only were the males on both sides aggressively perverted, but the females themselves apparently fell for people they seemed to have met only minutes among the enemy force...Kirie tried very hard to believe she was dreaming. That, or stepped into some sort of alternate universe. Things simply couldn't be this...this...
"Insane."
Insane. That was it. That was all of it. This was not sane. There was no way this could be sane. Nothing was in place here. Kirie sighed and let herself be lead by the man who, for some reason or another, didn't bother to introduce himself. She assumed a "grin and bear it" smile for the time being.

Summary of Events: Poor Kirie.

"Oh... yes, thank you," Falcon replied in a small voice. She was aided to her feet rather unsteadily when a tree nearby vibrated. Pyros instinctively ducked, but nothing came whizzing out through the air to attack them.

Falcon just looked confused, and tried to steady herself a bit more on thin air. The tree vibrated more violently - or, more or less one branch in particular.

Then something DID come whizzing down and hit Falcon straight in the chest. With a small 'urf!' Falcon fell comically onto her derrier, clutching at what was clearly a leather strap with a few throwing knives firmly fixed on.

The small blow was enough to wake Falcon up from her daze slightly, but the damage was done. She looked down, recognising what it was.

"Oh! My daggers..."

"Are you alright?" Pyros looked a bit cautious now.

"Yes, I'm feeling a bit better, actually, thank you," Falcon replied, pressing the neck-strap reassuringly against her chest. She managed to get up without assistance this time, but almost fell after a few tottering steps.

When Falcon next looked at Pyros, the winged part-demon could not shake off the lingering disconcerting feeling that Falcon utterly and completely trusted and thought ot him as her saviour and perhaps even... a master.

Kirakiri was hunched in the wreckage of the control room, claws raking through the debris and tearing at the innards of the complex control mechanisms that filled the room.

Sanjuro shouted his cookie based challenge and Kirkairi reared back up, pulling his claws out and smashing the piece of deck Sanjuro had hurled at him. Chunks rained down as his eyes swept over Youji, Sanjuro and the elite monk all getting ready to attack him from different angles. It was never prudent to take unnecessary risks. The shapechanger used his other trick.

With an eye twisting movement, Kirakiri divided. The shapechanger's form seemed to just suddenly slough apart into two slightly smaller demons. Six eyes regarded their opponents as the two flexed their new sets of claws. Their jaws lolled open, revealing identicla sets of dagger-like teeth.

The pair had minor differences, enough to tell them apart but kept to the original's general shape. Bipedal and six armed, one pair ending in massive scythe-like talons, the other four with serrated, muscular talons. Their lashing tails were spiked and tipped on the very end with a short, blade-like sheath. These did not have wings furled upon their backs like the single form though.

They were hulking monsters, muscles rippling beneath their steely skins and heavier plates of armour in places, that nonetheless kept a certain streamlined predatorary grace to them. Kirakiri had created this shape with one thing in mind. Destruction.

Even their appearance was intended as a weapon.

Intending to act before their enemies decided what to make of them, they moved simultaneously and with startling speed. One charged at the monk like a wrecking ball, headed also towards where Koyuki battled Chi. The other hunkered low in the wreckage it had made, claws dissappearing into the wreck again while he held his scythe talons raised and at the ready.

Raikotsu noticed Kirie's expression, and sighed, "I'm sorry for the pinch, Kirie-chan. Of late my quest has been very frustrating, leaving me feeling almost weak, and...something...has clouded my thoughts. I apologize." he hugged her gently, pulling his folded blue kimono from a pouch on his belt, and put it into her hands. It was a bit large, but still fit.

"I am Raikotsu, of the Arashi Clan of the Air Demons. Please, forgive me for my rude behavior." he smiled kindly, then turned away.

Kazunori wasn't going to take that sitting down. Well, he was standing, but you know what he meant. "Take your vile hand offs sher!" He shouted, not realizing that Raikotsu had only quickly squeezed Kirie's ass. He hurled an empty bottle at the demon, which if Kazu didn't shout before throwing, might have hit, but Raikotsu easily smashed the bottle in the air.

"Comon, wez dance." Kazu said, winking at Kirie like he came to save her.

Before Kirie could apologize to Raikotsu, an empty bottle that stank from alcohol was smashed into the air. Kazunori had apparently followed. Kirie sighed, knowing that the woman who had happened upon Kirie and Kazunori wasn't going to do anything. Kirie withdrew her katana and stepped back, thinking that she would need help changing into the kimono. An Air Demon could use the air to put on a kimono by himself but Kirie had no such power and so was going to need help dressing. Her mind reflected on the fact that these clothes could probably be trapped as well, but she decided that she no longer cared. Her body was moist with sweat and smelled foul from alcohol and she felt she was going to go crazy. Besides...the kimono felt nice...and soft...and dry. Initially, she set it aside. The drunkard had to be taken down first. "Who asked you to save me?" Kirie called out to Kazunori. "I'd rather Arashi-san feel me up than you!"

Youji kept his distance against such an unfamiliar foe. If that thing was half as strong and half as dangerous as it looked he knew that, as he was now, he would be simply ripped apart. He doubted that even a weapon would have helped him; he just didn't think he'd be strong enough to do much damage.

That meant he had to put his faith in Sanjuro, something he really didn't enjoy looking forward to. However, he didn't hesitate to toss the sheathe and sword that had been hanging around his waist to the other man. "CATCH!"

Before he disappeared back into the sword, he took one final glance at monster and wondered if he was the same. Then he realized that he wasn't; he was far too helpless by himself to be compared to that beast.

Repostyness:
Chi dodged the angetsu shouten and used his top half to smack head of Talktaz's general and used his bottom half to trip her up, sending her falling unceremoniously onto the deck.

"Oh, Such a bad girl! I bet you like it rough, huh? Or should I say: "Ruff!" Hee hee hee!" Chi recomposed itself and changed back into the form of Talkatz.

"You're so bad, you get an F in brain-smarts! F for FOOL! How do you call me a traitor to Talkatz, when I am part of Talkatz himself? I only do his will, even now. I am his blood so when you interfere with me, General Koyuki, you interfere with Talkatz."

The blood-form Talkatz opened his mouth, and a dark sinister voice came out. It was impossible not to know whose voice this was, though whether or not it was a simple imitation was impossible to tell as well.

"Koyuki, your father died a true general's death in my service, Yet I hear you have disgraced him of late. Instead of following in his footsteps, I hear you are being nothing more than a mutt."

"And from what I hear about you rolling around and defiling yourself with a human, you are being also a bitch in the true sense of the word. Do you deny it?"
----------------------------------------------------------

Sanjuro was charging the beast, who had split into two. But his momentum wouldn't allow him to chase after the other one, so he kept going to the one that remained. But after he really got moving, he was smacked in the head by a sword.
His first thought was:
<Cook-OW!>
His first words were:
"Cook-OW!"
And his next action was:
Rubbing his head.

"HEY! WATCH WHERE YOU THROW THINGS! ESPECIALLY SWORDS! THEY COULD HURT SOMEBODY! I THINK YOU SHOULD....." Sanjuro looked in the direction where the sword had been thrown. There was no one there. "Huh?"

"I, SANJURO YAMADA, AM TOTALLY FREAKED OUT! JUST LIKE THAT ONE TIME!"

****************************

The little boy Col lay pale within his bed, his body covered with mysterious bruises and cuts.

He turned to his side to face his friend. "I want to tell you my secret now."

Malac Olm nodded his head. "Okay."

"...I see people. I see dead people....Some of them scare me.

"In your dreams?"

Col shakes his head no.

"When you're awake?"

Col nodded.

"Dead people, like in graves and coffins?"

"No."

"No, walking around, like regular people... They can't see each other. Some of them don't know they're dead...."

"They don't know they're dead?"

"I see Ghosts."

The two stare at each other, both not knowing what to say.

"HEY STOP IT, KID OF CREEPYNESS!! WHY DO YOU TALK TO THE AIR LIKE THAT? YOU SCARE ME! STOP WHISPERING! I, SANJURO YAMADA, AM TOTALLY FREAKED OUT!"

*******************************************

Sanjuro held the blade in his hand. "Hmm. THIS SWORD FEELS EVIL! Ohwaitwhatwasidoingiforgotandnowirememberbecausei' mhungryandi'mdoingthisFOR COOKIES!" Sanjuro quickly reassessed the situation as fast as he could, which gave one half of Kirakiri plenty of time to remove some unwanted splinters from his talons.

When Sanjuro got in range, he sheathed the heavy sword and wielded the strange weapon that had fallen in his lap. For a reason he couldn't understand, he was compelled to hold it.
"Now MONSTER WHO TAKES AWAY COOKIES! COWER BEFORE SANJURO YAMADA!"

He let loose a swing at the taloned monster with the possessed sword.

"You disgust me with the fire of ten-thousand burning suns, Chi. You will die the most painful death I am capable of delivering you." Koyuki growls as she catches the deck with her left arm, raising her sword once more as she regains her balance. This time however, she was not going to attempt to nonlethally stab Chi because she thought he might be acting insane.

No, this time, she actually wanted him dead.

"Me, tried in a court by an ignoble commoner who is no longer alive? Don't make me laugh!" Koyuki cackles back at Chi, twirling her sword behind her in a powerful leveraged arc as the blade blurs somewhat transluecently, trailing several afterimages of blackened essence as it does so. She shifts her stance to leap to Chi's right, seeking to rake the charged weapon across the blood demon's exposed flank with her new momentum. Gleaming feathers of essence float toward the ground behind the weapon as it slices effortless through the air, hinting at the effect Koyuki had enchanted it with.