Ten Shadows in the Heian Era

Another beautiful day has me and my new travelling companion, Tamamo walking through yet another forest of lush greenery under the bright sun.

The peace is somewhat disturbed by the sound of the ground shaking and trees being crushed as one of my Shikigami, Lion's Pride, tears through a few weak Cursed Spirits.

Lion's Pride is probably my strongest Shikigami, at least, before my first two combined into Divine Dog: Totality. That one's probably my strongest, but I felt like hiding it from Tamamo, so I haven't brought it out.

Lion's Pride is a massive lion, its shoulders reaching above my head and its width tripling my own and then some. Its fur is a lush golden hue that shines like the sun and correspondingly, its ability is that it gets stronger under daylight, with its peak strength being when the sun is at its own peak.

Since it's only early in the morning, the Shikigami is not too strong right now.

"Various unique Shikigami and the ability to store things in your own shadow. What even is your Innate Technique?"

Tilting my head to Tamamo I notice her giving my Shikigami a strange look as it finishes off the last few Cursed Spirits.

"It's called The Ten Shadows Technique. What about you? What's your technique?"

"I don't have one," she breezily answers as we continue walking. 

"What about that blue fire you used?" I ask as I begin petting my Shikigami's side once it joins us.

Tamamo has been hogging the attention of my fox Shikigami since she saw it. It's been sitting on her shoulder since we got up this morning after a brief camp.

"That wasn't an Innate Technique, and on the subject of Innate Techniques, firstly, you shouldn't answer that question. Innate Techniques are kept private for a reason and people consider it rude to ask about it. Yōkai however, don't have Innate Techniques like Sorcerers do as a rule."

"If it's rude then why did you ask?" I dryly answer, getting only a mischievous smirk in response. Sighing, I don't press the nonissue since I don't really care. "Can I learn how to use that fire then? And why don't Yōkai have Innate Techniques?"

"No. You can't," she answers my first question, much to my visible disappointment. "Yōkai don't have Innate Techniques because Innate Techniques are purely a product of Cursed Energy, and thus only appear in humans and powerful Cursed Spirits. Yōkai have Osore instead."

Speaking of Cursed Spirits, I sense another one nearby and send Lion's Pride to go kill it.

There really are a lot of them all over the place, and there's only been more and more the closer I've gotten to civilisation from my little slice of nowhere, which does kind of make sense.

They are born from human emotions after all, it's only natural there would be more when there are more humans around.

"I thought Yōkai were full of Cursed Energy?"

"There is a distinction," she pauses to think of how to phrase it. "Cursed Energy is purely spiritual. It is the energy behind negative emotions. Yōkai don't have Cursed Energy, because they are not purely spiritual beings like Cursed Spirits, and they are not neutral beings like humans. To Yōkai, Cursed Energy isn't just the result of negative emotions, it is tied to their very being. So instead of Cursed Energy, they have Youki."

"Youki?"

Tamamo sighs, understandably. I asked a lot of questions before we even made camp, and have been doing nothing but asking anything that comes to mind since we woke up. "Think of it like natural Ki corrupted by Cursed Energy."

"Ki?" I ask with a smile while she groans when she realises she's just further ignited my curiosity.

"Life force."

"Can you manipulate Ki?"

"Not by itself," she answers, and I'm glad she's still humouring me. "You need to use either Negative or Positive Energy to do so. Negative is easier, you do that already. There's also Touki, but that is both more complicated and a lot simpler."

I've really got to give her some credit. Not only is Tamamo incredibly knowledgeable, but even more than that, she is being so generous. At the start, she seemed pretty entertained answering my questions, probably finding amusement in my curiosity.

But after so many hours, she's clearly starting to get annoyed by it. But even then, she isn't withholding information or shortening her explanations even knowing it will only lead to more questions being asked.

It's respectable.

"So, when I'm reinforcing my body with Cursed Energy, I'm using my Ki?"

"Yes, though it is more accurate to say you're using your Ki as a base and then multiplying it with your Cursed Energy. You know what multiplying is, right?"

"Yes, I know my numbers," I answer with a chuckle, not at all offended. This is the past after all, most people don't know how to read let alone count. "So what's different with Touki?"

The trees around us clear away somewhat as we reach the peak of a hill, and far off on the horizon, over more forests and hills, I can finally see Edo starting to come into view. We're almost there.

"Touki isn't pulled by positive or negative emotions. Kind of. It's complicated because it is difficult to explain, but it is simple because it is easy to use."

"How so?"

"Give me a moment to think how to explain it," Tamamo snaps, making me laugh. "Touki is Ki that gets enhanced by 'fighting spirit'. The reason it is so difficult to explain, is because 'fighting spirit' isn't clearly defined. No one really knows exactly what it is, so it has been simplified into 'fighting spirit'. Basically, if you train your body really really hard for a long time and stubbornly want to fight with your whole soul, then you can manifest Touki. I wouldn't recommend bothering with it though."

"Why not? It couldn't hurt to have more sources of strength?"

"Because mastering Touki requires a great deal of dedication. You would have to push your studies and training in Cursed Energy aside to focus on it, which is pointless anyway since you can achieve the same effect with Cursed Reinforcement. Touki is only really practiced by stubborn fools who have no other path to growing stronger."

Humming, I don't agree or disagree with her words. I already trained my body plenty, and I still want to experience it, so I'll probably try and unlock Touki at some point. That said, it doesn't seem a priority when apparently all it is good for is reinforcement.

We walk in peaceful silence as I ponder over the new information, but after a while I eventually speak up again.

"You mentioned Osore. What is that?"

As an answer, Tamamo turns her head enough that she can meet my eye, and when she does, I feel a shiver go down my spine that I haven't felt since that first Curse I met.

It's fear, I realise that I am feeling, and I can feel my grin widen at the strange sensation.

Then, with a blink, the feeling disappears as if a gust of wind.

"That, is Osore. It is the fear that makes a Yōkai, manifested," Tamamo says, and I think she's forgotten that she's been trying to hide the fact that she's a Yōkai.

Not that I'm going to point that out to her of course.

Instead, I just ask more questions. "You mentioned that Ki is neutral and can be brought out by Negative Energy or by fighting spirit, but you haven't said anything about Positive Energy. How does that work? Who uses Positive Energy if Yōkai and humans both use negative?"

"Kami," is her immediate answer. "Kami are the equal and opposite of Cursed Spirits and so their energy is positive, like that deer Shikigami of yours. Though, don't mistake the average Kami with a Kami in the Heavens. Those Kami are Divine and naturally work by different rules."

That makes sense actually. Kami are everywhere in everything, and they're pretty much always kind and helpful, this is why we show them respect and kindness in turn through rituals and prayer.

Also, good to know that that is called Positive Energy, not Blessed Energy as I've been calling it. And, now that I think about it, it makes a lot more sense how I can manifest it by smashing my Cursed Energy against itself.

Two negatives make a positive after all.

"How do the Divine work?" I ask, and for the first time since I've known her, Tamamo doesn't have an answer.

"I don't know." She must have seen the surprised look on my face because she sends me a glare. "The Divine live in the Heavens above us as Celestial beings, to know the Divine is to be Divine. So unless you happen to meet an Ōkami, no one is going to answer that for you."

Sighing, I accept her answer and keep walking.

The silence is longer this time as I actually struggle to think of questions to ask, my mind too occupied absorbing the wealth of information already given.

Not to mention some excitement at finally reaching the big city. Soon enough, I'll be in the ancient Japanese spirit equivalent of Hogwarts and I'll get to meet all sorts of interesting people. Hopefully.

I'm not in a hurry though, so we keep our pace light. By my estimate, we should reach Edo by evening.

However, once we clear the forest and with Edo still only on the horizon, Tamamo comes to a stop, not stepping out into the sun.

"Tamamo?" I ask, turning back to her to see that she's adopted a purposefully aloof expression.

"Our deal was merely that I travel with you until we reach near Edo. We have done so. This is where we part ways."

"Oh." Right. I forgot about that part. It's a shame, but I have a feeling we will meet again, so at least it's not goodbye.

"Wait," I call out before she can walk off. "Before you go, may I ask a favour? One last lesson?"

She stares at me for a long moment, her clothes blowing in a breeze that idly makes me realise that at some point I'd stopped considering jeans as normal clothes and kimono as traditional clothes.

Now, when I see Tamamo's dress I just think of it as clothes. That's pretty weird to think about. Just another aspect of living in the past really. What once was traditional and strange to see is now just everyone's everyday wear.

Though, Tamamo's clothes are definitely of a better quality than my own.

"Fine. One more lesson," she agrees, and I send her a mischievous grin full of eagerness.

"Fight me."

Her head tilts and her lip twitches into a brief frown.

"Why?" She asks, almost accusing but not quite.

I'm sure there's some subtext going on here that I'm completely blind to, but since I don't know what it is, I just ignore it.

"Because being a Jujutsu Sorcerer is all about fighting Cursed Spirits, but I've never really been in a fight before, and I don't want to embarrass myself too much when I get there with my inexperience."

Tamamo raises a brow with a deadpan expression on her face. "I've seen you kill a number of Cursed Spirits in the short time we've been together."

"I don't really count them as fights," I respond with a shrug.

"Why is that?" She asks, and I feel my smile become slightly more solemn without my control as I give her the honest answer.

"Because I've yet to exert myself."

Other than that time with the first Cursed Spirit I ever saw, I have never once in this life truly had to push myself. 

Sure, I push my body in training, but that's not really the same. I've yet to have to truly try. 

It's... unsatisfying.

///

Tamamo-no-Mae

///

As Narauko gives his answer, she notices the far off look that briefly crosses his eyes, and she understands.

He has never faced an equal in battle before. She understands that feeling well.

She is a genius. She has been praised as such her entire life by her village.

Like all Kitsune, she was born with a single tail. Normally, as a Kitsune grows older, they will gain a tail every one hundred years, except for the final tail which takes two hundred.

Every one hundred years, when a Kitsune's next tail grows in, their power grows to match. That is just how it works. Their strength is directly tied to the number of tails they have.

However, Tamamo-no-Mae is only seventy eight, by all accounts, she should only have one tail. She has three. Because unlike every other Kitsune known, it is Tamamo's age that needs to catch up to her power, not the other way around.

Instead of gaining tails and then power, she has done the opposite. Because she is a genius. Her village expect her to be the first Nine-Tailed Kitsune in one thousand years.

There has only been one before, and they died so long ago that no one is really sure they existed in the first place. Most Kitsune don't even make it to their seventh tail before their potential runs out. Then they can't gain any more tails no matter how long they live.

So she understood the look in his eye perfectly. The look of someone yet to meet an equal.

Still. She's pretty sure he's not nearly as strong as she is. He's just too sheltered to have met anyone powerful yet. He's also only human. Even if he isn't as lowly as those monkeys, there is still a distance that separates them from birth.

Though, that lion Shikigami of his is pretty dangerous, and the deer could be annoying with its Positive Energy.

"Are you sure?" She still asks, because it's a risky thing he is asking of her.

"Of course," he responds, as she knew he would.

"Very well then. Just don't Curse me when you lose."

Narauko laughs at her answer, which doesn't surprise her. She would be surprised if he was even capable of Cursing anyone out of something as petty as vengeance. He's the kind of man who would die complimenting the one who killed him.

Truly, he is the strangest Sorcerer she has ever met.

As if to prove her point, Narauko continues, "Would you like to change into one of my spare sets of clothes first? Your kimono is very pretty and looks well made, I'd feel bad if I damaged it."

Truly, truly strange.

"I thank you for the consideration, but you needn't worry." She doesn't explain that she can clean and repair her clothing, or even just create a new set altogether, and being the considerate man that he is, he doesn't ask why he needn't worry and merely accepts her words at face value.

He's very lucky she felt intrigued enough by him that she humoured his 'deal' in the first place. Had she not felt the strange warmth of his Cursed Energy and become intrigued, it would have been incredibly easy to trick him with lies when he seems to believe everything she says.

"Suit yourself," Narauko responds as he takes off his scarf that he seems to care a lot about considering it's poor quality and drops it into his shadow.

Following that, he stretches his arms out and cracks his neck, raising an eyebrow in her direction when he notices she isn't doing the same.

Then he holds two fingers out in a familiar, annoying gesture and calls out, "Curtain."

Immediately, ink paints the sky and falls around them in a large radius, forming a dome-shaped barrier and Tamamo has to put some effort in keeping her Kitsune featured hidden as the barrier's effect kicks in.

Cursed Spirits within a Curtain are unable to hide, for the most part, and while Yōkai aren't Cursed Spirits, as she has been telling him, the Curtain still makes it more difficult to hold their human disguises.

Still, she wouldn't be a genius if something as simple as that could trip her up.

"A Curtain with no incantation. Impressive," she comments, getting a confused blink in response.

She's noticed that when he gets confused he tends to blink and tilt his head slightly. She does her best to ignore how endearing she finds it.

"Is it?" He asks.

"It means you are above average, at least." She answers.

"Ah, it's probably just that Curtain is the only barrier technique that my father taught me, so I've practiced it a lot."

She almost rolls her eyes at his modesty. She imagines the faces that those Sorcerers in Edo will make when he gets there will be incredibly amusing. It's a shame she won't be able to see it.

Most Sorcerers are Grade Three. The above average ones are Grade Two, and most of those still use the incantation when making a Curtain. They're also all quite a few years older than he is.

Shaking he head, Tamamo enters a combat stance and throws away useless thoughts, focusing on her body and her Youki as she puts herself in the mindset of battle.

Narauko mimics, though his stance is obviously unrefined. Just looking at him she can tell that he has some proper education but has never actually applied what he's been taught.

"Oh, by the way," Narauko says, a friendly, if sheepish smile on his face. "I'm going to try to kill you. I would appreciate it if you do the same."

There's the Sorcerer in him. Saying that with a smile she can tell is genuinely friendly.

Still, she tilts her head at that, confused until realisation sets in.

"You really are sheltered, aren't you?" She asks, amused despite herself as he blinks in response, so she continues before he can ask, her voice hard. "There is no point in a fight if you are going to pull your punches. In fact, it's greatly insulting to fight with the intention of sparing your opponent. Hear this well Narauko. You must always fight to kill, there is no alternative."

Teaching students could technically be called an alternative, but that's not really fighting, it's teaching, so she doesn't count it.

"Oh, I didn't realise," he says, his grin only growing wider, and for the first time, she properly recognises him as a Sorcerer. "Let's fight with our lives on the line then."

"As it should be," she returns.

Standing opposite each other, the tension between them rises slowly, and being the more experienced of the two, Tamamo decides to engage first.

Truthfully, she wouldn't have accepted the fight if not for his deer Shikigami. With that, he should survive. Probably.

Dashing forward, a gust follows in her wake as Tamamo blurs in front of Narauko and thrusts a clawed hand at his chest, intending to tear a hole into his torso to end the fight in the first move.

But, unexpectedly, Narauko was fast enough to respond to her movement and leaned back until his hand touched the floor behind him, giving him enough leverage to kick up at her.

She blocks the blow with a reinforced arm, intending to counter only to be launched a few paces back from the blow, her arm stinging slightly.

That... Was a strong blow.

Before she can question it any further, Narauko appears in front of her with a fist raised in a telegraphed punch that she easily counters, even distracted, with a palm thrust to his chest that returns the favour of sending him back.

He is stronger and faster than she expected. More durable too.

He has such a weak presence that she underestimated him even after travelling together.

That is her mistake. She won't do it again.

Pushing her Youki harder, Tamamo dashes back into the fight as fast as she can, making Narauko's eyes widen at her speed, and yet, he still manages to block her claw.

Blood splatters as she tears a chunk out of his forearm instead of his throat and she feels a rib crack when his retaliatory kick strikes home.

"Owwwww," Narauko whines as he cradles his arm and generates his own Positive Energy, somehow, to heal himself.

The battlefield isn't a place for endless speculation, so she just assumes that he is somehow channelling that deer Shikigami's ability without summoning it and moves on.

Similar to Cursed Spirits however, Positive Energy is poison to Yōkai and the opposite heals, so she only needs to pour some Youki into her cracked rib to fix it.

There's a brief lull as they circle each other, reassessing.

Yet, despite the injuries, she finds that they are both smiling.

This time, both of them dash each other at the same time and meet in the middle.

Narauko goes for a punch to her face that she ducks under, grabbing his wrist with one of her own and pulling him off balance and into her waiting elbow.

He takes the hit straight to the jaw and his head snaps back, but before she can continue to pummel him he surprises her by swinging his head back forward and viciously headbutting her. 

Luckily, they are about the same height so he doesn't break her nose, but it does disorient her enough that she loses her grip of his wrist and has to defend as his other fist swings at her.

But in the end, she is the more experienced fighter of the two of them and she has his measure now, so she manages to defend herself, and in the flurry of combat that follows, she finds herself scoring more and more hits while only occasionally receiving one of his.

Yet, as the fight continues, she starts hitting him less and less, and the fight gets more and more even.

It takes her a moment to truly understand why the fight is shifting in his favour, but when she does she can't help but feel incredulous.

He's... Learning?

He's getting better, that fact is undeniable, and when she nearly loses her throat in an incredibly familiar manoeuvre, she realises that he's not just getting better, he's copying her.

He's devouring her martial arts with every hit he takes.

I apologise, she thinks to him as her own grin actually grows to match his own. It seems I was still underestimating you.

Ducking under his next punch, Tamamo spins a roundhouse kick into his gut, sending Narauko flying back a dozen paces.

Not waiting for him to recover, she spins back onto her feet facing him and holds out her hands.

A moment later, blue fire engulfs her hands in a series of rings going all the way up to her elbow.

When he notices the fire, Narauko's first response is to bark out a laugh before charging at her with his full speed.

However, he misses.

To her side, two paces away, Narauko swings at another Tamamo-no-Mae identical to herself, and his fist goes straight through her body without resistance.

The illusory clone disperses around his fist like disturbed smoke and she doesn't give him the chance to express his confusion before a pair of blue rings of fire leave her wrists and slam into him in an explosion of fire.

The concussive force sends Narauko flying, but the fire doesn't leave him and continues to burn away at his Cursed Energy.

A moment later, his Cursed Energy swells and drowns out her fire, putting it out.

At this point, she kind of expected it, but he really does have a lot more Cursed Energy than she thought.

He barely feels like a Grade Three Sorcerer, but no one with such little output would be able to put out her fire so easily, all without showing the slightest bit of exhaustion.

"Hey Tamamo," Narauko calls out, making her pause.

"Asking for mercy?" She asks in return, a mockery that doesn't faze him in the slightest.

He grins wildly at her. "Your tail is showing~."

His words shock her back into focus and her head snaps to the side to look behind her, only to see that her tails are not, in fact showing.

She realises the trick for what it was only an instant before an incredible impact slams into her gut, knocking the air out of her lungs and launching her across the ground.

Narauko doesn't let up and she has to roll to avoid him stomping down on her, and as she rolls onto her back she points both arms up at him and releases a point blank explosion of fire that once more separates them.

Coughing to herself as she floods her system with Youki to repair her ruptured organs, Tamamo climbs back to her feet and pats herself down of dirt, glaring at Narauko as he does the same.

"You tricked me," she accuses, genuinely offended.

Tricking people is supposed to be her thing. Tricking people is the past time of her entire species, and yet this human tricked her and has the gall to grin about it.

But more importantly... 

"How long have you known?" She asks, her voice a whisper.

"Pretty early on," he answers without a care, still smiling that damn smile at her. "You are going to want to do a better job avoiding making such a distinction between yourself and us humans if you want to blend in in the future."

"Why didn't you say anything?" She accuses him with a glare.

"It seemed like you wanted to keep it a secret for some reason, so I didn't ask. Everyone is entitled to their secrets, and you've been too kind for me to pry on yours."

"You don't seem to have a problem doing so to score a cheap hit," Tamamo grumbles.

"All is fair in love and war," he responds, sounding like he is quoting something but she doesn't know what. Either way, she can admit that it's a good quote.

That doesn't change the core issue here however.

"Why would you travel with me if you knew?" She asks, getting somewhat frustrated at him acting like he doesn't get it.

"Does it matter?" He asks instead, making her brow twitch.

"Of course it matters!" She yells at him. "You are a human and I am a Yōkai! Our nature opposes one another! Humans are nothing but food and entertainment to Yōkai and Yōkai are nothing but monsters to be killed to humans! I should have deceived and killed you the moment we met! That is my nature! And you should have killed me the moment you found out! You're a Sorcerer aren't you!?"

Breathing hard after her rant, Tamamo glares at Narauko as he tilts his head this way and that, visibly thinking over her words.

Eventually however, he just shrugs and grins that same. Damn. Smile at her. "I don't really care about anything like that. Labels are pretty limiting. Besides, you were literally teaching me about how Yōkai have their own society just like humans do earlier. If you tried to kill me because you were evil and that was your nature then I wouldn't blame you, but you didn't, so why does it matter? You're not just a Yōkai. You are Tamamo-no-Mae, and while Tamamo-no-Mae is indeed a Yōkai, no other Yōkai is Tamamo-no-Mae. In the end, I'm a pretty simple guy you know? I like you, so I'm not going to kill you if I can help it, even if you do wind up being evil and slaughtering my kind."

This insufferably single-minded man...

Yōkai and humans don't get along. They don't make friends and they certainly don't travel together, teaching each other. It's wrong. It's all wrong.

But his words... 

Yōkai should despise humans. She should look down on them as the pathetic monkeys that they are. Humans too, should despise Yōkai. They should look at them with hatred and fear.

Not a single human has ever seen her without her disguise and not given that instinctual reaction. It is written into their very being. An order of nature.

A Yōkai exists off of the fear of humans. It is humanity's fear itself that composes their souls, so it is impossible for a human to see a Yōkai and not give the same reaction. Even trained Sorcerers who do not truly fear Yōkai still flinch. It is an instinctual truth that proves the separation between their species.

Glaring at him, she decides actions can prove her point better than words ever could, and she makes his bluff a reality by completely dropping her illusions, revealing her true form.

Aesthetically, the change isn't massive. Her hair grows longer, her ears reveal themselves on top of her head. Her eyes slit, fangs sharpen, claws grow and three thick tails fan out behind her.

She is a Kitsune. A Yōkai. A Monster.

For all his words, there is simply no way for a human to look upon her without flinching.

She closes her eyes, irrationally unwilling to see the judgment in his own.

Yet, deep down, she knew his answer. There's only one way he could ever respond.

"Beautiful." The whispered word carries its way to her ears and she feels warm.

That's just the kind of man he is.

Opening her eyes, she ignores the slight stinging in them as she takes in the sight of Narauko, slightly ruffed up from their fight but otherwise fresh as his eyes roam her body with his mouth slightly parted.

For some reason she refuses to identify, a flush of embarrassment fills her under his intense stare, so she reflectively strikes a subtle pose and winks seductively at him.

Kitsune are seductresses after all. Even if it's not something she practices a lot, it is still a comfort zone she can go to to hide her feelings in this moment.

"It's rude to stare~," she purrs at him, not hiding her heritage at all, and he really doesn't flinch.

His eyes meet her own, and it's actually her that has to hide a flinch as she can feel the pure acceptance in his gaze.

Humans are food. Playthings. Savages that will swarm you with fire and blood just for being different.

They should be killed. Eaten. Tricked or avoided.

That's what the village Elders always told her. It's what every Yōkai she's ever met has told her.

Humans and Yōkai are enemies by birth. Coexistence is not possible. Humans will never accept them. There's no point in even trying. Even compared to trickster Kitsune, humans cannot be trusted.

Kitsune trick and they lie, but when a deal has been made, they do not betray. Oni proudly claim that there is nothing false in the words of Oni. Humans however? They lie and they cheat and they betray. Using dirty, dishonourable tricks to make up for their own weakness.

Humans are the enemy.

So why.

Why are you so different?

"Ah, my bad. I didn't mean to stare, I just didn't expect your fur to be so beautiful, you must take great pride in it," Narauko comments, and she forces down a blush because yes, she does take great pride in it.

"You truly don't care, do you?" She asks, still somewhat baffled even if she's coming to accept it.

"Tamamo-no-Mae is Tamamo-no-Mae. Yōkai or human doesn't really matter. It's you I like, not your species."

When he says things like that she doesn't know if this dense idiot is flirting or not and it's incredibly annoying.

"You are a truly strange human."

"Better to be a freak than to be boring," he responds with a shrug before grinning wildly at her once again. "So, we were in the middle of something?"

Laughing lightly, Tamamo feels her own savage grin spread to match his.

She's done holding anything back. He is clearly so far beyond anything she would have expected from a human.

So for the first time in her life, she is going to give this everything she's got.

Her tails fan out and blue fire once more graces her body. A series of concentric rings cover her arms all the way up to her shoulders, where another two rings of blue fire hover, above and slightly behind her shoulders.

Behind her, three rings of matching fire light up at the tips of her tails, not quite touching and finally, another ring of fire appears above her head like a burning halo.

"Kami that looks so cool~," Narauko practically squeals, his excitement clear and matching with her own.

"Don't die on me now," Tamamo calls out to him as she blurs into his personal space, a blue ring of fire glowing in her eyes, "Narauko!"

Despite her speed having increased significantly, he still manages to lean out of the way, but it doesn't matter as the ring of fire around her wrist doesn't lose any momentum and flies right into his face, exploding into a burst of fire.

Narauko is launched to the ground but he just reaches an arm out behind him and transitions the fall into a backwards flip, curling his legs in to avoid having them removed by her follow up.

She keeps up her momentum, leaving him on the back foot as he is forced to block, parry and dodge as best as he is able.

Which is pretty good, as she only manages to land some grazing blows.

Her grin only grows wider as she waits for him to get comfortable with her assault, and then she coats herself in an illusion and has her illusory self drop low for a leg sweep.

Narauko jumps over the leg as she predicted and she is already in the air ready for him.

Spinning for momentum, Tamamo kicks him with everything she's got, but unexpectedly, he is able to bring his arms up in time to block, flaring his Cursed Energy enough that his arms only snap in half instead of getting removed entirely.

Her attack creates enough distance between them that Narauko can gather his bearings, and he meets her in the middle once again. Only this time, when she sends an illusion forward and comes at him from the side, he notices.

Her clawed hand meets air as he ducks under it and grabs her wrist, ignoring the way his hand burns under her fire, and uses the leverage to pull her off balance, right into his waiting elbow.

Her head snaps back from the blow, but her grin only grows as she recognises the movement he just made.

That's my move! She thinks, recognising the counter as a perfect mirror of her own movements at the start of the fight.

Instead of letting him press harder, her tails shoot over her shoulders intent on skewering him, but he uses her gut as a springboard to kick off of and launches backwards.

As soon as his feet touch the ground, they are charging right back at each other, and she feels his Cursed Energy lean to her right, so she leans left, right into Narauko's fist.

What!? She thinks to herself as one of her tails throws its ring of fire like a shuriken at him. I know I read his Cursed Energy right. He was going right!

Narauko leans back under the ring of fire, showing some impressive flexibility, and she feels his Cursed Energy surging in a pattern she knows to mean that he will plant his hands and use them as a spring to kick her in the chest.

But when she leans back to avoid it, she finds her knee getting kicked hard enough to buckle, but not snap.

As she falls, the rings of fire above her shoulders slam into each other and cause a concentrated explosion that launches Narauko back away.

In the brief respite, she tries to figure out what is going on, and like a lightning bolt, it comes to her.

He's trying to mimic my illusions with just Cursed Energy!

Standing off against him, she notices that his clothes are in tatters, showing off most of his well muscled upper body, and most importantly, that he is uninjured.

Obviously, he has taken damage, but his use of Positive Energy has healed him. Yet, he doesn't even seem tired despite that.

The next moment, her senses blare as she feels a lot of Cursed Energy gathering around one of his arms until it becomes visible to her and she realises what he's doing.

He's trying to copy her fire now. The idiot doesn't realise that it is literally impossible, but that doesn't mean he can't just launch pure Cursed Energy at her.

Which he does a moment later in a thin beam that tears up the ground behind her when she dodges.

Just how much Cursed Energy does he have! She screams to herself as she charges forward once more, feeling her blood pumping in her veins like it never has before. Is he even human!?

Illusions cloak her form but Narauko's eyes meet her own regardless, and she can only smile wider, a laugh leaving her lips as she realises what she's feeling.

Danger.

She's in danger of losing, for the first time in her life, and against a human at that!

Her laugh turns slightly hysterical as they come to clash once more, and she feels her Youki surging like it never has before, a clarity of mind hitting her like the greatest drug.

Sparks of black race off of her fist as it closes in on his chest.

"Black Flash!" The words leave her lungs without thought.

Space itself bends around her fist as it digs into Narauko's diaphragm an explodes with more force than anything she's ever hit before.

Blood explodes from his chest and flies out of his mouth as Narauko is launched back into the forest and through half a dozen trees before eventually sliding to a stop.

A feeling of euphoria floods Tamamo's mind as her Youki flows to her every whim. It feels to her like her Youki has been mud this entire time and only now became water, flowing with such ease she wonders how she ever managed to move it before today.

Turning delighted eyes upon the forest, she watches Narauko pick himself up, a hand over the steadily closing hole she left in his chest.

But despite very nearly dying, his smile almost matches her own.

No words are needed.

This final clash will decide the victor.

Narauko's Cursed Energy surges, and for the first time since meeting him, she can feel it. His Curse.

All restraint disappears and an ocean of Cursed Energy coats his body.

The inefficiency is obvious. The return in reinforcement he is getting for each unit of Cursed Energy is noticeably diminishing, but what does it matter if he can just keep pouring more, and more, and more energy into his body?

Matching him, her own Youki surges. The rings of fire covering her arms double, and she creates an equal amount covering her legs from thigh to ankle, then she makes even more. Half a dozen tiny rings of fire bursting into being over each of her fingers.

She doesn't bother with any illusions and just shoves everything she has into her body and her fire, enhancing herself so much that her back itches, a new tail wanting to spring to life but not quite able to.

There is no spoken signal.

Some instinct in them just understands. A connection between them forged from travel and combat lets her practically read his mind as they charge one another.

No holding back.

No defence.

No hesitance.

Do or die, attack with everything.

They meet in the middle.

The ground craters.

Trees are torn out of the earth and flung into the distance.

The very sky cracks and a thunderous boom deafens all the animals unlucky enough to be in the Curtain.

Wind rages as they are both launched back from the point of impact like a pair of missiles, trails of blood following in their wake.

Pain like she has never felt before fills Tamamo's mind like static as her body is flung through tree after tree until she eventually bounces across the earth and slowly rolls to a stop.

For a long moment, she just lies there, unmoving as she waits for the ringing in her ears to stop.

Without moving her body, she cracks her eyes open to see a cloud of dust settling around her.

She feels numb, but little by little, control of her body comes back to her.

Enough that she can tilt her neck and look at herself.

Her clothes are in tatters, leaving her rather immodest.

Her skin is red and raw, covered in tears and cuts profusely leaking blood.

Moving her eyes to the side slightly, a disbelieving huff leaves her throat and the pain hardly even registers as she takes in the sight.

Her arm is gone. 

Only a roughly torn stump remains of her bicep, flaps of flesh and white bone open to the air as blood endlessly pools around her.

Relaxing herself, her head falls back and she stares up at the sky, feeling too many emotions to really pick any one out.

It takes some time for her muddled thoughts to gather around a single, unavoidable point.

I... Lost?

Even if Narauko is in as bad a spot as she is, not winning is itself an act of loss. He also seems to have better healing options than she does, at least in the short term.

What a monster.

A wheezing, stilted laugh leaves her and she ignores the pain it causes as warmth fills her with a smile.

I lost, she thinks to herself again and in spite of the pain it causes her, she continues to laugh.

She feels... Joy.

Finally, she has found an equal. Someone who can keep up with her.

Someone who can understand her. Who accepts her. Who is strong like her.

How could she feel anything but joy at that?

"You're not dead? I'm glad." Her head turns enough to see Narauko approach.

Leaves, twigs and debris crunches under his bare feet as he limps closer to her, one of his owns arm also missing while his other slowly works on repairing all the internal damage done to him.

Once he shuffles close enough to her, he plops down on the ground next to her head with a slight grunt and looks down into her eyes with a happy, childlike grin on his face.

"That was fun," he tells her, and she wants to believe him, to bask in the moment with him. But when she looks into his eyes, she can see the truth.

He's not truly satisfied.

Once that thought hits her, she can no longer keep ignoring one simple fact.

Throughout the entire fight, not once did Narauko use his Innate Technique.

Even still, his smile is pure and his joy is genuine. 

He is happy. He's not lying when he said he had fun. In fact, he hasn't lied to her once. She didn't think he was even capable of lying.

So why,

"You're strong."

Would he lie?

///

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

First fight in the fic, tell me what you think!

I wanted to do it from Tamamo's perspective to really draw attention to and make it obvious that Narauko is incredibly talented. I've hinted at it already by having him call all the Curses he met weak by having him say that the Curse that Divine Dogs couldn't kill was weak.

But for a Curse to be strong enough that Divine Dogs couldn't take it down it'd have to be Grade Two at least, and he was calling that weak.

Remember, this is a DxD cross (among other things) so canon JJK doesn't scale. Though, saying that, I am naturally going to be doing my favourite thing and buffing the shit out of everyone because op is fun :)

Also, let me know what you think of Tamamo and also her black flash. Cuz I think black flash is cool as fuck and I'm hoping that I conveyed that well with my writing.