[Center][B]Sotoki, Airi[/B][/Center] --- The monsters vanished, Sotoki had defeated them "Hah... Hah..." he looked at his two hands one more time "Why are these here...?" They were the artifacts from his home, the Toketsu Shrine. The daggers had their shrine's symbols on them, in fact, the currect crest of their family was based on these "Though, them being here is handy..." It's still a mystery to how did it suddenly appear on his hands. "What is that?" a voice behind him asked. Sotoki turned his head to see Airi "It's our shrine's artifacts..." Though, he worried about something else first "More importantly, are you alright?" he asked to Airi, who responded with a nod. Suddenly, Sotoki sensed more creatures coming to their direction "Let's get out of here for now. We're almost there." but she knew about that. They only need to run for a little more and they will arrive at the Edogawa Shrine. Ever since Sotoki received the artifacts, he felt strange sensations. His eyes had become sharper, he notices even birds that are far away. His reaction time has been pretty good too. When monsters suddenly appear, he managed to defeat them right away. Airi also felt relieved about them being safe more now than before. 'Weird... Does this artifacts have powers?' he thought as they ran. Out of nowhere, Airi spoke some words "Megami no Hogo." then something appeared. "What is this...?" After she said those words, a shield that looked like a light appeared before them "Did you do this?" then Airi snapped back to the world "Ah? Hah? Wah!" and seemed surprised "W-What is this?" she asked Sotoki "Huh? I thought you did this... Gah!" They were in an alley, and right now, several spirits are coming towards them "Back!" they quickly tried to go leave the alley using the other end of it, but there were also beings coming from there. "We're stuck!" Sotoki raised his daggers, ready to fight off the horde. Airi was shaking "N-Nooo... I don't want to die just yet...!" the swarm of monsters got nearer and nearer. "They're coming!" then they all opened their jaws as they got near their preys, but they failed, they were blocked. "H-Huh?" the shield of light appeared as the monster got near "It is a shield!" Sotoki exclaimed in joy "We can survive this!" he said then looked at his front, a shield was blocking the monsters too. The unknown creatures stopped, confused as to what happened, but soon got hold of themselves. "Come on. Run!" they both ran and ran in the ally, all the monsters were thrown off. "A crack! The shield's cracking!" noticed Airi. It seems the shield wasn't invincible. Once the amount of hits reached the maximum hits that the shield can take, it'll probably break. "Let's hurry up, Fujisaki-kun...!" they ran faster and faster, then the end of the alley was seen "We're here!" then the shield broke. "Don't lose hope!" he cheered for her. Sotoki jumped in front and slashed the remaining monsters in front of them. And alas, they managed to escape. "... Huff.. We have to.. find a place to hide...!" Airi panicked while looking for a spot. They were now in a park, a vast open area. The fountain was near them "Let's.. use that fountain... Hahh..." pointed Sotoki in front of them "T-There?! But we'll get soaked..." then the worrying girl was hit on the head all of a sudden "Ow..! What was that for?!" Sotoki had hit her, but not that strong "It's better than dying! If you don't want to, I'll leave you here!" he returned to his harsh self. "Fine!" she said in defeat. They ran towards the fountain and went inside "Kyah!" the water startled Airi as it was quite cold "Shh..! Keep it down...!" whispered him as they hid their selves. Sotoki can feel the presence of several beings even though he cannot see them, it must be one of his new abilities. "They're getting nearer...! Stay quiet, okay...?" he reminded Airi and was replied at with a nod. Even Airi knows that the monsters had a little distance between them now. The clattering of bones can be heard. She felt very nervous, scared at the thoughts of her getting in danger, enough to bring her to tears again. SPLASH. A noise made by something hitting water echoed throughout the fountain. 'Crap..!' Sotoki gave Airi a glare, which she responded to with a shake of her head then she whispered "It wasn't me...!" they both looked at the source of the noise and there lies a white staff filled with unique decorations "Ah! It's our shrine's!" surprised, she jumped out of the water. "Wait you idiot! Agh. Now they found us!" Upon standing up, revealed to them was a field of darkness. --- [Center][B]Nikko[/B][/Center] --- The ent defeated all the wraiths and stood outside "It's fairly strong..." Everyone felt relieved after learning that its an ally. Harashi explained what an ent is. Though, while they were discussing things, Nikko just stared at the ent. Something, something is making him look at it. "I wonder why it's here?" there should be a reason to why an ent suddenly appeared "Did someone bring it here?" Nikko went outside and took a peek, but found no one. After going back inside, he saw that there's only two of them now "Where's the others?" then it was said to him that they went to gather materials for barricading the door "Oh. Okay." He didn't felt frightened that the skilled fighter of the group left them. The ent was outside, he felt very assured about it. Nikko walked back to the ent, approaching it "Hey." it didn't budge "Where are you from?" then it turned its head and looked at him "Can you tell me where you came from?" then it pointed at a spot where there were cut off roots "Oh." Looks like the tree just went up and became what it is now. Still, what caused it to do that? Very curious, he was very curious indeed. "Mind if I hold you?" but he reached out his hand to the animated tree anyway. Upon touching it, he felt something surging, like energy. He moved his hands, feeling the roughness of the tree. "Huh...?" then he continued, and then tapped it with his palm. The ground shook "Gah?!" he fell to the ground, the ent became a tree, its roots flowed underground "W-W-What? What happened?" Nikko lost his calm for a bit. Was it because of him? He tried tapping it once more, and it released itself from the ground and became an ent "Huh..." then he didn't touch it again. Returning inside, the others had returned at the same time. Harashi was just lying on the other side. No one saw what happened. Then he pondered about the events, until he was called by Harashi "Ah? Oh. Okay." then he did as they said. He sat on the floor with Yoshimi "Hey... I think the ent is related to me." he said to Yoshimi "I kind of experimented with it... and I did a couple of things to it." then he told her about what happened when he touched and tapped the ent. As they were discussing, the roof broke, as well as the floor. "What? Wait... that's..." Nikko walked towards the naginata. The sensation that he felt upon touching the ent came back to him, its the same feeling he has now. The feeling got more and more powerful as he became closer to it. And when he touched the naginata, he felt all kinds of things. The ground, the soil, the grass, trees, he felt all of them "H-Huh...?" But it all disappeared afterwards "W-What was that...?" though it was weird, he'd probably looked weirder with all his actions. He sat beside Yoshimi once more and observed the naginata. It had leaves and vines as decoration which resembled nature. "... This is our family's artifact. It's what our shrine worships." But what happened? Why is it here? How did it come here? He thought of those things as he observed the naginata.