~The Orochi Return~

"Don't worry, Otoha. Chikane has the best body guard around. Nothing's going to happen to her, I promise."

Rin was going to protect Chikane with her life if she had to. She knew her friend was probably more than capable of protecting herself, but if any of the other Orochi showed up... trouble would be sure to arise.

Speaking of which, she was sort of surprised that the other Orochi hadn't come rampaging through the city to find her yet. Maybe they were for once taking her advice on a diplomatic approach before violence.

"You ready to go?"

Rin asked once it seemed Chikane was ready to leave.

"Yes, I'm ready to go."

I smiled softly and watched as she approached the door and seemed ready as well. But a question would verify that officially.

"And are you?"

This would be much fun. ^^

"As I'll ever be~"

Rin opened the door for Chikane with a small bow.

"After you, m'lady."

She had a playful smile on her face, kind of feeling like a servant to the other girl. It was now her duty to protect her, there was no telling what was out there. She was half expecting the other Orochi to come ravaging the city looking for her.

I smiled and giggled. That was a clever joke on her part. As she opened the door, I lead my own way out, hearing Rin close the door behind us. We were now on our way out to have some fun. We strolled down the block and heads began to turn. For, even if Rin didn't dress like I did, she was still amazingly beautiful. I just walked with confidence, which was all I had going for me. I smiled to her briefly before looking ahead and waving to the ones who waved to me.

Rin's face flushed in embarrassment. She wasn't used to having people stare at her in awe. Terror was a more expected reaction from her. Still, she held her usual cool, collective stride while trying not to make too much eye contact. She couldn't help but snicker at how much attention Chikane was getting.

"Are you sure you aren't royalty?"

I smiled as I watched her walk down the road uncomfortably. It was rather cute that she wasn't used to the attention. Then I looked at her curiously.

"Yeah, I'm sure I'm not royalty. What would cause you to ask me something like that?"

I chuckled lightly.

Rin scratched the back of her head awkwardly.

"Well, you seem pretty well known by everyone, you're beautiful..."

She trailed off trying to think of another reason when she realized what she had just said. Her face reddened a bit more and she looked away.

I smiled awkwardly and yet shyly, for once in my life.

"Well thank you, but surely I am not the reason everyone is turning their heads. There are eyes watching you too, you know? Just goes to show that you're very beautiful too, yourself Rin."

I threw the compliment back at her and continued to walk on. I waved to everyone till they all went back to doing what they were doing. Then I stopped waving and continued walking, voicing a thought.

"Well it would make sense for them to know me. My father is a corporate business owner and quite popular in the industrial world. He really knows how to make and spend money, he knows how to save it as well. And then he knows how to take care of me, his daughter. He's raised me to be the best person I can be, or at least I try to be."

I smiled.

Rin frowned a little. Not only was Chikane's family extremely well off, but at least she could say that she had a family. She couldn't remember anything about her past life before joining the Orochi. She didn't even know if she had a family to begin with. The only thought that seemed to form in her mind was sheer envy, but she still managed a soft smile.

"You are a very lucky girl."

She continued walking more comfortably now that everyone had gone back to minding their own business. Still, it was nice to have people not running in terror from her for once.

"I would consider myself lucky, but you lucky as well. I mean I'm not just lucky to have a great life, but lucky to have met someone like you. And I'd consider you lucky since you've been granted this great power. Now if only you could get behind it and somehow control it. You could use them for good and it would be great."

I thought strategically as we walked, placing my forefinger to my lips.

"There has to be some way to do that. I mean most things in this world can be controlled by those who have been granted power. I can control my powers as a priestess, so, in theory, shouldn't you be the same with your Orochi berserker mode?"

I blinked. This was quite the interesting thought. She should be able to if she really concentrated and learned how to. The only thing is where would she learn from? It certainly wouldn't be easier, but I was here for her, whatever she needed.

"I wouldn't say that I'm too lucky. Sure, my power is great, but it always has some negative effect on my body that gets worse with each transformation. I'm would like to use my powers for good, but that's a risk I can't take."

Rin wondered if there would be some sort of curse for resisting the Orochi, as if being a berserker wasn't curse enough. With that curse, if there was once, and the fatigue she feels after reverting from her berserker mode, there was little chance of survival. She felt as if she was caught in the middle of this war and her momentary neutrality was sort of keeping the peace. If she joined the priestesses, they would have a better chance of winning, but staying with the Orochi meant that they destroy the world.

Then she pondered Chikane's next question. Would she be to control her berserker powers? First she would have to find out what she was exactly, which called for some serious research.

"It's a possibility. I'd have to learn more about what a berserker really is, though. Maybe that huge library near here would have book related to Orochi. They might have something."

"I think there should be. I mean, I was into reading the legend books all the time. I found them quite amusing but I never thought they'd actually be real. Wait a moment!"

My eyes widened and shock, a good shock, was expressed on my face, clearly.

"I once read a fiction book about this. It was about this boy who couldn't control his powers. Granted that he was a wizard. But the magic he inherited was an evil magic that caused him to do bad things. He didn't like harming people that were innocent and ruining his life by the powers he'd be granted. He disagreed with them and the more he tried to control them to do good things, the more he lost his mind trying to get them to agree. And one day the magic got so strong and out of his control, the powers took over his mind and made him do terrible things. Hurt his friends, his family and his girlfriend. And he injured her really bad. After he woke up, he had no recollection of what just happened but he had to assume, from his own ripped clothing that he had done this by his own hands. He swore that he'd never do anything like this again. And so he devoted himself and however long it would take to study to learn to master how to control his magic and make it into something good. Something he could agree with. It had been around 10 years in training that he locked himself in his study, just reading, reading, reading books. After he had quite the handle on the things he'd learned, he went out, proud of what he'd accomplished. His old girlfriend had healed from her wounds and waited for him and they lived happily ever after. I found this story oh so sweet. But, what it taught me is that... where there is a will, there is a way to do something that seemed near to impossible. And what it also taught me is that, if you truly care for someone, you always wait around for them. They can't be all that bad if they're devoting their time to correct what went wrong so many years ago."

I smiled and continued walking, speaking my mind and my memory of the book I'd read a while back. Now we just needed to find a way to help Rin overcome this problem of a power.

Rin smiled as Chikane recalled that memory. If she knew one thing, fictional books always held some bits of truth in them and she couldn't argue with that logic. Maybe there was some way to control her power, there had to be. They walked for a while longer and finally came to the library. With a sense of childlike excitement, she practically dragged Chikane inside.

The library was vast. There seemed to be an endless amount of books, rows and rows of shelves containing hundreds of books. Rin made a dash for the mythology section, scanning the titles of books until she got to the 'Orochi' section of the shelves.

"There's gotta be something here."

She began pulling books off the shelf and skimmed through them to see if there was anything that would be of help. Then a particularly old, dusty book caught her eye. It was an ancient demon beastiary, a huge compilation of demons dating back to the ancient legend of Orochi. Flipping through the pages, menacing creatures that seemed only from imagination were illustrated in alarming detail. As she continued to read, she saw something that caused her to tremble.

The picture looked strikingly similar to her. It was a human hybrid of sorts in appearance, the only things out of the ordinary being a pair of jagged horns atop the human's head, a long smooth tail that appeared to move like a cat's, and a pair of fangs that were easily spotted due to the creatures wicked grin. The creature carried a long sword that it slung behind it's back, a noticeable amount of blood dribbling from the tip. For whatever reason, as if she wasn't already scared stiff, she read the description.

'The Berserker, as this beast is more commonly known, is a true testament of Orochi's might. They are Orochi's most powerful creation, second only to the Demon Lord Ninetails. Berserkers boast immense physical strength and agility along with an uncontrollable rage. Normally, these creatures are solitary and keep to themselves, but when provoked, their state of mind alters completely. They attack without warning, taking out anything that moves, allies and opponents alike. Driven by anger, hatred, and sheer blood lust, Berserkers are a frightening breed of demon that fight to kill. If engaged in combat the chances of survival are pure luck.'

Rin couldn't believe what she was reading. All this time she was a... demon? She just stood there, a trembling nervous wreck. It made sense.. No mere human could possess the kind of power she did. It wasn't natural. Still, she wished the book mentioned something about some way to control her power. Maybe it really was an 'uncontrollable rage'. Using her finger to mark the page, she handed the book to Chikane, fear written all over her face.

"I-It's all here. Look for yourself."

Why is it every time I read one of your posts, however small or big it is in size, I feel so inferior to your writing skill? It's always so connected and it has a sense of "knowing" to it. When I read mine it feels like rambling. :/

Without another glance I took the book from her, horrified of what I might find on the page marked by Rin. If it scared her enough, surely, it would scare me. Nonetheless, I opened the book to the correct page and began to stare at the picture intently. Was this what Rin was to look like in her complete Berserker mode? This illustration in my hands looked nothing like my beautiful and sweet friend. In fact, compared to this diagram, Rin seemed to be more like a goddess than a monster. But, I suppose this picture would really tell all of the truth of what she is.

I trailed my eyes downward to the caption, a little disturbed by the demented picture above it. I began to read it to myself, the same as Rin did.

'The Berserker, as this beast is more commonly known, is a true testament of Orochi's might. They are Orochi's most powerful creation, second only to the Demon Lord Ninetails. Berserkers boast immense physical strength and agility along with an uncontrollable rage. Normally, these creatures are solitary and keep to themselves, but when provoked, their state of mind alters completely. They attack without warning, taking out anything that moves, allies and opponents alike. Driven by anger, hatred, and sheer blood lust, Berserkers are a frightening breed of demon that fight to kill. If engaged in combat the chances of survival are pure luck.'

Was this really all true? That if I were to have faced her in combat, my chances of living would be slim to none? Some part of me wanted to believe she would never battle me as ferociously as the book suggests she would. And then a part of me was uncertain; Would Rin really lose it and kill me? I looked up from the book to view her sweet face, reading some other book before glancing downward in deep anxiety. The only thing I was certain of at this moment was that, we needed to find a way to control the power given to Rin. But, how could a naturally berserk demon be able to control herself? What if it was just in your blood to destroy and siege whatever thing pissed you off, whatever living thing moved in your presence the wrong way? This was going to be quite the difficult task if just anything could make Rin's blood boil. I reread the sentence on the page, remembering something.

'So if Berserkers normally keep to themselves, that's a good thing. What would happen if we worked on Rin controlling her anger? If we worked on that continuously and trained her to control it every time she felt like going berserk, in retrospect, we'd be able to control her Berserker mode. I hope this theory works, if not, we have to keep searching the books. But there are now actual demons involved in this thing... that means that this whole 'legend' has expanded, quite a lot. If this keeps up, Himeko and I will be outnumbered and then surely we'll lose. The two of us, we cannot take on these creatures alone, no matter what great or awesome power we possess.'

It took a moment for me to realize what I'd just thought.

'Himeko.... and I? Why did I think that? She.... she's just my friend, she isn't the Solar Priestess. I may be the Lunar one, but she can't be the Solar one. It's very unlikely. Oh yeah and on top of that, now we have to find out who this Solar Priestess is and reunite us. But, I cannot help but have this strange feeling it's.....

"No Chikane... stop thinking like that."

I said out loud to myself, softly. I wasn't aware that I had said it out loud, but I had. I shook my head and scrunched my eyes together, still holding the book in my hands, my finger marking the place of the page. I looked to Rin, who was still standing right beside me. Did she hear me?

You're posts aren't inferior! Gosh, I always thought you were a lot better than me.

Rin hoped that the picture didn't depict how she would appear, even if that was just an ancient illustrator's interpretation. She wasn't a cold-blooded killer. She had to do something about this, she didn't want to suddenly lash out and hurt one of her friends unintentionally.

She looked up when she heard Chikane speak. It was a soft mumble, almost as if it wasn't meant to be said out loud. Still she wanted to be sure.

"What was that? You have to speak up."

Sighing, she gently took the book from Chikane and put it back on the shelf and without really thinking, she wrapped her arms around her friend in a warm embrace. She wanted to reassure her as well as herself that she wasn't like the monster in that book. For one thing, she wasn't even sure if these demons, if they still existed, were on her side. They could have been on their own sort of mission just like in the ancient legend, blissfully unaware of the Necks or the Priestesses.

"I won't hurt you, I promise. We can beat these demons and figure out a way to control my power... Somehow."

OOC: Well I always feel like your writing is so much more beautiful than my own. ~

I watched as she wrapped her arms around me, comfortingly. I smiled and relaxed into her gentle vice, she would be a great friend of mine in the future, she was already, in fact.

"It's not that I'm scared you're going to hurt me. It's not a matter of that. Either way, I am certain we will find a way to make that power of yours controllable and productive. We will. It's just I had this strange thought."

I sighed and waited a moment, thinking about how to phrase my words.

"You see, I just thought about the Solar Priestess and I. And who came to mind was Himeko. But I don't know why I would have thought about her at a time like this. We still don't know who the Solar Priestess is and we have to find that out as soon as possible. But I just don't know why I thought of Himeko."

I thought a moment, why would I have thought of that? But, this, this was going to be the best thing, the most fun thing that's ever happened to me in my life. Something big, a mission between the friends that were never meant to be. ...Let's do it~

OOC: I've never thought of my writing as beautiful before. You're making me all embarrassed now! >//<

Rin let go of her after a while and had a goofy grin on her face, perhaps trying to forget everything she had just learned.

"All this destiny, saving the world stuff is bumming me out. Let's go on that shopping trip you were so excited about~"

She was getting tired of all of her obligations of trying to defeat the priestesses, destroy the world, Orochi, blah, blah, blah... How did her friends do it?

OOC: Aw but you're so cute when you're all flustered like that. ^^

I was let go and she looked at me with such dismay. She must have been tired of all this obligation and duty. All of this destiny was sure getting to me too. It seemed all I could focus on and think about recently, even though, I didn't want to think about it at all. I sighed and then recovered from my solemn expression.

I smiled softly.

"Sure, where is it you'd like to go to shop?"

"I am merely your humble body guard. You can choose where we go."

Rin did a sophisticated little bow and grinned. Powers or no powers, she had to have Chikane home safe and sound.

"Hm, maybe we can go to the mall and have a necklace done for the Orochi symbol. That is, if you like the Orochi symbol. I think I'm gonna have the one on my neck done for me."

I smiled and began on my way. The day had just become brighter again. On the way to the mall~!

"A necklace that bears the symbol of my evil power? Cool.~"

Rin dutifully followed Chikane out of the library and to the mall. An awesome day just got well... more awesome.~

We eventually made it to the mall and to the jewelry store. One woman smiled as I entered and another came to see what we wished to be helped with. I took a look in the glass case, seeing all the kinds of jewelry before asking.

"Do you carry charms to a necklace, each separate on their own chain, that is shaped like a crescent moon and well, the symbol of the mythological Orochi?"

The woman went to check on it momentarily.

OOC: Could you do me a favor and play the jeweler? Pleaseeeee?

OOC: Alright, alright sheesh! :p

The woman returned with the two requested items.

"Here you go. The Orochi symbol is a rare piece, it was the only one in stock, so you're very lucky."

She smiled and handed the two charms to Chikane. Rin was peeking over her friend's shoulder, which wasn't very difficult to begin with.

"Hey, I wanna see.~"

I giggled and looked at them. Instantly, my eyes lit up with delight and wonder at how amazing these were crafted. The jewelry industry was quite amazing sometimes. I giggled as Rin began to beg to see them and I handed her both of them gently, letting them sort of gleam in the brightly lit spots of the room.

"Here you go. Um, miss, if I were to purchase both of those necklaces, plus one more shaped like a sun symbol, how much would it come out to?"

I blinked. I added the sun one for Himeko. Himeko.... I wonder what she was doing now.

"That would come to 3,000 yen. I'll go and get that sun necklace for you."

The woman disappeared to a back room to look for the charm. Rin however was completely enthralled by the moon and Orochi necklaces. She didn't understand why she was so fascinated by the shiny charms. Maybe it was her Berserker side acting up for some reason.

She then heard Chikane ask for a charm that was shaped like a sun symbol. Who was the third one for?