This is a fanfiction written by Kogata. The main characters are Kogata, Yorokobi, Shiro, and Kurai.
So Yorokobi and Kogata are off to find the necromancer so they can bring back Shiro, but despite what Shiro said about the necromancer being easy to find, he was, in fact, wrong. She seemed to know what they were trying to acheive, and set up traps of all kinds around the forest. Yorokobi and Kogata are now in the heart of the woods, with no idea where to go.
It is recommended you play the music. :) If not thats okay.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H65O7dz8QB0&feature=related
Kogata looked left and right. The trees formed the exact same pattern on every side. No landmarks. No animals. Just a bunch of identical trees.
"Okay, this is just too much." Yorokobi threw down her bow. "We're lost."
"I know."
"Are you sure Shiro didn't give you any specific directions?"
"He just said that she'd be easy to find."
"That's stupid. She's more elusive than an invisible ant. We'll never find her!" Yorokobi threw up her arms in exasperation. "And now we're stuck in the middle of a forest full of demons!"
"We haven't seen any demons yet," Kogata pointed out.
"That's probably because we aren't anywhere near the necromancer." Yorokobi tapped her chin. "Didn't Shiro say she'd be surrounded by demons?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6xMvGbwT7I&feature=related
"I think so," she answered uncertainly. Then she brightened. "Hey, maybe we should use the demons to find her!"
"What? How do we do that?"
"Well, I don't smell any demons now, but maybe we could keep going west, and then once we find a demon-"
"We capture it and get it to lead us there?"
"I was actually going to say beat it with a sharp stick, but that sounds like it might work well, too." Kogata grinned. "Okay, let’s go!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCg43ysJMWw
It wasn't that easy.
The forest seemed to get darker as they went further. Kogata pointed out that this was a good sign, seeing as a Death Cloud was one of the things Shiro mentioned, but Yorokobi didn't like it. She felt as though they were missing something very obvious.
"What's a Death Cloud?" Yorokobi asked nervously.
"It's like a giant vortex in the sky. But it's not dangerous," she added quickly. "It's just a big cloud."
"Because they don't want to be found?"
"The cloud would actually make them easier to find, but-- Hang on, that was sarcasm, wasn't it?"
"Yes. You need to work on detecting sarcasm."
"And you need to work on detecting rhetorical questions. Anyway, the reason they make Death Clouds is because it wards off most intruders."
"But what if it wards off us?" Yorokobi shuddered at the thought.
"It won't. We're Goddesses." Kogata raised one eyebrow. "A spell this weak would only work on a human."
"Necromancers are human, too."
"I am aware of that. I imagine necromancers have some sort of immunity to death spells. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only person who can kill a necromancer would have to be a mortal."
Yorokobi stared at her. "How do you know all this?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. I suppose I just do."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3C-FrmHn44&feature=related
After trekking for what seemed like hours, Kogata came to a stop. "Hey look! A flower!" She bent down to look at it. "It sure is pretty."
"Kogata..." Yorokobi's eyes were wide. "Don't touch that flower."
"What? Why not?" She frowned. "It's a really pretty flower."
Yorokobi reached out a hand to grasp her shoulder. "I said don't touch it."
"Why not?"
Yorokobi's brow creased. "That's not a flower. Can't you tell?"
"Not a flower?" Kogata looked back at it. It looked a heck of a lot like a flower. "It looks like a flower."
Yorokobi shook her head, looking scared. "No, it's not."
"What, are you saying it's a person? Don't be ridiculous." She looked at it closely. "Is it poisonous?"
Yorokobi laughed shakily. "Poisonous? You're looking at none other than a suzura. It's one of the most deadly types of flowers in the world."
Kogata backed off sharpish. "Oh."
"And to make things even worse, it's not even a flower." Yorokobi whipped out a bronze staff shaped like a crescent at the end. Kogata stared at it in wonder.
"When the heck did you get that?" she asked incredulously.
Yorokobi appeared not to hear her. "Show yourself!" she barked. The flower didn't reply.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4X_DMcjYaI&feature=related
The staff glowed red and began to vibrate. "I'm warning you..." she growled, levelling her staff at the flower.
"Hey! Don't blow it up!" Kogata yelped, jumping in front of the suzura. "It's not hurting anyone!"
Yorokobi simply glanced at her and she flew sideways. "Sorry, Kogata," she said, and she raised the staff and brought it down with deadly speed in a cutting motion. A blinding flash of light emitted from the flower, and Kogata heard a scream.
"Oh my God," Kogata said, before her ears had stopped ringing. "What did you do?"
"That wasn't a flower," Yorokobi announced. "It was a Goddess."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUSWzlxCA9U&feature=related
"Ouch," said the Goddess. She brushed her hair out of her eyes. "You didn't have to attack me, you know."
"Sorry," Yorokobi said, scratching the back of her head. "I got nervous, I guess. You know there's a necromancer around here, right?"
She thought about it for a moment, and then said, "You know, that explains a lot. I was wondering what a Death Cloud was doing here." Then her eyes widened. "Hey, if there's a Death Cloud, shouldn't you two be dead by now?"
"That would be the case, if we were humans," Kogata said proudly. "We're actually Goddesses."
"Oh, I see." She peered at them. "Have we met? My name's Laurel May, but you can call me Laurel. I'm the Goddess of flowers!" And to make her point, she pointed at the ground, and about 50 suzura flowers appeared.
"Uh... I see," said Yorokobi, stepping swiftly out of the way before the suzura could touch her. "Have you seen the necromancer?"
"I'm afraid I haven't," said Laurel seriously. "But now that I know about her, I'm not exactly sure if I want to. She probably kills innocent flowers to make a poisonous powder or something." She shrugged. "Well, I guess I could help." She tapped the ground, and the suzura arranged themselves into a map of the forest. "I think I saw some unusual things happening quite recently in this part of the forest." She indicated the northern part of the forest.
"But I thought she lived West!" Yorokobi obejected.
"Really? Then how do you explain this?" Laurel held up a pip and waved it in the air. "Do you know what this is?" she demanded.
"Um... a... pip?"
"Not just a pip," Laurel growled, throwing it to the ground, where it expanded into a jet black berry. "It's nightshade. It's extremely deadly."
"You like poisonous plants, don't you?" Yorokobi giggled.
"This is serious," Laurel complained. "It wasn't just this pip. I saw lots of them scattered on the ground in a circle."
Yorokobi gasped. "You mean-"
"-I'm being left out of this conversation?" Kogata interrupted. "Can someone explain to me exactly what's going on?"
"Kogata... If nightshade was scattered in a circle, then it means someone's been trying to ward off a demon." She shook her head, confused. "I don't get it. Did she move?"
"Whether or not she's going on holiday isn't important," Laurel scolded, rearranging the suzura. "What we need to do is find out where she is now. Luckily, I have an idea of that, too." She indicated the suzura, which were now in the shape of an eye. "I saw this symbol carved into some trees in the deeper parts of the forest. This eye is the symbol of the necromancer, the shinime."
(pause the music)
"The 'Death-Eye'," Yorokobi translated. "But it looks like a normal eye to me."
"Does it really? Look again."
Kogata looked at the eye, unsure of what she was supposed to be seeing. Then suddenly she knew. The suzura flower in the middle was glowing red, and at the centre, a black core. As she watched, the pupil of the shinime blinked and gazed up at them. The pupil contracted in surprise, and then fixed its icy gaze on Kogata.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCg43ysJMWw&feature=related
"You." The voice was thunderous and cold, like breaking ice. "You're the indruders in my forest, aren't you?"
"It's not your forest!" Laurel growled, her eyes cold.
"Oh, it's you." The voice was thick with amusement. "The flower girl. Aren't you a bit young to be wondering around the forest? There are bad things around at this time of night."
"Shut your mouth!" she snapped.
"The eye is talking," said Yorokobi blankly, as if she had just noticed.
The eye switched its gaze to Yorokobi. "And you. I haven't seen you before."
"Neither have I," she admitted. "Seen you, I mean. I've seen myself, of course. That's easy. Just look at a puddle! I found that out yesterday, actually. I was getting a drink, and boy, was I surprised to see this girl looking right back at me! I thought it was that necromancer. But then I figured, hey, if its a necromancer, at least it's a pretty one. But then Kogata came up behind me, and-"
"Enough!" The eye flashed with irritation before turning to Kogata. "You must be Kogata, then. Who's this idiot with you?"
"Why should I tell you?" Kogata snarled. "And she's not an idiot. She's actually very intelligent."
"Hmm." The eye flicked in the direction of Yorokobi, who was now staring intently at her finger. "I wouldn't be too sure of that."
Kogata ignored that last sentence. "Are you the necromancer of this forest?"
"Oh, no. A necromancer would never use the Eye of Death to communicate with somebody underneath a huge Death Cloud." The eye went huge. "Of course I'm the necromancer, moron. I haven't seen so much idiocy since that white fox came along."
The mention of Shiro felt like a punch in the chest. "Shiro?" she choked.
For moment, she thought she saw fear flicker across the shinime. "Shiro? He's here?"
"Necromancer, Shiro is gone." Yorokobi stepped forward. "He's dead. Your demons killed him."
"No!" A thick black fog erupted from the suzura, sending them flying backwards. "I didn't kill Shiro! I would never do such a thing!"
"You're a necromancer!" Yorokobi choked, barely able to talk through the smoke. "You kill people! It's what you do!"
"You're wrong." The voice went deathly quiet. "I didn't kill Shiro... It must have been that creature who--" The voice abruptly went quiet. "Oh no. It's here."
"What's here? What's going on?" Laurel cried, but at that moment, the black fog dissolved into clear night air, and the shinime was gone. So was the Death Cloud.
"What just happened?" Yorokobi asked, her eyes wide with terror.
"I don't know... But I've got a bad feeling about this." Kogata leapt to her feet, grabbing her bow. "We've got to find out what's going on, and fast!"
That's when they heard a scream. And there was no doubt that this was the same voice that had been talking through the shinime-- the voice of the necromancer!
To be continued...