Official Story: Enter Sedorra

[Kossage]

The ocean was calm, only a soft breeze in the wind indicated that any change was afoot. Haruko could smell it; she knew that this serene scene wouldn't last forever, somehow.

A woman with blazingly red, short hair sat on a rock on the beach and turned her to look at Haruko with her glowing eyes. "It won't be long now," she said, a hint of a mischievous yet at the same time somewhat sad smile on her face. "Soon I'll have to leave you, and you'll be on your own...until the day of the damned. But worry not; even if I'm not there with you, I'll keep you and them safe. I may be many things, but I always look after my interests."

"No, this wasn't what was supposed to happen. I thought we were going to face this together!" Haruko protested.

The once serene landscape changed rapidly. Dark clouds gathered above and unleashed a storm, making the ocean itself roar as if in pain.

"Even my powers have limits. But you will survive just like you always have. Believe in yourself, and understand your role in all of this, and no challenge will be too great to overcome for a cunning vixen such as yourself." The woman turned her eyes back to the ocean. "Sayonara, my Izanami-no-Mikoto. Never forget who you are..."

The landscape began disintegrating rapidly, replaced by an ever-growing nothingess. Haruko tried to run towards the woman but before she could reach her, the sand below her vanished, and she fell into the bottomless abyss...

~

Haruko opened her eyes and breathed heavily. What had just happened? She was still alive, right? Something echoed in her head...waves? No...it was more like...leaves in the wind. A forest? But hadn't she just seen a beach?

She held her head in her hands, feeling a terrible headache coming. "Them? Day of the damned? What does it mean...I remembered it just a moment ago. How..."

"Whoa, look! This stuff's pretty cool. That chick appeared out of thin air just now!" a slow voice chuckled.

"Man, I wanna see if I can make people appear with my mind too!" another voice responded in an even slower voice.

Haruko's eyes grew wide and she turned to the source of the voice, seeing two blissfully smiling men in dirty, ragged clothes sitting next to a wall and smoking something. Based on the looks of things, this was apparently an alley of some sort.

"Hey, that's a nice dress. I wanna touch it!" one of the men said and stood up shakily before attempting to reach for Haruko.

Her eyes grew wide. These men...were they after her? Had they brought hounds to track her down? She gritted her teeth. "No, you won't take me back! I've left him behind me!" she growled, feeling anger boiling within hear and mixing with fear. She pushed the man back, making him fall down, and ran for it before the other man could stand up.

Haruko looked around, worried. She left the alley, only to find herself in the middle of a busy street, hearing voices and smelling so many scents. She thanked her goddess in her mind that she was still in human form; these people would no doubt hunt her down in her true form.

But if she was in a city, did it mean she had returned to Barjassil? She heard someone mentioned some sort of festival...for the queen? Had the king chosen a bride? Or was this all related to the hunt? But this street didn't look familiar, and the people weren't dressed in the outfits worn by Barjassilian citizens even if they looked human. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, and continued running.

As she focused ahead, she nearly bumped into a cart which a man was pulling. She was ready to utter an apology, only to stop mid-sentence when she looked at the "man" and realized he was anything but. What she saw instead was a scarred creature with pointy ears and a large jawline.

"Oni!" Haruko gasped in terror at the sight of this monstrosity and continued running, hearing the creature attempt to curse him with some dark spell, no doubt.

She had to find a safe place, somewhere to rest and calm herself down so she could assess the situation. Whatever this city was, it wasn't the capital of Barjassil. But if demons lived in this city too, it meant there would be no safe place for her or her kind. As much as she wanted to turn into her true form for better mobility, she had to stay in this form a while longer so she could blend in and then disappear.

What Haruko wanted more than anything right now was to live through all of this and understand how she had ended up in such a scary location.

#

"Frickin' human, watch where you're going! Damn it, you people are always running to and fro like headless chickens!" Nargul growled when he almost bumped into a dark-haired woman who quickly fled from him. "Yeah, that's right, run from the scary monster! Sheesh, where are people's manners these days? Can't a simple doban work in peace these days?"

"Hey, keep moving, you dumb brute! We're on a tight schedule here! If we miss the festival, it'll be on your head!" an annoyed voice addressed Nargul from the rickshaw he was pulling.

"Yes, sir. Right away, sir!" Nargul grunted in response and began running again.

It was yet another day pulling rickshaws where these pampered nobles and rich merchants and guild masters were telling him where to go, how to behave and how to fit into some made up stereotype they had in their heads as far as the doban race was concerned.

This latest gig involved taking a married pair of nobles to where the Queen's Jubilee or whatever these citizens were celebrating today was to take place. And this pair in particular had been so rude to him ever since he'd picked them up, so much so that he had considered leaving the rickshaw where it stood and take satisfaction from the nobles' crying. But money was money, and he needed it right now, so he had no choice but to continue for now. If only he hadn't lost his cloak in a bet last night while in the nearest pub...

Nargul took a deep breath and forced a docile smile on his face. He had to remain calm even if the woman from before had thrown off his groove. Now he had to find peace of mind again in order to not tear his head off at the nobles' equally boring and offensive banter.

Once he'd gotten this pair to their destination, his shift would be over, and he could get himself a well earned drink. He knew he should probably save some of it for the cloak as per his original plan, but right now he felt like he could drink a whole mountain full of ale just to recover from all the idiocy he had witnessed today.

Well, if I'm lucky, the festival might actually offer free beer to participants...at least that's what the doban would do. Or maybe humans will be cheapskates, which wouldn't surprise me considering the sad excuses of tips that the nobles have given me, Nargul thought and continued pulling the cart while doing his best to ignore the nobles' derogatory remarks about how slow he was and how they'd never take a ride from a dumb doban ever again.