Artificial 3: The Valla Chronicles

Chapter 17: Nekomata Tribe

After a long walk back into the Flame Tribe,
I met up with my siblings,
and we found Reina,
giving her the okay to bring back the Tribal folks she evacuated.
The next day,
we set out for Japan,
I'll skip the lesser details,
but instead of flying by plane,
we chose to fly naturally since we could fly at theoretically faster than lightning speeds but slower than light.
By how much?
I do not know.

What I do know was that the jet lag was killing us,
and we landed at night time.
We had to rely on Google to translate any questions we had,
and by morning,
we arrived in Kyoto,
by noon,
we crashed in a hotel,
and boy howdy was the sleep fantastic. After some rest,
we split off,
I went to the nearest hot spring and read up on their do's and don'ts,
yeah, apparently,
you're supposed to shower before entering the spring and no submerging your head because apparently it's considered unclean to do that or something of the sorts?
I don't know, I read it on Google, anyway,
I paid in Japanese currency by creating it with a creation rune when I had a moment of privacy beforehand and made it as real as any other US dollar.

I stepped into the hot spring,
and I felt all my troubles melt away. Once I got shriveled,
I got out,
got dressed left,
and hit the road toward MT. Fuji,
along the trail,
I caught wind of a Tribe called the Wolfskins and Kitsune,
I've heard of them,
but even the Exorcist archives barely had any information on them,
so I asked the man in Japanese, thank you,
Google Translate,
by the way,
and pursued this information trail,
well,
I ended meeting my siblings in the Wolfskin Tribe where they all looked humanoid and not like a werewolf.

They had white and black fur,
brown and sometimes red eyes,
human ears,
and wolf ears,
a giant fluffy tail,
but the rest was all human looking,
they were aggressive with us because obviously we're outsiders trespassing on their land,
so they snarled and growled,
my siblings flexed their aura,
and some backed off,
the leader or Alpha,
I should say,
since they operate like a pack of wolves, did not.
I ended up flicking him in the nose one good time,
and he yelped.
They all lay flat on their stomachs in wolf form whimpering,
and we passed by without any more trouble.
Next up was the Kitsune Tribe and unlike their Wolfskin counterparts, these were a lot more intelligent humanoid-looking fox people,
they had one tail,
fox ears,
orange or red fur,
orange eyes and lived in houses,
real Japanese style houses,
not any modern-day homes.

They were highly talkative and curious individuals and it was amusing kinda like how a teenager will entertain a kid, after observing them in between talking, I noticed they lounge around on giant pillows and only on them in their humanoid form.
I managed to talk them into peaceful negotiations and promised them a better Demon Council where me and my siblings will hand-pick the council,
I also agreed to pay for all their lazy expenses,
so they got on board the hype train real fast.
Adventuring further up MT Fuji,
we crossed into a dimension/portal of some kind.
The mountains were full of light before entering. Were.
Now it was darkness everywhere,
no sun,
just a white spot in the dark sky that is the sun,
the trees are now blood red,
and the mountains now reeked of unpleasant smells.

"Yomi?" I say in kinda confusion.
"Yomi, the hell is that?"
Chace says.
"Yomi is Japan's equivalent to the Greek's Underworld, and Izanami is the ruler, or so Wikipedia and any source of information on Google, say."
We march onward and upward,
I could sense demons everywhere,
not the Artificial kind either,
purebloods.
We encountered Gaki,
Kappa, Tengu, Tanuki,
Yamauba and Gashadokuro.
They weren't really threats since we one-shot everything in one punch,
other than that,
we continued,
every now and then,
I thought I saw a tall humanoid cat with two tails scurry around the trees.

They weren't releasing fear,
but they didn't seem to want to talk to us.
"Please come on out, I only want information, then I'll be on my way." I heard rustling in the trees,
but only one dropped before us.
It was tall,
at the least ten feet,
coverd head to toe in fur,
bright red eyes.
"What do you want from us?"
It said in plain English.
"Hold up, you understand us?!"
I blurted out,
surprised
"Yes. Our Tribal Leader made it a necessity to understand foreign languages."
I regain my composer and ask for the Legendary Weapon.
The Onis gave their Tribe but I was met with silence,
the Nekomata speaks Japanese upward to the trees,
and I hear chatter back in Japanese. It looks back at us.
"We don't have it. Only the Chief knows its whereabouts."

Figure as much.
"Where is your Chief?"
It goes silent again,
and we get more chatter than one was nice enough to blurt out something very loud in Japanese.
"Chief Keiko Yumiko has gone into town, I believe she had business in Tokyo?" Gee wonderful,
they don't know any more than the man on the moon,
old sayings,
I know,
but I was raised by my grandmother. We thank them for their time and leave through the portal/dimension.
I bet you're thinking hey shouldn't I have asked for something with her scent on it so I can track her?
Well, truth be told,
any living creature,
human, demon,
and possibly angels can sense different auras and can tell the difference between the three auras,
so all I have to do is go back into town and look for demon aura.

I don't know about my siblings,
but my senses are extremely sharp and can tell between the three or really I should say two since I've never felt or seen an angel before.
"I know someone named Keiko."
Chace says.
I look at him and immediately ask for all the details.
"We met her in Japan about this time last year or the year before on our travels, fun lady, and a talented martial artist. Maybe they're the same?"
I asked if he knew where she lived, and he said he knew the general area, and so I had Chace lead us,
if it turns out to be a dead end,
then,
at the very least,
we can come back here,
nothing ventured,
nothing gained.

We set out back down the mountain,
and about halfway down,
I lost my siblings,
joy,
I just kept walking down the path,
and before long,
I entered a bamboo forest,
lost in the hunt and my own thoughts. I entered a hyper focused like state and blocked out everything,
my body moved on autopilot until I saw some bamboo falling in the distance. "This energy!"
I reconized it and bolt into that direction at full speed,
I entered an open area,
and I saw a Nekomata with a powerful aura sheathing her seven branched swords,
then it glows red and takes the form of a necklace.

"That weapon, I need it."
Considering every single Tribe up till now has been hostile,
I've already instinctively prepared myself for a fight,
but then again,
the Tribe of Nekomatas were nice enough to divulge this information,
so maybe I should have approached this more nicely,
but then again,
I can't just ask them for their best weapon and expect them to not retaliate. This woman turns around and faces me for a whole minute,
not saying anything.
"If you want it, then you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands."
She takes a stance similar if not identical to Niel's stance.
"That can be arranged."