Chapter 143 - "...I'll Go With Her."

"…" Kotone opens her eyes and sees a familiar ceiling.

Then, a rush of headache assaults her with the memory of the events that transpired that made her end up in her barn in Red's treasure dimension.

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"How are you on your side?" Kotone asks Yoshiko through the communication token as she hides behind a big tree.

"I can't get closer. I tried to water walk the shell, but the current is as strong as a raging river's. And it seems like he's got eyes on every part of his turtle." Yoshiko replies.

"YOU CAN'T HIDE FOREVER." The two hear Dominic's booming voice.

"Tsk. What do we do now?" Kotone clicks her tongue.

"I've noticed something." Yoshiko reports.

"This man doesn't seem to us as well while we're moving."

"Oh?..." Kotone gets curious.

Before she can get a reply, *puu-pupupu* tens of water balls assault her surroundings. She does not know how Dominic knew where she hid, but she goes on to switch hiding places.

"That was close." She hears Yoshiko's voice from the comms token.

"While the trees are nice to hide in, we can't initiate attack like this." Yoshiko continues.

"What do we do?" Kotone asks, feeling helpless.

"I've got an idea." Yoshiko says as she gathers a small mound's worth of assorted leaves and shoots them at Dominic.

Kotone witnesses the scene and she shakes her head.

"… That's useless." She says, knowing that the leaves are not hard enough, and seeing that they are not traveling fast. She feels that even the non-superiori will only get paper cuts from such attack.

"It's distraction. Maybe I can obstruct his vision, keep them on the leaves while you get closer to him." Yoshiko explains.

"… That's doable." Kotone approves of the plan.

The two ladies observe Dominic and they see that the man is not even bothering to block the leaves, making them convinced that the plan could work.

Yoshiko continues to send waves upon waves of sharp leaves towards Dominic, and behind those waves of leaves, Kotone beelines to a direction outside Dominic's field of vision.

Soon enough, Kotone is now just a few meters above Dominic, and her heart is starting to beat faster as she gets in position.

With her sword ready, she summons another spirit energy platform above her in addition to the one she is standing on.

She bends her knees and *whoosh* she jumps up at an incredible speed. She then maneuvers her body which makes her feet land under the spiritual energy platform above her, making her look as if she is crouching upside down for a moment.

Then, she kicks off again, making her shoot downwards, diving towards Dominic at an incredible speed.

Gauging a good distance, *fwip* she thrusts her sword towards Dominic's torso.

Just as the sword is only a meter away from Dominic, she sees Dominic simply step back without even looking, dodging her sword narrowly.

She feels helpless, as she sees herself sail past Dominic, before diving into the head of the turtle.

As soon as she enters the water, she immediately feels her body get carried away by the current. No matter how hard she struggles however, she cannot free herself from the flow. All she can do is hold her breath to think.

A few dizzying seconds later, to her surprise, she finds herself suddenly free from the turtle's body.

Before she can sigh in relief however, she realizes that she is approaching the hill at an incredible speed, like she was a cannon ball shot from a cannon. She does not even have the time to materialize a spiritual energy platform to slow herself down, or increase the infusion of spiritual energy throughout her body to reinforce it further, before *THUD* crashing to the hill.

One crash is not enough to stop her momentum however and *thud..thu-thud-thud." she feels herself bump into small rocks and break some thin trees along the way until *THUD* her finally being stopped by a big pine tree.

*ACK* She cannot help but cough up blood, feeling her lungs be filled up by it.

"…Damn…" Looking at the red substance that splattered to the ground, her stomach churns in anxiety, figuring that she is bleeding internally.

While she found out from Red that her flesh can be comparable to a thick layer of tin sheets, her organs are not as tough. She wants to stand immediately, but it seems as if her body is a hundred miles away from her brain.

The next moment, *THUD* she sees Yoshiko's figure smash to the ground in front of her along with a huge splash of water.

And just like her, *ACK* Yoshiko too, coughs up blood and cannot get up immediately.

"YOU TWO ARE STRONG FOR YOUR AGE… IT'S A SHAME I HAVE TO END YOU." They hear Dominic's voice once again and they look to his direction.

To their horror, the already huge turtle is getting even bigger.

They want to run away, but their already uncooperative legs start trembling out of fear.

"A NICE HOME, THIS HILL IS. A NICE HOME TO DESTROY… AND BURY YOU TWO UNDER IT." They hear sadistic joy from Dominic's voice as they see tens of car-sized water balls materialize on the turtle's surface.

They can only stare helplessly as the water balls sail to them at bullet speed, too fast for them to dodge even when they are in perfect condition.

*WHAM* *WHAM* The two ladies get hit by one water ball each.

Even though they know that it is water that hit them, the bone deep pain made them not feel so.

The monstrous impact is enough to send them to a state of stupor and their consciousness is starting to slip away.

"DON'T DIE ON ME JUST YET. I STILL HAVE TEN FOR EACH OF YOU." Dominic's taunting helps them regain clarity once again, but it simply adds to the fear that they are already feeling.

*FWWOOO*

*FWOO*

They see two more water balls come their way, and they try to brace themselves.

The next moment however, *WHOOSH* a man suddenly appears in front of them, his back looking familiar.

*VWWOOMMM* Along with the man's appearance, is a transparent barrier that managed to block the water balls. .

"Sensei…" The two ladies utter in recognition, relieved that their savior has arrived.

"WHO DO WE HAVE HERE?" Dominic asks.

"THE REASON WHY YOU'RE HERE." Red replies.

Yoshiko and Kotone then see Red turn to them with a smile.

Their visions suddenly turn dark and, "You may rest now.", they hear Red's assuring voice comfort them one more time before they sink to sleep.

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"…" After the memories replay clearly in her head, worry comes back to Kotone.

She then frantically looks around and sees Yoshiko lying unconscious on a bed beside hers.

"Yoshiko…" She then shakes the lady awake.

After the two reorient themselves, they walk out of the barn.

"Was it him who brought us here?" Yoshiko asks in worry. She came up with the question because only Red can open the treasure dimension.

"Has to be. At least we know that he's alive." Kotone nods.

"But... we don't know if he's unharmed." Yoshiko utters.

This prompts the two to start frantically searching inside the dimension, calling out to him.

After a few minutes however, they fail to find him, so they hurry outside to the real world.

"…" The two traverse the sky in silence, seeing the destruction that they figure was caused by what could have only been the battle between Red and the attacker.

Soon, they arrive at the gardens, and they find Red, who is fixing the bamboo walls.

"Sensei!" They immediately greet in relief, more than just glad to see that the man is alive and looking well.

"Hello there. You've had plenty of rest?" Red asks them.

"Ye-." Before Yoshiko can answer, she notices that something is missing under the left sleeve of Red's kimono.

"Y-your arm… What happened to your arm?!" She asks frantically, hoping that what she is seeing is simply an illusion.

"K-kichirou-san…" Kotone too, is stunned, her eyes stuck on Red's missing arm.

"An arm in exchange for an S-Class Superiori's life. It's not such a bad trade." Red shrugs.

"S-Class…" The two disciples are stunned.

"That was an S-Class?!" Kotone exclaims.

"He was. And count yourselves extremely lucky to be alive. He could have ended you two as soon as he saw you, but because he played with you for a bit, it bought me some time." Red confirms.

"…" The two disciples go quiet, stunned by the information.

A few seconds later, "So, he's gone?" Yoshiko asks.

"Yes. I had to end him and not leave a single trace of him behind." Red nods.

Yoshiko ignores the brutality of the words and "Still… Your arm.", looks at Red's 'missing' forearm once again.

"It's just an arm. With my knowledge, I can just replace it with something mechanical or even robotic." Red assures.

"It's not just an arm, sensei." Kotone shakes her head.

"Along with that arm were four meridians. The spiritual techniques you know that made use of those four meridians, are now useless."

"So? What do you think I should do? Cry about it? It's already gone." Red tells Kotone.

"… Sorry." Kotone realizes that there is no point talking about it.

"Is there anything we could do to help you?" Yoshiko asks.

"Let me ask you two first. Do you still want to continue your lives here?" Red asks.

"Obviously." Kotone replies without hesitation.

"So do I." Yoshiko too has no intentions of leaving even after her experience.

"Good… Now, follow the children and the demon servants and join them for their trip." Red orders the two.

A trip?" Kotone asks, confused.

"Yes. It will take some time before I restore the hill to its former state. And in case one of that superioris's allies come here, I'll have to wait for them and deal with them too." Red explains. 

"May I stay here and assist you instead?" Yoshiko asks, not really interested in the trip.

Kotone is surprised by the lack of concern for the children especially from Yoshiko.

"They might need our protection." She tells Yoshiko.

"Maybe not. Statistically speaking, as long as the trip is within Japan, they are safe under the care of someone of Xoz-san's strength and experience. The only reason we were attacked today was due to bad luck, and because of those damn treasure fragments." Yoshiko explains.

"So, I think sensei, who is injured, is the one who needs our help, in case someone like that turtle man comes again." She adds.

"…" Kotone feels that the logic makes sense and she feels that staying with Red is the best idea.

"Heh." The two's exchange is interrupted by a disdainful scoff from Red.

"You two can't even take care of yourselves." Red says, embarrassing the two immediately.

"If you don't want to go on a trip, then there is indeed something you can assist me with." He then tells Yoshiko.

"Anything." Yoshiko gets ready.

"Okay." Red pulls out a map from his storage ring and hands it to Yoshiko.

"What's this?" Yoshiko asks, seeing what looks like a map of Honshu Island (Japan's main island), with six red dots placed on the different parts of it.

"Those are demon prisons that Gin marked out in his investigations. I want you to go and clean them up, and collect some cores for me." Red orders.

"I always wondered where Gin-san went." Yoshiko utters as she studies the map more.

The next moment, "I'll do it.", she comes up with a decision.

"You'll do it?" Kotone cannot believe how easy Yoshiko decided.

"Why?" She adds.

"If what you and Fumio-san told me about demon prisons are true, then by killing the demons, and breaking these clans' efforts, I'll be preventing thousands upon thousands of innocent people from becoming demon feed. I have the power to do it. Why wouldn't I?" Yoshiko looks at Kotone weirdly as if her decision could not be any more obvious.

"…" Yoshiko's words reminded Kotone of that one innocent girl she and Fumio rescued from Oonishi Gentarou's demon prison, and the other innocent souls they left behind.

"You can join her if you want, Kotone. The children will be fine. I'll be keeping an eye on them too." Red, having a good guess of what Kotone is thinking, urges his disciple.

"Then I'll go with her." Kotone decides.