198 5.87 Our Joint Encounter With A Meioju And Mimizu

Meioju – Aturtle-shaped demon who steals fish. This is what the villagers had seen countless of times that ate the dishes in the river and also destroy their fish traps that were made of wicker baskets.

This turtle demon took the form of a huge turtle with large knobby shells or spiked shells. The villagers had tried to subdue the youkai several times but to no avail. Spears and arrowheads failed to penetrate its thick leathery armour on its paws and neck.

The eyes were as huge as the moon on the sky and a single snap of its jaws could split a house in two. The turtle demon was as high as a 2 to 3 storey house and its length was like 2 houses stacked end to end. This turtle demon travelled from large Kinugawa River right to Gogyo River and at an amazingly fast pace too.

That's the description given by the villagers who had seen the monstrosity before their very eyes as it tore the fish traps and devour all the dishes inside. They had laid traps along its usual path but to no avail and yet the turtle demon just bulldozes through the barriers set by the villagers.

Soon it was close to 11 pm according to my pocket watch that was dangling around my neck like a medallion. We got our gear ready and it was the first time I had seen Sango and Kohaku in their battle gear.

Sango was carrying her hiraikotsu as per normal and little did I knew she had several weapons attached to her as well.She had a wakizashi that was a medium-length sword and used as a secondary weapon in a hand to hand combat. The wakizashi was infused with demon bones so that they could kill demons as well as humans.

An iron chain was another weapon used to hit or stumble opponents at a distance. It could also wrap around an enemy, preventing them from escaping.

Sango's hidden weapon was a short, curved blade strapped to her wrist. It was concealed against her right forearm, underneath the sleeve of her uniform; she can extend it simply by flexing her forearm. It was like a karambit that was normally used as a close range of personal combat.

Sango also carried a highly corrosive poison salve made to wipe out demons that could not easily be taken down with Hiraikotsu.

The salve was held inside a castanet-like case and appeared to be a purple gel which the potions master stated was a vicious poison for demons.

Sango uses poison powder to lure out demons who were hiding or to disturb the keen noses of certain demons and weaken them, such as Inuyasha, who was susceptible to the scent of the poison.

She also originally carried a medicinal salve for minor cuts and burns, which she gave to Kohaku. The powder and medicine were kept in small shell containers under the plates of her armour.

Sango and Kohaku carry a metal gas mask to prevent them from breathing in the poisonous fumes of demons. Sango also used this mask to clear her lungs if she had already been poisoned.

Nioidama is a typical/basic weapon for Sango and Kohaku. They're a mix of stink bomb and smoke bomb, nioidama unleash a gas when they explode which youkai consider as disgusting while also leave a cloud of smoke at the same moment. These weapons are usually used to knock out or kill smaller youkai, or to distract greater youkai and are especially effective against youkai with a strong sense of smell.

Kohaku also carried the same amount of equipment similar to his sister and was ready to move out. I looked at their armour and was amazed while the rest of us were barely properly protected from any physical attacks by Youkai.

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We were guided by some villagers who had encountered the Youkai last night and waited for some distance away from the site where it usually appears. Kikyo and Inuyasha stood behind a high boulder and was ready for any ranged attacks with the Kikyo Hama no Ya and Inuyasha's Akai Hane. I was with Sango and Kohaku while Kirara was in its nekomata form still. Another angle was covered by Miroku, Shippo and Hachi.

The ground shook while the giant turtle Youkai appeared and was ambling towards the river and when it finally rested we can see its monstrous figure. The usually deep water oy barely reaches part of its front and hind paws.

"Now...!" signalled Miroku to the rest of the team and he went forward to stick the ground with his staff and ensnaring the huge turtle beast with his protective barrier. Sango and Kohaku rushed forward and used their chain to create a big 'X' across the shell of the yokai.

Kikyo fired a sacred arrow towards the head of the yokai in order to disperse any yoki power it possesses, by then Inuyasha had withdrawn theAkai Hane from the sheath and immediate it turns into a flaming Kodachi as Inuyasha was able to view the Kaze no Kizu in front of him. He jumped high in the air and knocked the flat side of the blade on the head of the beast.

A single knock from Akai Hane brought the beasts down to its feet and Miroku immediately threw a few talismans and directed it to several parts of the body. In a short few moments, the yokai stopped struggling and then slowly shrunk itself into a small turtle that looks cute enough to be brought home and placed in a pond.

Miroku picked up the turtle and handed it to the villagers that had witnessed the scene. "Here's the youkai that had been terrorising the villagers of their livelihood. It was somehow manifested into a monstrous turtle youkai."

"This is its original form, somehow there are forces at work that turned ordinary animals to become like this. This is not the last, as we would be heading to Motegi, another part of Haga District which another youkai had been terrorising its village too."

"What are we going to do with this?" asked a villager as he looked at the turtle his other friend was holding.

"Release it into a pond. Even if the talisman had detached itself, its previous yoki or demonic powers had already dissipated and would never recover. We may need to find the source of this problem as it might also affect other animals or pests as well."

"Thank you, Hoshi-sama and the rest of the members too. You would be heading back to the chief's house now? We will report the matter to him."

The villagers place the turtle inside a sack and carried it off to meet the chief. We soon headed to the same direction, congratulated ourselves for accomplishing the first mission successfully. We hoped to achieve the next few without any hitches along the way.

We explained to the chief what had happened and decided to spend the night there. The chief made special arrangements for the cook to prepare snacks for us now and breakfast for tomorrow.

When the snacks came, it was a basketful of gyoza which was filled with sweetmeats and deep-fried, a basketful of Taiyaki which was fish-shaped waffle with red beans and a stack of steaming hot Tomorokoshi which was grilled Japanese sweet corn after it was steamed.

We ate heartily and kept some for our journey ahead that would take 3 or more hours on foot.

+-==The next following day==-+

We thanked the chief for his hospitality and bade him farewell. We didn't accept any monetary gift but there were some hard candies and treats that were given to Shippo and he readily accepts them. The hard candies were made from fruits like plums as well as grapes that were crystallised and covered with a kind of liquorice and honey.

Hoshi-sama suggested we travel by using Hachi as a floating yellow gourd while Sango and Kohaku rode on Kirara when it transformed into a Bakeneko. We managed to shorten the journey by half and reached Motegi before lunchtime.

We met with the chief and he brought us to the farms that had been ravaged with many sinkholes, that it was impossible to properly cultivate the fields there. Hoshi-sama evaluated that the same procedures would be exercised upon the extermination of the Mizumi Youkai.

Sango and Kohaku used their poison powder to burn near one of the holes and the smoke emitted slowly entered the sinkhole. It was like a long twisting cave and the best way is to get rid of it by smoking the place out.

Hoshi-sama then uses his staff and struck the ground. This time he uses a kind of enchantment that creates an electrifying effect that penetrated into the ground around the fields.

An enormous earthworm head emerged from one of the sinkholes and was oozing greenish kind of slime from its skin, and the large gaping mouth with layers of sharp razor teeth inside. It was trying to escape the poison which Sango and Kohaku had lighted near one of the sinkholes.

Kikyo let one of her sacred arrows fly towards the mouth and it disperses the yoki that was around it. Inuyasha withdrew his Akai Hane and summoned his Sangon Tesso and unleashed a few strikes towards it.

"Swipe... Swipe... Swipe...!!!"

Three after images of the flaming Akai Hane struck the Mizumi squarely on its head and body and it slowly disintegrates and became a 20 cm earthworm which Hoshi-sama picked it up gingerly with his hands and passed it to the chief if the village.

" Here's your little Mimizu that terrorised your village. I wonder what made them manifest into these kinds of mutants but once it started I don't think it would stop easily. We would like to go back to Kitakata Village and investigate into the matter."

"There would be a full compilation of this youkai and we would put it up for everyone's knowledge. That's should be all chief."

Hoshi-sama explained to the chief Village after congratulating everyone for successfully accomplishing their task at hand. We would all be heading to Kitakata Village to resupply as well as to get a clearer picture on these mysteries.

Meanwhile, Hoshi-sama was knocking Hachi's head for not informing us that he could transform and transport us instead of walking through for some days towards our destination.

As a Tanuki, it usually used its scrotum to transform into a yellow boat or even the floating gourd. It seems that the Inuyasha series was not that complete in describing a Tanuki's capabilities. Hehehe. Rising on a sack of balls surely would entice anyone right?

So Hachi was forcefully made to transform into a floating yellow gourd that looks like an oversized banana boat while Kirara was ridden by Sango, Kohaku and Shippo. This time, we were hovering over the lands that we had travelled before and landed just outside the gates bordering Kitakata Village.

We walked through and was greeted by Hiko-sama who was having his midday sake after he had lunch. We joined him at the garden and told him what had happened.

"So, Hoshi-sama seems to discover something is mutating these normal pets and pest to become a menace for human beings? That's pretty weird, there must be something going on around the area. I know there was a practise where a person would place several poisonous insects in a bottle and watch each of the species kill each other."

"Then the Victor would be placed among the Victors when finally the one that emerges as the one-man-standing survivor would be considered as the strongest of them all. It would then be infused with a kind of demonic potion to make it stronger and becomes mutated, something like that."

"I have never seen such mutation before but the person who does that treat it like some kind of sick psychological game."

Hiko-sama explained to him when Hoshi-sama explained to him about what we had experienced. As there were several replies from other villagers, I appointed Hoshi-sama to become the leader of the group as I explained that I would be together with Hiko-sama and the Plants Managers and Execom members to further expand the production lines and range of our products.

The rest of the team was a bit disheartened that I had decided to forgo them but since my explanations were concrete enough, they decided to let me lay myself down and concentrate on the matters at hand.

I handed Hoshi-sama my bundle of coins to him and told him if he needs anymore to topup, he could ask from me. Furthermore, I explained that after each mission, they need to drop by here so that we could father and find out their wellbeing, top-up their supplies as well as be our ambassadors if the needs arise.

We sat down at the meal areas and discussed their findings and attend to the replies of the letters that they had received.