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94.72% A Nascent Kaleidoscope. / Chapter 557: Chapter 503

Chapter 557: Chapter 503

"If you break that barrel, you're not drinking anything but sea water you idiot!" Nurarihyon was slapping his cane against the back – rather lightly – of one of his men as they rolled up a barrel of water onto my parked ship.

They were loading it up with everything we might need.

Obviously, I could carry everything myself, but it would be foolish to not have multiple points of failure. What if I got whisked away for whatever reason and they were stuck for a while?

We were being careful; I was being careful.

I couldn't throw caution to the wind like I did when I only had to care about myself. Behind me was the entirety of the Youkai army even if I wasn't one of the 'generals'.

I didn't have much to do. Honestly, I didn't have very many responsibilities in the first place. I was not a...leader in this venture. I fumbled through it back in Chaldea, but I was not the type of person to be leading large groups.

I knew what I was good at. I would let them all tell me where to go and what to do, and I could even handle curve balls thrown my way. Maybe that endeared me more to the Youkai around here as I never once tried to flex my 'authority' over them as Yasaka's lover.

Funny enough, they all seemed to genuinely recognize my authority in that regard. If I asked for something, no one would question me, and it would get done.

Maybe it was something I should talk to Venelana about the next time I sat down with her. She's always great when I felt like I need to speak about certain things and maybe my despise for leadership positions came from somewhere.

Regardless, I didn't dwell too much on it because this was neither the time nor the place.

While Nurarihyon and his lot were loading up the ship, I found my Raikou off to the side, watching other things and I walked up to her silently wrapping my arms around her waist.

I didn't need to see her face to know she was smiling, I could feel her shift in my arms and happily accept the affection.

"You know you don't have to do this." I spoke to her, not very loud, just enough for both of us to hear. "Being here in a war, fighting and killing enemies."

Raikou didn't like killing.

Oh, she loved to fight. The rare times where she was arrogant were when it came to her martial prowess. Hell, she sparred with Artoria and Scáthach all the time. And honestly, she's probably the most talented of the three, and they're so ridiculous in that regard that I can only look up to them in terms of pure skill.

Sure, Scáthach still was more skillful than her, but Scáthach also lived for thousands of years.

And I've heard on more than one occasion of Scáthach huffing about how talented Raikou truly was.

"It's alright, Master, I want to be here." She shifted around in my grasp so she was facing me and I could see her beautiful smile.

"I just don't want you to force yourself to do something you hate." Because that's exactly what she would do, and I promised to make her happy.

"Master, look at that Youkai over there." She directed me towards where she was pointing.

"I see him." He was a sort of aquatic Youkai, I couldn't tell at just a glance.

"Itoh Yishio. His wife is a human and they own a sandwich restaurant. I look after their son at school." She then gently guided my head towards another. "Tada Rokuro, he adopted his deceased brother's daughter twelve years ago and he works as one of Yasaka's guards. Hora Kazuki, Goro, Masumi, Nagata Kin." She started pointing out a lot of people. "Master, this is my home as well." She finished, looking at me with that same beautiful smile.

Right….I suppose it was.

I felt a familiar presence grab hold of my ponytail, pulling on it lightly. "Student, what is this I hear about you going off to cause some mischief?"

I leaned my head back to look at her without letting Raikou out of my grasp. "I am going on a sanctioned mission from Yasaka." I defended myself.

Scáthach snorted, pulling the piece of fabric binding my hair off, letting my hair fall out of place. "Stand still, you were a mess, I will correct it." She grabbed my hair straightening it out properly before retying it herself.

It felt nice being taken care of like this.

"I'll be gone for a few days at a minimum." I let out, letting my hand fall down into Raikou's ample cleavage.

"We will persist without you." Raikou reassured me.

"Worry yourself not, student, everyone shall be looked after." Scáthach also had a warm and gentle tone.

"Is Jeanne still around?" I had been busy as we immediately spearheaded into the Fae Realms that I hadn't had time to check on her.

"Those of her faith have departed bar a handful that remained to bear witness to the warring. However, the young lass has taken to providing assistance other than combat. She tends to the wounded and handles other matters." Scáthach replied.

Good, that's good.

Jeanne didn't need to be fighting and killing. Despite the fact that she had fought in war all her life, I don't feel like she belonged anyways near this kind of death. She was far too pure and bright to be dragged down by this kind of thing despite the reasoning or cause.

"Jinn too?"

"Aye, she is using her new status as a Goddess to reinforce the Magics that protect this place. She has no stomach for killing unless it's absolutely needed."

I knew that already as well.

Jinn wasn't even one for sparring most of the time. She did so every now and then, to practice or keep in 'shape' for whatever that term meant for her, but she did not like conflict in any real form.

She was a very gentle girl, and I would prefer her to remain her way. Ironic considering that she's technically a Norse goddess now and they're a warlike culture.

I knew I didn't even need to ask for her to look after them, she would do so by her own hand.

And it was about time to say goodbye based on the shouts I heard from Nurarihyon to his men.

"That thing you did where you created a copy of Gae Bolg for Kunou, can you tell me in detail how you did it?"

"Curious about that, my student?" Scáthach let out a chuckle. "It will be difficult for you to replicate as you never experienced crafting the original."

I waved my hand through the air as if to deny her first thought. "I had an idea for a new spell, and I thought that would be a good place to start."

"Delay your departure by thirty minutes and I can prepare something in writing for you to read at your leisure." Her hand ran through my hair.

I just pushed my head further into Raikou's chest.

I could certainly do that.

 

@***@

 

A last wave goodbye to everyone on the ground and my ship took to the air. Granted, we didn't go too high because of various….problems with flying here.

The Sky wasn't connected to the Earth.

I made sure to let everyone know that numerous times because many Youkai were just so used to taking to the air in their daily lives.

Essentially, Space and Time in this realm was mangled in certain places. What constituted physics in the normal world did not operate the same here.

Going up didn't always mean you go up.

My Authority was negating any such effects over the encampment and my general Authority let me navigate things with a certain assurance if I was going to fly I would go up….but just to be safe, I was keeping rather close to the ground.

Vivian briefly said an offhanded comment about how the 'Earth' and the 'Sky' were two separate domains.

That was not at all a whimsical or romanticized comment.

You could consider them two different 'worlds'.

I set Sir Wiggles down on the wheel, with his proper Pirate's hat on of course.

Despite how I usually did it just to amuse myself, he could actually navigate the ship rather well.

I walked down onto the main deck and looked over everything.

Quite a few Youkai were peering over the edge watching the scenery pass by.

"Bit cramped." Nurarihyon appeared at my side grunting as he looked off towards the horizon.

Atleast, I think it was the horizon, I wasn't taking anything for granted here.

"My ship is decently sized, but it's not meant to house nearly a hundred Youkai of varying size and shape." I gestured to Aotabō who had to awkwardly crouch to get through the threshold coming up from the deck.

Space was…limited. He was right, it was extremely cramped. To the point where I would be sharing my 'captain's cabin' with the old man and his high seats.

I didn't like doing so, but I understood the necessity.

We needed a lot of people because our purpose was to steal as many ships as possible for our army to sail over this odd sea we've heard about.

"How are we supposed to call ourselves the Hyakki Yagyō without a hundred of us!?" He huffed indignantly.

Yes, who could argue with that logic.

I merely rolled my eyes considering he brought far more than 100 to the Fae realms in general and that it hasn't been only 100 in a very long time.

I pulled out a copy of the map Vivian passed over, making sure to note that the terrain was as it showed, marking down when we passed by a mountain a fair distance to the east and various other forests and landscapes.

I also made sure to mark down any structures or settlements that I could glimpse even if we didn't directly pass by them.

Better to err on the side of caution in case they get held back and we end up finishing way before they made it to us. That way they would have a more descriptive map when we got back.

And I could very well send them a picture through the Kaleidophone, though the 'reception' here was….spotty.

It couldn't be helped, you can account for temporal fluctuations, and special fluctuations, but it was hard to account for a constant jumbled mess of those two that constantly shifts whenever it feels like.

"Oi brat, what's that?" Nurarihyon grabbed my attention, pointing ahead.

He had great eyesight because I had to reinforce my eyes to see what he was talking about.

I stared at it for a few moments and I was about to open my mouth to respond until my eyes widened and with quick reflexes, I already had Mirage in my hand, swinging through the air.

There was the distinct clang of me hitting something, and with my Reinforced eyesight, I could track the movement and the 'projectile' I just connected with.

As if in slow motion, I watched a seed, not dissimilar from an Acorn, as its shape distorted on the flat of my sword from impact, deflected to the side, hitting the flooring of my ship.

Everyone on the deck of the ship froze, looking at me, then at the spot there the wood had a small indentation and slowly, something green sprouted up.

And by sprouted, I mean, it shot up out of the seed and grew into a foot tall plant with a very noticeable sharp toothed maw. It was eating into my ship to grow!

It was feeding on the Magic and the Wood!

I quickly shot a bolt of lightning at it, disintegrating it to pieces.

"Prepare for battle." My voice boomed with a low growl to it as I stared at the source.

There was a…island? Smaller than an island, but a decent chunk of land floating in the sky with a large plant on it, its roots even hanging out the bottom. I almost wanted to call it a tree, but it was probably not a tree if you were to be scientific about it.

Regardless, It had a massive eye that opened up and many different appendages with mouths and razor sharp teeth.

"You heard the brat, get ready for a fight!" Nurarihyon roared, treating the matter seriously.

Roars and cheers resounded in equal measure. Sure, this wasn't the first 'real' fight, but last time, that was just them showing dominance. This time, they would be fighting.

"Shield!" I roared out as the Magics of the ship activated and the innate Bounded Fields sprang into existence, hundreds, thousands of small projectiles collided with it.

The same 'seeds' as before, fast and strong enough to shatter concrete, they all slammed into my defenses.

Many of them started trying to burrow into the Magical Shield.

"Nurarihyon, how many Magic users did you bring?" I looked at him.

"A handful, whatcha need?"

"Layered shields, I need at least a few inches between each one, these things are eating Magical Power."

"Yuna, get out here with your sisters!" Nurarihyon hollered over the sound of my barriers taking a barrage as the ship continued to fly fast towards the giant plant in the distance.

Were those Yuuki Onna?

"Boss whatcha need?" They came up from below deck amidst the running around, she blew out a puff of smoke from a long pipe she held in her hand, her kimono slightly ajar so you could almost make out her pale cleavage.

"I need Magical barriers deployed, at least an inch apart, layered behind mine." I didn't wait for Nurarihyon to explain and quickly blurted it out.

"Do as the kid says."

"Girls." A cold air swept up around them as I could see More Magical Barriers emerge just below me with a fair bit of distance between them.

Were those Elemental Barriers – obviously Ice in nature – but still, those were more difficult to make than a non-elementally aligned Bounded Field.

My initial Barrier was breached as the new sprouts dug through them, then they started to freeze upon touching the Yuuki Onna's barriers.

Granted, it only slowed them down as they whittled away on the Magical Energy.

"You said they eat Magic? What about Youjutsu?" Aotabō asked.

"Let's see, there's another barrage coming." I offered him.

Aotabō grunted and walked towards the front, his cursed power enveloped his body like flames and he reeled his fist back and threw a punch towards another barrage of 'seeds' shooting at us.

His flames consumed them, burning them to a crisp, well all but a few.

A handful that made it through, he snatched one through the air and let his flames dance around it and the Seed in question couldn't resist it at all.

It made sense I suppose, Fae are Magical in nature, Youjutsu was an entirely different spectrum.

"Well, I'm also not one to get fired upon and not retaliate." I pointed my sword towards the massive plant. "Fire front cannons!"

It was more for everyone else's benefit that I even said it out loud as the Cannons charged up and fired.

Beams of Fire tore through the sky, searing away parts of the massive plant, leaving flames and broken vines in its wake.

A shrill cry could be heard even from this distance as the Plant furiously expanded in size, its appendages growing and replicating at insane speeds.

"Hoh, looks like it isn't going down so easily." Nurarihyon mused, clutching his cane sword.

Something rose up from behind the plant, a bird, a rather large one.

Another rose up, a different bird, this one had two heads. Then a Tiger of all things shot up in the air and it had some type of wings on it. Various different animals and creatures all took to the sky around the massive plant.

Though they all had one thing in common, they had a peculiar plant growing out of their bodies in some place.

It was a parasite and the animals were hosts

That's…..troubling.

There were easily over a thousand of those host animals that flew towards us with reckless abandon.

The Plant seemed to have some sort of intelligence because it realized just shooting those seeds at us wasn't going to work anymore and I now realized why it was doing so.

It was simply the easiest method to spread its parasites to other organisms.

I really don't want to know what the ground was like below us.

I was ready to take out my Bow of Auriel, but Nurarihyon grabbed my arm, as if reading my intention.

"Let me and my boys in on the action." He smiled.

I relented immediately. "Why don't I show you something neat about the ship?" He looked at me questionably, and I tapped on the flooring. Mist began to noticeably appear around us, shrouding us in it completely.

Nurarihyon slapped my shoulder. "Alright brat, this is your first time running with the Hyakki Yagyō despite joining awhile ago. What do you think boys? Let's show our newest member how it's done?"

There were a bunch of laughs and cheers despite the situation.

Nurarihyon just as well, he started to release a sort of….mist. I had seen it before, and it was a phenomenon often associated with him and the Hyakki Yagyō.

I found myself smiling. "Just don't fly too far away from the ship, it's sort of our anchor point. And I think the mist will obscure us as I'm fairly sure this thing tracks Magic." I said no more and simply followed with Nurarihyon as he jumped out into the mist.

Dozens more jumped off the edge of the ship without hesitation.

Nurarihyon seemed to have usurped the mist my ship produced, something that was just an aesthetic that Odin added for a laugh, it now turned into a weapon because we were not obstructed by it in the slightest.

Despite perceiving the mist in front of me, I could see through it entirely.

Nurarihyon's sword flashed, and the first creature that touched the mist was decapitated. But that didn't deter the oncoming tide in the slightest as they held both a madness in their eyes and a look of death.

Different members of the Hyakki Yagyō popped out. A Tengu covered in scars, stabbed through the mists, piercing a large bird and tore its body apart with a feral grin on his face, blood splashing everywhere.

The Yuuki Onna from before, they utilized their Youjutsu this time, and many different animals fell from the sky, frozen in chunks of ice or every inch of their body impaled with ice spikes.

An Oni with a massive club slammed it down on what looked like a turtle with wings, demolishing its body.

Aotabō was at the front, his cursed flames spread out, turning dozens into ash in short moments.

I joined into the fray, my sword swinging out as I fired off Sword Phantoms on the oncoming creatures.

"There's something wrong with them!" I heard a Youkai shout at my side.

He held the wing of a bird in one hand and its main body in the other as vines emerged from its wounds, trying to push into the Youkai's body, his Youjutsu holding it off.

Nurarihyon was quick to his side, cutting up the creature's vine parts into tiny pieces as they fell to the ground.

It started to become obvious that this was simply a suicide tactic to try and parasitize more creatures from the Plant's part.

Nurarihyon's expression changed into a sneer and he got pissed. "This damn plant is trying to mess with my boys!?" His Youjutsu exploded out and curled around his sword, a simple swing of it and hundreds of those flying parasitized creatures were turned into thousands of pieces as blood rained from the sky.

The Giant plant we were quickly approaching, the top of it unfurled, as if blooming. It's single eye stared at us, words didn't need to be spoken to know its feelings.

It seemed to be struggling with something as the ground below shook, like an earthquake rippled through.

The ground cracked and shattered, a chasm opening and an utterly massive hand pushed through, grabbing at the edges.

The hand itself was large enough to grab the ship entirely and squeeze it into pulp.

That thing was massive. Based on the size of just its hand, I would give it about the same size as Surtr, maybe even larger.

It slowly pulled itself out, its head coming into view, or what remained of it. Part of it was made entirely of vines, other parts you could see the vines wiggling beneath the surface.

My only thought was that a Giant somehow found itself in the Fae Realm by accident, and either died or got taken over by this plant and the plant parasitized it.

It was enough that everyone stopped what they were doing to look at it.

"Sadao!" Nurarihyon roared.

Honestly, I completely forgot about his second chair.

The super buff Kappa walked to the bow of the ship and jumped off right towards the giant.

Sadao's Touki and Youjutsu burst out and he reeled a single muscular arm back and it enlarged to the point where it could only be called small when compared to a literal giant.

I could feel the Youkai's power from here.

It all accumulated at his fist that he threw at the face of the Giant. A titanic shockwave burst out from the sheer force of the punch, sending the giant back down into the pit it was crawling out from with a force that a real earthquake spread out across the horizon.

Suffice to say, the Giant didn't appear again.

Sadao looked a bit drained as a fellow Youkai swooped down and caught him, bringing him back up to the ship.

He gave a shaky thumbs up to everyone amidst the cheers.

"What the fuck did I just see." I whispered.

Nurarihyon laughed. "Let's go deal with the big Vegetable."

Said Vegetable, despite the momentary pause where I assume it was processing that its massive monster was defeated. Its vines, its other appendages with mouths themselves, they increased and grew again, hundreds of them whipping about as the ship approached.

They shot out, colliding with the ship's shields as I fired the cannons once more, eliciting another shrill cry from the plant.

The Youkai took this opportunity to jump off again, stepping into either the floating land mass or the plant itself, running up its large vines.

I joined in naturally. I used a burst of Shunpo to hop over to a vine about the size of my ship and began running across it.

Dozens or so of those mouth-like appendages tried to chomp down on me, but a wave of my sword sent them sailing through the air. Unfortunately, they seemed to sprout more 'limbs' and shot at me, needing a more thorough method of destruction.

My Bloodline sparked to life and I disintegrated them as they got close, grabbing my Sword of Destruction quickly and alighting it with just well.

I stabbed the sword into the vine, my Power of Destruction burst out and I pulled, dragging it upwards as I followed along with all the others as they all approached the 'head'.

The place where it bloomed, where that singular eye rested.

It didn't take a genius to guess that spot being its 'weakness' or 'core'.

Pieces of its body were severed, destroyed, burned and frozen.

"Brat, Aotabō, with me! Everyone else, back to the ship!" Nurarihyon shouted, disappearing in a haze and reappearing near the top, narrowly avoiding a rather large mouth vine appendage, only for it to be sliced off just as quickly as it passed.

Both Aotabō and myself scaled the massive plant, the cannons from my ship firing off, pulverizing parts of its body that blocked the way with the occasional bolt of lightning courtesy of Sir Wiggles.

As we got up, Nurarihyon's body turned hazy again, but rather than disappear, the wrinkles on his skin disappeared, and a full head of hair could be seen faintly.

He looked young again, a rather cocky grin adorning his face.

The same sword he held turned sideways and he gripped it with both hands, his Youjutsu swirled around it violently and he swung his sword.

The Massive Plant, it's main body was thick, thicker than the Giant's arm had been, yet in one clean motion, it was falling, completely severed from its base.

He didn't need to tell us what to do.

Aotabō's cursed flames burst out in intensity enough to match my own Power of Destruction in sheer display.

Both destructive and corrosive forces collided into the main body of the plant monster, the shrill cry of it a call of death as its remains wafted away in the wind.

However, there still remained a significant amount of appendages and vines it had created that didn't just conveniently turn to ash upon what was supposed to be its main body getting destroyed.

I grabbed Aotabō and used Shunpo to slide back onto the deck of the ship with Nurarihyon's graceful steps following closely behind as his hazy youth fading back into old age.

He put a hand on his back like it was hurting, but he didn't voice it.

"It's a good thing we went ahead, this would have been a nuisance if Yasaka marched with the army." Nurarihyon noted.

The Vines that tried to hold onto the ship had long been destroyed as we were free to leave, however, it's best not to leave a mess uncleaned.

"I believe it's only right to return the previous favor." I held a hand out, forming a Runic circle at the tip of my finger, dozens, hundreds more appeared above and around me.

"Let me tell you our motto, brat." He put a hand on my shoulder as it seemed many faces I didn't immediately recognize came out of the proverbial woodwork. Those who didn't participate directly in battle but looked rather pissed off themselves. "Good or bad, Debts are returned tenfold! And never duel when you can gang up!" He laughed.

There were many Youkai who were adept at ranged attacks, they stepped forward and all took aim at the floating island and what remained of the plant.

Along with my ship cannons, and my own Runic Circles that crackled with lightning, they all began firing.

The floating island began to crumble as fires flashed across the various plants that remained, lightning tore through the earth, the elements rained down, and an uncountable number of curses seeped into the vitality of what remained, churning it from inside-out.

It wasn't until the last chunk of dirt fell from the sky that the attacks finally ceased.

Nurarihyon raised his hand up and they cheered triumphantly. It was a satisfying victory for them that was sorely needed after holding back for months until this point.

Yeah, it was a good thing we went ahead. This could have caused some catastrophic damage to the army if none of us caught it in time.

No idea what it actually was, but it's a good thing it's dead.

I eyed a few guys bringing up some barrels of what I assumed were Alcohol.

Oh well, it's their first true 'fight' and 'victory' since invading beyond the show of force form before.

I wouldn't tell them no.

 

@***@

 

The remainder of the…flight didn't have nearly as much excitement. Beyond scaring away some unsavory things with a payload of cannon fire, nothing really stood in our way as we continued onwards.

When Vivian spoke of a lighthouse, I didn't really know what to expect.

It was only until we reached this point that I understood now.

It was a strange building, golden and ostentatious in design. From the topmost, there was a crystal that propelled a beam of light upwards and disappeared into the aurora that danced in the sky.

I gestured to Sir Wiggles and we started to lower as we got closer.

Eventually, the Ship landed around the…peripheral, and I could really see how large this 'Lighthouse' really was.

Around the Lighthouse, well, there was a farm.

I jumped off the 'docked' ship, along with Nurarihyon as we walked towards the singular person present.

Vivian said that you needed payment to come and go, and I wasn't going to immediately just decapitate any Fae I ran into.

It was an old man, very old.

Eyebrows that would make the Captain Commander back in Soul Society jealous, along with a hefty white beard that went down to his waist. He wore a strange getup, what looked like a faded red jacket of some sort and a faded red hat.

His most notable feature was the hook on his right hand as he used it to whittle at a piece of wood.

Looking around, I made sure to take in everything I saw. Besides the Lighthouse, and the farm, there was a rather large…graveyard.

I hesitated to honestly call it a graveyard because they were rather shallow graves….freshly shallow graves.

I could tell because body parts were poking out.

"Are you – " I was cut off due to a strange noise.

An arm poking out of a shallow grave trembled. "Ahhhuhhhh." Something buried there groaned.

The man, the old man slowly got up from the chair he was sitting in, he grabbed a shovel he had at this side and slowly walked over to the grave and earnestly began to slap at whatever was there with the shovel until it quieted and went limp.

As if nothing happened, he slowly walked back, setting the shovel back where it was before and sitting back down.

"Ya want to pass through, ya gotta pay the toll…." His voice – aged, wary, tired.

"What's the price?" I asked pointedly.

"Whatever ya want." He pointed at a box – a crate not far away. "Just put it in there and be on ya way."

"….what's stopping someone from not paying?"

Below his bear, and his large eyebrows, his eyes became visible as his eyebrows raised and a toothy grin showed through. "Who ya think also controls the lighthouse on the other side?"

Noted.

"And what happens if the price isn't satisfactory?" I asked, skeptical about this whole thing.

He shrugged. "Whatever I feel like."

I narrowed my eyes because this felt….odd. Well, Fae were odd, but his behavior felt odd in comparison to the Fae I've met and then it dawned on me. "Are you….human?"

"Who knows anymore." He didn't outright deny it, even basically confirmed it.

A human controlled the Lighthouse?

It seemed like a rather strategic point of interest.

"Do you want to leave here?" I asked abruptly.

He paused his whittling, his tired eyes looked up at me. "Leave?"

"The Fae Realm, back to the human world." I offered. "No price, no bargains. Humans should live in the human world."

"Are you human, son?"

"Half." I said. "Not Fae though."

His hand trembled as he slowly caressed his hook. After several moments, he simply shook his head. "What year is it on the outside?"

"About a decade past 2000." I replied.

He looked up and I think I saw a few tears in his eyes. "How the world must have changed. There's probably no one outside that remembers my name. Your payment was received, you're free to go inside. Follow up towards the sky, the sea you're going to isn't like the ones outside, son be wary. There be more than Fairies there." He was oddly more articulate than before.

He said payment was received, but I still walked over to his 'box' and deposited all manner of things inside. Food, drinks, alcohol.

I think he could see everything because he laughed rather maniacally. I'm pretty sure he had a screw or two loose, but I couldn't blame him for how long he probably lived in this place.

"My name." He spoke up as I was about to turn and walk away. "Will ya remember it if I tell ya? I want someone to remember me."

"I'll remember it." I nodded to him.

He had a strangely content smile. "I'm starting to forget a lot of things. Humans aint supposed to live this long, son. I don't want my name to be forgotten, and I refuse to hand it over to some fairy." He spat onto the ground. "I used to be a Captain. Captain James Bartholomew Hook. Remember it…please."

I paused because I recognized it.

"I'll remember it." I repeated again and turned to walk back to the ship.

Nurarihyon silently walked at my side, not feeling the need to speak up until we reboarded and I took over the wheel from Sir Wiggles.

The Ship floated upwards, as if caught in a current, it slid into the beam of light that pointed to the sky.

"You recognized his name, I could see it on your face. Someone we should be wary of?"

I shook my head. "Have you ever heard of the Peter Pan story?"

"The Children's tale?" He stroked his beard

"Do you recall the name of the Antagonist?" I asked him.

"….oh." He blinked in realization, looking a mite somber in processing that.

I pushed that thought to the side because the ship was pulled by the beam of light and rather quickly, the sky opened up and the stars moved aside as a massive Ocean came into view.

Well, time to start pirating.

@***@

A/N

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Next part of the looking Glass omake is up over there. 


next chapter

Chapter 558: Chapter 504

 

 

The ship was whisked away without so much as a warning once it settled upon the beam of light produced by the lighthouse.

I barely had time to register the spatial anomaly before we were swept up in the proverbial current and pulled through time and space.

Truthfully, I wanted to investigate things before just hopping over, but I was taken aback by the fact that I had just met Captain Hook.

Regardless, we were unceremoniously deposited onto a large, watery surface; a splash of water that nearly threatened to tip the boat over made that obvious.

A few people ran over to the sides of the boat to throw up once the created waves subsided enough for us to regain our bearing and get a good look at what was going on.

The boat had started floating away from the spot we originally landed on, but I focused on the beam of light, the same one that basically carried us here, as it came down from the 'sky'.

The aurora that could be seen in the Fae Realm normally was gone, replaced by bright stars that could be seen in the middle of the 'day'.

Yet, no sun was visible either.

I just chalked that up to the oddities of this place.

I reached out to the ocean, letting my Authority subtlety flow out. My Divine Power that had been laced with the Storm and Wind touched upon the Ocean around us, and I was rejected.

I frowned but pulled my Divine Power back.

Vivian mentioned that the ocean wouldn't like it if we 'cheated'. I'm of the fairly confident mind that this ocean is more alive than I originally anticipated.

Making an educated guess based on the few clues I have so far, the way this 'Lighthouse' brought us here and the way Vivian talked about it, I think the Lighthouses are anchors to keep this 'Ocean' both sealed and in place.

But who knows, I could be way off the mark.

Still, it was nice to be on the open sea.

Ignoring everything else, if I closed my eyes, I couldn't tell anything was wrong. The salty air, the wind, the cool water that splashed up from the waves.

It was oddly peaceful.

"Alright, who wants to see what eldritch horrors are lurking under the surface?" I asked.

Many Youkai around me stepped back rather quickly.

"You bunch of cowards." Nurarihyon scoffed.

"You volunteering, boss?" It felt oddly appropriate to call him that, considering I was a member as well.

I may be the captain, but he was the boss.

Nurarihyon looked at me with a firm gaze. "Sadao, get over here!"

"Don't wanna!"

I blinked, surprised that the words from the big Kappa, usually soft spoken, had that kind of tone. "Actually, he's perfect; a Kappa is an aquatic Youkai, and he's strong enough to escape any dangerous situations." Probably.

"I can't swim." Sadao said with a completely straight face.

"You're a Kappa." I pointed out.

"Just because I'm a Kappa, that means I'm a swimmer? That's Racist."

I felt my eye twitch. "Yup, it is." I grabbed his shoulder. "You wanna do this the hard way or the easy way?"

Sadao crossed his arms with a resolute expression, but his toes dug into the wood of the deck.

Nurarihyon shared my look as he placed a hand on Sadao's other shoulder, his grip tightening.

Rather quickly, Sadao's aura seeped out, and Nurarihyon and I matched him as the boat started shaking.

"Sadao~" The Yuuki Oni from before—I think her name was Yuna—sauntered over rather coquettishly, her hips swaying, her kimono nearly falling enough that her chest was almost visible. She was rather beautiful, and the rumors about the beauty of Yuuki Oni were well deserved.

Sadao's pressure decreased, and a faint blush crept up across his face as Yuna put her hands on his chest, running them up to the collar of his shirt. Her flirtatious smile quickly turned into something a bit more sadistic as her fingers dug into his shirt, and she quickly lifted him up and threw him over her shoulders and off the edge of the ship.

It took until I heard the big splash to come back to my senses.

"Well done, Yuna." Nurarihyon said proudly.

"Thanks, Boss." She took out a pipe, lighting it up happily.

Many Youkai scooted over to the edge to see Sadao reemerge from the water, though surprisingly, he was splashing around in a panic, shouting for help.

"...was he actually telling the truth?" I looked at Nurarihyon.

"He's a damn Kappa!" Nurarihyon grunted, though several more moments of Sadao struggling made his stern look disappear. "Dammit, please tell me he can swim. Someone, anyone?"

"How do you not know this?!?"

"Do you think I hold swimming lessons for all my boys!? And he's a damn Kappa!"

"Nah, he can't swim." Yuna said rather casually.

"..."

"You're waiting until now to say that? After you threw him overboard?" I asked incredulously.

She blew out a puff of smoke. "He made me drop my lipstick overboard when he started rocking the ship."

"You're a cold bitch, Yuna." Nurarihyon snorted.

She just smirked.

I sighed, mentally reaching for a rope, and used a bit of telekinesis to throw it out to him.

He took it quickly as several others dragged him back up.

I might have felt a little bad if the massive and muscular Kappa didn't keep flopping around on the deck like a fish despite being brought to safety.

"You people are idiots." I looked at Nurarihyon.

"Yeah, but they're my idiots." Nurarihyon sighed just as I did. "There's a reason I left the real 'formations' and'soldiering'' to Yasaka."

Fair enough.

Begrudgingly, I began to unbutton my vest and moved onto my shirt.

"Wait!" Yuna stopped me in my tracks.

"What's wrong?" I blinked in surprise.

"If you're going to strip, let me call my sisters up."

"Get out of here!" Nurarihyon gave her a firm kick on the rear.

I simply shook my head before taking my socks and shoes off as well, setting them to the side. "Sir Wiggles is in charge while I'm away."

"I'm not listening to a rabbit."

"He's technically a God." I retorted.

"Just go already." Nurarihyon rubbed the bridge of his nose.

I shot him a little smirk before diving off the ship, pushing past the initial water threshold without issue.

My first thought was that the water felt heavier than it should be, but nothing I was overly concerned about.

The water, in general, was very... clean. Pure? I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. In general, there was a tinge of uneasiness I had just feeling it, like it belonged to someone else. Whereas back in the human world, despite being called Water Gods or thereof the variety such as my own, the Oceans of the Human World were much more free.

My Divine Authority was still activated back at the Youkai camp, but even still, my Authority was part of me; even if I couldn't use it, I still was someone who had Divine Authority over the Ocean.

With a push of my Divinity, I shot downward, the light from above slowly muddling.

I held my hand out in front of me, and I used a spell I hadn't used in awhile. Magelight shined outwards, illuminating within a few dozen meters of me as I pumped the spell beyond what was probably intended for such a basic spell.

It's a bit less efficient than Lumos that I learned recently, but I didn't really want to take my wand out underwater.

Rather quickly, I jerked to the side as a row of sharp teeth narrowly missed me.

I clenched my fist, and the water surrounding the vague silhouette of whatever attacked me froze into spikes.

I swam a bit closer so my light shone on it; it was some kind of mix between an eel, a shark, and a person. Specifically, it had the legs of a person on its lower half.

Wait, there was more. Was that the tail of a leopard on the side? 

What a strange thing. Does it develop traits of things it consumes? In that train of thought, where did it find a leopard? Well, considering the legs... the thought of something this disgusting running across land after me would give me pause enough that it might get close.

Lost in thought for a moment, I blink in realization that I was surrounded.

Beyond the peripheral view of the light I was emitting, vaguely, I could see a set of small glowing eyes.

And a second pair.

And more.

A lot more.

Thousands easily.

Well then.

I wasn't quite sure how the ecosystems here worked, but I think it would be bad if I suddenly removed a certain level of the food chain in such quantities. Hell, I'm not even sure if these things were... bad. I mean, can you call a shark bad if it kills a human every now and then? They're animals, predators, who serve a purpose in the ocean.

Oh well, I'll just scare them off for now.

I let my Reiatsu spread out, enough that it would press down on the thousands of souls present around me.

Rather quickly, they all scattered. I could vaguely make out their hastily retreat, so I withdrew my spiritual pressure.

The area around me began to become brighter.

I looked at my Magelight, making sure it wasn't the source. Then slowly, I turned around to see why it was suddenly bright and why those things actually ran away rather than the tiny amount of pressure I intentionally exuded.

Two gigantic eyes shone unnaturally in the darkness of the bottom of the sea.

Slowly, I moved My Magelight in front of me to get a better look.

Tentacles.

Lots and lots of tentacles.

More tentacles than the creatures from before; they all wiggled through the darkness. They didn't immediately close in on me; it was as if this thing was measuring me with curiosity. Clear intelligence in its utterly massive eyes.

[I don't want to alarm you, but I think you should consider something]. Ddraig spoke up in my mind.

And what's that, Ddraig?

Though my eyes didn't pull away from the thing's eyes.

[You're Japanese.]

…..

Nope!

Nope, nope, nope!

I felt... a shockwave through the water. It wasn't an intentional act on the monster's part; I just think it stood up.

And gradually, its eyes rose higher and higher until they loomed over me.

I could feel the water currents distort as something massive pushed outward and the vague outline of a hand came at me.

Nope!

I immediately took out the True Longinus, pointing it at the oncoming hand.

Its holy light radiated outwards, and the monster's hand paused. I quickly moved it, pointing at the monster itself, and I could see the hesitation in its eyes.

There was a seeming moment of consideration on its end, as it didn't move.

It didn't speak or make any real sound, but I think there was a silent agreement as its eyes relayed enough intent.

I backed off and slowly moved away.

The gigantic eyes in the darkness closed, and I could no longer see them. I took that opportunity to shoot back up to the surface, breaking past the top and flying up easily forty or fifty feet into the air.

The ship wasn't very far away, enough that I could use my wings to fly on over without much fuss and without causing any problems.

"Something wrong?" Nurarihyon greeted me with an eyebrow raised.

"Nope!"

"Is it safe down there?"

"Nope!"

"Should we be worried?"

"Yup!" I quickly started putting my clothes back on after dressing. "Don't go too far down if you don't want to find monsters."

I think it's best if I don't mention the thing I saw down there.

Easily God-level, probably around the strength of those Giant Warlords from Jotunheim that I met in the Norse Realms.

Except with Tentacles.

I was more than willing to throw down with gods and get in fist fights with Immortals and Demons. So I think it's perfectly acceptable; there are some things I absolutely refuse to engage in.

Giant spiders are one of them.

Eldritch Tentacle God Monsters are another.

"Boss, …uh, Captain!" A younger-looking Youkai ran up; he wasn't humanoid but sort of round with the shape of a pyramid on top of his head, with only a singular large eye.

Youkai came in all shapes and sizes, so I didn't really make note of it.

"What's wrong, Seta?" Nurarihyon asked.

"I was up in the crow's nest, and I saw a ship." He pointed.

I reinforced my eyes, but I couldn't see anything. "Are you sure?"

Nurarihyon put a hand on my shoulder. "Seta can see for miles on out." He chuckled. "If he says he sees a ship, he sees a ship."

"Well then, get ready for battle." I made the announcement, quickly moving towards the steering wheel, alleviating Sir Wiggles of his duty.

I made sure to put his pirate's hat on his head before taking my spot as captain.

My ship wasn't like the trash we would surely find around here.

When it moved, it moved.

Not to mention I could force the winds in the way I wanted.

Rather quickly, on the horizon, I could see the ship that the Youkai told us about.

Credit where it was due; I couldn't see this far.

And as we came into view, the other ship seemed to turn and start coming towards us.

"Hmm, I'm wondering about something." Nurarihyon appeared next to me, a gourd in his hand; no doubt it was full of sake.

"What?"

"I'm just wondering if we should immediately open fire on them."

"Are you having second thoughts about robbing them?" I looked at the old Youkai.

He snorted. "Brat, I've been stealing and sneaking into places since before you were a twinkle in your father's eye. I'm just wondering if we should give them the chance to surrender. I'm trying to be more reasonable since I gotta consider your Fox's preferences, y'know."

I pondered his suggestion.

Cannon fire erupted from the enemy vessel as soon as we got close. Well, close was relative here; those cannons fired much further than they should have.

Actual cannon balls collided with the barriers of my ship.

Well, my pondering has ended.

"Fire the front cannons!" I shouted in response.

Beams of fire erupted from the front, slamming into the side of the enemy ship.

"Don't destroy it, you idiot!"

"I know what I'm doing, old man! We just need to disable the ship enough so they can't run away. Get ready to board everyone!" I could fix that amount of damage.

As we got close, we got a better look at the crew of the enemy ship. Holy sh*t, was that a genuine Spanish galleon?

Where did they even get something like that?

And the crew were most assuredly not the original owners.

They looked like some type of goblin? Oh, they're Red Caps!

The large... red caps on their heads kind of gave it away.

I vaguely recall them mentioned in Irish and Scottish legends. Their caps are supposedly drenched in the blood of those they've killed. A very malevolent type of Fae. Though... aren't they supposed to inhabit things like castle ruins and such?

The fuck were they doing, crewing a ship in such large numbers?

They were really nasty with their gazes. The goblins I met in Diagon Alley were night and day compared to these things. I could practically taste their bloodlust.

"Alright boys, don't damage the ship, but take everything they got, especially their lives!" Nurarihyon grinned savagely himself.

I was reminded that Youkai are just as much 'monsters'.

They cheered happily, jumping across to the other ship as we got close enough, a melee breaking out.

Just sweeping my gaze across the several dozen 'Red Caps' that were present on the enemy ship and the initial fighting, I could place their strength around mid-level. Mostly a sort of inborn physical level that let them land there, but I caught a few magics being cast on their end. Crude as they were, they didn't require things like magic circles, so it caught a few of ours off guard.

Poison? I think I saw some poison spells primarily used.

I cast a few healing spells of my own and a few enhancement spells to cover them, but I had my own target.

I found the enemy captain.

As the captain of my own ship, it was only proper that I engage the enemy captain in battle.

I of course withdrew a cutlass I had kept just in case and jumped over. "Have at you!" I shouted intentionally to get its attention.

It sneered something unintelligible in a language I couldn't understand even with my status as a devil.

Its rows of sharp teeth opened and its tongue salivated, pointed at me rather arrogantly as if I were simply a meal in its eyes.

The other 'captains' sword was... a sickle.

Okay, so it wasn't a proper weapon, a farming instrument, but still, it was my first fight as a proper pirate!

Our epic clash!

Except my sword broke nearly instantly.

Even the goblin was surprised.

Well, I suppose that makes sense. I could feel the magic from his weapon, despite it being a literal farming instrument, while mine was honestly not even a 'real' sword, but a fake wall decoration I randomly found.

The goblin laughed and spoke something in its language. I didn't need to speak it to know it was insulting me.

Fine, I should take you seriously.

I gathered my power around my arm and reeled back my fist. "Take my secret technique!" I declared as the goblin instantly became on guard. However, he was focused entirely on my arm enough that he didn't notice when I kicked him between the legs.

He immediately fell over, clutching his presumed dangly bits with tears falling from his eyes.

I picked up his weapon and held it up. "Victory!" I shouted as loud as I could.

I heard the sounds of battle and laughter behind me in response.

"Brat...did you seriously kick him in the balls?" Nurarihyon appeared next to me.

"Yes." I nodded.

He stared at me for a long moment and put a hand on my shoulder, nodding wisely. "I knew you were one of us."

I was about to say something, but I noticed something strange on the goblin captain. I immediately stopped joking and grabbed at him; despite his hissing, I waved my hand, severing his head. Though my eyes never left the object on his wrist.

"Why does he have a wrist watch?" I voiced my thoughts out loud.

Nurarihyon also zeroed in on it, inspecting it closely. "That's not that old either."

"Early 1900's, maybe late 1800's." I eyed it.

My watch proficiency isn't that good despite having a certain proficiency for fashion of a certain variety.

This made me frown because I thought back to Captain Hook.

I pulled the watch from the goblin's arm and tossed the remains of his body into the water. "No survivors; either burn the bodies or toss them overboard." I said softly.

Nurarihyon put a silent shoulder on me and walked down to the main deck as the fighting finished up.

I walked over to the wheel to see what I was working with, and I saw the most curious rolled-up piece of parchment wedged between the wheel and the mechanism that held it in place.

I pulled it out, realizing it wasn't parchment but some kind of beast skin, woven with magics I was unfamiliar with. However, nearly immediately, it seemed to display a picture of where we were and an island not far away.

Magical Fae GPS?

"Hey boss," I called out.

"Hmm?" He was at my side rather quickly again.

"...up for a raid?" I held the map up, and he smiled.

 

@***@

Magical Fae GPS was in fact real.

I was certainly going to study this and see how it worked, or maybe give it to Jinn; she would probably love it. But it would be a nifty thing to learn for our troops and whatnot.

Unfortunately, these Red Caps didn't have much below deck or stored away. It seems like their base of operations was close enough that they didn't carry anything worthwhile.

Sure, we grabbed their weapons, because, why not? But otherwise, nothing else worth mentioning other than the ship itself.

Which was being sort of towed behind my ship.

Funny enough, we didn't actually have a good idea on what to do with the ship at the moment. We didn't anticipate getting one so quickly before we set up a spot to... well... store them? Accumulate them?

We brought enough people to crew quite a few ships, but we had just set sail; we didn't want to separate or start a big fleet just yet.

But luckily, it seems our donors left us a means.

And the Island itself, it was close like I thought. Maybe an hour's sail at a moderate speed and we could see it in view. They were probably on their way home after being away for awhile considering their lack of provisions.

It seemed a tad on the smaller side, but more than enough to house thousands of people if they were so inclined with a bit of a jungle.

The best thing about a magic ship like mine? I sailed it right into the sandy shore without a care in the world.

It came to a harsh halt, unmoving. The ship we were towing was far enough out that it was still in deep enough waters, so it worked out perfectly.

"How do you want to split up?" I asked the Old Man.

"Sabao, you're watching the ships." Nurarihyon called out. "Anyone who wants to stay can stay; anyone who wants to come can come."

What a casual way of leading, but I guess that worked on these types of people. They weren't ones for a rigid authority structure.

It was probably split into 2/3 our favor, with the remaining not being as particularly combat-enthused as the rest.

Oh well, I also left Sir Wiggles on the ship.

As the first mate, it's his job to monitor it in my absence.

We nearly immediately found a well-walked path leading into the forest and took it without a second thought. Cocky? Maybe, but honestly, we felt rather confident at this moment, and it would hamper morale if we acted overly cautious against enemies; we just stomped rather easily.

Though Nurarihyon held his hand up, everyone came to a stop because we found someone impaled on a spear.

That someone was a goblin—a Red Cap.

"I smell smoke and resentment." Aotabō said, sniffing the air.

"Let's pick up the pace." Nurarihyon shot forward at a speed where everyone could keep up but was significantly faster.

We arrived at a village, or what was left of one.

It was artificially cleared out; wooden structures somewhat remained, but they were mostly piles of ash. No fires were visible, but there was still heat emanating off some of the remains.

A few days at a minimum, someone was here.

There were dead bodies, hundreds of those Red Caps, slain in a gruesome way.

"Fan out, search for anything worthwhile; if you see a living thing other than these goblins, bring it back." Nurarihyon ordered as everyone moved about. He eventually clicked his tongue in annoyance. "I hate when someone steals something before I do."

"I'd give it two days at a maximum." I went and kneeled down next to a burned-down hut. house, something. "At a glance, I see no other bodies other than Red Caps. Which leaves three options."

"Either they were killing among themselves. The ones who killed them retrieved the dead bodies of their comrades, or they were much stronger, enough that they didn't suffer any casualties." Nurarihyon spoke.

"Boss, we found something!" Aotabō hollered, waving from a bit further ahead.

I let go of a handful of ash I had in my hands, clapping to flick away the debris and dirt. We followed along to see what he was shouting about, and we both came to a stop.

"Well, isn't that curious?" Nurarihyon stroked his chin.

There seemed to be about a dozen freshly made graves.

And at the head of each one was a makeshift cross.

@***@

A/N

If you want to read 10 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone

I also have a boosty if you can't use the above under the same name.


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