บท 312: 312: Kurai’s Journey to the West (6)

Chapter 312: Kurai's Journey to the West (6)

Volume 2.5 – Omake 6 [Last]

—

"...."

"Chu~ Grandfather! Have you come to visit me!"

A squeaky voice announced when Kundras led Kurai and Enma to inside a huge tree that acted as a house for the drakes living there. When Kundras stepped inside through the huge open space within the tree's trunk, a small lizard jumped on his face.

"I missed you! Oh, oh– wait, we have got guests! Hello there, gentle-monkey and beautiful kitten?"

Kurai stared blankly at the… Draco Lizard who had a skin redder than Kundras, as she failed to hide her disappointment.

[Raethiephol – Half Drake – High Tier 6]

This 9-inch-long little thing was the successor of this majestic Drake? Also, why the hell was she a 'Half Drake' whilst Drakes themselves were Lesser versions of another creature?

"Aha, this must be her?" Enma asked.

"Haha, yes. My youngest son had mated with a Lizard, also a sage animal, and from his wife this cute thing was born." Kundras explained. "Hoho, but as you can tell—only the appearance and manner of her is what is cute, her firepower surpasses even my own even as young as she is. If she gathers more chakra, which she will over time, she will overthrow me in no time."

"Indeed, I can see that." Enma reached out a hand and Raethiephol stared at it for a moment before jumping on it. Enma patted her head with a smile. "How old are you?"

"I am six years old!" the Draco Lizard replied excitedly.

Kurai hummed from the side when she heard that, realizing why this little thing was held so high by the others. Kurai fought the Prime Gods at seven years old, so she clearly was superior to any other animal, but that didn't fail her to recognize the worth of others close to her age. Indeed, being Tier 6 in this world at such an age was worth a lot.

"Huh, so you are nearly as old as Kurai here." Enma turned to shoot a look at Kurai. "Except you have much better manners."

Kurai flinched. "W-what? I am respectful when it's needed! Why should I, a God, be respectful to just anyone."

"Ah, you shouldn't say such things, frien–" the little lizard, Raethiephol started, but Kuria shot a glare with her golden eyes.

"Friend?? Who is your friend? Call me My Lord–"

"She is somewhat shy. She means to say, you don't have to call her 'friend', big sister works too." Enma interrupted Kurai. "Hope you two get along while you are here, maybe some of your good manners will get rubbed off on her."

"Ak! Enma, what do you think you are–" Kurai started, but Enma's tail just struck down on her head to shut her up. "...."

"Yelling for no reason is no good, be mindful of your mouth."

"...."

Kurai's body shook, but she held it in, realizing a fight here is a fight she will lose since attacking Enma will instantly turn this entire area into enemy territory.

"...Tch." Kurai grunted and looked away.

"Hah," Enma sighed on the side.

Before awkward silence was about to fall in the room, another voice slipped into the conversation.

"Oh my, what a gorgeous cat." a humane, feminine voice said as a girl walked towards the gate where everyone was gathered. "You look like the wanted cat in my area… What was her name… companion of a missing-nin… Aha, Kurai!"

Kurai frowned as she turned to look at the human, a girl with long bangs falling over her eyes as she wore a smirk on her red, lipstick-applied lips.

[Azula – Human – Low Tier 4]

Her golden eyes matched Kurai's own as the two stared at each other, and then the girl spoke again. "Say, how about you become my personal pet and I will tell my father to revoke the wanted stuff on your current owner?"

Silence fell in the area once again, as Enma looked panicked, and seeing that panic Kundras also looked scared suddenly—to say such a thing to a Divine Beast was no less than a slap to the face, after all.

"...Huh?" Shocking them all— "Ha…hahaha!" —Kurai began to laugh.

"What a delusional bitch. Hey, I like you a bit." Kurai's size increased all of a sudden, and she stood up to par with Kundras' 15 feet self. "Now bow down and kiss my feet before I annihilate you out of the face of this earth."

Enma sighed as Kundras only looked more panicked than before.

Kurai had heard enough though and pushed her feet against the ground to leap forward. Raethiephol's eyes widened as she saw her summoner in danger, and she snapped her head to look at Kundras to ask him for help.

Thankfully, Kundras had already begun moving and stood before the human girl with the intention to protect her.

[Kundras – Drake – Mid Tier 7]

Kurai didn't care though and slammed her paw against the Drake King, causing him to fly back and hit the tree, breaking it apart and flying outwards.

Kurai looked at the little human girl with a growl, as she took a step backward. However, even in this situation the girl was wearing a smirk even as sweat was trailing down her chin—and Kurai could tell it wasn't false bravado.

"Crazy bitch."

Kurai prepared to attack her, even as Enma rushed forward to stop her, with Raethiephol chiming in with worry and telling her to stop. Azula raised her arms in front of her, and her fists caught on fire, but that didn't stop Kurai—as her tail came crashing down onto her head harshly.

"Ah-"

Azula gasped before the tail raised upwards and struck down again.

"Ah…."

Azula's head spun softly, and she dropped to her face the next instant.

Enma stopped on his spot as he looked down at the unconscious girl's body, sighing to himself soon, as he raised his head upwards to look at Kurai. "Good job at holding your rage in, I am surprised."

"I just remembered," Kurai shrugged. "What had happened to the last woman who wanted to pet me, that Jashin woman. So I thought I will just tell father about this later, he can take care of it."

"Ah…" Enma frowned, recalling Kurai had encountered another God recently and her father had defeated and punished her somehow. "I see. I suppose she wouldn't die, at least."

"Y-you bad person!" Raethiephol yelled from on top of Enma's head, her eyes red. "Why did you hurt my friend?"

"Oh shut up! Don't tell me I should discard my pride and let just anyone call me whatever they want!" Kurai scoffed. "Perhaps you should learn self-respect from me, little lizard."

"...."

A while later, Kundras returned, enraged, but stopped from causing a scene when he noted that everyone was fine.

* * *

In the few weeks after that, Kurai spent her days hunting animals in this area and returning to this mountain at night to sleep. She was constantly leveling up, and was also getting good things to eat.

The human girl Azula was sent back to her home since her presence was but a nuisance here, and Kurai was happy with it though Raethiephol was not at all.

During her stay on that mountain, Kurai once heard about Enma's story that he shared with some younger drakes while drunk—that made her realize why Enma was helping her in this journey, that she reminded him of his own young arrogant self, a self that ceased to exist when his beloved wife died.

Kurai felt… bad, genuinely, for once. Later, she decided to look into that subject.

In the meantime, the little Half Drake was coming to Kurai on her own from time to time, to try to teach her manners, while Kurai instead tried to teach the fool some self-respect, confidence, and arrogance to go with her powers.

On one such day when Kurai was busy with Raethiephol, Kundras came to report to her the finding on the real mission behind her coming here, to report if they had found any of the girls.

"None," Kundras reported, while Enma stood beside him. "No one at all. They all have never been seen here, surely not in the last month like you say they should have appeared in this world."

"Hmm…" Kurai looked down, but then just shook her head. "It's fine, Papa will find them then. Well I, uh, wanted to help him this once. But… I will try some other time."

Enma and Kundras exchanged glances as the former walked forward to pick Kurai up and pat her back. "It's okay, sometimes you need to realize that–"

"Huh? What? Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?" Kurai jumped off his hands and scoffed. "I am just a bit disappointed, not depressed. I realize I am not the strongest, not the smartest, and surely not Omnipotent—I can't do all the things in the world, it's weird to be depressed over a failure for a being such as I, as a failure that is not death makes me stronger."

"Huh." Both Enma and Kundras were stunned. "That's a surprise."

"What?"

"No, it's nothing." They both chuckled. "We just thought you were a reflection of our former selves, but haah, you are more mature than we expected."

"...." Kurai blushed a little. "Whatever. Now get out of here, I am busy teaching this brat some lessons."

While the two old men held back a chuckle, the young Raethiephol stared at Kurai with wide, dazzling eyes.

"Big sister!"

"What? I told you to stop calling me that!"

And thus, the days continued as Kurai lived with the drakes in the mountain.

* * *

Later, right before the incident with the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Kurai and Enma decided it was time to leave for their home. Kurai was surprised to find that the girl, Azula, was the princess of the Fire Country and so Raethiephol wanted to tag along on this journey back home saying she could always teleport back here whenever she wanted.

Kurai reluctantly agreed, surely not because she took a liking to this thing, and left for the eastern continent.

At the end of the three-day journey, Kurai dropped Enma off on his mountain first.

"Hear me out," Kurai told Enma who was on the ground as she stood in the air, with Raethiephol on her shoulders. "You are a… friend of Kurai, and that's a status quo different from any other. Do not shy away from using that status as a privilege when Papa in the end takes over the world and I naturally become the God-Princess of this planet. As a gift…"

Kurai jerked her head proudly, and with that gesture a body came out of her inventory—the body of an unconscious monkey, with the same white fur as Enma. Seeing this, Enma looked extremely confused before his eyes widened, he ran to the body and took it in his arms to realize… it was warm, it was alive.

"Your wife," Kurai said. "I am sorry I stole her body from her grave or at least the skeleton that was her body, without your permission. But I only had good intentions, with the help of Jashin the Death Goddess who luckily had this monkey's soul on her hold, and I just revived her with the soul."

The woman started to wake up in Enma's eyes, as his eyes flickered back from his wife and Kurai.

"Anyway, I will be taking my quick leave before things turn weird and emotional. Bye."

"H-hey! Wait! I said, wait–"

Kurai just vanished in thin air.

* * *

Kurai's journey afterward was short until she met Neji for the final time.

Right after she helped Raethiephol reach Azula's home, the Infinite Tsukuyomi struck the world.

[Ding! Due to your status as a God, you are immune to this illusion!]

That was what her system had said, but around her the entire world was covered in cocoons, including Raethiephol.

Somewhat annoyed, Kurai tried to contact Neji not long after that…and that's when she found out his pathetic state with Rumi beating him up.

Kurai couldn't hold it in and confronted Rumi, but Neji just gave her the same old 'this is between us' and told her to fuck off—Kurai hated that.

Later when the Tsukuyomi was lifted, Kurai paid a visit to Azula's home to make sure Raethiephol was fine. She wanted to leave after making sure of that, but she was forcefully pulled into a hot spring where she was disrespected by getting thrown water at, until at one moment she suddenly found herself in Neji's arms.

Kurai couldn't hold back a smug smile when she saw his surprise at her current [Level 1100]. "You thought I wasted the last two months?"

Regardless, as proud as she was, Kurai noted this was the end of her journey in this world. For the next one, she hoped fate had something fun planned as well.