Satori Saves The Day

Kuro-Koji landed on his feet instead of getting knocked into a tree like Satori hoped.

“Damn, I should’ve kicked him harder. Oh, well.” Satori brandished dual daggers from their sleeves before sprinting toward Kuro-Koji’s position. He barely had time to prepare any illusions of himself before Satori slashed them away. Satori was about to pierce his chest with them, but Kuro-Koji conjured blue flames in front of him, which caused Satori to back off.

He used those seconds of free time to catch his breath, gripping the wound Yukimura inflicted on him. “So that’s how it—” When Kuro-Koji began to speak again, Satori kicked off the dirt, pushing themselves toward him.

“No more talking, fox.” Kuro-Koji didn’t even have time to speak between Satori’s swift strikes. It took all his focus to dodge until Satori seemed to run out of steam. When Satori jumped a few steps back, panting, Kuro-Koji stuck out his hands to launch his signature flames at Satori.

“Idiot,” Satori mumbled under their breath as they began to dodge Kuro-Koji’s flames. Satori dodged with great speed and efficiency, as if they knew where the flames were going to land.

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon! Where’s that spunk from the individual who kicked me earlier? Huh?”

However, Satori did not respond to Kuro-Koji’s question; they only jumped up the tree behind them as they continued to dodge.

“Running now, are we?” Kuro-Koji aimed his hands toward the tree before shooting flames at it, burning it. Satisfied with the sight, he turned his focus to Yukimura and the Kishin behind her. “Now, where were we?” However, turning around was his biggest mistake because he couldn’t see Satori leaping from behind him with a dagger.

The dagger pierced his head, and a second later, Satori used their other dagger to decapitate the yokai. Kuro-Koji’s head stayed impaled on Satori’s dagger as they turned to Yukimura to ask, “There’s no other yokai out here I have to kill, right?” Yukimura didn’t speak, only shaking her head in response. “Alright, good, good…good.”

It only took a few seconds for Kuro-Koji’s head and body to disperse like the wind. After confirming the yokai was dead, Satori knelt to check Rentarou’s pulse. There was a brief pause before they gave an OK sign with their fingers. “He’s still alive, phew. I thought he was a goner for a second.”

“Um…Satori…”

“Hm? What do you need, Yuki?” Satori whipped their body around like a snake to face her.

“Thank you… for saving… us.” Before Satori responded, they could see Yukimura’s arms trembling. Her breathing was unsteady, and she could barely hold her sword with the energy she had left. But despite how exhausted and injured everyone around them was, Satori only continued to brush off the situation.

“Oh, that? It’s no big deal, really. But before you start to rest up, can you help me load these two into my car? We need to hurry to get back before Taku wakes up and gets all grumpy at you guys.”