Departure

"Oh yeah, I forgot to give you this since I was caught up with my training." Koku handed her the dark robe. It didn't look flashy and was pretty loose, as if the moment she put it on, her hands wouldn't be visible.

"Eh? I- thank you," Yoru bowed very slightly with a confused expression. "You're judging me so hard right now… just try it on," Koku told her, simply wanting her to see the gift. After some back and forth, Yoru tried the dark robe on and really couldn't tell much of a difference from her normal self. "Woah… it's comfy," Yoru mentioned after putting it on.

Koku wondered why she couldn't feel a difference but quickly dropped the thought, as Yoru had been visibly excited to leave the eternal city after a year. So after these two began leaving the city, Koku looked back at the city once more before leaving. "We probably won't find this place ever again… but it was nice living here for a while, right Yoru?" Koku smiled slightly, and Yoru saw that. "Yup, it's really pretty, and hey, maybe we can come back someday, who knows?"

With this, Koku and Yoru continued on their way out of the city. Thus, a little less than 20 minutes would pass by, and Koku, alongside Yoru, finally made it outside. "It's nighttime?" Yoru questioned. "Well, just because it was really bright down in the eternal city doesn't mean that it'll be daytime up here, Yoru." Koku went on to tell her some things, which she did not pay much attention to.

As Koku talked more and more, Yoru concentrated more and more on something. "Hey, can you smell that?" she asked Koku, which got his attention faster than she could blink. "We're being watched, is all," Koku calmly told her as his light purple eyes began to glow brighter.

With no light over them since the trees covered the top of the forest this far in, Koku's eyes looked like lasers, and when he moved, a trail of the glow would follow from the original spot his eyes had been at. "Let's greet them, shall we?" Koku asked Yoru, who was fairly strong for someone who doesn't have magic yet.

Yoru didn't say anything and just got into a knight stance Koku had shown her for defense. After she had gotten into this stance, Koku didn't move nor say anything, and after a few seconds of nothing apart from silence, Koku smiled as the things that had been stalking them from the tops of the trees jumped down.

What jumped down from the trees looked easily 11 feet tall, a muscular body, had four arms on top of two legs, and had four eyes in its face. Even in the dark, Koku and Yoru, who had been able to see in the darkness, could see that the fur was dark grey, practically nearly black.

So after seeing them land on the ground all around themselves, Koku counted a total of 40 monsters. "They look like gorillas," Yoru whispered at Koku. "You're right, they do look like gorillas, but regardless of this fact, let's test something out." Koku then told Yoru to stay where she was and to not move a muscle in these next few seconds.

After waiting for a few more to land on the ground, the monsters roared as they punched their chest in a very fast way. So as they did this, they began to run towards Koku and Yoru, and just as they made it two steps forward to Koku and Yoru, Koku pointed his hand at the gorilla-like monsters, which he was thinking might've been one of three types of gorilla monster look-alikes.

The monsters, who had now stopped roaring, focused on charging at Koku. As they did this, Koku smiled, and purple lightning shot out of his finger, which he had pointed at the leading monster. Killing it, Koku muttered, "Lightning bullet."

Koku then chuckled a little bit, "Lightning halo," Koku muttered with a smile dead on his face and his voice excited for actions… or results. As Koku said lightning halo, a lightning halo colored purple formed around Koku and Yoru. This halo then expanded insanely fast, cutting down 30 of the gorilla-like monsters.

"Oh… only 9 left. How sad, I'd really love to use my new skill sets more, but you're all so fragile," Koku sighed in disappointment. Taking a breath in, he made his hand close into a fist. When he did this, the lightning halo blew up only in the direction outside of the halo, killing all the remaining monsters.

Sigh "You've gotten really strong with that lightning," Yoru stated as she turns around, telling him that they ought to head in the direction which they came from. Koku didn't question it, as they could get some leads if they went back to that place full of slaves. So as Koku and Yoru walked in that direction, Koku asked Yoru if she knew why he'd seen almost no nekos in that town the year before.

"Oh, that's because Nekos, Wolf-kins, and Nine-tails fetch a high price in the market; if I remember, the highest one of the three is the Nine-tails followed by the Wolf-kin then us Nekos." After a few hours of walking in the direction they arrived from before they entered the forest. "Look, it's the lake where I cleaned that hide," Yoru was pretty happy, so Koku asked her if they still had the hide, and she nodded her head very cheerfully. "Yup, we still have the hide, and also while we were at that city, I cleaned it up more," She then handed the hide to Koku, who could see that it was completely clean and free of anything.

"You did an amazing job," Koku told her as he gave her a few more head pats. However, after this, Koku and Yoru continued on their way to the village, so after a little while longer, they'd reach the place and see a few people outside.

"Knights…," Koku muttered, as he further looked at them, "one of them is a high-ranking knight, and the other most likely his apprentice," Koku was thinking if they should try to sneak past them or fight them. "I'd say the other is a middle-level fighter?" Yoru added as they were still out of their plane of vision.

"Most likely. Hey, let's say if I attacked that other knight, would you deal with the apprentice, Yoru?" Koku's question to her wasn't even there for 3 seconds as she responded quickly and without hesitation. "Yes." Her response firm and unwavering made Koku smile as he stood up and whispered something to Yoru and disappeared in a purple flash as fast as lightning. This was due to an ability he'd gained from the Void lightning path training.

As Koku disappeared in a flash, he'd appear off to the side of the knights. So when he came in, he'd arrive from the side making the knights turn to his direction. And as he did so, Koku would arrive from the side, acting as an old man wearing a black robe (Not the dark robe). While Koku did this, Yoru was getting ready to take the weaker knight's life.

So as the two knights had seen Koku, they asked him who he was and to stay still, if not they'd attack him. Hearing this didn't change the fact Koku continued to walk towards them slowly, telling them, "I can't hear you," in a frail voice.