E9: Harvest Season Apples

"Isn't this great Anna?" Mizuki said, taking a stroll through her hometown with her trusty Maiden. The two attracted the eyes of all the townsfolk, many of them dropping their tasks to watch the two yokai leisurely slide their way down the street. "It's finally here, my favorite day of each year, but now we caused it!"

"Yes, but can't we enjoy autumn from somewhere more secluded?" Anna said, watching a leaf land on her shoulder. "And preferably roofed?" she then asked, plucking the leaf with two fingers and burning it to a crisp. She turned towards the people watching her, some parents hiding children behind their back.

"Go, back, to, work!" She commanded, watching the people scramble and quickly walk away to their own things.

"Mistress, we are way too exposed out here," Anna sighed, catching back up to Mizuki. "Couldn't we fly instead?"

"But then we couldn't take in the smell!"

"The smell?"

"Don't you sense it?" Mizuki said as they were coming up on the farm. Besides Anna, she seemed willfully naive of any human being around her. "All the different scents that blend together once everything ripens?" Anna sniffed the air, not sharing the Ryu's enthusiasm. "I only smell charcoal'ed leaves."

"You aren't trying. No matter, we're here!" Mizuki made a grand gesture to the orchard they arrived at, with acre's worth of trees filled with various fruits. She plucked one of the apples from a tree, the apple rapidly grew in her hand, rounding out to a beautiful shade of red and shining against the sun. "This one's excited for me, am I right Anna?"

"Yes, but careful, you are accelerating that fruit's life." Mizuki looked down, gasping as the Apple started breaking down in her hand, the apple turning into a gooey rotten mush that fell through the gaps between her fingers. "I didn't know ripening would do that…"

"I'm sure it was somewhere in the scrolls…."

"No, I've read the scroll on ripening. Nowhere in it mentions disintegration!"

"Impossible!" Anna took Mizuki's hand, inspecting it like a bloody glove. "The spirits wouldn't let such a detail slip. Your mind must be faltering."

"I assure you my mind is a bear trap. I'm willing to bet my left ear that the scroll does not contain this nugget of information."

"Are you saying-" Mizuki nodded, smiling with a devious glare and puffing out her chest. "Yes, we are going to…"

"....go add our contribution to history!" ("Leave this human-infected place!")

Mizuki looked at Anna while she yelled something that was not at all what she herself had in mind. Anna quieted down and trailed off, realizing the same. "Yes, add a contribution. I will ensure the path is quiet…"

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Anna and Mizuki entered the scroll room, Anna clapping once before white light illuminated the room tenfold. "You installed new flames?" Mizuki asked, able to see everything as if the sun had come down into the room itself.

"I do not know how you are able to read in here, we will need bifocals with how dim the candles are." With that they went to the general area that they remembered the scroll was and started pulling out scrolls at random. They got lucky as it only took a few tries before Anna pulled out the right one. "Aha!" Anna exclaimed as she saw the starting sentence. "This is the right one."

"Wonderful, is there any paper at the end?" Mizuki asked. Anna started unrolling the scroll, Mizuki holding the length of it while Anna worked her way towards the end. She went until the rolling stopped, staring at the paper closest to where it was attached to the core. "The characters go all the way to the end, shame," Anna said. "We can't add to it."

"What?" Mizuki peered over, seeing the handwriting using up every bit of space on the paper. Not even a random spot to cram one word was available. "Well, we can't attach new paper willily nilly…"

"Of course we can't Mistress. The scroll starts at the end," Anna sighed, rolling back up the scroll. "Although, I didn't catch any note of advanced ripening. It looks like you are keeping your ear."

"I knew it!" Mizuki celebrated, before hearing a swift sizzle. She looked at Anna, who was holding her pointy lamia ear. "...."

"This was the bet, no?" Anna said, extinguishing the flame around her hand and holding her head to stop the bleeding. "It is no issue as a...ow….maiden…"

"No no, please put back on your ear. That looked painful…." Anna nodded and pressed the ear back to her head, lighting one finger with a sharp flame and welding her ear back to her head. Mizuki took the scroll and put it back, putting a hand under her chin. "Well what now? I feel at a complete loss for this…."

"Well, I have only been a yokai for as long as you have," Anna said, wincing as she put the fine touches to the burn stitches on her ear. "But as this is a collection created over time, is it not reasonable there is a scroll that details how to add to a scroll?"

"That...makes sense." Mizuki cleared her throat and looked around in the corners, guessing this meta-scroll would be there. "We should add a system to these scrolls," Mizuki commented. "Did our predecessors expect us to recall each and every one?"

"Our minds wouldn't be as much of a bear trap if we didn't…"

"Whatever Anna," Mizuki said, picking up a scroll and unrolling it. "Jinja no makimono…"

"Translation, not Transliteration Mistress," Mizuki chuckled and finally read it in not yandere translator. "To add to the shrine scrolls, one must head the word of the scroll's creator. However, I recognize that whoever may read this may not know this person's location. That is why I have passed the information on to the family of the creator, each new branch learning off the location…."

"Does this story end?" Anna said, tapping her tail. Mizuki quickly scanned the rest, reaching a chart of the names of the bearers of the scroll. "Hey, Nabu is on this list…."

"Does that mean we go to her?" Anna asked.

"It seems so. But would harvest season end if I leave this place?"

"It will just take a bit longer to come here," Anna said. "It is nature after all, it can do fair without the active support of a yokai."

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"You have a holstaur?" Nabu said, arranging her new records onto one of the shelves. Marsaw hooted behind her, carrying books of the unsorted papers for Hakutaku. "A moo? That is just the layman way of saying holstaur."

"Hoot," Marsaw said, picking up a paper with her mouth and holding it out for Nabu to snag.

"You wish to request permission for her to stay? In the library?" Nabu seemed shocked; the Owl Mage wasn't one to allow anyone other than Yokai to exist on premises, much less invite someone. "Are you feeling well Marsaw?"

"Hoot." Marsaw's eyebrows furrowed. "Hoot, hoot."

"I apologize, it just feels uncharacteristic of you to harbor another being."

"Hoot hoot!"

"Well, researching that being does feel more inline with your disposition." Marsaw glared and dropped the pill of papers to the ground, flying off frustrated. "Hoot hoo. Hoot!"

"Please do come back when you're calm, there is no one else to keep the papers organized with me…" Nabu sighed and picked up a few papers, putting them one by one into the shelves. She heard the sounds of fire being shot out, and then two large presences hitting the floor. "That wouldn't happen to be the new lamias, would they?"

"They would!" Mizuki said, peeking around the library row. "Hi Nabu!"

"Hi. What a pleasant surprise. Was the forestry hard to navigate? There are a lot of tall and significant trees, so it is particularly difficult to fly."

"Oh, it was nothing!" Mizuki responded carefree."

"I really enjoyed brushing around bushes," Anna said sarcastically. "We came on a journey to add an addition to the scrolls in our basement storage." Nabu stopped what she was doing and turned, her sorting arm frozen mid-air. "You wish to lengthen a scroll? But it's only so recent, late generations rarely come across something prolific this early. What is it that you found?"

"If you prolong using your powers to ripen plants, the fruit will disintegrate," Mizuki said excited. "Isn't that fascinating?"

"What? That doesn't sound like ripening, that sounds more like rotting," said Nabu. She took off her hat, an apple that had been hidden under their falling off her head and into her hand. "Here, give me your hand." Mizuki held out her claw, Nabu placing the apple square in the center of her palm. The Ryu started ripening the apple like last time, watching it grow and turn redder until the fruit finally gave, lost it's saturated red, and collapsed in on itself as a pile of mush and dust. "Ah," Nabu said surprised. "That doesn't happen when rotting fruit on purpose…"

"No it does not. Does this mean that we get to add it?" Nabu pulled her hand back and went back to her filing. "I don't know…it appears too much of a small detail to add to a scroll."

"It is still a detail!" Anna yelled, catching a glare from Nabu. "I mean, with due respect…"

"Mmhmm. Mizuki dear, adding knowledge isn't as simple as you think. You would have to track down your maker of scrolls, and undergo an ardorous trial to get the page you desire."

"What of the papers you are sorting?" She asked as Nabu put another one into the bookshelf. "These manuscripts will not work. You need something made that comes from the will of nature itself, and the lands only permit the scroll makers to have such a privilege. Marsaw!" The Owl Mage flew by above, dropping a folded map in front of Mizuki and Anna. "Hoo!"

"No distasteful language in front of the guests Marsaw, what were Amaterasu think of that?" Marsaw ignored her and flew off, disappearing to some other part of the library.

"What did she say?" Anna asked?

"Nothing, Marsaw is just in a err...spiteful mood." Mizuki and Anna looked at it each confused. "Alright then….well, thank you for this map to the scroll maker."

"I am always here to facilitate records," Nabu said, looking to the side to see the two leaving. "And it is 'Maker of the Scrolls'! The title is very important to hold proper!"

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Mizuki and Anna traveled according to the map, staying on foot, so they didn't miss any important paths on the way. Anna, tired of pushing aside bushes and branches, decided to burn her way clear, leading the travel duo as she shot a cone of fire out in front of them. "Wouldn't Nabu be upset that you are harming the forest?" Mizuki asked.

"I have fire abilities, it is practically my job to burn, overgrown weeds of a forest. What will she do, book me to death?" Anna said boldly. Truth be told, she feared Nabu's aura, but any leeway shown to Mizuki could be disastrous. She pushed her angst behind a cone of white fire, setting trees and an unfortunate small fauna to a quick and blazing death. "She would have to first catch up."

"She might have time to do that," Mizuki said, pointing to a symbol on the map. It looked like a spirit, surrounded by a zodiac of various characters. "I think this is our first trial."

"Whatever it is, do I have the authority to kill it? It is the most effective way." Anna said, burning one last patch before stopping at a bridge.

"I don't think fire on a bridge is the best idea," Mizuki said, folding up the map and storing it away. "If we want to get to the maker of scrolls, we must get past this trial the right way. Also, we could fall down into whatever is there."

"So a river?" Anna said as she came up to the bridge. She peeked over to the side, seeing that she wasn't wrong. Only that her guess, was several stories down into a chasm, and rushing like rapids. Mizuki came over and peeked over as well, silently wincing at the drop below. "Well, it is a river…"

"A river Indeed!" speaking in bold print, the two turned their eyes up to the spirit on the river, a pink and watery humanoid with no mouth and white eyes. She had a tail for a lower limb much like Mizuki, slithering around fearlessly on the bridge. "I am ink of the maker of scrolls, and you, must be her yokai. I sense a familiar energy from within you." It somehow spoke, maybe telepathically, and point her limb towards Mizuki.

"Well, I am a bit of a rebirth, but I am inheriting a yokai."

"Well, if what you speak is true, then you must know of the three trials, no?" The water level started rising, as if a Dam had broken further up stream. Wind came out of seemingly nowhere, creating conditions akin to a typhoon around the wooden bridge. They both covered their eyes, leaning into the wind so they don't end up blown over. "T-trials!?" Mizuki yelled over the wind, her hair blowing hopelessly up.

"Trials! A scroll's alteration is no light asking. To make a change to the knowledge of the elders, they must see that your change is worth enduring the trials!" The wind got stronger, picking up to hurricane levels and blowing in all different directions. Water was rushing right below the bridge now, droplets flying into Anna and Mizuki. "Come now! Cross the bridge!"

"Mistress, can't you control this storm?" Anna yelled, starting to lose her grip on the ground. She grabbed on to Mizuki, closing her eyes as river mist kept blowing into their faces. Mana started gathering in Mizuki's hand, but continuously dissipated no matter how much she tried. "The control will not mount!" Mizuki shouted, shaking her hand in frustration. "It wouldn't be a trial if you were allowed to cheat the difficulty!" the humanoid announced, a zodiac akin to the one on the map surrounding Mizuki. "You must cross through sheer will; only then can you continue with your knowledge!"

"Sheer will?" Mizuki said to herself, barely able to see the bridge without losing more ground to the barrage of the wind. She furrowed her brow and got down low, hugging the ground while she started crawling over to the bridge. Anna, at first confused, did the same, getting on the ground. The wind is less, Anna thought; her head was still getting pounded, but as long as she kept herself staring towards the ground, everything else passed like knights over an undetected spy. Mistress...how did you know!?

Wow, I just wanted to hug the ground, but this crawling is actually going well, Mizuki thought, pleasantly surprised digging her claws into the dirt let her come across this strategy. Even still, crossing the bridge wasn't for the weak. It wasn't sturdy- It was held by an assortment of rope knots and platforms, swinging freely and erratically within the wind. My some miraculous measure, it was still holding together by the time Mizuki put a claw on the first wooden plank. She worked hard to catch each one, sliding her body across the bridge. Anna settled for holding onto Mizuki's tail, unable to grab anything with golden scales getting on the way.

"This, feels, so, uncomfortable!" Mizuki yelled, worrying about her skin getting splinters from sliding against the wood. Her form was certainly above such a mortal wounds, but it still hurt like hell when her kimono left her forearms unguarded. Their weight prevented the bridge from rag dolling around, but it still swayed like an amusement park ride, making Mizuki feel Nauseous as the world twisted and spun before her.

"What is wrong Ryu? Tis is only the first trial!" As if it wasn't worse enough, the bridge finally started groaning. Mizuki could hear the cracks in the wood and strings in the rope start to fray. Avoiding the distortion would leave a worse fate to look forward too, and she would only be dragging Anna with her.

She started pulling herself faster, literally clawing her way past the halfway point of the bridge. More rope started fraying, a wooden panel somewhere under her tail being the first to fall out from under her. She couldn't hear anything; only feel a lack of wood as the storm overshadowed any splash into the raging river.

"Mistress! Are you on land yet?" Anna yelled, blind to the progress of her superior. The rain completely nullified her powers, snuffing her white flames through the brute force of nature.

"All….Almost!" The Ryu only had a few planks left to pull herself over. Her arms were burning, close to failure; she decided to leap for it, holding on to the ropes while she stood up in the wind. From a more standing position, she could see how close the bridge was to being ripped away from the land, as the stakes in the ground were holding on by a thread.

"Nnnn!" She grunted as she jumped in the face of the wind. It went as well as trying to move a brick wall, the wind sliding her back as soon as her torso hit the grass. Her claws dug in as much as they could, each 1-inch-wide fang dragging the earth with them, until Mizuki had rooted themselves. She opened her eyes, seeing the pink humanoid above her, folding her arms while the hurricane continued wreaking havoc over them. "I did it! I crossed the bridge, please stop this!" Not a word came from the pink entity, but the bridge did the talking for it; it completely broke, Anna swearing like a sailor as she was suddenly in a free-fall into the ravine. The maiden held on to Mizuki's tail for dear life, swinging into the face of the cliff as soon as Mizuki's tail went taunt.

"Anna!" Mizuki screamed, struggling to hang on for the both of them, much less pull themselves up. For all the power she had at her disposal, not once did she ever train her lats or biceps. Her physical prowess can only be enhanced so much by her mana and monster girl form; it took all she had to hold them against the cliff, with one falter meaning getting washed away downstream.

"You're too heavy Anna!" Mizuki said. "And so am I! I can't pull us up!"

"You must!" Anna yelled back. "Or else we will never be able to meet the scrollmaker!"

"Maker of Scrolls, it's Maker of Scrolls!" The humanoid spirit said irritated, lightning striking right next to them on the rocky face. They screamed, getting too close to being shocked. "And if you are just going to stay stuck here, then we have no business here."

"No wait!" Mizuki called out, but she could feel its presence moving away. "No, please help us up!"

"To think you wanted to add a vital piece of information…no need, I'm sure the water will enjoy it much more. It obviously craves it more than you do."

"Grrr, why must our tails weigh so much!?" Mizuki tried pulling herself up again, but her arms were always too tired. "If only we were still human, we weigh too much!"

"Human...human! Mistress, there is a scroll on transformation!" Anna yelled. "Maybe the change will reduce our mass!"

"I...I can't! I didn't read that scroll!" Anna was taken aback. "What!?"

"I didn't want to change back to a human, I thought it was lame!" Mizuki said. "I'm sorry!"

"Mistress it is imperative that you read! Keep hang on!" Anna pressed her hand into the wall, the rain sizzling off and the area of rock liquifying. She kept pressing in, not stopping until she had melted a handhold for herself. There, she held on to it and started her transformation, her body shrinking until she was a short human once more. From there, she started going up the tail, making more handholds with her hands before leaping onto the end of her kimono.

"Eeeei!" The Ryu said, her claws sliding back a tad bit more from the sudden jump. "Careful!"

"I will be careful when read properly!" Anna stated. "I should have confirmed that you have internalized each lesson instead of taking your word, and I take blame for that." Anna scaled up Mizuki in the storm, pulling herself up her Mistress's kimono with only her hands. "As your Maiden, it is my duty to clean up the messes you make, and that is exactly what I intend to do!" She heard Mizuki shriek again as she grabbed the top of her kimono, which only came up to her boobs. "Anna!"

"There are no footholds, unless you are willing to do more than hang like a mortal without climbing gear!" She yanked herself up to shoulder height, wrapping her arms around Mizuki's neck. Looking down, she felt nauseous, more vulnerable to the elements now that she was human.

"A-Anna…" Mizuki begged, choking from her neck holding Anna. "I-Is sorry…"

"This isn't punishment, just a few more steps…" With a couple tries, Anna lifted her leg up onto Mizuki's shoulder, switching from neck to the top of her head to stand on her shoulders. She could finally see land, but Mizuki's claws were ridiculously close to slipping and falling away. She hopped onto land and quickly reverted, wrapping her tail around a tree trunk grabbing Mizuki's hand. Mizuki switched holds, now being supported by the tree and Anna rather than just her fingers. Anna started reeling her in, twisting along the tree while Mizuki finally got on the grass.

"Ahhh…." Mizuki sighed as she pulled the rest of her tail up herself, rolling onto her back. Her arms were completely dead, but at least the storm was yielding now that they were on the other side. "Thank you Anna-ow!" Anna started yanking on her ear fin quite harshly.

"You are a donkey! We could have fallen! This wouldn't have been so hard if you have just read!"

"I thought you hated being human since you were short! Ow, ow I relent I beg..."

"Hmph." Anna let go and sat up, looking at the pink spirit. "Oi, we beat your suicide bridge. Can we pass now?"

"Very well. If anything, at least the Yokai has a proper maiden." The spirit dissipated, leaving the path behind them for them to continue on.

_________________________________________

So they continued on traveling, headed to the next symbol on the map. "It appears there is only one more point on this map," Mizuki said, holding it sideways to check from another angle. "Just the bridge, and now the Maker of Scrolls. Isn't that swell?" Anna only shrugged, sticking to burning their path ahead of them.

"Are you still wet? I am sure I removed most of the water off of us. Just a quick snap and we were completely dry."

"Great," Anna said, spying a bug and snatching it out of the air to smolder in her palm. They walked in silence some more, Mizuki trying to think of what to say to break the tension between them. "Anna, I'm, did I ever apologize?"

"Yes, while I was starving you of air."

"Well, I want to thank you, for everything." Anna stopped burning a path, turning around to Mizuki. "Everything, as in?"

"You know, being my maiden and ensuring that, I am doing my best."

"Well then, I must be doing a terrible job." Anna turned back around and resumed her traveling.

"Anna-"

"A simple apology isn't going to make up for this, Mizuki!" Anna said snapping. "We could have died there. We are yokai, but if we weren't we could have died, or lost the trial. If you really want to make it up, just read the scrolls and don't be so lazy and informal!"

"...Alright, I'll do that. I'll read everything tonight, re-read them from front to back and practice." Anna scoffed at Mizuki's claim. "I'll believe you when I see it. Mistress, how far must we go?"

"Just an inch away from where we are!"

"Describe the landscape."

"Well, it seems to be on a hill," Mizuki said, looking at the rings around the symbol. "And surrounded by a bunch of trees."

"Everything is surrounded by a bunch of trees here." Anna sighed and started flying up, keeping Mizuki visible below her while she looked around for any particular hills around them. She spied cobblestone off in the distance, on what looked like it could be a hill.

"Did you find it yet?" Mizuki asked, shouting up to Anna.

"No thanks to you," she said coming back down. "Our best choice is to go a bit left."

"So it matches up with the map then!" Mizuki continued on, a bit of bounce in her step-

(or tail, idk how to describe slithering around like do you say it like she a snake or like where's the balance in vocabulary)

-while they walked along the path. When the path split ahead, they veered left, their choice proving to be right when they came across a cobblestone build. It was covered in moss and taken over by plants growing between the rocky cracks. "Maybe she hasn't been reborn yet?" Mizuki thought out loud, being reminded of her shrine before her training started. "Impossible, we already came across the spirit." Anna touched the wall, feeling it for any secret switches that could pop up. "Surely it's a trick to ward off onlookers from thinking there is anything valuable in there."

"Or anyone valuable," The spirit came out through the wall, scaring the calm out of both of them. "Our...or my powers are tied to the powers of the Harvest deity. Without them, we have to resort to unsightly methods to ward off intruders."

"Sorry about that," Mizuki said.

"It is fine, the lapses between power is routine," the humanoid said. "However, I still cannot let you through. The gods may have let you choose the correct path, but there is one last trial to undergo."

"Yes, the gods…" Mizuki nervously laughed, before being elbowed quiet by her Maiden. "Oof!"

"What is the trial," Anna asked plainly.

"Ah, well it is a simple puzzle. Wouldn't have anything too drastic indoors. It isn't easy to clean up after storms…" the spirit led them inside, taking them down an increasingly dark corridor. "Maiden, light if you will." Anna's fingers started glowing, shining bright enough to see around them. "That will do. Now then, if you don't mind I will go back to my trial tone now. I must be authentic or else the tests will be void."

"Oh, I don't mind," Mizuki said. "I actually like it, helps establish the atmosphere."

"Fair enough….ahem...now then Shrine Deity, shrine Maiden, your next trails shall be held in solitude!" A pink dividing line shot up between Mizuki and Anna, crashing into the wall to completely cut off the two from each other. "What!?" they both yelled, banging against the divide to try to brute force it down.

"You can't do this!"

"What's your motive!?"

"I must know who really wants to have the scroll revised, that is all." the spirit said. "No use getting through. My power is tied to the Ryu's power. Anything she does will be met with equal guard!" Anna took offense to this, unleashing a blast of white flame onto the pink divide. "You thought I would forget about you? A maiden cannot overpower her superior."

"That is ridiculous!" Anna claimed. Her blast got larger and brighter, the backwash of the flames filling the hall with white and blue embers. She gave until she exhausted her mana, her chest heaving as if she just finished a marathon.

"If you're done with your excursion, that time would be better spent doing your trial." From then on, the spirit split into two different bodies - one for each side of the divide. "This way Anna," the one on the Shirohebi's half led her back towards the entrance, while the other grabbed Mizuki's arm. "You, are coming with I."

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Anna's path took her out of the crypt and above it, going up the hill the cobblestone was built into. She was brought to a circle of stones and sat down in the middle of the circle. "Do you know what this is?"

"No, is this a ritual that I must perform?"

"No. It is a trust exercise, per se."

"Why would the last trial be a trust exercise?" Anna asked. "Wouldn't I need Mizuki to be here with me?"

"No need for that. If you two were together, then it wouldn't be a worthy final trial…" The stone formation started to glow around Anna, its energy pouring into a large dome that surrounded the both of them. "There is only one right way for the both of you to succeed…"

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"And if you don't, the consequences could be dire," the spirit said to Mizuki. She had taken her right under Anna, deep underground into the cavern. A similar setup was in place with Mizuki also in a ring. She gasped at the 'dire' wondering what punishment she might have. "I wouldn't want anyone to die or get hurt.."

"Glad we are in agreement then," The spirit said, floating to the top of the room they were in. "There is a point in this roof that leads to the outside. You can use it to control the weather on the surface."

"Is it how you were able to?"

"No, but it is a nice guess. All I want you to do, is cause a continuous lightning strike to hit the ground above us."

"Oh, that is simple!" Mizuki seemed surprised that this would be the last trial. She raised her hand and closed her eyes, concentrating her control on the roof above her. Anna made sure that she had a bit of practice in precision, so managing a lightning strike shouldn't be too hard for her, she thought…

_________________________________________

"What!?" Anna exclaimed. "You asked her to harm me!?"

"No, I asked her to strike the area with lightning," the spirit said. "I know you don't trust her. You think she is unable to sense you, no?" it floated around Anna, Anna turning her head from where she sat. "That she would end up injuring you, maybe even killing you with her lack of discipline."

"What would you know," Anna shot back.

"I wasn't born yesterday. I hear you berating her. Talking down to your own deity, have you no shame?"

"She didn't read a scroll because she thought it wouldn't be fashionable. You wouldn't say anything about that?"

"If I had a superior, I wouldn't! You are only a Maiden Anna, and maiden's don't berate the ones they serve," she said with a glare, staring into Anna's angry gaze. "Even if it kills them. That is the level of trust you must have in Mizuki, and the amount needed to reach my physical form."

"So to summarize, this last trial is nothing but punishment. I see…" Anna got up and started walking towards the edge of the dome.

"Where are you going?"

"I don't need to listen to your nonsense anymore. Like I'm one to play someone else's games…" Anna started looking around for a way to get out, digging her tail in to see if she could go under. The storm started forming while she searched, a mass of spiraling clouds darkening over her. "Maybe it doesn't extend below…"

"This could be your last chance to pass, Mizuki can easiest sense you when you're still."

"Kiss my white-scaled ass."

"Your choice, if you choose to suffer." The spirit ended her last note eerily, looking up at the sky as Mizuki's storm grew to higher proportions. It rumbled a few times before the show started, lightning striking around the area. Back down underground, Mizuki was doing her best to bring the strikes dead center. "This would be so much faster if I didn't have to control it all through a peephole."

"All for the sake of the trial. If you're able to bring enough down here, you can use the power to open the gate over there." Mizuki looked toward where she was pointing, seeing a metal gate blocking a pathway. "All the yokai before you have been able to do it, it just takes some focus." Mizuki nodded and continued on trying, visualizing its path down the soil and rock to crash into the gate. Anna was able to see it through the corner of her eye as she dug, starting to feel the hair on her head stand and bend from the static in the air.

"There!" Anna said, finally finishing her plan. She had dug a hole into the edge of the dome and was ready to tunnel her way from the dome. She turned around to the spirit, holding her hands up and ready to chop the ground. "And you said there was only one way."

"Whatever you try, it is going to be the last thing you ever do."

"I do my last thing when I decide so! Not when a yokai tells me to." Anna lit her hands on fire and started striking the ground, turning her arms into jackhammers as she burned the snow out of the way. Her head quickly disappeared below the line of lingering fire, the white flames not ending until a flash of lightning finally fell on its target. It made a beeline for the corner, going Through Anna's body while on its trip underground.

"I heard a scream," Mizuki said, sensing that she hit something on accident. "Maybe I should stop…" she said worryingly, but the spirit grabbed her arms, keeping them up and still before she could stop her conjuring. "If you stop, you fail the trial. The 'deer' just needs to learn to stay still."

"But the deer could die!"

"Not if you bend the lightning around it. You summoned the lighting, just move it." As if Mizuki was sure to already know how, the spirit dismissed the problem as if it was a minor inconvenience. "I wouldn't leave the lightning going through it though. A charred corpse would slow the flow enough for the gate to stay closed." Mizuki did her best to avoid any bodies, but each time she pulled the flow somewhere else, the deer would seem to move as well. "This is impossible! Come on deer…" Mizuki said, hoping whatever animal was up there would come to its senses. "Anna was right...I wish I listened to her more…"

That animal would not, or at least, it refused to.

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"Arr!" Anna groaned as another lightning strike hit her back. She had long abandoned digging, but even then, she wouldn't sit still. Every strike seemed to follow her now, coming into the dome and making a bee-line for her body. "Call off the trial, this is, arggg!" Another one hit her tail, leaving her with a smoky sensation, more smoky than usual…

"I tried to warn you. But then not only you refuse to heed simple instruction, but then you dive into your rebellion and insult a Maker of Scrolls! Frankly, you deserve everything coming to you." The spirit folded its arms, looking down at Anna with the gaze of an annoyed teacher. Anna didn't respond, staring down at the ground with gritted teeth. Each time the pain relinquished, she kept moving away only for the shocks to lock back onto her. Despite her actions, there was a small part of her that wanted to stay still. Everything else though...everything else saw trust as suicide.

"Your right," Anna said, keeping her voice down so the spirit wouldn't actually hear her admission. "I hate this, but I can't trust her. She just...feels too playful and-ow-too carefree. She doesn't take her job as seriously, and I follow my tasks with too much urgency." She looked up at the lightning, the pain starting to numb against her. "I demanded too much from her. It wouldn't hurt for her to read all the fucking scrolls...but if I somehow don't die, then I suppose…" She closed her eyes and laid on the ground, waiting for the lightning to finish its job. She expected her consciousness to fade along with the pain, but for some reason, her eyes were able to open.

"In the sun god's name, why am I alive?" she asked herself, starting to move but stopping; not because she finally had trust, but because her yokai form was too drained to move. She looked on to the center of the dome, where a constant flow of lightning was being routed straight into the ground.

"I would say to stay still, but now you're physically incapable of moving," the spirit said, coming into Anna's line of view. "Your deity just needed to bring the lightning on the right path, without hitting you of course. That was the trial."

"Fuck….you…" Anna could swore she saw the spirit smile on her mouth-less face. "Still so disobedient to the end. It is a wonder that Mizuki likes you. Well then, let me take you down to her…" the spirit reached out a hand, only for Anna to slap it away.

"Now Anna."

"You think….I need someone like you...to get down?" Anna said, pushing herself up onto her ass. Her body started shrinking down to her human form. She got up on wobbly legs, brushing the burnt particles and grass off her dress while she got her footing.

"Yes, only I know the way to meet up with your deity."

"I...I have a better one."

"With that body?"

"Yes, as you see, I found out something earlier, while I was pulling hundreds of pounds of dragon up a cliff." Anna got into a wide stance and took a deep breath, then yelled like a banshee as an aura of white flame engulfed her human body. "Being a human uses less mana!"

"Amusing parlor trick, but what are you going to…" Anna ignored her, going to the lightning and raising a palm to strike the ground next to it. "What...what are you doing...stop, stop that!" The spirit quickly put two and two together, but by then, it was too late to stop a new route being made.

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"I'm so proud of myself!" Mizuki said, standing before the open gates. Blue lightning pulsed through the gates' veins, keeping it open wide. "I even managed to save the deer as well! How's that for passing a trial spirit? Spirit of scrolls?" She looked at the wide-eyed humanoid staring up at the ceiling, where the lightning shot in only to go towards the gates. All of a sudden, the second spirit flew in, immediately fusing with the one with Mizuki.

"Spirit?" She still got no answer, but the ceiling collapsing around the lightning stream was a pretty good replacement answer. The cascade pilled over the formation on the ground, a few bits and pieces getting vaporized in the lightning. Finally, Anna fell down after, shooting fire at the pile to slow her fall before sliding down the mass of rubble. "Anna!" Mizuki rushed her and hugged her Maiden, getting a few nuzzles in while the human was too small to deflect her cheek away. "Not to hard, you will break my bones!"

"Oh, hehe. You were just gone for so long, I'm glad you're safe now though...and a bit..burnt." Mizuki noted the ruined, slightly oversized Kimono on Anna. "Was your trial alright?"

"More than alright, I could handle it all and then some!" Mizuki chuckled again. "Sure, sure you did."

"If you two are done, I have a, erm, physical form that needs revealing," the humanoid shouted, floating into the gates. It still seemed offed by Anna's grand entrance but didn't say anything about it yet. Mizuki started following, but Anna jumped up and tapped her shoulder.

"Oh, yes Anna?"

"I….I wanted to apologize for earlier. I shouldn't have yelled at you for not reading the scrolls. It is your choice how you decide to use your time, and as your Maiden, I should respect that decision. From now on, I won't question you." Mizuki put her hands on her hip, getting a chuckle out of Anna's apology.

"Is my realization funny to you Mistress," Anna asked, feeling a mix of disappointment and anger from her reaction.

"No no, it is that, I prefer your questioning. I was trying to route the lightning, but it was near impossible to get it around the deer. I would have done a lot better, had I trained."

"A deer?" Mizuki nodded her head. Anna wasn't sure if she should clarify who the deer was, but at least she and Mizuki seemed to be on the same page. She gave a slight smile and started walking, passing her Mistress to go into the gates. "I'm glad that we have an agreement then," she said, lighting a flame and leading the way after the spirit.

_________________________________________

The spirit took them to a little workroom, opening the door to piles on top of piles of scrolls strewn all over the place. A Ryu was in the middle of it all, scooting as much of the mess as possible around to make some space for her two guested. She had purple-blue hair and a fuchsia color on her tail. A blue lotus was pushed into her hair, bouncing lightly as the Ryu slithered around to pick up scrolls by the armful. She had slight bags under her eyes and seemed jumpy with little twitches in each movement. "Oh my, that explosion shook everything down!"

"Sorry about that," Anna said flatly. "That tends to happen with rocks falling down."

"I will not hesitate to kick you out!" she yelled, hissing at Anna while she clutched her scrolls. "I have hundreds of things I could be doing rather than entertaining a homewrecker. Like entertaining a deity."

"Well," Mizuki said, taking an apple out from behind her dragon ears. "I have a ripening spell that has...a dire effect when overused."

"Show," the Maker of scrolls said. Mizuki started ripening the apple, the fruit visibly getting shiner and more red until it started to rot, and then skip right to turning to dust. Mizuki looked up at the other Ryu, who stroked her chin. "Interesting...do you have the scroll?" Mizuki nodded and started patting her body, the pats slowing down as she didn't feel anything on her body. "Oh snapples."

"We, forgot, the scroll?" Anna seemed dumbfounded at their blunder. For all that they went through, they didn't even consider that the Maker of Scrolls would need the actual scroll. Crazy, huh?

The scrollmaker rolled her eyes and dug around, taking an empty scroll and tearing a part of the sheet off. She then bit her finger, using the drops of blood as ink to write the new addition. "Here," she said, handing the slip to Mizuki. "As long as you touch the scroll with this page, the amendment shall be official." She then gave Mizuki a second piece of paper, a small business card/talisman with her information on it. "Use this, so you won't have to do any more trials."

"That was….unexpectedly quick and simple for what we went through," Mizuki said.

"I got shocked to near death for this! There has to be some sort of payoff right?" Anna complained.

"Trust me, after you live long enough, you will start finding a lot more new things to bring to my attention. Seeing the entire process is like eating candy. Sweet the first few times, but bland and routine if you do it too often."

"It could not hurt to see it once though…" Mizuki trailed off to read the business card. "..Uddona?"

"....fine, you two move aside. I need space for a summoning circle," the scrollmaker said, getting out of her chair and pushing scrolls aside.

"Yay!"

"Alright!"