[UPDATE IN PROGRESS] Onmyou-Pocketville: Fallen Dusk

Chapter 34: The Bamboo Skirmish

Content Warning: This chapter features scenes of blood, violence, and distressful situations.

Miyoshi did all she could to pry the fusuma open after it suddenly shut without warning. There was no lock on the door, so it baffled her and the others who were trapped in the Chamber of Kami with her.

"This door's locked...without a lock and key! How?!"

"Maybe...try bursting through? The fusuma is made of painted parchment and a wooden frame after all."

"Splinters, Tia. You do not want to get them." Amaterasu's voice called with unamusement. "That would also be a waste of good art."

"Let me open the door. Everyone here, move out of the way please." Lilie sat Malorie and Hana down on the mats and sauntered over to where Miyoshi stood, others backing up to make way for her. But as she was about to place her paws on the frame, a wisp of golden light emerged from the darkness and squirmed through the crevice. Lilie didn't notice it, and gleamed with surprise once the door finally slid open. "Oh dear..."

"How...how can you do that?!" Miyoshi asked with wide sunlit eyes.

"Grandma's really strong," Malorie replied to the priestess of the shrine. "Or...it was probably because of the— LIIIIIGHT!"

It came to show that Malorie noticed the onibi instead. As Onmyoujin poured out like a mudslide, she and Hana were dragged by Lilie as she sprinted out of the room and out of the entire shrine, followed by everyone else. Surely the wisp of light either helped Lilie open the door or opened it for her.

"Sweetie, we'll talk about it later." Lilie's doting words then became urgent and hasty, just as a shadow emerged from the other side of the crimson torii. "We need to get out of here! I know exactly who that spirit is..."

Outside the shrine walls, fog grew ever so thicker, clouding the forest of bamboo into a region of uncertainty and possible danger. Everyone who gathered bamboo for use were confused at the sudden change of weather and especially at the fog quickly forming.

Lilie twirled around for a moment, her long, wisp-like tail waving. Her vibrant red kimono morphed into the white and deep crimson attire she had worn last night when helping to fight off Shiranui and Hairo, similar to the Royal Guards' two-piece kosode and hakama kimonos. She turned to face the eyes within another wall of fog, this time even darker than what surrounds and more like a noxious smoke. "You there!"

"Those eyes...it must be Shiranui!" Amaterasu huffed as she sprinted out of the shrine. "But 'Shiranui' seems to be another guise of a powerful miasmic spirit..."

"Then who is Shiranui?" Lilie shouted from a distance.

"I...don't...know!" Amaterasu threw an ofuda at Shiranui, though the entity dodged it by darting to one side faster than the fox could catch her moving. As she moved, now the shape of Shiranui has been revealed. She looked similar to her previous form as Sakuya, sporting dark fur that was unnaturally inky and a raven mane with flowing strands, but with two tails like a nekomata. Her shape presented as lean, with slender legs.

"Nice try. How laughable are your attacks? You fight like a kit!"

Amaterasu growled back with such ferociousness, her ears flattening and thick vulpine fur puffing up to give the illusion that she grew to a larger size. Her tails straightened and became very stiff. "LEAVE US ALONE, SHIRANUI! WE WANT NONE OF YOUR GAMES!"

"Make me," taunted Shiranui. Black smoke rose from her paws and into the air, covering her shape entirely. Then it disappeared, showing her new gijinka form. Her black kimono lacked a pattern, though it was also very elegant with a flower-shaped knot on the obi. Her mane retained its loose, unkempt state. One of her forepaws held onto the crimson handle of something secure at the obi, and a long sheen of steel was shown once she slowly pulled the weapon out. She had a katana of her own.