The Dragon Shapeshifter

Chapter 7 Part 1

The Destruction of The Sky Comet Dragon and Pavilion Mantis and The Two Yukumo Guardian Monsters

~Opening Theme: Monster Hunter World OST - Proof of a Hero~

The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

**Human World**

Somewhere near Tokyo, Japan, there is a beautiful shrine that's far from the capital city of Japan and near a big forest blooming with wildlife. Outside the shrine, there is one individual sitting in the flat grass while grooming a smaller individual's hair on her lap.

The taller individual is an attractive young woman with pale skin, very long black hair and a ponytail held by a purple ribbon, and brown eyes. She wore a white short sleeve shirt with black sleeves, collar, and a purple ribbon on the collar and brown short pants. This was Akeno's mother, Shuri Himejima. She's a priestess (miko) from her clan called the Himejima Clan.

The small individual is a pretty young girl with long straight black hair, violet eyes, and the same pale skin as the Miko. She wore a red kimono with a white interior and a yellow obi. On her hands, she is carrying a red ball with horizontal black thin lines which make it almost look like a basketball. This is Shuri's first and only offspring, Akeno Himejima.

Shuri and her daughter are outside of her home to wait for a particular person to arrive at her household, but they can as well enjoy the view of the sunset before it gets dark. The house of Shuri and her husband looks like the traditional Japanese house with a black rooftop, white exterior walls, rice paper windows with frames made out of brown wood, and doors made out of the same product as the windows.

"Mommy, when will daddy come home?" Akeno questions her mother.

"He'll come home soon, Akeno, I promise since your father really wanted to see you as well." Shuri says with a warm smile on her beautiful face.

"I hope so." Akeno said looking at her ball in slight disappointment, but shorty replaced it with a joyful face for her father promised he will be home at sunset.

"Well sweety, since your father is coming home, I will make dinner for the family," Shuri says walking towards the front door of her shrine. "And Akeno please stay in the front yard for mommy." Akeno's mother says before entering her home to cook some meals.

While Akeno's mother left her daughter unattended, Akeno starts bouncing her ball on the ground by throwing it on the ground with her hands. Doing this helps her clear mind about her father will be probably be arriving home late. However, she still felt something in her mind she really wants to have in her childhood, a friend. It's important for a girl like her to make contact with people outside her mother's house, so she can learn about the world around her.

Just when she was enjoying playing with her ball, Akeno accidentally bounced it on her left knee causing the ball to reach ten feet in the air, due to her being half-blood of a supernatural being. After the ball was in the air, it quickly begins to fall from the sky until it hit a big tree branch which causes the round object to roll on it. When it reached the end of the branch, it again fall but this time in a forest full of trees and wildlife.

Normally it would be easy to get a ball at short distances, as a child, but from Akeno's unfound strength it would at least take a mile (or two) to get her ball. She knows her mom told her not to leave the front yard, however her ball is out there in the forest near her home. So, like any polite girl, Akeno got up off of the ground to run into her mother's house.