A Date With The Moon

Oriente 6, Heaven

I couldn't believe that I was once again on my way to the forest where an evil goddess had tried to kill me yesterday, but I had to try it to at least ease my desperation to be reunited with my sister and mother, to tell them that I was safe and alive, and for that I had to leave here and return to earth. This time I would try to erase my bad impression from yesterday with the paste that Momo had given me and with which I would try to appease the spirits of the goddess. I was almost at the temple; I hoped to finish this quickly and be back before lunch at the hotel.

I was already walking along the river, trying to walk as calmly as possible so as not to look like a threat, although I did check my gun again to make sure it was loaded, just in case. In the distance I could see the roof of the temple I had repaired yesterday. I crouched down and started walking slowly to hide and see if I could observe if the girl was still in the place or if she had already left like she said yesterday. Looking at the place, I could see that the door to the small temple was open, in addition to a fire burning some meat and some small packages made of leaves. It seemed that the girl was packing her things for the trip, although she was nowhere to be seen.

As I watched, I saw a small fox come up beside me and watch me. At first, it seemed to be just a curious animal, fascinated by the presence of a human, but after looking at it for a second, I remembered that I might be dealing with a Kitsune goddess, who was perfectly capable of transforming into that fox to catch me off guard. So I grabbed my weapon and aimed it at her.

"TCH!"
"You're much more perceptive than I expected," the fox said effortlessly.

Just as she spoke, a huge cloud of smoke erupted from the animal and vanished almost instantly, revealing the blonde girl in its place, along with her strange spear, pointing at me without fear.

"Stop! Wait! Wait!"
"Calm down!"
"I'm not here to hurt you! I just want to talk."
"That's all! I swear!"
"Look, I'll leave my gun where you can see it."
"You can stay there if you want, I won't come any closer."
"I know yesterday wasn't the best introduction, but I want to talk to you for a moment."

"I held up my end of the agreement yesterday, trusting in your goodwill."
"Yet here you are today, again presenting yourself with that strange weapon.
"Are you looking for a slow and painful death, foul mortal?"

"I am sorry to trouble you again.
"I know I'm causing you a lot of trouble, but I still need to talk to you."

"So, did you come to capture me yourself?"
"Did the hunters threaten you into revealing my whereabouts?"

" It is my sister."
"She is a young girl, but her health is very weak."
"The angels promised me that they would help her with her health if I helped them with some things."
"Not with you! It was something else, stealing an object elsewhere."
"The problem is, I'm afraid there's been a misunderstanding, and I'm afraid that greatly exaggerated news of my death may have reached her or my mother, and it would devastate them emotionally."

"Interesting story you had there."
"Still, your problem is with the angels, not with me."

"She's human, she lives on earth."
"I know we don't look alike right now, but she's my sister."
"What I'm looking for is a way back to Earth, that's all."

"The answer is still no.
"I do not care what happens to your sister or to you.
"I just want to be left alone."
"Now you'd better leave before my goodwill runs out and I put a thousand curses on you!"

It seemed as if our conversation was going nowhere with her, even as she still wielded her Japanese lance. But our little argument had to be postponed when a huge rumble echoed through the sky. We both turned to see what it was when we noticed a glowing streak, accompanied by a trail of smoke, moving at great speed closer and closer to the ground until there came a moment when we could see it was a purple crystal stone hurtling toward what we perhaps realized too late would be us. The meteorite hit only a few feet away, but it had barely finished its impact when huge, black, pointed legs emerged from the crater. From what we thought was a small hole emerged a gigantic monolith, about four meters tall, made mostly of stone with a huge purple crystal for a head. A creature unlike any living thing we had ever seen turned violently in our direction and took a slight step back, as if preparing for battle.

"But what is this thing?"

The Goddess asked confusedly, but before she could speak further, a huge halo of purple energy formed from the crystal head near the center of the legged monolith. Her figure seemed incredibly familiar to me, as if I knew her perfectly and knew that something like this shouldn't exist. In front of me was a Nightmare Eye, a dragon from the defeated Atlantis that had reappeared against my wishes. Its power was deadly, with a laser that could aim perfectly at something flying miles away in the sky; the only way to dodge its attacks was to play chicken and risk dodging at the last possible second.

"Watch out! Dodge!"

I shouted to the girl to warn her of the impending attack, but seeing that she wouldn't have time to realize what was happening, I decided to run and push her out of the way of the laser, which missed both of us by only a few meters.

"Hey, are you okay?"
"Get up quickly, that thing's going to attack again," I said as I helped her to her feet.

"What is that thing? Did you attract it?"

"No, I'm sure I didn't bring it here."
"Is this the first time you've seen this thing or something like it in this forest?"

"I've never seen that thing in my life!"

The crystal monster moved sideways like a crab towards where I had stood before, where I had left the cake and my weapon, then another halo of energy appeared above its head, its own attack. I took the blonde girl's hand so she would follow me and began to zigzag to avoid the next deadly attack. When the beast failed again, it let out a powerful roar of rage.

"Are you sure you can fight that thing?"
"Aren't you hurt from yesterday's incident?"
"You can let go of my hand if you want."

"Oh, I'm sorry! I did it by accident, it wasn't my intention."
"Don't worry about me, I'll complain about the pain when that thing isn't trying to kill us."
"We have to do something, just dodging won't be enough to defeat it."

"What if you attack it with your boomstick?"
"It seemed pretty powerful."

"You mean my pistol?"
"The one behind what is trying to destroy us?"
"What if you attack it with that pillar of blue fire from yesterday?"

"That monster is made entirely of rocks and minerals."
"If I use a fire that can melt it, it will be so powerful and flashy that the hunters will notice me right away."

"!!!!"
"Here it comes again! Get ready!"

Just as I finished speaking, both she and I jumped in different directions to avoid the attack. But the monster, learning from its mistakes, moved at the last second and hit Tamamo-no-mae directly.

"AAAHH!" she screamed as she fell to the ground, wounded.

With no time to lose, I ran to her side and quickly checked her wound while the Nightmare Eye returned to its position. She had a huge hole in her chest as if to see through to the other side, a horrible wound indeed, but she somehow remained alive despite what was clearly an instant fatal injury.

"Shit, this isn't good."
"We need to stop the bleeding quickly or you might lose too much blood."
"Quick, put this on the wound and press hard."
"Give me a moment and I'll get you to a doctor, hold on!"

"Watch... out..."

The monster didn't attack with lightning this time, but decided to try to pierce me with the tip of one of its legs. It tried not to make any noise, but thanks to the warning, I was able to react in time and move away with Tamamo. But it wouldn't matter if I couldn't finish off this thing and get it to a place where it could be treated. This Tower Crystal is almost identical to a Nightmare Eye Dragon, so maybe its weakness is also the platform at the top. But what can I hit it with that will be strong enough to bring it down?

"Use my naginata to attack him," the girl said as her spear magically fell beside me to be picked up.

"Thank you," I replied.

I took her spear and started running a little away from her to the other side, forcing the monster to choose between attacking the girl on the ground or the one with the weapon in her hand. The tower-like monster made the obvious choice and began to run after me, deeper into the forest, where the undergrowth was thicker and especially with much larger trees, so it couldn't move as freely.

After dodging a few of its leg attacks, I quickly climbed one of the tallest trees. I won't lie, it hurt a lot from the effort I had to make to be fast, and my hands hurt a little despite the gloves I was wearing, but I had managed to confuse the Crystal Beast, making it seem to spin around looking for me. I took the opportunity to move between the branches to position myself just above what could be considered its head, preparing the spear with the tip down. After it pausing for a moment, I launched myself with all my might. It was a perfect hit, so good in fact that the monster fell as if someone had turned off a machine, so abruptly that I had to hold onto the same spear to avoid falling from that height. Once on the ground, I removed the spear from its body and started running towards the girl. There was no time to lose; I had to get her out of here as quickly as possible.

"It...hur...ts," she said.
"...help...!"

"Hang in there."
"I'm going to get you out of here right now."

I moved quickly to check her wound again and could hardly believe what I saw. Her wound seemed much smaller than the first time I had seen it, but it could have been the nerves of fighting that monster that made me not see it with the attention it deserved. Still, the girl needed immediate medical attention, even though she didn't lose any more blood. Since it was a laser, it had probably cauterized the wound immediately.

"Okay, that's all the first aid I can do for now."
"Keep pressure on the cloth, hold it and don't let go."
"I'm going to carry you on my shoulders to a doctor. "
"It's going to be pretty bumpy, but hold on as best you can."

I took the girl and hoisted her onto my shoulders like a fireman, which would allow me to get her out of here faster than any other way. It was a demanding and exhausting technique, but it was something I had to do to save her, so without complaining, despite the wounds I had from yesterday, I set out. The way was long, the time was short, the terrain was difficult, and the fatigue was high.

"Are you okay up there? Does anything hurt?"
"Are you cold?" I asked her nervously.

"Please help me," she said, crying a little.

"Don't worry, I won't leave you."
"We're almost there, don't let go, hold on."
"Everything will be fine, trust me."

Now that I knew the way out, it was much easier for me to reach the hotel, but still, the physical exhaustion was quite high as I had to carry a girl much bigger than me through the forest and along the dirt road. But I couldn't just leave her. It was all my fault that I had tried to ask her to help me with my problems; it was my fault that I had to make up for my shortcomings. So, despite the pain in my legs and the fatigue, I kept running until I got close to the hotel and started running even faster than before as I entered the lobby until I reached a familiar silhouette at the reception desk. It was Urakaze.

"What are you doing?"
"You should rest!"
"Wait, who is she?" she said, surprised to see me.

"Call another ambulance"
"It's an emergency, again!"

"Right away"

"Perfect..."
"If you'll forgive me..."
"I'm going to faint for a bit..."

Just as I finished speaking, everything became blurry, and the next thing I remembered was seeing the ground rapidly approaching my face.