Family Begins With You

by Jmaster49

Arc XXIII Episode XIV: Festival Combat

“Master Shinji, save yourself,” Julius retained the ability to speak in his giant white tiger form. “I’ll deal with her myself.”

In an instant, Applejack was able to read between the lines and figure out that they weren’t exactly being honest with her. “You…I bet ya’ll had somethin’ta do with mah parents. Didn’tcha?”

“No!” Shinji refuted her outright, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I had absolutely nothing to do with the disappearance of your parents!”

Applejack took another thunderous step towards them, causing another crack to appear in the ground beneath her. “...How do ya know they disappeared? Only close family was even told that. Ya’ll know somethin’ thatcha ain’t tellin’ me!” her voice rose in loudness as she spoke, becoming more enraged even in the face of a massive demonic feline.

“Hmm…” Julius’ hesitance indicated that there was some knowledge that he truly was privy to, but the way he shut his eyes indicated that he was unsure of how to respond to her in that moment. “No good. No matter what I say, she’ll end up too enraged to listen to reason.”

Having tapped into the thoughts of his companion, Shinji stared at Julius with a concerned pair of eyes with shrunken pupils. “Jules. Do you know something that I don’t?”

By now, Applejack’s eastern robes had started to flow in the wind from the sheer power that was her magic flaring up, granting her a fiery orange aura that surrounded her body along with most of it concentrating into her fists.

“I don’t wanna hurt ya’ll, so this is yer last chance. Tell me whatcha know. Now.”

At last, Julius opened his eyes and replied, “If you desperately seek to open Pandora’s Box, then come at me. Only if you can manage to defeat me will I explain anything to you.”

“What are you saying?!” Shinji yelped, “You don’t need to fight her off. This is a waste of our time.”

“It’s only the fair thing to do as a creature of honor,” Julius replied, “For your own safety, I suggest you vacate the premises immediately.”

Applejack punched her right hand into her left hand’s open palm. “Ya’ll wanna go, then? Alrighty. I’ve been lookin’ta flex mah magic anyway. But once I beat ya, yer gonna tell me everythin’ ya know about mah folks, understand?”

The big tiger took a step forward, “Yes. That is the condition I have put forth for the proposed battle. We shall commence immediately--”

“HOLD UP, BITCHES--!”

SHING!

With a slash of his sword, Keiji made his entrance, interrupting the conversation they were having and forcing Shinji to dodge the attack. In a rare moment of critical thinking, he assessed the situation at hand, and purposefully engaged Shinji in combat to separate him from his feline companion.

“Ayo, you and me, dawg--we’re doing this now,” he commented while sidestepping away from Applejack and the tiger.

“Grrr…seems I have no choice now,” Shinji took out his book from before. “Just a reminder, you brought this on yourself.”

“That book…it looks familiar,” Keiji thought to himself then spoke aloud while tapping the dull side of his sword over his shoulder. “Yeah yeah that just kinda comes with the territory. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I quite frankly just want a normal day where nothing goes wrong for me and my buddies. Is that too much to ask? Because I feel like that shouldn’t be too much to ask--”

“Has anyone ever told you you talk far too much?” Shinji shut the tome closed and from behind him, a giant, humanoid demon with red skin holding a spear. “Come forth, Oni. Lend me your power.”

In a flash, Shinji absorbed the power of the demon, giving him a powerful red aura from his body that emitted as he grabbed onto the spear.

Keiji was visibly taken aback for a moment as he watched Shinji absorb its power, taking a step backwards as he glared at the guy. “That’s one of the demons from my homeland. How was he able to just summon one out of the blue like that?”

But before he had any more time to think about it, Shinji leapt into the air with intent to strike him down with a swing from the polearm blade.

CLANG!

Sparks flew as the tip of the spear collided with the pavement where Keiji once stood. “Woah!” Keiji gasped right when he dodged just in time, leaping backwards in equal measure with his right hand grasping at the ground--his sword still clutched tightly in his left.

This was then followed up by Shinji lunging at Keiji with the spear, spinning to attack him with it from the right side. Due to the fact that the lance was able to outrange the sword--or the spear and katana in this case--Keiji was at a disadvantage and consistently kept on the back foot.

The vampboy was forced to dodge yet again, and raised his sword to block the tip of the spear at the last second when Shinji went in for another strike. They were locked in a momentary struggle in which they tried to overpower each other with their respective weapons, granting a quick space to speak.

Keiji grunted through the struggle, and bemoaned Shinji’s presence “Grrrr...What’s your deal? Why do you insist on popping up and making things more stressful for everyone at every turn? Can’t you just let a guy have a break for once?!”

“Blame the apple girl,” Shinji replied coldly, “She refused to back down even after I had repeatedly stated I had no idea what she was talking about. This is the exact problem with her and her friends! They’re abusing their power to assert themselves over others! They don’t deserve to have them!”

“What--?!” Keiji was cut off as Shinji kicked him square in the chest, sending him flying into the nearest bush with a thud! and shaggy rustling of the leaves. “Oof…what the hell is he talking about…?”

Comments

[Twilight_Shimmer]

11315073
ah i see.