Crossover Together ~クロスオーバ 一緒に~

For both Karma and Nagisa, their lives had become a bit of a odd roller coaster of events for the few weeks to follow. Nagisa had Aladdin, and Karma had Blair - drastic change in behavior to both sides of this coin. Karma took less time to get used to Blair and her antics at his house, taking a liking to the witch rather quickly since he had better chances in his shenanigans thanks to Blair's magic and mischievous behavior. Even so, Nagisa had an easier time when it came to how he should handle his magical roommate, mainly because Nagisa had his own apartment where as Karma lived with his busy parents. Karma had the slim chance that they'd come home time to time, and when they would, Karma had to hide off Blair, until they had to go again. Nothing too troublesome for him, anyway. The fact though of having a seductive roommate meant that Karma had to put his own will to the test when Blair would play around with him. However, while Nagisa and Karma were busy with the issues in their own way, it was Twilight who sat down and tried to get some research on these odd occurrences. It had been something she tried to wrap her head around for a while now, and even more so when she and Nagisa got the unique-looking symbol during their visit at the library. It was a rather peculiar symbol, and one that Twilight wanted some more answers to.

It was just before school, and Twilight was getting her own stuff ready for the day. It went on as normal for the most part, but she also had some extra information. The weeks of mixed studying for school AND studying on angelic and demonic attributes had gotten her rather busy, to put it simply, and she wanted to share what she found out to the others at school. If she could pull it off, then it will be worth the trouble.

"About time I've made some breakthrough since Nagisa and I got this picture. Hope it's worth it," Twilight hoped, as she grabbed her notes and got them into her bag. Information on the symbol had been rather weak over the weeks when she took the time to look, so hopefully she had enough to get them somewhere.

When she was finished packing, Twilight began to head off on her way. It was a bit cloudy, and made the walk a bit gloomy, but Twilight didn't mind that. It was strange though, especially going past one part of the Tokyo city streets, remembering how a monster was laying dead there and how much damage was done. It was good that the street was mended, even if rather suddenly, though Twilight did stop herself when she looked anyway. She took out the demon star picture, and held it over to where her own phone had taken the photo, replaying in her mind what happened.

"To think that this street had a demon laying down on it a week ago. I hope we can get more answers before something like that shows up again," Twilight thought. Over the two weeks since the event, Aladdin and Blair had given them plenty of insight on how things worked, but still left many things left to question. Amongst these included the symbol, which Twilight still wasn't sure what it was. As for the monsters, well they needed to get their A-game if another one is to appear again. Nagisa was lucky to survive the first one, and Twilight was convinced that Lady Luck shined on him that day.

Twilight continued her walk for a bit more, until she caught sight of the school just ahead. She was just about to head into the property when -

"NYAA.~"

Twilight stopped herself on the odd meow. Strange place to find a cat prowling around. She looked around for a little bit more until she looked up at the school outer wall, only to find a black cat casually perched onto it, looking down at her. The cat had a smirk on its face, which was what really caught Twilight's attention. Other students noticed the cat, but it didn't really worry much about them. Twilight was about to go off again, but the cat hopped down behind the wall, and ...

*POOF*

Next thing Twilight knew, she was in the company of a catgirl witch! Blair had come by the school today it seems, and as requested by a particular blue-haired kid, she summoned up a school uniform that eventuated her curves (her boobs especially). Twilight froze up when she saw Blair, and did a double check.

"Oh. You must be Blair?"

"And you must be Nagisa's juicy number, Yugure. See why he picked you," Blair teased. Twilight flustered up.

"We're not like that," Twilight insisted. Unlike Karma, who'd leave her on a tease before leaving, Blair looked like she realized her mistake.

"No kidding. And Karma keeps telling me you two are together so much," Blair stated, strutting over to the door alongside Twilight. Twilight looked around and could see that plenty of boys were looking Blair's way, some of the more perverted ones drooling at the new girl at school. Blair knew they were watching her, and made sure to add an extra bounce to her boobs, flaunting them off. Twilight was more subtle about it though, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"You do realize people are staring."

"I know.~ Hey, watch this," Blair insisted. She saw two of the perverted boys, and aimed her boobs their way. She brought her fingers to the buttons on her shirt, unbuttoning them in such a sexual way. Twilight was not enjoying this, but Blair was having fun with it, seeing the excitement on the boys faces as more buttons were removed. Her breasts strained her already tight shirt, as she wanted to happen, until only three buttons remained. At that point, she puffed her chest out, blasting all three buttons off of her, hitting the oblivious kids right in the face, enough to knock them out in a daze. About five other perverts were on the ground themselves, noses bleeding. Blair couldn't help but laugh at their reaction.

"You humans are so gullible," Blair joked, fixing up her shirt after that. Twilight wasn't too impressed.

"Eh, yeah, sure ... but anyway, think you can get word to the others for me, Blair?" Twilight asked, getting her mind straight. she made sure the other students were far enough away so they wouldn't hear them before she asked.

"Why can't you do it?" Blair questioned.

"I'll be too busy today: It's almost midterms, and I don't have time to meet them myself. Just tell them to meet me after school by the E building. I got some new information about that insignia that I think they should know, think you can do that for me? By the looks of it, you're going to be hanging around here anyway," Twilight figured, judging by the outfit in question. The E building had been a rather common place to meet up for them, mainly because it was secluded, and nobody there when school was over and done. Blair would rather just mess around with the other students today, but this was a rather simple task to do, and Blair already knew who the others were no doubt.

"Alright, sure. Be hanging out here anyway, can't be too hard."

Without a moment's hesitation, Twilight nodded, and went straight into the school, and straight off to class.

~~

So from there, things got busy. As Twilight had said, it was almost time for midterms for the school, and as such, students were more focused on studying than some would normally be. What wasn't exactly normal was the chit-chat gossip of the Jizo statue, which had been a bit of conversation despite it occurring weeks ago. As for Blair's task in passing on the word, the midterm crunch time made that a little bit tough for the sneaky kitty to accomplish. While being a human was easier to go about in a large crowd, her cat form gave her more freedom to move around. She still needed a bit to find where the others were though, and walking around as a cat was NOT making it easy.

"K, where, O where can those guys had gone off to? Wish they'd show up so I could just start messing around," Blair wondered. The little kitty cat started to wander a bit until she got over to outside, just out into the back of the building. She'd rather go catch birds around the property than this little messenger game Twilight got her stuck with. Speaking of birds, the kitty cat did see a few little Pidgys close by, pecking at the ground. Being a cat herself, Blair started to go into hunting mode, ready to pounce on the birds until ...

"Oi, how about some cash, E runt!"

The loud order spooked the birds before Blair could snatch up one, bugging the cat. But, as curiosity does to cats as they say, the voice did peek Blair's own interest, and she quietly moved over round the corner. Just last the corner, she found someone just outside the school, over by a vending machine. Two kids, possibly higher Class grade level, surrounded an E student. And by the sound of it, the two bullies wanted some money from this E student, who looked a little bit off for a human as far as Blair knew. Then again, she didn't hang around humans as much as others around here, so there's that.

"Eh? I don't have anything for you today," the E student responded, sounding a bit bored in tone.

"Bullcrap. You got some dollars left," one of the bullies accused.

"I'm keeping my money today. Besides, you shouldn't mug a girl."

"She's a girl?!?!" Blair thought in shock. With the black messy hair, and almost "manly" facial appearance, it was a bit quick for Blair to make that kind of assumption.

"Who cares over a E drop out? Give us the money - we'd like a drink too," the same kid demanded, hand out and ready. She still didn't budge, and kept her money away. But, these two were losing patience with her fast, and one of them even had the nerve to reach out, and grab her money straight out of her hands!

"Hey!" she shouted. while one student readied to pay up, the other grabbed her by the collar, and pinned her to the wall, holding her up.

"Looking to get killed, Hazama?!" he growled. Blair was ready to see either a bloody beat up, or more pay money being given over by this 'Hazama' person, but then ...

"Kill me huh? ... And yet it looks like you've never killed someone before ..."

What the hell happened there? The two bullies were stopped cold, scared out of their wits. The girl suddenly gave them a death stare, a smirk on her face. It was like what Karma would give, but more sinister. Blair could barely grasp what happened, and the bullies backed up, dropping her money.

"H-Here, take your money back, s-sorry!" one of them squeaked, before the two raced off back into the school. Without another word, she got her money, paid for a water bottle from the vending machine, and then went off on her way. Blair just sat there, eyes wide as this same student waked by. This scare student did glance at Blair, who acted like she was not remotely interested, and just continued walking. When this Hazama moved on out of sight.

Well, she sure had something to tell the group later.

~~

During another moment in between classes, Nagisa headed off to his locker, and quickly got his things ready. His injuries had fully healed, thank god, and his worries had calmed down a bit, but he still had to figure things out when it came to the demons. First Jizo, then Blair, he could only wonder what's to come next. It had been going up and down for the last weeks, learning a little bit more as time went, but not enough to make anything worth while.

"Ok, Nagisa, It's been two weeks since this happened, and people had been calming down. It's just one demon, maybe that's all you're going to meet. Aladdin said they don't bother humans that much, so maybe it was just a coincidence," Nagisa told himself. As much as he wanted that to be the case, it was one damn crazy coincidence for something like that to happen not too long after learning about it. As he got his things together for his next class, some other male students nearby were talking about that incident themselves, much to Nagisa's dismay.

"So, any news about that damn thing they cleaned up?" one of them asked.

"Not really. Whoever's in charge of that thing's got some serious shit to explain," replied the other. The other kid seemed unsure what he was talking about.

"Explain? Explain to who?"

"You mean you don't know? It's been ramped on the news all week! Seitenshi is getting investigators all over the subject since that crowd announcement at town hall. I give them days before they get someone ratted out. How'd you miss that, anyway?" The kid questioned.

"I don't watch the news that much," the kid said embarrassed. That was the last thing Nagisa's wanted to hear. Tokyo investigators working on the subject? Sent out by Seitenshi herself?! The very thought of him being put behind bars for conspiracy made him tense, shivering slightly. It was enough to get a groan out of his strained teeth, him hitting his head on his locker door.

"I'll never live this down. Why couldn't a cop, or Karma do it - they're better at this than me," Nagisa murmured to himself. Any cop would be rather easier to believe, and Karma's natural charisma can weasel him outta any situation as far as Nagisa knew. He would be eaten alive by those people in there when they find out! Eventually, the stressed boy got his mind straight, pinching the bridge of his nose, and letting out a rough sigh. Better focus on current events rather than what could happen, after all. She goes onto open up his locker, only to find ...

"Nyaa."

"What the?!"

Next thing he knew, he saw Blair sitting inside it, rather comfortably too, looking directly at him. Nagisa didn't know how long she was in there, or how she got in there for that matter.

"... How the hell did you get in my locker?" Nagisa asked, getting the obvious question out of the way. Blair licked her paw, as cats do, before answering him.

"Trade secret," Blair replied with a wink. Nagisa was not amused with her. As if he didn't have enough trouble already.

"What do you want?"

"Yugure wants you and company to stop by the E building after school. I already got Pinkie and Karma on board. Says she's got some big news bout that demon insignia thing you found," Blair informed, also getting that out of the way and over with. She wasn't going to spend all day looking for them, and wanted to have some fun while here. Nagisa had enough on his mind, but he figured it's worth knowing either way.

"Well, thanks. Now can you get out? I need to get my books," Nagisa insisted. In a little leap, Blair hopped out, but she had already turned into a human, so Nagisa's face was covered by her boobs in her playful jump. He froze up, Blair smiling cheekily.

"... Not again," Nagisa groaned, his voice muffled from being stuck in her boobs. Blair got off of him, fluffing his hair, and going off on her way. Now with her job done, she can actually have some fun with this school.

~~

With the information now spread out correctly, Nagisa, Karma, and Pinkie all were ready as they could be. Whatever Twilight had for them, it probably was important, whatever it is. Soon as the school day was done, they met up over at the spot in question, straight after the school students and staff had left the E building. Twilight made sure to get her materials ready, and able to show them. Good thing for them the day was a bit better to be outside with the clear weather. The only one who wasn't there was Aladdin, leaving Nagisa, Blair, Karma, Pinkie, and Twilight.

"K, Yugure, what do you got for us? Kitty bitch said you got some info on that symbol?" Karma summed up. Twilight nodded, bringing out the picture to show them.

"Yes. After some investigation, I think this is a symbol of the Ouroboros: a mystical icon representing the eternal cycle of birth and death, and the perpetual circle of life. It doesn't usually consist of a this star, though," Twilight explained, Karma taking the picture and checking it out himself.

"Ouroboros, huh? ... Hey Blair, know any demons that use this symbol?" Karma asked, the cat looking at the insignia. Blair scratched her head, thinking on the symbol a bit more.

"Hmm ... Looks familiar, but not personally from any demon I know," Blair concluded.

"Whatever it is, we REALLY should try and watch what goes on where," Nagisa suggested.

"How come?" Blair asked. Karma provided the answer for her.

"Seitenshi has got her personal police out checking the situation."

Suddenly, Pinkie realized what that meant, looking freaked out for Nagisa's safety!

"Oh no! I'LL PROTECT YOU NAGISA!" Pinkie exclaimed, hugging him as if trying to hide him. Nagisa struggled in her grip as Blair turned to Karma.

"Seitenshi. She a friend of yours?"

"Wish she was. That girl is Tokyo's president - in charge of the whole damn city. I bet she can do whatever she wants. Lucky son of a bitch," Karma figured. Blair never heard of Seitenshi before, but she sounded like quite the authority figure of Tokyo. Karma wished he could have such power himself, free to do whatever he pleased without trouble from the law. Nagisa suddenly fell forward, he and Pinkie tumbling and only then did the pink girl release him. A little scuffed up, but fine.

"Can you guys please not tell anyone it was me, PLEASE?" Nagisa hoped.

"Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a cupcake in my eye," said Pinkie Pie, securing her promise to him.

"Damn dude, like they're gonna link anything back to you. There's hundreds of people all over Tokyo they can jump on," Karma said.

"Either way, we won't tell anyone," Twilight assured. Nagisa was fifty fifty on it, but he had some reassurance on the matter. Nagisa got up to his feet, Pinkie doing the same in a quick hop. They continued talking, but neither seemed to notice anything going on around them.

"So, anything else aside Seitenshi and fancy insignias you guys figure out?" Karma asked. Blair then remembered something she saw earlier, quick to hop into view.

"Oh, right! There is this one thing I saw earlier," Blair said, catching their attention.

"Well, what's that?"

"You guys told me E students were at the bottom of your school level, right? Always being pushed around, and everyone else making them their bitches or whatever?"

"What about it?" Karma asked.

"Well, one of those "push-overs" scared the shit outta two higher class students! Seriously, she had a scarier poker face than you do, K," Blair said.

"Oh really?"

Suddenly Karma gave Blair his signature evil face, the same one he spooked Nagisa with. It was enough to spook Blair, even if it was a little bit.

"You mean like this?~"

"... OK, so maybe yours is better," Blair concluded.

"K. Anything else?"

There was another thing, yes, though Nagisa and Twilight took a look to eachother, briefly remembering the odds and ends with this thing. Nagisa felt uneasy, but Twilight went on anyway.

"Nagisa and I had been getting some weird encounters lately. I don't know what it is, but it keeps popping up and dropping things off to us. Nagisa and I keep missing it though," Twilight explained. These sorts of occurrences for Twilight and Nagisa had happened about seven times now, each time both sides unable to catch.

"Why? It invisible?" Pinkie asked.

"No, I don't think so. It just moves too fast for us to see," Nagisa said.

"Too fast to see," repeated Blair, thinking hard on that fact alone. Some strange reason that sounded oddly familiar to her ...

*grrrr*

"Oh no, not another one. Where is it?" Nagisa thought.

His feeling was starting to return to him. It wasn't as fast since Blair was there, but Nagisa began to feel a stronger sense around him.

Something else was there with them.

"Nagisa, what's wrong?" Twilight asked, as Nagisa jumped up right to his feet.

"Is your sixth sense acting up again?" Added Blair. The group had gotten some better knowledge on this odd sense that Nagisa had after a while, and it mainly came down to Nagisa sensing demon activity, described by Aladdin as Nagisa's sixth sense. And now, he was sensing more of it nearby. Nagisa stood there, trying to look and find the source of this disturbance, but he was having a rough time getting an exact pinpoint. What he did know was that the main area was over in the mountain forest, surrounding the E building. This meant one of two things; this thing was moving very fast, or there was more than one around ...

Then Nagisa saw it.

It was hidden rather well, but Nagisa could just make out some sort of shape in the bushes. The figure was small, about the size of a dog, and the overall shape resembled such as well, though Nagisa could tell it was no ordinary dog. He looked around some more, and turned out there was more than one. In fact, about seven dogs were closing in on them, all waiting to pounce. Nagisa moved over to the others, moving Twilight back as well.

"Demons. Over there, just beyond the yard. There's more than one hiding over there," Nagisa informed, getting the others aware and on edge. Over in the forest, the demons were still moving around, trying to get in position to cut off any escape routes available to their prey, as pack predators would normally do. During this, one of these predators moved out into view, all their attention focused on it. This demon had the look of a small canine, with a short snout, and a stubbed tail, though there were important differences; Its fur was black with a orange muzzle and orange streak on its belly. A sort of grey metal ring wrapped around each of its four paws, with some sort of skull mark on its head, accompanied by two grey "ribs" on its back. No normal dog looked like this one, no doubt. The hellhound growled viciously, crouched down and ready to attack at any moment. Nagisa could sense that more were around, but he could exactly make out where.

"Aww, hey little doggy. Come here doggy -"

"Pinkie, that's no normal dog, keep it away from you," Twilight advised. Karma looked at the situation, and he quickly figured out what was really going on. In a pack, none of the animals would just reveal themselves without one particular plan being played out, and Karma checked both sides of the group ...

Suddenly, one was right at their left, just behind the E building wall. It quickly charged out as a surprise attack, but Karma got in the way fast, his fist slamming into the canine's head, strong enough to knock it off its feet. Another dog rushed in from the right, and Pinkie had to tackle Twilight and Nagisa to the ground to avoid the lunge. For Blair, she was quick to retreat up onto the roof of the E building, scared for her life on seeing these beasts.

"H-Houndour," shivered Blair. The Houndour out in the open, presumed to be the pack leader, barked loudly to signal the rest of the pack to attack, rushing out of the bushes and racing across the yard towards them.

"Hellhounds? Blair, we need help," Twilight quickly instructed. Blair would do anything so long as it wasn't here with the dogs, but she wasn't putting her fur out there, especially after two of the seven dogs barked at her.

"You kidding me, Blair?" Groaned Nagisa. No matter, they had Hellhounds to deal with now, and they needed to watch out. Running away wasn't going to be an option, judging by where the dogs were, so fighting was their main hope.

Outta all of there, it was Karma who was doing the best at fighting them, his punches and kicks sending good damage to the Hellhounds, but the dogs were rather persistent. Nagisa, Twilight, and Pinkie were caught up in the frey, though fighting was a bit harder for them to do, and the dogs knew it. For the Hellhounds, they did manage to get their teeth into them a number of times during their attack, but they didn't stay on long enough to do as bad of damage. Regardless of the case, the humans had to figure something out fast.

"Blair, get Aladdin, he'll know what to do!" Twilight yelled at one point. Blair was quick to oblige, and raced off of the roof and off to find Aladdin. It was a slim chance he'll make it in time, but it was a better shot they had than what they've been doing. This short order though left her wide open for another dog attack, the Houndour sinking its teeth into her back! Twilight screamed and ran, but the dog's teeth only got through her clothes, tearing off a large enough chunk to shreds the whole thing. Next thing Twilight knew, she was on the ground ... With only a skirt and bra on. Lucky or unlucky depending on how you looked at it.

"AH!"

The canine threw the torn shirt away, as Twilight covered her breasts, face completely red. Everyone of course saw what happened, but for the Hellhounds, this left Twilight exposed and vulnerable. Any bite now would be straight to flesh and bone. While embarrassing to see Twilight this way, Nagisa needed to stay focused, and saw the same dog rush her! Almost blindly, Nagisa rushed in and tackled the dog down, giving Twilight the chance to get to her feet. The Houndour squirmed and struggled, and managed to free itself from Nagisa, kicking him in the face before getting some distance.

"If anybody has any ideas, now would be a good time," Twilight said, avoiding another lunge of another Houndour. This was getting bad. Their efforts were good, but it still wasn't enough to beat these demon dogs ...

Neuhuhhuhuhuhu.~

They all paused at the odd laughing, and suddenly something zoomed past them in a blur of dust! None of them saw what it was, or what it did - if anything - but the demon dogs quickly started to compose themselves. Karma, Nagisa, and Twilight got their eyes on the dogs, but Pinkie looked to her feet and saw something down on the ground. At her feet, there was a piece of paper, showing a picture of what looked like some sort of tree, growing off a cliff side ...

"OOOHHHH. I gotcha," Pinkie suddenly commented. The pink girl was suddenly off and running, rushing straight at the Houndour pack!

"Pinkie!" Twilight called. Pinkie made a good jump over the leading Houndour, and with her isolating herself, the pack gave chase.

"What's she up to?" Nagisa wondered.

Farther ahead, Pinkie kept on running, keeping good speed, and good distance between herself and the Houndour. While it may seem like she ditched them, she had a plan of her own to get rid of these bad dogs. Racing through the forest, she eventually made it to a much larger clearing, which lead right over to one particular area: a large, steep cliff with a lone tree growing out from the edge of it. Just like the one in the picture. Pinkie smiled on seeing it, but she failed to notice just how fast the Houndour were actually going. One of the Hellhounds finally struck her with its paw, making the pink girl stumble a bit. About four of the seven Houndour got her pinned down, and the other three looked back to find Karma, Twilight, and Nagisa catching up.

"That tree. So that's what she was up to," Nagisa thought. The dogs who weren't trying to kill Pinkie went after the others, leaving only two with her. Karma, Twilight, and Nagisa took one glance over at that tree, and it seemed that they began to work out what was going on.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Karma asked.

"It's our only chance. Let's do it," Twilight said.

One of the Houndour charged directly at them first, forcing Karma, Nagisa, and Twilight to split. Their first objective: get Pinkie Pie. Nagisa was the one stuck with distracting most of the pack as Karma went for Pinkie (not the best position). Karma was quick to get to the remaining two hounds, forcing them off of Pinkie with one hard hit. Pinkie had a few cuts on her arms, but fine.

"K, P, you ready for this?" Karma asked. Pinkie nodded fast, excited, and Karma brought his hand up, and gave a good loud whistle. The Hellhounds turned back to them, finding both running to the cliff! Twilight and Nagisa did their part, and as their backs were turned, both hid away in the brush. This way the Houndour had to focus on one side. The dogs all raced after the other two, who which went right to their destination: right onto the hanging tree! Karma and Pinkie went as far back as they could manage, some of the dogs going on the tree after them. The trick seemed rather straightforward, even if more gutsy for Karma's liking.

"That's it ... just a little more ..."

The Houndour slowly moved closer to them, about six of the seven hounds now on the aching tree ...

"NOW!"

Pinkie grabbed Karma by the arm, and both of them made one leap off the tree, back to the cliff. The force of that jump, along with the combined weight of the Hellhounds on it, made the tree start to give! Pinkie and Karma made it off, but the Hellhounds weren't so lucky. The tree finally fell off of its cliff, the Hellhounds falling with it. And that was that. They heard the tree fall, and the Houndour were all gone, but one. For the last dog, it didn't decide to stick around this group, and quickly raced away with its tail between its legs ...

"Nagisa! Karma! I'm coming!"

Aladdin raced down through the forest, charging out into the open, only to find the group by themselves. They were a bit bloody with the bites, but they were alright. The tree was missing, and the group stood tall.

"Aladdin, there you are!" Twilight said.

"What happened to them all? Blair said you were attacked by a pack of Houndour," Aladdin said, looking at them.

"We took care of them. Taught them how to cliff dive," Karma said smugly. Aladdin rushed over to the cliff, looking down. It was an extremely long drop, and Aladdin could just barely make out a fallen tree right at the bottom. The dogs killed in the fall weren't seen by him, but he could take a hint anyway.

"Wow ..."

"Now, let's get back. That's enough excitement for me today," Nagisa figured.

"Sure, but we should get these cuts checked out. They look pretty bad," Twilight suggested.

"Says the girl who lost her top to a horny hound," Karma commented. Twilight saw the point, blushing red, and covering herself up again. However, before anyone could do anything, Nagisa started to check out the area, and another quick gust of wind rush by. When they looked, Twilight's shirt was completely mended, and good as new!

"WHOA! Neat trick, Yugure!" Pinkie said.

"I didn't do that," Twilight stated, but she was glad to have her shirt mended. Looking though, that wasn't the only thing that happened: Nagisa, Karma, Pinkie, and Twilight all had their cuts wrapped in bandages, so the cuts won't bleed out. A nice surprise, but from what? Rather than ignore it, they decided to try and figure out who was messing with them.

"Ok, speedy, we know you're somewhere around here - you wouldn't be if you bandaged us up like this. So, where are ya?" Karma called, not in any particular direction. All they could really hear after that was the breeze through the trees, and nothing else. Karma then turned over to Nagisa.

"Sensing anything, Nagisa?" Karma asked. However, since the Hellhounds left, Nagisa didn't get a significant sense of any demon nearby. The boy shook his head and shrugged.

"No, I don't think so," Nagisa concluded.

"Why would you assume it's a demon anyway? Doesn't have to be a demon to do this," Twilight said.

"Eh, good point."

"Well anyway, we should start heading back. Wait any longer and it'll be dark by the time we all get home," Twilight suggested. The others nodded in agreement, and they all started to head on back.

~~

Nightfall.

And at the bottom of the cliff, within the forest, a hungry, black Rattata scurried out of the bushes in search for a midnight snack. Night wouldn't normally be a time for a plucky rodent like this one to be roaming about, but the scent of fresh meat was just enough to bring this little opportunist outta its hole. A cloudy night with a light rain made cover better as well for the little animal, relying on its nose to sniff out the meat of what scent remained. The Rattata sniffed around the ground for a bit until it got a better smell, leading it on through the night. During its little walk around, the Rattata scurried through some more shrubs, and soon it found the target. The target itself: the collapsed tree. Laying in a heap were the six dead dogs, killed either by the fall itself or being crushed under the tree. Blood was thick around the tree and the bodies themselves, some laying on the tree, some thrown clear away, and some trapped under it. One of the Houndour had its head completely crushed while two others had their legs dislocated, almost torn off on impact. As gruesome as this scene is, the Rattata saw nothing but a free meal in front of it. The Rattata moved out cautiously, making sure it was alone, before starting to eat at one of the hellhound carcasses. As it ate, two other black Rattata joined in on the feast in the rain. Each Rattata there still kept a sharp eye and ear open for any extra predators ready to snatch their meal away.

And it didn't take much longer until something came in.

One of the Rattata paused and looked away from the fallen tree, and it saw something beginning to move in on the meal - something more imposing than any Rattata. As the group came closer, the Rattata began to rush away for a quick moment, hiding off in the bushes. Only one of the three stopped and looked back at the creature. The figure looked like a human in shape, with long wispy hair, but at first the shadows made the figure hard to make out. When it stepped out into the light though, other features were made out: violet slitted eyes, pale skin, a black body suit split into a top and bottom piece, green-tined hair, and a black headband with a red triangular symbol engraved. What wasn't as ambiguous was that it was joined by some other animals, more animal-like. One of these looked a bit bigger than the others, and it stood right next to the humanoid, looking over the dead Houndour, and pulled one out.

"Bunch of dumbasses, how'd they get stuck in a damn tree?" the humanoid groaned.

"YOU'RE the one that should've figure that out by now," the animal growled back.

"So what if I am, I can't be everywhere at once!"

"Oh shut up, and help me with this." The group of animals, rather than eat any of them, began to remove the bodies from the area. The other two Rattata peeked out to watch them do their thing. By the time they were done, only two bodies remained, which were the most damaged of all the bodies. Not the best looking, but food is food, and the trio of Rattata went back to eating ...

And all that was left? ...

One Ouroboros insignia, on the tree ...