Gentō:

"KREEF!!! THEY'RE TOO CLOSE!!!"

Riding and desperately clinging onto his Amikiri companion, the Baku swerved past countless air projectiles through the greyed skies of Chikukei. Adrenaline pumped in his veins as fast as an electric locomotive while his fledgling Saniya radar was on fire with multiple signatures, including three larger ones popping in numerous directions, always close to one another. Yelling orders to Kreef for so long was taking a toll on his voice, to say the least.

"LEFT! RIGHT! BARREL ROLL!!!"

"CAN'T YOU SEND TELEPATHIC MESSAGES LIKE HŌKŌ!?" Kreef squawked, his eyes squinting with discomfort.

"ONLY IN THE DREAMSCAPE! IT'S A WORK IN PROGRESS!" A chill coursed through Gentō's spine, prompting him to duck an air spell. "LESS YAPPING AND MORE FLYING!!!"

The Amikiri grunted, closing his eyes as green wisps erupted in the spaces between his scales, slowly forming a fully-fledged aura wrapping around his elongated body. The Baku's proboscis flapped wildly when his mount picked up more and more momentum as he became a green comet, igniting the air with sheer, burning energy!

This would've looked absolutely gorgeous... for anyone watching from afar. Gentō... wasn't a big fan of the tips of his shallow fur being sizzled slowly like hundreds of thousands of birthday candles stuck together in a cake of fat and bones. Still, he held on to his friend for his dear life, albeit vocalizing his discomfort very perceptively, shattering the muffling barrier of the rapid currents that threatened to send them to a gruesome encounter with gravity.

The Baku closed his eyes, unable to take on the nauseating trip any longer. He held complete confidence in his- Wait, why was he falling? WHY WAS HE FALLING?! KREEF HASN'T DONE A DIVING MOTION!!!

His fears came true when he was jerked by someone, losing his grasp on poor Kreef. The rotund Monoke took a deep breath, steeling his sensitive heart for what he would see when he opened his eyes again. The result? A bandana-wearing, one-eyed Weasel pointing a scythe to his neck, his eyes oozing impatience.

"夢は私たちを迷子の犬とその飼い主に導いてくれます。" The assassin's face twitched into the onset of a scowl. "道を示してください。"

"And betray my pride as a Baku to cower and bow before Yuki-onna's feet!?" Gentō turned left and right to see which ninja was holding him by the collar, glimpsing the yellow bandana wrapped around his captor's arm. Afterward, he attempted to free himself by... rapidly moving his feet like he was running on air?

The scythe-wielding assassin silently exhaled, his eyes narrowing in frustration as he swung his curved blade in a grand, deadly arch!

Gentō grinned, his teeth flashing with mischief.

"Gotcha, fools!"

A tremendous burst of sparkly, purple mist erupted from his nostrils, covering and coalescing around his assailant, entrapping him in a semi-solid cage of minuscule Saniya particles.

The Baku's captor let him go, rendering him at the mercy of the laws of physics as he aided his brother.

Or so their outdated knowledge thought...

Gentō willed his limited physical shell to go beyond, though to a lesser extreme than his dream form, which he still had to train harder to tap into while roaming the waking plane. No, this was something else - small protrusions wrestled against the skin and muscles on his back, ripping and forcibly modifying his body's structure as he fell with boosting momentum.

"Come on..." The Baku gritted his teeth, concentrating and willing his Saniya to collaborate, even if leagues below what he achieved against the Daien bard. "I don't need to FLY! I need to not fall to my death!"

Uh oh. Gentō had passed the threshold of the grey clouds, giving him an ample view of the site of his pathetic demise. At least the snow would clean up most of the blood once it melted...

Wait. The Baku could sense a faint Saniya down below, so far away that he was confused about why he was even detecting it. Then, it quickly dawned on him - this was the energy of someone he held dear, who stayed close to him for an entire month. His mind had imprinted on Kreef's Saniya without even realizing it until now.

After brushing the implications of the intricacies of his abilities aside, Gentō's wonder was replaced by anger. How dare those mustelid freaks hurt his comrade, a valuable member of The Trouble Troop!? He and Hanaken were the only Monoke who truly believed in him for a long time, and he wouldn't allow himself to fail them so pathetically!

The sensation on his back vanished, yet he felt lighter than ever. The fire of his resolve erupted from his mind to the outside world as his vision was obstructed by a sea of pink and purple tones! When it subsided, his eyes quickly focused on a looming shadow hovering over the frigid layer of winter - two colossal wings on each side, gently carrying him back to reliable land.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Mmmm... Still, there was a caveat to them. Gentō felt the wind caressing the tip of his new appendages... connecting all the way through the tissue of his ears.

Those... were not the kind of wings he envisioned. Nevertheless, he wouldn't complain much about this miracle.

When tapir Dumbo was close to landing on the virgin snow, he could now glimpse another Monoke standing close to his fallen friend - the remaining Weasel, the samurai.

His ears receded, leaving him plopping his butt in the cold. Yet, the energy flowing within insulated him from the temperature, pumping his blood hotter by the moment.

"I hope you've thought carefully about how you treated my comrade, you mustelid buffoon..." Gentō hissed.

The samurai stepped over the fallen Amikiri, his tiny paw carefully hovering over the hilt of his sheathed katana.

"Oh, you obtuse bastard..."

The Baku sprinted towards the Weasel, his short legs taking him with incredible speed! The sea of white was divided in two as he carved his way through, his body flaring with energy!

The assassin inhaled until his chest swelled two times its size before blasting an air bullet from his mouth. Gentō braced himself, invoking a Saniya barrier around himself, valiantly negating the spell as he marched on. Unfortunately, a tiny crack was left in the shield's foundation.

"You think you're special?!" The Baku's aura shone brighter as he breathed in as much oxygen as possible. The Weasel's eyes twitched in realization, hastily retaliating by unsheathing his blade, swinging it, and forming a horizontal, visible wind projectile.

Gentō liberated half the contained air, propelling himself to an outlandish height! Then, he used the remaining half to push him in the katana wielder's direction, curling himself into a ball to slam onto him like a comet of devastation!

Judging by the lack of warmth on his butt, he figured he didn't hit his target. Sensing the assassin's Saniya approaching him rapidly, he expelled a high-radius cloud of dream mist around himself. He knew that wouldn't keep a wind magic expert at bay for long, so he capitalized on the smokescreen by grabbing Kreef over his shoulder and bolting to the woods.

As Gentō frantically tottered through the frost-coated vegetation, the Amikiri's head formed a trail through the snow, bonking against a hard tree bark at every turn.

"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" he muttered apologetically before finally stopping. He let go of his comrade and immediately struck his hooves into the sloppy mixture of frozen water and mud to dig a pit wide enough for them with the bit of earth magic he practiced in the past couple of weeks.

Once done, he wrapped the Amikiri around his neck like a scarf. "I think we're good, dear Kreef..."

Yet, his entire body ceased functioning when three Saniya signatures hovered around the hole. His hold on his friend threatened to tear his scales apart.

すべての夢は終わる。" one of the assassins gloated.

"悪夢は、夢を見る人が夢の本質を認めることを拒否したときに起こります。" He couldn't recognize that voice either. Which meant...

"彼を起こして。" Indeed, this one was the scythe-wielding ninja.

The ground beneath and around them shook as the trio's energy erupted to terrifying heights! You don't want to know the details of what was happening within his body, especially his bowels...

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR, HANAKEN!!!"

Before his underwear could be forever tainted, the tremors grew more powerful as other Saniya sources emerged, enveloping the Weasels' energy like the warm hug from a famished bear. Soon enough, Hanaken's Saniya swallowed theirs completely, as far as the Baku's natural radar was concerned.

Gentō let go of his comrade, curling himself into a ball for not even he knew how long. Finally, his anxiety-induced trance broke when a rough yet warm and familiar tone reverberated from above, and a looming shadow obscured his view.

"You gonna lay there all day long? Or do you want me to pick you up?"

The Baku mulled over his options...

...

"Pick me up, please..."

Three crystalline pillars graced his eyes with their captivating, otherworldly canary yellow glow, all gracefully erected around the pit.

"The Oni's Sikpha Cage technique..." he whispered, his voice drenched with marvel. "When did you learn that?"

Hanaken proudly perked her chin, stroking her gigantic finger over the glimmering mineral prison. "About two years ago, I reached out to my father. He taught me the theory behind it before we had another fight."

The Baku perked up. "You made amends with grumpy Kotsukou!?" He hopped next to the giant. "Tell me EVERYTHING!"

The Oni scoffed. "It didn't last long. Once he tried to find me a suitor behind my back again, all that effort went to waste."

"Aw..." he landed a comforting hoof on her thigh.

Hanaken smiled. "Better luck next decade, I suppose." She walked in circles around the pillars. "After that, I tried to pull it off without my father with disappointing results..." She halted, staring at her own reflection. "Until Hōkō's training, that is."

Gentō glanced at his unconscious comrade, then back at the colossal crystals. "How long do we have?"

She hummed, her lower lip tensing with thought as she clasped both hands around her back. "Twenty minutes, at best. Those little guys have more Saniya in them than one could imagine. Disrupting that amount of energy demanded a lot." She sighed, slumping her posture. "It took almost everything from me to pull so many sikpha crystals from the Atelier..."

His eyes widened. "Do you think we'll be in trouble with the Matriarch?"

"If we keep our mouths shut, no," Hanaken answered. "Besides, there's no way a Spider would risk going to the surface this winter."

Gentō exhaled, relieved.

Hanaken turned around and stepped towards Kreef. "Let's get going and find a hole where we can rest."

The Baku quickly followed her with frantic steps. "Speaking of rest, do you think the Knight and the captain are already fighting the Yūrei?"

"Which one?"

"Oh, stop being a smartass and answer!"

She spoke nothing for a few seconds, only uttering something after she picked up the limp Amikiri and wrapped him around her neck like a scarf. Doesn't that sound familiar?

"We bought them some time. Half an hour, at most." She offered her hand for him to climb on her tree trunks for arms. The Baku gladly accepted. "They seemed antsy, especially so near the Icy Sorceress."

Gentō tightly clung onto her biceps. "Do you think they have a chance?"

Her black, beady eyes conspicuously shifted at him. "You can sense Saniya. What do you think?"

His heart accelerated, hammering against Hanaken's muscles.

......

She felt it.

"Thought so." She huffed. "Well, let's pray for their souls in our hole."

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