Chain Yokai: Book 1. The Hunter

Yokai Hunters Academy

"Do you have a familiar?" Yuki asked.

"Oh no." said Azami shaking her head. "Actually, I used to be a familiar to a student at the school here, but a little something happened, and our contract got broken, so I went into training to become an actual Yokai Hunter instead."

"Your contract was broken..." Yuki murmured her tone sounding slightly suspicious. "Interesting."

And so the tour continued. Azami led the group into the building showing all the different classrooms and facilities.

It was amazing. Entering each room was like entering a different building altogether. One second you were in torch filled stone dungeon with multiple skulls hanging all over the place, and another second you were in an aquarium where you could see plenty of different water based yokai all swiming allong and waving at you. The computer lab looked like a mix between Star Wars and Tron, everything having a mega techy disco light look to it.

"This...is...awesome." Yuki said the moment they entered a place called the Training Room.

The Training room was basically a large gym-like arena with weapons and spell books lining the walls near a shower area. Currently, there was one boy in the training arena, he had the typical male uniform, a black shirt, tie and white pants. His red hair was windswept and spikey. He held up his hand to what looked like a training dummy, and a tremendous geyser of fire blasted out, letting flames sweep around the stadium the moment it hit the wall under the chairs at the other end. When the flames cleared, the dummy was nothing but a pile of ashes.

"That's the Flaming King!" said Neko. "WHOAH!!"

Yuki backed off nervously, the floor where she stood developed a thin sheet of ice. "Yuki does not like fire."

"Yep, that's Yamamoto Kazuto." said Azami. "Kazuto is the 2nd strongest of the Seven Bridges and he's the 2nd top student right under Sora Riswaldo, whom I believe is your brother. Eh...where did she go!?"

Azami had turned to look at Laura only to find that she was speeding down into the stadium, using chains that were coming out of her palms to swing herself down.

"Wh-what's she doing!?" stammered Azami.

"Oh, she's probably going to ask the Flaming King for a brawl." said Neko.

"Demand is more like it." said Yuki. "Ojosama loves a challenge."

Meanwhile, Laura had just landed 20 meters away from Kazuto in the arena. "Hey! You! Are you the Flaming King?!"

Kazuto turned to look at Laura. "Eh? Who wants to know?! If it's another lowdown rookie whose demanding a fight, you can forget it, you'll get burned so bad they won't be able to take your photo for the student I.D."

Kazuto looked Laura up and down and a slow grin crossed his face. "Well well well...you're cuter then my usual brawling partners."

"I'm also a lot more tempermental about guys treating me like I'm some sort of boy toy..." said Laura who was also grinning. "So keep your eyes up not down, or you'll regret it."

"Alright then." said Kazuto. "Always glad to fight the rookies if they're girls...so come on, show me your best spell, or summon up your best familiar, I'm ready."

"Oh...I'm not one for spells." said Laura as she thrust her hands out. "Mega Chain Impact!!"

This time, instead of her usual chains with blunted spear ends, several massive chains with links the size of dinner plates shot out of her hands, their ends had large spiked morning stars.

Looking rather surprised, Kazuto blasted some fire from his feet, propelling him upwards as the giant chain morning stars extended at bullet speed and collided with the wall behind him in an explosion of dust and rubble.

In a flash, Laura detatched the chains from her hands and slammed her hands to the ground. The walls, roof, and floor all around her shot out chains with blunted spear ends at tremendous speed. A 360 degree attack with no letup.

Kazuto landed on the ground and immediately swirled his arms around him, causing a giant sphere of fire to erupt outwards from his body and deflect the blunted spear points. The moment the chains were deflected however, the chains kept on extending from the walls, cieling and floor, changing direction the moment they came near the flaming sphere and twisting around and about the fire sphere until there was a sphere of chains twisting and turning around the fire. Then the chains tightened themselves, allowing the sphere to shrink at amazing speed, squeezing through the fire and suddenly restraining Kazuto in an embrace of iron links, the ends all still attatched to different areas of the stadium, no longer extending, but now retracting slightly ensure the bond remained tight.

Kazuto grinned. "No way...you're the Chained Maiden, also known as the Iron Wrought Princess of Taipei. I never thought you'd come to this school, I heard you were too reckless for authority figures."

"Yeah? Well I'm in now!" said Laura. "Watch out Japan, cause I'm gonna make a bigger splash then even the Flaming King!"

"Well you still have a ways to go in that regard." said Kazuto as his body began to glow with orange heat. "Because within the Seven Bridges...you're still ranked 3rd...and I'm ranked 2nd!!"

"KABLAMM!!" There was tremendous explosion of fire. The links of all the chains shattered in a burst of molten heat as Laura was thrown across the room and straight through the wall of the girl's showers..

Laura crawled out of the rubble rubbing her head. "Ow...."

Kazuto walked up to Laura, now free of the shattered chains. "Not bad kid..let's do this again sometime."

"Man.." said Laura cheerfully. "You bet.."

From where they were watching in the stands, Yuki sighed. "Again, Ojosama blindly seeks a fight when she sees someone strong."

Next to Yuki, Azami was staring, her eyes wide, and her mouth open. "A-Amazing...That was two of the Seven Bridges...wow.."

"Nobody knows what it is about human blood that enhances Yokai powers." said Neko. "But it sure is a sight to see huh?"

_________________

After some fervent apologies to the caretakers of the room who said it was no problem and that damage like this happened all the time, Azami continued with the tour.

As Azami began to lead the group back to the entrance of the building, Yuki turned to whisper to Laura. "Ojosama, remember how Azami said that her contract as a familiar with her previous master was broken?"

"Yeah.." said Laura. "It's kinda strange when you think about it...doesn't there have to be a mutual agreement between both the Yokai and the Master before that can happen?"

The issue of familiars was a very touchy one in world wide law. Ever since ancient times, yokai and humans had formed contracts with each other where yokai would willingly serve their human masters and fight alongside them.  The bond was a magical contract that not only bonded the human and yokai together, but also used the human's spiritual aura to enhance the yokai, making them more powerful then they would normally be if they were alone. Nowadays, methods had changed to where yokai could have other yokai as familiars as well.

But being a familiar seriously infringed on the issue of rights. If not careful, the contract could become more of a slavery then a partnership. That's why laws had been passed where if certain conditions were met, then a contract could be forcibly broken rather then waiting for both parties to agree.

"After looking closely." whispered Yuki. "Yuki has noticed some faded scars and bruises on Azami. Yuki thinks that Azami might have been abused by her master...and brutally."

There was a shocked silence.

Laura shook her head. "We've only just met her...let's just keep silent about it for now..."

"Yuki did not intend to bring it out in public." said Yuki as her eyes flashed. "Yuki only wishes to know who would do this to a yokai.."

"Whoever it was." Laura muttered. "I'd like to chain em upside down to the belly of a Namazu." (Namazu are giant catfish yokai that dwell under the mud and cause earthquakes. The pokemon Whiscash was based off this yokai.)