Itto was now staring at you with a sadden look, brows furrowed and concern all over his face as well. He then took a moment to look away from you and look down at his hands, his long black nails were shorter and the markings he had were gone.
"What did you do to him?" You turned your head to face your mother, anger boiling inside you. If he's lost his Oni side and instead is a normal human, he won't be capable to see to the humans from the soul orbs. He will only see them as floating like you.
"He wasn't supposed to turn like this, he was supposed to turn to an actual Oni. Instead, he's turned to a human... strange.." she muttered the last few words to herself, looking at Itto with a curious gaze.
Your eyes were still on her, seeing she was looking at the strange liquids and making brief glances at you and Itto.
Whatever was inside Itto's syringe, it was supposed to make him change to the old folklore creatures you used to hear about as a little kid about actual oni's. There's quite a few popular stories about them but the most known one was about the red and blue oni's. Yet, it changed Itto to an actual human.
Would there be side effects to this? Will he be able to ever change again or is he permanently like this now because of your mother? More and more situations keep coming up and now this is added to the list of complications.
While you were deep in thought, your mother left the room with two guards trailing behind her, but there were a few guards inside the giant cell still.
You sighed and looked off to the side to see Scaramouche. He mouthed to you, 'I'm going to create a diversion, and we'll leave' you looked at him like he was crazy, because well, he was.
How is that going to work? He's still... you squinted your eyes when Scaramouche was checking his wrist up close and your mouth dropped open. He actually took the handcuff off—hiding his only hand behind him again before talking.
"Hey you, can I use the bathroom." He yelled out to one of the guards nearest to him, face stoic as ever but with a small hint of a sly grin. And when the guard turned to face another they shrugged.
Then the guard kneeling down in front of the harbinger but immediately dropped back down by a brutal kick to the face.
Scaramouche got up quickly and rushed over to help Itto out of the strapped chair first— struggling a bit with just the one hand he has until Itto steps in to help you out quickly.
"I can't believe you did that!" You yelled at your brother for being reckless and for possibly injuring himself more. Itto went quickly towards where he can see your guys weapons and grabbed his, swinging it around and knocking the guards down.
It was weird seeing him not be in his usual form. His white and red ombré hair was gone and replaced by black hair with grey highlights and his eye color was just silver; no red mixed with golden eyes and of course, no horns either.
In the mean time he was grabbing your guy's things, you were helping Scaramouche fight off the other guards while using your elemental power.
"Alright! Lets get out of here before Baal is alerted!"
He was jogging up to you two and kicked away one of the guards with a strong enough kick, even in his 'human form' he's still strong. He grabbed your hand while you pulled at Scaramouche's only hand only to halt, "wait, we don't even know where Thoma and Childe are?"
Itto stopped as well and groaned to himself, "man... if I was in my old form I probably would sense where they're at except, I'm a HUMAN!" He huffs out and places his hands on his hips, and begins thinking.
"Okay okay, well you aren't now and we need to figure out what to do about that and figure out where the hell they're at." You walked up to him to place a hand on his arm, giving him a reassuring squeeze.
Scaramouche clicked his tongue in annoyance and gritted his teeth, "I completely agree with the oni here, we're both lacking in strength at the moment. Wherever they are, they can handle it themselves now let's go." And he grabbed your wrist and tugs you to a empty hallway with Itto following.
____
Now that you guys were out you took in your surroundings and noticed that you were back in Inazuma, and that you guys were in the prison here. What's weird was that the purple fog was slowly disappearing.
Could that mean when you, Itto and Thoma left Inazuma that you had almost collected everyone's soul orbs? If so, that means there are still some here scattered.
"Scara, what's the reason behind her doing all this?"
He didn't look at you nor speak. He was quiet until you all made it to a safer spot, "she's not in her plane of euthymia, her puppet that's an exact copy of her is gone. But it's not safe to discuss any further for now." He groaned when he sat down, watching out for his missing arm to not irritate it.
"From what I've gathered, that crazy mother of yours is doing this to everyone to get their life energy. Probably to use that to reopen her plane, that's why the people are floating orbs, then one's that are darker, are the ones who are corrupted." Itto chimed in as he was looking at his different colored hair and frowned upon seeing his new look.
"Ah yes, the corrupted ones. They're no longer human right?" You and Itto nodded, sharing a glance. "Guess that's why when my men encountered two together, they attacked them and kill them."
Well, shit.
"I didn't think they were capable of killing a person." it was pretty odd but you made a mental note of that new information for later.
But there was a question that was bugging you for a while, and it's a good opportunity too to ask.
"I have a question Scara," you started off, glancing off to the side and look at Itto. "Were you really in cahoots with mother? If you were, why did you go along with this?" Itto then faced you then at your brother, quirking a brow at the question.
He was about to speak and open his mouth but he closed it right after, but tried again, "I... can't say." You knew he hesitated to say anything else when you saw him clench his fist—eyes averting your stare, knowing very well what you're thinking of.
Deep down, you know him very well and that he struggles with his emotions, never faltering but you can tell just by looking at him that he's struggling with what he wants to say.
But right now, even if you wanted to push him and get an answer, he'll tell you when the time comes...
____
"Two days and no signs of the guys or how to change me back.. this is complete TORTURE!" Itto groans when his head makes impact with a tree as he leaned back.
Lately he's been constantly whining about the state of his human form. There wasn't even guards that were looking for you, nor did your mother even come looking to take you all back.
"Will you just shut up! I've had enough of your damn complaining, we'll go and retrieve those samples mother used on you two then see if it'll change your himbo ass back." Scaramouche groaned as he put over his big hat over his face, shielding him from the sun.
The fog that was in Narukami Island had faded completely now. Unfortunately, the other islands still had the purple fog and that meant a lot of souls are lost or just the corrupted ones.
While you were thinking about the other islands, you heard Itto gasp dramatically and got up to go hover over Scaramouche. He lifted up his hat and pointed down at his face, "I am NOT A HIMBO! How dare you call me that. You shouldn't be talking little guy, I may have lost my Oni side but I'm still strong."
You are though, is what you would have said to Itto but hearing him and your brother bicker was kind of funny.
Then Itto had turned around and pointed at you raising his voice, "y/n! Tell your brother here that I'm not a himbo!" And that was when your lips started quivering, trying to hold back a laugh but you couldn't hold it any longer and you burst out in laughter, slamming your fist on the ground.
Itto was staring at you with a frown and Scaramouche even let out a short laugh along with you, glaring up at the taller man. "Even my sister agrees." He gestured over at you with a smirk.
You put your hands up when Itto was glaring at you. "Hey now big guy, we swear we'll get you back to your oni form. Scara is just messing with you."
It'll take a while but you'll get the samples, and fast... you haven't told them anything but you've been coughing out small blobs of blood. You're not positive what your sample had in it, but it's slowly making you sick inside.
"It's still risky to go and do it now, plus we need to find the other's too. Just hope your friends aren't dead yet, well, maybe Childe." you glared at Scaramouche when he mentioned Childe and he rolled his eyes, "fine alright! Not Childe.."
"Not so fast, we need those samples in order for me to track all the soul orbs. If we're right about your mother collecting them to reopen the plane, we'll run out of time and who knows what comes next! We'll be doomed you little shit." Itto steps up to Scaramouche and points a finger in front of him with a glare.
"Hate to say it but he's right, we don't know how much time we have left before she's gathered enough we haven't gotten yet." You just hope there's still some time and to find Childe and Thoma.
Scaramouche clenched his jaw and scoffed, looking down at his missing arm. "We need to get to Dottore first, I need a new arm before advancing any further with this mission, alright?"
"And do you know where he's at right now? You know he spends time in Liyue at that factory.." Sometimes Dottore would move around between the other nations, it would be—
"Yes, now let's not waste any time or else your himbo will end up complaining again."
____
shaking that Itto is released on the 14th...
who is pulling for him? ✋🏻