Chapter contains Violence and bloodshed
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Kai had just jumped through the portal backwards to escape the practically point blank fire of bullets.
As everything went dark she wondered if the portal had failed, or whether she'd been shot and killed...
Several minutes seemed to go by deprived of all but her sense of touch. She could feel the spider-like threads that made up the portal, it was as if she were falling through them or sinking slowly. It was not uncomfortable but it was terrifying.
As They seemed to suddenly reach the extent of their flexibility- in a split moment the threads simultaneously snapped apart and Kai was blinded by white light.
As her eyes adjusted She sat dazed and dumbfounded where she seemed to have fallen. A pair of deep purple interwoven trees still stood behind her but this time not in a forest. Though there was a reddish grass around the trees themselves the ground everywhere else was dry cracked and clay. Standing upon that ground was a large structure, stretching as far as Kai could see to the left and right of the purple trees was a stone wall... armed with guards. Kai could barely manage to stand up in her stupor.
Deep down she hadn't truly believed in anything magical, she'd far more expected to die than teleport anywhere,
but here she was...
I tried to pull myself together and look dignified, confident- normal. As if I didn't have a splitting headache, or maddening dizziness. The guards were probably watching, but you could go anywhere if you looked certain that you belonged right? I already had a cloak to fit in, so I'd just hightail it and get as far from trouble (here) as possible before anyone was the wiser. As I looked to the stone wall I could see the were guards were in fact peering down from their stations already. They carried small weapons and light armor and as I walked straight forward from the portal I saw one guard *F l y* down from the wall. Wings like a bat and everything yes. He landed and began to call out. Whatever he'd said was completely nonsensical to me which may have been a side effect of the portal but the second time as he yelled another incomprehensible phrase it was clear I didn't know the language.
he raised a small paper in hand and a tusked grey-red wolffish beast appeared from thin air. my confidence took an immediate nosedive, my sanity was in question and I felt the spiked bat I held was about to be immensely useful.
Lots of guards began to take to the air, and as the now many shouts echoed across the barren field I realized things had escalated not just because of my arrival but that of 6 armed thugs. The 7th must have chickened out. Guess you only needed one gem for multiple people to cross. Great to know but very unlucky for me. There wasn't time to reflect on luck however because on the command of the bat winged person -who was not pursuing- The wolf began charging right for me and it was definitely fast.
As Kai picked up the pace swinging at the beast to get past, she ran from the wall, the gang, and a growing number of guards.
While moving she noted her surroundings. the wall was almost entirely barren aside from the tree, but a good half mile or so ahead there was in fact a large dry field that met up with a forest. Tan, red, black and green plant life seemed to stretch even further then the wall did though the grass was little cover for one who'd already been spotted and the trees were not very full or tall.
There was no where else to go but this forest but it would be no help at all if Kai failed to reach it before the approaching wolf beast.
As the thing lunged Kai managed to sidestep it, barely a second later the beast launched again for her arm failing to bite as Kai swung the bat square at its face. It had been a weak impact but the hit pushed it a few feet back.
The tusked wolf snarled and snapped, but hesitated to try again blood on its jaw indicating a few nails had cut.
Kai continued to back towards the woods doing her best not to look away from the beast as she was beginning to near the tall grass- she was focused on warding off the wolf but as a pursuing guard yelled sparks rose from absolutely nowhere and flashed forward. They became a yellow fire that barred escape. As the flame grew upwards barely a foot away from her heels she panicked and looked away from the wolf, almost instantly she knew what came next.
Teeth sank deep into the flesh of Kai's right leg and she was knocked down as the wolf yanked and tore at the limb.
She lifted the bat overhead and with a scream brought it down as hard as she could on the back of the beasts head. It's shriek brought no relief and immediately kai forced herself to stand again. The beast was still very alive, but blood already flowed from several punctures on the head. Kai had no time to look at her leg, thankfully though it seemed the wolf did not want to fight anymore. It did not approach again, instead waiting and blocking the only path away from the fire.
She'd personally not like another leg shredded but she didn't know what to do from here.
Now that I could turn to face it, the wall I'd come from was a mess of... magic. Sporadically Ice, vines, and several colors of fire appeared and every few moments gunshots and yelling could intermittently be heard.
I looked for any sort of answer for what to do. The one who had started the yellow fire appeared concentrated on maintaining it, and The wolf's newfound distaste for fighting gave me at least enough time to realize no other guard was even here. The rest must've gone back to the portal to help others.
...portal's, beasts, and magic? I knew fire could be yellow under the right circumstances but maybe magic fire didn't work like the regular kind. I risked backing closer to the flame, this time not looking away from the wolf, and found that the fire wasn't hardly warmer than sunlight. In only a heartbeat I glanced over the flame and saw that it hadn't spread to any of the grass beside it. The wolf seemed to grow desperate and tried its luck, jumping at me again, I couldn't much dodge on my leg but choose to fall backward through the fire, As soon as I hit the ground I yanked myself out of the blaze as fast as possible -though it didn't burn or light my clothes-
My bat raised to take the tusked menaces bite in my place, I kicked the wolf with the left leg, pulling my bat sideways to tear a few gouges in its jaw. This time when it let go it turned and simply ran back through the fire. Presumably to its master.
Kai stood shaking, and only looked back at the portal to be sure nobody was following as she walked into the forest. The fire was dying down, but no one gave chase.
Only a couple minutes and I was thinking This wasn't an improved situation to gangsters so far, i doubted it would get better from here but i certainly wasn't coming back to the way i came if i could find another path...
———————————————————— author here, woooo we finally made it to the demon realm (though Kai doesn't know that's what it's called) I'm surprised it took this long to get here but hey, I write this because I want more details. We never got a decisive answer on how Sullivan crossed worlds in the iruma verse (aside from that it was magic) and I had to figure out a way to let Kai cross without magic but in a way that still made it reasonably difficult for other humans to cross worlds.
I think I did ok but i always forget you don't know what I know. I'll bet this scene looked really different to you then me but that's one of the cool things about books.
...I might regret telling you flat out like this which is why it's in the notes but the guards in this chapter were boarder patrol demons, and the reason Kai was able to get away was because they weren't trying to kill. If you didn't watch or read iruma kun it's much harder to connect the dots. I really need another perspective
Anyway
Hope you enjoy!