Yami sighed as he sat against a worn cherry blossom tree his left eye looking at the sky, "Master Kirai any news or are we still waiting on Fox?” Yami bore a black jacket with belts all around his waist, loose pants, and black steel toed boots. His hair was a mangled mess from not cutting it for so long. The white-haired male named Kirai sighed as he looked in the same direction.

"Not yet young wolf." This was a pet name given to Yami by his master. Yami flexed his bandaged right hand and sighed once again as a blue streak came dashing towards them.

"Nothing to report brother it looks clear with no demons or otherwise to be seen." The blue streak turned out to be a fox that transformed itself into a man named Assarishita. This did not surprise the two as a brownish red and white-haired male trailed right behind Assa.

"I can confirm brother."

Yami nodded as he looked up to the man "Thank you Ishi." Ishi nodded in confirmation.

Gekido grunted as he woke up "You guys are too loud," he grunted again as he ran a hand through his wild red hair. His eyes were equally as wild looking. He had been sleeping in a tree branch above Yami.

Another man named Rex chuckled as he scratched his head and told Gekido that he was always grumpy when he woke up. Everyone except Yami laughed, and yet another man named Sukai grinned at Rex’s comment before they all got up and started to head in a new direction. They did not get very far before stopping once seeing a large group of about 8 women heading in their direction.

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"She's staring into space again..." "Maybe she's hungry...I know! She likes Dango! I'll make some right now and stuff her face!

Sounds of a scuffle and a body being slammed down ensued.

"Don't you dare Amai! Haven't you learned by now that it's rude to shove food down people's throats?? Besides, the quicker she comes around, the quicker we can get this journey over with."

"But Haruki you're so mean!"

Another voice chimes in. "Quiet both of you! She'll hear you!"

Arctic blue eyes shut slowly as a sigh exited from the daydreaming woman's mouth. Chizue was right, she could still hear everything that was being said, even if she appeared to be in her thoughts. There was indeed a lot on her mind since a lot had been thrown on her plate in the last few months. Hell, even since she was little, life had decided that it wanted to shove itself onto her too quickly. This new predicament had to be the icing on the cake, however. She only hoped that deity was right as a vein popped out of her head at the continued sounds of hushed arguing. Her eyes popped open as she stood from the big rock wall she had been leaning against and effectively stopped all noise as she took in the other 7 women she was traveling with. By their effective nicknames they came up with over the last two months they made up a pretty odd group. She glanced over each one respectively; the green-haired Miss Chizu, the pink-haired strawberry vampire, the blonde-haired bloody angel, the brown-haired Kitty, the red-headed Psycho, the orange-haired Spunky Sprite, the blue-haired Pigtail Mermaid, and herself, the Dragon.

"Tch" she smirked and walked ahead of the group as they got the hint that they should go along with her. They all got along for the most part and had gotten accustomed to each other's quirks over the last month, but there were still some things that were best left in the dark for now. She was an introvert by nature and did not trust quite that easily, so while she considered most of them acquaintances, very few were considered friends to her yet.

As they continued walking for a few miles the arctic blue-eyed woman's fingers started fiddling with the snowflake pendant in her pocket. It was an unforgettable reminder of why they were on this journey in the first place. Suddenly, Kitty's hair turned blue with cat ears and she shapeshifted into a black leopard and growled lowly. Sensing the distress, the women braced themselves as they came upon a group of men in the meadow they were crossing. They all looked lackadaisical until they became aware of their presence. Their leader, at least she thought he was their leader, the long-haired one, got up from a cherry blossom tree he was sitting under and scrutinized them with one hand hovering over his weapon. The girls stopped about 10 feet away from the men.

Before either group could do or say anything a light flashed between them and a floating woman with purple hair fading into blonde wearing a black and white flowing dress appeared before them.

One thought was common throughout everyone's minds. Tsuki

"Finally, you all become one," Tsuki said. "You all have been brought together for one purpose. To defeat Ragnarok. It will take every one of you and your strengths to find the answer to bring him to his end. Work together to find the answer. If you should fail...all worlds will despair." She faded away after her ominous speech.

Everyone around were dumbfounded for a minute, trying to process what just happened and stared at each other with varied expressions. It did not look like either group would make a move until Amai suddenly ran up to the black and red ponytailed guy and promptly popped a piece of pre-made spicy chicken in his mouth. He stared at her wide-eyed with his cheeks puffed out from the chicken and everyone else sweat dropped.

"Well, that's one way to break the ice..." The Spunky Sprite said as she laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her neck.

A black shroud of feathers rained down beside of Yami. "It would seem that I came back at an interesting time," a voice said as the feathers evaporated and a figure clothed in black, with black and white hair, looked around at his comrades.

Zetsumei's mouth was still full of spicy chicken so he chewed the best he could and swallowed before coughing. "Unexpected is more like," he managed to choke out.

The red and blue-haired man started laughing spritely as he looked on with ocean blue eyes and smiled. "This is going to be even more interesting!" His laughter was healthy and warming. Kirai chuckled as he observed the show with his white eyes and couldn't help but laugh at Zetsumei along with most of the others.

Rex chuckled as his black hair blew in the wind, and adjusted his headband wrapped around his head. His crimson irises rested themselves onto a golden-eyed, green-haired woman. Sukai was hovering and laughing in the air. his golden and blue locks were like lightning and water. Ishi bowed to the women in front of him. His brown and white hair was odd for someone like him.

"A pleasure" he said with his deep and masculine voice.

Yami looked up from the display to take in the ladies once again with his uncovered eye. He nodded to them as a spike of his old rage suddenly ran through him. His bandaged fist clenched in rage, but he soon calmed himself and took his hand off his blade that was sheathed on his back.

"Seems the gods have a voice after all" He looked at the winged man for a minute and back to the women.

"I'm Yami Kaminari," he introduced himself and bowed slowly while Gekido looked at the sight and snorted as he went to sit in the cherry blossom tree. "and that is my idiot younger brother Gekido.” Yami continued with an unimpressed look at his brother. “The spritely blue-haired one is my other brother, Assarishita," He finished off as he pointed to the man in question.

A white-haired, white-eyed man stepped forward before simply saying, "I am Kirai."

The black and red-haired guy coughed again trying to get all the chicken out of his throat. "I’m Zetsumei but call me Zetsu for short," he said in a cheerful tone despite almost being chocked to death.

"The name is Sukai. Pleasure to meet you," The one hovering in the air with blue and blonde hair bowed. The introductions continued with the black and white-haired male who bowed and introduced himself as Rindo Ragakurei, a red and turquoise haired male named Kasai and the onyx haired male with red eyes named Rex Okami.

Amai had returned to the girls' side after popping the chicken in Zetsumei’s mouth and joined in with the guy's laughter and listened to their introductions.

"I'm Amai!" The long pink haired lady with baby blue eyes announced with a sweet voice and a small blush as she mostly directed the introduction to Zetsumei, who was currently picking his teeth with the chicken bone.

"I'm Haruki Yamazaki, this idiot's older sister." The short, spiky blonde-haired woman with blood-red eyes said with a slightly exasperated air about her as she crossed her arms and bumped her shoulder into Amai's, causing her to puff her cheeks out angrily.

"Chikako Chizue," the long green-haired woman with golden-brown eyes said in a simple, mature voice as she looked quizzically back into Rex's red eyes.

After these introductions, the orange-haired, purple-eyed woman ran up between the still shapeshifted brown-haired woman with electric blue eyes, and the blue pigtailed lady with ocean blue eyes and threw her arms around their shoulders.

"What's up, guys! I'm Sora Kokutori and this is Shizue Amaya, (she nodded towards the blue-haired woman) and this girl here is Kiyoshi Amarante. Don't worry she's not always a scary cat! Just wait till she gets to know ya!" Sora winked while Kiyoshi growled embarrassedly and Shizue just nodded nervously.

Turquoise eyes were boring into Gekido's soul as the owner flipped her red hair and grinned seductively. "Saiko Akane. It is a... pleasure...to make your acquaintance" She purred and licked her lips as she bowed enough to show off ample breasts.

Arctic blue eyes took in the scene before her as she waited patiently for the other girls to introduce themselves. She took a couple of steps forward and bowed traditionally before Yami, black hair falling forward over her shoulders. "My name is Kajima Sapporo. You've already been introduced to the others." She stood up and held out her hand in invitation. "It will be interesting working with you."

Yami nodded shaking Kajima's hand "Likewise," he said mysteriously and turned to Assa.

“Did you find any place to stay Fox," he voiced and sighed with relief when Assa nodded in confirmation.

"Yup just 30 miles up ahead," Assarishita pointed in the direction that he mentioned and shot Sora a smile. There was something about the energy she gave off that made him want to smile at her.

Gekido blushed when he saw the cleavage Saiko was showing off as she introduced herself. Yami coughed as he started to walk the way that was pointed out towards civilization.

"Well let's be on our way then everyone," he said with a commanding voice before muttering lowly to himself.

"I will kill you Uncle, one way or the other." He clenched his bandaged hand again and Kirai gave his pupil a worried look. He knew the beast inside of Yami may come out to play sooner or later.

About 20 minutes into the journey Assa spoke up "So what brings you all into this journey? How does Ragnarok come into play for you girls?" his voice was full of curiosity as he asked the question.

Yami grunted and just listened with one ear perked up and continued walking faster than everyone else. He was tired and needed some rest. A black ring was forming under his only visible eye from lack of sleep.

"This is the meadow of Two Graves, are you nuts?" Saiko asked. She was the only one walking amongst the guys, namely Gekido. The other women didn't feel confident enough to walk amongst the men yet and were off to the side.

Kajima looked around the meadow warily. Her hand never left the handle of her katana, and she felt a cold chill close in around her mind. There were too many memories in this dark place. She sped up her pace to walk next to Yami. "Saiko is right. The hills have eyes, and this meadow has ears. I don’t know how much you guys know about this place, but it is best that we get out of here as quickly as possible. We will explain as much as we can allow once we find a warm safe shelter."

Towards the back of the group, Haruki was walking next to a still transformed Kiyoshi, and her sister, who was riding on Kiyoshi's back. Amai was being unnaturally quiet, but Haruki supposed it was the evil feeling of the meadow getting to her as well. She glanced up to the twilight sky. Shit. It's getting dark. We need to hurry. Haruki thought as she voiced their need for even greater hurry aloud. Amai shot her a worried glance and was the only one who seemed to agree with her. The boys shot them a quizzical look but shrugged it off as they continued into the darkening horizon.

As the darkness descended a lone figure could be seen in the distance, standing as still as the stone monuments it stood between.