Namashite Village

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A small, mostly red and yellow dragon wandered around the village, ducking between houses and under anything she could find so that she would go unnoticed. Erulissë was planning on finding something tasty to eat.
She wandered into one of the houses, following a rather nice smell....

"Swish."
Natsumi's final arrow hit it's mark as flew as silently into the water as the others had, bringing forth a medium-sized fish from the water. Satisfied, Natsumi disassembled her makeshift "fishing gear", making sure to be very quiet so not to disturb Erulissë.

Erulissë was back, paw deep in the water. She swished her yellow tipped tail to and fro as she concentrated on catching a third and final fish. Finally, a shadow beneath the water swam under her nose. The dragon demon didn't waste any time attempting to catch it. She was successful, proving that she could be a good hunter when she wanted to be, but this fish was the smallest of them all.
Even so, these fish would last them for a little while at least. Erulissë grinned, hopping over to the priestess, the newly caught fish still moving slightly in her jaws.

"We should probably head back over to the camp now." Nutsumi said, but was halted by a rustling in the bushes. She held up her hand, signaling for Erulissë to stay still. She started to move silently twoards the edge of the trees, attempting to catch the inrtuder she was sensing off guard. What she got was a face-full of some kind of sleeping powder.

"Fwaaa-? -gaahk. What in the world?..." Natsumi managed to say before passing out. A Silver-and-Purple cat demon emerged from the green undergrowth, a wicked smile on it's face. "Now I get a soul and dinner!" the cat smiled as she eyeballed Natsumi and her pile of fish, before even noticing Erulissë. "Oh hey, a fellow demon." she said, bowing slightly, the wicked grin still frozen on her face.

Erulissë nodded then caught Natsumi's 'stay still' motion and nodded again. She watched as her friend moved towards the edge of the trees and then jumped at the sudden appearance of the sleeping powder.

The dragon demon, though in her smallest form right now, growled at the unwelcome intruder.
"What did you do that for?!" she hissed, her fluffy tipped tail swishing to and fro in annoyance. Erulissë quickly hopped in front of the fish as she realized what the other demon was staring at.

"An excellent question! My name is Naotaka, illusion extrodinair, and I am a demon of the Bakeneko persuasio. I happen to be looking to gather human souls, which I will use to strengthen myself even more!" Naotaka grinned, her forked tail swishing back and forth gently yet in a menacing fashion. She suddenly started glowing with a purpleish-black hue, transforming into a more huuman-esque shape. She wore a Silver-Parple Kimono, had short silver hair and cat ears, and a silver forked cat tail.

(Ooc: Naotaka looks like a bigger version of an Espeon in Demon form XD)

Erulissë also transformed into her own human form, the feathered bracelets dangling from her wrists as she stood, ready to attack this demon if necessary. She wasn't about to let it hurt her new friend.
"Well you're not going to get this soul, nor those fish. So clear off!"

Naotaka grinned. "I'm afraid it's too late for the human. You see, I specialize in Illusions and infiltrating human dreams. So, as we speak, I'm already in the human's head! I'm also the most powerful bakeneko demon on in this area of Japan. I'm suprised you've never heard of me! I'm not an easy one to beat, and now with this...." Naotaka smirked, holding up the Jewel Shard that she had snuck out of Natsumi's bag before she had transformed, "I'm even more powerfull!" she laughed maliciously.

Natsumi woke up with a start in a dark place. "I must be dreaming. This place's demonic aura is giving me chills as I sit here....." she muttered, standing. The place where she was standing felt like a huge, endless void. "Is this my inner conscience?" she asked aloud.
"Welcome to my nightmare......" a voice echoed.......

"You bastard!" she yelled as the feathers dangling from the bracelets began to glow. Erulissë flicked them towards the opposing demon, a large set of razor sharp feathers appearing from then and heading straight for her.

Erulissë risked a quick glance over at Natsumi. She wondered what the priestess could be dreaming right now.

Naotaka wasn't suprised at all when she was attacked. In fact, she disapeered in a puff of smoke as the needles made contact. "Meerly an illusion, Miss dragon. Good luck finding the real me." the demon smirked darkly as three more copies stepped out from the shadows.

Meanwhile, Natsumi confronted the shadowy puppet master within her head. "Well, well, what a suprise. If it isn't the demon known for stealing people's souls through their dreams, Naotaka of the Bakeneko clan who reside in the Fukkerita Mountains." Natsumi said. "Well well, you didn't even give me a chance to introduce myself. That was rude. Much like that pesky Dragon friend of yours." Naotaka said, appearing in front of Natsumi in her Human form. "Thank you for the Shikkon shard, by the way. It will help me rid the world of that demon who insists on interfereing." she grinned, a wave of evil aura washing over Natsumi. "You leave Erulissë alone, this is between us now." Natsumi demanded, reaching for her holy mirror, only discover that all her weapons were gone. "Fool, this night mare is my creation! I have the upper hand!" Naotaka laugh viciously as she dashed twoards Natsumi, weilding her claws.

Erulissë switched back into her miniature form and leaped at the copies. The first one she leaped at, as she had expected, also disappeared in a puff of smoke. From where she landed on her four paws, her jaws parted and a large jet of flame headed for one of the other Naotokas.

The third also disappeared in a puff of smoke after being hit by the flames, but more copies replaced them. "You may as well give up, the true me is hidden in plain sight, but this isn't a place where you would normally find me." One of the copies of Naotaka smirked. Her words implied a deeper meaning....
..... As the fight went on, light from the rising moon glinted off of something shinyin a tall tree peering over the insuing battle....

"Have you given up yet?" Naotaka huffed with slight frustration as she threw Natsumi aside, bloody and battered from Naotaka's claw attacks in the seemingly one-sided fight. "You..... You think you can break me like you can a normal human? You obviously are oo arrogant to see who you're dealing with." Natsumi huffed in pain, though she knew it was just an illusion. "My powers will keep you sealed in here until my friend weakens you enough that I can expel you." Natsumi retorted. "I know who you are, preistess. And as for your friend, she is dealing with an illusion of her own. She'll never find me while she's trapped in it, even when the answer is watching her from above." Naotaka scoffed. Natsumi cursed under her breath, and tried to figure out what Naotaka was meaning.

(OoC: I've actually devised a riddle in this post. It will lead you to find a way for Erulissë to escape the illusion and free Natsumi if you can find it. I'm only supplying one hint: It has to do with a branch of the Bakeneko from Japanese mythology called the "Maneneko" or more commonly "Golden Lucky Cats......
As the thread continiues I will make the answer more and more obvious if you don't see it right away.)

Eruli stopped breathing fire at the copies as she realized there were just more and more of them appearing. She wasn't getting any closer to helping Natsumi, nor was she getting any closer to defeating this elusive demon.
She glanced around, her long tail flicking back and forth in annoyance at the puzzle that stood before her. Unfortunately, logic wasn't one of Erulissë's strong points.
The dragon demon caught sight of something in the trees. Just for a split second, the moon's light had reflected off of it, making it visible in the darkness.
Eruli let off a small puff of flame just to confirm that she hadn't been seeing things. Sure enough, the orange light of the flames danced off of something high up in the branches of one of the tallest trees. Not seeing anything else that would be likely to help, the young dragon demon prepared her still injured wings for a quick flight up into the branches.

"So, preistess, what will you do now? There's no way you can escape." Naotaka questioned, a triumphant tone in her voice.
"Actually, I believe there is. Even a demon who has some amount of talent in illusions is still susceptible to weak points in their illusions. It usually has something to with the demon themselves. You've heard of Maneneko, right?" Natsumi replied plainly.
"Yes, they are part of my family line." Naotaka nodded, humoring her.
"Well I've heard reports from some of the towns you've been plaguing saying that people would yell in their sleep about seeing one just before their souls were stolen. So, if one were to find one in their illusion and broke it....." Natsumi mused, a hidden edge to her voice.
"Very good, preistess! But you should also have figured out that I wouldn't make it so easy to break out of my illusions. My weak point is protected by a completely unbreakable demonic shield, and even if you were able to use your purification powers to pass through it, only a demon can touch it. On top of that, the weak point can't be destroyed until you remove it's soul." Naotaka boasted. "And even if you could possibly pull all this off, how would you even communicate all this to your demon friend? You are in a void. You can't cry out. And there's not a high chance of your friend figuring out everything she has to do on her own, no matter how smart or clever she may be." she added.
Natsumi bit her lip and began to think of a way to fix the dilemma she had just been handed and what the new riddle she had been handed could possibly mean.

Meanwhile, the tiny army of Naotaka clones all armed their claws, preparing to attack the demon all at once.

Erulissë wasn't about to stick around to get clawed by the clones so she closed her eyes and propelled herself off of the ground with her powerful paws. Her small black wings managed to carry her near of the lower branches before the pain that began to shoot through them again became too much.
The dragon demon practically dropped onto the branch as her left wing gave way. Eruli scrambled to pull herself fully onto the branch despite the fact that she had just winded herself.

"So, in order to reveal your weakness we have to steal the soul from the barrier, which could only be passed with my spiritual power, but the weakness can only be broken by a demon? And your weakness is possibly in the shape of a Maneneko?" Natsumi questioned Naotaka.
"For the final time, yes." Naotaka sighed, exhasperated.
"You know, I've heard that the golden coin a Golden Lucky Cat holds is said to contain it's soul. Any comments?" Natsumi pushed on, slightly enjoying giving the pompous demon a hard time.
"Yes, but what does it matter? Even if you've figured out about the golden lucky cat statue I have hidden, you can't do anything about it!" Naotaka groaned, annoyed.
"Just checking." Natsumi shrugged. She had been secretly sending all this information to Erulissë via telepathic ability, and was now silently hopeing the Dragon had received the message.