Intermission
Raz Stone & Aoyama Residents
'Aoyama'
At a glance, Aoyama had always seemed like the least defended home base of the main four Tamer Organizations, a simple ward inside of a bustling city, a place of beauty and spirituality to be sure, but not one that seems intensely guarded at a glance. In comparison to an isle that only heroes may enter, an ancient warship that seemed to hail from the stars themselves, or a town whose citizens held the loyalty and protection of most of the heavenly host, Aoyama seemed incredibly simple in comparison, a city of humans and demons, but simply a city nonetheless, and yet...
If you were to ask almost anyone on the planet about this particular topic, well...
The response is a simple one.
Aoyama is not a ward to be trifled with.
The moment the townspeople realize they are under siege, is the same moment a different sort of power comes rumbling to life at the heart of the city. It is a power of vivid blue, something that is far different from the gradient colors of the World Wide Concert, or the Golden Light being given off by the bizarre creature, the mechanical monstrosity internal thoughts declared to be a Sefirot...
No.
It's a vivid, but clear blue.
A deep azure, like the blue of the sky ripping through the darkest of nights.
Aoyama is not a town to be trifled with, not in the slightest.
The townspeople seem casual enough if you talk to them, a bit friendlier than most other populations perhaps, but the real steel will of the inhabitants is something that a casual visitor will probably never see, a sort of open secret amongst the populace that only comes out in times of strife. It's a power they acquired over a decade ago now, when a prophesied apocalypse had fallen on the World, casting the planet into shadows, and a battle for the continuation of human life was fought right here, right on top of the soil that these people called home.
A battle against the Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox of myth and a manifestation of the darkness inside of all human hearts.
Aoyama had fought it here.
They had struck it down here.
Not just because of heroes, but because the fighting spirit of the town itself was a bizarre miraculous power, one that could literally manifest in reality as a sort of Guardian God, a being of collective will and force that moved only to the whims of the townsfolk, a sword and shield of almost unparalleled strength-!
Yes.
Aoyama is not a town that takes well to being threatened, they don't really get scared, not in a way that matters... The things they've seen over the years have burnt out most of their fear responses, and even when something gets to them, really digs under their skin, well...
That doesn't matter.
Fear is something they've conquered before, they'd just do it again; hell, when it comes down to it, rather than run away, almost every person in town...
---Would fight you in the street long before they would ever run away-!
Those alive during the Kyuubi Incidents chuckle, those who were not fall momentarily silent, feeling the warm buzz of a power both familiar and unfamiliar, that rampant blue light that becomes like a compressed sun, shooting out of the depths of the memorial park and exploding out into an azure horizon-!
==Miura-No-Suke==
It'd been some time, since this power was used last.
A deep chuckle reverberates from the figure that had appeared in the center of town; it's massive, easily comparable in size to the monstrosity that had appeared from the cracks in the sky, and it's voice is that of the town's residents laughing to themselves as one.
It's figure shimmers, a thing of liquid blue fire and rampant reiki; the form of one of the two samurai of legend that struck down Tamamo-No-Mae, the Nine-Tailed Fox herself, and a symbolic representation of this town's role in the annals of history.
They seemed like the least guarded, but in reality, they may just be the most.
Aoyama blocks the path to the Soul Sea.
The people are it's guardians, and they do not fail.
Not now.
Not ever.
The samurai raises a hand to it's kabuto, it's face is indistinct, a towering behemoth of magical energy that seems more like a living furnace than any human being, but it nods to a certain stage as it passes, a respectful nod, one that does not ask for help, but acknowledges that it is being given anyway.
It's only polite.
But once that moment fades, well...
It's gaze fixes on the strange alien being, and that is what it is, alien, otherworldly in a way that even Demon kind was not; it's unfamiliar, they cannot place it's origin, although this feeling of wrongness reminds them of the Devourer, a hazy, long forgotten battle that had taken place in the depths of space, and...
"..."
It matters not.
A hand falls to a massive, ethereal blade, and...
steps forth to strike it down.