Post by Jizo on Jun 8, 2017 15:50:05 GMT
Thread PL: 7,634
The grassy fields glistened in the sunlight as a light breeze blew them back and forth. Jizo wandered down a cobblestone path towards the nearest settled area of Heaven, in search of problems. If he was going to become stronger and a well known martial artist he'd need to start helping people, and as an Ogre it was his duty to assist the denizens of the afterlife in any way that he could. He let out a sigh, frustrated still over how the last town had not been as eventful and as in need of assistance as he'd hoped. It was paradise for the heroes and the saints after all, so Jizo didn't know what he expected.
"Psst. A quiet voiced croaked from beneath a nearby tree that cast shade down onto a rocky ridge by the footpath. "Hello?" Jizo greeted the voice suspiciously, unsure if it was a welcomed resident of the afterlife or a mischievous ghost trying to play a trick on him. Jizo focused his vision, peering towards the tree in the hopes of spotting any signs of paranormal activity. As he blinked, a bearded old man in a straw witches hat sitting atop a glass orb appeared in front of him almost instantly.
Jizo was taken aback by this, startled and knocked on his backside. "WAOH!" He shouted, before taking the outreached hand of the elderly human and being pulled back up. "Sorry, I did not mean to startle you." He spoke in a monotonous scratchy croak of a voice, his eyes focused directly on Jizo's own. "That's okay." Jizo dusted himself off before turning his attention awkwardly to the main who was staring at his eyes. "Is there something I can help you with, sir?" He asked, trying to sound polite.
"Jiji." Wheezed the old fellow. "Huh?" Jizo wasn't sure what he meant. "Call me Jiji. Fortuneteller Jiji." His voice was so husky that it almost hurt, and Jizo's ears were nearly aching just hearing him speak. But why had this man stopped him? Jizo needed to know. "Fortuneteller Jiji, can I what it is you need? You must have had a reason for stopping me." Jiji's crinkled old face twisted into a little smile as he nodded, maintaining uncomfortable eye contact. "Yes."
He clicked his little wooden staff against the crystalline orb he floated atop, and a vision appeared before Jizo. 'Magic?' Jizo's head was aflutter with astonishment, it was rare that he himself encountered someone who could properly utilize magic, especially in the more positive areas of the afterlife. "A powerful ghost has stolen something very valuable to me, and locked themselves away where I can't reach them." His decrepit hand reached into the pocket of his light green garb, presenting a diamond-shaped pendant to Jizo. "I want you to get back what was stolen. You'll need this."
Jizo's eyes puzzled over the small, ornate pendant. It felt far heavier than it should be, and his hands could barely grasp it for reasons that Jizo couldn't quite put his little blue finger on. "What's this?" The old man tapped on his orb once more, the vision of the dastardly spectral thief fading before a new image appeared. "When the ghost stole what is rightfully mine, he locked himself away in an old castle sealed behind a powerful barrier. This is one of the four keys to that barrier."
"Where are the other three?" The image appeared in full view, presenting three figures each brandishing an identical pendant to the one that Jizo held in his hand. "The four pendants were scattered and have been found by three long-dead heroes, warriors who rest is this paradise." Jizo nodded at the explanation, looking closely at the images to try and remember their appearances. "You will find Bee, the Neko Majin in a cave west of here. He has been locked away by a swarm of spectral bandits. Tonasu the Kabochan and Sera of Amazonia will be found in Angel Village to the east."
The blue ogre nodded as he put the pendant around his neck, tucking it beneath his clothing as he adjusted to the weight. "Okay I'll help you. I'll go right away." As Jizo looked up to say goodbye to Jiji, he saw only the tree, the rocks and the field. Jiji had vanished just as quickly as he'd appeared, but Jizo couldn't shake the nagging feeling that they would meet again sometime soon. Without a moments notice, Jizo sped off towards the cave to the west, determined to free 'Bee' and gather the first key that he needed.
The trip to the cave was short and swift, due to the passive nature of Heaven's environment making the trek far easier than the same distance would have been down in Hell. "Hello...?" The diminutive ogre-ling shouted into the mouth of the cave, before entering cautiously and keeping his senses focused and keen. "HELLO!?" A chirpy little voice squealed from somewhere deeper in the cave. "CAN YOU HELP ME!? I'M STUCK IN THIS CAGE!!" Following the sound, Jizo kicked through an old iron door that was already deteriorating and withered when he got to it, revealing a small neko-majin with a top hat and purple clothes trapped within a thick metal cage.
"I'll get you out of there!" Jizo shouted, flinging himself through the air and slamming feet first into the bars of the cage, before a loud fizzle was heard and in a flash of multi-colored light he was flung back into the wall. "shishishishishi." The air filled with the childish laughing of many ghosts, echoing and reverberating throughout the cave. "OH NO! THEY'RE BACK!" Bee squirmed in his cage, hiding behind his top hat and ducking into the corner.
The ghosts came at him in swathes, but Jizo defended easily against the lines of spectral attackers. "FUUJIN BEAM!" He shouted, an energy beam roaring through the air and cleaving through a line of ghosts, making them dissipate with a soft poofing sound. A large yellow ghost came through the wall, phasing into the room with a large golden key dangling around his neck. "Shishishi. Oi you! Whaddya think ya doin' to me pals?" The ghost huffed, his translucent form clapping his hands together before throwing his large fist towards Jizo. "Woah!" He shouted, narrowly avoiding the attack. "Take this... LOCK!" He shouted as his psychic attack locked the Ghost in place, before Jizo dashed at him and released him before delivering a powerful beam from up close.
CLANK. The hefty golden key fell to the ground, and Jizo struggled to lift it over to the cage that held Bee. "YAYY!!!" The teensy Neko-Majin jumped up and down, squealing with excitement. "I'M FREE! I'M FREE!!" He hugged Jizo tight, before clicking his fingers and floating in the air. "Thank you for saving meee! I'm Bee, what is your name?" The high pitched voice queried, extending a little hand whilst Bee readjusted his pendant with the other. "You can call me Jizo."
After some explanation of what had happened and why Jizo had come, as well as the pendant's value to Jizo's quest, Bee agreed to follow along as they headed east to Angel Village in order to track down the other two heroes and acquire either their help or their pendants. With a snap of Bee's fingers a purple cloud appeared in a puff of smoke and the two raced away on it's back, far faster than Jizo had managed to travel on his own. With the cloud's help they reached Angel Village in mere moments, shocked by what they reached.
Fire. Smoke. Screaming. Explosions. The village was being burned to the ground by a group of flaming ghosts and most of the denizens seemed to stand little chance against them. After exchanging a nod, Jizo and Bee rushed into the flaming village and got into action. Jizo was defending the citizens of the village from the flaming specters, poofing them one by one with energy blasts from a distance and Bee was using his magic in order to try and snuff the dangerous flames. "BURUBURU!" In a flash of blue preceded by a clap of Bee's hands, a torrent of water washed over the village, leaving the buildings and the people unscathed but wiping the fire out.
Jizo and the fire spirits were battling it out in the village center, with the puffs of fire and smoke swarming him in clusters that merged into large fire spirits. "Huff... I could... use a little help here, Bee!" He shouted, Bee not hearing as we continued to put out fires throughout the village. "Perhaps the touch of a lady is required here." A voice sounded out before the largest spirit was diced by the swing of a blade. A green-haired woman stood in the place of the spirit, a confident stance as she prepared for battle.
"BOOM!" A loud bang could be heard as one of the buildings exploded, all of the fire spirits within being taken down with it. A hulking Kabochan lept through the debris from the wreckage and landed with the woman, offering his hand to Jizo. "We're here to help." He said as Jizo sighed in relief, cracking his neck and getting into a battle stance. He saw the pendants on the two's necks, and smiled. He had found the other two heroes. "I'm Jizo by the way." He said as he fought through the swarm back-to-back with the other two.
"Sera, of Amazonia." The woman's tone was as elegant as the finesse she showed with the blade she fought with, and her tone was almost regal in nature. "and I'm Tonasu. Nice to meet ya." The Kabochan man's tone was gruff and hardy. These two seemed like they would definitely be willing to help get past the barrier and retrieve Jiji's possessions from the Ghost. The fight went on for an hour, the last of the fire spirits merging into a titanic raging beast of flame, only to be taken down by the combined efforts of Jizo's Super Lock and the offensive maneuvers of Sera and Tonasu.
After the fight, Jizo and the others settled down and he explained everything to the two warriors. Without any hesitation, the two warriors agreed to join the quest in order to defeat the powerful ghost, having had their fair share of stolen possessions and ghostly encounters in their time as residents of the afterlife. As they left the village, a familiar face appeared before the four of them. "Excellent work, Jizo." Jiji said in his monotone grizzly voice, looking over the four heroes without changing his expression at all. He tapped his crystal ball and revealed another vision as he spoke.
"Head north from here, and you will find the ghost's castle in the center of a lake. With all four of those pendants you should be able to bypass his barrier and bring the fight to him." Sera and Tonasu nodded to each other at the word fight, and Bee lit up with excitement as Jizo simply smiled. Jiji vanished once again and the quartet of heroes road atop the purple cloud of Bee's creation once more, zipping straight to the castle in the lake and making their way past the ethereal barrier and up to the door of the castle. Without saying a word to one another the four opened the doors and entered the foreboding stone structure without fear.
The castle lobby was grimy and damp, covered in phantasmal cobwebs and puddles of water. "How... quaint." Sera commented, as the four passed through the old room and into a narrow hallway. The bricks in the hallway were old and brown, and the four needed to squeeze tightly in a line in order to fit through the pass. As the pushed up the door at the end of the hall, they were greeted by a large room, with tall bookshelves on all four sides and the villainous ghost they were hunting standing in the center.
"Nyeheheh. Did you nitwits really think this would be that simple?" He cackled maniacally as he flicked through a book he held in front of himself, and the four stood ready to fight. "I am Iji, the great magician! And you can tell that stupid brother of mine that he's never getting his silly little spell tome back any time soon!" Just as they were about to attack, the book in Iji's hand began to glow and from the brickwork of the floor rose four identical stone golems that eache charged towards one of the fighters.
Jizo cross guarded to block an incoming punch with his forearms as he was knocked into the bookshelf wall. "GAUH!" He let out a cry of pain and hit the ground, barely raising himself onto one knee. These things were tougher than they looked, and it really hurt when they hit you. Jizo needed to act fast, and he hoped the other three could hold their own. "GYAH!" With a solid blow, Jizo staggered the mighty stone fighter before following up with an uppercut to what could be considered the jaw. With the Golem knocked onto it's backside, Jizo used his opening to charge up his Fuujin Beam to it's maximum power.
"FUUJIN..." He shouted the first half of the technique's name, getting ready to release the powerful blast towards the statue. "...BEAM!!!" He screamed, the vibrant and blindingly bright blast soaring at lightning-fast speeds through the room and obliterating the stone golem. Just as he took down his golem, the other three took down theirs as well. "Grrr. Think yourselves tough, hmm?" The ghost said, readying another spell. "No, not this time!" Jizo said, speeding up and grabbing the book out of his hand. "This doesn't belong to you." Iji coughed loudly as the book was taken from his hands, his eyes widening in terror as three simultaneous attacks were released from Bee, Sera and Tonasu wiping him from the face of heaven in mere moments.
As Iji's body was destroyed the castle began to fade from existence, leaving the four standing alone on a small island with the book in their possession and nothing else. "We sure kicked his butt, hey?" Tonasu said, satisfaction spread on the face of all four party members. "I would have said it more eloquently than that, Tonasu. But... Indeed we did." Sera giggled a little as she spoke, and it was obvious that she appreciated the way Tonasu acted more than she let on. "WE DID ITT!!! YAY!!" Bee's high pitched squeal hurt the ears of the other three and they blocked them, still smiling at one another.
"Thank you." Jiji appeared, the spell tome lifting off of the ground and into his hands. "My spell tome would not have returned home to me if not for the intervention of you four." The old man shook the hands of the party one by one, before handing them each a small bag. "A token of my gratitude." Each bag was full of small valuable trinkets of varying worth. It wasn't long before Jiji vanished once more, and later that night the four each went their separate ways on good terms, and as he walked off into the fields of Heaven Jizo hoped that he'd see them again in the future.
