The Cost of Being Human

Yoko Inari was sitting deep in the forests of Fiore and leaning against a tree. She was wearing her usual attire, which mean't her tail was hidden by her long brown cloak while her fox-ears was visible since Yoko decided not to put the hood over her head. Yoko took a deep and relaxing breath as she surveyed the area around her. There were trees everywhere and the ground beneath Yoko consisted of soft grass. Just as she was about to settle down even more, or heightened sense of hearing heard the footsteps nearby. Judging by the sounds the footsteps made, Yoko guessed it was a human since she hasn't seen any other biped animals. Yoko could feel her anger rise to the surface as she heard the footsteps and as it rose so did her instincts as a predator. "Humans always ruin everything...", Yoko said as she stood up. Once she stood up, Yoko began to stealthy approach the sound of the footsteps.

Not to far away a man wearing an unbuttoned black jacket with dark blue pants was walking on a windy dirt pathway that leads to the outside of the forest. A small orange and white cat was hanging on his shoulder. "Zora when this forest end, it feels like we've been walking forever" The cat complained. "The villagers said this road will take 2 days to cross I'm afraid its only been a couple hours you'll just have to hang in a little more Saber." Zora responded. "Ugh cant we take a break I'm hungry." Zora looked at Saber and then looked back in front of him. "Lets try to get as far as we can before sunset and then we'll take a break and eat." Saber's face became a bit upset. "Alright fine." And Zora continued walking down the path.

Her movements through the forest seemed subconscious as if she was in tuned with the nature around her, which in fact she was. As the embodiment of nature, Yoko was always in tuned with nature. She is able to perform feats such as communicate with animals or sympathize with plants. Right now she was using her ability to hear what animals are saying by listening to their comments about the human. With every whisper she heard, Yoko got closer and closer to the human until two minutes had passed and she was a couple of meters away from them. Yoko was smart enough not to reveal herself yet, so instead she was hiding behind a tree. "This is should be easy...", Yoko thought to herself as she extended her hand towards the ground. Yoko concentrated all the aspects of nature to her right hand and focused it outward, causing a green energy-like substance to flow from her right hand. The green energy transformed itself into a cobra, which then slithered toward the human.

The snake carefully slithered towards Zora and when it was close enough it pounced and wrapped itself around his leg and bit him. Zora who didn't even looked injured or acted like he even felt the bit looked down at his leg. "hm?" Saber also looked down. "A snake?" Zora bent down and picked up the snake and carefully looked at it. "I guess we must be careful for now on if there are snakes rooming around here." Saber said. Zora had a puzzling look on his face. He then looked behind to where the snake had pounced. "Is something wrong Zora?" Saber asked as he looked confused. Zora then glared, "alright enough hiding come on out."

"You're not going to kill the snake? I'm surprised, most people would have tried to kill it by now. It's such a shame that I have to kill you.", Yoko said as she walked out from behind the tree. Despite being able to sense the man's magic power there wasn't a hint of fear in her eyes, if anything her facial expression seemed predatory. While Yoko's words seem like pointless boasting, it is not. When hunting, Yoko always has a plan. After her long life of hunting humans, Yoko has learned that hunting humans is as much a mental battle as it is a physical one. "Since you obviously respect nature, I will let you choose how you die, you should be thankful.", Yoko continued as she smiled confidently.

Saber jumped to the girls sudden appearance as she walk out from the tree. "Whoa how long has she been standing there?" Saber shouted in surprised. Zora glared at the girl while still keeping a serene looking face. "I take that was you controlling that snake to attack me? What purpose do you have for killing us?" Zora then noticed fox-like ears on the top of her head. Zora thought of countless suggestions until he came to a solution or so he guessed. "Those ears? your a yokai aren't you?"

"I don't need a reason to kill you other than the fact that you're a human.", Yoko said without a bit of remorse in her voice. When Yoko heard the man's second question she looked like she was going to respond, but instead she didn't say anything to answer that question. "It doesn't matter whether I am a Yōkai, a demon, or a human because the conclusion to this fight will be the same regardless of my species.", Yoko responded as she exerted a very tiny amount of her magic power in a thin layer of pressure. This thin layer of pressure can be used to easily intimidate beings who aren't mages and even some weak mages. However, due to how dense her magic power is, the aura around her can easily repel physical attacks with ease.

Zora and Saber watched as the girl released magical aura. "Thats some powerful magic she has there, this girl isn't messing around." Saber mumbled to him. Zora, who didn't show any signs of worry or fear replied to him. "Its more then that you can feel her overwhelming intent to kill. We're not dealing with an ordinary enemy here." Saber looked at Zora in worry. "Is she really that powerful?" Zora did not respond to Saber's question. "Saber, I want you to go to a safe distance, I don't want you anywhere near this fight." As he was saying that Zora released the same amount of magic power as yoko did. Saber wanted to deny the request but as he looked into Zora's eyes he knew he was right. Saber then grew wings and floated into the air. "Be carful Zora." He then flew to safe distance and observed the fight behind a large rock from far away.

Once the exceed was behind the rock, Yoko used her incredible natural speed to move at unbelievable speeds. Her movements were so fast that she seemingly teleported from the spot she was standing to behind her opponent. Once she was behind the opponent she waited a second before moving again, but she didn't move as fast. This time she moved just fast enough to create an afterimage in her wake that would stay there for a couple of seconds. The afterimage made it appear as if she was still behind the opponent when in reality she had moved to a spot right in front of the opponent. Once in front of the opponent she aimed a quick front kick at the opponent. Keeping the Magical Aura active allowed her to prevent herself from being repelled away by her opponent's Magical Aura and still do damage if the attack was successful. The strength of the kick was very strong, so strong that it had the potential of sending the man backwards a couple of meters if it hit.

Zora was amazed of the girls incredible speed, however he was still able to see her faintly. As he turned around he knew what was behind him was an afterimage and noticed her approach from the front. As she was about to do a fast front kick Zora got into a fighting position and caught the kick. The intense impact caused a shock wave and also pushed Zora two steps back. Saber could feel their powers from all the way where he was hiding. "Wow she so powerful. Please be carful Zora." Zora then grabbed her foot so she couldn't pull it back.

Yoko stopped exerting her Magical Aura, which caused Yoko to become vulnerable to the effects of the man's Magical Aura, causing Yoko to be propelled from the man's grasp. Once she was freed, Yoko jumped back then inhales deeply and quickly gathers nature energy in mouth. After a second had passed she releases the nature energy in the form of a large and concentrated column of green energy. If the column makes contact with the man it would cause the man to suffer from both internal and external wounds as well as being propelled back with great force.

Zora was amazed of the girls skills and clever tactics as she was able to break free from his grasp and watched as she prepared her attack. "Thats a nature energy spell interesting, so she is a yokai." As the blast came near him Zora quickly ducked to the ground as it past him. He then got back. "So if you possess nature energy then you must be a yokia, so i take it the snake from earlier wasn't no ordinary snake that you ordered to attack me was one of your creations?"

"If you know what nature energy is, then you must know who I am.", Yoko said. "That makes my job easier, now I don't need to explain why I want to kill you when you are on the verge of death.", Yoko continued as emitted nature energy from the palm of the hand. Yoko then shaped the nature energy into a sphere. Once shaped Yoko threw the sphere of nature energy at the man, which would cause an explosion of nature energy upon contact.

Zora just stood there not making a single move. Zora channeled magic energy within his body. "Shockwave." the magic energy was released it into a burst blowing away everything around him including the sphere which exploded when it hit the shock wave. "Hmph I don't know much." He said behind the explosion as the smoke was clearing. "All i know is a creature has a grudge against humans." As the smoke cleared Zora was releasing powerful magic energy that his black jacket was blowing upwards "And you must be stopped."

"If you think I am the one causing problems, then you are blinding yourself from the truth.", Yoko said as she bent her legs slightly to prepare for the attack. Once her knees were bent she released a Magical Aura that mimicked the one she had released before. While one may think it would be wise to release a Magical Aura of equal size, Yoko knew better. She knew that no matter who you are that level of Magical Aura could tire someone out quickly.

Zora stared at the girl with a calm and serene look on his face as he still released his magic aura. "Then this fight will reveal the truth." He then braced himself for her next move.

Yoko stop releasing a Magical Aura and sprinted a couple of inches so she was within striking distance. Once within range, Yoko quickly twisted her body in a clockwise motion while bending her knees. This caused her to spin herself with incredible speed in a downwards spiral. Once she was low enough, she extended her tail so that it was on level with the man's ankles. If the man didn't move out the way, Yoko's tail will collide with his ankles, which had the high possibility of sweeping him off his feet because of how fast Yoko was spinning. Once Yoko stopped spinning she leaned back and jumped with great force, allowing her to quickly get out the man's reach. While in the air Yoko inhaled deeply and released a blast nature energy downwards in the direction of her opponent. The power behind the blast of nature energy was great enough to cause a powerful shockwave to emit outwards from the spot of impact, which was strong enough to create a good sized crater in the ground.

Zora had no idea what she was planing as he saw her spinning in front of him. He was caught off guard as he noticed a tail appear from her cloak. "Uh what!?" He was unable to react fast enough as her tail swept him off his feet. "Ugh she's so fast." He looked up and noticed her released a nature energy blast from her mouth. He turned over and slammed his hand into the ground, he then used that as to fling himself just barely out of the blasts range. After he landed he looked back and saw a creator. "She not only fast but powerful this isn't gonna be as easy as i hoped." He said as he got back to his feet.

As soon as Yoko's feet touched the ground she used her amazing speed to seemingly teleport in front of her opponent, which would make it difficult for the man to full recover himself from the last attack. Once within range she aimed a powerful axe kick towards her opponent's shoulders, capable of creating a small crater if it missed and hit the ground.

Zora blocked her kick with his arm as the collision caused the ground beneath them to break. Zora then with his other hand used his incredible strength go for a direct punch strong enough to send her flying away. His arm was in pain from the kick thus not making his punch strong enough to deal enough damage to her.

Yoko effortlessly deflected the punch to the side and then countered with a fast barrage of attacks that consisted of four punches and three kicks. While most of the blows didn't have a lot of power behind it, the only one that did was the last strike, which was a powerful kick that was aimed at the man's injured arm.

Zora blocked each of her attacks and then backflipped away to a safe distance from her final attack. With his incredible speed he then vanished from her eyes.

While her eyes could see her opponent's movement, she decided to close them and use her nose and ears to keep track of her opponent's movement. She did this because she knows from experience that her eyes can deceive her. The hair on her tail stuck up, allowing her to fully use her sense touch to try and feel any changes in the air. Yoko then bent her knees to get into a defensive stance.

Zora there watching her carefully. "Her eyes are closed. Does she intend to use her senses to fight? Could be difficult for her to do but i wouldn't be surprised if she could. Guess i should test out how keen her senses really are." Zora glanced at her and leaped towards her with incredible speed about to punch her as hard as he could.

When Yoko heard the footsteps approach her ears twitched, but she didn't move immediately. Instead, she waited until the exact moment the fist made contact with her before moving. She moved so fast that she created an afterimage in her wake and since she waited until fist barely punched her it would be extremely hard to tell that the afterimage was present. Yoko then reappeared behind her opponent and aimed a powerful snap kick at her opponent's head.

Zora quickly looked back in shock. "uh! What?" He quickly raised his arms blocking her kick from hitting his head but was still sent flying. He stopped when he hit the ground. When he got up he grabbed his arm as if he was hurt and Yoko noticed his arms were cracking like glass. "Damn that was way to close, she moves way to fast i can barely see her. Luckily i was able to keep up with her movements a bit cause if not that would have caused some major damage." He watch her as she stood there. "Her ears were able to hear my approach and I'm wiling to bet her nose can sniff where to strike me. This is going to be difficult but it might work." Zora mumbled to himself as he took a fighting position.

Yoko opened her eyes and looked at her opponent before saying, "I am sorry I have to end this exciting fight, but I have things to do." Yoko snapped her fingers creating a very large log above the opponent by using her powers over nature. She then gestures downward, causing the log to fall downward towards her opponent before bending her knees and cupping her hands near her right side. Once Yoko's hands were cupped she produces a large mass of nature energy from her palms and shapes it into a highly compact sphere that is located in-between her cupped hands. Once the sphere has been made she thrusts her hands in front of her as she decompresses the sphere. This causes a highly destructive blast of nature energy to be fired from her palms. "Gaia Impact.", Yoko spoke as she released the blast.

"That power! No way" Zora said looking at the attack. "Zora get out of there! Hurry!" Saber called out to him. Zora tried to pull something out of his pocket but hesitated before he could pull it all the way out. He then decided to evade the attack by leaping out of its range where he was in striking view of the girl until he heard a noise coming from behind him. He looked over to see a deer jumped out of the bushes into the battle as it was about to get a direct attack from her spell. "Oh no." Once Zora touched the ground he used his incredible speed and appeared between the deer and the attack before it came in contact with him. Just as the attack came into contact it caused a huge shockwave, however the blast remained still. As the smoke cleared Zora standing there trying to hold it back with on arm. "Diamond Shield!" Zora called as his arm was covered in a huge thick layer of diamond and using it as a shield. "Oh no. Zora used his magic." Saber said watching from his hiding spot. Just as Zora thought he could he hold it back the attack was able to push him back as his diamond shield began to crack. "What? theres no way!" Zora quickly turned and grabbed the deer as the shield shattered and the attack collided causing a huge explosion with Zora caught in it trying to protect the deer. "UGGHHHHHHH!" He cried getting hit by the attack. "ZORA!" Saber cried out as he tried to fly in there to save but he hesitated cause he knew he would get in the way or worse.