he’s survived a lot in his time, hunters, other demons, the effects of wish-making with an artifact of darkness, and even the attempts of humanity, but this perhaps has been his greatest challenge. not so much the surviving, but the living. continuing to exist as the world around him crumbles and something from the dark end of the universe destroys everything he’s ever known is not an easy task. continuing to live as most of the people he’d known (&loved) get wiped out by something darker than he’s ever seen, well, that’s a task that he might be able to survive, but it wasn’t something that was going to be brushed so easily from his conscious.
and when it had ended, the collapse of humanity’s golden age, then had come the strange part. walking dead with powers he’s never seen, creatures of either flesh and bone or science and metals wielding something he’s never seen before, never sensed before, in attacks that were both good and evil. war lords born of something close to spirit energy, using their power to hold territories and survivors of their collapse against their will. and then there had been the ones trying to end their reign on humanity, people who were trying to right the wrongs of the world.
in those days, youko had thrived. thievery might had been his passion once, but after the time he’d spent with yusuke, fighting had become a bigger passion. and while fighting for fun had been the end result of all their trials, fighting for something like saving humanity had become a passion as well.
but that age had ended as quick as it had come, too quick for the spirit-fox-turned-demon’s tastes. warlords were all the same in the end, and their pride was their undoing, that and a few lightbearers -- as they called themselves -- showing him the ropes of how to kill the unkillable.
not that they had known that they were showing him their weaknesses. kurama was still well adapt at hiding under the guise of being human, well enough that even thousands of years later, they still had not pinned down his true identity, even despite the sometimes frequent brushes with each other.
and now, with the awakening of the mechanical creature in the sky, they were in the time of a second golden age. and even with a strange darkness settling on his senses, humanity was starting again to flourish despite the still constant threats from aliens from other worlds.
sliding his fingers around a mutation of an ivy he’d known so many years previous, the redhead does not look up at the sudden scent of something long-dead-but-not flooding his nose, or the feeling of their light against his fine tuned senses.
this would not be the first guardian to find him -- but it would be the first that had that sort of scent beneath them. beyond the strange fresh scent that lightbearers had, and the smell of mechanics and gunpowder, there was something... not quite right about this one. too young to find him in his territory, an overgrown city just outside of the european deadzone, too new to have been able to get so far without tripping some of his traps.
and yet, there they stood. in the depths of his territory, having found him so easily and without a mark on their armor to show for it.
he breathes in deep, the mixed scent of fire and ozone and other stranger things assault his senses, but he does not look away from the plant he’s tending to.
“you must need something, if you’ve come this far without succumbing to my traps.” his voice is calm, the green of his eyes sharp as he glances around the thick curtain of red that was his hair. “please, explain your invasion of my home.”
quickly, before i lose my patience.
@strikedcwn ⁄ ⁄ starter call
