The tanuki lord flung Ichi covered by his shield into the air. Ichi really wanted to say the magic word 'Fubuki' to bail him out of this mess. However, the thought of himself being such a bitch having his component mature female underling handle versus himself handling the grumpy tanuki lord by himself convinced him to hold off calling her.

Ichi turned into an eagle and flew away. Why'd he even need to fight? The thought popped in his head and he capitalized on it. Taking a brisk turn when he though he was safe, he became engulfed in flames. Danberu's phoenix tiger form soared over his tiny eagle body, knocking out of the sky.

Eagle's feathers were surprisingly sensitive. Ichi felt the burn. Ichi didn't want to feel the burn. He changed into bigfoot form as his body thudded into the ground, hairy, but unburnt. Now, if only he had a mole form so he could dig into the ground and hide...

Ichi half slapped himself. Danberu divebombed him from the sky, the fire from the phoenix wings engulfing his hair in flame. Ichi spread his black energy out over his body, imitating Avar's thin golden aura as best he could. He muffled the flame with the tight shield of energy. The white cracks over the surface of the shield thinned as he tightened it. Felt, springy, maybe?

Danberu leaped on him again. Ichi pulled back his fist and gave the phoenix tiger a good punch. It slammed into a nearby tree and twisted into a mass of tentacles as it hit. Ichi froze as he saw whirling tentacles coming from Danberu's body. The tentacles stopped and lost their form. Danberu's body shifted back into his tanuki form, a big paw holding his head and groaning.

"What... what happened?"

Ichi would like to know himself. Ichi's chest was heaving breath as he shifted back into his human form.

"You attacked me out of nowhere. I mean, I think I did blow up a building with a cat, but, that's not a big deal, is it?"

"What are you talking about?"

Danberu's groaning continued. Ichi didn't feel like explaining. Danberu attacked him out of nowhere. He was already done with Danberu as far as he was concerned. Danberu would have to sort things out for himself. Even though Ichi thought it was suspicious that Danberu would suddenly attack him, he still didn't bother continuing the conversation.

The fun part was finished. Fubuki could handle the rest, that's what she's for, right? Cleaning up messes.

"Fubuki."

And so Ichi said the magic word. Without turning around, he could smell her appear behind him.

"Help him, would you?"

Ichi didn't lack compassion, if it was someone else's job to fix the problem. He could be as generous as he wanted his Fubuki's efforts. He wasn't saying anything derogatory to himself about the situation as he fled the scene.

Fubuki bowed to Ichi as he turned into an eagle and flew away. If someone were to look at her face, they might think it would be askance.

Fubuki took Danberu back to Avalon, listened to his story of woe patiently with concern. It ended with Danberu crying tears for his fallen comrades deep into the night, and endless soliloquy's about what is meaningful and right in this world poured out of Danberu easily in Fubuki's company.