After just a few minutes of flying, Gami slowed down her momentum, lowering her descent to land within a forest.
Kagero immediately leaped out of her arms, his face still flustered from embarrassment.
'It's finally over.' He sighed before shifting his gaze back to Gami.
"Hey." He snapped her out of her thoughts.
"You said we were heading for the King or whatever right? So why did we stop in this—"
Kagero paused his words, shifting from the smiling tree that made love whistles at him.
"—Strange forest?"
Gami chuckled slightly as she watched Kagero desperately remove the branches that tried to caress his skin.
"We can't just fly over to the King of Shinigamies Silly. If it were that easy we wouldn't need the scroll."
She opened up her palms, urging Kagero to offer her the sacred relic.
"We just need to travel far enough to an area with high chakra aptitude before using the scroll. Like this Dryad forest for instance."
'Dryad forest?' Kagero's heart fluttered, but he shook his head and tossed the scroll, along with his worries at Gami.
The lady caught it with gratitude, but right when she was about to pull it open.
"Wait a sec." She turned over to Kagero. "I almost forgot."
Kagero took a step back as the woman approached him with a cunning smile across her face.
"Hey now, no need to be worried." She replied to the boy who stared at her with wide and vigilant eyes.
She drifted closer.
Kagero retreated slightly.
Kagero would have continued to awkwardly march backwards, however.
'Wait, why are there more of those weird trees behind me? And why are they smirking so horrendously?—'
POKE
"Ack."
Gami placed a finger on Kagero's forehead, interrupting his thoughts.
Whoosh!
Right when her finger met Kagero, a burst of purple aura swirled around him. When the ethereal energy finally settled, he was once again clad in his Samurai inspired outfit.
"Whoa!" Kagero's eyes glistened with excitement while watching his clean fit.
His Shinigami disguise had returned.
"You see, it's not like I'm gonna gobble you up." Gami smiled, then teased Kagero by pretending she was about to pounce on him.
The latter jolted into a battle stance, but relaxed on realizing her joke.
"Honestly, you need to stop doing tha.."
'Wait a second!'
Kagero cut his words short as a sudden realization smacked him in the face.
He was back to his disguise just by her tapping his forehead. If she could use her Jutsu by doing that, then why did she kiss him in the first place?
"Hey, you're telling me that you didn't need to—"
"Caw caw caw!"
A ghostly owl's calls interrupted Kagero mid sentence, abruptly ending his complaints.
Gami's eyes narrowed, and she switched her vision over to the strange bird.
"Gami. How've you been doing caw?"
'Did that bird just? You know what? I'm already used to it.' Kagero finally yielded to the incontestably strange nature of Shinigamigakure.
"Yo Owly, what's up?" Gami jovially responded in an odd accent.
The bird was holding a bag of seeds that it dug its wing into, and chugged down in between words.
"The Sky mehn, that's what up."
It laid on its back and crossed its legs slothfully.
"Just came to tell ya that there's some angry guys coming in your direction caw."
Gami's grip tightened on the scroll.
"Alright, thanks for the information Owly." She replied to the bird with a smile, tossing a single gold coin at it.
"Thanks for the…" Owly stared around him to ensure no one was watching. "Generosity."
The chubby bird then flew away, leaving Kagero to only wonder what happened before him.
"What was that all about?" He questioned with a blank expression.
Gami sighed.
"Let's not just talk about it."
The lady then took in a deep breath, planting her feet into the ground in preparation to unleash the scroll. There was no time to lose.
"Get ready Kagero."
She threw the scroll into the air, opening her left arm's fingers into a single hand sign.
SWOOSH!
The scroll hung upwards, levitating in their midst as a powerful surge of red aura started to swirl riotously around it.
The intense movements of the crimson energy sent gusts of wind around them, and the aura that seeped out, cursed their nostrils with the putrid smell of rotten flesh.
Right before Kagero's eyes, two red arms conjured with pure energy tore the scroll open.
The arms then used its fingers to draw a series of eerie symbols on the scroll's surface, the ink smearing the scroll like blood against paper.
BOOM!
Right after completing the calligraphy, the arms dispersed. And with its disappearance came a flash of red lightning that thundered through the entire forest.
Kagero lowered his arms from shielding his face, but right when his eyes met the figure summoned by lightning.
His heart skipped a beat.
A blood red horse with a demeanor as though spawned from hell emerged from the smoke.
And riding that beast, a cloaked man-shaped entity sat.
Girded with nightly armour, a flaming sword strapped to its waist, and a neck that bore no head. Standing right before Kagero…
Was the headless horseman!
Kagero's breath grew unstable as though submerged in freezing waters.
The hairs on his skin stood still as though he looked death right in the face.
And his mind jumped in terror, as every cell of his being told him to get away from the eerie figure that stood before them.
"MAN ZAMMEN LI?!"
The headless knight roared authoritatively, his voice echoing like a multitude of souls spoke at once.
"Ana hu barta rabta di Shinigami." Gami immediately replied to his words, a gentle smile pasted on her face.
Kagero watched them in confusion, not even being able to grasp a single word they had uttered. But there was one thing he could at least tell from attending language class back in his past life:
They spoke Aramaic.
The Horseman observed her noiselessly for a few seconds, then he coaxed a resounding neigh from his devilish horse.
The figure then marched his horse over to Gami, gesturing at them to get on.
"Kagero." Gami held his shaky hand, casting a reassuring grin at him. "Let's go."
Kagero gulped, gritting his teeth and smacking his face to give him a boost of confidence.
The horseman watched him momentarily, before turning his sights forward.
"Guess it's now or never." Kagero held her arm, climbing onto the horse, while Gami followed suit and sat behind him.
Now perched onto the horse, the Knight unsheathed his fiery blade, striking the air to create a warp through reality.
"LE-I MALKA!" Meaning; To the King's island!
The rider proclaimed, before galloping into the infernal portal.