Demoness VS Angel: Tug-of-War for the World

Demoness VS Angel: Tug-of-War for the World

Commissioned by: Redreaper1951

Written by: Danni Lynn

Word Count: 3,500 words

Rating: PG

February 7th, 2023

Angelic warrior, Nekokowa stands on a sheer clifftop, facing the grand entrance to Demoness Chihiro’s castle. A yawning drop is at Nekokowa’s back as a dusty wind stirs the feathers of her angel-wings and plucks a few strands of her long black hair out of her hair ties, spinning the loose pieces around her cheeks. Nekokowa clutches a large purple and white parasol in her hands, struggling to close it against the wind. She firmly plants her purple heels onto the ground, the ornate skirt of her gown whipping around her legs. The front of Nekokowa’s dress is short, with only a skirt, purple bloomers, and white tights visible. The rising dust mars her tights as she shuts her umbrella with a snap and enters the castle.

Nekokowa quickly traverses the levels of Demoness Chihiro’s castle until she comes to a large throne room at the castle’s peak. Lighting cracks outside and dark clouds swirl, visible through the tall, thin windows in the room. Chihiro lounges on her throne with the many layers of her ballgown’s voluminous skirts piled around her body. Lace, ribbons, and wine-red tulle ripple away from her body. Chihiro’s short black hair is spiky and sticks out from her head. Her red eyes glower at her sworn enemy’s entrance but she moves with grace when she stands up to greet her.

“Look what the cat dragged in. And who are you to trespass within these walls?” Demoness Chihiro hisses. The front of Chihiro’s dress balloons out around her wide belly and round figure, in severe juxtaposition to her pointed shoulders and thin arms. Nekokowa stretches out her wings and points her parasol at Chihiro.

“I’m trespassing? What do you think you are talking about?! You’re the one who took over the beautiful world of Earth. If anyone is trespassing anything, it is you!” Nekokowa quips. She flips the heart-shaped handle of her parasol to hang off her elbow and crosses her arms with a huff.

“Well, the Earth is already mine, so it is too late!” Chihiro counters.

“Give it back you… you ugly demon!”

Chihiro scoffs. “That’s demoness, to you!” She steps away from her throne and descends a few steps down to the throne room’s floor. Nekokowa holds her ground as Chihiro approaches, stopping only when they are standing toe-to-toe. “You better respect me in my castle, or I’ll have you thrown out.”

“Hah, I’ll just fly right back if you do that. I gotta say, your security was pretty lax!”

“The guards deserve to have a break too!”

“What?” Nekokowa looks at Chihiro oddly then begins to laugh. “That’s a weird excuse. How can someone as strange as you manage to take over the entire Earth. I thought you were supposed to be evil!”

Chihiro’s cheeks color. “What?! I’m not silly!”

“I said ‘weird,’ but yes, you are silly too. I bet you don’t even know what to do with the Earth now that you have it. Did you plan that far ahead?”

“Of course, I did!” Chihiro stomps her feet and reaches out to shove Nekokowa. Nekokowa skips backward and flaps her large wings, lifting a foot or so into the air. She hovers, smiling at Chihiro who is busy fuming.

“Well, if you think you are so much smarter than me, you are wasting your time. If you had a plan to get Earth back, you would have done it already, right? Why are you chatting with me instead?” Chihiro asks. She swats and reaches for Nekokowa but she hovers higher in the air.

“Haha, you wish I was clueless like you. Demon freak.”

“Silly bird girl!”

“Incompetent demoness!”

“Hopeless loser!”

“Ah!” Nekokowa gasps. She drops to the floor and swings her closed parasol at Chihiro who claps it with her palms and traps it in her grip. “Take that back!”

“No way!” Chihiro yanks Nekokowa’s parasol out her hands and in a puff of purple and red flames, the parasol collapses into a cloud of ash, falling to pile on the floor in a rush.

“You! You—fatso!!” Nekokowa screeches. She lunges at Chihiro whose hands fill with flame. Both girls collide and tumble to the ground, Chihiro curling her legs to protect her distended belly. Chihiro pushes Nekokowa off her and slaps the ground, shooting flames across the cracked tiles.

“I am not fat!” A black and red parasol appears with a poof in Chihiro’s hands. She swings and bats Nekokowa across the back. Nekokowa yelps, her wings curling under the impact, before rolling away and leaping back into the air.

“You shouldn’t disillusion yourself. Look at you!” Nekokowa yells, gesturing to Chihiro. Chihiro waves her parasol to strike again but Nekokowa back pedals midair and summons balls of light to her fingertips. One by one, she starts to throw them, but Chihiro bats each one away, sending the glowing orbs into far corners of the room to explode some against the vaulted ceilings high above.

“You’re going to have to try better than that!” Chihiro croons. Her parasol disappears and she summons rays of darkness. Dark purple energy crowds around her hands and she summons more energy, focusing her attack on Nekokowa. “Heads up!” Chihiro releases three beams of energy, nailing Nekokowa right in the chest. Nekokowa gasps and falls to the floor, hitting with a resounding thud. A small white feather floats down in the air after the impact. Chihiro catches the feather and crumples it in her fist.

Nekokowa sits up, pushing herself away from the floor. “I won’t let you get away with this,” she says. Nekokowa jumps up to her feet and ducks right as Chihiro slides past, her hands full of dark magic. Nekokowa sticks out her foot and trips Chihiro, sending her tumbling to the ground. Chihiro bounces back up and throws two fistfuls of dark magic at Nekokowa’s face. Nekokowa counters with a burst of light magic and recovers, stepping in close to Chihiro and leaping into the air with the aid of her wings. Nekokowa spreads her wings wide then angles her body, juts her hip out, and hip-checks Chihiro. Chihiro stumbles backward, her arms waving before she hits the floor again. There is a sudden squeak and a swish of fabric as the very planet Earth dislodges and floats out from under Chihiro’s dress, appearing from her skirts and floating into the air. Nekokowa looks at her with her mouth open and her eyes wide with disbelief.

“That’s what you did with the world?” Nekokowa asks. Chihiro gets up and brushes herself up, her waist now back to its hourglass figure. Chihiro shakes out her arms and sticks out her tongue with a pout.

“I told you I wasn’t fat! How dare yo—”

Before Chihiro can continue, Nekokowa thrusts her arms into the air and long blue and indigo ribbons shoot out of her sleeves to wrap around the Earth. The ribbons swirl around the planet thrice before tying into a neat bow, the end of the ribbons fast in Nekokowa’s hands. Chihiro’s eyes widen and she reaches out toward the world too and throws purple and magenta ribbons around it, looping and tying tight in a sudden tangle. Chihiro wraps her fingers around the ribbons and pulls tight, Earth sits in the air, tied onto both sets of ribbons, stretched out between both girls.

Nekokowa twists her ribbons around her palm and twirls them over the back of her hand and back to between her thumbs and index fingers. She curls her hands into fists, securing her powerful grip. Chihiro scowls but a light bounces in her eye. Almost a sparkle of excitement glances from her expression to the curl of her fingers. The ribbons pull taut between them and the Earth trembles.

“I think we have a new challenge. Do you think you can take the Earth from me?” Chihiro teases.

“I don’t think I’ll have a problem with that. I swear on my life as an angel of light, I’ll take Earth from you and will extinguish all your darkness from our world. You have no strength over me!” Nekokowa counters.

“I’d like to see you try.” Chihiro gives a light pull, tugging the ribbons, Earth, and Nekokowa in her direction. Nekokowa leans backward, tensing her arms against the tug. Her feet slide back ever so slightly but she fans out her wings, beating them to steady herself and pulls back in retaliation, scooting Chihiro’s feet across the floor a few inches.

“Hehe, I think this will be fun!” Nekokowa wrenches hard, tugging Chihiro toward her. Chihiro’s high-heels clatter, struggling to grasp a purchase on the slippery tiles. Chihiro’s legs bend and she fumbles as Nekokowa pulls more but suddenly, Chihiro arches her back and retaliates, pulling the ribbon as she pulls both fisted hands up to her left shoulder and back, as if she has just come out of a tight swing with a baseball bat or a golf club. Chihiro’s knuckles bash into her shoulder and her knees tighten as she pulls nearly as hard as she can. Nekokowa stumbles forward, the floating planet Earth lurching toward her in near victory.

“Not so fast! This may be fun, but I am not letting you off so easy, demon!”

“Demoness!”

Chihiro and Nekokowa begin to spin about the room, both clutching onto their colorful ribbons, tugging like a massive game of rope-based tug-of-war. They both imagine their potential victories, burning with a passionate determination. If Nekokowa wins, the world is saved. If Chihiro wins, Earth will only know darkness under the control of the evil demoness. Nekokowa nearly collides with a pillar standing in the room and Chihiro narrowly avoids the corner of the steps up to her throne. They skip, jump, tug, and pull back and forth until sweat beads on their brows and they both stop, panting in unison.

“I’ll promise not to make fun of you if you give up right now,” Chihiro whispers.

“Are you asking that in hopes to stop? I should have known you would tire this fast.”

“No, that’s not true.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Nu-uh! I know you are tired!”

"I won’t let you beat me,” Nekokowa manages. She takes a big breath, her shoulders drooping. Her hands are covered by the satiny fabric of her white elbow-length gloves, but she can feel the burns on her fingers and hands. Each digit aches, her skin tingling at the ribbons woven tightly in her grip. Chihiro is tired but she rolls her shoulders and leans backward with her feet in front of her, steady like an anchor. Hand over hand, she begins to pull the ribbons toward her like a fisherman out at sea, hauling in a net full of cheep cheeps.

“It’s always been my dream to rule Earth—I have so many plans. I’ve done too much to lose this opportunity now. To lose to you and lose my control!”

“I’ll do everything I can to make sure you don’t rule over the world!”

Nekokowa struggles and keeps her grip as the Earth between them quakes between the two great forces. The ribbons between Nekokowa and Chihiro are now a great tangled mess as they begin to fray and slightly rip apart. The Earth is wrenched heavily to the left a Nekokowa recovers, and then back to the right as Chihiro pulls on the ribbons slipping out of her hands and burning her palm. Both girls lock eye contact and stare each other down, almost daring the other to give in and choose an early victor.

“I’m not going to be the loser today. The Earth is mine!” Chihiro shouts. She wrenches on the ribbons at the same time as Nekokowa. The Earth shakes even more, great cracks forming across the planet’s surface. The ribbons begin to pop and snap, only a few more strands are hanging on.

“You’ll never win!” Nekokowa exclaims, her arms trembling.

“I never give up!” Chihiro argues, chagrined.

“I’ll be the victor, you’ll see!”

“I said it’s mine!”

The cracks on the Earth widen as the ribbons splinter into pieces. Nekokowa and Chihiro blindly pull more when a sudden bright white and purple light erupts from the Earth and fills the room—

POP!!

***

An earth-colored punch balloon pops and just two girls—no angels or demons—fall to the ground. Nekokowa, in a frilly purple dress and with long black hair lands on her butt and looks stunned as a torn half of a punch balloon hangs on a string that had been wrapped around her hand. Her gloves are wrinkled, and her hair is frizzy from running around. Across from Nekokowa, Chihiro, wearing a black T-shirt and red pants, is lying flat on her back with her arms over her head, the other torn half of the punch balloon in her hands, hanging in shreds, and the tied end of the balloon and the ribbons are all broken. Chihiro gasps, groaning as she lets go of the balloon and rubs her short hair out of her eyes.

Nekokowa and Chihiro both sit up to the sound of laughter. They are in Princess Peach’s tower bedroom with their family. The floor is hard stone and in the middle of the room is a great pink bed and a plush pink bench where Princess Peach, in a beautiful layered pink dress and with a crown in her blonde hair; Zhard, a young man with dark purple hair; and the ten-year-old twin sisters, Cherrybel and Plummebel. Cherrybel is dressed up in a pink dress, the image of her mother, and Plummebel is in a dark dress to match her purple hair, just like her father’s. The two little twins stare at Nekokowa and Chihiro with blank looks and their big round eyes are dull with boredom. They glance to the door of the room, almost as if weighing their options to escape the adults’ antics.

“Well,” Princess Peach says, “that was an exciting story.”

“What were they doing, mommy?” Cherrybel asks.

“That was a roleplay, dear. Who came up with it?” Princess Peach asks.

Chihiro sits up, brushing bits of ribbons, string, and balloon off herself. Nekokowa and Chihiro had been playing an energetic game of tug-of-war with a tan punch-balloon.

“I thought of the story the other day,” Nekokowa says. She runs her hands through her hair, controlling the wild stands. “I think Chihiro could be an exciting villainess. Do you think so?”

“I wish Chihiro would take over the world and end this moment. I’m so bored!” Plummebel moans. Zhard reaches over and pinches her cheek.

“Now, now,” Zhard murmurs.

“Ack!”

Nekokowa gets up and reaches out to Chihiro. Chihiro takes her hand and hops up from the floor.

“Sorry I broke your balloon,” Chihiro says.

“No, I’m sorry I broke it!” Nekokowa says with a laugh. “I got quite into the moment!”

“I felt like a real ruler for a moment. Do you think I could rule the world?”

“I’d like to see you rule a kingdom,” Princess Peach says. She stands up from her bench and picks up Cherrybel, holding her on her hip. “I think it was an exciting story! You will have to continue it for us sometime, but with some real rope so it doesn’t break. Did you plan who would win? Was the Earth saved?”

“Who do you think would win?” Chihiro asks.

“I want to see the demoness take over the whole world,” Zhard says. “That would be interesting!” Princess Peach raises an eyebrow.

“What is wrong with you?” she asks with a smile.

“I think the story was lovely, I would love to see Nekokowa with wings! I bet they would look beautiful. All my wives are so beautiful, always,” Zhard says. “I think next time you can alter the story to have Nekokowa, the angel, fly up in the air to continue to tug-of war. She can drag Chihiro around and fight that way. I bet she could win if that happened. Once she beats the demoness in a battle of tug-of-war, she can take Earth in her arms and fly away to save everyone!”

“Yes, I like that idea!”

“It’s still booooring,” Cherrybel complains.

“I want to do something else,” Plummebel adds. She bounces off her seat on the bed and begins to wander around, picking up stray pieces of the brown punch balloon. She holds a piece of the balloon to her face, sniffs, and wrinkles her nose. “Ew.”

“I think the battle would have gone on until the Earth burst out of the ribbons, then the fighters would have to race after it, trying to lasso it with their remaining ribbons,” Chihiro says.

“I like that idea, but I have a feeling if you catch the Earth first, you will just stick the balloon back up your shirt so I can’t reach it,” Nekokowa says. She chuckles and throws a bit of balloon at Chihiro.

“Ugh, that would make the story even longer!” Cherrybel argues. “I think ending it quick is good.”

“End it even faster,” Plummebel says. “Maybe end it right now. It was only about a good guy versus a bad guy. Nothing very interesting.”

“The fight was too dramatic!”

“Aren’t dramatic fights fun?” Zhard asks. “Big stakes, big risks, a big winner and a big loser?”

“There is nothing wrong with good versus bad. Dark versus light, a winner and a world to save? I think we of all people should enjoy such stories,” Princess Peach says. “I like it.”

“No,” Cherrybel says. “I already know stories like that one.”

Everyone gets up and helps to pick up the pieces of the destroyed balloon, piling the remaining pieces in Chihiro’s extended hands.

“Good show.”

“Thanks for the entertainment!”

“I’m glad you all had fun—most of you, anyways,” Nekokowa comments. She smiles at the young twins and twirls a ribbon in her hands. “I know I had fun. I can’t wait to find another balloon and continue our story!”

Princess Peach sets Cherrybel down and heads over to her armoire at the far wall of her room. She opens a door of the cupboard and bends down to reach into a drawer where she pulls out a bag of earth-colored punching balloons.

“I have a little treat for everyone to play with!” Princess Peach announces. She tears open the bag and pulls out several mini punch balloons, passing them out to everyone. Chihiro and Nekokowa instantly run over and lift the balloons to their lips, blowing bursts of air into them. Zhard grabs two and then kneels down to blow them up for both Cherrybel and Plummebel. As Zhard does this, the twins cross their arms and look away but they sneak curious looks at him. Zhard ties the balloons deftly, plucks the punch string and then hands them off to Cherrybel and Plummebel who wrap their fingers around the squeaky material.

“How fast do you think you can punch these?” Zhard asks. He blows up and ties his own balloon and yanks on the punch string, swinging his balloon into the air and bouncing it back off his knuckles when it flings toward him. Cherrybel’s eyes go big.

“I can do the most!” Cherrybel exclaims. She jumps up and begins swinging her arm around, the balloon bouncing off her forearm, elbow, and slaps against her forehead. Plummebel gets up with her balloon and swings it slower, bouncing it off her hand, slapping it with a smile.

“This is great! We can continue our story!” Chihiro exclaims.

Nekokowa swings her balloon and lowers her stance defensively. “The Earth, by the dark Demoness Chihiro’s powers has now been duplicated into two worlds. Can the Angelic Nekokowa figure out which one is the real Earth? Can she save the innocent people of her world from utter description and total control?”

“Not before backup enters the fray!” Princess Peach yells. She bounces over, swinging her balloon and smacks Chihiro on the side of the head with it. Princess Peach gently bumps Chihiro with her hip and then spins around as Zhard enters, bumping into her and knocking her off balance.

“Zhard!” Princess Peach yelps. Princess Peach stumbles back into Nekokowa’s arms and sees the round balloon sticking out from Zhard’s shirt.

“For the demoness!” Zhard exclaims. Zhard lunges forward at Nekokowa and Princess Peach but is beat back with their swinging balloons. The girls dissolve into laugher as they spin around and punch their balloons at each other. Cherrybel and Plummebel count out loud every successful punch-bounce they make, and laughter reigns as the family enjoys their new game together.

This is another fun story centered around Redreaper1951's original characters as well as characters from Nintendo's Mario! If you like this story, you will enjoy the other stories I've written for redreaper1951. All of my commissions, writing articles, and more can be found here:   Writing Table of Contents . I have an entire section in the commissions that lists all works for Redreaper1951!