When all hope seamed lost and the Oni bandits where about to land the finishing blow on all four of you there was a flash of blinding light from the top of the thundering falls, water exploded as an ferocious figure lept out, flew like the wind and delivered a flurry of precise hits like a martial arts master. It ended as quickly as it started, the horde of beastly marauders were gone as if they were never there. The battle was won, the air is quiet but heavy. The waterfall roars behind them. The adventurers including you look on in awe and disbelief as the towering dragon-man approaches slowly, carefully, as if he didn’t just open a can of whoop-ass on some Oni then banished them in a blast of divine fury. Tentatively, voice deep but gentle, he speaks after some shy fiddling with his elegant kimono fold.

“…It-it’s… still me.”

He stops a few steps away, clearly trying not to intimidate. With a soft chuckle, then bowing deeply the beastman fallows up his statement.

“Nishiro… That was my name. Before. In the stream. You once gave me a piece of dried plum and said it matched my scales.”

He smiles, but it falters slightly.

“I… I do not know if I am still just Nishiro anymore. But I am not only this either.” he gestures vaguely at his powerful frame, his claws twitching slightly while his powerful muscles moved beneath his robes as his tail slowly swayed like a flowing river behind him.

“This strength… this form… they are not what I desired. I only wished to help. To protect you. And now the heavens have seen fit to make me… more.”

He looks down at his hands, flexing them, wincing at the memory of how his punch shattered bone.

Quietly he looks off to the distance dropping his self shield allowing his full figure to be seen, revealing his koi vestigial patterns and colors on his body exposed from his silken openings, the only remnants of his origins. “I nearly crushed a tree earlier. I’m so large now I must look down on you all when not long ago it was I who had to look up. My whiskers keep catching the most subtle changes in creation. I see the world in more then just sight and colors now… I hear more then the wind dancing to the trees songs… I feel more then the water’s steady march on land returning to mother sea.”

Then, he shifts his gaze back to meet theirs, expression earnest.

“But if this is what I must become to walk beside you… to protect those I care for… then I will bear it proudly.” he straightens a little, placing a hand to his chest “My name is now Ryuujin Nishikō. A dragon, yes… but still your friend. Still the koi who guided you up the river.”

He pause, and then speaks in a warmer, hopeful smile that was like seeing the simple koi you all grew to love return to the new dragonic face.

“Still the one who listened to your stories… and cherished every moment in your company. I would be honored to join you as your groups fifth member… if that’s alright with you?”