~ A door slams and your authoress walks on stage, followed by Shira.
Kurane: Hello everyone! Welcome to chapter one of Demon Portal!
Confetti and balloons come streaming down from the ceiling and cheesy celebration music starts playing.
Shira: This is her first fic, so you'll have to excuse her if she's a bit crazy. If we're lucky, this insanity won't last long.
Kurane: Insanity? This is me on a normal day. Anyway, here's chapter one! ~
Chapter one
Kurane was sitting on a bench in the garden her muses cared for, and wondering why Vash had seemed so sad lately. She wasn't paying much attention, and so she didn't hear Raenef approach, "Onee-sama?"
She jumped, but relaxed when she saw the young Demon Lord, "Sheesh Raenef! Don't sneak up on me like that!"
He tilted his head to the side, "Where do you want to go?"
She raised her eyebrow, "Come again?"
He smiled, "You want to visit Vash-san right? I'll teleport you there!"
As Raenef began casting, Kurane realized something, "Wait a minute! Raenef, you don't know how to –" Her shout was cut off as a portal appeared behind her and she was pulled in; landing with a thud on a grassy hill. She looked around, the place was beautiful; flowers, grass, trees, and hills everywhere. She tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes, this place was awfully familiar.
She yawned, and checked for any injuries. She looked herself over carefully, something was different...was it just her, or had she gotten smaller? She checked herself again, and a quiet curse escaped her lips, "What the hell am I doing in my eleven year old body?" She thought for a moment, and then cursed again, "Damn! It must be a side effect of that portal spell! I'm gonna remove Raenef's teleportation magic when...if I get back."
That was when a door opened and she heard a familiar voice, "Hey get back here!"
A laughing voice responded, "You'll have to run faster than that if you want to catch me!" Kurane narrowed her eyes in concentration and thought to herself, 'Those voices are familiar, but they sound so...young. Vash and Knives as little kids...? Waitaminute! Now I know why this place is so familiar! This is the rec. room of the ship they grew up on!'
Another familiar voice spoke, "Rem, why are we visiting this room? We'll be arriving at the new planet soon; we should head for the bridge."
Rem smiled, "I know, but I wanted to see this room so I can imagine the new world we'll create." Kurane smirked, 'Rem never changes, always the dreamer...'
A blonde-haired, green eyed, eleven year old boy interrupted her thoughts, "Hi, I'm Vash! What's your name?"
Her eyes widened slightly in surprise, "K-kurane."
He grinned and pulled her to her feet, "C'mon let's go see Rem!" As Vash pulled her along behind him, Kurane noticed that a boy who looked exactly like Vash, only with blue eyes instead of green, was watching with curiosity.
She soon found herself facing two women, one tall with long black hair, and the other somewhat shorter and with red hair. The tall woman smiled her, "Hello there, who are you?"
She bowed, "My name is Kurane."
Rem smiled, and pointed to the others in turn, "This is Vash, Knives, Mary, and my name is Rem. You are on a ship headed to colonize a planet, though we haven't found a suitable one yet, I'm sure it won't be too much longer."
Mary cleared her throat, "We really should be headed for the bridge now." Rem nodded and they left the rec. room to walk down the corridor. As they entered the control room, Kurane hesitated for a moment until she felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She walked into the room throwing Steve a dangerous scowl as she walked by him.
He grabbed her shoulder and spun her around, "What was that glare for you little brat!?!" she scowled and punched him in the stomach. As she walked away, he collapsed on the floor, breathless. Wordlessly, Kurane walked over to the wall and grabbed a chair placing it next to the one Vash sat in.
Rem stood silent for a minute, unsure what to think about this small child who had so easily taken down Steve. Finally, somewhat uneasily, she gestured to Kurane, "Joey, Rowan, and...Steve...this is Kurane. She has just joined us."
Joey, the acting captain, looked at the girl, who was sitting calmly in a chair beside Vash, 'That girl must be a plant like Vash and Knives...this could be interesting. Who the hell am I kidding; this is going to be a war.'
Rowan looked at Steve, then at Kurane, 'She just took down Steve...I like her better already.'
Mary sized up the girl, 'She doesn't look like much, but she's strong...maybe Steve will behave now that she's here. I like her better already...even though there's no way she's human.'
Knives watched Kurane, who was chatting with Vash, 'She's not human, that much is certain. Is she a plant then? She could be useful to me.'
Steve crawled to his feet and looked at the cheerful Kurane with disgust, 'She's a monster like the other two! I'll have to keep my eyes on her.'
Joey smiled, "The planet should be within visual range any moment now!" Vash handed Kurane a party hat, and she decided to humor him and put it on. He reached into a bag and pulled out a few other things, namely a fake mustache, a disguise and four confetti guns. She held the guns while he put on his disguise, and then handed three of the confetti guns back to him.
Everyone cheered as the image of the planet came up on the screen, Kurane turned to Vash with a grin and they fired the confetti guns at the same time. Rem smiled, "I hope it has flowers! If it does I hope they're red ones!"
Kurane smiled, "That would nice, wouldn't it Vash?" She turned to him, he was covered in confetti, and she burst out laughing.
Vash pulled out more confetti guns and fired them, covering Kurane in confetti. She glared at him for a moment, and then began the war of the confetti guns. Vash turned to Knives, and to get him to join in the confetti war, shot a confetti gun at him. By the time the three were done running around shooting confetti at each other, the entire control room was covered in confetti and they were laughing uncontrollably.
She looked over at Knives; he was smiling; not a cruel sadistic smile, but an honestly happy smile. She sighed, 'I had better not get used to him smiling like that, otherwise...' Her thoughts were interrupted as Vash pounced on her and she fell to the floor with a startled cry. Vash smiled, "Cheer up Imouto-san!"
Her eyes widened, "Vash, did you just call me Imouto-san?" He nodded, now kneeling in front of her. She raised her eyebrow, "Why?"
His expression said that it should be obvious, "Because you're like the little sister I never had!"
She laughed and hugged him, "You're such a baby!" Once she disentangled herself from Vash, she tackled Knives, and the three burst out laughing and roughhousing while Rowan and Mary began the various tests of the planet. Joey left to read in his quarters, Steve left grumbling and cursing, and Rem watched them with a smile.
Rem looked down at Kurane; she was wearing a blood-red stone on a gold chain around her neck. She hadn't noticed that before, it must have been under her shirt, she smiled, "That's a beautiful necklace Kurane, who gave it to you?"
She looked down at the necklace, a look of confusion crossing her face, "I don't know. I didn't even know I had it until you mentioned it."
Vash and Knives looked at the stone, "Wow, that's beautiful!" After admiring the stone for a few minutes, Vash ran off down the hall, followed by Knives shouting, "See you at lunch!"
Rem and Kurane were now alone in the control room, so it seemed like a good time to discuss Kurane's behavior towards Steve. Rem looked at Kurane, who had the expression of one expecting a serious talk, "Kurane, why did you glare at Steve?"
She frowned, "I could see his hatred for Vash and Knives in his eyes. He's dangerous Rem."
She nodded, "Perhaps...but still, you shouldn't have hit him."
Kurane looked Rem full in the eyes, "He was going to hit me, so I defended myself."
Rem put her hand on Kurane's shoulder, "There are better ways of solving conflicts than fighting. Talking things through is the best way to resolve a conflict without violence."
Kurane's eyes hardened, "Maybe, but I swear if Steve harms Vash or Knives he'll have to answer to me." With that, Kurane left the room and went to visit the rec. room. Rem stood in the control room for a minute, caught off guard by Kurane. She left to find Vash, already knowing where he was.
----
Kurane sat on a hill in rec. room, looking at the stone, 'Where did this come from? Did Raenef send this with me?'
She clenched the stone in her fist and heard Raenef's voice in her head, 'Onee-sama, I hope you're doing ok. Kurae told me to send this with you; it's called a Bloodstone. It allows you to transform into your demon form whenever you want. By the way, how's Vash-san? I hope he's doing ok!'
She let go of the stone and sat there for a moment, 'A Bloodstone? Sounds useful, but there has to be a catch, some sort of side effect or something. Maybe if I just give it a try...it can't hurt to experiment.'
----
Rem and Vash were in the observation room overlooking the Sleep Cylinder. Vash looked up at her, "This ship is too quiet Rem. It's only you, Knives, Kurane and I. Why don't they ever wake up?"
She smiled at him, "When they reach the new world, they will need to be well rested in order to survive. Until then, we have to let them sleep." Vash still looked lonely, but he didn't say anything.
Knives walked in, "Shall we have lunch in the usual place?" The trio then left for the rec. room, where Kurane had gone.
----
Kurane stood up and clenched the stone in her hand, concentrating. She had forgotten that the others would be coming for lunch soon, and now that she remembered, she realized that her experiment would have to be short. The stone began to glow a bright red and she was blinded by it.
As the glow subsided, Kurane was alarmed to hear the door open. She quickly looked herself over, and wasn't too surprised to see that she was in her demon form. (A/N: The demon form will be described shortly.) She bit her lip, "I can't let them to see me like this." With that, she flew up into the tree behind her.
Mary, Rem, Vash, and Knives walked into the rec. room and headed for the hill where they normally ate lunch, the hill where Vash had found Kurane. Knives looked around, "Where's Kurane? I thought she was in here."
Kurane poked her head out from between the leaves, careful to hide her ears, "I'm up here."
Vash looked up at her, "How'd you get up there?" Knives narrowed his eyes, there was no way he was seeing things right, Kurane didn't have fox ears, bat wings, or a fox tail...but he swore he could see the outlines through the leaves.
She smirked, "I climbed obviously."
Rem looked concerned, "Kurane be careful, you're really high up!"
Her smirk turned slightly nervous as she realized exactly how high up in the tree she was, "It's ok...I'm not afraid of heights......ACK!!" She cried out as she slipped on a branch and fell. Vash moved just in time to catch her before she hit the ground...actually...to be more precise, he cushioned her fall.
He squirmed out from underneath her, and as he looked at her, his eyes widened. Kurane had fox ears, a fox tail and bat wings? Rem gasped, "What the...?" The fox ears and tail where white, while the bat wings were red.
Kurane's eyes slowly opened, and she put a hand on her head with a grimace. She looked over at Vash, "Are you alright?"
He nodded, "You?" She nodded, and then looked around at the others; their eyes were wide with shock.
She stood with a sigh and brushed herself off, "Ummm...as you can tell, I'm not human. In fact, I'm...a demon; to be specific an arctic fox demon with the wings of a bat demon."
Vash hugged her, "It's ok! You're still my Imouto-san!" Kurane smiled slightly, and hugged him back.
Rem smiled at her, "Kurane, you may be a demon, but even a demon can use its powers for good; please remember that." She nodded, and Vash tackled her while she wasn't paying attention.
He began playing with her ears, and burst out laughing, "They squeak!" She pushed him off onto the hill, and flew out of his reach. He pouted, "Hey, that's not fair!" She stuck out her tongue with a smirk.
Mary watched the young demon with distrust, "How do we know we can trust you? I mean, you just...appeared today, and to add to that, you're a demon!"
Kurane regarded the technician for a minute, noting the nervous look in her eyes, and then shrugged, "You'll just have to trust me."
She landed in front of Knives; he was the only one who hadn't voiced his feelings on the matter. He looked into her eyes, amber in her demon form, brown in her human form, "I don't care what form you choose, you're still the same person." She smiled and gave him a hug.
She clenched the stone again, and the light flared once more; when it faded, she was in her human form. She smiled at everyone, "Well, are we gonna eat, or are we just gonna stand here?" Everyone relaxed and they ate their lunch in peace. Kurane cursed, 'Great, I go saying that I can't let them see me in my demon form, and then I get clumsy. Sheesh, well at least they took it alright.'
----
Later that day, Rem showed her to her room. It was across the hall from Vash and Knives' rooms. After they all said good night, they went to bed, the next day would be busy. As Kurane lay on her bed, she thought to herself, 'If Steve tries to hurt Vash or Knives, I'll break his arms, and then his legs; and it will be very slow and very painful.'
----
The next day at breakfast, Kurane didn't speak; she wasn't a morning person. In fact, it was all she could do to avoid hitting the cheery Vash. She didn't want to hurt him, but did he have to be so damn chipper first thing in the morning? He gave her a hug, "C'mon Kurane, wake up!"
She clenched her teeth, "I am awake, unfortunately."
Rowan smirked, 'What's the matter Kurane? Not a morning person?"
She scowled at him, "Gee, whatever gave you that idea?" She forced herself to eat the breakfast in front of her, though she would much rather have gone back to bed.
Steve was at the bar, finishing a beer, he looked at her, "Little monster's not a morning person eh? Tough luck." She ignored him and began talking with Rem about the day's schedule. He scowled, "Hey! How dare you ignore me!"
She cracked her knuckles as she turned to him, "Were you saying something, Steve? I was talking to Rem, so I didn't hear you." He stormed out of the kitchen muttering angrily.
As Steve left, Knives watched Kurane with more than passing curiosity, 'She's a demon, and she enjoys tormenting people...excellent. I think she will be very useful to me in my plan.'
----
Later that day, Knives was walking through the Sleep Cylinder, not knowing that Steve was nearby and in a bad mood. Kurane had seen Knives go into the room and knew that Steve was also in there, "Steve and Knives alone in the Sleep Cylinder? Sheesh! What's Knives doing, trying to get beaten up?"
Steve was wandering throughout the room making sure that all the pods were functioning normally when he saw Knives standing in front of one of them. He scowled, "Knives, what the hell are you doing in here!?!" He was about to strike the boy, when he found someone standing between him and his target.
He could tell it was Kurane, but...she didn't look human, in fact, she looked like a fox, bat, and human crossed together. He backed off a step, 'What the hell?"
She sighed as she turned to him, "Steve, I should probably tell you what I am before I beat the crap out of you. Why? I dunno, I feel like it. I'm a fox demon with bat wings. There, now that that's out of the way..." She cracked her knuckles ominously and gave him an evil grin.
He moved to slap her aside so he could deal with Knives, but he found that his arm was broken. As he sank to his knees clutching his broken arm she walked over to him with a perfectly calm smirk on her face, "Don't worry Steve, that arm might have broken in three places, but it should only take four weeks to heal."
He stared at her incredulously, "How the hell could you possibly...?"
She chuckled quietly, "The breaks are clean, which will speed the healing. Now, you weren't going to hurt Knives were you?" He threw a scowl at the boy in question and stood up, ready to take a swing at him. Kurane sighed in exasperation, and before Steve realized what had happened, he was on his knees again, except this time both arms were broken.
Knives watched her as she changed back to her human form, 'She's fast, strong, and sadistic...she'll definitely be useful.'
She started to walk away from the two, but stopped and threw a smirk at Knives 'I'm telepathic...just to let you know, and by the way, I won't help you in your plans against the humans, and I'm not a sadist.' With that, she walked out of the room, leaving Steve kneeling on the floor with both arms broken, and Knives with his eyes wide in shock.
Rem was walking down the hall and noticed Kurane leaving the Sleep Cylinder, a contented smirk on her face. Suddenly from within the room there was a scream of agony. Kurane rolled her eyes, 'I wonder what happened this time.' Rem called out, "Kurane, wait! Who's in the Sleep Cylinder?"
She turned to Rem, "Knives and Steve. –" she feigned an expression of concern, "- I hope Steve didn't attack Knives!"
Rem's brow furrowed in concern, "That sounded more like Steve than Knives. Come on Kurane, we have to check it out!" The two ran into the room and quickly located the two guys. Knives was slumped against a pod, unconscious, and with a boot print evident on the side of his face.
Kurane winced when she saw Steve; judging by the swelling of his chest, he had several broken ribs, and by the angle of his leg, it wasn't hard to tell that it was broken. Despite her hatred for the man, she was glad he was unconscious. Running to the communications console, she tapped in a few commands and moments later Joey was on the line, "Joey, we need help in the Sleep Cylinder; it looks like there was a fight between Knives and Steve, they're both unconscious."
Joey nodded, "On my way." Kurane nodded and turned off the console, 'What the hell happened anyway? I leave those two alone for two minutes, and they try to kill each other! Why me? Why do I have to baby sit these two?'
Rem walked over to Kurane, "Thanks for calling Joey, we're going to need help to take care of these two."
She shrugged, "Knives I'm not worried about. He took a good hit to the head, but he'll be perfectly fine. Steve on the other hand...he has broken ribs, broken arms and a broken leg. From what I can tell, the femoral artery wasn't severed, but don't take my word for it."
Her eyes widened, "Kurane, how did you...that's amazing, but how can you tell by simply looking at him?"
She shrugged, "Simple. The chest is swollen at the rib cage, indicating...six broken ribs from the looks of it. The arms are swollen, and don't look quite right, which shows that they've been broken, and the leg...I don't think that needs explaining."
Knives gave a gasp as he came to, and he would have killed Steve right then and there, but he noticed Kurane and Rem watching him. Kurane narrowed her eyes at him in annoyance, 'Why did you attack him? I thought his arms being broken was enough punishment for trying to hurt you."
He frowned at her, 'He deserved it for even thinking of attacking me.'
She rolled her eyes, 'Oh foolish pride, what a mark you have left on this one.'
He stood up and rubbed the side of his head, 'What does it matter anyway?'
'Don't you think you went a little overboard?'
'No, not really.'
'I'm not taking the blame for this.'
'Oh really?'
'Yes, really. You broke his leg, and six of his ribs, I'm not taking the blame for this.'
He gave her an evil smirk, 'We'll see.'
Rem walked over to Steve and felt along his rib cage; six ribs were broken, just as Kurane had said. She tilted her head to the side, 'How could Kurane have known how many ribs were broken just by looking at him?'
Joey, Mary, and Rowan came running around the corner with two stretchers and carefully hoisted Steve onto one of them. They were relieved to see that Knives had regained consciousness, but still insisted that he go to the infirmary for an examination.
Vash ran into the infirmary, and looked between Knives and Steve before running over to Knives, "Are you ok? Are you hurt?"
Knives gave his brother a smirk, "Of course I'm ok, you dummy."
Joey ushered them out of the infirmary so the two patients could have some peace and quiet, then he turned to Kurane, "Would you mind explaining what happened?"
She flinched at the accusation, "What makes you think I had anything to do with it?"
He frowned in impatience, "Kurane, you and Knives were the only ones in there with Steve. You have to know something."
She sighed, "I broke his arms, but that's all I did."
"Ok, so why did you break his arms?" He silenced Rem before she could say anything.
"Simple, he was going to beat Knives, so I broke his arm. Then he was going to hit me, so I broke his other arm."
"Ok, so how did he end up with six broken ribs and a broken leg?"
"I dunno. I figure Knives attacked him, broke his ribs; then Steve fought back, but Knives broke his leg, and then Steve kicked him hard enough with his other leg to knock him out."
Vash looked at Kurane wide-eyed, "But why? Why would Steve attack you or Knives? Why would Knives attack Steve? Why did you attack Steve?"
She shrugged, "Steve hates Knives and I, it was self-defense. If you want any other details, you could always ask Knives, I'm sure he could tell you."
Joey nodded, "I will. Hopefully we can get this sorted out." Everyone nodded in agreement and left, but Kurane and Vash remained behind to talk.
She gave him a hug, "Don't worry, they're both gonna be fine, and hopefully this won't happen again."
Vash nodded, "I hope this never happens again." She hugged him tighter, 'I'll keep you safe Vash, don't worry'
'Kurane?'
'Yep, I'm a telepath so we can talk like this and nobody will know.'
'Really?'
'You bet.'
'I'm worried.'
'Why? They'll be fine, it's nothing to worry about, and Steve won't hurt you, I won't let him.'
'I know that, but...why does Steve hate us?'
'...Because people fear what they don't understand.'
'I suppose that makes sense, but...'
'Just don't worry about it, ok?'
'...Ok.'
----
Four and a half weeks later, Steve was back to his duties, having fully recovered. He still avoided Kurane, and Knives, but Vash became the favorite vent of his anger. It was when he was about to strike Vash that Kurane found them, and the scowl on her face promised death.
They met outside the infirmary to discuss what had happened to Steve, and as before all eyes were on Kurane. Joey gave a sigh of resignation, "Ok Kurane, what happened this time?"
She gave him an exasperated look, "What? He was lucky; I only broke one of his arms this time. Next time, he won't be nearly as lucky." They let the matter go at that, getting tired of Steve's stupidity and the violence it caused.
Later that day, Kurane, Vash, and Knives sat down for some tea, and Knives suggested that they go check the cold sleep pods on another ship so that Rem wouldn't have to. Kurane nodded, and ran off to tell Rem. When she got back, Knives was waiting for her, and Vash was asleep. The two decided to let him sleep and ran off the transport console.
Moments later, they were on another ship, and walked into the Sleep Cylinder. As they walked further into the room, she noticed that fewer of the pods were occupied, and they soon came to an area where none of the pods were in use.
"I'm sorry Kurane, but you've become a liability to my plans." Knives turned to her.
She sighed, "I can understand that, but...sedatives in tea? Come on, I know you could have done better than that."
He smirked, "Yeah, but I don't have a lot of time. Anyway why don't you go to sleep now." She started to mutter something, but was soon on the floor asleep. Knives opened one of the cold sleep pods and put Kurane inside before closing the hatch and activating the cold sleep.
After he transported back to the main ship, he de-activated the transportation system and went down the hall to speed up the progress of his plan; he was running out of time.
~ A/N: I don't own Trigun or the characters, only the plot. I hope you liked the first chapter! I know it's a bit of a cliffhanger, but don't worry you'll find out what happened later. Anyways, please review and I will get chapter 2 up as soon as I can! ~