Asura in Control

by BeMused

In which Yuu is possessed.

Asura was once a mortal human.

But that was millennia ago. At the dawn of human civilisation. He had but all forgotten how it was like being one since being made into a vampire.

His years, after abandoning his humanity, was spend playing an endless game of hide and seek with his sister, who was also a vampire, while travelling to all four corners of the world. He was once the troll at the himalayan mountains wrestling with the elusive snow leopards. He was the evil spirit in the Scandinavian forest preying on the careless travelling caravans. He was also the ghost haunting the lives of the sailors while out at sea in their many whaling expeditions. He was many things before.

But his carefree existance was immediately cut short on the day he met with a human girl called Mahiru in an island in the far East. And, now, he was nothing but a harmless demon residing in a blade made by the humans.

He smiled fondly at the thoughts of his sister. She must be furious at losing their game; she would never find him anywhere on the face of the earth since he was trapped forever in a parallel realm...

Not forever.

Not that he finally had a body to possess.

So... was this how possessing a human felt like?

He opened his eyes, his pupils dilating in the gloom. He was in some sort of a storeroom. There was a single door. Locked, he presumed. Not that it mattered at all. The windows were tightly boarded up. Not a single piece of furniture was seen in the room.

Slowly, he became aware of a mild ache from his shoulder joints. He looked down at himself and found that he was sitting with his legs partially crossed on the floor, his body was leaning backward and resting against the cold surface of the wall. His wrists were secured in metal cuffs. The cuffs were connected to metal chains attached the wall. The chains were only long enough for his arms to dangle in midair by his sides. He realized he must have been maintaining in this awkward position for too long to cause his shoulder joints to ache: nothing to worry about this mild annoyance. He suspected that with a gentle tug, he could pull himself free from these puny restrains.

His human host was still clothed in the dark colored uniform. A part of the jacket was ripped from the previous fight, where Guren (was that his name?) had his sword sliced at his left shoulder. Dried blood had stained the damaged part of the uniform darker, stiffening the fabric. The wound beneath the jacket had already fully healed.

There was now a low rumble emiting from his empty stomach as well as a dull pain in his lower abdomen. So, his human host must be hungry and its bladder full. He gave out a short laugh. Being a human was sure annoying as hell. He looked around the spacious storeroom... the least he could do was to relieve his bladder. He hoped the body knew what it's suppossed to do for he was loath to go back to that parellal realm to wake his host up.

Just then the door opened, allowing sunlight to stream into the dark interior of the storeroom. Asura looked up, momenterily forgetting bout the discomforts. At the doorway was a silhouette of a young boy in an almost all white outfit. The boy paused at the threshold, studying the restrained figure, before closing the door behind him and walked silently towards the opposite side of the room. Asura immediately had the boy identified as his host's precious childhood friend, a so-called family member.

And also a vampire by sight and scent.

They stared at each other in silence for a full minute. It was the boy who broke the ice. 'I know what you are,' said Mikeala in passive voice. 'You are the demon in that sword. I heard from the humans that, under normal circumstances, the humans would have put down anyone who were fully possessed by the demon of which they are supposed to control. They are suppossed to have you killed. But I will not allow that to happen.'

Asura was not one to bother himself with the affairs of others. But this was getting interesting.

'And,' Mikeala continued carefully. 'Since I do not know what your plans are, I have no choice but to chain you up here. I do not wish that you do anything that would cause harm to... to Yuu.'

Asuna grinned. 'So you are telling me that you are willing to hold me captive forever? Chained me up like a dog? Without knowing if he is ever coming back?'

'I believe Yuu will come back,' the vampire replied firmly,

'What if he is not coming back?' the demon tilted his head curiously. 'What are you going to do about it?'

There was a short pause. 'I will think about that later,' Mikeala muttered, looking away.

They fell into silence again.

Asura shifted into a more comfortable position. His arms, due to the stingy length of the chains, were still being forced to dangle at his side. So be it.

Asura could not shake off the sense of familiarity he had felt since the moment the vampire entered the room. He could not identify for certain the scent that was emiting faintly from the boy. Not at this distance and with the stagnant air of the storeroom heavy with mildew. If only he could convince the boy to come closer. By whatever means necessary. 'Judging by your look,' Asura said. 'You must be hungry. You must be thirsting for blood so bad your body can barely stand it.'

Mikeala turned back and stared at him wide-eyed. 'It's none of your business, demon.'

Asura smiled patiently and tilted his head to a side, exposing his neck. 'Here. You have done this before. You can do it again. Come on, I am sure your precious Yuichiro would not want you to starve. You know fully well how he would be so willing to offer some of his blood again.'

'Shut up!' there was a hint of tremor in the voice. 'I am leaving now.'

'What if I were to break free from these chains?' Asura said casually, watching the vampire heading for the door. 'You do know I could easily free myself.'

Mikeala paused midway. 'I will stop you.'

Asura was already on him at that split second.

The cuffs and chains had broken to tiny pieces by sheer force and were now laying scattered at the floor. Asura won't be surprised if he had pulled out a chunk of wall as well in the process. The demon gripped at the boy's shoulders, using his own momentum to push the boy aside, while simultaneously sweeping a leg at his knee, knocking him effectively off balance. Startlet, Mikeala landed hard on his back with Asura straddling atop him.

'How can you stop me now?' the demon grinned. He caught a handful of wavy blond hair and forced the head backwards before bending forward to his neck to draw in a deep breath. His eyes grew wide in surprise. 'What have you done to my sister?'

In the gloom the vampire's eyes seemed to glow. Mikeala had wanted to push the demon off but, not wanting to hurt the body of his precious family, he stopped struggling and relaxed. 'What are you talking about?'

Asura looked almost disappointed. 'Foolish vampire,' he said, letting go his hair. 'My sister, Krul Tepes. I am... was Asura, her brother. You have been feeding off so much from my sister that you are now like an incense stick burning with her fragrance. One might think you are her pet if not her fledging.'

'She is dead.' Mikeala recounted the events which took place a few days ago.

The demon laughed. 'It's not easy to kill a vampire as strong as my sister. Based on your story she is not dead, merely rendered unconscious. Now I wished for nothing more but to talk to her again. We will deal with Ferid later.'

Mikeala seemed momentarily surprised by his statement. 'I don't care about all that,' his expression hardened. 'And I don't care if you really are her brother. I want you to return Yuu.'

'I don't want to.' Asura stood up and made a beeline towards the door. The young vampire was too weak stop him anyway. He kicked the door easily off its hinges, stepped through the threshold, and into the sunlit world outside. Finally... Finally... He felt it all again the things he once took for granted. The warmth of the sun. The wind in his hair. He drew in a deep breath. The air was humid, smelling of salt. He squinted at the fierce glare of the evening sun over the horizon before paying any attention to the five armed figures standing in a rough semi-circle in front of him.

Their fear was palpable.

'I knew this is not going to work,' one of them was whispering loudly.

'We are really gonna do it,' replied the other.

Someone had started to count numbers.

One of the humans took a step forward. She was holding a scythe. 'We are not letting you go, demon.'

'Move aside, human,' the demon said dismissively. He scanned quickly through his host's memory, putting an identity to each and everyone of the faces staring back at him in apprehension. 'Don't block the way.'

'You are not going anywhere. We are here to stop you.'

'Shinoa,' Asura smiled, emphasising every syllable of her name. 'I saved your life once but is this how you are repaying my kindness by pointing your blade at me? I am very disappointed with you.' He winked at her. The faint blush at her pale cheeks was unmistakable.

'Wait!' Mikeala had rushed out of the storeroom and was now standing by his side. 'Hold your weapons! Asura, let's talk. I am sure we can come to an agreement. A common goal.'

Asura raised an intrigued brow. 'Are you now trying to bargain with me?' He gestured at the nervous group. 'The humans are thinking otherwise. They seemed to be itching for a fight. This is hardly a fair fight. I am weaponless but they are all armed to the teeth.' He pointed casually at a bespectacled youth with a coffin-like box hovering over his head. 'That boy over there is even planning to trap me within his nasty box again. Don't think I would fall for the same trick twice.'

Mikeala glanced at Kimizuki.

Kimizuki faltered at his glare.

That split moment of hesitation was enough for the demon to close the distance between them. Before Kimizuki caught sight of the approaching demon, both of his wrists were immediately secured within a grip as strong as iron. Asura gave those wrists a light squeeze, grinning with mild satisfaction the feeling of bones giving way. Kimizuki let out a pained yelp (he had almost completed his count) and dropped his twin swords. Asura then yanked at the crumpled wrists, hurling the human forward into the soft sand.

The whole meneuver happened within a second.

Asura suspected that he might have accidentally dislocated both of Kimizuki's shoulder joints... Oh, well, he already intended to come back to the youth later, after he had settled with the others. It was, after all, not a pleasant stay within that box.

One down.

So many more to go.

'Kimizuki!' someone shouted.

Goodness. The humans were only now beginning to react.

Asura jumped aside to avoid the curved blade of the scythe slicing down at him. He was made hyperaware of something else just then: his whole body was aching, his movement slowing, and his senses dulling from both exhaustion and starvation. The body might collapse, even cease to function, if he were to continue at this rate. He noted that Mikeala had already drawn his blade and was fending off the attacks aiming at his direction. It might be a good idea to get himself lost while he still had the chance...

He began to inch away from the group.

He felt a sharp pain over his left ankle as his archilles tendon ruptured under the strain. He lost his balance and fell tumbling over into the warm sand. He wasn't sure to laugh or curse out loud at the bad timing and luck.

'Yuu.' He looked up, just in time to see a cowardly looking boy with an outlandish looking bow landing a fist at his temple. His vision flashed white. 'I am so sorry, Yuu.' He thought he heard those words before falling back into unconsciousness.