Hey readers! This is my 1st SDK story...actaully my 1st ever on fanfic.

PLease read and review! All coments would be appreciated and ideas considered!

Thanks!

'...' -normal speech

"Italics" -memories

[...] -past events

Italics -thoughts

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1.

Present Day,

The Mibu Castle,

Japan

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'Get me Okuni!'

The new Aka No Ou screamed at everyone in general. Several soldiers hurried out in alarm, while Shinrei, who was standing only feet away from Kyo's throne, winced at the level of tone.

Demon Eyes Kyo, who had been insufferable before, had almost become worse since Shiina Yuya had disappeared.

It was true, that he was a good (if uncouth ruler), though he would go on long lonely expeditions without telling anyone which did cause a lot of bureaucratic problems, but the Mibu Clan was prospering like never before, now that there was no twisted mind pulling strings behind anyone, just like the entire country was flourishing under the new Tokugawa Ieyasu. People had already begun to call it the Golden Age. The Mibu past was forgotten, which was well with everybody.

But ever since, the famous bounty huntress, who had changed the heart of a demon, had gone away, Kyo had become more and more withdrawn; many a time he had gone alone to look for her, when all other people failed, but to no avail.

Today, he had called all the new reinstated four elders: Yuan, who was happy to be again with his family, the loss of Hotaru, who had also disappeared, met by Shinrei and Rourou; Akari, who was busy finishing Hshigi's work; Shinrei, who was helping Akari and becoming more sociable by the day, as Yuan put it and finally Tokito, who had nothing better to do, since Akira had forcibly left her behind to train alone in China.

'Seat yourselves now or do I have to tell everything!?' Kyo yelled as he settled back comfortably on his throne, propping his feet up on the hand-rest.

The elders seated themselves and on a lower dais, Kyoshiro, Sakuya and Shihohodou sat down, the latter glancing disapprovingly at Kyo. Two years into the job and he had yet not learnt the proper etiquettes of a ruler. Heck, he did not even behave properly with anyone!

'So,' began Kyo, picking his teeth 'Anything interesting happen? You, the servant in white, you speak first!'

Beaming, Akari stood up, 'Thank you Kyo! I knew you'd pick me first! I wanted to tell you this myse-'

'Get on with it!' Kyo snarled.

'-lf, oh yes. Well, all of you would be happy and surprised to know (if Shinrei has not already babbled everything) but according to my experiments and Shinrei's reports and the samples we have taken from Rourou, it seems that we have finally found the true nature of the Disease!' she finished breathlessly.

An excited murmur of interest ran around the hall, instantly quenched by Kyo's Red Eyes.

'And what precisely is it?' Yuan asked eagerly leaning forward. The cure meant a lot more to him than anyone else for he had his entire family to take care of.

'Well, here's the catch,' Shinrei cut in between, frowning at Akari, 'we know about the real nature of the Disease, and we almost know how to correct it, but we can't do it. We can't stop it, not at present at least.'

'And why is that?'

'Yes, why can't we!?'

'What are you saying Shinrei!?'

'SILENCE!' barked Kyo; he hated when too many people started talking loudly at once.' You,' he indicated towards Shinrei, 'start from the beginning.'

Shinrei stood up gratefully, ignoring the murderous glares by Akari, who did not appreciate being made to lose her moment of glory and began speaking in his formal yet forceful tone. 'The Disease, as we know, has progressed to some extent in all the Mibu Clan, save the last true Mibu child, Aka No Ou. We, me and Akari-san, have conducted many tests on Rourou and dug back in the Mibu history and have finally come up with the truth. And it is as strange as it gets.

Till now, we have thought that the Disease was an inherent factor in all the battle dolls. However, this is not entirely true. The True Mibu Clan of the old, made the first Battle Dolls without the disease. Soon, as more and more battle dolls were created, better, finer, more efficient models; models that were almost like the Mibu in their appearance and abilities, some of the elders began to grow afraid. They feared, and rightly so, that the day would come, when all the battle dolls would turn upon their masters and the entertainers of the Mibu would become their slaughterers.

So, they gave rise to a project, known as the Project Holy Destruction, if the old documents are right.

Under this project, all the battle dolls that were created were injected with a strange germ, which had caused the death of the Mibu Clan, who had come back from missions overseas. As the battle dolls reproduced, the germ in their blood multiplied in their children's and began shortening their lives and weakening the future battle dolls. And now we are only guessing what must have happened, as we have no records or clues to guide us but we are quite positive something of this nature occurred.

One of the first battle dolls must have come to know of this plot. He managed to save a female battle doll from being injected with the germs and hid her somewhere and having the germs injected in a woman of the true Mibu instead. Being the true Mibu, the disease spread among them much faster then in the battle dolls and this was partly the reason that the battle dolls, though, no longer as perfect as before were able to eradicate the true Mibu, the other reason being of course that no children were being born in the Mibu Clan. This, as we know, is the history of the Disease.'

There was numbing silence as everyone digested this news.

'Then,' said Yuan slowly, as realization crashed onto him, 'then that means...that...the first battle doll...the one that saved…that was…the Former Aka No Ou?'

'Yes, Yuan-sama,' Akari nodded.

'So, Rourou was actually...was actually the daughter of...of the Former Aka No Ou!' Tokito said, her eyes round as saucers.

'Very good Tokito,' answered Shinrei, 'We have presumed that at some point in history, the Former Aka No Ou, Mibu Kyouchirou, must have felt the first sign of the disease stirring inside him and must have felt the need to bring out 'his' special battle doll. It can be said that he was intimately involved with her and they had had Rourou. And the anti-bodies must have multiplied in her.'

'But how come Rourou had the anti-bodies in her blood?' asked Kyoshiro confused, 'For all we know Rourou's…mother never had the anti-bodies or the germs in her body for that matter!'

This time Akari stood up to speak, 'There is a technique called vaccination,' Kyoshiro muttered a small 'Oh!' of comprehension. 'In this technique, a very small quantity of the desired disease germs is put into the person's body so that the natural cells of the body can create warrior-cells to fight them. Kyouchirou must have allowed such cells, such anti-bodies to be formed in his battle doll; instead of overloading her with germs like the elder Mibu were doing with the other dolls. Since, all this happened such a long time ago, we have come to believe that battle dolls were built with such a defect, a defect that Kyouchirou ensured was not in his battle doll. '

'Instead, his battle doll had the anti-bodies! The cure that could have one day saved all!' Shinrei finished.

'He did not save himself then,' Sakuya spoke up timidly, 'but he chose to save the one he loved.'

'Don't be so soft Sakuya-san!' Yuan said angrily, 'That bastard could have helped Hshigi and Fubuki-sama in their research to cure us all! He could have told us about all of-'

'Well I think he meant to do this, I mean tell us about the cure.' butted in Shihohodou, as blunt as ever, straightening her large hat. 'Once the True Mibu had died, I think he was waiting for the right time to reveal that the disease could be cured, so that all the Mibu dolls could live happily again.'

'But he did not, did he?' Tokito rounded on her angrily, 'he was happy to keep Rourou next to him so that he could be saved! And all he did was lecture us about how there was no way the Mibu clan could be saved and that we were all scum!' she said deathly quiet, her eyes (so like and unlike Muramasa's) betraying her rage, 'He was the real scum! He could have made everything right!' He could have helped cure us ALL!'

'Well, that was all in the past,' said Shinrei quickly, sensing that the assembly could become disruptive as Shihohodou opened her mouth to argue, 'the real challenge in front of us was to determine how we could produce the same immunity that Rourou has. The best we can do now is to inject all the Mibu Clan with Rourou's anti-bodies. But this is a very risky process. First of all, Rourou never had the actual Disease in her, only the anti-bodies, from her mother. So, we don't know if injecting the Mibus with them would be fruitful or not because we never really got to know if the former Aka No Ou was able to resist the disease due to his immediacy to Rourou or not. And the Disease is a very deep manifestation in the Mibus. If the strong anti-bodies that Rourou has do work, then they could also destroy other body cells apart from those of the dise-'

'GYAAAH!' Kyo growled in frustration ('I personally though he'd interfere before this!' Kyoshiro whispered to Sakuya quickly).

'First you bore me with a load of shit about that Kyouchirou bastard, that I shouldn't have killed him, so that you could have dissected him in your rat-hole laboratory! Then you say that you haven't found the cure at all! So, why the hell am I still listening to you lot bitching that you can't do anything!?' Kyo barked angrily.

Shinrei paled under his snow-white mane of hair, 'We do have another solution, Aka No Ou.'

'Well, spit it out!'

'Find Rourou's mother.'

'What?!' said Yuan, startled and sat up straight.

'Yes,' Akari said, 'that's right Yuan-sama; we always wondered why the Former Aka No Ou didn't keep his...wife by his side. It must have been better for him. His immunity against the disease would have been ensured then. I think, and Shinrei disagrees with me on the point, that she must have escaped.'

Shinrei spoke up, 'I do not think that the Former Aka No Ou would be so careless so as to let such a…prized possession disappear right under his nose. I think she must have died or something terrible befell her for we can find absolutely no trace of her.'

Akari opened her mouth to answer hotly but Kyo held up a hand, 'I think Akari is right' ('I am?' asked Akari pleasantly surprised).

'What all of you were forgetting is that both that bastard and his whore (Sakuya winced and Kyoshiro looked annoyed) were battle dolls. The only difference in them was that the he had the disease but she did not. So, doesn't it makes sense, you idiots, that she must have been stronger than him?' asked Kyo, his eyes shining with a light that many had forgotten.

Akari gasped and smacked her forehead.

'Yes!' Shinrei said, actually surprised, 'How could I have forgotten that?' he frowned. 'You are right Onimo No Kyo! She was a battle doll of the old and that too one without the disease! She could not have died so easily! We will immediately start looking for her.' He bowed an excused himself.

There was a short silence as he left, broken by Shihohodou.

'So Akari-san, what do we know about this mysterious woman?' She asked quietly.

'Oh well, not much really Shihohodou-san,' Akari said happily, 'we asked Rourou and all she remembers is a green-eyed woman who used to take care of her and who would sing lullabies to her, when she was very small.' Immediately she bit her tongue, and glanced at Kyo awkwardly.

All the enthusiasm had gone out of his eyes, which had narrowed to slits as he glanced unseeingly at them, remembering another green-eyed girl who had come into his life.

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Hey Readers! This is my first SDK story! Please read and review! Thanx!