Anything-goes demon slaying
Disclaimer: I do not now, nor shall I ever, own the works that are borrowed from to create this fiction. I do own Girai, Maya, Titania, Fluffy, Aaron, and any and all OCs located in this work into perpetuity. There may be some cursing when the characters reach Nerima district, and there will definitely be massive quantities of violence
The fortress was built into the rocky face of the Swiss Alps; it had been there since before the Renaissance and few knew of its existence. Neither banner nor national flag flew from its high turrets, shaped to resemble the crags of the mountains that it was built into, but it was not derelict; within the maze of anterooms and hallways close to a thousand people went on with their lives, forgotten by the majority of the world. These are the protectors, the ones who have forsworn the world to protect the weak; they have been called by many names through their existence: the Nephilim, the Guardians, the Shadow Legion, the rear-guard, and most recently the Knights Templar. The world has changed and the Knights have adapted, but they have continued to defend humanity from the forces of hell and the unsleighe court; the only part of their mission that had changed was that through modern communication they were able to find groups to aid them.
In Africa there were the magi, an ancient order that had all but disappeared; all that remained was a group of elderly priests guarding the Mnganna, a sword that patiently awaited the return of the archangel Gabriel. In North and South America the Order of the Three and the Order of the Manitou strove to keep the Unsleighe from breeching the Shields that protected the mortal world from their predation. In Asia the Knights had made contact with no less than fifty different demon-hunting agencies, magic-user control centers, sidhe alliances, and a group of reformed demons that kept watch over several areas with high-magic pollution. It was this particular area that was inciting one of the largest spousal arguments in the history of the Knights, one that was oddly similar to another happening at the same time on the other side of the world.
"I am not going to let Thunk! you take Thunk! my only son Thunk! on some insane Thunk! training trip!" Maya Saotome, high priestess of the Knights Templar, glared at her quivering wreck of a husband as she aimed the crossbow a few inches higher.
"N...Now my love, c...can't we just talk this over! Thunk! Just please hear me out before you castrate me!" Girai Saotome, knight errant, breathed a sigh of relief as he saw his wife lower the crossbow.
"You have five minutes to convince me not to remove your male prerogative and to allow me to let you take our innocent little boy on some globe-trotting trip to make him some kind of killing machine!" a cloud of golden ki erupted in an aura about her, fizzing and crackling as it incinerated some rather unfortunate bugs that had been flying too close.
"It is a matter of family honour, my dearest; both my brother and I swore to make our children the greatest warriors on earth. We swore this on the grave of the master who trained us. Besides, he is an intelligent lad, he's only six and already he figured out why Brother Dashi keeps having those strange outbreaks of hives; it seems that the dear Brother is a Halvirel (A/N: a Halvirel is a human with sidhe ancestors, this magical bloodline typically includes an allergic reaction to cold-iron)"
"So it is a matter of honour then... I shall let you take him, but only for ten years. At the end of those ten years, if he is not able to show that he has surpassed your combat ability, you must commit seppuku (A/N: a form of ritual suicide used by the Japanese clear up to WWII, the intent was that if a member of a family dishonoured themselves horrifically then they could commit seppuku to spare the honour of the rest of the family. May or may not be used by some of the more traditionalist families in the present day.) After confessing to the entire world that you are the worst father in existence and that you have regularly engaged in romantic liaisons outside of your own species!" unbeknownst to her; more than twelve females of different humanoid species, all with young children, started sneezing uncontrollably.
The ruins of Stonehenge are considered to be a place of power by those who follow the path of the old faiths, but far outside the circles of the standing stones is a relic of true power, a stone of great enchantment forged by the archangels to protect the first mortal warriors from their demonic enemies. It was above this relic that two people of Asiatic descent were standing, wearing what looked like silver reflective cloth with a large red cross on the front; the eldest of the two drew a sword-shaped pendant from around his neck and held it before his son, "Aaron, this is the sword of Balder, Harfeng, the greatest of all archangels. It is the symbol of our order; it will protect you and grant you access to areas that have been sealed away from the view of 'normal' humans. To wake the sword you must hold it in your hand and say 'Harfeng, weapon of the great Balder, the left hand of the one true God; grant me now the power to fulfill my duty to my lord!'" at this the pendant shone with a brilliant golden light, a light that slowly grew into a full sized claymore. "See? Nothing to it! Now try calling it yourself!"
His son nodded and said, "I, Aaron Riku Saotome, do call upon the angelic weapon Harfeng; grant me the power to banish the foes of good to the furthest corner of the abyss in the name of The Alpha and Omega. Sword of Balder, hear my cry!" Girai was about to scold his son on using the wrong summoning when he saw a brilliant glow erupt from the pendant, engulfing the child in its brilliance. When the light faded his son stood there, sans pendant, with strange runes on the back of his hands. The child looked at his hands, at his father, then at nothing at all as he fell into a faint.
The Wiccan temple of Underhenge was a massive compound that was only partially grounded in the real world, more than ninety percent of the compound was on land in the Faerie realm; donated as thanks for finding a way to shield the Sleighe and sidhe from the effects of cold iron. The center of healing was actually part of the palace of Queen Titania, and the queen of the sidhe made it a habit to pop in every so often to help out. She was currently sitting on her favorite chair watching the child sleep, his small form occasionally letting off a burst of swirling ki as the runes on his hand shifted and flowed. She was watching a human body not only containing the power of an angelic weapon, but also adapting it to the body's needs. "W…will he be all right? If he dies then I have no reason to return to the order, I promised my love that he would be safe; that I would train him to be one of the greatest of all the knights. Please, Titania, for the sake of our friendship, please help him." She fixed the depressed knight with a benevolent smile.
"I shall not do a thing because I need not do a thing, he and Harfeng somehow combined into a single form; his body is adapting to the influx of ki well and about the only thing that I suggest is that someone trains him in unarmed combat."
"Why unarmed combat? Why can he not learn the style of the Knights?"
"I am afraid that Harfeng will not allow it, one cannot use any other weapon if one has the weapon of an angel in their hands, or in your son's case, their body; the morphic field of the weapon causes too much damage to the other to sustain its form for more than an hour. Besides, there are more places in the modern world to learn martial arts than there are to learn how to swing a sword" She used her magic to summon a small piece of paper upon which was written a long series of names and addresses. "These are all top masters of their respective arts, specifically ones that owe me more than a few favors; show them the sigil I gave you and they should be more than willing to give the child training, pro-bono.
Two figures fled from a small village in Kazakhstan, breaking land-speed records as they did so. The younger of the two, a child of about thirteen, was simply jogging; the fine mithril mesh of his clothing shining in the sunlight, occasionally clinking as it intercepted tranquilizer darts, rubber bullets, and cabbages that were being thrown at him by an angry crowd of girls and their families. His father was running full tilt, employing one of the moves that he had learned while on the training journey with his brother and Soun Tendo to escape the horde. "What the hell did you do to get these people so upset dad? Please tell me that they aren't more people with illegitimate offspring that you left behind, did you sleep with every woman that you came across?"
"Son, why would you accuse your own father, a respected member of the Knights Templar, with so indecent an act? Show some respect for the one who raised you!" a battle axe embedded itself in a tree less than a foot from his head.
"I will, when you show me something to respect ya old louse! Do you actually think that I would just forget about the fifty different women we've run into, and away from, that had children that looked a heckuva lot like you!" he threw a punch at his father's leg, trying to trip him up so that he would face the results of his infidelity.
"Besides, it is the duty of a martial artist to increase the size of his school. Did you think that we were the only ones of our school out there?" he blocked his son's attack with one of the pans in his pack.
"From what I learned at the few dojos you didn't get us expelled from, banging everything of the female persuasion is NOT the way to increase one's school. Just once I would like to visit a city and not have a half brother or sister holding the family rifle trying to remove my head!" he looked behind him "I think we can stop now, they don't seem to be following us anymore." His father was looking ahead with pure terror written on his features, following his father's gaze; Aaron saw something from man's greatest nightmares.
The creature stood more than fifteen feet tall; its body heavily muscled and covered in scales the colour of dried blood. Its eyes glowed with a light that seemed to absorb all light and life from its surroundings, from its back sprouted two leathery wings; its arms ended in the heads of serpents, and its legs were those of a vulture. The creature emitted an odor like ten-thousand corpses in the noon-day sun, and from its back it drew a massive whip made entirely of flame. The creature opened its mouth and spoke, its voice sounding a falsetto that could scratch glass," I am the Awchdemon Bwzkvnn'kzd, how dare you intwude upon my fowetht! I thall thmite you with my flaming whip!"
Aaron spoke first; his hands folded behind his head in a position that allowed him to stretch his arms and neck without being obvious about it, a grin spread across his face "Where were you when the vowels were handed out, behind the door? Also, what happened to you? From the way you talk, I would've expected a gay bar to be your domain; not an ancient forest like this one! Tell me why I, a member of the Knights Templar, should be afraid of so weak a demon, are you even worth the time it would take for me to defeat you?"
The demon sighed, its shoulders slumping in a visible expression of depression. "Fine, I will tell you the twuth. I am not an awchdemon, my name is Fluffy and I am thwee yearth old. I wath with my mamma and daddy in China when I got lotht, I wandered fow dayth; looking fow them. Many dayth later, I found a gwoup of little pondth and dethided to go thwimming; next thing I know, I'm like thith!"
The two men looked at the imposing figure standing before them, tears flowing pitifully down its cheeks; its body curled in the fetal position, massive sobs escaping its attempts to control them. Girai and Aaron looked at each other and said in unison, "We have to call Titania."
Many people find the queen of the faerie cold and aloof; that is until they see her with children and the ill, her personal mansion is filled with peoples of all races that she has rescued from the predation of the wicked. These people eventually return to the world of men with the task of assisting the sidhe in their mission to defeat the forces of the Unsleighe Court, they also serve as backup for situations that could put their beloved queen in peril. This is why there were currently seven very heavily armed humans surrounding Titania as she approached the transfigured girl. The elven queen simply smiled and motioned her protectors away; she knew that there was no threat to be found in the pure heart of the child named Fluffy.
Titania smiled as she examined her patient, there was no trace of demonic taint, nor was there the signs of a transfiguration spell, just the familiar aura of the Jusenkyo springs and their unique variety of chaos curse. She turned towards the panicked crowd that was shuffling nervously behind her and smiled one of her disarming smiles, "She is pure, there is no demonic taint within her, nor is this a hostile spell. I will need some hot water and my spell pouch, along with the chamomile tea; this could be a very long story, and one that will awaken a lot of memories that I would have loved to keep buried, especially the birth of the Unsleighe"
"It was forty-thousand years ago when Lucifer escaped his prison after being sealed away at the birthing of mankind, eighty thousand years after humanity passed the final test that He had provided them with, one hundred twenty thousand years after the faerie passed the same test, the world that existed at that time was not the sickly world that we know now..."
Please R&R