Butaga

by Jai-kun

The meal, such as it was, was finished. Neither plate had been touched, as neither had the appetite to complete dinner.

The beast rose silently, demandingly, but was pushed down again... no... not the right time... but the beast was insistent.

Ryouga looked up, smiling slightly, but unable to hide his nervousness, the sweating need inside him. Today. Today he'd quell that need.

Akari looked at him, her Ryouga-sama, the man it seemed she had been waiting for for all of her existence. Oh, she knew he loved another, but he'd grow out of that. She'd been waiting far too long to be stopped by some crush of convenience.

She walked to him. "What is it, Ryouga-sama?" She smiled, bent near him, crouching to look into his eyes. "You seem..." she licked her lips, "nervous."

The beast raged. So close! There it was, a source of nourishment, of life's blood, so close, and still being restrained! It had been too long, it needed to feed, and to feed now!

Ryouga practically leapt from his chair, turning his back, clenching his fists, trembling with obvious restraint. "Akari... I... I..."

She leaned closer...

The monster raged. SO CLOSE!! STRIKE! Give yourself the blood you crave! Resistance was almost impossible

He whirled on her, taking her in arms she suddenly realized could crush her, his eyes wide, his mouth open slightly, the fangs gleaming slightly in the light of the room. Akari swallowed thickly. "Y-yes, Ryouga-sama?

Barely, slowly, the monster was driven back, snarling, and the mind unclouded

Ryouga's smile softened. "I lo-"

"Akari!"

The beast rushed back. The old man could not see...

They parted rapidly, blushing as the old man bustled up, tears in his eyes. "More are missing, Akari! More of them are gone!"

Ryouga regarded the old man curiously. "More what?"

Akari hugged her grandfather. "Oh, no!" She turned shining eyes on Ryouga. "Someone has been kidnapping our pigs, Ryouga-sama!" she turned away, covering her face. "We never see the monster, never know where the darlings are taken, but for weeks pigs have gone missing! More and more, lately!" She sobbed into her hands in grief.

Ryouga looked at her, put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Akari-chan, it will be OK..."

The grandfather regarded them, still trembling in fear and anger. "The fool let tracks this time! I've seen which way he dragged the pigs!"

Akari's head snapped up. "You have? Oh, where?!"

The old man looked coldly out the window, toward the edge of the farm. "To the old cave..."

"The old cave?"

Akari nodded, not looking at him. "We found it when I was a little girl. It's been on the edges o this farm for centuries, I think." Her face was pinched and clouded, and she looked down, as if the weight of losing her prized swine was slowly crushing her.

Ryouga followed closely, both to offer protection and to keep from getting lost. Before long, they came to the cliff wall that housed the cave.

The hole was dark, and the wind blew from the south. Ryouga pulled his umbrella from his backpack. "Akari, stay here."

Akari looked up at him, and graced him with a small, sad smile. "Nonsense, Ryouga-sama. I've come this far, and we don't know how deep the cavern goes..."

Ryouga waged an inner war with his fears. "It could be dangerous..."

Akari cut him off by entering the cave. "We have to find out..."

As they stepped in, they were assaulted by the smell. Sickly sweet, smelling vaguely of honey, but mostly of copper and rust. It got stronger as they went further, invading their senses as they tried not to pay attention. Ryouga had smelled this before, and he didn't like what it meant.

It was the scent of blood.

With the scent fresh in the air, the beast raged again, barely held in check. TAKE IT! TAKE IT AND BE DONE!

Akari looked more pinched, tenser as they went further. There was a light ahead, maybe he could leave her there and go on. So far the cave hadn't branched.

They rounded the corner, and the sight before Ryouga's eyes nearly toppled him in it's gruesomeness.

A dozen pigs' bodies, hanging from stalactites and the cavern walls, upside down. Their snouts pointed toward the ground.

Ryouga spun, trying to keep Akari from seeing the sight, but he was too late. She stared, transfixed, pale and wide-eyed.

"R-Ryouga... sama... what...?"

Ryouga left her, himself transfixed, teeth on edge with the site. He noticed first that there were no decayed or decaying bodies, only these semi fresh ones.

On closer examination, he saw that they were all...

"...drained of blood." The words came out in a whisper. He heard the ragged, hissing breath from behind him, and turned, pale in the horror and nausea

He looked at her, his... his beautiful ranch girl, his gentle peace from the torment of loving Akane, and was filled with terror. In her place was this crouching, graceful creature, her eyes glowing red, her eye teeth long and curved and pointed.

"Akari?! Akari-chan"

She was crouched, but weeping, her fingers curled into hooks, panting, her tiny frame heaving.

"I can't control it any longer, Ryouga-sama... The hunger is so strong! The pigs were enough for a while, but... there's only so much sustenance they can give!"

Blood red tears streaked her eyes, and she crouched, half doubling over with pain, and half preparing to spring.

Ryouga tensed, but it was too late, she was on him, and her strength!

Before he could think more, he was raised, against the wall, looking down into her glowing eyes, watching with a strange fascination the blood red tears flow down her cheeks. He was dead... he knew it, but he wouldn't die alone.

Her voice shook as she lowered him. "Ryouga-sama... forgive me... I can't stop it..." She closed her eyes, opening her mouth wide, wider, her fangs gleaming before she struck, piercing the coratid artery smoothly and allowing the blood to flow between her lips and into her hungry, greedy mouth.

The feeling struck Ryouga, of ecstasy, of love, of sorrow. The transfer of images, of knowledge was overwhelming, and his mind drank as she drank of him, his lifeblood and her knowledge flowing between each other like a conduit.

He could see all, know all in a tumbling of images and sensations and emotion that threatened to overwhelm him even before death did. He could see that she had been transformed centuries ago by an ancient westerner, that the superstitions surrounding vampires were for the most part wild speculation and fantasy, and that they could pass as a normal human being easily, being of both the mystical and spiritual plane. He could see that she had been plagued of dreams of a strong man and a black piglet, see that the man, that Ryouga, was who she knew as her soul-mate. He could see that she loathed the taking of human blood, and had turned to animals, but realized too late that this source would not give enough sustenance to appease the craving inside her. And he knew she didn't want to live, not without him, not knowing she killed him. He knew this, suddenly, clearly.

His hand, unfrozen, guided by their mutual will, reached down, pulled his belt from his waist, and snapped it into the rigid blade he had used long ago, the one he'd sworn never to use again after nearly killing Akane with it.

"No, Akari-chan...forgive me..."

He was nearly drained completely, but he managed to coax the last of his strength and ki into his arm to make the swift slashing motion that removed the beautiful head from her slim shoulders.

She fell, the head detaching from his neck and rolling slightly away, facing towards him and the light of the evening sun.

Ryouga slumped, fell on his side, his body fighting the coldness one last time, looking at her face... There was a slight smile there, and he, too, smiled as his head hit the ground and lay still, a stream of crimson blood making its way from her headless body to his lifeless mouth... and entering it.

The hole was dug, and the head put in, covered with rice and cherry blossoms from outside. The body was buried further back into the cave. No one would be the wiser, and all they would ever find in this cave would be the rotting corpses of dead pigs.

He picked up his sack and looked back one last time, noticing the sun setting in the west by his shadow against the back of the cave.

"Rest in peace, Beloved..."

He straightened the sack and walked away, wandering as usual, but knowing he must now avoid this place with all his might.

His eyes glowed and fangs, large and pointed, grew to touch his bottom lip.

There was still the old man to consider. He knew Akari's secret. That knowledge must die.

And Hibiki Ryouga hungered.

Butaga is Japanese for Pig-fang (This is taken from the Fanfic "Here's Uma", in which Ryouga and Akari's son is named Butaga. The translation given there is as seen above. Gomen if it's wrong.)

Yes, it is true, that IS the sun behind Ryouga. There are many different stories about the effects of certain things on vampires. I basically took my definition of vampires from L.J. Smith's Dark World series.

I wrote this for a halloween challenge in a group I was in called the Black Rose Mailing List. It was a Kodachi fan club run by a good friend of mine, Tzigane.