Visions
Prologue-
The screams of terror filled the air of the Hunter village of Hanta as the rampaging vampiress sought out first blood amongst the many unsuspecting villagers fleeing for their lives. A young boy hides in the shadows from the creature and whimpers when the glow of her bloodthirsty gaze lands upon him. A manic smile reveals the newly gained fangs of her birth as she grins at him.
"Sweet, boy. Sweet, child. Won't you come to momma and allow her to embrace you?"
Tears cascade down the youth's face as he shakes his head vigorously in deny as she extends a hand with one finger curling in a come hither gesture. His refusal rips a menacing growl from her parched throat and a hungry rumble echos at her waist.
"Come here!"
The boy cringes and screams his deny this time:
"NO!"
The deranged monster screeches her frustration and immediately launches herself at the child only to be kicked back by a large booted foot.
"Get back you fiend! I'll not have our son's blood be your first meal, beast!"
A slow transformation comes over the female's features at the sight of the man, who the young boy closely resembles, and sensual grace takes the place of her feral stance of before as she carefully regains her feet.
"Dear...Please...I'm so thirsty. My throat is so parched. Please...Won't you help me quench this incessant need?"
A sadness overshadows the man's fierce expression and like the boy tears cut rivulets down his face.
"Come then, love. Slack your thirst."
A gleeful squeal oozes from her as she rushes forward to embrace the man and as her teeth finally find a sheathe within the man's throat the blade of his blessed dagger sinks deep into her heart. She chokes on that first swallow, gurgling on her own blood even as she suffocates on the man's, and makes no more sounds as her body crumbles to the dirt in death. Two screams of painful anguish tear through the night as both man and boy cry out for their lost love one...
Chapter 1-
Takara, adoptive daughter of Protector Chie, awakens to the glow of morning in a cold sweat and panting as the agony of the dream runs its course through her anemic body. Takara's adoptive mother calls her body, hinketsu no, which means anemic, because all she can eat is raw bloody meat to compensate for her shortage of blood. She was raised and trained to be a Protector just as Chie did before her.
Shaking, she slides her long legs over the edge of her cot and uses the collar of her shirt to wipe the salty droplets from her brow. Then looks to the left out the window of the hut she shares with Chie to observe the village awakening to the day.
Hogo, the Village of Vampire Protectors, is home to the descendants of the extended family of the defected Ancestral Leader of the Vampire Hunters. They were made up of his few supporters and a few groups of rescued humans. Together they formed the village of Hogo and named themselves, the Protectors. Protectors are a race of super humans like their Vampire Hunter counterparts and their sole purpose is to protect the vampire race. Their protection includes the descendants of the Ancient Queen Mother and her mate the Ancestral Leader, but they will protect other vampires on two conditions, they have to exchange their blood for protection as a form of truce and they cannot bite a Protector for food.
Today, Takara, has awakened to the day of her first official visit to the village Elders with their elected Leaders and acquire her first mission as a full-fledged Protector. Chie will be taking her there to receive her first Mark. A Mark is a word used synonymously between the Hunters and the Protectors to describe a being as a target or goal. For the Hunters they are a target and for the Protectors they are a goal they desire to achieve.
There are the rare few Protectors chosen to go to Kodai, the Ancient Lands of Eternal Rest, to escort and protect an Ancient coming across the waters to visit the mainland. These Ancients range from centuries old Vampires to other equally powerful being such as; Kitsune, Greater Demons, Human descendants of Dragons, and many more. These Ancients are most often seen with a Hitodama, which are ghost spirits that appears as a floating ball of fire that hovers over the recently deceased. The Hitodama appear two or three days after a death or when a child is about to be born and they are blue, orange, or red with short or long tails of flame.
Takara strips down naked, then walks over to the washbasin to grab up a clean rag to wash the grime of the night from her skin and takes up a boars-hair brush to smooth out the knotted mess of her hair from her nightmarish sleep. She pulls on some fresh clothing with her weapon slings going on first and sheathed with multiple kaiken daggers. Afterwards, she pads barefoot into the living area to dig up a blood drenched breakfast from the cold storage box. She savors every bite with great relish before cleansing her hands of the red stain of her meal and exiting the hut. She slowly scans the area, taking in the village one last time before she is sent on her destined mission.
The village of Hogo has a large main house built of sandalwood, where the Leaders and the Elders of the village live. There are a dozen smaller dwellings that extend like arms from the main house, where the families of the Protectors and Protectors-in-training live. These buildings viewed from above form a vague house-like shape surrounded by an open field of thick green grass, wild flowers, and a scattering of sapling trees.
Satisfied that she has memorized every inch of her beloved home, Takara seeks out Chie, who she can always find in the open field training new recruits. She strolls up to the fencing cordoning off the training area and observes Chie teaching a broad-swordsmen the ropes.
Each Protector is trained with all forms of weaponry, but are usually equipped with the weapon they are the most proficient handling in combat. Takara's weapon of choice is the kaiken, small daggers, using them with the ease of a shuriken and finds them the most useful when caught in a tight spot.
The big bruiser is quite good at wielding his chosen weapon and decapitates the training dummy with ease after a few demonstrations from Chie with her own tachi sword. Takara remembers being instructed by Chie about the tachi as being a curve bladed predecessor to the katana. Chie quietly praises the guy and he foolish tries to show off for her. He thrusts his blade toward the dummies stomach only to miss and jam it into the side of the post the dummy hangs from. Takara snorts loudly at his mistake and gets nailed with a sharp glare from the giant.
"What!? You think you can do better!?"
Grinning, Takara silently withdraws a single kaiken and gestures for him to move kaiken is usually only carried for close quarters fighting accompanied with a sword wielder, which makes Takara's talents with the small weapons rather intimidating. He spots the weapon and bursts into laughter.
"What is that!? A kaiken!? What can you do with that wee weapon from that distance, girl!?"
Takara takes in the five yards of space between herself and the dummy with a shrug. Then flips the weapon up by the handle, catches it by the tip of the blade on the down spin, and launches it at the dummy, where it sinks deep into the groin area. Bruiser takes this in, winces, and clutches himself in imagined empathy for the inanimate dummy.
Chie shakes her head, signals a dismissal to the trainees, and moves to the fences to meet with Takara.
"You ready, child?"
"As I ever could be."
"Good. Lets go then."
They leave the training fields, march up the main path, and climb the stairs up to the main house. The two women enter the main house into a long main hallway with double doors set at the center of the corridor before them. They move forward through these sliding doors and into a large room, where five men sit upon a raised platform on soft pillowed cushions in a semi-meditative position. There are two men in the middle of the group who are old and wizened. These are the Elders, while the other three younger men are the Leaders. They are all sporting the Protector's clan colors of red tops, brown bottoms, and some form of green adornment like a bandanna, a ring with an emerald stone, or color-stained hair.
Chie steps forward to speak with the Elders, while Takara glances around at the Chamber of the Fallen. The wooden walls are covered from floor to ceiling with the mounted weapons of the Fallen Protectors from large broadswords to small star-shaped shuriken. She turns away from the wall of weapons at the soft click of Chie's teeth to bring her attention back to the front of the room. She smiles at her sixty year old adoptive mother and is mindful not to note how Chie clutches at the hilt of her tachi sword for balance. The Protector keeps the sword strapped to her waist and sheathed in a wooden scabbard.
Chie has amber-eyes with curly shoulder length green-streaked brown hair and her wrinkled skin still shows signs of her sun-bronzed coloring from long days under the hot sun. She has an angular face with a narrow shapeless nose, a slightly rounded chin, and a slim muscular frame with small feminine curves. She is wearing a dark blood red long-sleeves shirt, dark brown form-fitting pants, and brown sandals.
Takara still has moments where she wonders how such a strong and very wise woman came about being the one to raise her all by herself. She only knows that she loves the old girl very dearly.
Takara's attention returns to the task at hand when the Elder on her left, with his steely gray eyes locked on her, calls her forward for evaluation before allowing her to acquire her first mission as a Protector of Vampires.
"Age?"
"Twenty-five."
"Years of combatant training?"
"From the time I could walk, sir."
"Weapon preference?"
"The Kaiken."
"KAIKEN?!"
All five men turn to each other to whisper amongst themselves, then the questioning Elder points a gnarled finger at Chie with a look of disgust on his leathery features.
"Why is this girl's weapon proficiency only the kaiken, old woman?!"
"It is her weapon. You doubt her abilities with just such a small dagger to fight for her, then you underestimate her skill and insult us both with your, disbelieve, Elder."
"One simply cannot fight effectively with a mere kaiken as ones only weapon!"
"You seek proof then? Takara?"
"Yes, Mistress Protector?"
"Defend."
Chie moves just out of the way and without blinking an eye watches Takara, in one smooth motion, unsheathe a kaiken from her right thigh and underhand throw the small dagger through the air at the seated men. She knows Takara is adapt at throwing the kaiken with deadly accuracy, while utilizing an underhanded throw to reach a target a lengthy distance away from her. Four more follow in rapid succession as the first rips the far left Leader's bandanna off of his head to be pinioned to the wall behind him.
The second blade slides smoothly into the seam of the next Leader's shirt at the shoulder without nicking him.
The third embeds itself by the tip into the sole of the far right Leader's boot.
The fourth stands firmly between the gray-eyed Elder's legs after piercing the cushion he sits upon.
The fifth and final kaiken stands at attention in the wood floor beside the second Elder's thigh.
The second Elder pulls the kaiken loose of the floor board and raises a surprised brow as he turns to the first Elder in question.
Chie smiles smugly to herself at the straight-faced Takara as she stands with her arms folded docilely behind her back and staring the five men down with a cold violet gaze. Chie notes that, while the girl is clearly missing blades from her leather sheathes, there isn't a single sign that she had engaged in a mild display of skill.
Takara's long liquid gold blonde hair still hangs straight down her back to her waist and the light brown tone of her skin shows no physical signs of exertion. Her blood red long-sleeves shirt, dark brown form-fitting pants, and green scarf set about her neck is still uniform straight with her customarily bare feet braced shoulder length apart.
Takara is unlike the other humans of Hogo in that she has slightly pointed ears, a heart shaped face with a small softly rounded aristocratic nose, and a slender muscular frame with hourglass curves.
Chie turns back to the gray-eyed Elder with a uniformly straight face, not wanting to show her pride to the aged warrior, who was caught by surprise by her talented pupil, and awaits his response to Takara's display of skill.
"Hrm...Impressive...She will do for this particular protection detail. Show the Mistress Protector the trainee's mission papers and let them be on their way."
The Leader closest to the gray-eyed Elder turns around to face a long low-set black table covered in several rolls of scrolls tied off with a green ribbon and grabs the top scroll off the middle pyramid of papers. He turns back, presents the roll to the second Elder across the lap of the gray-eyed Elder, and the second Elder presents it into Chie's patiently awaiting hands. She opens the roll, inspects the contents, nods in understanding to the five men, then re-ties the roll, and goes to lead Takara out of their presence.
When Takara doesn't immediately follow her lead, Chie looks back to see the girl walking right up to the men with her hands outstretched, and realizes that she's merely retrieving her weapons. One by one the men pass her, her blades, and then she sheathes each one with care before bowing to the men, and quickly joining Chie for a quick exit into fresh air.
Chie wastes no time in handing the mission papers to Takara and watches her face closely as she discovers that she is one of the rare few who would be Protector of an Ancient Vampire. Takara gapes in shock, then quickly composes herself as she catches Chie eyeing her reaction.
"I'm very proud of the impressive display you put on for those men in there, my girl, but I only hope that those very skills won't invariably fail you in actually combat."
"I assure you, Mistress Protector, they will not."
"Then go in peace and good luck, Protector."
"Thank you...Mom."
The two women respectfully bow to each other, then split up to go their separate ways, as mandated by Protector law, one heads home, and the other begins her journey into the unknown.
Outside the borders the village of Hogo is a forest called the Oni Mori and within its trees hides a predator. The beast is concealed in shadow and watching hungrily as the distant figure before him draws ever closer. The Protector is unaware of her peril as she walks unconcernedly along the foot trail leading into the demon forest. The gleam of a curved blade glitters faintly in a partial beam of sunlight beaming between two loose branches over his head. The predator lowers himself to a steady crouch upon the bough of the tree branch and prepares to leap upon his unsuspecting prey.
Takara draws nearer to the Oni Mori, while browsing over the map that came with the roll of papers mandating her mission to search out the Ancient Vampire who is landing upon the mainland shores in a few days hence and protect the being until they see fit to return to Kodai. She stills momentarily as she catches the slightly wisp of sound as the leaves of the tree branches she stands beneath rustle and slowly rolls the scroll of papers back up to tuck into her waistband, while slyly grasping the little hilt of one her kaiken.
That's when the predator strikes, leaping from above her head, and lashing out for a killing blow with his katana. He lands without gaining his clean kill and watches as his prey rolls to her own feet a foot away from him with an excited gleam in her violet eyes.
Takara is met by a pair of glaring onyx black eyes as her attacker shifts his stance as she unsheathes a second kaiken with the blades secreted against the underside of her wrists and prepares to charge her with another killing stroke aimed at her exposed throat. She leans backwards and parries his strike with both kaikens before spinning back out of range again.
She quickly takes note of his black camouflaged bodysuit with black strips of cloth binding his feet and instantly knows that she is facing a Vampire Hunter.
He has short reddish-brown hair and dark sun bronzed skin that seems to seam in with his bodysuit to hide him in darkness. His appearance is that of a strongly masculine face with a nose that looks like the bridge of it has been broken several times, and a large muscular frame with every definition enfolded by his snug suit.
She whips her blades up just in time to block his head on charge to impale her upon his sword's blade and slowly, with measured strength, pushes his much longer weapon back at him. He grits his teeth with a growl of frustration as he tries to lever the blade back her way only to have it continue toward himself and she isn't surprised when his onyx eyes narrow in anger at her unusual strength as he strains vainly against her.
"What the hell kind of Protector are you?! There's no way you should be this bleeding strong, woman!"
A wicked smile curves up the corner of her full lips and her dark violet gaze glitters at him knowingly as she quickly breaks away from him.
This causes him to stumble forward into the space she left behind, and then she spins back-to-back to him and bumps him with her backside to send him falling face first into the dirt.
He roars in outrage, slams a menacing fist into the ground before regaining his feet to find her bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet and raises his sword back up before they both flow into a rhythm less dance. They exchange blow after blow without either getting the upper hand in the fight before breaking apart again to take a breather to access each other.
Takara takes that time to recall everything that Chie taught her about the Hunters, that they garner their incredible strength from the mill they make of deceased vampire bones, and eat it along with their daily bread. The Hunters are superhuman due to this mills constant consumption and aids them in their pursuit to annihilate the entire vampire race by giving them a near immunity to the Turn bite. They share the title of Mark when naming a target and their Marks are always vampires in need of slaying just for living...or not.
This is the part that draws her short in her thoughts, Mark, Hunter, Vampire, so why is he hunting me?
"Why are you here, Hunter?"
"All you need to know is that you are my Mark and you will die."
"Not today."
"We'll see."
She ducks his quick slash at her defending wrists and cuts a line across his thigh before bouncing out of range of his sword again.
"ARGH! Damn it! Stand still!"
"Oh, sure. Stay in one place so the whiny Hunter can finally make his kill. Yeah right."
"Doesn't hurt to demand a little cooperation."
"Mm..."
He feints for her legs, spins, and catches her in the back of the head with the butt of his hilt. This knocks her forward, but not down, not until he elbows her in the back and she collapses onto her side in agony from his powerful blows.
He takes immediate advantage of her prone position and drops into a crouch upon her hips, and then raises his sword over his head with the point directed above her heart. He stops just before following through on the downward thrust when he becomes aware of two of her kaiken aimed for his throat and groin.
"I don't know, but maybe you could tell me, tough guy, which of us is likely to die first...You or me?"
"I would just bleed out. I get my blade in your heart and you are dead, princess."
"At least I would get the quick death, but you will suffer slowly to your own demise."
"As long as you die."
"Like I said...Not today."
She thrusts the points of her blades into his armpits, rolls him off of her as he drops his sword harmlessly to the side of them, and jumps to her feet a good distance away from him.
"Fucking...Dammit!"
She sheathes her kaiken, snatches up his katana from the ground, while he clutches painfully at his wounded pits, and brandishes the long blade over his head. He growls at her as she grins in triumph at him and is shocked when he manages to forcefully slap the sword from her grasp. Then grasps a fistful of her shirt, lifts her up level with him, and in his fury he shakes her hard enough to rattle her teeth together.
"YOU. WILL. DIE!"
She feels him try to readjust his hold to her throat and screams out in denial before throwing herself forward to avoid his grasp, then instinctively sinks her canines into the heavy pulse beating along his throat.
When the blood hits her tongue, a burst of cinnamon spice and metallic flavor assails her senses, and rips an animalistic growl of hunger from her. Her hands lock onto his broad shoulders as his hold drops away from her own throat and they both tumble to the ground with her on top of him.
She greedily gulps down his delicious life force, barely feeling the harsh blows of his fists as he tries valiantly to get her off of him, or hear his shouts to free him until he suddenly goes still beneath her.
Her senses return to her at the eerie silence and she pulls away from him in horror, cries out in shock at what she has done, and tries desperately to wipe her mouth clear of the taste of his blood in her hysteria.
Moaning, pitifully, she remains completely still, hovering over his still form upon her knees, and slowly her hysterical thoughts succumbed to instinct once more. She straddles his hips and begins to lick his still bleeding wounds until they seal close. When she sees to her utter dismay, that he still hasn't moved, tears well up in her eyes at the possible realization that she may have killed him.
She is weeping in earnest when she is cut off by his sudden groans and grunts of pain before he starts to spasm into full blown convulsions. He hollers out in agony, causing her to groan out in sympathy, not knowing that she had injected the Turn into him, and watches as his body expels the poison with foaming dribbles from the corners of his mouth.
He finally manages to force his squeezed shut eyes to open and they immediately train in upon her in utter fury mixed with pain and this sends her into a full blown meltdown bemoaning his suffering.
"What have I done?!"