Yosh! Now begins the third installment of the 'Lycan Chronicles' as I've so lovingly dubbed the currently 3 part series involving Kouen. If you haven't read Blood and Desire and then Dark Wings chances are you won't get a word of what's in this story so go read them cause this is set about five months after Dark Wings. And at the beginning of every chapter will be part of the song 'Monster' by Skillet cause I'm awesome that way and it fits the story. Oh, and there's lots of graphic detail in this one so if you don't have a strong stomach than I suggest hitting that pretty little back button at the top of your screen.
Chapter 1- The Rise of the Crimson Moon
'The secret side of me, I never let you see. I keep it caged but I can't control it. So stay away from me, the beast is ugly, I feel the rage and I just can't hold it.'
"Today begins the first day of the Crimson Moon Festival." a perky news reporter said to the camera, the hustle and bustle of a lively festival roaring behind her. "This once in a life time phenomena is said to bring good luck to the good, and bad luck to the bad. With each day the red moon rises, the fortune or misfortune of the lucky and unlucky increases."
On the other end of town, away from the festival, a family of three- a husband, wife, and three year old boy, plus a labradoodle- were relaxing at home. They were one of few families that were staying at home, preferring the quiet life to the city life. The wife turned her head toward the back door as she heard a few yelps then some snuffling and scratching at the door. "Kai wants in." she commented as the child stood and tottered to the door, opening it with some difficulty.
The sight that greeted him was everything but a labradoodle. It was a huge werewolf, a little smaller than a rhinoceros, with fur that was auburn but with silver tips, making it appear to glow. It had a red ridge of fur along its spine starting from between its ears and going down to mid-back. Its hands were huge, with short strong fingers and claws that were three inches long and black as night plus long saber-tooth tiger quality fangs hanging out of its mouth. From its mouth also hung a blue collar with golden fur and dark sticky fresh blood dripping from it. Around the beast's maw was blood as well as on its paws. It looked the child over, snarling, its eyes glowing like a specter's as the child reached up innocently to pet it.
The child let out a yelp as the werewolf moved forward to try and squeeze its enormous frame into the small door, unable to make it through. "Doggy's being mean." the child cooed. His mother came into the room and let out a high pitched scream as she saw the beast, making it let out a ear shattering roar and attempt to get in the door again. The husband ran into the room brandishing a rifle that he had gotten in his days as a big game hunter, cursing when he saw the beast. He shot at it, hitting it dead center between the eyes but the bullet stopped as soon as it hit its skull. It let out another furious roar as the bullet fell to the ground with a small clack.
The family watched in horror as it backed up and charged at the door. A huge hole was created as it slammed through the brick and wood to reach its victims, tearing into them with claws and fangs. It snatched the child up in its jaws, crushing down as the child wailed in fear in agony, his cries cut off by a gurgle of blood coming from his mouth. It dropped the child's half dead form and took it in two huge hands, tearing it in half with a horrifying squelch in front of his parents before leaping at the father who tried to bludgeon it with the butt of his gun but there was no effect. The werwolf sliced into the man's stomach, spilling his entrails on the floor before biting down on his skull, popping it like a beach ball. It looked around for the woman, sniffing the air as its blood lust rose at the scent of human blood, turning back to the two mutilated corpses.
Something seemed to over take it then. It backed up, shaking its head in a confused manner letting out growls and snarls, falling backwards out of the hole in the house away from the dead humans. It let out a howl and ran, crashing through fences in a blind panic, blood drying and matting in its fur. It stopped in an alley, letting out confused growls, clawing at its face and forearms and pacing back and forth in a frantic manner. It looked up at the crimson colored full moon that was high in the sky and growled at it as though saying 'this is your fault.' It paced and growled and clawed at itself and the walls around it, leaving deep ruts and sometimes tearing straight through it in its attempt to contain its blood lust.
-The Next Morning-
"Police investigators are still trying to determine just what killed these innocent people. The wife of the family was found hiding in an upstairs closet muttering about wolf-men and blood. She is being checked over by professionals and her condition will be announced once we gain more information. If you have any information on what happened here call the police hotline. No names will be asked." said a male reporter, a cloth held over his nose to keep the smell of dead bodies from reaching his nose. No one noticed the short haired brunette girl who was slowly making her way toward the house in the back ground. She wore a black leather biker jacket over a navy t-shirt and jeans with combat boots and a baseball hat on her head to conceal her face. To put it simply, she dressed like a boy because she could and because she didn't particularly like being a girl.
As soon as she stepped into the house, she gagged on the stench of twelve hour old dead people and looked around. In a corner crouched a middle-aged man and a young child, transparent and pale. "Its alright. I just want to help." she said softly in a slightly deep but still girlish voice. "My name's Alex. Can you tell me what happened?" she asked, crouching a few meters away from the ghosts. They simply stared at her with huge eyes, shaking violently. Since when do I do the work of a Soul Reaper? She thought with a sigh, turning to the back room to find the bodies which hadn't been removed yet. The remains of the humans were laying strewn on the floor with pools of drying blood around them. Sunlight filtered through a massive hole in the back wall and Alex saw a blood trail lead out to another pool of blood and some golden fur laying in the back yard. "Well what ever it is, it either has a wound and gold fur, or it ate a dog." she commented, following massive, bloody paw prints to a hole in the fence. It looked like a train had plowed through it.
A phone rang in her pocket as she stooped to get a better look at the paw prints. "So what did you find?" asked a very deep male voice on the other end.
"Well, it was a werewolf. And it absolutely mutilated two humans and clawed a third. And I think it ate a dog."
"Yuck." said a girl's voice while the deep voice in the background protested. "I think we should let Kouen know that a rogue werewolf is on the prowl. He'll know what to do."
"Right, and I'll call Amanda and ask if there's anything linking he Crimson Moon and werewolves, this could affect Kouen too, despite the fact that he's more stubborn than a mule when it comes to his instincts." Alex sighed. "What about you? Find out anything from the hysterical woman?"
"A very detailed description." replied the male voice, having stolen the phone back from the other girl. "Auburn fur tipped in silver giving the beast the illusion of glowing. A red ridge of fur running from between its ears to half way down its back. A single dark gray finger on its middle finger on its left hand. Short muscular fingers like the Beast from 'Beauty and the Beast' with three or four inch long black claws. Glowing, pupiless green eyes, long fangs. And a scar."
"A scar?" Alex yelped, the blood draining from her face. "What kind of scar?"
"The woman didn't say, she broke down into hysterics before we could get that out of her. But Kouen's not the only auburn furred, scar faced werewolf out there if that's what you're thinking. Speaking of, have you heard any thing from him? He was supposed to come back from Germany yesterday. He had said something about visiting a relative, but I think he just needed a break from Jin and Toushiro."
"No, he was visiting an old friend of his father's. The one he said he's named after." Alex corrected, following the trail of paw prints, broken fences, and blood through town. She came to a halt when she stepped into an alley and saw a tall figure stretched out on its stomach. "Oh shit... I'm gonna have to call you guys back."
"What did you find?"
"Not anything good." she ended the call and slid the phone back in her jacket pocket. Blood covered the figure, matting in his hair and all on his shredded clothes. Through the blood and the fact that he was face down, Alex couldn't tell the identity, though his scent was unmistakable. "Damn it all..." she muttered, rolling the teenager over to reveal the easily recognized face of Kouen. In his left hand, he tightly clutched a blue and bloody dog collar so hard that his knuckles were white. Alex checked his pulse, finding it strong and pulled back an eye lid to see his bright yet dark green eyes to be rolled back. He was obviously passed out from fatigue. Healed claw marks were on his face and arms, as well as what looked like a bullet wound between his eyes. "Kouen what have you done...?" the girl whispered. She ran her hands over the new wounds, healing them to nothing but slightly darker scars with her miniscule healing magic.
She picked him up, hefting his taller frame onto her back without difficulty and flitted out of sight. She reappeared at her home in the local rail yard where she and a couple friends had pieced together some old rail cars and turned them into a small home. Heaving him through the door, the girl set him down on the couch and pulled out her phone. She dialed a number, getting an answer on the first ring. "Yeah house cat." Jin replied on the other end.
"I need you down at the rail yard. Leave Toushiro."
"Why what happened?" Jin asked, concerned.
"I'll fill you in when you get here." she grunted shortly. After about five minutes of impatient pacing Alex heard Jin knock on the door. "About damn time." she growled as she opened the door.
"So what did you- oh my god..." he trailed off, seeing Kouen's bloodied form on the couch. "What happened?"
"Well, he killed a three year old and his father, ate a dog, and mentally broke the wife of the family." Alex turned to Jin. "Do you know if the Crimson Moon has any... special effects on werewolves?"
"No. I'm a young demon remember. I'm only a century and a half old." Jin shook his head. "The Crimson Moon happens once every two hundred years remember. You're thousands of years old, you tell me. What effects does it have on werewolves?"
Alex leveled him with an icy glare. "I wouldn't know either. I've never associated with werewolves until Kouen became one. And Shadow wouldn't know either, he always hated werewolves until Kouen became one too." she sighed. "We may as well get him cleaned up. If he wakes up covered in blood and doesn't remember what happened, he'll have a stroke."
-Werwolf realm, same time-
Mizu, a young silver haired, navy blue eyed werewolf sighed as he followed his father through the many corridors that made up the palace of the werewolf realm. He kept asking Akamizu if he could visit his half-brother, Kouen, in the human realm, but the older wolf kept refusing. Mizu knew that his father was planning something evil, and wanted to warn his half-brother about it but Akamizu had declared that no wolf was to leave the realm until he deemed other wise. Stingy bastard... he growled to himself. He was about twenty years in human years, but was the equivalent of an eight year old with the mind of a genius. He often teased Kouen; when he got the chance to talk with him; that one day he would be smarter than him but knew that that would never happen. Kouen was absolutely brilliant, able to prove any theory or scientific explanation wrong or right with his over the top smarts.
For instance, he proved the theory of evolution wrong. It was general knowledge that that all creatures stemmed from the same species, but what actually happened is- in Kouen's words- the first demon was created and it mated with that creature. Their hybrid child was able to give up its demonic side, creating two separate beings and the two beings, mated with other organisms of the same species of its mortal parent and produced offspring, creating a different species. This cycle continued until all the species of the world were created after millions of years. Man was by far the worst out come of this demon-mortal interbreeding. Then the werewolves and vampires were created by a virus that was circulating. Those 'mutants' as they were called at the time produced offspring and those cycles continued up until present time where they were now.
Mizu sighed. That was one of the simpler and more obvious theories that his half-brother had proven wrong. He wished that he could at least compare to him, but knew that it was hopeless.
"Stand straight Mizu. Look like the prince that you are." Akamizu snapped, breaking the young wolf from his thoughts. Mizu winced, not liking being called a prince, but straightened his posture and continued to follow his father to the throne room. "My plan will soon be put into action. The army is at its greatest now all we have to do is get rid of your pesky half-brother. He's the only one standing in my way of becoming the most powerful being in all the realms."
It was true. Not only was Kouen smart, but he was strong. He is said to be the most powerful werewolf, or living being for that matter, to ever exist. He was immensely strong, able to demolish an entire realm with the wave of his hand but the thing that held him back was his personality. Kind and compassionate. And when in battle, he dampened his powers to make it seem like the enemy had a fighting chance, not to be mean, just to give the some hope before he killed them. It was his way of saying sorry, no matter who he had to kill. But Kouen didn't like to kill, he didn't even like raising his voice to anyone, no matter how often he had to do so. Akamizu called it weak, but Mizu thought that that was a quality that a true leader should have. Akamizu was sadistic and cruel, striking down anyone in his path without batting an eyelash, and he was right behind Kouen on the power scale; a demon called Shadow right behind Akamizu.
"Damn his father's fallen angel blood. That blood line gave him even more power and makes things all the more difficult for me to kill him." Mizu said nothing. If he did, he would have been hit. However, he wished that there was something he could do to sedate his father's lust for blood and war even though he knew that there was no way to do so and get out alive. That was why he was King of the werewolves after all. He was the strongest. "He killed that weakling Aizen years ago, bringing a halt to that war with his own disloyalty. But we dealt him a sharp blow oh yes, we killed his precious Soul Reaper lover." Mizu didn't dare tell Akamizu that that Soul Reaper had been reincarnated fifteen years ago. If he did, then things would get worse faster than Mizu wanted them to.
"Father, may I go visit Angel for the day?" Mizu asked politely, his navy eyes hopeful. Anything to get away from Akamizu's psychotic rants.
"Go. Be back by the banquet though." the older wolf snapped, glaring at his son with his cold amber eyes. Mizu nodded and walked off quickly. As soon as he was out of sight though, he ran out of the palace, jumping the walls and sprinting into the forest that surrounded it. Pulling out the phone Akamizu didn't know he had, he speed dialed his half-brother, getting his voice mail automatically. Cursing, he dialed Alex, who was the next best person to tell of Akamizu's plans. She was trustworthy and prompt, more so than Shadow, who was more powerful and had experience leading a realm.
"Come on come on come on..." he muttered as the phone rang.
"Hello?" the cat demon picked up on the third ring.
"Where's Kouen? I tried calling him and got his voice mail." Mizu asked straight off.
"Um... he's passed out. Why? What do you need Mizu?"
"Akamizu's going to launch an attack on the human realm and Soul Society. He wants to kill Kouen too to gain more power." Mizu paced frantically, running a hand through his silver hair. "Would it be possible for you to open a portal to the human realm for me?"
"No but as soon as-what?" there was silence for a minute before Alex spoke to Mizu again. "Jin says he can."
"Jin?" Mizu shook his head. "Never mind. Tell him to hurry though. Once Akamizu figures out that I'm not where I said I would be, he'll come looking." as soon as he finished his sentence, a rift of darkness opened up to his left. "I'll be there in a couple seconds." he said, ending the call. Stepping through the portal, he was immediately sucked into the human realm stumbling to a halt in Alex's train/home.
"Jin, take him home and keep an eye on him." Alex was saying to a blonde boy of about eighteen. "Oh, hi Mizu." she said dismissively. She turned back to Jin. "Don't tell Toushiro about any of this, just say that he got in an accident and was knocked out. And try to keep him calm, we don't know what could trigger that strange form-"
"The time of the Crimson Moon does it." Mizu interrupted. "It won't effect me 'cause I haven't had my first transformation yet, but it effects any mature werewolf. It makes them go feral and the transformation can be triggered any time day or night if we get any sort of negative emotion flowing through us." Alex and Jin exchanged fearful glances paling dramatically.
"So you're saying that he can go feral at any time?" Jin asked.
"Yes. That's what I just said isn't it?" Mizu snapped, sounding very much like his half-brother.
Alex rolled her eyes. "Take him home." she ordered to Jin. He nodded and walked down a thin hall and into a room, not coming back out. "Tell me everything." she said to Mizu, sitting down in a chair in the living room. Mizu sat on the couch and started his explanation.
Yay Mizu! I originally wasn't going to put him in this chapter, but I figured that it would make it flow better and lengthen it other wise the chapter would be half this length. And I suppose this is a belated birthday present for Warrior Goddess of Flames aka Amanda since she didn't invite me to her party. (glares at Amanda with narrowed eyes) You will pay for this later woman! Anyway enjoy and review!