Demons were unlike humans. They could feel pain, but they won't die even from terrible wounds. They could also re-attach their body parts after they're cut off, and able to control it as if it was never cut off before. Not only that, they can also do it with other demon's body parts.

The circumstances made it not a strange thing if they fought each other in hope getting stronger body parts from their opponent. Not only that, some humans believed that some parts of demon's body could be made into powerful charms, or prolonged life if eaten, so there were also a lot of demons who fought just for money.

"I finally found you, Len… You have nowhere to go now. Hand it over! I'm tired chasing you around these past hundred years."

"Hand over my fangs, you reject."

"Not in a million years."

Like for example the three demons that were about to fight for body parts.

One was a girl who seemed like a teenager, but obviously from her words earlier she was actually very old. Her hair had the color of the sea, and reached her knee. She wore gothic style dress complete with black boots and gloves.

The other one was probably related to the girl. His hair was the same color as the girl, and he wore gothic clothing too. They seemed to be announcing to the world that they were demons. When he talked, gaps were visible between his teeth.

And the last was a blonde boy who seemed like he was the youngest of the three. He wore a hat to cover his face from the world. His hands were tucked on the pocket of his jeans.

"I need those fangs! People laughed at me whenever I smiled and it's frustrating! If you don't give them to me now, I'll…"

The last thing he remembered was the blond boy's grin as he blacked out from the pain of something piercing through his body.

"Mikuo… Mikuo… are you okay?"

Mikuo rubbed his stomach. Something had definitely pierced through. There was a gaping hole which let out purple blood out. He nodded at his sister, who sighed.

"What happened, Miku?" he said finally.

"He threw this, and it flew straight to you. You're lucky you were moving, or it'd really pierce your heart. Look."

It was a simple rock. But written on it with purple blood words that read 'Frailty, thy name is stone.'

"Ah, I remember that trick of his… he can control things with his blood…"

Even if it pierced his heart, it won't kill him. But, like humans, heart was important organ for demons. If it's pierced, it'd take more time to regenerate than any other kind of wounds.

"Wait here. I'll look for him. He can't be far."

Mikuo nodded and closed his eyes. As he did so, the hole closed and only left a thin line. "… and while you're at it, go find me a new shirt, will you?"

Len thought that he was born under a very bad star. He was certain that someone had cursed him, and if he looked back at his life he couldn't find one time when he's not chased by demons threatening to chop off his body.

That's why, when he found an abandoned mansion he was sure it's a trap designed by God, and only after realizing he had no other choice of hiding place he reluctantly decided to enter the mansion.

He was weak. After the Mikuo goes down, his sister Miku attacked him and managed to bit his arm. He had to let her tore the flesh as he was desperate, and that made part of his bone exposed to open air.

It was very painful, to say the least.

He banged his head to the wall, as if that'd relieve some of his pain. It obviously didn't, but it sure cleared his mind a bit. He'd just need one night without attacks, and he could return on running away. His chance was not so bad; he thought as he smiled.

'Right, I dropped my hat in the yard somewhere… better look for it.'

Too lazy to even go through the door, he jumped from the window and landed on top of someone.

"AH!"

He immediately moved from on top of that person, who turned out to be a human girl, and stared. She sat up and rubbed her head, perhaps to clean the leafs that were caught on her blond hair. The demon wondered if it's a normal reaction for human to laugh after being hurt. After a while, the girl looked up and her blue eyes found the demon's face.

"Please, next time use the door… can't say I expect to bump into anyone here, so it's partly my fault for not looked around, though…"

"… Ah, right. Sorry about that… are you okay? Hurt?" dazed, he reached out to help the girl stand.

"No, I'm… "

The girl's eyes widened as they found the wound on the Len's arm. The sight of missing flesh and purple blood worried her. "I… I better go now. See you."

She was about to run off somewhere when Len asked her a question that caught her off guard. "Let me ask you something. Does the word recipe mean anything to you?"

Such strange question piqued her curiosity. She turned around and tilted her head in confusion. "Recipe… as in for cooking?"

"No, I'd say it's more like mad-scientist's experiment report. I heard it's somewhere in this city so I came here."

"Never heard of it… May I know what'll you do when you find it?"

"Obviously, I'll destroy it. That thing made people chase me all over the place. So you don't know, then?"

'There was no way a normal high school student knew about it,' he thought as he sighed. He knew it's not going to be that easy. "You might notice this earlier, but I don't want to attract attention. So, I must make you can't say a word about this."

Turned out, the girl was a normal human being. Hearing his words made her think that he'd kill her. That, and also his action of licking his sharp long teal-colored nails.

"Even though I promised not to tell a soul?"

He shook his head and smiled as an answer.

"You're not a human, right? What are you?"

"I guess you can say… I'm a demon… Not that you'd remember."

And so, she dug to her bag, and found the thing that's normally wouldn't she bring to school. That day there's home economics on her schedule, so she had to bring salt to school. Salt, which was also known to Japanese as demon warding material.

Faster than she had thought possible, she sprinkled the salt at the demon boy, whose body steamed as if the salt had burned him.

"Is that salt? Didn't thought you'd bring that around… But just that amount won't do any good."

Just as he said that, the steam stopped and he jumped at her, pinning her to the wall. The girl grinned though, and poured the salt to the wound on the demon's arm.

She was sure that even her parents at home could hear the demon's loud scream. "What'd you do that for? Even human would scream if you pour salt on his wound!"

"It was self defense. You'd kill me if I hadn't done that."

"What gives you that idea? I was just wanted to put a spell on you so you'd forget about me!"

The girl seemed like she understood his circumstances. If she knew magic, she'd do that too to people that found her secrets. But of course on normal circumstances she'd hate to be put under any kind of spell.

She studied his face, and true to be told she couldn't found any trace of ill feeling towards her. His face was as pale as sheet, and he hissed as he held his steaming arm.

The demon couldn't stand the pain. Even without the salt he was barely conscious. And so, he fell down and fainted.

The plotline is not originally mine. It's based off Kusakawa Nari's 'The Recipe for Gertrude'. Enjoy.

Btw, who do you think should be Rin's evil sibling *slash* Len's creator incarnate? I'm thinking Neru, but do tell me who do you think fits the role. She/he wants to revive his/her dead spouse, so do pair him/her with someone.