I do not own Hakuouki or any of the characters within it, only character I own is the main character of this story :) there will be similarities to the show!
Chapter Four
She had felt a strange presence nearby and the smell of blood coated the air while she and Okita sat in the room waiting for the Captains. Okita seemed confident in the abilities of the Commander and the Captains but this presence didn't feel normal; it didn't feel human.
She had to find out what it was; maybe that could be why she was brought here to this Era. Her thoughts became quiet as they rounded the last corner and watched in hiding as their friends were still battling the intruders.
There was three men spread out among the Captains, one had wavy purple hair tied in a ponytail, he seemed to be aiming a gun at Harada who was dodging the bullets but still not landing a hit with his spear which seemed to frustrate him.
Another man who stood tall over all the others with red hair tied behind his head in a loose ponytail, he seemed to be unarmed but was still able to gain an advantage over these well trained captains.
The last man stood arrogantly in the middle of the two others fighting, he had blonde hair and fiery red eyes; he drew his sword against Hijikata and quickly took an advantage in the fight.
Heisuke was on the ground unconscious by the red haired man, who was now facing Saito and Shinpachi and it was seemingly at a stale-mate between the three.
Harada was becoming increasingly exhausted against the purple haired man because of dodging bullets left and right, while Hijikata was slowly becoming more injured with every swipe of the blonde man's blade, but he too wasn't completely unscathed. He had already sliced the man open twice although there wasn't much blood at all.
She could already tell these men weren't human and oddly enough the Shinsengumi weren't doing too bad of a job holding their own against these intruders; at that thought she felt proud that she was allowed to stay with them and her chest fluttered with something she wasn't quite sure of.
"Stay here" Okita said firmly as he rushed out to help the Vice Commander with the battle.
Drawing his blade, he lunged at the blonde haired man who reacted quick and efficiently, recoiling and thrusting his blade towards the young captain who twisted to avoid the contact, then blocking it with his own as the blonde drew his katana back, regaining his stance.
As Kurisutaru watched she observed three very different fighting styles. The most dangerous being the young blonde man who seemed unable to really put effort into the battle.
'He seems like he's bored and just playing with them' she thought and gasped as he suddenly disappeared, only to reappear behind Okita, striking him down with his blade.
"What?!" Okita gasped as he fell to his knee in pain and all the other captains watched helplessly; caught up with their own opponents they could do nothing to help.
"That's impossible!" he growled as he struggled to keep standing straight.
Glaring at the blonde man who was now locked in battle with Hijikata-san - who had rushed to avert the attention while Okita recomposed himself - he pushed his blade away from his body, raised his leg and thrust Hijikata away with a powerful kick; tossing him onto the ground and his body rolled a few times before the momentum of the kick ended, resulting in cuts and scrapes, tears in his clothing and bruises beginning to form.
"Tell me where you are hiding it! Don't bother lying to us; we can sense its Aura" The young blonde turned to him and took a few strides over towards Okita, raising his blade threateningly.
Kurisutaru gasped and her eyes widened in shock as she watched the scene before her and processed everything she heard.
'Can he… can he sense my presence?!'
It would make sense since she could sense theirs, but they weren't trying to hide themselves where as she on the other hand was, and even though they weren't hiding their Aura, she hardly sensed them.
"What are you talking about, freak?" Harada breathed while trying to regain his composure, his purple haired opponent doing the same.
"Fine, you want to play dumb; go ahead. We will just tear through this place to find it and kill every single person who stands in our way" the blonde lowered his blade slightly to aim it at Okita's neck.
"And I wi-"he had lunged mid strike at Okita with blinding speed but his words were cut short when his blade was struck off course by a powerful blow.
"You will what?" She taunted the young man with her head tilted to the side and a cold and steady voice.
"Be caught off guard by a little girl?" she raised a brow and giggled at the irritated reaction of the blonde man in front of her, regaining his composure.
"How foolish of me to think you needed my protection" Okita said under his breath while watching the young woman in front of him with curiosity.
"Thank me later, we're not out of the woods yet" she said loud enough for the blonde to hear which caused him to smile.
"So you're the one we've been sensing around here. Sure enough, you look as strange as your Aura is" she scoffed.
'Yeah and hopefully you're not as weak as your Aura is' she thought amusingly as a smile reached her lips.
He lowered his gaze at her and lunged forward with a brutal force, knowing if she dodged the blow, her friend would take it for her.
Kurisutaru angled her body in a defensive way, she twisted her right leg back and lowered her body greatly, tilting the tip of her Akaiittou to the ground to put less strain on her hands and using both arms she absorbed the heavy blow of the blonde's attack, he recoiled and struck again from the other side.
She twisted and tilted her swords tip back up, absorbing the blow again as her legs bent to absorb the shock from his strength bearing down on her.
'This is going nowhere' she sighed to herself.
'Maybe a taste of offensive power will push him to retreat…' her thoughts trailed off as a smile touched her lips faintly.
"I'm done playing games" she growled and released the lock she had on her aura-not that it had mattered anyways since these three still sensed her – which caught the attention of the nearby warriors from both sides.
She felt her body surge with power again and the air around her heightened in pressure continuously. The three men felt her Aura rise immeasurably and their eyes became wide as she re-positioned herself aggressively, holding her Akaiittou in front of her.
The blonde re-positioned himself defensively in response and lowered his gaze to her sword, then back to her eyes.
"Kazama Chikage, my name is Kazama Chikage" she paused a second after hearing this before stating her own.
"My name is Kurisutaru, and this" she raised her blade above her head in anticipation.
"This is my Akaiittou…" her Aura heightened even more, it threatened to asphyxiate the captains surrounding her as she focused her energy around her blade.
Kazama braced himself for impact with her sword but his eyes widened when the blow never came, instead he just waited in a partial crouch for whatever she was preparing to do.
"Bushikatagi" with the last word spoken she thrust her blade down sending a rush of energy in the shape of a blade at the blonde man whose eyes were wide in disbelief.
He disappeared from where he stood just in time to dodge the attack and appeared on the wall by the main gate; a fair distance from where she now stood.
"I won't allow you to harm these men" she growled threateningly as she moved at a blindingly fast speed to Saito's side; absorbing the crucial - if not fatal - blow he would have just taken, she felt his fist connected with the left side of her rib cage, sending a loud crack out into the air as her body screamed in pain.
'That would have killed a human...' she hadn't seen a hand to hand combat fighter this strong in her lifetime and she was glad she caught this blow before Saito did; no matter how much it hurt her.
She fell to one knee in front of the surprised red haired man as he recovered and prepared to deal another blow to her, she glared defiantly at him as Saito lunged forward to keep his attention away from her.
She had managed to pull herself off her knee and onto her feet when she was caught off guard by Kazama who took the opportunity to thrust his blade through her mid-section. Turning, Saito swung his blade at Kazama who had already recalled his blade from her body and was retreating.
She had sensed him just when it was too late; a sharp pain followed by a burning hot sensation. She saw his blade push out from her stomach from where he was behind her.
It felt as if someone had taken a continuous flow of fire and sent it through the core of her body. Just when she thought the pain was unbearable and couldn't get worse, the sharp pain withdrew and the fire became a more intense heat like that of an inferno.
Her right hand clutched her Akaiittou and the other covered the gaping wound through her stomach that poured blood onto the ground.
'Of all the times not to heal quickly…' she cursed her blood for only being that of a half demon when she really needed the healing properties of a full demon.
She turned herself to face Kazama, he was not smiling but she knew he was satisfied by what he had accomplished.
"Consider that a lesson young one, do not turn your back to your opponent, especially not to help a worthless human. They will only use you and betray you; they are not honorable like us Devils."
"Honorable?" her body burned with anger and pain as she scoffed at Kazama.
Blood streamed from the side of her mouth even though she tried to swallow as much of it as possible it burned whenever she breathed, never mind moving any part of her body.
"You know nothing of honor" she ground her teeth together and felt her body pulse; it resonated from her feet to her head and her hands trembled as she gripped her Akaiittou in her hands.
'Oh no, not now. Not here' she clenched the blade between her fingers as she felt her body pulsate again.
She looked towards the captains with panic filling her thoughts; she pictured herself losing control and when she came to seeing the bodies of all these men surrounding her. She imagined being drenched with their blood and her body trembled at the thought. She hadn't realized it but she developed a respect for these men and their bonds with each other.
She wouldn't be the one to destroy that.
'I can't lose control of myself. No. I won't lose control of myself'
Moving away from the other captains and towards Kazama, her spiritual aura continued to increase in pressure until the air surrounding her grew to an intense heat. Her clothes began to turn to ash while she walked being replaced by soft silver fur.
The pain she felt was replaced as her bleeding slowed to a stop, instead of pain she now felt a hunger deep within her core that crawled its way up her throat. She hungered for battle, for bloodshed, for pain, for death.
This was different though; usually her transformation would cause her to lose consciousness and destroy everything in sight that had a pulse, not regaining consciousness until she was surrounded with death.
This time she was aware of everything, her whole transformation was a different experience.
She heard every heartbeat, every breath. Every move each person around her made, she was aware of.
She felt the captains surrounding her watch her nervously, their hearts beating faster as they watched her transform; her opponents stayed rather normal but she could feel the tension build within them.
Her forearms down to the back of her hands; her neck down her chest to her stomach and finally, her skirt was replaced by this silver fur which seemed unaffected by the heat of her Aura which seemed to finalize her transformation.
"Prepare yourself, Kazama Chikage" she growled as her once bright brown eyes had turned to a pale violet color.
She thrust herself forward and appeared in front of Kazama, then disappeared again only to appear behind him.
"Extend your mind, do not let your guard down" she whispered behind his ear and his eyes widened, swinging his sword to where she had been behind him.
"Shiranui, Amagiri, we're retreating" He spoke loud and quickly to his companions who nodded, not taking their eyes off of the woman who was now in front of Kazama again.
"Mark my words woman, we will return. Be ready for us when we do" he threatened as he disappeared with the other two.
"What… the hell… was that…" Breathed Shinpachi who was just as exhausted as the others, looking warily at this transformed Kurisutaru in front of them.
"And what exactly are these abilities of yours Kurisu-chan"
She turned when she heard her name being called; realizing that the battle was over and she was exhausted, she hid her Aura as best she could and sheathed her Akaiittou as she walked back to Okita.
The whole time she had been transforming, he had been the only one who had a steady heartbeat.
He had remained in the same spot just watching as she sheathed her sword and began walking towards him. He met her gaze of violet eyes, she blinked and they were back to their light golden brown color, as she moved closer the fur began to fall to the ground.
"Ku-ri-su-chan, you're shedding" he chuckled to her.
His laughter disappeared as she collapsed to the ground in front of him, blood beginning to form in a pool around her mid section as she lost consciousness.
