Anita: Thanks again for your help with this chapter, I hope it's more correct now...! :D yeah... the relative strengths of the characters are a bit screwed up but I can't help that. I wouldn't say Sendoh really "lost" to Mitsui though. There's more than one way to "win", right? ;)
Kaede4ever: There's still a bit more to Kaede and Hisashi's relationship. They're not blood brothers so still a bit of room for guesswork. Just a couple more chapters before I get back to where we were before, so please bear with me ;) I want to release Kaede on Minami just as much as you lol
Demon
Chapter 3 (version 2)
By the time they reached the city, the dusk was less than an hour away.
They traveled mostly over rooftops, avoiding the people on the streets below. The city spread out around them in a landscape of slanted roofs, peaks and valleys, green tiles as far as the eye could see, the occasional rooftop ornament, tiny furious stone dragons, or ceramic koi fish flashing fins. The sounds of marketing, bustling, hawking, and arguing floated up from below. Lives being lived. A whole complex world in which they took no part.
Sendoh wanted to go northwards, towards the Kamigyo, the outskirts of the city where the decimated tavern stood, and where they'd seen the gate open. But Rukawa refused.
Still feeling guilty over Rukawa's arm, Sendoh accepted Rukawa's decision with no more than a disappointed shrug. They would go south instead, and see what prey they could find.
They hardly needed to look. Sendoh's senses starting spinning before they'd even entered the city proper.
"So many?" he wondered aloud.
Rukawa turned to glance at him as they climbed a tiled roof. "The gate is open," he explained flatly, his wooden sandals clacking softly against the tiles.
Sendoh felt cold and nauseous in the overwhelming presence of demons. He could sense them as clearly as if the whole city were blackened and dirty with their presence. They were everywhere. The marks of them. The stench of them. Still, hundreds of people going about their normal lives remained totally oblivious to what was, to him, so obvious. But he was used to that now. They weren't slayers, after all. They'd never felt the pain of aphesis. They weren't awake to the sense.
Rukawa was, though. Despite their many differences, the pain and the sense was a curse common to them both.
The sporadic and winding streets gave way to neatly aligned rooftops, grid-like and unnatural, south beyond the city's central great castle, leading them to one of the two prosperous guardian shrines: To-ji. Rukawa slipped down the wall and landed delicately in the walled temple garden, his feet silent on the grass, balanced like a cat despite his one empty sleeve. Sendoh followed him and looked around.
It was quiet and peaceful. The temple gates were closed, and the monks had retreated to their quarters on the far side of the compound, leaving the beautiful landscape tidy and serene. Twilight was filling the world with it's own strange and unusual luster. The gardens seemed otherworldly in the fading light.
"No one will come here," Rukawa commented, seating himself on the stone head of a dragon and leaning back against the garden wall. Though his arm still rested in the sling Mitsui had made for him, he kept his sword on his left hip, and the sheath clicked quietly against the stone as he sat down. "This is a good place to fight."
Sendoh nodded, and listened to the sounds beyond the walls. The rumble of cartwheels, the occasional whinny of horses or barking of dogs could be heard muffled beyond the temple gates. The gradual winding down of the day. But in this garden there was no one at all.
He frowned a little. He was not used to waiting in ambush. It had always been his habit to hunt actively, pursuing the trails of demons whenever they appeared in the city.
But, he had to admit, everything was different now. Sendoh breathed in the quietness, alert with every sense he had to the comings and goings of demons. There were so many overlapping trails acting like a cacophony on his mind. Usually there was one trail and one demon, maybe two. But this night there was obviously numbers of them roaming, criss-crossing the paths of others, making it difficult even to tell in which direction the closest ones lay. He frowned to himself.
All this... was because of the gate?
The recollection of Sakuragi Hanamichi rose in his mind but he shook his head to clear it of the thought. With all the demon activity around him, he couldn't afford to be distracted.
He paced back and forth over the grass, made restless by the endless prickling of his senses. It was incredibly uncomfortable. Worse when he was forced to stand still and wait. The impulse to go, run, hunt, kill, was relentless, like an itch he couldn't scratch.
Rukawa didn't move, closing his eyes where he sat as if in sleep. That was, Sendoh deduced, his own way of coping with the sense that was needling him.
Around them, the dusk grew like a cloud expanding, blackening the quiet corners, changing the colours of the wood, the stone, the bare branches of the trees. The grass turned from green to grey. The world became ombre.
Finally a particularly strong burst of sickness compelled Sendoh to draw his sword in an aggressive hiss of steel, his eyes fixing on the temple garden wall, knowing - as sure as if he could smell them - that there were demons on the other side.
Somewhere behind him, Rukawa finally stirred into motion too, but Sendoh lifted a hand in a gesture to tell him to keep back.
Sendoh's lip curled slightly.
A hand appeared at the top of the wall, followed by a second. The demons were coming to them, perhaps having picked up their scent. They climbed over, a little laboriously. Their wings were still concealed, lending them the aspect of a human, but Sendoh was not for a moment fooled. The sense did not lie.
There were three. And there was nothing human about them.
He slowly wet his lips.
Sendoh couldn't help but feel a thrill, his heartbeat speeding up in anticipation. His whole being was flooded with such a black and furious hatred so that even for him - who had no real love of violence - cutting them down was an addictive euphoria.
It was the sense that drove him to hunt, but he would be lying if he claimed to hate it.
He waited for the demons to drop to the ground before he moved. His sandals flashed through the stalks of grass in near silence, holding Innocence low across his body, slicing off tips of grass blades as she passed, ferociously sharp.
So quick and silent he moved that the demons were not aware of his approach until he was already nearly among them. Surprised, they froze for an instant. He didn't wait but stepped forward into the small second of their indecision, and so the first was dead immediately - Innocence burst through its neck and wrenched upwards, splitting its face into halves.
The curse filled him with a flood of joy. A wonderous, numbing euphoria. A momentary release from the pain.
Sendoh's right foot swung around, smearing a path through the dew, rebalancing himself as the other two realised they were being attacked, tell-tale black wings startling from their backs, short swords drawn.
He evaded them by ducking low, and with a quick, low swipe he cut the legs right out from under the nearest one.
It screamed, a curling agonised shriek, and fell forwards to the ground, its wings moving wildly, battering its neighbour as it fell. Below its knees was nothing but a spray of black blood.
Sendoh silenced it as quickly as possible with a two-handed sweep that took off its head clean at the neck.
He turned eagerly to the last.
It was already falling, knocked down by its kin. It scrabbled to bring up its sword in defense, its wings arching to help it regain balance.
Sendoh didn't give himself any time to think. Another swing, a grunt of effort escaping his lips, and Innocence took off its sword-arm above the elbow. As it looked up enraged, Sendoh skewered it through its cheek and out the back of its skull, feeling himself rewarded with a moment of sheer happiness.
But a lurching sensation in his stomach made him turn to see more hands, more faces, appearing over the wall. The noise of the second demon's scream had attracted others.
This time they were more numerous. He counted six... seven... eight. His chest tightened. Too many. It was exceptional for him to see more than two together at the same time. He ought to retreat, but there was no time. They had already seen him and were coming his way. A few were beginning to unfurl their wings which would only serve to make them faster.
His raised Innocence, his eyes and hands totally steady.
"Come on, then," he muttered under his breath, eyeing them coldly.
The first two were slightly ahead of the others. With any luck he could kill one, or both, before more arrived. If he could space them out, even just a little, it might be enough.
He was aware of the quiet presence of Rukawa somewhere behind him, but he didn't have time to turn and look. If the boy had any sense, he reasoned, he would hide, or flee. There was nothing he could do with his arm in a sling. This was going to be a lost battle, by any reckoning. Sendoh wasn't going to come out of this unscathed.
The first demon crashed loudly against his blade. Sendoh pushed it back with all his strength, trying to bring Innocence around fast enough to get through its defense, but he was forced to block the second blade that came at him before he had the chance to strike. Already the first was moving forwards again, recovering fast, using its wings to propel itself with terrible speed. And beyond its shoulder, closer every second, were the others.
Taking a risky lunge Sendoh stepped in, bringing Innocence up with a sharp and vicious thrust. The sword went through one demon's soft stomach and out its back ribs. But the motion left Sendoh open to attack from the other. He saw the sword coming his way and had no time to block it.
He was forced to take an awkward sideways leap, pulling back again, dragging Innocence free so black blood spewed from the hole in the demon's gut. But by then, there were three more within striking distance.
He clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Innocence took one through the neck, but Sendoh was forced to retreat, pacing backwards, putting an elegant plinth and stone lantern between him and the demons, all the while knowing that every second he acted defensively, every second in which he failed to kill one, the odds were worsening as more arrived.
A demon blade sent up a shower of sparks where it grazed the lantern's sloping side.
Innocence caught the attacker with a stab straight through the eye. It fell back in a whirl of limbs and wings, collapsing to the floor in a heap which the others only stepped around.
Sendoh moved Innocence through the air in a defensive weave, but the others had all caught up now and he was facing five at the same time. For a moment he recalled how he'd woken up dazed in that alleyway, defeated. Soundly defeated. Had it only been a day ago? He couldn't win against five. It was impossible.
"Come on," he repeated, his breath slightly laboured, his eyes flashing rapidly between them, wary of the first strike. "I'm not going to die here, you pieces of shit."
A demon leapt at him and he smashed its sword aside in a furious parry, thrusting Innocence forward into its shoulder with a grunt of effort. Immediately two more went for him.
He watched them with detached, analytical eyes. He saw the swords fly, the paths they would take. One would catch on his forearm as he raised it in a last desperate defense. The other would go through his ribs. He sighed a little... he was unlikely to be lucky enough to survive that.
It irritated him that he should die like this. But could he truly say he didn't welcome it? Wasn't there always that small part of him looking for, hoping for, a fast and easy death?
Staring down the inevitable, it was tempting, very tempting, to surrender to his fate. He could perhaps rejoin his family. He could... rest.
Why continue his meaningless struggle in the face of hopelessness?
He watched the swords come at him and considered it all ponderously. Time was slow and lethargic around him. He wanted to die, he realised. Yes, that was true. But...
...but...
only
...not quite yet.
He snarled and let go, leaving Innocence where it was stuck through the demon's shoulder, throwing himself backwards inelegantly, feeling hotness where a sword sliced into the flesh of his arm.
He hit the floor hard, winced, and looked up to see another sword coming straight for his skull. He rolled away, kicking up turf, his two hands scrabbling at the dewy grass.
He didn't see what more he could do. A third sword skewered the ground where his hand had just been.
"Fuck - you -" he managed to gasp at them all, staring up at the tormentors towering above him, all steel and teeth and sharpness. They lifted their swords like spears to stake him.
Even struggling, even sheer desperation, was no longer going to defer the inevitable.
He might even have closed his eyes. He felt very alone.
And then the garden lit up with a soft blue light.
At first he thought he was imagining it.
It seemed... oddly familiar. Comforting and safe. And yet at the same time ethereal, as if it were the light of a benevolent god, far beyond mortal comprehension. A little piece of his soul seemed to strain towards the light.
Is this... what dying... is like?
But he wasn't imagining it. And he wasn't dying. The demons saw it too, and as one they lifted their eyes, distracted by it.
The part of Sendoh's brain that had been hardwired through hundreds of hard-won fights set him into motion, forcing him to move despite his confusion. Onto his hands and knees, leaping forward like a cat, his hand closing around Innocence's hilt once again and dragging it free with a spurt of black blood.
He swung her around, hard, before the demons could react, and took the life of two in that one pass, Innocence unfailing in her perfect sharpness. They were confused too - their attention diverted two ways. It seemed as though the light attracted them, like insects to a flame, as if they simply couldn't bring themselves to look away from whatever it was they were seeing.
Innocence thrust upwards, through the soft underside of a jaw and out the top of a head, and another one crumpled.
She turned about mid-sweep, catching the moonlight like a smile, slicing diagonally downwards this time to open the next demon from shoulder to hip, before it could recover enough to raise a block.
Sendoh felt drunk with elation. He pushed his wilted fringe out of his eyes, and it stuck to his forehead with sweat.
The one remaining demon started to run, moving suddenly, its wings lifting and propeling it towards the source of that light.
Sendoh scrambled up and chased it.
Rukawa, he saw now, hadn't moved. Not at all. Not to hide, nor to flee, nor even to stand up. He was still sitting on his stone dragon, watching Sendoh's life and death struggle with vague interest. He'd partially drawn his sword, just an inch, and it was from the small piece of exposed blade that the strange blue light was emanating. The sword... glowed.
He was quietly observing the single demon that was heading his way through narrow eyes.
The demon, propelled by its wings, moved faster than Sendoh could run.
But the boy did not move. Very deliberately he sheathed his sword with a quiet click, and the blue light vanished. Sendoh caught a flash of hunger in Rukawa's eyes, the miniscule hint of amusement that twitched at the corner of his lips. Supreme confidence that Sendoh could not justify. He was too late, he thought frantically. Why hadn't he moved yet? Still? But he only watched as the demon came at him, the blade moving so fast that it whistled in the air. Ten feet, five feet, two. A blink of an eye, and you might miss it.
Sendoh cursed under his breath, willing Rukawa to move out of the way.
But it was too late. There was no way, no way that he could...
The demon's sword smashed into the stone dragon and it exploded into rubble. Sendoh winced.
But Rukawa had vanished.
Then, quietly, Rukawa's left hand came as if from nowhere and took hold of the back of the demon's head. With an easy thrust, he smashed it face first into the wall from behind.
The bricks shifted with the impact.
In surprise, Sendoh pulled up short. He could not for a moment understand what he was seeing.
Rukawa's eyes fixed on him with an expectant look. But Sendoh only stood stock-still in surprise. He'd never seen anyone, not even a demon, move that fast. He had been so sure that blade had been going to hit him and yet somehow Rukawa had encircled the hapless demon in the blink of an eye.
Rukawa's stare became slightly impatient. The demon had begun to scratch angrily at the stone with its hands, trying to push back and free itself from Rukawa's grip. It had dropped its sword earlier in the impact. Blood was dripping from its cracked skill yet it was still decidedly alive.
"Oh..." Sendoh realised.
He covered the remaining ground between himself and Rukawa. Rukawa finally released his hold just as Sendoh reached him, and Innocence passed straight through the back of the demon's skull and out its forehead. Only then did it crumple to the ground, lifeless.
For a moment, Sendoh breathed the trickling pleasure.
Then he turned to stare at Rukawa.
Rukawa was busy examining his hand with a vague expression of disgust. He tried to wipe it on his clothes.
"You're..." Sendoh began cautiously, "...really... fast."
Rukawa gave a shrug. "Do you want to find more?" he asked, without looking up.
Sendoh began to realise that he had seriously underestimated him. He was at least as fast as Mitsui. Unnaturally so. And even without the use of his sword he remained both dangerous and frighteningly composed.
Sendoh looked back over his shoulder at the carnage. Eleven.
Eleven was unheard of.
He'd never killed half so many before.
And Rukawa had simply sat and watched with lazy eyes like a lion twitching its tail in the grass. As if eleven were totally unremarkable.
How strong was he, really?
And that light...
Sendoh frowned. It... bothered him. There was definitely something... something very strange, about him. The way he moved. His sword. Even the look in his eyes.
But Sendoh didn't know what to say. So he simply dropped his eyes and shook his head.
"No," he replied. This was enough. Except...
He looked around at the bodies that were already beginning to fade. "He wasn't here," he observed quietly.
Rukawa paused momentarily, then lifted his head. He knew who Sendoh was referring to. Of course he did.
"No," he agreed after a moment. "We won't find him like this." He glanced at Sendoh from the corner of his eye. "Clean up," he instructed. "Let's rest for a while."
Rukawa went off to find a place to rest while Sendoh bent to clean Innocence on the grass.
Once finished, Sendoh found Rukawa in a small out building that appeared to be the temple kitchen. A small fire was still smouldering under the main stove, and Rukawa had built it up again so that it provided warmth against the chill air. The wooden shelves on the walls were full of dried ingredients and wooden utensils. Firewood had been stacked neatly in one corner, right up to the dark ceiling beams. Huge iron pots were suspended over the stove on a strong bamboo pole. Sendoh dragged a woven sack of rice closer to the stove, and sat down cautiously, stretching out his leg, all his muscles welcoming the warmth. He checked the wound on his arm which was thankfully superficial, then rubbed his hands over his face tiredly.
"What's with your sword?" he asked finally, fixing Rukawa with a stare through the firelight. "Why does it glow like that?"
Rukawa looked up from where he had sat on an empty crate, hesitated a moment, and then pulled the sheath from his obi and passed it silently across to Sendoh who received it curiously.
Sendoh was surprised. He hadn't expected Rukawa to show it to him so willingly. He certainly hadn't expected to hold it himself. He wondered briefly whether it meant that Rukawa trusted him, or whether it meant that Rukawa just didn't see him as any sort of threat.
Sendoh took firm hold of the handle, solid and well-worn, but strangely cold to touch, as if it were made of ice. He drew it with a gentle hiss. Immediately the blue light returned, but it was weakened by the bright firelight to an almost indiscernable glow.
Rukawa turned his head to watch him, a miniscule frown flickering over his expression.
Sendoh examined the sword curiously. It was broader and straighter than either Venegence or Innocence, designed to be weighty rather than fast. Better for defense than attack.
It was certainly much heavier than Innocence, but it was exquisitely made too. In spite of the weight, the balance was perfect.
Still, it didn't really seem to suit Rukawa, he thought critically. It was a sword meant to capitalise on raw strength to make best use of its weight.
He turned it over and the soft glow played over his hands and clothes. A gentle blue sheen. He'd never seen anything like it before.
"Why is it so cold?" he asked, gripping the handle tightly. His fingers felt chilled.
"It takes heat from you, to generate the light," Rukawa answered.
Sendoh frowned. "Doesn't that mean it... weakens you?"
Rukawa gave a minute shake of his head, but didn't otherwise answer. He held out his hand and Sendoh passed the sword back.
"And the light... attracts demons?" Sendoh pressed, curiously.
"It seems to distract them," he shrugged.
"Ah..." Sendoh hesitated, then smiled sheepishly. "Thanks for that."
That made it twice now, he recalled, that Rukawa had saved him.
But Rukawa just shook his head. "It was nothing."
"Does it have a name?"
Rukawa contemplated for a moment, looking down into the sword's light, apparently thinking.
Finally he said, "Its name is Akira."
Sendoh was taken aback. "That's- that's my name," he breathed.
Rukawa looked up at him, apparently uncertain about what to say.
Sendoh's face broke out into a grin. It had been a long while since he'd last felt such amusement, but the fact that he shared a name with Rukawa's weird sword seemed to him at that moment to be so pleasantly ridiculous that he felt like laughing.
Rukawa shrugged and looked down, placing his fingers tenderly on the cool metal where it rested across his knees. "Akira..." he repeated softly, his mind wandering some unknown path.
"Kaede," Sendoh returned, with a lilting smile, the name falling comfortably from his lips.
Rukawa lifted his eyes to meet Sendoh's, but quickly looked away. Sendoh felt that same deep stirring in his gut, as if he'd stepped out and the ground had given way beneath him and he'd somehow found himself tumbling helplessly through the air. He sighed and leaned back a little, knitting his fingers together behind his head, looking up at the old beams and rafters shrouded in shadows.
"Say, Kaede..." he eventually asked thoughtfully, not looking away from the ceiling, "...would you tell me how you became a slayer?"
There was silence.
After a few moments, Sendoh turned his head to observe him.
Rukawa had stiffened visibly. He opened his mouth once or twice, as if trying to gather the words, but finally he shook his head.
"No," he said, frowning, keeping his eyes on the fire. "It's not that I don't want you to know..." he tried to explain, shifting his weight uncomfortably. "It's just I don't think I can... say it out loud."
Sendoh felt a rush of sympathy for him.
"It was because of him though, wasn't it?" Sendoh's thoughts went back to the black shape of the demon in the gate. Sakuragi Hanamichi.
Rukawa stayed silent.
"Who is he? Why is he so strong?"
Rukawa pursed his lips slightly, carefully avoiding Sendoh's gaze. Probably he could feel, just as Sendoh couId feel, the unpleasant sensation that came whenever he thought about him. Even just the idea of him. This demon. It was frightening.
Finally, with obvious reluctance, Rukawa spoke. "They call him The Keeper of the Five Keys. He is a... a general I suppose. A very old and very powerful demon."
"Five Keys?" Sendoh repeated curiously.
Rukawa gave a deep frown. "There's five gates, across the world. He controls them. Opens them. Commands the demons that pass through them. The border between this world and their world; that's his... role."
Sendoh squinted at Rukawa curiously.
How did you come entangled with a powerful demon like that?
What... happened to you..?
"What about you?"
"Huh?" Sendoh glanced up at him.
Rukawa met his eyes. "How did you become a slayer? What was your aphesis?"
"Oh..." Sendoh gave a casual shrug. "It's a pretty common story, I guess. I was a kid. Six, seven, maybe. Demons killed my family. My parents, my little sister." He gave a wan smile; one that carefully concealed the rush of anger that he felt. He could see the scene in his mind's eye like it was yesterday, even though it had been sixteen years already since that day. "A slayer saved me, just by chance. Out hunting and happened to stop a couple of demons devouring a little boy." He curled his lip slightly. "He killed the demons. But he must have known. He must have seen it in my face - whatever it looks like; aphesis. So he gave me his sword..." subconsciously he reached out and touched the hilt of Innocence, "That's pretty much it. I've been hunting them since then."
He glanced up and saw Rukawa peering at him with a mixture of curiosity and sadness. He wasn't sure whether he minded his expression or not.
"Like I said..." Sendoh shrugged, "...nothing special."
"Aphesis," Rukawa repeated the word thoughtfully. "The moment that you become a slayer. The pain and the fear so great that it awakens the sense."
Sendoh snorted. "Right. Ridiculous, isn't it? Imagine, being so afraid that you physically become able to sense demons. What a lot of shit..."
He laughed, but there was no joy in the sound. His fingers dug their way into the canvas of the bag on which he sat like talons, his knuckles turning white. On the other side of the stove, Rukawa watched him with dark eyes that perfectly reflected his pain, as if he was looking into a mirror.
"...shit." Sendoh repeated, vehemently, and lapsed into silence.
He thought of Aida, Koshino and Ikegami. He thought about his lost family, and the man who had given him his sword. His hand clenched around Innocences's hilt compulsively, drawing small comfort from her familiar leather. He thought of Sakuragi Hanamichi, the gate, Rukawa's broken eyes, and Mitsui's unease.
He felt unsteady in that moment.
"I'm going to kill him," he blurted suddenly, his eyes flashing darkly, abruptly finding himself unable to swallow his hurt and anger back down. It rose through his chest like a whale breaking the surface. He clutched at his vows of retribution as if he were drowning and they might save him.
But Rukawa slowly shook his head. "No," he returned, his voice low and cold and whole enough to fill the room. "No. That moment will be mine."
He looked different in that second. As if the great shape of his soul had for a small instant become visible in his eyes. As if his blistering anger had taken form all around them; a monument vast and cold and twisted that filled the kitchen, the temple, the city beyond. Huge and fathomless. A hatred and a rivalry and a history that dwarfed Sendoh's younger feelings in sheer enormity.
Sendoh hesitated for a moment, and then relaxed with a sigh, releasing his grip on his anger and instead letting it drift in Rukawa's monstrous tempest like a kite.
"Well then," he conceded quietly, "I promise to bring you that moment, Kaede."
Rukawa stared at him once again as if he'd said something very strange. And Sendoh once again felt that strange lurch in his soul, like there were forces pulling him towards Rukawa that he could simply not resist.
"I feel like..." he tried to explain, touching his hand to his chest, "...our fates are bound together." He peered curiously at Rukawa. "Do you feel it too?"
Rukawa stared at him blankly before looking away. "Your imagination," he muttered vaguely.
Sendoh smiled gently. His eyes travelled along the length of Rukawa's sword, Akira. Nothing about it seemed coincidental to him. Not the name of that sword, nor Rukawa's presence in the tavern that night.
None of it was by accident. Surely.
Surely it was fate.
"No... no, I don't think so." He closed his eyes and savoured a rare moment of welcome quiet in that strange kitchen. "No, I'm pretty sure I'm right."
Rukawa did not reply.
-tbc
ANs: Massive thanks to Anita, the resident expert in Greek, for explaining to me how and why I was mis-using the terms aphesis/aphentes, and helping me to work it out ;)
Changes in this chapter:
- Pffft everything
- Removed the tavern scene
- Took Rukawa out of the fight with demons so it's a Sendoh-solo and relocated it in the city instead of outside it
- Carried over the introduction of Akira (the sword) from the old chapter 2.
- A bit more doki doki again.
- Changed aphentes to aphesis on Anita's wise advice ;)
