Woah, look at that, three chapters in a row! XD the sad part about this is that I'm already commencing chapter 13. Being in Japan makes is a little difficult to update as often as I want, but at least I try, right? Anyways, enjoy!

6

"Opast?" Kai said, looking at Yuki with confusion.

He nodded, "The highest level of Duras," he explained, "There are two lower categories, with Nidatorehi as the lowest and Mid-Villain as the middle rank. The Opast are basically their leaders, however, they themselves are ruled by..."

"What are you doing here?" Luka demanded, "I thought you had become Reiga's right hand, Luze, why would he send you out to the human world?"

Luze sighed, "Accusing your other half is shameful, brother," he said, walking forward casually, as though it was perfectly normal for him to be there. When he was only about two yards away, he finally spoke again, "Lord Reiga," he began, putting emphasis on the title, "sent me on a rather important collection mission."

"Are you here for Yuki?" Touko demanded.

"Not today, though I have know idea why Lord Reiga is delaying on such a matter." The Duras said dismissively, "No, I'm here for the great Shouyomi's legacy."

"Shouyomi already had a son," Luka said, "he took over when Shouyomi himself was killed."

Luze let out a low, mirthless laugh, "You have no idea was the great Kurakage Shouyomi was executed, do you? Although, I suppose I shouldn't act all high and might, considering I only found out the truth myself just last week."

"What are you talking about?" Luka asked, a hint of trepidation in his voice.

"It was an innocent thing, never meant to have any large impact on his life," Luze said, "but he made a rather large mistake," he fixed his eyes on Kai, "he fell in love. Not only that, he let that love cloud his judgment and that is how the dark-haired young woman standing behind you came into being."

All eyes flew to Kai, who was just as shocked as the rest of them. Even Yuki was staring at her in shock and disbelief, which made her round on the one person observing the scene with an impassive expression.

"How do you know this?" she demanded, "Can you prove that my father and this… this Shouyomi person are the same?"

"I can," the Opast said candidly. He withdrew from his pocket one of the love letters along with some sort of black fabric. He held up the envelope so the seal was visible to them, "This," he said, "I'm sure you've seen before." He then unrolled the cloth, "And this particular item was once part of the sheath that held Shouyomi's sword, Desiree."

Kai swallowed thickly as she saw the exact same seal from the letter embroidered on the cloth. Her heart plummeted further as she saw the expression of utter shock and amazement on Luka's face, her own going pale with the horrible realization that the man before her was…

"As you can see, I'm not lying," Luze said, tucking the items away again, "You could see for yourself, couldn't you, brother?"

Luka shook his head, "It just doesn't seem possible," he said, "but… there's no mistaking it…"

"Wait!" Yuki cried as Luze took another step toward Kai. He looked frantically at Luka, "You're not going to let him do this, are you? Kai's father may have been a Duras, but she's lived as a human!"

"A problem that can easily be remedied, once she's lived with us for long enough," Luze said simply.

That was it, Kai had had enough, "Don't act all cocky," she said, glaring venomously at the Duras, "I'm not going with you regardless of who my father was. If you plan on taking me by force, I'll fight you. I think you'll find I won't be caught off guard so easily this time."

"You'll have to go through us as well," Tsukumo said, drawing his gun, "any friend of Yuki's is a friend of ours, Duras or otherwise."

"Our numbers far exceed yours as well," Shuusei said, "Do you really intend to go up against all of us?"

"Did you honestly think I'd come alone when there was the possibility of Shouyomi's blood awakening in her?" Luze replied with a smirk, "even I don't know what will happen if she suddenly changes." He snapped his fingers, two more figures suddenly appearing by his side, "They got into the barrier just before you finished it."

"It's been a while since we fought," the silver-haired woman said teasingly, "I've missed you, my darling Luka."

"Elegy," Luka growled, his expression darkening.

"Have either of you improved since your last pathetic attempt to kill me?" the redheaded man asked, casting mocking glances at Senshiro and Kuroto.

"CADENZA!" the latter roared, drawing a black katana seemingly from thin air.

"Don't assume we haven't been honing our skills since last time," Senshiro said, removing his glasses. Kai was amazed at how drastically his kindly demeanor had shifted. His expression was livid as the large brush that had materialized in his hand shifted into an ornate scythe. In fact, as Kai looked around, she noticed that the others, save Yuki, all had impressive weapons. Luka wielded his black sword like it was another part of his body. Touko had an enormous sword and Kai was unable to fathom how she could possibly lift it with such ease. Hotsuma had a curved, jagged blade of some sort and Shuusei had several glowing blue orbs floating about him, a thin sword in each hand.

"Stay back, Kai," Yuki said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "it's best if we don't get too involved with the fighting."

Kai nodded, stepping back to stay beside him and watching as her friend pulled out a black puff ball from his jacket. She gaped as it suddenly transformed into a huge wolf, not too unlike the one she'd seen when Luze had broken into her house the other night. She swallowed again, the clash of such powerful opponents threatening to overwhelm her. At the same time though, to her own surprise, the prospect of battle excited her. The prospect of the pain, the prospect of the kill, the prospect of the blood…

She shook herself mentally, telling herself to snap out of it. Since when did she have those thoughts? She'd never felt this way about fighting before, let alone actually KILLING someone.

Instincts.

Kai stiffened. No, her first instinct wasn't to kill, wasn't to shed blood. She wasn't put on this earth to end lives.

Such humane thoughts… and yet… you're not human, now are you?

Touko's cry of pain jolted Kai out of her internal war just in time for her to see Yuki's cousin thrown against a tree. The bark cracked with a sickening crunch as Touko fell to the ground limp. Kai watched helplessly as Tsukumo let out a roar of anger, lunging at Luze, who had done the damage, only to find himself attacked by the Duras's lupine companion. The resulting blood crashed on Kai's senses like stormy waves on a beach. All the battles had spilt a generous amount of the liquid and the intermixing scents were driving Kai to the verge of insanity.

You want it, don't you? You want to be the one spilling the blood, you want to be the one killing, you do…

"Shut. Up." Kai snarled, clutching her head and screwing her eyes shut as she sank to her knees, the rising pain threatening to split her skull in two. The bruise around her neck was throbbing erratically.

"Kai!" Yuki cried, kneeling beside her, "What's wrong?"

She shook her head, unable to speak from the throbbing of the bruise. She clenched her jaw so as not to cry out from the pain of it all.

You want to do it, you want to hurt him, kill the one who put that blemish on your neck… you want it…

NO!

YOU WANT IT!

"GET BACK, YUKI!" Kai screamed, shoving the bewildered boy away from her before doubling over completely, writhing with pain. It felt as though her entire body was being sliced from the inside with millions of tiny blades while her skin felt like it was being licked by innumerable tongues of flame.

"KAI!" Yuki was beside her again. He placed his hands on her, but jumped back with a cry of pain a moment later.

"YUKI!" Kai cried, gazing in horror at the burns on his hands. She tried to sit up, but the pain was too intense, she felt like she was going to die right then and there. In fact, she wanted to die, wanted to put an end to this seemingly ceaseless feeling of agony.

Next thing she knew, Luze was upon her, having broken through Hotsuma and Shuuhei. He didn't attack her like she'd expected, but stepped behind her, shooting his hand down and unclasping the choker from her throat. Kai watched in shock as it fell to the ground before her, the once blood red stone now a blue so dark is was almost black.

Almost immediately, the pain intensified, but for a mercifully short moment. Kai breathed heavily as it passed, both unwilling and unable to sit up. She sat there, hugging herself, but it was only a few seconds before something surged through her again. She didn't know what it was, but in raged through her body like an angry serpent, threatening to destroy her from the inside out. She threw her head back, arching her spine, clutching her head and letting out such a powerful scream that it felt as though her throat might tear.

A strange blue-tinted black substance suddenly erupted around her, driving Luze back while Luka jumped in a pulled a panic-stricken Yuki away from her. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she felt she might drown in the pain.

Just give in…

She closed her eyes, letting herself slip into darkness, into her most basic self. She handed her conscious over to her instincts.

A cry of startled agony awoke her all too soon, but Kai soon found herself gaping at the scene before her. Blood permeated her senses again as she saw the crumpled form of Luze lying against a tree. The crimson liquid streamed down his chest and his cap had fallen off at some point, yet, despite his hazardous state, he laughed.

"Such power," he said, standing shakily, "Lord Reiga will be pleased." He gazed at something behind her, "Luka, do you perhaps still have some love left for our clan? If you hadn't restrained her, I most certainly would have died."

Kai flinched as someone coughed behind her, letting flecks of blood fall on her cheek. She looked up to find that Luka had her in a vice-like grip, his arms bloody from the deep cuts that spread across his skin. It was then that it hit her like a blow to the chest: this was all her doing. She looked back up at Luka again apologetically, breaking away from him quickly.

"I-I'm sorry," she said, shaking in both fear and horror at what she had done, "I- I don't know what…" she couldn't say it, not least because there was a part of her that had enjoyed the chaos she'd caused.

"Training this one will be fun," the man called Cadenza said as he sauntered over to Luze, "Her instincts are already honed to perfection, all that's left is teach her how to control them."

"Like you'll be the one to handle her education," the woman, Elegy, scoffed, "She'd do much better with a feminine role model."

"NO!" Kai shouted before she could stop herself. She ran a hand over her face in frustration, noting that she'd lost her hair tie at some point. "N- no," she repeated, focusing on the ground like it was the only thing keeping her sane at the moment, "I don't… don't want to do that…never again… I can't… can't hurt people like that… not again…"

"Don't sell yourself short, darling!" Elegy cried happily. How could she act like this was such a good thing?

"To think you'd actually be able to handle Shouyomi's power in full," Luze said with another weak laugh, "Though if I hadn't rid you of his seal, you would have probably died."

"There's going to be a ton of controversy over this," Cadenza said, "for all we know, Masa himself will question her legitimacy as a part of the Kurakage clan."

"That issue isn't even worth discussing," Luka said finally, "considering I'm not about to let you take her to Reiga."

"You can't take her to Takashiro, Luka," Luze said, sinking back down to the ground, "I highly doubt he'll take in another Opast, you're a very rare exception and we all know why that is."

"There isn't much you can do to stop me," Luka said firmly, "Neither can either of you, Elegy, Cadenza."

He was right, the two of them were obviously exhausted from fighting. There was also the fact that Kai had nearly killed Luze by the looks of things. However, it seemed Luka's twin had a prudent head on his shoulders, as he said, "You win this round, Brother. I only pray you make a decent tutor."

Cadenza rounded on him, "We're pulling out?" he asked incredulously, cursing as Luze nodded, "Fine, it's no fun when the target is as helpless as a puppy anyway."

Kai didn't seem them leave, her head had been spinning to the point where she welcomed Luka's presence as he caught her unconscious form.