Disclaimer (1): This is a fan written work based on the works of J.K. Rowling. It might possibly also have some elements of a number of other works. There is no money being made from this, it is merely a work meant for the entertainment of myself and the masses. This is merely for fun, and no profit. I repeat: I am not making any money out of writing this.
Disclaimer (2): I also do not own anything that has to do with Juuni Kokki, Juuni Kokuki, Record of the Twelve Kingdoms, The Twelve Kingdoms. The only things that will probably be mine to claim are some of the names that will appear in the fic.
Warning: OCs OOCs Sues, and some crack. You have been warned.
Note 1: Post-DH Disclaimer (2) anime/novel Crossover
*
*
CHANGE
*
Chapter Nine
*
*
The merchant caravan was a week away from the capital, had they chosen to just keep moving forward, they would not have encountered any problems, but as luck would have it, the leaders of the caravan chose to rest before moving forward. With only being a week away from the city, and not having encountered anything from bandits to youma, they were confident that nothing and no one would disturb their peace, not even the presence of the ominous birds detered them from making such a decision.
The mercenaries didn't really care all that one bit, so long as they were paid in full at the end of the journey they were content. The other merchants didn't care either way, they still had their earnings, and it was only the leaders that knew why there was a need for the mercenaries, a reason which they cared not to know. The daughter of Ikasu, who was named Ikari, was quite grew tense when it was announced that they would be setting up camp and resting for the rest of the day and the night. She remembered Kurai's promise, she feared the battle which was sure to come, even though she was a little reassured that the half-blind warrior would protect her. One of her prevailing thoughts was, how would a half-blind person hope to protect her from whatever it was, or who ever it was that would be attacking the camp any time now.
Kurai, and his kijyuu which he named Hyakko, sat beside Ikari's wagon. While Hyakko slept, Kurai unwrapped his hidden weapons, and unbound the bandages covering half of his face. He also slowly regained a healthy complexion, all of which he did in anticipation of the attack that was sure to come. He did not bother sending out his ravens, instead he reabsorbed them into his body, he remerged them with his self. He welcomed the fun that was sure to commence once dusk turned to dark, and the camp went from bustling to snores.
Kurai didn't need his ravens to tell him when the attack would take place, he already knew. For he too would chose to attack when everyone was more or less defenseless, taking out the mercenaries in their sleep before systematically eliminating the rest of the crew, before heading for their prize or in this case target.
Every now and then, Ikari would peek out of her wagon, and look for Kurai, and she would always find him near her wagon, but she failed to notice that with each passing glance, he changed somewhat. He changed from a weak and sickly looking man to a healthy looking individual with weapons a plenty, and ready and willing to do battle.
After dusk turned to dark, and after supper had ended. The mercenaries decided to sleep close to one another, while the merchants went into their wagons to sleep. While they were doing that, Kurai extended his senses outward, and felt for the approach of the mercenary army that was supposed to come, and he was not disappointed. Upon sensing their approach, he feigned sleep, as did Hyakko, but not before alerting his charge to the approaching danger and ordering her to stay within her wagon, she could watch the outside fomr within, but she was not to leave the safety of the wagon, no matter what, unless he told her otherwise.
They came out from the blackness, little more than a hundred mercenaries crept silently as they could through the camp seeking out the four mercenaries, and slitting their throats one by one. Once that deed was done, a group of them headed for the other wagons. These mercenaries had a picture of Ikari, the person that they were supposed to snatch, so they looked for her among the other wagons. Not finding her in any of the other wagons, they approached the remaining wagon to be checked. The mercenaries did not slay any of the other merchants as they had not yet gotten rid of the remaining person with weapons on his person. They had sent scouts to see how many defenders there were in the camp during the day, and they needed to make sure that all posssibly threats to them were taken care of before they could start the massacre and kidnapping.
When they found him, one of the mercenaries approached him with sword drawn, silently walked up to him, and prepared to deliver the killing blow to whom he thought was a sleeping and defenseless man. No one was more surprised than the man intent on killing Kurai with happened next. There was a spray of blood, drenching the nearest mercenaries with its metallic smell and taste. The mercenary lost his head with a shocked expression on his face, not knowing how to react as he witnessed a blade come from out of nowhere and separated his head from his body.
Following the first death, the closest nineteen mercenaries died by allowing their heads to be split into two with arrows shot from a longbow, which was quite a feat. After witnessing twenty of their comrades go down without a fight, the rest grew cautious as they did not know what they were up against, each drew their weapons and prepared for battle. But even with their weapons drawn, they were no match for Kurai.
From within her wagon Ikari watched as Kurai ran with inhuman speed at a group of about five mercenaries and swiftly separated their legs from the rest of their bodies, then quickly made his way to another group of five and split them in half from crotch going upwards.
In less than a minute thirty of the hundred or so mercenaries had fallen to Kurai and his weapons. Within seconds after the first thirty kills another ten lost their lives, five of which were cut into six pieces, while the other five lost their faces as Kurai smashed the hilt of his sword through their heads. Another ten were lost afterward, each of their hearts skewered on an arrow shaft, and being consumed by Hyakko who sat awake and idly by Ikari's wagon.
Within the span of a while minute, fifty people had lost their lives to Kurai.
The remaining mercenaries got back their senses after they witnessed fifty of their number be reduced to corpses. Each man swore revenge and rushed Kurai, each intent on relieving his head from his shoulders.
Kurai danced around each and every slash, swipe, and thrust aimed at him. He then disemboweled ten men in succussion.
"Too slow," he told the dead mercenaries before resuming his killing spree.
Ten more men fell prey to his blade, Ikari knew not how it happened, but ten men were reduced to crispy husks of their former human selves, they had been turned into mere remnants of what was once a human body, one which contained a soul. The area around the bodies was scorched so much that plants would probably not be able to grow there for a few years at least. Following those ten men, Kurai slammed his palm into the solar plexus of ten more men in succession, each having their ribcages shattered, their diaphrams destroyed, and their hearts annihilated completely, as well as their bodies being blown back into some of their still living comrades at arms.
Ten of the mercenaries had managed to slip past Kurai's guard and were able to make their way to Ikari's wagon. She remembered the words of Kurai, and did not try to flee her wagon hoping that somehow she would escape unscathed. Kurai noticing the ten that had gotten past him flung out one arm. The action surprised the twenty-one that were attacking him, but the ten that were about to snatch Ikari from within her wagon were more surprised than the ones fighting Kurai as they were suddenly bombarded by an unkindness of ravens, all of which were out for blood. When the ravens were through with them, all that was left were their bones, clean of any meat or anything else for that matter.
"Hyakko, you lazy kijyuu, do something!" Kurai shouted to his lazing pet. Hyakko responded by burping five fireballs which roasted five men alive, before running out of power and leaving half burnt bodies on the ground. Having done his share, the tiger went back to devouring his human hearts.
The remaining sixteen didn't know what to do, or what to think, they were fighting a man that had taken out nearly a hundred men within the span of a few minutes, something which they had thought to be impossible. There was no way that they were facing someone human, some of their thoughts went so far as to think that they were fighting some sort of youma.
While the sixteen remaining men were paralyzed in fear, Kurai did not hesitate in continuing his attack. Thrusting his sword forward, he skewered two men. He punctured their lungs, and with the sword still embedded in their bodies, he slashed sideward slicing through the other lung, and taking the men's hearts with it, the sword coming out of the sides of the two men's bodies simultaneously.
After seeing another two of their number lose their lives, three of the not paying attention to their opponent men died. Each one instantly losing their lives after Kurai simply touching them with a hand. Ikari was able to see some kind of green energy be ejected from Kurai's hand to the bodies of the three men.
The remaining eleven men had only one thing on their minds as they witnessed three of their number die at just a touch from what they perceived as some really dangerous and new youma. So they did the only thing else that they could tihnk of, they ran.
Kurai not wanting his skills to be known to the upper class of society, did not run after the men, instead bright colored light flew from his open palm and impacted on the backs of ten of the fleeing men. Each one was turned into stone, they were still as statues. Flinging the same hand from which the lights had flown out of, ten blades flew from his hand, Ikari didn't care to know where they came from, but she knew that they had suddenly appeared. Each one had a metal chain attached to it, the blades went through the ten statue, and Kurai grabbed hold of the chains before they left him completely, and pulled. Each of the solidified, paralyzed, or otherwise statue-fied men were pulled in the direction of Kurai, when each one got close enough, the man shattered, his blood and guts covering the camp floor.
The remaining man thought that he had actually managed to escape Kurai, and decided to rest for a little bit before reporting to the man that had hired him. His decision was what doomed him. Ikari was not able to witness exactly what Kurai had done. But she did witness Kurai simply vanish from view.
Kurai reappeared directly infront of the last member of the mercenary army, scaring the man, and putting a fear into him so bad, that the man could have died of fright, had something not been keeping him alive, whatever was he did not know, all he knew was that he was not going to be able to make it out of the encounter alive, he even believed that his soul was also the only one out of the one hundred and twenty one mercenaries' souls that would not be able to pass on to the afterlife or even be reincarnated. He wholeheartedly believed that his soul would be swallowed up by the monster infront of him. The one that had more or less single handedly decimated his army.
Kurai was smiling the whole while that he performed his gruesome deed, he let out a part of himself that he had caged long ago, his sadistic side was let lose on the man before him.
He lifted the man into the air with his power, then proceeded to rip the skin off of the man, one piece at a time, the only fleshy part that was kept intact was the man's face. Kurai had plans for the man's face, he would use it sometime in the future. The next thing he did was tear off one muscle off of the man at a time, followed by boiling one organ at a time while it was still found within the body of the man. After each of the organs was no longer usable or salvageable, he threw needles as if they were darts, and burst what remained of the organs. Somehow the man was still alive after that experience.
Belief is a very powerful thing, it can sometimes make the impossible possible, this time was one of those times. The only thing of the man remaining aside from his bones was his soul. The only piece remaining of the man that was alive. It was also the last thing that Kurai toyed with.
After destroying Voldemort, one of the topics that Kurai had decided to study and understand was the soul, and after reading many books on the topic, from philosophical to magical books on the subject, he knew some ways on how to torture a man, and eventually destroy his soul, shattering it for all eternity. The karma backlash from such an action was immense, but Kurai supposed that such rules did not really apply to him in this new world of his. He'd paid enough for an eternity's worth of wrongs, wrongs that he was had not even commited.
After burning everything that belonged to the man, and after torturing the soul, he buried the man's bones, while at the same time trapping the man's soul within his bones, and cursing him to haunt the area in which the campsite was situated for all eternity, or until someone properly buried his bones along with the what became of his heart. The man's heart was the only organ that had not turned to ash, instead it had turned into a crystal shaped like an egg, it was blood red in color, and if a person were to hold it, they would swear to have felt the crystallized heart beating.
Having finished his business with all the mercenaries and would be kidnappers of his charge, he returned to camp, and informed Ikari that it was now safe to leave the comfort of her wagon. Whe she did she noticed that his clothes, and his weapons were absent of any traces of blood, guts, or gore. Kurai did not look like he had just come from a battle.
"Go to sleep Ikari, we leave at first light, let your companions think what they will, but I will not let you remain with simpletons such as they," Kurai said, then informed her of his plans to take her to the capital, with her in charge of directions, once the darkness turned to dawn.
