Author's Note:

Hello, my friends, fellows, fellow friends, and fellow fans! I present to you the thirteenth chapter of my fanfiction! Since it is the thirteenth chapter, I decided to make it extra dark, spooky, and full of evil! Preeesenting:

Chapter 13

Kyu: Absolute Darkness

GLOOM

All alone,

In the dark,

No home,

No rest,

No love,

A pit of despair.

"No!" Hyou shrieked, backing away from the crystal ball. "We are doing our best, Kyu-sama! We're working as hard as we can to kill the ones with prophecies! Kon has already attained a demon sword!"

"You must work harder, Hyou," the dark voice of Kyuu resonated from the crystal. The crystal, usually showing a scene or person, was a murky black; like ink mixed into water. "Kon remains ignorant of the sword's powers, and uses it crudely like a farmer uses a reaping scythe. He is unreliable."

"Kon is completely reliable!" Hyou said passionately. "He is just inexperienced and a little immature! He is only 17 years old! He's practically a baby!"

"Maybe he could… grow up a little?" the voice of Kyuu asked slyly. "Like what happened to Haku?"

"No," said Yuuko firmly as she entered the room. "I will not let that happen to another member of my family."

"Oh, Yuuko," said Kyuu, with mock surprise. "He's your family is he? I thought he was merely a clone of your brother that you use as a tool."

"NO!" Yuuko bellowed as she slammed a hand on the table with the crystal ball.

"Ah-ah-ahhh…" Kyuu sighed exasperatedly as Yuuko cringed in pain as purple runes entangled all of her limbs and strangled her. "Tsk… you should remember that you are cursed. You must follow all of my orders or…"

The runes tightened, making Yuuko cry out in pain. Hyou ran to her sister's side, and turned to the crystal ball, an expression of pure hate on her face. "Stop it! You've ruined our lives! You don't need to ruin Kon's life too!"

"Is he even living? Seems more like an artificial being to me," Kyuu replied silkily. The crystal ball started to rattle and radiated dark energy. "I bet I could do anything I liked to him and it wouldn't damage his soul… After all, his is just a fragment of your brother's soul that you stole from his river…."

"Please! We'll hurry to follow your orders! Please just leave Kon alone! Please…." Hyou and Yuuko screamed in unison, holding on to each others' hand as if for dear life. Tears lined their identical faces, making them look small and fragile.

"Haha… it looks like I've got you in line… I will come back again for another checkup," Kyu gave a dark laugh. "If the boy fails his missions, I may have to punish him. I just want you to know…"

The dark energy left the room. The sisters sighed and stood up, still holding hands. "We should clean ourselves up. If Kon were to see us in this state, he would be very shocked…" Yuuko laughed bitterly. "He's just so used to us being bossy and mean. We should be nicer to him…"

"Yes. He has feelings and free will. It would destroy him if he found out that he was our creation," Hyou sighed. "I just want our family back, Yuuko…"

"Yes. But for now, we should protect the family we have. One of us should accompany Kon on his missions from now on. There's no telling when Kyu will lose patience and damage his soul like Haku's…"

"HIS SOUL CAN BE HURT, YOU B******! He's fragile, and he's real…" Hyou screamed to the ceiling, hoping that Kyu could hear. "And we love him because he's our brother…."

Hyou fell to her knees and started sobbing. "He ruined our family's lives, and I hate him! Why do we serve that stupid Kyu?! WHY?!"

Yuuko knelt next to her crying sister and started patting her back, staring at the ceiling and shedding tears as well.

Meanwhile, Kon, who had been standing in the hall, listening to his sisters, slid down the wall to the floor. 'Not real?' Kon held his hands to his eyes. They were shaking. 'This… No, I've always known this. Deep in my soul, I've always known…"

Kon took a shaky breath. 'Does that mean that my personality and memories are something my sisters created to make me more 'real'? No, that magic is beyond my sisters… I know that my memories and personality is mine, but this explains my soul's instability.' Pain erupted in Kon's chest. 'No! Not again,' Kon clutched at his heart, grimacing in pain. 'My soul must be trying to go back to this 'Haku'. Does this mean I am a clone? A fragment?' The pain subsided, and Kon relaxed, hand still on his chest, feeling his beating heart. 'I may be a clone, but I am me. Not this 'Haku' person.'

Tears welled up in Kon's eyes. 'I have emotions and my sisters love me even though I am only an artificial being. This existence can't be that bad.' Kon's soul started trying to escape again. 'My soul is becoming more and more restless everyday… I will soon disappear. I should let my sisters know that I love them before that happens…'

Kon stood up and pasted a 'normal look' on his face. 'I should also find this Haku person and warn him that Kyu's after him.' He quietly slid away from the room his sisters were in, down the hall, and into his room. He wanted to collapse onto his futon, but this was no time for weakness. He walked over to where he had laid the 'demon sword'. He had no idea what it did, but since it was demon sword, he decided that it should have a cool name.

"Seinaru sakura is a nice name," Kon said to himself. "It means Holy Cherry Blossom. Cherry Blossoms are really pretty, but they always seem to make Yuuko and Hyou-oneesama sad."

Kon summoned a sheet of writing paper, a brush, and ink with a simple spell. He thought that if he was never going to see his sisters again, he should at least leave a note. He chose his words carefully.

"Dear sisters,

I am sorry that you have to find out this way, but I must leave this place for a while, and possibly forever. There are some complications regarding the demon sword, which I have named Seinaru Sakura, and I am setting off to find out what. Also my soul is becoming unstable, and I will probably not be coming back. No doubt it is trying to go to your real brother, Haku. I will not last in this world for very long, but I wish you to know that I am very fond of both of you and regret that I have to take this course of action.

~Kon 魂"

Kon read the letter over again, and deemed it worthy. His sisters had no need to know where he was going. Kon reached inside of his robes and pulled out the black communication pearl. 'I can't let my sisters contact me.' Kon walked over to his window and threw it a far as he could. He walked away from the window, but a shiver ran down his spine. He reached into his kimono again, and in his hand was the black pearl. 'I can't get rid of it.' Kon pondered at his situation. 'I have to make sure that it isn't in working condition.' Kon crushed the pearl. It didn't reform. Kon grinned. 'I've heard that eating pearls gives the devourer the wisdom and power of a dragon,' Kon thought, sifting the pearl dust around in his hands. Finally reaching a resolution, Kon tilted his head back, and poured the black dust down his throat. At first, nothing happened. Then, Kon had an insane urge to jump out of his window, which was a whopping six stories off of the ground. He grabbed Seinaru Sakura and threw himself out of the window, against his better judgment. 'Wonderful,' Kon braced himself for impact with the ground. 'I will die before my journey has begun.'

The fall didn't come. Kon was suspended in midair, and was rapidly dissolving into black shiny things. The shiny things, which were actually black scales, reformed into a sleek, black dragon with dark purple hair. 'A dragon?' Kon was shocked. He hadn't really expected that the pearl would have an effect. 'This is great! I can fly to places instead of just walking! And now I have enough magical power to block Hyou's crystal ball, too!'

Kon spiraled through the air, testing out his new form. 'The only problem is that I have no idea where this Haku person is.' Kon started flying due east. He was only going by instinct, but there was a person who smelled very similar to himself in that direction. 'Maybe I can find Haku because we share a soul.' Kon did not know what drove him, but he trusted his dragon instinct. His journey had begun, and there was no turning back.

^o^ ^.^ ^-^ ToT

Kyu roared in anger as he spied Kon, flying eastward in dragon form, through his crystal ball (btw, much stronger than Hyou's). He banged his fist on the arm of his throne. This was not going according to plan- he had not thought that the soul doll actually had a consciousness of its own. I must find a way to twist this to my advantage, contemplated Kyu, scratching at his beard and adjusting his monocle, the way he always did when he was anxious.

"Having trouble, dear?" asked the deep, silky voice of a woman. A young lady strolled up to Kyu's throne and sat on its arm, leaning on Kyu with an arm around his shoulders and peering at the image in the crystal ball. She was dressed in a body-tight black dress that went up to mid-thigh, and had her hair in a traditional style headdress. Her shoes had heels that were as tall and deadly-looking as death spikes, and her face had seductive appeal, with eyes as gray, cold, and harsh as a hurricane. "Troublesome brat, that one. Why not kill him?"

"The threat that I may kill him is what keeps the cursed ones in check," replied Kyu after a moment. "If I kill him, they will rebel, no matter what pain the runes may cause them to feel."

"True," said the woman. "But they know he is dying anyway. We could kill him and they would not the wiser."

"Sayomi, you are indeed one born of darkness," Kyu said with a wolfish grin. "No other woman compares to you, Queen of Spiders."

"Of course," Sayomi whispered, stroking Kyu's face. "We spiders are the most cunning and vengeful creatures."

"Indeed," Kyu responded, his black eyes looking into her gray ones. "And the most beautiful."

Sayomi giggled girlishly, and pecked him on the cheek. "You're such a playboy!" She got up and glided away, saying "If you want me, I'll be in my room."

"Such a captivating woman," murmured Kyu in a dazed sort of way. He shook his head put his attention back to the image in the crystal ball. I should kill him, after all, decided Kyu. It will be a nuisance if he lives, especially now that he has awakened his dragon potential.

Kyu snapped his fingers and a large, dusty tome appeared in front of him, seemingly brought by an invisible servant. He opened it, and flipped through the pages for a few minutes. Suddenly, he stopped and grinned- he had found a sufficient spell.

Again, he snapped his fingers and three tubes, each filled with a differently colored liquid, vaporized in front of him. In a deft movement, he mixed all three together, resulting in a potion of a most sickly green hue. Slowly, he poured it over the crystal ball. It did not trickle down around the crystal, but disappeared into the image.

"I hope you like gift, little dragon," Kyu cackled, his laugh high and cold. "It will be the last one you'll get, so enjoy it!"

Author's Note:

Like it? I hope you do! As always, comments and suggestions are welcome! Thanks for reading!