By the time the sun was just over the city, mid-morning, everyone was in the largest room that was there. The boys playing at one end, Otohime held Fuko and Kishiko held Hanako as they sat with their husbands. They did all seem to know where everything was. But nothing more had come to them since they got there.
But it was Sanosuke who spoke first as he looked at the others and sighed. "So I do got a question. When Kishiko hugged me and was crying, you all were looking at her like she had ten heads. What was the deal with that anyway?"
Smiling as he pulled eyes to him Sannan sighed as he crossed his arms. "That would be because from the day that each of us with the exception of Otohime met her, she never once acted like that. Where Otohime seemed to be over emotional about things, Kishiko reacted more like…"
Laughing as he laid down, Heisuke rolled his head to look at Sanosuke. "She was the kind that would rather kick ass first and ask questions later. She and Souji fight constantly, she can have a foul mouth on her, and she is really over protective of Otohime. A lesson Shinpachi learned the hard way."
"The hard way?"
Crossing his arms as he turned a glare from everyone, Shinpachi growled to himself. "It wasn't like I was really trying anyway."
"You liar." Kishiko couldn't stop the smile she had. She was with her husband, had her kids with her. She didn't think even Souji could damper her mood. "You wouldn't have been able to do anything even if you really wanted too. And all you had to do was say you would go with us. No you had to make her cry and I am sorry that pissed me off."
"Cry?" Toshizo looked down at his wife and how she played with Fuko then turned a glare to Shinpachi that made him flinch. "You made my wife cry?"
"Look it wasn't like I meant it!" With a nervous laugh, Shinpachi rubbed the back of his head then sighed as he dropped his head. "I mean, my entire life, all those nightmares. Seeing them in the flesh, I was still questioning if I was sane or not. I really didn't mean to."
"It all worked out in the end though." Isami took a deep breath as his eyes narrowed in at Toshizo. "If you have been experiencing the same things that we all have, every few days up till now your nightmare has changed hasn't it?"
Nodding, his amethyst eyes glaring, Toshizo nodded. "It did. We weren't really sure but something told us it was because they were getting closer and closer to us."
"That is right. Each time we would meet another person from the nightmare the dream would change. Show a little more for us but they down right changed 100 percent for the girls." He then turned his eyes to Kishiko as he sighed. "Though it was Kishiko that saw the most though."
Nodding as Sanosuke and Toshizo looked at her she half smiled as her eyes half closed when Hanako smiled at her. "In that dream there was a woman who was pregnant. Not long after I had Hanako. I called her Chizuru and her husband was Kazuma. They said that they were taking precautions because of their demon child. Everyone here, even all the kids, and Hanakao drank something." She then looked up into her husband's gold eyes, a mix of worry and sternness in them. "The more that I think about it, I think that whatever it is that they gave us all to drink, is what is giving us the memories of that era."
"Probably." Turning from his wife to Toshizo, Sanosuke glared. "Though, with the number of things you sensed and saw, what are we going to do about it tonight? They nearly got Otohime. I am sure they will try it again."
"Or what if the same thing happens again this time that happened in the dreams?"
"But the middle of the night wouldn't be right for that." Sitting up now Heisuke sighed. "Think about it. Right before everything happens, Sannan is playing with the kids and we are all in the court yard in the middle of the day. And when everything happens, it is daylight. If it is going to happen that is when it will happen."
"In three days time it will happen again."
Hearing the voice, all the men jumped to their feet and drew swords as the boys raced to their mothers. But it was Kishiko that knew it. "I know that voice. That sounds like the girl Chizuru from my dream!"
"That's right Kishiko." Chizuru smiled as everyone turned around to see her and Kazuma standing there. "I am glad you remembered it. I couldn't alter all of your dream, but I could some of it."
With a gasp, after a moment of looking at the man next to her, Sannan moved around in front of everyone and took up his sword. "Keiji what the hell is going on here?"
With a sigh as he shook his head, Kazuma sighed. "I am not Keiji. Keiji is our son."
"What?" Sannan started to relax as he looked at him, he resembled Keiji, but he really wasn't him. "So you mean that the…."
Nodding as he sighed, Kazuma closed his eyes. "What we gave you was your own blood, mixed with a potion of sorts that the demons know how to do. It never mattered to us seeing as unless someone kills us, we would live forever anyway. However, Chizuru's dream of your deaths at the hands of our son, her pain over it. That was why we did what we did. To give you the chance to fix it and live on like you should have."
"But what about you?"
Turning to Otohime and her big brown eyes, Chizuru shook her head side to side. "No. Kazuma and I will stay in the afterlife where we have been since then. If we came back to that exact point as well, I would still be pregnant with him and we would all be stuck in the same loop."
"I see." Otohime sighed as she hugged her daughter to her. "I just wish I knew what to say to you. I don't remember you right now."
"Oh don't feel bad about that." Chizuru wanted to run to her and hug her but she knew that she couldn't touch her. With a tear tracing down her face she sighed. "In three days, this place, only inside these walls will be in a different time and space. Not the past and not the future. The only way that you will be able to set the past right and fix everything is if you…"
Seeing the impending melt down of his wife, Kazuma pulled her too him as she turned her face to his chest. "This is hard for her. The spell that was cast over the potion that was mixed with your blood, has one key factor that has to be done. Or it won't work, and in another hundred or so years the cycle will start all over again."
"What is that one thing then?"
Looking up into Isami's eyes, Kazuma glared. "You have to kill Keiji. You have to pierce his heart with two blades at the same time. And you have to do it before anyone dies. The kids and women included."
X
With a glare as he stood on one of the tallest buildings, Keiji had his arms crossed looking down at the compound where his prey was. He was going to kill them all a second time. And would do so until the end of time. He wasn't going to let his parents foil what his plans were just because they felt for those damned humans.
"My Lord?"
"Do you have more made?" Turning to Koudou he glared. "You have the same number I had when we attacked Kyoto back then right?"
Nodding Koudou bowed before him. "Indeed I do My Lord. Why are we not attacking though?"
Turning to the compound he glared. "This must be something my meddling parents came up with to make sure that I stayed out until the last moment. There is a barrier around it that refuses to let me in, and refuses to let the Furies in either."
"I see."
Turning and walking from the edge of the building, Keiji smiled an evil smile as he walked past Koudou. "Thank you for making them in my stead Koudou. But you are no longer needed now."
"What are you…" Koudou started to stand up but gasped when he felt the pain of a blade enter his back and pierce his heart, exiting from the front. "What the hell? Why?"
Waiting a moment, Keiji laughed. "You were a pawn. A means to an end. I have that end now. Be gone with you." He then pulled the sword and watched as he turned to dust. Walking on toward the door, Keiji glared as he fisted his hands at his side. "It doesn't matter how long it takes for me to get in there and kill them all again. The outcome will be the same Mother. I don't know why you diluted yourself in thinking those pesky humans could alter their fate."