Kosetsu No Unmei
Chapter 3: Guardian Of A Dead Clan?
By AnimayWriteY0
Upon meeting again, Juinchi is left with a puzzled state of mind regarding to his powers. Hakune having stood there expected his reaction, fully understood his need-to-know basis about what just happened back at his workplace. After a few seconds of awkward silence Juinchi finally broke it and decided to help welcome Hakune back to his home again just so they can talk about the things that has occurred within Juinchi and the reason why Hakune is back again. Once the pair of them have entered the apartment home Juinchi went straight to the kitchen to make tea for his female guest. Each time he looked at Fujiko san he can tell from body language that Hakune is somewhat distressed over something regarding to himself as she sat tensely on his futon couch looking down and hands clamping down on her own lap clearly troubled. To him, he got a hunch that the way the demon girl is behaving shows that what she'll inform him is going to be crucial. After Juinchi set a cup full of nice warm cup of tea on the table in front of her. She looks up at him and finally spoke.
"Juinchi...I know you must be curious about what transpired, and the questions related to your strange occurrences..." She held up her cup of tea and took a slight sip. "Anyway, the reason you gained such a power is because I have given you demon blood inside you..." She grips the cup tightly while her body tenses due to her speaking out her actions to Juinchi.
"W-wait what?!...You've given me demonic blood?!...Why?!" Juinchi stood back in shock and then looked at his own hands feeling conflicted to what she has told him. His eyes widens and then a long pause until he grips his hands and puts his arms down. "When was that?..." Easily confused at the answer Juinchi tries to find any sort of logic behind her actions. Was this some sort of gift for helping her? No, there has to be a catch for all of this.
Aware of Juinchi's reaction she then explains him the some much needed details so it can ease Juinchi from having a mini self-reflecting identity crisis, before that she looks away with a sign of guilt knowing that he will be showing that exact facial response. She took a glance at Juinchi one more time to see any negative response, if that's the case she couldn't really blame him because she did this without his consent. To her surprise, Juinchi looked more confused than showing a hint of aggression, anger, and regret. Hakune took a deep breath sensing that it's a good time to tell the truth.
"Sorry about what I did to you Tatagashi San...I shouldn't be taking your life away like that..." It was a selfish act, but in her own view it was a necessary step. She doesn't want to resort to such a cowardly tactic but at this point she needs to take the opportunity to finally be free from all of the weight she must have back at home or what's left of it.
"H-huh? U-ummmm..n-no its fine...don't be upset..I'm just shocked about what you said now...but can you tell me why you implant demonic blood into my body?..." He sits down on the floor crossing his legs while drinking his own cup of tea to hear more of Miss Fujiko's side.
"W-well I'm getting into that...a-anyways...it's because you're the perfect human to be my guardian..." She bluntly stated after she quickly sets the cup of tea down, Hakune with overwhelming stress couldn't hold in her guilt that's been plaguing her.
"Guardian? So, you want me to protect you, Fujiko San..." He tilted his head questioning the legitimacy to her reason. "I-I'm sorry but why choose me as the one to be there to defend you?"
"If you don't want to then I'm sorry for taking away your time like that...I'll be off..." She suddenly gets up and rashly excuse herself straight to the door of Juinchi's apartment.
"Hakune wait!..." He calls out to her which brought her to stop before she could go straight out from the door. "That's not what I mean Hakune...I only wanna know, why did you choose me to be your guardian...we barely met and the only time that we even got a chance to know one another is when I invited you to my home when you needed a place to stay..." Juinchi said with a concerning manner.
"It's my only chance to survive...as you can see Tatagashi San" Visibly showing her sadness and vulnerable state, Hakune painstakingly tells her experience. "The reason I chose you is because of the last wish my last dying friend told for before her death...She wanted me to find a human best-suited to be my guardian...and once I find that someone, I must inject blood to them so their DNA changes with unbelievable results...but for this to work "That" human must have a heart pure enough to withstand the effects of the transfusion of the blood." She looks directly at him, her eyes close to shed tears along with her cheeks flushing red, and whole facial demeanor expresses as if her very hope is being hung by a small string holding the sheer weight of desperation. "You're the one, Juinchi...the best one out of the rest of the humans I came across...and because I watched your encounter with those rogue demons. I was impressed that you took them down with ease. That is why I now have hopes that you'll take on this new responsibility...but its solely up to you…"
"Fujiko San..." After what Hakune explained to him, the conflicted young chef stood silent trying to make sense on what she said trying to rationalize this idea of being a guardian to someone who he barely knows. Right now, the nerve wrecking young man doesn't have the words to say anything to her. All he could do is pause until his facial and body language have answered Hakune's question for him by looking down with a darkened face and head turning away out of frustration and emergent quandary.
Seeing the reaction of Juinchi's expression she knew that this was going to happen when Juinchi decided to decline her request. This left Hakune bewildered and completely broken, her overall expressive tone is now down to helplessness as she holds in the tears that are about to burst from her eyes. Though upset and disappointed, she respects his decision and turns back walking off to Juinchi's front door and leaves as her tears finally came out. Now she has no hope of living in this world knowing full well that the only thing she'll get from here is more suffering.
After Hakune stepped out of his house, Juinchi then looked towards the direction she left and having second thoughts about his decision. With a massive guilt rapidly building up he slumps down holding onto his head trying to think of what to do since all of these events showed up in his life so suddenly. If there is something that the young man is not good at, it's to not make a girl cry and this is where he absolutely failed on doing. In a moments time he realizes that since this now happened in his life he might as well accept it as part of his own. What's more he wishes nothing more than to gain some more answers out of Hakune since she may have more to talk about if he had taken part of her request to become her guardian. Though nervous and wary Juinchi took off running to find Hakune.
Meanwhile about 4 miles away from Juinchi's home, Hakune sat down holding her knees feeling powerless. She can't defend herself much longer due to her strength gradually diminishing due to fending off hostile demons and cruel humans who enjoy inflicting pain on her for self-entitlement, and dominance. Because of her efforts of trying to find a guardian suited for her protection was in vain she has no choice but to defend herself no matter how weak she's gotten. And when things can't get any worse, she sees a couple of teen-aged looking boys coming along the way towards her direction. Seeing them coming closer, though not aware of her presence Hakune took her chance to hide by jumping onto a well-covered tree. She sat still while keeping herself silent to keep so she wouldn't be seen by those goons. The four teenagers seem to belong to a gang of some sort as their clothing looks more torn and ragged. One of them is holding a baseball bat adding a high level of danger for Hakune. After examining the teenagers and observing their speech patterns, behavior, and intentions Hakune have encountered these teens before and then it clicked, these are the same ones that tormented her before she met Juinchi. Though angry and furious she kept herself calm knowing that she does not have the strength to fight off these numbers.
"Damn it! It's those guys again...great one of them has a weapon this is going to be much harder to deal with...might as well just sit here and wait until they leave…" Hakune thought while she keeps still to not draw any attention.
"Oh man..what a boring day...I want to just enjoy my freakin day messi'n someone's good side!" The first punk said while swinging his bat at the air.
"Oh shut up...you have been doing nothing but drinking...and whining over something that doesn't even consider a big deal..." The second teen twirls his chains around in boredom as he then clamping in on the ground leaning his right elbow on one of the trees just a few feet away from Hakune.
"Tsk...yeah? We could have taking the chance of snatching some cash from that old guy or better yet snatch his "little precious girl" and fuck that damn nice girl up...! But nooooo you two decided to go out and use our remaining money for freakin food when we should have saved it up for something big!"
"Go to hell! I would rather keep myself away from being busted, the old man has a freakin gun..and let's not forget that most of the people now own guns for safety!..." The third worries as he drank his energy drink.
"Don't worry guys we'll have our fun soon...just chill" The 4th one said hoping something does occur for them.
"Aight!" Said the first. "Fo Sho Homie!" Said the second. "Sure I guess..." and finally said the third.
Having heard their conversation Hakune became more enraged than ever. But because of her own safety she needs to prioritize her survival, it's her biggest priority at the moment than showing those disgusting little monsters some well-deserved manners. She lowered her sights and keeping calm for as long as she can under the cover of tree branches and leaves concealing herself. Trying to keep herself balanced, she suddenly starts to feel tired, yet she is fighting the urge to pass out from such a long wait. She has to focused but when she tries to get her footings right, she's exerting too much stamina, in a twisted inconvenience one of the branches sharp edges have scraped her right leg. She let out a yelp due to the pain but covers her mouth in time when before any noise even erupts. Though glad that she stopped herself, it didn't fully keep them from being aware.
"Hey, did you hear that, guys?" The first guy calls their attention while looking all directions.
In a heat of panic Hakune silently sat still as much as she could while holding her injured leg away from the gang, so the dripping blood won't fall onto one of their faces. She curses her better judgment to not eat anything before she could go around at such a late night. Now having a blood gushing wound, her chances of survival has become incredibly slim.
"Oh no...they are starting to get suspicious...I must keep myself hidden even more, come on...don't do this to me wound." Hakune covers her wound from dripping blood on top of them. "Please just go away..." The desperate demon girl plead in her mind and cursing as to why they are still here in the park for this long.
"No what did you hear?" The rest of the gang looked at him in confusion.
"I could have sworn I heard a scream from somewhere...but I guess it's my imagination." The suspicious punk said easing his wary tension.
Just as it would seem it is safe that they didn't notice, Hakune's injured leg gave away her position due to the fact that the dripping blood have flowed down on the branch and in vain the first drop of blood landed on one oof the Gang member's forehead holding the bat. This have made Hakune curse herself to not wash the flowing blood from traveling down on the branches when she has injured herself.
"What the hell?" He wiped his face. "Blood?..." He turns his attention up the tree and saw Hakune, after that he calls to his friends and points his bat at her location. "Look guys over there on that tree!"
Due to this the rest of the gang saw Hakune and starts to run over while making menacing, smug, and malice faces, the same faces as they did when they first encountered Hakune. Hakune sat there helplessly as she was sighted by the four goons. Now out of options, she is getting ready to face them, the very same humans that have tormented her for fun, beating her to submission, taking what's left of her precious valuables given by her friends, and now they are stalking the very tree she's on.
"Well, well, well... if it isn't little miss demon girl...get down from there so we can talk with ya..." He laughs with a disgustingly delighted tone walking around the tree surrounding each pathway Hakune wishes to jump off to get away.
"You scums need to learn to show manners...b-because this is not how you would treat others even if it's a different race..." She clenches her sharpen teeth hating these guys, they just won't stop relenting.
"Why don't you just shut that damn mouth and get down there! Or better yet how about this!" The first punk swung his bat at the tree making it shake causing Hakune to lose her balance but holding on with will power she can muster to stay on the tree. "You little wench get down there now!" He lets out a huge swing on the tree making it unbelievably hard to maneuver for Hakune until one of the others threw a rock at her forehead thus causing Hakune to fall off the tree and landed hard on the ground. "Heh much better..."
After a hard impact to the ground Hakune got up with clear bruises on her arms as they took the most damage. To her horror she took a glance to her tormentors. they make faces that she doesn't even want to see. "Y-you damn h-humans...why c-can't you leave me alone...W-what have I done to deserve this?…" She wishes that these punks can just go away out of existence. In reality, the world she experienced is all too real here, the fact that Demons are being highly discriminated by humans they tend to enjoy the thrill of dominating weaker demons who do not have the capacity to fight back. Now that Hakune is unable to defend herself she is now on the same level as the helpless demons.
"Shut the fuck up bitch! Haha!" The second punk kicked her by the arm leaving a horrible bruise to Hakune's right arm. "Ohhhh that must have hurt but I don't give a damn this is fun now!…"
Arrghhh!..." With no wits end Hakune gets up and tries to run away after seeing a huge gap between the second and first thugs but before she even gets a chance to turn tail and run the guy with the bat swings the wooden stick hitting Hakune's injured leg. "Aghhhh!" Hakune fell down hard with now a horribly bruised leg, the impact must have hit directly at her joint area. "N-no...I-I can't m-move..." With the intense pain she held onto her left leg to stop the agonizing feeling of pain, because of being a demon she is more durable to take the impact done by the bat luckily theres no broken bones. Still, she cries in agony. "P-please...d-don't...I-I don't w-want to go t-through t-this..." Hakune begs the four street thugs to leave her alone only to be heard on deaf ears.
"Guys...our little pet is crying...hehehe...this should be fun I guess she is begging us to do something new...you guys know what I'm saying…?" The bruiser with the bat said with ill intent.
"Yeah I feel the same way...we take turns for 2 minutes...while each of us holds her down..." The 2nd one made an obvious ploy which terrifies the shocked Hakune.
"I can't wait to see her face when we have fun with her..." The third chuckled proceeding to be the first to have his.
"N-No a-anything but that!" Scared for her life, she pleads them mercy to not do what they are planning to do to her, the dreaded feeling of such actions is enough to have Hakune wishing that she would rather die along with her friends than what she'll be dealing with here. This is hell to her, and she couldn't do anything about it. She's trapped, she's lost, her hope dwindling once they start to close in on her.
She plea desperately for them to stop, but inevitably they do not comply as the fourth guy is about to reach for her by the hair. Hakune closing her eyes tight, her eyes are drenching with overflowing tears, and her whole-body trembling. she has no hope from this until...
She did feel something, but it wasn't what she thought would happen in fact it's as if she's being carried. She opens her eyes to see Juinchi holding onto her in a princess carry, Hakune looks on realizing that she is at a much further distance away from the thugs. "J-Juinchi?!" Her eyes widen from his appearance in shock but is overshadowed by relief. "You...followed...me?!"
"Thank goodness I came just in time...I'm sorry about that...you're okay now... I'm so sorry I left you alone like that, it's my fault my body language made you think I refused..." Having Hakune on his arms, he slowly set her down gently on the grassy patch while turning his full attention on the four unforgiving punks who threatened Hakune. He glared at them with eyes enveloped in a serious manner, fists clenching, and intent to get even with them. "So, I take it you guys are the ones that put this poor young woman through hell when she arrived at this world?"
"Huhhh who are you kid?!" The 1st punk stared at Juinchi in a taunted smirk.
"Wait...your that kid from that noodle shop...never thought of you as a gutsy guy..." The 2nd laughed seeing how Juinchi tries to act brave.
"Whatever this dumb ass doesn't know what he's doing heh!" The third mocks as he cracks his knuckles. "Doesn't matter. Once we're done with your sorry ass we'll finally get to screw with that demon bitch."
"You guys should have just stayed away from her, or else you won't be able to speak out your threats or even move for that matter!…" Juinchi further furrowed his eyes after hearing this from the group of low lives. "These fools, I can't believe this is where the human race is at now. Total degenerates!" Juinchi thought with sheer disgust.
"What are you bladdering about!? If you wish to die, then we would love to do so! Get'em boys!" With an obvious response from them, Juinchi got ready to fight but instead of posing in a fighting stance he only stood still with eyes glaring at their view. Juinchi being alone the gangs became cocky and decided to attack Juinchi at the same time. Feeling overly exhausted and out of energy Hakune slowly loses her consciousness and passes out while the gang members rushed at Juinchi.
The first is the guy with the bat, he took a swing at Juinchi's direction but only missed him, this made the bat wielder stumble giving Juinchi the opening to knee him hard to the gut leaving the thug to slump down on the ground holding onto his stomach rolling over from the intense pain. The third tried to grab him by the arm but only manage to have Juinchi parry the lunge and head butt the guy on the forehead making him fall hard on his back leaving him unconscious. The fighting chef turn to the two remaining punks as the fourth which happens to be the leader pull out a gun aiming directly at Hakune; however the thug is left stupefied that Juinchi came right in front of him kicking his chest while grabbing the gun and breaks the weapon by crushing it. Juinchi finally end the leader with a hard punch to the gut so hard he spews blood leaving him to fall flat on the concrete floor, thus setting his sights on the remaining one. The last guy sweat and back away in fear, to his shock he sees the angry orange head glow in blue similar to a certain someone from the ramen shop. "Oh crap!...He has it too?! Man, screw this! I'm out!" The remaining thug ran off leaving the others behind.
After that small scuffle Juinchi loosen his muscles and stood down his fighting pose. "Tch, they talk tough but they sure are good at being cowards..." He turns to Hakune as he picks her up and carry her back home.
Once Hakune woke up, she took a few looks around and realizes she is on a bed. Getting up, it was clear that she's back in Juinchi's bedroom. When Hakune looked over to her right side to see Juinchi on his desk dozing off, Hakune got up and places her hand on his shoulder and proceeds to shake him a little while calling out his name. "Tatagashi San are you awake?" He immediately woke up while turning to see her worrisome face. "Tatagashi San you actually came back for me...t-thank you...I'm sorry...for getting you into this mess...what I did was grossly selfish, but I should have let you know before I did what I had to.
"No...I should say sorry..for not taking your word...now you'll be fine with me..." He looks back at her with a concerned sad smile and moves closer to her to further support his role for her.
With those exact words Hakune then asked him the last question like before, to make sure if he is really sure about it. She then hesitatingly asks him. "Tatagashi San will you take on your new life as my g-guardian...?"
He nodded affirmatively and gladly accept his role as her guardian. "Yes, I am committed to doing this task. You can finally rest easy now." He let out a heartfelt smile as he pats her head. With that Hakune places herself close to Juinchi while he does the same, the two embrace one another without letting go. Hakune then give Juinchi a gentle kiss to his cheek as a token for saving her life and accepting her.
"Thank you...Juinchi..."
To be Continued...