The sunlight seemed afraid
of this dark alley that Eve had chosen as her hiding place while she waited for
Miyu to appear. Somehow she knew that the vampire girl would come by here in
her hunt for blood. According to Yakamura, Miyu could withstand the power of
the Cross, stand in sunlight and even resist Holy Water.
"Why are you looking for
me?"
Eve gasped and turned
around. Miyu stood behind her, looking like any normal thirteen-year-old girl.
Lava, her eternal servant, stood silently behind her. Eve swallowed the lump
that had suddenly formed in her throat.
"I think you know," she
said. Miyu nodded in understanding.
"It is foolish of you to
interfere in affairs that are beyond your comprehension," she said. "It is even
more foolish of you to ally yourself with Yakamura, the demon god. He will kill
you when he is finished with you."
"D-demon god?" Eve said.
"What are you talking about?"
Miyu closed her eyes and
chuckled. "Yakamura is of a race of demons that are gods of the Abyss in which
he was born. They possess humans and take their life force so that they can
prolong their existence on this world. It is my destiny to hunt them and send
them back to the Abyss. Until I have hunted them all down, time will stand
still for me."
"Stand…still? What do you
mean?" Eve asked.
Miyu giggled and stretched
out her hand. "I mean that I will not change at all until my given task is
complete. I will remain the same as I am now until I have hunted down all of
the demon gods that escaped the Abyss when I refused to accept my fate."
"What was your fate?" Eve
asked, suddenly interested.
"I was to be the Guardian of
my family's bloodline. Centuries ago, a demon god rose out of the Abyss and
gave my worthiest forefather the blood of a vampire. That blood has been passed
down to me, and I in turn will pass it down to my offspring."
Miyu rose a few centimetres off
the ground and laughed quietly.
"Goodbye, Eve," she said. "We
will meet again, soon."
With that, Miyu and Lava
disappeared, leaving Eve alone to ponder what just happened.
---------------------------------
Buffy slammed her fist into the
training dummy and almost snapped it off its stand. Xander was watching,
wide-eyed.
"Hey, Buffy, is something
bothering you today?" he asked.
"No, why?" replied Buffy,
delivering a hard kick to the dummy's midsection.
"Just wondering…" Xander
said. "So, have we found out anything about our little vampire girl?"
"You'll have to talk to
Giles about that."
"Oh, OK."
Xander left in a hurry,
before Buffy began thinking that he was a good training dummy. Buffy
watched him leave and turned back to the dummy. She hit it in the side of the
head with a spinning heel kick and took its head right off.
"You are quite powerful."
Buffy turned around to see
Miyu and Lava standing behind her near the doorway.
"I wish you'd stop doing
that," said Buffy. Miyu giggled, but didn't even bother to apologise. Instead,
she asked:
"Is this where you train
yourself?"
Buffy nodded. "Wanna try?"
she asked, grinning. Miyu smiled slightly and pointed a finger at the headless
dummy. It burst into flame and was reduced to ashes in mere moments. Buffy
stared at the pile of ashes on the floor and turned back to Miyu. How did she
do that?
"I just came by to warn you,"
Miyu said. "A woman named Eve is working for the demon god that I am hunting. She
herself is a demon hunter, but she wishes to do battle with me."
Miyu laughed quietly. "She is
foolish to think that she, a mere human, can defeat me."
Miyu turned and walked back
into Lava's arms and they both faded away. Buffy sighed and looked at the ashes
again. Giles wasn't going to like this…
--------------------------
Yakamura watched in mild
amusement as these people walked the streets, completely oblivious to his
presence. He saw his next victim coming down the street, and stepped in front
of her.
"Pardon me," he said. "Might
I buy you lunch?"
The girl stared at Yakamura,
but something in the way he looked at her made her want to go with him.
"Y-yes," she said. Yakamura
smiled slightly and took her by the hand.
"Come with me," he said. She
obediently followed him into a dark alley. As soon as they were out of sight,
Yakamura put a hand over the woman's mouth to prevent her from screaming, and
bit into her neck. She went limp within a minute. He left her body in the
alleyway and simply walked into the street and blended into the crowd.
--------------
Miyu, too, was feeding. But
she had just given her victim the gift of eternal life. She stepped away from
the boy, who immediately sat down on the ground, too weak to move. Her hunger
for blood satisfied, Miyu put her arms around Lava and they disappeared into thin
air.
----------------
Eve was in the gym, training
herself for the battle with Miyu. But something told her that this vampire,
young as she looked, wouldn't be easy prey. She slammed her fist into the
punching bag, sending it flying from its chain.
"Hey! How many times do I have
to tell you not to hit the bags so hard?!"
"Gees, you'd think that this
guy would learn to mellow out a little!" thought Eve. "I'll fix the
chain, don't worry!"
"You'd better!" came the
angry reply. Eve sighed, picked up the bag and began to fix the chain.
"This was the fourth one
this month," she thought. "Maybe I should mellow out…"
---------------
"This is a very odd
dimension," Miyu said quietly. "The vampires here are exactly like the myths
that humans in our dimension believe."
She looked up at Lava, who
just stared into space, silent but watchful. "Yes," he thought. "But
that human, Buffy, could be a danger…"
It hurt Lava emotionally
that he couldn't tell Miyu his feelings about this odd parallel dimension that
they had landed in. "A slayer of vampires… I wonder how long she lives for?
Is she mortal…?" he thought. "Oh, Miyu, please, be careful around this
girl! You've seen how powerful she is…"
Miyu looked up at him and smiled. "I wish that you could tell me your thoughts," she said. "But your voice was taken from you, so you cannot. Come, we must begin the hunt for Yakamura tonight."
Lava looked down at her
silently and nodded. He took her in his arms and they faded away to start the
hunt for the demon god Yakamura.