Yup, chapter ten is here! Suddenly, I'm having so much fun writing this story. Who knew, writing can be so much exiting, ha…ha…ha… I know that I've been making giving headache to you guys, but hey, it just adds up the suspense. ^-^;

So, enjoy this one, too!

Chapter Ten

"Excuse me?" Kougaiji frowned. "You have a twin?"

The girl nodded. "Please, did you come across anyone that looks like me on your way here…he…"

"I don't think so," The youkai prince answered straight.

"Hey," The swordsman suddenly cut through from behind both of them. "Kou-sama, remember that tall pale kid at Lirin's school that day?"

Kougaiji frowned. "Yeah. Why?"

Dokugakuji whistled.

The prince stared at him in disbelief, "…You don't mean…. But that's a she for crying out loud. Don't tell me her brother loves to dress like a woman, …does he?"

The girl grasped the red ruby pendant that hung on her neck and gasped. "It's almost midnight. We have to stop him before it's too late… Please, bring me to that school," She begged.

Silence.

"Please…"

"The dragon is unoccupied." Dokugakuji smiled as the dragon beside him snorted. "How about an escorting job for a change?" He asked the prince. "We don't want a beautiful lady like her get lost, do we?"

Kougaiji sighed. "Doku, you are beginning to sound like your brother," Kougaiji said and looked back at the girl. "You, why is your brother is such a hazard to you?" He asked, still puzzled.

Melynlas climbed the dragon's back followed by the swordsman. She pushed her long strand of silver hair off her face revealing a pair of cold dark eyes full of hatred and revenge, as she stared at the red-haired man in front Hiryu. "Not me, but maybe all the humans in this city and on this planet…"

"Wai! You owe me an explanation!" Kougaiji shouted just as the dragon took off.

The prince eyed the dragon until it disappeared into the thick gray clouds above.

Hmph, I guess I have to get myself another dragon then, since he brought her on my one and only mode of transportation, the young prince sniffed, when he realized that he was all alone in the middle of the forest. He looked around and grumbled. Where in the world am I going to get a dragon in the middle of nowhere?!

"Bang!"

Gunshot rocked the night. Bullets slammed into the stone walls of the almost a century year old building, chipping off bits of stone and dusting the whole place up. Hakkai threw up a force field between them and the disintegrating outcropping, a concave bowl of shimmering green energy blocked the bits of stones while casting uncanny emerald radiance through the half-destroyed hallway. "Sanzo…"

Sanzo stopped shooting for a while and looked at him. "What?"

"Anou… you're going to kill someone if you don't control your anger…" Hakkai said, reminding his friend that life is a valuable asset. He knew how trigger-happy the monk could be once he lost his temper.

The blonde monk laughed and pointed his gun towards the incoming pack of wolves in front of them.

Yaone sighed. Looks like another hour of ear-piercing sounds. She ducked and puts her hands up, covering her ears. "Hakkai-san," She called out. "I think you should cover yours, too. We might get deaf."

"Get ready!" Sanzo warned them. He placed his hands on top of his sutra and closed his eyes. This was going to take careful timing.

"Get ready?" Hakkai echoed in confusion. The lambent glow of the force field cast greenish shadows upon his face, making him look even more closer to a real demon than a human. "Ready for what?"

"PURIFY THE EVIL!" Sanzo shouted on top of his voice. The sutra, which was always draped on his shoulders began coiling and uncoiling, moving at an amazing speed, towards the pack. Within seconds, the carnivores were shredded into small pieces.

"Gross…" Yaone muttered, removing a few flesh strands off her light purple hair.

"Take that, smarty pants!" The monk fell back and laughed hysterically. He had never enjoyed killing that much in his entire life.

Hakkai rubbed his aching palms on his pants. He was glad, a little. Well, at least it wasn't him doing the killing. However, this wasn't the perfect time to rest. They had to find the mastermind behind this bizarre situation before it gets worst. He inspected the dead remains.

Judging from their scent and behavior, he concluded that, they were controlled by some one, who is skilled in controlling minds. He posed for a while. Could that someone also have done something to Gojyo, he wondered.

"Incoming!" Yaone announced, pulling Hakkai back between the cracked walls. Seconds later, more gunshots were heard.

Blam! The pistol flared, and Hakkai didn't look away in time as the gunshot blew away the top of the wolves' heads, splashing the already stained walls with an explosion of blood and brain. But then, the green-eyed man sensed something and quickly spun around. "Show yourself!" He ordered as his hands were getting ready to create another green barrier.

"Hold it!" The small blue hair girl with a dog in front of them shrieked just after one of Yaone's small explosives missed her head by a few inches.

"What are you doing here little girl? It's dangerous in here," Hakkai said softly as he made his way towards the girl.

"Watch it mister," She answered quickly and giggled.

"What is so funny?"

The girl shook her head. "Yup, I guess this shape-shifting thing does work, ne Goku?"

"Goku?" Yaone repeated surprised.

"Woof! Damn, Wait till I get back to my original form. I'll get that kid for good!" The dog, which is now known as Goku growled. (I know, he should be a monkey, but then…)

"Huh? A talking dog…" The purple hair girl wondered and picked up the dog from Lirin's arm. She studied it and chuckled and pinched the dog's sort of cheek. "So CUTE!!!"

"Awwwww!" Goku yelped. Painful, painful, painful…

"There's no time to rest!" Sanzo shouted as he ran passed them. Following after him were a pack of gray wolves and groups of decomposing zombies. But then, he immediately came to a stop in front of a tall man. Sanzo's eyes opened wide when he realized who the man was. "Whoa, Gojyo? I thought you are supposed to be in bed?! "

"Wait a minute!" David cried out as he shielded himself from Sanzo's shots. He didn't even have time to explain the situation. He's such a hot-tempered man, he screamed inside his head.

"Die bastard! Die imposter!" The blonde monk was in rage. His finger never stopped pressing the trigger.

"W…Wait a minute…"

Jezebel had cornered a tall blonde boy in what appeared to be a dead end. She had received direct order from her boss to eliminate whosoever who tries to escape from the premise and the boy in front of her was not an exception. He was tall and far much larger that her, but it was not a big problem. Besides, her dagger was still hungry for blood.

A flickering white neon light, shining over the back entrance of the dead end to the right, cast a pale glow over the tense confrontation, which had the boy pressed up against the wall looking scared to death. "Hold it Jez…!" He pleaded. "Don't do anything crazy…"

Jezebel loomed in front of the boy, her ghostly pale face only inches from her accomplice's, the end of the sharpened blade pressed up beneath the boy's chin. "Shhh…" She whispered into his ears. "Don't make things hard for the both of us, alright."

"I just wanted to get out of here," The blonde boy stammered. " You guys are weird and I don't intend to get involved with you and your… whoever she is…" He squirmed against the unyielding brick wall when he suddenly realized that another tall woman was standing behind her.

"Lovely." The girl sneered. "Get him done and we'll go outside thirty minutes from now for the final preparation."

Jezebel nodded and jabbed the boy with her blade, forcing his chin up. "Sorry Brad, no time to chat," She said craftily. The girl nodded again, thinking it over. "Right, no time to chat. You're a security leak and needs plugging up."

"I…I…Wait…" Comprehension heightened the panic in his eyes. "No, wait, I…"

Shink! The cold sharp blade stabbed him right through his chest sending blood spraying out like a water jet. She watched expressionless as the boy crumbled to the ground. Assuming that she already took the living daylights from him, she smiled triumphantly and walked out of the building

The boy lay bleeding where he fell, unable to move at all. Jezebel's blade has cut his spine, he realized after stabbing him. He couldn't feel anything at all below his shoulders, which was probably a mercy of sort. He felt dizzy and cold, light-headed even. Goodbye world, he thought. He knew he was going to die. He knew now that it was a mistake to fall in love with a demon, even though they were related to humans. However, it was too late to regret that, too.

Gojyo groaned, as he painfully forced open his eyes. He blinked a few times before finally began to focus on the red neon light in the room. What happened? He wondered. It was as if he had been sleeping for almost a year. He looked around and shrieked.

Goku barked behind Hakuryu. Yay, finally the perverted water monster awakes! He was glad and jumped of the chair onto the man's laps.

Gojyo smiled and patted his head.

"Gojyo-san, you're awake," Hakkai said as he entered the room. "Yaone's herbs sure was a success."

The red-haired demon grinned and stood up. His back felt numb. Must have been caused by oversleeping, he concluded. However, he pulled out his scythe from under the bed. "Tell me. Since when do you love to keep pets?" He asked when he realized that the creature that he patted earlier was a dog and not Hakuryu.

Goku barked. I am not anybody's pet!

"Funny," Gojyo said as he leaned closer to the dog. "You do eyes like Goku and I do like your golden headband."

Lirin quickly grabbed Goku from the floor before Gojyo step on his tail. "Na Gojyo-san, if you're sure that you're already fit to move, can we go now? David might be in danger already."

"David?" He repeated looking surprised. "What about him? Who are you?"

"I am a pretty maiden from a distant planet and I come in peace," Lirin declared boastfully without realizing that she was standing on the chair.

"Excuse me?"

She chuckled. "It's a pity uncle. Too bad, I'm not going to tell you."

"He's taking you're place. You are supposed to be there now, if he didn't insist to replace you," Hakkai said, cutting through their conversation, from beyond the curtains. He was watching tensely at the crowd of mutated creatures gathering in the institution's garden. At one corner, he spotted a red-haired man struggling to release himself from what looks like thick chains with thorns. "Cannibals…" He muttered and looked at his watch. They had an hour and twenty minutes left before midnight.

The walls came down and disintegrating into nothingness, as Melynlas slipped into Brad's unresisting mind. She realized that this was no ordinary dream, the colors were distorted and strange, gray and monochromatic in some places, while luridly bright and garishly elsewhere. Shapes and angles were stretched and pulled out of proportion.

It took he a while to get her bearings, then she found herself standing outside in a large meadow field. Talk about weird visions before death. Then suddenly, she was back in the school. The hallway was dark and gloomy. The walls were mixtures of black and white, like old-time movie, but fluorescent bright blue light that came from somewhere gave her enough light to see by.

A feeble moan caught her ears, and she looked down to see Brad lying at her feet, a gaping wound in his chest. The injured boy was black and white, too, but his blood was colored. Neon-red fluid pooled beneath the boy's body and leaked from the corner of his mouth.

She bent down and gently rested his head on her lap. She was aware of the rhythmic throbbing noise and instinctively knew had to be Brad's own failing heartbeat, which seemed to grow slower and fainter by the second.

"Brad?" She whispered. The dying boy's eyelids flickered momentarily, but that was all. All around her, the fading pulse ticked away towards its inevitable cessation. She had to hurry. Once the pulse stops, there was no way she could generate enough energy to revive him as well as healing his wound. She intended to save as many victims of her brother's cruelty as possible. It was a choice and not an option. "Please open you eyes, you have to see me…" She murmured.

She brushed his hair off his face and called out his name again. At first, there was no response and she feared that she was too late. But then, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw ebony shadows creeping in on them from every corner of the hallway, threatening to extinguish Brad's last spark of life. She could barely hear his faltering heartbeat anymore.

His eyes opened, making contact with hers. "Mel…?"

She quickly dived into his deep purple orbs, the portal to his soul. She disappeared and reappeared among the maze-like portal. Where is your soul? While wondering around, she noticed something from beyond the ledge of the portal. It was part of his lost emotions and memories and behind it, was his fading soul. She quickly pushed herself through the darkened soul. The deemed lights closed in perilously, obscuring her views, but had managed to do her part. Yes! She thought ecstatically, swimming back towards the rapidly shrinking lights.

"Be strong…" She whispered just before she forced herself up…

…Dokugakuji was there right where she'd left him, watching over Brad and her all the time. He took her hand and helped her up. "Will he be alright?" He asked gently. Somehow, he was amazed at the effort of the little demon in front of him to save lives, even though they were different species. So far, the boy next to her was the fifteenth victim. How many more can she heal, he wondered.

Melynlas' eyes kept glued to the floor. "He's going to make it… if he still has the will to live," She said and pushed the boy's textbook beside him. She offered him a prayer and look at Dokugakuji with determination in her eyes. "Mister," She said. " I swear, I will get Melyngar to pay for what he did."

The swordsman smiled. "He will. Trust me, you're not the only one that is worried." He said and continued. "I have to find my princess, too…"

"Blam!"

The sound of gunshot pause Dokugakuji's words. Both of them turned to see a bloody exhausted monk standing right behind them. "You're hurt," Melynlas gasped as she moved towards him.

"Don't move of I'll shoot!" He ordered furiously.

She stopped, confused. Why was he so angry?

Sanzo aimed the gun straight at her head. "You," He sneered. "Finally, I found you."

Melynlas panicked. "No, wait, it's not me you're looking for!"

"Shut up!" He spat.

Dokugakuji smacked his head. "Sanzo-sama, she's not the one you're looking for," He said. Apparently, it was useless. It only added the anger in the monk's head.

The blonde man pulled the trigger. "It's time to end the game, kid!"

"Stop!" The swordsman shouted trying to push the monk's hand aside. But it was too late. Melynlas stared hopelessly as the bullet zoom through her chest, barely missing her heart. She placed her hands hard where the wound was. Then, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw, right behind the monk and the swordsman, smiling victoriously, was a mirror image of herself, her brother…

End of chapter…