Chapter Nine
by Shadou-sama

Shadra and Kai had been jogging on top of the hills surrounding the valley and the tournament grounds. They had stopped when they had reached a nice little shelf on one of the hills that overlooked most of the valley to take a break.

"So what're you going to be tonight?" Shadra asked, "While the rest of us are away."

Kai gave her an odd look. "The rest of us?"

"Yeah. The dance."

"But you weren't going—"

"No, you weren't going. I'm the one who wanted to go."

Kai sat silently for a few moments. "So you're going alone."

"Uh, no actually. I'm going with Ray."

Kai looked surprised. "Ray asked you?"

"Yeah. I was surprised too," until Balla had explained the whole demon thing to her. Now, in some weird way, it made perfect sense.

He ignored her, looking off into the distance. They sat there for a while in uncomfortable silence.


Kai walked along a grassed over path, the way shown by the break in the brush. The others were at the dance, leaving him alone. And Shadra… He couldn't believe she went with Ray. That tramp.

He reached a clearing. And what a weird clearing. Four large trees stood exactly at the four points; north, east, south and west. Not only that, but the tree to the north was leafless and covered in something that looked like snow. The tree to the east had little buds and flowers on it. The one to the west's leaves were gold and brown, like in autumn. The south tree was the most normal, green leafed like it should be in the summer. A mysterious mist slithered up from each of the trees, wrapping around an object in the middle of the clearing.

Kai cautiously walked to the center object, trying to make out what it was through the thickening fog. He reached down and pulled it up. The mist vanished, and the trees went missing.

"Can this get any stranger?" He muttered to himself. He looked down at the object in his hands.

It was a silver sword and scabbard, fancily engraved. Kai knew a bit about swords from of a school project he had had to do once. The pommel of the sword bore the face of a child, while on the scabbard's fitting right below the guard was the face of an adult and on the fitting of the scabbard's tip was the face of an old man. Between the three fittings on the scabbard were the painted phases of the moon, with the full moon carved into the center fitting. The guard was around three inches long. A white tassel and knot adorned the top of the pommel. In the place between the pommel and guard where the hilt should have been leather or something, was engraved a beautiful woman with cat ears, eyes and a tail.

Kai knew this was no ordinary sword, what with the mist and the eerie vanishing trees, the strange ornaments, the metal it was made of and the feeling in his gut. It was a sword of power, and it belonged to Shadra.


Holly made her way to Yuki's tree. The others were gone to that dance thing in the nearby town. This was the perfect time to visit the demon, when the other Masters wouldn't know.

She came up to the tree, a faint red light coming from behind the branches. Iayah had done a good job. No human would ever know that something was there, the only clue was the glow of the magic and those fools couldn't see it.

Holly brushed aside the branches. The demon's head was turned to the side. He looked gentler then he probably ever did when he was conscious. The arrow had struck him in the chest.

She prodded him. "Wake up."

Yuki didn't move.

"Wake up," she said again, hitting him the shoulder.

He still didn't move.

"Wake up!" She practically yelled. Angry gold light burst out of the gold key she had hanging out of her pocket on its gold chain and struck Yuki's head.

The boy jerked up. He looked a bit dazed, but he quickly shook it off.

"Finally," she exclaimed.

"Who are you?" He demanded, pushing himself away from the tree. The only problem was the arrow was still pinning him there. He ceded to it, glowering.

"Holly, Master of Mind," she said as she gave a little bow. "And you're Yuki, right?"

He glared at her, not responding but Holly didn't him to. How many demons were there sealed to a tree by a magical arrow in the prairie?

"You must be pretty mad," she continued. "Shadra, your one true love, ran off with some nerds leaving you all alone."

He looked away, still glowering.

"But it's not her fault. She would be with you if she could, but she can't. Those boys have an enchantment over her, and she's not strong enough to break it. But you are—"

"Stop trying to feed me your lies." Yuki growled. "She's just some pitiful poor vixen."

Holly was a taken aback. She had thought he would want to play hero and save the damsel in distress. Holly's demons would have. But instead he wished to think the worst of her. But she could still use him…

"Then how about this. You eliminate her from this tournament and I'll make it so you can do whatever you want to her. Kill her, torture her, whatever you want as revenge. You won't even suffer those horribly painful side effects."

Yuki kept silent for a few minutes. Holly was starting to become impatient again. If he took one more minute she was going to try and take over his mind to do it.

"Anything my heart desires?" He asked suddenly.

"Yes."

"No strings attached?"

"Well… There's just one little thing. You can only do it inside the realm of my mirror." She took her key in a hand, and whispered a few choice words. Gold light floated out, and formed a circle. It hardened into a mirror with a gold edge. But the glass didn't reflect anything. Oh no, that was not it's purpose. It reflected the minds she took over or trapped inside the mirror world. She didn't have any stolen minds at the moment, she needed all the magic ready to trap the Time Master's mind.

Yuki looked at it doubtfully.

"She'll be able to feel anything and everything you do to her, even when she's unconscious."

Yuki glanced at the mirror again. "What do I need to do?"


Shadra was having a pretty good time at the dance. Ray had obviously not received Shadra's dance skills, who was having trouble not bumping into anyone, anything or stepping on his feet. She had learned long ago to accept her abysmal dancing, but she still felt embarrassed every time she ran into something. Ray, being the gentlemen that he was, hadn't mentioned it.

"I'm going to take a breath of fresh air," she told him on a refreshment break. He nodded, and continued on towards the punch table.

She stepped out into the cool night air. The moon was beautiful, a silver crescent shape surrounded by stars.

WHAM! Shadra staggered backwards from the blow.

To be continued...