Disclaimer: I don't own Furuba.
Vampires
By: Twilight Kitsune
Chapter the Fifth: Misery
Kyou flew backwards into a nearby wall, and slid to the ground. Rolling away, he just managed to miss another punch from Miji and sweep Miji's legs from underneath him. Climbing to their feet, both vampires faced off, their guard up to ward off the next attack.
"Where's your mind Kyofu?" asked Miji as he started forward with a strong roundhouse kick aimed at Kyou's head. Ducking, Kyou came round and scored a hit to Miji's left kidney. Miji absorbed the blow and countered with a kick that sent Kyou flying. "You walked into that." Miji commented as he started after Kyou. Kyou took to the offense, showering Miji with a fury of blows. Miji blocked several and even managed to comeback with a hit. Kyou backed up, as did Miji, and both rested for a moment. "You smell of rats." commented Miji, as he came forward again, his favorite combination of kicks already started, aimed at Kyou's head. As they fought, Miji lunging and Kyou blocking, two humans walked by the alley. Both brunettes turned their attention to the alley and the fight going on. "Dinner delivered itself tonight, how convenient." commented Miji as he spotted the two girls. Kyou swung around and saw the familiar faces and panicked. His fury of blows became stronger with fear, and he drove Miji against a wall, but it was not before one of the girls recognized him.
"Kyou!" shouted Kagura, running forward. Miji lunged past the startled Kyou, eager for a kill.
"NO!" shouted Kyou, knocking Miji to the side. The elder vampire growled as he hit the wall. In seconds he would be up again, and not very happy. "Get out of here!" Kyou shouted at Kagura as he turned his attention back to the enraged vampire. Miji lunged at Kyou with a fury of blows, faster than Kagura's eyes could follow. Kyou managed to dodge some of them, but it was obvious that he wouldn't last long. Finally an extra blow caught him in the stomach, and he flew back several yards into a wall.
"Kyou!" yelled Kagura as she ran to him. Miji, seeing the shocked form that was Tohru unguarded, lunged and sunk his teeth into her neck before Kyou could stop him. Kyou pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the protests of his wounds and Kagura, and pulled Miji off of Tohru. Miji, interrupted from his meal, was stunned as he flew backwards. Kyou picked up Tohru and leapt forward, dragging a protesting Kagura behind him. He had made his way through several of the alleys he knew so well, when Kagura pulled him to a stop. Kagura, to winded to speak, looked up at him, a puzzled, yet angry look on her face.
"What… was… that?" she asked as she attempted to stop hyperventilating.
"Mijimesa." he replied, shifting the unconscious Tohru into a more comfortable position in his arms.
"What's… a Mijimesa?" she asked, as her breath started to come back.
"Something you should stay as far away from as possible." Kyou said as he started walking down the alleyway. Kagura started after him, able to breathe normally again.
"Where have you been?" she asked, accusation hanging heavily in her voice. She was sick of wondering, and she wanted to get as much information as possible in case he ran away again.
"Nowhere." he said, continuing his navigation through the alleyways.
"You've been somewhere! Probably in this city seeing as you suddenly know what I can and can't go near. Your fighting style has changed too. You're faster and more agile than you were when you left. Did you leave to train again? If you did you can come home now! The curse is broken and Akito is no longer in charge of the family. You don't have to beat Yuki, you can just come home and live with Shishou or Tohru or even me. You won't ever have to live in the cage…"
Kyou drifted off into a pool of memories from his life at Sohma House as Kagura continued to ramble in the background. He remembered the deal with Akito, and Akito's stories about the other cats. He remembered how it was tradition that the cats all end up in the cage and he remembered how he had been born the day Kazuma's grandfather had died. Now he was dead, technically, but there had been no replacement born for him. He was probably the reason the curse was broken. He had died, but not left the earth so his replacement as the cat couldn't be born. That meant there were only the twelve members of the zodiac left to be ruled by their god. It threw the curse all out of whack. But he was still the odd one out; the only one of the former zodiac that was still cursed, albeit with a different curse. It seemed a curse would always haunt him, no matter what he did. Tohru stirred in his arms and brought him back to the real world, where Kagura had stopped rambling and was staring ahead at the darkness of the alleys. It would be several minutes before they got to the hotel, and Kyou wasn't sure if Tohru would stay unconscious that long. He didn't really want another encounter with her unless he had to. She was a reminder of the one time in his life when he was truly happy, when he was with her. He knew he would never have that opportunity again, and that made it hurt too much to see her. Kyou just hoped that Tohru would be happy, even if it was with the rat-boy.
Rounding the next corner, Kyou lead the way into the hotel, and even up to Tohru and Kagura's room. Kagura was shocked that Kyou had known where they were staying, but hadn't visited. She still had no idea of Tohru and Kyou's previous meeting. Silently, Kyou set Tohru down next to the door and turned to Kagura.
"I've gotta go, take care of Tohru." he said, as he studied Kagura's confused look.
"But…" she started to protest as she reached forward and grabbed his arm in a sad attempt to keep him there.
Kyou heard a noise coming from down the hall. It sounded like Momiji. Carefully, he pried Kagura's hand off of his arm, and turned to leave.
"Don't go!" she begged, stepping to grab his arm. Kyou dodged easily away from her and headed at a silent run down the hall where he disappeared around the corner. Just as he left Momiji came around that same corner, at a run.
"Kagura!" he yelled as he neared her. "What's going on and where's… Tohru!" he said as he knelt beside Tohru and tried to wake her. She blinked and opened her eyes, jumping a little bit at seeing two big brown eyes staring directly into hers. "Tohru, what's going on?" asked Momiji. Tohru raised a hand to the wound on her neck absently, as she tried to remember what had happened.
"I don't know… it all happened so fast…" she answered, rubbing her neck. Kagura unlocked the door and leaned down to help Tohru up. She was unsteady on her feet, and her eyes kept closing of their own accord. Somehow, with Momiji on one side and Kagura on the other, they managed to get Tohru into her room. She went to sleep almost as soon as they got there. Kagura and Momiji made their way to the living room to rest, Kagura almost falling asleep herself.
"What really happened?" asked Momiji.
"We saw Kyou, " Kagura explained, "he was fighting with this other guy and the other guy saw us and came after us. Kyou knocked him down and protected us, but the man got to Tohru, and he hurt her. Kyou stopped him and brought us home. I asked him who it was that was attacking us and he told me it was something called 'Mijimesa'. Then he left without a word and went down the hall in your direction. Did you see him? You must've, he went right past you."
"I didn't see anyone Kagura. I came down alone."
Kyou leapt from his post on the ceiling after Momiji was a safe distance away, then made his way from the hotel. He had no idea what to do. Miji knew what was bothering him, and even what they looked like. He would probably go after them. Kyou stopped on the corner of the street he had left Miji in and sniffed. Miji was still there, probably waiting for him. Sure enough as he started walking again, Miji made his move. He pinned Kyou to the nearest wall, before beating him a fair bit.
"Who are they?" he demanded marking each word with a punch.
"No one." replied Kyou.
"They need to go." Miji said, as he stopped pummeling Kyou to talk. "I will kill them so you can be as you were, Kyofu." he said as he hit Kyou sharply over the head. It took a lot to knock a vampire out, but the combination of everything that had been going on had already taken its toll, and that last skull-crushing blow was enough to knock Kyou out. "Besides," muttered Miji, "I always finish my dinner."
Replies to Reviewers:
ABO: Thank you!!! I love running Tohru into poles, it's quite fun! I love how you worked Kuroneko in! If only he'd managed to catch Yuki…
Luffy V'shile : Wow!!! Double reviews! Thank you so much! I updated, um… fairly soon, I think. The next chapter is already written so I can probably put that chapter up sometime later this week, but I'm kinda stuck after that so… it could be a while before I get any farther. Oh, one more question: are by chance a fan of Luffy from One Piece?
taylor maybee : Thank you for the completely pointless flame, I've been craving smores lately. If you want a further reply, check your e-mail.
AN: That's chapter 5. Not one of my favorites, but hopefully everyone likes it. I left it on kind of a cliffy, but I'll try to remember to post the next chapter Friday or Saturday. Um… yeah… I guess that's it, so I'll se ya'll next chapter!!! Ja!
TK