(Locked in his room)

Hiten slammed his fist down onto the hard skull that lay on the table as it gave way and cracked open. At the moment, that was on the least of his mind.

'That bitch!' he thought to himself angrily. 'Stubborn little girl, why won't she beg me for her own sanctuary? She knows she will die any day I decide on, so why?'

This Sakura girl was a new one for him. All the various women that he had encountered, let it be human or demon, had not been able to withstand the mental torture that he and Manten had put them into a state of. Their complexions were to be swooned over, and yet they gave up their purity in exchange for liberty.

Not that it was he who kept his promises to them, though.

But this girl...

This grungy, scar-filled girl named Sakura...

She just wasn't giving into him. She refused to speak to him two sentences and was at the point of ignoring him. It didn't matter whether he got his satisfaction or not, he just wanted power over the weak; and at the moment, she was the weak.

But why wasn't she giving in?

"Grrr...Manten!" Hiten yelled out of frustration. It only took a few moments for Manten to enter the room where he was at and was ready to bend to his an-chan's every other whim.

"Go get me a demon girl, Manten." Hiten said. "Make sure that she is willing to satisfy me, too."

Sakura, after finally giving up on how many dust bunnies fell from Hiten's room ceiling, decided to go and take a small walk around his room. As big as the house was, this very room was no exception to that.

The floorbed seemed very hard as it could get, and it was no better than the straw mattress that she was given to sleep on the other day. Still she had gotten no food at all, and she was seriously getting hungry now that she felt she could chew her own tongue off.

The wallpaper was a faded brownish beige, so Sakura guessed that this was a pretty old house that the brothers lived in. One thing that she was really curious about was...

Where were their parents?

Either they're dead or they're not around, she decided. If only there was a portrait of them around here somewhere, she would know exactly what it took for them to have such a strange set of children.

"Maybe they're half brothers." She muttered under her breath. Picking up an ornament that resembled an ancient kabuki mask and putting it down, the girl's eyes flashed as she saw the same lightening blade that Hiten had used earlier in the week to threaten her out of pleading him for mercy.

She picked it up and was surprised at how light it was; she was predicting that it was really heavy, something that only demons could wield. If she could wield it with such easy force, then for Hiten this should be considered nothing. Sakura ran her fingers to the tip of the blade and brought it back, once in a while her eyes trailing to admire the sturdiness of it.

She wished for such a weapon, but it wasn't appropriate for 'young ladies' in her village to possess such a deadly and harmful weapon. The only reason she had her sword was because it was the last thing her brother had left her, and the elders had allowed her to keep it as a memento for him.

Drowning in the different thoughts she were thinking, Sakura didn't hear the approach of two footsteps coming to his room. She jumped about a foot in the air when the door slid open violently, dropping the Raigekijin with a clatter.

"What are you doing here?" Hiten demanded as he held the other figure tight, as a child would his precious blanket for the night. This demon lady, Sakura thought, seemed as if the gods had wielded her into perfection. Her eyelashes spread out like fans, olive green eyeshades were in place. A snake seemed to be replacing her top at the moment, but it certainly didn't seem like an ugly sight for a male.

And her complexion, so pale unlike Hiten's...and so graceful and curvy...

Hopefully unlike Hiten's. ;;

"You locked me in here." Sakura replied back. Hiten frowned and motioned for her to get out as soon as possible, and Sakura obeyed him almost too wordlessly without a fight.

It was clear to her that Hiten admired the demon lady, and therefore was about to rob her of her purity...if she was pure, anyway. But she seemed willing to do it, with her seductress-likeness. She wouldn't have been surprised if she turned out to be a willing prostitute for all she cared.

At the moment, Sakura felt a sharp pain in the palm of her hand. Looking down, she saw a bloody cut that she guessed, was caused when she dropped Hiten's Raigekijin. Deciding that she would have to treat herself, Sakura moved far away from the sliding door to Hiten's room and stepped into the storage to look for bandages.

With a creak of the rusty old hinge the thick door gave way and opened to reveal the things that she needed...and the things that she probably didn't expect to see in her lifetime. For aside the medicine chest and the drying herbs, there were barrels of human flesh; some bodies chopped and salted, others whole but lifeless.

Sakura thought of screaming, but bit her tongue as she pondered how mad it would make Hiten while he was making...um, love to that other prostitute girl. Trying not to barf at the sight, she instead thought of happy things...she found the bandages, right?

However, to be exact; these were young women just like her; and the stench was unbearable from what her senses told her. Grabbing the medicine box, Sakura shut the door and turned to find Manten coming back from his separate hunt. Noticing her, Manten spoke up.

"What were you doing, wretch?" he casually asked, opening the storage and throwing in two large tigers and a doe. "Were you snooping around the storage?"

She nodded her head yes. Manten smirked.

"You should be thankful you aren't like them." Manten said. "Hiten an-chan hates girly women, and if you were you would have been filled inside the empty barrel right next to the door." He finished and locked the door with a huge iron key. It was then he noticed the girl's open wound.

"Ouch." He said as Sakura tried to wrap her right hand with bandages with the aid of her left hand. And like most people, she wasn't a left-handed person; so it made it that much harder for her to bandage herself. Manten shoved his hand out at her as Sakura paused and stared.

"I'll do it for you." He bellowed. "Give me your hand."

I love you guys...Oneesan, Kaze-sama, Touga-sama, and anyone else who's enjoying this story. Heehee! I'm glad you like this fic, and sorry I haven't been able to read some of your fics...But you'd understand the hardships of a 14 year old that's struggling with report cards and friends...The weekend is here, so I'm planning to rearrange my profile...

And maybe I'll put some adjustments and tag a couple of replies on your fics. Thank you guys!