Catse: Gack! I can't believe I made that kind of mistake! And it was on one of my all time favorite jokes too! Thank you for pointing that out KoorimeFireFox ! I probably would have never noticed it before! (hits self over the head) Bad me! Baaaaaaadddddd mmmmeeeee! Oh well, it will be repaired, so that the story doesn't have any strange kinks to it. As for now, I'll let you get to the story and read it.
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Disclaimer: See chapter one...
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Katai wiped the sweat from her face. 'Well that settles it. A whole mess of you demons is no match for me.'
The large group of demons was now situated in heaps around her, the naïve victims of her spirit wave attack. "Take that you demon fakes!" She drawled, walked towards the direction Seika had headed in.
Her arm was bleeding badly. She wasn't even sure how one of the demons had managed to get too close. But he had, and now she was dripping blood here and there. She stopped for a moment to tear off a shred of her pants, and then, having trouble with only one hand, tied a loose knot around the wound.
'That ought to hold until I get to Seika and the children.' She thought dryly, making her way towards the courtyard Seika had run through.
She was rather surprised to see two copies of the same girl fighting each other.
"What the hell?" She breathed, kneeling down with a groan. That last battle had taken way too much out of her. Sure each demon was weak as hell, but she was still new to the technique she had used, and there had been quite a few demons.
So her father's thoughts had been correct. Strange how Yusuke was so intune to the things around him without even realizing it.
A few days ago, when Kenya was asleep from the spider bite, Yusuke had told her about his thoughts.
"I bet you Arune has a twin." He said. "That is the only way she could be here and the children are still disappearing."
"A twin?" She had asked, sitting next to her father under a cherry blossom tree.
Yusuke had nodded. "Yes. It's not so unlikely. A lot of twins are born like that. One's good, one's bad, one's mean, one's nice. Don't make much of a difference. But hell knows why Lord Rioko would ask children like Arune and her sister to fight for him. They don't seem that powerful."
"Maybe her twin is the powerful one, and that's why she's collecting the children."
"That's probably it. Well, in any case, we have to prepare you for it, should it ever occur."
Katai spat at the ground, determination in her eyes. She needed to get across the courtyard to the doors on the other side, and she would have to go through those two girls to do it. Usually she would be up to the challenge, but usually she didn't have a beaten arm and a low capacity of spirit energy.
"Damn." She snarled, standing up shakily. "There's nothing else I can do. I've got to travel through."
But as she watched, she began to wonder if she really should.
The battle was looking rather ferocious. In fact…she didn't think she had ever seen her father fight like that!
She was rather sure though she knew which was Arune. One of the girls had a scar on her cheek, that had been there for a while. Arune had not.
That and both used separate weapons. Arune had her staff. The other one had a pair of scythes held together by a thick chain.
Both were rather scuffed up, with little draining cuts on their arms and legs, and each showing determination in their own eyes. They were prepared to kill the other at any costs…maybe even their own lives.
The one Katai knew had to be Arune swiped dangerously at her twin, in which the other jumped out of the way, and with a mocking smile, through one of her scythes at her sister.
Arune also leapt out of the way, but was only slightly expecting the attack that followed the through, in which Arune leapt in and began trying to slice her with the other scythe.
Arune would managed to flip out of the way, and then her twin would pull up a barrier when her sister through an attack back.
'I don't think even I have ever seen a fight this drastic. They're both equal in power.'
Suddenly, the evil twin leapt out with a knife from her sleeve and jabbed a thick cut right through Arune's shoulder, tearing the shoulder blade almost from its position.
"Damn." Katai heard the kind one breath. Arune fell to her knees, one hand over the heavily bleeding site, as her twin stood over her, one scythe raised up in an attack.
Arune would die if Katai didn't do something.
"Like hell you're gonna kill her in front ah me!" She shouted, welling up the last few bits of energy she could spare into a spirit gun and shot it off. Of course, Arune was suspecting the action, and leapt out of firing distance. But she went far enough off so that Katai could come in to where Arune was and stand in front of her.
Arune looked up, a look of surprise on her face as Katai defended her from her sister.
"What are you doing? You're gonna get killed!" She shouted, blood oozing down over her fingers.
"Yeah, well I am my father's daughter, and his motto is, 'Do what you got to even if you're gonna get killed!' So that's what I'm doin'!" She was so tired her voice had returned to the heavy drawl she had picked up from China. Her best friend there had been a gang like dude that had only recently picked up on the Japanese and Chinese languages, coming from New York, so his accent had always been strong, and she had memerized it down to the last few sylables.
"But…You'll die defending me? I'm a nothing and you want to protect me?"
"Sure…Besides…we may need you in this mission and there ain't no way I'm just gonna leave yah here to die before me? That would loose my Urameshi Honor!"
Arune smiled slightly, but that smile turned into a quick frown and then one of fright when her twin, Enura, leapt in while Katai was speaking and cut a deep gash in the other girl's belly. Katai grunted under the pressure, and when Enura smiled, she smiled back, swiping a deep punch that knocked Enura away from her weapons and towards the ground.
Katai kneeled down, using her only good hand to tear the scythe from her dripping stomach, and then tossed it away, hoping Enura wouldn't think to grab it.
Of course, Arune was up and at her side in an instant, forgetting about her own bleeding shoulder for the moment.
"Are you okay?" She inquired.
"Whataya think? I just got a blade shoved in my abs. Of course I'm okay. Just peachy." Katai replied sarcastically, calling on all of her strength just to remain in a sitting position. If she lost it, she would fall over right then and there.
"Sit still…I'll take care of the wound." Arune offered, but Katai shook her head.
"Nah…you get goin'. Seika'll need your help in getting the children out. I'll finish her off," she nudged her head in Eruna's direction, who was just barely standing back up and smiled, "and then you won't have anything to worry about."
"What the hell was that?" Enura snarled, coming up to them with a reddened face. "You hit me! I'm gonna make you pay for that hanyou." She told her, cracking her knuckles.
"Heh…You that surprised to get hit. You've had it easy for too long." Katai answered, grunting as she tried to stand. A pair of firm thin hands held her down. When Katai looked up, she saw a look of determination on the other girl's face she had never seen there before.
"You call her a hanyou and yet the two of us aren't any different. At least she's pure in her blood." Arune growled, pretty pink eyes flashing a demonic red, before taking on a pure white like her kimono.
"Keh. You think you can beat me sis?" Enura hissed, wiping the back of her hand across the corner of her lip. "You can't and you know it. You forget. I was the one that went throught he abuse. They ripped me open, took out my organs, cut me to shredds. They made me the monster. Not you. What did you get? The pamper treatment in a little white room is what. I got the muscle. The strength…the speed…the power you don't have. You can't beat me, and this entire time, I've always had to fight alone while you hid behind me. Well sis, I don't need you around anymore. I'm finally going to dump my luggage into the river and be rid of it." Enura's own eyes glared a deep black, as she glared, but for some reason, no matter how mean a face she could put on, it didn't match up to Arune's. "Die!"
Enura ran at Arune at a heartwrenching speed, but only when she was a few feet away from them, did she stop.
A thick white barrier had risen between her and them, and no matter how she hit it, or kicked it, or cursed it, it would not break.
"The hell! You!" She glared at Katai with a deep resentment. "Drop the barrier now! You cannot hide forever!"
"She did not create it." Arune growled, bringing her sister's attention to her. "I did."
"You? You have no more power than a mouse! I'll kill you here and now!" Suddenly the barrier fell, and as Katai was sure Enura was going to finish the way to Arune with a kick, she again stopped.
This time…she was paralyzed.
"What the hell?" Enura snarled, looking around. She was frozen in place, incapable of moving. "Who…"
"Sister…I was going to leave you living. Play it simple. But you have threatened my life and the lives of thousands of children. You have forgotten the reason you killed the doctors in the first place, and now you must be done away with. Good bye Enura…Know that when the children are safe, I will follow you to hell, and the world will be done with the evil child of the experiments."
Enura's eyes filled with a fear no one had ever seen before. Suddenly, she was very afraid.
"No. I'm not ready to die! I don't want to die! I've got to finish the world! Kill everything in it for doing this to me! To us!" Enura snarled, but it didn't help much.
"Goodbye…sister."
Suddenly, Enura doubled over in pain, collapsing to the ground with her head in her hands.
She screamed a heart-wrenching cry as blood leaked from her eyes like tears, and then fell to the ground, that same blood pooling around her head.
The last breath left her mouth, and Enura, the child that had suffered so greatly, and killed so many…was dead.
Arune collapsed onto her knees a moment after, her eyes returned to a silvery pink as they had been before, and tears welled into her eyes.
Katai gasped her pain as she sat up, and stared at the girl, a look of confusion in her eyes.
Arune, apparently somehow reading her mind, smiled sadly.
"The both of us had been kidnapped from our homes in Human world a little over three hundred years ago, and we were tested on by the doctors. Enura, they chained to a table and tore open, changing her human body for chemically tested pieces. It was her will for life that kept her living, and no matter what, she broke free and killed them. Then she came for me and set me free. Apparently, she thought she was the only one they had tested on. But she was wrong. You see, somehow, the doctors knew that one day, their creation would kill them. That's why they liked to take twins. One they would test on physically, and if a success, they would have increased strenght, stamina, speed, and energy unlike anything the normal human or demon would have. The other however…had nothing done to their body. They're minds were tested. They figured that since Enura had made such a excellent experiment I would too. For hours they had my head locked up in a laser device, in which my brain was tampered with in every sort of way. From that, I was given several abilities. One…" Arune reached out with her hand, and when her eyes turned white, the double scythes that were a good distance from them, leapt to the air and into her hand, falling limp to the ground from her grip.
"…was Telekinesis…or the ability to make things fly. Two, I was given Pyrokenesis, the ability to burn things with a single thought, and three…" she looked at her sister and sighed. "…was the ability to tamper with the other minds and either control them, or kill them. But I can only do it to weaklings or those that are too close to me. That's why I try to keep separate. Because I never know when my mind will go crazy and try to kill everything close. Right before Enura was going to leap out and kill them, they gave me one last message as their experiment. When she broke free, I was to follow her…watch everything she did, and then when she went crazy, as they were sure she would, I was to kill her. For years I refused my duty…thinking my sister was my closest relation…everything I had." A tear swept down her saddened pink face. "But I see now that the torture was too much for her, and she lost her mind. For years she pinned everything she had ever done, every crime, on me, calling herself by my name. I was always the one placed in jail, and when I was out, she would conduct the crimes again. I was always blamed…and no-one ever knew about her. Well, now I'm free…And I have no idea what to do with it." She burried her face in her hands, and wept, Katai unable to do anything really. Comfort wasn't her thing. She could kick ass, but when it came to tears and sadness, she had no idea what to do.
Finally, she wrapped a hasty arm around the girl, and smiled slightly. "You did the right thing. Sometimes that hurts. But you have to do it. It's the way of life. It's the creation of law, to test us. If we pass the tests of nature, we deserve to live. And in my opinion, you deserve to live. Come on, we have to go and help Seika with the children. He's gonna need us."
Arune looked up, watery eyes reddened and puffy, and smiled, nodding. "Yeah. He's going to need us."
Seika was beginning to get aggravated. He had found the children, and the doors to the many chambers they were kept in, but for some reason, the doors wouldn't open. "You stinking pieces of crap! Just open up will yah!" he constantly shouted, knowing somehow that the children couldn't hear him.
"Damn!"
"You need some help?" a familiar voice said from behind him. He turned to find Arune standing there, smiling pleasantly. There wasn't a scratch on her body to be seen.
"Arune?"
"Sure is. I see you found the children." She said, coming up to the glass. "Poor dears. Don't you agree."
"Yeah. We got to get them out of there. Can you help me?" Seika inquired, feeling something wasn't right. The last Arune he had seen was scratched, and Enura would most likely have scuffs if she managed to escape. Then again, this Arune had no weapon, so he couldn't tell which one it was.
"Certainly." Arune answered, her smile wide revealing sharp teeth. Suddenly, Seika was certain this wasn't her. The real Arune didn't have fangs in every tooth.
"Who are you?" He inquired, feeling the hairs on Niko's spine and tail rise in fury. This couldn't be Arune.
"Why, it's me Seika…It's Arune." She answered sweetly, stepping towards him. Now, let us open up the glass rooms and let the children out."
In a moments time, Seika had pulled free in his hand a spirit throwing dagger, and had thrust it at the fake being of Arune, cutting through her arm.
A gush of yellow blood spilled from the wound.
"You hit me. Why would you ever do that?"
"Who are you?"
Arune's head hung to the ground. Seika repeated his question, only to be replied to with a demonic snicker.
"Why…You do not know me Seika? It is I…Arune."
"You are not!" Seika spat! "Reveal yourself whatever you are!"
The being snickered, and suddenly Arune's delicate face shredded open, and out came a long snake like beast with silver scales, red eyes, and an unusual jaw full of fangs.
"So I am not Arune. It does not matter. You will never finish me!" It hissed, leaping at Seika. He jumped away and dogdged, running to the back of the room. 'Why the hell did it have to be a snake! I hate snakes! Why does everything I have to fight have to be a snake!' He shouted in his head, as the snake struck again, hitting the wall where Seika had once been.
"Oh come on! Don't be such a wuss! Just fight the thing and be done with it!"
'But I hate snakes! Their so…slithery!' Seika replied in his head. His only reply was a sigh and a long whipping tail knocking the breath out of him when he hit the wall.
"Damnit…" He whispered. He didn't have much of a choice. If he didn't finish the snake, then he wouldn't be able to get the children out safely, and then they would all die. "Damnit…"
The snake hissed in front of him, a smile supposedly on his lips. "Afraid Seika."
"Of you! Hell no! Come on! I'll take you!"
"He's too powerful Seika. You're going to need me if you want to beat him."
'I don't need you right now so butt out! There's no way I'm handing my body over to you!' Seika replied, as another swipe at him came from the serpant.
"Seika!" He turned to see the real Arune, supporting Katai on her good arm.
"Girls!" He replied, but a fang nearly hit his shoulder, causing him to loose balance and fall near the glass. A tiny pair of red eyes watched him, tiny hands printed on the glass as the other kids crowded around.
Tsuki had seen Seika right from the beginning, and had tried to call to him, but found that he couldn't hear her.
A few tears escaped when the snake came out and started attacking Seika, and in her innocent mind, anything that tried to hurt her new older brother had to be bad.
"Seika…" She whispered quietly, as the other children around her began to press he against the glass. "Seika…"
Seika stood up, pulling into his hands his staff, his energy forming like spear heads on either head as he glared. He had yet to notice the little girl so intent on watching him, but he knew Tsuki had to be somewhere in the crowds. As for the moment, the only thing he could really think about was the snake and how it was endangering the children and him as a whole.
As the snake struck again, he leapt up and attacked its neck, cutting a small gash, that in a moment's notice, healed upon impact.
When Seika touched the ground again, he cursed.
'How do you kill it?' He inquired of himself, only to receive an answer from Shadow.
"Let me have control. I will kill it and you won't have to worry anymore. Just let me have control."
"NO! I won't let you take control!" Seika shouted, just as the snake came down at him.
He leapt out of the way and ran to behind the snake, jamming his staff into the its spine. The head of the snake quickly turned and knocked him into the wall, leaving him frozen in place for a good second. The snake disregarding that a staff now poked out of his back, crept up to Seika with a lick of his tongue. Just as his mouth opened to reveal his fangs, and Seika was certain a bite would follow, his little bet Niko jumped up at his tongue and began scratching it and biting it. When the snake knocked him off, Niko used his cat-like reflexes to attack his eyes next, blinding him. With a swipe of his head, the tiny creature had been knocked into the wall, leaving him unconscious.
Seika, a new anger in his heart at his fallen friend, stood up and punched the snake ferociously in the jaw, sending him flying into one of the glass domes. The children's screaming brought him from his reverie, and he ran to the site, pulling the snake out with his new strenght and depositing its unconscious form to the side. Thankfully, none of the children had been harmed. They had only been surprised. Most had managed to get away from the glass before the snake had hit. The others were merely lucky to have fallen in a spot where the glass wasn't to sharp and the snake's weight didn't fall on him.
"Hey girls!" He shouted, after he assured the children that he was a good guy. "I'm gonna need you all to help me get the rest of the children out! Arune! Why don't the doors open!"
"They must have been locked from both sides!" She replied, carrying Katai slowly to them. "We're going to have to override the system."
"Computer tech eh? Can you bring down the system?"
"Yes, but it may take a few minutes. Here, you take Katai while I break open the computer system." Seika took Katai into his arms, and watched Arune walk away, noticing a thick patch over her shoulder wound, and a whole pant leg missing from Katai.
"I gather you wouldn't let her move you until you patched her up, right?"
Katai smiled. "You know me too well."
"Yeah well, I also know that you didn't do to well on your own wound. Here, sit down. I'll take care of it."
Katai was too tired to object, and a few moments later, the patch of cloth on her arm had been tightened, along with another strip from Seika's shorts wrapped around it for thickness.
"Thanks." Katai grumbled, blushing.
Seika smiled. "You're welcome." He sat back a moment, a sigh in his voice and his eyes on the fallen snake. He hoped it wouldn't wake up too soon…He wasn't ready for a second attack.
"So…How do you think Kenya is doing?" Katai inquired, trying to find something for conversation.
"Don't know."
They were silent for a moment, and then Katai snickered. "Knowing him, he probably already killed Lord Rioko, picked up Haku, and is on his way here now."
"Yeah…" Seika chuckled. "That would be wonderful, wouldn't it?"
Katai nodded just as the lights in the hallways flickered and clicks rang from all of the locks on the doors.
Arune returned a moment later, smiling. "I finally managed to override it. Lord Rioko put quite the protection to it, but I managed to break it in by reading his mind. Come on, let's open these doors up."
"Read minds?" Seika inquired, staring at the two women as they walked to the doors.
"It's a long story. I'll explain it when we're out of here." Katai replied, opening one of the doors as Arune opened another. Children flooded out into the hall, moving around so as to make room for others. Seika joined in, and before long, all of the children had been let free.
As soon as Tsuki had come out of the room, she attacked Seika's legs and buried her face into one side of his shorts, sobbing.
Seika leaned down and checked her for wounds, but the most he found was a lump on her head and a rather pink eye.
"You okay?" He asked, wiping a tear from her frightened face. She nodded weakly, biting her lower lip with tiny baby teeth.
"Come here. Don't cry." He replied, as Tsuki turned from his shorts and took to his arms instead. She sobbed even harder into his chest as he lifted her up off the ground and comforted her with pats and soft words of kindness.
Arune and Katai stared at him oddly, as if there was something wrong with the picture. Deadly, laughing Seika, the gangster from the streets with a vocabulary for cussing, was holding Kuwabara's little girl in his arms and was acting like an older brother.
What they didn't realize however, was that the snake had woken up, and was preparing for a strike.
Seika realized it when the children screamed, and in an instant, he threw Tsuki to Arune, who caught it just as the first fang tore through Seika's left arm. The snake, after biting, didn't move at first, apparently too tired, and Seika pulled out one of his other fangs, and stabbed him between the eyes with it.
The snake gave a hiss, a jerked away from him, leaving another fang in his arm, where he carefully pulled it out, steaming with black liquid. He had been poisioned.
Tsuki looked up from the unfamiliar girl's arms and glanced at Seika, nearly breaking to tears when she saw the damage done.
When the snake tore away, banging it's head against the wall, she was suddenly too much to handle for the tired arms of Arune.
Finally, the girl set Tsuki down on the floor, and the little girl ran to her so-called brother, whimpering tiny tears as her small hands reached for the cut in his arm. She apparenlty wanted to see if it was real, a rather hastally, angrily, Seika thrust her away again as the snake returned. He was prepared to die killing it, and constantly, in his mind the voice of Shadow laughed.
"See what happens when you don't allow my power to come into play Seika? Without me, you're dead."
'Shut up! SHUT UP!'
"But isn't it true. Just look around. You're half dead, the snakes still alive, your friends are beaten. You can't win on your own. You need me. Just let me have control. I promise I won't harm your friends."
'No! Never!' Seika replied, breathing in hastilly. 'Never.'
"Oh really. Take a look at the little girl, Tsuki. Look. Go ahead." Seika turned and noticed the frightened and defeated look in the little girls eyes, the heavy tears running down her pale white cheeks. "Are you telling me you would let her die in order to save yourself? That doesn't sound like you Seika. Come on…Let me take control. It's the only way and you know it."
Seika stared into the defeated eyes of the little girl for a moment, and then sighed.
"Alright. Do it. But I swear if you take too much control, I will find some sort of way to kill you myself."
"Fine with me."
"Fine." Seika returned, closing his eyes. One solid crystal like tear fell from his eyes, mingling with the little crystallized ones that had fallen from Tsuki's eyes to the floor.
Tsuki stared at the tiny wet droplets, and then back at the older boy as his hair began to grow a deep purple. His skin lightened to a tone like the walls, and over his lips protruded silver fangs, in which glittered in the bare light of the room.
Suddenly, Tsuki understood what was happening, and saw the snake coming towards Seika before anyone else.
In an instant, she had run in front of Seika, short arms sprawled out before here, and cried.
"Die you stupid snake! Just leave us all alone!"
Katai, Arune, and all of the children stared in disbelief as Seika's hair turned back to black and his skin deepened in color. His fangs disappeared and before long his silvery blue eyes were staring at the tiny child, and the sudden splay of mystical light that flew from her body. Her white energy took the form of a large rabbit like shape in front of her, and with soft pink eyes, it rammed itself into the snake and killed it, disappearing when the serpant fell.
Then, just as the snake hit the ground, Tsuki fell back to a surprised pair of arms, unconscious.
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Catse: So, how was it? The bunny part will be explained in the future, but probably not this story. It's for number three when I get around to writing it. Oh well, if you have any comments or find any other mistakes in this, please let me know! I'll do my best to reply! Thanks! Ja ne for now!
