Tainted Blood
Chapter 4
by. SilverWolf-Ryuki
From Last Chapter...
Then, suddenly, the creak of an opening door made all four of them jump. Quickly, all 4 turned around to face the source of the sound. Kai had managed to grab his knife and hide it in his sleeve, incase the thing tried something. What they saw surprised them.
It was a man, an old man.
¤
The old man was dressed in the same clothing as the dead villagers. His eyes contained sorrow and pain.
"I see you've met my dead villagers." He said bitterly. "If you're here to kill me as well, go ahead. I'm not telling you anything."
His greeting surprised all four teens. "Err...Mister..." Mariah said as she gave a sincere smile. "We're not here to kill you. In fact, we don't even know how all of them...well...died. We were traveling around ourselves when we stumbled upon your village, and we are all unhappy for the death of your village."
Kai pretended to tie his shoes, and took the chance to slip his knife away into a custom made knife strap in his jacket sleeve incase he gave the poor old man a heart attack. But if the man tried something funny, he would have instant access.
The man's eyes softened. "Are you really traveling around? It's getting late... Why don't you come in to spend the night here?" He smiled sincerely. "My house, it's not much, but it is better than sleeping outside."
Rei and Lee bowed. "Thank you."
Kai nodded towards him.
The man smiled. "Silent one, eh?"
"Until he gets smart with his talking, or becomes extremely rude and direct." Mariah rolled her eyes.
"You can call me Dragonfang, it's my village name. Since I was chief, I got the name Dragon."
"Dragonfang? You're village, the village of the Dragons, is an ally with my village, the village of the White Tigers." Lee said, surprised. "We lost contact with you a while ago, perhaps this is the reason?"
Dragonfang nodded sadly, he then shook his head as if to put it aside. "What about you four youngsters?" Dragonfang asked. "What are your names?"
"I'm Mariah."
"Lee, I'm Mariah's brother."
"You can call me Rei."
"Hiwatari, Kai."
Dragonfang smiled. "I have heard of you three, but not Kai."
"He's not part of the village..." Mariah explained.
The 5 all went in and sat down cross-legged on the floor mat that was laid down on the ground.
"Dragonfang..." Kai said carefully. "If you don't mind me asking, what is it that you know of made the attackers kill your village?"
The old man was surprised at the directness of the question. Mariah sighed. "Exactly my point."
Dragonfang sighed as the same look of sadness spread across his face. "Since you are my allies, I will tell you. It is better to get it out to someone. Our village, The Village of the Dragons, we know many tales about all the holy beasts. Perhaps you've heard of them, they are not called...something with bit..."
"Bit-beasts." Lee told him.
"Yes, thank you Lee. These sacred bit-beasts are different. There are many kinds of them. First ones I'm going to explain are the Chinese ones. All the animals of the Chinese Zodiac – mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. There is one bit-beast of each animal that is sacred. For example, I have the Dragon, called the Shenlong, translating to be the Holy, or Sacred, Dragon. It is also renamed to Dragoon. Your village," He said to Lee, Mariah and Rei, "has the Tiger, called the Baihu, translated to be the White Tiger, later renamed the Drigger."
Rei nodded and showed him his blade, containing the bit-chip of Drigger.
Dragonfang smiled. "Aside from the sacred bit-beasts of china, there are sacred bit-beasts of the world. These are more powerful and more rare. Yet, they are more dangerous if they are passed onto the wrong hands, or if they take over the wrong bodies. The Phoenix, for example, is a very unusually powerful bit-beast. It has two versions of the same beast, yet they are like yin and yang. The yin, the dark, possesses the first person to touch it to be its body at every first full moon. The yang, the light, it purifies. Both bit-beasts are incredibly strong, if wielded the right way."
Kai gave a low growl. Dragonfang looked at Kai, confused. Rei sighed. "Let's skip the phoenix. What about the others?"
"Well, the Unicorn is another one, along with the Pegasus. They both are powerful and quite pure, though the Unicorn is more powerful than the Pegasus. Their wielder can decide where the bit-beasts' position is on the good and bad list. There are a few more, though I am not sure about them, since some of my ancestor's notes were lost.
"Then, there are sacred animals bit-beasts for elements of nature. The condition and strength of the user is very important to them, because if the user is weak, it will be as well. These bit-beasts contain very powerful inner ki. There is the Wolf, for Strength. For Water, there is the Shark. For Sky, or Air, there is the Griffon. For the Greenness, there is the Deer. The Phoenix also takes on fire in the elements, aside from Light and Dark. The Fox takes the element Earth. Last, and certainly not least, the Cerberus, which takes on the element of Hell."
Lee looked at his own Beyblade. "22 sacred bit-beasts that we know of, 12 are in China, hopefully they still are. 10 are scattered across the rest of the world. Kai has one, which makes 9. Hmm,"
Mariah sighed, looking into space. "Wow...I wonder how it would be like if one had all that power."
"One would almost bust with desire for more, if they had all the sacred bit-beasts." Kai growled.
"Yet, I have heard rumors." Rei said thoughtfully. "If all the sacred bit-beasts are gathered together in one place, an amazing thing will happen."
"Hopefully, their definition of amazing is not world domination for them, or world destruction." Kai remarked, sarcastically.
"Kai." Dragonfang said slowly. "Why are you uncomfortable talking about the Phoenix?"
Kai sighed. "I'm not." He said. "If I were uncomfortable with the Phoenix bit-beast, I wouldn't be carrying one in my pocket."
This young boy has the phoenix? How? One as young as him would not be able to wield it. Even I would not be able to wield it. This boy does not look powerful enough! Perhaps, there is another phoenix out there that is not the sacred bit-beast. Perhaps, he is joking. I must ask...
Dragonfang looked suspicious. "What do you mean, you have one in your pocket?"
"I mean what I say." Kai said.
"You do have...the Dranzer, right?" Dragonfang laughed nervously, suddenly losing his impression of an Elder and the Chief of a village. Now he seemed more of a kid. "Of course you don't. What am I talking about?"
"I have no idea."
"Answer me." Dragonfang suddenly demanded. "Do you have the Dranzer?"
"Nope."
"Good, so you have another phoenix that formed."
"Nope."
"Then, you were joking?"
"No, I have Black Dranzer."
"You have the Black Dranzer." Dragonfang repeated numbly after a few minutes of silence.
Kai nodded slowly and sighed.
"You can wield the bit-beast perfectly fine?"
"Yes."
Dragonfang hesitated; part of him didn't want to know the answer. "You...turn into a demon at the first full moon?"
Kai's eyes darkened. He closed his eyes and hung his head. "Have you been watching the news?"
Dragonfang's eyes widened, the color on his face drained.
"He doesn't mean to." Mariah said angrily. "God, you of everyone should know that the Black Dranzer possesses the first person that touches it with his or her bare skin."
"Plus, Kai is still a friend, no matter what." Rei agreed.
"The first full moon was last night." Kai said quietly. "You don't have to worry."
"Its...not that." Dragonfang said at last.
"Oh, yeah, and you expect us to believe that you got terrified of Kai because you had no idea of Black Dranzer's powers?" Lee asked, raising an eyebrow. "You have almost all the information on the Sacred Bit-beasts, for goodness sakes."
"No." Dragonfang sighed. "Its...Kai is so young now. How old was he when he first received this bit-beast?"
"I didn't receive it." Kai said. "I stole it from my grandfather's vault. I was almost 8 years old."
Dragonfang looked even paler. "You had control over Black Dranzer when you were not even 10 years old?"
"I would have chosen not to, but I wasn't sophisticated enough back then to realize the danger of this bit-beast." Kai muttered.
"Yet, you were still able to control it?" Dragonfang questioned.
His reply came in a form of nodding.
This child...He can control the Black Dranzer so easily! He does not even look exhausted or pained when the bit-beast is still in his pocket. A normal person would have been crying in pain.
Perhaps, he is the right wielder for this evil. But he looks so pure, how can he have a core as evil as Black Dranzer? If he doesn't, how does he cooperate with Black Dranzer so well?
No, I sense purity from this child. If so, then the only solution other than he has an evil core is that he is the supposed owner of ALL the sacred bit-beasts. Perhaps he is destined to try the impossible task of finding all the sacred bit-beasts and gathering them to one place, as Rei said.
But he's only a child!
Perhaps, there is more to this child than meets the eye.
¤
After the explaining, the light was dimmed and the 5 lied down on the thick padding that Dragonfang provided. The 4 teens shared a room as Dragonfang went to another. The 4 were jus about to fall asleep, when a sudden gasp made them all sit up, alarmed. They all turned to the source of the gasp – Rei.
"What's wrong, Rei?" Mariah asked softly as she stifled a yawn.
"My bit-beasts senses!" Ray hissed, trying not to wake Dragonfang, or make him come down to check upon them.
"What about them?" Lee whispered?
"They are jumbled!" Rei hissed again. "I can sense about 20 bit-beasts now! It's so impossible! How can this be? It was so clear before! Now, I cannot even identify which one is which!"
"I know why." Kai said calmly and quietly. "You said before that in order to sense a bit-beast, you need to know its name and information about it, correct? Today, when we discussed about the sacred bit-beasts, you got all the information you need. Unconsciously, you probably wanted all of them. Therefore, you started to sense more without realizing it. Now, you cannot get rid of them."
"How can you make it seem like such a 'matter of fact'?" Mariah looked at him with disbelief. She then turned back to Rei. "So, what do we do now?"
"Well..." Kai opened his mouth to talk, but closed it. "Why don't you guys think of what to do for once?"
Silence.
3 pairs of eyes turned to glare at the blue haired boy.
Kai sighed. "We could look for all of them."
Mariah snickered. "That's kind of...stupid."
"Have you a better plan?" Kai growled.
Silence.
"Alright, so it's decided. We go to the closest one. Then, in time, out of the 19 others there's got to be one that is Dranzer." Lee clapped, but was rewarded with a loud 'SHHHHHH'.
"OK, we'll start tomorrow morning right away." Rei nodded. "Night."
"Night." Lee said while yawning.
"Goodnight everyone." Mariah called quietly as she took her place to go to sleep.
"..."
Kai frowned as he closed his eyes. He opened them again to look at the ceiling.
What if I never find Dranzer? Then, I will never be cured. I will never be able to stop killing...No isn't an option. I must get Dranzer.
¤
Upstairs, Dragonfang smiled.
So, they are planning to go through all of the bit-beasts. This is their destiny, for the Elder of their village never had that problem of sensing more bit-beasts than necessary. Yes, this is fate, and I think it might be time to give fate a little push.
He took out his Dragoon.
They can have Dragoon. Perhaps, it will help them in some way.
The man sighed and stood up. He looked out his window at the night sky.
Kai, I have total faith in you, boy. You are the chosen one, I now know. I will help you in any way I can. He is pure hearted, but he is chosen. He will be the one who discover what is truly behind the myth.
I know he will.
¤
TBC...
Ryuki: Yes, corny, cheesy, whatever. Who cares? No, Dragonfang will NOT be coming with the 4 on their trip. I just can't imagine 4 teenagers and an old man. ;)
Anyways, that's another chapter. If you didn't press the purple button the last time, do it NOW! Please. :)