It took Kyuuzou a day to figure out where exactly he was, and when he did, he sighed heavily. It would take him a long time to get to Kougakyo. If Kanbei was even there anymore. He walked, and he thought, which he tried not to do. He found that the demon could somehow sense his thoughts, so he tried to keep his inner dialogue as low and as infrequent as possible. He stuck to the shadows, not wanting any more attention than necessary. When the occasional person, farmer or traveler, caught sight of him, he saw them involuntarily shudder. That made him wonder.

'I wish I could see myself, just once...'

Whenever he came by a stream though, it was either too murky or moving too quickly for him to see what he looked like. He was heading towards Kougakyo when his legs abruptly stopped him next to a clearing.

'NOW what?'

He turned and looked, and saw a small family of farmers, doing their best to survive on little. He felt his hands creeping towards his swords and with a great effort, stopped them.

'They have done nothing and can do nothing.'

You will not question my orders!

Kyuuzou flinched and his hands again went to his swords. Through the haze he felt whenever the demon exercised his will, he forced his hands to stop and slowly put one foot in front of the other. He had killed many, many people in his life, and had never regretted it.

He didn't want to start regretting his kills now.

He moved at an agonizingly slow pace, fighting for every step. What normally would have been a journey of only a few minutes took a little less than a half hour. It was only once he had crossed the entrance to the clearing and was far enough away that he was unable to see the family anymore that he was released. He stumbled, and nearly ran into a tree. He braced himself against it, panting, face tight with pain. He pulled a small portion of his sleeve back and gave a wry smile. There they were, the runes that marked him and claimed him. He let his sleeve fall and continued walking.

He heard a twig snap and reacted instinctively, drawing his sword and putting it to the throat of the person who had come up behind him.

A boy of no more than 15 stood there, his eyes both afraid and curious.

"Do you want to die?" Kyuuzou asked softly, and could feel the runes burning on his skin, heard a whisper in his mind telling him to indeed kill the kid.

The boy's eyes widened, not expecting to hear such a violent question asked in such a calm, dead voice.

"N-n-no."

Kyuuzou, with a great amount of stubbornness, managed to lower his sword.

"Go."

The boy turned quickly and began to walk away, but Kyuuzou lost the battle over control of his body long before the boy had even taken a few steps.

The demon pulled Kyuuzou's sword out of the boy's heart and watched as the body fell.

That wasn't so hard, was it?

It is never difficult to kill. That...wasn't...right, though.

I will decide what is right for you to do.

I have never killed anyone who was unable to defend themselves. I do not want to start now.

Too bad.

Kyuuzou felt the control of his body wrenched from him, and found it disconcerting that he could only watch as the demon, through him, killed the family. Kyuuzou managed to wrench part of control from the demon, and stayed his hand from killing their youngest child, a girl of around only two or three years.

The girl stared up at Kyuuzou with wide eyes, and wondered at how his eyes flickered between the glowing red she had seen before and a flat crimson. eventually the sword that had been raised to kill her fell to Kyuuzou's side, and his eyes no longer glared red. He to his knees in front of the girl, and his breathing was ragged and tortured. He looked at her, eyes sad and remorseful. He then abruptly hit her head, and knocked her out.

"I hope that was hard enough to cause amnesia but not hard enough for permanent damage," he murmured softly, his voice heavy with both bodily and mental pain. He staggered to his feet, using his sword as a prop. Once standing, he sheathed the sword quickly, lest the demon get any ideas. He turned quickly and sprinted away from the scene, wanting to lose himself in the exercise, but knew that he'd still feel the sense of wrongness hovering over him no matter how far he got from it. The only thing that guided where he put his feet was the feel of Kanbei's sword against his hip, reminding him of what he planned to do.

Author: If you like my story, please review. Reviews make a happy author and encourages my abilities. puppy dog eyes of DOOM