Author: We're actually starting to wind down. I think I might be able to get this under 30 chapters. I'll be damned if I don't. Anyway, enjoy, and again, thanks for reading!
Kyuuzou woke, and it took him a moment to get his bearings. He shifted slightly, and found that he was curled around Kanbei, both of them mildly sticky from the night before. He clamped down on a snicker, and wormed his way out of Kanbei's hold, trying not to wake the man. He nearly tripped over discarded clothes, and sighed inwardly. The clothes were in no shape to be worn anytime soon, a result from the demon's battle. On impulse, he reached into a nearby shadow and pulled. Four pieces of shadow followed as he drew his hand away, and he was amused to find that each formed into a seperate piece of clothing. He folded them over his arm and looked down at his body, sighed, and entered a secret passage that no-one uses and found his way to the baths. Kyuuzou quickly cleaned himself off, and then threw on his clothes before heading out into the main hallways, not caring how his hair dried as he walked to where the Lord had relocated to. He opened the door, and stepped inside to a look of relief on the Lord's face.
"Kyuuzou!"
Kyuuzou nodded to the other bodyguard who left, looking highly relieved, but gave Kyuuzou a wide berth on the way out, which amused Kyuuzou. Kyuuzou walked over to the Lord, who smiled at him.
"Thank you for saving me yesterday!"
Kyuuzou looked at him and nodded slightly, accepting the thanks, but not acknowledging that he had done it for the Lord. Kyuuzou settled down into the Lord's shadow, and was midly surprised at how much easier it was, how much more...natural...it felt to be in the darkness rather than the light, which was becoming painful to his eyes. He made himself as comfortable as possible, and resigned himself to a day first of meetings, then of public relations explinations, then rebuilding, before he could finally get away to think over what had happened in the past 24 hours.
---
Toshiyo was eating in the hut some rice he had found when the lesser demon he had sent to simply watch the outcome of the battle came back. Toshiyo addressed it with a smile.
"Well?"
The demon shifted uncomfortably, it's big eyes refusing to look at Toshiyo. Toshiyo frowned.
"It did not go as planned?"
"No, sir."
"Why not? What happened?"
The demon looked even more uncomfortable, then jumped when Toshiyo snarled,
"Show me what happened!"
The demon reluctantly waddled over to Toshiyo, and its eyes focused on the table in front of the man. After a moment of struggling, an image flickered on the surface of the table, and then it became clearer, and Toshiyo watched the whole battlefrom beginning to end. When the demon's memory ran out, Toshiyo closed his eyes, outwardly calm, but if observed closely enough, one would be able todiscern thathis body was vibrating in fury.
"It was not the Lord! It was not he who Kyuuzou protected! Who, then?" Toshiyo snarled the demon's name,which made it cringe and bow its head. "How did Kyuuzou beat the Greater Demon? What was it he became?"
The demon shifted uncomfrotably, but was bound to answer truthfully.
"He's a Shadow, Toshiyo-sama."
"What does that mean?"
"Something went...wrong, when our Master created him into a half-demon. Kyuuzou managed to somehow take a part of our Master's power with him, or maybe absorbed it from somewhere else, and has managed to transform himself into a dangerous, elusive demon."
"Tell me, what powers exactly does he have?"
"He can manipulate shadows, as implied by the name. The more shadows, the stronger he is. His blood is Cursed, so he can kill other demons simply by getting a few drops of blood on them; unlike Morskzdrienghf yesterday, though, he can not be killed by something that is a very part of him, as Morskzdrienghf's venom backfired. Because of this, he can Curse other objects, as he did with that other man's sword. Now that he's a full demon, though, if he does that to another sword, it'll be much more dangerous. He is completly silent. He shares qualities with Darkness and Night, so..."
"If I attack him during the day,he'll be weaker!"
"All demons are weaker during the day."
"But he would be more so. Especially during noon. I know what we'll do. First, though, I want to see if we can take the man he truly protected without alerting Kyuuzou. If that fails...we'll attack Kyuuzou during the day, distracting and weakening him while we take that man, alerting him to that only after dusk. Tell me, when is the summer solstice?"
The demon winced at the mention of the longest day of the year, and murmured, "In a week, Toshiyo-sama."
"Good. Try to take the man he protected tommorrow,when he is with the other soldiers, far from Kyuuzou. If that doesn't work...well, we'll plan for the summer solstice."
The lesser demon nodded, displeased but knowing that Toshiyo could harm him as much as Kyuuzou could, since he was bound to Toshiyo. Toshiyo dismissed the demon and called in some other ones, and explained what he wanted them to do.
---
Kyuuzou was waiting in Kanbei's room when Kanbei returned from dinner with his men, and glanced up at him from his seat beneath the window. Kanbei smiled faintly at him.
"Yes?"
Kyuuzou stood slowly, walked over to Kanbei, and drew Kanbei's sword out of its sheathe, confusing the man.
"What are you doing?"
Kyuuzou rolled back his coat and shirt sleeves so that his forearm was bare, and then sliced it open with Kanbei's sword, and made sure that his blood coated the entire blade before pulling the blade away. He watched as his blood settled, then seemed tobe absorbed into the steel, and the cut on his arm healed with no visible scarring.
"What was that for?"
Kyuuzou resheathed the sword as he walked to Kanbei, and lookedup at him when they were nearly touching.
"For your safety."
Kanbei looked at him questioningly.
"You can kill demons now."
"really?"
"My blood seems to be able to wound them."
"Enough for me to take care of myself if you can't immediatly come?"
Kyuuzou looked away, ashamed to admit that he had limitations and weaknesses when it came to protecting Kanbei.
Kanbei tilted Kyuuzou's head up and kissed him, one that lingered long after they had parted.
"Thank you."
Kyuuzou nodded slightly and began to turn away, but stopped. He seemed as if he was about tosay something, but then simply shook his head and walked away into another secret passage that Kanbei hadn't seen him use before. Kanbei lightly touched the scar that he and Kyuuzou shared,then turned and looked at the door where a surprised soldier stood, trying to maintain his composure, even as Kanbei smiled faintly.
"You have something to report?"
"Y-y-yes, sir."
"Then report."
Kanbei's voice was harsh enough and commanding enough to make the soldier shake off his surprise and disgorge his message. Kanbei asked brief, relavent questions, before dismissing the soldier. He knew that people would believe what the soldier said only to be rumors, and anyway, he was now needed for a patrol tommorrow, since he was the only one not deathly afraid of the Yuurei district. He sighed, and put his sword down, and pulled off his jacket. He needed rest, for the night before had been...eventful, and uncondusive to sleep.