Chapter II:

Hiromitsu

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Thatched huts flashed by in a blur. The wind on his face was like a gale-force blast, and Hiromitsu laughed as he dashed past startled rice farmers, flying over the water-filled rice paddies, too fast for gravity itself, let alone the posse of hired ronin who had tried to stop him back at the marketplace. Unable to keep up with the young demon, the armed mercenaries had simply jumped out of his path as he ran, clutching several loaves of bread and a small fish basket. Like most humans, they had a superstitious dread of demons, even young ones, and all Hiromitsu had to do was growl, bare his fangs and lunge, and the men had scattered like autumn leaves. If he hadn't been trying to keep up his terrifying appearance, Hiromitsu would have laughed right in their faces; for the young demon, shoplifting was as easy as a jog around the block.

A few miles outside the village, Hiromitsu stopped, put down his packages, and knocked three times on the trunk of a particular tree, pivoting his long, pointed ears upward. "Is that you, Hiromitsu?" asked a child's voice from somewhere high in the branches.

"Yep, and I got us some breakfast," Hiro said, grinning with pride. "You should have seen those grown-ups back in town; I think I smelled one of them pee in their pants."

"No way!" another voice said, and one by one, a group of ragged-looking children, ranging from age four to age sixteen, made their way down to the ground and clustered around Hiromitsu and his plunder. Except for Hiro, they were all human, orphaned when a company of the Great Demon Sounga's undead soldiers had come through their town, slaying every adult in a show of brute force meant to keep neighboring villages in line. They had tried to run the village by themselves for a time, but then bandits had claimed the children's home, and the young orphans had been on their own ever since.

As for Hiromitsu, nobody was entirely sure where he had come from. One morning, they had found him curled up next to their campfire. He didn't remember his parents, and had been on his own for years before meeting up with them. Hiro had quickly become the children's big brother, teaching them how to survive in the lawless forests and wetlands, and protecting them from occasional attacks by bandits and wild animals. He had never killed anyone in all the time he had been his young friends' protector. With his long white hair, shining golden eyes, and blue-striped skin, Hiromitsu was a pretty frightening spectacle when angry, and relied primarily on intimidation to face down larger and more dangerous opponents.

Hiromitsu watched as everyone waited patiently for their portion of the morning's haul. These children were the only family he could remember, and while none of them had the same abilities that he did, Hiro had never really thought that there was any difference between himself and the other members of the group. He was stronger, he was faster, but he was also the oldest member of the group, so naturally he was more physically capable than the others.

As he kept an eye on the other children, Hiro's gaze momentarily stopped at a young girl with light brown hair, the oldest of the human children, cradling an infant in her arms. The girl's name was Midoriko, and the infant was her baby brother Masuo, born just three weeks before the attack that had wiped out the adults. While Hiro acted as the group's guide and father-figure, Midoriko was their emotional center, and made sure that everyone was well cared for. While neither one of them knew much about accepted dating practices, there was an increasingly strong connection forming between them, and neither one had any idea what to do about it.

Catching himself, Hiromitsu averted his gaze from Midoriko back toward the village. What he saw nearly made him swallow his teeth. Marching outward from the center of town was a huge column of armor-clad figures, led by a rider on horseback.

Uh oh, Hiro thought, a cold lump forming in the pit of his stomach. If I'd known they had that kind of army in this town, I would have just spent the morning gathering berries!

Hiromitsu turned back to the others. "Uh, guys," he said, "it looks like there are a lot of people with swords coming this way, and it's probably got something to do with me stealing all this stuff. You'd better take the food and go; I'll draw these goons off while you hide in the forest."

"Hiro--" Midoriko said hesitantly, but Hiromitsu cut her off. "No 'buts', Midoriko. You know that some of us can't run fast. I need to make a distraction so those men don't come straight into the forest and start looking for you." He gave her a lopsided smile. "Just run as fast as you can, and I'll meet up with you wherever you go."

Midoriko nodded. "Okay, Hiro. Just be careful, all right?"

Hiromitsu nodded, then dashed through the woods towards the advancing army.

Onigumo was having a great day. Not only had he discovered the whereabouts of this Hiromitsu character Sounga wanted, but he had just finished slaughtering the villagers who had told him where the runt was. He had especially enjoyed taking on the seven ronin who had been hired as guards in the town marketplace. With his superhuman strength and the ability to heal wounds in an instant, he had bested the other warriors easily, then helped his undead troops to finish killing off every adult in the village. He had spared the children, of course; someone needed to survive and carry word of this slaughter to the surrounding towns, and despite his perpetual bloodlust, Onigumo had always felt uncomfortable with killing kids. For whatever reason, he couldn't stand to kill a victim who couldn't put up a fight; it was just plain boring.

According to the now-deceased villagers, the young demon had left town earlier that morning, headed into the forest just beyond the rice-farmers' paddies. As soon as his troops were finished with their slaughter, Onigumo mounted his horse - an undead one, of course - and had them assemble behind him in seven rows of twenty. Just as he was about to march toward the forest, however, a white blur launched itself up out of the treetops, landing roughly fifty feet from where Onigumo had first seen it, running straight towards him. The undead enforcer grinned; if all his assignments were this easy, he would have gone mad from boredom decades ago! Drawing his sword, Onigumo made two sweeping arcs, instructing his soldiers to spread out on either side and surround the demon as he approached.

Within twenty seconds, the demon had closed the distance between them to about a hundred feet, slowing as he came, and Onigumo managed to get a good look at this dog-demon Sounga had gotten so worked up about. He didn't look like much, really; he seemed to be about sixteen or seventeen years old, by human standards, with long, wild white hair, yellow eyes, and blue stripes at various places. Frankly, Onigumo had been expecting some giant, hulking Great Demon with swords the size of tree trunks and fire coming out of his nostrils. Still, at least he was old enough to have a little fight in him; Onigumo would enjoy beating the tar out of him, then haul him back to Sounga's citadel and watch as the Great Demon himself beat the runt into a mass of red jelly. He hefted his sword in anticipation, savoring the nearness of his prey.

Hiromitsu finally stopped just within the circle of troops around Onigumo, teeth bared, his hands hooked into fearsome-looking claws. "What?" he said. "Don't tell me all this is about a few loaves of bread and some fish."

Just then, he caught a whiff of the soldiers around him, and instantly realized just how badly he had misjudged these new enemies. They weren't human, that was for sure; every one of them reeked of rotting flesh, and even with full armor on, he could see their glowing red eyes through their helmets. He could smell the fresh blood on their swords, and realized that the villagers from whom he had stolen this morning's catch were probably dead, killed by the men who were now closing in around him.

The undead men.

Hiromitsu began growling low in his throat. He had heard stories from the other children about the day their parents had been killed. He knew about the army of undead soldiers who had slain men and women without mercy, and about the huge warrior on horseback who had looked on as it was all done. These, then, were the soldiers of the Great Demon Sounga, and the broad-shouldered, black-armored warrior on horseback had to be the Great Demon's pet butcher, Onigumo.

Onigumo grinned at him. "Actually, it seems you've pissed off more than just the locals. The Great Demon Sounga sent me out here specifically to bring you in."

"I'd say I was honored," Hiromitsu growled through clenched teeth, "but then I'd be just as full of dung as you guys are."

Onigumo threw back his head and guffawed, a full, hearty belly-laugh that might have been pleasant, even charming, if its owner wasn't a corpulent pile of rotting flesh. "Well said! Well said, dog-demon! You've got claws, stripes and brass!" Onigumo laughed again, which just raised Hiromitsu's hackles even more.

Then, without warning, the undead warrior drove his spurs into his horse's flanks, and the reanimated steed exploded forward, its rider swinging his blade in a stroke that would have beheaded a slower, human adversary. Hiromitsu, however, was no mere human; he dropped to the ground as Onigumo's sword passed through the space his head had just occupied, turned, and sprang up at the undead horseman, tackling Onigumo and pulling Sounga's chief enforcer right out of his saddle. Hiromitsu had never killed anyone in his life - he only killed rabbits, fish and waterfowl when he needed meat - but the stench of evil rolling off this monster was driving him into a frenzy, and before they had even hit the ground, Hiro had already slashed through Onigumo's armor with his claws, carving out huge chunks of foul-smelling inhuman flesh. Then he felt a heavy boot against his solar plexus, and Hiromitsu went flying backward, breathless, crashing upside-down into a wall of undead soldiers who had been waiting for just this moment to close in and overwhelm him.

For Hiro, it was as if he had just been dropped into an open grave; the stench of rotten flesh was enough to make him gag, making it even harder to breathe and replenish the wind that Onigumo had knocked out of him. Hiromitsu clawed frantically at the armor-clad corpses, ripping off limbs, heads, armor plating and chunks of flesh, barely feeling the punches and cuts that they were raining down on him with gauntlets and shortswords. Finally, Hiromitsu gathered his remaining strength and extended all of his limbs at once. The impact of his feet and fists sent the troops nearest him into the air, slamming backward into their fellows and giving Hiro some much-needed breathing room. Bloody, bruised and covered with a foul-smelling miasma, Hiromitsu got shakily to his feet and drew in a long-delayed breath of fresh air.

Just as Onigumo drove an iron-clad fist straight into his nose.

Hiro barely registered the pain of his injury, or the resounding CRACK! as his nose broke. The sheer impact of Onigumo's inhumanly strong punch made him feel as though his brain was ricocheting around inside his skull, and the world went stark white for a few seconds. He staggered five steps backward, but quickly got his legs under control - anything but another round with the Smelly Ghoul Squad! - and barely managed to grab Onigumo's wrists as he tried to bring his black iron sword through a downward slash that would have sheared off Hiromitsu's left arm at the shoulder. With both of his hands thus occupied, though, the rest of him was wide open, and Onigumo brought his knee up into Hiro's unprotected groin. The young demon howled in agony, his grip loosened, and Onigumo shoved him backward. Then he let loose with a roundhouse kick, this time hitting Hiro's lower jaw and sending the boy sprawling flat on his back, finally unconscious.

Onigumo stretched his neck - making a loud, horrific squelching sound - and sheathed his sword, taking a moment to look over his fallen adversary. The kid had been a real disappointment; other than a few deep slashes in his midsection, Onigumo hadn't suffered any injuries at all, and had barely even needed to use his sword. A few punches and kicks, and the runt had gone down without so much as breaking one of Onigumo's toes. The undead enforcer considered decapitating the boy right there on the field - really, Sounga would get bored with this kid after five minutes - but he had his orders, so he had his soldiers tie the boy up and put him on the back of Onigumo's horse. Then he rode off at full gallop towards Sounga's mountain citadel, leaving his soulless, undead troops to follow after him at their own shuffling pace.

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Author's Notes/ "Bonus Material"

-Character Design

And now, of course, we introduce our main character, the star of the show, the hero of our tale, etc, etc., Hiromitsu! His long white hair, blue stripes and golden eyes are right out of the third movie. Of course, he's a lot younger than he will be when he meets Izayoi (by about two hundred years, to be exact), and he's living out in the wilderness, so he doesn't have the nice threads, armor or swords that he'll pick up later.

At first, I wondered whether I should make him a cool, confident character like Sesshomaru, or a wild, rough-around-the-edges guy like Inuyasha. As you can probably tell, I went with the Inuyasha-style personality, since he already looks enough like ol' Fluffy, and it gives more room for him to change into the stoic warrior we see in "Swords".

This chapter also introduces Midoriko, who fans will recognize as the great demon-slaying priestess who will one day seal a lot of demons inside the infamous Shikkon no Tama, or "Jewel of Four Souls". How does she get from here to there? I'm not telling!

Yet...

-Plot Development

Just as the first chapter establishes Sounga as a really evil character, the first part of this chapter is devoted to showing what a nice guy Hiromitsu is. Sure, he steals some food, but he doesn't hurt anyone in the process, and immediately divides it among a bunch of orphans. It also sets up the attraction between Hiro and Midoriko, which will play a big part later.

By having Hiro lose his first fight, it also lets the reader know that he's not perfect; he has weaknesses, particularly his inexperience, so there's no guarantee that he'll come out on top. It makes the story more interesting.

-Fight Choreography

The battle with Onigumo is typical Inuyasha stuff; two super-powered opponents go at it, and the fight only ends when one is knocked senseless. Since Hiromitsu doesn't have any weapons and is extremely inexperienced, his fighting style relies mostly on fast reflexes, superhuman strength and killer instinct; good for hunting animals, but not good for taking down an experienced opponent.

Onigumo's style also relies mostly on brute strength, but unlike Hiromitsu, he has a slightly wider variety of hand-to-hand moves. While his swordsmanship isn't all that great, he makes up for it by using unconventional attacks, like tossing opponents into a crowd of living dead to wear them down, or attacking with his foot when his enemy is worried about his big, black sword. He doesn't have a lot of finesse, but he really doesn't need it; with superhuman strength and super-fast healing, all he has to do is keep knocking his opponents around until they finally die or pass out.

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