For the love of dreams

By: Kara

Authors note: I still don't own anything, so don't ask.

Chapter 2: the hunter and the hunted

"Dammit dammit dammit!" Motoko was having a very bad day. Whilst accidentally summoning an animal daemon into the realm of the living she had managed to put as much distance as humanly possible between herself and her sword. She had to let Kaola and Fox go after the infernal creature as she went tearing through the apartments to retrieve her weapon.

"They'recivilians!"she screamed at herself internally "they're not prepared for this kind of situation!" Motoko rethought her last comment as she tore open her bedroom door. "Ok Kaola can probably handle herself , but Fox and Naru are in mortal peril." after snatching her weapon from its stand the swords mistress opened her window to see if she could track the pursuit from above. What she saw was disturbing to say the least.

Below her the Hinata girls were tearing their way through the gardens and pathways and above her the creature was tearing over the roof of the dorms. Both Kaola and Fox were still only clothed in their bath towels waving their respective weapons (and in Kaola's case firing indiscriminately in the beasts general direction). Whilst Naru, still sopping wet, was trying to get the other two to listen to her. The proof that her efforts were failing miserably came when Motoko started to make sense out of what Kaola and Fox were yelling.

"Dammit Kaola for a genius you sure have crappy aim!"

"Just you try running and aiming at something that's three stories above you! It ain't that easy!"

"Could you try stopping for a second? Motoko says that that thing is dangerous and that we should follow from a distance."

"Couldn't you make a laser gun with a target lock?" That chilled Motoko's blood for a second. Fox was acting decidedly more bloodthirsty than usual. "Is the daemon affecting them?" some daemons were capable of affecting people on a base level. She may have to purify her friends when this was all over. She was roused from her musings by Kaola's reply.

"Trybuilding a gun that shoots superheated plasma in under three seconds and see if you have time to build an automatic targeting system!"

"I guess you have a poi- DAMN ITS HEADED THE OTHER WAY!"

Motoko looked up now hearing the creatures' footprints above her head. The fury that had been held back when she was looking for her sword came flooding back to her. Fastening her sword in her belt she jumped onto the railing and using her Ki she boosted herself onto the roof. The daemon stopped running and skidded to a halt three meters from where the swords mistress landed (causing several roofing tiles to fall and nearly clock the poor dorm manager who had to come out to see who was unfortunate enough to arouse the ire of the infamous "Hinata Girls".)

"I don't appreciate being tricked" stated Motoko as she drew her sword. "Especially when it involves bringing an aberration into this realm of existence." she leveled her blade, pointing it at the man-beast in an obvious challenge "for deceiving me of your true intentions, manipulating me to provide the means to enter my world and for seriously wasting my time I'll have to make you pay!" Shifting her weight she set herself into an "attack" stance. If she could see her face at that moment she would have seen the most terrifying sight known to daemon-kind as the "righteous fury of the Aoma's" (also known as the "daemon glare" in the otaku circles)

"And personally, I think you should pay in blood." before she could charge however, she was rudely interrupted by the plaintive wails of the lecherous dorm manager Keitaro Urashima.

"Naru I'm sorry! How was I supposed to know that they'd be only in their towels?"

"That's no excuse you moron!"

Motoko heard a loud smack and looked down just in time to see Keitaro being launched out of the hotel grounds and into the lower stratosphere. The creature took obvious advantage of her distraction to run away. When Motoko tuned to face the creature once again it had already leapt off the roof and was making its way into the forests that surrounded the small hotel.

"Dammit dammit, dammit!" sheathing her sword Motoko once again relying on her Ki to boost her as she leapt from the roof and into the forest

"Urashima!" she swore "when I'm done killing this daemon, you're next!"

"Damn daemon! Stand still and let me kill you!" a half hour had passed since Motoko had challenged the daemon on the rooftop, and during that interlude she had been led on a merry chase through the surrounding forest. They had managed to cross a substantial amount of terrain during their hunt, and they had gone so deep into the woods, with so many changes in their direction that Motoko was unsure as to weather she would be able to find her way back home.

Not that it really mattered; the daemon still had to be killed first.

The problem was that the daemon was in no hurry to confront her, a couple of times she had managed to get close enough to encourage the creature to swipe at her, but it had always managed to break away and run before she could she could make a strike herself, and it was so damn fast. No matter what she did the daemon managed to always stay just out of reach using its superior speed to stay ahead of her and dodging unexpectedly off in other directions usually making Motoko pause in order to change her own direction whilst the daemon had already run out of sight. It was taking all of her abilities to keep up with the damn thing. The strange part was that she couldn't sense its Ki anymore, even when she was being hunted by the tur- "Stop it!" she admonished herself internally "Focus on the daemon at hand!" she swerved to miss a tree as she made another turn after the fiend. Continually drawing on her Ki energy to make up for her comparative lack of speed she managed to keep the creature in sight. "So what it isn't like the last animal daemon you faced, they all have their differences. This one is just more annoying" taking her mind of her previous daemonic encounters and focused on the chase.

She had to give the creature credit; it gave a good chase. It never looked back instead it turned its ears back and listened to determine Motoko's location. It dodged at all the right times managing to avoid all of the attacks that she had sent against it and swerved of in unexpected directions, managing to increase its lead. Motoko had to rely on her Ki reserves in order to keep up with the beast. The chase seemed to be going on forever.

And then, for no reason, it stopped.

Curious but wary, Motoko held her sword ready in case the daemon tried to attack. Strangely all it did was stand there, panting heavily and bearing its teeth and sticking its tounge out panting, as it warily eyed her. They spent the next few minutes waiting for the other to move. There was no way that Motoko was going to leave herself open to the monster and so she waited.

For again what seemed like forever.

Until eventually, the creature moved. Not wanting to waste the opportunity she lunged her sword into the creature's belly, making sure to hit where the liver would probably be. Noting the darkness of the blood on her sword she assumed that she had guessed right and withdrew it to start cleaning. Unless the monster could heal itself its death was assured. What's more if human liver punctures were anything to go by its death would also be long and quite painful. The thought of the daemons suffering was making her giddy, or at least that's what she though before her legs gave way under her and she passed out.

Ok why no reviews people? I'm nice, I take criticism quite well and any opinion about this would be appreciated so why haven't you reviewed? Ah hell all I really want is confirmation that this isn't complete shite

buy tyhe way the gun that Kaola is using is called the BH-209 Plasgun, dubbed "plasma cannon" and made famous by being the weapon of choice for the main character of the popular sci-fi webcomic "schlock mercenary".

Read it at It's damn funny :)

Peace out: Kara