Chapter 9: Of Crimson Kimonos

THIS TAKES PLACE SHORTLY AFTER VOL. 5

PLEASE RxR

Text

Key:

'Thoughts'

"Talking"

Dreams

-conscience/alter ego/little voice in your head

Last Time

For a few seconds Mahiru could barley see straight, but after a while it all came back into focus. "So, loyal to your friends are you? what a waste. But if that is the way you want it to be, I can play along." He tossed a white kimono at Mutsura who caught it immediately. "Time to play dress up girlie" Mahiru's pupils dilated as she watched him come closer and closer...

He had that same look as in the car, and once again it sent chills down her spine. He stopped about an inch from her face, his hot breath making her skin crawl. She shut her eyes instinctively and began to struggle, but the ropes were bound too tight. "Now, now, girlie. The more you squirm, the more fun it is for me. He waited a few moments until he heard a door shut, signaling that hokuto had left to finish the final preparations.

"That's better, all alone." He took her chin in his hand and lifted it up, almost as if to examine it. "Such a beautiful demon. What a shame to waste it on something like you." She tried to scream but her cry was muffled by Mutsura's tongue entering her mouth roughly.

He began to kiss her so roughly that it was almost like he was choking her. Without thinking she bit down as hard as she could.

"Gah! yew-y yew li-el bish!" he said, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, and bleeding. "You're going to regret that." he said, getting right up into her face again. -shlip- the sound of metal echoed softly and Mutsura held up a sharp knife. The light reflected off of it as he turned the blade in his hand, making it seem all the more ominous.

Slowly he slipped it under the strap of her bathing suit; the cold steel was one of the most terrifying things she had ever felt. It froze her blood and made her shake uncontrollably. Fear does strange things to people, it's like a drug. The euphoria is addicting, but deadly and can drive even the most composed and strong hearted to go off the deep end. A single image flashed up in her eyes, the image of a black angel, hovering over her. Where she had gotten this image from she didn't know, and when she tried explaining it to Misoka... he... he laughed at her!

(naww poor mahiru! TT.TT oops sry back to the story)

"Kyaaa!" Mahiru felt the sting of the sharp blade as it cut through her flesh. Mutsura dragged it along from her shoulder to her chest. He picked it up just as it came to rest on the bathing suit. "Well, well, why don't we just get rid of this annoyance shall we?" He said, running his fingers through her hair.

"no... ple-ease" She breathed out as blood flowed down her arm. Mutsura suddenly grabbed Mahiru's hair and yanked her head back, forcing her to look towards the ceiling. He placed the blade below her armpit and began to slice down through the material along her side, cutting again into her flesh, although not as deep as the gash on her shoulder.

He continued slashing away at the suit until all that was left was a pile of shredded material and a naked and bleeding mahiru. Mutsura backed up once again to admire his handiwork, and by the sadistic grin on his face, he must have been pleased. "Such a waste..." he repeated dirtily, now working on tying the kimono around her. Every time he touched her it stung.

His hands skimmed her bare exposed skin, feeling, groping, and making Mahiru almost sick to her stomach. But he was cut short when footsteps were heard down from the stairwell. After a few moments of messing with ropes and retying them he managed to get the white kimono on.

Within seconds blood began to seep through, turning the cloth crimson. Mahiru's vision began to blur, but she managed to become stable again just in time to see Hokuto reenter the room. He took one look at her and walked over to Mutsura. "You bastard! what did I tell you?" he shoved him roughly to one side and continued about his business.

Back in the Sky

Mitsuru had finally lost Mahiru's voice, and could only hope he was still headed in the same direction. 'Why can I god damn hear her anymore!' he feared for the worst but kept on going. Suddenly, His eyes caught sight of a red car, parked outside a large, and apparently abandoned building.

'That has to be th-' Mitsuru grabbed his sides; with the way he had been exerting himself he had nearly cut his transformation time in half. He could feel his tengu strength fading slowly away. He managed to fly, or rather glide, down to about fifteen feet before his wings dissipated and he plummeted downward.

He moaned and rolled over a few minuets later, his side throbbing from the rough landing. But now was not the time to rest. He quickly got up and began to examine the car. The place reeked of the dawns venus, and if Mahiru was anywhere it was here, he could feel her.

"Damn, no more power charms." He turned out his pockets in frustration. "looks like im going to have to take a different approach this time." which was quite a big deal, seeing as Mitsuru's answer to everything was either violent, rash action of some sort or storming off to fume or plot about some future violent, rash action.

Quietly he crept inside, he could hear foot steps echoing from above. 'I can't risk using the elevator, they'll hear me for sure.' he searched for another way, then he saw it. The roof was covered in a maze of metal ventilation pipes, probably used for cooling the machines when the factory was in use. But in the center there was one large pipe to which they all connected. It looked like it went all the way up through the floors and probably to the roof where it would let the steam out.

Mitsuru jumped to the closest pipe and began climbing his way up the the large central vent. Once he reached it he found a grid and pulled it off, careful to place it quietly out of the way.

A few flights up

Hokuto had traced out a pentagram, along with other symbols and shapes, around the cross. 'What is he going to do with that?' Her question was soon answered.

"So now, tell me again, how do you change the beasts?" Hokuto said, aligning himself up with his curses on the floor. "If you refuse to tell me willingly I shall have to extract the information by other means, and I trust you won't like them." He said glaring at her, but when Mahiru just continued to stare him down he raised his hand up to his chest level and began tracing words and symbols in the air.

The ground beneath her feet began to glow...

In the Vents

Mitsuru stopped cold when he heard Hokuto's voice. Quickly he found the nearest grid and removed it, and climbed out. He gripped the pipe nearest him at what he saw. It made his blood boil, and he had to look away for a moment to stop himself from just jumping down there and kicking their ass's. Mahiru's body was tethered to a makeshift cross, and below her sat a pool of blood, no doubt mahiru's. He could see her struggling to hold herself up, but she was getting weaker.

He saw Hokuto talking to her for a few moments before backing away to begin an incantation. The ground beneath Mahiru's feet began to glow and slowly the light began to almost reach up out of the floor, as if to swallow her up. Then, as quickly as it had come, the light faded. "What!" Hokuto raced over to her and began looking her over, as if to find some sort of difference.

"How the hell did you just shake off a curse like that! There's no way. You should be writhing in pain, no demon had ever stood-" he stopped. "Maybe,... maybe I was mistaken. Maybe, your no demon at all." he took her face in his hands and examined it. But he still did not seem satisfied. So He slipped her kimono down to reveal the large gash from before. He placed his hands on either side of it, and tore it open a little wider, enough to let fresh blood spill over onto the ground.

Mahiru screamed in agony, but Hokuto didn't even flinch. Hokuto placed his hand over the fresh pool of crimson and chanted a few times. A bluish light sprang up around it, but within seconds it faded, leaving nothing but the puddle of blood. "So, not a demon, but a mere human?" Mahiru let her body drop forward; she could no longer support herself.

"How could you? a mere human,... no a mere GIRL? have so much fucking power?" He began to yell. It made no sense to him. "You would have to be... to be... no." He spun around, but instead of a frustrated face, he now wore a smile, not to different form the one Mutsura had worn. "A princess? A Lunar Princess? Well,... today is my lucky day. You know, you could have saved me a lot of trouble if you had just said so before."

Then, Hokuto put on his best composed face, but still that grin remained.

Above, Mitsuru had almost taken as much as he could handle, but he didn't know if he could take on the both of them at once.

" Well then I believe a different question is in order. Princess, if you would be so kind... as to, enlighten us on the location of the last teardrops? or maybe where you hide your,... friends."

Mahiru could tell he was just toying with her, and she still refused to talk, even if they did know she was a princess. "Hm, well, Like I said, we have ways of extracting information, demon or not." Mutsura took a smaller, finer knife from Hokuto's outstretched hand and walked over to Mahiru's right arm. SLowly the blade cut into her skin above her shoulder, but instead of just slicing, Mutsura began, drawing. Carving symbols into her, and along her arm.

Mahiru tried screamed out but her body was getting weaker by the moment, and all that emitted from her lips were short, choking gasps. Mutsura took his time, completing each stroke with careful precision. When he finished Hokuto asked again," You can make this so much easier..." But Mahiru remained silent. "As you wish princess" He began reciting an incantation, only this time Mahiru began to feel something. At first it was just warmth, starting at her feet and working its way up to her head, but suddenly Hokuto made a violent motion with his hand, and the warmth turned to sudden agonizing pain. It made all the muscles in her body contract, and seizure.

Mitsuru had finally seen enough, if he waited any longer, Mahiru might not make it. Jumping down he landed square on top of Hokuto, breaking his concentration and ceasing Mahiru's tortured convulsions. He ran over to her and began tearing at the ropes.

"He-y Mitsu..." She said as she recognized the aqua haired boy. She smiled down at him. "Why?" This simple question stopped Mitsuru for a moment, but Mahiru's horrified gasp made him turn to see what it was.

Hokuto had gotten back up (With a sizable bruise on his head form Mitsuru's feet) and Mutsura had an arrow aimed straight for his heart. But Hokuto stopped him and instead raised his hand. "And here I thought my lovely work would go to waste. Mitsuru looked down and could have killed himself right there. He was standing smack dab in the middle of Hokuto's pentagram.

In a split second Hokuto began to chant and Mitsuru was on the ground writhing. "Mitsuru! no! Stop!" but hokuto just stared coldly down at the helpless boy, and intensified his hand movements. "I said N-" suddenly Mahiru stopped, and Her eyes glazed over with light, just like in the bay.

"I said STOP" Hokuto looked up to see Mahiru glowing like a teardrop of the moon. Mitsuru lay on the floor at her feet, holding his stomach and fighting to stay conscious. Mahiru's voice was once again that of all the princess' that had come before her, along with her own voice as well.

"You try my patience once again, oh fool of the Koudokui line."

"Forgive me princess for being so blunt, but I have no concern for your 'patience'. All I require are the Teardrops."

The princesses just laughed, "And what makes you think your 'requirements' are of any concern of ours?" Mahiru looked at Hokuto with a sarcastic smile.

Hokuto remained undeterred,"Oh? no concern? are you so sure about that?" His eyes narrowed into slits and he outstretched his hand towards Mitsuru. The tengu still lay weak, and battered on the floor.

All right, I've written all the chappies now I just have to upload em' so hold onto your hats people cuz it's time for the mass uploadation!