Chapter 10: Whisper in a crowded room

THIS TAKES PLACE SHORTLY AFTER VOL. 5

PLEASE RxR

Text Key:

'Thoughts'

"Talking"

Dreams

-conscience/alter ego/little voice in your head

Last Time

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.

"What? that tengu? He holds no sentiment or value to us." The princesses laughed at his efforts at leverage,... well, all but one. Mahiru felt as if she was in a crowded room, trying to peak out the only window that existed. Every once in a while she would catch a glimpse, but her cries were usually drowned out by the other descendants.

"I'm not so sure, but if you are, then why keep him around?" Mahiru, or rather the princesses just looked on, uncaring and indifferent, but within Mahiru was screaming her lungs out. No matter what she did, her voice seemed no more than a whisper in a crowd.

With another violent thrust of his hand hokuto sent Mitsuru into another fit of agonizing torture and suffering. He clamped his eyes shut and his mouth opened in a painful scream. "Mahiru!"

Suddenly when he opened his eyes he was no longer in the warehouse, but in a strange black void. about ten feet away was a crowd of finely dressed women. Each with her own intricately woven kimono. Behind them he could make out the form of someone doubled over.

"Ma-hiru?" suddenly the person lifted their head and stood up; the crowd of women began to whisper and part to the side. From within, stepped mahiru, also clothed in a beautiful kimono. She was actually, in a sad way, smiling. As is she understood something he didn't. "Mitsuru... I'm sorry."

"God damn it Mahi- Gah!" Mitsuru felt the pain of Hokuto's curse again and fell to the ground, but when he opened his eyes again he was back on the floor of the warehouse.

"Stop." It was a calm, but strong voice. Unshaken but at the same time fearful. It was enough to get Hokuto's attention and he dropped his hands, leaving Mitsuru to lay helpless again. "If I give you the teardrops will you leave the tengu alone?" Mahiru's eyes where still glazed over, and the evenly aura still hung about her, but now it was just her voice, as if the other princesses had been hushed and where just waiting and listening.

"Deal." He said with a satisfied smile. "Mutsura, tie him up" Mutsura bound Mitsuru's hands and feet and dropped him back onto the floor. "Just until I get what I require of course M'lady" Hokuto reassured. "Now, where are the teardrops?"

Mahiru gave Hokuto an angry look, and turned to look at Mitsuru.

'Because of her, and her bloodline, the lunar race had been tortured and hunted for centuries.' she thought, looking down the broken tengu.

'every generation that went by, where a princess would love the demon, she would eventually betray and kill him, and the cycle would continue. not not his time. if the humans really wanted the teardrops, they could have them, along with the curse that went with them.'

Then subtly, from the corner of her eye, came a glow, and a tear fell down her cheek and fell to the floor, but instead of splattering there came a small tink sound. On the floor lay a beautiful teardrop shaped gem, so pure and clear it almost was luminescent. It was a pure teardrop of the moon.

Mitsuru felt his blood run cold again as he watched her cry, but not in awe of the gems or in horror of the fact she was giving him what he wanted, but because of the look on her face. He would recognize that look forever; it was the same one she had given him that night in the moonshine, when he had pushed her away. The it hit him,... the teardrops... were made from shattered love. When you truly care about someone, but you can't express that love to them, either because they won't receive it, or because you are to scared or weak to give it. Therefore, it creates a spiritual tension until finally it breaks free, shattering violently but beautifully, and usually... painfully.

In total, six tears fell to the floor and six gems lay glittered in their own sorrowful light. Hokuto picked them up, and held them in his palm, turning them over in his hand an marveling at their beauty.

Mahiru never took her eyes off of Mitsuru and he slowly watched as the light faded, returning her gaze to normal. As soon as she was completely changed back though, it seemed as if all the strength she had left just drained from her body and her head fell limp.

"mahiru?...mahiru...mahiru..." he called her name, but she didn't have the strength nor the heart to look up. Mitsuru looked over to where Hokuto and Mutsura where greedily examining the tears Mahiru had shed,... all because she loved him, and thought it was her fault. Mitsuru snapped the ropes binding his legs and managed to stagger to his feet. Where he was getting this strength he didn't know, and didn't care.

Once he was up he snapped the ropes around his wrists and walked silently over to where mahiru hung limply. "mahiru?" he whispered in her ear. "yea mitsu?" she lifted her head slightly.

"It's not your fault... mahiru." he was surprised to feel the weight of mahiru's head on his shoulder as she began to cry real tears into the crook of his neck. Quickly he ripped through the ropes holding her to the steel crucifix. Without being bound to the cross she fell forward into Mitsuru who caught her and picked her up, bridal style, cradling her closely so head rest against his chest.

Hokuto had been so enamored by the gems he had just now noticed Mitsuru and Mahiru. "What do you think you're doing? our agreement was that you go,... she stays." Mitsuru just stared coldly at him,"Why the hell do I care about your 'agreement'? Besides you heartless bastard, what use is she to you now?"

"Are you blind? she is the key to the tear drops of the moon. With her I could have all the power I need to finally eradicate your filthy species. Now we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the really easy way." Mutsura strung an arrow and aimed it at Mitsuru, but Hokuto pulled it down before he could let it go. "Now, now mutsura, let's not get hasty. You could risk hitting the princess. I say we put these gems to good use." He pulled one of the teardrops out and held it in his outstretched palm.

He began chanting and the gem pulsated along with him. Soon the gem just seemed to melt away into his hand. Hokuto smirked, enjoying every moment of this, and turned his palm towards the tengu. Out of it came a bright point that looked like it was made of molten rock. Suddenly it shot from his hand and before Mitsuru could counter it had sliced through his shoulder, leaving a searing gash.

"What the hell?" Mitsuru suddenly took off, clutching Mahiru close to himself. The tengu smashed through a side door into a long winding stairwell. Heading upward his foot steps echoed off of the walls, and soon they were joined by two more sets of feet chasing after them.

Suddenly there was a flood of light and mitsuru backed against the wall just in time to miss a thunderbolt of energy from a few flights up. "Run, run, little tengu." He said sing song.

"The hell I will! damn bastard." Mitsuru crashed through another door into a giant storage room. "Great..." He cursed and ran into the maze of boxes. Mahiru watched from within his arms, every once in a while she would shudder despite herself. It was like with every time hokuto used the tear drops a searing pain would shoot through her. Every time seemingly taking more and more of her strength.

Mitsuru felt her tremble in his arms," Hold on mahiru! don't die on my now." Mahiru smiled, how could he still want to save her? he could have gone free.

'oh mitsu, no matter who's fault it is,... I don't want to see you hurt'

Mitsuru looked down to see her smiling up at him,"Mahiru? wha-" he was cut short by another huge surge of energy that crashed through the wall of boxes behind him, sending them crashing into the wall opposite them.

"I tire of this game tengu... we end this now." Hokuto grabbed the five gems from his pocket and as before he let them merge with himself. The whole time he did this mitsuru could see Mahiru begin to suffer even more. She now was doubled over, supporting herself with one hand and clutching her heart with the other.

Hokuto raised his hand to point at Mitsuru. "Goodbye tengu..."

"I warned you,... fool of the koudokui line. The next time we met,... would be your last." Mahiru had stood up and was walking over to where Mitsuru was propped up against the wall. She stood in front of him, and immediately fell to her knees.

"Sorry Mitsuru... I do love you." before he could say anything Mahiru hand wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a deep kiss. Mitsuru couldn't stop himself from kissing her back, and deepening their embrace even more. But he was shaken out of it when he felt something warm drop into his hand. Mahiru finally broke the kiss and Mitsuru saw the trail of a single tear on her cheek. In his hand he held up a small gem, but somehow different from the teardrops before it. This one was a pure clear blue, and not shaped nearly as finely as the ones before it. But,... there was something special about it, something the other gems didn't have...

"But,... It's my turn to give something back to the lunar race,... and to y-...ou" Mahiru's body shuddered and she fell forward into Mitsuru again. Mitsuru just wrapped his arms around her and held her close. He could feel her body begin to grow cold, and no matter how many time he shut his eyes, her soft light was never there. "Life..." 'The other teardrops, had nothing but, despair of a broken heart. This one had happiness, and life.' Mitsuru thought to himself, turning the joyful tear in his hand. It felt strangely warm, like the warmth he had felt just a few moments ago, when he kissed Mahiru.

"You killed her? YOU KILLED HER!" Hokuto screamed, and usually Mitsuru would just ignore the bastard, but these words shot right through him, ten times worse than any curse or arrow. Mainly because he had yet to admit to himself that Mahiru was dead; still sitting there, clutching her like she might wake up any moment.

Standing up silently, Mitsuru picked up the limp Mahiru. "We just keep shifting the blame... but mahiru, It was never really your fault. But you still took it upon yourself to fix it." He smirked and looked down at her face, her eyes dull and empty, but a smile still was left on her features. Mitsuru closed her eyes.

"You bastard! you killed her!"

"No, I didn't kill her... you, are the reason she died. You humans,... you will do anything to fulfill your greed.-" Mitsuru clenched the tear in his trembling hand, anger building in his eyes. "You humans who would do anything to eradicate a race you know nothing about, just because you feel the slightest bit threatened by us." Light began to streak from mitsuru's fist as the stone began to glow, its light a pale blue, that was as soothing as a moonbeam. It's radiance filled the room, but at the same time embraced it, every nook and cranny made known by the shadows it excentuated.

"You humans..." Mitsuru chuckled coldly, "Who will kill the very descendant of the woman you tried to avenge, and for what? The power to avenge her!" The light swept momentarily over Mitsuru, hiding him beneath its glow, and when it subsided he stood in his looming tengu form."

Suddenly an arrow came whistling past Hokuto and struck Mitsuru in the shoulder, but he it didn't even make him flinch, he simple raised one massive hand and a thunderbolt of energy shot straight through Mutsura, his bow still raised and bowstring still quivering. In an instant he was laying cold on the floor, a gaping hole seared through his heart.

By now hokuto began to get nervous, but never the less, stood his ground know there was no where he could run. Mitsuru walked calmly up to him, stopping just in front of the leader of the dawn's venus. Hokuto looked up at the giant and the two stared, locked in one of the deepest battles of the soul. "You want the power of the teardrops of the moon so badly? Then take it." Mitsuru suddenly dropped the gem he was holding, and Hokuto snatched it up without hesitation.

He immediately regretted this. He opened his palm to reveal the stone melting into his body as the others had, only this time he felt different. Hokuto fell backwards, scrambling away from the tengu, but no sooner had he gotten about ten feet did the two different types of tears begin to react to one another. Like two opposite being smashed together, they can coexist inside oneself, as emotions do in every living creature, feeding and gaining off one another, but never can they intertwine and mix.

Hokuto felt as is his blood was stopping in his veins, almost as if it was freezing. The, without warning, something shot up out of his arm. It was long and sharp, like a shattered piece of glass only a deep red color. Soon after more began to slice through his flesh. He looked at the tengu one last time, with so much hatred it made even Mitsuru's tense, before falling forward onto the ground with a shattering crack.

Mitsuru set Mahiru down a moment later and walked over to Hokuto. His skin was cracked and broken, and pieces lay scattered everywhere, like someone had smashed a mirror. But one piece was left partially in tact, and that was his hand, still clutched around something. Mitsuru touched his clenched fist and it immediately shattered into more pieces, but lying among them was a single roughly sharpened gem. He picked it up and walked back over to Mahiru.

An hour later the Mitsuru landed in front of the moonshine, as soon as his feel hit the pavement he collapsed back into his human form on the ground, still holding onto Mahiru's lifeless body. 'Damn it get up' He mentally scolded himself and willed his body to its feet. Mitsuru crashed through the door and landed again with a thud on the floor. Inside the group of disgruntled and obviously worry-stricken demons jumped to their feet.

OMG! keep reading! or a hoard of viking chinchillas will come and leave droppings in your slippers! muahahahah! 8D