A/N: Almost there folks, enjoy
Chapter 12: Kaza
The first rumble caught Kyoko off balance. Her mind far from where she was going the tremor robbed her legs from under her and deposited her squarely on her rear with an uncharacteristic yelp of surprise.
"What in the heavens?"
Another rumble, deeper, almost menacing shook the building to it's foundations, ceiling beams creaking ominously above her.
She held her breath as this to passed and the building settled back into a tense, uneasy silence.
An earthquake, she wondered, standing and dusting her kimono off, Surely not, I don't recall such a thing happening before.
As if to remove all doubt, a third tremor, the largest yet threatened to return her to the ground once more and only a steadying hand on a nearby wall thwarted its intensions.
I have to get out, this structure is not sound enough to withstand something like this.
She had managed a half-step before another thought caught up to her: Shinobu!
In her current state there was no guarantee she would be able to escape unassisted. Horrid images of a blue haired angel buried beneath aging mounts of wood and stone flashed through Kyoko's mind in an instant.
She dithered. In one direction was the swiftest way out, and in the other lay the guest quarters and Shinobu.
Should I go back? Surely the others wouldn't leave without her.
Only Kyoko had no idea where the other residents of the Hinata Sou were at that moment. What if they arrived to late to help, or assumed like she that someone else would help?
Could she live with herself if anything happened to the other girl?
Briefly the memory of what the blue haired girl had told her minutes ago flashed through her mind, leaving a fresh trail of anger and bitterness.
Could she leave her behind?
Kyoko cursed for possibly the first time in her life as she found herself running full speed toward the other girl's room.
The ground shook, attempting to dissuade her from her goal but somehow she found herself outside the room a large part of her recent life seemed to reside around.
She threw the door aside and made to enter.
She stumbled as something fell into her from the other side, something light but unsteady on its feet. Something with blue hair that smelled like lavender.
Her arms moved instinctively to support the new weight, drawing the other girl into an unconscious semi-embrace.
Shinobu turned fear widened violet eyes up to regard her saviour, hands clutching the front of Kyoko's kimono as if that would stop the earthquake.
Recognition finally dawned on her pink tinged face, "Kyoko-chan?".
Kyoko didn't answer right away, she was wondering, perhaps selfishly, perhaps not even consciously, just how long she could make this moment last.
Is she blushing…because of me, even as this thought entered she dismissed it roughly. The other girl still had a low-grade fever; she could almost feel the heat from it.
"Are you unharmed Maehara-san?", she asked neutrally, with some effort forcing her reluctant arms to release the other girl enough that she was only providing minimum support.
Shinobu's eyes seemed to sadden for a second and Kyoko felt an unwilling wrench in her gut.
"I'm ok", she said, adverting her gaze guiltily and Kyoko was sickened to realise she was almost pleased by the other girl's behaviour.
"Come on", she said, moving around to Shinobu's side and supporting the shaky girl as best she could, "We have to get out of here. The temple was not build to survive something like this".
As if to support her statement, another tremor left the walls groaning dangerously.
She felt Shinobu cling to her for a second shivering and angrily stamped down another surge of happiness. The other girl had made herself perfectly clear.
Together they began to make their way through the building, stabilising each other every time the building shook.
"Hey!" Kitsune's voice called out from behind them and they paused long enough for the fox girl and her companions; Su and Kentaro, to catch up.
"What's going on here?"
"I don't know", Kyoko said briskly, ignoring the older woman's taken aback expression and the disapproving way Shinobu glanced at her, "But we should get out of the building before it falls down around our ears".
Kitsune nodded stiffly as Su and Kentaro caught up.
"Hiyas, you two really think this is the time for that?", Su asked when she saw Shinobu and Kyoko, her cheer seemingly unimpeded by the threat of having the temple collapse on top of them all.
She shrank back a little at the glare Kyoko turned on her.
"Sorry, just making conversation", she said, rubbing the back of her head nervously.
"As amusing as this all is", Kentaro interjected, his voice strained, "Perhaps we should get out of here before we all die!".
"Yeah, less yacking, more running", Kitsune agreed, "Kentaro, can you carry Shinobu? It'll be faster if she's still hasn't got her legs back yet".
"Sure", he answered impatiently, stepping forward to retrieve the blue haired girl…only to find her drawn away from his grasp by a cool faced Kyoko.
"I have her", she said simply, resisting the urge to swallow and fighting to maintain an impassive façade in face of her sudden burst of possessiveness.
She refused to look at Su who was rubbing her chin thoughtfully, a sly grin spreading across her face and watched as Kitsune and Kentaro looked at each other and shrugged.
"It's ok", Shinobu's quiet voice broke the awkward tension that had developed, "I can make it like this".
Kyoko stole a glance at the other girl but her face was turned away from her gaze.
"Fine, fine, let's go already", Kentaro growled, motioning frantically for everyone to get moving.
The group set off as fast as they were able, Kyoko and Shinobu lagging slightly at the rear.
As they made their escape, Kyoko couldn't help but replay Shinobu's last words in her mind: "I can make it like this"
Why did it sound, for a second, like there had been something there?
Motoko and Koichi ran silently, each of the Special Art's Bladmasters focused only on their goal. The pillar of unholy light that rose from the Sagura Temple, piercing and corrupting the sky.
At Motoko's hip, the Hina, retrieved after her battle with Akira sheaved and ready, was screaming in demonic ecstasy at the aura that emanated from that light, threatening to wash away Motoko's own consciousness even though it was still sheathed.
At Koichi's hip, the Sword of Two Souls rattled restlessly, as if encouraging its owner to turn in the opposite direction and not stop running.
Without speaking, both warriors dipped into their Ki, enhancing their muscles and increasing their speed, drawing ever closer to the temple and the light.
They came to a halt as they made out figures emerging from the temple entrance into the courtyard.
"Motoko! Koichi!", Kitsune called, waving to them as they came to a stop, "You're ok, do you know what's going on with all the tremors, and- What the hell is that!"
The fox girl had turned around to check that the others had followed her out safely and spotted the towering white beam thrusting its way skyward. How she had missed its presence when she had been in the building it originated from neither Motoko or Koichi could fathom.
"We're not sure", Motoko said as the remainder of their group drew level with them, sparing a curious glance at Kyoko and Shinobu, "But it's not good whatever it is".
"No kidding", Kentaro said sarcastically, crossing his arms, "But that doesn't help us much".
Koichi's reply was cut off by a deep laugh, similar to Hitoshi's but with a cold and menacing undertone that burrowed beneath the listeners skin.
"I must confess, I'm disappointed", Kenichi said, stepping out of the shadows around the main entrance as if the shaking ground and impromptu light show were of secondary importance to whatever was going through his mind at the moment, "I know your ignorance my son, but Kyoko, I had thought you at least could put two and two together, especially with the memory so vivid in your mind".
The dark haired girl glared at the man she called father from where she supported Shinobu, her mouth opening to ask him something even as realisation dawned on her face.
Those gathered watched with a sinking feeling of dread in their stomachs as Kyoko's usually impassive face, transformed into a mask of absolute terror, "No…you couldn't, it's just a story".
"All tales are based in truths my daughter, and this is no exception", Kenichi's grin was chilling, nothing like the carefree smile his son usually sported.
"What are you up to this time old man?", Koichi ground out angrily, stepping between his Father and his Sister, his hand hovering over the pommel of his sword.
The two Sagura men stared at each other unspeaking, cold sea grey eyes, as hard as steel clashing wordlessly.
Kenichi chuckled mirthlessly, "Perhaps you really are my son".
"I'm nothing like you", Koichi spat, only seeming to amuse Kenichi further.
"If only you knew", he whispered cryptically.
"You want to know my boy? What is going to happen this day?", he asked almost lazily, "Today is the end. The end of the Aoyama line, the end of false power".
Motoko whipped the Hina free, hands shaking with anger as she levelled the blackened blade at Kenichi, "How dare you besmirch the honourable name of my family".
"Honourable?", he asked mockingly, "Let me tell you a tale young Aoyama. Do you know the story chronicled by the Sagura Clan known as Sealing the Demon?".
"What does this have to do with-", Koichi was cut off by a sharp gesture from his father.
"Many centuries ago, when the Clans were first formed and Oni roamed these lands unhindered, there was a small upstart family who believed they could destroy all of the nightmares that plagued our land single handed", he levelled an accusing finger at Motoko, "That family, was the Aoyama line. Acknowledged as skilful but weak, the head of their line at the time sort a way to make his family stronger".
"I know this tale", Motoko bit out irritably, "Every member knows about Takumi Aoyama, the founder of the God's Cry school, who developed the style we still use today to make his line stronger".
"Wrong", Kenichi said, that simple word left to echo around the courtyard for a moment, "That is part of the lie your line invented to hide its shame. Shall I tell you what really happened? Takumi Aoyama sort out a particularly strong Oni, one rumoured to grant favours for a price. Meeting with it he made a bargain, unsurpassed spiritual power for his line…and in return, he was to serve the Oni for eternity".
Motoko shook her head fiercely, "You're wrong! That's a lie, my family has exterminated Demons for centuries, we would never make a deal with them!".
"That's where you're wrong little girl, the Sagura Clan, descended from a line of priests, observed it all, including Takumi's betrayal of his Oni master, the same Oni who in his rage, had to be sealed by my family to put a stop to the devastation he caused. With their new power Takumi's Clan rose to the head of the others, untouchable and unpunished for their crimes".
Kenichi looked around at the sea of disbelieving faces before him.
"I see we still have some doubters. That is fine, it will all be over soon. The Sagura Clan sealed him, and the Sagura Clan can release him".
Koichi glanced back as he heard Kyoko muttering a panicked prayer.
"The Aoyama's shall pay for their betrayal…and I will loose no one else", he said his face softening for a moment before becoming even harder, "Come forth Oni, I Kenichi Sagura, release the final seal. Arise dark lord, YAZUROPH!".
Koichi and Motoko doubled over, gagging violently as the blazing beacon behind them intensified, temporarily blinding everyone and the…vanishing.
When everyone could see once more there was a new figure in their midst.
Knelt before Kenichi was a man. Wearing only a simple pair of baggy brown pants, spun from some sort of rough material, his waist length silver hair settled around him like a cloak he seemed perfectly at piece.
Slowly his head rose, revealing even to those who stood behind him, the two bleach bone horns that stood out from his forehead.
"Can you hear me, Yazuroph?", Kenichi asked, his voice firm for a man talking to a creature that resonated a sickly dark aura to those sensitive.
"I hear mortal", came the reply, barely at normal conversational level, and smooth, like that of a man of high birth.
"I have released you so that you may take your revenge on the traitors, the Aoyama line…do you understand?"
"I understand Lord Sagura", the demon intoned, something about its voice putting all those gathered on edge.
Kenichi smiled another soulless grin, "Excellent"
He turned his focus back to his audience when the creature began to stand. Slowly, with the grace of an athlete it drew itself up to its full height.
"I understand all to well", it spoke, its voice tinged with malicious amusement, "However, I have a score to settle with your line also".
Faster than the stunned master of the Oni's bane school could react, the creature breezed forward, its clawed hand grasping him by the throat and lifting the bigger built man as if he were a child.
"Die, mortal", with a contemptible flick of the wrist, Yazuroph hurled the head of the Sagura family aside, sending him crashing into the front wall of the temple with a sickening crack.
Kenichi slumped without a sound to the ground, and lay very still.
Yazuroph yawned and stretched, cracking joints and vertebrae unused in centuries, claws tapping thoughtfully against his chin as he turned to regard his next victims.
Koichi felt cut off from his body as he starred at his father's corpse.
This isn't happening, this can't really be happening
Behind him he heard Shinobu calling desperately to Kyoko as the other girl slumped to the ground, her own sea grey eyes likewise locked on their father's body.
"Bastard…", his voice was small, smaller than he had ever heard it, but his anger was growing by the second, fuelled by the silent tears he saw in his little sister's eyes.
There was a rasp of steel on wood as he drew the Sword of Two Souls, eyes hard and unforgiving, "Bastard".
"My name", the Demon said, regarding him with little interest, "Is Yazuroph"
"Like I care", he spat back, settling into a ready stance, blade tip pointing at the creature's chest.
Yazuroph looked him over before shaking his head, "Weakling, I have no interest in the likes of you".
Koichi growled low in his throat as the Demon's gaze swept passed him and the others before coming to rest on Motoko.
The monster's eyes narrowed as they locked with Motoko's, driving her an involuntary step back.
"Aoyama", it said, its voice darker than before, "A pretty one too. Though the women of your line always were…it will be such a shame to destroy you"
"Serpent's Strike!"
Yazuroph looked up irritated, batting the snake like wave of spiritual power Koichi had unleashed at him away with one clawed hand, "I thought I had told you, you are of no concern to me boy".
"Well I'm making myself your concern", Koichi said mimicking the creature's accent.
The Demon sighed dramatically, flexing his claws, "If you are really that eager to die…"
"Boulder cutting blade!", Motoko chose then to add her own opinion.
This time the Oni was forced to side step the attack, glaring at Motoko as she readied another attack, sending a second wave hot on the heels of the first.
Koichi added another strike of his own before blurring from sight.
Yazuroph growled angrily as he grasped Motoko's attack between both hands bringing his inhuman strength to bare and wrestling it into submission, banishing it in time to swat aside the wave of power launched by Koichi.
He spun, claws slashing across the space that Koichi's blade reappeared in and deflecting it.
Pain blossomed across his arm as Motoko scored a cut along his shoulder.
With a roar he spun, his fist launching Motoko backward as his foot did the same for Koichi.
Koichi and Motoko back flipped as one, driving back in with twin cries from different angles, blades sweeping in hard.
The Demon twisted, grabbing the swords with its bare hands and tugging, hurling the blademasters aside as they tried to cling to their respective weapons.
Twisting in mid-air Motoko and Koichi landed gracefully, both privately shocked that they had been tossed around so easily.
Yazuroph regarded them imperiously as the wound on his shoulder slowly sealed shut, leaving perfect, unblemished skin once more.
"This could grow tiresome".
"Agreed", Koichi said, drawing the creature's attention as Motoko tensed to attack once more.
"Serpent's Strike!"
"Boulder Cutting Blade!"
Koichi watched as their attacks were once again blocked, Motoko's with greater effort than his own.
He fell into to his centre, looking for that pulsing light he knew to be Motoko…
He staggered as he found a ragging fire instead of the usual, serene pool he had expected to find.
Damn, Motoko is using her Ki to fight so I can't draw any of it!
"Motoko, fall back!", he shouted, glancing down at the Sword of Two Souls to convey what he intended, driving the sword point into the ground. His fiancé nodded reluctantly, leaping back as the creature back to advance on her.
Almost at once he felt her Ki settle into the calm, malleable form he remembered from the fight with Tsuruko.
Drawing as much as he dared to supplement his own he sent it out into his blade, watching through closed eyes as the blade shot free of the ground.
Koichi blurred forward, a grin on his face as the Demon spun to regard the sudden burst of powerful Ki he undoubtedly felt building behind him.
Too slow, Koichi thought victoriously.
"Steel Cutting Rose!"
The twister of power roared forth from the tip of his blade, hurling discharges of power in all directions, barrelling in toward its target.
Koichi grinned in grim anticipation as the tornado converged on the Demon's position.
No where to run
Yazuroph raised his hands above his head, eyes narrowed, "You think to much of yourself little human!"
As the twister neared he slammed both clawed hands down upon it. Sound vanished for an instant before being replaced with a tortured shriek as the twister of spiritual power was turned back on its owner.
"You think you can beat me using her power! I gave her family its strength, and I can take it away".
Koichi felt his grip on his sword loosening as his doom tore towards him with a cry like an angry god.
He couldn't even generate this power alone, so there was no way he could stop it.
He looked sadly at Motoko, trying to mouth an apology as he saw her eyes widening in horror.
Kyoko was only peripherally aware of the fight between Motoko, her brother and the Demon her Father had summoned. The same demon that had killed him.
She was barely able to hear Shinobu calling her name, couldn't really feel her shaking or hugging her, trying to snap her out of it.
Time stopped until she heard Motoko's shout, desperate and panicked it snapped her back to reality in time to see the ravaging winds of spiritual energy bearing down on her brother.
Her brother.
She had lost her Mother before she knew her, lost her Father seemingly to his own brewing madness, and Shinobu before she had even possessed her.
If she lost Koichi as well…what was the point in going on?
With a strength she didn't know she possessed, she tore free of Shinobu's grasp, her small legs pounding up and down, carrying her, to her eyes, agonisingly slowly toward her goal.
She heard Koichi's startled gasp mingled with her own as her arms closed around him. She couldn't remember how she had managed to cover all that distance so quickly but it didn't matter.
She was here with her family for it all to end.
She was dimly aware of Shinobu screaming something as the winds drew closer, their hateful cry obscuring everything else.
"Oni-chan"
The winds hit and the world disappeared.
Kyoko was aware that she was floating.
Nothing else permeated her mind, just this sense that somehow, somewhere, she was floating.
What was she floating in? She couldn't tell. Her body wasn't sending her any other information. At that moment she couldn't have told you if she was hurt or unharmed, warm or cold, was she lying down or standing up?
These were all mysteries to Kyoko.
Does that mean I'm really dead this time, she wondered.
Kyoko tried to take a deep breath, but she didn't seem to have any lungs.
This didn't panic her as much as she felt it should.
Aren't people usually scarred of death, she mused.
That was true, your average person usually held a deep base fear of the end, so why didn't she? Wasn't she normal.
An image flickered in the nothingness, a girl with a radiant smile and bright blue hair.
I'm not normal, she thought, but there was no sadness, no bitterness behind the thought, only a kind of resignation, Is that why I'm here?
Kyoko felt the air forced from her lungs as she struck the ground.
Her sea grey eyes snapped open and she looked around frantically finding only white, a rush of fear and adrenaline pouring into her mind as her body returned.
Eyes, sight, body, touch, fear, disorientation…what…what is happening to me?
"Hello", her voice was almost unrecognisable. Tight and vulnerable it was disgusting to the part of her which recalled what she had tried to mould herself into being.
"Is anyone there!", desperation tinged her voice, making it waver weakly. It was as if someone had found the off switch for her inner strength and pushed it ruthlessly.
That was right, there was no one coming was there. Everyone was already gone, dead. Did that mean she would still be alone even now? Wasn't she dead as well, or was this some new hell?
Kyoko leant back, her head falling back with the motion and her hand moving to support her.
So this is it, alone forever.
Her hand brushed against something warm and bulky and she let her head roll lethargically in that direction, idly wondering what had been placed there to torment her.
Her eyes widened as the first thing she saw was a mop of thick, messy black hair, connected to a black clad body clutching a katana with a snakeskin pommel tightly in one hand.
"…Oni-chan?", she breathed, not daring to allow her hopes up, turning onto all fours next to him and touching him carefully lest he vanish.
When she was sure that he wouldn't disappear she rocked his shoulder gently, "Oni-chan?"
He didn't respond, in fact if not for the slow rise and fall of his chest he might have been dead.
"Oni-chan?", she spoke louder, shaking him more vigorously, but he remained still, impervious to her desperate pleas.
"Oni-chan", she croaked as her weak voice began to fail, leaving her sounding almost childlike, "Oni-chan…please…wake up".
Kyoko felt her shoulders slump. She just had to ask what life would do to her next didn't she. This was it, eternity alone despite being in company.
Just like the rest of my life to date.
The first drop of moisture to strike her hands startled her. Pale hands traced the drops back up to her face where they ran from her eyes uninhibited.
I've been doing this a lot recently, she thought sadly, watching the patterns her tears made on her hands and on her kimono.
I hate this, I hate all of it, she screwed her hands up against her face, Why won't someone make it stop?
Kyoko gasped, as she felt soft, slender arms gently embracing her from behind. It was a feeling she couldn't remember ever experiencing before, even with her brother or Shinobu. A feeling of absolute love and protection.
Kyoko turned slowly as the other person's grip relaxed, her tears forgotten.
Her breath was stolen as she saw the other person's face.
A beautiful woman, in her early twenties at the most, was looking at her softly with crystal blue eyes set in porcelain face surrounded gently waves of raven hair that spilled down over her shoulders and down to her lower back.
Her generous lips curved in a kind, wonderful smile that reminded her of someone, but she couldn't quite place where she had seen that smile before.
The beautiful woman reached out with the sleeve of her plain white kimono, using it to wipe away the remainder of Kyoko's tears. The material set off alarm bells in Kyoko's mind, warning her that this was something very expensive being used for such a mundane purpose.
She raised her hand, trying to wave away the older woman's attentions.
"Shhh, little one", the raven haired beauty hushed her, pressing a slender finger to her lips and continuing her ministrations, "Everything will be alright now".
Kyoko nodded dumbly as her face was cleaned and the other woman sat back on her hunches, regarding her with something akin to fond amusement.
"Why do I know you?", Kyoko asked, finally unable to resist the question that had been bubbling in the back of her mind since she had lain eyes on this woman.
The woman chuckled behind her sleeve as if Kyoko had told an amusing joke and Kyoko glared at her indignantly, her patience gone after everything that had happened to her recently.
"I didn't think I said anything amusing", she said, grinding her teeth when this just seemed to make the other woman laugh louder.
"I'm sorry little one", she said eventually, "But you have his temper".
"Whose?", Kyoko asked confused by the strange woman's cryptic response.
"Kenichi", she answered, her voice wistful and full of something else…longing?
"Father? How do you know Father?", Kyoko asked suspiciously.
The older woman looked at her sadly for a moment, "Kyoko…my poor little Kyoko-chan".
Kyoko shrank back as she lifted her hand to stroke her cheek, "How do you know me?".
"Oh my, how rude of me", the older woman chuckled tapping herself on the head lightly and looking Kyoko directly in the eye, "My name is Ishizu. Ishizu Sagura".
She watched with open concern as Kyoko dropped back on her rear, starring at her with a mix of fear, disbelief and hate.
"What's wrong Kyoko-chan?"
"You're her", she whispered through teeth clenched so tight she thought they would crack. Now that she knew why this woman seemed so familiar, she could see the resemblance people had complimented her on her entire life, the cheekbones, the face shape, the hair. All of it the same yet subtly different, older, more mature.
"You…", she stood, fists clenched at her side, "You, I hate you".
"Kyoko-chan?", she asked her daughter, looking so innocent and hurt that Kyoko almost apologised then and there, but she held her tongue.
"You ruined my life", she almost shouted, "Do you know what it's like to spend your whole life trying to fill the void left in the ones you love's lives? To be told how much you remind them of that person, to be moulded and judged against their perfect memory day in and day out. Bringing them back to life while you die a little more inside everyday?".
Ishizu regarded her daughter calmly, seemingly unfazed by her tirade, "No, no I don't know Kyoko-chan".
Kyoko's rage spiked. How dare she sound so calm, so understanding.
Ishizu stood gracefully moving toward Kyoko with open arms and a sad smile on her face.
"W-what are you doing?"
The older woman ignored her, crossing the distance between them slowly.
"S-stop it, get away from me, I hate you!"
Ishizu ignored her daughter's protests, wrapping her small arms around her and holding her tight as she tried to break free.
"Stop it! Stop it", Kyoko said, her shouts muffled as her struggles became weaker and weaker, "Why are you here…".
"Shhh", Ishizu said, stroking her hair and rocking her, "It's ok my baby, I'm here now".
Kyoko gave up her struggles, crying into her mother's chest while she comforted her daughter for the first time in the girl's life.
"You've had a tough life…harder than I ever wanted for you, both you and your brother…I wish I could have been there for both of you"
"Then why weren't you?", came Kyoko's quiet question and Ishizu smiled down at the top of her daughter's head.
"I don't know little one"
Eventually Kyoko's new tears subsided and she pushed herself away from her mother, "Are we dead?".
"No", Ishizu shook her head, "you and your brother are very much alive, he's too stubborn to die and so are you".
"…But, if you are and we aren't…then how?"
Ishizu drew her daughter into another hug, "What kind of mother would stand by when her children were in danger?".
"Why?"
Ishizu looked down at her quizzically, "Why what Kyoko-chan?".
"Why did you save me?", she asked looking up at her mother with vacant eyes.
"Kyoko-chan!"
"Answer me! Why, what was the point, Father is dead, Koichi is leaving for good as soon as he gets married and…and…", she sighed and looked away from her mother, "and the only other person I love doesn't love me in return…".
Ishizu cupped her daughter's chin, raising her eyes to meet her own, "You mean that young blue haired girl?".
Kyoko felt her face light up as she tried to stutter a denial, but she was interrupted by her mother's sparkling laughter.
"I don't…how did you…"
"Know?", Kyoko nodded mutely, "My dear little girl, how could I not? I've been watching you and your brother for a long time, how could I not notice the person who made my little girl so happy?"
"So…your not ashamed to have a daughter who's…strange"
Ishizu wrapped her daughter lightly on the head, "As long as you are happy, so am I Kyoko-chan".
"Thank you", Kyoko muttered, still embarrassed but happy in spite of herself. At least she knew part of her family approved.
Ishizu watched as her daughter's face fell again, "What's wrong little one?".
"Nothing", Kyoko said putting on the mask she had used most her life, "I'm fine".
"Now, now, none of that", she chided her, "You were thinking about what Shinobu-chan said to you earlier today".
Kyoko stared at her open mouthed, prompting another round of laughter from her mother.
"Have you been spying on my every waking movement?"
"Of course not Kyoko-chan…just the good bits"
"Mother!"
Ishizu chuckled happily, clapping her hands together, "Ok, I'm sorry Kyoko-chan. How about I give you a gift?".
"A gift?", Kyoko asked dubiously as her mother lifted her hand to her face.
Ishizu nodded reassuringly and kissed the little finger of Kyoko's left hand, What are you doing?"
"Breaking the rules", Ishizu answered, a twinkle in her eye unsettlingly reminiscent of the one that would sometimes enter Koichi's.
Kyoko watched confused as a red tinged cord flashed into existence for a second before vanishing.
"I don't-", she doubled over as a wave of sadness and loss hit her, leaving her vision blurred for a moment.
"W-what, what was…", Ishizu shushed her.
"Just wait".
"Wait for what?", her answer came in another wave of emotion, this time concern, and a level of panic bordering on hysterical. Kyoko struggled as these emotions threatened to wipe out her own mind, wondering if her mother was trying to kill her.
Another wave rushed in and Kyoko braced herself, but this wasn't like the others. This one didn't so much as hit, but settle over her, leaving her feeling oddly warm inside.
She could only stand awed as the feeling washed over her and was gone, leaving something behind in it's wake, the image of a blue haired girl being held up…or was that held back by an older woman with sandy brown hair as tears streamed down her pretty face.
Suddenly it was gone, leaving her with only one thing…the faint scent of lavender.
"I….what was that?", she asked, taking deep steadying breaths.
"That was a little taste of what Shinobu-chan is thinking about you right now", Ishizu said, helping to steady her daughter until she could stand alone again.
Shinobu…, the memory of that final feeling tickled her mind and Kyoko smiled until something else her mother had said occurred to her.
"Right now?…You mean the fight is still going on!"
"That's right little one, like I said, you are not dead, you're just here until I can finish explaining how you need to help your brother defeat that creature"
"Me", Kyoko asked raising an eyebrow, "I don't even know what that thing is outside of what I read…does that mean it's true? Everything that Father said?".
Ishizu looked uncomfortably at her daughter before sighing heavily, "What the hell, I'm in trouble anyway. Kenichi had it right as far as the records show, but that doesn't mean he got everything right. Takumi did make a deal and betray the Oni, that much is true, but the Sagura Clan didn't seal him out of a sense of duty, they did it because our family held close ties to the Aoyama line, a closeness that turned to enmity as the tale changed hands and generations. It was the start of the Clans split, simple misunderstanding caused by word of mouth"
"…Then what did he mean about loosing people because of the Aoyama's".
"He was talking about your brother", Ishizu said softly, "Kenichi retreated into himself a lot after I died, he sealed himself off to prevent ever having to feel what it was like to loose someone he cared for again. But he didn't manage it, that's why he was always so hard on a free spirit like your brother. He was afraid of loosing the both of you".
Kyoko silently digested this information, trying to fit it into what she knew of her father.
"Don't worry,", Ishizu assured her, "you'll understand one day".
The world around them seemed to quiver for an instant and Ishizu looked around irritably.
"Almost out of time", Ishizu sighed, "Listen closely little one, remember what I showed you, hold it in mind when I send you back and whatever you do, don't let go of your brother, he'll know what to do. Promise me".
"I promise", Kyoko said, caught up in the conviction in her mother's eyes.
Ishizu smiled at her before stooping down next to Koichi and running a hand through his messy hair.
"I'm sorry my beautiful boy, but I was only allowed one, and your sister needed me more", Koichi groaned in his sleep as if he had heard her and Ishizu smiled fondly standing back from them as the world shook again.
"Goodbye, my children"
For the second time that day, Kyoko's world disappeared.
Motoko's sword fell from numb fingers as Yazuroph smirked at the fading ball of white light which stood where Koichi and Kyoko had been moments earlier.
"All too easy mortal", he said, turning to face his real prey as the remains of the light continued to fade, "Now, for y-"
The Demon's head snapped around, almost rotating an impossible one hundred and eighty degrees before his body caught up, "Not possible"
The residents of the Hinata Sou gave an almost simultaneous cheer as the reason for Yazuroph's disbelief became apparent to the rest of them.
Standing as if nothing had ever happened, the Sword of two Souls held in front of him and his sister who still clung to his waist, were Koichi and Kyoko.
Koichi slowly peeled one eye open, looking around cautiously, obviously surprised to find things as he had left them.
"Wow, heaven is a lot less boring than I pictured", he said, drawing a smile from a very relieved Motoko.
"Kyoko?", he said looking down at his new belt as he tried to move forward only to find himself pinned in place. His memory of the last few seconds was a little fuzzy, but he did briefly remember Kyoko latching onto him before everything went white.
"Kyoko let go", he ordered her as he saw Yazuroph recovering from his initial shock, glancing back and forth between him and the now re-armed Motoko, his gaze lethal.
The younger girl shook her head fiercely.
"Kyoko, I don't know what's wrong, but I need you to let me go, right now, ok?", she shook her head again looking up at him with such intense determination that his protests faltered before they could be spoken.
"She told me to hang on to you, that you'd know what to do with them"
"With what?", he asked as she suddenly thrust her hand up to his eye level. Koichi blinked as he saw the yellow cord he sometimes saw between him and Motoko, linking Shinobu and his sister by the little finger of their left hands. A quick glance showed the same thing linking him and Motoko via the Sword of Two Souls, and as he watched, both sets began to discolour, fading to a murky red colour.
"She said you'd know what to do", Kyoko repeated quietly.
Koichi turned his attention back to Kyoko and her cord, not understanding what he was doing even as he began to reach out with his mind through the blade, grasping this new cord and linking it to the sword.
Instantly he felt two new Ki sources surge into his awareness, pouring through him in a soul-searing torrent and lighting up the Sword of Two Souls like a blazing beacon of spiritual power, weaving around and through the blade in a pattern he had never used, or even heard of, but creating as easily as he had any other, as if he were being guided.
Kyoko looked at the growing light and smiled encouragingly, "She said you'd know what to do if I stayed here and thought about her".
Koichi didn't understand what his sister was talking about, his mind was far to occupied trying to wrestle this enormous power under his control as he shaped it into…something.
"Mortal, what have you done? Where did you get this strength?", there was a note of what in another creature might have been called fear, in Yazuroph's voice but this too went unnoticed by Koichi as he felt something inside click, and everything went silent for him as he gazed at his opponent with the sea grey eyes of a demi-god.
"Special Arts", Koichi intoned, his voice booming in the sudden quiet, carrying clearly to everyone present as his sword began to rise, Kyoko moving around behind him to avoid obstructing him, but not releasing him.
"Lost Technique"
"I don't fear you mortal, only the Aoyama line has the strength to challenge me", his voice didn't sound so sure as he set his feet, clearly planning to tackle this new power head on as he had with the Steel Cutting Rose.
The light from the sword was so bright that all but Koichi and Yazuroph were forced to shield their eyes.
"Sword of Two Souls: Enishi Blade!"
Koichi's arms swung down with a mighty war cry, the air screaming as it was rent by energies not meant for the mortal realm. A column of solid power, not the mist usually associated with Ki attacks but a solid bar, thicker than Koichi was tall, rocketed forth as the blade cleaved into the earth, blasting a scar deep into the ground as it blazed toward its target, buffeting winds dropping even the observers in the distance to their knees as anything even partially loose was thrown clear of the area if it was fortunate enough not to be caught in the beam's slipstream and annihilated by the pure white light of unbridled destruction.
"I cannot be defeated by a mere mortal!", Yazuroph bellowed defiantly into the raging wave of death just before it struck.
It was the last thing he said before it atomised his very being, and the creature known as Yazuroph ceased to exist.
Koichi awoke with a strangled scream. Every nerve ending was on fire, as if he had spent days fighting a much stronger opponent rather than minutes.
The Sword of Two Souls had slipped from his grasp and lay next to him, smoking lightly, its finish now visibly dull and blunt, as if it no longer had a purpose in existing.
He turned his attention away from the sword and the pain, realising that his head at least was pillowed on something soft and comforting.
He looked up and found Motoko smiling down at him from above, his head rested in her lap.
"Hi honey, I'm home", he croaked out, managing about twenty percent of his usual grin.
"Baka", she said, brushing away some of his hair, "…What was that".
"I have no idea", he answered honestly, "Did I get him?"
Motoko chuckled, looking over at the missing wing of the Sagura temple, and the mile long crater that cut across where it and a large section of forest used to be, "Yes, you did well as always…even if it was a fluke".
"Pure talent", he argued weakly as she helped him stand, causing a whole new set of pains to shoot up and down his body.
He surveyed the wreckage and winced, "Wow, Aunt Minaho is going to kill me, I think her flower garden was around there somewhere".
Motoko could only shake her head at the way her fiancé's mind worked as she helped him limp over to the where Kitsune was helping Shinobu up.
Kyoko reached there ahead of them, hovering a few steps away, her hand clutching her other arm in a visible display of nervousness.
Shinobu seemed to freeze as if she sensed the other girl's presence before her head snapped up, eyes locked on Kyoko.
There was a strange pause as everyone regarded the two girls, wondering at what was passing between them.
The moment was broken as Shinobu's eyes began to water and she threw herself from Kitsune's grasp, almost tackling Kyoko, tiny fists hammering the other girl's shoulders as she buried her face in against her.
"Baka, baka, baka, baka", she shouted over and over again, leaving the others as stunned as Kyoko as she continued to cry while proceeding with her assault, "Kyoko no baka!".
The second shock for the group arrived when Kyoko folded her arms around the sobbing girl and began making soft shushing noises, stroking her hair until her attack if not her sobbing stopped.
"Kyoko-chan…", Shinobu hic-ed.
"It's ok Shinobu-chan", the other girl murmured, lifting her chin with one hand so she could look at her, "I'm not going anywhere, I'm not going to leave you".
The group then experienced its third and most prominent shock.
Slowly, tenderly, Kyoko leaned forward, her lips pressing against the other girl's, silencing them both. For a moment nothing happened, Shinobu stood stock-still. Gradually her arms snaked tighter around her friend and her eyes closed, giving unspoken consent for Kyoko to continue.
The moment was shattered seconds later by Koichi's stunned voice.
"No way", he woofed as the air was forced from his lungs by an especially painful elbow to the gut.
Shinobu and Kyoko broke apart, both blushing as they remembered they had an audience. Su was cheering, Kitsune was shaking her head and laughing, Kentaro was staring and Motoko and Koichi seemed to be having some sort of argument while the latter rubbed his tender solar plexus.
"Kyoko-chan", Shinobu looked sideways at her friend as she felt the other girl take her hand reassuringly.
"It's ok Shinobu-chan", the other girl said, her voice as calm and regal as always, but carrying an undertone of affection that made the blue haired girl blush anew, "Like I told you before, just because we don't think we can have something, doesn't mean we stop wanting it".
"What made you so sure…", she trailed off, unable to complete the question in public.
"I'll tell you later", Kyoko whispered in her ear, causing pleasant shivers to run up and down her spine.
The new couple watched as their friends began to pick their way across the rubble, hands held tight. The day was far from over, no, things were just beginning.
That night a small ceremony was held for the late master of the Oni's Bane school, with a revealing speech delivered by the deceased's daughter, detailing a great man's descent into loneliness, heartbreak and ultimately, madness.
Koichi left after the speech, followed by Motoko, and returned after everyone else had gone, offering the hastily prepared grave a solemn bow, a parting sign of a respect, and a vow to look after both his school and his family.
Unbeknownst to him, two ethereal figures observed his actions, the taller and broader of the two holding the smaller tightly, an unmarked tear falling down his stoic features.
The wind blew, tousling the young master's hair and the spectres were gone.
Koichi Sagura left the grave, and the past behind, eyes turned forward to the future he and his family would forge, together.
---Author Notes---
Well just the epilogue and we have come to the end of another instalment of Blademasters, final notes will contain more information.
Till next time, Betweenheavenandhell