He lay on his back eyes closed allow the darkness to envelope him. After the battle Miharu had lead them to an old office building above a warehouse in the shipping districted, the perfect place for that many people to hide out undetected.

She had dropped them office on the second floor and went out to find her master and inform him of the battle. For the first time since she left he allowed Karai's betrayal sink in. His eye lids flickered as images of her addressing the Elite guard with such determined anger flash in his mind, then there were images less offensive, a look , a smile and touch, that slightly warm feeling he used to get in his stomach.

He shook his head and sat up, he wouldn't think about Karai, not when there was a women somewhere in this building who made his stomach burn . He smiled closing his eyes again and summoned up images of Miha.

He was lost somewhere between images of battle and visions of lust when a sharp knock brought him back to reality.

"Come in" He called to the empty side of the door already knowing who it was. She slipped in quietly carrying a small delicate looking tea set which released a pleasant smelling steam into the small room he had chose for himself.

She set the tea set down and took a seat next to him on the bed. "How are you feeling"? She asked quietly while pouring the tea into two small cups, carefully avoiding his eye.

"Better" He said firmly knowing that she thought the days events had been to much for him, he tried his best not to be offended …. Mostly because she was right.

"Does that….." He began not knowing how to phrase the question " Do things like that….!"

"Do I fight rotting reanimated flesh very often" She offered sipping her tea looking calm.

He nodded at the blunt statement.

" Yes …… too often"

Flash back

The smell was getting closer , a fire burning somewhere up ahead. There was no smoke just the smell of charring flesh to guide her. Sensei had ordered all able bodied members of the clan to search for the slight of the unholy ceremony and put an end to it.

She was not sure if it was destiny or dumb luck that lead her there first, but either way she found herself face to face with a site that would be regarded as cursed everyday after this , for here is where a noble man became a monster.

A lone figure sat chanting at the fire , old and feeble if his posture was any clue. He chanted in a old tongue she didn't recognized evil words cast into a fire on a freshly dug grave. A small bit of flesh danced merrily in the flames burning away and yet remaining unchanged , a piece of a man she had regarded a dear friend….. sometimes more.

He had died at the hands of the red eyed monster that had come to haunt her dreams, she didn't fear him but loathed him like darkness to light. And now he had sent his bachiatari, already slated for a punishment worth that death to sever the one thing he failed to take from him in life, his honor.

"Shuushi!" She ordered from behind the hunched old mage. She could not let him finish what he had started here.

The old man smiled without turning to face her " You have no power here child" He said as though he were telling a small child she could not fly " Your blade holds no power here"

She tried to reach back for her weapons set to prove him wrong and found she could not move. Her limbs had become stiff and impossible to bend, she opened her mouth to protest and found she had no voice.

And so she watched in shock and horror an utterly helpless spectator as a cursed old man drew the rotting flesh of her departed love back through the soil bit by putrid bit until he formed a horrid impression of life once more.

He wobbled on half formed feet for a moment a slickly animation of death making her stomach turn, she would have vomit had she been able, but she was not she remained rooted to that spot, she watched the old man turn her friend into a monster stripped of honor and all things of redeem.

She stayed rooted for hours, until her master found her , rigid her face tear streaked in defeated. The old man and simply lead off what remained of Taiki, the poisoned rotting outer shell of a man marked as a hero. He called out to the corpse " Come Doku, now you will know who is your master" And left her there to await the shame of being found , just a helpless girl with an un-drawn sword.

End Flashback

"The next time we met he was stronger, a sick poisoned mind controlling the half dead body" She said looking stiff chinned " One of them"

"Them?" He asked carefully setting down his empty cup.

"I will tell you " She said softly " But we will need more tea".