Underneath the hall of hell; the last remaining of its twelve patron demons, Asura, had was pondering before the final battle would take place in Daigo, when his thoughts were interrupted;
" Fufufufu, how pathetic" came a derisive voice, "the eleven of you were beaten by a mere human, and a crippled little bishounen at that"
Asura turned to the impertinent demon and recognized him immediately. A beast with the form of a white leopard, with the skin of a serpent, and a malicious grin on his face, and cruel mocking laughter on his lips. "You!?" Asura said with surprise, "what are you doing this far east?"
"I'm going to be here for a while" he replied. "Why!? Nimuru?"
"Because" replied Nimuru, its been a while since anyone has messed with the lords of hell to such an extent, so I thought it would be fun to come out of hiding and mess things up, even more, Asura..." he said turning to face his colleague, "you have absorbed the boy's arms and eyes from Nue and Kyubi correct?"
"Yes" Asura replied, "I took them from Nue and Kyubi before the child could take them back, and I've given his eyes to his younger brother"
"I wonder..." said Nimuru, "...How much thought you've put into this?... fufufufu! I hope that you fail Asura, as a matter of fact, I am sure that you will"
Asura merely scoffed, but then again, Nimuru was a much older, and much more powerful demon than he was, he could do nothing.
"Once you have failed" continued Nimuru, "I will have the pleasure of destroying those boys myself"
Tahomaru; despite all of his feelings of righteousness, eventually lost to his older brother, they had fought hard; Tahomaru was bigger and stronger than Hyakkimaru, and he was angry, but Hyakkimaru who had struggled all of his life, proved to be the better fighter all the same, and in the clarity of his defeat, Daigo Tahomaru; realized his how misplaced his anger had been, and now the palace in which they had fought; was burning around them.
"I lose..." said Tahomaru with an air of relief, "...No, I've always been losing to you… always."
Hyakkimaru whose ability to comprehend and express language was limited; now found himself in a situation where advanced language was unnecessary, "Tahomaru" he uttered the name of his brother, and knelt down to his eye-level, and smiled at him forgivingly; no further words were needed, in that moment, both brothers understood one-another perfectly, but that moment was interrupted by Asura.
Tahomaru gave a loud cry! And rose to his feet! Writhing as he wrestled with the demon within him! The one who had given him his brother's eyes! Hyakkimaru who was had not yet regained his vision could still see the souls… seeing his brother's overtaken by the energy of a demon; he flinched and jumped backward.
"Tis my chanced to fulfill the contract!" he screamed in words that were not his own; but fighting to retain himself, Tahomaru knew what to do stop this demon from taking him! "Demon's don't give up easily huh?! Brother!..." he said to Hyakkimaru, struggling in his words and actions "...I will give these back to you!" and with that, Tahomaru reached into his right, and forehead eyesockets, and pulled out the eyes given to him by the Asura, severing their contract, they evaporated in his hands, and Hyakkimaru suddenly felt his eyes burn, he buried them in his arms, the 12th demon, weakened by what Tahomaru had done; in a last attempt to crush Hyakkimaru, spring up from below in its physical form, ripping threw the floorboards, and grabbing the boy with tendrils made of demonic energy, buy Hyakkimaru broke the grip of the weakened demon, and jumped onto it, stapping its crystal nucleus, and killing it for good. Hyakkimaru felt an upward gust of energy, almost as if his body were weightless, he opened his eyes as he felt them disappear, and then the burning in his eyes intensified, as his sight was returned to him, he collapsed to the floor, his ponytail undone, his hands clutching his face, his feet scraping against the floor in pain, Tahomaru watched from across the room, at his brother in this helpless state, as a burning wooden girder began to collapse on him, "Br… brother" he called out and tried to save him, but he was just as helpless, weakened by his struggle with the demon, and losing blood after breaking the contract; he collapsed to the ground, realizing that he would not have enough strength to live after this himself, as he heard the crash of the falling rubble, he glanced up in horror, expecting to see Hyakkimaru's crushed body; instead, he saw his own mother, cradling Hyakkimaru in her lap as if he were a baby and a man whom he did not know, protecting them both, shielding them from the burning rubble with a plank of wood, and the strength of his own body.
"Hyakkimaru..." their mother called softly, "my boy" Hyakkimaru, his eyes still closed, felt himself in the gentle and warm embrace of lady Nui, "finally I can hold you," she said as she held him close "I should have never have let you go, I should have just held you close like this, how I love you. How I love you so dearly" her tears falling freely into his long dark hair. Hyakkimaru's eyes no longer burnt, despite the palace crumbling around them, he felt warm and safe in his mother's arms.
Now Jukai, the man who had adopted and raised him, stood up and spoke; "Hyakkimaru, forgive me, what I should have given you wasn't arms or legs..." he handed something to the boy, a small wooden statue, Hyakkimaru took it in his hands, still not ready to open his eyes, felt the beautifully carved face; of a veiled woman. "...listen Hyakkimaru, you must live, let a human, not a demon reside in your blood-stained body, you already have the embers glowing within you"
As Hyakkimaru held the statue, his mother held his hands in her own for the last time, as the voice of Dororo called out to him "Aniki!" from the escape route.
"Go now," Nui said to her son, there is a child who is waiting for you, one who will stay by your side. "Go" Jukai encouraged him, helping him to his feet, and lead him to the tunnel where Dororo would be waiting for him, but then, instead of going with him, Jukai went back into the burning room, Hyakkimaru turned around and opened his eyes, at first, he saw nothing but the color of their souls as he normally did, his mother, and Jukai, going to attend to his younger brother… going to remain there with him, and die with him, and in a fraction of a second, Hyakkimaru thought that his sight was going to clear up, and then he collapsed in pain as his eyes began to burn again.
Meanwhile, watching from somewhere else, a devilish grin spread across Nimuru's face, he had already taken action.
Notes: So this was more of a prelude, the next chapter which I should be posting soon will have more of my own creative spin, and should contain a lot more, but please let me know what yall thought, i'd like to hear everyones feedback on this story.