Chapter 9

The pain of the demon

Fox landed the Ship carefully onto an Cornerian port, waiting for Ariaz to get off, but Ariaz was still filtering through his thoughts to conduct his little scheme, he would have to piece together his plan later, right now, he would have to play along with that the lylat system had to offer.

"Alright, where are we?" Ariaz asked, knowing perfectly where he was, but if he were to show sign that he did, he would no doubt get suspisious watchers.

"We are in Corneria, and this isn't a hallucination, this is real, this is the lylat system, not the system you came from." Fox did his best to teach the sinister human, unaware of his intellegence.

Ariaz simply played along with his own ploy and bit his lip with false fear of the world around him, his fingers shaking like a perfect actor as his eyes whipped around with sights on his environment, what was he possibly looking for in this system of the universe? Then his senses stopped when he heard the soft voice of female call out.

"Fox!" Krystal called out to Fox as she ran up to him, gently embracing him as she dearly missed him during his flight to retrieve the ship, she looked curiously at the human.

"Hey Krystal, I like you to meet a human I found…what is your name anyway?" Fox asked, forgetting all about asking for the humans name, this, as well, knocked Ariaz out of his trance on the vixen and caused him to let out a confused "Hmm?"

"Oh...It's Chris, but I like to be called Ariaz, not an "S", a "Z", no "S"." Ariaz replied, chuckling as he kept his act up perfectly, still receiving no suspisious looks from anyone.

"Okay, this is Ariaz, Krystal. Ariaz, this is my wife, Krystal." Fox introduced the two to each other and smiled.

"Hello, Mr. Ariaz." Krystal spoke like gentle wind across a wind chime.

Ariaz didn't respond, however, he just looked a little below Krystal's neck, looking down inside her suit, something that distracted him from his inner thoughts as well as his outside conversation.

"Hello?" Krystal spoke again, a little worried about Ariaz's sudden silence, having no idea at what the human's eyes laid upon.

"Wha…what?" Ariaz shook his head back into reality and out of chest fantasizing of the female form.

"I said hello." Krystal spoke one more time, now getting a little impatient with the human's neglectful attention-span.

"Oh Hi." Ariaz grumbled as he rubbed his head to try and remove the dirt thoughts from his head, but it seemed hopeless, he simply sighed then looked back down her suit, swallowing hard, Krystal was an extraordinary vixen, the mere sight of her exposed chest would set anyone off with complete joy.

"Are you there or just brain dead?" Krystal mumbled to the human, her once kind looking expression now just full of suspision.

"What?" Ariaz replied, trying to quickly think of a set of words to rid her of her suspisions towards him.

"I've been talking to you for almost five minutes, so I'll just say nice to meet you." Krystal sighed and rolled her eyes, her suspision now just dissapointment.

"Yeah nice to boob you, I mean meet you, nice to meet your boobs, ah crap." Ariaz let out a groan at his own idiocy.

Krystal didn't know to be confused or insulted, she just walked away taking slow steps away from Ariaz until she was finally out of sight of the two.

"Why the hell were you talking about those." Fox growled loudly, he didn't appreciate anyone, ANYONE, looking at his wife the wrong way.

"Well you tell me, they…POP right out!" Ariaz, forgetting about his plan for the minute, yelled back at Fox, his words we're VERY true.

"Lets just get you to General Pepper." Fox groaned and simply walked the human.

"Alright." Ariaz replied, a slight smirk on his face.

Fox Residence, 6 A.M.

Kirin awoke from his bed with a long yawn and a loud stretch, his feet planted themselves on the floor and lifted him from his comfortable bed, leading him to his bathroom to start the day. But as Kirin brushed his teeth, his eyes seemed to travel down and looked in the mirror, his stomach had an odd tattoo scarred upon it, like it was burned from within him.

"What the hell is that?" Kirin spat and rubbed his chin, the origins of the tattoo had no place in his mind, where DID this tattoo come from?

Kirin poked the tattoo as softly as he could and reeled in pain, like someone had burned him pretty badly, something last night must have not gone right, this tattoo wasn't there before, and if something happened last night leading to this odd marking, Kirin would have definatly remembered but no memories or thoughts came to the solution of this tattoo's arrival.

"This is freaking weird." Kirin rubbed his chin as he kept his eyes fixed upon the tattoo on his stomach, when did he aquire such a thing, where did it come from, who could make such an odd thing, all these questions roamed Kirin's head, and like every other idea, he pretty much didn't give a damn.

Kirin walked out of his room and walked down the stairs, fully clothed in his black pants and red coat, his mother Krystal was looking at her chest with confusion on why, then turned to Kirin.

"Kirin, are my boobs that big?" Krystal asked with a frown, asking for her sons opinion.

Kirin turned his head slowly towards his mother with a shocked yet confused look, he didn't know what to say to her, nothing at all would come out of his mouth.

"Uh…mom…I think dad is the guy you want to talk to about those, I don't feel particularly comfortable about talking about those, okay?" Kirin replied, completly refusing to answer Krystal's question.

Krystal turned her head and shrugged, bouncing up and down, watching them jumped with her as she tried to figure out if her chest was too big or not.

"But yes they are big." Kirin whispered silently to himself, hoping that Krystal would not hear him.

Kirin walked out the door of his house and started off for school, but he did not budge from the front of his lawn, instead as an alternative, he waited for Pierce to pick him up with a wind orb like usual. The fennec sooned arrived on a wind orb, surrounded by emerald green wind gently keeping him about a foot off the ground, Pierce then held out his paw for Kirins.

"Ready Kirin?" Pierce asked as he grasped the vuplines gloved paw, a smirk came across Kirin's face as he jumped in.

"Ready!" Kirin barked joyfully as the orb exploded from the house in a large gust of wind, the two darted along the streets of Corneria at a unbelievable speed.

Pierce and Kirin zoomed to school at point blank speed, arriving in about twenty seconds as an estimation, giving the two a large amount of time to do what they please and then quickly make their way to their classes.

"And my mom asks if her boobs are big and I'm standing there going what the hell?" Kirin growled as he took his seat in the front of the class.

"Well maybe someone talked about them and she heard." Pierce suggested as he took his seat beside him and pulled out his proper textbooks, setting them on his desk with patience and perfection.

"Uh Pierce…when did I get this tattoo last night?" Kirin asked the fennec as he lifted his shirt slightly and slowly, the tattoo pulsed quietly yet darkly, this intrigued the fennec greatly.

"Tattoo?" Pierce asked as he adjusted his glasses and looked closely at the marking that laid upon the skin of his stomach

"Yeah, when did I get it?" Kirin asked, the two just throwing questions back and forth to one another.

"I don't remember any tattoo on your stomach last night Kirin, and believe me I remember everything, but I don't recall a tattoo." Pierce explained as he rubbed his glasses and continued to examine it, quickly moving over to one of his library books and read through several pages about Tattoos that glow, pulse, and give off dark auras. "Uh…Kirin…from my book reading, tattoo's don't pulse and they don't glow. This, I am guessing, with all the knowledge in my head, is a tattoo of demonic energy no doubt."

"Demonic energy?" Kirin raised a brow and threw out another question to his fennec friend, now he was far confused on how this could have gotten onto his stomach.

"Yes, because tattoo's don't do this, the pulsing and the glowing, well except that guy down at the diner but that's special effects, however this, whatever this thing is, is a real demon sigil possibly aquried somehow through either malice or hatred." Pierce explained as he put his book away, sat back, and studied his world history book.

Kirin put down his shirt as class soon began, yet he couldn't keep himself from peeking down his shirt at the wierd sigil, for 11 years he never worried about anything in the world since he lived and left Sauria, but now, after 11 years quickly passed by, he was afraid for the first time since back then, this tattoo was bothering him in class like an annoying little brother, through out the class students were wondering what the pulse sound came from, even the teacher had to wonder to of the odd sound, Kirin quickly had to put a gap between himself and the class until the tattoo becomes silent.

"May I be excused?" Kirin quickly asked, hand up as fast as he could throw it over his head.

"Yes, Mr. Mccloud." His teacher replied with a smile and a gentle tone of voice, quite possibly the only gentle voice he ever hears around Lylat.

Kirin quickly rushed out of the class like a person on fire, heading for the nurses office in a desperate attempt of hope for an answer, or better yet a cure, for this odd entity; a short hair brunet vixen with red fur and pink lipstick, possibly the oddest look and attire for a school nurse, tried her best to calm Kirin down, she couldn't understand anything he was saying as his words were either coming out in pants or squeeky voices.

"Kirin, slow down, now tell me slowly, what is the problem?" The vixen asked, her paws firmly grasping Kirin's shoulders to keep him sitting still.

Kirin lifted his shirt with a growl, his tattoo was growing over his stomach and down his left leg, it was amazing, the entity was now spreading over his body slowly, forming around his inner leg and up to his rib cage, pulsing more then ever with the same devilish aura and heart beat sound.

"This is the damn problem!" Kirin barked at her, demanding answers as soon as possible from the vixen.

The nurse back away from the student with pure fear as sweat rolled down the side of her face, his tattoo was pulsing even faster, like it was tasting the vixen's own fear, growing quickly over his body a little more, Kirin's once worried expression then faded away into a terrified expression, it was only getting worse.

"In my years of medical service, I've never seen anything like this, Kirin." The vixen explained quickly as she tried to calm herself down.

"So you…" Kirin slowly asked, full of dissapointment and a woeful heart.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know how to cure this." The vixen stated and sighed, knowing nothing she could do would cheer the vulpine.

"I understand." Kirin sighed and stood up from the given seat, his heart now burdened with much woe and sadness.

Kirin put down his shirt and returned to class, getting in enough time to set aside his worry and study for his history test, Pierce couldn't stop looking at Kirin without worry across his face, knowing that Kirin was the one indeed causing the noises but he didn't want to tell anyone or else they would think of Kirin as some lunatic, he tried his best to look away from his vulpine friend but he just couldn't, not without the sound of pulses echoing the high school and through his large fennec ears.

"Kirin." The Teacher spoke up as she looked at the blue vulpine with concern, closing the book she held within her grasp as he eyes fixed upon him.

"Yes Mrs. Skywinder?" Kirin immediatly replied in hopes that whatever she was about to ask him, it would't be about the pulse.

"Why is the pulse sound coming from your stomach?" She asked carefully as she eyed down at his stomach covered by his red coat and shirt.

Kirin's hope instantly sank like playing battleship with a telepathic cheater.

"That's something I like to keep to myself that the nurse couldn't fix." Kirin quickly replied, trying to draw her choice of topic away from his disturbing stomach.

The teacher was worried about Kirin terribly, he was a good student in her class room, since Kirin was a native to the planet, history has always been his favored subject in all of the highschool, other than gym and english. Mrs. Skywinder was a hippo, and a kind hearted teacher, the back of her silver hair in a bun, a medium sized, though a little rediculous, glasses resting in front of her bad sight, and the normal red suit a history teacher would wear to any class they had. The bell rang with a sudden roar, class was over and emptying quickly.

"Kirin, I would like you to stay here for a while, if you would be so kind to." The hippo asked of the blue vulpine calmly, her gentle voice making any attempt of argue impossible to pull off, Kirin simply nodded his head and remaind where he sat.

Everyone else, greatly full of glee however, left the classroom and soon onto the classes they actually enjoyed instead of one that they didn't even care to listen to, leaving Kirin inside the room with his teacher, the vulpine looked up at her and then made sure that no one was near the door with a quick stare from his eyes then back to the hippo.

"Okay, Mrs. Skywinder, what is it?" Kirin asked after he sighed, knowing that there was only one thing that Mrs. Skywinder wanted to ask of him, and it was, no doubt, about the pulsing.

"I'm worried Kirin, you're not the same cheerful and funny Kirin today." The hippo sighed and frowned as she pulled up her seat behind her and sat down in front of the young student, who simply laid his head on his propped up paws.

"We'll because my life is falling around me with no control, my happiness and joy, all falling into that pulsing sound." Kirin sighed and rubbed his eyes, he never felt so depressed in his entire life, for 11 years he enjoyed watching Corneria's time pass him by, and enjoyed all of its wonderful events.

"Kirin…are you on drugs?" Mrs. Skywinder asked carefully, her eye brows up and her voice was unbelievably rediculous to even ask such an absurd question.

Kirin looked at his teacher with a face that made him look like he had just been told he was grounded after doing something good, or for a better example, performing a good deed but being blamed for it as a bad choice, leaving oneself in a shocked expression; His expression soon was removed and replaced by anger.

"Oh yeah sure, I'm on reefer, crack, smack, horse, X, shrooms, dust, meth, blow, blunt, and coke; of course i'm not on drugs, i'm not some god damn drug addict searching for his daily buzz in bars!" Kirin snarled loudly, to think that his own teacher, the one that has been his history teacher since the beginning of the highschool years as a freshman, would ask him such a thing.

"I'm just asking, I don't want you to fall behind with other bad grade students." She replied gently again, trying to calm the blue vulpine down.

Kirin looked down at his desk slowly with dissapointment in himself and sighed heavily, knowing that what he was about to do next would make him regret later; he lifted his shirt up slowly and revealed to his teacher the demonic mark that has plagued him for the time he and those he told of its appearance know of; Mrs. Skywinder gasped highly and looked closely at it with terror, the tattoo was pulsing in a more bluish purple instead of a violent violet and getting bigger, crawling lower and higher over his body.

"I don't know what it is, Mrs. Skywinder, but it is causing a lot of problems for me, and, i'm afraid to even think of it, it may cause problems to others that may want knowledge to know of it, and when I touch it, it feels like I've been ran over by one of the forces arwings coming in for a landing with burning engines." Kirin explained his situation to his teacher, expecting her to give him the same answer as the nurse did, an absolute hopeless answer that wouldn't help him in anyway.

Mrs. Skywinder picked up a book of demon research as she rolled over to her desk and pulled it out of several other dirty, dusty books, and found the tattoo inside the book as her eyes moved across the old texts of the pages and her plump fingers flipping the pages carefully so that she would not miss this page she looked for..

"Kirin, that tattoo, I fear, is the mark of the grey fang, a demon of legendary power from legendary times, he was a very powerful creature, almost easily compared to a god himself, but a couple of demon hunters put an end to his reign using whatever tools necessary to vanquish him." Mrs. Skywinder explained as she laid the old tome down and decipered the old text for her student.

Kirin looked inside the book, no information that Mrs. Skywinder said at the very end about the demon hunters was inside the book, he could even tell, even without understanding old text, that the information recieved was not within those pages, this raised his suspision towards her highly.

"How do you know this?" Kirin slowly asked as he looked suspisiously, his eyebrow high above his right eye.

Mrs. Skywinder slowly picked up an old photo and placed it in front of Kirin, dust gently flowed off it as it landed in front of his paws, showing him the eight demon hunters that flew the legendary monstrocity known as.

"These are the guys?" Kirin asked as he looked over the 8 heroic slayers, his amazement for this photo was beyond fasinated, the old black and white colors and its condition must have given it great age.

"Look at that one, her name is Rosita." Mrs. Skywinder explained her finger floated over a certain hunter, the vulpine's attention immediatly floating over to it.

Kirin looked at a demon huntress holding a whip like lance, she was wearing a red coat and blue jeans, long puple hair and quite the thin form, Kirin just simply looked at the photo and the hunter with confusion, why did his teacher want him to examine the picked out huntress was beyond him to ask himself for the answers.

"Why should I look at the hippo girl, is she your great grandma?" Kirin asked the hippo as he handed her back the photo, which she gently stored within the research book as she put that away as well within her bookshelf. Mrs. Skywinder pulled out a huge chest from under her desk that was well hidden beneath the bookshelf and brought it over to Kirin, unlocking it slowly and wiped the dust off, clearing away the clouds of aged dust and pulled out the same lance the huntress held, Kirin was left in shock. "Mrs. Skywinder! you're…"

"Yes, Kirin, it is true with no possible way to look around it...I am Rosita Skywinder, the demon huntress that slew Gray fang."