Hate

Chapter 7

South Ryoshima Coast

3rd Person POV

The gentle sound of waves against the cliffs of South Ryoshima coast echoed up to the two humans who stood atop the moon turrent. Their recently acquired demon rested on the ground, having been unable to reach the top of the turrent despite numerous attempts.

At the cat's inability to reach the fairly low platform the priestess turned to the other human and spoke solemnly.

"I think the rosary may have broken the demon. We must kill it."

"But, Atsuko, the demon has been getting better."

"Look at it! It's mind has been shattered! It will never be able to protect the village if it can't even think!"

"That is the most powerful demon we have found yet! That must count for something!"

Looking down at the cat, the priestess' gaze seemed to grow regretful for a moment before hardening.

"Well it doesn't. It would be best if we killed it in the morning, before we reach Sei'an City."

Also looking down, Minoru remained silent.

-Line-

Through the darkness the silhouette of a monstrous creature with a long, lean body could be seen crouched before a human being, its multiple tails weaving lazily through the air. An unnaturally deep and rough voice emanated from it through the darkness.

"If we continue to try and control the full blood's soul the strain will kill her. The control over her body is too strong and her soul has retreated beyond our reach. With our control over her body and the binding of the beads her body cannot withstand it, not while her soul is absent."

The human seemed to twitch, a slight movement in the neck, before he responding, his voice was deep, stern, almost inhuman.

"Very well."

For a moment the human turned and blood red eyes seemed to glow in the darkness.

Waka's vision was forcefully ended and a sudden wave of dizziness assaulted him. For days he had been searching for any clues concerning the rampaging beast he saw in his visions. And for days his search had been fruitless except for the occasional vision of suspicious characters in total darkness. The only other visions he had seen were those involving a young woman with green eyes and scarred skin. Each time he had a vision of the woman an unknown feeling would rise up in his chest. Soon images of her began to appear even as he slept, causing him to wake up with a strange ache in his chest.

-Line-

Junko POV

My dreams are always filled with darkness and pain, surely a reflection of my waking life. However, even as the earlier pain had barely begun to recede from my body I dreamt of light.

All my life I have only been aware of five kinds of light in the world, the sun, stars, moon, fire, and kindness. The sun always seemed to lull me asleep with its warmth, while on many nights the light of the moon and stars managed to calm me in my solitude. While fire provided both warmth and light, I never liked it much, but as a human it did have its uses. Kindness is a light that can come from within a person, as a child I never experienced kindness until I met Mitsuru.

In my dream, instead of darkness or pain I could only see light. At first the light burned my sensitive eyes, but as I relaxed and closed my eyes the light almost reminded me of sunlight as I drifted off to unconsciousness.

-Line-

I don't know what made me wake up, but as my eyes began to open I noticed that while my body was not suffering from the wounds inflicted by the arrows or any burns from the Hitodama; I could feel what seemed to be like bruises beneath my fur. Before I even began to move I could tell that my body would be sore, from what, I have no idea. Last thing I remember was fighting the Hitodama before being struck by sacred arrows and falling to the ground.

In front of me I noticed a human man with short black hair and black eyes staring me down, his sword drawn. Never being one to back down from a challenge, I narrowed my eyes and rose from my position on the ground to face him with my claws unsheathed. From the corner of my eye I saw a brief flash of light off of metal and made a split second decision.

Instead of leaping at him, I leaped over him, effectively crashing into the thrown skull (1) of the crow tengu before meeting the demon's sword with my claws. Due to my larger size, both the tengu and I landed on the ground behind the human male. For a moment I could do nothing because the pain of the skull crashing into my face made my eyes water; however, a sharp pain in my leg brought me back to reality. Looking down, I saw that while the tengu was trapped below me it still had enough room to hack at me with its sword.

I bent my head and bit into the crow tengu's neck, stopping only when I heard a satisfying crunch of its neck. Without wasting a moment I began to devour the tengu.

Licking my lips, I turned back to the human, wondering if he still wanted to pick a fight with me. He was wide eyed with shock, geez, even his mouth was open. I lowered my ears and bared my fangs, slightly embarrassed at his obvious shock.

Avoiding his gaze I observed my surroundings. We were standing beside a very run down Ankoku temple that was surrounded by a crumbling wall. Sniffing the air I could tell while this place wasn't overrun by demons it defiantly wasn't the safest place to be hanging around if you aren't prepared to fight.

"Atsuko!"

I flinched at the male's shout and turned as a female, who I guessed was Atsuko, walked through the gate and began walking uphill towards us.

She had long, light brown hair tied up in a high pony tail and wore miko robes. Instinctively I flinched away from her presence; her miko power seemed to bring about a painful feeling in my neck.

When she saw me she froze for a moment before quickly climbing up the last of the stairs leading to where the male and I were standing. As she approached I hissed and I felt a strange pull from what little darkness was still present inside of me.

My fur bristled and my claws dug into the ground in anticipation to dig into the woman's flesh. Tensing, my body prepared to leap and just before I could jump the man yelled, momentarily distracting me.

"The demon's about to attack! Stop it!"

Before I could respond I felt an unbearable pressure around me, pressing against my body especially around my neck. In a sudden jerk, my neck was forced onto the ground, bringing the rest of my body down along with it.

Hissing frantically I struggled to get up, but it seemed like my neck was freaking attached to the ground. With some effort I managed to lift my furry butt off the ground but my whole upper body laid splayed against the ground.

While I struggled to get up the two humans stood in front of me and talked amongst themselves. A small pair of sandal clad feet entered my vision and the priestess spoke, her voice strangely musical and calm.

"I don't understand why there was such a strange reaction to the rosary beads. Usually demons act like this right after the binding, but this one seemed to be in shock or something."

Next thing I knew a very large pair of feet entered my vision, nearly making my eyes water from the stench. Seeming to sense my mounting distress the priestess kneeled down and looked into my eyes. Gently, she placed her hand on my forehead. I flicked my ear at her, unable to do much else, and she jumped slightly at my movement.

She removed her hand and began to get up. As she did so, I could feel the pressure on my neck lessen. Slowly lifting my upper body, I came face to face with stinky-foot-man. Stretching to ease the soreness of my neck, I noticed that when I wasn't squashed against the ground I was taller than him by a good foot or so.

I'm pretty tall as a cat, but to be this much shorter than me he must be really freaking short. I couldn't help but snort at this. He must have sensed my inner mocking of his height because a moment later he reached up on his tip toes and blew into my face. My first reaction was to lean forward and practically smack him in the face... with my face.

He seemed to fly to the ground, clutching his face. Startled by his reaction, I stepped forward and gently nosed his shoulder, unsure of how badly I had hurt him. Just as I touched him he wrapped his arms around my head.

"Aw, you're practically a house cat!"

At his comment an image of a man with long golden hair and playful blue eyes flashed across my vision. I shook my head. I'd probably never see him again. For all I know he's already gone back to the celestial plain.

I could feel the man's fingers petting the longer hair of my neck and for a moment I allowed myself to enjoy the contact. As soon as the moment ended, I ran my rough tongue against his face. Immediately he pushed my head away and began rubbing his face.

-Line-

3rd Person POV

Atsuko paced slowly along the crumbling wall of the abandoned temple, the bottom of her miko robes swishing gently as she walked. Turning around, Atsuko was faced with a rather distressing sight. Minoru sat quietly on the ground, the demon cat curled serenely around him, its head laying on his lap, eyes closed.

"Minoru, how can you be so calm with that thing wrapped around you?"

At her words the cat opened its eyes and gave her a weird look. Shuttering, Atsuko couldn't help but be disturbed by almost everything about the cat, its intelligence; it's strange reaction to the rosary, and most of all the humanity that could be seen lurking within the depths of the cat's eyes.

"Oh, come on! Look at her! She's the sweetest cat I've ever met!"

Minoru began to scratch the cat around the ears, earning an audible purr.

"Minoru, that isn't a cat! It's a demon! Wait... what do you mean 'her'?"

"Well if you look closely its kinda obvious-"

Sitting up, both the cat and Atsuko gave Minoru wide-eyed stares. Minoru laughed heartily at the females' shocked faces.

"Come on. She's recovered from whatever caused her to act so weird before. Why can't we just take her to Sei'an city? She's obviously smart. She's so big, she must be pretty powerful too."

Resting her head on Minoru's lap, the cat looked at Atsuko, seeming to ask the same question with its eyes.

"Geez you two, fine! Let's go!"

-Line-

Junko POV

The warm sea breeze ruffled my fur, and the sand of the beach felt warm beneath my paws. Minoru and Atsuko walked on either side of me, Minoru on my left, his hand buried in the fur of my upper leg. Atsuko walked on my right, keeping a respectable distance away from my body. The stone pier leading to Sei'an city could be seen ahead of us.

Faintly I heard a slight swish of the sand behind us. I twirled around, the fur along my back and tail standing up from surprise, as a sharp pain assaulted me from around my hips.

There was nothing but some paw prints in the sand. Still feeling pain around my hips I turned my head to see what exactly happened and I came face to face with a chimera whose claws were embedded deeply into the flesh of my hips. Growing angry, I tried to swipe at the monster, but seeing as how he was literally stuck to my butt I couldn't reach him.

Minoru came to my rescue by slashing at the chimera with his sword, effectively detaching it from my butt. I raked my claws along the demon's side, which resulted in the excruciating sound of claws scraping against metal and no apparent damage. Luckily my attack distracted it long enough for Minoru to get a good swipe at its head.

Lurching forward, I gripped the demon with my claws, trying to keep it still so Minoru could attack it freely. I could feel blood leaking from my wounds and running down my legs but I didn't loosen my grip. After what seemed like eternity the demon seemed to stop struggling for a split second and in that instant the demon was cut in half by a mysterious force before its body disappeared and was replaced by flowers.

Looking around, I saw Atsuko a short distance away, a finger pointed at where the chimera had just been, concentration plastered all over her face. She fidgeted when she noticed my gaze.

I flopped to the ground and tried to lick my wounds, hissing slightly as a pair of hands touched the damaged flesh. All I got was a smack to the head from Atsuko, who was examining my wounds, her face displaying a vast amount of concentration.

I felt power begin to build up around my wounds. I hissed again, my ears flat and teeth bared as a new rush of pain assaulted me, but Atsuko didn't even glance at me. Slowly, the pain began to fade and when Atsuko lifted her hands I saw that the wounds had closed.

My head connected with Atsuko's chest, nearly knocking her to the ground. I purred loudly, feeling her relax against my head as I did so. As I licked the blood off my legs I examined my newfound companions, an unexpected rush of affection spreading throughout my body.

With these two I can breathe again.

1. Crow Tengus generally throw a skull before they strike with their swords...