Blood Flows Black

by Crimso

Maebara Keiichi has lived a boring life, not caring about anything, grades aside. But that all changes when he moves to Onigafuchi, a village infested with demons. There, he experiences the most horrifying adventure of his life, one stained with K

34. Chapter 33: Control

Crimso's Notes

I like it when I start a new chapter the same day I uploaded the last one. It makes me feel very productive. …Man, I've been uploading chapters fast, haven't I? I hope I'm not sacrificing quality for quantity. Then again, what needs to be done needs to be done. I told you guys I wouldn't rush, but there's not much more to it then I have to be finished by the end of December/Early January.

Note One: It's still the Watanagashi festival. The ceremony obviously ended… like in the last chapter, but…

Note Two: A lot of the group is split up into parts, as explained at the end of the last chapter, so expect different scenes with different people over the course of the next few chapters.

Note Three: I just realized that GED was four chapters longer than this. Guys, I think we're heading into the late thirties territory with this one.

~~~~X~~~~

Chapter Thirty-Three: Control

Rena's footsteps pounded against the ground as she ran across the paths of Onigafuchi, her breathing labored. She had followed the same path Takeru had used when he left the Furude Shrine, and it looked as if he really wasn't attempting to hide himself at this time, for she managed to catch him wandering down the road carelessly. He was free to do so here. There were no demons or humans fighting in this area of the village. There was a dark expression on his face; similar to the one he had had before.

But to Rena, he looked a little sad.

He knew for a fact that he was being followed by someone, he just didn't know who that someone was and wasn't about to answer to them. He had backup in case they tried to attack him, so it was fine to do so.

"Takeru-kun!" cried Rena. "Takeru-kun!"

Upon noticing that the voice belonged to his girlfriend, Takeru whipped around, meeting the girl's light blue eyes with his forest green ones. He smiled faintly as he walked up to the girl, almost as if he had forgotten about the events that had just taken place. He stopped right in front of her, placing a hand on her cheek as he caressed it softly with a loving look in his eyes.

"Rena…"

But Rena slapped the hand away, a serious look in her own. She did not look the least bit happy about the affection that he was giving her.

Takeru blinked as he drew his hand back, and he said nothing. He could guess why Rena was angry; it was obvious, after all.

"Listen, Rena—"

"No, Takeru, you listen!" snapped Rena, taking the boy aback, partially from her tone and partially from her dropping the honorific. "Right now, Takeru, tell me what in the world you're doing!"

He sighed. "You, Rena, should know the answer to that better than anyone else. You know who I am, Rena. I'm Sonozaki Takeru. You know what kind of person I am. I'm your boyfriend." He didn't seem the least bit hostile towards the girl. It made Rena realize with guilt that he was really serious about his feelings towards her. "Why do you think?"

Rena looked annoyed. "But Takeru, that's no reason for you to kill everyone!" she snapped. "If you're not the hero, then you don't have to play the part of the villain!"

Takeru let out another sigh as he looked about the area, making sure that no one else was there. "Listen, Rena. I told you before during the ceremony of the Watanagashi ceremony. I thought I was someone great. I thought I was the Hero of Onigafuchi. …I thought I was someone who would be remembered in history, even after my death. But then… when I read the ending of The Legend of Makoto and Koichi, I realized that I was not destined to be the Hero. If I wanted to go down in history, I needed to make another name for myself." He breathed. "That's why I'm playing this part."

Rena crossed her arms, not the least bit amused by the boy in front of her. "Don't lie."

"I'm not lying. That's the truth," Takeru told her.

"I know that wasn't a lie, you seemed truthful about it. You always talked about how you wanted to be a great Hero and go down in history. You would always speak about how the Sonozaki heir thing was a pain, but deep down inside, you just wanted to be remembered, didn't you? …But you didn't want to be remembered for this." She glanced behind her back, looking at where the fighting was going in the distance. It obviously couldn't be seen, but the outline of the Furude Shrine was still there, and the screams of terror were still loud. "Because… you're just searching for one thing, aren't you?"

Takeru looked into her eyes, surprise in them. However, he managed to wipe that expression off of his face rather quickly. "Maybe that's the truth, Rena. Maybe I am searching for that one thing, but it's already too late. I've chosen my path in life, and there's no going back." He paused for a moment. "But Rena, I want you to accept this path that I've chosen. Once I've achieved my goal… I want you to stay with me."

Rena looked taken aback by such a request.

"I know it sounds crazy, but you know why I'm doing this. You can understand the reason behind this. So I think that you can accept my actions," he told her. "I also want you to know that I really do love you, Rena. None of that flirting was an act. I'm not using you or anything like that." He walked back over to her, placing the hand that was slapped away back on her cheek, though she still didn't look the least bit happy about it. "I want you to join me. So when this is over… when my goal has been achieved… will you become my wife and be the head of the Sonozaki family with me?"

Rena couldn't believe what Takeru was asking of her. So, the guy was going to massacre everyone in Onigafuchi, and then he still expected her to stay with him? What was he thinking? This was not a storybook where the girl would stay with the boy no matter what action he took. This was reality, and there was no way that she would stay with a man who massacred her village. Usually, she felt scared about admitting how she really felt about him. Now was not one of those times.

"Takeru-kun…" Rena spoke up.

Takeru smiled at the girl. "Yes, what is it, love?" he asked her, his tone sweet.

"I think you're crazy," she admitted.

Now it was Takeru's turn to be shocked by what she said. Among the things that were in his head, "you're crazy," was not one of them. He had been expecting some sort of acceptance, proclaiming how she loved him no matter what the case was.

"You're going to kill everyone… just because you're bitter that your twin sisters were never killed?" she asked.

There was more shock on Takeru's side.

"No, that's not it. My sisters are really—"

"Dead? No, they aren't." She narrowed her eyes at the boy. "Listen, Takeru. Rena knows everything. She really does. I met with your sisters and I became very good friends with them. They're lovely people…" The image of the first time she had met the twins popped into her mind. She had known who they were in a heartbeat. "And I know why you're doing this, and it involves the both of them. You're the one who told your mother to stay home, right? Because you were afraid that she would notice who Mi-chan was when she saw her."

"That's not—!"

"Takeru, I think you should stop right away." There were small tears in Rena's eyes as she spoke those words. Takeru had been a very good friend of hers, someone that she trusted. And now, he was ripping apart Onigafuchi, just like the legend predicted he would do. "Because… I know all you want is to be happy. But murder… murder is never the way to be happy. I want you to stop this all, and then we can all go home together and forget about this. Then we can continue on with our lives, Takeru… as friends."

That word hit him hard, and he instantly realized the implications of what she was saying. "Friends?" he repeated.

Rena nodded. "I'm breaking up with you."

There was shock and pain in his eyes, but Rena didn't feel very sorry for him. Sure, she was crying, but that was because she wanted nothing more than to return to the happy days, where they were all friends. She knew he had hurt him, but she thought of it as a way to punish him. It would break him away from the dream he was in and bring him back into reality, hopefully to think over his actions.

"No… Rena… don't… please don't," he pleaded. "I love you, Rena. I—"

"It's over all ready, Takeru," she whispered to him. "…Just come to me when you've figured things out. I'll be waiting…"

Rena turned around and walked away from the boy, glad that she had finally gotten away from that relationship. She hadn't mentioned how she never loved him, because she knew that it would break his heart, and that was the last thing he needed right now. All he needed was a little bit of reality to wake him up. Perhaps he would put a halt to his scheme now that the girl of his dreams had broken up with him and left him.

"Wait, Rena!" cried Takeru. "Come back!"

Rena didn't say anything and kept walking.

"Rena! Please! Just listen to me! When this is over, we can—"

She blocked out the rest of his words. He wasn't thinking about what she just said right now, but that would all change one she gave him some time to think. She wondered to herself what she would do now that her role was done at the moment.

Keiichi went east to find Mi-chan. Maybe I should go the same way. Or I can go help Satoko-chan and Satoshi with the traps…

He had gone the other way, so she would have to cross through the ground again. Sure, it was dangerous, but she had to find a way to make herself useful in this fight. Finding and helping Keiichi with Mion would be more difficult to do… so she figured she would just go ahead and help Satoko and Satoshi without risking her life. Keiichi needed the help, but Rika would soon be there with demons to help him out with murdering Yasuo and breaking Mion free.

She nodded, her idea in mind. She was going to go help the two Houjou siblings with their job, and then they would probably all have to meet up again. Rika would need to find Keiichi somehow and return Shion to him, and then break Mion away. They were the real heroes of the story, so the two of them needed to be together for this to work, and Mion really needed to be away from the control of the enemy, otherwise Onigafuchi was really doomed.

She heard a shrill scream come out, this one louder than the others. She winced as she thought about the life that had just been taken. She knew everyone in Onigafuchi. Every single death was the death of someone she knew the name of, someone she knew about. This war would not go without its causalities. So many people had already been lost…

She wondered what Takeru would do now. Would he really do something now that she had broken up with him? It was a good taste of reality, but… she couldn't be sure.

Takeru was just too determined sometimes.

~~~~X~~~~

The door to the Furude storage opened, creating a creaking sound as it did so. The young girl who had entered ran right down the aisles of cells, her shoes hitting the wooden floor, creating loud sounds. She passed right by the confused demons and reached the cell at the back, halting right before she slammed into the bars of the cell in front of her. The demon within the cell blinked up at her.

"Kaede," Rika spoke to the demon before her. "It's happening. Right now."

"Yes, I know. I sensed it," the demon spoke. "There was this uneasiness in the air and I knew something had gone wrong. Please give me the details."

Rika nodded as she fumbled into her pocket, pulling out a key and sticking it in the lock. "It happened during the ceremony, actually. The sacrifice was not killed," she began to explain before pulling the key from the lock. "During the speech, they unveiled that Sonozaki Takeru was the Hero… but then right before they killed him, the current Kimiyoshi head came on stage and told us that The Legend of the Hero was a fake." She pulled the door right open, a large creaking sound being emitted. "It's that the Hero is actually the villain, and the twins are the good guys. Those were the words written by Koichi himself."

Kaede blinked in surprise. "So, the whole thing was a fake?"

Rika nodded. "And now the supposed Hero has let loose the Kimiyoshi demons, which he stole from them. He ordered his uncle to kill the Kimiyoshi head and steal his demons," she explained. "They're massacring everyone. The real heroes are the demon I was keeping up in my house, Shion, and her twin sister. But the problem is that her uncle has used The Orb of the Demon Kings to control her mind, so now she's out massacring people as well. Without her, there's not much to be done."
The orange-haired demon looked at her in surprise as she stepped out of the cell. "Does that mean that Kai…?"

"He's free from The Orb of the Demon Kings. I haven't seen him, so I don't know how he's taking the whole thing," Rika said. "But what matters right now is that we get that orb away from the man and restore the Hero." She turned to the rest of the demons. "Kaede, I want you to lead these demons into battle and stop the Kimiyoshi demons from massacring everyone."

"Of course," Kaede responded. "I'll look out for this demon orb man, and I will certainly kill him if I get a chance to. He seems tough, though. Taking out eight demons that were well trained by the family is no easy feat."

"I trust in you," responded Rika with a smile on her face. "That's why you're my head demon."

Then, she wandered down the aisles, letting loose all of her demons and explaining exactly what she needed them to do. She told them all that they needed to follow Kaede no matter what, and that they had to charge into battle even if that meant them getting killed in the process. The Kimiyoshi family had forty-three demons, plus Mion and Yasuo, and possibly minus Kai depending on how he took the release from the orb, and the Furude family had a total of thirty-five. There was a ten or nine difference in numbers.

If they don't have Kai, though, they won't have their strongest demon and we may be able to take them out. Rika turned to Kaede. I haven't seen Kaede fight in a while, but from what she has told me about her old days as a guard, I know that she'll be able to put up a good fight. If she dies… then… I'm sure she'll be able to accomplish something before that.

Kaede and Rika led all the demons outside of the storage area, but they forced the demons to stop right there.

"Listen up! The battle is taking place near the Furude Shrine, but there are a lot of villagers that have escaped further into the village and many demons have gone out searching for those who got away. It's not going to be easy tracking all these demons down," Rika yelled to the group of demons, who were all listening raptly. "But I want you to do your best in everything! Fight to the death! If you die, then that's okay! I will not forget what you've done to my family." She breathed. "We… just need a miracle right now."

She turned to Kaede. "Kaede, lead them! I'm going back to my house. There's something I need to do," she ordered her.

Kaede nodded. "Yes, master!"

Rika watched as the demons charged forwards into the woods, and when they were gone from sight, she turned around and ran. She knew that the amount of demons she had and their power was enough to fight off the powerful amount of Kimiyoshi demons. They were strong, but that didn't mean that they were too much for the Furude demons to take. It had been a while since they all fought, but she had confidence in them.

But now that that was all done, there was something else she needed to do. The girl burst into the house and ran up the stairs. She had no time to waste with this. Out there, villagers were dying like animals. Every second spent meant another life may not be able to be saved.

Shion turned around instantly when she heard the steps, and her eyes grew wide when she spotted how startled the blue-haired girl was. She blinked at her, confused.

"Rika?" she spoke.

"Shion, quick, there's no time!" she yelled out, running towards the girl. "Everything's going wrong outside! The festival… it was interrupted by death. The heir to the Sonozaki family is out there massacring everyone with the demons that were stolen from the Kimiyoshi family!" she explained very quickly.

"Sonozaki…?" repeated Shion. "Who?"

"Takeru. Sonozaki Takeru," she told her. "Yasuo, his uncle, has been the one stealing demons. He killed Kimiyoshi."

Rage burned in Shion's veins the moment the name of her uncle and the person who had been supposed to be taking care of her all these years was mentioned. He was the killer? For some reason, Shion wasn't all that surprised. She should have known that that evil man was the killer all this time. He had never been nice to her. He did things like leave her in the cell without checking up on her for weeks, feed her every once in a while, and force her to kill little children against her own will.

"I knew that man was guilty!" yelled Shion, clenching her fists. "He was always bad to Sis and I." She spat on the ground. "I should have figured it was him when he attacked us. He had that same, disgusting voice. Besides, he's been making us kill children all this time."

Rika was surprised by what she had just said. This had to do with the children kidnapping, and she had just mentioned how she had been forced to kill the children. She killed them.

"What… you killed them…? He made you?" she repeated in disbelief. "Why?"

Shion looked guilty as she looked at her feet. Had she, the one who was standing here right in front of Rika at this point of time, been there instead of Number Twenty-Eight, she would have definitely refused to do all of that. But Number Twenty-Eight was a demon who could not disobey authority and would not go against orders, no matter what. She had no choice but to kill those children when they asked her to.

"…Yasuo was planning something big from the beginning. It was something that my Sis and I figured, but we kind of forgot about when we were out here. He… would always talk about how he needed to toughen us up, and for practice targets, he used little children. Of course, the murders increased when he stole the demons…" She cursed under breath. "I should have figured it. I'm such an idiot."

Rika couldn't find anything to say to her. She knew that Shion wasn't a bad person and didn't do it on purpose. However, the fact that her hands were still stained with the blood of all the children she had murdered was still there. She tried to forget about it, though. It wasn't her fault, after all. Back then; Shion probably wasn't strong enough to disobey authority.

She had known all along about everything. She just couldn't tell.

"Shion, there's something else," Rika said, changing the subject.

Shion blinked at her. "Huh?"

"Do you know what The Orb of the Demon Kings is?" she asked.

Shion searched her brain. She thought she had heard about it before, but she wasn't quite sure. She thought that maybe Yasuo had mentioned it when he was conversing with Takeru about their plans, which they had been very careful about mentioning around her.

"Well, it's an orb that was said to be held by the demon king, hence the name. The last one who held it was Makoto. It's a very powerful golden orb with the power to completely mind control one demon by binding itself to the demon's soul," Rika explained to the girl. "It's very powerful. It can completely change a demon's personality and make them do things that they would never do. You can tell who is being controlled because their eyes turn the same gold color as the orb and their blood flows black."

Shion blinked. Now that she thought about it… it did seem a little familiar. Takeru and Yasuo had been speaking about how the Kimiyoshi family was in possession of the orb, because they were the ones that took it from the previous demon king. Why they were talking about it, Shion didn't know. Was it also a part of their little plan…?

"Shion. Listen to me, and please stay calm." Rika looked her right in the eye, seriousness in hers. "Your sister is being controlled by the orb. She has been ordered to kill everyone she can, and as the orb is just that powerful… she is."

Shion gasped and her eyes grew wide, and she found that she could not speak. Why? What had happened? She glanced out the window, wondering if her sister was outside massacring everyone right now. "What! ? That can't be possible!" screeched Shion. The Orb of the Demon Kings was powerful, yes, but she doubted it could be powerful enough to change her caring, loving sister into a monster. Her sister was strong enough to resist such a thing, after all. "There's no way my sister would ever do such a thing! She's a wonderful person and there's no way that she would even comply to an orb with such power…!"

Rika shook her head. "I'm sorry, Shion. It's the truth. You see, the orb has the power to control any demon, no matter what. Kai used to be controlled by the orb… and it changed him into a strong, fun person into someone without emotion, someone who would comply with every single order. Now listen, because of this—…" Rika was suddenly cut off. "Wait, Shion! Where are you going! ?"

Shion ran down the stairs, not even bothering to listen to the girl anymore. She didn't care about being seen right now. The girl burst out of the door and found herself running down the forest, her eyes wide with fear. She had to find her sister, to find out if what Rika was saying was really true. Could such an orb really control her sister, even if she was the kind of person who would never hurt a soul without meaning? She would never massacre people without a reason… and that reason had to be a very, very, very good one.

There seemed to be no one in the forest, but she didn't care. She kept running and running, in desperate search for her sister. She knew it was very unlikely that she would find her. On that night where they were separated, she spent forever looking for her, only to collapse on the ground of the forest and be found by Satoshi. But this did not stop Shion from looking. Her sister was someone very close to her, and she could not allow such a thing to happen to her. Was she really being controlled?

She ran and ran for what seemed like forever, and yet, she could not find her sister. All there was was endless trees.

But eventually, she found someone.

"Satoshi-kun!" she yelled out as she ran towards the blonde-haired boy, who instantly turned around. When he did so, she noticed that Satoko was also with him. She came to a half right before then, taking time to breath.

Satoko was working on some trap up in the trees, and it looked very complicated to her. Satoshi appeared to be keeping watch, but it seemed as if he was no part in the building of the trap.

"Shion? What are you doing?" Satoshi asked. "Did Rika send you out?"

Shion ignored his questions. "Please, Satoshi-kun! Tell me where my sister is! I have to find her!" she cried out, panic filling her.

The boy blinked at her for a moment, and then his expression changed into a sorrowful one. "So you heard, huh? I guess Rika told you…" he muttered. He felt bad for the poor girl, especially when he saw an escalating look of fear on her face when he said those words. "Shion…"

Shion felt like she was going to scream out. It couldn't be! There was no way that her sister was killing people! No orb could make her sister do such a thing, Orb of the Demon Kings or not! "Satoshi-kun! Tell me where she is, right now!" Desperation filled her voice, and when Satoshi didn't respond for a second, she slumped down on her knees. Satoshi had said it, and Rika had too. There was no reason that they would lie to her about such a thing. …Her sister really was possessed, wasn't she? Defeat filled her. Her sister was being controlled… and she was killing people.

Satoshi gestured to Satoko, telling her to continue with the trap. She nodded, and when she returned, Satoshi crouched down next to her, placing a hand on her back as tears spilled out of her eyes. "Shion," he whispered to her. "Your sister… I don't know where she went off to. I saw her jump into the crowd, and then Rena said that she went east… but I don't know. But Keiichi went after her. ...You know him, right?" His voice was gentle and caring.

Shion nodded, slightly surprised that Satoshi knew that she knew Keiichi, but that was hardly what she cared about at the moment.

"Then you will know that Keiichi loves your sister with all his heart, so there's no way that he'll let this continue. He'll find her and save her… so cheer up, all right?" he told her. He knew that such a task was hard, but a part of him believed in Keiichi.

Shion didn't quite know what love meant, but it seemed strong based on what she had heard before. Would Keiichi really be able to save her twin? How could she be sure? He had done miracles before, like save her from the basement… but she didn't know. If this orb was enough to change her sister into a monster, then it could force her to kill Keiichi. And against Mion, failure was the only option for Keiichi.

The next thing she knew, her arms were wrapped tightly around Satoshi, seeking comfort from the boy. There was something warm about the boy, something that brought her comfort in the dark times around her. It was a warm feeling… but it was a different warm feeling. It was very, very, very slight, but she could still feel it. It was enough to bring her the comfort she needed in a time like this.

Satoshi sighed as he wrapped his arms around her as well, pressing his body close to hers.

"Don't worry, Shion. …Just stay with me for now," he told her gently.

Shion nodded as she tried to seek the warm feeling, hoping that it would grow stronger as she held him closer. It was a long shot, but it was worth a try. After all, right now, what she really needed was the warm feeling.

~~~~X~~~~

Keiichi felt his heart race as he ran down the paths of Onigafuchi with only one goal in mind: Save Mion. It would be very hard to do so, he realized. The girl was being controlled by an orb with the power to change a person from a nice, caring person to the most sadistic person on the face of the earth, and a man with inhuman strength was holding the orb. If he wanted to take the orb and save her, it would mean snatching it up from that evil man.

He wondered why he didn't suspect Yasuo before. From what he heard, he was always mean to the twins, and very, very cruel at that.

But that wasn't what mattered right now. He couldn't scold himself for not figuring out the truth sooner. What was done was done, and now the village itself was on the verge of death. He had to move on and fix the mess that was going on.

As he looked from his left to his right, he could see corpses beginning to line the street. Some of them were slumped over on the ground, their faces on the floor, and some of them were lying with their back to the floor. As he looked, he realized that he could see looks of horror painted on the faces of the people who had died on their backs, and the ones that were on their sides with their faces visible. Some of them looked like they were in pain… even in death.

They would forever have that look painted on their face, even when they were buried underneath the ground.

That just enraged him even more. How could Takeru do such a thing? He gritted his teeth as he thought about it. Takeru had been a good friend to him. Now, he was his greatest enemy. Even Yasuo was under his control right now.

Suddenly, the boy stopped as he heard a scream come from not too far away. He looked to the right and a little ahead, and spotting a man falling down to the ground, blood painting his formerly white clothing as he did so. Before the man was Mion, who wore a smirk of satisfaction on her face as she licked her lips. Blood completely stained her hands, and they were now dripping with it. She stretched out her claws further as she looked at the dead body.

Then, she turned to the boy, spotting him instantly. She held her claws up in the air, as if to warn the boy and show him her strength. What was the point of that? Keiichi already knew that Mion was strong. Just not like this.

"Mion!" he yelled out to her. "It's me, Keiichi!"

Mion's golden gaze lay unblinkingly at him.

"You remember me, don't you? I'm your friend! I saved you from the basement!" he called out to her.

She narrowed her eyes. "Kei-chan, you think I forgot? I know who you are and what you did to me, but those days are over. I'm not Mion anymore." She pointed a bloody claw to her collar. "I'm Number Twenty-Seven, a demon that serves the Sonozaki family. I do whatever they wish for, and right now… I have to kill you." He noted that her nametag had been removed, revealing the engraving of the number in her collar.

It hurt him to see her refer to herself as that. She had dropped that name a long time ago, intending never to return to that. She always insisted that Number Twenty-Seven was not her name after she learned her true one, but now it was the opposite. She was insisting that she was not Mion, someone who had learned all about emotions, a caring demon. She was simply a sadistic, evil demon named Number Twenty-Seven, who had no knowledge of such emotions. She had no rights anymore, and she had to obey now. She had gone back to who she was before.

No, that wasn't it. She wasn't even this before. She was never a sadistic, evil demon like the demon who was standing before him. She was always kind in her heart, even when she was locked in the basement and had to comply to orders.

"Enough with that crap." Mion wiped her hands on the tree, creating an ugly crimson mark on it. There was still blood on her hands, though, and a ton of it at that. He wondered how many people's blood was mixed together on her hands. There was just too much of it to be from that one man. "I am no longer Mion, and I never was. I can't let you live any longer." She licked her lips. Her golden eyes lit with sadism as she focused on her target. "I have to kill you, just like Master ordered me to!"

An evil laugh sounded out as she dashed towards him, and the boy quickly jumped out of the way of the brainwashed demon's path. The demon turned, however, following him with her head lowered, intending on ramming her horns right into him.. The boy cursed under his breath as he ran towards a tree, standing in front of it. When the demon came close, he jumped out of the way of her path.

Mion felt her horns ram into the tough bark, their points digging deep into the tree with how much force she had been intending to use on him. She struggled to pry them out, placing her hands on the bark as she carefully attempted to remove them. She grumbled as they finally came lose. A hand traveled up to her right horn, and she ran her hand down the length of it, coming to the point. Keiichi noted that they were now very, very large. It would be impossible to hide something like those giant things under a hat.

After confirming that no damage had been done to her horn, she ran towards the boy again, her bloodstained claws outstretched as they readied to dig into another human's soft flesh and add new blood into the mixture. She smirked as she clawed the boy, but he managed to move back just in time, preventing it from doing anymore than grazing him, tearing through his black shirt. Not that it didn't hurt. He winced as he brought his hand to his stomach, wiping away the blood that was coming out. He would have tried to stop the bleeding if he had time… but the demon was already attempting at her next attack.

He screamed out as he felt her fangs dig into his arm roughly. He struggled to get her off of her, but found that he could not. Even after trying to run away, he realized the reason why she had done that. He could not run easily with her fangs lodged into his skin. She blindly clawed the boy in the face, causing him to yell out in pain.

He pushed her out of the way, causing her fangs to dislodge, but in the process it tore more of his skin. He touched the area gently. The wound was deep, and it didn't look good at all. He would have to see a doctor about that.

Mion staggered up to her feet, but before she could do anything, Keiichi glared at her.

"Mion, is this really you? Are you really Number Twenty-Seven?" he asked her.

Mion nodded her head. "I'm Number Twenty-Seven. See? The collar says so." She tapped the number with her claw, causing a little blood to get onto the number. "My Master made me this collar. He is the one that I obey, and if he says that I'm Number Twenty-Seven, then I am Number Twenty-Seven."

Keiichi gritted his teeth. She was not acting like Mion at all! "Mion, snap out of it! You're just being controlled by The Orb of the Demon Kings!" he yelled out to her. "This isn't you! Think about who you really are, Mion!"

Mion narrowed her eyes. "I am Number Twenty-Seven, demon of the Sonozaki family. I serve no other purpose other than to kill." She held her claws up again, making Keiichi realize that the girl was about to attack again. "And my master said to kill you! So therefore…!"

Keiichi jumped out of the way of her attack. "That's not true, Mion! You were once, but you're no longer Number Twenty-Seven! Don't you remember when you broke free of the binds on you? You no longer are a demon of the Sonozaki family. You're a free demon!" he yelled out to her, desperately trying to reach the Mion inside of her.

Mion responded by an attempt to claw him in the face, which he barely missed. Her claws managed to scrape his nose, but that was about it.

Keiichi realized that all his attempts to bring her back were futile. There was no way that he could bring her back. The only option here was to find Yasuo, steal the orb from him, and then bring her back to normal. Attempting to reach into the Mion inside of her was no use. Had it been any use, he knew that she would have broken free long ago. She was a strong girl, and if the orb was any weaker, she could easily defeat it. It was just too strong.

Then fighting her here was useless. He had to find Yasuo… now.

He turned around and ran into the trees. Mion was still on his trail, but he figured he would lose her eventually. She was laughing madly as she ran after him, reminding Keiichi of how much he needed to fight this guy to bring her back. It would be tough but… He glanced to Mion behind him. There was madness in her eyes as she barred her fangs at him, showing off how sharp they were. Yes, he knew.

He needed to see her smiling face again.

~~~~X~~~~

Crimso's Corner V.2

It's Thursday… and you know what that means! Yeah, it's the most insignificant day of the week, which means we have to show Thursday some love. I mean, Thursday isn't too bad, if you think about it. One day away from the end of the week, and for me, classes aren't too hard. I don't have science on Thursdays, which is heartbreaking because science is my favorite subject. I was actually talking to my science teacher a while ago about how Thursdays were very insignificant, and I pointed out this to her. My friend also agreed, and she was surprised to know that someone else was actually thinking about how insignificant Thursdays are.

Today was the last day of school before Winter Break. Well, not really. WE have tomorrow. Tomorrow is a half day where we do random stuff for the first two hours, and then we go see various groups preform Christmas songs and other things like that before the break… and then at twelve, we get the hell out of the school, cheering. So yeah, no homework tonight. There's a lot I need to do over break, though. I have to finish this, I have some missing history to get caught up on, I have an English Project due the week after we come back, a Spanish due the week after that… man, isn't Winter break supposed to be a break? Okay, so BFB is totally all me, and I want to write it, but the homework… In other news, I have a loaner computer AGAIN. The side of my laptop screen was coming off... and it bent out every time I closed it. So it would stop the computer from closing, and it would remain open and lose battery. I doubt I will get it back before tomorrow. Darn. I don't want to have a loaner all winter break.

So let's talk about this chapter. Takeru… acts a little funny towards Rena, but he genuinely loves her, and you'll see why he wants her on his side so much. Rena was acting a little harsh with him, but you would too if you were in her position. He was acting a little… stupid. But I can't say anymore about that. I don't want to go too far with Satoshion here, and I did mention the feeling was sort of faint because it would be too fast if I didn't. As for Mion and Keiichi… well… nothing to say. This chapter was going to be longer, but I decided I wanted to combine the next scene I was going to write with the next chapter along with another scene I was going to write, because I don't want this chapter to be too long and it fit more nicely like that.

Please review, as usual. I like reviews. They make me smile. So you get to know that you made an author happy if you review. Also, I'd like to see typos. I caught a few, but it is highly possible I missed a few as well. I called Onigafuchi Hinamizawa a few times, but thankfully that was all caught. Whoops.
~Crimso