Two demons with red horns appeared.

Emiko frowned darkly.

' This is really a bad timing. ' she thought as she kept her eyes on them.

They were walking fast, but they were still far enough from the women to give some time to the raven bodyguard to talk. However she noticed something that made her eyes widened in disbelief.

' The horsemen's black capes?! ' she quickly put her thoughts away, as every minute counted now.

" Princess Konoka, please stay here. I need you to not move. I'll end this quickly. " she said and in jump, she started to run towards the demons.

" Emiko-san! " Konoka shouted as she raised her hand, but her bodyguard was already away from her.

As Emiko approached her opponents, the latter stopped to wait for her to come. In a blink, the Shinmei ryuu master turned her eyes in gold. She quickly predicted the demons' moves, and in a instant movement, she appeared behind them. She hit one of them in neck with a high-kick, and took his head as a support to throw a knee kick on the other demon's head.

She jumped away, watching them recovered from her attacks.

' Damn it! They're on a different level than the ones of the patrols. If only I had a sword… ' she thought nervously as she returned to fight them back.

Konoka was watching her fight, and noticed she couldn't beat them easily.

' Ah! Since she is Secchan's…maybe…! ' she thought as she found a way to help her friend.

" Emiko-san! Use your pactio card! " she yelled at her.

Emiko avoided a punch as she heard her voice. She then jumped away to take a break for the few seconds the demons would give her before running to hit her back.

' Pactio card? Ah! ' she pulled out her card.

" And, how do I use it?! " she shouted back at the princess, and stood on guard as the demons came to her side.

" Say Adeat! "

Emiko sweat-dropped at the weird word, and turned her eyes to look at her.

" Um…Adeat! " and the card shone, with a big light which blinded the three demons for a minute.

When the light disappeared, Emiko opened her eyes to see how the card have helped her. She thought maybe it would in blow light, destroy her opponents with a spell. But she was wrong. She looked around her and her eyes fell on her arms and feet.

" What the heck! Why I am dressed in a hakama*! " Emiko exclaimed with big eyes.

" You talk too much! " the first demon spoke as he threw a punch to the bodyguard.

However the woman managed to block the attack by crossing her wrists together. She used her left leg to support the strength of the punch. They started a force battle.

' Huh? Since when I have a sword? ' she saw her right hand holding a katana before her eyes.

' So this is the power of a pactio…really- ' she stopped her thoughts when she saw the second demon running to her defended's direction.

She quickly stepped aside on the right with her freed leg, and let the enemy fell forward with his own push.

" Shinmei ryuu ougi: zanganken! " she shouted as she gathered ki in the sword.

She took this opening to slice his body in two. The demon disappeared in ashes after the stroke.

Emiko suddenly disappeared from there to appear in front of her last enemy. She threw her sword in his head but he avoided in time and raised his right arm to punch her on her face.

Thanks to her gold eyes, she foresaw the attack and blocked it with her left forearm that she raised next to her head.

" Hmph! " and she opened her left hand to seize his big wrist.

She turned it right and put her right arm still holding her sword, around his huge biceps as she moved her right leg forward and turned around so her back was stuck to his body.

' Ippon-Seoi-Nage?! ' the demon thought with surprise eyes. At Emiko's look and sword, he thought he was fighting against a kendoka instead of a judoka.

In one fast movement, she bent and lifted his body on her back to throw him on the ground. The fall was so hard that the ground cracked.

" Aaargghhh! " the demon cried in pain.

The way Emiko locked his arm and the fact that she bent it as he fell, dislocated his shoulder. The raven swordwoman tightened her grip on his wrist as she raised her sword at his head on the ground.

" Who are you? " she asked him darkly. Her eyes showed coldness.

Not too far away, the princess watched the fight. " Wow… " she was speechless. She just fought like her Secchan.

The demon smirked at her question. He knew he lost now. But, for a demon like him, death meant nothing.

" I have a message for you. My chief says 'I will chop your heads off this time, rats'. "

Emiko's eyes widened. She looked down at his red horns.

" You…! " she lost her words.

" I'm gonna chop your head off just like I did to them hahaha "

Her eyes went from shock…

She kept staring at the red horns.

…to hatred.

She frowned bitterly with her now red bloody eyes.

And stabbed him in his chest.

" Aaarg! "

" So, you're all the same…I see… " her voice was completely dark.

She took her sword out to stab him again in his stomach.

" Ggraaah! "

And sliced him to his left leg.

" You fuckhead…I won't kill you so you will go tell him: 'I'm waiting for him'. " she started to smirk.

The mad raven girl felt a stroke in her chest, but she didn't move an inch from the pain. Hatred was eating her heart. So she took her sword out again to cut his right leg up from his body.

" Aaaarggh! "

" What's wrong? Does it hurt? Let me enjoy toying you for a while, will ya? " she smiled without any emotions.

Konoka watched her from far. As she didn't hear their conversation, she was just watching her friend torturing the demon. At every stab she made, she saw blood spurting from her sword.

" S-stop this… " the princess couldn't bear the view.

The chocolate-haired girl started to shiver with fear.

" Aaaahhrr! " the demon was yelling in awful pain.

" Ahhh…it feels so good. " Emiko laughed darkly then reached his red horns with her sword and cut it off from his forehead.

" I will kill every one of you, until the last red horn of your tribe. " Emiko was about to cut his left eye out when suddenly…

" Stop this! " Konoka shouted as she threw herself on her chest.

The raven girl turned her head to see who it was. And she fell into her crying innocent brown eyes.

' Megumi?! ' Emiko was so lost that she mistook her friend with the one she loved.

" Stop it! Please! That's enough! " the princess clenched her hands onto her clothes as she tried to push her away.

The demon took this chance to raise his freed arm and stab the princess' back.

Slash !

However the red-eyes demon sliced his arm off before he could reach her friend.

" I guess you really wanted to die. " Emiko said quietly and dug her cold sword in his heart to kill him this time.

" I will tell him myself. " she said as she closed her eyes.

The crying demon vanished in ashes, leaving his blood on the ground.

" E-Emiko-san…you're…okay? " Konoka managed to say even though she was frightened by her behavior.

Her second bodyguard slowly pushed her back and called her pactio power back.

" Yes… " she replied in a low voice.

She tried to recover from her madness, and looked away from Konoka. But her hatred was still beating in her heart.

" Argh! " the pain was too much to hold now.

The girl with now blue-eyes fell on her knees.

" Emiko-san! Are you hurt?! " the brown-hair girl walked closer to her.

" Damn it! Not again! " Emiko said between her teeth.

She clenched her jaw. This time she felt the pain in her left arm, and it was tracing back in her heart. She couldn't move her arm or her body, it was entirely frozen. The pain was so hard to bear that she fell on the ground on her left side, with her right hand clenching her chest area.

As a future mage who worked and studied hard, but mostly, as a healer, Konoka directly recognized what her friend was suffering from.

" …Oh no! " she cried out as she knelt down to her dying friend's side.

*hakama: used to be a samurai kimono. Nowadays, it's a japanese martial uniform (kendo, aikido...)