Losing Doragon

Saibannin stood on his balcony thinking about how he was going to deal with his current problem when he noticed a purple smoke flowing about his feet and turned to meet a large figure slightly taller than himself. It just stood there, staring down at him.

"What do you want Jakkaru?" Sai said, not too happy with the intrusion.

"You know what I want boy," Jakkaru replied.

Jakkaru was a pretty large demon for most of the humanoid types with short purple fur covering his body from head to toe. He was mostly human in appearance apart from the obvious jackals head and large rear paws under his hitoe and hakama. His obvious annoyance with Sai could not be hidden and if you knew what he was like you would not want to be in the room at this moment.

"Kawari failed," Jakkaru snarled, "I do not tolerate failure."

"Kawari is not my concern, He's your pet," Sai replied calmly, returning to the balcony.

"Do not try my patience boy," Jakkaru growled, "you better get the job done or I'll..."

"Or you'll what?" Sai interupted, "I know you're not really here."

Sai felt a large hand spin him round and lift him by the throat and off the ground, he was gasping for air when a thought came into his head, "Why is he here in person, he's never here in person." Just at this thought passed through his head Jakkaru was right in his face, glaring at him.

"You had better prove how useful you can be boy," Jakkaru snarled, "The last time I left things to you, you lost him." Jakkaru dropped him and turned into Sai's quarters and placed himself down in a preying position, waiting for Sai to fix himself up.

"That night was not my fault, my men..." Sai started but Jakkaru stopped.

"Do not blame your men boy," Jakkaru spoke calmly, "Accept your mistakes."

"My mistakes?" Sai spluttered.

"Yes your mistakes," Jakkaru repeated, "I gave you the power to defeat him and you still failed, that makes it your fault."

"That night was not my doing Jakkaru," Sai said, trying to defend himself, "I didn't know he was going to survive that fall."

FLASHBACK

Doraiku was watching a group of soldiers raiding a village from the safety of the nearby wood. He couldn't be sure how many men there were from his position but he was not the sort of person who would pass up a challenge. He waited for a few moments watching their movements closely. Each soldier passed by every five minutes making equal opportunity for Doraiku to past by the guard post unnoticed. He saw his chance and slowly made his way up to the village gate, ducking inside when he was sure no one could see him. The deeper he got into the village the harder it was to avoid detection, so many times he was nearly spotted but somehow the soldiers patrolling the village didn't notice him. Doraiku sensed a trap but he seemed to like springing traps and very rarely got caught, but a near miss wasn't unheard of. He made his way into the centre of town which he decided was where the trap was set since the sky was getting darker. His decision was correct because when he got to the square a large group of soldiers appeared as if from nowhere, blocking his escape.

"This is more like it," Doraiku explained, with a grin, when the soldiers appeared and surrounded him.

"I'm glad you like it old friend," came a reply from behind him.

Doraiku turned to see Saibannin, an old childhood friend from his homeland, dressed almost like a warlord, with armour covered in Jackal symbols, standing on the roof of an old house.

"Nice welcome Sai," Doraiku called, "Did you think of it all by yourself?"

"Ah, Doragon, always the comedian," Sai smirked, "But I would advise you to keep your tongue behind your teeth."

"Now wheres the fun in that," Doraiku replied, still with a grin on his face.

"Do u think this is a game Doragon?" Sai asked, crossing his arms.

"Well its kinda hard to take this seriously when your dressed like that," Doraiku said, pointing to Sai and unlatching the strap keeping half of his yari in place on his right side.

"Shall I give the order Sir?" said one of Sai's generals, but Sai just held out his hand.

"No, I'll deal with him myself," Sai replied jumping down from the roof and landing on the ground below, removing his cloak on the way down and throwing it to one side.

Sai ran at Doraiku, full speed, hoping to catch him off guard, but Doraiku was ready. Every punch he sent at Doraiku was blocked every time, even when he used the concealed blades in his gauntlets, Doraiku blocked them with his left hand and jumped onto a nearby building, laughing to himself, clearly not taking anything seriously.

"What do I have to do to kill you," Sai shouted up at him angrily.

"Alot more than your doing now," Doraiku replied, with a grin still plastered on his face.

The air surrounding Sai began to pick up as he gripped the hilt of his katana and as he drew it from the sheath it was glowing an eerie purple. He jumped into the air and sent a beam of powerful energy straight towards Doraiku from his katana. Doraiku pulled the half of his yari with the blade out from his right side and slid under the beam just before it made contact with him. Sai began to descend onto the building and made a slash at Doraiku with his katana, but it was blocked by Doraiku's yari. They locked weapons and it would seem they were equally matched.

"You've gotten better old friend," Doraiku said trying to hold Sai's katana away from his face.

"Training to defeat you Doragon," Sai growled.

At that moment the blades from Sai's gauntlets launched out, catching Doraiku of guard, scratching across the bridge of his nose and down his left cheek. He jumped back holding his face to stop the bleeding.

"Do you really think I would let you beat me Doragon?" Sai asked, smiling evilly.

"Where's your honor Sai?" Doraiku shouted back.

"Honor means nothing to me these days," Sai replied, wiping the blood from his hidden blades.

Doraiku stood there, holding his face with both hands, wondering how one of his friends ended up this way. Sai slowly walked closer to Doraiku, katana at the ready, preparing to finish the man stood before him. Just as he got three feet away from him, Doraiku opened his hands and a jet of red flame burst from between them, forcing Sai to cover his face. When the flames finally stopped and Sai could see what was going on, Doraiku was gone, a small blood trail travelling down the side of the building.

"FIND HIM!" Sai shouted to the soldiers in the square, who made their way through the village, searching for Doraiku.

Doraiku managed to make his way back to the forest, cleaning his wound as best he could, using the cloth wrapped around his yari. He could hear the soldiers heading his way and knelt down behind a tree, waiting. The first soldier didn't know what hit him. Doraiku forced the blade from his gauntlet through the soldiers foot, making him scream in pain, but muffeled him quickly and dashed off towards the cliffs over looking a forest below.