A/N: In the beginning, before I started writing this story down and at the very beginning where I was writing the first few chapters and hadn't published them yet, I had a general scenario in mind. That scenario was that there would be four groups in the forest. One, the Akatsuki. Another, the Hatake clan. Another, [spoilers]. (Haven't done much with them yet, but they exist, and they're not relevant to this note.) And the fourth group... Well, I didn't have as solid an idea for them as for the others. I had a general idea of a group that would not join in alliances, composed of more suspicious types of ninja. With all the groups arranged in roughly a diamond shape, they would be to the south. I may have screwed up the sky, but I haven't borked the geography too bad; I have a solid enough grasp of where everything is to know there is no room in the south for another group to exist unless they live in town. Also, as you may have guessed, I got rid of that idea shortly into the writing of this story.
Or did I? It only just now occurs to me that the vampires are actually pretty similar to what I envisioned, personality-wise. I imagined a group of suspicious people that are hard to find and even harder to try to talk to. Well, that worked out. Come to think of it, I set up the layout of the town and surrounding areas within the first ten chapters and had discarded this idea right around the chapter where Hidan first mentioned people using the abandoned houses. I swear I planned nothing deliberately, but could one idea have mutated into another without me noticing?
Writing this story is really helping me explore the workings of my mind. Fascinating!
For reference, a "score" is 20. Two score would be 40.
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In the abandoned hospital
The demon hummed as he worked. He was in the former administrative office of the hospital, the office that used to make the person who sat in it look important and fancy. Now it would do the same for him, because he was the rightful owner and proprietor and of course he had to have an office to reflect that.
Also, the formality the lady ninja brought into this world with her was very impressive, very cool, and made even him want to listen to her. He wanted to be like her.
The office was an old-fashioned stately affair, containing a big desk with a big nameplate and a big telephone on it, framed by shelves with big volumes in them on either side, and a globe and a flag and other paraphernalia obviously meant for a school instead of a hospital. It was like a scary principal's office from a movie.
The demon boy hummed as he swept the desk clear of dust, changed the letters in the nameplate to spell Beastmaster, took down the flag, changed his mind and replaced it after turning it blue with stitched-on fishes swimming across, and took down the globe. He rearranged the continents on said globe, creating a never-before imagined geography. What nations were pictured now? What manner of being lived there? It was a world begging to be made. But he had to finish reclaiming the office first.
He used his demon powers to hurry that along, ripping all the dust out from the bookshelves and disposing of it in seconds. Manual labor was often interesting, but not now. Now there was a world, and that was interesting.
"The big land to the south was populated by dragons," he narrated. He imagined it in his mind as if it were an animated series or movie. "Vast and mountainous, it is cold," he moved the continent in question further south until it was almost at the south pole, "and snowy, and deadly. The dragons come from nowhere, ghosts of snow and wind, howling out of the sky! No man dares set foot in this land, even though it contains the only portal to the underworld!"
Mole people. The demon clasped his hands together in front of his chest and stared with wide eyes into space. What else would live in the underworld? He had just decided that of course they would have swimming pools filled with lava, when suddenly there was a knock on the door. He looked around frantically. Need to look impressive! He wasn't big enough to sit in the chair behind the desk, so he hopped up onto the desk and hurried to sit in an impressive way. He decided to sit with his legs uncrossed and hanging off the side, hands clasped in his lap. "Come in."
Only then, because the snake was the best anyone ever, did he hear the rasp of the little footstool next to the door being moved. The door's handle twisted, and it opened a couple inches. The stool was moved back. Then, finally, the mute serpent pushed open the door and guided the ghost of a little girl inside.
She had big eyes that seemed bigger because of the bags around them, marks of the illness she had died with and apparently decided was a part of her. The demon had decided it was more fun to leave his zoo as unspoiled and pristine as he could, so he hadn't told any of the ghosts that since they were bare souls without a body they controlled their appearance with their mind. This little girl most likely would not change a thing even if he did tell her. She was close to the snake's apparent age, and almost as small. She walked behind him shyly clutching her own stuffed toy: a stuffed Godzilla that the demon had newly acquired. It was impossible to separate her from it. She hid a shy smile behind her Godzilla as she stood in front of the desk, not quite looking up at its ruler.
"Hi," the demon greeted in his most formal tone of voice. He already knew her to be shy and unspeaking, so he looked at her mind. Memories of him reading Sammy the Seal were coming to her, along with bubbles of joy and anticipation.
The demon grinned. "Okay!" He hopped off the desk and joined them. The three of them walked back to the children's room on the hospital's lower floor. It had been empty aside from one ball when he took over; now it had a bookshelf, lots of small balls scavenged from the woods behind people's houses, a scattering of other lost toys, and some stuffed animals from the Big Heist (stealing a bag of toys someone was going to donate from their car as they drove). The children actually came here now that there was something to come for. Only the ghost of a serial killer would inhabit a room with just one dusty ball on the floor.
The little girl sat in front of the bookshelf as he took out Sammy the Seal and made a great show of brushing off dust. Great shows were always of the utmost importance. He sat down and held the book, ready to begin as soon as his attendant was ready. The snake sat down next to the little girl. He was ready.
The demon boy began to read.
The little girl held Godzilla to her lips to hide her growing smile as he read her the story of a seal's adventures wandering around New York. When he was done, she literally glowed with happiness and disappeared. Happiness seemed to make the ghosts diffuse. They only resumed a distinct form when they returned to feeling some other way.
The little snake held the demon's hand once they were both standing. He liked Sammy the Seal too. The demon liked hand-holding because it felt nice and made it easier to patrol the halls together.
They stopped in to the first room on the right in the upper halls for a friendly wave and to inquire about the needs of the residents. A woman lay on the bed there. Her head was shaved and her legs were spindly. She liked the TV he had placed in her room. After he asked if she wished for anything, she opened her mouth and projected a stream of images, memories and desires. It wasn't just their appearance; anything their bodies would have produced, including sounds, smells and touch, was a product of their minds now. None of them took the care to shape words in their mind before speaking, and why should they?
The demon nodded. "May I provide a recommendation, ma'am? For tonight only, there is a completely fresh and original special being produced. You could watch your copy of Frankenstein versus Dracula, or you could watch vampires versus werewolves. Tonight only! Completely original!" As he spoke, he created a sign that read, "Would you like to watch vampires versus werewolves?" and gave it to the snake child. He did not need to instruct the other boy to go around and share the suggestion with every resident. A portion of his soul in the form of a bird rode along to record what the answers were.
The shaven lady expressed interest. The demon smiled and created another bird. This one would help set up the livestream and quality test the connection. The rest of the demon turned to flying liquid and sinuously glided outside, into the night forest.
Once in the forest, the demon boy checked the nerves, eyes, and ears he created for himself. Carefully, he altered the nerves leading to his brain from the eyes and ears, turning the gathered sensory information into a broadcast. Through other senses, the part of his soul that remained in the shaven lady's room chirped as an image of the forest appeared onscreen. The other part of his soul had felt five others express interest. Three of them were in a community room already, the fourth got up from his bench outside and was on his way there, and the fifth liked to watch TV in her own room. The quality-testing bird flew to her room and then the community room as he added those devices to the broadcast, helping him to connect to the correct devices and chirping to confirm that what he saw appeared onscreen. It didn't look quite right, though. Only the center appeared clear, and the rest was increasingly blurry as it moved further from the center. Oh come on! Tricks? He grumbled, but really he liked tricks. This would be a fun one to exploit later. For now, he spliced in brain circuits that dealt with and apparently "adjusted" visual and auditory input. The images on the TVs cleared up.
The demon boy whistled a tune he had heard in a movie, and the bird chirped again to confirm that audio was being played accurately as well. Everything was ready to go!
He swept his senses out and sent bird versions of himself off to find the best places to film from. I am an amazing filmmaker! I'll prove it! Take that, George Lucas!
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The first location he decided to film was the head of the group of vampires, temporarily together as they entered the forest. He centered his field of view on the lady vampire in charge and the one by her side, who had a cute kitten.
Nothing happened, not a twitch, until she leaped out in front, turning in the air, and the entire group came to an impossibly sudden halt. She came down on dry leaves making barely a rustle. Her voice seemed like a shout as a result. "New safety protocols are still in place. Nobody goes alone. Steer clear of the heretic if you sense him. Keep the chasing down."
There were mutterings of displeasure, but all the rest of the vampires could be seen forming pairs or trios. All except the one with the kitten. He raised a hand to point at the kitten. The leader nodded. He grinned.
Someone else scowled. "That kitten isn't trained enough to make a partner," he hissed. He was older, male, and seemed like he'd been in a security or military detail before. He was one of the three that had accompanied her when they met with the two ninjas.
"I have decided that she is," the leader stated. "Will you contradict me?"
The man said nothing.
Only after she was satisfied with his obedience did the vampire leader explain her reasoning. "Training is not her best asset. Her advantage is her species. The heretic is known to be fond of cats; he will not harm any of us that is protected by one."
"And the others?"
"Are best not provoked. You saw what they did to the demon. If she needs to be better trained, something will have already gone too wrong to be repaired."
The man and his partner, the younger vampire that had also been with her at the meeting, stepped away. The vampire with the cat reached up to his shoulder, where the kitten was perched, and stroked her absentmindedly. "Why aren't we all partnered with cats?" he asked.
"Not enough food," the leader whispered to him. "Two score of us already takes up half the forest per hunt. We aren't alone in these woods; best not risk competition."
As they spoke, pairs and trios scattered away from the main group, disappearing into the forest. The older man and his young partner were the last to leave, with a nod towards the one with the kitten. Then he and the leader were alone. The kitten sniffed the air and meowed. He put a hand on her back to keep her still and did not move. He looked at his leader.
"I will stay above," she told him. "Come to me when the kitten has tasted blood."
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The second location he decided to film, which he teleported to so as to make it seem as much like a real movie as possible, was the head of the group of half-beasts. The timing was not in proper directorial fashion at all, but it conveyed all the information viewers needed to understand the plot, making it just barely adequate. The half-beasts had gathered not long after the vampires had, and were already midway through their briefing. The demon boy arrived just in time to hear, "...harmony. Any questions?"
A woman with lizardlike features hissed. "What if we'd rather hunt alone?"
"I second," agreed someone with tiger-striped hair.
The white-haired man with a ponytail who was leading the briefing raised a hand. "At least one group hunt. That's all I ask. Have as much fun chasing as you like after that; I don't mean to mandate anything."
The tiger and the lizard looked at each other. They had already agreed on something, so they shrugged and stood together. This group, too, began to divide into pairs and trios. But, as the demon boy noted with glee, they did so more slowly, more awkwardly, with people starting to move then stopping, or waving and not being waved back at, pairs forming then splitting after a brief discussion. It was plainly obvious why a group hunt was needed. There were several pairs and trios that formed easily and quickly, but not many. A closer look at the people struggling most with getting into groups revealed that they were trying to form groups with others not of their own species. Some aspect of this hunt was mandated, after all.
A man with a large black she-wolf at his side, who had been standing with the white-haired leader, paired up and went off with a half-tiger. He glanced back once before vanishing. The white wolf himself shook hands with his own partner, one of the lizards, and sighed. "Here's hoping this works. If it doesn't…"
The lizard did not even blink before responding. "Our common nature as predators is what makes us one clan. It will work."
The wolf leader regained some courage from these words, and nodded.
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There was no defined place-where-things-were-happening for the demon to move to next, but everyone likes kittens, right? Until something exciting happened, he could placate his ghostly audience with cuteness.
The cuteness in question streaked through the forest with surprising speed. The kitten appeared to be no more than a white blur, her white and pale grey fur making her stand out even in the dark. That was good; the demon boy would not enjoy readjusting his eyes in the middle of a scene. He hoped he wouldn't have to. It was very dark, so that was a real concern.
The vampire who looked after her kept up easily, though an ordinary human would not have. He was even able to talk to her in a soft, quiet voice as he ran. "I hope you hunt as well as you fight, little one. I would not like to train you in something every cat should know."
The kitten did not reply. She zipped all around the ground, stopping to smell things frequently. She did not appear to be moving toward anything in particular.
The vampire sighed. "I will catch something for you, if I must…" His voice made it clear he really, really didn't want to have to.
The kitten continued to run blindly, sniffing and looking around and occasionally meowing. The demon boy slipped lower to catch a good shot of the vampire's face as he grew increasingly despairing. Finally, he called her back to him. She was resistant until he narrowed his eyes at her and put more effort into shaping his voice. Then she obeyed at once.
The demon's eyes widened as his network told him that he was already in place to catch something happening. Aw yeah! I said it! I said I was good! The undergrowth rustled as something small raced through it, crashing and crunching and generally not concerned about the noise it was making. A groundhog raced out into the open, directly toward the vampire and his little charge. It squeaked and turned aside, running around them. The vampire turned to follow it as it ran past him. The demon caught a very good shot of his bewildered face in that moment.
The undergrowth crashed again as something significantly larger raced through it, sending leaves and dirt flying. A wolf leaped over a bush, landing directly in front of them as well. Unlike the groundhog, it reacted appropriately. It immediately let out a sound that was half-roar half-bark, and wheeled around to bring itself to a halt. It bared its teeth.
"No." The vampire put a lot of effort into that word, and into the look he shot. The wolf's tail lowered as if it was being scolded by a packmate. It closed its mouth and stood still, shifting from foot to foot.
The vampire raised a hand to tell it to go away. A voice interrupted him, though. "Hama!" A human came from his right. "Why'd you -" The human saw the vampire.
The vampire snarled. The human backed away, clearly intimidated, but then shook his head. He looked away from the vampire towards the wolf, who he joined. "Who are you?"
"Who are you?" The vampire put concentration into that question, too. After the leader's remarks about safety, it wouldn't be hard for the audience to guess why.
The human put a hand on the wolf, shaking his head again. "We are people who rightfully belong in this forest." He leaned forward, breaking free of the vampire's insinuation that he didn't belong and should slink away. "We have lived here for generations. Who are you?"
The vampire held his ground and changed tactics. "A hunter looking to sustain myself. I rightfully belong here as well."
The wolf began to snarl again. It sniffed the air and snorted, shaking its head. The human's eyes widened. "You're one of those vampires!"
"And you're one of the humans who protect the heretic?" The vampire's eyes darted around.
"What?" The human blinked. "Um...I'm Hatake Reiki, of the Hatake clan. I'm half-wolf. This is my brother. I don't know any heretics."
"What?" The vampire was familiar with modern media, including the general idea that vampires and werewolves were supposed to be opposed. He'd never imagined werewolves being real, though. He stared back with his jaw hanging open.
The trees rustled directly behind the vampire. "What's wrong?" Another human appeared. "Who are you and what have you done to my friends?!"
"It's okay," Reiki said in a rush. "He's one of those vampires Sakumo mentioned. I don't think he knows who we are."
The vampire edged backwards. Now the odds were three to one, and the third was angry. Even his friend's reassurance had not calmed him. It was about time for a tactical retreat, when the kitten meowed loudly.
The humans looked down. They hadn't noticed the kitten at the vampire's feet. She meowed again, and they began to smile. "Who's that?" the other human asked. His anger was gone.
"Mraa!"
The vampire gestured downwards. "She introduces herself." His eyes still darted around.
"Hi there," Reiki said. "Are you going hunting too?"
"Mraa!"
"Her hunting instinct is not what it should be," the vampire added. "I mean no harm to you or your...brother. I just wanted to teach my little charge how to hunt."
"Oh." The half-wolf couldn't help but smile at that. "That's adorable."
"No!' The other human shook himself to pull free of the kitten-induced trance. "Have you forgotten? Vampires are unholy beings. They are against everything this world was created for!"
Reiki stared at his friend. "But Jyuu, he has a kitten. A kitten."
"It's probably a vampire kitten by now. if not, it's a corrupted innocent who needs to be rescued as soon as possible." Jyuu looked doubtful, but pronounced his words with conviction.
The vampire snarled. "No! Ugh, disgusting! Religious humans are gross and cruel." He bared his teeth at Jyuu. Both humans stepped back. It was made clear to them that yes, he would suck human blood tonight for that insult.
Reiki broke out of the paralysis first and stepped in front of his friend. "You'll have to go through me if you want to hurt him!"
"Maybe we should just run and get -"
"You pissed him off with your anti-vampire rhetoric. You don't get to run away." Reiki turned to glare. "It's one thing to have the little arguments we have. But did you really mean cruel things like that?"
Jyuu hesitated. "Uh…"
"Better not've." Reiki turned back to glare at the vampire defiantly. "I don't want to fight. I'm perfectly happy with you and your kitten. Leave us in peace. Please?"
"Your friend threatened to take my kitten away from me." His powers made that seem like a crime punishable with the full force of the law. The wolf started to whine.
"He's sorry," Reiki said. "He was being a complete idiot and parroting vampire movies. He's never actually met a vampire before." He kicked Jyuu's ankle.
"Yes! I'm sorry! I...I'm sorry." Jyuu's eyes filled with tears. "It was hurtful, wasn't it?"
Despite the leader's instructions about not antagonizing humans, the vampire continued to growl. "You obnoxious, gross little -"
"Mraa!"
"Wuff!"
The kitten and the wolf were nose to nose. She reached up and batted at his snout. He let her and sniffed her all over. He licked her. The kitten squeaked and wrapped her forepaws around his right foreleg. The wolf looked down at her, his tail waving gently.
Even the vampire could not resist the force of cuteness. He was silent. "How fast can she run?" asked Reiki.
That's how a vampire and a half-wolf ended up running together, splitting up once to help steer a frightened deer in the right direction. Jyuu lunged out from hiding and sank his teeth into the deer's leg in proper snakelike fashion, and the wolf brought its struggles to a quick end by crushing its windpipe. It shook the deer's neck like a chew toy before letting go. Mraa watched from the side. When the wolf let its prey flop to the ground, Mraa stepped forward and sniffed at the thing he had found so interesting. With soft licks of her tongue, she tasted the blood beginning to drench the deer's fur.
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The demon teleported from place to place, trying to provide an accurate portrayal of events. With the help of his network, he showed the ghosts back home a vampire spotting humans, alerting her partner, and slipping away silently before they could be seen. He showed them a trio of young vampires confronting a half-lizard, who ran. Another pair of young vampires weren't so lucky; they tried to impress a human out of their path as they hunted, but a wolf stumbled on the scene and howled, summoning more people. The vampires fled before any confusion could be resolved. It seemed that the vampire with the kitten had been very lucky; all the vampires who had a partner were unable to start a decent conversation. The mere presence of a partner led them to gather and try to force, charm, or impress away humans that they met. If the numbers advantage was reversed by the arrival of more people, they had no choice but to flee.
The only other vampire that was able to actually talk with the strange humans they were unexpectedly encountering in the night was the only other vampire that didn't have a partner; the leader. She could not teleport, but she was quick, and observed a number of her people encountering strange humans and either driving them away or being driven away themselves. It was very fortunate that she had called her new instructions "safety protocols" and made it clear that humans could be a danger; her people, though usually the aggressors, were also doing the most running. No blood was being shed at all. After showing his audience at least one example each of all the types of confrontations that were happening, the demon followed her as she traveled among the trees seeking the source of the unexpected people.
She found it. Two humans stood below her, unmoving. They stood tall and confident, like leaders, and gathered information instead of hunting, also like leaders. They were listening to distant howls, and the white-haired one was taking reports from a number of wolves. "We're not alone in the forest," he told the other.
"Of course not," the vampire leader called from the trees. She leaped down before them. "I am Soye. I am the leader of the vampire den. Who are you, and why are you in the forest?"
The white-haired human paled. "I - I'm Sakumo. Hatake Sakumo, unofficial leader of the Hatake Clan, Wolf Branch. We're out hunting. Why are you in the forest?"
"The same." Soye's face darkened. She was not happy.
Sakumo swallowed, regretting his decision more and more. His partner stepped up. "Can you communicate with your people?"
"Not easily. We're scattered."
"As are we. Damn." The lizard man remained composed, showing no distress. "Is there any violence yet?"
"No. But that may change if they realize your people are not the heretic's friends that I warned them to avoid." Her face darkened further. On the brink of easily avoidable and unwarranted violence, with no ability to communicate quickly over a wide range...what were her options?
Sakumo decided that if there was any time for emergency measures, it was now. He raised his head and howled, the keening howl of a wolf in distress. The wolves near him picked up this howl as if they had been waiting for it, howling for retreat and safety. Before they finished, others came from farther away. It seemed like every wolf associated with the clan understood what was happening and agreed, adding their own distress howls to the song.
"That's the howl for 'something bad is happening,'" he told Soye. "It can mean all kinds of things. A lot of people will interpret it as 'retreat.' Anyone who doesn't will at least know that there's something larger going on and they need to be careful."
The vampire leader looked at him with greater respect. "Thank you."
"Who is this heretic that your people know to avoid?" the lizard man asked.
"A white-haired black-hearted monster," she spat. "He represents a wayward god that betrayed his rightful people long ago. A predator, like your wolves, who would just as soon lick up a human's blood as a rabbit's."
"...Are you talking about Hidan?" Sakumo stared at her. "He's a friend, and our ally. Not a monster."
At the sound of Hidan's name, the vampire leader lifted her lips in anger. Sakumo realized it was a bad idea to mention their alliance too late. Her eyes flashed at him. She had to visibly restrain her temper. "You act vaguely intelligent. Rethink your choice of ally before he rethinks his choice of prey." She leaped into the trees and was gone.
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The demon's eyes dazzled with all he had seen and heard as he followed her, broadcasting the aftermath of the howl. The vampires had heard it and, not knowing what it meant except a large amount of predators on the prowl, headed back to their meeting place to form groups larger than two or three. Soye found most of her people there and instructed them to stop. She explained the true situation, that there was yet another group of people in the forest. The vampire with the kitten raced in from the forest and to her side. He told the story of his own friendly conversation, showing that the humans were not threats and could be cooperated with. This was no cause for war. When he finished, Soye added that the howl meant retreat. If anyone was suffering from hunger, it was still safe to hunt.
More than one was. Soye charged two or three of the most levelheaded and recently fed vampires to accompany them, hoping to make sure that there were no further hostilities. That loose coalition headed off in a direction that the demon boy knew to be free of wolf people. He flew through the forest showing his viewers as much, then returned just as the rest of the vampires were all going home. He saw and heard Soye murmur approval at the red stains around Mraa's mouth, and knew it was the perfect scene to end the broadcast on.
Connection closing...now!
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A/N: I have nothing against George Lucas. I just needed a name, and I wasn't going to use Steven Spielberg's.
Reiki and Jyuu have been mentioned before, in chapter 44: Longing. They just weren't named.
This week is "take a break from the main characters" week in most of my stories. It was such a good idea! This is really restful!