#kokubouro

[urban-renaissance]

{ Daisuke Tanabe - Ghost }

[kekkaishifanfictionsideblog]

Who Knows (A Kekkaishi Fanfiction): Chapter 15

“What the…no way.” Yoshimori managed, seeming to be the only one who could manage words as a huge black cloud settled over Karasumori.  Lissette let her blades loose as ayakashi started raining down from said cloud, searching for the scent of either Kaguro, or his human skin.  She could care less about the small fry, so long as they didn’t happen to be in her way.  The two Kekkaishi could easily destroy those, and there were enough of them getting in her way that she was knocking down quite a few of their numbers anyways.

‘C’mon you bastard!  Where are you hiding?’ She thought, her search for his scent through all of the others almost making her go mad.  She looked to see Gen fighting nearby, seeming to be taking out his frustration at the egg that was now mysteriously missing, on the ayakashi.

“Took you long enough!” She told him, slashing at one that he’d missed.

“To what, join the fight, or smash the damn thing?” He asked, getting one close to her shoulder.

“Both!” She got one that snuck up from behind him “Don’t forget to watch your back idiot!”

“Same to you!”

               She tried not to smile as she went back to hunting down Kaguro’s scent.  Decent amounts of the small fry were gone, but now there was something else blocking what she was after.  The scent of a much more powerful ayakashi, one that reeked of sulfur and…horse hair? An odd combination to be sure, but strong all the same.

               She looked in the direction the scent was coming from, and saw its source hurtling towards the ground in what looked like a big, fiery comet.  She headed into the trees for cover, having no interest in becoming nothing more than a burnt smudge on the ground when it hit.  Once she was out of range, she covered her face with her sleeves, hoping they’d be enough to block out at least most of the smoke, and silently prayed that the others had had enough sense to get out of the way as well.  She looked up once the smoke had cleared, wondering why a lot of the more powerful ayakashi tended to go for the flashy entrances.

“Are you the only ones here?” The ayakashi that had caused said entrance asked, distaste clear in his voice “Two back in the trees, and the two of you kids in front of me? Is that all of you?”

‘Two in the trees, meaning Gen and myself, plus the two Kekkaishi in front of him.  Good, we all survived the blast.’ Lissette thought, waiting for the guy to stop talking and attack already.  The sooner he attacked, the sooner the fight would be over with, and she could find her actual target.

“Huh?” Was Yoshimori’s response.  Matched with his brain-dead expression, it just seemed to piss the ayakashi off.

“Are you deaf?! I wanna know if there’s someone here besides you four kids!” The ayakashi ranted “Isn’t someone stronger defending Karasumori?!”

“Hey you watch who you’re calling kids!  We’re the only ones here because we are the defenders of Karasumori!  You got a problem with that?!” Yoshimori countered.

“What is this, some kind of a joke?!  I came here for a fight!”

‘…Idiots’ Lissette thought, watching the argument.  Two hot-heads arguing over something like this…Karasumori was as good as screwed.

 XXXXXXXXXXXX

 “…There’s a lot of yelling going on out there, isn’t there?” Azza said, wishing she could see better through that damned cloud.

“Yes, that Gagin fellow is being awfully noisy.  The other one must be one of Karasumori’s people.”

“Both of them seem to have nasty tempers.  Should be a fairly interesting fight.”

“It would be much better if we could actually see it.  Damn that Byaku, keeping us this far away.”

“It’s probably for the best Princess.  After all, you don’t want caught in the crossfire by mistake, do you?”

“I suppose your right.” The Princess said with a sigh “All the same, I’m curious to see if the rumors about your sister being down there are true.  Having you both around would be much more interesting than just one of you, don’t you agree?”

“I…I suppose it would be.” Lissette might be down there?!  Yes Azza had known that if she was there, then she’d be in the area, but this close?  Had they not been so neck-breakingly high up, she would have jumped down from the portable unit, grabbed her sister if she really was there, and made a run for it, bug or no bug.  She’d figure out how to get rid of that damned thing later.

‘Please let the rumors be wrong.’ She prayed silently ‘Please, don’t let my sister be down there!’

 XXXXXXXXXXXX

                 Gen watched as balls of flame hit the Kekkai that Yoshimori had pitched around himself and Tokine, knowing he’d have to think fast to distract the ayakashi.  He quickly hoped out of the tree he was in, turned his hands into claws, and ripped the tree out of the ground, chucking it at him while he was busy deflecting the fireball that was thrown back at him.  Unfortunately, the ayakashi spotted and destroyed the tree with more flames before it even had the chance to hit the target.

‘Damn, it didn’t work’ Gen thought, as the ayakashi took a moment to figure things out. Then it started laughing.

“Well, looks like I underestimated you.” He said, “You children might turn out to be more of a real challenge than I thought!  That’s great; I can fight without holding back!”

               A sudden flash of metal blurring past him, towards the ayakashi, was the first sign he’d seen of Lissette since the guy had landed. The loose blade hit the ayakashi square in the shoulder, embedding itself far enough into his skin that you could hardly see either end of it.  The ayakashi looked at it like it was nothing more than a bee sting, pulling it back out with ease.

“Nice hit, but I don’t like the idea of throwing blades, or trees for that matter!” He continued “Fighting is supposed to be done with your fists.  The feeling of the impact on your skin is what makes it fun.”

“Overconfident jackass” Lissette muttered, coming out of the cover of the trees, clearly annoyed that her blade hadn’t done much damage.

“Ha!  The little girl has a mouth on her too! Bring it on kids!  I’ve got a short fuse and I’ve gotta work quickly tonight! Try to keep your distance, you’ll burn!” He said, as fire engulfed his entire body.  All of them watched as he transformed from his human form, to what looked like a messed up, gray and red version of a centaur with an extra set of arms, and horns. “Heh, I think I’ll be able to move around much better in this form.” He said with a laugh, flexing a hands worth of fingers slightly.

‘His negative energy is off the charts.’ Gen thought, ‘And getting in close enough is an even bigger problem because of the heat from those flames.  But as long as I can be fast enough to avoid his first strike, I can do it.’ He stretched his claws a bit in anticipation, and glancing over at Lissette, then the two Kekkaishi ‘Now who will he attack first?’

[kekkaishifanfictionsideblog]

Who Knows (A Kekkaishi Fanfiction): Chapter 5

Meanwhile…          

“Azza, could you hand me a human skin cell sample?”

“Yes Miss Aihi.” She complied, searching for the correct sample.  Having been Miss Aihi’s assistant for the past four years or so, and the fact that she didn’t usually put anything back in the wrong place, made it fairly easy to find whatever she was asked too.  Did she enjoy living in the Kokobouro?  No, but what choice did she have?  Not long after she’d gotten there, Byaku had placed one of his worms inside of her, so she couldn’t just leave and go look for her sister. Was she grateful that she’d been placed with Miss Aihi, and not with one of the other sections?  Yes, mainly because she doubted she’d be much help to the fighting battalions, and she didn’t know any restoration techniques to help keep the castle in one piece.

               Often times, she couldn’t help but wonder why Kaguro had brought her here, instead of killing her along with her mother. Lissette was fast enough, she’d been able to get away when Azza had told her to run, but regardless of her own somewhat enhanced abilities, she’d still been clumsy enough to fall and twist her ankle, and managed to get herself caught.  Was the fact that she’d been injured the reason why he’d let her live? If so, why hadn’t he just killed her later?

“What’s on your mind?” Miss Aihi asked, noticing her curious expression.

“Oh, nothing you’d think was important.  Just something random that popped up in my head.  Sorry I got so easily distracted there.” Azza replied, embarrassed.  Aihi looked back to her work.

“It’s fine, just try not to let it happen when we’re working so much.”

“Right, I’ll remember that.”

“Azza could you get me another one of the samples?”

“Yes, I’ll get it right away.”  Azza searched for another sample, pretending that she hadn’t noticed Byaku coming into the room.

“Aihi, the Princess wishes to visit with the girl again.” He stated.  He never called Azza by her name.  She was always just referred to as ‘the girl’ and for whatever reason, everyone seemed to automatically know who he meant.  Aihi sighed.

“Already?  May as well have had Kaguro grab the other one as well, that way you wouldn’t have to keep taking my best assistant.”

“The other girl wouldn’t have been so easy to control.”

‘Jerk, talking like I’m not even here…’ Azza thought, taking the new sample over to Miss Aihi.

“Fine” Aihi relented “Azza, go with Byaku and check on the Princess for me, would you?”

“Yes Miss Aihi.” She reluctantly complied, following Byaku through the castle to the Princess’ room.  Like always, he was silent.  Out of everything here, if you didn’t count Kaguro’s presence, Byaku’s silence bothered her the most.  At least the others would occasionally attempt a conversation, but if he needed her for something, he’d ask Aihi and not even acknowledge her.

               Finally, the horribly silent walk was over.  Even when it meant having to walk with the silent bug man, Azza enjoyed speaking with the Princess.  At least she didn’t give her weird or threatening looks all of the time, like almost everyone else.  Byaku opened the door, and Azza stepped inside, giving a polite bow to the Princess.

“Azza, always nice to see you.  The little Demon Tamer’s daughter, trapped in a whole castle of demons that she can’t even touch.” She said from her canopied bed, the darkest part of the room.

“It’s nice to see you too Princess.  Feeling any better today?” Azza asked.

“No, not really.  I asked Byaku to bring you in here because I wanted a story.  Byaku’s stories are terrible, so I want to hear one of yours.” The Princess motioned her closer, and Azza obliged, sitting on the edge of the bed like the she was usually asked to do.

“What kind of story do you want today?”

“Silly girl, you have to ask?  One of your memories.”

“Alright, any specific one?”

“Oh!  Tell the one about your mother’s garden again.” The Princess seemed particularly fond of that story.  To be honest, it was Azza’s favorite as well.

“When my sister and I were younger,” She started “Our mother had a huge garden.  It had enough different types of trees, and bushes, and flowers, that you could walk around it for a week and still not have all of them named.  You would also likely be horribly lost among the leaves, and buds, and vines, there were so many, and it was such a big piece of land.”

               The Princess sighed happily, playing with Azza’s hair as she listened.  She usually did this whenever Azza told a story, and Azza didn’t necessarily mind.

“There was a small stream going through part of it, with huge wisteria bushes, and cherry blossom trees on either side.  It was my sister and I’s favorite part of the garden.” Azza’s voice caught in her throat a bit when she mentioned her younger sister, but she continued on “We used to chase the smaller ayakashi that mother had tamed through the water for hours in games of tag, or when we didn’t feel like running anymore, Lizzie would get out her sketchbook and let me watch her draw. That was really special time with her to me, because mother and I were the only ones she’d ever show her drawings to. She’d even shoo the ayakashi away when they tried to peek.”

“Oh my” The Princess commented with a giggle “She must have been very secretive.”

“No, not really.  Lizzie just didn’t like to show off.  We all knew she was really good, but you’d never hear her mention it unless you asked her. I could tell she was really proud whenever mother complimented on her work though.  After all, she was the one who taught her to draw in the first place.”

“Did she teach you as well?”  The Princess was braiding her hair as she spoke now.

“Yes, but while I wasn’t necessarily bad at it, I never was as good as Lissette was.” Azza explained “I much preferred watching her work to drawing on my own.”

“And what did you do with your mother in the garden?”

“Whenever she was outside, mother was either taking care of the tamed ayakashi, playing with us, or planting something new.  Her hands were almost always covered in dirt, and she smelled like whatever she’d planted that day, because when she planted something, she planted a lot of it.  Most of the time, my sister and I would help her with her planting.”

“Was your sister better at that than you as well?”

“Well, she wasn’t horrible at it…but this was something that I was somewhat better than her at.  Not that it mattered, she and I both still enjoyed helping mother grow the garden.”

“What kind of ayakashi did your mother tame?”

“All kinds actually.  Smaller ones that Lizzie and I often played with, larger or fighting ones that helped guard the house, even a few botanical ayakashi that helped make up the garden.”

“Did any of them ever turn on her?”  Azza stiffened at the question a little, knowing that the Princess knew fully well the answer.

“Only one…and I don’t think he was really ever tamed to start with.”

“Oh dear, I keep upsetting you when I ask that question.” The Princess observed, cowering a bit at Azza’s reaction.

“No, it’s alright.  I should be used to it by now.”

“I see” The Princess said, giving a little yawn “I am growing tired.  You may go now.  I must say, I quite enjoy out little visits”

“As do I.  Sweet dream Princess.” With that, Azza stood and walked out of the room, back to Miss Aihi’s lab, once again, holding back tears at her memories.