Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Unholy Wars; Dawn ❯ Dawn of Blood Skies ( Chapter 1 )

Dawn of Blood skies

It was nightfall on a lonely stretch of anonymous French forest, snow fell gently down upon a world torn by war; fell on a stranger who didn’t belong in this world. The stranger had come from another time and place to end up in the middle of the last German offensive of World War 2; this stranger was Kazuki Kitsune, a demon prince from the feudal era of Japan and here he stood in the biting cold in what could be another string of reality.

Kazuki walked slowly through the snow filled forest with all of his senses on high alert watching for any possible dangers. The extreme cold didn’t bother him very much, he actually liked cold weather; it was heat that got to him. Kazuki heard a loud bang noise, like a really loud firecracker and he started walking in the direction of the noise ever careful to move as a shadow. After a few minutes he caught the scent of fresh blood and went towards the smell and found a fallen man who was lying in a pool of his own steaming blood; he’d obviously been killed only recently.

Kazuki stood over the fallen man. He didn’t understand the man’s strange outfit, nor why his sword was so short or why he wore no armor. After falling through that well the whole world had gone crazy. Kazuki bent down and picked up the strange wood and metal contraption in the dead man’s grip. It looked vaguely reminiscent of what Kazuki understood to be a ‘gun’ which where all the rage in Europe as he understood it. However as he stood in that forest far away from Nippon in his black Hakama and kimono he felt uneasy and definitely out of place. Kazuki placed the ‘gun’ down and looked at the dead man.

Kazuki picked the corpse up, and bit down on the neck. He swallowed the blood; luckily the body was very fresh; the blood was actually still flowing slightly. The corpse’s memories flowed into Kazuki. Year: 1944. Name: Dante Richards. World War, 101st, basic training, America, Germany, battle, airbourn, rifle=US M1 Garand .30/’06, wife, Corporal, New York, ammo, sniper, SS, death. Kazuki devoured the entire corpse, and then stood for sometime letting his mind process the information he’d just taken in, and assimilate the language he’d just learned. After an hour he gathered up the ‘ammo’ for his ‘US rifle caliber .30 M1 Garand’. Kazuki was truly out of place, his outfit while in high style in 1444 Japan wasn’t much for 1944 Nazi occupied ‘France’ and if that wasn’t enough his bushy fox tail, fox ears, and long red hair would easily give him away. However he still didn’t understand enough about this time period to figure out how he should move in it. He’d need a living body to devour in order to get the required information, he’d need to hunt down and kill someone. A dead body, while still containing much information on its blood deteriorates quickly and the information can become corrupted or even invalid.

Kazuki also determined that he’d need to find one of these ‘Germans’ and devour them in order to get a better grasp on the situation. Kazuki sniffed in the cold air and leapt up into a tree, and waited. Then he heard someone else coming down the path; he heard the crunch of the snow and he heard what sounded like someone talking.

“Warum bin ich nicht im Bett? Ich verstehe nicht, ist es jetzt drei in der Früh! Ich muss schlafen einigen Zeit in Kürze!” Another soldier walked toward where the other dead soldier was, speaking in a weird language and wearing a different uniform that from the memories Kazuki had absorbed informed him that this man was in fact a Nazi soldier, “Scharfschütze, dass dumm! Immer brauchen Sie mich gehen, und bestätigen Sie ein töten! Das Weibchen niemals schläft!”
Kazuki leveled his rifle sights on the soldier’s gut and fired. The rifle slammed back surprisingly hard and was dreadfully loud, especially to Kazuki’s sensitive ears. But Kazuki’s round found its mark and the soldier went down, bleeding terribly, violently trashing around like a fish thrown onto a riverbank and he screamed for something in his language that Kazuki couldn’t even begin to understand.

“Scheiße! Ich war Schuss! Hilf mir! Jemand mir helfen!” The soldier screamed and then Kazuki jumped down and landed in front of him, placing his left foot over the soldier’s rifle. The man looked up at Kazuki saying in a panicked voice, “Was!? Was sind sie!? Sie haben Fuchs Ohren und ein Fuchs den schwanz, aber Sie haben nur ein mann Korper! Sind Sie ein Monster!?”

Kazuki bit down on the soldier’s neck, draining his blood quickly and absorbing his memories and information. And he learned much about what the soldier was speaking of; apparently he’d been sent out to see if his unit’s sniper had killed his target. Kazuki finished off the corpse and collected the soldier’s ammo and weapons. Now Kazuki had the M1, a Mauser Kar98-k, and an ‘Artillery’ Luger P-08 pistol plus more ammo for his shiny new guns.

-Snap- from behind Kazuki a twig broke. Kazuki turned quickly and brought the Garand to his shoulder to see a little girl standing frozen in fear in his sights. From what Kazuki had learned from his two victims she was most likely ‘French’ and didn’t speak German or English. And she was probably absolutely terrified of Kazuki, who to her had to look like some kind of ‘werewolf’ or some other monster.

“Who are you?” Another ‘American’ soldier had shown up and was pointing a ‘pistol’ at Kazuki. Kazuki prepared to attack the man but realized that the little girl was right in the line of fire; she stood in between Kazuki and the soldier and since Kazuki had only fired a rifle once in his life he knew he could quite easily shoot the girl by accident. Kazuki spoke to the American in English.

“Both of you get down!” Kazuki spoke quietly, and since he was already in a prone position behind a log gave credibility to what he was saying. The soldier looked puzzled Kazuki made a ‘get down’ motion with his hand, “There’s a German sniper, get down and speak softly!”

The soldier crouched and leaned against a tree, still pointing his pistol at Kazuki, “Who and what are you?” he spoke in a low voice.

“I’m Kazuki Kitsune, nice to meet you. I’m really lost right now.” Kazuki smiled gently, his English wasn’t quiet perfect; he was rolling the Rs and he had a Japanese accent as well but it was understandable.

“Why do you have those weird ears and that tail?” The soldier kept his pistol aimed at Kazuki’s head; he obviously knew how to handle the weapon.

“I was born with them I guess, as strange as it may sound I’m beginning to think I’m from another reality, and a different time period without doubt.” Kazuki looked at the soldier, “Can you tell me what exactly is going on because I’m confused as all hell.”

“What do you mean?” The soldier lowered his weapon slightly, “The World is at war my friend.”

“Yeah, I managed to figure that much out for myself but I’m just a little shook up right now.” Kazuki pointed to his clothes, “I’m sure you haven’t seen too many people dressed like this have you?”

“No I sure haven’t, are you from Japan or something?”

“Yes I am, but definitely not from this time period.” Kazuki looked over the log, he saw something flash far away, and then he heard a loud bang.

“AHH!” The little girl screamed as she fell and blood poured from her chest. Kazuki swung his M1 over the log and fired two rounds towards where he’d seen the flash, understanding it to be the sniper’s muzzle flash. Kazuki shouted to the soldier.

“Take her, just get her out of here, I’ll cover your withdraw!” Kazuki fired off another round after the sniper fired one at him, taking a large chunk out of the log. Kazuki took a quick glance at the soldier and then said, “I’ll get rid of this sniper too; don’t you fucking worry about it!”

The soldier grabbed the wounded girl and ran off as Kazuki fired off more rounds at the sniper. Kazuki ran out of ammunition. While he took cover he thought, wait a minute! I could make my life so much easier right now. Kazuki ran across the field and silently slipped behind the sniper. The man was aiming down his rifle scope with pure fixation on the log where Kazuki was earlier. Kazuki aimed at the prone man with the Luger.

“Why did you shoot that little girl?” Kazuki spoke in German to the unwitting soldier who was planted firmly in front of his gun muzzle. The sniper, surprised quickly turned to see that Kazuki’s pistol was right in his face, and that Kazuki had resorted to a more fox-like form, an anthromorphic one really; his face was a canine muzzle and his body was covered in red fur, save for his lower arms and legs which were covered in black fur. The sniper, realizing Kazuki’s intentions tried to bring his rifle up to try and shoot his strange foe.

-Bang! - The Luger jumped in his hand as the round left the barrel; Kazuki had put a round through the sniper’s head, the small entrance hole was right above the man’s left eyebrow. Then he heard more men coming up from behind him, he set the rifles down and tucked the Luger into his abi (Japanese word for the waist sash on their traditional outfits). Kazuki took a deep breath and pulled out two bayonets; Dante’s and the sniper’s. He waited until his enemies were closer. He sniffed the cool night air with his sensitive noise and quickly evaluated his situation. There’s at least ten of them, three are swinging from the right and the rest are coming from what is my rear; I need to be quick and if I do this right they might only get a few shots off.

When the first soldier saw him Kazuki moved, using his speed to not only take the man’s back; but to slice his throat open in the same movement. The man likely didn’t even realize that Kazuki had moved; Kazuki had done more than slit his throat, the man’s head flopped to the ground like a ball. The second man was just as easily dispatched the third however managed to open fire on Kazuki with what Kazuki understood to be a submachine gun; but Kazuki still stabbed him through the heart after quickly dodging the bullets. Kazuki marveled at his own speed, he was actually faster than the bullets were; which was a blessing, because had he tried to take on these men as a mortal with mortal abilities by himself he’d likely die. Then he ran and jumped over two more men and as he started to land behind them he drove a bayonet into each of their hearts and slammed them against the ground with enough force to shatter their backs; if they even realized they’d been stabbed he’d be surprised. He moved again, sneaking up behind another man and slit his throat, Kazuki then threw the Mauser bayonet into the next man’s chest when the blade pierced into his lung and heart the man dropped his rifle and dropped to the ground with a dull thud.

Kazuki calmly drew out the Luger and pressed the muzzle against another Nazi’s skull; the man jerked his head toward Kazuki and he got a 9mm slug in his left eye for his troubles. Then Kazuki ambushed another one of the soldiers, he killed him by jamming the M1’s bayonet into the man’s gut and un-seeming him. A moment later Kazuki ambushed the last soldier, he drove the bayonet through the man’s temple. Kazuki stood panting and admiring his handy work, in all only about twenty rounds had been fired in the short engagement and he’d managed to down quite a few enemies.

Kazuki walked back to where he’d downed the sniper and stripped the man’s uniform off; careful not to get too much blood on it as he tucked it and all the man’s gear into his kimono. After that was done he took a large rock and smashed the man’s skull into gooey chunks.

“Okay, now all I need is my weapons and some more ammo.” Kazuki said as he gathered up the Mauser and the Garand, he also raided the other bodies for weapons and more ammo; and a sewing kit, he’d need a sewing kit. After he found one he wandered around like a stealthy shadow; until he found an old half blown up farmhouse.

“This will have to do.” Kazuki went inside of the place’s basement, finding it to relatively dry and somewhat warm. He stowed away his Garand, the sniper’s Mauser and the submachine gun and the ammo there for; deciding to go with the Mauser and the Luger as his weapons. He then took out the Nazi uniform and cut off the name tag with a small pocket knife he’d managed to find. He replaced it with one he’d sewn up himself; it read “Hans Günsche”; he was going to sneak into a Nazi base, he need answers and there would definitely be some answers there.

After a short while Kazuki reverted to his ‘human’ form and put the uniform on; tucking his tail down one pant leg that he also wrapped up with a bloody bandage so he could limp his way in; play the poor injured comrade. To conceal his long red hair and ears he tucked his ponytail underneath the uniform’s coat and wrapped a scarf round his head and put on a fatigue hat, he also slammed his forehead against a table so he’d look all the more injured and to also mitigate questions, if he showed up as a scared, lost injured soldier who would think to ask him “What unit are you with?” or “Why don’t I remember you?”. Kazuki also put on a pair of glasses he found; one lenses was cracked and they were dirty; all the better, and they aren’t too strong of a prescription for me to use. Okay, I’ve just got to remember where this house is and to avoid American patrols and I’ll be fine! –If my cover is blown all I have to do is run out here and kill them one by one; this could actually be fun. I feel like some kind of ninja right now, sneaking into my enemy’s castle in a disguise. A little game of cat and fox comes now, Hans Günsche is now born!

Kazuki exited the farmhouse after he put on the Nazi equipment belt with a holster for his Luger and he held the Mauser cradled in his gloved hands. Thank Amaterasu it’s winter time!

“Hands up!” Kazuki turned to see two American soldiers pointing weapons at him. Not thinking Kazuki quickly dropped to a prone position and fired a round from the Mauser into the face of the closest soldier. His head exploded in a violent fountain of blood, brains and bone. Kazuki quickly chambered another round in his rifle and shot the other man in the chest before he realized what was happening; the round struck him squarely and likely burst one of the man’s lungs before piercing his heart and exiting his back.

“Well shit,” Kazuki was speaking in German now. He walked over to one of the fallen men and saw a holster with what he understood to be a Colt model 1911a1 .45ACP, which he took and tucked underneath his jacket, along with both of the magazines the man had been carrying. Sighing Kazuki also went into the basement and took his Garand and traded most of the Mauser’s ammo for more of the Garand’s; he figured he’d say that he was running low on ammo for the Mauser if anyone questioned why he had the American gun.

Kazuki limped away towards where he thought the rest of the Germans would be, well he could smell them, they smelled slightly different then the Americans did. Kazuki was also careful to keep low, to avoid drawing fire from either side. After two hours of slow limping progress he finally found some other German soldiers, he had made sure on the way there to stab his leg where he was limping from and let his super-human abilities heal the wound only to the point where he’d be able to walk on it but it would still bleed.

“Help me!” Kazuki slumped himself against a tree as if he was truly exhausted and called out to the German soldiers who were in fox-holes, with a deep desperation in his voice, “I have been hit! And I need some help; I have been wandering through this forest for hours now! Please help me!”

One of the soldiers ran over to him and lifted him up, “Where are you hit?”

“My leg,” Kazuki pointed to the bandage, “my friend Klaus, he was a medic, managed to patch it up pretty good but I’ve been walking on it since we got cut off by the Americans. We were together until he got killed, I’ve been trying to regroup with my…”

“Hush now,” the soldier carried Kazuki to a fox hole/machinegun nest and set him down gently, “So you don’t need anyone to take a look at it?”

“No,” Kazuki shook his head, “it’s painful and has made running impossible but Klaus just said I needed to rest and keep weight off it; I’d rather not distract a medic in case someone who really needs the attention comes along.”

“Alright, what is your name?” The soldier offered Kazuki his canteen which Kazuki gladly took and drank down. Make it seem convincing, come on Kazuki you can do it!

“Hans, my name is Hans Günsche,” Kazuki smiled as if relieved, he also knew the rank indicated on his uniform was ‘Rottenfuhrer’ so he continued, “I’m Rottenfuhrer Hans Günsche from Berlin.”

“Okay, why do you have that rifle, what happened?” the soldier pointed to the Garand. Nice try buddy but I’m a step ahead of you.

“I was running low on ammunition for my rifle, especially after the ambush and with my injuries I couldn’t afford risking running low on ammo.” Kazuki said in a tired tone, “Klaus and I went out on patrol, I’m new around here; I just came in with the last wave of reinforcements and Klaus, well I’d known him from training. He was the only guy I knew in my whole battalion so we volunteered to go on patrol together, then… five men maybe got the jump on us and I took a round to the leg and smacked my head on a damned tree on the way down.”

“Okay,” the soldier nodded, “go on Hans.”

“The next thing I knew the Americans were gone and Klaus had patched my leg up and he told me that he’d dragged and carried me away from the firefight, but he’d gotten lost and lost his MP-40. He said that we needed to get back, luckily I still had my rifle; he’d used it and its sling to drag me away from the Americans.” Kazuki said, trying to make it look like he wasn’t making everything up as he went, “We wandered around and we managed to ambush an American soldier and we took his rifle after we’d slit his throat. A short time later we came under fire from another American; Klaus got hit, damn bullet blew most of his face off. I managed to kill the American and I grabbed the Garand from Klaus and the ammo for it, and his Luger and I managed; I don’t know to run for about four hundred meters until I stumbled upon an abandoned farmhouse where I hunkered down for awhile and changed the dressing on my wound. After deciding I couldn’t stay there any longer I exited the house; only to be greeted by two more Americans; I got the drop on them though and they’re now lying outside of the house, and I got me a trophy from one of those bitches!”

Kazuki reached into his jacket and took out the .45, “Nice aint it? I must’ve downed an officer, not bad for a wounded city-boy if I do say so myself.”

“How many Americans did you say you’ve downed?” the soldier took his canteen back.

“I’m not too sure, three I know of and I can’t remember if I killed any before I got hit.” Kazuki acted as if he was straining to think as he put the Colt back into his jacket, “I’d say I’ve managed to at least wound two and I know I’ve killed three.”

“Hoe long ago would you say you were ambushed? Where were you stationed?” the soldier looked at Kazuki with a certain suspicion

“I couldn’t tell you how long ago it was, with the snow and the concussion and then the frantic limping run and skirmishes I really can’t say; at least five hours ago.” Kazuki placed his hand on his stomach, “Do you have any food?”

“Answer my question.” The soldier said angrily, “Where were you stationed?”

“Fuck if I know!” Kazuki grabbed the man’s collar, “Some god-forsaken piece of shit French forest; told to take some stupid French town back from the Americans.”

“Sounds a little suspicious,” a deep voice from behind Kazuki boomed out, as he turned to look the man continued speaking, “your story don’t quite jive Hans; if that is your real name.”

“Oh goddess,” Kazuki said involuntarily as he saw the man standing behind him; impossibly tall, shoulders impossibly broad but his face… it looks like it’s the stitch work of seven different faces. “you’re a big boy aren’t you?”

“Ha, you’re a good liar but you aren’t fooling me, no you aren’t pulling the wool over Siegfried Grantz’s eyes!” Siegfried grabbed onto Kazuki’s neck and tossed him out of the fox hole. The giant pulled out a machete, “Prepare to die you foolish intruder!”

Kazuki hit the ground as his glasses and Garand flew away from him; he quickly rolled onto his back; grabbing out the Luger as he did. He saw that Siegfried was about to attack, Kazuki quickly sighed the man’s larger eye and double tapped the trigger sending two 9mm slugs into the ugly beast’s eye.

“GAAAaaaAAHhHhhHHHHHH!!” the effect was immediate and violent; Siegfried’s left eye exploded in a spray of blood and bone, but the giant didn’t fall down; instead he rushed towards Kazuki again.

-Bam! - Bam! - Bam! - Kazuki pulled the trigger three more times but the small rounds ricocheted harmlessly off of the monster’s skull. The eyes, you have to get his eyes; he’s got hard skin and you’re almost out of bullets… Get the .45 and hit his right eye with two of those if he decides to walk those off you’ll have to kill him with your powers.

Kazuki dropped the Luger and just as Siegfried was about to slash him with the heavy looking blade Kazuki drew out the .45 and squeezed off two rounds nearly point blank into the giant’s eye. The report was much louder then Kazuki expected and the recoil was much greater but the effect on Siegfried was much more impressive then the Luger’s. Kazuki saw not only Siegfried’s eye being obliterated by the .45 caliber slugs, but his eardrum burst from the force of the rounds’ impacts.

Siegfried fell weakly to the snow covered ground next to Kazuki.

“Well, looks like that did it,” Kazuki struggled to his feet and holstered the Luger. He kept the .45 trained on Siegfried’s back as he retrieved the Garand and his glasses. Kazuki looked to the two men in the fox hole and said, “Who the hell was that?”

“Oberschutze Siegfried Grantz of Waffen SS Battalion SRW-13.” The soldier answered nervously

“Oh boy, I should care I take it?” Kazuki smirked as he tucked the .45 back into his jacket, “What’s so special about them?”

“Boy the better question is what is not special about us.” Kazuki turned to see another tall man; only this man wore a dark black uniform; what looked like a dress uniform with a trench coat as the jacket with some sort of gas mask on his face and he also wore a helmet that long white dreadlocks seemed to spread out from underneath. He was around a foot taller than Kazuki and undoubtedly more muscled, but not that Kazuki could say for sure; he was completely covered with black clothing. Kazuki saw that the man held in his hands a weird looking weapon that he vaguely recognized as a StG-44 and that the man had two holsters on his belt and a weapon that Kazuki thought might be a Russian rifle, but he couldn’t say for sure.

“Who are you?” Kazuki tensed up his mind screaming at him to run. GO! He’s bad news, very bad news! You don’t need this kind of pain, just run!!

“My name,” The black-clad warrior aimed his weapon at Kazuki’s forehead and answered, “is Klaus Webber.”