Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ The Demon Child ❯ I am the Demon Child ( Chapter 2 )

Warnings: Violence can be found near the end of the chapter.

The Demon Child

Chapter one: I am the Demon Child

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'Demon Child'

Kaoru mentally sighed. She was getting pretty tired from everyone calling her that.

"Would you kindly remove your katana from my throat?" she asked through gritted teeth, frowning slightly.

The man's amber eyes widen slightly in surprise at the calm tone of her voice. Wasn't she afraid of him? Does she even know who he is?

Kaoru fought the urge to roll her eyes when she saw the almost confused look in his eyes. "I know that you're Battousai." she said plainly.

Not minding the katana still on her throat, Kaoru reached a hand up to Battousai's left cheek and ripped the skin-tone-colored bandage from his face. She smirked when she saw the cross-shaped scar. She was hardly ever wrong.

Battousai let out a low growl as the woman ripped his bandage off. Damnit! It stung like hell. He was going to hurt Sano for suggesting that he hid his scar. But first thing's first.

He held the blade of his katana closer to her throat. "You're coming with us," he growled.

Kaoru raised a finely-arched eyebrow. "Us?"

Battousai smirked. "Look around and see for yourself."

Kaoru glared at him. Irritated sapphire-silver eyes gazed into amused gold-amber eyes. Ooh! How she badly want to rip that smirk off his face right now.

"Well I would if you would take your katana away from my throat so I could move."

Battousai complied and sheathed his katana; that infernal smirk still in his face.

Now able to move without worrying about being headless, Kaoru glanced around. Her sharp eyes caught sight of a few shadows hiding in the trees and noticed one particularly tall shadow moving away from the others and heading towards the trees behind Tsubame.

Alarmed, Kaoru took out her kodachis and threw them at the shadow in one swift movement.

"Hey watch it!" yelped out the shadow as the kodachis nearly hit each of his sides. "You nearly stabbed me!"

Kaoru smirked. "If I wanted to kill you, I would've aimed for your heart and not miss."

A laugh erupted from one of the other shadows. The one who dared to come near Tsubame grumbled.

"Shut up Soujiro," the shadow muttered before he stepped forward. "It wasn't funny."

Kaoru saw that the guy was tall and wore white much to her surprise. She fumed. Tsubame's would-be-attacker wore white yet she hadn't seen him earlier, as his companions.

The guy, who had a fishbone in his mouth, threw the kodachis back to her. Kaoru reached out and caught them easily and sheathed her kodachis. If worse comes to worst, she could use her katana instead.

"You could've just threaten me, you know." grumbled the guy, scratching his head. He reminded Kaoru of a rooster because of his brown spiky hair that seemed to defy gravity. "Don't need to get so bloodthirsty and all."

Another young man, whom Kaoru presumed was Soujiro since the rooster-guy glared at him, stepped forward.

"Sano, you should've known that the girl is important to the Demon Child." said Soujiro. He smiled. "She just killed three werewolves to save her."

Kaoru growled. There it was again. Demon Child. Ugh! She hated that title!

Kaoru held her breath and slowly counted to ten. It wouldn't do her any good to loose her temper right now.

"My name's Kamiya Kaoru. Use it." she said, soft and clam.

"Then you should use ours. Name's Seta Soujiro," said Soujiro, smiling. Kaoru almost shuddered. What a weird smile.

"Sagara Sanosuke," introduced Rooster-guy, flipping his hair back.

The last young man moved forward to join them. He had jet-black hair and icy blue eyes.

"Shinomori Aoshi," he said plainly.

"Himura Battousai," curt Battousai.

Kaoru glanced at the latter. She hadn't really paid much attention to how he looked like before now but that's because he wanted to acquaint his katana and her throat. If she was the swoony girly-girly type, she would probably salivate at the sight of him and gushed about how his long blood-red hair framed his face and bring out his amber eyes. About the rippling muscles she knew existed currently hidden inside his clothes. About how the cross-shaped scar in his cheek only made him look more dangerous and desirable. About the way he held up his sword and fight that would leave any hormonal girl breathless. But she wasn't that type of girl so that's that.

Kaoru smirked. "So the famous Battousai, Okashira, Zanza and Tekken were searching for me? I'm so touched." She said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

A small sob was heard from behind and everyone turned to glance at Tsubame.

Kaoru frowned. She had almost forgotten about Tsubame's injury. Ignoring the men, Kaoru rushed to Tsubame and knelt down beside the young girl.

"Tell me if it hurts okay?" she said softly as she gently took hold of Tsubame's ankle and began to examine it.

All the while, the group of men stood behind the girls. They were not interested in attending to a human, especially one who's weak. Instead, they took this time to view the demon child's full appearance.

The Demon Child, or Kamiya Kaoru as she had called herself, isn't what they had imagined. They expected the child to be a male since sons are usually born from both vampire and werewolf clans. Hence, that's why some human females are usually turned into werewolves or vampires. A natural-born female is rare in each of the two clans.

Kaoru knelt down beside the human girl named Tsubame on one knee. The stilt on her kimono showed pale, furless, shapely legs. Her silver hair tied in a high ponytail gleamed dark blue where the moonlight illuminated it. A few loose strands framed her pale delicate face and heightened the brightness of her sapphire-silver eyes. Her dark blue wolf ears twitched when a chilling breeze passed by.

"Damn, she's fine." muttered Sano, staring at Kaoru's long slender legs. "If I wasn't so hung up on Kitsune, I'd go for her."

Battousai agreed wholeheartedly with Sano. Although he wasn't interested in females, he did appreciate beauty when he sees it.

Fortunately for Sano, Kaoru was too caught up with tending to Tsubame to hear him or else she would've decked him to the next century.

Tsubame gave a soft cry of pain when Kaoru had touched a sensitive spot in her ankle. Kaoru bit her lip, careful not to draw blood lest the other vampires would become aroused and hunger for blood. The girl's ankle suffered no broken bones but it was sprained nonetheless.

The chilled wind picked up and Kaoru noticed Tsubame shivering from the cold. The woman unfurled her long dark blue tail and wrapped it around Tsubame's shoulders down to her waist, making sure to leave enough space for the girl to move comfortably.

"Arigatou Kamiya-sama." said Tsubame, her voice barely above a whisper. She snuggled closer to Kaoru's warm tail.

Kaoru fought down a smile. At least the girl didn't call her 'Demon Child' she loathe that name!

"Call me Kaoru, Tsubame." replied Kaoru. Setting the girl foot down gently she added. "Good news is that there are no broken bones, your ankle just sprained."

Kaoru unfurled her tail from Tsubame and turned around so that she's now kneeling behind Tsubame and, being careful not to pierce the girl's skin with her sharp claws, stood to lift the girl up piggyback-style.

"I'm taking her to a doctor friend of mine." she said as she passed the male vampires. "Afterwards, we can talk."

Soujiro reached out to grab her arm and Kaoru turned to look at him.

"Does your friend know that you're a demon?" asked Soujiro with interest.

Kaoru suddenly had a horrified look on her face. She had forgotten that she was still in her real form. Ooh! She could kick herself for being so forgetful tonight of all nights.

"No," she answered Soujiro before she faced forward and closed her eyes. A silver and dark blue ki surrounded her entire form. She opened her eyes as the ki vanished and nearly toppled from Tsubame's weight. She was still as strong in her human form but changing back and forth is exhausting.

The guys seemed to notice this and Sano helped and carried Tsubame instead. Kaoru protested but Sano replied.

"You're exhausted Jou-chan. I'll carry her. I won't harm her."

Kaoru wasn't in the mood to argue since she was tired and agreed. She even let the 'Jou-chan' part slide for now. Instead she led them to the path towards Dr. Gensai's house. Obviously, she had also forgotten that she was wearing nothing but a simple yukata since she changed back to her disguise. So it came as a surprise when she felt cold, rough hands on her shoulders and her vision turned a pale gold.

Looking down, Kaoru took note that she was now wearing a blue kimono with violet sakuras in it. She glanced up to see that it was Battousai who had graciously 'bestowed' upon her the kimono.

Battousai just shrugged. "It's not proper for a female to wander in the streets at night wearing only her yukata." He said coldly before falling in step not too far from her.

Inside, Battousai was fuming. Why did he care if she wore only a yukata? She could go naked for all he cares. But that's exactly his problem. He cared for her, one way or another. He stole a glance at Kaoru who seemed deep in thought. Her beauty amazed him, even in her human form she was a sight to behold. Her hair as dark as a raven's coat and her bright sapphire blue eyes that reminded him of the stars twinkling at night. Battousai muttered out a curse. He was already spewing sentimental stuff. Next thing you know, he'll be saying 'Oro' all the time and do the laundry. (AN: *fox ears appeared from her head* Hohoho ^.^)

'Damn females.' He thought furiously. 'Damn them all.'

As soon as they had arrived to Dr. Gensai's house, Kaoru rang the bell found outside the gate. After a couple of times ringing the bell, Kaoru began to worry. Dr. Gensai's wasn't this much of a sleeper. He would've heard the bell by now.

"Something's wrong." pointed out Aoshi, his icy blue eyes narrowed.

"We should jump and enter the house quietly." said Soujiro. Turning to Kaoru, he added. "Ladies' first."

Kaoru rolled her eyes but jumped over the gate anyway. She landed to the other side with ease, careful not to make a sound. She was soon followed by Sano, then Soujiro, Aoshi and lastly, Battousai.

Tsubame had fallen asleep on the way and had snuggled closer to Sano when she felt him landed on Dr. Gensai's property. Sano couldn't help but blush at the closeness and both Kaoru and Soujiro fought down the urge to snicker. Aoshi and Battousai, on the other hand, were too busy looking around to notice.

"Well everything seems to be alright." muttered Sano as he took looked around.

Kaoru glanced around suspiciously. Sano was right, everything seems to be in order but it was a little too quiet. She couldn't hear the crickets chirping. Kaoru sniffed the air and let out a growl as she had found the scent.

"Werewolves," she muttered out. Her sapphire eyes turned darker in anger then in fear. What if they had done something to Dr. Gensai and the girls?

Without a second thought, Kaoru dashed inside the house, forgetting about the plan about being quiet. She sniffed the air, trying to pick up any other scent when she came across the bedroom and froze. She smelled blood. Human blood.

Praying to Kami that she's wrong, Kaoru grabbed the knob and tired to open it. To her horror, the door was jammed. A surge of adrenaline flow through her veins and, with astounding strength, kicked the door opened.

She barely managed to swallow a horrifying scream as she took in the gruesome sight before her. Blood was sprayed everywhere, on the walls, on the sheets, the floors. The body of Dr. Gensai lay in the center of the room. His flesh was horridly torn apart and his face was unrecognizable. His stomach had been exposed and the guts along with it. His two granddaughters, Suzume and Ayame, were in no better shape.

Kaoru placed her hand in her mouth and tried hard not to vomit. The stench was too much. She felt sick. Her whole body shook hard as she tried to control the rush of tears flowing down her sapphire eyes and into the bloody floor.

A croaked voice moaned from somewhere in the room's shadows. Kaoru's eyes widened as Misao came into view. The other girl was bloody from head to foot. Her usual luster black hair was caked with dry blood and her cherry lips were a pale blue.

Misao limped slowly towards Kaoru, her left hand clutching her injured right arm.

"Kaoru…" Misao managed to croak out, her bloody hand reached to touch the raven-haired woman. Her faded green eyes full of tears, mixing with the blood on her face.

"Misao!" Kaoru stood up and reached out to grab the other girl. Both of them couldn't find the strength to remain standing and sank to the floor, holding each other tightly. Tears streamed down Kaoru's face.

"It's was so horrible Kaoru," muttered Misao through tears. She buried her head in Kaoru's neck and sobbed. "I couldn't save them, Kaoru. I tried, I really did but there were too many of them."

Kaoru clutched the back of Misao's head and pulled her closer gently. "Iie, Misao. It's not your fault." She whispered softly to the other girl.

"They let me live to tell you this…" continued Misao, her shoulder shook. "They want you Kaoru and…nothing would stand in their way."

"Who Misao? Who?" asked Kaoru. Who could be so heartless as to kill innocent children and a helpless elder?

"They were Shishio's men," muttered Misao, still sobbing greatly.

A horrible scream erupted from behind them and both girls turned to see Sano covering Tsubame's, who was the one who screamed, eyes. Sano and Soujiro were the only two males who had horrid looks in their faces. Aoshi was gripping his kodachi's so tightly that his knuckles turned white and Battousai's gold-amber eyes radiated an immeasurable anger and fury.

"Shishio." growled the four vampires angrily while Tsubame cried.

"When?" asked a cold voice unexpectedly.

All turned to face Kaoru who had stood up. Her sapphire eyes blazed with a silver fire for vengeance in them.

"When will we leave?" Kaoru asked again.

She would come with them. She would find whoever did this to them and avenge their deaths. She would be willing to kill not for the sake of survival, but for the hunt. She would find Dr. Gensai, Ayame, Suzume's killers and Misao's torturers and hunt them down to the very ends of the earth. Her eyes turned completely silver.

'For I am the Demon Child.'

~ To be continued ~