Chapter Seven: Tonarc's Glory

A thunderstorm brewed over the dark palace of Artered. The doors to the throne room opened and Valgard walked in. When he got to Artered he dropped to his knees.

"My Lord please forgive me" he begged.

"You failed me again Valgard."

"The priestess my Lord, she was still alive. She killed most of the men."

"That is your fault; you should have killed her when you had the chance, Tonarc." Tonarc came out from the shadows.

"Yes my Lord?"

"I trust that you can do better?"

"Of course my Lord. I will leave immediately.

"I don't care so much about the men, kill them if you wish, but I want the women brought to me alive. Is that understood?"

"Completely my Lord." And with that Tonarc left to begin his plans.
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It had been a month since Yumiko had joined up with the others. They had a very peaceful journey so far, in that time her shoulder had healed up and she fully regained her strength.

They were traveling along the coast. The waves were crashing into the rocks below, the seagulls flying overhead; the sun shining in the cloudless sky was a peaceful sight. The peace was disturbed when the horses began to jump. It took a while to settle them down.

"What got them so spooked?" Mizuki asked.

"I'm not sur..." Ryuu began to say.

"What is it?" Kenshin asked.

"Demons," he said, "a large number of them are in the area, and the heading this way."

"Do you thing we stand a chance if we fight them?" Isamu asked.

"No, we are going to have to make a run for it."

"There's a forest over there," Yumiko pointed to the distant forest to the north, "Maybe we can lose them in there. They got their horses to run as fast as they could go. It took them 15 min. to reach the edge of the forest, when they looked behind them they saw a large group of demons heading their way.

"How many are there?" Isamu asked openly.

"I don't know, 40 maybe 45" Ken'ichi said.

"Let's split up." Ryuu said.

"Is that a good idea?" Mizuki asked.

"It will make fighting them easier for us to fight them if we have to."

"Ok let's go." Isamu ordered.
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"The fools think they will win if they split up." Tonarc said to himself.

"What are your orders sir?" one of the demons asked.

"We split up and go after them." The demons looked at each other like they had just received a death sentence.

"But sir, wouldn't it be better if we all went at them one at a time." Tonarc pulled out his sword and with swift move he decapitated the demon.

"Does anyone else want to question my orders?" The others remained silent. "Good, now go after them!" They charged into the forest with fear in their hearts.
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They split into groups of 7 to find the warriors. One of the groups was going through an open area with few trees.

"Is he crazy?" one of the demons asked. "Just one of them could hold a small group off by themselves."

"Be quite," another demon said, "we don't want to make it anymore easier for them." They saw movement ahead; they silently ran to where they saw the movement. When they got there all they found was a white horse.

"Whe...where are they?"

"Search the area" they looked around and found no one.

"Why would they ditch their horse? They would be able to get out of here a lot quicker with it."

"Yeah, it's stra..." They looked at him wondering why he stopped; they were shocked to see he had been struck by an arrow and began to disintegrate.

"It's the priestess!" They looked around frantically to see where she was, and then another one got hit.

"She is up in the tree!" one of the remaining demons yelled, then 4 arrows rained down each taking out a demon. The last demon made a run for it; he was a good distance away before he got hit. Yumiko slowly climbed down from the tree.

"Well that was easier than I thought it would be." She said to herself as she reached the bottom. "I better go find the others." She was just about to get on her horse when she felt a heavy blow to the back of her head and everything went dark. She fell face down hard into the ground; she was picked up and something fell from her neck.
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Several bodies laid before him.

"Well that was a bit of a challenge." Isamu said to himself while trying to catch his breath. He heard the sound of footsteps from behind him. He quickly hid behind a tree ready to lung out and strike. Once he heard the footsteps were close he jumped out and he swung his sword which met the blade of an ax. "Ken'ichi, sorry I thought you were a demon.

"Like wise." He said. Ken'ichi looked behind Isamu seeing seven demon bodies lying on the ground. "I see you took care of your little pest problem too."

"Yeah." he said with a little laugh. "Have you seen the others?"

"No, I haven't."

"Then let's go find them."
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A distance away trees were falling down.

"Come on," Ryuu yelled, "Who wants a piece of me!?" He swung his sword and missed a demon cutting down another tree in the process. The remaining 3 demons were so afraid they didn't even want to get near him. "What's wrong, are you afraid of me, then you shouldn't have came after us." All of a sudden there was a blast of wind from behind him; he was able to hold his ground. Demons flew past him, slamming into trees. He looked behind himself and saw Mizuki.

"That's the second time you didn't give me any warning." He said with a laugh.

"Well I didn't have the time to give you any warning." She said with a smile.

"Watch out!" She turned around and saw a demon running towards her but he stopped and dropped to the ground dead. Then Kenshin came out from the shadows.

"Got to learn to watch your back a little more." He said.

"No need when you are around." She replied. The remaining demons looked like they were ready to run in fear.

"So the rumors are true," said a voice, and then a demon walked out from the shadows, "you are indeed very powerful.

"Who are you?" Ryuu asked.

"My name is Tonarc." They all looked at each other and all thought the something, this was the demon that Ken'ichi was looking for. "I see that you've heard of me. Now let's get down to business," he pointed at Mizuki, "surrender yourself and I'll let your friends leave here alive."

"And if I don't?"

"Well then," he snapped his fingers, someone was pulled into the clearing, they were shocked to see that it was Yumiko who was unconscious, "you get to watch her die." They just stood there wondering what to do. "Do you need a little more persuasion?" He pulled out his sword and walked over to Yumiko. "Hold out her arm."

"Alright, I'll go with you." He gave a twisted smile and put his sword away.

"Smart decision."

"Mizuki don't do this." Ryuu said.

"We don't have a choice." She slowly began to walk towards the group of demons, Ryuu tried to stop her but Kenshin held him back.

"Let me go Kenshin," he demanded, "we can't let this happen."

"And we won't let it happen," Kenshin replied, "but right now the odds are not in our favor. We live today, we fight tomorrow. We are no good to them dead." Mizuki reached the demon.

"Alright, now you promised to let my friends go." Tonarc just gave a dark laugh.

"I don't recall promising anything, kill them." Demons started jumping out from nowhere and where charging Ryuu and Kenshin.

"No!" Mizuki screamed. She was about to use her powers but Tonarc swung his arm around smacking her across the head knocking her unconscious. He picked her up and left with a small group of demons while the others continued to fight Ryuu and Kenshin.

I've done it, Tonarc thought to himself, I can now prove myself to Artered.

Updated: 08/08/08 4:50 PM 3 comments | Log in to comment! | Share this!

Feel free to tell me were my story needs improvement

Chapter One: The Five Warriors

The sun rose on a small village, the villagers were beginning to wake up. The men went to work in the fields, the women started to do their daily work and the children were out playing their games. Some of them saw a formation of people coming towards their village, then they realized that they were not people.

"Demons!" a woman screamed, the women ran to their children and grabbed them and ran back to their huts. The men rushed out of the fields and grabbed their weapons ready to defend their loved ones, but they were no match for the demons who struck them down. There was no battle, only a slaughter.

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On a nearby hill a man stood and watched the slaughter. Than a demon came to him.

"Lord Artered, we have killed many of the men and captured the rest. We've started rounding up the women we are ready to do your biding and execute them" he said.

"Very good Valgard." said Artered, "I will be there shortly." Valgard went back to the village to make sure all the women were being found and being brought to the center of the village. Women are to weak thought Artered and the weak don't deserve to live, that was the whole point too what he was doing, ridding the world of the weak so the strong could move on.

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At the edge of the village two demons look around to see if there were and more women hiding when they saw five people on horses heading towards them. "Looks like we have company" said one of the demons. "Yeah, no need to call the others we can take care of them by ourselves, suddenly one of the demons dropped dead. His comrade looked down at him and saw an axe embedded in his head, he look back towards the attackers and then everything went black.

"Nice shot Ken'ichi" said the leader of the group.

"Well Isamu they were in the way so I had to make them count." said Ken'ichi.

"Lets go everyone" said Isamu. They sneaked their way to the center of the village. They saw all the women surrounded by demons. Eric looked at one of the others.

"Kenshin your turn" Kenshin walk out into towards the demons.

"Who the hell are you" said one of the demons.

"It doesn't matter who I am, because you are all going to die pretty soon." said Kenshin, he pulled out his sword and with one swing he cut the demon's head off. Since he was a child he had been trained in the art of the samurai, over the years he had became a master swords men.

"All right Ken'ichi, Ryuu it's our turn" Ryuu was a half demon half human. He used a gigantic sword that belong to his demon father. "Mizuki you know what to do once we get started."

"Yes" she said. She sat down and closed her eyes and did not move from that very spot. Isamu pulled out his sword and walk towards the demons, Ken'ichi and Ryuu followed. The fight began with the demon charging the four warriors, but each one got struck down, the fight went on for hours the demons kept on charging them but got struck down each time

A storm had moved in with lightning going off at a distance. Mizuki had still not moved from the very spot she sat at. One of the demons found her and charge at her.

"You are mine!" he yelled, all of a sudden there was a flash of light and a loud boom, everyone went blind and deaf. A few minutes went by and everyone regained their vision and hearing. The demons look at where their comrade had been and were shock to fine only a smoking corpse.

"You bitch what did you do!" one of the demons yelled in anger. He charged Mizuki with blind rage and there was another flash of light and a boom. Another few minutes went by and the results were the same. The remaining demons realized that the woman was somehow controlling the lightning. They knew they were fighting a losing battle and retreated. The five warriors had saved their first village from the wrath of Artered.

Chapter Two: The Priestess

A quiet forest was disturbed by the sound of horses' hooves hitting the ground hard. A cloaked person on a white horse was running from 5 demons on black horses. The demons were armed with bows and arrows and were shooting the person they were chasing, so far they only came close to hitting them. One arrow grazed the very edge of the person's cloak around the neck, the cloak slipped of revealing beautiful women with long black hair and green eyes. The women was also armed with a bow and arrows, the moment the cloak fell off she grabbed an arrow put it on her bow turned around and fired, the arrow flew through the air and struck one of the demons dead center in the chest, the demon did not fall off his horse, instead he disintegrated. The other four stopped and were in shocked by what just happened.

"L-Lord Valgard" said one of the demons "She is a priestess!" Valgard quickly replaced his shock with anger.

"KILL HER!" he said. They continued their chase, then another one of the demons got hit by her and disintegrated, then other demon got hit. She quickly put other arrow on her bow and was just about to fire when a great pain rushed through her body when she fired she missed. She looked down at her right shoulder and saw a black arrow stuck into it. Her horse came to an abrupt stop and she fell off, but she didn't hit the ground she continued to fall. Her horse stopped when it came to the edge of a cliff, she fell for 50 feet before she fell into a raging river. Valgard was about to make sure the job was done he got off his horse and walked to the edge of the cliff but he stopped when he heard voices, he look down the trail and when he saw who was coming he got back on his horse and ran off.
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The five warriors were walking down a forest trail wondering what to do next.

"So where do you think they will hit next" Ken'ichi asked Isamu.

"I don't know" he said "Hey Ryuu are you sure we are on going right way."

"Yes, I can smell the scent of demons in this area." he said, than he stopped.

"What is it" Kenshin asked.

"I smell the scent of human blood" he said

"There's a horse up a head" Mizuki pointed out. They hurried to were the horse and saw it was at the edge of a cliff.

"There is some blood on this horse" Ryuu said, he wiped some of the blood of with his hand and sniffed it. "This is definitely human blood"

"There is someone down there!" screamed Mizuki, they all went to the edge off the cliff and saw someone against a rock that was keeping them from being swept away by the strong current. Isamu went to his horse and grabbed a rope; he tied one end around his waist and gave the other end to the others.

"When I tug on the rope three times pull us up." he said, he then ran and jumped off the edge and plunged into the river. He had to struggle against the strong current to get to the person, when he got there he saw the person was a women, she was unconscious and was wounded by a black arrow that was in her right shoulder, he grabbed her and tugged the rope three times.
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The other felt the rope tug three times they began to pull with all their might, when they got them half way up the rope snapped and Isamu and the women fell back into the river and were swept away. They all started to running after them.

"Oh no!" yelled Ryuu.

"What!?" asked Mizuki. He pointed ahead and Mizuki looked and it seemed as if the earth just ended ahead, than she realized it was a waterfall. "We have to hurry" she said.
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Isamu was struggling trying to stay afloat; he was having a hard time holding onto the women. He got a good look ahead and started to panic seeing that he was heading for a waterfall he was about to give up all hope when all of a sudden a wall of water rose up ahead of him.
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"I don't know how long I can hold it!" Mizuki struggled to say, she was the one that made the wall of water rise out of the river. The others threw the rope to Isamu and pulled him up.
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The priestess opened her eyes, everything was blurry, and when her eyes focused she saw people all around her. They gently pulled her up and broke the tip of the black arrow off and then pulled the arrow out of her shoulder, she yelled in pain then she passed out.

"We should set up camp here." Kenshin said, the others agreed and started to unpack their things.

Chapter Three: Painful Recovery

The sun fell and the moon rose. Ryuu had been trying to get a fire started for an hour. He got a small flame going; he then tried to make it bigger when all of a sudden the small flame grew into a fire. Ryuu jumped back in surprise.

"Why didn't you just ask me to help you?" Mizuki asked with a laugh, she just came from her tent where the woman they rescued was resting.

"Jeez Mizuki, give me a little warning next time, you almost burn my eyebrows off." he said, they all laughed than stopped when a worried look came across her face. She was holding the black arrow that had wounded the women. "What's wrong?"

"This is obliviously not an ordinary arrow" she said. "This is a demonic arrow; most people who get struck by them don't survive."

"So she might not make it?" Kenshin asked.

"Yes." she said. Ryuu sensed that it seemed to cause her pain to talk about it.

"Well that's just great." Ken'ichi said, "We did all that work for nothing."

"Don't say that" Isamu said, "She still might make it."

"Sadly it is unlikely she will." Ryuu said. Mizuki headed back to her tent to watch over the women. She knew all too well the pain she was going to go through.
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She woke up from an intense pain. She grabbed her shoulder where the pain was coming from and spreading through her body. She could hardly keep her eyes open. She looked around, she could tell she was in a tent, there was a small lantern was hanging in the center of the tent. Then a woman walked into the tent. She had long blond hair and blue eyes.

Mizuki saw that the woman was in extreme pain. She went to a bucket of water, she grabbed a cup and filled it with water and walked back to her. She helped her sit up and put the cup in front of her. She hesitated at first but accepted the offer. After she drank the water she laid back down and fell asleep. It pained Mizuki to have to watch her go through so much pain, she had to do the exact same thing when she was a child, but she vowed to herself that she wasn't going to let her die.
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It was Isamu turn to feed the horses. When he got to the women's horse, he got curious and looked at her stuff. He found a bow, a bundle of arrows, and a bag filled with small glass jars. He looked at them and realized that whatever was in these jars could help save the women. He grabbed her stuff and went to Mizuki's tent.
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Mizuki was still at the woman's side. She had awoken several times in pain for the past hour. She started to breathe very heavily. Then Isamu walked in.

"What's up?" Mizuki asked.

"I think I found something that might help her." he said. He laid down a bag and opened it. "I think these are remedies." He pulled out a few small jars, some were filled with some type of powder, and others were filled with some type of liquid.

She woke up once again in pain. She saw that someone else was now in the tent, a man with short black hair and blue eyes.

"Are these remedies?" Mizuki asked

"Yes" she said painfully.

"Can any of them help you?" She extended out her had to Mizuki, Mizuki quickly helped her to sit up. She began to dig through her bag and pulled out a jar containing a green powder. Then she told them what to do.

"Get a cup of water and mix this powder into it." she struggled to say. Then she collapsed back into the bed, the pain was beginning to consume her body. Isamu grabbed a cup and filled it with water. He gave the cup to Mizuki who mixed the powder in. She sat the women up and poured the water into her mouth. A few minutes went by and she started to breathe more calmly.

"I think she is going to make it." Isamu said.

"So do I." she said with relieve.

Chapter Four: Evil Ambitions

A dark palace rested on a hill, in the throne room Artered was yelling at Valgard.

"You've failed me again Valgard." Artered said. "First at the village now at simple killing a woman."

"My Lord she..."

"SILENCE, first you and you men failed to execute the women in the village because of four men and a WOMEN, than you tell me you lost four of your men to a women, than you failed to make sure she was dead..."

"My Lord I shot her with a demotic arrow, it is highly unlikely that she..."

"Don't interrupt me!" he yelled. "You failed to make sure she was dead, why, because you saw those five warriors and ran for it. You know what this mean if they saved her."

"Yes my Lord." This met all of their plans were ruined if all six of them were together.

"You are my strongest warrior why didn't you just fight them?"

"These warriors are very strong I couldn't take on all five of them at once."

"Sounds like you're getting weak Valgard." said a voice from the darkness. Then a demon walked into the light.

"Tonarc." Valgard said. "This doesn't concern you."

"My Lord may I speak." Tonarc asked.

"I said this doesn't concern you, get out."

"Silence Valgard, speak Tonarc."

"My Lord, I can finish these six off easily."

"If my strongest warrior couldn't deal with them, what makes you think you can?"

"Give me a chance to prove myself and you will not be disappointed." Artered considered this for a moment.

"Valgard"

"Yes my Lord."

"You have one chance, one chance to finish them off. If you fail again you will not only be answering to me, but to Tonarc also." Anger flowed though Valgard but he did not show it.

"Very well my Lord." He left the room and walked down the hallway. Once he was a good distance away he let out his anger and punched his whole arm through the wall. "Tonarc is going to pay for embarrassing me." he said to himself. Then someone walked up to him.

"My Lord?" Valgard looked at him; it was his second in command.

"Karon, gather up twenty of our men."

"It will be down my Lord." he said.
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Things were getting worse Artered thought. First five warriors showed up and stopped his slaughter of a village. Now this priestess could be with them.

"If the prophecy is fulfilled," he said to himself. "Then all of his plans could be ruined. He had found a stone tablet with ancient writing on it; he had found it not long after he started his campaign. So far he had only deciphered only part of it. It stated of six warriors that would rise up against a great evil. He figured the rest of it was just more bad news. His only hope if this prophecy came true would be the Blood Moon.

Chapter Five: Last Chance

Isamu awoke with the rising sun. He got up and walk out of his tent, Kenshin, Ryuu, and Ken'ichi were already up and cooking breakfast.

"I take it Mizuki hasn't gotten up yet." He said.

"No, I already checked on her." Ryuu said, "She's out cold, obviously she was up all night taking care of the woman." Isamu walked up to her tent.

"Mizuki." He called out; there was no answer so he walked in. The woman was sound asleep and Mizuki was also out, she was sitting up against the edge of the tent. She had passed out while watching over her. He grabbed a blanket and covered her up.

"Who's there?" he heard the woman ask. He turned around and saw that she was wide awake "Oh, it's you."

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"I'm doing fine." She answered. "So you are the one who jumped into the river, you and your friends saved me, Isamu."

"How did you know...?"

"Mizuki told me everything about you guys." She struggled to sit up; Eric went to her side and helped her up.

"Are you still in pain?"

"Just a bit, I've still haven't regained my strength."

"So what's your name?"

"It's Yumiko."
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"You better tell them it's time to eat." Kenshin said to Ryuu. He got up and walked to Mizuki's tent He stopped a few feet from the tent. The scent of demons had just risen in the area. He looked down the trail and saw a lot of demons heading towards them.

"Shit, we've got company." He yelled. He ran to his tent to get his sword, when he got back the others were already out and ready to fight, except for Mizuki, she looked like she was ready to collapse from exhaustion. The demons reached them and one of them spoke.

"So I see you are all ready to die." He said. Ryuu looked at the demon and a great amount of anger swept through his body.

"You...you bastard, I'll make you pay for what you've done to me." Valgard looked at him with a confused look on his face.

"Do I know you?" he asked.

"Take a good look at my sword that should spark some memories." Valgard looked at the sword; it indeed brought back some memories. He took off his chest armor revealing a large scar on his chest.

"Yes it does bring back some painful memories. Like the foolish demon who defended a village and got killed for it. Was he close to you?"

"He was my father you bastard!" Ryuu charged him, cutting down 3 demons along the way. When he reached Valgard he swung his sword at him, but Valgard brought up his hand and grabbed the blade and kicked him in the gut sending him flying back towards the others.

"If your father could not beat me what makes you think you can half-breed." Ryuu slowly got up.

"I'll make you pay, I swear to the gods I will." Valgard gave an evil laugh.

"Let's see you make me pay when you are all dead. KILL them all." He ordered his warriors. There were five demons each on Isamu, Ryuu, and Kenshin, Ken'ichi, Mizuki ended up having seven coming after her. She looked around and saw that the guys had already started a fire. She concentrated as hard as she could on the fire, but she was so tried that she only made it flicker. She knew she would not be able to get the water from the river being too far away and there was no storm for her to bring down lightning. That left only one more power she had.

All of a sudden the demons were hit by a tremendous wind. Five of the demons were able to say on the ground, but the other 2 were sent flying over the cliff and the plunged into the raging river below. The remaining five began to charge her. She sent another blast of wind at them, this time three of them were thrown back over the cliff. She sent another blast of wind getting one more, than she collapsed to her knees. Ryuu saw Mizuki fall to the ground. He tried to get to her but the demons were in his way.

"Get the hell out of my way!" He yelled. He cut the demons down and ran towards Mizuki. All of a sudden he was punched in the side of the head and sent flying in the other direction. He got up and saw that it was Valgard who had punched him. "You son of a bitch!"

He charged him and swung his sword at him, but Valgard just grabbed the blade and knocked him down. Ryuu stated to get up, but Valgard stuck his sword into Matt's shoulder nailing him to the ground. He looked around and saw the others had been subdued to. Valgard then stepped on his head and forced him to look at Mizuki.

"Before we kill you all, you get to see the woman die first." The demon standing over Mizuki brought up his sword. Mizuki closed her eyes waiting for the pain of death to come, but all she heard was a thud. She opened her eyes and saw the sword on the ground. She looked up and saw the demon had been struck by an arrow and was beginning to disintegrate. She turned around to see who had saved her, it was Yumiko.

"You're a priestess." She said with the last ounce of her strength, and then she passed out.

"You're still alive?" Valgard said with a surprised look on his face.

"Yes I am." She answered. "If it wasn't for these five I would surely be dead." Valgard was so shocked he couldn't move, than he finally snapped out of it.

"Forget the rest, kill her." He ordered his remaining demons. She was so quick that Valgard could hardly keep up with her. She was firing arrows (sometimes more than one at a time), each one hitting its target. Now the only ones left were Valgard and Karon. Yumiko already had an arrow on her bow and pointed at him.

"I will give you one chance to get out of here." Valgard had to consider this, not only was he outnumbered beyond the point he could fight them, but the fact if she let go of the arrow he would be dead.

"Karon lets go." He said. Once they were out of sight Yumiko dropped to her knees. Her bluff had worked; she still had not fully regained her strength. Even if she had hit him the arrow wouldn't have any effect. The guys ran up to the girls to see if they were all right. They had survived another battle.

Chapter 6: Their Journey Begins

(sorry for the late description of the characters, wasn't thinking to hard when I started this)

The warriors had gotten their stuff packed up and were heading out of the forest.

"So your name is Yumiko, my name is Kenshin." She looked at him and saw that he had brown hair and green eyes.

"I'm Ken'ichi." She saw that he had brown hair and blue eyes.

"My name is Ryuu." He had white hair and blue eyes.

"It's good to finally meet you guy under better circumstances." She said.

"Yes the past few days have been a living hell." Isamu said.

"So you guys fight off demons."

"Yeah we've been doing this for years." Mizuki said.

"Are you interested in joining us?" Kenshin asked.

"No."

"Why not?" Mizuki asked.

"Because I'm trying to avoid fighting as much as possible."

"Well we won't force you, but please think about it, it would be good to have someone like you with us." Isamu said.

"I'll do that." She said. "So how did you all get to where you are now?"

"Well what started me on my journey was when I was training with my master." Ken'ichi said. "One day when we were training, a few demons showed up lead by someone named Tonarc. My master told me to hide and then he fought the demons. He killed all but Tonarc, he fought his hardest against him but in the end it wasn't enough. I've been on the hunt for him ever since."

"How about you Kenshin." Yumiko asked.

"It all started at the samurai school I was trained in, along with several other students. One of the students was very strange. He was always asking the teachers questions."

"That's strange?" She asked.

"Well the teachers didn't really want us to ask questions, but what's strange is not that he asked them questions, but he somehow convinced them to give him the answers. One night he disappeared and by morning when the rest of us woke up we found all the teachers dead."

"You mean he alone killed all the teachers, he must have killed them in their sleep." She said.

"No their bodies were found in the same area and they all had their swords next to them, except for the head teacher, his sword was taken. After we buried the teachers, all of the students left. I never found out what happened to the traitor, until now that is."

"What do you mean?" Isamu asked.

"The traitor, his name was Karon." They looked at him in shock.

"How could he infiltrate your school if he was a demon?" Ken'ichi asked.

"He obviously disguised himself to look human. So that's my story."

"Well I guess it is my turn." Mizuki said. "It all started when I was 12. Both my parents had been struck by a demonic arrow; I don't remember who attacked them. I tried to help them." Tears started to flow down her face "I stayed at their side for 2 days, and then they died."

"Is that why you were so devoted to saving me?" Yumiko asked.

"Yes. Something happened to me that day. As I was morning my tears began to float in midair. At first I was scared, I didn't know what was going on. Over the years I started to understand my power. It took a while but I was able to control it. That's my story."

"Well I guess I'll go next." Ryuu said. "It all started when I was 10, the village I lived in was under the protection of my father He was a demon, all though he looked more human then demon. He had protected the village from countless attacks"

"He fell in love with a human woman in the village; I was born not long after. I spent a lot of time with him. I was too young for him to teach me anything so I just hung around him."

"Then one day a demon army attacked. While the rest of us hid my father and a group of men fought many of them off. Then he started to fight a demon who match him blow for blow. Eventually my father hit him across the chest, but it left him wide open to get hit, the demon killed him." He paused for a second. "Then the slaughter began." They started to kill everyone. My mother hid me in a closet; a demon walked in and killed her. My blood felt like it was on fire; I jumped out and killed the demon."

"Eventually the demons left and I was able to go out into the open. I went to my father's body; I couldn't believe he had been killed. I vowed I would get revenge for my village. I buried everyone, then took my father's sword and left. That's my story."

"What about you Isamu?" Yumiko asked.

"Well I was a guard for a temple of Izanagi and Izanami. It was my duty to make sure the temple stayed safe. I had dealt with manly thieves that occasionally came and try to steal any treasures they could find."

"One day a group of demons attacked the temple. The other guards and I tried to fight them as best as we could, but in the end it wasn't enough. They started picking us off one by one. One of them ended up smashing me through a wall. I guess they thought I was dead because no one came to finish me off."

"I felt like I was out but I was still aware of what was going on around me. I noticed the demons were preparing to burn the place down. Then another demon walked in he must have been their leader because the others all bowed down to him, they called him Artered. He ordered for the temple to be burned down to the ground."

"While the place was on fire I finally regain consciousness. I was have a rough time getting through the inferno, but I eventually mad it outside. From that that day forward I've been looking for him to gain revenge." They were silent for a while; the silence was broken by Mizuki.

"So what about you Yumiko, how did you get started?" She asked.

"It all started when I was a little girl." She said. "I was chosen to be taken to a school. I was taken from my family. My parents assured me I would be ok, that I would learn very good things. For a long time I was angry with them for letting the teachers of the school take me, but I eventually learned that they were right, I was learning many things that would help people, from learning how to make remedies, to fighting demons, but it all ended when the school came under attack."

"A large army of demons attacked the school. None of us students had a chance against them. They came after us like hawks to mice. Our teachers tried to fend them off, but they just got cut down."

"One of the teachers grabbed me and pulled me into one of the buildings. He pulled the rug from the floor revealing a trap door. He told me to go down into the tunnel, I said no, I wanted to help, but he grabbed me and pushed me down into the tunnel, he closed the door behind me and locked it. I heard the door to the building smash open and a fight broke out and then there was silence. One of the demons told another to go to their leader and tell them everyone was dead." She stopped for a second and looked at Isamu. "His name was also Artred."

"So we both have something in common" she only nodded.

"That was a month ago, I have been on the run ever since." They went on in silence. They came to a fork in the road.

"Well I guess this is where we go our separate ways." Isamu said

"I've changed my mind; I'm coming with you guys. I've ran far enough, it's time for me to make a stand" Yumiko said.

"Then let's get going." Isamu said.

Continue to chapter 7

Updated: 08/08/08 4:48 PM 5 comments | Log in to comment! | Share this!