Soldiers of Light, ch. 1 "Flickering Light"
 

The twisted steel gates were flung open with an ungraceful force, bashing into the dark stone walls that supported them. The corpse of a large dog demon, its dementia-forged armor shattered and its own demonic blade thrust through its chest, was tossed in. Its body was already beginning to rot due to the parasites that had inhabited the body while still in life. The worms in its heart were burrowing out and wriggling around the sword thrust into their resting place.

Several yards away, sitting on a grand throne made of the darkest obsidian, sat the Demon King Talkatz. A retinue of Darkness Kami floated about his throne, casting away any stray beams of sunlight attempting to pierce his curtain of shadow and reveal the full form of the noble demon's body. Talkatz's crimson eyes flicked down quickly as one of his greatest warriors was tossed so callously onto the floor in front of him. His eyes went back up as another figure entered the room.

The figure was a very large samurai. A giant of a man, he wore traditional samurai armor, with the Genkai family symbol emblazoned on the ridge of his lamellar. Long black hair jutted out from the open-faced helm he wore, and the katana he held glowed with a soft light. The blade had symbols carved into the metal to almost the tip, and all seven were filled with a different colored brilliance of the rainbow's spectrum. He walked forward, absentmindedly stepping on the dead dog demon. Crunching sounds were heard as the brittle bones broke and thick black blood squirted out from the sword wounds, the maggots angrily squirming as they shot out with the blood. The samurai waved his arms about, and began to speak in a tone of mock respect. The warrior was a bit tipsy, and if one was close enough, they could smell the strong tinge of alcohol on his breath.

"Talkatz. Oh King of the Demons. The Almighty Lord of the Tainted, Keeper of the Corrupt, and Watcher of the Depraved. My name is Genkai Tama. I feel honored for the invitation to your lair. Sadly, there was an unruly group outside. I handled them, of course."

The demon king looked at Tama, his face the picture of mixed contempt and utter boredom.

"Never before has a mortal dared to march into my grand halls and disrespect me. You may have defeated the filth I sent out as a routing measure, but you'll find that I'm a bit harder to kill."

The demon king grasped a large pike of malfean steel, a weapon twice the size of any mortal man. With a groaning of stone the obsidian rose up slightly as the colossal demon king stood up to face the mortal.

"I will consume your soul, and it will swim in the darkness for all eternity."

Tama smiled.

"I have no intention of dying today. I swore an oath that I would destroy you. To a demon you might know quite well. And with the Raigaki, I will make good my promise!"

The sword in Tama's hand glowed brightly, filling the room with brilliant light, and Tama lunged forward.



Two hours later, Genkai Tama limped from the grand hall, and into the open air. It felt better now. The area felt...clean. It no longer held the feeling of pain and despair. However, the view and the feeling were two completely different things. What laid before Tama was the remains of a battlefield. Scores of demons laid dead on the ground. Tama and his followers had been efficient and ruthless. No demon that faced them had survived. Sadly, the same was to be said about the followers. Tama manuevered through the battlefield, weaving between the dead bodies, until he found his followers. His comrades. His friends. They had died so that Tama could get inside. But he had failed.

Always the trickster, Talkatz had separated his soul from his body before Tama could strike him down, leaving nothing but a husk so tainted that not even the flies could land on it.

"I'm sorry." Tama whispered under his breath.

After burying his friends in a small collective grave, and leaving a tombstone that he swore he would improve upon later, he made his way home. The Demon Lord would never accept any form of defeat. Talkatz would return eventually. He had to make preparations.

*1000 years later*

Genkai Kurama, a five year-old boy, sat on the porch of his house, tossing a small cloth ball into the air. Each time he tossed it up, he easily caught it in his tiny hands again. On one of the tosses, he missed, and it rolled under some bushes. He got up from his seat and hurriedly scrambled to find his toy. When he reached the bushes, a silvery arm reached out to him, his ball in the palm of the hand. Kurama reached out and took his ball, and looked at the owner of the arm. It was a rather old man, very large, and silvery all over. The man smiled down at him.

"Hello there. What is your name, young one?"

"Genkai Kurama, sir."

"Hmm. Kurama. A strong name. A good name. Tell me, young one. Do you like toys?"

"Yes sir, I do."

"Would you like to have an old toy of mine? My back isn't what it used to be, and I don't have any use for it anymore."

Kurama nodded furiously. Toys were hard to come by where he lived. His father frowned upon anything so frivolous as playing, and would always take away anything that might give his son some form of enjoyment. Kurama took the old man's outreached hand, and followed him into the woods. After about a half hour of walking down roads that Kurama never knew existed, they came upon a box-shaped rock. The old man turned to the little boy beside him.

"All you need to do is place your hand on the rock, and you'll get the toy."

Kurama nodded, and placed his palm upon the rock. A large fissure appeared in the stone, and light seeped out. The rock fell apart, revealing an old piece of rusted metal attached to a moldy and rotten piece of wood. Kurama turned questioningly to the old man.

"Pick it up."

Kurama carefully picked up the old piece of broken materials, and suddenly the blade glowed a bright light, temporarily blinding the young boy. When he regained his vision, he saw that the junky iron he had been holding now turned into one of the most beautiful swords he had ever seen in his life. He turned to thank the old man, but the man was now gone. Kurama shrugged it off as most young boys would, and ran home with his new treasure. When he arrived home, he showed it to his grandfather.

That was the last day of Kurama's childhood.

************************************************** **

~18 years later~

Kurama's eyes thrust open in a start, his body covered in sweat. He was in on his floor mat, his blanket tossed off in the excitement.

It was just another dream. A nightmare. He'd been having them a lot more frequently.

It was always the same. He was standing alone on a large rock. The Raigaki had been in his hand. His left arm had been torn off. And a giant demon, a creature so large that it blotted out the sky, was about to devour him whole.

His breath rushed from his lungs in one quick breath. It had taken him a few moments to realizing that he wasn't breathing.

"Can't expect a guy to keep sleeping like this..."

Jade opened her eyes from her spot next to Kurama. Every few nights, almost like clockwork, Kurama would have a nightmare and wake up in a cold sweat. He told her what the nightmare was about long ago, but for all her reassuring it still happened. All she could do is what she always did: turn over and hold him until he went back to sleep, rubbing his back as his breathing evened out. This night was no different, as his gasp woke her up. She quietly soothed him as he took gulps of air. "We have to do something about this. You know that it won't come to pass now that there are more of us fighting."

Kurama let out a deep breath. "I know...that doesn't make bad dreams go away." He rubbed his eyes, looking over to the side of the bed where his Raigaki was resting. The katana glowed dimly, the red, orange, and yellow sigils glimmering on the blade.

Shimokaze Koyuki lay still, legs crossed, head bowed, in a silent reviere. Then Angetsu Shouten, within it's saya lie in front of her, blade pointed away, tsuba to her right, in a traditional gesture of respect. Her breathing was rhythmic and deep, a relaxed feeling that she did not often possess. It was after something like this, having slain the priestess of a mountaintop shrine, that she could feel truly at peace.

Mh, the Kami's hatred of the Shimokaze line was tempered with their respect. One did not idly curse those that would casually kill the shugenja paying you your due respects out of spite. Still, the palpable air of unease ran throughout the bloodied walls.

"M'lady!" One of her mortal followers, a Maho-Tsukai, called, prostrating himself in a deep, humble bow.

"Did you find it?" Koyuki replied, with an air of indifference. She hadn't expected to be relaxed for long, after all.

"Yes, m'lady. The rumors of the Raigaki are true... It is held by... Genkai Kurama." The man chittered apprenhensively, going over the scroll once more to be sure that he had the correct man.

"Genkai Kurama, hm?" Koyuki's lips curled into a wry smile, "So it is."

Suzume, demon hunter that he was, was glad to actually find business for once. He had been in this town for nearly a week, and nothing seemed to show up until just now. Maybe it was just a fluke, but what the hell, business was business. And a fight was a fight.

"C'mon out, ya bastard, I know you're out here!" Suzume yelled, his voice piercing the quiet night air. Whatever kind of demon this was, it was a sneaky one. Those were always annoying. "Geez, I knew this was a waste of my ti--"

Predictably, the demon hunter was tackled to the ground, and he could feel something jump off of his back. Probably a cat demon, in that case...

"Oh no ya don't you sonuva..." Suzume muttered, extending his hand toward the shadow running quickly away.

Not soon after, a bright blue flash, almost like a line in the darkness, flew between the demon hunter's hand and the cat demon. The demon was quickly ripped apart by the energy of the blast, ending Suzume's job quickly, and the beam... kept going.

A large explosion rocked the town, the bright blue flame being like a beacon saying, "Look over here," and the boom waking those not already awake from their peaceful slumber.

Suzume, in the meantime, was standing about thirty feet away, completely dumbstruck, as his target's soul lazily drifted over to his body. He could only think of one thing to say.

"Ah, shit..."


OOC: No better way to get the team going than an explosion! Just to note, he didn't hit anything major, so nobody's dead or anything. Although I'll leave that up to Raiden. I guess.

As Suzume was stuck in his regret, a very hard, very metallic hand crashed into the back of his head.

"You moron!"

Once Suzume had turned around, there stood Tayuumi, her inky-steel clad body merely an outline in the darkness of night, only visible through the far-off blue fire's flickering light. She was a little shorter than him, but nonetheless menacing with her soul-cutting scowl that broke through her wind-torn, blonde tresses.

With an authoritative stare, with authority she couldn't be sure she had, she yelled again, "What the hell is wrong with you!?"


OOC: Go Go Gadget Character Precedent!

With a shake of his head, Atasu cleared the rubble of the collapsed barn from his horns. The explosion came out of nowhere, but no other attacks followed. He sifted through the rubble, finally hefting a large barrel over his shoulder, and grasping a iron shod club the size of a small tree.

With ponderous steps, he crossed the street, heading for the alley and a safter place to sleep.

ooc: Yooze broked mah barn!!

Before the explosion that woke holy hell, a lone albeit heavy set figure sat atop the roof of the Yamada Inn. Clutching his katana in one hand and his sake bottle in the other he drank quietly as he reflected upon his newfound life.

The many days and nights he'd spent in the company of Genkai Kurama were not like he'd expected. Firstly, he had not been turned away due to his demonic heritage, far from it, he was one of many demonic creatures fighting alongside the Kurama. Secondly he expected the man to be as big a louse and a drunk as his ancestor Tama, Kurama drank yes, but a drunk, far from it. Even further he seemed to be on his way to marriage, though for now he lived in sin. Which was despicable in its own right. Each and every night Kurama and the fem-ninja Jade wandered off to their own room. Not that such activity was foreign to a brewmaster of Toji's level, far from it, he had only taken the moral high ground because of his jealousy. Jade was quite the catch, beautiful, smart, deadly, flexible. The last trait was of course the most enticing.

His dreams of a scantily clad ninja however were interrupted by a scuffle below, "Ah-cha," Toji sighed sadly. It was that damned 'demon hunter' again, he'd been getting closer and closer to their 'base of operations ever since they'd arrived. Toji knew the man was obviously a loon (though Toji had never met him to make such a judgment) and he spent his days wandering in the search of a demon, any demon, even a harmless cat demon. Toji and company (as he liked to refer to the group) had no need to fight such a small fry. "Leave him the weaklings says I." Toji took a drink to solidify the agreement between himself and the loony demon hunter. Further, Toji assumed it to be a case of luck in the man's favor to find a demon at all, that was until his hand burst into a bright light and stuff exploded. [COLOR=SeaGreen"]"Ah-cha!"[/COLOR] Toji took a moment to reflect before moving on, reflect of course meant; to drink heavily.

It was a good thing he had too, Tayuumi had arrived first. In the few painful days Toji had known Tayuumi, he had learned two things. One being that no matter what faced them, Tayuumi was there to face it first. This was of course akin to pouring sake onto a fire. Toji had learned to live with this however, as he thrived in such a scenario. He threw his arm over Suzume's shoulder with a hearty laugh, "Ah-cha buddy, you were right! You are pretty strong, but next time avoid our... oop, Sorry Atasu!" Toji only had a moment to ponder the strange scent of the man. He smelled of both demon and man, but not like how Toji or any other half-breeds did. The smells were separate, distinct. Toji had misjudged the stranger, he would have to be careful to judge such men from now on.

The final part words of his speech had been key, his wave and voice was so enthusiastic Tayuumi had no choice but to look. As she checked into what further damage the 'moron' had caused Toji threw out a quick wink to Suzume, who appeared no better off from it. "Like I was saying buddy, you can join up with out group under Genkai Kurama and aid us in our hunt of the most powerful demon of all. The Demon Lord Talkatz. All you gotta do is keep blasting things like that, am I right?!" There was absolutely no chance a demon hunter of any caliber would give up the chance to face Talkatz, Toji knew that much about demon hunters. Now with his new ally on board, Toji only had one problem left to face.

He turned to Tayuumi, then eyed her with the suspicious look every drunk gives someone they've seen before. "OH, hey.... chaa... Ta.... Tayuumi! Hey, hows it going baby?" Toji then confidently pushed Suzume aside and ran his fingers through his long and tangled hair, his fingers got stuck towards the back but he made it look natural. "So... uh, how bout sex tonight?" The second thing he had learned was provocative words blinded Tayuumi to everyone but the offending party, it was this act that might save Suzume to aid them in the fight against Talkatz.

Besides he'd offered it all of the nights prior and it seemed only right to continue the tradition. He decided to reflect some more while awaiting her response.

Uncharacteristically, Tayuumi didn't seem angry with Toji's ritualistically horrible pick-up lines, not at first. No, she just covered her face in her striking-palm and heaved a sigh, heavy and tired, obviously tired of Toji. With a sweep of her hair, her glare rested on the reflecting Toji, the kind of lightning glare that pierces the spine of any man woman or child.

"Toji," one word in and her voice seemed to soak in fury, "I will never make this more clear than I am right now. I will never, ever, ever,"

--she halted her speech for the faintest moment, just long enough to let the emphasis of her last two words to sink--

"sleep with you, kiss you, hold you, enjoy your presence, or touch you in any way that isn't a violent proclamation of all that I'm saying right now, because, and let me make sure this is absolutely, completely and perfectly crystal clear to you,"

--she stepped up to him and took a fine hold to the clothing on his chest, grasping it and twisting it in her hand to wrench him closer in a moment of lavish anger, showing distinctly with a single claw that sliced through the air, forming out of nothingness from her armor towards his throat, and uncomfortability, as seen by her furled nose at the horrid stench of Sake--

"I will not and under no circumstance, if even if by some ridiculous chance it were the only possible way to kill Talkatz forever, will I enjoy and or suffer a morning night or noon of your horrid, Sake-ridden, dirty-mouthed, idiocy laden presence in any intimate sense as a lover or a friend, and it is only begrudgingly, for some long lost reason, that I consider you a cohort because of Kurama's wishes." and with those final decisive words, she removed the unwanted closeness with a thunderingly strong kick, more of a push, to send Toji away.

"And you!" she pointed towards Suzume, "Quit it with those horridly loud and bright explosions!"


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OOC: A little character control in that I just kind of stood Toji there, but it seems to work finely. >>

Hirasaka Tsubasa was sitting on her legs, her eyes closed and head slightly down as she skillfully and rapidly sewed together a kimono from tainted spider demon silk. When she performed a special ritual, Tsubasa could bind a lost soul to the cursed kimono, a body would become manifest to give the soul form in the physical realm. The body would have its weapon of choice to use and would wear the kimono as its link to the material plane.

She did not deviate from her activity when Shimokaze Koyuki-san's servant came to call. Tsubasa knew what it had to be about. Truth be told, she could find the sword herself now that it had a new master, but going after it on her own would be reckless and stupid. Even though her bottled emotions were screaming at her, the young demon waited patiently for the order to move out.