It had been several years since Kurogane had finished his training to slay the beasts that crossed over to wreak havoc among the humans. Slayers was the official title. Spectral Hunter was more appropriate, as it was things like ghosts, spirits who could not be pacified in their living life had died and remained an echo left in the world. Some were pleasant, some tormented, some were nice enough as long as they were left to their ways, and some were vicious twisted things. Some wanted attention so caused trouble to be noticed.

And that was just ghosts. Demons of all shapes and sizes, although the demons caused more trouble than the most poltergeist ghosts. Demons had more power, in general, than a poltergeist. And unlike a poltergeist or other common ghost, most demons weren't fixed. That meant they could go where and as they pleased. However the crueler sides of man himself was one of demons greatest threats and so it didn't take much for a subliminal hidden war between the two sides to brew in general.

Kurogane however didn't care if they were demon ghost or inbetween. If it posed a risk to the good honest people he would do his darndest to protect then he would strike his foe down regardless of their heritage.

He was pretty good at it, what with his blessed silver sword Ginryuu at his side. He was pretty content and self satisfied with his lot so long as he took care of the things that came after the regular people.

The regular people who couldn't necessarily see what ailed them and even if they could, could usually do little to save their own skins. Some were ignorant but meant well. And the reason why demons and humans had issues had a lot to do with arrogance and the self entitlement 'everything should be mine; no one should have more happiness than me' of enough humans. So Slayers, people like himself, were trained to kill any ill willed creature. Many became an I'll willed creature in the process. However one day changed things for Kurogane. There had been a small skirmish just outside Yuko Shopping District, where the big advertisement is "The Barter System at its finest." An alert had been put out that a Demon had crossed over, causing some panic, however … reports showed no casualties and no loss of structure.

Structure was very important. Brand new buildings usually had poor structure and could withstand a few minor ill willed being and not crumble under the weight of negativity. Although one of the illest was really the the will of humans who forced a pacifist spirit to be hurt because of their own selfishness. No better than the settlers that tormented the Natives, enslaved coerced or even killed them for their own gain, claiming the lands as their own even though they were already occupied.

In this case, Kurogane usually came upon demons causing destructive practices and so without really getting to the bottom of things - he didn't have the patience of his friend Tomoyo for that kind of thing - he took out the problem with his sword. Yet this particular day, he discovered at the shopping districts a human-like creature wandering about. The creature had a bipedal human form, with nubbed fingers and one missing eye, the socket raw looking. Behind his back the real truth about his form was that he had a split tail, and feline ears instead of human ears. There were other minor details mixing the humanish creature with that of a cat spirit. From his studies, Kurogane knew the creature was a Summoning Cat. However, this one … with its nubbed fingers - a sign that it had been declawed in its prior cat self life, a painful things for any cat, hardly looked menacing.

It wore a bright happy look on its face, as it meandered about, looking at things curiously. Kurogane knew that as a slayer, that he was technically supposed to kill it… but the thing looked so harmless, that he hesitated to slay it… it's not like it was hurting anyone being about. And that was the real reason behind Slayers' duties - taking care of destructive ones not peaceful ones.

The creature approached him without reserve. Kurogane withdrew his sword and held it level, not striking yet but warning the thing he wasn't afraid to do so. Instead of shrinking away or growing hesitant, the thing still came. Either it didn't have fear of him or …

The Summoning Cat halted at the tip of Ginryuu, looking at it curiously before gently rubbing into its side. Kurogane blinked, startled by the behaviour - very unusual - before he straightened himself out and pressed the blade to its neck. It looked at Kurogane and smiled at him, bright and wide, before Kurogane would strike him, he quickly leeched himself to the human, pressing close and rubbing up affectionately against him, making feline purring noises at him. The Summoning Cat apparently did not possess human speech; even so Kurogane jerked backwards and away from, pushing some distance between them, and because the Summoning Cat had no claws, no rest of the fingers, that wasn't very difficult, and he kept the thing a little more than arm's length away.

"You. Thing! Don't do that!" Kurogane's brain was not processing things all the way because this Summoning Cat was being very out of the ordinary from what he so frequently experienced with demonic beasts.

"Myyaaaa~" he meowed at Kurogane and kept trying to attach himself to the other but Kurogane was dodging the efforts of the other. It was then that Tomoyo had to come by, and giggle at the scene of Ginryuu being swung out uselessly as Kurogane kept pushing away the efforts of the feline never actually hitting it but not wanting it to leech to him again. And he kept telling it to shoo. Tomoyo giggled at the scene before walking over.

"My Kurogane…" she said with a smile, "Seems you have an admirer."

"Tomoyo…" Kurogane turned to look in her direction, which was enough distraction that the feline human bypassed his defenses, and leeched himself to Kurogane, wrapping his arms around the other.

"Hey get off," Kurogane growled at it and received a Myyaaa - telling him that the creature had no intention of doing so, and a tittering giggle from his friend.

Kurogane let out a sigh. So much for easy mission.