Shun

I chased the creature down the alley of Wardington. It was well past midnight, and most of the sane people in the city were sound asleep, so I had no reason to be fearful of being seen by their eyes. Above me, the monster leaped from rooftop to rooftop with blinding speed.

This one was faster than I had expected, but I wasn't going to lose it. I had spent months hunting for this one in particular, and now I had him in my sights. It glanced down at me with its black, soulless eyes and smirked with that crooked mouth of his. He was certainly confident that I wouldn't catch him, but I was hell-bent on ending this monstrosities life.

He came to a screeching halt, jumped down to the alley below, and faced me. The monster wore its disguise; a human being. It was how he, along with those like him, blended in with the city. People would freak-out if they saw what he really was. If they saw what any of us really were.

He growled and said in a rumbling voice, "Don't you have something better to do than chase after the like of me? It would save me, and you, a lot of problems." Its voice dripped with poison and acid that made my skin crawl and stomach turn just to think about it.

I focused my energy and forced a sword to materialize in my hand. I raised the end of it up and pointed it at the creature. "Time doesn't concern me anymore. All that does, is that I see you dead where you stand," I told him coldly. His black eyes showed a spark of amusement.

His laughed boomed against the building walls. "You seriously think you can kill me, Akuma? One of your own kind?" I narrowed my eyes and snapped at him, "I'm nowhere near what you are." He laughed again, only spiking my anger inside. How dare he compare myself to him?

He stopped laughing and stared intensely at me. "Very well," he growled. "I'll make this quick." Its head was thrown back towards the sky, hands and other joints bent and contorted in ways that no earthy creature should have been able to.

The bones in its body cracked and popped as it began to reveal its true form. All that remained the same, were his black, devil eyes. The monster stepped out of its human skin and revealed a creature that should have never existed. Long, skinny arms and legs, a thin black body, wicked fingers and fangs. "Show me what you can do, Akuma," he growled, voice much more deeper and darker than before.

I felt my own skin start to prickle as what was inside begged to leap out and fight. No, I've spent too much time containing it to allow it out again. I raised the sword and kept my eyes fixed on the monster. It swayed back and forth, looking bored with me already. "Sometime tonight, my friend," it said.

I charged at it, but it was quicker than I was, and swatted my aside like a fly. My back was slammed into the brick of a wall, and I slid down back to the ground. I landed on my feet, not giving the throbbing pain behind me any attention. It would have its time later, after I killed what was in front of me.

Now that I was sure of how fast he could react, I used my true speed and worked my way behind him. His eyes scanned around frantically for me. Maybe he realized I was a bigger danger to him than he thought. From behind him, I raised my sword and brought it straight down his back.

The creature screamed in pain as the special metal seared through his black, leathery flesh. Thick, black liquid flowed from the gash in his back; his blood. The monster turned to look at me on shaky limbs, its black eyes glaring at me.

Then, it fell forward and vanished into thin air as it died; all that was left to show it had been there, was its blood, but that would pass as an oil stain on the ground.

I then fell down to my hands and knees, clutching onto my sides as I felt a little bit more of my life taken away from me. When it stopped, my body was left drained from all of its energy. Unable to stay awake in this world any longer, I slipped into unconsciousness.

Shun

When I woke, I was back in the apartment I lived in. I looked around at the stained white walls and down at the old bed I slept on. That was all that was in the apartment, besides a small love seat and liquor cabinet. A voice somewhere in the room asked, "Have a nice rest?"

I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eye. I told it, "Yeah, I guess so. That last Akuma took a lot out of me." He then appeared. A long, white spirit in the shape of a fox that had a gold band with ancient writings around his neck. A Kanko, or pipe fox to be more exact.

He told me, "I was able to see that when I brought you back here." I slid out of my bed and made my way over to the liquor cabinet, pulling out a random bottle and pouring it into a glass. "And I thank you for that, Kuda," I told him before taking a drink and seating down on the love seat.

I looked out the window and saw the sun was starting to rise. Kuda asked me, "So you did get that Akuma that we've been looking for?" I nodded. Without Kuda, I would be unable to locate most of the demons I hunted. It wasn't his original purpose of this world, but because of a favor he owed me, he helped me out in finding the Akuma that I hunted.

I finished off the last sip of my drink and stared blankly at the glass. He asked, "Should I leave now, Master?" I grinned. He knew me all too well, and that when I did this, I would be lost in thought for a while. "If you wish, Kuda. You know it makes no difference to me."

He nodded and vanished through to wall to go to wherever it was he hid out. I went back to looking at the glass, and at my distorted reflection that looked back at me. "You seriously think you can kill me, Akuma? One of your own kind?" I hated when what those monsters said to me would get into my thoughts.

They were hard to get rid of at times. Akuma, I thought. Demons. Devils. Whatever people saw fit to call us. Monsters was always a favorable one. I chuckled for a moment, then sighed. Yes, people feared us, but that was only because of stories and tales they had been told.

They never once have seen an actual Akuma. At least, not in this century. So then, why kill my own kind? Why not join them and hide in the shadows of the city and kill people? I probably would have, if they hadn't made my life a horrible one to live. I was different from them. All of my family was.

We could contain the demonic side of us, life peacefully among people and blend in better than any other demon in existence. And, we had human souls. But an Oni, another name for a demon, and a powerful one at that, thought that our kind shouldn't live.

That we were disgraces to Akuma and all demons. They said we were human, not demon cause of the souls that we had. We were different compared to them. I was young when he and a band of fellow demons came and killed my family in front of me. I had been hidden in a closet and watched, silently crying as it happened. The only person they didn't kill, had been my mother and grandfather.

She had been there, but my grandfather had been lucky enough to live somewhere else during the attack. I remembered how I couldn't take it any longer, and ran from the closet, only to discover that they had been waiting outside for me. The Oni who led them there to kill my family, grinned down at me and prepared to take my life as well.

That was when I discovered what kind of power my kind had, and I ended up killing them all. But I wasn't able to control it. When it finally died down and I came to, I saw that the Oni was still alive. But barely. He looked at me and was mumbling something. He then died, and so began my decision to kill as many demons as I could.

But only later did I discover that what the Oni was mumbling, was a curse. With every demon life I took, it took some of my own with it. He knew I would seek revenge for my family. The logical thing would have been to not kill them, but I took the curse in full stride.

If I were to die getting payback for my family, then so be it. I would take as many Akuma down with me as I could before I ran out of life. Which may be sooner than later. Last night hadn't been the first time I collapsed after a kill. It had been happening a lot lately.

And it could only mean that I was running out of my time. I could still stop killing them, live out the remainder of my life, but I didn't want to. I didn't want to live and sit by and watched those monsters kill, when I knew I still had some fight left in me. I would have to be dead before I allowed that to happen.

I threw the glass across the room, growing tired at looking at my reflection, and watched as shards rained down like ice. I sighed, knowing I had to clean up the mess. I got up and grabbed the little broom and dustpan from beside the liquor cabinet and began to sweep the mess up.

I realized that I had knocked a picture over when I threw the glass, and I picked it up from the floor. A sad smile formed on my face. It was the picture of the Brawlers from so long ago. They had no clue about the Akuma or even me. I had lost my family and began hunting demons long before I knew most of them.

Dan was the only exception. He knew both me, my mother, and grandfather, but never knew that we were demons. It was after my family was killed, that my mother fell ill. Yet, another curse that had been placed by the Oni, and something new to fuel my reason to keep hunting.

They all just thought she died of true, human illness. But now, our old group had split apart after all these years. All gone and moved to new places. As far as I knew, Dan and Julie were still in Bay City, Murucho was wherever his parents had moved to this time, I couldn't remember where Runo was, and Alice was most likely still in Russia.

All while I remained in the demon overrun city of Wardington. I sighed and put the picture back on the wall. I finished sweeping up the last bits of glass and dumped the contents into a trashcan. Outside, I could hear somebody yelling. I looked out my window and into the alley. Of course.

I growled and left the old apartment. I went down the stairs and stepped outside into the bright morning light. "What are you doing now?" I snapped. Two faces turned and looked at me. Wrath and Dante, demons that quite often got into arguments with each other but were close friends.

I never bothered to waste my time in killing them because they were of no threat to anyone. Except each other. Wrath, running a hand through his spiky, light green hair said, "He started it this time. Not me." Dante punched his friend in the arm, and Wrath grabbed his friend's dark red hair.

The two were yelling again and I shouted, "Shut it!" They both froze, Wrath in a headlock, and Dante about to have a fist punched into his stomach. I held the side of my head, which was starting to hurt either from them, or the need to have another drink.

I told them, "Why don't you two go and settle your differences back at your apartments." They released each other and scurried on down the alley. The two lived in the apartments not far from here, but they insisted on fighting in front of the complex I lived in.

I shook my head and growled, then started to go back inside and get another drink when Kuda showed up. I asked, "What's up?" He floated in front of me and said, "I've located another Akuma not far from here." I growled with clear agitation.

Kuda backed away and said, "If you don't want to hunt this one just yet, Master, I can keep his signature locked on until you want to." I shook my throbbing head and told him, "No, Kuda. It's better to go ahead and get rid of this one now. I can't afford another two month hunt." Kuda nodded and told me, "Alright. I'll give you the location."

chapter title based off the song A Demon's Fate by Within Temptation. oh you all know you love me being a workaholic. ;P i never seem to stop. oh well, it gives me something to do that i enjoy. ^^ i think this one will be pretty good. fingers crossed! read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~