-2- “Unholy Being”

As they left the house, Mizuna in the lead of them all, Arima could not help but to think he could have said something earlier to ease Sashiko’s pain a little. Even just by a little.

Mizuna held onto the ninja’s hand the entire way to the mentioned man’s residence. But the woman just continued staring ahead of her, her eyes seeming distant.

Nearby townspeople recognized her and bid hello, but she did not seem to notice. This caught the man’s attention.

When they reached Katsuhiko’s, Sashiko instantly looked up. “Something’s not right!” she gasped, letting go of Mizuna’s hand before rushing inside.

Mizuna called out for the woman but she did not turn back or answer. “Nii-chan, what’s going on?” her eyes wavered.

“I’m not sure,” he answered and followed the ninja into the structure.

Mizuna had the mind to follow, hoping her gut was not right as her mind strung together many possibilities for their suddenly urgent disappearance.

“Katsuhiko-sensei!” Sashiko called, her voice echoing through the near-empty entrance hall. “Sensei!” The woman slid the door open and stopped still.

Arima, only now catching up to the hurried ninja, stopped behind her, wondering why she had stopped as well. “Did you find him?” he asked, looking past her. He heard Mizuna approaching quickly behind them. He turned to her and told her not to come any closer.

“Why, Nii-chan? What’s wrong?” She halted, knowing to obey her older brother when he wore that look. Her eyes wavered as she leaned her hand on the wall, slowly bringing herself to it.

Arima turned back to the scene, his eyes tracing the trail left by Sashiko’s. She closed them tightly, willing it to go away, only to open them to what was still there. Her eyes glazed over with tears, running freely from them and continued down her porcelain face. “Ari-Arima… who could’ve--who could’ve done this?” she asked, her voice quivering uncontrollably.

The man shook his head. “I’m… not sure.”

Mizuna wanted to ask, but was too afraid her gut-feeling was not true. She just stared straight at her brother’s back, hoping he would tell her soon enough. Sashiko fell to her knees in a fit of tears, revealing the horrific scene to the young girl. Her eyes instantly tried to look away, but they would neither do that nor shut. She just stared until her eyes welled up with tears.

Their sensei of nine years, lay dead in front of them all, against the far end of the golden-lit room. His face remained peaceful, despite the massive scarlet-crimson washed over his lifeless body. Both eyes were closed, but they knew he was watching them regardless. The shadowy-hued robes he wore were drenched in the color as well, mainly his own from a large gash wound spanning his abdomen, chest down. The same was to his forearms and wrists, as if he tried to at least defend himself against the attacker.

In the end, you cannot block a blade with any part of your body.

The long, slightly curved blade stood through both arms and end through his chest. Blood lay over the entire silver, seemingly like it was used to kill 100 men, not a single man alone.

Both females were crying, but Arima, having to be strong for them all, held back the burning tears and walked into the room.

His footsteps were silent against the darkly-stained and blood-sprayed wood. Silent enough that not even Sashiko could hear them. He knelt next to the fallen man and sighed, hoping he didn’t suffer. But what exactly was he protecting? The master did not hold anyone deep in his heart.

Arima’s stare cast sympathy to the still body. “Sensei… who could’ve done this to you?”

In a breath, another presence in the room fell behind Arima, holding dagger-like claws at his throat. “Pretty weak for my next victim,” the unknown voice scoffed, knowing full-well the boy was mortal. The cold claws twitched, sending a chill of possible death into Arima, placing a grin to play on the assassin’s lips. It stretched across his darkened face, revealing fangs. Fangs covered in the same hue thrown over their sensei.

Mizuna yelled to her brother, hoping to warn him of the assassin’s motive of killing him right then. “Nii-chan!” Her voice echoed down the short distance of the hall and into the dimly lit golden light of the room.

“Mizuna, don’t!” Sashiko called behind her, wanting the young girl to abide to her command.

The grin twisted into something more gruesome, proving desire of blood casting into the assassin’s mind. “So… there are more of you” His deadly, narrow stare slid ever so slightly to the victim’s sister, her body tantalizing his deadly array of thoughts.

“Don’t you dare think about hurting them!” Arima’s voice sent into the stranger’s head, echoing sharply. “You said I was your victim! Leave them out of this!” His glare, although unseen, was enough to burn trough his skull.

The assassin obliged, pressing his claws to the man’s neck a little harder, emitting a crimson line of life to trail out onto the steel-like weapons. “You’re absolutely correct. Where are my manners?” he mocked, simply enjoying it. “I believe in order to even taste what their lives value, I must cut you down first. I

Sashiko and Mizuna could only watch as he was interrogated by this maniac. Both were wondering the same and hoping with all of their hearts he would be left alive.

Arima’s fists tightened, as did every other muscle in him.

“Ah-ah-ah… you mustn’t get to hasty,” he hissed. “You never know when I”ll just decide to slice you a little deeper.” And with that said, he glided the claws along the man’s neck, forcing more blood to join the rest in the assassin’s sight. “Ah, your life smells… interesting” He lowered his lips to his ear and whispered, “As if you yourself are not mortal.” His eyes narrowed with his words.

“What do you mean by that?” Arima held back a cough, not wanting the claws to go in any further. He loosened his fists only by slight, following what the stranger had said. “What are you saying I am?”

The claws almost answered for him, slicing the rest of the way along his throat, opening the main vein in his neck, blood spurted forth, falling in a spray in all directions. The scarlet rained onto the wood flooring and over the still corpse occupying it. Two quick intakes of breath were heard from the hall, both from the female audience. Mizuna turned her head and buried her tear-lain face into her knees, trying as best she could to will everything to a halt. To save her only family.

Arima held his neck, coughing the same that ran from the wound, watching it fall to the floor in drops of the assassin’s insanity. He knew he was to die, but his vision did not even falter. ‘What is going on? Why aren’t I dying? Or feeling any pain at all?’ Thoughts shot through his mind, just as fast as the claws that “stole” his life sliced him. His stare shot back up to the assassin as he turned to face the inhuman being that caused this. He could see him now. The stranger stood tall with piercing silver eyes and long tresses of the same. His narrow gaze felt as cold as those claws, as frozen as his soul. “What did you do?” Arima asked, checking the profile of this demon for any other possible weapons or hidden tricks. His long, billowing, black attire was questionable for this, but other than that, the man could not find anything visible.

The man shook his head; his long silvery hair followed the lithe movement. “I didn’t do anything,” he raised his hand to his chin, resting the gently curled fingers below it. The claws had regained their original size as well. “I only got that accused mortal spirit out of the way for you,” he calmly licked the darkening blood on his forefinger, gliding his long, almost forked, tongue along the pale skin. “You are an ‘Unholy Being’, a demonic pulse of blood in the world’s design.” His eyes closed to slits of metallic orbs; he was smiling. “You have started to return to your former state, an Out-casted God, rejected from the heavens and eternal suffering. Exiled to live among the very race you slaughtered.”

“I don’t understand nor believe what you’re saying!” Arima’s fists tightened again as he whispered through tears, “Forgive me, Sensei!” He grabbed the hilt of the blade and thrust it from the still man, every thought in that moment was a plead of forgiveness from the departed soul. Blood flung from the blade as the man’s arm fell limp at his sides. He glared upward to the demon, fully intent of slaying him. ‘This isn’t for me; it’s for Mizuna, Sashiko… Sensei.”

A smirk graced the man’s lips once again, flicking his hand from his chin, the claws re-growing into the deadly blades they recently were. “If that is what you truly want yourself to believe, then why are you taking out that rage on me?” His claws pointed aligned with his wrist as his arm leaned to his side. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to reclaim my sword!”

Both immortal beings fully wished the other dead, but the demonic man wished to ‘play’ with the boy before disposing him to the afterlife. He waited for the boy to come at him, wanting to see his anger, feel his passion for the upcoming battle.

Arima charged at the demon, sword in hand. The wind from the boy’s speed was enough to flick blood from the sword’s tip, and the rest began to dry in the sudden draft. His agility was not enough to completely land and attack, as much as he thought it would. ‘Of course that wouldn’t work. This man killed Sensei! I barely stand a breath against him!” The blade of the sword was deadlocked with the demonic man’s claws.

“Don’t you think I know the range of my own blade? I’ve used it for over a century!” his laugh was unnerving, forcing Arima to put all his weight into the attack, but in vain, for the sword was pushed away with a simple flick of the wrist. “You think you can even harm me with that man on your mind! As purely entertaining as it is, it sickens me to think your mortal attitude has you flailing your mind solely on them!” The demonic being agilely moved to his backside and simply stabbed him in the center of the marking on his neck. It glowed briefly and sent waves of pain throughout Arima, a stronger pain than he had ever experienced before. It pulsed through every vein, every artery, all before his body and lungs constricted. He could not feel anything mere seconds ago and now the pain was full-blast. “So, there is a way to hurt a god!” the man laughed, twisting his claws in the marking then removing them from Arima’s neck.

“Please!” Sashiko yelled, “Stop this!” Her tears were still flowing as she stood, her stance shaking with every breath. She gradually moved her hand to her weapons at her sides, staring at the demon, but not knowing what to do.

Arima coughed up a considerately large amount of blood, and with the sword, her helped him to remain standing. “Sashiko! Stay back!” he yelled, trying to keep her at a distance from the deranged man. He held the wound at the back of his neck and glared daggers at the demonic man that stood laughing before him. “Remember, you said you’d finish me before you thought about hurting them, I’m not gonna die for you!” he spat, attacking the stranger again. The sword swung through the air at an incredible speed, breaking the sound between him and his target.

He easily dodged, laughing once again. He smiled grimacingly to the boy. “You there, woman, you would actually want to die for this unholy former god? Why don’t you just let me kill you now and make it easier for us all?” He dodged another strike sent at him from the blade. “Ha! You can’t even handle my Ryokuro correctly.” Shaking his head, he appeared beside him and firmly hit him in his neck wound with the knife if his hand.

“I would die for Arima!” Sashiko answered quite belatedly. “He would die for me as well! That’s how our relationship has always been.” She tightly held her kodachi in both hand, pointed downwardly at her thighs. “We were always sacrifices for each other’s ideas, no matter how screwed up or completely stupid and dangerous they were!” Her usually smiling face was altered by tears and hate. She could not hold back anything now, only wanting to help her most treasured friend.

“Is that so?” the man smiled evilly again, turning his attention to her instead. His claws now elongated to a more suitable size, he went at her.

Arima jumped in his way and blocked the claws from reaching the kunoichi. She looked up in shock that the steel-like claws had not reached her. “Ari…ma?” She hoped that he was not hurt in any way.

“Hm, it seems you are already returning to your former being. This should get quite interesting. Your speed is gaining very close to the woman’s already.”As one set of claws were halted by the blade, the other found themselves embedded into his chest a moment later, blood obeyingly forcing out onto the steel-like material. He smiled at the sudden shock of the woman standing at his back.

“Can’t even feel that” Arima smirked, pushing back with the blade.

“This wasn’t meant to hurt you.” The demonic being pushed the claws, and his hand in its entirety, through the boy’s chest and to the ninja on the other side. The claws stabbed her slightly but what hurt her more was the aching in her heart. To see this, an entire man’s hand and bloodied claws through her friend’s heart, it was unbearable.

“Sashiko!” Arima yelled, pushing the demon off of him with a kick to the abdomen. The hand left his chest with a sickening sound, followed by a massive amount of blood landing at their feet. It ricocheted from the floor much like the falling rain would and splashed back up at Sashiko. He turned to look at her, removing his attention from the assassin.

“Watch out!” the ninja woman yelled, striking her kodachi towards the man. A single tear fell back and landed against the cool metal of the ‘Renkin no Hitsuzen’ forming into its intricate details. It glowed immensely and infused her weapons with a similar light. An array of alchemic symbols twisted their way into the air and weaved around the assassin.

“What is this?” he jumped back, breaking the array.

The symbols reformed and completed, creating an entrapping barrier, constricting the demonic man and putting an end to his attack. The kodachi sent a wave of electric aftershock through the barrier to him. Blood fell from his lips, being forced out in the recent attack. A cross was burned into his chest and a simple ‘x’ over his right eye.

The demonic man slid back, breaking the alchemic bind and stood straight, flicking his slender hand through his hair, the strands of silver shined as they fell back against his shoulder, completely ignoring the wound he obtained. “I must be leaving now, but I will be back to reclaim my sword.” His eyes gleamed at the said object.

“I plan to kill you with it!” Arima snapped form the Sashiko-induced shock and held the blade at chest height. The demon could see the stare of vengeance in his eyes.

“But, my dear Arima, the sword will have you dead before I allow you the chance.” He shook his head, gently gliding his forefinger over the blood from his eye, holding back a slight chuckle under his shoulders. “I will try to see you again,” the man smiled sadistically, “before that moment, the end of your life, arrives” And those words said, the demon vanished in tendrils of blood-red tendrils of shadow and raven-colored feathers.

The feathers floated to the bloodied floor, matting in the scarlet fluid.

“Bastard,” Arima turned back to the ninja. He held the hilt of the sword tightly, but his gaze softened to her.. “Sashiko, you alright?”

“Yea,” she slipped the kodachi back into their proper places at her thighs. “I’m fine.”

“But, you’re bleeding.” He noticed the small growing wine-colored stain bleeding through the cloth at her chest. “Does it hurt?”

She shook her head, holding her right hand just over her worried eyes. “I’m worried about you, you know? You’re not even mortal enough to notice you bled enough to kill you twice!” Her hand sliced through the air and rested at her waist, firmly holding the metallic heirloom to her palm with her fingers. “Not even human enough to notice how frightened your own sister is! Most likely of you!” Tears brimmed her hazel eyes as she motioned to the girl.

Arima turned his attention to her. “Mizuna…” he whispered, more to himself than anyone else as he dropped the sword and walked to her. “Mizuna, are you ok?” He did not know what exactly to ask.

She looked up slightly with crying eyes, reluctant to hold her gaze, only to see her brother, covered in blood, neck slit and somehow still living. She forced her head down into her shaking knees. The muffled reply of, “Go away!” came to Arima’s now elongated ears. Her sobs shook with her shoulders as she did not lift her head.

“Mizuna… I’m ok.” He lifted his hand to her shoulder, only to be swat away with the back of her own; the bracelets adorning her wrist felt like nothing against his insensitive skin. “I’m still your brother.” His eyes saddened to her previous action.

“He said you weren’t human!” she cried. “He said you were a god that slaughtered us humans! You’re not my brother!” Her arms tightened their hold around her knees.

‘Us humans…’ Arima thought, being told by even his sister he was not of the same blood. The man mentally shook it from his thoughts. “Please, Mizuna… I’m still your older brother. I’m—“

The young girl’s tearful stare stopped his words from leaving his tongue. “You’re just an inhuman murderer!” It was as if the ideas were falsely burned into her mind by the demon man.

Sashiko could only helplessly watch, her heart tightening as his fell apart. “Arima…”, her stare seemed to finish, “I’ll take care of her.”

Arima rose to his feet and walked away he stood in the entrance hall, just out of earshot of the two. Now his immortality was retuning, he could hear their softly spoken words.

“Mizu-chan…” the kunoichi walked to the girl and sat beside her with her legs folded to one side. “Please know… Arima is still your older brother… As he is my friend.” Her eyes were met by tearful cyan orbs. “He’s still the same person. Arima is Arima. He’s no different.”

The girl’s eyes shook. “He’s not! He’s a demon now! He always was!”

“That’s only what that man said!” Sashiko said sternly but unknowingly harshly. Her voice lowered to a hushed whisper, “The same man that killed Katsumaru-sensei…” She rose her gaze back up and gently glided her left thumb against the girl’s cheek, as she did earlier, to rid of the tears she cried. “Will you try to continue seeing Arima as your brother, please? For me?”

Mizuna nodded slowly before she was helped to her feet, her hand tightly grasping the woman’s as they walked out of the dimly lit hall. They quickly bowed their heads, paying respects to the fallen man, then left the building altogether.

Mizuna didn’t even notice Arima as she passed him, unable to sense his usual warmth.

‘It’s as if I’m dead altogether. But I have to live like this…’ Arima strode silently behind them, his bloody hands buried into his pockets.