Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Ugh…" Densuke moaned as he his head. It felt like it was throbbing like a stampede of horses and inside his head was the ground they trampled on. His eyes fluttered open, and his vision was blurry for a couple of seconds, but cleared up when he blinked a few times. As he sat up, he looked around in an unfamiliar room. He let his head go once the throbbing stopped, but he didn't get out of the bed he was in. And it was then that he realized he was shirtless. He still had his pants on, but his socks, shoes, and shirt were missing.

He threw his legs over on the other side of the bed, and sat there, wondering where he was exactly. The room looked homey, like a little cottage room. But as he looked around, he saw a door, and sliding glass door which lead to a balcony. He got out of the bed and started to walk to the balcony. When he stepped outside, he saw a view of what seemed to be a large section of the continent. All the green, Densuke thought. So much green.

"Oh, you're a awake." a voice said behind Densuke. Densuke turned around to see a girl about his age with a small tray of food. Densuke walked inside and sat back on the bed, back where he was suppose to be. "Here," the girl said as she handed him the tray. "This should be good for you."

"Thanks," Densuke said hesitantly. He slowly took the food, and looked at her. Was she an enemy, or just an innocent bystander being nice? It took Densuke a few seconds to actually eat his food, looking at both the food and the girl, looking for anything suspicious. But when he couldn't find a trace of anything wrong, he took a small bite. Eventually the bites got bigger, and he was eating like he usually did. The girl sat there, watching his every movement.

"You know, it's strange having humans here. And for so long. Usually, Humans who accidentally find this place pass out due to shock of demons and never wake up. But you guys have been here for more than ten days. I'm surprised."

"Urnght Oou Oour Enmumee?" Densuke asked with his mouth full.

"What?"

Densuke swallowed and tried again. "Aren't you our enemy? I mean, why are you trying to help me?"

"They were my orders. Honestly, I would have let you starve. But, then again, I'm not in charge."

"Why do you demons hate us humans?"

"Why do you humans hate us demons?" the girl asked back.

Densuke wanted to say that demons killed his mother. But he knew that that wasn't true anymore. It was Hakura, and that was one of the main reasons that he was down here.

"I have no problem with demons anymore. I just need to kill Hakura."

"Because she's our queen?"

"No. It's more personal than that."

"She deceived you into thinking she was human?"

"No. That's not it."

"Well, don't leave me guessing all day. What did she do to make your life so miserable."

"She killed my mother and had sex with my dad after doing so. I'm not sure, but you'd think that would piss most people off."

"I suppose." was all she said.

"Say," Densuke started. "What's your name? We haven't even introduced ourselves."
"Perhaps we should keep it that way. I don't want to grow too attached to you when you die."

"Sounds like you have a lot of faith in what I'm doing." Densuke stated sarcastically.

"Well, you're going against the impossible. I mean, the biggest influences of the entire Demon World, and some humans think they can pull it off. You see what we see?"

"So, are you actually against what we're doing or not?"
The girl looked around, making sure nobody was around.

"Actually, I'm a big supporter of you guys. But my position is too big to simply announce that. I've worked too hard to just throw it away with some words."

"So, you're Rose?" Densuke asked.

The girl looked at him with a hardened glare. Then it fell into curiosity.

"How did you know my name?"

Densuke shrugged as he replied. "Arkos told me a little something about you. You guys have been friends for a while, and you'd help out people who are part of his plans, right?"

"He told you all of that?"

"All of that?" Densuke chuckled. "He wouldn't tell me any more than that. That guy is so frustrating sometimes."

"Well, let me tell you this: even though you may be in the easiest continent in the world, that doesn't mean you can defeat everybody here."

"No kidding." Densuke said rubbing his neck. "That big guy who took me out was behind me before I could even feel it. Usually, I can feel things before I can process them. It's how my body reacts."

"And he's just a captain. He's nothing in this world."

"A captain. He isn't some large piece of this world's chess game?"

"Nope. And you know those soldiers he had with them?"

"Yeah, I fight with one of them. They were pretty good."

"They're privates. The lowest of the low."

Densuke looked at her blankly at first. Rose expected him to explode with surprise and then feel scared or something. But he just seemed to be thinking. When he finally started to look like he was going to say something, he smiled.

"Well, it looks like I should have some competition. Ryuku's going to like this."
"You aren't scared? You simply feel… challenged?"

"Yeah, is that wrong? I mean, without challenges, the world would be boring. I want something to help me get better."

"You don't seem to understand that these guys are the worst in the world, and you're amongst there rankings. How do you possibly think that you're going to win in a fight against the rulers? Ruling isn't just handed down to you through blood-line like it is in some parts of your world. No, you have to be the best to be able to fight."

"Then we'll have to be the best."

How could Rose make this idiot human understand. It wasn't going to be that simple! With this kind of attitude, he was underestimating every single person who existed in the Demon World. He may have been a god in the human world, but down here, it was a whole new ball game.

"Don't get me wrong," Densuke started up again. "I know it's not going to be easy. Heck, it'll be the farthest thing from easy and the closest thing to death. But we all know that, and we have to beat those odds. Together, me and my friends can do anything we'd like. We may have to push it, but we can do anything."

"I wish demons had your attitude." Rose smiled.

Suddenly, the door was kicked open. When Rose and Densuke looked to see who it was, they saw Falkirk.

"It seems that lady Iris would like to see you, laddie."

"Is it time for that already?" Rose asked Falkirk.

"It would seem so. But don't worry, laddie. The worst thing that can happen at this point is being beheaded."

"And what are the best?" Densuke asked, sarcastically sounding thrilled.

"Dungeon for the rest of your days, I suppose."

"Great." Densuke sighed. "What does she want me for, anyway?"

"What anybody else around here would want you for: questioning. Stuff like, where are your allies, how strong are your allies, who are your allies, such things as that. And if we think you have more information, then we'll keep you as long as necessary. But if we have a better source of info, than we'll have to kill ya."

"Does he really have to be questioned now?" Rose asked with a some concern showing in her voice. Falkirk gave her a funny look, and it then hit her that she sounded almost sorry for her enemy. She needed to stop letting her emotions slip out like such.

"Yes." Falkirk replied as he continued to give Rose the look. "Now if you wouldn't mind, Mr. Densuke."

Densuke got up and looked at Rose one last time before he was guided out by Falkirk. As Densuke walked out the door, Falkirk stayed behind a few seconds as he glared at Rose one last time.

"You wouldn't feel anything for this human, would you, Rose?"

"Don't be preposterous." she answered harshly, making it seem even more unbelievable. "He's an enemy. I have no ties with him. I just admire his thinking."

"Well, it's his thinking that's challenging everybody in Demon World. Don't forget that."

As Falkirk left the room, Rose couldn't believe that she had acted in such a manner. Falkirk was right, Densuke was the enemy. He was the reason that Rose always was the one the queen lashed out at. He was the reason that so many new laws were passed that hurt so many people. It was all because of Densuke.

But then again, Rose had always grown up with the "look at both sides of the argument" mentality. Densuke obviously had a reason for being here. There was some sort of reason that they had come into the world with the intentions of destroying Hakura. Who knew what Hakura was doing while she was in the human world?

But it was then that Rose had started to scold herself to think of those thoughts; to pity an enemy. There was no way that she would show any form of emotion towards anything, or anybody, especially not some human. Yet, Rose couldn't help but feel that who she was helping was somewhat wrong. But before Rose could go into that emotion any further, she shook her head, and started to go towards the library. She really needed to know about her family line at that point.

XXX

Arkos walked into his hut, just about ready for sleep. He had just came back from the Plant castle again, talking to Rose about Densuke's situation and whatnot. With all that talking and sharing of information and trying to get back home undetected, he was pooped. His eyes hung heavy, and his limbs were starting to shut down on him. All he needed to do was make it to his bed, and all he would have to worry about would be waking up in time in the morning.

But as he headed towards his room, he suddenly drew his sword and turned around to block an attack. There, in front of him, was one of his men, trying to attack him right then and there. Arkos hide his surprise with a scowl. The two stood there, trying to out-push the other so they could come out with a counter attack. But before Arkos could even summon up any strength he had left at the end of the day, more of his people had come into the room, all aiming their weapons at him. Arkos pushed his weapon with all his strength, shoving the other person back, and Arkos stepped back, looking at everybody.

"What are you doing? This is treason." Arkos asked in a calm voice.

"This is treason?" one of them asked. "What about what you're doing?"

"What are you talking about?" Arkos questioned with a little anger in his voice. Angry that his own people wouldn't trust him.

"What you're doing to that Densuke kid." somebody else spoke out. "Just using him to get these people of the way for you? You don't even care if he dies."
"And where did you hear this?" Arkos questioned, still stern.

"We've had people wondering why you were at the Plant Castle all the time, so we had some recruits to go out and watch you."

Arkos took the news surprisingly. But a second after he seemed shocked, closed his eyes and shook his head with a chuckle. The other's looked at each other, wondering why he would be laughing at a time like this.

"You thought I meant that?" he asked while he finished his chuckling. "You honestly thought I meant that?" he repeated. And then his laughing tone went to stern again. "You think I'd turn on my own people's hope?"

"But… what you said to Ro-"

"Forget what I said to Rose. What are the greatest weapons a ninja can use to his extreme advantage?" he waited for a response, but when none came he answered for them. "Deception, manipulation, and stealth. All those go for physical, mental, and emotional content. Of course I'm going to tell her, our enemy, that I'm using them. She has to think that I have to trust no in our humans, that they are strong, but not very strong. If this is too hard for you to grasp, than I'm ashamed to be called your clan leader."

The group hadn't said anything for a second, taking in everything they had just heard. But, just as it seemed like they were going to retreat back to their homes, a person stepped out.

"Than why haven't you done anything to help Densuke out of his imprisonment out in the Plant continent?"

Arkos took no time to answer, as if he was waiting for this question.

"I want the humans to know which form of way of thinking they should have while they're in this, literally, God forbidden place. If they can't even break out of the Plant prison, than they really deserve to die. They need to learn the trial and errors in this place."

The others looked content with his answers. Although Arkos could have been skeptical at times, he always knew what he was doing. And just to make sure that the crowd in Arkos' room knew that, he gave them one last thing.

"Besides," he started. "I wouldn't have told the humans that there's a weak side of the castle had I not wanted them to win."

The others seemed a little more trusting, and one by one, very slowly, they retreated back into their homes. All until did they all leave did Arkos sigh with relief. A riot was almost started in his home by a misunderstanding. Hopefully, there wasn't a spy amongst the group, one from the land of Plants. Or from any side at that matter. The people of all continents, outside the Ninja continent, gossiped like school children.

It was then that Arkos saw a shadow outside his window making way outside of the village. It slinked quietly passed anybody around it. Just as Arkos feared: there had been a spy. And what better way to end the days frustration out on a threat?

As the shadowy figure crawled through the darkness, dodging between plants and shrugs of all sizes, Arkos had some trouble following it at all. But when the shadow made ways into the trees, Arkos grinned. Only a fool would try throwing off his enemies in the trees inside the Ninja lands.

Arkos leapt into the tree, but as soon as he did, he had no traces of his enemy at all. He scanned the area with his eyes, left and right, trying not to move, just in case they were somewhere within reaching point. The shadows were too hard for any foreigner to in the midst of the trees. The only way they could possibly know how to strike Arkos was his movement. But he was more still than a statue. All Arkos needed was movement. Even if the enemy had sensed that Arkos had followed him, and was trying to hide within all of the shadows, it was only a matter of time before he moved again. The messenger had to get the message quickly, whatever it was, while Arkos had all night. Even if that was something that Arkos didn't want to do, it was a mandatory thing to destroy the intruder.

Suddenly, something slashed Arkos' right shoulder. As soon as pain fell into place, Arkos already moved away far from where he was struck and turned around. Standing there was a person who was wrapped from head to toe in bandages, like a mummy, the only thing being unmanaged was the eyes. That and he wore a torn piece of his native land's flag around his waist, acting as a coverage.

"You should have ran after you sliced me." Arkos seethed.

"Perhaps but I think that I can handle you, Arkos." the voice said. "You can't imagine the bounty on your head. I can retire for the rest of eternity."

"That's what you think…" Arkos started, and within a flash he was swinging his sword toward the demon. But before the sword could make contact, the person leapt forward, dodging the attack. "Damn…" Arkos said, still holding onto his arm.

"You see, I'm perfectly capable of getting away with anything around you. You're not as strong as they let on."

"I'll show you who's not strong." a voice said behind the demon, and a blow to the head knocked it forward. As it bounced off the ground, Arkos tried to attack it some more, but the demon caught footing on the first bounce and came up with a counter attack. Arkos dodged that, and slammed his knee into the demon's rib cage, followed by a back hand to the face. The demon skidded and when it came to a halt, a sword pierced its leg and stapled it to the ground.

"I don't think that you're in too much of a position to mouth off anymore." Arkos spoke with a smug look on his face. But before he could fully celebrate in victory, a sharp pain ran through his wound. He cringed as he gripped tighter, and crumbled downward a little, the wound for some reason weakening his stance.

"You fool…" the demon spoke. "You're wound is from a my claw, which is oiled down with venomous liquid before each and every battle."

"So, you've poisoned me." Arkos stated, not a question. He seemed unfazed by the fact. "So, what? You're still nothing?"

"Still nothing? I'm the first demon in history to ever steal a scroll from any ninja village."

"Is that what you stole?" Arkos asked, still unfazed.

"Not only that, but…" the demon poofed into smoke, a doppelganger.

Arkos guessed that the whole fight let the demon get a few miles away with the speed Arkos guessed it was capable of. No problem. The scroll may have been important, only if it wasn't a fake. Not only it a fake scroll, one they always set out to confuse the enemy, but it was also tracked in a very important way.

Arkos brought out a button and pressed it. Suddenly, the night sky lit up with an explosion. So, Arkos had sighed in relief for two reasons. One: the demon wasn't a governmental official, so his death had no leads to the ninja continent. If they had, their secret that they had been saving the humans would have been exposed, and Arkos was still trying to hold on to that. And second: the scroll wasn't the real thing. If the demon had looked closely, he would have noticed that there was nothing written of any importance on it whatsoever.

Arkos looked at his wound and sighed with very little frustration. All he had to do now was get the wound clean, then finally go to bed. Hopefully, like any teenager thought, he would be able to sleep in the next morning uninterrupted.

XXX

"This is your plan?" Aiji asked dully as he looked at Ryuku. The others seemed doubtful as well.

"Hey, I don't see you thinking of anything better." Ryuku defended. "Besides, this works in all the movies and stuff."

The group stood outside of a bar, trying to find ways to get information on anyway to get Densuke back, or even if Densuke was still alive. And the way that Ryuku figured it, there was no better place to get information than from drunk people.

"Do you honestly think that they'll tell a few humans how the worlds greatest threat is doing, let alone how to get him to escape? Why in the world would they even think about doing something like that?" Yuri challenged.

"They won't think about that." Ryuku grinned. "They're too drunk to think about anything straight. And the best way to aggravate any male into giving us what we want, is to challenge them into something and win. And since we're humans, they might have to say yes right away."

"Hello!" Hannah called out in a small song type anger. "What are you thinking? We're in the Demon World. Sure, they'd challenge any human, but you forget, we're the only humans down here. And we're the most wanted ones. There's no way we can't say, oh, we're not them."

"Hannah's right." Aiji said. "We can't blow our human cover. But since we have some demonic stuff flowing through us, maybe it won't be as easy to tell." he looked at the group with a cautious look. "We need to appear as demon as possible. Otherwise, we're going to be in the same place as Densuke: stuck and screwed."

The team nodded, but Yuki still felt that this was stupid. As the group started going in, Ryuku opened the doors. He looked at Yuki.

"Ladies first." he said, his voice half friendly, half taunting, his smile showed the same effect. Yuki knew that he wasn't sure how they were doing in their relationship. That Demon Holiday thing still had them separated. But with the half taunt in his voice, Yuki threw it right back at him.

"Than I suggest you go in first." she said darkly.

Not showing any emotion changed, and only looking into her eyes, Ryuku let go of the handle and started to walk in. But before his back was fully towards hers, Yuki saw a glimpse of him frowning. She knew that it was a blow that wasn't acceptable, but she needed to draw a point. But what exactly was her point? Yuki couldn't think of one as they walked. Perhaps she just didn't want Ryuku to have control of the fight. Could that be part of it? If so, that was stupid. But at the same time, it had to be true. She wouldn't have thrown that out in his face for any other reason.

As the group walked into the bar, they could see all the heavy smoke from cigars in the air. It burned Ryuku's eyes a little, but he seemed to get used to it rather quickly. As they continued to walk in, they looked around for somebody who looked too drunk to know what they hell they were saying, but also somebody not drunk enough to talk about random stuff that had nothing to do with what they're looking for. As they walked around for a couple of seconds, Ryuku found their perfect man. He looked like a general, way drunk of his rocker, even though he didn't speak. His eyes were glazed over, and there stood ten empty bottles around his table. But before Ryuku could even tell his friends about his discovery, Ryuku and the man made eye contact. Ryuku tried looking away quickly, making it look like they didn't see each other at all, but he wasn't that fortunate.

"Hey, boy!" the general shouted. Yep, he was definitely drunk with that slurred tone. "C'mere a second." Ryuku motioned his friends to follow him. If the group left because they were paid attention to, that would seem suspicious. So, they walked to the man's table. "Sit down." he ordered with a drunken half smile. The group listened.

"What is it you need, old man."

"You're those humans, ain't ya? The one who they tried blowin' up."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Ryuku held his gaze sternly. His eyes tried showing that the man was wrong, but just in case, they also said to shut up. The old man laughed at Ryuku's obvious fabrication.

"Don't worry, I ain't gonna spill."

"You're not going to say anything?" Aiji asked. Ryuku slapped him upside the head for blowing their cover.

"Nah," the man chuckled at Ryuku and Aiji. "Well," he said at the end of his laughter, seeming pretty serious. "For a price anyway?"

"We don't have any money." Aiji said, and another slap was made for making the group look unreliable.

"Oh, it's not money I want." the general said. "I'm more interested in you clowns trying to hold your place in our world."

"Hold our place?" Yuki repeated.

"Yeah. Show us your worth your trip down here."

"How the hell are we suppose to do that?" Yuri asked.

"Out drink me." the general said with a little bit of a laugh.

The group looked at the general like he was crazy, and then looked at each other, followed by another look at the general.

"Let us chat for a second." Ryuku said as he scooted his teammates closer to him.

"We've got this in the bag," Ryuku almost laughed. "I mean, look at him. He's already drunk as it is. Just a couple more bottles and he'll topple over."

"I dunno," Yuri said. "It doesn't seem like it'll be that easy. He must have something up his sleeve if he wants to out-drink us."

"What are you talking about?" Ryuku whispered with excitement. "The only thing that this guy wants is a drinking competition. If they're common on earth, they must be hella common here."

"All I'm saying is that if he wants to drink so badly after he's already so drunk, he must be a champ at these drinking games." Yuri stated cautiously.

"Yeah, don't be an idiot." Yuki snapped.

"I'm not!" Ryuku snapped back. "Listen, if we get this guy to pass out, we can be able to question him later when he wakes up."

"And how are we going to be able to do that?" Yuki questioned, showing malice in her voice. The whole conversation that was suppose to be "Team-United" ended up only being an argument between the two.

"We'll think about that when the time comes." Ryuku stated.

"Great, another idea without a plan. This one's bound to fail." Yuri retorted.

"You know what, Yuki? I'm getting sick of your attitude! You've been bagging on me for days!"

"Um... guys?" Aiji tried to interrupt.

"Well, maybe if you started to man up, I wouldn't have anything to yell at you about?"

"Guys, really, you're starting to make others look at-"

"Just because we didn't have sex!?" Ryuku almost shouted. The rest of the group looked disturbed. And whatever Aiji was trying to say before, he had given up at the gross images in his head.

"Who would want to do that with you? You stupid, idiotic, pervert!"

"But at least I'm not some desperate girl who wants to sleep with some stupid, idiotic pervert!"

The two glared at each other darkly, and then looked at the group, who looked at the two with concern and fear. They've never seen the two at it like this so much. Then the two looked at the old man, and sat next to him, over exaggerating every single one of their movements.

"All right, old man!" the two said in unison. "We're drinking!"

"That's what I wanted to hear!" the general laughed as he ordered several more drinks.

"But, guys-" Yuri started.

"SHUT UP, SIT DOWN, AND DRINK!!" the two roared in unison. Everybody, too afraid to disobey them, did as they were ordered. At first, it just started as a few sips, but as the old general started to order more and more drinks, it was harder to keep up, and everybody was sooner or later taking shots as quickly as possible.

After a good ten minutes and several dozen bottles gone, Aiji and Hannah were the first to pass out. The General didn't seem to have any affect, and he had been drinking as much as the group had combined.

"Guys," Yuri started to complain, her words clearly slurred. "I'm not feeling so well. Do we have to do this...?"

"Do you want Densuke to get his head chopped off cuz we didn't help him?" Ryuku's words were still straight, but he was having a hard time keeping up like that. Every sip, he felt the alcohol demand more and more of his actions. But it wouldn't matter how drunk he or his friends would get. There was a tap on Ryuku's shoulders. When Ryuku turned around, there was a fist to his face, and everything went black.

Hey guys, long time no write, huh? It's been almost an entire year since I've written or posted anything of Snowball's. I've been working on another book, Chords of Affection, which I just completed, but I'm going to work on both Chords and also Love Like Hell's sequals at the same time, so posting won't be so fast. I hope you guys get back into this, and sorry for ditching you in the first place. Thanks for reading, CBM340