Chapter Five:

It was day two already.

Nioko couldn’t believe it. Day two and still, they hadn’t left this godforsaken forest.

It stretched on for miles. None of her senses could figure a particular distance to its conclusion.

Battles had been a constant ever since the contest had begun. They had provided her with considerable challenges, especially considering what she’d had to put up with during her time on earth. Despite this change, she had grown bored with fighting in “trees.”

Therefore, against her wonderful demon-side’s opinion, Nioko was strolling along the forest floor.

Cray had been silent for a long time now. Frankly, it had gotten real old.

During the first two hours, she couldn’t shut him up. He’d wanted a turn to be on the “outside,” so that he could deal out some deaths.

It was day two now, and she still hadn’t released him. She was sure he was giving her the silent treatment. She was also just as sure that it had to do with the last fight she’d had.

“Cray, we’re not two year olds who stop talking if we have a small fight.” She mused to her brain. “Cray, this forest is boring enough with just the two of us. With you silent, I only have my own thoughts to listen too. I hate one sided conversations. Talk to me.” Still no reply. “DAMN IT CRAY, ANSWER ME!” It was a thought-scream.

“What the hell Nioko!” Cray exclaimed, yelling right back. “I was sleeping here, damn it. Ever thought of knocking?”

“Sleeping? Sleeping?” Nioko exclaimed in surprise. Her leisurely stride never faltered, despite her conversation with her inner demon. “Ever since we stepped onto the ship yesterday, you’ve been nagging me about keeping my mind focused, and you’re sleeping?”

“I’m resting up for when you finally let me have my turn.” He replied.

“And I return to saying, ‘are we two year olds.”’ Nioko sighed.

“Nioko,” Cray breathed across her mind, and she felt a shiver slink across her flesh. “You know why I’ve been silent. That last fight you had with those demons….this isn’t going to work unless you listen to me.”

Nioko flashed back to her last battle.

She’d been surrounded by six sun demons. She’d been winning, until they used some kind of gift she hadn’t known they possessed, and shined it directly into her eyes, rendering her blind.

Nioko had wanted to throw caution to the wind, and rush forward, killing whatever she came in contact with.

Cray had wanted her to bring forth their wings, which would both block the blinding light, and give her the moment she needed to figure out her next move.

Nioko would not consent to his plan, so went ahead with hers, with Cray yelling in the back of her head the entire time.

“It worked though, didn’t it?” Nioko snapped at him. She knew she couldn’t win this fight, just as she knew Cray wouldn’t.

“You endangered both our lives when you made that risky choice. We both could have died, or did you forget that?”

Cray seemed truly upset with her, and since she knew there would be no conclusion to this fight, she knew she had to let it go. In order to even get close to winning this thing, Cray and her had to be in tune with each other, not breathing down each other’s necks at every turn.

“And you better remember that.” Cray interrupted her thoughts.

She sighed.

“You know that, and I know that.” She replied. “I made a decision, now we both have to live with it.”

“If it hadn’t worked, you wouldn’t be able to say that.” Cray whispered, and for a moment, Nioko let his swirling emotions envelope her. She felt his annoyance, just as she felt his acceptance.

“You think we would have learned we can’t do anything right without each other.” Nioko chuckled, and looked at the ground at her feet.

“Yeah, you’d think.” Cray breathed back, and in that moment, she felt his anger and irritation fade.

The two had been joined since adolescence. It hadn’t taken long for them to realize that if one of them was angry, so was the other. If one was happy, the other felt the same. In essence, they mirrored each other.

Abruptly, Nioko’s senses picked up on something. Nioko slowed her strides, but Cray stopped her from halting completely.

“Don’t slow. Keep going.” He urged her, and as it happened upon occasion, Nioko complied.

“You sensed that, right Cray?” She asked him a moment later. She knew he had.

“I did.” He replied, and she could tell he was scanning their surroundings with his senses. “The human is following us.”

“But which human is it? The one competing perhaps?”

“It’s hard to tell because they’re skipping along on just the edges of my senses, but I bet it’s the one fighting in the contest.” Cray replied after a few moments of quiet consideration.

“Why do you think that?” She asked him.

“Well, they are just skipping along the edges of my senses, and I think the human everyone is after would be smarter than to come out now. It would be smarter logistically to hide until most of the competition has killed each other off, and then come out to ambush those remaining. Revealing themselves now would be idiotic.”

“Should we attack?” Nioko asked, and she felt Cray smile inside of her, bringing a grin to her own face.

“Giving me an awful lot of the decision making here, aren’t you?” He asked, and then just let out a chuckle, which reverberated inside her head, echoing, until it finally died away, as it always did. “Let’s not attack him. There’s no point. He’s just a human, and there’s no way he could ambush us.”

“I’m in the mood for a battle though.” Nioko put in.

“Another?” Cray laughed.

“Surprised?”

“No.” He replied. “But still….” He trailed off.

Nioko didn’t understand his hesitation. Usually he leapt at the opportunity to fight just as often as she did.

“I’m just being cautious.” He answered her thoughts, just as she saw something to her fight. Cray noticed it in the same second.

“Is it….?” Nioko asked slowly, sliding to a complete stop, and momentarily forgetting their stalker.

“It couldn’t be. What would he be doing here?” But Cray sounded just as shocked and incredulous as she.

Therefore, without argument, or consideration to the possible danger, Nioko turned right, and rushed off after what she and her other half had sensed.

“Nioko,” Cray spoke. “Let me come out. You know I’m the better runner.” He was speaking loudly, as to be heard over her racing heartbeat.

“No.” She replied instantly. “I want to know why he’s here, of all places.”

“Nioko, damn it. Let me out. It doesn’t make sense for you to exhaust yourself running, when I could take this run and still have the strength to fight at the end. You’re being a moron. Let me take over.”

Finally, she surrendered to him.

As she kept running, never faltering or stumbling, she shut her eyes. Many might think it dangerous to close your eyes while running through a forest, but Nioko was long used to it.

Slowly, Nioko’s long blond gold curls that flowed down her back in gorgeous waves, began to retract and become shorter, until her hair only went down to her shoulders. Then it morphed into a forest green.

Her chest began to flatten, and her breasts disappeared. Her form became harder, her body grew more muscled and her skin tone paled. From behind, a green tail snaked out from under her jacket, which then trailed her as she continued running. It was a dark green mixed with a lighter golden sheen.

She opened her eyes, which had now transformed a dark brown hazelnut, to a green shade that matched her hair….well, his hair.

“Yeah, baby! Now it’s my turn.” Cray yelled aloud, a smile stretching across his lips, as he pumped his legs faster, and took a running leap. For a couple of seconds, he flew through the air, the ground rushing by below him, before his feet touched back down on the forest floor again, just before he took another running leap.

“Could you be any louder Cray?” Nioko asked in his head. Cray’s grin grew wider.

“You bet I could!” He replied cheerfully. “You try being cooped up inside your head for a week and a half, and see how restless you get.” He laughed. “God, it’s so nice to be free again.”

“Well go on.” His other side growled mentally. “You’re out now. Have your fun, but could you do it while catching our prey?” This got an irritated sigh from Cray, but he complied anyway.

Cray continued leaping through the forest, his movements obviously faster and more graceful than his angelic counterparts had been. During his fun, he never stopped smiling.

“Do you have to be so damned smug every time I let you out?” Nioko said to him, and Cray just rolled his eyes. He ignored her question, and asked one of his own instead.

“Nioko, if it is him, what do you think he could possibly be doing here? I thought he died.”

“It might be that we’ve been lied to.” She replied simply. Cray considered her words.

All at once, they burst out of the forest. Light blinded Cray at first, but once he’d regained his vision, he realized he stood on the beach. Laid out before him, gorgeous sunlight radiating, the ocean growled and purred.

Cray glimpsed who he’d been tailing to his left, and took off without hesitation. He could feel Nioko grow pissed with him immediately. She hated him rushing into things without thinking, just about as much as he hated that Nioko had to plan and plot every single thing they did!

For a few minutes, Cray kept running along the sandy shore that stretched for miles, and finally, when he’d found he’d grown bored, he drew out a throwing dart form his hip bag. He drew back his arm, and then sent it flying through the air. Cray watched with satisfactory as his flying weapon imbedded itself into Cray’s target. The person tripped and fell face down on the ground. Cray made his way toward the fallen demon, of which was now yanking the dart out of his leg with a gasp of pain.

“Well, well, well,” Cray drawled as he stood in front of the shorter demon. “I thought it was your smelly presence I sensed. What is a demon like you doing way out here, Phoklone?” Cray asked, putting one of his hands on his hips. The demon looked up, and when he registered who Cray was, he let out a laugh, and leaned back on his elbows.

“Good afternoon Cray. I didn’t fancy meeting the two of you here either. What a wonderful coincidence!” Phoklone said, and Cray sensed a note of sarcasm. “Now if we met accidentally three times today, that would be a noteworthy event.”

“Not when I was under the…” Cray rolled his eyes in annoyance. “Sorry, not when ‘we’ were under the impression that you were dead.” It was hard to treat this demon coolly, when Nioko was blabbering in the background to be included in the conversation.

“You have to remember who he is.” Nioko said softly.

“I don’t need to be reminded.” He replied.

Phoklone was the demon who bound Nioko and Cray into the same body, two souls, inhabiting a single vessel. Nioko had been seven, Cray eight, and it had been decided by the Divine Court which lay in heaven, of course.

That was the first time the two of them had ever me Father Heaven, otherwise known as God. That day, they’d no idea it would be the fist of several summons.

When Cray turned 15 and Nioko 14, they’d read in the demon newspaper that Phoklone had died. They’d spent years searching for him, hoping that since he’d bound them together, he could pull them apart. They’d been enraged and severally disappointed to find he died, and now they were even more pissed to find he’d lived, and that they’d been lied to.

“Cray, Nioko, you both know I had to do it. The Demon Plain had all been attempting to capture me to get the same information you wanted. Faking a death was the only way out of it.” Phoklone was attempting to supply explanations, but Cray wanted none of them.

“Oy, Cray, keep your eye on his hands there.” Nioko told him.

“I know.” He answered her, watching as Phoklone tried to sneak a hand to his left pant pocket. In one quick movement, Phoklone had drawn his dagger. He jumped to his feet, dagger raised, and smiling.

“Sorry you two, but I came to this contest for the same reason you did. I want that wish. I need it to protect myself from all the demons on my trail, and to spread my name to the world. Phoklone, the demonic alchemist. Has a nice ring to it.”

Cray laughed, and drew his key-blade from his back.

It looked like the basic sword. The handle was a foot long, and was wider than most swords and the end of the blade went into the shape of a key. It was a weapon Nioko had found one day during her travels.

“Phoklone, let’s strike a bargain.” Cray offered, and heard a mental growl in his brain.

“Don’t trade with him, Cray.” Nioko snapped. “Get the information from him, and then kill him.”

“I can’t get the information, without trading, Nioko.” He growled back, and then spoke aloud.

“I let you live, and you tell me the secret to unbinding Nioko and I.” He told the demon. “This is a one time offer, expires upon two seconds from now.” Phoklone did not seem intimidated.

“Just my luck.” Nioko muttered mentally. “That we run into Phoklone, and you’re on the outside.” Cray smiled smugly.

“Your answer?” Cray asked.

“Cray, I can’t afford to die here.”

“Then tell us what we need to know.”

“You refer to yourselves as a ‘we’ now?”

“Just answer the question.”

“There isn’t a way.” The demon sighed. “What I’ve done can’t be undone. That’s that.”

“He’s lying. He’s got to be.” Said Nioko, and Cray noticed her voice had gone up an octave.

“Pipe down in there.” He replied to her, not bothering with her for the moment.

Holding up their key blade, he rushed at the demon, which just stood, waiting for him. Cray slashed at him, and Phoklone blocked it with…..his own arm? Cray pulled back immediately, not sure what had happened.

“Cray, don’t freeze up. They’re just metal gauntlets on his wrists. Get back in there.” Nioko screamed at him, and her screeching jerked him from his momentary freeze up. He began swinging his blade again.

Phoklone was a reasonable fighter, but it was well known he’d spent his life learning spell-casting ways, whereas Cray and Nioko had grown up learning only to battle. Now, after being joined for so long, they were learning from each other, as much as they learned from their opponents.

Cray took a running jump and brought the blunt end of his blade down right above Phoklone, coming right down on top of his head. Phoklone realized he couldn’t just step aside. Instead, he crossed his hands above his head and let the sword land on his gauntlets. Phoklone didn’t even blink. How could he be unfazed by that attack?

“Pity.” Phoklone said, looking at the key blade pressed against his gauntlets. “I really would have thought you could do better, what with all the training you possess between you and Nioko.”

Cray’s hands went into tense fists around his blade’s handle.

“It’s been a long time since you’ve seen us fight. You have no idea what we are capable of now.” He said.

“Don’t loose control of your anger.” Came the whisper across his thoughts.

“Don’t worry. This fight is already in the bag.”

“Do you mean to say you weren’t going to let him go? Even if he gave us the information?” She asked.

“That is what I mean to say.”

“Just make sure you keep your head.” Nioko added. Cray felt he was being patronized.

“You done?” he asked her. She sighed heavily.

“Yes! Just go fight your battle, and get this over with will you?”

Cray agreed without any further arguments.

He threw himself at Phoklone, who kept blocking with his damned gauntlets. Finally, really pissed off, Cray did just what Nioko was screaming at him to not do. He attacked the gauntlets instead of his opponent. After insisting he focus on the gauntlets and he complied, Nioko took to complaining that he was ruining their blade.

He slammed down his key blade from above Phoklone once more, making him block with his arms again, and this time Cray saw the demon wince as the force of Cray’s attack slammed through his muscles.

Cray delivered this attack twice more, and on the third time, there was a satisfying CRACK!

Cray skipped back several steps. He stared on gleefully, as he saw Phoklone’s gauntlets fall from his wrists to the ground. Phoklone had fallen to his knees, and his fingers were running over the pieces of his broken armor fervently.

“You shattered them.” He muttered unbelievingly, and then slowly looked up at Cray with a dark glare. “You shattered them.” He said again, this time in a low voiced growl.

Cray chuckled. Nioko echoed it.

Phoklone rose to his feet, and then in a move faster than Cray would have expected, the demon leapt across the distance between them, driving a dagger towards Cray’s chest.

Cray slapped the dagger from the demon’s hand. It spun through the air, and then plopped into the ocean water. Phoklone paused, but Cray knew he would attack again.

He also knew the demon was no longer any threat. There was only one thing left do now, and that was to kill him.

“Are you honestly hesitating?” His counterpart laughed.

“No.” He snapped bitterly.

Cray thought killing enemies who were defenseless to be shameful to his demon nature. Nioko believed if the enemy had attacked her, he was as good as dead anyway.

She was a ruthless one.

Phoklone attacked Cray, but it was clear there was no threat left in him. There were plenty of openings for Cray to end him, but he continued to pass them up. Finally, he gave his opponent’s knee a kick, shattering the bone, and driving him to the ground.

Cray swung his blade point to the demon’s throat.

“Kill him now.” Nioko growled to him, but he paused. “Why are you hesitating again?” She yelled at him, and Cray could feel her anger reverberate within the walls of his mind.

“What if he can help us Nioko? What he does know?” Cray asked her. She let out a soft growl.

“Damn it Cray. He bound you and I. He did this to us. Are you honestly telling me he does not deserve this and more?”

Cray bit his lip, and involuntarily closed his eyes.

His counterpart appeared before him. She grasped him by the shoulders.

“Cray, whether he has the secret or not doesn’t matter, not if we win this contest.” She explained. “With the wish, we can be unbound. Don’t you want that?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then kill him.”

Cray’s eyes snapped open again, and he saw that Phoklone had been reaching for a dagger stuck in his boot. Cray straightened the arm holding his weapon.

“I hate killing demons when their down.” Cray growled silently. “It’s shameful to a demon.”

“That may be true for demons, but I am an angel.” Nioko said, and Cray knew she was angry with him. “I hold no such handicap. Kill him.”

“But Nioko,” Cray started, but she interrupted him.

“Cray, don’t make me say it again.”

“Nioko, I just think….” Cray tried again.

“Fine Cray. I’ll do it.”

And suddenly, Cray’s key blade had swung upwards into the air, and a second later, came crashing down to land right smack dab on Phoklone’s head, splitting it in two. Blood coated his sword and arm.

“Nioko, you had no right.” Cray snapped, and she just came back with the same amount of fury.

“I knew I shouldn’t have let you out. I knew you didn’t have it in you.”

Cray shut his eyes so he could see her. This time, he took “her” by the shoulders.

“Remember this isn’t your body to control, Nioko.” He shook her roughly. “This vessel of a body holds both our souls. It is not your decree that decides who fights what battle, and what enemy falls or escapes. When I am on the outside, it is my soul that rules, just as it is when your soul is released.”

Cray washed the blood from his blade in the seawater…..and it was in the reflection of the water that he saw a flicker of something.

He craned his head around, his senses being thrown out to alert him of any dangers.

He smelled blood…mortal blood.

“A whip.” Cray stated to himself. Nioko didn’t reply.

Cray got to his feet, and turned to face the direction of the beach they’d come from when following Phoklone.

“I’m going to check it out.” He stated to his other part, but who stayed silent. “Nioko?” He asked.

“I understand what you said Cray, but I don’t see the sense in your fighting, if you refuse to kill your opponents. You and I will not survive if you continue like this.”

Cray shook his head, and began to head down the beach. He kept close to the forest edge, so that the shade concealed him when he reached the battle being waged a mile down the shore.

Before passing out of sight of the body, Cray glanced back to where Phoklone lay on the ground. His brains lay on the sand, along with his gauntlets.

“I sure hope you didn’t just kill our only chance to become our old selves again.” Cray muttered aloud to himself, and then left.

His mind was too cluttered with thoughts of the human he’d smelled, and his thoughts of curiosity as to what it meant. Because of this, he missed the responding thought from his counterpart.

“Me too.”