Koe fanfiction (temp)

New-Blood Feud by Boswok
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There were five of us, a most auspicious number for a wu. The ancients of the great city of Shanghai told us that we were to be a family, that we would combine our powers and fight the demons that plague the fifth age of the world. The sixth was to be an age of darkness and we all hope to stop that terrible era from destroying the world, especially in the middle kingdom. We had not yet made it to the great test, but it would be soon and then we would see if we were meant to work for heaven. We met in a small bar, some of us --warm and radiant--sipping tea and some of us showing the pallor of death. There were formal introductions to be made. Since I was the embodiment of the harmonious center of the family, I volunteered to go first. "I am Lau Shen. My dream is to find the joys and love of life. I am of the Thrashing Dragon dharma and my way is the center". So it began. We each went around the table telling of our dharma of enlightenment, our direction in this incarnation, our desires, and our abilities. There was myself, seeker of love, practitioner of the fighting arts, and socialite. There were many fighters amongst us; one was a young boy no older than twelve years of age, a follower of the north direction and a Resplendent Crane; another was also a Crane of the north, both were fighters for justice and tradition by dharma and direction; there was also the Devil Tiger of the south-- fighting to bring enlightenment through pain to himself as well as others-- he was mute. The other was a young girl, a student of the omens and a sad creature. Her way was that of the Shadow's Song, directed to the west and the dead. She was much in harmony with her dharma by extension of her direction. I felt an odd kinship with the sad one, though she was a force of death and I was one of life. So, this was to be my family through good times and ill. We weren't all too alike from what I could see, but diversity is an auspicious thing. Perhaps we would grow together through the trials ahead. I knew that I would try; it was my duty and my hope to bring my group together as a family. As a creature of the excesses of life, it was the challenge of enjoying life without ignoring obligation to my siblings. Life is full of compromises though. My very existence was one such.Her name was Lady Ryuko, a devil-tiger. She was well known to the kuei-jin of the area. Her domain was downtown, in Blood Alley, where she inflicted horrible tortures on man and demon alike. She was enlightened indeed.We met her there, the five of us, in her chamber of horrors. She had her servants present us after we traveled past halls of screaming tortured souls. It was surreal, almost, that this was the work of enlightenment. The devil-tiger of our group was one of her proteges, suffering under her iron claw until he knew the meaning of pain. That was the theory, at least. She had the stripes and claws of the tiger. They had most likely come to her with dharmic progression, making her fierce and animalistic. The effect was unsettling. She told us that we would do for her in her furnace room. The walls were covered in blood and the fireplace blazed with heat that made us all nervous of the wave nature. There was a well-respected man who had recently died. We were to go to his funeral, meet her contact, and take from him a young boy. We were to raise this boy and teach him all the virtues of our dharmas. We were to make him happy and raise him well. If, by any chance, we failed in our duty, we would die by her terrible claws. She dismissed us, but I stayed behind to offer my sentiments.If we were threatened with death, we would be acting in fear. If we feared the boy, we would resent him. I thought that the enlightened lady had a strange way of commanding her will of happiness and joy for this young one. A bit more faith in our sense of duty seemed in order. After all, though we were not yet people in the eyes of the court, we were doing a favor and deserves some gratitude. I tasted her claws and she grinned. Such is the way of the enlightened. I left my blood on the already crimson wood of the doorway, adding my personal flavor to that of the other former residences. When I stepped outside, I said nothing. They saw my bloodied cheek and said nothing in turn, my new family. We set out. Tomorrow we would pick up this young boy.The funeral was a ritual thing. Very formal and forced, the people stood in their suits under the rain tent and listened to the eulogy of the great patron and all his wonderful accomplishments in life. I was personally dressed modestly, as I had no choice in the matter. My family was similarly dressed aside from a couple of them who had savings of their own. We avoided the main tent and the funeral procession, moving beyond to a dull-eyed man outside who stood next to a young boy. As we approached-- myself in the lead-- he pushed the boy forward, sobbing in fear. I led because of my social graces and chose the moment to glare at him for his inconsideration. His response was a dull, detached gaze; I felt sickened by it. I faced the boy with the uncut side of my face showing; I told him everything would be alright and offered my hand. He must have been terrified, but he did at last accept it and we left the place together. His name was P'o; he couldn't have been older than eight for all his innocence. We left the place of death then, five demons and one young boy, and stepped onward to a collective future. Another of my dharma, Reine Tran, gave us shelter that night. She was an artist and lived in generous luxury for a place like China. We were all there with her; I stayed close to the boy. He was sad then, crying over his mother. At the whim of Ryuko, this child had been removed from his family and placed with mine for reasons I did not know. Perhaps it was a mistake on her part, though I would not know it until later in the night.
The cranes were both acrobats. They used their skills to try to impress him and give joy; the one who fell on his neck succeeded. Those from the other dharmas--aside from mine--were indifferent. I tried to console him and tell him it was alright and that he would be safe with us. Reine Tran was obviously heedless of her p'o. She became a towering demon before us, her wings and tail sprouting from her torso, her muscles growing, and her limbs extending. She stared at us with a horrible grin upon her face and said: "I will make him laugh".As she advanced upon the boy, I blocked her path and engaged her in combat. She struck me in the ribs and knocked me back. The others filled in quickly and within moments she was taken down. The older of the two cranes suffered a deep claw wound from her fury. He went to pray for forgiveness from Buddha after the fight had ended. P'o shrieked his horror at the demon before him and I hurried him away to the bedroom of the house.
He cried and moaned in disbelief and helplessness; I tried to set him at ease. I tried to calm him and lull him to sleep, telling him he'd had a nightmare; my yang-laden abilities aided me in the endeavor, but he would, no doubt, be haunted by this night.
I don't know why, but there was another fight and the sounds of it crashed throughout the house. I told P'o to stay there and rushed out to confront the situation. They were locked in combat with a newcomer. The older crane had him wrapped with a manrikigusari rope and the younger fought him with the twin swords bestowed upon him by the court elders. The devil-tiger was off to the side, circling.
I rushed in and struck the newcomer as he fell to the floor. The older crane then decided that he would be the peacekeeper, striking me with the opposite end of his manrikigusari. I fell back stunned. Annoyance welled up within me and I screamed out at them all to cease their childish behavior. I berated them, every one, and they all fell still and silent. The bone flower girl wept to herself, her greatest display of emotion in my presence yet. As I sorted out the situation, it grew yet worse.The devil-tiger was now a monstrous demon himself. Nobody seemed to have control over the inner demon tonight. He rushed upon the older crane and struck him down with clawed hands, shattering the sword he wielded; he was not going to recover. I screamed out in rage and focused all of my yang energy into the wooden practice sword I had with me; the point was sharp and it crackled with scarlet chi as I shoved it into the demonic chest of my would be wu mate. Those still standing were upon him then, myself and the young crane furiously trying to puncture his tough hide with out fiery weapons. The bone flower stood unassumingly off in the corner.We fought him, desperate to break him before he could cause anymore harm. The girl was making strange movements with her hands, seeming to draw upon the energy of the environment with her dead powers. I jumped back, thinking she would unleash some great power, but she only continued her patient movement. I resumed the battle with the demon.
We had not taken him yet, and he showed no signs of tiring. I hoped he could not destroy us both, but his current form was mighty. Hsing-Ko unleashed her power then, and we were thrown by hurricane winds into the far wall; even the demon was helpless before her storm shintai. He struggled against her winds but eventually lost and was thrown into the wall more permanently. Seeing the futility of his struggles, he crushed a hole through the wall; and we all followed him out limp or lively into the brick of the next building. He landed first, hard. Then I soared into him with my blade snapping off in his chest; I experienced the little death then as my body fell beneath the crushing weight of a hundred bricks. The young crane came last, slamming into the wall. The battle between them continued, I saw with the eyes of my hun outside of the shell that held my dual souls. The crane slashed with his sword, the other ancient treasure of our world had been blown away in the winds. Hsing-Ko came then, pushed along by her own winds and smashing into the demon in a great finale. She used a soft art and broke the chi free from his dead body, with the young crane still slashing. Eventually the demon died.
I woke up two nights later. P'o was still crying and our would-be wu had been reduced to three. One of the twin swords was missing, another legendary weapon was broken. I found a hatred of the devil caste stirring in the recesses of my mind that night; and starting over with young P'o was going to be difficult. Recovery was difficult; and I needed to unwind. I knew what I wanted, so I went to a quaint little bar and ordered some tea. I did not trust young P'o to the clutches of my fellows, so I brought him along. My yellow robes weren't exactly pristine; but they were liberating and immodest, which suited me well. The situation was odd, but I had been playing this game for a while, even before I had died. I looked around and saw a beautiful young woman who seemed to be receptive to what I wanted to offer. We chatted for a while. P'o was very courteous throughout our conversations.
Despite myself, I was interested in her, like I was in all the others. Her name was Li. Her family was not well-off, though this was not always so. Thrust into poverty like so many other good Chinese, Li's family used to work in architecture. Now, in order to survive, they struggled and scrabbled and lived amongst the rubbish of the condemned buildings with other unfortunates. It was interesting to see someone from that situation with such a look of will. I rushed her positive emotions toward me using unnatural applications of my animus. She was quite receptive, despite certain circumstances. P'o asked if he could see her house when I smiled at him; and I suppressed a deeper grin of gratitude for the boy's ingenuity. Her family stayed on the roof of an old apartment building near the shore. As we ascended, I looked around at the place in which she resided. Truly, it was beneath her; and yet she accepted it gracefully. Her aunts and nieces giggled their assent and her male elders nodded their dismissive assent. Whispers and murmurs ran through the whole of the family, but we were oblivious. Her corner of the roof was a makeshift tent made of sheets, carpeted in pillows. P'o played with the other children as we enjoyed each other's company. We began a discussion about youth; how strange it was, how ephemeral, how it changes with the circumstances of the day. I wondered aloud how someone could keep it so close to heart when responsibilities drove it into submission. She told me I didn't look old; and I told her I was older than she knew. Still, we had both known the way in which we would eventually reach for youth; we made love deep into the night in the dingy night air. I felt that I could know no way other than that of life and yang with such joys to be had. When she slept, I tried to slip away. I could not see P'o, but then I also couldn't see the fire I stepped in while looking for him. It was quite an embarrassing way to end the night, falling into the polluted ocean moments before the dawn creased the sky. I ended up sleeping in a dumpster; P'o was still with Li's family. The next night was slightly more embarrassing, when I went to retrieve him. Most everyone there did enjoy a long moment of laughter, at any rate. The boy was a fool. The child was innocent. I had no idea how a person so young, so impetually foolish, and so heedless of his p'o could follow the path of the resplendent crane. This young boy crane was a terrible example of what a crane could be. I feared for the safety of the child, P'o. I was not there at the time, but from what I gather, Lee the crane attacked one of the other kuei-jin; a rootless tree martial arts expert. I met him and seemed unthreatened by his presence, so I could not help but wonder why Lee had done this. Unfortunately our young crane was no help answering this question in little death, so I had to trust the testimony of the stranger of the path of a thousand whispers. Apparently, Lee was attacking a gang of child-slavers who were kidnapping a pair of kids. Lee must have had a soft spot for the young; he attacked the three slavers, led by a bakemono. He lost control of his p'o--as he seemed prone to doing--and went on a rampage. A bit later and a few shrieking innocents and he came upon another gang, catching the eye of the whisperer, whose name was Li Wu. That one tried to protect his fellow kuei-jin from the gang and in return was attacked himself by the foolish boy. Now Lee was suffering the little death.
When Lee woke up, we were devastated to find that he had lost his enlightenment. It was a dark hour, but Hsing-ko the bone flower knew what to do. We gathered his body in a sheet and paraded him through back alleys until we came upon the palace of a powerful bone flower who was mentor to Hsing-ko. We sat in a bowing position for over two hours. The dealings were highly ritualistic and therefore Hsing-ko and I handled them as the others bowed their assent. The room was full of singing metal and in the center was a pool of what looked to be mercury. The ancestor showed no signs of being pleased with us but still performed a great rite for our fallen crane. When he finished the ritual the boy rose from the liquid with light in his eyes once more. We gave him clothes and profusely thanked the great ancestor for gracing us with his skill.
Leaving, we told the boy to keep vigilant guard over his demon, for it could be his undoing. He would have to learn much more

restraint if he ever desired to be a great crane. It was a waste of effort from all parties involved. A mere few days later he went insane with demon chi and attacked the rest of us. I heard shots in the hallway coming from the gun of a visiting devil-tiger associate. I had no love for that dharma, but I had to protect P'o. Telling him to hide in the bathroom, I ran out into the hall. Lee was trying to rend the flesh of the visiting devil-tiger. I derived an immense satisfaction from the sound of Lee's shattered vertebrae, even as he plummeted back into the harrowing little death. I hoped he learned a lesson from the demons who would rend his soul for the next week. Our debt to the benevolent ancestor grew, and I wondered why we bothered to save this pitiful young crane from his self-inflicted demise. I could have sworn that the

ancestor believed the same; even to the extent that he would have killed us all with a slight misstep. I wondered at the flimsy bonds of our would-be wu.The whisperer was a decent enough demon, in his way. His name was Chang Lu; his current existence was that of a martial arts expert. His home was attached to a dojo, but I saw no evidence that it was used to teach any disciples. It was awkward that he had such a large space with so many weapons, but none to use them but himself. Having a young boy to take care of, I decided it would be best if I stayed with this stranger; for he was of the same blood as I, and I had nowhere else to go. Hsing-ko also accompanied us, keeping P'o company; they played catch with an old ball of rope and colored the walls of the dojo when I was away. It was a strange life I led with these people, but I had adapted. I decided I wanted a home of my own. It was aggravating to be forced to accept the hospitality of a stranger while my allies all acted as children and my ward was surrounded by the impure.
I had been to the devil-tiger's home before. It was a vile place that the rest of us had come to know as the "Squirrel Hut" for the overabundance of dead rodents the lord of the house had collected and strewn about. The animals were skewered in any number of ways by the monster who had captured them; and they crowded the floors with their rotten carnage. I wandered through the house looking for anything immediately useful to me, finding only a few kitchen knives and rags. The monster had not kept furniture, and his three guns outnumbered all the chairs and tables in the house. I wandered into the bedroom and stopped dead in my tracks. The sick bastard. The monster. The vile creature. He had a young woman tied naked to his bed, bleeding from many wounds, starving, and utterly helpless. I was infuriated with the lack of shame he had possessed. I found myself more and more grateful he had been dispatched before he could do any further harm. I slowly approached the bed with a kitchen knife and cut the rope that bound the young woman to the bed. She stirred, recoiling slowly in fear of the pains that would be inflicted upon her. I tried to reassure her: "You're going to be all right; I'm getting you out of here."
Her voice was cracked and wavering from starvation and dehydration but I understood her well enough: "Where is the monster? He kidnapped me; tortured me; left me here for days. Oh, God. What if he comes back?" My eyes burned with assurance and my voice radiated a conviction that was all too natural: "He's dead now."
I think it may have taken as long to find an unsullied bedsheet to wrap her in as it did to carry her several blocks to Lu's for care. Hsing-ko gave her medical attention and I stayed with her to keep her fears at bay. She would not have me leave her alone in the small bedroom that Lu had in his house, so I lay beside her until she rested with some measure of peace. As the sun rose, I forced more of the yang-force into my flesh to keep myself warm and alive; even as the unnamed girl beside me struggled in dreams with the terror that is the truth. Her recovery would be slow, but the boy and I had nothing but time. My personal family seemed to be growing with every twisted path that crossed mine. At the meetings, I had met another young crane. Similar, in a way, to the last one I had met before, he and I had become friends. I could see that he nobly adhered to the practices of his dharma and sought justice for the world. I believed in his struggle as much as any other, but it was not my own. Still, I found his conviction a pleasant contrast to the childish ways I had encountered everywhere else lately and had a common problem to share with him. He and I were both in desperate need of a place to reside; and I had found the place. The Squirrel Hut would need a lot of work but it was salvageable. Wu wasn't a rich man but had an interesting source of income of his own. Unlike myself, looking for a chance to make money at random, he had a sort of charity bond with the people of Shanghai.
Li Wu had been an exceptional martial artist in his living days; he made kung fu films and was quite famous. Fame had its
obstacles, though. He was addicted to heroin and died of an overdose. Still, the communist government of China recognized him as a public figure and built him an exceptional burial shrine where the people could see his preserved body and leave gifts to his memory. Nobody seemed to notice that he was not there every night, nor that he was borrowing a few of the gifts left for him by the people. Perhaps they thought his spirit was accepting the gifts or that the government had a tithe of his post-mortem possessions, but it was a reasonably stable source of income.He and I resolved to make the vanquished devil-tiger's home our own and set to cleaning it. It was amazingly hard to remove the squirrel refuse from the premises, but we remade the house with time. We were extremely fortunate as well. It is rare that one finds an unclaimed house in communist Shanghai, and this one had been left alone for nearly a week. We found many of the strangest things that we needed for the place as well. Someone left an egg-basket chair in Wu's shrine, and he found a working refrigerator on the sidewalk during our toils. We threw away the old bed and many of the other accessories of the place, buying new furniture and better accessories. The place was actually becoming something of a home. We had changed it so much that I was confident the young lady I had found here--whose name I learned to be Fong Li Chen--wouldn't even recognize it. She was recovering well, and with my help learning to relax and trust again. She seemed beholden to me, with nowhere else to go and nobody else willing to care for her as I had been. She enjoyed P'o, but seemed indifferent to Chang Lu and only interested in myself. She was from another country and had fled here to escape her life and that left her with nothing but the streets to look forward to. I could not abandon her to that lifestyle, as it was my duty to nurture life wherever possible. She treated P'o well and was an excellent cook, so I decided I'd help her out by giving her a place to stay. Li Wu did not object.
I had somehow managed to convince her that the place we stayed at was not the one she had been tortured in; she looked at it with fresh eyesand trusted my assurances. P'o had no problems moving, since Lu gave us his television as we left. I knew I had to get P'o into school rather than leaving him unattended during the day doing nothing but eating sugar and watching television. He had even asked about it himself. Fong Li would take him, for certain. Now that we had a place to stay, we could spread our roots and live with a newfound stability. It was now a home for us all. I was a bit worried. The sacred Re was only a few days away and we were all playing tag in the park with P'o. The child surely needed to enjoy himself, but I had made arrangements for him to enter school and we should have been planning our futures more productively if we were to

survive the final test. I suppose that those of us who were physically oriented were earning a bit of an exercise at the moment, as the simple game was not being played just for the boy. Lu and Wu darted after one another through the bamboo treetops and the crane, Lee, was actually using Yin Prana to wrap himself in the night. All for this little game. I suppose it could have been worse.
Still, I was worried. I went to the Lady Ryuko and told her of the past events. I told her that of the five she had assigned to protect the boy, only three remained. I gave her my suspicions of the boy Lee, and told her of the fractious nature of his personality. I told her that I feared to let the others near P'o, for we were all ravening demons. She asked me if P'o was happy. Upon hearing that he gave me no complaints, she said that all was well and dismissed me; but not before giving me a painful slap.
Li. I had not seen her in a while, and it was time to renew my spiritual reservoir for the coming tests. I truly enjoyed myself with her; and it was good to be near a woman without the weight of my existence crushing me, if only for a moment. Fong Li had made her feelings clear to me; seeing me as a savoir deserving great reward. But something stayed my hand in accepting her affections. Perhaps it was my proximity to her, and her lack of information regarding my true nature. I know not, but I refused to take her innocence in such a way. So, there were the random strangers I met night by night, and there was Li. I had always made a habit of pushing the limits of a dangerous situation, for it exhilirated me. I did not know how to drive, and the streets were flooded with people, so I had taken to the rooftops as my way of transportation. I had broken a few bones in my falls, but it was a good exercise to keep me on my feet. Upon arriving at Li's family residence, I found that she

was not there. Without much else to do, I checked a couple of the clubs and tea houses about the neighborhood and happened to find her shopping for groceries. After a while, we ended up back at my house. It was ackward, explaining Fong Li's presence, but Li understood with time that I had no romance with her; Fong Li did not seem to mind my choice of company, oddly enough. It was a good night. The next night I would catch the eyes of strangers in a club and have my way with them, but this night was more than that. My spirit was soaring when I finally approached the time of the great Re. Tonight was the night of the Re. I awoke in the vents of a random club I had chosen as my hunting ground the night before. It took a bit of creative begging to find my way to the builiding that would house the event, but I had always been very skilled


in such social qualities. I was amazed to find almost no people at the site. The streets had been cleared and all passersby were obviously hurrying as though afraid of the consequences inherent in lingering there. Sounds were pouring from the rafters of the building, which may have been an opera house or a play theater. There was a party covering the initiation of demon people, one which would surely provide nourishment for many hungry dead that night.The evening was long and tense. Most of the potential kuei-jin were members of my would-be wu. The other two that I noticed seemed oddly mismatched to their dharmas. As the night wore on these were separated from the rest with precision and subtlety. Still, we all noticed. Both were resplendent cranes, oddly, and both seemed as though they would be better suited to my own dharma. A woman both eloquent and gentle, this crane was asked to sing a song for the gathering. At the pinnacle of her display, she was escorted to another room, never to be seen again. A man carefree and full of zeal, this crane performed an expert bit of marksmanship, only to meet a similar fate.
Of my strange gathering of acquaintances, the two cranes both performed martial art forms with great speed and precision. The bone flower presented a long, flowing koan that had seen months of dedicated preparation that had shown through with poetic grace. The centipede also chose target practice as his display of worth to the community--and even worse--he faultered. He took his seat once more, but the mark of shame was upon him and none of us saw him after we left our presentation.
My turn came last and I had no quick, flashy gimmicks to offer my ancestors. I begged them to give me an audience, as my skills required the presence of people to be effective. After a moment, the stage we sat upon saw many new arrivals. For the next hour or more I talked to them, learning their interests and hopes and attempting to inspire them to embrace destiny. I reached the end of my speech with a resounding cry for action from my new subjects. With that, my test had ended. We were all people, then. Our lives began that night, with a brand new future ahead of us all. We each stepped off the stage to take what we would of the mortals surrounding us. I woke up in the arms of a stranger, more satisfied with myself than ever before. Time had gone by, perhaps a month since the Re. I was a person now, with the right to live under the laws of the kuei-jin. With time to myself as a running monkey, I decided to consolidate my hold over the comforts of life. My house became much more orderly, Li Wu bringing in an egg-basket chair for luxury and P'o entering school with the help of a friend of mine.

I had barely had a chance to return from feeding before I got a call. It was Hsing-Ko and she told me I would fight a demon that night; she told me to find Chang Lu. I grabbed my wooden practice sword and bolted out the door. Several rooftops later, I was in his home. I began to relay the bone flower's message when the young crane, Lee, came bursting through the door. He told us he had fought an akuma in the condemned neighborhoods on the far side of town. I could see why; he was covered in filth and had not likely had a roof over his head since the Re. We did not ask questions, we just followed him. Along the way to the dilapidated neighborhood Hsing-Ko stepped out of the shadows of an alley to join us. Her prophecies were amazingly precise at times and I wondered about them when she would pull something like this. Eventually, as the squalor surrounded us, people came with it. They begged us for help and my friends pushed past them. I thought better of it though and took a greater notice of them. They were mostly children in various stages of starvation and injury, some much worse than others. These few wimpered and cowered, telling us of the demon in their midst. After a good number of them had gathered, I noticed an adult pushing through to speak to us. I represented our group, telling him we would slay the akuma. He scoffed at me, telling me that this was no place for heroes. He gestured to one of his wards and told me that the demon had taken her eye and that I would fare no better than she had. I said to him that heaven would dictate my actions; he would see what became of me after I met the demon, if only he would show me the way. This seemed to have changed his mind.The house was a disgusting wreck, perfect for our foe to burrow in. The smells were overpowering and the sights blended well with them. Everything was couched in decay in this dead place. Hsing-Ko stayed outside, prepared to destroy this place if the other three of us didn't return. As we toured the ground level floor we kept our senses alert, noticing all of the small sounds coming from the house. We indicated with hand-signals that each of us knew the demon was below us. Closing into a huddle, we made policy decisions. Lu and I would stick together and find the demon, while Lee blocked off the exit. Lu was undoubtedly the best fighter among us, while I had an invaluable tool at my disposal in the form of Yang Prana. If all went well, Lu would engage the demon and we would dispatch it together. Failing that, Lee would stop the creature from escaping and if none of us returned to the night air within half of an hour, this place would be rubble. We moved cautiously, sticking to the shadows and avoiding the creaking floorboards wherever possible. A few times we heard sounds, hiding behind the detritus of the rooms we traveled through in anticipation of an ambush. Every time nothing came, but I sent a surge of yang energy into my wooden sword just to be sure I would be ready for whatever we found. We kept moving. Lu and I exchanged signals when we found a stairwell leading downward towards the sounds. Lu had obviously not been well practiced because he convinced me he was going the other way. It took a while to get back in line together, but we managed. The bottom of the stairwell was a terrible place. The first thing I noticed was the little girl on top of the table in the center of the room. It was impossible to tell what function the room had served because there was so much trash and much on the floor that it looked more like a cess pit than the inside of a house. I tested the floor with my sword and it sank through as though it had touched quicksand. Scanning around, we could not see the akuma anywhere. I was not as strong as Lu, so I let him attempt the crossing to reach the girl. We needed to get her to safety before making any more movement against the beast in this lair. Ever so careful of the silence in the air, Lu grabbed a ceiling beam and slowly crossed the room towards the girl. I was nervous, and would have shot lightning at anything that moved during that tense moment. Nothing did, though, and I grew weary of the wait. I felt impotent as I watched Lu so far away, attempting to silently gather up the girl for her escape. Then there was movement. The entire floor seemed to shift and before I knew it, there were claws rising out of the muck behind Lu. I could not project my energies from this range for fear of hitting Lu and the girl, so I readied myself for a giant leap. Burning my p'o into a focusing scream I unleashed the power of Kiai with the hopes of crossing over to strike. I was disappointed. My pitch was off and I temporarily shattered my voice as the shout caught in my throat.It was enough though, and the battle began in earnest. Lu had his metal sword and blocked the path to the girl, slashing and stabbing at the akuma. I moved in, yang energy crackling in the air around my sword and helped keep the monster at bay. As Lu drew the demon's blood with his sword, I gathered up the girl and dove for the stairwell with her, trying desperately to get her out of range of the battle.The air became even more unpleasant with the smell of corroding metal, while the demon's acidic blood took apart the blade of Lu's sword. I dove back into battle as Lu dodged the claws and spurting blood of the akuma. A burning slash and the demon had a large gash in its side; Lu added a salvo of cuts that seemed only to enrage the demon. I swung again, missed. Lu stabbed and connected as I came around for an impaling blow. As Lu's sword melted and mine began to fill the air with its own stink, I swung around in a circle and buried the blade through the back of the akuma, just to be sure it was dead. Lu took it a step further, taking off the demon's head and rendering his sword completely useless in the process. When we stepped out of the house, we saw Hsing-Ko poised to release a hurricane gail. She saw us and said: "Oh, you did it."

After that it was all loose ends. We were heroes to the residents of the grotto and we gave freely of our chi that the children might heal their undeserved wounds. I found myself the subject of awe for all of them. I was the charismatic speaker, which made me the hero. It was a strange thing for a demon like myself, but I took it with all the grace I had in me. The leader seemed well informed and we pondered a mutual trade for the remainder of the night. The children celebrated the death of their tormentor and crowded around my fellows. It was a night to be remembered for our would-be wu. We did not ask his name; he had several and it was not our place to intrude. He was the ancestor we had fled to after our battle with the demon. A Whisperer, he was playing out the vagaries of a marine biologist's life. I knew nothing of this field, but then again I had no interest in talking about mundane issues.Lu and I endured his riddles, responding in kind until we could properly address the issue at hand. Lu was eloquent as he knew how to be, formally presenting the wrapped head of the akuma to our ancestor. He seemed disturbed by the notion of fledglings such as ourselves crossing the path of such a demon, as the more experienced members of the court typically took care of these problems. We gave him the head, much to the disappointment of Lu, who would have loved to have a demon trophy. It was a wonder Lu did not attempt to take advantage of the moment, in the presence of an ancestor belonging to his own dharma. I found it amusing, taking much greater advantage of the possibilities.The Godbody Discipline of Jade was a talent I had clamored after for some time; the Whisperers held it as their signature Discipline. After a long discussion, I had earned his satisfaction as a mentor. He would teach me. I could leave satisfied.It was an odd night; I had imbued my body with yin, the antithesis of my dharmic focus. Just as an experiment, I wanted to contrast the life force that was flowing through my body most nights, to see what I could learn from it. Hopefully I could learn to appreciate the gifts of the yang flowing through me because of this. I leaped across rooftops until I reached the part of the bay area I was looking for: Li. Her family shied away as usual, giving me the wide berth I had earned from them with my power. They usually respected her privacy anyway, which was good. I wondered how she would react to my palor and was actually a bit nervous at the thought.When she saw me it was strange. She asked if I was sick and I could only say that I was. There was no other explanation to give her; I couldn't tell her the truth and I knew I had the chill of the grave upon me. I tried to talk with her, but her mind kept returning to my health. She told me I should rest, recuperate and return when I was better though I said I had the strength to stay up. Eventually she embraced me and I could feel the repulsion in her shudder. She begged me to go and to come back when I was well again. I could not turn her down. Fong Li Chen was another matter. She did not acknowledge my irritation when I returned. It was amusing, almost. P'o sat on the floor, watching the television program, which was thickly laden with communist propaganda, taking cursory glances to eavesdrop. I listened to Fong Li prattle on about me sleeping all day and not having a job. I had taken enough foolishness for one night. If I could not tell Li about my true nature, surely I would tell my human family.I sighed and stood from my place on the couch. Fong Li looked at me strangely as I wandered into the kitchen and picked up a carving knife. I approached her and P'o, standing close to them. I told them what was wrong with me and why I was not the average man. "I can not go out into the day, ever, and my kind had no time for average occupations. We are not men; but we have obligations." Then I showed them what I meant.
The knife went through my palm with a rending pain, after a fashion. There was no blood and I gave no shout of horror. They did not scream, but froze. I turned my hand over for them, just to let them see that this was no trick, that it was as real as night or day. P'o, as innocent as ever, expressed his feelings on this odd revelation. "Whoa." I smiled to myself; he was a sweet boy who was resilient beyond reason. I pulled the knife out. This was not all I had to show them. I held up my hand and spoke. "I live off the chi of the world around me. It permeates my body and gives life to me, yet it is not my own. See how we use it for our own benefits." The wound began to close as I pushed yin energy into it. The shifted bones moved back into place and the cartilage and tendons seemed to decay back to their proper shape. The healing was not done and so I showed them the yang energy next. With a crimson surge of warmth the wounds grew closed, just as though it was in an infant stage, forcibly advanced into maturity. I turned my hand over again, showing the skin, healing that last traces of scar away before their eyes.
At last Fong Li knew. She knew that I was a demon, just like her tormentor from weeks ago. But she also knew that I was different from that wretched creature; and she loved me. I knew this as well as she, and so, despite everything in my life, we remained a family. She, P'o and I, the only ones I could truly count amongst my family. Even more than my nascent wu, this family had the bond of love and understanding. I felt that I was just in feeling this way, for my wu companions had no true bonds to me and my dharma had designed me to respect these aspects of life. The wonders of my fellows never could cease to amaze me, it seemed. The Crane boy, Lee--who had spent his days in pathetic submission to his demon or crawling in the gutters, came to my home to ask P'o to play. I would not allow it. He was entirely untrustworthy and P'o had a human life to enjoy; there was hardly any reason for me to allow him to be dragged out of bed and to the park when he had school in the morning and was sound asleep. I locked the door as I left, irritated with the Crane boy and his audacity. Of all the wu-members only I had made any attempt to teach or care for the child. Only I considered his existence on any regular basis. The rest were far too self-indulgent.

Hopefully Fong Li would know not to let him in if he should return; I pointed out the location of the guns just in case, though.
I returned from my hunt, filled to the brim with chi, finding the door latch broken. I suppose I should not have been surprised to find my young ward missing and the house ransacked. Every blade was missing, the guns hidden beneath the floorboards in the bedroom were gone, the arrogant infant had even stolen a bag of sugar and my television. He must have thought he would be able to make P'o happy somehow. He certainly was a fool to think so. Fong Li was hidden in the bathroom, huddled against the wall. There was nothing she could have done, of course. This was my affair. Lu did not know where he had gone, but the television was there in his house. Perhaps the fool had realized the impossibility

of carrying such a heavy load everywhere with him. He would stick to the squalor that was his essence, that much was obvious. I would need to be careful to track him down and bring P'o back to safety. I enlisted the aid of the grotto members. The children were eager to help me; I was their hero, after all. I burned through the entire remainder of my yin cycle finding him. Wu had endeavored to assist me, but had separated from me along the way. With his luck in life I would not have been surprised if his P'o had been the source of the detour. I knew I was close, though. The corrupting spirits were flocking toward a nearby building and I could just feel P'o within it. I met Hsing-ko shortly before I was about to enter. She told me of a vision. It was masked in obscurity as the Shadow Song visions always are, but it related to me. We had a strange destiny; that much was obvious. She told me I had a strong purpose in the group and wished me luck in my fight. I moved in to engage the errant child. My senses brimmed with conjured yang energy and I pushed it into my wooden sword. If breaking Lee meant risking his destruction, I was willing to take that chance. He had no sympathy from me and he would take none from my weapons if he did not surrender the child from his grip. Who did I find inside flailing at the Crane boy with a sword but Li Wu. Imagine my surprise at the notion. It was a terrible thing that I tried to stop the fight. I worked with words of reason and even took energy from my sword to lend sway to my efforts. It was a foolish moment of shame for me. They were both fast and skilled but the boy won too quickly. When I moved to strike him with my searing sword he swiftly cut the tip off, making it useless. It was a matter of mere moments later until he cut my body to tatters. I could have hardly blinked thrice before I was forced to helplessly watch my own body crumple to the floor.
We had lost. As Lee gloated over our bodies, I stared in impotent rage from the mirrorlands, wishing death upon the filthy wretch. Then P'o emerged from the nearby closet. "Whoa," he said as he clambored toward the window chasing a flitting shape. It was a butterfly, and P'o followed it outside through the open window before Lee could react. The next few moments were blurred by distance and lack of visual confirmation, but I had enough to know what was happening. P'o's sweet childish laughter rang out in the fetid alleyway as he chased down his butterfly, almost oblivious to the approach of his monstrous prey. Then I heard Hsing-ko, voice as calm as ever, speak. "I have a butterfly. Would you like to see it?" Finally, there was the searing shriek and the crash. Damn, my head hurt. It had been two days since I had been shamefully broken. I knew from experience that it would be yet another day before Lee, the shameful Crane rose from the nightmare panoply of the Little Death. Somehow Hsing-ko had managed to find an alleyway where Lee could easily be obscured from the rotting rays of the sun. She had seen it all somehow and now Lee lay limply, pincushioned to a wall of rusty metal spikes that she had spent days building. He was horribly mangled as he deserved to be, but he could put up no fight as I shoved his gore-streaked corpse into a sheet and carried him back to my house. It was difficult carrying both him and Li Wu along with all of my stolen possessions, but two trips proved to be enough. It seemed all I did that night was feed on the rich chi of Shanghai and tie strong knots around the Crane boy's body. He was unnaturally strong and fast for one so young-looking but none of that would matter when he woke up bound by over seven yards of bed sheets.
He was horribly recalcitrant the next night upon waking in my bathroom. If ever I had hope of reason and righteousness bringing this pathetic baby back from the bring of madness, I had abandoned it then. I stormed out, needing to clear my mind; I thought to myself that it would take the ministrations of a Devil-Tiger to set him back on the path, if anything could. I knew better than to leave him unguarded, though; and I left Wu to watch over him as I stepped out.I was no longer addled by the deathly pallor of the yin animation and I had missed Li. She was her former self, receiving me warmly. Passionately. Afterwards, I returned only to find my bathtub empty of its load. Wu was standing there, impotently. I was enraged. I could have stricken my friend at that moment. Worse than his apparent effortless failure was the fact that the culprit was Devil-Tiger Chang Lu, my would-be wu-mate. I curtly reminded Li Wu that he was defending the house this time as I left.I need not have bothered. Lu had already let Lee go, apparently oblivious to the fact that the child was not an adherent to the ways of reason and obligation. I knew someone who would understand these things, though.The Whisperer received me gracefully as ever and I told him my dilemma. He replied with an accounting of the history of the young Lee. He had apparently been sponsored by a sage Crane before being turned loose upon the world and when that same mentor inexplicably passed from the world he gave Lee the twin blades that he had wielded. What interested me was that he could easily be made to face the Eye of Heaven for separating the swords and losing one to an uncertain fate as he had. I could have him destroyed now and I knew it well. A part of me even desired this very thing above all others. But I would not do it. I certainly would break him over and over until he understood his position on the earth once more. It would take doing. The Centipede gave me a parable about repairing cracked glass, all the while pointing to his fish tank. Of course I knew how problematic it would be. Seemingly impossible, really; much like the fish tank was. I would have to tread lightly to capture him and set him straight once more, but at least I had the aid of one wiser than myself. We talked about another thing, as well. I had no time to meditate on the nature of jade and he knew it. So, he showed me the first kata for the Jade Godbody and set me on the path to comprehension. I left for home feeling hopeful. The door was slightly ajar. I was weary. It was a long evening and I had plans to destroy the petty ambitions of the shallow and not very resplendent Crane. Slowly, I drew my practice sword and pushed the door open. The darkness inside was penetrating and I wished that I could work some of the magics that allowed sight in the shadows. I did not even have the time to hone my senses to their sharper edge and so I merely crept in through the door into my own home, like a criminal. I looked around swiftly and on the couch I saw him. His eyes were open and he was holding his sword. Next to him lay Chang Lu, for no reason I could understand. He actually seemed to be asleep, which enraged me to no end. Here, in my own home, were an impulsive Devil-Tiger and a monstrous, childish wretch of a Resplendent Crane; one of them was clearly poising himself for battle now and my mind blurred with something very near hatred.
"So, now I will not have to hunt you down," I said to him, "because I have found you yet again in an obvious place." As he drew his sword in front of him I forced my Yang energy into the wooden sword, making it a deadly thing.
"But you will not live to enjoy it," he said in his infantile and cocky tone. My so-called wu-mate was going to try to kill me; again. It was folly. The will of heaven had no good intentions for me in placing Lee near me in the Middle Kingdom. He slashed at me in a fit of madness. His demon was just beneath the surface and it did not appear to me that he was even making an effort to control it. He was forcing the demonic chi through his body with extraordinary speed and I burned my yang energy to evade him without being quite able to keep up. His cuts were so random and uncontrolled that they mostly glanced off of my forearms as I retreated toward the kitchen. I swung at him and missed as he dove past my blade and cut deeply into my dead flesh. Damn.
I had taken quite enough of this for one night. I countered him with my own demon, stabbing him hard with the burning Yang fire. My robes became ribbons as he flailed at me once again. I did not mind; nor did I attempt to stop it from happening. Instead I focused my demon in a hellraising shriek of concentration and leaped out at him, kicking through his chest and shattering his spine yet another time in our relationship of misfortunate interaction.I was hurt, true; but Lee lay on the floor in a collapsed heap. I walked toward him and saw something that made me freeze cold in my tracks. Behind him was a demon, larger than life and repulsively playful from the look in his eyes. It was Lu, but I feared he was not in control of himself. That look was a malicious one. He advanced slowly with a terribly large sword in

hand and I retreated to the kitchen as fast as I could without turning my back.From there I heard another snap as undoubtedly another set of bones separated in Lee's body. I focused the last of my chi on this next action. I had spent so much fighting Lee and I felt empty from the few calm moments when my energy had healed me. Now there was only a bit left and I forced it all to the forefront as Lu bounded through the door. I shot a bolt of searing yin at him and it soared over his head, blackening the wooden door frame in a futile sparkle of wasted energy. He rushed forward, a gleam in his eye. I backed away from the table that was between us the moment he sliced it in half. My body sizzled as the blade passed easily through my centerline, goring me to another death. My vision faded in a haze of pain. The thousand hells were in my mind once more, but I was not in little death. I fell forward, flayed beyond repair, my body newly, finally dead. The last thing I saw was a confused look fall over the demon's face, as though he was a child who had accidentally broken his toy. Surely this was an unexpected fate for us both. Certainly heaven did not wish this upon me.


(original posted by Turras on 2/7/07 at 3:07 pm) But then it was 1 post, now a few parts