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Kyuuketsuki Duo
Demons -- The Fourth Chapter
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	That was that.  The deal had been struck.  Duo felt as if there 
should have been a bolt of lightning, some judicious bleeding, or a 
horde of hungry Shinma descending to devour his soul in payment, but 
nothing of the sort occurred.  Then again, he considered, they already 
had a considerable hold over his soul, and a churchful of others, for 
that matter.

	The Shinma had pointed him on his way, and then he was off, 
eager to see the end of his self-appointed quest to free his mentor as 
soon as possible.  He felt bad for having just stalked off, leaving a 
bewildered and concerned Heero behind him, but he knew Heero was just 
doing his job, and he knew that it was for the best.  Even if the hunter 
didn't genuinely care, Duo only wanted his companion to be happy, or at 
least content, and he knew that the strong, silent warrior never would 
be while he was tied to such a pathetic, contemptible creature such as 
himself.  Even now, he was off to kill another human in another 
typically human, typically base and savage act, an act that might 
inspire even more disgust from his mentor, even as he tried to free him 
from such disgust.  The irony might have amused him, had it not saddened 
him more.  But in the end, perhaps knowing that Heero would despise him 
would make letting him go more easy.

	In any case, he would follow Heero's advice to the end.  His 
mentor had always said, concentrate on the solution, not the problem.  
He knew that, in this case, if he spent too much time contemplating both 
the cause and the effect of his self-imposed mission, he would only get 
depressed, and maybe get distracted and killed, and that would not help 
Heero at all, so he resolved not to think about it.  There was no 
changing the facts, his past behavior and his human ways, so instead, he 
would concentrate only on the task that the Shinma had set him.  He had 
not made his decision rashly, nor lightly, without consideration of the 
consequences, but now, he avoided thinking about all the unpleasant 
things that he had already resigned himself to.

	The target was located in another isolated countryside.  It 
would take some hunting for the guardian to find, for the Shinma had not 
been very precise in their directions involving the human realm, but 
having visited the ruins of such a location before, he knew what to look 
for.  Standing in the large clearing, eyes closed against the sun's warm 
rays, he opened his mind to the othercurrents, and looked first for the 
sign of any Shinma presence.  He found none.  Odd.  If there were a 
human collecting and studying and abusing Shinma, then there ought to be 
some Shinma being collected and studied and abused.  Duo mentally 
shrugged.  Perhaps the scientist was between samples.

	He changed tactics, instead trying to find signs of prolonged 
bitterness, hatred, suffering, such as the Shinma Urami he had once 
confronted had displayed.  Again, the search came up empty.  On the 
other hand, he did detect signs of sudden pain, a sharp, stabbing pain 
that hit him right behind the eyes, and he reached out a mental hand for 
a solid presence that was not there.  He shook off the disorientation, 
and the need for someone to lean on, and finally the self-directed 
disgust at his own weakness.  If all went well, before long, he would 
have to learn to deal with being on his own on a permanent basis.

	With near-obsessive resolve, Duo moved towards the source of the 
pain.  It was not as he had expected.  With the ruins of the spacious 
villa fresh in his memory, he had anticipated a building at least large 
enough to look as if it might hold a small research facility, and 
perhaps an exterior that discouraged nosy visitors that might disturb a 
scientist's work.

	The building he approached was a small structure, and looked 
actually quite friendly and inviting.  It was situated along a mild 
brook, its clear waters gurgling merrily on its way downstream.  The 
fresh willows along its banks swayed gently, providing a pleasant shade 
to the set of smooth boulders in the middle of the cool liquid.  There 
was a small vegetable garden outside the cottage, the leafy green heads 
only just starting to peek through the weedless soil.  The fishing pole 
leaning against the wall by the door of the well-kept house, and the 
small pottery kiln off to the side, completed the image of the home of a 
self-sufficient human, living off the land by himself amongst nature.

	Duo stood outside the home, scratching his head.  The structure 
was real, no illusion constructed by a crafty creature to lure innocents 
in, or to hide the true nature of the place, and its trappings looked 
tended and used.  He searched the area once more for the presence of a 
Shinma, or the source of the pain, and this time, both searches came up 
empty.  It did nothing to lessen his feeling of ill-ease, however.  
Perhaps he was being jaded when the sight of such an idyllic, cozy 
little homestead made him suspicious, but suspicious he was.  This was 
the place his earlier search had led him to.  It was too random for it 
not to be.

	The door swung open, and from the house stepped a man, appearing 
to be in his late forties.  He wore a loose, homespun shirt, and 
discolored, threadbare cut-off pants, and carried, in one hand, a small 
fishing spear, not held at the ready as a weapon, but as if the man had 
just stepped out to catch his dinner.  He seemed startled to see a 
young, black-clad man standing before his home.

	"Why, 'ello there, young man.  Was there somethin' I could do 
fer you?"

	Duo himself was just as unprepared to see this old man emerge 
from the cottage, but he covered it smoothly.

	"Good afternoon, sir.  I was just passing through the area and 
saw the fresh waters and was considering taking a drink.  If that'd be 
alright with you?"

	The man laughed.  It was a good, friendly laugh, not a 
bone-chilling, sinister one.  "Of course you can, laddie.  The waters 
here belong to no man.  But I could do you one better.  Why don't you 
come in for some freshly brewed tea?  I've had it steeping all morning, 
and was just letting it chill a bit so's I could enjoy some after 
catching me dinner."

	"No, I couldn't," Duo demurred.  "You'll need that after your 
fishing.  It's a warm day."

	"Not at all, laddie.  It's not often I get travelers through 
these parts.  I'd be happy to give you some tea, if perhaps you'll 
entertain an aging man with a story or two of the outside world?"

	Duo considered it.  It was as good as any a chance to get inside 
the small home and investigate it, although what he might hope to find, 
he knew not.

	He put on an amiable grin.  "Agreed."  And the man led him 
inside.

	The interior of the house sported as comfortable an appearance 
as the outside.  The furnishings indicated that there was only one 
occupant of the house, although it seemed as if at some point it had had 
the benefit of a woman's touch, and another's company.  The man propped 
the spear against the kitchen counter and brought Duo to the table.  He 
poured him a glass of the cool tea in a homebaked, earthenware mug, then 
poured himself one.  Duo swirled it in his cup in appreciation, 
inconspicuously checking it for any sign of malignance or poison, as he 
waited for the old man to take the first sip.  Finding all to appear 
innocent, he saluted the old man with his mug and took a swallow of his 
own, surprised to find that he had missed the taste of a liquid other 
than blood or water sliding down his throat.

	The two exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes, speaking of 
the weather and the area, and then Duo shared a story or two from his 
last visit to a town where there had been anything of unsupernatural 
note.  The conversation was, all told, very mundane, but he was a little 
startled at the natural people skills that allowed him to converse so 
easily with the old man.  Before his awakening, he had not much 
interacted with the others at the orphanage, and since his awakening, 
had only interacted with Heero, in an non-social environment.  Although 
such skill had itself been awakened when the Shinma had reshaped him, 
this was the first chance he had had to employ it, and he found himself 
rather enjoying it.

	The old man himself was a pleasant enough conversationalist, and 
Duo had some problem thinking that he might be the one whom the Shinma 
had been referring to, the one who had dared to use the Shinma towards 
his own ends, but for the growing feeling that he was being watched, not 
by the man sitting across from him at the table, but by some other, 
greater force.  His luminous, violet eyes swept the room, seeking the 
source of his unease.  He spotted something out of place on the mantle.

	 "That's a beautiful pot, over there on the mantle," he 
indicated the object at the end with a slender finger.  "Did you make it 
yourself?"

	"Why yes, yes I did."  The man's voice swelled with pride.  "My 
own special formula went into that glaze."

	"May I see it?"

	"Why, certainly."

	Duo stood from his seat and approached the near-iridescent 
container, the old man following.  He picked it up and carefully 
examined the subtle swirls of green on green that seemed to shift as he 
turned it this way and that in the light.

	"It's lovely.  And what about this piece here?"  Duo carefully 
put the urn down and moved to lift his true target, the cloudy gray 
stone in the center of the mantle, worn smooth and shiny from a river's 
waters.  "Did you find it outside?"

	As his fingers made contact with the stone, he felt a sharp jolt 
of electric energy bite his fingertips and a momentary drain of energy 
before he jerked his fingers away, as the man hissed, "Don't touch that, 
you little fool!"

	Startled by the sudden change in the man's voice, Duo spun 
around to see all signs of the man's easy-going nature erased from the 
man's countenance, replaced by a face contorted with an angry snarl.  
The baleful glare was held by eyes whose pupils had completely dilated 
until there was nothing left of the bright hazel irises, nothing but 
black holes that were windows to his soul.

	The man lunged suddenly at Duo, and together they tumbled to the 
rug before the fireplace.  There was a strength to the old man that 
obviously must have come from some outside source as Duo was only just 
barely able to keep the man's outstretched fingers from closing around 
his neck and choking the life from him.  As the guardian of the 
boundary, Duo had never been much trained in hand to hand combat, but he 
had had some experience in brawling from his time at the orphanage, when 
the other children had bullied him for being different, before they had 
learned to leave him alone, and he employed some of these tricks now, 
for once in his life cursing the fact that Shinma powers had no direct 
effect on humans.

	The man had his knees on either side of the guardian, and was 
supporting his own weight on them as he pressed his hands down with 
greater leverage, leaving Duo the precious room he needed to get his own 
knees firmly entrenched in the man's belly.  With an effort, he kicked 
his feet up and heaved the unbalanced man over his head, wincing as he 
heard the man crash through a table even as he scrambled to his own 
feet.

	A dim memory came to him, and he swiftly bound the man to the 
floor with black bands of shadow given substance before he could get up, 
hoping it would work.  It did.  The enraged old man thrashed against his 
bonds and howled his frustration as the guardian took a few steps back 
towards the relative safety of the kitchen and regained his breath.

	'Guess I found the right place after all,' he thought wryly.

	The man's movement suddenly ceased and a malevolent chill seemed 
to pass through the house as the man's unintelligible shrieks slowly 
transformed into dark laughter.  The chains of darkness dissolved, and 
the man got back to his feet stiffly, moving as if another controlled 
his limbs.  He lurched forward in a clumsy step, and Duo grabbed the 
first thing that came to hand, the frying pan off the kitchen counter, 
and held it up over his shoulder threateningly.

	With a horrible grin plastered on his face, the man charged, and 
Duo hurled the heavy metal frying pan at the man's head, grabbing 
swiftly for the second thing that came to hand as the man batted the pan 
aside in his headlong rush with a negligent backhand.  The cookware 
blinded the man just long enough that when he came lunging once more at 
the braided one, he did not notice the light glinting off the sharp 
point of the fishing spear leveled at his chest.

	The force of the impact drove Duo back against the wall, his 
elbows punching through the curtained glass window behind him.  Impaled 
upon his own spear, the man's eyes returned to normal as the life 
drained from him, and he fell limply to the ground after Duo released 
the shaft from his numb fingers.  Stepping carefully around the pooling 
blood, the young guardian returned his attention to the strange stone 
still resting atop the mantle.  He swooped down and retrieved the frying 
pan from its place on the floor, absently noting that the man had not 
been very good about washing his dishes.  Knocking the stone to the 
floor with the pan and careful not to touch it, he knelt by the rock and 
hefted the heavy pan over his head, bringing it crashing down upon the 
mysterious stone and smashing it to pieces.  A black mist rose slowly 
into the air and dissipated, leaving behind shards that had become dull 
and fragile.

	That taken care of, he straightened, tossing his braid back over 
his shoulder, and returned to the body of the old man.  As he closed the 
corpse's eyes in some semblance of peace, he wondered what the man's 
price had been, what had he been offered to make him sell his soul, and 
if he had even been aware of it.  A final glance at the broken table, 
the cooling body, and the pot with the glaze that the old man had been 
so proud of, and he left the building, sadly prepared to return to the 
Dark to demand his companion's freedom for services rendered.  He 
sighed.  He missed him already.

	"You'll pay for that," a voice spoke at the front door, a low, 
conversational tone with an undercurrent of hate, made for the seduction 
of innocents.

	Duo turned back and examined the demon before him.  It filled 
the doorway, very much your stereotypical demon, with two legs, four 
arms, two curling horns, skin the colored of dried blood stretched 
tautly over exaggerated muscles, and far too many teeth.

	"You've killed my human servant, and destroyed my collecting 
stone.  You're going to have to die now."

	Duo was suddenly aware that he had jumped to a terribly 
incorrect conclusion.  This must be the 'being in the human realm' that 
the Shinma had been referring to.  There were no vile human scientists 
performing research on captured Shinma -- that was a blank that his own 
mind had filled in based on his knowledge of similar situations.  For 
whatever reason, it appeared as if this demon had been using the human 
and the 'collecting' stone he had just destroyed to suck the power from 
Shinma, just as it had minorly drained him when he himself had 
momentarily touched it.

	He hid the apprehension that began to fill him admirably well.  
A lot of practice from facing down then-intimidating Shinma from his 
early days helped, and this demon was certainly intimidating.  It stood 
at least a foot taller than the guardian, and carried itself with an 
easy arrogance, not to mention the sharp, pointy horns, the sharp, 
pointy claws, and the sharp, pointy teeth.  Add to that the fact that he 
had only met his first demon a few hours ago, and she was starting to 
look friendly, and Duo responded reasonably to the threat.  He threw a 
large fireball at the creature, just barely stopping the cringe from 
reaching his face as the demon stepped back into the doorway and to the 
side, neatly avoiding the burst of power as it went crashing through the 
back wall of the cottage.

	'This is very not good,' he thought to himself.  He turned tail 
and ran, missing Heero now more than ever.

	The demon followed.

	The pursuit wound its way through the surrounding woods, across 
the stream, around tree trunks, under branches, and over roots, faster 
than anything of this earth might move.  His flight was controlled, 
relatively speaking.  He did not crash loudly through the underbrush 
like a novice, nor did he trip over a stray vine like a damsel in 
distress, but his mind raced alongside him, trying in vain to come up 
with an escape from the grinning demon following at his own leisure, 
waiting for the guardian to make a mistake.  In the end, he was undone 
by his own stealthy speed, for the animals knew not to flee from his 
silent path, and as he jumped wildly to avoid the surprised flock of 
game birds, a hole into darkness opened beneath him, and he fell through 
the portal, unable to change his path mid-flight, landing roughly on the 
other side.

	He looked around.

	'This is very, very not good.'

_________________________________________
This piece of fiction is the intellectual 
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The basis for this fic, i.e. Gundam Wing, 
Kyuuketsuki Miyu, et al., is the property 
of someone else.  The author can be con-
tacted at jchew@myrealbox.com.  This has 
been an entirely automated message.
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jchew/misc/gw.html

last modified : 8/17/2002 02:26:22 PST