Chapter 2: Intruder
Kuroihi blinked, awe-struck for a moment, at the black flames dancing in Shoucheng's palm.
'Foolish,' she thought, 'of course, there are others with the same power, but, is hers truly the same as mine?'
She lashed her black and green fire at the woman, who deflected it easily and lashed back with her ow. They quickly fell into a duel of flames like this, back and forth, the snow around them sizzling away quickly and making the ground muddy.
"Persistent, aren't we?"
Shoucheng bounced a small orb of flame in her palm. Kuroihi twirled her tonfa in her grip again as the both of them caught their breath.
"Something like that."
"You know, this would be much easier for me and far less painful for you if you'd just give in already!"
She flung the orb and Kuroihi batted it away, using the reach of her tonfa to finally tag the woman in her calf. It wasn't a powerful strike, but the contact was all she needed. Her black and green fire jerked and snaked its way up Shocheng's leg, quickly tangling the woman in its ravenous bite.
Shoucheng leaped back, youki flaring to push the flames off her skin as they began eating away at her. Kurohi allowed no distance to grow between them, showering the woman with blow after blow, quickly overrunning her with fire.
Finally, Shoucheng had enough, screaming as she jumped high and out of Kuroihi's reach. She could only watch as the woman's youki flared again, eventually overcoming Kuroihi's flames and casting them off into the show below. Her flesh was seared and her armor scorched, her formerly pristine hair now frizzed and falling out of place. Kuroihi couldn't help but notice that Shoucheng seemed to have much less reserve youki than she should have at the moment.
"Enough! This is hardly worth my life. Why can you not simply relent to the fate father has chosen for you?!"
"No one, not this 'father' of yours nor any lord or peasant dictates my fate!" Kuroihi roared.
Shoucheng snarled something in her foreign tongue.
"Father decides the fates of all who wield the black flames! Being a half-demon does not excuse you!"
"How about you let me talk to this 'father' myself?"
Shoucheng clutched at her belly in a fit of laughter.
"Impossible! Father sees no one without invitation."
"Then invite me."
Kuroihi demanded, authority in her tone. The woman was delaying, allowing herself to heal, and Kuroihi was loath to let her continue much longer. Besides, if this 'father' person truly held sway over people with abilities like Kuroihi's, maybe she could learn something from him.
Shoucheng blinked, seeming to consider the idea, then smiled and lowered herself down into the snow once more.
"Father will be greatly displeased, but I think watching him exact your fate with his own hands will be worth the punishment. Consider yourself invited, half-breed."
Kurohi nodded, lowering her tonfa as she closed to a safe conversational distance with the woman.
"Where are we going, then?"
"To the continent, Shanghai, though I don't expect you know where that is. You've probably never even been off this insignificant island before, have you?"
Kuroihi shook her head.
'Keep talking, female.'
Her inner demon quivered with anticipation as she continued to inch closer, ever so slowly.
"I presume I will need to learn your language."
"Father speaks yours fluently, but perhaps it would amuse him for you to learn the civilized tongue."
Kuroihi merely nodded again, fighting to keep her inner demon at bay. She'd only have one shot at this.
"Shall we go then? Best not to keep him waiting."
Shoucheng scoffed, muttering something in her strange language again as she turned and began to leave, Kuroihi right behind her.
"Do try to keep up, half-"
As soon as her back was turned completely, her attention elsewhere, Kuroihi struck, wrapping her tonfa, arms, and legs securely around the willowy female. She knew she'd promised herself to never do this again, but, goddamnit, this arrogant bitch had violated her domain, insulted her home and culture, and slaughtered her friends! She deserved every second of this agony.
Shoucheng yelped and thrashed and screamed as Kuroihi let her demon scream to the fore, her youki freed to swirl and consume the both of them in a whirl of ravenous green and black flames. Shoucheng's screams were shrill as Kuroihi faded to red. When she came to again, she was huddled in Shinjirou's hill-side cavern, covered in mud and ash. Her clothes had all burned away, leaving her in only her dragon-hide-and-bone armor, the ends of her hair singed.
She remained there for a moment longer as the cold crept in on her again, sighing with relief that she'd been able to come-to at all. She gazed out of the cavern to the clearing below and found a pile of black in the shape of a body. She'd been successful.
Never again. She swore. She felt no shame for her deceptive tactic. Shoucheng, like so many others, had flaunted her greatest weakness, arrogance, and Kuroihi was never one to pass up opportunity. She considered herself many things, but truly honorable was not one of them. At least, not anymore.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone