Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM): In the Shadows of the City - [FIC] Kaori Aoyama & The Folly of Desire

[Kaori Aoyama]

Dark and ominous was the bleak night sky. The stars twinkled upon the blueish black velvet of the heavens and the moon's light bathed the landscape in its foggy, shimmering radiance. It did little to fend off the darkness of Kumano Forest. The brighter the light shown from the moon, the deeper shadows were beneath the canopy of trees.

The Shadow was strong here. The mists clung tightly to the boughs of the trees and verdant groves of Kumano seemed almost too still.

Steady and with purpose she moved down the forests path. Her sandals made only the slightest sounds as they hammered into the soft earth and grass beneath her. With her body hunched low, one hand gripped firmly on the scabbard of her blade and the other locked tightly to its hilt she swiftly dashed forward.

She wasted no time as the forest's horde of shadow creatures came upon her, seeming to seep from the darkness of the trees. The oni, each standing nearly eight feet tall were all thickly muscled giants. Their orange skin was in contrast to their fearsome red eyes and black horns and talons.

With a flash of steel Kaori Aoyama delivered the first two that came to greet her back to the shadows. She didn't break stride and continued to press forward, the oni behind her dropped their tesubos and clutched their spilling entrails before fading back into the darkness on wisps of ash.

The chill night air and heavy mists clung to her skin in a clammy sweat as her breathing grew heavy. Dashing past one oni she leapt up and buried Onimaru, her ancient blade, to the hilt into a second oni's chest. With her feet planted firmly on his chest she pulled away leaping off and circling around in a 180 degree turn and slashed the oni she'd passed up just moments ago who still seemed stunned by the sudden tenacity of the young woman's attack. The wound was fatal and she saw no reason to grant this beast an honorable death. Onimaru was slid gracefully into its sheath and she walked off, allowing the two beasts to choke and bleed until death claimed them. Perhaps in these final moments of your existence you will find solace in the light. I hope your prayers are heard demons. I do.

High above Kumano forest Kaori could see, resting elegantly on a cliff side was Morikage Castle. Dark and mysterious nestled within the shadows of a twin mountain range the lord of this land ruled through fear and treachery and now, Kaori discovered, was using the oni to do his dirty work.

The oni all stood on the drawbridge to the castle which spread across nearly a 100 foot ravine. Four wide and ten ranks deep they're eyes were were a sea of red points that longed to deliver death and cruelty unto the world of light. They snarled and growled clutching their weapons tightly in their hands. The beautiful onna-bugeisha slowly closed the distance between herself and a small army of oni. Breaking through the front line would be neigh impossible.

For an ordinary warrior...

Kaori was a master of the fabled Ryouichi-Ryuu sword techniques. Known only by the members of her own bloodline and their power was said to be unlike anything the earth was ready for. Whether or not that was true, it was now that she called upon the vast stores of power within her.

Chanel ling her Ki as she sprinted forward Kaori procured a simple well written strip of rice paper held between her index and middle finger, a prayer strip to a nameless god of purity an honor.

At the bridge ahead the forty oni guardians gripped their weapons and set themselves to receive the onna-bugeisha wielder of the Ryouichi-Ryuu's power.

Kaori threw the prayer strip ahead of her and drew Onimaru from its scabbard. The blade drug across the earth, seemingly weighed down by the vast amounts of Ki channeled through its master. The gash it left in the earth erupted with a purifying blue flame that lit up the shadowed evening. With the added weight of her sword Kaori twisted her hips and spun around in a complete 360 arc to add more momentum to the swing as she released all her stored energy at once through her technique. There was a brilliant flash of white that mimicked the arc of her slash and rent the shadows asunder... and then she was gone.

One by one the forty oni upon the bridge looked around for where the swordwoman could have gone until one looked to his body and found that his torso was sliding slowly off his abdomen. Each looked on in horror as the process repeated itself in a crimson spraying display of gore and one by one each oni fell, sliced cleanly in half.

The last few to fall heard the tell-tale click of a sword being rest in its scabbard and Kaori Aoyama now stood on the far side of the drawbridge and was casually walking into the castle that the oni were charged with guarding with their lives. She never turned around to see the fruits of her technique, with her head high she walked through the castles front gate.

On a soft breeze that followed her passing a few cherry blossom petals rode the winds that caressed the drawbridge, and among them was a prayer strip to a nameless god of purity and honor cleanly sliced in half and gently riding the winds along side them.

The Zanmato had spoken and had found the oni lacking.

The doors of the throne room burst open with a clamor that could have woken the dead. Upon the lords seat was a man dressed elegantly with a grin that spoke highly of his confidence. "Please...," he said, now that doors were kicked open. "Come on in."

"Your reign of terror ends tonight." Kaori said calmly as she bravely stepped into the chamber and approached the man upon the throne. "No longer will the people live in terror, I've come to put an end to you-" She stopped her sentence and nearly choked on her own voice.

She recognized the man sitting in front of her. He handsome, graceful, powerfully built and, of course, had that charming confidant smile.

"J-James McAllister?" She stuttered and came to a sudden halt. "Y-you're the Vampire Lord of Kumano Forest?"

"I dunnno," The Vampire Lord shrugged, a bit confused. He got up from his seat and approached her. "It's your dream. So, after this whole dark and spooky gig, you and I go ice skating?"

"Ice sk-skating??" Kaori stepped back and her blade was raised to to warn James not to come any closer. Her heart raced and she felt her knees getting weak as the charms of the "Vampire Lord" swept over her body. So... this is fear? she wondered silently as he drew ever closer.

"Yes, you know... you, me, on the ice," He walked around her blade ignoring her rather half-hearted attempts to keep him at bay. He walked around her as she stood nearly paralyzed with 'fear'. He rest his chin on her shoulder and embraced her hips gently. "Swaying with the winter breeze, lost in each others company as we glide the frozen lakes and finally," He spun her about and dipped her low, supporting her with well muscled arms. "On to a warm cottage to fall asleep in each other arms by the crimso warmth of fire light."

She swallowed hard and barely heard Onimaru clang as it hit the stone floor. Her cheeks flushed and the wave of heat that tingled through out her body seemed to fog her mind and cloud her judgment. The 'Vampire Lord' drew her in close. His lips drew near and she felt herself lured by their offer of passionate bliss. Her eyes closed and she leaned in to accept his offer.

Tokyo, 3:21am. School night.

In a cold, sweaty panic Kaori sprang up from her bed clutching the sheets tightly against her body in a fit of wicked raspy breaths. The cool night air was still when she slid window slid open. She took several deep breaths of fresh air as the bitter cool winds of the Tokyo winter invited themselves into her room.

Her breath nearly froze as she stood in the garden of her family home in nothing but her pajamas in the bitter cold of the winter winds. As gracefully as a near-frozen woman could accomplish she performed overhead swings and would perform a thousand in all to clear her mind from the poisonous dream the lecherous James McAllister had placed in her mind and as punishment to herself for allowing her discipline to falter she'd complete the thousand swings with no protection from the elements.

For Kaori Aoyama, it was shaping up to be a long, cold night.

The entire time, from a dimly window that over looked the garden Hikaru Aoyama, her grandfather, watched painfully as she tortured herself over something as trivial a young woman's desire to be desired. "When your desires are strong enough my dear Kaori, you will possess the power to achieve whatever you desire. Why? Why do you run from them so? The Ryouichi-Ryuu teaches clarity, not confusion. Still... still to much to learn." He whispered as he continued to gaze on the garden below, sipping his warm tea.