[h1]Hanazawa Maria[/h1]

[i]”Hey, demon!” One of the boys called out, his face a cruel sneer. “How does it feel, huh, knowing that you’ll never be loved or accepted by God!”

“Yeah, yeah, why don’t you just fuckin’ go to Hell already?” Another one barked out. “And [/i]stay[i] there and burn! We don’t need the likes of you stinkin’ up [/i]our[i] world!”

“N-No, I’m not...” I could barely manage a feeble whisper. “I-”

“Shut up!” The first boy snarled. A blink of white light, and a chunk of marble appeared in his hand, which he tossed at my face.

“Agh!” I cried out at the sharp pain. My glasses cracked from the impact, making it hard to see anything, aside from a trickle of red that’s getting into my eyes. “S-Stop...”

“Look, her blood’s actually red!” Completely ignoring my plea, the second boy pointed and gawked. “I thought demons had, like, I dunno, nasty green blood or somethin’?”

“Why don’t we find out more?” The first boy’s mouth broke into a grin that makes my skin crawl, as he took a step toward me.

“No, s-stay b-”

With a blink of light, the first boy suddenly disappeared. And a moment later, I suddenly felt another sharp pain, this time a vicious kick against the small of my back, making me fall face-first to the floor. Then a foot against the back of my head, the other boy’s, keeping me there. And…

“[/i]AAAAAAAAAAAAAH![i]”

This time the pain was so much worse, stabbing into the tailbone and shooting up through the spinal column into my whole body. And I was feeling it near the tip of my tail, the boy’s hand gripping it so tightly that it felt like I was being crushed. He… He’s trying to pull my tail off! I-

“Hey, c’mon, you said you ain’t a demon, right?” The second boy bent down, mouth moving closer to my ears, but his foot pressing my face only further into the floor. “So why don’tcha [/i]prove[i] it, huh? Show us that those wings and tail ain’t real! Ahahaha!”

“Yeah… And you know what? Some demons can regenerate, right?” I could practically feel the sadistic glee dripping from the first boy’s voice. “Care to give us a live demonstration? Hehehe...”

“No.. D-Don’t...” I tried to struggle, but what could my thin and scrawny frame do against two healthy boys…? “Please, someone… H-Help...”

“Shut it!” The first boy shouted. “You don’t get to ask for our help, demon!” I felt his other hand grip my tail as well. Then he began to pull, with all his strength.

Something snapped.

For a moment, it hurt so much that I thought I was going to die... Then by pure reflex, a wave of power surged out of me, washing over the two boys and the rest of the room. The pulling force and crushing grip on my tail instantly disappeared, as did the the pressure on the back of my head. Shaking, I struggled to stand up, and-

“Gaaaaagh…!” The second boy, the one who had been stepping on me a moment ago, was now the one lying on the ground, his face contorted in pain. I could see the beads of cold sweat on his skin, as he clutched his chest and wheezed. “I… I can’t breathe...”

“What… What did you do… Demon?!” The first boy, stronger than the other one, was on his knees, desperately trying not to collapse as he forced the words out of his mouth. He was all healthy and powerful earlier, but now it looked like he’d been sick for days… The power from me was filling the room, a dull purplish gray gloom that surrounded the boys, gnawing at their life force and sapping their wills to live. “S-So… You finally show your true colors...”

“N-No, I… I don’t...” Frantically reaching into myself, I tried to grasp for something, [/i]anything[i], to get the deadly life-draining haze to stop. I… I didn’t want to kill anyone! But at this rate…

“H… Help…” The last word escaped from the second boy’s mouth, before his eyes rolled up into his head. My power was killing him, and there was nothing I could do to stop it…

“What in God’s name is going on here?!”

Sister Claire, one of the nuns that took care of us at the orphanage, barged into the room, a horrified look on her face. A white wind burst forth from her, rapidly washing away the purple gloom. Then she sent a bolt of light that struck me in the chest, but felt like flooding my entire being with icy, frozen water; it was only a few seconds later that I realized that the life-draining power had stopped flooding out of me.

“Brandon! Jacob!” Sister Claire hurried to the two boys, her hands glowing with soft white energy that quickly made them look better. “What happened, dear?”

“The demon… She...” The first boy pointed at me, his eyes full of venom.

“I see.” Sister Claire’s gaze was so cold that it made me shudder.

“N-No, they…” I began frantically. “They attacked me f-first, and-”

“[/i]Silence![i]” Sister Claire shrieked, and I could see the wintry aura surging from her. “I’ll have none of your [/i]lies[i], demonspawn. Need I remind you of the limitless magnanimity and compassion of our Almighty Lord, passed on through us, that allows even an utterly wretched soul like [/i]you[i] to continue your miserable existence?” She took a step toward me, and a whip of chilling white light coalesced in her hand. “Pitiful miscreation, looks like you’ve forgotten how to be [/i]grateful[i]. So allow me to [/i]remind[i] you...”

“P-Please, n-”

I didn’t even get to finish as the nun’s cold, terrible power lashed into me. Then I screamed.[/i]

…

My eyes flutter open to see the pastel floral patterns of the walls of our bedroom, in darkness. Mikkun lies beside me, his arms wrapped protectively around my body, and I can feel his warmth and gentle breathing.

...oh.

[i]Ohhhhhhh.[/i]

So that was a dream.

Sigh. How unpleasant… Thanks to Mikkun’s… [i]help[/i], I don’t have to worry about being bothered by this kind of bullshit, not anymore. But still. Bleeeegh.

I glance at the clock projected onto the ceiling. 3 AM, huh… Well, after all that, I sure don’t feel like going back to sleep again anytime soon. Ugh. Now, what to do…

Looking back at Mikkun, I drink in the sight of his peaceful sleeping face. God, he looks so handsome that I just wanna gobble him up… Hehe. I briefly wonder if I should wake him up so that he can… entertain me. But nah. I snuggle closer to him, close my eyes, and extend a wisp of consciousness into his sleeping mind. It’s like falling through an endless sea of stars…

A moment later, the stars part way to reveal an endless expanse of white, where I see Mikkun swinging his sword around in precise, fluid motions. He immediately senses my presence too, of course, and turns to face me.

“Maria? Are you feeling alright?” He asks, probably feeling through our connection that my mood isn’t the best right now, and his face is full of concern. Ehehe, I’m probably the only person to see him with an expression like this… I feel so special.

“Well, just had a dream about, you know… [i]before[/i],” I say, wrinkling my nose a bit at the word.

“I’m sorry to hear that…” In a blink of starry blackness, he appears in front of me. “Can I do anything to make you feel better?”

“Nah, I’m okay.” I think for a bit. “Actually… The dream kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. So maybe we can, you know… replace it with a better taste, hmm?” I lick my lips suggestively.

“Yes, of course you would ask for this kind of thing,” he chuckles. “Why am I not surprised?”

“What? Maybe I just meant ice cream!” I blink innocently.

“Come on now, we both know what you meant,” he says, and gives me an indulgent smile. “Now then, you haven’t blatantly seduced me in any way yet, so I presume you have something else in mind?”

“Well… I don’t want to keep you from sword practice. So how about we spar for a bit?” The corners of my mouth curl up in a naughty little smirk. “Whoever wins gets to tie the other up.”

“Challenge accepted.” Mikkun brandishes his sword, a pitch black blade with brilliant white stars gleaming within. Man, no matter how many times I see it, I always think it’s cool as all hell. The rest of him is sort of halfway between his human and spirit forms, his body human but wearing the men’s kimono made of starry chaos that’s the staple of his spirit form.

As for me… The lacy black babydoll I’m wearing already leaves not much to the imagination, but I think I’m going to change to something more… [i]exciting[/i]. The babydoll dissolves into gauzy dark smoke, then coalesces into a tiny little thong and strapless push-up bra, made of black leather, fully but barely covering the delicate bits. Sheer dark thigh-high stockings cover my legs, and a pair of high-heeled black pumps appear on my feet. The soulshard Yumekiri appears in my hands, its blade currently a deep shadowy black that matches my outfit.

“Ah, [i]there[/i] is the blatant seduction.” Mikkun gives a faint grin, and I shiver in delight as I see him unable to help but to look up and down at me. After all, how can he ever possibly resist my sexy, gorgeous, alluring body? Hehe… “Do you think that’s actually going to distract me?”

“Against you, I gotta have every advantage I can get.” I smile sweetly. It’s totally not because I just like dressing up sexily for him, not at all, nooooope. As we bow to each other before the duel, I make sure he gets a good look at my cleavage. Then I give my katana a suggestive lick. “Shall we begin?”

…but of course, my swordsmanship skill is no match for that of an ancient spirit like Mikkun. After a short, but intense, duel, his sword is plunged right through my abdomen, streams of purple dreamstuff bleeding from the wound. Mikkun himself has quite a few wounds on his body too, each oozing starry chaos, but none of them is anything that’d be fatal to a normal human. Obviously, even if this isn’t taking place in a completely imaginary dreamscape, wounds inflicted by ordinary weapons are pretty much completely meaningless to us, and don’t even hurt, which is why we can do this without holding back. But the duel has to have a victory condition, after all. Since it’s a purely skill-based, non-magical duel, as if we’re normal humans, the rule is that whoever inflicts a wound that’s fatal to normal humans is the winner. “I believe this will be my win,” says Mikkun, and pulls his sword out of my body.

…sex joke.

“Yes, it is…” All the wounds on me quickly disappear, leaving my skin flawless once again. As I fall to my knees, I send out a flick of willpower to call up a number of tendrils of darkness, which bind my arms and legs into an… [i]interesting[/i] pose. “You’ve bested me, Master, so please claim your prize…” I’m flushed from the adrenaline rush of the duel, but that’s quickly being replaced by a different kind of excitement altogether…

“Hey, does it even count if you tie up yourself?” Mikkun’s voice is amused, but I can feel his hungry gaze drinking up every bit of my almost-naked body as I display myself for him. He’s almost always so stoic, and I’m the only person that he lets go of that facade in front of… It sets my nerves aflame with desire.

“Who cares… Take me already…!” I writhe against the bonds. Yes, I can break them if I really want, since I’m the one who conjured them in the first place, but my mind is so consumed by the heat of the moment that it has room for hardly anything else. And, of course, the bad feelings from the dream earlier are all but forgotten…