The tiger demon voiced that he would stay with her, and she was relieved. She would have managed on her own, she was sure, but was glad to not have to. She wondered if the Kitsune would stay or part ways here as well. In any case, Suzume was sure they would all end up back together by the end of whatever was going to happen here.

"Which way do we go?" she asked herself out loud. Then with an old children's rhyme, Suzume pointed to each of the three halls that were left and picked one. When she was done, she smiled. When in doubt, make your important decisions with a nursery rhyme! She adjusted her pack and moved forward into the hall.

Everything here was so quiet. Far too quiet for a castle. Where were the happy family members and joyous servants? And the storm that rolled in had caused the inside of the place to darken significantly. Along the walls were lit candles that gave off just enough light to make the castle even creepier.

Suzume moved slowly, probably too slowly, but she was scared. This place was scary, even if there wasn't some crazy man lurking somewhere within it. Every so often they would come to a door and Suzume would pull it open carefully to peek inside, to find nothing. The rooms appeared unused entirely. It was so strange, and Suzume began to wonder if there were any village people here at all when they cam to a set of stairs that seemed to lead to some kind of basement, or perhaps a dungeon?

She swallowed. "Maybe we should check somewhere else," she whispered. No. If there were children down there, she wouldn't be a coward and abandon them. Instantly her features went from obviously scared, to very determined and she marched herself down the stairs until she came to a wooden door. She reached out to push it open and heard a scream from inside.

Suzume pushed the door open. The entire area had stone flooring. The walls were stone to match. There were individual stone rooms lining two walls with bars and chains and people inside. It was definitely a dungeon, and they'd found the villagers. Torches lit the room and it smelled of dust, sweat, and something else... death. Though Suzume wouldn't recognize the smell.

Across the room, there was a large pit in the floor. Suzume couldn't see what was inside, but a man with lifeless eyes held a child over it. The shrill scream was heard again from the small child and something inside the pit roared a ghastly roar that sounded like some kind of rabid dog, but much bigger. Then another. How many beasts were inside?

Instinctively Suzume reached for the child as if she would catch her from across the room. "Wait!" she yelled at the same time. The man turned his lifeless gaze to her, as did everyone else who was able in the room. In the next moment he released the child over the pit. A shrill scream came from the child as did another from across the room. A friend of hers? Perhaps a sibling, or mother?

If Hikari had come along and Kitaru was aware, would one of them be able to save the child in time? Would Kitaru's wounds be healed enough? Never the less, the hypnotized men of the village would begin to come for them. There were many, at least ten in this room alone who would try and capture them. Some had weapons, others held chains and ropes. They would be easily warded off, but at what cost? Would her demon friends kill the villagers? Suzume saw no sign of Maboroshi no Ginzuishou pieces in this room.

Kitaru had frowned the slightest bit when the blind man moved off on his own. Still it was none of his concern, still he had felt safest in a group and now that group had gotten smaller. He snorted lightly and pretended to study the entrances to the halls while Suzume decided which way to go in a rather childish way, still he didn't care. It didn't matter how the decision was reached really. When she started off down the hallway he followed wordlessly along behind her.

It was quiet, eerily quiet and the lighting was bad. There should have been more servants to light more candles and torches to make up for the darkness that the heavy clouds overhead bathed the castle in. Kitaru hadn't expected to see any servants though, judging by the way the guards outside had appeared. Though every time they approached a door and Suzume opened it, his body tensed. Ready for an attacker to spring out at them. None did. The rooms were empty. Unused. Lifeless rooms.

Kitaru was growing to like this place less and less. Suzume's fear was apparent, especially when they reached the stairs that led down. Checking somewhere else was fine with him, but the people Suzume wanted to save were probably down there. It seemed she realized that too as soon her expression changed to one of determination and she led the way down the stairs.

His ears twitched, picking up on sounds that Suzume had yet to hear as they got closer and closer to a wooden door. A scream, and Kitaru growled under his breath. Then Suzume was opening the door and his eyes narrowed slightly, the scent of death was strong here. If it were up to him he would have kept the door closed. A man stood in the room with a child dangling over a pit. There was hardly time to think, hardly time to even make a decision.

Suzume had screamed a word, but Kitaru was already in motion. There were no seconds to waste, and even so he might not even reach them in time. Almost there and the man had released the child. It screamed, it's family member screamed and the noise was painful to Kitaru's ears but that didn't slow the agile demon. He leaped across the pit, grabbing the child as it fell with both arms and a wince only to land on the other side of the pit in a crouch.

His heart beat fast in his chest, and now he was confused. Why had he just saved that human child? It would grow up to be a cruel adult human. He held the child a while longer in his arms, a bit of blood soaking through the bandages of his left shoulder, and he looked around. These villagers were frightened. Terrified beyond words. It was a look he knew well. They were in a situation he was familiar with.

It reminded him too much of his past. So humans were cruel to each other as well? It seemed that way. He let the child go so it could run to it's family member and slowly he stood. Lifeless eyed men were approaching him and when he glanced at Suzume she was in the same situation, men were coming after her as well. "Run. Go, get out!" He had to protect her, and she was close enough to the door to escape, Kitaru still had the pit and the beasts inside of it behind him.

It wasn't just to protect her, he didn't need her to watch him slaughter these humans. She would surely hate him for that, though now he wasn't sure why he cared if she hated him or not. She was a human, a useful one, he was a demon. The way she felt about him shouldn't matter at all. A man lunged at him and he stepped to the side, sticking his foot out so the man tripped and fell into the pit.

The sounds from the beasts below were terrible. Gnashing of teeth and snapping of bone as they devoured the fallen man in a wild frenzy. These people were humans, and weak. Kitaru could take the ten on easily, he was sure. Even with his wounded shoulder still not fully healed yet. Though he was probably underestimating them.

Standing completely still in the center of these lifeless men that Hanganji had called forth to surround Niya. The blind male had continued to keep most of his attention upon the man, he had still awaited the answers he had expect from his questions. However, from how it had seemed it was almost as though Hanganji refused to speak up whatsoever toward any of Niya's questions. The only thing that was really done was that the man had decided to raise a single hand as he snapped his fingers once to indicate for the men to kill the blind male. In an instant each one of the men that once surrounded Niya had drew their weapons and instantly began to try and attack him. Without so much as another word, the blind male had began to side step each one of the blades that came down upon him. These men had lost all sense of life within them which made it much easier for Niya to predict where their weapons were going to land. None of these men had anything to drive them into attacking as each of their movements were as though they were nothing more then zombies trying to feed off of someone else essence.

Niya hadn't bothered to unsheathe his weapon and kill these men, even though they were lifeless it hadn't changed the fact that they were still human. If he were to had killed these innocent men, there would've been no point in coming to this large palace just to save them. Rather, he had reached out with his hands to press deeply into several of their pressure points around their throats. Thankfully even though it had seemed they had lost all life within them, they were still able to feel pain as it allowed Niya to knock them out with their pressure points. It had taken probably a minute or two at the most to attack each one of the men, the sounds of each one of their weapons falling onto the marbled flooring around him had caused Hanganji to become all the more enraged. "Why have you come here!?..Do you mean to tell me that you have come here for nothing more then to save these pathetic villagers?" The man spoke up only to have Niya lowered his gaze toward the flooring. It was true, the reason the blind male had gone all this way with the group was in hopes to restore his sight and nothing more. So why was he trying to save a bunch of villagers.

With a deep exhaled sigh coming from Niya's lips, he had taken his attention back onto Hanganji. "No, I had come here in hopes that you would restore my sight..From what I have heard, you have the ability to heal any types of wounds possible..including cursed ones." His voice at this point had easily given away the fact that he had saddened at the thought that he still didn't have his sight after all these years. The angered expression across Hanganji lips had now faded and his smirk had now returned. Motioning for Niya to approach the throne, the man nodded his head. "Indeed, I can heal your sight, my child. Just come here." The man insisted but the blind male continued to stand utterly still. "But from what I have also heard..you are considered a monk of these mountains. You are a disgrace to the name, you are no monk. You have killed many of these villagers for them refusing to serve you and even many just because you have felt like it. I will not disgrace myself as to be touched by your filthy hands." Niya's words had once again returned to their emotionless tone as he immediately removed the bandages that once hid his eyes. With the bandages completely removed, the pieces of the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou were easily in sight of nothing but blurs upon Hanganji's grip.

The man had immediately stood back up to his feet as he stepped down from his throne. His facial expression once more enraged at having his name of being a monk mocked by this blind man. Approaching slowly toward Niya, Hanganji had clenched his fist tightly while he came ever closer toward the blind male. Niya had continued to stand completely still as he listened to each step that came closer toward him, the voices of the dead around him had began to scream out to tell the blind man to run. By the time Hanganji had reached Niya, it was much easier to tell how much larger this man was. He towered over Niya at about a height of nearly 8 feet. Within an instant, Hanganji had raised his fist into the air before quickly bringing it down onto the blind male's head. Quickly enough, Niya had raised his hand that had the ring which also held another piece of the Maboroshi within it. Thankful to the ring, he was able to hold back the large fist with a bit of ease. The weight of the man's fist was still a large annoyance considering he had more then one of the shards within his fist.

As Hanganji had pushed his fist furthered down onto Niya's grip, it was almost as though the entire room had began to tremble. Soon enough as he kept becoming more enraged at the fact that he didn't kill the blind male in a second strike, he had raised his fist once again only to slam it down once more with full strength. The man had also other pieces of the Maboroshi within his second fist, but yet he hadn't thought that he would need to use so much power against a single opponent. This time however, with full strength of his fist coming down onto Niya. Nearly the entire palace itself had began to tremble as if the whole place was prepared to come crumbling down in a matter of seconds. The servants, guards and other captive villagers who had looked as though they had lost all life within them had stood through the trembling as though they hadn't felt a thing. Niya on the other hand had felt as though his entire arm was prepared to break in two, as he took the opportunity he had to slam his free hand toward Hanganji's gut and back-flipping at the very moment the man held onto his stomach. The ground at where Niya once stood had now been a small crater of marbled flooring due to the man's intense strength.

Panting lightly, Niya had held the arm he had just used to protect himself against Hanganji's fist. His arm was fine but the pain of it still bothered him lightly, in a matter of seconds though both of Niya's eyes had widened up in surprise as he quickly moved his hand away from his arm and toward his lips. Instantly, he had began to cough up blood once again violently before reaching back for his sheathed blade. If this fight were to drag on too long, there was no doubt that Niya would end up being killed on the spot here. Seeing as though the blind male had seemed to be sick with some sort of illness, Hanganji couldn't help but grin lightly at his advantage over this blind man. In a matter of seconds, it had almost been as though the man had vanished before appearing right before Niya's face once again. With his eyes widened at how the blind male was unable to notice when Hanganji had moved until he was in front of him, the only thing the blind man was able to do at this point was quickly move the hand that held the ring in front of him. Instantly the man slammed his fist against Niya, luckily enough it was toward the hand that had the ring. Still though, with how close Hanganji had been, this had caused Niya to immediately go flying through the double doors he came through and continue on to go crashing his back against multiple wooden walls behind him.

By the time Niya had come to a stop, his breathing had become much more heavy as blood came sliding down from the side of his head as well as his lips. If Hanganji hadn't hit the blind male's hand where the ring resided, this fight most likely would've already been over at this very moment. Lifting his head up to look toward the direction Niya had went flying from, the man had began to slowly once more approach the blind male.

Hikari fell silent as the group reached the castle.The scent of the place bothered her,and the guards made her nervous.They came to a point where four hallways split off,and the others all went their own ways.Hikari took a moment to choose,but eventually went the same route as the blind man had.As she walked,she started hearing the sounds of a fight.Soon enough,she rounded a corner to find the blind man flying through the air and hitting the wall as a gigantic man advanced towards him.From his scent,Hikari could tell this man was both insane and terribly powerful.She could tell straight off that Niya would die if left to fight for himself.Hikari didn't know why she cared.The blind man was almost a perfect stranger to her.But she did care,and so she did what felt right: she pulled her katana and dashed forward."Hey,ugly!! Over here!" She shouted.The giant man halted in his process towards Niya and turned.His face twisted in rage."Another one? Don't tell me,you are here to save your friend? No matter.I will crush all of you!" He roared,and ran towards her.They met in the center of the hall with a crash large enough to shake the castle.Hikari's blade did not bite into the man's fist,even though they met directly.Hikari knew right then and there that she would have to be a demon for this fight,instead of a samurai.She pushed with all her strength,giving herself enough leverage to flip backwards.Sheathing her sword,Hikari straightened up and transformed.Only this time,instead of a small fox,she became a large demonic fox the size of an elephant,with bastard sharp claws and teeth,and flaming tails."I see a little kit has come to visit! Oh,what fun this shall be!" The man laughed with twisted glee.Hikari growled and leapt forward,teeth bared,to meet the man once more.The crash shook the castle again,this time enough to send dust and small bits of stone falling around them.Hikari's teeth bit into the man's arm,finally drawing blood that was almost blackened from the evil of the Mariboshi shards he held.He roared in anger and thrashed,but Hikari wouldn't let go,resulting in having her body thrashed around the hallway,hitting walls.She scrabbled for purchase and found a hold on the man's chest with her claws as more debris began raining down on them.

Suzume exhaled, unaware that she had been holding her breath as Kitaru ran to save the child. He'd made it just in time. She would have smiled and clapped and jumped for joy, but there still wasn't much reason to do that yet. The hypnotized villagers were coming for them now.

Kitaru yelled at Suzume to run and naturally she took a step backwards to move herself closer to the door as she considered it. But she wouldn't run. Not when there were innocent people down here who needed her. And she wouldn't leave Kitaru here to fight alone, not with his wounds unhealed and bleeding, wounds she blamed herself for.

She'd backed herself against the door when the villager ran at Kitaru. He tripped the man and as he went over the edge of the pit Suzume's eyes widened. "No!" she yelled. "Please don't hurt them! They are innocent!" Tears began to fill her eyes as she yelled to him. Didn't he know that they were only under a spell or something? Would he kill them all? She couldn't let him! It wasn't fair!

There were a few of them headed towards her, as more headed for Kitaru. How would she evade them and release the prisoners? Maybe she couldn't. Maybe they needed to find Hanganji and convince him to free them and return to a life of good before they would get anywhere here. Still she had to try something.

To her right was a wooden table with various weapons. She wouldn't use any of them to hurt anyone, no. Instead, she jumped up on the table and reached out for a sort of hook that hung from the ceiling, possibly for prisoners chains, and swung herself over the villagers that were coming for her before releasing it and landing on the other side of them.

She turned around as they did and she was smiling. She may not be very good with weapons, but evading was a cinch. She headed towards the nearest cell of prisoners. It was locked, of course. Suddenly, something was tugging at her pants and she jumped. Only to look down and see the child that Kitaru had saved. She was holding a set of keys. That's exactly what Suzume needed!

"Thank you," she said with a sweet and reassuring smile as she took the keys. But which one opened which door? She glanced over her shoulder. The hypnotized villagers were pretty slow moving, thankfully. She inserted a key. It didn't work. She inserted another. Nope, not right. Finally, Suzume inserted a key into the lock and the door popped open.

"I got it!" she exclaimed happily. The captives flooded out of the cell, some thanking her and others just running towards the exit. Some stayed to help her free the others. One was re-captured and Suzume realized that she would need to help to something about the hypnotized villagers, or freeing the ones locked away wouldn't get anyone far.

She passed the keys off to someone else and let the prisoners free themselves as she tried to think up a plan. She was standing in front of an empty cell now and two villagers were closing in on her. She recalled Kitaru tripping the other villager, awful as it was, and as the first one lunged, she put her foot out. Just as planned, he tripped, flying into the empty cell.

The other villager was already lunging and she merely ducked out of the way as he fell face first into the cell. She slammed the door behind them and it locked itself automatically. "I'm sorry!" she said to them. She hadn't done much, just putting away two of them, maybe the two clumsiest ones, too. But she was sure Kitaru would be able to do more than she, easily.

A door in the back of the dungeon suddenly flew open with a loud bang as it hit the wall behind it. Before Suzume could see who had opened it, the prisoners were already running the other way. Filing out the exit and screaming. They were all freed now, all except the hypnotized villagers who would probably remain that way until Hanganji was dead. In the middle of the room a crying child lay in the floor. He had been left behind, by accident of course.

It was a miracle he hadn't been trampled. He couldn't have been more than three and he was so terrified that Suzume's heart broke for him. She crossed the stone floor and knelt down to pull him into her lap. "It's okay," she said to him in a soft voice, "I won't let anything happen to you." She cuddled the child close, searching for Kitaru to see how he was faring. Had the dog beasts gotten out? Suzume couldn't tell in the madness.

When the crowed was gone, Suzume could see the place clearly, and what she saw emerge from the door frightened her. The man was at least seven feet tall. He had muscles on top of muscles and she could see the aura of a piece of the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou buried inside of him. Perhaps he had swallowed it?

He looked around, angry that his prisoners were gone. He looked directly at Kitaru, the obvious threat in this room. Between him and Kitaru, was Suzume and the child. He assessed them. The child was dirty and scared, clearly a prisoner. Suzume on the other hand was new, probably someone who came in with the tiger demon, someone who freed his prisoners.

The monster of a man looked angry. She was sure she could see veins pulsing on his forehead, and he headed for them so quickly that Suzume hardly had time to react, much less run. She hugged the boy tightly, wrapping her arms around him and lowering her head over his to protect him. She clutched his clothes tightly, "You're going to be okay," she reassured him again, in a voice much less sure this time around.

His ears twitched, and he grimaced lightly. Of course Suzume would beg him to not hurt these people. Still they were far from innocent in his eyes and he was surrounded, really what did she expect him to do. He couldn't back away as the men crept closer to him, but after that first one, they seemed a little hesitant to recklessly charge him one at a time.

He couldn't keep track of what Suzume was doing, but he did know she hadn't escaped. Didn't she realize he could handle this better without her being there as a liability, or there to tell him to not hurt his attackers. Those cat like eyes narrowed darkly and he growled at the men. Kitaru dropped down into a half crouch and charged the nearest one, ramming his shoulder into the man and knocking him over. Kitaru slipped through the gap where the man he knocked over had been and turned to face his attackers.

It would be so simple to shove them all into that pit. He glanced around, glancing at Suzume as the newly freed prisoners streamed towards an exit. Kitaru got a glimpse of his human just in time to see her trick two of the hypnotized men into a cell. That was one way to do it, he supposed. Slowly, with a smirk on his lips, Kitaru backed towards one of the newly empty cells.

The hypnotized men followed, a door somewhere nearby flew open, Kitaru only glanced in that direction. His tail flicking anxiously behind him as he led the remaining hypnotized men towards the empty cell. Two of them lunged at him, and Kitaru reached out to grab their outstretched arms as he turned sideways to avoid the weapons in their hands. He gave their arms a tug and sent them sprawling into the room.

There were four left and he needed to move quickly so that the two in the room didn't get out before he got the others in. He had to move quickly to protect Suzume. He growled again, backing up a step. Luckily the ones he had sent in the room were slow at getting up. The four left came at him at once, and Kitaru dodged down and to the side, coming up behind two. He grabbed them and knocked their heads together before shoving them into the room.

The other two he rammed with his shoulder, knocking them one into the other and then into the room. Quickly he closed the door of the cell, with a satisfying click of the lock. He turned to find Suzume, and hesitated. His eyes had found Suzume, but then they had found the large man. It was looking at Kitaru, but as soon as it's gaze dropped to Suzume and the child she was protecting the tiger moved.

It only took a few seconds for the large man to assess Suzume and the child, it took a few seconds for Kitaru to run across the room. Then the large man was moving towards Suzume with a speed that Kitaru wasn't sure he could match. The tiger snarled, the bandage of his left shoulder was soaked with blood now, but that wouldn't stop him. He would get what he wanted at any cost, and what he wanted was a safe Suzume, for the sake of the Maboroshi of course.

Kitaru ran towards them, something catching his eye as he neared Suzume. The katana sticking out of where she had looped it through a strap on her pack. Without thinking, Kitaru grabbed it as he moved to put himself between her and the monster of a man. It burned his hand for an instant, but he didn't let go. The desire to protect was pure, even if for selfish reasons, a bright light flashed as the Maboroshi seemed to respond to that pure desire. Even for a demon. Or perhaps it had more to do with who he was protecting than just the desire to protect.

The bright light that had flashed seemed to stun the man momentarily. "Suzume, get out of here." He half yelled the words, wanting her out quickly so he could fight this man better. So she couldn't tell him not to kill this man, and so she wouldn't get caught in the cross fire. He needed her safe. He lunged at the man, a straightforward attack and he hoped to plunge the katana in the monstrous man's gut. An odd yet familiar scent came to his nose the closer he got, there was a shard. Somewhere on or in this man, Kitaru could smell it.

][I could keep going but I don't want to make it toooo long. >.>;;][

Slowly enough Niya had moved his somewhat injured arm toward his lips as he had wiped away the blood that had been the cause from Hanganji's attack as well as Niya coughing up his own blood. His breathing still heavy as though he had lost all ability to actually breathe properly. All of his senses by this point had gone close enough to disappearing as the last sense he was able to still partially use for the moment was hearing, the only sound he was able to hear was a loud ringing noise along with the sounds of distant battle going on around him. The rain and continuous banging of thunder and lightning were still all easily heard through his sense of hearing as well. Trying to steady down his own breathing, it had taken Niya about a minute at maximum to probably get all of his senses working once again. However, right as he was once again able to sense everything around him the blind male couldn't help himself but to cough up much more blood this time.

Clenching down onto his fists, Niya had to tolerate the intense pain of his illness still affecting his heart. By the time he had slowly stood back up to his feet, he was easily able to make out the scent he had heard the battle between. The female demon from earlier had come to assist him in his battle against Hanganji. This time though, something was off the woman was much larger then she was earlier and it had seemed as though the scent of blood coming from Hanganji was more then noticeable. The female demon was able to injure large man, at least that was a start.

Once Niya had finally been ready for a second battle with Hanganji, the sounds of footsteps approaching him from both his left and right had been heard. The room that the blind male had been thrown into had several of the lifeless servants that obeyed Hanganji's orders. With the darkness as his ally, it had only taken a matter of seconds to take down and knock each one of these men and women out before they would become a nuisance to the battle. Once each of them were finally out cold, Niya hadn't wasted any time to rush forward through the debris and the holes in the walls that he was thrown through. Hanganji would pay for the deaths of the villagers, even though Niya had left his home village years ago, his heart still remained pure to the fact that he was taught underneath the ways of being a true monk.

Finally, by the time Niya was now within the same room as the female demon and the large man. It had seemed as though Hanganji had been thrashing left and right with the woman's bare teeth clenched against him. With this, the blind male was able to finally unsheathe his blade quickly from behind him. Debris from the ceiling and walls around had still come crashing down, there was no doubt that this whole castle was probably going to come crumbling down sooner or later. If this fight had dragged on too long, the people would most likely would've been killed by the debris. Niya was unaware that Suzume and the male demon had already freed the captured villagers, so the thought of the villagers being killed was still in the back of his head.

However, he hadn't bothered to waste anymore time by thinking of what should be done about the captured villagers as the blind male immediately darted forward toward Hanganji. Due to the large man concentrating onto the female demon's larger form, it was quite easy for the blind male to dodge each time the thrashing of the large demonic woman's form had gone around the room. By the time Niya was now close enough to strike toward the large man, the very target the blind male had aimed for was the current wound that Hanganji already had due to the demon female. Ramming his blade straight toward the wound, another loud roar-like scream was heard from the large man as he directed his attention straight down toward Niya. "You little bug! I will crush you all!" His voice now once more angered for the moment that he had been attacked once again without him noticing.

Raising his large free hand into the air, Hanganji wasn't holding back anymore of his strength as the slight blur of the Maboroshi was now more then obvious enough to be seen in both of his fists. However, with the female demon's fangs upon his other arm it had made the man much slower then he once was. This time, when his fist had come crashing downwards, it was more then a simple task for Niya to side step the large fist. With Hanganji's large hand slamming into the marble flooring the entire castle had once more shook terribly. The large man didn't waste any time as well to pull out his fist from the ground to try and swipe Niya away with the side of his arm. However, by this point the blind male had already back flipped himself away from Hanganji. The blade that he held was able to do damage onto the man after-all, but it didn't seem like it was enough strength to cut off anything vital.

So taking the chance he needed, Niya had removed the ring from his finger before inserting it into the mouth of the skull from underneath the hilt of his blade. The blind male wasn't completely sure if this would work in making the blade anymore sharper then it already was, but at this point it hadn't seemed as though there was much of any other choice. Darting forward once again, the blind male had clashed his blade with Hanganji's fist only to cause a deep wounded cut going straight down the middle of the large man's knuckles down to his wrist. Hanganji had quickly pulled his fist away only to roar out in pain once again as he swung his other arm to try and remove the demon female from her grasp of his arm. She was becoming a large annoyance to him and much pain now surged through both of his arms. If Niya had sliced any deeper into the man's fist, it would've simply been able to cut the entire man's hand off by the wrist.

Suzume had her eyes closed with the boy tight in her grip when she felt a tug at her pack. She glanced up to see the tiger demon between them and the monstrous man. He was holding her katana. It didn't seem to hurt him the way it should have, but then it was emitting a bright light. She recognized that pure light.

She nodded at Kitaru, though he couldn't see her behind him. With the hypnotized villagers locked away the fight seemed more even, and she needed to get this boy to safety. Suzume stood with the small child still tightly in her grasp and hurried to the exit. She glanced over her shoulder at the tiger demon and hoped he would be okay. His wounds wounds were not well, but what could she do?

She could get this boy to safety, and bring back help. She could find Hikari and Niya and bring them here. Once she was out the door and up the stairs she followed the hall back to the entrance from which they had originally come. Servants were running from another hall and to the doors to freedom.

"Wait!" she stopped one of them. "What's happening?" she asked. The servant explained that they were escaping while they had the chance, and that was that. No further explanation was given. She stopped a female and passed the boy along with assurance that he would be okay and able to go home now.

She turned and looked in the direction from which very few servants ran at random times. How were they escaping from up here? Was there another dungeon on this level? How were they escaping it? Hikari must have freed them! So Hikari was in that direction, that's where Suzume would head.

Slowly she made her way down the darkly lit hall as the storm pounded the castle. Thunder boomed from time to time shaking the building to it's core and the light of the lightning entered in through various places making the walk even more ominous than it would have been without the storm.

(( I'm just leaving this open ended so Niya and Hikari can do more of their own thing, and Kitaru has time to do his own thing before Suzume goes running into more trouble. Lol it will also keep things slow so that Kiyo and Cheerio can hop back in! :) ))

(sorry can't help but to make troubles!!!! It's a SICKNESS!!!)

At the time that the fox demon and the blind guy Niya, were fighting Hangani his hypnatized slaves were summoned mentally to come forth and defend him by attacking his attackers as he did, as well as search out the other unwelcomed precenses that he sensed in his castle. So while they fought more of his slaves would come forward to attack them. (As many as you guys want so it doesn't have to be a crazy amount or anything). Meanwhile some of them happened upon Suzume while they were searching for the others in the group and they attacked her by surrounding her in a placewhere there wasn't any weapons for her to defend herself with. Though maybe she fought ok they still got her anyway and took her back to where their master was fighting the demon and blind man as instructed. Other slaves were still searching for anyone else in the castle.

They went into the room with Suzume but they didn't know she was anything special so so far her secret was safe, though she wasn't and neither were the others. Hanganji was very powerful and Niya and Hikari would not be able to defeat him alone. As the blind man slashed at his wrist he roared out in pain and grabbed at the wound. He was hysterically angry now and with a bit of concentration he summoned more power from his shards and with his uninjured hand he reached for the fox and pulled her from his arm throwing her with all of his might through two walls. His wrist healed itself and he smirked at the blind man, the fool should have taken the whole wrist and defeated him then and there but now it was too late and Hanga summoned all of the power he could.

The large amount of power caused a wind of power to whip around them all and that's when his slaves brought in another of the group. He growled and sent them back out to search for anyone else that might be there unwanted. This girl that they brought seemed insignificant and powerless but she was still apart of this troublesome group so he would kill her too, or make her a slave she was beautiful after all and then an idea dawned on him and he grabbed her up by the back of her shirt before holding her firmly against himself. He laughed again knowing they wouldn't attck him now not with their friend in his grasp. If they did he didn't care he would eventually kill them all anyway.

Hikari dug her teeth in deeper as she senses Niya rejoining the fight.The giant man thrashed and screamed,and at some point simply plucked her off of him and threw her.She flew through two walls but managed,just barely,to land on her feet.Growling,Hikari realized that they would have to get the shards away from this man if they were ever going to beat him.The only way to do that would be to use their own.Apparently,Niya had already had that thought,as he was using a shard in his sword.Hikari threw her head back and howled,drawing power from the shard on her necklace.Her fox form grew larger,to the point where she filled half of the throne room,and she charged forward again.This time,the shard had allowed her to encase her entire body in flames.She went for the man's arm again.She knew from Niya's attempts that the shards were somewhere in the giant's hands,so she would simply have to remove his arm.It was a full body charge,and it hurt,but she took comfort in the fact that the flames would have burned the man at least a little,and the body slam would have hurt him,too.She clamped down on his arm again,just below the elbow,and started pulling,her claws digging into the floor.If she just bit hard enough,the arm would start to sever.Hikari at this point had no idea that there were hypnotized people around them,so plenty of those villagers would have been hurt or burden as well-at least enough to stop them from interfering.

A soft breeze rolled by and Kimiko slowly turned towards the direction that it came from. She stared into trees for a long moment before beginning to travel forward into them. This was how she guided herself a lot of times. She had no real direction of anything, or really any clues to go by.. so she just trusted her gut. That had been working well enough for her over the last few weeks.

As she walked though, Kimiko could feel an unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach. It made her glance around to try and find the cause but there was nothing in sight. Perhaps that was it. The more she really looked, she quickly realized that this forest seemed entirely empty. She heard no chirping of birds, no small squirrels running around.. nothing. It seemed lifeless and it made her stomach tighten just a bit more in unease.

The sound of a scream caught her attention however and she jerked around. Immediatly she saw a swarm of people running towards her, all dirty and terrified. She stepped to the side to let them pass by, looking forward to see what they were running from exactly. At first she didn't see anything, but the sudden sight of a tree falling made her squint. In a matter of seconds, a huge demon suddenly appeared to be trying to grab some of the people, but it was moving rather slowly.. and not very dedicated to it's cause. It's eyes were glazed over.

Kimiko didn't give it much more thought for the moment as she pulled her bow to her side and quickly loaded it. The sound the straining bow made rung in her ear as she withdrew her arrow, aiming it towards the large rather ugly demon. She watched as it turned towards her and lifted it's clawed hand, preparing to bring it down and smash the woman. Before it had the chance however, she released her weapon. As the arrow shot through the creature, it created a large hole much larger than the tip itself. The wound seemed to expand and the demon let out a deep but loud cry before suddenly disintegrating all together. It's roar faded away and she was left to stand in an almost eerie silence.

"..What is going on.." Kimiko whispered to herself and stood still. The other humans had ran to safety and the demon was dead, but she still did not feel alone. "Who is here?" Her voice snapped as she looked around more. "The danger is gone, So come out!"

Chi kept to the shadows of the treeline for the moment. Hex had decided to stay out, hovering over him as the two of them moved along. The woods around them seemed to get darker and a tad bit colder. Something was not right. Sniffing the air lightly, he could smell the odd scent of someone's blood around him, though it did not seem to be human in the slightest.

"Odd" Hex leaned forward, placing his hands on Chi's shoulders a bit for support. Taking in the silence around him, he remained still. Chi looked up at him a bit, rubbing his arm a bit to get the blood flowing a bit more within his arm. Being a blood bender, his manipulation of blood did tend to leave him a tad stiff. Hex turned slightly east, looking out through the trees.

"There are people over there, as well as some odd demon" he says. Chi looked up at him, "you think it could have been him?" he asks. Hex turned his eyes down on the other, looking at him in silence a bit. "Eh, who's to say, but he does enjoy making up trouble I suppose" he clapped Chi on the back of the shoulder a bit, "we should get going...there are shards to obtain, and wasting time down here is only going to get us left behind!"

Chi sighed a bit, looking back towards the village. "Should we?" he asks. Hex rolled his eyes a bit, "they abandoned you, left you behind without a second thought or care. None of them give a damn about you, so why should you about them? Useless bags of meat only good for one thing" he laughed.

Chi sighed, shaking his head a bit to clear it. "Humans and people...they are all the same" he turned into the woods farther, into the direction of the mountains beyond. Hex laughed nodding, "atta boy! Lets go kill us some people" he laughed louder.

Chi wondered if Hex was right, but then again, no one had come to see them, they had not bothered to keep going and the two of them did need the shards. His hand went to the one around his neck. He had to stop being so bad with people. Letting out a slight whistle, growls echoed from around him, as through the trees the wolves under his command ran past and up ahead.

Hex hummed slightly, he seemed to be in a better mood now. Did it have anything to do with them being on their own again? He sighed a bit, as they continued their way. The wolves slowled slightly up the mountain, seeming to fear going forward more at the moment. "Seems we are on the right track" Hex examined the wolves a bit, watching them growl and look up a bit.

"So the shards...are up there?" he looked up, seeing something in the distance that seemed relitively like a building. They left the wolves for now where they were, moving up more. It was darker and cloudy, the way they were going was being ravaged by an odd storm. It made Chi shake a bit. Hex sighed, spreading himself out a bit, into a slight sort of umbrella "you really need to toughen up."

"I like the rain, but this is different" Chi looked up at the sky a bit, it was getting worse it seemed. "I could always fly us up?" Hex noted, but Chi shook his head "walking is exercise." Hex sighed and shook his head, finding the other odd. They slowly reached their destination, pushing open a large door. It seemed silent for the moment, he wondered where all the people were. Hex twitched a bit, regaining his more human shape "something is deffinetly here."


Haru figured the others had gone on and that was fine with him. He looked through the trees a bit, though noticed little before the odd sounds to the side of him caught more of his attention. The ink snake around his arm hissed darkly, something big and not to friendly was close at hand. Moving off from the path a bit, the noises coming from fleeing people were easily picked out from the natural sounds of the forest. He noticed the swaying and bending of the trees nearby, as well as what seemed to be loud and heavy footfalls.

It was only mere moments before the large form of some kind of demon moved through the trees. The birds that had been following Haru from overhead gave slight cries, before moving to go around it instead of into it. What was it? He watched it's movements, something was deffinetly off indeed. Instincts of a normal being would have been screaming at this moment to flee, but the demon within Haru was refusing to back down. He did not feel the slightest bit of fear as it moved closer.

If he needed to, to protect these people, he would stand and fight. However, after a moment, it did not seem nesecarry. The large thing stopped and seemed to give off some kind of roar before it broke down and vanished. The snake on his arm hissed, its tongue flicking at the air as it tilted its head. Haru stood for a moment, keeping his eyes on the place where the thing had been moments before. Taking a slight breath, he stepped over to where it had been.

No signs of anything were left behind, other than the large holes where feet had landed. It was deffinetly odd indeed. The sound of a voice calling behind him made him turn, a woman seemed to be attempting to get the attention of those who had ran from the beast just moments before. She had not been there before, he wondered who she was, and what her buisiness was. Perhaps she knew something of this thing, so he slowly made his way over to her.

The snake tightened on his arm, keeping watch on the woman as he moved over to her. He was unsure what to say really at the moment, keeping kind of silent, though he knew he would have to say something. "Hello" that was a good start, wasn't it? That was what people typically said to eachother in the instance of meeting right? He sighed, he needed to work on his people skills.

Watching as how Hanganji's knuckles had soon regenerated from the deeply cut wound that Niya had sent through him using his blade, as the fist had began to heal itself due to the power of the Maboroshi residing within his body, the blind male cursed silently to himself. Before taking only a single step backwards in case the large man was going to come forward once again in full speed. The sounds of Hanganji soon roaring out in pain had taken Niya's attention as he moved his free hand up to cover up his ears, the intense noise of the large man's roaring was already bad but with the blind male's enhanced senses made it all the more difficult to handle. Once Niya had been able to uncover his ears, the sudden noise of female demon going flying had caught his attention. For only a moment did the blind male take his gaze over toward her, even though her large form wasn't completely visible to him the blur of the Maboroshi was enough to tell that she was still more then alive.

Right as the blind male had prepared to charge forward once again to attack Hanganji after he had thrown the female demon, it had only been then when the sudden loud noise of his roar that had caused the gust of wind to go spiraling around the room they fought within. Thankfully, Niya had jabbed his blade right into the marbled flooring that had kept him from being blasted straight out of the room once more. However, even after the gusts of wind had finally settled themselves down the last thing Niya had expected was the scent of the human female within Hanganji's grasp along with the scents of other men and women who served under the large man's orders. Turning his head only slightly to the left and right to hear as how the lifeless guards were already surrounding the room.

Tightening his grip onto the hilt of his blade, Niya had began to try and come up with any sorts of plans to attack this large man without bringing harm to the female human. It wasn't until the sudden sounds of flames near the area where the demon female had been thrown did the blind male quickly turn his attention back upon her. The once large demon female form that had fought alongside him earlier had now grown in size as well as strangely had flames covering all over her body. The sudden charge toward Hanganji of the demon female was the perfect chance for Niya to go running forward while he had been distracted by the female demon biting onto his arm once again. While Hanganji had tried to once more get his arm free from the grasp of large demon, rather then aiming to kill the man he had charged as close as possible toward the large man's body. Once up and personal with him, Niya had aimed his slash toward the wrist of Hanganji's hand which held onto the human female.

The blind male hadn't bothered to try and catch Suzume but had thought for sure that she would be able to land onto her own two feet considering the drop wasn't really that far. Once a single one of the hands were now removed from Hanganji's arms, the large man had immediately let out a blood curdling roar that had nearly broken apart each piece of the flooring around the entire room. Blood had now been spraying rapidly from the remains of where his wrist had used to belong to, but even that didn't seem to stop the large man from his intense strength due to his size. With a single swing of his large arm, Niya hadn't expected Hanganji to still have so much strength in his body after losing a hand which held a few of the Maboroshi pieces within them. This time however, due to Niya not having the ring upon his finger anymore, when he had decided to raise his arm to try and protect his body from the impact of the large man's arm. Niya had instantly gone flying to the opposite side of the room with a loud crash.

Thankfully since the Maboroshi pieces were separate from the arm he had swung toward the blind male, the impact hadn't caused him to go flying through the wall. Although the pain was still intense, the free arm that hadn't been holding onto his blade was now utterly numb. Whether or not the bones were broken from underneath his skin in that arm, it hadn't stopped Niya from standing back up to his feet and continuing on. Blood had now dripped down from the top of his shoulder and around the elbow of his numbed arm. Panting heavily, his senses had gone nearly blank to the feeling of touch. While Hanganji at this point had now directed his gaze onto the arm that was being bitten upon by the demon female, once again he had tried his best to get free as he could easily begin to feel the skin and tissues of his arm being ripped apart. There was no doubt in this that if he wouldn't finish this battle soon, he would be the one to die.

The tip of the katana pierced the man's belly, and emitted another bright flash of light. The shard piece inside this man began to shine brightly, as if responding to the already combined and purified pieces itself. Kitaru snarled and tried to shove the sword deeper into the man's stomach but the katana didn't budge. It pulsed in his hands, the light it emitted seeming to only get brighter. The large man made a noise that seemed a cross between a howl of rage and one of pain. He stumbled backwards, and the katana slid from his belly. The large man's hands clutched at his stomach, though the wound inflicted hadn't been serious, and he dropped to his knees seeming suddenly very sick.

Kitaru moved to deal the finishing blow, a swift chop to his neck, but as he moved the sword flashed again, emitting that light and causing Kitaru to stagger back a couple of steps. The tiger snarled, but the shard that had been inside of the man now floated above his body. The tiger reacted quickly, rushing forward and snatching the pebble looking shard from the air with one hand and swinging the sword down with his other to once again try and deal a crippling or finishing blow. The sword came down, but it was a glancing blow on the man's shoulder, as he was beginning to get up now. The blow caused him to stumble a bit, precariously close to that pit of beasts. Kitaru rammed his body into the large man's and sent him crashing down into that pit.

The beasts still within devoured the man, and Kitaru was sure if Suzume was still in the room she would not have liked that one bit. He tucked the newly acquired shard away into a pocket, and stood there, panting. The katana felt heavier now for some reason, he stared at it for a few moments and when he looked up more of the hypnotized men were coming into the room. Pain pulsed through his body, moving from his left shoulder and outwards to every nerve in him. He grimaced and snarled. Straightening a bit, he charged through some of the men, knocking them over with his body to clear a path. Following Suzume's scent, he darted from the room.

Letting the hypnotized men follow along behind him. They were slower than him, and he had to make sure Suzume stayed safe. He didn't have time to deal with them, or so he told himself, it probably had more to do with the fact that Suzume would get upset if he killed them all. Even though they were humans, and trying to kill him. Kitaru glanced around as he moved through hallways and door ways. Wondering how long the castle would hold up, it had been shaking quite a lot recently and that led him to believe the others had found the main target, because his battle hadn't caused such tremors to shake the castle.

The storm outside probably wasn't helping either, he fully expected the castle to come crashing down around his ears at any moment. Such thoughts only made him move faster. Soon the sounds of battle and angry roars were heard, though one roar was so loud Kitaru probably would have heard it even if he weren't getting closer to where the main battle was. Hypnotized men and women seemed to be surrounding a particular room, and it was that room that the noises seemed to be the loudest. Some of the walls were already torn down.

He shoved his way past hypnotized people, hitting them in the back of the heads to knock them unconscious when he needed to, finally he was able to make his way into the room. Hanganji was missing a hand, the fox demon was attempting to bite off his other hand, or so it appeared to Kitaru. Suzume seemed to be in the middle of all of that, and the blind man seemed to be recovering from an attack. The katana began to glow, and Kitaru wondered if in Suzume's hands it might have the power to stop all this. He moved towards her, half ignoring the raging battle around him, but paying enough attention to dodge and slip past things that needed to be dodged as he rushed towards Suzume.

So far she seemed unhurt, that filled him with far more relief than it probably should have.

((It's long! I had a lot to respond to!))

The long hallway was too eerie for Suzume. She was sure that at any moment a monster would pop out of the darkness and gobble her up and her eyes were wide with anticipation and her brows were creased with worry. She was determined to find Hikari though and bring her back to the dungeon to help Kitaru. If he no longer needed help, then she and Hikari could team up to free the rest of the prisoners.

Servants no longer ran from wherever they were running from. Had they all been freed then? It was unlikely. Just as she wondered what awaited her at the end of the hall, something moved in the darkness ahead. She stopped and squinted, trying to focus into the blackness between the last candle and the wall ahead that turned into the next portion of the hall.

Thunder boomed as lightning streaked through the sky above the castle, lighting up the hall for a brief moment. She saw in that moment what lurked in the hall. More hypnotized villagers, and they were coming for her. She turned around to run back to where she had come from but in the candle light there she could see more villagers. There wasn't any escaping and the only weapon she’d had, Kitaru was using. That still surprised her, but there wasn't any time to think about that now.

Suzume put her hands up as if to ward them off. It was just a natural reaction. "Snap out of it!" she said to them. "Wake up!" she ordered. But nothing happened. They didn't even seem to be blinking. She turned around again to see that she was surrounded. Her father had taught her some self defense, but she wasn't very good. She also didn't want to hurt any of the villagers, she knew they weren’t acting like this because they wanted to be.

Still she needed to try something, if she were captured, who knew what would happen to her. "Stay back," she warned, not that they would listen. As one came forward to grab her, she grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, elbowing him in the back of the neck with her other elbow. He went crashing to the ground and Suzume immediately apologized. "I'm sorry!" she said, automatically turning around to check on him.

Another advanced at her from behind, grabbing her while she was preoccupied with apologies. She elbowed him in the stomach and stomped on his foot, but it didn't do much. She wasn’t sure the villagers were feeling much pain if any at all in their hypnotized state. Well, at least she’d tried something.

He started dragging her away somewhere, but she kicked and wriggled the whole way. "Let me go!" she'd yell. "Snap out of it, don't let him control you!" she'd order. But she wasn't released until they entered into a room with much chaos. They’d entered in through a back door and in front of them was a man even larger than the one she left Kitaru to deal with. In front of him was the blind man and a demon fox that she could only assume was Hikari.

She was released there and as she was preoccupied now wondering if Hikari was okay after having just clearly been thrown through a wall, she was grabbed up once again. This time by a man she was sure to be the "powerful man" of the mountain. His grip was overly tight on her and she struggled just to breath in his grasp around her chest. As she pulled at his arm, she wondered if there was any hope for him or if the others would kill him. She hoped they wouldn't. In his hand that clutched her closely, she could see the aura of multiple pieces of the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou.

Maybe if they could rid him of them, he would go back to normal? But the chances of that were very slim. To have been able to use them for such evil, one would have already had to have had impure thoughts of evil. To be this far gone, there was no hope for the man, but Suzume wouldn't know or accept that.

As she struggled to free herself she saw Hikari use her own piece of the Ginzuishou and grow into a larger and flaming fox. The demon ran at them and she wondered if Hikari had noticed her there at all. Her eyes widened at the thought that she might be burned up in the next few moments, but the man turned her away from the flames. Not intentionally, just instinctively.

There had to be good in him somewhere to have done that! She was sure of it! But the fox demon latched onto his arm, ripping at his flesh. The jaws were uncomfortably close to Suzume, who's heart was racing and who's lungs were unable to get full breaths.

Then the blind man was charging them and Suzume wondered if he too would willingly sacrifice her to kill this man. She put her arms up to protect her face and then she was falling to the ground. She had only been a couple of feet from the floor, so the fall wasn't awful, though she landed on her side, not realizing she would be falling.

Blood was beginning to cover the floor and was spraying over her. She was mortified. She looked to Niya who had saved her, but Hanganji struck him and instead of looking up at Niya, she was watching him fly across the room. Suzume was terrified. What had she gotten them into? They were all going to die by this mans wrath and it was all her fault. And she didn't even know the blind man’s name.

Come to think of it, Hikari was the only name she knew. How could she have doomed such strangers? How selfish she had been. She looked up now at Hanganji who still stood towering over her, trying to free himself of the fox demon. She tried to back away, slipping in the blood of the man’s arm. The pieces of the Ginzuishou were still inside of the hand laying to her left, but she didn't dare touch it.

She'd managed to move a few feet away when she looked up to see Kitaru. Relief flooded her at the sight of him. He'd survived, and he was here to help now. Immediately, sadness filled her. He would die here with them now, too. She could see his wounds had reopened and that he was bleeding badly, as was Niya. Her breath caught in her throat as she forced herself not to cry over the condemning decision she had made to come here.

Hikari only vaguely noticed what was going on around her.She certainly noticed when Niya sliced off the gian'ts other hand,since the man's power decreased a bit.That made it easier for her to grip and pull.It wasn't long before,with a sickening cruch and rip,she pulled the giants other arm free of his body,cutting it off below the elbow.The giant man roared with pain and rage as Hikari pulled the arm over to the other one,and dug the shards out of it.She's won those fair and square,and she was going to take them.After securing them,Hikari returned to her human form,covered in blood,and drew her sword."I think it is time to finish this,once and for all.Suzume-chan,I apologize for nearly burning you." She said,ready to charge the giant once more.

The katana was glowing, and beginning to burn his hand the closer he got to Suzume. Kitaru was sure this thing had a will of it's own, it could only do so much to act on it's own but he got the distinct feeling that it really wanted to be back in Suzume's possession and the only reason it wasn't really hurting him was because he was carrying it to her. He had used it to defend her. He grunted lightly, keeping his grip tight around the hilt of the katana as he reached Suzume.

He grabbed her with his left hand, wincing some as he used that arm to pull her close to him. Almost crushing her against his chest, the katana was almost unbearable to hold now. He was certain it was because of his proximity with Suzume. He shoved the hilt of the katana into her hands. Kitaru released her from his grip and moved to stand next to her, ready to protect her from the hypnotized villagers that might attack them and ready to protect her from the man if Hikari was shaken loose or failed to rip the man's arm off.

Then there was a sickening sound, and a roar of pain from Hanganji as his other arm was torn off by the fox. It brought a slight smile to Kitaru's lips. This fight was over, or so it seemed to him. Of course he didn't miss Hikari taking those shards from the severed hands and that made him smirk as well. He had the piece he had won from the man in the dungeons. Tucked safely away in his pocket, though he knew Suzume would realize he had one once all the commotion had ended.

He looked to Suzume, wondering what she would do. He was sure she wouldn't let Hikari kill Hanganji, her heart was to soft for such a thing. Maybe she could purify the man's heart and soul the way she purified the Maboroshi? Was such a thing even possible? More importantly why had he even thought such a thought? Kitaru shook his head and nudged Suzume gently with an elbow. "The fox is right, it's time to end this." He glanced at Hikari, and then his gaze jumped around, searching for the blind man. The blind one was injured, but Kitaru was sure he would live.

Still trying to recover from the large attack that had come from the large man's arm, Niya had continued to breathe heavily as he began to concentrate onto his other remaining senses to figure out who was around him. The female demon had still been within the battle as it had seemed from how the human girl was sounding rather afraid of the whole situation. At the very least, she was still breathing and alive, that gave Niya the thought that his wound hadn't been for nothing. It hadn't been long before yet another scent had arrived into the room, it was none other then the tiger demon from before. There were others to help fight against the monster of a man, hopefully the battle would soon be over and done with. In yet another moment or so, the sound of blood spraying out from yet another area had caught Niya's attention was when he turned his gaze back toward Hanganji. His second arm had now been removed as well, at the very least this made the battle much more easy to win now that the large man no longer had his arms for battle.

Within the moment the blind male had prepared to step forward and join the others in the battle against this large man, Niya had ended up coughing up much more blood then he had ever done before. It was quite a shock to see that he was still alive after losing all this blood, by the time the coughing had finally come to a stop once again, the blind male had began to make his way slowly over toward Hanganji. The large man by this point had now been going nearly insane as his once tan skin color had now began to lose all of it's color as it was well enough to tell that if nothing was done about his wounds he would surely die out from intense bleeding. The only thing that was left heard from the large man was nothing more then his roars of pain and anger while he had swung both of what remained of his arms left and right, screaming all the while at the rest of them to get away from him.

"You..have no right...to be giving anyone...orders..in your condition.." Were the only words that were heard from Niya's lips at this point. With his uninjured arm, he grasped as tightly as he could onto the hilt of his blade just to let his body know that he still was holding onto his weapon. The sense of touch at this point was still completely numbed out from the attack that Hanganji had ended up sending just recently. Shockingly enough, even with the large man injured to the point he seemed as though he was prepared to pass out he was actually able to back away toward his throne. By the time he had reached his large stone throne, it had only taken him what seemed like a single kick of the foot to cause the throne to go flying toward the group that was attacking him. Even being as hurt as he was already, the blind male had easily been able to step aside away from the large throne coming toward them.

Hikari was readying herself to attack again as Kitaru reached her. He grabbed her quickly, pulling her into him and she blinked owlishly for a moment before he shoved the katana in her hands. She was thankful to be looking at him over any of the madness or the blood, or the man with severed arms. She couldn't look at the man with severed arms...

Then the tiger demon was talking about finishing the fight, and, nudging her forward!? Her eyes widened and her heart raced. Surely they didn't expect her to fight Hanganji! "Me!?" she protested in panic. She finally turned her head to see the crazed man and her hands began to shake. She swallowed hard and turned to face him.

He was just a man. A man with a single piece of the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou still inside him. A man who was crazy with rage, and was flinging blood everywhere. She felt vomit rise in her throat, but she fought it. What was she going to do!? Did they want her to try and kill him? She would never...

Then Hanganji was kicking the massive throne in their direction. How he still had that kind of power was amazing, and terrifying. The tiger demon stood close to her as always, but she had been in front of him. Instinctively, she held up the katana as if it would actually protect her from such a large object.

And it did. As the throne neared them, the katana flashed another bright light. Then, a mere couple of feet from them, the throne seemed to hit some kind of invisible shield. Even stranger was that the shield completely disintegrated the chair.

Suzume had had her eyes closed until about mid disintegration. She was amazed, and so very thankful. And now, she felt a little more confident holding the katana. She looked to the tiger demon, maybe looking for encouragement, maybe to make sure he was still there as it was so expected now.

Niya had ducked out of the way, and the both of the men were badly injured. She wasn't so sure Niya would survive the encounter. All because some man who wanted power, abusing the pieces of the Ginzuishou. If she could just get that last piece away from him, maybe he'd have a chance. And she had an idea!

All it took for her to take, by accident, the tiger demon's pieces was to put her hand over the place where he had them hidden. She moved forward towards Hanganji now, holding the katana like some kind of very confident and skilled ninja, although she wouldn't know the first thing about actually using the weapon.

The man was still angry, kicking at lanterns and other objects in his area. When she reached him, he spun around to tower over her angrily. He was much paler that he had been. His eyes were sunken in now and he was almost foaming at the mouth like some kind of rabid animal.

Suzume swallowed hard again, but was confident that the katana would protect her. The last piece of the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou was embedded over his heart. She wondered if he had done that, or if it had chosen that place to reside on it's own once he had tainted it with hatred. He roared out and positioned himself to attack her by ramming into her, but Suzume reached out with her hand and placed it over his heart. "I'm here to help you," she said sincerely, though he wouldn't hear her.

The katana glowed again. Dimly at first, then brighter and brighter until it's power once again created a short of shield between Suzume and the shard, and Hanganji. The invisible shield pushed Hanganji away from Suzume who's own power kept the shard in place, ripping it from his chest as he was forced away from her.

When Hanganji lay across the floor, the invisible shield disappeared. Suzume stood there in awe with her hand still faced away from her as the tiny piece of the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou floated in front of it. How was she doing that? Her other hand had dropped with the katana and it suddenly felt so heavy that she couldn't hold onto it any longer.

As it fell to the ground, Suzume was snapped out of her trance and when she was, the shard fell to the ground as well. She looked ahead at Hanganji on the floor. A puddle of blood engulfed the area around him. Though she'd had hope for him, there was no surviving wounds and blood loss like that. As he died, the villagers came to, not realizing where they were or what had happened.

The room spun. Suzume had unknowingly used far too much of her own energy, of her own hidden power. Her body felt so light, like it was floating, and she realized it was because she was falling from the lifted area that the throne had once been on. She wanted to reach out to catch herself, but she couldn't. She just wanted to close her eyes and sleep now. It was all over now.

As the throne came hurdling towards them, Kitaru moved, his arms circling around Suzume to pull her down just as she lifted the katana. He hesitated, and the throne hit a barrier and disintegrated. He let those arms drop, the katana was stronger in her hands. That was a fact that couldn't be denied. Kitaru was silent, just nodding slightly when she looked to him for encouragement or reassurance, his eyes on her. His body tense, ready to spring and react to pull her out of danger if the need arose.

As Suzume moved forward, Kitaru wasn't too far behind her. Far enough away to not get in her way, but close enough to react quickly if the situation got to be more than she could handle on her own. His body tense as Suzume reached out as if to touch Hanganji's heart, and his eyes narrowed slightly. It was hard to look at them for a moment as the katana glowed brighter and brighter but soon the shard was there floating in air and Hanganji was laying on the ground.

Suzume was just standing there, as if in a trance, but just as Kitaru started forward, she seemed to snap out of her trance. The floating shard began to fall, and so did Suzume. There was no hesitating on Kitaru's part, he moved forward quickly, arms outstretched to catch Suzume and lift her. With trembling left arm he lifted her, and cradled her against his chest. He couldn't hold her though, he couldn't carry her. He staggered a few steps and dropped to his knees. Suzume half laid on his lap, but his eyes were on the shard that had fallen.

Staying at a slight distance away from the throne area where Hanganji still stood as the large man had continued to go on a rampage of kicking things around as well as swinging his arms left and right. Taking a glance around the large room toward the other men and women who served under Hanganji's orders were now only standing there lifeless while they awaited yet another order from the large crazed man. Once the sound of footsteps approaching the large man had caught his attention, Niya quickly returned his gaze toward the throne area. This time, the scent was neither of the female demon nor the male demon but rather it was of the human girl from earlier. What was she doing, even though Hanganji was injured badly it had seemed more then obvious enough that the large man still had strength beyond any ordinary mortal should wield. However, even though Suzume had approached the large man the blind male hadn't spoken up another word as he only stood there with his blade still gripped tightly in one hand.

It wasn't long before the bright light from the katana did Niya nearly dropped his own blade as he moved his arms to try and shield his eyes from the light. Within yet another minute or so, all that had remained was the scent of a puddle of blood and a large body laying upon it. There was no doubt in anyone's mind even if they were blind, that the large body was of Hanganji. The battle had finally come to an end and the group was victorious throughout it. Slowly enough, Niya had sheathed his blade behind him, it may had been difficult considering the sense of his touch was still slightly numbed. Even as the human girl had began to fall along with the shard that had floated there, it wasn't too much of a surprise to hear the quickened footsteps of the male demon catching her into his arms right as she had fell.

Without so much as another word, Niya had made his way over toward the hand that he had sliced off from Hanganji earlier. Kneeling down before the hand, he had dug his own fingers into the wrist of the hand before extracting the shards that resided deep within that hand. So this was the man that the old healer spoke about, it didn't seem as though using his techniques was going to be an option after-all. A soft sigh was the only thing heard from the blind male's lips as his journey had no other choice but to continue in search for more of the shards of the Maboroshi. After taking the shards from the large man's hand, Niya had removed the ring which had been still stuck on the skull from right underneath his blade's hilt. With the new shards of the Maboroshi, the blind male had opened up the top of the ring where the other pieces resided before slipping them into the ring as well. Slipping the ring back onto the finger of his injured hand, it hadn't healed the wound of his whole arm being numb, but it was enough to let him know that the pieces of the Maboroshi that he had still belonged to him.

In a matter of moments, the voices of the dead that once surrounded the area had began to fade away as Niya kept his gaze down at his ring. Those who had suffered and unable to pass onto a better life were now free from this hellish place. The other villagers who worked under Hanganji that had seemed lifeless earlier had now regained their senses as they turned their heads left and right to try and figure out where they were. It wasn't until a second or two later that they had realized they were finally free from Hanganji's control, shouts of joy were heard throughout the large castle that even made the sounds of the thunder and lightning outside of the building sound like nothing more then small rumbles. It had seemed as though the fight had been over, but the storm outside still raged violently and from what it had seemed it was almost as though it wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

Turning his attention back onto the group, Niya had only made his way over toward the closest stone pillar which was still in good condition. Settling himself down onto the floor, with whatever strength he still had left within his body the blind male had helped his own injured arm over in front of him. The wound that still remained on his shoulder area had still been bleeding and if he had left it like this, there was no doubt that even the blind male would end up passing out from the lost of blood. So rather then letting himself bleed out like this, the blind male had soon ripped off a piece of his sleeve before wrapping it around his shoulder area tightly. Even though all feeling in the arm was still completely numbed the rest of Niya's body had regained at least some of it's feeling back. Sighing heavily to himself, the blind male rested his back against the large pillar before awaiting to see what the next plans of actions were from the group.a

Kimiko slowly turned towards the man that approached her. He was silent before finally greeting her. She stayed silent in return before glancing around and turning eyes back at him. "Who are you?" Asking flat out, her grip on her bow tightened. There was another strange feeling in her gut beginning to stir. "It isn't safe in these woods. I would advise you to leave." And just as the words left her mouth, another demon appear in the same strange trance the first had been.

The woman immediately loaded her bow to prepare to kill the thing. "Someone is controlling them." She said more to herself, but as though on cue, the demon blinked and it's eyes regained it's shine. It stared dumbly and looked around as though confused and Kimiko raised an eyebrow at it. A low growl rumbled in the creature's throat as it suddenly turned angry as though hitting the realization that it had been being controlled. It screamed out Hanganji's name and threw it's fist around to begin destroying everything it could.

Before it could do much more damage, Kimiko released her arrow and the same thing happened as the first time. The demon let out a roar before disappearing into the air as small blue sparkles.

"..Whatever was controlling them, it seems has released it's hold.." Kimiko murmured and turned back towards the man. She gave a frown. "Do you know who Hanganji is?" She questioned and took one step towards the stranger, but stepped as her eyes darted to his arm. There was a strange aura coming from him, one that made her feel uneasy. It was almost evil. "..Are you here alone?"

"Those people seemed to be coming from the castle.."

Hikari looked at Suzume,waiting for her response.Before she could get it,however,the giant man kicked the throne at them.Suzume raised the Mariboshi sword and,with a flash,the throne disintegrated.Hikari watched in astonishment as the human girl walked forward and extracted the last shard from the giant's chest.She then fainted from overuse of energy,and the tiger demon caught her,but he fell as well.The blind man took the shards from the arm he had cut off,and proceeded to sit against a pillar.Hikari seemed to be the only one not seriously wounded,and so she decided to round up the villagers who were still around.There were only a handful of them who hadn't run off."Okay people,I know you all want to go home,but I need help getting my...my friends to a safer place.Can I get some of you to help me carry them downstairs to a more stable room?" She asked.Sfter getting some volunteers,Hikari managed to get Niya,Kitaru and Suzume downstairs into a sturdy,large stone bedroom.She laid them each on a blanket and started tending to their wounds,starting with the tiger demon,seeing as his were the worst.As she did so,she placed the Mariboshi sword against the wall-after carrying it carefully so as not to get burned-and she took the final shard and placed it in Suzume's hand.She would have liked to keep it,but Suzume had won it fair and square,and it would have been dishonorable to take it from her."Lay still,tiger.I am going to re-wrap your shoulder."

Haru looked at the female for a moment as she asked him who he was, then warned him to leave. He tilts his head a bit, he had no intention of leaving. "My name is Haru" he says, though he doubted she was listening really at this moment. When the other demon came, he looks over at it for a moment. It was odd, demons being controlled and transported here on purpose.

When she asked him if he knew who this being was the demon was calling for, he takes a breath. He had hered a few rumors about an odd man, and such things from his life at the temple. He was unsure how much he should really give her, but she seemed to be moving quickly from one topic to another. When she was asking about the castle, his eyes drifted up the mountain. The snake on his arm hissed darkly a bit.

"Then perhaps one should look into it?" he suggests, his eyes turn to the other once more, before he turns towards the mountains. "If you are planning on heading up, you may accompany me" he says, "if people are being harmed, then someone needs to step in." He knew the others were moving up there, if they had already reached it, then maybe they knew what was going on. He glances back at the female, "shall we?"

Kitaru had growled lightly when Hikari's volunteers approached him with the intention of helping him. He was tired, his arm hurt, and the immediate danger was passed. His body trembled lightly with effort as he attempted to keep Suzume in his arms, but such an attempt was a feeble one and soon she had been pulled away. Picked up by someone else and then others were hesitantly but gently pulling him to his feet. Humans, touching him so gently, it was a new experience for Kitaru and not one he completely trusted. He glanced around, looking to Hikari and Niya almost for reassurance that he was in safe, capable hands.

Soon they were in a large room and laying on blankets. He had just closed his eyes when the fox approached him and spoke. His ears twitched and he only opened one eye to look at her for a moment. "I'm fine. See to Suzume and the blind one first." He waved his right hand slightly, as if to dismiss Hikari, then that hand lowered and he closed the eye he had opened to peer at her with. His ears twitched slightly, straining for sounds of danger, as his body very slowly relaxed.