Crystal watched as the sun rose from her perch. Glancing down at Rayth who slept soundly on the blankets he brought, and how the embers from the night's fire were still flaking off. She didn't intend to leave him in the dark after she dozed off, but she didn't exactly wish to speak of the dream she had.
It wasn't even a dream, no, it was her memories. Although it made her remember her brother, and how she promised to see him again but never did.
As the sun peeked over the trees, Crystal hopped down to the ground.
"Rayth, it's sunrise. Let's get moving before demons decide to take their chances with us." Crystal said quietly, as she began to pack up things. She heard him stir but ignored the urge to look back at him.
"How did you sleep?" Rayth's tired voice asked.
"I woke up a little after I passed out. I've been up ever since." Crystal said flatly, stuffing the items that were set out into the bag. She lifted the bag and took it over to her horse, tying the bag on tightly.
"Let's walk with the horses until we need them. The closest village isn't too far from here."
"Alright then." Crystal said flatly, before untying her horse from the tree and pulled it along with her. Crystal looked back to see Rayth start to follow her, and they continued on. The silence grew over them like dew, but Crystal couldn't feel the need to ask why. She looked over at Rayth, making a visual check on where he was.
The dirt path underneath their feet crunched softly, and the light breeze made the trees rustle around them. Her hair blew slightly into her face, the silver strands of her bangs feathering around her soft face.
Something started to feel wrong though. Crystal's eyes started to dart around, looking for the cause, and started to sniff the air. A scent came across her nose, it was a demon.
But where? Where was the scent coming from? Crystal couldn't determine when the wind started to blow harder, the trees being whipped around as she looked up towards the sky. The once light blue sky was now dark with thunder clouds.
"What's going on?" Rayth asked quietly, but before Crystal could answer, a swirl of wind came down from the sky. As it neared the top of the trees, the wind disappeared.
The wind revealed a woman, her hair was in a ponytail, allowing her curls to be the entirety of the ponytail. Her Yukata was cut up her right leg, showing that she didn't have a wrap on underneath. The pattern on the Yukata was light red swirls, with a red fade at the bottom, resembling the elegance she had attained in her years of being a higher demon.
Crystal glared at her, her nose could pick up on her individual scent, but there was another that coated the Yukata she wore.
"Hello, My dear. It appears you have something that belongs to my lady and I have come to take it back." The woman's voice was elegant, but the venom that dripped from her words spoke of her true intentions.
"I'm sorry, but I do not recall stealing anything." Crystal spoke as she pulled out her sword, and pointed it towards her, "I smell your 'Lady' on your clothing."
"Oh? Then you know exactly who it is, don't you, dear?" The woman grinned evilly before charging down with her war axe. Swinging it towards Crystal, it was blocked by Crystal's sword.
"Tell Omose that she'll never get what she desires from me, whatever that may be!" Crystal pushed back as Rayth pulled the freaked out horses away from the battle.
"Omose wants the Heart Sapphire from you! The Fragment you collected!"
"Not a chance!" Crystal shouted that's when a burst of light erupted from the crossguard of her sword and shot into the demon's polearm. Crystal looked down at her sword, wondering what happened as her thoughts were interrupted by the painful shouts from the woman.
"Ah!!" As she jumped back away from Crystal, she looked at her hands which had begun to smoke from being burned, "You witch! I'll kill you!" She attempted to charge again, but something in Crystal's sword pulsed.
"You want to kill her, blade?"
Crystal looked back up at the woman and could feel her body move on its own. She swung the sword as if she was attempting to slice the woman in half when the same burst of light shot out from the blade and started to go straight for the woman. She barely put her polearm in the way to protect herself, but her arms still received deep cuts from the light.
"Ah!" She screamed in pain before a new swirl of wind came and picked her up, "I'll be back for you, Crystal! Just you wait, I'll kill you and your friend!" Once she was done speaking, Crystal could no longer smell her and the sky went back to normal.
"I wonder who she was," Rayth said as he walked up to Crystal, trying to calm down the horses. Crystal turned to him as she looked at her blade, "And I wonder what that was that came from your sword."
"She's Azuli, a Kamaitachi. I believe that its power is a shaft of light. That light must have substance in order to burn or cut my enemies."
"Have you not experienced that before?"
"No," Crystal said flatly, "That was the first time my sword ever reacted like that." "Who is Omose?"
"A great Okami demon." Crystal said as she put the sword back into its loop on her belt, "How do you know her?" Rayth asked, and Crystal patted her horse, calming it down.
"She's my mother." Crystal said quietly before getting over to the saddle of her horse, "We should hurry to the village, don't want to stay here for much longer."
"Of course." Rayth hopped up on his horse as Crystal did the same. They began to ride, the hoofs of the horses filling the air with the sounds of dirt being thrown.
Crystal's mind was plagued with thoughts, "Why is Omose trying to get the Heart Sapphire? She couldn't have a true desire in her heart for anything good. I refuse to allow her to take away my only chance at having a reason as to why she killed Father to begin with."
Crystal felt eyes looking at her and she turned her head to see Rayth staring at her. "Do you need something?"
"Oh! No. Sorry, I was just wondering how you are handling the fact that your own mother is fighting you."
"I don't mind." Crystal said as she looked back ahead of her, "I've wanted to fight her for years. She's only increased my determination to."
"Determination?"
"There's the village." Crystal said as she pulled her horse to a slow trot. The village was small, but it was peaceful. Crystal could tell it had been a while since they had been attacked by demons.
Crystal could still feel Rayth's eyes on her, but she kept going towards the village. She didn't know how to respond to him, so she decided not to. It wasn't something she was familiar with, someone asking her so many questions.
Not all at once, at least.
"Mother!" Hajuka's voice shouted angrily as he stormed into the palace's throne room where the silver-haired maiden sat.
"What is it, Hajuka? I'm busy." Omose said, her voice dripping with anger.
"Why are you hunting down Crystallina?!" Hajuka stormed up to his mother, his frustration painted all over his lean face.
"She has something that once belonged to me, besides, she's lived longer than she was supposed to." Omose said heartlessly, but smirked a little to see the pained fury in her son's eyes.
"You will not kill her, mother. I will not allow you to. I will kill you before you can even take a step towards her." Hajuka growled, "You know I've always been stronger than you. I could tear you apart piece by piece."
"Oh trust me, I know." Omose smirked, "But I know that you couldn't possibly kill your own mother over a half demon."
"That half demon has suffered a life of emptiness because of your foolishness!" Hajuka turned around and stormed out. Leaving his mother to boil over with frustration.
"What a spoiled Brat." Omose sighed.
Crystal walked up to the alchemist and looked at the list he had of potions he could make. "Could I get three healing potions, and five demon poisons?"
"Yes! Coming right up! That'll be 1,500 Ales!" As the man went to fetch her order, she counted out the Ales out of her pouch. Once done counting, the man walked up with the bag of potions.
"Here's exactly 1,500 Ales." Crystal placed the coins on the table, and the man counted quickly before handing her the bag.
"Have a nice day, young miss!"
Crystal bowed slightly before leaving with her purchased goods. She felt watched as she walked through the crowd, but assumed it was because of her clothes.
"I think she's a demon." A man whispered to another.
"She looks too human to be a demon, she might be a half demon." Another responded. Crystal closed her eyes and tried to block the voices out.
She was used to these kinds of whispers. She was used to these kinds of stares, how everyone already felt afraid of her before they even met her.
"If you don't know if the being is Human or Demon, you don't know enough to judge them. " Crystal thought to herself, and almost instantly it seemed as though everyone else heard her thoughts because they all went silent.
Crystal's nose picked up on Rayth's scent and started to head towards him. That's when she could smell a demon as well near the area his scent was coming from.
"Great. A demon. Just what I needed." Crystal whispered under her breath as she picked up her pace and came up to the Lord's house.
She spotted Rayth talking to a man dressed in a royal kimono. The man's face seemed to be perfectly carved from a tree, and his hair was as black as obsidian.
"That's the demon? The lord?" Crystal approached them and Rayth looked at her with a small smile.
"Crystal, the Lord of the village is requesting our assistance. He claims a group of monks passed through and they told him that they could sense a demonic aura. When they stayed the night, they ran off never to be seen again due to the demon attacking them." Rayth said calmly.
"I see. I have been feeling quite the demonic aura ever since I went to the market." Crystal looked at the Lord, and debated killing him where he stood, not knowing it was very apparent.
"How dare you? I'm not the demon!" The lord shouted, "I am just a simple lord!"
Crystal huffed softly before speaking up, "If you aren't the demon, there would be no reason to defend yourself." Crystal turned her back towards the lord, "Come on Rayth, we must find a place to stay until we find the demon."
"Alright. Let's go then-" Rayth went to walk towards Crystal, but the Lord spoke up.
"I'm sorry. The monks also said that I'm just tired of people calling me the demon when I'm not. Please, stay in my estate. I'll even have dinner made for you as compensation." The lord said kindly, and Crystal turned towards him.
"As if it's out of the kindness of his heart. He probably wants to eat us." Crystal sighed and nodded.
The lord did as he said he would, he gave Crystal and Rayth a room, had dinner delivered to their room as well.
"So, Crystal." Rayth turned to Crystal as he ate, "Are you sure?" Crystal looked at him and nodded simply, "Thanks for your leftover rice!" Rayth exclaimed, and Crystal watched as he took her empty bowl.
Why was the smell of the demon was so strong on the lord? It wasn't hard to tell that he was the demon, but why was it that his scent was so strong?
When he knew that a half demon was nearby, he should've cloaked his scent as much as possible with scents and fragrances.
"Maybe I caught him off guard. The monks must've done some actual damage to him and he killed them. He may be still recovering from the fight, leaving him vulnerable." Crystal looked out the door she left open to the outside, "Now that I think about it, I can smell a bunch of demons nearby. But I can't exactly tell how many or if it's just a couple of big ones. There's no way the entire village can't sense the demonic aura seeping from their lord." It seemed as though Rayth was having the same thought as her because they both looked at each other.
That was it, she figured out why she smelled so many. Now to only wait until nightfall, and then she'll strike. Crystal let Rayth sleep for a while, so that he'd be ready for the battle they'd be going through.
Was he ready? Would her sword do what it did again, or was that just a fluke?
Crystal opened her eyes as she felt something oozing out of her sword. The demonic aura coming from her blade seemed to speak to her, and it answered her concern.
"I see... You will do as I wish. It's just us, until the end, Tatsuka." Crystal said calmly as she pulled the sword closer to herself, and allowed herself to doze for a moment.