Chapter one: Blank Murders

My hands hit the punching bag. One by one. Punch after punch. I hear the emptiness of the dojo in my ears. Peace and quiet. Just the way I like it. My head swivels quickly as I hear a knock on the door. I quickly take off my gloves and go to the door. With a quick motion the door flies open and I see a tall figure standing there in a black cloak.

    “W-Who are you?” I ask. He simply stands there with the creepiest smile I’ve ever seen. He lifts his hand to my chest and starts laughing. He grabs my shirt tightly and throws me to the ground. Before I can get up he plunges a dagger into my side. “Ah, you bastard, what are you doing!?” I cough up blood. He smiles and laughs maniacally thrusting the dagger deeper into me. Next thing I see is nothing, blank space. I hear a faint noise, almost like someone talking to me.

“Hiroko...Hiroko” The voice gets louder until it’s a clean, firm voice. “Hiroko!” My eyes snap open to see my best friend Ayuka over me. She has a towel pressed against my wound and tears in her eyes. “What happened to you Hiroko?” I look at her and shrug. “I don’t really know, some guy just came and started to stab me.” I lay on the ground as she tends to my cut. Her eyes widen as she looks at me. “What is it Ayuka?” She looks at me and shows me the towel. The blood is a clear and bright purple. My eyes widen. “I-it’s purple.” I say trembling. She nods, “that isn’t the only thing..your wound is fully healed also.”

The next day I come to school with Ayuka. She insisted she come with me so I’m safe. “You’re way too protective Ayuka.” She grabs my hand. “Well with what happened yesterday I think I’m allowed to be.” I sigh and look down. “Thanks for helping me yesterday. I would’ve been screwed if you didn’t show up.” She nods. I can tell she's still upset about it so I don't joke around. We get to class and sit down as we usually do. The teacher comes in and he announces to us, “today class, we have a new student.” A young girl comes into the room. Her hair is shorter and pink. I see that the only open seat in the class is next to me.

The girl comes up to me and sits down. “This is Mari, she just transferred here today, so be sure to welcome her.” I look over at her and she’s already staring at me. “You have a unique aura”, she says in a quiet voice. “Um. thank you?” I don’t know how to respond to her statement. She smiles and starts to doodle in her notebook.

My mind drifts off into space and starts thinking about yesterday. Suddenly something in my mind snaps. I suddenly collapse on my desk in class. Ayuka starts shouting my name, and Mari keeps drawing while smiling. I lay in a dark area with nothing around me. What happened to me..why did i collapse..why am I unable to move? I try to move my body but it won’t respond. I hear a weird noise and see some kind of light.

Go towards the light Hiroko. Come on you lazy bastard. Do it. I try to move to the light but I can’t. Suddenly a voice rings in my ears. “Grab the blade..” I look around.  “Grab the blade.” The girl's voice grows. I see a small pedestal with a sword on it. “Grab the sword!” The voice is shouting at me. “Who’s there?” I ask. She doesn’t answer me instead I wake up in class. “Hiroko if you’re going to sleep in class at least don't talk about swords” the teacher looks at me. I look around very confused. Ayuka is laughing at me and I look over to Mari who’s staring at me with those big, purple eyes.

I shake it off and continue with my day. At lunch I sit down next to Ayuka as usual. All of a sudden Mari comes over and sits down right next to me. “Mind if I sit here?” She says smiling. “N-not at all”, I say to her. She looks down and starts eating her food and I look over at Ayuka and shrug. About five minutes later a boy with brown hair sits down next to Mari. “Hey I’m Akio!” I wave and continue with eating. I don’t really care much for anyone new. Akio looks at all of us and smiles. “So Hiroko, how are you?” I almost choke on my food and my eyes look over to see his smiling face. “Um, how do you know my name?” He laughs, “everyone knows who you are Hiroko, or should I say Blademaster.” After he says that he gets up and leaves. I look over and see Ayuka and Mari both staring at me.

Today was a weird day. New friend Mari, and some creepy guy calling me Blademaster. What could that have meant. I walk home with Ayuka as we always do. “I’m very thankful to have you Hiroko.” She looks up at me. I blush and look back at her, then I put a hand on her head. “I am too”, I say smiling. She blushes and we keep walking. I hear a noise, like someone running towards us. I put my arm in front of Ayuka. “Hold it, don't move.” She nods. The footsteps get louder. Suddenly a man in a dark robe similar to that night, comes and lunges at Ayuka. I quickly push her out of the way and she falls and the man misses her. The man starts laughing in the same way as the one did that night.

I look at Ayuka and her eyes are wide and she’s shaking in fear. “Just who are you!” I shout to him. He keeps laughing. I ball my hands into fists and rush at him. He swiftly jumps over me with ease. “You bastard I’ll kill you!” I rush at him again and he takes out a dagger. I stop and freeze up. I flash back to that night and the pain I felt. He smiles that ugly, huge smile. He throws his head back and starts laughing louder. This time I sprint at him and finally get a nice clean punch right in his gut. He falls to the ground and I kick him several times. “Y-you little brat. Why won’t you die.” He gets up and throws the dagger and I move out of the way in time. He looks around and we hear other people nearby. He looks at me, “we will get you one day...blademaster” I freeze and he takes off. I go and help Ayuka up. “You ok?” She nods and hugs me. I blush and hug her back. “Don’t be doing anything reckless, what would I do if you were gone?” She slaps me with tears in her eyes. I smile softly and say, “don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere” She wipes her face. “Are you ok? Sorry for slapping you” I shrug, “ nah it’s ok, I worry you too much sometimes.” She nods and we walk home.

We get to our apartments and go in our separate dorm rooms. Our school is private so each student has a dorm room. You can get roommates but they have to be of the same gender so nobody really wants to. They would rather be alone then with another guy. Me and Ayuka are neighbors which wasn’t easy for us to get from the school. It was a lot of arguing but they finally let us live next to each other. I sit down on my bed and look up at my ceiling. My phone buzzes and I look at it. It’s from Ayuka. “Hey”. I text her back. “Hey”. I hear a knock on my window. I go over and open it to see Ayuka with a small rock. “Hey, careful don’t be breaking my window”. She smiles, but then blushes. “Whats up?” I say to her. She looks at me. “C-can I stay with you tonight? Nothing weird, I’m just scared from tonight.” I look at her and laugh. “Sure come on over.”

A few minutes later she comes over and were in my room. I've never had a girl in my room before. She comes into my bed and lays her head on my chest and curls up. I blush. I've never seen Ayuka so peaceful before. I reach for her hair but then stop myself. No, I can’t do that, she’s trying to sleep.

She whispers to me, “it’s ok, you can cuddle me if you want”. I blush a dark red. “N-no that’s not what I..” She grabs onto me and snuggles into my side. At this point I’m blushing a lot. I put my arms around her and fall asleep. The next morning we wake up and she’s on top of me. “A-Ayuka” She wakes up, and looks at what position we are in. She blushes a deep red and slaps me. “D-don’t be thinking anything weird you perv!” I grab where she hit me and laugh. “As if, you're too flat chested for me anyway” She didn’t like that answer.

I get up and go downstairs. “Wait here” I tell her as I leave. I go downstairs and make eggs and bacon with orange juice for her. I walk up to the room and she’s sitting in my bed wrapped in blankets. “Hey I made you breakfast” I give her the eggs and she blushes and smiles. She eats them and pats next to the bed. I sit by her and she rests her head on me. We sit there for a while and I hear her breath shorten as she sleeps. I go on my phone and play a game as she sleeps. About an hour later she wakes up. “Hey you must have been tired” She looks at me, her hair a mess. I laugh and get up. Alright let’s get ready for the day. She looks at me and points to my dresser.

I look back at her. “What do you want?” She goes over and pulls out one of my shirts. I laugh. “Sure you can have that shirt if you want” She undresses in front of me and I blush a lot and she slips my shirt on which reaches not even her knees. I blush. She smiles and walks to my living room and sits down. “Want to play games?” she says as she grabs a controller. I sit by her and turn on the games. We start playing for awhile and she’s very competitive. “So what’s on your schedule today? No school today” I look at her. She looks back at me, “nothing really, might go to the dojo today, want to come?” I nod, “sure we can go there today.”

After the games we both get ready to go. She changes into a tank top with leggings. I go into my room and pick out a sweatshirt and jeans. I come back out and she’s waiting with a worried look on her face. “Sensei just texted me, he sounds worried, let’s hurry.” We both run to the dojo.

We get to the dojo and nothing seems off so far. I knock on the door and it opens. “Huh, left the door open?” We come into the main room and our jaws drop. Blood is all over the walls and on the floor. In the middle of the room, our sensei is covered in blood with a sword through his chest. On the wall behind him a big question mark and a few symbols were painted in blood. Ayuka falls to the ground, her hand covering her mouth. I clench my fists. “It’s those same bastards who tried to kill me earlier.” She looks at me “how do you know that..” I point to one of the symbols. “That symbol there, the people had it on their cloaks.”

I grab the sword from sensei’s body. I clean it off with my sweatshirt. I go up to a practice dummy, and slash it many times before ripping off its head with my sword. “I swear..I will avenge your death sensei.” Ayuka comes up to me and puts a hand on my shoulder. “No, sensei would not want you to do that, he taught us to only fight for defence, we can’t go witch hunting this cult.” I nod, “you’re right..but what do we do?” She shrugs, “I don’t know what we do, but if they come for us we need to be ready.” I nod again.

We leave the dojo and head to the park. Ayuka might not be on a witch hunt, but I am. All of a sudden I hear the voice again. “Grab the sword. Grab the soul blade.” The voice didn’t take it’s time being quiet this time. I shake it off. I am interested in why I’m hearing these voices but I just ignore it.

We spend all day at the park and the sun starts to set. “Ayuka let’s get home before those guys show up again.” She nods at me. We start walking home, when we reach our dorms we both split up. I go inside and set my sweatshirt in the washer and start my laundry. I go into my living room and sit down and turn on the TV. I flip to my favorite anime channel. I start to doze off when there's a knock on my door.

I grab a kitchen knife and head to the door. “Who's there?” There's no answer. I open the door slowly with the knife pointed out. When I open the door there’s a young looking girl standing there. She looks scared as she looks at the knife. I put the knife down. “Who are you?” I say to her. She looks directly into my eyes, “my name is Hanyo.” I look at her, “what an interesting name. It means half demon doesn’t it?” She shrugs. “I don’t know, it’s just a name.” I ignore what she said, “so what do you want Hanyo?” She points to my ears. “Huh? My ears?” She nods, “you’ve been hearing voices haven't you, blademaster.” I step back.

“Who are you, and why do you call me that?” She smiles, “well you’re the chosen one. The one chosen to stop the cult that’s been terrorizing this city.” My eyes widen. “Chosen one, what do you mean?” She steps towards me and puts a hand on my chest under my shirt. I feel an odd sensation going through my body. “Wha-what did you do?” She giggles a little. “You’ll see in due time blademaster.” She turns around and leaves.

That was weird...who was that. I go up to my room and lay down and grab where she touched me. I look down at it and my eyes widen. There’s a symbol on my chest. I pull down my shirt and start to panic. What did she do to me..I need to find her tomorrow. I will skip school. I call Ayuka and explain what happened and she agreed to skip with me. I lay down and start to sleep.

The next morning Ayuka is outside my door waiting for me. “Hiroko, you look sick, are you sure you want to go out looking for her?” I nod. “I feel fine Ayuka don’t worry about me.” She grabs onto my hand and we walk around town. We ask a bunch of different people if they've seen a blonde haired girl. Everyone wasn’t much help, nobody's seen her. We walk around town a little bit more. “Hey it’s lunch time we should get lunch.” Ayuka stands in front of me with those big brown eyes she has.

Almost like she’s begging me to get her food. “Alright what do you want?” She smiles and points to a small cafe. We walk to it and go inside. A lady greets us with a smile, “welcome!” We nod and sit down at a table. I go up and get us both a sandwich and a coffee. After a few minutes our food comes. She eats her sandwich as she’s wrapped in a blanket I got her for her birthday.

“Welcome!” We hear the lady say again and I look to see who just came. My eyes widen, It’s Hanyo. I look down at my food, hoping she doesn’t see me. She sees me alright. Hanyo comes up to me and pulls up a chair and sits down. Ayuka looks at her. “Are you Hanyo?” She asks her. She nods back to her. “Ayuka this is her” I look back to Hanyo. “Why is there a symbol on my chest Hanyo?” She smiles, “well, it’s for protection, we don’t want the one and only blademaster dying on us do we?”

I look at Ayuka. She looks lost. “Excuse me but aren’t you taking death a little bit lightheartedly?” She laughs, “don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you” she points to Ayuka, “her on the other hand. I can’t protect her.” I look at both of them. “Why can’t you protect Ayuka, she’s my best friend.” Hanyo smiles, “she’s a threat to our society, so if something happens to her, I can’t help.”

I slam my fist on the table. “Well I’m going to protect my friend.” She shrugs, “do whatever you want to do master.” Hanyo slides me a piece of paper. “What’s this?” She grabs a red pen. “It’s a contract, stating that you will save our society from the cult and in return, you will have the soul blade for eternity as well as any wish you want.” My eyes widen. “Any wish?”

Hanyo nods. I look at Ayuka, and she shrugs. “Wait a second, you haven’t even told me what this cult did.” Hanyo sighs. “Well you see...100 years ago, my society was created. It was a protective group of elders who created the soul blade, a sacred blade with the soul of a demon and angel in one, anytime there was a problem, someone was chosen to be the master of it, after the problem was solved, the master got any wish he wanted as well as becoming the new sword.”

I look at her, “so that means…” She nods, “after you defeat the cult, you will become a demon and be just like me.” I start to shake, “so you are…” She nods. “Yes, I am the soul blade Hanyo.” I look at her, “is there any way to get out of becoming the new soul blade?” She looks down, “not unless you wish it to be...but everyone just has selfish wishes.” I grip the pen harder and grab the contract. I sign my name on the line and then the contract disappears.

After it disappears my wrist starts to glow and a black and white bracelet appears on my arm. I look over at Hanyo and see her necklace is black and white too. “We are now bonded master and sword” she says to me. Ayuka gets a text from her mom, “hey i gotta get going my mom's pissed.” I nod and she leaves.

I look over at Hanyo. “So what do we do now?” She smiles, “well now that we are bonded, the logical thing would be for me to move in with you master.” I blush and my eyes widen. “Move in with me?” She smiles and nods. Come on, let’s go back to your place. “Sure I guess.” We head out of the cafe and go to my dorm. I open the door, “well it’s not much but here it is.”

She looks around and smiles at me, “it’s fine, so where do I sleep?” I scratch my head, “well I only have one bed, you could sleep on the floor or something.” She shakes her head, “no no, that just won’t do, I need to sleep with master.” I blush deeply and put my hands out, “oh man, I’m sure we could think of something less..inappropriate.” She tilts her head at me, “is there something wrong with a master and sword sleeping together, where I come from it’s fairly normal for that.”

I sigh, “fine I guess we can give it a try.” She smiles. I can tell she is happy about that. I’m just worried about Ayuka, I hope her mom didn’t yell at her too much. “So Master, what shall I cook for you?” I look at her, “huh? You cooking for me?” She nods with a smile. “Well I guess if you can make some sort of pasta that is good enough for me.” She goes over and pulls out some noodles and fills a pot with water.

I go over to her and reach out to grab a spoon to help her. As I do she slaps my hand. “No, master can’t help, it’s my job to provide you with food. You need to rest your mind for now.” I rub my hand where she slapped me and then shrug, “if you say so Hanyo.” I go and sit at the table and after a few minutes I fall asleep.

I wake up to an amazing smell. I look up to see those big, brown eyes staring at me. “Wakey wakey master, time to eat.” I look at her then at the food. “Wow this looks great.” I pick up a fork and take a bite of it. She smiles at me and then looks at me, “Master is it okay if I change back into my demon form? This human body is getting boring.” I nod, “sure.”

She spins a few times then starts to glow. After she’s done I look at her. My eyes widen, Hanyo is now a half black, half white, still short girl. Her hair is parted in the middle with black and white respectively. She is wearing some type of armor on her body and it’s a purple-like color. Her eyes are weird, I move towards her and I look closer. “Your eyes are yin-yangs?” She smiles and nods. Wow that’s sweet. “So what color are you as a sword? Black or white?”

She sits down, “let me explain that. So when in a normal state, I am a black or silver sword, but when the wishes of my master become pure, or there's a very serious danger, I glow white.” I look at her, “that’s amazing Hanyo.” She smiles and looks at the clock. “It’s getting late master, we should head to bed.” After she says that she transforms back to the normal girl. “I think this would be more suited to sleep with.” I nod.

We head to my room and we get in bed. I am blushing deeply. She goes to the bathroom and comes out wearing a robe. She climbs in with me and covers both of us up. “Is it okay if I put my legs like this?” She puts her legs around me. I blush deeply and look at her, “yeah that’s fine.” She smiles and closes her eyes and I close mine.

The next morning I wake up to see Hanyo on top of me looking at me. “W-what are you doing Hanyo?” She giggles, “I was watching you sleep, you’re very peaceful.” I get up and look at the calendar. Huh, no school today that’s right. I am a senior, I can skip instruction day with Hanyo. I look over at Hanyo, “want to do something today?” She nods, “what do you have in mind master?” I smirk, “how about some training?”

She nods, “it would be essential to familiarize yourself with your weapon.” I put on my jacket and she grabs her sweatshirt. I motion for her to follow me. We walk along on the sidewalk with my hands in my pockets. What is going on, a week ago I was just a normal high schooler, doing normal things. Now this, apparently I am some sort of chosen hero? I slab my cheeks, enough of that thinking, what’s done is done. Let’s just move forward.

We get to the dojo and I step inside. Someone must have cleaned this place up. I put my stuff down and grab a sparring dummy. I hold out my hand and Hanyo nods. She transforms into a black bladed sword. The hilt has a strange jewel on it, almost like a purple teardrop. I look at the blade, “woah this is so cool.” I hold the sword in my right hand and I rush at the dummy swinging Hanyo diagonally at it. It cuts clear through it.

“Woah, it just split the dummy in half?” I grab another dummy, this one is much bigger and thicker than the other. I lunge my sword out and thrust it into the dummy. “Master, focus your will and power towards the dummy.” I close my eyes for almost a minute and then open them again and the sword is white and glowing. I swing the sword again into the dummy.

I stop and look at the dummy, after a few seconds the dummy bursts into a pile of wood chips. “Woah, so this is that power you said.” I hear a giggle, “yes, it’s weak right now since we're practicing, but it will be strong in a real battle.” I look at the blade, “hey Hanyo come on out of there I want to talk to you.” She transforms back into her demon form.

“So, these battles, what exactly am I fighting?” She looks at me, “well let me see, that cult that’s been attacking you, they’re main goal is to resurrect the evil spirit that lives inside someone in this city.” I look at her weird. “The evil spirit is my twin brother, he possesses a person, as I possess a sword. Anyway, If they resurrect him, the city as we know it will be destroyed for sure, that’s where you come in Hiroko. You are the chosen one to stop my brother if the time comes. For now, we hunt down the members of the cult and take them out.”

I look at my hands, “I think I get it now, thank you for explaining. I’m happy to help you.” She shakes her head. “It’s not you that’s helping me master, I am serving you remember.” I laugh, “does that mean you’ll do whatever I want?” She nods at me. “Well, almost everything, I can’t protect that girl.”

I remember the cafe and what Hanyo said. “Why can’t you protect Ayuka?” Hanyo looks down, “she is a threat to my society.” I tilt my head, “how?” She gives me a glare. “Don’t ask questions master, she just is.” I put my hands up, “okay, okay, I’ll stop asking.” I sigh and look at her, “you mentioned a wish earlier?”

She nods, “yes, after you fulfill your duty as my master, I give you one wish, anything you would like.” I scratch my head, “is there any way to get out of being a demon?” She nods at me, “yes, if you were to wish that I stayed your partner for life and stayed your sword, but most masters I have heard about in the past only wish for money or women.” I smile at her, “I’ll do that then, I’ll wish for you to be my partner forever.” Hanyo looks down and I can see her blushing.

“Well, let’s get going shall we? I think we have done enough practicing for one day.” I get my jacket on again and hold out my hand to her. She takes my hand and gets back to her human form. I smile at her, “want some lunch?” She nods, “I could eat something right about now, transforming isn’t always easy, especially when I’m hungry.” I laugh, “well let’s go to get some lunch.”

We walk around town and find a smaller cafe. We go in and sit down and a waiter comes up to us and we order drinks and sandwiches. I look over at a table to see Mari and Akio eating together. Akio notices me and waves to me. Mari turns around and looks at me and Hanyo. They pull up chairs and sits by us. “You don’t mind do you?” Akio says with a smile. I nod, “do whatever you’d like.” Mari looks Hanyo over like she’s fresh meat.

“So Mari, you’re Akio’s girlfriend then?” Hanyo asks her. Mari looks pissed after that question, “no, we're not dating, he just bought me food that’s all.” Akio doesn’t look too happy with what Mari said. Hanyo gets up and moves to the seat right next to me. She hugs my arm and looks up at Mari, “me and Hiroko have become best friends isn’t that right?”

I blush and look at her, “s-sure I guess you could say that.” Mari scoffs at us and gets up, “well I’ll be going now, goodbye.” Mari leaves and Akio follows her. I look at Hanyo, “what was that for?” She looks at me confused, “what was what for? You mean the hug?” I nod at her. She giggles, “well you are MY master, I don’t want someone else stealing you from me.”

I blush and put a hand on her head, “nobody’s going to do that, I promise.” She smiles and rests her head on me. Oh man, is this girl falling for me? No way, it’s way too early for that. She’s just tired is all, I mean we do sleep together. This isn’t that weird. I look down at her and her hair is slightly moving from the breeze. I push her hair back from her eyes, she’s very peaceful when she sleeps.

A few minutes later our food comes. I rustle Hanyo a little, waking her up. She looks at the food. “This looks very good.” She looks at me. “Yeah, it usually is, say Hanyo, how long have you been in Akihabara?” She scratches her head, “about a week or so, ever since you started hearing those voices, that was me. I usually am in Kakunodate, a smaller samurai district.”

“Ah, I’ve heard of that place, it’s pretty old isn’t it?” She nods, “yeah, originally it was much bigger, but there was a rebellion within my village, which is why I was turned into the soul blade. So Hiroko, have you lived in Akihabara your whole life?” I shake my head, “no i’m originally from Karuizawa.” She smiles, “that’s a cute city.” I stretch, “I guess so, by the way, how old are you?” She laughs, “I don’t have an age, much older than any human alive if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Why do you look like you’re my age then?” I ask her. “Well, after you were chosen by the village elders, I was given this body to take over and become the soul blade. This girl you see now was once a real girl, she is picked by the elders, one girl who is the same age of the chosen one, is picked and used as a body for the demon.” My eyes widen, “so you’re saying, that a girl gave up her body for you to become her in human form?” Hanyo nods. Hm, that sure is strange. I think that’s enough questions for now, I’ll stick to eating.

I chomp into my sandwich and drink some of my soda. She does the same as me and later we finish our food and head out. “It sure is a nice day out today master.” Hanyo looks over to me. “It sure is, nice breeze, smell of cherry blossoms, pretty romantic.” She blushes, “I’ve never experienced the emotion your kind calls, love.” I look up, “well it’s sorta complicated, being in love makes your stomach churn, like you want to be around that person all the time, and when you aren't around them, you worry.”

She looks at me, “are you in love with anyone master?” I shake my head, “oh no, I don’t usually talk to any girls besides Ayuka and now you and Mari. So no I wouldn’t say I love anyone yet.” Hanyo fidgets with her hands, “do you think you could ever love a demon?” My eyes widen and time seems to stop, after she says that she smiles and hugs me then runs off. I look around but can’t find her anywhere. “Hanyo? Hanyo?” I call out to her.

I run around, looking down every alleyway. She isn’t anywhere to be seen. She must have been embarrassed to say that to me. Could I ever love a demon? She must have been talking about herself. Does she like me? She can’t love me yet, we’ve only been together for a day, well..we are partners after all. Maybe the soul blade gets attached to it’s master.

I shake the thought off and keep running to find her. After about twenty minutes of running, I come across one alleyway that has that same logo on it. The cult..I step backwards to get away. As I’m backing up, something behind me stops me. I jump and turn around to see Hanyo behind me. “Master...what are you doing?” I look at her, “I was looking for you, but I think we have bigger problems..”

Two tall figures approach us wearing the same cloaks with the symbol on them. “Hanyo, the soul blade demon, we will bring your brother back, and we will destroy this world.” The one on the left says to us. I clench my fists and yell out, “Hanyo transform.” She transforms and I grip the sword tightly. The two people smirk and pull out red daggers.

I rush at one of them and swing at them, but they block my attack with extreme force. I jump back then look at them, studying them. What do I do, It’s two against one. This is so unfair. I hold out Hanyo and point at them, “you two will die, either you let me kill you right now, or run away.” They look at each other and laugh. “It is you who is dying today, chosen one.” They smirk and one of them lunges at me.

I quickly jump over him and swipe my sword and cut his back. “Ah dammit, the little bastard got me.” I open my eyes wide and rage comes over me, when I land I thrust my sword into the man and cut him in half. The other member steps back a little. “What are you scared? Come at me.” The man steps back more and starts to run.

As he’s running away I throw Hanyo at him and it pierces him in the head. I go up and pick the sword up and walk away from them. Hanyo transforms back into a human. “Good job master, you really are good with a sword.” I nod, “well I have been training my whole life. I need to protect those I care about.” She looks down and plays with her fingers. “Do you care about me master?”

I look over at her and she’s looking at me. “Do I care about you?” She nods, “yes, do you care about me.” I look at her, “of course I do, you're my partner after all.” She smiles, “that’s good, well shall we head home?” I nod and we walk back to my dorm room. When we get there I see Ayuka standing outside my place. “Hey Ayuka, what’s going on?”

She looks over at me, “oh nothing, I was just going home.” I go over to her, “so what did your mom say to you, did you get in a lot of trouble?” She shakes her head, “nah, she just needed my help and I forgot, nothing too serious.” I sigh, “well that’s good.” Hanyo comes over to me and looks at Ayuka.

“You’re that girl..” Hanyo says to her. Ayuka nods, “yeah? What about me?” Hanyo shakes her head, “nothing, you were just in that cafe with Hiroko.” She nods at her. I look over at Hanyo and she looks jealous for some reason. I didn’t think demons could get jealous. I shrug and walk to my door and unlock it, “come on Hanyo, it’s time for dinner.” She nods and comes inside with me and I shut the door.

Ayuka looks from outside as Hanyo comes into my house. She doesn’t look very happy with that but what can I do? Hanyo and I need to be in the same house. I sit down and study my bracelet that appeared when I signed that contract. I try to slip it off. “Don’t even try master, that bracelet isn’t coming off.” I look over at Hanyo, “h-how did you ..?” She points to her necklace, “I know when something’s happening to your bracelet.” I look back at my bracelet. So we’re like connected through this thing.

I smile and get up and stand by Hanyo. She looks up at me. “Yes master? Is there something you need from me?” I shake my head, “no, I just wanted to look at you is all.” She blushes. I put my hand on her cheek and she blushes deeply. “Yes, I would love a demon.” I say to her quietly and then I walk over to the couch and sit down again. Hanyo stands there blushing with a hand where I had mine. “So, what’s for dinner tonight?”

She shakes her head furiously, “U-um, what would  you like?” I scratch the back of my head, “hmm, well could you make something that you like?” She nods, “sure I could do that, it’ll be a little bit so please wait.” I nod to her. She starts to cook and I start dozing off. Today was a full day, fought two guys from that cult, really wears you out. I eventually fall asleep.

“Master, dinner is ready.” My eyes shoot open to see Hanyo standing over me. I get up, “oh, thank you for dinner.” She nods and I go over to the table and sit down. I bite into her food. “This is really good, what is it?” She looks at me and smiles, “it’s an old village recipe I memorized. It’s always really good.” I nod, “this is great.” She blushes and smiles.

After I finish eating I look at the clock. “Wow, it’s already seven?” Hanyo nods, “yes, I let you sleep for an hour then I woke you.” I yawn, “well thanks for that, what do we do now?” Hanyo fidgets and blushes a lot, “well, I looked something up about what I could do, and I want to…” I look at her, “what is it?” She blushes more, “could we cuddle?” I blush and my eyes widen, “s-sure we could do that..”

We get into my room and both lay down next to each other and she cuddles up to me. I blush and wrap my arms around her. She snuggles into my arms, and wraps her legs around mine.