Disclaimer: I do not own Tsukihime.
An Eye for an Eye
Kiri Nanaya stood frozen as a statue, except for the heavy rise and fall of his chest. He was covered in blood, quite a bit of it his own but the light-headedness he felt wasn't from blood loss; no it was the high that could only come from a good battle.
At his feet lay the body of his greatest ever opponent, Kouma Kirishima. He'd been right when he'd let the boy live all those years ago, he really had given him the fight of his life. Now Kiri could retire on a high note, as it were.
He could hear the sounds of combat coming from the rest of the compound and began to move towards the exit. He wasn't too worried about the others, he knew they could take care of themselves, and the enemy's best warrior now lay dead in a pool of his own rapidly cooling blood. But Shiki was out there somewhere and he was still only a child; Kiri swore that if anything happened to his son he would show the Tohno family what a real demon looked like.
He exploded through the shogi, out into the garden and saw one of the assassins sneaking up on his son. The poor bastard never even heard the sound of his own death approaching, as Kiri rushed him. More assassins came and one by one they fell as Kiri's knife glittered and the blood of the fallen appeared to be quite black in the moonlight.
Then all was still, silence reigned over the night, the battle was over.
He heard footsteps coming from behind him, he spun around raising his blade...and the lowered it again. It was his wife, walking barefoot across the garden towards him and Shiki. Her long, black haired trailed behind her on the breeze and she was dressed in her plain, white sleeping Yukata which was stain with blood.
“Shiki is safe?” she asked. Kiri looked down, apparently he had missed the fact that his son had fallen unconscious at some point, still he could see the child was breathing and unharmed.
“Yes,” he responded, “He is safe.” His wife gave a sigh of relief that would have been imperceptible to most people, Kiri was not most people. Wordlessly he lifted his son from the ground and handed him to his wife, then he wrapped his arms around the two of them, drawing them in close. He allowed himself to bask in the closeness of the ones he loved most for a moment or two, before turning his mind to darker thoughts.
What to do about the Tohno?
- - -
The inside of the Tohno manor was in ruins, doors lay in splinters, walls were crumbling and debris was everywhere. Around him lay scattered the bodies of many Tohno family members. Unlike the Nanaya the Tohno were scattered all over the world, that's why he had decided to wait until they held their yearly meeting of the heads of the family.
Already Kiri could feel the stirrings of doubt and regret in his heart, he'd wanted to take his family away from this kind of thing. On the other hand he knew that Makihisa was persistent and could hold a grudge, he doubted the previous failed extermination would be the man's last attempted on his clan. He also knew how the rest of the Demon Hunters Association viewed the Nanaya, hopefully this would send a message.
He passed by several rooms on the second floor corridor, giving each one a cursory glance as he passed. He peered into one that looked as though it belonged to a young girl and was about to move on when he heard a quiet noise coming from inside, it sounded like a whimper. He walked in and gave the area a through look, there was someone hiding in here. Then he heard that noise again and his gaze immediately locked on to the bed, he smirked, a rather simplistic hiding place. He walked over to the edge of the bed and then got down to lay on his stomach.
Underneath he found a young girl cowering in fear. She appeared to be about the same age as his Shiki and she had long, black hair held in place by a simple, white headband. He could tell by the smell that she had apparently wet herself out of terror. Even though he knew this girl was also a demon hybrid, his eyes only saw a young child and he refused to fall to that level. Besides if he truly wanted to remove his family from the path they were on, then perhaps he should display a little mercy and if she did invert later on, he'd deal with it then. His decision made he put on the friendliest smile he could manage.
“Hello there little one, what's your name?” The girl didn't answer, instead she merely whimpered and shivered, which wasn't exactly unexpected given the circumstances. With luck she had been asleep and woken up from the noise before hiding under the bed, hopefully she hadn't seen anything.
“My name's Kiri Nanaya and you are?” Again no answer, “I'm not going to lie to you child, a lot of bad things have happened here tonight but I'm going to help you, okay?” She looked a little more receptive to that and a small glimmer of hope entered her eyes, it was brief but he caught it.
“Come here and I'll take you somewhere safe.” He beckoned her forward with hi hand and she responded, crawling towards him at an agonisingly slow pace. When she got close enough he scooped her up from underneath the bed, the sat her on top of it. Sure enough there was a dark patch on the front of her sleeping gown. The girl mumbled something.
“I'm sorry, what did you say?”
“My name is Akiha...” she whispered.
“Akiha, that's a nice name,” he responded and then realised he had no idea what to say or do next. A small part of him wished his wife was here, she'd probably have an easier time relating to her.
“Kiri,” came a voice from out in the hall. Oh that's right, his wife was psychic or at least it seemed that way half the time.
“In here,” he called back and seconds later she walked into the room.
“What's going on?” she asked.
“Dear, this is Akiha Tohno, Akiha this is my wife Yumi,” he said, staring meaningfully at his wife.
“Akiha,” his wife said, moving to sit next to the little girl, “That's a pretty name.” Before anything thing else could be said another voice echoed through the recently demolished halls of the Tohno mansion.
“Kiri!”
“And that would be my foolish, little brother,” he grumbled rising to his feet before turning to his wife, “Look after her for me?”
“Of course,” his Yumi nodded.
Kiri met his brother at the top of the stairs.
“What is it?”
“This way,” his brother replied. He followed his brother downstairs and along the hall, towards what he thought was Makihisa's office, Inside he found a pair of his kinsmen sitting with a pair of small, red-headed girls that appeared to be twins. Indeed they were so alike, the only real difference between them appeared to be their eye colour.
“Meet Kohaku,” his brother indicated the girl with amber eyes, “And Hisui,” the girl with blue eyes.
“We read a couple of the files Makihisa left lying on his desk.” his brother continued, “We believe them to be synchronizers. Although we don't think he had...”made use” of them yet.”
Synchronizers, really? So Makihisa had fallen that low, even if he hadn't done anything to them yet from what his brother had said it had only been a matter of time. As he looked at the two girls who stared intently back at him, he allowed his head to drop into his hands.
It looked like his family had just grown by three.
- - -
My muse just won't leave me alone! She keeps hitting me over the head with new ideas, keeping me awake all hours of the night...
I've probably mangled Kiri's character haven't I, go on it's alright, you can say it.
Anyway, for now at least, this is a one-shot.
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Originally Posted by PhoenixAct
