A RUN IN

     A blackbird flew through the air and landed on a branch of a tree and look down in the park, running it's gaze over the people that walked through the park. Stopping shortly at two girls, a little girl in a pair baggy pants and head of short brown hair, beside her walked a tall young woman in what looked like a tight blue jump suit, and a openstanding, short jakket over it, her pink hair waved in the gentle summer breeze (get off my back it has to start somehow ^_^)
     Mai was bouncing happily up and down "isn't it a wonderfull day?" she cheered
     "Hai Mai-chan" Emiko replied, "I really hope it stays this way." She thought she had had a couple of rough days lately, a big group of DUB's had went riot and almost devastated a entire sector.
     "What are you thinking of?" Emiko looked down and saw her little sidekick glaring at her with a puzzled expression
     "Oh it was nothing, don't worry Mai-chan" Emiko said, and the little girl giggled, but her laughter was cut short as a sound of arms fire ripped through the carpet of sound there always was in the city. Both Emiko and Mai looked up as the short bursts of BRRRR'ts got closer.
     Then suddenly a girl a year or two over Mai's age came around the corner of the gate, ten meters from them, to the park and stormed down the path towards them. She looked scared and like she had run for hours. Then she was past them, before the two could gather their wits, sombody skidded to a halt just beside them.
     "You're mine!" somebody hissed. The two turned their heads and looked down at a man crouching just beside them, a MP5 with a laserdot sight in his hands, aiming it at the running girl.
     "NO!" Before he could fire, Emiko had kicked his hand so the spray of lead flew harmlessly into the air.
     The man stood up. "Hey! I don't recall asking you for your opinion" he sayd coldly.
     Emiko looked coldly back and so did Mai (the best she could) "I'm not the kind that stands by and watches somebody shoot a defenceless girl in the back!"
     The stranger grabbed Emiko by the collar and with considerable ease he liftet her off the ground in one arm "Didn't your mother ever teach you to stay out of other people buissenes?!" He smiled and pointed at her with the gun.
     Emiko cocked a eyebrow. "Didn't your's teach you..." she grabbed his leather jacket "..not to point at people" and kicked him hard in the lower torso and thereby making him lose his balance and fall forward. As her back touched the ground she pushed him over her and sent him flying.
     The stranger hit the ground and rolled to a crouch, taking aim with the MP5, a red spot appearing betwin Emiko's eyes.
     "Wrong move kid" *klik* "Huh? un-fucking-believable" he said and threw empty gun away. Emiko looked him over as he stood up and walked towards her. He was tall, well built, he had a black vest on behind the short jakket. His eyes where hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses and he had short pointy hair. She also noted that he had some kind of red mark or writing on his forhead. The man popped his knuckles "Now that wasn't a very smart thing to do, girl" with that he punched after her. She quickly dodge and kicked out, the stranger narrowly avoiding the foot. He reached out to grab her, but Emiko took a firm hold of his wrist and threw him over her shoulder. Flat on his back, the stranger used his momentum to grasp her wrist and flip her around with his legs, knocking Emiko off her feet. With a push of his hands he flipped to his feet and drew a long knife from his sleave. But before he could use it, his feet had been knocked out from under him and he slammed the back of his head into the pavement. The man rolled around and stood, holding his throbbing head, his sunglassed eyes finding Mai as the guilty. He lifted the knife to attack, as Emiko came rolling in a ball, between his legs, that was spread wide at the time. Streaching out just as she was below him, lauching her legs upwards.
     The stranger looked down. "HUH!?" Then the girl was replaced by a carpet of stars as Emiko's feet was planted firmly in his face. He fell backward and rolled around on his back, getting up for a new attack. But received Emiko's follow up, in the form of a roundhouse to the gut. The man curled up as the air was beat out of his lungs, but a second later he pulled his left hand from his torso, with a Glock 17 in it. Emiko was in the lucky position that her absorb kinetic enegy ability was up and running. The high calibered bullets, hit her in the chest, and she absorbed the kinetic enegy. The shots still hurt like hell, but non where fatal. Her opponent looked at her, his expression surprised and then he looked at his gun, then threw it away "bah fire arms sucks" he muttered.
     Emiko clenched her teeth, trying to push the pain away. "Hey, that hurt you know!"
     The stranger smiled. "That was the intension." The next thing he knew, five of his ribs where broken and his shoulder dislocated, as Emiko unleashed the kinetic enegy into his chest and sent him into a nearby tree.

     Emiko looked at her opponent as he, with a howl of pain, pushed his shoulder back in place with the help of the tree that stopped his flight. Then he turned around to face her. Emiko gasped, his eyes were black, without irises or pupils, black in black, two pits of darkness.
     He looked down on his smashed sunglasses. "Damn! I liked those glasses" he snarled and streashed out his hand, what looked like liquid metal began to flow from his palm and out into the air, taking a long shape. In less than 3 seconds the liquid had solidified as a samurai sword. Emiko grabbed into her pouch and pulled out her blade that quickly extended itself to sword length. The dark eyed charged and with two fluent sweeps of the sword he had knocked Emiko's blade to the side and followed up with his own to her neck. If it hadn't been for her absorbe-kinetic-enegy-ability Emiko would have been decapated. Instead, she received a superficial cut to the side of the neck. The strangers black eyes wided in surprise and lowered his guard for a second, more than enorgh for Emiko to push his sword to the side with her own blade and return the kinetic enegy with a knee to the gut. This sent him staggering back.
     The man lifted the sword up beside his face and mumbled. "Drac are you..?" he hissed.
     From somewhere near him came a voice. "I swear Dachend it ain't me!"
     The black eyed growled, "Then why is she not getting hurt?!"
     "She is getting hurt, look! She is bleeding at the neck"
     The stranger sighed, "I can see that! you moron, but I want her to get _dying_ hurt!"
     "Dachend, have you thought about explaining to them what is going on?" the voice groaned.
     "They started it...are you gonna tell me or not?" the was a moments silence. "I can't say for sure, it's not magical, I think it's genetic, I can sense she has a small amont of kinetic energy in her"
     The stranger smiled evilly "Is that so?"
     Emiko looked up from her bloddy hand that he touched her neck as the darkeyed reached into his short jakket and pulled out a small piece of white paper with somekind of incription on it. He made a strange hand gesture with it and threw the paper at her, the paper flying as if it was a drive by it's own power, Emiko narrowly ducked the paper and faced her opponent again.
     "Hey what kind of attack was that?" she smiled, then felling something on her back, a strange tickle startet to spread and suddenly the world exploded in pain and then darkness.

     Mai cried out as she saw Emiko fall over, small crackles of electricty crawling over her back from the paper, that had changed course and flown back and plastered itself onto her back.
     "Magic ward kid." the man grinned and walked towards the fallen girl, the sword down his side. Mai pulled out a huge pencil from her pocket and ran towards Dachend as he lifted the sword to drive it through Emiko, he looked out of the corner of his eye and saw the small kid run towards him with her blunt weapon, with a twist of his wrist he caught the pencil with the flat side of his sword and snarled.
     "Take a hike, kido" Then flipped the pencil out of Mai's hands with such force that she was thrown back. She looked at him, tears in her big eyes.
     "Don't hurt Emiko-chan!"
     Dachend hesitated when he looked at the sniffling girl. Then frozen, he could hear something, it sounded like a jet engine or similar. Then a robe of some kind had been whipped around his neck and a shadow zoomed past him with breath-taking speed. The next thing he knew, his neck had be made several inchs longer and he was being dragged over the ground of the park at a very uncomfortable speed. With one hand he grapped around the line, so he wouldn't have his head pulled of. with the other he grapped into his jacket and pulled out three green wards. So he could ice who ever was responsible.
     Mai cheered "Waiiii Ace!"
     Ace smiled from the back of his rocket "Can't do without me, I can see!" he yelled as he passed the girl. He looked out back to see if his *passenger* was still on. He couldn't see him, but he could see the smoke trail, then a green ward woshed past his head and exploded in the tree he passed just then. Ace looked forward and smiled. He'll regret messing with this rockteer, he grinned and gained height. As he raced out of the park, he shot out a hook that attached itself to a lightpool. Then making a perfect U-turn, bending the lightpool in the process and making a huge whipcrack with the line Dachend was attached to.

     Ace then detaching the line at just the right moment, letting the man continue in the straight line out of the park and effectively doubling the human projectile's speed.
     With several hundreds miles per hour, Dachend flew arcross the street, smashed through a bus. By some miracle no of the buspassengers where harmed, but Dachend contiued in the same speed, into the shopping center, where he contiued through, a shop with kitchen tools, two fashion stores, a resturant, a music store, another fashion shop and finally into a toystore where a solid concret wall stopped him, his impact was although softend by a mound of teddy bears, that proceeded to bury him.
     Ace landed his Rocket and ran over to check on his friends. Mai look up from Emiko who was rubbing her head mumbling something about being fine.
     "Are you all right Emiko?" he asked.
     "Hai" Emiko said in a bit weak voice, she smiled to Ace.
     "Thanks for helping Ace." Ace grinned and rubbed his nails on his jacket
     "No prob Emiko!"
     Emiko shook her head and said more forcefully "I'm fine.." more to herself than the others "...where is that guy? I want to knock his head in" she said. Ace smiled wide "I dropped him of in the shopping center, you can probarly scrap some of him off the wall, if you wanna go check"
     "Yep. We better make sure that he's down, I don't want to bump into that guy again unprepared." Emiko concluded and logically enough Mai did too.
     Ace shrugged "Well that's your deal, I done my share of saving you for today. I got packages to deliver!" With that he jumped onto his rocket and floored the gashandle, dissappearing in the horizon with a roar.
     Emiko and Mai then headed towards the shopping center where there was a huge hole in one of the big windows, that Dachend had *entered* through.

     The people in the toystore slowly neared the mount of teddybears, then quickly pulling back as red fog began to seep into the hill of bears. The hand sticking out from under the hill that had been still in a cramp-like hold, began to move. Then the mount toppled over as something rised from the inside. Dachend pushed himself to a sitting position, flinching as he could feel most of his ribcage move freely around in his torso, he looked at the familiar red fog that seeped into his body and with a low crunch his left leg straightened out as the bone inside regained it's orginal shape. He sat a moment and felt how his ribs began to find their right place and began to heal. Suddenly he noticed that the people in the store stared at completly flabbergasted
     "What are you looking at?" he growled. In quick pace, like in wild panic, the people left the shop.
     Emiko walked through the big main door of the shopping center and looked at the smashed shops. It wouldn't be hard to find their man with the trail he left.
     "So, what did you do this time?" a familiar voice said, Emiko turned and looked at Eric's smiling face. Mai squeeled and hugged the tall man in blue.
     "Eric-san, I'm so happy to see you!" she said. Eric put a hand on her head. "I'm glad to see you too Mai-chan." Then he looked at Emiko.
     "So what happened here Emiko-chan? I can guess that you somehow had something to do with it." Emiko rubbed her aching neck and wished the stranger to a place where the sun didn't shine
     "Well we sort of had something to do with it." she said, and laid out the story.

     Eric attualy looked angry "he tried to shoot a child...in the back..wait until I get my hands on that guy!"
     Emiko layed a hand on his shoulder "Hey, step in line Eric." Eric nodded with a stern look on his face. "Well I say that we go get this guy." Emiko emphasised turning on her heel and heading down the clear trail Ace had made with Dachend.

     Dachend pushed himself to his feet, filling dizzy. He took a hand to his head and could feel that every thing wasn't as it should be. He had probarly gotten a serious concussion and his neck felt broken. The people that had peeked into the shop had left very fast when they saw him yank out the knife, that he had picked up in the kitchen store, from his back. He looked around the store, trying to find the exit, then he saw them, the girl and the kid and some new guy with blue hair and...Dachend cocked a eyebrow, elf ears?
     He slid down behind the desk and thought, in the condition he was in now, it wouldn't be easy to take on the girl and her special powers and if the new guy was anywhere near as good as her, he was going to get creamed for sure if he tried a open attack. He looked around and studied the suroundings. It was a damn lot of open space to go over. He grabbed into his jakket and pulled out a small bundle of wards in several different colors, listning to the nearing footsteps he flipped through them, finaly finding a bright blue with white writting, Dachend sat a moment with the ward and tried to remember the right chant, then powered the ward up. he peeked over the edge of the desk and saw the group carefully nearing. He got the ward ready.

     "It looks like he landed over there" Eric said and pointed at the smached up toystore."
     Emiko nodded and looked at Mai "Ready Mai?" Mai gave a thumbs up signal. They spread out in two and aproached from different directions, looking for any sign of life. Most of the people in that part of the shopping center had left as the human object that had plowed through half a dozen stores and been smashed up against wall had began to move. A great deal of them were standing in the background looking as the three neared the toystore. Then a piece of bright blue was flung over the desk and before anybody could run for coverm, it had exploded in a bright flash. Emiko rubbed her eyes seeing spots, then she heard the sound of fast moving feet and looked as Mai called out, through the spots she could sense a form move, but before she could react, pain shot through her head and the world turned black.
     Eric blinked the spots away and saw a tall man in a short jakket storm out from behind the desk and towards Emiko. As he reached her, he jabbed out with his arms and Emiko fell to her knees and slumped onto her side. Mai called out, but the man didn't pay artention.

     Mai yelled at the man, but he didn't seem to care much, with a footsweep she knocked the feets out under him, as he slamed onto his face, then began to roll over, Mai pushed off and landed feet together on his chest.
     "That's for hurting Emiko-chan!" she yelled at the man. Dachend was too surprised to hit the kid, before she had jumped out of range. He rolled to his feet and looked up just in time to duck the chi-ball that whooshed past his head. With a backflip he threw himself into a hardwear store and ran for cover as Eric released several Chi-balls into the fray. In less than ten seconds the store was completly dismantled. Dachend cursed, this was not going ecxactly as he had planned. Eric took a moment to crouch to check on Emiko. Mai looked at her sensei. Eric could see the tears that began to form in the girls eyes.
     "Is...is Emiko-san going to be alright?" she asked.
     Eric nodded with a relieved smile. "She'll have a bump, but she'll be fine Mai-chan." Eric looked up as his sensitive ears picked up a sound, the faint sound of feet moving over the floor. He looked into the hardwear store, he could see one of the racks with cloth wave slightly as something had briefly touched it as it passed. Then there was a *crack* and a dark twilight decended over the shopping center.
     Eric looked around in worry, this was getting worse, if it was their opponent that had made the lights pop, he would have done it to gain a advantage. He tried to pierce the dark with his gaze, but the shadows made it hard to make out the shapes.
     He took a few steps and then heard a low fliping sound and the felt his arms being pressed to his side. Mai looked as Eric began to staggered right, his arms pinned to his side as two lines with weights on the ends had been wrapt around him. Out of the shadows came the man, a double bladed punch dagger in his right hand. Eric cursed, he couldn't use his chi attacks with his arms to his side. Dachend lifted the hand to dig the knife into the chest of the new guy. Eric's eyes glowed bright green "solar eclips corona!" he shouted and a aura of bright green energy blasted out from his body, blowing the straining lines away, but leaving his own cloth untouched. The stranger was thrown back several meters.

     After sliding a couple of feet the stranger rolled onto his feet and flipped through the air and onto a vending machin and from there he jumped to the second floor where he seemed to fade away in the shadows. Eric and Mai blinked, this was definetly not a normal human, Eric strained his ears to their out most, this guy was damn good being silent he could just hear his breath, up under the roof somewhere, by a sudden impulse eric ducked left and narrowly escaped three green wards that came his way making small explosions on the floor. Eric grabbed three pieces of glass from the floor and threw after the place the wards had come from, in the same fluent movement he weaved into cover of a surporting beam.
     "Not even close" a mocking voice called from the dark. "I didn't try to hit you. Solar spark!" the small chi ball exploded up under the celling and human body fell came down and crashed to the floor out in the open, Eric liftet his hands "Time to finish this... SOLAR..." Dachend jumped to his feet and streached his arms out, one straight up and one straight down and began to describe a circle in the air "...BURN!!" the blazing Chi left Eric's hands as Dachend's arms ended there circle in a position like standard chiblast (arms forward, hands like holding something) "CHIN-KUU!!" he shoutet and a shimmering orb appeared around his hands and inside was a green tick like creature with a symbol on it's back. The chiball hit the tick and was absorbed, then it was flug back at Eric who jumped over his own ball with a surprised expression. Preforming a flip in the air that would make a olympic gymnast envious,
     Eric proceeded to land on the floor and look at the other who was standing, about 9 meters away, with a grin on his face "my turn?" he said, making a fist with his right hand. his hand starting to glow white "try this for size!!" he yelled opening his hand and slammed the flat palm against the floor. The stranger dissappear in a geiser of smoke and three blasing holes flew over the floor towards Eric with impossible speed, tearing three deep jagger lines in the floor. Eric threw himself to the right and felt the sharp rush of air and shower of spliners from the floor and how the passing force tore in his cloth and hair. With a loud boom the unseen force rammed the concret wall, 10 meters behind Eric and tore a hole the size of a garage door.
     Eric blinked as he thought he saw a dog sized bug with three huge claws on it's back flicker a second and then dissappear. A uncomfortable silence laid itself over the hall, Eric got to his feet and checked himself. He survived with a few nicks and scraches, his coat however hadn't gotten clear in time, the upper waist and down was gone, ript off. Eric looked up as he heard a slow spontanious clapping.
     The stranger was standing nochalant leaning against the wall clapping in a slow mocking way "Well well pointy ears, I hadn't expected you to walk away from that one. Congratulations!"
     Eric smiled and dusted what was left of his coat "Cute little trick. But I would like that you didn't use it again.." the other grabbed into his jakket and pulled out several of green wards, four in each hand "Oh, and why is that? I'm just DYING to know."
     Eric straightened his hair a little "...I'm a little edgy about my wardrobe you see!" he said.
     Dachend pulled one hand back to throw "To bad pointy ears, because you're in for a real beating!" with that he threw the bunch in his left hand at Eric who jumped high into the air as the wards exploded under him. Using the airpressure to send him over the stranger, who threw his other handfull of wards after the flipping ACD officer that hurled over him up under the celling. Miraculesly enorgh Eric wasn't hit once and landed on the floor two meters from the other, who pulled out a red ward with black writting and held it betwin his for and middle finger.
     Casually Eric placed his hands in his pockets and tiltet his head. "Listen I'll be fair and give you chance to surrender." The other cocked a eyebrow "Excuse me? Have I missed something?"
     A voice whispered from somewhere "He's had enorgh Dachend, the kid's lost it."
     Eric ignored the voice. "So Dachend is you name?"
     The other nodded but didn't remove the ward "Yep, but don't go babbling it to everybody"
     Eric pointed at the other "well Dachend, if you haven't noticed it I am able to doge what ever you can throw at me"
     The other nodded in acknowledgment, but still didn't lower his ward "Oh no pointy ears, you really got me now...I'm totally screwed now right?" he grinned.
     Eric lifted his hands. "Right. SOLAR..."
     The other just grinned. "Just to bad I didn't intend using this on _you_" with a flip of his hand the ward shot over his shoulder, Eric gasped as the red ward, stopped inches from the uncontious Emiko's face, Dachend Grinned "and if you think that the green onese make a mess.." Eric lowered his arms.
     "I like you pointy ears, you got style...you fight good. I havn't had a good fight with a elf in years....do you know how to fight with a sword?" Eric nodded. "So here's the name of the game. I put away the wards and you keep that solar shit in check for a moment, I can see you have a sword youself, so do we fight?.....or should I spray paint the floor with the girl.....it's you choice"
     Eric smiled coldly. "A fight? Great...but make it last longer than my last opponent, okay?"
     The ward lost the glow it had and fell to the floor, Dachend grined "Attitude...I like that!" a blank metalic liquid ran out between Dachends fingers and formed into a handle with a samurai sword blade sticking out in each end, forming blade arc.
     Eric looked in surprise and Dachend threw a sly grin and moved into a offensive stand, Eric drew his own sword and moved in to a passive waiting stand and prepared for his opponents. Then Dachend jumped high into the air, the sword a blurry circle over his head as he yelled "Heaven above, hell below!!" grinning all over his face.

     Emiko slowly regained consciousness, her head hurt alot. Her face felt wet, and she looked up and saw Mai standing with a small bucket. She pushed herself to her feet and looked around. The Shopping mall was in ruins. There wasn't one window left in piece. Not a single chair or table or shelf was standing,that included those who were bolted in place.
     Mai shook out her thoughts. "Emiko, we have to help Eric-san, Mr. Black-eyes it going to hurt him bad!"
     Emiko bolted to her feet, her headache to just a memory. "Where are they?" she yelled and Mai ran down the hall with Emiko right behind her.
     Even without Mai to show the way, Emiko would have found Eric in no time, the loud clatter of blade on blade was very audiable. Emiko gasped as she saw her friend. She had always thought of him as a master swordsman at least as good as Susano Orbatos but this guy was clearly better, Eric only being keept alive by his great speed and agileness. He had several cuts and it was bleeding in a steady stream from his left thigh. Emiko grabbed into her pouch.

     Eric looked at his opponent; this guy was a monster. Dachend lashed in four fluent stroks, a high horizontal cut, a cross cut, a low horisontal cut and a vertical cut coming from below, Eric jumped away, panting hard. How he had been able to dogde those four attacks was a mystery. A long vertical cut appear on his blause and a few strands fell from the left side of his hair. With a low rumble the pillar he had be standing in front fell apart in three pieces.
     "You're good pointy ears, I hadn't expectet that, I'm impressed, proud of ya!" Dachend grinned and lifted the sword to a new attack
     "Your *haa* not *hfff* half bad *haa* your self" Eric gasped *THUNK* Dachend lifted a eyebrow and his face flinched in pain, "Huh?!" he looked down and saw the tip of a knif stikking out of the left side of his chest. With a hard yank he pulled the knife out, while singing through his teeth "Somebody's cheating." his eyes found Emiko 4 meters away and he turned to attack "you again huh!" he said, throwing the knife to the floor. Then remembering Eric and turning to see the other coming at him. With two parries, he brought Eric's blade in a lock against the wall with one of the blades, the other blade of his sword, he slowly forced towards eric's head. Emiko ran to help with Mai just behind her, Dachend letting go with one hand, backhanded Emiko hard, making her reel back. Clamping a hand over her face.
     "Emiko!" both Mai and Eric called, Mai hitting as hard as she could with her pencil, making Dachend lose his footage and stagger back, Eric dropped the sword and yelled "SOLAR..." a green glow began to glitter around his hands, his cloth and hair waving around (looks very cool) "...WIND!!!" a beam of green chi energy lashed from his hands and slammed into Dachend knocking him off his feet and smashing him through two pillars and through the wall in a shop.

     Dachend pushed himself to his kness, his whole head was ringing and throbbing like hell. He vomited some blood. Now this getting out of hand. As fast as his probarly broken back allowed it, he pushed himself to his feet as quitly as he could sneaked down the corridor.

     Mai looked looked at Emiko's eye. There was already beginning to come a blue ring around it, then she turned to Eric who was looking on his thigh. Mai thought a second then grabbed down in her pauch and pulled out a eggshaped fruit "Here Eric-san!" she handed him the fruit "Yumi gave it to me some time ago, I think it will make it stop hurt and you'll feel all better!"
     Eric took the fruit "Thanks Mai-chan" he smiled and took the fruit, looking shortly at it. Knowing his older sister, this was probarly going to be unpleasant, he took a bite and sank it. He first felt a light tickle, that slowly got stronger and began to spread through his body.
     Mai cheered, "Look Eric-san!" and pointed at his leg. Eric stared as deep cut in his leg began to tickle as white glittering light filled it and when it faded away, there was nothing, not even a scar. The only thing left of the cut was the rift in his pants, this was surprising, no sideeffect. Maybe his sister was getting better!
     Mai received the fruit and put it back in her pouch, then looked up as the tall man came like a bird of prey from above, his foot pointing strait for Eric's neck "Eric!!" Mai called out.
     Eric jumped away, but then the sideeffect made itself present and suddenly the world whent topsyturby and he lost his direction and fell over as he landed on the floor besides Emiko.

     Dachend landed on the floor a bit harder than he had meant to, quickly he grabbed in his jakket and pulled out three silvery wards with black writting, one of his favorite wards, when throw it increased it's speed to a almost twize the speed of sound and ithad a razor sharp edge. He had seen it slice straight through inches thick tempered steel and humans didn't even slow the projectile. The girls kinetic-absorbsion-power would probarly stop the ward, but not before they where half way through her. It would make short work of those two. Then he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and swerled around already. If he had been just a little more jumpy he would have thrusted the knife that was now in his hand further forth, no dumbt. But the big brown, scared eyes that looked up at him made him freeze, the point of the jaggered knife just touching under the chin of the girl.
     "Dachend don't even think.." Dracho-xian hissed.
     "Shadup!" he hissed back "You know I don't kill children!... well not intentionly" he looked to the side at Emiko and Eric, who was on the tip of their toes, but they didn't dare to move.
     Emiko took a deep breath "I swear! If you hurt Mai I will make you wish you were never born!"
     Eric pushed her and whispered "Don't!"
     Dachend thought a second then talked not taking his eyes of Mai "It appears that we have reached a standstill. If you move, I kill her, If I kill her, you move. Either way you lose, I get hurt" he said. Eric nodded.
     A low voice then rang from Dachend "thought about explaining what started this to them?" Dachend thought a minute then looked at at Eric and Emiko "Listen, you got two choices pointy ears, either I kill the kid, we fight, you die, I walk away...or we make a thruce and we can all walk away." he flipped the wards lightly. "...your call pointy ears."
     Emiko looked hard at Dachend. "How do we know that you don't kill us all as soon as you get the chance?"
     Dachend looked at her "You have my word." Emiko rolled her eyes.
     "It better than getting your head split like a melon! Your power can't help you against this ward!" he growled "plus the little munchkin here doesn't seem that invunrable.
     "You could be bluffing"
     "Maybe, but are you willing to take the chance?" There was a long moment "you say when" Dachend said looking at them.
     "Okay.." Emiko said "We'll take the chance, let Mai go"
     Dachend nodded to Mai "Go kid."
     Quickly Mai ran over to Emiko and hugged her. Emiko looked up at Dachend who now was about to throw the wards.
     "Very stupid move girl, you could just have lost the girl, but now you all going to die." Emiko closed her eyes and after a moment of nothing, she peeked, seeing Dachend put the wards into his jakket.
     "Nani?" she uttered.
     "Hey I don't have a much of morals, but I do have my pride!" then man smile a sly smile. the other stated and picked up the samurai sword Eric had dropped.
     Eric looked at him with a cold look "You said something about explanation Dachend" Dachend nodded and leaned on a tipped over coca-cola machine "Now let's see what started this hmmm?"
     "Oh yeah it was miss oh-I-better-stick-my-nose-into-this-even- if-I-don't-know-what-the-fuck-is-going-on over there." he pointed on Emiko with the sword.
     Emiko growled. "Hey! I know presicely what happend, you were trying to murder that kid in the park!"
     Dachend smiled "you talk like you should know and that's zip, zero, nada and nothing"
     Eric placed a calming hand on Emiko's shoulder "Well would you mind sharing what is going on with us?"
     Dachend rubbed his jaw "Any of you know what a wraith is?"
     "Uhhh no!" the three said, Dachend grined "Thought so...it's a evil spirit, a kind of evil ghost if you want, it can't exist in for long in this world without a host....Mayby I should start from the top"
     Eric sat down "Please do"
     "People that have gotten really hurt as children, been victims to traumes, rape, incest, parents death, something like that. Some of these people simply can't get over it and their only way survive with it is to just forget it, just to push it so far away as they can into themselves, creating a black space in their soul, and in this hole of pain and grief, a wraith can hide, feeding of their suffering. It takes their pain and binds it to itself, becoming a part of it. The wraiths then seeks out every 7 seventh night and kills 3 people, putting the marks on them, that has been edged into the soul of it's host.
     The girl I'm hunting, has as far as what I have could piece together, been beaten severely by her father several times when she was little before she was removed. So now the Wraith seeks out finding a person the it beats and claws this person to death"
     "What makes you sure it was this girl?"
     "Well she has a scar across her left eye. She got it when her father once cut her." Dachend showing with a finger, moving it from the hairline over his right eye and down beside the nose "all the victims had a deep cut like this" Eric nodded.
     Emiko then asked "Well if it is this Wraith that does it, then why are you after the girl?"
     "It very diffecult to catch a wraith, when it hunts. the only sure way, is to kill it's host and destroy it as it leaves the corpse."
     There was moment of silence "Hey if it kill's people then why havn't there been any murders, the way you describe?" Emiko said
     "She has just moved to the city with her new family, I just stumbled across her today and I would have had her, if _somebody_" he staired at Emiko "hadn't interfiered" he stood up "That's the story"
     Eric stood up too "What are you going to do now then?" "Well I'll wait for the murders to start and try to track it back to it's host and destroy it. it's boring, but it comes with the job"
     "We'll help you, if it can save lifes"
     Dachend grined "Thanks but no thanks, I work alone..besides, isn't ghosts out of DCD's jurastision" he sayd with a sly smile.
     Emiko and Eric's jaw dropped "How did you know, that we...?" Dachend played a little with the sword, and stepped up to his own double sword, that turned to a quicksilver like substance and was absorbed by him.
     "Let's just say it isn't the first time your kind has crossed me" he said, proceeding to walk away, then stopping.
     "_If_ I wanted to find you, where will I look?" he asked with his back turned to them, there was a moment of silence
     "If I wanted any of you dead, you would be dead!" he stated, Eric smiled and piked up the sheath the his sword had been in
     "Okay you can sometimes find me in the Lurker's retreat, or Emiko might be there....by the way, can I have my sword back"
     Dachend turned halfway and threw the sword in to the air "sure...Eric Gen" with a low *schuk* the blade landed perfect in the sheath that Eric held out. The sound of sirens began to make them self audible. Dachend turned around and walked into the shadow of a nearby corridor, and just walked out of existance. Emiko felt her throbbing eye and mumble "I got a bad feeling that we havn't see the last to this guy"

and they hadn't ^_^ this was the first thing I wrote for CAPOW after I joined. it has been through some revisements. but is generaly the same all around. well needless to say that Dachend's relationship with Emiko and CO has improved since then ^^ -Keon