Katana 76 - Chapter 9. By force

"Idiot... moron... jerk... Fuck..."

The girl was unable to express her feelings, there wasn't a single part of her that wasn't shaking, including her tearful voice.

"I thought you were gonna eat me alive..."

Thanks to the crystals that surrounded her waist Rikan had never been in any real danger, but they also allowed her to feel the two bloody monsters that tried to erase her, something she couldn't have even understood without them.

"I hate you... both of you..."

Kiran didn't answer, Rikan had all the rights to vent on him and say whatever was on her heart, it was a fact that he tried to kill her just a few seconds ago, even if he had something to say he was too busy being disappointed in himself to say it.

The girl's strikes were forcefully stopped as she clung to the shredded clothes that covered the dragon's back after her knees gave in, trying to no avail to stay on her feet.

"... Have... have you killed him?"

"No."

Amikael rested on the ground, smiling like the sweet little angel he was for once. It was hard to believe he and Kiran were destroying each other a few seconds ago.

"But... How did he survive that?"

"At some point after he shot me in the shoulder he must have changed his weapon to non-lethal mode."

"Does that mean he didn't want to kill you?"

"Tsk..."

Kiran smiled, he didn't knew when the change happened, either he did that before they got serious or he got out of the trance before him, but either way that only meant one thing for him...

"... That means he won."

Kiran stretched a bit before lending a hand to Rikan.

"Come on, let's get you home."

The monster that tried to kill her moments ago was helping her get up as if nothing happened, 'These people are scary' 'Was my brother like this?' 'Can I be like them?' and other similar thoughts occupied the place of her mind where fear once resided.

"And what do we do with the sleeping angel? He's gonna catch a cold if we leave him here under the rain."

"I'm gonna leave him in your village too, but before that..."

Kiran approached his defenceless friend and placed the tip of his sheath on his chest.

"I don't like the idea of taking advantage of the winner, even less on his sleep... but I guess it can't be helped..."

"Wait wait, don't tell me you're gonna take him out."

"Just look and watch."

A circle of light appeared in Amikael's chest. The katana started to slowly sink in it, but it didn't seem to cause him any harm.

"I knew it... That swine..."

Kiran twisted the katana as if it was a key and extracted it with care, once it was already free the light from the circle traced through the weapon reaching the highest lock and opened it, making it disappear.

"... That's it? Just one?"

"This is gonna be a problem..."

"Yeah, it's not like you can just ignore the other 6 locks."

"Well, the katana recovered a seventh part of its power, and this part of the sheath specifically can be pulled back, so now it can be used as a table knife"

Rikan punched Kiran's face, causing great pain to her own fist.

"The problem is that the rest of the keys are probably hidden inside of your brother's friend."

Rikan stopped shaking her aching hand, gazing at her own thoughts.

"Oh..."

Kiran threw Amikael on his shoulder with as little respect as he could.

"Come on, let's go to the village."

"Wait."

"No."

"I haven't even asked anything yet!"

"Rikan, you just watched Amikael and I fight, you should know better than ever that you're not ready to come with me."

"I know! but... I wanna get stronger... I want to help... and most importantly I want to get out of here, I wanna see more worlds, I couldn't bear being trapped here until you've finished all the work."

"... Have you removed the stones ever since you left the village?"

"Only one of them, and I left it where it was."

"That should do it..."

Kiran threw Amikail off of his shoulder with as little respect as he could and struck at Rikan's head with the handle of his katana.

"Ouch-! What the hell was that for!?"

The cristals around Rikan's waist shined for a moment.

"Done, now the cristals are inside you, next time you're about to die they'll return your body to the point and state in which you were when I first put them there, but it won't affect your mind or soul, and the cristals will be destroyed afterwards so you won't be able to get out of the village."

"Does that mean I can go with you?"

"It means I'm not against it."

"Let's go!!"

Rikan started to express her joy with various gestures and words best described as a little unusual.

"Come on, let's go back to your home."

"Wait, what?"

"We still have to leave this idiot somewhere he can't follow us, and you're the only one that can get us through the barrier now."

"No wait I-"

"And I'm not taking you anywhere without your mother's consent."

"No no no don't worry I'm already old enough to go on my own."

"Oh, and don't expect me to help you with the negotiations."

And thus, with a white dragon carrying an angel like a potato sack and dragging a demon by her collar the prologue of this tale concludes.

Will the angel escape to pursue the dragon?

Will the demon survive her mother's wrath?

Will the dragon continue with his late friend's purpose?

Will the writer stop shifting the tone with every chapter?

All that and more in a not so near future! Now I want to work on something else, I love writing and translating these chapters but it takes me way longer than I expected even if they are short and I don't want to keep my fairy tale waiting for much longer, but I'll release a couple of extra epilogues like one were Kiran and Rikan are sitting around a campfire in their way to the town next to the demon's home... Ups looks like I already spoiled that Rikan will survive her mother's fury!

I hope you've found at least some enjoyment from this experiment, I've been wanting to write this story for more than 4 years, in fact, the first version of the first chapter was written in a Minecraft book on a server I had with my friends, but I'm sure we've already deleted that server so it's lost forever(what a shame, I was really proud of that one).

I hope the day where I can dedicate my full attention to this story will come sooner than later, but in the meantime... Please, enjoy my other projects once I announce them!