Story: Worst Demon Hunter In History

Here's a little introduction to another thread, and I hope you all enjoy it. Wrote it before falling ill, but wanted to tweak small things before posting it. Like, working out what the options might be. I'm taking suggestions on that front.


The Shinmei-Ryu is a legendary organisation of traditional Japanese swordswomen that, in modern times, are called upon to slay demons or perform exorcisms. It is a powerful school, and so it should be with a name that roughly translates to “God’s Cry School”. Their sword techniques allow them to infuse ki energy into their every attack with devastating effects upon those struck by them. Even so, practitioners are expected to be quick with unarmed combat or even the use of weapons other than swords. This eventually reaches the point where a particularly skilled student of this school is fully capable of using the techniques without a sword anywhere near them. The ki is infused through their bare hands, ensuring that a knife edge chop is every bit as effective and damaging as an actual knife.

The intended heir to this prestigious school is none other than Motoko Aoyama. For now she does not believe that she is ready to take the reins and lead her school into the future. For now she believes that there are many more things still to learn, skills to be perfected and weaknesses to overcome. For now she will live at Hinata House in complete and blissful unawareness of exactly how right she really is.

Motoko wants - aches - to prove herself by improving her talent at demon slaying. She yearns to show her sister the true potential she knows lies within. If only she had the chance! If only she could find a demon to slay or at least test herself against! If only, if only, if only!
<hr>
Mitsune woke up with a great big satisfying stretch to greet the morning light. A new day with new opportunities and all new fun to be had! This was the life. She looked around and twitched an ear. Nobody around? Perfect! She got out of bed and snapped her fingers, prompting a complete alteration in appearance.

In the blink of an eye her bed hair was neatly brushed, her nightgown had transformed into a t-shirt and shorts and she looked for all the world like she’d just come fresh out of a shower. There was only one imperfection on her entire being, and she happened to notice it upon approaching the mirror in the corner of the room.

“Ugh… Stupid ears!” she moaned. An absent gesture over the offending orange appendage later and it vanished. “Can never seem to manage that on the first go. At least my tail isn’t showing! That would really give the game away!”

With her morning ritual completed in less time than it took most people to switch off their alarms and realise how late they actually were, Mitsune reclined on her couch and began to scheme. It’s what she did. It’s what all her kind do. After all, she was a trickster demon in training….

<hr>
Down in the kitchen a bevy of enticing aromas began filtering out in a thick smoke of delight and intrigue. Not that most people were even aware of the smoke. No, not at all! Only those with particularly acute magical senses could possibly hope to notice it, and even then they might not think anything too strange of it. After all, it was just a little smoke. Harmless enough, provided there’s still plenty of air around. But, as can be realised pretty quickly, this smoke was not natural. Not in the least bit. In the middle of it all was a figure that radiated innocence and purity but was absolutely nothing of the sort. Her name was Shinobu, and she was making breakfast.

“Oh, I do hope they like it!” she giggled to herself while tossing in what looked like an eye one moment, then transformed into a rather less disgusting piece of meat the next. “I’ve been working on this recipe all week!”

“It’s your best yet, Shinobu!” Keitaro would say.

“Yes, it really is!” Naru would agree. “Could you please give us more?”

“Why, certainly!” she’d answer, piling the food on their plates until it almost reached the ceiling. Then they’d gladly eat it all down and still ask for more! Shinobu blushed at the silly daydream and focused her attention back on breakfast. Right. So, assuming she got this right, they should all give off huge amounts of Greed or Gluttony from which she could feed. Which meant she could maybe boost her apparent physical age way ahead of schedule, which meant she might actually stand a chance with Keitaro! Oh! But she was getting ahead of herself! First she would need to work up the courage to actually make that change happen. First she would need to grow emotionally before she could grow physically. It didn’t matter how much of their inherent vices she fed upon if she didn’t have the courage to use it.

After all, she was supposed to be a demon of vice. This was what they were supposed to do.

<hr>
Deep within the darkest jungle lurked an ominous, very nearly malevolent presence. This was a dangerous place only ventured into by the very bravest of souls and may god have mercy upon them for doing so. This was nothing less than Kaolla Su’s room at the Hinata House.

“Almost finished,” a certain voice sang, and continued to do so with “Just a little fine tweaking, and we’re ready to roll!”

Whatever else one might have expected to find within the tall trees and thick plants, the sight of a young girl wearing goggles perched atop what looked a heck of a lot like a battle tank from one of M. C. Escher’s more feverish nightmares should not by any reasonable measure be among them. Not in a sane world. Not in any kind of just world, either. But there it was. There <i>she</i> was. Su leaped off and stared up at her greatest achievement with hands proudly on hips and a smile so bright that it could make the sun wince.

“Perfect! Perfect! Can’t wait to test it! In fact, why wait at all? Charge!”

Su leaped another arc in the air that landed her perfectly in the passenger seat, whereupon a gesture had her strapped in and ready to go.

“All systems check! Ready to fly!”

The mighty machine shuddered in place and Su’s grip on the controls tightened ever more. “Here we go! Ready to launch, and ready to -”

The final words of her sentence were cut off by a mighty explosion that curiously went completely unnoticed by anyone outside the room. After a moment of silence Su landed butt first on the ground, bounced a few times, then started to laugh like a maniac.

“That was awesome!” she said in her native language between the laughs. “Again! Let’s do it again!”

For she was a demon of chaos, and this was what they did.
<hr>
Naru was standing in her room, completely naked, and staring at a mirror. She was not happy. Not even a little bit. In point of fact, that scowl upon her face and regular twitch of her eyebrow were quite indicative of an entirely different emotion altogether. For you see, they were back. Once again, she’d woken up with those and it was getting old. Really. Fast.

She flapped the large batlike wings reflexively. Oh, this was going to hurt. It always hurt sending these things back where they came from. Naru knew why they were coming so often recently. She knew they’d get more and more frequent as those urges rose as well. The urge to feed. Not her stomach. Different kind of hunger. It was growing quite ravenous these days, but she refused to feed it. No, sir. Not feeding that beast. Not setting foot on that path while she still had things needing done up here on Earth, thank you very much! She still had a modicum of self control, and she would exercise it so long as it remained where it was!

Still. This was going to hurt. Which meant that the sooner she did it the sooner she could get it over with. Until the next time she woke up with them. Naked girl with batlike wings. Naru sighed, and took a deep breath. The wings behind her shuddered. She closed her eyes and furrowed her brow. The wings grew smaller. She tried to suppress the groan of agony as they retracted into her back and almost completely failed in the process. But retract they did, and the very second she felt that final snap Naru dropped to her knees and took in several ragged breaths. Every time! Every single time! It wasn’t fair, why did she have to put up with this so often?

Which was a bit of a rhetorical question, really. She knew exactly why. It had started getting worse ever since he moved in downstairs. It was only natural that her dreams would take on certain interesting properties in that situation. It was only inevitable that she’d start to lose control over her powers with a man sleeping nearby. They ached to be used and it would be so damned easy! That was the trap, see. So easy and she kind of wanted to do it because in spite of everything he’d done she sort of kind of liked him a little bit but don’t tell him that or she would deny it, deny it, deny! It!

Naru reached for her dorky glasses and slipped them over her face. “Damn. They make me look adorable. Just like always. Baggy clothes don’t hide the figure, unkempt hair almost maintains itself, cheap makeup and bawdy jewellry starts to sparkle and shine, and now my thick dorky glasses make me look like the cover girl for Hot Nerd Chick Monthly.

“I shouldn’t be surprised, really. It was bound to happen sooner or later. It always finds a way around any obstacle I put in the way. Stupid sex magic! Is it any wonder I don’t think much of men? Almost any of them I try to know for more than a month turn into drooling idiots! At least the biggest idiot of them all is trying not to perv all over me! Not doing a good job of it, but at least he’s trying. Hm… Maybe I should nip downstairs and give him a reward for - No! Stop that!”

For Naru was a succubus, and being hot as hell was just what they do.

<hr>
Keitaro looked out over the hot spring at a job well done. Fully cleaned, and ready for the girls to use anytime they wanted. Which would probably be in around about three seconds' time knowing his poor fortune. Yep. They’d march right in here with nothing but towels on, somehow missing the sign he’d put up telling them he was in here, and decide that it was all his fault.

A few seconds passed. No? No sign of them? Alright, maybe he was -

About to take a tumble through the air and bounce a few times across the rocks on his face because of a chunk of soap he’d completely missed seeing until the very moment his foot lay upon it. This kind of slip up would have killed anyone else. No ifs or maybes about it. Killed them. Killed them dead. Keitaro was not quite that lucky, so he picked himself up and tried to ignore the pain with minimal success.

He could make this bad luck stop so easily, it barely even needed him to think about it. He could do it. All he had to do was find some jerk that had it coming, focus his attention and then that poor schmuck would take a tumble right into a police woman's cleavage. Or step on a rake with dog poop on the upper part of the handle. Or something. Depends on the person. Depends on how much bad luck Keitaro gave him. Or her.

Well, that was the problem, really. Giving bad luck was a lot like giving a kid socks for Christmas. Doesn’t want it, thinks the gift sucks, hates whomever gave it to them for life. Keitaro simply couldn’t do that to someone. He was too nice a guy. Way too nice to subject someone to misfortune at any level. Therefore, it all got stored up within him and he got dumped on by the gods of luck. All because he couldn’t bring himself to enforce a little misery on someone that might well have it coming.

For he was a demon of ill fortune, and that’s what they’re supposed to do.

1. Breakfast time! How do these demons get on over meals?
2. Meanwhile, Motoko is trying to master a demon slaying technique that sends chills down the other tenant’s spines whenever she tries it.
3. How about a bit of backstory?
4. A visitor arrives at the House, and is unwittingly about to send it into disarray.
5. Something else