The Cursed Iris

Sprout 24: The Flames of a Half Breed

"I'm confused as to why he got angry for Ayame being hurt?" Katsumi wondered.

Susanoo seemed baffled by it too, because he expected the demon half to burn all of them once he found Hokusai. "I'm stumped too. Maybe your heart is still there, but he's taken over?" Susanoo asked.

"Not possible..."

"It's entirely possible, now let's see where this is going to head. Then maybe we'll be able to take control again."

Hokusai smiled. "This is the demon I've been wanting to see," he said as he attacked Katsumi.

Katsumi blocked the attack, and he released a breath attack of flames at astonishing speed. Hokusai dodged it, although only barely.

The attack grazed him, but it still caused a significant amount of damage, "I see, his flames are more powerful in this form. I'm more interested in this boy than before," Hokusai noted. "But if I'm hit square on will I even survive? Foolish question... of course I will survive because I am the heaven's messenger."

Katsumi attacked him again with a griping fang, which Hokusai avoided but the ground where Hokusai stood before was completely melted almost like a lava pool. "Stop it with all the damn talking and fight me!" Katsumi snarled.

He and Hokusai collided, once they did their exchange was almost evenly matched. Katsumi brushed off one of Hokusai's attacks and he went in for a cursed sole but missed.

Hokusai took advantage of that, and he formed a blade of black wind and fire, "You're mine!" he yelled as he slashed at him. Katsumi ducked but Hokusai continued his sword attacks causing Katsumi to go on the defensive.

"You know that girl screamed for you continuously when I was torturing her. It was a delicious sound that I couldn't resist," he mocked.

Katsumi seemed to get angrier at that, "She continued to say 'Katsumi, Katsumi please help me' she is nothing but a damsel in distress. I can't see how anyone could see that failure as a savior or a threat?" Hokusai continued.

"Shut the hell up!" he yelled as he grabbed the blade. Katsumi's hand became cut, and it began to bleed. "Your voice really pisses me off. I personally don't care for that girl, but why am I feeling anger for seeing her hurt?" he scoffed.

The blade broke. "My weaker true self must still be the heart? No matter, I'm going to kill you here and now."

Atsuko stared at the fight in awe as she held an unconscious and mortally wounded Ayame. "Well while Katsumi is keeping him occupied, we need to get her immediate attention."

"I'm sorry, but I do not know healing," Michael replied.

Atsuko gritted her teeth in frustration, "Maybe we can help," Kikyo said as she walked up to them with Natsume.

Atsuko noted that Natsume had seen better days and Kikyo looked like she faced the god of death itself by the dead look in her eyes. She also noticed that there was a strange fox with nine tails on her shoulder; she couldn't figure out why, but it gave her a chill just from looking at it.

"Okay stupid fox can you do something about this?" Kikyo asked it.

Shizuko smiled as she jumped off her shoulder. "Well long time no see Kaiya. Looks like you've seen better days," she mocked.

"Stop teasing and help you dumb fox!" Kikyo yelled in frustration.

Another explosion sounded off behind them and Hokusai was smiling at Katsumi who was breathing heavily. "What's this? You're losing steam just that quickly? Must be tough try to keep that form up isn't it?"