Love at first sight (Heisuke x OC)

Chapter 76: Kioshi's ruthlessness

I had been subjected to several different forms of torture since my recapture. Each time was worse than the last. Thanks to my demon fury healing abilities, I had no physical scars. However, I unfortunately had a plethora of mental scars...He's pushing the limit, gauging how much my demon turned fury body can take...

The door slid open and I tensed as I turned my attention to the door. Wait, nani? Instead of Kioshi, the woman who was with him when I first arrived here walked in. She was carrying a tray I assume had food on it. She closed the door behind her and sat down in front of me. Upon the tray I saw a bowl of ramen and a cup of green tea. "I'm not hungry..." I turned away from the woman.
"Please, you have to eat as much as you can"
"Why do you care? Don't you want me dead like Kioshi?" I questioned coldly. "Just drop the nice and innocent girl act, would ya?"
"I'm afraid it's not an act. Please eat Chiyeko, there's no telling when Kioshi will decide to..." She trailed off. "You'll need the energy" I turned back towards her with a raised eyebrow.
"Who are you anyway?"
"My name is Kinu...Nishikiri Kinu"
"Kioshi has a sister!?" I was genuinely shocked by this news.
"Hai, I'm his younger sister. Well, his younger half-sister...It's no surprise you don't know about me, Kioshi doesn't speak about me much"
"But I thought his whole demon clan was murdered"
"Most of them were, but not all of them. Our life is quite a story, will you listen to it?"
"Well, I don't have anything better to do so go ahead" I tried to feign nonchalance, but the truth is I was slightly interested to learn how Kioshi became the bastard he is today.
"Our village was attacked. By an unbelievably powerful male demon. He slaughtered nearly everyone in his path"
"Nearly everyone?"
"Hai. He left the women and children alone and only attacked the men. Unfortunately, some of their lives were lost because they tried to protect their husbands, fathers or sons"
"Oh..." I felt kinda scared knowing that my brother was capable of such things.
"That was the case of our mother and older sister. They tried desperately to protect our father, but this demon murdered him and my sister. He was going to murder our mother too, but he decided not to"
"Why?"
"Our mother was pregnant, with Kioshi"
"I see..." At least even Chikage has boundaries.
"After our mother was spared, she fled from our village along with the other woman and children. They thought they were lucky to have been spared, but they thought wrong. There was a great distance they had to travel to reach any kind of civilisation. Many of them died of starvation, dehydration or were too tired to go on.
"That's horrible..." I can't even begin to imagine what that would feel like...Kinu nodded in agreement sadly before clearing her throat and continuing;
"However, a few survived and reached civilisation. From there, our people began to mix and breed with ningens. Our mother was one of the lucky survivors and made a living for herself to pay for raising baby Kioshi" I have trouble imagining Kioshi as a baby...I bet he looked like an evil baby. I kept these-admittedly childish-thoughts to myself as to not offend Kinu. "It was our mother who turned Kioshi into the man he is today. She always told him stories about how Kazama Chikage had slaughtered their entire clan and that someday she would get revenge" I can't believe it...The way Kioshi talked about the incident, you'd think he was there and experienced it himself. I mean, I guess he was there, but not in the way he makes it sound like he was. "But as time went on, my mother began to put the incident behind her until she eventually fell in love with a human man. They engaged and got married within five years of meeting each other. After that, they had a baby together. That baby was me. I was born with human and demon blood running through my veins. I guess I was lucky though, I have more demon blood in my veins than human"
"That could be seen as lucky to some, but not all"
"You have a point there. Anyway, when I was five our mother died suddenly. That was when Kioshi took it upon himself to honour mother's wish for revenge. He left home and began to search for Kazama Chikage and killed any other Kazama demons he found on his journey to him"
"...Wow, I never would've imagined Kioshi's life started out like that"
"Not many people would"
"He's only got himself to blame for that..."
"Indeed. Gomemasai Chiyeko"
"Why're you apologising to me?"
"I know it's not my fault, but I'm gomen that you got dragged into this. As soon as Kioshi found out that Kazama Chikage had a sister, he made it his life mission to torture her and make him suffer like he did. Or more accurately put, like our mother, sister and father did"
"So, let me get this straight...Even after Kioshi told you all that, you don't hate me?"
"Of course not! It is not your fault that your brother killed our clan! Besides, I didn't grow up with the stories Kioshi did. I lived a fairly normal childhood"
"...I see"
"Be rest assured that I am not lying to you. I honestly hope that somehow you survive this"
"If you want me to survive then let me go" I decided to take a gamble.
"I..." She looked hesitant for a few seconds before she nodded her head resolutely. "I will" She untied my wrists and ankles. "But before you go, please eat" My stomach rumbled loudly, supporting Kinu with her insistence to get me to eat.
"I'll take you up on that" I accepted the warm bowl with a slight blush. I happily enjoyed the ramen and tea. "Arigato. It was a lovely meal"
"You're welcome. Now, let me tell you how to get out the castle..." Kinu expertly described the path that would get me to the back gates of the castle. "If you take that way, the only people you should run into are the furies guarding the gates"
"Arigato Kinu, that's some really helpful information!"
"I would hope it is. All that's left now is this" She handed me her wakizashi.
"What's this for?"
"If Kioshi finds out I let you go, he will not be happy to say the least. This way, I can say you knocked me out and stole my wakizashi to free yourself"
"Knocked you out?! But I don't-!"
"It's okay Chiyeko. You knocking me out is much better than whatever Kioshi will do to me. Plus, you'll need something to defeat the fury guards"
"I mean, it's true that I need something to fight with, but knocking you out...Are you sure that's what you want me to do?"
"I'm sure. Don't hold back now" She smiled brightly at me.
"Kinu...Arigato gozimasu"
"It was my pleasure Chiyeko" I reluctantly knocked her out with the hilt of the wakizashi. I won't forget you Kinu...I silently prayed that she would be alright as I slid open the door and stepped out into the hallway. Luckily, it was empty. I stealthily made my way through the castle, making sure to follow the mental map that Kinu had laid out for me. She was right, there's no one around or in these corridors and hallways. I walked for about three minutes before I reached the back door. Like Kinu had said, the back gates to the castle were open. She never told me the reason why though. I shrugged, brushing the reason off as unimportant. There were eight guards standing outside. Okay, time to take a page out of Kioshi's book...Is something I never thought I'd be thinking to myself. I shook my head and tightened my grip around Kinu's wakizashi. I stepped outside and kept to the shadows of the castle. I took a deep breath with my eyes closed. Keep calm and focus Chiyeko...I opened my eyes and moved. I swiftly stabbed the closest guard through the heart and then retreated back into the shadows. He collapsed and his companions quickly rushed towards him with their hands on their sword hilts. At least they don't drink the blood of their allies like the Fury Corps did.
"Who did that?!"
"Show yourself!" Gladly. Two of the guards had their backs to me. This'll be the last surprise attack I can do, better make it count. I jumped out of the shadows and stabbed one of the furies through the back making sure to go through his heart. I quickly pulled the sword out and stabbed it through the second guard's throat.
"Hey, you're the prisoner!"
"Get her!" The remaining five furies rushed towards me. I ducked down and rolled out of the way causing all the guards to run into one another. I acted quickly and managed to kill two more guards. The remaining ones clashed swords with me, but were making sure to keep their distances. Damnit! They're not letting me get close enough to them! I gritted my teeth as I fended off the furies. I was trying to come up with a new plan when I felt a sharp sting in the back of my neck. Ow! What the heck was that!? I put my hand to the back of my neck and felt something small and roundish. I pulled it out of my neck with a wince before bringing it into my line of sight. A blowdart?! I whipped around to see one of Kioshi's ninjas with a blowgun. Suddenly, I lost control of my body and collapsed. Not again...It wasn't long before I was enveloped by darkness.