Chapter 6- Immortals.

"Reo, your head!" I warned.

Reo ducked down under the demon's enormous body and slashed it with his sword along the way. The insect demon, about the size of a king bed with the resemblance of cockroach writhed in pain and dissipated into black goo.

We; Reo, Kotarou, Eikichi, Chihiro and me were fighting a group of demon insects in the car park of an abandoned shopping complex building. Why we were there? That's because I was chased by a demon, about level twenty from school to here. Akashi? He's nowhere to be found.

"Eikichi, level seventy!" Kotarou shouted from somewhere behind us. There only left this one big cockroach with the length of around 5 meters and height of 3 meters, it's freaking huge.

Eikichi stiffened before he moved to attack. But then, a glow of white energy appeared from under the demon, making it stop. We all watched. The light became lighter and then the demon made an unintelligible sound of pain then exploded into black goo. Akashi materialized in front of us.

"Sei-chan!" Reo exclaimed happily.

"What's a level seventy doing here-no, what are you guys doing here?" he asked.

We shared a look then I decided to answer since I'm the one who brought up the chaos. "I was chased by a level twenty from the school gym." I spoke.

"Why?" he asked.

'I thought you know everything' was what I want to say but I don't want a body without a head. "Um, I don't know. It's just that someone chased me, like literally ran to me. I freaked out, met Reo on the way, dragged him along and the demon led us here." I replied.

He ran his hand through his hair and nodded. "Let's get home, Seiryuu. There's training in less than an hour."

"Shit!" I cursed and ran outside.

* * * *

"Slow down, Seiryuu, you're too fast. And don't stick your elbow out. The enemy will have the opportunity to strike it, thus, making you unable to block on time." Akashi said as he pushed my elbow inwards gently.

I nodded and moved to the next step, then stopped, then shook my head.

"What?" Akashi asked.

"Nothing," I said. "It just feels that I've been doing this for a whole million years."

"How long have we been training?" he asked.

"About a month?"

"That's a normal thing to feel like that."

I shrugged and nodded then moved for the next step. "Since it's been a month.... I should know this, who are you? No, what are you?" I asked, glancing at him.

He exhaled sharply. "Very fine. You should know."

I tilted my head, thinking for the next move then the memories hit me and I continued my actions. Akashi leaned on the wall.

"You call it demons. There are a few types of demons; akuma, youkai and ayakashii. Though the meaning is all the same, the kanji is different and our interpretation of them is different. Those three are divided into many, many groups. Kitsune, hebi, inugami, bakeneko, tsuchigumo, ryuu and tanuki are some examples.

"Akuma often comes from tsuchigumo and inugami, youkai often comes from kitsune and bakeneko while ayakashii often comes from ryuu and tanuki. Youkai are strange creatures and is on the verge of extinction as they were actually made to battle. Akuma are like those out there, with no honors whatsoever. They feed on people and attacks 'em.

"Ayakashii is the likes of us, we are immortals. Not all, only those who are worthy are allowed to gain immortality, the True Way of Ayakashii. Ayakashii are demons but people often regard it as Gods, though it's not. Like Eclipse, he's a tanuki, an excellent fighter. Reo; a dragon, Kotarou; a dragon, Eikichi; a tanuki, big one, Chihiro; a tiger. We have True Form, Celestial Form and Human Form. Those three are different, of course." He ended his explanation of the three different demon types.

I twisted my body so I was facing the left and glanced at him. "What are you?" I asked.

"A strange creature of all ayakashii ever existed." He replied grimly.

"A mix of two?" I guessed.

"A serpent combined with a fox." He stated.

I stopped my movements. "Wow."

"People call me 'shinigami', death God but since I despise death, they called me 'Red Emperor' ever since. Not to boast but the best martial artist ever existed goes to me; people call me God of Martial Arts. I don't accept that. I'd rather keep a low profile of myself. But sometimes, people just don't know how to shut up."

"Aka....shi.... Red.. King, Emperor. Well, your name suits you." I said and continued what I was doing.

"Everyone says that,"

"By the way, I noticed the ice stuffs everytime you get angry."

"Well, when I couldn't control my anger, I can even freeze the whole world. That's why I stick to Human Form for now, to learn how do I control my emotions."

"Amazing."

"Alright stop for now," he said and I halted. "Go have some rest, dinner will be ready in around half an hour."

My face lit up. "Can I help you with cooking?"

"To the kitchen."

* * * *

"How do I cut these onions like wedges?" I asked and examined the onion.

Akashi put down the ladle he's holding beside the pot and went to me. He took the knife from my hand. "Hold it like this," he showed and started to slice the onion vertically. "You cut it like this but not so thick, not so thin."

He handed me the knife, I took it and started to slice it. "Like this?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yes and please, I need that thing in 5 minutes."

"Oh, I'll be fast." I said.

* * * *

It was around 6pm when I went strolling in the park and met the Demon King. He was in his usual attire and appearances; black hair, red eyes, black t-shirt, maroon jeans and pale skin. Suddenly there were no one in the park, just me and him. He was accompanied by a Snake Mother around level 80-90.

"Fancy meeting you here, Seiryuu." He said.

I backed away. "What do you want?"

"Unfortunately, I've put up a notice to every akuma in this world."

"What do you mean?"

"Whoever gets the Red Emperor's head, they will be promoted to Number One; the best of the best, the one in command, the one who everyone must obey, after me, the King itself." He smiled, rounding me in circles.

I frowned. "You're crazy."

He stopped behind me. "And if they can't get that powerful ayakashii, they'll be aiming for you. Or to be exact, the people he loves."

I turned around and looked at him straight in the eyes. "You akuma are just a bunch of cowards! You can never get pass Akashi! Don't even dream on it!"

"Ah, you never know, honey. We, akuma, are much better than the likes of you."

I scowled.

"Until then, we'll meet again." He bowed, smiling them disappeared and then the whole park went alive again with people around, laughing, chatting and stuffs. I ran home.

_^.^_

Akashi was reading a book when I barged in his study without knocking. He looked up at me. "Don't tell me you're attacked." He said.

"I don't. I met him, the Demon King. He said-"

"I know. He told me beforehand. Whoever gets my head will be promoted to Number One."

I dropped my head.

"And if they can't get me, they'll target the ones I love. Such a coward, I should say, but don't worry. Rest assured because I can protect myself and the ones I love. I told you before, didn't I?"

"That you're called 'shinigami'?"

"I'm the best martial artist ever existed. I am absolute. Therefore, I always win." He replied.

I nodded. "I trust you, Akashi."

"I know you do."

* * * *

I stared at the ceiling above. The bed seems softer. The room seems warmer. And so does my heart. Red. It's all red. Everything inside of me is red; blood. But red's the colour of him too. I slapped down the warm, weird feelings hard and drifted off to sleep.

Twenty minutes later, I was in the training room, doing sword katas, a martial arts 'set'; a series of moves to practise the use of the weapon or hand-to-hand skills. This weird feeling is swirling uncontrollably in my heart's core that I need to ease it by doing some training.

The night's calm, cold and quiet. I could even hear the swishing sound of the sword slicing the thin air. I was breathing heavily and moved faster and faster and faster, so fast that my hand was a blur. In the end, I let out a long sigh and ended the kata perfectly. I fell onto my knee and dropped my stomach to the floor.

Is this what they call....

Love?

Ugh.

[A/N: Just in case, everything that was told in this chapter; the ayakashii, youkai and akuma thingy is just a creation of mine.]