Monster Meets Monk: Reaper Says Hi

Kanseina looked at him and nodded. The children would not be going to school today they would need the day to adjust to the knowledge even if they seemed to handle it well and then looked at Kyoki who knelt down low to the floor so that the child could see him clearly once the blindfold was on.

Mako walked up to him unafraid of this man who wore the blindfold and regarded him a bit he had tipped it up a moment or two before bringing it down again. "Oh that's a really long time....." he said thinking it was like ten or twelve years and not as long as Kyoki had been truthfully wearing it then blinked and looked at him. "Does the light give you headaches? Your not afraid of Kansei....your or Mr. Monk......will you be friends with us as well? Kansei needs people to make him smile...."

Kansei shifted a bit as Mako being well Mako was going into a dozen or more questions his twin brother still snoozing away somewhere Mako was usually the first up so that wasn't surprising but he was such a curious kid.......often getting into his own fair share of trouble. "Will you be coming by to visit often? Not many do all of the people in town talk about this place like it's horrible but Kansei is the only one who would give us all a home and he protects us all......they don't know anything........and they won't listen either." Mako prattled on yawning.

Kansei didn't like lies. Although he said it was alright when they hid things from him he'd always frown and look at them hurt. He didn't like them........because it always made him worry what else was being hidden from him then there was Mako who spoke his mind what he was thinking and feeling like there was no filter between his brain and his mouth and yet unlike any other adult who would hush him embarrassed by the questions the boy was asking Kansei made no move to hush him or get embarrassed the boy had a right to ask his questions and learn.

Kyoki sighed and sat up on his feet, sitting much akin to Kotta and put a hand on the boy's head. "No child...I'm not human...so you don't quite grasp the true reality of how long I have been wearing this collar....but yes...it is a very...very long time...." he said lowly and ruffled the boy's hair as he stayed like that.

But the next question got Kyoki to tilt his head a little. "Friends? I don't really quite grasp that concept very well...I'm not exactly a type who requires friends...now family...I require family...but friends? Those are things that humans have invented to make themselves feel more important....more a part of the world....my brother is more the type for friends...I'm simply not the type to be chummy...." he said lowly and finally stood to look down at the boy. "As for fear...I will only fear one man...because he holds my life forever in his hands..." Kyoki said lowly as he 'looked' back at Kansei and then back to the boy.

"I don't really have a lot of free time kid...I work most of the time...I can't pay many visits to anyone...usually, those who want to see me, no matter the reason, come to me....it's how it's always been...but perhaps if I ever have free time...I can make a visit..."

Mako seemed to tip his head and looked at him trying to figure that one out the age difference but it went above and beyond his head. "Oh you don 't look really really old." he said in answer to the very very long time comment.

Didn't grasp the concept of friends. Didn't really need them but did need family well they were family here and they weren't related and so he looked at Kyoki. "Oh then are you going to be family with us then?" he asked as he looked at the one before him not really understanding the reason behind fearing only one man but letting that go as well.

Kansei looked over at Mako as he asked all of these questions and Kyoki said that if he had free time he'd swing by this way, on the off chance that it happened not that it would. Kyoki Inu was a very busy man and even Kansei knew that. Normally to see him one either had to work with him be under his protection or family..........because the only other way wasn't healthy for you. Normally.

Mako looked at Kyoki. "Because if you want to be family you said you've lived a very long time and I know Kansei has lived a very long time he said so so you two could be family and then Kansei won't be lonely when we grow up and pass on and you'll have a bigger family and everybody will be happy." Mako said being seven years old things just sorta made odd sense to him.

Kansei didn't say anything as he looked at them seeing the three still in the room and wondering what was going to happen in the next few minutes as Mako seemed to be trying to adopt Kansei out.

Kyoki sighed and shook his head, the broken chain clinking as he did. "You're much too young to understand what it means to be my family...but lets just say...it's a kindness to let Kansei remain human...no matter how old he is...he will eventually reach his limits...as all humans do...but me? I will only reach mine once I have lost my usefulness to the royal family...and the reapers..." he said lowly, sparing a quick 'glance' at Yojo before he looked back down at the kid.

"As for my age...I stopped aging a very long time ago...I'm simply frozen in time...and my age will only catch up to me when I finally meet my match or simple fall ill and wither away...either way...I will not die a natural death...a painful one...but not a natural one..." Kyoki explained lowly before he sighed and 'looked' back at Kansei. "Besides...I doubt he desires to become what I am..."

Mako looked at him and tipped his head. "To become what you are? But your nice....." he said and tipped his head trying to understand.

Kansei sighed. "I have no desire to become an Inu no....but as to being human I'm only half on my mothers side.....and she was alive was three centuries ago." he shook his head he was a lot older then he looked a Shadowfaux. Kansei looked at Kyoki. "My father was Shadowfaux.....which is where I get my appearance from." He didn't want Kyoki getting upset because he allowed something to remain a half truth. There was no point in that and while he didn't know Kyoki all that well Kansei knew himself that he'd rather have whole truths and not half truths.

"Go on Mako get cleaned up and wake up the others. I have arrangements to make and you all need to get ready for travel." he said it would take a little bit to get the fourteen boys to the castle. But he also had to make the arrangements with Kyoki's brother.

Mako nodded and rushed off to get changed.

Kyoki snorted. Nice? Since when did any child think he was nice? "I'm not nice...I just don't give a damn...." he said lowly before he turned his attention back to Kansei.

"Oh? Is that so? I never really offered the Inu side of things...the only human I've ever turned using that power is Ayame...and I did it simply to piss her off..." he said lowly, his full attention on Kansei. "If you never really desired to become an Inu, it would not have been the first thing you came to..." Kyoki said, but shrugged. "But whatever...if you really don't want it...I'm not going to force it on you...you'll live long enough on your own..." he said and turned and began walking, hands moving to slide into his pockets as his heavy boots thunked against the floor.

"When you're ready...I'll be outside..."

Kansei watched him start to walk off looking utterly confused. "Huh?" he said while it wasn't the most intelligent thing to say despite his age he had no idea really how the change worked. He had been told once that when one was changed by a werewolf they became a werewolf when one was changed by a vampire they became a vampire so although assuming was bad and he normally didn't do that he had come to a natural understanding even if it was wrong that if he was changed by an Inu he would become an Inu.

Hence the confusion that now danced in his features as he watched Kyoki walk out. "I don't honestly know what i want anymore........other then to be accepted." he breathed lowly to himself and that much was true although he did nod when Kyoki said that he'd be outside waiting waiting when they were ready.

Kansei could not help but feel like he had offended Kyoki somehow and that wasn't it. He didn't want to become an inu because he didn't know if the Shadowfaux in him would twist it even further.......make itself even more monstrous then it already was. It wasn't because he was repulsed or upset with the idea of becoming an Inu or even a vampire for that matter.

Kyoki paused and turned back to face Kansei. "You can only become an Inu through me. If I chose to turn you, I would simply turn you...however...if I chose to make you into an Inu....I could alter anything I desired to alter about you..." he said lowly as he 'looked' at Kansei, hands still in his pockets.

"When one is turned, one is simply turned into a vampire...I'm the only vampire who can give you my set of traits, who can literally turn you into one of my own bloodline....no one else can ever hope of doing it...I'm not like a werewolf...my blood is precious....and the only thing that will save the Inu bloodline should I ever desire it to..." Kyoki explained lowly and shrugged, as if the topic had very little meaning to him. And honestly, it didn't. Kyoki dislike using any part of his vampiric powers, aside from his true form. It just wasn't his style.

"As for knowing what you want....let me know when you do...maybe then we can talk on a more serious level...until then...keep that thought to yourself...not many know of my ability...and I'd like to keep it that way..." he said and turned, walking again as the sound of his boots thunking on the floor grew fainter, and fainter until it vanished completely.

Yojo then looked over at Kansei. "Don't worry...Kyoki isn't concerned about what you said to him...it is simply his way...he doesn't open up easily to others...so the fact that he explained anything to you about his vampiric abilities is certainly a good sign...but try not to push too hard...those who push too hard to get into Kyoki's head usually end up on his dinner plate..." he warned lowly, still that same flat tone as before.

"However, I would say that you made quite the break through with Kyoki...he said you were interesting...which usually means he likes you...but he has a very...harsh way of showing his affections..."

Kansei looked at him as he said that he could change him alter anything when changing and that he was the only one. He listened and watched Kyoki walked off nodding he'd keep the thought to himself since he needed time to think and reason through things on his own. He did though look over at Yojo as he spoke.

"I'm not the sort to pry. Anything I learn of him will be what he gives to me nothing more nothing less." he said simply and that was the truth of the matter. He sighed though as he tipped his head.

"I'm not sure what I did or didn't do to gain his interest actually." Kansei said honestly as he looked at Yojo and then sighed as he could hear the kids up and about in the mansion. He closed his eyes though. "I don't know....what I want. I need time to think. So much has changed since this morning." and that was down right honesty. He hadn't had time to adjust or think, everything was happening so fast. He wasn't saying outright no.....but Kyoki just told him that if he said yes......he could alter things.

Yojo shook his head. "It isn't anything you did honestly...it's just what Kyoki saw in you..." he explained as he looked out into the empty hallway.

"Kyoki saw himself in you...and that is a rare thing...Kyoki has never fully been accepted among others in life, and he had a very rough childhood...his start at life was...for lack of better terms...tragic....and ever since, he's been rather messed up...both mentally and emotionally...the man was abused and beaten as a child...forced to wear that heavy collar around his neck since he was around the age of 10....he's been quite alone in the world, and because of that...he's created somewhat of a world of his own..." Yojo explained lowly and turned to look at Kansei.

"Though he won't talk about his past to you or anyone else for that matter...will only tell you that he killed his father and mother when he was only the human age of 16....Kyoki was scarred for the rest of his life because of his family, and has been altered mentally because of it...never really in a stable state, he's had to work through a lot of issues in his life to get to where he is now...he didn't used to have any self-control at all...and for that reason...he became Akuma Heddohantā and it is a name that will forever stick with him...but he does nothing to get rid of it...simply wears it like he does that old collar...to remind himself of his past..."

Kansei listened to Yojo as he explained a bit about Kyoki and nodded as he looked off in the direction that he had gone. Listening without interrupting. While he had not been beaten he had been locked away, away from the light of day as a child hidden because he was a monster. Only allowed out at night when he was 'pretty' to look at.

His tail moved slowly behind him as he listened what he saw in him the few times one did see him they'd scream and throw things at him stab him, shoot him cut him or wound him he came to learn that to the world he was a monster that would never be accepted. Then there was what he ate. One could say he ate his steak's rare and be correct but that was all he ate he was unable to cook the meat. His system unable to process the food. His father was never around his mother had died hiding him away locking him in a room almost all of his life he hadn't learned to fend for himself until after she died and then that had been a interesting life lesson.

"He's had a hard life." he said it was a simple observation not a judgement. But he sighed looking back at the bed and then walked over to a hall closet just outside of the room he had several around the mansion and in them were thick heavy long cloak's. Not one to even attempt to walk outside of this mansion without it. Least he be hunted and hurt over and over again.

Yojo nodded. "He has...it's why you could say he has some very serious trust issues...and be right..." he said lowly and moved, taking Kansei's hand and shaking his head.

"Not today...you won't be needing it today...not while you're with Kyoki anyway...." Yojo said lowly and took the cloak out of his hand and put it back in the closet.

"Kyoki is not just going to let humans try to hurt you...he will eat them before they even get the chance...so please...for the sake of the occasion, leave it here..."

Kansei looked at him as he said that nodding and then at the hand holding his. Despite the bones that stuck out of the side of his wrist the scales that covered his hand and the insanely long fingers Yojo had touched him without a second thought but then took the cloak away.

Took away his shield his protection and said that Kyoki would not allow it. Would not allow a human to hurt him. Kansei closed his eyes. "I'm not used to that.........being able to move outside of these doors without some sort of barrier between me and them.....the one time I walked out side without it. Despite being told that unless I was 'pretty' I should not be were others could see me.........they."

He sighed and looked at the door as it was closed the cloak tucked away inside of it. "My appearance doesn't bother me..........it bother's everyone else."

yojo sighed and shook his head. "There are no need for barriers when you're with Kyoki...he likes to see those for who they are...I like to see those for who they are..." he said lowly and then looked at Kansei.

"Not everyone...As I said before, there are those who will accept you....as for it not bothering you? That isn't the entire truth...otherwise...you wouldn't hide it..." Yojo said lowly and turned, starting to walk towards the entrance. "When everyone is ready...I will be outside with Kyoki..."

He sighed as he walked down the hall to finish getting ready and to get the kids ready what was he to say to that? He didn't mind at all how he looked he was used to it didn't cringe or hide it in his own home or on his lands. But when he left he didn't want to be changed. To be hunted and persecuted because he was different then others. It wasn't easy to explain but his appearance didn't bother he himself so much as the being attacked because they believed he was a monster did. He was used to caution first.

Twenty minutes went by before he had all fourteen boys ready to go and came out carrying in his arms Ryo who was bundled up in a blanket the kids surprisingly enough were in tears or crying they were talking as if death was a normal thing and while they should perhaps be having a more nervous breakdown then they were they weren't. It was as if on some level they didn't care and that in it's own right bothered him then again these children had never been normal when he found them.

Kanseina looked at the duo standing there feeling bad for making them wait that long but he walked out despite knowing that he'd be chased and attacked for his appearance without anything to hide behind. Dressed as he had been that morning from the waist down in jeans and no shoes his long red hair loose down his back and no shirt none could go over the spikes on his back without tearing the cloak always bulged a bit in the back thanks to them.

The kids looked at the two and then ahead again. "We're ready." he said simply a bit bluntly but it was true they were ready.

Kyoki nodded, and shifted into his true form, never really one to care who he scares or surprises by it, he stretched and yawned a little before he lowered his head down to Kansei's level. "And now, so am I..." he said lowly, blindfold still in place. The material it was made from designed, like his collar, to stretch with his shifting.

"Then if nothing else needs to be done here, I suggest we get moving before the boy's body begins to decay...." Yojo said lowly, and looked over at Kyoki.

Kyoki huffed a little, but lay down and 'looked' at Kansei and the kids. "I suggest getting on...the way I move would be too hard to keep up with..."

Kansei looked at Kyoki and nodded having the kids get on making sure they did as they were told and then got on himself he wasn't about to argue with the great dog. And the only thing that had made him pause was how beautiful yet powerful Kyoki had looked and still did upon transformation as if the human form hide his true power and grace from sight.

Once on his back he shifted only slightly to support Ryo and then looked back at the fourteen boys. "Behave. Kyoki is not doing this to be pet or played with. He is a guardian not a house pet do not treat him as such Yuki or anyone else.." he said narrowing his eyes at one boy who had been about to start acting up and the kid shifted behaving. He had been about to yank on the fur, to pet play and basically cause trouble he had a bad habit of picking on animals in general.

It wasn't Kyoki eating them or getting angry with the boys that the fourteen worried about but Kansei not smiling or getting upset with them that they were. Although the kids hide it well or thought they did they were still afraid of him during the day. They'd rather be around there 'father' figure after nightfall when he didn't look so scary all the time. The only one among them who was always happy to see him had been Ryo..

Once he was certain the boys would behave he looked at the back of Kyoki's head. "We're all settled."

Kyoki huffed a little and stood up, but then 'looked' back at the boy who he felt grab his fur. "Listen to me boy, I am not Kansei, and I will happily eat you alive should you annoy me...I'm not one for kids anyway..." he warned him lowly before he 'glanced' at Kansei and chuckled lowly.

"You're not as pretty as your personality...but you certainly make for an interesting person..." he said lowly, his body seeming to rumble or vibrate with his every word.

Then, after a moment, he turned his head back away from them all and looked at Yojo. "You certainly don't do anything half way, do you reaper?" he asked lowly as he started walking slowly, Yojo moving to keep pace with him.

"Of course not...what kind of reaper would I be if I did anything half way?" Yojo asked lowly, flatly as he looked up at Kyoki. Kyoki's response was to simply snort.

Yuki let go. To be told he wasn't Kansei and that he would eat him was enough to unnerve him and make him fully place his hands in his lap. Nothing further out of him.

Kansei rose an eyebrow and chuckled. "I suppose so." he said as Kyoki said he wasn't as pretty as his personality he said chuckling but before he could say anything on that Yuki snorted.

"Kanseina is only ugly during the day he's pretty when the sun sets." Yuki said with a smirk getting even with his 'father' figure for scolding him. "During the day he looks like that but at night he looks like a freaking model......"

Kansei ignored him as he always did.

"Of course the people in town say that's cause the light shows his true form."

Mako shivered and looked back. "Shut up Yuki that's not true. The light hides Kanseina's true form it doesn't show it. No one as gentle as Kanseina is a monster."

The boys started arguing and both froze when there voices failed them.

"Now is not the time nor place for petty and meaningless arguments. If you insist on holding this argument again you can ride in silence." Kanseina said as he looked back at them having silenced there bickering.......Mako because the boy was about to start screaming and he could hit those piercingly high notes to be heard over Yuki and Yuki because well the kid was being himself and picking a fight. They were both put effectively in 'time out'.

Kyoki paused and turned back to 'look' at both of the boys. "Arguments are for those who are too petty to settle their disputes with reason....if you're going to be around me, then you will also get my punishment...." he said lowly and took both of the boys off his back, and let them dangle in the air, only being held by their shirts as Kyoki's jaws were tightly clamped around them.

Kyoki didn't really like children, but it wasn't because he was bad with them. It was simply because he hated having to deal with their whining and arguing all the time. That and, well....he just wasn't very fond of young children.

Yojo, however, didn't say a word, was too busy looking at the boy who had called Kansei ugly. Children were sometimes very cruel with their words, but they were also sometimes the most honest creatures. "The only ugliness I see is on the inside of those who are cruel to others when it isn't called for....I see no ugliness in Kansei, or even on him..." he said, after a very long while of walking in silence.

Mako and Yuki both went wide eyed as they were scolded by Kyoki and held in the air by there shirts while Yojo told Yuki that the only ugliness he saw was on the inside and although Kansei had allowed them to speak again they could feel and it knew it Mako wisely decided to remain silent something about being carried around dangling from the mouth of one really big doggie made him want to keep his mouth shut. He almost felt like a scolded pup.

Yuki however was not so wise. He glared ahead and then looked down at Yojo. "Then your blind. He doesn't look like you me or even this guy carrying me in his teeth right now. Not for the majority of the day. Covered in bone like scales and spikes and that's not ugly to you?" He said incredulous.

Kansei just sighed. He couldn't say it didn't bother him to be called ugly or hideous or anything along those lines it did in it's own right. He didn't find himself repulsive and so the words hurt. He wasn't about to lie and say they didn't but nor was he going to say enough and let his anger and pain at the words of a child he had taken into cause him to do something against his nature either.

Kansei did look down to Yojo though who had said that. That he didn't see it and there had been no dishonesty in his words and Kyoki who carried the boys like scolded pups.

Yojo moved, vanishing and reappearing before the boy and walked backwards, seemingly walking on air. "I'm not blind...but there are those in the world who truly are...your words mean little, it simply shows how you truly feel about the man who loves you enough to take you in and give you a home....as to how I see it? I see nothing more ugly than you right now child...because beauty is not on the outside...it is on the inside..." he said lowly, flatly. Even if he could not feel, he could still speak his thoughts.

Kyoki growled lowly, another warning to the boy. If he kept it up, that would be two children out of Kansei's life in one day. To be so cruel to an undeserving man...it rubbed Kyoki wrong in so many ways.

Yuki went to open his mouth again went to continue even as Yojo walked backwards. Before him walking on air as he moved. Yuki was half tempted to continue but the growl seemed to shake him through his entire being and so instead he fell silent. Yuki looked at Yojo glaring at him but otherwise falling silent perhaps wisely at the moment.

But the boys shifted many felt the same way that Yuki did that Kansei was 'ugly' during the day and pretty at nightfall. But Yojo was saying it showed how they truly felt about the man who took them in.

And what was more was that Kansei already knew it. Knew how these children felt and what they attempted to hide from him but it was clear in there eyes during the day the way they looked at him. So he had been caught so completely off guard by Kyoki and Yojo. He didn't know not fully how to handle them. They looked at him the same way only one other ever had. With absolute acceptance. And that one was the boy in his arms right now. Ryo never feared him never thought he was ugly never even once called him that. This small child smiled no matter the time of day and would even go so far as to grab his hand to keep him from leaving the room where the others would watch him go. It had been why he had wanted to save him why Ryo had been so special to him. And yet Ryo had hide the fact he was dying. If Kansei wanted to be honest it was because Ryo was trying to not hurt him. The first dayt he had sat with him he had asked him if he was sure he wanted a monster guarding his sleep. Ryo's answer. "Your not a monster Kansei......monsters are hideous and ugly inside and out....to me your a noble dragon in human form.........you'll chase all the monsters away....... Although he wasn't a dragon it was how Ryo saw him. A dragon.........who showed himself during the day.

"You do not love him as much as he loves you...instead, you fear him. You fear a man who would never harm a single hair on your head...all of you do...and it's disgusting..." Yojo said lowly, still in that same flat tone.

Even if he felt something, his body wouldn't be allowed to feel it for long. The spell that bound his emotions constantly changed to adjust to any new situation, so it was always moving to take any sign of emotion away before it could be felt to it's full extent. But this? It just made him sick.

Kyoki chuckled lowly as he walked along, 'watching' Yojo descend to the ground again and take up his place beside them, picking up the same pace at Kyoki as he did.

To Kyoki, Yojo was amusing and perhaps even a bit fun. Not that Yojo was trying to be entertaining for the great dog. Kyoki just happened to find the fact that Yojo was protecting Kansei from children to be one of the most amusing things in the world.

Yuki narrowed his eyes and looked away. What did this stranger know? He knew nothing of the man who sat on the back of the dog that carried him this way. Wouldn't harm a hair on his head perhaps not but that didn't change the fact that he was very very different then them. He didn't cook the steaks he ate couldn't. Cooked food for them but always looked ill when he did as if the smell of cooking meat churned his stomach and it did. Kansei was not a creature that could endure eating the cooked meat and it made him sick to his stomach but he did it anyways for the sake of the children.

Kansei though looked down at Yojo who sought to shield him and protect him from the children who were so cold and cruel to him only truly accepting him after nightfall. He swore Kyoki was amused with all of this and yet neither one of them seemed at all bothered by him in fact it was as if he was simply one of them. Accepted by them. It was amazing in it's own right.