twispitefic

Title: Hareheyare
Author: LittleCaity/sinestris
Fandom(s): The Twilight 'Saga', Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha (Both Soulless Army and King Abbandon)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 8,769 + Notes
Inspiration: The uncanny resemblance between the powers of the Cullens and the Investigative Powers of Skill and Pagan demons in the Raidou Kuzunoha games
Warnings: Violence, a couple of curses, a rampant OC, time travel and a mad scientist, sodding long
Summary: A pair of Devil Summoners come to Forks. Their mission: destroy the Cullens and save Bella.
Disclaimers: I don't own Twilight, I own copies of Raidou but it ain't my intellectual property (otherwise Narumi/Raidou would be canon), Carmel is the only thing I own here and I'll fight to the death to keep her.

The Gouma-Den was a sunny day in the middle of summer compared to the school with the Cullens in attendance. The odd feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop had been replaced with fear laced with despair, and all of it was focussed around the Cullens. There had been attempts to breach her mental shields all day, some like battering rams and some like wild animals attempting to claw their way in. There was no subtlety in Edward’s power.

“RASPUTIIIIIIIIN!” Victor hollered. There was little subtlety in Victor either, but when it came to demons he was an artist, which was more than what she could have said for Edward after music class at the end of the day. His performance had been stilted and the music itself, which he claimed to have composed himself, had been a hodgepodge of memorable measures from far greater men shoved together in no apparent order. Thankfully the teacher had been as utterly unimpressed as she was, as had most of the students, but Bella had looked at him as though she’d never heard a single note before.

“You said you found something one of the Kuzunoha left?” Her temper was a little frayed around the edges and it showed in her voice. She sounded a bit raw, like she’d been running all day and was almost out of energy and emotionally drained. Deflecting the attempts of demons to get into her head was not uncommon, but to do it consistently for hours on end was a bit much.

“Even better! Raidou Kuzunoha the 14^th himself wrote this!” She didn’t even try to stifle her gasp, practically leaping forwards to look at the old leather-bound book sitting on the table and running a reverent hand over it.

“Unbelievable...” she breathed, the faint little flicker of power long gone from the world still tingling under her fingers. Raidou Kuzunoha the 14^th was pretty much her idol, a legendary summoner serving the Yatagarasu who had protected the Capital of Japan against threats that had been thought less than myth even by the gods themselves. Her master spoke of him with rare affection.

“Quite the brilliant summoner, he was,” Victor said, and she almost dropped the book. The expression on his face was... wistful. “The fusions I performed for him... Ah, times like that will not come again.”

“Let’s see what we have,” she said, her hands shaking slightly as she opened the book to the page that Victor had marked with a strip of cloth. The handwriting was neat and small, perfectly legible despite the age of the book and the slightly faded ink.

The Shining Ones, he had written, and she mentally agreed that it made far more sense than what she had been calling them, the “Sparkling Bastards”. Although that had admittedly come from Charlie Swan.

Uncommon variant of Skill Incubus and Skill Succubus, although they appear to have some traits of Pagan demons as well. Project a strong glamour to tempt weak-minded individuals. Can tailor their glamour to draw in a specific target. Feed on life force, but do not appear to be related to vampires. Appear to be capable of turning humans into demons through repeated exposure to their venom. Extremely durable skin, vulnerable organs and eyes. Appear to have completely random powers, although many are related to the mind. Copious Anti-Mind potions recommended. Do not confront in direct sunlight! Can be ha-

“Huh?” The record stopped mid-word, a splash on ink on the corner of the page the only other marking. The following pages were blank. “Oh damn!”

“Interesting puzzle!” Victor crowed. “If you can get me a piece of one, I can find a way to kill them! At last, a challenge!”

“What the hell kind of demon gets stronger in daylight?” she mused aloud; “and why would they pick Forks?” It was a dreary place, overcast or even raining half the time. And people said England had miserable weather.

And more to the point, how was she going to get a piece of one? If they were as durable as the notes suggested, she was going to need a sword to even get a chunk.

Tempting as it was to go at Edward with sword raised and murder in mind, it wouldn’t do much good if she didn’t know his weaknesses. Friggin’ Skill Demons. At least her old Succubus had known that you don’t mess with humans for too long. An insane human couldn’t be fed on.

Although Bella, on the other hand... A lot of unknowing summoners tended to end up with incredible mental walls, the energy from training directed towards unconscious defence. And if the Shining Ones could convert humans to demons – not impossible, but extremely rare outside of vampires – then a summoner would be a rare prize.

“Oh Mary, Jesus and Joseph!” she snapped. “I just worked out why they want that damn girl!” Even an unconscious summoner in demon hands would be an unmitigated disaster! What would they be able to do with one who willingly crossed over to the enemy?

“Such a pity Kuzunoha isn’t here. I did offer, of course, but he’s always been so terribly stubborn...” Victor had that wistful note in his voice again, but he shrugged off the melancholy with one of his cheerfully insane laughs. “In other news, I believe I have found something you will like!”

He was completely right.

*-*-*

Carmel was running her new demon through its paces when her boss returned, and she spared him a quick nod before focussing on her blade, letting the frozen chill of the demon’s power flow through her before lashing out at a target. Ice spread across it almost too fast to be followed, and a follow up slash shattered it into pieces.

“I’m awesome, hee-ho!” the demon cheered. It was a special variant upon a Jack Frost discovered by Victor and Raidou Kuzunoha, a cheerful Frost demon who called itself Raiho and who was well-known for his easy loyalty and good humour along with his unexpected power. Victor had decided that since he’d been talking about the legendary summoner, he’d bring out some of the fusions from back in the day. She’d always known the mad alchemist was a genius, but that book had been something above and beyond. Besides, it never hurt to indulge in a little hero worship where the Kuzunoha were concerned.

“Oh no,” the boss said, looking at her new demon with an expression of barely suppressed horror. “Please tell me that’s Victor’s work and not a local.”

“Victor,” she said, stifling a giggle. It was worth seeing the usually unruffled (and unprofessionally flirty) Rasputin looking genuinely worried. “He’s a sweetie, isn’t he?”

“Only you would think a demon in an antiquated uniform is a ‘sweetie’!” he snapped, running a hand through his thick beard to calm himself. “Have you found anything useful in between tolerating foolish children and flirting with the mad alchemist?”

“I do not flirt with Victor!” she squeaked in shock, staring at him wide-eyed before the amused but mostly-hidden smile clued her in. “Boss, that was mean. Ah, anyway. All five of the Cullen ‘children’ were there today, and it was torture! Edward is definitely a mind reader, he spent the entire day hammering against my shields. No subtlety, though, so I suspect he’s not met many people who can fight him off. Alice was hanging around half the time too, the damn woman looks at me like I’m a three course meal and she hasn’t eaten in a month.”

“Ah, little Alice. One of my contacts believes she can see the future, but I can at least tell you that she’s only capable of predicting the actions of humans, and both summoners and werewolves seem to stymie her. A terribly large hole in her skills.” And a massive potential boon to their eventual plans.

“I think I’ve worked out why they’re focussing on Bella specifically,” she added, calling Raiho back to his tube and rubbing her thumb against the cool metal automatically. For some reasons her demons liked her to touch the tubes occasionally, almost as if they needed to be reassured that she wasn’t going to abandon them. “According to some notes left by Raidou Kuzunoha the 14^th, they are capable of altering their glamour for specific targets and they can turn a human into a demon.”

It didn’t take a mind reader to know that he’d reached the exact same conclusion she had. “We have to stop them now,” he growled out, his eyes almost sparking. “Did the notes say how to kill them?”

“I have both a problem and a solution there.” Not the greatest of solutions, mind, but one that would hopefully work well regardless. “Problem: The notes cut off suddenly. Solution: The spirit summoning ritual the Herald gave us.”

For the first time since she’d met Rasputin – twelve and quiet, watching his commanding form stride through the park where she’d been playing, running away from her aunt to tug on his sleeve and ask if the fire tiger was his and could she pet it please – he seemed genuinely speechless.

“Oh god, it’s a really bad idea, isn’t it?” she asked, running her hand lightly across her occupied tubes in their holsters to reassure herself. Her Poltergeist for scouting, an Alp to heal and to read minds if the situation called for it, Raiho for his incredible battle power and Tam Lin for his sheer skill. She was capable of summoning more powerful demons if the occasion called for it, but Poltergeist, Alp and Tam Lin had been her allies since very early in her career. She trusted them and they trusted her in return.

“Not exactly...” The boss was stroking his beard slowly, considering something. “You understand you will need to perform the ritual yourself? There are some things that I am... incapable of doing.”

“Well, I can handle that.” She hoped. Still, if the alternative was to face the Cullens uninformed... “Yeah, I can do it. Tomorrow night? I told the guys at school that we have family night on Fridays, so they won’t be surprised if I leave quickly.”

“You’ll need to collect some of the ingredients. I believe the Gouma-Den is below the supermarket at the moment? Excellent, you can get everything without having to leave the building.”

“If I keep going in there every day, he’s going to think I really am flirting, you do know that, right?”