What the heart should follow

Chapter 10
Blood is thicker than water


\"Mommy, mommy! Some scary men are hear.\" Tetsumi and Ashieyu wake up to the voices of Akio and Jiro jumping on the bed. Getting up Ashieyu looks over where Rikki was and finds that he\'s outside with some men. When she looked back Tetsumi was dressed and taking the boys out of the room so she could dress fast. Quickly putting on some clothes Ashieyu opens the door to find Akio and Jiro behind Tetsumi as he walks to the door with his sword drawn.

\"Wait Tetsumi if Rikki\'s talking to them then their not bad.\" Tetsumi thinking it over nodded and put his sword back in the sheath opening the door Tetsumi went out first while the boys ran behind him clinging to his pants. Ashieyu came out and looked at Rikki and then to the man he was talking to. \"Sota.\"

\"Well hello little sister long time no see eh? And are these my little nephews?\" Sota\'s long brown hair came down to his mid back and his blue eyes were the same as Ashieyu\'s he was wearing black boots with black pants and a black shirt that had a blood red cape thing that was attached to the shirt. Part of his hair was in the front and put in a low pony tail as his fangs were shown because of his smile. Ashieyu and Sota knew everything about each other even tough they were apart, they were like ying and yang. \"Well come on sis give your big brother a huge.\" Stretching out his arms Sota laughs.

Getting out of space Ashieyu looked at him then felt a tug at her leg, Akio was looking at her with his big golden eyes frightened of Sota and his men. Ashieyu picked him up as Tetsumi stepped in front of Ashieyu with his hand on his sword \"What do you want? Rikki why did you bring them here?\" Tetsumi\'s hair blowing in the wind looks at Rikki.

Sighing Rikki walked up to Tetsumi and put his hand onto the sword and pushed it back in \"I told you Sota can help you with the fight against Hiro, he can protect Ashieyu and the twins since I have to leave now I went and got them so they could take you right away. I heard that Hiro is very close to the house and it would be good if you left before he got here.\" Tetsumi glaring at Sota sighs and picks up Jiro.

\"Fine let\'s go.\" Squirming out of Tetsumi\'s arms Jiro ran to Rikki and started hugging his leg.

\"Daddy don\'t go please.\" Jiro\'s big blue eyes got filled with tears as Rikki picked him up and kissed him on his forehead and handed him to Ashieyu. The wind blowing his hair around, covers Rikki\'s sad eyes and smile.

\"You know I will be with you now be good for your mother.\" Rikki looking at Ashieyu kissed her and vanished.

\"Can we be going now?\" Sota was looking kind of annoyed by the show, but Tetsumi just ignored him and took Akio into his arms.

\"Then let\'s go.\" Turning Sota started running into the woods, Ashieyu and Tetsumi followed close behind. Its been ten hours since they first left, the trees and brush is thicker and most of the things in this part of the forest is poisonous. The suns rays barely can cut through all the branches as most of the surrounding is pitch black. \"Powerful demons live in this forest. How do we know that their not following us?\" Tetsumi still holding Akio tight in his arms while the cloak covers most of his form but still flies wildly behind him.

\"Because I am half darkness demon and so is my sister we would know if anything was following us, besides my men are surrounding us and they would tell me when something was wrong. So don\'t worry water demon.\" Jumping up into the trees Sota smirks and looks back to Tetsumi, even though he had the cloak on Sota could see the glare that he was give him.

\"Sota don\'t make fun of my mate!\" Smiling at his sister Sota went beside here and looked from Jiro who glanced at him with tired eyes to Ashieyu who was glaring at him a little. \"This is not how I need you to act right now.\" Sota running in front of Ashieyu again looked around and turned to the left jumping over a big pile of dead brush. Following Ashieyu and Tetsumi jumped over and stopped .

\" We\'ll rest here for a little while, the kids are tired and need to eat. I\'ll send my men to go look for some food.\" Looking at his men they bowed and vanished in a blur, sitting down Sota put his hands behind his head and looked at the twins that were both resting on Ashieyu. Getting up Sota walked up towards Ashieyu but before he could go near her Tetsumi walked in front of him his eyes glowing in malice.

\"Why exactly are you helping us?\" Ashieyu now looking up to Sota and Tetsumi stopped rubbing Jiro\'s hair.

\"Because they are my flesh and blood also and she is my sister, I don\'t want her to die, besides I\'ve had my fights with Hiro before and trust me you\'ll need help. If he\'s gotten stronger than you\'ll need a lot of it, that\'s what my clan is here for.\" Sota glaring at Tetsumi also crosses his arms. \"Besides I also wanted to meet this mate of her\'s, I\'ve met Rikki before and I don\'t mind him but he would not be a preference. And neither are you to me your even lower then Rikki, pathetic.\" Tetsumi\'s eyes start glowing violet and his nails sharpen at the words Sota\'s throwing out.

\"Why you fucking asshole. How do you know who\'s good for your sister if she ran away from you! You probably no nothing about her.\" Sota\'s eyes filling with anger holds out his fist with a darkness ball, while Tetsumi has a water one in his hand.

\"Now stop this both of you.\" Ashieyu using her power pushed both men into the tree behind them. \"Don\'t scare the kids and besides Sota you have no right to judge my mate. Now end it.\" Ashieyu\'s eyes glowing turn back to their regular color when Akio and Jiro pull on her pants. Looking down at both of their scared and tired faces Ashieyu sits down and brings them into her arms. Tetsumi walking over to her sits down and takes Jiro in his lap and holding him near his chest. The wind now was getting colder and colder, taking off his cloak Tetsumi was going to wrap it around Ashieyu but she pointed to the twins instead. It was nearly pitch black went Sota\'s men came with food.

Rationing the food with everyone Sota got up and started walking into the woods. \"Sir were are you going?\" The men looking at him, Sota looked to Ashieyu and the twins and smiled.

\"To get wood for a fire, they need some heat.\" Ashieyu looked at her brother and mentally said thank you to him as she now settled back into Tetsumi and wrapped the cloak tight around the twins. Looking at their sleeping faces she smiled to herself as Tetsumi wrapped his arms around her. Another big gust of wind blew by making most of them shiver. Closing her eyes Ashieyu drifted into a peaceful sleep.

\"Ashieyu wake up, wake up.\" Waking up a few minutes later by Tetsumi she looked at him confused until he pointed to the fire, relieved Ashieyu got up while Tetsumi carried the twins and laid them by the fire to keep warm. Putting her arms around the twins Ashieyu fell asleep again when she laid her head down. \"Thank you Sota, I know they will be warm now.\" Tetsumi standing in front of Sota looking down at him while his eyes stay neutral same as his form. Smirking a little Sota looked to his sister.

\"I want my sister and her sons to live, most demons even water or ice freeze in this forest at night so I think you should be by there as well.\" Sota getting up looked right into Tetsumi\'s eyes intensely. Smiling again Sota made his way towards his sister. \"So you really do love her then.\"

\" Yes of course I would give my life for them.\" Tetsumi confused by Sota\'s words walked up to him as he bent over and kissed Ashieyu on the forehead and the twins.

\"Then I give you my blessing, even though its to late, but I\'ll try my hardest to like you. If you had a sister then maybe you might understand my position.\" Sota getting up turned around and looked at Tetsumi smiling at him and walked past him \"Get some sleep I\'ll keep watch, my outfit will keep me warm enough.\" Tetsumi smiled as his eyes drifted back to Ashieyu then off to blackness. The wind blowing hard didn\'t blow out the huge fires that were burning in the night. Everyone\'s hair blew around everywhere while the leaves rustled in the wind. Sota\'s eyes were keenly watching their surroundings and he put up a barrier just to make sure nothing would get in. Slowly closing his eyes Sota fell asleep.

\"Mommy mommy get up!\" Akio\'s voice chimed, opening her eyes Ashieyu found Tetsumi sitting by the fire with the twins and Sota.

\"Well this is new, what happened while I was sleeping?\" Tetsumi and Sota looking at one another chuckled. Getting up Ashieyu was given food and something to drink by Sota\'s head captain Ryu. After talking a little Sota got everyone moving again.

\"Hiro is still a day behind us so we have to move no more breaks till we get to the village. So to make it quicker we have to fly.\" Sota and the rest of his men brought out their black wings, of course they were hard to see because of the forest.

\"But what about Tetsumi?\"

\"Ryu can take him on his back. And the boys can stay with you unless one wants to come with me.\" Ashieyu looked at Tetsumi and seeing him a little nervous about doing this but it didn\'t show for long as he jumped on Ryu\'s back. Ryu was built very built, his long black hair came down to his mid back, but he usually left it in a ponytail. And he was about 6\'5 with red eyes and even with his dark blue and black armor you could tell he wasn\'t a push over. Uncasing her wings Ashieyu held onto both boys tight as they held onto her neck, taking to the sky the light shone and most of the people had a hard time adjusting to the light. Five hours later Sota flew by Ashieyu. \"Your tired let me carry one of them.\" Ashieyu stopping gave Akio to Sota.

\"Hey why did we stop?\" Ryu flying up to the front looked at Sota questionably.

\"To let my sister not carry both boys I\'m hold one till we get there.\" Sota laughing at Tetsumi when he did this Ashieyu turned around to see Tetsumi almost chocking Ryu and trying to keep himself in the air. Smiling Ashieyu shook her head.

\"Hey this is not funny! Shut up Sota! When we get on the ground I\'ll pound you.\" Ryu rolling his eyes looks back at Sota. Shaking his head Sota carries on.

\"Were almost there don\'t worry two more hours now.\" Just then a huge wind blew past almost knocking Tetsumi off Ryu, turning Ashieyu flies to Tetsumi making sure he\'s ok. After he bats her away they start to fly to the village again.

The sky is a pale blue and there are plenty of clouds in the sky to hide in. The sun is covered by a few clouds as the wind still blows everywhere. Mountains are closing in, some even reach past a few clouds that have gotten in the way. Once and a while you can hear birds sing and see some rivers if you look to the ground. \"Good were here.\" Sota flies lower to the ground and goes through a tunnel in one of the mountains, followed by everyone else he flies out of the dark cave and starts to land.

\"Good were on the ground.\" Tetsumi getting off of Ryu sighs and walks over to Ashieyu and Sota, while everyone follows. \"So this is it?\" Nodding Sota let Akio down and Ashieyu did the same to Jiro. Walking past some few tress and bushes a huge village came into view. \"So this is where the darkness clan lives, I heard it was hard to find only certain demons know where it is, but it seems easy to me.\"

Walking up by Sota he looks at him questionably. \"It seems easy because you had darkness demons to lead you if you weren\'t with Ryu then you wouldn\'t have come through, you would have been in a huge maze that we put up. Only a darkness demon or a demon that has been here before, or in Hiro\'s case a strong demon can see past the barrier.\" Walking up to the village Sota\'s men walk towards the castle as Sota stops in the front.

\"Are you implying that I\'m not strong enough?\" Tetsumi\'s eyes turn purple as he starts failing his arms.

Laughing Sota clutches his sides \"Well maybe.\" Confused Tetsumi sighs and gives up. Ashieyu rolling her eyes starts walking into the village.

\"I swear sometimes I think you\'re a child.\" Sota still laughing follows his sister as the twins laugh and run to their mother.

\"Hey what\'s that suppose to mean!?\" Tetsumi running to them starts shaking his fist at Ashieyu.