Internal Struggle (Chapter 1)

The day is beautiful, the sun is shinning, very few clouds in the sky, the temperature in Central City is around eighty degrees. The sound of birds singing, and the smell of food is floating on the light breeze coming from the south as we see Jeraph Kaious walking down one of the main streets. He is being dwarfed by the expansive high rise buildings. As he walks he is paying attention to everything, the architecture of each individual building, the joyful laughter of kids running around playing on the sidewalk, the smell of cooked dumplings coming from a street side cafe, all of which seem to arise a sensation within him, but none of them he reacts to. As people pass him his attention moves to them, the way they walk, talk, their power levels, each person is as different as the buildings, or the blades of grass growing in the effort to keep the city looking beautiful. Eventually a young man passes Jeraph in a martial arts Gi. It's now that the internal struggle begins anew in Jeraph's mind.

"What about him?" a low demonic growling voice is heard, seemingly by no one but Jeraph.

"Absolutely not. It is not the time nor the place to attack these innocent people" Jeraph replies sternly in his normal voice, although no one else seems to notice.

"Well why the hell not? It has been many moons since I have been allowed to let the anger rage, and destroy some one unworthy of the very breath they take" the growl retorts.

"To put it simply, it is not something we want to do Khaos. You are useful in battle, but need to learn not to just destroy life, or beauty. This is Central City, if I allowed you to run a muck you would simply call forth one of Earth's defenders and we would be in a battle for survival" Jeraph explains calmly to his Demon side.

"The weak must be destroyed, this planet will eventually be mine to control. Besides Earth's mightiest warrior would be a good test of our abilities" The demon responds angrily.

Jeraph continues walking, his path noticeably leading out of the city now. He is no longer paying attention to anything but wanting to get out of one of the largest hubs of civilization on Earth as he can. Knowing good and well that he won't be able to keep his demon side at bay long with that many people around.

"And if I was to die we'd not have any real test, and all of your thoughts of domination would parish with this body" Khaos responds hastily to the demon, trying to talk some sense into him. "I am still to weak to face some of the strong warriors that we have sensed in our travels."

Khaos can feel the anger inside of him welling, its ready to boil over any moment as he reaches the last part of the city. Still walking as calmly as he can not to alert his demon side as to his plans, he continues to walk eyes set on the rolling hills surrounding the Central City.

"We wouldn't be so weak if you would fight more. All the training you do in the wilderness isn't going to help you in a real battle, you know this. Besides you have already defeated some of the stronger fighters we have come across. Why are you so afraid to bring on some one stronger to face?" The demon demands.

"I don't want to die right now, plus you must remember I am also designed to be a protector of the innocent, not just some demon looking to take over the world, and dominate every one who challenges his rule" the answer is blunt and to the point.

Finally Jeraph reaches the hills surrounding the city, sighing a loud sigh of relief knowing he just avoided a calamity for the city. He allows his guard to go down as he continues walking through the surrounding wilderness. Once again noticing the natural beauty of his surroundings. The smells different from the city of course, but none the less stirring his emotion as the fresh due on the grass smells sweet, the flowers filling the air with their perfumed aroma.

"Wait, you distracted me so you could get us out of the city. You say I'm the evil one, but one of these days I will be able to unleash my anger on every thing in sight" Khaos growls to himself no longer content to allow the Shin part to remain in control he begins to push himself to the surface.

"We already agreed that I should remain in control during non-battle situations. Stop trying to fight my control" Jeraph calmly tells the demon.

Struggling still Khaos replies "I will be free to do as I wish, no one will stop me, not even you Shin."

"That's laughable did you forget you are stuck inside ME? You don't have your own body, we are suck together, let's make the best of it and this day and continue our training" Jeraph replies still seemingly calm.

With that the internal struggling comes to a stop, Jeraph reaches behind himself to the pommel of the newly purchased sword on his back, allowing his fingers to tighten around it. Eventually he pulls the blade from the scabbard the metal slicing through the air, and striking at an unseen adversary. When Jeraph recovers from his attack his fingers can be seen tight around the pommel, the coloration of each digit white from the grip he has on the leather wrapped grip.

Word Count=951

After his interesting spar with the Kanassan known as Alberdyne Cormyr on the Astral Plane, Jeraph was almost instantly able to fall into a deep, healing, and restful sleep. Unknown to himself though his body wasn't asleep as some beings tend to do, his was sleep walking and walking through the hills. He is suddenly snapped awake as he feels the cold rush of water hitting his body.

"What the heck is going on." Jeraph thinks to himself still half asleep.

Moments later it hits him that he is underwater and has the potential to drown unless he swims. Pushing with his legs to the surface of the cool water, he watches as fish swim by, underwater plants wave with the slight current caused by wind and his movements. He finally breaches the surface of the small pond and kicks over to the side, using his strength he pulls himself out of the pond and checks to make sure his sword is still firmly attached to his back. Although soaked everything is in the proper place. The sun is shining still, so Jeraph has no idea as to how long he was asleep or walking in his sleep, all he does know is the rolling hills and meadow lands surrounding Central City are no longer in his sights. The scene he fell asleep to is replaced by mountains in the distance and a thicker forest surrounding the pond on three out of four sides.

"Where you trying to take control while I was sleep?" Jeraph his other half.

"No I was asleep too, remember it was me that actually did the fighting" The demon growls unhappy at being woken up in such a way.

Looking at the surrounding area a little better and more awake, Jeraph comes to the conclusion that this would be a decent training ground for his sword techniques and his Ki Blade. Noting that there doesn't seem to be any one around for miles, just adds to his hunch of the area. He does what comes natural to him, he drags himself up from the seated position, takes his battle stance, using his right hand he draws the blade and starts practicing his aim with the sword, taking branches off of trees but never the whole tree. Eventually he allows the Ki to flow into his free hand and uses the Ki Blade to take down a dead tree. Then moving to the next he kicks the trunk of the tree, at the same time he strikes at a low branch, the following action is him falling on his butt due to balance lost during the strike.

"Well, looks like that didn't work how we planned" Jeraph retorts with a slight giggle.

It doesn't take long for Jeraph, and Khaos both to realize that they are having fun doing this training. They are laughing mentally, as they keep their concentration and remove branches. Each branch symbolizing a limb on a foe. Each time he unleashes Ki Blade it is the abdomen or chest of said foe. This happens well into the night time, the moon rising in the sky, clouds blotting it out every so often, Jeraph doesn't miss a beat, and actually continues to train in the low light conditions. He hopes to get his aim as near to perfect as possible, knowing that his next opponent may not be so easy to overcome. Finally worn out, he resheathes the blade and lays on the grass. Once again he falls asleep, this time his body is exhausted and doesn't stir.

WC: 603

Final WC: 1554