"Garbage. Garbage. Trash. Worthless." Kana sighed, placing a hand on her hip. She'd recently taken up a hobby of walking through the houses of destroyed villages and looking for anything of value, since she had nothing else to occupy her attention. Everyone in the villages were dead, so there was no fun to be had with them. But then again, she'd been the one to kill them, so she didn't really have much room for complaining. What she could complain about was the fact that everything in these houses was petty and boring. There was nothing interesting, nothing with any supernatural powers or a strange aura about them. Azazeal had run off somewhere again, as he often did nowadays, leaving Kana completely alone. And as far away from okay as she was with that, she'd learned to deal with it. She was never going to be anything but alone. Everyone betrayed her, no matter how hard she tried. No matter whose trust she tried to gain, no matter how she'd tried to control her temper, in the end, everyone turned on her.

"Fucking...worthless!" she growled, whipping a ceramic vase across the room. "Why can't they have anything worth while, something to show for their pathetic lives! Something I could at least use to cherish the memory of their pleading.." She sighed and plopped down onto a couch, which had bits and pieces of rubble littering its fabric. Her brown hair fell around her shoulders in waves, and her face had soot on her right cheek. Her clothes were fairly casual, and very light, not providing protection from much more than a light breeze. And even that was limited only to her pants, which hung halfway between her knees and ankles, lightly tattered. Her shirt covered much less. It had no sleeves and revealed most of her stomach, and was a greyish color from the ashes that had stained it. On her neck, hanging just above her chest, was an emerald pendant on a silver chain. An 'heirloom' of a woman who had died in one of her raids. It didn't mean much to her, but Kana found it...interesting. It had caught her eye. There wasn't much that caught her eye nowadays that she actually wanted to keep. Everything she typically wanted to destroy or see suffer. She wanted to see people suffering more than her. She didn't destroy entire villages often. Just when the urge struck her. It was tiring. Normally she just stuck with rogue ninja, or wanderers or merchants. After those two winged beings took her down that one time, she'd never had the same strength as back then, so an entire village was beyond her power, more often than not. Though it helped that Mad creatures tended to swarm behind her when she got angry enough to go for a village.

She sat inside the house, on the ashen couch for nearly an hour before sighing and getting up. She didn't know where she wanted to go now. Maybe home. Maybe nowhere. She wanted to find Azazeal. Brown eyes narrowed, Kana started out of the house, glancing around at the dying flames. A woman, still alive, though only barely, saw Kana and started crawling towards her, mouthing and whispering the single word 'help'. The ex-shinobi looked at her and walked over to the woman. She knelt down. The brown haired woman had been crawling towards Kana on her stomach, because it seemed her legs had been injured. "You want my help..?" she asked quietly. She put her hand on the side of the woman's face for a moment. Bringing her other hand up to the other side of the woman's face, she snapped her neck without an ounce of hesitation; and then dropped her and stood up. "You're welcome."

________________________

The door to the house creaked open. It was the only building standing among the ruins of what had once been the Magma. After the Akatsuki's assault on it so many years before, it had been easy to take it down afterwards. And she'd even spotted a house worth keeping for herself. It was very near the base of the volcano, and very warm.

As usual, the house was empty. Not a cat, or a dog, or even any photos were in the house. Kana had removed just about anything reminiscent of the previous owners. This house was where she spent most of her time when she wasn't killing or destroying. Sometimes she went around the village when there were moments when the Madness wasn't clouding her mind too much. In those times, she would put so much effort and time into rebuilding a house or two, only for the Madness to take over again so that she could destroy them. Sometimes the clarity would last an entire week. She could never figure out why. Many times when that clarity hit, Kana ended up feeling depressed over all she'd done. Over all the people she'd mercilessly slaughtered for the fun of it. That's why she didn't like the Madness leaving her. It was all she had left. Her only reason to live now was to destroy. Nothing else would sate her existence.

And she would hear whispering sometimes. A harsh whispering, telling her to go out and kill more. To shred, and rip, and tear. To watch the blood pool out. To lose herself in the red. It was what drove her to venture out of the Magma, most times. She listened to it, because she knew it wouldn't stop if she didn't oblige it. And she didn't mind it. But the more she obliged, the louder the whispering became, until she could hear it as clearly as she could hear Azazeal. He told her it was the Blue Demon she'd inherited from Felix so long ago. That thanks to their contract, she would soon become the blue demon. In fact, when she looked in a mirror on rare occasions, she saw that there was a corner of her iris that was beginning to turn a light blue color, in stark contrast to her natural brown. She didn't doubt Azazeal's words, and at the same time, she didn't fear it. She had started figuring out what the cost of his contract was long ago, and as he'd promised her, he'd remained by her side through all these years. He was slowly devouring her soul. If he could devour the souls of others, though, he would resist consuming hers for a while. So the more souls she allowed him, the longer she could exist. It wasn't too bad a deal. Azazeal wanted souls, the Blue Demon wanted blood, and Kana didn't want to cease to exist just yet. Everybody won, at least for a little while.

"Azazeal, are you here?" she called in a bored tone. She went towards the bathroom. She needed a bath. She was covered in blood and ash. Some of the blood was her own. Most of it wasn't. When Azazeal answered by appearing next to her, she regarded him silently for a few moments. "You're more human-looking," she pointed out. It was true. Whereas Azazeal had once been nothing but a shadow with no defining features, now one could mistake him for a normal person in low lighting. He had dark grey skin and white eyes with no pupils. His hair was black, but he looked like a fair male in his late twenties.

The Shadowshifter nodded in response with a grin that showed a row of perfectly white teeth. "I am."

"Why? Is it because of the souls?" A pause after his nod. "Was that your goal the whole time?"

"Yes. And no."

Kana raised an eyebrow. "Well, which is it?"

"Maybe."

"You're making less sense than usual."

"Has the other guy stopped whispering?"

Kana blinked, having been taken off guard by the question. "No. He never stops. But he's quieter than usual right now, since I just got back from a village...why?"

"He never stops," Azazeal repeated thoughtfully.

"Why?"

"I was just curious, my lady."

"You don't get curious, Azazeal. You only ask questions if you think the answer will benefit you."

"You should bathe."

Kana frowned, her eyebrow twitching in irritation. "Tell me, damn it!" she exclaimed suddenly, slamming the side of her fist against the nearest wall. To which Azazeal responded with a grin.

"I wanted to know how well you were handling his taunting. Not well, I see." When Kana's hands balled into fists, the Shadowshifter gave a low bow. "I apologize for upsetting you."

Kana frowned, taken a bit aback by Azazeal's sincerity. "Tch. Whatever. Go do what you like. I'm going to take a bath."

Azazeal tilted his head slightly. "Was there no reason you called me then? Did you not want my company?"

"...no. It's not like I'm lonely or anything without you constantly by my side, Az."

"I see. Well," he started, starting to fade out of the room. "Call if you need me, my lady."