<div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Shizuru, Demon Samurai Bartender</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div align="center">(http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj499/MzHyde/Character%20Portraits/Nakaru.jpg)</div></div></div><strong>Location:</strong>Booth<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Jack<br/><br/>Shizuru listened passively, lifting the bottle of sake and refilling the wolf's cup when he raised it up. She leaned back again and spent a moment drinking in silence before answering him. Either she liked to make people wait, or she liked to take her time. Probably a bit of both. Her answer was, at first, direct and clear, "No." After a beat she clarified,"If you attack me or get in my way, I kill you. I don't care if you do it by mistake or not. These days I look out for myself and no one else. I'm only here to clear my debt."<br/><br/>The demon sighed and sat back. She motioned to both of their cups on the table with a wave of her hand. The liquid in her cup suddenly burst into flames, burning brightly and continuing to do so, even as all the alcohol burned off. His cup, on the other hand, overflowed with cherry blossom petals. "There was once a woman born of fire and a beautiful girl. The girl was called Keiko, and the woman of fire had no true name. Keiko worked at a restaurant where she served delicious food prepared by her father. The woman of fire, often shunned by people because of her fearsome reputation, had no friends. She ate in Keiko's restaurant one day. Keiko showed no fear and served the fire woman normally, even as the other customers shunned her."<br/><br/>Shizuru nudged the cups closer.<br/><br/>"Days passed and Keiko and the fire woman grew closer together. One day, Keiko asked the woman her name. The fire woman said she had none, for she was born in a land of constant conflict, endless hatred, and boundless suffering. Names were meaningless, she said. Keiko disagreed and vowed to find a name suiting her new friend. Days pass and, one day, upon returning to Keiko's, she finds the establishment covered in blood. Distraught, the fire woman enters to find all the staff, including Keiko and her father, dead or dying. The shogunate had not received it's due from the eatery and dispatched its warriors to make an example of the place. The fire woman learned this as Keiko lay dying in her arms, blood pooling on the floor below. Keiko's last word was a name. If the fire woman had a soul, it was lost that day, but something was born in it's place; something great and terrible and cold."<br/><br/>The demoness waved her hand over the cups. Jack's disappeared and the fire extinguished from her own. All that remained of his were the cherry blossom petals, spreading out like a pink pool on the table.<br/><br/>"And so the fire woman rode to the shogunate's castle. Behind her, a trail of vengeful flames burned bright. She crashed through his gates, ripping them open with her bare hands. His men attacked her, but she rent them limb from limb. She turned their own weapons against them and left their bodies stacked like cordwood in the courtyard. Even the servants were not spared. The fire woman's anger burned the castle down around the shogun, and as she held him aloft he asked her for her name. She said 'Shizuru' and threw him down, killing him. She stood there, covered in blood, and wounds, exhausted and still burning with fury. She saw herself like this, reflected in the dead man's glassy eyes. In that moment, she learned to control herself from then on, and that it would be foolish to live for anyone but herself."<br/><br/>Shizuru tilted her head at him. She waved her hand again and the cups were restored as they once were.