#Im so used to having a protective barrier of trees and fence

[freebooter4ever]

Dang a piece of our landlord's property's fence fell down during the storm last night - up there next to the front house

[kpopisthereasonihavenolife]

Kitsune [TEASER]

BTS

Jung Hoseok/Reader [F]

Genre: Demon Hunter AU, Enemies-Lovers, Action, Angst, Rom., Japanese Feudal Era

Warning(s)!: Violence (Semi to Graphic Depictions), Poorly written action scenes Im srry

Words: 1.9k (I’m not being very generous in spoiling anything am I, lol)

Summary:  Demons: man-eating, murderous monsters who would kill anyone for the blood of humans: be it man, woman or child.  They have no need for comrades. Known cannibalize and kill other demons if they so choose. Demon Hunters are tasked with eliminating any and all demons without question, but what would come to pass if they were told that a demon saved a human life? Views, values and relations become altered and absolutely nothing seemed human anymore.  Never sharpen a blade too much, lest you become the wounded.

a/n: if you want to be added to the tag list for when this series finally hits the screens hmu.  If you want any more information regarding Kitsune, head over to the Series Index or ask me directly!  (I’m always happy to answer any Qs especially abt this project!)

Teaser takes place in the middle of the first part: i.demon

It would be a day’s long journey on horseback to ascend the mountain.  When night fell, the two would camp.  Camping inside a nearby cave up the path, the horses and men rested.  Taehyung only freeing himself of a few pieces of armor.  Sitting around the fire of sticks and stones, Hoseok basked in the pulsing crackling warmth.  Hoping his haori would take in said warmth through the night- wanting to weave it into the very fabric of the piece hanging on his shoulders.

Waking at dawn they head further up the mountain.  The closer they got towards the peak, the wider the terrain became.  Hoseok noticed stone statues and white talisman and ribbon taped and tied around and onto tree trunks and limbs.  Enclosing further up sacred ground.

Ideally, demons shouldn’t be allowed passaged on sacred ground- the purity intoxicating to a lethal degree.  With grounds endowed with protective mantras and barriers to keep the wicked out.  Though, if not strong enough or long abandoned by their priest, priestess, monk, God, what have you- the spiritual power would weaken considerably.

Before long, the two breached the crowded forest and stood before the first torii gate leading to the long approach of a shrine.

“According to himself, the man was injured and attacked further in,” Taehyung announced before he jostled his stallion onward through the torii.  Hoseok rarely visited shrines, rejecting most Gods’ people pondered on or prayed too.  He stood without religion, so he wasn’t familiar with shrine setups if he were being honest.

Passing under the second torii he could catch a glance at the main shrine. Throughout the approach and beyond it, the lack of up-keep began to show more and more.  

The sacred fence was frozen with ice and snow, the long approach road of gravel and stone coated with winter.  The front worship hall was beaten and aged with poor conditions.  Hoseok could only imagine the state of the main sanctuary past the inner fence that use to supposedly house a God.  Even the so-called sacred forest littered with previous evergreens was baren with winter stripped limbs.

What God dwelled here before has long since left his shrine to decay into the mountainside.

“Go look around the sanctuary.  I’ll scope around the approach further and check the shrine office. Tie your horse and continue on foot,” Taehyung instructed, lifting himself off his stallion as Hoseok left the back of his mare.  Tying the steeds down to any firm part of the fence they could, the two broke off to search.  

Hoseok grimaced at the overwhelming feeling of demonic tension that hung in the air like a bad fragrance.  It made him on edge as each snow crunched step he took was guarded. A constant, ready hand on the hilt of his single in-use blade.  The kitsune statues that looked over and acted as messengers were broken and eroded: a bad omen if Hoseok ever believed in one.  It was as if a demon could appear from anywhere at any time.

Hoseok walked and inspected as instructed.  Scoping out anywhere for any sign of a righteous demon woman.  He couldn’t even find footprints in the snow to indicate anyone had been here recently besides himself.  Perhaps she’s moved locations by now.

Eventually, Hoseok met back up with Taehyung of whom also turned up empty-handed when it came to any possible clues to locate the demon in question.  Both men decided to stay inside the abandoned shrine for the night, tying the horses down at the main hall to keep them close and under shelter, in case more snow should fall throughout the night.

If nothing that could be of use to their objective could be found soon, they’d leave the mountain.  There would be no use in staying if there is nothing to keep them there.  If they were to go back empty-handed, Taheyung- as the acting superior warrior- would settle any following action that may be hurled at them in a negative manner.  

Through the evening, the tense, thick air never lessened and the silent, uneventful atmosphere remained just that: silent and uneventful. Taking to the inside of the sanctuary as night began to fall, both experienced fighters reeled in their tense shoulders for a sliver of sleep.

Dead of night, Hoseok was forced out of restless sleep.  The demonic intensity plaguing his unconsciousness with nightmare after nightmare.  The sweat beading along his brow and the heat flashing between hot and cold along his skin made any further sleep a high impossibly and hopeless wish. Deciding to forego a time of sitting in an uneasy relaxation, Hoseok moved to leave the sanctuary to walk the perimeter once again just to make time tick by faster- albeit just barely- and hopefully clear his head.

Stepping outside, the snow had deepened to the point when he took a step, it hit nearly half the length of his shin.  Hiking up his legs to take solid steps and drag his feet through the snow, he moved aimlessly.  The shrine looked far more sinister in the nighttime than it did dilapidated in the daylight. The air was stagnant in its chill as the moon overhead became partially covered when clouds of swiped shape spotted over.

Maybe it was just the instinct in the back of his mind due to his everyday task of taking down demons, but he began to believe he should’ve brought his sword out with him. Instead, they both sat inside beside where he once lay in the room with Taehyung.

Stopping his trekking around in the snow, he turned to go back and stay inside the shrine until the chill running in circles on his spine simmered.  He was three steps retreated when something slammed into his back. It wasn’t just an object that an animal may have tossed from the tree top; no.  What hit into his back was alive and when he fell chest first into the deep snow, he felt it remain on top of him.

He felt it sit on his back, it’s feet pushing into the back of his thighs and it’s hand pushing on the center of his back and neck.  He heard growling and hissing from behind him as he pushed his head back to lift his face out of the snow.  Looping his arms behind his back, he grabbed the wrists of whatever was on him and lifted their hands off him just enough for him to gain ground.  

Having mobility of his head- his neck now free- he pushed his forehead into the packed snow and forcefully twisted his hips to toss the thing off his back just enough to knock it off-balance.  Hearing it hit against the snow in a series of snowy crunches, Hoseok quickly lifted himself up out of the snow, now on his knees as he shoved the wrists away from him completely.  

Leaning back to gain more ground, Hoseok hissed at the sight of the demon leering at him.  Shaking his head at the lack of a weapon, he had come to see the small hatchet lodged into the ribcage of the demon.  Hanging there and moving with each jerked breath, along with a fresh leakage of ooze that seemed far too dissimilar to blood.  The color was green and dim- thicker than the average human blood.

The demon itself was far beyond all comprehension.  It was hardly human-like, thin and sickly to the eyes like a walking skeleton.  Arms long and when hanging hitting their knees, it’s fingertips hidden in snow as the demon remain kneeled.  Legs like a spider, thin and spindly, it was shocking it held the bones above it. The face was demented and pulled back, eyes sunken in and mouth wide and more of that like a snake.  

By the looks of the monster, it was already close to death.  All Hoseok had to do was find a way to yank the hatchet from its ribs and lop off its head and it would be all over for it.  He had no doubt it would eventually wither away and die afterward. It was the only chance he had if he wanted to get back inside without leading the demon back to Taehyung’s sleeping body.

Standing off with the demon as it twitched and growled, it’s pulled back skin and lips showing the rotten, carnivorous teeth that were no doubt ready to tear into Hoseok’s neck. There was silence before a pile of snow slipped from a tree limb and landed in a mound on the ground before the demon lept without consciousness leading its way.  

Lunging forward, Hoseok rolled and stepped around in the high snow the best he could manage.  Tucking his knees up in a roll, he spun around the body of the front buried demon who missed in its leaping attack.  

Spinning around its skeletal back, Hoseok lay in the snowbank, his back sinking in it as he pulled his knees to his chest.  Feet flexed and flat, he stomped his heels into the demon’s back; feeling its ribs vibrate and move under the sheer force of his stomping.  

Rolling back up, he took advantage of the momentary distraction of the demon due to Hoseok’s back stomping, he reached from around the long eerie arms of the demon to grasp the handle of the hatchet.  Taking a breath through his teeth, he yanked the hatchet backward and ripped it harshly out of the ribcage of the demon.  

The piercing shriek of the demon’s sudden gash in its chest vibrated the air.  Screaming like a woman turning ghost, Hoseok could only focus on the green blood coated on the cold hatchet blade.  The scream blurring his vision and throwing his balance.  The wooden handle of the hatchet was lightly frosted as his warm skin melted the frost; damping the wood.

The demon whirled, swinging its arms without hazard, angered and disturbed at Hoseok’s infliction upon it.  In those unaimed, meddling whirls of arm swings, Hoseok successfully avoided and even lopped off one of the demon’s arms.  Cutting it off with a swing of his newfound hatched at the elbow, the arm fell into the snow with a dull crunch as it continued twitching despite its removal from its body.  

The demon howled once again. It’s anger and desperation to kill Hoseok spiking.

It was instant when the demon pinned Hoseok’s shoulders into the snow as he somehow found himself on his back again, sinking into the white of winter.  Demon face to face with the hunter as it screamed into his face, making him wince- the cold on his skin the only thing keeping him from losing his consciousness.  

The severed arm leaked large, disgusting blobs of green, sick blood as it bled into the snow beneath Hoseok, tainting it.  It shrieked once more, Hoseok feeling it in his bones before all was silent once again.  The demon vanished.

Gaining his senses and realizing the demon was no longer on top of him, he felt the hatch being ripped from his grasp.  He gasped as he sat up, watching the back of someone else run off ahead.  Rushing towards the body of the demon who was suddenly lying in the snow several feet away.  

Thrashing around like a headless dog, it found its way to its feet as it became ever more feral.  Thrashing and screaming like a mindless husk, the new body nimbly avoiding any and all spastic movements aimed their way.  

Hoseok watched the back of the- what he can only assume was a defender- as they moved cleanly around and through everything.  He wasn’t sure how it happened, but with every single correct movement, restriction of the only attached arm left, and a swing of the hatchet, the demon’s head rolled down it’s back and into the snow.  Facedown in a mouth open scream that would never sound again.