#maybe a lil worried about a bear tho. none of my friends could kill a bear without a big gun probably

[arseniccattails]

The main takeaway from man or bear discourse is always and forever that none of you spend any time in the woods. You will find both and you will probably be fine. And if you're not, you should be carrying bear mace anyways.

[deadeyehuckleberry]

Demon AU

I’ve seen all the 2 demon aus and the oni Hanzo aus as well as the Okami Hanzo aus... But I’ve never seen anyone do a demon Jesse AU... So I thought I’d try my hand at it... So enjoy and tell me what you think!

It started at the age of three...

Separated from his parents on a busy street, a sobbing little boy terrified as he looked around to realize he was no longer holding his mother’s hand. People walking past, noses in papers, eyes unfocused, no one wishing to aid the child that was in such peril, an anxiety attack.

The hand that grabbed his had him jumping, but the voice and sight of the man that was standing there when he looked up from their joined hands had him slightly confused and yet very enthused...

A cowboy! A real life cowboy!

“Whoa there, lil’ buckaroo... Easy now. Yer more rattled than a filly stuck in a bramble patch...” He looked down at him, eyes black and red for a moment before fading to a gentle golden amber hue. “Now then...” A smile came to his lips as he started sniffling and trying to wipe away his tears, “Where’s yer parents, hmm?”

“I-I...” He sniffled once more, fresh tears springing to his eyes but not falling. “I dunno. I lost Mama...”

“Well then, partner. Let’s find yer Mama,” The cowboy tipped his hat before his moment progressed forward, gently tugging him along with him.

The sound of his mother’s frantic voice had him running forward, hand sliding from the cowboy’s, a large smile coming to his face. “Hanzo?! Hanzo!”

As soon as those arms wrapped around him, he buried his face into her and felt warm once more. “Oh, Hanzo! We were worried! Do not run off like that again!”

He only nodded, spouting on and on about the cowboy that helped him find her. She chalked it up to an imaginary friend and thanked the dragons that he was safe.

The next glance of him was when his mother died giving birth to his younger brother Genji. 

He wanted nothing to do with his little brother, the pain and anguish almost too much to bear as he curled up in the gardens near the pond. And then he heard it, spurs and a whistle before the noise stopped and he could see boots within his vision.

There he was, the cowboy, smiling sadly as he crouched there near him, awaiting. He sniffled as he uncurled, the cowboy shifted to sit beside him, tossing what appeared to be a handful of food into the pond and enticing the fish to come to the surface to munch.

“Well howdy there, lil’ buckaroo,” he smiled, the slight shine of fang appearing before it disappeared as the smile died.

“You’re... you’re here,” his little voice was broken, the sound of an anguished child.

There was a small flit of something in the cowboy’s eyes... anguish? Pain? Agony? He was too small to know what it was, but sniffled as the man nodded.

“Came ta get somethin’... Hope ya don’ mind none?” He asked, and Hanzo shook his head as he turned his gaze down to the pond. “Thank ya kindly, partner...” He then was rubbing Hanzo’s back, “How ya holdin’ up, buckaroo?”

“Mama’s gone... The dragons have taken her to the heavens,” Hanzo whispered, and it almost sounded scripted, as if someone had said it to him and he was just repeating it - even if it ached him grandly.

“Well...” The cowboy almost sounded at a loss as to what to say, but recovered by clearing his throat. “I’ll make sure she’s taken good care o’, a’ite?” As the boy looked up at him hopefully, he couldn’t help but smile once more.

“Really?” The hope and awe in those eyes had the cowboy chuckling.

“O’course! Dontchu worry...” And then he was standing, tipping his hat before moving off, and Hanzo lost sight of him as he seemed to fade into a shadow right before people came running to find him.

The next time it happened, he was fifteen and out with friends... or at least, he had thought they were his friends.

It was the first time he had agreed to going out with them, his parents rather pleased he was socializing. But the night turned sour as they dragged him into an alleyway, ripping at his clothes and pinning him to the wall while ignoring his begs and pleads for them to stop.

A voice echoed from the front of the alleyway, a darkened figure standing there, cloaked in darkness from the blare of lights off the street behind him. His friends laughed and ignored him, throwing insults along the lines of “What you going to do?” 

The first shot that echoed through the air had all of them stopping, terror upon their faces right before one of them went flying away from him. And there he was, once more a figment of his imagination - at least that’s what his mother had told him. Grinning mischievously produced fangs a second before he was one more moving. Punching and kicking, movements fluid as if he had been fighting for years, the cowboy made quick work of those that had been ready to use Hanzo for their enjoyment.

“Well hey there, partner... Been a while, yeah?” He grinned once more as he pulled Hanzo to his feet, straightening his clothes to look presentable. “I thought ya woulda learned yer lesson all that time ago not to wander off from yer Mama, hmm?”

He was the same. Exactly the same. Black and red eyes that faded to a gentle golden amber hue. That devilish smirk. The hat and spurs, the six shooter upon his hip.

Was he hallucinating? Was he disassociating? Had his mind put him somewhere so he wouldn’t have to live what was truthfully happening to him?

“Now... you run along now, partner... You don’ need to be anywhere near here, yeah?” The cowboy tilted his hat slightly and winked, causing Hanzo to scramble and stumble his way back out of the alleyway.

As he turned his head back to look and see if it was real, there he was standing there, a finger to his lips; and Hanzo could make out the words leaving them. “This’ll be our lil’ secret, yeah partner?”

Two years later marked the death of his father. The last of his parents alive. The ache, the agony of it, was too much that he had to excuse himself from the gathering after the funeral, escaping out to sit upon one of the roofs at the castle.

“Mighty fine nigh’ to pay respects to the dead, see them proper like to the other side, yeah?”

The voice had his head snapping up, tears in his eyes of both sadness and anger. “You are just a figment of my imagination. Be gone!” He hissed quietly, burying his face into his knees.

“Aww... Now why’d you think that?” The voice was still there moments before he heard spurs and then a hand upon his shoulder came to rest.

“You are nothing but an imaginary friend I thought up when I was but a child, scared and frightened without my parents,” Hanzo reiterated. “And then brought  back when my mind wished not to be present...”

The cowboy sitting there raised his eyebrows, leaning back slightly before looking upwards to the sky, those demonic eyes of his almost looking contemplative, “Hmm... An imaginary friend, eh? Been called many things o’er the years... Bu’ never an’ imaginary friend... Tha’s a new one...”

He turned his gaze back onto Hanzo, fanged teeth broad in a full smile, and Hanzo couldn’t help but feel the slight chill run up his spine.

“What... what do you want?” Hanzo asked, almost breathlessly as his eyes were unable to glance away from the man beside him.

“Came ta get somethin’... Hope ya don’ mind, partner,” the cowboy tipped his hat before standing. “Now iffin’ you’ll excuse me... I got somethin’ I gotta get...”

Hanzo watched with angered eyes as the cowboy made a debacle as he tried to step upon the tiles of the room, slipping and grumbling to himself under his breath about Japanese architecture and it not being cohesive with boots. Of course, the grumbling stopped as he slipped off of the roof, and Hanzo was immediately scrambling to the edge in worry and trepidation of witnessing a broken body upon the ground.

Of course, all he saw was his brother looking up at him, sadness and confusion in his gaze. “Anija? There you are! I was starting to worry!” 

“Tch...” Hanzo hissed quietly. Maybe the man was a figment of his imagination after all.

At nineteen was the breaking point for Hanzo, the Elders demanding something of him that he could never complete.

To kill his brother.

“He has become too rowdy... He will not adhere to our voices! You must end him, Hanzo! Do not allow him to shame the Shimada name any longer!”

He could not. He would not! Genji was all he had left of his mother and father. They were family. And he would not lay a hand up to harm him.

So he gathered what little he had, what little he could, and ran.

He didn’t make it very far before a voice halted him in his tracks. “Now why’d you go an’ leave them, partner?”

Skidding to a halt, he clenched his fists, muttering under his breath. “You are just a figment of my imagination... Just a figment of my imagination...”

“Aww... now ya done gone an’ hurt my feelin’s, partner...” The voice echoed in the alleyway before spurs were heard clanking and jingling their way towards him. “Tho’... I gotta give ya credit fer finally breakin’ away from them...”

His head snapped up to look at the darkened figure in front of him which moved into the light of the street. He hadn’t changed a day. Still the same face, same boots and hat, same wrap around his neck and onto his shoulder... Same six shooter at his side.

Tears came to his eyes as he fell to his knees, finally feeling vulnerable and safe enough to allow it to happen. “I... could not kill my brother... They wanted me to kill my brother...”

The absolute pain and agony that shot through the cowboy’s eyes was missed by the teen. “Then it’s a good thing ya left, yeah?” He gently wrapped a hand around Hanzo’s arm and gently tugged him to his feet, “C’mon... I got a place fer ya to stay... Ya look tired, partner.”