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The Scarlet Hunter	By : naturechild02 Category: +S to Z > Vampire Hunter D Views: 2103 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own rights to Vampire Hunter D or any of Hideyuki Kikuchi's works. I do not make any profit/monies from this story. This a fanfic written merely for the enjoyment of myself and others.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
PART TWO
A True Hunter

It had been two years since the vampire in Haven was defeated. D traveled alone as he always had, but whatever town he passed through or worked in, there were always people who loved to talk and he caught wind of the rumors flying around.
There was a new Hunter who worked in the Lichen Valley area. He gave no name but showed up wherever werewolves, vampires, pixies, and the like wreaked havoc. His fees were small and he had yet to fail, so word was spreading of the quiet man. Later, D heard stories of the mysterious Hunter in a totally different area, some sixty miles from Haven. But he never came across him again until one cool day in May.

D had just left a town where he was investigating a vampire who had passed through and killed half the people there. He was resting near a brook while his horse grazed when a lone rider passed. He paused to look at D sitting so quietly in the sunshine.
“I thought I sensed you nearby,” was all the Hunter said before he dismounted and brought his horse over for a drink. His filled his canteen and D expected him to leave but to his surprise, the stranger sat down under a tree and let his horse wander. He wrapped some of the cloth covering his face over his eyes and began to dose. After a time, he arose and whistled for his horse.
D had been silent, irritated that he could still sense nothing about the human, but now he said, “There is a town nearby that has been complaining about vampires holed up in a mine. Is that where you are headed?” The Hunter merely nodded. D rose and his horse came to him. “Do you mind if I accompany you?”
“Do as you wish.” The Hunter shrugged, mounted, and turned away.

The town was a few miles away and the two Hunters rode a couple of feet beside each other for a while. Finally, D broke the silence by asking the question he had been wondering about for some time. “Why did you help me back in Haven? I would have survived on my own. You don’t know me and I am competition to your business, so why bother?”
The Hunter, who had yet to make eye contact with the dhampir, hung his head a little. “I wanted to learn about the beast so I observed as you fought Hyaku. I never stepped in to help until you were almost dead. Competition or not, it is not right to abandon someone in need.”
D thought about this a minute. Most hunters would see his death as a good thing. In truth, most Hunters he came across in his travels wanted him dead. “I still owe you.”
“No, you do not.” The Hunter's response sounded angry and he spurred his horse ahead of D’s. They made no more attempts at conversation until they reached the town. The Hunter did not stop as the people watched them pass, pointing and whispering at the stranger and the beautiful dhampir. He went straight for the mine that was located in the center of town. This had once been the town’s main source of income but now it was deserted and forgotten, a mere memory.
The sheriff quickly spotted them and approached, greeting the brown-clad Hunter cheerfully. They spoke quietly for a minute before the sheriff jerked his head at D. “He with you?”
“We are traveling together,” was the only answer he received. A girl took their horses but not before the Hunter untied a large sack from the saddle of his brown mare. Darkness would fall in a few hours, so the Hunter began to inspect the mine shaft. It was a completely vertical hole in the ground. The lift was broken so the townspeople couldn’t get down to the sleeping vampires. Which was just as well, the shaft became pitch black after only a few feet: a vampire’s deathtrap. D stood by and watched silently.
“How many are there?” the Hunter asked the sheriff.
“Half a dozen at least. They take men, women, and children every night as they please. The mayor, God rest him, killed one of them one night last week. He stabbed it in the heart fairly easily, but before it died it ripped his head clean off. They shouldn’t be too hard to handle for a Hunter; we just can’t get to them. We’ll pay you what we can but we aren’t as wealthy as we used to be, times being hard and all.”
“I will not clean you out. I only need enough food and money to last me through the month. You might want to step back, sheriff.” And with that, he threw his large bag on the ground and began to rummage through it. He pulled out a bow with a quiver of two-dozen quicksilver arrows, a rope, and a hammer and small bundle of stakes. The Hunter peered down the mine shaft again as he strapped the quiver to his back.
“Doesn’t smell right,” D said quietly.
“I know.”
He staked one end of the rope into the ground and tied the stakes around his waist next to his sword. Sounding unsure for the first time, the Hunter said quietly, “Fairly reeks of a trap. Watch for me coming back up in a hurry if I am not prepared enough.” And with the rope in one hand and the bow in the other, he jumped straight into the hole. There was an audible gasp from the watching townspeople.
“Is he insane?”
“He’ll be killed for sure!”
“The damn fool!”
But the dhampir remained quiet, listening. He could hear the Hunter descending rapidly down the shaft until he came to a sudden stop. Then, he was ascending just as quickly, but not alone. The earth began to tremble under D’s feet and he backed away from the mine entrance as the ground exploded around them.

A huge lizard creature the size of a house came flying from the hole and the Hunter with it. There were screams as townspeople ducked flying rubble and went running for cover. As the thing snapped its neck at him, the Hunter drew his bow and took out the creature’s large eyes so quickly, the people watching hardly saw him move. The lizard, now blinded, began to scream and flail in its fury. The Hunter was quick but not quick enough to avoid the long razor sharp tail that caught him in the back. But still, he didn’t fall. He drew his sword even as his hat was ripped off and long red hair fell down his shoulders. The sheriff’s mouth hung open in shock as he realized what D had long since begun to suspect.
The Hunter was a woman!
And D would know that dark red hair anywhere.
Still, she did not hesitate but ran up the creature’s back and plunged her sword straight into its brain. She leapt nimbly to the ground as the lizard-monster fell dead. “That was entertaining.” Yanking a voice distorter from the cloth wrapped around her neck, she tossed it away, no longer worried about disguising her voice now that her secret was out. But she kept her face hidden and D could guess why.
“Sheriff,” she said calmly as she pulled her arrows from the oozing eyeballs the size of a horse’s head. “Think you can get some men to clean this up quickly while I tend to my wound? The carcass is blocking the mine and I would like to finish this before sunset.”
“Yes, yes.” The sheriff was bewildered but he began to call on men to come help. The Hunter gathered her things and headed to a boarding house across the street.

The owner was a woman in her forties who had witnessed the entire scene from the porch. When the Hunter asked for a key to a temporary room, she gave it to her without question. She hardly looked at the beautiful man who followed her. They were walking down the hallway when she stopped in front of her room. She turned to D, her voice quiet, her tone matter-of-fact.
“You may come in and talk only if you do not disturb me too much, understood?” She opened the door and threw her gear on the bed. She filled a basin with water in the washroom, grabbed a towel, and sat on the edge of the bed, resting. Only then did she take her face covering off and D could see how much she had matured in the two years since he had seen her last. He closed the door behind him and stood watching her.
“Let me help you, Katie.”
Her eyes held daggers. “I can take care of half a dozen vampires fine, thank you.”
“I meant with your wound. It is a difficult spot.” He could see the rips in her shirt and the blood seeping through.
“Oh.” She looked at a loss. “Very well.” She untucked her shirt and slowly lifted the back. Her beautiful skin had been ripped to shreds. Even the cloth binding her breasts was ripped and blood stained. He could smell her blood, such a sweet smell, but he tried not to think about it as he dipped the towel in the water and gently blotted the cuts.
“It will be fine by tomorrow,” she said cheerfully but she couldn’t help wincing a little. They were silently for a few minutes as D cleaned her wounds.
“Is this the freedom you were searching for?” He asked quietly.
She wrinkled her forehead in thought. “Not exactly. I am not completely free yet. My brother has no idea and I must keep it that way for a while. Until I have established myself a bit more.”
“You seem to be doing okay. How do you explain these absences to him?”
“He thinks I am with our great Aunt Margaret. She is in on it, of course. She is a character, that lady; totally supports me. She is the only one that knows. And now you.” She turned to look at him. “I owe you an apology for my behavior when last we parted.”
“It’s nothing to think about after so long.”
“No, I should not have spoken that way about you. It was very unkind and you did not deserve it. I think I just wanted you to hate me as much as I hated myself then. But, I am changing, growing. I have seen and done so much more. When we met, I was merely training for my future hunting career. Now I am doing what I want to do, finally.” Katie’s eyes sparkled as she smiled.
But the Hunter did not return the smile. “The thrill will wear off. Is this really what you want to do; how you want to live and die? Killing stinking monsters in towns where the people don’t even know your name?”
“It is good enough for you but not for me then?” She spoke as quietly as D did.
“It’s different. Yours is a mortal life, a short life. Is this really how you want to spend it?”
“Yes!” She stood up, her tone growing defensive. “When I slay those monsters and save those people, I feel like I am really doing something with my life. That I matter. That I can make a difference. And it does not matter that they do not know my name, the point is that I am making a difference for these people. Protecting the ones who cannot protect themselves. So people like my brother can sleep at night. If that is all I am remembered for, then I am satisfied!”
D smiled a genuine smile and his face was nothing short of gorgeous. “If you are happy, that is all that matters. It is your life after all. But will that always be enough? Sit, let me bind your back.”
But she was already tucking her shirt in. “It has stopped bleeding now, I am fine.”
D didn’t argue but stood up and watched her as she cleaned her sword and began to sharpen it. She hummed a tune she had learned as a child while she worked. The smell of earth about her must be from sleeping on the ground. He realized she must have some sort of device that messed with his senses on her person. That must be why he couldn’t tell that she was a woman and that the voice was fake. The device itself was how he had begun to suspect. What need would a man have to hide who and what he was?
Katherine’s hair was a tangled mess, her face smudged with dirt and blood that she didn’t seem to notice as she worked. And yet her beauty shone through, her childish humming and happy expression made her appear younger than her twenty years. She thought as a Hunter, but she was a woman and her woman’s intuition told her D was battling with himself as he stood there watching her. She looked up at him suddenly and realized he wasn’t looking at her but through her. His mind was somewhere else.
“Thinking of a lost love?”
D came back and blinked at her. “What?”
“A girl you had and lost?”
“No.” He wrinkled his brow. “What would make you say that?”
She shrugged and went back to her work. “Most guys daydream about girls. My brother often steps out of reality for a minute to think about Lindsay, his fiancée. Now, she is a fine lady. She is everything he wishes I would be. A true lady: perfect nails and perfect black hair and, well just perfect. Nicest woman I have ever met.” She inspected her blade with a scrutinizing eye.
“I was thinking of what your brother said to me when I last saw him. About you and the vampire.” She froze but did not look at him as he continued. “What did he do, Katie? What are you? Your speed and skill is inhuman.”
She sheathed her sword and stood up. “Not now, D. Another time perhaps, but now back to work.” She covered her face, grabbed her gear, and opened the door. “Come, let us hunt. I want to see your true skill, dhampir.”
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The Scarlet Hunter