PART TWO
"Oh God, are you okay?!" A woman's voice exclaimed loudly. I couldn't even muster up the energy to twitch in reply. "Please don't be dead!" If there had been enough breath left in me I would have laughed, but there wasn't enough. I was just too tired.
"She's fine, let her sleep." A much lower voice answered and I drifted off in a land of black, coming in and out of consciousness. Every time I woke up I felt just a little bit better, though; just a little bit more awake, less pained.
I drifted in a warm sort of blackness, well, more of a darkness. Like I was covering my eyes at night, not quite dead black, but dark enough. A pleasant sort of drifting, as if I was just relaxing in the perfect hot tub, and somehow able to breathe under the water easily. It was rather nice and when I felt a tug pulling me back to earth I was rather reluctant to go.
"Come on, it's time to wake up." That same calm, collected, authoritative voice said. I sighed and then dragged open my crusty eyelids, blinking in discomfort.
"What time is it?" Was the first question I asked, oddly enough. Not a inquisition about where I was, or what happened or the date, just the time.
"It is ten in the morning on Sunday, November 12th." The woman answered, my eyes finally focused in on the rather short woman standing across the room. I had only met her once, but I did remember that her name was Genkai. Such an odd name, but I could handle that. I had a weird name too, my parents were foreigners, so I had a foreigner name. I couldn't compete with the woman's oddly pink hair though, mine was just blond.
Blond hair, blue eyes, medium height, a true, stereotypical foreigner. I still didn't quite have the Japanese accent down.
"Wow, no wonder I feel so well-rested." I finally said after clearing my throat multiple times in an effort to speak correctly. "How long have I been asleep?"
She turned toward me with a raised eyebrow and chuckled.
"Three days." She said, I winced and then sighed and shifted to push up onto my elbows so that I could sit up. Lying around was making me antsy, I couldn't handle just lazing there like some sort of lump of cheese.
I'll get moldy or something.
That's when a horrible pain flared in my arm and I remembered. My other, shaking arm collapsed under my weight and I lay there for a moment just gasping in pain and trying to clarify my memories of what had happened to me; of what had sent me to this bed. I also had to find the courage to look over at my right arm.
I steeled my stomach and looked to the flaring pain. I don't know what I expected, some blackened limb, or a horrible cut, but what I found was nothing.
Nothing at all.
My eyes widened.
"Wh-wh-" My voice shook as I felt an odd haze come over my mind; a sort of detachment from what was happening. Perhaps it was shock, perhaps I couldn't comprehend what had happened to me, but I knew one thing; I could never forgive whoever had done it.
—
I don't what it is about men and being excessively dumb, but that's how it all seemed to fall into place for me. It took Genkai a solid two days to calm me down after I realized what had happened. I couldn't seem to wrap my head around the problem. When I tried to reach over and fix it with magic the old lady got extremely angry at me and told me that it would kill me if I tried.
I started to learn about her compassion underneath that gruff exterior; but deep in my stomach I still burned with mounting anger at whoever had caused the loss - the loss of my right arm. Just getting up was hard, I had learn to roll over my dominant arm and push the rest of me up with my left. It threw my balance off and at first I found it hard to walk without the other arm to steady me.
I definitely couldn't write. When I tried to switch hands it was a nigh unreadable chicken scrawl. Years later I would find my first attempts funny, but all I could do was feel incredibly frustrated. If I couldn't even write, how was I supposed to be able to pull out a sword? I wasn't allowed out of the room though and so I couldn't go get my sword, wherever it was. I could feel it, tugging, calling to me.
A true swordsman's sword is irreversibly connected to them, an extension of their arm, a second soul. It actually bothered me that I didn't have it as a constant companion by my side. I felt disturbed, lonely. That feeling was highly foreign to me; I had never felt truly lonely before. I liked being alone most of the time, but not this time.
Then one day I woke up and found myself unable to breathe.
"G-Gen-" I tried to gasp, choking as a horrible, burning pain spread over my limbs. My stump throbbed in time with my heart, sending waves of fire everywhere. I flopped like a fish out of water, my vision fluctuating with darkness. I was about to lose consciousness, this I knew; and that was my last thought before collapsing.
—
"What the fuck happened?!" A man's voice yelled, bursting with anger. That's what woke me up and let me tell you, I do not like being woken up with yelling.
"Obviously a bond was made." A familiar voice answered. Genkai.
"That's impossible, she's human!" The masculine voice snapped. I frowned, annoyed, but then noticed something odd. That empty feeling had gone away, I felt whole again, complete; no longer lonely.
"Well, then something must have happened to cause that to change because I bet that I'm not the only one who can see demon energy on her!" She growled. My eyebrows rose, who were they talking about?
"Yeah, mine. What's it doing there and don't give me that bond crap. I know demon bonds, they don't cause intense pain when I walk out of the house!" He yelled, I groaned, trying to open my eyes and the two voices abruptly stopped. I blinked, finding two people in the doorway. One being Genkai, the grumpy old lady that she was, and the other a much taller male.
He dwarfed Genkai and was taller than me with glowing red eyes and pitch black hair with odd-looking white bangs. My brain practically short-circuited as I recognized him. Hiei. I also recognized him as one other thing.
The man who cut off my arm.
"You asshole!" I screeched, leaping out of my sleeping position straight at him. "What did you do to me?!" I yelled, finding it odd that he didn't move to evade me, I found that I wasn't going to change course either. It was like he had expected my reaction, welcomed it even. Why?
I stopped short of his face and then reached out and grabbed his neck instead of punching him. Whatever words I was going to say died in my mouth as heat prickled over my skin, I could feel fire, not unpleasant, just hot, everywhere. It was one of the weirdest moments of my life and I could tell by Hiei's expression that he was not exempt from it. I wondered if he felt fire or something different. Thoughts of killing him fled my mind for that one moment.
Then that moment ended.
I ripped my hand away from his skin as if it had burned me, oh, a pun, and took a jerky step away.
"What did you do?" I whispered, horrified. All I wanted to do was step closer again, it felt like I was removing myself from something of vital importance, something I had to have. He didn't answer me, just stared at me with a sort of blank look, not the glare I would come to get used to.
"Your spirits are attached." Genkai said simply. I stared at her in shock. Of course I had heard about spirit bonds, but they were incredibly rare and did not happen between just anyone or at just any time. I remembered the trial though, I remembered this dark man slicing my arm of with a cold glance and I remembered being so scared - so scared that I was going to die.
I couldn't remember much of anything after that, but perhaps that was it. The connection was made then. My eyes flickered to the cold being standing only feet away and then I came up with a really brilliant idea that I knew that I just had to do. How strong was the bond? Did I have convulsions because he simply walked away. I knew the perfect thing to mix testing the strength of this thing between us and how to get out my anger.
A second later I hauled off and slapped him.
—
A/N: WHAT IS THIS YOU ASK?! It's an update! I hope you're excited, you guys, because this took a lot of sweat and blood and work on my part! SO, this is the beginning of part two! And yes, this is a different character. Give her a chance, trust me, she'll grow on you. Have a great night, my dear readers! I love you all