Inimical
[COMPLETE] The story of a Koorime named Hina. Because not all Ice-Apparitions are cold.
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Hina savored the hues of her present landscape. She had never seen such a vivid blue sky or that deep shade of green all her life. The visual play of clashing color was a far deviation from the pale environment she was used to, giving her a childlike fascination with what she could currently see, feel and touch.
Hina knew she should be scared, roaming around the strange landscape alone. She took a wrong turn in one of the forests' many forks when she saw a dewy looking flower, not enclosed in ice, and another one like it when the same thing happened over and over again until she found herself lost. She held a bouquet of unfrozen flowers in assorted colors, captivated by their beauty that she could not find it in herself to regret picking them up and getting lost along the way.
She held the flowers close to her nose, sniffing and appreciating the scent. How wonderful was it to discover sweetness was not only for tasting but for smelling as well? And where in Hyouga was she that she only found this strange place now?
The flowers might cheer up her friend Rui, who gave birth to a beautiful but stillborn baby just a few months before. No one was able to mourn, when the village elders ruled that the baby be buried immediately. Their village elders were rigid in their decision and council not to let Rui become too attached with the dead, forfeiting Rui's right to name her little one. Hina secretly rebelled against their decision and fashioned the baby's grave marker from Rui's hiruseki stones and her own and lovingly placed it on the baby's grave in the dead of the night, three days after the burial.
Hina did not feel the slightest bit of worry about the elders finding out about what she did for Rui. None of the elders ever deigned the cemetery their presence unless it was to give final rights to those who they think were worthy of it. They were cold like that, Hina thought.
"What would you have named her, Rui?" Hina whispered that night after she placed the small grave marker. She knew how long her friend wished for her baby to come, how Rui hoped to raise her own little family. And Hina found it very hard that the very pillars of their society lacked a little compassion for her friend.
"… Hina, I thank you for your consideration." Rui grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently, Rui already lost plenty of weight and now resembled a skeleton rather than an ice apparition. The dark circle under her eyes and the gaunt of her cheeks alarmed Hina, but what Rui said next hurt her more, " I'm never going to be a mother… The elders are right.. This.. and.. and.. I've decided… My baby's name will remain buried with her."
"Rui, its only us." Hina tried to enforce some cheer in her throat, "I cannot understand the pain you are in right now, but I do know how much you wanted to ha-."
"I really can't Hina." Rui cried against her shoulder, sobs wrecking her thin frame. Hina could easily remember thousands of times she and Rui held each other like this. Their most painful memories flashed through her mind.
She remembered the days of their mothers' death, how inconsolable they had been. The unfortunate death of their friend also left a deep sorrow among their midst. Life was hard as an ice apparition, they learned this at a tender young age. Sacrifices must be made for the good of all, it was ingrained in their system. But it did not soften the pain of losing a loved one.
The only source of happiness came from the birth of each apparition's children. Even the most punctilious elder gave a little smile and blessing at each of the baby's birth. Birth means a continuation of you, hence our village, the elders entrenched in their way of life.
She wished for her own baby too and the thought made her giddy with excitement. Her happiness was dampened a little by the reality that her baby was going to come in a few months' time, while Rui would have to wait another hundred years. Even that is an uncertainty because for an ice apparition, after the first pregnancy, a second was highly unlikely.
A sudden whistle against the wind snapped Hina out of her reverie. Wary, she lowered her hood to conceal her face. The lectures of the elders' played repeatedly on her mind like a mantra. The sound of breaking twigs came from her back, she quickly whirled around hoping against hope it was only a fellow ice apparition or one of the unsmiling faces of the elders. Better yet, she hoped, the sound was only her active imagination from lack of food and fatigue.
She saw nothing. Only the falling leaves and the tranquil forest. So what came next came as a surprise to her.
"Well, well, well." Hina turned once again and came face to face with the reddest eyes she had ever seen. Blazing heat surrounded the stranger, making her uncomfortable especially since he was only an arm's length away from her. He grinned, "What do we have here?"
Hina dropped the temperature around her unconsciously, as a form of defense, making everything freeze before sprinting away as fast as she could. "Wait."
She found her wrist trapped in the man's hand, holding her while he seemed unbothered by the drop-in temperature she was making. Hina tried to wriggle out of his hold, "Let go of me!"
"Hey, you're the one trespassing." Came the indignant retort. Hina widened her eyes and renewed her fight with more vigor. The stranger grinned once again before holding her other wrist and crushing her to him. "I was trying to barbeque you, but here you are. Still standing in one uncharred piece… Well done."
"Likewise." Hina was vexed at being manhandled so carelessly, when he crushed her to his chest, some of her hair got stuck between them and that caused her plenty of pain, the more she tried to free her hair the more it hurt so she stayed still. "I was trying to freeze you to the-"
"So is that what you are? An ice apparition?" He excitedly pulled her back a little to study her better. She winced. Hina did not find it flattering however, when he pulled her stuck hair and began fingering it and holding it this way and that against the light, studying it as if it had been his first time touching somebody else's hair. When he had his fill, he let go of it and moved on studying her face.
"I'd appreciate it if you stop holding me." His only response was to hold her chin higher to study her foreign features and when he did she tried to turn away from his prying eyes. It was the first time she saw someone in the apparent opposite sex and someone who did not value personal space. Her anger led to a spike of freezing temperature starting from her palms, the stranger immediately held her wrists tighter but careful enough not to hurt her.
"Let me lay out how this is for you, you don't seem understand your predicament, Koorime." A chill went down Hina's spine. She did not need this brute to tell her what he planned to do to her. He'd do the same things her ancestors had experienced, the things that drove them to their self-exile, to turn a floating mass of nothingness into their own haven with no men or violence. Hina willed her fear to subside, cloaking them into eyes of indifference. She'd never give him the satisfaction of hearing her scream.
"Within this day, you'd meet a mixture of demons and creatures that would be bewitched by you. You'd be tortured and raped to an almost death, demons this part of town have a disgusting love of sadism that disregards another's life, especially when they find out what you are and what your tears can do. So you won't die." His breath came close to her ear, she could feel her heart thumping against her chest. She could picture what he was saying, it was easy enough to see her broken and bloodied body being brandished around like a rag doll. "They won't let you."
"How is that any different from what you'd do to me?"
"I'm no rapist." He genuinely smiled at her, softening his sharp features. Making him look a little less foreboding but Hina's guard was still up, wary of him even when his hold on her wrists loosened enough for her to snatch them away but she did not try to run away. "I won't torture, hurt or even make you do anything you don't want to do. Overall, I like to think I'm a pretty decent."
Hina threw him a dirty look that spoke volumes about what she thought of him, he laughed. "What do you want from me then?"
"I don't know yet." He shrugged as he honestly answered her question. "How about your name for starters? Mine is Kasai."
Fire.
"You guessed right, Koorime-chan. I'm a fire demon." That explained how he was able to become unaffected by the chill that permeates an ice apparition's being. "Just keep me company for a while."
Something in his tone made her think she had something a little in common with a fire demon. She was still wary of him, but something in her wondered… Was he feeling as restless as she was? Or perhaps as curious? He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and led her towards the clearing from where he came from.
Suddenly, Hina remembered her flowers.
Her heart sank when she saw them trampled on the ground, crushed by their earlier fiasco. Gone where their shape and only broken petals remained, now enclosed in ice. As if something beautiful should not exist permanently.
Kasai noticed her glumly staring at the remnants of her earlier bouquet, not quite understanding her fascination with the weeds but knew that getting more of them would at least make her disposition warm a little towards him.
Hina learned a lot about herself as she kept Kasai company, true to his word he did not push her to do anything except to share snippets of her life before she met him. He brought her every day varied pieces of sweet-scented flowers and in return she would always smile at him, playfully bantering how she'd run out of hands to hold the flowers he kept on giving her.
He was attentive in what she had to say, remembered the names of her friends and elders to the point that he would use them in conversation.
Earlier in their travel, Hina realized she had wondered away from her hometown. Her heart was weary at missing Rui but at the same time she was enjoying herself by traveling and experiencing things she would never have a chance to, had she not gotten lost, she only hoped Rui would one day experience living outside their little haven. Life outside Hyouga was engaging, Hina happily thought. It did not take long for Hina to be disabused of the notion as the scent of blood permeated the air they breathed.
One thing he could not have spared her was the violence that followed their wake. Days turned into weeks then to months. Word must have gotten out that an ice apparition travelled with 'only' one fire demon as a companion. Those encounters affirmed her belief that she did not like violence. The sound of bones cracking, flesh being torn apart and screams as their life slowly but painfully flowed out of them made it hard for her to sleep. She was plagued with nightmares.
Before she met Kasai, she only dreamed of Rui screaming at her birth. In Hina's dreams, Rui's tear stone became a bloody red as she screamed again and again at the sight of her unmoving infant.
Now, her nightmares were composed of those Kasai killed in his frenzy. There are days that left her wondering whether he was killing because it was a necessity or because it was his sport. She feared he enjoyed the violence. Kasai, she learned, was a fiery demon who did everything he wanted with such enthusiasm. Hina remembered what he told her, the day when they first met, that he would not give her any strife or cause her any violence. As the number of their attackers increased, so did the amount of power they possessed and fights resulted many times Kasai becoming injured.
Hina quietly tended Kasai's wound, a deep gash running from his let shoulder to his right abdomen. Hina dreaded the wound turning putrid as she doubled her effort to heal him. Her brows were furrowed together, which he tried to smooth away with his finger.
"You are upset with me, Hina-chan."
She looked at him square in the eye, he looked apologetic as he tried to remember what he did to upset her. She knew he wouldn't get it but she would still try to explain.
"I don't want you killing others for sport." Hina felt him stiffen a little at her censure. They were at odds when it came to how he dealt with the ambushes and battles. Most of the time, Hina felt it was an overkill. One particular incident she could not stomach was when Kasai, engaged a herd of demons who had nothing to do with them.
"I'm not hunting others for the sport of it," he snorted, he tried to get up but Hina remained stubborn on healing him and would not move an inch. "If I don't kill them, they'd kill me given the slightest opportunity and give you a faith worse than death. Here in Makai, nobody is born good like what you are used to."
"Do not kill to keep me safe." Hina gently touched his face, tracing the scar he had running down the left side of his face. It was unnoticeable at a distance but at a closer look, the wound must have been deep and given during a torture session. "I do not appreciate this meaningless death that you give others. I also do not enjoy looking at you like this. Violence churns my stomach."
"If you'd understand, violence is a way of life here." Hina agreed with him, the things she saw appalled her. She understood why her ancestors exiled themselves but she knew deep within her that not all in Makai was abhorrent, "We don't have any code of honor or any innate goodness, I doubt we even have the capacity for it. We are born evil."
"I do not believe you are evil, Kasai-kun. Or even uncapable of being kind." Hina admitted, remembering the times he could have inflicted her pain but didn't, or the instances he gave food to the animals that followed her. "I find goodness in you and I only hope that you somehow give a small amount of that to your adversary. I know you are capable of it."
Hina removed the hiruseki stone her mother have given her and placed it around Kasai's neck. "This is my thank you to you for all the goodness you have given me. Let this be a reminder that you're not all bad."
"Hina-chan, you'd be the death of me." He grinned at her teasing tone. It was the turning point of their easy friendship. Somewhere along their search for Hyouga, they developed feelings for each other. Their first time was under the stars of Makai, a bit too hurried and rough compared to what Kansai would have liked to have her first time to be. When he told Hina this, she only smiled and teased how he made up for it the second and third time they've lain with each other or the other times that happened after that.
It didn't take long for Hina to realize that she was expecting. Over their travels she shared a lot about how ice apparitions had families and he welcomed the news happily.
"Another one like you?" He kissed her cheek and grinned. "I'd have my work cut out for me then."
"Not like me," Hina smiled, she grabbed his hand and placed it on top of her stomach, letting him feel the warmth of her skin, Hina explained how children of ice apparitions born to ladies who had relationships with men tend to have male offspring that favor their dad. "Our baby is going to be a boy with traits like yours."
They laid languid and flushed against each other, her birth stone dangling from the neck of Kasai and his arm wrapped protectively around her stomach where their baby grew. They camped for weeks close to the portal that led to Hyouga, when the pandora's box finally dropped. They did not expect anyone to find them so soon, as the portal that led to Hyouga was isolated. The gallops of the demon herds heading their way alerted them both and immediately Kasai stood up and put on his clothes.
"Run as fast as you can towards that light. Do not look back." Before she could protest, he leaned in for a passionate kiss and held their foreheads together. They shared feelings they were sure of that that did not need to words or any validation. They simply knew. He grinned at her one last time before heading towards the unknown, fire surrounding him, he looked glorious.
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Hina slowly opened her eyes to see the familiar face of Rui.
"I'm glad you're awake Hina." Hina rose from the bed abruptly, she was back in her small home. She saw on her bedside table the same flowers Kasai had given her last. During her escape, she was able to grab them but now they were withered and dried, she also did not need to smell them to know it no longer had the sweet scent she was so fond of. "We found you four days ago."
Hina closed her eyes as waves of anguish washed over her. Kasai has been dead that long.
Hiruseki stones dropped one by one on her palm, rolling down the bed to the floor. She remembered everything. How Kasai sacrificed himself to buy her enough time for her and their baby to reach the portal to her home.
They were ambushed by a battalion of enemies made of A, B C and D ranking demons, Kasai made sure to slay the low-level demons first so that no one would be able to follow her, before turning his attention to the higher level demons.
Hina turned back before she crossed, and saw his bloodied body still fighting even when he was already overwhelmed. She closed her eyes when she saw one demon bit on his arm and another on his leg, he looked at her direction one last time. She could feel his relief when he saw she was already crossing the portal away from the bloodbath. That had given him a momentary boost in strength because he felled the demons holding him in place before charging once more to another horde of demons chasing her.
Rui mistook her tears for happiness and relief at her homecoming, "You've been gone for more than 8 months Hina. Many thought you were dead but I didn't believe it. Welcome home."
Rui hugged her and she absent mindedly returned it. Though she missed her friend, this place did not feel like home anymore, her home was somewhere in Makai, dead and lost.
"And congratulations," Rui wiped tears off her eyes, love and warmth shining in them. "Your return is a cause for many celebrations, the elders just confirmed your pregnancy."
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Everybody looked grim as Hina gave another weak cry, she could hardly push out her baby because she no longer had the energy to do so. Nobody was surprised, she had been in labor for more than fifteen hours with more bleeding than any of them had ever experienced.
Push
Push. A little harder Hina, one of the women cried.
The elders sensed Hina's final moments approaching, her hair plastered to her forehead with sweat and her skin looked as if death had already claimed what was to be hers. Rui pushed back Hina's hair and held her friend's hand a little tighter.
Rui looked resigned by her friend's incoming death, an uncharacteristic reaction from one of the most emotional ice apparitions. The oldest of the elders immediately realized something was wrong and gripped Rui by the shoulder, "What are you hiding?"
Rui gaped at the old woman in cold horror, recalling what her friend had confessed six months before, just three weeks after they found Hina unconscious in the snow, her hand gripped the stems of unfamiliar flowers. Hina was determined to finish her pregnancy and knowingly sacrifice her life for her son if it came to that, just as Kasai sacrificed his own for theirs. "If I die Rui, would you love him as your own?"
The silence was deafening, Rui unable to promise her anything. "I'll try."
Hina patted her stomach in affection, pretending not to be hurt by her friend's hesitation, "Do you remember? We used to talk about how we were going to raise our daughters."
"They'd be as close as sisters." Rui affirmed. Her heart felt heavy with broken dreams and looming death and loneliness, she remembered the hardest grieving she ever did, mentally preparing herself to do it again. With everything that happened between them, Rui realized that she could finally share the sorrow she carried with her friend. "Hina, you once asked me about my daughter. I named her Yuka."
Hina smiled, "Your Yuka and my son would have been best friends too."
"It's not too late Hina, please." ButHina did not hear her plea as closed her eyes and slept, this pregnancy was taking its toll on her body. They both understood, Hina's chances of surviving the birthing was slim. While Rui worried about her, Hina dreamed of her little family. Kasai would have welcomed their little one with so much enthusiasm. They would reunite soon, though hoping against hope she prayed for her son to grow up and experience life. She did not want to give that hope up.
The soft mewling of an infant broke the tension in the room, the woman interrogating Rui released her shoulder, relieved that Hina had finally given birth. Rui held her breath in fear of what the elders might say, instead they all cooed and congratulated Hina on a perfect and beautiful baby girl complete with ten little fingers and ten little toes.
"Welcome." Hina received her daughter with a kiss on her cheek, one of the midwives caught her tear and placed the stone in the infant's star-fish like palm. Hina was equally confused but relieved she had a daughter instead of a son, maybe the gods have listened to her silent plea. It was the calm before the storm when she once again felt the need to push.
Suddenly, Hina started to weakly scream and thrash again, the midwives thought it was the afterbirth.
"It's another baby!" The birth this time, came swiftly and the full out scream of an infant could be heard. What Rui and Hina dreaded finally happened because this time, no pale haired baby girl was seen.
Instead, Hina gave birth to a black-haired, red eyed boy who was engulfed in flames. The elders had a hard time subjugating the baby with so much flames dancing around him. Hina faintly gathered her baby in her arms, in her worsening vision she also kissed his cheek. Giving him the same loving welcome, she did his sister. "Hello", she faintly whispered. The baby ceased his crying and looked at her with his sharp eyes, not filled with any malice, but of curiosity.
"I… IMIKO! An Imiko!" The oldest lady cried. Rui was horrified when the baby whom Hina lovingly held was wrenched away from her arms, her protests were silenced as she weakly thrashed for her them to give back her baby. The baby also screamed and the flames became hotter.
"Look at her daughter! She has red eyes like that demon!" Hina's daughter started to cry, everybody was horrified to note that even the little girl was tainted with Hina's betrayal, because when she opened her eyes, they were as red as the Imiko's.
"You traitorous whore!" One of them, grabbed Hina by her hair, spitting venom and poison. Hina's daughter was removed from the room by one of the midwives, afraid of what might happen to the girl in their elders' wrath. They did not do so for Hina's son. He was tainted beyond redemption.
"I have betrayed you but my children are innocent and I know, by your rules my son would have to pay the price of my folly.. But please.. please.. spare him. He is not the monster you think he is." Hina cried, she saw the women roughly manhandling her son, wrapping him in enchanted clothes that she was sure would suffocate him. She wondered how peace-loving creatures could do much abuse against a newborn baby.
Hina looked at her son with helpless love in her eyes and looking at him reminded her that he was not a monster, how Kasai tried his best to overcome his nature and do good. She knew her children would be as well. Hina was proud to say her children had the blood of a demon whose nature was evil but whose mental fortitude tried to make him overcome his baser nature. "I am willing to leave here forever with my children. Please, let us go. We won't ever come back."
Rui could not remember what happened after that, that memory locked away deep in the recess of her mind. She could not accept what cruelty her friend had endured and her own part in it.
"Your punishment Rui is to throw this baby away." They ordered her. Rui cried, unable to go against them and plead for the infant's life. Rui cried, because she had to end something Hina loved. "Do this for Hina, her daughter and for the whole village. This Imiko will kill us."
Hina was not given an extra moment to say goodbye to her son, only Rui's quick hands were able to get the Imiko's tear stone, a mother's last gift to her son. She tried her best not to look at her crying friend, Rui was also scared of Hina damning her for what she was about to do.
Everything happened in less than four hours. During the walk back, Rui felt the burden of what she had done and when Rui reached Hina's house, the sky was somber and reflected what Rui felt on the inside. Even when the room was dark, Rui could still see the outline of the little girl snuggled in her mother's bosom. She wanted to apologize to Hina but knew no words would be able to define her regret.
As she stepped closer, she could see Hina has ceased to cry and sadly, her life slowly draining out of her. Hina's eyes, she realized could no longer see and death was only moments away.
"Love this one as your own, Rui." Hina slowly patted her baby, she was already too drained to even lift her baby for a kiss. Rui did not answer her, words could not speak louder than action, and even if Hina would not be able to see how Rui would raise her baby, she would still do her best.
"What would you want to name her?"
Only silence greeted her, because Hina had already passed.
With tears dripping down her cheek, she walked slowly towards the bed and closed her friend's eyes. Her heart broke at the faith of Hina's son, whom their people dubbed an Imiko.
Deep in Rui's heart she believed Hina's son would survive. She also knew that he'd comeback someday for revenge. When that time comes, she would gladly give her life for him as a recompense for not standing up for him and for betraying the faith his mother placed on her. But for now, she would take care of this other baby, who started to cry as she sensed her mother's warmth.
Rui liked to think, Hina would have appreciated her baby being named after her and Yuka and Rui promised the memories of her daughter and her friend that she would raise this baby with as much love as she can. She held the baby in her arms, rocking her back and forth and when the baby opened her eyes, Rui greeted her.
"Hello Yukina."
Fin.
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A/N.
According to the dictionary, inimical rarely describes a person. Instead, it is generally used to describe forces, concepts, or situations that are in some way harmful or hostile. Reading about that word made me explore this concept. I've tried my best to limit the number of OC's in this, I would have liked to have a canon name to use for Hiei and Yukina's dad, but oh well. (I actually cringe when I name my OC's and I hope this one isn't too cringeworthy). Anyway, This is my submission for the #YYHFFRrareFFcontest on tumblr, under the category Canon female-centric expansion. Thank you for reading andI hope you enjoyed it.