Marionette of Silver

A/N: dammit. Why can I not write a decent one-shot? The idea was awesome yet…my rush of finishing this, it sucks! Sorry, I'm just too anxious waiting for my results to come out.If this looks unfinished, I guess it is, for now.

Disclaimer: I don't own SDK except for this story.

Winter was approaching fast and the skies were gloomy. Animals were already finding shelter and even the toughest and thick-skinned man on earth was confided in the comforts of his home. The coldness of the surroundings could be deadly anytime and Sakuya gave a heavy sigh as she plucked the last of salvageable herbs. She stood up and placed the basket of vegetables under her left arm as she studied the small patch of crops that were barely grown. She brought her right hand to her mouth as she frowned.

"I wish winter would come a bit later, just look at these poor things…" she said solemnly to herself.

She turned around to head back to her house when a sudden chilling breeze passed her. She stopped and stood still as the presence engulfed her in a deadly cold embrace. Her lips quivered as she kneeled down and brought her arms around her for protection. She could now see the breath of mist coming from her pale lips as she began to shiver uncontrollably.

'How could it become so cold in just a split second?' she thought to herself.

"Seer Sakuya…" a cold voice spoke, sending more chills to Sakuya's spine.

Sakuya turned to her left as she felt a presence materialize next to her. She froze when she saw the pure white figure. The intruder was a pale woman with silver hair flowing down her back with her bangs trimmed nicely with some of the loose hair resting on her chest. She was also donned in a pure white kimono with silvery flowers adorning it. She also wore silver bangles to add up to her appearance. To Sakuya, she looked just like a snow woman but doubted it from the amount of silver that was on the other woman.

Sakuya finally found the ability to talk again after a while. "…y-yes?" she asked, her throat sore.

The woman inclined her head as she approached the woman on the ground. She looked down at her with a cold gaze. She raised her right hand up and positioned it in front of Sakuya's face. The latter woman only stared at the pale hand in shock.

"W-what?" she managed to say before a force entered her through her eyes. She immediately stiffened, with her eyes wide open and dilated.

/Indeed…you are a seer, no doubt…/

Sakuya could not get any syllable out of her mouth. She just sat there on the ground, completely stupefied.

/…I cannot see the future of Onime no Kyo here…none at all…/

Sakuya shook her head but found it to be painful. Tears welled up in her eyes as she finally understood what the other woman was trying to do. To force her to predict the future of Kyo…it must be a bad omen!

/You are useless…I will dig deeper then…/

Sakuya tried to force herself to faint or anything. If this person was trying to find out about Kyo, then she must be bad news. No doubt about it. She tried to bite her tongue, even though she knows how fatal that was, she just wanted to inflict pain.

/…Yuya? Is she related to Onime no Kyo…?/

Sakuya froze to another degree. The pain in her head was unbearable! What was the other woman trying to do to her? It was like a hand forcefully jumbling the pieces of memory in her mind.

/…then pale is her future, should I use her for my own pleasure…/

"Sakuya!" it was Kyoshiro's voice that broke through her thoughts.

When she finally stirred, her whole body was freezing cold and she was on the ground, all alone, with the woman gone. She searched for Kyoshiro's face and saw that he was worried. She gave him a soft smile and tried to sit up.

"…what happened to you?" Kyoshiro asked slowly, not wanting to force her to speak.

She looked up to him with a frown on her face. She could not recall what happened that well. Everything was vague. There were some bits and pieces but there was no glue to reattach them. She brought her right hand to her face as she tried to remember.

"No, Sakuya, don't force it. Let's get you inside the house before you freeze to death!" he said frantically before scooping her up into his arms and ran into the house, leaving the basket of frozen vegetables.

-

Yuya closed the shoji door shut as she shivered. Winter was coming earlier than she had expected! She got up on her feet and turned to head to the kitchen, passing hers and Kyo's room. Kyo was inside the room, resting on the floor with his arm behind his head and one of his legs propped onto the other one resting on the tatami floor. She stopped short and peered into the room with a small mischievous smile.

"Hey there, sexy. Are you going to cook tonight?" she giggled to herself at the word she used to acknowledge him.

Kyo opened his eyes lazily and turned to look at her, with her brows raised. "What did you say, ugly?"

Yuya huffed and put her hands on her hips. "Say again?" she challenged.

Kyo smirked and closed his eyes again. "U.G.L.Y…"

Yuya stomped away with a red face and veins protruding on her forehead, storming off. Kyo was chuckling to himself as he sat up, stretching his arms and narrowed his eyes at the sudden drop in temperature. He got up and swiftly grabbed for his Tenro.

The sudden drop in temperature was of course very abnormal.

Kyo immediately went to the closest shoji door and slid it open with haste. His head peered out and he scanned the surrounding thoroughly. There was nothing that was out of place, not from where he was standing and even when he heightened his senses, he could not detect any other thing other than the increase in temperature. It was not yet snowing though so it was a bit out of place.

The wind picked up speed and Kyo had to use Tenro to calm it down. Kyo was sure there was definitely something different with the strong wind; it also had that kind of sharpness that goes with it that felt like it wanted to cut his skin open.

"Tch…"

-

Yuya timidly looked up from her bowl, with her chopsticks held in her right hand. She felt that there was something odd about the atmosphere and how Kyo talked less today. She raised her brows at the thought. Of course, she just remembered - Kyo talks less as he is. She smiled to herself as she picked on the fried fish in front of her.

"Hey, that's not how you eat…" Kyo's deep voice resounded in the silence.

Yuya looked up, meeting his gaze. There was definitely something wrong with him.

"I thought we went through this already, dogface. The fish is to be eaten and not played with and that's not how you handle chopsticks…" he pointed out, reprimanding.

Yuya narrowed her eyes and pouted, breaking eye contact and continued picking on her food. She never liked it when he lectures her - it makes her feel stupid. She heard something get up and come up behind her and her head lolled forward.

A fist had hit her on the head.

"What the hell is your problem?!" she shrieked at him, standing up straight and pointed the offender squarely on the chest.

"Why are you playing with your food? I worked hard to catch them you know?" Kyo lightly pushed her away from him, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Catch what?! The fish all fear you they end up dead even before you had the chance to actually say you caught them!" she shouted at him.

"So you can easily play with them? Animals have lives too…" Kyo reminded her quietly.

Yuya growled under her breath, "…so, you respect animals but not human lives-"

-Phap!-

Yuya's trembling hands rested on her cheeks. It was still stinging from the first time he has ever slapped her. Hard. Her lips quivered uncertainly, not knowing what to make of the situation. She was just shocked beyond words.

Kyo looked from his hand to Yuya's pale face and red cheek. His eyes were wide from the sudden action. Never in his life had he ever thought of hurting her, with his own hands even. He vowed to protect her from the start, even when his feelings were still of a small bud.

Yuya bit her lips to stop herself from crying and ran out of the room, hands covering her pale complexion.

Kyo could never let that hurt look she had on her face slip away.

It was the look of intense pain and it may even be…

…heartbreak.

"Yuya…" he muttered grimly to himself before following her.

-

Yuya bit her lips as she ran with resolve. No, she never thought the day where Kyo would slap her would come so fast. She never even thought of it even once. She help back a hiccup as she let her legs carry her away against the strong winds that seemed to engulf her in chilling pain. She did not know why but somehow the wind seems to remind her of the wind coming from the deceased Sendai Aka no Ou. That strong murdering wind he unleashed that was also laced with sadness of having to destroy his own clan…though still, this wind was a bit more womanly. Somehow, it made Yuya want to cry.

"…so, you understand my pain, lover of Onime no Kyo?" a soft voice said in her head.

"W-what?" Yuya came to a halt when silvery snow fell suddenly from the skies.

The ground around her was, in just a matter of seconds, littered in silver. The snow that fell on her clothes felt like metal and Yuya was stricken with fear. She kneeled down as she tried to brush off all the snow collecting on her limbs. They stuck to her skin as she tried harder to clean it off.

"That will not work, no matter how much you try. Let it merge with you lest you want to skin yourself with your nails…" the voice in her head from before said.

Yuya searched for the owner of the voice but her eyes could not locate the offender. When she looked down to continue cleaning herself, she was amazed that all the snow disappeared.

"Yuya!"

Yuya looked up to see Kyo a few feet away from her, with an agitated look on his face. Yuya just sat there on the ground, too shocked to move. She could not comprehend why he would run after her after slapping her; she knew so much that the Kyo she knew would not do that. No, wait. Kyo has changed now. Yuya smiled to herself as she reached out her hand to him.

"Help me up…" she requested, blushing.

Kyo's hand reached out to grab hers and as they were about to touch, Yuya slapped his hand away. Kyo was taken aback and so was Yuya.

"W-what? What's wrong with my hand…?" Yuya asked out loud as her limbs felt numb.

She tried to move her joints but a sharp pain went through her instead.

"Stand up, Yuya."

With the order, Yuya immediately got up on her feet and just stared at Kyo. Her eyes showed confusion and fear as her right hand, though it was trembling, reached out in front of her, silver snow collecting at her palms and materialized into a kodachi with a white sheath.

"Take it out and point it at Kyo."

Even though Yuya shook her head, her right hand took out the sharp blade from its sheath and aimed it at Kyo. Kyo was too stunned to understand what was going on. He was not even blinking, just staring at her.

"Why are you doing this…?" Kyo questioned her as he was torn between taking out Tenro and fight her and also his vow to not hurt her.

"I don't know…Kyo…" Yuya whispered as fresh tears fell down her cheeks, leaving silver lines.

Clapping came from behind Yuya as light footsteps were heard. Yuya turned her head to look over her shoulder as her face paled. Behind her, it was a woman who looks so youthful save for the hatred in her white eyes. The woman was flexing her ten fingers and every time she flexed one finger, one of Yuya's limbs moved.

The woman turned to Kyo with a venomous look. "Onime no Kyo, finally we meet, for years, I have been away abroad by the late Aka no Ou's orders…to return to only his death to greet me?" her voice becoming weaker as she said the last few words.

"Today, I do not know why, but I shall realize my revenge…today, you will face your love in battle, either kill her or be killed. Only one choice can be chosen, which will it be?" she proposed, flexing her fingers yet again until Yuya was in a battle stance.

Yuya stared at Kyo as he dropped his Tenro. She frantically shook her head as Kyo gave her a small smile before closing his eyes.

"I don't want to go through this; again and again making a choice between my own life and the woman…I care for."

The woman narrowed her eyes at him, fisting her right hand as Yuya lunged at him in full speed, the kodachi directed at his heart. Yuya closed her eyes shut. She did not want to see this.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" she screamed out as the blade went trough his skin.

Blood pooled on the ground.

-

A/N: some of it didn't make sense. Get into my head if you wanna read the full story. I'm not gonna rake my brain until results come out. R&R, it's polite and appreciated. You know? Up there? When Kyo slapped her, i slapped myself to know what it sounds like. Oh, the girl's name is Mashiro Ginko.