Chapter Three: Sesshomaru's Mercy
The samurai had left the princess in a pitiful state. Whether they had used whips or merely struck her repeatedly with their thin swords was impossible to tell, but her body wept her lifeblood freely. She bore bruises on every inch of her skin that Sesshomaru could see, and her legs were at odd angles to her body; probably snapped by the samurai's bare hands. Someone had hit her with a clay vessel, and shards pierced her face and throat, drawing rivulets of blood. She shuddered in pain with every breath and could no longer so much as cry in agony as they ripped her apart.
Paper sutras meant to banish demons had been thrown over her body, though the samurai knew full well that she was fully human. She had been doused in rice wine, a brew that the humans assumed would purify a host from a demonic taint. The wine made the ink from the sutras bleed, and so much of her body was covered in black shadows.
They had given her a ritualistic death befitting of a full demon as a last and final insult. A monk was even chanting some nonsense over her body—a binding spell, he realized. Yet another toy employed by humans against demons.
The sight left a bad taste in Sesshomaru's mouth.
"You reckon that's good enough?" one of the samurai standing over her body said.
His comrade laughed. Judging by the adornments he wore, Sesshomaru assumed that this was their captain. "Good enough? Should we do it all again just to be sure? I've got no complaints."
"I meant about the little girl she carried off," the first clarified. "Our lord wanted her as well, and alive."
Rin. Sesshomaru hoped that Jaken would not let his anger blind him tonight of all nights.
"You think we could ask her?"
"Heh…good idea." The captain knelt at Ayami's side and grabbed her long, midnight hair in one gauntleted fist, twisting it around his wrist to get a better hold, and then jerked her head up. Ayami was only barely responsive to the cruel treatment.
The samurai captain put his face hardly a breath's distance from hers. "Where's the filthy demon spawn you protected? Hm?" He jangled her like a puppet on a string, held by her hair.
"Dead," Ayami gasped. "A demon…a terrible demon…"
"You think I'm stupid?" He rammed her face into the ground. "If a demon killed her, why didn't he take you as well?"
Ayami did not answer, perhaps because she had lost the breath to do so.
"She's done for," the captain declared as he let her crumple to the earth, and the entire army cheered.
Sesshomaru had known this before he even reached Ayami's camp. He could smell the blood, ink, and rice wine from miles away. No mortal could survive such treatment.
And yet he could still hear her draw breath.
"Remarkable," he said dryly to himself. "For a pampered human princess."
The sound of his voice startled the samurai. Most drew their swords, looking frantically around. "Who goes there?" the one at Ayami's side demanded. "Show yourself!"
Sesshomaru obliged them and enjoyed watching as they shrunk away.
"Lady Ayami spoke the truth! It is a demon!"
"A full-blooded yokai!"
"What is it you want here, demon?" the captain demanded boldly, undeterred by Sesshomaru's arrival. "This is human business!"
"It would seem that you have given the woman a demon's death, and so it appears to be more my business than yours, human," Sesshomaru retorted calmly.
"This woman was a traitor. She defiled our village by harboring a filthy demon child. She deserved the death she got, and worse!"
"Death?" Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow, amused. "Are you so ignorant? The lady breathes still. Your rituals have not taken her yet." Smiling slightly, he allowed a whip of energy to snake down from his fingers. "You celebrate too soon," he hissed as he cracked the thread of energy, throwing the cowering samurai off their feet.
"Be gone, demon!" the captain cried as he threw sutras at Sesshomaru. He did not try to dodge them, but withdrew his whip and calmly brushed them off himself. The sacred papers that the humans put so much trust in turned to ash at his touch.
"Are you done? I am."
Sesshomaru lashed out again, and the skies trembled with the might of his attack. His whip hit the earth with crash of thunder, and it split and broke into fragments at his touch. The samurai wise enough to flee, Sesshomaru let escape. It would do no harm to let the stories of his strength spread. But the ones who stayed received no mercy.
Sesshomaru saved the captain that had defied him for last, and took the man by the throat. "Do not make the mistake of hunting me again." He dropped the gasping man and went to Ayami.
"W-What business do you have with our lady?"
"Her life is now mine. I will deal with her as it should please me."
"W-Will you finish our work for us then, yokai?"
"I will do with her what I will!" he roared, flinging his whip at the bothersome captain. The man fled, screaming for his comrades.
"Coward." Sesshomaru did not bother with the samurai further. The fools did not deserve his attention.
Neither, he thought with a frown, did this Ayami woman.
"You are stubborn," he told her. "To withstand such pains and still breathe. I am amused by your tenacity, human."
She shifted a bit to look at him better beneath her wet hair. "…Thank you, I…suppose."
"Hn." Sesshomaru knew her situation was fatal. She was alive now through some grace of fate (or perhaps curse, he supposed, to live so long after receiving such wounds) but would not be for long. He guessed that, strong as she was, she would not survive to see the dawn.
He could revive her with Tenseiga…
But she had to be dead to be revived.
And he did not want to wait with a half-dead woman until dawn.
It would be a mercy to end her suffering, as well as a convenience.
"Ayami."
Her eyes were tired and clouded with pain as she gazed up at him, her eyes swimming as if she were dizzy. "Yes…?"
"Close your eyes."
"I will not," she breathed as vehemently as her broken body would allow. "I am not afraid…to look my death in the eyes."
Sesshomaru knelt at her side and bent so his face was a hair's breadth from hers. He stared her in the eyes, unleashing the full power of his killer gaze upon her to see if she would go back on her word. "Oh?" He shifted so all she could see was his amber eyes—the eyes of her killer, her death. "How very amusing…then we will see if there is indeed truth behind your words, mortal."
She watched him, warily, as he circled around her. The corners of his mouth twitched, begging to curl up into a demonic smile, his eyes widening, pupils slitting even thinner as his instinctive bloodlust started to permeate him. She kept her eyes locked on his, resisting the urge to flinch or look away.
She just didn't understand why he was still here.
It hit her, he saw the realization pierce her, just as his hand was thrust through her chest, clenching her heart, stopping it.
She knew she had been looking at death itself.
There was pain in her eyes, and shock from the brutal assault, but, true to her word, no fear. He had struck quick and true; she died before she had a chance to draw the breath to scream.
He felt Tenseiga pulse at his side, a sign that the powers of the blade of heaven were awakening. Ayami would not long remain in the shadow of death.
"Remarkable," he commented as he gripped the hilt of Tenseiga. "For a human."
With one swipe of his sword the demons that had crept upon her vanished, and he heard her draw breath once more and felt the beat of her heart resume. Most of her wounds had sealed, and color returned to her pale cheeks.
He had, as Rin had asked him to, saved Ayami.
And he had a feeling that he would soon regret it.
A/N: Will someone who's better at Japanese than me help me out? Am I using "hanyou" and "Yokai" correctly?
