Akira: Shô
-The Princesses of the Falcon Clan-
Where am I?
What is this place?
Kuroki circled around a dark space, seeing no type of light. Yet she could see everything. Her eyes could see the wind swirls of her inner conciousness and she could see her hand held in front of her face.
She was darkness incarnate, after all.
In her hand was her Piatsumūn, she realized, and she tried to open it. But it denied her command.
"Kuroki!"
Kuroki looked around, but there was no sign of that voice. That annoyingly high pitched decible of a voice. Jaken.
"Brat, wake up this instant!"
So she was asleep then? Willing herself to open her eyes, the woman's voice came back to her.
"My dearest, Kuroki. Do you wish to know how to control your Piatsumūn Buredo? How to be in sync with it and not just to use it as a weapon? It is alive and would like to be treated more than a tool!" The voice held extreme amounts of accusation. Kuroki gasped and held up the closed fan.
"Piatsumūn is... alive?!"
Looking down at her fan, she felt a sudden pulsation and her eyes widened in surprise. How could a fan be alive, and why was she able to use it? If she's really been mistreating this living thing, she felt ashamed and would do anything to make it right.
Whatever the cost.
Sesshomaru surveyed his surroundings. They were at the base of a mountain that had stairs carved into the front of it.
Kuroki was asleep on the first step, the toad imp screaming at her to open her eyes. The girl looked frightened in her dreams. An unreal glow overcame her and the demon lord vaugley wondered if she would spontaneously combust.
Up above on the second landing of stairs, a woman with long green hair and silver eyes, dressed in a luxuric kimono stepped down towards the group of four. Sesshomaru grabbed the hilt of his sword and tensed each moment she came closer to the sleeping girl. They both said nothing as she produced Kuroki's fan from her bosom and placed it over the little girl's heart. Kuroki gasped and awoke, her amethyst eyes temporarily red before flashing back to the royal purple orbs.
"Do you realize now? That Piatsumūn…is a part of you?" The woman asked and Kuroki nodded her head. Her long white hair mused all over the place. "Now you must train with the one who created the moon blade. Only then will you unlock Piatsumūn's true potential."
Kuroki nodded and Ai held out the fan. She took it carefully. Looking at it through new eyes, she stared at it in awe and wondered what exactly would this meant for her now.
"But where must I go to control Piatsumūn?"
Ai stood and smiled looking at the sun setting horizon.
"I shall accompany you for I can not explain the consequences of this trip. Come child, let us go."
"Something feels weird." Kuroki commented as the group left the mountain of Kazihiko. Ai nodded and looked around the forest.
Sesshomaru grabbed the hilt of his sword, also feeling a strange presence.
The ground began to shake.
"This time it is not me!" Ai hollered over the rubble and Kuroki's heart began to pound in fear. Why is that though? The main reason she traveled with Sesshomaru was so that they could find someone strong enough to kill her.
That's when the shaking stopped.
"You BRAAAATTTTT!" They heard a shrill scream and Kuroki's eyes widened in horrification. She began to shake. That voice…
"Sister…!"
Sesshomaru's eyebrow arched slightly. From the trees stepped a woman with the robes of a royal. Her black eyes pierced the air like an arrow that was shot straight at the ten year old. Her blue-to-the-point-of-black hair was crafted into a beautiful braid and her face adorned a spiteful scowl.
"Did you seriously think I would not find you?! You will die! And it shall be today!"
Faster than anything, before Daiyu could even move, Sesshomaru's sword was at her throat.
"Is there a reason you wish for the child to die other than jealousy?"
'Jealousy?' Both Ai and Kuroki thought, Kuroki's grip on her fan tightened ten fold. Daiyu sputtered but then her snarl was directed at Sesshomaru.
"Jealous? I? Of a HALF BREED?! Ha! Do not try to amuse me!"
Daiyu flipped away and finally settled on her haunch legs, robes about her to reveal a smooth porcelain leg with a mark of a falcon. Kuroki gaped and looked between the two. How had Seashomaru known about them?
-Flashback-
In a palace in the southern part of Japan, demons could hear the sound of a woman screaming.
"The baby is arriving." A man called out, ushering his six year old daughter out of the room.
"But Papa…!"
"No buts. Princess go continue your studies outside. Nauga will be out with you in a little while."
Daiyu grumbled but flinched as her father's mistress began screaming again. Spirits that was murder on the ears!
Daiyu headed outside and she felt something perch on her shoulder.
"Nauga. Good afternoon to you." She greeted and the falcon said the same.
"Is this not exciting, Princess Daiyu? You are to have a younger sibling in just a mere hour or two." The falcon questioned, deep voice reverating around them. Daiyu frowned and arrived at a lake, quite a bit a ways from the palace. Picking up a pebble, she began skimming rocks across the water easily with her demonic strength.
"Sibling? Hm! I am an only child. That thing is a filthy half breed who isn't worth my time."
"Do not speak that way, Princess! After all, the child will be the youngest of your lord father. In the Falcon Clan the youngest always takes the throne instead of the eldest."
Daiyu growled animalistically. Slapping Nauga away, she scowled and her eyes narrowed.
"Mother has worked me to hard to become queen. That abomination will not take what's mine!"
-End Flashback-
Daiyu cursed at the memory. Her eyes locked with the fear filled ones of her father's spawn.
"You will never have my title, Brat. Never!"
Kuroki shook her head and stepped away. "I don't want it! I told you and your lord father that!"
Sesshomaru placed his sword back in his sheath and his claws grew. Daiyu's eyes flashed blue and stayed that color, claws growing even longer. Taking off into the air, Kuroki whimpered and Ai placed the girl behind her.
"It's going to be alright." She murmured soothingly before looking up at Daiyu who had sprouted black wings from her back. "What you are doing is disgraceful! Does your family's clan honor not mean anything to you? And you want to be queen!"
"Shut up! What the hell do you know?!"
Kuroki looked away and she heard a scream of pain. Looking back up, Sesshomaru's claws were embedded into Daiyu's arm. Retracting his arm, Daiyu bit her lip and held her other hand to the wound in her right forearm. She dropped from the air to the ground and landed brutally on her back. Sitting back up, she chuckled ruefully and grinded her teeth.
"So I see she has the Lord of the West protecting her. What has she promised you? When she comes of age she will give our lands over to you? No matter. It will never happen."
Daiyu waved her hand and a tornado of wind circled around her.
"I'm afraid our dance of death shall have to be postponed, Half-Breed. Until then."
Daiyu dissappeared.
A few days later, Lord Sesshomaru listened to the girl carefully as she explained her dream. She had been avoiding the talk about her sister visiting but it was not as though Sesshomaru cared. Kuroki was just his play thing, it's not like he worried for her.
"Lady Ai said that I was not using Piatsumūn correctly and that I had to train with the maiden who created the fan to be able to use it again. She also explained that my name meant "Dark Stranger" and that Im the only one who could correspond with Piatsumūn because I could share its emotions."
Sesshomaru took all of this in with an apathetic look on his beautiful face. Kuroki knew him long enough to know that he wanted more information. Like if she thought if they could trust her. Though trust was a strong word to the man. More of... believe her. Kuroki just continued to smile at Sesshomaru as they followed the woman called Ai.
"Where are we headed, Wench?" Ai turned and started walking backwards without any trouble. "Look around, Lord Sesshomaru! You should know this place. If you don't I shall tell you when we've arrived."
Sesshomaru growled low in a warning, preparing to cut the woman down.
Kuroki giggled and looked up at the sky. The woman named Ai was a demonic priestess, which shocked the girl. Other than her, she hadnt known that full-fledged demoness' could actually be a priestess. Though it also was not like the girl could purify anything, it was more of she could taint what is pure. Deciding to snap back into reality, Kuroki gasped and ran from Sesshomaru's side to a tree.
A tree with a boy pierced to it by an arrow.
A boy Sesshomaru knew to well.
'InuYasha'.
Even thinking his name brought severe spitefullness and irritation to the daiyokai.
"What happened to him?" Kuroki questioned quietly and in a daze. He was pretty, she realized, but not like her lord. No, he was the rough type of beauty that came with fighting. Kuroki studied the man when she saw something intresting. "Look at his ears! They're like a little puppy's!" She exclaimed and she climbed up to touch them. Lady Ai chuckled and watched on with a sort of motherly eyes.
"She maybe darkness, but she's still just a child." Sesshomaru didn't care about that.
"Why are we in the forest of InuYasha? Kuroki, get down before you catch that mutt's stupidity. He may be dead but it still lingers." He muttered the last part and Kuroki immediately followed his command. Walking back to his side, Ai walked a little further towards a well.
"This is the Bone Eaters well. Here we will find the maiden that created Piatsumūn." The woman pulled Kuroki foward which caused Sesshomaru to growl, but was calmed by a smile from his child companion. What effect did she have on him, he didn't know. But two years with her did make him a little fawn over his 'project'.
Speaking of his play thing, Kuroki was sitting on the edge of the well, knees wobbling together and hands pressed against her thighs. He could tell she was afraid by the way she was sitting. He could see her amethyst eyes moving every which way. She was nervous.
"Kuroki get down, you will fall." Kuroki almost jumped off of the well to comply to his order when suddenly, something grabbed her. Her small eyes widened as she slowly started tipping backwards as time seemed to still. Everything happened so quick.
Kuroki was pulled back into the well.
Lady Ai blocked Sesshomaru's path.
Kuroki let out a piercing scream.
Her arm reached out for someone to help her as gravity surpassed her. Kuroki's amethyst eyes watered with the friction. Eventually she had to close them because the wind rushing past her was to much. Up above, her half demonic hearing picked up the sound of yelling and a sword being drawn.
The thing which had grabbed her was a wisp of blue energy, neither pure or evil. It wrapped around her legs and neck—pulling her down even faster. How long does this well last?!
Finally she reached the bottom.