He remembered once when he was imprisoned in that Catholic orphanage coming across a rather rare find while hiding in the well cared for garden from the sisters and their constant demand for attendance at mass. It was a beautiful find, a treasure that was rare to the point of happening about as often as a solar eclipse. This find came in the form of delicate black softer than the velvet used to wrap the silver crucifix brought out only for special services that was interlaced with the rich pink of freshly chewed, but illicit, bubble gum. He remembered being fascinated by the slow lift and drop of wings that were as wide as both his palms placed side by side. He had set his book aside without marking the page and had simply watched this gorgeous butterfly rest itself on rich green foliage. He knew exactly what kind of butterfly this was from a book one of the sisters had given him in an attempt to encourage more outdoor activity in his daily routine. He'd read the book because it was a book, but had taken very little interest in its content, nor really remembered it until that day.
This particular butterfly was incredibly rare for these parts, most likely having been brought over in a supply shipment via boat. Byasa alcinous, or by its common name of the spicebush swallowtail and lived near the city of Himeji. They called it jakou-ageha. He didn't think that either the common name or the Japanese name suited such an elegantly stunning insect. Byasa alcinous, its Latin title, was more suitable. He had no idea how long he remained sitting, watching its beautiful wings flutter ever so gently in the greenery, the sable black serving as a dramatic backdrop to the candy colored pink markings. All he could really recall about that moment was he'd been dazzled by the fragile beauty it displayed before him.
And that he'd wanted to destroy that beauty.
He'd captured that byasa alcinous very carefully between his palms and thrilled in the way it struggled to break free. It couldn't, no matter how valiantly or violently its wings moved. He'd taken it to his room, forgetting the book he'd been reading in the dirt and somehow managed to pin its still beating wings to a piece of white cardboard. His hands were covered in the nearly microscopic black particles of its wings, looking very much as if he'd just rubbed his palms through spilled ink. It took four pins, one in each wing, to safely secure it. Then... he'd watched it die, trapped and helpless in its useless beauty. It had taken three days before the twitching to the wings had stopped. Three days in which he'd kept it hidden in his trunk lest the nuns see it and demand he dispose of his secret treasure.
He would check on it every chance that he'd had, his heart leaping into his throat with hushed excitement every time he'd knelt before his trunk, fingers cold with sweat and shaking as he'd opened the small, rusted lock. Was it still fighting? Did it feel the horror of being trapped? Did it register pain with those pins boring holes through its only true means of escape? Was it regretting the beauty that led to its downfall? He must have asked himself a thousand unanswered questions within those three days. It was one of the most exquisite things to witness the wings tug as the lid was opened and light shone in on it, reacting to the change in darkness as if it could taste the freedom it could never possess. He'd thought then that nothing could ever compare to the magnificent struggle that fragile, desperate byasa alcinous had put forth.
Until today.
Hakkai felt the smile on his lips curl further upwards as he dug his fingers in harder into the lily white neck he held trapped, pinned to the ground with his own hand. No wings fluttered wildly here, but something much more desireable and beautiful. He could feel the pulse through that soft, white skin. It would burst fourth in a cacophony of movement, break briefly and irregularly, and then resume its rapid beating once again. It pushed against his palm, flooding the dents his fingers made in the paleness that surrounded it with dark purple blotches. The bruises stood out in magnificent contrast to the white skin. Black on pink... purple on white. Exact opposites in coloring, but equal in the way they had excited something inside him he'd thought was long gone. That rush was back, the one he hadn't felt in years. Heady, intoxicating, addicting... adrenaline through his blood shocking his system like too much sugar. The first time he'd felt this was with the byasa alcinous and he'd been too distracted with his myriad of questions to really enjoy the thrill. The second time he'd been foolish and focused it into the hatred he'd felt toward those murderous animals. It had returned again ever so briefly in the forest, but it had been so weak he hadn't paid it much attention.
This time, however... God, she looked more beautiful than that ridiculous butterfly ever had. Her face held a natural beauty that was only enhanced by her dilated pupils and flushed cheeks. Red painted over white. Pink painted over black. Rich copper brown eyes gave voice to the replacement of panic for rational thought for the throat that couldn't utter more than gasped attempts to force air beyond his clenched hand. Tears trickled along the lower edge of sable brown lashes and marked her white skin in a cold, crystaline path brought forth through sunlight reflecting off the moisture. From the shoulders up, she couldn't move beneath the weight of his body, but the panic found its way into her wildly kicking, thrusting legs. She bucked him and he rode it out as smoothly as a surfer through rought waves. She jerked and he squeezed just hard enough to cancel the movement.
The only thing he didn't control were her hands. Her delicate, seemingly fragile hands tipped in claws that were deceptive in nature. They dug into the wrist locked around her throat, ripping away pieces of skin in bloody red welts. The sting that followed barely had time to roll through him before it was replaced with yet another scratch. His blood trailed down his shredded wrist, winding a smooth path along the skin of her collar bone before disappearing beyond her shoulder. The crimson road moved slowly at first along her chest before balancing for a matter of breathless seconds on the very beginning curve of her shoulder and then... it plummeted like being dropped off that initiating hill on a roller coaster. Red on white again, such a visually appealing palette.
Her fear filled his nose, coated his tongue and was quickly swallowed down his throat. It mingled with the scent of his own blood and nearly made him gasp at this new, intoxicating combination. Her fear was like vanilla ice cream. Sweet enough to please the tongue, spicey enough to be interesting yet gentle to fully digest. This scent was covered over in his blood, as if that vanilla was conservatively drizzled with hot chocolate sauce. The chocolate was thicker and richer than the vanilla, but used so sparingly that it couldn't over power the delicate nature of the dessert. He wanted to lick those two seemingly opposing tastes, her sweet fear and his rich blood, off her skin and let them melt into his mouth and memory. He saw no reason why he couldn't have both. Hakkai leaned forward, lips parting eagerly for what he knew would be heaven on his tongue.
His head snapped to the side harshly and he hissed as a warm sting suddenly snapped across his cheek. This was followed momentarily by the tell-tale oozing of blood along his jaw. It dangled briefly to his chin before falling with a wet plop to splatter on the curve of her breast, creating an abstract painting on the white canvas of her skin. Slowly, he turned his head back to face her, his eyes narrowing when he took note of the spark that cut through her panicked eyes. There was still fight left in this butterfly, he mused with another pulse of excited adrenaline through his body. He caught the hand she swung at him like a weapon, her clawed fingers curved to exact the same damage she'd caused before on his other cheek. He slammed it into the compact ground, grinding his palm along the bones hard enough to make the tears run faster and draw a choked cry from her throat. Her other hand, claws coated in the fresh blood she'd drawn across his face, came whipping toward him again, and he released his grip around her throat in favor of grabbing that frail wrist as well. He didn't trap this one to the ground however, his eyes lingering on the crimson paint his blood made across her claws.
She choked, lungs jerking spastically off the ground to try and get air into her deprived body. Her entire focus was on breathing and not on him. She couldn't fight him as he slowly brought her blood coated fingers to his mouth. Slowly, eyes on her frightened face, he ran his tongue along the pad of her middle finger, a shiver running down his spine as his eyes drifted close against his will. Such saccharine delight... The taste of her skin intermixed with his blood was more rapturous than he'd thought. Hakkai quickly sucked her entire finger into his mouth, his tongue curling around it to suck every last drop of that bloody candy from her. He couldn't hold back the needy moan in his throat as the desire for more of this ambrosial delight surged through him. He took all he could from that slender digit, his hand tightening around her wrist as she sought to pull it away from him. He wouldn't let her go, not until his tongue had taken every last luscious bit of their combined flavors from her hand. He released her middle finger, now devoid of any blood, and immediately moved to take the next one into his mouth.
Hakkai felt his breath get shoved painfully sharp from his lungs as something suddenly bowled over him, tumbling him away from his prize in a burst of bruising speed. His body responded reflexively, hands curling into the hard muscled biceps of his attacker and using that grip to keep them locked and rolling harshly across the broken ground. Sharp bracken, hard rocks and snapping twigs dug and tore into him as they continued to struggle across the ground. Burning aura swept over him, making his skin feel as if fire were beating against it. A snarl broke from his twisted lips as his eyes finally focused on who exactly came between him and his prize.
Kougaiji's indigo eyes were glowing with rage from mere inches away shortly before the prince finally broke free and whirled about ten feet from where they had been. Hakkai pushed off his back and sprang to his feet as soon as the heavy weight of the other man was off him. Anger scorched at him, replacing the heady rush from a moment before in a burst so sharp it was hurt his head. Kougaiji had taken away his blood. Kougaiji had gotten between him and his prey. He wouldn't tolerate that, and he wouldn't share. That was his blood on his prey! It was all his and he'd be damned if he'd let anyone take it away from him. Before he'd tasted that sweet nectar, there might have been a chance, but not now. Now that he knew how incredibly bewitching it was, he wasn't about to let someone else have it.
No words were spoken as they raced toward each other, their speed so quick that they barely disturbed the forest they had tumbled into. The slam of their impact startled birds into flight and was momentarily numbing as his rival made a last minute adjustment to his attack and sent a rock hard shoulder into Hakkai's chest. Firey pain ripped through him, but he battled passed it to counter with an upward punch that sent Kougaiji arching backward through the air. The prince twisted about and managed to land on one knee, spitting blood from his torn lip into the dead leaves sent flying from their fight. Hakkai wasted no time in pressing his advantage, letting out an enraged growl as he uncosciously pulled the chi from his mind.
The forest erupted into a burst of greenish yellow light. The ball of pure, molten energy swept everything in its path up and disintegrated it into ash so fine in texture it was like watching rotted snow fall from the sky. Hakkai saw the quick shadow flash of Kougaiji dodging the attack and immediately sent another burst of chi toward his rapidly moving figure. Kougaiji evaded him again, and he followed the movements closely. The prince was circling him, trying to keep him in a stationary position. There could only be one reason why. Hakkai heard the final releasing words to the spell the firemage was casting and threw a shield up just as the flaming dragon fiend came roaring toward him. The impact of the fiend on his shield shocked not only through his body but through his mind as well. It was his turn to be airborn, his back and head snapping painfully into the hard rock wall of an over hanging ledge.
Hakkai fell to his knees, blood splattering from his lips to hit borwn, crackling leaves. His body ached in ways he couldn't begin to imagine, but he stood all the same, blinking as more blood flowed from a gash in his head into his eye. He wiped it away with his hand, bringing his moistened fingers to his lips to lick the fluid away. It coated his tongue thickly, but it lacked that exotic flare that his prey had given to it. Desire for that taste quickly reignited and gave him the strength to ignore his abused body and move away from the rock wall. He summoned thin threads of chi, trailing it outward from his body like tentacles of barely visible power to search out where his rival was hiding through that impossibly hot aura.
He found it just in time to slam another shield up to counteract another fiend, this one searing white and hissing like a thousand bolts of lightening. It opened its mouth and sank flashing teeth of energy into his shield. Hakkai grit his own teeth and sank to one knee under the pressure of such awesome power beating around his own energy. There was a series of blinding light bursts that radiated from the gaping maw and streamed around his shield like white veins against pale yellow sunlight. A scream tore from him when pain as sharp as electric shocks all over his body moved through him. It worked its way through his skin, stabbed through his muscles and rolled across his bones directly into his blood stream. His blood carried it to his brain and delivered it to the focal point he used for channeling the chi energy. Another scream sounded as those electric shocks burst in explosive little packages of agony along his inner psyche and forced his shield to shatter like brittle glass under a stone.
Hakkai didn't register anything except this horrible pain inside his head as he went down onto the dead leaves and dirt, unable to stop himself in anyway as his entire body shut down.
Sanzo normally didn't mind decking out some asshole who had it coming. He didn't mind laying a couple swats to Goku's head when the kid was being dumber than usual, and he certainly didn't mind giving that same treatment to Gojyo when the time called for it. But, for some reason only the amazingly twisted minds of the gods understood, he really hated when Lirin expected him to fight. He never discriminated between male or female youkai in terms of a fist to the face. Just Lirin. He didn't know why, but it didn't sit well with him to shoot at the girl, or really to fight her in anyway.
So... he didn't. Goku wasn't the only reason he kept a few items of snack food in his sleeves. Food worked remarkably well in killing any thoughts Lirin might have for wanting to fight him. For once, avoiding the problem entirely was a very good thing. They sat off to the side, Lirin muching happily on an apple while he smoked and watched the usually ridiculous farce of a fight with more interest than it normally would have deserved. In particular, his attention was on one apothecary and one poorly controled mass murderer.
If Hakkai were at all his self, he wouldn't have given a damn about Yaone fighting him. Their fighting was the most absurd of all. She threw bombs, he threw up a chi shield. Whoop-di-fucking-do. At least with the kappa there was some fairly decent weapon combat. The only time Goku's fight ever got truly entertaining was when Kougaiji pulled some magic shit out of his ass. Unfortunately, Kougaiji was the type to play fair. Using a fiend against a boy armed with a stick (albeit that stick could shatter bone like it was tissue paper when wielded) was too much like dirty pool to the prince. Other than that, it was Goku running around chasing him while shouting off some piss-poor attempt at banter, which was only mildly more entertaining that Hakkai verses Yaone.
However, if Hakkai lost it and Yaone was hurt... Sanzo's eyes darted over to where Lirin was taking her final bite of apple. He automatically handed her another one, which she took without much more than a glance to say thank you. If Yaone ws hurt, Kougaiji would step in. If Kougaiji stepped in, Lirin would want to go after him. As much as Sanzo didn't like fighting Lirin, it was ten times worse when the little brat was hurt by someone else. There was no doubt in his mind that she would be hurt if she went to help her brother. Hakkai wasn't at all in full possession of his mind, and that other part that was slowly taking over wasn't exactly kid friendly. It wouldn't hesitate in seeking out the princess as weaker, easier prey.
So, this meant that if or when it all went to hell, he'd have to be ready to stop Lirin from jumping in. Stopping her would mean incapacitating her in some manner. The only way to do that would be to knock her out, possibly with a hard enough punch to her stomach. He wouldn't like it, but he'd rather she have sore kidneys then get be killed by a man who would never intend her harm under regular circumstances. It wasn't just Lirin's life he was protecting. He didn't want Hakkai to break down completely from being the one to take her life, as he undoubtedly would. The green eyed man was angsty enough without that added to the mix.
He saw the slap coming, but it still made his back tense when the cracking sound rose sharply over the normal sounds of battle. The movement had been so fluid and fast he almost would have thought Hakkai practiced it regularly. As far as he knew, Hakkai had never bitch slapped anyone before in his life. One minute, Yaone was standing and the next she'd been hit to the ground by a rather impressive backhand. His attention shifted to Lirin, who froze mid chew at the sound.
"Yaone..." she breathed, eyes wide and a little confused to see the apothecary slowly pushing herself up so that she wasn't completely proned.
"Your apple's turning brown," he immediately deflected. Instantly, if a little reluctantly at first, her attention went back to her apple. Sanzo returned his own attention back to the fight only to have a wave of shock flood through him briefly at the sudden change that had occured within the space of those few stolen seconds.
Hakkai was sitting across her, one hand wrapped around Yaone's neck. Her own hands were tearing at his wrist, trying to claw her way free through his flesh. Her efforts to draw breath could dimly be heard from where he sat, but the way her legs flailed and kicked to gain freedom was unmistakeable. The other fights had stopped upon the initial slap as well, all eyes trained on the duo as minds remained numb by the shock. Sanzo didn't register getting to his feet, but he instantly regretted it when it distracted Lirin from her apple.
"Hey, where ya goin', Baldy- Yaone!" Sanzo reflexively grabbed her shoulder and spun her around as the girl made to run for where Hakkai was strangling the young woman. "Lemm go! I've gotta help- BIG BROTHER!"
Sanzo heard the thud of hard flesh hitting hard flesh in a bruising impact and tightened his grip on her shoulder as the blur that was Kougaiji bowled Hakkai clean off Yaone's spluttering form and carried them both down a steep incline into the forest below. It took everything he had to restrain Lirin as she fought to get to her brother. He grit his teeth through every stomp to his feet, elbow jab to his gut and one particularly sharp blow to his inner thigh. He silently said a thank you prayer to the gods for allowing her aim to be off the slight few inches that saved him from having his balls hammered by a terrified youkai girl. Wouldn't that have been a wonderful thing for the kappa to throw at him?
Their struggle continued as both Gojyo and Dokugakuji raced for Yaone, while Goku raced to the summit of the deep hill, skidding to a hault just before it rolled downward sharply. "HAKKAI!" he shouted, hoping to get some kind of response that the other man was at least conscious. Birds took flight a good way further in, giving them the location of the fight. Goku immediately went racing into the forest toward that disturbance.
Shit... double shit! This was so not the time for Goku to act spontaneously! Gritting his teeth, he knew the time had come to stop trying to restrain Lirin and just take her out of the fight completely. Goku was racing into a fight between a pissed off firemage with the ability to summon fiends and a mass murdering chi master losing his mind. When he got his hands on the little brat... He spun Lirin around sharply, quickly eyeballed roughly where the pressure point in her upper gut was and sent his fist flying directly into it. Green eyes widened in surprise before she slumped over his fist. He dropped her to the ground without another thought or concern and went racing after his own charge, ignoring Dokugakuji's irrate shout about kicking his ass for hitting the girl. Yeah, right... whatever. He refused to let Gojyo get a hit on him, and he'd be damned if anyone sharing the kappa's blood would either!
He wasn't as fast as a youkai, and dodging tree roots completely like they seemed to do wasn't in his repertoire of talents either. He stumbled through his speed downhill, cussing with a couple combinations he hadn't thought of before but would remember for future use, and continued running. He could feel immense amounts of energy in the air, one the familiar coolness of chi and the other a very uncomfortable burn. Both would flare and dim down slightly, but neither of them faded completely. They were fighting through their powers and making his job of tracking them easy enough he could have done it blindfolded if it weren't for the trees. Goku crashing wildly through the brush encouraged him to run faster in hopes of getting to his charge before the boy did something so incredibly beyond foolish that he could end of dead.
If ever the gods were to get off their asses and cut him a break fate wise, this was a wonderful opportunity for it.
Kanzeon Bosatsu smiled down on her nephew's incarnation and blew gently across the lily pond that served as her window on the world below. As her breath disturbed the surface and caused lily pads to dip in response, the ripples circled away and took with the quite a few of the trees and bracken that had previously been before the running monk. It created a slightly smooth more trail for him to get to his golden eyed heretic without disrupting the balance too badly.
"As you wish, Konzen," she murmured before resettling herself on her throne. A gods main duty was to play spectator on the world below, but sometimes spectating had to turn into audience participation in order to help move the story along.
"You can't beat him like this."
Yes, he could. All he had to do was move... except his body wasn't listening to his brain. Why was that?
"You were hit by a lightening fiend, you idiot. An electric current just zapped through our body, that's why it's not listening right now. It disabled your ability to summon chi, thus stripping you of both offense as well as defense. Any minute now and he's going to come over here to kill us off."
Who would? All he could remember was light... lots of light... and pain...
"Kougaiji! He separated us from that lovely apothecary, remember?"
Yes, he supposed Yaone was rather pretty.
The voice groaned, lowering its head in defeat. "Would you mind focusing for just five seconds, please? We're about to be ripped to shreds here!"
Kougaiji wouldn't do that, not without reason.
Imagery pulses throbbed through his head. Images of licking blood off slim fingers, of dark bruises on pale skin, of butterflies and pins... Just like that, he remembered what was going on. Kougaiji had gotten between him and his prey. Yaone... not prey. Good God, he'd almost killed Yaone!
"You bruised her. Not a drop of the blood on her beautiful skin was hers, unfortunately. Still... tasting her through our blood..."
Yes... now he truly remembered. It made his stomach lurch in anticipation for that taste again. He wanted it. God, how he wanted it. He wanted to capture that beautiful white butterfly again. He wanted to pin her down and slice his arm over and over until her paleness was covered over in crimson slashes of his blood. He wanted to take his time licking that sweet, sweet essence from her body, rolling her fear and his blood through his mouth while listening to her sobs. And he would have it... but first he had to dispose of his rival.
Slowly, he forced his body to respond, pushing his upper body off the dirt of the forest floor. His breath was ripped from him and he was sent rolling across the ground into a tree as a heavy boot connected with his stomach. Sunlight through green leaves spun in dizzy relief against the spots eating at his vision. He could vaguely make out the shape of Kougaiji stalking closer, fists curled fiercely at his side. Squinting, he could see those thinned lips moving but the words were lost on him. The movements were regular, like a chant... Kougaiji chanting... that was bad.
"He's about to summon a fiend!"
Then he should probably raise a shield. Yes, that would be a wise thing to do.
"You CAN'T! He disabled that ability! If you expect to live, there's only one thing you can do." The voice ran its hand along its elegantly tapered left ear. He wasn't so completely out of it that he didn't know what the gesture meant.
No... no, he couldn't remove his limiters. It would be a very bad thing to do.
"It's the only way. If you want to reclaim what was yours, you need to defeat him. You can't do it in this condition. You need ME. Let me out."
No. He could do this. A shadowy fist slammed into his jaw hard enough to make the tree canopy disappear under the spots exploding into darkness. One blink... two... and he could now barely make out that he was in the air again, hitting the ground on his side. Something cut his shoulder and brought out the coppery smell of blood to his nostrils. It smelled delicious... but it was missing her fear. He wanted it so badly!
"If you want it, then let me out! Let me out NOW!"
But... He blinked and the movement seemed to be in slow motion. He was losing consciousness... and there was an enormous, one eyed monster bathed in flames rushing toward him. It took him another moment or two before he realized he wasn't just seeing things and that it was in fact real. And heading straight for him. He knew that was definately not a very good thing.
"Damn it all, you HAVE to let me out or we're dead! LET ME OUT!" The voice was screaming at him, its anger and frustration over his inability to truly grasp the situation until now serving to trigger him into action.
His left hand found his ear.
His fingers slid along metal warmed by body heat.
He slid the metal clips free and allowed them to fall limply from his hand.
AUTHOR'S ASIDE: Finally, an update that is decent! HURRAY! Corrections were made to chapter 8 as far as spelling goes. Still reading through it to better flesh it out. Hope everyone likes this one though!
