Disclaimer: Idon'town.
L e f t I n T h e D a r k
11
"A Demon slayer of the Mountain..." Sango muttered, keeping her eyes on her hands. "Are you sure...?"
"Positive." Raiden muttered gravely. "They announced it because they were proud, I remember their uniforms."
Sango swallowed. She remembered when a couple of slayers had returned ten years ago, they had announced with great pride that they had killed a whole village of demons. Sango had cheered. Of course she cheered, she was seven and didn't fully understand. But, Sango thought, even at my age now I would've cheered. But now she'd changed.
When Kaori and her were trained, their sensei never told them that demons had feelings and families. They learned, but they were so ignorant. They were told that demons only had thoughts about hunger and killing. Sensei had said that being a demon slayer meant to protect those you love.
Not all demons are evil. Like not all humans are good.
Kaori understood this better than Sango did. Once, when they were young Kaori even voiced her opinion. She was put on punishment and almost shunned for such a thought that 'Demons were like humans too. They have feelings and more.'
Kaori had also been yelled at. Words that both she, and Sango would never forget.
"Find your resolve now girl! And while you're at it, find your place! With those eyes of yours we're already cautious, but with such evil thoughts like those you will be banished. Learn when to keep your mouth shut. You must know already how the village feels about you..."
Kaori, who's eyes had been narrowed, opened her mouth to say more on her thoughts. But Sango glared at her and pinched her arm, shushing her quietly because Sensei was always right. Kaori rolled her eyes, which had become stony when Sensei had began to rant about the purpose of killing demons.
"Hello? Sango? Are you in there?" Raiden threw a pebble at her head.
"Ouch." Sango muttered, coming out of her trance. "Sorry, I was just...thinking about something. Continue," She encouraged.
"Ah well. My father and I were refugees for a while. I was getting stronger while my father seemed to be getting weaker. Us demons don't get deceases that humans get, but over the years his strength was steadily decreasing.
"And then, we met Naraku." He continued not noticing Sango's expression which was a cross between surprise and horror. "He said that he knew where a jewel shard was, to help us. He said he wanted nothing in return. My father and I were so shocked we didn't stop to think."
Sago listened attentively, digging her fingers into the ground at the thought of Naraku. Anger and hatred flowed through her veins, she clenched her fists.
"Uh Sango? Do I need to throw a pebble at you again?" Raiden asked absentmindedly piking petals off of small flowers.
"Heh, no," Sango said awkwardly.
"Anyway," Raiden continued, throwing aside the flower stem and piking another, "He told us the location. I admit, I was happy to be able to steal a jewel shard from that place. It was, the Demon Slayer village, in the Mountain."
-:- -:- -:-
"So, what did you and Sango talk about?" Miroku asked when Kaori returned from her and Sango's talk.
"Nothing that concerns you." Kaori replied glancing at him. Well, that was a complete lie. Everything they talked about had to do with him, but he didn't have to know that. She wondered if he even knew that Sango had feelings for him. She doubted it.
"C'mon, you can tell me." Miroku urged, smirking.
Kaori rolled her eyes and began to gather her scattered weapons. "If I tell you I'll have to kill you."
"Understood." Miroku said shaking his head. "Hey, don't all those weapons weigh you down?"
"Not much." Kaori answered, putting them in place.
"Not even a little bit?"
"A little."
"So, if you swim with them on you'd drown because of the weight?"
Kaori raised an eyebrow, "Don't get any ideas. I'd just take them off."
Miroku chuckled, "I was just curious." He rested the grip of a knife in his palm. "I'm just going to assume that you have Kunai knives."
Kaori rolled her eyes again, "If you were observant, you'd notice that most of my knives are Kunai knives."
"Ah, why do you also carry a katana if you have all these weapons?" Miroku gestured to the weapons Kaori was gathering.
"I learned to use knives and Shuriken first, I am most confident with them. Out of every other weapon I trained to use after I am most comfortable with the katana." Kaori answered his question.
"Makes sense." Miroku shrugged and handed back her knife. "Oh, Where's Sango?"
Kaori sighed, she wondered how long it would take him to notice. It was not looking good for Sango. Miroku was as clueless as Inuyasha. Actually, after today, Miroku might be more clueless than Inuyasha. "I'm not sure."
"Wasn't she with you?" Miroku asked distractedly.
"Yes...then she went somewhere."
"Oh, obviously." He replied sarcastically. Though, he didn't ask where or express any concern. Kaori sighed again. Boys.
"So," Kaori said, changing the subject. "We're leaving tomorrow?"
"Yeah." He answered. "I think we should leave tonight, we've wasted enough time here."
"Agreed." Kaori answered. The two fell into a comfortable silence.
Kaori sighed and wondered what to do now. She was bored all the time. She laid on her back and stared at the sky. It seemed as boring as anything else. The moon and stars weren't out, it was cloudy. Kaori yawned and closed her eyes since there was nothing interesting to look at in the sky.
Kaori thought about everything that had happened. From the time her village was attacked to now. Everything had changed. One moment she knew who she was, the next she wasn't quite sure. She was glad that this small group had accepted her, if they didn't she wouldn't know what to do. She realized how much of her life was that village.
But really, she didn't care much for some of the people in the village. Always superstitious because of her eyes, always rolling their eyes because Sango and her were girls. Mostly, everyone ignored Kaori. She honestly had grown not to care, living in that environment. Now that she thought about it Sango got most of the attention, being the village's leader's daughter, or just being better in their eyes period. And it wasn't just the adults she got the attention of, it was boys too.
Kaori never realized that she was so carelessly overlooked before. Maybe once or twice before but she never mused on it. Maybe she was just so set on ignoring it she never fully realized it. She'd never been jealous of Sango. Sango was looked up at and Kaori was looked down at.
Heh, Kaori thought. These thoughts are morbid. She opened her eyes to stare at the black sky and sat up. She decided that that was enough deep thinking for the night. Maybe she would just read her mother's journal.
She turned towards her cloak and noticed Miroku was still sitting there, but now with his eyes closed.
"Eh," Kaori called. "You're still here?"
Miroku jumped a bit, "Yea, there's no place more interesting to go."
Kaori shrugged, that was true enough. Though, Sango had found somewhere to go, and she wasn't telling where that was. Or who, but Kaori doubted she was sneaking around with a guy since she so plainly stated that she thought Kaori was a threat to her and Miroku's "Relationship." For lake of better words on Kaori's part.
Kaori walked towards her cloak, which was discarded by a tree, and sat by it. She then reached under it and pulled out her mother's journal.
"What's that?" Miroku asked curiously.
"A book." Kaori replied.
"I noticed."
"Why did you ask then?"
Miroku shut up then, obviously fed up with Kaori's sarcasm and snarky comments like many usually were.
"Bleh. I can't come up with a good enough response to that." Miroku said. So Kaori misread the silence, he wasn't annoyed he just couldn't think of a comeback. Most people would be annoyed. Kaori smirked.
"What is the book that you are holding?" He elaborated.
"It's my mother's journal." Kaori replied not looking at him. She wasn't sure why she told him. She hadn't told Kagome or Sango. She shrugged and figured she only told him to make him stop asking questions.
But that seemed to bring more questions, "Is it interesting?"
Kaori sighted and set her book aside, she began to make a fire. She wondered why she was even outside in the dark with the perverted monk. How did she even expect to read in the dark? Kaori shook her head and rolled unto her stomach once the fire was ready. She grabbed the journal and answered Miroku, "Yea, it brings back some memories of my childhood." Kaori frowned she didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
"Can't decide if that's good or bad?" Miroku said, reading her thoughts. Kaori thought it was creepy. "Same here, when I remember mine."
Kaori decided not to let curiosity get the better of her and nodded her head, agreeing. She opened the journal and began to read by firelight.
Kaori and Sango were just sent on their first mission. Me and Sango's mother are going crazy with worry. The villagers of course, do not think that it is a woman's job. But Sango and Kaori will show them what's right.
Akio was sent to track them to make sure that everything went smoothly. Since it was their first mission after all.
That little worm, Kaori thought. On that day she knew that someone was following them. Her heart filled with warmth and she smiled, but it dimmed because she knew that that was now just a memory.
Kaori and Sango were sent to a little village that was a few miles west of the Mountain. They would ride Kirara and Akio followed on another animal.
Brother and I have been watching Kaori closely. Age twelve is usually the age for powers to awaken but lately we haven't seen any.
Powers to awaken? Kaori frowned.
Maybe she doesn't have any, we're hoping on that. It seems that the only trait she inherited from her father were the deep red eyes.
Deep red eyes.
Deep red eyes.
The words seemed to echo in her head. Kaori laid her head on top of her arms and started into the flames.
Deep red eyes.
-:- -:- -:-
"I was happy to finally get my revenge on that place. The place of the people who took my mother." Raiden said. "I wanted the jewel and I wanted revenge. At that point, I was ready to do anything.
"When we got to the village, it was already in a state of havoc. But I didn't think much of it at the time. Half the villagers were dead and the rest of it was up in flames. Several demon were already there. My father and I searched and searched. Finally we came across a girl who we suspected had the jewel, but she got away." Raiden frowned.
"My father and I were furious. Later we figured we were set up, this was simply amusement for Naraku." Sango nodded, already knowing this. "We traveled and then we came upon a shard. We got it of course and I gave to my father, he became strengthened."
Raiden's eyes darkened, "Then Naraku crossed paths. He noticed our shard, and he killed my father to get it." Raiden clenched his fists. "I tried to stop him, I couldn't."
Sango's eyes softened, "You are not weak, but let's not think about the past. All we can do is get stronger."
Raiden nodded and turned green eyes on Sango, "So what's your story?"
"Where do I start?" Sango wondered out loud. "Well, let me just say that...I don't blame you for the destruction of my village."
"Your village...?" Raiden asked, then his eyes widened as he took in her words. "Are you...a demon slayer?"
"Hai." Sango answer, lowering her eyes. Sango didn't watch for his reaction. "My village was destroyed really, for Naraku's amusement. He sent several demons looking for a shard that wasn't there. My father and several other slayers were sent to Naraku himself, who masked himself as a prince. Now there are only three slayers left, one of which is with Naraku."
"I'm sorry Sango." Raiden said softly.
Sango nodded, "My friends and I are after the jewel shards so that Naraku won't get them." She told him the names of the people of the groups then asked, "What are you doing out here, I mean what are you going to do later?"
Raiden shrugged, "I don't know, I was thinking about going after Naraku."
"Why don't you join us?" Sango didn't really know what she was saying, it just slipped out.
Raiden looked hesitant then he shook his head, "No, I want to do this alone. Besides, I'm not really comfortable being in small groups, specially with strangers."
"Oh," Sango said, wondering why she was somewhat disappointed. "I understand."
They spent the next half hour in silence, until finally Sango decided it was time to go.
"Well, I have to get going." She said. "We're leaving tomorrow morning, in case you decide to join us. If not then...I don't think I'll see you again."
Raiden nodded, "Understood. It was nice meeting you...and thanks, Sango." Raiden wondered why he didn't join them, when he seemed to want to.
"You too." Sango smiled and hesitated. She wondered if she should hug him or shake his hand or something. She walked over to him and squeezed his hand. "Stay strong."
Raiden grinned and uttered a soft, "You too." And he watched her disappear in the night.
-:- -:- -:-
Miroku watched Kaori read her mother's journal. It was probably creepy, by the didn't really have anything better to do. He thought about everything that had happened, and how they now had no jewel shards. Hopefully they would get some soon.
Miroku watched Kaori smiled at whatever was written, but it was immediately replaced with a frown. Within a few minutes her frown deepened.
Miroku sighed and rolled onto his back, he was bored and he couldn't wait until they were traveling again. He closed his eyes and thought about the dream he had again. The thought of his wind tunnel consuming him was so frightening. He thought he really needed a heir, and he wasn't do very good on making that happen.
He was interrupted from his mental rant when he heard soft snoring. He sat up and looked over to Kaori who had fallen asleep on the ground on her stomach. Her hair fell softly over her face and her face glowed softly from the firelight. Miroku thought she looked peaceful and a little cute.
He wondered if he should wake her so that they could walked back to the manor. Miroku got up and walked towards her but was quickly distracted by her butt. If he groped her he'd probably die, or worse he would loose the ability to make babies. Miroku winced at the thought and dismissed the idea.
Miroku picked up his staff and poked her with it. But it seemed like Kaori refused to wake up. He reached down and poked her cheek. "Wake up."
She didn't stir.
He leaned down towards her ear and yelled, "Wake up!"
Suddenly something smashed into his cheek and he found himself falling on his back. He blinked and brought a hand up to his throbbing cheek.
"Huh?" Kaori said, sitting up. Her hair was still in her face and she shook it out. She looked curiously at Miroku, "Oh. Did I do that?"
"Yea, you punched me." Miroku answered sourly. "I was just trying to wake you up."
"Oh sorry," Kaori replied not really sorry at all. "I have excellent reflexes." She said with a grin.
Miroku grumbled to himself and picked up her cloak and her book and handed them to her.
"Thanks," Kaori said while putting out the fire. "How long was I asleep?"
"'Bout thirty minutes." H replied as they began to walk towards the manor.
"Eh," Kaori stretched and yawned. "Didn't do me much good."
"Kaori," Miroku said.
"What?" Kaori asked slightly irritably.
"Did you know that you snore?"
Kaori glared and tripped him, he made a slightly satisfactory 'Oaf' sound. "You didn't have to bring it up."
Miroku stood, "I thought it was cute."
Kaori tripped him again, she was amazed that he fell for it twice.
"Hey, there's something standing on my foot!" Miroku whined.
Kaori noticed the person too, "Oh, hey Sango." Kaori greeted her.
Thanks for reading.
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