I am very sorry for the unbelieveably LONG period of wait for this chapter! I have three on the go right now, so It might be a little longer than usual for the chapters..:S Please bear with me though! I try!
Enjoy!
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"Its not a hard thing to do, child!" Shikyo growled slightly as a wailing Rin scampered around an open area of flat grass. Her head was covered with prickly, sharp burrs, knotting her hair. "All I asked of you was to sit still! But NO! Of course not! You run around like a lunatic with his head cut off!" She grabbed the childs shoulders swinging her over her own and walking away toward the lake close by. The girl kicked and refused, pounding Shikyo's back with her harmless little fists, making Shikyo laugh. It felt like a small prickle, not a sear of pain as Rin wanted it to be.
As they gained in on the slightly distant water source Jaken came up from behind and tagged along, hopping from one foot to the other. He was in a strangely good mood.
"Is something the matter, Master Jaken?" Shikyo asked, glancing down toward the green Imp Demon skipping along, hands behind his back, the staff of two heads comfortably placed on his shoulder. "Your in a strangely good mood today, unlike someone. This is the first temper tantrum I have ever seen her take!" The girls fists still pounded the kitsune's sharp shoulder blades, making hollow, thumping sounds. Shikyo's mouth twitched into a tiny smirk. The girl had no chance of hurting the strangely melodically beautiful demoness.
"Oh, no, Lady Shikyo!" Jaken sang,"It's just a very beautiful day today! Do you not think so?"
"Of course," Shikyo smiled, her gently sharpened fangs glisening in the summer sunlight, "I just wish I could relax." Her enviously pink iris's looked toward the now slumped shape of Rin, her arms at ease and taking her 'punishment' as it would come. Shikyo rolled her shoulders glad to have the beating over with. "Finally, she rests."
The trees thinned out and revealed water, and Shikyo sighed in relief. She set the girl on a rock, Rin slumping over and slouching, crossing her arms across her chest in deffiance. Shikyo cupped water in her hands and splashed it on Rin's back making her jump.
"Will you let me take them out now?" Shikyo asked, addressing the burrs in Rin's hair. "It will only take a second." She smiled beautifully, "I promise."
"You promise it wont hurt?" Rin looked up, her eyes wide with worry.
"I can't promise it wont sting, no." Shikyo smiled again, "But I will do my best!" Her fangs shone brilliantly again, frighteningly sharp but comforting and warm to see. She knelt behind the little warumuno girl and inspected the tangly mess that was her once shiny, chocolate brown hair. Shikyo almost laughed and thought of when Sesshoumaru had the time of his life, trying to pry burrs from her hair a matter of many times, always getting the rare and unexpected puppy growl from the little fox. At these times, everyone could sense the large, gaping gap of age between the fox and the hound.
For the next hour or so, Shikyo prodded and pryed at the girls hair, being as gentle as a butterfly landing on your nose, not making the girl jump or squeel once. Rin's hair now shone like its old self, clean and burr free.
"Thank you, Shi!" Rin laughed and hugged Shikyo's legs (the girl was not tall enough to grab her waist), shaking her untangled hair form her eyes and watching it gleam in the sun. "Rin is much more happy now that her hair is pretty once more!" She let go and skipped along the water's edge, sniffing the yellow flowers she passed by. She smelled every one, even though all smelled the exact same. Shikyo smiled her one of a kind smile again. Over the weeks she'd spent with the little girl, Jaken and Lord Sesshoumaru, she became closer and closer to Rin, even to the point where she would probably sacrifice herself to protect the child. She had a strong motherly bond to Rin.
"When did Lord Sesshoumaru specify he would return?" Shikyo turned on Jaken who was sitting on the rock once preoccupied by Rin, taking in the sun. He looked startled but answered her question.
"Around midnight tonight aproximately, if I remember correctly," He replied.
"Thank you, Jaken," Shikyo thanked him and turned to look into the black surface of the water. The sunlight reflected off it so violently it strained her eyes to look into it. Water was her best friend, one that would never leave her side for anything, not even in death. They were two parts of one whole. It was who she was. This fact never made much sense to the woman, but as she deepend into her womanhood, the secret of her family slowly revealed itself to her... as well as the Lycan of The Leaves and The FireFly.
As she stared into the dark abbis that was this small ocean of pure substance, she thought of her 'exile', a time she almost lost her sanity, her life... and alot of hair.
.:Flashback:.
"Niako! Please, stop it! Your hurting me!" 15 year Shikyo screamed, Niako's firm grip on her arm tightening. His blood stained claws sinking deeper and deeper into her pale skin, making bloody flaws in the perfect asset of her body.
"I'm starting to see what a WENCH you really are!" He shook her small body around like a rag doll, her lithe but frail body not holding up against this built up fox demon. "Your a ice cold Vixen! I can't believe I EVER thought I could befriend you! You a worthless peice of shit that doesn't deserve to live!"
"And what about the prophecies hunh?" Shikyo snarled wickedly, a much more agressive sound the male could ever make. "They don't mean a thing to you!?"
"NO! They don't! I don't give a shit about some prophecy about three demons destined for greatness!" He growled and kept his stare down of the little fox. He started to get upset and grabbed her long, silken smooth, ebony locks and yanked her head back, making her stare straight into his eyes. "You will never do anything great... Never. Even your friend Sesshoumaru left you to be taken away! I can't believe you ever thought a man like him would ever love a little girl like you!" He smiled a crooked grin and disgustingly licked her neck. She growled and tried to pull away, but his lips were planted on hers possessively. She almost gagged. Suddenly, a knife was in his hand, and her hair... was on the ground.
Shikyo screamed and flung the demon off her, the wicked pink iris's of her eyes going black with rage. Her fangs elongated, puncturing holes in her lower lip and two long lines of crimson flowed down her chin.
"NEVER. TALK. ABOUT. SESSHOUMARU. IN. FRONT. OF. ME!" Shikyo roared, her now devastingly short hair flying around her face in wisps of blackness. Her markings glowed with a vengeance, blood red lines from her eyes, claw marks on her jaw and two long lines from her hair line to the top of her eyesbrows all aglow like fire burning.
Suddenly the water beside where she stood, started bubbling and boiling, steam coming from the surface. A deep heat wave could be seen above that dark, clear water. Her fingers tingled, and shards of pure, crystal clear aquatic liquid shot through the surface, and shot straight toward... Niako...
.:End FlashBack:.
Shikyo's mind wandered in and out of a clear and concious type of mind, and the sun had set completely before she realized where she was. Jaken and Rin had left. She looked around a bit, still shaken from the thought of that indiotic demon Niako. His unbelievably green eyes penetrated every bit of sanity left inside her small, scraed chest. her fingers clenched into fist's on the ground, her claws digging into her skin. She felt the stickyness of her own, dark blood seep through her fingers, but she didn't even take heed, for a cold like no other swept into the air. It chilled her spine to the bone and kept her locked in place. Someones breath was at her neck, breathing, long, steady breaths, in and out. She felt the persons nose brush against her skin but she could for the life of her turn around. She felt hair fall around her shoulders, and she was horrified to find it was a dull shade of brown.
"Don't move." Niako breathed. The air was getting colder and colder by the minute, actually freezing the top of the black pond. His icey breath burned her neck and she tried to turn, but was held firmly in place by... four hands?
"Nice to see you again, Shikyo!" Kenkyoshou laughed, holding her shoulders, while Niako had his hands firmly around her hips. Her teeth clenched together, jaw tight in frustration. She wanted to see Niako's face! She thought he had died! Great, now she has to kill him for the SECOND time!?
"Surprised to see me, babe?" Niako's voice was still the husky rasp it always had been. He kissed her jaw lightly and she growled low, him laughing a bit but retreating. "You've... grown." He looked down and over her body.
"It has been quite a while, Niako. I can't say the same for you, Kenkyoshou, for I had an fairly unfortunate encounter with you just a week ago, is that not correct?" Shikyo's lips curved into one of her horrorfying grimace/smirks. Her eyes looked out of their corners trying to get a good look at Niako. She couldn't. Suddenly she felt herself leave the ground and be heald by Niako, his face buried into her neck. He moaned when he smelled her scent.
"I missed you..." He breathed, Shikyo barely even hearing him even with her extensive hearing. Her eyes widened slightly. Missed her? From what SHE remembered, he tried to KILL her before she fled from him!
"The the fuck do you mean, 'missed me'!? You tried to kill me!" Shikyo wrigled in his grasp but his arms were much stronger than they were when he was younger. She still had not seen his face and she whined inside her chest in frustration. She settled down when Niako seemed to not want to hurt her. Her body slumped into his arms.
"...You don't know the real story, babe!" Niako laughed, nuzzling into her neck again, smiling. "Will you listen?"
Shikyo didn't answer at first but nodded her head. Anything to tell her her old friend was not against her, she would listen to. She wanted nothing more than to have the old Niako back. he nodded to himself, while Kenkyoshou stood against a tree, yawning.
"Get this over with fast Niako! I have work to do elsewhere!" He complained, closing his ice bleu eyes and leaning back, looking florecent in the monlight. One thing that anyone could say about Kenkyoshou was that he was a sight for sore eyes. he was practicaly flawless. They used to call each other the perfect pair until they were seperated and he became a masochistic maniac.
"Shikyo," Niako started, putting her on the ground again, letting her go and walking away. He sat down, his head hung low so she could STILL not see what became of the once GORGEOUS face that he once wore. Shikyo looked at his clothes and found that they were Samurai armor. He had swords attached to his back, sides, hipps. daggers on his wrist and many other assorted weapons scattered throughout the red and white armor. His messy brown hair hung over his eyes, it shiny and smooth as she remembered it. "Sit down." He pointed to a spot infront of him. Shikyo nodded and obliged, looking at the moon for a moment. The moon was almost at its midnight point. Hopefully Sesshoumaru would not arive while these two were still visiting.
"You don't know how much I missed you, baby..." His hair still covered his face. "My life turned into a fucking living hell when you left. I have to tell you, those water spears are something else!" he laughed, his shaggy hair falling away from his mouth to show a twisted, but still beatiful, scarred smile. Shikyo's face dropped at his words, her eyes filled with something... sympathy maybe? "Anyway. I need to tell you the truth. And this is it. The leader or that horrid tribe of foxes dispised you. He wanted you dead more than he wanted me for a son..." You could see his shoulders drop in disapointment, "He ordered me to get rid of you. Kill you fast and quick. But I didn't want to. I wanted you to run away... Run away from that horrible place forever and never look back. So I said those horrible things to you... It worked. You ran away so fast... only AFTER you shot spears of ice cold water in my direction. I have to say that those were impressive. I wanted to say goodbye to you, but the only thing I could think of was to kiss you... Like I had wanted to do to you since I met you... I'm sorry I did that... I'm so, so, SO sorry for every word I said to you that night... And for that AWFUL kiss. I know that was horrible..."
Shikyo's eyes now filled with tears. She always wanted to believe he didn't maan what he said. Always wanted to know that he still loved her. Now she knew. It was heard in his cracking voice, and she could see a clear tear fall off his chin. She lifted off her knees and crawled over to him. He gerked his head in the other direction hiding his face from her again.
"Don't look at me..." He whispered, "I'm hideous."
"I don't judge people by what they appear as on the outside, but how they look on the inside." Shikyo's hand felt his hair again. Yes, soft.
Niako slowly turned back around. His hair fell away from his face fully. His skin was still pale, random freckles on his nose, from his english heritage. That nose was still perfect, chisled and long. But what was beside it tore Shikyo's heart in two. Four, long, painful looking scars ran down his cheek, turning his mouth into a permanant scowl. The traveled down to his jaw continueing down his neck. The didn't even stop when they dissapeared under his armor. His eye was slightly squinted from a gash from his hairline to the top of cheek bone. The other side of his face was intact. A striking green eye staring intently at her while the other, faded green one stared into space. He was blind in the right one...
"Oh, Niako..." Shikyo whispered, her hand tracing down his scars lightly, his eyes closing. "Who did this to you?"
At this question, Kenkyoshou perked up, jumping away from the tree and kneeling beside the two foxes. He smiled evily.
"Why, me of course!" he smiled again,seeming as if it was the best thing for a young woman who once was best friends with the one he gave scars to, to hear. Her head turned toward him, her jaw clenched.
"You?"
"ME!"
Shikyo didn't say anything. Neither did the other two. A new scent had joined them... Sesshoumaru was here.
"Shikyo..." Sesshoumaru's cold voice came through the trees followed by his tall, lithe body. His hair blew in the slight breeze, eyes narrowing at the sight of Kenkyoshou smiling wickedly at him?
"Sesshoumaru." Shikyo smiled at his appearance, "I would like to introduce you to an old friend of mine... Niako Auga." she looked back at Niako, and he had his head down again. "He's shy."
Sesshoumaru could not seem any less interested in Niako then he was now. His eyes never left the still smiling form of Kenkyoshou, sitting on his knees, hands folded together, eyes squinted happily. His blue hair twinkled in the moonlight again. He like to use his amazing looks to his advantage.
"It is an honor to meet you, My Lord, " Niako's voice was heard from above Shikyo, and she noticed he had stood, standing in a half bow toward Sesshoumaru. Sesshoumar finally acknowledged the male fox demon and nodded his head in his direction. Kenkyoshou had also stood which left Shikyo the only one left on the cold, hard ground. She growled to herself and stood like the rest of the males. Her tiny body looked so frail between these tall, lean male demons. There auras were even much more threatening than hers. She whined. They all looked toward her, eyebrows cocked.
"I feel so small..." Shikyo whined again, her head sinking. Sesshoumaru chuckled and Niako laughed, looking at her with an unknown emotion in his eyes. But Kenkyoshou was a whole different story.
"You should feel small, woman!" He growled, "We are much more strong, experianced and OLDER than yourself. More skilled, and to tell you the truth... better looking!" His boastfulness made Shikyo actually make a small gagging sound which actuallt made BOTH Niako and Sesshoumaru laugh out loud. Kenkyoushou's face dropped. "I'm glad I did that to your little friend now... I deserve it!"
Shikyo had forgotten about what Kenkyoshou had done to Niako, and faced him again, her heart thumbing in her chest from hate. Her eyes burned into him like daggers. "tell me why you did this!?" Shikyo actually roared, her normal, deep, husky voice now replaced with a menacing growl. One of her eyes had turned black, her pupil shicking pink.
"Well, thats what happens when you refuse to tell me where the person I want to visit is! I asked where you were, but he wouldn't tell me!" Kenkyoshou smiled again, laughing to himself. Shikyo snarled vicously, and she heard, well actually smelled, Sesshoumaru shift happily. He loved it when Shikyo got mad. He found it riveting. Niako just stood there with his head still hung low.
"You will pay for what you have done to him!" Shikyo snarled again. Kenkyo laughed again. Sesshoumaru shifted again and Niako's head snapped up. They all sensed a fight in the making.
"Well then, lets settle this ONCE and for all!" Kenkyoshou laughed maniacly, rubbing his hands togther a large sword forming.
"I agree..." Sesshoumaru replied, unsheathing Tokijin, watching Kenkyoshou cringe away form the powerful lightening sword.
"Yes, but I will not fight for you Kenkyo'..." Niako agreed, revealing his two large swords made of gold from his back. The handles were ebony.
"It ends tonight..." Shikyo's voice was still distorted.
"FINALLY!" Kenkyoshou screamed, then, dissapeared. All three demons threw their heads around looking for and trying to find the scent of that horrid ice demon. The ground suddenly froze, all the grass turning to peices of deadly ice blades. The pond completely froze over, long spears of ice coming through, standing up, lifting out and pointing straight toward the three demons. Before they even figured out what was going to happen, the ice shards flung through the air as surprising speed that they all had to dodge, still getting away with cuts.
"You're a CHEATER Kenkyo!" Niako yelled, laughing somewhat, "And a coward!"
Before he could say much more the ice peices came back, shikyo getting a large gash in her side, Sesshoumaru getting away with a large wound on his back, but Niako was not so lucky. The large, thin and long ice spear went straight through his stomach, out through his back and ripping with blood. He stared down at it, shocked, then dropped to his knees. Shikyo smelled his blood and ran to him. She held his face in her hands. Blood gushed from his mouth, as she smiled weakly at her.
"I'm... sorry that I couldn't..."He took large gulps of air to keep talking, "Spend more... time with you... I loved you... like my own... sister... you're my... baby," His last word was a whisper as he finally stopped breathing and the blood stopped running through his veins. That was exactly what he was to her. A brother. She loved him with all her might. And now he was dead. His beatufully twisted face still held the last smile he gave her...
As Shikyo held Niako in her arms, Sesshoumaru watched Kenkyoshou. The thin form of the ice dmeon stood under the trees, arms crossed across his chest in triumph. Sesshoumaru wouldn't dare look at Shikyo. Her tears hit him with too much force. He despised this demon for making her cry. He did not know the man, but if his death meant that much to her, he wouldn't resist to killing his murderer. They locked eyes, blue with gold, and quick as lightening, but shot toward each other with a killer intent...
"Hes dead...hes dead...gone...dead... baby...DEAD!" The air around Shikyo froze much colder than what Kenkyoshou could manage. Her hair blew around her in billows of ebony. Both eyes were now black with pink pupils. Her markings glowed red as they did the other night, but now gashes of red ran down her arms, covering her skin in long claw marks. Her teeth elongated extensively, almost and inch and a half long now. Her white tail had black seeping up it, consuming the purness of the white and taking over it with darkness...
Sesshoumaru and Kenkyoshou were still locking in a deah match with their swords when Shikyo let out a very feminine but all the more frightening roar from deep in her throught...
Her true form will soon be revealed...
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NEXT TIME: Aquaticasm!
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