Episode 43: Cursed Hand
"Really, men these days, right Mika?" Yukuro said, trying her best to make her feel better about the situation. Apparently, it was making her feel worse, however. Her head was face down on her knees, blocking contact from the outside world. Her arms were holding her legs, and her mouth tight as a zipper stuck in the modern world jacket.
Over on the other side sat Jaken and Rin, who were huddling over a fire. They had no idea what was going on, or at least Rin did. She was still thinking that Mika had a bad case of diarrhea. So she did her best to cook up some natural food, which was raw fish. She washed it with care and water and stuck a stick in the middle for it to roast nicely in the fire.
At the edge of the cave sat Sesshoumaru, who was making it clear that he was not in the mood to talk to anyone. He sat still and silent, as he always was and his one hand on his lap. He stared outside, instead of watching everybody else.
Soon, after waiting patiently, the fish was cooked. Rin ran over to the gloomy Mika and stuck the fish in the dirt for her. She smiled happily, oblivious to the problems the pregnant girl was facing. And then she skipped away.
Pulling the fish out of the sand, she bit into it with no pleasure nor disgust. It was just fuel to her now and soon she consumed it. She set the stick back onto the floor and continued to gloom, when suddenly there was a sudden movement of the earth. Everything shook, from the trees to the sky, and even as roosting birds flew out they seemed to shake too.
In the distance, Sesshoumaru could make out a large silhouette of some sort of youkai. It was about five miles away from their cave, and as soon as it began to move, each step shaking the earth again, he could see the being clearly. But it wasn't just a youkai; it was masses and masses bunched up together, probably on a deal to borrow another youkai's power in exchange for their bodies. It was a hideous sight.
The eyes of this monster were nonexistent. The arms were oddly made, with the left having only three, colorful fingers, while on the right there were seven of them. Sometimes the fingers grew out of another finger. And the legs were either too short or too long, making it difficult for this being to move.
"What do you see, elven warrior," Yukuro asked, jumping to the entrance of the cave. Sesshoumaru didn't answer. He didn't need to. For Yukuro could see as well as he.
"Man that's a huge thing, I mean, I've never seen it in my life--"
All of a sudden, Jaken ran up to Sesshoumaru yelling his rocker off about some crystal. He held up a dull crystal whose youki was disappearing and said that Naraku's heart was nearby. Maybe... even in that colossal monster!
Sesshoumaru stood up and disappeared from the cave. He seemed to be only focused on killing Naraku, nothing else. Leaving his group alone. In a trap.
It was only a few moments before the cave's walls caved in. Rin and Mika struggled to run outside before it fell. Especially Mika, who decided that it was time to make a sacrifice. She knew she could not outrun the cave's destruction and that the only way to assure another one's safety was to leave her behind. So she pushed Rin as hard as she could, which succeeded in her catapulting her two feet away from the cave.
The cave and rocks toppled onto her, leaving no trace of Hashi Mika.
"Mika!" Yukuro held a breath and transformed into a thin, slithering snake but the rocks were piled onto each other so tight and neatly put to place, she couldn't find a single crack or hole big enough for her small body to get in. She gave up and returned to her humanoid form, digging her nails into the rocks trying to get them off. Then she shook her head. "There's no saving to do..."
Rin slowly got up from her bottom and looked back. The rocks were enough to make any youngster cry. As soon as she knew Mika was not by their sides, she raised her hands to her eyes and began to weep. Jaken could only stand there, emotionless.
"What are you crying for?"
Everybody turned around. Of course, there was no one else but Mika to say that.
"H-how did you get out???" Jaken could only stutter out. The rest just stood there amazed.
"Well, I'm not that weak. Look in the back and you'll see."
Rin ran to the back of the rocky mess and gave a surprised shout. "Ah! She's right! There's a giant space in here!"
"...Looks like the maiden didn't need savin'," Yukuro exclaimed, her voice loud and bright. "I knew you were alive!"
Mika could only slap her in reply. "Liar."
"No really!"
"I heard you. You said: 'There's no saving'... RIGHT???"
Yukuro walked away whistling innocently. "I don't know what you're talking--"
"ARGH!!!"
A growl from some being indeed. A rabid dog with sharp, toxic teeth that burned the floor and Mika's skin. The fur was black, with a few stains of brown. The eyes were red thirsting for blood. The blood of the woman, who carried the thing he desired.
"MIKA--! RUN!" Yukuro could only scream.
Mika's lip quivered as she got to her feet and began sprinting in the opposite direction. The dog quickly gave follow, at her very trail, ready to snap her legs. Just when it seemed lost, she spotted a band of thieves. Her only hope.
"Someone! Help!" she yelled, but she was unfortunate to trip over a stick that was dug under the ground so deep. She fell headfirst into the mud, tasting grit and was paralyzed, for a very brief time. Short enough for her to hear the cries of the men as the dog spotted more prey and jumped over her to devour. They screamed and wailed, sirens of distress and despair. Blood splattered all over the floor, and when the dog was done, only bones of the carcasses were there.
"Stay away!!!" she cried, kicking effortlessly at the dog a few feet from her. She backed up to a tree and tried to get up. But the dog was so near, its breath so foul...
A sword.
There was a sword. A sword that had been knocked to her side, a weapon that could defend her. But...
She was scared. The blade was so sharp, so smoothly made. One cut and the life would be gone. She couldn't. No, she wouldn't. She had promised herself, to never use a sword again.
All of a sudden, three more dogs appeared. Five, then rapidly escalated to eight surrounded her. It was either break the promise and wield the sword, or die in vain by their wicked jaws. She shot a look at the blade and reluctantly picked up the blade.
It had been a long time since the katana was her bloodthirsty companion. It was a part of her, a part of her soul locked away from horrible memories. She held it to the sunlight. The dogs charged... blood exchanged between them...
~O~O~O~O~O~
"Hurry up you two," Yukuro urged, running at full speed toward the bloody trail the dog had left behind. There was time; she was sure of it, there was time to save Mika. They just needed to--
She stopped. Her eyes couldn't behold the sight.
A pack of corpses, or what have should been corpses were scattered all over the place. Dogs, and humans. There were bones that belonged to the human, with some flesh still draped over it. But the dogs; they were split into half, the heads beheaded, the insides gruesomely slashed out. What kind of killing machine would do this?
There was a path of blood that continued toward the horizon. It carried the scent of Mika's flesh. Was she still alive?
Maybe the thing that killed these dogs and humans... got Mika! She began to panic. She shook her head and turned into a snake. She would travel faster that way; and began to slither like a rocket, following the blood.
~O~O~O~O~O~
It was a trap. A fake decoy. Something to lead him away from everybody, he knew it. That was why he had to get back. Just when the smell of that ghastly woman came by. Sesshoumaru stopped. The woman wasn't very tall, she was covered in youkai blood, and she was... holding a sword.
The distance was... eight miles. He continued to run. He would meet this person soon enough.
But it seemed that she arrived first. Her hair was loose, flying in the wind like some sort of laundry. Her arms, legs, and face were stained with blood, green and red, mixing together and scars that were made recently were all over her stomach and shoulders. Her eyes were golden, instead of the hazel she used to have. And in her right had lay a sword; a dull, regular sword that had absorbed the blood thirst in the owner's body.
"You're... a demon..." Sesshoumaru murmured at her sight.
Mika didn't seem to think so. She opened her mouth, which had the smell of blood coming through and licked her dry lips. She gave a little chuckle before she started to pace faster, and faster until she was charging at him. It was a speed quite inhuman, and even he was almost struck, for his sword wasn't even drawn when she was onto him.
Like a sound of a badly made flute, the swords met together with a screech. It hurt his ears, but Mika kept pushing, kept her sword against his. He kicked her back, but as soon as she was back on her feet, she rose again and flew toward at him with the blade. She hacked at him recklessly, but with skill. It was a skill he didn't think she'd had.
Swift, and hard, she flung her arm at his head, kicked his toe to knock him confused, and punched his stomach, then she used her sword to stab his shoulder. He blocked them successfully, but with each strike, she started to gain more strength and attacked even more unpredictably.
"Aah," she snarled, throwing her foot across his face. He ducked and thrust Tokijin into her stomach, when he remembered something.
He backed away immediately, before the sword could touch her. But it was too late. Mika dropped the sword, and she came back. The blood was coming fast, even though it was a little scratch. He stood there, biting his tongue, waiting for her reaction.
She collapsed onto the floor completely, her eyes closed, and her right hand over her stomach. The blood wouldn't stop. But by the time he was by her side, Yukuro had arrived. Just in time.
"Sesshoumaru," she called out, breathlessly. The snake youkai returned to her humanoid form and immediately took a look at her wounds. They weren't serious, but she was worried about something.
"If she really is, this could be a problem," she warned Sesshoumaru. He was listening, but he was focused on something else entirely. It was her strange and sudden behavior. Just like last time, only this time she was herself, just a mad killing machine.
"S...sword..." Mika's eyes opened. "S...sword..."