Merripit House: The Dark Daiyokai

Sucker Punch

The impact seemed to shatter the very earth. The ground trembled, the trees groaned, the wind stilled. In that moment as it seemed that this island would crack in two and drift off to sea, the entire battle quieted with an eerie silence. Not one creature within a mile survived the neck-snapping concussive blast of massive feathered serpents crashing into the army of gods. But buried beneath Ketsugo-kiba's shield, Sesshomaru's army still stood.

The serpents snapped at the red shield in turn, attempting to bite through the magical barrier with its teeth. Holding Ketsugō-kiba aloft, the daiyokai strained to keep the shield from shattering. His arms shook and each blow pushed him backwards another few centimeters, but he refused to back down. His own youki flowed into and strengthened the sword, but he couldn't maintain it for long. Problem was, removing the shield would expose his army to attack.

All around him, the gods were struggling to get back on their feet. The impact of Quetzalcoatl and Kukulkan meeting a youki shield had jarred them so badly that their heads spun and weapons shook in their hands. They would not survive a frontal assault just yet. So Sesshomaru held firm.

"Why do you not attack, Father?" Quetzalcoatl mocked as he slammed his gargantuan body at the ground again, hard enough to shake the ground. "Do you fear another defeat?"

"You're going to lose your army again sooner or later," Kukulkan sneered. "Give up now. Don't drag it out."

"Why are an Aztec god and a Mayan god speaking in Japanese?" Jackie asked, confusion scrawled on her ghostly visage. "And aren't they supposed to be dead?"

"Daiichi is controlling them," Sesshomaru replied, his voice tight and strained. "And yes. They're dead."

"Oh … Do you want me to do something about that?"

Grunting, he readjusted his tight grip on the hilt of his sword. "If you could."

And off she went, flying off like some sort of Wonder Woman or winged seraphim minus the wings, towards the shield, gathering strength and energy as she flew. Her fist seemed to swell with a reddish light and just as she was about to pass through Sesshomaru's shield to knock out the lights of Kukulkan, she bounced right off it like a basketball hitting a brick wall.

Undeterred and apparently unfazed, Jackie approached the barrier again. Even her fingers couldn't get through, and she pounded her fist on it several times with no success. "General, I think we have a problem!" she called out.

But salvation came from above and with the resounding battle cry: "I ALREADY CALLED DIBS!"

Jackie's eyes widened as a wild-haired Rosario covered in blood and bruises, wielding a pair of katanas, riding atop a red scaled dragon and followed by a bevy of warrior gods like Athena and Durga, burst onto the scene with weapons held aloft. The battle cries of her little company of warriors caused Kukulkan and Quetzalcoatl to pause in their barrage and turn their massive heads.

As Rosario and her company distracted the feathered serpents, slashing at their throats and shooting arrows and fire at their eyes, Jackie darted back down to the ground to hide — well, not hide, per se — behind Sesshomaru. By this point, the pressure on the shield had abated enough that he could stand up straight again and pull Ketsugō-kiba back a bit.

"Well it would seem that my services are, in fact, unneeded," Jackie said, her posture clearly showing just how nervous she was. Though what a ghost had need to be nervous of, Sesshomaru couldn't quite tell.

Glancing around quickly, he made a quick assessment of his army. Getting back to their feet, they seemed to be ready to dive right into the battle once again, though he spotted more than a few of his soldiers sporting cuts that would certainly give a feathered serpent strength if they managed to get a taste of their blood. "Find my mother. The wounded need to be evacuated and healed."

Jackie shuddered in disgust and possibly fear, and Sesshomaru had to wonder why his order caused such a reaction. But without any further protest, she rose to the air and darted off in search of the daiyokai.

With the bulk of his army ready to move and the feathered serpents sufficiently distracted, Sesshomaru dropped the shield with a roar and launched himself into the air.

Ketsugō-kiba glinted maliciously in the sunlight as he swung it at the thick, scaley feathered hide of one of these massive beasts, but the serpents' eyes seemed to miss it. With cold precision, he brought the blade down on one of the snake's belly. Instead of the familiar sensation of flesh splitting and bone breaking from the impact, his sword hit scales as hard as stone, jarring his arm badly enough that he nearly lost his grip on the hilt.

Clearly these beasts would not go down easily. But that wouldn't keep Sesshomaru from trying.

Kukulkan and Quetzalcoatl turned, noticing the shield was gone. Rosario's forces redoubled their efforts to distract them, to pull them back and away, to hack off chunks of their flesh behind the scales and feathers. But it seemed that the serpents had other targets in mind. Namely, all the fleshbags scurrying over the earth, each filled with potent, powerful blood.

From her vantage point, Rosario could see that her team's dispersed attacks were having little to no effect on either of the gigantic gods. Pulling Fudo back a few yards, she surveyed the scene below, searching for some opening, some weakness. And then, her eyes found it. Raising her sword, she cried, "Everyone! To me!"

With her company behind her, Rosario spurred Fudo into a dive straight at Kukulkan's head. Swords raised and claws at the ready, they hit him with the force of a cannon, right where his skull met his spine. Right where Sesshomaru had torn his head off. Screeching a panicked cry, Kukulkan tried to slither away and snap at them an instant before they broke through.

As soon as gravity took hold of the serpent's head, Sesshomaru leaped forward to slash through Kukulkan's screeching head with Ketsugō-kiba. One stroke, and the life left the serpent's eyes, never to open again. With another, the rest of the feathered serpent's body fell silent.

Seeing his companion collapse under the weight of death, Quetzalcoatl did not flee. Nor did he turn his sights on the gods who had killed his companion. Instead, he latched his jaws onto the bloody end of Kukulkan's carcass. And began to drink. As new feathers, thicker scales and sharper claws and teeth began growing, and his entire body began to balloon with thicker muscles and stronger bones, Sesshomaru's entire army, including Rosario's daring troop, began backing away, mostly to make room for him.

Swooping in to knock aside a few of Daiichi's smaller monsters — smaller in comparison to the engorged feathered serpent still drinking his fill of blood — Sesshomaru's mother in her giant dog form began herding his bleeding soldiers away from the scene of battle. Though roughly the same size of her son, if a little bigger, Quetzalcoatl was beginning to dwarf her. And as the largest creature on the battlefield still standing, she made for the perfect target for an Aztec god trying to increase in strength and power indefinitely.

"Mother! Move!" Sesshomaru cried, abandoning his position in order to stop those hellish jaws from swallowing her whole. With poison whips slicing any obstacle in his path, he threw himself and Ketsugō-kiba at the creature. But with scales as hard as steel and sharp as obsidian, Quetzalcoatl brushed his attack aside to go after the weakened warrior gods. And when the daiyokai attempted to deliver another blow, the end of his tail whipped out and sent him crashing through the forest.

Jaws snapped shut, the Western Lady swiped at his nose with her claws, and she barely escaped from his vicious teeth. Blood spilt from one of her flanks when it caught on his tooth, but she never let her injury keep her from herding more warriors away. With just a drop of her blood on the creature's tongue, Quetzalcoatl shivered from the sheer thrill of power infecting his veins. Naturally, he opened his mouth again for another taste.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!"

Jackie, who had led the Western Lady onto the battlefield, shrieked like a red-tailed kite before she dove through the air, leading with her fist. Power gathered around her as she soared straight at Quetzalcoatl's jaw, launching a punch right at his throat that snapped his maw shut and knocked him backwards. Spinning in the air as if she were some sort of Supergirl, she sent blow after blow at the great beast until she had it backing away from the Western Lady and Sesshomaru's army. Given the opening, Sesshomaru's mother quickly darted away to herd a few more injured gods away through the forest.

Rosario's sword hung in the air, perfectly poised to slice at the serpent's back along with the rest of the gods under her command. But her eyes had caught hold of the ghostly form darting through the air, and they simply would not let go. The battle seemed to cease all about her, all noise and shouts and battle roars fading into a dull hum. She could only stare at this spirit, this woman, this …

"Jacqueline," she muttered.

Sheathing the sword in her hand, Rosario released Fudo's reins and began to climb out of the saddle on his back, much to his confusion. He flew towards the nearest patch of land, but she had already made her choice. With little more than a quick jump, she stepped off the dragon and plummeted to the ground.

Except she hit a patch of scales and grabbed a fist-full of feathers before scaling the mountainous creature, all the while shrieking, "Jacqueline! Jacqueline Harkness!" all the way up to the top of the beast's head.

The ghost stopped, hearing her name. She drifted in the air until their eyes met. An electric current seemed to close and something inside Rosario's brain fried, which Jackie recognized immediately. The woman reached for her swords, much to the ghost's chagrin. "Oh come on. I'm already dead."

Shrieking something unintelligible, Rosario charged forward and leaped off Quetzalcoatl's back, slashing both swords at Jackie. She didn't move out of the way like she would have if she wasn't a ghost, but she still instinctively raised her arms to defend herself as the swords came down on her. And to her utter shock, Jackie reeled back in pain as they sliced through her arm.

"That's a problem." Without a moment's hesitation, she zoomed away aiming for Sesshomaru.

Falling, falling, falling to the earth below, Rosario had no reaction to her imminent death. But the moment she realized she hadn't drawn blood, she sank her sword into the scaley hide of Quetzalcoatl who roared from the pain. Once her descent had slowed enough, she pulled the blade out, began scrambling up the beast's back and continued her rampaging chase after the ghost.

"Rosario!" Sesshomaru called over the radio as he picked himself back up and returned to battling an unending stream of foes. "What's going on? Report!"

"Short answer: she's gone crazy," Jackie said, popping out of the ground before him. "What swords did you give her? This," she said, showing him the open, bloodless wound on her forearm, "should not be possible. I'm a ghost!"

Wrapping a poison whip around the neck of a nearby snake demon, he yanked it towards himself and sliced it through with Ketsugō-kiba. "If she's killed 1,000 yokai, then her swords might have inherited some demonic power."

"She's killed a thousand yokai?" Jackie shouted incredulously.

"I haven't been counting. Hasn't she?"

"Jackie!" Rosario scream broke through the din of battle despite being well over a thousand meters away. "Get over here so I can kill you properly!"

"I'm already dead you psycho!" she shouted back. Sesshomaru frowned at Jackie who rolled her eyes. "I have a little bit of history with the individual currently known as Rosario."

Speaking of, the woman came charging across the battlefield, cutting down anything in her way. A fire-eyed bull, twice as large as anything found in a typical rodeo, burst into thousands of pieces as Rosario swung her sword at it, delivering a blow that practically disintegrated the beast. Attention on the battlefield turned from attacking the still-not-downed Sesshomaru to destroying this all-powerful warrior with strength too big for her size. With furious efficiency, she sliced through muscles and tendons and throats and limbs, all so she could get at Jackie.

And if she only focused on the undead creatures controlled by Daiichi, that wouldn't have been a problem. But when she disabled a jackal-headed Egyptian warrior three times her size, rendering him nothing but fodder and blood for a particular feathered serpent, Jackie realized she had to do something. "BRB."

Taking to the air, Jackie flew along the treeline until she made eye contact with Rosario once again. That current of energy that surged into her seemed to fill her eyes with a dark fire and raise the blue-black hair on her head. Snarling viciously like a lion or tiger or bear, Rosario began her racing charge once again, without one hint of slowing down.

Zooming between gods and monsters, Jackie had one, well, two goals in mind. She stayed just barely out of reach of Rosario's swords, cutting it awful close as the crazed warrior slashed at her with everything she had. The tip of one cursed katana caught her foot, nearly tripping Jackie up. It seemed that these cuts, which hurt without bleeding, drew strength and energy from her spirit. Pieces of herself that she could not afford to lose yet.

Jackie's goal came within sight. There was so much of it that it wasn't hard to find. Jackie flew towards the thick hide and scales and feathers of Quetzalcoatl threatening to crush the entire battlefield. And rather than turn away, she darted up his back, weaving between his ridge of feathers. Rosario seemed to only pick up steam with this nearly vertical climb up the beast's back. Jackie knew her pursuer could only run so far before they ran right off the scaled snout of Quetzalcoatl.

Just when Rosario's blade nearly decapitated Jackie altogether, the ghost plunged her whole soul right into the serpent's flesh.

Rosario would not be stopped. Slamming into Quetzalcoatl's side with the force of a cannonball, she tore through his hide. Scales as sharp as bayonets, skin as tough as the armor on a tank, body as thick as a blue whale, and she burst through his side with swords, teeth, nails, fists, everything her body could throw at it — bisecting the god clean through the middle.

With a magnificent screech, the mighty feathered serpent lost control of its undead body. Or perhaps Daiichi chose to relinquish control of it. In any case, the body of this god began to fall, taking Rosario along with it.

It was at this time that Jackie, exhausted and faded, quickly made her retreat back to the Underworld. And Rosario soon realized that, for all her rage and fury, gravity was not a forgiving mistress. Scrambling for any sort of handhold or branch or thing to catch her fall, panic quickly settled into her spine as she and the upper half of Quetzalcoatl plummeted to the rocky ground.

But with a panicked roar, some flying beast burst out of the dust and smoke and snagged her arm with his teeth, plucking her right out of the air. The teeth, hot as molten steel and sharp as obsidian, sent shockwaves of pain through Rosario's system, enough that the stupor that had clouded her brain cleared enough that she could recognize Fudo straining to carry her away.

"Fudo?" she muttered, trying to suss out the meaning of the confusing commotion all around her. As her eyes focused, she spotted the open fanged maw of Kukulkan headed right to them. "Fudo, look out!" she shrieked.

With a gasp, Rosario woke from blackness.

"Hey, it's okay." Liu's big, dumb face appeared above her head, his forced smile attempting to make her feel safe. "You took a bad fall, but you're going to be okay."

Despite him trying to hold her down, she forced herself into a sitting position. Aches and stabbing pain from a variety of bites and cuts plagued her entire body. She spun her head around, searching for … someone. But all she could find was a quiet and empty forest. Well, not entirely empty. Almost like they had been neatly placed in rows, injured gods and warriors were lying on sheets everywhere that she could see. Walking between each of them was a female inu daiyokai in a white kimono with purple and blue details, assessing each need and ordering little kitsune around to see to their medical needs.

Off to her left, she recognized the structure of a tent that had recently been erected. It seemed that the Japanese military had decided to act as Sesshomaru's army's MASH unit. Probably wise as Daiichi's forces would probably have torn them to shreds.

"What am I doing here?" Rosario asked, rubbing her head. It felt all fuzzy. Like the last day had happened in a dense fog. Her head didn't ache like she'd hit it, so her memory loss must have some other source. "I'm supposed to be fighting. Sesshomaru needed me."

"You got hurt. Sesshomaru's mother brought you back here," Liu explained. "It's where she's been taking all the injured soldiers. You just need to rest right now. We'll get you taken care of."

"I'm fine," she insisted. "Something happened. My head, it's all … wrong. I remember being angry, but I don't know why." Looking up, she noticed the expression on his face. It looked worried. And afraid. "I did something again, didn't I."

"You … Yeah. You did." He didn't quite look her in the eye. But he didn't move away from her either. So there was that. "Sesshomaru said you went rogue. There's a reason you're out here and not in the tent."

Sighing, Rosario grabbed a nearby rock and threw it at the nearest tree. "I thought I was getting better. I haven't had a blackout this bad in months."

"I know." Liu draped an arm over her shoulders, causing her to wince when he bumped her dislocated joint. So he reluctantly pulled his hand back and just patted her arm. "It's not your fault. You know that, right?"

His touch seemed to relax some of the tension she still had in her body. "Yeah. At least I had Fudo looking out for … Wait, where'd he go?..."

It wasn't hard to find him. He was the size of a small house, after all. Several yards away from the camp, Fudo laid in an unnatural heap with the glassy-eyed head of Kukulkan and the bloodless body of a dark-haired Greek god. Japanese soldiers were piling wood along the edges of the massive pile of dead creatures, and adding dry branches and leaves as kindling. One was even squirting a bottle of lighter fluid over the mess.

"No! Fudo!" Despite the hundreds of injuries to her body, Rosario sprang to her feet and raced for Fudo's body. It would only take one match for the flame to ignite and swallow him whole, and she could not let that happen. "No! That's my dragon! You can't take him from me!"

Pushing past the soldiers reading their lighters, she threw herself upon the pyre and wrapped her arms around Fudo's broken neck, sobbing. Liu was only a few steps behind her, and all he could do was put a hand on her back. "Rosario, I'm sorry," he said. "When we found you, he was already dead."

"Why are they burning him? He's not dangerous. He won't hurt anyone. I'll dig the hole. I can bury him."

"We can't risk Daiichi stealing him and taking control of him," he explained with a voice strained with grief. "They're burning all the corpses Sesshomaru hasn't touched with Ketusgō-kiba." Looking back, he could see that the soldiers were on edge having their work put on hold. But they weren't cruel enough to deny her this moment with her faithful steed.

"Sesshomaru can fix this," she replied, trying to wipe away her tears while more kept falling. "I've seen him do it before. He had that sword. He brought that girl back to life."

"He doesn't have that sword anymore. You can have a minute, alright? Then we've got to go. We've got something we have to do."