There were far too many men and far too many different types of demons up in the cold North for Kotone's taste. She had come to trust Izo and his father and the male shinobi members, but as they journeyed from tribe to tribe to get them to back Hikari, Kotone hated it. They were too numerous and too new to her. Some of the tribes were led by them, too. She could hardly understand why men would be trusted with such a heavy responsibility. Also, they looked at her made her feel uncomfortable, staring too hard, too long. One was even bold enough to demand she be brought before him. He even tried to challenge her to a fight, curious as to how an ice maiden fought. Hikari refused him, saying Kotone would win and would not want to have to take over his tribe for him. Kotone thought it strange that in this part of the country, if a leader was defeated, then the person who defeated them took over their leadership, be it a tribe or just a clan within a tribe.
You keep what you kill... Kotone did not like that idea, fighting a strange man in a strange part of the world to her. Nor trying to take over leadership from him or anyone else up here for that matter. She kept her distance as much as possible. She was thankful Izo was willing to shield her when she wanted him to. None of these strangers to her even realized she was mute and she desired very much so to keep it at that.
When they had finally met up with this Maeshu by the frozen over bay, someone Kotone would have liked to see killed since she had tried to orchestrate Izo's death, she felt the temptation to kill her rise up. She would love to see the woman die, be it by her hand or someone else's. So when Hikari was parlaying with her, Kotone felt dread burrow a hole inside of her when Maeshu blamed her for the deaths of the four shinobi and challenged her alone to a fight to the death to see whom the gods deemed guilty of their deaths, Kotone felt the urge to flee from the North all over again. She wanted the woman dead, but hated that she tried to blame Kotone for deaths that were not entirely her fault.
She could not run again though. She locked eyes with Hikari, who was silently pleading to her to accept the challenge. Kotone debated over and over in her head, wanting to refuse. She wanted to run back to Alaric Castle, back to Koji, and to leave this fight behind. Yet when Izo stepped back from her, she felt like the world was shifting uncontrollably away from her. It was an unshaken feeling and she hated that it was overtaking her all over again. This time she could not let it consume her. She looked over at Hikari, and then at Maeshu, nodding.
She stepped forwarded when she would rather turn tail and run. She felt herself shaking and worried the other demons around her would see her. She stood next to Hikari, sensing heat flare from the shorter woman. She felt herself draw strength from it. Hikari reached her hand out to Kotone's, giving hers a gentle squeeze. Kotone returned it. Maeshu narrowed her eyes at them, noticing the brief exchange.
Kotone could sense Izo's eyes boring into her back behind, but she would not let herself look back at him. She brought her hands behind herself so he could see them. 'Koji, your son,' she signed the request quickly. He would understand. If she died, at least her son would be safe. Safe as he could be.
She could sense Izo moving behind her, but she dared not look back. She felt an itch in her mind. 'She's an ocean demoness.' She heard Izo's father voice in her mind. She hoped he would tell him more, but he was silent after that.
Maeshu looked intrigued and even a little annoyed by her. She cocked her head towards the middle of the two demon groups closer to the frozen bay. She ordered the other demons standing near her to go back to her side of the bay. Kotone turned her head back just enough to see Hikari leading her small band away to stand in front of the tribes backing her. Kotone looked forwarded, stepping closer Maeshu.
Maeshu looked her over curiously. "I've heard of you. Runaway ice maiden? Where's your son?" She goaded her.
Kotone said nothing, just looking over at her, not even trying to move to say nothing.
"You know who your backing, don't you?" Maeshu continued. "The son and grandchildren of the monster elf, Ichiro. You know he raped one of your sisters years ago. He took over up here, with his amassed wealth built up from her tear gems. And now your backing his kin."
Kotone felt her breathing grow heavier. Izo told her about his grandfather, but there was no love for him in those stories. It smarted to hear what happened from an enemy's lips though.
Maeshu seemed annoyed that Kotone said nothing yet. "Ichiro killed off more shinobi than you did. It took the disappearance of his granddaughter to get anyone to even do anything to help us up here."
Kotone shook her head, resisting the urge to point at the other woman as it risked revealing her inability to speak.
"What's wrong with you, girl? Cat got your tongue?" Maeshu kept trying to get a rise out of her.
Kotone sighed, feigning annoyed. She pulled out her sword from her hip, standing at the ready to fight the annoying woman who talked much too much. She looked briefly over the blade, the ice blue shined and danced beautifully in the sunlight.
Maeshu huffed under her breath. "Fine then."
Maeshu raised her arms up, summoning up frozen water from the bay behind her. Kotone noticed the woman panted when she did so, but mastered the warmed up water better than she knew Airi, the other ocean demoness she had encountered, could. The water danced around her in swirls and sprays. It would be nothing for Kotone to refreeze, or so she hoped. Maeshu had the water moving around her with little effort. There was more behind her as well. She was channeling from both the snow at her feet and the water frozen in the bay.
Maeshu watched her, as if waiting for her to initiate the attack first. Kotone refused, watching her. Maeshu looked frustrated. She sent a blast of water over towards her. Kotone held her sword in her right hand and raised her left hand up. With some concentrated effort, she froze the blast coming at her midair. The water from the blast froze, falling into the snow between them.
Yet more blasts of water were coming towards her. Maeshu was ruthless in that, like a sister would have been. Kotone moved left hand as fast as she could, freezing the blasts before they reached her. Yet they kept getting closer and closer to her. One hit her, then another, and another. Before she knew it, water swirled all around her and the ground fell away from her, taking her sword with it.
She looked around herself, trapped in a floating sphere of water, surrounding her on all sides. She could just barely make out the smudged outline of Maeshu standing below her. She tried to swim her way out of the water, but the water moved and swirled around her. Her lungs started to burn from lack of air. She kept trying to swim out, to fight against the liquid tomb she was entrapped in. Even from within the water sphere, she could hear Maeshu laughing at her. That woman was still alive. That thought burned more than her lungs burned for air. With difficulty in the moving water, she raised both of her hands out, channeling the cold, freezing the sphere from the inside out.
It must have gotten far too hard for Maeshu to hold it up before the water sphere froze solid because suddenly Kotone felt it plummet to the ground, taking her with it. The ice shattered all around her, smarting with each piece that hit her. She gasped, swallowing down every lungful of air she could manage to inhale. She did not wait too long to drop her guard though. She located her sword, holding it up to ensure that Maeshu would not catch her off guard. Kotone rose up, spotting Maeshu in front of her, looking livid, water still swirling around her, but less so than she originally had.
"Why aren't you drowned?" Maeshu spat.
Kotone just shrugged, liking that the woman was worried. Kotone charged at her with her sword, taking on the offensive this time. Maeshu put water in front of her like a shield, but Kotone cut through it and froze it for good measure. Kotone charged at her over and over again, battling more water than person, but she had the woman on the run. She could almost smell her blood.
Then something unexpected happened. Kotone felt a sharp pain shoot into her left side just under her rib cage. Kotone looked down, seeing Maeshu had stabbed her with a knife made of water through her lung. Kotone felt her breath gurgle, the urge to cough and sputter from her left side overwhelm her.
"Freeze that," Maeshu challenged, breathing heavily. "That'll do more more damage to you then me."
Kotone coughed harder, feeling the water filling up one lung, ready to spill over into the other. Kotone dropped her sword purposefully, finding the need to have both hands free right now. She reached her hands over to Maeshu's head, gripping either side of her ears. The woman's hair was soaking wet, which would expediate the process. She sent cold into Maeshu's head through her ears freezing her there. Maeshu screamed, but Kotone did not let up. Even though she could not breathe, she felt Maeshu let up and then drop dead before her.
Kotone let her go, dropping herself to the ground, coughing and sputtering. She could hardly cough the water out of her lungs though, even as her body racked with spasms. The hole in left lung leaked water and blood out, but would not allow her hardly inhale and expel water. She felt her head pound harder and harder. She felt ready to lay down and die. It seemed like it would be easier.
She sensed something cover over to her, shoving her onto her back. She pushed and shoved them away.
"Kotone, don't!" she heard Izo's voice say, even though it sounded far too far away.
She still pushed him away, but felt her arms grow number and number. She was shoved on her back. Hands pressed down firmer on her left side, even though she kept coughing and sputtering.
"Kotone, please, you need to lay still for me to heal you," she heard him plead. She tried to stay still, but found she could not. Even though her limbs and head felt filled with lead, her chest instinctively tried to expel the water from both lungs and replace it with air. With a hole in one lung, it might as been impossible.
Another set of hands clamped around her head. She panicked, trying to shake those hands off. She felt her whole body minus her eyes go slack, paralyzed. She looked up, seeing the weaker telepath from earlier. The one that failed to guard Maeshu's mind from Hiei. She heard him enter her mind. 'Hold still, my lady.' His words sounded labored in her mind, like he was struggling to keep hold of her. 'Just until he finishes healing your lung,' the man's voice pleaded.
Kotone looked up at him, feeling panic well up inside her. She was trapped on her back, with no one, but two men hovering over and it was impossible to get them off of her. She looked up at the stranger telepath, seeing beads of sweat covering his bruised face. He did not know her. He could easily subdue her. Yet he was helping her.
Izo sat up, moving away from. She felt the telepath let her go in time with him. Kotone felt her chest heave almost immediately. She saw the telepath raise his hand over her mouth. She felt him pull the remaining water and blood choking in her lungs and casted it all aside. She choked, taking down lungfuls of air over and over. She felt exhausted, damp, and shaky. She turned over, resting her arms heavily on the ground, still coughing and panting, but far less than a minute or two ago. She looked over at the telepath. He looked a lot like she felt, kneeling heavily on the ground next to her. He looked up at her in awe when their eyes met. She looked away from him. She turned her eyes back over to Izo, who looked overly worried at her, but kept his distance. He too was in a crouched position. She wondered why he would run over to heal her, but suddenly now was keeping his distance.
Shakily, she rose up, legs splayed wide to keep herself upright. She made to go towards Izo, but he shook his head at her. She blinked down at him, almost signing to ask him what he was doing. Then she looked behind him. The demon tribes behind him were all kneeling down to. She craned her head around, looking back over at Hikari and the others. The demon tribes behind her were all kneeling. Even the demons around Hikari dropped down on their knees. Even Hiei. Hikari almost knelt as well, but her father shoved against her leg, keeping her on her feet. Hikari looked equally confused as Kotone felt.
