I Wish For Tomorrow
A/N: Wee. I wrote two chapters in one day. O_o Whoa. That's a record for this fic. n.n;; But I promise not to leave you hanging and finish it. Er. Eventually.
'Shibo' means death. -hugs her new J-E Dictionary-
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Aniue - Big Brother
Imouto-san - Little Sister
Niichan - Big Brother
Temme - You Bastard
Urusei - Shut Up
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Chapter VII
The Curse of Black Wings
"Jikanjiku..imouto-san..."
The elf let out an anguished cry as Jaki hit him again, creating fresh wounds. "Urusei, Shibo!" Her ugly face turned to Jikanjiku. "What's wrong, little elf? Can't stand the see the sight of your 'Niichan die again?"
"Aniue!" Jikanjiku sobbed. "Let him go, Jaki!"
"Temme," Inuyasha snarled, unsheathing Tetsusaiga. "I don't know for sure what's going on, but that is Jikanjiku's brother you're hurting. I may not have known her for very long, but she has been our guardian, leading me and Kagome to the place where we can live happily together. So if you're trying to kill her, or hurt her mentally or physically, you'll meet mine and my father's fang."
"No," Shibo said, stumbling and falling to his knees. "It's alright. I'm dead..Jaki just wants to hurt Jikanjiku." He let out another sharp cry as Jaki's whip met his back.
"Quiet fool!" Jaki screamed, lashing out again and again. Blood dripped like a leaky faucet on the swirling ground beneath the battered elf. Jikanjiku had silent tears streaming like two raging rivers down her face, mouth open in a silent scream. This wasn't real, couldn't be.
"Aniue..Aniue died four hundred years ago," she whimpered, crawling slowly towards the image of her brother. "This is just another trick. It isn't real. Aniue isn't here. Four hundred years ago he breathed his last breath. Four hundred years ago, his life slipped between my fingers. Four hundred years ago...I killed my own brother." She took Shobi's bloody hand in hers, bawling, lost in memories.
Kagome and Inuyasha were in shock. Tetsusaiga was was useless and rusty in Inuyasha's shaking hand. Jaki watched with an amused grin.
"Four hundred years ago, I wanted to be powerful among elves," Jikanjiku cried into her brother's hand. "In that time in my world, humans persecuted elves and were oblivious of the real evils, Time Demons, but so were elves. I met Jaki and he offered me power. I took it up without thinking." Her shoulders shook with sobs, while her brother cradled her comfortingly in his arms. "When he told me I had to kill my family to make it seem I was an orphan..I thought of my brother. We were inseperable as children. He taught me everything I knew. History, science, everything we elves needed to know to survive. He gave me my wings. My pure white wings, just like his." Her ebony wings gave the slightest twitch. "After I murdered all of my family but him...He was there, questioning me...I remember it as if it were just yesterday..."
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"What the hell are you doing?" Shibo demanded, the bodies of his family scattered around them.
"I'm going to end the feud between humand and elves. A harmless orphan without any family is a perfect ploy. I will gain power. Everyone will feel sorry for and support the innocent orphan elf girl. I'll be the most powerful elf. I will end the hate between elves and humans once and for all." Jikanjiku's bloodstained hands didn't loosen a bit on the knife she held in her hand.
"By how?!" Shibo screamed. "Killing everyone you love? Are you going to kill me, too? Don't you remember how we used to play? Don't you remember recieving your wings?" He turned and ran, Jikanjiku pursuing after him, Jaki, invisible to all but her, cheering her on.
"Kill! Make him suffer and scream!" the demon crowed. "Taste his blood on your tongue. He held you back all these years! End it now! And move forward!"
But Shibo heard.
He slid to a stop at the edge of a steep cliff. "Is that it, then? Time Demons," he spat. "I always thought they were a myth. Jikanjiku, you're a fool!"
Her steady gaze never wavered. "Jaki-sama will bring me glory." Her eyebrow twitched as a memory of her and her brother, holding hands as young cildren, skipping through a meadow, filtered into her mind. She squeezed eyes shut, trying to force the memory out. "No..No. I must complete this." She leapt at her brother, and the picture of Shibo, her dear, dear big brother, comforting her when her wings burst out of her back in the most excrutiating pain. "ANIUE!" she screamed, eyes flled with tears, but it was too late. The knife found it's target.
Shibo stumbled back, clutching his chest in vain. He fell over the edge of the cliff, but Jikanjiku grabbed his hand, desperate to pull him back. "ANIUE! No!" she sobbed. "What have I done? What have I done?!"
Shibo smiled painedly up at her. "It's all right," he whispered. "I forgive you. I don't blame you. It's okay, Jikanjiku.." His fingers sliped through Jikanjiku's and he fell disappeared into the raging sea below. She let out a scream so full of anguish and pain, the forest shook. And from her pure white feathers, inky black began to spread.
~~~
"Midoriko-sama condemned me here for the rest of enternity," Jikanjiku finished, clinging desperatly to her brother, who seemed so alive at that moment. Dying, but so alive. "I met Shibo here when I first was named the Guardian. He said goodbye. Jaki and the Time Demons was condemned here also. Midoriko-sama thought it was best, but it ended up being the worst punishment of all. I guess maybe that was her intention. I killed my family, and I am doomed to be with the tricksters behind it the whole time. I deserved it, in any case."
"And now, dearest Jikanjiku," Jaki said, all hints of amusement gone. His expression held unsupressable rage. "It's time to see him die again. You jailed my species here for all eternity, and I have to pay you back for that." He raised his whip once again, ready to strike once more. The whip wound itself around Shibo's neck, digging a bloody mess into the skin the glassy teeth found.
At that exact moment, a bright white light erupted from Kagome, bathing all of them in it.
"Jaki, you stop there!" a voice that was not Kagome's screamed from her body, and from the light stepped Midoriko. Creator of the Shikon no Tama, purest of the pure in any world, wings of the most vibrant colours in the greatest size of butterfly wings imaginable. One finger was pointing at the ugly imp. "This is the end, Jaki!"
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Mwe. Cliffie. -evil grin- Didja like it? I hope so. ;.; Review, as always!