She stepped forward, the light of the moon fully illuminating her ivory face, dark hair, the pale lavender tattered strips of kimono that wrapped around her slender form. Elegantly composed even in the horror of her situation and her resigned fate, she gracefully dropped down to the ground and placed a hand on Hannya's forehead. She ignored Beshimi's vitriolic hiss and the sudden tensing of the group's other two members as they recovered from their shock. But she could not ignore the presence of the man on her left, whose intense blue gaze was now resting her.
"The dart pierced through his arm. I think it may have chipped the bone; it definitely hit the artery. I need some ice to slow down the poison. We need to get him back. Now!" Her commanding tone of voice set the others back, but she was no longer aware of the terrifying Oniwaban group; they were merely comrades of the patient, people who were to help her in her fight against time. "He's burning up, his pupils are dilated, his pulse is weakening. What type of poison works this fast?" she whispered in alarm. In all her years working with chemicals, she had never seen such a potent drug.
"It's the poison of the thornapple, and people weaker than Hannya would be killed by it in less than two hours," spat Beshimi, fingering his darts and sneering at the lady doctor, "It would have killed a wench like you in less than an hour. If only Hannya hadn't gotten in the way…but this time, I won't miss." He approached her menacingly, as did the other two members of the Oniwabanshu, heaving up their respective weapons. She looked on with narrowed eyes, not affected by the eminent threat, unwilling to give in.
But before they could approach within striking range, they stopped cold in their tracks. She felt the cool flat metal of two twin blades slide against the planes of her throat, barely grazing the graceful neck with its sharp edges. She could feel the kodachis glide near her carotid arteries, gently stroking the delicate skin above them with its cool touch, and her pulse jumped, but not entirely out of fear. She looked up to see a pair of midnight eyes stare right back into her own, and a mouth set in a hard line. Her pulse hammered as the distance between their faces lessened and his breaths brushed against hers.
"Takani, you will go back to Kanryuu's and find the antidote to the poison. If you fail in this task," his hands were unwaveringly steady on the handles of the swords, "you will die along with him."
His voice was monotone, emotionless, dead and promising death; the words were cold, heartless, so typical of the Okashira. He had addressed her rudely, dismissively, without any proper suffixes or first name, mouth condensed so that the words were almost spat out. He was all steel, unmoving, rigidly hard, not unlike the two kodachis held scissorlike around her slender throat. He was once again every inch the dangerous and unfeeling Okashira of the infamous and feared Oniwabanshu.
His comrades, who had been previously shaken by Hannya's condition and by their usually controlled okashira's helplessness, were reassured by the sudden return of the okashira's glacial confidence and control. They immediately readied themselves for return to Kanryuu's mansion, picking up Hannya's limp, unconscious form with unusual gentleness. She did not miss the dark looks the three gave her as they stood up, Hannya supported in their interlocking arms; their eyes glinting hard with the grim thoughts on their minds, waiting for their okashira to give them the order to leave.
His hand roughly grabbed the back of her already torn kimono and forcefully pulled her to her feet. She stumbled a bit, wooden sandals catching onto the uneven ground, before steadying herself and rising with an exhausted grace to her trembling feet. She could still feel one kodachi blade against her artery, the other kodachi's blunt handle prodding her none too gently in the middle of her back. She winced; there would be bruise there tomorrow.
She took one glance back at her captor, who strode with hurried steps ahead of the rest of the Oniwaban, along the roughly hewed trail his crew had made during the chase. His steps were calculated, forcefully pounding the dirt into the ground with a powerful, unforgiving grace. The black loose ninja suit he wore hung on his tall, lean frame, emphasizing his stiff coldness and his dangerous strength. The black hair hung down in blue-black icicles in the silvery light, like sheets of black water obscuring his dark eyes from view. She could see the muscles in his jaw clench and tighten as he took another surreptitious look back at his fallen uncle-figure, who lay on the arms of the others as though he were dead. Then, unconsciously, his gaze drew back to her.
Catching her eyes, he paused for the moment, surprised, unguarded eyes meeting her keen gaze. For a moment, she felt the pain and sorrow overwhelming his ice blue aura. There was something incredibly human about the wave of emotion she felt from the man in that instant. The line between their eyes seem to take on a tangible aspect, burning between them, heating up the air around them, pulling them farther inwards towards the other…
The spell was broken by a short foul curse that echoed from the mouth of one of the Oniwabanshu as they tripped over an unseen boulder. The mask fell over the okashira once more, the eyes hardened, and the aura faded, leaving a hardened shell of a man who pushed her roughly forward again, so that she could not look back, and pressed the kodachis more forcibly onto her throat.
A tiny line of crimson appeared where the edges of the blades pressed too hard against the ivory skin, and she bit her lip to keep from crying out in fear.
But despite the fear, she could not help but observe that now, he stood upright, without a hint of the hopeless slouch of before. She could not help but see the firm calmness of the shoulders that no longer trembled in silent screams for help.
She could not help but wonder at the faint, subtle night-blue hope in his eyes that she had seen when he had looked—in an almost gentle fashion—at her.
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The chapters will get better, I promise! And Eriesalia, I know I should be working on my OChem exam, but the muses won't let me think about anything but this story. Heheh…ehhhhh. Great, I'm going to fail my test. But the good news, I should be able finish this in time for the Contest deadline.
And if some of you are wondering why I haven't called the okashira by name yet, that's because Megumi doesn't know his name yet. She knows him as the okashira, and that's all. However, he knows her name; this is meant to show his control over her, since a name is a powerful thing to know.
Thanks to all of my reviewers, I love you all. Thanks especially to Mij, Eriesalia, and Dumdeedum for being faithful reviewers, and for reviewing almost all the fics I've produced thus far. : D
Keep reading, reviewing, and please add me to your Favorites list! If you think I'm worth it, of course. ; )
Love you, minna-san!
~Trupana
