-Saira-
Chapter 7: Enter Mikkoku, Fuedal Princess?
Two lone figures trudged along a seemingly endless dirt road surrounded by forest, and they hadn't come to another village yet.
"But I'm tired!" Myike whined. "We've been marching since last night and its dawn already. I want a break, slave driver." With that said, Myike plopped on the ground and started rummaging through the sacks for food.
Saira finally noticed that her faithful bag carrier had stopped following and glowered at him. "And what do you think you're doing? I told you we weren't resting until we came across another village. We need to ask some directions since you got us lost!"
They had been traveling for a few weeks and now weren't even sure if they were still heading West. The boy across from her, who annoyingly enough stopped for rests at least three times a day and insisted on tricking innocent villagers into providing them with free hot meals when they stopped in towns, had vexed the innkeeper's daughter (with certain habits of his) who had then refused to provide them with further direction into the countryside. He had fooled Saira into thinking he knew exactly where he was going for three days.
Myike raised an eyebrow at her and replied serenely from his sitting position on the grass, "Resting. And I am going to eat soon. Because that's what we humans have to do to recover energy."
She ignored this comment and crossed her arms in frustration. "I said we weren't stopping yet and that's final. No one forced you to come, you know, and I don't feel like losing time."
Myike, found what he was looking for in the giant yellow bag and joyfully ripped off the plastic wrapper. He stuffed the bar of candy into his mouth with a happy sigh. Saira was a little less than amused that he wasn't taking her seriously and moving NOW.
With his mouth full of sticky chocolate and caramel he gave her a perky grin. "How can we lose time if we don't know where we're going? I might be saving you miles of going in the wrong direction."
She blinked at him and was about to yank him up whether he liked it or not when the smell of the chocolate hit her and she realized how hungry she was. She covered the insistent rumbling of her stomach by complying.
"Fine. We'll take a five minute break." She said, sounding as if she was doing him a large favor while grabbing a few chocolates for herself. "These would've melted if we'd kept them much longer anyway." She pointedly looked away from Myike's triumphant smirk.
Waiting until the delicate and lovely miko had stuffed her face with chocolate, trying to sate her roaring stomach, Myike pointed towards the monstrous yellow backpack, and stated matter-of-factly, "I'm not carrying that thing anymore. You packed all the future stuff, you can carry it."
He waited quite calmly for the imminent explosion, rummaging through said bag again for something edible within its depths.
At this Saira marched over and snatched it away from Myike. "Then I can eat our food, too." His face fell.
"I seem to remember a certain idiot ex-monk's apprentice that realized he hadn't packed any food. You've got to do something to pull your weight around here!" She added and tossed the sunny-yellow boulder effortlessly back to the horrified boy, hitting him in the stomach and knocking him flat on his back.
She was still laughing at him when her human-like ears pricked at a sound in the distance.
Saira had noticed that her demonic senses had been improving. She had more stamina and could hear and track better than she had ever been able to in her life. But that also meant that time was against them.
And Miroku thought we could wait till planting season was over! HAH!
The sound got louder as it moved a little closer and she sifted through them. One was a human, screaming, the other she couldn't identify.
Myike, noticing his friend's uneasiness, shoved off her bag and stood up. "Saira, what is it?"
She merely readied the blade at her waist as the screams became audible to the other teenager as well. He fumbled for his father's old staff, Shakujou, which he had helped himself to while packing.
Of a sudden, a young woman stumbled into the road from the dense woods. Her long straight, stringy black hair was free from any bindings that may have held it at one point and was tangled with twigs and leaves. She panted as if she had been running a long ways and her peach kimono, which at one point might have been considered expensive and fine, was tattered and grubby.
Upon seeing Myike in his awkward battle stance, she threw herself at his feet. Her emerald green eyes were red-rimmed with tears and she hugged the boy's legs.
"Please Houshi-sama!" she cried, her sweet voice tremulous in her distress. "Please save me!"
Myike looked like he was in heaven. "Of course, Fair Maiden." Saira rolled her eyes as he grandly brandished the pilfered monk's staff and then looked around. "But from what?"
At that moment an Oni crashed through the foliage destroying everything in its' path and Saira belatedly recognized the second sound as the destruction it had caused on its trek.
It was over fifteen feet tall. No more than a dwarf compared to some of the giant ogres she had heard of. Its' thick black fur covered most of its' body, underneath it, blotchy brown yellow skin. What Saira could hardly stand though was the stench. It was worse than any garbage or dung; disgusting. The thing paused as it made its' way into the dirt path, its' rolling blood red eyes fixing on Myike and the girl cowering at his feet.
"Oh," was all Myike could get out before turning to Saira. "That thing's big. We should run."
But Saira was already pacing and sizing the demon up. She quickly struck at its' side before it could launch its sluggish attack at the would-be hero. Said hero ran with the green-eyed girl and hid near some bushes out of the way of the ogre.
Needless to say, this irritated the demon slightly. It rolled its raging red eyes towards the source of its' discomfort and crashed its giant fist into where Saira had been the moment before.
She jumped behind the Oni and prepared to hit again. This time, an experimental slash along its back. The creature, unable to find the source of its irritation, turned its eyes to Myike, who in turn got worried.
"Didn't you even hear what I said?!" followed by Myike throwing himself and the girl hard to the right as another large fist connected with the ground.
Saira wasn't listening. She looked from the wound she had inflicted to the sword and back again. She had found out what she needed to know.
Her strikes hadn't been aided by her youki or her holy powers.
This meant that the blade wouldn't explode on her at least, but also that her slashes wouldn't be enough to bring the youkai down. Uh-oh.
Knowing this would probably be the only chance she had, Saira moved to where demon's fist was still buried in the ground after trying to attack Myike and bunched up her leg muscles.
The slow demon was still trying to pull its' clawed hand out of the ground when she used the arm as a springboard and jumped impossibly high for a human to the oni's neck slicing where a vital vein would be.
Unfortunately the sword, instead of neatly slitting the demon's throat, chipped on the youkai's tough neck hide and broke off three inches below the hilt. She looked at the useless katana in disbelief as she descended towards the ground again and was roughly caught around the middle by the furious ogre.
"Shit." The pressure on her chest tightened as she struggled to pry the thing's fingers off of her. The smell was starting to get to her.
Myike, who until this point had been caught between hiding and helping in the fight, finally realized his friend was in danger. He tumbled out into the open and fumbled through the rosaries he kept inside his traveling cloak, grabbing five of the lightening beads.
Saira was too busy struggling to notice his presence. A loud cracking sound was heard. "You bastard! That was a rib!" And the youkai was too busy squishing its victim to notice when Myike let the rosaries loose.
He threw them one at a time. A few missed, but two caught on its free arm and right leg.
Its attention turned away from its captive to look at the blue beads latched on to his limbs as Myike shouted "DEMON BEGONE!"
The beads immediately grew to bind the demon and started shocking it, causing him to drop the almost unconscious Saira.
She braced herself for the fall to the hard ground, but instead she landed on something soft… that was rubbing her bottom. This woke her up.
"You jerk!" she shouted at the makeshift cushion before slapping him across the face.
"What?! I just saved you! Aren't you even grateful? I should have expected this." Myike interjected indignantly.
"You could have been quicker. Now I'm gonna be sore for weeks."
The youkai let out a feral roar, and the arm Saira had just vacated came swinging down at them. Myike roughly pushed Saira out of the way and bore the brunt of the attack which knocked him forcefully into a nearby tree.
Saira hit the ground on her cracked ribs and was about to swear at him for pushing her when she saw the demon hit him. He landed against the thick tree trunk with an audible thwack that nauseated her and then went still. The youkai watched the boy with something akin to joy in its' eyes.
Everything was quiet and moving so slowly, Saira thought she would go mad. She got up, looking at the tree in shock. Shakujou lay forgotten on the ground behind the ogre and the girl they were protecting cowered nearby. They were all watching him.
Then Myike moved. He slumped down the tree, coughing. He was alive, but Saira could see and smell his blood. Something inside her would not tolerate this.
She let the rage flow over her in waves. He may have been a moron, but NO ONE was allowed to hurt him. The anger consumed her and she felt stronger. Her nails grew out and toughened into short claws as her hair streaked silver.
The Oni evidently noticed the change in the miko at his feet and brought back his arm again to pound her into the ground. Saira's golden eyes flashed and she was gone before the swing was halfway concluded.
She leapt to his back and her claws extended as she swiped the youkai in a wide crosshatch. "REIKON TSUME!" she cried as glowing lines formed in the wake of her claws ripping the demon to pieces.
She landed in the mess, panting, her claws shortening again as she looked at her hands wonderingly. Then she rushed over to her fallen companion.
He was still only semi-conscious. She been right, he had coughed up some blood, which meant he had to be taken to a healer soon. She could have done it herself, but she didn't have the right supplies.
Saira waved a hand in front of his face and he looked up at her blearily. "Myike, are you okay?"
"Am I okay?! I just got knocked into a damn tree and she asks if I'm alright!" he cried, addressing the morning sky.
Saira looked a little put out. "I take it as a yes then. Jeez, it was only a question!" She knew better than to whack him one. He was still injured. She'd wait until he was better to give him his comeuppance.
Myike looked back at her in surprise. "Um…Saira? You better check out a mirror…" Obviously taking in her new appearance. "Shit. Are you still you? Do you have any homicidal thoughts right now? Because I'm a friend. Don't hurt me."
She gave him a light slap for that one. "Of course I'm still me you moron!" She helped him sit up before remembering the girl. "Hey! Are you going to come out now? That thing's dead."
She appeared suddenly and kneeled down before them. "Thank you so much, Houshi-sama, Miko-sama. I was so afraid."
This time it was Myike who spoke. "Who are you anyway? Why was that demon after you? Ogres are hired hands. They don't attack unless ordered."
"My name is Mikkoku. My father was the prominent Lord of this land, but the castle was seized. I was ordered to find a lord whom I could marry that would raise an army against father's conquerors to reclaim these lands to my family. I have no idea why a youkai would try to kill me. Perhaps the demons are allied with the man who stole my father's title." Mikkoku said all this with her tremulously sweet voice, her clear green eyes watering. Myike was drooling.
"Looking for a man, eh? Well I-"
"Don't listen to him. He's just a farm boy." Saira interrupted. Myike pouted at her. "So since you seem to know these lands well, do you think you could guide us to a village? I have to get my girl-crazy friend here to a healer quickly."
Mikkoku nodded. "That would be agreeable to me. It is the least I could do in return for slaying that demon for me. But afterwards I must hasten West to fulfill my father's last request."
Saira grinned at her. "We're heading West as well. Why not travel together? We could offer our protection and you could guide us through these lands. Better for both of us."
Myike grinned in a different way. "Yes. Please travel with us. We would be honored to have your companionship."
Jeez, he must really be missing the girls back home. He's never this polite, Saira thought as they waited for the Lady Mikkoku to reply.
"Of course," she smiled companionably.
After a brief breakfast, they were ready to begin their hike anew and get away from the nasty demon parts.
Saira dug through her faded yellow bag and found a mirror among all the other ramen and junk in the enormous pack. "Wow."
Her hair had faded back from silver and was now a uniform gray. A lot lighter than her usual coloring. The claws weren't changing back either, but weren't completely noticeable. They looked like very sharp fingernails at the moment.
Retractable, she thought wryly. How convenient.
She was a little worried to say the least. The transformation was happening much more rapidly than she would have liked.
At this rate it'll be too late before we even get close to finding this 'Toutousai'.
Saira set aside her worries and put the mirror away as she tied her wild hair back out of her face. She felt sick every time she thought about what would happen if it was too late.
How responsible were my parents? They could have at least prepared my fosters for this kind of thing.
'They didn't plan on dying…' Her uncle's words came back to her.
Well, I don't plan on dying. Or giving up my soul. I don't even want to be a fucking youkai!
Mikkoku's voice reached her ears. "Saira-sama? We should start off if we want to reach the village by nightfall…"
"I'm coming." She replied sullenly and the three, Myike limping behind the girls, started off down the road, bags in tow.
After getting a seal from Toutousai, maybe I'll stop at that place Miroku said those odd lights and the blast came from all those years ago. My parents resting place, apparently. Then I can put all this crap behind me.
Maybe I'll find out how they died. Or something useful to me. Or get some closure.
I vowed to find out exactly what happened. I promised Souta.
And I have to know.