-Saira-
Chapter 13: First Encounter
Saira watched in horrified fascination as the marble-sized jewel pulsed in her hand. "What the hell's going on?!" She yelled over the noise.
The wind only got louder in answer with the intensity of a storm.
Myike watched the jewel warily. Finally getting ahold of himself, head swimming with the all the energy swirling around them, he pushed the iridescent globe out of her hands.
Saira was barely given time to cry out in protest before Myike grabbed her around the waist and started to drag her away from it. He really didn't want to be around for the explosion when it came.
Saira, meanwhile, was about to punch him in the head to teach him that she could take care of herself when a shock wave emanated from the jewel and knocked them both flat to the barren, packed dirt.
That's when it happened.
The unnatural wind seemed like it was coming from inside the jewel. It opened up and the intense hurricane began to blow out at them instead of into the unknown wrath of the trinket. Saira stared in awe as the shadows began to swim around the courtyard. She could actually see murky shapes beginning to emerge. They spread and took form from out of the jewel; the gloom begetting flesh in the red light of the setting sun.
Another blast of light, this time pure white, filled the clearing and the two were forced to shut their eyes or risk being blinded by its' brilliance.
Then the sounds of brawling and war weren't far away. They were right on top of them. The teenagers were about a dozen yards away from a true battle.
"Die, you bastard!" The clang of a sword reached their ears and Myike was the one to raise his head first, weakly. The boy blinked a few times and shook Saira roughly as she stared ahead of them in blank shock.
The warlike sounds were not made by two conflicting nobleman's armies, but by the strangest group of people ever seen together in nearly two decades.
First there was a man with curling black hair like rising smoke. His features was carefully blank, the look of a young lord carved on his aristocratic face. Only his red eyes held a hint of the destruction and darkness he was capable of. The malice was so thick in the air Myike would've half-sworn that if he lifted his hand it could have melted into his skin to poison him.
Beside the dono, was a young woman in rich robes with eyes that matched the prince's in shade and her pointed ears, smartly decorated with jade, marked her as youkai. Her face belied more expression and color than her counterpart and she smirked maliciously, waving her colorful fan, the source of the wind. Somehow the small fan created the swirling wind that surrounded them and bounced off the ruined stonewalls to tussle black hair and had the strength to knock a sword from a man's hands.
A young girl cloaked in white with obsidian eyes watched with disinterest from behind the demoness, alert and watching over (guarding?) what looked to be a human boy around the age of thirteen, who lay pale and unmoving on the ground. His face was ashen.
The waif looked far from the innocent child she appeared. Perhaps she had killed him.
"Try not to hurt Kohaku!"
Kohaku? Where had he heard that name before?
Myike looked to Saira, wondering if she would know where his memory failed him, but for once she was silent. He followed her gaze and blanched in shock himself.
In the courtyard were the two people they had been searching for. Two who were supposed to have died a young life ago. They seemed very much alive at the moment.
The couple fought in sync. To be able to anticipate the other's movement was a skill, which could only have come from years of fighting battles with one another. The woman skillfully restrung her bow having just loosed a purifying arrow. The miko's dress was simple, it could have been peasant garb except that the tunic had been shortened so that it ended just above her trousers. Sweat flowed off of her face and it was clear she was tiring.
I feel your pain, Myike thought. He didn't know how his father could've handled being a monk if the strain on self was this tolling. He swiped at the sweat beginning to trickle down his own face, breathing deeply as he looked to the man in the duo.
He was a dog demon. Or half, since the boy was fairly sure of which dog demon it was. The man stood to the side of the main fray, fighting the monster his mate had weakened.
The monster he was up against resembled nothing more than a giant cabbage with legs if that could be imagined. The thing's eyes stood out on top of its face raised on stalks. It used it legs seldomly and rolled around dodging attacks from its nemesis' fang blade. Despite its seeming fierceness the red-garbed warrior seemed to be getting the better of it. His silver hair swirled around him as he cursed creatively at the demon while it dodged his sword attacks. This scenario was familiar somehow.
Both opponents were exhausted and wounded but the son of the Great Dog Demon of the West had half an eye on the woman with the bow and was ready to dive in front of his Chosen at a moment's notice.
Finally the monster was blown to pieces, the fang creating its' own blast of storm. Apparently the slimy youkai hadn't dodged fast enough that time.
The hanyou limped back over to the miko victoriously and they stood facing the others proudly, ready to strike.
In response, the lord showed a hint of a smile and held up a hand to the wind witch. She obediently brought the enchanted fan to her side and the storms stopped. The prince smiled wickedly flashing a glance toward the teenagers, who had thereto fore remained unnoticed, and transformed his extended left arm into a blade of flesh.
The man truly was a monstrosity. He cut himself with the talon and his flesh flowed and molded to his will, writhing and congealing as they watched in horror.
The air became thicker as tar-like purple smoke pervaded the area. Miasma. Only demons of massive power and malevolence could create such a poison.
Saira covered her mouth with her sleeve and was about to advise her childhood friend to do the same while they attempted to run for cover when he cried out in pain.
For the first time she really looked at Myike since she had come to again. The boy's face was flushed with fever, his eyes glittering wearily and his breathing harsh and raspy. She supposed that could've been from how much energy he had used that day through their travels and the fighting of the beasts she had unwittingly released upon them. She cursed herself for not watching over him better.
Of all the incompetent things to do! To bring that stupid farmer here and then just let him-!
Crushing her worries beneath an air of impatience she started to drag him up by his robe. "Hurry up. We've got to get out of this war zone before--" That's when she noticed him shaking and clutching his right hand weakly. She gasped in shock.
There was a puncture in it. Like he had stabbed himself by accident, though for the life of her she couldn't think what could have made a hole like that. The flesh around it was perfect. There was only the puncture, no blood swelled around it, like rubber slit with a knife.
Myike grit his teeth in pain, clutching at the wounded hand like a drowning man to driftwood. Saira just looked on helplessly not sure of what would happen next and no longer paying any attention to the strangers' duel.
Then there came a small sound that chilled her to the bone. It was not unlike the sound of a fierce storm, a light yet piercing howling arose from inside the wound and Myike felt the first pull from inside. Saira grabbed the hand from him and looked at it while he hissed. The pull was getting stronger. It was like a balloon had popped and the air was seeping out; except it was pulling in.
Suddenly a small pebble flew up from the ground towards the hole, cutting the boy's arm on the way up before being sucked in. The puncture expanded.
"This isn't good."
Myike gave her a blank stare. The pull of the wind wound was rapidly getting more violent until the boy finally pushed her hands away from his, holding the black hole away from her and uprooting a dead tree at the edge of the courtyard. Crawling away from Saira so she wouldn't be harmed by it, he watched, amazed, as it shrunk and the hole widened slightly to accommodate its' pull into his body.
The lord and his minions, who had hitherto ignored the witnesses to their battle, now looked over at the prone boy. The man watched, seemingly unaffected until the tree was uprooted. "The monk." he hissed, monstrous tentacles waving in the air. As he was distracted the dog-demon took the moment to attack while the miko-girl launched herself at the other demon's counterpart.
The red-eyed man gave an exasperated sigh while easily blocking the silver-haired man's attacks and nodded at his servant. "Kagura. The Saimyoushou." Though the boy he assumed was the monk looked less than able to attack, the wind wound was still a formidable distraction.
The demoness raised an eyebrow. Didn't the bugs just follow them everywhere now?
At the woman's obvious lack of suitable wit for simple tasks, he gave her a narrow eyed look and calmly continued. "Are busy attending to our business at the other estate. Take Kanna there. Let us continue our endeavor another time. It is useless to play with these vermin any longer for now." Though as he said 'vermin' his gaze smoldered on the older miko's flesh.
"If you're finished with your damn meeting!" Obviously the hanyou didn't like being taken lightly as an opponent and punctuated this sentence with a healthy, though wide and easily predictable, swing. Needless to say, the demon robed in the purple of a great house, easily leaped out of the way of the path of destruction and sneered at him maliciously. "And leave the human slave. He is of no use to us dead. He served his purpose."
This earned an arrow and another attempted sword hit which he dodged again. And with a quick "Pathetic", he was gone.
Saira was busy panicking at this time, too worried to even look at their logic-defying visitors and followed Myike.
It's some kind of magical wound. It CAN'T be normal. It has to be sealed.
The boy was panting now, staring at the hand that had swallowed a tree. Waving a hand in front of his face, desperate to snap him out of his shock she began a verbal brainstorm. "Sealing beads! Do you have any? Let me see your bag."
When he was unresponsive, grabbing the pouch normally strapped to his back from him, she quickly rifled through it ignoring the slight stings of the lightning beads, which were unaccustomed to her energy. Not finding anything useful she lightly smacked him for only bringing weapons before her eyes lit on her own sealing necklace.
She knew it was doubtful she could change its pattern of only twelve hours of sealing, but if she could somehow alter it enough that he could be mobile, they could find a way to get out of this accursed place and seal it properly. Of course, what she was attempting was extremely dangerous and she ran the risk of blowing his entire arm off (she shuddered reminded of that horse incident) but Myike seemed to be in some type of shock. She had to break him out of it and close up that thing before it could get any worse.
She picked up the carved stone beads and concentrated, praying to all the gods that this would work. It would take a lot of energy to even attempt and she would NEVER forgive herself if anything happened to the spoiled brat. It would be all her fault. All because of her thrice-damned youkai blood. What was this, the third time he had been hurt because of her already? They'd only been gone for one moon!
The demon-girl closed her eyes tightly and concentrated on the necklace and limiting its' power over the body. She was messing it up for herself, but it didn't matter, as long as it would help him survive without sucking half the countryside into his arm. She felt her mixed energy and began to see it through her tightly shuttered lids, blue, draining out of her like water leaving her feeling as weak as she had when she had passed out only minutes before. Funny, it felt like months now.
Tremblingly she opened her eyes, took hold of part of her white miko garb, and began ripping the bottom into a strip to tie around his right hand. Taking the hand up, which had been taking in courtyard stones in the meantime, she held his dizzied gaze as she bandaged it up firmly, twisting the beads through the makeshift wrap only going completely around the wound when it was partially sealed.
Her own vision was getting foggy now. I'm going to pass out again? That hardly seems fair.
When she decided she had done the best she could in her muddled state, having poured her remaining energy into trying to balance the energies in his arm and the conflicting ones in her seal, Saira let go of Myike's hand. It fell limply to his side as numb and useless as a lead one. Missing the warm energy pouring into the agonizing puncture snapped him out of his daze, though his eyes still shined dully.
Satisfied, Saira smiled weakly at him. She hardly ever truly smiled at him and at moments like this she almost looked beautiful. His breathing slowed to almost normal and Myike stared at her as she began to fall forward onto his chest.
"You didn't blow up." She said softly before the blackness overtook her again.