Someday, Somehow
Chapter 4: Memories and thoughts
Lately there's been too much of this
Dont think its too late
He had hunted youkai before; this one was no different. He had his reason, more personal then most. Some might call it noble; he thought it as more of doing he duty towards his people.
He looked upon the land, looking for him, the youkai dog. He had a kingdom to protect and a wife with child. They were all that mattered to him.
"So the hunter, becomes the hunted."
He looked up to see the youkai, crouching in the tree, his white hair blowing over his golden eyes. He smiled, so it ends here and now.
"Then let it began and end here, now."
He watched, as the youkai stood up, his face elongate into a mixture between the full youkai and another part of him; his eyes turning red and the purple marks across his face stretching with his face.
The youkai took a dive at the young man, his claws stretching out to rip apart the delicate flesh of the man. He jumped back taking a swing with his sword. The youkai knew of his reputation, the great swordsman. This young human was the great hero. They had clashed many of times; this might be the last. He wasn't going to miss it; the human seemed to be something different, cut from another mold then the rest of his kind.
The battle raged on, both youkai and man fighting for the death. In the last blow, he was able to sliced a through the youkai face, leaving the youkai blind with his own blood. In a couple of days, that would be healed and the youkai back to full fighting mood. He needed to kill the youkai now, but as he raised his sword and starred down at the youkai, he couldn't do it. Kill one when they could fight back was one thing, but this was cold blood murder. Something he wasn't.
He lowered the sword and took off his stashes, and handed it to the youkai.
The youkai lashed out, but with him being blind he couldn't touch him.
"Why are you doing this," said the youkai using the sash to clean away some of the blood from his face.
"Killing you, now, will be in cold blood," he said. "That would be dishonor on you as well as me."
"You realize that once I am healed I will hunt you down and kill you."
"Yes, you might, and I will face you again," said the man. "But I refuse to kill you when you don't have a chance to defend yourself."
And with that he walked away, not looking back, not seeing the astonishment that cross the youkai face.
Sugimi shook his head, trying to get rid of the memory. Usually the technique worked, but this memory had stuck to him. Why had that one resurface?
He never went after that man again, their little war had cease, nether one the victory or the loser. But both had walked away from the incident with a respect for each other. It would be about a year later that he would have heard of the young man dying in an invasion.
What a waste?
He was probably one of the only lords of his lands that he had some respect for, the others he could care less about.
Now he was faced with something he never expected, the possibility of the man family surviving. Not that it matters much to him; he stayed out of the affairs of humans. He had heard rumors of a mate, but never looked into it to confirm it. Humans weren't his affairs to deal with, but somewhere in the back of his mind, he did wonder. He knew it was customary for humans to kill the whole family of their enemies, wives and children included. But Nikki eyes confirmed that at least his blood had survived that invasion.
He shook his head again for the second time, wondering how Kirokia is handling his enemy lusting after his daughter. He smiled, he might have hated the man in life, but for some reason, he would give up half of his lands just to see the look on Kirokia face if he found out that.
"My lord? What is with the smile?"
He looked down to see Myoga; he had been wondering when he would show up.
"Nothing, just thinking. Have you notice the human eyes," he said wondering what Myoga saw. As much as a coward as the tiny flea was, he came in handy when Sugimi needed some information.
"Now that you mention it, I noticed the eyes color, it is very unusual color, but where I can figure it out."
"Try a certain annoying human that was originally part of my lands," he said watching the girl in the distance. She was playing with a group of small children trying to get them to laugh.
The flea sat there thinking for a couple of moments, going over each and every human he had known in his lifetime, which was a lot for being over a thousand years old.
"There is only one human that seems to stick out in my mind."
"Kirokia?"
"Yes, I was thinking the same thing, he did have the most unusual shade of eye color for a human."
"Think it is possible that his bloodline survive."
"Well, I had heard that his mate was one of the most beautiful woman in Japan. So maybe?"
"I was thinking about asking Nikki, quite curious about it."
"Why? The last time I look you two were bitter enemies," said Myoga looking down at the humans that had wonder close to the tree. He didn't bother to ask what had happen; he knew his lordship work.
"Kind of curious what happen. It isn't everyday that you run into the daughter of an enemy that you have a score to settle with."
Nikki had no idea that the youkai in the tree was talking about her, she was more inattentive on the children playing.
"Are you sure," she asked the elder who was sitting on what was left of a stumped. She looked around the village, or what was left of it and shook her head. They had been assisted that they could make it without relocating to another village.
"We have food stored secretly, and I don't see another invasion happening here in the near future," said the elderly gentleman. He had lost almost all his family except two small grandchildren.
"I guess there isn't much to invade," said Nikki trying to make light of what had happen. She had spent half the morning helping the older children bury the bodies. As a princesses she had been sheltered away from the horrors of daily life, but this had been a hard blow in her face. A wake up call to what most of her people faced. She swallowed and tucked a hair behind her ears, tying to block out the images that had played in front of her eyes. She had already thrown up twice, and the little amount of food she could hold down was making her stomach ache.
His lordship said that they would be leaving the village tomorrow, but she wondered if she could handle another night around this dying village.
"I really wish you would reconsidered. There is another village only a days journey from here, and I am sure they would take in the survivors."
He smiled at her. "They have enough problems, not to have to be burden with all of us. Don't worry, your highness we will make it."
Nikki smiled and walked away from the group, lost in her thoughts. From where she stood, there was no way they would make it through winter. They might have the food, but shelter, and blankets and warm clothing had been lost on the stag. How could a man put his own village in danger?
She came upon a stream, next to village, across it was where the field once were. They were now nothing but a piled of ash and soot. How where a handful of very young children and very old people going to make it.
She pressed the cool water to her face, glad of the relief that it brought her. She looked up and screams.
"Would you not do that," Sugimi yelled at her.
He was sitting across from her, like a dog. He hands on the earth, and his legs behind him bent. He cocked his head to the side, looking at her.
"You scared me," she said, taking a deep breath in, her nerves were already shot, and having him sneak up on her didn't help.
"Well, I didn't need you screaming in my ears to remind me," he said.
"What do you want," she asked, not bothering to apologies, because it was his entire fault. Screaming is a natural reaction when someone scares you.
"Nothing," he said shaking his head. Maybe some other time he will ask her, not that it was that important to him. The guy was dead, and so what if she turned out to be his daughter. It wasn't going to change the fact that he will have her. Maybe he will enjoy it more knowing the fact she was who she was.
"Your be happy to know that the villagers have decided to stay, so you don't have to go around dragging a bunch of helpless humans around."
"Thought so," he said. He knew he lost the fight and was planning on ditching them at the first village they came across. But he also knew that most humans get very attached to their homes, and no matter how bad a situation was they preferred not to leave their homes.
"Don't sound too happy," she said a little disgusted with him.
"You can go against nature, Nikki. And human nature is to declare a spot and not to leave. Very rarely do you find humans that wonder the Earth because they want too."
"But can't they see what it is that they are up against?"
He looked towards the village, or what was left of it. They wouldn't survive, or maybe they would. He had seen humans survive much worse. It wasn't his concern, he needed to get back to the South, Menoumaru might have figure out that he had disappeared for a while and decided to use that time to plan another attack.
The girl, he had no idea what to do with. Part of him said to have his way with her and dump her off at the next village, the other part told him that to go ahead with his original idea.
He looked at her, as she looked back at the village, her face was grimed with dirt, but her pale skin and eyes seemed to come more alive in the dirt.
"What ever you are thinking about, forget it," he said. "You are leaving with me and that is final."
Nikki wasn't too happy about saying good bye to the villager, but she knew that their minds were made up. She hoped that they weren't going to come this way again, and find that she was right.
She silently prayed to Buddha as they walked, not saying a word to her capture; not that there was much to say.
With all the time she had alone in her thoughts, she started to really think about the whole situation. If this was happening to someone else, she might have found the tale romantic and exciting, but now she didn't know if she should be scared or not. He hasn't done anything to her yet, but they really didn't have much time from the incident at her village, to the incident at the next village, to this moment, for him to do something to her.
Part of her had wish she had taken her maid warning more seriously, and the other part was fascinated with him.
He was different from anyone else she had known at her father's court. The way he held herself to the way he talked, almost reminding her of what a hero was suppose to be like.
Her father had many enemies, and a lot of them were powerful. He was a person who lived in coincident fear, a fear that was brought on by the power that he had taken. She knew this youkai to be one of those enemy's. She had heard the whispered, but never paid much attention to them. Before they were story told to frighten children into behaving, now they were more real.
And the last thing that was bothering her was how he looked at those two men before he killed them, like they had defiled something scarred to him.
He stopped, taking a quick sniff of the air before groaning.
"Something, wrong, milord."
"Great that all I need is him to show up," said Sugimi.
At that moment about fifty man and wolves jumped out the woods to surround them. She took a step back and quickly grabbed onto a Sugimi robes. He quickly wrapped his arm around her waste, staring her towards an easier place to protect her.
"Well, well what do we have here," said a man coming from the back. He wasn't dressed in normal clothing, but a kind of armor made from the skin of animals. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail and his eyes were blue. These weren't human, but youkai, thought Nikki. "A pup, and a…"
The wolf man took a sniff of the air, and then other, trying to figure out what he first smell was right. "A human?! Boy, haven't we lowered the standards, your fuck anyone," he laugh.
Sugimi growled at him causing most of the pack to take a step back, except for the leader.
"Temper, temper."
"What the hell do you want," Sugimi said, he was about ready to rip the pup head off.
"You are traveling on my land, and you are asking me this?"
"Correction, this isn't your land, last I checked it belong to your father."
The wolf shook his head. "Technicalities," he said stepping forward to get a better look at the human. He took her face between his hand and looked her over.
"Ah, now I see why, get rid of this dirt and you got yourself a good looking bitch, Sugimi."
Sugimi? So that was his name, Nikki thought looking over.
"Will you get your hand off of me," she said snapping her head out of his hands.
"Fisty too," he said but before he could pull his hands away, Sugimi wrapped his hand tightly around the fist and looked him in the eyes.
"The human is none of your concerns, what the hell do you want," he said.
The wolf broke free of the restrains, and looked at the human again. "My father wants to see you."
"He does," Sugimi said and turned to face the pack. "The human bitch is off limits, if I find out that anyone looked at her the wrong way, you whole missible pack will answer."
"You don't have to get pushy, you know we have never treated a guess badly," said the wolf man.
Sugimi didn't say anything as he took a hold of Nikki arm to lead her in the direction of the caves.