The Story of Kazerizumu
The Wind Goddess sighed as she sat on a cloud one day, looking down at the earth. It was beautiful, yes, but sometimes it was so violent- what with the demons running around killing whoever they pleased, and most of the humans being too stupid to even realize that they were in danger until it was much too late.
Her hair flowed about her shoulders, softly glinting in the afternoon sun. Her kimono was light blue, with images of the clouds and the sun upon it. There was a soft whooshing behind her, and she turned to see her husband, Yashamaru, the god of the youkai. His golden eyes glittered like jewels in the sunlight, and she looked up at him lovingly.
"Yashamaru-sama, why do you not punish the youkai for killing so many humans each day?"
"Feh," he said, arrogantly tilting up his chin, "because the humans need to be killed sometimes."
Standing up and hugging him, she said, "I really don't know why I love you sometimes."
"I know why, Kazerizumu-chan."
Laughter fell from her lips in beautiful peals like to the sound of crystal bells ringing. "And why is that, Yashamaru?"
His piercing golden eyes met her soft blue ones. "It is because I need you so much…and because I love you so much." He kissed his wife gently, just letting his lips whisper on hers.
She closed her eyes for a moment to take in the feeling of the kiss. Then she looked into his eyes and sighed.
"I must go down to them, Yashamaru. I can sense that little upstart calling herself a wind sorceress is using my winds again."
"She's a demon. Let her use her powers as she wishes."
"Yashamaru-sama," she said, her gaze steely as she stared at him, "You may rule the demons, but I rule the wind. If she is to use her powers to manipulate something that I control, I will do as I please with her."
He rolled his eyes. "Fine, Kazerizumu. If that is what you want to do, I won't stop you. But don't get yourself into trouble-"
"I am a Goddess, Yashamaru. It won't be a problem."
She summoned up a wind and it carried her down to the earth, depositing her gently on the ground.
Her hair swirling about her, she landed a few feet behind Kagura.
"Kagura," she said softly, in a calm voice.
Kagura turned to face the goddess, immediately kneeling to the ground and bowing to her.
"Kazerizumu-sama."
"Kagura…what have you been using my winds for this time?"
Kagura looked up at Kazerizumu with the most innocent face that she could muster. "I was just taking care of a group that attacked me- a hoshi, a taijya, a miko, an inu-hanyou, and a kitsune youkai. They were bothering me, they tried to kill me-"
Kazerizumu looked behind Kagura to see the blood-stained bodies of a monk, a demon exterminator in uniform, a girl in an odd outfit who must have been the miko, a half-dog-demon, and a small fox demon. Each one's eyes were open, and they lay in strange positions:
The strangely-attired girl was lying with her back on the hanyou, looking as if she'd tried to protect him but failed, losing her own life. The monk was completely on top of the taijya, in a position that suggested to Kazerizumu that he had been trying to revive her when he was attacked. The little kitsune was lying on its back, its eyes empty, staring with dead eyes into the sky.
"Kagura."
The wind sorceress's eyes snapped up to the Goddess. "Hai?"
"You cannot tell me that the kitsune attacked you."
"I- well- he was a part of this group, and Naraku ordered me to kill them all-"
Naraku? She remembered that name…
"Who is this Naraku?"
"My master, Kazerizumu-sama. He controls my heart, if I disobey him, he will kill me."
Upon hearing this indication of his cruelty, Kazerizumu remembered him. He was the man who cursed a hoshi with a generational curse involving a hole in the hand that used wind to draw things in.
Kazerizumu's eyes flashed. "Where is he?"
"He- he resides in a castle. It is hidden from most eyes."
"Take me to it."
Kagura reluctantly summoned up a feather. If Naraku finds out that I am the one who brought her…he will certainly kill me.
Within a few minutes, they were able to see the castle ahead. Kazerizumu jumped from the feather and used the wind to float the rest of the distance to the castle. Landing outside it, she whispered, "Naraku."
It was magnified to an incredible intensity and passed through the entire house. Soon a man in a white baboon costume appeared at the door. Kazerizumu instantly took it for a demon puppet.
"I will have none of this, fool. Come out yourself. Do not deny a Goddess whose wrath you have already invoked. It will only be worse for you once I do find you."
The demon puppet lunged at her, and she used a concentrated wind blast to completely destroy it.
Her eyes began to glow blue and her voice deepened and amplified in volume. "Naraku, you have only served to increase my wrath with this pitiful attempt at displaying your power." Closing her eyes, she made a lifting motion with her hands, and the castle's walls and outer structure were lifted by the wind and blown away, leaving Naraku kneeling alone over the body of a young boy. He refused to lift his head, though he sensed the Goddess's presence.
"Naraku, why have you bid this Kagura to kill that group of travelers?"
No sound came from his mouth. He continued to kneel over the body, refusing to acknowledge Kazerizumu's presence.
"NARAKU!" Kazerizumu hated being angry, but the actions of Kagura, bid by Naraku, were too much for her to ignore. Her hair began to flare up behind her.
When he still declined to turn to her, she forced him to, sending a jet of wind at him that blew him up against a wall of wind that she had created. He stared at her, his dark eyes defiant in his chillingly pale face.
"What do you want of me, Goddess?" he asked, a tone of scorn in his voice.
She pressed her jet of wind into another wall, squeezing him between the two as punishment for his insolent attitude.
"I want to know why you have been controlling Kagura, the wind sorceress."
He smirked. She glared.
"She is a part of me, O Goddess. I made her from myself, therefore I control her."
"There is enough killing of humans by youkai every day simply for food, you do not need to go around killing more!"
"Heh. Well, it's not exactly as if Kagura needs my bidding to kill for pleasure…do you, Kagura?"
He's up against that wall. He can't hurt me. "I derive no pleasure from it," she said softly, a false tear forming at the corner of her eye, "I only do it because I must."
In an instant Kagura felt pain shoot through her body. "AAH!" She screamed as she realized that Naraku had summoned her heart to him.
"You cannot lie to a Goddess, Kagura," he said.
"I…AAH…"
Kazerizumu watched the two struggle with each other. Even if Kagura did admit now that she had a passion for killing, it could just be because of Naraku's pain-inducing antics.
"FINE!" Kagura gasped, and the look that she shot at Naraku was pure poison. "I enjoy killing. I'm not a saint, I'm a demon. Are you going to kill all of the demons with a love of causing death, Kazerizumu?"
With one blast of wind, Kagura had disintegrated into a pile of dust on the floor. Addressing a Goddess that way! She got what she deserved.
Naraku laughed, a low laugh, deep in tone, that was amused and not worried. He thought that he was going to be able to manipulate the Goddess, as he had manipulated everyone else he had ever met.
Sensing his mind the tiniest bit (after all, she was a wind Goddess, it was not as if she could read minds all the time), Kazerizumu took her turn at laughing. Her usual clear, happy laugh was replaced by one that sounded like a double voice: a high, scornful, cold woman's laugh, and under it, a deep, throaty laugh that seemed to come from her darkest emotion.
With no warning, she pressed the wind walls tighter around him.
Naraku's face contorted in pain, but he would not beg.
She pressed from the sides as well.
Still, no sound passed his lips.
With just a slight smile, she closed the wind around him, and he simply ceased to exist.
¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€¥€