Does Quickfire seem to superhero-ish to you? I'm a bit worried I made her too Mary-Sue/Wonderwoman. I promise you, besides a bit of agility, she's already used every power she has: four attacks, named after the four Saint Beasts. By the way, Yu Yu Hakusho, Fushigi Yugi, etc, DID NOT invent them; they're part of Shinto mythology. Byakko the White Tiger (wood, which I took to mean "air"), Seiryuu the Blue Dragon (metal, which I took to mean "water"), Genbu the Brown Tortoise (earth) and Seiryu the Red Bird (fire). I admit that I took some liberties.
Chapter 2: Jewel's Curse
Quickfire opened her eyes and saw an unfamiliar thatched roof. She found herself lying on a straw mattress inside a hut that smelled of wood smoke. The young monk entered, and she was dazzled by the momentary bright sunlight. Takayuki deposited his armful of sticks next to the fire pit before turning to the demon and bowing slightly.
"What are you doing?" she growled in a scratchy voice.
"Fetching firewood."
"You know what I mean, monk. Why am I here?"
The monk ignored her, but scooped a cupful of water from the wooden bucket beside the door. Quickfire accepted the water with bad grace but drank the entire cupful. It was a rough earthenware mug; the hands that had formed it had left bumps and indentations.
Takayuki began to build a fire from twigs and bits of bark. While feeding the smoking flame with larger and larger twigs, he said abruptly, "I carried you to my temple because you were so badly injured. You slept for two days."
"You would have been wiser to leave me to die. You must know that I'll kill you and take the shards."
"Perhaps," he answered, imperturbable.
"You think I can't?" She flung back the blanket and charged him, her hands reaching for his throat. The floor dipped and swayed under her feet and her vision doubled. She reached forward blindly, falling, and Takayuki caught her.
Lowering her back onto the pallet, he said seriously, "I think you don't really want to."
"I swear to you, I will kill you and take the Shikon shards! Dammit," she cursed as the pieces of her lower left rib ground together. Defeated, she lay still.
"It might be wisest to wait until after you eat," he suggested. He put water over the small fire to boil and added rice from a large sack. As he stirred, he made conversation. "This food comes from the village two miles to the east. The headman is generous to those serving the gods, Buddhist and Shinto alike."
He spooned out equal portions into two earthenware bowls and handed one to Quickfire. She poked at the rice dish suspiciously. "What did you put in this?"
"Herbs, dried fruit and some daikon radish I grow in the garden behind the temple. It's bland, but it's food."
Quickfire was forced to agree; she found herself eating faster than she could chew. He served her two more portions, but ate only one bowl himself. Takayuki extinguished the small fire and went outside to clean the dishes. Quickfire took a moment to look around the spartan temple. There were a couple of rice-bags, dried roots and herb leaves, a single woven tatami mat, a couple of blankets and a wood-carved image of the Buddha on a small shrine. At the Buddha's feet, three jewel shards winked in the dim light.
Quickfire crawled to the shrine and reached for the shards, but jerked her hand back. She stared at her hand, amazed. She had never before felt what it was to be burned, to be hurt by heat. Fire demons couldn't be harmed by flame, but the monk's warding spell on the shards felt like a painful heat. Frustrated, she crawled back to the pallet a moment before Takayuki reentered. He set the cleaned dishes in the corner and carefully hung fresh herbal plants from the rafters to dry.
Out of the silence, he said, "No."
"What?"
"No, killing me won't destroy the warding spell. It now exists independent of my will."
Quickfire blushed with simultaneous guilt and frustration. How had he known? And how was she to defeat the warding spell? "Will it fade?"
"Eventually, if I do not recast the spell, but that could take months or years," Takayuki answered. She glared at the young monk, her frustration at her powerlessness redirected into smoldering anger.
Takayuki sat in prayer position, but turned to look at the demon. "What is your name?" She stared at him in confusion. "How am I to pray for you if I don't know your name?"
"I don't need your prayers."
"Perhaps. Still, you are a guest in the temple I tend. Won't you tell me?"
"I'm called Quickfire."
Takayuki regarded her with clear blue eyes. "I didn't ask what others called you. I asked for your name."
The demon couldn't stand the frank earnestness of those eyes. She looked away and muttered, "Koichira. It's what my parents called me."
"Koichira-san, I welcome you to this temple. May Buddha's mercy be granted to you." Takayuki returned to his meditation, but looked up again after only ten minutes. "Koichira-san, I sense that there is something you wish to ask me. Please do, so that I may meditate undisturbed." It was the closest he had come to impatience.
"I didn't say anything."
"Your unease disturbs my peace. What is your question?"
Koichira chose carefully. He had stonewalled her the last time she had asked why he had brought her here. "You said I didn't really want to take the shards. Why? Have you cursed them?"
Takayuki said, "The Shikon shards were already cursed when gathered them."
"What?"
"Any who try to use the shards for gain, selfish or unselfish, loses the way and sinks into evil and despair." He indicated two of the shards. "These two were being used by a squirrel demon. In the battle, he almost killed me."
Koichira scoffed. "A squirrel demon is a woodland spirit. It doesn't kill."
Takayuki sighed. "When it used the shards, the squirrel lost its way and turned to violence. It killed its own mate in paranoia."
The Koichira knew that squirrel demons mated for life. For one to kill its mate was inconceivable, but so was one of the timid spirits attacking a human. She wouldn't admit it, but Koichira was shaken by the monk's story. She changed the subject: "How did you beat the she-bear?"
Takayuki looked surprised. "Don't you remember? You were the one who killed Kodama, not I."
"I cut off her arm, but she reattached it and slammed me into a tree. I . . . I don't remember anything after that."
The monk paused, trying to find the words to explain. "You . . . sent your soul out. It attacked the she-bear, severing the connection between her body and her soul."
"That's impossible."
"I saw it. Your soul took the form of a great phoenix."
"Phoenix? You mean the Suzaku technique?" Koichira struggled to remember. "I've tried it, but never succeeded. I always black out," she admitted with some shame.
"Perhaps your conscious mind and memory are left black when your soul soars away," Takayuki suggested.
The demon considered this, then asked, "Why didn't Kodama revive? She had the Shikon shard."
"No, the golden phoenix took it in its beak and gave it to me."
"Why the hell would I do that?"
Takayuki sighed. "It is my belief that your soul was protecting itself from the Shikon jewel's curse. Otherwise, it could have destroyed me as well and taken the shards I carried." He closed his eyes and bowed his head, ending the discussion. Koichira stared at him, uncertainty gnawing at her anger.