A/N: Do I have an excuse for getting this chapter up so late? No. Just an apology. Sorry.
"Talking in Japanese." 'Thinking in the speaker's native language.' .:Telepathic stuff:. "Makai dialect."
AAAAA – Change of time/place or whatever.
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Skava
Chapter eight: What now?
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They glided down the mountain, finally touching down far beyond the slide. Skava stood, and was slightly surprised to feel the vine around her loosen and slide away. She also started back a bit when she saw the silver Youko glow bright and turn back into the red head that she had grabbed off the ground. Suddenly she felt her self jerked backwards as an arm snaked around her neck and tightened. The pressure was crushing her wings, and they folded into her back, becoming stubs again. She heard a voice hiss in her ear.
"Why did you save us? If you thought it would make us let you go, you were wrong. Tell us quickly, while you're still conscious." She gasped.
"Can't…breath."
"Yes, Yusuke, you might want to loosen your hold a bit. We want answers, not permanent brain damage." Yusuke sneered, but loosened his hold slightly.
"So…you want to know why I saved you? It's simple. I'm a thief, not a murderer. Well, I am when I have to be, but that's not the point. The point is that you needed help and I could give it. Case closed. Now, could you please let go? You're still crushing my windpipe."
"Not until you drop that knife in your hand."
"What…Oh. Heh. Whoops." She dropped the dagger that she had forgotten to hide back in her sleeve and held her hands palm up in the universal signal of peace. Yusuke dropped his strangle hold and Skava dropped to the ground, massaging her neck, while Hiei darted forward and stashed her dagger in his cloak.
"Kurama? We still need to get her back to headquarters. Should we put her back to sleep?" He began speaking in Japanese, knowing Skava couldn't understand them. She looked blankly at them all as they continued their conversation.
"I don't know. She woke up rather quickly from that last time, and that was the strongest plant I have. Besides, she did save us. I feel that deserves a little bit of courtesy."
"Oh, damn it, guys! She's our job! If the plant doesn't work, then we'll do it this way!" Yusuke walked over and swiftly punched the silver youkai in the temple. She glared and crumpled to the ground, completely unconscious. He looked at his companions.
"Sorry if that seemed harsh, but we need to get her back. Koenma wouldn't let us get away with letting her go, and I agree that we shouldn't kill her. But if she's going to wake up from the flowers, then we needed to do it this way. Let's go. I'm sick of this cold." Kurama looked down at their crumpled captive, then back up and nodded.
"Yes Yusuke, she is our mission. And it's time to leave." The trio once again began to open the portal, Skava placed in the middle of the triangle. The portal became wide enough and Kurama bent down and picked her up, then stepped through onto the other side, the others following suite.
AAAAA
They emerged back in the park that they had left, although now it was early morning.
"I always find it odd how time passes differently in the different worlds. Although it has been more than a day in the ice world, it has only been a few hours here. We still have enough time to return her to Koenma and then get home before real sunrise." Kurama looked at the captives he held in his arms. To his surprise, he noticed that her face was slightly furrowed, as if she were having a bad dream. She whimpered slightly and rocked slightly before quieting. He began to walk to the designated meeting area where Botan would transport her to the Spirit world. Unfortunately, the designated meeting spot was his house, which was miles away from there. They walked on in silence for awhile. Before too long, Kurama began to notice, to his dismay, his captive's nightmare appeared to be getting worse. She was whining slightly and actually starting to kick out. He found his arms beginning to tire from carrying her.
"Yusuke!"
"Yeah, Kurama. What's up?"
"Can you take her for awhile? She's having some sort of nightmare and it's tiring my arms out." Yusuke rolled his eyes to the sky.
"The captive has a nightmare and the fox wimps out. Yeah, I'll take her." Kurama handed her over to Yusuke, which did not seem to sit well with the captive. She cried out as if in pain and thrashed in Yusuke's arms before settling slightly, only mildly twisting and moaning. No real words had as of yet escaped her lips, which was probably for the best. Yusuke was having a rather tough time with the thief; she was about as tall as he was and almost as heavy.
"Damn, you've got some strength! Stop!" Of course, this did nothing to pacify her. In fact it actually seemed to upset her more. She began to murmur two words over and over again. Yusuke bent in close to hear her, and was finally able to make out what she was saying. It made him start.
"Trap…Trap…Trap…Run…Trap…Run…Trap… RUUUN!!!" With a scream she jolted up, eyes wide, staring around her. Kurama barely had the time to shout a warning before Yusuke found that he was down on the ground, slowly coming out of unconsciousness. Hiei had also sensed the danger and was already pursuing her, though she was having none of it. She ran as if possessed, like all the demons of all the seven hells were chasing after, howling their gruesome cries and lusting for blood. Her sight was inward, trapped in her own head of nightmares and pain. She actually began to scream, a pitch too high for most ears to hear, her eyes staring blindly and wildly into the trees. She became a blur streaking through the trees, still terrified.
AAAAA
She was walking through the park, despite the chill that nipped at her. It was only early morning, at most 2a.m., but time mattered nothing to her. She was nothing. She had nothing. Homeless, no family, no one that would care whether or not she lived to see the sun rise again. She was relatively young, only in her mid-thirties, but drugs and the pains of living on the street had aged her both outwardly and inside. Now she was just another shabbily clad woman walking the streets. No one saw her, no one knew her, and no one cared.
She was in fact one of those that didn't care. She often wondered what made her get up at all, though she supposed it was just routine. No respectable company would hire a drug addicted, homeless woman that looked like she was sixty. A few people felt sorry for her every few days and gave her enough money to buy food. She also just took what she could from unwary passerbies that couldn't keep a close watch on their own possessions.
She sometimes wondered why she didn't just die if it would supply her with some sort of relief. She no longer believed in happiness but after living in constant pain, relief is the closest thing to bliss. She supposed she lacked the courage to take that final step and end her life. She wished that someone would just come and kill her and let her take the easy way out. It would be better then living for what seemed like forever alone, without anyone to care for or about her.
AAAAA
Skava was still racing through the trees of a simple park, panicked and blind. Suddenly her senses flared as another presence came into her thoughts. Through the dim fog of her mind, the only thing that could register was, 'Another being is another threat. Eliminate the threat.' However, she quickly had to brake as she crashed into the human that had unwittingly put herself in danger. As the woman dazedly crawled back onto her feet, she felt herself dragged up and immediately went still as she felt the cold metal of a dagger press against her neck. A voice hissed in her ear strange hissing and growling sounds that she could not understand as she felt herself trapped against the body of a hostile attacker.
Her breath caught and only one thought came through. 'I'm actually going to die." She wondered why this shocked her, until she realized something vital. She was afraid. In all her mental and physical loathing now that the moment came, she was actually afraid. She didn't want to die. It was incredible, this fear. It filled her entire body and chilled her to the bone before freezing her completely. She didn't want to die.
"If you want to live you will not move, you will not speak, you will not look anywhere but straight ahead, you will do nothing except exactly what I tell you to do. You-" A shout pierced the air.
"Skava! Stop!" She looked up, startled by the voice, if not the words. Her senses had not picked up the arrival of others. She saw the red haired Youko…what had they called him? Kurama, that was it. There was also the black haired teenager. The fog was lifting from her panic. That's right. His name was Yusuke. And where was the other one? Hiei was his name, the traitor. But where was he?
"Tell me why I should? I've lost everything! You should have just killed me when you had the chance! And now I have nothing left, nothing to loose! But you do! Tell me why I should let this filthy wretch go and let myself be taken! Tell me why I shouldn't just kill her and let her body rot! No one will care, no one except you! Could you live with her death on your conscience? Knowing that you could have prevented it? Knowing that if you'd been just a little bit faster, she would have lived? You know that I will slit her throat before you can even take a step! Tell me, can you live with her death on your soul?" Kurama looked down in sorrow and sighed.
"No, Skava. I could not."
"But I can." She froze at the cool and collected voice behind her. So that's where Hiei was. She still could not sense him, and in her distraction she had failed to hear him. She felt a hand grip her elbow and apply pressure, starting to break it. She knew it would crack if he applied just a little more pressure. It was already hurting like the seven hells at the moment; beads of sweat were forming on her forehead as she struggled not to cry out.
"Drop her, now." She snorted in derisive amusement and drew her arm away from the woman's throat before whipping it around and connecting her elbow to Hiei's skull coming back around to crack the women on the temple. Both crumpled, the woman unconscious. Hiei merely stumbled back but did a quick flip, landing with sword out. Skava also was ready, sword up. Kurama shouted.
"Stop! This will accomplish nothing." Neither showed any sign of breaking their gaze. He turned to Yusuke.
"Will you stop this?" he murmured, "I will stop Hiei, but can you stop Skava? Knock her out again if you have to, I don't care. This is the second time she's almost escaped, I'm sick of it." Yusuke nodded his consent and began to tread softly toward the silver thief, preparing to deal another blow.
However, he was not silent. Hiei and Skava faced each other, the one trying to make the other break the gaze. Hiei eyes flickered for just a second, and Skava tensed. She then quickly flipped up into the air and came down, right behind Yusuke. He tried to turn to face her, but she kicked him hard and he went flying. He crashed into a tree, splintering wood before sliding to the ground.
"Skava!" She wasn't moving. Kurama slowly approached her, checking for signs of movement. She stayed completely still until he was next to her.
"Skava?" She still wasn't responding. He tentatively laid a hand on her shoulder. She jerked and turned to stare at him. He was shocked by the look in her eyes. She looked scared and innocent.
"Yoko? Where am I? What is this place? And why do you have red hair? What is going on?" He hushed her quickly by putting a hand up to her mouth.
"Sshh. Have you never heard of the human world?" She shook her head slowly.
"It is one of the many dimensions in our universe. The Makai is one, this is the Ningenkai. There are also the Spirit and Ice worlds. This is a small piece of the puzzle, though it seems to be a popular one, mainly because the main population is that of weaklings. You saw how easily that woman could be broken. They are the ones that run this world. I can not explain better here. As for my appearance, this is my human form. At the current time I am a merger of demon and human, it's both a complicated and a long story, one that I do not have the time to tell at the moment. Are you all right for now?" She nodded a little. He nodded back at her.
"Good. And now I'm sorry to have to do this." He put his hand over her mouth, releasing his flower again. She gasped in shock, and then slumped to the ground. He addressed her again, switching back to Japanese for convenience.
"But you're our mission. And you almost killed someone. I have to get you away from here. You're not welcome until you can learn to deal with it better." He looked up at his teammates. Hiei was watching, slightly angry with the kitsune for stealing the chance for a fight. Yusuke was also climbing to his feet, shaking bits of bark out of his hair, and trying to shake off the dizziness that comes from being slammed into a tree.
"So…are we actually going to get her to Koenma this time?"
-End of Chapter 8
Review Responses:
Gerru: Thanks for the positive feedback!
Seigimoro no Anoyo: I was going to write a long response...but I'm tired. Suffice to say, I took your advice to heart and deleted about ten thousand commas I realized weren't necessary. Thanks for the critisism. My ego was getting inflated. Sweatdrop Feel free to rip this chapter apart as well.