(Defiance and lies)
'This demon lady seemed as if the gods had wielded her into perfection. Her eyelashes spread out like fans, olive green eyeshades were in place. A snake seemed to be replacing her top at the moment, but it certainly didn't seem like an ugly sight for a male.
And her complexion, so pale unlike Hiten's...and so graceful and curvy...'
Such were the thoughts that Sakura had thought when she had first come into contact with Namie. How Namie had looked down on her as a filthy human girl was no more. Her goddess-like face was reduced to a heap of blood and chunks of bones and skin. The hole, still visible under the gory heap was being occupied by Namie's pet snake.
It wasn't surprising that Hiten hadn't even taken two seconds to look back at Namie; it seemed as if he knew what he did and how the scene was like.
"You useless excuse of a demon!" Hiten spat out the words as they cut against Manten's feelings once again. "If you weren't my brother I'd have done you off a long time ago!"
Sakura took a deep breath and dared to stand up for Manten. "Hiten, I think you're being a bit too harsh on him…"
"If I treat him softly, Sakura, he'll never learn!" Hiten growled. "Father brought me up the exact way that I am bringing up…"
"But you're not your father, Hiten!!" Sakura yelled and kneeled in front of him. "You're not your father, you're Hiten! Please…why are you changing?"
This got Hiten taken aback a bit. First he had heard it from Manten, and now Sakura. He frowned and just to get his mind off things, asked Manten about the shards of the jewel.
"So the fox tyke did off with some other shards, Manten?" Hiten said after listening to Manten's long story. Throughout the whole explanation, the young girl in the green skirt listened with intensity as Sakura herself merely sat there listening blankly.
"Let's go, Manten." Sakura heard Hiten's snappish voice and twitched. As she looked up, she saw Hiten rubbing his bloody hand on a cloth, getting ready to leave. In the meantime, Manten had levered out the huge butcher knife out of the wooden platform and was getting ready to strike it upon the strange girl.
"Aiiiie!" The girl shrieked and with a sudden movement the butcher knife swung down hard. Sakura closed her eyes and turned, but to her relief she found that the girl hadn't been killed.
"Wha…what are you doing?!" the girl screamed as Hiten crossed his arms, annoyed by the fact that he had to put up with this kind of situation. Manten leered at the girl with his beady eyes and as they spoke, Hiten quietly dragged Sakura outside to the hall.
"Yeah?" Sakura whispered. "What is it?"
Hiten took a deep breath and looked at the ceiling for a while before he spoke. He seemed quite obligated to say what he was trying to blurt out.
"Sakura, Manten and I might be going off to a major battle…" he said. "And you'll have to stay home for a couple of days at the max."
"What?"
"You're…not coming, that's all. Don't worry, it won't be that long."
Sakura seemed taken aback at what he had just said. Of course, it was rare for Hiten to ever take her into a middle of a battlefield. But this time, it was just a human girl that they were using. The opponent couldn't possibly be that big, could it?
"If you kill me, you'll never get your hands on the shards of the jewel!"
"What?!" Manten bellowed as Hiten's crimson eyes flashed. The thunder demon slowly walked into the room and sat himself down next to the girl.
"Girl…is this a lie?" Hiten demanded, arms tightly crossed.
"Of course not!" the girl said dreamily. "If you bring me to Inu Yasha, he shall hand over those shikon fragments for my sake without a fight. We are lovers, you know."
'That girl…' Sakura thought, leering at the unsuspecting stranger whom she had just pitied a moment ago. 'She's lying. I can see it in her eyes…'
"An-chan…" Manten said. "Surely this girl is lying…"
Hiten merely smirked and stood up, his mind set to believe the young girl. Sakura felt her senses go out of control suddenly. Something in the back of her mind told her that the thunder brothers shouldn't be getting involved into this situation. After all, what were a couple of shards compared to their lives?
"No!" Sakura yelled and made a mad dash into the room. "Hiten! You can't go!"
Trying to keep a cold and stern face in front of his opponent, Hiten gave Sakura an icy stare. At least in the eyes of the other girl he wished she wouldn't get a clue.
"Hiten, she's lying!" Sakura told him as the girl in the short skirt seemed taken aback, almost seeming afraid that she might be given away. "Can't you tell? This girl is lying! I agree with Manten entirely for once!"
"If she's lying, then I'll kill her when I do find out."
"But it might be too late for that! Please, listen to me!"
"For once I'd take the chance of not listening, Sakura." Hiten said to the dumbstruck girl. "I'm sorry."
Sakura sat there dazed as Hiten stepped up to the girl and pulled her up by her collar of her shirt. The girl winced as though expecting a whack across the head or what not, but Hiten shot her a devious look.
"You must know that if you have defied me," Hiten threatened, "Your beautiful face will soon find a bloody hole through it as well. Understood?"
The girl didn't say anything but seemed to give Hiten a slight nod. He let go of the girl's collar, jumped down from the table and headed out of the room. Manten followed suit, but not after throwing Sakura a sympathetic 'I-know-how-you-feel' look.
"Don't worry, just wait here." Manten said. "We'll promise we'll be back."
"And I'll take care of your laundry, right?" Sakura sniffled. "I'll be able to wash the bloodstains off and hang them up on the tree to dry, right?"
"On the pine tree." Manten assured her. "We promise we'll be safe."
Sakura nodded her head. Seeing that the strange girl was standing up, Sakura walked over to her.
"You aren't lying, are you…?"
"What?" The young girl seemed taken aback by an abrupt question. "What…do you mean?"
"I want to know if you're lying." Sakura said, sheathing her sword. "If you are, then I'll put matters into my own hands."
Sakura reorganized her thoughts. She couldn't let this happen. She wanted to protect Hiten, but not with having to see blood from it. She couldn't kill this girl…not after knowing that this girl was in the same situation that she was in and tried everything to survive.
"I…I'm not lying, I s…swear…" she said. "Why would I lie?"
"Hmm." Sakura said, trying to keep her cool. "What's your name?"
"It's Kagome." She said, extending a hand. "Kagome Higurashi. Yours?"
"It's Sakura." She muttered and put her sword away. "And I don't take hands. You'd better go with them now."
After she heard the girl leave the house, Sakura couldn't hold it in. She dashed down the corridors and flung open the doors where Hiten was getting ready to take off into the skies.
"Hiten!" She called out desperately. He turned around and saw that she had flung herself into his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist. She was shaking and crying at the same time.
"Must…you leave?" she said. "After Manten and I feel you two shouldn't be going?"
Hiten looked grim. When she had asked him this, he thought; it's just an opponent that they're going to face, so why is she so upset? It wasn't like they never went to battle.
"Sakura, I promise you I'll be back." Hiten assured her as he handed her a small leather bag into her palm. "I swear on my life I'll come back alive for you. Don't worry…"
How she wished that what he said would be true. After watching the three; Hiten, Manten and Kagome; take off, Sakura opened the bag and unravelled the string. She gasped when she saw what was in it.
I know what you're thinking..."What's in the bag?!"
Well, NYA to you, you guys will have to find out by reading the next chapter. Lol!
By the way...It would be nice if some of you reviewed my story...My standard goal for now is 100 reviews, so remember...ten seconds that will take you guys to review could be ten minutes for me gazing into the screen, smiling like an idiot when I find how much people like this story. Not to mention how much of a boost it could give me...So hit the button!
By the way...is this story kinda going fast for you guys?