Ascension of the Spirit
By Banana Rum: Kalliel
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Thanks Moggy, Dkorely, MeLaiya, and wanderingserpent for the reviews! Kikyo-the-walnut, you don't count.
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Disclaimer: There is a reason this is called fanfiction…
Oh yes, and the MidorikoInuyasha kiss does NOT mean that this isn't SangoInuyasha. Geez, Zora. In Japan, a kiss is highly intimate, suggesting strong romantic love or sexual foreplay, so it kinda conveys Midoriko's feelings toward Inuyasha, ne? (Yes, mystery hanyou is Inuyasha, if it wasn't already blatantly obvious to the select few of you.) AND, Mujina is not an OC, because if I do create and OC, they die within three paragraphs anyway. Mujina is from the Inuyasha manga very very very late in the series. I'm shutting up now.
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Beta read by Kikyo-the-walnut/Zora (Thank the gods. This thing was typo land before.)
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Chapter 4: Childish Intentions--Vengeance
Inuyasha
Niwatori Village, Japan
Sengoku Jidai
A dozen different sights and smells bombarded the hanyou in an almost painful consistency, floundering in the jostling crowd like a life preserver cast out in the tumultuous ocean waves, a vain hope of salvation for those which were its intended in-need-of-rescue. Garish palanquins dotted the air above him, so close and threaded together it would be impossible to just simply leap above the throngs of humans and chart Midoriko's progress from there.
Clamoring merchants grabbed at him from all sides, their improbable claims merely set on outdoing the other instead of sticking to the truths of their goods.
For a hakamairi, things sure are festive around here. He thought miserably. Midoriko was here for Kariko's memorial, but nearly all the rest of the region had ventured to Niwatori Village for the o-higan festivities. He flinched as a group of young women and men his age brushed past him, laughing together. After all these years I still can't shake this feeling…
One was company-if dissatisfactory at times-two was a crowd. More than three was like a horde of enemies that pined for his death. It was as simple as that.
But Midoriko 'needed' him, or so she said, so he attempted to relax his tautening muscles, dim his currently over-sharp senses, ignore every instinct he had ingrained upon himself, and wait.
Midoriko never looked behind her once to see if the hanyou was still following. Her subtle ways of taming his wild spirit and cleansing the rift in his heart all this time were beginning to show their effects. This trip's outcome would either be a visible step forward or a reason for him to leave her and never return. That was a chance she was just going to have to take.
Threading through throngs of enthralled tourists and traveling artisans, she tried to savor the memory of that morning. The touch of his skin against hers had been so invigorating…and gods, he was warm. Even in the chill, weakened sun at dawn, he his balmy radiance was so inviting. She couldn't bear to think what would happen if she could never feel the fire-tinged aura of his youki or hear his obnoxiously rebellious insults directed at her ever again.
That's low, Midoriko. You're in love with a demon. Unforgivably shameful. Eternally damnable. She sighed, finally leaving the marketplace centre and coming to a halt at a glove of trees.
"Eh? This is your friend's grave?" the hanyou came up behind her, eyes scanning the crescent ring of greenery.
Midoriko turned, smiling, but even a halfwit could tell that it was a weak cover-up.
"We're lost, aren't we. You can't remember where the fucking grave is." He scowled. There were no grave markers, no tributes to the dead. What a waste of time, he thought, turning to leave.
"These are the graves. Of Kariko, her husband, her father…"
"How are you so sure?" he eyed her with a distrusting, skeptical glare.
Don't look at me like that. It brings back bad memories. "I buried them. Each one…of these graves is something I created. This is Kariko's employer," she said, pointing to one further from the family of dead. "And this was for someone who ended up living in the end anyway."
"And you hold responsibility for everyone in this girl's life because…" the youkai prompted in an arguing tone.
"I was the one who let them die. They were killed by a youkai that I was supposed to be guarding them from."
"One survived, still. That's good."
The corners of Midoriko's mouth twitched at his vain attempts at consoling her. "People say it was the wrong one. That he should have died anyway."
"Didn't you at least avenge them by killing the youkai?"
"No."
"Plfft. You're hopeless, you know that? You let them die, then you don't even try to at least kill whoever murdered them? What kind of priestess are you?"
"A good one. Killing it would only lead to more deaths."
"NOT killing it means it would just go and kill more and more people!" he replied.
"I don't think it would. Not after that. Not any more."
"Uh…" Her expression was so pitiful he didn't want to tongue-lash her anymore. A flash. A scream. A distant memory. "Kariko! Get away from him!"
--
Taiji Village
Sengoku Jidai"Curse you, Sango." Mujina seethed. "Calling me out at this time of day…" She flipped two raven locks of stray hair over her shoulder, high ponytail swishing with menace as she marched into Taiji Village and straight up to the headman's home.
Tapping her foot impatiently she reached into her plain furoshiki, drawing out a fuzzy ball of fur. "Ready Kirara? Sango-SAMA," adding the honorific sarcastically, "said that we need a ride to the memorial of her mother's sister in Niwatori."
"Finally, Mujina! It's about time!" Sango rushed out to meet her friend, followed shortly by her father. Kohaku would stay behind and continue his training.
"Sure, whatever." Mujina shrugged. Kirara, as if on command, hopped out of Mujina's arms, landing lithely on the hard-packed ground and transfiguring into her more fierce, less-portable nekomata self.
"Kirara darling, please take us to Niwatori Village…" Mujina cooed, stroking the peaches-and-cream hued mane of the large cat before climbing on as well.
The velocity at which Kirara left the ground made Sango's stomach lurch for a moment, before re-acquainting herself with the essences of flight. She had done such air-voyages with Mujina as they were growing up, but the take-off sickness was always the same. Once they were up in the air, however, Sango leaned back, not quite touching her father's form behind her, and closed her eyes.
She could almost feel the change in currents as Kirara galloped through the skies, shifting azures and dawn-tinted lavenders into near-midday blue and ivory, clean-cut clouds draping their misty bodies about the travelers. All too soon, their skyward venture came to an end, Kirara's wyrd flames touching soft earth beneath them.
They had flown over a festival in the town during their journey—why couldn't they have gone there instead? It made much more sense than mourning over someone she had never met and her father barely knew. But if they didn't pay their respects, who would?
Other people, apparently. When Matsu had questioned a passing merchant where the Yakota family gravesite could be found, he only muttered, "Yes, yes. Midoriko-sama just went there," in a broken, near-incoherent version of their dialect.
"He must have been from the north. With such an accent, it's a wonder her even sells anything around here!" Sango whispered to Mujina as the strange man went about his business.
"Yes-ah! Excuse me, ujiko-san. Do you know where the priestess Midoriko-sama has gone this morning?" Mujina broke off, stopping to ask one of the men milling about the weathered jinja, sweeping.
"The other side of town. Big huge fairy circle of trees. You can't miss it." The man grumbled with a tone of obvious disintrest.
Mujina fought off the urge to kick the man just then, bowed politely, and when he did not return the gesture, stormed off, Sango and Matsu following suit.
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Kariko-gumi's Gravesite
Sengoku JidaiA good hunk of sunlight into midday and they were still here. What in all the hells could possibly make cleaning up a nonexistent grave so tediously long? And Midoriko was moving at such an incredibly snail-like pace, rearranging the pattern of the leaves that had fallen, for no reason that he could fathom.
Autumn was sinking in, the austere season of enigmas and hidden intentions. Trickery, treachery—
"Hey, you. Didn't you hear me, or are you going to be deaf as well as useless?" Midoriko lifted his dreary muses from his mind for the moment.
"Wuh…?"
"Go get some incense from the vendors in Niwatori." She was holding out a few of her most rare warding paraphernalia for him to barter with.
The youkai let out a disdainful 'keh'. "And why would they sell anything to me?"
"It's the ohigan. They'll sell just about anything to anyone for a profit."
"Ah…" the hanyou nodded. "And after you do your little praying ritual, we can leave?"
"Yes."
He was gone in an undefined moment before she had even finished the word.
Only moments after he made his rushed exit, a strange group of people arrived. "Are you the priestess Midoriko-sama?" a tall, broad-shouldered man asked. Behind him were two girls, maybe into their twelfth year.
"Indeed. You would be--?" There was a strange, concealing aura about on of the girls, as if her heart were somehow blurred and unclear, but she dismissed it without too much concern. It was not malevolent, and she had enough to think about as it was.
"Family and friends of the Kariko and her father who lie here. I am…was Kaiyou's husband." Matsu replied. "We come to pay our humble respects."
"Ah, come then." Trust family to come once all the work had been completed.
Several sticks of odorous incense in hand, the hanyou scented a youkai as he drew nearer to the circle. Quickening his pace, he became merely a red and ivory blur of movement as he crashed into the clearing soon after.
"Youkai!" Sango hissed, hands straying to a giant boomerang at her side when he appeared.
"Get him! Kill the youkai! Death to the mononoke!" Raised spears, drawn swords. Coils upon coils of deceit and hatred.
"Wait." Midoriko commanded, snatching the incense and starting it burning with a trained hand. "We do not need another grave to clean today. Please refrain from bloodshed."
The hanyou snorted, withdrawing from his battle stance, still glaring at Sango. Then he shifted his gaze to Mujina. "Tell your friend to be careful. Her companions are most likely who she'll have to kill someday. Youkai."
Mujina tensed. "He's crazy, Sango. Don't believe anything he says." She whispered, barely moving her lips. Sango nodded, annoyed, as if saying 'I know that already. I'm not stupid.'
"You just keep telling yourself that." The hanyou spat before retiring to sit at the foot of one of the trees NOT being used to mark a grave. Exactly what was it that this 'incense' was made out of? It stung his eyes and nose, infiltrating his delicate senses and instilling lethargic reactions in his bones. A drowsiness crept over him with a force he had never felt before. Damn it all, I can barely move. It was all he could do to remain upright, observing the scene through a hazy shade of autumn.
As the crows settled in the boughs of his tree, and the sun disappeared once more, the thick, saccharine reek of incense was beginning to fade and intermingle with the more inviting scent of dusk. The whole day, he had been at Kariko's grave, under strict orders from Midoriko, and so far there had been nothing that involved the need for him to be there.
"Midoriko-sama, did you know Kariko?" Sango asked, making the first bit of polite conversation he had been able to pick up in a while be heard.
"I was one of the miko in attendance for her wedding, and I buried her here."
"Thank you. I was also wondering…Why did no one inform us of her death?" Sango inquired.
"We…could not be sure that there was famly to bring news to." Midoriko answered weakly. "In these troubled times, we cannot afford to send out able bodies with the risk that it would be for naught."
It was HER job to traverse the lands and bring such ill news to relations. Her job that she hadn't done.
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Elsewhere
Sengoku Jidai
"Midoriko-san! Word has come to us that a demon is in your care. Should this be true, do you realize what this means?" an old Shinto priest had uttered these words late one night when the moon hid so long ago.
"Oh, damn." Midoriko turned around and took a deep breath, brushing back loose hair from her face, hands resting at her temples for a moment before during back to the man.
"I beg your pardon, my lady. Excuse me?" the priest huffed, taken aback by her gruff speech.
"Ah-forgive me. I am very tired. Indeed, I am harboring a youkai in this shrine." It was better just to admit the truth than attempt to conceal something that was already not-so-secret.
"This goes against the duties of a miko, Midoriko-san." His tone was to matter of fact and to the point, she knew he had no personal arguments that went for or against her. Only a job that must be carried out.
"To care for the injured and aid the sick? Is that against our code?" Midoriko argued. Boy ever had she gotten herself into a mess this time.
"He is a youkai. He killed the villagers you were supposed to keep safe. And yet you wish to salvage this tainted spirit?" His voice rose in a gradual crescendo.
"There was nothing I could do to help them! They were long dead!" she shouted, rising to meet his challenge. However, her voice cracked in the middle, betraying her tears.
"Only because you let them die! Leave the youkai to perish, it matters not whether he lives or dies! You have a duty to your own people to fulfill, and that requires the extermination of all dangerous youkai in the vicinity!" Pushing past her violently, he entered the shrine, storming into the sleeping quarters. The stale air within was thick with the smell of sweat and blood, intermingling with the unmistakable reek of healing herbal poultices.
No youki though. "Midoriko-san, where have you hidden him?" he called back to her, knocking over fragile half-formed remedies and spilling painstakingly heated water on the surface of the treated planks.
"I-uh…" she stopped short, seeing for herself that there was indeed no youkai around. Only a young man with lengthy sweat-streaked hair as dark as the sky outdoors lying on a pile of faded tatami, rasping breathing filling the silence as his own feeble resistance fought to ward off the pain.
"You admitted to housing a demon. This man, certainly, is not of hell. Where is he?" his baffled tone mirrored Midoriko's own emotions.
A hanyou, then.
--
Kariko's Grave
Sengoku Jidai
"Midoriko-sama? What's wrong? You look pale, are you feeling well?" Mujina circled the kneeling priestess, who had a horror-stricken madness in her eyes.
"I-I'm well. Hey you, feeling better now?" the miko turned toward the hanyou. To her expectations, the cloud that had enveloped his keenly bright eyesight was lifting, and she could feel him visibly fighting to regain edge and the general awareness he had always possessed.
A flash. A scream. The heat of fire, the chill of death. "Youkai, do you know who I am?" The flicker of that ruby sheen of blood upon a blade. A youkai's scent.
Shit. So that's who Kariko was. He shot up, fleeing from her grave. All this time, Midoriko had known. Their entire conversation. Of course she hadn't killed the youkai and avenged the dead bastards. If she had, he wouldn't be here.
Ignoring Midoriko's calls, he raced out of the fairy circle, making sure to at least go in the direction opposite the village. His body still felt uneasily heavy, each step like running through quicksand. The once familiar sylvan territory he had so long traversed was warped and twisted, all the scents were dispelled, replaced by a sudden uprising of sugary incense. His right shoulder grazed the trunk of a pine, just enough to catch him off guard.
He cried out, staggering to one side, only to fall into someone's stray crop of squash plants and down the ravine they playfully concealed. Lying in the frigid trickle of a winter rivulet, the unpleasantness of his position actually helped him regain full awareness of his surroundings.
"You can't run away from this forever." Midoriko's voice called from the edge as she slid down to help him up. "Just ask for the forgiveness of Sango-san and her father. They will bear no grudges. From what I hear, they were distant at best. They would have little to gain by demanding more of you."
The hanyou just lay there, spitting out the stagnant water that crept into his mouth.
"Alright then. Don't. Rot in hell for all I care!" she screamed, sobs racking her body. She had lost. Lost him, lost her dignity, lost everything. Why am I crying? It's just some ungrateful youkai. She tried to console herself, rather unsuccessfully. Gods, I love him. Why do you have to take everything away? She knelt beside him, quiet sniffling just barely audible above the gurgle of the water.
"You said you would go home after you prayed for the girl. Now do that." He pulled his drenched self out of the streambed, dragging Midoriko up by her arm. She looked up at him, confused. She opened her mouth to respond, but before she had the chance to speak, another shrill voice sounded above them.
"Midoriko-sama! Midoriko-sama!" A boy from Niwatori, haggard and out of breath.
"What's wrong, Koichi?" Midoriko pushed away from the youkai, scrambling up to meet the child.
A demon exterminator boy! He's come to the village, hurt bad! He won't tell me or the others nothing. The taijiya who passed by the village earlier are already waiting at the jinja. Come quickly!"
He sounded so terrfied, shaking visibly even as Midoriko gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder and sprinted to her shrine without even a backward glance at her companion.
--
Niwatori Village Shrine
Sengoku Jidai"Kohaku!" Matsu rushed to the futon with an urgency Sango had not seen in a very long time. "Kohaku, what happened? Can you hear me? It's alright now…you're safe here." Matsu whispered, holding down the thrashing boy. "Where is the priestess?" he snarled, cradling his only male heir.
"Right here." Midoriko answered tersely as she crept through the shouji. It was still a mess from that morning. "Get back, taijiya-san. Leave this to me."
Extracting a dagger from her sleeve, she cut away the boy's kosode, bloody pieces falling away in tatters. "Where did you find him, Koichi?" Midoriko asked.
"On the southern border of the village." Koichi stuttered.
"He's been bit by a snake youkai." Midoriko confirmed, brushing her hands against the two large puncture wounds on his side. Purple networks of contaminated veins laved across his right side, the flesh around the bites growing pale and crusted.
"Kohaku, I'm here, don't worry." Sango collapsed onto his legs, crying. Mujina laid a comforting hand on Sango's back. She knew how much her brother meant to Matsu and Sango. If he died, there would be no one to take over as headman when Matsu's time ended. And it was more than a political matter. Siblings were the only things Sango could ever value more than her parents. In the Taiji village, your immediate family and fellow demon exterminators were the only things that truly mattered. Mujina had accepted that, painful though it was, she was only second in line.
"There's…nothing I can do." Midoriko admitted, the guilty nagging in her heart saying that twice she had led this family to fatality. Twice she had failed this man, this child.
"You lie! There must be something! Something…you can't just let him die!" Mujina cried.
"I'm sorry! I can't give you anything more! Some things can't be altered! There is nothing anyone can do to…help." Her roaring typhoon of anger gradually pittered off in a moment of self-realization. There was indeed one last thing she could do. There was indeed. Just as that ignorant idiot of a youkai had said, she could slay the demon to avenge the boy.
Looking straight into Matsu's eyes, she said, "I will slay the youkai who is taking your son's life. Farewell. I will be back as soon as possible to hold a ceremony for his body." As she turned, she could feel Matsu's unforgivingly cold glare boring into the back of her skull, as if it was she who inflicted such a wound, not who she sought to kill.
--
In between
Sengoku JidaiDespite the hanyou's lackluster attitude, in the end he ended up scouring the valleys south of Niwatori along with Midoriko. The valleys rose up into the mountain range that had housed the demon exterminators village for as many generations as anyone could name.
"So this damn youkai you're hunting," he prompted. "What is it?"
"Snake." Midoriko was a little surprised. Usually it was she who would start a conversation when he didn't want to partake in idle chatter. Now it was the other way around.
"So it could be some puny garden snake we've been searching for this whole time?" he barked at her relentlessly.
Midoriko clenched her fists. If there was a time I wanted to belt him one, it's now. "The kid's entire torso could fit in the thing's mouth! It's obviously not QUITE as small as a garden snake." She shot back. It was indeed one of the more powerful breeds of youkai, invested with poison fit to kill even a lesser demon in one bite, but it was still only a forest ghlim. It didn't have a human form from what she had derived, so it couldn't be particularly noteworthy. But in order to avenge the blood relatives of the Yakota family, it must be killed. Purified of its imbalanced values and done away with. She was the great priestess Midoriko; she had the holy power to do just what she wanted.
Trudging through the mud-caked paddies that had suffered too much rain and runoff from the peaks, she kept her sole focus on the alternate visions. She was going to find that youkai, even if she hunted it over the ends of the earth.
They had been marching for days on end, at a pace so grueling that even the hanyou was beginning to feel the protest in his joints, the painful excess stress that his leg muscles could not handle.
Then something caught his senses. Stumbling to an unseemly stop, knee deep in rank, marsh-like earth. "You feel that?" he asked Midoriko. The stench of decaying meat and acrid, burning youki of enormous strength. He looked over at her, covering his nose with the sleeve of his kariginu.
"Looks like this demon came to us, eh?" Midoriko drew her sword unnecessarily. It would do little more than serve as a stake to pin the snake down with. "You. Leave now. This is something I must do alone."
The hanyou nodded with an almost sincere smile. One thing he knew, the codes of vengeance were the same for every race: if you don't do it yourslef, it's not truly done.
Alighting on a nearby boulder, he bounded along the ridge and out of sight. The valley was too open to be to his liking, with no trees to help guard against predators. Besides, all his senses were tingling with anticipation as they caught some small fowl in their radar.
--
Niwatori Coast
Sengoku Jidai
Nearly a week had passed since the miko's leave, and Matsu had already creamated the body, for fear that it would rot before she returned. The shrine had tried to give him a fanciful china jar for Kohaku's ashes, as if in consolation for their incompetence. As if in having it Matsu would bear no ill will toward them. Bah.
Before setting out for home, he had wandered down to the beach in search of solace. Home. It was an empty word now. There was no wife to heat the evening meal, only Sango. No son to lavish affection upon, only Sango.
He was the pine, whose sappy amber had disintegrated, whose ocean had evaporated, leaving only the coral beneath its depths.
And yet, there was beauty to that coral. So many different styles and colors. Like brilliant morning glory in the gardens, small and sweet. Like a hidden razor blade ready for the kill. A daughter ready to be married in hopes of breeding a boy for an heir. A daughter with a warrior's spirit who could be the heir herself.
He breathed in deeply, intaking the slightly fishy scents and salty wind that stung his face. The icy waves pruned his tan feet, shriveling them as in reminder he would someday grow old.
"Chichi-ue?"
And there was that same voice that was the basis of his problems. And his happiness. He growled in recognition.
"Mujina says that Kirara will take us home now. Are you ready?" Sango shifted slightly, squishing the sand between her toes. The hem of her kosode was heavy with seawater, the light pink squares of color turned bright magenta.
"One moment. Then we can return to Taiji Village."
"Yes, chichi-ue" she made to leave, but her father caught her hand, gesturing for her to stay.
"Now that both your mother and Kohaku are gone, you are all I have. Someday, you might be alone in the world, and I don't want you to ever have to face that. Will you promise me that you will marry who I pick for you, to ensure proper care and affection for you and your children?"
"Y-yes, chichi-ue." Sango agreed, kicking at a stray piece of driftwood that ventured near. What was he asking this for? She was only a child still.
Producing a well-oiled bag that bulged with its contents, Matsu dipped his hand in. "These are Kohaku's ashes, Sango. Along with Kaiyou's. I have always kept them near." Spreading his fingers, the grainy substance fell from his hands and into the sea. "But now I realize that the past is not something to dwell on now. The present is for shaping the future, not trying to recreate what came before. You are my future, Sango. A combination of these two, you are a talented, upstanding warrior who yields to no one,"
Sango blushed at the praise. It was true, she was better than all the other children but…
"And a pleasant face to warm my days." Picking up the young girl as if she weighed nothing at all, he twirled her around, crystalline droplets flung off her clothing like tears of joy shed without crying.
--
In between
Sengoku JidaiThe serpent, it turned out, was much larger than she could have ever believed, and it was not 'just a garden snake', to say the least. A juggernaut had stood before her, towering as literal sheets of youki washed off of it. A conglomerate of so many demons it was impossible to count. And, at the moment, she was at the less-pleasant end of it.
Heaving her sword out of its sheathe once more, she staggered a little at its weight, only mildly surprised at her own fatigue. Since forever it seemed she had fought off the macabre torrent of youkai, slashing at claws and heads and poison-spiked tails.
The youkai were tireless and so great in numbers, but there was only one of her, and she WAS tired. How much easier it would be to simply fall and be devoured…but no. Vengeance. Kill this demon. Raising her katana, she split an overconfident serpent in two, causing the two behind it to disperse rapidly. But there would be more.
When she had been tending to the hanyou, she had though that was as tiring as labor could go. With all the thrashing and mess he made, she had a pretty good notion of weakness. This, however, was in a class all its own. There was no sign of ending this onlsaught, and no way she could get to a vital section. Not if she couldn't get closer.
Suddenly, insectoid arms shot out of the middle, wrapping themselves around her. They had a prickly stickiness to them that made Midoriko shiver. Would it eat her now? But maybe this was the chance she needed. It was drawing her in, and if it intended to devour her, it would need to expose some part of it that was not designed for fighting. She smiled weakly. Maybe not.
--
In the wilds
Sengoku JidaiThe pheasant was only a few meters away, flying for what she could and scrambling to escape; she knew she was being hunted. Not that is really mattered, because she knew also the hunter well. The hanyou of the forest, adept at fighting in the enclosed spaces of the woods. He who had killed and presumably feasted upon her family.
The hanyou smirked. He had closed the distance between him and his prey much quicker than usual, and would soon dine in leisure. What would he do after that, though? Go back to Midoriko I suppose. It can't possibly take her more than what I gave her to slay a serpent, no matter how powerful. He mused.
Finally, he could see his dinner. Leaping into a nearby tree, he lay silent for a moment. Watching with leering amber eyes, he could envision the pheasant's thoughts as easily as he could his own.
Is he gone? Have I lost him? Am I safe?
Her stature visibly relaxed, and she began pecking at the ground in a small sunny clearing a few footsteps away from his hiding spot. He growled in anticipation, as if calling, 'I'm still here' to the bird. Her head jerked up, plucking the bronze and chocolate feather she had been cleaning. A faint tint of blood filled the area as it trickled down from her wing.
Thinking better of stopping just yet, she took off once more. Flying just beneath the canopies of the great trees, she had forgotten in her fear-flight that it made it all the easier to track her from above.
Dancing through the boughs, a nigh invisible speck of feathers escaped, a much more noticeable, lithe blur of crimson and ivory flitted in and out of sight.
And then, in a fretful tousle it was all over. The pheasant's neck was broken, a flurry of feathers settling around the hanyou as he ate. He did not escape unscathed either, however. A deep scratch ran from just below his eye to his chin, inflicted upon him by vengeful fowl. The blood dripped downward, staining his hair and clothes a deep red.
After his feasting, he laid back in a tree with a content aura about him, trying not to let any uneasiness from Midoriko's fight interrupt this moment. That didn't last long. Moments later he was in flight once more, searching for the battle. It wasn't hard. The youki was overwhelmingly potent, and the largest mass of youkai he had ever seen came into view the second he left the forest and stared out at the valley from a rocky precipice. The thing that worried him, however, was the lack of anything to oppose it.
Where was she? That bitch, she better not die and leave me here. He gazed harder into the distance, gauging the amount of time it would take to clear it. He could almost hear a scream as he wasted precious instants, and took off from the cliff like a bullet, stirring the seeds of a flower and sending a great burst of pollen in to the air behind him.
--
In between
Sengoku JidaiMidoriko watched with a drunken sense of prediction as the youkai's fangs pierced her chest right between the bamboo plates. Blood splattered out, spraying her face and clothes. She watched. She knew she had to do something to fight back, but all that had propelled her for so long had gone. Her hanyou had not come back to her. He was all hers, and he did not come to avenge her.
Her thirst to avenge the Yakotas too had diminished. Such a childish intention, vengeance. How futile. We all live and we all die. What does 'vengeance' gain us? Then even through searing pain and dizziness from the rapid loss of blood, she realized something. That youkai…he was there. Trying to reach her, save her. She watched him dazedly slash a dozen or so serpents, beating them to a pulp when they still failed to die. Coming to save her.
With her last ounce of strength and will power, she focused on the four spirits residing in the labyrinth of this oni's twisted heart. They were all but balanced, making it very hard to adjust without changing the formulas too much. Too much valor, not enough mercy…and then it was done.
Live, my hanyou. She felt a great force tug at her breasts, wrenching free her very being, tossing it aside along with the demon's.
And then it was all gone, save for the thrumming of a shamisen, beckoning her to the world beyond hardships.
The hanyou, however, wasn't quite ready for her to step along that path. "Midoriko!" he shouted in anguish as the glowing jewel fell back down to the earth in her place beside him. He had never called her name before. It sounded clumsy against his lips, not doing her justice in the slightest. In his rage, he slammed his whole weight against the still, dead body of the demon. It served to gain nothing but the throbbing of his shoulder blade and the wind knocked out of his lungs, causing him to cough and sputter uncontrollably.
But he didn't cry. He never cried.
-end chapter four
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More author's notes than anyone will ever need:
Cheery chapter, ne? A grave visit, a death, some angst, another death…never fear, things will start to look up in the near future!
As I'm sure most of you know, trying to get anything done on a holiday with relatives to please is nigh impossible. Therefore, chapter four is a tad late.
Ahem. The o-higan festival is real, which is celebrated in the spring and fall. It was put in mostly because I am really annoyed by the fact that in some fanfiction, the world revolves around the little band of 'heroes'. If they're in mourning, then the whole town is.
Therefore, of course, in my story, if Midoriko goes to pay respects to some brothel girl's grave, the rest of the town will be celebrating the autumn equinox.
I also decided it would be a good idea to include a SIMPLIFIED glossary of all the Japanese terms used frequently throughout this story.
Youkai: demon
Hanyou: half demon
Kosode: yukata-type thing that Sango wears
Shouji: rice paper screens
Jinja: Shinto shrine
Hakamairi: grave visit
Katana: sword
See ya, Kalliel
