Chapter Five : The Plant User

Ishiru walked about the gardens with Rin. The little girl ran off at random intervals to pick a flower or chase a butterfly. Ishiru felt strangely on edge. Like something was about to happen. She brushed it off and kept walking. Rin tugged on Ishiru's pant leg, gaining the youkai girl's attention.

"Hai Rin-chan, Nani?" She looked down at the little human. Rin pointed at a flower on a high bush.

"What kind of flower is that?" Rin asked. "Rin has never seen that flower before." Ishiru looked for the flower that Rin was talking about. "Which flower Rin-chan?" Rin led the girl over to the bush and pointed up.

"That one." It was a scarlet day-lily type of flower with white streaks coming from its center.

"I don't know Rin-chan." Ishiru knelt. "Would you like to see it better?" Rin nodded and Ishiru stood again, her slender fingers gently grasping the stem at the base of the bloom. She felt a sharp prick on her fingertip and pulled her hand away.

It wouldn't come free. She froze and felt the flower melt into a hand, the body to which the hand belonged hidden in the bush. Ishiru jerked her hand from their grasp.

"Rin, go back to the fortress." She said, trying to hide what was really going on.

"Doushite?" Rin asked.

"Take your flowers to Sesshoumaru, ok Rin-chan?" Ishiru lightly turned the girl towards the path.

"Oakata." Rin said, heading up the path towards the fortress, her steps quickening.

Ishiru turned back to the "flower" as soon as Rin was out of sight. The owner of the hand had come out of the bush. A plant user youkai stood before her, grinning at her. 'So that's why I didn't scent him. He smells like the plants.' Ishiru stepped into a defensive stance, automatically correcting it. She smiled inwardly, remembering how many times she had been reprimanded about her stance. The shape changer grinned, baring a fang.

He lunged at her; Ishiru sidestepped him, drawing a dagger from her obi. He vanished from her sight range and she altered her stance to be ready to strike.

The youkai studied her. Why didn't she attack him? What was she waiting for? The youkai tossed aside his hesitation and moved behind her before darting back towards her. Ishiru dodged in time to avoid being gored on his needle-like claws. But she earned a stinging scratch on her side for her lack of sight.

Ishiru whirled before he could leave her sight again, thrusting her dagger into his side. The plant user growled, knocking her hand away and taking the dagger from his side. He stood a ways away, easily out of Ishiru's sight range. The youkai girl fell back into her stance and waited.

"Why do you not attack me?" Asked the plant user. "Truly, it disheartens the great Otsuma to have someone who makes so few advances for an opponent." He said, tilting his head to the side.

"It's not your concern. Your battle is with me, and with me it shall be finished." She said, darting towards him, using his voice as a locator. Her claws extended, burying themselves into his chest before releasing mild venom. Her venom was not yet potent enough to do any immediate damage, but it would slow him down. She used him as a springboard to back away before Otsuma could make a counterattack.

Otsuma stood there, grinning. Ishiru narrowed her eyes and saw his features. She frowned. 'Why is he smiling when he is wounded?' She thought.

A small flurry of leaves surrounded his wound and filled it, renewing the mangled flesh. Ishiru's sensitive hearing picked up the sound of the little leaves, then put some of her jyaki into temporarily extending her sight range. It was a difficult trick for her, but she saw that he had healed. 'Chikuso!' Ishiru thought. 'How can I defeat him if he can just heal like that?'

"Indeed this battle will finish. But it will be I who emerged victorious, and that girl will be my next meal." Ostuma said, indicating Rin with a slight inclination of his head. The girl was still heading up the path.

Ishiru blanched. She couldn't let him eat Rin! Again using his voice, she struck at him. This time, coating her hand with what was for now, the strongest of her venom. The flesh of Otsuma's torso burned and hissed at the venom. Otsuma grimaced and stepped back.

"So. You can't heal from my venom." Ishiru said. 'Maybe I can defeat him.' She thought. Just as she finished her thought, Otsuma snarled and crashed into her. He pinned her against the wall by her wrists. Ishiru let her venom coat her hands and flow down her wrists into Otsuma's hands. The plant user's flesh hissed briefly, but wasn't harmed. 'No! I can't be out of venom already!' Ishiru thought, slightly panicked.

Otsuma grinned. Vines grew from the wall and bound Ishiru's wrists. The youkai girl struck out with her legs, landing a solid kick on Otsuma's chest. He was knocked back a few yards.

"Keep your slimy hands off me!" She snapped. Otsuma stood up, growling.

"You'll pay for that, you animal-youkai bitch." He balled his hand into a fist and struck her midsection. Ishiru let out a yelp.

The little servant boy from Ishiru's room turned looked to the left of his path at the sound of a yelp. Konoko went over to the source of the yelp and saw Ishiru tied to the stone garden wall, Otsuma beating her.

Konoko backed away with a gasp. He had to get help. The sparrow youkai child focused on his youki and his body altered to that of a sparrow. Quick as a flash, the boy flew up to the fortress.

Konoko lost his shape as he landed on a balcony. He ran inside only to find his master at his desk. The boy dropped to his knees and bowed his head.

"Gomen nasai dana. But there is a youkai out in the gardens who is attacking Ishiru-sama." He said, trying not to anger his master.

He heard Sesshoumaru stand up from his desk. Konoko flinched, waiting for a reprimand. Instead, a light breeze blew past him. Konoko looked up and saw that Sesshoumaru was gone. The boy turned around to look out the balcony.

OOO

Sesshoumaru flew over the gardens. He made note of Rin who was just entering the fortress. But he kept going. It wasn't Rin he was looking for, but her caretaker Ishiru. He picked up her scent and that of a plant user youkai. He sped up, his youki swirling around his feet.

He soon reached them. But Sesshoumaru did not interfere. Instead, he drew his scent and aura from around him and stood a ways away, where he could see, but could not be seen. He would help her, only if she truly needed it.

Otsuma had stopped striking Ishiru and had resorted to using his plants to make many small cuts along her arms, beginning to bleed her dry. A massive vine sprung from the ground and dug into and through her shoulder. Ishiru bit back a shout as the vines on her wrists released her, leaving all her weight on the vine through her shoulder.

Ishiru was pulled into the air as the vine grew to become level with the canopy. Ishiru growled, glaring at Otsuma. She dug her claws into the vine, tearing through it. She landed at the top of the wall and tore the rest of the vine from her shoulder. It writhed in her hand, wearing away at the skin of her palm. Ishiru looked from the vine to Otsuma. The vine wrapped around her hand and began to tear at the skin of her wrist.

Ishiru growled and leapt at Otsuma. She collided with the plant user, burying her hand into his chest, with the vine held tightly in her claws. Ishiru released the vine inside his chest cavity and leapt away. She stabilized herself on the wall, glaring at Otsuma. A flurry of leaves signified that the wound had healed over the vine, which was now loose inside of him. The vine writhed inside his body, tearing at what flesh it could reach, as it was created to do. Ostuma's eyes widened in realization.

"You! TEME-" His voice was cut off as the vine tore through his chest and throat. Ishiru just watched, glaring bitterly, as he was devoured by his own creation. Even when his body was gone, the vine continued to tear at the surrounding foliage.

Ishiru scowled and pulled the last dregs of her venom to her claws, then walked over to it. She looked at the vine distastefully. In a flash of movement, she grabbed it, releasing her venom into it. A growl spilled form her throat as it wore away at the minimal flesh of her hand, even whilst her venom disintegrated it.

She let her hand fall to her side. Ishiru looked down at herself. She was covered in her own blood, and though it couldn't be seen, she was covered in bruises, lacerations, and other various injuries.

"I guess I had some venom left after all..." Ishiru dropped to her knee, then fell over. Her body curled forward in a graceful arc as she tumbled over herself into the ground.

Sesshoumaru came out from concealment in the foliage and knelt next to Ishiru. He turned her over and picked her up with one arm curling under her back and the undersides of her legs as he would do with Rin. Ishiru woke up briefly. Gold and silver met her eyes and she blinked, brining the image into slightly better focus. She saw what she thought was Sesshoumaru's face.

"You... You came, to save... Me?" She said before falling unconscious again. Sesshoumaru looked down at her for a moment.

"...Yes."