Yellow Tea Rose

Chapter Three: Izayoi's Message

The piercing radiant moon The storming of poor June

All the life running through her hair

Approaching guiding light

Our shallow years in fright

Dreams are made winding through my head

Through my head

Before you know, awake

Your lives are open wide

The v-chip gives them sight

All the life running through her hair

The spiders all in tune

The evening of the moon

Dreams are made winding through my head.

Spiders- System of a Down

Naraku's eyes slid back as he awoke in the gloom of his castle, there was no sun; it was an overcast day, the heavy grey clouds hiding the bright blue brilliance of the skies above. The thick black hair was spread out around his head a bit and tousled some from his movement during slumber; his sleep had been sound and heavy, it was rare that it was so. He never slept much, he never needed to. Upon sitting up he noticed that Tsatsukai had not returned, blinking slowly he let this register. The wretch usually always returned after a beating, but then again among those beatings she had never been raped before. Smirking darkly he concentrated on the hand sized spider burn on the girls lower back and knew it would drive her to come back to the castle, her tolerance to this sort of pain had never been good…

Sukai stirred a bit as she felt the bite of pain in her back, her amber eyes shot open and she whimpered. The stones she slept on were cold and uncomfortable as she felt the painful tingle in her lower back as it suddenly increased and she let out another whimper. Crawling forwards, she poked her head out of the small cave, not remembering what had occurred just before she had fallen asleep. Suddenly the pain increased and washed over her body in a repugnant wave, she let out a yelp and a piteous wail of pain as she lurched forwards on her hands and knees out of the small alcove. Her thick knotted chestnut hair falling over her shoulders and pooling on the dusty ground like liquid mahogany. Her eyes watered as she lurched forwards again, crawling on all fours like her animal entity. Letting out another whine of pain she fell forwards in a heap and sobbed in agony. It was as if her flesh had been lanced with a thousand red-hot needles. Her heart palpitated as she gasped for breath, the organ threatening to burst through her breast bone and explode into a million shards of flesh.

Unknowingly behind her, Sesshoumaru (her reluctant watcher) had fallen asleep during the night and was jarred awake when she screamed loudly, his sensitive ears accosted by the howl that emanated from her lips. His amber eyes flashed open and he suddenly found himself unbalanced as he was startled enough to nearly jump backwards, one of his clawed hands slipping to tokijins hilt. Feeling himself teeter a bit, he leaned forwards to straighten himself as his eyes traveled over her shuddering form. He felt the nagging at the corner of his mind again, it was the parasite, sucking off his locked emotion and spewing it over her situation with a longing to help her. His slim hand slid from the hilt of Tokijin as he calmed his senses. Her sudden pain was a surprise to him until he felt the hateful energy of Naraku pulsing from her body; it reeked like a rotting corpse. Some how her master could still harm her even from such a distance. The black presence of the loathsome hanyou was aggravating him and testing his temper. The anger surged to the blade of Tokijin and he went blank as he slipped off the rock, his feet touched the ground silently and they left no imprint in the dirt. Again his slim hand strayed to Tokijins hilt, without thinking, he slid the blade free, it glistened even though there was no sunlight. Her pathetic noises of pain were blank in his ears. The dislike and black hate for Naraku wasn't easily subdued in his mind, lifting the sword with his right hand he swung it up by his ear, not thinking before he delivered the back handed slash as she struggled to sit up. His anger flooded through the blade again as it pierced her flesh through the thin and tattered yukata.

Suddenly she felt a new pain, it was a red hot line that traced itself diagonally down her back. Her vision began to blur as her breathing got shorter and she was suddenly struggling for air. Letting a a small whimper of surprise, she fell forwards in the dead dry grass that ringed the rocks, her amber eyes blinking in surprise as she felt the remnants of her yukata stick to her flesh with the fount of blood trickling down her sides. Tears of pain bled from her now dull eyes, a piteous gasp escaping her lips with shallow breath as her chest gurgled with air and watery blood, a pinkish froth forming at the corners of her lips as she choked on the blood and bile welling up in the back of her throat. It was forced into her nasal cavity as she choked and the bile mixture stung as it dripped from her nose. A last moan escaped from her throat in a bloody murmur as she elapsed into the comatose silence of death.

Sesshoumaru stared down at her body, the blood that dripped off the end of Tokijins blade smelled sweet; like her innocence. It was bold, his anger had been inexplicable other then the fact that I was directed at her though meant to be directed at Naraku. Though a bit startled at his attack on her he still stood looking down at her with no real emotion in his eyes. He knew nothing of this girl; this child, for indeed she was still young, he was god knows how many years her senior, she was but still a babe in a cradle. Leaning down he drew the blade of his sword over the back of her threadbare black yukata, ignoring the smell of her. Though she still reeked of Naraku she smelt pure, her blood was that of a well bred youkai female. His lithe fingers clenched the wrapped hilt of his sword as she straightened, the inexplicable rage flickering again as he returned Tokijin to his side.

Naraku felt a sudden blankness in his mind, again his concentrated on the spider burn on Tsatsukai's back, he felt no response, no reply of frantic thoughts or emotion. Pushing a swath of thick black hair back from his face he stood, the gloom shifting around him as he did.

"Kanna…"

The small pale girl stepped through the dark doorway as if she had been there all the time, watching her master. The silvered mirror she held in her hands glimmered as the inside of it swirled and shifted like the gloom had shifted around Naraku as he had stood. "Show her to me Kanna…"

"Yes master…"

His voice was cold when he had spoken to her, hers was equally as void-like. Naraku watched the swirling glass as the mist in it parted and he stared back at the image of Tsatsukai's body sprawled across the ground. Her eyes half open in a death stare. He noted the blood on her pale skin and the pool of it beneath her. He wasn't startled at all, her death was apparent to him and would have been sooner had Onigumo not harbored feelings for her, but the fact that she had died so suddenly was the unnatural part; was it his doing? Kanna stirred a bit, the image fading, the mirror returning to its brilliant mist. Naraku stood silently, staring up through the doorway, not dismissing his incarnate or even acknowledging her. There was something wrong with the feeling of her death. The last lingering trace of emotion in her half-lidded eyes had been…surprise?

Looking down at the girl again, the chains were still clasped around her ankles and wrists, such a death in enslavement was disrespectful to even the most disgusting of peasants. A single raindrop splatted itself in the dust, the sky opened up as he knelt and slid his lithe fingers underneath the chain around her wrist. With an easy flick of his hand the chain snapped. He did the same for all the other limbs. Taking the heavy chains he piled them in the dirt near her head, he felt another coursing of heavy black energy winding itself around the chains as it slipped through his fingers with an something close to an electric shock. Dropping the chains with a start, he snarled loudly, his upper lip curling in supreme disgust at the black energy that had tingled at his fingertips. Rain began to fall harder, like pieces of lead being thrown to earth by angels above him, they stung his face, reminding his flesh of its delicate existence. Turning his back on the corpse of Tsatsukai he attempted to disassociate himself from her, still not acknowledging the nonexistent reason of her slaying. His thick white hair fluttered over his stoically featured face like absentminded dove's feathers, the purity of the color not belying the fact that he had unthinkingly just slain an innocent child. The rain fell hard as he continued to move farther away from the rocks, his mind still as blank as an artists canvas before a masterpiece is created; that masterpiece would inevitably be the repeated image of his blade biting into her tender flesh. Soon this repetitive scene arose in his mind, vaguely at first, black and white until it bloomed into color. The blood dripping from the blade plinked into the dust like a water droplet falling into a bucket. This replayed vision was connected to the nagging at the back of his conscious, the parasitical tugging in his mind could madden the mos calm and aloof of demons. Sesshoumaru's mind was stoic, he had spontaneously killed before. Children, elderly and women had fallen at his blade; yet not since Rin had he ever cared about who he killed or didn't kill.

The sky seemed to have split open and was bleeding out water in torrents, pelting his face so badly that any other human would have had welts. The heavens seemed to berate him with grumbling thunder and violent white flashes of lightning. The water soaked through the fine cotton linen of his extravagant white haori. The yellow sash around his waist was growing uncomfortably tighter with the water soaking into the fine threads of the fabric. The water rolled off the fur on his shoulder, not soaking into the white fleece-like pelt as it fell from the dark sky above. His hair was soaked though, the water running through the snow-white strands and making it cling to his face as the wind blew a gust down across the plains. Stopping he looked around, the whole of nature seemed to desire a punishment as the lightening cracked the black sky and the world turned black and white for a split second. Amaterasu was evidently angry with him; the goddess of the sun and the divine mother of all men wrathfully plagued him with stinging bolts of water from her heavens. Stopping he looked up at the sky the rain lashing his face as the wind screamed past him, all hell had broken loose in the sky as he stared back at the roiling clouds. Lowering his head he looked back in her direction, the wind tossing the wet strands of white hair in his eyes as face turned against the wind. He wondered whilst he looked back the now small stone outcrop, knowing that he could revive her. Feeling a strange presence he turned his head as the form of a regally dressed woman, Her white hair fluttered as though it were materialistic and real, she stared back at him; the dim visage of Izayoi pierced him like an arrow. His mothers face looking back at him plaintively struck him heavily like he had just had a boulder topple down onto him. The visage shimmered as he turned his eyes to the sky, the same stoical look on his pallid face the black clouds roiled above angrily. Izayoi nodded as he returned his amber eyes to her, she shimmered again as a squall of rain came sheeting down from the sky then dematerialized behind the raindrops. Sesshoumaru knew he had been told what to do, yet he would do it begrudgingly. There were to be dire celestial consequences should he disobey his mothers spirit, Izayoi had been stubborn and stern as a mother, she was none the less the same as a spirit. Sesshoumaru knew better then to become belligerent, it was blatant that Amaterasu had sent his mother to show him what he was meant to do. Yet the fact was…

Did he really want to do it?

AUTHORS NOTE: Thanks SO much for the reveiws, though there are not as many as I would like, I have to make do with what I have and love it anyways. So...I hope you liked the little plot twist...its was odd and hard to work out but give me your ideas and I might use them or just give me hell...whatever...anything works for me...

Ja Ne!