Disclaimer: Nuuuuuu...
Story Thus far: Shizuru has 'recruited Cloud on her mission against Karasu. Cloud and Shizuru hate each other's guts. Touya and Jin are making a house call and Botan has fled for her life, leaving Koenma to deal with his father.
Enjoy Chapter 4
. . .
Between Killer and Victim
. . .
"Stop looking at him, Katie," giggled the pretty redhead, batting a playful hand at her friend. The other girl looked abashed and stopped staring at the new café singer, her heavily make-up lined blue eyes flicking back to his like a badly trained dog. The red-head girl giggled again, raising long, manicured fingers to her glossy lips. The door jangled as another early riser ambled in, the roar of the monsoon-like downpour outside filling the room before the entry shut again.
"You can be a real ditz sometimes," muttered the third girl at the table, a sharply pretty brunette with piercing chocolate eyes and an irritated look as she drummed her fingers on the table. Her wide almond eyes darkened in something akin to anger hidden under simple annoyance. His dark hair was crop short about her ears, accent her small cleft shin and cute, nose set over a pair of pouting lips that looked more accustomed to snapping than pouting. Dressed in a dark indigo top and black, slack jeans she looked good without trying.
"Oh come on, Mika," tittered the blonde, leaning secretively forward. "He's so cute. Even you have to admit it. Just appreciate the view."
Mika snorted in reply. "Why am I hanging out with you two again?"
"We're your roommates!" the other two chorused in reply. Then the girls became engrossed in the young man on stage, getting dreamy eyes and missing it when the other girl made a disgusted sound into her latte. She glanced up at the object of her companion's affection and felt a familiar pang of sympathy for the older teenager.
He was seated up on stage, balanced easily atop the rickety looking stool the manager had provided for the young guitarist. He didn't seem to notice whether or not he was getting any doe-eyes stares or intrigued glances. He was far too absorbed in tuning the strings of his well worn guitar; long, gentle fingers adjusting it with quick, grace.
He was a young man, hardly more than eighteen or nineteen at the most; a college student probably attending Harvard and staying at one of the campus dorms just a few streets away by the look of him. Cambridge, Massachusetts was a fair-sized city but this coffeehouse seemed to be a popular hangout for those who preferred quiet over the bustle of the city. Since he came here instead of the Starbucks a few blocks closer to the dorms it spoke for a more conservative personality. Dressed in a casual black sweater and jeans, road worn sneakers and a plain, overlarge sweat shirt slung over his guitar case he could have come from anywhere. He was handsome, heartbreakingly so, with a quiet, polite demeanor that was so rare these days.
These traits had earned him a good reputation and high standing with the café manager, Melissa who allowed him to play here every morning before his classes began. Rain or shine, sheet or hail he was always there standing in the doorway at exactly seven fifteen AM, his guitar case in hand, his worn Jansport backpack in the other. He'd walk up to Melissa, smile quietly and gain permission to play. Eventually she'd told him to stop asking and just take the stage. The customers got a bit agitated if their favorite player didn't arrive on time.
His slightly slanted eyes retained an exotic, foreign vibe about them, his gaze thoughtful yet intense. Few got close enough to see clearly, but girls insisted his eyes were a shade of jade green flecked with gold. His hair was cropped short to his scalp, but despite his obvious attempts to tame it, his almost blood red locks stuck up from his head in wild spikes that swept back from his face like frozen licks of fire. His pale skin was smooth and youthful over a well muscled, but not bulky body. Long legs easily propped against the bars holding his stool together, slender looking arms cradling his instrument carefully as his listened for the correct tone by ear. He closed his eyes and tilted his head slightly to listen better to the sound of the quivering chord he'd just played.
Katie leaned sideways to get a better look at the back of his neck, acting on a rumor.
"Ooh! It's true!" she whispered excitedly to her friend who rolled her eyes in reaction to her boy-crazy companions. "I thought Julie was just saying it, but he really does have one."
"One what? And why do you insist on knowing every detail of that poor boy's anatomy?" gritted the brunette.
"Oh don't be crude. I meant the tattoo. You know, the one of a blue peony on his neck, just below his right ear. I can see it from here."
Mika groaned.
"His name is Zane Yokoma," chirped the red-head girl, stroking her own flaming locks. Mika fancied that she thought their similar hair color bound them in some mystical way. The brunette had no urge to inform her companion – Ginger – that her light brown roots were starting to grow out. "He's from Japan," she went on, breathing the words like she was turned on by just sitting there. "He's supposed to be really smart. But most Japanese guys are, this one's just really cute."
"You total cheerleader. He visited Japan because he has family there. He's not ACTUALLY Japanese," Mika snapped. The other two stared at her. Mika instantly regretted her snappish words, fearing that her room mates weren't quite stupid enough to miss her obvious mistake. Fumbling she tried to cover her slip. "Uhh...not that I actually know...err...just rumor."
"Have you met him?" squeaked Katie.
"NO!" Mika snapped quickly, angry with herself.
"You have!" Ginger squealed.
Mika was about to say something very regrettable when the sound of a mike being tapped captured her attention. The three girls looked up to see Zane leaning forward to wrap his fingers around the small black amplifier. He cleared his throat slightly, glancing around the room to make sure he had everybody's attention.
"Good morning. I hope everyone's having a nice time," he began politely. There was a soft rustle of agreement around the room, the sleepy café stirring in reaction to his kind inquiry. The red-head smiled gently and sat back in the seat, picking up his guitar. "This one's something I just threw together a few days ago. If it's a bit sketchy I apologize, I was thinking of someone."
There was an amused ripple through the café and the guitarist lowered his head a shade bashfully, smiling still. He strummed out an experimental chord and grew somewhat more sober.
"This one's called Rainfall. Since it's pouring out, it should fit the day well," he said quietly, his voice low and husky. He looked ready to say something more but thought better of it and went on. Zane's fingers moved rhythmically through a soothing sentence of crystal clear guitar rifts, stringing the note like a beads and making everyone feel the gentle, steady fall of rain outside. Soon several sleepier coffee house customers were drifting off to siesta in their booth. Everyone else was listening with rapt attention, sipping coffee as an after thought.
Finally he leaned forward and let his soft voice fill the café like a soothing aura, words slipping from his lips and weaving into the souls of the listeners.
"Teardrops falling gently,
Wash away my sins,
Downpour flowing over,
Where are all my friends?
Rain cloud hanging o'er me,
Darkness in my step,
Walking in my shadow,
Just my heart left cold and wet,
Rain dripping from peonies,
Roses weeping tears,
Your eyes, they must abandon,
Me, to face the years.
I can't survive without you,
But I'll just have to deal,
To be with you is a death wish,
But I'm willing to yield,"
The next part seemed to be the chorus. The red-head's hands suddenly moving into a fluid succession of low chords that blended seamlessly with his voice. It might have been overactive imagination but one almost fancied that the rain outside fell harder.
"To death I'd let my life go,
To Styx I'd gladly flow,
If I'll see your face again,
Your smile I need to know,"
Thunder rumbled across the skies just outside, nearly covering the sound of Zane's next words. The slowly, rainwater, like sound of the song filled the sleep café, making all the rest of the world seem smaller. What did the rest of the world matter while Zane was playing in here? Somehow hearing this song was the most important thing any of these people could think of and no one moved a muscle to leave.
"Partners leave for power,
Allies leave for love,
Comrades losing life too soon,
Now they watch me from above,
Alone I stand without you,
I see you vanish in the dawn,
In the rain I watch you leaving,
Then I remember you're...already gone,"
The young man took a slow wavering breath as if remembering something that hurt. His lips opened to speak but nothing emerged. Instead he lowered his head and his fingers held still on the guitar in his hands, stopping and letting the last note of the pervious chord hang in the alert, coffeehouse air. The silent café occupancy waited expectantly, the occasional clink of a spoon stirring in a mug or a rustle of a napkin being heard.
The silence seemed to lengthen for an unusual amount of time.
Finally the guitarist smiled sadly and looked up at his audience with a rueful smile. "I'm sorry. I can't play anymore. That's all I have." There was a smattering of disappointment and good natured chuckles. The red-head shook his head and spoke into the microphone again, green eyes casting about the room. "I'll take requests since I haven't finished the song. Anyone?"
There were a few glances and thoughtful mutters but nothing certain. Finally a voice rose loud from the back of the café.
"How about Dragon Roses? The one you played last week. I liked that one," said Mika, smiling amiably at the guitarist. Zane looked at her for a long moment, watching her with a thoughtful look. She only looked back to her coffee, a please expression on her face. The rest of the café nodded in agreement, smiling in delight. That particular song was a favorite. It was somewhat dark and moody. A piece about two people, one fierce and angry, one calm and logical. It was basically about them being as different black and white and complimenting each other perfectly in life's battle. Dragon and Roses.
"Alright," he conceded, smiling. "I'll play that one."
. . .
I hate you.
Three simple, yet oh so weighty words.
Cloud had used them only twice in his life away from the Unlit. Once to his mortal enemy and former partner and now to Shizuru. The former had been a true deserving candidate for the words and every drop of bitter emotion behind it. The creature's name was Karasu. The crow had taken advantage of his trust and used him, pretended to be his comrade until the perfect moment to stab him in the back presented itself. Despite this traumatizing treachery, Cloud had truly hated few people in his life and this one had come as the ultimate surprise to him.
To him everyone he met had the potential to be hated. After all, the first person he'd encountered had received his hatred and the men he'd been given to afterwards certainly earned his 'disfavor'. Many of them had learned the bloody way that a dark angel's 'disfavor' was not a pretty thing. Though, the custodian probably got to enjoy some lovely crimson patterns splattered across the walls and ceilings. To Cloud it was only logical that all living creatures were more likely to be 'disliked' at best, hated at worst.
So when Shizuru had shown him the first glimmer of the decent humanity it had rocked his somewhat limited views on other people. He'd found himself considering that perhaps his former masters had been wrong. All his teachers, peers and his entire community had been wrong. That there were beings out there worthy of trust.
In the Unlit the word 'trust' was a joke in itself.
The verilee of the Neither Makai were ruthless and brutal in their constant struggle of ambition and lust for blood. To trust was to invite a dagger to your back. In fact to say 'I trust you' meant that they knew the blade was coming and they were more than ready to counter attack. A joke in itself among a race that lived off suffering and power, dark angels had evolved beyond simple demons. Nearly every dark angel was of A class or higher at birth. Though they were all so very powerful, they were also arrogant. They believed they were gods among demons and were above the Makai and preferred to rule their own level of the youkai realm.
Funny thought seeing how they lived on the lowest level of the Demon World.
Cloud stared dismally up at the buzzing street light overhead and reflected on the irony that was his life. He'd fled his birthplace in search of something he could trust. That trust had been betrayed had he'd hidden his heart deep within the armored walls of his solitude. Then, when he'd chanced to meet a girl who displayed genuine traits of compassion, trust, and strength he'd dared to ease open those defenses. Shizuru had quickly embedded herself in his memory. He'd asked, out of reflex, 'do you trust me?' and she'd said yes.
Now 'trust' to him, brought the image of her calm, smirking face.
So didn't that miserable witch named Fate just love to torment him? He'd carried that image with him for almost a century, letting himself believe in the good of humanity, letting her work her way into the deepest part of his conscience...only to have her reappear and rip apart his world from the inside out. Cloud's garnet eyes flinched and clenched shut beneath his shades, recalling the meeting in cruel detail. It was everything about that fact she'd betrayed him – she being the one living creature he'd dared to trust – and that she's not only attacked him physically, but emotionally. She'd said things...
Horrible things.
Cloud shuddered inwardly thinking of it. The memories they stirred made him sick to his stomach. That kind of betrayal was almost on par with that he'd experienced with Karasu. Worse, seeing how Karasu had been the first, but for Shizuru to do this to him. Well, Cloud, if asked, would have said that the sensation was similar to wanting to puke, scream, cry, and do others bodily harm all at once. After the initial numbness of shock had faded Cloud was left standing on a street corner, waiting for Shizuru to return with 'a friend of mine' in her own words.
So he was on a street corner.
Alone.
And in the most exquisite emotional agony he'd ever experienced in all his 300 centuries of existence.
At least Karasu's betrayal had been simple and logical; Shizuru's didn't make any sense at all. Cloud's entire world, beliefs and inspiration for simply going on had just turned around a slapped him in the face, ripped apart every tender wound he had, and ground his pride in the dirt along with his peace of mind.
Erm...Ouch?
Not only that but she seemed to take some kind of lewd pleasure in it! She liked informing him that all his inner demons were not just inner, but very real. It was his fault all the things that had happened to Kurama and it was his fault that Karasu had power to kill so many and he owed it to both her, Kurama and her comrades to kill the sadistic quest demon. Yes, this was betrayal on a whole new level and Cloud had been so sure he was the reigning expert.
Cloud closed his eyes, slipping his glasses back up to their proper place on his nose, hiding his eyes. With an exhausted sigh he tipped his head back against the wall behind him. Rough brick scraped his scalp like a gruff wake-up call, but Cloud welcomed the minor pain. He wanted to just forget, let his senses go numb and his mind blank. His hand slipped from his pocket to trail lightly against the porous brick, his fingerless gloves allowing his sensitive fingertips to brush the cold rock, hard and real. He tipped his head aside, lank spikes of pale gold falling across his forehead. For once Cloud found himself wishing he was not immune to the affects of the bottle or even needle.
Sick! Shameful! Weak! Cowardly!
The shadowkai winced at the stabbing accusations of his own self-critics, turning his head aside as if feeling some form a physical pain. Couldn't he even entertain the idea of being mortal for a moment? As a fantasy? Why did he always feel guilty for everything when others did far worse everyday and acted like it was nothing? Cloud liked to make things simple as possible. As a result the shadowkai tended to see black and white. Good and evil...at least most of the time.
In his wishful gaze you could either be good, follow the path of self- forgiveness and righteousness where you learned from mistakes and corrected your misdemeanors. A hero and decent, moral person worthy of mentioning...
Or you could be a filthy sadistic, lustful, murderer. Sinning without regard, feeling no guilt because you have no conscience and hissed in the darkness of the worst horror stories.
Unfortunately, life was rarely black and white as Cloud would like it and so he was somewhere in between. Sitting astride the proverbial fence if you will.
And it SUCKED.
"Hey, wake up," a sharp female voice intruded on the dark angel's rampant thoughts. "I've gotta introduce you to the rest of our team."
-Joy. Now we're a 'team'. My day's shit-o-meter goes up by the moment.- Cloud thought mordantly to himself, lifting his gold dusted head from the wall to swing his gaze around to the human hanging out the door beside him. Shizuru, face mask back in place, eyes narrowed, motioned for him to hurry up. Cloud felt no need to do any such thing and pushed off the wall to move casually toward the door.
The girl's eyes seemed to grow thinner the longer she looked at him. He suspected just by existing he somehow baned her life. Cloud darkly thought of a few ways he could 'fix' that problem and glared at the demon-hunter.
"Well come on. He's inside," Shizuru snapped, reaching to grab his arm. Umm...hell no!
Cloud knocked her hand away from his shoulder with a lightening fast sweep of his arm. Her wrist struck the door frame and she tensed, looking for a reason to start something, but unwilling to do so, so soon into their little arrangement. Ruby eyes pinned Shizuru's slitted topaz orbs with yet another look that fell under the 'if-looks-could-kill-this-face-would- slowly-strip-the-flesh-from-your-living-bones' category.
"Don't," he hissed, under his breath. "Touch. Me."
He blew by her, leaving Shizuru to stand alone in the doorway with the wake of cold revulsion he left behind him. The female demon-hunter found she could not think of any proper reprimand, or words she could say to the shadowkai in order to punish him. For a brief instant she thought of grabbing him and slapping him, hard. The knowledge that there was nothing he could do about it tempted her sorely but he decided against it.
He really did hate her.
Shizuru would have never thought that her own loathing could be returned, but he'd pretty much decimated that idea. The girl peered down at her throbbing hand with a morbid fascination. He'd moved so fast she hadn't realized he'd moved until her arm struck the frame. Shizuru was troubled by this. She should have seen it coming; his reaction I mean. Of course he didn't want her to touch him. The girl was momentarily mystified why she'd even considered it.
Then again, dragging the little shadowkai somewhere he didn't want to go appealed to her. His new addiction to personal space could give her some measure of amusement at his expense. She stifled a sudden urge to snicker and entered the single, yet large apartment room.
"You. I should have known you were too pretty to be a bounty hunter," Cloud's stinging observation drifted to Shizuru through the entry hall as she turned into the main room.
Cloud lounged, casual as you please against the far wall. Sluking in the darkest corner of the room, he looked like some mismatched creature of the night. His shoulders braced against the barrier, one worn combat boot planted against the stucco, hands deep in his many pockets. His heavy trench coat shadowed him like a black aura, giving the lithe fighter a dark almost gothic air. The glitter of buckles and chains that secured his protective jacket tight against his wiry frame was the only bright thing about himself save his hair perhaps. Cold garnet eyes revealed only slightly by the slipping of his sunglasses gave the affect of two bloody pools spilling over mirrors. Cloud's fanged leer was disturbing in its own right while Shizuru struggled against the very real energy of darkness permeating his presence.
If only his hair was black instead of electric blond.
"You hardly have the right to speak," Alaster returned mildly.
The half youko was seated comfortably at the table in the opposite corner of the room, cloak cast aside in the privacy of their temporary home. The apartment was quiet, safe and away from any unwanted ears. That's why Alaster had broken in and claimed it for them.
The blue youko looked stunning just sitting there, silver-azure hair spilling down his shoulders, ethereal face calm and collected. (Despite the lollipop sticking from one side of his mouth) His single fox tail swayed back and forth good-naturedly, patiently while slats of moonlight from the barred window caught on his fur, bathing him in silver. However, the two soft blue triangles poking up from his head didn't add to the regal affect somehow. They were a bit too round in youth; barely over a pup, really. He wore a simple white out fit of flexible pants, sleeveless tunic and soft soled shoes.
Compared to Cloud's dark countenance they were polar opposites. Even their chosen positions reflected their personalities: Cloud skulking dangerously in a dark corner, Alaster lounging calmly in the light of the Makai moons outside. An angel and a devil sharing air in one room.
Unnatural as it was obscurely amusing to Shizuru.
"Meet Alaster. He's my traveling partner and friend," Shizuru drawled by way of introduction, waving to the half-youko who narrowed his eyes slightly, sucking more furiously on the hard candy in his mouth. "But you two have already met."
Cloud made a soft 'hn' of scorn and closed his eyes again; he projected a flawless 'the-world-be-damned-for-all-I-care' aura. Alaster arched a brow at Shizuru, surprised at the shadowkai's aggressive and sulky demeanor. He'd been expecting something else entirely from Shizuru's previous descriptions. The youko had been with Shizuru for a long time, seen her go through many changes as him, good and bad. Cloud wasn't highly discussed, but she'd never mentioned him being such a well...bastard.
Then Alaster was to be startled yet again this time by his companion.
Shizuru was scowling something horrible. Her tawny eyes were slitted with a primal hatred as she looked upon Cloud's inert figure. If he hadn't known any better he would have suspected she planned to murder the fair-haired youkai.
Disturbed, Alaster looked away from his adopted sister and back to the dark angel.
"Are you going to sleep like that because this is our room," he said, somewhat gently, thinking perhaps Cloud hadn't gotten used to the idea of hunting Karasu. From what he knew the shadowkai had quite a bit of history with the quest class youkai.
He got nothing but a discouraging flare of dark energy in reply. Alaster felt his tail fluff out in instinctive reaction to a jolt of fear that raced through him. He nearly went for the seeds concealed in his hair, but his wayward hand was halted by a gentle touch on the shoulder. He glanced at Shizuru who was smiling, amused. Alaster realized this must be his Fear Shadows technique. Goosebumps prickled his arms and he gaped at the darkly garbed youkai in shock. Shizuru chuckled slightly at his reaction.
"Get used to it, Baby Bro. He only gets more fun by the minute," she sneered, lip curling in distain. Cloud's sunglasses glinted at her. It was impossible to tell if he was even paying attention.
Alaster eyed the shadowkai dubiously. The dark youkai didn't react in the slightest. So far his predictions toward the over all pleasantness of this quest were looking back at him with disfavor. But then again, revenge missions rarely are 'pleasant' but he'd been hoping that he'd get to meet one of the legendary shadowkai of the Unlit and speak with him. Shizuru had made him sound so inviting...Looking at him now he felt certain the dark angel would take his head off for twitching the wrong way in his presence.
"We'll crash here for the night," Shizuru said throwing herself on the bed nearest to Cloud, a bold statement of her casual regard to the demon. He wasn't a threat in her book. She stretched, nubile body going taunt before relaxing back into the worn, but serviceable bed. She cracked one eye at the blonde situated against the wall. "And you. If you have anything to take care of here, do it tonight. We contact my two trackers tomorrow morning."
Cloud finally removed his sunglasses, delicately removing them from his face and staring at her with a predatory expression the made angel features take on a deadlier, demonic vibe.
"Trackers? To find Karasu?"
"I know. You're heart oozes with concern for my two comrades, I'm sure," Shizuru drawled, smirking. "They can take care of themselves and their clever as hell. Don't worry about a thing, blondie."
Alaster didn't miss the smear in the word 'blondie' and took note of Cloud's sudden tension. The dark angel's hand clenched and Alaster hoped to heaven that Shizuru knew what she was doing. The half fox demon watched the dark being fight against what looked like a primal urge to do Shizuru some damage with those malicious looking handguns at his sides. Alaster sucked fretfully on the lollipop, eyes flitting quickly between Cloud and Shizuru. The human girl seemed to enjoy the immortal's negative attention and smiled provocatively. She puckered, full, rosy lips and blew him a butterfly kiss.
There was disgusted murmur and when Alsaster's eyes returned to the dark angel only to find Cloud was gone; the dark corner empty of his darker presence. Shizuru was unconcerned and only turned over, sighing. Alaster frowned. This jarring relationship wasn't going to work very well in their favor. Shizuru hadn't told him she was going to force the shadowkai to work for them. He was sure the dark angel would be coming of his own free will, not being coerced into hunting the quest demon. And further more, why WAS Cloud putting up with it? If Alaster had been in his place he would have taken off way before now. He opened his mouth and began to say something, but the young woman cut him off.
"He'll be back. Trust me."
Alaster fell silent a moment, feeling the strange power in her words.
Trust me...
. . .
"The eyes!" screeched the demoness. "Cold! Death! Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering fearing - darkness!"
Rigid fingers clawed wildly at the air as the owner of the hands hacked and coughed. Spittle speckled the corners of her mouth dribbling down her chin. The youkai's eyes rolled wildly in her skull, darting about frantically. Her thin body was racked with agonized explosions, shaking her shoulders violently, driving her to near insanity it seemed. Touya watched her with growing anxiety. The little girl youkai who'd come seeking Jin and himself at the bar hung behind Touya's leg, clinging to the folds of his pant leg. Her inky black eyes grew rounder by the moment and she began to bounce up and down excitedly behind the ice demon.
"Mama's crazy!!!" squealed the little girl and the two shinobi wondered obscurely if this child was OK in the head.
Touya gently pushed her toward the door where Jin hung back expectantly. The wind demon picked up the tiny girl and backed up slowly, warily. Touya nodded to his friend, signaling silently for him to wait before moving slowly toward the demoness. The woman stood in the center of the room, the remains of the table and beds lay shredded on the floor, claw marks had been carved into the walls and blood oozed sluggishly from the a deep wound raked into her arm by sharp claws. Her black eyes were wide, unfocused and panicky. She darted frantically about the room as if searching for something, desperately seeking something.
"Eyes...the eyes! Horrible! Hideous! Beautiful! No...NOOOO!" she screamed, clutching her head and staggering about the room, upsetting the already trashed furniture. Touya circled her carefully, holding out a welcoming hand before him.
"It's okay..." he said slowly, soothingly.
The woman's eyes swung about to lock on the source of the soft voice. Her body went rigid, freezing like a mouse under the gaze of a cobra. The slender ice demon crept forward, cautiously, careful not to disturb anything should the sudden motion set her off. He slipped nearer, ducking slowly under a low hanging rafter and moving toward the delusional female. She twitched and backed away, body jerking quickly. Touya could see the feverish sweat soaking her fur, the way her undersized wings fluttered spastically in fear. The beat of the two limbs was out of sync and she swayed unsteadily. Double vision most likely, headache, fever, all symptoms that led to hallucination.
"Tapping, tapping! I hear a tapping!!" she chanted, fingers digging deep into her dark, scraggly hair, her face was contorted in fear, wild mania in her eyes. "The tapping! At the door! The door!!"
Touya lifted his hands toward her, showing he was unarmed. The fact he could create his own weapons with a flicker of whim was information she need not be privy to.
"I'm not going to hurt you. I want to help."
"DO YOU HEAR IT?!" she shrieked. Her claws bit into her own skin, drawing blood. "Do you hear it!? From the Night's Plutonian shore! DO YOU HEAR THE TAPPING!?"
Touya shook his head, lost, totally bewildered by her behavior. Tapping? Plutonian shore? Eyes? She was rambling mindlessly, creating some fanatical dirge he could not fathom. Behind him, Jin's ears pricked up, twitching slightly in search of this unheard 'tapping'. The child in his arms also looked about as if a late night visitor would sudden pop up and say 'Sorry about all the tapping! I'm just selling doors door to door! This one seems a bit un-sturdy to me'.
"I don't hear anything. Please calm down. Then we can find the person tapping, but you must calm down first."
"Oh no! No, no, no, no, no..." she rasped, shaking her head fiercely and backing away from the young man. Her eyes took on a wild, piercing stare, an unnatural leer that didn't fit her face as she stared at Touya. She waved a finger wildly in his direction, hissing out her next words. "Don't think you can fool me little angel! I have but seen all the things you doubt! Dreaming dreams no mortal has ever vowed to dream before!! NEVER, NEVER!! NEVERMORE!!"
She shrieked the last words and flung herself at the ice youkai. Behind him, the little girl shrieked and buried her face in Jin's neck. The wind demon gritted his teeth, restraining his instinctive urge to leap to his comrade's aid. A century ago he might have done just that, but not anymore. With his new powers and Touya's increasing control of energy the mixing of their techniques could be disastrous. He had to stay out of it.
Touya waited, letting his mind sink into the almost rem-trance that had become his fighting style. With fluid grace he simply slid away from the unfocused attack. The female's claws slashed through the air where the slender demon had been only moment before. Shrieking she whirled, clawing madly at empty air but finding no enemy to sink her talons into. Suddenly a hard pressure lanced through the side of her neck, just beneath her left ear. She gasped, back arching slightly in shock before sighing and going limp. Touya caught the woman quickly, letting her sag into his arms and eased her to the ground.
He quickly tore the curtains from the nearby window and used them to bind the demoness' hands. Touya didn't like this. When'd he'd first heard that the family belonging to one of his hunting party members was ill he'd immediately suspected it to be the work of the sickness that had taken most of his group. However, these later symptoms were deeply disturbing and unusual in a simple virus.
"It looks like whatever this disease is...it's contagious," Touya said, face darkened only slightly in apprehension. He looked up at the tiny girl in Jin's arms and narrowed his azure gaze somewhat. With a cold and icy tone he directed his next question at the child. "How long ago was your family exposed to the disease?"
The girl grinned cluelessly at the ice demon. Touya arched a brow slightly. She only smiled wider than before. "You're funny," she said finally.
Jin smiled encouragingly at the little girl while Touya looked openly perplexed. "E' means when did yur da' come 'ome?"
"Oh!" exclaimed the little girl, clapping her hands happily. "About two days ago. Father came home sick and bloody from fighting. We were all there. Me, mama, Kath and Nami."
"Then you left to find us a day ago so your family was exposed to it roughly 24 hours longer than you, correct?" Touya queried.
She stared at him once again like she could not comprehend anything he'd just said. She smiled that silly little grin that Touya was finding to be disturbingly like the smile of an autistic child. Was it possible her bout with the disease had left her mind slightly skewed?
"You're pretty," she in her childishly innocent voice. Touya's perplexed look only deepened as did his suspicions as to her mental state.
"Erm...yu' were sick 'bout a day ago right, lass?"
She nodded happily, reaching up to fondle Jin's flaming red hair.
"Th' rest o' yur family were sick an' stayed behin' right?"
Nod. Nod. Nod. "But mama wasn't crazy when I left. She had the fever though. First comes the cough, then the fever, then the shadows, then the screaming, then the death."
Touya folded his arms across his chest, face impassive as he asked his next question. "What were your father's symptoms before he left the house? The same?"
"Uh...he...umm...was all dizzy and tired and mama said he had a fever," supplied the girl, clambering up Jin's shoulder to fold her arms on top of his untamed fire-red tresses. "He was all mean and cranky. He slapped Nami and Kath and me. He made us bleed cause of his claws. Then Mama told him to stop cause he was getting blood everywhere so he ran out with our axe." Her big ebony eyes were drifting dreamily about the room. Yes, there was certainly something off with this child.
"What did he act like when he took the axe?" Touya asked.
"Erm..." The girl became distracted and frowned heavily, looking away. For a moment Touya and Jin got a glimpse at the little girl who'd just lost her entire family instead of the crazy little youkai who laughed at sickness and death. She fiddled with Jin's hair as if absorbed in her workings
Touya stepped forward and looked up at the girl from his less than intimidating height. "Minna. We want to help. It's OK to tell us."
The little demon started, shocked. "You 'membered my name?" she asked, voice a bit soft.
Touya nodded, tipped his striking face and letting his lips quirk just slightly. For Touya that was probably the friendliest expression you could get out of him and though it wasn't much, just the tiny adjustment to his usually unfeeling features seemed to make him an entirely new person. It was like by just smiling he let soft threads of vulnerability; compassion, and warmth slip through and change his face. Even his stony indigo eyes, often the hue of a deep frozen lake, had softened to a more inviting pastel blue. Frankly Jin found his mouth had fallen open and he couldn't close it.
"Yes. I heard you tell Jin on the road," he said with a mild nod of his head. Minna seemed to relax somewhat, as if hypnotized by the Ice Master's soothing voice and suddenly friendly manner. "We really do want to help you."
Smiling, suddenly bright again she nodded. "Okay."
"Good," Touya said encouragingly. "So can you remember? Did he act like your mother did just now?"
"Yeah. He kept saying 'nevermore'," murmured the girl, snuggling closer against Jin's chest. She then became engrossed in getting something out of her hair and didn't look talkative anymore. That was fine. Touya had enough to go off of for now.
"Nevermore," Touya repeated. "That's...unusual. To have the same virus and symptoms is one thing, but to see the same delusions? This could be a new type of disease. I suppose I can dig up some information on it if we travel to X'callin, but we could finish our business here first. What do you think, Jin?"
He glanced up at Jin only to find the redhead was openly staring at him. Disturbed by his friend's demeanor the ice demon backed away from the Wind Master and checked himself cautiously, thinking perhaps Minna's mother had managed to catch his shirt or something. But his search found nothing amiss and he backed a bit father from Jin's ogling eyes.
"What?" he demanded nervously.
"I dun think I ever seen yu be so noice to someone. Specially a wee lass loike Minna," sputtered the wind demon, ogling at his comrade.
Touya made a dark sound under his breath.
Without another word the ice demon turned away from his friend and moved back toward the fallen demoness on the floor. Obviously Touya didn't feel like going in depth on his moment of 'niceness' and had taken the 'ignore it' route. Jin just grinned impishly as the diminutive ice youkai slid his arms under the willowy female and scooped her up with practiced ease. He glanced at Jin and shook his head in what appeared to be mild disgust and seemed to 'vanish'. Jin knew that Touya had in fact started to run and was simply going too fast to see unless he to was moving at the same speed. Thinking the house to be far too stuffy, the Wind Master wandered outside to breathe the familiar air.
He sat down comfortably to await Touya's return. Jin sighed contentedly and peered up at the two gleaming Makai Moons overhead. The wind whispered through the thick, gnarled branches of the overhead trees, murmuring softly, happily to the wind demon. Jin grinned amiably up at the stirring trees, listening with twitching ears to the gentle speak of the flowing air and breeze. He let his mind wander, his thoughts straying back to the scene only moments before.
Jin sighed and lay back in the grass, enjoying the cool breeze as it eagerly caressed his skin. Minna cooed and leapt up to dance exuberantly, spinning in clumsy little circles as the wind swirled in gentle cyclones of petals and leaves about her feet. The redhead grinned in a ridiculously affectionate manner. While Touya may have only enough regard to the girl to be briefly comforting Jin thought she was down right adorable and her quirky little attitude was quite fun. She had him had struck an enthusiastic song of 'One Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall' and gotten all the way to ninety-eight before Touya had frozen Jin's mouth shut and in turn threatened Minna with the same fate.
The rest of the trip was relatively quiet after that, but Jin amused the girl by twitching his ears at her and making faces. Who knew? Jin was good with toddlers.
Soon he found himself dozing slightly, eyes slipping closed. Anyone else having just witnessed a demoness going mad with contagious disease that drove the victim round the bend and lead to possible death might have been a shade more tense in the shoulders, but not Jin. All this morbid excitement deserved to be slept on. He'd probably have a while knew view on all this when he woke up. But before that he watched Minna play for a while longer, amused by her childish antics. Few knew but Jin had trained as a Wind Master from childhood. He'd been given little time to be a kid. He'd mentally shoved fun into a corner until he was about twelve. By then his spirit energy developed enough to allow him some freedom.
Now that he was one of the strongest shinobi in existence who was to tell him he couldn't be a kid? What? No volunteers? Alrighty then!
"Minna?" Jin called lazily. "Dun wonder off t' far. Touya'll be comin' back soon he will."
The girl stopped spinning to look up at the reclining wind demon on the ground. With an amiable grin she tottered over toward the red head and plopped down beside him. Her bright blue gaze was trained on the sky overhead and she craned her neck to look up too. Seeing nothing she pouted and prodded Jin in the side. He grinned up at her.
"Aye?"
"Look at the pretty flower!" she squealed in delight, presenting a large purple, white bloom two centimeters under his nose. Jin blinked. There were no flowers like that around here. She hadn't been holding one. Had she made that?
"Aye, tis very pretty-ful," he praised, plucking the many petaled flower from her hands.
It was rose-like, the colorful petals forming a bud that slowly spread out. However its stem was more of a vine that a bush, a pale blue color, while several drooping anthers sprouted from the center of the lovely flora.
"Where'd yu' come by such a rare'n lovely treasure Minna? Are yu' a magic girl? Make it outta not bu' air?" He feigned awe at her skills and she giggled.
"No silly! I have seeds!" she exclaimed happily, digging about in her tattered skirt pockets for the seeds. Unable to find them, she began to comb her small claws through her hair. Triumphant she produced a small pale seed and held it up for Jin's inspection. The wind Master was faintly startled. She grew plants from their seed form? Interesting. Jin grinned wondering how Touya would react knowing that this exuberant little girl possessed the power of a demon who'd defeated him in battle nearly a century ago. Sure, they'd been partners of sorts at the Makai Tournaments but it would be funny to see the look on his face anyway.
"Fun," murmured Jin, leaning back and staring up at the moons again.
There was no real warning. Luck must have loved Jin like a brother because if Minna hadn't chosen that exact moment to tug on his ear, he wouldn't have rolled over and the claws that embedded themselves in the soil inches from his skull would have gouged his eyes out. Pain raked across the back of his neck, ripping through the exposed flesh but missing any vital points. Jin shouted in startled hurt and lunged away, snapping out of perception and leaping into the air with Minna scooped protectively in his arms. No sooner had his feet left the ground then the soil exploded in a shower of dirt and rock.
He spun in a tight circle and scanned the foliage below, rising away into the air, scanning the ground for his attacker. However, the area was empty of any and all persons save a couple of very insidious looking tree stumps. But the blood running down his back was no illusion and the wounds were stinging sharply, hurting far worse than he expected.
"How upsetting," crooned a low velvety purr. "I suppose two birds with one stone is a gross exaggeration."
Jin froze as the whispery voice filled the air around him. Jin instantly opened himself to the wind, feeling it's every air current, the play of wind between the trees, breeze sifting through grass, sliding around obstructions and solid forces. In a moment Jin knew where the speaker was. The trees to his right, behind the truck of the thick Blood Oak. He spun, thrusting his arm out straight before him, aimed at the concealed attacker.
"MIDDAY GALE!!!" he roared.
Wind exploded down the length of his arm, coming to his call like a well trained attack dog, the air swirled down his limb and ripped through the air toward the Blood Oak, picking up wind as it went, growing until it was a literal wall of wind. It exploded though the heavy greenery and blasted the branches asunder. The hurricane force wind ripped through trees and snapped through trucks like twigs leaving a long, scar of broken canopy in its wake. Jin scanned the wreckage with glittering blue eyes, face tight with anxiety.
"Such an annoying pest you are, little wind elf. I should kill you now."
"Aye, well if yu' think yur up t' th' challenge then go ahead an' try," Jin shouted at the greenery around him. The voices of the air were confused. The demon had disappeared to their senses.
"Oh I am. But I have far more interest in your earthbound friend."
Minna tightened her hold and Jin's neck, ignoring the blood and whimpering. Jin felt his stomach do a sickening somersault, making the Wind Master ill.
-Ah no. Touya.-
The voice sounded amused by his facial expression. "A pretty one. So cold and ruthless. I'll leave his features unmarred so you can know them in death."
"No!! Yu'll be stayin' away from him!! Yu' hear me yu bastard!!" Jin bellowed at the trees, spinning frantically in search of the speaker.
Where was he? Had he already left to sink his claws into Touya? The ice demon was formidable, he could take care of himself, but he wasn't expecting an attack this early and he was carrying a full grown demoness. Touya's spirit senses were incredible though. Even if Jin couldn't feel the demon he was certain Touya would. But even this wouldn't save him. Touya was sensitive to spirit energy, but by the time he felt it the bastard would be on top of him. If it was any other demon it wouldn't make a difference but not this demon. Touya couldn't afford the slight disadvantage.
"Then why do you hunt me, little shinobi? Why do you and your icy partner pursue my steps? It becomes most vexing," murmured that dark sultry voice. "The ice demon is too adept at his profession. He has proved most difficult to shake off." There was an angry pause. "His kind of intellect is too dangerous to let go on. Perhaps I shall personally have a look inside that head of his?"
"Wait!" Jin said quickly, mind racing. Time, time, he needed time; he had to keep this guy talking. "Yu wanna know why we' be trackin' yu' across th' far an wide, righ'?"
"That would be the general assumption, wind demon." Oh no, he was getting impatient. Jin had to tread carefully, but quickly.
"There were rumors tha' yu' were seen down 'ere," Jin supplied quickly. It was true. That's exactly what the demon-hunter had told them. Rumors.
"You begin to annoy me, wind demon. Tell all or lose all," murmured the voice, seeming coming from all around.
How the hells was he doing that?
"Okay, jus' dun go an getcher toights in a taunt!" Jin snarled, quickly deducing a believable story. "We got hired by Rift Town Bounty Rings t' come an' find yu. That way we could tell th' load o' freeloaders where t' go t' be claimin' th' mother o' all bounties on yer 'ead. Touya's bein' th' best there is at this trackin' stuff an' we work as a team so we came down 'ere lookin."
There a small chuckle, black and grating of the ninja's sensitive ears. "Very good, wind demon."
Jin relaxed just slightly, feeling some tension ease from his shoulders. Okay, okay. He just had to keep this freak talking, keep him distracted. This was a dangerous game he was playing here. His ears were so rigid and twitchy he feared he'd pull something in all the anxiety. However, his moment of calm was replaced by screaming terror at the demon's next words.
"But not good enough. You and your friend will be mine by the end of the next sun fall," purred that invisible demon. Minna squeaked and made a small sobbing sound into Jin's shoulder. There was a perverse laugh, twisted and distorted. "That ice demon intrigues me. If he's as clever the tracker as you say I may have use for him."
"Shite!" Jin hissed and sped away toward the town, hoping, praying, that Touya had reached the doctor's. If he was still on the road and that freak caught up to him the ice demon's chances of getting away unscathed were slim to none. Touya was fast though, and strong. If he hadn't been distracted or paused for any reason then he might have made it there. Jin could only hope that he would wait around to speak with the cleric about the illness and not get caught alone on the road coming back.
"I've never seen anything like it," the cleric said, awe-struck and a bit frightened.
The healer was a professional. She'd seen everything and faced epidemics that she alone had escaped with an immunity born of healer strength, but it was obvious she was glad that an intelligent and – most importantly – powerful demon was here to assist. Her long brown hair was falling from its bun, her orange and blue striped skin was a bit pale for her species, and her bright blue eyes were sunken and shadowed. Over all she looked harassed and exhausted.
"They've been pouring in by the droves and the result is all the same. They all exhibit the same symptoms: Coughing, fever, irritability violence, and delusions." She ticked off the warning signs one by one on her long, delicate fingers.
Touya frowned and folded his arms over his narrow chest, face becoming darker. "How is it being passed on? Any ideas, I've only just encountered it."
"That's the only good news I've got for you, ice demon," said the fatigued woman. "Looks as if it's passed through blood. Most of these idiots are tavern trash who got in a brawl. One of them must have had it."
"Any indication to why they all experience the same hallucinations. They all seem to share their nightmares," he uttered softly, eyes flickered aside.
Minna's mother was lying prostrate on the bed nearby, limbs strapped to the bed. Her face was wide awake and staring at nothing, her eyes drilling ceaselessly into some unseen void, hypnotized by the empty space before her. Her body, which had been thrashing and burning up with fever only a half hour ago was now still as death and chill as a corpse. Only the small rise and fall of her chest indicated any life in her at all. Touya's quick look at all the other patients filling every bed from wall to wall in the healer's shine each showed varying stages of the illness. Some screaming, some coughing, others stone still as Minna's mother.
The healer, Zeelah by name, shook her head tiredly. "They all become comatose in the end. I've mind probed several and they either have gone brain dead or babble in their brain the words nevermore, eyes, darkness and other madness."
Touya moved across the room, weaving slowly through the bed-ridden patients. "Which ones go brain dead?"
Zeelah paused, thinking while she followed the slender ice demon through the room, watching him closely. "The lower level ones. I have one D-class superior who retains a level of ... consciousness if not sanity. He's very calm, but he insists that he's looking for his raven or something like that. He killed most of the patients around him."
Touya glanced at the cleric. "What is your class?" he asked, though he had a fairly decent idea already. Zeelah lifted her chin slightly, a bit defiant.
"C-class inferior," she said as if daring him to refute it. "I have several guilds following me already. I'm the best healer for leagues."
Touya nodded. That was expected of a C-class, inferior or intermediate. Once she reached superior she'd probably be leading a small cult of clerics. If either Touya or Jin had so desired either of them could have claimed several factions of shinobi guilds and easily spread their influence across a level of the Makai. They had both reached A-class intermediate, Jin edging on superior.
"So the ones with some power are left with some semblance of mind, if not a shattered one," he muttered thoughtfully. "So it awakens the more violent side of the victim and leaves them with...memories that aren't their own."
"The reference to some type of dark bird or winged creature is evident. Could a bird demon of some sort be spreading this?" Zeelah asked coming to stand across from Touya. She looked hopeful. "It's possible isn't it? What do you think?"
"No," Touya shook his head. "That would be plausible save for the meaning of their hallucinations. Have you noticed they seem to rhyme?"
The pretty cleric looked perplexed and then stunned. "Poetry? They're reciting poetry?!"
Touya nodded. "Its not just poetry though. The demoness I brought in called me 'little angel'. I think your 'raven' might have been referring to the same creature."
"Maybe the poem was dedicated to this person or something," the female cleric said speculatively.
The ice demon folded his arms again, as his mind tried to link all the facts. "I've never heard this particular poem in all my years in the Makai. So either it's a personal poem, uncommon, or it doesn't come from this world." Touya glanced at Zeelah as she opened her mouth. "Yes. It's possible I simply haven't heard it before, but I doubt it. I've worked in just about every field of occupation there is."
There was silence for a moment.
"Oh...OK then," Zeelah said looking tongue-tied.
Touya moved brusquely toward the door with a meaningful air. "I must go. I my companions are waiting for me. I'll contact you if I discover anything more."
"Yes, thank you," Zeelah said looking faintly disappointed, and somewhat anxious. "Do hurry if you hear anything."
Touya closed the door behind him as he left. The ice demon took his time, walking normally down the dusty path through the trees. The obscure shadows of the millennia old boughs cast dark shadows over him, blotting out the ever dark skies. The trees were giants all large enough for Touya to walk around once in a whole minute not accounting for the arching and warped tangle of roots that battled for ground on the forest floor. After a couple more millenniums only one of these trees would remain after sucking all the others dry of life.
He believed one of the semi-finalists in the Dark Tournament use weapons created using wood from such a tree. Powerful substances, rare in the making and more dangerous to get. Most trees that ancient developed a violent awareness that would result in a Blood Oak with all the viciousness of a Death Tree; drinking up the blood of the demons that got too close.
Touya felt a flicker of amusement.
Everything about his world was kill or be killed right down to the plants.
"What a sad existence," he speculated aloud, looking up at the trees' swaying canopy. "Live until you die at the hands of another, knowing that it's coming and only trying to prolong it by getting stronger. But no matter how strong you are something will come against you eventually. Something you can't stop, or fight. Everything in this world that is beautiful is dangerous and the more hideous creature might be pathetic in comparison. A twisted world. How do we live like this?"
"Ahh," sighed familiar silken voice from behind, the shinobi. "I knew you were tired of living, little ice demon."
Training and instinct kicked in before Touya's conscious reaction and the ice dmeon ducked and rolled. Pain ripped through his lower and back, tearing flesh and spraying a heavy coating of crimson on the ninja's clothing. Touya hit the ground rolling, gritting his teeth as his injured back hit the uneven, root filled ground. As he came to his feet Touya darted out of perception, leaping against the trunk of a tree and launching off it. A powerful spring catapulted the slender ice youkai into the bough of the trees and he leapt from branch to branch with speed matched by few in the Demon World.
The wound burned like a living flame on his back, grinding its smoldering fingers into his spine and raking them across his back. Touya was dizzy with it, but forced himself on with a quick change of mind set, compelling the pain from his mind and slowing his heart rate with a whim to prevent blood loss. Touya did all this while still running as fast as demonically possible. Unfortunately he could still feel the splashes of hot blood pouring from his back. It was a deep injury. He'd have to stop and tend it soon.
Touya, through the pain, cursed himself.
They'd gotten sloppy. The hunting party had been the last straw in a growing haystack of idiotic things he'd let slide over the last few weeks. It seemed their target had finally managed to double back on them and sneak around to attack from behind. Now he and Jin were being hunted! This was exactly what he'd been trying to prevent. Why he'd been so careful, so wary. Now it all hit the fan.
He had to contact her!
Touya reached quickly into his tunic to pull a communicator from a side pocket. Flicking it open he waited for it to buzz slowly to life. It flickered, sputtered and finally glowed alive. The interference of the demonic forest was affecting the reception. Touya gritted his teeth in anger this time. Twice the fool he was for taking this route.
Finally the words 'LINK OPENED' flashed on the screen.
"Shizuru!" he said quickly, lifting the small mirror to his mouth. "It's Touya. I'm in the Dame Yume Forest. We have a problem! Karasu knows we're here. Jin and I are going to get out of here before-"
"You die?" an amused voice interrupted, sending soul-freezing fear through the ice youkai.
Touya stifled a shouted and pain as his arm was snagged in a painful grip and wretched back. The ninja felt the familiar agony of a dislocated shoulder as the horrible pain lanced through him, breaking through the wall of numbness he'd forced up as his back slammed into the trunk of the tree he'd been racing across. His clenched blue eyes flew open as his communicator was smashed from his fingers and tumbled away into the foliage below. The next instant Touya felt his upper arms pinned hard against the tree trunk, forcing down at his sides and held tight..
And he was staring straight into the most chilling set of amethyst eyes he'd ever seen.
Touya felt his body relax as his mind fought to assimilate the reality of who was pinning him up against the tree. His lips parted and he breathed the name that Kuzuma Kuwabara's sister had hissed to him when he'd asked who the target was, the same creature that had very nearly torn Kurama to pieces at the Dark tournament and come back from the grave to try and fail to finish the job.
"Karasu..."
The ebon haired demon seemed to grow somehow as he chuckled. Beautiful, horrible, violet eyes glittered and gleamed a strange ruby color as cruel intent seeped into his gaze. Dressed in a dark leather jacket, adorned in black metal clasps and belts the demon looked more dangerous and terrible than he had at the tournament. Or maybe it was just that strange arrogant satisfaction and amusement he seemed to have, a hundred times more perverse than what Kurama had once described. His bared, clawed hands on Touya's biceps were firm but almost gentle, as if daring him to struggle, the taller youkai looming over the diminutive ice demon, staring down at him while slowly moving in closer, closing the space between them, murder in his eyes. Touya knew without having to see that under that mask he was smiling.
"Life is so wearing on you, Touya. It drags at your body, scrapes away your soul," the quest demon whispered, his forehead almost bending to touch Touya's, face slowly drawing nearer. The shinobi turned his head aside, keeping his face impassive with an act of will few, perhaps not even Kurama could have accomplished. The Makai Crow only smiled. "So cold. I knew you'd be like this. Like him. Proud, intelligent, perhaps not as lovely, but certainly a close second, but don't let that interfere with our relationship."
The sadistic demon leered insanely.
"The one between murderer and victim. Surely Kurama has told you the intimacy of it." Those eyes seemed to fill Touya. "He did kill me after all."
The Ice Master's entire being recoiled from the hideous creature, feeling the lust for blood and pain radiating from the monster's presence. But as quickly as horror and abhorrence took root in his mind, so did another instinct.
Survival. The primal need to live.
-I will NOT die!-
Touya drew a fast breath and screamed his defiance at the immoral in a single vocal roar that made the temperature hit 10 degrees below zero in a second. An instant later the entire sky erupted with snow, blue energy coiling in the ice demon's slender body and exploding out from him as his entire body flexed with the unbridled power. The searing cold encased his attacker's body in an instant. The glittering amethyst eyes clouded over with a sheet of ice, raven black hair hanging in a rigid wave down his ramrod stiff back. Wrenching himself free of the frozen grip Touya leapt down from the tree and dove into the battling bulges and waves of up thrust roots that was the forest floor.
Swiftly the ice demon ducked into the shadows of the tangled roots, slipping, cat-like into the darkness and pressing his back against the damp, earthy wood. The ice demon forced himself to stop panting, willing his body to relax as he stilled his racing pulse. Shielding his energy he sank deeper into the darkness, receding into the void under the roots and summoning up a long, razor sharp ice blade to encase his arm. He crouched and waited. If he was lucky Karasu wouldn't sense him and leave. If he was unlucky, but strategy prevailed than Karasu would lean down to see and Touya could get a clean shot.
If he was unlucky all together...
Karasu would simply blast the entire forest floor.
"Come now, Touya."
The ice demon tensed at the sultry purr drifting through the gap in the roots just over his head. He knew Karasu had to be right on top of him. He heard the sound of hands being laid softly against rough bark.
"It would be easier not to resist." There was a menacing pause. In the cold he'd summoned he could see his aggressor's breath fog the air beside his cheek. "It would hurt much less."
Touya, feeling something he had not before, gripped his right wrist and angled his blade vertical. Blue eyes frigid he uttered his next words almost inaudibly.
"Go to hell."
He slammed the blade up through the gap and felt impact coupled with a soft grunt of either pain or surprise. He ripped the blade free and lunged away, should Karasu try to detonate the tiny hollow he crouched in, quickly lunged and weaving through the maze of thick roots. Finally, Touya stopped, shoving himself into yet another grotto of thick tree roots and waiting, shadows playing across his pale face like paint. He glanced at his ice blade and felt a small spark of satisfaction to see blood running down its length. Touya waited, body strained to its limit, senses searching for the quest demon's presence.
Silence passed; a long silence that seemed to stretch endlessly. Touya only heard a single whisper, so unsubstantial it could have been imagined.
"You only prolong the inevitable, Ice Master...In the end you will both belong to me..."
Touya waited still, listening: silence there...and nothing more. He had no idea for how long he crouched there, tensed, uncertain if Karasu would be willing to lay in wait for him to emerge. He was crazy. His mind was not as predicable, nor logical. But what could he do? If he remained too long Jin would wonder where he'd gone and Karasu had mentioned the word 'both'. Did he mean to go after Jin as well?
A sickening shudder slithered down the youkai's back; making him shiver with the only cold he was capable of feeling.
The cold of fear.
"TOUYA!!!"
The poor ice demon very nearly killed the demon who dropped from the sky beside the opening of his hide away. The pair of bare feet circled in a quick loop, a familiar, loud, voice shouting his name with desperation of near hopelessness. A small, childish voice joined the male voice, girlish tone squeaking out the ice demon's name again and again like an echo. The first voice only intensified in anxiety.
"TOUYA!! Come on an' answer meh! Touya!! TOUYA!!"
"Jin. Jin, stop shouting I'm right here," Touya croaked, emerging stiffly from beneath the low hanging crevasse of wood.
Startled by his comrade's sudden appearance the Wind Master spun around with a sharp yelp. The moment his brilliant blue eyes alighted on his friend, alive and in one piece the wind youkai whooped and lunged to grab his surly friend in a tight hug. The smaller demon was instantly crushed into his team mate's vice-like hold. Usually Touya would have rolled his eyes or just let his friend do as he wished with rigid tolerance, but this time he was grateful that Jin was the spastic person he was. He needed to know he wasn't by himself for this one.
"Karasu," Touya rasped as Jin stepped back from him. Though he hadn't screamed more than once or twice his voice had been reduced to a painful whisper. "He knows we're here."
"I know. Th' son o' a bitch gave us a li'l visit," Jin said darkly, pointing over his shoulder to the little girl fastened about his shoulders. "Nicked me neck but didn' ge' Minna. Said e' was comin' fer yu' so I sped 'ere fast as I was bein' able t'."
"YAY!!! Toy-boy ish alive!!! YAY!!!" cheered the strange little child on the redhead's shoulders. She waved her arms about enthusiastically. "Good, good!! WOO!"
Touya felt exhausted. His whole body ached and his back was burning like fire. Touya was beginning to fear poison or infection. This type of pain was different than that of a clean wound. Jin frowned, sensing something was wrong as Touya seemed to pale visibly.
"Touya?"
"I think...lost too much blood...too weak..." Touya gasped. His eyes glazed suddenly, growing dim as he slumped to his knees, coughing dust from his dry throat. The pain in his back was excruciating and he felt so dizzy, everything reeling strangely. Jin instantly crouched beside his friend, placing Minna on the ground away from them to wait. He positioned a hand on Touya's shoulder, steadying the ice demon as he regained his sense of balance.
"Yu' need t' be restin' or you'll be getting' yerself killed," Jin said softly. "Those are needin' t' be bandaged."
Touya nodded, silent, keeping his lips pursed in a thin line that indicated both pain and exhaustion, He slowly let Jin guide him to lean against a root. "I – I don't know...what's wrong. I just feel so tired..." he murmured, wincing as he lifted his slashed tunic from his lower back.
Jin hissed in sympathy as the bloody ruin that his friend's back had become. "Karasu's a tricky one. Yu' lost blood an' who knows where his nasty stickers have been," Jin joked, gently while reaching into a secret cache of gauze hidden in his plain cloth belt. Touya produced a small pile of snow for Jin to wash the wound with, hissing in pain as the water made the cuts sting. Jin deftly wrapped his comrade's lower torso in the bandages, wrapping tightly until there was a thick layer of clean white cloth about his friend's injured back.
"We kin just rest here. Karasu won't be tryin' nothin' again in so soon. I kin keep watch," Jin assured Touya who swayed unsteadily; reaching up a shaky hand to hold his head.
Touya nodded again, eyes closing wearily, startling Jin. The ice demon didn't even put up a complaint about moving to someplace more secure, or trying to assess the situation. He only sighed softly, tiredly, and lowered himself to the ground. He just coiled on the forest floor and pillowed his head on his arms, face relaxing as his body went limp. He was asleep in moments.
Minna yawned and totter over to recline against the dozing Ice Master. She shivered pleasurably and curled against the smaller demon's stomach, snuggling his body.
"He's all cold..." she muttered, slipping into unconsciousness.
Jin was left alone to set the watch. His bright sky blue eyes stormy with troubles unseen roiling behind his usually cheerful façade. The winds swirled ominously about the trio all night long. The gentle, warning murmurs of the winds telling Jin of the approach of any creatures, the fall of a new leaf, the shift of a dozing bird in the trees. So alert was he to the sound of the forest, to the keening voices of the wind that he didn't here the muttering of either Touya or Minna in their sleep.
"The silence was unbroken..." Touya whispered shivering suddenly, his skin glistening with a thin sheen of sweat. His slender fingers clenched and unclenched as dark nightmares boiled through his mind, poisoning his psyche. "Un...broken ...silence...unbroken..."
"And the stillness..." Minna giggled, pawing the air playfully in her sleep. "Gave no token...hee hee. Token..."
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Quoth the Raven...
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{Me} If you have any question leave them in my little box and I say gladly answer. Improvements? Mistakes to edit? Ideas? I'm open to all of it. Feel free.
{Cloud8.9 speaks from under a pile of candy} I have been huggled, glomped and showered in sweets for the last couple chapters... {drags himself out from under the pile on to be huggled by yet another reviewer} AHHH!!! Make it stop!
{Me} I'm enjoying this, but to business. Shadow Fox777 noticed my little change in the spelling of Yu-kun's name. I've been experimenting and I dunno...I kinda like the double 'U' spelling of Yuusuke, it's a bit more formal and since he's now officially lord of the Third Realm I figured formal works.
Oh and a quick shout out to Kadesh! Any add-in's with out favorite fox are thanks to her. I hadn't planned to bring him until way later, but I want to satisfy you Kurama lovers out there. So thank Kadesh.
Read! Review! And most importantly: Enjoy!