Disclaimer: I don't own anything…but Cloud. I do own him…and all my other OCs…mine…and this chocolate bar here…MMMMmmmm…
Story Thus Far: Well, it seems the assassin, Shield has Alaster as a hostage and Kurama is currently dining with his arch nemesis, Karasu. Yuusuke's troops fight a losing battle, unaware that Touya is coming to do in their Emperor and Mika lies in a dead faint in the snowy streets of the Ningenkai.
Enjoy Chapter 11!
Choking Up
Shield smiled again, tipping his head in a sympathetic gesture. "I did tell you," he reminded Shizuru gently.
"Nice going," Cloud drawled from somewhere in the background.
Shizuru hissed at him to shut his mouth or she'd do something unpleasant to his face with a staple gun. Alaster felt his captor chuckle, mildly amused by their dysfunctional teamwork. A professional such as himself must have found them extremely childish in their antics. However, Shizuru's threat did little to sooth Cloud's newly ruffled feathers (literally) and the shadowkai responded in kind, this time with a nasty little number involving the demon-huntress's undergarments, a pineapple and other parts of her female anatomy.
Shield didn't react to that one. Shock presumably.
While all this happened, the hostage fox-spirit sighed and stared, annoyed, up at the overhanging boughs of thickly blooming tree-life. As a professional thief and crime organizer, he couldn't stand it when his chosen accomplices didn't work smoothly together. Part of the reason he usually worked alone on his heists. If he'd had the choice in teammates for this newly budded 'save-the-world' spiel, he would have never in his right mind have selected Shizuru and Cloud to work together. They simply did not function simultaneously.
This is why I like to steal things, he thought darkly. It doesn't involve fighting…or working with other people. And why am I thinking about this? Isn't my life supposed to be in danger? Gods, I think the strangest thinks when being threatened. I'm actually bored.
Now Alaster, logical, intelligent youkai that he was, never imagined he'd find being taken hostage dull…Yet, here he was: bored…and being held hostage.
"Are they always like that?" Shield inquired mildly.
The half-breed blinked, realizing the assassin had directed the question at him. The miniature wings sprouted from beneath Shield's loose bangs fluttered innocently. For all his so-called dangerous personification he didn't strike Alaster as the killer type.
"Pretty much," Alaster said with a shrug. "You get used to it."
Shizuru, sporting a much disheveled mop of hair and bright red flush to her skin, spun away from the gold-haired shadowkai who spat something foul in his native language. She gave him the finger and fixed her attention on Alaster, her cider-hued eyes clearing of their momentary anger and remembering that 'Oh yeah, someone was holding Al hostage.
"Look Shield, just let Al go," Shizuru broke in. "He's not a threat to you. You're a shinobi, you know he's a novice compared to you. Why kill him needlessly?"
Gee, thanks Sis.
Shield didn't reply, but he didn't obey either. Alaster closed his eyes and prayed his tactic would work, because if he blew it now, Shield would sever his windpipe and let him bleed out. He had to get this right first. Shizuru's voice told Al she hadn't given up on sweet-talking his assailant. Good luck with that, he scorned, knowing Shizuru had about as much social charm as a cactus. She gnawed her lip beneath her mask and Alaster rolled his single useless seed between his slim fingers in agitation.
Wait…useless?
Enlightened – or so he hoped – he focused on his breathing, falling into a deep trance-like state and slowing his heart-rate, his breath, causing his chest to rise and fall more evenly. Energy threaded through his skin, pooling just beneath the surface and leaking through his hair in undetectable increments. Certain seeds began to bloom and bud inches from his captor's finger's but the shinobi seemed preoccupied with Shizuru's words.
Just a bit more energy…just a little longer…
"This has to end with your death," Shield was telling her sadly. "I have my orders."
"Orders from a deranged psychopath," Cloud's toneless voice interrupted. Alaster wrote a mental sticky-note to seriously place something thorny in the shadowkai's bed next time they stopped to rest. Why did he travel with such socially challenged teammates? No matter…
"You're shinobi trained," Shizuru broke in, speaking to Shield. "No shinobi would serve a monster like Karasu. You can break free of the disease. You can beat it."
YES! The seeds in his hair bloomed into a fine webbing of delicate, colored flora, leaking pollen and the thick scent of new spring growth into the air. Shield noticed this immediately and didn't like it.
The assassin jerked the smaller demon – yes, smaller – toward him and seized a thicker fistful of his pale hair, yanking his head back and laying his carefully darkened blade against the vulnerable arch of his throat. The kitsune heard Shizuru gasp and the tell-tale hiss of blades finding their homes inside sheathes. His heart, which up until now had remained pretty-much steady, skipped a couple beats and quickened.
He could feel Shield's shift in body language, going from playful to business in a smooth transition of emotions and motive. Shield's mouth brush Alaster's ear as he spoke, warm breath stirring loose tresses of silver.
"Are you trying to die, fox?"
He smiled. "Tell me something Shield…how did Hiei beat you?"
The assassin looked surprised and for a moment could say nothing. Then he seemed to regain his wits and answered warily. "That is none of your concern."
"Oh, but it is!" the youko said earnestly. "You see…I plan to beat you too. Obviously Hiei has more skill than I, but according to you skill doesn't matter since nothing threatening can penetrate your barriers."
No reply only intrigued silence. Al went on.
"I think Hiei did one of three things…either he attacked and attack you until your shields shattered (which I doubt), he tricked you into dropping your barriers, or – my theory – he found the hole in your defenses."
Shield looked angry. "There are no holes in my defense."
Alaster smiled. "Wrong. I've already slipped past them."
Shield looked startled…then the maroon glow of his eyes flared hot and he gasped, jerking as if slapped by unseen attacker. Alaster reacted instantly, ducking his captor's blade and shoving away from the winged killer. The assassin fell back and toppled to on his side, coughing and clutching his throat. The purple-red glow about his body flickered…dimmed and faded completely, the young demon writhing in pain as he struggled for air.
Alaster lifted both his hands, focusing on the sensation of energy radiating from his fingers, his soft, raspberry gaze gleaming fox-eyes green. Shizuru sputtered unintelligibly. Cloud merely stared questioningly at him.
Al shrugged. "I bloomed my flowers to see if he could smell them. He did, that meant that some things his shields consider harmless…like air or, in association, the pollen in that air, can get through his defenses," explained the youko. "He can block anything, stop any attack, but something as non-threatening and humble as pollen or perhaps smoke or fumes of the Dragon of Darkness Flame can cripple him."
Shield's burgundy gaze smoldered with anger as his cheeks turned a slow crimson due to air deprivation. He coughed and managed to force out two strained words for Alaster.
"Damn…y-you…"
Alaster glanced back at the other two. "Get going. I can hold his shields at bay."
Cloud glanced at the choking assassin. "Why not just kill him?"
Shizuru eyed Cloud warily as the usually peaceable shadowkai gave in once again to whatever dark instinct his wings and energy symbolized. Now that he'd let loose his powers in the underground, something…innocent had been consumed by his darkness. He didn't seem as distressed, nor flustered as before, but he also lacked his character concern over the lives of others. At least before, he'd preferred to let his opponents live if possible.
Al gave the dark angel a similar look, then replied, "It's my concern whether or not he lives. Either way, I sense his barriers have all fallen to pieces, including the one around Karasu."
Shield growled and made a gallant effort to lever himself up…it didn't work, seeing how the simple move aggravated his horrible coughing fit. He doubled over again and the youko glared at his teammates, eyes flashing dangerously from a usually taciturn and thoughtful face.
"Go!" he snarled, baring fangs.
Cloud shrugged and took off without second thought, though Shizuru, sisterly affection kicking in, lingered anxiously. Her pale, cider-colored eyes grew soft and wide for a rare vulnerable moment and Alaster managed a smile.
"Better go, sis. Cloud will get ahead of you and ruin all your plans. You don't want that, right?"
She shook her head, but he felt her grin. "Don't get dead, baby bro," she ordered and dashed off to catch Cloud.
Alaster, having finally gotten his team to leave, turned back to his captive. Shield, stubborn, well-trained kind of shinobi that he was, had forced himself up already, sweat dripping down his face, the feathery wings on either side of his head quivering weakly as he staggered to his feet, hand about his neck.
"You – you're the son of the Fox Thief," Shield rasped painfully, corrosive pollens eating at his windpipe. His watering eyes met his, bafflement reflected in his gaze. "Why…are you…and her…with that dark angel? He's…a killer…they turn on you…everyone knows that."
Al rolled his sucker in his mouth a moment before realizing he'd sucked away all the candy and spat the stick out. "Oh, simple really. Cloud's keeping a promise he didn't keep a long time ago." The fox smiled, shrugging as he did. "And that's all."
Shield grimaced, but managed to turn the painful expression into a grin. "That's all," he repeated. "You may have tricked me once…but not again."
Maroon energy blazed up around his hands and the assassin whipped two blades into his hands. He lunged at Alaster, striking to kill and the youko met him head on with Rose Whip attack. Thorns grate on blade and the scene fades to black for now.
"SPIRIT GUN!"
Ker-boom!
The residual shock waves blasted out from the vocal point of contact, the giant orb of white blue energy, crackling and roaring as it sped trough the air, colliding with the reptilian menace. The giant, winged lizard shrieked and roiled wildly in the air as it struggled to withstand the Toushin's trademark attack, the unstoppable ball of power grinding into its pale, gold underbelly. Acid green scales flashed and glistened as it thrashed, throwing the battle-scarred earth into sharp relief.
The flickering light illuminated the dirty, sweat-soaked faces of Yuusuke's exhausted Ace platoon, all crouched or sprawled out beneath whatever stones or trenches provided cover from the monumental battle taking place only two hundred feet overhead. The youkais' previously desperate eyes brightened with victorious hope as their leader's brilliant azure energy ripped through the monster, ripping it apart molecule by molecule until nothing remained.
The troops leapt up, hooting and hollering in celebration, waving blades, bludgeons and whatever other weapons they'd managed to find after losing their standard issue armaments. Their tattered green and blue tunics, the colors of Yuusuke's soldiers, hung off battered, sweaty youkai wings, second arms and the occasional ningen-like demon among them.
Yuusuke Urameshi himself, having only just recovered from the recoil of his own attack, landed hard in the centre of the battleground, one knee slamming hard into the charred earth as he fell into a hunched crouch. The crimson glow of his usually care-free eyes had flared into a pair of churning lava pits in his darkly tattooed features as his face turned up into the light of his own attack. His long, untamed mane hung freely into his dirt smeared face, the green headband having long since burned in the dragon's fires.
"No," he croaked at his exuberant men. He lifted a battered and bleeding hand, the glow in his eyes breaking into the more human hue of dark wine. "Get down! Not yet! Get down you idiots!"
One of the more human-looking captains, one with several bat-like ears, heard him over the chaos and spun on his men, shouting orders. Too late…The lizard's long serpentine neck arched back even as Yuusuke's technique ripped it apart from the breast-bone down. In a dying attack it sucked in its last breath, air changing into explosive fire between its jaws before it spewed the last of its dragon fire into a final assault.
Yuusuke watched in horror as blood-red flames spilled out like a hellish flood across the ground, sucking up the bat-demon and his men in a fiery sea of heat and destruction. The youkai vanished in the waves of the deafening blaze, the searing heat blasting across the rest of the battlefield and slapping Yuusuke in the face like a final insult.
The dragon was gone…taking Ace platoon with it.
Yuusuke punched the dirt in a grievous rage, a ground shattering on contact. "Dammit!" he cursed furiously. "This is so…stupid!"
"It's that what you say about every Demon War?" inquired a familiar voice laughably.
The Toushin leapt up, spinning so fast his sneakers heated with the friction of his sudden about-face. His great spiced-cider eyes grew round in bewilderment, his fists (which he'd put up instinctively) falling just slightly. Standing across the battle feet, alighted casually atop the only standing stone for a quarter mile, hands shoved in his pockets wearing the same blue-white uniform from the Dark Tournament…was Touya the Ice Master.
The slender ice-demon hopped off the rock, landing gracefully on the torn ground and looking about with detached interest. Even from the distant Yuusuke could feel the distorted state of Touya's unmasked energies. The young shinobi's pupiless blue eyes traveled lazily back and forth as he sauntered toward the dark-haired demon-boy, his pale facial features distinctly amused if anything.
The ice demon halted in front of Yuusuke leaving a twenty foot gap of burned battlefield between them. The young ruler narrowed his eyes, the teardrop-like markings beneath his eyes drawing one's eyes to the terrifying glow of his crimson orbs…two fire brands bursting into flame.
"I notice," Yuusuke began, "you still haven't altered your stupid hairstyle in over a century."
Touya's lips broke into a neurotic grin, his mis-colored bangs sweeping into his empty blue eyes. "And you used the word 'altered' in the correct grammatical format. I'm very impressed, Yuusuke-sama."
"Why are you here, Touya?"
"To kill you?"
Yuusuke snorted. "Not likely, ninja-boy. In case you haven't noticed, I'm way out of your class. A inferior isn't it?"
"Intermediate, actually," corrected Touya, sliding into an attack position.
Blue energy began to hum about his skin, stirring his shinobi-style clothing in the currents of power. Yuusuke felt something cold kissed his shoulder and looked down in time to see a pale flake dissolve into a single drop of water. Before he could blink, the air was alive with a storm of white snow and the skies had darkened with black storm heads, ice slicing at Yuusuke's matted hair at a sharp angle. Goosebumps run up his tattooed spine as the temperature dropped to twenty below and Touya's aura expanded almost five feet about his slender frame.
The ninja looked like a living ice-sculpture at this point, twin ice scimitars encasing his arms that scratched the ice-covered dirt with vicious looking curved blade-tips. His skin had begun to glow with a silvery light, ethereal and almost angelic of not for the psychotic look on the warrior's face as he placed a bare foot on the charred skull of a fallen demon.
The bone shattered on contact like glass introduced to the cold too quickly.
"I don't have to be at your level to beat you, Yuusuke-sama," said Touya, voice waves distorted with his own power.
Yuusuke clenched his fists and his irises suddenly flooded with brilliant red energy while his aura blazed a navy blue so dark it nearly turned black. The dirt around him vaporized, leaving a ten-foot crater around him, melting the frost on the ground and filling the freezing air with steam as the snow hit his shields and evaporated. Soon the field filled with steam and cold mists obscuring both Emperor and ninja.
The ruler of the Third Realm lifted his arm, bracing his wrist with the other as a single bead winked into existence at his fingertip. He sighted slowly down the tip to focus on the blurry cloud of energy he knew Touya stood in the middle of.
"Don't make me kill you!" he shouted. "I'm your friend. I don't want to have your life on my hands, Touya."
The cloud of energy shifted slightly, flaring up as if for an attack and suddenly the ice began zipping into his face, penetrating his aura and stinging his face. Yuusuke tensed, gritting his teeth as the ice sliced his face and shoulders. "Kool-Aid!" he roared, the old nick-name falling from his tongue in an instinctive reflex. "I'm not your enemy! Don't make me do this!"
Touya's aura suddenly erupted and spat an angry swarm of shrieking ice shards, all hissing screaming toward Yuusuke with all the speed insanity can muster. The Emperor swore in both surprise and grief, body going rigid as he launched the devastating attack on the Ice Master. Even as he shouted the blue bullet of energy fired and ripped through the meager ice chips and blasted a merciless hole through the middle of Touya's aura and most likely straight through the ice-demon's belly.
The azure cloud of energy burst like a popped balloon. With a sinking feeling, Yuusuke recognized the familiar energy dissipation he'd seen from hundreds of his opponent's: the sudden outward radiation of the youki, the particle-like motes of spirit energy dwindling away…it all indicated the death of the owner. He knew…he killed demons like Touya all the time.
All the time…
As Yuusuke's arm fell with his heart, a sharp pang of righteous fury ignited inside his chest. Karasu…Karasu was responsible for everything, this especially and if Yuusuke could do nothing else, he'd make sure that disgusting vampire wannabe met the same fate he'd been forced to give Touya. Yuusuke squeezed his eyes shut, already imagining Jin's heart-broken expression when he had to tell him that his best friend was lying dead on the battlefield with a hole the exact size of Yuusuke's bullet thought his stomach.
"So stupid," he hissed as the snow around him began to dissipate. The temperature rose, increment, by increment as the frost steamed and hissed around him, melting rapidly without its master to maintain it in Yuusuke's energy. The Emperor gazed sadly around the sauna-like battleground, only just making out the surrounding destruction.
"Why couldn't you have waited, Kool-Aid? Just until all this was over?" he asked the dead shinobi softly. "Why?"
Then something stung his arm, surprising a sudden 'ow!' from the demon lord. Startled he darted away, to evade a second attack, snatching the offending projectile from his shoulder. He palmed it and stared down in shock at the tiny chunk of bloody ice and he knew without a shadow of doubt that the crimson staining that ice wasn't all his own and suddenly everything made sense and he cursed himself for forgetting the one thing Touya – like Kurama – lorded over him.
Deadly intellect.
"You know," Touya's disdainful voice laughed somewhere inside the fog. "I always hated that nickname."
"JIN, LOOK OUT!"
"I know! I see 'im!"
The wind-elf vaulted over the attacking demon, springing up over the slow and clumsy youkai like scruffy orange alley-cat and using the monstrous demon's skull as an impromptu springboard. The Wind Master launched himself over the mass of swarming youkai on an effortless current of air and summoned a whining orb of trapped hurricane winds between his fingers and thrust it at the confused throng of enemy youkai.
The orb shrieked upon release like a loosed dragon and ripped through the first demon, reducing him to ribbons and shooting his armor into his fellows like grenade shrapnel, tearing through the infected platoon and leaving none left to stand against the wild redhead.
The elfish ninja dismissed the air current with a mental command and the air poofed back to its former stagnant variety of oxygen and the blue-eyed shinobi fell from ten feet to land soundlessly in the centre of the gory mess and on the only bloodless patch of earth for forty feet around. The trees around him looked as if they'd been painted by a crazed fringe artist with a passion for crimson.
"Oye," the demon said, hanging his head. "I dun think I kin be keepin' this oop fer much longer. I'm startin' t' feel bad fer th' poor dumb-clods."
Several masculine screams of pain reached the young ninja who looked up in time to see his accomplice bound into the glen, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the new foliage paint job.
Keiko fanned the air, making a face as she tried desperately to clear the air of the repulsive scent of death and disease. Her long, multi-colored hair had grown matted and tangled throughout the course of their battles and her comfortable, lavender blue kimono slowly turned a nasty shade of black. She was quick to tear off any fabric that grew too soaked with the infected blood of her enemies.
"Jin. This disease is only spreading faster," she said. "I watched two thirds of my men open fire on their own allies and they'd all only seen combat for forty minutes. The incubation time is growing shorter."
"Shite!" Jin cursed, punching his fist into his opposite palm. His brilliant blue eyes flashed with an unnamable emotion and Keiko shivered at the uncharacteristic expression. She hated it when Jin's eyes darkened like that…it mean that the world truly had gone to hell around them and even Jin – know for being cheerful and unshakably happy – had been sucked into the madness of it all.
"Jin," she said softly, placing a hand on the vulnerable curve of flesh along his shoulder and collarbone. "Please, don't lose hope, yet."
"Why nah?" he said angrily, looking sharply up at her and giving her such a despairing look that she realized just how deeply Touya's infection had wounded his optimism in the world. "Why should'nah be losin' all 'ope? Wha' 'ope we got left? Our own men are turnin' 'gainst us, the weakest demon kin get us wid' jus' one hit and we're losin' ground so fast we migh' as weel turn o're all our troopt t' 'em now!"
Then Keiko burst into tears.
That stopped Jin cold.
"Stop it! Stop saying that, Jin!" she wept, her great auburn eyes growing unnaturally bright. "I can't stand it when you talk like that! You never talk like that! Even when you're losing, even when you were being beat you never gave up and you never said things like that! Don't do that to me now! Just don't!"
"Miss Keiko?"
"Shut up!"
"…"
Sniffles.
"Umm…"
"Hush! I can't listen to things like that right now." the Empress of the Third Realm said sadly. "I have enough trouble keeping myself sane during times like this. I can' t listen to you – the only person I can always depend on to be cheerful – talking like that. I just can't take it."
"Bu' Keiko," Jinb said urgently, "there's…"
"Shh!"
"…bu'-,"
"Quiet!"
Jin slapped his forehead just below his horn and wound up his arm like a pro baseball pitcher, a howling ball of wind rushing in to fill his palm. He shouted and hurled the screaming ball of deadly air currents across the glen at high speed. "Be eatin' this yu sneaks!"
It exploded against a tree and twenty demons screamed in pain as they were launched into the sky, flipping and yelling profanities. Keiko's great brown and rose hued eyes grew very, very round indeed as the gang of enemy youkai took fry flying lessons across the Territory.
"Oh…" she said keenly.
Jin smiled crookedly at her, the old glow returning to his clear blue eyes. "Let's be getting' back t' the fortress 'fore we all look loike these lot o' doofs. We'd bes' be tyin' down th' hatches an' lockin' oop our doors and all tha' good stuff. Aye?"
Keiko, seeing his old spunk revived, smiled right back. "Right. I'll find Veil. You get to Yuusuke. Full retreat back to the fortress. We can hold them off from there."
"Now tha's th' smarts, Urameshi married!" whooped Jin.
Then he virtually bounced off the ground and spiraled up through the trees to find Yuusuke and Keiko took off through the trees like a woman possessed to locate the dragon General.
As the designated story teller, I'm choosing to ignore fifteen minutes of running in silence and skip ahead to the action. After leaving Alaster behind, Shizuru had to catch up to Cloud, you see and this took about seven minutes of the fifteen. Two minutes of their journey included mean name swapping and the last six were sustained silence. Oh, don't give me that look. Yes, I can see the all Rules of Correct Writing Style glaring at me from across the proverbial room. I know for a fact, readers would rather hear about the interesting part, so I'll get to it.
First of all, the second assassin didn't have half the finesse about her entrance as Shield did. No. In fact, if one had to describe it the first words that come to mind are commando style dive-bomb attack. But despite the lack of style the effectiveness could not be denied.
She pile-drove Shizuru in a tree.
Now, upon the attack, Cloud did see something like a red and green blur that crashed into his least favorite female demon hunter and 'comrade'. But, unlike any other teammate Cloud didn't stop to help or even to check and see if the girl had survived the initial assault. Nuuuuu…of course not. He gave a little one shouldered shrug that translated as 'oh well' and kept running, Shizuru's scream of surprise ringing like a sweet note in his ears.
Now, he thought to himself. How to best get to Yuusuke's fortress without dying?"
He ditched me!
Shizuru's first thoughts before her back crashed through a tree. Naturally, the contact between trunk and spine brought her back to the fight, but her indignation toward the dark angel knew no bounds. When Alaster got nabbed, he'd had the decency to shout a warning but when it came to her personal safety he just kept on running? She couldn't wait until all this drama played out to its final stupidity so she could finally hand the blond bomb-shell of a demon a serious can of whoop-ass.
But someone's fist introducing itself violently to herface brought her back to the present. The demon huntress felt knuckles crash into her cheekbone and knew without a doubt this cat had some intense shinobi training under her belt. (Yes, her belt. The prominent bulges digging into her ribs didn't often reside on male torsos.) The blow plowed her through yet another clump of saplings and straight into the ground, leaving her string up into the leaves overhead and wishing she'd paid more attention to Touya when he'd lectured her on hand to hand styles.
Unsheathing her long blades she stood up, adjusting her mask and channeling a hefty share of her energy into her weapons. Her ambrosia orbs ignited with white spirit energy and her senses spread out, awareness rippling from her skin like a sonic radar and immediately pin-pointing her opponent.
Who was standing directly overhead…
Shizuru flipped backward, grunting as she made the hasty retreat and watched with something like relief as a heavy combat boot pounded like a hammer into the ground her body had occupied, shattering the forest floor with a crater the size of a large kiddie-pool. A small, curvaceous demon sporting her twin's brown and blue hair color and winged ears stood up straight in the giant pot-hole, grinning wickedly up at the human girl.
"Howdy ho, my soon to dead amigo!" she crowed, sounding disturbingly like Touya. "I'm Blade and I'll be killing you today!"
Her eyes blazed a familiar maroon and she vanished, fluttering away in a misty afterimage. The air at Shizuru's back stirred and the girl spun, slashing for throat and hamstring with her blades, but the clever ninja merely hopped through the gap betwixt the blades and delivered a devastating jackknife to her belly. The huntress grunted and toppled back into the crater, shocked at the assassin's speed.
Shizuru rolled to the bottom of the hole; knives tucked close to her head down. Before she even stopped tumbling, she leapt to her feet, vaulting from the bottom of the pit and leaping a Matrix jump out of the ditch and into the treetops. She knew without a doubt she was far out of her league against this opponent who moved as fast as Hiei if not faster than the Jaganshi.
Well, duh, she berated herself. She's trained only in offensive techniques…but without her brother to defend her she should be totally defenseless. Without him I should be able to overwhelm her attacks…
Then Blade popped out of the tree beside her, fists flying for her masked face. Reacting on life-saving instinct, Shizuru blocked with her blades, horrified to see a shining set of iron knuckles about the demon girl's fingers, preventing her digits from a severe lopping by Shizuru's long-knives. She retreated, back, back, back as the super-fast assassin chased her from branch to branch, her big, girlish eyes filled with the insane light of the infected.
"Touya told me you've got a chip on your shoulder," laughed Blade as she landed a vicious axe kick to the demon huntress's sternum, rocketing her into the forest floor like a meteorite. "He said you used to have a crush on that waifish little dark angel over there until Karasu killed your baby bro. Do you really think taking it out on little Cloudy-kins will make you feel any better? Or are you trying to hide your guilt behind your anger? Whoops! I'm stealing Touya's words. Did you know that Ice Master is like a walking psychiatric book?"
Shizuru clutched her chest, her heart pounding frantically against her bruised ribs as she struggled to stand. The ninja alighted on the ground a couple yards off, planting her hands on her hips and posing like a model for 'Tom-boy Magazine'. Sporting a pair of bright blue pig-tails, obnoxious Tic-Tac orange overalls, boots and long rainbow arm sleeves she looked the picture of childish innocence. Like her brother, she looked stunning, classic rose lips, slanted blue eyes and a heart-shaped face of flawless skin.
Shizuru gasped, aching chest heaving as she reached for her dropped long knife. Huffing she lurched to her feet and pouted the blade at the second assassin, her eyes blazing with hatred deep as time.
"You," she panted. "Shut up…now."
Blade looked delighted with her opponent's choice of words. "Alright! Does that mean Touya read through all your little masks to the real issue? Wow, you must really suck a hiding your motives." She grinned. "Well, I guess I better kill you before Karasu gets to upset with me. He really hates Touya for defying his control you know. What a card!"
Shizuru laughed, the laughter coming out breathless and uneven. "All you…infected fighters," she snickered. "You're all so…weird."
The girl sheathed one of her blades and straightened up, face growing calm as she held up her remaining knife. Blade frowned at her, obviously perplexed by her actions. Shizuru closed her eyes, energy shimmering in the air around her as she wrapped a hand about the razor-sharp weapon and sliced her fingers open. Blood spilled from her wounded hand and the grim looking huntress smiled thinly.
"Blood spilled," she said softly. "Blood relations. Give me the blade to end my enemies."
Light blazed from her cut hand, radiant white energy slicing through the dark air like five splinters of pure sunlight from every finger. Shizuru smiled and gathered up the beams of light in her opposite hand, closing her hand about them and squeezing until they merged together and erupted from her clenched hands in a long arc of golden energy. She swung the blade, the air itself splitting and throwing two strong gusts into Blade's stunned face.
"Spirit Sword," she said with a wicked grin. "You may be a master of offense, but I'm a master spirit swordsman."
Blade raised her fist, face hardening as she braced herself for a serious battle whilst Shizuru smirked and took a very correct fighting stance.
"I have to kill you," Blade reminded her needlessly.
"Then I have to beat you senseless," Shizuru replied. "No hard feelings?"
"None at all."
Then the two shinobi trained females launched themselves at one another, golden sword cutting a swath of light through the forest as maroon fists punched through the radiance. Their energies exploded on contact and everything washed out from there.
Fade to black…
Author's Note: Yeah, I'm pretty much jumping from scene to scene like a bunny on crack, but I'm feeling inspired for these fights and I'd really like to get back to Karasu and Kurama. Next chapter we have the battle twixt Touya/Yuusuke and Cloud/Marionette. I've lost half my readers, but I really enjoy the mindless violence. Sqee!
Cloud8.9: Crazy. That's what you are.
Cheezit: Hurry up! We have a million other things to start writing! The sequel to Ice Dreams of Fire is a major priority!
Me: Later my loyal readers! I shall return!