Peng-Zhao-Kai
By: Bei-Zhen-Si
Za Irikuchi (The Approach)
The wind whistled through the trees sending chills up her arms and back. She stood completely still, blending into the darkness with such perfection, even the light from the bright half-moon couldn't reveal her form. Her eyes constantly swept the empty meadow in front of her, just beyond the trees. She was undetectable, deadly, and very good at her job. The absolute image of a perfect and dangerous assassin.
Very suddenly, she dropped into a crouch, her hands reaching for her Katana swords. She silently drew one and stuck it in her mouth. The other two were in her hands in the blink of an eye. As she watched, four figures emerged from the forest on the other side of the meadow.
They were accompanied by a Youkai (a.k.a. Two-Tail; a kind of giant cat with two tails, are capable of changing size) named Kirara pulling a cart with a child in it behind. Thankfully, the wind was blowing her way, so if any of them had sensitive noses, they were unable to smell her. The breeze carried some of their conversation towards her.
"Inuyasha, I don't feel safe in this meadow," one of the figures said. The voice belonged to sixteen-year-old Kagome, the reincarnated form of a priestess named Kikyou. She was of medium height with black hair falling down between her shoulder blades. " It's too exposed. Anyone could be watching us." As she said this, she pulled her cloak closer around her as though it would protect her.
The person she was presumably talking to, a tall youth with silver hair that flowed down his back, dog ears, pointed teeth, a Tetsusaiga sword, and unnaturally sharp nails; a ½ dog demon, replied testily, "Kagome, how many times have I told you; if I can't smell anybody, then there ain't nobody there!"
"I know!" she replied worriedly, "but I'm still getting the creeps."
"Yeah Inuyasha," said another young man. He was also moderately tall, with short black hair pulled back into a ponytail at the base of his neck. His right hand was covered by dark purple cloth held in place by a ring. The hand was also encircled by what appeared to be a pearl necklace. In his other hand, he carried a monk's staff. "The whole meadow reeks of dark magic. Maybe we should stick to the forest tonight."
Inuyasha actually growled this time, his lips pulling back into a feral snarl.
"Shut up Miroku! If you're so worried, why don't you cast a protection spell around us?" he yelled aggressively.
"Geez Inuyasha, calm down!" said the fourth figure, a girl about Miroku's height. She was carrying a Hiraikotsu (Giant boomerang). "Miroku's just giving his opinion. He has good intentions" She turned to Miroku. "I'm starting to think that protection spell is a good idea though. Would you mind casting it now?"
"I don't know Sango," he said hesitantly, "it takes a lot of energy…"
"Yeah Miroku. Please cast it!" The speaker was the child in the cart, Shippo, a fox demon. He seemed to be unnaturally nervous.
"Well, all right. But only 'cause Inuyasha is being so bad-tempered and it actually might do us some good."
He mumbled in an unknown language for about a minute before saying, "Okay, it's set."
The girl watching them in the forest snarled in frustration. She had not anticipated having to deal with a monk's protective spell. And it seemed that the same monk had a wind tunnel in his hand.
"This might seriously complicate things." She thought. "No matter. I will dispose of them easily enough." And then, she smiled. It was a smile completely devoid of warmth or joy. It was the smile of a predator.
She began to creep silently towards the group. They had their backs to her, trying to light a fire. As she crept into the meadow, a ray of moonlight hit her face. What was revealed was disturbing and, if anything else, scary.
Her face had once been beautiful, anyone could see that. But now, it was mangled, scarred beyond repair. Two long scars stretched from the top left of her face, to the bottom right. Three slashes ran diagonally along her right cheek. A knotted scar ran the left side of her face, curving around her eyebrow, all the way down to her chin. And last, there was a large purple scar cutting through her left eyebrow down to the middle of her left cheek.
But just as quickly as it had been revealed, her face was pulled into the safety of the shadows. She ran quietly to a large boulder that was barely three yards from where all of the people were sitting. Once in the shelter of its shadow, she removed the sword from her mouth and began to mutter in the same language as Miroku.
After about a minute or so, she heard Miroku exclaim, "Holy shit!"
"What?" everyone else cried in unison.
"The spell's gone! I didn't undo it though, it just disappeared!"
All of them immediately reached for any and all weapons that they possessed. Kagome pulled a bow and a quiver of arrows from underneath her cloak. Inuyasha drew his sword. Sango readied her Hiraikotsu. Miroku gripped his staff in both hands. Shippo hid under Kirara's tails.
The girl behind the rock smirked in anticipation.
"They have no idea what they're up against." She thought smugly.
Za Batsu (The Attack)
The girl shoved the third sword back into her mouth, checked that all of her various concealed knives and other weapons of the sort were all in place and crouched even lower as she powered up.
Usually when a being powers up, there's a bright light emanating from them and the resulting power spin-offs are strong enough to lift rocks into the air. However, this particular assassin had learned how to conceal her power emissions so that even when she was powering up in broad daylight, no one would be able to tell.
As she powered up, her ears grew longer and pointy like an elf's. Next, her nails turned silver and became sharp like Inuyasha's. Then, her eyes turned from their natural chocolate color to red cat's eyes. Last, her canine teeth (top and bottom) grew longer and possessed the sharpness of a knife. Her transformation complete, she dashed out from behind the boulder and all hell proceeded to break loose…literally.
As she ran out from the shelter of the boulder, she made three well-aimed swings at Miroku, who was closest. All three hit their mark with dangerous precision. Miroku collapsed, blood running from three wounds on his shoulder, stomach, and leg.
"One down, five to go…no sweat." The assassin thought with vindictive pleasure.
"Down boy!" she yelled as Inuyasha tried to attack her. This was effective seeing as he was half dog."Stay…don't speak!" she finished with a satisfied smile as she watched him struggling on the ground. She then turned to face Sango, who was the next closest target.
"EVERYBODY DUCK!" Sango yelled as she drew her arms back to throw her Hiraikotsu.
"Ok." Smiled the assassin as she complied, thrusting up with her head as the Hiraikotsu sped over her.
The intended effect was indeed achieved. The sword in her mouth sliced right through the giant boomerang successfully cutting it in half. The two pieces fell on either side of her with a resounding thud. Even as they settled in the grass, she was already moving. Two seconds later, Sango lay in the grass too with a huge bruise on her forehead, which had been derived from a lightning-fast rabbit punch, courtesy of the assassin.
"This is even easier than I thought." She said with pleasure as she deflected Kagome's arrows and tripped her. Kagome hit the ground hard, smacking her head on a rock that lay hidden in the grass. Yet another one down for the count.
"Hey you!" yelled Shippo, "I bet you won't deal so easy with Fox Fire!" Having said this, he proceeded to emit blue flames from his body.
The assassin stared for a moment then dropped her swords, including the one in her mouth. Completely taken aback, Shippo stopped letting out his Fox Fire and unconsciously took a step back. The girl looked at him for another moment then raised her right arm to shoulder height and flicked her hand sharply up. A mountain of fire and rock burst out of the ground right in front of Shippo!
"AARRGGHH!" he yelled, right before they came crashing down on him.
"Now for the Youkai…she shouldn't be too hard." Thought the girl. "I'd better save the demon for last. He could prove…useful." This last thought was coupled with an evil smile.
She spat orange flames at Kirara, making the Two-Tail flinch away from the uncomfortable heat. It snarled at her and slide out its claws with an ominous sshhhiicck. Surprisingly, so did the girl, except her nails became as long as her forearm and were steel silver. She crouched into a classic Pai-Shou stance; close to the ground and arms raised in a neutral position. With the arms like this, they can easily be moved to attack or defend depending on the situation.
"C'mon kitty!" purred the girl in a singsong voice. " Come to me to die!"
Kirara lowered her body to the ground and twitched her tail. Then, without warning, she sprang at the girl. Anyone else would not have had time to react and would have been killed. But this girl was an assassin, she was supposed to be better than most people. She had to be, or else her targets might gain an advantage.
As the cat had sprung, the girl had twisted and leaped so that she spun right underneath the beast. As she passed under her, she raked her nails along the inside of all four of the cat's legs, cutting the tendons and muscles ultimately rendering its legs useless.
She stood up and collected her swords, taking her own sweet time just so she could make Inuyasha even angrier. Anger and rage can blind people to what needs to be done and usually makes people make fatal mistakes. The assassin was counting on Inuyasha's anger to blind him and make him slip-up. But, what she wasn't counting on was him transforming too.