Author: Soliloquys
Disclaimer: Hiten nor any of the characters in my fanfiction aren't mine, all belong to Rumiko Takahashi.
Chapter 4: Compromising with Evil
The sooner she said good-bye to InuYasha and returned the jewel shards, the sooner she could get over this great weight of sadness and uncertainty. "It ended sooner than I expected..." she could find herself mumbling this outloud in synchronicity with her train of thought as she smoothed down the black dress she wore. It was plain, loose around her body with two spaghetti straps, and came down just above her knees...plain indeed. Yet the bland, dark thing fit her mood perfectly; she felt dry of all creativity. Her tears were used up completely as well, and she couldn't cry anymore.
The glass bottle that contained the glimmering fragments was clutched in her hand as she stepped into the wellhouse's interior. The light from the morning filtered in around her body, and the well itself imprinted even more of a melancholy thought. She approached the wooden rim of the well and sat down on it in thought, staring down into the darkness her legs dangled over. This would be the last time she had to go into the shadows of the wellhouse and slip through the past.
Leaning forward, she was pulled down into the darkness and engulfed with another dimension. Her eyes were closed for a long time, and she opened them to realize she was standing on the dirt bottom of the well. Pulling her hand that held the tiny bottle to her chest, she began to climb up the wall of vines and into the sunlight.
Someone watched her.
Her arms clung to the wooden rim of the well as she struggled to get over it with only one hand. Pulling herself up halfway, she rested both elbows on the rim and stayed in that position. Something clicked into place underneath her, and she looked down to see somewhat of a shattered mirror glaring the sunlight back into her eyes. Wincing a little, her face quickly molded into a look of terror. This shattered mirror was nothing of the sort; it was the blade of Hiten's thunder-pike...---and it was against her throat.
All suspicions and rising terrors were fulfilled when she was grabbed by the back of her neck with cold rough hands. Fingertips curled into the flesh and make the girl pull all of her limbs together as if in a fetal position while she hung there. Oh gods, he had hunted her down! A slight whine of fear came from her when his voice spoke. "You will die no matter what you do." Each arctic word stabbed every part of her backside that faced him, and she found herself unable to breath back in. Kagome continued to listen to his far from warm voice whip at her relentlessly as fear welled up in her throat and her stomach churned. "So make this easy on yourself and give me the shards I know you have."
Never could she just hand them over. Never would she just give the shards InuYasha and herself worked so hard for to this monster. Yet her defiance was quiet, overcome by terror and self-pity. He would have to kill her and steal them from her dead body. Her decision to dangle there trembling, she could tell, did not please Hiten one bit. The hot bladed edge of the thunder pike was removed away from her throat, stabbed into the ground, and was accompanied by a growl deep from within him. This made her cringe even more; death was soon to come.
"You damned, fucking human wench! I have not the time to wait for you to crawl out of your shell. I said give me them now!" The stiff hand that held the shard bottle was wrenched from her chest forcefully, and she was able to suck in her breath when something in her wrist snapped. Her whole body pulsed with pain in that moment, all beating back to her hand. The fingers of that hand flexed out, and the tiny bottle rolled from her palm. Twisted mahogany eyes had shot open, and she cried out in pain. Next thing she knew, she was shoved out of the way and into the ground by her neck.
She stumbled, but she didn't fall. She was alive...she knew this through the constant pain pounding through her wrist and up her arm. The limp hand was clutched with the other and she did the first thing that came to her mind: run. And run she did. Through the low branches and weeds she made an aimless dash for Kaede's village. Sense would have told her she was leading Hiten right to the village, but all judgment was washed over in a blot of panic. Her feet pounded into the ground, her legs sliced by the weeds she ran through until she broke out into the field. Her black dress was caught around her legs, but it didn't hinder her speed. She had successfully ran into the old priestess's occupied hut.
Patience with humans was one thing Hiten never had--especially with this one. So whenever she gave him no response and curled tighter into her own embrace, the fine threads had finally snapped...and so had her wrist. The descending bottle was snatched from the air by no gentle means, and the fragile glass was shattered in his fist. "I'm going to chew a hole right through her, and I'll make sure she's alive to suffer it all." His lips were tight and his sharp fangs were bared as he growled this out while watching her run away. How pathetic. Was she so ignorant to the fact that he could so easily catch up to her?
By the time the shards were tucked away beneath his frontal chest armor, the girl was out of his vista. Every loose article about him shifted as he walked to his pike and pulled the hot blade from the smoking earth. Into the air he went with the use of his spectral wheels and managed to see her disappear into one of the village huts. "I hope you're ready to suffer!" His voice rung high over the land; it was by all means serious and threatening, bold and strong, and definitely angry.
"Kaede-sama! Please you need to help me!" There was no delay when she flew through the bamboo flap of the hut's entrance. The young miko fell into the old priestess's lap and broke out in tears, still clutching her fractured wrist. The old woman was startled, but she slipped off to take hold of her weapon before turning back to Kagome with a grim expression.
"Kagome-sama, what is it?"
Kagome struggled to even sit up, every inch of her quivering. "Hiten. He hunted me down. He's coming after me. He took the shards. I need you to help me get them back...!!"
An old, dry hand helped Kagome to her feet, and both women went outside. Despite being disoriented, Kagome caught wind of the oncoming attack and shoved the old woman out of the way. Both fumbled and fell over one another, and behind them a brilliant blue sphere of lightening plummeted through the ground. An extremely bright explosion engulfed the area with light, smoke, and chunks of earth and wood.
Hiten was perched not so high in the air above this scene, one arm gripping his infamous weapon that was directed towards the destruction. "Heh." He leered down at the dissipating smoke and expecting to find a few charcoaled bodies, yet his eyes were narrowed and his face molded into an expression that perfectly displayed his ennui. Only a large crater and ruined structures of wood. It didn't take too long to find his prey plus the company of a wrinkled and spent priestess. "That is your protection? An old hide of skin?!"
An arrow was lifted and aimed for Hiten's head by Kaede. "Quickly. Tell me where you see the shards on his being."
Dust and air whipped past her, the long flowing black dress flapping about her weak body. Long bangs swept across her forehead, but her depths of sepia glared up at the thunder god. Easily the ethereal glow of the jewel shards was spotted at Hiten's chest area. The light shone out through the undetectable cracks in his armor. "Kaede-sama! The shards are located beneath his armor at his chest. On the upper right area where the blue ribbon crosses!" Her eyes never left the bastard in the sky, but she called this out loud and clear so the old woman could hear.
The message was relayed to another it was not intended for. Hiten's sharp hearing caught on to every syllable the girl spoke, and his face faded into a scowl whenever he realized that she knew exactly where he placed his shards. Yet, not a fragment stuck out. Surely she couldn't--
The thunder youkai's thoughts were cut short when a broadheaded arrow tip struck his armor, and sparked energy into his face. Despite the fact his armor did not show any signs of damage, he was outraged and glared down to the old woman who held the longbow--the string still vibrating. Growling, he thrust his spear at an angle, and a cackling blade of lightening sliced into the earth infront of the old priestess. The younger girl would find herself with another thing to occupy her mind other than saving the old woman this time. Hiten dropped out of the sky like a hawk and snatched the girl's throat, and then took her up into the air. It was clear in his voice he was close to madness with all of these interjections. "Are you able to detect the jewel shards?"
Once more she found herself wrung dry of breath, and gripped at his strong arm with only one hand. It appeared it was the only physical strength she had, for the rest of her body dangled there helplessly and limp. Within, anger boiled, and when his prying question sunk in, she found enough energy and gull to grin...he might find room for mercy because of this ability of hers. Every word was coarse and strained, but her tone carried somewhat of a certainty. "I can. Even ones miles away."
There was a prolonged silence. During that time, Kagome was able to find a way to pull in enough air to function with through her constricted throat. Suddenly his death grip released her, and she began to fall. For a second a flurry of panic and excitement filled her, until the comforting softness of a pillow curled around her. She recongnized this feel, and when she opened up her eyes she was assured she had landed on that black storm cloud Manten rode around on.
So, he was going to spare her just for this. Her hand came up to sooth her throat, and abandoned the shifting agony on her wrist for now; she was running out of hands to cradle her afflictions. Kagome's eyes were wide in fear and surprise of his decision, and she looked up to him when he turned away from her and watched as his eyes scanned the land below. The long pole and jagged tip of his weapon danced with bolts of lightening, and a sphere of blinding bluish white light began to form at the tip.
"No! Don't destroy this place!" The young miko lurched forward in a hurry, gripping his weapon with one hand to try to veer its aim off to the side and her other hand clinging to the round orange armor that decked his forearm. Hiten turned to glare at her from the corner of his eye, growling with a disgusted and agitated look.
"You've been given enough mercy. Don't push it!" And his elbow sunk into her soft gut. Her hands loosened and she fumbled backwards onto her side, gasping for air and trembling in twisting pain. He mutilated InuYasha while he was alive...this bastard would not anniliate his grave! Tears finally found their way to her eyes, and she leapt at him again. This time her fingers curled into the hair at the side of his head and yanked at it...and although her wrist protested with paralyzing pulses of pain, she gripped it even tighter as her unbroken limb pressed into his cheek. She didn't care about pain or reason at this point--she was furious.
"You heard me! I will not let you desolate this village of people or InuYasha's grave!" Every word was strong and demanding. Yet, as she expected, it was soon followed by more damage to her frail body.
"Get the hell off of me!" His loud, thundrous voice slammed into her, followed by the back of his armored fist that struck her temple.
Kagome's head jerked off to the side and she felt aloft in that moment. Her body drifted off the cloud-or so it seemed- and descended towards the ground. All injuries about her were numbed, and her eyes rolled up into her head. A blanket of darkness folded her as a whole during that short plummet, and she never felt the bone-breaking thud her body made against the ground. Thunder chuckled in the background, and dust settled over a lifeless and touseled body.
( For the sake of the story, I'm assuming Hiten's wheels are repaired to mint condition like InuYasha's kimono is from time to time. I'm sorry for the drawn-out wait for this chapter. Stay tuned for more. )