Disclaimer: don't own very muchly so.

Death by Bamboo

Marisol's POV

Ahahahahaha (nervously). I think I just pissed him off royally…scratch that I know I pissed him off. That dude is gonna kill me and I'm running around like a chicken with her head cut off! The bamboo is so damn thick that I've tripped myself tinted glasses falling from there position on my face. Running in sandals isn't bright. I heard slicing behind me and noted that he was taking the easy way and cutting down anything in his path…which was gonna be me if I didn't move my ass.

I took off my sandals and stuck them in my bag, sticking my sunglasses in my pocket, running forward before I got an idea. Pulling a bamboo shoot back, I ran backwards, letting it bend down to me. I clutched the end tightly before kicking off the ground, the bamboo slowly lifting me into the air. I looked down from the top of the deep jade bamboo forest, spotting the demon man below.

Maybe he'll just go away.

Not a chance in hell; the yokai looked up at me, eyes blood red, rage clearly written on his face. I saw him grip his sword tighter, throwing me one of the most malicious glares I'd ever fell victim to. I gulped...he had something up is sleeve…big long white sleeve. His features were pristine and perfect but the perverse way he twisted his face, now in my direction made me shiver. Feeling the sweat pour down the back of my neck I saw him slice the stock I occupied.

Oh shit.

I felt myself falling before jumping away and catching hold of another stock just barely, slipping down a little. Glancing down to see him…hacking down my haven. I caught onto another and leapt again before looking down, knowing he was already cutting it down. I kept slipping down, jumping around like a monkey, thanking my track instructor for my life, of which I owed to his effective training. I was getting closer to the ground, my hands perspiring to the point in which I never actually caught a good grip on the plants merely flinging myself in all sorts of directions.

He was now at my level, eye to eye as I began leaping back, him slicing the bamboo where I'd previously been; I flinging myself to the side to avoid the bright needles that tried to pierce me. My mind had been forming an idea that had almost no chance of working but hell if I was going down without a fight.

So far my observations of the yokai man, over all, were this:

1. He was around six foot two, 180 lbs on an estimate, physically…I dunno 21 years old or so, and didn't look like he was giving up on killing me anytime soon.

2. His weapon was magic, made of some type of tooth judging by the enamel like color.

3. What I'd learn from books was that when some very powerful yokai were pissed, their blood beast comes out; A beast of which was far feral than the original demon. Considering his eye color had changed, I'd say he was half way there.

3 ½. Another little factoid about the blood beast is that it erases all rational thought from the demon.

4. From the way his clothes billowed about him I noticed that he was missing his left arm, pushing off the stocks as soon as his foot touched them, as was I with great difficulty.

5. His cold exterior could be snapped, just like my sm…well we won't get into that.

6. He was incredibly intelligent to have tracked me this far.

7. He wanted to kill me with a passion.

8. The markings on his face symbolized royalty.

9. By the way he'd been toying with me earlier, he'd underestimated me, and still in his subconscious did so because of his stubborn sense of pride, not wanting to admit he'd have to play it serious for a stupid kid.

10. Even though it was hard to understand why I knew this but, by studying psychology and personality traits, I did; I could tell that he'd started out this little hunt on a pass time. He'd planned to wait till I stumbled around in front of him and he had a nice clear shot at me.

11. His mind was complex and he kept his thoughts to himself.

12. A small deduction would be that, by the smudge on his right cuff he'd been doing a lot of writing lately, suggesting some type of higher positioning than some brainless daimyo puppet.

13. By his teeth he was a carnivore, but not completely adverse to other food groups.

This was what I knew and, to tell you the truth, didn't really wanna know much more about him.

I managed to scuttle up one of the stocks as it fell, catching onto the last one in the center of the cut bamboo below. He glared up at me from his low position on the stock he stood on. I was close to the top of the last stock within a twenty foot radius when the demon leapt at me, sword in hand. I'd slid down quickly, now far below him as I flipped out the only weapon I had.

My switchblade.

I jammed it into the bamboo and jerked to the side violently, causing the whole thing to snap. The evening light glittered with a warm lighting against his clothes, his blood red eyes reverting back to their original color, golden eyes glowing as he fell backwards in surprise, white attire floating around him, the whole scene screaming 'falling angel'. I would've turned my head away but I was entranced by his ethereal beauty and grace as he descended to his death. I felt my stomach twist as he went flying downwards to his doom on the bamboo spikes, he, himself had made.

His actions were quick, sheathing his sword and gripping the strange pelt on his shoulder, flinging it up and catching hold of the stock I was on, yanking it taunt, stopping inches from the deadly trap that resembled somewhat of a Burmese Tiger pit. My stock had bended so that I was completely inverted upside down, both of us panting and staring at each other.

He stared at the blade in my hand, eyes darting to his suspension coiled right in my reach. At one point looking down at my pendent on the silver chain wrapped about my neck, the pentagon star in a circle, a satanic sign yes, but oddly enough my mother said I was not to take it off for reasons she wouldn't explain. Funny, she wasn't my biological mother but she always tried to hide me away from everyone, like I was cursed or something…then again I had been taken outta her care cuz she was deemed psychotic and thrown into the loony bin. I suppose I just kept wearing it because she was the first person to love me…and the only person…sorry, too much information.

Licking my dry cracked lips, disgusted by the texture, licking them again to make sure they were no longer rough and pale, knowing that they would bleed if I moved my mouth. My long black bangs contorted my vision, the strands a bit wet with perspiration, tussled horribly. So, without thinking, I gripped the rough maroon tongue of the cap and twisted it backwards, so now only a few shoots of black hair sprung out from the hole in the back (now front), listening to the Velcro crackle a little with the roughness of the movement.

I realized my mistake when I saw his eyes widen, totally caught off guard, gaze fixated on my face with such awe that I began to feel embarrassed. A large blush fell across my cheeks, most likely showing through my tan skin. He didn't say a word and neither did I, feeling his intense speculation of my features down in the pit of my knotting stomach. He seemed to snap back to reality because he gained his normal cold expression, beginning to slowly lower himself to the ground. I let him reach the ground before I pushed the pelt off the end of the bamboo.

I've never been skydiving before but I imagined that this is what it was like…only a lot faster and without the safety of a chute.

As I was catapulted into the air my mind went into improvise mode. Sure I had an umbrella in my pack but I wasn't frikken Mary Poppins, there was no way in hell I was getting out of this alive. I didn't have any type of light device with a large surface area and I was heading for the edge of the bamboo forest.

I shook my head cursing my own stupidity for thinking I couldn't get out of this mess. Clutching my spiked belt I flipped it inside-out and buckled it on the tightest size. As I fell I lifted my arms up and looped it over a stock of bamboo. Sliding down it, the branches and leaves bending, crushing and ripping, until the spikes cut into it and I slowed to a stop. I held onto the plant with my legs as I unbelted what I needed so my pants didn't slide off my ass. I then clambered down the scrawny bamboo and ran, looping my belt around my waist as I moved. Then, stumbling around dizzily, almost in shock due to my near brush with death, and I'm not talking about my regular idiotically fatal endeavors.

Looking up I saw a small white figure in the distance, flying on a white cloud.

What. Was. With this guy? Am I being audited or something? He was more g'damn persistent than those fuckers from the IRS!

…screw him I'm gettin' the hell outta here.

Sessho-maru's POV

(five minutes before)

When I came across the creature for the second time, something drove me over the edge; something about the woman caused my control to weaken ever so slightly. I had become more irritable and testy, causing my blood beast to want a chance at ripping her apart. But now…

I did not know what to think of the outlandish creature staring down at me with large, glittering, reptile-green eyes, with a peculiar bewildered innocence, as if she could not comprehend what she had just done. She was so atypical that it seemed difficult to compare her to anything or anyone I had ever seen. It was a signature of beauty to have pale skin, like that of snow; a sign of wealth, royalty, a trait of which peasants attempted to acquire, and most of the women of the lower class did.

This female's skin was flawless, the color of bronze, of which should have diminished her appeal but for some reason the tone looked so right on her flesh, contrasting with her eyes; oddly shaped with eyelashes longer than one of my claws. Her lips were a redish-pink, the bottom one moderately larger than the top, of which was shaped with a flattened out 'M' shape. (Not that Sessho-maru knows what an M is but he's not thinking in the respect of letters so much as shape.) Said mouth was turned up into a nervous grin, bright white teeth, another contradiction of the definition of beauty, canine teeth much larger than the others overlapping her bottom lip slightly.

I realized to my horror that I was practically gawking at her, causing the flush that had spread across her cheeks. I resumed my natural state and stared into her eyes. There was something about those reptilian-green eyes that unnerved me, not that I let her know that. I noticed, with slight confusion that her expression, though it was a crooked grin, hid her every thought, her eyes hollow for a moment. As I moved slowly down I saw her green orbs flash with a dark fire more burning than that of the flames of hell. I felt something strange within me stir, my body freezing before drastically changing temperature into a burning that could not be smothered.

Something about this girl…I didn't understand the aura she emitted, a dark purity. I could not grasp at her essence, but I caught her scent. Sunflowers and autumn liquid amber leaves, mixed with the summer rain. Not unpleasant but mixed with something different…something foreign. I could see her cleverness; her acumen; noting how she improvised to turn the table against me. I would never use my full power on an unworthy opponent, one so weak and fragile; so painfully thin, scrawny, vulnerable to even a human adolescent if her strength were put against his.

Though in her eyes, I could see that there was no chance in the seventh circle of hell that any adolescent could hurt her. No, I had noticed that she possessed the face of a young juvenile but by her scent she contained 17 years. She'd used her mind to nearly kill me but instead of rage I felt a perverse sense of respect for her.

Respect for a female?

Never would this Sessho-maru be affected by some girl-child creature. I should have been indifferent toward her intrusion, but how could I be in a state of detachment when some unknown being trouncing around my territory; a direct offence to my integrity. The need to kill her neared an overwhelming portion of my mind. I would not lose thought this time though. I would capture her to maim her for daring to insult my intellect…but…

Damn curiosity.

Sessho-maru neared the land on the opposite side of the mountain of Toto-sai, the sword maker's territory.

Marisol ran about clumsily, the strong stink of sulfur wafting through the air, tripping around the hard lava rocks. She neared pits of lava and steam geysers launching the molten rock into the air with the putrid smell wafting from the frothing pits of fire. Running straight for them a geyser shot up in front of her and she scrambled back, holding onto the top of her hat with one arm-warmered hand. Turning around and panting she saw the man landing lightly by the edge of the bamboo area, sauntering over leisurely, as if he knew he had her cornered.

That asshole thinks he's cornered me?

Marisol lifted an eyebrow at the strolling demon before getting down on her knees. Sessho-maru, on the inside, was startled to say the least.

She has learned her place so quickly? I thought this would be more of a challenge.

To bad he didn't know what he had comin'.

EHEMM! I have something to say: Marisol's name will be transilated into Japanese later k? Review Onegaiiiiiiiii! Thank you my reviewers! Please continue doing so cuz I got no reviews on the other chapter and I'd really like your opinion. Anybodies opinion, good or bad very muchly so. Ja ne mina!