Amaryllis: The Tragic Fairytale
Chapter 3: Insult to Injury
Disclaimer: Based off of the manga Inuyasha by Rumiko Takahashi, and all affiliates. I, myself, have no affiliation with the manga/anime and the like. I make no profit from writing and displaying this.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Because I have not encountered such a situation in any other Inupapa/Izayoi fic I've come across, and because I want a way to salute Rumiko Takahashi and her wonderful work, the first "meeting" of our hero and heroine, and the first several days after shall carry a more comedic tone. It is my opinion that true love shouldn't always be brooding and serious. However, if you like the darker tones of Amaryllis, I urge you to keep reading—their impending situation will not be something to joke about.
Also, I am in need of a beta-reader for this fic! If you're interested or know someone that would be, please let me know!
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Touga struggled with sleep, his mind swimming in a number of dreams. He dreamt of his son, Sesshoumaru, when he was younger--of the times when the small pup was so curious, bright, and practically his father's shadow--before he gained his overbearing sense of independence.
He dreamt of Rika, Sesshoumaru's mother, during the days of their courtship. Underneath that stoic, cool stance, she was fiery, intense, burning with ambition. He dreamt of this, and her icy-hot, exotic beauty, traits that she still possessed. He dreamt of the things about Rika that still mesmerized and intoxicated him, despite the invisible rift that now separated them, and the deep longing for her that he would always carry but would never be relieved of.
He dreamt of his family, before they were slaughtered so long ago. He dreamt of his mother, so nurturing to her children yet so fierce on the battlefield, like a dog gone wild, fighting beside Touga's strong, noble, iron-willed father. He dreamt of his brothers and sisters, of the special moments they shared as siblings, of their teasing, of all the things that made them similar to each other and different at the same time.
And he dreamt of Ryuukossei, the youkai that had raised him after his family's death when he was still a young pup. Ryuukossei was the youkai that he had once looked up to, as well as the youkai that had actually killed his family, this fact known to Touga when he was an adolescent. Ryuukossei was the youkai that Touga had later spent the rest of his life searching for in hopes of finally avenging his family's death.
But in these dreams, Touga was once again that young, impressionable pup, and Ryuukossei was once again his hero, the youkai he strived to become, his entire family, and the one person he loved more than anyone else in his lifetime.
In between all of this, Touga dreamt of a plain room, built of wood, warmed by the dim glow of candlelight. He could see a face, of a woman, with eyes like deep pools of water and hair like a waterfall of ebony silk, and skin smooth and creamy like the luster of pearls. He could not focus enough to tell if she was human, youkai, or something else, or even if she was just some piece of a random dream thrown in the mix of his jumbled subconscious, but he did note her incredible beauty, and the way she stared at him as though he himself were something of intrigue.
Now Touga dreamt of staring up at a wooden ceiling, but this time it was bathed in the glow of morning sunlight instead of the glow of a lantern. He could hear roosters calling somewhere in the distance. The smell of burning wood, perfume, and cooked meat teased his nostrils.
Touga blinked, and realized at once that he was no longer dreaming, but fully awake in an unfamiliar environment. His hazy memories could not recall when he had stopped sleeping. And that's when he sensed a presence in the room, close by, almost right beside him.
Letting his instincts take over, he shot up to a sitting position, lashing out with an extended arm and outstretched claws blindly, in hopes of eliminating whoever or whatever was foolish enough to get too close to him.
Pain shot through his body, the act of sitting up like a dozen knives criss-crossing against his body all at once. His arm felt like lead; he could barely move it. His vision blurred; the room seemed to spin rapidly around him, and his stomach churned painfully. He groaned, gritting his teeth against the fiery pain that seared through him, shaking his head in an attempt to steady his balance, and swallowing hard to suppress his urge to vomit.
The effects of the dragon youkai poison had not completely worn off, slowing his healing and enhancing the agony of recovery.
Touga managed to glance up at the presence by his feet and at first thought he was staring into the eyes of the beautiful woman from his dreams of last night. She appeared as though she had fallen backwards onto her bottom, her face paled in fear and her eyes like saucers from surprise. Clearly she did not expect him to wake up lashing at her like that. But upon blinking and squinting as his vision cleared and his head slowed its spinning, he realized that it was only the girl from last night, the plain-looking, stupid one that thought he was a dog.
A dog…lashing out…why had he used his claws to attack instead of his teeth…?
Touga's breath caught in his throat, his mind shocked to crystal clarity in realizing his situation. He glanced down at himself, noting the bandages that covered his humanoid arms and the dried blood over the uncovered wounds of his humanoid chest. His hair was unbound, falling over his shoulders in a cascade of silvery-white. He absorbed enough of his immediate surroundings to note that he was in a futon. Hastily, he lifted the edge of the blanket, just enough to know that he wore not a stitch of clothing. He immediately regretted his decision of not dressing first before morphing into his true form.
Touga groaned, overcome by annoyance and dread. His intention was to stay in his true form for the entire duration that he could stand to be with humans. The girl was supposed to nurture his wounds and allow him to gain enough strength to leave, all the while thinking he was some poor, defenseless animal that needed to be saved. He had hoped to leave without anyone knowing the wiser. But somehow during the night his body had reverted to its humanoid state. His cover was blown. No doubt this girl's entire village knew that a youkai was in their mists. With the tender condition that he was in, Touga was in no mood to fight off a few dozen humans, knowing that their kind liked to fight like ants, overwhelming the enemy in great numbers.
"Damn it!"
"Excuse me?" came the almost immediate response from the girl, obviously due to his outburst.
Touga looked up at the her, scowling. He managed to heave a heavy sigh without causing too much pain to his ribcage. "Where are they?" he asked, sounding almost bored.
The girl blinked, stared, clearly confused. "Where are who?"
"The protectors of your village. I'm sure there are at least two dozen men standing outside your door right now, each one eager to be the first to brag about how he had slain a youkai."
The girl's eyes widened in realization. She glanced at the door, then gave out a sly smile almost suitible enough for a kitsune. "I'm the only one that knows you're here."
This time it was Touga's turn to give out the blank stare before blurting, "What, are you stupid?"
The girl blinked, caught off guard by his statement. She gave him an offended look. "What do you mean by stupid?" The question carried a sharp, bold tone of someone that wanted to start an argument.
Touga looked at her as though she was an annoying, snot-nosed child. "By taking me to your village, and keeping me a secret, I can easily tear through every building here, slaughtering everyone in sight, without anyone knowing what hit them. Your village's massacre will be entirely your undoing because you are naive enough not to warn your village about me first."
The girl frowned in a displeasing, yet thoughtful way and crossed her arms. Under the presence of a youkai, she seemed not at all timid. Foolish. "I thought you were a dog at first. You were seriously wounded, and you allowed me to take you home and care for you. I did not figure that you had any intentions of killing anyone in my village."
Touga snorted. "Clearly, you have not encountered many youkai in your lifetime, otherwise you would have realized your mistake by now."
"What, so you want for me to call the guards on you? You and I both know that you are in no condition to fend for yourself. Since you let me take you home, you obviously wanted to live, and I am keeping you a secret right now to ensure your survival. I think you're the one that's stupid."
Touga did not take insults well. He glared, releasing a growl from deep in his throat. "You want me to prove to you who's the stupid one, human?" His voice carried a rough edge, laced in a threatening tone.
The girl flipped her hair over her shoulder, rising to her knees. "Then prove it," she challenged. "Attack me." She stretched her arms out from her sides, open palms facing him, and tilted her head back to expose her neck. Her eyes locked on his, meeting his challenge. "I'm unarmed. Kill me now if you're able to."
She truly is quite a foolish girl. Tensing his muscles, Touga attempted to spring to his feet, to lunge at her. However, the intentions of his mind and body were very different. Just the simple act of moving his arms and legs left him dizzy and disoriented, pain ripping through him, his head throbbing. All he could manage was to slump forward, gasping for breath.
The girl was upon him at once, resting her hands on his shoulders and easing him back into a sitting position.
Humiliated, frustrated, Touga bared his teeth and growled, glaring death wishes at her. "Don't touch me, human!" he spat, and managed to lift his arms enough to clamp his hands around her shoulders.
The girl froze, a glimmer of fear showing in her eyes, but it quickly dissolved as Touga attempted to tighten his grip.
His gazed pierced hers. He intended on squeezing her shoulders so hard that her collarbone would snap, he wanted to dig his claws into her flesh and hear her cry out her helplessness. But he could not manage to even squeeze her arms without losing breath. His mind spun, his head felt like someone was pounding it with a hammer, and his arms felt as though over a dozen men were sitting on them. Never in his life had he felt so weak.
Too easily, the girl slipped out of his grasp, returning daintily to her spot by the foot of the bed, sitting comfortably on her feet. She smirked arrogantly at him as he struggled to recover. "I told you that you were in no condition to defend yourself. You can't even hurt a harmless girl." Her voice was smug, triumphant, and Touga cursed it under his breath.
"Give me a few days," he growled between breaths, "and I'll kill you for sure." No one humiliates me and gets away with it, especially not a filthy human!
The girl diverted her attention elsewhere as though she had not even heard the threat. "I saved some stew for you," she said in a suddenly pleasant tone as though hosting a guest, picking up a steaming bowl of something from the floor beside her. So that was the cooked meat smell that Touga detected. "You need to regain your strength."
Despite the stew's delectable smell, Touga stared at it as though it were infested with maggots. "I do not eat human garbage," he announced. "Get that filth away from me."
"Nana's cooking is not garbage!" the girl snapped, glaring while she stirred the piping hot contents with chopsticks. "This is Nana's best stew, made just this morning with fresh meat, rice, and vegetables. Everyone loves her cooking. You won't taste anything better, so eat up!"
Touga returned her unfriendly look, lifting his nose into the air. "You heard what I said, or else you're hard of hearing. I won't eat it."
"Fine, then I'll eat it myself."
With a huff, the girl sighed and settled the bowl on her lap. She grasped a piece of meat with her chopsticks, popping it in her mouth while she silently fumed.
Izayoi just barely managed to catch the youkai's eyes following the morsel of food from the bowl to her mouth. Pretending not to notice, she ate another morsel of food, noting the way the youkai's eyes followed every move of her chopsticks.
It reminded her of her father's dog, the way she relentlessly begged for food.
Izayoi suddenly let out another one of her small, sly smiles, an idea surfacing in her mind. With great exaggeration, she stirred the contents of the soup, then grasped a very large mouthful of food. "This soup smells so good," she commented, putting almost all of her attention onto the food as though it were something of utmost importance. "I've been craving this for quite some time now."
Slowly, with painstaking exaggeration, she brought the morsel of food to her lips, then took it into her mouth as though it would crumble to dust if she weren't careful enough with it.
Izayoi chewed, looking as though the food had somehow given her a small feeling of euphoria. "The meat is especially tender today," she commented, grinning to herself as she took a quick glance in the youkai's direction. His eyes were glued to her mouth, hopeful and still like that of a dog yearning for the next mouthful. I bet he isn't even aware of what he's doing. "The rice is of perfect consistency, and the vegetables are especially crisp."
Normally, Touga had no desire to eat human food. He had denied it so many times before. But in this situation, he felt weak, drained of all energy, and his stomach churned in protest of his sudden decision to go on a hunger strike. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not ignore his body's insistence for food today, nor could he ignore the delicious aroma that filled the room. He found himself staring at this girl's eating fanfare, wondering if the food tasted as good as it smelled. And though he knew that the girl was teasing him, pushing him to accept the food, he could not look away, each bite taken only intensifying his hunger.
Oh, how he wished he had an iron willpower like Sesshoumaru's.
"Thinking about it," he piped up, just before she could torture him by taking another exaggerated bite from the bowl, "I have been meaning to do a bit of research on the human way of life for quite some time now. Food, of course, is an important part of that research. Therefore, even though I believe your food to be filth, if I could just taste it to prove how disgusting it truly is, I—"
"Certainly." The girl grinned, scooting herself, and the coveted bowl of soup closer to him. She gathered another bite of food between the chopsticks, moving the morsel to his lips.
Touga stared as though she were trying to feed him dirt. "You have got to be kidding me."
The girl gave him an inquisitive look. "What?"
"I would never allow the likes of you, a human, to feed me. I can feed myself."
The girl rolled her eyes, extending the bowl to him. "Let's see you feed yourself then," she snapped, clearly irritated, "even though you can't even get out of bed."
"Gladly." Touga raised his arms to accept the bowl, but discovered, once again, how taxing on his body the dragon poison and losing too much blood was. He cursed under his breath as his trembling fingers could only lightly touch the bowl, too weak to even think about holding it without spilling.
"As I was saying," the girl drawled with a triumphant smirk. Touga wished he could literally rip that expression right off her face.
He opened his mouth to accept the bite-full of food, glaring at the girl the entire time. He chewed, inwardly very pleased and surprised that the food did taste as good as it smelled.
He ate in silence for several minutes, the girl feeding him bite after bite of the stew. She stared thoughtfully at him, as though he were an interesting sculpture of some sort, while he continued to glare.
The girl looked very similar to how he remembered her the night before. She wore many layers of open kimono--the junihito--over a kimono and hakama set. That, the way she wore her hair, and the light bit of makeup that covered her lips and eyelids told him that she was of some sort of noble status. He remembered that she did not wear makeup that night, but having it on now did not seem to improve her "plainness".
Touga noted how she kept shrugging her slumping shoulders and lifting her drooping arms, obviously not used to the weight of the junihito. Apparently, she hadn't been dressing in this fashion for very long.
At least she smelled nice, of a floral-scented oil. The color of her eyes, that of a deep, solemn blue, was mildly interesting. Her hair seemed to be her best feature, the way it flowed and shimmered around her, or at least the best feature that he could tell. Human women led much more modest lives than youkai women, especially in their clothing. The girl looked like her robes could swallow her up; she seemed so small in them. Touga wondered if underneath that many layers of clothing she hid a surprisingly plump body, or a severely disfigured form, or scars, or too many blemishes, or sagging breasts that could drag to the floor, or…or perhaps she hid under those many layers of clothing a young, firm body pleasing to the eye, if there were no strange surprises. After all, Touga had learned over the decades that different species of youkai women made love in different ways, and some had altered or extra "equipment" to properly perform in such ways…
Touga wondered, with mild interest, what it would be like to have sex with this girl. Until now, he had never even thought of copulating with a human female, and wondered if he even should. Would he find the human female body attractive? Would her anatomy be too different from any youkai woman's that he had been with to be able to go through with such an act? Would he end up accidentally killing her, since she was human after all and humans were all so very, very fragile and too, too easy to kill…
"So," the girl said, drawing Touga's mind from the gutter. She sounded strangely meek, shy, averting her eyes from him. So suddenly different from how she acted only moments ago. "I don't know much about youkai at all, or even really seen one up until you. Our men are usually pretty skilled at protecting our village from such creatures. But I have heard many stories and rumors and such. Therefore, I was wondering, since right now you look so very human-like, if you really are a youkai, or…because, like I said, you look like a human, you could perhaps be…a hanyou?"
Touga almost choked on his food. He coughed, sputtered, and did his best to glare as he managed to gulp down a large chunk of meat. "How dare you insult me!"
The girl's eyebrows shot up to her hairline, shocked at this youkai's sudden, extreme reaction. "I don't understand, I—"
"You dare mistaken me, a mighty, powerful, legendary taiyoukai, with something so lowly, so despicable, as…as a hanyou?"
The girl blinked, stunned, several thoughts running through her mind at once and unable to decide which one to explore first. After a moment, she found her will to speak. "Taiyoukai, you said?"
"Correct."
The girl studied him, suddenly looking uneasy. "Just who are you, then?"
"Who am I? Who the hell are you?"
Izayoi looked to the ground, too embarrassed by her rudeness to counterattack his. "I am Izayoi, daughter to the ruling daimyo of these parts. And you are…?"
Touga smirked, feeling his ego swell. After putting up with this girl's insults all morning, and the humiliation of being too weak to do anything about it, he could finally enforce some fear into her. He straightened his posture, clearing his throat. "They call me Inu-no-Taisho, youkai ruler of the Western lands, the most powerful youkai daimyo alive, and lord to all dogs in my region."
Never had he identified himself to a stranger without seeing fear in their eyes.
But it was not fear, nor shock, nor even awe that this girl reacted with now. She simply stared, her eyes running up and down his body, great doubt written all over her face.
Then she burst out laughing.
Touga could not help it; his jaw dropped. He could barely speak, or even think of words to say, he was that stunned over her reaction. No one had ever laughed after knowing they were in the presence of one so powerful as he. "Wha…what in hell's so funny?"
Izayoi wiped the tears from her eyes, she was laughing so hard. "I never knew youkai could make jokes!"
"J-joke!" Touga spat, choking on the word.
"Yes," Izayoi managed between giggles. "Everyone knows that the Inu-no-Taisho has no human form. He has only ever been seen in the form of a very large dog, bigger than a castle. You were definitely not that big in your dog form! Besides, even if the Inu-no-Taisho did have a human form, it would be that of a very, very, very old man, because of his age. You definitely do not look like an old man! Besides, what would the Inu-no-Taisho be doing so far east anyway? Isn't he the lord of the western-most lands?"
Touga's mind reeled. He had no idea that this was what humans outside of his territories thought of him. He opened his mouth to speak, to explain to her how wrong she was, but decided better of it. With how clueless this woman seemed already, it would be too exhausting to take the great time to tell her the truth. That, and he did not have the energy to morph into his true form, in his true size. I'll show her the truth later, right before I take her life.
"Seriously, what is your name?"
Only seven people, all of them youkai, knew of the Inu-no-Taisho's given name. He kept this name as a personal part of himself, and a connection to his stormy past. However, he had already decided to kill this girl before returning home. Touga could only take so many insults before being angry enough to kill over it, and this human girl managed to ignite his short fuse very easily. Therefore, he did not see the harm of revealing his given name in this case. She would not live long to spread such knowledge to anyone else. "It's Touga."
Izayoi smiled, soft and warm, happy to finally get a real name off the inu youkai with an apparent sense of humor. "Touga…"
The door to Izayoi's room suddenly flew open.
Both she and Touga jumped, looking in that direction in surprise as a very large bundle of clothes pushed into the room.
Suddenly looking very uneasy, Izayoi shot to her feet, standing directly in front of Touga while fluffing up her robes as much as possible to achieve maximum bulk. "Nana! Um, I didn't expect you here for another hour or so!"
The bundle of clothing shifted to the side, revealing a rather frail-looking old woman in a simple cotton yukata carrying the gigantic load. Apparently, her appearance deceived her strength as she moved along the front of Izayoi's room with ease, stopping in front of her closets. She didn't so much as look in the girl's direction.
"Well, I was behind on my laundry," she explained in an energetic, hurried voice more fit for a girl Izayoi's age. "I was so busy making preparations for Takemaru-san's arrival this past week that I scarcely had the time for anything else. But I finally got around to doing your laundry, Iza-chan. Good morning, by the way. Anyway, you wouldn't believe how messy Takemaru-san's company is. They left the main hall an absolute disaster zone. I spent hours cleaning the floor, and somehow they got food on the ceiling. It was as though several children were eating in that room, not several grown men. And the amount of sake they drank! You can serve all of Kyoto with how much they drank! I couldn't believe it, I…"
Izayoi fidgeted in place, looking wildly about the room as the old woman dropped her heavy load and began sorting and putting away Izayoi's clothes, never stopping her conversation to so much as take a breath.
Touga had to crane his neck around Izayoi's bulky form to see what the old woman was doing. "Does she always talk on and on and on like that?"
"Yes," Izayoi hissed in a sharp whisper. She turned, kneeling by Touga's side. "We have to find a place to hide you before Nana discovers you are here!"
Touga balked, looking at Izayoi as though she had gone insane. "Hide me?" he scoffed, also in a whisper. "You can't just hide a youkai! Especially not a tai--"
"—Shut up and move," Izayoi broke off, still searching around the room with her eyes as she took hold of Touga's arm.
Touga shrugged it off, glaring and growling at her softly. "I can't move, remember?" he snapped, straining to keep his voice hushed. "I can't even so much as scratch my own ass without passing out! And you expect me to play your stupid little game of—"
"—Hurry up before Nana turns around and sees you!" Izayoi tugged on Touga's arm, while he tried to cringe away as though her fingers were burning hot. She attempted to stand up while she and Touga had their tug-of-war match, the old servant obliviously chattering non-stop about the previous night's housekeeping story.
Izayoi shot Touga a dangerous look. "Stop struggling and help me!" she hissed.
Touga's matching glare was equally fierce. "Let go of me and fuck off!"
"Iza-chan!"
The harshness of the old servant woman's words caused both the girl and the youkai to freeze.
Izayoi whipped her head over her shoulder to look at the old servant, her hair effectively slapping against Touga's face, causing him to flinch and cough softly.
The old woman still had not turned to face Izayoi. Instead, she stood in place, holding up one of Izayoi's under-kimonos for inspection before putting it away.
Izayoi swallowed hard, her nerves on end, wondering how to explain the youkai in her bedroom. "Nana, I –"
"One of the guards informed me this morning that he saw you take in a wounded dog from the woods last night. Izayoi, you know that both your father and Takemaru-san forbid you to wander around the wilderness. It's for your own protection, you know. They…"
Sobered from the scare, Izayoi slipped away from Touga with sudden ease, looking quite anxious as her eyes scanned the room yet again.
"…I mean, who knows what evil thing could be waiting for you out in those woods," the old woman continued. While Touga hissed out his hatred for humans and Izayoi looked for his hiding place, the old woman neatly folded and put away the last of Izayoi's clean laundry. "You could be attacked by a bandit, or some wild animal, or," she finally turned to greet her princess face-to-face, " or—a youkai!"
The old woman nearly collapsed to her knees upon sight of the person in her lady's bed. She threw a trembling hand over her mouth, gawking in utter fear at Touga as he sat up, quite gingerly. "There's a youkai in your bed!" Unlike Izayoi, this woman knew a youkai when she saw one, and showed the proper reaction to him.
She managed to tear her eyes from him long enough to give Izayoi a fear-stricken look. "Iza-chan, run, now!" she instructed before she, herself, bolted in a swiftness unexpected of a woman her age, to the exit. "Help, help!" she screamed as she shot for the door. "There's a youkai in—"
Izayoi, despite the restrictions of her clothing, managed to catch up to the old woman before she could slide open the door, slapping a hand over her mouth.
"Ssshh, they'll hear you!" Izayoi hissed.
The old woman tore Izayoi's hand away from her mouth in angered protest. "That's the whole point!" she snapped. "How did a youkai—"
Izayoi re-clamped her hand over the old woman's mouth, pressing more firmly this time. "Listen to me!" she urged, staring straight into the old woman's eyes. "This youkai is harmless."
"I am not harmless!"
"He was the dog that the guard was talking about. I didn't know he was actually a youkai dog until after he changed into a man. All I wanted to do was help him. He was bleeding to death out in the woods—I couldn't just walk away and let him die like that!"
The old woman's eyes narrowed and hardened, as if to say, "I would!"
"Look, if he really wanted to kill me, or the rest of this village, he wouldn't have allowed me to save him!" Izayoi swallowed, her face grim, desperation in her eyes. She let go of her servant, but the old woman held her position, stunned by the sincerity in Izayoi's gaze. "The way he looked at me…" she continued, softer now, her eyes glazing over as she remembered each detail of the night before. "I've never seen so much trust in anyone's eyes…not since Mother died…I don't think anyone that intends on killing me would have shown that much faith in me. I had to show him that his instincts were not a mistake, youkai or not. When has my judgment, my perception of others ever let you down before, Nana? Would I honestly do something like this if I knew it would endanger the village? You know how much I love our home…"
It was all Touga could do from snorting in disgust. The young ones are always the most naive of them all, he scoffed to himself. They have yet to realize how unforgiving life is, that it's all an intricate game of tricks and lies, designed so that only the strongest, most cunning, and wisest stand a chance against its traps. That look of desperation that I gave her when I was a dog…it was all a ploy, a con to get her to mend my wounds in a safe place, and that is all. For her to think I could trust a human, part of a species that does not trust those of its own kind…
The old woman sighed, hating to be burdened by her young lady's pleas. The two engaged in a staring contest of sorts for a few long, silent moments, Izayoi holding her anxious, firm gaze, and the old woman searching for a solution in that gaze.
Touga could not help but admit to himself, as he watched the silent battle of ethics unfold before him, that this girl was putting up quite a fight to protect the one that would very soon end her life. Why on earth would she, a human, go through such lengths to keep me, a youkai, out of harm's way? I don't think she realizes her place in this world, that it is under a youkai's mercy.
Finally, the old woman's resolve snapped. She broke the silence with a drawn-out, tired sigh reflective of her age, looking away in defeat. "Fine," she muttered grumpily, "I won't tell anyone about that thing, but when he heals and kills us all, and when we find ourselves in the afterlife, don't say I didn't tell you so."
Izayoi didn't notice, whether through excitement or on purpose, the bitterness of the old woman's words as she threw her arms around her, hugging her tight as she squealed in delight. "Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" she cried, gushing over her own happiness and triumph.
The old woman sighed once more, refrained from rolling her eyes, and gathered her things to leave. "Both your father and I spoil you too much. I almost wish that you face some sort of uncertainty in your life, just so that you can realize that not everything can go your way."
But Izayoi did not hear the old woman's words. She was heading out the exit herself, chirping happily away about finally meeting a real-life youkai, and for getting the chance to get to know one when no one else in the village had the nerve to even mention such creatures.
Touga sighed as he watched both human women leave, then flopped back on his back as gingerly as he could, staring blankly up at the ceiling. How did a youkai of such high caliber as myself end up in this pathetic situation?
He could feel the wounds all over his body tingle, as though thousand of tiny hands were kneading back together the parted flesh. He knew that soon he would be rid of himself these pesky humans, especially that annoying girl, and would return to his usual monotonous lifestyle, a lifestyle that he was starting to miss for the first time in several decades. "Looks like it's gonna be a long day, Myouga," he muttered, wishing to see the skies of his territories, not this drab, wooden ceiling.
He could feel something weave through his hair, brushing up lightly against the back of his ear. "I agree," came the tiny voice of his servant, Myouga the flea youkai. "But at least we're in the company of humans. I've always found them highly fascinating. Especially that girl, she—"
Touga rolled over on his side, making a point to apply as much pressure as he could to his ear. "Of course a low-class youkai as yourself would say something like that," he muttered, unable to possibly sound more bored than he truly felt. "To a taiyoukai, they're just pests that always get in the way, occasional target practice, and something to fill the landscape. Nothing more."
He could hear the flea youkai reply from the now-tight confines of the back of his ear, but his voice was too muffled for any of his speech to be audible.
Touga sighed again. This will definitely be a long day indeed.