Chapter 8 – Fighter
Title self-explanatory. I was listening to 'Fighter' by Christina Aguilera when I was writing this – need I say anymore? Kirara's POV – okay, this is what you've been waiting for! I'm tired of talking, onto Kirara and Sango!
I never realized how much I missed being a cat. It was true – no matter that I could express myself as a human, I missed it, I'll admit it. I missed the feeling of my thick coat over my body, and my claws that curved dangerously out of my paws, and the feeling of power and strength coursing through my blood. When I growled, a deep thunderous roar that I brought up from the depths of my throat, it felt better than any words I'd said. It was only when I found myself facing the tiger youkai that I realized what I'd been missing. The miracle I was looking for - I'd found it. It was right here, as a neko youkai – a cat demon – protecting Sango. This was where I belonged.
The first thing I did after transforming back, though, was I looked at Sango to see if she'd noticed my sacrifice and this dramatic moment.
Damn it. I thought. I did that whole dramatic scene for nothing? She's out cold.
Never mind, I thought, turning next to the youkai. Guess she won't see me take this big boy down. Oh, well. It'll still be fun.
I had the element of surprise on my side. I could see I had just done what he had least expected me to – I turned down his offer of becoming human to become a cat demon again. He was kind of standing there, looking down on me, surprised, and that was when I attacked.
I missed fighting.
I leapt up, roaring, my claws drawn, and bit deeply into his neck. It seemed to have worked the last time, right? But he knew better by now – he snapped his neck and threw me off, literally chucking me halfway across the clearing. My back slammed into the trunk of a tree with a horrific smack, and I roared in pain. Before I could get up, he was baring down at me, his teeth wide in a deathly grin. I could feel his thick, hot breath on my face – and maybe it was how putrid it smelled that made me duck under his jaw and scrabble underneath his belly. It was a pure, sickly white – and I suddenly found myself drawing my claws and stabbing all four paws into his pale, bulbous stomach.
It ticked him off. He reared on his hind legs, tossing his head and roaring like no tomorrow, all the while trying to knock me off as I hung on desperately, digging my claws deeper and deeper into his stomach to hold on. I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my body against his warm belly, feeling the rush of air around me as he swished his arms, trying to knock me off. A memory came rushing unbidden back to me – a time when Sango and I, before we joined up with Inuyasha and Co., had faced one of these selfsame tiger youkai. I had flown up into his face and distracted him, and Sango from the ground had thrown Hiraikotsu and cracked his neck. I could remember feeling youkai blood on my claws as I flew around his face, stabbing into his eyes…
And then I got it. A candle had been lit in my brain. Man, I was retarded not to have seen it earlier.
Using my claws as kinds of grappling hooks, I slowly crawled up his belly, keeping my body close to his to keep him from knocking me off. I felt it again – warm, tumbling youkai blood on my claws and the feel of his muscle as I dug my claws in his warm flesh. It was unnaturally satisfying. He roared tenfold more and swung all the more furiously, but I was a tiny little neko youkai compared to him, and he didn't get me. Now I was coming up his neck, feeling bone now when I pierced the skin, and as I got closer and closer to his face, I looked down and still saw Sango, lying bloody on the ground. Now, though, she had her soft brown eyes open, and they were fixed intently on me. She was watching.
And as I realized she could see me and what I was doing, I reached his face, strained my muscles to reach his eyes, and in one furious push, I stabbed my front paws into his eyes.
Blood exploded. His roar rattled my eardrums. He was blinded, and now his swipes were reckless and wild. I knew I didn't have much time. My front arms were covered in blood. I dropped down to his neck, prepared myself for the pain, and managed to ram my entire body straight into his neck.
The crack of his breaking spinal chord was one of the most satisfying moments of my life.
The roars stopped, and his whole body went still. I'd killed him. His body began to slowly fall to the ground. I was roaring and mewing in delight when I realized I wasn't done yet. He was going to fall right on top of Sango – and in her state, there was no way she could move out of the way in time.
Damn it, I thought furiously, I cannot get a break today!
It was the fastest I'd flown in my life. She was conscious and trying to move, but she certainly wasn't going anywhere. I was soaring, cutting the air before me like a knife, just trying to reach my best friend before the demon crushed her. When I made it to the ground, and his huge shadow was covering me, I heaved Sango up onto my back, pushed desperately off the ground and into the sky, and flew away only seconds before the demon's body fell to the ground with an echoing BOOM.
My chest was heaving and I was covered in sweat and blood. I even doubted I'd be able to make it to the nearest tree before I collapsed from exhaustion. But it was all worth it. When we were airbourne, Sango buried her face in my dirty, bloody fur, and I heard her whisper,
"I love you, Kirara."
Yay! That felt really good to write. I think that was my best chapter yet. Now, review, and tell me if you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Arigatou!
