Jakiri's irritated expression held for a while, and then she motioned inward, toward the couch. "I think you'll want to sit down for a while before you hear the news." Father quirked an eyebrow at her and then led me over to the couch, where we sat down together.
"So what is it?" he asked impatiently. "As you can guess, I've been gone for a very long time, and I want to see her soon." Jakiri looked down at her feet and then hesitated. That couldn't be good. What was she going to tell us that we didn't want to hear?
"This afternoon, your mother fell rather ill," Jakiri began, her eyes still cast down at the floor. "Yuki examined her and said that it doesn't seem to be anything foreign, but it's quite potent, and we don't know what will happen to her." Father was aghast, and I couldn't do anything but stare at Jakiri. What great timing this had been. First the incident with the knife, and now a mysterious virus, just like...just like what Yukina had had. Of course, that had occurred a while ago, but it was still a possibility. What was this disease that it could take over someone like my mother so suddenly?
A lump rose in my throat, but I made a point to ignore it. If I couldn't be strong, how could I help find a solution? Hiei said I had some sort of power hiding within me, so I would be able to help, wouldn't I? "May I go in and see her?" Father asked, ignoring everything that Jakiri had just explained to us. He stood up and started walking over to the door without waiting for a reply. Curious as ever, I got up to peer in the door that was open. What I saw there was terrible. I didn't want it to happen. I didn't want her life to fade away into obscurity like Yukina's had.
"Mother!" I cried, running over to her bed. The small, green-haired woman gave me a dangerous look, but all I could focus on at the time was my mother's face, and the look that it bore.
"There's still time if you two are ready to go now," the woman cut in.
"Yuki," Father began sternly, "I'll go. Keiryi can stay here with her mother."
"I think you'll need some help if you're going to defeat the source of something this big," Yuki said sharply. "Bring Keiryi. Jakiri can attend to her master for a short while. That's all you have, honestly, before the disease takes over like it did with Yukina."
For a split second, I could see something close to affection in Yuki's eyes, but then her mannerisms became completely businesslike again. She turned to Mother and laid her hands on her head. "Tell me what it is, Kaiina," she said. "You know it...I can tell. This body isn't quite as sharp as it was, but this is like a blaring beacon. Come on, Kaiina." Mother groaned, and whispered something under her breath.
"Ma...in...Ma..."
"Alright then," Father said. "I suppose we'll need something quick to get us there Yuki."
"I'm exhausted, Kurama," she said irritably. "I still need to care for Kaiina. Ask Jakiri." He sighed and kissed Mother briefly on the cheek.
Outside, on the couch, Jakiri was waiting patiently for our return. "We need a portal back home," Father demanded. "Enough pouting, Jakiri. We just need to get there." Reluctant though she was, she took us behind the house, where no one would see past the large trees.
"Keiryi," Jakiri said, grasping one of my shoulders gently. "I wish you the best of luck. Though you may not feel it, you've grown in the past few years. You may be ready to surpass him."
"Who-?" Rather than answer my question, Jakiri conjured up a portal of blinding white light. It was wide open, and before I could say anything to protest, Father dragged me through and into a very dark place.
Once we had gone through, the portal vanished, and I stopped to look around at this grove. Though I'd never been here, it seemed familiar. Something about the air made me feel more alive than I ever had before. "Where are we?" I ventured to ask.
"Hell's Grove," he replied absently, walking forward. "Somebody's been awaiting our arrival."
Who? I wondered to myself. Could it be Fehreil again? The thought of looking into those deep, dark, unfeeling eyes once more sent chills through my whole body, and I hoped with all I had that it wouldn't happen. "I don't know how to fight," I admitted sheepishly. "Hiei was supposed to teach me, but..."
"It's alright," Father replied. "I'll protect you." For a moment, I let out a short laugh. Sure, I knew there were demons and apparitions in my life, but I never thought I'd be on this insane battlefield, fighting for someone else's life.
The demon inside me was slowly rising to the occasion. She was fighting to get out and fight instead of hiding behind someone else. This was nobody's fight but her own. Soon, something moved in the bushes, and my father was off like a shot. I did my best to follow him through trees and thorns, under hard, thick branches, through knee-deep, muddy water. This was a side of Father I'd never seen before. He was a fierce hunter now, one who would fly after his prey for the thrill of the hunt alone.
At the edge of the forest, we stopped, and there was a tall, lean girl. Her dark blue hair was up in a bun, and she stared my father down with icy blue eyes. "Atsura," Father spat, brandishing a rose. "I guessed you'd still be on my tail. Nothing better to do, hm?"
"There's money in it for me," Atsura replied, "and control. Not to mention the greatest satisfaction of all." She paused and a frightening, hungry look came over her face. "I'll get to watch your daughter suffer while you die very slowly. I can see the look on your face now." She laughed heartily, a cold, heartless roar.
"You don't have me yet," Father replied, and his rose turned into a long, thorny whip that coiled around his feet. It sprang to life, though, and flew at the girl, wrapping her in thorns.
"A little pain feels good every once in a while," Atsura said, smiling demonically. "You'll see." She flickered out and appeared behind him, throwing a punch at his head. Father ducked and swiped at her ankles with his leg. Bouncing back up, Atsura pulled a short dagger out from her coat.
"The fox is finally going to die!" she screamed in horrific excitement. "You're MINE!"
He smiled softly, closed his eyes, and let the whip fly. It stayed true to its course, and simply regrew where Atsura tried to cut it down. Finally, she was impaled upon it. "Give up already," Father said gravely. "I don't want to kill my greatest rival." Such a hardness in my father scared me. Could I trust him if he could be this cold when angry? The demon said that he was being the perfect enemy, teasing but unyielding.
"No," I whispered almost silently. "I don't want to feel that cold...that empty...I want to know love...I want to live and breathe it." Inside, the demon laughed, and I cried. But on the outside, the two were still there, Atsura impaled on the thorny whip, and my father threatening her with a stony look on his face.
"I missed chasing you," Atsura admitted. "I guess the pain relieves me. It lets me know that I'll be alive a while longer. Just kill me now. Let me relish the pain while I still can."
"You twisted soul," Father said scornfully. "On the outside you can fight, but you're so hungry within that it makes you pathetic. You don't even deserve to die. That would be too long a reprieve." The whip stirred, and she screamed, smiling at the same time. When it jerked itself out, tears ran down her face, but she was still smiling.
"Pain!" she cried rapturously. "My redemption!"
While she screamed, Atsura slowly began to shrivel away into thin air. "Farewell...Atsura," Father said, turning around to make sure I was alright. My whole body shook with fear of what he could do. How could my own father, the man my mother had loved, be such a cold-hearted killer? What had she loved in him so much if he could be so heartless?
"I'll be alright," I assured him. "Why did you know her? Where did she come from?"
"Those questions are for another time," Father answered firmly. Now he was the caring parent once more. "Now we must continue our search. Atsura may have been obsessed about catching me, but she never took offers from small clients. I'm sure that her employer will strike at us again. We just have to keep going for now."
"Okay," I said, and we started walking away from the forest and toward the crimson-streaked walls of the castle.
Just thinking of Fehreil's palace gave me chills. At such a young age, he'd wanted me to be his tool, and I was glad they'd come to rescue me. Otherwise, I'd have been a lonely prisoner, and a fatherless prisoner at that. Looking up into my father's eyes made me realize something, though. Even if he had the capability to be a cold killer, he also had the capability to be a husband, a lover, a father, and a friend. In the little time we had been together, I had seen someone who cared for those around him. When he embraced Shiori, he was completely sincere, and the way he looked at my mother spoke of his deep affection for her.
The walk was long and hard, but we swerved away from the castle. We walked toward a place covered in vines and other plants. Long abandoned, it looked like it had once been a mansion. Now, it was more like a haunted house. "What is that?" I asked, squinting in the hope of discerning the actual color of the walls through all the green and brown.
"That's where I first met your mother," Father replied with a smile that betrayed his longing to be with her again. If I was a loving person like he was, I would have said something to try and assure him. However, I just shut up like usual and let the awkward silence hold its own.
Just as I had expected, we walked inside to see ruined furniture, but there were a few things intact. "You can sleep down the hall here," Father said, leading me down a very narrow passageway. We seemed to be going into a basement of sorts, and the walls shifted from patchy wood to solid stone. Whoever had made this place was a master craftsman.
"Why so far down?" I asked, looking around at the ominous ceiling. "Doesn't it get colder down here?"
"You'll be fine," he replied. "It'll be harder to find you down here though. Just don't leave your room unless I come for you."
The room was even colder and less welcoming than the hallway that led to it. Nondescript stone walls didn't give way to a single window, and the bed looked hard and uncomfortable at best. With a soft chuckle, I thought of it as a prison cell. There was a little hole in the door where the guards would slip in my meager rations, and over by the bed was a small nightstand, upon which I imagined a basin for washing my hands. "I have to go do some other things," Father said gently, getting down on my level. "I'll try and be back as soon as I can though."
He was turning to leave, but for once, I called out to him, albeit a pathetic yelp at best. "Wait," I cried meekly. "Father, I...I don't want you to go. You haven't been in my life for eighteen years, and now you're just going to leave me here alone? Please, I don't want to lose you, and I don't think Mother wants to lose you again." At the mention of my mother, his eyes softened, and he wrapped his strong arms around my tall, willowy frame.
"You've grown up," he said, stroking my hair. "And I'm so sorry to have missed it all, but I must go attend to matters that pertain to your safety. Stay here, and I promise I'll come back before the second sunset. If this promise is broken, leave. I'll find you again."
I stared up into those emotional emerald eyes and smiled warmly. Something coursed through me, and I knew that this was what it must feel like. He loved me, and he was going to do what it took to preserve my life. Was this the kind of love that I'd been missing all my life? Had I really been hungering for a father's love, rather than the feeling in general? "Alright," I said sheepishly. "I...I love you, Father. Don't get yourself killed."
A/N-Yay, I've had a nice little streak of typing until midnight or so, and as a result, I wasn't in bed until one last night. Part of the reason was that my friend told me Inuyasha, which I haven't seen in a long time, would be on at 12:30, so I just snuck down at twelve. There was a weird show with a mad professor and what looked like a rubber chicken, so I went back upstairs in our creepily creaky house. If you're ever downstairs in my house in the dark,you'd better not have too vivid an imagination. Oh well, otherwise I couldn't write characters like Atsura, who even creeped me out that I could come up with stuff like that. Love to anybody who chooses to review, and I think I get a cookie for coming back after all this time!
Peace Out,
Miari