Chapter Thirty-Six: Sacrifice
With her bow gripped tight, Kagome braced herself as another surge of power buffeted against her body. Like an ocean wave, it curled and roiled, testing her strength before flowing around her, defeated. His wheezing gasps punctuating the air, she could hear Tora struggling against it, his resistance eroding with every pulse.
"Are you all right?" she asked, not sparing him a look.
"Y-Yeah," he rasped, mucous catching in his throat. "I'm… I'm okay."
She nodded. He was still standing and that was good enough for now.
With her eyes pinned on the mysterious woman, she cautiously lowered her guard enough to absorb a splash of the next wave. And with it, a sensation like awe coursed down her spine and radiated through every nerve. It seized her lungs. Her vision turned white at the edges and gravity pulled her down until she remembered to breathe again. Yet, amid the crushing power, there was serenity. The tickle of lush grass under bare feet. Dazzling sunlight filtering through a forest canopy. A rushing stream overflowing with snowmelt. And threaded through this tranquility was a familiarity that she couldn't quite place. It was almost like kinship.
Her heels echoing, the woman strolled around the car, her gaze fixed upon the demon. Behind her, Ishida followed, his attention only on her. She began to clap slowly.
"Excellent work," she praised with a smooth and commanding voice as she tousled the long braids that flowed around her. "If this was an attempt to impress me, the oyabun of the Shikai Clan, then you have succeeded. Your planning and execution were impeccable. You even worried poor Ishida here."
He scowled.
"But I doubt that you're seeking gainful employment," she remarked, and her dark irises lit up, burning with an iridescence akin to mother-of-pearl. Reaching up, she began to remove the diamond studs from her ears, handing each one to Ishida who placed them neatly into a velvet box before pocketing it.
"She must be a youkai," Tora whispered.
Kagome chanced a glance in his direction. His skin glistened with sweat where it could be seen, and his mask was sopping wet.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Her eyes," he explained, and then nodded towards the demon. "They glow like his do, except that his are gold."
"What?"
"You've never seen his eyes glow? At the nightclub or in the videos online."
"I was drugged up in the nightclub, and I only watched one of the videos. In either case, I didn't notice. It's not normal, at least not how you're describing it. Maybe red when he transformed but never like this. Never just the iris. And never gold."
She turned to the demon. Tension rippled through him in pace with the waves. Like Tora, he was barely resisting it.
Without turning his body, he spied back at them, and through the crescent of his mask, a blazing, gold eye watched her.
She gasped.
"I'm no youkai," the oyabun corrected as she shed her blazer, revealing a soft green, sleeveless blouse. Under the streaming morning light, her toned arms reflected a prismatic pattern of tessellated spots. And as she walked, they shimmered, disappearing and reappearing as the light moved across her beautiful, brown skin. She paused in her step and slipped out of her heels, leaving them behind for Ishida to gather up.
With his mane flaring behind him, the demon was in motion. Lunging forward, he caught her by the throat. And then with savage ferocity, he picked her up and threw her down through the hood of the car with a terrible crunch. The radiator bled and metal whined as he ripped her out of the jagged crater and flung her into a pillar with a thundering crack.
The parking structure shuddered.
Chunks of concrete clattered around her as she hung embedded in the pillar.
The promise of violence moved through every joint and muscle as he strode towards her. Reaching back, he retrieved the crowbar from his sash. And as he passed, his eye again met Kagome. It still burned like molten metal but in it she saw something else. Something she never would have expected.
Desperation.
His order earlier for them to run wasn't a command. It was a plea.
A blur of white, he leapt towards the oyabun, raising the crowbar for his strike. And as it came down on her head, she caught it. For a breath, they remained locked together, his body trembling from the effort. Then with a smirk, she bent the crowbar in half and ripped it away. It rang across the pavement as she tossed it aside.
"How are you feeling, Oya-sama?" Ishida called out with her blazer laid over his forearm and her heels in his hand.
"Delighted," she replied coolly as she poured herself out of the shattered pillar. "It's been decades since I've had a little fun. World War II at least."
Taking a sideways stance, the demon stepped back, his eyes fixed on her as he awaited her move.
Dispassionately, she dusted the concrete debris from her shoulders and shook out her tattered blouse. The loss of a button revealed a glimpse of her chest, and at its center lay the scar of a spider.
"She has the spider too," Kagome whispered. "Just like him."
The oyabun scoffed and her indifference soured into a sneer. "Bearing the sign of the curse doesn't make me something as plebeian as a youkai, child."
"We know," the demon interjected, his nose wrinkling with disgust. "You're worse. You're a hanyou. A half-breed. An abomination."
What disdain her expression held evaporated, replaced by a fury that darkened her face and brightened her eyes. The pulsing waves of power that rolled off her slowed and then reversed, flowing back into her body. The energy swirled around her chest, tugging at her blouse and braids. And as she braced herself, she took a deep breath.
With his knees bent, he waited, sweat dripping from his chin.
Blindingly brilliant, a stream of opalescent fire burst from her mouth. It splashed over the pavement, vaporizing it with its heat and turning the edges into white-hot slurry.
With the tail of his tunic half singed away, he dodged to the side before rushing towards her. Channeling the momentum of his sprint, he threw his body into a punch. It cracked her across the face and the fire sputtered out as she went cartwheeling through the air. She struck the far wall with a deafening boom, sending fissures and cracks radiating from her impact.
The parking structure whined, and shards of concrete began to fall.
He turned back towards Kagome. "Run."
But before she could respond, a silhouette appeared behind him.
Catching her widening stare, he spun around, his fist pulled back for another punch. But as he launched into it, the oyabun swept his strike aside with her forearm and landed her own blow to his side. His breath burst from him as he stumbled back.
"Sesshoumaru!" Kagome cried out, taking a step towards him.
"Run," he rasped.
Behind her, she heard a scuffling thump. And as she turned, she discovered Tora crumpled on the ground. With his mask around his chin, he gasped for air as he fumbled at the straps of his vest, frantic to shed it. Dropping her bow, she rushed to kneel beside him. Placing her hands upon his bare face, she poured power into him, letting him sip of her divine resilience.
'Run?' she thought as she rubbed his cheeks slick with sweat. 'Even if Tora was fine and they were able to escape, how would they outrun her? She was unlike any hanyou she'd ever met. Unlike any hanyou…' Her eyes fell to her bow and her jaw went tight. 'She was a hanyou, wasn't she?'
Wheezing with every inhale, Sesshoumaru felt at his ribs.
The oyabun glared at him. There wasn't a mark on her. Not even a bead of sweat to dampen her skin.
With his fists clenched, he hurled himself at her. In a flurry of motion, he unleashed a barrage of strikes, the force of them rippling the air. And with each one, she dipped and dodged or swept them aside, unfazed by his strength and ferocity. And as he threw himself into his last punch, she caught his fist, and with a casual twist, his wrist snapped.
Snarling, he tried to pull away, but she held him fast. Then quicker than the eye could follow, she pinned his arm behind his back. And with her free hand, she seized him by the nape of his neck and planted him face first into the pavement. Again and again, she pounded him into it, splintering the ground with fresh fractures after every blow. Desperately, he clawed at her wrist and pried at her fingers, but each effort proved weaker than the last until his hand fell limply at his side.
As she lifted him up, his headdress and mask crumbled away, revealing his face. Blood oozed from his mouth and dislocated nose. Releasing his broken arm so that she could grasp him by the jaw, she turned his head so that she could stare into the dark sockets of his half-closed eyes.
"You would call me an abomination?" she spat. "You're nothing but a husk wearing the skin of a daiyoukai. Where's your youki, demon?" A vortex of power churned around her chest and a glow swelled in her throat. "Allow me to end your miserable existence and ensure that this time your kind's extinction is final."
An arrow engulfed in a blazing beam of pink light flew, and with preternatural speed, she caught it before it could drive into her neck.
"Get purified, bitch!" Kagome snapped with another arrow ready.
With a thwip, it shot towards the oyabun, burning with godly power. Sesshoumaru struck the ground in a lifeless heap as she snatched it up before it could pierce her heart. Both arrows pulsed in her hands, flaring brighter and brighter.
With a third arrow at the ready, Kagome waited, anger, and soon unease, etching her brow. That they had failed to burn her was far less unsettling than what was happening now.
Slowly, the light turned from pink to opalescent.
"It doesn't make any sense," Kagome said in disbelief as the light drained from the arrows to envelop the woman. "You're a hanyou. Half youkai and half human. You shouldn't have this kind of power."
The oyabun smiled as she tossed the dull arrows away. "Just like a human to believe that the other half of a hanyou must be one of them."
"What? What do you mean? A hanyou is…"
The light swelled around her, changing shape as it grew. With every pulse, the prismatic image solidified like a constellation of stars, revealing a scaled beast. Impatiently, it stamped the ground with cloven hooves and swished its lion's tail. And at the center of its maned head, a single, antlered horn curled back gently.
"It-It can't be…" Kagome stuttered.
With a final burst of light, the aura shattered into a shower of pearly embers that scattered across the ground before winking out. Smiling, the oyabun stared at her, and from across the street, The K-Lin Lounge sign glowed.
"You're a kirin," she gasped.
"Qilin, really," the oyabun replied, "My mother was from the mainland, but considering how long I've lived on these insignificant islands, I'm more Japanese than anyone." She glanced down at the broken daiyoukai and sneered. "Well, almost anyone."
"Kirins are supposed to be good and righteous. They're supposed to protect the weak and the innocent."
"Strange words from a priestess who defends a demon." She lifted her bare foot and planted it on his skull. "I'll cure you of that fault right now."
"No," she whispered, tears spilling down her cheeks. She loosed the next arrow.
And without any effort, the oyabun swatted it away.
"Why?" Kagome begged. "Why are you doing this?"
Her eyes narrowed and an unexpected anguish shadowed her expression. "Because everyone is nothing but a disappointment. And so, they can all burn."
A warm hand clasped Kagome by the shoulder, and when she looked over, she discovered Tora by her side. With his mask back in place, he breathed like a man fresh from a marathon, but his eyes were bright and clear.
Without a word, he asked, 'What's the plan?'
Frantically, she scanned their surroundings, hoping to find a solution. But everywhere she looked, all she found was fracturing concrete groaning under the weight of the levels above. Then she stopped and her expression hardened. She knew what she had to do, and she knew how far she'd have to take it.
"Remember me in the hotel stairwell?" she asked him.
He nodded.
"Your role this time is Akane."
With an eyebrow furrowed, he gave her a sidelong look until realization struck him. "Got it."
Rocking Sesshoumaru's head back and forth with her foot, the oyabun watched them, smirking.
Swallowing at the lump in her throat, Kagome pulled an arrow from her quiver and nocked it. Power streamed through her until the arrowhead sparkled pink.
"Really, child?" she said coolly. "Again?"
Taking aim at her chest, she drew the bowstring back, ready to fire. "Again."
Then her aim panned to the left and she released the arrow. A brilliant comet of light, it pierced Ishida through the thigh. Yelling in shock as much as in pain, he collapsed onto the ground, grasping at the wound as a fountain of blood spurted from it.
In a flash, the oyabun was at his side, red splattering her white slacks.
With his feet stumbling, Tora ran towards Sesshoumaru. When he reached him, he fell to his knees and turned his body over. Grabbing him under his shoulders, he started dragging him backwards, heading for the stairwell.
Snarling with rage, she spun around to face them, murder in her eyes.
"I wouldn't," Kagome interrupted, unable to quell the tremble in her voice. "I nicked your lieutenant's femoral artery. You have minutes if not seconds before he bleeds out. Maybe between your power and the closest hospital, you could save him. Or you could let him die right now as you take your revenge. Your choice. Really."
"I'll kill you all," she vowed as she scooped Ishida up.
"Probably. But not today."
"Don't be so certain, child."
With Ishida's head nestled against her chest, the oyabun loped towards the half wall closest to the main street. And when she reached it, she crouched down, gathering her strength. Chips of concrete rattled across the pavement. Then with a shuddering boom, she shot through the gap, cratering the ground behind her.
A thundering groan echoed throughout the parking structure as fractures grew and deepened.
"Damn it!" Kagome cursed, and she sprinted for Tora as he struggled to drag Sesshoumaru's dead weight.
"Help me flip him over," he managed through gasping breaths. "Then you get under one arm and I'll get under the other, okay?"
She nodded.
Together, they turned him over and put their shoulders under his. Bracing themselves, they climbed to their feet and began their fumbling walk towards the stairwell. Then the ground slid sideways.
"The building's collapsing," he shouted as he tripped over an upturned slab of concrete.
Around them, massive chunks of pavement separated and tumbled downward, colliding with each other as they disappeared below.
"We're going to make it," she swore, her feet slipping as the ground shifted. "We're so close."
Then a chunk of falling concrete struck Tora's head, sending him to his knees, senseless.
"Tora!" she cried out as she buckled under Sesshoumaru's weight. "Tora, get up!"
The sunlit sanctuary of the stairwell started to slip away as the ground caved.
"Tora!"
Then she felt the weight leave her shoulders. A hand grasped her by the vest and hoisted her into the air, and the concrete coffin that threatened to swallow her up fell away. The strange sensation of flight overwhelmed her, suddenly ending as she hit the top step in the stairwell. In a daze, she looked up in time to see a blur of red and black sailing towards her. With a grunt, Tora's body struck her in the chest, and as a tangled heap, they collided with the stairwell wall.
And when she pushed his limp body aside, she spotted a battered Sesshoumaru standing where they had been, an apology in his eyes as three levels of concrete rubble crushed down on him.