Lone Scarlet Lily, Hidden in the World of Snow: Waiting for the spring.
Chapter 4: Where it Began
"My, my! You sure made it a long way with that injury of yours." My lips curled up into a smirk as I studied how her brown eyes flashed at the comment. My hands rested on my hips as I watched her continue to struggle against the snow, easily keeping up with her slow pace.
The priestess had walked out of Kitabayashi forest, but as she continued to trudge through the snow that piled up on the hilly grasslands she weakened. Now, she crawled through the powdery snow which caved in on her every few feet as she cradled her bloodied arm. The wound had not clotted as each movement prevented it from closing properly. Blood freely stained her kimono and as the drenched fabric rubbed up against the snow she pushed her way through it left a red streak in the disturbed snow.
After a few moments of silence, she suddenly stopped and sent me a fierce glare. I met her gaze evenly, my eyes shining in amusement as her patience at my presence wore thin. The wind whipped around us harshly, and I took a minute to note the way her frame shivered into the snow. At this rate, she wouldn't last the night. If she didn't stop moving in the next hour or so, the wound would kill her. If she stopped moving, the cold would.
I probably wouldn't have to offer to heal her, guiding her towards shelter would be enough to save her life at this time. Hopefully doing so will make her feel obligated enough to answer a question.
"I have no wish to speak with you, demon!"
"Ouch!" I brought my hand up to my chest in a mocking manner before circling the dying priestess, "Well, I mean… That would've hurt if I didn't share the same sentiment, priestess. I thought humans wanted the company of another as they die, but it seems that isn't the case~"
"I would never choose to be in the company of someone of your kind, snow-woman."
"Ah, I see. That's too bad..." I crouched down to peer into her face, watching for any changes closely as my voice dropped dangerously "Because I'm your last hope of going home."
There was a flicker in her features – a slight pull on her brow as her lips pressed themselves into a firm line. It was for only a second, and soon she resumed the angry arch of her brow and the spiteful curl of a frown, but it was there. She had realized the fact that her survival depended on me – the human villages were too far for her to reach in time, and I was probably the only demon in existence willing to help the unusually strong priestess. After all, she had no doubt purified countless demons already. But, luckily for her, now I had demon blood on my hands as well.
"I do not need a demon's help. Much less the likes of yours, snow-woman."
"Come now, priestess. You don't really you'll make it in time, do you?" I smiled at her, inching closer to her shivering body as she pressed herself into the snow to escape my approach, "I thought you were a little smarter than that. I'm a little disappointed."
"I care not what you demons think of me."
"That's nice."
I straightened myself up, brushing the large flakes of snow off of my clothing before scanning the snow covered hills in the distance. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of shelter from the storm where I could coax an answer out of the disagreeable human. Getting her out of the cold might help her attitude and loosen her tongue. As it stands now, no amount of threatening would award me with the confirmation I needed about Master Katashi and the dangerous priestess never actually crossing paths.
Searching the distance once more for shelter, I located what looked like a mountain that offered a little protection from the wind, if the thin layer of snow in front of it said anything. It was close enough for her to reach without finding her way to the afterlife, and hopefully there would be a little cave entrance there where the human could escape the elements… If not, I could always create some sort of shelter from my ice, but I wasn't too keen on spending too much energy on the woman than necessary.
But, now I had to get her to follow me.
Master Katashi spoke of tales that humans once told him when he had broken away from the usual path he took to gather herbs last winter: snow-women leading humans into the snow where they would meet rather unfortunate ends. It wasn't too far of a stretch from a snow-woman's abilities… But demons like myself were hard to come by. They were recluses, hardly dealing with human and demon alike. Any interaction with said humans probably only came from curiosity rather than malicious intent. Apparently the story was favoured by the humans though, and nearly all accounts of being lost in snowstorms or falling prey to an icy death resulted in them having died by a snow-woman's hand.
It was all rather amusing, the fact that humans were so superstitious.
But I guess all prey would mistake a rustling branch at night for a beast's pursuit.
"If you want to live, priestess, you should follow me~" I glanced towards the woman again as I walked to the front of her, unable to keep the wicked gleam from my eye. It would be very interesting to see if the human would follow me in the middle of a snowstorm. While I could always use Misdirection and lead her towards me no matter which path she took, I was highly curious to see if she would put aside her disdain for demons if her survival was on the line. If pride took her down another path, who was I to change the outcome? I'm sure Master Katashi wouldn't mind being put to the side from the outcome of a human's free will – he always liked the rash decisions they could come up with.
Their reasoning for doing things 'here' and 'now' than waiting for the right moment. To be honest, it hadn't interested me much until now. It could become quite addicting – seeing how a human would react to certain situations. Perhaps it was solely because of the interesting human in front of me: both powerful and headstrong enough to challenge a whole village of demons while weak enough to be on the verge of death after the fight.
Just what could drive such a foolish being to fight those they could not defeat easily?
"I do not need a demons help!" Her pained voice burned with anger, and her hand drifted to the sword held to her waist by a red sash. Before she could grasp the handle in her hand, her body fell limp and she clutched at her arm instead.
I chuckled, backing away from the angry priestess in amusement before turning my back on her and walking into the snow. Before I could disappear from her human view, I called over my shoulder:
"Sure you don't need a demon's help, priestess. But aren't there those who need your help?"
A sly grin spread across my face at those words, almost feeling her hesitate at them. Priestesses were supposed to help protect other humans from demons, right? It would be a little hard for the woman to help others from the netherworld, even if she commanded great power. Did this great power make her think that she was indispensable to saving human lives? Could she ignore the thought of leaving countless lives to perish because of her pride? Would she?
My body bristled with excitement as I waited to see what she would choose, slowing my pace so that she wouldn't lose me in the snow if she decided to start following. Her arrogance would be her salvation, or it would be her undoing. Which would it be?
It didn't take long for her to reach her answer. With a frustrated growl, she hauled her body forwards and followed me through the snow.
An hour passed before we reached the foot of the mountain face. It had taken a lot slower than what I thought it would with the human's pace slowing considerably as time dragged on, but we had reached it at long last. I paused in front of the rock face I took a deep breath, trying to sniff out a cave opening as the priestess slowly caught up with me. The priestess seemed to be quite lucky indeed, as after a few minutes of searching a slightly warmer draft of air caught my attention. With a few steps my fingers brushed up against the cold stone, and I peered into the small cavern.
It was large enough for at least three people to fit in comfortably, and a naturally heated pool of water kept the temperature up even if a cold wind found its way inside occasionally. It would be a relatively nice spot for the priestess to recover after I was finished with her.
"In here, priestess."
Turning my face from the cave opening and looking back at her, I saw she was slowly standing on her feet now that the snowdrifts weren't as high as the rest of the journey. Her shiny eyes locked with mine, her pale face was tinted red with cold. A twinge of pity plucked at my heart at the sight, but the heated glare she gave me silenced the pity easily enough. Somehow even in her weakened state she still had such fire driving her onwards. Had she figured out my words were nothing short of manipulation, or was there something more going on under the surface?
She slipped past me, nearly falling into the cavern as she embraced the slight warmth that filled the room. After warily scanning the frozen hills for any pursuers, I followed her thawing form. It was dark in the cavern, and the humidity made my skin crawl uncomfortably as the heavy warmth clung to my being. The sound of water being disturbed caught my attention, and I turned my eyes towards the direction.
The priestess was huddled beside the pool of warm water, scooping the liquid up in her cupped hands before letting it drain through her fingers. Almost immediately she brought her hands up to her face, running her heated fingers over the skin before sinking them back into the water to gather more heat. A ragged sigh pushed itself from her lips as relief caused her body to sink against the stone.
"Well now, once you're all warmed up, I have a little question for you that I'd like an honest answer to." I sat down near the wall furthest from her, not wanting to crowd her while trying to ease her into giving me the answer I wanted in exchange for leading her to warmth. Katashi's bow and the quiver still decently filled with arrows were released from my grasp and rested against the cool wall as I waited.
She didn't give any indication that she heard me, and I wasn't looking for one either. She knew I was there, knew my eyes were pinned to her bloodied shoulder as she warmed herself. She'd have to face me eventually, even if she didn't want to.
The minutes ticked by, and I occupied my time with searching and ridding my clothes and body of the grime that had discoloured both the fabric and pale skin. While I could just as easily clean myself all at once with a burst of energy, this kept my hands occupied and allowed the priestess more time to wash herself without my eyes bearing down on her back. Soon enough, I had nothing more to search for.
She was stalling, it was obvious.
But I let her stall. Pulling out the sheath from my kimono's folds, I revealed the bloodied knife to my gaze. While the blade still smelled of Itsuki's blood, the scent didn't fully cloud the one hidden underneath it. The art of making poison hadn't been lost on me, even if Master Katashi made it a point to keep all of his information pertaining to that subject a secret to me. Being a healer meant learning how to counteract the many symptoms of numerous poisons, but I had never been interested in learning how to make any concoctions myself… until I found a particularly interesting page filled with words not written by Master Katashi's hand. Either his master, or his master's master had discovered something quite useful against demons: a type of poison that even a demon's natural healing process couldn't fix on its own.
Itsuki would be missing his eye for a very long time, especially since the art of healing had practically died out amongst demons, and he would never turn to humans for their help.
With a short flare of my energy the rest of the poison was burned off of the blade along with the false heir's blood. For good measure I did the same for the sheath before hiding the blade in the hollow creation. The sheathed blade then found its way back into my obi, the wood pressing against up against my body with a familiar weight.
"You wanted to ask a question?"
I glanced back up to the human woman, who had turned to face me sometime during the inspection of my hidden blade. The look on her face made it clear that she dreaded those words as soon as they tumbled into existence, but she somehow looked a little friendlier now that she wasn't freezing to death.
"When you came to Kitabayashi, the first demons you came across were the ones guarding the entrance to the path leading up to the village, correct?" I regarded her carefully, watching for any signs of deceit that I could detect, "You came across no one else?"
She considered my words slowly, her brown eyes darting to the floor as her brow scrunched up in concentration. At the very least, she seemed to be taking my question seriously.
After a few more seconds, she responded evenly, "I came across no one else. After leaving the village that had just been ransacked by your demons, those demons standing guard were the first creatures I had come across."
My heart instantly felt relieved at her words, and as I could only detect honesty in her voice I gave her a quick nod and stood. There was no reason to stick around when my question had been answered, and she obviously was a few snide remarks away from trying to purify me as well. Grabbing Katashi's bow and the quiver, I turned to leave the priestess behind.
"The storm should be over in a matter of hours. You should stop the bleeding and head to the nearest village – there's enough time for you to reach it and get help before the next storm hits." I grinned at her as my body was enveloped with the chill air that whirled outside the cavern, "It's been fun, priestess."
I disappeared into the snow, and I let my new freedom consume me. There would be no more heckling remarks from the Kitabayashi demons, no Itsuki interrupting me on a daily basis to pester me, no Masuhiro to despise for his weakness, no Isamu to hate for murdering my father… There was nothing holding me back. Nothing keeping me in the village that held more bad memories than good ones…
No one who would be able to know of my mixed heritage with absolute certainty.
I could go anywhere, and do anything. What to do-
Harsh coughing echoed on the walls of the cavern, multiplying the sound as it reached my pointed demonic ears. The clang of metal against the stone, the sound of something heavy collapsing against the ground. The priestess was too weak, and was probably lying unconscious in that cave. Did she manage to stop the bleeding of her wound? Would she wake up without my aid–?
…The human woman wasn't my concern any longer.
I took another step into the snow, followed by another. A strong wind blew, and I paused in order to let it blow by. In that second, my mind disobeyed me. My body joined in on its mutiny and turned me around, marching me back into the cavern and allowing my skin to once again be assaulted by the clingy warmth that permeated the hovel. As my eyes met the unconscious body of the priestess, an angry curse left my lips as I leaned the quiver and Katashi's bow back up against the wall before approaching the human.
I blamed Katashi for my actions, for making me want to save the human woman enough to return to her side. For teaching me how to heal humans in the first place, for telling me stories of how amusing and interesting humans were. For making me not believe whole-heartedly in the Kitabayashi point of view on humans: prey. This was all his fault, and the next time I saw the old fool I'd be sure to tell him that.
Quickly unfastening her armour and laying it to the side, I gently loosened her kimono and maneuvered her arm through the sleeve. Judging by the large claw marks that marred the skin of her shoulder and continued halfway down her back, one of the white tiger demons had gotten behind her and pounced. There were also deep puncture wounds down her arm, following the curve of a transformed white tiger demon's jaw.
It was enough to make me question just how she managed to stay conscious enough to follow me through the snow, the pain would be enough to slow even a demon down to a grinding halt until it healed.
My fingertips gently brushed the skin around the open wounds, noting the blood that spilled from her body at the slightest touch. None of the wounds looked infected, but the severity of them were beyond the healing capability of medicine.
"You certainly are one lucky human, priestess." I bunched her long black hair up and placed it above her head before pushing down her kimono a little further and revealing more of her pale skin to me, "Be a good patient and don't wake up and fight me on this, alright? It'll be your funeral, not mine. Quite literally."
Curling up the sleeves of my pale kimono, I took a minute to collect myself and gather the energy I needed to heal the priestess. Unlike Master Katashi or any other healer he had heard of, I didn't require herbs or poultices to speed the healing process along. It was an arduous process, as wrapping one's energy around that of another was something that shouldn't be done half-heartedly. If not for the wellbeing of the patient, then for my own wellbeing.
The energy of two separate beings are never meant to coincide in one vessel, as the strain of one energy trying to dominate the other would eventually devour the host. The only way to safely mix my energy with that of another was to practically dismantle it completely: to reduce it into a shadow of its former potency. It was a highly dangerous task, as reducing it too much would render it ineffective and invite the foreign energy to consume the energy placed in the body before following it to the source – namely me – and consuming my energy while it was too weak to fight back. Not reducing it enough, however, would alert the host to a foreign energy and spur it into fighting me as I tried to heal the body. I could command my energy not to attack the host's, but having my weakened energy being constantly fought every step of the healing process would inflict me with a serious and untreatable injury that would take days to recover from – energy itself couldn't be healed, after all.
But the most difficult part of all would be trying to recall all of my energy after the healing process had been completed. Leaving the slightest drop in the host and then reconstructing the potency of my energy would have disastrous effects for the host, as the energy within my own body is still linked to the remainder inside the host. With a foreign and powerful energy hiding inside the host's body, their energy would become confused and attack itself as it tried to defeat the foreign energy. The best case scenario of such a thing would be the host being weakened for a weak at most. The worst case… was death.
All of this was based on Master Katashi's understanding of the energy that lived in every being, and as it was quite extensive, it was foolish to consider any of his speculations as false. His hypotheses had been consistently proved correct, as he had allowed me to practice the hidden skill on him whenever he had been injured to ensure I learned how to use it correctly. He had named the skill 'Energy Healing'. Not as interesting or as unique as the names for my offensive skills, but it kind of grew on me over the years.
With a deep breath, I placed my hands onto the priestess's back and gently allowed my energy to enter into her body and intermingle with the human's energy. An apprehensive moment passed slowly as her energy decided whether it attacked my energy or passed it over, proving that it had infiltrated successfully and blended in with her own energy enough to not warrant her energy's concern. After no reaction, I allowed myself to take a slow breath and work on repairing her damaged body.
I worked quickly, enhancing the healing ability of one area until the skin had seamlessly closed itself up again without even a scar in sight before continuing onto the next area. With a scowl, I realized that a human's naturally slow recovery time made the process a lot longer than I would've liked. While the priestess was now recovering at the rate of a demon's healing capabilities, there was a large portion of her body wounded and as I didn't want to push the woman's luck too far with how much I healed at a time – being unused to healing humans – I was forced to heal smaller areas at a time. Not to mention, since humans didn't heal as aptly as demons did I had to take my time and heal each area carefully and completely so that no complication appeared later.
"Tch. What a hassle you are, priestess." I moved my hands up her back, working on the claw wounds there as the lower back was all closed up, "This is all Master Katashi's fault. The moment I find him-!"
"…Hnn…?" The priestess mumbled softly, half-conscious as she blearily tried to form a word. I leaned in slightly to hear what she was saying as she seemed to repeat it, "Hotaka…"
Her breathing deepened after the name escaped her lips, and she was once again lost to the world. While I was curious at who Hotaka was, I shrugged it off and continued working, finishing up on the claw wounds on her back and moving to work on the bite marks on her arm. My fingers never lifted off of her skin as I directed my energy to where it needed to go, determined to not accidentally leave anything in her body when I finished. The best way to do so was to make sure that I knew exactly how much of my energy was inside the host at any given time. To do that accurately, a constant point of contact was necessary.
The pointed puncture wounds of the bite were a lot easier to fix than the long gashes the demon's claws left behind. Soon I had finished closing all the wounds and gave her one final examination as I started reabsorbing my energy. There were no traces of any previous wounds on her back, and the same could be said for her arm. While she'd still look like she was bleeding out when her red stained kimono was back in its proper place that was no longer true. As there seemed to be no other wound on her body, I nodded to myself and coaxed the last bit of energy out of her body. With a slow sweep back down her body, searching for any energy that might've been missed and finding no stragglers, I removed my hands from her skin and fixed her kimono as best as I could without disturbing her rest.
I failed to stop the tired sigh that forced itself from my lips as my energy regained its power on my command. After a few moments of keeping a careful watch on the priestess for any indication of discomfort or pain and finding none, I quietly retrieved Katashi's bow and quiver and peered out of the cavern. The storm had stopped for now, and another was currently speeding towards our location. A clouded sky muted the colours of the serene white world that waited patiently for me to bask in its stillness.
The priestess wouldn't be able to move very far for another couple of hours, and by that time the next storm would whip up more snow than the last one did. From what I could sense, it would last at least a day, if not longer. As a human she would quickly get lost in the snow and not be able to find her way back…
"Tch." I clicked my tongue once more, "You really are such a hassle."
The stillness of the world was broken by the sounds of animals as they relished in the temporary reprieve from the storm, and I quietly crept out of the cavern to hunt anything unfortunate enough to cross my path.
I returned to the cave with the body of a rabbit slung over my shoulder and another bundle of sticks and branches pressed under my arm. The smell of burning wood made me pause just outside of the entrance and notice the small amount of smoke being drawn out by the cold wind that accompanied the winter storm. After scowling at the thought that the cave would no longer be filled with the humid heat the natural spring provided, but a dry one as well, I eventually swallowed my distaste and walked in.
"You're up already, priestess? That's reassuring. You weren't looking too good." Setting Katashi's bow and the quiver aside, I took a wary step towards the small but sizzling fire and placed the rabbit and branches in arm's reach of the priestess.
She looked a lot better, colour had returned to her face and her eyes didn't have the blank sheen they had hours ago. Based on that alone, I could probably leave the priestess alone now and escape the miserably heated cave.
"…It's Midoriko." She mumbled, staring blankly into the small fire as she added another stick from the pile I had just set down.
I blinked at her, surprised by her sudden willingness to speak to me, "What?"
"My name." Her brown eyes looked up into mine with an emotion I couldn't quite place as she clarified, "Midoriko Yanagi*."
"Midoriko the priestess, eh?" My confusion was replaced by suspicion, and I eyed her carefully before my eyes flickered to the exit, "Well, this has certainly been quite the strange meeting for the both of us, I assume, so I'll be heading–"
"–Please stay!" The confusion was back in full force and so she continued, "Just for a while, at least. If you want to leave, I can't stop you, but I… I've misjudged you terribly. I just… want a chance to correct it."
How horribly earnest of her. This priestess continued to get more and more interesting the more time I spent with her. Was saving her really all that was necessary for her to start singing such a different tune? If she could change her mind this rapidly, surely it wouldn't take much for her to go back to being ready to slay me at a moment's notice…
Or was this all just a ploy?
Midoriko seemed to notice my hesitation, "I know it's a little strange asking this of you… But out of all of the demon's I've faced so far, you're the only one who doesn't seem at all like the ones that harm and kill humans. If we could only talk for a little while, maybe I could understand–"
"Woah, woah… Simmer down there, priestess. Sure, I don't go around killing every human I see, but don't misunderstand me… I'm not so opposed to the idea that I wouldn't kill a human if they stood in my way." I edged a little further away from her growing fire before watching for her reaction.
She was silent for a few minutes, turning my admission over in her head carefully before responding, "Even so, I'd still like to speak with you." Her eyes met mine, waiting to see what I would do.
Pressing myself against the cool wall near the entrance, I sunk to the ground with a small smile as my curiosity got the better of me.
"Well then, I suppose I could stay for a little while."
*PLEASE NOTE*
Midoriko Yanagi*: Midoriko introduced herself with her first name, and then last name. As Midoriko does not have a canon last name and we are not introduced to her family or background, most of it will be made up by yours truly!
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-Disclaimer-
I do not own the InuYasha movies, manga, or anime. The only thing I own are my characters and the fanfic!
O Reviews O
psychxdelix: Thank you for enjoying it so far! I hope you continue to enjoy Nozomi's adventure!
Bet you didn't think a new update would happen so soon, eh?
ferallahey: Hahaha! If you squealed with that update, I wonder what you did when this one popped up...
Seems like Nozo got quite the fan! I'm glad :) she needs aaaaaaall the love she can get! You're just gonna have to wait and see if she turns on everyone, the world of InuYasha doesn't seem to have a lot of 'good' demons in it, after all...
Thank you for asking so many questions! It's nice to see people getting invested in the story I've created and want to know more about it! ;3 plus it shows you were paying attention~
Well, the 'hybrid' of two different parents is pretty much a half-demon. After all, not all half-breeds are half-demons, but all half-demons are half-breeds! It is interesting to consider a hybrid between two different demon parents though, and I did consider putting it into the world... But a hybrid (in most of the anime/manga/whatever fiction you want that I've read) is usually so overpowered it breaks a lot of world-building 'power caps'. Sure, if you think it out enough to get sufficient drawbacks for the power of having two pools of abilities to draw from, a hybrid can be done well...
But if it's not canon I don't necessarily think it's something to try and work in, even if it certainly is fun to think about.
Hahaha! Well I kinda like to see my readers surprised and shocked and excited from chapter to chapter, wondering what's gonna happen next! X3 I don't want to ruin anything for ya, and while I might throw in certain hints about a major event happening, I usually try not to spoil too much in this little review section (but who knows? If I ever plan on shutting this fanfic down - which is entirely unlikely at this point - I'll make sure to send you all of the stuff I had planned~)
Aww, don't feel bad! I'm a rambler, so I ramble! No matter how much you type I'll probably type more... -_-' But I'm glad you're happy with the answers I gave!
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I'm on a roll now! ;3
Next time on the LSL, an Inuyasha fanfic...
How does this 'talk' go?
Midoriko sure changed her mind pretty fast...
Is a betrayal coming?! If so, who will it come from?!
WHO CAN WE EVEN TRUST ANYMORE?!
I'M STARTING TO THINK THIS'LL NEVER GET TO SESSHOMARU?!
You'll have to tune in next chapter to maybe find out... :3
Thanks for reading, Fireflies!
-Love, Ember ;3
