Lone Scarlet Lily, Hidden in the World of Snow: Waiting for the Spring.
Chapter 9: Until Whatever End…
There was a breeze. Warm, and gentle. It swept over my frame, and I felt it lure loose strands of hair from my slick and sweaty skin – though it was mostly unable to draw the black threads entirely from my being. My hands burned, the dull heat pulsing up my arms and reminding me what had gotten me in this state to begin with. Some sort of fabric covered the burned skin and based on the sickening warmth of the thin wrappings, it had been pressed against my flesh for quite some time now.
My mind sharpened, and I tried to figure out my surroundings without alerting anything nearby that I had stirred from my sleep. With the sound of faint breathing coming from nearby, I slipped my energy into the ground with the hopes of using my Range to sense who – or what – was watching over me. As I waited, I tried to get a grasp on my surroundings with the limited information my physical body could provide.
I was no longer in the forest – there were no calls of creatures echoing from the treetops or scurrying across the tangled undergrowth. Nothing brushing against bushes, no bark being scratched or climbed, no hunters stalking their prey. The floor beneath me was definitely man-made: there were no rocks or roots or branches digging into my body unevenly. While there seemed to be a window or door open, the slight breeze only came from one side – an escape if necessary.
My hands were unrestrained, as were my feet… and my hair was no longer separated by my red ribbons. My lips were dry, tongue pulling roughly against the inside of my cheeks. Katashi's bow and quiver were no longer attached to me – a wise choice for any being who brought me here, but not nearly enough to stop me from leaving. That brought up the question, though. Who had brought me inside? The Demon Slayers certainly wouldn't have taken me in. An unsuspecting human could've come across me, but I hadn't seen any other human villages nearby.
I took a deep breath, and the scent of blended herbs breached my nose. A combination of which soothed burns. It clouded other smells, but even with the strong smell the scent of human filled the room. But I couldn't tell if there were any demons nearby, with the overpowering scent of herbs and humans in the air. If there were, they didn't spend much time here.
As my energy pulled up from the ground, filling in corners and walls and all other furniture and bodies that were within my Range, a clearer picture of where I was started to form.
It was a house, a pretty large one at that. The traditional-styled rooms branched off from hallways, and slight changes between the thickness of them provided me with some clue as to where my escape exit would be. It wasn't a window that was open, allowing the wind to blow through the room, but a door: one that led outside. It was behind me, or rather, it beyond me, in the direction my head in. The adjacent rooms held no people, but there were beds set up – probably to entertain any guests. Standing candle-holders dotted the area my Range showed me, but from what I could tell, they were all unlit.
There were two figures in my room. One sitting just outside the door.
In my room, there was a small child, leaning against a cat… with two tails. I knew where I was, and disbelief set in when I realized who was sitting outside.
Who had taken me to the Demon Slayer Village? Why had they let me in? Was it some sort of plot? Were they under some sort of spell? Had something happened, and they needed my strength, so they were trying to-
"I can hear you thinking from here, Nozomi."
A frown tugged at my lips, my heart thundering uneasily in my chest as Midoriko's voice was quietly spoken out into the silent air. With effort, I eased the frown from my face, and retracted my energy (which I realized Midoriko had noticed as I sent it out to survey my situation). As it filtered back into my body, I opened my eyes. Dim light shaded the room, casting shadows on the wooden ceiling.
Silently, I pulled myself into an upright position, turning over my hands to observe the work that had been attempted at fixing the burns across my pale skin. It wasn't too bad, for a human's work. But unfortunately, it wouldn't do much to ease the pain that went far deeper than the skin thanks to my heritage. A piece of cloth fluttered to the ground, and it took a moment to realize that it had been resting on my forehead.
It was nighttime now, but I wasn't sure if it had only been hours or days since I healed the nekomata. My entire body was stiff, and the tenderness that dwelt in my bones wouldn't leave for another few days. Well aware of the silence that consumed the space between me and the priestess, I took my time to look around the room. My eyes adjusting to the light, and I slowly stretched out my muscles.
The room was made from *shoji, and darker areas on the thin paper on the wall to my right revealed that it had several attempted patch-jobs. The paper was fairly easy to tear, but with that many patches it might've been better to just replace it than to continue to repair the holes. The room the wall shared with this one, as it looked like the patching work hadn't been done from this side, was on the corner of the house from what I could sense before I retracted my energy.
Turning my attention away from the wall, I found the sleeping figures of Hotaka and the nekomata curled up on the *tatami flooring.
Even though I scanned the room several times, I could not see Katashi's bow nor my quiver of arrows.
"This is your home?" It was more of a statement, then a question, but I felt that it would be better to ask then to tell.
"Yes." Midoriko's curt reply was followed by the rustling of fabric, and I could feel her gaze on my back.
"It seems that you readily accept demons into your home, Midoriko." I met her gaze, looking over my shoulder at her as the moonlight silhouetted her figure, "Do the rest know I'm here? That the nekomata is here?"
There was a pause, Midoriko's gaze slid over to the two sleeping beings in the room, "…Yes, the village is aware that you two are here."
My brow furrowed. The only reason I could think of for myself and the nekomata to be in Midoriko's home, was that no one knew that we were here. Midoriko's father would never have allowed it, nor would the Demon Slayers who lived here. Even Midoriko wouldn't-
"Ah. So, the cub managed to convince everyone to house me?"
"More or less."
I inspected my hands, "And who bandaged my burns?"
Her eyes turned back to me, "Fujioka."
The name drew an immediate grimace to my face, and I peeled the bandages from my skin. The scent of the healing poultice grew stronger, and my nose wrinkled as I got a look at the damage that had been done to my hands. Moving my fingers was hard, and where the infernal redness spread across my skin, leaving welts and blisters, the area was swollen and beyond painful. And this was only the result of such weak fire. I dreaded to think what would happen from something greater.
"Hmph. His skills are pointless when used on me." As much as I hated to admit it, for a human, he wasn't too bad, "Where are my things?"
I stood, slowly. My mind swayed dangerously even at my careful pace, but I brushed it off as I focused on starting to heal my wounds. Drawing my energy back into my hands, starting to push away the heat that prevented my natural healing from taking hold. Luckily, because they had come from a weak flame, it wouldn't take too long – maybe a day or so had to be dedicated to the endeavor. But, it was summer… I'd probably only be able to heal it at night, when my body wasn't dedicating energy to preventing the heat from raising my temperature.
I scowled, my hate of summer growing immensely.
"You are staying here until you recover, Nozomi."
I raised an eyebrow, turning to her. She was still sitting out on the *engawa, but she had turned sideways to face me. Her right leg still dangled over the edge of the wooden foundation, while her left was bent and placed on the wooden pathway, so she could look at me fully.
"I am not something to be kept, like some sort of tame pet, Midoriko. I will go where I please, whenever I so choose. And I choose not to be surrounded by those that are forced to have me."
"Lies. You enjoy forcing people to do things they don't want to do. And not being welcome hasn't stopped you before." She let out a breathy little laugh, reminiscing of the several times I had done so on our journeys, and the hint of a smile stayed on her lips as she waited for my response.
I couldn't deny the truth in her words: I didn't care what any of those foolish humans thought of me, or how they'd be disgruntled at my presence in their village.
…But I didn't say that. Just like I didn't say that I was thinking of her when those words left me. That would be admitting to something I refused to believe – that the human woman in front of me meant that much to me that I would consider the thoughts of others because of it. That I'd consider her thoughts and feelings.
I wasn't ready for the implications that those feelings brought – and how much easier it would be for her to use me because of them.
So, I ignored her words and met her eyes with an even stare, "I will be waiting in the forest for your decision, as I have promised. Where are my things?"
Surprise flitted over her features before they softened, "Nozomi…" She trailed off, unsure of what to say, "Come here. Sit with me for a while. We… we need to talk."
For a moment, I didn't move. I watched her closely, my icy blue eyes scanning her face for any indication of what she wished to talk about. For the answer she had come to. I found nothing by the knowing gaze of brown eyes, clearly concealing her thoughts from me because she knew what I was doing. With a huff and a roll of my eyes, I padded across the room. The tatami felt springy under my sock-clad feet, and the rigidness of the outer corridor's wood was a stark contrast.
Human houses certainly were nicely-made.
I suppose they had to be, to protect their weak flesh from all sorts of dangers the open air brought. Kitabayashi had taken a few of the human designs into our own buildings, but the warriors left out the unique elegant feeling these human houses brought in favour of something more… demon. Anything that took too long to make was discarded: tatami mats and shoji panels were too weak to withstand the force of rowdy white-tiger demons. Sure, some of the demons chose to put them in their homes, but they were few and far between: wooden planks were more favourable.
Slipping down to sit beside her as she removed the leg propped up on the wood to dangle it over the wooden foundation with her other foot, we stared out into the lush garden that greeted us. A walled fence was barely visible through the trees and the shadows that fell on the smooth surface, but judging from what other houses I had seen, the Yanagi family owned an average plot of land. To the left, nearing the end of their land, a training area was set up – training dummies and targets were set up in and around the trees. Illuminated by the light of the moon, they looked to be something out of human drawings – that of 'ghosts'. The straw that leaked from their makeshift bodies broke the illusion quite effectively, though.
"I thought about what you said. And what… I said. Nozomi… I… I was acting like a child-"
"Yes, you were." She gave me a pointed look, and I met her eyes with a mischievous smirk.
"-and I wanted to apologize for not realizing it sooner." She shifted, turning her body towards me, "I know that this will sound like an excuse, but that's not the way I mean it. I just want to explain… Why I treated you so terribly." She took a breath, "Why… I was such a horrible friend."
I waited. My body straightened, muscles tightening as if preparing for some sort of impact, and I kept an eye on the priestess discretely as I feigned interest in the garden.
"As you know, I grew up as a Demon Slayer. My father was a Demon Slayer, my mother was a Demon Slayer, my friends were all Demon Slayer… Everyone I knew were Demon Slayers. And they all said the same thing: Demons are evil. Demons slaughter humans without hesitation. To protect us and our own, we have to fight back. To slay those that would slaughter all of us."
She let out the deepest sigh I've heard come from her lips, "And I believed them. I believed I was right, and that demons were the enemy and would always be so. It was so clear. We were good, and your kind were bad." I rolled my eyes at the morality, but she didn't see it, "…And then you came along."
"I had seen demons attack one of their own before… but a whole village? And then you were more interested in killing your own kind than me and mine… You saved my life. You've saved my life countless times… When it was just us travelling together, it was perfect. I could finally count on someone to have my back. But then, whenever I returned home… nothing made sense anymore."
"I would leave you to go back to a world where demons were the enemy. There were no exceptions, no differences… It was clear, and any alteration was… discouraged. And then I'd go back to travelling with you again, and it'd get all blurry."
"Those lines that had been so clear, and defined what I was and what I did… I didn't know how to draw them anymore. And that only brought up questions – hard questions. Questions that I didn't want to ask, because I didn't want to hear the answer." She paused, "So… I thought… If you were human, then nothing would have to change. I didn't have to ask those questions, and I wouldn't have to hear the answer. I wouldn't have to figure out what was right, and what was wrong: I didn't have to wonder if I had slain others like you, or if humans and demons could live together in peace if the cycle of bloodshed stopped and we actually considered the option for a moment."
She turned to look out into the garden again, "…When you reminded me that you were a demon, and that it was wrong to assume that you knew human customs… It took me by surprise." Her voice grew softer, "I was surprised, because I realized that I hadn't given you any consideration. That between the two of us, you were the only one trying to accommodate our differences. I… I was selfishly concerned only with our similarities."
She reached out, and her hands found mine as she gently held them in her own, "Would you please consider accepting my apology and continuing our partnership – as friends?"
I looked at her, taking in the shades of her brown eyes as they searched mine nervously. I opened my mouth to reply to her question, but before my answer made its way up my throat, a small mewl shattered serious air. The nekomata had left Hotaka behind and padded up to us. We paused for a moment, as I had almost forgotten that the small feline was with us, and it used that moment to stand up on its hind legs. Pressing the soft pads of its front paws up against our clasped hands, it nuzzled our palms, trying to work its head under my palm.
After Midoriko realized its intention, she released my hands with a laugh and the nekomata took the opportunity to jump into my lap and curl up. Looking down at the nekomata, I gently rub below the cat's furry chin before running down its flank as it starts purring.
"I think that our current arrangement works well, Midoriko." I glanced up at her, "Although now that we have formally confirmed our friendship, I hope you are prepared to be told of any shortcomings."
"I wouldn't have it any other way, Nozomi." Sharing a soft smile, we fell silent, gazing at the nekomata as it happily warmed my lap.
"Has the cub given this little nekomata a name yet?"
"No, not yet. He was waiting for the 'Demon Priestess' to name her 'noble demon-cat'."
I snorted, "Unfortunately, I can hear the young Yanagi saying that. What are we doing with this cat?"
"Does the nickname bother you? Should I tell Hotaka to stop?" She glanced back behind us at his figure on the floor, "As for the demon cat… It seems pretty attached to you. We could take it along with us on our travels – it managed to do a number on you, at least."
I shot my hand out to give her a playful push on the shoulder, ignoring the slight pain that ran up my hand at the motion, "Hey. Too soon. The name doesn't bother me. Let the cub do what he wants."
"Are you going soft on me, Nozomi?"
"In your dreams."
"…Thanks for looking out for my brother, Nozomi."
I ignored the comment, letting it drift in the air for a moment before moving on, "We should call it Kirara." The nekomata mewed in response, which I chose to take as acceptance.
"That sounds like a good name."
The moments stretched on, and Midoriko yawned silently at my side.
"You should get some rest, Midoriko."
"I'm not-"
"You sure?" I grinned widely at her before Kirara drew my attention with her furious rubbing against my hand, "Because it looks like I'll be meeting your parents tomorrow."
"…You raise a very valid point. I'll take my brother back to his room and get some sleep." She stands up, straightening her clothes while doing so, "I would ask you to get some sleep too, but I'm sure you'd rather plot for tomorrow."
"Good night, Midoriko."
"Good night, Nozomi."
The priestess collected her sleeping brother, without disturbing him from his slumber, and quietly takes her leave. Throughout the night, I continued healing as much as I could before daylight touched the grass of the Yanagi residence.
"Well, Kirara." I gave the demon cat a gentle pat on the top of its head, "Welcome to the team, for now. At least we outnumber the humans two-to-one."
With the resulting mew, I waited for the humans in the residence to wake. Feeling strangely settled in the human house, I looked forward to discovering more about Midoriko's family.
O
The crisp air of autumn had an undercurrent of cold wind, alerting me to winter's closeness. The summer had passed quickly, with Midoriko keeping us in the village for most of the heated days, and the few times we left the village she had taken the shortest jobs available. Even that had been tentatively acquired by the priestess, at my fervent insistence of wanting to leave the human-infested area – and the hovering Fujioka – behind.
I put my hair up in it's usual style, tying the ribbons deftly as I waited outside of Midoriko's room, "Hurry up, Midoriko. Get the mud off of you and get geared up. We need to head out to this 'demon-of-demons' the old hags are talking about." My voice fell flat, even though my choice of words were better suited to a more playful tune. Midoriko's response was muffled but withheld the usual energy as our banter fell on disheartened ears.
My hands ran down my red fire-silk kimono, gifted to me by Midoriko over the autumn festivities (and seemed to be the reason she sometimes left the village without me). As my hakama was wrapped around my waist, the light and dark coloured floral designs that drifted down the lower half of the kimono were left unseen, as were the black lines that sprouted from the bottom of the smooth fabric like blades of grass. The sprinkling of star-shaped green leaves was also hidden from sight, completing the pattern. With the black fabric hiding much of the design (the bottom of my kimono sleeves still displayed the general premise of it), the plain red colouring made it seem like it was more formal attire – something that I liked immensely. The silk was free from the mud we had played in with the cub and Kirara earlier that day, thanks to the burst of energy that had cleared me of it moments after leaving the muddy battlefield.
How quickly this day had changed, I mused.
It had started with such mirth, a brief moment of respite as we played with Hotaka out in the forest. It was a simple walk, which soon turned into a mud-fight in the slick ground that had been pelted by the harsh rain for days on end. The frost had yet to set into the ground, not yet hardening from the cold… But as soon as we heard the news, approaching the gates of the Demon Slayer Village, the wind had seemed that much colder.
Souma Fujioka, the human who relentlessly pestered me when we were both in the village, and had made several attempts at getting closer to Midoriko – which I promptly ended… Had offered his body to demons, exchanging a conduit for all their energies in exchange for power. At first, I thought it was a joke that the humans had come up with: an underhanded one, for sure, but Fujioka seemed to rub people the wrong way. It was something the villagers all had in common.
It had happened so close to the village, too. Right underneath their noses, for the past couple days. Had their spiritually-gifted humans been unable to sense it? The change? Had they simply not known what it was?
…Even I didn't know what this was.
How could a human become the host for multiple demons? What kind of abomination would be created by such a combination…?
It certainly couldn't have been done before… could it?
Kirara's large head nuzzled me, forcing my worried fist to loosen as I gave the nekomata a scratch behind the ears, "Your right, Kirara. There's no need to worry: this is why they've demanded that the three greatest Demon Slayers take on the 'demon-of-demons' – though they seemed quite unhappy to admit that us two demons were a part of that trio."
My worry didn't disappear with the smoothing of Kirara's fur, however.
"Alright, let's be on our way to the cave. We have to stop it before Fujioka… Before whatever he's turned into has the chance to escape and cause damage." Midoriko stepped out from her room, fully clad in her armour, strapping her sword-filled sheath to her side as she spoke.
Kirara followed my lead as I stepped off the outer walkway that wrapped around the familiar Yanagi house, heading towards the middle of the garden before jumping on Kirara's back. The nekomata could fly, we had figured out shortly after we added her to our traveling party, and it was quite useful in closing large distances or making a hasty retreat during a rescue mission. But, the large teeth of our favourite demon-cat could pierce almost any demon hide with little effort, and so she also made a trusted fighting companion as well.
As Midoriko joined me on Kirara, who gracefully held our weight with the strength of firm muscle beneath the soft and often-smoothed fur, Hotaka called out to us from the home.
"Be careful, Midoriko, Nozomi, Kirara! Come home safe!" Peering behind Midoriko, his figure had come out from his bedroom on the corner of the house, and his hands were cupped around his mouth so that his voice could easily travel the distance between us.
Leaving the solemn tone behind, probably having heard from the others what we were leaving to face, the usual playfulness trickled through, "I know you will, Demon Priestess!"
Rolling my eyes at that statement in good humour, I sent him a wave as Midoriko called out her goodbye, and Kirara bounded into the clear sky.
The flight wasn't long: it wouldn't have taken long on foot to begin with… but with the unknown nature of what we were dealing with, getting there as soon as possible was safest. Soon, Kirara was slowly bringing us down in front of the limestone cave that lay just beyond the Demon Slayer Village: overlooking it as it was further up the slope of the nearby mountains than the village was. While the villagers new of it, as it was where the Demon Slayers had gotten some of their metals from before turning to repurposing demon remains, no one really went up this far anymore.
Kirara touched ground again with a growl, and I could feel that Midoriko's gaze was drawn to the same thing mine was: the opening of the cavern and the wretchedly dark energy that poured out of the darkness. It spilled out onto the grass that had found root in the rocky ground, and the grass had been sapped of its strength in a wide arc outside the maw of the cave and the beast that dwelt within.
We did nothing but stare into that darkness, as seconds passed by. I wondered if Midoriko was feeling as apprehensive about this mission as I was. If the hair on the back of her neck raised like mine did at the thought of it – as Kirara's did? I smoothed the fur down, quieting Kirara's growls in doing so.
Midoriko slid off the nekomata's back, and I soon did the same.
She approached the cave opening, stretching out her hands towards it tentatively before recoiling, "It's strong, whatever it is."
"We're stronger."
I'm not sure which kind of voice came from me as I said those words, but it seemed to ease Midoriko's mind. She quickly began making a barrier around the entrance, and as she worked, I slowly deciphered what kind of barrier was being constructed: something that would keep whatever was inside inside, and whatever was outside outside. It was a good failsafe, one that had me wondering if my words eased her at all: if we weren't strong enough, then at least this would stop it from coming out. Midoriko's ability to make enduring barriers would make sure of that.
The few minutes it took for her to erect the barrier were silent, and I told myself that it was because I was letting the priestess concentrate on her work.
"Ready, Kirara?" The large nekomata gave a growl in response, and her brown eyes turned towards me, "Ready, Nozomi?"
Walking up to her, Kirara not far behind, I placed a gentle, but firm, hand on her shoulder as I met her stare, "I'm with you until whatever end, Midoriko."
She nodded at my words and took a deep breath of the freshest air we'd see for a while before heading inside. I drew an arrow from my quiver, readying it against Katashi's bow and pulling the bowstring taught as I let Kirara enter behind Midoriko before closing up the rear. My breath clouded as I kept my eyes trained on the shadowed figure of the human priestess, descending carefully with the sloped path inwards. My energy filled the cave, providing me with insight as to where the more difficult terrain would be and being fairly sure-footed because of it.
Midoriko, with her human eyes, was sometimes caught on a rock or pebble, but managed to recollect herself before meeting with any unfortunate circumstance with navigating down to the miscreant's lair. After a while, her eyes seemed to adjust, and she deftly made her way down.
It was then that my energy expended enough for me to feel the writhing amalgamation of demons that formed into one, and the demonic stench that came from such a mixture was potent enough to have me wishing that I was back in those summer days, surrounded with the sweltering heat and the multiple humans casting dubious glares (at best) my way rather than this. It coiled and uncoiled, skittering over and under itself as it took up much of the large cavern up ahead. Many legs and arms and heads and other appendages stuck out from its winding body at odd angles, scales and fangs and claws decorating the flesh like the jumble of a human cub's unimpressive creations. It was the kind of thing that people drew on for an outlandish telling of a nightmare or fever dream, but all of the worst ones combined.
As Midoriko entered the miscreant's lair, even she, the stalwart warrior priestess, froze and stood completely still in the wake of such a terror.
Kirara seemed to be the least shaken of us, and I drew on her fierce growls to lead me into battle with a confident heart as I crept up behind Midoriko. My arrow focused its point on the largest part of the demon – its serpentine body – and as the miscreant writhed, I saw the human face of Fujioka fused into the underside of its scaly body. He was long dead, killed by the strain of having numerous demons inhabit his frail body, and from a long sniff that took more will than I ever though possible, I could tell that…
The numerous minor demons – the scents of which still lingered in the air – had all combined into the overpowering scent of a dragon demon: one of the more powerful demons to exist.
"Stay vigilant, Midoriko. Fujioka is no more: all that's left is a dragon demon forged from numerous lesser demons. Let's stick to the usual plan: learn its moves, and I'll Misdirect it eventually so that we can make this quick."
With Midoriko's nod, we began our hardest fight yet.
The priestess released her blade from its sheath, wielding it with a practiced hand as she quickly made her way closer to the demon, hacking at the gnashing fangs and grabbing hands that approached her as she went. Kirara took to the air, drawing some of the demon's attentions towards her and allowing Midoriko an easier path to the head as she bit down and tore off pieces of demon as she swooped in closer to the writhing mass before lifting up into the air once more.
I released my arrow, aiming directly for Fujioka's head in the hopes that it would remain a weak spot for the dragon. But as I saw my arrow sink easily into the human flesh, but delve no further, I concluded that normal arrows wouldn't even leave a scratch in the demon's toughened hide. Forming crystalline arrows of my own, I fired them one after the other: aiming for the body before the imbalance I had created in the energy that had made the structure caused it to shatter with Icicle Burst. The raining shards of eyes embedded themselves into long stretches of demon hide, causing a many-voiced howl to reverberate through the cavern. A few arrows I aimed up to the head of the demon (now occupied with the approaching priestess) but found that the closer I got to the head of the dragon, the tougher the scales became: which left my arrows unable to pierce it.
So, I focused on inflicting widespread, though minor, wounds on the main body of the miscreant. If my arrows weren't aimed with this task in mind, then they were fired from Katashi's bow with the hopes of aiding Kirara and Midoriko by disabling an unsuspecting limb making a move they wouldn't be able to dodge in time.
After a few hours passed in this way, Midoriko signalled to use Misdirection, and the cavern filled with a thick fog.
But instead of the single entity being trapped within, it seemed like the countless flailing parts settled inside the dragon demon's body moved on their own command. So, it was much harder to Misdirect all of them (as the focus was on disorienting the main dragon head as it was the greatest threat) and also provide Midoriko and Kirara with clear sight of their target and the dangers that surrounded them. That being said, it did manage to give us a decent advantage for two-three days (it was hard to keep track of time when battling a giant dragon-demon thing).
But when the fog faded, and the dragon demon's senses returned to it… that's when everything started going horribly wrong.
Midoriko was exhausted: three days of non-stop battle would be hard for a human, even of her caliber. Kirara and myself were even starting to slow down considerably, but I believed that we could still defeat the demon-mixture. Even if its spawning seemed to provide it with relentless energy – as it kept fighting just as well as it had when we had started this. We were damaging it, slowly, but steadily. Even though my own energy had been mostly used up with Misdirection, it couldn't take much more than what we had already done to it… right?
…It hadn't managed to hit one of us until the third day, where it hit Midoriko, hard.
I wasn't even sure what had happened: one moment she was fighting up close, the next she had been flung back towards me.
Then her arm landed beside me as I caught her figure.
She screamed out in pain, and as Kirara looked away to locate the source of said scream, the long body of the dragon-demon lashed up into the air and knocked Kirara out of the air. The nekomata skidded on the hard ground, transforming back into her smaller form as she reached our feet, hardly able to stand herself up again.
But, we could still win, right?
The energy I had pooled underneath the demon emerged in the form of large spikes of ice, using Arctic Assault to pin the demon's long body to the wall. The satisfying wails of the demon piercing my ears as the hardened ice ripped through most of its defensive armour before digging into one side of the body and out the other as it connected with the curved limestone wall. With that, my energy had pretty much been depleted. But I still steadied Midoriko before grabbing the arm that had been wrenched from her body with demon teeth. I knew I could reattach limbs shortly after they had been severed off, but not without a large pool of energy to draw from: one that I didn't have any longer.
Surely, we could still win, right?
Midoriko blankly stared at the demon as I gently grabbed what remained of the arm attached to her body, trying to call forth what remained of my energy to try and staunch the bleeding first, before I tried to attach any limbs with nothing. But, it seemed like I had nothing left to staunch the flow of blood to begin with. Midoriko took the arm from my hand, throwing the lifeless thing to the ground before bending to pick up the sword she had dropped in her pain.
"Leave it, Nozomi." She looked down to Kirara, "Kirara, head back to the village and tell them that the demon is slain. We'll take it from here."
Our companion looked from Midoriko towards me with a saddened look in her red eyes, but I nodded in agreement and she dejectedly limped out of eyesight. I heard the nekomata's transformation fail twice before the sound of the flash fire wrapping around her small frame and soon I no longer heard the paw steps dislodge any rocks on the return journey. The sound of the demon-of-demons writhing against my ice returned me to the present situation as it howled out again, in pain, as it did more damage to itself struggling to break free.
It would, eventually, but it would give us enough time to make a plan. I looked over at Midoriko, who had her eyes closed in concentration as she held up her blade. This time, she wasn't creating a barrier: she was turning her own blade into a sealing spell. According to what I knew of such things, it was a fairly short-lived one: it would only last a few days before breaking on its own. Such a seal needed contact with what needed to be sealed and wouldn't harm them physically. Many of the other priestesses in the village had threatened to do so in the beginning… and even up until last week – those old hags never learned. Was Midoriko giving us some time to rest and recover, while the demon was stuck inside the sword? It was a good idea, but…
"A sealing spell? You plan to seal the demon away for some time? Midoriko, what-?"
I wasn't able to finish my sentence. Due to surprise, due to shock… perhaps due to some mixture in between. I felt Midoriko's chest against my shoulder, what was left of her arm angled into my back as she pressed me closer to her and prevented me from stepping away. The warm blood quickly formed a wet trail down the side of my kimono and hakama as it the red liquid pooled against my body. It was only after a breath or two did I finally feel that cold metal had plunged into my heart.
"W…What?"
The blade was angled, and while it went through the skin of my chest just as the soft skin of my breast began, it came out through my back somewhere in the upper-half of my shoulder blade. It didn't bleed, didn't rupture any veins or break any bones… It simply passed through me. It was weightless yet bore down on me with a weight I hadn't experienced before. It did nothing, and yet I could feel that my being was started to bend around the blade: warping and shrinking and stretching and consuming and being consumed… But every time my eyes relayed the sight of Midoriko staring into me, glossy eyes reflecting my shocked face staring back into her, the feeling disappeared, and my feet found the floor and my body found its place in the world again. But, it didn't. And I feared that it never would.
Her mouth moved, but I couldn't hear anything except the ringing in my mind, drowning out her voice and the horror pinned to the wall. My eyes couldn't leave hers, searching for a reason that I couldn't hear, couldn't see. Couldn't feel.
She had let me go.
Her sword was implanted into my chest, and as she left me, her back turning as she steadily walked towards the dragon that had freed itself, I felt my world collapse on me again. My perceptions warped, my senses betrayed me, my feelings betrayed me, and as my lungs stopped drawing breath I could faintly hear my voice calling out over the loud ringing.
"WHY?!"
But my voice went unanswered: as I could no longer hear the answer. My legs buckled as they no longer found purchase on the ground, and my knees hit the hard floor before they, too, quickly lost sense of where they were in relation to the rest of me. In relation to the rest of the world, too. My head spun, and I felt that the feeling would match the twisting and turning of the demon-of-demon's serpentine body as it wrapped around the priestess before its mouth descended on her.
The blood on my kimono burned my skin, and I felt myself grow cold. Is this what it felt like to be cold, I wondered? To feel so muddled and confused, to not sense where my body started and stopped, and where the world began and ended? To feel this wretched… crawling thing spread under my skin and soon after having this blazing force consume its trail entirely and leave my insides hot and churning?
I closed my eyes, and that made the unnerving sensations of my body warping stop. But it didn't end the 'cold'. I was now falling. Falling into the blackness, unsure of what was up or down or left or right… because none of it mattered. I was falling, not fighting a demon, not looking into brown eyes, not seeing the heart-wrenching limp of Kirara. And so, I gave in, and stopped fighting the fall. And within my falling, I could sense the ground disappear from underneath me as the sound of metal clattering to the ground silenced the ringing. My last conscious thought was consumed alongside me: How quickly this day had changed.
But, as expected…
It didn't hurt.
Not physically.
*PLEASE NOTE*
*Shoji: A sliding panel that is made of thin paper in a wooden frame, used as doors, interior walls, and windows in traditional Japanese buildings.
*Tatami: Mats made traditionally from rice straw, and line the floors in older traditional Japanese homes.
*Engawa: The outer corridor that wraps around a Japanese home. They separate the shoji screens and the storm shutters (amado), which are used for security, privacy, and safety (especially against typhoons).
O
-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
xenocanaan: Thanks for leaving a review! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well! ;3
Demona Evernight: Hahaha, I know, I know... I want Sesshy to come in too, and he will! I promise! I've cut down on some stuff that didn't need to be put in just yet, and so he'll be coming into play sooner than you think! (I'm terrible at pacing xp)
ferallahey: Hahaha, sorry for the long stretches in between everything! Sometimes I get the urge to write this story, sometimes I get the urge to write others... sometimes I'm bogged down with 'adulting' (what even is that anyway?) and can't find the time to sit down for a good ol' writing session!
;3 There miiiiiight be more bad times for our favourite little snow-demoness, with lots of fire and whatnot. But, I wonder if we'll learn what kind of kimono Nozomi's rockin' out in now?
Hahaha, this made me crack up! Hotaka's a kid, and if there's one thing you should know about kids (especially ones like Hotaka): they don't listen. Eeeeespecially when there's something their interested in going on juuuuuuust out of sight.
I'm glad you liked Nozomi sticking around to wait for Midoriko: I thought it said a lot about Nozo's view on their relationship~
Bandits are dumb. While she does have that unnatural beauty and higher-end clothing... that can easily be miscalculated by the eyes of foolish humans!
flowermanga: Well, I hope you're still looking forward to what happens next~
O
So. This totally wasn't traumatizing to write. *sniff*. Not at all...
Anywayyyy...
Next time on the LSL, an Inuyasha fanfic...
Welp. Things couldn't be going worse.
COULD THEY BE GOING WORSE
What will happen now?!
Rule #1: NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY!
Will Midoriko be there when Nozomi breaks from the seal?
You'll have to tune in next chapter to maybe find out... :3
