She was not awake, at least not on a conscious level just subconsciously aware, now her mind could discern the difference between the two states of being due to her numerous visits to the plane.
Her being took this in relief, as life always seemed to bring her here for the revelations. She had tottered between life and death often enough to know that the pain she was feeling, the pain that overwhelmed her sense enough to have her subconscious mind forbid her from waking, meant she was alive but just barely and that would be enough.
It would be enough for her to hold onto for a bit longer while she waited for him. Because he would come. He always did.
She could feel the deepest part of herself rejoice bitterly because even as she had spent the last decade learning to live without him, in spite of him, it would seem that she would always need him. Even if it were to only placate her soul before death.
She could feel a warmth settling into her now as she came to terms with the capriciousness nature of her being.
Sesshomaru.
"Sess…"
The battered woman moaned in pain as Serin continued to tend to her wounds in a calm and controlled state. It seemed no matter how much blood she tried to wipe away to close what wounds she could, more poured out.
She huffed in frustration; her hands were blood soaked, she was certain that they would be red for another life time as this woman's essence poured out of her like BLANK over BLANK.
The woman was hot to the touch, a fever coursing through her body with an unfrequented rage and although Seirin herself was not an easily disturbed woman, she found that her hands trembled with trepidation as she looked over her charge.
She was more than beaten; she was at the precipice of death and holding on with futile strength.
The bones that lined her stomach were broken as well as those on one side of her body. Her face was painted not unlike that of geisha but in bruises and blood, so hideously warped by the abuse that looking at her was a task in and of itself. As her lips pulled apart to let loose another moan, tears singed Seirin's eyes as she fingers twitched for her blade.
"Oohhh." the ghastly moan rang in the air and stayed there until it became stale.
Kohaku walked into the small hut they formed within a small cave.
"How is she?" Kohaku asked as he watched Seirin work over the battered woman.
Seirin flinched as if she had been struck, and sniffled, blinking back the tears and evidence of her mutiny.
"Not well. Her body is weak, broken in many places, and her breath is weak. I only know she lives by the slight rise in her bosom and by the heat that the fever spurs in her. She has lost much blood and were she to wake she would still need the best physicians in all the land and the favor of every Kami to breathe painlessly, let alone live a full life." Seirin explained morbidly.
Kohaku grit his teeth, damn those ogres to attack a young woman so brazenly without remorse. She never stood a chance; she probably fought for all she was worth and then some before finally succumbing to her wounds and their great strength.
Seirin watched as Kohaku struggled with his emotions at the news. His freckled face contorted into a mask of anger and sadness, one he did not wear in the face of all his comrades. Death was as much a part of life as breathing and every slayer would have to come to terms with this whether it was by choice or by force. For Kohaku, it was the latter; every death was like his first as he mourned for every life lost. Many would have said it was unbecoming of a slayer, of a man even but she knew better. It was because he had a greater understanding; it was because he truly knew the value of life, that no matter how many times he had watched it leave someone's eyes that his soul wept for them.
He was not like the other men who had allowed their hearts to grow as calloused as their hands. No he faced his emotions, his scars and his trauma each and every time because there was no other way to overcome them. It was his blessing and his most crippling curse, and yet she found that it was his greatest quality, his redeeming grace.
She shuddered as she felt her heart both yearn for him and his distress.
"Her death will not be in vain." Seirin breathed softly, "Yuichi and Kaito are following the beast to his campsite now, I'm sure, and she will have been a martyr for the people of these lands."
Kohaku felt his stomach turn at the thought of the already gruesome body before him, withering into a corpse. She could be a mother, a daughter, a friend, a sister.
"How long?" He muttered.
"Huh?" Seirin gaped.
"How much longer does she have?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"I am….unsure. Every breath is a moment of labored torment for her, I thought…..I thought…..I thought it would be best to.." The woman felt her nails dig into the cloth at her lap as she turned away from the slayer over her shoulder.
"To what?" Kohaku asked in a detached voice.
Seirin didn't reply.
"Her life, broken and fragile, lays in your hands and you think not to source a means of transport for her to see a physician but to send her to the next world." He continued. "This is your idea of mercy? Of heroism?"
Her head snapped up as she met his gaze with her simple life's truth. "We are slayers; we are called to restore order and balance, to protect the defenseless."
"And what protection are you offering her?" Kohaku refuted quietly now as to not disturb the battered woman.
She could feel her hot and heavy tear weighing down her lashes as she raised her gaze to his. "I'm sorry but-"
"Seirin," he started in a firm voice.
"Maaa" another ghastly moan reached her ears and sent a chill down her spine.
Kohaku's eyes flew to the woman's face and then away quickly, his stomach turning.
"Her pains must be great." Seirin told him.
"But this shows that she still lives, that she is still here, that she has been holding onto her life since her battle." He countered. "Seirin," he sighed, "It is not our place to determine whether her life after this trauma will be worth living. I assure you an able body is not the valuation of fulfillment after such things." he told her, speaking clearly form his own experience. "There's been enough death tonight, if she does die than let it because the Kami saw it fit, not because we saw it fit." he muttered.
Seirin felt a bolt of energy run from the top of her head to the tips of her toes as he addressed her with such familiarity.
"Yes." she agreed in a breathless voice.
Kohaku turned to leave and could feel the heavy atmosphere in the small area take its toll. He could feel Seirin's eyes on his retreating figure, in the way he knew many of the slayers looked to him and truly he hated it. The way they looked to him like a leader, like a man that could do no wrong, as if he were not the very same boy he had always been. Yet these were his people, his charges, and his responsibility.
He turned back to face her, "You are not inhumane in your way of thinking." he told her. "Your compassion honors you. If….if she…" he struggled to say the words.
"I understand." Seirin said softly. "I will do what I can or what I must."
He left the makeshift hut abruptly then, unable to remain under such an incredible weight.
"Kami, help us." he choked.
No sooner than the words had left his lips a menacing snarl shattered the serenity of the night and tore at the sanctity of the mental safeguard of all those who heard before a vacuum of silence enveloped the area.
The terror the utter terror. Yuichi and Kaito pushed their legs against the face of the earth with such vicious strength that their muscles burned and legs ached at the treatment, and yet it they were nowhere near the speed they wanted to achieve as they ran from the heart wrenching sight they had beheld.
That sound was not one that belonged to an injured or hunting animal, no. It was the sound of the underworld tearing into the plane of mortal existence in fury.
The slayers were ordered to disperse into teams in order to gather information. They were by no means to approach the threat if they came upon it for if such a creature could rattle the earth with just a sound; its power would be too great a team of two men.
Four of the slayers stayed behind to protect their makeshift grounds as both Seirin and the battered woman were in their care, and due to their odd numbers Kohaku was alone running in the direction of the river they had been at this morning.
He gripped the hilt of the scythe at his side and hoped for a miracle.
Nothing. They found nothing. Kohaku sat before the flames with the cave and watched as his exhausted comrades recuperated their lost sleep from the night's vigilance.
Nothing. They had spread out in ach direction and found nothing but wastelands where it seemed nothing aside from nature and her disasters abided.
"What will we do now?" one of the slayers had asked in the early morning when they had all returned and been accounted for with the exception of Yuichi and Kaito.
"We have found no evidence of anything. We can do nothing for now. We must stick to our task here. Seeking out more battles will be futile." He told them.
"And what of Yuichi and Kaito?" asked another.
"We wait for their return as promised. If by nightfall they've not returned, then we will find them." He swore. "Rest now, we need everyone at their best."
He could understand their concern, that was no ordinary sound last night, one did not have to be a slayer to understand that the sound was one that would foretell of great destruction, of untold brutality and devastation. No, it was quite clear what that was and though he didn't want to believe that it was the sound their enemies could make, he steeled his resolve knowing that one way or another they would find out and so there was no need to rush. None at all.
It was then that Yuichi and Kaito burst into the small cave and collapsed onto the earth, gasping for air and tearing at their own clothes and masks as if they were being consumed by poisonous flames.
None too soon they were being aided by their comrades, fed water, and lightly stripped of their outwear.
Kaito choked on his water in an attempt to guzzle it down and speak at once. Kohaku watched wide eyed as two of the strongest men he looked met his gaze with uninhibited fear.
"Demon." Kaito coughed.
"What demon?" Kohaku and the other men urged. Seirin listen attentively as she tried to place small herbs, oils, and bandages on the men.
"A foul murderous beast," Yuichi wheezed grasping at his chest as his chest stung with the effort of his escape. "White with blood red eyes, the size of mountain, came down upon the ogre camp with great power and fury. Unholy rage."
The slayer muttered amongst themselves.
"A white demon with red eyes?" Kohaku echoed.
They nodded, "What else can you remember? What did figure did it have? That of a man?"
Yuichi wheezed and coughed as he shook his head no.
"An inu demon." Kaito said slowly, "I am sure of it. The ogres must have slighted him somehow."
Every single last hair on his body stood at attention.
"A dog demon? You are sure of this?" He asked them.
They didn't answer as they worked to catch their breath but he could not wait, Kohaku grabbed one by his shoulders and rattled him.
"Are you sure?!" He asked again in panic now.
"Yes!" the other shouted. "It was like nothing I had ever seen, ever felt. That kind of evil cannot be in the shape of a man. The kami would not allow it."
Oh but they would Kohaku knew.
He stood on unsure legs and walked with slow and measure steps towards the makeshift hut within the cave, where the battered woman lay. The other slayers continued to tend to their brethren while Seirin followed Kohaku curiously.
He fell to his knees and with the tenderness of a mother or father, he lifted the small broken woman off the ground and pulled at the blood soaked kimono stuck to her skin until part of it fell from her shoulder and hit the ground with a wet thud.
Her shoulder and breast were exposed to him now but he did not blush or seem to notice, though Seirin did. He gently held her shoulder and looked at her naked back which was littered with teeth marks and scars.
Seirin gasped in horror.
"What could've-"
A choked sob ripped through the pregnant and labored air.
"Rin." Kohaku cried. "Rin!"
