The Dark Rose
Chapter 2
Okay I am finally getting around to some of my more neglected stories…
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Kagome woke an hour before sunrise, fully rested; she dressed carefully and pulled her cloak over herself. She made sure she had not left anything of hers in the room and then concentrated and erased her energy signature and scent from the room, it would not do to have another youkai figure out who she was.
She quickly left the room then went to the bar where the wife of the owner was standing wiping down the counter, she placed a bag of coins on the counter and said, "I was never here."
The human woman nodded and quickly snatched the pouch off the counter.
The Dark Rose left the inn in the predawn, immediately leaving town, tracking the scent of the hanyou who was her target.
Meanwhile The Killing Perfection was awakening, he quickly cleaned up his campsite careful not to leave any sign that he had been there, then set off in the direction of his mark, he knew she was very adept at hiding her scent, however she seemed to have a habit of only removing the scent of what type of youkai she was, nothing more.
He smirk, this bad habit of the dark rose would be her undoing.
He glanced around the clearing as he brushed dust from his pristine white pants, and then flicked a strand of his silver hair over his shoulder, his gold eyes satisfied he focused on removing all traced of his scent from the area, once he was finished he turned his back on the clearing and headed in the direction The Dark Rose was headed.
Quickly he came to a village and sneered silently, he had also seen this disgusting habit of hers, of staying in a human village when she rested, he could tell she had stayed in this village for as he walked through it following her scent, it went straight to the inn and then had left already, though he knew he truly was not far behind her, for her scent was no more than an hour old.
His eyes narrowed, this would be easier than he thought, he simply followed the scent at his own pace.
Meanwhile the object of his hunt is hunting her own quarry, she crouches in the bushes watching the mother and daughter, who at the moment were fishing for something to eat.
Kagome focused on the mother for a minute, by the set of the kitsunes shoulders and the proud way this female held her head, she had once belonged to a noble family. The dark rose pondered how she had fallen in love with a human, they were inferior monkeys.
The young hanyou was much more proficient at fishing than her mother and already caught twice as many fish as her mother.
Both females were crouched in the stream and when Sakura stood up, The dark rose noticed something that the hanyou had been hiding in her scent, the hanyou was pregnant, how curious but the only males scent on either female was that of the hanyou's father.
Kagome narrowed her eyes as she put the pieces together, there had been more to this story than she had been told by the villagers. She stayed where she was watching the two, she almost pitied them.
She growled in frustration, she had a strict policy against killing pups and pregnant females, and the man who had hired her knew about this, he was truly trying to clean up his mess, not wanting to take responsibility himself, and if it came out that he had raped his own hanyou child for the sheer pleasure of it, he would be banished from the village.
She stood up and walked into the open letting the two females notice his presence.
Sakura and mother narrowed their eyes and immediately went into battle stances.
The dark rose simply looked at them and said, "If I had wanted to kill you I would have done so already, calm down."
Sakura's mother narrowed her eyes, "who are you and what do you want?"
Kagome responded, "I am the assassin hired to kill your daughter."
Sakura backed up a few steps at that, a hand going to her protruding stomach.
Kagome sighed audibly, "worry not I have a strict policy against killing pregnant women and small children, I was not informed of the whole story."
Neither kitsune relaxed, and Sakura replied, "why should we trust you?"
The black rose simply responded, "you shouldn't, especially if you have heard of me however right now I am the only one who will probably show mercy to you. Very few other assassins have the policy that I do, and will not take pity on your condition hanyou."Sakura's mother growled at the dark rose, "why are you telling us this, we cannot even scent you, other than a slight scent of roses."
The dark rose bowed her head slightly, "and you won't smell anything more. Do not get me wrong, I hate hanyou's as much as the next full blooded youkai, but I do believe they have a right to defend themselves, now to come to my point," she focused on Sakura's mother, "you are obviously of a noble family, what are you doing looking for support from a human?"
She sighed, "when he and I were together, he swore he would accept any child I had, though when I got pregnant, I ran off for fear of his rejection. My family found out I was carrying a hanyou and turned me out, we have lived in the wilderness for most of Sakura's life. She was curious about her father and finally I gave in and he pretended to accept her only to rape her when I had gone out of the village to get our things. He allowed us to stay with him for a time, until Sakura was found pregnant then he turned us out."
The dark rose narrowed her eyes, she did not like her current employer, damn incestuous bastard.
The mother continued, "I wish there was some way to get back at him, the village knew that once I was his mistress, honestly I was welcomed in the village, the humans are very tolerant of youkai here, well tolerant for humans."
The dark rose smirked in the darkness of her hood, "Would they believe your story?"
The mother nodded, "I believe they would."
The dark rose bowed slightly, "then the two of you go back to the village, I will assure your safety from the villagers and him just in case they decide to attack you, though you will not see me."
Meanwhile not too far off The killing perfection sat in a tree watching and listening to the conversation, thinking, she shows pity for them, she is weak.
As Sakura and her mother left to their cave, the dark rose swiveled and stared right where he was, "what do you want, and why have you been evesdropping?"
The Killing Perfection's eyes widened slightly and stood up meeting her eyes, or where her eyes should be considering she had her hood up and her face was shadowed, his cold golden eyes seeking to pierce hers, he stepped forward, "that is none of your business, hanyou lover."
The dark rose looked onto the male and audibly growled, "you know nothing of me."
He drew his katana, the sword Tokijin, "defend yourself if you can, dark rose, he rushed forward only to be blocked by her own katana, he smirked, she was sneakier than he thought, maybe this would be more of a challenge than he had first thought.
He backed up and the two fought back and forth, exchanging blows, he noticed the marks on her wrist, familiar he thought, that color.
Neither seemed to make any headway with the other, at the moment evenly matched, suddenly the killing perfection saw a slight opening and took it, grazing the side of her arm, she avoided losing her arm barely she growled audibly again, she was getting pissed now.
The scent of her blood reached his nostrils, even her scent was familiar, she was inuyoukai like himself, he smirked now to get that cloak off to get a look at her face, he had gotten hints of it during the fight, but before he killed her he wanted to see her face.
"What are you a coward, hiding behind a cloak like that, it hinders your movement and weakens you more than you already are," the killing perfection taunted.
She narrowed her eyes, she knew this assassin by reputation, he was ruthless and arrogant, and rightly so, however something about him was familiar, something she couldn't quite place, "we will see who is weak," with that she tossed her cape off her body, letting it fall to the ground, she took her stance again, "kill me if you can, killing perfection."
He smirked as she removed her cloak, "prepare to die," and rushed her again.
Meanwhile Sakura and her mother had come back to the sound of blades clashing, and seeing what was happening, they ran back to the cave, they would not interfere in that battle.
For the next few hours they fought, neither gaining an advantage over the other, neither tiring.
Finally the dark rose jumped away, and said, "this is getting us no where," still she did not put down her guard.
He smirked slightly, "very true," he replied.
The dark rose narrowed her eyes, "Why are you trying to kill me by the way?"
He shrugged, "I was hired to kill you, for killing the prince of south."
She quirked an eyebrow, "that pompous brat deserved to die."
"Hn, that matters not, they paid me handsomely ahead of time to make sure you died and I get twice the amount when I prove you are dead," he replied.
She rolled her eyes slightly, "the parents paid me to kill their son then, hire you to kill me, what hypocrites."
He quirked an eyebrow, "oh really, that is interesting."
She sighed, "since it seems we are evenly matched, I offer a truce for now."
He nodded, "that is agreeable," he then sheathed Tokijin.
She sheathed her sword, and went and picked her cloak up and put it around her shoulders and over her head again.
He watched her, "may I ask why you pity those two kitsunes and wish to assist them?"
She shrugged, "men who rape their own daughters bothers me, if she had not been pregnant I would have gone through with the job as planned, however I decided to watch and when I noticed the scents I found she was pregnant. I will kill any hanyou as long as they are not infants, or pregnant. I only give them that much chance at life."
He nodded slightly, "I see, your pity is going to get you killed."
She shrugged, "it hasn't killed me yet."He narrowed his eyes, "I can see that."
She bowed her head slightly, "now if you will excuse me, I have matters to deal with."
He glared, "you still insist on helping them?"
She growled, "that is none of your business."
He growled back but turned around and left.
She walked quickly towards the cave she knew the kitsunes were staying in and when she got closer she was assaulted by the scent of blood, she did not increase her pace, she kept walking and when she got there, she found that both kitsunes had had their necks sliced open, and were dead.
She growled, it seemed that the man had gotten impatient and had hired another assassin, and the only other assassin in the area was the killing perfection, she would not let him walk away from her this time, she would kill him for killing that unborn child.
With that thought she ran off, sensing constantly for the hint of aura that was the killing perfection's aura.
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