Hello, I'm back. No it isn't because of the death threats, though they did play their part. In the end though, I felt gulty... at first... but then no one really reviewed so the guilt left. But it came back when Rory4 reviewed. So, in the end, I updated because of her(yes, I'm guessing you're a girl, and yes you were right about me.)So, stand and applause, she's the one who got you this chapter.
First Battle
Sesshoumaru stood in blur of emotion, each one spilling onto the other. Hate, fear, shock, and anger whirled together until only blind rage was left. Vaguely he was aware of Kirika's horrified gasp, and the half hiss half growl uttered from her very depths as she flexed her claws, ready to fight.
Ryo stood with Rin hanging limply from his hands, her torso bloodied her eyes wide in shock, but lifeless.
"You monster!" Kirika seethed, her back beginning to crouch, her hands being drawn back, ready to strike.
"Ah," Ryo drawled, a cynical smile spreading across his face as realization dawned upon him.
"So, this human is important to you?" Kirika's eyes widened in sudden fear. Ryo's smile broadened.
"Abomination's should know better than to care for anything, let alone something as weak as a helpless human child!" Ryo flung Rin to the side of him, causing her to land in a painful heap on the bushes beside a still unconscious Jaken.
Sesshoumaru's eyes flashed red at the action.
"I've searched long for you, and now I shall right the world with your destruction." Ryo flexed his claws, Rin's blood still fresh on them. Kirika narrowed her eyes as she prepared to charge.
"You fool!" Kirika snapped her head to the side only to see Sesshoumaru's anger bathed form.
'He's not-?' Kirika thought, afraid to finish her own thought.
"How dare you!" Sesshoumaru spat, his eyes covered by his bangs, making him appear that much more ominous.
"I will not let you escape here alive!" He said rising his head to stare at him through scarlet eyes, the stripes on his cheeks becoming more jagged and rough.
'He is!' Kirika though frantically.
'He's going to try and transform!' Images, memory's of their accidental hug flashed through her mind. Reminding her of his missing arm.
'But he can't! If he transforms then. . . then he could. . .' Kirika couldn't bear to finish her own thought.
"So you wish to fight me? In your true form no less?" Ryo said, turning his head to face an enraged Sesshoumaru.
"So be it, I'll kill you first." Ryo began to close the gap separating him and Sesshoumaru with frightening speed.
Panic rose up within Kirika as the wind picked up around Sesshoumaru and crackled with his youki. Kirika didn't think as she began to move.
"No!" She screamed as she threw herself in front of Sesshoumaru.
"You can't." She whispered, rising her face to look at him.
"Your arm, you'll die if you transform" Sesshoumaru looked down at her through his scarlet eyes, confusion evident on the youkai's face.
"You are unwise to turn your back to your opponent!" Kirika gripped Sesshoumaru's haori as she cried out in pain. Ryo chuckled, a joyous action turned sinister.
Kirika grunted as she shoved Sesshoumaru back and whirled around to face Ryo.
"I will make you pay for hurting Rin!" She snarled, her claws flexed. Ryo merely smirked in self assurance.
With lighting speed the two dashed forward.
"Light Strike!" Ryo bellowed as he slashed his claws across the air, sending the his attack hurling toward Kirika.
"Fire claws!" Kirika called out as she jumped in the air, blocking Ryo's attack with her own. There was a mighty flash of light as the two attacks met and collided. Kirika landed on the ground, still poised to strike.
"Behind you," Kirika spun around to see three lighting spirals headed straight for her. With a gasp she jumped back only to be caught in the blast wave of Ryo's attack.She screamed as she felt her body being pierced in different areas at the same time. She landed ten feet from the blast, the outer layer of her haori gone, and her body aching all over. Ryo's laughter sounded all her.
"I shall make you wish you were never born. Which is as it should have been in the first place." Kirika lowered her head, her hand gripping the hilt of her sword as a smirk formed on her face.
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He could feel his youkai blood taking over his senses, clouding his judgment. He could feel the anger within himself flow throughout his veins at the sight of Rin's lifeless body being tossed aside like a rag doll.
'Kill. . . kill. . . kill. . .' His youkai said over and over again.
'Destroy, killer, of kin!' It shouted at him. Demanding retribution for the death of his ward. A girl who had somehow weaved her way into his heart, a girl he had come to think of as a daughter. Yes, he loved Rin as if she was his own daughter.
His rage built and boiled over as he felt his own reasoning receed and the youkai take over. And then, a voice, like the sound of a night wind, broke through the rage, broke through the anger.
"You can't." She said in a whisper.
"Your arm, you'll die if you transform."
'Kirika.' His mind registered through his youkai blood. He heard her scream a second later, and then felt himself fall back. He stood like that for hours, or perhaps it was only minutes, before his youkai blood receded.
Sesshoumaru shook his head, returning to his senses in time to see Kirika thrown back by Ryo's attack.
Blood raged and boiled over once more within him. As he stared, time slowed and rage dissolved into fear, as he heard Ryo's cynical laughter, and saw him dive, claws extended, towards Kirika.
He didn't think, didn't pause, as he raced to her side. In one fluid motion he unsheathed Tokjin and send a wave of power towards Ryo's defenseless form.
Ryo gasped in shock as he saw Sesshoumaru's deadly attack heading straight for him. He screamed in pain as well as fury as Sesshouamru's attack hit him dead on. With a curse, Ryo dissolved into a ball of light and fled for his life.
Sesshoumaru lowered his sword as he narrowed his eyes upon Ryo's cowardly back, knowing that he had not seen the last of him.
"Rin!" Sesshoumaru wiped his head to the side, the unbearable feeling of not knowing commanding his movements. His eyes met with a vicious sight.
Kirika was bent over Rin's bloodied body, her body shock with a choked back sobs as controlled tears fell from her cheeks and onto Rin's bloodied face. Sesshouamru cast his eyes away, a well worn expression of nonchalant drifting over his features.
"Rin," Kirika said again in a softer tone, as she shook her head to and fro, trying to deny what she knewwas truth. Sesshoumaru lifted his head to stare at the moon's unblinking stare, trying to remain in control of his own overwelming emotions.
The moon's timeless glow went blurry, and with a shocked gasp, Sesshoumaru found it to be from his eyes watering.
'How could? She's just. . .' He thought in his head trying to understand, trying to harden himself. Wordlessly, a tear fell from his impassive face, then another and another, as he silently wept for the human whom he had come to love as a daughter.
Bu-Bump! Bu-Bump!
Kirka and Sesshoumaru both gasped and turned rigid, not daring to believe that what they heard was true, yet needing the lie to be true.
Bu-Bump!
No, it was true, they hadn't imagined it. Rin's heart was beating!
Kirika was bent over her bloodied form within seconds, her ear to her chest, listening for the precious sounds of life.
'She's alive. Her heart is beating.' Kirika thought wildly. Her heart beat again.
'Its faint, buts it there.' Kirika thought frantically, knowing that the thin threads that bound Rin's life to this earth were slipping away. She would die unless. . . Unless. Wordlessly, Kirika gathered Rin's lifeless body into her arms and began to rise, preparing to leave.
"Where are you going?" Sesshoumaru asked, his voice an indignant tone.
"I can save her." Kirika said, her back to Sesshoumaru.
"How?" He asked before he could reconsider.
"I have a scroll not far from here. It has within it secrets of healing. It could save her."
Sesshoumaru thought for a moment, his head lowered and his eyes closed.
"I'm coming with you." He said at last, drawing a sidelong look from Kirika. She nodded, showing understanding while at the same time giving him respect by not speaking aloud both their feelings for the girl.
"Jaken," Sesshoumaru turned his head in of search the toad.
"Here Sesshoumaru-sama!" The youkai's screeching voice called out from a rustling bush.
"Yes my lord?" He said coming to stand before Sesshoumaru, terrified that Sesshoumaru would punish him for Rin's condition.
"Go to the castle and have three rooms prepared for us."
"Yes," Jaken said, relived that he was not in any danger of his lord's ire.
"Right away Sesshoumaru-sama!" The toad screeched out while breaking into a full out run.
"Lets go." Sesshoumaru said as if she was the one delaying them. Kirika narrowed her eyes slightly before a small smirk tugged at the corner of her lips.
"I won't stop for you," She warned, drawing a shrewd look from Sesshoumaru in response.
"Try to keep up." She tossed over shoulder, her silent revenge that much sweeteras she broke out into a full fledged run.
They both ran with every ounce of strength they possessed. Towards a fleeting glimmer of hope that they both clung desperately to. Knowing that it could very easily vanish with the passing of each moment.
This thought, this dread spurred them on, both knowing that for that hope to fade, meant the death of a smiling star. And the death of this star, neither could bear.
And so they ran with the light of the moon on their shoulders, they ran with the whisper of night's air on their faces, and the blackness of death at their heels. Both ran to save the life of one they loved.
A/N
Well there you have it, and there it'll stay until I get five reviews. Nope, this time I will not back down from that!
Mr. Button, thou hast betrayed and decived me, and run mine heart aganist the ground. For thou hast taken on with a another, and abandoned me to mine sorrow. Thus I pray each day for deleverance, and that thou's lies may turn to shades of truth.