This chapter was Beta read by akasoeki.
Chapter Sixteen: Balance and Disruption
The Theory Behind Unraveling:
Fighting a spell caster requires a different set of tactics than fighting an opponent who specializes in corporeal attacks or energy powered techniques.
Because of the delicate balance that exists between a spell equation in corporeality, its far easier to unravel the weak points of an oncoming spell and twist your opponent's attack to suit your needs than to summon up a counter-spell, if you're quick enough, that is. The options are limited to your own imagination and your ability to break and twist the inner workings of the spell while adding your own wishes in at a balance to the base equation. Unraveling can be quite dangerous for two reasons: One, if you aren't strong enough to unravel the equation in the first place, you open yourself up to a full attack by the spell. Two, its possible to bring such imbalance to a spell equation that instead of killing your opponent, you take yourself out as well. One must use caution and care when putting this theory to practice.
The most common uses for Unraveling Theory are as follows:
1. Fraying- Breaking the spell and adding in whatever symbols and bits of equations that will cause it to either fizzle out, render it ineffective, or send it back to your opponent. The key is to imbalance the equation just enough to meet your goals and no more.
2. Turning- Like two opposing waves with push and pull, turning is changing the equation to something else completely. For instance, Caster A sends a fireball at Caster B who unravels the spell and neatly brings balance back into it, turning it into ice shards, which then go back and attack Caster A. Caster #2 not only rerouted the attack, but she didn't spend more energy than it took to exert her will. Caster # 2 could have turned the spell into anything she could build from the base equation, so depending on what spell you're working with, there are many options that can come of it.
3. Disruption- This is the highest level of Unraveling Theory. Disruption requires one to cloak themselves in prismatic energy and become the tool of unraveling themselves. The prismatic energy acts as a scrambler, jumbling the equation to a seemingly random imbalance that could do anything from turn a pebble into a tree or cause an explosion of Fugue energy that kills everyone around. Disruption is the hardest to defend against, but its also the most effective against the Broken Ones.
Yusuke watched closely as Hiei tolerated Sarai's presence at his side. He'd been sure the volatile demon would send her running back to the group, but for all his scowling and the bite in his tone, she seemed to shrug it off with little thought. Judging from her posture and stance, she even seemed a little excited. Tension seemed to build between the two sides until it finally snapped.
Yuki darted forward, sending a lash of black lightning streaking towards Sarai. As her barrier dropped, the taller woman seemed to glow faintly with that strange prismatic light that was made of up her energy, she batted the lightning away with the back of her shining fist before darting forward and meeting the other woman in hand to hand combat. As Sarai twisted, jumped and dodged the raking attacks of Yuki's fan, Yusuke realized that Sarai moved faster and with more dexterity than she'd been capable of during their time on Genkai's mountain, even after that damn ninja's training.
Before he had time to voice his confusion, Seiryu powered up his ice attack and sent it streaking towards Hiei, who deftly dodged as well. Between the four opponents fighting it out in front of him, the battlefield was like one big mosh pit, complete with rowdy punks and a colorful light show.
I had activated the scroll artifact I'd won in my fight with Daisuke on the walk forward to Hiei. It was a simple link spell, one that I'd masked, but I needed the extra strength, dexterity, and agility to give me an edge. If Yuki was going to get involved, I couldn't let Hiei face the pair alone, no matter how strong he felt to me. He just didn't know what he was up against and I wasn't willing to let the former Scarred Daughter empower the bastard who'd taken her.
With each kick, dodge, and punch we threw at each other, I felt like I was starting to recognize a pattern. She was cocky, confident that she could overtake me because of what she sensed from my energy signature. Clearly, living here for so long without real training had dulled her senses. Yuki was powerful and vicious, more than once she'd made to rake out my eyes with her fan, but she lacked the foundation Takara had forced me through over and over during our six month stint of nightly training sessions.
After a minute or two, she overextended when she tried to swipe at my face. I used the moment of vulnerability to gather prismatic energy into my fist and punch her right in the nose. I watched as she sailed backwards and through the wall with a crack and a puff of dust.
There wasn't time to comment, an inhuman snarl came from the shadows before Yuki stepped back out and shook the debris from her hair. Her pretty face was twisted by a slightly unhinged expression, "How dare you, you insolent bitch!"
Oh, I flashed her a dark smirk, someone has a temper problem. I pulled on my memories of Yusuke and Hiei, striking the cockiest pose I could come up with, "Oh, come on, if we're going to start name calling, could you use your imagination a little. Something like," I focused on her face, "I'd call you a cunt, but you lack the warmth and depth..."
I think I heard Kuwabara fall over in shock, but it was Yusuke's voice that echoed out with laughter, "Oh, nice one."
"You crass little whore!" Yuki yelled before summoning up volatile black energy in her hand. I slipped into a partial fugue state and quickly examined the equation she'd built.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much of one to speak of. It was mostly pure, rage filled intent to harm. Focused as I was, though, I did sense her attention flicker when Hiei's sword slid through Seiryu's torso again. Half the energy she'd gathered broke off and disappeared before the other half came streaking towards me.
As I dodged out of the way, I could sense Seiryu's injuries already healing. So, she get's around her lack of knowledge with pure intent...This was going to be a rough one.
Kurama split his focus between the two fights. The girls were fresher and relatively unscathed, neither of them landing decisive blows. Hiei was fine as well, shaking off the ice when it managed to hit him and moving on without injury. Seiryu looked the roughest, his purple blood smearing across his form, but any time Hiei landed a good blow, the Dragon healed within seconds.
When Sarai's banter turned crude, it took him a minute to figure out what she was doing before it all made sense. Yuki was easy to provoke, and the outraged woman made mistakes that could be exploited. It also seemed super effective at making Kuwabara sway on his feet in shock that "such vulgarity came from such a pretty girl..." Kurama admired her reasoning, even if her tactics were...bold.
The fox demon analyzed the battle and flinched just a second before Yuki landed a nasty looking swipe with her fan, clawing strips out of Sarai's hoodie and into her flesh underneath. Sarai retaliated by kicking her foot straight up under Yuki's chin, her hand balanced on the ground and supporting her body before she flipped all the way around and she stood in stance again. Now they were both bleeding. While the blood seemed to turn Sarai's countenance icier, Yuki lost what little restraint she held as soon as the blood gushed over her mouth and down her chin.
"You stupid little slut," Yuki spat. "You will die screaming." There was such malice and hatred in her voice it was hard to believe this creature was once the younger sister Kurenai had fought so hard to save.
"But not before I break your heart..." her gaze had flickered towards Hiei, but then turned and locked onto Yusuke, Kuwabara, and himself. When she pulled out a large, strange looking potion bottle, Kurama's eyes narrowed. The bottle was flung at them, but before he could react he heard Sarai scream something. There was a deafening crack of thunder before a bright light flared around them, effectively dazzling him for the moment.
Poison! I had just enough time to teleport in front of them before the bottle crashed into my back, dousing me with it's contents. Half a second later I felt a pulse shudder through me and slam out of my palm, creating a barrier before the splash of corrosive liquid could get near the boys.
Something foreign invaded my consciousness and it reminded me of Byakko's rebirth, only this spirit felt different. I felt a great defensive strength residing in the barrier and the wisdom and cool analytical processing that flowed through my brain. It was a male presence. The pulse grew and repeated with each breath I drew until it was it's own heartbeat. Prismatic energy swirled blindingly through my mind as Genbu was reborn.
"I will protect your friends," his voice was deep and heavy with experience, "Destroy the corrupted Daughter." His spirit stayed in the barrier, protecting the boys while my attention was pulled away by Yuki's delighted laughter.
"Oh, how precious! I meant to kill your friends, but it looks like I got you instead. It won't take long now, the Demon Venom in that is quite potent..." she trailed off when I started laughing.
The corrosive poison had already eaten through parts of my hoodie and my shirt; those two layers had to go, or I'd lose my chest wrappings as well and I wasn't about to walk through a demon infested castle with no support for the girls. I slid out of the affected clothing, wiping the excess poison off of the back of my neck and arms before throwing the ruined material to the ground and facing her in nothing more than my jeans and the wraps that covered me from the bottom of my shoulder blades to the middle of my ribs in the back, it was higher in the front, binding my chest and covering my ribs. The affected clothing fumed and slowly disintegrated by my feet.
The undershirt had been the last thing I'd made at Genkai's. It had a single purpose, to dampen my energy signature so I could focus on other things. With it off and destroyed, my true energy readings were on display for everyone in the room to sense.
"You may have missed the memo, dumbass, but it'll take a lot more than your shitty poison to bother me." It was easy to pretend that the stinging sensation crawling across my skin like road rash didn't exist, or that the darkness overtaking my vision wasn't even a worry. The shit was weak in comparison to Black Death and I had faith that my system would either right itself or that I could take care of it with a healing spell when the fight was over. For now, it was quite satisfying to watch Yuki's face twist from confusion to rage as I went on the offensive, although I had to switch to my awareness after the light left my eyes.
I would only be able to benefit from Genbu's incredible power for a short time. I needed to end this thing before that. Whereas Byakko had given me strength, dexterity, and a touch of feline grace, Genbu had my brain working on overdrive at levels I didn't know were possible outside of full immersion in fugue state. I found myself casting simple, offensive, energy based spells to keep her on the move, pushing her into a dangerous area near the boy's fight. At the same time, another part of me was reaching into fugue and pulling out more complex symbols, silently building a beautiful, chaotic equation that writhed and bucked through my senses.
We shot right through the middle of Hiei and Seiryu's battle. Yuki barely dodged one of Seiryu's ice blasts, shattering her fan in the process. Some instinctive jerk in my subconsciousness had me jumping in the air and twisting right over Hiei's blade as he made a horizontal slash at Seiryu. Neither of us paused a millisecond in our pursuit of our prey.
Once I'd cornered her she fought back with the viciousness of a wild animal and I had to stop sending weak attacks at her in order to dodge or throw her own energy back at her. One particularly vehement crack of red lightning managed to sneak through my defenses and connect, sending jolts of pain through my senses. I had to reach deeper into fugue to keep from losing control of the volatile equation I hadn't finished balancing. The force of it shoved me backwards and I lost my balance on a patch of ice Seiryu had created earlier in battle.
She pounced on me then and all decorum seemed to fly right out the window as we punched and clawed at one another. When her elegant bun fell into dark tendrils around her face, I yanked on them, trying to swing her off of me like a yo-yo. When she did go flying, my fist was still gripped around chunks of her black, silk hair. I grinned in triumph as the final elements to the equation were put in place.
Yuki didn't have time to respond. Hiei landed several strikes on Seiryu and she was forced to throw concentration and energy through their link spell to keep him alive. Here it comes, with a light touch I flicked the thought at Hiei before monopolizing on Yuki's inattention.
Hiei focused on his own battle, but his senses were also on the two women as well. It made sense to keep a wary eye on the battle around you, lest you get stabbed in the back. The woman, as it turned out, had some training, but her lack of experience would have been easily exploited by a battle hardened demon such as himself. Standing against Seiryu's witch, though, she was determined, vicious, and played dirty; it wasn't something he'd expected.
As the battle went on, he got to see her rumored teleportation skills as she literally flickered out of existence only to reappear much closer to where he and Seiryu were fighting, about fifteen feet from the two other humans and Kurama. The battle seemed to pause for a moment as even the dragon looked over curiously to see what had caused the clap of thunder.
The smell hit him first, nauseatingly sweet and tinged with a sour note, like decaying flowers, it was most definitely a poison. The girl had put herself in harms way to save the others. The situation irritated him and he launched into a volley of new attacks, forcing the Dragon to expend mass amounts of energy to keep the faster demon and his deadly blade at bay. He knew she was alive, and pissed, because her energy level suddenly skyrocketed to a level that refused to be ignored. The next time he'd seen her she'd been twisting through the air over his blade, disappearing from his line of sight as she chased her pray right through his battle. It had been enough, though, for him to notice she seemed to have lost her shirt.
Here it comes, the impression came from a warm, feather light brush over his energy and he knew she was going for the kill. From the corner of his eye, he saw that strange prismatic light cover her skin. The colors were more vibrant, almost searing to look at. She leaped forward, but instead of watching, he focused on Seiryu. He actually felt it the moment the previously unknown link between the Dragon and his witch was broken. A pulse traveled through the room and the Dragon's cold eyes turned furious. Hiei moved in the blink of an eye, slicing Seiryu multiple times before landing on the other side as if he'd done little more than blink in and out of existence.
Seiryu's body exploded in yellow light. "When did he attack?" the idiot asked.
"Don't feel bad, I couldn't see after the initial hit either," Kurama offered.
"Shorty is a lot cooler than I thought!" the idiot praised, "Sarai-san too!"
"Hiei, how many times did you cut him?" Kurama asked after they all walked over to him. Hiei noticed Kurama was holding a small turtle with a shiny black shell.
"Only sixteen," he responded.
"Man, if you use moves like that when we fight, I'm gonna be screwed," The Detective's tone bordered on whining, but he was quite impressed with the demon's skill.
"Maybe..." Hiei turned away.
"I thought for sure he was gonna say, 'Well of course you fool!'" The idiot threw in.
"Hiei is going through a tricky change. It appears he's beginning to like you," Kurama looked at Yusuke while he was speaking.
Hiei grabbed his cloak and then walked over to the woman, the others noticed for the first time that she was lying quite still against the wall, blood slowly pooling out from her injuries.
The unraveling equation cloaked around me like an unruly, second skin. Yuki was completely distracted in her attempt to save Seiryu once more and I coldly took advantage of that. It took a single touch for the disruption spell to rocket through her spirit, shattering the link between them and tearing at her soul. The backlash of energy was more than I'd been expecting and I was thrown into one of the frozen walls. Whatever she'd done to twist her spirit so she could live on through the years reacted violently when touched directly by my prismatic light and she was killed in the process. I hadn't been expecting that.
My head hurt from the impact, as I'd hit with my face. I couldn't move, could barely catch my breath, and I was too stunned to use my awareness to see. I could barely hear the others talking excitedly.
"Shorty is a lot cooler than I thought!"
"Sarai-san too!"
"Hiei is going through a tricky change. It appears he's beginning to like you."
"Oh, crap, Sarai!"
"What's on her back?"
Yusuke flashed through my mind as someone turned me over, but it wasn't his voice that whispered, "No MERCY for the DAMNED." Bad words, bad words that brought pain and death.
The dreaded words made me shiver uncontrollably and I pulled away from the hands, lashing out in fear as I tried to get away from what I could not see, confusion and panic muddling my consciousness.
There was a comforting heat to the left and I shoved myself backwards at it in order to get away. Hot hands came down to grip my shoulders, keeping me from falling over "Calm down, woman."
The command had been soft spoken, but firm. I recognized the voice, but couldn't place it. Thinking made me want to cut out my brain, which seemed to throb and pulsate with painful color bursts shooting through the back of my eyes. The grip on my shoulders tightened marginally before letting go. The comforting heat was still pressed into my back, so I did little more than shiver once at the absence of direct touch.
"Guys, I think she's blind..." that raspy, deep tone brought to mind something pure, but the label was missing. "And I don't just mean her eyes...her head feels all funny..."
"Get Takara from her bag." That was a new…no, old voice. I should know that voice. "She's running on instinct."
Kurama had taken the turtle when the barrier had flickered out of existence and the little spirit had floated over him. It coalesced into a black turtle no bigger than the palm of his hand and he knew as soon as it touched him that this was a true aspect of Genbu.
The battle was over and the boys were excited at Hiei's impressive finish. He'd gone over too, wondering how many of those sword strikes he'd missed with his eyes. The levity hadn't lasted for long though, Hiei had drawn their attention to Sarai, who was not faring as well after her fight.
As they neared, the scent of the poison became stronger again and a knot of anxiety tightened in his stomach. She had lasted longer than expected, but she would probably be dead within minutes.
Yusuke went to move the poor girl off the wall so she could lay flat on her back and as he did it was Kuwabara who asked, "What's on her back?"
Kurama frowned. "No mercy for the damned," he translated. From the way the lines looked and the multiple score marks for each letter, he could tell a dull, crude tool had been used to cut her, "Its written in English." It was placed over her shoulder blades in such a way that it would have been impossible for her to do on her own. They were deep, jagged things that looked painful even after years of healing.
Yusuke had been trying to help her, but Sarai jerked away suddenly, pushing at the boy and moved backwards. It was then they saw the milky fluid, the same color as the poison, draining from her eyes, clouding them. She slammed into Hiei's legs as she tried to escape. Hiei blinked and steadied her to keep her from flailing about or hitting anyone, she nearly instantly stilled under his touch.
Kuwabara mentioned what he sensed from her and then Genbu spoke, startling them all as he ordered them to get Takara, "She's running on instinct. The reasoning portion of her awareness is trapped in fugue state, which shut down because of the backlash when she destroyed Yuki." Kuwabara trotted over to do as the turtle bid.
"Do you have an antidote for the poison, Kurama?" Hiei asked.
Kurama shook his head, but didn't speak as Kuwabara returned with the gem encrusted spell book that would have made even Yoko give an excited little smile.
"Put it on her lap, Hiei. She doesn't seem to be fighting you," Genbu suggested.
Kuwabara just held the book out to the shorter demon who narrowed his eyes at the turtle, snatched the book and dropped it right into the girl's lap. She jumped again, blindly looking back up at him, but showing no signs of actually seeing.
The book seemed to start humming and after a second Sarai grabbed her head, wincing in pain. "Don't worry," the turtle said, "Its painful, but in a minute or so it'll clear off the confusion lingering in her skull. I'm afraid she got a little too ambitious with the power I let her borrow," he finished by muttering, "Kids these days..."
"Hurry up, woman."
Pretty lights were dancing all around me. It was like the best part of Christmas, only warmer and alive in a way the corded lights that decorated houses and trees could never be. They moved freely in different currents, some swirling about me in circular eddies, others shooting up or down or cross ways.
It was like floating in zero gravity with prismatic diamonds glittering all around me, moving through me, bouncing off of each other. Sometimes same colors merged to make a bigger spark of color, only to come apart and zoom off on separate paths. Sometimes different colors came together, sparking a whole new color and purpose, to dance around and get lost in the dazzling brilliance around me.
There was warmth at my back, a comforting blazing heat that reminded me of molten things like hot coals and dragon's breath, or the intensity of a small star. Rather than be burned by it, I basked in it like sunshine, relishing the "rightness" of it.
Time didn't matter in this place. I simply existed with no goals, no drive, no pressing matters. This place was for me, for my entertainment and happiness. I could just float here and nothing bad would ever happen. Everything was going to be okay. Everything was perfect and good. Existence was blissful, radiant, and eternal.
After a while, I noticed a strange little thread of the prismatic colors. It vibrated urgently, but I couldn't fathom its purpose, or its hurry. This place was meant for slow things, for thinking and for relaxing. No urgency here. That wasn't peaceful.
Still, it was a curious little thread of light. There were more black and white lights in it than glittering prismatic color. It pulsated and searched around for something, as if lost. I could feel it's intent, calling out silently for something...or someone.
Who was it looking for in this place? This place was mine. Was it looking for me? I drifted lazily towards the thread, but stayed far enough back from it. Closer up I could feel this hum, the light was vibrating together like a song I'd forgotten in my childhood. Like some half remembered melody and I could just taste the words on the tip of my tongue. I floated just a bit closer as I tried to figure out what it reminded me of.
Some unheard command seemed to ripple and radiate from the heat. Come back, it seemed to say with an impatient ring. I knew it did not mean to the heat because it traveled with me. Was it talking about the thread? My arm snaked out, reaching forward to the wriggling, searching thing.
The thread seemed to sense me when I got close and coiled around and through me like a needle and thread. I was yanked out of the bright light and shoved back into reality with a searing pain shooting straight through my skull as the two halves of my consciousness collided with a magnetic like pull.
When my eyes finally cleared, I found I was sitting on the ground and looking up, staring straight into Hiei's crimson eyes. I was leaning back against his legs. He was the hot thing I'd felt even through fugue. Takara had been the thread of song.
A/N: One more chapter to wrap up Saint Beast arc and we're off to new things when I get around to working on them, lol. Hope you're all enjoying the story still, I have plans all the way through the series as well as some interesting bits for afterwards. Originally, the Double Duel in this chapter wasn't my plan, but Lou was a fan of the idea and so I tried it out. There are more short secondary pov moments in this chapter, which I hope isn't too annoying, but I kinda like having those brief glimpses from the others here and there to offset whatever it is Hiei and Sarai might be missing. Please leave a review, let me know how the action came off or if Takara's spell theory stuff was too boring or confusing or anything like that.
Check out the /snevillywoods facebook page if you wanna chat or ask questions. I'd like to make a video about working on TMP, so I'm really interested in what sorts of things the readers think about or would like to know.