Song for Chapter:
My Demons - Starset
Chapter Eighteen: Savagery
"Yomi, do you really believe it is such a good idea to do this? They will retaliate with a vengeance I fear we will not expect."
"Kurama, don't be foolish. I know what the outcome will be. I'm hoping for it." The slither of a smile that came to the blind king's face was discomforting at best. The redheaded fox to his side nearly stepped away, but a rage that bubbled in his heart kept that from happening. "One month, my friend, and the tides of war will change."
"We are already winning," the fox murmured gently, though the ever-calm disposition of the King of Gandara was unwavering. "I see no use in provoking Yusuke further. You've realized how he gets when put under pressure."
"I'm afraid that such a subject matters little to me. I want to take that boy down when he is at his peak, not now when he is not fighting to his potential," he explained, sipping on his steaming cup of tea. Though he did not care for the substance, the drink was soothing and just what he needed. "Besides, I don't plan on killing all of them. It is merely precautionary tactic and something to rile up their troops."
'Somehow, I doubt that,' Kurama's thoughts added in before he really knew it.
'The blind fool lies. He is planning something he does not wish to share with us,' Youko continued. 'Be wary of him, Shuichi. It might be you he is after.'
'I'll be ready if it is.'
~:.:{Oh You Take All Of The Pain Away}:.:~
Youki bubbled within her gut, trying to force its way to the surface, only to meet the restricting sizzle of enchanted shackles. Her low growl was weak, pained, and her belly begged for food.
She had lost count of the days, but she was sure it was over a week that she- and her companions- had been trapped in this place. Still, the demoness had no word on her brother or Izume, but she knew he lived. It stood to question whether he was shackled, as she was, or if he had managed to escape the demon onslaught that had ravaged their group.
"Damn it," she groaned, letting her head slump against her chest. The weak feeling in her bones was from the lack of food- which had only come a few times during their captivity- and the depravation of water. Even as a youkai, she needed both to survive.
"Ava," whined a soft voice from further in the darkness. Her eyes had long-since adjusted and she could make out Shoichi clearly, "Ava, stop straining yourself. We'll get out of here."
"But when, Shoichi? Perhaps when we cannot stand, let alone fight? My body grows weak and I am a dai youkai, a full demon! Surely you must be near death by this point!" Her frustrations were not meant to be spread onto the spiritually aware human, one that did not carry the dormant gene of the Mazoku as his sister did, but she could not contain it any longer. "We are dying and you are closer than I am!"
"I know." The tone she had wanted, expected, was not given, and instead of anger she was faced with remorse. "Ava, if I don't make it out of here-"
"Shut your mouth now, Sho. We'll make it, remember?"
"No, listen. If I don't make it out of here, tell everyone I love them. Especially Mom, Dad, and Izu, would you?"
"Sho-"
"Promise me."
Avaron swallowed the lump in her throat, though it did little to help without any saliva to wash it away, "Yes, I promise."
"That brings me peace," he mumbled, head falling back against the stone and a sigh erupting from him.
He would die, and very soon. He needed food, water, and fresh air, lest his body fall to ruin. She could only hope that Izume and Yuji were holding up better than they were, wherever the two might be.
~:.:{They Wanna Break Me And Wash Away My Colors}:.:~
This was it; he was dying. His blood had nearly dried up and his body was ragged, but he would not let them get to her. Izume was special to him and he refused to allow these cretins to harm the Mazoku female.
"STOP!" This was the repetition that came from her mouth daily now. He was being tortured again, beaten senseless by anything their captors could get their grubby fingers on. "He's dying! Can't you see he's dying?!"
A cruel laugh pierced the shadowed room, the only light coming from a candle this man had brought in with him. "You think I care? I'll beat him until he tells me everything I want to know. You've been here for weeks now, you insolent children! No, a month almost, if you did not know. Now, tell me who sent you and perhaps I'll spare your life, insolent brat!"
Yuji's lips curled tightly together and soon the feeling of a cold blade tore at his arms. He was sure his clothing was no longer existent by this point, but it was the least of his concerns. Gashes littered his body and his youki fought mercilessly at the shackles surrounding him to try and heal the wounds. Unfortunately, it was causing more blood to flow than helping.
He was dying.
"Stupid child!" Another slash of fire was across his leg, deep and certainly agonizing.
"No more! Yuji, just tell them! They'll stop if they know!" Izume's words did not fall on deaf ears, for the assailant looked up at her with a furrowed brow. Those red eyes would haunt her nightmares for the rest of her life...
"Oh? Well, what are your identities then, boy?" The demon ceased his attack and snatched up the dirtied, matted mop of black hair. "Tell me or I hurt the girl!"
Yuji knew he would by this point, and evidence enough was the nasty gash on Izume's shoulder still trying to heal itself from precisely eight days ago. The only way he told the time was the visits of his various torturers. They came daily, so far.
"You want... to know?" Yuji hissed as his head was tugged on harder, a few locks pulled straight from his scalp. "Yuji... Kaze... Tsukai..."
The hesitation was nearly enough to bring hope to the two teenagers, but that did not last as a harsh laugh echoed from the male's throat. Their captor was laughing.
"What a prize! Then that must mean the little redhead down the hall is the daughter of Hiei of the Evil Eye!" He cackled maniacally. "Such guests in our homeland! Too bad I hate that forbidden child with all my soul. Your death will be swifter, boy."
A knife bore down on Yuji's jugular, slicing deep.
His breathing slowed.
If he thought he was dying before, he was wrong.
"NOOOO!" Izume screeched, tears barreling down her face. "YUJI! NOOO! YOU CAN'T DIE! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME!"
"I'll be back for you later, girl. I have to pay a visit to the redhead down the way." The man exited the room with a flourish, leaving a broken Mazoku and a dying kaze youkai in his wake.
~:.:{I Cannot Stop This Sickness Taking Over}:.:~
The heavy wooden door creaked open and Avaron's blurry eyes peered up. The light from the hall nearly sent her backwards, but the shackles would not allow it. Shoichi hissed and shuddered visibly and she was barely able to make out his waning body, how his cheeks had sunken if ever slightly. He would not die as soon as she believed, but Shoichi was not well in the slightest.
"Well, well, now I know just who you are, little girl." The man, a brute of a demon with eyes like blood, stalked heavily over and grabbed her by her hair. She growled in protest. "I don't recall your name, but your father's is one I know. Hiei of Alaric! How fitting!"
"How did you find out?" she snarled, trying to thrash her head and only earning a tighter grip on her curls. "Speak!"
"So demanding for one in chains!" He grinned vilely. "That brother of yours, Yuji I think, spoke."
"Where is my brother?" Avaron was not a foolish female and there was one thing she knew; Yuji would never talk unless something grave was at stake. She had a feeling it had to do with Izume. Her brother was always fond of the Mazoku heir. "If you've hurt him-"
"Oh, I did more than that, child," he scoffed, tugging her around fitfully. "By now, he's probably bled out from his injuries. Oh, not to mention that knife in his throat."
Her brother... was dying...? Yuji Kaze Tsukai, the intelligent, piercingly snarky brother she had loved since the moment she could comprehend his arms around her as a babe... She could clearly remember his face, so bright and filled with more thoughts than she had probably ever had in her life. She knew she was the brute out of the children of the famous- or infamous, as well- Hiei and Kotone, but she accepted that. She always had her brother beside her, making the plans, getting her out of trouble... Just being there for her, as he should...
Rage, pure burning rage, fled into Avaron's vision. It was white-hot, turning the corners of her eyes red and slowly leaking across the expanse of her surroundings. It was unlike anything she had ever felt before, so deep and sizzling that is seared her to the core.
"Yuji..." She did not know she had breathed the word until the laughter pooled from the male's mouth again.
Everything was nonexistent, save this giggling demon before her.
And her brother, dying a few doors down.
She was pissed.
"What the...? I feel youki, but that's impossible!" He released her mane and finally took in the sight before him. Burning red eyes, angry, and lips pulled back to show a mouth full of elongating fangs... "Stop this now, brat!"
Yes, she was most certainly the brute.
"Yu... JIIIII!" Her youki flew in all directions, sending the man backwards and bursting both her shackles and Shoichi's. She stood, slowly, and her body quivered violently.
"Hey now, calm down!" Their captor was now frightened, as he should be, and cowered against the closed door.
She did not even control her body as it shot forward, a heart in her hands before she knew it. She watched that fleeting moment of agonizing pain flit across the deceased's face, reveling in it before the organ in her claws was crushed into a bloody heap.
Youki flaring around her erratically and the sound of more guards hurrying to the scene was all she could process now. She wanted blood...
"Shoichi... Yuji." The order was given to the aching human, one that had hopefully caught his second wind. He did not hesitate in scrambling past her, worry etched into his features as well.
"Escaped! They've escaped!" Guards filled the hallway, but they had not expected her. Who were they to imprison children as important as the four of them? The sheer audacity was palpable; she could even taste the irony at what was to come.
Avaron's youki and the sheer strength behind it tore them apart, flames burning through the kasai dai youkais like butter on bread. The massacre was messy, just as she liked it, but she refused to stop there. She needed more of that hot, sticky substance to rain down, to prove a point... To atone for the sins committed against her friends, but most importantly, her brother. They needed to die.
Next thing she knew, the cool breeze of night was on her face and her claws were buried in another's throat. She kicked the demon away from her and slaughtered her way through the city, taking out any that dared to step in her path. Women and children cowered against buildings or shied from windows, too afraid to intervene. She could not bring herself to care; if her brother died, she would tear through every last person in this city. They had not aided her group when they should have, knowing what tortures were sure to come in the dungeons below the city. They had been too preoccupied, perhaps even accustomed to the idea of the sadistic debauchery going on beneath their feet, to help. They were worthless...
They were weak.
"GIVE ME YOUR LEADER!" she snarled so devastatingly loud through the night, her voice carried for miles. Birds flew from their resting spots in trees and wildlife fled the immediate area, scared senseless. The voice, so akin to an animals growl, and the flaring youki was enough to frighten even the largest of predators and higher of mindless demons away.
As they should be.
Again, she blacked out. She was heavy with the viscous liquid when she regained half her mind, but it did not stop her rampage. No, a male stood before her in rich fabrics, holding a katana like a lifeline. She knew he scared; she actually smelled the piss running down his leg, could hear the quiver in his shoulders that ran the length of his hands and twisted his digits against the hilt of his blade. Humans would have truly believed she was from Hell then, as fire encased her body and the only real sounds the could tear from her throat were deep, devastating, and any syllable she thought to utter was accompanied with a roar and a wayward burst of her element, destroying buildings and people alike.
"You will not harm another of my people, you little harlot!" The king moved towards her, not even noticing the unmistakable sound of liquid in his boots.
She was faster.
His heart tasted grander than the most succulent of meats, tender and trying to pulse even as it slid down her throat.
His severed head in her hands felt like a mounds of molten gold.
His blood covering her arms and mouth was sweeter than ancient wine.
She reveled in the death, the fear, the power.
"Ava, he's alive! He's alive!" Izume had appeared beside the monster of a demon, standing tall with such a violent hatred on her face, not at all perturbed by the flames nearly licking at her flesh that seared from her redheaded companion. Only buried in her eyes was the relief she felt at knowing he had not perished. "Yuji is alive, but barely. He needs medical help."
"Healer," whispered the macabre demoness. "HEALER!" When she screamed, all listened and the fire encasing her flared to life with a vengeance. "BRING ME A HEALER OR I WILL BURN YOUR CITY TO ASH AND DEVOUR YOUR HEARTS AS WELL!"
What happened then was unexpected...
Fire demons poured from the buildings around them, circling the two demonesses but retaining a distance they believed was safe.
Avaron could fry all of them before they could even scream.
And she would.
But the congregation did not attack. Instead, each and every one of them dropped to their knees, hands stretched before them with their foreheads placed in the dirt.
They were bowing.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?! AND I SAID I NEED A DAMNED HEALER! NOW!" Avaron sent a stream of fire straight through a section of the crowd, one populated by armed guards that had taken to the ground as well. They were dead before they knew it.
"My lady," came the hushed voice of a little girl, no more than a decade old, as she edged forward, "you have killed our leader. Any that slays our head shall instead take his place. You are our leader now."
Avaron could not kill the child, for it was against her personal code when one did not try and attack her first. The rage within her was waning and her morals were returning, but even then she could not find it in her heart to be remorseful of the innocent lives she had taken tonight. They deserved every last mark upon their populace. "That's fine, BUT GET ME A FUCKING HEALER NOW! MY BROTHER IS DYING, YOU INSOLENT PIGS!"
A few women hurried to her side, bowing and introducing themselves as the medical unit of this city. Izume led them away while the red began to recede into Avaron's eyes, leaving the usual garnet hue instead of an endless void.
"I want this city to hide in their holes, their homes, anywhere that could keep them from my sight." She pointed a clawed, dripping finger towards another small group, "You, all of you, I want the home of the dead fool cleaned of any other living souls and a feast prepared for my companions. I want a bed of grandeur made out for my brother to heal in and do it quickly before I change my mind on letting you live. This village bears no meaning to me and I shall demolish it if I see fit!"
The youki had continue to waft off her in waves, thus all ran to do her biding. The townsfolk hid away in their homes while the remaining guards went to aid Izume and Shoichi. Avaron did not move from the spot, though wiped her mouth of the chunks that remained there. She knew what she must look like, but her heart told her that- should either of her parents be there-, her family would have been proud. Her mother would have done the same and her father would not have hesitated in completely tearing the entirety of the village asunder for their crimes.
Izume appeared again a short time later, walking closer to her friend than any that angered her dared. She placed a soft hand on her shoulder- now that the flames had been extinguished-, the weakness in her eyes shining through. Both were scared over Yuji's health, as it should be, and the emotional roller coaster was one they never wanted to relive again. In the middle of a war that encompassed all of Makai, two women realized just how insignificant they could be... But they also learned how much of a difference they could make.
"Ava, he'll live. The healers have patched him up in record time. He'll live." The tears that had once dried against the Mazoku's face resurfaced. "He'll live..."
"My brother will never die if I have a say in it," Avaron hissed, though her voice had grown weak and the strength from before had vanished. "Izume," she whispered so only the other female would hear, "I think I'm done for the night. My body aches and my youki is ebbing. Please, help me to the main house of the city."
With a brilliant, pearly smile, Izume looped her arm around the shorter demon's shoulders, soon feeling Avaron's slither around her waist. They hobbled to the largest building at the head of the head of the city, elaborate and intricate. The delightful smell of luscious foods reached their acute noses and soon enough, they were lounging on silken pillows larger than their own bodies.
They did not eat until another group came through the door. Shoichi was being supported by a larger guard, holding the boy up like his life depended on it. And it did.
It was not the Urameshi boy that greedily devoured Avaron and Izume's attention, but instead the dark-haired demon in another's arms. Yuji had been cleaned of blood and dirt as best as any could while a cape covered his lower regions. The gashes across his body were healed, but a few of the deepest left gleaming white scars against his usually tanned flesh, though instead discolored from lack of sunlight.
Avaron was at his side in a flash, snatching him from the other's arms and cradling her breathing brother. She would have cried if so many fearful onlookers were not present, but instead took to holding him. He was alive.
"My Yuji, my brother," she cooed and swiped some hair from his sweating forehead. "He will not leave my sight, understood? I want more healers working on him and I want him clothed. Now."
"Yes, my lady," came the chorus of replies and all scurried to do her bidding.
He was alive.
Next in 'Revelation, Defamation':
A month had passed, a month of nonstop fighting, training, living... Kotone knew she must cherish the time she had, and she did. She reveled in the few jokes they were able to laugh at, listened to countless stories, and- when not in relentless training- she survived off the positive feelings from those around her. There may not be a brightness in the midst of a war, but there was always a light at the end, ready to be stolen at the perfect moment. One just had to know when the grasp it.