Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Shadows of a Crimson Moon ❯ Ogilvie the Blind Guardian : The Library of Minerva 9 âåê ( Chapter 5 )

“Psst! Hey, Urameshi, what are we doing here?” Kuwabara hissed by Yusuke's slumped shoulder.

 

“Why don't you wait and see,” he hissed back.

 

Kuwabara knitted his brow, entwined his bulky arms, and grew silent.

 

They were as tranquil as Roman granite statues.

Well, somewhat.

Their mouths were unmoving when Tari made her typical nonchalant entrance, however when they saw her, their minds sprung into a realm of inquisitively amplifying thoughts.

 

Her attire caused their temples to swell with a kiss of sweat, almost unknowingly.

 

Her beautiful figure, marred with scars, illuminated the light of the large room, shadows arising caverns of her muscles. Her thigh boots were a vivid shade of white, golden straps lacing from their openings to upwards to face the mysteries of underneath her sarong. Her robe went from the crown of her left shoulder to underneath her thin right arm, tying in a tasteful and elegant knot at her right hip, and draped tightly around her opaque thighs.

Golden bangles rattled melodiously, and mirrored the beaming lights in a similar fashion to her turquoise and metal rings placed upon every one of her lengthy, slender fingers, the tips of which were a colour that mimicked the sheen of her raven locks, which were as straight and flat as a springboard, and soared past her bare back and to her lanky hips.

 

She bowed to them gently as she so naturally did, a few strands of golden chains laced around the milky arc of her throat and yawning collarbone.

 

“Tari, if you would please.” Koenma gestured to a peculiar looking stool of sorts with wires connecting at its stilted sides.

She nodded, and Botan strode alongside her as she assembled upon it benevolently, (for she was still rather weak from her moderately protracted recovery) and watched attentively as Botan gently aided her as she sat, tenderly placing the wires into Tari's delicate, bare palms.

Yusuke winced as he watched Tari pierce the soft skin of her wrists and injected the translucent cords, droplets of ink-like blood splattering to the varnished ground below.

“Do you know what to do, Tari?” Koenma ensured charismatically as he took a seat next to Botan on the side. Tari was now sitting adjacent to all members of the Urameshi team:

Yusuke,

 

Kuwabara,

Kurama,

and Hiei.

 

The arms of the chair she was sitting in were settled above her head, and she clamped down upon them with each fist, her nails grinding into the wood as black rivers of blood channelled through the transparent cables, soaring into a massive, outsized screen of sorts.

 

She nodded slowly, giving him a deep sense of security.

 

Slowly, the lights began to dim.

 

“Begin, Tari. We are ready.” Koenma and the others gazed intensely upon the monitor before them, waiting as still as stone, in the darkness.

Shortly after he uttered his words, a profound sheen of crimson began to form around her thin body, her head cast down as if she was heavy with sleep, hair tumbling forth from behind her shoulders and kissing her knees.

 

The scarlet light grew stronger, suddenly engulfing the entire, rather spacious and vacant room with claret luminosity.

A flicker of grey appeared on the wall- wide display before them, the light slowly fading as a picture began to form.

 

They watched in silence as a small, wan coloured butterfly soared into the palms of a little girl.

 

The child was radiant, a beauty looming over every one of her brilliant features, and the witnesses observing the unravelling film of memory, knew that child to be Tari.

 

The little girl's radiant emerald eyes lit up in splendour, a giggle in her throat. Alone in a vast field of roses she gambolled unreservedly through the plains of ocean red blossoms, her white and fair skin contrasting profoundly with her jet-black tresses of hair.

 

Suddenly, the girl's laughter and movements stopped.

Rings of smoke began to arise from the distance, forth from the direction of her village.

 

The girl began to run as fast as her thin, young legs would bear her, her body halting suddenly as she peered vacuously upon the image of the township beneath her hill of cherry roses.

 

A great, swelling and towering inferno blazed swiftly through her homestead, vociferous cries ringing forth through the terror.

A squall of wind came down from the western snow crested mountains, pushing strands of lengthy ebon hair before her eyes and into the zephyr.

Rapidly, two figures began soaring into the girl's eye line, approaching straight in her course.

It was then that a strong, brawny arm clamped around her thin waist, tugging her firmly into the air.

 

“Have you got her?” A lush voice rang out through the wind as the three figures continued to soar.

 

“Yes,” A deep, comforting and resilient tone replied as the grip upon the young Tari tightened.

“Vathek? Cornelia? What is going on? Where are we-” Tari's delicate words were cut short.

 

“We must leave, my child. There is no time to explain. We must be swift. Hold close to me now.” Her father's shadowed figure engulfed her own as she grasped tightly to his muscled waist, his ebon cloak waving behind them.

 

“Vathek, we must hide her. It is Tadashi, I am certain of it. I can smell him.” Cornelia's subterranean words held a hint of fear within them.

 

“Yes, I can sense him as well. That bastard.”

 

Tari was crying now, sobbing silently against the icy touch of her father's large palm.

He looked down upon the figure of his beloved daughter, his luxuriant green eyes warming slightly.

“Don't be afraid, Tari. Nothing is to happen to you. Just be still now, and save those tears for joyous moments.”

 

Almost immediately, the tears ceased.

 

It seemed ages before the unthinkable had happened.

 

Cornelia was struck from the side, her gloriously angelic wings pierced by the tip of a massive spear, causing her to collapse to the ground. She let out a cry of pain as she felt her body break and begin to heal and mend itself, Vathek giving a roar, out to his fallen mate.

 

The massive, loomed figure of Tadashi hovered between Vathek and his collapsed wife, Tari hiding silently between Vathek's raven cloak.

 

“Give me the child, Vathek, or the Angel dies.” The figure sneered a vicious grin as Vathek gave out a low growl, like that of a wolf.

 

“Goddess condemn you to Hell, Tadashi. You will never touch my daughter, or my wife.”

 

The dim shape of the figure entitled Tadashi gave out a throb of menacing laughter.

 

“We shall see-”

 

Suddenly, Tadashi was skewered through the abdomen with the same metallic spike he had used to impale Cornelia through the wings and to the ground with.

 

Crimson blood poured from his arid, cracked lips as Cornelia arose from behind him, her body fully recovered.

 

“If you so much as come near my child,” she hissed ominously through her pearled fangs, “I will send you to the most portentous circles of hell, where the flames will consume your disgusting image, your presence not even thought upon as a mere memory on these earths again.”

 

It was then when Tadashi had pulled the barb from out of his stomach, and a great battle was waged. Vathek could aid but a little, for his child could not be revealed to her attempted captor.

 

The reek of blood and fire took to the skies, painting over its once blue havens with grey and crimson streaks.

It was when the wind caught the figure of Vathek that Tadashi stole sight at Tari.

 

He smiled forebodingly, dark eyes glimmering with malevolence.

 

He went at the child, however both Cornelia and Vathek cornered him, stalling his approach.

 

“You will not touch her!” Cornelia screamed as her fist met Tadashi's hooded face with such force, it sent vibrations through the air, pulsating to the very grounds below them.

 

The mighty brawl continued greatly, with such force, it almost caused the tears to reappear to Tari's eyes.

 

The Urameshi team watched in horror, as the next image appearing to the screen was that of Tari being haled in the revolting clutches of Tadashi, Vathek and Cornelia slightly breathing on the blood tainted ground below them.

”My…my daughter…Tari…no…” Cornelia choked as she reached upward with her blood soaked, talon like hands to the screams erupting through her child's vocals as she was stolen away, far into the shadows of the sun.

 

The figures watched in the darkness Tari's past from that point onward—her capture, torture, and terrors of great multitude and enormity.

They appeared rather promptly, flashing lights, the creaking of stone against stone, screams, the churning of wood, and droplets of soiled water against the blood-soiled ground.

 

Tears came to Koenma's eyes as the many years passed before them in summary, her screams of pain and horror reverberating in their ears.

 

The monitor began to turn vague and hazed, the light birthing from Tari's figure diminishing.

The lighting in the substantial area returned to its former lustre, and it was only after Botan dried away the tears upon her cheeks and Koenma gave a cough to signify that he was not touched in the least, (though the brightness of his chestnut eyes proved quite the opposite) that Tari collapsed from her sitting position with her arms rested above her lowered head, the streams of soot tinted blood dying away and ceasing to flow as the cords snapped from her wrists as she fell.

 

Too rapid for a second reflection, Hiei found her settled flaccidly in his arms, her veins giving off a slight cerulean colour through her ashen flesh. Her eyes veiled, he lifted her tenderly in his arms as he arose from his kneeled position. Her face fell lifelessly into his powerful chest as he held her like a rag doll, lightly however firmly, not about to lose his grasp on her.

 

Eyebrows rose dramatically.

 

“What?” He sneered as he sauntered to face them, “None of you idiots were going to do anything for her.”

 

Botan arose, and attempted to take her from his grip steadily, though he turned his positioning away, not allowing her to touch the girl.

 

“Hiei-”

 

He said nothing, but instead continued in his pace, out the large door, along many winding corridors, and to her own quarters.

 

He set her faintly on her bedstead, while they both remained in the shadows of the violet and crimson sunset painting its lavish rays of ginger sunlight across the open havens.

 

He turned to leave without a word, when a weak and frail sound erupted into his concentration.

 

“Hiei.”

He looked down at her, noticing the jadedness in her bottle green eyes and the emptiness within them.

“Hiei,” She croaked, “please, I beg you, do not…do not pity me.”

 

He huffed.

 

“Hn, why do you say that?”

She managed to give out a dim shadow of a smile.

 

“You must think me very pathetic. I do not blame you. And if you didn't, I would believe you to be daft.”

 

He stared with one eyebrow raised superior to the other.

 

“No, I don't think you're pathetic. Inane, yes, but I imagine everyone to be that way once in their life.”

 

“You're very kind. Hypocritical, yes, but I imagine everyone to be that way once in their life.”

 

Her words had silenced him, his scarlet eyes averting to the flooring below.

 

“If you are merely waiting for me to fall asleep, I apologise—but I'm afraid your hopes will be in vain…for I never sleep.”

 

“Who said I was waiting for you to fall asleep?”

“Well, you are just standing there. At least sit down, if you wish to stay.”

 

“Are you saying to want me to stay? Heh, don't flatter yourself.”

 

“Believe what you wish, however you're the one still standing there arguing with me.”

 

He gave out a muffled snarl.

 

A few moments later, her doorway closed with a boisterous slam, clattering the translucent windows to the right of it.

 

She gave out a miniature insinuation of laughter and mirth, licking tenderly at the burgundy puncture-marks upon her wrists.

 

~

--A little longer, to subsidise for the succinctness of the previous chapter.