Gensomaden Saiyuki Fan Fiction ❯ Beneath the Skin ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two

The cloaked young woman smiled to herself as she watched the scene unfolding below her. After a few seconds of being startled by the sudden appearance of the young red-headed Youkai girl, the armed band quickly converged on her. A bright smile lit up the girl's face and with a balled fist, she quickly took down the first of the attackers. With surprising quickness and strength, the girl engaged one opponent after the other. It only took her a few minutes to quickly dispatch the majority of her attackers, and as she surveyed the remaining the group, she let out a laugh.

". . . and my brother doesn't think that I can help him. Humph . . . shows how much he knows."

Feet apart and her hands on her hips, the girl smiled at the bald Youkai male across from her. "So who wants to be next?" She winked at the man and he growled in his throat. "What's the matter, don't you want to have the privilege of being beaten to a pulp by a princess?"

The man laughed, "Princess - is that what you call yourself, little girl?"

"Little girl . . . I'll show you how little I am!" The girl replied indignantly, her hands balling into fists.

Once again the bald Youkai laughed as he pointed his sword at her, "Well in a few minutes, I'm going to show you how big I am." The man looked around at his remaining companions as they joined in his laughter.

The girl's wide green eyes took on a puzzled look, but before she had a chance to ask what the man meant she heard a noise behind her. Turning quickly, she found herself surrounded as the group that had pursued her previously emerged from the trees and undergrowth. Looking back at the bald man, she swallowed.

The man grinned at her, "I've never had a princess before." He slowly moved towards her, ". . . who knows, I just might be your prince charming."

From her hidden perch in the tree above, the cloaked woman silently swore to herself. While she had enjoyed watching the strange Youkai girl best the men below, she didn't want to see the girl end up their prisoner and assaulted - that was not something she would wish on her worst enemy. But she was torn between revealing herself to aid the girl and remaining safely hidden. As the girl engaged the first few of her attackers, the woman watched to see how she would fair before deciding to commit herself.

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Kougaiji turned away from the ruined body that had once been a living, breathing Youkai. "How long do you think it's been there?"

"Out in the sun like this, it's kind of hard to tell . . . I'd guess at least a day or two, but it could be more than that." Dokugakuji looked at the young man's back, knowing that his prince detested showing any weakness; but the body had been a horrific sight even to his experienced and slightly jaded eyes. Turning his gaze back to the corpse on the ground, the older man rose and scanned the area near the small stream. "Lilin has only been gone for about a day, Kou. Whoever did this is probably long gone by now."

"Then where is she? You said yourself that there were too many prints - too many trails to know which one could have been hers." Kougaiji's voice rose a little in anger. "What happened to the dragon? All we found was some spoor from where she left it." He gestured towards the body on the ground, "And what about that? My sister might be strong, but what chance would she have against someone who could do that?"

Dokugakuji shook his head, "For all we know, Lilin could have just stopped here briefly and then continued on - there's no way to tell." He frowned as he looked around the area once more, "Something obviously happened here, but whether or not your sister was involved . . . the best we can do is scout around and see if we can find anything that might give us some clue."

The young prince clenched his fists, "I swear I'm going to beat some sense into her when we find her." He glanced at his companion, "And don't you tell me she doesn't need it either - 'big brother'."

The corners of the dark-haired man's mouth quirked up in a slight smile, "Who me? I don't get involved in family matters Kou - helps me keep my sanity."

Kougaiji allowed himself to smile in return, "Sanity - since when have any of us had any of that in the past year?"

"You mean we actually had some once?" Dokugakuji said as he rejoined the other man.

"Apparently, but I doubt if you could prove it." Sighing in frustration, the Youkai prince stepped forward. "Let's see what we can find." With a slight nod of his head, the white-clad man followed.

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Feigning to the left, the cloaked woman swung out with the end of her walking stick, catching her opponent in the mid-section and knocking him to his knees. She barely had time to take a breath before another armed figure took his place. Despite not wanting to get involved with the fight that had been taking place in the clearing below her, the woman had watched as the young Youkai girl had battled attacker after attacker. Yet as quick and strong as the girl had been, it had not taken long before she noticeably began to show signs of tiring. It was only after the armed men began to attack the girl in pairs did the woman finally make the decision to become involved; although the girl put on a brave face, she knew that it was only a matter of time before she was overwhelmed.

As stealthily as possible she had descended from her perch in the tree and quietly stole up behind the Youkai that had formed a circle around the girl. The woman had managed to take down several of the watching men before she was noticed and promptly set upon. Using her staff as her weapon, she had stepped into the fray and soon found herself battling in the circle of surrounding Youkai with the red-haired girl.

With a loud "crack" the woman's staff landed hard on the sword hand of her attacker and he cried out as the weapon dropped from nerveless fingers. As the man instinctively reached to cradle his injured hand in the other, she struck out and caught him under the chin effectively knocking him out cold in the process. Taking several deep breaths, the woman readied herself for the next attacker, but was surprised after a few moments when no one stepped out to challenge her. As her eyes darted at the men ringed around the clearing, she noticed that it had become unusually quiet and she realized that the red-headed girl had also been left unchallenged.

Several long moments passed before the bald Youkai man with the zigzag mark on his head stepped forward. He had been the first of the attackers to fall before the young girl and the anger that burned in his eyes was plain for all to see. "Seems like we've got another guest . . . and who might you be?" He gave the woman a cold, predatory smile. "We've already got a princess . . . so maybe you're a queen?"

The woman did not reply as she silently cursed herself for her betraying body. Although Kiho had raised her like he would have a son, still there was no denying that she was indeed female. Despite the well-worn, plain traveling clothes and hooded short cloak that she wore, there was no disguising the curves of a woman's body from anyone who was looking as closely as the Youkai man was looking at her. The man gave her a lascivious look, "As fun as bedding the girl would be, still I'd take a real woman over her any day. But what's with the hood - are you ugly or something? Course with a body like that . . . well if it's dark who can tell?" He laughed and several of the men near him joined in.

The woman felt her skin crawl at the look the man gave her and despite her best efforts, she also felt her anxiety begin to rise. Taking several deep breaths, she tried to quell down the fear that she knew could take over and leave her defenseless. He's bluffing . . . remember, you're not that scared little girl anymore . . . he can't hurt you again . . . Kiho made sure of that . . .

Gripping the staff tighter, the woman took a few steps backwards until she thought she was closer to the Youkai girl. "Girl," her voice was a whisper; "Girl, I'm not your enemy . . . I'm going to do something, and when I tell you to run - you run, I mean it. Do you understand me?"

"Yes," the voice was high-pitched and musical sounding. "What are you going to do? Who are you?"

The woman watched as the bald man narrowed his eyes, realizing that the two females were communicating. "There isn't time for questions, just do as I said."

With a frown, the man stepped forward. "Whatever the two of you are planning isn't going to work - you're surrounded; so why don't you just surrender and get it over with." Giving the woman another appraising look, he added "Who knows, you just might like it."

"Too bad we'll never find out." The woman replied as she took one of her hands from the staff. "But I know you definitely aren't going to like this." There was a loud crack like thunder and the bald Youkai watched as an arc of blue lightning shot out from the palm of the woman's hand and he let out a strangled sound as it hit him squarely in the chest.

Focusing her attention on the stunned circle of armed men around her, the woman gritted her teeth against the pain and called forth her power.

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"What the hell was that?" Dokugakuji quickly joined his companion just seconds after the thunderous roar shook the birds from the trees around them. "It sounded like thunder - or a bomb."

The two men were startled when several more loud cracks followed in quick succession. "They came from this way," the dark-haired man yelled over his shoulder as he started off into the forest.

"Doku . . . what about . . ." with a frustrated sound in his throat, Kougaiji followed after the older man.

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Gasping for breath, the cloaked woman stumbled to her knees, her walking staff rolling from her listless hands. Looking up, she saw the Youkai girl still running ahead of her. I can't breathe . . . damn limiters . . . it's never been this bad . . . I don't think I can run anymore . . .

True to her word, the red-haired girl had taken off like a shot when she had told her to. After a few parting blasts at the quickly scattering Youkai, the woman had taken off after the girl. Although she felt weak and was gasping for breath, she managed to match the young girl step for step. The two had run for quite sometime before the woman's strength and finally given out and she had almost collapsed on the ground. Her chest felt heavy and she was so weary all she wanted to do was to fall on her back and sleep.

"Lady . . . hey, lady are you alright?"

The woman looked up into the deep green eyes of the Youkai girl as she knelt on the ground by her; she had not even realized that the girl had stopped and returned to where she now kneeled. "Hey lady . . . you're not dying are you?"

"I-I just need . . . I just need to rest for a few minutes." The girl nodded her head and sat quietly.

While she tried to catch her breath, the woman observed the younger girl. While it was sometimes hard to judge the age of a Youkai, the girl appeared to be quite young - possibly about fifteen or sixteen years old by human standards. She had a dusky complexion and bore red Youkai markings on her cheek. She was dressed in a green and yellow top that accentuated her well-developed breasts and made her figure appear to be older than that of the teenager that she looked. The girl also wore white pants with one leg cut off and chunky dark brown boots. Her must arresting features however, were her large green eyes and flaming red hair - they gave her a fiery and playful appearance -- and from what the woman had observed earlier, they were quite appropriate on both accounts.

"Who are you?" The girl's musical voice asked. "Why did you help me?"

"Because they were killers - they killed a Youkai woman a few days ago . . . I-I saw them."

The girls eyes widened, "Did you try to help her too?"

Although the girl couldn't see her face within the confines of her hood, the woman dropped her eyes. "N-No . . . I . . . I didn't. I was too afraid."

"Oh," came the soft reply. The girl was quiet for a few moments, before she spoke again. "My name is Lilin."

"That's a very pretty name."

"Thank you." Lilin seemed to hesitate for a moment. "Are you . . . are you really ugly?"

The woman let out a small laugh, "What?"

"That man - the bald one - he wondered if you were ugly, because you're all covered up."

The woman waited a few moments before responding. "Yes, I am . . . as a matter of fact, I'm quite ugly." She replied, her voice calm and serious.

The girl looked at her and then suddenly laughed as a bright smile lit up her face. "I think you're just playing with me - I bet you're not ugly at all."

Straightening up, the woman reached for her staff and slowly pulled herself up from the ground. "We better get moving." Lilin nodded her head as she jumped up to her feet. "Hey, you didn't tell me what your name is yet."

"Tjaden . . . my name is Tjaden."