InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Learning my way... ❯ Chapter 11 ( Chapter 11 )

 

Alright everyone, this chapter is where my story starts to earn its `R' rating. If you feel uncomfortable about reading scenes that contain graphic violence and sexual assault, DO NOT READ THIS CHAPTER!!!!!! You've been warned!!

 

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Chapter 11

 

 

Mariko stalked across the village to where the shimmering blue barrier cut it off from the rest of the world. She was instantly drenched. Her shoes absorbed water from the puddles that she stumbled through faster than she had thought they could and her hair was plastered to her face and the back of her neck.

 

The barrier, now quite obvious in the darkness of the night, glowed an ethereal blue and illuminated the silhouettes of the dozen or so watchmen lining its perimeter, all of them with boards or some other solid object held over their heads in attempts to stay dry. Mariko approached the barrier at the widest gap between the watchmen and cautiously poked a finger at it. Nothing happened.

 

Carefully, she touched her hand to it and she saw the barrier ripple and stepped forward towards it. Pushing through the barrier was like pushing through a wall of Jell-O - quite an interesting experience. As soon as she stepped outside of it, she turned to look at it and was surprised to see no blue light, let alone the barrier. Tentatively, she reached out and her hand encountered the wall of energy, but she couldn't see it.

 

Shrugging, she turned away and realized that she probably should have brought her flashlight. It was pitch dark, despite it being barely six. Souten was nowhere to be seen. Warily she ventured out into the dark, looking for the pair of bright red eyes that would tell her where the Thunder Demoness was.

 

“Souten?” she called after a few minutes of wandering around, “Where are you?” There was no reply, save for the shhhhhh of the heavy rain and Mariko began to feel nervous.

 

“Souten?!” she called loudly.

 

A clawed hand tapped her shoulder lightly and Mariko screamed and reacted on instinct; flipping open and lashing out with her fan. Someone caught her arm in mid swing and held it still.

 

“You said you weren't scared of me human,” came a woman's cold voice.

 

Mariko breathed out a sigh of relief as a pair of glowing crimson eyes appeared directly in front of her. The rest of her form, save the contours of her face, was obscured by the night.

 

“You scared the crap out of me Souten, please don't do that,” she gasped. The eyes narrowed.

 

“I will do as I please,” replied the demoness pointedly. “Not what a human requests of me.”

 

“Whatever floats your boat,” muttered Mariko under her breath, pulling her arm out of Souten's grip and snapping the fan shut.

 

“Excuse me?” demanded Souten angrily.

 

“You'd make more friends if you were a bit more considerate,” clarified Mariko sarcastically, “Friends are nice, they tend to help you and make sure you don't screw yourself over, like I'm trying to prevent you from doing now, because I know getting on Keitaro's shit list is not a good thing to do. That and I just may want to be your friend, but that's only a side note, since powerful youkai like yourself seem to think they're above friendships and loyalties and whatever.”

 

Souten was silent for a moment, her crimson eyes narrowing.

 

“What's with the screwy eye look?” demanded Mariko irately.

 

“You wish to be my friend?” asked Souten quietly.

 

“Yes!” exploded Mariko, throwing her arms up in the air out of exasperation, “I'd like to be a lot of people's friends, including you, because I know you have that little spark of niceness and decency in there. Considering you didn't kill me outright in the onsen yesterday,”

 

“No one has told me they wanted to be my friend before,” remarked Souten pensively. “I have not had any,”

 

“What about Shippou? He said you guys were friends.”

 

“Shippou was…. different…”

 

“Different as in what? Boyfriend different?” asked Mariko, raising an eyebrow and shivering. She was becoming extremely cold from being soaked to the skin.

 

“Boyfriend? You use a lot of strange words, ningen girl. That has been one of many in the past few minutes.”

 

“I'm not from around here, so expect it. Be thankful I'm not cussing you out in English, which is what I feel like doing right now, but it wouldn't be much fun, because you wouldn't understand what I was yelling about anyways,” Mariko shot back, rolling her eyes.

 

“English?”

 

“Auuughh… Never mind,” replied Mariko with a frustrated sigh. “Are you not so angry and murderous any more? I'd like to go back inside. I'll make sure you don't have to grovel to get that trident thingy of yours back.”

 

Souten's head seemed to tilt as she thought about it, but Mariko couldn't really tell in the darkness.

 

“Very well,” she said, “I will not harm any of the villagers… and my staff is called Raigekijin, and it is not a trident thingy. it was my brother's weapon.”

 

“Raigekijin - got it. Sorry, now lets go back to the village, if I can figure out what direction it's in…” answered Mariko, looking around for any sign of the barrier or the village. Nothing was forthcoming.

 

“Oh, great…” she muttered. “Souten, where's the village?”

 

“To your right, about sixty yards” replied Souten succinctly, her wheels suddenly igniting. Mariko yelped and jumped backwards to avoid being set on fire. She glanced up at Souten for a second and noticed the thunder demoness' face turn a sickly shade of grey as her crimson eyes widened with something akin to fear. Before Mariko could even open her mouth to form a question, something slammed into her, knocking her to the ground and ripping open the skin of her forearm, tearing away most of the sleeve of her jacket.

 

Completely winded, Mariko saw Souten skip backwards as a gigantic paw swiped at the thunder demon and tried to climb to her feet, intending to run towards the village but Souten had other ideas. Darting forward, she seized Mariko by the arm and pulled her into the air just as another gigantic paw batted at the slim ningen girl.

 

Mariko felt the breeze from the intended, but unsuccessful blow rush under her feet. Souten had pulled her out of the way just in time, but at the same time, dislocated her arm. Mariko screamed as white hot pain shot through her shoulder before it suddenly numbed. Souten didn't bother to apologize as she rose higher into the air and began to flee towards the forest, drawing the giant youkai away from the village.

 

The demon was larger than anything that Mariko had ever seen before, excluding mountains and modern day buildings. She watched, her blue eyes wide with fear as it bounded after them easily, crushing trees with its every step. Then it stopped and coiled its haunches.

 

“Souten!” Mariko cried in warning.“Look out!”

 

But it was too late. The massive leopard sprung, lashing out with its claws. It caught the rapidly moving demoness in the back and knocked her out of the air. Blood spiraled from the wounds on her back as Souten let out an unearthly shriek and let go of Mariko's arm as they both tumbled towards the ground. Mariko couldn't muster up a sound as she watched the ground come rushing up to meet her.

 

She hit a stand of bushes and flattened them, impacting the soft, muddy ground on her side, her lame arm fracturing as it cushioned her landing. To her right, she heard a sickening crunch that sounded like the impact of flesh against wood. Mariko's head spun as the pain finally registered. Agony from her side and left arm caused her vision to blacken and her mind began to float away.

 

I am going to die…

 

She was abruptly brought back to the pain of reality by something ripping at her clothes and a snapping sound registered in her clouded mind as she felt the necklace that held the Shikon jewel torn away. Reacting instinctively, she lashed out with the sword still clutched in a death grip in her right hand and felt it meet flesh. A bellow from above her made her eyes fly open and dimly, through her pain filled haze, she could see the outline of a crouched, human-sized figure with pointed ears; before the hand stuck her arm, knocking the katana away. Numbness reverberated down her arm and she tried to flail at the creature, her fist impacting firm, furry flesh as it moved over her. Cold water and icy wind ate at her bare flesh as she felt the claws shove her legs apart. Fear and panic exploded in her mind as the intentions of the youkai above her finally sunk into her fractured mind.

 

No! NO! This can't be happening… please God NO!

 

Finding her voice, Mariko began to scream.

 

A blow to her head sent her mind spiraling away into a blessed darkness where it didn't hurt anymore.

 

Keitaro… help… was the last thing she remembered thinking before the blackness overtook her completely.

 

~~~~

 

 

“Would you stop fidgeting Keitaro?” demanded Shippou, throwing one of his chopsticks at the restless hanyou. Keitaro caught the chopstick and tossed it back to Shippou, but didn't reply.

 

“If you are so worried about Mariko, follow her,” commented Miroku calmly.

 

“She exited the barrier awhile ago. I will open a portal if you wish to find her,” offered Youmi, looking up from where she was sorting herbs and plants. Keitaro was still for a moment, before nodding silently and rising to his feet. He slid his katana into his belt and exited the hut.

 

He bounded towards the barrier, cursing the fact that the rain had already dissolved Mariko's scent. He would have to search for her around the perimeter of the village and he would have to rely on his eyes and ears. He felt blind.

 

Upon reaching the barrier, a door sized gap appeared and Keitaro stepped through it and watched as it sealed shut behind him and the barrier vanished. It's presence only registering as a faint, colorless blur that almost fooled his hanyou eyes into thinking it wasn't there.

 

Turning, he began to scout around the edge of the perimeter, straining his eyes as he tried to find Mariko in the deluge, which, thankfully, was beginning to lighten slightly. After circling the village once, his chest began to feel tight with worry. Neither Mariko, nor Souten were anywhere to be found. The rainstorm lightened to a misty fog that hung over the ground, making everything damp and cold. Only the smells of mud and moss reached his nose, and even they were faint.

 

He distanced himself from the village, scanning the ground for any sort of clue. It took several minutes of searching before he saw the large scrap of dark blue fabric; the same colour as her jacket, stained with blood and half submerged in a puddle. He raced over to the piece of cloth, snatching it up and bringing it too his nose and sniffing it anxiously.

 

Fear erupted in his heart when the smell of Mariko's blood wafted up his nostrils.

 

Panic began to override his thoughts as he frantically searched for another clue, a sign of her whereabouts. Then he saw it, a pair of running shoe prints that had been half obliterated by a gash in the soil. A little ways beyond that, he could see a giant paw print, filled with muddy water. Keitaro began to search for more footprints and found a pair of smooth ones, obviously from Souten's boots and a scorch mark that had to have come from her wheels.

 

In front of the smooth boot prints, there were more running shoe tracks; first, they approached the spot where he stood, before spinning around to face the smooth boot prints and then moving backwards. There, they were swept sideways. Keitaro eyed the ground and felt his heart clench when he was able to discern a barely visible skid mark in the mud that stretched out a good twenty feet.

 

Mariko… you were thrown sideways by whatever this monster is…

 

Coiling his legs, he lept into the air, looking for other prints and he saw a pair of the giant ones leading towards the forest and a line of trampled bushes leading away from the village. Without a backwards glance, Keitaro was leaping from tree to tree on either side of the beaten trail, that ominously began to shrink until it was reduced to the trail that a large man might blaze through the forest with a machete.

 

A glimmer of sputtering fire in the darkness caught his eye.

 

Redirecting himself towards it, he came upon Souten's crumpled form, partially embedded in the wood of a tree trunk, the fire on her wheels slowly fading out of existence. She had hit the tree at a speed that a Bullet Train could never hope to obtain. Hopping down from the tree, he stepped closer to the ominously still thunder demoness and in his heart; he felt a pang of regret.

 

This was my fault… I left her unarmed…

 

Cautiously, he knelt, touched her shoulder, and received a jarring electrical shock. Hopping backwards with a yelp, he stuck his charred fingers in his mouth to sooth them.

 

Souten shifted and moaned, a hoarse, agonizing sound that reverberated from her throat.

 

Her left eye fluttered open and Keitaro saw that it was dull and clouded, lacking stubborn glint that it normally possessed as it slid over to look at him.

 

“No……touch…heal…zap…” came a faint whisper from Souten's lips and suddenly Keitaro understood. The shocks were a natural defense mechanism for when her body was regenerating.

 

“Souten… do you know Mariko is?” he asked desperately. “I know you were with her… Where is she?”

 

“Ma…Ma…i…ko…hssssss….”< /div>