Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Grief ❯ Empathy ( Chapter 10 )

Ten

Empathy

 

 

 

Sho! Snap out of it! Defend yourself, damn it! Shodi growled, unable to break through the bloody haze of her other half's fury.

 

Shoshoku watched helplessly, just barely being able to see through the red haze to discern what was going on on the outside. Being the empathic little girl that she was, Shoshoku knew the pain that Sho was experiencing—if on a smaller scale. The young hanyou suddenly felt a tickle shiver through her nerves, and strangely knew what she could do. Gathering the energy massing up inside her tiny body, Shoshoku concentrated it into a shaft of golden power. She aimed towards the center of Sho's uncontrolled wrath…and released!

 

An arrow of pure, sullen energy pierced the haze of crimson that cut Sho off from her other two half-souls—leaving a path of crystal clarity in its wake. Shodi gaped at the youngest half. Shoshoku blushed and shrugged innocently. The warrior half of the trio turned back to the fight—a rare smile easing the lines of ire in her cold features.

 

Sho returned to herself in an abrupt and dizzy manner—leaving her wide open for one of Ijin's stabbing tentacles. Shodi shouted a warning, and the demoness narrowly missed being impaled—a dark red line appearing across her stomach instead. Falling back into the years of training she had endured—in addition to Shodi's swordsmanship, honed to perfection during the angry demoness's short (at least by demon standards) life—Sho seemed an unstoppable force indeed.

 

Ijin noted this disdainfully. But, with a cleverness that belied his garish looks, he quickly formed a plan.

 

“Yesss…you cerrtainly look like him… Moressso now, coverrred in all that blood…” Sho stiffened—the red glow of her fury beginning to accent her eyes once more. Ijin continued, “Oh! You ssshould have heard thossse Sssshinobi ssscream! It was very deliciousss…but not half asss sssatissfying as how hot their ssssweet blood—“

 

Sho roared in defiance—the crimson glow completely engulfing the young woman once more. His plan had worked.

 

Get a hold of yourself! Shodi snarled.

 

Sho ignored her as she charged recklessly forward.

 

Look out!

 

Too late.

 

One of Ijin's bulging, clawed limbs moved in behind Sho, wrapping around the furious demoness. Her arms were pinned to her sides painfully, and Sho was dragged back to reality.

 

Sho and Shodi cursed bitterly.

 

Ijin chuckled as he looked down at the struggling woman.

 

“I'll give you one morrre chance to come with me willingly…” he cooed in a condescending manner.

 

She scowled at him—he shrugged.

 

The trapped demoness's eyes opened wide as the tentacle wrapped around her torso began to compress. He was squeezing her! She struggled harder, which only made Ijin laugh, and increase the building pressure that engulfed Sho. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as the tentacle continued to press tighter…and tighter…

 

Crack!

 

A bloodcurdling scream tore from Sho's throat as her sword arm fell limply at her side. Ijin's mocking laughter intertwined with her cry as his grotesque tentacle continued to compress upon her helpless form. The shattered bone pierced her skin, drawing another, anguished scream from the young woman.

 

Damn! Shodi spat, clutching her own arm as the effects of being a joined-soul began to affect her as well.

 

Shoshoku, too, was beginning to feel the pain of Sho's broken limb. Once again, her spiritual energy began to swell within her, the young girl gratefully grasping a hold of it. It continued to mass together, growing and growing until it completely engulfed the young hanyou twice over. Shoshoku cried out, both in surprise and pain, and the power rocketed forward in a surge of warm, golden light.

 

Sho vaguely heard her younger half cry out, and then almost instantly felt warmth beginning to gush into her shattered limb—continuing to spread throughout the demoness's wounded body. Without hesitating, Sho opened her mouth wide—revealing fangs that seemed to be growing—and sunk her dagger-like teeth into the tentacle crushing her.

 

Ijin seemed annoyed at first, and continued to squeeze Sho…until he began to feel the effects of her poisonous bite. She was injecting a paralysis poison into his blood.

 

“Treacherousss wench!” he bellowed, loosening his hold and weakly attempting to shake the stubborn demoness free—the lifeless effect of paralysis already taking incredible effect on his limb.

 

Seeing as he was getting nowhere with this method, Ijin dragged his other three tentacles into the fight—pummeling and ripping at Sho frantically. Even a demon, with their increased stamina and tolerance to most pain, could not last long against the crushing force the grotesque limbs were dealing out, and Sho found herself slipping. Ijin jerked his arm in an outward arc, and the half-unconscious demoness went flying.

 

The poison still spreading through his limb had begun to head to the rest of his body, Ijin was forced to use his other tentacles to cut the poisoned limb off. Black blood gushed from the wound, but at least the poison could not spread, making him completely immobile.

 

The loss of an arm was nothing compared to the punishment he would receive if his mission failed.

 

Ijin stared off in the direction that Sho had been cast, and cursed. Then again, if she died now, he would still be punished. Readying to speed after her, Ijin hesitated as a vicious wind picked up near him, and a red-tipped bullet shot out after the demoness's airborne form. The Wind Master's unique energy trace called clearly to Ijin, and he rested back with a satisfied grin.

 

Fool, he thought to himself smugly. He's just making my job all the easier…

 

>>>>

 

Wind screamed in Sho's ears as she fell through the air at a rapid pace. Shodi cursed vehemently in her mind, shrieking at Sho to “snap out of it” and fight. But Sho blocked her angry half-soul off, feeling strangely content to just let the wind whistle past her. She smiled sadly, remembering times long past when Jin used to carry her through the air.

 

How miraculous it was to fly!

 

She had often asked the handsome Wind Master what it was like to fly…but he could never explain it. He had always just shrugged, and said: “It's like…freedom.”

 

Sho held onto those words now, and truly believed in them. Even after all the years she had spent as a lost soul had not changed the way her pulse quickened whenever the beautiful red-head smiled at her... All the times that he had held her as she cried out the pain that scarred her soul, he never judged…to her, that was true freedom…