Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ Grief ❯ Sacrificial Lamb ( Chapter 15 )

Fifteen

Sacrificial Lamb

 

 

 

“So, you've come at last! I've been waiting, my daughter,” Kojiatsu said, almost purring. He lifted one of his bloody claws to his lips and licked it, smiling insanely at Sho's disgusted look.

 

“Enough!” she snarled. “I will kill you, here and now! Step down and face me!”

 

His taunting laughter filled the room—rung through Sho and Jin's ears hauntingly—as he rose from his bone-encased throne. His booted foot made a soft clacking on the obsidian steps leading down from his seat as he took each step oh, so slowly.

 

“I sense hostility from you, my dear! And just why would that be? Are you not happy to see me? It has been so long—“

“SHUT UP! How DARE you say such things!” Sho's face was flushed an ugly red, her eyes blazing. “I have every reason to hate you—and I do hate you with every part of my being! I will have no regrets removing your pompous head from your shoulders! Now, face me!”

 

Kojiatsu vanished—only to appear directly in front of Sho, their faces mere inches apart.

 

“So be it!” he growled quietly.

 

So it began.

 

Jin watched in stunned silence as the pair completely disappeared—a crater left in the floor from the power of their “departure.” Then a boom, like a clap of thunder, shook the very foundations of the tower, hanging in the air as it vibrated endlessly. Jin snapped his head up just in time to see father and daughter come together in a vicious, vice-like clash, and then vanish once more. That was as much as the Wind Master could see of their fight—apart from the splashes of blood that splattered on the ground with each collision.

 

>>>>>

 

Sho landed heavily, the ground breaking beneath her. But she ignored the pain in her protesting bones as her blazing crimson eyes darted about to catch a sign of her father. A sudden pain exploded in her thigh, warm blood spilling down her leg. She snarled and whipped around, slashing out and catching the corner of Kojiatsu's cheek as he vanished once again.

 

Shoshoku! she shrieked in her mind.

 

I'm on it! The younger soul channeled her energy into the wound and it began to heal at an accelerated rate—open flesh closing around the gaping punctures in her thigh.

 

As the girl healed, Sho rocketed off again, trying to spot her father once more. A blur of red caught the corner of her eye, and she managed to whirl around just in time to dodge his claws as they aimed for her stomach. Sho snapped her leg up and caught him in his own gut as he passed, effectively knocking the wind out of him. Kojiatsu landed—the stone floor cracking and spreading into a miniature crater due to the intensity of the impact—and set his furious gaze upon his daughter.

 

Sho stood a few yards in front of him, breathing a bit heavy as she tried to both guess his next move and decide her own. Kojiatsu surprised her by rising to his feet and spreading his arms out wide.

 

“Please…is this really necessary? We both know it's useless! I mean, really…what do you have to live for? Your mother is dead, and in all truth—so are you! You fool yourself by thinking that shell your pathetic soul inhabits is real. Nothing about you is real anymore! You are nothing but a memory!”

 

Sho's heart wrenched in her chest. She tried to tell herself that everything he had said was a lie, but she did know that it was all too true. Her conflicting emotions crashed against the wall she held against the grief, starting to break through. She lowered her guard, giving Kojiatsu the perfect opening. He smiled devilishly as he charged her—elongated claws leading the way.

 

“SHO!” Jin screamed, rushing towards her. But he would never make it in time.

 

The sharp ends of Kojiatsu's claws found their mark, and embedded themselves deep within Sho's chest.

 

“SHO!” three voices cried at once; three souls feeling the pain.

 

Blood dribbled down her lower lips, dripping onto Kojiatsu's arm. Sho lifted her head, looking at him in shock, and then began to topple backwards as her father pulled back his deadly claws. Jin rushed up and caught the demoness as she fell, groping at the gaping wound in her chest helplessly.

 

His lips moved—his eyes screamed!—but Sho couldn't hear him. Her eyes began to cloud over, her soul beginning to drift away.

 

Oh, God, please no! Sho!! Answer me! DON'T LEAVE! Damnit! Did you forget your promise?! Shodi was crying now, her anger and sorrow clashing as she groped at the empty space where Sho's soul should have been.

 

Shoshoku shivered beside her, horrified by what she was seeing. There was no way her meager power could heal a wound so fatal! No possible way! She looked down at her hands and watched numbly as her own tears splashed against them. Her mind raced until it came upon a sudden, drastic idea.

 

Shoshoku jumped up and hurled herself at the empty space, screaming as her power tore from her body in rippling waves. Sho's soul was forced back into its vacated space, the wound healing most of the way. The recently dead demoness inhaled deeply, choking on blood, and then wondered why she was still there.

 

The youngest of the three souls smiled through her agony, pleased that her idea had worked. Shodi gazed on in horror as she watched the girl's very spirit being ripped into pieces. Shoshoku smiled at her, and mouthed the words: Sho must win…and then vanished—her entire soul wiped from existence.

 

There would be no third chance.

 

There would be no afterlife for her.

 

Shoshoku, in every aspect of her being, no longer existed.