Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ The Shadows of a Crimson Moon ❯ All My Possesions For a Moment of Time; the Adornment of Stradivarius ( Chapter 8 )

“Begin.”

 

~*~

 

“Five Yen on Tari.”

 

“Nah, I got ten on the punk.”

 

Botan pinched Yusuke's ear between her forefinger and her thumb as both Tari and Hiei stood before each other in the showground.

 

Their reflections glimmered in one another's eyes like crystalline water droplets.

 

Hiei was the first to strike.

 

His speed was maddening, and her back met the opposing wall with such force that debris crumbled and shattered forth from it like glass around her; colliding to the flooring with muted slams.

 

She arose from the ashes as a phoenix would, the stones grating against her bare flesh and in some areas, tearing at the muscled tissue.

 

Koenma's eyes narrowed, scrutinising what her next move would be.

 

Her eyes, a once brightened, beautiful shade of emerald, transformed profoundly to a subterranean shade of black, a raven sheen that rivalled the darkness of her hair.

 

Her palms ached as she gnarled her talon like fingers until they cracked slowly, one by one, her temples broadening.

 

She looked upward with her sable and bleak stare, her bones creaking and moulding as she sauntered slowly from the pile of disintegrated granite stone.

 

“She's remembering,” Koenma muttered out in a slight breath.

 

“Remembering? Remembering what?” Botan queried in a hush tone as Tari took her stance before Hiei once again.

 

“She's remembering who she is.” Koenma answered wholly, eyes gleaming with amber light.

 

~*~

 

She closed her eyes gently, her dark lashes setting shadows upon her silken cheekbones.

 

She opened her mouth slowly, and calmly, she spoke dimming words that shook the onlookers to their very cores.

 

“What is this that you keep selling me, boy?

I'm not going to hold your hand here when you walk

You'll burn in hell while they're digging you out…” *

 

Hiei's right eyebrow raised in curiosity. “So, the statue finally speaks.”

 

“With your last breath of air

As the Earth comes trembling down

Would you give her this last night?

And give up your life

No one runs faster than you can…” *

 

He dove at her in a flicker of darkness, his image obscured by his speed. Suddenly, she grabbed hold of his arm, her bones snapping as her grip tore into his flesh.

 

He attempted to pull free from her, and eventually succeeded by kicking her legs out from underneath her.

 

He shot aback, away from her in a furry, his ruby eyes darting from every curve of her body.

 

His blood still upon her twisted and contorted fingers, a low snarl emanated from behind her pearl like fangs.

 

“Run little rabbit...

Go hide in the blades of that grass...

Run rabbit, run…”*

 

She charged after him in a blaze of vigour, her body forming and fashioning into a fluid motion as she darted after him in a slight, tepid frenzy.

 

She caught hold of his jugular, the air leaving him vastly. He gave out a soft choke of sorts, eyes narrowing, and anger boiling within his veins.

 

“Should capture be our earnest fault?

Breathe up through lust, and I'll find your cure

In there I'll kill...

In there, I'll kill…” *

 

Her waxen, polished fangs jutted forth from her crimson lips, black eyes empty with malice.

 

With a kick, he had broken free from her, and drew forth from its sheath his trusted katana, a sneer playing upon his mouth.

 

“Was Tadashi his name, Tari? The man that captured and tortured you? Was that his name? Tadashi?”

 

“What is this that I feel, and what is this that I fear?

In these arms that whored out amongst the worms,

That mate in these fields…

From pressure to pain I wish to stay awake…

In the measure I test, with your love for me

Shot against these walls,

With hope that one will break fear…

So hear me...” *

 

She darted forward in blind rage, ebon blood slowly dripping forth from her eyelids.

“Hear me.” Hiei retorted dryly as his katana pierced forth through her abdomen.

 

Her snarl faded, and she glimpsed downward at the gleaming blade protruding from her muscled midsection.

 

Among the silent sidelines, Kurama had narrowly managed to catch Botan in mid faint, and laid her gently upon her back as she slipped in and out of dazed conscience.

 

Tari looked upward at Hiei's face, which was firm and tone with anger and slight unbelief, and she took hold of the hilt of the weapon.

 

“In the press of your back,

Do you feel the shore swell?

Oh boy, I'm eating my way back home…” *

 

She pulled the katana from out of her body, and swiftly, turned it to face its own possessor, and was so close to carving a line through Hiei's skull when a phantasm broke through to her.

 

~*~

 

“Turn to the mirrors, Tari. What do you see?”

 

“A Monster, Cornelia. I see…a monster…”

 

~*~

 

Suddenly, the blade collapsed from her grasp, droplets of her midnight coloured sanguine spilled to the ground slowly from her eyes.

 

“What is this that you keep selling me, boy?

I'm not going to hold your hand here when you walk

You'll burn in hell while they're digging you out…” *

 

Her words were hollow. She had eaten her own soul alive.

 

Hiei retaliated with a swipe at her temple, however she took grip of his wrist, and turned it backwards, snapping it like a tree branch.

 

“As father told son in the make of his final escape

Should all good boys die with God at their side,

At the grace of his gates?

…No, the Robot holds none with the mind

And a heart to comply

Then I will disguise and grieve of those dead

When I'm given the time…” *

 

He glared fiercely at her with a fiery passion and heated gaze.

 

With a jerk of her arm, she had managed to throw him to the flooring below her, and pin him between her legs.

 

“No one runs faster than you can,

No one runs faster than you…” *

 

He growled and attempted to break free of her clutch, but to no avail. She dug at his flesh with her claws, her chest swelling continuously with air that was not her own.

 

“It was his name, wasn't it, Tari? The man who hurt you, beat you, and raped you. He kept you in his grasp because you let him, Tari. You allowed him to do what he did to you. It is because of you that he caught you. You are a monster.”

 

She hissed as the blood trickled slowly and collided with his own flesh. Her bones, he noticed, had altered greatly; profoundly projecting forward, nearly penetrating her flesh.

 

“Monster.” He grimaced as she emitted a shrill, lengthy scream like that of a banshee.

 

“From pressure to pain, I wish to stay awake

In the measure I test with your love for me…

Shot against these walls,

With hope that one will break fear

So hear me...” *

 

In an instance, he had managed to break his left wrist free from her grasp, and took hold of her gullet unyieldingly and obstinately.

 

She writhed, and finally, a sound broke through to her.

 

“Tari, Hiei! Stop!”

 

Koenma.

 

She released Hiei from beneath her, the colour of her eyes altering once again, returning to their bright, evergreen tint and jade like glimmer.

 

Hiei lunged away from her, blood seeping from the wounds upon his arms and neck.

 

Koenma, along with Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara raced to beside Hiei.

 

“Touch me and you die.” He threatened ominously, standing upright, and smearing the blood from off of his katana.

 

Tari had curled herself into a firm sphere, a form similar to how she remained when she was a prisoner to Tadashi.

 

She sobbed quietly, her acrid tears mixing with the black streaks of blood formed in thick lines along her cheeks. Her body quivered, and suddenly, she gave out a heavy scream of pain as her bones began to knit with boisterous cracks and splintering.

 

Inky tendrils pasted themselves to her face, bonded by the tears and blood, as she shivered heavily at the pain.

 

Kurama kneeled beside her as she quivered and wept, placing a palm gently on her back. He was shocked at the feel of her spine, which twisted about when she remained perfectly still.

 

He brought it to Koenma's attention, and motioned Yusuke and Kuwabara to aid Kurama in lifting her from her position.

 

She struggled feebly against them all, her cries resonating from the walls when they had managed to elevate her and take hold of her.

 

Blood seeped forth from the wound upon her stomach as it slowly began to seem itself close and her organs bonding adhesively into wholes once again.

 

“To the end with you,”* She sobbed out, “... to the end with you…!”*

 

~*~

 

“Yukina, I need your help.”

 

“Of course, Koenma. How may I aid you?” The young girl enquired lushly, her crimson eyes glistening softly.

 

“Come with me.”

 

She let out a small gasp when he had led her to Tari, who was laying upon her bed, unconscious, yet not in dream. Botan was hovering over her silently, running a soft, wetted cloth over her arms in gentle strokes. She rubbed her forearm underneath her nose, the rings below her violet eyes dark, akin to substantial bruises, her mind plagued with the look of terror and hurt within Tari's newly jaded eyes.

 

Koenma left them alone with her, and Botan smiled when looking up and seeing Yukina in the doorway.

 

“What happened to her?” Yukina questioned softly as they lifted her gently and into a porcelain hip bath.

 

Botan lowered Tari's legs into the lather and frothy water timidly, giving out a sigh.

 

 

~*~

 

 

Everything marked with an asterisk ( * ) are lyrics which were taken from the song The Willing Well II - from Fear through the Eyes of Madness by the band Coheed and Cambria, from their album Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV: Volume One: from Fear through the Eyes of Madness. Go and buy it now.