Samurai Deeper Kyo Fan Fiction ❯ The Demon Empress ❯ Chapter 4

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 4




The group continued through the many hidden levels of the forest of death, and with out the sun in the sky, their idea of time had faded a while back. A good educated guess was that they had been pushing through these woods for a little over two days now. Even though the resting times had been short it showed little on their faces. They were all two eager to see what had become of the ancient mibu land.

Yukimura though was a little more concerned for the well being of the Lady Sakuya at the current moment. She seemed to be getting more and more jumpy as the days went on. While before she was merely content with sticking close to his side now it seemed she was unable to move with out griping the sleeve of his kimono. Even the constant glare of Sasuke couldn’t keep her at bay now. And not that the young lord minded but he didn’t believe it to be healthy that her knuckles had now turned a ghostly white at the lack of blood.

He griped her hand so that her own grip of his kimono would loosen and then with a gentle tug pulled her within whispering distance.

“What keeps you on your toes so well My Lady?” He asked with certain playfulness in his voice design to bring a little relief into the miko’s face.

“Yukimura something or someone sees me as a threat here.” He looked at her oddly she was getting weird feeling and they were genuine from the look of her. He was surprised he hadn’t noticed it sooner. Her complexion had gone deathly pale and it seemed as if she couldn’t keep a single fiber of her being from shacking.

“Lady Sakuya what is it you are so afraid of?” He inquired mostly to himself yet still out loud.

“I wish I knew.”

“YUKIMURA!” The fearful scream of the young ninja brought the two to full attention as Yukimura reacted just in time to drop to the ground avoiding the flying blade. Thankfully Sakuya had followed suite and lay unharmed beside him.

“Why don’t you ever pay attention? You’re gonna get killed!” His young white haired companion yelled, blade drawn, eyes on the surrounding forest. The group faced their back to one another in a circle trying to find some evidence of the attackers where about. The shadows all seemed to come alive at once. Each one putting one of their fighters on edge.

It was Okuni’s sharp eye that landed on their attacker and with swift precision her steal strings cut the trees hiding the offender. All they could see was a damn fast shadow katana in hand as it swung for the spy. Okuni dodged barley, with not enough time to keep an eye on the person holding the sword, as they quickly blended into the shadowed forest once more.

They all stood tense and then the tiger had his turn chucking his spear at a glance of movement. Unfortunately missing his target and having to flip out of the way to avoid harm. Yet again another blade barley missing his body or so he thought. So caught up in dodging the one headed for his throat he couldn’t see the one plunging into arm. .

With a scream he removed the offending blade from his bicep still scanning to find the wielder.

“Damn it Tora keep it together.” His young ninja friend yelled at him still trying to find where their opponent had escaped to.

“Ah shut it brat! Damn bastards too fast!”

Sauske quickly forgot about the ‘brat’ comment as a brief glance of movement caught his eye and with inspiring aim and speed hearled his sword into its direction. A loud hiss of pain was heard before the attacker disappears taking its own wicked aura with it.

“Damn what the hell was that?” Tora yelled, enraged that he had been dumb enough to let him self be attacked so easily.

Okuni left the two to their daily bickering, as she inspected what Sasuke’s blade had caught. Blood was spattered on the tree the sword was currently held to. But it was the bit of fabric that was held to the tree that caught her interest. With little effort she tor it from the swords grip carful not to touch the black blade. Her fingers smoothed out the bit of silk as she scanned the small clue. Although the fabric was a deep black the silk was some of the finest and the hidden design of flowers barley seen unless upon a closer look was quite intriguing.

‘So our opponent is female is she’ Okuni thought to herself.

“Find anything of interest lady Okuni?” Yukimura asked suddenly being a lot closer then the spy had thought him to be.

“Seem our attacker has been wounded and quite ceverly.” She said quickly hiding the piece of cloth within her sleeve. For some reason she thought this bit of information she held was best kept to herself for the moment.

“Ahh I see that is quite a bit of blood. Well let’s hope we scared who ever it was off!” Yukimura’s cheery disposition hid his slyness. He would let Okuni think that she had the upper hand in finding their attackers identity, but how could he not have notice such a pretty piece of cloth?

The young samurai went to Lady Sakuya’s side making sure she was alright. She faked a smile that was easily seen through and Yukimura decided to keep a closer eye on the lady just in case. But the feeling was to strong for Sakuya just to disregard. That attacker was after her! She knew the others felt almost welcome in this forest now and it wasn’t from the many times that had been their from before.

“My Lady you are looking worse for wear, don’t worry I doubt that we will be attacked again!”

“Lord Yukimura I don’t think someone wants me here. I just have this horrible feeling.” The lady stopped in her tracks. She knew none of the others could feel it. In fact the forest really did seem to welcome them, like an old friend. They couldn’t’ feel all the hatred radiating off the trees and the very ground they walked on. All she could do was pray in her mind that yukimura would understand.

“Now my Lady that was probably just some forest creature looking for a meal! These nerves are just from the fact that the mibu use to rule these lands! But nothing seeks us that much harm in here now.” He smiled as he grabbed her hand and Sakuya’s lips started to tremble. He didn’t understand.

“Come on now just a couple of hours and well be in Kyo’s new home!” With that he gave her hand a gentle but firm tug to get her to walk, and slowly she complied. She put on a mask for the rest as she dealt with all of her troubles and worries in her head.

‘That is not what I mean Yukimura, If only you could see. It isn’t the mibu I fear now it’s the current controller of this forest. Who ever really has control does not want me here.’

***

“AHHH You Idiot look what you did!” the poor yellow haired man didn’t’ see the true danger he was in as he once again mentioned the surgery that didn’t take place yet. And once again for his carless words he was knocked up side the head with Akari spear.

“I only speak the truth.” The fire wielder spoke with carless tone. The ‘woman’ could scream all she wanted in the end he was right and he knew it. But his honesty was only rewarded yet again with another bang to the head. He fell over instinaiously and closed his eyes. Maybe if he faked being unconscious she would just go away.

“HOTARU YOU” smacks

“STUPID” smack

“Brainless” smack

“DISORIENTED” smack

“WEEK” smack

“I’m not week.” Smack smack smack

Okay maybe she wouldn’t go away.

“Akari If knock out what’s ever left in there he wont be able to function and I’m not doing all this damn work myself.”

The Shaman turned her furry on Bontenmaru and left Hotaru knocked over on the ground. He blinked once or twice just content at staring at the sky. The city was still only halfway standing but with the new castle built and half of his old home gone he felt a whole lot calmer. He tilted his head back a little farther to look at his new home. Yes it wasn’t as elegant or big as the mibus but that’s why he liked it. Simple just like Kyo ordered. He rembered Kyo’s tone as he tried to seriously order them all to do something, it brought a smile to the normally blank samurai.

“ Hotaru you okay.” He turned his head to right to find Yuya bending over him in worry. He nodded his head before shifting himself back up into a sitting potion.

“ Akari is just PMSing is all.”

“ I HEARD THAT HOTARU!” the shout was accompanied with spear that knocked him back over to his pervious position.

“ I thought you want to be a woman.” He said a little quieter this time, tired of getting hit in the head. Yuya started to laugh before offering her hand to help him back up. But he just shook his head.

“ I’m not doing any work until Akari does some.” Yuya only shook her head in response before walking off in the direction of the other Emperors. He cocked his head up slightly and frowned as he watched the young girl walk away. Or that is attempt to for there was a slight limp in her step.
The frown still on his face his head fell back to the rumble ground.

“We need to fix this quickly.”