Good Will Hunting

 

by Kyen

 

~ Prelude to the Moon ~

 

            “She’s here! She’s here!” rang the joyful cry of a villager through the streets of a small town at the base of a mountain.

            People crowded outside their houses and in the streets to see whom their savior would be. Many people gasped, for how young she was! No more then maybe sixteen or seventeen winters, but she walked with air of a powerful warrior, a demon hilted whip at her waist and a rune carved chain blade tucked into her belt. She wore a simple outfit of a man’s short kimono and warrior’s pants underneath with sandals. Her hair glittered in the sunlight like quicksilver running black with obsidian and her eyes were very peculiar indeed. One eye shone bloody red, bloodlust apparent within it, but the other was icy blue, shining with a calm that surpassed normal human beings. Her lips were set in an unemotional line and her eyes showed nothing more then the lust for blood and an eerie calm. Yes, she was a true Huntress.

            “Huntress,” said the mayor, bowing low. “Thank you for answering our plea.”

            The Huntress, for that was the only name she went by, nodded her head in return and said nothing. She was of a group of skilled assassins, thieves, hunters, and killers. They were literally a pack of sell-swords, out for hire for anybody who could pay the right price. This people offered food, lodging and money, an offer that was hard to refuse.

            “What plagues you then? Be quick,” she said icily.

            “Huntress a demon of great power haunts our woods and will not let us enter,” the man said. “But these woods are our lively hood! Without the meat that lives within we shall surely die!”

            “Can you name this demon?” she asked in a bored tone.

            “No, Huntress,” the man said apologetically and bowed low, his head nearly touching the dirt.

            “Give me time to rest and I shall go and find this demon in the darkness before the dawn,” she said.

            “The darkness before the dawn?” asked a young male, not much older then the Huntress.

            “Yes,” she replied quietly to his question. “I find it makes killing demons more enjoyable to kill them then, for their last glimpse is the moon they shall never roam under again.” With that, she entered the largest hut, the Mayor’s, and made herself at home. No one argued. They could only shiver.

            She was a Huntress.

 

           

            Rin smacked Jakken over the head and sent the little demon reeling backwards. “Filthy human! What was that for?”

            “That was for stealing my food will I went to the bathroom!” Rin snarled and smacked him again.

            “Rin, please, stop that,” Sesshomaru said to the girl. “Believe it or not, I need him sane for the time being.” Rin stopped, but not before sticking her tongue out at Jakken and snatching his own bit of food.

            “I’m going for a stroll okay?” Rin said. “There’s a river nearby and I want to get a drink.” Sesshomaru nodded and Jakken prayed the girl was eaten. Rin smiled and disappeared into the underbrush.

 

            The Huntress couldn’t believe her luck. The demon had a ‘family’ to care for, and he was stupid enough to let the child wander alone by herself in the woods! She had woken earlier and decided that the whole ‘darkest before dawn’ thing was too long to wait for and so had gotten ready and gone out, leaving a note for the Mayor.

            She was pleased with her new armor as well. It was metal, but magic enhanced so it made so sound, and it was short too (thank the gods), for by the laws of her group/tribe she had to wear a skirt during battle, as men had to wear their fighting gear. She didn’t care, so long as the demon was killed was all she wanted.

            She watched as the girl chewed and swallowed the last piece of the meat in her hands and knelt for a drink. Perfect. Deftly, she flipped from the tree and landed not a foot from the girl. Quickly, she drew a silk sash from around her arm and crept closer to the girl. In half a second, she had the girl’s mouth gagged and was soon binding her hands.

            “Don’t be scared dear,” she whispered. “I won’t harm you, but that’s the least I can say for your demon ‘daddy’.”  Rin tried to scream, but the gag made it impossible. The Huntress smiled and heaved the child over her shoulder and slipped through the woods back to the girl’s camp.

 

            “Where is Rin?” Sesshomaru asked. “It should not take this long for her to get a drink.”

            “Maybe she was eaten,” Jakken said. I hope she was!

            “Don’t get your hopes up, small one,” a new voice said. Jakken and Sesshomaru whirled to see a young female girl in metal armor sitting on a tree branch in plain sight, her silver and black striped hair glittering the moonlight, though her wicked smile by far outdid it. “The girl’s alright. Here, let me show you.” She punched the branch above her and down swung Rin, upside down, hanging by a thin, fragile rope.

            “Put her down!” roared Sesshomaru.

            “I thought so,” the girl smiled and removed the chain blade from her belt. Slowly, she began to swing the blade before the girl, her red eye glowing dangerously and her blue eyes staring at him with something like a mocking laughter running through it.

            “Don’t you touch her,” Sesshomaru growled. Even he was confused by his feelings. Why was he protecting Rin so? It didn’t make sense! Oh well, time for that later. “What do you want? Just let her go.”

            The blade stopped swinging and the girl was smiling wildly, “My, my, fatherly now aren’t we?”

            “Fatherly?” Sesshomaru and Jakken echoed together.

            “Why yes,” the girl smiled and suddenly reversed her blades movement, striking out at Sesshomaru.

            Sesshomaru easily dodged, but let out a small gasp as he felt the tip of a blade impair itself on his right arm. He turned his head and there was the girl, on the ground, her smile gone, both eyes burning brightly. She wrenched it free and swung once more. Sesshomaru hopped back and the girl came after him. Sesshomaru spared a glance to Rin and was astonished to see the girl on the tree branch still there, but she was transparent now. He turned his attention back to the girl before him and leaped.

            Mistake.

            The girl, with a speed matching that of Sesshomaru, threw her blade to her right hand and pulled the whip from her belt, lashing out and winding it around Sesshomaru’s foot like a bolo. She heaved and Sesshomaru found himself hurtling towards the ground at break neck speed. He flipped and ripped the girl’s whip from her hand was he pushed backwards.

            The girl nodded her acknowledgment of his power, and Sesshomaru of hers. The girl, however, was obviously not worried. She sheathed the chain blade and pulled a thin katana from a hidden sheath on her back. She crouched low to the ground, one leg stretched out before her completely, and the other bent in the back. Her left hand held her hilt steady as her right crept down the blade, aiming straight at Sesshomaru.

            Sesshomaru blinked in surprise. This girl’s aura was skyrocketing in the position. Her eyes blazed and her mouth was set in a unemotional line, her silver and black hair blowing a sudden gust of eerie wind. He realized this was probably one of her ultimate techniques, and for some odd reason Sesshomaru had the feeling it would not be easy to defeat.

            “Blood Moon Hunter Strike,” she whispered and launched herself.

            Sesshomaru’s eyes opened wide with the speed she attacked. She bent and began to spin, but not fast enough. The girl sliced into his shoulder and let go. She grabbed his wounded shoulder and pressed all her weight into it, before using him as a springboard of types and flipping off him.

            Blood pooled around the wound and Sesshomaru’s mouth started to dribble blood. Jakken looked to his master and Rin wanted to scream at the girl, but then she noticed something, so did Jakken. Sesshomaru turned and faced the girl once more, but she was not without her own wounds. Across her stomach were shallow gashes bleeding blood, staining her armor. Her mouth dribbled blood and her eyes looked at him with an eerie calm that surpassed human ability.

            Sesshomaru watched her as she drew her chain blade from her belt and began to swing it. She hurled it, but it dropped a foot of its mark. The girl did not seem surprised. She threw the chain and it coiled next to its weapon. The girl knelt on her knees and bowed before rising once more, pain flashing through her eyes with the exertion. Blood came out in a mighty rush as she straightened, but she bore the pain proudly. Sesshomaru realized she had accepted defeat. She stood there, awaiting her death.

            Jakken backed away as Sesshomaru drew forth not Toukijun, but Tenseiga. The girl did nothing, merely held herself ready for the final thrust. Sesshomaru placed the blade on her stomach where he had wounded her and the blood slowly disappeared. He then ripped her sword from him and placed the blade on himself, healing that wound.

            “Why do you not kill me?” she asked him.

            “I have a better use for you,” he said. “In defeat, instead of killing you, I demand you stay here and travel with me and my…my companions.”

            The girl looked at him for a moment. Finally, she nodded, “In my defeat you have the right to ask this and I accept.” She dropped to her knees again and bowed.

            “Rise,” Sesshomaru said and she did so without complaint. “Tell me your name.”

            She stared at him for a long time, “I got by the name of the Huntress.”

            “Your true name,” Sesshomaru growled.

            “Xiang Yao,” she said after a moment. She accepted her weapons as Sesshomaru gave them back and then rose, keeping her head bowed, as was respectful before her new master. “May I request I be allowed to know why you keep me?”

            Sesshomaru nodded, “I keep you for the sake of Rin. She needs another human around.”

            “Be warned, Master, I may be human born, but I am demon breed,” Xiang Yao said cryptically, but nothing more.

            “And do not call me Master, call me Sesshomaru,” Sesshomaru said. “Jakken’s the only one who need call me Master.” Jakken fumed, but kept his peace. “And as for human born and demon breed, I may find that interesting. But, as for now, you shall care for Rin. Understood? Oh, and you’ll have to tell me how you did that illusion with yourself on the branch while we fought.”

            “Yes, Sesshomaru,” Xiang Yao said. She jumped and landed on the branch, the fake her fading away as she cut Rin free and placed her on the ground. Rin ran to Sesshomaru and stayed behind him; Xiang Yao did nothing, just kept her head bowed.

            “Good, now, come along. We are leaving this place,” Sesshomaru said and together, with Xiang Yao in the back, eyes forward, mouth once more in an unemotional line, set off for only the gods knew where.

 

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