The Godai Chain by 17th Floor

The Games We Play

AN: So instead of accepting challenges and never getting around to writing them, or posting every 6 months due to hectic life and writer's block...I decided to write an entire series first and then post! LE GASP! The result is a fast moving drabble series that hopefully entertains. It was a good exercise for me at the very least. One update will be posted every 1-2 days after my initial first cluster post. (It does start off focused on Kagura and Kanna and then switches focus by drabble 4-5 as the series progresses.) Disclaimer: Don't own. Don't own.

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Drabble 1: The Games We Play

Rising slowly, a gross mass of rippling flesh and writhing tentacles, the kumo-hanyou pushed himself forward to ingest more of the oni carcasses strewn out before him. From a darkened corner, Kagura watched the gluttonous display with disgust, waving her fan agitatedly. The smell of rot was pervasive in the underground chamber, and the airless room pushed against her skin like a vise.  Naraku groaned with satisfaction as he took more into his body, and a pulsing tentacle slithered by her booted foot.

She closed her fan with a snap.

“Ka-gu-ra,” the dark hanyou’s voice was deeper and more ponderous than it normally was, “daughter of my flesh.” She kept from shivering, and instead presented her master with narrowed red eyes.  “Bring more,” he commanded, the hunger in his voice evident.

With a brusque bow, Kagura exited the chamber, eager to be away even if it was to simply drag more dead flesh back for her master to voraciously consume. At least, for a while, she could be in the open, fresh air.  Covering the length of the hallway with efficient strides, she threw back a screen door and entered into a massive courtyard. 

Naraku had chosen to “obtain” this shiro just for this very amenity, a vast open area with little vegetation in which to lure his monthly sacrificial feast. The mindless youkai entered through the Southern gate with the intoxicating lure of the Shikon, fought amongst themselves, and then the few weakened survivors were easily dispatched by herself and Kanna. Naraku never had to lift a clawed finger. She laughed harshly, causing a wave of crows to shoot into the sky. The courtyard was filled with them. Their feathers littered the ground, blanketing each corpse as they drifted through the open air like black snow. She caught one lazily drifting feather, and crushed it between her fingers. She much preferred the color red.

In the middle of the courtyard, Kanna stood with a small dagger clutched in her palm.  She was carefully slicing off the finger of a tora who had gotten caught in the battle. Kagura watched as the finger was then reverently ingested by her void sister. 

“Vigilance, Kanna. It is a dangerous game you are playing.” Kagura snapped her fan at a nearby pile of bodies, raising them into the air for easy transport.

Kanna turned her black hole eyes onto her sister. “I do not play….” Her voice was seemingly empty of emotion. Kagura snorted and turning sharply, headed back towards the inner passageway.   As she paused on the threshold, as quiet as the whisper of a falling feather, came the words, “…but I will.” 

Kagura spent the remaining daylight hours wondering if she had imagined the amount of satisfaction she heard in them.