The End of Youkai by Moondance

Prologue

There was a time I thought he once loved me. It was almost twelve moon cycles ago, I remember. The feeling was fleeting and I still can't be sure if the look in his eyes was real or not. He was always such a cold and distant creature. But still, when he looked at me that one time I swear that I saw adoration and love. It made me feel wanted... something I've never experienced before.

But it was so long ago that I can't even recall if it is a true memory or just a figment of my imagination. It doesn't matter either way. I can feel the clutches of the underworld trying to drag me under and I fear I will never see his eyes again. His eyes... they were always so mesmerizing. If the last thing I ever see is his eyes I would die a happy woman. I gave up my life for him in more ways than one.

My body is getting cold quickly. It won't be long now before I see the servants of the underworld. But still, I must hang on, just to see him once more. Just to tell him I'm his once more. Just to let him know I will love him, always.

Rain, ice cold and as sharp as daggers, is beginning to fall on my naked flesh, making it turn an ugly shade of blue. I know the ice rain is cold, because it is the dead of winter, but I can't feel it. And that scares me more than anything else. I am already numb to the world. Numb. I can't even feel the gaping gash across my abdomen any longer, nor can I feel the warmth of my blood pooling around my supine body.

If only I could see his eyes once more and know that he's come at last, I will be able to let go of my miserable existence in peace.

How had I come to know such a man? Nay, he is no man... he is a creature of the darkness. Infinitely more powerful than any human with an immortal life until poison or blade take him. He stands tall and proud, a regal being with an aristocratic manner and a chilly disposition. He favors none and helps only himself and has no weakness. His mere presence strikes fear into the hearts of humans and he is the central feature of a child's nightmare. He kills with precision and without regret.

And yet I still love him. Why? Because he saved my life.

----The End of Youkai----

There was an ominous wind blowing in from the northern mountains, she noted warily. It was an ill omen and set all the villagers harvesting their crops around her on edge. And not only that, but a rumor had reached her ears earlier that week, a rumor of evil intent. A savage youkai had been going from human village to human village, attacking, and killing without mercy.

To make matters worse, one of the villagers had gone to the stream near the village the day before and hadn't returned.

No, there was evil afoot, she could feel it. What she couldn't understand was why no one seemed to be looking for the missing villager and why, why her fellow villagers kept looking at her from underneath their lashes only to quickly turn away as she caught their gaze.

She was used to be ignored. She was, after all, an orphan, born from a man who was enraptured by a traveling seductress. Not one day had passed after her birth did her biological mother pilfer any items of value from their hut and disappear. Her father had been shamed and had endured the ridicule and pity after his wife left him. He died of the plague ten years later leaving her alone in the world. No villager was willing to take in the daughter of a whore and thief.

She was fifteen years of age come the upcoming winter and had been a woman by society's standards for nearly two years. No gentleman had ever glanced her way.

Life had been difficult, but she had managed to survive by bartering anything of value for scraps of cloth. She taught herself how to sew and sold garments to soldiers that frequented the village looking for respite from the constant war that waged ever on. It was unheard of for a young woman to live on her own without a parental figure or caretaker, but once again, no one was willing to take her in. And so, for five years after her father's death she had taken care of herself and steeled herself against the scathing remarks against her origins.

The young woman halted in her tracks, the foreboding wind once again blowing, this time bringing with it the unmistakable stench of death and decay that permeated days old battle fields.

She shivered, noticing the eerie way the dark clouds above her swirled above all their heads and in an instant she knew something was terribly wrong. One look at the villagers halting their farming told her they, too, had noticed. Their uncertainty and nervousness startled her into dropping her basket of vegetables with a dull thud.

Something was terribly wrong.

Apprehension laced through her veins and caused her feet to spin around and carry her to the back of the village where her father's hut resided. The villagers watched seemingly apathetically as her gait increased slightly in order to reach her place of safety in haste.

'Why are they just standing there, pretending as if the heavens themselves weren't swirling with malice above their heads?' she confusedly thought.

In the not too far distance a rumble shook the earth below her feet and she turned to look in the direction from which it came with wide eyes and mouth agape. Somewhere near her a babe cried and its mother tried hushing it hurriedly and quietly.

And then came the first scream. It curdled her blood with the piercing sharpness of it.

Once more she turned in place and, this time, sprinted to her residence, fear lancing her heart.

Another scream and a bestial roar. The roar of a youkai, the rumored savage youkai that had been slaughtering villages without mercy.

The door to her hut was in sight until a dip in the dirt path caused her to trip, fall, and scrape her knee. A small whimper tore from her throat at the sudden impact but she paid the pain no heed. She needed to reach her home. She would be protected there. She would be safe.

But why weren't the other villagers running, too? Why did they just stare at her in her plight with fear and something akin to hope?

Once again she tripped, but this time she fell past the thick cloth hanging from the top of the threshold to her home. She sucked in much needed air and coughed from the exertion of running before crawling further in and hiding in the darkest corner.

Another villager screamed, this time a woman, and much closer.

As she sat frozen in fear she thought of her father and wondered if she would be seeing him once more before the sun would set. The thought of dying before her time sent tremors of fear down her spine and she let out a choked sob.

Just outside the village raged a fierce beast that stood well over ten feet with glowing crimson eyes. Blood dribbled from his sharp fanged mouth and in his large hand he grasped the broken, bloody, and dead body of one of the village women he had just killed. In his bloodlust he saw no humans, but a feast on which to gorge, like he had done so many times before. Despite his instinctual nature to kill, something had halted his rampage. A bargain.

He was not a youkai to be reasoned with. He was not a youkai with many coherent thoughts and was unable to comprehend the disgusting sounds that came out of the human's mouths. He cared of only one thing: survival. And he was at the top of the food chain.

His eyes narrowed with hatred at the small crowd of human males and their useless farming tools that had come before him to make sure he honored their bargain.

The human that had come to him the day before nearly defecated in fear and babbled in a language that he could not understand, but he did understand the gist of what his then soon-to-be dinner was saying. An exchange. The continued safety of their worthless village in exchange for a sacrifice, a human miko.

The thought intrigued him. He would have his miko, and then he would have his midday meal of town villagers.

"Youkai, you will honor our bargain and leave this village the moment you have received the sacrifice!" The bravest of the human men said.

With a quick swipe of his giant, clawed paw the human was no more. The other villagers shrank back in fear, wondering where their sacrifice had disappeared to.

She could tell the youkai was still in the village, and though she was paralyzed with fear she was curious as to why the youkai wasn't tearing apart the huts and destroying lives.

But when the screams silenced for agonizingly long minutes on end, she crawled her way back to the threshold of her home cautiously, not even caring that her kimono became snagged on splinters from the wood.

Upon reaching her doorway she heard muffled murmurs and hushed voices and even through her fear she could tell whomever was speaking was angry and anxious for something, but what?

Then, suddenly the cloth that was her door was ripped back by one of the village men and she knew then that more evil rested in the hearts of man than in the creatures born of darkness. She saw the malice in his eyes.

"Get up," he said cruelly, and without waiting for her to comply he roughly grabbed her upper arms and dragged her to her feet.

The pain of his grip was terrible and she whimpered audibly, but his hold didn't slacken, not even when he began to nearly drag her outside and down the dirt path toward the outskirts of the village.

"You're hurting me!" she cried, but he continued to hold fast. She nearly tripped from being forcefully pulled through the throng of huts.

When the clearing came into view, in which the massive youkai waited impatiently, her heart began to race and her breath came in quick gasps.

"What's going on? What is that thing?!" She asked, alarmed. But the man holding her said nothing, only quickened his pace.

Soon she was able to see the youkai's blood red eyes staring at her and could smell his putrid breath as he breathed out in anticipation. She began struggling in fear and didn't even wince when the man's grip grew harder to prevent her escape.

"Let me go! What are you doing? Let me go! Please!" She screamed in his ear, alarm rising at an unhealthy rate. The villagers, the braver ones that weren't cowering in their homes, paraded around and behind her, chanting words from a prayer meant to bring protection from evil with the use of a sacrifice. Terror constricted her heart in a vice-like grip as realization dawned on her. She was their sacrifice!

"No! Don't do this! Kami save me!" Tears pooled in her dark eyes and streamed down her cheeks leaving wet trails on her dirty face and she struggled harder, kicking and screaming at her captor. The rough grip on her arms increased in strength again and this time she let out a yelp of pain.

Her captor stopped just feet from the stinking creature, too afraid to get any closer lest the monster chose to double the size of his meal by eating him as well.

Her vocal cords ached from all her screaming but still she pleaded with the villagers to let her live. She never did a thing to them in all her life. She was being punished for the misdeeds of her mother, she screamed to them. Some of the villagers' heads turned away in shame, but the vast majority stared at her in apathy or with hatred, and others still looked at her with something akin to hope.

"Monster! We have brought you the village priestess! Now leave this place as per our agreement and never return!" Her captor spoke in commanding tones, yet his voice broke at the last moment, belying his bravery.

Immediately the hands of her captor released her arms, but before she could turn to run away the same two strong hands shoved her so that she flew forward a few feet and toppled over into the dirt at the foot of the putrid youkai. A cloud of dust rose upon impact with the ground and got into her eyes. More tears pooled and she blinked furiously to clear her vision only to look straight up at her executioner.

Eyes, dark red in bloodlust stared down at her with hunger. Whirling winds whipped around its gigantic head, blowing the few strands of patchy hair it had next to its horns in its terrifying face. It grinned sadistically, its maw opening slightly allowing giant drops of acidic drool to drip to the ground.

She screamed.

A clawed hand with three finger-like appendages grabbed her around her middle and hoisted her into the air until she was level with its wide-open mouth. The jaws of the youkai opened impossibly wide and its breath nearly knocked her out from its stench alone.

As if in slow motion she was brought closer to the beast and she knew then she was doomed. Nothing could save her now short of a miracle and a god. The girl-woman said her good-byes to the world and silently prayed that her next life would show her some kindness. She closed her eyes and prayed some more that death would come quickly.

Just as all seemed lost a strange gurgling noise was emitted from the back of the monster's throat. Her eyes opened in surprise to see the eyes of the youkai bulging in shock and pain; villagers on the ground screamed in terror but seemed incapable of running away.

The ghastly hand around her trembled and its grip slackened in strength. A second strange gurgling sound was released and the eyes of the youkai promptly rolled to the back of its head, the monster releasing its grip around her middle simultaneously.

The girl dropped ten feet in the air and tried bracing herself for the impact. She landed hard on her shoulder and sparks of pain shot all throughout her body. The side of her head ached from landing on a rock and her vision swam.

The ground shuddered violently from the impact of the youkai hitting the ground. Tense moments passed; no sounds could be heard save for the thundering of her heart against her chest. Bravely, she opened her eyes and the vision she saw was of perfection.

A well dressed man in white and red and adorned with armor stood above the lifeless corpse of the creature that was moments away from ending her life. He flicked the blood from his claws and gave the dead youkai a look of utter distaste. He was a youkai and was far fiercer than her would-have-been executioner due to the ease with which he dispatched the monster.

But she saw only her savior.

She struggled to sit up and pangs of electric pain shot down her abused shoulder and arm. The villagers around her, she noted, were starting to bow in reverence.

"Thank you, Lord Sesshoumaru! You've saved our village!" A villager squeaked out.

"How can we possibly repay you?!" A second villager said.

The youkai lord looked disinterestedly from one villager to the next and his eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.

"This Sesshoumaru did not kill the youkai for the sake of your pathetic village."

The girl licked her dry and cracked lips and cleared her aching throat gently before speaking to the legendary Lord. "But y-you have also s-saved my life!" Her heart thudded in her chest for a different reason as his molten gold eyes looked down at her. He said nothing.

"Please! Take me as payment! Let me serve you, forever loyal, as payment for saving my life! These villagers have such malice in their hearts they wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice me again when I have done nothing to earn such treatment! Please, Lord Sesshoumaru!" She pleaded quietly, but knew the villagers heard every word. Hate-filled glares stared at her back.

If he were to refuse, she realized, her life would be over. They would kill her.

Minutes passed as the feared youkai lord contemplated her words. "Do as you wish." He said simply, and with those words he turned and began walking away, his long silver hair blowing in the breeze.

She released the breath of air she had been holding and struggled to her feet so that she could follow her new master.

Months began to pass with new meaning for the girl. Every day from that day forward she lived with a new purpose, to serve the one who had saved her life. But as time went on she grew feelings for the seemingly apathetic lord.

He was cold and uncaring. He could be hard and cruel. But there was a good side only she seemed to see. He saved her life twice in the same day. And similar incidents would make themselves known through the gossiping whispers of the servants in his home. Though he was deemed Killing Perfection he never killed without just cause. There was good in his heart.

Even more time passed and soon two years from that fateful day had gone by. The once girl, now woman, served her lord loyally and with love and devotion in her heart, hoping that one day he would see her affections and return them in kind.

But fate was cruel and she was a doomed woman, and curse placed upon her since birth.

A year after arriving rumors and tales of uprisings and rebellions reached the castle walls and soon after that the Western Lands and the House of the Moon were at war. Her lord was gone often and returned little. She mourned his absence in silence and celebrated his return with all the love in her heart.

But a year after that, on a moonless night, with the lord of the house gone to battle, screams from within her home tore through the silence and soon the castle was under siege.

The battle was one-sided; the castle being left unprotected considering the military was out with the lord in battle. For hours she hid farthest from view in a part of the garden she was sure only she had ever found.

Each scream left her quaking in fear until all screams ceased. Leaving the gardens to investigate she came across a small patrol of lingering mercenaries, rummaging through the now destroyed castle.

There was no escape. They tortured her and raped her repeatedly. They scarred her body and left her on death's door with a gaping gash across her abdomen.

----The End of Youkai----

My breath is coming to me shorter now. It's become nearly impossible to suck in air when the gash in my abdomen flaps with every inhaled breath. My vision swims and is beginning to tint with the darkness of imminent death.

It's almost time, but I must hold on! I must see him once more; I must see my love... once more.

The rain is still falling on me, only harder now that the storm has reached its peak. The flowing water makes it even more challenging to see anything, but in my periphery I see movement.

A flash of white magnificence enters my vision and once again I am struck silly by his sheer beauty. Surely he will save me. I know he will, because he already once saved my life and has shown me his love and adoration, even if only once.

As he nears my frozen body I use the last of my strength to raise my limp arm up to him, trying to reach him. I see him survey the damage and the bodies before his eyes finally settle on me, his gaze emotionless. But I know better. He will save me.

"P-please..." I start to say before the blood in my mouth slides down my throat and chokes me. "S-s-save m-me..." My voice is weak and hoarse from screaming and I understand that my life is over, but he can still save me.

His eyes narrow and for a split second I am reminded of the day he first laid his eye on me and me him. It is not a day I will ever forget.

Why is he just standing there, staring? Once more I try pleading with him, the last of my tears trailing paths down my bloodied cheeks. "P-please, mi-milord...."

Then something strange happens. My lord - my love - turns his back on me before saying harshly, "I care not for the weak." He begins to walk away and my heart begins to crumble. "Your mortal life means nothing to me." His parting words pierced my heart like a lance and something cracks.

My arm falls to the muddy ground with a sickening squish and he disappears into the darkness. Something breaks and I am suddenly filled with hatred so great the feeling alone would kill a healthy person. Searing, bubbling, pain-filled hatred burns my heart until it is the only thing I can feel or think of.

My body begins to convulse uncontrollably and I instinctively know this is it. There were only five words of thought before the eternal darkness swallowed me whole.

'I will have my revenge.'

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AN: Phew! What a prologue! I was depressed just writing it! But it's vital in order to understand the whole plot!

Since this plot will be such a huge undertaking I won't continue unless I have some follow-up. It won't be nearly as depressing as the prologue, just so you all know.

So please! Read and leave reviews if I should continue or not!