"You still bar my passage, Washu?" Kagato asked.
"You'll not ever have this power Kagato," a woman's voice declared, coming from no obvious source.
"You'll regret not letting me in," Kagato said.
"What more can you do to me?" Washu asked. "You've destroyed my body, killed my husband, raped and murdered my child. You have nothing left to fight me with."
"Perhaps," Kagato said as he thought of a rumor he had recently heard.
All he had to do was track it down to its source. Then perhaps it would be more efficient to have the half-mortal brat there with him where her mother's spirit could hear the screams. The difficult part would be finding her. Snow-women were not warriors, and their last encounter had proven that Ryoko was not someone to consider as a threat in battle.
Those that knew what Ryoko had grown into, would fervantly disagree.
****
It was hot, too damn hot. It was always hot in this damn box. She felt weak and tired and she was remembering things she'd rather forget.
If her parents had raised her instead of...she wasn't sure, but she thought they were dead. If they had raised her she would never have had to live on the road and in the wilds since she was a child.
She would not have tried to steal from Kagato on a hot summer day. She always felt sick on hot days, and weak.
She would never have lost something precious and irrecoverable in a fight she wasn't then prepared to have.
She would not have pulled herself from the pit he'd left her for dead in and immediately moved to bury the memory in drink and that same act that Kagato had taken her precious thing with in the first place.
She would not have acquired a...taste (addiction) for those things.
She would not have acquired an anger and taste for destruction.
She would not have attracted so much bad attention to herself.
She would not have been beaten by Yosho.
She would not have been tried and convicted.
She would not now be sitting in a small heated box, mind dulled and stomach nauseous from the heat, and wishing for the cool chill air of the winter outside.
She frowned and slammed an impotent fist into the wall. Given normal health she could destroy the wall easily, but, by accident her captors had discovered her vulnerability to heat. The box was constantly surrounded by fires whose heat was magnified by the metal walls.
But soon, this would be over.
"Ryoko," a familiar voice said. "It's time to leave." Ryoko looked up and smiled at her captor and saviour.
"Finally," Ryoko said, smirking.
"You are certain of this Yosho-sama?" the guard asked. "We cannot guarantee that this demon will not try to kill you on the road. It is winter, she will be strong once she leaves with you."
"She won't do anything to me," Yosho said. "And I'll be responsible for the girl. Come on Ryoko, lets go."
"Yes, sir," Ryoko said with some apparent sarcasm but no little respect.
Ryoko smiled as she left her imprisonment and memories were quickly buried again. She was cheerful, carefree, and herself again. She was free and with the life Yosho was offering, she'd never be in danger of imprisonment or...anything...ever again.
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(Posted Mon, 14 Oct 2002 01:11)
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