Chapter One: Blind

Kagura was the caged wind.

With a delicate sweep of her hand and a slight twist of her fan, a whirlwind twisted between delicate prongs and paper, swirling, and then knocking the ghoul-youkai to the ground.

She howled, rattled and railed at the world.

"Dance of the Dragons!" The wind ripped the youkai apart, directly down the middle, and for a moment the corpse hung poised in the air. There was a fleeting warmth of splattered blood upon her face before it was ripped off by the wind and she let her forces subside. The battle was over.

This cruel and unfailing world,

The power held at bay in her eyes faded, crimson turning to ashy black. She let herself drift lower to the ground, setting a delicate, slippered foot onto the wet grass, nudging the corpse over. This was the right one, she assured herself, true to the last word of Naraku's description.

That gave her life, but not freedom;

Kagura sniffed delicately, youkai can only be inured to some such smells and long-dead flesh was never one of them, and floated higher. For a moment she was silhouetted against the stars; a vacuum of light against a suspended canopy of celestial fire.

Family, but not love,

Power, whole and throbbing like a pulse beneath skin, called to her. Just one more of that Shikkon no Tama. One more fragment of freedom. She punched her hand through the rib cage and was submerged up to her elbows in blood, her inner arms and wrists slick as she looped her fingers around. Her fingers hit something sharp and she withdrew a hand to wipe it on the grass beside her, flipping it over to check the palm, then the back. A small scratch on the back of her hand disappeared beneath her intense gaze and her youkai blood.

Hope, but not faith,

Grimacing, she shoved her hand in once more. There! She had it, pulling her hand out with the shard clasped securely within. She smiled and clamped down, feeling the bite of the fragment.

Kindness, but along with

too much time in the world.