Whispers of the past kept floating to her ears.
The screaming, the begging, the crying...
She never forgave herself for what transpired on this island, even though a Satsujin had caused all of this pain. How could she? Forced to watch her medical unit - her sisters in arms - be raped and killed because she had refused to heal the Satsujin's pawns. Those women were with her during the simulation training! They held each other, cried together, and worked quickly together. She had a few dinners with the general. He was a captivating man. Quite fond of playing cards and interested in raising a family, his life was taken from him far too soon. Even in the face of death, he had confidence in that the mission would still succeed, but Meioshi never understood why. The friends she made with the other soldiers were burned one by one...
Until that fateful day...
Meioshi was sitting along the beaches of the island. The Satsujin, Kanibozu, was still present here, but his spirit was merely imprisoned. He wasn't dead like she thought, only without a physical form. The animal carcasses that she found were ripped away like pincers made work of them. He was trying to regain his strength to escape. Meditating, she began to remember how she imprisoned the beast. She wasn't strong enough to kill it before. She was too young, too grief-ridden, but... she had an ally in Sesshomaru now. At least, she hoped she did. If not, she was certain Kirameku Ha would aid her. She began to chant to erect a shield around the island and a portal close to the beast's lair. The portal took the form of the enchanted mirror that once held King Shanwang surrounded by the powers of Kako Seigi and King Biancheng. This would either be the second of many fights to come with Kanibozu... or the last...
The surrounding waters were silenced. You could confuse the sea waters for a stiffened road with how flat the waves had become. The three grandmas watched from the ship while Kirameku Ha waited at base. Meioshi remembered playing along the beaches with the men and women, sending them to safety, rushing them to a surgical bed, fighting the toughest warriors there to challenge herself, even...
Meeting Sojuro again. He was a handsome, young man then and easily one of the best fighters she had ever faced and witnessed in combat. The general admired him as a younger brother and often competed with him for Meioshi's attention. Usually, the general wanted to share a dinner with her or simply talk about something other than war. Sojuro was a bit quieter and hardly ever wanted anything from her. Instead, he would ask to meditate with her. So, she shared her time with both men either eating her proper rations or meditating on the beachfronts. Sojuro had slept at her side only once when she had to work overnight to care for a wounded and traumatized soldier. He had seen Kanibozu's skeleton warriors. At first, Meioshi merely thought the skeleton was a simple demon. It was easy to eradicate and purify the area it haunted. She took it upon herself to even purify the border of their camp and the beachfront. Sojuro was with her during that time and every now and then another ally would join them. The day Kanibozu killed the general plundered those sweet memories into bitter nightmares.
The general had heard about her work and wondered if the stone he found at another battlefront could be of use. Meioshi was angry at Sesshomaru for an underlying reason then. The Gogyo Stone of Water he was tasked with finding was a brother stone to the Gogyo Stone of Fire that was now here and being used to imprison Kanibozu. Meioshi and General Izuhara never knew the stone's name. They only knew it was a powerful artefact, and it helped her avenge her general's death. When she found the water stone and a crab demon protecting it, the memories just rushed to her without warning. Tadamasa had to calm her down. Of all the creatures in the world to remind her of her failure, why did it have to be Lord Sesshomaru? What was really his purpose in her life? Should she even question it?
When the vision of her and Sesshomaru on the ravine filled her thoughts, Meioshi felt a sense of warmth and longing in her chest. She saw a great deal of herself in Sesshomaru on that day. A caged guard dog wanting to break free from her confines but... can't. That feeling of sudden powerlessness cut through the soul so immensely that it was insulting. Sesshomaru probably didn't recognize it, but Meioshi saw it as clear as day. He was scared. Not of her but his entrapment. She didn't have to be the one to put him in a cage for that reaction to come up. His lordship had some type of trauma involving such methods. Sesshomaru was doubtlessly one of the most powerful rivals she had in the mortal realm, so it was quite refreshing to see and know that fear could live in even the most powerful of foes. It wasn't a strictly human emotion. When she removed his cage, she gave him his power back in a way, and that became a symbol for her. Her fears and entrapment had to be removed. She couldn't live in fear or caged up at home anymore. She had to move on. So, she came here to do that. Perhaps, Sesshomaru was meant to be the one... meant to help her find the person who was going to release her from her cage. In exchange for that relief, she could learn more about the Gogyo Stones. Certainly, they would be useful to some degree.
Rising to her feet, Meioshi began performing kata and reliving her memories. Just after the general had been killed, the remaining soldiers thought of retreating, but she refused and chose to fight. She opened her powers up to purify the entirety of the island and pushed the camp border forward. More people and weapons were confiscated and brought to safety. Soldiers were defeated, demons eradicated, until she learned a horrid truth. The demons were priests. Kanibozu was capturing people who resembled the villagers and wandering priest that defeated him long ago. As Meioshi relived her final battles, shadows of the past birthed from Kanibozu's remaining strength started to react and reenact with her.
Sesshomaru had come out from the general's quarters right as this was happening. When he went to remove Bakusaiga from its sheath to fight, he noticed that the enemies were simply shadows and only materialized in Meioshi's presence. She was fighting with her eyes closed, using merely what must be muscle memory. So, his lordship simply watched on. This was probably the closest he would ever come to seeing Meioshi in her prime war days. She fought quickly, cleanly, brutally. Where he was elegant in combat, she was angrier, methodical, merciless. It was similar to how she was at the okiya village. She didn't care about preserving life... only ending it. When Meioshi ran into the thickets, Sesshomaru followed after her.
Until he saw the portal. It was in the shape of a bulging eye and opened up to reveal four of them fusing together and blinking like a lizard's. The eyelashes were shaped like teeth and the irises formed an odder shape before it glowed. Meioshi ran past it to the battle arena where she and Kanibozu faced off against each other for the final time. He had transformed into a humanoid creature on that day. Meioshi fought his shadow in perfect strokes from memory. She was getting sliced to pieces with the shadow taking solid form and Kanibozu's rage giving it power.
Sesshomaru tried to intervene then, but his strike went straight through the shadow. It was strictly after Meioshi. It was just another foe from memory. So, he silently stood by and watched her relive her battle. Gold spears of light fluttered about. They must have been allies to her. In the end, she did win by beheading the beast and weakening it, but it did not die. Meioshi stood still at this next part before flopping down to her knees. Spears shot straight through her body, and she flinched at this like it was happening to her now. Sesshomaru's eyes widened a bit. Those wounds should have killed her. One of the spears caught her heart! Meioshi finally opened her eyes then.
"Sojuro! Meioshi's been hit!"
"Archers!"
"Fall back! Light the flames!"
"Meioshi, can you hear me?"
"I... It's... cold, Sojuro-san."
"No, no, stay with me!"
"N-n-need f-f-fire..."
"Meioshi!"
Abruptly, the portal opened its eyes to the fullest and shot tentacles made from its eyelashes straight into Meioshi's back. Meioshi let out a scream that unleashed her full power and summoned a torii gate pathway to Kanibozu's prison. Incantations were written all over the legs of the gates. Dressed in her orange and indigo robes, Meioshi walked forward to enter the Satsujin's old temple lair once more.
"Are you ready?" a familiar voice asked.
"Yes, sensei," Meioshi answered, not looking at Kirameku Ha but feeling his watery powers comforting her. She then called nervously, "Lord Sesshomaru... Will you help me with this fight?"
His lordship said nothing for a while, but he did perk up at the request.
"You're never going to listen to me when I say stay away. You may as well as make yourself useful," Meioshi said to lighten the mood just a hair for herself. She looked at him with a light smile, though, and continued, "That's what I would say if the situation weren't serious. You're not obligated to tag along. But, I do want to thank you. Somehow or another, I... kept thinking about our promise at the ravine. Do you even care about our final battle anymore? Surely, there are other challengers you can fight. In the end, I didn't choose to be your rival because I enjoyed fighting you. I chose it... because I wanted to be more like you. I wanted to be a symbol of freedom and strength the way you are to me. You're free from your cage. I... I'm not quite there yet, but... I want to be. I miss going on adventures and causing my great uncle there to get more gray hairs on that blessed head."
"I miss spanking you with my shoe," Kirameku Ha joked, lightly smirking before returning to his serious disposition. "Kept me active."
"I suppose I simply must keep you around as a rival if I intend to be as strong as you, shouldn't I?" Meioshi asked, smiling a bit more genuinely.
With that, both she and Kirameku Ha proceeded on.
If I am the symbol of strength and freedom to you..., what are you the symbol of for me...? Sesshomaru thought. I already have a symbol of change in Jaken and a symbol of gentleness in Rin. You are chaotic, all over the place, and you never listen to me either! But..., I wouldn't change you for a single thing. Your chaos... excites me. Your busy life interests me. Your defiance makes me curious about you. Nothing is as simple as it should be around you. The world moves differently around you. You listen to it and enjoy its gifts. You have no need of ultimate power, just enough to do what you need to do. You are efficient. You...!
|| ... ... ||
"Thank you, Lord Sesshomaru," she said.
He was quiet for a while until he finally replied, "You've no reason to do that."
"Of course, I do. You helped me save my sunflower miko here," Meioshi said, nodding to Hasumi. "And... you refused to leave my side, even when I knew death was coming... you were there until the end. I'd say our rivalry has become quite the spectacle."
... ... ...
Meioshi giggled before looking passed Sesshomaru to see Reijiro and Sanraku catching up to them. She nodded to the boys and said, "Your caravan is growing quite nicely, my lord."
"I have no need for such a thing," Sesshomaru said softly.
"Do you always sell short yourself like that?" Meioshi asked, making Sesshomaru lower his eyes. "You shouldn't. If Hasumi can be given a second chance at life, you can be given the same. You are the lord of the western lands, are you not? Give yourself a chance to be that... taisho."
Sesshomaru gasped at the name before closing his mouth.
"A good king..." Meioshi paused to choose the right words, laughed a bit, and then continued, "well, I believe a good king never loses sight of those who are closest and most important to him. That's what it takes to be a true friend as well. It would be a high honor to put my life in your hands someday but only... if you give yourself a chance."
|| ... ... ||
You represent a second chance... Sesshomaru thought, eyes shifting a bit. She spoke like that when she knew death was coming.
|| ... ... ||
"If you can joke at a time like this, you can get out of those binds," Sesshomaru lectured, calming down.
"Actually, I can't," Meioshi said, reigniting that feeling of panic in Sesshomaru's chest.
"Why?" Sesshomaru asked quietly.
"... Hated by humans and demons alike. She had no one to trust and no reason to spare life. That child... for some reason or another... trusts me. In a small way... I'd say she's no different than you... It took us some time to trust each other, didn't it? ... She started to look forward to the next day... You've been changing so much I... didn't even know it at first... You've made a good other, Lord Sesshomaru. Have I been a good other for you?" Meioshi asked, smiling sweetly. It was that same smile she had at the ravine when they silently agreed to be each other's rival. It was that same smile she had when she freed the children from that okiya village. It was that same smile when they reunited at the old Camelia Gazebo. This... lovely smile... was fading away. He could smell her death approaching. She then continued, "Being your rival... has been my honor, my lord."
"... You know me so little, Lady Meioshi," Sesshomaru said, narrowing his eyes and turning to the akashita demon's mask trying to bite at his mother.
|| ... ... ||
Right then, Sesshomaru had a look of displeasure on his face and visibly frowned. He then said to himself, "It seems I have to remind this child of her place once more. I am the lord of the western lands. You die... when I say you can die! It is by my hand that your life will end. I'll be damned if I let another demon do it! Did I not tell you that once before? And you refuse to listen to me! If this Sesshomaru says you are his rival, you are his rival till death! This other bastard... is in my way. I am the last one you will face, not him!"