This chapter needs a lot of work. I got really chatty at the end and all those spelling mistakes! Never mind I hope to make this chapter better than what it was before, but with out changing at thing. After all, this is the chapter where Kikyou goes from depending on Riku to depending on herself. And maybe, when the time calls for it, depending on Riku as well. Yep, most successful partners ships shouldn't be one sided.
Disclaimer:What I told you guys already. I don't own them. I only own the wonderful plot. And I already told you that in the first chapter.
Kingdom Hearts: Soul Taker Chapter 3: The powers of a priestess.
I can't seem to find you
And it seems that...
I'm over whelmed with everything
What was once so clear...
Seems lost to me I'm searching for the meaning in my past
But all I seem to find...
Is hopelessness
But maybe thats what I've been searching for all along...
Riku took out his sword.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Pocahontas taking out her staff and Li taking out his own sword. And in front of him he could see Kikyou.
A voice at the back of his head told him that there's no way he can actually save her, and why should he bother. Why indeed. He didn't owe her anything. Sure she had saved his life, this he wasn't even really sure of, but that didn't mean he had to play hero. Plus she was annoying. And the last thing he needed was some little girl following him around.
Pocahontas was already working on a magic spell, most likely fira. While Li was working on figuring out how to help Kikyou and stop that monster, which was extremely unlikely that he could do both.
Riku didn't have much time to decide. That horse wasn't stopping and that sword didn't look like a toy. Faintly he could hear Pocahontas yelling at him to help her. But help her how? What exactly was he suppose to do? He looked to Kikyou and saw that she was still standing there. Maybe she was excepting her fate.
'Its not my problem. I'm not some damn babysitter, but if so then why is it so hard to walk away?' Thought Riku to himself. This was the perfect damn moment for him to develop a conscience.
"Fuck it." Riku muttered to himself then ran off toward Kikyou. If he didn't save her it would cost his job, and maybe that wasn't the only reason. "
Riku wait we don't have a plan!" yelled Li. Riku ran off in Kikyou's direction and almost got hit by Pocahontas's spell.
"Fuck the plan! I can't wait forever!" yelled Riku over his shoulder. He could already see he was too late, but he wasn't going to sit around and watch. No matter what his own self had to say.
(Kikyou's preview)
'Why am I just standing here, waiting for my death like some women in a bad horror movie? Shouldn't I be running to the side so I can get out of its path or something? I didn't get this far just to die. I didn't almost get killed by a demon or put up with Riku for nothing. Or have a freaking jewel get ripped out of my side. So for the love of god, Kikyou move!' Thought Kikyou to herself.
But despite her protest, she couldn't move. She watched as the blood from the horse man's sword made a trail in the dirt, and how the light glittered off of it. How the black armor reflected in the sunlight, or how the demon's horse eyes moved.
Now in the distance she could hear Riku yelling something. He was only a yard or two away or maybe farther then that. It should have filled her with joy knowing that she might not die after all. But Kikyou knew better, she wasn't going to live, she was only a minor character in this story. One of the characters that get killed by the villain or you never hear of except once.
The headless horse man stopped in front of her and raised his sword. Kikyou's head raised also, if she was going to die she wanted to see how she would, not hide from her fate.
'I except. I think this might just be destiny. But I wish I didn't have to die. I wish I could just stop the world right now. Maybe if I was stronger I could deal with this...' Kikyou's thoughts were interrupted when the jewel that she had in her coat pocket appeared right in front of her. It glowed with a supernatural brightness, its light blinded both Kikyou and the headless horse man. The horseman backed up at the light.
Kikyou's limbs moved on their own and her left arm moved up, grasping out for the jewel. Her hand out stretched it self and a bow appeared. It looked for a second like it was made out of the same hard stone like the jewel and then it changed until it was just a black bow with a white handle.
'What is happening? Why does this seem so familiar...'
(Kikyou's memories)
A nine year old Kikyou stood in her priestess robes out by her mothers garden. She faced a tree that she had drew a crewed bullseye on. She raise her practicing bow at the target.
'Please, just let me hit it this one time...'
Kikyou had read about Robin Hood in her fairy tale book and had wanted to be just like him by taking up archery. She had yet to hit the target and her mother didn't have enough money to take her to a class to learn. It had been expensive enough just to buy the practicing bow and arrows. 'Please, I want to hit it. I wish to hit it. Please just let me...This one time. I want to not be such a faliure...Just this one time...'
Kikyou raised her bow and notched a arrow in it. She pointed it with trembling hands at the target. And let the arrow fly.
'Please...just this one time...let me hit it...'
A bright violet light appeared around the arrow and then darkness. Kikyou had been knocked out by the force of the strange light and the power that came with it.
Her mother had been so shocked and frightened by what happened and by what she saw when she went outside, to tell Kikyou that lunch was ready, hat she told her that she could never practice archery again. Along with this she told her that it was a dangerous weapon and she had no right playing with it, Kikyou's mother took away Kikyou's bow and arrows, and told her that someone in the woods was smoking and that they threw a still lit cigarette at the tree and it caught fire.
Well that would explain why the tree was burned to a crisp but it didn't explain the light. Over the years she forgot about the incident or about her disappointment about not being able to practice archery. Even if she did hit the target...
(Now Kikyou's preview but present time)
Kikyou took the bow and the light disappeared. The headless horse man once more advanced and tried again to hit her with his sword.
Kikyou surprised herself by dodging it. She crouched and dodged another attack and her lips curled up into a small evil smile. She stood up to her full height. Her face became unreadable and she notched a black arrow in to her bow from a arrow bag that mysteriously appeared on her back. Kikyou gathered power that she didn't even know she had and let the arrow fly. The same light she had seen come out of the jewel years ago surrounded the arrow. It hit its target and the headless horse man griped his side and put a hand out behind him as a black portal appeared.
Him and his horse backed up in to and through it and Kikyou looked around in amazement at what she had just done. To her the world seemed to be spinning and she could barely focus on anything. Everything turned black as she fell into unconsciousness.
"She may just have more power than the jewel can hold. Or maybe it's the other way around." said Ansem. He twirled the crystal glass around on one finger. He stopped it and looked at Kikyou's lifeless form the the globe displayed.
"I wouldn't be surprised," commented Scar. "Like father like daughter after all."
Both Ansem and Scar started to laugh.
Kikyou woke up and was surprised to find herself in a nice, big warm bed. A lady in a 18th century brown dress walked in and looked at her in amazement.
The serventran out of the room and left the door open. She could hear her foot steps pound on the hard wood floor as she ran down the hall.
Kikyou looked around. The floors were all hard wood and so were the walls. A open window was just across from the wooden bed that she laid in. And the brown trench coat that she had stolen was hanging from the bed post besides her head. Propped up under the window was the bow and arrows that had appeared in front of her in the woods.
Memory returned to Kikyou and she got out of bed and walked across the room. After reaching what was now her bow, she it in her hands to look it over.
Riku, after hearing that Kikyou had just woke up, walked in. He knocked on the door to get her attention and Kikyou turned around. "You're finally awake I see. You've been out for hours."he said while leaning against the door frame, and crossed his arms across he's chest.
Kikyou sighed and waved a hand in front of her. "You can come in Riku."
Kikyou sat down in front of the window while Riku sat down in front of the bed.
"The others were pretty worried about you. I hope you can explain what just happened."
"I wish I could. But I don't know what happened. I guess I was just lucky."replied Kikyou. Riku dug in his coat pocket and handed her the jewel.
"Well that's not much that I can use to file a report on. But until we find out what happened I guess well just have to accept that."said Riku.
Kikyou looked down at the bow and arrows in her hands. She set the case of arrows to the right of her and let her hand travel over the bow.
"There seems to be writing on it..." Kikyou could barely see it. It seemed to be written in a different language and it was carved into the wood."It says something...,"started Kikyou,"About...a key to a door...I'm surprised I can read it."
Riku looked at her while she squinted at the bow and attempted to read it. The whole situation was starting to remind him of something he had tried so hard to forget.
"It says: The jewel of the heart is the master of the keys to the door...I can't read the rest. I think the writing on the wood got sanded or faded with time. After all who knows how old this bow is."
"It could be even older than you." Riku teased to break the tense atmosphere in the room. Kikyou glared at him while Riku just smiled.
"You know Riku your a louse."
"Yep, I sure am."replied Riku. Kikyou rolled her eyes as he gave her a thumbs up sign. The good humor in the room didn't last long as Kikyou suddenly remembered that she was starting to like his company and how few times she could joke around with her family. And how it felt when she was holding that bow earlier, that feeling of power.
Kikyou looked sadly back down at the bow in her hands.
"You know Riku, for a minute there I wasn't so sad anymore. When I had that bow in my hands back in the woods, I was emotionless..."said Kikyou. Her eyes started to water and she turned around so that she now faced the window. "I always wanted to run away and find some new world, even though it was impossible. I thought anything was better then being at home. I didn't care how far away I was from everyone. I just wanted adventure. I want a world where anything was possible...where my every wish would come true. And I got my wish too. Except for the wish part of course... I guess I should have been careful about what I wished for..." Kikyou trailed off and Riku stood up the same time she did.
"Kikyou..."
"No, I'm okay Riku. Not like I don't deserve what's happened to me. Unless you were going to say something else. It's just that maybe if I hadn't tried so hard to keep everything inside. Or maybe if things at home were different." said Kikyou. She looked at the dark woods while Riku this time didn't say anything.
"My mother's always sad and depressed because of me and my sisters father. He left me when I was still a baby and when my mother was pregnant with my sister Kagome. And because of that she always tries to hold on to us, she's always afraid something bad will happen and she will be left alone again. She's even suicidal. She tries to hide and say that she's not but I can see that she is, I've seen the cuts on her wrists. And Kagome, she tries so hard to not see what's happening to mom by always trying to be cheerful. She goes out all the time with her friends, always leaving the house if things get too tough of sad, is constantly denying that anything's wrong, and going out and staying up all night with her boyfriends. So that leaves everything to me. I have to take care of the shrine, I have to take care of the house, and I even have to take care of our damn cat. Every single responsibly goes to me. When my mother dies I'm to take care of the shrine, because we all know Kagome doesn't want to take care of it. And I'm already taking care of it now. I was born and raised in that house and the grounds around it and I shall die in it too. I always see in magazines the pictures of the world. The places like the United States, or Europe, or even places that my not exist like Atlantica. I can never go see them, I can't leave my mother or the shrine. So I smile and try not to see the worst of it like Kagome does. But it doesn't work. And I always always wish that I could run away from it all. I wish to see new worlds, not just the one outside my window. And now I did. But the price is that my mother's probably worried or trying to kill herself because of my disappearance. And Kagome's probably never there. No doubt going out with friends instead, to get away from it all. Now I'm stuck here and I don't know why. Why me why not Kagome? Or someone better then me, someone braver, or stronger, or tougher. Now every things fallen apart and I can't pick up the pieces..." Kikyou trailed once again off. Dispite herself, her shoulders shook with the unsuccessful effort of trying not to cry. She didn't mean to open up old wounds or tell Riku about herself, it just happened. Maybe it was so easy because it had been bottled up inside all this time. Tears slipped down her cheeks and landed in small puddles on the hard wood floor.
Riku sighed and walked over to her. He put his arms around her shoulders and whispered in to her ear: "So what. Your mothers a weak suicidal idiot and your sisters a bitch that likes to party. Nothing I haven't heard of before. In my opinion your worse then both of them put together. Must run in the family."
Kikyou's stopped crying and her eyes grew larger. She pulled away from him, turned around, and stared at him in shock because she couldn't believe what she heard. No ones that heartless right?
Riku smirked and stood there staring right back at her. "You heard what I said. Your mothers a weak-" He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence, since at that moment Kikyou slapped him, hard.
The sound of her hand connecting with his cheek echoed across the room. It seemed like it drowned out any other sound in the house. From the force of the slap Riku's head had been turned to the side he straightened his head and put one gloved hand up to his now red cheek.
"You bastard." Kikyou said as she slowly and silently started to cry again, but this time in anger. She snatched up her bow, arrows, and the jewel and climbed out the window.
Pocahontas came into the room. She had arrived andbeen listening in on the conversationwhen Kikyou stopped talking about her family.
"How could you Riku. I know your as cold as ice but still...Aren't you going to go after her?"askedPocahontas.
Riku flicked out his tongue to lick away the blood that had trailed down from the corner of his mouth. He hadn't expected for her to hit him that hard. "She'll come back when she's hungry. Besides its not my problem. Maybe now she'll have something else to think about besides her own problems for awhile." Riku replied, forcing himself to say it causally and like he didn't really care so Pocahontas wouldn't figure anything out. But she did.
"You mean you told her that just so she could forget for awhile?"
"You know you aren't so dumb after all."replied Riku. He left the room as Pocahontas looked out the window and started to wonder if Riku's words wouldn't drive her in to danger.
(The next morning.)
"The nerve of him. I can't believe what a asshole he is!" Kikyou was still mad about the events of last night. So mad that she didn't even see that she had stepped in to the clearing that she had received her bow and beat the headless horse man in. It seemed that everything looked the same, she had walked all night without rest after all.
"He comes on all nice and sweet and looking like a angel, then he acts like a complete asshole. Never mind the fact that he's cute, it's always the cute ones that are jerks. Just look at Inuyasha or his brother Sesshoumaru. I can't believe I fell for the old "hold me" trick. Wait did I say he was cute?"Kikyou said to herself. It must have been her sleep deprived brain that was forcing her to ramble.
"Kikyou you idiot he's the same person that insulted your family, never mind the fact that he tried to save you when that demon was attacking you! He's a asshole thats what he is. And if I ever see him again it will be too soon!" Kikyou continued to yell at herself.
Kikyou faced the large black tree in back of her and crossed her arms over her chest. Kikyou calmed herself down by studying the trees ugly exterior. It seemed to twist and bend in impossible ways, maybe it did that because it was old. Or maybe...
Kikyou snapped out of her thoughts when she noticed that there was someone behind her. Kikyou turned around and saw a women in a black and white 18th century dress. She had her blond hair piled high on her head and a ugly smile on her face.
"My, my I thought no one came out to these parts of the woods especially with a killer loose. You know he has killed 5 people already."said the women. Her hideous smile got bigger and she circled Kikyou. Kikyou stepped around in a circle with her, not wanting to give her her back.
"No I didn't know. Thanks for telling me." Kikyou without much feeling. In a way this was like one of those stare downs on tv, if she gave her the advantage by looking confused or scared the other woman would pounce on her.
The women stopped and Kikyou stopped. They were facing each other, each in front of the entrench that Riku and Kikyou along with Pocahontas and Li use yesterday to get there.
The women stepped up to her until they were only an inch apart. She embraced her and Kikyou felt she couldn't move, just like she couldn't move before when she was about to get killed yesterday. How could this woman have that much power?
The women let her hands trail down her back until they hanged over Kikyou's hips. Blood dripped from the woman's left hand from a wound she had inflicted in order to cast this spell.
"Mmm...your so tense child. You should relax it will all be over soon."she said. She lad her head over Kikyou's heart.
"Wh...what do you mean it will all...all be over soon." Kikyou said, trying to at least keep her mouth from being unable to scream. If she kept calm then everything will be alright. Kikyou knew this, but like all animals caught in a trap, panic overwhelmed her and showed slightly in her voice.
The women pulled away from her and looked at her with a hate that Kikyou was surprised that she hadn't seen before.
"You ruined everything. Those Reapers were suppose to die and so were you for coming so close to figuring it out. You also almost killed my horse man."
"You summoned him? You control that thing?"exclamied Kikyou. She hadn't been expecting that, or had she?
"It was a man along time ago. But I'm afraid child that you won't live to hear the tale.," The woman in front of Kikyou stepped away from her and took out a skull from the a pocket in her dress and held it in one hand high above her head along with a piece of Kikyou's hair that she had managed to get off of her when she had embrace her.,"Come out my horse man, a new victim awaits. One that I'm sure you would love to meet again."
Kikyou was finally able to move again. She looked down the path and saw a familiar black shape heading toward them. It was coming 2x faster then last time. It reached them in no time at all and before Kikyou could take out a arrow it grabbed her by the neck and pulled her up off the ground slightly.
The headless horse man leveled his now clean and shaper sword with her neck. Kikyou could barely breath but she managed to scream the first word that came to mind.
"Riiikkuu!"
In another part of the forest Riku and his partners were looking for Kikyou. Riku, because he was forced to, and Pocahontas and Li because they were worried about Kikyou. She hadn't returned yet and non of the villagers had seen her.
Riku looked up as he heard Kikyou's voice. The birds over head flew away from the trees from voice he and the evil presence they felt.
"Riku, that was Kikyou!" exclaimed Pocahontas even though she didn't really need to tell them at all.
"Thats not all we have to worry about."voiced Li. Several heartless emerged from the ground, they came toward them in a staggering manor that only heartless could Pocahontas did a flare spell, which desinagrated them, but even more showed up to take their place. All of the heartless in front of them seemed to appear and try to stop them in front of the path that lead to the middle of the forest and where the latest murder had occurred. Not to mention where Kikyou had fainted. The scream sounded like it came from that path, and was in fact where Kikyou was. It was like something was trying to keep them apart from Kikyou.
Riku, Pocahontas, and Li all silently agreed that that was where they must go and, regardless of the heartless,t hey started trying to clear a path. Through clearing a path seemed to be pointless since more kept appearing.
"I don't have time for this!"yelled Riku. He ran in front of the others and used one of his more powerful attacks. When more heartless start popping up out of the ground after this, Riku just pushed through them, ignoring the pain. Finally he broke through the heartless and started heading at full speed toward where Kikyou was.
"Thats just like Riku. Always showing off." Pocahontas said to Li by they were trying to catch up to Riku.
The headless horse mans keeper, the witch with the skull was yelling at him to hurry up and finish her when Riku jumped through the trees. Riku had decided to forget the path and make his own abd had heard someone yelling and had guessed correctly that that was where Kikyou was and jumped through the wall of trees after covering his face with his arms.
Riku rolled on the ground, then got up and almost cut off the hhm's(Short for headless horse man) hand off. Luckly for the demon, he let go of Kikyou before Riku could cut his hand off. Kikyou fell to the ground and put her hands around her neck. She started coughing while Riku was blocking a hit from hhm's sword with his own.
"Hurry up and stop that witch. She must be controlling him!" yelled Riku over his shoulder.
"What you think she is? Of course shes controlling him!" Kikyou stood up and tackled her. Kikyou landed on top of her and punched her across the face. "Thats for touching me Bitch!" yelled Kikyou at the witch. Kikyoutook the skull fromthe witchand tossed it up into the air so she could destroy it with a arrow. She was about to shoot it when the women pushed her, ran and grabbed the skull.
"You can't stop us! I won't let you!" She started gathering power for a Blizzaga spell. She started to shot it at Kikyou and Kikyou countered with a Blizzaga attack of her own.
'I can do magic! Well this is a improvement.' Thought Kikyou as she watched as both of the powers of ice tired to over power the other.
"I can't afford to lose to someone like you. I have people waiting for me, people that depend on me!"yelled Kikyou over the sound of the battle at the women.
"And who would that be!"the witch yelled back."At least "my" kind of people aren't people that believe that the world will get better and justice will prevail. All I wanted was a little power-"
"A little power? You must mean a lot of power then! Your kind of power is something I want never to experience, I'm not going to take the easily way out. If I want something I'll work for it, I'll beat my demons myself. You're right though, the world won't get better and justice won't always prevail, but I can at least try to make things better for those around me, like my family!"yelled Kikyou back at the witch. As the symbols on her bow and arrow glowed and a violet light grew at the tip of Kikyou's notched arrow. Kikyou let the arrow go and it his the witch in the chest, burning and knocking her out in the attacks purifying light.
The hhm stoped fighting, turned away from Riku, and picked up the witch and his fallen skull. He put his head back on and Kikyou and Riku, along with his partners who had just arrived, looked in horror and disgust as the flesh started growing back on it. First his veins, then his muscles, his eyes, then his hair and skin.
He started riding toward the black tree and it opened up and reviled the bloody skulls of his victims along with the portal to hell. The woman in his arm woke up and started to scream, he stopped her screams when he kissed her on the mouth and used his razor sharp teeth to bite off her tongue. Blood trail down her mouth as she looked at him in angst at what was happening while he just smiled. The horse, the women, and the now not headless man went through the portal to hell and it closed behind them.
"Well that raps up another case. Lets go." said after a period of long silence Riku. Li used a Curaga on everyone and they started to walk away. Kikyou stood where she was and looked at the black tree.
Suddenly a white mist of two shapes came out of the tree, and before she could say anything, flew into the jewel. It glowed evilly and a unfamiliar voice in her head muttered something about two halves. What ever said was mumbled too quickly to actually be heard and understood.
Kikyou was about to tell Riku about this strange turn of events, but decided against it. It was best she keep this to herself, Riku would probably think she was crazy anyway. Kikyou then ran to catch up with everyone before they left with out her.
Well this ends my period of rewriting chapters one to three. I rewrote a lot in this chapters. It seemed that a lot of sentences didn't make sense or had a lot of my personal thoughts in them which was a little annoying for the reader. When I reread those parts I thought to myself, "WTF was I thinking! I must had drank to much juice or something while writing this chapter. I'm never doing that again.". lol I guess I can still surprise myself. I replaced some words with new ones.
Like one of the "horror" words in it to "angst" and "butt" to "hips" because it sounded better.I also changed "light and darkness" into"two halves" because light and darkness are the same halves of, well I'll let you figure that out yourself.
The witch was the one from the non animated and messed with Disney version of Sleepy Hollow. The scene at the end is like the scene in the movie, well I hope it is at least.
I hope that you guys will continue to read this even though I take so long to update this sometimes. It's not like I'm dead, I'm just a Gemini.
Some great music to listen to while reading this chapter and the last one is: Simple and clean(Japanese and English version) Gundam Wing opening:Just Communication, that song from the anime X Secret Sorrow, land Destai from Kingdom Hearts (I think), From the game Legend of Dragoon : If you still Believe, My Will and Fukai Mori, and Eyes on me from. I don't know where to download these songs(Be cause I forgot where I downloaded them.) so hopefully you have the CD or something. And yes I download music, but I always try to buy the CD.
Well now thats that's over please review.