The Complicated Life of a Kitsune Turned Miko
Problem 6
"Talking"
-Midoriko-
'Everyone else's thoughts'
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Oh, the horrors of being a preistess on the run from so many wonderful demons that didn't know how to play dead... or stay dead when they really were supposed to... Racing down the bland, gray street with the blazing sun glaring down at me, the untrustworthy people walking by giving me strange looks. The scalding heat surrounded me, suffocating my sweat-drenched body. A lone crow in the distance gave a mighty "CAW!" and then flapped its wings, flying into the distance. In reality, it may have been a much better day. In an optimistic world, someone most positively would've said something along the lines of: Running down the unique, streets with the bright sun smiling down on me, the pedestrians walking by acknowledged my existence... or something like that. However, this world wasn't reality, but a distorted view from my anything BUT my optimistic perspective.
Getting a haunting feeling, I turned around and saw red eyes staring out at me from the shadows. Stupid shadow youkai was still following me...
"That's IT!" I screamed, spinning around and pointing at the red orbs. "If you want to kill me then hurry up and DO IT!!!"
That one sentence alone caught everyone's attention, making them all stare at me. I ignored them and stayed that in position for a long time, pointing at the red slits with my fuming aura resonating off of me like a flame.
"Mommy, what's she doing?"
"Don't look at her."
"Why not?"
"Because normal people don't go running around screaming, dear."
"Oh."
I sweat dropped as a random breeze blew by when I heard that conversation. Whimpering, I dropped my head and hand. Was I really that weird? Okay, I was pretty dfferent, I had to admit that. How many people could claim that they could turn a demon into ash by just touching one? Not many...
There was chuckling behind me and I spun around to see Shigure standing right there, laughing his butt off. I felt the blood rush to my cheeks and I glared at him.
"What?" I demanded, crossing my arms and looking away with a pout on my face. Gosh, Inuyasha was rubbing off on me.
"Nothing, nothing" he stated, calming himself down. The thought of Inuyasha made me scowl even more, but the thought of the subjugation beads on his neck made me smirk. Maybe I would make poor little Kyon a set and stick them on his neck.
'But if I do that, they can't be too big otherwise it'll catch everyone's attention... and what color would suit him... Should I use pink just to spite him...? Or should I be nice and use orange to match his hair color...?'
"Kagome...?" I heard Shigure call and I was shoved away from my fantasies.
"Huh?"
"Why aren't you at school? It should have started by now..."
"Oh... that's because... I uh... That's a really good question, you know..." 'I'm screwed...'
"No matter. Get going, Kagome, before you miss even more school" he commanded, taking my shoulders, turning me around, and shoving me in the proper direction. He suddenly yelped and jumped back, shaking something off of his hand.
"Are you okay?" I asked, suddenly feeling a burst of power surging through me. I relaxed greatly, happy that my miko powers had come back. He gave a small nod, whimpering as he looked at his smoking hand. He looked up at me.
"What was that?" he asked in a whisper and I gave a nervous laugh, turning around.
"I'm going to go to school now so if you don't mi-" I stopped midsentence when I felt him grab my wrist, spinning me back around. I accidentally unleashed some of my miko ki out of surprise and he hissed in pain, pulling his hand back again. He looked at his smoking hand, then at me, trying to figure out what was going on. The feeling of dark magic that I suddenly felt on him made me shy away from him out of instinct as he stood up. I took one step back, then another, letting my miko instincts getting the better of me. A curse... he was cursed... Whirling around, I raced back to the school as fast as I could, leaving him standing there.
I was just about to enter the school gates when I felt a rise of youki to my left. I skidded to a stop and looked in the direction I felt it coming from. Trying to stay relaxed, I saw the familiar pair of red eyes staring out at me from the shadows. The red eyes disappeared for a split second only to reappear again as the youkai blinked.
'Stay away from me...' raced through my mind. I tried to move but found myself petrified to the spot I was now, not able to move my legs. I felt a familiar aura coming from the red eyes and I began to shiver. Naraku. Naraku was hiding in the shadows of the alley... he was right there... he knew where I was... The eyes suddenly vanished and I began to panic. I wasn't ready to fight him yet, where had he gone? I hand on my shoulder made me gasp and I slapped the hand away as I whipped around, reaching for a bow on my shoulder that wasn't there anymore. I was shocked to see Shigure staring at his hurt hand. Again.
"I think... we need to talk..." he said slowly and carefully. I glanced behind me to see the red eyes staring at me again. Looking back at Shigure I gave another nervous laugh while rubbing the back of my head.
"Can you wait for a bit...? I kind of have some business to take care of first..." 'And I'm going to die in the process of taking care of it...'
"Uh... sure...?"
"Great! Thanks! I'll be back here in... about an hour at most, okay? okay!" Before he could argue I had run off into the dark alley to confront Naraku. I felt the darkness closing in around me and I tried to keep myself from trembling in fear.
"Where are you Naraku?!" I demanded, sounding a lot more confident than I actually felt. "Where are you?! Show yourself!" His familiar laughter echoed around me and I felt his atms wrap around my waist. I released my ki and was frustrated when he didn't let go.
"Your pitiful miko powers can't hurt me right now, Kagome... I've grown stronger since we last met, and I can withstand your purification abilities without much pain" he cooed as he buried his face in the crook of my neck. I grimaced in disgust and tried to push him away. Too bad I was so terrified that I was trembling like crazy. "Aww, is my dear miko scared...?" he chuckled and I felt anger rising within me.
"Who ever said that I was yours?" I snarled and released my miko ki again. This time he hissed as he yanked himself away from me. He let a small smirk grace his lips.
"How delightful" he mused. "A miko with tainted energy... you never seize to astound me."
"My energy is not tainted!" I snarled.
"Become angry, Kagome. Let your emotions reign control over your actions and powers."
"Shut up..."
"It will make my job just that much easier..."
"Shut up!"
"Afterall... his emotions was what made Inuyasha succumb to my influence so easilly..."
"SHUT UP!!" I screamed and I heard voices calling for me. Yuki... Tohru... Hana... hell, I even heard Kyo. Laughter surrounded me and I saw Naraku giving a vicous smile. The color drained from my face and I shook my head. "...no..."
"Run, miko. Leave these pathetic humans before I kill them just to see this wonderful expression of horror on your face again" he laughed as he began to fade. "I'm always going to know where you are, so you might as well leave the city and find somewhere where none of you precious humans will be hurt. Not like its going to do much good, but it just might lower the casualties. Might."
The darkness began to fade away and I began to panic. Yuki, Tohru... gone...? I couldn't imagine that... I had to leave again... I knew that I had stayed in this place for too long but I didn't want it to end. Not quite yet... I slapped myself mentally. What was I thinking? Naraku already knew who I was with. Leaving wouldn't change anything. After all of the darkness was gone, I turned around and was about to walk back out of the alley when there was a large fash of light. My eyes widened in surprise when I turned back into a fox.
-Sorry it took me so long, Kagome, erasing memories again!-
I groaned mentally at the thought and sat down.
'What memories did you erase, Midoriko...?'
-I erased Shigure's memories from when he saw you transforming and such a while back.-
'...great... so now I'm just a fox to them again? Two completely different things?'
-yeah!-
'...wonderful...'
-You aren't happy about it...?-
'Oh, I'm ecstatic...'
-...sorry...-
'About what?'
-I wasn't here when Naraku was here. If I had known, I would have come sooner. He didn't do anything, did he...?-
'...no... he didn't do anything... just gave me a warning...'
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE WITHOUT A LEASH?!?! DAMN FOX!"
'I know that voice!' I chirped mentally, looking at the man in front of me. I stared at him with my large, innocent eyes, hoping that something would happen. Something not painful...
"Don't look at me like that! I know that you're that stupid fox now get over here!" he demanded, lunging at me and I nimbly hopped out of the way.
'At least I can still have fun by annoying the crap out of this guy!' I mused and swiftly dodged another of his pathetic attempts to catch me. I yipped happily as he gave a frustrated growl and continued to dodge. 'Wheee!' I was suddenly grabbed by the back of my neck and I saw... 'Hey! You're that guy's partner! How've you been? Having fun catching pests like me?'
His scowl was enough of an answer.
'Apparently not. Now if you don't mind, grabbing me by the back of my neck is actually kind of painful...' I thought to myself as I snarled and snapped at his hand. He yelped and dropped me to the ground. Yipping in excitement, I raced out of the alley and dashed between legs and under feet as the two behind me knocked people over to catch me. I felt something grab me and I scowled when I saw that I was in Kyo's hands. I flattened my ears against my head and bared my teeth, snarling. He just glared at me. I felt him hand me over to the pest control guys and they shoved me in a cage, then carried me to the back of their van and threw me inside. Seeing Kyo gazing at me with a look of triumph, I glared at him, giving him the deadliest look a fox could give as I pawed the bars of the cage and tried to reach him with my wonderfully sharp teeth.
'YOU ARE SO DEAD THE NEXT TIME I SEE YOU, KYO! YOU HEAR THAT?!?!?!?! YOU'RE SCREWED!!!!!!!'
----Kyo----
After the van carrying the fox drove away, I relaxed. For some reason, that fox really scared me. That look it gave me was definitely a glare, and those sharp teeth it was baring? Terrifying. Not to mention I swear I heard it saying that I was screwed the next time it saw me... I shook my head to clear my mind.
'Foxes can't talk, Kyo...' I reassured myself. 'Nothing is going to come back and haunt you, especially not a fox...' For some reason I wasn't comforted as muh as I'd hoped. Maybe it was the fact that I thought I saw something else behind those clear, blue orbs it had... Something that looked like sorrow.
To Be Continued...