Hey, al! I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving. I know I did. But I may have gone a bit overboard with the turkey. Anyways, I have something to clear up. Winged Knight, I was not directing my flame alert message at you. I still refuse to post the persons pen name who gave me the flame, but I will let authors know if they didn't do it. I actually found your suggestions to be quite helpful. Anyway, lets just get on with the reason your here, hmmm.

Chapter 8: The four keys

They all agreed that they would split up into groups to search the halls for the keys. Since Inuyasha and Yusuke refused to be anywhere near each other for fear of maiming the other, they were put in separate teams. Link and Zidane would take the east hallway, Inuyasha would take the north hallway by himself, Yusuke would take the southern hall, and Zelda and Kenshin would take the western hall. They each set off.

********

Link and Zidane walked down the hallway with their weapons out. It was rather unnerving. The hall walls were lined with coffins of all shapes and sizes. Link thought that he was going to be sick. The smell of rotting flesh still lingered within the room.

Zidane on the other hand, was not as tense as link. Even though he kept his weapon ready, the catacombs didn't really bother him.

The hall came to an abrupt end with a skeleton hanging from the wall, chained up. Link sighed. "It looks like we're going o have to search the coffins." He said.

Zidane nodded, even though he was not exactly thrilled with the idea of opening up something that had the potential to contain his death sentence.

"You really shouldn't disturb someone's final resting place you know." Said a voice out of nowhere.

Link and Zidane spun around and asked in unison, "Who said that?"

They were both surprised to see the skeleton that was hanging off the wall to shift it's head slightly. "I did." It answered.

Zidane looked up at it for a few seconds then asked, "We're looking for a key that will allow us to enter the throne room. Do you know where it is?"

The skeleton nodded. "I do. In fact, I am it's guardian."

Link nodded. "Do you think that we could have it?"

The skeleton shook his head. "I'm sorry. You seem like nice chaps and all, but I have orders not to let anyone have the key unless they can guess my riddle."

Zidane and Link sheathed their weapons, thinking that no harm would come to them from this odd abberition.

"What is the riddle?" asked Zidane.

The skeleton cleared his 'throat' and said, "What is the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end and the end of every place?"

Link sat down and began to ponder this. Life and death seemed like logical answers to this riddle, but neither seemed to fit all the requirements of the riddle.

Zidane, equally as puzzled, slouched up against the wall and thought.

The skeleton waited paciently, never saying a thing to interrupt the two's train of thought. Even thugh he was no longer living, he still had his virtues.

Then, Zidane started to chuckle. The skeleton and Link both took notice of this. Zidane's small chuckle started to grow until it was a full hysterical laugh.

"I do hope that the poor bloke isn't mad." Said the skeleton.

Link looked at his friend and asked, "Zidane, are you alright?"

Zidane took a few deep breaths and said, "Yes, Link. I'm better than alright. I have the answer to the riddle."

Link then said, with a great deal of seriousness, "Well, hurry up and tell the skeleton so that we can get out of this hellhole!"

Zidane ignored his friend's outburst and turned to the skeleton, saying, "The answer to your riddle is E."

The skeleton forgot it was chained to wall and tried to applaud. "Good show, old boy! You have solved the riddle correctly!"

Link wondered what in gods name E had to do with this when it hit him. All the word or phrases that the skeleton had told them began or ended with the letter E. It was so simple, yet anyone could have missed it.

The skeleton then said, "Well, I'm a man of my word. You will find the key in my left ribcage. Don't be squimish. Just reach in and take it!"

Link was indeed a little afraid of reaching into the skeleton at first, but he gathered up his courage and reached in through a broken rib. He felt something and pulled it out. It was indeed a key.

As they turned to leave, the skeleton said, "Good luck to you in whatever quest you may be on, clever ones."

Zidane turned around and said, "Will you bee alright there?"

The skeleton chuckled. "Don't worry about me. I've been here for at least half a century and I have grown quite comfortable on this wall."

Zidane and Link nodded and went on their way.

********

Inuyasha walked down they hallway with his sword drawn. His muscles were tense and he was prepared to slash through anything that moved.

As he progressed down the hall, he noticed that it was starting to get wider. Sure enough, he ended up in a room that was shaped like a dome. Looking around, he found it to be devoid of any light except for a few torches that were burning in the corners.

Inuyasha sniffed around. There was an interesting smell that seemed both, demonic and otherworldly. He saw a creature coming towards him. He raised the Tetsaigia in case the creature tried anything.

The lights seemed to brighten as the creature was about seven feet away from Inuyasha. He could see it clearly now. It was a giant white blob. Inuyasha just had to wonder what sort of threat this creature was to him.

Then, the creature started to change. It grew arms and legs and it seemed to be taking a shape of some sort. Inuyash watched as the creature changed from an imorfus white blob to what seemed to be a young, beautiful kitsune with pink fur and long red hair that was braided into a ponytail.

'A seducer!' thought Inuyasha.

Seducers were a unique type of demons. They could take the shape of an attractive male or female and lure the unsuspecting victims into soul traps.

"Hello there, handsome." It said in a high-pitched, sexy voice. To Inuyasha's deep horror, it was clothed in nothing but black panties and a black bra.

Inuyasha did not let this get to him though. "Nice try, demon. But it's going to take more than that to throw me off."

The seducer put on a sexy smile. Iunyasha watched as its breasts expanded slightly. His mouth fell open for a few seconds and he lowered his sword slightly. But he shook his head to rid himself of any thoughts he had.

"Sorry, but no deal, seducer."

The seducer sighed. "I can see that it is useless to get through to you. If you came for the key, you can find it in the northeast corner next to the torch."

The seducer turned around, and said, "And, just so you know, in this form, I prefer to be called a vixen." And with that, it disappeared in a puff of smoke. Inuyasha ran over to where the seducer had said the key was. The seducer had been telling the truth.

Grabbing the key, he ran back in the direction of the throne room.

********

Yusuke walked along the half-flooded hallway in silence. He had been quite curious about the others when he first met them like everyone else he met, but that was beginning to blow over.

Anyway, he walked absentmindedly in the direction that the tunnel was taking him. At the end of the hall, he found a large statue that was producing the water in the hall. Yusuke noticed that the key was hanging around the statues neck.

As he stepped forward, he felt something odd coming toward him. He stepped back a pace and raised his fists into a classic fighting stance.

"Come on out! I know your there!"

Some thing that could have been described as low moaning was heard. Then, they came. At least a dozen or so poes materialized in front of Yusuke, each clothed in assorted colors of rags and holding a lantern.

"So, you can sense us, human." Said one of them.

Yusuke nodded. "I'm only here for the key. If you don't try and stop me, then no one will go back to hell. Got it?"

The poes all laughed at the same time, making the hallway ring with their laughter. "If only it were that simple. You must prove to us that you are applicable for the ownership of this key, physically, mentally, and spiritually."

Yusuke gave the poe a blank look. "Which means."

The poe let out a small scream. "It mean that you have to fight us in the confines of your mind, you dumbass!"

Yusuke smirked. "Look, I appriceate the lovely conversation, but I do have a few things to do, so if we could just get this whole thing over with, I'll be on my merry way."

The poes chuckled again. "Very well. It is your funeral."

They all started chanting something Inaudiable.

But before they could complete the chant, they were all blown away by a blast of blue energy.

As they all came crashing down, Yusuke stepped forward and grabbed the key. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I didn't want to stand there soaking to death while you guys were chanting all day."

The poes said nothing, indicating that they were either 'dead' or unconscious. Yusuke didn't give a care though. He just headed out of the hall.

********

Kenshin and Zelda were trudging down a dirt-filled tunnel, weapons in hand ready t fight if need be. The tunnel reminded them both of a mineshaft.

As they neared the end of the tunnel, they noticed something rather disturbing. The mining tools were working without any workers to guide them. The shovels tossed their dirt into piles and the picks hammered away at the more solid spots.

"What is going on here?" asked Zelda.

Kenshin nodded and sat down. "These tools contain the auras of restless miners that were probably killed within these walls. They continue to dig because they have on one else to mourn them and that their existence is meaningless."

Zelda could not help but be sorry for these poor souls. She pulled out an old boque of flowers that she had been holding onto from her pack and an old jar. "It isn't much," she said, putting the boque into the jar, "But I hope that it helps them find peace."

Then, the tools ceased to work and dropped to the ground. Kenshin stood up along with Zelda, their weapons drawn, ready for anything. But all that happened was a key materialized in front of them and dropped to the ground. Then, a ghostly voice said, "Thaannkk Yooouuu!"

Kenshin and Zelda bowed to the unseen specters, grabbed the keys and ran back to the tunnel entrance.

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Whew! What a chapter! This one took me awhile to write so I hope you enjoy it. Also, to avoid problems in the future, I must tell you that the Seducer idea was not mine. I got the idea from an online comic called EXTERMNATUS NOW. It is a very funny comic.

If you are interested in reading this comic, you can find it at .