Chp 8
"Medusa will be here soon."
"I know."
After I paused a moment, I exited the hall opposite the way I leave for daily training. After walking for twenty minutes, I found the north wing, and entered without hesitation. I reach a small sitting room.
I cross it quickly, and approach the door at the other end. Kabuto had left me a small list of directions in my room, and I knew this next room was where Medusa would arrive. I give myself a second to become more composed. Take a breath, calm down, and the open door. I entered a room large enough to be a vast underground ball room, or perhaps a stadium rather?
I see my father at the other, so I make my way over to him quickly.
"Orochimaru-sama?" I started hesitantly.
"Hmm?"
"Has Medusa-sama arrived?"
"..." He turns silent for a short moment, and his eyes narrow. "Yes." He finally responds. Dear Shinigami. She was here. "And she shall reach this chamber in a few moments."
"Hai."
"Before she arrives, I'd like to ask you something though, perhaps something that should have been asked from the start."
"Hai?"
"… What is your relationship to your mother….?"
"Could you explain what you mean?"
"What would you say you are to her?" I didn't even need to think about it.
"An asset." He quieted himself as he mulled over my answer.
"And?"
"Research." I guess he didn't have anything else to ask, as no other words were exchanged for another few moments. Then finally,
"She's here."
The doors opened wide, and a figure appeared. It walked into the light to reveal a woman with short edgy black hair with long strands down the front that twisted together. She had on what looked like a sleeveless dress that looked quite like a hoodie, and walked barefoot. A sneer was present on her face.
"Medusa-sama." I approached her, and bowed down, with Ragnarok folded against my side.
"Crona, I see you have fared well." I did not respond. "And- Ah…. Orochimaru. How pleasant to see you again. I believe you might wish for a word alone with me?"
"Quite."
I looked up to Medusa, and saw behind her three more figures. One tall looming figure, I knew was Free, her werewolf lackey. Next to him was a smaller figure with a wide-brimmed witch hat- Eruka! The third figure could only be Mizune, the mouse witch, as that is her only other lackey that I know of.
Medusa glanced at me. "Eruka, take Crona back into the hall with the others while we have a word, won't you." I followed the frog witch into the hall way, and closed the doors behind me.
The hall lead straight from the door in only one direction, with no doors along the way. Eruka strutted over to the left corner of the hall and sat down to relax. Free paced up and down the hall in impatience, pausing by Eruka every now and then. Mizune split apart into each separate mouse witch and huddled together, squeaking to one another.
My back slid down the door. And I sat in silence. A feint murmur from the other side of the door caught my attention, and I pressed my ear against the door to hear more.
"You told me you had lost the child in its earliest stage."
"I also said her name would have been Crona. I'm glad to see you have remembered it all so well."
They talked for while simply over the fact he had left unaware of my existence, but Medusa reasoned with him he had no right to object to any of it.
"You came out ahead here. You survived mating a witch, and are presented with a child already raised and trained, whose loyalty shall always fall to you. You really should be more enthusiastic, I have done nothing beside a gracious favor." He didn't seem to buy it.
"You don't give favors for no reason, especially of this sort. What are you getting out of this? Free day-care for the girl? You want me to train her further? There is no logical reason for you to call upon me now other than you want a favor of me."
They talked for an hour I think, but they had quieted down, and I couldn't hear much anymore. I stopped listening a half hour back. I suppose they were choosing what to do with me. I leaned my head against the doors and waited.
My mind wandered to details around me. Like, the fact Free had an awful bad habit of just staring at Eruka, and the frog witch didn't seem to mind. Maybe there was something between them? Or that the Mizune(s) all had different pitch squeaks, a fact I had never thought about before. My mind was everywhere. In fact, didn't the door I was leaning on open out ward toward my current position against it?
Bam!
Apparently, yes, they did, as the doors had burst open, and knocked me forward. Not a good place to sit. I turned and saw Eruka had been smashed behind the door. Her seat wasn't exactly a prime spot either I guess. I came to my feet but before I could turn around-
Whoosh
I felt myself pulled backward by an unknown force, almost as if gravity changed for a moment. I slid smoothly across the ground backward for about twenty feet. I looked up to see a large vector arrow on the ground where I had been seconds before.
Medusa was a little in front of me to the right now. She barked out to her lackeys. "Mizune, guard the entrance, Eruka, block anyone who gets in, Free, I want you to guard the entrance to this hall. Go, now, they're coming!" They scrambled off knowingly, but I was still lost.
"Medusa-sama?"
"It's nothing Crona, some scum followed me here. I trust this isn't your only hideout?" She addressed the latter part of her sentence to Orochimaru.
"You would be correct, I'll -"He broke off and stared into the corner of the room. "Pardon me; it seems intruders are arriving from both ends. I'll be back to collect you as soon as I can." I blinked, and he was gone.
Medusa stood rigid a moment, then sat down to meditate. What scum was she referring to? Was it my rescue party? I was curious who's body Medusa had taken over in place of the young girl she had before, and if that was how she encountered someone from the Shibusen group, but I didn't dare ask. Perhaps it wasn't Shibusen at all. Maybe it was someone from the witch mass. No one liked Medusa there. Eruka was a prime example; she herself had been tied into working for Medusa after she attempted to kill her off.
As I couldn't very well make a run for it if it turned out it wasn't my rescue party, for now, all there was to do was wait.
