Title: Tie Me to the Future
Author: Tsubasa Kya
Disclaimer: Free your soul. Drink bitter lemon water. But that still doesn't make you own Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho.
Chapter twentyfive: Catching Bodies Afloat
Despite the pain, despite the agony in her veins, she struggled to move, to get free. Her eyes shot open and, before they went dark as the flowing water attacked them, she saw the body of another bound person. Something inside her told her that was her savior. He was bound and tied as well, but he was sinking faster because of the heavy armor he wore. Chain mail was not water's best floating friend, she guessed ironically.
I have to get free! I have to help him! She struggled. Who was there to protect her but herself? She saw no one. There was no one. She had to do it. Her exhausted, oxygen deprived brain struggled to recall the mathematics she so desperately needed to learn. When she couldn't, she thought, Screw it. Before I'm going out; I'll take this world with me!
She, instead of concentrating on math, concentrated on the coiling power inside her. It obeyed her command and she tried something new. She tried to mold the power to her own limitations, rather than the limitations of mathematics, the proven method. She went the way of the wind, like Kagura had when she died. She tried something new. It worked, somewhat. The bindings around her arms burst apart. She couldn't do mathematics, so she was forced to work around it.
Her body screamed as she needed oxygen. Still the water pulled at her, just as her feet were still bound. She forced herself to move, despite the complaints of her body. Part of her wanted her to just let herself drown and end the pain. The other part of her wanted to live so she could prove to the world that she was worth something. She wanted to be somebody to someone. She wanted to protect, not be protected.
Her fingers fumbled with the restraints around her ankles and she freed herself, forcing herself to move against the current and reach the drowning man. She could see, but barely and her eyes were killing her for the torture she was putting them through. She was almost swept back by the current but managed to grab the man's chain mail.
She could never be more grateful for sheer luck. If any time she needed it, it was then, when she and the unknown man were at the bottom of the river. She wrapped her pained legs around his waist to keep a hold of him for sure and wondered how she could possibly be still conscious, but either way was grateful for it.
As soon as she had a hold of his waist with her legs, she placed her hands on each of his shoulders. Once more, she looked inside her for that untamed power, molding and bending it to her will. She wanted that chain mail gone. She watched her hands glow as she carefully let loose her power. Somehow, it really didn't matter whether or not she had air in her lungs. As long as she got the man free, she just knew she would be alright.
The chain mail melted where her hands were, burning the man, but a few burns were better than drowning she reasoned. Her hands were perfectly fine, even though she was clawing at the molten metal. She didn't wonder why, but she didn't have time to. Finally he was free. She held tight to him and, despite the fact that she was half-dead, she kicked herself and the man into the upper current, letting it carry them up. Even though they broke the surface, she was still drowning from the water in her lungs, but she held onto him in hopes that he survived even if she didn't.
Her last thought before everything went black was: I contradict myself too often.
-Elsewhere, downriver-
Meia felt very proud of his team as he shouted "Pull!" in rhythm. Both sides of the craft had to be in unison or the ferry would turn and the current would overturn the boat, dunking the entire crew and passenger load right into Snake River. His crew was completely in tune with his rhythm, which made things even better. They knew what he would do, when he would do it, so he never varied from his path. The shouting part was more for show than anything.
They were half way across the Snake River, in the area where the current was the strongest. It would be dangerous to the craft to stop there, as the current might have just tipped it sideways anyway. The King and the members were scattered about the ferry, some of them talking, some of them not.
Now that they were even closer up, Meia could see defining details about the new members of the Council. The half-breed dog demon Prince had short hair, cropped to where the earlobe was normally on a human. His hair seemed rather hesitant to stay perfect and the extremely light breeze messed it slightly. He appeared to be talking with himself and stood alone at the back of the ship, in the most out of the way place possible. The scowl on his face made it apparent that he didn't want to be talked to.
The human demon slayer woman was standing and talking quietly with the male human monk about something quite serious. Hanging from both of their left eyes was a blue crescent moon marking, obviously from the oath they had given. From the lack of many markings on their bodies, he guessed their oaths were just small ones. The demon slayer's twin tails cat friend had flown off with the young fox cub when he proved not to be able to handle boats of any kind and couldn't even transform to fly away himself.
Kaoi, the Regent, was still talking to the unresponsive King. The three wolf-demons were hunched down, seemingly deep in conversation at the front of the boat, also in an out of the way place.
Meia could hear the cries for joy as they neared their destination: the other side of the river. But something caught Meia's eye out in the water. At first, he thought it was a bobbing log, floating down the river. Then, he saw differently. It was a person. No, it was two people, he realized as he looked harder and his voice died out. His team continued to pull to the rhythm etched in their minds, but Meia's silence brought the attention of most of the passengers.
They watched him walk towards the side of the ferry and look out at the river. "The hell..?" Meia muttered, wondering what could have survived the current. He sighed. They probably hadn't survived. Their bodies just were caught in the upper current and held up more. Still, the ferry master figured the bodies needed to be retrieved and had trained all ferries to do so.
"Incoming!" He yelled, startling those who weren't paying attention to him. The routine was quite normal for him lately, since bodies were often thrown off the Cliffside upstream and left to a watery grave. His ropes-men continued pulling for the most part, constantly keeping even with the other. " Po! Warric! Yanabe! Seromu! Get the net!"
Despite the fact that the nobles were eyeing him funny, Meia raced towards the front of the ferry and grabbed the rope as the four men who he'd called went for the net and began hastily undoing it. The weights on the net dragged the end towards the bottom so to catch the bodies. Meia tied the rope around his waist tightly; making sure the knot was snug. He was the guide for the bodies. He had to make sure the bodies headed towards the net and didn't slip right around it, as was possible.
Sesshoumaru watched Meia secure the rope to the deck. He might have done something, but it would not be a good first impression on the kingdom if he didn't show he trusted the commoners to do their job. Meia seemed sure of himself and his men, the least Sesshoumaru could do was give his support. When Meia looked towards him, Sesshoumaru nodded his acceptance gravely, ignoring Kaoi as the previous Regent continued to talk on matters of the state.
Sesshoumaru looked, trying to see what was incoming, but saw nothing at first. Then, he saw the two bobbing heads. One had black hair, the other had bright pink. He could see nothing else. Everything else was below the water. He trusted Meia to do his job.
Sango came up to his side. "You made the right choice in standing back." She said simply, her mouth in a grim line. Sesshoumaru had asked her to be honest, and she had. If she was going to give him advice like he asked, she was going to give him advice that mattered. From her father, she knew at least something of what it was like to run a clan.
He wasn't just running a clan like her father though; he was running the entire Western Lands. He had to be careful how he acted and reacted to situations. One wrong move could completely deplete the kingdom's moral support.
That's just crazy. But sexy crazy. Hehe.