Hey, sorry I'm late. I've been busy with my new full-time job and trying to keep my friend, who has cancer, out of depression and thinking she's going to die from the chemo. She's doing better now though. I think its because she's always by herself that she sinks into depression, so having friends around keeps her out of it, I guess.

Anyway, next chapter. A lot shorter than I would have wanted, but oh well, its a chapter. Two chapters actually. Well, enjoy!... or try to enjoy...?

Also... haven't had time to edit much and I kind of slipped off into third person at times... so if I did, sorry. Will fix it later.

Snow Pearl

Chapter Twenty Six

By: PhoenixBlade

Gods of Death?

The unearthly creature before me had just said that it was a Shinigami, a God of Death... What nonsense was this?

"No such thing exists, creature. What lies are you spouting forth?" I snarled between clenched teeth.

The thing chuckled lowly, making me shiver in revulsion, "Miko, we are Shinigami… Though ningen and youkai have… polished the image of our doings since then, we were death-bringers… Many, ningen and youkai, feared us and our power… We were gods in their eyes, and they trembled at our might. Many died by our hands and we reveled in the taste of their blood and flesh..."

"But Death Gods are not death-bringers," I spat out at it, "From what I have just felt and seen, your people do not bring the dead to the afterlife. You consume them, their souls."

"We were called Shinigami because we caused death… Many died by our hands and the whole world feared us… We were Death…" the hoarseness of its voice reminded me of sandpaper.

"You're still nothing but soul stealers."

Its aura intensified abruptly, as if angry at my comment. A strong gust of freezing wind suddenly rushed around me… but just as it had come, it had gone. Where had it come from? From him?

"Third-rate fools they are, soul-stealers!" it snarled at me, "we are anything but that!"

Its form, whatever I could see and feel of it, suddenly began to grow larger before my eyes... and become more visible. A sudden chill and stroke of fear ran down my back. This was not good…

Yet he began to shrink back to his former size, as if reining in his anger.

"Soul stealers… consume souls to stay alive… We are anything but that… We have crossed over death and back again… we have conquered even death!... soul stealers cannot accept their deaths and struggle to maintain a hopeless life by taking the souls of others…"

Feeling the courage to speak up, I said, "Yet you consume souls. How would that make you any different than them?"

He snarled, "Because we do not fear Death!... It is not the souls of others that keep us alive-no, it is their souls that give us our power!"

It trembled slightly, for what reason, I didn't know… but it was slightly disturbing.

"We ruled the world once… but it came to an end once the miko known as Midoriko, who was known then as the Shikon no Tama, took everything from us… Through we were too strong to be purified entirely… and we had the power and will to return from death… that bitch, cursed us… we were cursed! She purified our bodies, destroyed them, and cut off our means to travel to and from death… it left naught but our souls to diminish… and fade into nonexistence over time…"

He breathed in deeply, making me shudder again.

"My brethren began to fade away… When they disappeared, they never returned… our souls held no power, no strength… that is until I discovered that we could enter ningen bodies as they were weak… and then soon learn to channel the darkness within themselves to become our food... Soon, we learned to manipulate their thoughts and even their actions… and through them, we fed on the deaths they caused through their tainted hearts… and through our mediums, could we return them to life as the souls we partook in could revive them…"

"It would never be enough, will it?" I put in, "your feeding? Even if you fed on the souls of everyone in the world, it will never give you all your strength back."

"We need our bodies to house these souls of ours… but they are no more… ningen bodies, even those of the youkai now… they are not strong enough… and they have changed over time… we cannot control them…we are not compatible…"

Then I remembered, "Then what of Naraku? Why ally with him? I don't understand why you said that he was Death"

"Naraku…" it hissed, "he has the makings of one who is to become a Shinigami, one of us…A death-bringer. His heart is dark…like ours…"

A thought came to my mind, "Are you trying to make him a host for you?"

It suddenly barked out laughing, but it sounded more like wheezing… wheezing that sounded like thunder claps that echoed breathlessly.

"Have you not heard a word I said?... Your bodies are too different for us now… We cannot take your bodies… though we can feed through your bodies… the souls of my brothers are still dying, disappearing into nothingness… We know not how much longer we have with these formless bodies we have… That is why… many years ago, when Naraku came to be, we felt a resonance with him, one like ours….

We taught him all that we knew and like the prodigal son that he was to us, he had everyone in the land to their knees… Though the people of this land fought back, led by their four Great Heroes… they never knew, that their Great War was an experimental stage we had laid out to test him…"

I frowned, "And he flew with flying colors."

"Yes…" it hissed, "he passed… Unlike us, he had placed an idiot in front of him, to take on all his deeds and in the end; he escaped without anyone knowing… The Four Great Heroes though… had found out about us and sealed us away… the world though… never knew… Naraku, they never knew it was he who plunged their land into disarray…"

Then it hit me, the Great War? Four Great Heroes? The great calamity that happened from before I was born that had driven my father to become intimate with that bitch? That war?

A flash of anger spread throughout me, but I willed it away, some of it anyway. I wasn't too happy with this new information that I was born into a loveless marriage and into this stupid world because someone was testing out their skills for world domination.

"If you had been sealed by the… (scoff ) Heroes… how did Naraku find you and free you?"

It breathed, "He has his ways… and his minions."

I realized then, that before, after the incident with my first meeting with this thing and Onigumo at Lord Kab's castle, I had almost beat up Bankotsu so as to make him talk about what Naraku had been planning and if it could put my own plans in jeopardy.

So this is what he was doing…

I shook my head and growled, "And now that you've seen what he can do, what's in it for you? From what I hear, you're going to die out anyway."

I felt it smirk, sending another chill down my neck.

"Naraku will take this pathetic world and plunge it into a never-ending age of darkness… Knowing that, we will be content… as well as patient with his fooling around… for now..."

Fooling around?

It seemed to be looking at me as if I were a part of Naraku's "fooling around."

"And how do I fit into all this?" I asked.

The thing was telling me all of this and had put me as priority over Onigumo, even killing off his men. Why me? How was I of any significance?

It seemed to be hesitating as I waited for an answer. I then realized that I didn't. They didn't have anything set for me at all. Annoyed and slightly angry, I clenched my fists to stop from punching someone, considering the thing before me had no form to hit.

"What does Naraku have planned for me?" I growled, a hint of violence edging my every word.

"…That… is something only Naraku knows…"

Sorry, no suggestions this time around. I gotta work soon and haven't even brushed my teeth or eaten yet, plus I gotta put the other chapter up. Will talk more in, not next chapter, but the one after!