I do not own InuYasha or Magic Knight Rayearth in any way, shape or form!


Speech Key:

"The" – Oral/Normal Speech

'The'Thoughts


PLEASE READ BEFORE BEGINNING CHAPTER!

AN: I LIVE! Well, technically, speaking, I just got time to write more now, though how often I'll be able to post is still up in the air because I've been getting called into work more often.

I do apologize for not updating any of my stories, not just this one, for heaven knows how long. I have university, work (lots more of it since I got promoted), family, and just generally dealing with whatever gets hurled my way. It's been nothing but stressful and getting any form of down time is apparently too much to ask for.

Well, the chapter turned out longer than I thought it would, but I hope it made sense… At least it did when I thought it out, but writing it and seeing it are two different matters…

Now, as far as the episodes go, I need to explain something that's going to sound a little strange without some context.

If memory serves correct, in the anime, Umi and Fuu were taken aboard the Chizeta's Bravada and Fah'ren's Dragon after Hikaru's sword was repaired. However, I'm making it so that Umi and Fuu were taken just before Hikaru began the process to retrieve her sword.

Kagome won't have appeared to Fuu and Um as she did with Hikarui, but there will be a little bit of her inserted into their times with Asuka and the twin princesses of Chizeta. I won't actually write about those moments, but they will be mentioned.

Anyway, I hope you all like this and please remember to review, but if you've nothing polite to say then don't bother saying anything at all!


~A Match of Two Souls~

oO-More Questions than Answers-Oo

"This is…strange…" Clef mused. "You are sure that Hikaru saw her…'cousin', I believe you said?"

With Hikaru resting and Mokona watching over her, the remaining Magic Knights met up with their friends in the throne room.

"Yes," Fuu nodded. "Hikaru-san told us that Kagome-neesan came to her when this Debonair person attacked her. According to Hikaru-san, Kagome-neesan sang a lullaby to Hikaru and helped her remember why she was in Cephiro."

"Wait a minute, you said she sang to Hikaru?" Ascot asked quickly.

"Yeah, why?" Umi looked at the Palu. She noted that everyone had tensed as soon as the chestnut-haired summoner asked his question. "Okay, what's going on?"

Everyone but the Magic Knights shared a glance with one another.

"We all heard a voice singing," Clef said finally. "While Hikaru was trying to get her sword back, a dark presence made itself known, much stronger than I'd ever felt it. But then, a surge of pure magic pushed the darkness away."

"Pure Magic?" Fuu whispered.

"I wasn't in the palace when to hear it," Ferio shook his head. "But I know about the magic. There were monsters getting too close to the palace, so I went down with a few others to get rid of them before they became a bigger nuisance."

"What happened?" The Knight of Water asked.

"We didn't need to raise a finger," The Prince of Cephiro said in awe. "There was this pulse of magic and the next thing we know, the horde of monsters was just a pile of ash!"

Silence descended upon the chamber. Expressions were pensieve and grim, some even thoughtful, but no one spoke. They didn't need to.

They all knew that whoever wielded such powers was a force to be reckoned with. Destroying monsters takes up energy, both physical and magical, but to reduce them to ash in a single strike was nothing short of awe-inducing.

"That is amazing…" Umi remarked.

"Pardon my interruption," Fuu spoke up. "But if I may ask: How did this new magic feel to you?"

"Warm."

"Soft."

"Comforting."

The blonde Knight hummed knowingly as the descriptions kept coming. "I suspected as much."

"You know something about it?" Ferio asked the girl he loved.

Fuu nodded at Ferio before turning to Umi. "Umi-san, while you were aboard the Bravada, did you by any chance feel something? Perhaps something warm like an embrace, soft and caring?"

Sapphire eyes blinked. "You know, know that you mention it, when I was fighting that tomboy Princess Tata, I felt something…encouraging me. Telling me not to give up."

"You heard someone speak to you?" Clef's eyebrow rose in askance. 'Tomboy?'

Umi corrected him, "It was more like a feeling, not actual words." She looked to her friend. "Did something like that happen to you?"

"When Asuka-hime challenged me to a duel aboard The Dreamchild," the Knight of Wind told them, "There was a presence I felt. Like Umi-san, I heard nothing, but I felt it telling me to remain calm."

"But what does this have to do with the magic we felt?" Caldina asked.

"She implies what we felt and what they felt are one in the same," Lantis spoke for the first time.

Clef nodded. "That may very well be the case. Everything seems to lead back to this Kagome person. You both said magic doesn't exist in your world, and yet here we have proof that it somehow does. How?"

Umi and Fuu looked at one another before shaking their heads. "We don't know," Umi said, "Magic shouldn't exist in our world, not that we've seen, anyway. And we don't know yet if Kagome-nee is really involved in all this."

"I agree," Fuu added. "Cephiro is a world of Will, true there is no Pillar supporting it right now, but one's Will and Heart make all the difference here than it ever does in our world. We can't rule out the possibility that Cephiro somehow made all this possible, can we?"

"She's right," Acsot nodded. "For now, we need to focus on the real problem: Debonair. Who is she?"

"'I am the end of the beginning and the beginning that is the end'," Fuu quoted. "Hikaru-san said this is what Debonair said to her. But I'm afraid I don't know what it means."

"Wait, Hikaru also said that fear is what Debonair is after," Umi remembered. "Hikaru is the kind of person that will blame herself and become drepressed because of it. When that happens, she becomes almost severely depressed. Debonair tried getting Hikaru to feel completely hopeless so she'd give in to her."

"Could she be the source of the darkness I've sensed hanging over Cephiro?" Clef mused.

No one had an answer.

No one could answer.

The worry they faced at the thought of fending off three invaders suddenly increased tenfold at the thought of an unknown and extremely powerful enemy.


Adieu,

TsukiyoTenshi