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Temple Grounds

Chapter 9: Mental Shutdown

::Telepathy:: "speech" //thoughts// /lyrics/

/I'm about to show you
What I got in me so
Hold up
It's time to break through. /

"Maru, look I can tell something's up.. You're pacing.. You don't pace you sit and mope.." Klai said floating as usual.. Her eyes on the moving Guardian before her..
"I'm fine..." "No you're not. Ko-Enma's in there talking to the four-some while you're out here, waiting and wearing a hole in the tile." Klai didn't bother trying to stop the girl, just ignored looks an ogre or two passed her..
Maru gave a low 'go away' growl and kept pacing.. Sandals slapping the cold tile beneath her with rhythmic taps.. But she did mentally admit she was pacing.. :: God can anyone hear this?:: Silence.. Ugh that bothered her.. She needed to unload and badly but fat chance when there was no one to talk to 'cept a feline..
/I hate to be the one
That's gotta have two faces
But I got a burning desire
That's breaking through the false embraces. / But she knew what she had to do.. Every bone ached with the knowledge.. Her father was planning on killing her, had destroyed the temple, stolen things, and killed Suna.. What more could he do.. Hopefully this 'demi-god' would see that as such.. Please see it that way.. Then perhaps she could show Togasha what she was.. Show him she was everything he hadn't wanted.. She would cause trouble for him.. She'd prove that.. But how.. By herself? No, she wouldn't last 2 days.. Fight-yes.. Heal-no.. Find way-no.. Know way- hell no... /I've got two roads to choose
And two only.
So you gotta understand
This one's the one I gotta use. / Suddenly a girl walked out of the office and looked at Suna strangely.. She had bright pink-purple eyes, blue hair in a ponytail and the most odd looking outfit Maru had ever seen.. But she recognized it as a kimono easily enough.. Though slim chance she'd figure out why anyone in his or her right mind would wear one..
"You must be Maru. I'm Botan, guide to the River Styx." She said in a peppy sounding voice.. One that was all too similar to Klai's.
Maru nodded, then looked at Klai.. "I take it he wants to see us.." Botan nodded.. /And the sun may rise higher
Burning you straight through
Red and flamin'
Straight from my heart's own fire./ Maru walked in the office and didn't see what she expected.. A small toddler was stamping papers.. Which was rather odd so she shrugged her shoulders.. Receiving a wince. But she stood in front of the desk, didn't bow, didn't how any sign of respect or disrespect.. Just stood there..
/And my dreams are my own concern
Just like the heavens yours
So let me be cause
I've just gotta return. / "You would be Maruka?" Ko-Enma asked, shifting his 'binki' to the other side of his mouth. (Which need I say I think its glued there..)
Red-gold eyes narrowed. "No. I'm Maru."
Ko-Enma didn't know how to talk to the girl.. Sure she looked young enough but she seemed so.. Stiff, bitter, with her mind at least 100 miles away. " I need to ask you some thing's about the temple.."
Harsh voice greeted his question, "Fine." "Do you know what was there? Being kept at the graves?" Maru stood still for a few moments, fierce eyes wandering smoothly in their depths.. "Yes, and no. Most of the items were texts.. Books and scrolls.. A few tablets."
"Nothing anyone could steal and use?"
"Oh yes there are many things of that kind there but.. I was never allowed to see them... At least as far as the Keeper was concerned." Maru answered, dodging the fact he was fishing for names, specifics and things of that nature.. But she was about to show him her 'social skills' when it came to a conversation...
/And I can't fight it
And I can't burn it
And I can't run from it
'Cause my soul's light../ "And you didn't listen to her?" Ko-Enma couldn't help but notice she didn't seem the type of girl to listen to everything she was told.. A true born teenager...
"What would you think?" Maru answered with a humph. She crossed her arms beneath her ample bosom and swayed her hips to stand in a more offensive manner.. She was certainly spelling out that she was meaning to be takin seriously..
/I've gotta return cause..
I can't fight it
I can't burn it
I can't run from it
'cause my soul is light. /
Ko-Enma decided to switch tactics.. He changed into his teenage form.. But she still stood there looking more or less 'ticked'. "Maru, we need to know what was taken from the temple."
The Guardian nodded. "The grave sights weren't bothered, the only thing that was taken was a life. Though you should have been aware of that already."
Another verbal guard.. She was doing everything not to give a straight or a useful answer to him.. Damn..
/So step back,
Because I've had my fill
I've seen enough
It's time for my decision to backtrack. / Botan stood outside wondering.. What was Maru trying so hard to hide? Something at the temple was pulling her back there.. Surely not the Keeper's death.. From what Botan had seen Maru would have hated the old woman.. /Oh you don't understand
You just ignore what I'm sayin'
Oh but that's alright...
'Cause here's my own command. / Oh well, time to cut to the chase.. "Maru, I want you to go to the Human world until we can find out who the creatures are that are tracking you."
".............................................." ~_~... "............." Maru opened her mouth.. No.. She wouldn't go there... No she had to get back at Togasha.. SHE HAD TO GET BACK AT HIM.. No she shouldn't... Her eyes flickered gold for one swift moment.. Then she began to speak.. But once again her brain wasn't quite recovered from the mental shutdown mode.. /You're gonna try to stop me..
You don't understand.. So here's me a-sayin'.
Why can't you just see?!/ "I know that must be shock but I want you to go there, even if only for a few months."
Maru however was about as attentive as a boulder.. She was frozen.. Hands to her sides and mouth slightly open in shock.. And for once.. Utterly speechless... //Please.. Please.. Wake up...// /That I've had enough!
I've seen everything I can here!
So stop pulling me back down that road!
Stop, pull back, turn away, enough's enough. / She only shut her mouth.. Rose red lips thin and narrow now.. Her eyes retreated back to a darker red color.. And she nodded.. It was all as if she had no idea what she was doing.. It was falling apart.. Why couldn't she tell the binki sucking idiot to buzz off and let her stay in the Makai to find that bastard and kill him? He'd follow her here with his servants.. So why couldn't she just go back..
Go back to what? The temple grounds.. God her life revolved around that place even though she was literally a whole world away.. So why? She had been raised there but it wasn't a part of her.. Or was it? Even now she could easily go back there with her thoughts.. She had hated that place for so long.. That in all reality she had no idea why she hated it any more.. Because it had been a wall around her.. Because it had shone something.. That she wasn't free.. But what about here? Was she as free as she had been with a forest surrounding her and filling her eyes..
Dragon eyes... My dear Dragon eyes... Those words sounded so close right now.. They fit on a soft voice.. Maybe her mother's? After all she had been given' to the temple maybe a year old.. So hadn't her mother at least seen her child? If she did what did she see in the red-gold eyes... Dragon eyes.... My dear Dragon eyes.. /And memories won't stop me

You can cry and cry

I don't care

Because I promise that I'll see.

Or will I..

I'm not scared, I'm not tame.

I can run or fight.

But let go

Cause I'm goin' back...

I don't care what's right..

Or do I...

I can show you, teach you, anything..

But I won't let you hold me back.
Because I'm not the bird without a good wing..
So turn back, enough is enough..

Or is it...

Yeah I'll show you, this I swear.. I'm goin' back.... I'm leavin' I don't care what's right.. Or do I? /

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Okay.. So she's going to the Ningenkai... But there's still that pesky problem of what to do to daddy... Review for more!