Twisted Well

An Inu-Yasha / Sorcerer Hunter fan fiction by Iapetus

Disclaimer:  You should know by now.  (If not, check a previous chapter.)  But, I have something new.  This chapter has nothing to do with the popular book of the same name.

Writer's block is an evil thing.  That's my only reason that it's taken an eternity to write each chapter (I may be busy, but if I had the flow going, it would only take awhile for me to get it out, not an eternity).

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Chapter 13:  The Client

            With the allure of Shikon Shards (and a good fight), Inu-Yasha tore after the direction Kagome indicated.  His demon blood coursing through his veins, he quickly took the lead over his companions.

            What is this sensation? he thought with a maddening curiosity growing in his mind.  It was almost as if he was sensing someone like himself.  The only thing was, the moment he felt it - it had disappeared.

            "It wasn't the smell of a hanyou, but the chi was unmistakable," he muttered to himself.

            "What did you say, Inu-Yasha?" Kagome asked, surprised.  "What about a hanyou?"

            Her question, which was a lot louder than his own thoughts, caught the attention of their friends.

            "There is too much demonic chi to distinguish between a hanyou and full-blooded youkai," Sango said, straining her senses for more information.

            "I can sense two humans in the mass of youki," said Miroku quickly.

            Clearly, this terminology was confusing to the Sorcerer Hunters, whose thoughts were voiced by Carrot.

            "What in the heck are you talking about?" he asked, wheezing.  He may be used to running away from Chocolat and Tira, but that didn't mean it didn't make him tired.

            "Chi is easily explained," Marron said extra politely- as if to apologize for his brother's attitude, "but we are experienced with Sorcerers.  No matter how evil they were, they were still human."

            "That can be debated," Chocolat said, darkly.  She exchanged a very private look with her sister.  Tira nodded in agreement.

            "And evil chi is easy to pinpoint," Gateau put in, "unless they are masking it."

            Inu-Yasha got lost in his thoughts again.  The blood in their veins grew like my own - when I am turning into a full-blooded youkai, he realized.  They ran on in silence, but the battle drew ever closer.  A second later, they were upon a dismal scene.

            Deep gashes from monstrous teeth could be found every couple of yards.  Plants withered around the trenches, soaked with poison from the demon's fangs.  Flowers that were not burned as if touched by acid were trampled, making the meadow seem irregularly flat.  Blood was everywhere, as well as the demon's body parts.

            And there, standing among the carnage, Inu-Yasha saw a girl slightly older than Kagome, poised for attack.  She held her hunting knife (which was more like a short sword, he thought- it was about a foot and a half long) in her left hand, and a throwing knife in her right.  Both blades shined with the black blood of her foe - it was obvious she had used it for many strikes.

            This monster, Inu-Yasha noticed, seemed to have no harm done to him.  Yet, it was clearly this creature she was fighting.  The body parts were from several minor demons from the forest, he realized.  They must have been sensing a fight, and couldn't resist a human delicacy.

            The half-demon still watched the girl in disbelief.  She had taken no notice of them.  It was obvious that if she had, she had thought them not to be a threat.  The snake was the bigger problem at the moment.

            Éclair had never seen a scene quite like this.  The carnage was terrible, and it seemed to all be caused by the girl in the center of the meadow.  She may have been defending herself, but Éclair was still impressed.

            What happened next startled her, but not as much as her brother and his friends.  The blood and demon body parts seemed to shrink into the grown, and the flowers bloomed again.  The trampled flowers rose back on their stems, unbroken.  Then, a tree seemed to go straight through the snake, impaling it with a sickening crack of bones and scales.

            "Maye!" a voice shouted from behind the tree, "Are you alright?"

            "Yes," she responded quickly, not taking her eyes off her attacker. 

            "Gaeis?!" said Tira in disbelief, "Who knows (or knew) how to use it besides me, Auntie Apricot, and-"

            "BASIL?!" shouted Marron and Carrot in surprise.  Sure enough, he had walked out from behind the tree.  His clothes were torn from the snake, but otherwise looked perfectly healthy.

            "Good Morning, Carrot, Marron," Basil smiled.  "I didn't think I'd see you this early in the morning."

            "Why would have you?" Chocolat asked, confused, "We haven't seen you in a year!  How could you have known about us ending up here?"

            "Well, this IS where we are supposed to end up, isn't it, Sensei?" Éclair inquired to her teacher.

            "Well, the Church is slightly in that direction," Cranberry pointed to a hill.  "This is usually a meadow for the traveler's sacrifice."  No one seemed to understand what he was saying.

            "Morning glories are often given as sacrifices before a long or important journey.  It is best to pick them early in the morning."

            The monster had begun to twitch.  Maye had not taken her eyes off it, and now Kagome began to circle it slowly.

            "How in the world can it not be dead?" she said quietly to herself.  "Surely Basil's tree knocked the Shikon Shard out?"  She quickly out-ruled that idea.  "No, I would have sensed it fly out.  But, where is it hidden?"

            The girl's knowledge of the Shards surprised everyone. 

            "There it is!  Directly underneath it's left eye, there is a shard!"  Kagome would have usually pointed this out a long time ago, but the tree branches made it hard for her to see.  Inu-Yasha's hand was on Tetsuiaga's hilt, when the Zeklova gave a giant shudder.

            The snake's large jaws clamped shut like an alligator, and with the force too.  The thick trunk splintered- then shattered, like glass.  The top of the tree fell down quickly in Maye's direction, but she jumped easily out of the way.  The expanded middle of the snake shrunk, to all of their amazement.

            Éclair realized what it had done a split-second before it finished.

            "It's insides have dissolved the bark!" she shouted.

            Along the scar that traced through its body, the demon split in half.  It then split in half again, and formed into four snakes the same size as the original.  With the obstruction out of its way, the demons went after Maye with a new vengeance.  Never mind the fact that it knew that Basil had run it through with a tree, it still had a one-track mind.

            "You horrible girl," they hissed eerily in unison, "sidetracking me so your friend could harm me!  I could have died."

            "Too bad you didn't," she shot back.

            It was easy to see that, despite how good she was, there was no way she'd be able to handle four monster snakes at once.  Éclair's respect for the girl grew, for she wasn't stubborn in admitting it.  In fact, she tried to lead one away from the pack.

            Éclair threw off her coat, and cracked her knuckles.  It was her job to protect others, and she was going to fulfill that duty.  Her brother smiled warmly from the corner of her eye, and smirked at the creature.

            "Interesting beasties to play with, don't you think, Éclair?" he said, excited.

            "These things are nothing," Inu-Yasha commented contemptuously, and pulled out the Tetsuiaga.

            Marron looked on at the half-demon, impressed.  It was a mammoth weapon, and enchanted.  It reminded him of his past-life's own sword, the Hamato.

            "Inu-Yasha's right," Sango appeared from behind a bush, dressed in her skin-tight exterminator suit, and held her boomerang lightly behind her back single-handedly.  Carrot looked as though he wanted to grope her on the spot, but decided against it when he saw her weapon.  Miroku DID grope her, and she hit him with her boomerang.  "I used to fight these kind-of snakes all the time back around the village," she said, still slightly chagrined.

            Chocolat looked curiously at her fellow female warrior.  She was used to beating men up, so Sango's reaction to the pervert priest was not surprising.  Her comment had to do with something else.  "That's odd, because we never saw anything like it before.  Except when-"

            But the older Misu sister never got to finish her thought.  The snakes were rushing at Maye, and she was beginning to show slight signs of fatigue.  Éclair and Gateau had joined the fray, but were struggling as well.  These weren't enchanted beast from some sorcerer- it was a demon with a mind of it's own.

            Both sisters tore off their clothes to reveal their S&M outfits underneath.  Miroku, who had a LITTLE sense in him, knew not to grope a dominatrix.  Still, he took a good LONG look (especially on Chocolat's suspenders) before he twirled his staff, preparing to fight.

            "Don't use the Air Rip, Miroku!" Shippo yelled from his feet.

            "Baka," Inu-Yasha laughed, "he wouldn't want to suck a shard down that void of his.  Then it would NEVER get back together!"

            The fox demon realized this, and sweat-dropped.  Instead, he started to look in all his pockets - obviously for some kitsune trick that would help.

            Mille Feuille, who had been relatively calm during the attack of the snakes, found the Air Rip highly interesting.  He did a lot with wind himself, owing to the fact that his favorite weapon was a feather flying through the air.

            Basil walked over to his fellow Haz Knights, but stumbled in one of the small trenches.  Gaeis may have healed the plants, but it wouldn't do anything for the holes in the ground.

            "Should we only get involved if it gets messy?" he asked with a smile.

            "I highly doubt that," Cranberry nodded towards the fully pitched battle.  Sango had sliced same snake twice with her boomerang before it healed itself.  Kagome was indicating to Inu-Yasha where to strike; Carrot did the same for the Misu sisters.  However, the snake had seemed to catch on to the idea, and increased its speed.

            Marron, Gateau, Miroku, and Shippo were all on the same snake.  Gateau and Miroku would beat the crap out of it, and the little fox-demon would perform some of its tricks to fool the large reptile.  Marron had more success (his magic wasn't deception), and was able to stop the snake from its repeated attempts to get at Maye.  The magic wall he had cast would not budge, and he was preparing for another attack.

            "She really is amazing," Cranberry noted.  "Then again, Basil is a prodigy himself- of course he'd notice someone like him."  To this, the young knight turned slightly pink.

            "I'm glad you showed up when you did," Basil sighed in relief.  He then told about how the snake had poisoned him, and he needed to heal from the wound.  He neglected to mention that Maye had distracted him.

            "Well, it's obvious that you can't underestimate the demons from their world, isn't it?" Mille said grimly.  He watched as Kagome drew back her bow, and released an arrow at the snake's head.  Inu-Yasha, it had appeared, had distracted it long enough for her to aim.

            The demon never knew what hit it, and neither did Kagome.  As her arrow left its string, the bow snapped into two pieces.  She ducked to avoid the whiplash of splintered wood, and didn't see her target hit.

            A bright light shown for a split second, and then there was no snakehead.  A tiny sparkle flew through the air, and landed at her feet.  It was miniscule, and looked to have been broken off a shard itself.

            So that's how it's doing it, Mille thought, it split its own shard up, and made it 'one' with its body.  He was slightly disappointed, but their companions didn't find it all that surprising.

            Well, I guess they must have gone through hell and high water just to get a single shard; all this work for one is normal for them.  Still, for those unused to fighting demons, it could be draining.

            The three Knights walked slightly to the side, to avoid a bit of snake flesh from the explosion-like arrow.  Now, they were at a perfect angle with the sunlight to see something that was invisible to them before-

            "Tira's got her wires up, I see," Basil grinned.  With all this movement, it took her a second longer to get it up.  He made a mental note to mention it to her later.  He loved egging them on; they all knew he meant well.

            Everyone fighting suddenly noticed the wires as well.  Inu-Yasha, Miroku, Kagome, Sango, Shippo, and Maye were all looking on with confusion, thinking it might be another one of the snake's attacks.  Then, with a smirk, she yanked the wire tight.  She had learned from earlier in the fight that cutting would be useless.  Not only that, but the monster would then know about her 'surprise' attack.  No, this hold was only to make sure it didn't move.  She didn't have to necessarily dispatch it, her friends looked perfectly capable of handling it themselves.

            Carrot indicated the same spot that Kagome had, and Chocolat's garrote went straight through the snake's head.  The second sliver popped out, and landed at Cranberry's feet.

            Unseen by those fighting, the half-sorcerer jumped back.  With shards that close, it took all of his willpower to move backwards.  It felt like swimming in molasses.

            Basil quickly picked it up, and Mille eyed his friend with sympathy in his eyes.  They would never understand, but their attempts to do so greatly comforted him.  When he answered, it was in a forced-calm voice.

            "I'm fine," he whispered, "just keep that thing away from me!"  The best way to not face temptation is not to have it there.  His eyes snapped back to the battleground, where Maye had guesstimated the location of the shard.  She made a deep cut underneath both of its eyes, and the bloody shard fell out into her free hand.  Her hand twitched slightly, as if in reaction to the object.  However, as Cranberry looked at her face, she seemed calm and focused.  I must have imagined it...

            He didn't have long to dwell on the thought.  Inu-Yasha smirked, and seemed to sniff the air.  His companions noticed this, and scrambled out of the way.

            "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Kagome shouted.  None of them questioned her order.  In the next second, it seemed as though the very air was being sliced apart.

            "KAZE NO KITSU!" the hanyou shouted.  In another brilliant display of light and energy, the two remaining demons were blown away.  Both shards fell at Tira's feet, and she immediately picked it up.

            Miroku had noticed Inu-Yasha itching to use the Cutting Wind, but was sensible enough to wait until he knew he'd hit his target.  It wasn't that that had amazed him, but what happened afterwards.

            The girl Tira (who looked gorgeous in the tight leather) had done something he had only seen one other person do before, as she picked up the shards at her feet.  The evil left them, and it was instantly purified.

            When I first met Kagome, I thought it odd that she'd have such ability.  The discovery perplexed him.  She is obviously a reincarnation of some powerful deity or priestess - no dominatrix could do that.

            Then again, he realized, if you were going to fight magic-wielding Sorcerers, you can't be an ordinary dominatrix.  He laughed at his own thought, but was interrupted by his 'flea-bitten' companion-

            "What are you giving that to her for?" he asked, contemptibly.  Maye had just handed Tira the shard (it resembled more of a sliver to Miroku).  It didn't surprise him, however, that he was being this rude to a complete stranger.

            "She purified it instantly," she responded in a calm, matter-of-fact way.  Miroku was surprised that she could sense it too.  Not many humans could notice it, except priests and priestess.  Even then, it had taken himself years to hone his own skills to what it was today.

            She continued.  "It took all of my will just to hold onto it!  I was going to get rid of it as soon as possible."

            "Then why haven't you given up the one in your pocket?" Kagome asked.  If they weren't looking at her before, they were now.

            Tira looked exasperatedly at Inu-Yasha.  "Is that any way to greet someone you just met?"

            "For Inu-Yasha, it is," muttered Sango and Kagome at the same time.  He didn't seem to want to comment to this, so ignored their statement.  It was followed by an uncomfortable pause, which was broken by Basil.

            "Maye, are you all right?" he asked, walking over to her.  She nodded, and he continued.  "These people you helped you out are the Sorcerer Hunters," the Hunters' eyes widened in surprise at his revelation of their position, but didn't question it.  He introduced them, but paused as he came to their newcomers.

            Cranberry then took over.  "And these are some people who are helping on the mission."  He introduced the Inu-Yasha-gumi to the surprised girl, and Mille continued for him.  "They don't usually go on these jobs, but this is an exception.  We think something in which they are very knowledgeable about is the source of the problem in the Citrus Valley."  She tensed at his words, but still feeling an in odd place.

            "Why are you telling her all this, Sensei?" Éclair asked politely.  She didn't understand why'd they be revealing important issues of a mission to a complete stranger.

            "That is because she is the client, Miss Éclair."  Basil wasn't on an informal basis with her yet- he had just met her himself.  He then smiled at them all.  "May I introduce, Maye - a well informed resident of the Citrus Valley."

            She bowed curiously to them all.  "Pleased to meet you, and thank you for helping me with that snake." She paused.  "I could tell that a Shikon Shard was inside it, but had no idea where it was until you-" here she nodded in Kagome's direction, "and you-" now it was towards Carrot, "shouted out it's location.  I thought it might be universal, and guessed at its location."

            "Why did the snake attack you in the first place?" Gateau wondered.

            "Well, she HAS a shard," Inu-Yasha reminded them.  "Demons try to get as many shards as possible.  The more they get, the more power they'll have."

            She pulled the piece in question out of her pocket.  Unlike the one she was holding before, it was shining a brilliant white - as a purified one only could.

            Kagome's mouth fell open, shocked.  She went to ask the obvious question that was on everyone's mind, but Maye answered it before she could speak.

            "I found it in the swamp, and then later arrived at a special shrine.  I'm guessing the holy aura of the vicinity purified it for me."

            Again, there was an uncomfortable silence.  Then, Miroku (with a speed that none of them could fathom), held Maye's hands in his.

            "Will you bear my child?"

            Maye looked too startled to speak.  She had just stammered "no," when Sango hit him on top of his head with her boomerang.  He fell on her, and then she smacked him again (this time with her fists).  He had been caressing her bottom.

            Carrot, whose outfit looked a little worse for wear, now ran up to the new girl.  "You don't necessarily have to bear his child.  You can just have a quickie with me!"

            In the background, it appeared that the Misu sisters were on fire.  Tira had her whip out, and Chocolat was gripping her garrote wire VERY tightly.

            "N-no thank you," she said quickly.  No one had EVER propositioned her like that before.

            "DARLING!"

            "CARROT!"  Both girls were after his blood now.  The usual mayhem presumed, and Maye sweat-dropped at the sight of it.

            "THESE are the legendary Sorcerer Hunters?" she whispered in surprise to herself.

            "Yeah," Basil was at her side now.  "I'm sorry, I forgot to warn you about my cousin-"

            "That was your cousin?" her eyes widened.

            "Yes," he smiled, "our moms were sisters."  They both laughed at the spectacle for a minute.

            Maye stopped fairly quickly.  "I'm sorry for making you follow me," she said, seriously.

            He shrugged it off.  "Don't worry about it.  It's my job to protect you."  She blushed slightly in response.

            Kneeling down, she took a handful of long grass, and wiped both of her blades clean.  With that, she sheathed them, and began to walk towards the tree where her other things were.

            "We're going to have to go back to the Church," she called to him, "the rest of my stuff is over there."

            "Don't worry, we need to talk to Father Ossowo and Big Momma anyways."

            Éclair ran to catch up with her client, and the two girls started talking.  Basil smiled, and strolled over to his fellow knights.

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OK!  I finished this chapter, although I question if you really wanted it or not.  I got reviews for chapter 12 (11 in reality) asking why the heck I never updated, and then I got NO reviews for the next chapter.  I'm getting doubtful about you guys (so stop my suspicions and review! :D)

I had fun writing this one, please tell me what you think.

-Iapetus