Author's Note:
Well, this is the continuation from the point I left it in the last chapter. I hope you like it and are still there... Ô-Ô

Chapter 24
Myouga's Big Comeback

In the meantime, none of them, not even the ever resourceful Magemorou, have thought of Myouga's actions... Small, very agile, and a coward of the worst kind, however nice he is, the diminutive flee had left the glade long before these rays would have posed any sort of threat to him. It was easy for him to avoid them anyway, since he had left all others a bit earlier.

Now, what really mattered, was the fact that he alone was free and could act on his own. He didn't know what to do, but he certainly would be of little help in the forest while his companions had been defeated by that ritual. There was simply nothing he could do back there...

'I suppose I should go to the realm of that fiend to find whatever I can. Where did Inuyasha-sama say they were going? Right... there! OK, here I go...' And off he jumped, into the distance.

On the other hand, the sorcerer was very happy... Soon, the last part of his magics would be laid down to good use, but he wanted some time to rest; that ritual was not easy to perform, and using some blood of your own would never help much either... Still, he wished he would end with all this...

'Only an hour more at worst and it will be completed!' He walked up to a mattress that rested in the far corner of the room, stained with sweat he could not care less washing out of it in the past years. He knelt by its side, the sour smell making him think that now he would have the time to care more for himself, and waved his hand in the air in a mystical, arcane gesture, speaking a single, incomprehensible word; the next moment a flask of sake appeared next to his bed and some gruel made out of rice in a porcelain bowl. He ate some of the gruel and took a sip of the sake, leaving the rest next to his bed... He would have some more when he would feel somewhat hungrier, after resting.

Deciding that all went well and he deserved to take a nap, he lowered on his bed and fell in a sleep full of content...

Almost a quarter of an hour later and quite a distance farther, well, for a flee, Myouga run his sleave over his sweaty brow. It seemed as if this trip would never end, something he found rather intimidating, to say the least. But his friends and his own master had to be rescued, so he had to do something...

It took him only a little more before he managed to reach theie adversary's castle. The old flee felt his knees buckling in the idea of finding whatever was inside, but he pressed on, knowing that if he did not try at least something, he was no good, and it was his duty to do whatever he could for his master.

"On the other hand," he mused, "even if I cannot find something to help, our enemy won't think of searching for me in his own hide-out." That he found satisfying enough, and walked up to the stairs leading up to the first floor...

After almost another quarter of an hour, and as he was searching the castle, he found Magemorou sleaping deeply. Realising who he was, just in time before his suction needle would make an impact with the human's cheeck, he pulled back and took a little time to think what should he do... It truly amazed him, the fact that a human, a ningen man, could actually defeat them all, and even come up with all these ideas. Still, the images of what happened back there in the glade made him pay more attention in whatever was inside this room.

He smelled of the various herbs and the many different things he might find handy... Two, though, made him much impression: some vials with a thick liquid of acidic smell, and the grotesque patterns that the thick lines that smelled of blood were shaping; they had grown quite dense, but he could understand their nature.

"Hmm, could it be that this has helped in the creation of those ensnaring strands? It does only seem logical... But why does the blood have both his smell and a hint of youkai at the same time? And finally, what's this?" He fidgeted a little with what seemed to be a small brush of fine fur... It took him only a moment to realise the origin of the scarlet chunk. "A kitsune? But who could have given him a lock of hair? Especially to paint his ritualistic writings!"

At that moment, Magemorou stirred in his bed, making Myouga think better about his speculative manners... He decided against staying in this place, and jumped off the chamber and into the hall, once again searching for whatever might help him. And he did find it...

"Oh, Kaede-sama, what are we going to do?" Rin was once again exasperated.

"For the last time, my child, do not despare. Thou shalt find, soon enough, I assure thee, that if the time comes, it will come."

Not knowing how to respond to something so tragicomically profound yet obvious, the young girl tried to settle down, but the chains were not helping. She grumphed, which was quite acceptable, if you take into account the fact that she had been kidnapped and chain bound for such a long period of time. On the other hand, Kaede did not like her growing impatient in responce to the girl's frustration.

It was Myouga, though, that put all these frustration to good use, since he easilly found the room where the two were held captives. Jumping up to Kaede, he spoke his greeting. "Hello, Kaede-sama. I come with dire news and the need for help, if that would be." Kaede found the whole situation strange, but asked him what happened anyway.

Of course, it was beyond Myouga to stay in control of himself... "I left my master; a coward I am, and bedamn my kin for its weakness. Alas, how can I redeem myself? That man upstairs has them bound, and only I, this filthy worm, may infernal fires lick me a thousand times, escap-"

"Hey, slow down!" Rin interrupted him. "Did you see our captor? And you are still alive and free?"

"Well," Myouga fidgeted with the words, "he was asleep."

Kaede soon intervened. "Are you sure he was the same? How did he look like?"

The tiny flee shrugged. "Like any young man, only with very rich, red hair... Not many of them have that hair colour, that is true... But otherwise he is normal."

Both women now were very confused. "What do you mean by rare?! It is not so rare for a hanyou to have crimson hair... And he also has the blood of a kitsune in him..."

Now it was Myouga's time to get confused. "Hanyou, you say? And a kitsune, to top that? The man I saw was ningen!"

Kaede was very curious. "We will figure this riddle out later! Can you do anything about the chains?"

Tinking of the vials full of acid, Myouga smiled. "Well, if you let me drink up some blood of both of you, I might as well carry out a plan I have come up with..."

Chubby Myouga walked in the private chambers of Magemorou, looking for the flasks of acid. It was more difficult than he thought it would be to get there, but if his plan was successful, it would be worth it. Carefully taking one vial, he walked off the room and down the stairs, going back to the room where the two ladies were. Still chubby enough to handle them, he took off the lid of the flask and poured a little on the chain of Rin, taking care so that she would not get burned by the acid. When her chain was done, Rin retreived the acid from Myouga, who was growing smaller again and poured the rest on Kaede's chains so that she could also be set free.

A few minutes after Myouga came back with the acid, the three of them were going up, into the chambers of Magemorou...

When Magemorou finally waked up, more than an hour had passed, as the sun could easilly indicate, and he was hungry: his loss of blood had been restored, but he needed to provide his body with what it had spent. True to his needs, Magemorou ate the rest of the gruel and took another sip of sake to help him wake up for good.

It didn't take him long to snap out of the drousiness of sleep, but he needed to concentrate very hard for the next part to work as planned, and he wanted to be ready for it, or he would fail miserably...

The first part consisted of luring the victims near him. The second from binding them. The third and most difficult one would require most of his mentality to work out fine, and if he were not so good at sorcery he would never be able to survive through it. This last part mostly was a second ritual that would draw power from the bound victims and endow other people with them. Since this spell would endow only one person with the powers of all these people, it is apparent that such an attempt can be quite dangerous, since if the recipient of all these powers cannot stand their potency, he will be utterly burned inside out, with no way to protect him or her. The reason one would ever perform such a spell, though, was the fact that you can keep your original form through its use, unlike the results of most infernal rituals.

This was the very reason Magemorou waited for a while... This is also the reason he wore his family periapt...

As he took a vial of acid to use for the procedures of the ritual, he noticed that one seemed to be missing... Dismissing it as impossible, and to much intent on carrying on with his plan, Magemorou walked back to where he had painted the kanji on the piece of rice paper. Putting the piece in the center of a blazing brazier, the paper burned to dust, leaving only the magically endowed blood on its center, then grabbed them with a long pair of tongs. Reaching for them with his hands, still cool to the touch, the intricate patterns had an eery feeling about them. Making sure they were fine, he placed them on a glass tank and put the vial of acid beside it. He would have to use it as well as some of his magic for the ritual to work.

As he started chanting once again to initiate the ritual that would drain his captives of their powers, the three people he never thought would harm him had just reached the floor where his room was. Listening to the chant, they fell very silent, not knowing what to do. All seemed so final, so futile... Kaede and Myouga closed their eyes in a pained expression for a moment before deciding that they should act, however desperate their actions might be...

Only to find Rin standing with a torch in one hand near the door of Magemorou's room.

"Rin-san! Iie!" Kaede whispered, trying to stop her, to no avail though. With one swift move, Rin opened the door wide and jumped at the man she saw... It was true he looked like Magemorou, except for not having any animalistic or youkai features, but it had to be him, or they had failed miserably. Charging at the startled form of the young man, he whacked at him with the lower part of the torch, even scraping her fingers as they connected with his raised hand.

Magemorou of coursse lost his concentration, stopping the ritual for good. Finding himself unexpectedly attacked, he looked around frantically and easilly realised by the chains dangling from the girls wrists where had the missing vial gone, yet he could not understand how had she retrieved it! And things only startewd getting worse when the old woman came at the threshold, carrying another torch in her hand, but she seemed startled, unlike the girl who had a very determined look on her face.

Knowing that his brawling skills would be far worse than theirs now that he had lost his strength as a hanyou, he reached for the vial of acid he had set beside the glass bowl on his desk and pull the cork of it, even spilling some of it in a threatening move. Noticing that the two women have not thought of this by their confused, frightened expressions, since both knew what acid could do, his spirits lifted somewhat. Deciding that his spells could be more effective than fighting, and that acid would always pose a potent threat, he started chanting another spell, waving his hands in a rapid but absolutely perfect array of swings and thrusts.

Before he could finish the spell, however, he felt a very painful stinging on his neck, effectively making him slap at his neck and naturally miscasting it. Seeing that he was distracted, Rin swung her torch at his hand that held the vial, scorching his fingers and flinging the vial at a wall. Hurt and more defenceless than he would ever like himself to be, Magemorou did not even expect the next flailing attack the elder miko performed, burning some of his skin and hair and knocking him out, unconscious to the world and frustrated at his defeat...


How was it? I wasted so much time to come up with the words for these chapters, so I would like you to be honest.