Sorry for not updating in a long while. School and stuff got to me again. ACT this weekend then I got Sadies so after this, I might not update for a while too. Well, actually, I don't know about Sadies now. Looks like my mom wasn't paying attention when I told her that Sadies is where the girl asks the guy out and she's got this huge thing where girls and guys can't be friends. So I'm like, why not? She answers that it's just not right and that when a guy and girl like each other, they shouldn't even date. They should get married and I'm like, WHAT THE FUCK!!!!???? Anyways... away from my social life. Actually, I finished this chapter, chapter 24 and chapter 25 a while back actually. I just haven't had time to go on the net to put them in and eveytkime I do go in, something's always up with the server so I can't log in, but oh wells...
The opening part of the story was longer than I thought and it doesn't exactly coincide with the actual story of Inuyasha, but um, just deal with it okies? At least it works with this story!
Disclaimer: Inuyasha and company belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz and company.
***********************************************************************
"Hey uncle, can you tell me a story? A story about a girl this time, okay?" I asked him.
He chuckled lightly and ruffled my hair a bit as he rocked the sleeping baby Souta in his arms. I was about seven then.
"Sure," he replied with a great smile on his face.
"Yay!" I cheered happily.
I settle down quickly to hear of the tale my uncle would tell me.
"A long time ago..." he started...
There was a miko of great beauty who had extraordinary powers. She slew evil with her sword and miko powers. No demon could match her strength and power. All demons feared her and those who were foolish enough to disturb the peace or fight her were killed or purified. Her name was Midoriko, the Divine Miko as some called her. She fought for justice and for good. She was loved by good and hated by evil.
Midoriko killed many demons so in turn they feared and hated her. They hated her so much that they devised a plan to kill her. The demons all fused into one great super demon, but used a normal man to be the base of their power. They fed off his dark energy because he had desired Midoriko for a long time, but she rejected him. They attacked Midoriko and for many days and nights, they battled until Midoriko could feel her strength being drained away. The demon took this chance to grab her and take her power by fusing her into it. Midoriko knew that if she let them take her power, they would become too powerful to defeat and so, she used her last remaining powers to purify what she could of the demon. From this, the demon energy and her energy created a jewel that held a tremendous amount of power that could intensify one's powers by almost infinity. The demon and Midoriko died. The jewel was taken in by Midoriko's only child whom she had conceived with her late husband who had died. The child and the jewel disappeared in time... but that child had children and the children of Midoriko had children. Oddly enough, all those that were descendants of Midoriko died, the aura of Midoriko's fearsome youaki killing power bringing about their doom... but one survived... One who would always survive to keep the jewel from falling into enemy hands...
Eventually, one of Midoriko's descendants fell in love with a prince and he to her. His parents though, did not approve because she was not of royal birth. So they decided to run away together and live happily alone for a while, but his royal parents soon asked them to come back because he was their only son. So, the both of them returned and the king and queen were happy. From then on, one child of the line would always be brought up in the ways of the miko and protect the jewel. Such was her fate, to guard the jewel until her time would come and her child would take over. And so, that duty had fallen on your mother... that is, it would have if...
The last part of the story was drowned out by my sleepiness. Sleep had threatened me and I succumbed to the powerful will of it and so, I did not hear of how the story ended...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Chapter Twenty-Three
It was nighttime... and my shift. Gods was it boring! I wanted to sleep, but oh well, like I couldn't do anything about it!
"Tired! So very tired!" I sang.
As I passed a window, I noticed a dark figure fall down outside the window to the ground. I ran to the window and saw the figure look around and rush off.
'Oh no! You're not gonna get away!'
I jumped off the ledge and landed on my feet lightly.
'Ahh... The skills of being an assassin... Now where did he run off to?...'
I heard a faint rustle of leaves and followed it. The rustling of leaves slowed down due to the many bushes (one of the many quirks that Lord InuTaisho put in, very ingenious and crafty I must admit) that blocked the way. The bushes were meant to help tell where the enemy was if ever there were a silent stalker among them. I rushed forward silently and lunged at them when I was close enough.
"Gotcha!" I shouted as my hands closed around their head.
"Mmmpf!!!" the voice mumbled beneath my hands.
"Who are you!?" I demanded.
The hands gripped onto my hands and tore them off.
"Kagome! You're killing me!" came the now familiar voice.
"Wait... Rune, what are you doing out this time of the night?" I asked her.
Her face became visible in the barely dim light.
"Well... Kag-" she started to say as two blades found its way to our throats.
"Make one wrong move and you're dead," spoke the swords' bearer.
"Hey! It's us! Megumi!"
The swords dropped a split second later and Megumi came into view.
"What are you two doing out this late at night?" she asked her questioningly.
I nodded to Rune, "I was just asking her the same thing. I was on guard duty and saw her try to make a great escape out of the castle grounds."
Megumi looked at Rune who looked down from our eyes, "Rune?.."
She looked back up at the both of us, "You guys... I... I'm going to meet someone..."
Megumi and I looked at each other then back at her, "What?!"
"Shh! Not too loud!" she whispered to us.
"What's going on Rune?" I asked her.
She sighed, "... Tonight... I heard Master Taka and several of his spies saying that the... the Dragon Man was... in the castle of Torrent."
Megumi's face paled the moment Torrent was mentioned.
"T-Tor-Torrent?" she stammered and shivered..
"Torrent? Wait! That's where... Where those twins who took over your country lives, right?" I asked her.
Megumi started to tremble a little and seemed to have dazed off.
"Megumi?" both Rune and I asked.
She was silent for a few minutes more before she finally spoke.
"I will take you there," she said to Rune.
"What!? You must out of your mind!" I practically screamed at them.
"No... I'm pretty sure my mind is working normally," answered the duo bladed assassin, "I need to do this to help out Rune, Kagome."
"By letting her go into a well-guarded castle like that? Hold on Rune, why are you going to this place?"
Rune's eyes saddened a little, "I think that maybe... just maybe... Ser might be..."
I knew what she was going to say.
"Rune, the guy's dead. Leave the guy alone! He's not Case and he's the enemy! What can you do about this? Maybe its nothing-"
"No Kagome, I can... I can feel something there..." said she.
"But how?" asked I, again.
"We've... been meeting up in secret..."
"...WHAT!!!!????" I almost exploded.
"Just once in a while, but... I can feel something from him that's oddly familiar like Case. Maybe it's me, but he seems..."
"Rune?" asked Megumi.
She looked up and Megumi gave her the sign to follow her. She looked at me and shrugged. I looked at them both.
"You guys?... Man, it's dangerous... H-hey Megumi! I thought you said that you hated that place!"
She paused and turned to face me. She put on a strange smile on her face.
"I hate it to death..." she replied.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I can't believe you guys are doing this!" I told them for probably the hundredth time.
"Then why are you going with us?" asked Rune with a smirk on her face.
I grimaced at that. Not like she could see it anyway, it was dark outside.
"Because I'm your friend and letting you go into a place like this alone will get me in trouble (either way I will get in trouble...) so I'm in for the ride," I replied.
Megumi chuckled, "Thanks Kagome."
"Yeah..."
'And in for a whole lot more trouble when I get back...'
Of course, the whole area was dark and I was unfamiliar with the place even though my eyes were already used to the dark from years of experience and training. The sounds of crickets chirping were all around and underneath us. I shivered as I felt a snake run over my boot. I shook it off and hurried on behind the other two. We had arrived in a forest behind the castle. It looked like any regular castle, but it was huge and I mean HUGE!
The castle was built with blocks of rocks and the color was undefined due to the total darkness. Its dark presence loomed over us angrily with its high towers and sharp, pointy tips. The body of the castle was protected by its walls that were dimly lit up by scattered torches that barely seemed to take notice of anything around at all and seemed to beckon those passing by to climb its walls to see what it hid behind its barricade. The lights lit inside came into the night with an eerie glow, as if reaching out its cold fingers to touch any unwelcome dark creature that might come by it.
Frankly, it looked scary... for a regular-looking castle!
"It didn't used to look like this..." whispered Megumi, as if she had been reading my thoughts.
"What?"
"The castle," she continued, "there were more guards out patrolling and more light, but... It's just dark. No patrols or guards on the walls or ground to spot intruders. What's going on?..."
'It's a trap, that's what's going on. A trap that we're walking ourselves blindly into!'
Suddenly, we all felt something move quickly in the grass before us. Two bright red dots moved along the dark, grassy covered ground. I took out several darts that I had newly made and threw it at it with impeccable speed, as did the other two who carried their own darts.
In less than a second after the darts were thrown, we heard a very high-pitched screech, like a wild animal and the two previously seen red dots disappeared. We stood by silently, still debating whether to move on or not.
Finally, I forced myself to go look and went to the place where we last sensed it. The other two stood by as I reached down and felt something furry brush against my searching hand. It felt so cold, almost as if it had never been alive at all. I grabbed it and held it up to examine it as the other two closed in to look at it as well. My hands were shaking, willing to drop the thing anytime, but my mind told myself to keep holding it.
"What is it?" asked Rune.
"A ridiculously large sized rat," replied I.
"But would a rat screech like that?" asked Megumi.
We were all silent for a few moments before we decided to move on. I threw the dead carcass away, glad to be rid of the dead vermin that reeked of eeriness. We sneaked to the back of the castle walls as if we were nothing but shadows.
"Should we climb it?" I asked them.
Rune looked to Megumi, "You know the place. Your choice."
Megumi looked thoughtful for a moment then back to us.
"Climb," she finally answered.
"Okey dokey. Upsy daisy!" I said and began to scale the walls in a timeless manner.
Suddenly, Megumi's hand pulled me off the wall before I could get any farther (which wasn't too far up).
"Rune, you go. We'll stay here till you come back," she announced.
"What!?" I exclaimed.
"Rune is the one here who has a reason for going in, we don't. I'd also prefer not to go in. I'm not very kind towards royalty nor are they very welcoming to the one who dethroned and destroyed the royal family," spoke Megumi.
I had to agree. I had no point in being there except probably for moral support and backup. Megumi was there for... gods no what, but to lead Rune here safely and Rune... Rune came to see the Dragon Guy... For reasons why I have no clue, but she insisted so she was going.
Rune nodded to Megumi and to me, "I got you involved and I'm sorry. If anything happens, go back and forget me ok?"
I shook my head, "Heck no! We can't do that. By dawn, you'd better be back here or we'll come in, assuming that you got caught."
Rune opened her mouth to argue, but stopped, seeing no point in continuing when I gave her my you'll-never-win-this-argument-no-matter-what-you-say-or-do look. She knew that we would come no matter what and nodded.
She then started to climb the walls. We looked on until she reached the top in record timing. She looked down at us form the top and gave us a thumb's up sign.
"Jack be nimble..." she whispered down to us.
"Jack be quick," I smiled.
"Good luck!" said Megumi.
Rune smiled back at us and then disappeared from our view.
I sighed, "Well... We got a while before dawn comes so we'd better go wait somewhere safer, right?"
"Yeah," she replied.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
So... I know its very boring, but I'm working on it! Anyways, R & R! (^_^) More reviews means quicker chappies.
The opening part of the story was longer than I thought and it doesn't exactly coincide with the actual story of Inuyasha, but um, just deal with it okies? At least it works with this story!
Disclaimer: Inuyasha and company belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, Viz and company.
***********************************************************************
"Hey uncle, can you tell me a story? A story about a girl this time, okay?" I asked him.
He chuckled lightly and ruffled my hair a bit as he rocked the sleeping baby Souta in his arms. I was about seven then.
"Sure," he replied with a great smile on his face.
"Yay!" I cheered happily.
I settle down quickly to hear of the tale my uncle would tell me.
"A long time ago..." he started...
There was a miko of great beauty who had extraordinary powers. She slew evil with her sword and miko powers. No demon could match her strength and power. All demons feared her and those who were foolish enough to disturb the peace or fight her were killed or purified. Her name was Midoriko, the Divine Miko as some called her. She fought for justice and for good. She was loved by good and hated by evil.
Midoriko killed many demons so in turn they feared and hated her. They hated her so much that they devised a plan to kill her. The demons all fused into one great super demon, but used a normal man to be the base of their power. They fed off his dark energy because he had desired Midoriko for a long time, but she rejected him. They attacked Midoriko and for many days and nights, they battled until Midoriko could feel her strength being drained away. The demon took this chance to grab her and take her power by fusing her into it. Midoriko knew that if she let them take her power, they would become too powerful to defeat and so, she used her last remaining powers to purify what she could of the demon. From this, the demon energy and her energy created a jewel that held a tremendous amount of power that could intensify one's powers by almost infinity. The demon and Midoriko died. The jewel was taken in by Midoriko's only child whom she had conceived with her late husband who had died. The child and the jewel disappeared in time... but that child had children and the children of Midoriko had children. Oddly enough, all those that were descendants of Midoriko died, the aura of Midoriko's fearsome youaki killing power bringing about their doom... but one survived... One who would always survive to keep the jewel from falling into enemy hands...
Eventually, one of Midoriko's descendants fell in love with a prince and he to her. His parents though, did not approve because she was not of royal birth. So they decided to run away together and live happily alone for a while, but his royal parents soon asked them to come back because he was their only son. So, the both of them returned and the king and queen were happy. From then on, one child of the line would always be brought up in the ways of the miko and protect the jewel. Such was her fate, to guard the jewel until her time would come and her child would take over. And so, that duty had fallen on your mother... that is, it would have if...
The last part of the story was drowned out by my sleepiness. Sleep had threatened me and I succumbed to the powerful will of it and so, I did not hear of how the story ended...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Chapter Twenty-Three
It was nighttime... and my shift. Gods was it boring! I wanted to sleep, but oh well, like I couldn't do anything about it!
"Tired! So very tired!" I sang.
As I passed a window, I noticed a dark figure fall down outside the window to the ground. I ran to the window and saw the figure look around and rush off.
'Oh no! You're not gonna get away!'
I jumped off the ledge and landed on my feet lightly.
'Ahh... The skills of being an assassin... Now where did he run off to?...'
I heard a faint rustle of leaves and followed it. The rustling of leaves slowed down due to the many bushes (one of the many quirks that Lord InuTaisho put in, very ingenious and crafty I must admit) that blocked the way. The bushes were meant to help tell where the enemy was if ever there were a silent stalker among them. I rushed forward silently and lunged at them when I was close enough.
"Gotcha!" I shouted as my hands closed around their head.
"Mmmpf!!!" the voice mumbled beneath my hands.
"Who are you!?" I demanded.
The hands gripped onto my hands and tore them off.
"Kagome! You're killing me!" came the now familiar voice.
"Wait... Rune, what are you doing out this time of the night?" I asked her.
Her face became visible in the barely dim light.
"Well... Kag-" she started to say as two blades found its way to our throats.
"Make one wrong move and you're dead," spoke the swords' bearer.
"Hey! It's us! Megumi!"
The swords dropped a split second later and Megumi came into view.
"What are you two doing out this late at night?" she asked her questioningly.
I nodded to Rune, "I was just asking her the same thing. I was on guard duty and saw her try to make a great escape out of the castle grounds."
Megumi looked at Rune who looked down from our eyes, "Rune?.."
She looked back up at the both of us, "You guys... I... I'm going to meet someone..."
Megumi and I looked at each other then back at her, "What?!"
"Shh! Not too loud!" she whispered to us.
"What's going on Rune?" I asked her.
She sighed, "... Tonight... I heard Master Taka and several of his spies saying that the... the Dragon Man was... in the castle of Torrent."
Megumi's face paled the moment Torrent was mentioned.
"T-Tor-Torrent?" she stammered and shivered..
"Torrent? Wait! That's where... Where those twins who took over your country lives, right?" I asked her.
Megumi started to tremble a little and seemed to have dazed off.
"Megumi?" both Rune and I asked.
She was silent for a few minutes more before she finally spoke.
"I will take you there," she said to Rune.
"What!? You must out of your mind!" I practically screamed at them.
"No... I'm pretty sure my mind is working normally," answered the duo bladed assassin, "I need to do this to help out Rune, Kagome."
"By letting her go into a well-guarded castle like that? Hold on Rune, why are you going to this place?"
Rune's eyes saddened a little, "I think that maybe... just maybe... Ser might be..."
I knew what she was going to say.
"Rune, the guy's dead. Leave the guy alone! He's not Case and he's the enemy! What can you do about this? Maybe its nothing-"
"No Kagome, I can... I can feel something there..." said she.
"But how?" asked I, again.
"We've... been meeting up in secret..."
"...WHAT!!!!????" I almost exploded.
"Just once in a while, but... I can feel something from him that's oddly familiar like Case. Maybe it's me, but he seems..."
"Rune?" asked Megumi.
She looked up and Megumi gave her the sign to follow her. She looked at me and shrugged. I looked at them both.
"You guys?... Man, it's dangerous... H-hey Megumi! I thought you said that you hated that place!"
She paused and turned to face me. She put on a strange smile on her face.
"I hate it to death..." she replied.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I can't believe you guys are doing this!" I told them for probably the hundredth time.
"Then why are you going with us?" asked Rune with a smirk on her face.
I grimaced at that. Not like she could see it anyway, it was dark outside.
"Because I'm your friend and letting you go into a place like this alone will get me in trouble (either way I will get in trouble...) so I'm in for the ride," I replied.
Megumi chuckled, "Thanks Kagome."
"Yeah..."
'And in for a whole lot more trouble when I get back...'
Of course, the whole area was dark and I was unfamiliar with the place even though my eyes were already used to the dark from years of experience and training. The sounds of crickets chirping were all around and underneath us. I shivered as I felt a snake run over my boot. I shook it off and hurried on behind the other two. We had arrived in a forest behind the castle. It looked like any regular castle, but it was huge and I mean HUGE!
The castle was built with blocks of rocks and the color was undefined due to the total darkness. Its dark presence loomed over us angrily with its high towers and sharp, pointy tips. The body of the castle was protected by its walls that were dimly lit up by scattered torches that barely seemed to take notice of anything around at all and seemed to beckon those passing by to climb its walls to see what it hid behind its barricade. The lights lit inside came into the night with an eerie glow, as if reaching out its cold fingers to touch any unwelcome dark creature that might come by it.
Frankly, it looked scary... for a regular-looking castle!
"It didn't used to look like this..." whispered Megumi, as if she had been reading my thoughts.
"What?"
"The castle," she continued, "there were more guards out patrolling and more light, but... It's just dark. No patrols or guards on the walls or ground to spot intruders. What's going on?..."
'It's a trap, that's what's going on. A trap that we're walking ourselves blindly into!'
Suddenly, we all felt something move quickly in the grass before us. Two bright red dots moved along the dark, grassy covered ground. I took out several darts that I had newly made and threw it at it with impeccable speed, as did the other two who carried their own darts.
In less than a second after the darts were thrown, we heard a very high-pitched screech, like a wild animal and the two previously seen red dots disappeared. We stood by silently, still debating whether to move on or not.
Finally, I forced myself to go look and went to the place where we last sensed it. The other two stood by as I reached down and felt something furry brush against my searching hand. It felt so cold, almost as if it had never been alive at all. I grabbed it and held it up to examine it as the other two closed in to look at it as well. My hands were shaking, willing to drop the thing anytime, but my mind told myself to keep holding it.
"What is it?" asked Rune.
"A ridiculously large sized rat," replied I.
"But would a rat screech like that?" asked Megumi.
We were all silent for a few moments before we decided to move on. I threw the dead carcass away, glad to be rid of the dead vermin that reeked of eeriness. We sneaked to the back of the castle walls as if we were nothing but shadows.
"Should we climb it?" I asked them.
Rune looked to Megumi, "You know the place. Your choice."
Megumi looked thoughtful for a moment then back to us.
"Climb," she finally answered.
"Okey dokey. Upsy daisy!" I said and began to scale the walls in a timeless manner.
Suddenly, Megumi's hand pulled me off the wall before I could get any farther (which wasn't too far up).
"Rune, you go. We'll stay here till you come back," she announced.
"What!?" I exclaimed.
"Rune is the one here who has a reason for going in, we don't. I'd also prefer not to go in. I'm not very kind towards royalty nor are they very welcoming to the one who dethroned and destroyed the royal family," spoke Megumi.
I had to agree. I had no point in being there except probably for moral support and backup. Megumi was there for... gods no what, but to lead Rune here safely and Rune... Rune came to see the Dragon Guy... For reasons why I have no clue, but she insisted so she was going.
Rune nodded to Megumi and to me, "I got you involved and I'm sorry. If anything happens, go back and forget me ok?"
I shook my head, "Heck no! We can't do that. By dawn, you'd better be back here or we'll come in, assuming that you got caught."
Rune opened her mouth to argue, but stopped, seeing no point in continuing when I gave her my you'll-never-win-this-argument-no-matter-what-you-say-or-do look. She knew that we would come no matter what and nodded.
She then started to climb the walls. We looked on until she reached the top in record timing. She looked down at us form the top and gave us a thumb's up sign.
"Jack be nimble..." she whispered down to us.
"Jack be quick," I smiled.
"Good luck!" said Megumi.
Rune smiled back at us and then disappeared from our view.
I sighed, "Well... We got a while before dawn comes so we'd better go wait somewhere safer, right?"
"Yeah," she replied.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
So... I know its very boring, but I'm working on it! Anyways, R & R! (^_^) More reviews means quicker chappies.