And Now! Here is the long awaited Chapter 8! ::minions cheer::
Ok, calm down so I can get on with all the things I have to say before I
continue the story. ::Minions silence themselves:: Ok here's the
news:
Thanks to all who reviewed!
SailorKagome
Zoned Out Day Dreamer()
Sailor-Knight Shadowstar
And Cheyo-Vera --Pixiesticks are good for you!

I'm kinda basing this on the 7 levels of hell thing.except that this is my
version so no flaming at me if you don't like it! Nyaaaa!!!!!

3.) Disclaimer: I will never own anything that is as cool as Inu-Yasha or
Yu Yu Hakusho, although I wish that I did.

On with the story!
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We spent only a few hours in camp. Just barely enough to recover from
our injuries and to throw off the lethargy that Yusuke and Hiei were
suffering from due to the spider webs. My shoulder was still throbbing from
the spider attack, but at least it wasn't hurting as much. It was more of
an annoyance, like an itch that you can't scratch. And Kurama was just
fine. 'Damn the pretty boy!' I get to fight a giant Spider and he gets to
do the rescue thing! He never gets hurt!' I was a little miffed at him to
say the least, but at least he was able to halfway drag all of us out. that
counted for something! I think.

As we were packing up, I was wondering where the next portal to the
next lower part of the underworld was. In the First level, it was hidden in
the junk of the apeish ogre, and in level 2, it was hidden under the only
column not depicting the challenge. Both times, it wasn't someplace you
would want it to be. I glanced around. 'Where the hell is someplace that I
don't want to be in this place?' The lava pools were bubbling and casting a
reddish glow over every thing. 'Could it be in a lava pool?' I shook my
head; it would be impossible for ANYTHING to use the portal if it were. Now
where else would I not want to be.?' For a moment, I shuddered. I think I
knew where the portal was. Surrounded by hundreds of defenders. And who the
hell would want to tangle with them a second time when they barely escaped
the first? We would. We had to. As I was explaining my theory to the guys,
Hiei paled slightly. I laughed inwardly. The great and mighty Hiei was
afraid of spiders! At least I didn't blanch at the thought of them!

We argued about where to go look for about an hour. I said that it
was in the city, but Hiei countered that you couldn't tell from just two
similarities. He thought we should go look at the farthest side away from
'Spider City' as it had been dubbed. Kurama wisely stayed out of the verbal
battle. He and Yusuke were standing on a bluff overlooking almost the
entire cavern. Hiei and I were yelling so loudly, that I almost didn't hear
Yusuke. Even with my sensitive hearing! "HEY! GUYS!" he shouted over the
both of us. We paused and looked at Yusuke with angry looks on our faces.
"I think Alex is right." I jumped up and cheered while Hiei looked like he
was just been caught in the headlights of a Mac Truck! Serves him right for
not believing me! 'I am the all knowing Alex!' "Hey! Shut UP!" I heard
Yusuke shouting at me. Meekly, sort of, I faced him. "I think she's right
because why else would there be a city filled with giant killer spiders
with acid spit? They're there for a purpose and that is for guarding the
portal to the next level to this damn place! And the faster we kick some
spider butt, the faster I can get home! I got tickets to the Super Bowl!
(A/N: I don't know what the fav. Sport is in Japan, so I'm just using the
most vocal one here in the U.S. even if I don't particularly like watching
football at all!) We all looked at Yusuke, stunned. Ulterior motives. I
knew it. "So lets go kick some Spider butt!" And with those parting words,
Yusuke ran down the hill and back to the city.

It was just as eerily quiet when we entered the city the first time
as when we entered just a few moments ago. But at least this time we knew
what was lurking here. The spider webs were even more noticeable. More so
because we were looking for them. "Should we try the roof tops?" I had
asked as we entered. But they rejected the idea. So, seeing as I was not
really a part of their group and didn't have to do what they told me to do,
I hopped up on top of the nearest building. Yusuke just started yelling at
me even more. Something about 'If I could jump to the top of the building
like that, why did I have to stand on his shoulders to get over a wall?' I
just grinned back at him. A girl's got to have some fun every once and a
while.

I found that I could see more concentrations of spider webs from my
vantage-point than they could. As to why they didn't want to be up here
where there was more freedom of movement, and less hassle to kill some of
the smaller spiders, of which I had already killed half a dozen, I didn't
have even the foggiest idea. It had to be a guy thing. Even Kurama stayed
on the ground. Maybe Kitsunes didn't like heights. I never saw Dad jumping
into trees, or doing anything that required height. Hell, he even lived on
an entirely one level house. But Grandpa Inu-Yasha loved flying about.
Maybe I got my love of heights from him? Must have I thought. I missed him.
The more I thought about the height problem, the more convinced I became.
Even Uncle Sesshouamru (A/N: I hope I spelled it right. ::Worry worry
worry::) had no fear of heights! I know he was a great demon lord and
couldn't show any fear of any kind, but I think he even enjoyed all the
time he spent flying through the air.
I stopped thinking about guys being afraid of heights and
concentrated more on finding the portal. All I wanted was to find dad and
Uncle Fluffy, and then get the heck out of here. Oh, and ask Kurama on a
date! I giggles a little on the last thing on my to do list. I didn't think
that would be a problem with the way he sometimes acted. I kept a close eye
on the three figures that were three stories below me. They were going at a
brisk walk, but not outright running. Then something hit my nose and I
gagged. Something foul smelling was around here. It was terrible! My nose
almost felt like it was burning! So, I started breathing with my mouth. The
smell was a little better, but it was still horrible. And the more we
walked, the fouler the smell became until I was almost ready to throw up
because it was so bad.

I really should have known what the horrid smell was, but I didn't
think it would smell so bad being dead and all. The gigantic spider that I
had fought against the previous day was crumpled in a heap on a porch in a
smaller clearing than the one I had injured it in. There was an ichorous
fluid pooled in a perfect circle beside what was left of it. It almost
looked like a demarcation it was so perfect. My guess was that the other,
smaller spiders had been using the dead spider as a food source because
there were a lot of chunks taken out of it. I didn't kill it, but I think
that all the injures that it had been dealt yesterday did have something to
do with it's death. Not that I was sorry, on the contrary, I was ecstatic
that it was dead. But I think that the other spiders might be a tad more
vicious now that there was no ringleader to deal with. But for the few
strays that I had dealt with, there were no other spiders to deal with. I
hadn't heard a single stretching sound from movement on the webbing. And
there seemed to be even fewer webs than there were last time. This was
unnerving to say the least!

From the time that we found the bloated, dead body of the spider, it
only took us a few minutes to find the place where I had fought against it.
The webs here were torn apart. The spider must have been thrashing about a
lot to do this kind of damage! And I knew that it was the spider because
that ichorous fluid was splattered around the entire place. And now that I
could get a good look at the clearing, I could see that we weren't the
first visitors. Not by a long shot. There were old bones halfway wrapped in
webs hanging all over the place. There seemed to be a concentration of webs
in one section of the clearing. Yusuke told Hiei to go cut away all the
webs and check if there was a door underneath all the mess. There was
nothing there but more old bones. 'Spiders are smart.' The thought from
yesterday rang through my head again. If they're smart, then they wouldn't
hide the portal in their own space, but they would keep it close by to keep
an eye on it. I was remembering the way the ichorous stuff had pooled
perfectly around the spider. Maybe it wanted one last chance to stop us
from leaving this cavern, so it tried to go where it thought we were
heading. To the exit! I was sure, but I wanted to be right before I told
them what I thought. I was almost wrong about the portal being in the
spider's lair. It was here, just not HERE!

I almost flew back to the spider's mangled body in my haste. There it was
still covered in that junk. I tried to shove to body over, but my hands
began to burn. The acid in its drool must also be somewhat in this crap. I
wiped my hands on the dirt to free them of the acid. 'How the heck do I do
this with out asking for help?' I asked myself. 'If I touch it then my
hands will get burned!' I glanced around for anything that would help.
There were only the boards that the spider was laying on top of. But
thankfully, one of them was clear of the acidic stuff. I pried that up and
use that for leverage to move the corpse out of the way. And there it was.
A round portal gleamed in the warm glow of the not too distant lava pools.
'A spider may be smart, but so far, I'm way smarter!' I thought smugly as I
ran back to get the others. Needless to say, they were impressed. Well, not
Hiei, he was just a little angry. I was right and he was wrong! That was
the way the world worked! Sometimes.

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And here ends this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! You know how I work. No
reviews no more story! So if you want it to continue.review! Thanks!
Signing out
~ DevilWench ~