A/N: . . .Ok, I'm lazy. Sumimasen. I have had this chapter done for ages, and it hasn't wanted to be typed, I swear. It was missing for a little bit. . .*good thing Akira didn't know about that ^^* But, here it is, all lovely and longish. . . .Ok, it's not too long. Get over it. I've finally got a plot going. Yay! But I have a good idea for another fic, so if there's a really long break. . .we all know where I am, ne?
. . .Ok, maybe it is long. . .
~*~
Ningen no baka! Inuyasha kept bounding through the trees, ignoring the numerous tree limbs that snapped at his presence, completely focused on his task; finding Ang. The scent of something foreign to the area was thick in the air, and despite himself, Inuyasha had to admit he was worried for the priestess. It was a shock for me, when I discovered Kikyo was dead. That I should have been dead. It must be worse for her, and. . .I'm the only one who really understands a little of how she feels. He growled in annoyance. Why dies she have to get lost at the one time I can feel something is wrong around here?
Suddenly, he felt something zooming towards him, and let his instincts take over. Without even realizing it, he jumped, and felt w wind blow right by his left foot, nearly hitting it, and run into a tree with a sickening thump noise. He looked at it; time seeming to freeze as he slowly landed a few feet away, recognizing the familiar power signature of a purifying arrow. Kuso. . . "Ang!" Who the hell shot that arrow? It wasn't as powerful as Kikyo. . .a little stronger than Kagome. . . "Where are you?"
He heard a faint answer, but all he could pick up from the voice was that it was Ang, and that she was surprised. Probably because someone had bothered to follow her. He ran towards the direction the voice had drifted from, and finally skidded to a stop near a small opening between two trees. Ang looked like the chances of her meeting him out here were as remote as the chances of Kagome coming to the feudal era dressed as a large dog bone, and then tried to teach Inuyasha how to roll over. "What are you doing out here?"
He read the underlying message, did they send you or are you here because you want to yell at me yourself, with very little difficulty. Her eyes still looked like windows of pain. Inuyasha couldn't help it. Even he felt a little bad for her. A little.
"There's something out here, I think. You must be pretty upset if you can't feel it. We've gotta get out of here and somewhere safe before we know what to do."
"What about Miroku and Megan? They're out here somewhere, too. Maybe we could find them and work together, or something. And I don't really feel. . ." She trailed off, looking a bit confused.
"You feel something, you just don't know if it's a threat or not. Megan and Miroku left a long time ago, and they're probably pretty far away by now. I don't like not knowing what's here. We can go back to the tent, get Kagome, and-"
"Kagome and everyone else."
"Whatever. And then we can make a battle plan. But it's safer if we have everyone here so no one can be used as a hostage or whatever. Do you agree with me?"
"Why is it you think something is going to attack us, Inuyasha? This place seems safe enough to-watch out!" Suddenly, she jumped up, and put as much weight as she could on Inuyasha's shoulders, which would have forced a normal human down. Inuyasha went down because of instinct; she wanted him to duck for a reason. Then he felt another ripple of power, and realized it had been hidden. If she hadn't reacted, he'd be. . .purified. Ang made a small choking noise.
Dreading the answer, Inuyasha looked at her. "What the hell was-" He stopped short when he noticed there was a stub of an arrow poking out of Ang's arm, while she stood clutching her arm, blood staining her hands. She was choking in pain. That arrow was meant for me. It's supposed to be killing me right now, not her! "A-arigato. . .domo arigato. . ."
"I'm putting a shield up," she whispered quietly. She turned to face him, and he realized belatedly she was shaking, and a small layer of sweat had appeared on her face. "Don't move. Getting caught in the middle of a shield can literally rip you apart. I've seen it happen." He nodded, deciding not to comment. He watched the area the arrow had come from with serious apprehension. If I can't move. . .how am I gonna dodge an arrow? Ang shook her head in annoyance, almost as if she had read his thoughts. "You can dodge, baka," she hissed. Inuyasha glanced at her, worried for her again. She certainly didn't seem like she had a lot of energy, and her arm was hanging limply. She followed his gaze. "I'll. . .heal it. After the shield is up."
Inuyasha returned his gaze to the place where the arrows were coming from. "Stop stalling and put the damn thing up." Why doesn't she just pull the damn thing out. . .?
Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw her touch the arrow wound with a slight wince, and let her hand come away, covered in blood. She leaned over, and began to walk slowly in a large circle-shaped path, wiping her hand on the grass as she went. When her hand was too clean for blood to come off, she touched the wound again, refusing to allow it to stop bleeding. The woods were silent, making Inuyasha very uneasy. The animals had already fled. Something bad was happening. The scent of blood as heavy as what she was using should have been enough to call in several predators, but nothing was even moving. Inuyasha watched her, slowly forgetting the danger they were in with interest in the strange spell. "What are you-"
She suddenly stopped, and the twisting trial of blood she had left behind her pulsated eerily, in beat with something. She lowered her hands, and the beads sunk into the grass, staining the circle of grass red. She raised her right hand, and Inuyasha felt the air around him tingle, but he couldn't see, hear, feel, smell, or taste anything different. It just was. Ang was watching a place somewhere above their heads, until she finally raised the left hand to meet the right, and made a confusing motion with her arms. She sighed, and visibly relaxed some of her tense muscles. She looked around, apparently satisfied with whatever she had done. "Come on over here, I need to test the shield." He walked over, still looking for this shield. She grabbed his arm, and pulled him backwards, keeping something behind her in her sight.
Abruptly, she released his arm, and took another step backwards. A ripple surrounded her, as if she had just stepped through a bubble of air into the sea and the bubble was rippling. Inuyasha stared at it with a mix of intrigue and fear. "Daijobu, that's so you can tell where it is." He nodded slowly, but didn't trust it. If she could just step out, how good of a shield was it?
While he was distracted, she grabbed his hand and jabbed his finger with something sharp. "Na-nani?! What the hell that that for?!" He yanked his hand out of her grasp and back inside. Ang swung her arm down, as if she was going to stab him. Inuyasha jumped backwards, but it was unnecessary. As soon as her arm connected with the shield, it rippled, and practically knocked her backwards. She released her small weapon, which shattered, ripping her robes with some of the pieces. She smiled, and nodded.
"It works."
"What the hell did you stab me for? And you tested it on me without even knowing if it worked?" The hanyou, understandably, was not too pleased with the miko at the moment. He hand, although it wasn't a bad wound, stung pretty badly, and being ensnared in a small. . .bubble didn't feel too good either. He was seriously plotting different painful deaths one person could die.
"Testing the shield."
". . .You gonna explain that?"
She rolled her eyes. "Hanyou no baka. . ." She smirked at the growl. "Oh, it's so cute when you growl." She stuck her tongue out at him as he went slightly red and tried to claw her to death and not leave the shield at the same time. "I'll explain it, teiryuu already." She stepped back inside the shield, causing another ripple. Inuyasha scowled at it. He didn't like the ripples that went through the whole shield. It made it appear. . .weak.
"This is a shield. If you didn't know that, you need to go shoot yourself or something. Anyway, the blood I spread generates it. The blood sends energy waves into the air, directed by the motions I was making after I drew the circle. When I sealed it, the energy formed a lid, in a sense. Make sense?"
Inuyasha shook his head. "Absolutely not."
She sighed. "Okay. When I spread the blood, I spread energy with it. The blood is what makes the energy that I use work. The energy doesn't turn "on" until I complete the circle, and then summon it. When I put my hands down. When I was raising my hands, I set the height, and then closed it, so nothing can attack up from above. It's not fun to be burnt because your own shield won't let the fire out.
"Anyhow, it works by the energy I spread. The blood sends the energy up, and it is invisible, but solid to everyone who means no harm to us. If they had ill will in their soul directed to anyone inside the shield, they can't come in. That's why my knife shattered; I was going to stab you."
"You know I'm too fast for you."
"Exactly why I didn't warn you. But I could jab you, because it was not will ill intent. So we can be surrounded, until someone tries to hurt us, the shield won't show itself. It ripples, though. I can' figure out why, but. . .it does. I'm still working on that."
"Matte. . .are you saying that I'm stuck in your weak little shield?" He looked around in annoyance, and Ang glowered at him.
"It's not weak!" She knocked him on the head, and he winced.
"Itai, itai, itai. . ."
"Hn. For your information, this is a perfect shield. It'd take three demons to bust it down. Three strong demons. And you're not stuck, baka. You can step out all you want-if you want, you can skip all around the sides. But wait until I have a camera for that, ne? Basically, you want to live, you stay in the shield. Your choice."
He smirked. "I think I'm against the idea of being locked up like a dog. Besides, being shot at is fun." He stepped outside, and then quickly jumped back when a volley of arrows flew directly at him. "What the-?"
". . .Still like being shot at?"
"Shut up. Who the hell was that?"
"Where are they?"
"Who, the archers?"
"Iie, baka, the toaster strudels. Of course the archers!" She looked around. "There are a bunch of strange things around here, people included. I'm surprised you didn't notice when you came to find me."
He shrugged. He wasn't too keen on admitting her had been so worried about finding her he hadn't really absorbed the small details. "Well. . .are we just gonna be sitting her all day, then? Or until they leave?"
". . .I see this is several different ways. We could wait until we know what's there, and then run, or fight it. Or we could run now, and never come back."
He winced at that idea. "You want to run from an enemy that we haven't even seen yet?" He shook his head. "I'm not that cowardly."
She shrugged. "Whatever you want. But that jump from the arrows was pretty a impressive display of bravery."
"At least I went out there."
Their attention was drawn away from their idle bickering, and to a small rustling outside of the shield. A small army of archers had just. . .materialized from the bushes, from Ang's point of view. To Inuyasha, they were creeping, but very badly. And loudly. The whole group had their arrows knocked and pointed right at the duo. Inuyasha frowned. "They couldn't have been firing those arrows before, could they have been?"
She shook her head. "They don't have any power, holy or not. I can't feel any from them." She frowned, glanced in another direction, looking at something Inuyasha didn't see. "That person plans on remaining hidden a little longer." She ripped her gaze away, and turned back to Inuyasha, and pointed at his bleeding hand. Should have stopped by now. . . "Let me see."
"It's fine. Don't worry about it."
She sighed. "It shouldn't still be bleeding. I want to make sure I didn't slip any poison into it." He laughed at his shocked face. "I'm storing as much blood as I can get for the time being. Your blood isn't sacred or anything, you know."
Biting back his sarcastic retort, he let her see his hand. If she wanted to cast crazy spells in every which direction, she was welcome to doing so. She pulled a pebble out of a pouch from inside her robes-odd, I never noticed those before-and kneeled, pulling him down inelegantly next to her. She smirked, but managed not to laugh at the grass she didn't mention in his hair.
She held the pebble under his finger, and watched a single drop fall onto it. The rock practically sizzled when they touched, and Inuyasha tried to jerk his hand away, but Ang's grip was too strong. Kuso! What the hell is she doing?! The blood near the cut all began to flow quicker, and move towards the pebble. Soon, the skin was turning pale color, and Ang stopped, and the small cut healed. The pebble was no longer gray, but now a pale pinkish color. She smirked, and stood up, and walked through the shield, and stood directly in front of the archers. They snapped at her in another language, and she looked utterly shocked. She threw the pebble at them, and yelled something, and quickly stepped back into the shield.
The stone exploded.
The archers screamed in pain as a shower of sharp shards fell out from the pebble, reminding Inuyasha vividly of the time when Kagome had broken the Shikon no Tama. Although no serious damage appeared, Inuyasha noticed all of the cuts were bleeding abnormally. . .heavily. He looked at Ang, and heard her murmuring quietly, "Mas sangre, mas sangre. . ." Inuyasha sighed, and shook his head. What is with her and foreign languages?
"Ok. . .what the hell was that?"
"Do you mean what was the spell I as muttering, or what was the bomb?"
"Either or will do nicely."
She smirked. "I was murmuring the calling of the subset of the class of spells which, when cast, increase the amount of blood I have to work with. In order words, I was casting a spell that made them bleed more. The phrase is the actual spell, just. . .condensed. The real spell is about four minutes of chanting, but the short thing I was saying just lets me say it quickly so I don't die while waiting for it to cast." Inuyasha nodded. Amazingly, that had made sense. I gotta get away from her. . . "The explosion was the pebble I was using. It absorbed that blood I borrowed from you, and since I can manipulate blood, I politely asked it to explode as soon as it was far enough away."
". . .Politely. . .asked?"
She scowled. "Fine, I just blew it up. Does it matter?"
Inuyasha felt his head getting light. All the blood. . .it was everywhere, and it all smelled so much. It was like the time he had been surrounded by the hell painter's ink, only this was a sweetly sick smell, not like ink. It was blood, some still dripping down the faces of people moaning in pain. Her blood, his blood, their blood. . .he nearly choked on the scent. It was so thick. Ang frowned, but her smirk returned in a feel seconds. Heavy blood took a while to get used to. "My power has returned." She stepped out of the shield, and Inuyasha noticed a thin line of blood on her arm. Her blood, he thought. There was so much, it was hard to tell. Inuyasha watched as all the blood on the archers began to speed up, dripping faster, and creep towards her. As if it were alive. As if it could hear her. . .calling to it. He watched with morbid fascination how as the blood reached her, as it pooled around her feet, how her face regained color, and she seemed to gain back energy. She smirked at the now cowering archers. She looked at Inuyasha. "I'm switching languages. They spoke to me in a language I know, so I have to answer in that language. Gomen nasai." He nodded. Figures she'd know that language, too.
(A/N: At this point on, Ang is speaking another language, and everyone is responding in that one, too. It's Spanish, if you must know, but just keep in mind Inuyasha has no idea what people are saying.) She looked around at the bleeding group of archers. Their morale seemed back up, and they had all raised their bows again. Jeez, they just don't know went to stay down. . .
"Who the hell are you?"
The blood was already on her arm by then, and when they fired arrows in answer to her question, and she raised her arm, and whispered, "shield." A small, almost flimsy thing appeared on her arm, a spinning circle. She moved it so all the arrows hit it, and as each arrow hit the thin, spinning disk, they reflected in different directions. A low murmur went through the crowd. She put her arm back down, but left her shield on. She glowered at them, and pointed at the youngest one she could see. "You. Tell me."
"Wha-What was that?" She continued to stare at him, letting him wonder what she was thinking. "That-That shield thing! How did you do it?"
"What kind of idiot do you take me for? I'm not going to tell you how to do it. Who is firing the purifying arrows at us? Why are you here?"
"A-A miko from our town came with us. She's trying to destroy that hanyou. Isn't he dangerous to travel with? He kidnapped you, right?"
"No. I'm with him on my own free will."
He looked surprised, as if he thought she would protect Inuyasha on command. "Oh. . .well, we were sent to secure the area by another town. We were sent to find and destroy any threats in the nearby area so reconstruction of the nearby town can begin."
She paused. "You're rebuilding the town?" They nodded. She chuckled. "Well, then. Both of us live there, baka! You should be protecting us. Ask anyone."
"We have orders to kill anything we find dangerous. And I personally believe anything with any demon is dangerous, as is anyone who would willingly travel with one!"
. . .Megan is part demon, though. . .
She glared at him. "You're lying," she stated flatly. The boy looked rather nervous. "The person who hired you was part demon."
"You don't have to believe us. But a 'youkai' with a sword and a miko who controls blood presents a threat to me. It's our duty to kill you."
A bored look came across her face. "Keep telling yourself that. . .ask anyone in the town. They'll tell you the same story."
"Our orders are to kill all opposition."
"Of you kill me, you'll never get inside that shield." She gestured at it, allowing it to temporarily be tainted pink. "You can't get in if you bear me any malice. And if you want to kill me, the shield won't take kindly to it." She stepped back inside the shield, and returned it to its transparent state, and let the blood shield on her arm die. She looked at Inuyasha, and returned to a language he could understand. "They are gonna kill us."
Taking the news fairly well, he shrugged, and actually yawned. "What were you all saying, anyway?"
". . .Well, basically just that even though they're willing to admit we're from the town-they're rebuilding it, by the way-we are a threat and they must kill us. And there's a miko from their town somewhere around here. But I don't know why they're speaking my language. . .but if we step out now, they'll kill us. Bastards."
". . .How long can your shield last, Ang?"
She smiled. "No worries, Inuyasha. It'll last until I take it down. They can't break it, you can't take it down unless I do it, but whomever it was firing the purity arrows can probably get it if they can get a good spell on me. There are spells that would force me to take it down. But you'd be safe from ordinary arrows; it's the purifying ones that'll get you. So you might be able to get away. . ."
". . .We get out together. When we can." Ang looked at him funnily for a moment, but then shrugged to herself. He wants to protect me. Whatever. . . "Don't you know most of the priestesses, anyway?"
She shook her head. "If I knew priestesses that had lived in feudal Japan, I would be impressed with myself."
He frowned. "But you know Kikyo."
She smiled. "Yeah, but Kikyo's different. She's a freaking legend, Inu-baka. The guardian of the Shikon no Tama. . .when you're a little priestess, you'd dream about being as famous as her. You're actually known as her downfall, Inuyasha. Everyone knows that it was really Naraku, they take some kind of sick pleasure of making it you." She smiled. "But the Shikon. . .I'm glad I got to hold it for a while."
He looked at her in surprise. "Matte. . .I thought you still had it." If she doesn't. . .who does? He almost growled. I can practically see her giving it to Naraku, taking him for some circus baboon. . .
She shook her head. "Nope. I gave it back to Kagome. Who else would I give it to, Naraku? I gave it back to her, because I'm well known for losing important things really quickly." She continued staring at the "ceiling" of the shield, while listening to the people outside the shield. Inuyasha, after a few minutes, began to as well.
(A/N: If you plug this into the translator, it won't come out right, due to verb forms, all that. It's translated at the end. I'm not sure all of it is right, ok?)
"Dónde está ella?"
"No sé, no sé. . .pero, está tarde ahora. Quiero saber. . .nunca está tarde."
"Sí. Mira, este chico/perro. No me lo gusto."
"El chico?"
"No, la chica. Es bonita, pienso. Claro el chico!"
"You know. . .if you don't understand what they're saying, then you really aren't going to learn anything by listening to them." Her face had gotten slightly red at the last comment, but she wasn't looking at anyone. She had sat down, and was watching a diamond on the ground. Her eyes were closed, but. . .she was watching it. It was impossible to explain. She was focusing on the diamond, which made Inuyasha look at it. He noticed she had put it in a pool of blood, and it was slowly sucking it up, taking on a pink tint that was red where it sat. Inuyasha forcibly took his eyes off it.
"What?"
"They're waiting for someone. A girl. She's late." She opened her eyes, and examined the jewel on the ground. An amused look crept onto her face. "They don't like you, Inuyasha. They think you're rather...freaky."
He shrugged. Not the first time. Their opinion doesn't matter to me anymore. "So, what are we waiting for?"
"This girl. I think it might be the priestess. . .some of us have long ranges, Inuyasha. You could believe me." She frowned at the diamond-turned-ruby. "She might help us. But she might not. She won't if it's their miko, but if it's someone else, there's always a chance. And we need to get out of here eventually, even if just to get food. I wasn't planning on an extended trip when I came out here. I don't like being held up by a bunch of idiotic archers. . ."
"All this blood is making me really lightheaded." His vision was beginning to swim again, from the puddle of blood she had gathered around her. She smiled sympathetically.
"Don't worry, I'm doing what I can. It'll be gone soon." He looked back down at the crystal. She's nice when she wants to be. He noted parts of it were turning as dark as the real blood. It was sitting in the pool of red liquid now, the archer's blood. She had pulled all of that blood in the shield with her. "I'm storing it all so I can use it later."
". . .You are so weird. . ."
"Domo arigato."
He went back to listening to the conversation that was still going on, from a lack of other things to do and an attempt to stop sniffing the blood. (A/N: Ditto last note.) "Por que estamos aquí? Tengo una familia en casa, no quiero estar aquí. Quiero estar con mi familia!"
"Silencio. Sabes que Naraku dijo. No podemos comprender una lengua otra de este. . .espanol. Necesitamos hacer que dijo."
Ang and Inuyasha met eyes. At the same time, both of then hissed, "Naraku," and then nodded. Although that was the only word Inuyasha had gotten, Ang had gotten the rest.
"Oh, shit! Anything that bastard's got planned is dangerous, and we can't help now because we're stuck in this damn little bubble! Damn it, damn it, this is your fault, your shield! If I hadn't followed you and your damn moodiness, I'd still be back at the house! Safely!"
She glowered at him. So much for our peace. "I didn't ask you to follow me, you know. You did that on your own free will."
"Now everyone else is back in the town, and Naraku is gonna kill Ka-mina, because I can't help!"
"He only mentioned his name, Inuyasha! And everyone else knows how to fight!" Good thing he doesn't speak Spanish. . . She looked back at the jewel, and realized the ground was still wet with blood, but it couldn't absorb anymore. She put it back in the pouch and put another one on the ground. Naraku won't let them go home until they do what he wanted. Now, what the hell would he want?
There was a sudden stirring, interrupting Inuyasha's ignored wrath. Everyone looked over to see a young girl, only a few years younger than Ang, with a bow and arrow, garbed in the traditional Shinto miko's robes. For a fleeting moment, Inuyasha saw Kikyo. But then the moment passed, and the harsh face lost all resemblance to the passed miko. She ordered a few men to do something, in an equally harsh tone, and they slunk off. She approached the shield, looking at it with distaste. The archers behind her began to clean their wounds, which were still bleeding mildly, and complaining loudly.
"It is a perfect shield."
Inuyasha blinked. He could understand what she was saying. Ang smirked. "Of course. I notice you must be following Naraku of your own free will, if you can speak the native language." Inuyasha stared blankly at her. "Why are you holding us here, anyway?"
"Naraku wanted the hanyou and long-braided priestess to be out of the way for his next plan, but he wanted them alive. So we have to wait for you to separate, and then convince you to stick yourself here. All went off well, obviously. If you remove the shield, I kill the hanyou, and eventually even your shield won't be enough to block all the arrows. We will wait for Naraku's orders." She turned and walked away.
"What do you mean, even me?"
She stopped, and glanced back in surprise. "The first miko to survive Shi's wrath is not to be held in contempt, Angela." She looked at Inuyasha, who was about to say a single arrow would not kill him. "You are not immune to arrows. You did not die by Kikyo's arrow because Kikyo did not want to truly kill you."
"Don't worry," Inuyasha said as she walked away from the shield, giving orders in the foreign language. "The others probably wonder where we are, by now."
Ang rolled her eyes. "Knowing them. . .I sincerely doubt it."
Inuyasha nodded. "Same."
~*~
"Akiiraa!" The miko laughed, practically rolling on the floor with glee, and from a sugar high. "Not fair!"
"I win, I win!" She grabbed the dice again, and trust them at Miroku. "Your turn to. . ." She pointed dramatically at him. "Lose!" Biiru sighed.
They were playing a game Akira had dubbed "take away the snack foods from whoever rolled the dice if you can guess the number they'll roll before they roll." Akira had control of almost all the Hostess in the room. Biiru swore the dice were weighted, but she chose random numbers, so. . .he'd work on it.
"Oi, Akira, think we oughta look for them yet?"
"Nah. I'm sure Inuyasha will smell the food, and then come back!" Although it's been nearly four hours. . .
Kagome laughed. "My turn. . .Akira, your roll. Six!"
Akira laughed, and rolled. The dice bounced like crazy, and then landed behind Miroku. A small army ran behind him, and Akira practically fell over in shock. "Na-Nani?!"
Kagome laughed. "Six! I win!"
~*~
First thing of Spanish:
"Where is she?"
"I don't know, I don't know. . .but, she's late now. I want to know....she's never later.
"Yes. Look, that boy/dog. I don't like it."
"The boy?"
"No, the girl. She's pretty, I think. Of course the boy!"
Second thing of Spanish:
"Why are we here? I have a back at home, I don't want to be here. I want to be with my family!"
"Silence. You know what Naraku said. We can't understand another language other than this. . .Spanish. We had to do what he said."