Sticky Situations
Miroku got ready to face whatever came out of the trees toward him. He pulled all the webs he could off of his staff, pulled out a scroll, and got ready to throw it. He waited for the demon to approach him as he heard the footsteps grow louder and louder. Then suddenly, they stopped. The forest grew quiet again. Miroku froze, unwilling to let his guard down. The enemy was trying to surprise him, but he wasn't going to let it happen. He waited patiently, ready to attack the second it came toward him. Moments passed. Nothing happened. Just as he was beginning to wonder if he had overlooked the noises, he heard a noise behind him, spun around, and sent his scroll flying with the words "Demons Begone!" The scroll hit its target hard in the face, covering up 6 of the 8 eyes.
The giant spider didn't appreciate being nearly blinded by Miroku's spiritual power. It used its remaining two eyes to see who it was facing, and shot threads of silky web from its mouth toward the human. He dodged it easily. Miroku then ran forward, jumped the height of the spider demon, and threw his staff down onto the scroll he had already thrown. He focused his power on destroying the demon, which didn't take long. As he fell from his jump, the spider keeled over backwards with a deafening screech. It fell on its back and all eight of its legs curled up close to its abdomen. One of its fangs fell out from the fall. When Miroku landed from the fall, he turned around, saw that he had killed the demon, and began to pray for it. But his prayer was interrupted by countless more screeches. That hadn't been the only spider in the forest. Now he was going to have to face the revenge seeking relatives of the dead demon in front of him. One spider demon by itself had been easy enough to handle, but he didn't know how many he could handle at once. He didn't have long to wonder how he was going to beat them all before three charged out of the trees. Webs came flying from three directions. Miroku flipped backward onto his hands, then back to his feet to avoid getting caught. He pulled out three scrolls and hurled them. Two of the three hit their targets, stopping them in their tracks, but he had thrown one a little off. The demon it had missed continued to charge toward him. He wished Sango was here with him right now. He could use a throw of Hiraikotsu to finish off the two demons he had hit with his scrolls and take the third one down without effort. But Sango was hopefully somewhere safe, although he had no idea what had happened to any of his friends.
He jumped backwards as the spider lunged forward to try to bite him, poison dripping from its fangs. It missed him by an inch, and as he was trying to back away from it a little, he heard a noise behind him. Two more spiders came out of the trees toward him, just as the two that had been hit by his scrolls regained their strength and started coming at him. He was completely surrounded. His only option of defense against them would be his wind tunnel, but he didn't think the winds were strong enough to pull them in fast enough. But it was worth a try. He pulled the prayer beads that sealed the void off of his hand, facing his now open wind tunnel toward the spider that was closest to him. It tried to resist the wind, failed, and flew off of the ground and into Miroku's hand. Having eliminated the closest one, he closed his hand and tried to move away from the others. He noticed that even with the one spider gone, he was still surrounded by four spiders. He was trapped. He considered forming a barrier around himself, but realized that the spiders were closing in on him and he wouldn't have time. There was nothing left to do but open his wind tunnel and pray for the best. He managed to suck in one more spider, but as he was turning to face the next, he felt a pair of sharp fangs sink into his back. The second the teeth punctured his skin, he felt the poison from them begin to burn his body. It spread from the wound quickly, and Miroku fell to his knees. When he fell, the spider moved with him, continuing to inject venom. From his knees he fell flat on the ground, and the spider finally gave up on filling his entire body with poison.
Miroku watched himself fall, felt himself hit the ground, and his entire body filled up with pain. The wound in his back throbbed, and he knew he wouldn't be able to hold onto life much longer. His vision became blurry, and it became hard to breathe. He'd never been affected by poison so quickly before. He became dizzy and shut his eyes. He'd imagined himself dying before, but never like this. He always thought he'd die from being pulled into his wind tunnel or sacrificing his life for the people he cared about. He never thought he'd die a meaningless death from underestimating the enemy and being careless and stupid. He hoped that Sango and the others were ok, and would be able to destroy Naraku without him. Sango . . . why hadn't he noticed his love for her sooner? Why did he always carelessly flirt with women right in front of her? His breath was coming in gasps now. He tried to picture Sango's beautiful, smiling face once more before his consciousness slipped away.
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InuYasha and Kagome watched as Sango and Kirara zigzagged across the forest, searching for any signs of Miroku. InuYasha watched her searching hopelessly, and grew impatient. "Do we really have time to waste sitting here while she searches? Can't we go search the cave, even without her?"
Typical of InuYasha, Kagome thought. "One thing that I don't think you've quite realized about this cave, InuYasha. You said it was very close to the mountain, right? All the trees lining the mountain are really close. Well, I've been thinking . . . how do we know that when we try to go down to the cave we won't get attacked by trees on the way?"
InuYasha stared at her, stunned. He hadn't thought of that. "When they threw me in front of the cave, they stopped attacking. They didn't attack again until I started climbing the mountain. They wanted me to enter that cave. If you're not coming with me, I'm going inside it alone. I can't take this any more!"
"Honestly, InuYasha! You have no patience whatsoever! Just have a little faith that Sango will find Miroku!"
"It has nothing to do with faith! I just think there are better things to do with my time than sit here bored out of my mind!" InuYasha stood up. But Kagome wasn't done with him yet.
"Oh, so I'm boring, am I? Well fine then, leave!" She stuck her nose into the air, turned her head away, and crossed her arms. Even Shippo couldn't help but stare, amazed by Kagome's attitude.
"I never said YOU were boring! Don't twist my words arou-"
"No, but you implied it!" She still refused to look at him
"Feh!" InuYasha sat back down. "Believe what you want." They sat in silence for a few minutes. Shippo couldn't stand the tension any longer, so he hopped out of Kagome's lap and hit InuYasha on the head. InuYasha glared at him. "Do you really think that was smart??"
"InuYasha, stop being an idiot!"
"You're the one who punched me!" InuYasha began to think the world was against him today.
"You deserved it! You're being stupid, immature, and -" Shippo didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. InuYasha had leaned over and punched him hard on the head. Tears welled up in Shippo's eyes. He looked at InuYasha's face, ready to yell in protest, but noticed that InuYasha now looked worried about something. Maybe their argument had taken its toll. Shippo let InuYasha get away with hitting him this one time, only cuz he'd hit InuYasha first.
A few more moments passed in silence. InuYasha glanced over at Kagome, who's face hadn't grown any softer. She was still angry with him. Would she ever give him a break? "Look, Kagome, I-"
"Sit Boy!" She didn't want to hear it.
"Ghhhg!" SLAM! InuYasha's body hit the mountaintop as he fell face first into the rock. A few bits of debris shook before tumbling over the edge of the mountain. InuYasha pulled his face up, turned to face Kagome, and opened his mouth to yell an angered apology at her, but didn't get the chance to. First he noticed the smell of blood in the air, and then he saw Sango returning from the forest quickly.
"Sango-chan! Any luck?" Kagome stood up, seemingly forgetting her anger at InuYasha.
"Well, sort of. I can see a clearing way up ahead, but I don't know if it would be safe to approach it alone. So I came to ask if you guys could travel along the mountaintop. It looks as if it's close enough to the mountains for you to see it clearly as well."
"Heh, need a bit of back-up, do ya?" InuYasha was happy for some reason that Sango was asking for help. It wasn't often that she let out any signs of fear, and he was glad she was now. After all, it was better than if she had gone on her own and run into danger she couldn't handle. InuYasha sensed that she had also come for emotional support, in case she was unable to handle what they were about to see. With this in his head, he couldn't bring himself to tell her about the blood. "Well, let's go, Kagome!"
"Right!" Kagome jumped onto InuYasha's back, and he began to run. Kirara leaped back into the air, and they ran side by side in the direction of the clearing in the forest.
--------------------------------------------------------- From the top of a tree, the demoness Sayuki had watch the whole scene. She had watched the human run past the tree she was in, stop in the middle of the clearing, and be nearly killed by the spiders which attacked him. But she hadn't paid much attention. Any human who entered the forest was bound to end up dead, either from being beaten to death by the trees or bitten by the spiders. Occasionally one would die in another way, but none ever survived. Sayuki enjoyed watching them die sometimes, and had rather enjoyed watching this particular man put up a pathetic attempt at defending himself from the spiders. But as she watched the spiders leave his body lying there to go deal with the spider he had managed to kill, she took a good look at the man. He looked around 20 years old, and had a cute face. A very cute face at that. Such a shame he was lying there dying, really. She stared a few minutes more and decided he didn't really need to die so soon . . . and if he did she could deal with how it would be done on her own. But that would be later.
She jumped down to the ground as soon as the spiders dragged their dead comrade away. She inspected the human closely, and saw that he was no longer breathing, but his heart was still beating. Sayuki estimated a good 30 seconds before it stopped. Her powers wouldn't need that long. Resting her hand over his wound, she focused her thoughts on the word "heal". When she saw her hand glowing blue, she knew it was working. After about 15 seconds, she removed her hand and revealed that there was no longer any wound to waste her time with. The blood that had surrounded him had disappeared as well. Now the hard part. It wouldn't be easy to steal the spiders' prey, but she was confident she could do it. Her cave wasn't far away, and she could easily run faster than they could. Hearing them coming back, she lifted the man from the ground and ran into the forest. The spiders didn't have a chance of catching her. She laughed as she approached her cave, waved the barrier aside, and ran through the entrance to the cave, looking down at her stolen goods with a smile.
Miroku got ready to face whatever came out of the trees toward him. He pulled all the webs he could off of his staff, pulled out a scroll, and got ready to throw it. He waited for the demon to approach him as he heard the footsteps grow louder and louder. Then suddenly, they stopped. The forest grew quiet again. Miroku froze, unwilling to let his guard down. The enemy was trying to surprise him, but he wasn't going to let it happen. He waited patiently, ready to attack the second it came toward him. Moments passed. Nothing happened. Just as he was beginning to wonder if he had overlooked the noises, he heard a noise behind him, spun around, and sent his scroll flying with the words "Demons Begone!" The scroll hit its target hard in the face, covering up 6 of the 8 eyes.
The giant spider didn't appreciate being nearly blinded by Miroku's spiritual power. It used its remaining two eyes to see who it was facing, and shot threads of silky web from its mouth toward the human. He dodged it easily. Miroku then ran forward, jumped the height of the spider demon, and threw his staff down onto the scroll he had already thrown. He focused his power on destroying the demon, which didn't take long. As he fell from his jump, the spider keeled over backwards with a deafening screech. It fell on its back and all eight of its legs curled up close to its abdomen. One of its fangs fell out from the fall. When Miroku landed from the fall, he turned around, saw that he had killed the demon, and began to pray for it. But his prayer was interrupted by countless more screeches. That hadn't been the only spider in the forest. Now he was going to have to face the revenge seeking relatives of the dead demon in front of him. One spider demon by itself had been easy enough to handle, but he didn't know how many he could handle at once. He didn't have long to wonder how he was going to beat them all before three charged out of the trees. Webs came flying from three directions. Miroku flipped backward onto his hands, then back to his feet to avoid getting caught. He pulled out three scrolls and hurled them. Two of the three hit their targets, stopping them in their tracks, but he had thrown one a little off. The demon it had missed continued to charge toward him. He wished Sango was here with him right now. He could use a throw of Hiraikotsu to finish off the two demons he had hit with his scrolls and take the third one down without effort. But Sango was hopefully somewhere safe, although he had no idea what had happened to any of his friends.
He jumped backwards as the spider lunged forward to try to bite him, poison dripping from its fangs. It missed him by an inch, and as he was trying to back away from it a little, he heard a noise behind him. Two more spiders came out of the trees toward him, just as the two that had been hit by his scrolls regained their strength and started coming at him. He was completely surrounded. His only option of defense against them would be his wind tunnel, but he didn't think the winds were strong enough to pull them in fast enough. But it was worth a try. He pulled the prayer beads that sealed the void off of his hand, facing his now open wind tunnel toward the spider that was closest to him. It tried to resist the wind, failed, and flew off of the ground and into Miroku's hand. Having eliminated the closest one, he closed his hand and tried to move away from the others. He noticed that even with the one spider gone, he was still surrounded by four spiders. He was trapped. He considered forming a barrier around himself, but realized that the spiders were closing in on him and he wouldn't have time. There was nothing left to do but open his wind tunnel and pray for the best. He managed to suck in one more spider, but as he was turning to face the next, he felt a pair of sharp fangs sink into his back. The second the teeth punctured his skin, he felt the poison from them begin to burn his body. It spread from the wound quickly, and Miroku fell to his knees. When he fell, the spider moved with him, continuing to inject venom. From his knees he fell flat on the ground, and the spider finally gave up on filling his entire body with poison.
Miroku watched himself fall, felt himself hit the ground, and his entire body filled up with pain. The wound in his back throbbed, and he knew he wouldn't be able to hold onto life much longer. His vision became blurry, and it became hard to breathe. He'd never been affected by poison so quickly before. He became dizzy and shut his eyes. He'd imagined himself dying before, but never like this. He always thought he'd die from being pulled into his wind tunnel or sacrificing his life for the people he cared about. He never thought he'd die a meaningless death from underestimating the enemy and being careless and stupid. He hoped that Sango and the others were ok, and would be able to destroy Naraku without him. Sango . . . why hadn't he noticed his love for her sooner? Why did he always carelessly flirt with women right in front of her? His breath was coming in gasps now. He tried to picture Sango's beautiful, smiling face once more before his consciousness slipped away.
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InuYasha and Kagome watched as Sango and Kirara zigzagged across the forest, searching for any signs of Miroku. InuYasha watched her searching hopelessly, and grew impatient. "Do we really have time to waste sitting here while she searches? Can't we go search the cave, even without her?"
Typical of InuYasha, Kagome thought. "One thing that I don't think you've quite realized about this cave, InuYasha. You said it was very close to the mountain, right? All the trees lining the mountain are really close. Well, I've been thinking . . . how do we know that when we try to go down to the cave we won't get attacked by trees on the way?"
InuYasha stared at her, stunned. He hadn't thought of that. "When they threw me in front of the cave, they stopped attacking. They didn't attack again until I started climbing the mountain. They wanted me to enter that cave. If you're not coming with me, I'm going inside it alone. I can't take this any more!"
"Honestly, InuYasha! You have no patience whatsoever! Just have a little faith that Sango will find Miroku!"
"It has nothing to do with faith! I just think there are better things to do with my time than sit here bored out of my mind!" InuYasha stood up. But Kagome wasn't done with him yet.
"Oh, so I'm boring, am I? Well fine then, leave!" She stuck her nose into the air, turned her head away, and crossed her arms. Even Shippo couldn't help but stare, amazed by Kagome's attitude.
"I never said YOU were boring! Don't twist my words arou-"
"No, but you implied it!" She still refused to look at him
"Feh!" InuYasha sat back down. "Believe what you want." They sat in silence for a few minutes. Shippo couldn't stand the tension any longer, so he hopped out of Kagome's lap and hit InuYasha on the head. InuYasha glared at him. "Do you really think that was smart??"
"InuYasha, stop being an idiot!"
"You're the one who punched me!" InuYasha began to think the world was against him today.
"You deserved it! You're being stupid, immature, and -" Shippo didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. InuYasha had leaned over and punched him hard on the head. Tears welled up in Shippo's eyes. He looked at InuYasha's face, ready to yell in protest, but noticed that InuYasha now looked worried about something. Maybe their argument had taken its toll. Shippo let InuYasha get away with hitting him this one time, only cuz he'd hit InuYasha first.
A few more moments passed in silence. InuYasha glanced over at Kagome, who's face hadn't grown any softer. She was still angry with him. Would she ever give him a break? "Look, Kagome, I-"
"Sit Boy!" She didn't want to hear it.
"Ghhhg!" SLAM! InuYasha's body hit the mountaintop as he fell face first into the rock. A few bits of debris shook before tumbling over the edge of the mountain. InuYasha pulled his face up, turned to face Kagome, and opened his mouth to yell an angered apology at her, but didn't get the chance to. First he noticed the smell of blood in the air, and then he saw Sango returning from the forest quickly.
"Sango-chan! Any luck?" Kagome stood up, seemingly forgetting her anger at InuYasha.
"Well, sort of. I can see a clearing way up ahead, but I don't know if it would be safe to approach it alone. So I came to ask if you guys could travel along the mountaintop. It looks as if it's close enough to the mountains for you to see it clearly as well."
"Heh, need a bit of back-up, do ya?" InuYasha was happy for some reason that Sango was asking for help. It wasn't often that she let out any signs of fear, and he was glad she was now. After all, it was better than if she had gone on her own and run into danger she couldn't handle. InuYasha sensed that she had also come for emotional support, in case she was unable to handle what they were about to see. With this in his head, he couldn't bring himself to tell her about the blood. "Well, let's go, Kagome!"
"Right!" Kagome jumped onto InuYasha's back, and he began to run. Kirara leaped back into the air, and they ran side by side in the direction of the clearing in the forest.
--------------------------------------------------------- From the top of a tree, the demoness Sayuki had watch the whole scene. She had watched the human run past the tree she was in, stop in the middle of the clearing, and be nearly killed by the spiders which attacked him. But she hadn't paid much attention. Any human who entered the forest was bound to end up dead, either from being beaten to death by the trees or bitten by the spiders. Occasionally one would die in another way, but none ever survived. Sayuki enjoyed watching them die sometimes, and had rather enjoyed watching this particular man put up a pathetic attempt at defending himself from the spiders. But as she watched the spiders leave his body lying there to go deal with the spider he had managed to kill, she took a good look at the man. He looked around 20 years old, and had a cute face. A very cute face at that. Such a shame he was lying there dying, really. She stared a few minutes more and decided he didn't really need to die so soon . . . and if he did she could deal with how it would be done on her own. But that would be later.
She jumped down to the ground as soon as the spiders dragged their dead comrade away. She inspected the human closely, and saw that he was no longer breathing, but his heart was still beating. Sayuki estimated a good 30 seconds before it stopped. Her powers wouldn't need that long. Resting her hand over his wound, she focused her thoughts on the word "heal". When she saw her hand glowing blue, she knew it was working. After about 15 seconds, she removed her hand and revealed that there was no longer any wound to waste her time with. The blood that had surrounded him had disappeared as well. Now the hard part. It wouldn't be easy to steal the spiders' prey, but she was confident she could do it. Her cave wasn't far away, and she could easily run faster than they could. Hearing them coming back, she lifted the man from the ground and ran into the forest. The spiders didn't have a chance of catching her. She laughed as she approached her cave, waved the barrier aside, and ran through the entrance to the cave, looking down at her stolen goods with a smile.