Hikaru no Go rules. Why am I writing that before the next chapter of an Inuyasha fanfic? Don't ask me...
Touya Akira looks like Haku from Spirited Away and acts like Sesshoumaru. I really hope you all know where Sesshoumaru is from.
It's just somewhat of a pity that Kobayashi Sanae is somewhat of a pathetic singer...but I'm digressing from the topic here. Anyways...
The answer to the riddle is this:
The traveler drew water from well #0 and handed it to the dragon, who drank it, then, assuming it had been poisoned, drank from well #7 and thus poisoned itself.
As for the dragon, it drew water from well #7 and handed it to the traveler; before drinking the water given to him from the dragon, however, the traveler drank from well #1, thus ensuring that the water from well #7 worked as an antidote instead of a poison.
Still with me? Good.
By the way...you might want to skip down to the actual chapter, unless you're the person who oh-so-intelligently posted a review under the name of 'THISISMEAN'.
To 'THISISMEAN'...firstly, couldn't you have chosen a better name? Anything else would suffice. But that's not the point. The points is: I am not going to tell you to stop reading my fic, because you have every right to read and to flame, if you want. However, if you want longer chapters, complaining and whining isn't going to get you anywhere in life. Just a piece of advice. So stop bitching and fix your fucking attitude. Thanks!
Well, here's the next chapter. –FlamingDrake
Involuntary Connections
It was mildly amusing to hear all the insults she could come up with. Sesshoumaru made a mental note to use them on Inuyasha the next time they met.
Which, he noted as he yanked Kagome out onto a balcony and stared at the neko youkai approaching from the sky, would be about...now.
Joy.
Chapter Four – Betrayed Again
Kirara's paws landed lightly on the balcony. Inuyasha leapt off immediately, one hand already on the hilt of the Tetsusaiga.
"Did I give you permission to land, dear younger brother?" Sesshoumaru inquired coolly, using the term of endearment as a curse.
"Shut the fuck up. I'm just here for Kagome."
"How sweet." The taiyoukai calmly watched as the poison from his claws sizzled into the alabaster stone at their feet. "However, I don't appreciate you staining the floors of my home. In other words, I will give you until the sun sets before I kill you."
Inuyasha snorted. "Are you blind? The sun's setting right now, bastard."
"Firstly, you're the bastard. Secondly, I acknowledge that what you say is true...so why are you still here?" For the first time since the conversation began, Sesshoumaru lifted his head, his eyes gleaming with barely suppressed rage.
The hanyou pulled Tetsusaiga out, the fang glowing in the fading light. "Try to kill me then."
"Gladly." He leapt, cursing as he felt his arm impended by the miko. Sighing, he reconciled himself to fighting with only one arm. The poison sizzled into whatever it made contact with; drops of the liquid seared through the railing of the balcony, dripping onto the gardens below.
"Wait! Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru!" Kaede's voice cut through the clash of the battle; the brothers were fighting tooth and claw (literally). "There's one more thing!"
Inuyasha was the one who backed away, a pair of perpendicular lines marking a red x on his arm. Sesshoumaru had a thin cut marring his forehead – a result of only being able to use one arm.
"If either Sesshoumaru or Kagome dies, the other will, too." Kaede sighed, gazing at the connected pair.
However, that was probably not the best time to say that.
Because, suddenly, Sesshoumaru was smirking, advancing, and all Inuyasha could do was defend. For if he struck too hard...
Kagome would be dead as well...
Kanna's mirror swirled, focusing particularly on the rosary connecting Sesshoumaru and Kagome. Lounging back, Naraku watched patiently.
"Interesting..."
"What is?" Kikyou entered the room, her long silky tresses pulled back and secured with the habitual white ribbon. Her soulless eyes scanned the room absently, a soul-stealer winding around her arm.
In response, Naraku motioned absently to Kanna. The childlike youkai drifted over to the undead priestess and inclined her mirror so that the other could see the scene unfolding inside.
Kikyou bent and peered closer. "Is that a rosary?"
"I believe so."
She extended a hand so that it almost touched the surface of the picture. "Ah...Inuyasha..." It seemed like he was fighting once more with his elder brother. And yet...it also seemed like he wasn't actually trying. "Inuyasha..."
Naraku's heavy-lidded eyes darted towards her. "He's there, as well?"
"Yes..." Kikyou stood fully, gazing out the window at the dark clouds. "I hope...he remembers that I am the only one allowed to kill him..."
A small breeze drifted through the open doors, teasing her hair. The thin, sweet trill of a nightingale broke the silence. One hand closed into a tight fist as the ethereal girl stared unblinking towards the darkened horizon. Her memories replayed in her mind, the dreams they'd shared, the hopes...the love...
Their future, which had been ruined in a single moment.
"I...hate this existence..." A slight sob caught in her voice, and she swept towards the door, trying to find solace in being alone.
Behind her, Naraku studied the silent profile indifferently before turning away. "I wonder what the command word is..."
The new information wasn't helping Sesshoumaru at all. Now that Kagome was aware that she would be protected by both sides, she was continually straying into the middle of the battle, forcing a final truce.
"Stop, both of you! We are going to have a talk like civilized adults!"
Both of the adversaries gazed at the teenage girl incredulously.
"Now, sit down...oops!" Inuyasha crashed through the floor, which had already been weakened by Sesshoumaru's acid attacks, and fell into a rosebush, where he promptly made friends with quite a few thorns.
If, of course, swallowing something can also be called making friends with the aforementioned object.
After the hanyou had been relocated into a more comfortable place, Kagome glared at both the brothers. Before she could say anything, however, Inuyasha interrupted. "We found out how to remove the rosary."
"Really?" Her face lit up, and Sesshoumaru felt an odd tugging at his heart. Probably heartburn. Did youkai get heartburn?
"Yeah. All you have to do is prove that your love for m-" Inuyasha winced. "For someone is stronger than your love for Sesshoumaru."
Kagome sighed. "Oh. So I just say it?"
"I assume so."
"Fine." She closed her eyes. "I...love Inuyasha...more than Sesshoumaru..."
The rosary trembled, the rope fraying slightly. It shivered again, then stopped, almost fully intact.
Kagome's eyes flew open and focused on Inuyasha's. "I..."
Inuyasha's gaze was focused on the rosary.
"Don't say anything." The hanyou turned away from her. "Just don't say anything!" He leapt to the ground, stumbling as he began to run away. Turning, his golden eyes filled with pain and rage, he yelled, "I should have known you didn't care! After all, you're nothing but Kikyou's reincarnation!"
And then he was gone, racing towards the sanctuary of the darkness.
'You're nothing but Kikyou's reincarnation...'
The words repeated themselves over and over, a sutra in Kagome's mind. Those words...
And then she found that she was screaming at him. "I hate you, Inuyasha! I hate you!"
Her tears fell unheeded to the ground, even as she yelled what she knew wasn't true.
He was not there to hear.
Ahhh...poor Inuyasha and Kagome. Unfortunately, I have decreed that this will be a Sess/Kag fic, and it will stay that way.
Should I put Inuyasha with Kikyou? I actually think Kikyou's a pretty good character, despite violent protests from quite a few other people.
Anyways...here's another riddle. This one is really hard. (Well...pretty hard, anyways.) I never managed to figure this one out. I do have the answer, though. Catharine gave me this one...
A warden meets with 23 new prisoners when they arrive. He tells them, "You may meet today and plan a strategy. But after today, you will be in isolated cells and will have no communication with one another.
"In the prison is a switch room, which contains two light switches labeled A and B, each of which can be in either the 'On' or the 'Off' position. I am not telling you their present positions. The switches are not connected to anything.
"After today, from time to time whenever I feel so inclined, I will select one prisoner at random and escort him to the switch room. This prisoner will select one of the two switches and reverse its position. He must move one, but only one of the switches. He can't move both but he can't move none, either. Then he'll be led back to his cell.
"No one else will enter the switch room until I lead the next prisoner there, and he'll be instructed to do the same thing. I'm going to choose prisoners at random. I may choose the same guy three times in a row, or I may jump around and come back.
"But, given enough time, everyone will eventually visit the switch room as many times as everyone else. At any time anyone of you may declare to me, 'We have all visited the switch room.'
"If it is true, then you will all be set free. If it is false, and somebody has not yet visited the switch room, you will be fed to the alligators."
Here's the question:
What is the strategy the prisoners devise?
This one actually requires math and logic. Horrible, isn't it? Well, send back your replies! And to those people who sent me riddles, I still haven't figured them out...sorry.
Now it's time to do some more fangirl obsessing over Touya Akira! Sayonara!
