Kaida Okami – The Prophesy
Chapter Fifteen
Battlefield
When the group popped up just outside the gates of Spirit World, all seemed quiet.
"I guess she hasn't come yet...." Kaida mused looking around.
"How do you know she's going to come at all?" Yusuke questioned. "She could
go somewhere else."
Kaida shook her head.
"No, this will be the first stop, I can feel it. Its exactly what I would do in her
position." She answered.
Yusuke sighed.
"Well then," he said plopping down on the ground. "I guess we just wait...."
Kaida nodded and sat down next to him, followed by the remainder of the group.
Hiei sat last, studying the horizon with a far away look in his eye.
"What are you thinking about?" Kaida asked him softly.
He turned to her but didn't answer her question directly.
"Back at the compound," he started. "You said 'Tell Artemis I tried.' What where
you talking about?"
Kaida brooded for a moment.
"When I was in that cage, I had a dream...more like a vision really." She said. By
now the rest of the group was listening.
"I was in the realms of Chaos. Artemis the Hunter came to me and showed me what was
going to happen, kind of. She said that the Prophesy had to be stopped or Chaos would
feed from its power and destroy just about everything."
"Well, why didn't she stop it herself?" Yusuke asked.
"I guess there's this divine rule that keeps the gods from directly interfering with
Mortal affairs or something." Kaida answered "Artemis described it as a cross road.
Where the events could lead to any outcome and it was up to us to decided what
happens."
The group was silent for a while, contemplating what might happen in the battle that
would surely take place.
Suddenly, Kaida's wolf ears perked up. Her head jerked up to look at the sky in
the distance.
"They're coming." She whispered.
"They?" Kurama asked.
Kaida nodded.
"It looks like Ryuko made some new friends." She said and stood up.
Seconds later, Ryuko flew over the groups head, paying them no attention, and headed
for the gates.
Several of her followers that appeared seconds after their mistress left the team gaping.
Creatures from myth and legend, that people only heard of in stories followed the
Dragoness.
Harpies, women with the bodies of over large birds equipped with viciously sharp talons,
Sirens, beautiful women whose voices had lead countless sailors to destruction,
And all out monsters, great hulking beast built to terrify anyone that opposed it,
And regular demons scattered here and there.
"Botan!!" Kaida yelled "Go sound the alarm in Spirit World. We need an army,
now!!"
Botan nodded and took off into the gates.
The gang spread out a bit to cover more ground and watched in apprehension as the
opposing army surged forward.
Yukina and Kurama, who where thinking along the same lines, worked together to form a
wall.
In seconds, a large mass of ice and thorns blocked the demons advance.
It did not, however, stop the harpies from flying over and dive-bombing the group, talons
stretched forward, searching flesh.
The group grimaced and battled off the harpies, waiting for the reinforcements.
Kaida sliced at the nearest harpie, wounding it. It dogged out of reach before Kaida could
kill it however.
Hiei was in a similar state, though several more of his opponents fell never to get up
again.
Kaida cursed her luck that he got all the speed and continued to battle, doing her best to
defend Yukina, who was pouring all of her energy in keeping the ice wall from cracking.
Yusuke shot off a small spirit gun, killing off another offending harpie.
"Where are those reinforcements?!" he cried, backing up a bit to get a better shot.
Kaida turned briefly to look at the gate.
The nearest harpie took advantage of this and scraped her talons across Kaida's face.
Kaida snarled and jerked back away from the birds savage claws.
"I don't know, but we need some help here!!" Kaida yelled back.
The wall was starting to crack in front of them, despite Yukina and Kurama's best efforts
to keep it up.
Kaida and the others battled furiously, trying to buy time for the real army.
Just when Kaida was about to give the order to fall back, the gate behind them opened,
releasing a flood of onis, bounty hunters, and assassins, all equipped with their own
weapons.
"Finally!!" Kaida cried as the reinforcements surged forward.
Kurama and Yukina's wall fell seconds later, releasing the flood of opposing demons.
It was utter pandemonium as the battle between Spirit Worlds forces and Ryuko's rival
army cut at each other, large numbers from each falling.
Through it all, Kaida's wolf ears picked up the sound of a scream. Slicing through a low
class demon and a few others that Kaida paid no attention to, she work her way towards
the screamer.
It was Yukina.
A large hulking demon towered over her with a disgusting smirk that revealed broken
yellow and bloodstained teeth.
Kaida stopped where she was and heaved her katana at the demons head.
Kaida's weapon pierced the demons skull at the same second that Yukina, almost
reflexively, froze him solid.
Kaida grinned at the girl.
"Alright there, Yukina?" she called from a few yards away, where she had
stopped.
The ice apparition nodded.
Suddenly, Kaida found herself being thrown across the battlefield. She landed in
the dirt with a body over hers with a loud thump.
Kaida raised her head and spit out mud, grass and leaves, only to struggle to get whoever
had landed on her off.
The person clambered off of her and she stood up to see a familiar face.
"Do I know you?" Kaida asked , studying his features closely.
"Yes, but you might not remember." He answered grinning.
"Why did you tackle me?" Kaida asked, trying now to brush off all the dirt that
had gotten on Kurama's otherwise spotless clothes.
"You weren't paying attention." He told her. "I saved you from a scalping by one
of those damn harpies." He answered.
"Who are you?" Kaida asked him, sure that she knew him from somewhere.
"Roku." Was his simple answered.
Finally it clicked for Kaida.
At that moment, Hiei was busy fighting off three demons at once. With a cocky
smirk he sliced down all three in one swing.
Looking around for another opponent, he saw Kaida standing at the edge of the battle
field chatting to some demon like she had all the time in the world.
Hiei growled in annoyance, and practically teleported over to her.
Roku jumped when Hiei appeared almost out of no where right in front of him.
Hiei barely spared him a glance before turning to Kaida.
"What are you doing, we need all the help we can get out there." He told her.
Kaida sighed.
"I was discussing the different ways for me to get into the building without a
bounty hunter taking off my head before I can explain things." She told him. "This." She
gestured to the demon behind Hiei. "Is Roku. He's agreed to help me get in to find
Ryuko."
Hiei turned and look Roku over.
Roku stuck his hand and Hiei stared impassively at him.
Kaida narrowed her eyes and elbowed Hiei in the ribs.
Hiei took the hint (for once) and shook Roku's hand.
"How do you know Kaida?" He asked.
Roku looked to the demoness, almost for permission.
At Kaida's nod, he answered the question.
"You've heard by now of the bounty hunter that helped Kaida escape by faking
her death?" Roku asked.
Hiei nodded.
"It was me."
"Last time you had a motive for helping," Hiei said. "what is your motive now?"
Roku shrugged.
"I don't much like this Ryuko person, I guess." He said.
"Anyway," Kaida cut in, knowing Hiei could interview her friend for hours. "I
need in and now. I think that the other demons will disappear when their leader is killed.
Sometimes it works like that."
Roku nodded.
"there's a secret passage to the side of the gate a ways. Put your hand on the panel
and it will sink down to a set of stairs. Follow the stairs and you'll pop up somewhere in
the kitchens I believe."
"Thank you" Kaida said to him. "I guess we owe you after this."
"We'll see." Roku said and disappeared again into the battle.
Kaida turned to Hiei.
"I have to go." She said to him.
Hiei nodded.
"Try not to get killed. It would probably be me that would have to carry back your
beaten carcass."
Kaida smirked.
"Yes, and we all know what a tragedy that would be." She said jokingly before
taking off towards the gate.
Hiei watched her go for a moment, before the screams on the battlefield once again
registered in his brain.
He took off, trying to locate his sister in the melee.
-Maybe we could send them to the infirmary to heal people- he mused, trying to
find a way to get his sister away from the danger.
- we're going to need all the healers we can get-
A/N: only about two or three more chapters left, I'm starting to wrap this fic up. The rest of the chapters are going to be kinda long I think,. I thought I'd give ya'll a warning that it might take a while for me to update. (per usual ;) Anyway, read and review!!! Oh yeah! I almost forgot, if you have any questions send them in by review and I'll do my best to answer them. JA!