Posted: 4-24-05
Chapter 8: The Wicked Miko's Castle
AN: Yay! It's my birthday! So, as a present, I decided to update! You know what? There actually is a word that rhymes with purple. It's sherpal. You know, like a sherpa. It means to have a heavy load. At least, my brother says it's a word. Or that it very easily could be one. So start using it! Sadly, we're still stuck on orange, silver, and month. And now, the story where I don't own the two things I'm writing about.
The Wicked Miko of the West stared into her magical flames, frowning. "How am I supposed to get that jewel?" she said mostly to herself, although one of her Flying Snakes hovered nearby. "It even looks like those fools are heading straight into my domain! There has to be some way I can catch that girl."
She watched them for a moment longer, and finally her eyes lit up. "That's it!" She looked up at the snake closest to her. "Take the others and get Sango for me."
It circled around her head in response and flew out the nearby window, dozens more suddenly joining it. The Wicked Miko laughed coldly. "Yes! Fly, my pretties, fly!"
"S-so why are we heading for the Wicked Miko of the West's castle, again?" the Cowardly Kitsune asked as they found themselves in a very dark and creepy forest.
"What are you talking about?" the Hanyou replied. "You were with us when the Youkai told us to bring back her bow!"
"Yeah, well, maybe there's another way outside of going through this scary place."
"Yeah, why did she pick the most obvious forest for an evil hideout?" the Houshi said. "A flowery meadow would have been much less conspicuous."
"Hey, there's a sign!" Sango exclaimed, stopping in her tracks and squinted to read the faded print. "It says, 'I'd turn back if I were you.'"
The Cowardly Kitsune choked back a scream. "See? I knew this was a bad idea."
The Hanyou snorted. "Like I'm taking advise from a sign!" He started walking forward again, the others staring at him in surprise.
Suddenly, the Houshi raised his staff. "Something's coming," he said, looking around. The Hanyou stopped where he was and looked too, frowning. Sango held Kilala tighter in her arms, and the Cowardly Kitsune dashed behind her.
"What is it?" the Hanyou growled, feeling the unpleasant aura come closer but still not seeing anything.
"It's up there!" Sango exclaimed, staring at the hundreds of white snake-like creatures that were now descending upon them.
"These must be the Miko's," the Houshi said, beginning to fight the ones that were attempting to attack him.
"You don't have to tell me that," the Hanyou replied, doing his own sharing of battling against the Flying Snakes.
Sango, Kilala, who was perched in her arms, and the Cowardly Kitsune tried their best to stay out of the way. However, seven or eight of the creatures surrounded the girl and began wrapping themselves around her body, restricting her movement.
"Hey, let me go!" she cried as they began lifting her and her pet into the air. "Someone do something!"
At that point, all of the other Flying Snakes turned away from the three that were still left and flew off with the ones that had captured her.
"They took Sango!" the Houshi exclaimed, taking a few steps in the direction they had left in.
"Great," the Hanyou muttered, watching them leave. "Now what are we supposed to do?"
"We don't have to go after those scary things, do we?" the Cowardly Kitsune asked.
"How else are we supposed to save her?" the Houshi replied.
"You have a point..."
Sango struggled against the Flying Snakes for several minutes before they finally came upon the large, wooden castle. They flew through a large window and dropped her on the floor.
She lay there for a moment trying to shake off the pain of the fall before sitting up and looking around. "Well, this must be the Wicked Miko's hideout," she said, glancing down at Kilala, who had been clutched tightly in her arms the entire time.
Just then, as though some divine force had decided to verify her claim, the Wicked Miko of the West came charging into the room, smiling evilly. "I see you've arrived," she said, going to a large bookshelf of odd items. "How wonderful for you to join me here, Sango."
"Just what do you want with me, anyway?" she asked, although inside she knew the answer.
"I want the jewel, of course!" she exclaimed, frowning.
"Well, you can't have it," Sango answered, returning her glare. "Kagome said that it won't come off."
"True enough," the Wicked Miko replied, her grin returning. "It won't come off while you're alive. But we'll take care of that little issue shortly!" She pulled out a large hour glass and set it on the floor near Sango, the sand slowly beginning to spill. "That's how much time you have to live."
"Wait," she asked, eyeing it curiously, "does this mean that I'll die the second it runs out, or you're coming back in an hour to kill me?"
"Oh, it doesn't matter!" she answered, noticing the animal in her arms. "Although, I think I'll take care of that little creature now. Boys!"
A few moments later, two black haired men came fumbling into the room. One was much shorter than the other, although they wore slightly similar outfits that consisted of shirts a very short skirt like thing, the taller wearing furs around his waist. "Take that little cat or whatever is and finish it off."
"Yes, milady," they said in unison, heading toward the now frightened Sango.
Just then, Kilala broke free of her grasp and rushed out the opened door between the two servants. "Oh, run!" Sango called after her, trying to peer into the corridor to see how her pet was doing.
"Don't just stand there! Go after it!" the Wicked Miko commanded, sending her lackies out of the room. She stomped after them and turned back toward Sango, scowling. "That's all the time you have left," she repeated, heading out of the room and slamming the door.
The Hanyou, the Houshi, and the Cowardly Kitsune peered their heads around one of the large boulders surrounding the Wicked Miko of the West's castle. They watched as a group of several men marched around the premises, guarding the gate and chanting.
"Raa-men-noooo-dles. Raa-men-noooo-dles."
"We'll have to find a way to get past them," the Houshi said.
"Past them, shmast them," the Hanyou replied. "Let's just jump in there and beat them off! It's not like there are a lot of them down there, anyway."
"I think we should avoid violence if it's at all possible," the Houshi replied.
"Yeah, and besides, we don't even know where Sango is," the Cowardly Kitsune added. "It's an awfully big castle."
The other two said nothing, although they obviously now realized this new problem.
Just then, they heard a soft mewing nearby. "It's Kilala!" the Cowardly Kitsune exclaimed. "It looks like she got away. Maybe she knows where Sango is."
The small cat-like creature made her way up to the three that were still ducking behind the rocks. "Hey, do you know where the Miko is holding Sango?" the Houshi asked.
She mewed and nodded her head in reply.
"Great," the Hanyou said, taking another glance at the group of soldiers. "Now all we need to do is get past those idiots."
Little did they realize, three of them had spotted the odd group and were sneaking up behind them, ready to attack...
Sango sat in the locked room, staring at the hour glass and wondering what the Wicked Miko meant. "Well, unless she always knows what time it is, there's no real way she'll know when it runs out, so maybe it does mean that I'll automatically die. That doesn't make a lot of sense, though. Of course, nothing really makes sense here..."
Just then, the magical fire, which happened to be in the same room, spurted up, a picture forming within it's flames. Sango jumped back in surprise, and then slowly made her way over to it. "Like I said, nothing makes sense here," she mumbled before the image became clear.
Kagura stood, looking around very non-enthusiastically. "Hey, Sango, where are you?" she said, sounding like she was attempting to yell but not really trying at all.
"Aunt Kagura?" she said, looking at it closer. "Great, why am I not surprised?"
"Well, enough looking," she finally said. "She's probably dead somewhere. Let's go get some lunch."
"How can you say that?" a voice said in the background.
"Yeah!" Sango added, although she knew she couldn't be heard. "You can't just forget about me! Well, maybe you can, but I won't let you! Just watch, I'll come back and I'll make your life so miserable..."
Just then, the picture faded with Kagura walking away, the sounds of complaints coming from three other people.
"Hey, I wasn't done yelling yet!" she exclaimed.
"Raa-men-noooo-dles. Raa-men-noooo-dles."
The soldiers continued their pacing, rather bored because not a lot ever happened around there. Just then, the two servants appeared at the door and lowered the draw bridge, much to the relief of those marching. None of them seemed to notice the three bumbling soldiers that didn't seem to know what they were doing in the very back, or the fact that one of them was really short and only wore a helmet. Nor did they realize that right as it closed, a small cat leapt her way across the gap and slid inside behind them.
As the others marched off down a long corridor, the three in the back stopping and waiting for it to be clear before removing their armor.
"Well, that was lucky," the Hanyou said, lifting the helmet off the Cowardly Kitsune, who apparently couldn't pick it up. "It's a good thing those stupid guys attacked when they did."
"Yeah," the Houshi replied, looking down at Kilala. "So, where's Sango?"
She mewed and ran off down one of the hallways, the other three following her very closely, although the Cowardly Kitsune gave up on running and hopped onto the Hanyou's shoulder.
Eventually, they came to a large locked door at the end of a wide corridor. "She must b e in here," the Houshi said, looking at the others. "We need to figure out a way to open it."
Sango, who was still staring at the nearly complete hour glass, heard the noises and leapt toward the door. "Guys? Is that you?"
"Hey, she is in there!" the Cowardly Kitsune exclaimed.
"Hurry up, this hour glass thing is about to run out and I'm not sure of what that means.
"Hold on a minute," the Hanyou said, fumbling with his sword. "Okay, Sango, get away from the door right now unless you'd rather just die right now."
She blinked with worry before backing away toward the center of the room. A few seconds later, a large blade appeared at the top of the door, making it's way down the middle before they finally spilt open, hanging off their hinges.
"Great, now let's get out of here before I find out the hard way what the Wicked Miko meant." she exclaimed, running toward them.
"I meant that I was coming back and killing you," a voice said from behind them. "Honestly, do you really think I would have given anything else that pleasure?"
They all looked, only to see the Wicked Miko with all of her servants and soldiers standing behind her, frowning.
"Great, now what do we do?" the Hanyou muttered, still holding his sword.
"We could always run away," the Cowardly Kitsune suggested, trying his best to hide behind the Houshi's leg.
"There's too many of them," the Houshi answered. "Besides, we all know where this is going to lead, so there's no point in dragging this out any longer." Everyone nodded in agreement.
"I'm sick of all of these idiots," the Wicked Miko of the West finally said, grabbing her bow which just happened to be her this time. "Why don't I take care of her little friends first? Just to add to the torment."
She grabbed an arrow and pointed it at the Hanyou, who still held his sword although he was obviously worried.
"How about a little arrow, Hanyou?" she asked with an evil smile, shooting it. A strange pink light surrounded it again, and the Hanyou found that he could move even if he had wanted it. It came very close to the flesh in his shoulder before Sango finally tried to intervene.
Sadly, all she was able to do in the short time given to her was grab the nearest thing to her and throw it, and this happened to be a bucket of water. She also missed horribly in her panic and managed to hit the Hanyou on the head with the bucket and get the water all over the Wicked Miko.
She suddenly screamed, putting her hands to her face and trying to wipe off the water. "You idiot!" she exclaimed, keeping her hands up. "I'm made out of clay! You're going to melt my beautiful face! How can I ever face anyone again?"
They stared in surprise, none of them expecting this turn of events. Her distraught state stopped the magical arrow in it's path and it fell to the ground. "Wait, then why do you even keep water around?" the Cowardly Kitsune asked.
"Well, we do need to drink," the shorter servant said, nervously scratching his head.
"Oh, who would have thought I would have ever been touched by a liquid!" the Wicked Miko cried, letting her bow drop to the floor and running away screaming in distress.
Everyone watched her disappear before the soldiers turned back around, looking at the group in front of them.
"Uh, whoops?" Sango said, starting to back away with her friends. "Sorry about that."
"Sorry?" the taller servant replied, starting to smile. "Do you know how much of a favor you just did us? She's so annoying! She'll probably be too ashamed to ever leave her room again. You have saved us all!"
All of them got down on one knee. "All hail San..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the Hanyou interrupted, stepping forward. "Just give us her bow and let us get out of here."
"Okay."
"Wait," the Houshi said, looking confused. "We didn't even kill her."
"Well, we don't have to tell the Youkai that," the Hanyou replied, picking up the weapon and making his way past the bowing men. The others looked at each other with confusion before following him.
AN: Well, that was a long one! I haven't written a chapter of that length in some time. Heh, I couldn't resist the take off of what the Winkies say. At my house, we always make fun of it by saying "Oreo cookies," so I went with the snack food of choice from Inuyasha. You know, the whole using Kohaku as a servant accidently ended up kind of working for the series. Yeah, he was the short one. And I won't explain much more as it has to do with my manga reading...age. Oh, look! I have stuff to say now!
Rubberninja: I'm glad you think it's funny! Thanks!
Fantastical Queen Ebony Black: Yeah, I had to get Fluffy in there! I hope you liked what I did with Kikyo, hee hee. I'm so weird.
Kei-Ookami.kara.mori: Thanks! I kind of got Koga in there. There are only so many cast members I have to work with in both shows, though, lol.
Phenomenon: (blush) Thanks!
medlii: Hey, I've done weirder things while I was unconscious! ...Okay, that sounded bad. And yes, that was Totosai. Thanks for the cookie and the star and the reviews! I'm glad you liked all of those parts, cause I did, too! By the way, the reference that no one could name was from Teen Titans. It was rather obscure. I actually was thinking of Kagome as Dorothy at first, but then I figured Sango would be better since she has a pet and I needed a foil for Kikyo. Yay for thinking outside the box!
Amarina: Sorry, that was just how the inspiration hit! Kikyo tends to be meaner than Kagome, anyway, in her brought back to life form. Thanks, though.