Ch.9
The Blue Dojoe
B.B.- 'That bitch. Right now I'm chewing through the tape on my mouth.' (Grind) 'sorry about that. I keep grinding. W.W. is asleep, because I cast a spell on her.'
W.W.- 'ZZZzzz ZZZzzz' "Sslleeeepp."
B.B.- 'I forgot to tell you... I'm a telepath. I'm having W.W. write for me.'
W.W.- "Sslleeeepp wwrriittiinngg." 'ZZZzzz'
B.B.- (levitates over to W.W.) 'No, no, no, all wrong you spell sleep 'S-S-S-l-e-e-e-p. Now back to my chewing. Read the story.'
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Miroku looked back in time to see the litter coming at him very fast. A gnarly, knotted hand came out and pulled him in. Miroku opened his eyes to find Sango in a giggle fit in the corner. Miroku was looking for Tayallay, and found her in Lady Crows arms.
Like the two sheds at the mixed DoJoe, the litter was extremely large inside and compact looking on the outside.
Sango had now run out of breath to giggle with. She took a deep breath and giggled again. "Did..." he-he "...You..." He-ha "...See..." Te-he "...Inu..." Ha-ha "...Yasha?" She broke into all out laughter.
"Yes, I..." Miroku began to recall the two naked male demons. "I did." He broke into laughter too. "When I saw them I... I said 'Aw, young love!'" this made even Lady Crow laugh.
Kala came over to find all three rolling on the floor of the litter. Their eyes were closed and they were crying. She spotted Tayallay giggling on the floor. Tay always giggled when people around her laughed. Kala lifted her from the floor. She walked to the curtain that served as a door and looked out.
"Lady Crow! Lady Crow! The Blue Dojoe is right ahead of us!" Kala looked at the still laughing Lady Crow. "If we don't stop, we're going to DIE!" No one but Fala even heard her.
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B.B.- (still chewing) 'I know what you're thinking. "What's going to happen to Tayallay if they crash?" Just keep reading.' (Chews on)
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Kala knew she was not getting anywhere this way, and that they were going to crash. So, she covered Tay's head, waited for Fala to jump out first, then curled up into a little ball and rolled out of the swiftly flying litter. She looked up in time to see the litter crash into the only tree on the field where the Blue Dojoe could be found.
"Lady Crow?" She whimpered, not wanting to know the answer.
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B.B.- (finally done chewing the duct tape) "I am now chewing on what ropes I can reach. And I want to remind you that it could be dangerous to skip the A/N's. So continue in your readings." (Chew, chew)
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Kala ran, Tay in arms, to the pile of wood that used to be the litter. Fala was too dazed to
move. As she neared the pile, she heard laughter from within. The pile shook as the laughing faces of Miroku, Sango and Lady Crow popped out of the wood.
Sango looked around. "What," Ha-ha-ha, "Happened?" he-he-he.
"You CRASHED! I had to JUMP with the BABY!" Kala screamed. They all stopped laughing at the word "BABY!"
"Tayallay!" Sango almost snatched her child from the girl before her, scattering wood chips and splinters everywhere. Sango clasped the baby to her chest and was very near to tears. "Thank you, THANK YOU..." She chanted.
"Lady Cwow." Came forth a small, small voice. Everyone looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. "Lady Cwow." It was very, very close. Closer than they would ever had expected. "Lady Cwow." They all looked down. Tayallay had her small, deep brown eyes locked on Lady Crow. "Bootiful Cwow. Pritty Cwow. Bwilliant Cwow."
"What the...?"
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Miroku- "WHAT THE...?"
B.B.- "Shh! You'll wake W.W.!"
Miroku- (in a hushed voice) "What the...?"
B.B.- "I can't tell you anything until you ask a definite question!"
Miroku- "How is Lady Crow beautiful, pretty, and brilliant?"
B.B.- "Her little secret is about to come out." (Chew, chew)
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"Shoot!" Lady Crow said.
"What are you saying 'shoot' to? Why did Tayallay call you all those things? And what the...?" asked Sango.
"Okay, I'll talk. I'll tell you my past."
"Cwow, Hooman. Hooman, Cwow. Bootiful!" Tay said.
"Sleep, before you give out anymore of my secrets!" And with that they heard little sighs as Tay slept. "Now," Sigh! "Before I was human, I was a crow. But not just any old crow. I was a blue tipped, green back with violet eyes."
"If you were so beautiful as a crow, how did you become an ugly old hag as a human?" Miroku asked.
"You are still to talk to me with respect, Miroku-chan!"
"Well?" Sango asked.
"I don't want to answer this question!" Sango grabbed Lady Crow by the front of her robes and screamed "TELL ME!"
"She doesn't have to if she doesn't want to." They all looked at Kala.
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B.B.- "I'M FREE!"
W.W.- "Hmmm... what's going on? (Looks down at the story) "WTF!"
B.B.- "Uh, I'm going to go now."
W.W.- "How'd you get loose?"
B.B.- "I chewed."
W.W.- "What!" (B.B. runs away) "Ok, she's weird. But ya'll already knew that, right? Right. Oops, just a second..." (Looks through the story, humming) " oh, ok. I just had to review where we left off. And now, to my part of the story."
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The camp slowly calmed down, and took stock of what was left after the explosion. Most of their belongings were intact, but all the food was gone. Inuyasha nearly killed Shippo for destroying the ramen. Nearly. Inuyasha nearly died too, after Ankha got through with him. But that changed nothing. They were still out of food, and the nearest town was days away.
Ankha leapt at the chance to go hunting. She hadn't done so in a while, had gotten accustomed to eating dried foods. She didn't want little game, either. The cat demon wanted to go after BIG game.
Kagome objected. "You need a bow to hunt big game, and I'm not lending you mine." Two bows appeared in Ankha's hands.
"Like these?" She asked in an innocent voice.
"Where did you get those?" Kagome said in surprise. Then she shook her head. "You still need arrows."
"Like these?" Ankha said even more innocently, holding out two full quivers. Loeyla looked at her suspiciously.
"Did you plan this?"
"Noo... how was I to know that Shippo would blow up the food?" She changed the subject. "Anyway, we still need to eat. I'll be back soon." A voice stopped her as she walked away.
"Hey, wait a minute. You have two bows. That means someone else can go hunting too. I want to go." It was Rain. Ankha turned back, to tell him no, but couldn't think of a single reason why. She couldn't refuse without a reason; it'd look as if... Angrily, she tossed one of the bows and quivers at the man.
"Let's go." She said. "But you had better keep up. I'm not waiting." The annoyed cat demon set off at a brisk walk, and Rain walked beside her, keeping pace. Sessho stared after them.
"We may never see him again." He said. The others nodded solemnly, wondering what madness had driven Rain to request going hunting with her. They went about fixing up camp in silence, in respect for the soon-to-be-dead.
Though Ankha walked fast, she also walked silently through the forest's dense underbrush. Rain was hard put to keep up, but he did, and stayed nearly as quiet as the cat demon. He had two good reasons. One, they needed to get this deer, and he didn't want to scare it away. Two, was that whenever he made a noise, Ankha turned around and glared daggers at him.
Suddenly, she stopped. He didn't notice until he was almost walking on her, so concentrated was he on where he was walking. Rain kept himself from falling, barely. Ankha didn't move. He realized that she smelled nice. She pointed to where she was looking, and he saw why she had stopped. A magnificent stag was before them.
Neither pulled their bow. For a while, they just watched. Soon, members of his herd drifted to where the pair in the bushes could see them. There were two mothers and their fawns, a young male who was soon to be kicked from the herd, and another female, just losing her spots, full grown, but still unable to reproduce. Rain met Ankha's eyes, and she nodded. Silently, they strung and drew their bows.
Swiftly they stood and fired. The still live deer ran away, startled. Two, however, dropped where they stood. Together, Ankha and Rain walked over to gather their kill.
The stag wasn't among the dead. The two hadn't killed him. Without him, less food would be available next year, in the way of deer. The ones they had killed were not in their prime, and could have been easily killed by anything. Ankha and Rain had just got there first.
The female deer had been facing them, and Ankha's arrow had shot straight into it's heart. Rain had killed the male with an arrow through the eye. Ankha was impressed.
"That's a pretty hard shot to make." she said.
"When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time hunting. Farming is a respectable enough way to earn a living, but hunting helped to keep food on the table all year round." He smiled, and she smiled back. They slung the deer over their shoulders, and headed back to camp together. On the way back, Rain shared the stories of his childhood, like the time he jumped off his hut to see if he could fly. It was so absurd that she laughed. So absurd, and so believable.
They entered camp together in good spirts, and as they walked to the fire to lay down their kill, the people (and demons, them too) stopped what they were doing to stare at the talkative Bounty Hunter and the chuckling assassin.
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Sessho- "And we were wondering, 'Just what have they been smoking, and where can I get some'?"
Loeyla- (punches Sessho's arm lightly, and stage whispers) "Stop telling my secrets!"
B.B.- "Hey, that's my line!"
W.W.- "When did you get back?"
B.B.- "Uh, bye!" ( runs away)
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It was getting dark, so Kagome set some of the meat to cooking, and the rest to drying. The two deer would last a while once they had been turned into jerky. They had venison steaks for dinner. Everyone was talking and laughing, just in general having a good time. Ankha caught Rain's eye from across the fire and smiled. He smiled back. They sat there a second, smiling at each other, until a shadow dropped in front of the cat demon.
It was a goblin. Not like the ones she and Rorrim had fought against, but a smaller, more 'normal' looking. The goblin was dressed in all white, and it bowed deeply to ANkha. She just sat there, blinking at it, until it handed her a letter. The assassin took it, opened it, and read it to herself. All the happiness left her face, like a veil of darkness dropping over her. Slowly, she folded the letter, and stared into the fire. The goblin didn't move.
Loeyla was alarmed at her sudden change in moods. "What's wrong? What happened!" Ankha raised her eye's to the mixed-demon's face, and answered in an odd voice,
"It's an assassination request. This one guy is offering me $3,000,000 to kill this man." She looked across the fire at Rain, whose face was carefully blank, but his eyes radiated disgust. Sighing, she continued, "And, because of a few other reasons as well, I'm going to do it." Ankha nodded to the goblin, he bowed again, and ran off into the night.
Slowly, the cat demon rose from her spot around the fire. She stood there a moment, and just looked at each face, her friends. Lastly, she looked at Rain. For a second, he mat her gaze, plainly showing her his contempt. Then he snorted in disgust, and left for his bed. He lay there, his back to her. Ankha shut her eyes, and tucked the letter into a pocket. Then she turned, and left. They watched her go.
Sessho noticed the white first, and picked it up. It was the letter that Ankha had received. She had missed her pocket and accidentally left it behind. Swiftly he unfolded it, read it, then handed it to Loeyla. She read it through once, and gasped. The others turned to her.
"What's that, Loeyla?" Asked Kagome.
"It's Ankha's letter." She said in a tight voice.
"Read it out loud!" Kagome said. Loeyla complied.
"Black Lullaby,
I require your services. There is a man, Requem Gords, who must be eliminated. I have been studying this man for a time, for he is my rival, and to have information for you, if you accept my offer. I hear you need a reason besides money to kill a man. Odd, but I will give such a reason to you. In fact, I have two.
The Price: $3,000,000
Reason One: he habitually adopts orphaned children, then sends them to work in his mines, where they are starved and beaten into obedience.
Please consider my offer.
Gobline Kyng
P.S. This is the second reason. If you do not accept, I will send my armies to kill every last one of your friends. And even if they run, I will have them hunted down and slaughtered.
I will make sure of it, and you will watch. Then, and only then, will you die, Ankhale Suneye.
Rammahallen"
The camp sat there for a while in silence. Then they all broke out talking at once. They all knew about Rammahallen, how she was the orchestrator of Ankha's parent's death, after that unfortunate meeting with Niroku. Order was eventually restored, and it was decided to set out at first light after her.
Rain had heard it all, and was silently screaming at himself for being such an ass. After spending the afternoon with her, he should have known there had to be more than money. She was going to save their skins, and he had treated her like trash. He listened to his friends plans, then made some of his own.
When all the rest were asleep, Rain silently left his bed roll, and headed in the same direction Ankha had went. He couldn't see well, so he opened his memory pouch and took out a small blue marble. Holding it in front of his eyes, he read the information inside. Then he muttered a few words, and it seemed to Rain that the world lit up. For inside the marble had been a spell to see in the dark. The demon he had taken it from had been especially hard to get.
Ankha was traveling slow, not wanting to get to her destination quickly. She knew she would probably die after killing Requem, but that did not matter so much. The cat demon also knew that Rammahallen would die first, no matter what she had to do to make sure of it.
Lost in her thoughts as she was, she never noticed Rain behind her until he grabbed her shoulders and spun her around to face him.
"What the HELL do you think you're doing!" He shouted at her. Ankha was too stunned to answer, and Rain didn't hive her a chance to anyway. He continued, "We can take care of ourselves! You're underestimating us all! You're probably walking into a trap, did you think of that? Hell, you probably did, but you don't care, as long as you kill Rammahallen, right! Did you think of what that'd do to Shippo and Rorrim! All that aside, you still could have brought us along, or at least me, the letter said nothing against that! One army? Two armies? So? All of us against a couple of armies, of course we'll will! Don't you know by now that we're a team!"
Ankha had bee listening, and getting more and more angry. How did he get her letter? What gave him the right to think she couldn't handle herself? So, she bitched right back.
"I'm only going for the money. You, a Bounty Hunter, should have guessed that. All of the rest of the world have no morals, didn't they teach you that? Like I could care whether you lived or died." She snorted. "Besides, Rammahallen and I have a score to settle." Rain looked at her like he didn't believe her. Ankha dropped her eyes from his gaze, and muttered, "Well, we do." Then she swung her head up and glared at him. "And I fight alone."
At that moment, the sun burst through the trees and showered them with golden light.
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Sessho- "Ha, pretty!" (Inhales deeply)
Loeyla- "Hey, pass that back!" (He does, she inhales)
W.W.- (SIGH!) "I have a story to write, and what do I have to work with? A bunch of druggies."
Sessho- (stands wobbly) "Hey, listen here! We got this out of your private stash, so don't be calling us druggies."
W.W.- (face goes red)
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Unfortunately, with the sun flooding the clearing, goblins did as well. Gobline had sent them to intercept Ankha and kill her before she even got to the town. The goblin were of all sizes, ranging from the small ones she had fought before, to the giant trolls. It was a whole friggin army.
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W.W.- (inhales, giggles) "You guys are going to have to pay for using my stash." (Giggle. Loeyla and Sessho start singing horribly and swaying in time to their screeching)
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Ankha turned to Rain. "Can beat a whole army, huh? Well, prove it." Then she leapt among the teeming masses, claws going like windmills, taking out everything in her path. The Bounty Hunter watched for a second, amazed, then jumped right in to help her, Oblivion (that's his sword's name. Yes, it has it's own name too. I like to name things.) swinging.
They created a little pocket around themselves, killing every goblin in reach. Somehow, they ended up back to back. At that point, the battle lulled slightly, giving them enough breath to talk. Ankha spoke to Rain over her shoulder. "My claws aren't having a large enough effect. I think I had better use a sword."
"You can use a sword?" Rain chopped off another head. One goblin had gotten too close.
"Of course I can use a sword. I can fight with almost anything." Swatting a goblin away with one hand, she dug in her pouch, and lengthened a dagger.
Rain eyed the number of goblins. "We may die."
A bright light entered the cat demon's eyes. "Then let's die fighting!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. Screaming a battle cry, she dove back into the masses, Rain right behind her. He separated his sword into the long Chain-Sword type thing, and started killing large amounts of goblins with every stroke. Such a long weapon is hard to control, however, and during one swing, he cut a pouch on Ankha's belt, and a white powder covered his sword. The assassin noticed this. And the next time he swung close to her, she struck two nails together, and lit his sword on fire.
The fire and the powder transferred to every goblin the blade touched, to both the living and the dead. Soon, the clearing was littered with the bodies of the dead, and the flames on Rain's sword were now on them. Rain and Ankha stood alone in the early morning light. They let out a wild cheer of joy, and ran to each other, happy just to be alive. Rain swung Ankha around in a circle as she laughed out loud. Still caught up in their jubilation, Rain kissed her as he swung her down. The cat demon's eyes widened, and she jumped away. As she raised a trembling hand to her lips, Rain, stumbling over the words, tried to apologize. "I, um, uh..."
Ankha squeaked and ran away so fast it seemed to him that she was there one second and gone the next. He considered going after her, but decided against it. He would put off his death as long as he could, he supposed. Rain shuffled of back to camp as Ankha's dust trail settled.
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W.W.- "Huh, I'm tired." (Head falls and hits desk, knocking W.W. out. B.B. sneaks up, grabs story and stash, then runs away)
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Disclaimer- Don't own Inuyasha, all that jazz, and we're not really druggies either. It was just fun to write it that way. Lots of fun. We do stupid things like that all the time. One time, in class we were 'drunk', so drunk, in fact, that when the robber finally shot us out of confusion and frustration, our blood was the color of beer, and we couldn't feel the bullets at all. The blood, if you were wondering, also tasted like beer. Isn't imagination grand? We put it to such useful ways. We should be given a medal.
