Yoshimi: Yeah! Five reviews! Thanks to Sesshomaru luver, Calamity, Kaylana, and Lyell for your reviews.
Maki: Your questions will be answered in this chapter or the next.
Yoshimi: Ever heard of foreshadowing? Think about the statement Kagome made to Kaizoe – "your more than what you seem"
Other Voice: Your going to give it away again!
Maki: Ah Shut up!
Chapter 7 "But it's not just a story"
Recap:
"Whoa......... It's late Kagome, you should really get back to your 'fiance'," Kaizoe walked off chuckling at her joke.
"Inuyasha? You awake?" Kagome whispered.
"Yeah, I'm awake, and I'm about to kill Kagura!"
"Inuyasha! She did what she had to! SHE saved our butts in front of Kaizoe's family."
"And what about in front of Kaizoe? Or after your little talk are you two just the best of friends?" Inuyasha's voice rose with sarcasm.
"She knows the story now, and she's a miko!" Kagome said, defending her friend.
"Oh, yeah, now that's reassuring! She took it a little too easily if you ask me."
"You were listening?"
"Of course! You're not that hard to hear Kagome. I- I just didn't listen after about ten minutes," Inuyasha said, blushing at what Kagome had said, 'I hope she can't see me blushing,' he thought.
Kagome too remembered what she had said, how she referred to him in her mind as 'her hanyou' and how she wished that Kagura's excuse were true.
"Well, oyasumi then," Kagome whispered.
"I know what happens next!"
"Shut up!"
The next morning was tense. Everyone seemed a little tense, seeing as Kagura had 'set the board' and they were just pieces that had to play their roles. No one spoke without snapping and Sango was not seen all day. She stayed with Miroku, listening to every scream, every ramble.
"No! Father!" Miroku sobbed in his sleep, reliving childhood memories, "No! Not now! Not the tunnel now! Father!"
Sango flinched, remembering that her own memories were not all good, like seeing her brother, possessed by a demon, kill her family and comrades. She bent down and rubbed the sweat from his forehead with a damp cloth that Kagome had brought her.
There was a knock on the door, "Come in," Sango said wearily. She hoped that whoever it was would be quick about what they wanted she was too tired to pay attention to anyone at the moment.
Kagura walked in and sat on the floor by Sango. She sighed and then asked, "How are you feeling?"
"Me? That's not important. Miroku needs to recover quickly or his wind tunnel will surely suck him up when we need him to fight Naraku. But I am tired," She finished almost guiltily.
"That settles it. You go sleep.........Now. I'll send Kagome to watch Miroku. I've got to go to the library and check something. If I am correct, we can defeat Naraku!"
"Correct about what?"
"The cure," was all Kagura said before leaving to go get Kagome.
"Sesshomaru-sama? Why do I have to be blonde? I mean a noble demon like m-" Jaken was cut short by Sesshomaru stepping on his blonde head.
"You, Jaken, are human. You are blonde because that's how it works," Sesshomaru said for the benefit of anyone who might be listening. close and whispered threateningly inside Jaken's ear, "And because that miko wench made you so. Anymore slip ups about demons and you will die a premature death.........any questions?"
Jaken shook his head and dashed off to bug the kitchen maid about lunch.
Kouga was in the library when Kagura entered it that morning. He looked up when she started browsing through the shelves on demon exterminating and demons.
"What the fuck are you looking for, wench?" He asked, using language he picked up from our favorite half-demon.
"I know you'd like to stay here the rest of your short life. Maybe you like being human. But I don't. I'm going to find the cure for an Akumu," Kagura retorted.
"What! I LIKE being human! As if! You just want to be the hero! You self- centered, greedy, fame-seeking........." Kouga was standing now, yelling.
"Boring, human loving, accusing-"
"Evil, Naraku-helping-"
"Bastard!" Kagura finished
"Mesuinu!" Kouga bellowed. This brought the maid and the guard into the library to find out what the screaming was about.
They might have called it just a 'lovers' quarrel, if the guise spell didn't fade when the wearer got too angry. They instead saw a wolf-demon in human clothes and a wind sorceress without her fans. So the maid screamed and fainted and the guard caught her and then yelled, "Demons! Demons in the library!"
This started Kouga and Kagura. They hadn't realized that they had given away their identity. They ran. Kagura had, in fact, been correct about the Akumu cure. She fled the library, running to Miroku's room. She found not one dreaming person, but two. Kagome was no where to be found.
"Mmmm.........Miroku! Don't go now! Don't leave me!" Sango cried, dreaming of when Miroku tried to leave the group.
Kagura bent down by the girl and shook her awake. At first Sango wouldn't wake up and Kagura was afraid that the Akumu had got her too, but the girl started a second later.
"What? Kagura? Where's Kagome? What's going on? Where are I?"
"Hush girl. Get your senses back!" Kagura waited until the girl had calmed, "I know how to end this."
She showed Sango the book she had been carrying when she ran from the library. She opened it the page and showed the cure to Sango.
"Not the first one, the second. I'll do it," Sango said firmly, "I'll do it."
"Don't you think that there might be another person?"
"No. I'll do it."
"Okay." "Keep on going! Please?"
"Yeah, Please!"
"Okay girls, then........." (A/N: Ewe! You hentai! That's not it!)
"Kagome? Kagome?" Inuyasha called, searching for the missing girl. He'd not seen her since she left with Shippo for a walk. His demon abilities were dulled, so he could not sense her. He'd wanted to ask her if the guise spell had anything to do with it, and the fact that he was feeling really stiff.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha walked into Miroku's room, looking for the miko. He gasped at the sight.
Sango lay on a futon, dreaming and sweating wildly. Miroku was awake, sitting in the corner, holding a book, tears streaming down his face. Wait! Miroku was AWAKE!
"Monk!" Inuyasha said, relieved, but still puzzled by Sango dreaming and Miroku crying.
"Inuyasha?" the usually cheerful monk sniffed and looked back and the book. It was open to a page. He showed it to Inuyasha.
It read:
Akumu (a-coo-moo) a spirit demon who lives off the fear of others by latching to their minds and then giving them nightmares about their worse fears. Akumus are rarely seen and when so, chaos is common is the search and destroy of the demon. There are only two known cures for an Akumu's dreams. The first is that an Akumu can't survive without its prey. If the prey dies, so does the Akumu. Another is that one who loves the victim may take the Akumu upon his or her own mind, freeing the previous victim. If the Akumu is not removed or destroyed, the victim will die.
Miroku slammed the book down, "She took upon her own mind! How could she! Damn her for saving me! DAMN HER!" he yelled, half-breaking down in tears again at the thought of the sacrifice she made, 'Damn her ,' he thought, ' but I thank her too.'
"Erm.........I......... monk.........I don't know how this happened, I don't know much at all, but if it makes you feel better the book says, 'one who loves the victim'. She loves you pal. You're lucky. You have a great girl," Inuyasha was mumbling and stumbling over his own tongue, trying to make the monk feel better, and trying to push Kagome from his mind for a second.
"Holy bloody hell!" Nokamis had entered the room, "Miroku! You alive, you awake! How, when, what, how........."
Then he saw Sango, dreaming her fears on the floor. He figured it out form there.
She woke sometime in the night. Sango had felt the Akumu's grip weaken, having only enough power to give her dreams every 24 hours.
Miroku woke with a start at her heavy breathing, "Sango!"
He leapt up and grabbed her, pulling her onto his lap, hugging her while she cried, murmuring soft words of comfort.
"Miroku! I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she sobbed harder, not noticing how hard he was trying to control his wandering hand.
"Sorry for what?" he asked incredulously.
"For letting the Akumu get you! I'm supposed to protect the ones I......... the ones I lo.........love!" she cried harder, hugging him around the torso, sobbing for all she was worth.
"Sango, its okay, there's nothing you could do," he whispered in her ear, "what happened, why are you awake?"
"I felt it's power drain away! Naraku must have taken the shard!' She sat up, still on his lap, whipping her eyes, "its now a regular powered one, it can only give me dreams when I sleep. I can be awoken when I dream too. If he has the shard, that means he's coming."
"Don't think about that now. Rest Sango, dreaming takes a lot out of a person," he said, picking her up and moving so he could lean against the wall. He settled her in his lap again, hesitating on whether to let go or not, but Sango settled herself on his lap and rested her head on his shoulder. She sighed and closed her eyes, knowing what would come with sleep.
"Where is Kagome! Inuyasha stormed. He grabbed a passing guard by the collar and raged, "Where is she? Have you seen Kagome?"
"N-no Master Inuyasha! We are searching for Kaizoe-sama also! She hasn't been seen since yesterday morning and there were reports of two demons in the library yesterday."
"Where is she?" Inuyasha bellowed, tossing the guard away from him.
"D-d-demon!" the guard said frightened. The guise spell had worn off.
Inuyasha's demon senses returned for a second full blast. In a time frame of about ten seconds Inuyasha smelt Naraku, Shippo, salty-tears, Kaizoe, and blood. Kagome's blood. It was getting farther away. Naraku had Kagome.
They set off after her. Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, Nokamis, Jaken, Rin, Kirara, Kouga, and Kagura all swiftly following Naraku's scent.
Inuyasha's demon sensed had only returned for ten seconds. Then they dulled again. Had they known that this would end with the sun rising on bodies, they
would not have gone.
For the sun did rise, eight days from the beginning of the
rescue. The sun rose. It saw the body of a cat demon, holding a sword,
poison had done him in. The body of another cat demon, fire scorched
all round it, a scythe protruded from it's side. There were two bodies
side-by-side next to the cat-demon. They were children, too young to
be on a battlefield. A young fox and a girl, cowering, it seemed, from
the sun's rays. The sun saw a demon lord. He had been brutally
chopped, his body lay in front of the children, as if he had been
trying to protect them. A toad demon lay in two pieces by him.
Had they known that the sun would rise eight days later on a giant
crater, all things within 100 feet of it mysteriously gone. But two
sets of footprints lay in the bottom of the crater, one a man's, one a
woman's. Windblown trees surrounded the glade in which the battle took
place. The sun crept over the crowns of the trees, seeing the corpses
of a wolf demon and a wind sorceress. Both died, seemingly, from
causes unknown. And then there was the hanyou. His body lay crumpled
where he had fallen; a giant trench ran in the ground from the tip of
his broken sword. The body of a young demon exterminator was just
visible beneath the hanyou.
The sun saw a living being. A girl. Her slashed back suggested
claws or a whip. She sat, bleeding, but still intent on her task. She
was focusing on a glowing orb. A spirit, but not a white spirit like
those of the innocent, but a pure black one. Blue lightening ran from
the girl to the spirit. It grew smaller, being defeated by the miko's
lightening.
The miko didn't see the white demon come. She was too intent on destroying the fated enemy of her friends. The demon's clothes where stained with blood and her mirror was cracked, but she still had power.
The miko was tired, and passed out from lack of energy, a jewel clutch firmly in her hand, not able to be removed.
Had they known that the girl would eventually awake. She would hold the jewel and wish for all those who fought the evil and their loved ones to return to life. Had they know this, they would have gone. had they known that those who were brought to life would find love, they would have gone.
"But they didn't know, and they went. The events happed just like that, children. Your parents fought a battle that will be remembered for years. Ye are the daughters of heroes as well as yer siblings."
"Oh grandmother Kaede! That's just a story!" A young girl giggled.
"Ah, but child, ye have no idea how true it is!" Kaede said.
"It's just a story. Right Hiroku?" the girl asked.
The other girl, Hiroka, answered, "Yes Asako, it's just a story. Now come on! Uncle Miroku and Aunt Sango want us to go see Kirara's kittens!"
"Shouldn't you ask Uncle Inuyasha first?" Asako wondered.
"Nah, my dad wont care. Let's go! Thanks for the story grandmother Kaede!"
The two girl ran off, excited by the thought of kittens. Kaede whispered, "but its not a story."
Yoshimi: I bet you didn't see that coming did you?
Inuyasha: How come I died?
Maki: yeah Taka, why?
Yoshimi: because I said you did. and if you reveal my real name again I shall have to hurt you.
Maki: he he he, I love being evil.
Yoshimi (aka Taka): I know.
Maki: That was interesting, now, on with the present, the next generation!
Other Voice: okay, since you two seem content on giving it away the story line, I'll do the words.
mesuinu – bitch.
I think that was it.
Taka: Je Ne for now!
Maki: FEH!
Inuyasha: That's my catch phrase!
Maki: Feh! Feh! Feh! Feh! Keh! Meh! Feh!