Quote of the Week: "How to fly: Step one, jump. Step two, miss the ground." - Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
Alright, quickly put: Computer died, Floppy Disk Drive Died, had to re-write all of chapter by hand, then re-type on public computers and email to self. Finally got memory card/stick, but I'm now at a pre-college summer program, and have been busy with my mad comic-drawing skillez.
Geez... the comic I wrote is 15 pages (not counting cover). I wish I had a scanner and a Photoshop/Illustrator to neaten it up and make it accessible through computer. ;.;
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine... really."
It had been the fifth time he'd asked her in the last twenty minutes, and each time her answer had been the same. Lyra trudged at the back of the group, Kurama walking just slowly enough to keep pace with her. The room with the pentacle death trap was far behind them, through twisty corridors and passages, down the spiral staircase that wrapped more tightly around itself than a snail's shell. The room with the same pit that her sister had fallen through.
At first her sobs had been nearly unstoppable, and the group had let her cry. Some, such as Hanabi and Victoria, were more lenient than the others. It had only taken ten minutes for Yusuke to snap at her and tell her to get a hold of herself; that had been the final slap, that one reminder that told her their time was limited. They might have lost one friend, but if everyone didn't shape up, they could just as easily lose another.
The traveling through the corridors had given her time to calm down, to slow down everything and try to think it through rationally. And it had been this rational thinking process that the fox kept interrupting. She couldn't blame him; her brainstorm had closed her off from the others, and she had become silent and withdrawn. Often, she had been told that those same two characteristics came out when she was upset or worried.
"Lyra..."
Again, not that Kurama could be blamed... but she was seriously thinking of getting a pin to wear that said "Thinking -- currently not emotionally scarred".
"Yes, Kurama?" The redhead raised an eyebrow, startled by the sudden, if subtle, edge to her voice. He didn't have to say anything, however, once the water manipulator bumped into Kuwabara's back. The carrot top didn't even blink, and Lyra saw just how badly the castle was affecting the others. She might have lost her sister (although the story of Lark's "death" seemed riddled with holes), but for Kuwabara, this place was a whole level above what his spiritual sensitivity reached.
His eyes were bloodshot, and even now she could see the capillaries underneath his eyelids swelling; the boy's body was shaking, not so much as shivering but the horrible, uncontrollable shaking like that of one of the elderly. One look at Kuwabara, and Lyra was ready to shut down all of her spiritual senses, but she managed to carefully check his energy and aura.
It was offbeat, sputtering and stumbling like the beat of a diseased heart. Kurama nodded slowly towards her, and she nodded in return. Kuwabara was the most sensitive out of all of them; whatever was doing this to him could obviously affect the rest of them, and probably would the closer they came to the source. Silently, she raised the bubble-like shield around Kuwabara, and sighed in relief as his aura regained its steady pulse. The kekkai wasn't exceptionally difficult, working in tune with the magnetic pull and electrical pulses that surrounded all living organisms, but was useful in breaking up rogue energy waves; she had seen the same method be put to use in many a doctor's office and spas all over Meucca.
Up ahead, Yusuke paused, then found a handhold on the wall, motioning for the others to halt. Carefully, he peeked out around the corner, and saw the monstrous iron gates that effectively sealed off the hallway. Another quick check to make sure nothing particularly nasty was lurking around, and the spirit detective relaxed. They milled at the gates, each one of them spiritually probing the menacing structure for any weaknesses.
"Ah! Shit, that's hard!"
Well, most of them were spiritually probing. Yusuke had decided to give the door a good whack; which, although a disgustingly primitive way to approach things, often worked best. If you hit the door and it didn't hit you back or trigger a trap, that was a good thing.
But their metal door just stood there, blocking the path like only a door could. Sweatdropping, Kurama stared at the massive keyhole just below the immovable handle. "Well, I hate to say this, but..."
"Hate to say what?" Kyuro yowled, menacingly pawing at Victoria's shoulder. The cat leapt down, and paced in front of the door as if it were merely an oversized mouse hole. "We can get through this, fox-boy." With that, the black cat took up his vacant stare at the keyhole, and became ignorant to the world around him.
"I hate it when he does that... it's creepy," Hanabi muttered, earning a scattered agreement from his companions. No sooner were the words out of his mouth, than a great creaking sound was heard. Kyuro mewed and scampered back onto Victoria's shoulder, where he made himself comfortable.
"What did you..? Kyuro?" Lyra's blue eyes widened at the large gate. The same obstacle that, although still quite solid and sturdy, was making noises that were not unlike the cries of a dying animal. Such a description was far more flowery than was true, however; for Kyuro nudged the elder Landon sibling's cheek, and gestured towards the door. "Try opening it. Should work, now."
"What gives you that idea?" questioned Hiei, his neck encircled by Mara's tail. This time the cat didn't even bother with a wayward glance. "Yes, give a young girl a talking cat as a companion. An animal that can do nothing but be cute and fuzzy, whine, and eat. Then tell that cat to watch over multiple generations of the girl's family. Works wonders." At this, the cat narrowed his green eyes, whiskers flat against his muzzle. "I was able to keep a small fraction of my power, from when I was sealed way back when. Of course, it only comes out in emergencies..." At this, Victoria rolled his eyes. "Wonderful history lesson. Moving onwards."
And, thus, the path was opened. Despite the fact that the gates seriously needed some repair and oil. Another spiral staircase, and the group traipsed onwards, never thinking much farther than the present. Truthfully, they didn't really want to know what waited for them up ahead.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the door opened, and the ghostly head of a healthy middle-aged man poked in. "Misses? You're wanted."
"About time!" The young girl leapt up from the straw mattress, and ran towards the door, bare feet silent on the flagstone. Blonde hair disheveled, she looked back at her "older sister" and cocked her head. "LeeAnne, we have to go, now. I don't want to run into the pooka."
Holly yawned and stretched, still loath to get up from the warm straw. As the youngster's voice took on a panicked pitch, however, she stopped in mid-stretch and tried to reason out the situation in her head.
Okay, problem one: Stuck in a large castle with a little girl who thought Holly was her big sister. Problem two: That same castle and little girl were property of the monster that had dragged her here.
The solution to the first problem was still outside. Jin had already reached the castle, but had most likely hidden himself once the younger girl noticed his intrusion. If Jin could only get in, she was as good as home free; the others were bound to be close behind. And, if not, that only left problem two. Again, as soon as she got back home, that problem was solved, as well.
She hoped.
Ah, well, it could be figured out later. Curiosity was garnering and, although she wasn't fond of being any closer to "It" than was necessary, it would be a nice change to get out of the tower prison. Perhaps find out if her friends had actually arrived to come save her, try to spot some handy escape routes. It were times like this that she wished she had her broom; if she were able to just fly away, then the entire dilemma would have been over with by now.
Slowly, she got to her feet, trying to spot any bit of Jin through the window as she walked across the room and joined the guard and girl. Jin had a habit of bad timing, and if he just crashed in right now she was certain he would end up getting hurt in some manner or another.
The guard tried to smile, but the bags under his eyes and the way he was always close to grabbing the hilt of his dagger made it painfully obvious that he had no time to waste escorting a bunch of children through the halls. For the first time, Holly noticed the misty look of his body, the way she could faintly see the dull gray of stone through his form.
A ghost... he was already dead, and still protecting his castle. Not that he had a choice, most likely; such a binding "commitment" only made her fear for herself and her friends all the more. If she ended up dying here, would she be stuck in this dreary prison forever, or move on to be judged in Reikai like everyone else?
"Well, let's get going." She tried her best to sound cheerful, hoping that it was enough to make Jin pause outside and think. The young girl clasped Holly's hand and, with an affirmative nod from the guard, marched stiffly down the spiral staircase. Behind them, the torches sputtered and faded, each one going out as soon as they passed it.
She couldn't wait until she could escape from this horror house.
They were more than halfway up this set of stairs, and Hanabi desperately wished that the popular choice of architecture in medieval Europe had been one-floor flats. It was much easier to run in a straight line than navigate this damned labyrinth.
Feeling exceptionally brave, he glanced down, and immediately squeezed his golden-yellow eyes shut in nausea. More than halfway up... the top of the stairwell wasn't visible, and the bottom, from whence they had came, was cloaked in darkness. He had no idea where they were, no idea how far above ground level they were, and he had a hard time even grasping the time. The tower they were climbing up, the corkscrew stairs rising up in the exact middle of the room, had odd holes in the walls. Mild sunlight filtered through the tiny cracks and gaps, but not nearly enough to make a difference in visibility.
"Jeebus... are we there yet?" Yusuke had fallen from the fore of the group, and the toll all the traveling they had done was starting to show. He dragged one arm along the think stone banister, half-asleep. In fact, it seemed only Kyuro and Hiei were unaffected by the long climb.
"I suppose we might almost be there," Kurama stated. The redhead leaned over the balcony and craned his neck, trying to judge the remaining distance. He turned back to them with a shaky smile. "It should only take five more minutes to get to the top."
"About frikkin' time!"
"...If you run."
"Goddamn you, Kurama!"
When they had finally reached the top and, alas, found another huge iron door barring the way, it didn't take long for the entire group to notice the sheer amount of energy radiating from the room beyond the door. Even Kuwabara, enclosed in his own little youki-retardant kekkai bubble, was hit hard by the force of the power. They fidgeted as Kyuro once again went to work on the intimidating lock. Hiei shifted his weight from among the shadows, uncharacteristically stroking his dragon charge's long neck. When taunted about the habit by Kuwabara, the fire demon merely narrowed his red eyes and raised an eyebrow.
"The door's open, idiot. Let's go."
So much like sheep filing up for the slaughterhouse, they entered the last room.
Technically, he was rather proud of himself. The wind master had managed to get a hold of his incessant energy and had patiently held himself back as Holly had been escorted out of the tower room.
Although, now that he looked back on the moment, then time and setting to break in and whisk her away had been perfect. One guard a little girl had been all that had kept the witch from him; he doubted he could have ever have gotten a more perfect set of circumstances.
Hopefully, waiting hadn't been a fatal mistake.
Pointed ears moving like radar, he strained to pinpoint Holly's location by the sound from the castle hallways. To his annoyance, the only sound was the occasional scuff of shoes as the witch sporadically managed to catch the toe of her sneakers on the uneven stone floors. It wasn't very helpful, but just enough to go by, as he strived to stay out of sight.
Not that he really had to bother. Whatever guards there were, if they were lucky to still be alive, were busy trying to contain the pooka. They weren't having much success, as every once in a while he would see a fleeting glimpse of black fur as the horse whipped around the castle, killing, burning, and just causing general chaos wherever it went.
Suddenly, the footsteps stopped, and Jin hastily ducked behind a carved stone gargoyle. No noise was heard, as he floated centimeters above the roof. Already, he could feel the insane concentration of youki that barraged him mercilessly; when he tried to attempt a landing, he was nearly thrown off the slate-tile roofing. With gritted teeth, Jin dug his nails in and managed to position himself so he had a view of the hallway through a hole-turned-makeshift-skylight.
Holly might have wanted him to stay put, but he was itching to just get everything done and over with. He raptly paid attention as the heavy doors that the three figures stood in front of slowly swung open, and scrambled for a new rooftop location as the witch was escorted into the much larger room. Unfortunately, time hadn't taken its toll on the domed roof, with the worst of the damage being a sprinkling of moss along the tiles.
There was a sudden lurch in balance, and the shinobi managed to throw himself forwards, just as the section of roof where he had been crouching suddenly collapsed in upon itself. The redhead held his breath; his sharp ears picked up the smooth hissing noise as the guard drew his dagger -- a sound that was nearly lost amid the startled yelps of the two girls.
When the blade hissed again, this time returning to its scabbard, Jin sighed in relief. He was safe...
... Theoretically, at least. When he returned to his new peephole - this time with greater caution, in case the ceiling around it was weakened - he could see the hulking shadow of the beast, chains dully gleaming in the weak sunlight. Truthfully, the stench had hit him first, but there was no mistaking those thin and scarred arms, the matted, bloody, fur cloak...
Down below, he could see Holly recoil away from the dark corner, seem to shrink as she tried to step behind the guard. With what looked like a struggle, the strange little girl tore her hand free from the witch's iron grip and ran forwards, settling down cross-legged in front of It. One arm reached down, the hand outspread, and Holly squeezed her eyes shut. From his spying post, even Jin prepared himself for a rather unhappy end for the child.
But one spider-legs finger, with its gnarled, dirty nails, gently, oh-ever-so-gently, stroked the girl's head. She smiled, and ran over to it's massive form, as if the smell of rotting flesh didn't even exist; plopping down on one hoof, she leaned up against the gray leg and played absentmindedly with a giant chain link, the same hand of It dropped nearby, the fingers protectively curling into a shell around her.
All the time, It had been staring at Holly, boring through her as she uselessly tried to use the ghostly guard as a shield from It's proverbial eyes. The other hand rose and a long finger beckoned towards her, with all the promised love of a mother calling to their child. Jin could only growl in disgust as the guard dragged Holly out from behind him and present her forwards. The fact that the middle-aged man didn't look too happy about presenting a young girl to such a monster didn't help... underneath his hands, the loose, falling, slate tile was crushed into sand.
The witch as nearly half-way across the floor, nearly in reach of those mutilated hands, when the most horrible screeching sound was heard. Jin's eyes widened, and he scuttled over to the other side of the hole, unable to see the source from where he watched. In his former blind spot was a large iron door, so big it seemed to be the wall itself. The door was opening, and all seemed quiet, the guard once again drawing his weapon.
No one moved except for Holly, who stepped backwards towards the guard. A gust of wind breezed through, making her hair fly into her face, but she still retreated... only to find the ghost fall to his knees, his misty head rolling across the floor and coming to a stop against the foot of the black-clad killer. With a flick of the wrist that flung the "blood" onto the stone floor, the white creature that had wound itself around the man's neck stretched and yawned; once the dragonling had spotted Holly, she gave out a happy chirr.
"Good job, Hiei." And in strutted Yusuke, hands in pockets, as if there was no giant monster in the corner. The young man appeared to be relaxed, but Jin saw the simmering aura of blue; despite his posture, Yusuke seemed ready to go at any minute. But, for all the praise he had had for the two, it turned to an inward groan as soon as he saw the others.
Only Yusuke and Hiei would be so arrogant as to purposely step out of a protective barrier shield.
They were joined by another arrogant fool, as Kyuro darted out from the shield, intent on returning to Holly, with the smart remark of, "Charge ahead and get killed, by all means."
"Hey, " Yusuke shouted, "It's not like there's anyone else here-"
With a shuddering roar, the other wall, the one not preoccupied with a door or a monster that was (wrongly) tenderly caring for an obviously confused human girl, exploded outwards in a cloud of dust, lit up by fire. Like a living shadow, the pooka cantered in, snorting little spurts of flame as it stomped its right foreleg on the ground.
Not like he had anything better to do, and the fact that he had an irking suspicion Yusuke would perhaps need a little more backup, Jin took to the air and dove into the room. He couldn't help but smile as the spirit detective's head whipped back and forth; nearly everyone had a similar expression on their face. Except for Hiei, since the fire demon didn't was to appear as if, you know, the whole turn of events had actually fazed him.
Yusuke blinked. "...The crap?"
The crap, indeed.
She passed another torch, this one still smoldering. Whoever had put the fire out, had done so not long ago. She smiled to herself, happy that she was finally catching up.
At first she had decided to just pop up, right behind them. By the time she had returned to the horrible castle, the elongated shadows of her friends had covered the stairwell, and the temptation to join them as soon as possible had been overwhelming. But, then she had thought about their reactions. Sure, at least Lyra would be happy, but who wasn't to say that the others would be suspicious? They had seen her fall in a big, pointy-stick-prone, pit. Obviously at least someone would have to think something was up.
So, plan A had switched over to plan B: ease them into the fact that she was still very much alive and kicking.
She lifted her leg to start up the one last staircase, and nearly cried out in pain. Although she was alive now, she doubted she would do much kicking after the spill the inter-dimensional-vortex-thingy-of-doom (or whatever it actually was) that Michealangelo had used to send her back. Contrary to popular belief, if you did fall from a distance of about teen feet, even if you went into a roll, stone floors still hurt. 'Damn those Legend of Zelda games...'
'Still, it's one step at a time... the damn staircase can't be too long, could it?' That's right... she would go at it one step at a time. Although, it were times like this that made her wish she had taken more classes in healing techniques. Or at least found some way to block out pain. So far, the only method she had seen used (by Hiei, of all people) had been to inflict more pain upon oneself, albeit in a different location. And, although Lark could be clueless once in a while, she wasn't ready to severely bruise and/or pull a muscle in her other leg.
Twenty minutes later found her more than halfway up the staircase, thinking much the same question that Yusuke had asked. Of course, this time there was no one around to answer her, and she slumped against the banister in exhaustion. "I just wanna go hooome..." By this time, she was well beyond the point of whining.
That was when a thunderous crash reverberated through the tower, causing chunks of stone walls to clatter downwards; she didn't even bother listening to them contact the ground, for the girl was up the stairs like a shot. Soon after, another crash made the spiral stairs' column shake. All pain and fatigue forgotten, Lark sprinted. She wanted out of there: now.
Compared to the scene in the room before her, the shock of the mysteriously unlocked door was marginal. It was a shock that was even worth crawling back into that blasted time-space-warp.
Still wary of her friends, Lark tried to sneak along the wall, hoping that the mixed presence of the pooka and the nameless beast enough to keep Yusuke, Jin, and Hiei distracted. Kurama was undoubtedly smart enough to think before attacking her, and Kuwabara didn't look all that intimidating in his bubble; Victoria's eyes were glued to his sister, much the same with Kyuro. Hanabi was just staring at the monster in the corner with disgust - Lark could see a shiver run up and down him as he stared at what he had wrought - and it only worsened when the monster once again beckoned to the witch in the middle of the room.
So, imagine the her surprise when her older sister, the only one whose gaze had meandered over towards the stairs when Lark had chosen that moment to drag herself up, changed emotions in two seconds flat. Surprise to happiness, then, worse of all, suspicion, followed by a glare that seemed far out of place upon her usually gentle features. Lark couldn't help backing up, until the edge of her heel caught on an invisible surface (a hastily thrown up kekkai shield? One intended to be low enough to the ground to trip her?), and the heavy sound of her foot as she stumbled backwards garnered the attention of the others. Even the pooka turned its bright yellow eyes on her.
Without much choice, and under the piercing gaze of the tantei, the younger Admarant sister shot a sphere of water at the pooka, screamed bloody murder, and dove for cover to escape the searing flames. Some may have called her move simply aggressive. The more tactful would call it panicking.
Her panicking set off a chain reaction of violence and chaos. No sooner had the pooka redirected its attention, Jin and Yusuke both rushed it, intending to take the horse-creature out by whatever means necessary. No one really knew what was going on, as the wind rose with a vengeance and energy blasts, as well as the pooka's fire, ripped through the air with such force that all sunlight was drained out. The air hissed near the fire breathing horse; the chain that adorned its neck was cherry-red, and had turned nearly all of Lark's amassed water ball into steam that condensed and rolled down its glossy black coat.
A black furball collided with Holly's chest, and the witch instinctively clutched to it, not realizing her it as her familiar until the cold nose had been jarred into her cheek and the whiskers tickled her ear. She wanted to hug him and hide away... but she also didn't want to risk her safety by making any movements. So, while she huddled on the floor, curled around her cat, trying not to watch the silvery body of the headless guard slowly fade away beside her, the tackle from the side came as a total surprise.
They rolled, the witch and her attacker, until coming to a stop behind the stone rubble that had collected along the wall. When Holly's balance finally came to rights and the floor stopped spinning, she looked up at her rescuer. Lark shakily smiled in return, earning a miffed glare from Kyuro.
"So you're not dead."
"Nope! But our dorm is a pigsty!"
"Whuh? Lark, dead? Dorm? Eh?"
"Don't feel too bad," Lark flippantly stated, rolling her eyes. "I'm confused, too." Holly, at a lost for words, numbly nodded. All was quiet for a few seconds, until Lark's eyes widened, and the trio was once again dodging for cover. This time, Jin had plowed through the pooka's defenses, and the two non-humans smashed into the rubble that had been the girl's former shelter. Although Jin had managed to escape from the attack attempt fairly uninjured, the pooka flashed sharp hooves at the sky before rolling to its feet with an indignant whinny. It wasn't happy at all.
And one never wished to meet an unhappy pooka.
"We need a plan of action." Kyuro's tail lashed wildly as the cat paced the stone floor. Holly, however, was all too happy to provide a plan. "Can we scream bloody murder again and run away?" She managed to keep a straight face when Lark viciously elbowed her in the ribs, but Kyuro suddenly got a faraway look in his eyes. "Yes, actually, that would work quite well." He trotted another little circle, not wanting to leave the girl he had been so recently reunited with, trying to strategize.
"Alright... okay, I think I have it. We aren't going to beat the pooka, or that... thing. So we're going to escape here. If we could get in touch with Rogerik on the other end of the watch, then he could pull us back through."
Both girls blinked, and but it quickly turned to an odd look. "And how are we supposed to get in contact with Rogerik?"
That drew a blank, and they sat there mulling it over, until a rogue spirit gun demolished another wall. After that, the three decided that they should plot while putting plan A - run away like the dickens - to use. Sadly, they never made it to the staircase, for they suddenly seemed to run into an invisible wall of sorts...
"Owww..." Holly rubbed her temples, trying to shake off the pins-and-needles-feeling the kekkai barrier inflicted. But she stared, wide-eyed, at the multi-tasking Lyra, who was still keeping up the youki-protection-bubble for Kuwabara.
"Alright, I don't know why my sister isn't dead, and I'm in a better mood because of that, but, please, someone try to make sense of this mess." The mess included a very outnumbered pooka, cornered, that was currently trying to set Hiei, Yusuke, and Victoria on fire. Whenever the flames reached too close to the defenseless Lyra, Hanabi, Mara, and Kuwabara, Kurama was quick to deter them with a fast growth of shrubbery. So far, the repetition had been working without flaw; but if It tried to interfere, there was no doubt everyone would get their heads handed back to them on a silver platter.
"We're running away," Lark stated, plain as day. Kyuro, at the dull simplicity of her words, nearly let his head smack against the floor. "Actually," Holly muttered, her voice unsure, "Kyuro has an idea. If we could contact Rogerik-"
"-Which isn't going to happen, unless you have a nifty inter-dimensional phone," Lark interjected.
"-then he could bring us back home with some weird watch."
Lyra and Kurama shared glances, on the verge of sweatdropping, then proceeded to try and push Kuwabara towards the stairs. "I wonder, Kurama, why we never thought of that."
The fox was quiet for a while before finally answering, "It might have had something to do with Lark being "dead"."
"Ah, that's it." It was then that realization dawned upon both of their faces. "You don't think..?"
"That there's something in the pit Lark fell in that could help? There's a theoretical possibility."
"Well, something must have moved her, otherwise, my sister would be, um... dead."
Now feeling very much ignored in his kekkai-bubble, Kuwabara crossed his arms and tried to make conversation. "Hey, Lark, after you fell in the pit, what happened?" The question caught her off guard, but the answer was still fresh in the water manipulator's mind. "I went home. It was snowing."
"Snowing? In November?" If Kuwabara had looked stumped before, it was nothing compared to the expression he wore now.
"No, it was January. And Koenma's replacing you guys, I think..."
Through the entire sequence of events, starting from that first punch thrown at the pooka, Yusuke had been oblivious to all else except the fight; he'd had to be, considering that the horse-like monster was so unpredictable. Now, however, he let that rare concentration slip. "Koenma's doing what!"
"Idiot!" That was all that Hiei had the time to roar out before a hoof connected with Yusuke's ribs. Subconsciously, the teen clung onto the hoof, even as the sharp edge threatened to scramble his gut. The pooka was suddenly unable to move, balanced only on three legs, and at an unusual angle that prevented the animal from kicking out another hoof without falling over.
And with that, it was over. Hiei took the opportunity to unsheathe his katana, the movement drawing a whisper of sound, before the blade whistled through the air to slice the juglar vein. The three-eyed demon snorted, not at all happy with the crude cut; the chains were unusually thick and tough, a force that could definitely contend with his sword's steel. What had been an intended guillotine sweep instead turned into a slow death. He was only all too happy that the blood bubbling out of the vein and into the animal's throat kept it from crying out clearly.
Amidst the horrible dying noises the once-malicious creature was making, a soft giggle could be heard from the far corner, between It's huge cloven hooves. As the swordsman cleaned off the murky blood on the pooka's ebon pelt, the giggling soon gave way to an enamored applause.
"You got rid of it! Thank you!" All of them turned their attention to the happy little girl, feeling sick as the uneven fingernail, attached to the skin-and-bones finger, gently stroked her dirty blonde hair. "I was afraid that it would try and hurt us, but you killed it."
The beast made some sort of noise, a dry, raspy, intake of breath that made the young child look up into it's soulless eyes and caused a slight glimmer of knowledge to grow in her eyes. Meekly, now that she had communicated with her caretaker, she turned back to face them before redirecting her eyes to the floor.
"But It's right... if you beat the pooka, then you're even stronger. And you're taking away LeeAnne..."
"She thinks you're someone else?" Lark quietly asked Holly, faintly remembering the long dialogue about LeeAnne that Korfius had been all too happy to tell. The witch nodded, sternly facing the doorway. "...Let's just go."
"-And if you're going to try and take her, then I - we - will stop you," The girl-child finished, blue eyes holding both disappointment, sadness, and anger. To see such a look on a child no older than seven was disheartening, to say the least. To hear a young child tell you - seriously - that they were going to use any method available to stop you... it was as striking as if the gun was already in their hands and up to your forehead.
"Go," Hiei ordered, red eyes trained on the spirit detective and older witch whom had just fought by his side. Victoria opened her mouth to say something, but shut it and snorted, instead, as Yusuke clasped a hand on her shoulder and him and Jin led her away with the comment of: "Have fun." That was all that had to be said; the fire demon had already decided to not let anything interfere in this fight.
Not even that idiot fox, Kurama.
Hiei glanced back at them, and motioned for Mara to go on ahead without him, before sneering at the little girl. Carefully, he waited until the others had left the stairwell. The redheaded fox was the last to leave, giving Hiei a baleful look with his green eyes before disappearing down the steps. Now free of all distractions, Hiei admired the way the dim sunlight managed to reflect off of his katana. It was spotless, despite the slaughter of a few seconds ago.
Soon, it would once again be coated in red.
"Stop me?" he asked.
Stone and air whizzed by, each step less certain under his feet than the last. He couldn't wait to be on solid ground again. Stupid staircases.
"Hey, Kurama?"
"Yes, Kuwabara?" The fox had taken to covering the rear of the group, letting Yusuke and Victoria, with their recent adrenaline rushes, take control of the front.
"Do you have any clue which way we came from?"
But Kurama hadn't a chance to answer, since Holly suddenly gained a burst of energy and sprinted ahead of Kuwabara for a few yards. From her shoulders, Kyuro sniffed. "I do. We take a right at the end of the corridor, two lefts, a right, then the second gate on the left, down the basement-level tunnel, and we go in a straight line until the main hall."
The cat had an extraordinarily exact memory, and Kurama's Youko side was wondering just what the cat remembered after all these decades. For all anyone knew, Kyuro could just as easily be a living treasure map as much as he was a pest. Nowadays, however, it was most likely used to keep track of schedules for the familiar's long line of female charges.
They followed the directions exactly, amazed that the turns were correct. But the overall tension between the group increased the farther away from Hiei they got, as if he would die the second his energy was too far away to be sensed. It left people on-edge, touchy, nervous.
And then they came to the room. The pentacle in the center of the room was once again in place, as if it had never disappeared to begin with. They halted at the edge, Yusuke prowling around the edge of the black stone -- resembling a tiger all the while. To tell the truth, no one knew how to work it, and asking for volunteers seemed ridiculous.
"Alright, who wants to jump into the randomly-working booby trap of death?" Lark pointed at the pentacle, eyes hard. "I call not it. I fell in last time."
"How noble of you, my dear," muttered Victoria.
But Hanabi was thinking something else at the moment. "So, um, don't we need Hiei to go back home?" Silence invaded the room, until a pin could be heard. Finally, there was a loud crash, one that shattered the windows completely, and the cloaked figure pried himself out of the wall. Hiei fell to the ground, amidst the clatter of his katana.
He was in bad shape, Kurama knew, even before the fox rushed over to his friend's side. Blood was slowly rising where the stone had torn away patches of skin, and horrible bruises and welts were showing up from underneath the torn cloak. Despite the glare that Hiei focused upon him, Kurama gently patted down the demon's limbs and chest before sighing in frustration. Broken bones, cracked ribs, sprains and fractures, Hiei's internal organs seemed unharmed (thank Enma) but that wasn't a concrete fact, most likely a few torn ligaments...
Hiei got to his feet (It was painfully obvious that he had a slight limp), biting back the grunt of pain, and grabbed his sword, studying the way the blackish liquid dripped off its razor edge. True to his word, the blade was once again coated in blood, although it was nowhere near as red as it should have been; this blood was dead, sticky, thick and viscous, mixed with white specks of pus. It didn't flow, it oozed.
"Have fun?" Kyuro asked, crinkling his lip at the disgusting substance that Hiei was quickly cleaning off his weapon. The short demon only muttered a "Tch" before sheathing the blade. Kurama, however, was already making a checklist in his head of all the herbs and medicines he'd need to make sure that none of them would be hurting to badly by the time they got home. If they got home -- provided the portal would stop being so finicky.
The walls shook, Holly tensing at the vibrations, while Yusuke crouched down and ran a hand over the inlay of the pentacle's ring. "Alright, time to leave." The pentacle in the middle of the room remained unresponsive, all while the vibrations became more thunderous the closer they came -- although not nearly as earth shattering as the first. They all had a feeling that the first crash had been from It jumping down the tower of the spiral staircase, seeing as the stairs were far too small for It's giant hooves. And here they were, trapped, in the room that was the only exit from this world.
As the others started to argue and try to work out a means of escape, Hanabi tried to stay on the fringes of the conversation, but the voices inside were starting to get much too loud to ignore.
Hanabi-kun, is this as calm as they will get? Half of them look about ready to have a hernia.
Gee, I wonder why..? All that was on his mind, at the moment, was the thought of that beast suddenly appearing and snatching him up with those horrible fingers...
Time to bring out the big guns, then, boy.
You wouldn't...
Yeah, I would. Time's a wastin'.
Hanabi, don't let him!
Frankly, by now, he was rather lost at Their argument. He'd had more important things to pay attention to, and it seemed as if he'd caught the tail end of it, too. Big guns? Hanabi wasn't a fighter, he knew, and there was very little he could do in this situation, anyways.
I suppose that I could get that gateway to open for a while.
Good. Go jump in, already.
More useless banter, much of which simply annoyed him at the lack of urgency the Two had. The floor was starting to shake more violently, now. They didn't have long. Get it on with, Hanabi mentally muttered, hoping to get the voices to pull themselves together. Anything to leave this nightmare.
Anything? Good. Leave me in charge, and it'll all be over.
By now, he didn't care. Hanabi had let Him run his body before, and he doubted anything much worse could come out of it. As the other one's voice rose to a high-pitched nagging, he let himself slip below the surface, and just in time. For, out of the doorway, the little girl ran in, then turned back and called out for her gruesome caretaker.
He reacted quickly; already merging what little energy Hanabi had with His own, and channeled it down through his feet and into the metal pentacle. The spiritual energy crackled and jumped, leaping from the metal inlay towards the hidden spikes that jutted out of the pit's floor. So much like common human electricity, the mixed energy grounded itself, each time at the intersection of one of the star's points, and converged in the center, striking a peculiar little oblong shape of metal.
The bone fingers, the once human flesh having rotted away years ago, exploded from the heat of the power, and the crooked hands once again began to run. The miniature gears squealed at the sheer force that was pumped through the rusted pocket watch, and the black pentacle on the floor flickered before disappearing completely.
Just in time, too. That sickly odor was starting to penetrate the room, meaning that the walking corpse couldn't be far behind. He smirked back at the rest of His entourage, and flippantly made a shooing motion. "Go on ahead, jump."
Jin blinked; all too aware of the brilliantly orange eyes staring back at him. The wind master tensed, but one good whiff of rotting flesh coming closer, and Jin apparently decided that jumping into the unknown magical portal that was laced with metal spikes was much better than just sticking around. Still, the redhead was the last to go, and floated above the pit, as flighty as a sparrow.
"You coming?"
He coughed, and paused to give the girl and her It a final flip of the finger before leaping into the death trap after the shinobi.
...
Jeebus, it was cold... he hadn't been home for what seemed like just a few hours, but he was sure that it hadn't been this chilly when he last left. He coughed and groaned, finally prying open eyelids that seemed to be frozen shut. The air was dry, but the oversized scarf that was tied around his neck protected his lower face from the brunt of the cold.
An tiny prick of cold, invisible against the hoary-gray sky, landed on his nose. Unable to contain himself, Hanabi crinkled his nose and sneezed.
"Welcome home," Holly answered.
Whooo! Doooonnnneeeee:headdesk: Hope you guys are having a good summer. My summer art program ends in a week or so, so updates are going to pick up. Especially once I kill off some of these Naruto plotbunnies. o. But I do adore Kiba and Hinata sooooo... :headdesk: but this marks the halfway point of this ficcy. Whoo... :finger-twirl:
Well, I have my brand new memory stick, so no more faulty floppy drives or cheap-o computers for me. D So much memory... at my fingertips... wheeee!