Ah Wednesday, how wonderful to have it off again. heehee! And as if that weren't great enough, I actually have an interview for a job in my field! It almost makes up for the great scheduling snaffu's at work this past weekend.
What do I mean? Well, I worked both Saturday and Sunday, and while that doesn't normally bother me, I don't like being the only person scheduled to work over all of softlines by myself. Both days. Again. (counting the previous Sunday). thankfully this Sunday wasn't as bad as the previous one, because Saturday was the worst. See morning shifts are where you have to put out all the new merchandise, which is why there are so many department managers scheduled during the day most of the week. The new merchandise has to be put out on the floor where it goes or returned to the back. But, with only one person scheduled it is rather difficult to do that and cover the fitting room, remove foreign merchandise, and answer the phone which are my primary job duties. In fact I'm a fitting room attendant so those last three things are the only things I'm actually supposed to do. But I can't do them when there's freight to put out and no one else to do it. And the worst part of all, Saturday is both busy and receptive of quite a bit of new merchandise. I was exhausted and quite peeved to say the least.
I don't mind putting out freight, I like to help, be part of the team and all that rot. What I don't like is being the entire team by myself when some idiot failed to schedule the necessary people. That's right, we're back to talking about my stupid manager who can't make a decent schedule to save her life. Moron. And It's not just affecting me or this side of the store. When she pulls this kind of crap they have to call in someone from a different part of the store where the managers are actually intelligent enough to schedule enough people so that I can go eat and take breaks and another part of the store can answer the stupid phone. And we have to leave the fitting room unsupervised which increases the risk of theft and I get blamed for it despite the fact it's not my fault.
but enough of that. You're only interested in the next chapter, and you should be. Aki proves once again to be unkillable and entirely too entertaining to the fates in charge. Don't ask, they really are crazy! oh and I just realized I failed to put my rather subtle disclaimers in the last couple chapters. Well if you don't know what's mine and what isn't by this point, you aren't using your brain and I'm very disappointed in you. Not! On with the unusual!
The Place In Between
The ghost boy had been certain to inform the group just what could possibly happen when the sun came up and they'd spent the last half hour or so before dawn on pins and needles, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. And Aki comfortably slept through it. Well maybe not so comfortably, she unconsciously wound up rolling over her cache of rocks forcing the hard ammunition to grind unpleasantly together.
"Five minutes to go," Kagome announced, fidgeting over her watch. She wasn't sure if she was glad the wait was almost over or not. The suspense was seriously getting on her nerves, but not so much she wanted to hurry along Aki's possible death.
Fred chuckled quietly and everybody turned to glare at him. This was no laughing matter! The ghost rolled his eyes, "Aki will be fine." His declaration was firm, with no detectable doubt in his tone.
"How can you be so certain?" Sango asked anxiously.
"Because I know Aki," he smirked. "She always manages to escape the kiss of death. Either she'll do something to pull through, or something else will happen to prevent the termination of her life." The ghost winked at them, "The only true threat to Aki's life is Aki herself."
"I don't think I like that," Tama muttered.
"Well, the thing is, Aki promised not to die easy," Fred explained. "So once she's survived something or someone's attacks, she won't be taken down by them ever again. No illness, beating, or insult will ever bring her down. Nobody she's already fought will be able to come back and defeat her. That's just the way Aki works."
"Well she hasn't survived this yet," Kagome pointed out. "Has she?"
Fred smirked, "Aki has met a lot of different people, what makes you so certain she hasn't already met a phoenix before?"
"A phoenix?" Sango gasped.
"Yeah, Haku was a phoenix," Fred answered. "And Aki's met one before."
"And she's fought and defeated a phoenix?" Sango asked incredulous. Phoenix weren't known for fighting so much as healing. She highly doubted Aki had ever been in this particular situation before either.
"I didn't say she'd fought a phoenix," Fred grumbled.
"Would you two shut up? The sun is rising!" Inuyasha bellowed.
As they watched, the ghosts in the circle started to fade from the site, leaving only Aki inside the blue barrier. To their horror, the moment the last ghost disappeared from sight the flames of the shield changed color from blue to red and began to shrink.
"Oh no!" Kagome cried as the group rushed on the slowly imploding dome of flame.
The former English tutor groaned mutely and mumbled something incoherent. She couldn't care less what was going on around her, she was trying to sleep.
Sesshoumaru tested Haku's barrier with a wary fist only to withdraw the appendage in minor pain. His skin reddened with the resulting burn. "Aki wake up!" he demanded with a snarl.
Aki mumbled something else under the roar of the fire and abruptly disappeared.
Silence blanketed the village.
"What the hell happened this time?" Inuyasha growled in annoyance. He was getting really tired of all the weird shit that kept happening. HE didn't like being left out of "the know".
The hanyou's annoyed demand set off a flood of questions from the others all wondering where Aki had gone, if she was all right, and whether Naraku had something to do with it or not.
"ENOUGH!" Sesshoumaru roared over the cacophony of voices, entirely too upset to put up with all the noise asking all the same questions he wanted answered. If Inuyasha was annoyed about all the strange events going on, Sesshoumaru was downright pissed. The strange happenings were all centered on his mate after all.
"Well what do you know? I was right," Fred chuckled childishly. "I told you something would happen."
"Where is she?" the demon lord demanded darkly.
"She's fine," Fred smiled impishly.
"That isn't what he asked!" Tama yelled and threw a barrier bubble.
"That's too bad," Fred dodged the missile and made a face at the old goat. "That's all I know for sure. She's alive and she's safe. Be happy for that!"
"How do you know that?" Azusa asked apprehensively.
He blinked down at the little girl, "Because if she was dead I wouldn't still be here."
"Why's that?" Shippou asked curiously.
Fred grinned at the fox, "Aki is my anchor so to speak. If there is no Aki, then there is no Fred. My purpose would have ended if she had died, but she hasn't so I'm still here."
"Well, that explains how you know she's alive, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's safe," Sango pointed out.
"Yeah, but see, Aki is currently somewhere I can't follow, which means she's gone someplace where death or the dead like me, either don't exist or can't exist. Therefore Aki cannot be killed wherever she happens to be at this moment," He explained.
"That still doesn't necessarily mean she's safe," Kagome echoed Sango.
"Yes it does!" Fred growled. "The only place that fulfills those criteria is filled with beings that hold no malice for those summoned there."
"Aki was summoned?" Kagome mumbled in disbelief.
"She's not here is she?" Fred pointed out derisively.
"Still, I didn't see anybody summon her," Kagome argued.
The ghost rolled his eyes, "Of course you didn't, nobody came here."
"Then how was she summoned?"
"They invoked her name," He replied.
"They called her name?" the ninth grader asked, incredulous.
"No, I said 'invoke', there is a difference."
"What's the difference?" Shippou was confused.
"The difference is they used her true name mixed with the power to call her to where they are. There's a bit more to it of course, but that's just semantics." He explained vaguely. "I'm surprised they actually knew the name that Naraku is looking for when Aki and I both no longer remember it.
"She doesn't remember this name, but she still answers to it?" Tama bit out in disbelief.
"The soul never forgets its name, even if the mind does. It's just as well, because if Aki had remembered her name, Naraku would've already won their little contest."
Sesshoumaru raised his eyes to the ghost not needing the reminder that the evil hanyou wanted his mate. It seemed like everything in the world was conspiring to terminate his relationship with Aki. And Aki wasn't helping things either.
Of course Aki couldn't care less at the moment as she finally started to wake up. She opened her eyes to the strange orange whatever that surrounded her. There was orange in every direction and absolutely no indication as to which way was up or down, as she seemed to float weightlessly in place. She might have dismissed it as a dream if not for the continuing manifestation of the various gashes and cuts she'd collected from her altercations with Naraku's painted detachment.
"So you have awaken," a voice spoke softly to her left. The voice was strange and sounded like more than one-person spoke the same words at the same time but weren't quite in sync. Aki turned to look at the source of this strange sound and found a purple cloud. The cloud chuckled softly as Aki's eyebrows soared in surprise. "We are glad you are awake. Though you are not as well as could be wished."
"Who are you?" Aki asked quietly her voice echoing despite her lack of volume.
Another voice spoke, this one distinctly feminine despite the mix of voices and echo. "We have many names, depending on who you talk to. We are gods, I think that's the generic term for us."
Aki blinked but refused to comment. "Where are we?"
"You are in our world, which is not in the same plane as yours. We summoned you here to help you," the second voice answered. "We would've called you here sooner, but we did not know your Name."
"We had quite a bit of trouble finding it. It eluded us for quite some time," the first voice informed her.
"I'm not surprised," Aki offered in sympathy, "that name is dead. Has been for several years."
"Nonsense. Nothing that exists here is dead, death is not welcome here, for nothing here dies," the first voice declared brusquely.
"Names can be forgotten or even lost, but they do not die." The female one clarified.
"I wished it were dead, I thought it was" Aki replied painfully. "Why couldn't it have died with them? It would've been less painful."
"We apologize, if we'd known sooner we could have helped."
"What do you mean?" Aki demanded. "Why should you help me?"
"You have no idea what you are," the first voice said with wonder.
"Your kind is sacred to us and extremely rare. Thousands of years separate your births," the second voice informed her.
"My kind?" Aki raised a recently lowered eyebrow in skepticism. "I have a kind?"
The purple cloud chuckled at her again, "Quite. It is very rare for youkai to breed outside their own animal. Rarer still for their offspring to again breed outside those first two species. Even more rare is for all those combinations to be of the predatory class and yet still have a gentle and forgiving heart."
"I still don't get it," Aki sighed tiredly. She wasn't that forgiving and there were several people that would argue she wasn't particularly gentle either.
"No? I am not surprised," the female voice said soothingly. "None of the rest ever did either." The voice paused, "It doesn't matter really. You need only understand that we will help you."
"Help me how?" Aki demanded. She really didn't need the "help you over a cliff" kind of help.
"Well, to begin we are going to heal you," the first voice answered gruffly. "You are in pretty bad shape you know."
Aki nodded quietly, "I suppose I am."
"You suppose?" the purple cloud chortled. "I have never seen one of your kind so uncaring for their physical health!"
"Hush," the female scolded, "don't harass her about it. She has her reasons."
"Reasons! What the hell reasons could she possibly have? She will never last like this!"
Aki listened tiredly as the two proceeded to argue. It was slightly amusing playing spectator to an argument between entities that appeared no more substantial that little wisps of clouds. She could almost imagine that this was how thunderstorms started.
Aki sneezed, speaking of rain; she was still soaked to the skin in her clothes. "Excuse me, but could we please get this over with before I catch a cold?"
The voices silenced and Aki closed her eyes savoring the sound. Ah, peace at last. Then both erupted simultaneously in apology. Aki winced, "All right, how are we going to do this?"
"Well," the female voice began, "you are going to have to get undressed. We will be using a spell that will heal you, but only what is visible."
Aki blinked, "What?" she asked incredulously.
"Actually," the purple cloud began. "The thing is, the spell will heal the first thing it comes in contact with. Clothing would be in the way, and it is not a living piece of you. The spell will return your physical body to the state it was in before you first fell through time."
"So it'll erase all the scars I've gotten since then right?" Aki inquired for clarification.
"That is correct, however if you have since healed something that was injured before that, it will not reopen the wounds," Mr. Purple answered.
"Meaning if you had a skinned knee before you crossed time and have since healed it, it will not reappear as it was," the softer more feminine voice added.
"Okay," Aki replied slipping the only button left on her shirt. She felt a fleeting moment of sadness over the missing buttons. Really, did Sesshoumaru have to be so impatient?
There was a soft girlish chuckle from the second voice's direction. "We can fix your clothes if you like," she said warmly.
Aki's face lit up in a childish grin and she finally turned in the direction of the second entity. The source of the second voice was yet another cloud. The second cloud was fluffy and white outlined with baby blue shadows. It reminded Aki of the giant cumulus clouds seen on clear sunny days.
"We can even make them a little more durable so your clothes won't be so easy to damage," Cumulus added.
Aki's smile grew even wider, "I would like that very much. This shirt is very special to me."
Cumulus chuckled again, "I can see that, it is practically threadbare."
"We were trying to do something remember?" Mr. Purple interrupted.
"Right," Aki nodded and finished undressing. "Now what?"
"Now we need you to bring all your youkai blood to the fore," cumulus stated.
"Relax and take a nap," Mr. Purple recommended. "When you wake up, you will be good as new."
The white cloud laughed softly as Aki fell asleep very quickly under their watch. "Really I don't know why you never fixed that whole clothing issue with the spell."
"If it is not broken do not fix it!" the purple cloud replied shortly.
Cumulus sighed, "Let us see just what work has to be done and get started."
"It is amazing the damage she has sustained," Mr. Purple mumbled mostly to himself as he checked his patient over. "Looks like she's already mated," he pointed out distractedly.
"Yes, but there is something wrong with the contract," Cumulus thought aloud. "Ah! There it is," she clucked as she 'read' the mark. "It has the potential to become an incredibly long-lasting contract."
"But? You said there was a problem with it," he prompted.
"But the youkai didn't follow all the rules," Cumulus finished sadly. "Too bad though. He could have been a good match for her," again with the thinking out loud. "Oh well, it will have to go."
"Yeah," the purple cloud agreed. "Are we ready to do this now?"
"Let's do it," she gave her affirmative.
Back in the real world, Sesshoumaru sat staring at the spot his mate had last occupied. No matter how often the ghost of Aki's best friend tried to assure him his mate was in no danger, the fact remained the almost demon girl was not with him. Until she was, he refused to budge. Again he had failed to prevent her departure from him.
"Why do you insist on glaring at the ground as if it was responsible for Aki's disappearance?" Inuyasha pestered the elder inu. The taiyoukai merely growled in response. His hanyou half brother snorted. "Fred says Aki will be back before night fall. Why can't you just accept that? He would hardly lie about his best friend you know." Inuyasha continued to ply Sesshoumaru with annoying questions.
For his part Inuyasha was only playing with certain death in hopes of distracting the inu youkai from yet another painful separation from Aki. Frankly the hanyou knew how Sesshoumaru felt. He felt that way nearly every time Kagome went home, though for different reasons. It was a painful, lost, angry feeling that left one fearing abandonment by the person who was gone.
Finally dog boy managed to pry a vocalized and coherent answer from the youkai lord. "Inuyasha, if you do not cease this onslaught of moronic prattle I will personally see to it that you are unable to speak for many years in the future." Sesshoumaru's voice was dark with tightly reigned irritation.
Inuyasha was certainly not stopping now; he'd finally gotten an articulate response. He was making progress, why quit now? "It lives! I was beginning to wonder who had snuck in here to replace your body with an inanimate look-a-like. Whew! That's a load off my mind," Inuyasha quipped sarcastically.
"Inuyasha, do you have a death wish?" Tama called to the dog boy.
"You stay out of this you old goat," Inuyasha shot back at his former nanny.
"Don't presume to order me about you young rogue!" the old goat demon hollered back indignantly. "I remember you in diapers!"
"So what!" Inuyasha shouted in response.
"Oh the stories I could tell all your friends," Tama started smugly. "I could tell them about the time you had your first taste of sake when you knew you weren't supposed to have it yet."
"You wouldn't dare!" Inuyasha bellowed even louder, that was one embarrassing story.
"Oh wouldn't I!" the matron smirked evilly. "How about the first time you discovered the wonders of girls?"
"I want to hear that one," Miroku jumped at the chance to hear such a story eagerly.
"Hentai," Inuyasha muttered, his face scarlet.
It appeared as if Inuyasha was doomed to live through all his most embarrassing moments of childhood. And Tama knew just about all of it too. The dog boy knew the old demon had kept tabs on him even after he and his mother had been left at the hands of her kin. Tama did things like that just to torment him.
Lucky for him, Sesshoumaru wasn't in the mood to hear any of it. "Silence!" the taiyoukai demanded.
"Geez, what a grouch!" Shippou grumbled into the silence. His attitude promptly changed when said grouch sent a lethal glare his way. "Eep!"
"Something appears to be happening," Sango called everyone's attention back to the place Aki had last been seen. The air above the ground seemed to shimmer for a moment before parting. A figure stepped through and floated to the ground seemingly chatting with someone behind the shimmering air.
Once the figure touched the ground the shimmering stopped. The stranger turned around to look at the group expectantly. This person standing in front of them, with her light brown hair and dark hazel eyes, seemed vaguely familiar to Sesshoumaru.
True the great lord didn't recognize her. Then again Sesshoumaru didn't normally recognize most humans, for the individual standing before them appeared entirely too human. The fact that the very exotic seeming human before him seemed vaguely familiar obviously meant he'd met her before. And very likely had wanted to kill her as was his normal desire when presented with one of the filthy lesser breed.
He couldn't remember why she would still be breathing at this point in time, but he was in a really bad mood and the strange human presented a convenient opportunity to rake his claws through living flesh.
It didn't occur to him that the clothes the strange human wore were the same as Aki had been wearing. It didn't occur to him to check see if the others knew her.
All that mattered was that he was in need of stress relief, Aki had not returned yet, and this insignificant creature had instilled a false hope that she had returned.
That was all that mattered and Sesshoumaru charged that strange hazel eyed human without a second thought.
Our brown haired human stared confusedly at the incoming demon. She was so stunned she almost didn't react in time.
At the last possible moment she avoided a neck full of claws by throwing herself into a hasty back flip. Of course just because she dodged one attack didn't mean Sesshoumaru was going to let her get away. He kept charging and she kept dodging as the onlookers that recognized her began to shout in horror.
Inuyasha knew who she was as did Kagome and Shippou. Sango had guessed it. The human Sesshoumaru was currently attacking was none other than the Aki he had claimed as mate.
That didn't mean the taiyoukai knew that. The Aki he knew had never been so human. The Aki he knew had blond hair and green eyes you could drown in.
To Sesshoumaru's increasing fury, the human female miraculously managed to continuously avoid his outstretched claws and the toxins that dripped from them. The girl was something else and the sane part of his brain took note of her acrobatic movement. He'd never seen a human so graceful under pressure. He had also never met a human so devoid of fear. Here he was, claws practically at her throat and she did not fear him.
At most she looked confused, slightly hurt and very surprised. A surprise that only increased when her heal caught on a rock causing her to trip violently and take him down with her.
Before Sesshoumaru could recover, Aki quickly rolled out of his reach. She went to stand and sensed something coming at her from the opposite direction of the dog demon. Something disgustingly familiar, something evilly menacing that meant to do her a great deal of harm. She didn't think; she just reacted.
Aki threw her hand and one foot forcefully into the solid body she couldn't see. Utilizing said body's momentum, she threw it up and over her, causing it to land with a bone-crunching thump on the other side of Sesshoumaru.
Sango stepped up nonchalantly and swung her hiraikotsu down on top of the area that had been disturbed. Instantly the invisible foe was no longer invisible.
There lying crushed under the exterminator's giant boomerang was a very dead looking painted detachment.
Sesshoumaru's eyes widened minutely in surprise. What was that particular detachment doing here? Aki wasn't present, or was she?
The inu youkai quickly turned back to his prey only to find Inuyasha, sword in hand, growling at him. KAgome was helping the human girl to her feet.
"What on Earth did you think you were doing, Baka!" Inuyasha yelled at him.
"What – " Sesshoumaru began before a very familiar voice interrupted him.
"What in the world is going on!" the new human exclaimed. "I disappear for a few hours, come back and everything has gone crazy!"
"There's a perfectly good explanation for it," Kagome patted Aki soothingly on the back. "Shippou could you bring me my mirror please."
"Got it, Kagome!" the kit raced into the shrine building.
Aki stared at Kagome flabbergasted. How could a mirror explain all this insanity?
"You're so going to hate yourself when you find out who you just tried to kill," Inuyasha said out the side of his mouth. The elder of the inu brothers was just about to interrogate the younger when Shippou returned with Kagome's mirror.
"Here," Kagome said as she handed the mirror to the elder Human-looking woman.
"Kagome, I don't see how a mirror is going to explain all…" her voice petered out momentarily as she caught a glimpse of her reflection. "Oh," she gasped numbly continuing to gaze in the mirror. Her features slowly melted into a radiant smile as realization started to sink. "There I am," she breathed softly. "Oh wow!"
"See Aki-chan, he's never seen you as you were before the Urasei. He didn't know it was you," Sango explained softly.
"Oh wow!" Aki ignored the explanation. "I'm me again! I never thought I'd…I mean I wanted but…Fred, Look! I'm me again!"
Fred hovered just behind her shoulder, grinning maniacally at her joy. "Aki, you were always you. You know that."
"Yeah, but it's been such a long time since I've looked it," Aki's smile grew impossibly wide. She joyfully danced a bit before tripping to fall on the ground laughing. "Oh, I suddenly feel so much better," she sighed. "That does kind of explain why Sesshoumaru would try to attack me," Aki chuckled, slowly sitting up, "he's not exactly a people person."
Inuyasha snorted, "understatement of the century."
"Hell, I've known that since the first time I met him," Aki continued. "Of course I don't think he recognized me the second time around."
Sesshoumaru gazed at her slightly puzzled.
"You could've just been in a bad mood. You had just lost your arm after all," Aki added.
"I forgot about that!" Fred laughed.
Sesshoumaru blinked at the woman smiling so brightly on the ground. Aki had been his hallucinated caretaker? His caretaker hadn't been a hallucination? Why hadn't he figured it out before this?
"So what did they do besides make you look like you used to?" Fred wanted to know.
"They fixed my clothes!" Aki smiled brightly.
"You mean we worried about you just visiting your tailor!" Tama huffed.
"Aw you worried? You shouldn't have," Aki teased before continuing. "They made my clothes a little more durable so they won't be damaged so easily."
"Hey neat trick," Fred marveled.
"They also returned me to the physical state I was in the first time I fell in the well," Aki continued while rolling up one of her sleeves. "All of the scars I've collected since then are gone now, see." She showed them her elbow. "Though they didn't fill my stomach, did you save all that stuff you horrible people stole from my soup?" she asked eagerly.
Her question was met with surprised laughter from most of the party. They were relieved she was okay. They were pleased she was hungry. Thank goodness the whole affair was over and everybody survived it.
But one person was not laughing. Sesshoumaru had thought of something that still worried him and he was determined to investigate it as soon as possible.