Enchanted Orbs
Chapter 22 The Storm
Aishi was on his way at near top speed to Sesshoumaru's chambers, but before he could even gather his speed, he slammed into a barrier.
He heard her thoughts and knew what was happening. "I don't have time for this. Remove yourself from my path, bitch, and you'll spare you life for a few hours." He spat at her. 'She'll regret thinking me a coward.' He thought as he narrowed his eyes looking for the slight distortion of her illusion.
Kagome revealed herself to him, and all his suspicions were confirmed. It was the servant from two weeks ago. He recognized her by her scent and form; she had a womanly form but was more muscular than most of her gender. She stood strong before him now. The servant's bowed head and submissiveness gone, but she was deceiving.
Her posture and attitude blazoned her confidence and power, but her slender figure and small, delicate hands were wholly contradictory.
Defiant blue eyes pierced him to the core, and she smiled as she dropped her barrier. "Fleeing the scene of the crime, Aishi? Why, that's horribly rude." Kagome said in a taunting voice.
She needed to stall him long enough to figure out what exactly was going on, and perhaps she could pull the exact plan from him. 'Hey it always worked for Scooby and the gang.'
Any doubts Aishi had about this girl being strange were now confirmed. 'Who the hell is Scooby?' Her dialect and inflection were different from any he had ever heard, her speech patterns were worse than that of a foreigner, and the clothing she was wearing were like nothing he'd ever seen or heard.
Kagome seethed when she saw her enemy take an appraising glance at her. 'What the hell? He threatens my life and then checks me out. Oh no, I don't think so!!'
Aishi heard her thoughts, but before he could decipher what she meant, he heard...
"Hey, my face is up here!" She waved her hand to attract his attention from her other aspects.
"Yes, I've sliced through enough necks to know where the head is, now move! I need to get to Sesshoumaru." He couldn't spare a moment. His purpose was urgent.
"I'll bet you do, but if you can not get past me, you won't stand a chance against him."
At that time, Sesshoumaru came down the hallway. "What is the meaning of this?" He asked in his flat tone. The explosion had drawn his attention, but he would not leave his chambers in a state of undress. He also wanted to find Kagome to find out what had happened.
He didn't even need to search her out; her aura blazed so brightly that it attracted his immediate attention.
"Lord Sesshoumaru, I was just on my way to inform you not to investigate the explosion. It is a trap set by Samon and Rokoshi to lure you, and those loyal to you, to your deaths, but your spy detained me. Forgive my tardiness, my lord." Aishi said with a bowed head.
Kagome's jaw dropped. 'There's no way.'
"And how do you know this for certain?" Sesshoumaru questioned.
"I overheard them talking only seconds before I came to inform you."
"That is a lie." Kagome interjected.
Both males looked at her. Aishi curled his lip with the accusation, but held his silence.
"I was feeling out auras from this very spot right before the explosion, and Rokoshi and Samon were no where near each other. In fact, Aishi stopped near Samon most likely conversing in the same manner of which he just accused Rokoshi. My only hang up is why you are ratting out your partner. Are you expecting us to dispose of him for you? Do you want me to do your dirty work for you, coward?"
Aishi growled. What he said was a partial lie. He had heard Samon's thoughts; true, Rokoshi was nowhere near him, but Samon's thoughts told of Rokoshi's role and guilt.
He has never told any outside his family of his thought-reading capabilities, but without revealing it, Sesshoumaru would never believe him.
"Yes, what I said was a partial truth..." Kagome beamed at his confession. "...but I am not guilty of what you accuse me of, bitch." He glared at her. His glare faded, and his head sagged slightly.
"I have never revealed this ability of mine to anyone. I was trying to keep it that way, but in the essence of time and credibility, I will confess. I have the ability to read thoughts. I was passing Samon and heard of his ploy. Rokoshi's guilt was revealed through his thoughts, so I included him in the fictional conversation." He turned to his lord. "My loyalty has never swayed, my lord, and you must believe that my warning holds true. There are soldiers waiting in ambush right around the corner, we must take action quickly."
"And we're just supposed to believe you when you just confessed to a lie?" Kagome spouted off. "What proof do we have?"
Aishi grinned. "Only if you tell me who this Scooby person is. Also, the night when I caught you following me is more proof. You were completely concealed. How else could I have found you if not hearing your thoughts?"
Kagome's eyes widened when he mentioned the dog detective. She had to give it to him; he could not have guessed that when cartoons didn't even exist yet.
"That is enough bickering from the two of you. I would like to know why you feel my life is in danger from a few soldiers. Even with the advantage of surprise, I would not fall to such a trick." Sesshoumaru leveled a flat gaze to his general.
"It is not only a few soldiers, lord. All of the soldiers summoned by Samon are traitorous; they are loyal to him and Rokoshi. And, if Samon's thoughts are accurate, hundreds more have arrived. He was waiting for word of their arrival before causing the explosion."
Sesshoumaru's brow creased in concentration. His thoughts on how to deal with the situation presented were interrupted by Kagome's nervous whisper.
"Sesshoumaru, don't look now, but we're being surrounded." Her face told of anxiety.
Both males looked sharply around them, but nothing was seen.
"Stupid girl, what are you..." Aishi growled but was interrupted.
"Use your senses, there are auras, hundreds of them, gathering around us." Kagome hissed in a hushed voice.
Most youkai can sense auras. It is not a difficult task, but most prefer to rely on their superior sight or smell to identify others.
She was right; hundreds of auras were within feet of them, closing in slowly on all sides. It was true they were surrounded, but the group was much thicker on one side.
'Apparently, they are trying to force us to the site of the explosion. Aishi must be right; it is a trap.' Sesshoumaru registered.
Kagome raised a wall hoping to stall them, but how do you shield yourself from nothing?
"Sesshoumaru, what are they?" She asked hesitantly.
"Vengeful spirits. Someone gathered them here." He replied without a hint of care in his voice.
"I don't see the point." Aishi said. "There's not much harm a formless spirit can do."
Sesshoumaru held his silence, but he had his doubts that they would be here to serve no purpose. Spirits are hard to bring about and impossible to control. Someone wanted him either distracted or wounded by these specters. Could they wound him? Was he really willing to find out, how can you fight something that's formless and already dead?
'If someone had the power to conjure and group them here, they might have been able to give the ghouls enough form to attack.' Sesshoumaru's calculating mind was flying through possibilities, but this was the only one that seemed likely.
Kagome could sense them pressing against her barrier. The dome was completely submersed in them, but they were not passing through. Whether they couldn't or if they were waiting for something, she could not tell.
A few seconds of calm passed, then it seems the patience of the auras dwindled. Two or three seemed very excited about breaking her barrier. By sheer will alone, Kagome kept them at bay. It seems her shield will only retard them, but not completely guard against them.
Movement to the side alerted her to another's presence.
"Lord Sesshoumaru, what's going on?" Shouron had entered the room. He saw the barrier and the pensive look on his lord's visage, but saw no reason for the barrier.
A few of the ghouls must have tired with trying to penetrate the shield because they started drifting towards Shouron.
Like birds swooping onto their prey, they advanced on him.
He saw a horrified female's face turn to him in warning before he felt sharp pains sear through his side, down his arms, and across his cheek.
Shouron smelled his own blood; instantly alert to danger, he readied himself for another round of attacks.
"No, Sesshoumaru, we have to do something. What can we do to help him?"
He didn't answer her; he was engrossed in thought. When Kagome saw Shouron in danger, her power flared. When that happened, he felt her barrier's form shift from a solid wall of protection, to the purity shield commonly used by mikos. The spirits shifted away from that energy.
'Of course, spirits bent on destruction would not fare well against a pure soul's power.' He thought, momentarily overlooking Kagome's original powers because of her new attacks.
"Kagome use a miko shield." He commanded.
The shield became translucent pink, and all the auras put space between them and their barricade, but that only caused more pain to the unprotected general.
Shouron had since tapped into his senses and could see his attackers. He dodged their second rush, but when the shield shifted, more had joined in to torment him instead of their original target.
Kagome hadn't felt so helpless since she had been given full access to her power. Racking her brain, the only thing she could think of was to pull him through the barrier which could hurt more than help. Shouron might not appreciate being burned, but her doubts were dispelled when she saw that the attacks where changing in their intensity.
At first it seemed the ghosts were toying with him, but now the attacks were aimed for vital areas. And Shouron seemed to be having more trouble dodging. Mind made up, Kagome twitched her fingers.
Predicting which way he would dodge the incoming attack, Kagome flicked her wrist.
A brilliant white whip of light shot out towards the general, wrapped around his waist, and yanked him back towards the shield.
Parting the barrier as best she could without allowing the enemy in, Kagome succeeded in rescuing the general, but she neglected to dodge his form flying at her.
Without thinking, Sesshoumaru utilized his speed to pull Kagome out of the way. Shouron regained his wits and curled into himself; flipping gracefully, he landed crouched where Kagome had stood seconds before.
Aishi watched from the sidelines, amazed. She held much more power than he had originally assumed, but what surprised him the most was her interaction with Sesshoumaru.
She was completely disrespectful to his lord, never addressing him by his proper title, never bowing to him, and her manner of speaking to him. This, somehow, didn't shock him so much as Sesshoumaru allowing it. Now he goes so far as to protect her from her own mistake. But Aishi's mouth almost dropped with what happened next.
As Sesshoumaru released this girl, he addressed her. "A whip?" He asked with a laughing tone and a slight smirk.
She smiled at him, "Hey, I've been subject to yours enough to want to try my own hand with one."
Aishi witnessed the joking manner of his lord in complete disbelief, but his thoughts were cut short.
"Kagome?" An incredulous Shouron asked with awe.
She turned to him and smiled.
"But, but you're dead." He looked at her like she was one of the ghosts who had been attacking him.
Aishi rolled his eyes.
"Really?" Kagome said with mirth sparkling in her eyes. "Because I could have sworn this morning that I was alive. I look alive to me, what do you think, Sesshoumaru?" She teased.
Sesshoumaru gave her a dry look. "Kagome, I believe we still have a problem." He said while pointing his finger at the encroaching specters.
"Oh, them." 'Think pure thoughts.' She joked with herself as she gathered her energy around her.
Aishi sent her a curious look at her befuddling thoughts.
Taking hold of the purity shield, she grimaced as she infused it with more of power. The shield became almost liquid in its consistency, and she sent it outwards towards the aggressors.
The demons watched as energy, dangerous to them as well, undulated over their heads and took the form of wave to encompass all of the beings surrounding them.
Souls, now pure, floated harmlessly skyward through the ceiling and away from them.
"Now what?" Kagome asked as she turned to Sesshoumaru.
"I believe we have a trap to spring." He replied flatly.
"But, my lord, surely you don't intend to walk into their trap?" Aishi protested fiercely for his lord's life would be in grave danger if he turned the corner.
"They will be taught to respect their lord, even if it is only with their last thought." Sesshoumaru said through clenched teeth.
He began walking down the corridor. Aishi, Kagome, and Shouron moved to follow him, but they were distracted when Shouron flinched.
His wounds were healing, but were still painful for him.
"Here, Shouron, let me help." Kagome volunteered.
He smiled. "Your special healing abilities?" He asked referring to previous conversations.
"Magic." She replied and wiggled her fingers as her hand glowed a warm yellow. Five yellow orbs began circling him, focusing on his injuries.
Within seconds all traces of his blood were gone, no remnants remained on skin or fabric.
Aishi and Shouron really didn't know how to act around Kagome. This human girl had abilities that far surpassed any of her race, but she acted as if it was the most normal of occurrences. But their confusion lasted only seconds.
The three were alerted to the absence of their lord when the sound of metal clashing and screams of pain echoed through the halls.
All three rushed around the corner to aide their lord.
When Kagome turned the corner, she couldn't contain the gasp that slipped from her throat. She froze as the two generals rushed passed her to join in the fray, but the sight that met her was just too overwhelming.
The corridor which led to the soldiers' training areas was completely demolished. Flames licked the rubble left from the explosion. The entire end of the hallway was gone leaving an open area filled to the brim with armed youkai who were focused on Sesshoumaru.
In the distance, there was a field that was used to simulate mock battles in the distance, and that field was filled with replacements to attack Sesshoumaru as soon as the front line fell to the taiyoukai.
'Kami, help us.' Kagome silently begged before following the two generals through the chaos to help Sesshoumaru.
She could feel his aura flash everywhere in separate instances. He was moving so quickly in his attacks, but if he stopped for any amount of time, she knew he would die. Watching the flash of swords, the green blare of his acid whip whirling around him protectively, and the occasional flaming spears of Toukijin's attacks, Kagome knew that the spars in the dojo had been only a sample of his skills.
Silver white hair curled around him in his dance of death before he relocated to end another's life. His face never changed, never allowed his opponents to judge his next move. Sesshoumaru gave no pattern in his movements except for his lethal accuracy.
He was a master of battle, and he was beautiful. Mesmerized by his beauty, it took a lightning bolt ten feet away to draw her out of her trance.
Kagome snapped her attention to the general in front of her. Shouron's golden ponytail was fraying on the ends with the power he was using. She giggled, his hair looked like a cat's tail when threatened. His eyes; formerly brilliant blue had taken on a silver blue color.
His hair and attire began whipping around him, and Kagome saw his aura become fire swirling around him.
Twin tornadoes funneled down from the sky and began decimating the soldiers waiting in the far end of the field. Lightning struck repeatedly, easily guided to the metal weapons of the abundant enemies.
Kagome saw soldiers gathering around him. 'He said he's not as good with close combat.' She moved to help guard him in close quarters, but his voice stopped her.
"Aishi!" His calm voice rang above the din of combat.
Kagome hadn't noticed the other general, but she understood why at that point. A flash of fire raced across Shouron's path and turned back into the soldiers; the fire served a dual purpose. It drove Shouron's attackers back a bit, and it allowed him to manipulate the fire.
General Shouron could manipulate all of the elements, but it was beyond his ability to create it. Borrowing some of Aishi's fire, Shouron kindled it into a raging flame and used it for close combat attack and defense.
'Wow.' Kagome was dumbfounded. 'For two generals that don't seem to get along well, they certainly are compatible on the battlefield.'
Focusing on Aishi's aura, Kagome tried to track him down. She wanted to see his skills in action. From the demonstration with Shouron, she figured he was a flame thrower of some sort, but she was wrong.
The fire streak she had seen was Aishi, not a separate attack. She realized this now. It appeared that he had forsaken his humanoid form and was now a quadruped. What animal he was, she couldn't tell for his body was flame. There seemed to be nothing solid to him; he appeared invincible in this form, for what can harm fire?
"Kagome, look out!!" Shouron's voice rang through her head, and instantly she erected a shield around her immediate form.
A sword was stopped only inches from her ear. Pushing her barrier away from her as she turned, she knocked her attacker off guard and used his surprise to her advantage. A ball of pure energy ripped from her to purify the youkai who dared attack her when her back was turned.
'Time to go to work, Kagome.' She thought.
"Can I join you?" Kagome yelled as she parted the soldiers with an orb and made her way to Shouron's side.
"As you will." He said. Fire flickered from his fingertips as lightning crashed around the surrounding soldiers.
Aishi and Sesshoumaru utilized their extraordinary speed to lessen the enemy within the mass. Shouron used his long distance capabilities to keep more troops from advancing, and Kagome protected Shouron and purified youkai after youkai that became frustrated trying to catch the swifter of their targets.
Fireworks of Kagome's attacks reigned over the attacking youkai. With time, she had given up on only purifying the enemy. She did not wish to kill anyone, but with the sheer abundance of the enemy and the lives of all four on the line, Kagome changed her philosophy temporarily.
Violet discs the size of her forearm sliced through the flesh of the encroaching youkai, and pink spheres of pure energy scorched those unfortunate enough not to dodge.
Time passed. Even to Kagome, who was accustomed to high-intensity, fast paced spars with a taiyoukai, the battle was draining. It seemed she had been fighting for days, but the sun was only beginning to rise. She had plenty of power remaining, but her body was getting exhausted from the energy coursing through her. Kagome swallowed these facts and continued to keep the advancing youkai at bay.
She was having difficulties though, the more she took out, the more that flooded into the now crowded area surrounding the general and her. They were gaining ground, and even with the assistance of Shouron's fire manipulations, the enemy was spilling into her comfort area.
Ice cold pain ripped through her body, and she screamed out in surprise. In her anxiety of how to prevent their complete approach, she forgot to defend herself against long range attacks.
She felt a fatal piercing through her heart, but quickly removed the weapon and healed herself before her heart could stop pumping her life's fluid. Shouron turned to see blood dripping down her arms, chest, and legs and a yellow glow surrounding a rapidly-closing hole in her chest.
He quickly turned the sparks jumping across his finger tips into an encircling wall of fire to protect the two of them. "Are you alright?" At that point, Kagome noticed blood adorning his garbs as well. His endurance was dwindling, also.
"Yes." She breathed out. Kagome looked at the blood-soaked weapon in her hand. The cold she thought was from her heart being temporarily stopped was not. She held ice in her hand, a dagger of ice had pierced her ribcage. Shouron saw the same thing she did and growled.
"Samon, show yourself, you coward!" He called as he released the wall of fire.
Another wall of ice daggers flew at them. Kagome raised a barrier as Shouron turned the ice into harmless water which splattered against the shield.
The attacking youkai backed away was Samon approached. For the first time Kagome had ever seen, he appeared confident. He was no longer the apprehensive youkai that she had spied on over the past two weeks.
"General Shouron, how good to see you. How are you faring?" He asked with a smirk while looking over his injuries.
Shouron only replied with a growl.
"And I don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting you, my dear. That was a nice little trick I just saw. I guess next time I'll need to aim for your head, so you can't heal yourself. Though, it would be a shame to kill a beauty such as you. Maybe I'll try to tame you myself."
"Keep dreaming." Kagome snapped as she crouched preparing for his attacks.
"Pity." Samon smirked and continued his path to them.
Shouron sent a blast of flame at him to halt him. When the fire subsided as mist was all that remained, but the steam continued to drift towards them. Kagome raised purity shield once again not believing he was so easily defeated.
The mist stopped as if foiled, and it began to take shape. The steam liquefied and took the form of a man only to give way to Samon, still smirking.
He looked straight at her. "I must admit, you're a smart little miko, but that will not prevent your death."
"We will just see about that." Kagome hissed.
With a sweep of his arms, Samon sent a wave of ice daggers at them again.
"You never learn, do you?" Shouron responded as he turned the ice to water once again.
But Kagome saw the gleam of glee in his eyes at Shouron's foil.
"On the contrary, I do." He spat as the water drops crystallized into sharp ice splinters. Before he could react, the splinters pelted Shouron's body.
Kagome didn't expect this to hurt him, after all, he was youkai, but she realized Samon's rationale when she saw blood trailing like tears down Shouron's face.
The splinters pierced the sensitive tissues composing his eyes. Even tiny slivers of ice can kill when directed to the brain through the eye sockets.
A wicked smile crossed Samon's face.
Shouron's body slumped and collapsed to the ground next to Kagome as she watched in horror. Sightless holes that were once dazzling blue stared up at her, blood still oozing from his fatal wounds.
AN: Yes, I know...I am evil, but never fear, I'll update again this weekend. Just think only two to three days until you find out what happens next. AND I WARNED YOU that there would be a storm...so no flames. I could be mean and say I wasn't going to update for a week, but no...I'm being nice after my evil ending. See ya in a few days
