Tohru's Demons
Chapter Thirty-Two: The First Angel
WARNING: Artemis makes some… rather explicit private part jokes here. Plus, Inu-Yasha swears a lot, but hey, that's Inu-Yasha. Just scroll on past the bold capitalized letters if you don't want to hear it. Course… you'd be skipping like a page of my utter brilliance, which you'd have to be some kind of moron to do, but hey, your loss.
By the time Tohru and the others had reached the village, Inu-Yasha was already throwing a fit, which was growing more ferocious by the second as Artemis poured gasoline on the fire by being his usual insufferable self.
"—YOU SONOVABITCH, WHAT THE HELL IS A SACRILEGIOUS NEANDERTHAL?!" Inu-Yasha roared at the top of his voice.
"You." Artemis replied coolly. "You are a primitive, uncouth, maggot of a dog who can't even see what's in front of his own nose."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?! I'LL KILL YOU, I SWEAR TO THE GODS, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU… YOU WUSSY LITTLE WOLF, I'LL TEAR YOUR FREAKING THROAT OUT!!!" Inu-Yasha yowled, reached down, whipped out his small, thin, pointed sword, which somehow grew into an enormous steel fang (probably due to his raging hormones) of orgasmic proportions, and directed it at Artemis.
"Oh, yes, whenever your flattened brain can't think of something idiotic to say you resort to violence. A bit too much testosterone, eh, little doggy? Course, you may need that much, seeing as you're trying to go after two females at once… actually, make that one female and one cold psycho bitch. So what are you, a Mormon?"
Inu-Yasha thrust his sword at Artemis with a furious stream of colorful words, but Artemis simply stepped aside and the white blast from the sword roared past him and engulfed a barn.
"AT LEAST I'M TALL ENOUGH TO LOOK MOST WOMEN IN THE EYES, YOU DAMN PIPSQUEAK! YOU'RE LUCKY REN'S SHORT OR SHE'D BE LOOKING DOWN ON YOU, TOO, LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!!!"
"Kagome really should have you neutered," Artemis bit back angrily. "What with all your wandering. But then again, I doubt you'd even know what to do if it really came down to that. I'll bet you're still a virgin, aren't you?"
"WHAT?! SAY WHAT?!" Inu-Yasha spluttered, the blood rushing to his cheeks in hot embarrassment and utter, unadulterated, murderous fury.
"You know, now that I think of it, that sword of yours fits you just perfectly. I hear it grows red and even pulsates when you get really excited. I'm surprised you even have the balls to use such a thing, or could it be… it's just some phallic metaphor by way of compensation? You're not a eunuch, are you?"
"YOU GODDAMN BASTARD I'LL RIP OFF YOUR LEGS AND MAKE YOU EAT THEM!!! THEN I'LL CUT OFF YOUR STUPID HEAD, STICK IT ON A PIKE, AND FEED WHAT'S LEFT OF YOU TO THE DOGS!!!"
"Um… Tohru?" Kagura said. "Shouldn't we stop them, or something?"
Tohru sighed and replied, "No, it's pretty much impossible when he and Inu-Yasha get like this…"
"That boy, Inu-Yasha, doesn't he remind you of someone?" Haru asked.
Yuki looked over the boy, and realized that he was not a boy at all. He was a demon, and one that looked a bit like Artemis with his golden eyes, clawed hands, and the pair of pointed white ears poking through his hair, though he was missing a tail. It was obvious, though, who was the superior demon.
First off, Artemis's attire was meticulously clean, and fairly refined, whereas Inu-Yasha's plain, wide-sleeved red coat smelled as if it hadn't been washed in days, and the hems of his baggy red pants were covered in dirt due to the fact that he was barefoot. Furthermore, Artemis, when he chose, spoke with a sophistication that Inu-Yasha seriously lacked.
"You know, he acts a lot like that stupid Cat. Kyo, you play with him," Yuki said.
"Shut up you damn Rat!" Kyo snarled. "I don't act like that. And don't order me around!"
"Millie's booored…" Millie sighed. "When are they gonna stop talking?"
"This has dragged on for quite some time," Malacoda agreed. "They're both so stubborn."
"I know," Tohru said, "But the only one that could stop them is—"
"SIT BOY!" yelled a voice.
At this command, Inu-Yasha drove face-first into the ground with the speed of a bowling ball dropped from the top of the Eiffel Tower, and landed with a resounding crash, much like that of a bowling ball hitting dirt. This was because of the enchanted beads around his neck, which were spelled to do what they had just done at the words just spoken. The girl who had spoken them strode past the now prone demon to Artemis, who stood looking down at Inu-Yasha, quite unsurprised, with a self-satisfied smirk tugging at his mouth.
"Artemis!" the girl cried happily. "I haven't seen you in forever!"
"Hello Kagome," Artemis said with a nod of his head.
"And Ren!" Kagome gasped delightedly as Tohru and the others approached. "Oh wow, you're all here! Who're your new friends, though?"
"MILLIE!!!" shouted a new, rather squeaky, voice.
"SHIPPO!!!" Millie shouted back as a small ball of fur threw itself into her arms.
"Millie, you're back!" cried Shippo, wrapping his little arms around Millie's neck. Millie laughed and hugged him back. The Sohmas, for their part, had to take a double take on the newest arrival. Shippo was tiny, about the size of a fox. In fact, his tail was half as big as he was. Other than that, he looked like any other normal little boy with brown hair, green eyes, pointed ears, and fox feet.
"Millie really missed you, too!" Millie cried. "Let's go play!"
"Okay!"
"Don't go far, Millie!" Tohru called after them before turning to Kagome. "Where are Miroku and Sango?"
"Oh…" said Kagome, bringing a hand to her mouth thoughtfully. "You know, I haven't seen them since this morning. Sango went off to bathe, and then Miroku…"
She trailed off, and both girls looked at one another.
"He said he was going to look for firewood, but…"
"You… don't think he went to… spy on Sango, do you?" Tohru asked.
"Do you have any doubt?" Kagome cried. "Gawd, that lecherous…! I think he likes getting himself beaten within an inch of his life, otherwise you'd think he would've learned by now."
"What is he, and idiot…?" Kyo muttered.
"I don't see what the problem is, it just means he likes her, right?" Val said.
"Of course not!" Kagome cried, aghast. "It's totally sexist!"
"Oh come on, Miroku's not all that bad!" Val argued.
"Only you could say something like that…"
"Um… could you find them?" Tohru asked.
"Why? What's wrong?" Kagome said worriedly.
"I'll tell you when we're all here. Just find them, and quickly, please. I have to go back and close the door I left open, but I'll meet you at Kaede's, okay?"
"A…alright," Kagome replied.
"You guys go with her, I'll be there in a minute," Tohru said to the Sohmas, who nodded mutely and followed after Kagome. Tohru turned and ran back up the hill.
Val, however, put a hand on Hatori's arm and nodded to the group of injured that Kaede and a handful of girls were taking care of, saying quietly, "Let's see how good a doctor you really are."
Hatori shook her off gently and approached the group without a word, already pulling out medicines.
"Hey, aren't you forgetting me?!" Inu-Yasha yelled, but no one in particular seemed to be listening.
When Tohru walked into Kaede's hut, the first thing she saw was Miroku grasping Kagura's hands and staring deeply into her eyes. Kagura looked totally confused.
Oh no…Tohru thought.
"Uh, Miroku, I wouldn't—!" Tohru cried, but the inevitable words were already forming on his lips.
"My dear girl, would you please consider bearing my child?"
Silence. Then…
"I… I'm sorry…" Kagura said in a small, trembling voice, her cheeks blushing. "My love is already promised to someone else!" she cried as she punched him through the wall.
"No… problem…" Miroku choked out, a bloody, mangled heap on the ground.
"Serves you right, you perverted monk," Sango growled, stroking her two-tailed yellow and black cat. "Nice punch, by the way," she added to Kagura.
"Thank you!"
Kyo, Yuki, Haru, Kagome, and Inu-Yasha (he'd eventually stopped sulking and came to join everyone else) were utterly and completely speechless. Kaede, having stabilized the last of her patients, just shook her head and continued to quietly talk to Hatori. She was quite interested in his experience in modern-medicine, and her knowledge of medieval remedies intrigued the Dragon. Malacoda continued to drink his sake and smoke, watching the affair with an amused eye, while Akito looked irritated.
"Hey, Miroku!" Val said suddenly.
"Yes, my dear Valery?" Miroku asked, seating himself next to Hatori and pouring himself some sake.
"I'll bear your child for you!" Val told him cheerfully. Everyone's jaws dropped, and Miroku choked and sprayed sake all over Inu-Yasha ("Hey!")
"Wh-what?!" Miroku gasped.
"I'll bear your child for you," Val repeated, pointing to herself.
"Y-you… will? But… the last time I asked you…" Miroku trailed off and shuddered.
"Well, I just changed my mind, then," Val said carelessly.
"Really?!" Miroku cried, a huge smile on his face and stars in his eyes.
"No," Val replied, smiling. Miroku and the others smacked their heads into the floor. "But I'll practice trying with you!"
"My… that's an interesting offer…" Miroku said, grinning thoughtfully and stoking his chin, and then noticed the fiery aura of doom emanating from Sango and wisely changed his mind. "But I'll have to politely decline!" he said quickly. Dammit…
About then he spotted Tohru and after a brief, happy reunion, Inu-Yasha said impatiently, "Can we get on with this? Ren, what was so important you even had to have this brainless lecher here?"
"Oh…" Tohru said, her face falling, and she shifted uncomfortably. "Well… it's…"
"It's another Angel, isn't it?" Inu-Yasha said quietly. "It's the only reason you'd come here."
"Yeah…" Tohru replied, looking down. Inu-Yasha nodded, his expression becoming hard and determined. Kagome, though, shot a frightened look at the dog-demon, trembling slightly.
"Inu-Yasha… I…" she gasped. "I don't want you to fight again!"
"Kagome…" Inu-Yasha said firmly. "I swore then, if an Angel ever came here again, that what happened, that history, would never repeat itself. I swear, Kagome, that this time, things will be different."
"What happened… last time?" Yuki asked. Inu-Yasha's eyes narrowed with fury and hatred, but mostly with shame. He shoved to his feet and walked out without a word. No one stopped him or spoke.
"When the Angel came here…" Tohru finally said hesitantly. "It had come for Kagome. She has the spiritual energy of a miko priestess, and if she were to become an Angel her power would be… immense. Greater than anything imaginable. I assumed the Angels were interested in claiming that power. We knew the Angel was here, what it wanted, so we proposed to set a trap, using Kagome as bait."
Tohru's voice took on a bitter note, filled with regret… and sorrow.
"But it was all a trap from the start, and we were all just pawns in their hands, dancing to their tune. We knew Angels are telepathic, but what we didn't know was that the demons here, for some reason, are very susceptible to that telepathy. This Angel had been putting… ideas into the minds of the local demons for weeks. The day we set the trap, the Angel pulled the trigger… and set every demon on the village. When Sango and Miroku went to fight them… they met the Cages."
"Oh no…" Kagura whispered.
"So you know of them…" Miroku said. "If Ren and Artemis hadn't come just then… we would probably be dead."
"But at the time…" Tohru said. "We didn't know just how bad the situation really was. By then, the Angel had… gotten into Inu-Yasha's mind as well, and had been eating away at it for almost a month… tearing him down… little by little. I can only imagine what it had been doing, saying, and what it was doing to him."
"He… told me," Kagome whispered. "He told me… it had started with dreams. Disturbing dreams where I would… die somehow. At first it was just… me falling off a cliff, or being slashed by some faceless demon, or drowning… But it got worse, where he was the one that had pushed me over that cliff, he was the demon that ripped me apart, he was the one holding me under water.
"And then he said… he started hearing voices, even during the day, voices that would tell him to do awful things. Those voices turned into ideas. If he jumped, and was carrying me, he'd have the sudden urge to drop me, things like that.
"And then… that day… th-that day… when we w-were left a-alone…" Kagome's voice shook and died. She inhaled and exhaled slowly, swallowed, and continued.
"He snapped. He'd been fighting himself so much, and it had gotten to the point where he wouldn't even look at me, talk to me, could barely come near me… but he wouldn't tell me, and who could blame him? But I… suspected I knew. I was sure he was seeing… Kikyo…"
"Who?" Kyo asked.
"Don't interrupt," Yuki hissed. Kyo glared at him, but restrained himself from retorting.
"Kikyo…" Kagome went on. "Was the protector of a very powerful jewel called the Shikon Jewel of Four Souls, which can increase the powers of any demon who has it in his possession. And… and she was- is also… Inu-Yasha's love."
She loves him, too, though… Kagura thought with a surge of sympathy.
"But… fifty years ago a demon by the name of Naraku posed as Kikyo, and tried to kill Inu-Yasha in her form. Then he pretended to be Inu-Yasha, and hurt Kikyo. The real Inu-Yasha attacked the village and stole the Shikon Jewel, which he needed to become a full-fledged demon. But before that happened… Kikyo shot him with one of her arrows and pinned him to a tree, which would put him into an enchanted sleep for about fifty years, and then she died herself. But she was resurrected not long after I, somehow, awoke Inu-Yasha.
"Anyway… I was sure that the reason he was avoiding me that day was because he was secretly seeing Kikyo. I mean… it's not like he hadn't done it before, so it was a reasonable conclusion.
"So I got angry. I just… just started sc-screaming at him…"
You Jerk! You two-timing bastard!
"I cou-couldn't stop scr-screaming at him…"
How long have you been sneaking off to see her, huh?
"I a-accused h-him of… terr-terrible th-th-things… aw-awful things…"
God, look at you. Just look at you, you can't even face me directly you're so pathetic.
stop… just stop…
"But I… I was the one who was awful…"
Goddammit, Inu-Yasha, I'm so sick of this! I'm sick of you always doing this to me!
kagome… kagome please… please…
You're just a stupid, selfish jerk! You don't care about me! About how I feel!
please… please stop…
SHUT UP! You never want to listen to me…
"But I was stupid… and selfish… I was the one who would never listen… to him."
I hope we gather the Shikon Jewel fast, so I can go home and never see your damn face again!
kagome… kagome…
I… hate you! I HATE YOU!
Kagome…
I HATE EVERYTHING!
Kagome…
"And then… the Angel appeared and… Inu-Yasha snapped. All at once he turned around and hit me, but I don't remember feeling any pain… but I remember the blood… all that blood… and then he was on top of me and had his hands around me neck and he… was giggling. It wasn't happy, more like… he was broken. He was smiling and at the same time… crying. And the Angel was above us… and then I woke up on a cot here, and Inu-Yasha was… in a coma next to me.
"Artemis… told me later that he'd heard me screaming and came back, saw what was happening, and killed the Angel. And when he killed it, Inu-Yasha passed out and… for a long time… he didn't wake up. He opened his eyes two weeks later, but… I don't think he's ever gotten over it. He was really upset that he'd attacked me, but I think he was even more upset that he couldn't stop it, or do anything to save me… or himself."
"Not to mention the blow to his ego," Miroku added. "As you saw, he and Artemis don't exactly like each other, and back then they absolutely hated one another. So it didn't do much for Inu-Yasha's pride, being saved by someone he despised. Furthermore, when he woke up, Ren and Artemis had already gone so Inu-Yasha had no means of getting back at the Angels, so all he could do was to vow to get even. But we never saw them, or you, again until today… so we never did know what happened after you left."
"I'm sorry…" Tohru apologized. "I truly am. When the Angels were finally defeated, my memories were erased and I was returned home, until the Angels started to return, that is. But Inu-Yasha's right. Last time we were caught off guard, and the Angel had had weeks to prepare. Last time, we'd had to track them through the universes, but now with our informants, we'll know exactly when an Angel steps—"
"Yo, Kagome, ya there?!" called a voice from outside.
"And speaking of informants…" Artemis said, rising. "I think there's one here now."
Kyo, along with everyone else, got up and followed Artemis outside. There, Kyo found Inu-Yasha arguing loudly with another young man with very long, silky black hair in a high ponytail and a furry brown headband, which kept most of his hair out of his blue-green eyes. He wore wolf-fur shoulder pads, a sort of metal bodice, a wolf-fur miniskirt, complete with tail, wolf-fur leggings, wristband, and gauntlet. Like Inu-Yasha, he was barefoot, but at least he didn't have animal ears on the top of his head; his ears were pointed, though.
Kyo took in this get-up for a few silent moments, blinked, and decided it was better not to comment.
"Ah, Koga," Malacoda said, sweeping over to the man… woman…? Kyo settled on demon, and taking Koga's hands in his own.
"Still dressing like a schoolgirl, are you?" he said, smiling at Koga in a very promiscuous manner.
"Don't touch me, you fag!" Koga yelled, grasping Malacoda's wrist and flinging him about twenty feet in the air. Malacoda flew up, his smile never faltering, and landed lightly on his feet as if nothing had happened.
"And oh so feisty!" Val said, wrapping her arms around Koga's neck and putting her leg on his thigh. "I like that in my transvestites!"
"Uhhh…" Koga said, trying to squirm out of her embrace, and trying to figure out what on earth a transvestite was. "Hello Val. Would you get off me…?" Valery sighed and let go.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot the only woman you can see is Kagome. But…" she added with a sly, seductive smile and whispered in his ear, "Until you guys are an item… you can always come to me if you want to practice being a boyfriend."
Koga immediately shoved her away, stammering angrily, "Look you perverted little fox-bitch, Kagome is my woman and the last thing I'm going to do is cheat on her!!!"
"Awww, you're blushing!" Val giggled.
"AM NOT!"
"But, look, you're red all the way up to your ears!"
"What have I told you about calling her 'your woman'??!" Inu-Yasha screamed. "She's not your property!"
"Well, what other choice does she have? A wishy-washy, two-timing mutt like you? Don't make me laugh!"
"Well, they're at it again…" Miroku sighed.
"This happens often?" Hatori asked.
"Well… yes, whenever Koga decides to show up. I'm sorry, I don't believe I caught your name," Miroku said.
"Hatori Sohma. And you are Miroku, correct?"
"Correct. Oh, excuse me a moment. Kagome? Time is against us, do you think you could…?"
"Yeah, this is just getting ridiculous…" Kagome agreed, looking quite used to this.
"When was it not ridiculous?" Yuki murmured.
"Hey, Inu-Yasha… sit."
Inu-Yasha obliged with a thunderous whump! and a yell of, "AUUGH!" followed by, "Dammit, what the hell was that for?!"
"Sorry," Kagome said ruefully. "But we need to get going."
"Koga," Tohru said, walking up to the demon.
"Ren!" Koga grinned in surprise. "Long time, no see."
"You, too," Tohru smiled back. "You have your compass, right? May I see it?"
"Yeah," Koga replied, pulling out a palm-sized silver compass on a thin chain from a hidden pocket on one of his leg guards and held it out to Tohru. She took it in her hands and nodded.
"Yeah, it's an Angel. Definitely."
"Ummm…" said Kagura. "How can a compass…?"
"Oh!" said Tohru, seeing the Sohmas' confused looks. "Sorry. Angels disrupt EM, electro-magnetic, fields. So whenever an Angel's around, compasses go haywire. The last time we were here, I gave a compass each to Koga, Inu-Yasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, and one other demon. They're all on the road mostly, so there's a good chance if an Angel comes into this universe, they'll know. Also, their compasses…" Tohru pulled out a golden compass that was about twice the size of Koga's from her pocket and held it up. "…are connected to mine through a sort of… wormhole effect. Meaning if any of their compasses indicate an Angel, mine will be, too, no matter what universe I'm in."
"Whoa…"Yuki breathed. "That must have taken… a serious amount of power to accomplish."
"You have no idea," Tohru replied with an emphatic nod, and focused back on Koga's compass. "Wow, Koga, you must have been really close, the needles still kinda jerky."
"It flew over our cave," Koga said, and Tohru looked slightly alarmed.
"It didn't attack, did it?" she asked anxiously.
"No, we stayed out of sight until it was gone. I don't think it saw us," Koga answered.
"I doubt that," Artemis said. "Angels don't particularly need eyes to see. It knew you were there, it just decided you weren't worth it."
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Koga demanded. Artemis opened his mouth to make some cutting response, but Tohru clapped a hand over his mouth and pressed her foot down on his toes.
"Don't mind him, he didn't mean anything by it," she assured Koga. "And we really need to get going, now. Kaede, we need to borrow some horses, please."
"Ay, miss," Kaede replied. "But…"
"But what?" Tohru asked.
"There be not enough horses for all of ye, I'm afraid…"
"How many do you have at the moment?" Artemis asked.
"Six, methinks…"
"That's fine," Artemis said, and without a word grabbed Tohru's wrist, pulled her in close, and kissed her before either Yuki or Kyo could stop him.
"How dare you do that to Honda-san?" Yuki snarled furiously at the wolf now standing before him, next to a shell-shocked Tohru.
"Yeah, you can't just go and do things like that without even asking!!!" Kyo shouted, enraged. Artemis turned a cold eye on him.
"Last time I checked, I didn't need your permission to kiss her," he said icily.
"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!!" Kyo shrieked. "ASK HER BEFORE YOU TAKE LIBERTIES!!!"
Artemis turned away to hide the lie, snorting. "It's not as if I have any feelings for her, so what do you care?"
"THAT'S EVEN WORSE!!!" Kyo and Yuki thundered, ready to tear into Artemis, but Tohru inserted herself between them.
"Come on, you guys," she stammered. "It's okay… But I really wish you'd warn me before you do that," she added in annoyance and exasperation.
"Miroku and I will ride Kilala, so we're good," Sango said as her cat was engulfed in flames and transformed into what looked like a giant saber-toothed tiger about Artemis's size at the moment.
"And I'll carry Kagome," Inu-Yasha said.
"Let's go, Tohru," Artemis said shortly.
"Tohru…?" Inu-Yasha repeated, looking questioningly at her.
"Oh yeah… For future references my name's not Ren anymore, it's Tohru now. Uh… it's a long story. I'll explain as we go. Millie! Shippo! We're leaving!"
Fifteen minutes later Kyo found himself, once again, on a horse.
God, I hate horses… he thought angrily while trying to get comfortable, an impossible feat to be sure, as he was constantly being bounced and jostled about in his seat. And it did not help that he wasn't the best of riders. He glanced over at Yuki and was delighted to see he was having just as much trouble, if not more so. I hope he falls off, Kyo thought with a malicious snicker. Yuki, as if he'd read Kyo's mind, glanced over and scowled at the Cat, who just scowled right back. Neither of them could glare at one another for long, though, if they wanted to concentrate on riding.
Suddenly, Tohru, riding Artemis near the front, put her fist up signaling a halt. They slowed, and Kyo's stomach jumped as Tohru reached up and put a hand on one of her axes. Inu-Yasha put a hand on the hilt of his sword as Sango, hovering above them upon Kilala, adjusted the giant boomerang on her back, and Miroku fingered the prayer beads around his left wrist. As Kilala landed, Kagome pulled out her bow and Koga cracked his knuckles.
Yuki dismounted, and Kyo and the other Sohmas followed suit. Tohru slid off Artemis's back and made her way over to Kyo's horse to whisper something in its ear.
"Go on, now," she said, smiling warmly. The horse butted her gently and then it, and the other horses, trotted away.
"It may get dangerous, and I don't want innocent creatures getting hurt," Tohru explained. "They'll be back when it's over."
"Is it close?" Artemis asked. Tohru nodded, and held up the compass for him to see: the needle was spinning so fast it made the compass shake.
"Yeah…" Tohru said. "It's close."
"No…" Millie whispered hoarsely, her eyes staring upward in terror. "It's already here…"
Yuki's eyes snapped towards the sky and, for just a moment, caught a glimpse of a small shining figure floating above them on wings of feathered light. But…
But its face… whispered a small, horrified voice in his head. There's something wrong with its face…
And then he jerked in surprise as something exploded in his ears and he was engulfed in gray smoke, the world lurched unpleasantly, and then went dark as everyone began to yell and shout at once. At first, Yuki couldn't figure out what happened as he struggled out from under his shirt and the ground rumbled beneath his feet.
"Y-Yuki…?" gasped Tohru's voice from somewhere above him. Yuki looked up in surprise, and was bewildered to find that Tohru was much bigger than he was.
"I… transformed?"
"REN, MOVE!" Artemis shouted, an edge of fear in his voice. Yuki let out a cry as Artemis struck down a few inches from him, and then he and she were gone.
"NOOO, ARTEMIS, YUKI'S—!!!" Tohru shrieked in panic.
"Honda-san—!" Yuki cried, scurrying after them—
And small cold fingers wrapped themselves around his body, lifting him gently, and Yuki looked up into the missing face of a child. The Rat's mind went numb as he tried to understand what he was staring at.
She has no face…-hello yuki- said a little girl's voice in his mind. -do you want to play with me-
Where her eyes, nose, and mouth should have been, there was only a smooth, unbroken mask of flesh as if carved from stone.
-i want to be your friend yuki- whispered the voice.
Yuki couldn't stop shaking. Her voice permeated throughout his mind, echoed in the darkest corners, illuminating flashes of memories he wanted to stay forgotten. She knew what he wanted, what he feared, what he hated, what he loved, and all his darkest, or most precious secrets.
-lets be friends yuki-
She took his paw between her thumb and forefinger, rubbing gently as she started to pull. She didn't stop pulling, not even when Yuki started to scream as, one by one, tiny bones snapped.
"STOPPIT, YOU BITCH!!!"
Yuki saw a flash of orange, something smashed into him, and then the voice let out a terrible screeching cry and dropped him. Yuki landed in something soft and just barely managed to make out the blurry figure of Kyo. He was shouting something, but Yuki couldn't understand what he was saying because there was a jagged agony in his shoulder and his arm wouldn't work, and then the world spun away from him and all he could hear was that stupid Cat, screaming at him from far away before the darkness came down over his eyes and everything was gone…
To Be Continued…
Miko: priestess
Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-Yasha or Fruits Basket, to those of you who haven't been listening for the last thirty one chapters.
Yeah... to you people still confused about the whole Angel/demon thingy, don't worry. It is intricate, and even confuses me sometimes... Anyway, here's a crash course in subconscious transmutation to help you better understand the complex working of my thoughts!
First, there is You. In You resides three fundamental psyches that make up You.
One is the Id, the part of the personality that wants, wants, wants, and wants it now. It is the familiar, Rahallion in Tohru's case. It is the subconscious self- the Unconscience.
The second part is the Ego, the part of the brain that rationalizes and calculates. This is the Angel part. Angels are cold, rational thinkers with no emotion and no desire. They are the Mind.
The last part is the Superego, in this story termed the Companion, the human part, obviously. It is the most emtional of the three, and with good reason as it is the Soul.
When You are released, only the Id and the Superego are separated. You become a Companion, and your Id becomes a familiar. But upon focus the Ego, binding You to your familiar, becomes an Angel and your familiar a demon.
All ties between you and your unconscious self have been cut at this point. Where you would have felt the pain had your familiar been hurt, you are now individual entities. Most Angels are the ones that end up with the Superego, and thus still have a soul and thus some reservations about slaughter. Demons, on the other hand, have no such reservations, and usually do what ever the hell they feel like doing, which is usually something violent and horrible.
Of course, it's another story if your demon gets a hold of that soul, as you've seen with Artemis.
Anyway, I hope that clarifies things a bit.
Now, on to my drivel!
Yes, another chapter finished! I've been working on this one all week, but I've been so busy with that damned high school thing, and finals are coming up, that I didn't have time to finish it sooner. But just you wait, once Christmas break rolls around…
Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. I really liked it, but maybe just for the fact that the last one was SO hard to write! I mean, last chapter took me forever, didn't it? That's because I only had a vague idea about Ren's history, and interlacing it so it intertwined with Fruits Basket took some thinking. And Jagorah's a fairly recent character; I only made him up like a few months ago! But already I really like him, so I hope to do more with him. But compared to all that, this chapter was easy, and fun to do, so I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
And about going into other animes and such, I obviously can't go into those I don't know, but I know of quite a few so there'll be lots of traveling around. If you want me to cross over into a specific one, just tell me, and I'll stick it in somewhere. I'm not going to tell you where I'll go, though, because, frankly, I really don't know myself. It depends on what mood I'm in, but I promise I'll eventually get to most, if not all, of the ones suggested.
And to nono, YES INU-YASHA IS THE GREATEST THERE IS!!!! Well, my opinion may be biased as it was the very first manga/anime I'd ever seen (and actually liked). It's what got me started on all that in the first place. Before I rather hated Japanese animation because of being exposed to Akira and Ghost In The Shell a little too early. Course, I like them now, but back then… let's just say I was temporarily scared for life. I mean, in GITS she was naked like the entire movie, and I, for some reason, thought that was a bad thing. Well, after seeing Chobits, I wonder how on earth I could have thought that…
Well, that's all for now.
-Raha-
