A/N: Inuyasha and all characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi, this story is the brainchild of Kajatk8, and belongs to her. No profits are being made from this, it is just a fun way to pass the time and expand my writing capabilities.
Thank you to my reviewers for their kind words and encouragement. You keep me clacking away with a smile: LunAmooN23, o0-SilverMoon-0o, Nyght elf, MirrorFlower and DarkWind, Wren210.
Additionally, I'd like to specifically thank LunAmooN23 for their review, it was really sweet, I'd been having a bad day, and it lit me up with a smile. Since you couldn't wait for me to update, here you go! This one's for you. =)
Props go to the amazing Ariel-Mystic-Siren for Beta Reading!
Chapter 10. Vicious Pain and Lots of Sake
Her first sensation was pain, warm, piercing and ever present. She was able to breathe but just barely. Her lungs were working overtime, yet despite her efforts, they were only taking in short and shallow breathes. Each time she took a breath, her chest whistled and she felt most of her air leaking out. She could tell from the rattle her chest made that she had punctured a lung. Possibly even in two places. Good news was, she was still alive. Bad news was, she had no idea how she'd been injured, or where she was.
'How is that possible?' She thought. Her next thought was 'Wow, it's dark.' She realized her eyes were closed and slowly opened them. The light that filtered through wasn't much better. She appeared to be in a deep dark cave. She looked around herself, and all she saw were dark slate colored stones. She peered up, and almost blinded herself. The sun was just setting and the sky had succumbed to a mixture of pink, purple and orange hues. The clouds lazily passed her reflecting pastel tones, and she blinked trying to get her bearings. 'I'm in a hole in the ground. A deep hole in the ground…a well! I'm in a well…!'
'Great. How in the world did I get stuck in a darn well?' She thought stupidly.
The last thing I remember was… Was… She couldn't remember… Anything… Well that's weird. I should be able to remember something. 'Yeah, like how you got here for starters.' She grumbled to herself.
She tried to sit up, but the pain that laced through her body was unbearable.
"What in the…?" She spoke for the first time, and then she abruptly stopped, not recognizing her own voice.
She peered down her body and realized not only was she armored, but she was also wounded. Three arrows lined her body, and she touched one to make sure they were real. The arrow had barely moved but she gasped in pain. 'Yup, they're real alright!' Her brain told her. 'Next time don't freakin' touch them!'
"So I was in a battle. And I fell down a well?" She asked no one in particular, looking up slightly moving her head as little as possible. She considered this, quirking an eyebrow in thought.
She was extremely disconcerted. She didn't hear anything surrounding her but several muffled sounds. She closed her eyes and tried to listen, but no matter what, she couldn't make out what was happening on the surface above her.
"Right! Well… no use just sitting on your laurels. Time to get to work." If only she could figure out how to do that…
She tried to sit up again, but found she couldn't move her shoulders or head without experiencing extreme pain from the arrows. She gasped as pain lanced through her body, and finally succumbed back to her previous position of lying down. She watched several white butterflies dance several feet above her, oblivious to her plight or her pain as they chased each other in maddening circles.
She furiously tried to think what she could do to remedy her situation. Nothing came to mind as she took more notice of her clothing. Peering out of the corners of her eyes, she noticed she was armored as a samurai.
"Samurai?" She whispered.
The word sounded unfamiliar on her tongue, yet, she could think of no other word to fit the armor that she was dressed in. With her left hand she felt something poking her side, she moved it, and felt the handle of a sword at her hip. She reached her right hand over slowly out to her back where she felt several items poking her. She felt a quiver full of arrows and a pack. She also grasped something particularly sharp and brought it into her vision.
She screeched and dropped it, moving abruptly and screeching again even louder because of the pain that resonated through her chest. She had been lying on a jaw, an inhuman jaw to be exact, with rather large, pointy and dangerous looking teeth.
She was lying on several bones in fact, which were misshapen and grotesque. Nothing around her looked to belong to a human. She was extremely frightened and her heart was beating out a frantic rhythm in her chest.
'This is a dumping ground for bones! Is that why I've been placed here? I'm to just die of starvation, adding my bones to this pile over time?' She thought furiously.
"No, I will not become that." She said aloud with more courage than she felt.
With a lot of effort and pain she angled herself into a sitting position, resting her back against one of the walls. Moving her head as little as possible, she took note of several vines, which looked like they could be climbed up and used as a means of escape.
Quickly, a plan began to form, and she prepared herself for the journey upwards. Of course, if she were to climb out of this hole, she'd need to rid herself of the arrows in her body.
That was not a fun prospect. The work alone to get her into a sitting position had caused her to break out into a cold sweat that left her hands and head dripping. She wiped her right hand on her leg and tried to prepare herself. She reached for the arrow lodged directly below her chin, stuck in her collarbone and pulled as hard as she could.
The pain was incredible, but endurable. She felt the arrow move slightly, but it didn't give. She was close to passing out from the pain, but she knew she had to do this in order to escape. Somehow she inherently knew that no help was coming. With that in mind she grit her teeth and the arrow came out with a gross 'pop.' The arrow was bathed in an alternating pink and blue light and shattered when it had been fully removed from her body. She gasped.
'How could that be? How could something just disappear before her very eyes? It must be a sort of…magick? No, that was preposterous. Right..? Magick didn't exist. At least she didn't think it did…'
She noticed that magick or no, her arm tingled and a continuous pink glow began at her fingertips. She brought her right hand into her eyesight slowly and looked at it closely. Within the pink glow, there were green leaves on her hand. The leaves glistened and sparkled with an effervescent emerald light. She poked one of the leaves and could have sworn she felt a breeze and heard a crinkling of a leaf. She felt soothed and calmed at its touch. Real magick! Literally, at the tip of my fingers! Neat!
"Would you look at that?" She said amazed, only the bones heard her.
Reinvigorated by the fact that she could wield magick, and how much her vision had cleared once the first arrow was removed, she took hold of the arrow on her left arm. It was difficult and she bared and ground her teeth as she felt the arrow in her right arm dig further in. The pain coursed through her, but she grunted and groaned through it. Again she felt the arrow wiggle, and like a stick caught in mud, slowly it wriggled free with another 'pop.' Again, it disappeared, shattering in a blue and pink light.
She felt much better once the second arrow had been removed and only faintly sick to her stomach. With renewed energy, and two successful uses of magick under her belt, she turned to the arrow on her right side. This would be tricky she knew, as there was no way to pull an arrow out of your right arm with your right hand. She would just have to do it with the left. She grit her teeth together, wrapped her hand around the arrow and pulled with all her might.
Nothing happened. The arrow barely moved at all, it didn't even wriggle like the other two had, and she didn't know what she'd done wrong. She gripped it again and pulled harder.
"Rrrrrrghhhh!" She grunted.
Exhausted, and panting, and slightly sickened at the effort, she stopped pulling and scowled at the remaining arrow.
"You're not going to get the best of me, I promise you that."
She thought what she could do differently. Perhaps she needed to say a magick word? But she hadn't before…
"Hrmm…." She thought out loud. "What if I…?" Almost in answer, her right hand tingled and she cautiously poked it with her left. Her left hand zinged and took on the same ghostly glow as her right. Without wasting a moment, she grabbed onto the arrow and pulled with all her might. The arrow seemed to fight her pull, but she didn't waver in her grasp and held a constant grip.
Eventually, just like the two before them, the third and final arrow shattered into dust and she could breathe freely again. Her vision began to clear, and she felt strength return to her. She took three deep breaths in quick succession and this time didn't hear the whistling from her punctured lungs. She swiftly probed her abdomen and while she knew there must have been wounds, she found none of them open. It was if she'd experienced weeks of healing in a single moment. She didn't want to look too closely into the issue for fear of finding a mortal wound. Instead, she heartened at the prospect of leaving her tomb.
"Now, I'll just have to climb out!" She said smiling; proud of her triumph over the arrows. That was until she looked up at the lip of the well looming over her. She didn't think she was afraid of heights, but it sure seemed a long way up.
She lifted her hand up to her face to brush back a wayward hair, and felt instead a facemask. She followed the edges of the mask up and back, finally finding a tie and unraveling it. The mask fell to the ground with a clatter and she bent to pick it up. As she did something akin to a memory tickled her. She remembered looking up from a futon into the fiery eyes of a nekomata, they were wide and the cat was purring and kneading her chest. Next she saw several disjointed images: a necklace, a room with several figures that were blurry and indistinct, and a large hand giving her the mask that she was reaching for.
Her head hurt with the emergence of these images and she closed her eyes to quell the pain. Like trying to remember a dream after waking, she found that the images slipped away from her. She tried to grasp at them, but they only disappeared quicker. She shook away the thoughts and reached down to retrieve the mask. She opened her pack and shoved the mask in. She would try to remember more about how she'd gotten where she was, and exactly why she couldn't remember anything, but later. First she had to get out of this well.
Determined, she felt her wounds where the arrows had been once more. Just to be sure… There were gaps in her armor, which were caked with dried blood, but the wounds were not bleeding. It seemed that they had healed. Odd that… But she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Or at least she didn't think so…
Slightly confused at the odd turn of phrase her mind supplied her with, she sighed and got to work grabbing onto the vines, placing her feet into footholds and pulling herself up. She made steady but slow progress and rested halfway up when she heard a shout. She paused to listen and her blood ran cold.
She heard many male voices shouting and yelling joyous tunes, while women screamed. Something wasn't right. In fact something was very wrong, very wrong, above ground.
As she emerged from the well, she realized exactly what was wrong. The village, if it was a village down and to her left was on fire. There were shouts from men and women, but it didn't seem like they were trying to put out the fire. In fact, it sounded instead like a raid. Cautiously she placed her legs over the side and threw body onto the ground.
She sat there staring skywards for several breaths, trying to catch up with her racing heart. She touched all the items on her back and at her hip, she still had all her weapons: sword, bow, pack, and quiver. At the very least she'd be able to defend herself. She wasn't sure she knew how, but she hoped that since she was carrying them, she must know how to wield them.
She didn't know who was behind this attack, but she wasn't going to let this injustice occur. Determined, she clambered to her feet and cautiously approached the village.
She had managed to skirt along the edges of the village, following huts and hedgerows until she came upon the aggressors. It was a rowdy group of men around thirty or so in number, she counted. They wore black domed hats with horns. It gave her the appearance of an army of ogres, she shook her head and looked on. Some of the men also wore neck-guards, but then some were without. Most however, possessed a myriad of armor reminiscent of hers but haphazardly pieced together. It was clear that none of them bore armor of the same skill as she. Many if not all possessed swords; a few had halberds and naginata and one in particular who looked like the leader only carried a tanto at his hip and a bow on his back. Blue flags were strewn about the village with a white triangle overlaid with three triangles within the large one. Something tickled her memory, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She assumed the flag was the group's colors, but of course she didn't recognize it. Neither did she recognize the village, men or anything that surrounded her.
She paid them no mind and instead tried to make up a plan. The men had rounded up the women and killed most of the able-bodied men. It was obvious to her by the scent of death that lingered around the village. That and of course, the random corpses that lay scattered about. Those that were old or too young to pose a threat were serving food, carrying bales of rice to their horses or being beaten for the men's amusement. She could hear several of the women in various huts screaming as the men took them without mercy. The rest of the women were tied and guarded, all of them looked only at the ground, unwilling to catch the unwanted eye of their abusers. All were savagely beaten, bleeding and covered in lashes or newly formed bruises.
A plan roughly formed in her mind, and she decided to jump into action. She grabbed her bow from behind her right shoulder and prayed to the Kami's above that she'd had sufficient practice. She got low to the ground and tried to sneak alongside a particularly large house. When she got into position, she nocked an arrow and aimed at a barrel of sake that was being chugged by one of the thugs. She released and the barrel shattered, drowning the man in sake, and he spluttered while the other men looked on and yelled at the loss. She silently whooped and pumped her hand in the air at her triumph. Clearly she was a skilled archer. She filed that away for later use.
"I didn't do it! It jus' shattere'r!" The man yelled at no one in particular, but to any who would listen.
"That's enough, you've had enough sake Yori," The man with the tanto at his hip said.
She had suspected him to be the leader, and the way that all the other men quieted down when he spoke made her think she was correct in her assumption.
"Nao, come on, M'm fine. M'm not even tha' drunk. It was a spiri' I'll 'elll you, a spiri' broke the bottl.'" Yori staggered over and grabbed onto the man called Nao looking imploringly at him.
She looked on from her hidden position in the shadows and watched in horror as Nao took out his dagger in a swift motion. In the blink of an eye he cut Yori's throat.
"Grrrkkk!" Yori said, eyes wide in horror, trying to hold his sliced throat together, while his blood flowed between his fingers, coating his body and eventually landing in a sad puddle down at his feet. He made several animated choking noises for a few more minutes before his body finally went still. The village seemed to hold its breath and all eyes watched the leader wipe his blade clean on the dead man's clothes.
"The next man or woman to question me will face the same fate," Nao said calmly to the crowd that had gathered.
From her hiding spot, she crouched and scowled at Nao. She didn't know if she'd ever felt hate before, but she felt it now. She couldn't believe that someone would turn on their own man. Even if they were a bandit, did this Nao not know about brothers in arms? About honor? Perchance, her plan may need some work…
She waited until the crowd had dispersed, going about their business and she heard Nao's rough voice call out "Bring that one to me!" He said pointing to one of the younger prettier women who were tied up.
Several of the men fumbled over themselves; jumping to do their leaders bidding and she solemnly anticipated her next move. She moved around the hut she sheltered behind, and edged over to the next smaller hut. This one was much closer to the fray, but also ran the risk of being seen. She silently debated her odds, and took the chance; staying silent and hunkered she waited.
The girl who stepped forward was wearing a plain yukata in pale pink lined with grey and in her hair was covered with a cream-colored cloth. The crouched girl could see even from a great distance that the young woman was visibly shaking. The girl cowered and couldn't seem to stop; her tremble only increased in strength as she was frog-marched in front of Nao by two of his cronies.
"Ple-Please my lord…" The young woman said desperately.
"Please? Please what?" Nao said smirking to his men. Several of them started elbowing each other in the ribs and laughing like it was all such fun to subject a woman to their cruel whims.
"Pl-please spare me my lord." The young woman quivered as she spoke and broke into a deft low bow.
"Who do you have in mind to take your place?" Nao replied calmly.
"…T-take my place?" She replied clearly confused.
"Yeah, you want me to spare you, so who do you offer up in your stead?"
The girl lifted her head and opened her mouth, but no words came out. She looked back to where all the other women were tied up and saw all of their heads held down, purposefully not looking at the woman on display. She faced back around, clearly making up her mind, she looked utterly dejected.
"Nonm'lord." The girl mumbled.
"What was that?" Nao yelled.
Several of the men jeered.
"No one my lord. I accept my fate." Her voice rang out calmly and clearly.
The girl who was crouching had had enough. She waited until Nao took a deep drink from his jug of sake before she nocked another arrow and let it loose. In quick succession, she fired at all the sake jugs that were in her sights. Her goal was to destroy as many of them as possible. She counted six jugs shattered before the men caught on to what she was doing.
"Spirits!" Someone yelled in terror.
"Mononoke are attacking!" One of the armored men yelled, dropping his sake jug and running into the melee.
"Ghosts!"
"They've come for us!"
"Ahhhh!" A crowd of men yelled before diving behind a hut for safety.
"Arm yourselves and form up!" Nao yelled out to his men roughly, yet he displayed absolute calm. He pulled his men into sensible ranks around himself.
'Hmm. A general.' She thought.
The girl grabbed another arrow and lit this one on fire in a brazier that was burning nearby. She pulled back and aimed near where all the men were forming, right where the man named Yori had his throat slit. She held her breath and released, trusting her aim was true.
Fortunately for her, it was.
Immediately a fire sprang to life on the body of Yori and she said a silent prayer for the man whose body she was defiling.
Unfortunately, by firing a flaming arrow, she had given away her position. Instantly the men knew where their target was, and they surrounded her. She tried to escape by retracing her path backwards. She rose from her crouched position in an attempt to flee. Except, she didn't get far at all, after taking a few steps from her hiding place she met the cold dead eyes of Nao instead.
"Now what do we have here?" Nao said intrigued as he back-handed the girl across her face.
She was astounded at how much the blow hurt. Her neck snapped sideways with an absurd crack; the blow rattled her brain and snapped her teeth shut. She bit her tongue in the process and yelped in surprise at the unexpected pain. Her hand went to her sword but Nao was faster as he kicked at her slow fingers.
She screamed at the pain in her hand. She was sure one or possibly more fingers were broken. They throbbed and she whimpered in agony.
"A woman, eh? And dressed up like a warrior too! Who are you?" Nao said.
The men leered at her with obvious appetence in their eyes. They wanted her, and she thought she'd never rid the image of their eyes leering at her from her mind. She said nothing hoping they'd ignore her. They didn't.
"Who sent you?" Nao asked.
She was still trying to get her bearings and clutching her hand in pain, and she didn't see the next blow. It struck her across the face in the other direction and she shuddered at the sting.
"No one sent me." She spit out at his feet. Perhaps if he had an answer, then he wouldn't be so quick to strike her.
"There's no way you are alone, now tell me how many are there, and when and where do they expect you?" Nao said.
The girl said nothing, and instead received another slap across her face for her silence. Stars fluttered across her vision as she blinked back into focus, staring wide-eyed at the disgusting face of the man called Nao.
Now that she was up close and personal with him, she could see him clearly. His armor was a cut above the rest; it was clean, cared-for, yet dented in several places. Though it seemed to be worn, it was likely battle hardened. He wore white lined with grey o-yoroi complete with long faulds, short vambraces, and black pointed pale gauntets and matching greaves. He stared at her with a hard face. This man had known violence most of his life, and instead of being torn or destroyed by it, he flourished on it. She was repulsed just looking at him. He could have been kind, compassionate, but instead he chose to be cruel and unpleasant. Worse yet, she could see from his face that he enjoyed it. He enjoyed causing pain to others, in fact he seemed to thrive on it.
Sadly, his face was in fact handsome, and that was perhaps the worst of it. He had full lips, a straight nose, and black symmetrical eyes that seemed slightly too wide. But the whole effect was endearing, and she would have even called him attractive, if he wasn't clearly a monster.
'I must be rattled; my brain thinks this monster is attractive.' She thought inanely. She giggled at the ridiculous notion and Nao frowned down at her.
"Are you stupid?" He asked seriously.
"No, but you might be." She said smiling.
Nao didn't say anything, but instead slapped her again. He called to his men to tie her up and bring her to his hut. It was then when she finally spoke, and Nao flipped around angrily to stare at her in disbelief.
"What hut? Hahahaha." The girl laughed madly.
The men, who had jumped to her side in an attempt to subdue her, kicked her in the stomach and she fell forward but kept on laughing even from her compromised position on the ground. When she finally glanced up, the men who were holding her realized why she had been laughing. And in that moment it appeared that Nao grasped her humor as well.
An explosion rang out behind them, scaring the horses; who took off in a flurry of whinnies and a storm of hooves charging away from the village. Her flaming arrow had finally caught the sake stores, and ignited them all. The six jugs that she had broken had formed a trail – leading straight to the assembled stockpile, which had clearly been piled high by the bandits, next to a single hut. Now all the sake stores were going up in flames and the men jumped to stem the flood of her destruction.
At the same time she'd managed to scare most of the horses away, and any that were still in the village were trying desperately to get away from the flames. The few men that weren't passed out drunk where they stood jumped to free the animals from the licking flames and tied them up in the forest. Other men ran to aqueducts and the river in an attempt to stop the nearby huts from catching and destroying their loot.
The only man who didn't seem to have jumped to one cause or the other was Nao. He turned with a ferocious look on his face towards the prone form of the girl.
"Why, you're a clever bitch aren't you? I'm going to enjoy breaking you." He said and she had no doubt about the veracity of his words.
The girl just stared at him from her knees, until he struck her a final time and she drifted into unconsciousness, welcoming it with wide open arms.
She came to slowly at first and groggily. The last time she'd woken up she'd been stuck in a well. Now she was strapped to a horse, being carted around like a sack of rice. Her head was knocking with each and every step against the horse's knee, and her knees were also hitting the horse's thighs. Her stomach ached from her precarious position and she desperately tried to move. Awkwardly, her hands were tied behind her back, so all she did to the outside observer was wriggle slightly.
"Hey Okashira! She's awake!" Someone yelled from her left, and she felt the horse she was tied to slow down and eventually come to a halt.
'Great,' she thought, 'I've been seen.'
She looked around and saw several horses' rumps in front of her and even more horse heads behind her. But she saw far more human feet than she saw hooves. That was a good sign. It meant that she'd been successful. Many if not most of the horses had escaped, and the bandits hadn't gotten them back. She smiled at the success of her covert operation. Now, only if she could magick her way out of this situation… Her brow quirked in thought. She'd almost forgotten about her magick. That might be something to try. These men sure seemed ignorant enough to be frightened of her over the simplest matter. It may work… If she played it just right…
Pale black greaves stepped into her line of sight and she recoiled at the sight – Nao. She felt a pressure lighten, which she took it to mean she was being untied. After all the restraints were removed someone pushed her off the horse. With her hands still tied behind her back she fell forwards and her knees took the brunt of the impact. As she crouched she tried to ignore the hot pain that shot up her legs, but at least she was grateful that she didn't land flat on her face. Her head still hurt from the slaps she'd received, and she didn't want to cause it any more pain at the moment. The headache that she'd woken with was piercing.
She tried wiggling her fingers, but instead sharp needles shot up her arms. The bindings were definitely too tight, and her pointer, ring and pinky fingers throbbed uncomfortably. Somewhere she realized that they were broken.
"Who sent you?" Nao asked.
As far as she knew, she hadn't been sent by anyone, but she knew Nao wasn't going to accept that answer. She'd already tried. So instead she said nothing. But she knew that he wouldn't accept her silence either. Instead she mentally prepared herself for the worst.
And there it was, within a moment of her looking away from his face she was back-handed. The pain in her head increased and she tried to stifle the whimper that rose to her lips, but failed.
"You clearly lack discipline. So, let me show you that means. We're your betters, and you bend to us. If not, we will break you. And believe me you won't like that very much at all." Nao said.
"What's to keep you from breaking me anyways?" She asked spitting blood at his feet from a new cut across her lips. If she wasn't careful she'd have permanent scars from this encounter.
At that he just smiled at her. "You are very perceptive, for a woman." He said the word woman as if it were a vile and dirty thing. "Are you proud of your work?" He pointed out towards the convoy.
"What work is that?" She asked coolly, following his movements.
He backhanded her again and she reeled, trying to sit back up on her knees. She wanted to appear to have a semblance of dignity at the very least. Clearly Nao was of the opinion that a slap was the same as a response to a question. She hated him.
"The horses, the sake, the women." He replied indifferently.
"Oh? What about them?" She inquired trying to keep all emotion out of her voice so he wouldn't have any extra excuse to 'discipline' her.
"Half my men lost their horses to your ridiculous scheme, all of the sake was burned, and the villagers managed to escape." Nao said angrily.
"Good." She said smugly.
He backhanded her again, but then smiled deviously.
"You might not be of that mindset later tonight. You are the only form of entertainment we have, for all of my men. I think that will be enough to break you. Don't you?" Nao walked back towards the head of the convoy laughing all the way and a cold shiver made its way up her spine.
She did not want to be all of these men's plaything, tonight or any night for that matter. She didn't think she could stomach that. She'd heard what they'd done to the village women. If it happened to her, she knew she was going to be sick, and she didn't know if her fortitude could survive rape. She swallowed audibly.
The man next to her elbowed her hard in the ribs and she turned to look at him inquiringly. He grabbed her wrists smugly and for a brief moment she thought she might be released. The man untied her wrists and she attempted to wring life back into them. Instead however, he roughly grabbed her hands and tied them again together, tighter than before, yet this time in front of her. He then tied her to his saddle with a length of rope, and forced her to keep pace with him or run the risk of being pulled behind his horse. Yet, another appetizing prospect, she would much rather prefer a quick death than being tortured to death, dragged along by a horse.
Right then, escape, that's the only option. She looked up at the sun; it had passed midday just a little while before, and was slowly making its way across the horizon. She had a little less than a few hours before nightfall. Surely she could work out a plan to get herself out of this mess. Right…?
Right.
First things first: weapons.
Thankfully she was still wearing her green iridescent samurai armor, but she realized that her bow, sword, quiver and pack were missing. 'Shit,' she inwardly cursed. She looked for it but couldn't see her armaments on any of the four horses that occupied her narrow field of vision. She tried looking backwards, but was staggered by the unexpected movement of the horse, she turned to keep her body facing forwards.
She sighed and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath to calm herself. She would get through this. She knew it. She didn't know how, but she did know that she would survive. No matter what.
A/N:
Okashira – means boss – they say this somewhat infrequently in Inuyasha, but they do say it.
Yori – male Japanese name for "public servant."
Nao – male Japanese name for "docile" or "esteemed" based on spelling.
Just wanted to include the final country list from March, 37 countries: USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, Poland, Malaysia, Philippines, Japan, Brazil, Bahrain, Germany, Russian Federation, Romania, Spain, Singapore, Australia, Chile, India, Denmark, Ireland, Bahamas, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Austria, France, Peru, Venezuela, Taiwan, Croatia, Iceland, Sweden, Belize, Hungary, The Republic of Korea, Finland, Portugal and last but not least Egypt. I appreciate all of you, thank you for taking the time to come and read my story! It's really amazing when you think about it, that all of you can read this from wherever you are in the world. Thank you for reading!
Happy reading, please R&R
Kajatk8