Tora-chan: Hey Everyone, I'm so so so so so so so sorry for taking so long to update. But with going back to collage and working 35 hours a week it's hard to find time to update. I'm trying my hardest so please be patient. Now, last time I said that I wouldn't update until I had three reviews, and even if three people did review there were ten people who read the last chapter. I would really like if everyone would review just so I know that people enjoy reading it.
Hiroshi: Tora-chan we're back.
Tora-chan: It's about time. I was about to go crazy talking to myself. People think I'm already crazy enough as it is.
Vitanie: And who are these people who think you're crazy?
Tora-chan: (shrugs) Everyone who knows me, now let's see - - Review thanks':
Inuyashaswife12: Thank you for the review and for being there from the beginning it really helps me. It let's me know that people really do care about my story.
Penny Leigh: What do you expect Mill? This is me after all. I know that the last chapter was a cliff hanger, I wrote it after all. Don't worry I'll explain the new girl in this chapter. She's actually rather important to my original (Well she will be if I ever get that far in writing it.) Oh and if you read more then chapters 1, 2, and 17 you would see that Vitanie and friends enter in chapter 4. Thanks for the review though, it was highly amusing.
RoCkRcHiK: Thank you so so so so much for your comments. I really do appreciate everything that you say. I love the advice that you give me and I'm glad that my writing is approving in your opinion. It makes it feel like I'm actually doing what I wanted to by posting this and that was to improve my writing style. Thank you for everything!
Hiroshi: You aren't supposed to thank your readers in your posts, Tora-chan.
Tora-chan: I know and after this chapter I'll just do a quick shout out, but I had to tell Mill to read more then three chapters. Shall we start the chapter now?
Hiroshi: Yes, Tora-chan doesn't own Inuyasha.
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Last time: The group showed up at the old burnt out Tijian village and found a mysterious girl saying that Vitanie was expected and then I left it at a cliff hanger to drive you all nuts.
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The girl in grey stood in front of Vitanie and once again spoke the same sentence, "Vitanie Tora, you've been expected."
Everyone was looking at the girl in shock. How did she know Vitanie and how did she know that she would be here.
"Who are you and what are you doing here," Kagome asked once she found her voice. The girl though ignored her and continued to look into Vitanie's golden eyes.
"How did you know I was coming here?" Vitanie whispered after a while.
"I am not the one who knew you would be here. Your father was the one that knew you would one day come," she answered in an emotionless tone, her eyes not betraying a single spark of emotion.
"Her father's been dead since before she was born," Yuki exclaimed from where he stood behind the half tiger.
The young women swung her head toward the wolf demon and addressed him flatly, "You're presence is not requested here. You should leave."
Inuyasha and Yuki both took a step toward the woman their patience gone but Vitanie's question stopped them, "Who are you that you know my father?"
Her gray eyes turned back toward Vitanie's gold ones which sent a chill down the backs of most of the group. "I am Sora speaker to spirits. Your father would like to speak with you," she finished.
"Sora what do you mean by speaker to spirits?" Kagome asked and was once again ignored by the young woman.
"That's a good question. Please Sora could you explain what you mean by that?" Vitanie asked when she realized that the girl would not answer Kagome.
"It would be better to show you then tell," she replied before turning toward the cliff. She stopped a few feet from the base and placed a hand against the rough stone. Her hand started to glow a dark purple. As the aura grew a shape materialized in front of them causing everyone to stare in shock at what they were seeing.
A seemingly young man stood in front of them. He had shoulder length golden brown hair with black stripes running throw it; he also had matching tiger ears and tail. But it was his eyes that drew their attention; he had golden eyes just like Vitanie's. They shined with happiness and humor as he looked over at the half Tijian in front of him.
Once the dark colored aura vanished Vitanie launched herself across the clearing with the shout of "Father!" He opened his arms and caught her and spun around before setting her back on the ground.
"It has been quite awhile my little kitten. You haven't visited me in your dreams in quite some time," he commented with mock gravity.
She looked up at him with a look of innocence and said, "But Daddy you told me that I shouldn't visit you as much anymore and that I should be concentrating on the task before me and gathering friends that care for me."
"Alright, okay, you can stop the act now," he laughed the sound echoing over the destroyed village. As his laughter died the others finally where able to gather there senses and started shouting questions at the three by the cliff.
"Who are you?" Inuyasha shouted.
"How did you get here?" was Kagome's question.
Sango and Kohaku were both in a stance that said 'should I attack or is everything okay?'
Mari was hiding behind Shippo who in turn was cowering behind Miroku.
Miroku surprisingly was standing at ease like he had expected this to happen. Shippo jumped up onto Miroku shoulder shaking, "Miroku do something, throw some sutras or something," the young fox asked in fear.
"Shippo I don't see any need for that. Lady Sora doesn't appear to want to harm us, so there is no reason for us to attack her," he said as he moved closer to where Vitanie and Sora stood before turning to the male demon that stood between the two women. "It appears that you are Kin Tora, clan chief of the Tijian's and Vitanie's father," he bowed causing Shippo to loose his perch and fall to the ground.
Kin turned toward the monk and laughed as he saw the little kit fall, "That I am. But you might want to apologize to your friend the fox, for so unceremoniously dumping him on the ground. Then perhaps we can take a seat around the falls here and Sora and I can explain what just happened."
"That would be helpful," Kagome replied pinching the bridge of her nose like she was getting a headache. "This is very confusing and I would like someone to explain it to me."
"And that we will, if we could persuade the demon slayers to lay their weapons down." The statement shook Sango into movement and she let her hands lower so that her hirakotsu was nearly lying on the ground.
"I have no reason to attack a Tijian. Your custom of non-violence was well known in the slayers village. We even had a Tijian named Kane Kado living in our village for years," Sango replied before going over to lean her hirakotsu against a tree. Kohaku followed his sisters example before they all walked over the small bridge that separated them from Vitanie, Sora, and Kin.
They quickly formed a circle near the small falls to wait for the explanation. Vitanie was talking softly with her father while Sora's flat glare over the group began to make a few of them twitch and shift uncomfortably. Once Vitanie and Kin seemed too decided on something they came over a sat closing off the circle.
"First off I would like to say that I'm glad to hear that Kado survived the attack on the village here," Kin said inclining his head toward Sango before continuing, "but you shouldn't assume that all Tijians don't fight, because you are in fact in front of the two Tijians that actually do fight."
"What do you mean Lord Tora? I thought any Tijian that fought was either exiled or put to death," Miroku asked.
Kin laughed before answering, "Please don't call me Lord Tora; you make me sound like my father. Kin will suffice. And you are right any Tijian that fights is either exiled or killed, but then how can we be a non-violent people if we kill those who disobey our laws?" he asked pointing out a vital flaw in the laws of his people. "No, one of the reasons we were killed is not because we didn't fight, it was because those of us that could were exceptional fighters that needed little to no training to wield our weapon of choice without problems. At the time of the attack though there was only one member of the village that could fight."
Kagome tilted her head slightly as she considered what he had said so far. "I don't get it; if you had fighters why then would you kill those who could fight? Wouldn't it be wiser to keep some fighters around to protect the village?"
Kin looked over at Kagome and noticed the bow and arrows that were behind her next to her bag. "You ask a very good question. From what I can sense from you I would say that you are a priestess. A priestess job is to protect those around her from demons that seek to destroy and to fight when needed for a common good. But not all priestess can fight; take my dear Akiasa for example. She is no fighter but she can protect who ever is with in one of her barriers. Now look at the fact that there are some priestesses that choose to use their power for evil and become warped by their powers. This is essentially what happens to a Tijian that has the ability to fight. Most are warped by their power and seek to do nothing else but fight until all those around them end up dead. That is why we would try to find those with the fighters' spirit early and most likely destroy them."
"That is also why no half Tijian was allowed to live. The human side of them made them even more dangerous if they learned to fight," Vitanie added with a sad little smile. "Now I think you should explain about Sora and yourself instead of giving a Tijian history lesson," she teased him with a smile.
"You're right of course. Now Sora if you would please explain your powers to them," he said looking over at the gray clad young woman.
She looked at the Tijian chief and gave a slight nod of the head before starting.
"I have the power to call forth those that have died in any giving place. It gives them a temporary body so that they can converse with those around them, but they cannot attack nor do anything besides give information. If a blood relative is near by they can touch that relative like when Vitanie hugged Kin, but that is the extent of what they can do. Besides that I have the power to heal wounds," she finished in the same flat tone as before.
"So Lady Sora does that mean you are a priestess?" Mari asked while still hiding behind Shippo.
"True the power to heal is usually a power that a priestess would have, but I sense no spiritual power from you," Miroku commented.
"That's because she has no spiritual power so to speak," Vitanie replied. "She has a type of power but I wouldn't call it spiritual. Living around a temple and seeing mom and Akemi all the time gave me the ability to sense things other then demonic powers," she finished with a shrug noticing the surprised looks she was getting.
"Well that answer my question without me having to ask how you knew that," Kagome said quietly.
"She is right it is no spiritual power that I hold. The power that I possess has no name so there is no way for me to explain it," Sora added before falling silent again.
Kin shook his head briefly, "You will have to forgive Sora. As long as she has a link open to a spirit or has called one like myself forth she will not be able to portray emotion," he explained sadly. "Now there is a reason that I asked Sora to bring me here. My dear little kitten I know that you seek the spirit stone and for that you need the Hoshi Ken. That is a holy blade and you will need to prove that you are the right one to carry it. That blade use to reside here in this village and was in the care of the Tijian clan chief, when I died the blade was carried from here by Kado to the shrine where it now resides. That is one of the reasons that I saved Kado and was glad to hear that he survived.
"Now behind the falls you will find something that I used the last of my strength to hide. It is yours to use as you see fit and it should help you in proving your worth to carry the Hoshi Ken," he finished motioning to the falls.
Vitanie slowly got to her feet and walked about twenty feet until she was right next to the falls, since the sun had sunk behind the trees a gloom had settled over the area casting the clearing mostly in shadows. As she peered behind the falls she caught the last speck of sunlight flash off of something.
She quickly reached into the space behind the falls not caring that her arm was soaked from the water and withdrew a battle staff. The staff had metal hand holds and metal tips. At the center of the staff a tiger stood proudly, from there vines of metal leaves circled around the staff like a work of art. As she looked at the pattern it seemed familiar to her but she couldn't place where she had seen it before but decided to figure it out later. She quickly turned and moved back over to where everyone else waited. As she regained her seat she placed the staff directly in front of her.
"Vitanie, you must promise me something when wielding that staff." Ken stated as after she had sat down.
"What is it, Father?"
"You must promise me that you we never wield that staff with the purpose of harming others. If you use it make sure you do so to protect those around you," he replied seriously.
Vitanie turned toward him with a smile gracing her lips, "You don't have to worry about that. I do not enjoy harming others. I might fight but that doesn't mean a relish blood shed. I prefer to talk things through," she said grabbing her father's hand, feeling that they must say goodbye soon.
"I see that you are perceptive as ever," Kin said with a sigh. "I must be going. Now remember you said that you would take Sora with you," he commented directly to Vitanie.
"What the! When was that decided?" Yuki exclaimed from where he sat fidgeting.
"Well Baka, it was decided when my father and I were talking earlier. Besides I agreed and I never go back on my word," she stated flatly.
"Good, now then, it's time for me to truly go. It is hard on Sora to keep the connection open this long. I am glad that I got to see you here in the village my little kitten and I'm glad to see the necklace I gave your mother around your neck. I will always be there for you if you have that necklace on," he whispered as he started to fade into a dark light. "It was a pleasure to meet you all," was the last they heard before he vanished from sight.
They looked around the group in shock at what had happened around them until they heard a startled cry and saw Sora collapse where she was sitting.
"Sora!" Vitanie yelled running to the young woman's side.
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Tora-chan: Okay I finished. It's not my favorite chapter, but I don't think it's too bad. Now Hiroshi will you please end the chapter.
Hiroshi: Sure thing, Tora-chan. Thank you all for reading now please review for our sanity as well as Tora-chan's. Thank you and goodbye (bows).