Yes, I am back. Nothing much to say on my part, just sorry that it always takes me so long to update, but I am working on a bunch of other fics, which, if you like my stuff and you are bored, feel free to check them out on my profile. I own nothing, please enjoy.
English/Regular
Emphasis/Thoughts
Japanese
Brooklyn carried Kagome back to the Eyrie Building. Sevarius hadn't allowed the siblings to learn how to fly, perhaps out of fear of them escaping. Delilah had given Kagome one of her own red jackets to wear, which protected her from the cool night wind.
The Manhatten Clan, along with Kagome, Souta, and Claw soared through the air. Talon had declined going with them. He preferred avoiding Xanatos when he could, as did Maggie, who preferred remaining in the Labyrinth with the rest of her Clan. Talon had, however, promised to go to the castle if they had not returned in an hour. Claw had only gone because he wanted to be sure that Souta would be all right, as he had grown protective of the boy in the short time they had known one another, and was now carrying the young man to their destination.
"So, you going to tell us your story?" Brooklyn asked her.
"Hai, after I talk with this Owen guy." Kagome said, looking this way and that at the sights of Manhatten.
"What are you going to do?"
"You said that Oberon has limited Puck to his Owen form, and banished him from Avalon, all with what is basically a spell, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I may be able to use my reiki to break the spell."
"Why?"
"You'll see."
They both fell silent.
"Why did some pervy guy ask you to have his child?" Brooklyn asked, genuinely curious.
"Well...he was raised by a drunken, perverted monk, so that kind of rubbed off on him. Then there was the fact that there was a strong possibility that he was going to die young, so he needed a son to carry on his family mission." Kagome explained, smiling slightly.
"Why was he going to die?"
"His grandfather had been cursed, and the curse carried on from father to son, and all of them tried to break the curse, which was their mission."
"What kind of curse was it?"
"I'll tell you later, when I tell you my story."
They arrived at the castle. Waiting outside were Fox, with Alex gurgling in her arms, Xanatos, and Owen.
Kagome instantly noticed his inhuman aura. She took in his carefully blank face, pale skin and hair, and she was surprised by his stone hand. It all reminded her a certain daiyoukai who had, for a time, possessed only one arm. It made her smile.
As soon as Brooklyn landed and Kagome stepped out of his arms she was face-to-face with The Puck. They stared hard at each other, sizing up one another's abilities through their auras. They did so for about a minute, by which time everyone else had landed and was watching their staring contest. When the minute was up, they smiled at each other (well, Kagome did at least, Owen did his best to smile), as if they were enjoying a private joke.
"It is nice to meet you, Burnett-san." Kagome said politely, still smiling.
"And you as well, Miss Higurashi." Owen said politely.
"It seems that I need to train my brother better in sensing aura's. You are a lot like a youkai, but you are not a youkai." Kagome continued pleasantly.
"True. I am part of the third race, as we call ourselves, or the Children of Oberon. The youkai of Japan that you are familiar with could be considered cousins of ours." Owen said, his voice as wooden as ever.
Everyone watched uncertainly as the 2 spoke to each other as if the others were not there.
"If I may ask, how exactly is it that in this age, you have grown to be so powerful? Or that you are aware of and trained to use them?" Owen asked, sounding genuinely interested.
Kagome gave a derisive snort. "I'm not trained. I had to learn by myself, because, even though there was someone who could have taught me, I was never allowed the time to do so." her voice was bitter, and she frowned at whatever memories that had been brought up. Her expression cleared almost immediately, though, and she continued. "I was told that you have a little problem involving your powers being, ah, limited by your Lord?"
"Yes..." Owen trailed off, worried now, and wondering why she was asking. True, he wasn't really a youkai, but that didn't make him any less susceptible to her powers. Could she be planning to use my weakness against me?
"You are rather powerful as a fey, are you not?" Kagome asked, staring hard at him.
"Yes, powerful enough." Owen wondered where the little miko was going with this.
"Then perhaps we can help each other."
Owen was startled. Surely she didn't want a favor from him? Japan had their own tricksters, did she not know how unwise it was to ask a favor of one? The others thought the same thing.
"How so?" Owen asked cautiously.
"Easy, I break the spell on you, you teach my itouto English." Kagome said simply.
Owen felt relieved. That would be easy enough, and even if Kagome were unable to break the spell, it would be a lesson for Alexander.
Everyone else was a bit startled. Could she do that? Remove a spell placed by Oberon himself?
"Do want me to try?" Kagome asked.
Owen nodded, but, internally, he was jumping and dancing in excitement. He turned to his employers. "Mr. Xanatos, may Miss Higurashi and I use of the library for a while? I don't know how long this will take, and there is no sense in having somebody calling the police due to strange lights being seen from here."
"Very well, Owen. The both of you may take all the time you need." Xanatos said with a smile, which both Owen and Kagome returned.
Without another word, Owen offered his arm to Kagome, which she took, leading her into the castle.
"Well, I feel a little blown off." Angela said.
"No, she needed to take care of her brother, and she needed Owen's help." Broadway said, shaking his head.
"Yeah, but I'm a little nervous about the idea of her being alone with Puck, if she can break the spell on him." Fox pointed out. Despite being half fay herself, after her last meeting with her mother, Fox had been a little leery of allowing Puck to be alone with, much less to teach Alex. "The Third-Race are hardly helpful, unless they benefit from it. Does she even know what she is doing?"
"Aye, the lass claimed to have had dealings with beings such as the Children of Oberon." Hudson answered, although he too was a little uncertain, since Owen's admission that they were only simillar to the youkai she usually dealt with.
"Nah, she can probably handle herself. She seemed pretty sure of what she what she was doing." Brooklyn said, shaking his head.
I never realized how hard it is to understand English without subtitles, Souta thought, I wonder what they're talking about.
Once inside the library with the doors shut, Kagome and Owen turned to face each other.
Kagome narrowed her eyes somewhat. She could see Oberon's spell, surrounding Owen like a dark purple cloud. Yeah, I can do this.
"I can do this, but I have to warn you that you may be burnt in the process. Nothing too serious, but I thought you might want to know." Kagome warned Owen.
"It will be worth it." Emotion filtered into Owen's usually monotone voice. Puck was absolutely giddy with excitement, over the prospect of being in full control of his powers.
"This will probably hurt-a lot." Kagome told him, placing her hands on both of his shoulders.
Owen only nodded.
After setting up a barrier to muffle Owen's screams. Kagome allowed her power to rise up, causing her aura to flare out, filling the room with a pale pink glow. Kagome's reiki began to eat away at the spell surrounding Owen. Owen kept his mouth closed in order to keep from screaming, because Kagome's prediction had been correct, it did hurt a lot. Owen felt as if his skin was being slowly torn away, strip by strip. Kagome fought to keep control of herself, because holy powers were more instinctual than most thought, and instinct told her to continue to burn Owen until there was only a pile of ash remaining. But she didn't. She made her reiki overpower the spell that bound the Puck. As the holy magic neared his skin, Owen couldn't keep from screaming, and the volume threatened to shatter the windows.
Kagome allowed her power to dissipate then. It was over, the Puck was free.
"WEEEEEEEEEEEE-HOOOOOOOOOOO! THE PUCK IS BACK!" Puck began spinnning around the room, reminding Kagome of one of Shippo's smashing tops, although Puck was causing considerably less damage.
Kagome would have chuckled at the childish fay's reaction were it not for the fact that she felt like curling and sleeping for a few days. She'd used more of her reiki in the past couple of days than she had in the past six months.
"I'll give you a few minutes to calm down before I send in Souta." Kagome sighed, turning to leave the room. But just as she reached the door, two surprisingly strong hands spun her around to face Puck, who kissed her on the lips!
"OH, THANK YOU-THANK YOU-THANK YOU!" Puck screamed, nearly shattering her eardrums and the same time nearly breaking her ribs, he was hugging her so hard.
"Uh, your w-welcome?" Kagome managed to wheeze out.
"Now where is that little priest you call a brother? Send him on in. In fact, send both him and Alexander in, this will be a good learning experience for Alexander." Puck said in an unbelievably cheery voice.
"H-hai." Kagome said, feeling overwhelmed by Puck's reaction as she hurried from the room.
Lord Oberon doubled over in pain. He had been gazing out of the windows of his private quarters on Avalon, when an odd burning sensation passed through his body. Although it was gone as soon as it came, Oberon greatly disliked being undermined, for he knew, now, that the spell he had placed upon Puck months ago, had been broken.
"My Lord?" came soft, husky voice of his Lady, Titania.
"It would appear, my love, as if someone has had the audacity to break the spell I had placed upon Puck." Oberon said in his deep, cold voice. "But I must know, what manner of being posseses the power to destroy my own spell?"
"Perhaps, in the millenia of our banishment from Avalon, one of kind may have encountered such a power." Titania speculated.
"True, or perhaps some of our cousins from the orient. Sisters!"
The Weird Sisters consisted of Phoebe, the golden haired personification of Grace, Luna, the silver haired personification of Fate, and Seline, the black haired personification of Fury immediately appeared before the Lord and Lady.
"You summoned us, milord?" Phoebe said softly.
"Indeed. Summon all of who reside on Avalon immediately." Oberon commanded.
Brooklyn slid down next to Kagome. As soon as she had come out of the library, she had slumped up against the nearest wall and slid to the ground. She had murmured something unintelligible to Souta, who had immediately gone into the library, and then stated that Puck wanted Alexander in the library as well. Kagome hadn't been terribly surprised when the infant became a cloud of glittering green vapor, which flew under the door.
"So...did it work?" Brooklyn asked.
"Hai, but it took a it took a lot out of me." Kagome mumbled, looking like she was about to fall asleep then and there.
"Is that something all miko's can do?"
"No, not in this age, there are most likely no other true miko's around, just college and high school girls looking for summer jobs who can tell you fortunes. Real miko's, however, could, but it depends upon the power of a miko, less powerful ones would have exhausted themselves just attempting such a thing. More powerful miko's, and I suppose that I would fit into that category, could do what I just did, and other things, like killing youkai, healing, and a bunch of other things."
"Like what?"
"I'll tell you later."
All of Oberon's Children, the oriental cousins, and the Avalon Clan now gathered in the throne room of Oberon's castle.
"My Children, my friends, I have gathered you here because something has come to my attention. Many of you are aware of the spell which I placed upon Puck when the Gathering began." Oberon said solemnly. When the spell was brought up, confused looks came upon the face of all those there. Was Oberon going to allow the trickster to return to Avalon? "Tonight, though, the spell was broken."
This caused uproar. How could this be? What magic could have overpowered Oberon's? Could she be involved?
"Calm yourselves, she has nothing to do with it, she is still imprisoned. But that still begs the question: what did this?"
"Perhaps, Lord Oberon, we may have the answer." came a quiet, cold voice that filled all who heard it with a sense of dread. The crowd of fay split like the Red Sea for the man-no, not man-being who came forward. The male had long white hair, golden eyes, a Prussian moon on his forhead, and purple stripes on his face. He was Lord of Sesshomaru.
"Lord Sesshomaru. Do tell us what being has done this?" Oberon said, hiding his anxiety with his usual prideful tone.
"It would appear that a priest or a priestess has done this."
The hall filled with the fay's laughter.
"You jest, Lord Sesshomaru!" Odin snorted disbelievingly.
"A mere human?" sneered Seline.
"They may have nearly wiped out your kin, but no human could have broken the spell." Raven sneered.
"You may wish to believe that, but I can assure you that if a priest or priestess is responsible, you have much to fear. For whoever it is, they are powerful, and could most likely kill anyone of you, making destroying a spell child's play." Sesshomaru said, his voice laced with venom.
"Well, Lord Sesshomaru, if you are so certain, then perhaps you should send one of your own to fetch this person." Oberon suggested, trying to sound mocking, but in truth he was curious and believed the youkai. He had known Sesshomaru and his father, and he knew Sesshomaru only spoke when he was certain.
Sesshomaru only nodded at the challenge. "Jaken."
"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru." said the imp in his reedy voice.
"Find this holy person, and return them here." Sesshomaru said, turning on his heel leaving the still laughing fay and the silent gargoyles.
"Of-of course, milord, I shall go at once." squawked the proud, imp who immediately ran off to find a skiff.
Yay! Finally, I finished. I'm sorry it took so long but I had a bunch of end of the year/family vacation stuff going on. Now, as an author and for the sake of comedy relief, I am going to make Jaken's life absolutely miserable. Just a heads up, and really, who doesn't smile at a little Jaken bashing now and then. Please review!