I have a really good explanation for not updating sooner: My hard drive completely crashed… Also, I reedited the first chapter completely so if you have been a steady reader of this story do this: REREAD THE FIRST CHAPTER!! That's all for that so, let the story commence!!
By the way, as today is my birthday, I've decided for all you readers to have a special treat. I'm updating my other two "in-progress" stories today as well, so expect two other updates!! Plus, I'm making a one-shot of mine a two-shot.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Inuyasha but I do own Miya and any other villains that I create. If you want to use her, ask me first.
It was so foggy that the group in the air riding on the back of the enormous feline couldn't even see three feet in front of them. When the fog cleared, however, they found themselves in pitch black. There was no moon and even the stars had abandoned their job of lighting up the night. The only way they even knew that they were somewhere was the shadowy figures on the ground which they identified to be trees by the light of Kirara's fire.
"I don't think I've ever been anywhere so dark," Sango said softly, looking down. "Are those even trees?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," Miroku said. "I just hope that we're still in our own world."
"What do you mean?"
"There could be different worlds than ours," Miroku said simply.
Shippo shivered and said, "Does anyone else hear that weird sound?"
They listened and heard a howling sound that sent shivers down their spine.
"What is it?" Sango asked, trembling. "I've never heard such a sound."
"It's not mortal," Miroku said.
"I got that much from the sound. Is it a youkai?"
"It could be but it sounds too….unearthly."
"I'm not unearthly," Shippo whispered indignantly.
"I know. That wasn't meant for you, Shippo," Miroku reassured the small kitsune.
"Think we should land, Miroku?" Sango inquired.
"We haven't reached the village yet. Those lights are still a ways off," Miroku pointed out.
"True, but, haven't you noticed that they're…I don't know…green?" Sango shifted her Hiraikotsu.
Miroku remained silent for a moment before answering, "True. Touch down, Kirara, for now. We'll walk there on foot."
Kirara gave a growl in reply as she descended.
"Stay quiet now," Sango commanded the two youkais. "We need to be quiet since we don't know what's there."
They were in a strange forest. The trees looked all bony and withered up and the branches looked too much like pointy fingers. If Shippo could voice his thoughts, he would've said that they were staring at the group and not in a way that was particularly nice.
"I've never seen such a forest." Sango stepped over a bony white root. "I've also never seen a night as black as it is now. There are no clouds in the sky."
"I'm scared," Shippo whimpered, pressing himself down into Kirara's fur.
"Don't be, Shippo," Sango said, smiling. "We're here and we'll protect you."
"I give you a monk's word," Miroku said, putting his gloved fist over his heart. "I swear my honor on it."
"Do you even have honor?"
"Ha ha. Let's just go."
Several minutes later, the trees were beginning to look even more threatening and the lights were getting closer. Sango and Miroku told Shippo and Kirara to stay behind and hide while they made their way closer to the clearing.
"Are those lights….hovering above the ground?" Sango whispered.
"And there's no village." Miroku stopped and huddled behind a tree. "Sango, give me that map."
The two pored over the map for a few moments.
"According to this map, we're supposed to be at the village," Miroku said. "In fact, we're standing in it."
"I don't see any villagers. Unless the trees are supposed to be them," Sango said.
Miroku cracked a smile. "Somehow, I doubt the trees are the villagers, although, they certainly seem to be staring at us."
"Care to brave it, Miroku?" Sango crouched down, ready to run out.
"Only way we'll find out what's going on." Miroku jumped out, Sango following.
The moment they stepped into the clearing, they saw that the greenish lights were in fact floating off the ground. In another second, the lights had been extinguished, leaving them in total darkness. Then, shrieking filled the air and by whatever light they still had, the two fighters saw dark shapes swooping in on them from the sky.
"Ready, Sango?" Miroku asked, holding his staff out.
"Ready as I'll ever be, I guess," the youkai-slayer answered.
The two readied their weapons as the accursed shrieking went on.
Inuyasha's diamond shards and Miya's arrow met the barrier of Naraku with a blinding white light. First the arrow pierced the barrier. Instead of shattering as Naraku had expected it to, it instead began to sink into the barrier. Then came Inuyasha's shards. With the arrow steadily sinking into the barrier, the shards shattered the barrier and allowed the arrow to pierce Naraku's chest.
"Yes!" Inuyasha crowed.
"Interesting," Naraku commented, taking the arrow out of his chest. He landed on the ground without the barrier to hold him up. "There are no spiritual powers imbedded in this arrow and yet it did not shatter on impact."
"Maybe that's because your barrier isn't as strong as you thought it was," Miya said evenly, notching another arrow to her string.
"Where's Kagome, you (censored)?!" Inuyasha cried.
"I don't have the woman, if that's what you're insinuating," Naraku said. "In fact, I merely came to congratulate whoever did steal her. It's a marvelous plan if I do say so myself."
"Enough talking. Today's going to be your death day, Naraku!" The Tessaiga began to gather energies around its blade. "Kaze no Kizu!!"
"Stop, Inuyasha!" Miya shouted. "It's just going to…." The four streaks of light hit Naraku and rebounded. "….rebound," she finished lamely. Miya ran over to Inuyasha and hit him full-on to get him out of the way. "Watch out!" Both of them skidded across the marshy ground.
"Pity. I was hoping for it to tear you apart," Naraku said. A dark shadow materialized in front of the hanyou.
"Always perceptive, aren't you, my dear?" the shadow rasped.
"Not you, you disgusting thing," Miya said.
"You're hurting my feelings."
"Do you even have any?" Miya retorted.
"Miya," Inuyasha said, "who's this guy?!"
"No one of any consequence," she replied.
"Would you really say that if you knew that I held your friend's life in the palm of my hand?" it asked.
"You--!" she was broken off by Inuyasha.
"Where the hell is Kagome, you (censored)?!"
"I'm sorry. Was she your woman?" the shadow said, smirking. It didn't look very nice.
"Who are you?" Naraku asked of the shadow.
"I have no name," it rasped, "although those who know me call me the Leader."
"Leader of what?"
"Oh yeah, Ku-chan," Miya said loud enough for everyone to hear, "suck up to the guy 'cause he's just going to kill you."
"Ku-chan?" Inuyasha looked flabbergasted.
"He laughs like that." The girl shrugged.
"Very amusing." Naraku didn't look amused in the least.
"I am the leader of the shadows of the world hidden by the mist," the shadow said. "Many fear us…with perfect right."
"The world hidden by the mist?"
"It's that place where you found me," Miya explained to the hanyou.
"And the place where you escaped my grasp once again." The shadow's face twisted into an ugly grimace. "Mark my words, girl, you'll wish that you never interfered with my plans."
"Sorry, I interfered with your plans?" Miya said. "I thought it was the other way around with you deciding to ruin my life."
"Not that your life wasn't already ruined," the shadow said.
Inuyasha glanced at Miya and saw that her face was impassive, even though her blue eyes held an entirely different story.
'What happened between these two?' Inuyasha wondered. 'She's just a puny mortal.' He could've sworn he saw Miya shoot him a glare at that remark but that was impossible. She couldn't read minds, could she?
"How about I offer you a bargain?" Naraku offered to the shadow. "I'll give you the sacred jewel, if you destroy Inuyasha and his friends."
"I already have some of the jewel," the shadow rasped. "I nearly captured the girl with it, too. And, if you're really as powerful as this dog-eared mongrel suggests--"
"Hey!!" Inuyasha growled.
"--then you should have no problem defeating them on your own," the shadow finished smoothly.
"You'll regret that," Naraku said just as smoothly.
"Come on, Inuyasha," Miya whispered, tugging on Inuyasha's sleeve. "Let's go while they're arguing. We don't have time for this."
"No way! We can ask that shadow where Kagome is!" Inuyasha protested, thankfully remembering to keep his voice low.
"That guy won't tell you anything," she responded in a low voice. "He's just going to drag you around by a thread until you realize he's only fooling with you."
"What's up with calling it 'him'?"
"That's not the point. I wouldn't call that eyeball creep a 'him' either but he looks more human than that stupid shadow wraith." Miya began to draw Inuyasha back. "Now let's go before they decide to turn their attention back to us."
"You're a strange girl, you know that, right?"
"I know." Miya smiled sweetly. "That's not the first time someone's told me that, either."
"You're not going anywhere." The shadow wraith Miya had mentioned earlier appeared before the two and threw Miya over.
"Get off of me!" Miya grunted as she kicked the shadow wraith off of her.
"And as for you, Inuyasha," Naraku said evilly as he whipped a tentacle towards the hanyou.
"I'm not going anywhere," Inuyasha said flatly. His Tessaiga turned into a scaled version of its former self. It was the dragon-scaled form.
"Hiraikotsu!!" Sango threw her boomerang among the flapping creatures that were attacking them. She couldn't see if it had hit any and grabbed it as it flew back towards her. "Any progress, Miroku?"
"You're asking me? I can't see two feet in front of me!" Miroku tripped over a root and did a face-plant. "My point stands."
"We need light." Sango drew her sword and hacked a nearby screeching thing. She could feel something warm coat her hand and knew she had struck true.
"Kirara," Miroku said blandly, spitting out dirt. He got up and threw a sutra; it hit something and with crackling blue lightning, lit it up for one moment before blowing it up. "OK. That wasn't too pleasant a sight."
The creature had looked like a bird. But no bird could have looked as malformed and ugly as that one had. Its wings were huge black feathery things and the claws were enormous, able to clasp an infant with ease. The beak was cruelly curved and the head of the bird looked leathery and scaly, with two beady eyes.
"What kind of birds are these?" Sango slammed one down into the ground.
"Not…normal birds, that's for sure!!" Miroku slashed at one with his staff, sending it flying into a tree.
"KWAAAAA!!" they heard a piercing shriek.
The other "birds" answered in kind, nearly destroying Miroku's and Sango's eardrums. "KWAAAAA!!"
"Sango! Miroku!" they heard someone small shout.
"Stay back, Shippo!" Sango called back.
A growl was heard as Kirara fired up her fires (A/N Sounds stupid, I know.). Suddenly, Miroku and Sango could see. They saw the way the birds were all flying around in the sky. They saw the few casualties on the ground and gagged as they saw the internal organs. (A/N Just because they make a living slaying demons doesn't mean they've seen these kinds of demons. Believe you me, it's gross.)
"They're circling around something," Sango pointed out.
"But what?" Miroku squinted in the light of Kirara's fires. "It's…huge."
Then came the loudest shriek of all. "GRUWAAAAAA!!"
Both stumbled backwards as the enormous thing struck land. The wings knocked over trees as it flapped them. The talons were easily the size of a bus and the head looked feathery, leathery, and scaly all in one.
"Something tells me I don't want to know what thing can do." Miroku stood up and prepared to open up the glove on his hand.
"Wait, Miroku." Sango laid a hand on the monk's shoulder. "Maybe we can speak to it."
"I'm going to pretend you haven't lost your sanity," Miroku said.
"I'm not kidding."
"I was afraid of that."
"Who are you?!" Sango shouted up to the enormous bird-like creature.
A shriek was an answer.
"There. No one's talking," Miroku said hastily. "Let's just suck them in and go."
Then, an enormous grating noise filled the air. It took the two of them several moments to register that there were words within the sound.
"Mind repeating that?!" Sango hollered up.
"She's lost it. She's talking to a bird," Miroku muttered. "My friend, the youkai-slayer, is talking to a gigantic, ugly, unearthly bird."
"Shh," Sango shushed him.
"ARROGANT ANIMALS!!" the voice went on. The two watched in fascination as the beak clacked together to make the horrible sound.
"He called us animals?" Miroku asked.
"Quiet!" Sango hissed. "It's speaking!"
"I AM THE GREAT LORD OF THE BAT-BIRDS, KAGAI!!" (A/N Kagai means "evil" in Japanese.)
"Nice to meet you, Kagai," Miroku said in a jovial tone, "mind telling us where we are?"
Sango did a face-palm. 'What an idiot.'
"YOU ARE IN MY DOMAIN, ANIMAL!! SPEAK TO ME WITH RESPECT!!"
"Eh--okay." Miroku backed up and shoved Sango forward. "Your turn."
Sango took a breath and said, "Where are we, Lord Kagai? In what world do we live in?"
"AN ANIMAL THAT SPEAKS, HOW AMUSING!!" Kagai cackled, sending the smaller bat-birds cackling as well.
Sango smiled stiffly. Anyone who was familiar with her knew what that smile meant: Don't mess with me.
"THE WORLD WITHOUT LIGHT, WHERE THE BAT-BIRDS REIGN SUPREME!!" Kagai screamed for everyone to hear. "THREE MILLION YEARS HAVE WE LIVED LIKE THIS!!"
"OK, definitely not where we live," Miroku said. "Shippo, you still there?"
"Yes," the small kitsune squeaked.
"Keep hiding, okay? Kirara, tone down the flames a bit."
"Why?" Shippo asked.
"It's going to come in useful later," Miroku said simply. Kirara gave a growl and extinguished her flames, casting them in full darkness. "I wonder if he noticed."
"I think they're partially blind," Sango whispered. "Bats don't have good eyesight. They rely on hearing and not on sight to help find their prey."
"Yes, but they're not bats."
"They've called themselves bat-birds. I think that has some significance, don't you?" Sango then raised her voice, "Do you know where we can find a human settlement, oh, Lord Kagai?"
"HUMAN SETTLEMENT?! WHAT IS A HUMAN??"
"Definitely not our world."
"Stop saying that, Miroku," Sango said. "I think we get the message."
"ARE YOU HUMANS?!"
"You could say that," Sango hollered back. "We don't belong here!"
"THEN HOW ARE YOU HERE?!"
"Good point," Miroku said in a low voice to Sango. "How did we get here?"
"Think back." Sango flashed back to when they had taken off.
Flashback:
"It's too foggy to see a thing," Sango said to Miroku.
They were in the air after having taken off to the village where Miya needed to go. After several minutes of tense flying, they had suddenly been enveloped in a thick fog that didn't even let them see the land.
"I agree. If it weren't for the fact that we are in such close proximity to each other, I would think that I'm alone."
"Somehow, the way you say it doesn't exactly reassure me," Sango said.
"You got that right," Shippo said. "It sounds like he's planning on groping you any second."
"Have you no faith in me?"
"Hmm. Let me think…. Oh now I have the answer. No, I don't." Sango moved her Hiraikotsu so that Miroku couldn't touch her inappropriately.
"The fog's clearing up," Shippo pointed out.
Several minutes later, the four were in darkness, lit up only by Kirara's fires.
End Flashback.
"We traveled in fog until we arrived in your world," Sango explained.
"THE WORLD BETWEEN THE WORLDS!!" Kagai shrieked.
"The world between the worlds?" Miroku repeated, a blank look on his face.
"IT IS WHAT CONNECTS US TO EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE!!" Kagai said.
"Connects us to everything in the universe?" Sango said. "Does that mean…Miya?"
"REPEAT THAT NAME!!"
"Eh?" Sango stumbled backwards at the ferocity in the tone.
"REPEAT THAT NAME YOU JUST UTTERED, HUMAN!!"
"Miya?" Miroku prompted.
"ARE YOU AN ACQUAINTANCE?!"
"He has a vocabulary?" Miroku said blankly.
"Oh, shut up." Sango shoved Miroku roughly. "You could say that, Lord Kagai. Do you know her?"
"THE HUMAN THAT DARED TO AFOUL OUR LANDS HAS RETURNED?!" Kagai paused and then added, "SHE IS A HUMAN?"
"Affirmative." Miroku nodded. "Well, this is strange. I didn't classify Miya as the type to acquaint herself with these….bat-birds."
Sango refrained from uttering a retort and said to Kagai, "She isn't here. Did something happen?"
"I'LL TELL YOU WHAT HAPPENED!! THE HUMAN RAN INTO OUR SACRED GROUNDS WITH A FULL-FLEDGED ARMY ON HER HEELS!!"
"He knows what heels are?" Miroku said.
Shippo couldn't repress a small laugh.
Sango frowned at Miroku's poor attempt at making a joke and said to Kagai, "What kind of army? Would it be shadows?"
"THOSE ACCURSED THINGS HAVE EATEN MANY OF MY FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS!!" Kagai shrieked. "THEY ARE FEARED EVERYWHERE AS THE WRAITHS THAT LIVE IN THE WORLD SHROUDED BY MIST!!"
"This is getting weirder by the second." Sango frowned. "Well, I guess we can ask them how to get home." She raised her voice, "How can we get home, Lord Kagai?"
Silence. Then the air was wrought with laughter from the bat-birds.
"Did I say something?" Sango asked.
"Don't ask me." Miroku shook his head.
"YOU WANT TO GO HOME?! BE LUCKY YOU'RE EVEN ALIVE!!" Kagai shook with laughter.
"I think we can handle ourselves," Sango said stiffly.
"I AM BORED WITH THESE ACCURSED HUMANS. SOMEONE ELSE SPEAK." Kagai settled down to watch, amused.
"Humans," a nearby bat-bird said. (A/N I'm going to call it "Batty" now.)
"Er--yes?" Miroku gave it a dazzling smile.
"No one…" Batty paused then continued, "No one knows how to move from realm to realm. If one stumbles into the world wrought with mist, they're lucky to escape alive from the grasp of the wraiths."
"Ah. So how do you propose we leave?" Sango asked.
Batty stared at her out of his beady little eyes. "If you wish to leave, foolish human, you wander till you encounter fog. When you enter, you wander yet again till you find a portal to another realm. Luck is needed for those who wish to return to their own realm."
"Very….helpful," Sango said.
"IT'S TIME TO GO, LOYAL FOLLOWERS!!" Kagai suddenly screamed, making the two friends jump. "FARE THEE WELL, HUMANS, AND TELL THE ACCURSED HUMAN WHO AFOULED OUR SACRED LANDS THAT THE WRAITHS SEEK HER STILL!!"
With more shrieks, the bat-birds left the group in the darkness, and among a hailstorm of black feathers.
"You know, we could've asked who Miya really was," Miroku said after a moment of silence.
"She's a girl," Shippo said, sneaking out from behind a tree. Kirara lit up her fires again, allowing the group to see each other.
"Besides that."
Sango sighed and hefted her boomerang back to its original position. "Any suggestions onto how we're going to get home? That bat-bird made it sound pretty hopeless."
Silence.
"We're doomed," Shippo said mournfully.
Miya shot another arrow at the shadow wraith, which simply dodged it. When the wraith came to close for her liking she whacked it away with her bow.
"You can't fight forever, girl," it sneered.
"Neither can you," she replied.
"My limits far exceed that of yours, mortal."
"Oh, now I'm a 'mortal' and not a 'girl'?" Miya smiled. "My limits are more than that of which you think."
On the other hand, Inuyasha was trying, without success, to cut Naraku's youketsu. Something seemed to be blocking his sight.
"Why can't I see anything?!" Inuyasha cried out in frustration. He hacked at a tentacle, which Naraku promptly regenerated. "Fine! Kaze no Kizu!!" He swung the sword down.
Naraku's body was blown apart by the attack but in minutes, he had regenerated himself again.
"You never learn, do you, Inuyasha?" Naraku asked.
"I don't need to learn anything to know I need to beat you!" the hanyou snapped.
"True," Miya said, suddenly appearing by his side, "but you do need to know something's blocking your sight." She jabbed a thumb in the direction of the wraith, which she had pinned to a boulder.
"What's he got to with anything?!"
"Remember when I said, 'with your mind, you can accomplish anything'?" Inuyasha nodded. "That's what the wraith is doing. He's blocking your sight mentally."
"And the rebounding when I tried the Kaze no Kizu before?" Inuyasha remembered the lack of a barrier. "Naraku didn't have anything up."
"That was its doing as well," Miya said, refraining from using 'him'. "He formed a mental barrier that can rebound attacks."
"And you know this how?" Inuyasha asked suspiciously.
"Uh--I study a lot?"
"Yeah, right." Inuyasha rested his sword on his shoulder.
"Hmph. You two are such nuisances," Naraku said, reeling his tentacles back in.
"Glad to see it's mutual," Miya said.
Suddenly, Naraku's body was surrounded by purple smoke.
"Wow. This guy needs to tone it down on the special effects," Miya said nonchalantly.
"That's shouki, stupid!"
"And it has something do with us how?"
Inuyasha wondered if the girl was crazy. "It's aimed towards us. And it's poisonous."
"Ah, I get ya." Miya put up her hands, palms outward. "Just don't move."
"Why?" Inuyasha mentally braced himself for a quick getaway.
"I mean it," Miya said in a low voice, "don't move."
'What is she, a mind reader?'
Then a voice, not Inuyasha's, talked, 'You could say that.'
"Hey, who's in my head?!" Inuyasha demanded.
'I am.'
'Who're you?!'
'I'm standing in front of you, baka. Now don't think, it divides my concentration.'
Inuyasha just managed to bite back his thought retort. The shouki began to surround the two, much to Inuyasha's horror. Miya had a face of intense concentration on and her focus was only on her task.
Forgetting the other voice in his head's warning, Inuyasha thought, 'We're dead.'
'I told you not to think!' Damn. The voice was back again.
Slowly the shouki surrounded began to sink in. Inuyasha realized that what had held the shouki away for so long was in fact an invisible dome. He also noticed that Miya was panting rather heavily.
"Hey, you all right?" he asked her.
"Do I look all right to you?!" she snapped. Her face was becoming pale. "Try to get us out of here because I can't hold up this shield for much longer!"
"Shield?" Miya shot him a glare. "Yeah, yeah. Get us out of here. Hold your breath, this is going to sting."
Inuyasha grabbed Miya and gave a powerful jump with his legs upwards. He felt Miya relax in his arms as he traveled upwards through the shouki. Finally, he broke free of it and managed to see Naraku still spewing where they had been with the poisonous miasma. The
shadow wraith Miya had temporarily trapped to the boulder had broken free and was sitting on the boulder where he had been trapped.
"Come on, Miya, hang in there," Inuyasha said. He flew into the shouki again before jumping outwards and landing in the clear air. "You okay?"
"I'm fine," she said, holding her head. "I've just got a really bad headache. Didn't I tell you not to think?"
"Hang on. You were the one in my head?!"
"Didn't I just say that?"
"Looks like you two survived my shouki," Naraku said. "Why am I not surprised?"
"Because I've done it before," Inuyasha said. He let Miya go and drew his Tessaiga, which he had sheathed prior to picking her up. "Now prepare to die, (censored)!!"
"Run, Inuyasha," Miya said faintly.
The hanyou ignored her. "Ready for your last minutes, Naraku?"
"Now would I be ready for that? I'm still alive and healthy," Naraku said.
"Define your definition of 'healthy'."
"Step back, Inuyasha," Miya said.
"What?" Miya pushed Inuyasha and stepped before him.
"If you two won't leave by your own will," she said in an even voice, "I'll just have to make you."
"And how will you do that?" Naraku raised an eyebrow. "You only have two arrows left in your quiver and those will hardly do any good to me."
The shadow on the rock remained silent.
"I don't need arrows. Not when I've got my mind." Miya closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"What will you do? Curse me in your thoughts to death?" Naraku said scornfully.
'Ah, he's got a point,' Inuyasha thought.
'Just shut up and watch.'
Miya moved her hands as if pushing someone away. Both Naraku and the wraith were pushed back violently. Then she closed her right hand and Naraku vanished. Then, with an obscure gesture Inuyasha couldn't decipher, the shadowy wraith writhed uncontrollably. Meanwhile, Miya's breaths were becoming more and more labored.
Finally, with a last writhe, the wraith disappeared and Miya fell backwards into Inuyasha's arms.
"Hey, you okay?" Inuyasha looked at Miya, who was unconscious. "Just great. Kagome's missing; Sango and Miroku nowhere to be seen, and I missed my chance at killing Naraku. Plus, now I've got more questions about her than ever." He hefted her onto his back and jumped into the air. "Guess I better find my way out of here before I try to revive her."
He ran off into the mist.
The shadow wraith appeared in the fog, clutching its head and growling.
"Curse you!!" it howled, clutching its head in pain. "Just you wait! I'm going to get you!" It looked over to the dark-haired girl it held captive. "I wonder what you'll think when your dear friend turns up dead and all because you defied me."
It walked over to Kagome, red light beginning to form around its hands, a sharp-toothed grin on its shadowy face.
An extra long chapter to make up for not updating sooner. Unfortunately, I've got two other stories to attend to and am busy with them so I can't attend to this story as much as I'd like to.
Unless, of course, this story draws in LOTS of reviews. In that case, I may change my mind. So, get to reviewing!!