We started off again and crossed gates into the next world which was another of those abandoned realms that were coming apart at the seams.
The what I could see of the Realm we crossed into from the Gate platform was thick forest with tall mountains crowning up in the distance. The trees were large and thick and old and the sky blurred into nothingness in small patches. Immediately after stepping out of the gate I picked up a familiar scent of magic.
"What is it?" Isana asked, noting my rapt attention.
"Shadow," I said shortly trying to get a direction. "I think it's no longer here, but I can smell its scent so strong that it must have passed this way recently. Within the last day or so. I think we should check it out, if we're lucky it might have left something useful behind."
Yoruichi gave me a long level look, aware of my new orders but said nothing. It wasn't like I didn't want to rescue the kid, but I'd get there eventually and this might bring a valuable insight into an enemy I might be having to fight against soon.
Isana was visibly torn between aquescence to my idea and the desire to keep going forward on the trail of the Shadow we were hunting. Having me out of action for two days had set us back but for whatever, she decided to humor me and nodded that we should go after the Shadow I scented nearby.
We approached cautiosly, suppressing our spiritual traces down to practically nothing as we crept along on the way to where I scented Shadow. I frowned after a long moment once we got close enough for me to practically taste the scent of inscence on my tongue. The scent of reiatsu was powerful... but not powerful enough. I didn't sense the presence of Shadow at all, but I could feel the emanations of the magic they used like heat from off a furnace.
Yoruichi and I exchanged a long speaking glance as we got within eyeshot of where we sensed the emanations coming from. In unison, we crept forward to investigate.
A large circle aproximately four feet in diameter with a complex spell diagram of circles and interconnected lines with complex an incomprehensible sigils written over them was glowing with a greyish-white light. Hovering in the air over the center of that spell diagram was another of those sparkling beads. This gem was smaller in size than the mitama we had collected previously, that one had been the size of a baby's fist and this one was about the size of an ordinary marble. There was no sign of a Shadow in sight. We could both sense the spell was in effect, doing whatever it was supposed to do, and I had a pretty good idea that it was supposed to be unraveling the realm and collecting the energy from it.
"don't get too close," Yoruichi warned an instant later as she drew nearer to it than I had dared to go. "I can feel it pulling on the energy of my reiatsu from here and if you get too near it with your lack of control it'll drain you dry before ou can say knife."
I nodded, acknowledging her advice and shied back a step or two, with kido-nonsense there was no point in taking chances.
"Miss Isana, see if you can't get some of ths recorded," I called over my shoulder. I heard isana fishing around in one of the saddlebags for the recording device. She'd mastered the trick of activating it.
"It's on," she called over a minute later. I pointed over to the spell circle and she obediently took some close-up footage of the circle.
"I'm lookin' inta things like ya asked," I said adding onto the report I'd made previously. "And I found this. It's one of those spell circles and it looks just like the last one that had a Shadow in it, but this one doesn't have a Shadow anywhere in sight. I think it's not even anywhere in this Realm. I can scent the trail and it passed by recently, but I can't sense its energy signature anywhere within range."
I looked a question over at Yoruichi and she shook her head in negation.
"neither can Miss Yoruichi here."
I pointed to the gem hovering over the center of the diagram, saying
"The gem is smaller than the one I sentcha, as you can see. I can't confirm it but it seems to be unraveling the realm and sucking in the energy to store inside this crystal. if ya get to close to the array here, it starts sucking away at your life-force like some kinda power devoring vaccuuum or black hole. It doesn't seem like it discriminates much, it just takes in any energy."
I frowned and ran a hand through my bound hair, mulling over the implications.
"Maybe this is statin' the obvious," I said after a long moment. "But it seems t' me that the person or persons responsible for settin' this spell array up are deliberately harvesting power from abandoned Realms across the Dangai. This is definately not the first one I've come across, you read in one of my earlier reports 'bout the weird spell circle I came across on the second say o' Realm-hopping. I didn't know what it was before, and I didn't know enough about the Divine Realms to understand that it was actualy an anomally 'stead o' sumthin' that was supposed t' be there."
"I would be willing to bet," yoruichi chimed in on my report. "That if we searched through the other Realms that are becoming unraveled that we would find another such array somewhere within them."
"which sorta seems ta pont out that someone who wants power an' a lot of it is finding a way to get it, by harvesting power from abandoned Realms. Don't know fer certain who it is or what they wanna do with it, but I think it's sumthin' worth mentioning if only sos we c'n keep an eye on the mess and see if sumthin nasty comes crawlin' out of it. Don't wanna get caught blindsided by some powerful new enemy when we got enough on our plates as it is. Abarai out."
"Should we just keep going or try to get the bead?" Yoruichi questioned as Isana packed away the recorder.
"watcha think Isana? Up fer a little practice on that bindin' spell o' yers?"
"That's what I'm here for I guess," she shrugged, dismounting from her construct-beast.
"From the Palaces of Heaven..." she began her chant.
I stood back and let her go at it. The spell really was effective, as she called upon each of the four elements, the diagram unwrote itself from the ground underneath the gemstone, hovering in little lines up in the air that promptly folded themselves into the heart of the weird little gem. I wondered if they would be able to figure out how the spell worked by findin a way to pull it out of the gem once they got to it. A sphere of smooth crystal enveloped the energy-sucking bead that glowed yellowish with latent energy. I picked it up when it dropped to the ground while Yoruichi caught Isana, who had swayed unsteadily on her feet after she'd cast the binding spell.
"You alright?" I asked, noting that she looked kinda pale underneath her ethinic bronze skin.
"I-I'm fine," she said a little shakilly. "It's just that... that spell takes it out of me, that's all. I'm not used to being able to do things like this and I don't really know how much I can do with it."
"If you would like," Yoruichi said, helping to steady her on her feet. "When we stop to rest for the night I can give you some training in the use of your spiritual powers. It is always best to know your limits before you must face them in a battle."
"Will it help me rescue my son?" Isana asked.
"I cannot hurt," Yoruichi replied with a note of ironic humor in her voice.
Isana nodded her assent and remounted.
So short that I didn't really bother with editing it, so any spelling or grammatical errors I will blame on my busy schedule. It might be a few days on the next chapter, I have to actually find time to write it instead of posting from what's already written so plaese bear with me. As always I'd like to thank all of my wonderful reveiwers for sticking with this monster and letting me know what they thought of it.