InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Chained ❯ The Hate and Compassion of Lonely Hearts ( Chapter 11 )

A\N - Wow! Arigato everyone for being so concerned with my sleep patterns! Lol!

I’m happy to say that I got some last night, and should be back on “track” soon enough.

Nothing that’ll interfere with the story of course! ^_^

-InuKagome4 - Lol, well, yes, I suppose it can be. Mostly it’s an annoyance cause it interrupts me. Don’t get me wrong-- I like sleep as much as the next person, however, I’m one of the people who like to just keep going and going and going and getting in sleep means I have to stop. ^_^

-Inuyasha_cute_doggy_ears - I’m glad you’ve become fond of this fic! I’m happy to say that I am too, which means I’ll likely continue working upon it! ^_^

-Ms Smith - Lol, yep, you’re right! Nothing’s very much use to anyone if they’re not getting it. ^_^

Okay so it’s time for that oh-so-annoying part of the story: The DISCLAIMER: I Do not own Inuyasha. I make no money off of him. I do not own Kagome. I make no money off of her. I do not own Miroku, Sango, Shippo, Kirara, Naraku or any of the other characters of the Inuyasha series. I make no money off of them. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi. I own Amaya. I make no money off of her. I own the story. I make no money off of it. That’s about all I own... ~*~   The Hate and Compassion of Lonely Hearts

Kagome hated it here.

She hated the darkness that didn’t allow her to see more than five feet in front of her (and that only because she had been down here for so long and her eyes had adjusted to it). She hated the slime that dripped from the walls and oozed across the floor, staining her clothes and covering her arms and legs, later crusting there and making her itch horribly. She hated the bars that kept her down in this prison, she hated the tiles of stone that made up the floor and the water that dripped from the ceiling. She hated the horrible food they brought her and the terribly water that always tasted thick as though there was mud in it.

She hated it all.

But there was a bright side.

Or at least, a faintly illuminated by a “very-dull-grim-light” side.

The sorceress, Amaya, continued to come down to her dungeon, and though the woman tried to keep a cold exterior, Kagome could tell she felt compassion, and perhaps friendship towards her.

She figured the woman was lonely too, for the sorceress would talk to her of the dark towers she lived in that stood up tall above everything else, even the mountains, and surveyed all of the lands she ruled, of the long echoing halls that made up her palace and the servants she had working for her. All in all, Kagome came up with the conclusion that the woman had no real friends or anyone to talk to really, and was another person under Naraku’s rule.

She even began to suspect that the woman had once been good, for they had never encountered tales of an evil sorceress like her, and surely one of this woman’s power (and she knew it had to be great for Naraku to want her help at all) would have had many dark tales told about her.

The woman brought her news of the goings on in the world.

When Kagome asked her about her friends, Miroku, Sango and Shippo, the woman said she had seen no trace of them, but had heard rumours of a monk with a strange hole in his hand that sucked up everything around it being kept in one of the other dungeons. She returned the next day and informed Kagome that the monk was there, as well as her other friends, though none of them were in very good shape.

She continued to report back and forth between them, and Kagome slowly learned that, with Amaya’s help, they were getting at least a little stronger.

Amaya also brought her things.

Not big things that would cause a lot of attention, but small essentials, like extra blankets or furs to lay upon the floor, some better food and clean water, a hairbrush. She got hold of Kagome’s bag somehow and brought it down to her as well, though it really wasn’t much use.

But the greatest thing she brought was a small kerosene lamp and an odd looking ring that the sorceress had placed an enchantment upon so that it would bear fire that Kagome could use to light the lamp.

Kagome treasured them greatly, for they were her only source of light down there, her only reminders that there was some good in the world left.

Kagome would stay up late (or maybe early, she had no sense of time down here, though the sorceress would occasionally inform her of the date) reading her old school textbooks, simply for a reminder of home, a way to help herself stay slightly connected to her family in the other world.

It didn’t take long before she had them memorized, back to front, and then front to back, and still she continued to read them, or sometimes she would simply sit and recite it all back to herself.

That’s what she was doing now, because it was a distraction, and she needed a distraction right now.

Amaya had come down what Kagome guessed to be three days ago with news that Inuyasha had been taken captive by someone.

Kagome’s whole world had come shattering down around her, and she had sat crying helplessly for a long time while the sorceress watched, that same look of something close to disgust on her face again.

When Kagome asked her how and by whom, the woman merely shook her head, saying she did not know.

At Kagome’s insisting, she agreed to try and find out more about the hanyou’s capture, and had left the miko alone in the dungeon with her thoughts. She still hadn’t returned.

Kagome had just begun reciting the second line of the fourth paragraph of pg. 256 of her math textbook when the prison door opened and Amaya came down the stairs, in her usual strangely graceful glide.

‘I have news of your hanyou friend.’ She said when the door had been closed by the guards.

Kagome immediately shot up, and came toward the bars while Amaya conjured up a chair for herself to sit on.

‘Who has him? Do you know where he is?’ Kagome began her line of questioning, but stopped when Amaya held up a hand to silence her.

‘I do not know where you’re little mutt is, nor how or why someone took him, but my sources tell me that he has been captured by a priestess-- a woman by the name of Kikyo.’

Kagome’s face fell instantly. ‘Kikyo...’ She said quietly. This could not be good. She knew Kikyo wouldn’t hurt Inuyasha... at least, she didn’t think she would, but then, the priestess had tried to kill them both at least once without really showing any remorse, and had tried to take the half-demon down into the depths of hell with her while he was unconscious, with Kagome standing right there watching, bound to a tree by her damn soul collectors.

‘You’re tone holds familiarity and you’re eyes show worry-- you know this woman then?’ Amaya said, not sounding entirely interested.

‘She was the priestess who used to protect the Shikon jewel.’ Kagome said slowly, quietly, knowing that Amaya was now listening to her intently. ‘She saved Naraku when he was in his human form, as a man named Onigumo, but his heart was full of malice and he began to lust after her. However, he knew that Kikyo had fallen in love with someone else, a half-demon, Inuyasha. He despised them both for it and called the demons to him, letting them eat him alive, and in return he was converted into his demon self. He used his new power to trick Inuyasha and Kikyo into betraying each other, until Inuyasha eventually stole the jewel, and Kikyo sealed him to a tree with one of her sacred arrows.’

Kagome swallowed roughly, and immediately Amaya conjured a flask of water for her, clearly intent on hearing the rest of the story quickly. Kagome drank greedily for a moment before putting the stopper back in the top and continuing.

‘Kikyo had the jewel burned with her when she died so that the jewel would not fall into any other’s hands, and Inuyasha remained pinned to a tree there, asleep, for the next fifty years. That’s when I came in. I came to this era and the jewel returned through me, bursting from my body because I am the reincarnation of the priestess. Unfortunately I shattered the jewel when a demon stole it from me and it scattered everywhere.’

She sighed and shook her head sadly. ‘If it wasn’t for that, maybe Naraku never would have gotten his hands on it... maybe he never would have captured me... or Inuyasha.’

Amaya was staring at her with a deep frown. ‘You make little sense, Kagome. If the priestess was dead, who would have revived her? I very much doubt that Naraku would have revived her.’

Kagome nodded slowly. ‘You are right. Naraku only wanted the jewel now. A witch stole Kikyo’s bone and revived her back to life. But so many things have happened since then... she now understands what Naraku did to her and Inuyasha, yet she remains bent on destroying me and taking Inuyasha back.’

Kagome sighed. ‘I don’t even think Inuyasha loves her anymore, but he can’t hurt her. He can’t bring himself to destroy her, and she has taken advantage of that several time. And now... she has him.’

Kagome trailed off into silence, and Amaya was quiet too for a moment, her forehead creased in thought.

‘Onigumo...’ She said quietly, and her eyes flickered and a smirk crossed her face for a moment. ‘That means that Naraku was never a full demon. That explains why he wanted the Shikon no Tama so badly. And why he hates your little mutt so much. Imagine his rage that a worthless half-breed had stolen the two very things he wanted the most, and that he himself had some connection to the half-breed, being one himself.’ She smiled evilly shaking her head. ‘It is far too good to be true.’

Kagome sighed and shook her head. ‘What does it matter? Naraku would have used the jewel by now, he’s full demon and he’s broken Inuyasha. All he has left is to destroy Kikyo or claim her for his own and he’ll have everything he desired when he turned youkai.’

‘Hanyou.’ Amaya said, still smirking. ‘When he turned hanyou.’

Kagome shot a dark look at the sorceress, and then stared at the dirty tiles of stone in front of her.

A thought suddenly entered her head, and her forehead creased in confusion and fear. What had become of Kaede’s village and Inuyasha forest? What if Naraku had destroyed all that... what if he had destroyed the bone gobbling well?

Turning quickly toward the dark sorceress, Kagome clung to the bars of her cell and spoke. ‘Amaya, I need to you do me a favour.’ She said quickly. When she had first met the sorceress, she would not have dared to speak to her like that, so blunt and lacking the submissive respect it perhaps should have held, but now she knew the sorceress meant her no harm, and knew also that each of her little requests intrigued the woman and she would usually do them with very little trouble.

But this was a bit of a bigger one, for she had never asked the sorceress to leave Naraku’s castle for her before.

‘I have already done you several favours, and now you want another?’ Amaya asked sharply, but Kagome could hear the curiosity hidden in her voice that only someone who had talked with her as much as Kagome had would be able to hear if they listened very, very carefully.

‘I need you to go to Kaede’s village and see if everything is alright and check up on her for me. Then I need you to go into Inuyasha forest and try and locate a well called the bone gobbling well and see if it is still intact.’

Amaya listened to her with a raised eyebrow, and then frowned. ‘Inuyasha forest... that is the name of your little hanyou is it not?’ She asked. ‘Why does the forest share his name? For surely no one would name a forest Inuyasha without there being some connection.’

Kagome sighed gently. ‘That is the place where Kikyo sealed Inuyasha to the tree.’ She said, slightly impatient and desperate. ‘Now will you go there and find out for me?’

Amaya raised her eyebrow again. ‘After all the favours I have done for you, the least you could do is say “please”.’ She said, then added ‘Yes I will go and find this village and make sure that the old crone and the well are still intact.’ She said, standing up, the chair disappearing immediately.

‘Thank-you.’ Kagome said quietly, and Amaya paused with her arms raised over her head, her black cloak hanging off of them like wings.

‘Do not thank me. Thank Naraku. He is the one who keeps me locked up here all the time until I am bored nearly out of my mind.’ She turned her head toward the area in the ceiling that sealed off a window to the outside. ‘Besides, it is about time I stretched my wings and got some fresh air.’ She said, and with that a gust of wind suddenly rose out of nowhere and swirled around her, blocking her from Kagome’s view, before shooting up and blasting in a strangely silent manner through the small circular window.

Kagome blinked and looked at the bird now standing where the sorceress had been before. It looked sort of like a falcon, only the top of it was black, not grey or brown, and it’s beak had tiny silver flecks in it that reflected in the dim, dirty light that shone in from the hole.

The bird screeched at her, then flapped it’s wings and took off into the air, racing up through the hole and disappearing from sight before Kagome could even blink.

She stared after it for a moment, then sighed and moved back in her cell, leaning against the slime covered walls to await the sorceress’ return.

She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall and slowly began to recite again.

‘Line five, paragraph seven, page 376...’

END ~*~  

A\N: Lol, I guess I did decide to bring Amaya back after all.

I wonder how long I’ll keep her around...

Suppose it doesn’t really matter, cause she’s here now.

Lol, anyway, any Questions about this chapter (which there probably will be, especially about Amaya) can either be left in the review area or emailed to me and I’ll try to respond to them A.Q.A.P. (as quickly as possible).