InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Chained ❯ Faith in the Forgotten ( Chapter 18 )

A\N: I really should leave you guys dangling a bit longer, but I just couldn’t do that-- you guys are too wonderful to resist! So here’s the next chapter!

Update # 3 for today!

DISCLAIMER - I am too tired to write a proper disclaimer. Just look at the disclaimers on my last chapters and follow those. Also, those disclaimers (in case I forget to add one) apply to all future chapters as well.   ~*~   Faith in the Forgotten

Amaya smiled at the hanyou. He was nervous, he was uncertain, but he was agreeing. He wanted his memories back enough to risk the insanity that may follow from it, which she was certain he could feel pressing in even now.

‘You are very brave, puppy, for thinking you could take something like this on, let alone survive it... or maybe you are simply very naive and foolish.’ She said, taking in Inuyasha’s confused expression. ‘You say you want this, yet you do not fully understand the circumstances with which it must be received. And yet... you do not ask to know.’ She gave him an amused glance. ‘Perhaps it is a means of self preservation, or you are simply stupid enough to believe that there are none. And still you insist you want this, despite its dangers.’ She shook her head, still smiling at him like he was some stupid, simple child who knew nothing of the world, let alone this. And it made Inuyasha angry, an anger that had not boiled up in him since... he could not remember when.

‘You know this is dangerous.’ She said, taking note of his expression, and choosing to heed it instead of driving the hanyou to further anger and irrationality.

‘What do you mean?’ He asked, his voice quiet and unsure, his eyes narrowed and slightly angry, ears back slightly. He looked strange, like a lost puppy trying to defend itself from something it wasn’t entirely sure was an enemy. Amaya resisted the urge to smack him.

‘I mean exactly what I say.’ She said in a bored tone, not particularly interested in the subject, simply wanting to either get on with it, or leave. ‘Your memories have been pushed back long by enchantments, and while the spells were cast well enough, they may have damaged your ability to recollect those memories.’

Inuyasha blinked and looked away from her, all anger gone from him, his brow pulled together in a concerned and thoughtful expression. ‘I already have some memories.’ He said quietly. ‘They’re vague... but I know they’re there. I can’t remember who anyone is though, or why I know them or... what they mean to me...’

Amaya nodded. ‘That is an effect of the spells cast by Naraku and your Miko.’ She said, flicking something off of her kimono.

He frowned up at her and shook his head. ‘That can’t be right. Why would they want me to forget?’

Amaya raised an eyebrow. ‘You question my word about this, puppy? You are hardly in a place to do so, I could kill you as easy as I killed that demon guarding you, easier since I am now in my proper form.’ Inuyasha tensed and she rolled her eyes. ‘Relax. If I had wished to kill you, I would have done so already. No, I merely came to investigate if it was you I was truly sensing down here. You see, Kagome is very worried about you.’

Inuyasha blinked and stared at her with wide, troubled eyes.

‘Yes, you can feel her can’t you? Her memory? She’s in there, calling to you, just out of your reach. Behind a barrier set up by your master and miko.’ She lowered her voice to barely above a whisper, knowing it was taking effect.

‘The price of this experience could well cost you your sanity.’ She said in a low hiss, leaning closer to the hanyou. ‘But that is a problem that can be fixed... with time.’ She said, her breath whispering across his furry ear, onto his neck, making him shiver.

‘Do you want to remember?’ She asked quietly. ‘Do you want to know who Mirko, Sango, Kirara, Shippo... and Kagome are? Why they mean so much to you?’ She hissed, and the hanyou’s ear flicked back toward her. ‘Do you want to know why you feel such fear and confused hate toward Kikyo... such rage toward your master, and such depressed hate for Sesshomaru.’ Inuyasha’s brow furrowed because he hadn’t heard many of these names before in his life, he was sure, and yet... somehow they all seemed familiar, and all of what she said he did feel.

She pulled back slightly, and moved around toward his other ear. ‘Do you want to remember your family, your mother and father... your brother. Or...’ She said, her voice a low hiss, before pulling away entirely and taking her seat. ‘Do you want to continue on living with useless fragments of your life you know nothing about?’ She asked in her normal tone.

Inuyasha blinked at the sudden change of tone, and stared at the woman. A minute ago it had all seemed a lot less complicated, but the decision had been difficult to make.

Now she tempted him with so much more, but dangled a warning in front of him as well. She said that insanity could be fixed but... was she lying? Would she cast some spell to make him insane and then just leave him like that?

‘Think about it Inuyasha.’ She said quietly. ‘Go back to the way you were, with memories and love and life... or remain an obedient puppy to one person or another, never understanding why it’s this way, just knowing that there is no longer an escape, you passed up that chance... and living always in wonder of what these fragments of your life mean. Until they too are erased.’

Inuyasha stared at her and saw the glitter in her eyes once more. He hardened his face in determination, rising up to meet her challenge, because yes he wanted it all back, and he would risk loosing his mind if it meant he had a chance to regain all that once existed inside it.

‘I want this.’ He said quietly, and she smiled. ‘No second thoughts?’ She asked. He made a low growl in his throat and she smirked. ‘Alright then.’

She lifted her hand and pointed it at him, and for a moment nothing happened. Then, a long, silvery thread, nearly invisible save for the glinting of light catching it every so often, like a spider’s strand, began to pull out from the tip, sliding through the air toward him.

Inuyasha tensed, and Amaya looked up from the thread toward him, though the thread continued, only a few inches from his head now. ‘Relax, puppy. This won’t hurt a bit.’ The thread moved, weaving it’s way up to his ear, which he flicked back, flattened, trying despite her words to make it leave him alone. However, it was all to no avail.

The thread followed his movement, and then, in an instant of confusion, fear and darkness, the thread slipped inside. And Inuyasha opened his mouth to scream as he fell into the pit of darkness, though no sound was to be heard. ~*~  

A\N: Well hows that for a bit of a Cliffy?

Lol, it’s always good to keep readers on the edge-- that’s what keeps them interested after all. ^_^