InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Chained ❯ Reaching Into Light ( Chapter 24 )

A\N: Well, my sister was asking me stuff about Naraku clearly being defeated in the end because he didn’t exist in the future. I thought on that a moment and further short-circuited my brain, and then pointed out to her that Naraku would have to die if he didn’t become full demon because he has no eternal life. Somehow that led to us talking about Sesshomaru and Kouga existing in the future, and just picturing Sesshomaru in a suit and tie or something is completely fucking hilarious and very nearly next to impossible.

Come on, think about it!

Anyway, I’m inserting some new ideas into this one as well as experimenting with a couple new characters (which I won’t go into detail with until future chapters) so bear with me for a little while with those things. ^_^

Update # 4 for today!

Very Important Disclaimer - Hey, guess what! I still don’t own anything! That’s right, Rumiko Takahashi has yet to sell me rights to Inuyasha and any of the other characters from the anime, and I have failed to acquire any rights to them. I do, however, own this story and some of the characters not in the anime in it, so don’t steal those or I reserve the right to kick your ass into the deepest, hottest circle of hell.   ~*~   Reaching into Light

Amaya shifted restlessly in her seat.

After explaining to Kagome all that had happened with Sango, she had immediately gone and retrieved two demon fire-horses from a very rare herd so she would have a way of transporting the damn monk Mushin when she found him, and, after a short battle of wills with the creatures, she had broken them and flown to the temple in the mountains-- though one the barrier had begun to react to their demon auras, she had left them behind, promising a slow and painful death if they ran, before coming to meet with Inuyasha.

The flight alone here had been enough to drive her to the brink, for she had not been able to move much at all on the back of the fire-stallion, and now she was sitting here, watching as the hanyou had his own battle of wills: Him versus his mind.

‘Concentrate, Inuyasha.’ The woman said, and Inuyasha shifted, opening his eyes to glare at her.

‘It’s not as easy as it looks, ya know!’ He snarled back at her.

She had been here more than an hour teaching him how to better focus his mind and, while he was concentrating like there was no tomorrow, his mind just wouldn’t cooperate, and the total result of this had been him getting an incredibly painful migraine.

To top it off, when Kikyo had returned shortly after Amaya’s departure, he had had to explain to her where her servant was and how the hell the metal collar had come off.

He had come up with a quick excuse about the collar, saying that it just suddenly started glowing and then snapped (which she, surprisingly, believed) and then simply told her the truth about her servant: a bird had flown in through the window and killed it.

Kikyo had seemed slightly surprised, and for a while Inuyasha had feared that she wouldn’t buy it. Then she merely frowned, and left, leaving him alone for several hours, the most recent of which he had spent with the sorceress.

His temples throbbed painfully, drawing his attention back to the present, and he rubbed them angrily.

Amaya sighed in her own exasperated irritation. ‘How do you expect me to help you in any manner if you will not help yourself?’ She asked, as though he were a stubborn child refusing to obey a command to go to bed.

Inuyasha glared viciously. ‘I am trying, but I don’t know how and you’re not telling me!’ He snarled at her, and she frowned, staring at him, then sighed again, shaking her head slightly.

When she looked back she looked more tired than angry, and Inuyasha was slightly surprised.

‘Alright, puppy.’ She said, her voice quiet, sounding almost defeated. ‘Close your eyes.’

Inuyasha eyed her a moment angrily, because this is the same thing they’d been doing for the past hour and he was getting sick of it.

Grudgingly he obeyed, and let the skin of his eyelids plunge him into blackness.

‘Now, Inuyasha, I am going to try and reach into your mind. I want you to concentrate of my voice in your head, concentrate on blocking it out, do you understand?’

He frowned and put his ears back since he couldn’t really glare at her. ‘Why, how will this help?’ He asked, confusion evident in his voice even to his own ears.

Instead of getting exasperated like he expected, Amaya explained it to him calmly. ‘It will help you learn to block unwanted spells trying to get into your mind-- my voice speaking to your mind is a spell, although a very weak one, but learning to deflect it should help you greatly to regain your proper mind.’

Inuyasha let that comment slide for the moment, unsure if she really meant it as an insult.

‘And this will help me block out Naraku?’ He asked slowly, his voice firm.

‘Yes. And Kikyo. And you need to block both of them, Inuyasha, or they will steal your minds again. Now enough of this.’ She said, and he heard her move beside him. Instinctually he tensed slightly.

‘No Inuyasha.’ She said, and he could hear the frown in her voice. ‘You cannot block this spell with your body’s physical force, it will only make it more difficult for you if you are tense in body and not in mind.’ She explained. ‘The body’s tension will distract your concentration. You need to be able to relax at any time, and focus only on your mind, for there is no warning for spells that attack and cloud the mind. Do you understand?’

Inuyasha nodded slowly and then forced himself to react.

There was silence all around him, but Inuyasha forced himself to relax, ignoring how claustrophobic the darkness made him feel, how venerable he felt, lying on the futon, eyes closed, completely at this woman’s mercy.

Inside, he was wondering if this is what she had been telling him to do, trying to get him to do, before.

‘Don’t wander off, Inuyasha, concentrate.’ Her voice reached him suddenly in his mind, and he tensed again because there had been no warning.

‘Relax, puppy. If you ever want to do this you must remain relaxed in your body. Forget about it. Focus only on your mind. Focus on my voice.’

Inuyasha did, his face scrunching up despite himself, though he was not aware of it.

‘Think, Inuyasha. Do you want me inside your head like this all the time?’ The sorceress asked, no encouragement, just a sudden blatant taunting, and Inuyasha’s mind kindled with a sudden fire.

‘Do you want me to be able to see all your thoughts and fears of you life, all your thoughts on Kikyo... and Kagome?’

Inuyasha’s teeth sunk into his lip and a growl rose from his throat, but he was aware of nothing but that voice.

‘Do you want Kikyo to see how you truly feel? Do you want her to know all your secrets, and forever control your life?’

‘No.’ Inuyasha thought desperately, not to her, but to himself. ‘No.’ He thought with a bit more resolve, because he couldn’t let them know... he couldn’t. His thoughts and memories were his to share or keep to himself, not for them to go prying through like some book they had found.

‘What about Naraku?’ The voice asked, and the fire flickered for a second in warning. ‘He first laid the spell... I bet he’s seen all your thoughts and memories already. All your foolish hanyou fears and discomforts.’

‘No.’ His mind said again, louder.

‘I bet he knows everything you think and feel, all about Kikyo, all about your desires...’

‘No!’ His mind shouted louder still, but her voice was not gone yet.

‘All about Kagome.’

That was it. Inuyasha’s mind roared with rage, the fire blaring to life, consuming everything so he couldn’t think, he couldn’t concentrate on anything other than his anger at her words.

A small speck appeared in the darkness around him, like a star, and it began to grow bigger, the sound of wind rushing around him filled his ears, blocking out whatever else the sorceress was saying, and suddenly he was swallowed by the violent white light, as it consumed his mind and body.

Inuyasha’s eyes flew wide open and he gasped like a landed fish, his eyes immediately flying over to the sorceress.

Amaya watched him, amused for a moment, then smiled.

‘Very good, puppy. You’re learning.’ She said, and Inuyasha gaped at her for a moment, the first compliment she had given him since arriving.

‘You mean I did it?’ He asked in astonishment.

She raised an eyebrow. ‘If by “it” you mean blocked the spell, then yes and no. You blocked out my voice, but you did not do it entirely properly. You will have to learn to do it right before it’s ever of any real use to you.’ She said, standing and moving toward the window. ‘In time you may even learn to revert the spells cast upon your mind into physical spells used against your enemy. But that is yet a long way ahead of us-- now if you’ll excuse me, I must go. A friend of yours is waiting for me to retrieve him some aid.’

Inuyasha blinked as his mind consumed this information, watching as Amaya stepped on the sill.

‘Wait-- what are you talking about, what friend?’

Amaya paused and looked back at him. ‘That is a tale for when I return, Inuyasha. Right now I have no time for such things.’ She said, and with that leapt out the window before he could say another word and flew off into the night, leaving Inuyasha alone again, with nothing but a whirling mind and confused memories.

Exhausted, he lay back, forcing her words out of his head as he remembered what had just happened.

He had blocked her spell.

A grin found it’s way upon his face even as he fell deeper into sleep.

Maybe there was some hope for this plan of hers after all.

Just maybe. ~*~  

A\N: I know that entei was a fire horse demon, but my fire horse demons are a different breed and don’t look all that much like him. Bear with me on the idea, alright? Maybe not 100% accurate, but they help make the plot work.

Also, I didn’t get the idea for Inuyasha’s mind control lessons from Harry Potter’s occulemency. Someone sent me a very nasty email saying that I had stolen the idea (though I’m not entirely sure if it is possible to steal the idea of mind control o_0) from Harry Potter, and I assure you that, while I have read all the Harry Potter books a good long while before I wrote this, I had nearly completely forgotten about him getting occulemency lessons until that person mentioned it. I promise you I’m not trying to steal any ideas from anybody, so please don’t anyone else send me any other emails accusing me of these things.