InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Chained ❯ Easy To Manipulate ( Chapter 54 )

A/N: HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Hope y’all are enjoying it-- seems to be a fairly nice weather day (at least where I’m livin), not that that really has anything to do with anything.

Anyway, I can’t talk long because I’m gonna give you guys a myriad of updates (just cause I like y’all so much) and then I’ve gotta run around some more and update my other stories, so...

-Punishment of the Inu/Tryst - Lol, that’s no problem. I’m a little behind myself I’m afraid-- Haven’t updated in forever. ^_^

-elenacala - Lol, congrats! Hope you have fun! ^_^ Lol, and yep, it’s short, but that just means that every once in a while I can splurge you guys with a whole bunch of chapters, neh? ^_^

-inuyasha cute doggy ears - Lol, well if Miroku was saved from certain death, then I guess it wasn’t so certain now was it? ^_~ -- Lol, yeah Inuyasha singing is a bit weird-- it was probably just more of a mumble thing really-- but still, considering all he’s gone through, he’d probably do anything to make certain he didn’t loose his friends again. Lol, yep maybe Naraku is a little paranoid. But, as the saying goes, “just because I’m paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me.” How very true that is. Lol, well I might be insulted at you calling me weird, but I know it’s true, so I’m gonna take it as a compliment. -- In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, I mean that I don’t want Naraku to die. I don’t really want him to continue torturing poor Inu and the rest of them, but I don’t want him to die. He’s such a cool villain! ^_^ -- So I guess this means that you’ve now officially met someone, neh? ^_^

-Snowfall - Lol, no I totally agree. It was driving me nuts not to see more fics where Naraku could just have Inu as his slave without it being all “I’m gonna get outta here and kill ya” and yadda yadda yadda. Not that that is bad, but it was just getting kinda old for me. ^_^ Lol, cool! I made you sympathize with him? ^_^ (Sorry, but it’s always good to know I can get a rise outta my readers! ^_^) -- Lol, anyway, Amaya and the firehorses are both OC’s, although I do know that the firehorses are probably making everyone think of Entei. The truth is, I haven’t actually seen the episodes when they encounter entei, so I don’t really know how much like him they are, but... And yep, Sesshomaru is falling quickly to Inuyasha’s vulnerability. It seemed to me that, whenever something particularly caught his attention, he seemed to become protective over them. Like with Jaken-- who was following him around everywhere and had gone from toad-lord to servant in less than a day-- and Rin who had insistently brought him food when he had told her to leave him alone. He seems to like persistent things. Okay, wait, did that make any sense? :S -- Lol, yeah Amaya better take care. And hopefully she will, because she’s got a lot left to do yet... Man, it must suck being the only one working on either force with the ability to actually do anything so far... I mean, Sesshomaru’s looking after them all, but that’s just about all he can do right now... Yeesh, I’d hate to be her... well wait, she can turn into a bird and stuff... naw, still wouldn’t like to be her. It’s tempting, but no... ^_^ Lol, still, hopefully this next bunch of chapters will continue to hold and grasp your interest... -- Lol, and actually I did know about a type of plant that has to be, essentially, burned alive before it’ll grow... just didn’t think to much of it when I was writing that chapter. Which makes sense I suppose since I only saw it in passing on the discovery channel who knows how long ago. This is really the first time I’ve thought about it since... ^_^ But you’re right, maybe Inuyasha will learn about that sometime in the future, neh? ^_^

Well, gotta stop ranting now-- got other chapters I need to add and stuff, so...   ~*~   Easy to Manipulate

Sango stared intently at Miroku in the cell across from her.

He gave a little shift, making the candle light flicker over his face, highlighting the beads of sweat covering his forehead.

She sighed.

The illusion really was good.

Maybe a little too good.

It was making her wonder if maybe she had just imagined Amaya coming and taking all the other’s away.

Then again, other than those little shifts, the mirage the sorceress had set up hadn’t moved in nearly the two days that they’d been gone.

She was actually surprised that the guards hadn’t noticed anything, but the bumbling idiots seemed to stupid to even have a single brain-cell split between them, let alone to have the capacity to notice something as complex as mirages set up to hide the fact that they were now guarding empty cells.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when the dungeon door creaked open, and turned to look at the figure descending the stairs, letting out a sigh of relief when she saw that it was only Amaya.

Immediately a million questions flew to her lips, but Amaya held up a hand, and Sango’s voice was cut off before it could exit her mouth.

The sorceress moved and quickly opened the cell with the same spell she had seen her use on Miroku’s cell countless times before.

She moved to stand up and, with a little aid from Amaya, managed to get to her feet.

‘We must hurry and keep silent.’ Amaya said, as she trailed a thick, black cloak over her. It shimmered with silver and then the next thing Sango knew her body was no longer there.

Well, not really, but she could no longer see it.

She was not concerned by this, though, since she had seen the sorceress do the same with Miroku, Shippo and Kirara.

‘You can walk?’ Amaya asked as she crouched down in the corner where “Shippo” and “Kirara” were resting and began to conjure up a “Sango” to take her own place.

Sango moved around a little bit, her legs trembling and weak beneath her, but holding her up nonetheless, before offering the sorceress a small nod.

Amaya nodded.

‘Good. I do not want to carry you if I don’t have to. Do you think you can survive the stairs?’ She asked. Sango glanced at the dark corridor-- the one she had been unconscious the one time she had traveled down it, and had never been through since as far as she could tell.

The sorceress gave another nod, and then brushed past her, moving toward the stairs. ‘That’s good as well, though I put the guards to sleep just in case you could not.’ She said, moving up the stairs slowly, but, for Sango, still at a rather swift pace.

They reached the top, and Sango blinked as they exited out into the corridor.

It wasn’t necessarily bright, per se, the dim and rather sickly looking torches being the only means for light, but, when one had been in the dark as long as she had, it was still enough to make her squint. She could hardly imagine what it would be like to see the sun again...

If there even was a sun.

From what she could tell, Naraku had all but sealed the sun from the earth with his miasma, and there was nothing left anymore.

She must have stopped walking without realising it as she considered this, for the next second she felt a gentle but firm shove on her back (which must have been magic, since Amaya was still in front of her) and she was urged into motion again, the force not leaving her again until they reached their destination-- a small glade of stone among a forest of rocky pinnacles, where two fire-horses stood staring at her, waiting for them.

Sango blinked at them.

She had, of course, encountered Fire-horses before, these breed as well perhaps, but that didn’t explain why they were here.

Or why she could feel a strange presence among the younger one... not evil or powerful, per se, just... strange. Distrustful almost. Not normal for most animal-youkai.

She was not given time to consider this, for the next second that force was urging her onto the back of one of the youkai, and she moved to comply, before hesitating a moment, looking back at Amaya.

‘What about Kagome?’ She asked.

Amaya blinked, and then frowned at her.

‘What about her?’ She asked, and Sango stared at her in slight disbelief.

‘You are getting her out too, aren’t you?’ She asked. Amaya glared.

‘Stupid girl! Did you think I was so incompetent as to forget about the miko? I will get her out... I just do not know when...’ She trailed off slightly, before fixing Sango with a hard gaze, the force returning to urge her onto the horse. But Sango didn’t move, fought against it as best as she could in her weak state.

‘I’m not leaving without her.’ She said firmly, defiantly. Amaya stared at her.

‘I’m sorry?’ The sorceress asked in disbelief. Had she not, putting aside her own life and doings, gone to all the work of devising a plan to get all of these wretches free, and then put that into action? Had she not already freed five of them and placed them in a place that assured their safety from Naraku? Was she not now working to set this wench free, as well as the other, all at the risk of her own life and everything else? And now, after all that, this girl still had the audacity to tell her she wasn’t going to comply?

‘I said I’m not leaving without her. She’s been cut off from us for too long-- I can’t just leave her behind like that, alone... not again.’ The slayer said, her eyes getting a faraway look in them, before fixing once again on Amaya, lit with determination. ‘I’m not leaving without her.’ She said firmly.

Amaya stared the girl down for a moment.

She could see the determination in her eyes, feel it radiating off of her in waves, and she could tell that, magic or not, this girl was not going to move or leave without her friend.

Amaya mentally sighed, and then narrowed her eyes in a sharp glare.

Dammit it all, why was she always stuck with the resilient ones? Couldn’t they just do what she said for once without all their mindless questions?

Sighing, she glanced up at the highest pinnacle of rock there, trying to figure out how she could do this.

There hadn’t been enough time yet-- she hadn’t been able to device a plan to make certain that she could get Kagome out without being detected soon after...

But she couldn’t just leave Sango there-- nor could she really take her back after going to all the trouble of getting her out.

Her only option then, was to retrieve Kagome in the same fashion as the others and hope that, in the end, that worked as well as it had with the others.

She sighed again.

The chances of that were slim to none, which was why she had avoided doing it thus far.

But, when she looked at Sango again, she could tell that she didn’t have any other choice.

She turned hardened and angry eyes upon the slayer, who met her gaze without waver, and for several moments they just stared one another down, before Amaya let out an angry huff and turned away, muttering ‘Wait here, and do not move nor make any sound while I am gone.’ To the figures behind her, and began storming her way back through the maze of rock, back toward Naraku’s castle, back to Kagome.

Sango blinked in surprise, not really having expected the sorceress to comply, before sinking to the ground, her legs refusing to support her anymore for the time being.

She let a weak smile cross her face.

Miroku had told her, in one of his moments of strength during this battle against his curse, that Amaya did not seem to have any evil about her-- simply wore it as a facade against the real world, and that she was likely good inside, easy to convince of what was right if she found someone to convince her who could break through her dark exterior.

She hadn’t been fully comprehending of his words until now, but now she thought she might have it finally.

‘Basically, what you were saying, Houshi, is that, if you’re stubborn enough, Amaya is easy to manipulate.’ She thought, her smile widening at the thought as her eyes drifted closed, sleep claiming her for the time being while she awaited for Amaya and Kagome to come back. ~*~  

Glossary

Youkai - Demon

Miko - Priestess

Houshi - Priest (I find this a little strange, since I always considered Miroku a monk, but I suppose this works as well...)