InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Chained ❯ A Welcome Change ( Chapter 55 )

A/N: Well, don’t have much to say this chapter because I’ve still got about two more chapters I want to get up today in this story, so...

“If Tylonel, Duct-Tape and a Band-aide can’t fix it, you have a serious problem...” -- This seemed somewhat fitting for this chapter, and I think you’ll get why later on. ^_^   ~*~   A Welcome Change

Kagome blinked at the bright light that suddenly filled the dark cell, and cringed back slightly.

Someone-- she couldn’t say who-- had come down here a while ago, perhaps no more than a day, or maybe even less, she couldn’t tell, and had just started... beating her. For no reason that she could fathom. Not that they ever needed a reason.

But she had begun to figure out-- the longer Amaya stayed away, the more daring the guards got in their attacks on her. It made her miss the sorceress all that much more, since she had not been here in more than a week, and Kagome was beginning to think she wasn’t returning at all.

So when she saw the sorceress descending the stairs toward her at a rapid pace, she could hardly believe her own eyes.

She quickly scrambled toward the bars.

Or tried to.

But the demon or man or whatever it had been had gotten her very good in a variety of places, and she could not find the energy or strength to pull herself up.

So instead she just lay there, panting faintly from the exertion and watching as the sorceress came toward the bars.

She was terribly surprised when Amaya passed by the little door that food was passed through and instead went over to the main door, muttering some curse under her breath that sent the lock shooting across the room in a surprisingly silent manner.

The sorceress then opened the door wide and moved a little to the side, as though waiting.

However, when whatever she was waiting for clearly did not happen, Amaya cast her a dark look.

‘Get up, ningen. We are leaving.’

Kagome gaped at her, and again attempted to sit up, but a pain shot through her chest, and she grit her teeth, stifling a small cry before easing herself slowly back to the ground.

However, these small actions were enough to betray to the sorceress how much pain she was actually in, and in a second Amaya was crouching beside her, forcing her shirt up and prodding around her ribs and abdomen.

Kagome might have protested the sudden molestation of her torso, but then Amaya’s fingers hit a sudden spot, and she was forced to cry out in pain instead.

Amaya frowned and prodded the spot again, and Kagome’s teeth ground together.

‘You are hurt.’ The sorceress said after a moment, and the more sarcastic part of Kagome’s mind, which had become quite well-developed since her time spent here, quickly jumped to attention with a ‘No really? What gave you that idea?’ That she managed to stifle only through sheer will to remain quiet.

After all, breathing hurt, and talking did even more, so why should she waste energy on sarcasm that would not be appreciated and was really not needed?

Amaya sighed agitatedly.

‘I should have known you’d let something like this happen if I left you alone.’ She said in a chastising tone, and Kagome glared.

‘Oh right, like I wanted this to happen.’ Her mind threw in again.

‘Perhaps not, but you let it happen nonetheless.’ The sorceress’s voice answered back in her own mind, and Kagome gasped slightly, immediately regretting the action and letting out a small wince of pain. Not that that helped, that activity just caused pain to shoot through other areas of her body.

In fact, most activities caused her pain now (not that there were a lot of them, but still) and she had long ago given up on finding an activity that didn’t hurt and was currently just looking for which one hurt the least.

‘Well then, it looks like I’ll just have to carry you out of here.’ The sorceress said, while Kagome was still contemplating her voice inside her head, while wincing once again at the idea of being moved about.

‘Maybe I’m insane...’ She wondered, while another part of her threw in ‘Gods, this is gonna hurt so much!’

Amaya frowned and turned toward her. ‘You are not insane, I have the ability to speak into anyone’s mind whom I wish to, and see the thoughts of the more open of them.’

‘And I am more than capable of carrying you about, ningen. I have managed with both your monk friends and your hanyou and little kitsune and neko. You doubt that I could find transportation suitable for your current state?’

Kagome blinked at the sudden onslaught of conversation and then shook her head, which, of course, hurt, sending bolts of pain racing one another through her skull, and she immediately ceased the action.

‘That’s not what I meant, I’m just in a lot of pain, and I didn’t know you could speak back to me in my mind.’ She sighed as her headache began to swell and looked at the ceiling that suddenly seemed to think spinning around in circles was a very good idea indeed. It did not help that the rest of the room had decided to go spinning off in the opposite direction either. ‘Shit. I could use some Tylonel right now.’ She said, not caring that she was swearing. She had given up long ago on “proper” language, and had adopted a slang more similar to Inuyasha’s. Somehow it made it easier to deal with being down here because it reminded her so much of him.

Amaya cocked an eyebrow at her. ‘Tylonel? What is this Tylonel you speak of? Some sort of medication?’

‘I guess you could say that.’ Kagome rasped out, the words scraping against her dry throat as she watched Amaya move about the cell, gathering up her grimy and torn textbooks and other things. ‘It’s for things like headaches and minor injuries.’

‘You’re injuries are far from minor.’ Amaya said offhandedly. ‘This Tylonel of your would do you no good. You have at least one broken rib, and I’d say your shoulder may be dislocated as well. And I have yet to examine the rest of your body.’

Kagome sighed and shut her eyes against the spinning room, but that didn’t help because, while she could no longer see the motion, she could still feel it and somehow that was worse.

‘Maybe I should consider morphine then.’ She muttered, not actually realising she had said it out loud until Amaya’s voice reached her again.

‘Another “medicine” of yours? Does it have the power to heal broken bones?’ Kagome mentally shook her head, wondering if the sorceress could detect mental “body-language.”

‘It’s not a medicine. Not really anyway. It’s a drug-- it takes away the pain for a little while, but it’s really dangerous cause you can get hooked on it.’

‘“Hooked?”’ The sorceress inquired, and Kagome opened her eyes to focus on her again.

She was crouching down in the darkest and dingiest corner of the cell (which wasn’t saying much) and muttering some sort of spell under her breath.

‘Yeah... like addicted. You’re body starts to crave it, and you have to get more of it to feed the addiction, but it gets bigger and bigger each time, and the drug has less and less results. It’s not a pretty scenario.’

Amaya didn’t really respond to that, but her hands started to emit a blue light out in front of them, that slowly began to change itself into a sort of vapour, and then a gas-like substance, before finally seeming to solidify and begin to take shape.

Kagome watched in amazement as the light slowly began to materialize into a human body, before adding colours to itself and coming out... to look exactly like her.

‘What the fuck?’ Kagome demanded loudly, causing both Amaya and the figure to look over at her.

The new “Kagome” was breathing in the same shallow manner that she was, and there were cuts and grime all over her face.

Amaya smirked.

‘Kagome, meet your clone.’

Kagome looked at her in astonishment. She had a clone?!

‘She’s not really a clone-- more a mirage of sorts, but more solid than that. She’ll be playing you while we’re gone.’ Amaya’s voice said in her head, and Kagome stared wide-eyed between the two figures for a moment.

‘She... looks just like me...’ she said in astonishment, and Amaya inclined her head. ‘For the most part, yes, but she does have one defining trait.’ That said, she reached toward the hem of the clone’s tattered shirt and pulled it up slightly revealing...

Kagome frowned and squinted at the figure, but could not see what Amaya was trying to show her. After a moment she turned a confused gaze upon Amaya. ‘What exactly are we looking at here?’ She asked, and Amaya cocked an eyebrow.

‘You don’t know?’ She demanded, and, at Kagome’s thought of negation, she sighed. ‘The mirage has no navel!’ She exclaimed, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, and Kagome was a complete baka for not noticing it.

Kagome frowned at looked back at the mirage. Indeed, now that it had been pointed out to her, she could see that there was no belly-button present where one should have been.

‘And that’s supposed to be a defining trait?’ She thought in disbelief. No one would ever notice that!

Amaya snorted. ‘That is sort of the point, ningen. No one is supposed to notice it. Now’ The sorceress stood up and slowly approached her. ‘Come on, lets get you up. Sango’s waiting out there for you, and I have no idea how long it will be before someone discovers her.’

Kagome’s eyes widened as the sorceress moved toward her.

‘But... won’t this hurt? I mean, shouldn’t we reset my shoulder or something first?’

Amaya cocked an eyebrow. ‘No, that’ll hurt more. Besides, I have herbs to dull the pain and quicken the healing for you that will save you a lot of pain, but I don’t have them with me. Besides... this shouldn’t even hurt you a bit.’ She said. Kagome frowned at her in disbelief, but the next second she felt something surround her and lift her into the air.

She gasped slightly in surprise, expecting to be hurt by the sudden movement, but, in all truth, the gasp itself hurt more than the moving.

Amaya smirked at her.

‘Just don’t wiggle around, or you’ll fall.’ She told her, before draping a silvery-black cloak across her form and promptly walking away toward the stairs, Kagome “following” behind her at a gentle pace, but, for all she could tell, she could have been wooshing around faster than the speed of light and it wouldn’t have hurt.

This actually felt better than lying still on the ground, or even in her own bed. Literally like she was lying on air.

And, as Amaya had said, as she had felt certain wasn’t true, it didn’t hurt at all.

Which was quite a change from all her past days spent down here.

Quite a change indeed, and a very welcome one at that. ~*~  

Glossary

Ningen - Human

Hanyou - Half-Demon

Kitsune - Fox

Neko - Cat

Baka - Fool, idiot, moron.... ~*~  

A/N: Hey everyone, sorry if this escape seems really simple thus far. I didn’t exactly say though that it would be complicated... just that, once Naraku found out, it would be dangerous. And, at the moment, I am much too tired to think of anything more complicated. I know, I know, it’s probably really crappy of me, but there’s nothing for it... If I came up with anything more complicated, it would likely take me chapters just to get Kagome out of there... >_<