InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Chained ❯ All that Jazz ( Chapter 59 )

A/N: Hey everyone!

Got this chapter up a bit sooner than I anticipated, so that’s a good thing. ^_^

Can’t talk a lot right now though cause I’ve got a million things I want to get done before I’m finished on here, so...

-elenacala - Lol, yep! Still not 100%, but I no longer want to tear my throat out, so it’s definitely am improvement. ^_^ -- And thanks! Who knows, maybe one of these days I’ll come up with a story where I can put all of these ideas people keep submitting to use! Wouldn’t that be something? ^_^

-McSlave44 - Wow. I’m glad you like my story so much, and that it’s caught you’re interest so well! ^_^ Sorry about the sleep thing though-- I seem to be making lots of people into insomniac’s lately. I really should stop doing that, but that would mean taking my stories down and stop writing, and I really don’t want to do that either, so... ^_^ And I took your advice, and I went down into my imagination to try and bring out another chapter just for you to read... please don’t ever ask me to go down there again! It is really quite the terrifying place to be... Normally I just sit and calmly wait for ideas to come to me, but to go down there and retrieve them... *shudders*... Woosh! I guess that’s where I got the ideas for some of my other plots... Lol, okay, I’m seriously not as crazy as I probably sound. No, scratch that, I probably am just as crazy as I sound, but there’s no reason to worry-- it’s really quite harmless. It’s the good kind of insanity. ^_^

-Lunar Youkai - Oh, yes, don’t worry, I know about that. It’s a fairly basic rule that, if you starve yourself for a long time, and then go and binge on food, you’re not gonna hold it down too well. I never actually planned on having Kagome purge herself though... I actually don’t think I’m going to make a feast scene just yet. I suppose it’s up to you and your imagination to guess what she did-- whether she purged herself and then got sick all over everywhere, or just sat there and ate little by little for who knows how long. Still, thanks a lot for the tip! If I hadn’t know that, it could have seriously effected the story if I wasn’t careful-- just as one of those little details that drives people mad when you miss them. And I always appreciate the help anyway. ^_^   ~*~   All that Jazz

Kaede felt the dark presence approaching long before it actually came into sight, and she stepped outside, bow drawn at the ready, waiting...

Amaya landed without ceremony on the same post as last time, her head cocked to the side, eyes gleaming in a way that suggested she was in disbelief that an old hag like her would raise a bow against them as she summoned her wind and transformed back into a human.

‘Now, were you pointing that bow at me, Kaede?’ She asked, her tone taunting as she stepped down from the pole.

Kaede frowned, lowering the bow.

‘What brings ye back here again, Amaya?’ She asked slowly, her one eye watching the woman before her cautiously. ‘I doubt ye came in search of me, so what is it you want.’

Amaya cocked an eyebrow. ‘Actually, Kaede, that is exactly why I did come.’ She said, keeping her tone offhanded and yet, at the same time, serious. Kaede seemed slightly taken aback.

‘What business would ye have with me?’ The old miko asked, her face deepening and creasing even further as her frown grew.

Amaya shrugged. ‘Well, for one, I thought you would like to know that Kagome, Inuyasha and the other’s they traveled with are free and safe from Naraku. For the time being.’

Kaede’s eye widened slightly then narrowed in suspicion. ‘What have ye done to them now, Amaya?’ She asked, her tone dark and warning. Amaya cocked an eyebrow at her, blatantly scoffing her attempts to threaten.

‘Do not kid with me, Kaede. I have not done anything to them. I simply took them to a safer place. Safer, that is, until Naraku notices them all being gone and starts the real witch-hunt for them.’

Kaede stared at her a moment. ‘And where is this safer place you speak of?’ The miko asked slowly, not entirely certain she wanted to know what Amaya deemed to be safe. The girl had a rather different set of definitions from the rest of the world as to what was “safe” and “easy” and most of those other words humans used so frequently.

Amaya stared back at her, her dark eyes glittering slightly and shook her head. ‘Ah-ah, Kaede, I don’t think so. You know the way this works. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. An eye for an eye...’ and here her eyes flickered to Kaede’s black patch for a moment. ‘And all that jazz.’ She said.

Silence swept through to fill the air between them at the end of her sentence before Kaede, seeming to realise that Amaya wasn’t going to speak again, decided to break it.

‘And what is it that ye want?’ She asked slowly, knowing that it would likely be something very difficult or bad or dark or, in the end, lead to one of those things.

Amaya cocked her head in consideration for a moment, and then said ‘I want you to take me to Kashikari.’ She said slowly.

Kaede’s eye widened again, her face paling slightly in shock as she stared at the sorceress, before it hardened and became the angry mask she seemed to reserve just for people like Amaya.

‘Why would I do a thing like that?’ Kaede demanded, her tone heating slightly as Amaya stared at her in open amusement.

‘Why wouldn’t you?’ Amaya countered. ‘A dark, dangerous being to be sure, but what do you honestly think I would do? Do you think he would move to serve Naraku? I do not. He serves no one, and, had he been interested in such things, he would have joined with Naraku already. No. I seek him out for different reasons. Besides’ and here she glanced around in disdain at the deserted village. ‘You can’t stay here protecting no one and nothing forever. This village is abandoned, and you protect only planks of wood and pieces of earth now. Your powers would be put to much better use defending against Naraku.’ She turned back toward Kaede. ‘Come with me, take me to him, and I, in return, shall take you to see your precious miko wench and half-breed.’

Kaede stared at her a moment, her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she contemplated this, and Amaya sighed dramatically. How she hated this old hag. There was nothing in the whole universe that needed as much contemplation as she put into things! Especially not this. It was simple: Stay in a deserted village, wondering always if everyone is safe or not while you guards some rotting houses, or play guide to a sorceress, and then be taken to your friends and help them in healing.

Why was it so difficult?

Amaya snorted.

It wasn’t!

Growing impatient with the priestess’s lack of response, Amaya reached forward into the woman’s mind, easily breaking through the miko barriers that surrounded it and easing through her thoughts.

She smiled as she came across the one she wanted, and turned her focus back on the woman in front of her.

‘So you’ll do it then.’ She said simply, confidently. Kaede frowned in displeasure, but did not argue. It was pointless. She knew what the sorceress had done, so there was no use denying it. Instead, she decided to point out so more vital facts. Like they had no way of getting there.

‘Ay, I’ll take ye to the place. But it is several hundred leagues from here, and we have no way of getting there. I am an old woman now, I cannot so easily make such a journey over mountains and hills as I used to.’

Amaya cocked an eyebrow. ‘Well, you were right about one thing: you are old. However, I did not think you had such little faith in me as to believe I would let you drag your withering bones all across the lands of Musashi like that. It would take us weeks that way!’

That said, Amaya turned away from the affronted miko and, cupping her hands around her mouth, she let out a loud, shrill whistle that rang across the skies, echoing in valleys and mountains all around as Kaede was forced to cover her ears or risking them shattering from the sound.

A pause in which Kaede wondered if the sorceress had completely lost her mind, and then...

Kaede frowned at the faint rumbling sound that reached her ears, growing louder ever second.

‘Is that thunder?’ She asked softly. Amaya cast her a half-sceptic glare out of the corner of her eye and then turned her attention back to the sky.

A faint pinprick of light was to be seen there, rapidly growing closer and larger as the sound increased around them, until, with a rather violent crack that made the earth shake and white-hot flames leap from beneath his feet, Gouka landed before them, his fire-mane flashing wildly about him as he looked between the dark sorceress, who was smirking in amusement, and the thunderstruck looking priestess, who had her hand clutched tightly to her chest.

‘Kaede, I’d like you to meet Gouka, leader of the horse-demon tribe.’ She said as Kaede worked to regain her breathing.

The horse gave a small shake of his head in greeting, and Kaede in turn tilted her own head down, her eyes still fairly wide.

The sorceress looked between them, her face still holding that edge of amusement to it, her dark eyes glittering in a slightly sadistic manner, before she spoke again. ‘Gouka will be your transportation to Kashikari.’ ~*~

Glossary

Kaede - Maple

Amaya - Night Rain

Miko - Priestess/witch (In this case priestess)

Naraku - Hell

Kashikari - Wise Legend

Gouka - This word actually has many meanings-- Hell Fire, Effects of Karma, valour and decisiveness, wealthy and powerful family, wonderful(an), gorgeous, splendour, pomp and world-destroying conflagration. In this case, I am using the first meaning for the horse-demon’s name. ~*~  

A/N: Hm, hm, I’m starting to have some fun with these characters again. Well, not that I wasn’t before, but now I’m actually getting them to do something interesting, neh? ^_^