InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Pride (In the Name of Love) ❯ Chapter 107

Pride (In the Name of Love) 107 / ??
Written by Jezz-Ra
Warnings - Not all warnings apply to all chapters. Yaoi, Het, Rape, Lemon, Violence, Language, Torture, Angst, Incest, Dark (at times). It's a massive story, folks, it's got a little bit of everything.
Disclaimer - I don't own Inuyasha, don't make money off it. Wish I did.

Sidestories can be found under my author profile at any of my archive sites.
Archived at - inu.adultfanfiction.net, fanfiction.net, and mediaminer.org ::: Anywhere else, ask!
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// blah // indicates thoughts.

A/N - If the bullshit that is my life continues as it is, soon I'll be just as fucked up as Sesshoumaru. So if I start gibbering, sorry. Maybe its already too late. It's almost sad that touching you people through my story is the only social contact I have at all these days. >< I grow lonely with nothing but trees and cows and abusive psychopathic jailer-mothers.

Sometime soon I'll be gone for a few days due to forced remodeling in my bedroom. The chance of me having comp access in that time is slim. Hell, the chance of me having a place to sleep is slim. Sorry this chapter took so long...work and crap made my update late. I didn't even get the chance to sit down and start writing until 10p. Lol...hoping to make it before midnight.

And anything underworld-ish I do in this chapter is purely my own take and has nothing to do with anything, canon or not. It's just how things are in my world.

Anyone want to adopt an author? I'm low maintenance, even if I am a bit crazy.
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Sairex slowly blinked open his eyes, although he was careful to be slow about it. It seemed everything was going according to plan. His soul was being whisked along by the netherworld imps. For now, Sairex allowed them to shuffle him along. It was not yet the time to act. Let them think he was incoherent and blank, as he should be.

Sairex had never actually been to the land of the dead, but his people had made a long practice of messing with it. There was much research that the raven had locked within his mind. Even still, he had little idea of what to expect.

The landscape was reminiscent of the Black Circle, the raven noted with more than a little amusement, although it was less shadowy. The ground was a dark, rusty brown and largely barren, with massive rocks jutting up in various places. Sairex noted the winding, dark silvery line of a massive river, and he got soul-shivers. So this, then, was the River Styx...the barrier that kept most of the dead where they belonged.

The imps shuffled Sairex into line to wait his turn on the ferry. Once he was secure in the mindless throng, the imps escorting him departed. A lone, robed demon was taking care of things from this point.

A quick scan didn't reveal anything noteworthy, nor did he spot Toga in the short line, so Sairex maintained the facade of simply being another soul while pondering how terribly inefficient it seemed to be to have a single ferryman taking one soul at a time across the river...this terrible river that was so slow on the surface but ran with fierce and terrible power below. Sairex could feel unnameable, old, powerful things lurking there.

Finally, it was the raven's turn to shuffle up into the boat and he did. As soon as he was across, he would make his escape and get Toga...and then somehow find a way BACK across this terrible barrier. He knew somehow, instinctively, that any effort to cross it by flight would fail as utterly as swimming...and he seriously doubted there were any bridges across the massive expanse.

The ferryman was about Sairex's height and wearing shapeless robes. He could not see the things face, but one look at the pale and delicate hands on the guide pole told him that this creature was likely female.

// Hmm. I must admit, I'm terribly curious as to what manner of creature lives here...how this all works... but now is not the time to find out. I have to figure out how the hell to find Toga and then how to get us both out of here and alive again. My spell will tether me, but I don't know the best way to bring him back...either way...I won't leave without him.//

He didn't expect the little boat to stop halfway to the opposite shore, jolting him out of his thoughts. The ferryman...or woman, as it turned out, turned to face him.

"You can drop the act."

Sairex didn't move for a moment, wondering if he had heard her correctly...then a smirk twitched his lips. Yes, he had been caught. "Zo you noticed."

The woman snorted. "Bird, I've been doing this job for thousands of years, since that poor sap Charon had the bad taste to fall into the River. Not a good idea, that." She slowly pulled back her hood. Sairex blinked, surprised to see a young and rather human looking woman with long black hair and ice-blue eyes. "So...tell me. How is it you're conscious, and why?"

"Da how is a long ztory. Da vhy...vell."

"It has something to do with the inu, doesn't it?"

Sairex blinked, rather taken aback. "How did you..."

The woman smirked. "I don't believe in coincidence and all the people up in the office are flipping out about him. I figure...two strange occurrences in so short a time...probably related."

The raven chuckled softly. "Flipping out, are dey? Vhy?"

"Well, seems he was yanked out of here through means that they've never seen. Losing a powerful demon's soul and being unable to account for why or how causes some heads to turn."

Sairex barely bit down a smirk. // Miroku and his...communicating with Tenseiga...ah, my monk... // "Indeed..."

"And then the soul shows up again, normal as can be. They woke him up for questioning and then were going to Lethe him to be safe, but I hear things aren't going to well."

"Lethe?"

The ferry-woman sighed, poking at the Styx's dark waters with her pole. "Water is...a big part of the world of the dead. This is the River Styx, which encircles the entirety of the underworld, creating a barrier. There is an underground spring that the office was built around. They made it into a fountain. Anyway, the spring is called Lethe. The water has the power to completely erase the memories from one's life. It is generally standard procedure before any soul is resurrected to live again that they are given the water of Lethe, so they can go on with their new life unburdened by the old."

Sairex's eyes widened significantly. If Toga had drank any of that...!

"I'm Saris, by the way. Anyhow...it seems the people at the office underestimated your inu friend. When they woke him up, he got somewhat growly and was absolutely frantic to get out of here to take care of his son. It ended in some sort of conflict and I don't know whats going on now."

Sairex paused and then squinted at Saris. "Vhy are you telling me dis?"

"Because I'm bored. You don't know how tedious an afterlife this is. All day, every day...and night, for that matter....ferry across dead souls or talk to the listkeepers at either side... meh. It's my punishment of sorts for my life."

"Vhat did you do?"

"I was something of a gray area. I was a born warrior, and my clan often proved their mettle by combat to death...within our ranks and without. I killed a lot of people. I didn't do it out of a sense of evil, it was just how my life was...but...eh. The people at the office had an opening after Charon and they offered me five thousand years of this and then I could rest in eternal peace, rather than having to risk hell or go through a lengthy judgment case."

Sairex nodded slowly. "Lucky for you, I zuppose."

"Eh. Sometimes I don't know. But I'm about half done with my sentence."

"Zo you don't fear to get in trouble by talking to me?"

"Talking to you? I never noticed you were conscious, you hid it too well. I'm entirely innocent, and would never talk to you because I occasionally like to see the stuffed shirts up in the office have things go not according to plan. Tell me...what's really going on? I'm curious."Sairex grinned. "I underztand. I'm here to bring da inu home. He didn't lie. His zon does need him." The raven paused, thinking. "His zon vas taken by a dracolich and abused terribly. His zon is...vell. He's really a good kid at heart, he just has alvays had zome...mental issues. Da only one dat ever really ztood a chance to reach him vas Toga...da inu I'm retrieving. Right now, his zon is truly mad. Vithout Toga, he von't recover...and if he did recover to find he killed his beloved father...vell."

"Ah...poor kid. Well, I wish ya the best of luck. And if you come back tonight, I might just be entirely off guard and chatting on the riverbank with one of the list keepers, leaving my boat entirely open. Not that there is ever anything to worry about...no one would EVER grab hold of it and take off....nor would I ever have to tell anyone that there's a trick to this whole river thing and it's largely propelled by spiritual energy....just stick the pole in the water and concentrate. You don't really push off of anything. Careful in the middle, though, there are things that'll eat it."

Sairex smiled and nodded his head in gratitude. "Tank you...

Soon they reached the other side of the river. The moment the raven's feet hit solid ground again, he took off. There was a startled cry from the previously bored-looking demon that was checking souls in. Saris let out a startled-sounded gasp of her own before hiding her grin under her cowl and heading back across the river.

Sairex moved swiftly, pausing only to test the magical tether he had left with his body. It was still secure. Good.

The raven kept within sight of the long and relatively straight road leading from the docks. He assumed that this was the way to the 'office' Saris had mentioned, and his suspicions proved correct. It did not take long for an impressive palace to loom into view.

Nor did it take long for Sairex to find Toga once he got near the palace - the inu was in his true form and bounding through the courtyard in heated battle with dozens of dark things. Toga had been snared on a few long cables, but was so far evading further attempts to bind him. Every time a new binding would be secured around him he'd break free of another.

// That's my Toga... // Sairex smiled in amusement. He could sense the distant approach of something much stronger, however...something that shone with wild spirit-energy. // And that would be the answer to their problems. Seems I don't have a lot of time. //

Sairex flew in next to Toga and barely managed to backpedal enough to avoid being chomped in half. "Ack!"

Toga blinked in surprise as it caught up to him that this was not another enemy. "Sairex?!"

"Yeah, yeah...causing trouble, are ve?"

"I cannot stay here!"

"Vell, I learned zome terribly interesting tings on my vay here...vithout vhich, I might add, ve both probably vould have been ztuck here forever. And you vould never have known. Dey vere planning on erasing your memories."

"WHAT?!"

"Yep. And dere is zometing big coming. Ve have to go. Now." Sairex helped Toga beat off his attackers as much as he was able, but the nimble raven spent more of his focus on freeing the raging inu from his bonds.

Sairex couldn't understand a word the dark, robed creatures that were assailing them were screaming. He did have the presence of mind to leap on Toga's broad back and grab hold as the inu leapt over the wall and took off, however.

"Ve just need to head for da river by nightfall."

"River?"

"Yep, down dis path. You vere probably out of it vhen you arrived."

"Sairex...how is it you are here?"Sairex fidgeted a bit, idly toying with some of Toga's fur. "Er....vell, zomeone had to come for you...Zezzhoumaru needs you an' all..."

Toga's eyes widened and he stopped dead. Sairex eeped and almost went flying. Toga abruptly shifted to his humanoid form, catching the raven when he dropped and giving him a very serious stare. "You....are not alive?"

"Vell, neither are you...how else vas I going to come and get you?... Toga...you're needed. If dis is not changed...and I did noting to try to change it vhen I tink I can..."

"You died to come and get me..."

"Not vithout a plan. I can get back."

"Oh...I didn't realize you ... knew how to bounce back and forth between living and death like that..."

Sairex fidgeted a bit, wondering if Toga was going to bother putting him down. "Vell...."

"Well what?""Its not zometing I've tried before or vill try again if I can avoid it."

Toga's eyes widened and he stared at Sairex. "Damn crazy raven...what if it hadn't worked? What about your family?"

"I vould have done da zame for any of dem...I don't vant to lose you again zo zoon, Toga. I ... zuggest ve keep moving. Ve only have a narrow timeframe to vork vith if ve are going to escape...and...er...you can put me down...." Sairex ducked his head to hide his growing blush.

"I'll carry you." Toga did set Sairex down, but only long enough to take his true form back on. "Now lets head home before someone else comes looking for us. I've had entirely too much excitement for one day."