InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Reminisce ❯ Duty ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimers I don't own Inuyasha so don't sue me^^;;;;

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Aki, never taking her eyes off the large beast, shifted so her back was against the wall, making sure her movements didn't disturb it nor were quick enough to completely avert its focus on her. If she could only get to the window... If she could only get to the window... What? I'd what?... What.. would I do...? It wasn't possible for her to... jump out was it?...

A loud growl forced her back into reality once again to notice the large monstrosity staring down at the jewel, eyes gleaming greedily, almost as if she wasn't even there. Its only focus laid on that tiny jewel... which she found an advantage and slowly began to slide along the wall, her back gently brushing against it in her steady sidestepping motions. She made sure not to make any noise... and not to take her eyes away from its crimson gaze, silently watching the jewel. She couldn't understand... If it wanted it so badly why didn't it just take it? She had no liking for the thing..

It was then that it jolted its head up at her. She stopped without a moment's hesitation, her heart beating wildly in her chest. They stared at each other... Its odd eyes staring straight into hers, showing no emotion. Just pure duty. It had no heart of which to do anything else... like a puppet... a puppet who was told to do something and could do nothing else. It told her all of this through its eyes... As if its creation was pointless, so it would live up to what little life it had. She gulped again. Why was she so intrigued in this beast's eyes? It could possibly try to kill her and she was trying to understand it...?

It tilted its head uncomprehendingly at the sudden ease of her shoulders, as if she wasn't frightened... She was only inches away from the window and to freedom... and she could only watch it with great interest... but as if she didn't want to have interest but did...

She lowered her arms to her side and looked up at it with a child-like innocence circling her confused eyes. Why hadn't it attacked? Why hadn't it taken the jewel yet? She surely wasn't intending to stop it... So why didn't it do anything? She was very little threat, if any at all... They exchanged looks, waiting for the other to approach or retreat. Aki was almost sure she saw a dull glimmer of hope in its eyes... She couldn't see exactly what though... If it was hope, reassurance, or even hate... It was something though... She was sure she saw it... whatever it was...

Before either could make another move, the ground below them began to rumble ferociously, sending the wooden floorboards flying up dangerously, their sharp splinters flying about, one almost striking Aki. Unable to register this in her mind, Aki let out a small scream as she felt her foot begin to fall inward. A plank under her right foot had fallen in, causing her leg to fall under it and the plank to fly into her vision before she had the time to see what became of the large beast-like creature.

She couldn't see anything. She fell, seeing nothing but darkness and the constant crack of the floor breaking away above her. She bit her lip painfully as a sharp pain sliced into her left ankle, cutting straight through the cotton sock and plunging into the fragile flesh, drawing blood. She felt numerous pains after that. One right after another, this time she could make out the cuts. Many were all over her body... and more were coming. It was pitch black and she could see nothing, bleeding in various places and vulnerable to anything that happened to come her way. She hoped there wouldn't be another creature like the one she had just encountered... oh kami-sama, that thing was enough! She didn't even want to think of running into something else... something possibly more dangerous and hostile...

Without warning, she hit the ground, her leg twisting with a sickening snap. The rest of her body fell unwillingly forward to the ground, her hands flung above her head and her face to the side... She inhaled, not so much to calm herself, but to even be sure she was alive. She didn't know what to think... or what to do... She lay there, motionless, the constant clitter-clatter of the pieces of wood the only sound she heard throughout the area... Where was she...? She tilted her head nervously to look about her surroundings, almost afraid to move incase she had broken something. She saw colors... that was it... Colors... Multiple colors... scattered about like the disfigurement of objects. She could make out none of them. The rest was only black like the night. It was still night...? It was only night...? What about what had happened...? What about that creature...? That...

A picture flashed in her mind. Only a split second image she could vaguely recognize. It was there... but... what was it...? It gleamed once, then the whole image vanished from her mind. She looked about, wanting to find anything to aid her in what was going on. Her vision had improved somewhat for now she could make out trees, like the ones that surrounded her house. Her eyes widened in utter shock. MY HOUSE!!! Without a second thought, she spun around, expecting to see the usual light shinning brightly from the window to the far left from her brother staying up past his bedtime, to hear the usual loud crank of the floor from her parents coming to put him to bed, to be able to see the large house towering above all the other houses just able to see over the tall trees... but instead, she saw...

Nothing...

Her heart dropped. She could feel the hope sink within the blink of an eye. All that she had hoped... Everything... was losing control... Her life was out of her hands now... as if it was weaving its own threads... threads of different color that could never blend with the others... and herself being the needle, the misfit, of what everything else even stood for...

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!!!!!!", she shrieked out the words, not caring of who heard or of who was even there. At the moment, she didn't even care if she died on the spot. Whatever was happening was completely out of her control. One puzzle after another... One problem after another... She had enough trouble with everyday life... but now... She shook her head pathetically, unwilling the tears to fall from her eyes. The light sound of her sobs carried through the wind and filled the silent night. It was all she could hear... All she could see... She closed her eyes in hope that it would all end. The life of such a young girl... What happened? Where am I? How on earth did I get here in the first place!?! Everything's so SCREWED UP!!!!!!

Her mind, unable to handle what it was forced to hold, began to affect her. She was almost ready to lose her sanity. The world seemed to be against her... Everything... was so...

Aki threw her fist into the dirt ground violently, forcing the repetitive thought to come to a halt. Inhaling deeply, she strained her mind to remember back to where it all first started, her mind falling back into the depths of her memory to find what she had most likely forgotten.

And then it came to her...

Her eyes snapped open almost immediately, the image still hanging freshly in her mind as she stared at the ground, her vision never wavering, to keep the vision. She saw it now. It was there. It was...

"That necklace!!!" her voice cracked at the attempt to scream. She gulped hard, trying her best to settle the discomfort churning in her stomach though she knew well what was going on. It still was yet to be cleared and sorted out in her mind, but she knew what was causing this. That necklace... Now that she thought about it, all things were normal until that strange jewel entered her life. She still remembered the light thudding of her mother's feet on the soft grass as she slept soundly just below the sakura tree. She remembered looking up into her smiling face... All was normal... but when she handed her that jewel...

The image still hung fresh in the depths of her memory...

Aki gripped her head in her hands, finding herself weeping uncontrollably. This was it... This was it... She didn't know what had happened... What was happening nor what on earth would happen... Everything was falling apart. She strained to keep that smile on everyday at her home. Everything she did, she did it to help others in any way. Smiling. She did it to keep her parents and friends (mainly Natsuko) from worrying about her... She was like that creature... Duty... Duty... "Duty..." she tested the word on her tongue as if it was foreign to her. "Pure duty... that's all it is... I've never given a real smile have I...? All of them were fake..."

Fresh tears trailed down her face again. Her body was aching all over... her ankle... she remembered her ankle snapping when she had fallen. Giving the room merely a glance, she propped her body on her left arm, the right still gripping her head as she did her best to look up without forcing the snapped bone out of its place and, at the same time, getting a good view of what was around her... Darkness... there weren't any colors anymore... it wasn't a blur... nothingness... where was she...? How on earth could she have gotten here...? So many questions she couldn't answer... And yet, deep in her mind, she didn't really want to know any of the answers in the first place. Some things were better left unknown...

The thudding of light footsteps could be heard behind her, just out of her vision due to the fact that she couldn't turn in fear of twisting her ankle again. It came louder now... clearer... Who...?

~"Aki...", came a low voice echoing around her.

Aki whirled around, disregarding the loud snap she heard from her ankle and turning to face a strange-looking man. Her eyes widened at what she saw standing before her. He... He's transparent!!!

And it was true. Before her stood a tall man, possibly in his twenties, with long flowing black hair, the silky shines a mere perfection to his peaceful demeanor. He had two sections of hair dangling in front of his ears, which were normal human ones, and mysteriously calm crimson eyes, gazing down at her without the hateful intent to hurt as she had seen in that creature... He wore a midnight blue kimono of sorts, simple in design yet pleasing to any eye as it shimmered with the same smoothness as his hair did, catching the moon's rays and melding perfectly with his pale skin.

She gasped as she looked at him. The darkness shrouded his facial features, all except those luminous eyes that peered at her, his vision never wavering. He stepped forward... but it was silence... His footsteps made no noise at all. She wriggled back, afraid of what he might do. Never being one to believe in superstitions, this frightened her beyond belief and she was tense everywhere, the throbbing from the twisted bone coming back... and that throb greatening into a painful pounding. She winched slightly, praying that the pain would subside before it caused problems. If something went wrong, there was no way she could run now...

He stepped forward again and outstretched his hand, his finger tips extended toward her as if calling her to come. Aki stared at him, her muscles relaxing slightly at the realization that he posed no threat to her. She glanced at his hand uncertainly, the lingering thought that he was the supernatural still in the back of her mind. Should she...? Thinking back to what had previously happened, the horrible thought that she might never get home forced itself into her mind, bringing her thoughts back to what she had seen.

The floor... It flew up... How did it...? Did it have anything to do with that... thing...?

Another vision came into her mind with a blinding light as she heard a door open, the recollection of pieces forming before her... She remembered it... how that monster had intruded into her house without any sound... She hadn't even known he was there until it was too late... How on earth was he able to even come in like that without making any noise or disturbing her family...?

~"Aki...", he spoke again with that same patience as always.

She paused and gazed up at him with that usual childish innocence, somehow afraid of what he might do even if he seemed so harmless. He continued to stare at her without even the slightest movement or the slightest intent of moving... He stood, his arm outstretched to her, as if merely waiting for her response, good or bad... he didn't care which. She glanced at her ankle, trying to avert his attention to it as if to silently tell him she couldn't move even if she wanted to... no response... He didn't blink, he didn't flinch, he didn't turn his gaze to it... and she gulped at his stiffened nature. Though even as he seemed the quiet inquisitive type, she felt strangely... comfortable around him... And so with the last of her strength, Aki reached her hand out and grabbed his, squeezing it lightly to better her grip. She closed her eyes, afraid of what might happen next... For all that she had seen, there was no telling exactly what might happen now, much less what could happen now.

Without speaking, he gently pulled her up by the arm to his height, using his other arm to wrap around her waist protectively as he did so. A light began to flicker about them, brushing against Aki's ankle lightly and continuing on its way around the blank room. Gasping at the cold sensation, Aki opened her eyes to find herself enveloped into a bright pinkish light, the world around her distorting itself into an image of a flowing sky... if that was possible... Stupefied, she merely continued to stare, not sure of what was going on at all. She glanced down at her feet and saw that it seemed they were still standing on a solid ground... but that "ground" didn't appear to be there... "H-h-how.. how are we...??", she began to stutter out. The man just looked at her with those emotionless eyes once more and tightened his grip on her... and then he fell backward... and much to Aki's surprise, was able to continue falling, as if he had jumped off of a cliff... and kept going...

She wanted to cry out... to call for help... to scream... but she didn't... She didn't know why she didn't or why she couldn't, but she remained staring wide-eyed as they continued to fall towards whatever lay below them... that endless sea of stars and sky... it looked like a view of the universe... and as far as she was concerned, it was. It was a beautiful view... like when she used to lay on the ground and gaze up at the sky when she was younger... She remembered everything... that precious day that was still in her memory... I looked over to my side... and I saw...

But before those thoughts could finish, she was shoved forward and away from the man's arms further into the nothingness. He looked over at her, his painfully apologetic eyes boring into her soul, and stared her straight in the eyes before screaming out one last word that seemed to echo throughout her thoughts...

~"RETURN!!!"

And before she had the chance to reject, a bright light overwhelmed her and cast him out of her eyesight. Reluctantly, Aki covered her eyes with her arms to shield them from the intensity, somehow saddened that it also blocked her from seeing what became of that man. And there, between the bends of Time and Earth, she passed out and fell into the depths of unconsciousness as the light faded and altered itself into the ground of which she fell on... and the era of which she passed to...

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A/N: *falls on her knees* SOOO SORRY PEOPLE! I still have that horrible case of writer's block that I've had since chapter 2... I'm REALLY trying hard to get this plot down on paper but it's hard as hell for me! I know EVERYTHING I wanna do with this fic, but it seems as if I can't find the right places to piece them together. But it's a good fic nonetheless... to me anyway XP;; I'm really trying with this minna! Just sit tight. I'll make up for all of this with chapter six! It'll be better! (my best writing skills have to be in the first chapter... what you see here isn't really the best I can do -.-;) Once again, gomen minna-san! I'm working on the sixth chappie... but I might have to change some things around... Tainted (written by a VERY good writer in my opinion) is basically building up to everything I had in mind for Reminisce... though not quite.. but it's unbelievingly close so I'm gonna change the plot around just the tiniest bit. But wait while you can for this very slowly inspired author for I am working day and night to get this the way I want it! Bye for now and thanks for the reviews! R & R PLEASE O.O!!! Oh, and Merry Belated Christmas everyone^.^!! X);; (it's 39 minutes past Christmas Day here A.K.A. 12:39 XD)