InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Green Child ❯ Through Fire and Flames ( Chapter 6 )

A/N: -sniffle- Don't you guys love me? I got the least amount of reviews for the last chapter as for any chapter yet. Like 10 total, off all 3 sites, when I usually get around 14 on ffnet alone. What happened? And chapter 5 was the longest chapter so far. That's depressing. What's also depressing is that this chap happens to be the shortest one yet. I'm sorry guys, but I just had to end it where I did. Couldn't resist. XD

 

Ooh, one more thing. I don't know what the Feudal-ish Japanese used for bandaging wounds. So, I'm just guessing. -shrugs-

 

This chapter's song is mostly here just because I love it. Through Fire and Flames by Dragonforce -faints at the sheer awesomeness- Oh yeah man, it rocks!

 

§§§

 

 

Last time:

 

This was waaaay too cool to be troubled about meeting the dead father of the guy you were in love with for three years.

 

Cho had been exploring the inside of the building, and presently came running back outside. “Midori! Isn't this wonderful?” the girl asked, her eyes shining brightly.

 

Kagome grinned. “Yes, it is Cho-chan! I think we're going to enjoy it here.”

 

Chinatsu smiled at both her pupils. “Welcome to Kinjyoutouchi.”

 

§§§

 

Chapter 6: Through Fire and Flames

 

So now we're flying, we're free
We're free before the thunderstorm
Hunt towards the wilderness
Our quest carries on
Far beyond the sun down, far beyond the moonlight
Deep inside our hearts and all our souls

So far away we wait for the day
For the lives all so wasted and gone
We feel the pain of a lifetime lost in a thousand days
Through the fire and the flames we carry on

 

“The girl, the one Chinatsu has taken as an apprentice. Was the scout right?”

 

“Yes father. The power of her reiki is enormous. But she does not know how to fully use that power as of yet.”

 

“Hm. For now then, it seems she must be considered a possible threat. But she is also a possible asset. We must make sure that nothing happens to her, or anyone around her. I would like you to keep an eye on her. Your other duties are not as important as this. Whoever is doing the killings might come after her next. Watch over her. You are the only one I would trust with this.”

 

“I am honored Father. But, what excuse am I to give to her? She will likely be suspicious.”

 

“Why not the truth? A small portion of it will not go amiss.”

 

§G§C§

 

 

Kagome wiped the sweat off her forehead with a tired hand. It had taken nearly nine hours to reorganize all of the herbs that were stocked in the miko's quarters. Nine! And after they'd finished, Chinatsu had found to her dismay that some very essential herbs were missing, not to mention that there was a shortage of bandages. “I know I taught that girl better than this!” Chinatsu muttered to herself, and then swore quietly. Kagome stared at Chinatsu, eyes wide. That was unusual.

 

The elder miko stood slowly, and stretched. Her back popped loudly, and Kagome's expression changed to a grin. The elder miko was usually so composed. The girl on the other side of the room laughed as well. Cho was seated in the middle of a veritable forest of herbs. Mounds of dried green plant matter surrounded her. All the herbs that were available to them had finally been sorted, all that was left to do was to organize and store them.

 

“I'm going to leave you alone here for a while.” Chinatsu had turned to Kagome. “I was informed yesterday that one of the Taisho's personal guards sustained an injury during training that needs to be looked at. While I'm gone, I would appreciate it if you would run down to the village and see if the local seamstress has any extra linen. We're frightfully low on bandages. Cho,” the girl glanced up. “You're coming with me.”

 

Cho jumped up, careful not to knock over any of the careful piles and skipped over to join the miko. She was nearly there when she skidded to a halt, and turned back to Kagome. She ran to her, and flung her arms around Kagome's neck, squeezing her tightly. Kagome's hands returned the gesture haltingly, slightly stunned. “Bye Midori,” Cho whispered in her ear. Then she turned away. Kagome could see that Chinatsu was grinning widely.

 

As the other two walked from the room, Kagome grinned madly. That little girl is so adorable! She's sort of like Rin...

 

Kagome's eyes were drawn to the piles of herbs all over the room, and the smile faded instantly. She glowered aht eh little green mounds. Now she had to put them all away again in their proper places. “Thanks a lot, Chinatsu,” she muttered, and stuck her tongue out towards the door.

 

§G§C§

 

Kagome stepped down off the last stair and sighed. She was tired, and her eyes stung. She'd accidentally stepped on some random plant, crushing it, and it had given off some very noxious fumes. But all the herbs had been sorted and separated. It had only taken a little over an hour, but it felt like ages. Chinatsu and Cho weren't back yet, so she might as well go run that errand for Chinatsu now.

 

She hummed idly as she set off down the pathway swinging the basket at her side. Her stride was diminished from its usual, seeing as she wasn't wearing her usual miko robes. Chinatsu had decided the night before that all of their robes needed washing, and had forced her into a borrowed kimono, sending the robes off to be laundered. Kagome grimaced as the confining fabric pulled against her legs. This sucked. She was used to having her legs almost entirely free, either in loose hakama or a short skirt. She couldn't walk like this!

 

For a minute, she fumed at the injustices forced against her gender, but the dissatisfaction faded almost instantly. The landscape was just too gorgeous, and it was too warm outside.

 

The seemingly endless pathways didn't seem very familiar, and she was immediately lost. But hey, it was a fascinating place to walk through, so she wasn't exactly bothered by this state. She passed a seemingly endless array of flora, whose leaves shadowed many buildings hidden in the shade. Every so often there were stretches that seemed to be full of nothing but plants. At first glance most of them seemed to be arranged in no particular fashion, just growing wildly as they chose. But there was a sense of symmetry to everything. Some of the gardens' sections were strictly ordered, obviously maintained by many patient hours.

 

At one point, there was a small clear space between the faces of two buildings. Seperating them were walls of bushes, and directly in the center of these was a pond in the shape of a crescent moon. A very small stream trickled over a line of rocks into the top of the crescent, and there was another mirroring it at the bottom tip, taking water away. The pool was shaded by the leaves of a spreading maple, whose leaves were deep red, nearly purple. The very edge of the pool was surrounded by a plethora of multicolored flowers, and from there grass extended all the way to the roots of the maple. Kagome gasped aloud at the beauty of the place. If she hadn't been actually doing something, it would have been the perfect place to sit and relax for the rest of the day.

 

She bit her lip and stood for a moment, considering blowing off her errand until tomorrow. But, of course, she didn't. She turned down another path, taking one last glance at the gorgeous place. “I'll be back later,” she whispered to it. The stream burbled quietly.

 

A lot of confused wandering later, Kagome finally managed to find the front gate. Or at least the inner gate. It was an entirely different story altogether to get through the gate, past the guards. Her teeth clenched together tightly as she walked past 2 burly youkai. Her insides were rattling around madly and a drop of sweat fell in her eye. Her gaze remained focused on the large male youkai staring her down on the left side. Oh God, he's going to eat me. I just know it! Look at those eyes! He looks about ready to stick me on a spit and start turning. Yeesh. Either that or hurl me off a cliff. Probably doesn't want some stringy human meat any...way. Oh shit.

 

Directly in front of her was one of the tallest and widest demons she'd ever seen. He was far more intimidating than either of the guards staring her down from the sidelines. His body was extremely thickset and burly, with forearms that looked about twice as thick as her neck, and his trunk was practically a brick wall. His head towered so far above her head she felt her neck pop looking up at him. It was like being an extremely small mouse staring in terrified awe down the nose of a big-ass rat. Albeit a rat with bright orange hair. Kagome's throat convulsed. Is she had been a mouse, there would most definitely be several new additions to the landscape around. Small, oblong, and brown additions. Yech.

 

The youkai stared down at her for a minute. She could feel the sweat dripping down her back as she watched at him. He cocked his head slightly, and she flinched just a bit. The youkai grinned at her reaction, the huge smile somewhat ruining his imposing quality.

 

“You're the new miko that came with Chinatsu, then? Well, you're a lot shorter and less imposing than I expected. Though you are taller than Chinatsu-sama.” His voice was deep, and rumbled with humor.

 

Kagome's head, which had been cowering rather close to her neck, flipped back so she was staring him straight in the eye. She bristled in indignation, fists clenched tightly to her sides. “Watch it mister, or I might just fry your ass.” She growled, her fear pretty much ignored, though not forgotten. Yeah, he could probably squish her into a jellybean, but if she wanted to, she could probably make him resemble a hot dog that had been left on the grill an hour too long. Probably, key word.

 

He grinned even wider. “You're a lot like Chinatsu was when she was in training here. She threatened me several times. Actually, she treatened me several time a day.”

 

Kagome blinked. Chinatsu hadn't seemed to have too fiery of a temper so far. Then again, they hadn't exactly known each other for all that long. Heh. Cool. It would be great to see the relatively short woman talking down a demon twice her height.

 

“I take it you wish to exit Kinjyoutouchi, miko-sama? Had enough of it already?” the demon asked.

 

Kagome grinned, her mood transforming instantly as per usual. Maybe she was bipolar?

 

“Actually, I'm just nipping down to the village for a bit to visit the local seamstress. I'll be back soon,” she said.

 

He nodded. “Of course, miko-sama. I'll have them open the gates. And whenever you need to get through to the outside, just give me a holler. The name's Yori.” He bowed slightly. “Just ignore the lugs trying to stare you down over there. You could take them in a second.” He winked.

 

Kagome smirked a bit as she bowed in reply. Yori meant `trust.' Interesting. “Arigatou gozaimasu Yori-san.”

 

Yori turned away from her and gave a sharp signal towards the gatehouse. There were several clunks and a long grinding sound, and the inner gate began to open. Kagome walked towards it, smiling back over her shoulder at Yori, who grinned at her as he went off towards the guardhouse. She walked under the fist gate, seeing the outer opening as well. Passing under the second one, she straightened up and took in a deep breath. Freedom!

 

The path down the mountain to the village wasn't long, and Kagome thoroughly enjoyed herself on the way. She smiled to herself and started humming. Yori seemed very nice and she felt that she would probably end up being friends with him. That could come in handy if any of the youkai tried to give her any trouble. She frowned slightly at the idea.

 

But thoughts like that didn't linger as she followed the trail. Kinjyoutouchi and the lands surrounding the fortress were absolutely gorgeous. The mountain air was crisp and she felt extremely energized. Unbidden, her feet started to skip, and her humming got louder. She did a little impromptu twirl, closing her eyes.

 

She landed, opened her eyes, and froze. There were four more pairs of eyes staring at her from the side of the trail. And none of them looked even remotely friendly.

 

“Oh...shit,” she muttered.

 

§G§C§

 

Sesshoumaru grimaced imperceptibly as he left the pavilion where the miko were staying. None of them were present. He snorted in dissatisfaction as he headed toward the entrance to the grounds. How was he supposed to protect the girl if she wasn't here to be protected?

 

He was very near to the gatehouse when his ears picked up a rather loud feminine scream coming from outside the walls. It sounded oddly familiar. Rather like that that of the miko, when she'd fallen into the river...

 

Sesshoumaru transformed his body into a ball of pure white energy and streaked off towards the scream. It appeared that someone had found the girl.

 

§G§C§

 

A/N: Oh dear. You're all going to eat me alive, aren't you? Please don't. At least I updated! And I will update again soon! Seriously, I'm on spring break, and I'm going to force myself to write as much as possible. You'll have another chapter within the week. I'm going to go work on it as soon as I post this one, actually. And sorry I didn't sneak InuPapa in this chap. He'll be here soon though! XD

 

Ooh, random thought. If you guys want to check out some good music, check out the bands 30 Seconds to Mars and Rise Against. I'm obsessing over them both currently. For the first, find the song From Yesterday, and for the 2nd, the songs Injection (LOVE!!) or The Good Left Undone. (Also a love. The lyrics of this one are really cool!)

 

Please leave me a review! In the words of the magnificent authoress ElegantPaws (-bows in reverence-), reviews are fuel. So give me something to burn, peeps!