Kagome's Paths

Kagome's Paths

By Kagehoshi

Ch 11 If you're bored and you know it sing a song

****Author's Notes

Yeah that's right it's an update, a real honest to goodness update. You may now worship me, or more appropriately you may worship DataSavers LLC for getting me back on track after my computer crashed and died. Turns out I have some fans in the computer industry 3.

This chapter is dedicated to everyone who gave me hope after my comps untimely demise.

*********

His throat was definitely getting sore, but Souta kept up his singing as loudly as possible. If there was one skill he excelled at it was annoying the crap out of other people.

"Tōryanse, tōryanse

Koko wa doko no hosomichi ja?

Tenjin-sama no hosomichi ja

Chitto tōshite kudashanse

Goyō no nai mono tōshasenu

Kono ko no nanatsu no oiwai ni

O-fuda wo osame ni mairimasu

Iki wa yoi yoi, kaeri wa kowai

Kowai nagara mo

Tōryanse, tōryanse"(1)

The goblins in charge of taking care of him groaned in annoyance, the prisoner had been singing that song non-stop for the past several hours and they could feel the notes vibrating in their rotting teeth. Unfortunately, there wasn't much they could do, His Majesty had ordered that no harm should come to the boy, so they weren't allowed to stick an apple in his mouth and roast him on a spit.

Truth be told Souta was getting was annoyed at himself. He wasn't a big fan of this song under normal circumstances, but after singing it straight through twenty-two times he could honestly say that he despised this song with the burning passion of a thousand suns. Grimly he pressed on, absolutely determined that he was going to drive his captors into the furthest reaches of insanity even if he had to go there himself and drag them along with him. Finally on the thirty-seventh rendition of the Tōryanse one of the goblin guards finally decided he didn't want to deal with it anymore and promptly smashed his head into a nearby barrel of ale, blissfully knocking himself unconscious and simultaneously opening the barrel. Unable to resist the roughly opened barrel full of alcohol the other goblins quickly crowded around the free booze and proceeded to drink every last drop, some even going so far as to crunch down on the ale soaked wood. Soon every Goblin soldier in the throne room was either drunk off their ass, or working diligently towards that goal. Throughout the frenzied binge drinking Souta had continued to sing his song, but now that most of the guards were passed out or too trashed to care anymore Souta gratefully ceased his singing and took stock of the situation. There wasn't a single sober goblin in sight and Souta knew for a fact that every being with in hearing distance of his singing had vacated the area in a flaming hurry as soon as it became apparent he wasn't stopping anytime soon. Souta smirked to himself and began to stealthily inch towards the door, not wanting to alert those goblins who were still semi-conscious.

'Oh yeah, he was the master of disaster. The Prince of Pesky. The Baron of Bother. The Duke of Distress. There's no situation he can't annoy his way out of. Watch out world here comes... kuso kuso kuso!'

Souta had literally seen the light at the end of the tunnel, or in this case the fresh air at the end of the garbage dump, when King Jareth himself had crashed through the doors and stormed into the throne room his beautiful face white in fury. His normally pristine white silk shirt was torn and filthy, and he was bleeding profusely from a cut on his temple. The enraged Goblin King cast his mismatched glare around the throne room until it landed on Souta who was plastered up against the wall only a few feet from the door. Jareth stalked over towards the surprised Higurashi and then proceeded to lift the small boy up by the collar of his shirt and shake him roughly.

"What is your sister! Who is she? She is no ordinary human!" The Goblin King snarled into Souta's face, "You will tell me everything or you'll be spending all of eternity as a toad!"

It took a few seconds, but then Souta got over his shock of being tossed around and began to feel a warm glow in the center of his chest, this feeling spread throughout his body and gave Souta the courage to do something incredibly stupid. He smirked like the cat who caught the canary and washed it down with some cream.

"You pissed her off didn't you?"

Jareth growled in frustration and flung Souta into the wall. The younger Higurashi smacked into the wall and fell to the floor, slightly dazed but still sporting the same smug smile. As quickly as he had entered, Jareth exited the throne room his rage still hanging in the air. For several minutes there was complete silence in the throne room until a chicken, which had been perched up on some beams near the ceiling, let out a cluck and laid an egg, which then proceeded to fall on the still stunned Souta and break over his head.

Translation:

Let me pass, let me pass

What is this narrow pathway here?

It's the narrow pathway of the Tenjin shrine

Please allow me to pass through

Those without good reason shall not pass

To celebrate this child's 7th birthday

I've come to dedicate my offering

Going in may be fine, fine, but returning would be scary

It's scary but

Let me pass, let me pass*

* I chose the Tōryanse because out of all the Japanese Folk songs this one is the one I find most annoying! Traffic Lights! RAWR!

Answer to last Chapters question. The City was Thebes where Oedipus answered the Sphinx's riddle and which was destroyed by Alexander the Great (the Argead King) in 335 BCE.