Friendly Persuasion
Golden Opportunity
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Golden Opportunity
Everyone around the fire on that cliff looked at Kaji as
though she were crazy.
“And just what do you mean by that?”
“Back where I come from, there are two kinds of demons.
kind. Basic are along the lines of dog,
wolf, fox, and so on. Elemental, well,
it’s all in the name. Fire demons,
water demons, you know. However, they
can only become elemental demons if they gain enough power and mastery of their
element to evolve from a sprite. So
there are few elemental demons back home.”
Kaji explained.
“Um, Kaji-sama, you keep eluding the subject of your
curse. This ‘Curse of the Wolves’, what
does it do exactly? And what did
you do to get cursed?” Miroku
asked.
Sighing, Kaji allowed herself a small smirk, “Being a wolf
demon myself, the ‘Curse of the Wolves’ means that for a certain number of
years, I am cursed to be human. In my
case, five hundred years. As to what I
did to get the curse, well, I’d much rather not say.”
“Could you briefly describe what you did?
“The one who placed the curse upon me was Lunia herself.
human, and also to be unable to write a lie or speak a lie whilst
sleeping. And for your small
description of what I did, I can only say this because I know K-chan won’t rip
my heart out of my chest. I killed many
humans, and was cursed as a consequence for my actions.”
“How many humans?”
Inu-Yasha asked.
Kaji did not answer, she looked down at Kouga’s bangs
instead.
“More than a hundred?”
Kagome asked.
“Yes.”
“More than a thousand?”
Shippo asked, picking a number at random.
“Yes.” Kaji said, her
eyebrows brought together in a frown.
“Can’t you just tell us, Kaji-chan?” Kagome asked, “I won’t
yell at you, I won’t hit you, I won’t not speak to you.
Kaji sighed and spoke softly, “In one day, I managed to kill
four thousand, three hundred fifty-nine humans.”
Despite herself, Kagome gasped, covering her mouth with her
hand as she did so.
“So many people,” she thought, “Why did you do it,
Kaji-chan?”
“It’s no one’s fault save for mine, so it matters not if I
tell you someone was controlling my mind.
I should never have been so weak as to allow myself to be
controlled! If I had just had enough
power, I could have stopped it all from happening. I completely destroyed two large cities, and about seven small
villages. Out of all those people, only
one survived. A small,
five-year-old boy. I had just killed
his parents right before his eyes and was about to kill him, when he asked me
one simple question, ‘Why?’
And I asked my self ‘Why am I doing this?
thought to myself that this was wrong.
I should never have done what I did, and right then, the
mind-controlling collar around my neck broke.
I blacked out for a while, thas was when I was being judged, and when I
woke up, I was human. The little boy
had turned me onto my back and had put a cool cloth on my forehead, and he sat
beside me, a grin on his face when he saw my eyes open.”
She could still see that little boy.
eyes, and toothy grin.
“You’re awake!” He
said, scrambling to lean over her.
“Yes, I am,” she said, holding her head with her bloodied
right hand, “but where exactly am I?”
“You’re in Midea, the same place you were right before you
collapsed.”
Memories of the slaughter she’d committed raced before her
eyes. She dropped her hand to her side
as she fought to sit up and look at the young boy.
“What’s your name?”
“Momma-san called me Hideki, but Papa-san would sometimes
call me Mirai, because he said I was their future.”
“Which would you rather I call you?” He sat back on his heels, “I don’t know.” “What do you mean you don’t know?” “What do you want to call me?” She thought for a moment, “Well, I’d name you after my “Okay!” He readily agreed, his face suddenly turning “‘Bad lady’?” “Yeah, she had white hair and dark blue eyes. She stifled a gasp, and covered it by saying, “Yes, yes, “What did you do with him?” “I kinda adopted him. “Where is he now? I “He should still be in our capitol city, Shilan. “I’ve been busy.” “Doing what?” “Gathering information.” “About?” “It’s none of your business.” Kagura said, leaning against a rock. “I see,” Kaji said, forcing some of her energy into Kouga’s Kagura looked stunned, “Do you know where I could get such “Yes, now answer my question. If I supplied you with a means to weaken your creator Naraku, About to answer, Kagura stopped herself from agreeing too Kaji shrugged, “Your friendship and your alliance. “Let me get this straight,” Kagura began, “if I become your “That’s right.” Kaji “Deal.” Kagura said, Taking the offered hand and shaking it, Kaji slipped her Kagura stepped back, and the others around the fire gasped. “But that’s...” “I know what it is, Kagome,” Kaji interrupted, “I want “But this has a Wind Stone on it,” Kagura said, pointing to “I know that!” Kaji snapped, resisting the urge to Nodding gravely, Kagura put the bracelet onto her right “It’s not a problem, really, Kagura-san.” When she moved her hfromfrom her throat to Kouga’s forehead, “What’s that, Kaji-chan?” “This is the collar that, if I were to show it more often, “Where are you going?” Kaji sighed, “This little fire demon is going to take a “Kaji-san,” Kaede began, “what are ye going to do about the Kaji turned, a surprised look on her face, which soon turned Blushing a little, Kagura nodded in apology, “They’re gone “Thanks, Kagura-san,” Kaji smiled, “I should be back “Kaji-chan?” Kagome “Hai?” “Do you wme tme to come with you?” Kaji shook her head, “No, but thanks anyway, K-chan. “Okay.” Kagome Noticing the change in placement, Kaji smiled as she headed Carefully picking her way down the path, Kaji thought about “Without the Element of Wind, I cannot survive longer than Taking her clothes off, Kaji rubbed at the collar and wished Stepping into the cold water of the lake, Kaji was so Kaji dipped her head back into the water, allowing her “That’s it, I’m going crazy,” she thought, about to ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A/N: thanks to all of you that *Fantasy-Seal--- I’m glad you want to *Inuyashagirl5--- good to know you’re *kitty--- I’m so happy that you love *sliver--- I want you know that it
father, but I don’t think he’s honorable enough to name someone after.
wouldn’t wish to give you a name of one of the dead. How about Takara, after your word for ‘treasure’?”
serious, “Is that bad lady gone?”
appeared.”
Takara, the bad lady is gone. She won’t
be back for another five centuries, so you have a while before you even hear rumors
of her again. I promise.”
Inu-Yasha asked, not noticing that he had leaned forward while entranced
by Kaji’s story.
He followed me just about everywhere.”
mean, it’s been five hundred years since you met him.”
be about nineteen or so right now,” Kaji said, shrugging as she suddenly heard
the whispers of wind, “where’ve you been, Kagura-san?”
Kagura snapped, coming into the light of the fire Kaji had made.
body, “tell me, Kagura, if you somehow got powepower to defeat Naraku, would
you use it for that purpose and only that purpose?”
power?”
would you use that power only on Naraku?”
quickly,d jud just what do you want in return?”
natural for those with the same goals to band together to achieve that goal,
don’t you think?”
friend and ally, you’ll give me the power to weaken Naraku?”
said, nodding her head and forcing some more energy into Kouga’s body.
walking over and extending her right hand.
golden bracelet from her left wrist and held it for Kagura to take, “Here you
are, then. One bracelet made of gold
and Elemental Stones.”
Kagome began.
Kagura to have it. When I wear that
bracelet, it weakens my fire abilities, and it clouds my mind.
longer a field of specialty. Now it is
spiritual energy, much like Kagome’s.
Now I am a fire entity with the power to purify things.”
the clear stone, “you need this to...”
stand and face the woman, “It’s a risk I’m willin tak take, so you’d better
just take that damned bracelet!”
wrist, looking down at it as though it were poisonous, “Thank you.”
throat.
a silver collar with unreadable inscriptions was around her neck.
Kagome asked, pointing to the collar.
people who could read the inscriptions would know exactly who I am, what I did,
and what I was cursed with. A kind of
identification thing.” Kaji said,
laying Kouga’s head on a jacket Kagome had brought as she stood.
Kagura asked.
bath. I need to concentrate for a
little bit, so don’t be surprised if I’m not back in ten minutes.
just be asleep and looking like a prune.
If you would be so kind as to pull me out, I’d greatly appreciate it.”
loss of your bracelet?”
into a smile, “I should have known you’d know something about it.
Kaede-sama, I’d greatly appreciate it.
You too, Kagura-san, I’ll need you, also. We can talk about it whenever I get out of the bath.
was jumping around trying to escape the damned corpses.”
now, Kaji-san. You won’t have to worry
about tripping on them.”
soon. If I’m not, don’t hesitate to
come and get me.”
asked, standing.
smiled, sitting a little closer to Inu-Yasha than she had been before she’d
stood.
off to the small lake she’d seen earlier.
what she’d just done.
a week. I need a wind entity to take
the place of the Wind Stone. Without
air, the fire shall perish. I can’t
link myself to Kagura because she’ll need all of her wind abilities if she
wishes to weaken Naraku. I cannot link
myself to Kouga-kun because he is still weak,” Kaji thought, sighing as she
reached the lake, “what am I going to do?
I only have one week to live.
Kouga had better wake up or else I’ll be forced to go find someone I
vowed never to speak to again.”
that it would soon break, thus leaving her free of the curse.
occupied with keeping warm that she did not notice the golden eyes watching her
from behind a tree. Nor did she pick up
any scents that may have warned her of danger.
stalker to move with inhuman speed to the bank of the lake, taking her clothes
with him. Seeinmovemovement out of the
corner of her eye, Kaji turned abruptly.
wet her hair again when she noticed her missing clothes, “all right, I’m not
crazy. I’m being watched.
reviewed! I love you all!
know what’s going to happen!
looking forward to the next chapter.
it! Hope you love the rest of it just as much!
was not I that deleted any of the reviews I have gotten. My 15-year-old French
cousin got a hold of the piece of paper that has my usernames and passwords on
it, and he deleted some of my reviews before I managed to pry him off of my
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not directly my fault, but I’ve put a password on windows now, so he won’t be
getting back on anytime soon. ^^