Manipulated – Part Two:  The Black Phoenix

Disclaimer: *blows raspberry*

Corisu Li: Thanks to the (very few) reviewers! If you really like me, you’d spread the word! *puppy dog eyes* Heh. Just kidding. As long as Aamalie-chan’s reading... *waves* I’ll continue with the chappies. I guess. Yeesh.. I really don’t want this to go the way of ‘Protect Me’...

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Sango groaned as her eyes popped open. She was propped up against a tree, from the feeling of the bark against her back. Her mind hadn’t yet reached the waking world, so she was momentarily confused. Then, as her muddled thoughts began to align, she remembered that ... it... had come.

It had terrified her, paralyzed her. She had been positive that it was only a myth... She should have known better than to believe that. After all, she regularly traveled with a girl from 500 years in the future...

Inuyasha awoke lying face-down in the grass. "What the hell happened?" he growled, pushing himself to his feet. "Last thing I remember was fighting that..." he trailed off, looking around him. The sky was bright once more, and the trees were their original color. There was no sign of the being that had seemingly sucked the warmth and color out of the world. He turned to check on Kagome.

She still held the bow loosely in one hand, lying on her side and covered in his haori. "Kagome?"

Relief flooded through him in a warm wave when she stirred. Her eyes opened as she lifted her body into a sitting position, looking around in confusion. "What happened?"

"What happened?! We just got attacked by some youkai and you were almost too weak to fight it, that’s what happened!"

Kagome stood and shrugged his haori from her shoulders, showing no sign of aftermath from the thing’s visit. "Well, why couldn’t YOU fight it?"

Inuyasha blinked at her. "I..." He closed his mouth. Opened it. Closed. Then he glanced down at his hands... and they were still raw. "What the hell?" He held them up in front of his face, just in case his eyes were playing tricks on him. They weren’t.

"What happened to your hands?" Kagome asked, grabbing hold of his right wrist and pulling his arm down so that she could examine it.

Inuyasha twitched out of her grasp, a blush threatening to emerge. "Well, if you were a little stronger, you would have been in the real world enough to know!"

"I don’t know what you’re talking about, Inuyasha!"

"Fine. Whatever. Do you remember that thing that came out of the woods, the one that froze the air?"

Kagome nodded. "I remember that... but everything else is a blur."

"Well, it froze Tetsusaiga too. Gave me a pretty bad burn." He looked up at the sky, then back at his hands. "It looks like it’s been about an hour or two. They should be healed by now. What kind of youkai-"

"Not a youkai..." Sango approached them, her eyes darting all over the area as if searching for signs that the strange being remained.

"Well, it sure wasn’t a ningen! What the hell was it, then?"

There was no reply from the taijiya. Her eyes were fixed on a point that was relatively far away. She raised a hand and tugged the straps that held Hiraikotsu free, letting the weapon thud to the ground behind her. She then took off at a run.

"Why did she..." Kagome began, but she saw the reason right away. "Miroku-sama!" She, too, dashed toward him.

The monk lay sprawled on his back in the grass, his staff lying several feet to his right. Sango rushed to his side and dropped to her knees. "Houshi-sama? Houshi-sama, are you all right?"

At first, there was no reply. Sango had seen how close to the void he had been, and she was terrified of what it could mean. If her first hunch was correct... She admonished herself for not being able to throw aside her fears, but there was nothing to be done now. All she could do was hope that she was wrong about the identity of that thing... while knowing that she was exactly right.

After a while, Miroku’s eyelids began to flutter. When they opened, he stared for a moment at Sango’s face. Then, he said something that almost floored her.

"What are you ogling, fool wench?"

Sango leaned backward, eyes wide. ‘Houshi-sama doesn’t talk like this...’ "E-excuse me?" she managed, peering closely at his face. His eyes appeared cloudy, as if he were only half-conscious.

As she watched, Miroku clamped his eyes tightly shut. When he reopened them, they had returned to their normal hue, and the hardened look vanished from his face. "Sango-sama?" He propped himself up on his elbows and offered her a grin. A lecherous grin.

Before he had even fully sat up, he was flattened again, this time, with a huge lump on his head.

‘I guess he’s fine...’ Sango sighed. ‘That outburst, though... It scared me. It must have been an effect of the shock.’

Inuyasha landed beside the kneeling young woman, having bounded across the clearing effortlessly. Kagome trotted up behind him, muttering. "You couldn’t have just carried me, oh, no... I had to run..." Upon seeing Miroku’s state, she laughed. "I take it he’s okay?"

Sango resisted the urge to tell them of Miroku’s odd statement. He seemed to be himself now... "Hai, Kagome-chan. He’s okay."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Hey, Kaede? What’cha doin’?"

The kit was perched on a fencepost, peering down at the old miko.

"I am gathering herbs for medicines, Shippou." Kaede sighed and continued her work.

"Oh." There was silence for a few seconds. "What are you doing now?" Shippou was balanced on the tips of his tiny toes as if he was going to spring from the fence.

The miko sighed again. "I am straightening the leaves of the plant."

"Oh." Then- "Why?"

"Because if they are folded, they will dry up much faster."

"Okay." For a moment, it seemed as if there would be peace in the garden.... "How about now? What are you doing now?"

"Shippou..." Kaede began, her eye narrowing slightly. "Do ye have no where else to go?"

"Well, since everyone else left me here, I don’t think so!" He pouted for a second. "So... what’cha doin’?"

Kaede dropped the plant that she was holding. "Shippou, perhaps ye would have more fun if ye went to play with Kirara?"

Shippou brightened. "Oh, yeah!" He did spring from the fence, on his way to find the neko youkai, who had also been left behind. ‘The others should be back soon!’ he thought happily, sniffing the air carefully. When he caught Kirara’s scent, he fled in her direction, grinning.

The neko was lying in the midst of a flower-filled field, seemingly stalking a bug... that ran off when Shippou dashed up and lay down beside the small youkai.

"Hi Kirara... what’cha doin’?"

The neko glared.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Later that night, the group had returned to Kaede’s hut, a bit dirty from lying on the ground for a couple of hours, but otherwise fine. Inuyasha’s palms had healed, leaving only a light pinkish tint. Kagome had been pestering Sango to tell of her suspicions on the return trip, but the taijiya had stoutly refused, making the excuse that she wanted to run the story by Kaede, so that the old miko could fill in the blank spots. Kagome wasn’t convinced, but she let it go.

"So, have ye located any more shards?" Kaede queried, sipping at her tea.

Kagome shook her head. "Iie. We haven’t even gotten so much as a rumor of where another one may be. I didn’t even sense anything..."

"Do you think we may have found all of the loose shards, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked. He took the time to glance in Sango’s direction, and he watched as she bowed her head, obviously embarrassed. ‘So... she was watching me..."

Kagome responded negatively, and the others (minus Inuyasha, who was glaring at Shippou. The kit was absentmindedly toying with a few long, silver strands of hair...) echoed her response.

Kaede looked around at the group. "If ye have found no shards, why do ye look so harried? Have ye fought a battle with a normal youkai, then?"

Miroku and Inuyasha paired up to tell the story of the strange being that they had fought, since the girls were pretty much out of action.

"What sort of a youkai could do this sort of thing to ye?" Kaede asked, after they had finished.

Inuyasha spoke up. "It was some kind of cold youkai, but I don’t know what it was. Sango seems to know, though."

Sango shot him a harassed look as Kagome said, "Oh, yeah! Sango, you said that you were waiting until we reached Kaede’s to tell us about that thing! Well?"

Sango took a deep breath. "The story was told to me by my... my father. It was a story that was meant to scare children into behaving. I was five when I heard it."

Kagome brightened. "Oh, you mean like a boogeyman story?"

Blank looks pervaded the room. Kagome laughed weakly. "Nevermind."

The taijiya absentmindedly stroked Kirara’s fur as she gathered her thoughts to continue. The small youkai looked up from her lap and let out a rumbling purr, trying to offer some degree of comfort. It was a wasted effort.

"The story began with a murderer. He killed many in his lifetime, without remorse. He may have been human, but his heart seemed to be that of the most vicious youkai. Men, women, children... none were safe from his cruelty. It is said that his soul eventually became so corrupt that death was beyond him. He became a sort of youkai, one that is continually regenerated."

"How did we kill it, then?" Kagome asked, leaning forward slightly.

"If my guess is correct, we caught it at the end of one of its lifespans. When it dies, it is said to be immediately regenerated, returning to the body of a human, then repeating the entire process."

Miroku nodded, having absorbed all of this information. "So, you say that this thing cannot be killed. Upon ending one of its ‘lifespans’, its life simply restarts?"

Sango wrung her hands slightly. "Not exactly. It is purely myth, but... its soul is supposed to implant itself in another human..."

"Why did you cover your ears, Sango?" Inuyasha asked suddenly. He had seen the strange action out of the corner of his eye, and had wondered about it since.

"Ne?" Sango blinked for a few seconds, then uttered a wry laugh. "It’s silly, but the thing’s soul is said to enter one’s body through the ears."

"Ridiculous," Miroku muttered.

"What?" Kagome frowned at him.

The monk blinked. "Nothing..."

Kagome gave him a strange look, then shrugged and turned back to Sango. "Why did you say that this thing wasn’t a youkai? It sure sounds like one to me."

"He has no will. Any basic creature has a will. This thing is empty. For a while, it is said to feed from the will of its ‘host’, but soon, it becomes a hollow shell that spreads only discord and pain."

Silence hung on the air for a few moments. Then, Kaede spoke. "Thy story rings true, Sango-san. I have heard of such a creature. I doubt that this is a myth."

Sango drew in a sharp breath. "So..."

"Yes. Such a thing is loose on the world."

Kagome stared, wide-eyed, at the pair. "That’s awful!"

"It had apparently become too weak to kill any longer, and was drawing its sustenance from the vibrance of other things."

"You know more of this beast?" Miroku asked, glancing at Kaede. "Something that we don’t know?"

"Hai. I know that is called the black phoenix... and that there is only one way to destroy it."

"How is that, Kaede-baa-chan?" Kagome asked.

"Ah, I know not. I perused the manuscripts years ago, and I have forgotten all that I read. They are here somewhere, though... I will search for them."

"Why did it take my hands so long to heal?" Inuyasha mused, mostly to himself than to anyone else.

Sango chose to respond. "Because the coldness that we felt was not just cold. It was death. It didn’t injure the flesh of your hands... it killed it."

More silence ensued.

Then, Inuyasha abruptly stood. "There’s no need to look for the stuff, baba. We’re not going to search for some evil spirit that kills ningens!"

"And why not, Inuyasha?" said Kagome, turning to face him.

"Well, this thing’s been doing this for centuries, probably! What makes it our business now?"

"We set its spirit free," Sango remarked quietly.

"So?"

"It is our duty to make sure that it is put to rest," Miroku responded. "Kaede-baa-chan, would you look for the manuscript?"

The woman nodded. "It is here somewhere..." she repeated, glancing around as if planning to see it lying in a corner.

Inuyasha was staring around at the group in disbelief. "You... you’re all gonna... but... Don’t we have enough to deal with?!?!"

Kagome sighed. "Inuyasha, it’s the right thing to do."

"Since when have I ever done the right thing?"

"Since now." Kagome started toward the door to the hut, grinning.

"Oi! Where are you going?"

"I’m going home..." Kagome answered. "I’ve got to get some other clothes. I can’t afford to freeze again, thank you very much!"

"I will walk you there, Kagome-sama," Miroku offered, standing.

Sango stood as well, and yanked Miroku’s ear. "Oh, no you don’t. I can just imagine what you’d be up to."

"Sango-sama, I am entirely innocent! How could you suspect such a thing of me?" Miroku gave her a pitiful look, and she sighed.

"Fine. But if Inuyasha hears her scream or anything-"

She stopped. She blinked at the empty spot where Miroku had been just seconds before. The reed door was swaying gently. Sango sighed, then turned to Kaede. "I’ll help you search for the information, I guess."

It was at this moment that Shippou decided to see whether Inuyasha’s ears were edible, detatchable, or both.

He was then quickly assured that it was neither.

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