• 1-Chapter 1
• 2-Chapter 2
• 3-Chapter 3
• 4-Chapter 4
• 5-Chapter 5
• 6-Chapter 6
• 7-Chapter 7
• 8-chapter 9
• 9-Old Friends and EneC4
• 10-Chapter 11
• 11-Chapter 12

If Disclaimer: Inuyasha is the sole property of its creator.

Authors Note: Hey, everyone the preverbal
bad penny is back again.

Umm, yeah Shippo—I realized I made a mistake in one of my earlier chapters I
will go back and fix it later. In my story although he would be about 12 human
years old, Shippo appears much younger, but I believe
that youkai children would ages at a slower rate than
human children because by the fact that they live so long., so they age 1 year
for every 3, 4 or even 5 human years. So he has changed very little, just a
little heavier and taller…about the size of a three or four year old.

Thanks

Cerulean Rose

Chapter 11

…the mountains of daggers

Knives. The mountains look like blood stained
knives. After Aniketo had left the abandoned village of Edo, she followed the directions that Naraku had given her and walked west towards the sinister
mountains that rose above the horizon and to an observer the ragged iron
tarnished edges of the mountains left the impression of enormous knives
stabbing at the sky.

Broken. The life blood has been sucked out, I
wander who did this? Aniketo, with her normal quiet reserve, noted as she walked, that
progressively the land around her became more and more desolate and that
ve
very air she breathed in seemed to sheik that something evil had this way come.

In fact, as the mountains in the
distant grow closer to her she realized that they seemed gripped with an
increasingly desperate air and they in all their dark and moody glory seemed to
try to claw at the evening sky in a vain effort to stop the sun from setting on
their rapidly darken slopes.

The land and mountains around her were
enclosed by clouds of miasmas that cut off the trees and animals from the life
giving rays of the sun, leaving not only the broken trucks of the trees but the
dead carcasses of humans, youkai and animals
scattered as a marking of its deadly passing, but the unpleasant musky odor of
mildew of a land that was saturated and hidden from the sun to long.

The clammy and sinister miasma, moving
in swirls, obscured the area with a threatening air of intimidating hostility
as the miasma glowed with a dark dazzlingly light, an unearthly luminosity that
was simply put spellbindingly evil to those that beheld it, an malevolence
light that attempted to take Aniketo's breathe and
chock her as she walked through it.

With each step she took, Aniketo was surrounded by emptiness, a place where only the
dead should walk and there was signs of the creatures
that had once lived there. Indeed, the very air seemed to pause with an
appearance of waiting and an unheard wail hovered, enthralling those who tried
to walk it dark pathways.

This mist. It covers the entire area and it's
deadly, a poison laces through it. It's…this mist—it
creates an air of unease in its victims. She shivered.

To this miasmas, even Aniketo was not immune, the air closed around her
generating a grave pallid as she threading through the trees and she watch with
slight apprehension as the miasma attempted to suck out the last of their life
blood from the trees.

Nothing…every animal gone, no humans,
and no youkai. Everything that
could escape this….did. And as Aniketo walked the long path to
the west, she hopefully, although she would never call it that, looked for some
sign of the normal animals the roam the forest, but there were none.

Nothing.

No calling of birds, no scrapping of
claws, and no scampering of small animals through the bushes. All around her
was a soundless bleakness and here death reined supreme, with an unrelenting
air of malice pleasure.

Aniketo had passed many burned out and sacked
villages, villages that rung in her senses with an unbelievable amount of hate,
terror and fear that settle in the air around them causing her to experience
their emotions, I wander what could have killed this forest anything that
could destroy an area of this size took a dedicated and destructive mind.

So very much unnatural death, I wander
what happened here? Emptiness
was a concept that Aniketo understood, but she
understood that this was an emptiness that screamed something very bad had
happened here.  It was enough to even make her fill fear and little did
that.

I don't lik--No,
emotions are a weakness…there is nothing to fear here. They are simple ghosts. Aniketo shivered, before forcing emptiness to
fill her face, forcing emptiness into her soul. She thought only of her blind
obeisance to another, a blinding abstention of thought that marked how she
would do anything for this one.

Since her creation it had always been
thus, Aniketo seemed to have an on and off switch,
she either felt an uncontrollable violent flood of emotions or was blank as a
freshly washed green slate chalk board waiting to be written on.

I don't like this place… she thought deep within her mind.

Although she didn't know it, this war
of emotions was caused by the mixing of opposites forces within her blood—the
twisted melting together of miko blood with the black
blood of Naraku, the blood fought an unyielding
battle within her for control of her mind and destiny.

Her miko
blood fought a continuous battle to purify the black blood she had inherited
from Naraku while his blood continually attempted to
defile and corrupt the miko blood she had inherited
from Kagome, it was a cycle that left her in constant
state of anxiety.

While the miko
blood cringed at the destruction around her the blood of Naraku
found the destruction beautiful and he basked in the thought that all this
destruction was a result of his powers.

Aniketo continued to walk towards the
mountains.

Foolish girl. Does she not realize that she is mine,
mine to do with as I wish? Does she not recognize my masterpiece,
I have shaped the very world around her. Naraku sighed in annoyance as he coldly
analyzed the thoughts racing though his golem's mind, Why doesn't Aniketo understand that all she is and can every be is my
blank slate, a blank slate that I have created deliberately so that I can write
my plans on her with out interference from her emotions or desires.

He smile with smug malice, and I
will but he also knew a simple fact, as with all blank slates if it was
left unattended anyone or anything could write on them, and thus altering his
plans for her and this he would not allow. He hissed and growled, Something is attempting to write on my blank
slate. No, the girl is mine I chose if she lives or dies, I gave her
life and substance. She is mine.

Mine. Yes, the girl is mine and no
amount of bitching about wanting or having feelings, he thought, would change that. The
girls' mine, my creation, my golem, to do with as I see fit and as long as she is
useful she lives but after that…

He hadn't put up with that bitch Kagura trying to betray him at every turn and he would not
put up with this little bitch either, with the remembered pleasure of Kagura's screams echoing though his mind he smiled as he remembered
each and every punishment he had meld out to that betraying bitch.

Such wonderfully delicious screams,
music to my ears. he
thought as he went back to the days he had the jewel within his hand, Naraku's face hardened he would have it again and nothing
would stop him. He would not allow the idiotic ramblings of this detachment to
destroy his plans either—he would be free and that bitch Kagome would pay with
everything she held dear.

Yes, the miko
will pay. She would
pay just as he had planned, no matter what, If
I have to sacrifice the world that miko bitch will
pay. But as with any great general Naraku
understood that plans sometimes had to be change…but even then he was very good
at having counter plans ready when needed.

How strange they are. She had taken to watching the souls
within her bottle—and was…confused. Aniketo had
enjoyed the taste of their sweet, gentle memories and entered a world she
didn't really understand.

Many of the memories were of laughter,
ha lov loving memories even…young children secure in the love of their parents.
They laughing with abandon in the presence of their parents as they would sit
around a smoky fire in the evening after the work of the day had been finished.

Another memory that she enjoyed Hmm, enjoyed? was that of an elderly woman,
who had remembered growing old together with her husband, they beloved children
surrounding them as they aged and new grandchildren were born during their
declining years…their joy with being together as the end of their lives drew near.

Happiness, love, laughter.... What did
these really mean to any of her souls?  To her? My
father would say that these emotions are weaknesses that lead to dependence on
others for survival, they are better left undiscovered and unexplored, feeling
and emotions that I would be better off ifeft eft abandoned in the empty
villages behind us.

But still I wonder what it would be
like to have these emotions? To be allowed to feel what you want. What did these emotionslly lly mean?
How or why did her souls possess these? And why didn't she?  She knew she
wanted and…needed yes, needed these emotions, most specially love. I have
wonder, why are these emotion denied to me? Everyone leaves, mother abandons
us…abandons me, what is wrong with me?

I hurt them, terrified them. She
feared me so. Hana's
face flashed before her eyes, the terror and fear as her soul had left her, the
terror and fear had not been for herself but for the
man, and he his desire had been to save her. They had desire a life togr. Aniketo
was used to pain and punishment when she failed him, failure was not
acceptable—ever.

He loves me, he does…he teaches me so
that I will be strong, able to protect myself. She thought, Hislessons
were not taught for the sake of malice pain or punishment these were only the
lessons taught to her to make her a better daughter.

Disturbed Aniketo
turned away from them, as she chanted. They were. Father loves me. 
Father only wants me to be strong. Father does care for me…he does! He must I wiI will be alone.

She hugged herself.

Aniketo had come to understand that these
lessons were…gifts as father would say, his lessons in
the life of a youkai.  Harsh lessons, yes, but
necessary lessons, life as a youkai was not easy he
had to teach her so that she would survive in a world without him to there to
protect her.

Aniketo again looked into her pretty bottle
and feeling, they were wonderful, such wonderful feelings washed over her and
through her.

Father says that strength is
everything and emotions are nothing. But the so very pretty, bright souls in my
bottle…such wonderful feelings they hold. So ful ful of each
other, such wonderfully needful things. I'll wonder… Could I ever feel
such wonderful things for someone else?

Aniketo held the brilliantly shimmering
bottle up to her eyes for closer look. So very bright.
So shiny, so full life, even in the grip of death. My
souls even in death have everything I've ever wanted in this short life of
mine.

Brightness. Why do others feel so much and see
such colors, why? Her world never changed—cold and gray, bare. Filled with
death… And unending loneliness. Much like the landscape
around her—dead …that was the world she understood and had been born into.

Aniketo sighed in disappointment as she sadly
hide from herself, yes, fear, pain, abandonment and terror those where the
coins of her world, the only coinage she knew how to use—the only nourishment
she had received from her parents.  These ingredients were what that had
been used to make the feast upon which she dined daily.  I am alone.

But not for long.

But secretly deep within herself, Aniketo found herself wanting more…she wanted these
emotions she felt from her souls.

Happiness, joy and love.

But that she knew that it most likely
would never come to be.

She continued to walk west towards the
mountains.

Naraku almost rolled his eyes and sneered as
he read his daugh…detachment's thoughts. Fool. Ahhhh... That miko bitch, Kagome,
has always interfered in what is not her affair. If not with her simple
presence in the world then with her cursed blood. Growlllllllllllllll. I can't
wait to kill this little fool. Her very presence in this world pains me, that I
have been reduced to depending on this, this worthless...Creature.

Naraku
asked her, his mind on his plans to hurt the miko
Kagome.

'It's just a village father, the souls
are gone, such a shame they are wasted, and the only things that remain are
many weak remnants of them…pale ghosts of remembered pain and horror.' Aniketo
replied as she carefully scanned the village with her sight.

She looked inhe ohe other world, the
world that rested just below ours and saw white and gray colored wisps that
hung and thrashed around in a macabre dance of pain and suffering.

Screams of pain filled her ears, their
hate colored her mind, terror slowly began to cloud her vision and her mind
began to seal with the spirits as they began to coil and worm they way into her
to take control, when...

'Aniketo! AWAKEN! Aniketo,
awaken, NOW! Aniketo!' Harshly and painfully Naraku's voice
grated and thundered through her mind, leaving behind it pins of stabbing pain
as punishment for falling into such an easily avoidable trap, as he brought her
back for the grasping hands of the ghoulish phantoms.

Aniketo moaned in pain, ' Sorry, sorry,
sorry...'

She repeated the phrase again and
again in hopes of her father releasing his painfully, punishing grip on her
mind. 'Sorry, sorry, sorry, Father it won't happen again, I promise, I
promise, I can control, I can...I CAN!'

'Foolish girl, have you learned
nothing from me?! Stupid, idiotic…why do I bother with you? You must control
yourself at all times.' Naraku hissed into her mind, increasing
the pain as he drove his lesson home, he ripped out her budding emotions again
just for good measure, before releasing his grip on her and allowing her fall
to the ground in relief. 'To lose yourself to mere
remnants…Memories only. Haou lou learned nothing that I
have taught you?'

Aniketo laid curled up into a fetal position
there on the cold, hard ground, afraid to move until he gave his permission, 'I'mmm… sor..sorry,
father they surprised me. I'm sorry!'

'Excuses are not acceptable. Do not
fail me again, Aniketo or I may decide you are
worthless. Get up. Now.' He hissed. Naraku
waited until she shakily rose to her feet, then he ordered as he gazed out of
her eyes, 'Focus again on the village and gather the ghosts. See if this
time you can keep your mind.'

'Yes, father,' Trembling with fear and pain, Aniketo focused carefully on the phantoms below, she had
heard the threat carried in her father's last few words and she knew what
failing again would mean.

She carefully gathered the struggling
phantoms, 'I have them.'

'Now, open your mind to me,' He seized her mind with ruthless
control.

'Yes, father,' she opened her mind to him and felt
him take col aol as he wrestled with the phantoms, forcing them to his will.

'Now send them out'

Finished with the phantoms, once more
she began to walk towards the massive mountains in the distance.