Darkness

Day Thirteen

         We got into the train without incident. Hagrid had gone to the front, while the boys took out a small sack. The sack contained the owner of the pet shop, whom we'd abducted just a few minutes ago. The guys had had to hit him a few times to keep him quiet during the journey from Diagon Alley to the train station, but there was no major incidents. I didn't even had to ask Kirua to 'invite' the poor guy along. Peter, Yokoshima and Shuura were way ahead of me. With any luck, the little guy would be on his way back as soon as he answered our questions. Hopefully it would not take long. I didn't want the poor guy to have to walk to Hogwarts, although I doubted it was that far.
         Gon, Kirua and Yokoshima were sent out to find the Candy Lady. Only Botan and Peter had purchased pets. The two of them were both happily cooing in the next carriage over their new cat and owl respectively. I say 'cooing' because that was exactly what they were doing. Sukina had gone to the washroom, to change into the new sorceress' robe we had remembered to buy at the last minute. Hiei was, as usual, sitting top of the carriage. Kurama, Shuura and me were sitting in the carriage, Kurama patiently explaining something to Shuura who was reading the textbook on Japanese Demons. His look of confusion was clearly written on his face. The sack laid unmoving at our feet.
         I moved the sack so that the flap would open and I could see the guy inside. His head peeked out and his breathing seemed stable enough, so I left him like that and took out a small book. It was the small book of Death I always carried around. I looked in it to see whether I could identify the man in the sack. I couldn't. He did not appear in the book, which meant either he had been pressed into Celeste's (Goddess of Death, Daughter of Hades and Perspehone) service upon death, or that he was a serving member of one of the other Gods/Goddesses. That would be a nice pickle indeed, if I managed to offend one of them by picking up this guy.
         "So, how does this look, Nee-chan?" Sukina called out before she came in.
         The man's eyes snapped open at the sound of her voice and jumped up as the door opened. Sukina's look of surprise was clear. She just stood there and I cursed. I threw the book and managed to pull the guy before he could touch my sister. He fell to the floor and my sister backed away down the corridor before he could get up. Kurama and Shuura though, ewre sitting squarely on the man, who growled and snapped at them as though he was a dog.
         "What the hell happened?" everyone except my sister came rushing into the carriage. Hiei, of course, popped in from the top.
         "Thou will not succeed in thy quest, Princess of the Heart. We will seek thee and destroy thee!" he said. I did not realize that he spoke in an ancient language.
         "Return to thy master (Okay, I'm taking a cue from the Eddingses, FORGIVE ME!) , dog, and tell him that the day will come when the Element Princesses and the Hope Queen will strike him down. Perhaps if he starts running now, his Mistress might not catch him," I said.
         The cretin gasped. His breath was ragged and he did not seem to be able to live much longer. "The Dark Lord will have your soul!" he said, before he shimmered into nothingess and disappeared. Botan was immediately upon the spot where he had laid, touching her hand to it.
         "He's not truly dead yet, minna-san," she told us, "His soul is still in stasis. Someone's using him," she continued.
         "A member of the Undead?" Peter asked.
         "Exactly. What did he say to you, Naoko-san?" Gon asked me.
         I raised an eyebrow at him. As far as I knew, they had heard us talking in language as plain as English. Kurama shook his head. "You were talking in another language, Naoko-san. None of us understood it," he said politely, but it was clear from his words that he did not like it.
         "He said that he would pay us back for kidnapping him and that we would hear from the Council soon," I sighed. It was a blatant lie but the way I said it made it sound like the truth. They all nodded. Each of us had received threats like that before, enough to make us weary of them. Only Sukina understood the whole exchange. She would have; the moment the guy begant to speak I had linked my mind to hers. Her presence felt familiar, warm and loving.