Darkness

Day Fourteen, Part Three

         "Onee-chan!" Sukina shouted, worried for my safety.
         "I'm here imouto," I stepped out of the bushes where I had hidden myself with Botan. She ran to me and hugged me close. My sister had apparently had not gotten over the fear of losing me yet.
         "The creature's gone, sensei," Peter said suddenly. Here in Europe, he was the most sensitive to changes.
         Hiei, Kurama and me all looked at him in bewilderment. There were three senseis here. "It, or should I say she is no longer here. I can't feel the chi anymore," he explained.
         We can find her for you if you wish, Mistress. She seeks refuge not far from here and we would only need the scent of her from that basket, my Shikigamis said in an amazingly choral voice. It was very rare for that to happen, all of them in agreement. It was far easier for George Bush to back down on Iraq than for them to agree to something.
         "My Shikigamis can find her. Should we or do we let it pass and let Dumbledore handle it?" I asked.
         With the exception of Botan, the rest of them looked at me as though I was insane, even my sister. I sighed. There goes hope for an early night. "We hunt then," I said, stating a statement and not a fact.

         We spread out in a circle, each of us pairing off with Botan in the centre with the basket. According to her, the herbs in the basket were used mostly for to make energy drinks. "According to the textbook, I think they were called sourwine leaves and bittersweet berries," she said. Kurama concurred, although I think he doubted the names BOtan gave them. Nevertheless, he had other things on his mind.
         Sukina followed me silently as we left the clearing, following the trail prescribed by our Shikigamis. Only those trained to detect them could, but I was worried. The killing of the Shikigami Trainers family that was the original catalyst for bringing me back here was never far from my mind. I was not entirely truthful when I told Nat how they had been killed. A Soul Crystal would have to be nearby, but it would not have to be used. The basic function of a Soul Crystal (SC) was to put Souls and Spirits to sleep. A little chant and a lot of time would enable you to ask the SC to change a person's soul into a spirit. A long ceremony later and you would be able to change the spirit to a Shikigami. No Banshee would have been able to keep such a sleep for so long, and the Soul Crystal would not have been able to keep souls who had just left their bodies asleep.
         "AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" Botan screamed.
         My sister and I loked at each other before we rushed back. We were quite afraid, as we had no idea what had happened. The scream had hardly happened a few miliseconds ago, but it felt like hours to us. We ran and heard the other converging on Botan's position.
         All of us reached her at nearly the same time. There was a man dressed all in balck standing in front of her, holding his wand threatheningly at her. "Who are you?" he asked. Botan was staring at us as though we were her salvation. That prompted Peter and Clapika to immediately spring into action. Clapika attacked him, forcing the man to face him while Peter whisked Botan away. As he prepared to attack, I shouted, "YAMATEH!" That means stop in Japanese.
         Everyone looked at me. My sister left my side to hurry over to Botan. She checked the girl for injuries. "Let's not start attacking people simply. What's going on?" I asked them. Everyone looked at me as though I was insane. I sighed.
         "May I ask who are you, Sir?" I said politely to the man standing in front of us.
         "Who are you?" he asked us instead, his manner haughty. "You're trespassing on Hogwarts," he continued.
         "We're the students and teachers from the Far East" I said. Most wizards and witches understood what that meant.
         "The ones from Japan?" he asked us, but his question was cut off by shouts from above us.
         It was an ambush.