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War Of Shadows	By : TurtleNinja Category: +S through Z > Samurai Jack Views: 3353 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Samurai Jack, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 33
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Several miles later, Chimitsu began her descent just on the outskirts of the jungle. As soon as she had set me down on the ground, I took a step ahead, looking into the trees. There was clearly something wrong here, too. I could feel it. Was there a place on this planet where evil did not in the shadows?

Behind me, Chimitsu folded her wings against her back, her nodachi resting between them. I felt her hand slip into mine and dared to glance at her before leading the way inside. The weather was still hot, but now, upon entering the jungle, it was not only hot, but humid as well.

Sweat soon rolled down my face and back, Chimitsu occasionally fluttering her wings to fan us both. She had not begun to sweat, but still appeared to be mildly uncomfortable. I glanced back at her as I heard her sigh, and did a double take.

My face grew hot at the sight of her, having somehow changed from her usual dress to a pair of shorts and a belly-baring halter top. If there had ever been a doubt in my mind that she was an attractive woman, it was gone in that instant. I looked away quickly, using all my concentration to keep myself from blushing furiously.

We had not walked far when I had to stop and slide my arms out of the top of my kimono, letting the sleeves hang down behind me. I felt cooler, but not by much. I had not remembered the jungle to be so stiffling the last time I had visited. Of course, that time had also been at night, too.

"Will you be all right, Minamoto-chan?" Chimitsu asked.

"I will be fine. It is just so heavy in the air...I do not remember the air feeling so weighted."

"Agreed. There's something here."

"And it just gets worse the deeper into the heart of the jungle we go."

I swatted at a few mosquitos swarming around my face. They were everywhere and on everything, making it difficult to go very far without having to swat them away. Chimitsu waved a few away as I slapped at one feasting on the back of my hand, appearing to be deep in thought.

"One of the Dark Elementals...I can feel them...somewhere up ahead."

"Which one?" I questioned, daring another glance at her.

The heat had taken its toll on me and I no longer cared how she looked any more than my own appearance. Our clothes were drenched and my sweat-soaked hair hung in my face limply. All efforts to shake it out of the way had failed and I soon gave up in favor of trying to breathe in this heavy, humid air.

"I'm not certain yet," she stated and her hand squeezed mine gently as she studied me, a look of concern on her face. "I'm more worried about you collapsing from all this heat. It's not good for a mortal."

I forced a smile despite the stiffling heat, trying to reassure her. It was not easy considering the heat and humidity and we were both very uncomfortable. The sooner we found the next Dark Elemental, the sooner we would be able to cool ourselves off.

"I have faced worse. I will be fine," I told her, glancing back towards the path with a deep sigh. "There is more at stake here than just me."

She nodded and we kept walking, the heat growing more and more unbearable as we continued. It was heavy, pressing down on my body and lungs, making it almost difficult to walk. My vision blurred and I had a hard time seeing where I was going, remembering which was the right path to take.

If I continued...I...I could not remember why I was continuing. I could feel the heavy air snaking its way into my mind, fogging my thoughts and memories until I stopped walking. What was I doing?

Ahead of me in the mists, I could begin to make out a pair of figures, human figures. I squinted, trying to make out the faces. I felt so feverish, but if there were other humans here, perhaps it was not so bad just ahead.

I rubbed at my eyes, finally able to see who it was I saw ahead of me.

"Otousan! Okaasan!"

That was impossible! They had perished centuries ago in our native Japan at the hands of Aku. They could not possibly be standing here in this jungle before me. But...I could see them...

My vision blurred again, this time with tears. I wanted this quest to be over with, to go back home to them, live my life as it should have been instead of this endless hell. I reached out to them, wanting to feel my mother's arms around me again. To feel her comforting embrace...telling me that this was all just a terrible, terrible nightmare...

*Splash!*

I coughed and sputtered, wiping at my face again, looking up to see Chimitsu standing there with a bucket of ice cold water.

"Chimitsu-chan! What was that for?!" I cried.

She frowned, obviously displeased with me for something. We were both overheating, but I could not understand why she would suddenly conjure a bucket of water and drench me with it. I watched her teleport it away, vaguely wondering why she had not done that sooner.

"If I hadn't, you would have succumbed to the spell that has been cast on this place."

I stared at her, then looked around, suddenly more acquainted with my surroundings. I was sitting down. When had I done that?

"Spell?"

"Yes. I seem to be untouched by it, but you were very close to giving into its empty promises."

I slumped for a moment as I realized that I was very much alone here with Chimitsu. It had been nothing more than a fever dream. Her fingers brushed the side of my face, over the cool water that was still dripped from my hair.

"Please. We must hurry. We're close to the heart of it now."

Damn this stiffling heat. I could not concentrate in such heavy, suffocating air. My eyes closed, struggling to find the line between reality and fantasy.

"Minamoto-chan..."

I felt Chimitsu's hand on my shoulder and looked up, seeing a gentle worry in the twin pools of emerald.

"We must go." she whispered.

I nodded and stood, looking towards the clearing that lay just ahead. I knew this place. Somehow, I just knew I had been here before. I began to walk towards it, only to have Chimitsu stop me.

"Wait just one moment."

I turned back to her, confused now. First she says that we must go, now she stops me. What was she thinking? What was I thinking? This heat..

"But, you just..."

"I know. We do have to continue, but first, I want you to take something."

I stared at her confused, not expecting that. What could she possibly want me to take now that we were so far into the jungle? My mind felt so cloudy...

"Take something? Take what?"

"Medicine."

"But...I am not ill."

"No, but you will be if you proceed any further."

"What?"

I looked around, seeing nothing or nobody that could cause me any illness. We were completely alone and Chimitsu would not have done anything to hurt me. How did she know if I was going to get sick or not?

"Why?" I asked, still confused.

"Can't you smell it?"

"Smell what?"

"Disease, sickness..."

I stared at her. No, I could not smell it. All I could smell was the stiffling heat and humidity that hung in the air.

"I can't cure diseases," she reminded me. "Only heal injury. Take this."

She took a small paper packet from seemingly nowhere, offering it to me. I reluctantly swallowed the entire bitter dose, making a face at the potency of it. Chimitsu chuckled and allowed me to drink a good dose of water on top of it, chasing away most of the taste.

"What is that stuff, Chimitsu?" I asked, trying not to cough.

"Something Extor gave me before you arrived. I'd had a feeling we'd be leaving soon, so I asked for some medication in case we ran into Ekirei again."

"By the gods...it tasted like it was going to burn my tongue away!"

She laughed and kissed the tip of my nose.

"I promise I'll treat you to a delicious meal when we get through with all our business, all right?"

I flushed slightly, feeling a bit uncomfortable with her lavishing such affection on me. Still, the thought of a delicious, homecooked meal awaiting me when we got home was more than a little comforting. Despite my discomfort, I actually looked forward to it.

"All right. Now...where to?"

"Just ahead."

Chimitsu straightened slightly, her eyes darkening in a look that I might have thought to be hatred if I knew she was capable of it.

"I can feel her waiting."

"Her? Her who?" I asked, even though I had a feeling I already knew.

"Ekirei," she whispered. "That blue orb that placed you in a coma was to kill you with sickness."

My eyes narrowed at the mention of the Pestilence Elemental's name.

"Then I shall just have to pay her in kind when we meet up with her."

Chimitsu turned and glared at me. The look was not threatening, but she obviously did not approve of my tone. I knew it well, having been on the receiving end of such a look before many times in my training.

"Don't get so cocky, Minamoto-chan," she warned. "You're not at full power yet."

She turned away from me. I could see the tension in her muscles as we approached this new danger area. It seemed that she was more apprehensive about our approach than I was, for reasons I could not fathom yet.

There was clearly more to Ekirei than she was telling me and I was not entirely certain I liked it.

"The only good news is, you're now immune to that blue orb," she informed me. "She can't use it on you again. It's a one-time thing, meant to kill on the first shot. She wasn't expecting you to survive it."

"I did not train for twenty years, only to fall to illness before I completed my quest."

A long, slow, deep sigh answered me.

"I know. Just...be careful, all right? We've had too many close calls for comfort."

I sighed and nodded, turning back towards that clearing. The air was feeling a bit lighter now and cooler, but now I could smell what Chimitsu had been talking about. The smell of disease filled the air, turning my stomach from the rancid scent.

"Ah!"

The sudden cry of surprise from my partner guided my hand before I even realized what I was doing. I whirled around, katana drawn, aiming towards Chimitsu's direction. I had been expecting an assailant, even Ekirei herself, anything but what I saw lying in Chimitsu's arms. Slowly, I sheathed my katana, eyeing the little silver ape.

The tribe...of course!

Chimitsu was smoothing the little creature's fur out of its eyes, fur that was soaked with the sweat of a fever. I slowly made my way over, looking at it from Chimitsu's side. Not once had the little creature stirred.

"By the gods...the tribe." I said quietly.

"You know these little guys?"

"Yes. Incredible jumpers. They taught me the secrets of their incredible skill and I taught them a few tricks of my own in turn. What is wrong with him?"

"I'm not sure. He's very ill...comatose even. I don't know what she's inflicted here."

I swore softly in Japanese under my breath. First the children that had seen me as their hero, brutally murdered at the hands of Mad Jack, and now the gentle tribe of silver apes. They were going after my friends, people who had helped me or had any kind of hope in me.

"Put him down!"

A roar came from the shadows of a nearby tree, driving Chimitsu to curl into a ball with her wings around herself and the little ape. I reached for my katana, recognizing the voice. If only he would show himself...

"Wait!" I cried.

Faster than I could follow, a stocky, muscular figure launched itself at Chimitsu, knocking her out of the defensive ball in a shower of white feathers. The little ape was knocked out of her hands and I dove, catching him before he struck the ground. I could hear Chimitsu struggling a few feet away, one wing crumpled at an odd angle.

"Witch! Make tribe sick! Make tribe die!"

I gently set the little ape down in the grass and hurried over, pulling the wild man from Chimitsu. He was angry, his face streaked with tears and the beginnings of the fever that had struck the tribe. His eyes looked at me questioningly for a moment before he caught me in a tight hug, squeezing the air from my lungs.

"Friend come help tribe!" he cried.

"Er...yes...I..."

He let me go, still glaring at Chimitsu as she pulled herself up, rubbing at her jaw.

"I suppose we have." I finished.

"We want her leave. She make tribe sick."

"No, you do not understand. This is not the same lady. This is Chimitsu. She has been traveling with me for the last few days. See? She has white wings, not black."

He looked at her closely, looking down when he realized his mistake.

"Sorry. Look like her."

Chimitsu walked over and gently rested a hand on his shoulder, her wing regenerating itself.

"It's all right. Eki has that effect on people." she said with a smile.

She walked over and picked up the little one, conjuring up a cold compress to put on its face. We walked over, looking at the little one, watching her try to keep him safe.

"Can help tribe?"

She sighed softly, uncertainty in her eyes.

"I don't know," she answered sadly. "I can't heal sickness. This little one needs a doctor."

"All tribe sick. She came during moon harvest. Poisoned food, spread sickness. We dying."

"I know. Damnit all...I can't do anything to counter the disease she spread here. My powers are only for injuries."

"Who other angel-woman?"

Chimitsu glanced up, a bit surprised at the question.

"Ekirei?"

Her eyes remained for only a moment before she returned to looking over the small silver ape.

"She's hardly an angel. She's...she's me, but she's not. Only looks like me."

She put aside those thoughts, and hope of an explanation, and looked back up at him.

"Can you gather the rest of your tribe? We need to get them to a doctor."

"I get what left."

I watched as he disappeared into the jungle, looking to Chimitsu, wondering how we were going to get the entire tribe to a doctor safely. There was no time to travel back to the city and it was even farther to get to Extor for all I knew. The tribe would be all extinct if we tried.

Shortly after, the wildman returned with not even half of his people. At least, half of the tribe as I remembered it. There were so few of the little silver apes left, the rest apparently having already succumbed to Eki's diseases. We had such precious little time left.

"This all left of tribe. Others fell quickly. Too weak to fight the witch that kill them." he said.

"I am sorry," I whispered, sadness flooding through me. "We should have come sooner."

"Not Friend's fault. He only man like me. He only does what can."

Chimitsu stood, handing the little one to him before turning and opening a portal. I blinked in surprise. I had not known she had any such power, but was understanding now how she had planned to get the tribe out of here to safety in such a quick manner.

"Quickly. Go through the portal. Another friend of Jack's will be waiting there. He's a doctor, he can help this tribe when we cannot." she said.

"He make tribe well?"

"He will try. Go, quickly, before she follows!"

He nodded and urged the tribe on, watching them go through before pausing, turning to us.

"Will see Friend again?" he asked.

"We will be there as soon as we can."

"Tribe wait for Friend."

I nodded and watched him hurry through with the little one, Chimitsu's portal closing behind him. I looked to her, seeing the sadness in her eyes before we turned and sprinted for the clearing. Here, the air was fresher and lighter, the humidity fading almost completely now.

We looked around, knowing that Ekirei was here, watching. Clearly, she had allowed the tribe to leave to safety, wanting to draw us out just as Mad Jack had done in the city. The tribe was only her calling card, not her main target.

That honor belonged to us.

"I see it didn't take you long to figure it out." she said.

I could see her, crouched down on a perch in a tree, her wings flared out behind her ever so slightly. A nasty grin warped her angelic looking face into a twisted, demonic look. Sharp nails dug into the bark of the branch she was perched on, making her look more like a gargoyle than an angel.

"Ekirei. We are here. State your business." I said quietly.

She laughed loudly, obviously enjoying the situation she had put us in.

"Are you that eager to die, samurai?"

"Not eager to die," I corrected. "Eager to get this over with."

"Mmm...," she pondered. "In that, I share your impatience. This won't be over with until the two of you are dead and the Star of the Elements rests in Aku-sama's hands."

"That'll never happen." Chimitsu informed her. Her voice was confident, without a trace of fear.

Ekirei sprang from the branch, wings flaring out to give her some gliding power before she folded them against her back, dropping down in front of us. I stepped back, my hand brushing over my weapon to reassure myself of its accessibility.

"What makes you so certain?" Ekirei challenged.

Chimitsu's eyes narrowed. She held her stance, not appearing the slightest bit intimidated by her double's advancement. Somehow, she knew something that I did not, but what?

"Because none of you know the Star's true power," she shot back. "It'll kill Aku before it allows him to use it."

"Guess there's only one way to find out, isn't there?"

Chimitsu laughed quietly, without humor. She definitely knew more about the Star than she had told me, but apparently was not ready to tell me the full story. Or perhaps she could not tell me, I did not know.

"If you think I'm just going to hand it over, you can just keep on dreaming. But if you think I'm going to fight, then I'd suggest you get yourself ready. If we engage in battle, one of us will die here tonight."

Ekirei laughed and hovered up, wings flapping powerfully.

"Whatever made you think I came here wanting a fight?" she asked.

My fist closed tightly around the handle of my katana. I did not trust her. Not in the least, not even for one second.

"Is that not what you usually want?" I asked.

She smirked at me, obviously satisfied with whatever accomplishment she thought she had achieved here.

"Naive little virgin samurai...you know nothing of the me. MJ may be full of enough testosterone to want to fight all the time, but I've got better things to do. My business here is done."

I blinked in surprise. She was leaving already? This did not seem right at all. Something was wrong here. Very, very wrong.

"What?"

"This is only a demonstration of what I can do. The real battle awaits for another time, Jack Minamoto. Save yourself until then, when we can enjoy a real fight."

Before Chimitsu or I could stop her, she disappeared in a fluffing of black feathers, the jungle's air immediately clearing and becoming fresher. I furrowed my brow, staring at the spot where she had been hovering, wondering what she had meant that this had only been a demonstration. A chill ran through me as I realized what she could mean.

Was this all just a game for them? A test of their powers until Aku decided to end it all? I was not certain I wanted to know the answer to such a question.
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War Of Shadows