InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Delayed Dawn ❯ A Rock and a Really Hard Place ( Chapter 3 )

A Delayed Dawn

 

Disclaimer: Not mine. The obvious characters and items are owned by Takahashi Rumiko.

 

Warning: This story is posted in the mature section for good reasons. If ideas such as vulgar language, descriptive violence, and sexual situations such as rape disturb you, then you are warned now.

 

 

Chapter Three A Rock and a Really Hard Place

 

*Three Days Later*

 

The meeting had been called and the members had all shown up. Inuyasha nervously paced back n' forth in front of the door. He could swear that he had been there for several hours, when it had only been no more than one hour. `What could they be talking about?' he wondered. Waiting was not something he was known for. Patience wasn't one of his virtues, if he even had any. He could wait if they hadn't left him alone. Stupid Miroku even got to go inside.

 

He had been pestering Miroku for the last three days. As soon as Miroku told him that The Pack was considering his membership, Inuyasha drowned him in a million questions. Miroku chuckled silently to himself, remembering that someone had told him it was better that he didn't know. All Miroku had said was that there was an initiation and that in three days things were to be ready for him. Inuyasha felt that Miroku knew more than he was letting on, and so he had spent those three days trying to beat it out of him. Miroku proved to be a formidable opponent handling himself rather well. His tactic proved to be boring after the first two days when Inuyasha realized that this was one time Miroku wasn't going to talk.

 

“What the hell. . . “He growled out as his patience wore down. Not that he had much to begin with. Then he stood straight up. Maybe this was the initiation. Since he had zero patience most of the time, they were to test him with is lack of patience. He softly chuckled to himself. If it was a challenge they wanted, it would be a challenge they would get. Inuyasha sat down on the floor, resting his back against the wall. Closing his eyes, he exhaled a huge breath out. This couldn't be the initiation, it was too simple. But was it?

 

As Inuyasha sat there, the events of the past years played through his mind. He couldn't really remember anything beyond the last thirteen years. School. He remembered going to school. And then he was pulled out. Not understanding what was really going on at first, he just did as he was told. His mother's words however were still as clear and loving as the day she said them to him. `Inuyasha, things have changed. You must be brave and listen to your brother. Keep up with your training and become strong. Always do what your heart tells you to be right. Remember, I will always love you. Remember my love. You will need it again one day.”

 

Inuyasha sighed heavily. That was the last time he ever saw or heard from his mother again. He wasn't sure what exactly happened, but both his father and his mother ended up dead. Sesshourmaru wouldn't give him any details. That was one reason why he wanted into The Pack, to know the truth about what was really going on in this war.

 

As leader of The Touken, his assignments were passed down from The Pack. All they did was tell him what they needed to do and when it had to be done by. There was never a reason, never a purpose, just an act. The Touken were the puppets of The War Dogs. They carried out the extremely bloody and violent missions. After thirteen years of carrying out such missions, nothing had changed. Inuyasha felt that he needed to know more.

 

Miroku had told him that Sesshoumaru seemed optimistic about his membership into The Pack, that Inuyasha could bring something they never had before. Inuyasha had asked Miroku if that really was his brother up there talking. `Inuyasha, your brother has another personality when he's inside that room. He must consider someone other than you. While he may hate your very existence, he acknowledges you and your abilities.' Those were Miroku's words.

 

Miroku always had a way of saying things so eloquently. Inuyasha then chuckled. It didn't work too well with the ladies. While his words were sweet, his actions were perverted and his actions definitely spoke louder than his pretty words. Inuyasha never did deny that Miroku's words always held the truth in them. At least when spoken to him only because he wasn't a girl.

 

Another sigh escaped his lips. Damn people were taking too long. Well, they were all demons, except Miroku. And then he, he would be the first hanyou in The Pack. Maybe that is why it was taking so long. They didn't want a stupid half-breed in their petty group. Inuyasha growled. He would show them that this stupid half-breed was better than that.

 

Hearing a sound, Inuyasha was up on his feet, hand on the gun he constantly wore on his side. The door to the meeting room had opened and Miroku stood there with a funny smirk on his face.

 

Miroku saw Inuyasha grabbing the bulge that was his gun. “That happy to see me, eh Inuyasha?” Miroku joked.

 

“Keh, that's just sick.” Inuyasha retorted.

 

Miroku closed the door behind him and walked up to his friend. “Are you ready?” He asked in very serious tone.

 

Inuyasha nodded.

 

“Some advice, stay quiet and listen to everything they have to say. Speak only when spoken to, got that.”

 

Inuyasha nodded again.

 

“Then come on in.” Inuyasha followed Miroku in through the doors and into the room he had never been in before. The doors had a security system that only allowed the members to pass through. And today, it let Inuyasha through. Was it because it recognized him as a member already, or did they have to change the security system to allow him to enter this time.

 

Inuyasha followed Miroku over to a place by his brother. Sesshoumaru stood by his chair, watching Inuyasha as he was brought towards him. Inuyasha took the place next to his brother and Miroku stood behind the two brothers.

 

The members were silently watching Inuyasha as they waited for the real part of the meeting to begin. Inuyasha gulped. He had faced down large groups of angry demons who wanted to tear his flesh from his bones, had dodged countless number of bullets and had been in very sticky situations, but none of that compared to this. For some reason, things felt too serious.

 

“Today, we are gathered here for the induction of Inuyasha into The Pack. The members have already voted to allow your membership; however, there is a task that you must pass before you are allowed complete entrance.” Sesshoumaru turned to his brother. “Inuyasha, do you hereby accept the terms of the initiation? By saying yes, you cannot back out. Once the initiation has been accepted, the process will be put into action and will cease only when the initiation has been completed. Do you understand these terms?”

 

Inuyasha nodded and then calmly answered with a yes.

 

Sesshoumaru nodded. “Then I ask you again, do you accept the terms of the initiation?”

 

Inuyasha looked over at Miroku. Miroku tried to smile, but Inuyasha could see his hesitation. Looking up at his brother, Inuyasha sighed. Why did he feel like he was falling into a trap? “Yes, I accept the terms.”

 

Sesshoumaru looked down at the table. “As soon as you sign your name to the scroll, the initiation will begin.”

 

Inuyasha took the calligraphy brush and signed his name on the bottom of the scroll. He could barely read what was actually on the scroll. His brother must have written it, for Sesshoumaru had horrible penmanship. Actually, Sesshoumaru had beautiful penmanship; it was just that Inuyasha couldn't read cursive kanji. As soon as Inuyasha signed his name and lifted the brush from the paper, the paper started to glow a bright blue color and then it disappeared. Inuyasha was forced to blink a couple of times to make sure he had actually seen what he saw.

 

“The initiation has begun. Are you ready to hear your task?”

 

Inuyasha dropped the pen. Dammit, he forgot to ask what his task actually was. Well, it couldn't be that bad. He had done about everything horrible, he had stolen, killed and tortured many enemies. Inuyasha had the dirtiest hands in the gang.

 

Sesshoumaru sighed. He took a step back away from Inuyasha as he was prepared to tell Inuyasha exactly what it was that he had to do. Sesshoumaru cleared his throat, but he knew full well that he had the attention of everyone in the room. Everyone except Inuyasha and Miroku knew what the act was, but they wanted to see what Inuyasha's reaction would be.

 

“Initiation Act Number 21. That is what was randomly drawn for you. Inuyasha, you have one week to complete the task at hand. Failure means you will never be allowed to be a member of The Pack.”

 

Inuyasha growled. “Stop stalling you bastard and get on with it.” He huffed as he crossed his arms against his chest. Miroku sighed. The advice he had shared was already useless.

 

“You have one week to find the innocent girl who has been tagged,” Sesshoumaru plainly started. “And rape her.”

 

“Keh.” Inuyasha started until the word sunk into his had. His eyes went wide. Rape. Rape. Rape. Of all the evils in the world, that was one he had never done, never even considered doing. “What the fuck?” He yelled at his brother. “You expect me to go out there and fucking rape an innocent? What the fuck is wrong with you?” He yelled. “Ain't any way in the seven hells that I'm doing such a stupid act.”

 

Sesshoumaru expected this. This was typical Inuyasha. He had to give Inuyasha credit for actually standing up for his beliefs. “You must.” He told his brother.

 

“Fuck no. I ain't doing stupid shit like that. Are you all fucking nuts?” Inuyasha continued to curse out not only his brother, but the members as well. Then he caught a glimpse of Miroku. “Did you know about this shit?” He asked his friend.

 

Miroku shook his head, hands up the air signaling his innocence. “No, they wouldn't tell me. They were probably afraid I would tell you about it and then the act would be tainted.”

 

“Inuyasha.” Sesshoumaru stated sternly. “You have one week. If you fail, not only do you not gain membership, but the girl will die.”

 

Once again, Inuyasha's whole world stopped. Die. Yes, he had killed. But this was war. And the enemy was to be killed. But an innocent? He was careful to make sure that innocents did not die. Noncombatants is what they were called. Those who accidentally got caught up in the fighting. During his thirteen years with the gang, he had only lost five noncombatants. Four of those were people who didn't know any better, curiosity had got the best of them and they went were they shouldn't have.

 

The last one, the one that Inuyasha remembered the most was that of a young child that had been tricked by the enemy. The enemy had given the child a toy and asked him to take it to Inuyasha's group. Being half dog demon, Inuyasha could smell the explosives on the toy the child cradled joyfully in its arms. Inuyasha tried to tell the child to drop the toy and run away, but the damn child was just too happy to have something since toys were now a luxury. In order to protect himself, his men and the people they had rescued, Inuyasha was forced to shoot the child. He told himself repeatedly that he gave the child a quick death instead of the death of being blown up by a bomb.

 

That scene had haunted him for weeks. He couldn't look at children. And it was during those few weeks were Inuyasha just couldn't perform his duties. It was Miroku who had talked to Inuyasha, who had helped him cope with the situation. Inuyasha was then able to put it all behind him, and he bounced back. And now, he was in a similar situation.

 

“So, you sick bastards are going to follow me around until I rape this chick or what?” Inuyasha asked. He was looking for a way out.

 

“Don't be so foolish. If you follow through with the initiation, the scroll will burn to ashes. If not, the words will disappear and the word `death' will reappear in its place, meaning you have failed.”

 

“How will she die?” Inuyasha questioned solemnly. It was something he couldn't have ever imagined and yet it was happening. To him.

 

Sesshoumaru sighed. “We are not sure. You are the first to draw Initiation Act Number 21. I imagine it will be painful for her, to remind you of your failure. You cannot save her from death unless you follow through.”

 

Inuyasha balled his fists up tight. Shit. He thought to himself. This was a real jam. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked over and saw Miroku. Miroku had a serious look on his face, but Inuyasha was ready to welcome his words.

 

“You are truly stuck between a rock and a hard place my friend.” Miroku began. “You are being forced to choose between two evils. And now you must ask yourself, which is the lesser of the two evils. To rape an innocent girl, taking away her virginity, or to let her die, taking away her life? Girls who have been raped have their lives changed forever. They lose trust in everything; they feel dirty, are afraid, grow depressed and may resort to suicide to end the pain. Or you can let her die, never giving her a chance to live a life at all, no matter how horrible that life is. Life is not something anyone can take for granted.” Miroku sighed. “I will never be able to understand your feelings at the moment. Nor will I tell you what you should do. The choice is yours and yours alone.”

 

“The human is correct Inuyasha. You may be faced with a similar situation later in life. There are times when neither choice is the correct one, but you still must make a choice.” Sesshoumaru sighed. He held the scroll in his hands. It took him two days to find the right girl. “The girl is tagged with a scent that only you will be able to recognize. During the act, your scents will be concealed. You will never know her true scent, nor will she know yours. This way, if a demon were to ever fall in love with her and discovered her lost innocence, you would be protected. She will never be able to hunt you down and kill you. This will be the only time when the paths of your lives will cross each other. And Inuyasha, if you go through with the act, don't let her see you. Also, the spell protects her from becoming impregnated.”

 

Inuyasha found all of this so disgusting. He felt his stomach twisting around in knots. He turned and ran out of the room; he had to get out of there. It was too much, too horrible. Running down the hall, he found the door to the men's bathroom. Inside, he hurried into the first stall and vomited. Never before had he vomited just from hearing about an act. He had seen blood and guts and torn limbs. It never bothered him. Why was raping a girl he didn't know or will never see again making him feel so dirty?

 

And it was too late. He didn't realize his selfishness to know the truth would hurt someone so much. All he wanted to do was to try and understand what the hell was going on. And it wasn't going to cost him anything. He was going to destroy some girl's life, one way or another. An innocent girl. That meant she was a virgin. Untouched by a man. Perhaps that was even worse. He knew how human girls valued their virginity. Hell, even demons were pickier about sex. He had met girls, both human and demon, that had lost all innocence and treated their bodies like it was nothing. He was sure it was the war that had done that to them.

 

Another surge of acidic liquid burned his throat as he vomited once again. He felt so weak. He wasn't sure if convincing himself that her rape would help the war would be helpful to him at all. Was that what he was going to say to her? `Hold still and let me fuck you so I can help change the world.' Or, `your rape is going to stop the war.' What kind of demon would he be, saying such empty and cruel words? Saying them to her would only make him feel better, not her.

 

“Inuyasha, are you in here?” A voice called out.

 

“Yeah.” Inuyasha mumbled as he stood up, flushing the toilet and wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt. Inuyasha opened the stall door to find Miroku standing there, holding out a damp paper towel. He took it and wiped his face with it. “Thanks.” He mumbled.

 

“Your brother was right. If I knew . . . if I knew what it was that they were asking you to do, I would have told you. It wouldn't have been worth it. I'm not sure if the truth is worth it. Sometimes, the information we discover, we think it is the truth, we want it to be the truth, and then it could easily turn out to be a lie. Information is a risky business. And we found that to be true today.”

 

Inuyasha carefully listened to his friends words. He crumpled the paper towel and tossed it into the waste. “Even though I have two choices, I . . . I almost feel like I don't have a choice at all.” Inuyasha looked up at his friend. Miroku nodded. He understood. All he could do was to stand by his friend, no matter what the outcome was, he was going to be there.