InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Mapped Life ❯ A Mapped Life: Freedom is Attained Atop a Gust of Wind ( Chapter 18 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

I DO NOT OWN Inuyasha or the Crew, Rumiko Takahashi does. But I do own my original characters.

A/N: Hello guys, I am back and come baring a new chapter, we are back in the present, and Izayoi meets a very good friend which will be a very vital part in the story.

I would like to remind my readers that my story is Alternate Universe, and for this reason I am able to bend and mold the story to my liking. (Let me just take this parenthesis to inform you guys I have no intention of being rude, I just would like to avoid flames, although everybody has the freedom of opinion and speech, you can contact me through email or leave feedback for my story in whatever way you deem necessary).

I now count with an absurd amount of free time on my hands, and for such reason I will probably be updating a lot sooner.

Also I will use my Author’s Notes section to include meanings to the Japanese words I will use in the Story.

Japanese Meanings for words used in the chapter:
Aori: Gust of wind


Chapter 18: A Mapped Life: Freedom is attained atop a gust of wind…


It was early morning, Izayoi decided to get an early start and got up to make her bed, have a bath and wander into the deserted halls of the Elizabethan Institute, she had not been given a proper tour of the grounds, and by getting up so early at least she could sneak around and see what this large school she was sure her father had bought had to offer.

She tip-toed down the hall and peered over the banister of the hardwood stairs which overlooked the two story window adorning the small lobby at the end of the floor, she must have been awarded the most special room, for she had the prettiest view of the stables and lake that stood maybe a good one hundred and fifty meters away from the main building.

She smiled for the first time in a few days and ran the rest of the way down the stairs, pushing open the door that lead to the back of the property, she hopped down the stone-paved steps and walkways, through a small area with benches and flower pots, almost getting tangled in one of the walls of the shrub-built maze, arriving at the paddock fence.

Before her was the most beautiful animal she ever laid her violet eyes on. Before her stood a stallion, which could qualify as purebred, with a filthy chocolate-brown coat, oval head, and chiseled muscle structure. His mane and tail were wild, not brushed nor cared for in what might have been months, and his hooves were not tended, what most bothered Izayoi was the sadness in the animals eyes, there was so much melancholy reflected in the horse’s brown orbs that made her heart clench.

She looked around to see if anyone would call her attention for what she was going to do next, seeing nobody around she grabbed one of the boar bristle brushes that had been left in a bucket beside the door to the paddock and ducked under the fence; she approached the steed slowly with the brush in one hand and her other palm open towards him so he wouldn’t fright.

The horse walked slowly towards her, curiously nipping at the brush in held in her hand, Iza smiled as he nuzzled her check, and nosed inside her clothes for food. Unfortunately she had brought none with her at the time. She patted his muzzle and gently brushed down his neck, repeating the process with the rest of his mane. By the time she was done all of the knots and snarls were practically gone from his once untidy mane and tail, before her stood a very handsome, and lively stallion. She brushed her nimble fingers down his neck and played with his downy ears.

“Hey fella, I bet you feel very lonely here, not knowing anybody, and everybody being mean to you…I guess by the way I found you, you haven’t let anybody get close enough to groom you. I am all alone here also, my father just left me here for the better part of eight years or so to finish my schooling in America, so he says…I don’t want to be alone, how about you boy? Do you want to be alone?”

The stallion nickered and shook his head, as if saying no, Iza giggled and patted his neck, “…very well then how about we be friends then? I will come here everyday to tend to you if you be my friend ok?” she received a nod of his grand head and a small prance around her.

He nickered again as he trotted another circle around her, but then a short grumpy old man spotted her and came running with a whip in his hand.

“Get away from him girl, he will surely kill you! Get back Diablo! Back I say!”

He shouted as he cracked the whip inches away from the stallion’s front legs causing him to rise and paw at the air madly. The animal was completely terrified of the leather whip, his big round eyes a clear telling sign. Izayoi ran up to the fence and jumped on a support beam, waiting for the horse to run close by. She jumped into his back, holding on to his untangled mane; then she patted down the coat that had bristled on his neck as she whispered into his ear,

“I know that whip scares you fella, but please calm down, if you don’t then he will hurt you with it…please calm down my friend…”

Izayoi eased the horse patting down his coat around his neck and whispering easy calming phrases into his downy ears. The old man continued to rave and rant about her being potentially in danger with this horse he called Diablo. But was proven wrong when the horse came to a halt before him and Izayoi slid down his back to the ground.

She approached the will witted old man and signaled toward the stallion as she addressed him, “Dear sir, I would greatly appreciate it if you do not treat this animal in this manner, for he does not need whips nor torture to obey you, and your example lies in what I have just done with him, never had I seen him and I was ridding bareback without a concern in the world. I will adopt this steed as my own, to practice if you may…I find him adequate to fit the part, we seem to get along just fine.”

The old man’s face resembled a ripe tomato; he pointed a grubby finger at her, and raised his voice in a scolding manner,

“Wait just a minute you brat! Just who do you think you are? Coming into my stable and ridding one of my gold medal winners, and then saying he is adequate to adopt for kiddy-wheel horseback ridding practice?! Diablo is priceless! His title alone is worth millions…surely you cannot meet the cost of that…”

“That my dear old man is of no concern to you, I Izayoi Tokugawa do plan on buying and caring for this fine example of stallion myself, since you could not, even though he was a said gold medal winner of yours you do not tend to him at all, when I got here, he looked like he had not been groomed in months! And surely he doesn’t like to be called Diablo, so I will just have to change his name to whatever his liking is…”

“Izayoi Tokugawa? As in Han Tokugawa the new owner of this institute Tokugawa? You are his only daughter?!”

“Yes sir, indeed I am, now if you excuse me, I must go freshen up and attend to the breakfast that must be served by now.”

“Why yes of course Miss Tokugawa, be my guest, I will hose Diablo down and have him ready for your first riding practice this evening….”

Izayoi halted her task of ducking under the fence and turned around to smile at the old man, “that is suitable, and please refrain from calling him that, I do dislike the God awful name myself, I will think of what to call him by this afternoon maybe, but for now just address my horse as fella…”

The old man took off his straw hat and scratched the top of his bald head, he reached for the bridle hanging off the fence and laced it around the stallions’ muzzle, leading him out of the paddock and into the short field in front of the stables, where he would be hosed down and groomed, for the girls’ riding lesson, if the horse had found somebody he would willingly let them ride him, then possibly he could convince her to enter the state league and even participate in a tournament, just to see how it went.

The old man chuckled and proceeded to bathe and groom the horse that he was about to sell for dog food within an hour, that now by what could only be described a twist of fate, would be the new pet of the owner’s daughter. The stallion nickered as the cold water splashed over his spine, his life had been saved by the new girl he just met, and for that he was grateful.

It was first period, and as such it was the teachers turn to invite Izayoi to the front of the classroom to introduce herself and let the other students know where she came from and what her hobbies were. It went by as a normal first day at a new school went on for any new foreign student would go, they all appeared harmless when the teacher was in, but when she left, they threw balled up paper at her, called her names and put tacks on her chair.

A few minutes after the fourth bell rung class was dismissed signaling the end of the school period for the day, Izayoi made a mad dash for the cafeteria, hoping to arrive before any of the annoying girls got there first. Unfortunately they had the same thought and were already inline for lunch. Iza tried to avoid them for all that was possible, but after one of the girls she heard another address as Mallory tried to trip her with a leisurely placed foot, Iza swerved in the opposite direction and made a mad dash for the exit door, running with all her might towards the stables, where her only friend would be waiting for her to return. She arrived at the stables only minutes after, and climbed up on a support beam, watching the horse feed of the lush green grass, she smiled for the first time in hours, and retrieved a juicy red apple from her lunch bag, clucking her tongue as if calling a puppy motioning for the horse to come close, he had been groomed by the bald old man and possibly shoed for the very first time in what could have been months, for his hooves no longer looked painfully uneven but now sported the polished rounded look of a champion.

The steed arrived at the fence soon after, nuzzling her hands looking for the source of such sweet smell, Iza giggled and withdrew the apple from her pocket, resting it flat on her palm, the horse chomped it up minding her hand and nodded his head in approval, Izayoi finished eating her meatloaf sandwich and bag of chips, depositing the bag inside a trash can not far from the paddock, when she turned back the horse stood behind the fence observing her every move.

Izayoi walked closer to him, patting down the forelocks on his downy head, and behind his soft ears.

“Tell me my friend how would you like me to call you? Of course I can’t just go around calling you fella forever right?”

The horse grumbled shaking his head side to side vigorously.

“Well then, how about samurai? No, ok let’s try batusai? No, not at all, umm Aori? Ok then, Aori it is, you know Aori I wish I could go out and explore the grounds of the school, when papa brought me in the car here I saw a forest just off the side of the grand entrance, I wonder how pretty the flowers must be in there…”

She ducked under the fence and fingered the lacing on the saddle that had been laid atop the top support beam of the paddock, surely it had been left there by the old man for her use, on her day of riding lessons, not that she needed them, for her father had a soft spot for horses and had invested in horse ridding and jumping lessons a few years ago for her.

She rode her first mare at the mere age of eight and a half. And now was an experienced rider. She picked up the bridle from where it lay on the grass and fingered the bit, surprised to see that it was the class that managed a true hurdle jumping champion, she wondered if the initial words said by the old man were true, what if Aori was a gold medal winner?

She rose the bridle inches over her chest, clear signal for any trained stallion to approach their rider and let themselves be buckled up. She wasn’t surprised to see Aori slowly prancing over to her, lowering his towering head just below her chest and wait for her to wrap the bridle around it.

After Izayoi was sure his leathers and saddle were in place, she lead him close to a support beam and hopped up on him, doing simple laps around the paddock to get the feel of his body movements, she then steered him to the middle of the gate and heeled him into a full blown gallop, he reached the gate and without further encouragement jumped it clear by a meter or so. Iza giggled all the way, holding her posture coiled into his body and covered her face from wind debris with his side, he rapidly developed speed, his hooves never seeming to touch down the soft earth he galloped upon he seemed to be floating in the air, his namesake holding true.

Izayoi bunched up the reins in one hand tying them into a knot for easier handling, which let her other hand free to trace soothing circles along Aori’s neck, the horse along with Izayoi riding him went unnoticed by the students having lunch in the field outside of the cafeteria, he maintained his gallop as they headed for the fence that surrounded the main grounds of the institute, quickly clearing the fence so they would not be held back, little did they know they were being observed by somebody in the distance.

Aori increased his speed, his hooves digging up large clots of soil as they touched down and came back up in just seconds of the previous action, his strong and long unused leg muscles raging to release all the bunched up tension of long needed exercise, as he finally cleared the last fence that surrounded the further grounds before arriving at the institute, Aori slowed down into a lazy and short gallop as Izayoi sat up releasing his reins and let out a gasp as she looked around, the forest they were now moving slowly through was far from common, it was so green and wild, she felt like screaming and laughing and giggling at the same time, Iza extended her arms above her head and laughed with all of her might, Aori stood on his hind legs nickering and pawing the air he felt happy with this new rider, and for the first time in all of her life Iza felt free…

After Aori finally came down from his power high and trotted into a clear field surrounded by flowers, he stopped and snorted, his breaths coming out in puffs, as Izayoi led him over to a large rock and slid down his neck, her height being an issue at the time of mounting of dismounting the stallion. He trotted over to graze on the wild grass as she gathered some wildflowers and knitted them into a crown for herself,

“What do you think fella? Do I look like a queen? No? Ok maybe a fairytale princess then?”

He shook his head vigorously no, as she asked him, she giggled at his antics and started singing and dancing around in a messy circle trying to issue a correct waltz, and Aori would nicker every time Izayoi would hit a high note, her soft and sweetly charming voice soothing him into a calming trance.

Then she flopped down onto the grass next to him and stared up at the setting sun, it was time to go back to the regimen she would now have to live by, she looked over to Aori and smiled, at least now she had a sincere friend she could always count on to make her fell safe when everything else was gloom, things were starting to look up for her, she now had a silent confidant and a friend.


They took the long way back to the Institute, Izayoi decided so since jumping back over the fences would surely get her into trouble with Mrs. Cunningham and the old man at the stables, along with the fact that she wanted to get to know more about this place that would be her home for such a long time.

Aori was set in a leisure pace, Iza decided to let him walk back, since she had pushed him to get to the forest and encouraged him to jump fences, which was dangerous if he really was a champion and was not exercised properly before so. She took her time to look around the countryside, taking in every hillside and meadow; she observed the double fences at the west of the gate, where there was the redwood thick plank fence which was trademark of the institute, since it was the same kind of fence all around. And then there was a stone wall the double in size of the fence maybe a meter or so in distance from the wood fence. Iza frowned and lead Aori over to the wood fence and leaned over it trying to touch the stone wall, her short arms not being useful for such task she started to slide off the saddle, the fine hairs on the back or her neck bristled, letting her know that there was some kind of magic involved in the construction of said stone wall. It only took Iza a moment to determine it was not safe to be in such a place and regained her posture atop Aori and heeled him into a gallop back towards the stables, they arrived a while after, the old man was waiting for them at the entrance of the stables, he held on to Aori’s bridle for Izayoi to dismount him safely.

They exchanged no words as Izayoi took the bridle from him and led the horse towards a large stall with the name Diablo carved into a wooden piece hanging from the door. She stopped short before the door and removed his saddle and quilt, thoroughly brushing him down then led him inside.

The old man observed all of her movements, he had to give in and accept that this girl did know her fair share in care for a horse. He broke the silence as she finally locked the door to the stall and removed the stallions bridle and poured fresh oats and hay into his food bay.

“Girl you have one fine example of breeding stallion there, he’s a medal winner that I am sure of, got me some pictures and trophies to go along with it to prove…”

Izayoi removed the carved name tag that was held up with hooks onto the stall door, she fingered the black tinted letters and shook her head, “and then if he is so worthy of such prizes why didn’t you care for him for so long? How is it that I find a medal winner with a coat full of dry mud and grass stains? How long had it been since he ate oats and hay?”

Izayoi swallowed the lump that had jumped up into her throat and gripped the wooden tag in her dainty fingered hands, “and just tell me where his previous rider is? I need to speak to them about his lack or care!”

“His previous rider abandoned the school after the accident, has nobody told you why he is kept away from all of the other horses on campus? Why no one rides him? Come with me and I will show you…”

The old man walked away from her, leading her towards a ratty old door at the end of the barn hall, he looked over his shoulder before going inside, making sure Izayoi followed.

Iza gulped and gathered her courage, making to follow after the strange old man, maybe there was a story behind Aori, and if there was, she had to know, maybe what he had to say would explain the sadness she saw in his eyes.


The old man, sat down in an old fashioned leather chair, he held a picture album in his worn old hands, Izayoi kept her hands behind her back fingering the nametag for reassurance as she looked around what seemed to be an office at one time and of some sort. The pictures on the wall were like copies of each other, each of them were the same in context, a man in slacks and suspenders holding a trophy and the bridle of a champion, and atop the horse the rider, which if you looked closely, you could determine it was the same girl in all the pictures, she looked to have light blond hair and skin, freckles and wore a light colored jockey uniform and leather riding boots. You could barely tell since all the pictures on the wall were in black and white and dated nineteen twenty four, nineteen twenty five and so on.

Izayoi moved from the pictures on the wall to the one’s on the desk, there was a color portrait of a young girl no older than sixteen maybe, with strawberry blond hair, and fair skin, the bridge of her nose was sprinkled in freckles, she wore a mauve cotton dress and dress heels, in her hands she held a framed prize medal and a dozen roses, she was smiling an earnest smile, she looked happy.

Then Iza found a name plate on the desk, it read “Jeremiah Samuels – Breeder & Trainer” Iza looked up to the man’s face, and blinked, of course, this was all his, these were his trainees, and the girl in the portrait was someone special to him.

The old man’s mouth curved at one side, in an attempt of a smile, the expression looking worn and outdated on his wrinkled face. He laid the album down on the desk and spoke,

“This is my life Ms. Tokugawa, I am Jeremiah Samuels, breeder and trainer of champions, or was once that person, I started young since horses were always my passion, one of the first girls I trained is the one shown in the pictures hanging on the walls, she was very young, as so was I, she was fifteen, and I nineteen. I meet her at a country club her parents used to take her to, her name was Elizabeth Charles, and at the time I worked feeding the purebred horses that were kept at the stables that country club owned.

She started taking riding lessons maybe a week after they had joined the club, and I would use my lunch break to watch her progress in her training, then the trainer decided that since I spent so much time watching the lessons everyday that I should start working with him in the paddock instead of the stable shoveling hay and manure.

Soon after that I was his trusted assistant, often taking over the lessons for the day when he had other matters to attend to, or one of his trainees had to go to a competition, one day I had to take over a lesson for him, since he was suffering from a harsh cold, autumn was soon to set in, and we finally had our first civilized conversation, she laughed at most of what I said, and I cherished every second of it; I got her into a competition a few weeks after she won second place and was ecstatic, Elizabeth decided to make it her career, and months later she scored first place in the state finals, winning a gold medal, a trophy and the prize money, which her parents used to pay me off and try to get rid of me, since they knew we were getting closer, and of course they didn’t want their daughter to get together with a mere stable hand, they had arranged everything to send her off to another country, London I think it was, so she would forget about me, but she escaped them, and we moved to my hometown in Texas and got married, we were happy for about a year or so, but then money became scarce, and she decided to enter a championship with one of the horses my father kept on the farm, the horse was not a purebred, nor anything like it, he was a work horse, used to long hours of sowing fields and hauling carts.

People at the event laughed and ridiculed us, thinking me a mad man, but that horse proved his worth and we won that competition in nineteen twenty four. The prize money went towards the family funds and our economy improved. All of the fertile land on the farm was planted and the harvest was grand, the income from the sale of the produce was something my father would never imagine earning, and we repeated the same process for the next five years or so, then Elizabeth became pregnant, and had our baby girl, we named her Charlotte, and she grew up happy and smart. We lived on the farm with my father and the stable hands for another ten years out of which Elizabeth joined and won the national competitions, then she reached the age limit of thirty and was no longer able to participate in them, making that entry of funds unavailable to us, that same year her parents had been involved in a tragic accident, the car they were riding in crashed, leaving Elizabeth with no other living relatives, and she had to make the trip to Boston to take care of their funeral, I stayed behind with our daughter, her mother believed that she didn’t have to say goodbye to the people that didn’t even have the decency to get to know their granddaughter.

Then after everything was taken care of and the house the Charles family owned was sold, she came back to Texas and we used the funds to plant the crops, soon after the Charles Family lawyer made a visit, and informed her that she was heir to the fortune her father left in the family trust fund and her college fund she didn’t get to use. We were filthy rich, and we brought all of the available land bordering my fathers’ humble property, acquiring more fertile ground to plant and harvest. Then Elizabeth decided to send our daughter to school, but Charlotte was not used to high society and was soon expelled out of the expensive schools her mother tried placing her in for bad behavior, Elizabeth finally came to the conclusion that if you were born into a lifestyle you liked nothing would make you change, and she founded a school, for young ladies that liked outdoor activities, arts and music, all social classes could attend, she named the school after herself, “the Elizabethan Institute for young ladies” my daughter attended, and soon took after her mother, taking ridding lessons and entering her first competition at the age of thirteen, she won first place and made habit of joining the competition every year, two years after that Elizabeth came down with a sever case of pneumonia and died, leaving Charlotte and me grieving her death.

Charlotte decided to maintain the tradition set by her mother and kept participating in the yearly competitions winning second and first place in them all, then on the year she turned sixteen, the purebred that her mother had gifted her with was jumping the final obstacle beam and tripped on his landing, throwing Charlotte headfirst into the obstacle pond, and hitting her head on a rock at the bottom fracturing her spine.

Doctors tried helping her, operating her two maybe three times to try to regain mobility in her legs, but nothing they did could make her regain mobility, she was left handicapped and using a wheel chair to move around. She finished her school and used some of the funds her mother left in her name to move away from me, I have not heard from her since, it has been too long, and maybe it was twenty years ago, I think.

Then she decided to regain ownership of the school which I gladly gave to her, thinking she would at least talk to me, but everything was done through lawyers, and she sold the school, and moved to another country I still don’t know which is. The new owner of the school sold all of the purebred line of horses I had been breeding, and replaced them with worn out old mares, saying that the girls at the institute only needed to learn to ride, not join silly competitions, soon after the cafeteria started serving beans and bread everyday, and the girls attending told their parents about the severe economical condition the school was in and were soon transferred to other schools, leaving this one in sure bankrupt.

Then your father came along and brought the school maybe three years ago, claiming it was the perfect place for his daughter to learn this countries language, and the students started coming back, some of the horses that were mine were brought back and Diablo was one of them, he had been sold off as a foal separated from his mother, he had been brought by a circus as the trick horse for a trapeze artist, which one day dug the spur to deep into his side and he threw her off fracturing both of her arms and left leg.

Then I decided to train him for obstacle course hurdles, and got one of the girls to learn how to ride him, but she paid little to no attention to the advice I gave her and fell from his saddle in the middle of a competition in Kentucky, she was livid and decided to discipline him on the spot, taking a whip from one of the stable hands and cracked it hard down on his front legs, the horse went wild and charged her, stomping on her and cracked her skull.

Then he was brought back and condemned to be put down, all of this happened maybe seven to eight months ago, and the people that were in charge of putting Diablo down decided to take the last advantage they could out of him and sold him for dog food, the dog food company that bought him were scheduled to pick him up on the same day you adopted him.

So now do you understand why he is dangerous?”

Izayoi gasped at how sad the entire story seemed as tears pooled in her eyes, she nodded and looked down at the name tag she was fingering in her lap,

“I understand Mr. Samuels, but I believe there still is some good left in that horse, and I intend on giving him the life he deserves, yes I do understand he is wild spirited and he made his mistakes and all, but that does not mean everything was his fault, he is not a killer, he just reacted to what that girl was doing to him.

I want you to burn this nametag and order a new one with this name written on it, as soon as possible, then after I determine that he is well fed and in good physical condition we will start practicing for a competition.”

Izayoi handed Jeremiah the wood nametag and wrote Aori’s name on a piece of paper, she dried off her tears and excused herself, running back to her room, before anyone noticed she was out passed curfew.

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