InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Shard in Kyoto ❯ the first night part 2 ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 6

Authors’ note: In the interest of saving some dialog. I’m going to reduce the amount of customary polite phrases in the dialog. “Thank you, honorable sir. Pardon me, sir, etc.” Sango and Kagome are normally polite girls and those phases are part of their normal speech pattern and as such, are included automatically. (Now, Inu-yasha on the other hand . . . ) I’m just ignoring them, in the interest of keeping the dialog as minimal as possible.
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“Please, sirs, we’re just saying here for the night. Please, leave us alone.” Kagome asks in a low voice.

“No”

‘I cannot change my mind in front of the scum in this room. I’m not going to be embarrassed like that.’ He thinks.

The first samurai says. “You two will come with us, to our rooms, now!” He stands up, reaches out to grab Kagome’s arm.

He doesn’t succeed. Sango has also stood up and has grabbed his wrist.

She stares at him in the eyes and whispers, “It was a misunderstanding. If you ignore it, nothing bad will happen.”

‘I’m not going to be ordered about by a peasant girl.’ He angrily thinks. The samurai swings his arm using his open palm to strike at Sango.

Sango catches the open hand with her left hand. Her right hand, so fast it’s unnoticeable in the dim light, strikes. He collapses onto the table, breaking it in the process. He is unconscious. Kagome and the other two samurai stand up.

Sango pushes Kagome back and slightly bows to the two remaining samurai. In a low voice she says, “Please, sirs, you are dealing with something beyond you. Let us go.”

The hostess takes this chance to move away. “What happened?” “I don’t know.” The other men in the inn stage whisper to each other.

The two samurai look at each. ‘We will not back down, in public, to a woman.’ They both think in unison.

“Women. You two will carry him into his room. When he wakes up, you two will apologize to him. And then we will kill you.” One of them says.


“No” is all Sango says.

Both samurai begin to attack, but before their swords can clear their scabbards, they are both unconscious. Sango’s attack, again, in the dim light is too fast to be seen.

The room is totally silent.

Sango grinds her jaw. ‘Damn it. I let them get to me. I should have let them get us into a private room and then taken them out.’ She thinks.

Kagome bows to the owner and says, “we will be going to our room, now. Sir.” She tugs on Sango’s sleeve. The two girls pick up their bags and go thru the entrance in the back of the main room.

Once the girls leave the room, people start to talk. “Ninjas?” “Witches?” “Demons?” the rumors begin . . .

The innkeeper goes over to the three unconscious samurai. ‘If I bring them to their master, I could get in trouble. This happened in my house. So . . . ’

“Take them to a room. Let them sleep, whatever it is, off.” He orders. A couple of men grab the samurai and start dragging them off.

‘Hopefully they’ll be so mad at those witches that they’ll forget about me. But, on the other hand, I think, I need to spend a couple of days with my brother on the other side of Kyoto. I’m going to take the money box, tonight, and vanish.’ He nods his head in agreement with himself.

In the room . . .

Kagome closes the sliding door behind her. They drop their bags on the floor. The room is a small room, basically big enough for the two girls to stretch out and sleep, but not much bigger. An oil lamp is the only light source.
Sango deeply bows to Kagome. “I am sorry, Kagome. I made a mistake in there.”

Kagome reaches down and lifts Sango up by her chin. “Sango. Mistakes happen. If you hadn’t done something, I was going to hit them myself.” She grins. “My attack, they would have blocked, though.”

“You’re not upset.”

Kagome sighs, “Some. But, not at you, more at myself, really, we made a mistake staying in the room with the men. We should have gone in the back and started to talk to the women back here. You saw how they looked at us as we passed them on the way here.”

“Yes. The women knew what was going on.” Sango slumps. “Spying isn’t what I was trained for.”

“I know, Miroku is the one that needs to be here. He could have had that room telling him everything. But . . . ”

“Now, they think we’re . . . ” Sango begins.

“We’re not invisible anymore. At least not here.” Kagome says, “Tomorrow we’ll have to find somewhere else to rest.”

“Luckily we weren’t too close to the compound, Kagome, so we can probably still go there without too much of a problem.”

“Hmm, Sango, a thought, there’ll be women coming in and out of the compound, probably.”

“Yes, getting food, water, other things.”

“Tomorrow, I think we need to talk to them. We’ll probably learn more that way then trying to approach the men.” Kagome speculates.

“Good idea, Kagome. We’ll do that.”

“Do you still want to try to sneak over the wall, tonight?”

Sango pauses, “I don’t think so, Kagome. I’d expect some sort of response from what I just did. So, leaving you alone.” She shakes her head, “just feels wrong.”

Kagome nods. “No problem. Kirara?”

Sango licks her lips, “I, I don’t know.” She slumps down, “After making that mistake . . . ”

Kagome goes over and hugs Sango. “Trust yourself, Sango. I trust you.” She whispers.
“Kirara?” Sango looks at the two-tailed cat.

Kirara shakes his head no. “Why, the anti-demon spells?” Kagome asks. Kirara nods.

“That bad?” Sango asks. Kirara shrugs. The two girls look at each. “We’ve got to figure out a way to talk to Kirara.” Sango declares. Kagome nods her head yes.

“Ah, let’s get ready to go to bed, now, Kagome.” Sango starts, “I think we’ll have to treat it as if we could be attacked at any time.”

Kagome grimaces and nods yes.

“It’ll probably take a while for those samurai to wake up, and then, they’ll hopefully get some help. So. I think that I need to rest first. Then, say after midnight, you wake me up and you can get some sleep then. Kirara can stay up with you, as well.” Sango somewhat hesitantly plans.

“That’s good, Sango. We’ve been traveling so much, I haven’t had a chance to study and I could use a few hours to try to catch up. In addition, if the food and samurai are going to be that offensive here, I need to repack my bag and move some things around.”

Sango’s eyebrow’s rise in an unspoken question.

“I want to put some of my modern condiments, like sugar, in a pouch where I can get to them.” She pauses, “And in my bag, I’ve got a can of mace.” She shakes her head, “My mother got it for me soon after I started coming here, but I’ve never used it. Now, I think that I will need it.”

“Mace?”

“Something women use in the future to stop men, like those samurai.” Kagome replies. She bends down to Kirara. “Now, Kirara, if I use it, and I’ll show you the can, so you’ll know what it looks like, don’t get close to me. It’s smells awful and your nose.” She touches the end of Kirara’s nose.

“Is that why you’ve never used it?”

“Huh, yes, I’m sure Inu-yasha would hate it.”

The girls, after almost bumping into each other serval times, finally settle down. Sango, on top of her futon, with her hand on her sword hilt, sleeps fitfully. She twitches at many of the random noises, which happen throughout the night.

Kagome, as she repacks her bag thinks, ‘hmm, I’m add a couple of other modern things as well.’ She thinks. She places various objects in pouches. She sits next to the lamp. She pulls out a book and starts to read it.

After a few minutes she takes off her watch and starts to use it as the place holder in the book. She glances at it each time she turns a page.

As she reads the book, she realizes, just how thin the walls are. The rice paper wall allows any sound to pass through it. She glances at one wall and blushes deeply when she, finally, determines what the rhythmic noises and moans she’s hearing mean. Her concentration destroyed she tries to read her book, but she keeps glancing over at the wall, until after a while the noises end and the couple, it sounded like the farmer and his wife they followed to the inn, goes to sleep.

‘If I could hear that . . . does that mean that other people could hear Sango and I?’ She thinks. She swallows and rethinks her and Sango’s conversation. She doesn’t remember saying anything that she regrets, but. ‘I’ve got to remember that Sango and I aren’t in the middle of some woods far away from other people. Unless I’m some place weird there will be people that hear everything I say.’ She thinks. She nods, and hoping with the distracting noise gone her concentration will return, and she tries to read the book again.

Kagome, after a few minutes reading, stops and begins to rub her eyes. A headache is being to form. ‘Next time I’m home. I’ve got to remember to see an eye doctor.’ She glares at the oil lamp. ‘All the times I’ve had to read by firelight, or lamp light, has got to be hurting my eyes.’

She blinks a couple of times, she’s being to feel sleepy and she glances at Sango. Kagome’s brow furrows. Sango is sleeping deeply. ‘Expect for Inu-yasha, nobody sleeps as lightly as Sango. Still, it has been a long week of travel. She needs her sleep. I’ll just wait until one or so before waking her.’

She starts to read again, but the sleepy feeling increases. As she begins to nod off to sleep . . .

“Ouch!” She cries out. Kirara has sunk claws into her thigh.

“Hiss . . . ” the hair on Kirara’s back rises. A sound from outside the room draws Kagome’s attention to one of the walls. She can see a shadowy figure move away from the room. She swallows, and concentrates on her mystic scenes.

There is a feeling of a spell around her. “A sleep spell, Kirara?” she asks. Kirara nods. She looks around and listens, even with her crying ‘ouch’ everybody, including, Sango is still asleep. “Damn . . . ” She mumbles.

Kagome goes over and shakes Sango awake. Unlike ever other time, Sango is difficult to wake up this time.

“Kagome, wh, huh . . . ” She mumbles.

“Sleep spell, Sango.” Kagome says gently. “Kirara woke me up.”

“Damn. This soon . . . ” Sango grimaces. “I think I’d better stay awake.”

“Sango, I think we’d better be gone by dawn.” Kagome whispers.

Sango nods. “Get some sleep, Kagome. I’ll wake you up an hour or so before dawn.”

“Here’s my watch, Sango.” Kagome says as she hands the watch to her. “I’ll try to sleep.” She giggles. ‘And just a few minutes ago, I didn’t want to sleep, how things change.’

She looks at Kirara. “Thank you for waking me up, Kirara.” She bows to Kirara. Kirara purrs.

Sango starts to sharpen her katana. ‘I’ll be needing this . . . soon . . . ’ she thinks.


************************

A small campfire in the hills on the west side of the city outside Kyoto. It’s early in the night..

“What do you think the girls are doing?” Shippo asks.

“They are probably still in a bathhouse, kit.” Inu-yasha sneers.

“I don’t think they’re that interested in bathing, Inu-yasha.” Miroku says.

“Feh, you’re wrong.”

“I meant the question, guys.” Shippo says.

“Hmmm. It depends on too many things Shippo. With luck, they’ve already found the shard and will find us tomorrow. Without luck . . . well, Sango will make sure Kagome can get away. That I can promise.” Miroku says. He shivers as he finishes.

“Huh. No way the girls are that lucky. I’m sure Kagome has dragged Sango to various shrines and temples, sightseeing. She said that’s what she wanted to do.” Inu-yasha says in a dismissive tone.

“That was before she found about the shard, Inu-yasha. She’s much more serious about this then you think.” Miroku reminds Inu-yasha.

After a pause Miroku says, “Still, this isn’t something we can do anything about. We’ve had a long hard trip here. Let’s get some rest and see what tomorrow brings.”

The boys, after more grumbling from Inu-yasha, go to sleep. Or rather, Shippo and Miroku sleep together, Inu-yasha stays semi-awake, like he always does when he’s asleep. The slightest noise will wake him up.
Later . . . the campfire has gone out and it deep into the night.


Inu-yasha quietly moves and wakes up Miroku and Shippo. “Quiet, you two. There’s a group of men approaching. I can hear them.” He whispers. Both of them get up and prepare.

Miroku starts to grab his staff, but stops himself. Until the men attack, they need to be quiet, and his staff is not quiet. ‘Hand to hand, then. Sigh.’ He thinks to himself.

“Inu-yasha, it would be helpful if we could find out why this . . . ” Miroku whispers.

“I know that, monk. Bet you it was your friends at that monastery.” Inu-yasha whispers back.

“Hmm, perhaps, but what shall we bet, Inu-yasha?” Miroku whispers. The approaching men are close enough that he can hear them now.

“Shippo, can you do your foxfire?” Miroku whispers.

“Yes, I think so. My powers aren’t stopped. They just hurt to use.” Shippo whispers back.

“Good. When the fight begins, make a bright light. It’ll confuse them and help us.” Miroku whispers.

Inu-yasha nods, then shakes his head no. “No. Do it when I order, Shippo, We’ll attack them. That will confuse them more.”

Shippo glances over at Miroku, who subtly nods his head yes.

Inu-yasha motions the monk to move away from him and spread out. Miroku does so . . .

“Now!” Inu-yasha shouts as he draws his sword. Miroku closes his eyes for a second, so he’s not blinded by the light.

Miroku opens his eyes, he can see about twenty or so men scattered around them. He yells, “Demons!” and he attacks the nearest man. The men were confused by the light, and the cry just causes more confusion.

Miroku is using open hand attacks and while he is good it, the man he attacked had a staff and Miroku takes the staff when he knocks the man unconscious. The rest of Miroku’s attacks are with the new staff.

Inu-yasha attacks the nearest man with his sword. ‘Shit. I forgot. Men, not demons.’ His sword does not change and it remains a rusty old blade.

“Attack them!” one of the men yells. He is one of men the furthest away from the boys.
Inu-yasha grins and yells, while he still fighting a group of men, “Shippo! Make sure that bastard stays put!”

Shippo transforms into his giant head shape and moves toward the man in the back.

Although the guards outnumber the boys, the surprise attack, and the obvious spells have unnerved the guards, so the guards hesitant, yell at each trying to reorganize. But the Inu-yasha’s and Miroku’s attacks prevent them from using their superior numbers.

However, the boys are still fighting ten to one odds and they do take a couple of small hits. But, after only a couple of minutes all the guards are down.

“Shippo! Did you get that bastard!” Inu-yasha yells.

“Yeah!” Shippo yells. He then coughs heavily a couple of times. Using his powers has hurt him.

“Get that fire going, Miroku. I’ll drag the bastard to it, and we’ll talk.” Inu-yasha grins nastily as he moves to the man Shippo caught in one of his spells.


The man, who is the assistant priest from earlier, is trying to fight the spell. He does break it before Inu-yasha arrives, but Inu-yasha quickly catches him. “I’ve got you!” Inu-yasha grins into his face.

The priest, who was prepared for a dog demon, not a kitsune, pulls out a scroll and attaches it to Inu-yasha’s chest. “Arrgghhhh!!” Inu-yasha yells in pain and throws the priest away from him as he tries to rip the scroll off him.

“Stop! Priest!” Miroku yells and chases after the priest. Miroku is in better shape then the other man and catches him after a short run. He tackles the man and knocks him out. Miroku drags the man to Inu-yasha. Inu-yasha has managed to take the scroll off, by the time Miroku arrives.

“Are you ok? Inu-yasha.” Miroku asks.

“Are you fucking blind!?” Inu-yasha yells. Inu-yasha has a couple of small cuts, which are rapidly healing. There is a scorch mark on his chest that is also fading.

“No, Inu-yasha, but I do need to know if you need help?”

Inu-yasha breathes deeply a couple of times. “Yeah. It hurt, but, I can live with it. The pain is fading and I’m healing.” he thinks, ‘but, staying upright and talking is taking more from me than it should, I fucking hate this city.’

“Do we question him now?” Shippo asks.

“Yeah, wake him up, monk.”

“Let’s tie him up first, then do it, Inu-yasha. Also tie up the men that are still alive” Miroku says as he waves his arms at the dead, mainly Inu-yasha’s opponents, and the unconscious, mainly Miroku’s opponents. “Use their clothes to tie them up.”

“We need to get some knowledge. They will be more likely to tell us, than the priest. We can then use that knowledge against the priest.” Miroku tells Inu-yasha and Shippo, as they discuss who to wake up first.

They wake up one of the guards. “Sirs. You beat us. As far as I’m concerned, you are my new master. So I’ll tell you anything you want.” He says. ‘Hopefully, they’ll like this and let me live. If I displease them, I’m dead. The only way to live is to kiss their ass.’ He thinks.

After questioning a couple of guards they wake up the priest. “I’m not going to tell a bastard half dog demon anything.” He spits in Inu-yasha’s face. Miroku holds back Inu-yasha with his staff.

Shippo, with an illusion so he looks like his father, an adult kitsune, asks the priest, “What about me. Human scum.” The fangs in his mouth grow longer as he smiles.

‘A Kitsune . . . I . . . ’ Shippo and Inu-yasha can smell the priest piss himself.

“Now, talk, human and I will be merciful. Refuse to talk and your soul will be mine for all eternity.” Shippo growls. His illusionary claws pass through the priest’s chest. “Once you are dead, I will take your soul.” He grins frightfully.

“I... I’ll talk. Please, monk! I beg of you, please save me from the kitsune!” the priest begs Miroku.

“Good. Tell us everything.” Miroku purrs.

After getting the information, they tie him up and move off to one side to talk among themselves.

“Ise.” Miroku leans back and looks at Inu-yasha.

“Yeah, I felt something as he passed us, monk. We should have attacked him then.” Inu-yasha growls.

“Attack the High Priest of Ise, in full daylight, while he is traveling with his full guard compliment?” Miroku raises an eyebrow at that bit of wisdom from Inu-yasha.

“Well, now what guys?” Shippo asks.

“Kill them.” Inu-yasha says in a flat voice.

“No. Killing them will not solve anything, Inu-yasha. We, or at least you, are already known, that knowledge will spread no matter what we do.”

Shippo says, “AH, but they didn’t know about me? How important is keeping that knowledge secret?”

Miroku pauses. “Look at it this way, Shippo. If they have a half-dozen different versions of this fight, how many kitsunes do you think they’ll say we had. Only one kitsune cub, or say three or four adult kitsunes?”

“AH, confusion.” Inu-yasha mumbles. Shippo nods.

“We are going into the city, monk.” Inu-yasha orders. Miroku raises his eyebrow in question.

“Fuck, they already know we’re here. We are targets. Wandering these hills makes us easy targets. Inside the city, we’ll be harder to locate.” Inu-yasha explains.

“Sigh. You may by wrong there, Inu-yasha. Inside the city there will be a lot of eyes on us. But, staying outside the city isn’t working, so... . We’ll go into the city and see if we can locate the girls.”

“What about me?” Shippo asks.

“Well, If it gets to bad, Shippo, I’ll see if we can find a shrine to the fox god and hopefully we can do something there.” Miroku says. Shippo, grimaces, but nods his head.

“We’ll leave as soon as we pack up. I want us away from here by dawn.” Inu-yasha orders and the other two nod their heads in agreement.

Inu-yasha goes over the tied up priest and lifts him up off the ground with just one hand. He shakes him and uses his other clawed hand to randomly cut the priest’s chest and face. “I would kill you and eat you, bastard. But. That would be quick and basically painless.”

He grins showing his fangs. “So, I’m going to let you live. You’ll have to explain your failure. Your boss will punish you.”

He licks his lips. “He’ll have the time and resources to make your death long and painful.”

Inu-yasha knocks the priest unconscious and the boys leave the area.

********************

In the street, before dawn, outside the inn . . .

Kagome shivers as she and Sango walk cautiously down the dark and shadowy streets. There is enough light from the partial moon and the beginning of dawn for them to see, at least if they move slowly. They are walking away from the inn and they are not walking in the direction of the Yuki family compound. If someone is following them, they’re not going to lead them too anyplace important.

“Something wrong, Kagome?” Sango asks.

Kagome grimaces, “nothing we can do about it, Sango. There are a lot of ghosts and spirits around, and I’m just feeling them.”

“Hmmm . . . That’s not to surprising, Kagome, Kyoto has been the biggest city in Japan for hundreds of years. There should be more ghosts in this city then anywhere else in Japan.”

“When you say it that, it sounds so simple. But . . . I can feel those ghosts and spirits.” She stops speaking.

“And, Kagome.”

“How to say this . . . Some of the ghosts I’m feeling. The anger, the hate . . . ” She shivers. “The hate that Kikyo has for me, feels like a minor annoyance compared to some of the feelings I getting . . . ”

“You didn’t feel it in the inn?”

“No. Somewhat. I thought it was something else and ignored it. The inn, most of the buildings, has charms against ghosts around them. It’s just walking these streets . . . Plus it’s also probably the time of day . . . at night, you know.” Kagome says as she shrugs.

“Are we in danger?”

“I... I don’t think so, Sango. Most of what I’m feeling is directed elsewhere and at other people.”

After walking a few more minutes’ Kagome stops next to a field. There are burned stumps in the field and it looks like that there was a house here, but it’s burned down. “Kagome?”

Kagome points at a spot in the field. “Do you see her, Sango?”

Sango shakes her head no. “Kirara?” Kirara shrugs.

“Hold my hand, Sango.” Kagome reaches out and grasps Sango’s hand.

Sango gasps. She can now see a ghost of the young child in the field. The ghost is trying to dig into the ground, but being a ghost, it cannot dig. “What?”

Sango and Kagome can hear the ghost moan and speak, “Emi. My friend. I want to find you. I need to hold you. Please someone, anyone, please help me find my friend . . . ”

Kagome licks her lips, “I’ve got to go, Sango.” Kagome lets go of Sango’s hand and goes into the field.

Sango and Kirara try to follow her, but they are stopped by a barrier. “Kagome!” Sango hisses, but Kagome can’t hear her. ‘Damn it, no boomerang . . . ‘ Sango thinks as she pulls her sword. She’ll try to break the barrier with it. It bounces off . . .

Sango sees Kagome walk to where the ghost was trying to dig. Kagome bends down and starts to dig into the ground.

Beyond Kagome, Sango can see a distortion, like a hole is being made in the fabric of the universe. She tries to look into the hole, but she has to turn away. Her eyes hurt, her head hurts, she was trying to see things humans weren’t meant to know . . .

Kirara who is looking into the hole shivers. Kirara curls around Sango’s ankles in fright.

After a few minutes’ Kagome pulls out of the ground a burned doll. She brushes the doll, trying to clean it up. Kagome acts like she’s handing the doll to an invisible person.

Kagome lets go of the doll and the doll vanishes. The distortion beyond Kagome fades away.

Kagome stands, bows, and speaking to air says, “I was just doing what anybody would do. You don’t owe me. I’m just glad I could help.”

Kagome walks to Sango, a bright smile on her lips. “A little girl who wanted her doll before she moved on.”

“Kagome . . . Did you know?” Sango asks.

“Oh, what was going on around me?” Kagome asks. Sango nods. “Oh, somewhat. I knew that if I could find what she wanted, I’d be fine. Everything else was just to scare off people so they wouldn’t bury her doll.” Kagome shrugs. “I was fine, Sango. Nothing to worry about, really.”

Sango and Kirara look at each other. Kagome was within a body length of entering some place no living person should go and she thinks nothing about it. ‘Most of the time Kagome is just a normal girl, then, she does something like this.’ Sango thinks and conceals her shiver from her friend.

They walk away from the field.

A ghostly girl child hugging her favorite doll watches them.

***************************
Just before dawn at the campfire the boys were at.

A small man-sized cloud hovers over the area. The half dozen or so men still alive, wiggle and move around, trying to see what’s above them.

‘Hmmm . . . I wonder what happened here?’ the person on the cloud thinks. ‘But, it’s not important to my mission.’ A small fan appears in the person’s hand. A wave of the fan and the men on the ground are dead. ‘I can use some zombies.’

“Arise.” The person orders. The zombies slowly, but surely, stand up, snapping the bonds that tied them up.

Kagura lands, gracefully, on the ground

Flashback . . .


Naraku’s castle . . . a few days ago . . .

Naraku is sitting on the floor. “Kagura.”

Kagura bows from the kneeling position she was in. “Yes, sir.”

“Rumors of a shard have reached me. I will send you to investigate.”

“Yes, sir. Where, sir?”

“Kyoto.” He pauses, “There are few things you do need to know before you leave.”

He pulls out an amulet. “You will need this. It will protect you against the human anti-demon magic.” He hands it to her.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Find out if there is a shard there are or if there is not a shard there. Rumors of this sort could easily be mistaken. If the rumors are true. Try to get the shard.”

“Try, sir?”

“There are strong anti-demon spells around Kyoto. If the rumors are true, I’ll probably have to go there myself.” Naraku sighs. “So, try. If you succeed, that is good. If you fail, your punishment might be lighter than normal.”

Kagura gasps and grabs her chest.

“That is not an excuse for failure, Kagura. Do you understand?” he says in a cold, cold voice.

The pain increases.

“Yes, lord.”

The pain eases.

“Good.” Naraku pulls out a scroll. “The last time I was in Kyoto, I promised the Yamakawa family that I would destroy them.”

He hands her the scroll. “ So, when you arrive, kill some peasants or such, animate them, give them this scroll, direct them toward the Maeda family compound and tell them to kill everyone in the compound. The directions to the compound are in the scroll. You may go.”

“Sir?”

“I did not give you permission to ask questions.” Kagura moans in pain and grabs her chest. “My orders are simple. Obey them. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.” The pain eases.

Kagura leaves.


‘Sigh . . . all the spells around Kyoto make it impossible for Kanna to use her mirror accurately. Sending Kagura is not the best solution, but she can get there and back quickly. Once she returns, I’ll make up my mind then.’ Naraku thinks. ‘Sigh. I wish, now, that I didn’t order Kanna to look at Kyoto. Once she did that, and especially after I ordered her to keep trying to look at Kyoto for a couple of days. That was a mistake. Inu-yasha moved away from his forest during that time and now Kanna can’t locate him.’

“Kanna. Come here. You must locate Inu-yasha.” He orders.

End flashback . . .


“Here.” She hands the scroll to one of her zombies. She points to one of the compounds. “Go there and kill all within.”

The zombies form up and start to march in that direction.

‘Stupid gesture. They’ll be destroyed long before they reach the compound. But orders are orders.’

“While I’m not Kikyo or that Kagome brat, I do have a lot of experience locating shards, what does it feels like around here . . . ” She mumbles as she concentrates.


Kagura furrows her brow in confusion. ‘The rumor was only one shard in Kyoto. The way it feels . . . I’d say that there are more.’

She smiles, ‘Good. If there are more, then all I have to do is show Nararku one shard and the others . . . Perhaps I can do something with them.’

***************

It’s dawn . . .

The girls are walking toward the compound. Now that there is daylight, they can see if anybody is following them. They don’t see anybody, so . . . to the Yuki family compound . . .

“Sango?”

“Yes, Kagome.”

“I think I need to do something, so you can talk to the women coming out of the compound, while I do something else.”

“Kagome . . . could you please explain.” Sango says with expiration, finding out information about the Yuki family is the most important thing they can do.

“We’ll probably need some place to sleep tonight.”

“Yes, but there are other inns. And there are monasteries that will allow women inside. So . . . ”

“I was thinking about the paintings my mother gave me and the artists in the city. I thought I could use that excuse.”

“And get some artist to let us sleep in his house tonight.”

Kagome nods. Her face twitches, “eating and sleeping in comfortable surroundings, not some scummy inn or some bare walled monastery.”

Sango turns and looks at Kagome. Kagome is blushing. “Kagome, there is something more than what you are saying.”

Kagome sighs, “You know, Inu-yasha would have gotten so mad, he’d never have thought to find out why I wanted to do this. He and I would have fought, I’d say ‘sit, boy’ and then I’d have gone ahead and did what I wanted.”
“But, I asked, Kagome.”

Kagome looks at the ground, “A couple of reasons, Sango. I don’t think we’ll be in Kyoto all that long, and I do want to, at least, try to do what my mother asked.”

Sango nods. “You said a couple of reasons.”

“Sigh . . . ” Kagome slumps. “When. No. Soon after I started going through the well, I started to read, well no, pay closer attention, to the history of this time. And . . . There’s been an artist that . . . ” she blushes and bites her lips, “that I really want to meet.” She finishes in a rush.

She grins, “And he’s one of my mother’s favorites, too. So, even if I don’t do anything else. Just meeting him and showing him my mother’s paintings, would make my mother very happy.”

Kagome bows to Sango. “Please, Sango. I promise, after this, I won’t do something like this again. Please.”

Sango grits her teeth. ‘This is not what we came to do. But, after that ghost . . . I suppose.’ She slumps and sighs. “Just this morning.”

Kagome starts to hug Sango, but realizes they are in public and stops herself. She bows instead. “Thank you, Sango. I’ll meet you at the compound at noon, then.”

“Take Kirara with you.” Sango says as she hands Kirara to Kagome.

“Yes. Ok. Thanks.” Kagome says as she leaves Sango.

“Now to the compound.” Sango says as she walks in that direction. As she walks that way, she sees a couple of monks posting some sort of notice. When she hears the name “Kikyo” spoken by someone reading the notice, she investigates . . .

*********************

The main city streets of Kyoto are well marked, Kagome has an address, but she still has to ask a couple of people to help her locate the house.

‘I was lucky managed to keep that conversation in the bathhouse away from him.’ Kagome pales, ‘I did not want the rest of the group to know about him. I don’t think they’d understand. But, nobody really expressed a lot of interest in the artists my mother wanted me to contact.’ She sighs, ‘now to meet him. The name has to be a coincidence.’

After an hour of so, Kagome stands in front of a door. Kirara “mews” and twitches in her arms.

“What?” Kagome looks around, she sees nothing that unusual . . . then she remembers that Kirara is a demon and her senses are different. She concentrates on her mystic senses. There are some unusual spells around this house. “Some sort of cat demon barrier?” Kirara nods.

Kagome swallows. ‘That makes sense. It’s not a coincidence, then.’ She thinks. She shakes her head, ‘But, there is no way he’d be here, so it has to be a coincidence.’

“Stay here, Kirara. If necessary, you can bring Sango here.” Kagome says. Kirara’s face twitches at that statement. ‘This is just the house of an artist, right? So, why would Kagome think there might be danger here?’ Kirara thinks.

She approaches the door and knocks on the doorway.

After a few seconds a whiney voice demands through the rice paper door, “What do you want?”

Kagome says in a rush, “Is this the house of the artist known as Sesshu?”

The end chapter 6.

Sesshu is correct. You can understand why Kagome would want too met a person with a name like that . . .

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/sesshu_toyo.htmlhttp://www.artcyclo pedia.com/artists/sesshu_toyo.html

(I’m playing with the dates a bit but I could not resist . . . )

Other author’s notes:

There is very little privacy in feudal Japan, especially by modern standards. This will be a recurring theme. (First draft had the girls sharing the room with that family and the man and wife still doing it . . . )

Hmmm . . . If the sleep spell that Kirara spoiled, seems familiar, yes, I did steal it from my story, “Kirara” (and yes, it was O Toyo)

Communication with Kirara . . . something to work on . . . (it is a weak point in the group. Kirara, arguably, is the most experienced demon in the group, yet . . . because of the communication problem, that experience is the least used . . . )

The priest & guards and how easy it was to get information . . . monks/priests and their guards/warriors are normally considered weaker then samurai. (They were probably about the same, but since the samurai dominates history, you read it from the point of view of the samurai. I’m sure if you read histories told from the priest/monk POV, samurai appears weak.)

Kitsune’s are the most used/feared demon/spirit in Japanese folklore. There are stories of a father killing his children on the JUST the suspicion that the child was possessed by a kitsune.

The ghost girl and the doll . . . Doll’s are very important. Ghost stories involving dolls are common. I had to include something about dolls and ghosts. Sigh . . . if you use the correct legend, you could make a 100,000 word storyline out of a ghost & doll storyline.

Naraku . . . What did he do during the fifty years between Inu-yasha’s sealing and his release? If he wants to take control of Japan . . . You have to go to Kyoto . . .

Naraku’s orders . . . The results of it will be seen in the next chapter. (It’s more subtle than it seems to Kagura.)

I need to ask you, the readers, for an opinion.

When I do fight sequences, I need to know which is preferred. The vague style used in this chapter or a more realistic style. IF I do the more realistic style, then sentences like . . . “As his head is removed, the bright red blood spurts out of the neck. The blood splashes the ground and the legs of the executioner. The head, when lifted off the ground, is still alive and is he moving his mouth, at least for the couple minutes before the brain dies . . . ” Will occur.

If I use the more realistic style, I think I need to increase the rating to R. For graphic violence. But, I would like to keep the PG-13 rating . . . Graphic violence is normal for this time period. Japan is in a state of continuous war at this time. But.

So, how graphic should I get?

(To see other examples of my graphic violence stories, see, “What to do about Evil” or “Kagome’s first kill”)


My posting plans... I need to do the author’s note for Spring. But I’m still going to do at least two more chapters of Shard in October. (Basically weekly, spring notes, then ch 7 of shard the week after, then, perhaps a spring spin-off oneshot, the ch 8 of shard. These would be large chapters. I’ll probably do some spamfics mixed in as well.)


Thank you for reading.
Jeff shelton